The Republican journal., 1908-02-20
THE NAME GARDEN OF MAINE. .
MISPLACED
CORRESPONDENCE of the Maine Farmerl

Correspondence of the Maine Farmer1
Really it wearies me to hear SO much
about Aroostook being the garden OF
Maine. No Coubt, of the limited num-
Der of crops adapted to that section,
they do raise, generally, very good
crops, as they do in any new country.
But when we consider the tight texture
of their soil and its inability to long re.
tain it's fertility, it will be different
story WHEN it has been cropped as many
wears as the soil in the southern part OF
the State. have seen manure burned
up in the West to get rid of it, as it was
thought to be of no use in the soil, while
now the question of maintaining the
fertility of the soil out there is just as
vital as it. is here in the East.
If any one section can claim premen-
inence over all the rest of the State in
adaptability of great variety OF crops,
and of productive capacity, it is Waldo
county. Nowhere can we lind such
long ridges of fertile, and nearly level,
soil. lust retentive enough OF moisture
to insure the owners good crops in any
kind of season. In fact, we know NO
such word as fail" but always count
on good crops, whether they be of corn,
grain, hay, potatoes, or of the orchard.
Our county was considered of such
prominence IN Maine agriculture, that
| the Board of Agriculture some years
ago appointed j. W. Lang to make a
survey of Waldo county, and 1t was
published in one of the agricultural
reports and occupied a space OF some
! $50 pages, and was given VIDE clrcula-
ton, a pre- eminence which was given
| no other county.
The farmers here are conservative;
| they do not carry all their eggs III one
basket, but they always have several
| well filled and good sized baskets OF
divers kinds of eggs. and with two
railroads running through the county,
they have handy chauce to get them
! to market inside of "a hours. We do
, not spread ourselves over one crop and
| if that does not materiallze in product,
or price, fall fiat, but we cultivate that
| variety which is sure to give spice to
| life, as well as profit to the pocketbook.
And our crops do not dwindle so ter
rible amazin," when compared with
others. Farmers who pretend to do
| much, get about so bushels OF shelled
corn per acre, 60 to so bushels OF oats,
one and half tons of hay and from
25O to 400 bushels of potatoes per acre.
! And then too the quality of our crops
| is of most excellent character. Baked
beans outside of Maine do not taste
| anything like the home product! so
| the potatoes raised in this county are
superior to those of any other section.
used to think it was because potatoes
| we got in Boston and elsewhere had
i lost their taste and 'meallness, 10y
exposure and transportation; but l
kept hotel number of years and ali
the travelling men told me they never
got any real good potatoes in Aroos-
took county, that no potatoes were
equal to those raised here, and travel
ing men have bought their potatoes
here and sent them to their homes In
Bangor to eat on account OF their su-
perior quality. ,.
We certainly do raise some good crops
of potatoes here, although we never
say much about it. Lots OF our farmers
raise from 5 to 10 carloads each year,
and not at the expense Of other crops
either, and we raise them mlddllng
cheap, TOO. | was lately looking over
the Crop Book of Rufus T. Aver OF
Freedom. Mr.. Aver generally keeps 30
OF 40 head of COWS and heifers, fills a
big silo, and raises lots of grain, and
year. He also plants few potatoes.
In 1907, he raised is acres. On acres
in one piece he got $40 bushels. On
the whole 16 acres he raised $500
bushels, Nearly 3 acres in one piece
was SO wet that the crop was very
poor; 3-4 of one acre he said was not
really worth digging. The total ex-
pense of the crop, seed, fertilizer, ma
ter.als for spraying, and cost of dig
ging, reckoning his own time and team
i'm digging, was eleven and ne-fOurth
cents bushel. And reckoning the en-
tire cost, including blowing, narrowing,
hauling stone and manure, cultivating,
hoeing, etc, and counting 81 per acre
rent of land, which is interest on 500
% per acre, the cost was Is cents a
bushel. And his crop sold for $4,000.
Not very bad for one among several
other crops. Many others can be nam
ed who have raised equally as good
crops per acre. We do not have any
starch factories here; in fact, we do not
need any. We seldom have any rotton
potatoes, and no frozen ones, as the
season is long enough to insure crops of
all kinds maturing. Mr.. Aver says
they have never had crop OF any kind
injured but once, for over 40 years, by
frost. END as for small potatoes for
starch factories, we do not have enough
for seed (most farmers plant seed of a
size just below that fit for market) In
fact, the only compliant they ever make
abont our potatoes is that they are apt
to be too large.
Quite number of Aroostook farm
ers have purchased farms in this coun-
ty and are we'll pleased with their
change. The only thing they regret is
that they had not made the change
years ago. There are no abandoned"
farms here. There are farms that have
been bought by adjacent owners to en-
large their holdings, and the farms now
on sale are in most every case owned by
aged people whose children are in bust
ness in cities and cannot come home, or
by people who have no children and on
account of age are almost compelled to
sell. This is why farms here, superior
to Aroostook farms in every way, can
be bought at less price, although real
ly of greater value than similar sized
farms in that county. This is acknowl-
edged by all who come from there.