“ Among other duties the commissioners care for county property, manage county business and take charge of county roads. Maine has no general law under which cities are chartered, and does not even set a minimum population. A town may, therefore, be incorporated as a city whenever it can obtain from the legislature a city charter which a majority of its electorate prefers to a continuance under its town government ”

“ Under the laws of Maine a householder owning and occupying a house and lot may hold the same, or such part of it as does not exceed $500 in value, as a homestead exempt from attachment, except for the satisfaction of liens for labour or material, by filing in the registry of deeds a certificate stating his desire for such an exemption, provided he is not the owner of an exempted lot purchased from the state ”

“ Manufactures.—Although Maine has no coal and only a very small amount of iron ore within her borders for the encouragement of manufacturing, yet the abundance of fine timber and the numerous coves, bays and navigable streams along or near the coast promoted ship-building from the first, and this was the leading industry of the state until about the middle of the 19th century, when wooden ships began to be supplanted by those of iron and steel. ”

“ Beginning with the middle of the 19th century, the increasing competition of the more productive soils of the West, the growth of urban population in the state, and the number of summer visitors effected the reforesting of much poor land and the more intensive cultivation of the better arable land. The cultivation of cereals, for example, has given way to a marked extent in nearly all the farming districts except in Aroostook county to market gardening, dairying, and egg and poultry production. ”

“ The French still claimed all territory east of the Penobscot, and not only was Maine an exposed frontier and battleground during the long struggle of the English against the Indians and the French, but its citizens bore a conspicuous part in the expeditions beyond its borders. ”

“ A populous section of a town, in order to promote certain financial ends, is commonly incorporated as a village without however becoming a governing organization distinct from the town. Maine is the only state in the Union that retains what is known as the organized plantation. This is a governmental unit organized from an unincorporated township having at least 200 inhabitants, [5] and its principal officers are the moderator, clerk, three assessors, treasurer, collector, constable and school committee. ”

“ State elections were annual until 1897 when they were made biennial; they are held on the second Monday in September in even numbered years, Maine being one of the few states in the Union in which they are not held in November.
The governor is the only executive officer of the state elected by popular vote. There is no lieutenant-governor, the president of the Senate succeeding to the office of governor in case of a vacancy, but there is a council of seven members elected by the legislature (not more than one from any one senatorial district) , whose sole function is to advise the governor. ”

“ Any bill of which he disapproves he can within five days after its passage prevent from becoming a law unless it is passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature. He and the council examine and pass upon election returns; he may summon extra sessions of the legislature, and he may grant pardons, reprieves, and commutations in all cases except impeachment, but the manner of hearing applications for pardon is in a measure prescribed by statute, and he must present to the legislature an account of each case in which he grants a pardon. His salary is $2,000 a year. ”

“ Finance.—The chief sources of the state’s revenue are a general property tax and taxes on the franchises of corporations, especially those of railway and insurance companies and savings banks; among the smaller sources are licences or fees, a poll tax, and a collateral inheritance tax. The general property tax for state and local purposes is assessed by local assessors, but their work is reviewed for the purpose of equalization among the several towns and counties by a board of state assessors, which also assesses the corporations. ”

“ These expeditions were such a drain on Maine’s population that Massachusetts was called upon to send men to garrison the little forts that protected the homes left defenceless by men who had gone to the front. During the War of Independence, the town of Falmouth (now Portland) , which had ardently resisted the claims of the British, was bombarded and burned, in 1775; in the same year Benedict Arnold followed the course of the Kennebec and Dead rivers on his expedition to Quebec; and from 1779 to 1783 a British force was established at Castine. ”

“ The glaciation is also responsible for the poor soil of most of the state, for, although the rocks are the same crystallines which give good soils further south in unglaciated regions, all the decayed portions of the Maine rocks have been removed by glacial erosion, revealing fresh, barren rock over great areas, or depositing the rather sterile hard-pan as a thin coating in other places. ”

“ The most sterile regions are on the mountains and along the coast. Because of the cold climate, the large areas in which there is little or no good arable land, the growing demand for timber land, and the large and constant supply of water-power afforded by the principal rivers, agriculture in Maine, as in all the other New England states except Vermont, is a smaller industry than manufacturing; in 1900 there were 87,932 people engaged in manufacturing and only 76,932 engaged in agriculture. ”

“ At the head of the public school system is the university of Maine, near the village of Orono in Orono township (pop. in 1900, 3257) , Penobscot county. This institution was founded in 1865 as the state college of agriculture and the mechanic arts; in 1897 the present name was adopted. It embraces a college of arts and sciences, a college of agriculture, a college of technology (including a department of forestry) , a college of law (at Bangor) , and a college of pharmacy. The most conspicuous of its twenty-five buildings is the library, built with funds contributed by Andrew Carnegie. ”

“ Good spruce, which is by far the most valuable timber in the state and is used most largely for the manufacture of paper and pulp, stands in large quantities in the St John, Penobscot, Androscoggin and Kennebec basins. Poplar, also used for the manufacture of paper, abounds in several sections of the south slope, but is most abundant in the basin of the Kennebec. White birch, used largely for the manufacture of spools, is found throughout a wide belt extending across the middle of the state. There is much cedar on the north slope. Oak, maple and beech are rather scarce. ”

“ Any section of a town may establish and maintain a high school provided there be not more than two such schools in one town, and the state makes appropriations for the support of such schools equal to one-half the cost of instruction, but the maximum grant to any one such school is $250. ”

“ Except in the valley of the Aroostook and along the Kennebec, the Penobscot, and some other rivers, the soil is generally unfit for cultivation, there being too little alluvium mixed with it to make it fertile. In the Aroostook valley, however, is the largest undivided area of good arable land in all New England, the soil being a deep, porous, yellow loam well adapted to the growth of cereals and to market gardening. ”

“ The prison is in charge of a board of three inspectors and a warden, and each of the other two institutions is in charge of a board of trustees; the inspectors, warden, and trustees are all appointed by the governor and council. Convicts in the prison are usually employed in the manufacture of articles that are not extensively made elsewhere in the state, such as carriages, harness, furniture and brooms. The inmates of the state school for boys receive instruction in farming, carpentry, tailoring, laundry work, and various other trades and occupations ”

“ Flora.—Maine was formerly covered with forests, principally of white pine and spruce, but mixed with these were some hemlock, tamarack, cedar, and, on the south slope, birch, poplar, oak, maple and beech. Chestnut and walnut are rare and are found only near the south-west border. In 1900 about 21% of the state’s area was cleared, and much besides had once been cleared, but not being suited to agriculture had become reforested. Of fruit trees the chief is the apple. The plum, cherry and pear also thrive. The peach grows well only in the south-west near the border. ”

“ A compulsory education law, enacted in 1901, requires the attendance at some public or approved private school of each child between the ages of seven and fifteen during all the time that school is in session, except that necessary absences may be excused. ”

“ But a large source of opposition to separation was removed in 1819 when Congress, dividing the east coast of the United States into two great districts, did away with the regulation which, making each state a district for entering and clearing vessels, would have required coasting vessels from the ports of Maine as a separate state to enter and clear on every trip to or from Boston ”

“ In 1908, according to state reports, the take of lobsters was 17,635,980 ℔, valued at $1,558,252. Maine markets more clams than any other state in the Union, and the catches of cod, hake, haddock, smelt, mackerel, swordfish, shad, pollock, cusk, salmon, alewives, eels and halibut are of importance. The scallop fishery is becoming more and more valuable. For the protection and promotion of the lobster fishery the United States government has established a lobster hatchery at Boothbay Harbor; and the state legislature enacted a law in 1895 prohibiting the taking of lobsters less than 101/2 in. ”

“ A considerable amount of personal property, including apparel, household furniture not exceeding $100 in value, a library not exceeding $150 in value, interest in a pew in a meeting-house, and a specified amount of fuel, provisions, tools or farming implements, and domestic animals, and one fishing boat, is also exempt from attachment. ”

“ The state has established among them a well-appointed training school for teachers, conducted in the English language, the graduates of which render excellent service in the common schools. The other class is of French-Canadian immigrants, who find profitable employment in the manufacturing centres. The colony of Swedes established by the state near its north-eastern border in 1870 has proved in every way successful. The Indians are remnants of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes, the Passamaquoddies being a little the more numerous. ”

“ Only 32.9% of the state’s land area was in that year included in farms, only 37.9% of this farm land was improved, and only 16.3% of the improved land was in crops other than hay and forage. Nevertheless, as indicated by the unusually large proportion of farmers who either own their farms or pay cash rent for them, farming usually is profitable. ”

“ The legislature meets biennially at Augusta, the capital, and is composed of a Senate of thirty-one members and a House of Representatives of one hundred and fifty-one members. Members of each house are elected for a term of two years: one senator from each senatorial district and one to seven representatives (one for a population of 1,500, and seven for a population of 26,250) from each township, or, where the township or plantation has less than 1,500 inhabitants, from each representative district, according to its population. ”

“ The grounds for divorce in the state are adultery, impotence, extreme cruelty, desertion for three consecutive years next preceding the application, gross and confirmed habits of intoxication, cruel and abusive treatment, or a husband’s gross or wanton refusal or neglect to provide a suitable maintenance for his wife. ”

“ The first cotton mill was built at Brunswick on the Androscoggin about 1809, and from 1830 the development of cotton manufacturing was rapid; woollen mills followed, and late in the 19th century were erected some of the largest paper and pulp mills in the country, which are run by water power from the rivers, and use the spruce and poplar timber in the river basins. The total value of the manufactures of the state increased from $95,689,500 in 1890 to $127,361,485 in 1900; and in 1905 the value of factory-made products alone was $144,020,197, or 27.5% greater than their value in 1900. ”

“ V. of the constitution a majority of the total number of votes cast was required for election; in case no candidate should receive a majority, it was prescribed that the “House of Representatives shall, by ballot, from the persons having the four highest numbers of votes on the lists, if so many there be, elect two persons and make returns of their names to the Senate, of whom the Senate shall, by ballot, elect one, who shall be declared the governor.” ”

“ The foreign trade, especially that with the West Indies and with Great Britain, decreased after 1875, and yet much trade from the West that goes to Montreal during the warmer months passes through Portland during the winter season. The chief exports to foreign countries are textile fabrics, Indian corn, meat, dairy products, apples, paraffin, boards and shooks; the chief imports from foreign countries are sugar, molasses and wool. ”

“ Of the total population of 1900, 599,291, or 86.3%, were native whites, 93,330 were foreign-born, 1,319 were negroes, 798 were Indians, 119 were Chinese, and 4 were Japanese. Of the inhabitants born in the United States, 588,211, or 97.8%, were natives of New England and 560,506 were natives of Maine, and of the foreign-born 67,077, or 71.8%, were natives of Canada (36,169 English and 30,908 French) , and 10,159, or 10.8%, were natives of Ireland. Of the total population, 199,734 were of foreign parentage—i.e. ”