In 1866, just after the end of the Civil War, the American steam fleet registered for foreign trade, measured 198,289 tons. The steam vessels enrolled for coasting traffic measured 885,223 tons. In 1879 the steam tonnage in the foreign trade had fallen to 156,323, while the coasting tonnage had passed the million mark. In 1896 the coasting fleets measured more than 2,000,000 tons, while the foreign trade ships measured 264,289 tons. In 1908 the coasting steamers reached a tonnage of 4,055,295,--double the figures of 1896, and the registered tonnage was 598,737,--more than double that of 1896, but so far below that of the coasting tonnage as to warrant a serious inquiry into the causes which had created the contrast. [Illustration: Four-master _DIRIGO_ First steel ship built in the United States] Before entering into this inquiry, however, it will be of interest to consider several features of the growth of the coasting traffic. First note that the cheap rates of transportation afforded by the ships running from such Southern ports as Savannah, Charleston, and Norfolk to Boston and New York have had a most remarkable influence upon the agriculture of the Southern coast States. Where once cotton only was raised, or cotton and tobacco, the land-owners are producing cargoes of vegetables at a season when such truck can be produced at the North only by the use of hothouses. The health of millions of people at the North, and the prosperity of other millions at the South, have been greatly promoted by the coasting steamers. At the same time the coast lines of railroads, to secure a share of the traffic which was originated by steamers, have improved their service so far that strawberries and string beans have right of way over passengers. A natural evolution of traffic alongshore has been seen in the extension, so to speak, of the railroads across both salt and fresh water. Soon after the Boston and Providence Railroad was opened (June 15, 1835), its directors made an agreement with a line of steamers to New York under which the vessels of rival lines were excluded from the terminal facilities of the railroad, and the passengers from the rival lines had to wait hours for a train on which to continue their journey. In 1845 Daniel Drew, a director of the Providence and Stonington Railroad, became the president of the line of steamers running from Stonington to New York, and the two companies, for the purposes of traffic, were operated as one.