Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-08-26
A GOOD BUSINESS.
Picking of BIueberfies Gives Employ
ment to Hundreds of Maine People.
Washington County Has Many Burberry Fields
How Business is Carried On.

To many parts of Washington county
the blueberry is indigenous. In the
vicinity of Cherryfeld, Harrington, Col
umbia Falls, and in some other localities
as well, there are vast tracts of territory
from which the axe of the lumberman,
and subsequent forest fires, long ago re-
moved every vestige of the majestic forest
which once grew there The country is
neither plain nor is it mountainous
Long ridges of granite quarries, or mica
ceous rock, slightly covered with soil,
| stretch away from the southwest to the
northeast Some ridges are low and
rounded like the swell of subsiding seas
while some are high and broken by abrupt
declivities, and everywhere between are
| reaches of plain, or Of low land.
Here, in summer, the hardy low grow
ing blueberry bush spreads a green carpet
on the level places and climbs the warm
| lodges, wherever there is an inch of soil,
OF. wherever crevice gives foot hold.
| TIE lands above described are not usually
divided into small holdings as is the case
| in the strictly agricultural sections of the
State, but large tracts are owned by one
person. In Some cases the owner is not
resident, even Of the State, and the Gus
! tody and care of the lands is in the hands
of faithful attorney. 1t is the general
and quite popular conviction that these
lands, wherever located. are wild lands "
and that the right to hunt and fish there
on, is somehow an inherent and com
mon right.
1t is not strange, therefore, that the
same views have been very stubbornly
held, regarding the right to gather blue
berries wherever they could be found.
But when they were known to be in large
demand, and to have considerable impcr
lance in the markets of the world, an
entire lack of system in production, har-
vesting and selling, WAS the logical result
of this belief that they were common
property. Parties roamed everywhere, at
will, searching for some spot where fruit
was more abundant than in another,
utterly disdaining any but the best
picking here and there few and always
leaving behind them thousands of bushels
of upgathered berries. Fires were started,
sometimes accidentally, and sometimes it
is believed maliciously, which often swept
everything before it for miles. and which
in seasons of drought burned every
vestige of vegetable matter in the scanty
soil.
The men who were at that time engaged
in an effort to build up the canning in
dustry found it difficult and sometimes
impossible to obtain regular and adequate
supply of berries to do even q small bust
ness. But sometime early in the seven
ties, Hon. William Freeman of Cherry
field, who owned, or controlled, much OF
the land which then produced berries,
made the startling and revolutionary
announcement, that blueberries were
and forbade all trospassing on his lands.
Certain firms persisted in buying berries
gathered on Mr.. Freeman's land and it
was impossible to detect trespassers. But
Mr.. Freeman, with sagacious foresight,
which all now concede, took the ground
that the business of canning bluebcrries
could never grow and flourish until the
great principle was established and &C
knowledged, that they were property.
After long and expensive litigation, Mr..
Freeman's claims were fully sustained by
the courts, and the blueberry business
for the first time had legitimate basis,
and since then has risen in u systematic
way, till it has become both important
and profitable especially to the former
trespassers.
The burberry fields are called "bar-
rens." Many of these barrens lie quite
remote from settlements. One may see
only here and there house of unprcten-
tious and perhaps rather primitive con-
struction. The owner of the barrens
leases certain amount of lard, perhaps
one or two hundred acres to some one of
these scattered settlers. The lease is
verbal one, and there is no cash consil-
Grafton. The lessee agrees to cultivate
and care for his leasehold, to look after
trespassers, and to see that the berries are
properly gathered and delivered at the
factory which is sometimes 10 or 20 miles
distant. The lessor agrees to continue
the lease as long as compliance is given
to the above conditions. Strange as 1t
may appear there are seldom disputes be-
Seen lessor and lessee, the interests of
both are well looked after and the
arrangement is mutually profitable.
To illustrate the method of cultivation
we will suppose lessee has control of $50
acres. The whole art of cultivation lies in
burning the surface once in three years,