MASSACHUSETTS. 



533 



similar cause. The amount appropriated by 

 the Legislature for the enterprise, including 

 $800,000 granted in 1865, is $3,000,000, and 

 the total expenditures down to the commence- 

 ment of 1866 were $2,484,943. The commis- 

 sioners feel confident that an outlay of about 

 half a million of dollars per annum is all that 

 is now required, and expect ere long greater re- 

 sults from such an expenditure than can at the 

 present time be obtained. Much of the labor 

 and expense has thus far been in the nature of 

 preparation, looking to a period, now very near 

 at hand, when the work will progress in a man- 

 ner entirely satisfactory to the people of the 

 Commonwealth. The commissioners give sta- 

 tistics of transportation between the East and 

 West, to show the necessity for the completion 

 of the tunnel and its road. The practicability 

 of the tunnel having been doubted by many 

 persons, a survey for a railroad around and 

 over the Hoosac Mountain has been completed, 

 and estimates made, by which it is computed 

 that, instead of tunnelling the mountain, the 

 State may relinquish the tunnel to the Troy 

 and Greenfield Company, and proceed to build 

 the new road for a much less amount of money 

 than has already been sunk in the bore. It is 

 said that the road over the mountain could be 

 completed within a year. The plan contem- 

 plates going nearly to the top of the mountain, 

 and then by switches making a detour of five 

 miles. 



The manufacture of paper is carried on to a 

 greater extent in Massachusetts than in any 

 other State. The following table shows the 

 operations of her paper-mills for the year end- 

 ing May 1, 1865 : 



Number of mills 



Tons of stock consumed , 



Value of do. 



Tons of printing paper made . 

 Value of do. 



Tons of wrapping paper made . 

 Value of do. 



77 



84,165 



, $5.381,671 



5,077 



,$1,922,526 

 4,202 

 . $1,157,190 



Beams of writing paper made 603,989 



Value of do. $2,531,004 



Tons of other paper made 8,221 



Valueof do. $3,897,501 



Capital invested $3.875,300 



Males employed 1,831 



Females employed 1,923 



The total value of the paper manufactured 

 during the year was $9,008,521.. 



With a view of repeopling the waters of the 

 Connecticut and Merrimac Kivers with salmon 

 the taking of which was formerly a lucrative 

 branch of industry, a commission was appointed 

 in 1865 to investigate the matter of obstruc- 

 tions to the passage of fish up those rivers by 

 the construction of dams and other artificial 

 obstacles. The commissioners, in their report 

 rendered at the close of the year, arrive at the 

 conclusion that in order to restock the Connec- 

 ticut and Merrimac with fish,' fishways must 

 be built, the pollution of the water prevented, 

 salmon must be bred at the head of the rivers 

 in New Hampshire, and the use of weirs and 

 nets be forbidden in Connecticut. They think 

 that the fishways would always more or less 



seriously injure manufacturers. Under these 

 conditions a moderate supply might reasonably 

 be anticipated, but nothing like the primitive 

 abundance. 



Gov. Andrew having, in his inaugural ad- 

 dress of 1865, called the attention of the Legis- 

 lature to the excess of females over males in 

 Massachusetts, amounting, according to the 

 census of 1860, to 37,517, a special committee 

 was appointed to consider that part of the ad- 

 dress relating to the emigration of young women 

 to the West. The report of the committee 

 shows that there is abundance of occupation in 

 the State for all females willing and having the 

 capacity to work, and that during 1864 and the 

 early part of 1865, the demand for female labor 

 in the large manufacturing towns was always 

 in advance of the supply, notwithstanding tho 

 introduction of large numbers of young women 

 into the country from Europe. The committee 

 accordingly discouraged any project for sending 

 the surplus female population to such Western 

 States as have an excess of males. 



The registration report, showing the vital 

 statistics of Massachusetts for the year 1863, 

 was laid before the Legislature of 1865. The 

 general statistics for 1863 were 30,314 chil- 

 dren born alive, of whom 15,692 were males 

 and 14,579 females ; 10,873 couples married, 

 and 27,751 persons died. Compared with the 

 year 1862, the number of births was less by 

 1,961, and less than in 1861 by 5,131 ; the num- 

 ber of couples married was less by 141, and the 

 number of deaths greater by 4,777, or 3,666 

 greater than in 1861. Compared with the an- 

 nual average for the five preceding years, there 

 was a decrease of 4,423 births, or 5,737 less 

 than in 1860 ; a diminution of 405 marriages, 

 or 1,529 less than in 1860, and an increase of 

 5,552 deaths. The natural increase to the pop- 

 ulation of the State, that is, the excess of births 

 over deaths, was, therefore, 2,563, which is 

 6,738 less than in 1862, and 10,420 less than in 

 the year 1861. Compared with the returns in 

 1860, before the breaking out of the war, there 

 were 5,737 fewer births, 1,531 marriages, and 

 4,683 more deaths. Then the natural increase 

 of population, the excess of births over deaths, 

 was 12,983, and in 1863 it was only 2,563, with 

 a probable increase of at least 25,000 inhab- 

 itants. It will be thus seen that the ordinary 

 relation of births, marriages, and deaths, had 

 become altogether deranged during those three 

 years, in consequence, doubtless, of war influ- 

 ences. The number of deaths in the State in 

 1863 largely exceeded that of any previous 

 year, as is shown in the following table : 



1863. 



Deaths 27,751 



Stillborn 903 



1862. 



22,092 



974 



1861. 

 24,085 

 1,017 



I860. 1859. 



28,063 20,976 

 1,062 789 



This increase was of course owing to the war. 

 The number of male largely exceeds the num- 

 ber of female deaths. In 1863 it was 109 males 

 to 100 females, which is a very unusual excess 

 for any country. Previous to 1860 the proper- 

 portion had been about 100 males to 101 fe- 



