46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ally leave us for the west, and many cling to cities and villages for 

 a precarious support, who might find comfortable homes and ample 

 remuneration for their labor in the new lands of Maine. To make 

 a home in our northern forests, requires little investment of capital. 

 The young man who goes into them has only to take with him an 

 axe, and the will and ability to use it. With these he may secure 

 for himself, in five years, a good farm, and comfortable buildings, 

 and put himself on the road to competence. It was marvelous, 

 considering the amount of information which had been scattered 

 abroad on this subject, that so few persons availed themselves of 

 the advantages which northern Maine afforded. With unexampled 

 liberality the State extended a farm to each one of her sons who 

 would take it. Nominally the settler has to pay fifty cents per 

 acre, but the gift, with this condition, was better "than it would be 

 without it. The money is expended in road labor, for his own 

 benefit — roads which he would bo obliged to make if the condition 

 was removed. The average size of lots, as they were surveyed by 

 the State was 160 acres. For these the settler pays $80 in three 

 yearly instalments. Whore else in the United States could rich 

 farms be purchased on such terms ? The cost of clearing the land 

 is from $10 to $12 per acre, and the first crop will generally exceed 

 in value the cost of the land and clearing. The crop of oats is 

 from 60 to 80 bushels. The crop of wheat in Aroostook might be 

 calculated at 25 bushels per acre, while in the wheat growing re- 

 gions of the west the average was but 12 bushels per acre. In 

 northern Maine, wheat is worth $1.50 per bushel, while in the west 

 it will bring only about one-tliird that sum. 



In respect to health the advantages of northern Maine were in- 

 finitely superior to those of the prairie States. He had known 

 many instances of persons being restored from feebleness to strength 

 by change from the vapor laden regions near the sea to the dry 

 climate of Aroostook. 



Mr. Dill said nobodj'- wlio is healthy, sober, industrious and 

 steady ill ilic pursuit of liis calling as a farmer, could fail of getting 

 a good living from the new lands of Maine. There were lands in 

 and above Phillips, in Franklin county, on which men had accumu- 

 lated large fortunes, and these men, leaving their fixrms to their 

 sons, frequently settled down in largo villages to loan money on 

 interest. The lands in Rangely township wore very productive, 

 and had yielded rich rewards to those who worked them. So also 

 of the Dead river regions. There were many sections of Oxford 



