The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-12-23
POTATO GROWING IN WALDO co.

United States and Canada.
POTATO GROWING IN WALDO co.
Those who have been led to believe
that potato growing is new industry
in Waldo county, originating only year
and half ago, will be interested, per-
haps, to learn that potatoes were the
main crop of Waldo county farmers many
years ago, before the Garden of Maine
had come into prominence. In fact, up
in Aroostook they were then planting be-
tween the stumps of virgin forest and
at night wolves howled around the lonely
farm houses. In those days our farmers
raised from one or two hundred to one
thousand bushels. 1t was their market
crop, from the proceeds of which they
laid in their winter stock of groceries.
1t was not unusual for four or five thou
sand bushels to be hauled into Belfast
daily, mainly by single teams The prin-
cipal buyers were James Morrow and
Woods, Mathews & Baker, although all
the grocery stores bought more or less,
and there was such lively competition
that runners were employed who went
mile or more out of the city to intercept
the teams coming in. For this service
they received cent bushel, and Bel
fast business man, then school boy,
says that he made nearly twenty dollars
in one day. When the teams were I'M
loading at store on Phoenix row there
would be string of them extending up
over Primrose hill. S. A. Howes & Co.,
now A. A. Howes & Co., shipped one
cargo of 1000 bushels to Baltimore and
received in return 81, 900 in cash and
5000 bushels of corn. This shows the
relative value of corn and potatoes at
that time, condition nearly reversed
today. The decline of the potato indus
try in Waldo county dates from the adj
vent of the Colorado beetle, or potato
bug, about the Centennial year, and the
building of the Belfast & Moosehead
Lake railroad had already materially
diminished the shipments from this port.
Rather than fight potato bugs farmers
generally turned their attention in other
directions, raising only enough potatoes
for their own use. This condition con-
tinued until the success met with in
Aroostook by the adoption of modern
methods and implements and liberal
use of commercial fertilizers has caused
revival of the industry. 1t is no ex-
pertinent and has not been promoted by
fiatulent articles in newspaper, for po-
tato growing was successfully carried on
in Waldo county many years ago.
The merging of the Portland Adver-
tiser with the Evening Express is the
practical extinction of newspaper dat
ing back to January, 1855, when it was
issued as the Falmouth Gazette and
Weekly Advertiser, and which was con-
tinued under various names. In 1881 the
consecutive publication of the Daily Ad-
vertiser was begun. In 1858 James G.
Blaine became the editor, and continued
in that position until January l, 1861.
He was succeeded some months later by
George B. Moore, for many years the
brilliant editor Of The Republican Jour-
nal, and whose successor on this paper
was William H. Simpson. Mr.. Moore
died in Portland in March, 1862. Hobart
w. Richardson became the editor of the
Advertiser in 1868 and continued until his
death, April 8, 1889. He was practical
printer, having served an apprenticeship
in the Waterville Mail office before enter
ing college. He graduated at Waterville
College in 1858; became tutor in 1855,
and later was assistant and then chief
editor Of the Portland Press. He was a
scholarly and able writer and his edi-
torials gave the Advertiser marked
distinction. Among the graduates of the
Advertiser office who made their mark
and have since passed away were James
and Erastus Brooks of the New York
Evening Express, Charles G. Came, the
leading writer of his day on the Boston
Journal, Edwin F. Waters, one of the
publishers of the Boston Advertiser, E.
B. Haskell, of the Boston Herald, S. R.
Niles, the well known advertising agent,
Charles G. Cannon, commercial editor
of the New York Journal of Commerce,
Zenas T. Haines of the Boston Herald
and New Orleans Crescent, and Royal
w. Lincoln of the Portland Press. A
recent graduate who has made name
in literature and won advancement in
the diplomatic service is James E. Dun
ming.
Shake off the grip of your old enemy,
Nasal Catarrh, by using Ely's Cream Balm.
Then will all the swelling and soreness be
driven out of the tender, inflamed membranes.
The fits of sneezing will cease and the dis