The Portland daily press., 1894-03-15
BuckFIELD TOWN.
Bad Spring Roads Now-Extraordinary
Task of a Massachusetts Mantle De
Costers and Their Work for Agricul-
ture

Especial Correspondence of the Press]
Buckfeld, Me-. March IA.
We arrived at Buckfield last Saturday
afternoon, after a satisfactory ride from
Portland without changing cars, thanks
to the new extension of the Portland q
Rumford Falls railway. We had Won
dered all the way up AS to whether we
should drive out to our friends farm
on runners or wheels, but there proved
to be still plenty of snow among OK
ford's hills, and he was waiting for US
with his market pung. Buckfield will
age must, be lovely in summer, because
of the rows of elms, but the three mile
ride up and down the hills of the sur
rounding country last Saturday was too
tedious for the horse to be wholly salts
factory to us. The great drifts were
still holding their ground, but not their
own, for they were no longer the firm,
solid drifts of February, but the soft,
slumpy snow banks of an April that has
usurped the prerogative of March. In
places there were four feet of snow in
the woods, and if the horse didn't place
his feet as daintily as rope dancer he
would go down clear to his helly-whlch
he frequently did. Had we swerved
from the middle of the road we should
have had to dig out the pung 1t was
like traverslng narrow bridge tnaC is
likely to break anywhere.
We met other teams occasionally, and
the question was always as to the con-
dition of this or that piece of road, and
we learned that some were well nigh
impassa BILE fo- loaded teams. Ever and
anon we dragged across bare spot, to
plunge Immediately into four-foot
drift. But it was ii lovely ride never
theless, and it always would De IN that
hill surrounded valley, beneath blue
sky. regardless of facilities for loco
motion. A tiny hubble was visible on
hare rocky dome to the north 1t rep
resents
An Extraordinary Proceeding
on the part of Massachusetts man. who
came into the Ugh borhood of the noun
tain two years ago next summer ana
stopped at farm house for the benefit
of his health. He climbed the noun
tain daily for couple OF months and
on the top INDUCED in the pastime OF
piling up huge monument OF loose
rocks. 1t is ten feet high and some of
the rocks are SO large that he must have
used skids and prizes and lapored With
the energy of enthusiast M or despair.
At all events he built the / ohuneht
and it stands there now intact and he
went back to Massachusetts, in better
health than when he came.
Finally we drew rein in 'front.' OF the
ancestral home of the De Costers, a
roomy mansion surrounded with every
evidence of comfort and prosperity. The
rear portion is 100 years old, and was
built by the grandfather OF our host.
MIR. Virgil P. De Coster,
who is now man in the prime of life,
and one of the most prominent agricul-
turists of the county and member of
the State board. The raising of apples
is his speciality, as it is becoming to be
that; of all the farmers of that section.
Behind the house is a young orchard of
500 trees, all of which he raised from the
seed himself. 1t required four years be-
fore the Seeding was ready to set out,
and now the orchard is from twelve to
fifteen years old, and is just getting into
a fruitful prime.
An orchard is thing of slow growth
and, if pofta BILE, of skillful culture as
well. The present generation of Oxford
farmers are realizing this, but the last
generation did not. Mr.. De COster' $
father was the first man in Bucksfield
to graft Il tree, and his neighbors laughed
at him; but the great orchards of grated
trees that are now fourishing on the
hills of Buckfield are not to be laughed
at. Just across the valley we could see
Il great orchard that Yielded its owner
1000 barrels of apples year or two ago
that he sold for $4,000, at profit to HIM
self of Il clear $1,000 at least, and last year
this orchards yield sold for $1,000. But
these profitable orchards require, and
are given, all the skillful care of JAG