VOL.  LI.  No  2189. 
NEW  YORK,  JANUARY  9,  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
$2.00  PER  YEAR. 
The  St.  John  Valley  in  Maine. 
In  the  great  peninsula  which  stretches  eastward  from 
the  Hudson  River  and  Lake  Champlain,  south  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  including  the  six  New  England  States 
and  the  Canadian  provinces  of  New  Bruswick  and  Nova 
Scotia  and  a  part  of  Quebec,  there  is  a  great  river, 
550  miles  in  length,  the  valley  of  which  embraces  a 
large  territory  of  wonderfully  fertile  land.  This  land 
lies  upon  both  sides  of  the  international  line,  and 
exceeds  10,000  square  miles  in  area — one-half  of  which 
is  in  Maine,  and  constitutes  the  single  county  of  Aroos¬ 
took.  It  is  a  great  rolling  plain,  but  a  few  hundred 
feet  above  sea  level,  and  its  shallow  depressions  mark 
the  courses  of  the  eastward-flowing  tributaries  of  the 
St.  John.  So  slight  are  the  elevations  between  these 
water-courses  that  the  main  road  running  north  from 
Houlton,  the  county  seat,  for  40  miles,  is  perfectly 
straight,  and  there  are  few  elevations  that  a  stage 
team  will  not  ascend  at  a  trot.  In  fact  the  inequalities 
are  just  sufficient  to  give  perfect  drainage ;  yet  so  per- 
real,  but  its  low  altitude  and  its  nearness  to  the  ocean 
modify  its  climate,  and  the  winters,  though  slightly 
longer,  are  no  colder  than  those  in  northern  Vermont. 
Snow  comes  early  and  remains  as  a  covering,  so  that 
frost  does  not  penetrate  deeply,  and  the  soil  is  ready 
for  working  as  soon  as  the  snow  is  gone  in  the  spring. 
The  peculiarity  of  the  soil  of  Aroostook  is  that  it  is 
the  same  all  the  way  down  to  the  bed  rock,  which  is 
from  10  to  40  feet.  There  is  no  loose  stone.  In  my 
first  ride  through  the  country  the  driver  pointed  out 
to  me  a  piece  of  stone  wall  about  two  rods  long,  which 
he  said  was  all  the  fence  of  that  sort  in  the  county. 
The  fences  are  made  of  heavy  cedar  (Arbor-vitao)  logs, 
and  the  cellars  are  walled  up  with  hewn  timbers  of 
the  same.  The  texture  of  the  soil  varies  according  to 
the  quantity  of  vegetable  matter  which  has  accumu¬ 
lated.  In  the  bottoms  of  the  swales,  along  the 
brooks,  it  is  dark  and  mucky  in  appearance,  but  when 
this  land  is  cleared  it  is  sufficiently  dry  for  tillage, 
and  yields  enormous  crops  of  grass  and  grain.  The 
the  province  of  New  Brunswick.  It  is  a  fine  town¬ 
ship,  but  the  character  of  Aroostook  land  is  so  uni- 
form,  compared  with  other  sections  of  New  England, 
that  it  is  hard  to  say  which  particular  portion  can 
rank  as  best.  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  the  double 
township  of  Presque  Isle,  40  miles  north  of  Linneus, 
has  not  an  acre  of  land  in  the  whole  of  its  72  square 
miles  that  cannot  be  plowed.  I  do  not  know  if  this  is 
quite  true  of  Linneus,  but  at  any  rate  it  has  the  name 
of  being  one  of  the  best  in  this  great  county  of  5,000 
square  miles  area  and  nearly  200  townships. 
Mr.  Burleigh  was  an  early  settler  in  Aroostook,  and 
has  taken  a  leading  part  for  many  years  in  promoting 
its  interests.  He  has  passed  his  70th  year,  but  is  still 
an  active  business  man.  His  sons  have  risen  to  promin¬ 
ence,  the  elder  being  the  present  governor  of  the  State. 
Mr.  Burleigh  has  been  very  active  in  experimenting 
with  the  iron-clad  tree  fruits,  and  has  now  in  bearing 
a  successful  orchard  of  about  1,000  trees. 
Aroostook,  with  a  population  of  less  than  50,000, 
AN  AROOSTOOK  COUNTY  (MAINE)  MOWING  FIELD  OF  THIRTEEN  ACRES.  Fig.  8. 
feet  is  this  drainage  that  there  is  scarcely  any  irre¬ 
claimable  swamp  in  the  county. 
The  underlying  rock  is  a  soft  limestone,  and  the  soil 
is  simply  the  result  of  its  decay  in  situ,  what  is  known 
in  geology  as  the  drift  formation,  which  occupies 
nearly  all  the  rest  of  New  England,  being  absent  here. 
There  is  no  other  part  of  the  Union  which  this  section 
resembles  so  much  as  the  Ohio  Valley  below  the  mouth 
of  the  Kentucky  River  ;  and  the  rich  growth  of  timber, 
making  allowance  for  the  difference  in  latitude, 
strongly  marks  the  similarity.  But  the  nut-bearing 
trees,  save  the  beach  and  butternut,  are  absent,  and 
their  places  are  taken  by  magnificent  maples  and 
birches,  the  canoe  and  yellow  birches  growing  to  an 
immense  size  and  height.  The  Sugar  Maple  abounds, 
but  as  yet  is  little  utilized  for  sugar-making,  compared 
with  the  extent  to  which  it  is  used  for  this  purpose  in 
Vermont  and  northeastern  New  York.  In  the  shallow 
transverse  valleys,  along’  the  water-courses,  there  is 
the  finest  and  soundest  growth  of  White  Cedar  (Arbor- 
vitse)  known  in  America,  and  one  of  Aroostook’s  chief 
exports  consists  of  cedar  shingles  and  telegraph  poles. 
All  of  this  territory  lies  north  of  the  latitude  of  Mont- 
freedom  from  loose  stone  that  is  so  notable  here,  is  in 
wonderful  contrast  with  the  country  south  of  it,  in 
the  drift  region  through  which  the  Penobscot  River 
and  its  tributaries  flow.  In  parts  of  this,  loose  stones 
and  rocks  cover  the  entire  surface,  as  is  clearly  shown 
on  the  line  of  the  railroad  where  forest  fires  have  de¬ 
nuded  the  surface  of  all  vegetable  growth. 
The  climate  of  Aroostook  is  much  like  that  of 
northern  New  England  generally.  The  winter  lasts 
from  the  middle  of  November  to  the  beginning  of  May, 
with  very  few  and  brief  thaws  ;  but  the  snow,  by  its 
permanence  and  depth,  prevents  the  deep  freezing  of 
the  ground,  which  is  ready  for  tillage,  or  to  start  the 
grass,  as  soon  as  the  snow  disappears.  On  a  slope  you 
will  see  the  green  grass  starting  close  to  the  edge  of 
the  drifts.  By  the  first  of  June  every  growing  thing 
seems  almost  as  far  advanced  as  in  the  country  much 
farther  south,  near  the  coast,  where  the  cold  sea 
winds  and  fogs  retard  the  progress  of  the  season. 
The  farm  of  Mr.  Burleigh,  a  field  of  which  is  shown 
in  the  illustration,  Fig.  8,  is  situated  in  the  township 
of  Linneus,  about  20  miles  from  the  southern  boundary 
of  the  county,  with  but  one  township  between  it  and 
shows  by  her  exports  the  wonderful  productiveness  of 
the  soil,  as  well  as  the  industry  of  her  people.  The 
following  statement  of  exports  from  May  1,  1890,  to 
May  1,  1891,  taken  from  the  columns  of  the  Industrial 
J ournal,  is  in  point : 
85H- 
1,247 
479 
36 
2,373 
347 
107 
207 
152 
57 
1,082 
loads,  about  11, 000, (XX)  feet  long  lumber. 
“  150,000,000  shingles. 
“  150,000  sleepers. 
“  3,000  telegraph  poles. 
“  1,700,000  bushels  potatoes. 
4,500  tons  starch, 
leather. 
bark  and  extract, 
live  stock. 
fresh  meat  and  hides, 
other  freight. 
making  6,943  car-loads  in  all.  The  largest  modern 
freight  cars,  carrying  from  20  to  30  tons,  are  used,  so 
that  these  6,943  car-loads  represent  at  least  11,000  car¬ 
loads  a  few  years  ago.  But  to  this  must  be  added 
105,280,551  feet  of  logs  driven  out  of  Aroostook  streams 
into  the  St.  John  River,  and  sawed  in  the  mills  of  St. 
John,  New  Brunswick.  This  quantity  represents  over 
11,000  additional  car-loads.  t.  ii.  iioskins. 
R.  N.-Y. — Our  picture  shows  a  13-acre  field  of  hay 
which,  Mr.  Burleigh  says,  was  mowed  in  one  day  with 
a  six-foot  cut  Buckeye  mower.  The  farm  consists  of 
