64 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Knowlton. There is one point in the paper of Mr. Bowman 

 which seems to me of considerable importance, and I rise now to 

 ascertain what is being done, rather than to comment on the paper. 

 Mr. Bowman suggests tlie importance of laboring in the direction of 

 obtaining better varieties of fruits, and urges that experimenting 

 should be done. The only organized means of experimenting which 

 we have in this State are centered in the Agricultural College and 

 the Experiment Station at Orono, and I rise to ask of Sec. Gilbert 

 what is being done in that direction in connection with the work of 

 the State College at the present time, and, further, so far as he may- 

 know, what work is being contemplated by those who have charge 

 of the institution, in that direction. 



Sec. Gilbert. We have not, up to the present, done anything 

 in horticultural matters. This has not been for the reason that we 

 have not realized its importance, but we have been placed in the 

 unfortunate condition of being without means to carry out the work 

 in this direction. We have had to do educational work there in the 

 lines that were first called for, and we have extended the work out 

 in other directions from time to time, as the means at hand and the 

 progress made has enabled us to do ; but we have not yet taken hold 

 of the matter of horticulture in any department whatever. The 

 professor of agriculture at the institution for two or three years past, 

 in his annual report at the annual meetings of the board of trustees, 

 has pressed upon their attention the importance of doing something 

 in connection with horticultural matters, and establishing a horticul- 

 tural department in connection with the institution. Acting on that 

 suggestion from him, and in conformity with the judgment of the 

 trustees, we, at the last meeting, decided to ask of our legislature 

 an appropriation for the purpose of starting in the work, and you 

 will find scheduled at the State House, and now before the Legisla- 

 ture for consideration, a request for three thousand dollars in aid of 

 this line of work. We thought that with that small sum we might 

 start out in a way which will lead to something further as we go on. 

 Further than that, we now have established a department of experi- 

 mentation, a government experiment station, giving us $15,000 per 

 year with which to carry on experimental work in connection with 

 the institution. It is separate and distinct from the educational 

 part of the institution, such as the bill contemplates, still it is a part 

 and parcel of it. 



