These cool summers are also well suited to dairy cows. Vermont has long led the United States in the per capita production of dairy products. Dairy farming accounts for 90 percent of the state's agriculture, and much of it is found in the Champlain Lowland. However, earlier uncontrolled logging and limited organized reforestation meant that much of the forest that replaced the original trees is of poor quality for both lumber and pulp production. An exception to this pattern of limited output is the pulpwood production of northern Maine.
Fishing also remains an important, if troubled, part of the economy of the Bypassed East.
Maine lobstermen account for about 80 to 90 percent of the total U.S. lobster catch, and the state also leads in sardine production. There are two kinds of ocean fishing in the region. Inshore fishing, the most important, uses small boats and requires a relatively small capital investment, with lobsters and cod the most valuable catch. Deep-sea fishing on the banks off the coast requires far larger boats and more capital investment. Most fish caught on the banks are bottom feeders such as cod, flounder, and halibut.