The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-08-25
GOOD PROSPECT FOR
CROPS THIS YEAR
Strawberries Pay Better
Than Apples
Aro0stOOk Claims to BE Handicapped
by Exh0rbitant Freight Rates.

by ExhOrbitant Freight Rates.
The middle of August arrived in
eastern Maine with all the barns
jammed full of excellent hay with
much hay stacked outside, and with
the prospect of the greatest oat crop
of the century. Beans are looking
finely, and If the early frosts are de-
layed the crop promises to be album
dant and profitable. Field corn, green
corn, corn for canning and rank corn
stalks for the silos. were never bet
ter at this time of the year. On the
clay lands near Bangor potatoes are
coming along we'll and though they
are few in the hill. owing to dry
weather of late, they are large and
free from scab or signs of rust or rot,
so that the record of this year prom
Uses TO beat last year by from Is to
% per cent.
Small fruit and large fruit have
been scarce and high with small i'm
proyement in the outlook as the sea-
son advances. The apple crop is very
discouraging-ouit sufficient to give
a black eye to most enthusiasts who
have contended through the newspa-
pers that apples will grow anywhere
in Maine. As a matter of fact, not
more than 20 per cent of the land
| Tnt,
be fitted to apple culture, and some
of it can never produce the standard
winter varieties with profit This is
one of the years that shows why Or
charding in Maine must be conducted
with great care. Again home grown
strawberries in the local markets in
July have sold for more than Jersey
grown fruit in June, or Virginia fruit
in May. Careful men in the east
who will set out approved strawberry
plants within a month and give them
proper care. can find much greater
profit, and find the profit more imme-
diate, than they can expect from hap
hazard planting of apple trees. Rasp-
berries and blueberries have been
scarce and dear, owing to an intense
ly hot July. The outlook for black
berries is much better. as an album
dance of unripe fruit has set, though
it cannot be expected to withstand q
protracted August drought. Country
wells are becoming low, and though
sharp and flooding rains have been
abundant, pasture feed is becoming
dried up and milkmen are drawing lib
orally upon their supplies of fodder
corn thus early in the season.
All Maine bids fair to enter the
competition for potato shipment to
the west and south this season. In
a sense the conflict seems to be fair
It will be the better soil, improved
methods of culture and the much
longer haul by rail in Aroostook
county against a poorer soil, I'M
trained farming operations and near
ness to the water front in eastern
and southern Maine. A correspondent
of the leading farming paper in this
country claims the freight rates from
Aroostook to salt water shipment
are excessive, as Germans, English
Irish and French potatoes were grown
in their respective countries last
year and put down in New York city
after from 5000 to 1000 miles journey
across the Atlantic, and after paying
duty at Csc a bushel. so cheaply that
Aroostook was compelled to sell the
last of it's crop at 20 cents bushel
md glad to get any price. The writ
Ell evidently had no design to knock
the Bangor & Aroostook railroad In
making such a statement, because he
specifically states that some 10000 OC
bushels of Aroostook potatoes went
west last year by the way of the Ca
madam Pacific. 1t seems, however
that if Aroostook county hopes tc
compete with potatoes grown in Pc
nobscot and Kennebec valleys the
freight rates by rail from Aroostool
to the sea must be reduced.
Barring a strangulation because o.
unreasonable freight charges, appar-
emily there is no reason in sight why
potatoes should not sell in all parts
of Aroostook county from the close
of the digging season this fall unit
planting time next spring for 80 cents
a bushel or better Farmers in east
ern and central Maine must face the
situation that Aroostook county has
learned the knack of growing good
potatoes more thoroughly than any
novice can understand it for some
years to come Then again. Aroos-
took must profit greatly from the
vast amount of free advertising the
newspapers of the nation have given
the big county for more than a dozen
consecutive years. A momentum oil
this sort cannot be overcome in one
or two seasons.