amers have run under a prospective bounty of one hundred thousand
dollars for a success, _they have been first-class in all their
appointments_, and have been, as in the language of one of their engineers,
"rushed through," it is strictly proper to compare them with a well-known
duty of _first-class horse-boats_, under the ordinary business enterprise
of their captains.

Thus, the first-class modern horse-boat can carry a cargo of 8,800 bushels,
or 244 tons of corn, and make seven round trips between New York and
Buffalo per season, averaging a round trip per month for the season of
navigation.

The most systematic and business-like trials _that have made speed an
element of competitive economy_, are the _Port Byron_, _Baxter_ and
_Newman_.

The short lives of the _Viele_ and the _Fall Brook_ in canal service,
render it unnecessary to give details of the _Byron_.

The _Baxter_ left New York late in August or early in September, in new and
perfect equipment, in a supposed race for a hundred thousand dollars, and
through September, October and to the 19th of November was in the trade,
and was in a contest for superiority or supremacy. During this time she
delivered at New York two freights, and at Waterford one freight, being the
_equivalent_ of three freights of 7,200 bushels each, or a total of 21,600
bushels of corn; with runs _equivalent_ to two and two-thirds round trips.

But she had priority at locks and right of way at all times, so that the
horse-boat, at the sound of her steam whistle, when fifty feet behind, must
stop and lay over to the tow-path and let her pass. Under these privileges
and benefits she was enabled to make her first time between Buffalo and
West Troy, as advertised, in a few hours over (7) seven days; her second,
required still longer time; her third, being when the horse-disease had
nearly "tied up" all other boats, so that she had a river-like freedom, she
required about (6) six days, thus _averaging about_ (7) seven days from the
Lakes to the Hudson.

_Give any first-class horse-boat captain_ a supposed or possible bounty of
a hundred thousand dollars, with priority at locks and right of way, and he
would in the same time have delivered three times 8,800, or a total of
26,400 bushels of corn from the Lakes to the _Baxter's_ destinations; or
4,800 bushels of corn in excess of the _Baxter's_ capabilities; and have
delivered at Buffalo the same up-freights, with ease.

But the profits of