26o AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Everybcxly who has a brain has a cliance to work on the prob- 

 lem of how to produce food. Those who solve it are the great 

 heroes. 



War is upon us. No nation can be at war and any nation at 

 peace. Americans must manifest their power in fighting ignor- 

 ance. We must use our brains to produce food for the world. 



REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

 C. R. Leland. 



This association has held two executive committee meetings 

 in the past year, the first one at the State House on January 

 29th and the second one at Highmoor Farm on x\ugust 20th. 

 At the State House the business of the executive commiitee 

 meeting was to appoint the Annual Meeting of the Association 

 here at Bangor, and to take up the matter of how best to im- 

 prove the quality of the seeds which would be grown by the 

 members of the association this year. At that committee meet- 

 ing Mr. R. B. Harrison of New Jersey, who is one of the large 

 potato growers in that state, and Dr. W. A. Orton of the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board at Washington were present. They 

 told us something about the requirements of the southern grow- 

 ers and the seed potato industry in the south. 



At last year's annual meeting we voted, as an association, to 

 take some steps to place the association on a business-like basis, 

 and to take some steps towards standardization of varieties antf 

 towards a reduction of the amount of disease. A plan of seed 

 certification had already been adopted by this association and 

 it seemed best to revise that plan a little and to adopt a method 

 of seed certification in which the Department of Agriculture 

 and the Seed Improvement Association should cooperate, for 

 this reason, — that anything which is guaranteed by the state 

 carries more prestige w^ith it than that guaranteed by an asso- 

 ciation such as our own. A committee w^as appointed at that 

 meeting, consisting of Mr. Porter and your secretary, to confer 

 with the Commissioner of Agriculture and to arrange some 

 such plan in its details. 



At the second meeting of the executive committee, held at 

 Highmoor, we revised the premium list and made arrange- 



