12 STATE POMOLOQICAL SOCIETY. 



proper precaution, that we are not made the advertising medium 

 of interested salesmen. 



Many other matters suggest themselves wherein we may labor 

 for the promotion of the interests we represent, but they cannot 

 now be enumerated. Nor should we endeavor to do too much at 

 once. We must bear in mind that the whole field cannot at once 

 be worked over and a ripened harvest spring like magic from the 

 fallow. Patiently we must toil, and persistently, patiently wait. 

 Let us do, if it must be one thing at a time, and do it well. 



In our efforts thus far since our organization we have received 

 the active cooperation of many interested individuals, and the best 

 wishes of all with whom we have had intercourse. In behalf of the 

 Society they have our thanks for the same. Especially are we in~ 

 debted to the press of the State for the free use of their columns 

 in presenting the interests of the Society to the reading public ; 

 and here we would say in closing, that such favors are duly appre- 

 ciated. Gentlemen, may we work on earnestly, faithfully, hopefully. 



THE ANNUAL ADDRESS. 

 By Hon. AV. W. Thomas, Jr., of Portland. 



The first and greatest employment of man is agriculture. Upon 

 it all else depends. The myriad wheels and spindles of manufac- 

 ture await its products, the white wings of commerce bear them to 

 the ends of the earth, and by them man is fed and clothed. Blot 

 out agriculture and you blot out civilization, and reduce the human 

 race to a few scattered tribes of savages, less enlightened than 

 the American Indians at the discovery of this continent. 



Agriculture is one of the chief pursuits of the people of our 

 State. In Maine are sixty-one thousand farms, containing six 

 million acres. These farms are valued at one hundred and five 

 million dollars ; the live stock upon them is worth twenty million 

 dollars more, and their product for 1873 — the agriculture product 

 of Maine — is estimated at thirty-six and one-half millions. But 

 large as are these figures, vast as are the products of our soil, 

 proud as we all are, and as we all ought to be, of our good State, 

 yet let us question, aye, faithfully question ourselves on this 

 subject. Is agriculture in Maine to-day in a satisfactory condi- 

 li'on ? Are its methods the best and most advanced ? Are the 

 products of our farms, either in quantity or quality, what they 



