To Clear Off The Railroads

Perhaps ;ifter the blizzard of laat March on the Atlantic coast the railroad officials of tliat región will lay in a etock of Bnow lows. Scarcely a road but was then impassable for several days, when if a plow had been at hand the track could have been cleared in a few hours. Perhaps they had the excuse the United States governinent bo long had for not building ironclads - that the improvements were being made bo rapidly that any ironclad eonstructed would Boon be a thing of tlie past. But the estern roads are using, and have been for Borne time, a machine which clears the track effwtually. The part which tacks the drift is a wheel revolving rapidly and cuto the snow, to&fcing it from 100 to 800 feet to one pide, and at an angle of 2?) dcgs. from tha track. It is placed om the end of a car which contains the machinery to givo it rotary motion. The two wings projecting over the wheel from oacli upper corner of the car bit aks the circular current, forming two Beparate ones at an angle of 4T degs. All the snmv coming in contact with the wheel below its axle passes out by the lower or side currcnt, and that which comes above the axle passes out by the ';op current, When the plow is working in i deep drift it will throw the upper current out where the snow is hlgher lliari the machine. The wheel can be reversad, thereby taking advantaare of the wind, low sides of cuta, and hill sides. One Micli plow as tliis on every road wou ld bcafriend in need; and in the case of Btorms which only bloi'c a portion oí' a road would be sufíicient. The western roads have always tept efficiënt snow plows oa hand, and tliey aro seldom blocked forany length of time; but in the enst, trhere blizzards are not expectel, 1 cío bas been no preparation whatever. l!ven if a snow plow rusts in a shed t is better than tlie risk of thonsanda of passengen being delayed on trains without food or beddinK, as waa the case on the memorable 12th of March, 1888. Thu managers of southern roada may well congratúlate themselvea tlit they are not cailed upon to add the clearing of their lines of snow to their otber expenses and annoyances.