Aroostook County's Deepest Roots

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Following are excerpts from “Fruit Raising in Aroostook,” prepared for the 1891 State Pomological Winter Meeting in Union, Maine. The author is the Hon. James Nutting of Perham, Maine, an orchardist dedicated to developing trees that would flourish in northern Maine.

“The first settlers on the Aroostook River seem to have tried no experiments at fruit raising, but some thirty years ago a few apple seeds were planted on some of the upland farms, but with no results that gave encouragement, as the trees which lived bore no fruit of value. Ten years later the tree peddler made his rounds, and has since made his yearly visits with new and improved varieties, each better than anything yet shown, and perfectly hardy if his story is to be believed. Of the various kinds first introduced, the Duchess of Oldenburg (or New Brunswicker), Alexander and Fameuse, are still planted, and the first named is a success in every way on lands that are adapted to the raising of any kind of apples, but the others are not a success, except in a few cases. Some eight years ago the Wealthy was added to the list of perfectly hardy trees, and also the Tetofsky and Montreal Peach apple, and later on the Yellow Transparent.

Several years ago, Mr. J.W. Dudley of Castle Hill Plantation, raised from the seed of the Duchess a tree that has been named Dudley’s Winter, which for hardiness, early bearing and size, equals the Duchess, and is a good keeper till late winter or spring. So that we now have the following list: Early fall, the Yellow Transparent; then the Duchess and Tetofsky, the Peach, which will keep till early winter; then the Wealthy from January till spring, and later the Dudley for late winter.

My own experience is as follows: In 1877 I planted out an orchard of one hundred trees, raised at Woodstock, N.B., seventy-three of which were Duchess, of which seventy were in bearing last season, giving an average of a barrel apiece. These trees were planted twelve feet apart, and are now beginning to crowd badly, but have not failed to yield abundantly each year. In 1885, I set out one hundred Wealthys, which have lived well and are bearing abundantly. I have since planted out five hundred trees of the same variety, which are coming into bearing and promise well. For a crab apple the Hyslop for canning, and Lady Elgin and Lancaster for dessert, are all that have proven a success.

As to a market for apples, the fact that the valley of the Aroostook is as far north as there is any attempt at orcharding, and that there are 20,000 people in the St. John Valley to be supplied, is answer enough.

I think that within ten years Aroostook County will not only raise its own apples, but have a surplus for export, if nothing of a serious nature should befall its orchards, as the southern part of the county already raises more than enough for its home market.”

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Cranberries Can Prosper in Aroostook

In 1993, various agencies cooperated in an EPA-funded project “Maine Cranberry Research Project to Avoid Wetland Conversion in Northern New England.” The idea was to determine the feasibility of commercial cranberry production in Maine and evaluate varieties best suited for producing “maximum yields and high quality berries” on non-wetland (upland) beds. Project Manager was John Harker, Director, Production Development, of the Maine Department of Agriculture.

In northern Maine, a half-acre section of the sand-gravel flood plain near the Aroostook River in Washburn was converted into a cranberry bog research-demonstration system. The site (formerly on the Dupram Farm) was part of the waste water reclamation beds at the old french fry plant in Washburn. Grant monies were administered by the Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District (CASWCD).

In August 1993, the design plan was drawn up by Keith Roble, Field Engineer for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Presque Isle. Inside an earthen dike (for purposes of flooding), his plan showed existing ground layered with 6” of soil, 3” of sand, about 4” of peat, and finally an inch or more of sand.

The bed was planted three times, once with one year rooted plugs planted in August of 1994, again with a variety trial of one year rooted plugs planted in July 1995, and again with unrooted vine in the spring of 1996. Each method of planting was successful in establishing plants. Planting was completed by Jim Dwyer, Crops Specialist, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and Ken Hill, NRCS District Conservationist.

It was noted in subsequent reports that weeds needed to be kept under control, and adequate moisture, but not saturation, should be maintained. Researchers were reminded of the importance of clean sand when the weed nutsedge emerged in the bed, but not in areas surrounding the newly-constructed bog.

The cranberry variety trial was harvested under the direction of Leigh Morrow, a Supervisor of the CASWCD, on October 4, 1999. Yields of the several varieties planted (including Pilgrim, Bergman, Early Black, Howes, Stevens, Ben Lear, and others) ranged from nearly 1,000 pounds per acre to almost 5,000 pounds per acre for the Ben Lear variety.

The last year cultural practices were applied to the bog (now owned by the Town of Washburn) was 1999. Various grant proposals and funding requests in the late 1990s to restore and maintain the site bore no fruit. But today, the cranberries are doing just fine -- all by themselves. So the project did demonstrate that cranberries can grow and prosper in Aroostook County.

Steve Sutter
Associate Supervisor, CASWCD

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The area between Squa Pan Lake & Oxbow has no fewer than three Cranberry ponds. There must be more than poetic fancy to this. I've noted sparse wild cranberries in many moist locations in central Aroostook.

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Farmer’s Calendar – February 1866

Although the Maine Farmers’ Almanac “For the Year of Our Lord 1866” (published from Hallowell, Maine) doesn't mention the new Aroostook County, I wish to share the booklet's narrative for the month of February. Seems the enclosed wood stove was fast replacing the less efficient open fireplace as a source of winter heat.

“Stoves are doubtless an institution. They swarm over the land. They enter almost every kitchen, parlor, office and church in the country. They come upon us like monsters from the nether pit with every variety of form. They have the fire now in one end, now in the other; sometimes in the top and sometimes in the bottom, and, in some cases it is in the middle and in others at both ends.

True they save fuel. Doubtless they’ve saved labor, but aside from this, do they in a long run add to the comforts of home? They enable us to create a high temperature without regard to ventilation, they warm our bodies at the expense of our lungs, and they are miserably unsocial. Who would draw up to one of these warming machines if he could sit by an open fire? Who would paint a family group sitting around an air-tight stove? There would be no lighting up of the faces from the dancing flames, no cosey corner for the aged, and no place for the stool of the household pet. Then how the sick man draws up to the open fire? How its grateful warmth makes his blood tingle with new life? How he spreads his palms to the flames, and finds companionship for hours in the fantastic forms of the glowing embers. In the fireplace there is health, and social life, and hospitality. In the stove there is immediate economy.”

Steve Sutter

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Medical School of Maine ... It appears that in 1866, Bowdoin College was Maine's only Medical School. "The Medical Session commences Friday, Feb. 24th, and continues sixteen weeks. The Fees for admission to the several courses of Lectures, payable in advance are $55. Graduation Fee, $18. Library Fee, payable but once, $5. The Medical Library, consisting principally of modern works, contains about 3,550 volumes, and is one of the best in the United States."

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Farmer’s Calendar – April 1866

And here’s the Maine Farmers’ Almanac narrative for April 1866.

“If there is any one thing in nature that we ought to love more than another, it is the sunshine. It is the grandest and most beneficent fact in the universe. It sustains in its bosom all the activities of the world. Without it, there would be neither animal nor vegetable life. The earth would be a frozen waste, the atmosphere would have the stillness of the tomb, and in place of all this fair scene there would be the darkness of eternal night. Nor are we to regard merely the physical effects of the sun. The glad sunshine streaming in through the avenues of the body, mounts up into the recesses of the soul; making one with our joys, assuaging our griefs, raising our hopes, kindling our devotions, and suggesting what must be the fairness and brightness of that future world of which this is a rude type. We lose half our lives by shutting out the sunshine. We ought to let it into our hearts and into our dwellings. We ought to revel in it. We ought to feel that next to being in the arms of our Heavenly Father, is the privilege of being and existing in the beams of the ever faithful all sustaining sun.

Sow oats and spring grain as soon as the ground can be put in order.

Give particular attention to drains and watercourses, and turn as much of the wash of the highway as possible over your land. Clear your barnyard of manure; and transfer it to your fields.”

Steve Sutter

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Maine Farmer’s Almanac … November 1906

“To the average person a toad is a very loathsome, probably venomous creature, capable of producing warts on the hands of those who are indelicate enough to touch his rough and unclean body. But judge him on twentieth century evidence, and these old superstitions will be dispelled, and you will find him a harmless being, scrupulously clean, and especially after he has shed his old skin, wonderfully beautiful. Pick him up and look at his eyes, and perhaps you will not wonder that it was said that every toad has a jewel in his head; you may even be willing to admit that he has two jewels in his head.

Watch him through the summer and make a list of the things he eats, and you will find that his diet includes such things as ants, cutworms, tent caterpillars, weevils, grasshoppers, potato beetles, and many other creatures, most of which are injurious to crops. As the toad fills his stomach with them several times during the twenty four hours, you will admit that he does a good season’s work for the farmers; and it should be born in mind that he works without pay and boards himself.

Mr. toad is rather sensitive to the sun’s rays, and during the day hides away under any object that will afford a shade. If you have a toad in your garden, you will probably find that he has a particular spot where he makes his home, and to which he returns each morning to spend the day. Toads have been known to occupy such places every summer for years.

If you are kind to him it is possible to make your toad very tame, so that he will come and take insects from your hands. Dig shallow holes and partly cover them with boards or flat stones, and then if you introduce a few toads they are likely to make these places their headquarters, from which they will sally forth each evening to fight your insect enemies.”

Editor: Daniel Robinson (Augusta, Maine).

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Wonderful Aroostook County, Maine

Sketch of her resources and greatness --- By G.M. Park

Following is part of the article Reverend Park, a successful Westfield farmer, wrote for the New England Homestead in its August 31, 1918 issue.

“Although so much has been written and said of Aroostook, there are few who really comprehend its extent in territory, its resources, its wealth, its opportunities, its increasing prosperity and remarkable progress. Hence, with the indulgence of the readers of The Homestead, and a little space in this popular and valuable farm journal, I will attempt to give a brief glimpse of the various features of its greatness.

A few historical and statistical facts may add to a better understanding of what Aroostook is and is yet to be, and the part she may be expected to play in this great republic, “as the northeast cornerstone and boundary line of the nation,” read about, but visited by so few of the nation, comparatively speaking. The fact that Aroostook is the third county in our nation in its productive resources, in certain of its useful and needed products, entitles it to a place upon the forefront map of the nation, and it has not appeared. Here allow me to quote, in the language of the historian: “That the county of Aroostook is yet in the morning of its day; located as it is geographically, it is destined to become the cornerstone of this great republic.” As the cornerstone of King Solomon’s temple became the most important angle of that vast building, so will Aroostook become to the United States. No wonder it is called the “new northeast,” for Aroostook has an area of 6,500 square miles; it is much larger than the state of Connecticut, and contains almost as much territory as the state of Massachusetts.

There are in the county 100 townships of wild land heavily covered with virgin forests of valuable timber. Underneath this primeval wilderness is a deep, rich soil, awaiting the husbandman. It is said to compete in dollars today with the value of the Aroostook forests. Cedar, that durable wood, grows abundantly on the low lands. More shingles and railroad ties are shipped from Aroostook annually than from all the rest of New England. It is estimated that Aroostook contains cedar enough to lay a broad gage railroad around the globe, and then have enough left to set a line of telegraph poles beside it. Spruce, the king of all trees now growing in the east, grows abundantly all over the county: so rapid is the growth of the spruce that a seed dropped in an old pasture will become a tree 1 foot in diameter in 20 years.

The hardwood growth on the ridges, so called, is very heavy; no where else in the east do trees grow so large; the giant birches, beech and sugar maples grow tall and straight and are free rifted, while ash and elm are unsurpassed in any land. The giant pines – most of them gone now – grew so tall that they seemed to reach the sky.

The hard woods of Aroostook are among the most valuable in the world; for carriage and cabinet work they have no equal. A carriage made of seasoned Aroostook lumber will weigh a third more than one made of the same kind of wood from one of the western states. Ax handles made of Aroostook rock maple will stand a much greater strain than those made of wood in Vermont, New York or Washington. The forests of Aroostook are a valuable asset – worth more than the mines of Colorado or Pennsylvania on the same amount of area. Besides the 100 townships of the wild land mentioned, Aroostook has 71 organized or incorporated towns and plantations. Each township contains 36 square miles, while Caribou, Fort Fairfield and Presque Isle are double towns. Some over 40 of the townships are northwest of Caribou, Presque Isle, Washburn, Mapleton, Castle Hill, Perham, New Sweden and Ashland.

When the Aroostook valley electric railroad [built in 1910], now the only electric railroad in the county, or east of Bangor, which runs daily from Presque Isle to Washburn, Perham and Woodland to Caribou, and extends to New Sweden and Stockholm, doing a paying and increasing business, is further capitalized and extended, as the people of the Aroostook valley are hoping, waiting and expecting it will be, then will Aroostook be opened up as it never has been; then will there be direct means of transportation to those now locked up townships; then those 1,500 lakes, rivers and streams will be opened up for business, to fishermen and hunters as they never have been. Then will new villages spring up, with stores, mills, schoolhouses and churches, where only the screech of the loon and wild animals have been heard; then instead of moose and deer will be seen cow and oxen, and busy industries will be multiplied in this uninhabited and unfrequented stretch of almost 200 miles of the most valuable lands in Maine. Then will the Bangor and Aroostook railroad have to lay a double track to haul the freight which will be forced upon it.”

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Wonderful Aroostook County, Maine – Part 2

Sketch of her resources and greatness --- By G.M. Park

Following is an additional part of the article Reverend Park, a Westfield farmer, wrote for the New England Homestead in the August 31, 1918 issue.

“However, would like to convince the hundreds of young men who are wishing and anxious for a home and independence that these are to be found by industry, economy, good habits and continued well doing. Hundreds have done it in this wonderland of Aroostook. They are doing it now. Young men who came to Aroostook penniless, who now ride in their $1,200 autos, have good homes, good farms, made from the virgin soil, dense with trees and forest, and who now own their farms and have bank accounts, and have retired with a home and competence. A young man who came to Aroostook with less than $1,000 bought a farm. He died the past winter quite suddenly, still a young man, and his estate settled at $50,000, left to his wife and children. And he did it not by speculation, but by what he raised on his farm. I know of another man who bought a farm for $19,000 and paid for it in one year from his potato crop. This was the year, the recent year, when potatoes reached the $10 price, and he sold enough to pay for the farm. But it takes good judgment, industry, timely sale, and good management. I know another whose farm property is worth $50,000, who has earned it from the soil, step by step, year in and year out. It will be done again. I wish every reader of the Homestead could see a land of roses! There are roses in Aroostook to be sure. I have no doubt many a city resident would be astonished at the flowers around the homes in Aroostook. But fields of potatoes from 10, 15, 20, 30 up to 100 and 150 acres on a farm, just beautiful in blossom of various hues, are a sight seen only in “Aroostook land of the potato.” It is not found, go where you will, only in the potato sections of the west, and then not as here. But the best is what is under the blossom, the growing tubers we eat and sell. They are looking fine, very stout and promising. I looked upon a field of 100 acres last week, and not a weed, not a mustard blossom, not a blight to be seen. Certainly there ought to be a yield of 100 barrels to the acre, and more, if no mishaps occur.

Another potato raiser has 350 acres growing, another 300, but only a few, who make a specialty, raise more than 125 or 150 acres. But the ordinary farmer, who pursues a mixed industry raises from 30 to 100 acres. Aroostook’s 1918 crop of potatoes looks now like an average one, although the frost, which came when they were well up, froze them when 2 or 3 inches high and put them back; yet it was not with potatoes as with beans, for they came again, and now are generally equal to the average field at this time of year.

Late in the spring we were asked to sow a large acreage of wheat. [The United States was engaged in World War I.] Charles P. Barnes of Houlton was appointed to take charge of the ‘drive;’ 40,000 barrels of flour we were asked as a county to raise. We took as our slogan ‘8,000 acres wheat, or 40,000 barrels of flour.’

We asked our farmers to sow three acres each; some sowed from two to 25, and in one town it is said one farmer sowed 100 acres. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement. We sent west for seed wheat, and the carloads came, and was soon sold. More native wheat was found in the county than expected. Commissioner Barnes thinks Aroostook’s yield may be 50,000 barrels. If so, it will be an effort very timely, well started and well carried out. Its educational result will be far-reaching in its encouragement as our future industry. It will be convincing to the farmer, as it will prove to him that Aroostook can raise its own wheat and flour.”

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Questions Welcome

A reader recently contacted me, asking about (trying to track down) “a russet-colored late apple grown on the Silas Stiles farm in Mapleton 1860-1880.”

I referred her request to Gary Kaszas in Fort Fairfield. His reply was "I'll fill you in on that one. Stiles’ (russet) apple was called Aroostook Sunset. There’s a description in Stilson’s “The Apples of Maine.” Unfortunately, it remains lost. I’ve been looking for it for years. In case you don’t know (Steve), the russet apples are the crème de la crème of apples. It sure would be nice to find it."

Gary has a family-operated organic fruit nursery in Fort Fairfield, and is soon launching a store at his farm. His business is best described at http://www.organicsams.com/

Steve Sutter

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Condensed History of Early New Sweden... On June 25, 1895, New Sweden celebrated its “Quarter Centennial.” Thousands attended this special occasion in a grove of giant rock maples. Orator of the Day was the Hon. William W. Thomas, Jr., the colony’s founder. Fortunately, speeches that day were steno graphed and edited by Stanley Estes.

In 1862, President Lincoln selected Maine native William W. Thomas, Jr. as one of 30 “war counsels” to represent U.S. interests in overseas countries. Mr. Thomas set foot in the kingdom of Sweden-Norway in June 1863. At 23, he quickly learned the Swedish language, and grew to respect and to admire the Scandinavian people.

During his residence, Mr. Thomas devised a plan to settle a colony of Swedes on the soils of Maine’s northern forests (Township 15 Range 3). Settlers would pay the cost of their passage; the State would pay for chopping 5 acres on each 100-acre lot, and building an eighteen by twenty-six foot log cabin.

Upon return to Maine in 1865, Thomas lobbied for his plan. Finally – alarmed by the exodus of Maine farmers to the West – the Legislature authorized it. The bill was signed on March 23, 1870. Mr. Thomas was appointed “Immigration Commissioner” and dispatched to Sweden. The fate of his plan rested in his own hands.

On July 22, 1870, Mr. Thomas and 51 Swedish colonists (including 18 children and two stray kittens) reached Tobique Landing after six days towing up the St. John from Fredericton. They were met by Maine’s Land Agent Parker P. Burleigh, and lodged that night in “Mr. Tibbit’s barn.”

With little notice, Burleigh and local crews could erect only six log cabins, and bush out a road into the township. The State’s legendary surveyor Noah Barker relotted the township’s 160-acre lots, which for 9 years had been offered to Americans (with no takers), into twenty-five 100-acre lots.

The settlers had paid $4,000 for their passage from Gothenburg and brought $3,000 to boot! The 22 men were all farmers. Some had extra skills; two carpenters, a blacksmith, a baker, a basket-maker, a wheelwright, a tailor, a civil engineer, and a wooden-shoemaker. The women, all with blue eyes and blonde hair, were “productive in the home and at the spinning-wheel and loom.”

Teams of horses were provided for the Swedes (and their 6 tons of baggage) by Mr. Joseph Fisher of Fort Fairfield. By 10 am, the immigrant train reached the iron post “marking the boundary between the dominions of the queen and the United States.”

As the Swedes crossed the border, the American flag was unfurled from the leading carriage. The settlers were welcomed with a cannon salute from the village of Fort Fairfield, and they were served a lavish banquet of salmon, green peas, baked beans, pies, pudding, cake, raspberries, and coffee at the Town Hall.

Later that day the settlers reached the bridge over the Aroostook in Caribou and were greeted again with a cannon salute, a welcoming address and supper and lodging in Arnold’s Hall. The Swedes insisted that Mr. Thomas communicate “their gratitude at the unexpected and generous hospitality of the citizens of Aroostook.”

On July 23, 1870, just four months from the passage of the act authorizing the immigration, and four weeks after the immigrants’ departure from Sweden, the colony arrived at its new home in the wilds of Maine.

By the end of 1870, 7 miles of road were built, 26 homes constructed, and 180 acres of forest cleared. Two acres of English turnip were planted July 29th (yielding a good crop), along with 16 acres of rye, and 4 acres of winter wheat.

A rooster and three hens were brought in on August 3rd. One hen slipped away, but came back September 24th – followed by 11 chicks. The following May, the first potatoes and apple trees were planted.

With immense toil and tears, the colony grew remarkably over the next quarter century. At the Quarter Centennial Celebration, Mr. Thomas noted that, along with erecting many homes, schools, and churches, the colonists had cleared 7,630 acres for crops or grass, and acquired a livestock inventory (including 6,000 poultry) valued at $72,000.

Perhaps a measure of the hardships of pioneer life was that only four of the 22 men in New Sweden’s original group were seated as guests on the platform. A fifth was ill at home. In his Welcoming Address, the Rev. Michael U. Norberg affirmed “A few have left the town and the rest of that little band of pioneers have left for their eternal home beyond the river.”

In closing exercises, the four old settlers were introduced. The Honorable W.W. Thomas, Jr., in response to “earnest and vociferous calls from the Swedes,” arose and addressed them in the Swedish language. This aroused great applause, laughter, and a long standing ovation.

Steve Sutter
This post was published as a letter to editor of The Star Herald on February 20, 2008 and the Fort Fairfield Journal on April 9, 2008.

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Next are reports in New England Homestead from Aroostook in 1903 and 1904.

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Following are selected brief situation reports published in various issues of New England Homestead (published in Springfield, Mass) in 1903.

October 19 (Castle Hill) -- Potatoes about all dug. While some fields rotted badly there is a fine crop. Grain mostly secured, with good yields. Still very dry; brooks and springs that that have not failed in 40 years are dry. Game very plentiful. Bears have killed some sheep lately.

October 20 (Perham) -- Potato digging completed with yield above average. Sprayed fields are of extra good quality; many being sold at $1.10 p bbl. C.E. Spencer has bought three cars of apples in this town, paying $1.50 for fall and winter varieties, not many more to be sold. Starch factories are getting a short run because of fewer small potatoes than usual.

November 2 (Presque Isle) – The State Dairy Association meeting held recently was a great success in point of numbers, interest, and enthusiasm. The people gave a warm welcome to their visitors. However, it is difficult to get farmers to go into dairying, when potatoes are doing so much toward paying off their mortgages.

November 5 (New Sweden) – The New Sweden creamery took first prize at the Presque Isle dairy meeting, scoring 95 points for tub and print. Miss E. Lundvall is the buttermaker. Some farms have changed hands recently at very good prices. Large game is plentiful, deer coming into the dooryard. Good milch cows scarce. Eggs 21 to 22c, butter 20 to 22c, potatoes $1.15 to $1.25 p bbl.

November 18 (New Sweden) – Some plowing has been done the past week, where the snow did not drift too much. V.T. Lundvael is the first farmer to sell cream to the New Sweden creamery. Real estate is changing hands quite frequently at good figures. Many new houses have been built and others improved the past season. Butter 20 to 25c, pigs selling well at $1.50 to $2 each.

December 1 (New Sweden) – Threshing nearly done. Some had good crops and others poor. Potatoes have dropped to $2.30 p bbl. and under. Beef plentiful and low. Cows drying fast and many forced to sell for scarcity of feed. Water very low and many wells are dry or nearly so. Much wood is being cut and sawed. Dry wood all sold out, so nearly everybody will burn this season’s cut.

December 15 (New Sweden) – The long looked-for rain has come at last, but didn’t help water conditions much after all. Sleighing is excellent, and there is enough snow to make roads in the woods, too. Much lumbering will be done, but still more was planned if wages had come down, as it was hoped. Woodsmen want big wages and little work nowadays, or else they would rather loaf. Potatoes steady at $1.40 to $1.45 p bbl. Beef plentiful and low.

Steve Sutter

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Among the Farmer Reports 1904

Following are selected situation reports published in various issues of New England Homestead (published in Springfield, Mass).

December 30, 1903 (New Sweden) – The two rainstorms this month have not helped out the supply of water and many have to haul water or drive stock some distance to it. Good beef is 4 ½ to 5c p lb. but good milch cows are scarce, as those who have any hold them and sell off the scrubs. A few farmers have early hatched pullets that are laying well, while some old hens have begun.

January 11, 1904 (New Sweden) – The drouth still continues and it is getting to be hard work to supply stock with water. A long spell of severely cold weather was broken Jan 6 by milder south winds, followed on Jan 9 by a heavy snowstorm. About a foot of snow fell, which was piled into drifts by a high wind.

February 15, 1904 (New Sweden) – Potatoes over the $2 mark, but few have any to sell. Hundreds of bbls are frozen in cellars. Snow 4 ft deep in cedar swamps, but less in spruce land and so dry it will not make roads. A pack of eight wolves put in their appearance in center part of town Feb 9, and scared many men who were working along in the woods. They kill large numbers of wild rabbits and no doubt have cleaned out several deer yards known to exist in various parts where they have been seen.

February 16, 1904 (Mapleton) – Some water pipes and some potatoes have frozen in cellars. Many farmers are hauling water, which is very low. Potatoes 2 p bbl and thousands of bbls are marketed daily. Stock of all kind wintering well and feed is plentiful.

March 8, 1904 (Presque Isle) – Farms are in great demand in Aroostook Co and are bringing big prices. This comes from the scarcity of farms for sale, and from the large crops raised and the amount realized from the sale of the later. A.E. Irving on a farm of 80 acres raised 2,000 bbls potatoes, which he sold out of the field for $2,000. From the same farm he sold 35 tons of hay for $350 and had over 1,000 bus of grain. J.E. Graham recently sold his farm of 110 acres to Willis Lowrey for $12,000. He bought this farm about a year ago for $8,500. Last summer he sold a field of 20 acres of potatoes as they grew for $60 p acre. Mr. Graham has bought a small farm of Alden Glidden. J.A. DeWitt is soon to move onto the large farm bought of Rev. G.M. Park last fall, for which he paid $11,000. He has sold the farm, which he bought last spring for $4,500, for $5,000. L.E. Hayden is marketing his crop of potatoes at $2 p bbl. It is hard to find well located farms in Aroostook for sale, even at the present high prices.

April 19, 1904 (Presque Isle) – The sawmill at Presque Isle is being rapidly rebuilt. It will be 140 ft long and 70 ft wide. A dynamo has arrived for the electric light station and the cement foundation is in. It is expected that the mill will begin to saw lumber the first of May.

May 3, 1904 (New Sweden) – Much building will be done here this season. The potato acreage will be considerably increased on account of the high price this spring. A large amount of fertilizer has been bought, too. Seed is plentiful enough for all needs and some to spare. Eggs dropped to 15c over two weeks ago.

Steve Sutter

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Farm Journals Served Area Pioneers

A prominent farm journal during the pre-Civil War period was The American Agriculturist, founded in 1842 and published monthly from New York. This journal was pushed to the top by Orange Judd, a former student of agricultural chemistry at Yale, who was hired as editor in 1853. Subscriptions to The American Agriculturist rose from 1,000 in 1856 to over 100,000 in 1864.

The first volume (April, 1842 to March, 1843) made no mention of the new Aroostook County -- or to Maine (which I could find). Practical articles and information were written specifically for rural folks, and their contents were presented in a homey fashion. They had little or nothing in them that was not of interest to farmers and their wives. A Ladies’ Department included columns on how to make good bread, the cultivation and uses of the raspberry, the kitchen garden, and “autumnal reflections.”

Articles addressed “preserving sheep from the gad fly,” swine husbandry, raising cranberries, sugar beets, and silk, storing roots for winter, tours of old England, including Great Britain’s stock (cattle) markets, and the “comparative merits of oxen and horses for farm work.” [In 1839, Maine produced 527 lbs of silk.] A long series of articles on cultivation of hemp was included, and one piece entitled “Farmers Should Never Run in Debt.”

One issue reported that “England has at last made peace with China, and in consequence of it, anticipates a greatly increased opening for her manufactured goods in that large Empire.” The editors conjectured this would “increase the market for American provisions” -- in other words, generate more U.S. exports to England.

In 1719, the Irish potato was re-introduced to North America by Scotch-Irish settlers of Londonderry, New Hampshire. I gleaned a few potato tips from a correspondent writing in the paper’s second issue. Claiming a yield of 700 bushels per acre, he recommended autumnal plowing, winter application of dung, spreading a good coat of lime after planting the finest seed, cutting one eye to a piece, and planting as soon as cut. He also said the earliest and largest crops of superior quality sprung from slices of the eye-end of the tuber.

The American Agriculturist also reviewed current prices. In 1842, potato prices (in New York) generally stood firm at 25 cents per bushel, but spiked at 44 cents in May, and bottomed at 18 cents in October. Egg prices were remarkably stable at $1 per 100 eggs.

Steve Sutter