1,157,000 barrels; provisions from 19,000 to 40,000 barrels; salt from 43,000 to 176,000 bushels; wheat from 547,000 to 1,197,000 bushels; furs from 150 to 200 tons; household goods from 25,000 to 75,000 tons; and lumber from 8,667,000 to 38,291,000 feet. The values of produce multiplied fourfold and fivefold when carried to Albany and New York.1 The tolls increased from $2,200 in 1821 to $1,395,000 in 1835. In 1837 $47,740,000 worth of property was transported on the canal system of the state.

Rates and Tonnage.-Before the canal was built it cost about $100 to take a ton of freight from Albany to Buffalo. In 1824, with the canal partly in use, it cost $22. By 1835 the expense had been reduced to $7, in 1860 to $3.50, and in 1880 to $1.70. When all toll was removed (1882) the cost fell to about $1.63. To-day it costs about 3.7 mills a bushel to carry wheat from Buffalo to New York, 3.5 mills for corn, and 2.4 mills for oats. For some years, however, the canal trade has been decreasing because of the speed of railroads and low freight rates. Since 1866 the two trunk lines of railroads have decreased their rates over 75 per cent, and consequently have increased their tonnage about 400 per cent. The canals carry about 5,000,000 tons of freight in a year now, while the New York Central and Erie railroads carry about 50,000,000 tons. This shows that the canal trade has gone to the railroads.

Lateral Canals.—Canal-building became a veritable

craze.

The "great canal bill" of April 20, 1825, au

2 In 1818 wheat sold in western New York for 25 cents a bushel. In Albany it brought $2.25 and still more in New York City.

thorized the surveying of twenty-one canal routes, aggregating 1,700 miles. Every part of the state was demanding a waterway, and 900 miles were surveyed. By 1833 seven canals, covering 632 miles, were built at a cost of $11,500,000. Besides the Erie and Champlain canals there were the Oswego (1826-1828), 38 miles; the Cayuga and Seneca (1827-1829), 23 miles; the Chemung (1831-1832), 39 miles; the Crooked Lake (1831-1833), 8 miles; and the Chenango (1833-1836), 97 miles. In 1836 the Black River, 35 miles, and the Genesee Valley, 107 miles, were authorized at a cost of $3,000,000. The Oneida Lake canal, begun by a private company in 1832, was purchased by the state in 1841 for $50,000 and improved. Thus by 1850 the state had built a complete system of branch canals in accordance with Clinton's plan at a cost of about $28,000,000. After 1850 railroad competition drove into disuse all the lateral canals except the Black River, Oswego, and Cayuga and Seneca, which are still used.

Improvements. No sooner was the Erie Canal completed than the enormous traffic demanded improvements. As early as 1825 the canal commissioners urged the enlargement of the canal. Governor Marcy in 1834-5 called the legislature's attention to the need. The first act to enlarge it was passed May 6, 1834, and soon $4,000,000 was appropriated for the enterprise (1838). The work began in 1836 and continued from time to time. By 1844 over $13,000,000 had been thus spent, and in 1850 $10,000,000 was still needed to complete the enlargements. By 1863 about $32,000,000 was so used. The canal had been shortened twelve miles, the number of locks reduced, and the canal bed

lowered. At that time the state owned 886 miles of canals and received $5,000,000 in annual tolls. Up to 1881 the canals had cost $126,000,000 and had made a net profit of $87,000,000. The actual cost to the people of $39,000,000 has been repaid to them in trade and commerce over and over again.

CHAPTER XXXI.-THE CANAL DEVELOPS THE STATE

Effect of the Canal on Western New York.-The Erie Canal system gave to western New York new life and spirit, new industries, and a remarkable growth in population and wealth. New towns sprang into existence along the main route and its branches, while cities already planted, like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Rome, and Utica, doubled and quadrupled in a few years. The population west of Seneca Lake, which was 23,000 in 1800, had grown to 575,000 in 1835, while that of the state, 589,000 in 1800, had become 2,175,000, making New York the first state in this respect,-a place held to the present time.

The Increase in Wealth and Industry was still greater than that in population. Saw-mills, flour-mills, ironfoundries, and salt-works employed men and money. Forests were cut down and soon replaced by fields of grain. Lumbering became a paying industry. Stores, taverns, and blacksmith shops did a thriving business. Carpenters, stone-masons, and workmen were needed to build factories, churches, schools, houses, and barns. Ten years after the canal was completed the acres of improved land in the state had increased from 7,256,000

to 9,655,000, about two-third of the state. Real and personal property had gone up to $220,000,000. The imports of New York City had advanced from $36,000,000 to $73,000,000, while so great was the home. consumption that the exports had fallen off $800,000, though they still amounted to $13,700,000.

Travel." The mud dried up, and the muskrats and the ague and the fever and the bears left the country." The price of land rose, and the crops brought four times as much as before. Farmers paid for their farms, got deeds, and put up good frame and brick buildings. Before 1825" a buggy was no more known or used than a balloon." The canal was used for passenger as well as freight traffic. Packet-boats with comfortable quarters, drawn by three or four horses driven tandem, made six miles an hour. One could go from New York to Buffalo in ten days. Before it usually took six weeks. To-day the distance can be covered in eight hours. Many a family in western New York still owns a "packet-trunk" used for business and pleasure travel on the canal. The fare from Buffalo to Albany was $5 without board. The "Red Bird Line The "Red Bird Line" made the trip on the canal from Buffalo to Rochester in one day. By 1834 daily lines were in operation, but the passenger traffic soon went to the railroads. Old persons still speak of the comfortable packet, the sociable times on. it, the good meals served, the library, and the games.

Progress Compared. A comparison of the industries before the War of 1812 with their condition in 1835 shows what wonderful progress was made. The first cotton-mill was established in 1807 at Whitestown, and ten years later the first power-loom was used.

Before the war 33,000 hand-looms made $5,000,000 worth of cloth, and 427 fulling-mills and 413 carding-machines did a $680,000 business. By 1835 there were 111 cotton-mills and 235 woolen-mills, making over $6,000,000 worth of cloth; 965 fulling-mills and 1,060 carding-machines, doing a business amounting to $5,500,000; and 10,000,000 yards of cotton, linen, and woolen cloth were still made by hand-looms. The value of tannery products had increased from $1,300,000 to $6,000,000, and brewery products from $350,000 to $1,300,000. Distilleries were fewer, but their output had doubled; paper mills had tripled in number and in goods made; glass-works had doubled in number; and there were 300 iron-factories with a production of $4,000,000, in place of 70. Grist-mills ground grain worth $20,000,000, and saw-mills worked up lumber worth $70,000,000. In short, the total value of industrial products increased from $16,000,000 to $222,000,000.

Agriculture. There was great advance in stock-raising and agriculture. Horses increased in number from 300,000 to 525,000; sheep from 1,280,000 to 4,000,000; and cattle from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. Threefourths of the people were farmers (1824). A society to promote arts, factories, and agriculture was early formed in New York City (1764), and revived after the Revolution (1791). By 1801 local societies came into existence. In 1819 a board of agriculture was established for two years with an annual appropriation of $10,000. This was followed by the Agricultural Convention at Albany (1832), and the organization of the New York State Agricultural Society with a grant