Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-22

but as those large tracts are year by year
being divided and subdivided into small
er holdings upon which consumers as
we'll as producers are coming to reside,
the future prospect of this old time in
dustry in Maine becomes brighter and
more encouraging.
The business of dairying is one to
which most of the agricultural sections of
Maine are well adapted and one which at
present seems to promise remunerative
returns to those who engage in it intelli-
gently. In this. as in other branches of
agriculture. the farmer who would sue
coed must be careful and constant stu
dent. Old time methods of conducting
the business of dairying, meritorious
though they may have been in former
years, have now passed away. Old time
implements and appliances have been
abandoned and with them many time
honored ideas and practices in regard to
the care and feed of dairy animals and
many details of the manufacture and
marketing of the product once thought to
be unsurpassed. He who clings to old
customs and practices simply because
| they wear the stamp of age will surely
| be distanced in the race and only he will
| achieve success who studies every branch
of his business and keeps himself in
| formed regarding every step of progress.
| In this connection | would most cheer
| fully and emphatically recommend the
| winter course in dairying at the Cniver-
| vi
| is engaged or cOntemplates engaging in
| the business of dairying can obtain new
| ideas and knowledge of advanced
methods and practices that will be of in
| calculable advantage to him in his chos-
| en- avocation.
| Maine may not be ranked among the
great agricultural states of the Union.
| yet ii is a fact which will bear repeat ting
that more than two-fifthS of the popula-
| ton of Maine are engaged in agricultural
,.r,it nd nj
thirds own their homes clear from mort
/ gage incumbrance.
| What one of the great agricultural
states of the West can make SO good Il
| showing?
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE OR
DER IN MAINE.
| At no time during the almost quar-
ter of a century of its existence in Maine.
has the order been on so sound and sub
stantial a basis both numerically and
financially, as it is today. 1t is Il source
of pride and satisfaction to which l may
| be pardoned. for alluding as | am so
soon to vacate the chair that in the four
years of my incumbency the member
ship has increased from little more
than 5000 in 1893 to upwards of 2l,oOO in
1897 and that the financial standing OF
the order has made a corresponding in
crease. | am, of course. not vain enough
to attribute this great gain solely to my
own enOrtS ana l1lllueHCe, but the lsct re-
mains and the progress has been brought
about by the faithful labors of the mem
bers of the order and an increasing APP
probation of the worth of it's principles
on the part of the farmers of Maine
Not only is the growing strength of the
order in our State manifested by the
large additions to our membership. but
the increased attention paid each year tc
; the educational and literary features OF
the grange shows that the true principles
, which underlie the structure of our or
ganization are having more and more in
|, fiuence upon our people as the years pass
by.
The most encouraging sign of the faith
of Maine patrons in the permanency OF
, the order is the fact that each year an
increasing number of grange halls. many
of them of pretentious architecture and
/, considerable cost, is being erected
throughout the State.
These comfortable and commodious
grange homes are centres of attraction
to large portions of the agricultural pop
MA ton of our State and the influence
which they exert is felt Tor good through
out all our borders.
Men and women of good judgment do
not invest large sums of money in enter
; nrises and in institutions of a temporary
or ephemeral nature, and the large sums
, invested in grange halls throughout the
, State give evidence that our people be-
iieve in the permanence of our order and
, in the enduring character of its princi-
Piles.
FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE OR
DER.
Tho Maine State Grange is still solvent
| and its finances were never in more
| satisfactory condition. 1t has been the
; aim Of those having control of the finan-