156 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



say, however, that I have every reason to beheve that most of 

 the cases were not wilful violations but the result of careless- 

 ness, and some were purely technical. 



A point that seems to warrant discussion is whether or not 

 seeds obtained by the cooperative plan, the system followed by 

 the several Farmers Unions of the state, require — as those ob- 

 tained by dealers — the percentage of purity marked on the 

 packages; this subject having been considerably aired during 

 the year as a result of the inspectors finding packages of seeds 

 as above not marked as has been the custom of the dealers, the 

 matter was presented to the Attorney General and his opinion 

 asked ; in his reply he affirms that the same requirements should 

 apply to seeds purchased cooperatively as to those ofifered for 

 sale by dealers. It also appears that it was the intention of the 

 statute to outline such requirements. 



The results of the analyses of seed samples, together with the 

 names of the dealers from whom the samples were taken, may 

 be found in Official Inspections No. 73. 



Feeding Stuffs Inspection. 



The feeding stufifs inspection for 191 5 was carried on actively 

 from January to June, then dropped for a time and again taken 

 up the latter part of October, while of course throughout the 

 whole year the inspectors who have been in the field employed 

 with other duties have been instructed to be on the lookout for 

 violations in the way of unregistered goods, etc. The total 

 number of feeding stuft's registered for 191 5 was five hundred 

 and thirty-eight, or nearly one hundred more brands than for 

 the previous season; these brands included a great variety of 

 feeds — cottonseed meals, cottonseed feeds, gluten meals, lin- 

 seed meals, dried distillers' grains, feed flours, middlings, bran, 

 mixed feed ; also numerous miscellaneous compounded feeds 

 and a long list of poultry feeds. 



It was the duty of the inspectors when carrj'ing on the 

 feeding stuffs inspection to call upon all the principal places in 

 the state where feeding stufifs were ofifered for sale, look over 

 the stock carefully in order to ascertain if all the brands were 

 properly registered, and take samples for analysis ; the samples 

 were then sent direct to the Station and, when a report of 

 the analysis was received at this office, the protein, fat and fibre 



