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_. * * * * * The Governor's Message of 1873 renews the scheme which was prominently before the Legislature a few years since, which was to lengthen one tier of locks by gates of different construction, and so as to receive longer boats of present width; yet a single thought will show that _this will not help steam_; for the insatiable desire for maximum cargo will put the _Bull Head_ boat into the long locks, just as it has into the present locks, and sharp steamers cannot compete with it. It is proper to observe that such lengthening of _one tier_ will first: coerce present boatman to sacrifice their property, which with boats and equipments, exceeds a valuation of twenty million dollars, or else cut the boats into two parts, and lengthen them (and strengthen their sides and "back-bones") to the full capabilities of the lengthened locks; for the short boats cannot compete with the long ones.