128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



error, and perhaps you will see it in years from now, when 

 it is too late to remedy the evil. 



Mr. Parker. I am glad to hear these words of warning 

 coming from these men, telling us how their farms have been 

 exhausted, and how hard they have to work there to produce 

 crops not more than one-half as good as what we can raise 

 here without any outlay. We should take these facts to our- 

 selves, and endeavor by all means to retain our soils as near 

 the virgin state as possible. You outsiders seem to think we 

 are ruining our farms by raising potatoes for the starch 

 factories, and this is the fifth year we have raised them for 

 that purpose. Five years ago there were but few farmers in 

 this town, Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield. Some of the 

 land had been cleared fifteen or twenty years, but the stumps 

 had not all been removed. Farmers had commenced to stump 

 their lands, and by so doing they have, to-day, farms some 

 of them nearly free from stumps. I fully believe we should 

 go into stock raising on a larger scale. 



