RURAL NEW YORK 



CHAPTER I 



THE PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING OF 

 NEW YORK 



The State of New York forms the connecting link 

 between New England and the remainder of the 

 United States. It is the central one of the north- 

 eastern group of states. It is the only state that 

 touches the open water of both the Atlantic Ocean 

 and the Great Lakes. In position, diversity and vol- 

 ume of resources, agricultural as well as industrial, in 

 transportation facilities and population. New York 

 is truly the Empire State. Its outlook for develop- 

 ment in all these directions justifies the progressive 

 spirit expressed in the motto on the great seal — Ex- 

 celsior! — which may be translated roughly: "We 

 aspire to higher and greater things." 



New York stands at the northern extremity of that 

 broad wrinkled ridge made up of mountains and 

 plateaus popularly known as the Appalachian moun- 

 tain system, that reaches up across the eastern United 

 States from near the Gulf of Mexico. The lowest 

 divide between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the 



1 



