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by no other state. The rental system has secured little hold on 

 Maine agriculture, a fact of great significance as regards the 

 character of her rural population both now and in the future, 

 even if the individual farms are small. It is the permanently 

 established families, devoid of the itinerant habits of the rent- 

 ing farmer, that give stability and character to our rural popu- 

 lation. It is the man who tills his own farm who is likely to 

 dignify his citizenship by an active and intelligent interest in 

 the affairs of his communty and his state. It is the family 

 hearthstone, sacred to the memory of many generations, that 

 inspires us with love of home institutions. This good state will 

 possess agricultural strength as long as its farm homes rest 

 amidst their own unencumbered acres. 



I think it is not flattery, but only a just estimate to say also 

 that Maine possesses a comparatively high grade farm people. 

 This assertion may not be susceptible of exact demonstration, 

 but I regard as convincing proof of the accuracy of this state- 

 ment the remarkable number of successful business and profes- 

 sional men all over our land who are the product of Maine 

 homes. Such men are not the children of intellectually and 

 morally inferior parents. With the situation that now prevails 

 and with agricultural and business conditions rapidly becoming 

 more favorable to farming in the North Atlantic states, you 

 have every stimulus for abandoning depletive methods and en- 

 tering more fully into a constructive agricultural policy. 



This policy must be as broad as are the needs of agriculture, 

 both vocational and social, and should be directed to certain 

 general ends among which the following seem to be important: 



(i) If the waste of our soil resources is to be stopped and 

 agriculture enter upon the policy of reconstruction, farm prac- 

 tice must be brought more fully under the direction of scien- 

 tific methods. 



(2) The day has come when this state must increasingly 

 develop a specialized agriculture that takes account of soil, cli- 

 mate and business adaptations. There is no better sweet corn, 

 potatoes, dairy products or apples than are produced in Maine. 

 In some directions you are doing well, but you can do much 

 better. I know of no more striking example of a shortsighted 

 policy, or rather lack of policy, than your largely undeveloped 

 possibilities of apple culture. 



