farming tools were fashioned by his hand. If a bolt were needed, the blacksmith selected a suitable rod and from it shaped the bolt. He also made the horseshoes and the nails with which he fastened them on, and many of the nails. used by the carpenters were also the product of his craft.

When it became cheaper to buy linen than to manufacture it, the growing of flax was abandoned; as cloth-weaving factories multiplied, gradually the work of the spinningwheel and hand-loom became lost arts; when wood became more valuable than its ashes, the manufacture of pot and pearl ash was discontinued; as the hemlock forests thinned upon the hillsides, the numerous tanneries fell into disuse; and when, on the opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825, large quantities of wheat were brought into the East from the fertile plains of the West, it was no longer profitable for Vermont farmers to raise it, and thereafter that crop was greatly diminished. The production of wool continued to be a most important industry throughout the period, both for home use and for export. From statistics of the year 1840 we find that two of the staple products of early Vermont could no longer be called such. They were wheat and pot and pearl ash. Quarrying, which during this era began to assume some prominence as an industry, will be considered under a separate head.

The Invention of the Square.-Not long after the close of the War of 1812, Silas Hawes, a blacksmith living in South Shaftsbury, came into the possession of some old steel saws and conceived the idea of making from them rules or squares, such as are now used by carpenters to measure and square work by. Making a few by hand, he found he could readily sell them for six or seven dollars apiece; for carpenters everywhere were eager to buy them. Encour

aged by their ready sale, he obtained a patent, and in 1817 established a manufactory. It was not long before the steel squares of Silas Hawes had made him famous throughout the country. A large and prosperous business was thus built up, which exists to this day, and now goes by the name of the Eagle Square Company.

Other Permanent Institutions. After the establishment of the Eagle Square Company, other permanent institutions came into existence, prominent among which were the following: The Bank of Burlington and the Bank of Windsor, in 1818; the Vermont Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Montpelier, in 1828; the Fairbanks Scale Works at St. Johnsbury, in 1830; the Tuttle Company, publishers, at Rutland, in 1832: the Brattleboro Retreat for the Insane at Brattleboro, in 1836; and the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, in 1850.

Vermont's Mineral Wealth.-The enormous mineral wealth of the State lay for years hidden and but little worked. There was marble in the western portion of the State; granite, in the central and eastern; and slate, in Washington County and along the western border of Rutland County, besides soapstone, lime, and kaolin in various places.

Metals. Although a variety of metals have been found in the State, few of them have been mined to any great extent. Since its discovery in 1809, copperas has been manufactured in considerable quantities in Strafford; and copper, discovered in 1820, was mined in large quantities in both Corinth and Vershire.

Marble; Granite.-Black marble was worked on Isle La Motte before the Revolution. At the opening of this period mills for sawing marble were in operation in several

places in the State, among them Middlebury, Manchester, and Swanton. After the opening of the Champlain Canal, Swanton carried on quite an extensive trade with New York in hearths, mantels, and gravestones, sawed out of the variegated marble of that vicinity and of black marble

from Isle La Motte. But no quarries were opened previous to the year 1840 when William F. Barnes opened one in West Rutland. The marble industry in this section grew slowly at first, partly because of the difficulty of transportation. The nearest shipping point was at Whitehall, twenty-five miles distant, and all the marble had to be

hauled there by horses or oxen, as there were no railroads in those days. Besides this, people doubted the durability of the marble; but sixty years and more of exposure has proved it to excel in quality that of any foreign country. After the building of the railroad, the marble business of Rutland began to assume greater proportions.

Granite was discovered and worked to some extent nearly

as early as marble, but the industry was of slow growth.

Slate. Slabs of slate were used by the pioneers for tombstones, which, with their crude lettering and strange epitaphs, may still be seen in many old graveyards. No quarries, however, were opened till 1839, when one was opened at Fair Haven by Colonel Alanson Allen. In 1845 he began the manufacture of school slates, using a new and

original way of polishing the slates. When the slates had been cut the proper size, they were rubbed to the right thickness with sand and water. The sand marks were then

View in a slate quarry in western Vermont.

removed with a sharp knife and the slates rubbed smooth with putty. That very year German slates came upon the market and were sold at such low prices that Allen soon found he could no longer manufacture his slates at a profit.