4/85Number of manufacturing jobs New England has gained since 1982: 64,650

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

6/85Quarts of ice cream the average Southerner eats each year: 12

International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers (Washington, D.C.)

    The average New Englander: 23

International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers (Washington, D.C.)

2/97Number of candy hearts that the New England Confectionery Company made last year: 8,000,000,000

New England Confectionery Company (Cambridge, Mass.)

    Number that said, “Fax Me”: 1,700,000

New England Confectionery Company (Cambridge, Mass.)

7/97Portion of New England’s feral honey-bee population lost to Asian mites since 1995: 9/10

Professor Robert Morse, Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.)