No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AORICULTURE. 583 



the maiiiLenauce o! the Depuiluienl, or |lo,(l()0 per year. To j^et it 

 we shall need the support of every progressive fanner of the State 



Next, comes the Experiment Station which is badly in need of 

 funds to prosecute its work successfully, and we are assured by the 

 Director that the work of the Station covers only a small part of the 

 broad field of agriculture, and even that snmll part is not so thor- 

 ough as it ought to be owing to inadequate funds. Of the 24 Sta- 

 tions reported by the United States Department of Agriculture, 12 

 receive larger incomes than our Station, and 20 receive larger or 

 smaller appropriations from their respective states, ranging from 

 $740 to 187,514, as is the case with New York, and the little State 

 of New Jersey appropriates |20,()00 annually to her Station. There- 

 fore, we recommend that an appropriation of at least $20,000, an- 

 nually, be asked for as a very modest sum when we consider the 

 needs of our Station. 



Then comes the proper enforcement of the pure food laws, for the 

 enactment of which you spent years of thought and labor for the 

 protection of the great dairy interest of the State, as well as fur- 

 nishing pure food to those who buy products of the farm. These 

 laws you understand will be a dead letter, unless they are enforced, 

 and this enforcement backed by i)ublic sentiment and the power of 

 the state administration. We may w^ell at this time congratulate 

 ourselves and the farmers of the State for the vigorous and fearless 

 manner in which they are now being enforced by the Department of 

 Agriculture through the present Dairy and Food Commissioner, and 

 we pledge to them our earnest support as they discharge their 

 various and unpleasant duties in the enforcement of law. But .all 

 must not be left for them, for under the sting w hich guilt brings to 

 those who are violators of the law and who must suffer the penalty, 

 there will arise a mighty opposition that will demand the repeal of 

 such laws as are obnoxious to them and detrimental to their busi- 

 ness. Already we are told that a strong effort will be made at the 

 next session of the legislature to have some of these laws repealed, 

 especially the oleomargarine law which has driven many dishonest 

 dealers out of business. So we say, beware of the coming storm, for 

 to be forewarned, is to be forearmed. 



We also congratulate you and all the people who are interested 

 on the results secured after years of earnest work in advocating and 

 agitating the question of public road improvement, that at la«t, 

 through our Legislative and Executive Departments we have been 

 given a road law which we trust will be taken advantage of by every 

 progressive townshix) in the State, thus testing its practical work- 

 ings. While the law^ as it now stands, may not seem to be all that is 

 desired, it is a long stride in the right direction, and is worthy of our 

 best efforts to give it a fair and practical trial, and when we have 



