The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-12
SEEK TO INCREASE THE
 POTATO CROP IN MAINE
Success fin AropstooA County Could Be
 DupHcaSed Elsewhere.
RAILROADS ARE HELPING.
Results on Fs1IISeesE EilIlllelIltal Farm Show
 That Crop Gan Be Augmented.

Results on ExTSeEtnheutaA Farm Show
 That Crop Gan Be Augmented.
 Twenty-Five years ago or more there was undertaken in the State Of Maine a colonization scheme by which it was hoped to increase largely the popuIa- -tion of Aroostook County, the largest and the most northern county in the State. few hundred Swedish inn migrants were induced to move there, homes were built for them, land was given to them on easy terms and in many other ways the settlement was encouraged by the State and it's cid- zsns All this was done with view. The State which, lying at the Jumping on point Of the United States and pokin9 away up into Canada- as it were. had remained practically un- developed-
 Today the town of New Sweden, which these Swedish colonists found ed, is the centre of an agricultural iregton Of great and growing prosper sdty- These Swedish farmers have kspread all over the county. Their Harms climb the hi11sides and nestle in the valleys of section which be- fore their coming was regarded by emany as so much waste land. unin- fviting to the settler because of It's re- moteness and unproGtable for agrf-
 Today the product of these Swedish farmers and of Aroostook farmers in general is known throughout the length and breadth of this country and Canada as we'll, Is used to in- crease the returns of many farms far removed from this part of the coun- try and enters into the daily susten- ance of the people as do few other commodities. That product Is pota toes
 Maine isn't a big State, but it pro- fr%k any other State in the Union. The average yield for the United States Is 106-1 bushels The average yield for the State of Maine is 210.3 bushels. Only the Rocky Mountain States have come anywhere near rfvalltng Maine as the potato country. Idaho comes nearest with a yield of 200 bushels to the acre New York. the third potato State, yields but 12e bushels and Michigan but 105 bushels.
 Aroostook county produces most of the Maine potatoes. Probably 75 per cent. of Maine potatoes are raised within it's borders. It exceeds all other counties in the United States In tners are, strictly speaking, potato Larmers.
 The value of the Maine potato crop in one year amounted to $10,225sOOU. sThe value of the entire potato crop of the country was only $166s 5000, 900
 
 Maine potato crop requires hundreds aDf freight cars. Great warehouses have been built to facilitate the hand ling of it. These ArOostook county one would breed for cows or horses. They try for different types of pota- toes as one tries for blooded stock And they send the results of their eff forts all over the United States in the form of seed potatoes from which &t. r<f feo7 These seed potatoes bring from $1 to $7 a bushel-
 Peculiarities in soil and climate have combined to make Maine the po- 1ato State, but curiously enough, des- spite this wonderful success, the busa- mess of raising potatoes is still con- lined very largely to Aroostook coun- ny. although in the opinion of these experts who have carefully 1nvesti- gated potato culture, there is absolute ky no reason why much of the tillable land in the State would not be given over to it.s e'
 with this end in view there has lately been started by the railroads pf New England, through their Indus trial Bureau, an advertising campaign designed to induce people looking for Eaonev-making possibilities to investi- gate the profits arising from the Maine potato and to cause a spread Df potato farms over many other
 
 these Aroostook farmers to come down from their northern farms and show folks in other parts how to raise their speciaIties is one of the objects of the Bureau and already this has been ac- np1ished 70 some extent.
 sAroostook county is 150 miles north b& Washington county, which like fEise touches the eastern frontier of pur country. Yet Washington coun- ky with thousands of acres of land awaiting settlement, should yield po- latoes in the same manner as Aroos- book county Already there is in dfcation of what can be done in this Nine
 A little over a year ago the Indus Rr~fal Bureau of the New England Hines as part of it's plans for the npbufIding of New England, started nz experimental farm covering &C., poo acres of land in Washington county A part of this was virgin land It had to be cleared as the pioneers cleared the fertile farms of wisconsin and other Western States Twenty acres were planted in pota- koes The yield was z50 bushels to khe acre and the potatoes were pro- rnouuced by e Government inspector &<nm Kmmlzangton to be the best which