SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETING. 273 



ization is, that devotes all of its work and all of its time and all 

 of its energy to the cultivation of the social graces cannot long 

 endure. We must do something that will commend our organ- 

 ization to thinking people. Now I believe we have in our State 

 the largest proportion of farmers that is found in the grange 

 of any state. One person in every eleven in Maine at the pres- 

 ent time belongs to the grange, and the grange organization 

 in the future must, if it endures, if it maintains its present 

 prestige, if it attains to greater heights, demonstrate that it 

 is to be a leader as it never has been in the pa,'>t. 



Mr. Chairman, it has been said that we are not doing our 

 best in developing agriculture in the State of Maine. I believe 

 it to be true, but by comparison we can look back twenty-five 

 years and see that we have made great strides along the line 

 of agricultural development. Any man who travels over Maine 

 as I do, and who notices as he travels, may see that conditions 

 in Maine are immeasurably better than they were twenty-five 

 years ago, and I believe that we are just at the beginning of 

 our possibilities so far as agriculture is concerned. And this 

 organization, consisting of nearly 60,000 of the best people in 

 the State of Maine, ought to be a leader along future lines of 

 development. It has been said that the fruit industry in our 

 State has been on the wane ; it has been said that we are not 

 producing as good fruit or as much fruit as we were ten years 

 ago. Is this true? and if it is true, why is it true? I propose, 

 so far as I can dominate the work, so far as I can formulate 

 the plan of grange work in the future, that we in the capacity 

 of granges shall find out why this is true. We have an organ- 

 ization, we have the grange homes, the grange halls, we have 

 everything at our hand for promulgating this work, and so far 

 as I am concerned and so far as I can formulate the policy of 

 the grange in Maine, I propose that we shall be identified with 

 every other organization in our State that is trying to promote 

 agriculture. I care nothing for any credit which might inci- 

 dentally come to myself. I believe that all petty jealousies, 

 all rivalries, all envies, if you please, should be laid aside, and 

 each and every organization in Maine shoud work together 

 along a definite line toward a definite object for upbuilding 

 agriculture in our State. 



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