DAIRY MEETING. I25 



of industry are the men out on the farm who are taking the raw 

 forces and working them over for the glory and the satisfaction 

 of men. You and I want to remember that agriculture is the 

 only productive industry. Yonder cotton mill produces noth- 

 ing ; yonder pulp mill produces nothing ; your shoe factories pro- 

 duce nothing. They simply take the cotton and the wood and the 

 leather and through the skill of labor convert them into a finer 

 form. They change the form of the product ; they add nothing 

 to it, save the labor involved in the transformation. Commerce 

 adds nothing, it simply moves the goods from one point to an- 

 other. Trade adds nothing, necessary as it is, helpful as it is in 

 building up prosperity. But agriculture produces ; agriculture 

 is the great productive industry and it should be so recognized. 



What is agriculture doing in the State of Maine? Ten years 

 ago Aroostook County produced practically all of the potatoes 

 grown in the State, — five million bushels. This year Aroostook 

 County produced 18 million bushels, and the State of Maine pro- 

 duced thirty-five million bushels. A few years ago we were 

 producing only three-fourths of a million barrels of apples. The 

 output of the State of Maine in apples last year was close ta 

 3,500,000 barrels. Ten years ago the sweet corn industry was 

 measured at about io,(?oo,ooo cans and the farmers realized about 

 $40 per acre at 2 cents per pound. Now the price has advanced 

 to 2>4 cents, and this year the product was 28,000,000 cans and 

 the farmers have realized upon an average $70 per acre. These 

 illustrations indicate only a step in the great march of progress. 

 What have we been doing along dairy lines? During the past 

 ten years the State of Maine has been taking a great forward step 

 in dairy work. There is no state today in all the East that can 

 compare with the State of Maine in the progress that has been 

 made since 1900 in its dairy achievements and in its agricultural 

 development. There is no state in all the East that tonight is so 

 thoroughly organized in all its dairy work, and so closely united,, 

 as is the State of Maine. In every department of agricultural 

 work this is true and if wisdom prevails and we are able to stand 

 together and work together along these lines, we are just on the 

 eve of the possibilities in agriculture, and the next ten years will 

 show a marvelous advance. And you and I must remember that 

 our hope is in the life and energy of the young people that come 

 from the country. 



