to do with our common people : first the Secretary and now the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. 



We have not had a great many men who have occupied these 

 positions, but they have been excellent men. Dr. Ezekiel Holmes, 

 the first Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, acting at a 

 time when work on boards was comparatively new throughout 

 the land, laid out in clear and unmistakable manner what has 

 led to success in that department. He was followed by Mr. 

 Goodale and he in turn by the men still living who have and 

 are still carrying forward in ever increasing efficiency the work 

 so excellently begun. 



We deem it very fortunate that we have at the present time 

 as Commissioner of Agriculture, a man well fitted to harmonize 

 the agriculture of the State so that there is no discord. With 

 a voice that can be heard from Kittery to 'Quoddy and from 

 Monhegan to Fort Kent he tells that we must work in harmony 

 and that we must work. 



I take pleasure in introducing to you Hon. A. W. Oilman, 

 Commissioner of Agriculture. 



Remarks by Hon. A. W. GiIvMan, Commissioner of 

 Agriculture. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — It affords me great 

 pleasure this afternoon to represent the State in the capacity 

 that I do. The Experiment Station in its early days sometimes 

 encountered very stormy seas. The average man, although he 

 was fairly intelligent, had little faith in scientific or book farm- 

 ing; consequently the experiments that the Station was work- 

 ing out for the benefit of agriculture were received by the 

 farmer with a great deal of doubt. I can remember very dis- 

 tinctly when the distinguished gentleman from New York who 

 is to make the address this afternoon attended a farmers' insti- 

 tute in my section of the State, and was trying to demonstrate 

 some scientific principles that the Experiment Station was dis- 

 covering. These were so much at variance with the views of 

 one of the leading farmers who had been fairly successful in 

 stirring the soil without any knowledge of science as applied 

 to agriculture that he vigorously opposed the new methods and 

 severely denounced the Director of the Station and all book 

 farming and declared that all such teachings were false. That 

 was the way that the work of the Experiment Station was re- 



