(No. 1.) ADIRONDACK COMPANY. STATE OF NEW YORK, City and County of New York, ss: HENRY C. CRANE, Treasurer, and C. H. BALLARD, acting Superintendent of operations of the Adirondack Company, being severally sworn, each for himself deposes and says, that the statements in the annexed report, which has been signed by each of them, at the end thereof, are true and correct, according to the best of his knowlege, information and belief. (Signed) Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 13th day of January, 1871. H. C. CRANE. C. H. BALLARD. WILLIAM SUTPHEN, Notary Public, N. Y. City and County. OFFICE OF THE ADIRONDACK COMPANY, No. 20 NASSAU STREET, N. Y., January 13, 1871. Hon. VAN R. RICHMOND, . State Engineer and Surveyor, Albany, N. Y. : SIR.-The Adirondack Company begs leave respectfully to report that the charter of the company (see chap. 236, Laws of 1863) was granted by the Legislature for the special purpose of developing the lumber and mineral resources of the wilderness in the northern part of the State of New York. Auxiliary to this it has power to construct and operate a railroad "from some point in the county of Saratoga, up and along the valley of the upper Hudson into the wilderness," and by a subsequent law "to extend its railroad to some point on Lake Ontario or the River St. Lawrence." The charter further provides that, "when so organized, such corporation shall have all the rights and privileges given by said act (referring to the general railroad law of 1850), and the acts amending the same, and be subject to the provisions thereof, except so far as the same are inconsistent with the provisions of this act," referring to the charter. The company has power "to purchase, take and hold lands to the amount of one million acres in said wilderness," and "to convert and prepare for market the natural products of the forest, and to mine and prepare for market the iron and other ores and minerals upon its lands, and to transport, sell and dispose of the same." The charter also provides that "the said corporation shall report annually on the first Monday in January, to the State Engineer and Surveyor, the quantities of land sold by it, with a description thereof, and the names of the grantees of said lands." The purpose of the charter of the Adirondack Company is so essentially different from that of railroad corporations generally throughout the State, embracing as it necessarily does large expenditures for lands, lumber, manufactories, iron works, etc., in addition to the cost of constructing and equipping a railroad, all of which must be provided for by the proceeds of its capital stock, bonds or floating debt, that it is impossible to present an accurate and intelligent view of its affairs under the forms prescribed by the State Engineer for the annual report required by the general railroad law of 1850; and it is therefore assumed that the making of this report in the ordinary form is one of the provisions of that act that were deemed by the Legislature to be "inconsistent with the provisions of" the company's charter. During previous years this company, in endeavoring to comply literally with the provisions of the act of 1850, has attempted to fill up the blanks in the prescribed form in the usual way; but the impossibility of apportioning a specific proportion of its capital stock to the railroad, or any particular department of the company's operations, has only led to error in the general tabulations contained in the report of the State Engineer, which error has been carried into all of the average tabulated results of the railroads throughout the State. The Legislature having specified, in the act of incorporation, the nature of the annual report to be made to the State Engineer, which refers merely to the sale of lands, it may very well be doubted whether any other report was contemplated by the law. The company, however, fearing that a refusal on its part to conform as nearly as possible to the requirements made of railroad corporations throughout the State would be improperly construed, have the honor to present herewith the following statement, which is designed to be as nearly as practicable a compliance with the provisions of the general railroad law, and which, in fact, contains all the information applicable to this company sought by said law, together with other information which it appears proper to give. Average rate, per annum, of interest on funded debt 7 per cent. Of the above there has been expended in the railroad department, $2,881,918.33. The balance has been expended in the land, and other departments. COST OF COMPLETED ROAD AND EQUIPMENT (49 MILES), OF THE ADIRONDACK COMPANY'S RAILROAD. For graduation and masonry For bridges Superstructure, including iron... $1,290,679 08 81,379 20 531,197 16 Passenger and freight stations, buildings and fixtures Engine and car houses, machine shops, ma chinery and fixtures Land, land damages and fences... Locomotives and fixtures, and snow plows. Passenger and baggage cars Freight and other cars $13,278 64 2,930 06 92,406 06 45,923 03 17,517 49 45,096 83 99,595 55 $2,220,003 10 The column referring to the "last report" is omitted for the reason that in former reports the expenditures made on account of graduation and masonry, engineering, land damages, etc., etc., on that portion of the line in process of construction in advance of the completed road, have been included with the same class of expenditure for the completed portion, while the present report is made to show the cost properly chargeable to the completed and incompleted portions separately. Amount expended in advance of the completed portion of the road: Engineering Land and land damages. Graduation and masonry. $661,915 23 Bridges CHARACTERISTICS OF ROAD. The road is in process of construction. Eleven miles in addition to the present completed portion, will be finished by the 31st of December, 1870. Length of road.... Undetermined Length of road laid. 49 miles. Length of double track, including sidings.... DOINGS OF THE YEAR IN TRANSPORTATION AND TOTAL MILES RUN. Number of miles run by passenger trains... 31,188 Number of passengers (all classes) carried in cars 19,798 Number of miles traveled by passengers, or number of passengers carried one mile... Number of tons, of 2,000 pounds, of freight 405,771 carried in cars.... 22,545 Total movement of freight, or number of tons carried one mile ... 635,940 Average rate of speed adopted by ordinary Rate of speed of same when in motion.... The amount of freight, specifying the quantity in tons: 18 20 12 15 |