Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-06-01
A Great Potato Record.
ONE MILLION BUSHELS PRODUCED IN
ONE TOWN IN MAINE.

II is matter of record that Aroostook
County produced in 1908 over sixteen
million bushels of potatoes, which found
a ready sale. Talking with one of the
live farmers in this county the other
day, l was surprised at the figures
given. Beginning in the virgin soil, on
the hardwood ridges, the crop has al
ways been large, but under the system
of short term rotation now prevailing
the yield has been materially increased
and the quality improved, so that to-day
four hundred bushels is not an uncom-
mon yield. Thorough work, intense
cultivation, liberal fertilzing and select
ed seed, with three to four years rota-
ton, have done the job and produced
these results. That rotation is potatoes,
wheat and clover, and the wheat yield
has been lifted to fifty bushels an acre in
is one, lies in the fact that as soon as a
fifty acre field is planted the cultivator
is started, and one team and man are
kept busy from that time on working
the soil, keeping down the weeds, rem
dering available fertility and conserving
moisture. This farmer would pay 81 a
bushel for seed the size of hens egg
rather than have large potatoes as a
gift, and as he has grown from thirty
five to fifty acres yearly for over thirty
years his experience must be accepted.
Presque Isle, town in the middle
north of the county and on the eastern
boundary, produced last year one mill
lion bushels of potatoes, a record hardly
to be duplicated in this country, II in
the world. The result is that farms
which fifteen years ago sold for from
SO, 900 to $4,000 are now commanding
$50, 900 to $4,000. Here is an ilustra-
tion of the value of thorough work and
the application of business principles
which should carry lesson to every
reader. But this is not the whole story,
for the character of work done, the
physical condition of the soil resulting
from constant cultivation and tS grow
ing of a clover crop every third or fourth
year has given Aroostook potatoes q
reputation all over this country, so that
in one day recently there were fifty buy
ers from the middle and southern states
gathered at Presque Isle after seed.
Maine is fast becoming the great seed
distributing center of this country, and
that position it will hold 80 long as
selected seed is produced under such
complete conditions. 1t is critical seed
selection, complete preparation Of the
land, the use of liberal amount OF
fertilizer, prepared with special refer
euce to the perfection of the crop, and
then thorough work in cultivation and
spraying which tells the story in Maine
or elsewhere, and this lesson is to-day
pretty well ingrained wherever potatoes
are grown, for no man wants to admit
that half crop is his limit. There Is
another lesson of magnitude In this con-
nection, that a short term rotation very
soon puts land in such friable condition
that cost of preparation for seeding IL
materially reduced, while through a
complete seedbed yield is stimulated.
Here's another point of interest, that the
Aroostook farmer sets his rows thirty
two inches apart and drops his seed
every ten to twelve inches in the drill,
the claim being that by so doing the
danger of diversified potatoes is removed.
The full story of successful potato
growing has not yet been uncovered,
and each year is revealing new facts
vital to the grower; but, guided by the
light of past experience, preparations
are being made for greatly Increased
acreage all over this state, and with
fair growing season the crop Of 1909
should pass the 35,0O0,000 mark. Pota-
toes are good crop for any man who is
ready to do his part and do 1t well.
There is no room for halfway, guess-it-
will-do methods. Maine is enthusiastic
over the growing of potatoes.-Dr. G.
M Twitchell in Tribune Farmer.