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. Western..... Total cost. 1851. Total cost. Cost per track. mile of single $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 4,090,452 48 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 12,173 14,203 1,945,646 68 16,045 16,284 Boston and Providence.. 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 Freight Freight Cost of oil Passenger per mile run. run. Boston and Worcester.. General ex- 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 * * 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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. ..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 |