10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



have developed slowly are not handicapped for lack of suitable 

 educational training. 



The "West" which will yield the greatest return for your faith, 

 energy and courage, is this and the adjoining counties. Here 3'ou 

 know the soil, peculiarities of climate, and have around you local 

 markets in the manufacturing towns and cities, whose needs you 

 should know infinitely better than the man who is one or two thou- 

 sand miles west. 



The West can only outdo you in your ov\rn markets in proportion 

 to their success in educational effort. Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa 

 and other States never made their influence in your market lelt till 

 their dairymen became educated The work of to-day is enough 

 for twenty-four hours, but not more. Continual vigilance in educa- 

 tional effort is the price we must pay to retain our positions in the 

 race for life. Your agriculture is in a transition state. The 

 transition period is alwaj's with us, but in your case it is changing 

 rapidly to that of dairying. The occupation of grain growing is 

 not what it once was, and the meat maker is not as common among 

 you as formed}'. Your people are looking to dairying for a living, 

 and this industry seems to promise more than anj' other feature of 

 the farm. You have voted funds freeU' for instruction in the past. 

 Experience tells you that improvement and change of base are 

 needed from time to time to increase the efficiency of existing means 

 of education. Will you strengthen j'our work in this State by still 

 further encouraging those who remain to develop the unrevealed 

 riches of your soil and climate? Wherever the lumberman's axe is 

 heard, wherever the pioneer farmer is found, there you will see the 

 stalwart frame, the rugged constitution, and the unfaltering faith of 

 Maine's best manhood. Will you keep some of the best of this 

 priceless raw material for this State? Will 3'ou encourage them to 

 believe that of all the fair domains of this great nation, Maine 

 occupies no second place? If there is a spot on this earth worth 

 working for, and worth}' of our lives, it is home. Will you supple- 

 ment your votes, that those who now toil in the dark between hope 

 and fear, lest they be on the wrong track, may be guided by sound 

 principles, and receive the same instruction which has made their 

 rivals in business such keen competitors? 



Since 1880 the rivalry of States in the manufacture of dairy goods 

 has been very marked and pronounced. These same States have 

 laid deep and broad foundation for their success in the kind and 



