Potatoes are one of the state's best-known agricultural products and Aroostook County with its long, cold winters and a short, cool growing season is perfect for potatoes.
Many farmers in the state grew potatoes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Before the Civil War, Kennebec, Lincoln, Cumberland, York, Somerset and Waldo counties all contributed to Maine's potato crop, which was second only to New York.
These potatoes fed animals, the farmer and his family, or were sold, mostly to nearby stores or markets.
