Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1824-12-09
From the Georgia Journal.

| II Is Hnaliy Seltieu tndt TIE expense
of Transporting on canal, amounts to
one cent per ton mile, or one dollar a
ton for one hundred miles, while the usu-
al cost by land conveyance is 81 SO Is
per hundred pounds, or thirty one dol
lars ton for the same distance. There
is neither exaggeration or fallacy in this
calculation. The certainty, CELEBRITY, s.
cheapness of this mode of transporta-
ton compared with land carriage, are
established by universal experience, and
the reiterated testimony of daily obser-
walton.
A loaded boat can be lowed by one or
two horses at the rate of thirty miles a
day. Hence the planter or merchant
can calculate with sufficient precision on
his sales or purchases, the period of
their arrival, the amount of their pro-
ceeds and the extent of their value. A
vesselon canal is independent winds,
tides and currents, and is not exposed
to the delays attending conveyauces by
land and with regard to safety there
can be no competition. The injuries TO
which commodities are exposed when
transported by land, and the dangers to
which they are liable when conveyed By
natural water, are rarely experienced on
canals. In the latter way, comparative.
! ly speaking, 90 waste is encountered
Hence it follows, that canals operate
upon the general interest of society, in
the same way that machines for saving
labor do in manufactures; they enable
the planter, the mechanic and the mer-
chant to convey their commodities to
market and to receive a return at least
thirty times cheaper than By roads
The difference is stated as nine to
oue-the calculations proceed upon the
supposition that the boat and wagon
were treighted with equal burdens;
whereas the smallest canal boat in COM
mon use will carry a freight of six to
a dozen wagons. There are few trans
portation boats either on the northern or
eastern canals that would not conve
niently carry one hundred and fifty bales
of cotton. A man and boy therefore,
/; with one or two horses, would in all ca
ses transport $50 bales the distance OF
100 miles in three days, which by the
established rate of freight aud duty on
the Erie canal, would amount to TWEEN
| ty dollars. What an immense saving
this mode of conveyance would annu-
ally produce to the people of Georgia
Had the Erie canal been competed
previous to the late war with England
. it is calculated that it would have saved
! to the nation more than sufficient to de-
fray the expenses of connecting the
Hudson with Lake Erie, Lake Erie with
the Ohio, the Michigan with the Illinois
the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays
and the Delaware and The Rariton-
What then might have been saved by a
canal connecting the navigabe waters
of the Tennessee and Tavannah rivers!
Pieces of ordnance were purchased foi
$500 at the founderies or al the military
stores, and cost the government in some
instances $4,000 when delivered on the
frontiers. A barrel of pork or beef of
ten cost the government S126, and 9th
er articles of consumption were purcha
sed at a rate equally extravagant. The
charges of transportation wherever tn,
operations of war were carried on, wen
far to swell the war debt to seventy
million dollars and upwards.
| Who'll pick bale ofeotto,, NTH Lou
! Sc a. =.