*

WE THEREFORE OBSERVE: That the policy of introducing steam canal-boats as
carriers of freight, is illustrated in the _Niagara_, _Eclipse_, _Gold
Hunter_ and _Rotary_. The policy of carrying and towing one boat, in the
_Wack_, _Sternburg_, _Ruggles_, _City of Buffalo_ and _Viele_. The policy
of screw-tugs in the _Gov. King_, _Bemis_, _Washington_, _Lafayette_,
_Stimers_, _Dan Brown_ and the paddle-wheel tug _Fall Brook_. Under each
policy steam was a failure on the canals under the agencies tried. The
single carriers died first; the tugs second; the carriers and one boat
third; and last, the carriers with three-boat tows.

In 1861 and 1862, the policy of using the powerful canal steamers,
_Ruggles_ and _City of Buffalo_, to carry freight and tow three boats each,
was introduced to supersede the former policies. During these years the
privilege of priority at locks, by paying double toll on the boats, was
suspended, and soon thereafter steam was totally abandoned.

It is noticeable that the steamers for carrying, only, had less vitality,
and were less economical, than those for carrying and towing, and those for
carrying and towing but one boat had less than those for carrying and also
towing three boats.

Hence, the carrying steamers, or the automaton policy of 1871 and 1872,
can only compare with the automaton policy of the former era, and they must
have less vitality, and be less economical, than those other for carrying
and towing one boat, and still less than those for carrying and towing
three boats.

STEAM IN 1872 LESS ECONOMICAL THAN HORSES.

It has been clearly shown that STEAM in 1872 is less economical than in
1858 to 1860, and still less so than in 1861 and 1862.

But STEAM, in its former history, failed to compete with HORSES; and as, in
its recent history, it has failed to be as economical as in its former,
because of less economical policies of introduction (machinery being
substantially the same), it follows that its failure to compete with horses
must be still more marked, still more disappointing to the hopes
entertained by the Legislative Department of the State, that independent
financial encouragement could possibly foster and develop steam
successfully, than it was in its former most significant failures.

But steam in 1872--independent of its failure as compared to itself in
1858--is shown to be less economical than horses by _direct comparison of
steamers and horse-boats_.

As ste