28 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



the Department of Agriculture, under the title, Bureau of Seed 

 Improvement. At the present time the title of Assistant Dairy 

 Instructor is misleading. When the work was first started this 

 did not seem necessary or advisable, but the demand for cer- 

 tified seed from the south is becoming greater and greater each 

 year and, unless adequate steps are taken to carry forward this 

 work on a scale large enough to supply this demand, an im- 

 mense trade which should come to our state will go elsewhere, 

 as New York and Wisconsin are making a determined effort to 

 capture this certified seed trade. 



If the work is properly handled another year, at least 200.000 

 barrels of certified seed will be produced in the state and this 

 will sell at a price around fifty cents per barrel more than the 

 best Maine seed uncertified. Not only will this add $100,000 

 of ready cash to the money circulation of the State of Maine, 

 but it will create an increasing future demand for Maine's 

 certified seed. 



A few fields in the state have been found especially free 

 from all trace of disease and, as far as possible, the potato 

 growers here in the state have been urged to buy this seed for 

 their own planting another season instead of having this es- 

 pecially fine stock shipped out of the state. 



At all times I have instructed the field inspectors to be cour- 

 teous in their manner towards everyone, and to take special 

 pains to point out the diflferent diseases and explain how the 

 work is carried on in the field. Many times a few minutes' 

 work by an inspector, who really knows his business, will give 

 a grower ideas as to the elimination of varietal mixtures in any 

 varieties he may have, as well as diseases — especially blackleg 

 and stem rot. 



There is another disease which is becoming a very great 

 source of damage to the potato growers, especially those in the 

 southern and western part of the state. This is called net- 

 necrosis and is a blackening of the inside of the tubers, usually 

 beginning at the stem end, the diseased portion of the tubers 

 cooking black with an unpleasant taste to many people. One 

 not accustomed to the disease would not detect it without cut- 

 ting the tuber. It has been reported to me that some farmers 

 near Portland are selling potatoes from this year's crop with 



