The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-11-01
AROoSTOOK'S POTATO CROP.

The directory of the towns of IIoul-
ton, presque Isle. Fort Fairfield and
Caribou, recently issued, includes data
giving the area of each farm and the
acreage each individual farmer had in
potatoes. This was done at the sugges-
ton of the editor of the Star Herald of
Presque Isle The statistics do not
include IIoultOn The Star Herald has
gathered the following facts concern
ing the three towns i'll which the call-
vass was made:
1t appears that in the town of Presque
Isle there is total acreage in potatoes
lif our addition OF the items is correct
of $500, divided among 297 farmers In
the town Of Fort Fairfield we find the
total acreage III potatoes to be o.376,
while the town Of Caribou is credited,
according to this authority, with 1881
acres, thus making Fort Fairfield the
banner town in point OF area planted in
| potatoes. 1t appears that in Presque
Isle for the 297 farms reported there is
an average potato plant for each indi-
vidual farmer of about Is IL acres. In
| Caribou, with 270 farmers reported,
there is an average of about II ID. In
Fort Fairfield, with 322 farms on the
list, there is an average Of about 16 -,
acres in potatoes. In Presque Isle
there are 35 farmers who raise from fiji
teen to sixteen acres each; fifty three
who raise from twenty to forty; two
who raise between fifty and sixty: one
who raises SiXty-fOur acres and one who
had seventy-five acres planted. Presque
Isles farms aggregate total area of
39,056 acres, making and average of 131
IL acres in each farm. The largest
farmer in the list is Emery L. Hayden,
who is credited with 1000 acres: the
next largest is Columbus Hayford, with
acres, Danl Chandler with 40 and
Frank Higgins with 400. Going on
down in the scale we find G. A. Parsons
with $50 acres, E. d. Jordan with 375,
t. W. Kidney with $50. E. A. Mcclure
| with 325, Walter Carmichael 32O. G. NJ.
Park 320, and S. c. Greenlaw, &. W.
johnson, G. W. Perry and c. F. A. Phair
with 300 acres each. Then follows S. j.
Harvey with 275, V. d. Parkhurst and
Leslie Bean with 275 acres each, Chas.
Brundage with $50, W. II. Suffer with
240, &. b. Whidden with 23o, and c. c.
Rolfe with 220. There are quite large
number with an even two hundred, and
the balance is distributed quite largely
in lots of 100 and so acres each.
Reckoning Pressure Isles potato crop
to yield an average of 40 barrels to the
acre, it would make 10000 bills, and if
potatoes bring an average price of a
dollar barrel, our farmers would real
| iZe from their crop 100000. The three
towns of Fort Fairfield, Presque Isle
! and Caribou have an aggregate acreage
| OF u, 759, and on the same ratio Of pro-
duction it would give total of 80, $50
bills, and at dollar a barrel an equal
number of dollars as the revenue of
the three towns from this one source.
The figures given would seem to be at
the minimum average yield and price,
and it is possible that the total re-
turns in cash to the three towns will
considerably exceed half million dol
lars. Assuming that the returns from
all other sources combined equal the
aggregate received from the potato
crop, it would give a round million to
the three towns mentioned. This pota-
to aggregate for the three towns of
Fort Fairfield, Presque Isle and Carl
bou, represents $500 carloads; to say
nothing about the great variety of
other produce they ship to market dur
ing the season.
These figures are certainly strikingly
suggestive of the great magnitude of
the farming industry in the section