The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1910-03-31

ADVERTISING TERMS. For one square one
inch length in column, so cents for one weel
and p cents for each subsequent insertion.
THE AGRICULTURAL AWAKENING.
The farmer is occupying the front OF
the stage nowadays. The monthly and
weekly magazines, the daily and weekly
newspapers, are all giving him large
share of their attention. He is receiving
acres Of advice, a good deal of encour-
agement, and occasionally little hostile
criticism. Something must come out of
this general agitation; and that on the
whole it will be beneficial can hardly be
doubted That it viii result in certain
percentage Of failures is equally certain.
Some who 90 back to the land" with
without labor and who are without the
knowledge essential to success in hus-
bandry. will of course be disappointed.
Farming is coming more and more to be
q business proposition. 1t requires not
only g love for the calling and untiring
industry. but q scientific knowledge little
dreamed of by our ancestors. Where
only bare living has been wrested from
the soil, under the improved methods of
today increased production per acre will
build up a comfortable bank account and
provide the luxuries as we'll as the neces-
saries of life
Maine is sharing in the agricultural
awakening and this is due in large
measure to the University of Maine and
the Experiment Station at Orono. In
this connection the farming special which
visited our city g few years ago will be
recalled. and in last weeks Journal we
told of the successful Farmers Week
at the University. Two Of the success
full poultry plants in this city, Pineland
Poultry Farm and the Ferguson Poultry
Farm, We're built up on lines established
by the late Prof. Gowell of the Univer-
sity of Maine, as were many others in
different sections of the State. His eX-
ample and advice have been worth thou
sands of dollars to Maine and have placed
this business on a solid foundation.
Maine has shown what she can do in
raising potatoes What about wheat? In
conversation with a Commercial repre-
sentative last week Bangor real estate
dealer predicted that Maine would be one
of the first wheat producing States in the
United States and that it will be export
ing thousands of bushels annually. He
said that the soil of Maine and the eli
mate of the State are admirably adapted
for the raising of wheat, for this has
been proven; and in support of his state
ments he turned to the reports of the
States agriculture in the year 1887,
which show that a total Of PIG, 525 BUSH
els of wheat was raised that year in Is
of the smallest towns of Maine, or an
average of more than 4, 800 bushels each.
The yield of four Waldo county towns
was as follows: Prospect, 4, 416; Jackson,
1898; Monroe, 5,897; Lincolnvile, APP.
And this was at time when wheat was
by no means the chief product, and when
modern methods for getting crop were
not known. or at least not practiced
Some twenty-five or thirty years ago
Howard Murphy of this city used to
raise wheat on his Northport avenue
farm. haul it to the mill at Liberty to
r-7,017r0I
graham meal for making healthful and
>lutritious bread. Then there is buck
wheat. Does anyone raise it now? Some
of Our readers can no doubt recall the
buckwheat cakes made from home grown
meal, raised over night by homemade
yeast. eaten smoking hot from the grid
die with coating of butter and liberal
amount of real maple syrup. Now a-days
we are compelled to use a self-raising
compound put up in cartons, but which
is not the real thing at ALL
This Bangor man also said there is the
greatest opportunity in the world for the
putting up of sweet pickles in Maine. He
says it has been demonstrated, in Cam
den and many other towns in the State,
that cucumbers flourish here, for thou
sands Of bushels are raised and sold every
year. And the beauty of the whole
thing is, said he, chat Maine is known
10 be one of the very best caulifower
States in the union" He was also enthu-
siastic about other crops that may be
raised proftably in Maine, and said that
che agricultural Importance of the State
IS bound to grow and grow. ''They spend
millions of dollars every year. he said,
F'in irrigating the bog lands of the wes-
tern States, and in retaining all sorts
of land in all parts of the country. But
they will not continue to pass over land
that is all ready for the pillow at mo-
ment's notice and which does not need to
be coaXed and leased and put into avail
able shape by the expenditure of an enor-
nous amount of money. They will see
The value of the soil of Maine before long.
as they have never seen it before, and
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