ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF 



AGRICULTURE. 



In presenting this report it gives me pleasure to state that the 

 past year has been generally prosperous for the agriculture of 

 Maine, and the outlook for agricultural advancement and pros- 

 perity in this State was never brighter than it is today. The 

 farmers are taking new interest in their work. The crops that 

 have been raised have brought remunerative prices and the 

 market has been good. The acreage of tillage land is being 

 increased and given more attention, and the farms are being 

 made more productive. The free rural mail delivery and the 

 farm telephone which have reached so many of the farm homes 

 during the past year have added much to the desirability of farm 

 life and the sociability of every community. Where all the 

 farmers of a section have combined in establishing the telephone 

 it has been a meagre expense, and the benefits that are derived 

 from it, socially and financially, are beyond estimation. One of 

 the especially attractive features of the telephone system in a 

 farming community is the sociability that the farmers have 

 among themselves, with practically no expense. With the daily 

 paper left at the door and the telephone for communication with 

 the neighborhood and the town or city, the barrier of isolation 

 has been removed, and the rural people are being brought in 

 close touch with the large centers. 



Farmers have had serious obstacles to confront during the past 

 season, and in some sections the effects of drought, frost and con- 

 tinued cold have not been overcome and the income of the farm 

 has not equalled that of former years, but we believe that on the 

 whole the products of the farm have not fallen below the average, 

 and with the good prices which have been maintained the returns 

 received have been quite satisfactory. The hay crop, which was 

 so seriously threatened by the early drought, recovered, to an 



