cents, and steamer 12 cents. At Peekskill, the railroad fare was 55 cents, and the boats first charged 374, and then fell to 25 cents; but the boats received so small a share, that in a few weeks they drew off, and left the whole business of this place to the railroad. With this experience, there is no room to doubt, that with a judicious management of four trains per day each way, between New York and Peekskill, as special trains for this section of the road, there would not be business enough left for the boats to support them. Some of these trains should run from New York to Peekskill, others from New York to Sing Sing, and ultimately the business will require one to Dobb's Ferry. It is by frequent trains, running at a speed of 30 miles (running time,) per hour, that will control and enlarge this traffic. To do this with profit to the road, small engines of 12 to 14 net tons should be employed. They may be run at much less wear and tear of road and machinery. This arrangement of special trains to certain points will relieve the long trains from the necessity of stopping, or being overloaded with short traffic. Trains to Poughkeepsie need not stop (except to a very limited extent) between New York and Peekskill. This train leaving New York at 7 A. M., could at easy running put its passengers on a boat at Poughkeepsie, at 91, and they would reach Albany by a first class steamer, about 2 P. M. The steamer may leave Albany at 3 P. M., put her passengers on the cars at Poughkeepsie between 7 and 8, and they would reach New York between 9 and 10 P. M. A steamer to leave Albany at 5 A. M., her passengers would reach New York about 12 M. by railroad from Poughkeepsie. The long trains being relieved by the special trains from frequent stops, will make their time at less speed, and be more economical and safe. If four trains per day, each way, be run to Poughkeepsie, passengers may be taken at hours very convenient, and this circumstance, with the speed of the road, will command nearly the whole of the great local traffic of this district; and by a judicious arrangement of steamers to run from Poughkeepsie to Albany, a larger share of the business above Poughkeepsie will be secured to the railroad the next season. It is very material to the interests of this road, that the closest attention should be given to its arrangements of running, so that, as far as practicable, its business may be done at a rate of 30 miles per hour, as higher speed will increase the expense.

No one will doubt the importance of carrying this railroad to Albany as speedily as is consistent with a due regard to economy, and the just interest of the stockholders. It is due to the latter, on whose funds the road has been so far made, that no measure should be adopted that does not consult their interests as a primary consideration. It is as much as can in justice be required of them, to go forward, if funds can be had, at a rate not less favorable than seven per cent interest. If the funds cannot be had on these terms, to go on immediately, the company should confine themselves at present with putting the road now open, in the best condition to show its capacity during the next summer. The second track may be laid to Peekskill for about $350,000, and this will permit the road to be worked to good effect, such as will set the question of its capacity and productiveness at rest, and enable the company to command, on favorable terms, the funds to complete the line to Albany. In the judgment of the writer, the funds spent on a second track to Peekskill, will be of more value to the stockholders than a like amount on the line above Poughkeepsie. Nevertheless, if funds can be had on suitable terms, it is best to do both. The main difficulty of

the enterprise has been surmounted, and with prudent management, it may go through to Albany without material delay, or the necessity of impairing the value of the original stock.

The

In regard to rates of fare for passengers, it may be observed, this depends materially on the number that may be carried per train. The average receipts for passengers on the seven railroads that enter in Boston, was, for the year 1846, $1 37 per mile of train run, and for the year 1847, $1 34 per mile of train run. About 60 per cent of their total receipts were for passengers. The last year (1847) they paid an average of 8.45 per cent dividends, on roads costing an average of $52,000 per mile. The passenger portion of receipts is conceded to be most productive of nett income. receipts on the Hudson River Railroad for passengers, from the opening, 1st October, 1849, to 19th January, 1850, were $1 64 per mile of train run. The low fare on this road producing larger receipts than the high fare on the Boston roads, and this under imperfect arrangements, at an unfavorable season for traveling. The New Jersey Railroad, from Jersey City to Brunswick, has almost exclusively a passenger traffic, and with rates of fare averaging little over 14 cents, summer and winter, pays seven per cent on a cost of near $60,000 per mile. The Hudson River Road can command 1 cents per mile in summer, and 2 to 2 cents in winter, with an unparalleled amount of traffic. There will be very little difference in expense of running an average train of 100 or 150 passengers on this road, and enough has been done to show the business and capacity of the road to be greater than was originally promised.

THE INFLUENCE OF THIS RAILROAD.

It has settled the great question, that a well built railroad can successfully compete with steamers on the very superior navigation of the Hudson River, in the transportation of passengers; and consequently they will be required along all the great channels of steamboat navigation. We shall no longer look to the steamer, as heretofore, as the perfection of traveling; but shall cast about to ascertain what facilities are at command to obtain the superior conveyance. This question will be pressing, in proportion to the magnitude of the present and prospective traffic, on all steamboat routes, and we look to the southern shore of Lake Erie, as one of the first cases that must receive attention. Something is doing on this route; but it will not suffice until a first class road is extended from Buffalo to the head of Lake Erie, and thence by the best and most direct route to Chicago, St. Louis and Galena. This will supercede the necessity of the boisterous and circuitous steamer navigation of the Lakes. The lake shore will doubtless furnish a grade essentially level, and it is hardly possible to form an estimate of the magnitude of the traveling that will concentrate on this route, so soon as a suitable railroad is constructed on it. As steamboat competition can no longer be an impediment, it may be expected this most desirable route for a railroad will soon find the means for its construction, on a scale commensurate with the demands of the vast traffic that will flow to it. The dread of a steamboat on the Lakes being removed, the objects of business, information, and amusement, will increase the social and commercial intercourse between the east and the west, beyond calculation. Galena and St. Louis, on the Mississippi, will be by this route within 1,150 miles of New York. From some suitable point on the great Lake shore route, one line will extend a little north of west to Galena, and another south of west to St. Louis. The

distance from St. Louis to the city of New York, will be about the same by railroad, that it is from New Orleans by the Mississippi steamers. Important roads are made, and in course of construction, through Ohio, from the river, reaching the Lake at Sandusky and at Cleveland, which will be great contributors to the shore road.

When the railroad on the shore of Lake Erie is completed, distances from Cleveland to Atlantic cities, by railroads made and projected, will be as follows:

perly straightened..

perly straightened..

670

Boston, via New York Central Railroad on present line, when pro

The above distances are not exact, but sufficiently approximate for general purposes. Add to the above 500 miles to reach St. Louis, and 540 to reach Galena on the Mississippi.

The construction of a great trunk railroad along the southern shore of Lake Erie, and extending in two main branches to St. Louis and Galena, with the numerous lateral roads that will intersect, some of which may be regarded as great lines, will produce vast results in diverting the trade that now seeks the seaboard through the navigation of the Mississippi. Nor is such a work to be regarded merely in relation to its commercial interests. Its influence on the social and political condition of the extensive and fertile district to be traversed, will be of incalculable advantage. The success of the Hudson River Road will hasten these great results. In view of the vast trade that will naturally flow from the extensive and fertile West to this city, for its Atlantic market, the importance of completing, on the most effective plan, all the great channels for the transit of persons and property that are now in operation or in progress through the State, from Lake Erie to the Hudson, must be obvious to the least reflection. The growth of the West, with commensurate improvements, will advance the interests of the city of New York in a proportionate degree, depending on the perfection of those communications designed to accommodate the vast interests of trade and social intercourse that her natural advantages and position invites. Philadelphia will be less distance from Cleveland than New York; but the latter has in use and in prospect vastly superior water communication, and will control the great freight traffic from the lakes, and though the railroads will be longer, they will be greatly superior in line and grades, and passengers may be carried to New York in less time, and at less expense, than they can reach Philadelphia. Peculiar adaptation to certain branches of trade will doubtless have an influence, and a large intercourse will be held by all the great Atlantic cities with the Western States; at the same time, the peculiar advantages of the routes, and the superior commercial position of New York, must secure to her the largest share in the rapidly increasing traffic of the Western States.

Art. IV.-CULTURE AND MANUFACTURE OF COTTON.*

TO FREEMAN HUNT, ESQ., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc. :

HAVING little time or space to spare for circumlocution, permit me, in continuation of my rejoinder to Mr. Lawrence, to come directly to the point, in a plain and straight-forward manner. In his last number he promises, in the outset, to "give some more facts," to confirm the conclusions already reached. If he had said "some more fallacious statements, to give color to conclusions already jumped at," he would have come much nearer to the statement of a fact than he has in almost any other statement he has made. Let us proceed to examine "some more facts" of his, and ascertain how far they will stand the test of truth.

Mr. Lawrence says that he does not admit steam-mills into the "first class," because "they have a radical defect;" hence, it is presumed, he selected twenty-six water-mills as the fitting representatives of that order, because he supposed them to have No "radical defect." One would suppose that a "first class cotton-mill" should contain the best machinery, under the most perfect arrangement, with the most perfect combinations, and capable of turning off the greatest amount of product per spindle in a given time, of the best quality, and at the lowest cost. That this perfection and capability can be created within the walls of one building as well as of another, wthout respect to the species of power to be applied, every man of common sense and discernment will at once see and adinit. Mr. Lawrence's "radical defect," then, must exist in reference to steam-power, instead of water-power; and if we can show that steam-mills will and do make more goods per spindle than water-mills, in a given time, of better quality, at less cost, and hence at a greater profit, we shall show, by the same process, that what he is pleased to call "a radical defect," that excludes them from his list of "first class mills," is truly an improvement that exalts them above that class. For the decision of this question, I rest on facts to be given by and by, and am ready to abide the result. For his show of facts, Mr. Lawrence has selected four steam-mills, which I shall name in the following, order :-The Portsmouth Mill, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Globe Mill, James Mill, and Bartlett Mills, Newburyport, and Naumkeag Mill, Salem, Massachusetts.

Of the Portsmouth Mill, the gentleman says it 66 was erected in 1845-6, after a course of lectures delivered in that town by General James." By the omission of any explanatory word, and without even a note of punctuation in the sentence, the writer has left it fairly to be inferred, under the circumstances, that not only the "lectures were "delivered by General James," but also that the mill was built by him. The only comment I shall offer on this statement, is, that I neither built nor planned the Portsmouth Mill, have had nothing to do with it, and never saw it. The Portsmouth people were told by me, what were and still are, my views of the benefits to be derived from the operations of cotton-mills in seaport places. Very true, the business of the Portsmouth Mill has heretofore proved a failure. The Naumkeng Mill, built at the same period, has made liandsome profits. Why has not the Portsmouth Mill? Because, unlike the Naumkeag, it has been appropriated to a branch of the manufacturing business new in this country, of which there was much to learn. The same difficulty occurred with the first attempt to manufacture mousseline de laines, at Manchester, New Hamp

* Continued from the February number of this Magazine.

shire, and the losses were so great, that the capital stock of the company came down to more than 75 per cent below par. Yet the enterprising proprietors of the Portsmouth Mill, instead of being chuckled at for their losses, in the vein of Mr. Lawrence, are worthy of different treatment. It is gratifying to know that this company has entered into arrangements with J. DUNNEL, Esq., the celebrated printer, for printing their lawns, and, under their present management, are doing a good business.

The business of the Globe Mill may or may not have proved a failure. If it has, so has that of many water-mills, in their infancy, in all respects as good as Mr. Lawrence's "first class mills." That is no proof of a radical defect in steam-mills." The failure of that mill to do a profitable business is owing to no such cause, nor is it in the least attributable to me. True, the mill was built according to my plans, though not under my immediate and sole supervision. I was employed merely as an engineer; and the mill was never run a single week by me, nor under my direction, nor in accordance with my advice. In consequence of the rejection of my counsel in the matter, and the determined opposition to all my efforts, satisfied that I could exert no influence for the benefit of the company, I left it to its fate. The fate which Mr. Lawrence says overtook it, was predicted by me at the time, in a letter to the president and directors. That a profit might have been made by them is, however, certain; for, before cutting my connection with the mill, I offered to take it to run on my own account, at a handsome rent, and to give a satisfactory guaranty for the fulfilment of the contract on my part. My offer was rejected, and if the company has lost money by the mill, that is their fault.

The James Mill. This mill, Mr. Lawrence says, is "sometimes held up as a model for all steam-mills." We will challenge him to point out its equal among his "first class" water-" mills." He says "It was put in operation in 1843;" and partially, it was so; but was not completed and in full operation, till the middle of October, 1845. And still, during the whole time, from its first start in 1843, to the date of Mr. Lawrence's article, he admits small dividends, regularly, amounting, in all, to 28 per cent. One would think this was pretty well, under the circumstances. But what are the facts with regard to this mill? The plan on which it was first projected, included only from 5,000 to 6,000 spindles; and estimates were made accordingly. From time to time, as new subscriptions were tendered, the plan was enlarged, until, in 1845, as above stated, it was completed and put in full operation, with about 17,000 spindles. Notwithstanding the gentleman's outcry about the excess of the cost of this mill over the estimates, yet it is well known that its new stock, to the amount of $50,000, sold at auction in State street, Boston, at a handsome per centage above par. In the case of this mill, as in that of others, dividends do not tell the story about earnings. Since the mill went into operation, a new and expensive reservoir has been constructed, and real estate purchased, paid for from the earnings; and, from the same source, an addition has been made to its cash capital. For the future, it is very probable, Mr. Lawrence may be satisfied with the amount of profits.

"To show the uncertainty with which estimates are made," Mr. Lawrence goes on to state a variety of such, made, as he says, respecting the cost of the James Mill. Untrue as most, or all of them are, it is only necessary here to point out the jesuitical course pursued by him, to reach a false conclusion at last, and to leave a false impression on the minds of his readers. Recollect the gentleman had already said that the James Mill had 17,000 spindles; but, in detailing what he calls the estimates, he only comes up to 11,000 which were to cost $189,000, but which were found to have cost over