INTRODUCTION. xix 



the loss of its broad domain, but as it is. the conclusion is inevitable, that 

 the land was fooled away. There was a condition attached to the grant 

 of 200.000 acres of this land, that when the State should demand it. it 

 should be lotted out and put into the market, at a price not exceeding one 

 dollar per acre. These lands are now wanted for settlement, and the 

 State cannot make the demand too quickly. Three million acres of Aroos- 

 took lands are in the hands of proprietors who are opposed to having tliem 

 settled, and whose interests, therefore, antagonize those of the State. 

 Several of the townships thus owned are wortli much more for settlement 

 than for lumbering purposes. We know of no way to bring them into the 

 market except to tax them at their full value, whicli would soon bring the 

 owners to terms. This we trust may be done. 



Many Aroostook farmers are the owners of several liundred acres of 

 land, much more than they can clear and cultivate. Frequently they 

 have two or three hundred acres of forest growth. These large tracts 

 will eventually be divided up into smaller farms and sold to settlers, and 

 such instances are not uncommon now. Then again, strange as it may 

 seem in a country like this, land can always be bouglit with more or less 

 improvements, at a fair price. On the lirst two tiers of townships, ai-e 

 more or less settlers who, until the boundary line was settled, supposed 

 they were in Xew Brunswick. Thej- are frequently unthrifty and discon- 

 tented, and embrace the first opportunity to sell out and go among their 

 own people. Then, scattered all over the county, are settlers whose 

 property is mortgaged and who become discouraged and sell out their 

 improvements and go somewhere and begin again. So tliat persons who 

 have had even small means have always been able to go to Ai-oostook and 

 buy out claims at better advantage than they could go into the wilderness 

 and start anew. It will be noticed that in these communications there 

 has been much sameness in speaking of the difterent places we visited ; 

 nor could a truthful description make it otherwise, for the reason that the 

 land is much the same throughout the county. The value of a particular 

 location over another has much more to do with its nearness to market and 

 easier communication with the outside tlian with any superiority of soil, 

 for in this respect there is little to choose, and we hesitate not to say that 

 the county of Aroostook is the richest and best agricultural region in 

 New England." 



Durino^ the past two or three j'ears I have had very fre- 

 quent occasion to see the need of a brief compilation of the 

 laws of our State relating to agriculture, or of special interest 

 to farmers. Officers of agricultural societies and those inter- 

 ested in them, have repeatedly M'ritten me asking the pro- 

 visions of the statute in certain cases ; while from out of the 

 State I have had frequent requests for the laws governing 

 our Board of Agriculture, Agricultural Societies, State Agri- 



