14 



promise for the future — together with soHd laws, just and pru- 

 dent in their terms of enforcement, regarding the inspection of 

 agricultural seeds, commercial fertilizers, commercial feeds for 

 farm stock, foods and drugs (laws which give protection against 

 a system of adulteration and fraud that was becoming alarm- 

 ing) are too important to be passed unmentioned, or their value 

 underestimated. The one lesson of the growth and spraying 

 of potatoes as demonstrated by Director Woods in Aroostook, 

 has been worth more to the farmers of that single county, in 

 the cultivation of this crop alone, than the whole college and 

 station have cost the State from their original establishment 

 until now. 



Could I stop with mention of a result more convincing or 

 m.ore overwhelming? And yet I must stop, expressing the hope 

 that March 9, 1910, may be to you the best red-letter day of 

 which you have had many in the quarter-century now closing, 

 and of which I trust you may have many in the future. 

 I remain. 



Most sincerely, 



Samue:l L. Boardman. 



Director Woods — When 25 years ago the legislature estab- 

 lished the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station they gave it 

 no home. The Maine State College instead of having chemi- 

 cal laboratories then had but a single laboratory. A board par- 

 tition was built across that laboratory and the College shared its 

 facilities with the new Station.. And so commencing at that 

 early beginning the Experiment Station has been closely asso- 

 ciated with the Maine State College and then later with the 

 University of Maine. We are very glad to have our home 

 here on the campus and proud of the fact that we were a part 

 of the State College which has become a great university and 

 which will become greater and greater as the years go on. 



We have been fortunate in a way in having only two directors 

 to the Station, as it has made possible more united action than 

 if there had been frequent changes in administration. Both the 

 first director and the present director of the Station appreciate 

 that in chemistry, which has been the leading line of work in 

 the Station, we have been still more fortunate in that from the 

 very organization of the Station down to the present time we 



