The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-02-28
Names HerbaIiSt.
Abandoned Farm Made to Pay Good Money.
You Can Smell His Catnip Crop Half a
Mile AWay
[Boston Sunday Globe


The story of how William X. Burgess
of East Bucksport has managed one of
Names famous abandoned FARMS"
and won prosperity and considerable
fame from land that was cluttered with
loose stones and infested with pernic-
ious weeds, deserves to be elevated into
treatise on agricultural economics and
place in the libraries of agricultural
colleges.
Less than 20 years ago, when Mr..
Burgess went to East Bucksport from
a farm in Monroe, Me-, he was rich in
health and hope, though poor in finan-
cial resources, so, when he had bought
two adjoining farms on the shores of
Long pond-both of which had been
cropped clear down to hard pan and
undergone the process which Maine
farmers term "Skinning," until there
was nothing left to skin-he found
himself at 35 years of age without an
available dollar in the world, and hitch
ed to a barren hillside farm, which,
according 20 local report, was not able
to sustain pair of rabbits.
The first thing which Mr.. Burgess
needed was ready money.
Local ways of securing ready money
had been to cut the hay and haul it
loose to Bangor, II miles away, and sell
it on the market at the highest price
offered. 1t proved to be serious propo-
sition, for not only was Bangor IL miles
distant, but the roads for most of the
way were steep and stony and very
rough.
Owing to the time required to get to
Bangor and return it was the custom
of some persons to grease the wheels of
the hayrack and load the hay and bind
it solidly the Sunday afternoon before
starting, partly because religious scru-
pies did not permit the farmers to labor
in public view on the Sabbath and part
ly because such labor saved half day
of valuable time, which could be devot-
ed to other duties on a week day.
By using two sedate horses and eXer-
clSing great care when negotiating the
rough places, a patient farmer, who
started from home at 3 O'Clock in the
morning, could hope to land his load in
the Bangor market by II o'clock in the
forenoon, after which he had to bargain
and banter and haggle with customers
for several hours before he effected
sale. Then he must drive to some re-
mote part of the city and pitch off and
stow away the load of hay in the peak
VI ooLue sDlhli otdplo UeIoIo HC Coulu
think of going home; and if he reached
his own bed before midnight he consid-
cred himself lucky.
Farmer Burgess thought the matter
over He had to pay taxes on his bar
rem land. He was compelled to NOW
most of the grass by hand, owing to the
number of stones exposed to the now
ing machine, He must also rake his
crop by hand and stow it away in the
barn, after which he must load it on
the rack and spend a day and night in
landing it in Bangor. And for all this
After two years of peddling loose hay
and started in to make butter.
Now when he takes a ton of hay to
Bangor it goes as butter inside of
neat tirkin, and the journey is made in
top buggy SO rapidly that he can do
his marketing and get home in time for
dinner.
1t was the same way when farmer
Burgess tried to realize cash from the
sale of cordwood in Bangor. He had
plenty of second-growth hardwood on
his place, but he lived beyond the 10
mile limit where railroads could haul
wood by the carload at cheaper rates
than it was possible to do with horse
power He found it took a whole day
to cut and land cord of fuel at his
door, and another very long day was
demanded to take this wood to Bangor
and sell it, As the local dealers were
selling equally as good wood at S4.50
a cord farmer Burgess concluded there
was no profit in working himself and
horses for two days at the rate of 1925
a day.
He bought saving machine and for
two years manufactured wood into
stove lengths and sold it for $3.50 q
cord, but gave it up after a thorough
trial
And now comes the crucial period in
Mr.. Burgess management of an aban-
doned farm. AT different times when
he had been in Bangor marketing the
output of his farm, people HAD asked
him if he raised any sage or thorough
wort or summer Savory Once in a while
a restaurateur wanted fresh pepper
mint. This man wanted horehound for
a bad cough. Another asked for worm
wood for a tonic, SO he might have a
more savage appetite for his food. And
Burgess replied to all these that he
would be able to fill the orders the next
year.
The business of growing and curing
the various fragrant and medicinal
herbs grew SO fast that in the summer
of 1906 the Burgess farm produced
more than ton of catnip, nearly a ton
of dried sage leaves and hundreds of
pounds of pennyroyal, saffron, chamo-
mile, horehound, wintergreen, lungwort,
gold thread, balSam, white pine bark,
parsley, crosses and many other plants
that are seldom mentioned outside the
regular pharmacopias found in the drug
stores.
From farmer he had developed into
an herbalist.
In the old days when farmer Burgess
was selling hay he required two heavy
horses to carry hay valued at $40 to
Bangor, and when ne sold wood the
same horses worked long and hard to
take cord of rock maple valued at
$3.50 to market. Today he can put
packets of herbs valued at more than
800 into an express wagon and can trot
his horse half the time both ways.
The side issues which farmer Burgess
has undertaken or is about to start on
his abandoned farms are nearly as prom
Using as his direct sources Of income.
Some years ago he thought that he
would keep sheep and see how he would
fare at selling wool and lambs, but as
tha docs came and slow MANY in hjc