The Decline of Wool-growing.—At different periods in Vermont history wool-growing has been among its chief industries, but the time arrived when it became unprofitable because of competition. Australian wool came upon the market and also Western wool, both of which could be sold at a cheaper price than Vermont wool, hence there was nothing, apparently, for the shepherd to do but to give up the unequal contest; and, as the late Rowland E. Robinson says, "Most of them cast away their crooks and became dairymen."

Dairy Products.-Dairy products are now far more important among our exports than wool; and all through Vermont, the pasture-lands are flecked with Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire, and shorthorn; but sheep, though frequently seen, are much less numerous than formerly.

The butter and cheese of Vermont are still in as good repute as in the days when milk was set in small pans and the cream churned in the dash-churn; when the only cheesepress was a rough bench and lever; and the cooper shop, which is now becoming a rare sight, was kept busy making the large casks and firkins, into which a half-dozen cheeses or the butter of many churnings was packed for the market.

The greater part of the milk from the farms now goes to the numerous creameries, where the milk from many stables is all put together and made into cheese or butter, the greater part into butter.

The Franklin County Creamery of St. Albans, incorporated in 1890, is one of the largest creameries in the world, turning out 3,000,000 pounds of butter yearly.

The Maple and Its Products.-Almost the last of the giant pines, that were once the crowning pride of the Green Mountain State, has been laid low by the ax; but

the record of its glory will forever remain intact where Ira Allen has placed it-upon the State seal. To-day the

maple is preeminently the State tree. It is the forest-tree most cultivated, not only because of the maple-sugar it

produces, but also because of its beauty and utility as a shade-tree. Here in Vermont it reaches its greatest perfection. To the south it follows only the mountainous localities, to the north it becomes dwarfed and stunted.

As a producer of maple-sugar, the Vermont maple is the best in the world. In both the quantity and the quality of this product, Vermont leads all the States of the Union. Indeed, she is said to produce about one-third of all the maple-sugar manufactured in this country; and yet less than one-half of the maple-trees of the State are tapped. In a good sugar season it is estimated that the maple-sugar crop brings to Vermont over a million dollars.

The methods of production have, indeed, undergone marked changes since the days when our forefathers boiled down the sap in huge caldron kettles over open fires; but the product itself has changed also, for the large evaporator now in use has greatly improved the quality of Vermont maple-sugar.

Lumber Trade.-One of the most important industries of the State is the manufacture of lumber and timber products. Burlington ranked third in importance as a lumber market in the United States in 1882. Since that time there has been a decrease in the lumber trade of the city, but it is still very great.

In addition to the lumber produced, our Vermont forests furnish material for a large number of pulp-mills, twenty-seven establishments being reported in 1900 as engaged in the manufacture of paper and wood pulp. Every year the pulp-mills consume great quantities of both spruce and poplar, a fact which acts as a great incentive to the owners of woodlands to cultivate the growth of these trees.

Arbor Day. During Governor Samuel E. Pingree's term of office, Arbor Day was instituted in the State for the purpose of encouraging the setting out of trees along the highways and upon public and private grounds. That very year 30,000 trees were planted. The beneficent re

sults of this move are manifest.

Marble; Granite; Slate.-The quarrying of marble is now one of the chief industries of the State. It assumed no very great dimensions

till about the time of the Civil War. Since that time the growth has been both steady and rapid.

The barren sheeppasture, which, scarcely more than a half century ago, was so little valued that it was given in exchange for an old horse, has been transformed into the valuable quarries of West Rutland; and from a small and unimportant industry, the Vermont Marble Company of Rutland, West Rutland, and Proctor has grown to be one of the largest marble-producing establishments in the world, if it is not the largest. Marble is also quarried in Pittsford, Brandon, Swanton, Isle La Motte, and other towns.

Front panel of Burns Monument.

The growth of the granite industry during the last quarter of a century has been phenomenal. The most extensive quarries are in Barre and Woodbury; but quarries