l8 AGRICULTURE OF MAIXE. 



butter, candy, bread — if wrapped : oysters, canned goods and all 

 articles of food in a package. The milk inspection, also, is a 

 consumers' law. This Department, therefore, works not only 

 through its dair}- instructor to produce milk, but through the 

 dairy inspector who sees that the milk is such as the cows 

 give and not manufactured or adulterated. The Apple Packing 

 Law is also a consumers' law. 



It, therefore, becomes evident that ever\- man in the State 

 of Maine, whether in cit}" or country, is interested in the De- 

 partment of Agriculture and the one who administers it. It 

 is at the present time the largest department and has the larg- 

 est number of employees of any department around the State 

 House and the activities are the widest. It seems reasonable, 

 therefore, that this office should be an elective office, the same 

 as the governor and the state auditor, and should be elected for 

 the same term as the governor and the auditor. 



So far as the duties of the office are concerned, there is noth- 

 ing but that any man of intelligence and decision, with a sense 

 of justice, can administer, even from the start. In the last eight 

 years we have seen four men, successively, commissioners, and 

 while there has been more or less en.- at different times against 

 each one, it has been rather of a political nature than other- 

 wise. It is my belief, therefore, that the office should be made 

 elective and of the same term of office as the governor and its 

 operations should be rigidly scrutinized. 



I was ver}- much surprised to learn, when I attended the 

 meeting at Washington, where the commissioners of agricul- 

 ture formed themselves into a national association, that prac- 

 tically ever}' large agricultural state in the United States elects 

 its commissioner of agriculture by ballot. In fact, the ratio 

 of the states that elect their commissioners by direct vote and 

 those that have them chosen in some other way are in the ratio 

 of about three to one. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 



I wish to extend my sincere acknowledgments to Governor 

 Oakley C. Curtis and his Council, who. upon every occasion, 

 have shown every courtesy and favor possible. I also want to 

 extend my acknowledgments to the grange authorities, both 



