The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-02-03

.aan to ever touch. But the young
-lro, as now. had some ideas of his
aad he persisted il his labor. only
rewarded by the hearty approval
bis father-in-laW when he had the
we'll cleared Of stone The farm
terribly rocky, but between the
IS AMI beneath them Mr. Aver could
a lot of valuable soil that he had
-1n to believe would stay with him to
+. ana bear heavy crops for many
Ions. So the work that he began
has been continued all through
ais. and this last spring the son,
I- no is now in the saddle. being a
tative OF the fourth generation
family TO have charge of the place,
.nlnated the rock picking opera
~ building driveway from the
"aF to the newly built barn, IL feet
three feet deep, composed com
and wholly of troublesome rocks
rom the farm. The stones in this
~ are so arranged that it is be-
that it will carry large body of
rom the buildings across the high
md TO the fields beyond. 1t was a
--~F irksome job, but one that was
justified by results But this was
ore OF the many fields that father
~ -ou have picked tons upon tons of
'".t- from, only to be rewarded with
some, clean unobstructed fields of
great t-rtillty. The day we were there
Ei.s had just completed planting 20
acres Of potatoes. He had the 16-acre
mr'" where his father commenced opera
,o5 all planted in fine shape, but over
ID surface the planter had dug out num-
-!5-s rocks, and as soon as the planting
tJmpleted horse was hitched into a
10" Town jigger, and led through the
'"s. all over that entire 16 acres, and
every rock as large as a hens egg was
4'red. Rufus explained that the last
top If rocks was the result of ten inch
lowing, which he employed, believing
'aa- there was a lot of valuable soil down
.aa- deep that would be of great benefit
70 the growing tubers if brought to the
surface. With this extra depth of soil
lset the extra supply of rocks But
'IeF are all out out of the way now and
'l-r' are but few fields on this great
-e.H yet to be conquered. Since our
.-'- We learn that 6, 300 bushels of mer-
.sHlabe potatoes have been harvested.
'.ae idea of the strenuousness of the
-'F hat these early settlers had to I'M
IS to be gained by story that Mr..
~ II Is 1OIlu ol telflllS. when MS
-0Iather first moved to the Hill, two
away to the south, the first of the
HaFs had taken up a large place on
ar Hill, later so well known as
sleep farm. Here the Sibleys began the
ID -iHg of wheat and sheep, and one year
ha', l32 bushels of wheat as the result of
.7-r labors. One night while standing
j. The moonlight before the log cabin, the
1fst Mr.. Aver heard sounds through the
75y,Fest, as of some one beating the ground.
ne listened, as did his family, but the
same unchanging vibrations continued,
ana no one could seem to decide just
What caused them. The next day, being
sunday, the Aver family, or at least
some member of it started to make an
inVestigation, and walking by spotted
4ne to the Sibley clearing, they discover
g that Mr.. Sibley had cleared place in
i lhe held, where by the light of poor
lshtern he threshed out the 1872 bushels
VI Wheat evenings as sort of knitting
work stunt. Surely these were strenu-
Gus times.
From early boyhood Mr.. Peter Aver says
mat mat his father taught him the value Of
breeding animals that would produce the
product most sought after. In other words
Ge was fond of taking the lad to different
arms where different specimens Of live
STOCK could be found, and demonstrating