Daily Kennebec journal., 1870-01-15
SETTLEMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS.


The report of the Commissioners on the
Settlement of the Public Lands of Maine
is an interesting account. 1t is divided
into three sections, upon the following top
les: immigration, Roads, Schools.
For the purpose of making themselves
better acquainted with the Aroostook coun-
try, the Commissioners took trip that
way last October, and made quite sur
vey of Madawaska, where the people live
in primitive simplicity and ignorance, hav-
ing the old spinning wheel and loom and
wearing the mixed wool Of white and
black focks made into homespun gray
clothing. The language generally spoken
is French; few speak English. The land
is productive, and good crops of wheat,
buckwheat. oats, rye, barley and pota-
toes are raised Nearly all the settled
part of Aroostook is along the eastern and
northern boundary of the State. The rest
is almost solitude, and how to settle it is
a question which the Commissioners have
taken up.
| They propose to settle it with Scandi-
naSians. by which term they mean to in
clude Swedes, Norwegians and Danes.
These Mortimer they think will be pleased
with Aroostook. and become valuable citi-
zens, making the wilderness blossom like
the rose. They are industrious and intel
| ligent, the climate will suit them, they
can obtain land cheap, and will quickly
make themselves pleasant homes and es-
tablish prosperous communities. The
Scandinavian immigration to this country
is already large, but flows into the wes-
tern States, which have taken pains to adj
vertise their resources and offer induce
ments to immigrants. The Commission
ers would have the State do likewise
| They would send circulars among the
Swedes and Norwegians, printed in their
own language, and thus disseminate in
formation in relation to Aroostook. They
would send an agent to Scandinavia to
cleus of colony, and have another at
Portland to meet immigrants when they
land upon our shore and show them the
way to the promised land. A colony OF
twenty-five families would answer to COM
mence with, and around this would soon
gather, they believe, large colony, and
still other colonies. How much merit
there is in the plan proposed we do not
know, but we know that Aroostook re-
quires more population and offers large
inducements to settlers, and that any
reasonable means which would aid settle
ment by an Industrious people would ben
eft the State as well as the individuals
who try it. If our own people will not
set their faces that way let strangers come
in, occupy the ground and become citi-
zens. The descendants of the old Morse
men have good blood in their veins, clear
heads and strong thews and sinews, and
these are what we want.
While the Commissioners think rail
roads would be serviceable in Aroostook,
they believe in building and keeping in
repair common roads until railroads take
the place of them, and recommend to that
effect. Education in Madawaska does not
appear to be making much progress. The
State aid is frittered away. There is more
French than English taught. and no. much
of either. The remedy suggested is tc
make them support their own schools as
other people do, and send a thorough
Yankee to Madawaska to open a High
] School for the instruction of teachers. Il
is thought that this will have tendency
to Americanize this French colony of five
thousand souls. Verify Madawaska is 8
riddle in some other things than politics
but its Acadean dreams will soon be dis
turbed by a newer civilization that viii
drive out the old spinning wheel and loon
with their homespun gray and learn the
people decent English, and the art of "go
ing ahead"