122 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



until it seems nearly perfect. In dairying today, as in fruit cul- 

 ture, stock breeding, poultry raising and general agriculture, the 

 need is not so much for new ideas and improved methods as for 

 a general campaign for promoting the ideas and methods that 

 have already been tried and proven. 



The Maine Seed Improvement Association is also engaged in 

 a v/ork of inestimable value. No eastern state ranks with Maine 

 today in the work of seed improvement. Great railroads in the 

 West have taken up the work and eastern roads are coming into 

 line. Better seed means heavier crops, which means more traf- 

 fic. With our ]\Iaine Association and all those men like our 

 good friend Dr. Twitchell who are giving time and the loving 

 devotion of trained minds to this work, it is largely a labor of 

 love. No compensation awaits them; no great financial gain 

 is sought by them ; but from their labors all may profit. Let us 

 hail them as benefactors. 



"To him who, in the love of nature, holds communion with her 

 visible forms, she speaks a various language." Nothing in na- 

 ture appeals to me like the rustle of the bladed corn. I know 

 the merit of cotton and of wool ; I take ofif my hat to the Maine 

 potato ; I even love the tobacco plant ; but Corn is King. In the 

 old country schoolhouse that I remember years ago, we used to 

 stand up and recite in concert Whittier's corn song: 



"Heap high the fanner's wintry hoard, 



Heap high the golden corn ! 

 No richer gift hath Autumn poured 

 From out her golden horn!" 



How high that hoard has been heaped, statistics given in bush- 

 els or in barrels oitr minds fail to grasp, btit we do know that by 

 statistics Maine's yield per acre is the greatest and Maine's sweet 

 corn is the best. 



"Then let the good old crop adorn 



The hills our fathers trod; 

 Still let us. for His golden corn, 

 , Send up our thanks to God!" 



