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STRAFFORD.    383

1872, was $ 24,253,032 ; the true value, fas assessed on two thirds
of the actual value) was $ 36,379,548. The total State, county,
town and school tax assessed was $421,329.28, or seventeen mills
on the dollar—the true per cent., eleven mills and one half.

Churches. Whole number of churches, 113, edifices, 112, seating
capacity, 33,910, (or nearly 72 per cent, of all the inhabitants,)
church value, $ 564,000.

Schools. Total number schools, 264, number graded schools, 52 ;
number boys, 5,lb6, girls, 4,792 ; average attendance, 7,187 or 72
per cent; average length of schools for the year, twenty-five and
one half weeks ; value of school houses and lots, $ 315,185 ; annual
amount appropriated for school purposes, $ 86,922.34, averaging
to each scholar, $ 8.27.

Railroads. The railroad facilities in this county are very good,
especially in the lower section. There are hut six or seven towns
in the county, but a railroad passes through some portions of it.
The Manchester and Lawrence extends from Londonderry to Me-
thuen, Massachusetts; Concord and Portsmouth, from Auburn to
Portsmouth ; Boston and Maine, from Plaistow to Durham in
Strafford County; Eastern, from Seabrook to Kittery, Maine; Ports-
mouth and Dover, from Portsmouth to Piscataqua bridge; The
Nashua and Rochester, from Windham to Lee. The whole length
of railroads in the county, is about 130 miles.

Miscellaneous. Total population, 47,297—male, 22,853, female,
24,440; foreign, 2,819; colored, in 1860, 97, 1870, 153; whole
number paupers—native, white, 262, black, 4, foreign, 29 ; expenses
for the year, $ 47,000 ; criminals convicted during the year—white,
25, foreign, 3. Whole number persons died, 659 ;—males, 315, fe-
males, 344; number died over 80 years 83, or 12J per cent.; num-
ber died with lung disease 149, or 22| per cent.

!    STRAFFORD.

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This is the second county in the State in point of manufactures.
The surface is generally level, having no mountains of any magni-
tude, the Blue Hills in Strafford having the highest altitude, or per-
haps Frost Mountain, in Farmington, is of about the same elevation.
Dover is the shire town.

Rivers and Bays. Salmon Falls River, on its north-eastern border,
Cocheco, Lamprey and Isinglass rivers, are the principal streams,
and, in their passages, furnish some valuable water power. Great