The territory in the neighbourhood of Dogtown is remarkable for its
fertility, bating that part of it which is covered with rocks, the salt
meadow, the pine woods, the clay-ponds, and the swamps. It is past a
doubt, therefore, that the territory, if well cleared, drained, peopled,
and cultivated, would become a perfect garden, abounding with the
richest productions of nature, and affording a mine of wealth to the
country. As to the facilities of communication with the great Atlantic
cities and commercial marts, they are admirable.
Dogtown has Boston on one side, and New York on the other: Montreal and
Quebec are in the north, while in the east is the rich and thriving
State of Maine, with Bangor and Owl’s Head to boot. Rail-roads can be
made to connect Dogtown with all these places, and they will certainly
form such a connection, _when they are built_. That the place will be a
great focus of trade, when this is done, nobody, I think, will deny.
The neighbourhood of Dogtown has all the advantages that can be desired
in a young country. There will be as many large towns within thirty
miles of the place, as people choose to build. The population cannot
fail to increase rapidly for a man can get married for seventy-five
cents, town clerk’s fees included. The attraction for settlers must,
therefore, be considered very great.
The Dogtowners are remarkably industrious, for they get a living,
although constantly grumbling of hard times. They are moreover
ingenious, for they manufacture axe-handles, wooden bowls, birch brooms,
and white oak cheese, and invent mousetraps and washing machines. Last
of all, the inhabitants of Dogtown are literary and intellectual; for
they talk a great deal of the march of improvement, and the minister and
the lawyer take the “Penny Magazine” between them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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