Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1912-11-06

ainary Maine farming lands, has been
suincient, but he has found certain new
problems, due to the newness OF the
country. One Of these, OF small moment
out illustrative, was the moose, which
came and ate the beans to the ground all
aiong the row, evidently finding the neat
ness and accuracy of the arrangement to
ms taste. But the worst trouble came
with the potatoes. Ample preparation
was made for the Colorado potato beetle
and the paris green took care of these
from the first.
but this northern region seems to have
beetle of its own, far more deadly. That
IS an elongated blue-b black beetle which
lives ordinarily on the fire-weed. In
August the barrens are most beautiful
with the rose purple bloom spikes of this
handsome herb, but ii is doubtful If the
Maine potato farmers care for this beauty.
On the leaves Of the growing fire-weed
were beetles and the moment the potatoes
/ appeared above ground they deserted their
usual plant for the potato tops. They
clustered on them, and at one time it
7 looked as IL they would never allow them
to get an inch above ground.
The poison which was so deadly to the
Colorado beetles was but seasoning for
the salad to them. They throve on it, and
even when it was put ON so strong as to
endanger the vines, the result was the
same. Then uuntoh, in despair over his
crop, took the night train to Portland and
came back the next day with arsenate of
zinc, which he applied with severity
which was seandalous. But it did the
work. 1t wiped out the blue-b black
beetles, which, indeed, soon ceased to be a
pest. Only the tull-grown beetles seemed
to care for the potato, the larvae going
back to the fire weed, and the crop was
saved.
THE APPEAL TO THE WEST.
"The demonstration work will go on
| next year on a larger scale even than it is
| at present, and then il, as now seems GER
tain, the fertility OF the soil is fully dem
oustrsted, the colonization scheme will
proceed. rhirty-six thousand acres will
make T2o fiity-acre farms, and the tracts
will probably be divided upon this basis.
The land will be so plotted that the nu-
merous water courses which now run
through 1t and which are filled with front
and shaded deep in rich meadow grass will
touch each farm, so far as possible. Roads
will be laid out and houses built by the
railroad. 1t will be possible to supply all
this region with pure water from Schoodic
lake by gravity system, when the time
comes that IL is needed, and there is water
power in abundance to be had from this
and other sources. Its white coal may
some day light the whole region by cleo
tricity as well as furnishing power.
1.-THE scheme will be to call the atten-
ton of farmers on Older lands, say in the
the middle West, where farm values have
reached high level, to these new lands,
their fertility and the ease with which
they may be worked, as well as the near
ness of the great New England markets.
There is already tendency on the part of
western farmers to come back to New
England. This opportunity should in
crease the tendency. To sell a western
farm for $50 or more an acre and come to
New England, taking one that can be
worked the first year in good shape, for
only perhaps tenth of that price, would
seem to be an inducemeut.
"And in proof that more than one man
already realizes this, one need only tell
OF the Florida orange grower who was
summering in Maine and accidentally
heard about the region. He visited ii in
an automobile, studied it carefully and
bought 10000 acres. when are you going
to begin to farm he was asked.
"sFarm nothing was his answer; I'm
going to pay taxes on that land for ten
years and otherwise forget about it.
Then I'll be able to put it on the market
and get just live times what paid for it,
That's not development, of course, but
1t shows how the people from other states
recognize the value OF New England land
when they have it properly demonstrated
to them.
TRANSATLANTIC A DAKOTA FARM.
''rhe old-time New England small field
farming is not the kind which is going to
be done on this great Maine tract; rather
it will be the sort OF farming that one
sees in the West, where they know how.
Hunton broke up his land and prepared it
for planting with horses. But he said it
cost him sl1 an acre to do it in that
way and he could have done the same
with a traction engine and gang plows for
s.. There is room enough in these great
level stretches for the same sort OF whole
sale cultivation that is seen in the Dako-
tas, and the wheat they have at the dem
onstration farm would seem to show that
it might be grown in Maine in an equally
large way and with equal profit.
"whether this is so or not there is no
doubt about the oats and barley. The eli
mate OF Maine is just right to produce
these crops in perfection, and the State
would do well to buy oats from her own
fields rather than from the West, as she
does now to the extent of thousands OF
dollars. AS for the potatoes, there can be
. L. lev .f