Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-14

the National Traders Bank. 1t is the
old familiar story. A man wanted
more money than he earned, and re-
so.'eu 10 speculation to get it. Prob
ANY thc nrst money he took from the
oanK ne expected to return. and per-
maps dla- Then he took more. and
hhanv the market went against him
anu ne was defaulter. Probably he
continued In the hope that he would
make lucky strike and pull himself
OUT Out instead he got in deeper. Ex-
posure nnaily came, and now he must
pay the penalty. The lessons are too
obvious to need to have attention
called TO them. When a man begins
10 use money that is not his he begins
% approach the brink of a precipice.
ana the chances are about hundred
10 one that he will get to the edge Of it
and fail over as this man has done.
| l Olne o. OF the leading business men Of
Bangor in the lines Of country produce
said to the Bangor Commercial a few
days ago that the time was rapidly ap-
proaching, even If it had not already,
in measure. become a. reality, when
Boston would depend upon New Eng
land and especially upon Maine for
her great supplies of meats and
produce which have for the past quar-
ter OF century been obtained from
the west. Formerly it was the states
of Maine. New Hampshire and YER
mont which furnished the great bulk
| OF the beef consumed in Boston, and
people who are not very old can recall
the great droves of cattle that every
two weeks We're driven to Boston all
through the late summer and fall
months. That was before AroostOOk
county was known as the grand agri-
cultural section which it has since be-
come. The Kennebec and Penobscot
valleys were the districts whence those
supplies of live stock were drawn with
some from Oxford and Waldo counties,
those parts Of the state in the past
being the great grazing districts. In
the early days of bringing western cat
tie to the east, and when Boston OBJ
tanned her supplies of beef by rail from
the newly occupied ranges of the great
plains. eastern farmers, with but few
exceptions. stopped the breeding of cat
tie. The West had taken Boston mark
ct from them and they let them take
It, For many years there was a semi
paralyZed condition to our agriculture,
particularly in it's cattle breeding lines.
Our farmers went into some other
kinds of farming. or they just gave up
farming as business and carried it
on for a mere livelihood. After a num-
Der of years inactivity dairying began
to receive attention and has been pur-
sued with success. but cattle growing
for market and sheep husbandry have
never regained their rightful place as
business factors in agriculture.
Today. as the Commercial declares,
we are up tonew conditions in the West.
The day of cheap cattle produced on
free ranges has gone by. Great cities
are now located all through the West,
the growth CT the past quarter of a
century. which makes new demands
upon the agriculture of that section for
their subsistence. When the great cat
tie ranges of the West are cut up into
farms and great cities populous with
humanity need the cattle and sheep
ShaS rave ucCI COIulIlS East, lHen
comes the reaction which publicists
have long been foretelling in our sourc-
es Of food supply and demand. Boston
must soon look to New England, es-
pecially to our own state, for the great
part Of it's food supplies. Really our
own farmers and our own people do
not know what we can do here in Maine
in great agricultural productivity-in
cattle and crops. Few have any just
conception of the fertility of our lands.
the extent of our rich farming sections
in the newer counties, the amount of
crops we can produce and the cattle
we can raise. We hear so much of
what farmers at the West can do that
what our own farmers can do is sell
com spoken of or is entirely over
looked. Yet those figures which the
Commercial published u short time ago
give an almost bewildering account of
the returns from nine farms in the
single Aroostook town of Pressure Isle
last year. Those farms sold a total of
oven $50 in the year 1901. To be
sure these are leading representative
instances of successful farming. but
they are all in one town. In the coun-
~ a. iAi sc tuCiS are Sue
cessful farmerSwho can stand we'll
alongside with those named. And
while Aroostook is the favored section
of the State, the entire State may be-
come favored section if our farmers
will only come up to their opportuni-
ties. In the town of Levant one farm
err sold apples enough from his orchard
last year, to pay for his entire farm.
This is only one instance of which
there are hundreds all over Maine.
The message to all our farmers this
spring is to put more vigor and work
and system into their farm operations.
Begin now to lay the foundation for a
large herd of good beef cattle Plant
more corn, grow more wheat, and if
well located for the business pay more
attention to the dairy herds. Then
there is the orchard, the sheep fold,
poultry, small fruits-all sources of in
come and profit. Boston will want
everything you raise which the home
markets do not take up, yet our home