largest of which are Aquidneck or Rhode Island, Conanicut, and Prudence Island. Aquidneck, containing the town of Newport, is a beautiful island, 15 miles long and 3 miles wide. It is lined with bold cliffs and line beaches, and is known as the ‘Eden of America.’ Nine miles off the coast lies Block Island, a sandy reef inclosing a salt lagoon. The rivers of the State are small. The three largest are the Blackstone and the Pawtuxet in the north, flowing into the upper part of Narragansett Bay, and the Paweatuck in the south, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean on the Connecticut boundary. All of these are rapid streams, with a number of falls supplying considerable water-power. Like all glaciated areas, the State is studded with numerous small lakes.
Climate and Soil. The climate is mild and equable compared with that of the rest of New England. It is influenced chiefly by winds coming from the Gulf Stream. The cold winds striking the eastern coast of New England are almost unfelt here. The mean temperature for January is 36° and for July 76°. The average relative humidity ranges between 80 and 95 per cent. throughout the year. The average rainfall is about 45 inches, ranging in localities from 40 inches in the north to nearly 50 on the coast. The soils are in general coarse, stony, and not well adapted for agriculture, and there is very little alluvial land.
Geology and Mineral Resources. Archæan rocks, chiefly the Montalban gneisses, form the surface of the western half of the State to within three miles of Narragansett Bay. The Narragansett Basin, including the bottom of the bay, its islands and both shores, together with a region running northeast into Massachusetts, forms an interesting patch of Carboniferous deposits. It seems to have been a shallow trough undergoing a continual subsidence as the coal beds and intervening strata were laid down, until the whole deposit attained a thickness of several thousand feet. The basin has since been subjected to folding movements, in which process the strata were crushed and faulted, and the coal converted into graphitic anthracite, and locally almost or wholly into pure graphite. These anthracite beds form the principal mineral deposits of the State, but access to large portions of them is difficult, owing to the proximity of the bay. Along a part of the western edge of the Carboniferous area runs a dike of magnetite iron ore containing considerable deposits, while limestone and granite are the most important of the other mineral resources.
Fisheries. The fisheries employed in 1898 about 1700 persons. The value of the product for that year was $955,058, to which the oyster catch contributed more than $500,000. Next to oysters the most important fish are scups and squeteagues.
Agriculture. In Rhode Island the number of acres included in farms decreased 17.8 per cent. between 1850 and 1900, the acreage in the latter year being 455,602, or 67.6 per cent. of the total land surface. The number of farms meanwhile remained almost the same, so that the average size decreased from 103 acres in 1850 to 33 in 1900. The improved land in 1900 (41.1 per cent. of the farm acreage) was only a little over one-half as great as the improved area in 1850. In the census year 1900 the most important cereal, corn, represented only 8149 acres, and the next in rank, oats, only 1530 acres. Hay and forage form by far the most important crop, amounting in 1899 to 69,776 acres; but this was a decrease from 94,111 in 1889. Potatoes are relatively important, representing, in 1899, 5817 acres. Sweet corn and other vegetables are grown for the local markets. Much attention is given to the growing of apples, peaches, and pears. The number of peach trees increased over four-fold between 1890 and 1900. Considerably over half the fruit trees are in Providence County. Cranberries, strawberries, and other small fruits are grown.
Stock-Raising. Significant increase was made in the number of horses in the last half of the nineteenth century, but there was a very great decrease in the number of dairy cows, sheep, and swine. The following table shows the number of domestic animals on farms:
| 1900 | 1890 | |
| Dairy cows | 23,660 | 23,943 |
| Other cattle | 12,374 | 10,834 |
| Horses | 11,390 | 9,864 |
| Mules and asses | 43 | 51 |
| Sheep | 6,629 | 11,400 |
| Swine | 11,508 | 12,055 |
In 1899 the value of dairy products was $1,923,707. Of this amount 89.2 per cent. was realized from sales, mainly of milk. In the decade of 1890-1900 there was a decrease of 49.4 per cent. in the quantity of butter produced on farms, and an increase of 21.8 per cent. in the quantity of milk.
Manufactures. Since 1870 over 22 per cent. of the total population have been engaged as wage-earners in this line of industry. The number in 1900 was 96,528, of whom 26,984 were women, and 5036 children under sixteen years of age. The total value of products increased 29.2 per cent. from 1890 to 1900, being in the latter year $184,074,378. The shallow depth of the water at the port of Providence has prevented the development of ocean traffic and thus has withheld from the State a great advantage. The raw materials of manufacture are transported long distances, and the centralization of the railroads has in a measure deprived the State of the advantages of competitive rates. Rhode Island has become well known for the superiority of certain of its products. The State has ranked second in cotton manufacture from the beginning of the industry, as estimated by the number of spindles employed. The spinning of cotton by the factory system began in 1790 at Pawtucket, and it was here that cotton was first spun by water power in the United States. As early as 1815 there were 140,000 spindles within a radius of 30 miles of Providence. Since 1890 a very slight decrease has taken place in the number of spindles, the number in 1900 being 1,920,522.
The manufacture of wool in the State by the factory process began in 1804; here the first power loom used in the manufacture of woolens in the United States was installed in 1814. Between 1890 and 1900 the production of worsted goods increased enormously, and the State ranks second in this branch of the woolen industry. But the value of other kinds of woolen goods has greatly decreased. The dyeing and finishing of textiles are industries which have increased enormously
