l66 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



have no appropriation for field inspection work. Any money 

 used for this purpose has to be taken from other appropria- 

 tions, usually from Agricultural Statistics. As in other lines 

 of business, so it is in this ; collections cannot very well be 

 made for work promised, but must be for work done. There- 

 fore, without some appropriation made especially for this work, 

 funds must be had from some source to start the work. As it 

 is not our desire to have any surplus, or, in other words, to 

 charge the farmers of the state more for doing this work than 

 its actual cost, there are times when there would not be money 

 enough on hand to pay the inspectors and their expenses, even 

 though the amount charged for doing the work might balance 

 at the close of the season's work. Under these conditions the 

 Commissioner of x^griculture very kindly allowed the expenses 

 of two field inspectors to be paid out of the appropriation for 

 Agricultural Statistics, turning back into that fund what money 

 was collected. However, the Commissioner did not deem it 

 wise to adopt this course in the case of the final or shipping in- 

 spection. Therefore, your secretary was ordered by the execu- 

 tive committee of the Maine Seed Improvement Association to 

 do certain work, calling for an expenditure of quite a sum, 

 with no available funds to start the work and no assurance 

 that enough could be collected to make good any amount for 

 which he had to become responsible. Yet, to have halted the 

 inspection at this stage was to discredit not only the season's 

 work, but the whole scheme of potato inspection which I believe 

 is today better started here in Maine than in any other state. 

 If you have any criticisms of the way the final inspection work 

 has been carried out I trust that you will make it now, remem- 

 bering that I had to become personally responsible for the 

 financing of this part of the work. 



As was to be expected, with the increased cost of the inspec- 

 tion work, but few entries came into the office, and at one time 

 it looked very much as if no work at all would be done in 

 Aroostook county, the expense of the work looked so great to 

 the growers ; and there probably would not have been, had not 

 the growers been solicited and a personal appeal made to some 

 of the leading growers of the county. A part of the soliciting 

 was done by E. S. Russell who later became chief inspector for 

 Aroostook county, and part by your secretary. 



