Maine Memory Network

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 2 of 13

"Victor potato digger, Littleton, c. 1920Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum Two horses were necessary to pull these early potato diggers."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 4 of 13

"The digger shown here required a person to ride on the digger to adjust the front of the digger so that it will cut into the row at the right height."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 1 of 13

"Pictured on the left are several men using a hand digger to dig potatoes from the rows. Others picked the potatoes from the ground and put them in…"

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 3 of 13

"THE DIGGER EVOLVES Digger with Motor This one-row digger was entered in the Mapleton Days parade in June, 2009 X In the 1930s some diggers had a…"

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 13 of 13

"Workers make sure the potatoes and rocks are separated. A conveyors dumps the potatoes directly into a bulk body truck No more barrels, no more…"

Presque Isle: The Star City - Potato Harvest Memories - Page 2 of 5

"The seeds were potatoes from the year before. The potatoes would be on a rack and as they went by, Edwena would cut them into four pieces."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 10 of 13

""The digger broke down" meant that there will be a chance to catch up on picking potatoes or to rest or play."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Potato Harvest Memories - Page 4 of 5

"They would have to go quickly because the digger man would start coming down that row to dig the potatoes out of the ground."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 9 of 13

"A man is behind the digger picking potatoes. A full basket of potatoes is being emptied into a barrel. The farm owner, Mr."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Potato Harvest Memories - Page 1 of 5

"1935Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum Edwena, my grandmother, told me about working in the Central Aroostook County potato fields."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 5 of 13

"The potatoes would be picked from a section of the field allotted to the picker. If the section is too long, the picker would get behind and probably…"

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 6 of 13

"In the horse-drawn digger days of the early 1900s a potato picker could earn 2 or 3 cents for each full barrel."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 8 of 13

"Don't pick any rotten potatoes. 9. Don't throw potatoes. 10, You're setting your barrels in the wrong row, I can't get the truck through."

Presque Isle: The Star City - Harvesting Potatoes - Page 12 of 13

"… hand grapple was made locally, probably from a digger lag. Although it took two person to load a 160 pound (81 kg) barrel with the hand grapple…"