20 BOARD OK AGRICULTURE. 



the right to call them to account. We all acquiesce in tlie importance 

 of having a Bank Commissioner. Another of our State Institutions, 

 of which I might speak, is our State College — an Institution from 

 which should be gathered the richest and choicest fruit, not only from 

 the soil, hut that intelle(;tual fruit which is characteristic of our Maine 

 bo3's, and which is known and api)reciated wherever known. We 

 believe that this Institution should be altogether in the hands of its 

 friends. The College has no better friend than the Board of Agri- 

 culture. 



Our Agricultural Fairs are now acknowledged b}- all to be among 

 the fixed institutions of the land, and one of the essential requisites 

 for the advancement of our farming interests. But the question 

 arises, could not their sphere of usefulness be enlarged by placing 

 them more under the control of the State? 



It ma}' be well for the Board of Agriculture to look back at times 

 to the organic act bv which it was created and in which its work is 

 prescribed. Section one of the law governing the Board specifies its 

 object to be "for the improvement of agriculture and the advance- 

 ment of the general interests of hiisbandrj'." Section seven of the 

 law specifies what it shall do in order to carry out the object speci- 

 fied in the first section, and it reads as follows : The Board shall in- 

 vestigate such subjects relating to agriculture, horticulture and the 

 arts connected therewith, as they think proper. The word "shall" 

 there makes it the duty of the Board to investigate any subject re- 

 lating to agriculture which in their judgment may call for attention, 

 and through which attention the interests of husbandry may be ad- 

 vanced or improved. This opens the whole field of agriculture, 

 "whether found in the organized bodies connected with agricultural 

 affairs or in the methods and practices of the practical work of the 

 farm, legitimate objects for our investigation and inquiry. Nor are 

 these duties to be confined to such organizations as have been incor- 

 porated by the Legislature of the State. The duty is equally bind- 

 ing on those organized under the general law for corporations, and 

 even those having no legal compact, provided their work is connected 

 ■with agriculture affairs. Taking this view of the duties of the 

 Board, and there is no question but it is what the law contemplates, 

 and the Board then becomes the guardian of the agricultural interests 

 of the State, and is specially commissioned to study, inquire into and 

 examine all work of whatever kind that is carried on in the interest 

 of agriculture. And the further dut}' follows that in its prescribed 



