246 . RURAL NEW YORK 



Therefore, they touch the whole people and in a study 

 of market facilities, account may first be taken of the 

 adjacent population to be served. In this respect, 

 New York farmers stand in a peculiar, in fact in a 

 specially advantageous, position. They are close to 

 the largest population of any similar area on the 

 western hemisphere. 



The states and provinces touching New York and 

 including its own area have an aggregate population 

 of thirty million. A circle described around Syra- 

 cuse as a center and with a radius of five hundred 

 miles would include not only this population but 

 would add most of tliat of the states of Ohio, West 

 Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Is- 

 land, New Hampshire and Maine, with a total popu- 

 lation of about fifty million or nearly one-half of that 

 on the North American continent. Syracuse has 

 been aptly termed the hub city, and New York is 

 truly a hub State to the population and industry of 

 the northeast country. Of this population, the 

 largest proportion of any division of the continent is 

 engaged in other than agricultural pursuits. The 

 region is essentially an urban one. It also has the 

 largest proportion of the population engaged in man- 

 ufacturing of any division. Adjacent on the south 

 is the great mining region of Pennsylvania. Within 

 this eastern district there are twenty cities with a 

 population of one hundred thousand or more. All 

 these facts go to make up the consuming capacity of 

 that division of the country for the things of the farm. 

 Of this population, approximately 70 per cent is 



