The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-02-10
POTATOES THEIR ONLY CROP.
A Booming County In Maine Cut On
From the Rest of the World.

A Booming County In Maine Cut On
From the Rest of the World.
Even to a western man, Aroostook
county, Me-, is a revelation. Isolated
from the rest of the state by the great
woods, and on the south by as worth
less a section of country as the sun
shines upon, reached only at present
by detour through New Brunswick,
one at last comes out into prosperous
section of Maine that is exhibiting all
the dash and vim of doomed locality
of the transmississippi- Here we find
land of great fertility, cleared farms
with modern built houses and barns,
towns taking on city forms and fash
ions, electric lights, water works,
paved streets. telephone exchanges,
opera houses, and lastly, but not
least, elegant churches and schools
and live newspapers. Hampered at
present by the lack of railroad
system and direct contact with the
markets, the disadvantage of long
wagon hauls of produce to the nearest
transportation lines, and the return
haul of all commerce, still the country
is on the bound agriculturally. and be
sides all the other produce and lumber,
more than a million bushels of pota
toes went to the great potato markets
last year. and as many or more will &c
this season, and at not less than one
dollar and a half a barrel OF two ano
three-quarter bushels. 1t is through
potatoes now that the county has 1T:
greatest reputation, and when the new
railroad that is fast building extends
the entire length of the county, anG
its other natural advantages are posi-
BILE of development, it is hard to prom
Use what the future of this section will
be- While the county is crossed by
ranges of low rolling hills. and these
hills are simply slate upheavals, the
SOIL is wonderfully fertile, and the alb
sence OF the granite drift and debris
so marked in the west and south, maize
farming here less laborious, and the
soil more economically worked.
The whole talk of farmers is of pota
toes, and the future of the industry
VIII they mine out the special potato
fertility?-and how to maintain it. il
such thing is to happen-and happen
it seems likely TO if all reports are sum
married. Houlton and Caribou are two
great potato markets, and for week.
and months the streets are full OF
wagons loaded with potato barrels
for all sales are made at barrel rates
and as there are at present only TIVE
markets, and each at the side of the
county fifty miles apart, the labor in
volved TO transport the crop by wagon
is simply immense, as potato wagons
from forty TO fifty miles away are part
of the sights, and on a recent inland
trip we met many of the huge freight
wagons with four big horses loaded
with potatoes dong a four days round
trip.
The growing of potatoes here is no,
wholly unlike that of other sections,
save that all preparations for the crop
are made the fall previous; SO as soon
as the ground is warm the fna! fitting
of the Land and the planting are hur-
ried forward. The soil seems pecu.
liar sort of clay, incident to sla.y, fin.
t. soil The potato fields are usually
small and the acreage not surprising
for each farm 1t would DC impossible,
owing TO the present clearings and
character of the land. to have large
fields and SO they are grown in patches.
the total potato acreage Of a farm vary
ing from five to ten acres, and only
few reaching twenty 10 twenty-five
Old pasture sod made yet richer with
phosphate, five hundred pounds 70 ton
per acre, is the rule. and while the
planting is largely done with planters.
and the digging in some cases with dig
gers. the cultivation is OF the style OK
twenty years ago-deep culture N the
rows and killing up-in contrast with
level culture, SO recommended By Mr..
Terry. The yields are surprisingly
large for whole farms Every man
strives for not less than one hundred
barrels per acre, and now and then
reaches $50 barrels. and IL was told ne,
IN confidence, that seven hundred bush
els of salab.e potatoes had been raised
on an acre, and several hundred BUSH
els per acre on ten and fifteen acres
The Beauty of Hebron, Green Mountain
and local variety of the Rose family
ere the three principal varieties In
planting the seed is cut 20 twoeyed
pieces and the planting IS in drills liz
81 inches
Strange as !. may appear. only one
crop Of potatoes 10, as . rule. taken
from the soil then new land occupied
The late field Is sown 70 oats and
grass and then into pasture. again
later on - 20 back into potatoes The