The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-05-10
The ERIE CANAL.

vancement In Wealth and Population.
Mr.. Ernest lngorsoll writes an ar
ticle for st. Nicholas on the Greater
New York, his paper being entitled
Reasoning Out Metropolis. = Mr.
Ingersoll says: The greatest Of al!
the influences that assisted New
York to reach first place was tho
Erie canal
The first quarter of this century
was the era of canal building No
matter how fine the turnpikes may
be, horses can haul in wagons only
high priced merchandise in COM
paratively small quantities and for
short distances, unless the cargo is
to cost for transportation more than
it is worth. Men found out in Eu-
rope and Asia long ago that for
moving grain, coal, timber, ore and
similar bulky or heavy goods, where
speed was not especially important,
ship or boat was the only practi-
cable method. If river were not
convenient, then an artificial water
way, called a canal-that is, chan
nel-must be made. When in any
country something of this kind can
not be done, that country must re-
main undeveloped and thinly popu-
lated, like the Sahara.
Why is a canal so much better
than a good road for commercial
purposesi Because, while two horses
and one man can haul on hard,
level road perhaps two tons, the
same driver with two horses har-
messed to canalboat can move 20
tons nearly as quickly-that is, the
same force and expense for pay and
food of men and horses accomplish
ten times as much in result, which
really makes the goods ten times
cheaper at the end of the route.
Hence before the invention of rail
roads it was necessary in any grow
ing country to dig canals to serve as
the highways of commerce, and this
the young United States FASTENED to
do. New York, as usual, moved
along the foremost. She planned and
constructed, besides some lesser
ones, that great waterway, 400 miles
long, from Albany to Buffalo, which
was called the Erie canal and con
nected the Hudson with the great
lakes.
This canal was finished in 1926,
and immensely stimulated the
growth not only of the western part
of New York state, but of the whole
region of the great lakes; for now
farmers in the northwest could send
their grain and fruit and cattle, and
the miners their ore, and the lum-
bermen their ship timber, and boards
and slaves, to the seaboard at profit
able rates, and in return they could
obtain the imports, merchandise, and
manufactures of seacoast cities at
fair cost. A feet of vessels on the
lakes came and went, bringing from
farm, mine and forest cargoes which
were loaded into the canalboats and
sent east, often to be transferred to
vessels for foreign ports without
ever touching land at all. And back
went supplies for the interior of
New York state and for settlers in
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois
and beyond, who could never have
lived and worked in those distant
parts except for this means of cheap
communication. To them also every
summer went thousands of new set
tiers from New England and old
and all Europe, who needed
no longer to spend weeks and weeks
in travelling in wagons before reach
ing their new homes.
A Watermelon Paradise.
AS the effort to colonize negroes
In Liberia is not working satisfac-
torily, it might be feasible to induce
them to go to the Messilla valley, in
where the largest water
melons are grown. 1t is said that a
farmer in that valley had no wagon
strong enough to take one to mar
ket, so he had to cut slices out of it |
with a crosscut saw as they were |
needed for home consumption. But |
one of them became too ripe; it