The Portland daily press., 1874-11-02
The Aroostook Valley.
Oar Growing Ccunty-Blunders of Dipso-
mats-Shan the Dominion Get the
AraOsteoke-Thc Growth Of the Conn
try-Eeiter than the West

4
such mess of it in reference to our eastern
boundary that our most fertile county of Aroos-
took is rather separated geographically from
the rest of the state. Possibly Nature may be
| censured, for if she had devoted her energies to
powdering the hundreds of acres of granite
boulders into arabic land which lie between
| Oldtown and Houlton, railroads would connect
| that region with the rest of the state But the
belt of bouldcrs and the treaty makers have
| played the mischief The fact is that when
| John Bull was in the mode of it in 1889, our
| people should have convinced him thatit would
be much better for him to quit this part of the
| continent, or at least retire to the St John as
| the natural boundary between the nations from
| source to sea.
But even now that we have railroad TO
Houlton, the outlet Of Aroostook, the builders
have found the boulder swamp belt enchanted
land; for entering it at Mattawamkeag, they
run the whole length of it in Maine, plunge
| into it in New Brunswick to find their way to
Aroostook through fifty miles of foreign desert,
to say nothing of opening our back door to
every stranger who travels over the e. & N A.
Railway that he may see how wretched tract
Maine has. Had the railroad been pushed d.
rect from Mattawamkeag or Danforth to Houl-
ton, and thence to Presque Isle, we should now
have been the most fertile section of New
England hundred miles nearer u.s. see its
population increasing fifty per cent. faster than
it is now, and its hardy people would be for
getting to speak of the rest of the state and the
nation generally as outside
The Maine man who visits that region won't
be satisfied with the situation. As he looks
upon the block house at Fort Kent and the
redoubt at Fort Fairfield and passes over that
romantic territory, made historic by the capture
of our Jealous land agent by the Bluenose
officials, concerning which some stay-at-home
wag Of a Wing rhymed:
"Run, Strickland, run! Fire Slower, frev
Were the last words Of McIntire,''
he will wish for power to undo history and SO
write it that any territory west of the st. John
river would have hcen a disagreeable location
for British colony. In general way we have
nothing against John Bull, but don't want any
body in the way on this continent. ''Them's
our sentiments
But the roundabout railway, the European
& North American, is doing most important
work in connection with that running from
st. Andrews or Calais to Houlton for the de-
velopment of Aroostook. Products are now
moved which, ten years ago, were dead. Twenty
years since the people were fortunate it they
could get thirty-fve cents bushel for oats in
cash. Indeed, it was rare that any other pro-
duct would bring cash, except in the best lum-
bering seasons. Now that railway has multi
piled market products to more than score in
number. Hay and oats that would have no mar
ket this season of no numbering, and but for the
road would be nearly worthless, find an outside
market A dealer informed US that over
100000 bushels of oats would be shipped from
Houlton the present season to Bangor, Port
land and Boston, with thousands of tons of
hay. Potatoes, which otherwise would not be
worth ten cents bushel in cash, command
forty now, and find "a ready means of trans
portation to Boston via St. Andrews while the
season is open
The Dominion government has, as our read
ers know, embarked in the BUSINESS Of build
ing railroads. 1t is q reckless policy, and in
time our neighbors will find it out. But just
now they are building railway along the east
bank of the st. John, which is to be extended
to the upper provinces, called the Colonial,
among our own people; for running up the st.
John, at Tobique it is within six miles of Fort
Fairfield, and above is only across the river.
To Tobique this road will be opened this fall,
and already the wide awake people of Fort
Fairfield, Caribou and elsewhere are taking
measures to secure a road to Caribou, seventeen
miles, with the narrow gauge. When this is
accomplished, the most fertile section of our
state, and that which during the next fifty
years is to gain most rapidly in wealth and
population, has been tapped by foreign inter-
est II is claimed that part of this business
viii yet be saved, as the New Brunswick &
Canada Railway, by its Woodstock branch, will
tap the Inter- Colonial at Woodstock, and thus
bring the business via Calais by the former or
westward over the E. & N. A. Railway.
1t is frequently asked: What of this fertile
region of our state-is its population increasing
and arc its people generally gaining in wealth?
The reply must be in the affirmative. During
the past fifteen or twenty years, in no section
of New England have the people generally i'm
proved their cond ition so much. In all of the
towns ard settlements of the county, those who
have attended to farming as general thing,
have more than doubled their property in the
period named, while hundreds can show ten
dollars where they had one twenty years ago.
We do not mean to say they can show an in
crease in money, but in houses, barns, improv-
ed farms, stock, and all those things which civ
ilization recognizes as essential to the comfort
and real welfare of people. In that period
the census will show the increase in population,
but it bears small ratio to the solid growth in
wealth. In all of the best towns there are
just lots of men who went into the unbrOken
forest twenty years ago with an axe, wife and
a few dollars, whe now have farms, with good
houses, mammoth barns crowded FULL large
stocks of cattle, worth from two to five thou
sand dollars To,,be sure it was hard struggle
at first, and often it puzzled the heads of fami-
lies to provide the plainest food for the thrifty
and increasing group which in few years be-
gan to crowd the log house. Better days at
length came. The log house and black stumps
have given place to the neat cottage and plough,
and rather scanty subsistence to lavish
plenty. At first the pioneer had no team, or if
any, an Indifferent pair of steers. Now the
majority of them can hitch span of horses to
your carriage. and nearly every farmer has
good single carriage, while those better to-de
are beginning to get fine covered carriages, port
land make.) Of course the man practical.
He is proud of the fact he has accomplished,
and is in earnest about every thing. He ex-
tends his Inequalities in the same way, and
woe to the owner Of a soft, dainty hand when
he has confded it to the vice-like grasp of the
hand that hath laid the forest low, Then the
good mothers who have helped make these
homes are prodigies considered from our city
stand point. Many of them have worked in
the fields, but they don't look the worse for it.
| They can make homespun cloth but the WOODEN
mill pays so good price for wool and makes SO
| good an article of cloth that most of them, I'M
less they have an incredible amount of energy,
have given up this industry. They have reared
large families, given sons to the country, and
may yet be known by their works if one has
occasion to visit their pantry or eat their butter
and cheese. The dyspeptic had better keep
away from their jars of preserves unless he is
eager to suffer the gripes of the very wicked.
| His class don't grow there.
| fox lavc ci Forr w n has