MANUFACTURES. Mancfaettnrmg is of much importance, 74,800 wage-earners, or 10.8 per cent. of the population, being engaged in this line in 1900. The percentage of the population thus occupied has increased continuously in the last vessels of the nation. At Bath. the principal shipbuilding centre, the construction of steel vessels has attained considerable importance. The leather industry also dates from an early period. It was one of the State's leading in dustries between the years 1801 and 1870. The bark of the hemlock was used in tanning, and the industry is declining as the supply of this bark becomes scarcer. Other noteworthy industries are represented by the foundries and machine shops aml printing and publishing houses. The following table gives a comparison of the chief industries for the years indicated: half century. It was only 4.8 in 1850. The total value of the product in 1900 was $127,361,000. The development of the manufacturing in dustry is due to the extensive water power afforded by the numerous rivers of the State and also to the excellent commercial advan tages offered by the harbors, and. in later years, by the railways. The factories are lo
cated, almost without exception, along the rivers or on the coast, and most of them are run by water power. The manufacture of textiles —cotton and woolen goods—leads in impor tance. Both cotton and woolen mills were in operation during the early years of the nine teenth century. The cotton mills of to-day are all west of the Kennebec River. Lewiston is the chief centre. The woolen mills are more widely distributed, hut also derive their power from the streams. The manufactures of cotton show a slight decrease in value during the decade 1890-1900. This is probably due in part to the increasing competition of the Southern States.
Shipbuilding formerly dependeil upon the for ests for its supplies, hut with the increased use of steel in vessel construction, the shipbuilding in dustry of Maine has declined. The industry is one of the oldest in the State. a vessel having been built as early as 1008. For a long time Maine held first rank in the industry, and indeed constructed more than half of all the sea-going