. In fair Aroostook, where Acadia and Scandinavia's subtle touch turned a wilderness into a land of plenty; . of Quebec. There are few better towns in Maine for agriculturalpurposes. On every hand the land rolls up into gentle hardwood ridges, covered with a stately growth of maple, birch,beech and ash. In every valley between these ridges flows abrook, and along its banks grow the spruce, fir and cedar. Thesoil is a rich, light loam, overlying a hard layer of clay, whichin turn rests upon a ledge of rotten slate, with perpendicularrift. The ledge seldom crops out, and the land is remarkablyfr
. In fair Aroostook, where Acadia and Scandinavia's subtle touch turned a wilderness into a land of plenty; . of Quebec. There are few better towns in Maine for agriculturalpurposes. On every hand the land rolls up into gentle hardwood ridges, covered with a stately growth of maple, birch,beech and ash. In every valley between these ridges flows abrook, and along its banks grow the spruce, fir and cedar. Thesoil is a rich, light loam, overlying a hard layer of clay, whichin turn rests upon a ledge of rotten slate, with perpendicularrift. The ledge seldom crops out, and the land is remarkablyfree from stones. In preparation for the coming of the settlersa chopping of five acres had been made on each of the 100-acrelots assigned them, and an 18 by 26 foot log cabin built andfurnished with a cooking stove. This was the sole gratuitousaid given by the state to the Swedish settlers who had paid theirown passage from Sweden. They came with scanty equipment,having not even so much as chairs in the way of furniture; andthe onlv animals taken into the woods by the colony were two 68 IN FAIR kittens, picked up by Swedish children on the ilrive in fromTobique. It was the conimunit}- planted under such conditions that Icame to visit on an afternoon soon after my interview with ; and I Vjnre a note from him to the Rev. Olof P. Foge- lin. pastor of the Congrega-tional church there, who wasto be my guide and refereeduring the time I was to spendin New Sweden. Instead oftaking the usual, and gener-ally preferable route, andtraveling the eight miles byteam from Caribou, I chose,on account of rain and muddyroads, to go by rail to Jemt-land, where the stage, I wasinformed, would take me toPetersons, the one hotel inall the vSwedish from the train at Jemtland station—Jemtland is thenorthern part of New Sweden, as Nelson is the southern part—I found the stage to be a one-seated wagon, driven by a smallboy who spoke very imperfect English. F
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