3^)4 AGRICULTURE OH MAINE. 



with them a plan of certification which thcy suggested for our 

 adoption. We decided that it was a wise thing for us to adopt 

 a certification plan this year. Of course we were working on 

 small appropriations and we could not do as large a work as 

 we wished. We wanted to be sure we were right. It would 

 have been very pleasing to us and a great benefit to the asso- 

 ciation if we had been able to say, ''Come in, we will inspect 

 your grain, your corn, your potatoes and all crops you care to 

 certify." But we have not asked very many people to come in 

 because funds have not been available. We have inspected 576 

 acres of potatoes; 222 of these passed the standard set, and 

 we have the seed of those 222 acres for sale, — seed which has 

 been passed by men with a knowledge of potato diseases and 

 with a knowledge of conditions under which the potato grows ; 

 men w'ho have made a study of potato culture and diseases. I 

 want to say a little more in regard to the kind of a man who 

 should do certification work. It seems to me that he must be 

 a man who is a good mixer, a man with a good head ; not neces- 

 sarily a college man, but a man who has taken time to study at 

 the Experiment Station the particular plant diseases which are 

 most important and which must be reckoned with in seed cer- 

 tification. For instance, the men who inspected for us this year 

 went to Orono and put in from tw^o to five days each with Dr. 

 Morse and Mr. Shapovalov and when they went out to work they 

 were ready wdien a specimen of diseased plant \vas found to 

 say what the trouble was. A man must be able to do this, and 

 he must be a good mixer, so that he may meet all sorts of 

 people \vithout antagonism. It is quite a difficult position to be 

 an inspector. I was out with the boys for some little time myself 

 and did not envy them their job in any way. 



The three points w^hich I mentioned, — freedom from disease, 

 purity to type and high yielding qualities, will apply to other 

 plants as well as to potatoes. Of course we will say that we 

 must have a standard, and that is true. If we are working with 

 yellow eyed beans, it is necessary to have a standard as to what 

 shall be the shape, what the size and what the color markings, 

 for that bean. I gave you yesterday in my annual report to th( 

 association, a list of potato varieties which had been grouped 

 together according to their characteristics of fruiting and of 

 plant growth. This list was made by a man who has been a 



