Year: 1871




To the Editor Of the Press:


Scores ask: What do you think of the
Swedes and their prospects in Aroostook {?
This question cannot be answered ia a few
words, and like many other unsolved prob
lens, it depends entirely upon the conditions
that are hereafter added or withheld. Under
the existing policy there can be little doubt of
the abundant success of the scheme. The
Swedes have all the qualifications that We
can demand, and more than we can expect in
immigrants. They come from cold and
barren country; they aIe hardy and temper
ate. They are not enervated by climatic in
fuences, the condition of society in which
they have heretofore lived. They have none
OF the vices and immoralities that we have so
much reason to fear from immigration. To-
DAY IN the strictness of teachings and prac-
tice, no community in New England is so
Ike the Puritan fathers. In population of
500 now in New Sweden there is BAPTIST
church OF rs members, and Lutheran church
lhat IN some form embraces AL the families
that do not adhere to the Baptist creed. 1t
may be safely asserted that in any similar
number of people in New England there is not
so large church going number. Indeed it in
cludes the whole population. So far as we
can ascertain, it is as rare that one is found
who cannot read as in this country, AS a
people they seem to be entirely free from all
those tendencies that usually render immi-
grating communities so undesirable and often
dangerous. They highly prize the institu-
tions that give our government its permanent
cy. From this people the Aroostook colony
Is selected, and among the five hundred now
there, there are at least twenty-five men that
for general intelligence, character and ability
will compare favorabIy with the same nu nber
OF the first men in al.y Of the rural towns in
the most favored part of the State. A hall
dozen OF the leading men that we met have
already mastered the language of our people,
and have abilities that any town might covet.
Privations for generations and a sterile, bleak
country has made them frugal and industri-
Gus. Every man, woman and child is a
worker. They expect nothing else in coming
to Aroostook. They turn every resource to
account. The cedar is made to supply them
with light shoes for ordinary wear; but wheth
el their frugality leaos them to carry them in
their hands as Longfellow has declared, we
know not. They make their own furniture,
and as soon as they can raise sheep, will man
utacture their own cloth. They already man.
'facturr cards for carding WOOL Among them
are shoe-makers, cabinet makers, joiners, tall
ors, tinmeu, and nearly every useful trade
" here these Swedish mechanic. have worked
at their trades for Aroostook people they have
been highly commended Tor the excellence of
their workmanship.


All that Longfelow has wri ten respecting
the hospitality and general bearing of the
Swedish people is corroborated in the man
ners and customs of the AroostOok colony.
The traveller will know when be has passed
the boundary of New Sweden. The men he
meets politely lift their hats, and the women
who wear neatly tied handkerchieis upon
their heads courtesy, and the children make
respectful obeisance, so pleasantly in contrast
with the rude practices of Young America.
Different from most immigrants having
strange tongue which renders them cannish,
the Swedes in Aroostook are very anxious to
learn our language, and propose TO have all
their children taught to read and speak the
English. The first school, which will COM
mence soon, will be taught by an English
teacher.


Such are a few OF the prominent character
istics of the people that have settled New
Sweden. If the policy OF Maine is to secure
the settlement of its yet considerable domain
that is now uninhabteI-if it is our purpose
to increase in wealth and population the next
decade, it must be done through immigration,
and no people present so many desirable char
acteristics with none that are Objectionable as
the Swedes.


But, says one, there is not land enough to
mako il an object. Take your map of North
ern Maine. my objecting friend, and looking
over you will count with Inc eighty townships
SIX miles square, or $3.50 square miles or
I,o43,zoo acres. Three-euarters of this land
will make better farms than any part of
Maine now under cultivat.on. and the whole
is better adapted to settlement Ilan most
parts of the State now the most popuIou,.
This lies almost in solid block; but beside
this there are mauy parts of townships that
will support population of thousands.
AS it now is, this laud is comparatively
worthless. A large part of it is the richest
land in New England and is not excelled
short OF the best prairies. Naturally deep,
rich and retentive soil, it has upon its surface
the annual deposits of succe ssive years of for.
est growth. In the vicinity of Lyndon there
is land that has been cropped for years and
yet it is yielding at rate that is astonishing,


In former letter we briefly alluded to
what has been done by the Swedes in the
Aroostook. This season they have felled
more than 2000 acres OF trees and cleared
quite part of it. They have grubbed more
than four miles of road and turnpiked quite &
portion OF it so that 1t iS,now an excellent way
They have built hundred timber houses
some of them the largest and all of them tn,
best finished that we have ever seen. They
will harvest 10000 bushels of potatoes, half a,
many turnps and other vegetables, large





bushels of grain of all kinds oats and barley
principally. Next year they will be prepared
to plant crop so extensive as to make them
more than selfsustaining.


The township of New Sweden has already
been surveyed and roads laid out so as tC
render every lot available, a course that ha'
never before been pursued. These have beer
assigned to immigrants as they have come
and most of them have already begun the


work of making farms by making the first
choppng and getting Summer burn" iol
next spring. Many of these log houses have
been erected and those who have families are
at work making ready for the next season.
Young men have come, made the first chop
ping and have gone out to spend the winter
in the employ OF the tanneries or wherever
else work car be found. Those who employ
them-all that we have met, whether on tie
talm or in the mill or shop, speak in fatterins
terms of their willingness, intelligence ant
reliability. OF the thousand Swedes now il
the State, proba ,ly seven hundred have al
interest in the colony.


There have been times when there was
slight dissatisfaction to the fact tina
they came faster than they were expected o


could be taken care of; but the energy O