:n4 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



sa.v on this occasion by calling? it an address. He said to me when lie 

 was preparinj^ the program that he would like to have me say some- 

 thing at the opening of the session, and I said ''All riglit." but 1 

 expected to say bnt a very few words. 



I am glad that the Chairman for the evening has had as much 

 to say as he had at the beginning, because I do not feel like talking 

 so soon after supper. You all know how hard it is talk when 

 you are too full for utterance. 



The Chairman spoke in glowing terms of the agricultural and 

 industrial features of Huntingdon county, casually mentioning 

 Chester, Delaware and Lancaster counties and the northwestern 

 part of the State as possible places where conditions might be 

 especially good, but he did not say a word about the west, as though 

 we were not in it at all. I guess he was never out in our section 

 of the country. 



I hardly feel that it would be just for me to take up very much 

 of your time. I see you have a very full program for this even- 

 and, therefore, I shall take but little time. I am glad, however, 

 to have this opportunity of looking you in the face, of renewing my 

 acquaintance with those of you with whom I used to travel up 

 and down this Commonwealth, engaged in Institute work, and to 

 make the acquaintance of others whom I have never met before. I 

 am glad to be here and 1 am glad to be reckoned as a member of 

 this meeting and still, in some measure, a participant in the Insti- 

 tute work. I do not know that we have any more important work 

 than this, and I think the idea that was suggested or acted upon 

 first of all by the first Director of Institutes, and that has been fol- 

 Ipwed out by Brother Martin, is certainly a good one, that of having 

 this "Round-up Meeting." It is a good thing for the men engaged 

 in this work to come together at a time like this and to compare 

 notes, to talk over disputes in which they have been engaged, 

 and their failures likewise, if any. I have no doubt but that you will 

 be able to carry into your work the succeeding year some of the 

 enthusiasm gathered here. You will be better prepared in conse- 

 quence of having had this meeting. I take it that any work that has 

 for its end in view, the improvement of our agriculture and the 

 betterment of the condition of those who have taken up farming 

 as their chosen calling, is an important work, and I do not think 

 that there is, as I have said, any more fruitful source of accomplish- 

 ing these things, helping the farmer, improving agriculture and bet- 

 tering the condition of the agriculturists of the State than the 

 Farmers' Institute work. I was pleased, at the supper table this 

 evening, to hear some gentlemen telling of what had been achieved 

 in their communities in the counties from which they came. Every- 

 where over this Commonwealth we can see the improvement made 



