from a
hundred sources, will enable persons to decide the great question
whether they will emigrate to the Valley. By the same means, emigrants
may determine to what State, and to what part of that State, their
course shall be directed. There are many things that a person of plain,
common sense will take for granted without inquiry,--such as facilities
for obtaining all the necessaries of life; the readiness with which
property of any description may be obtained for a fair value, and
especially farms and wild land; that they can live where hundreds of
thousands of others of similar habits and feelings live; and above all,
they should take it for granted, that there are difficulties to be
encountered in every country, and in all business,--that these
difficulties can be surmounted with reasonable effort, patience and
perseverance, and that in every country, people sicken and die.

2. Having decided to what State and part of the State an emigrant will
remove, let him then conclude to take as little furniture and other
luggage as he can do with, especially if he comes by public conveyances.
Those who reside within convenient distance of a sea port, would find it
both safe and economical to ship by New Orleans, in boxes, such articles
as are not wanted on the road, especially if they steer for the
navigable waters of the Mississippi. Bed and other clothing, books, &c.,
packed in boxes, like merchants' goods, will go much safer and cheaper
by New Orleans, than by any of the inland routes. I have received more
than one hundred packages and boxes, from eastern ports, by that route,
within 20 years, and never lost one. Boxes should be marked to the owner
or his agent at the river port where destined, and to the charge of some
forwarding house in New Orleans. The freight and charges may be paid
when the boxes are received.

3. If a person designs to remove to the north part of Ohio, and Indiana,
to Chicago and vicinity, or to Michigan, or Greenbay, his course would
be by the New York canal, and the lakes. The following table, showing
the time of the opening of the canal at Albany and Buffalo, and the
opening of the lake, from 1827 to 1835, is from a report of a committee
at Buffalo to the common council of that city. It will be of use to
those who wish to take the northern route in the spring.

------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------
| Canal opened at | Canal opened at | Lake Erie opened
Year. |