6o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



there and organized the Maine Dairymen's Association, Its 

 aims and purposes were to advance the dairy interests of Maine. 

 We elected our officers, Mr. Alden being the first president, 

 and very soon after that, in the same year, the legislature met 

 and we went down to the legislature to see if we could not get 

 a little appropriation. We realized the fact that without money 

 we could not do very much, and we knew that in other states 

 these associations were doing much more than we were here in 

 Maine, because they were assisted by the state. The associa- 

 tions in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont received 

 assistance from the state, and they had inspectors and men in 

 charge of various departments along dairy lines. I had the 

 pleasure of attending a dairy convention in New York two years 

 ago, and it seemed to me that every man present had some 

 office. He was either a cheese inspector, or a cream or milk or 

 butter inspector. And that is why the state of New York has 

 made such strides in dairying. We had nothing then except a 

 Board of Agriculture, which was doing a good work in its line. 

 We went down to the legislature and very humbly and modestly 

 knocked at the door and asked for a little appropriation, that 

 we might put in the field, to co-operate with the Board of Agri- 

 culture, a Dairy Instructor. The Senate looked us over, and 

 the House of Representatives looked us over, and they said, 

 "You look like a little, feeble child. We think we will let you 

 alone and you will die yourself. It is better to let you die than 

 let you live to be 21 years of age and be able to vote." The 

 result was we got no appropriation. We went home and lived 

 along, and later we did get an act of the legislature. We had 

 been holding dairy conventions in connection with the Board of 

 Agriculture, and the next year that the legislature was in session 

 an act was passed that mentioned the Maine State Dairymen's 

 Association in connection with the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture, stating that they might hold a State Dairy Conference, and 

 the sum of $500 was appropriated to defray the expenses of 

 that meeting. In 1902 when the Dairy Convention met in 

 Waterville resolutions were adopted very strongly and very 

 emphatically asking for a Dairy Instructor, a man who should 

 familiarize himself with the dairy work in Maine and seek to 

 promote a better relation between the farmer, the producer, and 



