Maine

(662), the most north-easterly State in the American Union, lies between Quebec and New Hampshire on the W. and New Brunswick and the Atlantic on the E., and is a little larger than Ireland, a picturesque State with high mountains in the W., Katahdin (5000 ft), many large lakes like Moose head, numerous rivers, and a much indented rocky coast; the climate is severe but healthy, the soil only in some places fertile, the rainfall is abundant; dense forests cover the north; hay, potatoes, apples, and sweet corn are chief crops; cotton, woollen, leather manufactures, lumber working, and fruit canning are principal industries; the fisheries are valuable; timber, building stone, cattle, wool, and in winter ice are exported; early Dutch, English, and French settlements were unsucce ful till 1630; from 1651 Maine was part of Ma achusetts, till made a separate State in 1820; the population is English-Puritan and French-Canadian in origin; education is advancing; the State's Liquor Law of 1851 was among the first of the kind: the capital is August a (11); Portland (36) is the largest city and chief seaport; Lewiston (22) has cotton manufactures.