II 



proved and its unimproved lands, capable of yielding profitable 

 crops ; its forests, trees and orchards ; its waterpowers and in- 

 dustrial facilities of all kinds; its livestock and its markets; its 

 agricultural, educational and social organizations; the work of 

 the granges and of farmers' institutes; the particular line of 

 agriculture for which the county is adapted, and the different 

 agencies for the betterment of country communities in their 

 relation to the life of rural residents as apart from those who 

 live in cities and large towns. Such an organization should be 

 above politics, for agriculture should not be a factor in politics. 

 Its best development is a problem of the State and while I 

 believe in every wise agency for its promotion I yet believe 

 better and greater results would come from such an organization 

 as is here outlined, than from any other body that has ever been 

 given legal authority in this field, so far as I am acquainted 

 with organized agencies for such work in our country. 



Twenty-five years ago agriculture in Maine, looked at in the 

 improved light of today, was somewhat primitive — at least when 

 compared with the better and higher classes of work. It was 

 more after the old order, for the new order had hardly been 

 introduced. There was, moreover, much opposition to an ex- 

 periment station, among farmers, as there was later, opposition 

 to the introduction of the Australian Ballot Law among many 

 light-weight politicians. While our farmers thought experi- 

 ment stations would do for old world countries where farmers 

 v/ere ignorant and the soil had been cropped for centuries, we 

 did not need them in the new world where our farmers read 

 agricultural newspapers and knew all that was worth knowing 

 about farming. 



Yet opposition to the establishment of the station was no 

 greater in Maine than in other States. Even in the great State 

 of New York opposition to the Geneva Station was as decided 

 as that to our own station at Orono. Dr. Jordan, in his ad- 

 dress at the quarter-centennial of the New York station at 

 Geneva, August 20, 1907, spoke of the opposition in that State, 

 quoting what the New York Sun. then controlled by that great 

 editor. Charles A. Dana, had said about it when its trustees 

 went to the Legislature for aid in its work. This is the lan- 

 guage which it used : ''From top to bottom the station and its 

 operations have been a fraud on our farmers and taxpayers. 

 In the name of New York's insulted farmers, and in the name 



