NANTUCKET CATTLE SHOW. 427 



In 1865 they had but $5,590 worth of oil, imported by 

 only seven ships ; employed two men in the manufacture of 87 

 casks, and turned out sperm candles to the value of $800, 

 and soap to the amount of $2,000. Of sheep they had 

 2,153, giving 3,623 pounds of wool; horses, 251 ; cows and 

 heifers, 571 ; and 13 bulls, and 60 oxen and steers. Of corn 

 they grew 7,575 bushels ; of potatoes, 4,807 bushels ; tur- 

 nips, carrots, beets and other roots, $3,228 worth, and 

 $26,000 worth of hay. They also sold 10,831 gallons of 

 milk for $2,599.44, or at the rate of twenty-four cents per 

 gallon, and they sold 14,436 pounds of butter for $6,137.48, 

 or at the rate of forty-two cents per pound, while the other 

 parts of the State sold for thirty-five cents, with an occa- 

 sional forty cents per pound. 



In 1875 the ships of Nantucket had sailed, never to re- 

 turn ; the oil had run away, and the candle manufacture was 

 snuffed out, leaving all that splendid business drawn from 

 the ocean depths in outer utter darkness ; henceforth from 

 the bowels of the earth, and not from the head of the sperm 

 whale, are the dark places of the earth to be illumed. 



In that year their sheep were 1,300, yielding 3,533 

 pounds of wool ; their horses and colts numbered 141 ; their 

 milch cows 376, from which they made of butter 22,865 

 pounds for sale ; and 4,120 pounds for home consumption, 

 being only between 71 and 72 pounds to the cow — and the 

 cows averaging each only 400 quarts of milk. This gives to 

 each inhabitant only a little over eight pounds for the year. 

 So that they must also have largely imported from the main 

 land beside, if, as butter-eaters, they equal their brethren in 

 Franklin County, who consume in their families from 12 to 

 20 pounds annually for each individual. Of corn they 

 raised 5,759 bushels; of potatoes, 7,223 bushels; of oats, 

 1,500 bushels; of turnips, beets and other vegetables, 

 $9,200 worth, and cut $35,000 worth of hay. 



I know of nothing in the history of our State which com- 

 pels so sad feelings as the decadence in less than a half cen- 

 tury of this most prosperous flourishing city and island, once 

 teeming with business activity, the home of brave men and 

 fair women, the abode of a profuse, unstinted hospitality; 

 its trade and commerce gone, and so fallen from its high 



