Washington County 759 



constructed. While in process of construction great alarm was 

 felt among farmers that on its completion the business of haul- 

 ing would he destroyed and there would be no sale for horses or 

 oats, but it was later discovered that such fears were groundless. 



The supremacy of the canal in the history of the county drew 

 toward a close in 1848, when the first railroad train ran from 

 Saratoga to Whitehall. Railroad building was checked by the 

 outbreak of the Civil War, but since then a number of roads 

 passing through the county have been completed. 



DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY 



In the northern part of the county, lumbering early received 

 considerable attention. The southern part, being well adapted 

 for various agricultural products-, was devoted to the production 

 of corn, wheat, flax, potatoes, and garden seeds. Flax was grown 

 for family use until thfc War of 1812, at which time the high 

 price of linen induced the farmers of Cambridge to cultivate flax 

 on a commercial scale. It continued to be one of the leading 

 crops of the southern part of the county until about 1880. Twenty 

 years later it had disappeared as a farm crop, and is now replaced 

 by corn, rye, and potatoes. Both flax and potatoes were intro- 

 duced into Washington County from Xew Hampshire and Massa- 

 chusetts by the Scotch-Irish, these people having previously 

 brought them to Xew England from their former homes in the 

 northern part of Ireland. 



The keeping of sheep for wool became important at an early 

 date, and the first carding machine used in the state was erected 

 at Middle Granville in 1808. As England looked with dis- 

 approval on the home manufacture of woolen material, the ma- 

 chine was obtained secretly from England and used for some 

 time in private. The quality of wool was improved by the 

 importation of Merino blood from Spain at about 1810, and 

 wool production soon became the leading industry of the county. 

 In 1845 there were in the county 254,866 sheep, and the wool 

 clip amounted to 579,056 pounds. 



Although the number of sheep has decreased, Washington 

 County still stands first in sheep raising among the counties in 

 the eastern part of the state. The towns of White Creek and 

 Cambridge lead in this industry. 



