REPORT OF ASSISTANT DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. 



To the Hon. IV. T. Guptill, Commissioner of Agriculture: 



I herewith submit my second annual report as Assistant 

 Dairy Instructor, in charge of the Seed Improvement Work of 

 the state. 



At the annual meeting held in Lewiston in December, 191 5, 

 the matter of a final inspection of all certified seed was dis- 

 cussed very thoroughly and the general opinion was that no 

 seed of any kind should be allowed to be sold as certified seed 

 without being inspected at the time it went into the container 

 in which it was to be shipped. 



This matter being in charge of your Assistant Dairy Instruc- 

 tor, he had used for his guide the methods of his predecessor 

 in office and had, at the time the last field inspection was 

 made, charged a fee of $3 for tags, as had been done in the 

 past. The payment of this fee for tags entitled all growers, 

 whose crops had passed the field inspections, to them, re- 

 gardless of any action that might be taken by the Seed Im- 

 provement Association, as a whole, or its Executive Committee. 

 However, the association voted, and I was instructed by the 

 Executive Committee, not to issue the blue tags of the asso- 

 ciation and Department of Agriculture to any grower who 

 had certified seed, unless such seed was inspected at the time it 

 went into the container. I informed the association that no 

 money was available to carry on any further inspection work. 

 However, as it was very desirable to determine whether or not 

 the seed was carefully inspected as to grading, and nothmg 

 allowed to go in that was in any way different from what the 

 purchaser would have reason to expect, arrangements were 

 made with Guy Porter of Houlton, vice-president of the 

 association, to have all certified seed around Houlton inspected 

 at the time of shipment. ]\Tr. Porter being assured that if 

 funds could not be had from the Department of Agriculture, 

 such sum as was needed would be taken from the treasury of 



