Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/513

 increased from 23,746 acres to 25,694 acres (30,000 acres in 1909), but that of oats decreased from 26,618 acres to 12,589 acres (14,000 acres in 1909), that of wheat decreased from 2027 acres to 271 acres (none reported in 1909), that of barley decreased from 4934 acres to 1596 acres (2000 acres in 1909), that of buckwheat decreased from 3117 acres to 1835 acres (2000 acres in 1909), and that of rye decreased from 1056 acres to 350 acres (none reported in 1909). With the exception of dairy cows and horses there was likewise a corresponding decrease in the number of livestock during these years: the number of hogs decreased from 58,585 in 1890 to 56,970 in 1900 (51,000 in 1910); of sheep, from 211,825 in 1880 to 105,702 in 1900 (74,000 in 1910); and of neat cattle other than dairy cows, from 141,841 in 1880 to 116,835 in 1900 (93,000 in 1910); but the number of horses increased from 52,458 in 1890 to 77,233 in 1900 (59,000 in 1910), and the number of dairy cows from 90,564 in 1890 to 115,036 in 1900 (122,000 in 1910). The value of the poultry and egg product of 1899 was $1,824,399, which was more than twice that of the cereals and nearly one-third of that of the hay and forage. The potato crop of the same year was grown on 19,422 acres and amounted to 2,420,668 bushels valued at $1,090,495; in 1909 the acreage was 21,000, and the crop was 2,730,000 bushels, valued at $1,747,000. The acreage of other vegetables in 1899 was 26,780 and the value of the market garden produce, including small fruits, which was sold, increased from $187,049 in 1889 to $394,283 in 1899 or 110·8%. Although the crop of orchard fruits was no greater in 1899 than in 1889 the number of apple trees increased during the decade from 1,744,779 to 2,034,398, the number of peach trees from 19,057 to 48,819 and the number of plum trees from 10,151 to 18,137; in the number of pear trees and of cherry trees there was a slight decrease. The fruit crop of 1899 included 1,978,797 bushels of apples, 19,341 bushels of pears, 6054 bushels of peaches, 4942 bushels of plums, 1183 bushels of cherries, 487,500 ℔ of grapes, 568,640 qts. of strawberries, 124,760 qts. of raspberries and 105,290 qts. of blackberries and dewberries. The valley of the Merrimac is the leading section for the production of hay, small fruits and dairy products. In the bottom lands of the Merrimac and of the Connecticut, south of the White Mountains, a large part of the Indian corn and vegetables is grown. Potatoes, however, are grown in large quantities north and west of the White Mountains; and this district leads in the number of cattle and sheep, and in the production of all the cereals except Indian corn. Apples, pears and grapes are successfully grown throughout the central and southern sections, but peaches and cherries chiefly south of Lake Winnepesaukee. Hillsboro and Rockingham counties, in the south-east, lead in the production of poultry and eggs.

Forests.—The White Mountain region and Coos county to the north of it, embracing in all nearly one-third of the total area of the state, is essentially a forest country. In 1903, however, only about 12% of this was still occupied by a virgin merchantable forest and 69·8% was cut-over or culled land. In the southern part of the state there is in the aggregate nearly as large an area of young forests on lands, most of which were until about 1850 used for agricultural purposes. The principal merchantable timber of the state is red spruce, and this is found chiefly in the virgin forests which remain in the north, especially in those on the steep mountain slopes between elevations of 1800 ft. and 3500 ft. All except a few scattered trees of the white pine, which was once abundant in all parts of the state below 1500 ft. in elevation, has been cut; but some of the second growth in the south is already merchantable. The most common hardwood trees are sugar maple, yellow birch, white birch and beech; these are widely distributed throughout the state, but are for the most part too young to be cut for lumber. White cedar is almost wholly confined to the swamps of the north, and white oak is found chiefly on the more fertile lands of the south. Most of the virgin forests of the northern section were cut in the latter half of the 19th century, while abandoned farms in the south were becoming reforested, and the value of the state’s lumber and timber products increased from $1,099,492 in 1850 to $4,286,142 in 1870, and to $9,218,310 in 1900 and then decreased to $7,519,431 in 1905; since 1890 large quantities of wood, chiefly spruce, have also been used in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp. In 1909 a forestry commission was established.

Fisheries.—Although the trout and salmon of the fresh waters in the interior are a great attraction to sportsmen, the commercial fisheries, which are confined to Rockingham county, on the coast, are of small and declining importance. The take of 1898 consisted chiefly of cod, haddock, lobsters, mackerel, alewives, pollock and hake, but was valued at only $48,987, which was a decrease of 67% from that of 1889; in 1905 the total take was valued at $51,944, of which $32,575 was the value of lobsters and $8166 was the value of fresh cod—the only other items valued at more than $1000 were soft clams ($2770), Irish moss ($2400), alewives, fresh and salted ($1220), and haddock ($1048).

Minerals.—The most important of the mineral products of New Hampshire, which has long been known as “the Granite State,” is granite, which is quarried in the southern part of the state in the area of “Lake Winnepesaukee gneiss,” near Concord, Merrimack county, near Milford, Hillsboro county, and E. of Manchester in Rockingham county; in Sullivan county, near Sunapee; and in the east central part of the state in Carroll county, near Conway

and Madison. In 1908 there were 8 quarries at Concord, all on Rattlesnake Hill, and all within 2 m. of the state house in Concord. The Concord granite is a medium bluish-grey coloured muscovite-biotite granite, with mica plates so abundant as to effect the durability of the polish of the stone; it is used for building—the outer walls of the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., are made of this stone—to a less degree for monuments, for which the output of one quarry is used exclusively, and for paving blocks. The output of the Milford quarries, which numbered in 1908 fifteen—twelve south and south-west and three north-west of Milford—consists of fine and mostly even-grained, quartz monzonites (i.e. granites with an unusually large proportion of soda-lime feldspar), of various grey shades, sometimes tinged with blue, pink or buff, and always marked with black mica; the finer varieties take a high polish and are used for monuments, and the coarser grades are used for construction, especially of railway bridges, and for paving and curbing. The output of the Auburn quarry, 7 m. E. of Manchester, is a deep pink quartz monzonite, marked with fine black dots, which has a fine texture, takes a good polish and is used for monuments. The Conway quarries, four in number in 1908, are on either side of the Saco river, south-east and south-west of North Conway; their output is coarse constructional stones, all biotite or biotite-hornblende, but varying in colour, pinkish (“red”) and dark-yellow greenish-grey (“green”) varieties being found remarkably near each other at Redstone, on the east side of the Saco valley. About 2 m. E. of Sunapee are quarried two kinds of monumental stone: the “light Sunapee,” a light bluish-grey biotite-muscovite, finer than the Concord granite, and capable of a good polish and of fine carving; and the “black pearl” or “dark Sunapee,” a dark bluish-grey quartz-diorite, which seems black mottled with white when polished, and which is coarser than the “light Sunapee.” New Hampshire granites were used for building as early as 1623. The value of granite quarried in the state increased from $195,000 in 1887 to $1,147,097 in 1902, when building stone was valued at $619,916, monumental stone at $346,735 and paving stone at $101,548. In that year New Hampshire ranked fourth among the states in output of granite, with 6·3% of the total value of granite quarried in the entire country; in 1908 the value of granite ($867,028) was exceeded by that of each of seven other states but was more than one-half of the total value of all mineral products of the state. Of this total the only other large items were clay and clay products (valued at $371,640), and mineral waters ($259,520; of which $150,512 was the value of table waters) from nine springs, four in Rockingham, three in Hillsboro county and one each in Coos and Carrol counties—and other mineral waters were used in the manufacture of soft drinks. Mica, first mined at Grafton, Grafton county, in 1803, found also in the northern part of Merrimack county and in the north-western corner of Cheshire county in such quantities that for sixty years New Hampshire was the largest producer of mica in the United States, is no longer an important product: in 1907 its value ($7227) was less than that of the mica produced in South Dakota, Alabama, North Carolina or Colorado. A quartz schist, suitable for making whetstones and oilstones, was discovered in 1823 by Isaac Pike at Pike Station, Grafton county, and the Pike Manufacturing Company now owns and operates quarries outside this state also; in 1907 New Hampshire was the principal producer of scythe-stones in the United States, and the total value of whetstones made in 1907 (including the value of precious stones ) was $59,870.

Manufactures.—The heavy precipitation on the elevated central and northern parts, and the hundreds of lakes and ponds which serve as reservoirs, give to the lower southern part of the state on the Merrimac and other rivers such an abundant and constant water-power that southern New Hampshire has become an important manufacturing district, and manufacturing has become the leading industry of the state. During the last two decades of the 19th century the number of inhabitants engaged in agricultural pursuits decreased from 45,122 to 38,782; and the number engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits increased from 57,283 to 75,945. Many farmers abandoned their sterile farms and made new homes in the West, where soil yielded larger returns for labour, and a foreign-born population, consisting largely of French Canadians, came to the cities in response to the demand for labour in the mills and factories.

From 1850 to 1860 the value of the manufactured products increased 62·3%; in the decade of the Civil War they further increased in value 89%; from 1890 to 1900 the increase was from $85,770,549 to $118,709,308, or 38·4%; and from 1900 to 1905 the value of the factory products increased from $107,590,803 to $123,610,904, or 14·9%. Textiles, and boots and shoes represented