MILFORD  , a township of

Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 16 m . S.E. of Worcester . Pop . (1890), 878o; (19oo) 11,376, of whom 3342 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,055 . Within its area of about 15 sq. m. are a large rural population and the village of Milford, on the Charles river, about 33 M . S.W. of Boston, served by the Boston & Albany, the New York, New Haven & Hartford and the Grafton & Upton railways (the last named having its passenger department operated by electricity and its freight by steam, and connecting Milford with North Grafton), and by inter-urban electric lines . The village has a memorial hall, housing the public library, and in the town-ship there is an excellent hospital, the gift of Eben . S . Draper . The village is a shipping point for an agricultural and manufacturing district . In 1905 the value of the township's factory products was $3,390,504 (32.8% more than in 190o) . The most important manufactures are boots and shoes; the industry was established in 1795, and for many years the special product was brogans for Southern negroes .

In 1908 there were 12 large

granite quarries in the township (north and north-east of the village) . Milford granite is the typical stone of an area reaching into Rhode Island south of the southern boundary of Providence county; it is a biotite granite of post-Cambrian age, is generally pinkish-gray in colour (owing to the large proportion of feldspar among its constituents), and is widely used for building purposes . The township was the east precinct of Mendon until 178o, when it was incorporated; in 1835 parts of Holliston and Hopkinton were annexed; in 1886 a part was separated as Hopedale . See Adin Ballou, History of Milford (Boston, 1882) ; and T . Nelson Dale, The Chief Commercial Granites of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island (Washington, 1908), Bulletin 354 of the U.S . Geological Survey .