2.J2 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE;. 



OUR PART IN IMPROVING MAINE AGRICULTURE. 



By C. S. Stetson, Master State Grange. 



It certainly affords me pleasure, as a representative of the 

 largest organization in our State, to come before you and say 

 a few words, and to give you as concisely as I can my idea of 

 the position of the Grange in regard to the agricultural devel- 

 opment of the State of Maine. I feel that I owe you an apol- 

 ogy in that I have not had sufficient time to prepare myself for 

 this evening's program. 



This organization of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry 

 from its earliest inception has stood for the promotion of agri- 

 culture. Its idea has been from the beginning, and its aim 

 and work, to educate and elevate the American farmer. Now 

 we have a vigorous organization in Maine, consisting of about 

 60,000 of the people of our State. It occurs to me that in any 

 agricultural development, in any betterment along the lines of 

 agriculture, and perhaps civic improvement, this organization 

 ought to be a leader. It has been said in past years, and with 

 some degree of truth I am willing to admit, that the organiza- 

 tion of which I have the honor of being the head at the present 

 time, has been devoting too much of its energies to the social 

 feature or the social end of grange work, as we call it. When 

 I was elected Master of the State Grange, I felt that, having 

 this great organization in our State, having the great amount 

 of money invested in grange property, the time had come when 

 we ought to take account of stock, as it were, when we ought 

 to ask ourselves the question. Does it pay? It occurred to me 

 that the time had come when we ought to make this organization 

 a very potent factor for uplifting along all lines of agricultural 

 endeavor in our State. The criticism that I have mentioned, 

 that we had been devoting too much of our energies and too 

 much of our time in the social feature of grange work, per- 

 haps was justly made; and in visiting the subordinate and the 

 Pomona granges in the State of Maine, in season and out of 

 season, I have had in mind and have given the grange organ- 

 izations to understand that the cultivation of the social graces 

 and the enjoyment of the social pleasures are to be commended, 

 but any organization composed largely of farmers, as this organ- 



