PRODUCTS OF FRANKLIN CO. 11 



necticut River, have made small losses of about 450 in all. 

 Of the nine towns which gained, all have railways traversing 

 them: the others had not in 1875, except Whately and 

 Northfield. 



All which have gained have unquestionably done so on a 

 manufacturing population, with the exception of Sunderland, 

 which without a railway, or any special manufacturing inter- 

 est, has gained 194. On the other hand, the only two manu- 

 facturing town's which have lost are Coleraine and Conway, 

 which are and have been from four to six miles from railway 

 communication. 



Heath and New Salem have less than half the population 

 they had fifty years ago and more, the latter town being, in 

 1810 and 1820, the largest in the county, with over 2,100 

 inhabitants, now having less than 1,000. 



The populations of Bernardston and of Charlemont have 

 neither of them varied a hundred in any census for half a 

 century. 



The changes in the productions of the county have been 

 almost as great and varied as its population. For years it 

 was famous for the fat cattle, sheep, and hogs which went to 

 Brighton, our only market : in those days, instead of horses, 

 we used oxen, and fattened them, feeding with an unre- 

 stricted hand the yellow corn from hundreds of acres now 

 sacrificed to the seductive tobacco. Nor has the sceptre 

 altogether departed from our hands, seeing that — although 

 we have within our limits more unimprovable land than any 

 other county, that we are the fourth in acreage, and the fifth 

 in amount of cultivated land — we send more fat early lambs 

 to market than any other county. We are exceeded in 

 pounds of beef and in pounds of butter only by the great 

 county of Worcester. Only two counties send more pork, 

 and only one as much fatted mutton ; and we grow more 

 wheat than all the rest of the State of Massachusetts. The 

 extension of long lines of railways, bringing from the Far 

 West cattle, sheep, and swine, and even corn, almost as 

 cheaply as we can raise it, has greatly changed our condition. 

 These changes will be noticed by a comparison of the returns 

 of domestic animals and crops, from the Federal census of 

 1840 and the State returns of 1875. 



