14 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



city; whatever increases the output of the farm increases the 

 revenue of the men engaged in the many enterprises here. 



So friends, we are all workers together. You can increase 

 this work, you can help this work, by uniting with 

 the men upon the farms in solving some of the great 

 problems confronting them. There is the great question 

 of unjust discrimination in distribution of our products. 

 You can aid materially through cooperating with grow- 

 ers in the disposal of those products, by bringing about a 

 more harmonious relation. Surely we can never hope for that 

 increase in farm life and farm work in the good old State of 

 Maine, which we desire, until there comes the incentive that 

 can come only when the producer is receiving a fair share of 

 the consumer's dollar. There comes to my mind just now an 

 illustration in point. In the City of Portland during the past 

 two months one of your grocers, paying, as he said, all that 

 he could possibly pay, because of what he could realize, pur- 

 chased apples of one of our growers, paying $1.50 per barrel. 

 Those apples were sold by the grocer for fifty cents per peck, 

 or $5.50 a barrel, and when some of the purchasers complained, 

 the grocer said, "What can we do? We are at the mercy of 

 the farmer," There is the condition which exists more or less 

 ever}'where, and so long as it exists you cannot expect that 

 there will be the incentive necessary for the proper growth of 

 this industry. Remember this, friends, — the farmer can live 

 without you, but you cannot live without the farmer. That 

 fact alone, it seems to me, should quicken us to a better appre- 

 ciation of the need of hearty and more complete cooperation. 

 Your industries, great as they are, your mills, your factories, 

 your great manufacturing interests, produce nothing. You 

 simply change the form and add to the value of the raw product. 

 Agriculture, and agriculture alone, is the productive industry, 

 and therefore it has claims upon you over and beyond all others. 

 You must have fresh blood from the country if your city is to 

 live. Uncle Solon Chase was right when he said that "the 

 grass would grow in the city streets if it were not for the tramp 

 of the cowhide boots in the barnyard." Remember that our 

 dependence one upon the other must be mutual. We recognize 

 our dependence upon you. We ask you to cooperate with us, 

 as you never have in the past, in helping to bring about those 



