REPORT OF ASSISTANT DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. 



To the Hon. W. T. Guptill, Commissioner of Agriculture: 



I herewith submit my first annual report as Assistant Dairy 

 Instructor in charge of the Seed Improvement Work of the 

 State. 



On May 4, the executive committee of the Maine Seed Im- 

 provement Association met and elected your Assistant Dairy 

 Instructor as secretary of their association. In taking up this 

 work the secretary found that while it was very important that 

 crops like beans, corn, oats and many others should have the 

 interest of the association and the Department of Agriculture 

 extended to aid their betterment, the potato interest was by 

 far greater than all others combined. The amount of money 

 taken in by the potato growers for seed potatoes sent out of 

 the state is many times greater than that taken for all other 

 crops sent out for seed purposes. 



The seed potato trade of Maine is, at the present time, large, 

 but is capable of being greatly increased, provided the potato 

 growers in our state take pains to keep their product above that 

 of other states. 



Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan are making a deter- 

 mined effort to get and keep much of the seed potato trade 

 which now comes to our Maine growers. This should not be 

 allowed and, whether it is or not. depends largely on the inter- 

 est which our growers take in the matter. The southern seed 

 trade is demanding more and more each year seed true to name 

 and free from disease. It has not gotten seed of this class 

 from Maine in far too many cases in the past. 



It is just as easy for our Maine growers to produce seed 

 of the highest class as mongrel stock, and at a much greater 

 profit to all concerned. It seems to be a matter of education 

 among our growers. For this reason I have at all times tried 

 to make this work as instructive as possible to every farmer 

 who entered any crop for certification. 



