1 

 DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. I73 



work is always slow ; that certain lines of seed selection and 

 propagation that at first seemed advisable were found faulty 

 and had to be abandoned, that we were attempting to urge the 

 producers to engage in strictly scientific plant breeding for 

 which they had not the time or training. It must be left to 

 the few to do this work and the work of this organization must 

 be to take the results of their labors and disseminate them as 

 widely and as quickly as possible. I believe this line of work 

 will show in the next four years results that will astonish the 

 most optimistic. 



In comparing the improved seed with good average seed I 

 have seen the yield of potatoes increased i8 bushels; barley, 7 

 bushels; oats, 12 bushels; and beans, 6 bushels. When we can 

 have enough of this kind of seed to supply one-fourth of all 

 of the farmers of Maine, what will it mean to the prosperity of 

 our profession? To what extent will this alone contribute to 

 the extension of our industry and the encouragement of our 

 young men and women to take agriculture as an occupation? 

 The agriculture of the future must be so conducted as to 

 promise substantial financial gain, and not be a last resort for 

 the unsuccessful and constitutionally tired. The present market 

 prices of everything we produce are sufficient to warrant suc- 

 cess by this method to any one who will diligently study the 

 laws of nature and conform to them. We have the aid of our 

 Federal Government, the assistance of our state, the active help 

 of every other corporate interest in the state to urge us on, and 

 the members ready to extend every courtesy in sending out to all 

 the results from year to year. With these incentives can we 

 doubt a good measure of success? 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Members of the Maine Seed Improvement Association: 



Upon the 25th day of next January this organization, the 

 Maine Seed Improvement Association, will be four years old. 

 They have been four years of varying success. In 1911 there 

 were 156 members in good standing in the association; at the 

 present time there are 125 members paid to the first of last 



