The Portland daily press., 1894-10-06
AR0OSTOOK ATTRACTIONS.
Some Experiences of One from the
Outside.

MIR Phair and His Starch Factories-His
Largest Orchard in the County-The
Joys and Sorrows of Pie Sociab1e-
The New Railroad.
Presque Isle, Sept. 27th.-It was cold
tere last night. There was heavy
white frost everywhere, early this morn
ing, and thin ice IN places. AT seven
O'Clock, though there had been bright
sunshine for an hour it WAS two de-
grees below freezing on the shady side
of the building. People were driving
about in their great winter fur coats
This weather is unusually severe even
for this high latitude. Not one half the
potatoes are dug as, yet, but they are all
right in the ground and this frosty
weather cannot last long.
At eight O'Clock this morning we
started on long drive with Mr.. Thos. H.
Phair and wife, to make the round of
some of his starch factories and enjoy a
table d'hote dinner. prepared by his
French cook, away up in the woods at
Perham.
AS we crossed the bridge, and started
away over the rolling country, through
the great hay fields and potato patches
and the huge barns and cozy houses,
the sunshine was glorious, but Jack
Frost was still rampant. Cold toes and
red noses were the rule and winter gloves
were scarcely warm enough. The bright
hard wood forests still clothed the hills
in rainbow colors, but the heavy frost
had somewhat dimmed their splendor.
At the top of every rounded ridge a
new and tremendous panorama extended
before US and anoyne could see that de-
spite the already enormous farming terri
tory, this rich and prospecting country
is not even half developed and the forests
are still monarchs of the land.
Six miles brought US to the little will
age of Mapleton where Mr.. Phair stopped
to inspect his factory and see that the
starch had been properly dried and that
everything was running as it ought to.
This occupies the most of his time DUR
ing these two months of starch making.
He informed us that the day before he
had bought another factory about seven
miles from Pressure Isle making seven
in ALL The most distan5 is at Perham
IA miles from Presque Isle. To watch
all these and visit every one of them at
least once every two days and some of
them every day is about all one man
wants to attend to. 1t involves the rid
- n. dow
exclusive use of three as good 1roadingn
horses as there are in the county. This
is what must be done by the man who
makes one quarter of all the potato
starch that is made in the whole coun-
try. 1t is tiresome work, this riding
$50 much, and, in view of the excellent
roads the suggestion that bicycle
would be pleasant and heaithful change
of locomotion was favorably considered
by Mr.. Phair, for he is only AZ years old,
though his extensive business interests
would imply that he must be much old
er.
Eight miles across country brought US
to Washburn after ferrying across the
beau tful Aroostook and passing up the
high banks of Salmon brook, on which
the thriving village is situated. The
starch factory and the saw mill are both
owned by fMT.s Phair, who makes all his
own starchd casks, besides shingles.
faiths and boards. He also has a store in
the village. Up the stream beyond Wash
burt we enter the primitive country,
where we witness Aroostook farming in
the initial stages. Here are clearings in
the forest, just made, where a wilder
ness of charred logs and stumps cover the
ground. There the logs have been cut
up and piled around the stump in huge
heaps to he burned and just beyond, per-
haps, the first grain crop was cut from
between the isolated and decaying
stumps. Of course there are potatoes,
wherever there is opportunity. even on
the strips between the road he'd and the
fences. The houses are small, many OF
them being picturesque log cabins, that
contrast strangely with the surrounding
potato fields that would dwarf the best
in Cum berland county.
Four miles brought us to Perham,
L
tory, saw mill, house or two and the
hotel of Peter, the French cook. He
receives us at the door, short and stout
and glad and smiling, as neat as pin
and polite as a lord, with his sleeves
rolled up over his big, brown arms.
His hotel is not large, but what's
that about quality, not quantity? HASN'T
he borrowed chairs to replace the two
benches and isn't there white table
cloth on the table and silver spoons? But
these are trifes. 1t is the stew, the
chicken Stew, that transforms the rough
cabin into the Ora nd Hotel Continental
de Paris, And those baked beans, and
brown bread and hot biscuit and coffee.
Hasn't Peter cooked in lumber camp
year after year, and isn't he the prince
of all lumber camp cooksl With Aroos-
took honey and celery, what more could
be wished for at any table d'hote in this.
or foreign country.
hut this is not all. A huge Scotch