One of the roads entering into the consolidation was the Utica and Schenectady. It was 78 miles long and formed about one-fourth of the consolidated line. It had the heaviest grading and rock-cutting, was the best-equipped and undoubtedly the most expensive, in proportion to its extent, of the ten roads out of which the New York Central was created. The original cost of this line was $2,000,000. Bonds were never issued by the company. The line was profitable from the very beginning, paid regularly ten per cent. dividends,--the limit to which railroad companies were then restricted,--and had a large surplus, which it expended mainly for improvements. No assessment was ever made on the stock beyond the $1,500,000 which was originally paid in by the shareholders and upon which they had drawn regular and liberal dividends. Taking the original cost of this line as a basis, it is but fair to presume that the entire line from Albany to Buffalo, covering a distance of 297 miles, did not cost to exceed $6,000,000. These roads, however, entered into the consolidation with a capital stock of $15,274,800 and a bonded indebtedness of $1,696,326. Estimating the cost of the branches upon the same basis upon which we have estimated that of the main line, we shall find that the total original cost of the consolidated lines cannot have exceeded $8,000,000. The Mohawk Valley road was put in at $2,000,000 and the Syracuse and Utica direct at $600,000, though the roads only existed on paper and did not represent any value whatever. The Schenectady and Troy road, which went into the consolidation with $650,000 stock and $90,000 bonds, had been bought for less than $100,000 two months previous to the consolidation. It will thus be seen that already nearly one-third of the stocks and bonds of the consolidated companies was water. The consolidation agreement fixed the capital stock of the New York Central at $23,085,600 and its funded debt at $11,564,033.62, increasing the stock over $2,000,000, and the bonded debt over $9,000,000. The latter was more than quadrupled, and $8,000,000 worth of bonds were, under the name of consolidation certificates, given as a present to the stockholders of the new road. The capital stock of the New York Central grew steadily up to the time of its consolidation with the Hudson River road, when it was $28,795,000. All improvements made during this time were paid for out of its surplus earnings, with the single exception of the Athens branch, for which the company issued $2,000,000 of its stock.