Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-11-10
A Trip to Northern Maine.

A Trip to Northern Maine.
We have lately returned from ten days
trip through the state of Maine, extending
almost to its extreme northeast corner, in
the county of Aroostook. Our children are
taught that Maine has territory equal to
that of all the other New England States
combined, but few of us are aware that
single county in that state has more arabic
land than the whole of Vermont Yet such
is the fact, Aroostook county, with scarcely
any waste territory, has an area Of over 1000
square miles, while Vermont, mountains and
all, can claim only 10000.
As native of Maine, and faithful
reader of the Maine Farmer, we have heard
much of this mammoth county, of its re-
sources and possibilities, but we had never
before been nearer to it than the city of Ban
gor, which is about one hundred miles from
its southern boundary. As Bangor is on the
parallel of 40 degrees, which forms the
northern boundary of Vermont the infer
ence has been almost irresistible that sec
ton Of country whose northern limit is more
than two hundred miles nearer the pole is too
cold for profitable farming. But we return
entirely cured Of that idea. We saw abun-
dant evidence that northern Aroostook is
certainly not colder than our own Orleans
county. This is proved by the varieties of
tree fruit which are grown there. We find
that what we have been forced to term the
"almost hardy" fruit trees, which as often as
not disappoint the planter in Orleans county,
are decidedly more successful in Aroostook.
The Fameuse apples grow as perfectly
there as around Montreal, while the Flemish
Beauty and other hardy pears have been
brought successfully to bearing in the towns
of Ashland and Castle Hill, within forty-fve
miles of the "tip end of Maine, and al
most on the parallel of the city of Quebec.
In fact, there are many localities in Yer
mont which enjoy" lower winter tem-
perature than any portion of northeastern
Maine. Why this is so we are not able to
say, but the fact is unmistakable. 1t is
probably, however, attributable to the much
less elevation of the land above the sea-level.
In this respect it is more like the lower por-
tions of Franklin county, where the fruit
growers have better success with the moder
ately hardy apples, like Fameuse, Red AS
trachan and Tolman Sweet, than is ever at
tanned on the higher attitudes OF our hill
towns near the Canada line
While Aroostook is no colder than north
ern Vermont it is in other respects almost
incomparably superior to it as a farming
country. 1t more resembles, in the lay of
the land and the quality of its soil and pro.
ducts, the best parts of central New York
and Ohio. The surface is a rolling plain
equally fertile over its whole surface and
just enough uneven to give nearly every
square mile perfect drainage. The under
lying rock, which is mostly limestone and
slate, very rarely comes to the surface and
the soil is simply this rock in a decomposed
form. There is more or less loose stone to
be found over the whole territory, but
really stony farm, as we understand it in
Vermont, can hardly be seen. In many
places the cellars are walled with hewn cedar
logs, on account Of the difficulty of getting
suitable stone for the purpose. There are
whole townships in which there is not an
acre which cannot be plowed; and hundreds
of farms of one hundred acres and upward,
on which, when cleared dog would not be
hidden from the sight of person standing
on any part. The soil extends to the bed
rock" which underles the whole county at
the depth of from five to forty feet This
"bed rock" all stands on edge, giving per-
feet drainage, and permanent water is found
by digging down to the ledge, or few feet
into it. In all the says between the great
rolls of land run clear brooks and larger
streams, all tributary to the great st. Johns
river, of which lower Aroostook forms the
western side of the valley, and upper ARGOS.
took both sides. This valley is unlike that
of any other New England river 1t is not
hemmed in by mountains, but extends with
but slow and moderate rise some fifty
miles on each side. There is not in all
Aroostook what Vermonters would call a
Maine and New Brunswick, was the only
respectable eminence we saw on the whole
trip. 1t is about as high as the hill behind
the State House at Montpelier. Perhaps the
tory is the fact that the main road north
from Houlton runs due north through the
middle of township after township without
the slightest divergence to the right or left
In one place, rising up from the banks of a
river, we passed lin a ride of forty-two miles
from Houlton to Presque Isle) over quite a
steep pitch, and a side road had been made
around it, but the main Aroad over it still
each roll of land we saw always before us
the road straight ahead till it disappeared
over the top of the next one, say two miles
on. On this road we saw but four or five
places where the bed rock came to the sur
face, and this only for a few feet. On the
cuts by the roadside we looked in vain fol
any demarcation between soil and suh-soil
and was obliged to accept the universe
statement that the soil is all alike down t.
the rock. Only one farm that we saw hat
stone enough to build piece of wall on tn
road. All the other fences were built of ce
dar logs from ten to twenty inches in diam
eter, laid up in straight lines, the most sub
stantial fence we ever saw, and one no
likely to need repairs in the lifetime Of tn
builder.
The forests in Aroostook are, on the to-
of the rolls and extending some ways dow
the sides, of sugar maple, yellow birch an
beech of large size We saw dozens o
what we should call frstclass sugar place,
yet very little sugar is made. The peopl
say the sugar season is too short, but W
think Vermonter would not find il SC
Farther down the slopes the growth change
to spruce and hemlock and at the bottor
cedars as big as naples are as thick as the
can stand. This cedar land, when cleared
is called the best of all, especially for pot
toes. 1t is not a particle swampy, but ma
urally well drained, and gives, without mi
nure, from three to four hundred bushe
per acre of the first potatoes grown in tn
world. These were being shipped fro
Houlton at the rate of sixteen car loads