The Republican journal., 1905-09-07
THE THRIFTY Firms.
What They Are Doing on Wornout
Farm Here in Maine.

! 1dlLAlo VI AdllCs JAW XA1NAASShS -
| jovial little man with an iron will and
an amount of good common sense, has
! demonstrated that they are capable of
it, For number of years he has been
constant source of surprise to the
| farmers of Oxford county. At first
they laughed at him and his strange
methods of doing things. They saw
him take farm that had been practi-
cally abandoned, about six miles from
Paris village, a farm which had been
generally regarded as hopeless propO-
sition. They saw seventy-five acres of
wornout land gradually transformed
into one of the most productive farms
in the country, and growing up around
Mckeen a little colony of Firms with
peculiar ideas about farming, but ideas
that almost invariably brought results
| when put into operation,
oxford county farmers are now
adopting the methods of the Firms;
some have hired the latter to work on
their farms, and this little settlement
on the banks of the Androscoggin river
has become one of the most interesting
spots in Maine to those interested in
agriculture.
How have the Firms accomplished
SO much?
| Because, as Mckeen puts it, they
realize that ground is like an old shoe.
| With constant wear it becomes worn
| out and unfit for use. Mckeen's
method is to bring it back to where it
was, to provide for it the fertilizer that
nature would furnish in the natural
course of events if man kept mis- hands
off. He has employed the same meth
DDS in Maine that he found successful
| l,xyn hi, Of
| American and Finnish ideas has worked
out to his own satisfaction a problem
which many Others tried to solve and
| failed.
Coming to this country from Finland
about sixteen years ago, with less than
two dollars in his pocket, Mckeen set
i tied in Maine, engaged in farming, and
within few years had accumulated
in a trade and lost it ALL Meanwhile,
he had induced about forty of his fellow
countrymen to come to Maine. Against
the advice of friends, he bargained for
the Wornout estate about six miles from
Paris. He declared that he would make
all of it good land, and the people laugh
ed at him. But Mckeen was satisfied
with his choice.
! He had about $50 in his pocket when
he made the bargain, and the farm cost
him about seven times that amount.
He liked the location. 1t appealed to
his artistic sense. His fields stretch
away in the foreground through the
valley, a valley almost shut in by
mountain peaks, some of them tower
ing many hundred feet, until the range
sweeps to the White Mountains of New
Hampshire. Yet the smoke of the loco
motive rises within easy distance.
1t is an ideal spot for people who
delight in outdoor life who can look up
at the sun and tell within five minutes
the time of day, who like to whip their
own trout brook for choice dinner
and make friends with the birds in
their own woodlands.
| When Mckeen took possession of
these Seventy-tive acres the transfer
nation began in which the practical
farmers of Oxford county have become
interested.
The place cut about two tons of hay
the year McKeen took it. The neigh
bors smiled, and said that would about
feed the one COW of which he was pos
sessed. Today the farm cuts twenty
five tons, Mckeen has paid every cent
he owed has a good bank account, has
a number of horses, eighteen cows, and
other stock. Last year, when none of
his neighborS was able to raise any
sweet corn, Mckeen realized consider
ably over S400 on his; and he has shown
results equally remarkable in other dl-
| rectonS.
The great scrawly forest which cover
ed a great part OF the land when he
| took it has disappeared. The brush
| has hnpn all takpn ont of if nnlV h
best trees being allowed to remain. and
everything taken from this forest has
been put to the best use. The brush
J cut from the woods he left on the
ground through rain and storm until
| it became rotted and ground to dust
Then he ploughed it into the land, and
results seem to bear out his state
ment that this is the very best manner
/ in which to enrich the soil. Following
| Mex GEMS example, other Oxford coun-
/ ty farmers have secured equally good
results.
Satisfied with nothing but the best
fields, he dug out all the rocks and
placed them in the hollowS, later cover
/ ing them with earth. His fields are as
level as the floor of house. He plac-
ed sods in the crotches of the apple
trees, which had been growing straight
and scrawly, and now there are no
more shapely and productive trees in
the valley.
In winter he solved the ice problem
after others had failed. Before he
went there attempts had been made to
dam the brook. Hundreds of dollars
had been spent on it, but every spring
the floods would wash the dam away,
and the natives stoutly declared that a
dam solid enough to resist the freshet
could not be built. McKeen took two
men, and with them worked three
days, and at the end of that time had
dam that has held up against some Of
the worst floods that section has
known. Instead of being obliged to
haul his ice half-doZen miles, he now
has all the ice he wants on his own
property, and for several years has
had enough to supply several Of his
neighbors.
Everywhere on the farm are evil
dences of the thoughtfulness and in
genuity of the owner. The cattle are
we'll cared for; even the water they
drink is of the purest. A good tub in
the pasture is supplied from spring,
which keeps it full of water clear as
crystal.
IN accomplishing all this, McKeen
and his fellow countrymen owed much
to what they learned in their native
land, and even now there are constant