Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/284

3. Estimated Traffic and Earnings:

To ascertain what he thought would be the traffic and earnings of the road Barry started with the statement that for every acre of good agricultural land one ton of freight could be expected by the railroad. But he says, "In order that no one can quarrel with our figures or estimates, I will, in the present instance, estimate it at only one-fourth of a ton per acre per annum." The railroad, he said, would control not less than six million acres of good land and probably nearer sixteen million than six. This would make 1,500,000 tons per annum. To equalize the traffic on the whole road he divided by three which made 500,000 tons per annum. At ten dollars a ton, and he showed this was considerably less than was being paid or would be paid, the road would have an income of $5,000,000 per annum. In the same way he estimated the freight from the mines, from lumber, fast freight, how many through passengers, how many local passengers and how much mail and express. Placing all of these various estimates together he made a table to show the prospects of the road as follows:

Recapitulation:

Estimated earnings of the California and Oregon Railroad from Marysville, California, to the Columbia River, Oregon: