THE EXTENT AND VARIETY OF MANUFACTURERS
A glance at the following illustrations will show the range of industrial operations now carried one here, and the last page fully defines the class and kind of productions. The variety of these is constantly increasing, for one successful manufacturing venture not only provokes imitation, but frequently, also, calls into being some auxiliary enterprise. Later years have brought the erection of buildings, where small concerns may obtain suitable room and power, and such beginnings here have frequently proved the foundations of large and flourishing establishments. The Holyoke Water Power Company is also carrying out a liberal policy toward the pioneers and promoters of new and promising enterprises. From these and other causes has already arisen a diversity of manufacturing interests, which bids fair to increase, and ensures a steady prosperity, not to be affected by the depression of any single line of business. The statistics of the various branches of manufacture would hardly interest the general reader. They include, however, cotton, woolen and worsted fabrics, silk, paper, tools and machinery in great variety, iron and steel wire, lumber, sash and blinds, wood-pulp, files, cutlery, wood screws, etc., all these being manufactured in extensive concerns, some of them the largest of their kind in the country. The cotton fabrics cover a large range of product, comprising sheetings, lawns, prints, ginghams, tickings, shirtings, duck, warps, and other staple goods, and the annual product rises above 5,000,000 pounds. The weekly product of thread exceeds 30,000 dozen spools, of various grades. The woolen goods include fine beavers, doeskins, cassimeres, horse-blankets, etc., and alpaca lusters and poplins are among the worsteds. Paper is produced of all grades and kinds including fine writing, envelope, collar, book, news, and manila. Of the first two kinds, about forty tons per day are turned out, and of the rest fourteen tons. Organzines, silk and mohair braid, and serges, are among the silken fabrics. Of iscellaneous manufactures, — reeds, spindles, bit-braces, hydrants, builders' materials, etc., etc., — there is a great variety giving employment to a large number of men, including many skilled artisans.
The Holyoke Water Power company also own extensive gas-works, the mains from which extend throughout the greater part of the city. Clay beds of great extent and fine quality for brick-making, and accessible stone quarries afford abundant and excellent building material. An important industry has recently been introduced here, which consists in lumbering in winters in the dense forests on the head-waters of the Connecticut, and "driving" the logs down river, until they are secured within the booms above the dam, whence they are drawn to furnish stock for the mills upon the banks. Many million feet of lumber are thus manufactured here, completing the list of necessary building materials, ready at hand, and all home production.
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