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COMPARATIVE TABLE SHOWING THE COST AND EXPENSES OF SEVEN RAILROADS OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR THE YEARS 1850 AND 1851.

COMPILED EXPRESSLY FOR THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE BY GEORGE A. HAMILTON, ESQ.

1850.

Names of roads.
Boston and Worcester..
Boston and Maine.

Western.....

Total cost.

1851. Total cost.

Cost per track. mile of single

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$4,882,648 23 $4,862,748 00 $38,598 00

$38,440 70

$5,966 06

$5,991 26

4,021,606 59

Cost of
equip. per
m. of track.
$4,230 98

4,090,452 48

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31,418 80

17,161

31,708 98

3,688 56

3,933 48

2,875 76

9,963,708 84

9,953,758 84

47,447 66

47,398 85

Boston and Lowell..

1,700 46

1,700 46

4,393 27

2,582 98
4,364 70

12,173 14,203

1,945,646 68

16,045 16,284

Boston and Providence..
Connecticut River.....
Fitchburg

1,945,646 68

36,710 31

36,710 31

14,228 31

14,228 31

3,308 40

3,308 40

3,416,232 51 3,469,599 38

15,960 19,062

45,549 76

46,261 32

6,041 60

2,224 73

1,798,825 13

17,504 17,838

1,801,592 36

34,592 79

34,646 00

2,101 61

2,195 84

3,606 85

3.606 89

10,339 10,846

....

3,552,282 59

3,612,486 97

27,537 07

28,003 77

3,186 11

3,381 88

3,277 05

3,328 09

14,331 15,215

Cost of oil
per mile

Freight

Freight

Cost of oil

Passenger

per mile

run.

run.

Boston and Worcester..

General ex-
penses per
mile run.

General ex

department

Passenger Repairs Repairs

penses per mile run.

per mile

department department department of engines of eng's

per mile

per mile

per mile

per mile per mile

run.

run.

run.

2,484

run.

run.

2,085

run.

4,688

Boston and Maine..

5,279

43,777

87,841

17,856

1,637

15,906

8,547

9,145

Western.....

1,686

2,596

2,412

35,770

33,932

13,364

13,908

5,142

2,209

4,650

Boston and Lowell........

2,148

3,272

3,599

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6,139

955

5,545

1,054

6,919

8,719

Boston and Providence.....

60,584

62,474

14,460

1,309

13,032 10,892 11,289

1,119

Connecticut River........

3,703

2,738

33,216

27,982

14,018

14,760

1,451

3,988 4,461

1,343

Fitchburg.

4,892

3,265

83,649

38,914

17,635

14,649

1,678

6,143 8,850

1,533

3,131

2,316

41,268

40,582

12,339

14,831

4,016

4,948

Repairs of

Repairs of

Repairs of

Repairs of

Repairs

Repairs

P. ct. of P. ct. of

passenger cars

passenger cars freight cars

freight cars

of road

of road

Whole cost

per mile

Whole cost

per mile

per mile

earnings earn'gs

per mile

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run.

run

run.

run.

per mile run.

per mile

per mile

per mile

for

for

run.

run.

run.

3,408

5,042

12,139

expenses. expen's.

11,151

12,843

8,017

91,320

88,765

52.5

55.6

4,601

8,059

5,956

4,764

10,487

11,805

61,776

66,053

48.6

48.2

6,784

6,370

11.059

11,498

8,107

4,574

79,030

77,169

44.8

44.2

8,655

8,108

9,315

5,846

10,568

11,153 109,275

106,973

63.4

65 5

2,454

3,718

5,299

3,353

7,375

9,094

64,270

70,287 43.6

47.1

4,904

4,507

8,316

9,885

8,405

10,506

89,714

73,611 71.4

57.6

2,587

6,004

7,791

8,332

5,242

8,392

68,478

83,457

46.6

60.1

⚫ These items are combined under one head, therefore no division can be made.

+ Ditto.

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STATISTICS OF MASSACHUSETTS RAILROADS.

We give below tabular statements of the operations of four railroads in Massachusetts, (the Eastern, the Boston and Maine, Boston and Lowell, and Taunton Branch.) These tables show the cost, value of stock, gross receipts, running expenses, net income, and dividends of each railroad for the last ten years. In the Merchants' Magazine for August, 1852, (vol. xxvii., page 252,) we published a similar statement of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, and in September, (same year and volume, page 379,) a similar one of the Western (Massachusetts) Railroad :

*

EASTERN RAILROAD. Incorporated in 1836. Opened throughout November 9, 1840. Length, 74 miles, including branches. Length of double track, 16 miles. Cost, January 1, 1852, $3,614,725.

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Total......

$4,070,516 $2,464,292 $2,606,224 711-20

BOSTON AND MAINE RAILROAD. Incorporated in 1833. Incorporated originally as the Andover and Wilmington Railroad. In 1887, the road was extended to Haverhill, and in 1839 to New Hampshire State line. In 1841, it was united with the Boston and Maine Railroad, in New Hampshire, and the whole line was then called "The Boston and Maine Railroad." Opened through in 1843. Length, including branches, 83 miles. Length of double track, 29 miles. Cost, January 1, 1852, $4,099,400.

Including the Eastern Railroad in New Hampshire, which is leased to, and operated by, the Massachusetts Company.

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BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD. Incorporated in 1830. Opened throughout, June, 1835. Length, 26 miles. Length of double track, 26 miles.

Cost, January 1, 1852,

$1,915,600.

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1,956.700 550 461,839

266,516

191,823 8

1849.

1850..

1851.....

2,013,700 550 416,488 *1,945,600 556 406,471 256,508 149,913 8 1,915,600 570 409,153 267,035 142,118 8

26,904

155,584 8

Total........

$3,754,659 $2,088,854 $1,665,805 av. 8

TAUNTON BRANCH RAILROAD. Incorporated in 1835. Opened in 1836. 11 miles, single track. Cost, January 1, 1852, $307,100.

Length,

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RATES OF FREIGHT ON THE VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE RAILROAD. ARTICLES APPROPRIATE TO THE FIRST CLASS. Boxes of hats, bonnets, and furniture, ARTICLES APPROPRIATE TO THE SECOND CLASS. Boxes, bales of dry goods, feathers. shoes, saddlery, glass, paints, oils, drugs and confectionery.

ARTICLES APPROPRIATE TO THE THIRD CLASS. Virginia domestics, sugar, coffee, liquor, bagging, rope, butter, cheese, manufactured tobacco, leather, hides, cotton yarns, copper, tin, sheet iron, hollow-ware, queens-ware, castings, hardware, marble, (dressed,) and other heavy articles not enumerated in special or fourth class rates.

ARTICLES APPROPRIATE TO THE FOURTH CLASS. Flour, (in sacks,) rice, pork, beef,

A re-valuation of the property of the road caused the difference between this amount and the cost in 1849.

fish, lard, tallow and bacon, (in casks, boxes or sacks,) beeswax, bales of rags, ginseng and dried fruit, bar iron, marble, (undressed) mill and grind stones, mill gearing.

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INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS ON AGRICULTURE.

A Boston cotemporary has some just remarks on the influence of railroads on the agriculture of New England, as follows:

It is doubtless within the recollection of many that when our system of railroads was started there was a general opposition to it among the farmers, especially in the New England States, lest their interest should be thereby seriously damaged. It was feared that this new medium of transportation would glut our markets with Western produce, and reduce the price of all agricultural products, so as to put it out of our power to compete with the more fertile regions of the West.

But those fears have not been realized. There has been no such falling off in the prices of produce as to make farming a less profitable business than it has heretofore been. The demand for such articles as we raise has kept pace with the supply, and the average of prices has, as we believe, been fully equal, for a series of years, to that which was obtained for a similar series previous to the construction of railroads. The truth is, that the expenses of transportation tend to equalize prices, and that in this respect the farmer near to a good market, even if his land and labor be dear, has a compensating advantage over farmers at a distance, where the cost of production is low.

In the great staples of agriculture, it is doubtless true that we cannot, here in New England, produce a surplus for exportation. Nor is it desirable, so long as we have a larger population at home than as yet we can begin to supply. Our home market exhausts all, and more than all that we can produce. And if the prices of any of our productions should, from the abundant supplies brought from other States, decline to a low point, we must adapt ourselves to circumstances, and turn our hands to the raising of such articles as will pay a profit. This, indeed, has already been begun. Fruit and poultry were never raised in larger quantities in New England than at present, while in parts, at least, beef, pork, and grain, have fallen off. This is the part of

wisdom, and our farmers should be on the alert to give greater attention to the pro duction of articles in which he will meet with the least competition.

We remember very distinctly when the project of the Western Railroad was first broached, and its claims were urged by one of its warmest advocates, P. P. F. Degrand, at one of the farmers' meetings at the State House. He was met with the ob jection that it would ruin the farmers on the seaboard-they could not compete with the West in raising the great staples of agriculture, and what shall they do with their farms? "Turn them," said the shrewd old gentleman, "into strawberry fields; that will make them pay!" The reply seemed almost to be the words of irony instead of soberness; and yet the day is at hand when there will be found to be more truth than poetry in it. In the neighborhood of our cities and large towns, the cultivation of the smaller fruits is largely and profitably carried on. And this species of garden culture

is extending into the interior, along the line of our railroads, and is destined to become more and more extensively prosecuted. The hills of New England have not yet be come barren: orchards and vines may be grown upon them yet, with ample returns, even if they should no longer profitably yield the same products as in the days of our forefathers.

But of some of our staple products, railroads have by no means lessened the price. Milk, butter, and cheese, have continued to command about the same rates as heretofore. Hay, good English hay, the price of which in the market, it was thought, would be seriously affected by the substitution of the iron horse for the animal horse, still keeps up at a remunerating point, and is more largely raised in New England than ever. The fact is found to be, that the animal horse did not go out of use quite as fast as it was prophesied he would. He was only removed from the old stage-coach to be harnessed to the omnibus and the express-wagon; and he now requires an equal quantity of hay to keep him going as he did in his former occupation. There are probably more horses to day in Massachusetts than at any previous period in her history, and the demand for good horses never was greater, nor the prices paid for them higher.

Horses-the good old fashioned horse of flesh and blood, bone and sinew-are by no means extinct among us. of other horses. The farmer who feared that Dobbin's days were numbered-bis The iron horse has proved himself to be only a breeder glory departed-when the steam-pipe sent its shrill whistle into his heart, now plucks up courage, and sets a higher value than ever on his sure-footed beast. Neither is the farmer himself gone into retirement, since the air-line railroad cut its way through his farm-we rather think he has made them pay a consideration for the land they took from him-he is now at work on the acres that remain harder than ever; and by proper cultivation, proper selection of seeds, better adaptation of crops, and closer attention to the wants of the consumer, he finds himself still alive and flourishing-notwithstanding his fears that the railcars, when they first whished by, would take the very breath out of his body.

PERSONS, EMPLOYED ON RAILWAYS IN ENGLAND.

It appears from a parliamentary return recently issued, that the number of persons employed on railways in the United Kingdom on the 30th of June, 1851, was 106,501, and on 30th of June, 1850, 118,859; showing a decrease of 12,358 persons, including 10,667 laborers.

The number employed on railways in England and Wales on the 30th

June, 1851, was....

80.612

In Scotland

.....

8.802

In Ireland

17.087

In June, 1850, the numbers were, in England and Wales.

78,570

In Scotland

16,495

In Ireland

23.794

The number of miles open at the end of June, 1851, was.
In course of construction...

..miles

6,698

735

The length open at the end of June, 1850, was..

6,307

In course of construction......

868

The number of miles in abeyance at the end of June, 1851, was.

4,525

The total length authorized at that date was

11,959

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