Rensselaer County 581 



DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY 



The early colonists gave their attention largely to wheat and 

 corn growing and stock raising. 



Before the arrival of the Dutch a portion of the county was 

 devoted to the raising of corn by the Indians, and as late as 1780 

 there were patches or strips within the present limits of Troy that 

 were known :is the " corn grounds of the Indians." Considerable 

 wood, tan bark, and charcoal were shipped from the towns of 

 Grafton and Sand Lake to Troy about the middle of the nineteenth 

 century. Quantities of hay were also shipped to Troy from the 

 town of Brunswick. Liberal crops of corn, oats, wheat, and 

 potatoes were produced in the valleys and on a large part of the 

 uplands. 



Flax was an important crop. As late as 1879 the flax produc- 

 tion of the county was 324,642 pounds of fiber and 9,974 bushels 

 of seed. The soil, however, especially in the eastern part, is best 

 adapted to dairying and grazing, and during the next thirty years 

 more attention was given to those industries. In 1910 the pro- 

 duction of flax had decreased to 400 bushels of seed for the entire 

 state. 



Lansingburg and Troy have been engaged in manufacturing 

 from an early date. The surrounding farm sections soon found 

 dairying and market gardening profitable, and those occupations 

 are still extensively followed. 



General agriculture is pursued throughout the county, dairying 

 predominating, the cities of Troy, Albany, and Rensselaer forming 

 convenient markets for the sale of milk. In the vicinity of Troy 

 and Rensselaer truck gardening is very prominent. There is a 

 small section in the southwestern part in which fruit raising 

 receives considerable attention. According to the census of 1918, 

 the county ranks first in the production of rye. 



The most important manufactures of the county include iron, 

 and collars and shirts (p. 587). 



CLIMATE AND RAINFALL 

 Since climatological records taken within Rensselaer Coanty are 

 not available for a sufficient length of time, reference may be made 

 to the records for Albany County (page 95), where general 

 conditions are very similar. 



