Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-01-29

Cheapest and best lines Description OF
Proposed ne,o and Improved Old Routes
Rapid Development of the Northwest
Millions Of Bushels Of Grain Wasted
for todnt of Transportdtion--T Trunk rail
tody and Water. Lines Across the Cont
nent.
| CONCLUSION.
The receipts of flour and grain at the
seaboard ports, including New York,
Boston, Portland, Montreal, Philadel-
phia, Baltimore, and New Orleans for
the year 1872 were 163, ,953, III bushels,
while New York received by the Erie
and Champlain canals only 53,711 100
bushels, or 80 per cent. During the same
year the railroads brought to New York
33,l42, ,ss9 bushels. Of the 731 So, !, ,46s
bushels Of grain received at lake ports
during five years 80 per cent. went to
New York, 80 per cent. by the Erie and
Champlain canals and 10 per cent. by
rail. The average receipts at the lake
ports for the last five years was LAG, 1885, :
494 bushels. During the same time the
average receipts at New York were 49,
52l ,23l, of which an average of 4S,03O,-
47S came by canal.
The tolls on the canals were re-
duced in 1870, which reduction has been
continued ever since. Notwithstand-
ing this the tonnage of the Erie Canal
has increased only little, while the
railroads have shot ahead faster than
ever, thus showing that the obstacles to
larger and perfectly possible cheaper
transportation by means Of State-man-
aged machinery, were greater than the
obstacles to the creation of larger and
cheaper machinery in private hands.
THE SCHEME TO ENLARGE THE ERIE CANAL
The proposed enlargement of the locks
on the Erie and Oswego canals SO as to
greatly increase its capacity has been
the subject of much discussion OF late
years. The State Engineers report for
1868 gave the full details Of this pro-
posed improvement, with a full set of
maps and drawings explanatory of the
work. The length of the Erie Canal
from Buffalo to Troy is 345, miles, and
to Albany it is seven miles more. The
length oil the Oswego canal is thirty
eight miles, from Syracuse to Oswego,
on Lake Ontario. The Erie Canal has
seventy-one locks, with lift of 654 2-5,
feet, and the Oswego Canal has eighteen
locks, with lift of 154 1850 feet. The
Erie Canal, commencing at Albany
rises by tw double locks 110 by Is feet)
20 feet to West Troy. Thence it is car
ried over ridge of slate rock by six
teen double-lift locks to an elevation of
l8S feet above tide-water at Albany to
Crescent, distance of six miles. From
thence to lock No. 10, nine-mile level;
thence to Schoharie aqueduct by eleven
locks, thirty miles; thence to Sprakers,
fourteen miles level; thence to lock No.
45 at Frankfort, thirty-six miles; thence
to Utica, nine miles, where it reaches
the "summit" or long level, extending
from Utica to Lodi, one mile west of
Syracuse. Except the lock of 3 feet at
Utica there is level between Frank
fort and Lodi of sixty-four miles in
length. From Lodi the canal falls %
feet, by three double locks, into the Sy-
racuse, the canal rises feet and then
continues on a level to Jordan, fifteen
miles. Here it falls IS feet into the
Port Byron level, which is nine miles
long. At Port Byron it falls II feet in
to the Cayuga marsh level, sixteen
miles, to Clyde. From Clyde to the
east end of the level at Arcadia, four
teen miles, there are seven locks. Thence
TO Macedon, level of twelve miles,
where there are two locks; thence to
PitIsford, a continuous level of fifteen
miles, and between Pittsford and Bright
on, five miles, are four lift locks. From
Brighton, three miles east of Rochester,
| to Lockport there is a continuous level
n sixty-five miles. The canal increases
in size from Rochester west. At Lock-
port it is 9S feet surface, 70 feet bottom,
and X feet deep. Here there are five
double combined locks with an aggre-
gate lift of nearly Sc feet. From tho
head Of the locks at LockpOrt to Buffa-
10 there is a continuous level of thirty
one miles. On this level the canal passes
through three miles of rOck-cut, where
the prism is 81 feet surface, 60 feet bot
tom, and 0 feet deep. From Pendleton,
seven miles west of Lockport, to Ton
awanda, twelve miles, the canal occu-
pies the Tonawanda Creek, which is
200 feet wide and feet deep. Thence
to Buffalo the canal is so feet on the
surface, 60 feet bottom, and o feet deep
at high water. 1t frequently occurs
that, from low water in the lake or by
long continued easterly winds, heavily
loaded boats are obliged to tow down
che Niagara River from Buffalo to Ton
awanda. The canal is supplied by wa
ter from Lake Erie to the Seneca River,
i4O miles east of Buffalo. The time con-
sumed in passing boats through the
locks depends to some extent on cir
cumstances. For instance, the lifts are
unequal, varying from @ to 12 feet, and
as rule heavily laden boats take more
time than light boats, and more time is
consumed in locking boats in the night
time than during daylight. From Off
cial tests made in 1887 at lock No. 40
at Syracuse, it appeared that flfty-six
boats were locked in 2s2ls minutes, the
time consumed in each locking varying
from three to nine minutes, or averag.
ing 5 2-60 minutes. The general aver.
age for twenty-four hours was frac-
ton over seven minutes. The greatest
number of lockages made in one day in
1870 at Alexander's lock, three mile.
west of Schenectady, was 2i2, averaging
less than six minutes each. The im
: portance of the matter of lockage i
appreciated when one calculates tn,