Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-31

money going back to towns from the
State, but you and know that it all
buncombe. When small towns with
only ten or fifteen inhabitants snip
So 900 barrels OF apples from a single
station we begin to get some idea or
the magnitude of this crop and Its
value to the State. Yet how little the
State is doing to promote our fruit in
terests. 1t is safe to estimate the value
of the apple crop for 1903 at 10o,0O0,00O
barrels, and this does not include home
consumption. Yet, throughout the fruit
growing sections of the State only a
small per cent. of the good orchard land
is being covered with trees, and no.
where in New England are wealthy
corporations being formed. as in the
West, to develop our fruit interests.
All this with the fact staring us in the
face that you are sending money to
California and Florida to invest in
orange groves and peach orchards.
Gentlemen, why not take hold and help
build up the State of Maine: Why not
put your money into apple orchards
here where you can watch your invest
mentS and be sure of Il permanent in
come increasing every year after the
trees come into bearing? Wealthy men
from Mexico and Texas are purchasing
farms in Maine on which they will
plant large orchards this year If you
believe in Maine, and are SO ready to
shout it's praises, why not take hold
and build up this substantial in
dustry? If our talk is all wind, let's ad-
nit and let it GO. We on the farms
have faith in an agricultural future far
beyond anything yet accomplished for
Maine. We know what it can do. and
we know that in fruit growing, dairy
ing, potato growing and stock hus-
bandry any man can make 4 better in
vostment right here than is possible in
the oil fields and mines in which so
many have been sinking their hard
earnings the past year.
What this board of trade wants Ia
faith enough in Maine to put their
hands into their pocketbooks and de-
velop some of it's more important IN
dustries. 1t is all right for us to get up
and shout for the State, and pass our
rcsOlut ions. but somehow this doesn't
cut ice outside. Why leave all this to
be done by others? Why should we
leave it for the hundreds who are
tOIIllIS l1llo lIle DldtC ~ DtlNii<ASN ioi III
property when we have it within our
selves to make the old State hum?
The trouble is we had rather send our
money to the Philippines and let some
smooth tongued promoter invest it.
than salt it down at home where it
would pay good interest. There is
more money to be made in Strawberries
than in Oil fields: gooseberries will pay
i
milk for the Newport factory has wiped
out more mortgages for the past ten
years than electric railroad stock.
Now all these things are necessary
and helpful, and l want to see them
made profitable, but you who are so
ready to invest your money in any of
these schemes fight shy of the farms
which offer substantial returns. The
trouble is. you are thinking of farm
ing as it used to be carried on, but in
this age of machinery we are learning
that there is way to increase our
business and diminish our expenses.
y pertinent question to us is, What
| is the best investment today in Maine?
Our people have been putting large
sums OF money into all the widca t
schemes seemingly regardless of merit.
| The cashier of bank told me not long
ago that l would be surprised to know
the amount of money drawn from his
bank to invest in mining stock. The
1 idea seems to be to invest in something
| away from home; yet Maine is one of
the hest States in the Union, for what
we produce we have a market for close
at hand.
has hpan p1nnrfGd those in love
with sportsmens interests wAo favor
the log cabin. etc. that more than 1000
farms have been sold in Maine within
few years to sportsmen for summer
homes. Now this is all false. The
, f. A. Strout agency has disposed of a
little over three hundred farms in
Maine within the past three years.
about five per cent. of which have been
| for summer homes. The other 2S5 or
more have been purchased with view
of improving them as farm property,
the purchasers coming from the South
and West because of our superior ad :
Vantages and the nearness to n market.
The editor of the Maine Farmer in
! forms us that within the past month he
| has received more than 100 letters from
parties in the middle south ard west.
iShlllS lpT liiloi IlieitiOH uiIlS letI III
property in Maine. and stating that
! they propose to come here to locate. Is
it not time for this State to take hold
and help make this movement of the
greatest permanent value to the State ?
If we want to boom our State along
these substantial lines we must take
hold Of it ourselves and prove our faith
by developing some of our natural re-
sources. which are uneXceled in any
State in the Union.
kORA TEMPLE.