Boston is a center of both trade and man ufacture. Boston Basin is a low plain fairly dotted with manufacturing cities (Fig. 221) whose sea trade goes through Boston harbor. Boston has a famous public library, and many other interesting buildings. It is also a great educational center with many col leges near it.
244. Manufacturing in Maine, New Bruns wick, and Nova Scotia.—There is not so much manufacturing in Maine as there is in southern New England, and there is less in the Canadian part of this district than in Maine. Yet the Canadian district has one great advantage over the American part— there is coal near Sydney in Nova Scotia. There is also iron ore a short distance away in Newfoundland, and now iron manufac ture is rapidly increasing in Nova Scotia. Wood pulp for paper is the most impor tant manufacture of the Canadian part of this region. There are also many small woolen and cotton mills there.
Nova Scotia has sometimes been called "the land that was passed by." Like New England and New Brunswick, it has some water power, but it is separated from the rest of Canada by so long a journey that the products of its factories have not had as good a. chance to reach their home market as have those of the factories of New Eng land. Then, too, the Canadian market, with • less than ten million people, is much smaller than the American market with over a hundred million people.
There are some cotton and woolen mills in southwestern Maine, but the chief indus tries of this state are lumbering and the manufacture of wood pulp. The raw mate rials come from the forest which covers most of the state.
245. Milk for the cities.—In the New Eng land-Canadian Maritime District, agriculture is much less important than manufacturing, partly because there is so much manufac turing, and partly because so much of the land is not suitable for plowing. Milk for the factory towns is the chief thing sold by the New England farmer. Hay to feed the cows covers more ground than all other crops. Another reason why hay is grown is that much of the land is too stony to be easily plowed, yet if the surface stones are picked up, the mowing machine can cut hay, and the crop costs but little.
246. Vegetable growing.—Market gardens are important because every city needs fresh vegetables. Many of the new immi grants who were farmers in their old homes in Europe are tending market gardens near New England cities.
247. Agricultural centers. — Agricultural centers are scattered throughout this region, but, as in manufacturing, each center has its own specialty.
(1) Sugar corn.—In southern Maine are many neighborhoods where every farmer has a field of sugar corn. The summers are too short and too cool for corn to ripen fully, but while it is still green its sweet ears are made into the famous Maine canned corn that is sold in grocery stores in many states. The cornstalks and husks are chopped up and put into the silo, to feed the dairy cows in winter.
(2) Tobacco.—Much tobacco is grown on some of the level parts of the Connecticut Valley. To make growing conditions just right, a tent of cotton netting or very thin cloth stretched on posts and boards is put over the whole tobacco field. This is ex pensive, but it pays, because tobacco thus grown is of unusually fine quality.
(3) Apples.—In western Nova Scotia is a long, narrow valley called Annapolis Valley. It is famous in England and Scotland for the excellent apples that it produces. In this valley, that extends for miles and miles, nearly every farmer has a big apple orchard, and in some years as many as a million barrels of apples are sold.
(4) Potatoes.—On Prince Edward Island the people grow more potatoes to a family than at any other place in America. The crop is just suited to the sandy soil,and to the cool climate made by the cold waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
(5) Fox farms.—In Prince Edward Island is one of the new industries of the world— fox farming. (Sec. 318.) (6) The Cape Cod cranberries are in the Coastal Plain. (Sec. 219.) 248. The vacationist.—The healthful cli mate and the pleasure to be found beside the sea and in the woods and hills, tempt thou sands of city people to this region to spend their vacations in farmhouses, cottages, camps, and hotels. Taking care of these strangers may almost be considered as one of the industries of the region.