* * * * * Second.--Because it possesses the economies of concentrated power. Horse-power must be diffused into small and limited qualities to be economical. The cost of double, treble, or quadruple teams, to increase speed or reduce time, swells the cost of transportation almost in like ratio, and would eat largely into the value of cargoes. With the _present enormous waste of steam-power, trains with over three boats_ begin to increase the cost of freight per ton. The _Governor King_ was less economical with five boats than with three. On a part of the Eastern Division, two powerful tugs, lashed side by side on the levels, have taken a train of (17) seventeen boats successfully. Give to half their combined steam fifty per cent. addition to their combined power, and train movement receives an important inauguration. Economy, dispatch, regularity and a universal harmony of interests prevail. SUMMARY. The considerations of facts and suggestions herewith presented, embody important reasons for the Legislature to continue in force the Act of April, 1871, "to foster and develop the inland commerce of the State." It seems well adapted to influence, encourage and facilitate the development of mechanical, inventive talent; and to this end, all interests pertaining to the immediate elevation of canals, to the benefits of steam, should co-operate. To encourage invention to utilize the steam is of paramount importance, because the other "_necessities_" will then be met, and they need no legislation, for common business talent will supply their demands. The MECHANICAL NECESSITIES of our canals are greater than pertain to any possibilities by the old systems of propulsion. _It is not sufficient for steam to barely or doubtfully compete with horses, it should supersede them with the same superiorities and same universality_ that it has on railways. Where steam is mechanically adapted to its uses, horses bear no comparison to its economies; hence, give steam its required mechanical adaptation to canals, and horses must be abandoned. The enthusiasm of 1872, in regard to steam, is less than in 1858, but there is a deep feeling of necessity for steam permeating the community, and it should be encouraged and directed in the proper channel, for the anxieties of 1858 _foundered on incompetent mechanism_, and the anxieties of 1872 _are in the same impassable channel_. * * * * *