Evening star., 1898-11-12

have more than 700 buildings and eighty
miles of turnpike roads. They own about
$4,000 worth of live stock, and in 1894 their
farm products were valued a $173, I5O. Tha.
same year the total value of buildings,
c,earings, tools, stock. factories, mills and
farm and mill products reached nearly $500,
ooo. When one considers that quarter of
century ago this territory did not produce
a dollar, these figures are eloquent. Today
there are upward of 1000 Swedes in Maine,
" no are the direct result of this enterprise.
This is all New Sweden continued the
driver checking his team to give time 20
observation. We were at the top of Land
grin s Hill, end from where we stood the
land sloped in every direction to the thick
underground that betokened a water course
and rose again, and thus on as far as the
eye could reach rising and falling gently,
peacefully. From the crest of the hill down
80 feet runs the road, then up again TO the
horizon. In winter the young SWedeS slide
down this hill On their skis. and a glorious
sport ii is. But now 1t is shaded on either
SIDE with mol tEern pine and hardwood en-
towering 1t in latticed framework through
which the Landgrin farm. with its busy
family of toilers, the old church and the
pastors home could be seen in glimpses.
Enormous Potato Crops.
On every side were neat farm houses
some of ther: bright with paint. AMI all of
them tidy and warmly built, with barns
three anI four times their size Around
'hem were pasture lands and groves, or
chards and meadows and vast potato fields.
Aroostook county raises more potatoes than
the entire balance of the state. 1t is one of
the great potato raising regions of the
EGFld one farmer has raised as many as
a." bushels to the acre, and the average
yleld Is more than 200 bushels.
among these farms we drove
This is Gabriel Gabrielson's farm" ex-
pialhed Ole, the driver, as We stopped be-
lore field that reached from the roadside
IL me nils. full quarter of a mile beyond
Good day. Gabriel he called in Svensk.
Good day, Ole," and tall naxen-haired
man came up to the wagon
How are your potatoes coming on?,
Inc, answered the farmer in fair En-
SllSh; about 300 to the acre"
Hard work?"
/ he farmer shrugged his broad shoulders
Al the lower end of the field drawn bv
Nv" horses, rolled the potato-digging ma
chlhe, which looks like a harrow, and left
double row of pink tubers' in its wax
which were being literally shovaiad IN
bSSkets by the farm hands The farm,
hards consisted of Mrs. GabriaIson and a
string OF little Gabriesons of all sizes 1t
rays TO raise large families in New Sweden
mere would be very little profit in farm
ing, especially at this busy season if thare
"-re not plenty of children to load the
Deskets in the potato fields. A youngster
cah PICK up as many potatoes as grown
up ana TINS is the great harvest among the
Aroostook Swedes. But it is hard work.
anu there Is plenty of it. They get up at 1
IN the morning; at ) they are at work, and
trey keep at it until 1t is too dark to dis
ungulsh potato from an earth ball They
only stop for meals of which they have
f"ur-breakfast at 4:30, lunch at IL, dinner
az . and supper at q. At lights are out
ara the tired laborers are ENJOYING a rest
II at the city man reads about, but never
experiences.
Preachers Who Farm.
The first Lutheran church is built on the
LaTdgrin farm. 1t is a plain white struc-
Hre, bare and simple, quite different from
M rather gaudy Baptist meeting house
9San the road, where we saw the parson
and his pretty wife in the family potato
patch with Their little ones, harvesting their
Clop. The same as the rest of the people do
The preachers of New Sweden all combine
farming with their minist rial labors
Money goes a long way in this faraway
nook. but even here $500 a year is not
enough TO rear and educate a family un-
less 1t is pieced out with some kind of Ia
Dor. The feature of the Lutheran as of all
the churches hereabouts, is the horse shed
large enough to shelter a regiment of cav
airy. and in which the worshipers leay.
their teams during services. The Swede is
a merctful man to his beasts
We stop hera.' said Ole, and he t,Irned
the team off to the side of the road Around