The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-07-29

Cities--Their WantS--Their Success.
1t may be assumed that to certain extent
the means of locality for the accommodit-
ton and qualification of men will determining
the number of people that will make it their
dwelling-placc. We do not mean to say that
the natural advantages of such locality Will
SO determine, but that those advantages,
utilized by art, will. Take the single article
of water what would become Of New York
if she were deprived Of Croton water:
What would New York have been with
out it. There would lon" ago have
been limit to its growth. ANA ii
would now be comparatively small
city. So we may assume that space, smooth
thoroughGares, easy access to rural districts,
light, ventilation, resources for pleasure and
recreation, all 20 TO make up the means OF
accommodation in proportion to which Will
be the population OF city. Nor is it true
that the population goes AHEAD of the means
and makes them for its own accommodation.
On the contrary, an cntcrprising community
always increases its means of living and COM
fort beyond immediate want, i'll order to
supply the demands of increased popul&-
ton; and it is this very extension OF the
means of accommodation which invites i'll
creased population.
We have Il case in point applicable to these
views in the situation of Baltimore. That
city is one of the most prosperous III the
Atlantic States, and suddenly finds its means
of supply of water quite crampcd. Now,
if il had no new resource to which it could
resort, there would be a check put upon its
increase. But wisely that city goes about
to find this new source. The Council of the
city ordered Il survey of the line to the Gum
powder river, and Mr.. Tyson, the engineer,
publishes his report in the Baltimore papers
of Friday. His surveys enable him to pro-
pose the construction of an open canal
(Inuch better for purity of water than
a closed one) twelve miles long, thirty-eight
feet wide at top, twenty feet wide at bottom,
six feet deep, and with slope of four inches
to the mile. This canal would deliver 1G0,-
900, 900 of gallons daily, which is hundred
times as much as the supply now needed for
Richmond. The dam across the Gunpowdcr
will be twenty-five feet high, and the surface
of the Lake formed by it will be one hundred
and seyenty-two feet above mean tide,
covering two hundred acres of laid The
elevation of the reservoir, Il little over a mile
from the city boundary. will be Ole hundred
and siXty-eight feet above mean tide, and
the water is to be conveyed to the city
through two lines of distributing mains,
each five feet in diameter. The canal is to he
paved throughout upon clay or concrete,
covered with sand.
One Of the mains is to be used for sup
plying domestic and ordinary purposes, the
other for flushing the sewers aud harbor and
for manufacturing. The hurbor certainly
needs flushing; but whether there will be
force enough in the current through the
fiye-foot main to flush it, is doubtful. Bati-
more must change her system of sewerage to
improve that.
But this Is a grand scheme for Baltimore,
and she should not hesitate TO put it into
operation, The cost. Is put down Mt $780,