The Portland daily press., 1869-05-31

Sagadah0c. Jos. M. HAYES.
| Somerset JAMES BELL.
Waldo. o.............,.S .S..L. MILLiKEN.
washington .......D H. HOBAkT.
York. j. E. BUTLER.
Republican State Committee
Piscntorial-AgricsIa VS.. Rev. Mr. Mur-
rny.
BRYANT's POND, May 9th 1860.
Good old Israel Walton delighted to repeat
the utterance of a Spaniard who said, "Rivers
and the inhabitants of the watery element
were made for wise men to contemplate and
fools to pass by without consideration
will not stop to discuss the philosophy of that
saying, but l do say that Maine contains with
in her borders very large number of lakes
and smaller sheets Of water which all lovers
of natural scenery love "to contemplate" and
Bryant's Pond is one of that number. 1t is
beautiful sheet of-very pure water and no
doubt was originally intended by nature for
home of the speckled trout, but man,
more thoughtless than wise, some dozen years
ago, took very special pains to put some pick
erel into its waters which have increased and
destroyed all the young trout, One can hard
ly account for such vandalism and want of
taste. But the world does yet contain fools
and we must make the best Of it.
Trout and pickerel were never made to
inhabit the same waters and of that we have
abundant proof Another pond less than
mile above this one, but having no con
nection with it, is the natural home of perch,
pickerel, trout, and so all over the State.
Ponds and streams not far from each other are
made for different varieties of fish, and had
there been no fools on earth they would have
remained so until the last syllable of recorded
| time. There was time when there were no
pickerel in Sabbathday pond or Royal river,
and never would have been but for their in
PRODUCTION by some stupid man or men. 1t is
passing strange that men want to revolution
ize the order of nature! But so it is. Some
| persons can't let well enough alone. But let.
all that pass.
In riding over the Grand Trunk and seeing
the farms in the vicinity of the track, we
were forcibly reminded of the fact as stated
by Mr.. Shuttle of New Jersey, that railroads
do vast deal Tor real estate. He shows that
the improved and unimproved lands on the
line of the Raritan and Delaware Bay road
between Manchester and Long Branch ia dis
tance of about twenty miles) during the five
years imme ediately succeeding the completion
of said road, was $10195 800, on SO ,S24500
aggregate increass-of one hundred and forty
nine per cent. per annum. We will not at
tempt to calculate the increase in the value
| of lands on the line of the Grand Trunk
since the road was built Although some of
the lands over which the road passes is not Of
the best quality for agricultural purposes, yet
the whole has been increased in value to a
very large per cent. Strike this road out OF
existence and then Portland and the farmers
all along on the line of the road would begin
to see and feel how important to the interests
of the people the Grand Trunk had been.-
Some birds never show thr beauty of their
plumage until they take their flight. And
strange as 1t may seem to reasonable and
rejecting mind, there are men just foolish
enough to utter curses upon the road and
wish 1t sunk! Such men "you may bet'
would put pickerel into the waters Of a lake
intended for the red spotted trout! We have
no patience with such anomalous characters.
We venture the opinion that railroads are
not yet fully appreciated. We remember
well what prominent Democrat of the
Aroostook county said some thirty years ago
He said, and said it, too, with much earnest
ness and great emphasis, that he should
much rather have streak of lightning pass
over his land than a railroad. We guess the
people of Aroostook are not now exactly OF
that opinion, but would be right glad to vel
come the iron-horse within their borders
And we trust they will yet have that pleas
ure.
The managers of the Grand Trunk are
hard at work repairing the track, and we
have reasons to believe that it viii be in ex-
cellent running order and compare well with
other roads before many weeks shall have
passed away. They are striving to have it
well repaired by new rails, ties and grading
| up for the pleasure travel this season. And
we think they viii succeed. The road be-
tween this station and Portland will now COM
pare well with other roads. The cars run on
time and run smoothly. So far we know
| having travelled over it.
| We have not yet "wet ou1 lines," but shall
do SO this morning when we expect to take
some of the "speckled beauties" that will
throw Rev. Mr.. Murray's angling among the
Adirondacks quite into the shade. At all
events, the readers Of the Press shall not
be humbugged with "fish stories" which are
not true. We have no desire to "stretch the
stocking" after the manner Of some. If we
cannot put down the Reverend angler by a
plain unvarnished tale, then let him stand
the wonder of the age.
| Very cold this morning-almost frost
srow on the hills and in the ravines. Very
little planting has been done. The Spring
here is nearly two weeks more backward
than it was last year. The grass looks well
on most of the fields, but in some it looks
feeble as it win always until the lands are
manured. Farmers have no right to complain
of their "old fields" for they hays skinned
them for years.
| AGRIcoLA.