three million bushels used within the county as table potatoes or 
converted into starch. For seed purposes especially, Aroostook 
potatoes are well and favorably known all through the eastern 
trucking sections, and are used for planting as far south as 
Florida and Texas. 
The reasons for this prestige are not hard to find. The po- 
tato, naturally almost a shade plant, thrives in the cool climate of 
that country; the soil, a loose, -well-drained loam, is particularly 
a potato soil; the rainfall is usually abundant. Being the main 
crop, thorough care is used in its production. And the superiority 
of northern grown, more immature, seed for planting further 
south has been repeatedly demonstrated. Aroostook County seed 
is especially valuable for this reason, and by railway and steam- 
ship is readily accessible to the trucking districts of the Atlantic 
States. 
There can be no doubt but that the potato industry is not 
only of vital importance to northern Maine, where it has produced 
prosperity and wealth, but is likewise important to the whole 
eastern United States. This industry has been developing 
for some years, and in general has enjoyed a healthy growth. 
However, the very apparent simplicity of potato raising in north- 
ern Maine has resulted in some ill effects in the past; e. g., the 
notion became prevalent that one could plant any sort of potatoes 
in Aroostook and harvest abundance. From sheer force of 
necessity, spraying to prevent late blight has been practiced 
for several years; but carelessness has been used in selection of 
the seed to be planted, as well as with regard to proper rotation 
of crops. Finally it resulted that diseases became very prevalent, 
not only in the tubers planted, but also in the soil itself, and 
varieties consequently began to “run out.’’ It finally dawned 
upon some of the growers that, large though the yield was, it 
might be made larger, and the quality be made better. 
The present is a time of awakening and endeavor to attain the 
maximum of quality and yield. A yield of three hundred bushels 
per acre has been common in the past; now and then a yield of 
five and six hundred bushels per acre was attained. This latter 
immense production of select, healthy potatoes is the goal toward 
which the wide-awake growers are now striving. 
