No. C. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 2(17 



tJu'ic are 1.121,1'1(I persons living on t'^Ai-nis. U is safe Lo esliinaie 

 Jliat foni^iit'ths of these are old enough to ie(;eive instruction, in 

 round numbers, there are one million persons on farms capable of 

 receiving instruction relating to their calling, in addition, at least, 

 ten per cent, of the urban population is greatly interested in the 

 growing of plants and animals. In 1900 there were produced in 

 this State 117,810,11)2 bushels of cereals. You owned 871,505 horses 

 and mules, more than a million and a half (1,541,135) sheep, over a 

 million (l,265,oi27) swine and nearly two millions (1,907,192) of neat 

 cattle, one-half of which (1,022,074) were dairy cows. The value 

 ' of the principal crops exceeded one liundred and twenty millions 

 of dollars. The value of the hay and forage crop alone exceeded 

 thirty-seven millions of dollars (|37,514,779). The vegetables were 

 worth nearly sixteen million dollars (| 15,832,904), and the value of 

 animals sold and slaughtered was more than twenty-seven million 

 dollars. Is agriculture worth the liberal attention of your Legisla- 

 ture? 



But the census report does not set forth many of the incidental 

 products of the farms. For instance, if there w^ere 224,248 farms, 

 it may be presumed that there were an equal number of gardens 

 planted when the census was taken. V/ho would take less than 

 |10 for his planted garden in June? Then, each year, there are 

 $2,242,480 worth of property in the farm gardens of the Keystone 

 State. 



In 1896 there were mined in the State 40,600,000 tons of anthracite 

 arid 36,000,000 tons of bituminous coal. In 1900 there were mined 

 of both soft and hard coal 79,318,362 short tons. What the average 

 pMce was of this coal f. o. b. at the mines I am unable to discover. 

 However, this matters little, since it will be but a comparatively 

 short time when the value of mined coal in your State will be nill. 

 A conservative estimate places the unmined coal at eight billions 

 tons and the end of this great industry of your State at 100 to 150 

 years hence. The agriculture of your State will then be in its 

 infancy. If the soil be kindly treated and intelligently tilled for 

 a long time to come its productivity will steadily increase and the 

 products of your farms, at no distant day, will be more than 

 doubled. If you are wise, by the time the coal beds are exhausted 

 the seamed mountains should be covered by umbrageous forests and 

 the black, bleak, bare hills be clothed in sylvan beauty. Life wall 

 then have become normal and man will be found w'orshipping in 

 God's first temples not made with hands. 



"Who is to set the legislative wheels in motion that the reclothing 

 of the mountains and hills be began and in time completed? If 

 this distinguished body of men does not undertake the work no 

 one will. Must we wait until much of the most valuable land in 



