12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



very heart of the State, — and then passing on in its win ling way, 

 making a sea-coast of somewhere between two and three thousand 

 miles on the border of the State of Maine. We have in this sea- 

 coast immense opportunities. Our bays are sufficient to float all 

 the navies and all the commerce of the world. It gives us facili- 

 ties for ship-building, so far as the mere opportunities of getting 

 to the ocean are concerned, that cannot be rivalled by any other 

 State in the Union. For the purpose of the fisheries, which is a 

 very important interest with us and with other parts of New Eng- 

 land, it certainly has advantages in many respects superior to any 

 others. We have in what has been denominated our "rock-bound 

 coast," we have in our very granite, where nothing can be made 

 to grow, we have upon our hills and upon our shores, mines of 

 immense wealth. I have made some inquiry into this matter, and 

 as near as 1 can learn, within the last year, we have dug out of 

 those quarries of granite about two and a half millions of dollars ; 

 and this business is increasing rapidly. We are sending it to 

 almost all parts of the country, clear round to New Orleans and 

 up the Mississippi river as far as St. Louis. The Superintendent 

 told me a short time since that he was hoping they would be able 

 to furnish the stone for the new public buildings to be built in 

 Chicago, in place of those that have been burned down. Such is 

 the reputation; of Maine granite abroad, that he thought the 

 persons having control of the matter would conclude that they 

 could afford to transport it all the way from Maine to Chicago, 

 rather than to use stone of an inferior quality, that coidd be ob- 

 tained nearer home. Something like three thousand men are now 

 engaged in this branch of industry in this State. 



The very coldness of our climate, which in the opinion of so 

 many is objectionable, produces for us a large revenue, in the ice 

 which is accumulated in our rivers and lakes. On the Kennebec 

 river between Gardiner and Richmond, a very short space com- 

 paratively, — I cannot tell just how long, — the crop of ice in 1869, 

 '70, amounted to about a million dollars. Quite a large income ; 

 nothing destroyed, nothing lost ; just so much clear gain from the 

 labor of our people. 



Then we have other sources of profit. Our slate quarries are 

 becoming of great consequence. They are being opened now to 

 an extent which shows that the supply is inexhaustible, and they 

 are being worked to great advantage. Our* railroads are being 



