98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that lie Ihid grown potatoes for forty years and yet, said he, "I have 

 no fixed knowledge of how to grow a hill of potatoes. And so long 

 as that is the ease," continued he, "is there not a chance for our 

 voung men to study agriculture, and is there not really a call for the 

 study, even in so small a matter as a hill of potatoes." 



We are here to-day, perhaps it is better to sa3', not to learn how 

 much we know about growing potatoes, but rather to find how little 

 we know in regard to it. We hope to call such attention to the mat- 

 ter as to give it increased importance in our minds and to do what- 

 ever we may be able to secure a more definite knowledge in regard 

 to the best practices in the cultivation of this crop. By all means 

 let us first cast aside the idea that it is a crop beneath the attention 

 of our good farmers. Let us feel proud that the State of Maine is 

 well adapted to the production of this crop ; and while we let Dela- 

 ware grow her peaches, Florida her oranges, and California her 

 grapes, let us hold our attention to our specialty, and I have no 

 doubt that we can make this crop as profitable to us here in the State 

 of Maine, as the crops referred to are in those other States. We 

 have here the special facilities for canying on the work and let us 

 see if we can make something out of the potato crop as they are 

 making something out of their special lines of work. 



THE POTATO IN AROOSTOOK. 

 By Francis Barnes. 



Aroostook County is, for the most part, still an unbroken wilder- 

 ness. Excepting the French settlements, the population could all 

 be contained in the three first ranges west of the east line of the State. 

 There are probably as many wild towns in those ranges as there are 

 settled towns in the ranges farther west. 



The wilderness region of our county, like that of Penobscot, 

 Piscataquis and Somerset, is to remain such for indefinite years. 

 The lands are all private property and the owners desire to keep 

 them as they are. Hence they are averse to settlers, and the rapid 

 growth of this section of the State ma}' be reckoned as having reached 

 its culmination. The settled towns, if considered as I have classed 

 them, in three ranges, comprise a territory one hundred miles by 

 eighteen, or eighteen hundred square miles of farming lands. These 

 lands lie on the water sheds of three distinct river systems. The St. 

 John, by far the larger of the three, the Penobscot, and the St. 



