Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-12-14
MAINE EDITORIAL COMMENT.
The Old to Become New.
Maine Farmer.)

The abandoned farm hue and
cry made by few Maine politicians
for partisan effect for a few years
past, gets another quietus in the fol-
lowing paragraph from the Fort Fair
field Review:
1T is a good omen for Maine that
there is less talk than for years past
about abandoned farms. People
have found ont that abandoned
Maine farms arc good for something.
Quite a number have been taken by
Aroostook people and made to pro-
duce fairly good crops of potatoes.
Aroostook methods and results have
been employed upon some others but
not necessarily by Aroostook men
and have been rewarded by good
measure of success"
No one knowing the real situation
in Maine and having practical
bandrv was in the least deceived by
the abandoned farm talk. The
science of agriculture has developed
too far to allow those having this
knowledge to be hoodwinked into be
lieving that land which was ever
really adapted to farming can become
despoiled of its value for farming pur-
poses by a dozen years of neglect.
Long before the essential elements
of fertility have become seriously de-
pleted by lax or ignorant manage
ment, the crop that can be secured
from such improvident methods of
farming will have become so meager
as TO prevent serious loss of the in
herent soil qualities upon which fu-
'ture success depends. In fact 1t IS
now well known that it is practically
impossible to seriously exhaust the
essential elements of fertility Of our
strong New England soils by even the
most unwise methods of handling. OF
course the organic material--humus
which is largely concerned in pro-
viding the nitrogen supply can be ex-
hausted from the soil, but this ele-
ment the intelligent farmer can re-
place without expense by the grow
ing OF clover and other legumlnous
plants. The phosphoric acid. potash,
lime and a few other important ele-
ments are in the soils of Maine in
large supply and can be depended or
to furnish these elements for gener-
atoms of farmers if the necessary
high tillage is supplied with short
of crops. OF course larger
yields will be obtained if additional
phosphoric acid and potash are sup
piled for crops that feed heavily on
these materials.
Centuries of rotated crop produc-
ton has increased the productive ca
pacity of ali the farming sections of
that have had intelligent
and the same treatment is
resulting similarly here. The idea
that farms have been abandoned
here in Maine because satisfactory
production could not be longer Sc
cured. is an absurdity to the farmer
Of the present day who has become
fully acquainted with the science Of
plant growth and development. OF
course those wastes Of sand and land
lnder.ad with lodges. which in earl
Ter days We're foolishly denuded of
timber and employed for time in
crop production, had to be abandoned
as necessity for high production be-
came greater, but the soil adapted to
tillage, now remaining neglected,
only needs energetic. intelligent
handling for a few years to become
more lltttIl ever A\oL ii'o''7
sarilv Aroostook methods are re-
quired. Right farming methods are
alike in every section and every state
similar in climate and soil.
The possibilities of these old neg
lected farms that are adapted to
culture but have been starved and
abused are only just beginning to be
but the new agriculture
germ is multiplying steadily and the
generation of Maine farmers
will yet behold some of these So
called abandoned farms changing
hands at figures that now would be
phenomenal.