REPORT OF BUREAU OF MARKETIN'G AND SUPPLIES. 1 59 



Outside of the potato business the various Hues in which the 

 unions are engaged are meeting with success. The potato situ- 

 ation is unusually bad from a grower's standpoint, and unfortu- 

 nately there is no relief in sight. Prices are ruling lower, and 

 freight rates grow higher as the price declines. 



When some important question is to be considered, it is the 

 general practice to appoint a commission or create a department, 

 and then proceed to investigate the existing conditions, having 

 in view the adoption of such reforms as a series of experiments 

 shall suggest. This is a slow method and the farmers object to 

 being the object of long drawn out experimentations. 



In the case of the Bureau of Marketing and Supplies this 

 method fortunately was not necessary. The plan of the Farm- 

 ers Union of Maine was perfected in every detail long before 

 its workings were tested in Maine, and all parts of the plan 

 except the state-wide basis had been in practical operation in 

 other states for a number of years and had been found correct 

 in the light of our present knowledge. The union is not in 

 business to puU down, but to build. The farmer does not desire 

 to drive the shipper, the fertilizer manufacturer, the grain 

 dealer, or any other business out of the state. He simply asks 

 the same rights and privileges that others enjoy. We have the 

 grain dealer located in every town. If another dealer locates 

 in the same town it would hardly be noted. Therefore, what 

 difference does it make if this dealer is an independent factor 

 or a farmers' union ? Our potato buyers are located in every 

 producing center and their numbers are from time to time 

 being increased, and the farmer simply requests that he be 

 allowed to erect a potato house and work side by side with the 

 independent buyer. 



We have an army of fertilizer agents covering ever}^ section 

 of the state, each adding to the cost of the goods, and the farmef 

 in order to save this expense has concluded to buy his goods 

 direct from the factory and this decision on his part will cer 

 tainly meet with the approval of all right thinking men. 



FARM METHODS. 



In order to attract attention to needed legislation, it is some- 

 times necessary to expose existing conditions. We boast of 

 the prosperity of our Maine farmer. While this is true of a 



