of pheasants is maintained in some parts of the state. There is a state game bird farm (1909) near Sherburne in Chenango county. Herons, the brown pelican, bittern, and mud hen frequent the marshes. The robin, song sparrow, chickadee, thrushes, warblers, vireos, orioles, wrens, blue-bird, cat-bird and phoebe are favourite song birds.
There are about 375 species of fish in New York waters (see below under Fisheries).
Soil.—The soil is mostly glacial drift, but its depth and composition often vary greatly even within small areas. The most widely distributed soil, especially in the W. half of the state, is mainly a clay which was formed by the glacial pulverizing of limestone and shale and is still forming from the decomposition of fragments of these substances. In the larger valleys and along the shores of lakes considerable alluvium is mixed with this clay. In the E. there is some clay formed mainly by the decomposition of slate. A sandy loam is quite characteristic of some of the N. counties, and gravelly loams containing limestone are not uncommon.
Agriculture and Stock-Raising.—Although New York has lost in the competition with the Western States in the production of most of the grains, especially wheat and barley, and in the production of wool, mutton and pork, it has made steady progress in the dairy business and continues to produce great crops of hay. The state has made great advances, too, in the production of flowers, ornamental plants, nursery products, fruits, vegetables, poultry and eggs. In 1900 a little less than three-fourths of the state’s total land area was included in farms and a little more than two-thirds of this was improved. The number of farms gradually increased from 170,621 in 1850 to 226,720 in 1900, and the average size decreased from 112·1 acres in 1850 to 97·1 acres in 1890, but increased to 99·9 acres in 1900. More than two-thirds of the farms (152,956) were operated by owners or part owners, 29,900 were operated by share tenants, and 24,303 by cash tenants. Of the total acreage of all crops, 5,154,965 acres (54·1%) were of hay and 3,125,077 acres (32·8%) were of cereals. In 1909 the amount of the hay crop (5,002,000 tons) was greater than that of any other state except Iowa, and its value ($71,028,000) was greater than in any other state. The oat crop in 1909 was 37,365,000 bushels; the Indian corn crop, 1,910,000 bushels; the wheat crop, 24,120,000 bushels; the barley crop, 8,820,000 bushels; the rye crop, 2,720,000 bushels; buckwheat, 7,512,000 bushels.
There were less than one-third as many sheep in 1910 (1,177,000) as in 1850; but in the same period the number of dairy cows (1,771,000 in 1910) steadily increased. The number of cattle other than dairy cows was 946,315 in 1850 and 889,000 in 1910. Horses increased from 447,014 in 1850 to 717,000 in 1910.
New York has a larger acreage of vegetables than any other state. Its crop of potatoes in 1909 was 52,560,000 bushels and that of Maine, the next largest, 29,250,000 bushels; and the state is a large producer of onions, turnips, cabbages, cauliflower, sweet Indian corn, cucumbers, rhubarb, parsnips, carrots, green peas and green beans. During the years 1850–1889 New York produced about 70% of the hop crop of the entire country, but since 1890 hop culture has been rapidly extended in the Pacific Coast states and suffered to decline in New York, and the crop from 1899 to 1907 averaged only about one-half that of 1889 (20,063,029 ℔). Tobacco culture was introduced in 1845, and in 1860 the crop was 5,764,582 ℔. During 1860–1880 the increase was slight, but in 1899 the crop was 13,958,370 ℔; in 1909 the crop was only 7,050,000 ℔. The value of the fruit crop in 1899 ($15,844,346) was second only to that of California; and the most productive agricultural lands are those devoted to floriculture and nurseries.
The dairy business and the production of hay are especially prominent in the rugged region W. of the Adirondack Mountains and in the rugged portions of the counties in the S. half of the state. A large portion of the Indian corn, wheat and barley is produced on the Ontario plain. There are large crops of oats here, too, but the culture of this cereal is quite extensive in most of the counties W. of the Adirondacks. The lower valley of the Hudson is noted for its crops of rye. The buckwheat belt extends S.W. across the state from Albany and Saratoga counties. The principal hop-producing counties are Otsego, Schoharie and Madison, all of which are between Albany and Syracuse. Those producing most tobacco are in a district extending from the S.E. shore of Lake Ontario southward across the state. The great orchards are in the tier of counties bordering the S. shore of Lake Ontario and in Dutchess and Ulster counties in the Hudson Valley. Chautauqua county alone produced more than one-half of the state’s crop of grapes in 1899, but this fruit is grown extensively also in the region W. of Seneca Lake in the vicinity of Lake Keuka, and in parts of the lower valley of the Hudson. The culture of small fruits and vegetables is widely distributed throughout the W. half of the state and in the valley of the Hudson, and the greater part of Long Island under cultivation is devoted to market gardening, floriculture and nurseries. The largest nurseries, however, are in the vicinity of Rochester.
Forest Products.—The principal forest area is in the Adirondack region where the state has a forest preserve (in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, St Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties) containing (1909) 1,530,559 acres, and there is as much or more in private preserves and in tracts owned by lumbermen. The state has a forest preserve also in the Catskill region (in Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster counties) of 110,964 acres, and there are wood-lots on many farms throughout the state that produce commercial timber. Originally white pine was the principal timber of the Adirondacks, but most of the merchantable portion has been cut, and in 1905 nearly one-half of the lumber product of this section was spruce, the other half mainly hemlock, pine and hardwoods (yellow birch, maple, beech and basswood, and smaller amounts of elm, cherry and ash). The state is reforesting portions of its preserve chiefly with pine, spruce and larch. In the Catskills and in the farming regions the lumber product consists largely of hardwoods (mostly oak, chestnut and hickory), smaller amounts of hemlock and pine, and a very little spruce. The state’s entire timber product in 1905 was 1,212,070,168 ft. (board measure); of this about five-eighths was from the Adirondack region, a little more than one-fourth was from the farming regions, and a little less than one-eighth was from the Catskill region. Maple sugar is an important by-product of the forests, and in the production of this commodity New York ranks second only to Vermont; 3,623,540 lb were made in 1900.
Fisheries.—New York was in 1904 more extensively engaged in oyster culture than any other state, and was making more rapid progress in the cultivation of hard clams. In 1909 there were distributed from state fish hatcheries[1] 531,293,721 fishes (mostly smelt, pike-perch, and winter flatfish); a large number of fish and eggs were also placed in New York waters by the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The products of the marine fisheries decreased nearly 30% in value from 1891 to 1897, but from 1897 to 1904 they increased from $3,391,595 to $6,230,558, or 80·3%, and a large part of this increase was due to the extension of the successful oyster culture at the E. end of Long Island; the value of oysters alone rising from $2,050,058 to $3,780,352. The value of hard clams rose during the same period from $198,930 to $303,599. Peconic Bay, at the E. end of Long Island, yields more scallops than all the other waters of the United States. Soft clams, lobsters, hard crabs and soft crabs are other shell-fish obtained in small quantities. Menhaden are caught in much larger quantities in New York than any other fish, but being too bony for food they are used only in the manufacture of oil and fertilizer. The most valuable catches of food fish in 1904 were those of bluefish ($556,527), squeteague ($212,623), flounders ($67,159), eels ($53,832), cod ($52,710), scup ($48,068) and shad ($36,826). The shad fishery is mainly in the lower waters of the Hudson river, and the catch diminished so rapidly from 1901 that in 1904 it was only about one-eighth of the average for the decade from 1890 to 1900. The New York fisheries of Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Niagara and St Lawrence rivers yielded products in 1903 valued at $187,798 and consisting largely of pike-perch, herring, catfish, bullheads and sturgeon, and in 1902 there were commercial fisheries in sixteen interior lakes and rivers which yielded muscallonge, smelt, bullheads, pickerel, pike-perch and several other varieties having a total value of $87,897.
Minerals.—More than thirty mineral substances are obtained in commercial quantities from the mines, quarries and wells of New York, but of the total value of the mineral products in 1908 ($45,669,861), nearly six-sevenths was represented by clay products ($8,929;224), pig iron ($15,879,000), stone ($6,157,279), cement ($2,254,759), salt ($2,136,738), petroleum ($2,071,533), and sand and gravel ($1,349,163). The extensive deposits of clay in the Hudson Valley together with the easy water communications with New York City have made this valley the greatest brick-making region in the world; in 1906 the common bricks made here numbered 1,230,692,000. There are also deposits of clay suitable for making bricks, terra-cotta and tiles in nearly every county outside of this valley, and there are some pottery clays in Albany and Onondaga counties. The common bricks made in New York in 1908 were valued at $5,066,084, an amount in excess of that in any other state; and the total value of brick and tile products was $7,270,981, being less than that of Ohio, Pennsylvania or Illinois. In 1750 the mining of iron ore was begun near Monroe, Orange county. Ore has since been found in most of the eastern counties and as far W. as Wayne county, but the mines in Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties of the Adirondack region are by far the most productive. The ores are principally magnetites (New York is the largest producer of magnetite ore among the states, producing about 45% of the total for the United States in 1907 and 1908), but red haematites occur in the N. and W. section of the Adirondacks and in the central part of the state, and brown haematites and carbonate ore in the S.E. counties. The total output of the state increased from 651,228 long tons in 1884 to 1,253,393 long tons in 1890, decreased to 179,951 long tons in 1898, again increased to 1,375,020 long tons in 1907, when only three states produced more, and was only 697,473 long tons in 1908 when the state held the same rank as in 1907. Limestone
- ↑ These include: the Adirondack Hatchery at Upper Saranac, Franklin county; the Caledonia Hatchery at Mumford, Monroe county; the Cold Spring Harbor Hatchery, at Cold Spring Harbor, Suffolk county; the Delaware Hatchery, at Margaretville, Delaware county; the Fulton Chain Hatchery, at Old Forge, Herkimer county; the Linlithgo Hatchery, at Linlithgo, Columbia county; the Oneida Hatchery, at Constantia, Oswego county; and the Pleasant Valley Hatchery, at Taggart, Steuben county.
