DAIRY AND SEED IMPRO\t:mENT MEETINGS. 369 



tagged are only from inspected fields that have passed the 

 inspection. 



We come now to the selling end. Those people who are 

 growing potatoes in the south demand certain things. They 

 want to know whether they are going to get them or not, and 

 the only way they can tell is through a guaranty. Your guar- 

 anty or my guaranty does not mean very much to a man down 

 there, because he does not know whether you and I are honest 

 or not, but if the State of Maine and the Department of Agri- 

 culture, or the Seed Improvement Association, or any such body 

 of men who have a standing, give a guaranty, the buyer is bound 

 to respect that guaranty, so that a guaranty of certification 

 signed by the Commissioner of Agriculture and put out by the 

 Seed Improvement Association, means something to those peo- 

 ple. Just as soon as they find out that it does mean something 

 and how much it means, they will pay us a premium for our 

 seed because of the guaranty it carries. 



In regard to the cost of inspection, as near as I can tell from 

 the work done in Maine this year, it costs approximately $3 

 an acre to do the actual work. We charged this year a very 

 small entry fee, — less than $1 per acre. It was on a sliding 

 scale, in some cases a little over 60 cents per acre. The greater 

 part of this total cost of $3 per acre was paid by the state. 

 If this association should desire to put this work on a real busi- 

 ness basis it would be necessary to adopt some such plan as this : 

 A contract might be drawn up between the head of the asso- 

 ciation, whoever is doing the business, and the members. The 

 members would agree to plant seed from inspected fields which 

 had passed the standard and was of high quality; they would 

 agree to treat it according to recommendations, grow it according 

 to the best methods, inspect it and remove such diseases as make 

 their appearance, etc. And then, to proceed in the most business- 

 like way, it would be necessary that the potatoes grown by these 

 men be sold by the manager or the secretary of the association. 

 As it is this year, we have a list of all the potatoes that have 

 passed inspection, and we are trying to find a market for them. 

 We have inquiries and we send a letter to the inquirer, telling 

 him where he may secure certain seed, and we send a letter to 

 the grower, telling him who wants his seed. But the man may 

 not report to us, all his potatoes may be gone, and we may keep 



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