Part 22

_Transportation and Commerce._--The south-western part of the state, including the manufacturing, the quarrying, and much of the older agricultural district, early had fairly satisfactory means of transportation either by water or by rail; for the coast has many excellent harbours, the Kennebec river is navigable for coast vessels to Augusta, the Penobscot to Bangor, and railway service was soon supplied for the villages of the south-west, but it was not until the last decade of the 19th century that the forests, the farming lands, and the summer resorts of Aroostook county were reached by a railway, the Bangor & Aroostook. The first railway in the state, from Bangor to Old Town, was completed in 1836, and the state's railway mileage increased from 12 m. in that year to 245 m. in 1850, to 1377.47 m. in 1890, and to 2210.79 in January 1909. The principal railway systems are the Maine Central, which enters every county but one, the Boston & Maine, the Bangor & Aroostook, the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific. Lines of steamboats ply regularly between the largest cities of the state and Boston, between Portland and New York, and between Portland and several Canadian ports.

The foreign trade, especially that with the West Indies and with Great Britain, decreased after 1875, and yet much trade from the West that goes to Montreal during the warmer months passes through Portland during the winter season. The chief exports to foreign countries are textile fabrics, Indian corn, meat, dairy products, apples, paraffin, boards and shooks; the chief imports from foreign countries are sugar, molasses and wool. Fish, canned goods, potatoes, granite, lime, paper, and boots and shoes are also exported to foreign countries to some extent, but they are shipped in larger quantities to other states of the Union, from which Maine receives in return cotton, coal, iron, oil, &c. The ports of entry in Maine are Bangor, Bath, Belfast, Castine, Eastport, Ellsworth, Houlton, Kennebunk, Machias, Portland, Wiscasset and York.

_Population._--The population in 1880 was 648,936; in 1890, 661,086; in 1900, 694,466; and in 1910, 742,371.[4] From 1880 to 1900 there was an increase of only 7%, a percentage which was exceeded in every other state in the Union except Nevada and Vermont. Of the total population of 1900, 599,291, or 86.3%, were native whites, 93,330 were foreign-born, 1,319 were negroes, 798 were Indians, 119 were Chinese, and 4 were Japanese. Of the inhabitants born in the United States, 588,211, or 97.8%, were natives of New England and 560,506 were natives of Maine, and of the foreign-born 67,077, or 71.8%, were natives of Canada (36,169 English and 30,908 French), and 10,159, or 10.8%, were natives of Ireland. Of the total population, 199,734 were of foreign parentage--i.e. either one or both parents were foreign-born--and 89,857 were of Canadian parentage, both on the father's and on the mother's side (41,355 English and 48,502 French). The French-speaking inhabitants probably number considerably more than 50,000. They are of two quite distinct classes. One, numbering about 15,000, includes those who became citizens by the establishment of the northern boundary in 1842 and their descendants. They are largely of Acadian stock. The state has established among them a well-appointed training school for teachers, conducted in the English language, the graduates of which render excellent service in the common schools. The other class is of French-Canadian immigrants, who find profitable employment in the manufacturing centres. The colony of Swedes established by the state near its north-eastern border in 1870 has proved in every way successful. The Indians are remnants of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tri