NEW YORK."Empire or Excelsior State."
One of the thirteen original States; named in honor of the Duke of York to whom the patent was granted; first settled by Dutch, on Manhattan Island, 1614.
Area, 49,170 square miles; extreme length, east and west, 412 miles; extreme breadth, 311 miles; two-thirds of boundaries formed by navigable rivers; total water frontage, 880 miles. Number counties, 60. Temperature at Albany: winter, 22° to 36°; summer, 67° to 73°. Rainfall at Buffalo, 34 inches, and at Penn Yan, 28 inches.
New York City, chief commercial point of United States, ranking 1st in exports and imports; pop., 1,206,299,—greater by nearly three-fifths than that of the Territories. Brooklyn is 2d in size; pop. 566,663. Buffalo, "Queen City of the Lakes," is, next to Chicago, most important shipping point for grain on the lakes; pop., 155,134. Rochester, noted for manufactures and extensive nurseries; pop., 89,366. Syracuse has extensive salt works; pop., 51,792. Albany, the capital; pop., 90,758; customs districts, 10.
First railroad, from Albany to Schenectady, 1831; present railroad mileage, 7,349; artificial waterways, 907 miles.
Number farms, 241,058; average value per acre, cleared land, $58.48; woodland, $40.88