NEW YORK 



4196 



NEW YORK 



the low, narrow valley of the Mohawk Riv. r. 

 The Hudson-Mohawk Valley, which forms tln> 

 only great break in the Appalachian r-ysu m. 

 offers the best way to the interior of the conti- 

 nent. It constituted the only natural trade 

 route between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes 

 even before the building of the Erie Canal. 



Kii^rs. All parts of the state are well sup- 

 plied with rivers, which find their way into the 

 Atlantic Ocean by five different drainage basins. 

 These navigable waters and the open valleys 

 which lead out in all directions have been 

 among the main factors which have contributed 

 to give New York its leading commercial posi- 

 tion. Foremost among them are the Hudson 

 and the Mohawk. The Hudson River, which 

 rises in the Adirondacks, is the most important 

 river wholly within the state, and is navigable 

 for large boats for a distance of over 150 miles. 

 Its chief affluent is the Mohawk, which waters 

 the central part of the state. Just before it 

 enters the Hudson near Cohoes it forms a mag- 

 nificent waterfall. 



The rivers in the northern part of the state 

 flow into lakes Erie and Ontario and are drained 

 through the Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Among these rivers are the Genesee, 

 which in a course of about 100 miles completely 

 traverses the state from south to north; and 

 the Oswego, whose affluent, the Seneca, gathers 

 the waters of the Finger lakes. The southern 

 part is drained by the Delaware, the Susque- 

 hanna and the Allegheny. 



Waterfalls. Many of these rivers flow 

 through wide and fertile valleys during the 

 greater part of their course, but at some points 

 pass through deep gorges and form nota- 

 ble waterfalls. Besides their scenic beauty 

 these falls are sources of water power, a fact 

 that has caused the establishment of large in- 

 dustrial plants in their neighborhood. Chief 

 among them are Niagara Falls (see NIAGARA 

 FALLS AND RIVER), the greatest natural gen- 

 erator of power that has yet been harnessed 

 for the service of man. Other falls are the 

 Genesee Falls at Portage and Rochester; the 

 Taughannock Falls, near Cayuga Lake, the 

 highest in the state, with a fall of 230 feet ; the 

 Trenton Falls, formed by the West Canada 

 Creek, which in a course of two miles has a 

 descent of 310 feet; the Glens Falls, formed 

 by the Hudson, and the falls of the Mohawk, 

 near Cohoes. 



Lakes. New York contains a large number of 

 lakes, either wholly or partly within its bounda- 

 ries. Noted for its picturesque scenery is 



Lake George, about forty miles long, which 

 discharges its waters into Lake Champlain, half 

 of which belongs to New York. In the plateau 

 region directly south of Lake Ontario there is 

 a group of long, narrow, navigable lakes, nearly 

 parallel to each other, with their greatest length 

 extending from north to south. These are 

 known as the Finger Lakes. The most impor- 

 tant of this group are Cayuga and Seneca, each 

 nearly forty miles long and from two to three 

 miles wide ; Canandaigua, Onondaga and Keuka. 

 Northeast of these is Lake Oneida. In the ex- 

 treme southwestern part of the state is Lake 

 Chautauqua, famous as a summer resort, on 

 the shores of which is situated the home of 

 the Chautauqua Institution. See CHAUTAUQUA, 

 subhead Chautauqua Institution. 



Climate. As is to be expected in a state 

 which possesses such a diversity of surface, the 

 climate of New York shows great variation. 

 It has a continental type of climate character- 

 ized by extremes of heat and cold and subject 

 to sudden changes of temperature (see CLI- 

 MATE). It is much milder in the neighborhood 

 of the lakes, which tend to moderate the heat 

 of summer and the cold of winter and to pre- 

 vent the late frosts of spring and the early 

 frosts of fall, from which so many parts of the 

 state suffer. The summer maximum is 100 

 Fahrenheit; the winter minimum is zero on 

 the sea border and ranges from 20 to 40 be- 

 low zero in the interior. The rainfall is abun- 

 dant but not excessive, the average being about 

 forty-one inches a year. The snowfall is heavy 

 in nearly all parts of the state. 



Agriculture. New York is still an important 

 agricultural state, although it has lost the first 

 place which it occupied for so many years. As 

 regards the value of its agricultural products it 

 ranked eighth among the states of the Union 

 in 1910. Nearly three-fourths of the total land 

 area, which is 30,498,560 acres, is occupied by 

 farms, and of this amount two-thirds is im- 

 proved land. The average size of a farm is 

 102.2 acres, and the average value of an acre 

 is $32.13. About four-fifths of the farms are 

 operated by owners or their managers, and 

 only one-fifth by tenants. The chief crop, both 

 as regards acreage under cultivation and value 

 of product, is hay. In hay production New 

 York occupies the first place among the states, 

 followed by Iowa and Pennsylvania. The area 

 given to hay is about 4,500,000 acres, and the 

 production amounts to about 5,850,000 tons a 

 year, with a total value of approximately 

 $82,000,000. 



