174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY IN MAINE. 



By Ernest Th, Gennert, Sup't Maine Beet Sugar Compa^'y, 



Portland. 



Months have passed by since I had the pleasure of address- 

 ing you on the question of phmting sugar beets, and pointing 

 out to you the probable result the trial might have, and the 

 sure result which would follow success. The leading and 

 most enterprising farmers of Aroostook county have shown 

 by their readiness to try the experiment, as it is termed, that 

 they are well aware something has to be done if the}^ will not 

 follow in the wake of nearly every other farming community 

 in the State of Maine, in fact, in every New England State, 

 and every State in the Union, exhaust their land and make it 

 comparatively speaking, non-productive. Even in Aroostook 

 county we find plenty of land which was cleared not more 

 than twenty years ago, and which to-day does not pay to farm 

 because it has been cropped too much, it is worn out, and 

 farmers investing their hard work on such land find but very 

 poor compensation in the scanty harvests thc}"^ can take oif. 



But in speaking of the production of sugar beets, we have 

 to take in a wider scope ; we have to examine the question of 

 raising root crops,- and their relation to general farming, and 

 in pointing out to you the influence which the cultivation of 

 sugar beets will exert on Aroostook county if successfully in- 

 troduced, a few words of farming in general are necessary. 

 The idea which has done so much mischief to our farmers 

 who have been the pioneers, has been, that newl}' subdued 

 land which they called virgin soil, was inexhausti])le, and 

 could be cropped for an indefinite time, jaelding alwaj's boun- 

 tiful crops, requiring nothing of the farmer but stirring the 

 soil, sowing and harvesting. This idea has been exploded 



