The textile industries, which are to a great extent localised in New England, are the most important of all its manufactures. In 1905, practically half the capital invested in works of this description in the United States was invested in the region under consideration, which gave employment to 42 per cent. of the workmen engaged in such pursuits. The manufacture of cotton goods takes first place in this group, and New England possesses about 60 per cent. of the spindles of the whole country, Massachusetts having three fifths of the number and Rhode Island one-seventh. Of the cotton towns, the most important is Fall River, situated on the east of Narragansett Bay, where it is entered by a small stream which formerly provided the necessary power. Lawrence, Lowell, and Manchester make use of the waters of the Merrimac to drive some of their mills. Providence, at the head of Narragansett Bay and on Providence River, is the centre of the industry in Rhode Island. Notwithstanding the recent great development of cotton manu factures in the Southern States, the country to the east of the Hudson still produces more than 50 per cent. of the total output. There has, however, been a great decrease in the production of medium counts, and an even greater increase in that of finer counts, and this tendency towards the manufacture of finer counts is general throughout the States.
New England produces about 60 per cent. of the woollen manu factures of the United States, Massachusetts again being the leading state, Rhode Island second, and Connecticut third. This industry, is somewhat more widely distributed throughout southern New England than cotton, as in earlier times it was pursued to some extent in every farming district where there was a sufficient water supply. At present, therefore, it is carried on in a large number of towns, but Lawrence and Providence are the most important. The pre-eminence of New England is especially marked in the manufacture of those classes of goods known as " woollens " and " worsteds," two-thirds of the national output of each being produced there. Of carpets, it produces only about one-fifth of those made in the country. Boston is the chief wool market of the United States. Clothing wools are imported from Australasia and
the Argentine, combing wools from the British Isles, and carpet wools, which form the bulk of the imports (brought mainly to Philadelphia and New York), from China and Asia Minor.
This group of states also ranks first in the manufacture of boots and shoes, producing more than one-half of those made in the country. The early tanners and shoemakers settled here, as grazing was an important pursuit, and large quantities of oak and hemlock could also be obtained for tanning. In the manufacture of leather New England has failed to retain its supremacy, but boots and shoes are still made by machinery where they were so long made by hand. As steam-power had been introduced before the change in manufacturing methods, the location of towns engaged in this industry is not determined by the proximity of water-power ; and Brockton, Lynn, and Haverhill are situated on railways within easy reach of Boston, the market both for the leather and the manufactured product.
Though New England now produces little ore, the momentum which the iron industry acquired there in colonial times has enabled it to retain a leading place in the manufacture of special kinds of iron goods. Connecticut makes large quantities of brassware, chiefly at the town of Waterbury ; and ammunition works, which use brass to a considerable extent, are localised in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Textile machinery, as might be expected, is made in these states and in Rhode Island ; and cutlery and hard ware of all kinds are produced in the Connecticut valley and in the western parts of the state of that name.
As a result of the proximity of suitable timber, especially in the northern part of the region, the facilities for obtaining water-power, and the plentiful supplies of pure water, the manufacture of wood pulp and paper takes a high place in this group of states, which accounts for nearly 40 per cent. of the total output. Massachusetts and Maine are the leading paper states in New England, and the first of these produces about two-thirds of the fine paper made in the United States.