The Saint Paul globe., 1899-12-24

AS soon as the deciduous trees have
cast OIL their summer garments and No
Vember winds have banked the sky with
cold, steel-gray clouds, the Maine farm
er who lives on the dividing line between
the cleared fields and villages on the
south and the great black forests to the
north, gets out his fail, sweeps up the
barn floor and begins to pound out beans,
the regular strokes Of his swinging stick
ringing out in the crisp air like the thuds
of pile driver. He threshcs beans on
cold days because the frosty bean pods
will snap open easily. When The weather
is moist and foggy he chops cordWood at
the edge of the clearing, or chases fresh
deer tracks along the leaf carpeted halls
of the forest With ven.son to eat, with
wood to burn and with beans enough to
eat with the pork that is growing fat in
the stye, he can look forward to the long
winter having no fear that he may run
short Of food before the rains of spring
shall bring up the dandeliOn greens In
his door yard and set the smelts and
suckers to running up the smaller
brooks.
Though the Maine farmer has food and
clothing enough for the immediate wants
of himself and family, though he pays
no tent and never knows the tight pinch
of poverty that is often felt in the ten
ement districts of the big cities, he is
usually in Il condition which is COM
monty called dead broke a state Of
financial paralysis which cCmpels him 20
wait until he can make butter or get
eggs enough to buy a pound of tea at
The store before his family can drink tea
at the supper table.
In order TO relieve the chronic anemia
of his pocketbook the backwoods farmer
resorts to eXpedients. If he is honest
and wants to pay as he goes. lie looks
about him 10 find some new way Of get
ting money and steady employment for
himself. In the last dozen years a score
or more of new industries have bean un-
dertaken in rural Maine. There are five
times as many hens kept in Maine today
as there were ten years ago. Three large
firms are canning rabbits for shipment.
Ten years ago a man couldn't sell rabbi s
for 10 cents carload. There are three
condensed milk factories, more than fiji V
creameries and over 100 corn and apple
canning establishments in active opera
tior where there was not one q decade
ago. Popcorn in the ear is shipped frO1a
Maine now by the carload. Ten years
ago more than half the corn that was
popped in Maine was raised in New York
and Massachusetts. One county in Maine
has increased its yield of potatoes by
over 5,00Q,00 bushels within the decade
Last blocks, handles for axes hammers,
brushes and brOOmS, Vene2rs IF hardwood
excelsior, starch by the trainload, canned
blueberries by the shipload. canned CLAIMS
and bottled clam juice. sealed jars Of
sweet cream, great tanks of buttermilk
and sardires by the million cans are also
among the new articles which Maine pro-
duces and sends away for sale
CHRISTMAS TREES.
Ona of tho neu,est industries that has
come to Maine and in the season one that
IS assuming great size IS the cutting and
bundling of Christmas greens for the hon-
day markets in the big cities Until six
or seven years ago the halSam fir OF the
cold Northern woods was considered the
most worthless tree that ever grew. 1t
was as prolific as pusley and as hardy
as a burdock 1t grew on land that would
raise no other crop; no animal or worm
or bug would eat of its foliage, and
when It was once started in a thicket no
other tree or shrub had any chance to
come in and supplant it. The wood was
Valueless for timber and made poor fuel
Except for some rank-smellfng Viscid
balsam. which formed in bisters below
the bark and which was used as an en-
pirical remedy for coughs and colds,
the fir was wholly outside the pale Of
human utility. Yet it was one of the
prettiest and most thrifty trees that
grew, having a dense foliage of living
green and a shape that was as tapering
and symmetrical as a minister spire
Seven years ago a party of hunters. re-
turning on steam yacht from caribou
hunt in Newfoundland, called at Sargent
vilfe, en- the eastern shore of Penobscot
bay, and took a ride inland to visit some
abandoned copper and lead mines in Blue
Hill. The leaves had fallen from decidu-
Ous trees. causing tlVe dark eVergreens to
stand out in bold relief against the neu-
trail background of browns and grays
Stretching back from the roadside and
sweeping over hill and valley were teas
of thousands of young frs in the full
vigor of rampant growth, The owner OF
the yacht looked at them carefully and
came to the conclusion they would make
ideal Christmas treeS-muCh better than
the scrubby, irregular pines that were
then In use. He hired some men and
horses and loaded the deck Of the yacht
with about five hundred trees and took
them to Boston as a speculation. When
the cargo of trees was taken up in front
OF Faneuil hall the marketmen fell over
one another in their greed to get the new
trees They sold out the entire lot at an
enormous profit, and cfamored for more
The next year about 10000 trees were
taken TO Boston from the shores Of
Hancock county, chiefly from Castine,
Orland and Blue Hill. The third season
trees were sent to New York, and cap
tured the hearts of the dwellers in Amer
ica's metropolis. At the. end of four years
the average shipment of Maine frs was
100000 trees q year. Last season more
than 100000 were sent away. This sea-
sons shipment will probably reach $780,
coo.
Though the cutting, trimming, build
ing and shipment of Christmas trees is a
laborious task, the Maine farmers make
the occasion an autumnal holiday, TAX
ing their families to the forest fringe and