To the editor:
In 1858, the State Land Office published “A Circular descriptive of The Public Lands of Maine” to make available information about our “settling lands” to the “masses of our citizens, the laboring classes, whom it would most essentially benefit.” The main point of attraction was the Aroostook region.
The Circular drew from reports of Drs. Ezekiel Holmes and Charles Jackson on the Geological, and Agricultural capabilities of the Aroostook region. In 1838, Dr. Jackson noted “the Aroostook country is a well wooded region, and is the best settling land in the State, equaling in fertility the famed region of the Western States, and capable even under a less congenial clime, of producing crops of wheat and other grains, fully equal in abundance with any soils of which we have any record.”
Dr. Holmes, during his exploration of the Territory of the Aroostook River in 1838, was also encouraged by the prospects for grains, potatoes, Herd’s grass (Timothy), and clover. He also saw “no reason whatever, why the farmers of the Aroostook section of our State may not find the Sugar Beet a safe and valuable business to embark in its culture and in the manufacture of sugar from it.”
Dr. Jackson reported “We here found a yellow loam of a fine kind, derived from limestone rocks, and luxuriant in its produce and in some places covered to the depth of four or five inches by a black vegetable mould. This soil is remarkable for the tall rank grass called ‘blue joint,’ which skirts the river, from four to five feet high.
The forest trees are of a mixed growth, but the sugar maples are the most abundant, and are of gigantic size. Elms, white birch, black and white ash abound. The soft wood grows mostly on the low lands, while the uplands in the rear are densely crowded with hard wood trees, among which are some of the most lofty pine trees ever beheld. The richest soils are always most crowded with a mixed growth.”
The Circular included the observations of Mr. Stephen Lincoln Goodale, Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, concerning the situation and quality of our Settling Lands in 1857. He noted “a very noticeable peculiarity of the climate of Aroostook is the exemption hitherto enjoyed from injurious droughts” and added “no better district for hay, grazing and dairying, can be found in New England, than here.
In the neighborhood of Presque Isle (Maysville), there have been, through the exertions of the North Aroostook Agricultural Society, introductions of choice cattle. The Hereford and Durham blood prevails mostly in the crosses observed.
Of the culture of fruit in Aroostook, it may be premature to speak with confidence; but the prospect is strongly in favor of ultimate success. There are a number of nurseries established, principally of the apple, and many trees have been planted out. The smaller fruits, as currants, gooseberries, etc. thrive perfectly well and yield freely.
Potatoes are excellent and abundant, the usual crop being from two to three hundred bushels per acre. In some sections, very little or no injury has ensued from disease, and it was estimated by several persons, that for 10 years past, not over a quarter of the crop has ever been lost from the rot in any locality.”
Mr. Goodale cautioned “The only market now existing in Aroostook for ordinary agricultural productions is that created by the lumbering operations. This is generally a good one to an extent sufficient to absorb the surplus which the settlers now tilling the soil have to dispose of; but it is by no means a uniform one, varying as it necessarily must, with the fluctuations of that interest (proverbially uncertain) which creates it.”
Steve Sutter
Presque Isle
