16 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



broken, but in every one of tln'm are to be found rich valleys where 

 fine crops of grain, grass and fruit are grown, and where the occu- 

 pants of the farm homes are |>rosp{^rous and happy. 



The interior counties of the State, in their soil and climatic condi- 

 tions, are so much like the border counties as to render a detailed 

 description, such as has been giveji of tlie border counties, unnec- 

 essary. Everywhere in tiie State, where proper care has been exer- 

 cised, the native and cultivated grasses grow luxuriantly. As a 

 result of the adaptation of the climate and soil to grass production, 

 hay is a never-failing crop. In 1903 the value of the hay crop 

 amounted to |52,675,083.()(). 



The principal grain crop grown in the State is maize, or Indian 

 corn. \\'hile the high altitude of some portions of the State render 

 the seasons too short for profitable corn growing, the peculiar 

 adaptation of other sections to its growth causes the State to 

 average well as a corn-producing state. The rich sections known 

 as the Cumberland, Lebanon, Lancaster and Chester valleys, in the 

 east; the Monongahela valley, in the west, and the Penns, Buffalo 

 and other smaller valleys in the central part of the State are ex- 

 ceptionally fine corn-growing sections, where large quantities of 

 this "saluable cereal is grown, much of which is fed to live stock 

 upon the farms where it is produced, thus contributing to keeping 

 up the fertility of the soil in these naturally rich valleys, and, at 

 the same time, yielding a fair income to the farmer. The corn 

 crop of the State in 1003 amounted to 45,447,836 bushels, valued at 

 $25,905,153.00. The average production per acre was 3L2 bushels. 

 As a wheat-growing state, Pennsylvania possesses several ad- 

 vantages over some of the other states of the Union. As already 

 stated, the soil of the valleys is usually of that rich limestone type 

 that seems to be inexhaustible and, in many sections of the State, 

 where the land has been under cultivation for nearly two centuries, 

 crops are grown that surpass the crops grown in the virgin soil 

 of some other sections of the country. On the more elevated lands, 

 in the mountainous portions of the State, the snow covering af- 

 forded the growing crop during the winter prevents it from being 

 winter-killed, and the dry, cool air, incident to the increased alti- 

 tude, produces a quality of grain harder and richer in its good 

 fiour-raakiug qualities than can be produced under other conditions. 

 The quality of the flour made from the wheat grown upon the table 

 lands of the State, if properly manufactured, is but little, if any, 

 inferior to the flour made from the hard spring wheat growm in the 

 Red River Valley and other sections of the northwest. 



The total wheat crop of Pennsylvania in 1903 amoimted to 26,- 

 033,444 bushels, valued at $20,570,371.00. The average yield per acre 

 was 15.1) bushels, an average equalled by very few states of the 

 Union. 



