30

This hint, to the experienced reader, is symptomatic of the con-tents of the next report, (June 30th, 1839,) from which I extract thefollowing:

“ Amount paid for rail iron in Charleston , 0371,679 12Less old iron sold and unsold, 92,902 27

-S278,776 85

Cost of transportation of the same on the road, and

laying down, including spikes, 74,400 00

Net cost of new iron, $353,176 85

Here we perceive that the entire sales of the old iron (when it wasall disposed of, it yielded precisely $92,325 71,) exceeded the cost ofputting the new rail in the track, but by some $18,000, while the netcost of the new iron, after deducting the proceeds of sales was 8353,-176. Such is in fact what is to be expected. The old iron will bare-ly pay for putting down the new, and the loss to the company willbe about equal to the cost of the new iron delivered at the sea-port.

A writer in the Railroad Journal proposes a scheme for the Read-ing rail road company to make, money, by procuring rails free of duty,and selling the old material, after it has been worn out, with the ad-vantages of the duty.

The operation was conducted under precisely those circumstanceson the South Carolina road; but the above balance will show thatthe speculation did not turn out so well in that case. Indeed I haveknown many instances in which the iron has been renewed, but Ihave never heard of a company, here or abroad, that found thespeculation a profitable one.

In the accounts of the South Carolina road, the new iron is chargedto “permanent improvements,” (the old iron lasted Jive years.) andthe company recommenced with augmented capital.

I have but one word to add in reference to the durability of ironrails subjected to the action of a trade like that of the Schuylkill. 1have already stated that if the Reading rail road company expect toobtain the whole trade of the canal, they must prepare for the entirerenewal of a single track every year; and I now add, if the companycarry 500,000 tons of coal during the present year, as they now pro-pose to do, the new iron cannot be put down, before that now on thetrack will be so nearly destroyed as to be unsafe.

It is understood that this company has recently obtained an addi-tional loan of 01,000,000. With this it is proposed to stock andequip the line, and procure the additional track, and prepare for theconveyance of the whole trade of the Schuylkill.

I therefore advance this additional proposition. After this moneyis expended, and the company shall have put themselves, by its aid,in the position which they seek to occupy, they will neither, in thefirst place, be able to carry more than half the tonnage of the Schuyl-kill, and, in the second place, if they succeed in obtaining half thetonnage, they will not be able to engage vigorously in the business of1845, without a new loan of a million of dollars; and, finally, if theycontinue to operate through the present and the next year, they can-