| Wheat. | Corn. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By R. R. | By Wagon. | By R. R. | By Wagon. | |
| At market, | $49.50 | $49.50 | $25.60 | $25.60 |
| 10 miles, | 49.25 | 48.00 | 24.25 | 23.26 |
| 50 miles, | 48.75 | 42.00 | 24.00 | 17.25 |
| 100 miles, | 48.00 | 34.50 | 23.25 | 9.75 |
| 150 miles, | 47.25 | 27.00 | 22.50 | 2.25 |
| 200 miles, | 46.50 | 19.50 | 21.75 | 0.00 |
| 250 miles, | 45.75 | 12.00 | 21.00 | 0.00 |
| 300 miles, | 45.00 | 4.50 | 20.25 | 0.00 |
| 330 miles, | 44.55 | 0.00 | 19.80 | 0.00 |
Thus a ton of corn carried two hundred miles, costs, per wagon transport, more than it brings at market; while moved by railroad, it is worth $21.75 per ton. Also wheat will not bear wagon transport of three hundred and thirty miles; while moved that distance by railroad it is worth $44.55 per ton.
7. By railroads, large cities are supplied with fresh meats and vegetables, butter, eggs, and milk. An unhealthy increase of density of population is prevented, by enabling business men to live five, ten, or fifteen miles away from the city and yet do business therein. The amount of this diffusion is as the square of the speed of transport. If a person walks four miles per hour, and supposing one hour allowed for passing from the house to the place of business, he cannot live at a greater distance than four miles from his work. The area, therefore, which may be lived in, is the circle of which the radius is four, the diameter eight, and the area fifty and one quarter square miles. If by horse one can go eight miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixteen miles, and area two hundred and one square miles; and, if by railroad he moves thirty miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixty miles, and the area 2,827 square miles. The effect of such diffusion is plainly seen about Boston, (Massachusetts). People who in 1830 were mostly confined to the city, now live in Dorchester, Milton, Dedham, Roxbury, Brookline, Brighton, Cambridge, Charlestown, Somerville, Chelsea, Lynn, and Salem; places distant from two to thirteen miles.
8. In railroads, as in other labor saving (and labor producing) machines, the innovation has been loudly decried. But though it does render some classes of labor useless, and throw out of employment some persons, it creates new labor far more than the old, and gives much more than it takes away. Twenty years of experience shows that the diminished cost of transport by railroad invariably augments the amount of commerce transacted, and in a much larger ratio than the reduction of cost. It is estimated by Dr. Lardner, that 300,000 horses working daily in stages would be required to perform the passenger traffic alone, which took place in England during the year 1848. It is concluded, also, from reliable returns, that could the whole number of passengers carried by railroad, have been transported by stage, the excess of cost by that method above that by railroad would have been $40,000,000.
SAFETY OF RAILROAD TRAVELLING.
9. If we know that in a given time the whole distance travelled by passengers was 500,000 miles, and that in such time there occurred one fatal accident, it follows that when a person travels one mile, the chances are 499,999 against one of losing life. If he travel ten miles, the chances are 49,999 against one, or ten times as many of meeting with loss of life; and generally the chances of accident are as the distance travelled. In 1855, the whole number of miles run by passengers in the United States was, in round numbers, 4,750,000,000, while there were killed one hundred and sixteen; or one in every 41,000,000, very nearly. (The ratio in England is one in every 65,000,000.) Now if for each 400,000 miles travelled by stage passengers, (a distance equal to sixteen times round the world,) one passenger was killed, and if the whole railroad mileage could be worked by stages, there would be annually 11,875 lives lost; or one hundred times the number annually lost by railroad. Thus it would be one hundred times safer to travel by railroad than by stage. The danger of steamboat travelling is far greater than by stage.
PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS.
10. The first step to be taken in starting a railroad enterprise, is the choice of a board of directors (provisional), whose duty is to find all that can be known of the commercial, financial, and agricultural nature of the country to be traversed. To determine as near as possible its ability to build and support a road; and to obtain the necessary legislative enactments.
11. The determination of the increase of traffic which the road may be expected to excite, is a difficult matter. There can be few rules given for proceeding in such an inquiry. It seems very easy to prove by what roads have done, that any project will be profitable.
An abstract of a report lately published, tries to prove that a road will pay forty-five and one half per cent. net; the working expenses being assumed at only thirteen and one half per cent. of the gross receipts. The error here lies in assuming the working expenses too low, as few roads in the country have been worked for less than forty per cent.; a more common ratio being fifty one-hundredths of the gross receipts.