362 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



SEED CERTIFICATION. 

 By C. R. Leland. 



I am disappointed that I was not able to attend the Seed 

 Certification meeting in Philadelphia, mentioned yesterday, so 

 that I might have told you what other states are planning in this 

 work. What I shall say will be only in regard to conditions 

 in our own state — the work we have done in the past year. We 

 have taken up at this meeting, more than at any other meeting 

 we have held, the seUing end, and it seems to me the selling 

 end is one we must get back to more and more from year to 

 year. We have been getting at the production, — producing 

 more and producing better, which is right and proper, but we 

 have left the other end, the selling end, — getting things on 

 the market so as to bring us better prices. Our plan of seed 

 certification is a plan which combines the two ; showing us how 

 to produce the best and giving us a cue as to marketing to the 

 best advantage. 



It might be well to mention the conditions which make cer- 

 tification necessary from the marketing standpoint. You know 

 in the potato business, the states south of New York buy almost 

 all their seed potatoes in the north. The reason for this is 

 that with their hot, humid climate and a soil so much different 

 from ours, it is almost impossible to grow a potato that will 

 yield well and continue to do so one year after another. 

 They must keep their potatoes in cold storage and usually in 

 growing their own seed potatoes they plan a second crop late, 

 which yields only 15 to 20 barrels to the acre, and as it is a 

 pretty slow proposition to raise seed at that rate they come 

 north and buy their seed from Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont and New York, and all of the northern potato growing 

 states. Dr. Morse said last night that the potato, traveling as 

 it does all over the country, and from Europe here and back, 

 has collected the greatest assortment of plant diseases of any 



