Acadian settlers first claimed the fertile lands along the river, raising oats, wheat, and buckwheat before potatoes, while improving their fields with manure and crop rotation on pastureland. Settlers were initially self-sustaining, then sold surplus to new farmers and logging camps, and by the late 1820s they were exporting thousands of bushels of wheat by cart to Quebec Province. By about 1830 there were 400 Valley farms, and nineteenth-century farm work relied on horses, oxen, and manual labor. In the 1870s, rail access opened new markets as potato starch factories began shipping starch to cotton mills, with five local factories exporting 1,300 tons in 1879 alone. By 1905 railroads made it practical to ship millions of bushels of potatoes each year, and with the arrival of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, potato sales rose from two million to 18 million bushels annually in 13 years, making Aroostook County one of the leading producers in the U.S. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the potato economy went through boom and bust as the Depression hit Valley farmers hard, World War II brought record high potato prices in 1948, and the following year brought record lows, leading some farmers to leave for mill or factory jobs and farms to consolidate.