Spuds and Studs

SPUDS:

The potato industry in Maine is over 250 years old, brought to the state by the Scotch-Irish in about 1750. Since then, the potato has become the number one agricultural row crop in the State with production from over 55,500 acres totaling approximately 1.5 BILLION pounds of potatoes PER YEAR!


Newly planted potato field

Due to a very wet spring, the potato fields were just being planted when we arrived in the area.

With all the rain we have been having, the potato plants are growing fast.


A few weeks later.

STUDS:

Shortly after Maine became a state in 1820, the first businesses to spring up, in what was later to become Presque Isle, were lumber mills.


Lots of cut trees.

As we drive around the back roads we see lots of fields that have been clear-cut.



We see lots of trucks hauling giant logs.



A lot of the fields are marked with signs indicating when they had been planted, thinned, or cut.



A few days ago we came across these empty plastic pots.


Stacks of empty flats.

We didn’t know what they were for until we got a little further down the road and saw these pots that were planted with seedlings. There were workers in the fields planting these little seedlings by hand.


Each flat contains 75 seedlings. The workers would hook two of these on their belt and walk out into the field to plant.