was opened 21.00 miles; the Providence and Worcester, 25.00 miles; the Essex, 1.76 mile; the Cheshire, 10.50 miles. The Old Colony Railroad was extended 7.02 miles: the Fitchburg, 3 miles; the New Bedford and Taunton, 0.95 miles; the Eastern (Gloucester and Salisbury Branches), 16.91 miles; the Boston and Providence, 3.34 miles, and the Boston and Worcester (Brookline Branch) 1.55 miles. The Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad was finally completed in 1850. It has been unproductive to its stockholders. The Providence and Worcester Railroad, 25 miles of which lie in the State of Massachusetts, has paid its stockholders dividends averaging 33 per cent. annually. The Essex Railroad, built by means supplied chiefly by the Eastern Railroad, has been almost entirely unproductive. The Cheshire Railroad is specially described among the railroads of New Hampshire. In 1848, 184.05 miles were opened, viz: the Peterboro' and Shirley, 12.01 miles; the Lowell and Lawrence, 12.35 miles; the Stony Brook, 13.16 miles; the Dorchester and Milton, 3.24 miles; the Cape Cod Branch, 27.80 miles; the Worcester and Nashua, 39.12 miles; the Vermont and Massachusetts, 27.00 miles; the Essex, 18.60 miles; the Old Colony, 0.74 mile; the Connecticut River, 14.10 miles; the Fitchburg (Lancaster and Sterling Branch) 2.71 miles; and the Boston and Worcester (Milford and Newton Branches), 13.22 miles. The Peterboro' and Shirley was leased to and operated by the Fitchburg Railroad Company up to 1860, when it was purchased by that Company for the sum of $132,666. The Lowell and Lawrence was leased to the Boston and Lowell Company in 1858, for a period of 20 years, at an annual rental of 6 per cent. on its cost. Previous to that time it had paid its stockholders dividends averaging 3.75 per cent. The Dorchester and Milton Railroad has been operated by the Old Colony Company without profit to its stockholders. The Cape Cod Branch, which was completed in 1854, has paid its stockholders dividends averaging 1.8 per cent. The Boston and Worcester has paid dividends averaging 7.4 per cent. In 1849,63 74 miles were completed: the Grand Junction, 6.49; the South Shore, 11.50, and the Newburyport, 8.55 miles, were opened, and the following roads were extended-the Cape Cod (Wareham Branch), 1.04 miles; the Vermont and Massachusetts, 21 miles; the Essex, 1.32 miles; the Fitchburg (Sterling Branch), 8.32 miles; the Boston and Maine, 3.53 miles; the Boston and Worcester (the Framingham Branch), 1.99 mile. The Grand Junction Railroad, the object of which was to connect the railroads entering Boston with the harbor at East Boston, has proved unproductive. The affairs of the company are now in the hands of the trustees under its mortgages, and will probably be wound up by the sale of its real estate, and the abandonment of a portion of the road. The South Shore Railroad has been unproductive to its stockholders. The Newburyport Railroad has been recently leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad Company for a term of 100 years. It has been an unproductive work. In 1850, 103.98 miles were opened. The Fitchburg and Worcester was opened 13.99 miles; the Norfolk County, 25.96 miles; the Salem and Lowell, 16.83 miles; the South Reading Branch, 8.15 miles, and the Stockbridge and Pittsfield, 21.93 miles. The Newburyport Railroad was extended 6.03 miles; the Peterboro' and Shirley, 2.09 miles, and the Vermont and Massachusetts, 9 miles. The Fitchburg and Worcester has been moderately productive, having earned 10 per cent. annually on its cost. The greater part of its share capital is in preferred stock on which dividends have been regularly paid. The Norfolk County Railroad has proved an unfortunate enterprise, having earned only a very small per centage on its cost. The road for some time past has been in the hands of trustees. It is now proposed to merge this into the Midland Company, which has been incorporated as the successor to the Norfolk County and the Boston and New York Central. The plans for the re-organization of these companies, recited in the statements of their affairs, have not yet been carried out. The Salem and Lowell Railroad has been recently leased to the Boston and Lowell Company, at an annual rental of $17,500. It had paid nothing to its stockholders previous to this lease. The South Reading Branch is now owned by the Eastern Railroad Company, though a separate organization is still maintained. Since its opening it has only paid current expenses. The Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad has been operated since its opening by the Housatonic Railroad Company of Connecticut, to which it was leased in perpetuity at an annual rental of $31,409, which is 7 per cent. on its cost. The rent has been regularly paid. In 1851, two miles were added to the Fitchburg Railroad. In 1852, 9.70 miles were opened, viz: the Medway Branch was opened 3.60 miles, and the Charles River Branch, 6.10 miles. The Medway Branch was leased to the Norfolk County, which was to receive all its earnings for operating and maintaining it. The Charles River Branch has been merged into the New York and Boston Railroad, which has thus far been run without profit. In 1853, 35.04 miles of railroad were opened, viz: the Danvers and Georgetown, 12.38 miles; the Horn Pond Branch, 0.66 mile, and the Amherst. and Belchertown, 19.50 miles. The Charles River Branch was extended 2.50 miles. The Danvers and Georgetown, which was an unproductive work, was merged into the Newburyport Railroad in 1855, and with that road has been leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad Company for 100 years. The Horn Pond Branch was built for the transportation of ice, and possesses no public interest. The Amherst and Belchertown, proving unproductive, was sold upon the foreclosure of a mortgage, and re-organized, with a reduced capital under its present name, on the 1st January, 1859. In 1854, the Fairhaven Branch, 15.11 miles, was opened, and the Eastern extended 14.30 miles. The Fairhaven Branch has been unproductive to its 12 stockholders. The Providence, Warren and Bristol, the greater part of the line of which lies in Rhode Island, was also opened this year. In 1855, 75.39 miles were opened, viz: the Agricultural Branch, 15.03 miles; the Danvers, 9.20 miles; the Easton Branch, 3.78 miles; the Hampshire and Hampden, 24.96 miles, and the Middleeboro' and Taunton, 8.03 miles. The Newburyport was extended 12.39 miles. The Agricultural Branch is leased to and operated by the Boston and Worcester Company. The Danvers Railroad has been leased to the Boston and Maine for a period of 100 years. The Easton Branch has been a productive work, having paid dividends at the rate of 44 per cent. on its cost. The Hampshire and Hampden Railroad has been leased in perpetuity to the New Haven and Northampton Company. This road has probably been operated at a loss. In 1856, 12.99 miles were opened. The Marlboro Branch was opened 3.09 miles, and the Eastern was extended 9.90 miles. The Marlboro Branch has been leased to the Fitchburg Railroad at a rental of one-half the gross receipts. Since 1856 no addition has been made to the mileage of Railroads in the State, with the exception of the City Passenger or Horse Railroad. CITY PASSENGER OR HORSE RAILROADS. Since the opening of the first city passenger railroad in the city of Boston, rapid progress have been made in the construction of these works. They now embrace a mileage of 38.94 miles, with a nominal cost of $1,604,990, or $41,200 per mile. This sum does not include the equipment of the roads. The gross earnings, in the aggregate, exceed 45 per cent. of their cost. The dividends paid average 8 per cent. on their aggregate share capitals. The nominal cost of the Boston City railroads has been moderate, compared with those of New York, though in the cost of the former is undoubtedly embraced a very large amount of fictitious capital. The following statement will show the dates of opening, and also the mileage, cost, gross and net earnings, and dividends of the city passenger or horse railroads in Boston and its vicinity, for 1859: STATEMENT, showing the Share Capital and Debts of the several Railroad Companies of the State of Massachusetts, with the amount of productive and unproductive capital in each: Corporate Titles of Companies. -Share Capital- Amount. Productive. Unprod. Funded ...... Berkshire ........... The railroads of the State of Massachusetts present results much more favorable than those of any other northern State, (with the exception of New Jersey), in the ratio of productive to unproductive capital invested in them, and in the amount of dividends paid. Of the total liabilities of all the companies, amounting to $61,230,417, interest and dividends were paid the past year on $49,884,817, leaving as unproductive, $11,345,600. The aggregate earnings of all the railroads of the State have been $124,566,121, of which $66,591,906 have been received for transportation of passengers; $50,884,263 for transportation of freight; $7,079,952 for mails and from miscellaneous sources. The current expenses have been $68,893,377, leaving $56,672,744 as net earnings. The amount paid in dividends has been $34,230,165. The ratio of gross earnings upon the cost of the road has been 14.13 per cent.; current expenses, 7.72 per cent.; net earnings, 6.41 per cent. The dividends paid have averaged 5.09 per cent. on the aggregate share capitals of all the roads. These results, considering the period embraced of 25 years, and including all the roads in the State, are very favorable. There are few investments that have paid better than those made in the leading roads of the State. Massachusetts is the only one of the New England States in which railroads, as a rule, have been productive investments. This is owing in a great measure to the pursuits of its people, who are mostly engaged in commerce and manufactures. Railroads constructed in such portions of New England as are devoted to agriculture have generally proved failures. In Massachusetts only is found a population sufficiently dense to afford an adequate support to the necessarily expensive roads of the North Eastern States. There is probably no State, the people of which contribute so largely to the support of railroads as those of Massachusetts. The receipts of all its roads for the past 10 years have averaged $8 per head. A similar ratio for the whole country would swell the receipts of all the railroads of the country to $250,000,000, or twice their present earnings. It is a remarkable fact that the cost, per mile, of the railroads of this State has not increased for the past 10 years. The construction accounts of nearly all the leading roads of the State have been closed for many years. In the condensed statement, the earnings of the Albany and West Stockbridge, in New York; the Eastern, and Boston and Maine, in New Hampshire, are included. |