Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/320

Rh 300 MAINE has not entirely suppressed drunkenness, or even liquor selling, but it has had a decided influence in that direction. It has also tended to make drinking disgraceful, and has removed much temptation from young men. The people would be reluctant to abolish it until they could see something better to put in its place. The population of Maine has not increased at an equal ratio with the other States of the Union, as will be observed from the subjoined table. There is a constant emigration from the State of native-born people to other parts of the country, which is only about half made up for by immigration from the adjoining pro vinces and the Old World. Census Years. Total. Males. Females. Density per sq. mile. 1790 90,540 49,483 47,108 3-2 1800 151,719 77,250 74,469 5-1 1810 228,705 116,118 112,587 7-7 18-20 298,335 149,66 1 148,671 9-9 1830 399,462 201,232 198,230 l;i-4 1840 501,793 253,709 248,084 16-8 1850 583,169 297,471 285,698 19-5 I860 628,279 317,189 311,090 21-0 1870 626,915 313,103 313,812 20-9 1880 648,936 324,058 324,878 21-6 In 1880 the number of native-born was 590,053, and of foreign- born 58,883. The following cities had in 1880 a population of 5000 and up wards : Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, Biddeford, Auburn, Augusta, Bath, Rockland, Saco, Calais, Brunswick, Belfast, Ellsworth. Divorces in Maine reach the highest ratio to the marriages, or to the population, of any State of which statistics are reported. The privilege of a jury trial favours the plaintiffs, and it is not easy to find a jury who will withhold a verdict for divorce. The birth-rate of the native or oldest and typical families of Maine has greatly fallen off, and the number of children of school age is diminishing, not only proportionately to the population but in positive numbers, the diminution for the last eleven years being 14,200. The latest reports as to the religious societies of Maine show that there are 242 Congregationalist churches, with a membership of 21,340 ; 261 Baptist churches, membership 20,954 ; Methodist 228, membership 20,774 ; Freewill Baptist 286, and membership 15,822; Christian 60, membership 6000 ; Universalist 41, membership 4500 ; Unitarian 21, membership (estimated) 2500 ; Episcopal 32, membership 2115 ; New Jerusalem 5, membership 341 ; others 9500 ; total Protestant membership 103,846. There are 42 Roman Catholic churches, with a membership of 40,000. The tendency seems to be to a decrease of the Congregationalists, and a corre sponding increase of the Free Baptists and Methodists. Common school education in the State is widespread. In the number of citizens able to read and write it stands in the very front rank of States. Instruction in the public schools is not under ecclesiastical control, and is free to all between the ages of four and twenty-one, and compulsory upon all between the ages of nine and fifteen years for twelve weeks each year. Every city and town is required to raise and expend annually for schools not less than 80 cents for each inhabitant. The State meets this on its part by distributing, in proportion to the number of children of school age in each town, the income of a permanent school fund ($44,275,791), and by a State tax of 1 mill per dollar of valuation on the property in the State, and a tax of one per cent, on the average annual deposits in savings banks. The average cost of supporting the public schools is $1,240,000 a year. In the larger towns the schools are graded into primary, intermediate, and grammar schools. A system of free high* schools was established in 1878, for which the State contributes a sum equal to that paid by the town, not exceeding $250. The whole sum appropriated in 1881 was $26,000. There are three normal schools, intended for the training of teachers in the common schools. For these tuition is free, and the annual appropriation required is $19,000. The State college of agriculture and mechanic arts may in some respects be considered the culmination of the public school system. A large farm and various workshops are here provided, and every facility afforded at the least possible expense for a good education, chiefly directed to the industrial arts, but still liberal in scope. There are three colleges, with the usual course of study leading to the degrees of bachelor and master of arts : Bowdoin, founded by the old State of Massachusetts in 1794, and since liberally endowed by private benefactions, from which Hawthorne and Longfellow graduated ; Colby University, founded as &quot;Waterville College in 1820, and under the control of the Baptist denomination ; and Bates College, founded in 1863, in the interest of the Free Baptist denomination, with a fitting school and a theological seminary attached. The theological seminary at Bangor, under the care of the Congregationalists, is open to all denominations, and attracts many students from the adjacent provinces of Canada. The medical department of Bowdoin College is known as the medical school of Maine. It has an annual attendance of more than 100. and has graduated 1300. There are various societies which are of a nature to afford instruction. The Maine Historical Society is making interesting investigations, and preserving memorials and records of historical matters, and its pub lications are of much value. The bonded debt of the State is $5,801,900, which matures on Public or before 1889. Deducting the sinking fund of $1,436,367, the debt. actual balance of indebtedness is now (1882) $4,365,533. The local and municipal debt for all purposes, including aid to railroads, is $17,722,109. The total settled area of Maine is 17,900 square miles, of which 6000 have a population of 2 to 6 to the square mile, 3500 have 6 to 18, 5600 have 18 to 45, and 2800 have 43 to 90. Agriculture Agnail- is still the most extensive occupation, engaging 83,000 of the people, ture. There are 64,310 farms, with ], 864,136 acres of tillage. Of these 61,530 farms are occupied by their owners ; 24,640 contain over 100 acres each, and nearly as many have between 50 and 100 acres. The chief farm products are annually: potatoes, 8,000,000 bushels; hay, 1,200,000 tons; butter, 14,103.960 ft; cheese, 1,167,770ft; oats, 2,265,575 bushels ; maize, 960,633 bushels; wheat, 665,714 bushels; buckwheat, 382,701 bushels; barley, 242,185 bushels; rye, 26,398 bushels ; wool, 2,776,404 ft; milk sold, 3,720,783 gallons. The remaining unsettled area is mostly unbroken forest. At Forest present this region only furnishes material for lumbering. The pine tracts, has been cut back to the headwaters of the rivers, and the chief material is spruce and hemlock, with some cedar. The principal shipping port is Bangor on the Penobscot, where the amount sur veyed has been 200,000,000 feet a year. In fisheries the State stands second in the Union. There are Fisherie 12,662 persons directly employed in fisheries, but it is estimated that 48,000 people are dependent chiefly on this business. The sea fish taken are cod, hake, haddock, pollack, herring, mackerel, and holibut. The amount taken is 206,778,693 ft annually. There are establishments for preparing oil from the menhaden, &c., where 168,732 gallons a year are produced. The canning of fish is a considerable industry ; and in the lobster canning business this State has a monopoly. The catch in 1879 was for Maine 14,234,182 ft, and that bought of British fishermen 10,588,578 ft. In the home establishments 1,830,200 cans were put up, and in those worked in the British Provinces on account of Maine owners 2,198,024 cans. A recent but rapidly growing interest is that of sardine canning, chiefly carried on at Eastport. In 1880 there were 1328 persons employed in this industry, with an annual product of 7,550,868 cans and 8365 barrels. The river fish chiefly taken are salmon, shad, alewives, and smelts. Much interest is taken in restocking the lower rivers, especially with salmon, shad, and bass. The Penobscot is the only river on the Atlantic coast ot the United States from which a supply of sea salmon eggs can be obtained for propagation. An association of the United States with the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Con necticut appoints agents for procuring these eggs, which are distributed in proportion to the respective contribution of funds. The great hatchery is at Orland, where also there is one for the eggs of the land-locked salmon ; there is another at Grand Lake Stream, owned by the same association. The black bass and ale- wives have also been distributed in the lower ponds and streams. The other native products are lime, quarried stone, both for Other ii building and for monumental purposes slate, iron, and copper, dustrie* Ice is cat and shipped to various parts of the world, to the amount annually of 350,000 tons, and the value, when ready for transporta tion, of $600,000. Maine was long distinguished for her ship building ; and, though of late years this industry has greatly fallen off, yet in the building of wooden ships the State probably holds her old rank. The shipping owned in Maine is mostly engaged in foreign commerce, or in coasting to and from distant States. There are 12,000 sailors in this service. There are 1022 miles of railroad in Maine. Of manufactories there are 24 cotton-mills, running 696,564 spindles, and employing 11,844 persons, of whom 7010 are women ; and 97 woollen-mills of all kinds, employing 3265 persons, of whom 1160 are women. The other chief indus tries are flouring mills, leather tanneries, boot and shoe making, paper making, and iron working of various kinds. The shores of what is now sometimes called the Gulf of Maine, History whose waters stretch between Cape Sable and Cape Cod, attracted much attention from the early voyagers and explorers, as many glowing accounts remain to testify. The Cabots, under English auspices, visited this region in 1497; Verrazano, representing the French, in 1524 ; Gomez in the name of Spain in 1525, giving his name to Penobscot river and bay. In 1526 the Frenchman Thevet followed ; he states that before that time the French had a fort 30 miles up the river, named Norumbega. The enterprise of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert first reveals a purpose on the part of Englishmen to colonize these shores. Gosnold (1602), Pring (1603), and Weymouth (1605) had made some explorations, but a century had passed and no European power had gained a foot hold on the Atlantic coast north of Florida. But in 1603 Henry IV. of France granted a charter to De Monts, a Protestant gentle-