The heavy products of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, naturally go down the rivers to New-Orleans; the transportation from Florence to New-Orleans, 1200 miles, is only 50 cents per 100 lbs. On the route through the New-York and Ohio canals, there is a certain and uninterrupted navigation from about the 15th of April to the close of November. During the navigation season, business men can calculate upon the time of the arrival of their goods or produce, through this route, with as much accuracy as upon any of their ordinary business transactions. This advantage, with timely and judicious reductions in the rates of toll, will enable our mer chants to send great quantities of merchandise into the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi; and these reductions of toll may be made without essentially diminishing the canal revenues. A reduction in the rates of toll might be desirable, from its beneficial influence upon trade, even though the revenues of the state shoud be diminished by the operation. The revenue from tolls is a minor interest, when compared with the 20 millions in value of products coming to market, the sale of 20 or 30 millions of merchandise, and the benefit derived by our citizens from the transportation of this property upon the river, the canals and the lakes. Notwithstanding the great reduction in the rates of toll heretofore made, the aggregate amount of revenue from the canals, for three years since the reduction commenced, exceeds the amount received for three years at the old rates, by the sum of more than one million of dollars. The following statement shows the amount of tolls received on the Erie and Champlain canals for each of the three years immediately preceding and following the general reduction in the rates of toll, viz: In 1830, at the old rates of toll.. 1831......do......do... Total in three seasons...... In 1833, (average reduction of tolls about 20 per cent.). Total in 3 years at reduced rates. Excess in 3 years at reduced rates.... In the three last years the beneficial effects of the Ohio canal have been felt, which, with the great increase of the trade of the west, from other sources, could not fail to produce an increase of the canal revenues. The tonnage which has been transported upon the canals for the last season of navigation, at the rates of toll which existed in 1832, would have produced a revenue of at least two millions of dollars. It is quite certain, however, that tonnage has increased, with the decrease of of tolls; and it is not probable that the business, on the canals, under the old rates of toll, would have increased to such an extent, as to have given a total amount of revenue greater than that which has been collected in the last three years. The collector at Little Falls, between Schenectady and Utica, kept during the season of navigation, a statement of the number of persons over 12 years of age, passing east or west in boats other than packets. The statement thus kept, shows the following result, viz: The number of passengers on board of packet boats passing between Utica and Schenectady, according to the monthly returns made by these boats, is 40,179 for the whole season. This shows an aggregate number of persons passing between Utica and Schenectady on the canal, of 116,642. No similar statement has heretofore been kept, with which this can be compared, and the increase shown. The whole number of clearances issued by the collectors on the several canals, for the seasons of navigation in 1834 and 1835, is as follows, viz: The lockages at No. 11, on the Erie Canal above the junction, exceed in number the lockages at Lockport, by 14,208. (See page, 158.) The lockages at No. 1, on the Champlain Canal, are. Total number of lockages on both canals...... .11,969 .25,133 .37,102 The clearances issued at Albany and Troy, number 18,345. The arrival of boats cleared, would double this number, being 36,690. The difference between this number and the lockages, is more than made up by the cribs of timber which arrive at the Hudson, and for which no clearances are issued at Albany or Troy. On stove, and all other iron castings,.. REDUCTION OF CANAL TOLLS, 1836. At a meeting of the Canal Board, at the comptroller's office, in the city of Albany, March 2d, 1836, the following reductions were made on the tolls, as stated page 152. On gypsum, the product of this state, per 1000 pounds per mile, from.. On foreign gypsum, from.. On brick, sand, lime, clay, earth, leached ashes, manure, and iron ore, 2.5 to 2.3 mills. On copperas and manganese, going towards tide water,... 5 to 4.5 On imported raw hides of domestic and other animals..... 9 to 5 5 to 4.5 2.5 to 2.3 ..... 5 to 4.5 On live cattle, sheep and hogs,. On unmanufactured tobacco going towards tide water.... 9 to 4.5 ...... .11 to 15 cents. 6 to 8 LATERAL CANALS. Abstract of the report of the Comptroller, in answer to a resolution of the Senate, in relation to the revenues of the lateral canals. "For the last two years the collectors on the lateral canals have, under the instructions of the Comptroller, received tolls on property to its place of destination, keeping separate accounts of the amount paid on each canal. Under this arrangement the toll on property shipped at Oswego is paid at the Oswego office to Albany or Troy. In the same manner toll is paid at Horse Heads on the Chemung canal, on property destined to Albany, and separate accounts are kept of the share paid on account of the Chemung, Cayuga, and Seneca, and Erie Canals. In some cases the owners of property may have paid on it from office to office, but in most cases the shippers of property on the lateral canals prefer paying the tolls themselves at the office where it is first cleared, rather than to send the money by the master of the boat, to be paid at a distant office. "With the few exceptions before referred to, the account of tolls received at Oswego, Horse Heads, &c. on property coming from the lateral canals, as belonging to the Erie canal, is strictly accurate." The total amount of tolls received at the several offices upon the lateral canals during the year 1835, was as follows: Belonging to Belonging to Erie Canal. $68,882 93 28,445 34 14,797 33 4,714 98 Crooked Lake Canal, 11,431 93 1,830 55 9,601 38 The deficits in the revenues of the lateral canals, excluding the Erie tolls, are as follows: $48,506 63 The excesses in the revenues of the lateral canals, including the Erie tolls, are as follows: Oswego Canal... Cayuga and Seneca. Crooked Lake.. The deficit in the revenue of the Chemung canal, including the Erie toll, is.. ....... Total excess of revenue of the lateral canals, after crediting them with the Erie tolls, received upon them......... ..$54,140 71 24,647 99 1,295 91 $80,084 61 6,864 26 .$73,220 35 In stating this excess, it is proper to remark that a very considerable part of the property, on which the toll is credited to the lateral canals, would have passed on the Erie Canal, and paid toll to the state though the lateral canals had not been constructed. The Oswego Canal is obviously entitled to a credit for the large quantities of wood transported upon it, toll free, for the use of the salt works at Salina. About 30,000 cords of wood have been transported on the Oswego canal, during the past season, for the use of the salt works. ENLARGEMENT OF THE ERIE CANAL. An act in relation to the Erie Canal, was passed May 11, 1835, directing the Canal Commissioners to enlarge and improve the Erie Canal, and construct a double set of lift locks, as soon as the Canal board may be of the opinion that the public interest requires such improvement. The act also authorizes an independent canal to be constructed, in passing cities and villages and other places, instead of enlarging the present works, if the Canal Board shall decide that the public interest will be thereby promoted. The resolutions of the Canal Board under the above act, embrace the following improvements, viz: 1. The enlargement of the Erie Canal, and the construction of a double set of lift locks; and that the width of the canal be increased to 60 feet on the surface, and the depth to 6 feet; with a slope of two feet to one in the banks. 2. That the locks be so enlarged as to be 105 feet long, between the quoin posts, and 15 feet wide in the clear. 3. That the aqueducts be constructed, so as to give at least forty feet water way, except that the Rochester aqueduct may, in the discretion of the Canal Commissioners, be constructed with a water way not less than 36 feet wide. In other respects, the Canal Commissioners were directed to make such improvements in the canal and works connected with the same, as they should deem expedient. The surveys for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability and probable expense of the above improvements, were confided to the charge of the following engineers, viz: John B. Jervis, of the route from Albany to Fultonville; Nathan S. Roberts, from Fultonville to Frankfort; Frederick C. Mills, from Frankfort to Lyons; Holmes Hutchinson, from Lyons to Buffalo. The aggregate of the estimates, including the cost of a double set of lift locks on the whole line, is for the largest canal, (70 feet wide,) $12,416,150, equal to $34,204 37 per mile; and for the other canal, (60 feet wide,) $10,368,331, equal to $28,562 30 per mile. The difference is $2,047,818, or a little more than 20 per cent. These estimates include nothing for damages. It is estimated that the enlarged canal will require an additional quantity of 14,546 cubic feet of water per minute, for the Rome summit, and 7,990 cubic feet per minute, for the Jordan summit. The former may be supplied from the Black river, Fish creek and Canaseraga creek; the latter from Skaneateles and Owasco outlets and Nine Mile creek. The enlargement of the canal and locks to the proposed dimensions, will lessen the expense of transportation, exclusive of toll, about fifty per cent. INCORPORATED CANAL COMPANIES. DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY, Incorporated April 23, 1823, for the purpose of constructing a canal and rail-road from the Hudson river to the Coal Mines in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Capital, $1,500,000, of which the Company is authorized to use $500,000 in banking in the city of New-York. The credit of the state of NewYork has also been loaned the Company in four and a half and five per cent. stock, to the amount of $800,000. Canal commenced July, 1825, and completed October, 1828. Length of Canal as follows:-From tide water of the Hudson to Port Jervis on the Delaware river, 59 miles. Thence up the Delaware to the mouth of the Lackawaxen river, 24 miles. Up the Lackawaxen in Pennsylvania to Honesdale in Wayne county, 26 miles. Total length of canal, 109 miles. Length of Rail-road.-Sixteen miles, from the head of canal at Honesdale to the Coal Mines at Carbondale in Luzerne county, in the valley of the Lackawanna river, which empties into the Susquehanna at Pittston, 22 miles below Carbondale, and 8 miles above Wilkesbarre. Total length of canal and rail-road, 125 miles. Rise from tide water at Kingston, to the summit, between the Delaware and Hudson rivers, in 38 miles.... ....535 feet. ...80 Descent from summit to the Delaware, 26 miles.. ..187 Total, 106 locks, rise and fall .950 The rail-road crosses the Moosic mountain, overcoming an elevation of 912 feet above the Lackawaxen, and 850 above the coal mines, which last are about 730 feet above tide water on the Hudson. This canal is 32 to 36 feet wide, upon the water line, of water. The locks are 76 feet in length between the wide. The boats carry 28 to 33 tons. and has 4 feet depth gates, and nine feet Over 1,000 men are The principal business done on the canal is in coal. employed by the company at the mines, in the boats, &c. Coal mined, and brought to tide water. No. of vessels loaded at Rondout. 388 641 910 966 643 1,049 Articles cleared on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, 1835. |