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. Fish, canned goods, potatoes, granite, lime, paper,
and boots and shoes are also exported to foreign countries to some
extent, but they are shipped in larger quantities to other states of
the Union, from which Maine receives in return cotton, coal, iron,
oil, &c. The ports of entry in Maine are Bangor, Bath, Belfast,
Castine, Eastport, Ellsworth, Houlton, Kennebunk, Machias, Portland,
Wiscasset and York.
_Population._--The population in 1880 was 648,936; in 1890, 661,086; in
1900, 694,466; and in 1910, 742,371.[4] From 1880 to 1900 there was an
increase of only 7%, a percentage which was exceeded in every other
state in the Union except Nevada and Vermont. 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. either one or both parents were foreign-born--and 89,857
were of Canadian parentage, both on the father's and on the mother's
side (41,355 English and 48,502 French). The French-speaking inhabitants
probably number considerably more than 50,000. They are of two quite
distinct classes. One, numbering about 15,000, includes those who became
citizens by the establishment of the northern boundary in 1842 and their
descendants. They are largely of Acadian stock. 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. The
Penobscots' chief gathering places are on the islands of the Penobscot
river north of Old Town; the Passamaquoddies', on the shores of
Passamaquoddy Bay and the banks of the Saint Croix river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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