Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-21

agriculture III al ooSNooh 1OoiitJs iiS
pending question is the passage of the
bill to be engrossed.
MIR. PLUMMER of Lisbon: Mr.
Speaker, | wish to state for the bene
fit of my friend from Patten tNIr
SMITH that | don't know anything
about farming; but there is one thing
that seems little bit peculiar to me,
and that is, that people who know
about farming, banking, insurance, and
other matters, come here and ask peo-
pie who do not know anything about
farming to show them how to do it. OF
course they wouldn't put it exactly in
that way: but they come and say we
would like to have you put up some
money to hire somebody to show us
how to farm; and that looks to me
about what this bill is. 1t provides for
the conducting of scientific investiga-
tons bearing especially upon the agri-
culture of Aroostook county, and par
ticularly with reference to the rails
ing of potatoes.
Now as | have understood it, Mr..
Speaker, the people of Aroostook coun-
ty know more about raising potatoes
than the rest of the State combined.
and exactly why they want us to como
down there and show them how | do
not quite comprehend. II was urged
at one time, | think that some petit
TONERS requested farm there for the
purpose of growing seed potatoes.
Now we were told here at the time of
the Aroostooll Railway strike that they
had sold other people. Now it APP
seed potatoes-enough to sell anyhow;
and l suppose they must have had
some seed potatoes that were good
enough to grow, or else there
wouldn't any potatoes grow. l sub
nit, gentlemen, if YOU viii recall,
that there were petitions enough came
here in favor of this farm, and if the
people who circulated and signed those
petitions had made as much effort to
get Il farm for investigation in Arooos-
took county as they used in getting
the petitions they would pretty nearly
have one; and While | have no objec-
ton to any man in this State, or any
where else for that matter building
any kind OF a farm he has a mind to,
to investigate anything he wants to-
do have objections to his trying to
take my peeketbook to help him do so
without my consent.
Now if there are any members of
this House or any people in the State
OF Maine, who wish to contribute to
help the people of Aroostook county
start an experimental station there.
haven't any objection to their doing
so: but what l do object to is to the
l., L,
from the pockets of certain people
perhaps about all the people in the
State of Maine-a part of their money
to help. as it seems to me. the farm
ers of Aroostook to learn how to raise
potatoes. If should come up here from
Androscoggin county and say>I knew
more about raising potatoes than my
friends in Arooostook, they would
laugh me to scorn. They would say we
are the people who export potatoes all
over the country, and all over the
world, and what do you know about
raising potatoes down there in Andro-
scoggin county? Why you don't know
anything about it.
l move that this bill be indefinitely
postponed. es.sz2@zs.
Mr.. IRVING of Caribou: Mr. Speaker,
/ notice that the attempt has been made
to bring this question down to a very
narrow line. / call your attention to the
fact, and / think l will be able to sup
port my contention. that this is not an
Aroostook county measure. | may say
that probably no county in the State
can so well get along without the pro-
visions of this bill as can the county OF
Aroostook, because of its other great re-
sources beside that of the production of
the potato.
This matter is of not only Statewide
importance, but IL is of nationwide i'm
portance; and more than that, it is OF
worldwide significance. 1t is not a
question of raising potatoes. l wish 20
say to you, Mr.. Speaker and gentlemen,
that Aroostook county asks for and re-
quires no assistance of instruction as to
how to produce potatoes; it is a ques-
ton wider than that and of much greater
Importance, it is a matter strictly in line
with the work which is being pursued
by all the agricultural departments OF
the New England states and every other
state in this Union, in an endeaEor to
preserve the up-keep to a proper stand
ard of all it's great resources.
In this Legislature money has been
expended in the way of assisting the
farmers Of this State in the way OF
spraying their orchards in order to pro-
duce better fruit and preserve their
trees The state has paid for these
scientific Investigations which have
produced results as recommended;
the state has also made appropria-
tions for the protection of your fish
and game, which is all proper. Now
in the matter of potato raising so TAR
as the potato production in Aroostook
is concerned, experiment after expert
ment has been tried by the farmer of
Aroostook County. He has been aided
by the agricultural societies and the
agricultural department at the capt.
toll and at the National Capitol, and
the result is that, today, in the State
of Maine, we are raising per acre
very large yield of potatoes. The enc
mics with which the farmers of Aroos-
took have been obliged to contend have
been overcome; the potato bug has
become almost extinct in Aroostook
county, After the potato bug was UNI
der control there was no great dam
ger facing the raising of potatoes 9TH
err than the disease known as potato