GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE STATE.    403

Agriculture. As we have said, much of the territory of New-
Hampshire is unfit for cultivation, being broken in the northern
section by lofty mountains, while in the southern portion a large
majority of the inhabitants are engaged in manufacturing.

The best -farming district of the State, or where more of the peo-
ple are engaged in agriculture than all the other professions, is in
the Connecticut River valley, or the towns bordering on that river,
being twenty-five in number, and extending from Hinsdale, on
Massachusetts line, to Clarksville in Coos County. Six of these
towns, respectively, do a manufacturing business of over $ 350,000,
annually, two of them amounting to over $ 1,200,000 each; but
the main business is agriculture, through this valley. In 1870 these
twenty-five towns contained a population of 40,403 inhabitants,
and the area of improved land, including pastures, was 375,820
acres. The intervals and meadows are very rich and productive,
but in many places are narrow, and the widest points do not ex-
tend more than one mile from the river to the hills, which general-
ly rise quite abrupt, making the finest pastures in the country.
The first fifteen towns, from Massachusetts up as far as Bath, pro-
duce large crops of eorn, but the towns above that point, are too
far north to make it a lucrative business. These fifteen towns an-
nually produce over 247,000 bushels of corn, or more than one-
fifth of the corn produced in the State. The hill pastures are ex-
cellent for sheep, and this valley contains two-fifths of all the sheep
grown in the State, viz. 94,923, the whole number being 248,760.
The total value of all kinds of agricultural products annually
raised, is $3,759,203, or $92.90 to each inhabitant of the valley.
It must be remembered, although this is one of the best farming
districts in the State or country, still there is a large amount of
manufacturing done, but less in proportion than the rest of the
State. Many men who are rated as farmers do considerable me-
chanical work during the year. The whole amount paid for me-
chanical labor, annually, is $ 1,327,000, or about $ 32.84 to each
person in the district. The number of persons engaged in profess-
ional services, trade, and transportation, is 2,500, earning $ 1,500,
000 annually, or $ 37.00 to each person. The total amount annu-
ally received for labor, including farm productions, is $ 6,581,203,
or $ 162.79 to every man, woman and child in the valley, on the
New-Hampshire side of the river.

Probably there are but few districts of this area of territory,