History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

574 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1707.
Better Machines It was not till 1822 that suctioii eiigiiies
Substituted. came into use and were substituted for the
older styles. Fire-companies had been
formed some years previous, and with new and improved
machines more men were needed. The " Torrent " was the
first of these that was purchased, and it did good service
till steam fire-engines came into use. In a few years the
"Deluge" was added to the town's equipment, and for a
long time these two in connection with the " Hook & Ladder"
company, constituted the fire-department of the town.
Destruction of Crows.
The destructiveuess of the thieving crow
was again recognized and a bounty of 2s.
placed upon his head. This resulted in the death of fiftyfive
of these pests at a cost of $18. Many of them were
the young taken from the nests. In 1801, there was another
slaughter of crows. The bounty was twenty-five cents for
old ones and twelve and a half cents for the young. The
whole number of these birds killed during that year, young
and old, was one hundred twentj^-eight, at a cost of $27.12i.
The animals seemed to increase notwithstanding the deadly
war waged against them.
Canal at South Had- Ouc of the most important engineering feats
ley Falls.
^j^^t had been undertaken in the county, and
certainly the most important in this section
of the country, was the construction of the canal around
the Falls at South Hadley in the closing years of the
eighteenth century. While it benefited Northampton not
more perhaps than other towns in the valley, it occasioned
much distress and discomfort here for many years, and
therefore it may not be deemed inappropriate to enter somewhat
in detail upon the inception and subsequent fortune
of the enterprise.
Connecticut River From the time of the first settlements in
the Great Wateri]^q
valley, Conuecticut River served as the
^^^'
great waterway for the transportation of
goods and supplies from all parts of the world, and it was
as well the principal carrier for the products of the fields
and forests throughout all the region it traversed. Navigation
was slow, difficult and tedious, and attention was