12 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



From Hancock Barracks. Iloultoii, latitude forty-six degrees seven 

 minutes, longitude sixtj'-seven degrees fortj-nine minutes, one hun- 

 dred and eighty miles from Bay of Fundy, in a direct Ime one 

 hundred and fifty-six miles from the ocean, and elevated six hundred 

 and twenty feet above it : 



"This stiitron surpasses most others in its freedom from sickness. Cold as 

 the winter is, and dauiji as tiie autumn and spring are rendered by the fre- 

 quent rains, persons win) have suffered from weali cheat find tlieir complaints 

 niucii mitigated by a residence hero. Consumption is rarely seen among the 

 inhabitants of tiie town; and many persons who were predisposed to that 

 disease have continued in good liealth, free from cough, and have had their 

 constitutions invigorated and improved." 



In the report from Fort Kent are mentioned numerous facts going 

 to show both the longevity of individuals, and the rapid natural 

 increase of population. For instance, six families living -within the 

 space of a mile had one hundred and six children in all. Twelve 

 other families had ninety-three children, in an aggregate married 

 life of one hundred and sixty-two years, averaging a birth every 

 twenty months in each family. One settler had nineteen children 

 in eighteen years; another at the age of fifty-nine had twenty; 

 another had twenty-six, the mother being fifty-three years old. 

 Many other facts are cited, showing that whatever the cold of winter 

 or other peculiarities of clinuate, there is nothing to preclude the 

 highest conditions of health and longevity. 



The growing season, it is true, is shorter than elsewhere, but the 

 rapidity of growth when once begun, is unparalleled in other parts 

 of New England. Of this, I cannot state from observation, making 

 as I did, my visit at mid-summer, but the uniform testimony of 

 settlers on this point, and the progress actually made towards matu- 

 rity which I witnessed, was fully satisfactory. 



The snow falls early, sometimes as soon as the end of October, 

 and before much frost (-sometimes none) is in the ground. There it 

 remains, steadily covering the soil until spring opens, a warm blanket 

 two to four feet deep, with no alternations of freezing and thawing. 

 When it goes off, the transition fjom winter to summer is almost 

 instantaneous, and the soil may be worked at o?icc. Being thus 

 blanketed through the winter and porous enough as before remarked 

 to allow superfluous moisture rea<lily to p.iss downwards, no time is 



