the center of population, if continued to the end of the century in the same ratio of the last two decades, will remove the center of population to the Mississippi Valley, and in this and the lake valleys, probably, one-half of the whole population of the country will be gathered. The productions of agriculture and manufactures will be, probably, augmented in a proportion exceeding that of the population; so that the one great question to be considered during the coming thirty years is the transportation of the productions of fifty millions of people and the consumption of fifty millions more. New England and the Middle States take more of western-grown grain than all the foreign exports of grain. The live stock for their food-supply must come nearly all of it from the West and Southwest, where there is cheap corn and cheap forage. The consumption of live stock now, in the four principal cities of the sea-board, including Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, exceeds six and one-half million head per annum. The people are now paying annually for the transportation of persons and property by rail and by water about $1,000,000,000. With the increase in population and the extension of railways and the wants of consumers and producers, that will probably be swelled before the end of the century to two thousand five hundred millions per annum; so that as a question of money and its annual disbursement it assumes a greater magnitude than that of any other that can or will come before the people of this country. The remedy for the present onerous rail and water charges will be in the improved and cheaper water routes and in the extension of the railway system. The New York Central Railway Company is now doubling its track, and so is the Pennsylvania Central Railway. The Erie and Baltimore and Ohio Railways will be compelled to do likewise, or take a secondary position as railway routes. The Chesapeake and Ohio and the Grand Trunk Railways will, in time, follow suit. A new railway from New York to Omaha has been projected, and the necessary legislation in six States through which its line passes has been obtained to secure the right of way. The road is designed to be a double-track railway, exclusively for freight. There will, in a comparatively short period of time, probably be six or seven double-track freight railways between the Mississippi Valley and the eastern sea-board. These improvements will, by their competition, give some relief, but perhaps not much in the item of cost; but all these improvements, as well as the contemplated system of improvements of the water-lines, will be required to meet the business wants of the country. These facilities for transportation can scarcely be multiplied rapidly enough to meet the requirements of the people, for now, in the far West, it takes the product of about three acres of corn to pay for the transportation of the product of one acre of corn to eastern sea-board markets, and that, of course, must be a heavy draft upon the producer as well as the consumer. The State of New York alone takes for her annual consumption about forty-five million bushels more of cereals than are grown within her borders, and the New England States take an equal or larger amount than New York. By the CHAIRMAN: Q. You mean of all kinds of grain? A. Yes, sir. That is including flour, wheat, corn, and other cereals. The New England and Middle States together take more western grain than the aggregate exports from the whole country to all foreign coun r In the trade between the interior and sea-board terminal points, the route through the State of New York, in connection with the western lakes, early took the precedence, and for a long period secured the most of it through the Erie Canal, and later with the railway progress through the aid of the Erie enlarged canal and the railways through the State, has been able to retain about 60 per cent. of the through movement east and west between the sea-board and the Western and Northwestern States, but in several years it has had less than 60 per cent., other seaboard terminal points, through the aid of railways and the development of the Saint Lawrence route, having secured 40 per cent. of the movement, and in some years more than 40 per cent. The gain in the volume of movement between the interior and the sea-board has been large and is annually increasing, but the percentage of gain has been larger at other sea-board terminal points than at New York during the last ten years. The value of the property transported on the New York canals between the West and the East since 1837 has aggregated upward of $7,000,000,000. The revenue from the tolls on this property has been large, sufficient to pay for the construction of the canals and their maintenance, including the cost of the enlargement of the Erie and Oswego canals. The canals of New York have paid for themselves by their earnings, without costing the people of the State a mill. Under the New York State constitution of 1846, a provision was made requiring the revenues from the canals to contribute $350,000 per annum to the sinking fund of the general fund State debt and $200,000 annually in addition for the defraying of the expenses of the State gov ernment, making an annual contribution from the canal revenues of $550,000. The constitution also provided that when the revenues of the canals, over and above their maintenance, were insufficient to make this annual contribution of $550,000, a tax should be imposed on the property of the State to make good such deficiency. It will be found that the aggregate of these contributions from the canal revenues, with annual interest on the same, aggregate a larger sum than the taxation for canal purposes, with the annual interest on the same; so that the people of the State of New York have had all the benefits of a canal commerce, aggregating since 1837, $7,000,000,000, beside having a canal system nine hundred miles in length that has paid for itself and its maintenance from its earnings, without costing the people of the State a dollar. The tonnage of the property transported on the New York canals during the last twenty-three years is more than double the entire tonnage of all the vessels entered the port of New York from all foreign countries, including American and foreign vessels, and it is equal to two-thirds of the entire tonnage of all foreign and American vessels entered all the ports of the United States from all foreign countries during the same period. The value of the property transported on the New York canals during the twelve years ended with 1872 aggregated $2,940,888,522. The value of the entire foreign exports from the city of New York to all foreign countries during the same period was $2,272.157,286, showing that the value of the property transported on the New York canals, during the last twelve years, has exceeded the value of the entire foreign exports from the port of New York during the same period by $666,731,236. The trade passing through this State by the railways is large and annually increasing, and the grand aggregate value of the entire trade between the interior and the Atlantic sea-board terminal points by rail and water-lines is estimated at $1,300,000,000 per annum; so that the question of a change in the course of this vast trade is one of not inconsiderable moment to the terminal points interested in securing it. The terminal point at the sea-board that can give the cheapest transportation to and from the interior will secure the largest volume of this vast and annually increasing trade. The State of New York, from her position and the facilities she has provided through her canal system and her railways, has secured a very large proportion of this trade heretofore, but she will continue to hold it no longer if she fails to give cheaper facilities than other sea-board terminal points. The proposed improvement of the Saint Lawrence route, by the enlargement of the Welland and Saint Lawrence canals, which are only sixty-nine and onehalf miles long, will afford a cheaper transportation than the State of New York, with her present facilities, can give, for it will extend ocean navigation practically to Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth. The only remedy for the State of New York to adopt to hold the vast trade of the west, and its increase, is the enlargement of the Erie and Oswego canals for boats of about six hundred tons burden, and such enlargement, with the application of steam as a motor for moving boats, will so cheapen the transportation from the lakes to the Hudson River as to secure the desired result, the retention of the trade of the Northwestern States. By Mr. SHERMAN : Q. At this point I would like to have you give the cost of transportation over the Erie Canal, when completed according to the present plan which, I believe, is being acted upon. A. The present plan contemplates the doubling of all the locks on the Erie Canal, only two of which are not now doubled; the removal of the bench walls on the eastern division of the Erie Canal, extending about eighty miles, where the bottom of the canal is now 42 feet wide, and making it 52 feet wide, and the deepening of the canal its entire length, giving full 7 feet of water where it is now less than 7 feet. The average freight during the season of navigation in 1872 received by the carrier, including State tolls and Hudson River freight, from Buf falo to New York, on grain was $4.28 per ton of 2,000 pounds, and less the State tolls $1.38 per ton, leaves a net freight to the carrier of $2.90 per ton of 2,000 pounds, including the river freight, is at the rate of 5.8 mills per ton per mile, which covers the carrier's expenses and profits. The auditor of the canal department, in his report on the tolls, trade and tonnage of the canals for 1872, page 34, gives the average per ton per mile received by the carrier, at 10.2 mills, including State tolls. In the same report he gives the average amount per ton per mile received by the carrier from 1856 to 1872, as follows: The average amount received by the carrier, including the State tolls for the seventeen years ended with 1872, was 9.14 mills per ton per mile, including the carrier's profits, which is an average from Buffalo to Troy, three hundred and forty-five miles, of $3.15 per ton, and from Buffalo to New York, five hundred miles, of $4.57 per ton of 2,000 pounds. State Engineer Taylor, in his special report of 1863, on canal enlargement, makes the cost per ton per mile on the present Erie Canal 2.16 mills, and 1.04 mills per ton per mile with a re-enlarged Erie Canal, of capacity for boats of 600 tons. The transportation can be done cheaper than it is now, and must be done cheaper than it is done now, or can be done with the present facilities, to compete with the proposed improved facilities by the Saint Lawrence route. To hold the trade the rate of transportation from Buffalo to New York should not exceed $1.50 per ton, on the average. With $1.50 per ton, average lake freight, and $1.50 per ton, average freight from Buffalo to New York, the foreign export and import trade of the interior can be prevented from going by the Saint Lawrence route. Q. What extent of improvement is necessary; what size locks on the Erie and Oswego Canals? A. The present locks in the Erie and Oswego Canals are 183 feet wide, and admit boats with the present lock-gates 96 feet long and 173 feet wide. The prism of the Erie and Oswego Canal, on the present plan, is 52 feet at the bottom, 70 feet at the water-line, and 7 of water. The proposed improvements to the Erie and Oswego Canals are to be found in State Engineer Taylor's special report of 1863 on canal enlargement, transmitted to the legislature of New York February 4, 1864. This report proposes the construction of one tier of locks in the Erie and Oswego Canals, by the side of the present locks, each 225 feet long between the quoins, and 25 feet width of chamber at the water-line of lesser level; the deepening of the canal 1 foot, giving throughout its entire length 8 feet of water. This improvement contemplates the removal of the bench-walls on the eastern division of the Erie Canal, which extend a distance of about eighty miles. The estimated cost of this improvement, as given in the engineer's report aforesaid, is, with all stone locks, $14,405,888.15; with wood locks, $12,619,040.15; with wood and stone locks, $13,049,946.64. His estimate for the enlargement of the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany is, with all stone locks, $11,902,888.15; with all wood locks, $10,718,040.15; with wood and stone locks, $10,985,946.65. State Engineer Taylor gives the relative cost of transportation as follows: Old Erie Canal, 4 feet water, boats 76 tons, cost 4.14 mills. The practical capacity of the Erie Canal to more tonnage eastward, with the present locks, is less than four million tons in a navigation season, which is limited by the lockages. The chambers of the present locks are 18 feet wide, and the present class of boats navigating the Erie and Oswego Canals are 173 feet wide, with a draught of 63 feet of the 7 feet of water in the chambers of the locks. Through the small space at the sides and under the boat the water in the lock must have time to pass before the boat can fully enter the lock. There are several locks in the Erie Canal of 10 feet lift. During the sitting of the constitutional convention of 1866-67 there was a breach in the Erie Canal near one of these locks of 10 feet lift, on each side of which there had accumulated a large crowd of boats. A special committee of that convention, accompanied by the division commissioner, was delegated to make a trial-test of the lockage capacity of the canal, which was continued for seventy-two consecutive hours, and the average time for the lockage of boats through that lock, going eastward against the current, fully laden, was seventeen minutes, and going westward, partially laden and with the current, eight minutes. There are, on a navigation season, about two hundred days of practical canal navigation, equal to two hundred and eightyeight thousand minutes, in which time, with every moment occupied night and day, seventeen thousand boats of 220 tons average cargo could be locked, giving 3,740,000 tons capacity for eastward movement in a navigation season. By enlarging the locks 25 feet wide, with boats 22 feet beam, carrying 600 tons cargo, the time of lockage would be much quicker and the capacity of the canal would be largely increased. The enlargement of the Erie Canal locks to 25 feet wide, in accordance with the plans and specifications of the State engineer in a special report of 1863 on canal enlargement, transmitted to the legislature February 4, 1864, will give the Erie Canal a capacity to move freight eastward of about 24,000,000 tons, in a navigation season, at less than one-half the present cost. A canal-boat, of the class now navigating the Erie Canal, can carry as much as a railway freight-train of twenty-three or twenty-five cars, of ten tons each. The average number of laden canal-boats that have been dispatched from Buffalo, Tonawanda and Oswego, during the navigation season of about two hundred and thirty days, has been equal in tonnage to seventy-five railway trains daily, of twenty-five cars each, or two hundred and fifty tons to each train; and with the proposed enlargement of the Erie and Oswego Canals completed, their capacity to pass freight eastward from Buffalo, Tonawanda and Oswego, would be equal to four hundred and seventeen railway trains of twenty-five cars each, carrying 250 tons to each train. My opinion is that the locks should be enlarged to at least 25 feet wide, with boats limited to 22 or 23 feet beam, carrying about 600 tons. cargo. The transportation from Buffalo to New York, including nominal State tolls and carrier's profits, could then be done for $1.50 per ton of 2,000 pounds. Q. Three dollars a ton from Chicago to New York? A. Yes, sir. Q. How many bushels would a 600-ton canal-boat carry, and what would be the cost from Chicago to New York per bushel? A. A canal-boat of 600 tons burden would carry 20,000 bushels of wheat and 21,428 bushels of corn, and the cost of transportation from Chicago to New York would be 9 cents per bushel for wheat. Q. What power do you propose to use for moving boats on the canal and vessels on the lakes? A. Steam-power, giving six days for the voyage from Buffalo to New York, and four and one-half days from Chicago to Buffalo, or ten and a half days from Chicago to New York. By Mr. SHERMAN : Q. What power on the canal-propeller or chain-cable? A. I do not know what will be the most practicable; but I know from. experiments I have witnessed, that the direct application of power on. the chain-cable gives an economical use of power. I believe, from the experiments I have seen and the accounts I have examined of experiments. made by others with the chain-cable system of towage, that boats can by this method be moved at the rate of three to three and one-half miles per hour very cheaply, more cheaply than by the ordinary screw propeller, as with the chain-cable the application of power is direct and with |