York. This road is 56 miles long, and is now in course of construction. At New Haven the New York and New Haven connects. "1st. With the canal railroad, now built and in operation, to Plainville, and to be extended during the present season to Collinsville-distance to Plainville twenty-eight miles, thence to Collinsville twelve miles. This road is leased to the New York and New Haven Company, at a rent proportioned to the gross receipts thus giving the New York and New Haven Company the control of its business without risk of loss. "2d. It connects at New Haven with the New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield Railroad, extending from New Haven to Springfield, there connecting with the Western Railroad, and also with the Connecticut River Railroad, now built and in operation from Springfield to Greenfield, thirty-six miles, and destined to be extended up the Connecticut river valley, doubtless to Canada. "3d. At New Haven it will connect with the New York and Boston, or "Air Line" road, which is now proposed to be built through Middletown and Willimantic to Providence, and will thus bring on to the New York and New Haven a vast amount of business from all that portion of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, lying East of Connecticut river, and South of the Boston and Worcester Railroad, which now goes to New York by steamboats, and will make the shortest practicable and feasible railroad line between Boston and New York. Applications are now pending before the legislature of Connecticut for a charter from New London to New Haven." It is estimated that the New York and New Haven road will bring to the city from 2,000 to 2,500 passengers daily, the first three months after it is opened, and that it will increase before the expiration of the year to nearly or quite double that number. It is impossible to estimate the amount of freight furnished by the large number of manufacturing towns located along the road and its branches. From information received the past week, the Air Line Railroad from New Haven will be made with as little delay as possible. The average number of passengers arriving daily at the Harlem depot, on Fourth Avenue, is from 800 to 1000. The whole number of way and through passengers which passed over the road the past year, amounts to 1,700,000. When the road is extended to Dover Plains, perhaps by the first of December next, they estimate the number passing over the road daily, at 1,500 to 2,000 at least; and that the whole number of way and through passengers will, during the year, number not less than two and a half millions. The work of extending the road through to Albany will progress with all possible dispatch. No estimate can safely be made, either as to the amount of freights or number of passengers then to pass over the road; but taking the various roads coming into Boston as a criterion, the business of the road must be quadrupled. The receipt for freight has been, the past year, about $50,000. It is estimated that the coming year it will amount to nearly or quite $100,000. The farmers in Dutchess county, in anticipation of the road being extended to Dover Plains, are greatly increasing the products of their lands. The right of way to Dover Plains, and the iron rails, have cost $90,000 less than the estimate made by the engineer. The through passengers to Dover Plains are estimated, for the coming year, at from 8 to 10,000. A continuous route from New York to Montreal, via Harlem Railroad, is considered certain, eventually.-Express. VOL. I.—SEPTEMBER, 1848. 27 TABLE OF PRINCIPAL RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. We annex to the foregoing Railroad Statistics of New York a list of the prominent roads in the Union, collected from the most authentic sources. Names. Western States. Miles in When Opened. 1839 Boston and Worcester Eastern Norwich and Worcester Boston and Lowell Boston and Providence New Bedford Nashua and Lowell Taunton Fitchburgh Old Colony Connecticut River Fall River Pittsfield and North Adams Providence and Worcester Cape Cod Branch Bangor and Oldtown Portland and Portsmouth Eastern Railroad in N. H. Nashua and Concord 35 1847 Providence and Stonington Hartford, New Haven & Springfield Bridgport & West Stockbridge, or Housatonic Albany and Schenectady Utica and Schenectady Syracuse and Utica Auburn and Syracuse Auburn and Rochester Tonawanda Attica and Buffalo Saratoga and Schenectady Schenectady and Troy Rensselaer and Saratoga Long Island Albany and West Stockbridge Troy and Greenbush New York and Harlem Russia is beyond question the great rival of the United States in the corn markets of the world. We have before us an estimate by a Russian nobleman, prepared for the "London Economist," of the average quantity annually of grain of all kinds produced in Russia. The statement is as follows: "The present population of Russia, in Europe, is 65,000,000, of whom about 15,000,000 are males, engaged in agriculture. On an average there are annually sown with winter grain, 18,750,000 hectares, yielding 168,750,000 At least nine hectolitres per hectare, or Hectolitres. 131,250,000 Spring grain, 18,750,000 hectares, yielding at least thirteen and a half hectolitres per hectare, or 253,125,000 Deduct seed at the rate of three hectolitres per hectare, or 56,250,000 196,875,000 328,125,000 195,000,000 Together Or equal to 112,844,239 imperial quarters. The annual consumption of 65,000,000 of population may be taken at The annual consumption in brewing and distillation, The annual consumption for food of horses, cattle, &c., say of 25,000,000 head (exclusive of refuse from breweries and distilleries, grass and hay,) The annual consumption for fattening cattle, hogs, • poultry, &c., Estimated total consumption of the country 50,000,000 7,000,000 277,000,000 51,125,000 Leaving on the most moderate computation, an average annual surplus for exportation, of Or 17,582,200 imperial quarters." Or 140,657,600 bushels. One hectare is nearly two and a half English acres. One hectolitre is a little more than two and three-fourths imperial bushels. Large as the statement from the "Economist" makes the quantities of the grain produced annually in Russia to appear, it may, perhaps not be too great. We find in McGregor's Commercial Statistics, volume 2, page 734, the follow ing statement of the produce of grain in Russia in Europe, derived from Schnitz ler's Statistics of that empire in 1835, viz: Average quantities sown, 50,000,000 chetwerts. Average produce three and a half for one. Total average produce, 181,000,000 chetwerts, or about 126,500,000 quarters, (or 1,012,000,000 bushels.) Total average consumption, including seed and the supply of distilleries, 141,000,000 chetw erts. Total average disposable surplus, 40,000,000 chetwerts, or about 28,000,000 quarters (or 224,000,000 bushels.) These quantities include grain of all kinds. In a recent German work of great authority and ability, vwe have found a very full description of the soil, climate and productions of Russia, which impresses us with the belief that the productive capabilities of that empire are much exaggerated. We annex a few paragraphs, extracted from the work alluded to: "Agriculture in Russia is still in its primitive state, though the number of products and their quantity is great, and no province furnishes more than one-half of its natural capacity. For this reason does the soil, in by far the greatest portion of Russia, possess no real intrinsic value; the latter depending entirely on the labor of man, so that instead of asking the number of acies, the number of hands that belong to it, form the measure of its value. The best cultivated provinces of Russia are on the Baltic, in the provinces adjacent to Moscow, and in the Russian provinces of Poland; but even in these provinces are to be found immense districts of which not the fifteenth part is as yet taken into cultivation. The whole area of Russia in Europe is 1,742,145,725 Prussian acres, of which 676,000,000 are covered with forests and under-wood; 771,000,000 acres are wholly unfit for cultivation, (“unland ":) there remains consequently but 246,500,000 acres fit for agricultural purposes, and about 24,500,000 acres capable of being used as pasturage. Indian corn (maize) is principally grown on the shores of the Black Sea; the provinces on the Baltic and western Russia furnish the greatest quantity of hemp and flax; potatoes have but lately been generally introduced; the raising of grain (oats, &c.) for feeding cattle is entirely neglected. There exists an official seven years' average for the whole crop of all the Russias, Poland alone excepted. From this it appears that the yearly crop of all Russia yielded 167,112,224 chetwerts; while that of Poland alone amounted to 280,906,000 chetwerts. According to official reports on the state of agriculture, it appears that, in 1832, there were used as seed 19,269,088 chetwerts of winter grain, and in the spring of 1833, 28,920,754 chetwerts of summer grain, making together 48,189,842 chetwerts of grain. The exports from Russia were— In the year 1830 1831 1832 (one chetwert is equal to six English bushels, nearly.) 3,935,000 chetwerts. In 1833 there was an entire failure of crops, which in 1834 caused the permission of free importations of grain which, from a partial failure of the crops of 1834 was, by an imperial ukase, dated December 1st, 1834, extended, for the ports of the Black Sea and the Sea of Asof, to the 1st of January, 1836, and in consequence of a new total failure of crops in southern Russia, further extended by the ukase of the 9th January, 1835, to the Austrian and Prussian frontier and the ports of the Baltic and the White Sea. The abundant grain crops of Poland, especially in the Woiwodships, Sendomir, Lublin and even Massovia, have already been celebrated in the middle ages; but they are more owing to the excellent soil than the progress of agriculture in that country. See Handbauch der Allgeminen Staats Kunde in Europe von Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert, Professor der Geschichte und Staats Kunde, and der Universitat zu Konigsberg. (Handbook of the General Science of States in Europe, by Dr. Frederick William Schubert, Professor of History and Science of State at the University of Konigsberg,) Konigsberg, 1835, 1 vol., 1st section, pp. 211, 214. |