The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-11-02
ON THE TOW-PATH.
What a Stranger Finds of Interest
Around About Niagara.
Longest Canal in tbs Wcrld-Eiagara Water
Power-Miles Of Quarries- Public Schools.l
Electric Reilway.
Special Correspondence of THE MORNING CALL

Special Correspondence of THE MORNING CALL.
Editor Morning Call: A stranger finds
much OF Interest in the country Immediately
ABOUT Niagara Falls, especially on the New
DIX Side. Indeed. it may be taken as a
lar sample Of the prosperity Of the whole
State
1t is said that there are no less than six
hundred lakes in the State of New York
and twice as many streams, good share OF
both being navigable. The number of
MANUFACTURES in the western counties
alone, especially along the Erie Canal, is
innumerable. The facilities for the cheap
transportation of raw materials have proved
OF immense value to manufacturers, and
factories and mills of every description are
found along the canal, on its many feeders,
or on the many streams which traverse
the country.
In 1910 De Witt Clinton first proposed
canal system through Middle New York,
and In 1925 1t was completed II was 1868
miles long ard extended from Albany to
buffalo. The day of its opening. in October,
1870, was momentous one for New 10rk-
ers. Boats were already completed, aud
were crowded with passengers and freight;-
lis banks, coming on foot, on horseback,
and In queer old rigs of every description.
Nhen all was in readiness cannon at
Buffalo sent the tidngs on to one thirty
miles away, and so the booming of cannon,
each thirty miles apart, soon took the glad
news to Albany. Great was the rejoicing
over the opening of this great canal, which
gave a clean waterway from the vast un-
known territory surrounding the great lakes
to the Atlantic at New York City.
nh linz IL \ &c
sending Of news by the booming of cannon
was marvel of speed. Railroads and
steamships were unheard of, and so travel
by packet on The Canal" was the height
OF luxury and ease.
The original width was forty feet, with a
depth OF four feet, but in the SOS it was en-
larged and is now seventy feet wide and
seven feet deep. So uniformly level is the
country that there is fall of less than an
inch mile from Lockport to Albany, dis
lance OF over 800 miles. At Lockport
series Of locks is necessary, as the land from
there west to Buffalo is more than 100 feet
higher.
One sees in the traffic of to-day a curious
mixture OF the old and the new. The bare
footed urchin urges his weary wOrn-eut
horses along the well-worn tow-path, just as
did his grandfather before him. The creak-
ing boat drags slowly along through green
meadows or by patches Of woods-maple Or
Deach or email glorious in autumn tints.
"A Win VI tiIc Hedu, d lung, low Tug goes
PUTTING AND WRESTLING
By with one, sometimes two. well-laden
boats dashed astern, doing in one day what
II required week to do by the old way.
The Erie Canal is the largest and longest
in the United States, in fact in the world,
and Is the water front for an immense ter
wheat are here shipped directly to Europe
as well as all the larger Atlantic cities. Its
banks are lined with merchants who handle
goods of every description from Ohio, Penn
sylvania and Michigan. reshipping in ex-
change goods TO all parts of these States
The business of the cities on the great lakes
IS steadily increasing. The fisheries in Lake
Erie ara extensive, thousands OF tons being
taken each season. two tons alone being
handled in Dunk.rk each day.
Inc largest COPPER mines in the world are
en- Lake Superior; the best stone quarries
are at Marquette. Lumber of all varieties,
IN unlimited quantities, Is shipped. and
much Of the oil of the western oil fields of
PENNSYLVANIA must pass through the lakes
to the markets OF the world. As result
these cities by the lakes must and do grow.
Buffalo has now nearly 1900 people: Is
lighted by gas from Pennsylvania; pays
six certs a gallon for coal oil; has her
streets lined with stone residences. and her
eight and ten story business houses are
also of stone, brought from Michigan. or
from the nearer quarries. which seam the
country from Buffalo to Rochester. and
which send out rock enough each year, of
the best varieties, to keep 1000 Poles (the
general workers. constantly busy. Lying
on the Niagara River, it has water power
that is incompatible, and to-day the land
from Buffalo to Niagara Falls is quoted at a
higher price for manufacturing sites than
any other land in or about the city. Sooner
or later it will all be occupied by factories
or mills, and their variety will be un-
limited.
The Welland Canal, on the Canadian side.
Is older even than the Erie Canal, is about
the same width. but is seventeen feet deep,
allowing the passage of deer-water vessels,
Following the line of the southern shore
OF Lake Ontario, some ten miles south Is
ridge. evidently the old shore line so UNI
form in width and height that it has al
ways been public. highway. An electric
railway is soon to be built its entire length
about sixty miles-the power TO be CD
tanned from Niagara River The question
OF good water supply and sewerage systems
for towns or villages" Of 5000 or even less
receives more attention than in many
larger towns in California, being under the
supervision of the State Board of Health
AS the country is generally level, water is
suppiled from springs or wells through a
system OF water towers.
THE METHODS OF FARMING
Here would seem rather slow and laborious
to California farmers. One hundred acres
Is large farm. From five to ten acres are
always left in""woods," or, perhaps, left
for sugar BUSH; another ten perhaps is
for pasture, about five may he in apples,
and the rest is cut up by stone walls or rail
fences into small lots and planted to various
crops-heans, hops, wheat, corn or vegeta-
bles. Grain is cut by reapers and thrashed
by steam power. More beans are raised
east OF Illinois and south of the lakes than
10 any other part Of the United States
They are cut dried, housed. roughly thrashed
with machines, aud sold uncleaned to the
merchants, few of whom have beaD-pick-
ing machines. In every town along the
canal two or three beam picking houses are
found. which employ from twenty-five to 100
women and children throughout the year to
pick over beans, Men seldom do such work
except In midwinter, when other work is
scarce, The majority of the common la
borers In the towns are Poles, though they
have not superseded the Irish or English in
the country.
South OF Lake Ontario about ten miles.
and running east and west for nearly 100
miles, are quarries of most superior sand
stone, in which thousands of Poles are en-
ploved during the year.
All through the southern part of Ontario
and Northern Ohio, as well as New York.
apples have been the main crop aside from
wheat Tor the past forty or fifty years.
Each farmer calculates that his two or
three hundred barrels Of apples will make
snug sum to add to his income when he has
sold his few hundred bushels of wheat or
beans, or berries from his half-acre patch,
or crooks of sweet butter, or his few barrels
of beets or turnips.
Every farmhouse has its roomy cellar, its
cistern of rainwater in one end, and its bins
OF vegetables and barrels of apples or pork,
and nowadays a furnace, as the old fire
place. it'll its cheerful fire has gone. and in
IT'S stead is the furnace or huge coal stove,
with fires day and night from October until
June.
Grandfather sits alone in the corner and
tells how he cleared the wilderness in 1910
or thereabouts, with nothing but yoke of
oxen and your grandmother" Very old