OFFICIAL. DOCUMENT, No. 6. 



THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 



Secretary of Agriculture. 



Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, Pa., January 1, 1908. 

 To his Excellency, Hon. Edwin S. Stuart, Governor of Pennsylvania: 



Sir: In compliance with the requirements of the Act of Assem- 

 bly creating a Department of Agriculture of Pennsylvania, I have 

 the honor to submit my report of said Department for the year end- 

 ing December 31, 1907. 



The past year has demonstrated that the advanced era in agri- 

 cultural development, to which reference was made in a preceding 

 report of this Department, has been reached and it is to be hoped 

 that the progress made will be permanent. 



The importance of employing improved methods is being recog- 

 nized and everywhere those engaged in the various branches of 

 agriculture are seeking more light. There never was a time when 

 farmers felt as they now feel the importance of knowing more con- 

 cerning the laws governing plant growth, stock breeding and all the 

 operations conducted upon the farm. This desire for information, 

 is in some measure, met by the Farmers' Institutes held throughout 

 the State, and the agricultural press. These important agencies, 

 however, perform their greatest service by leading the younger 

 men who expect to devote themselves to cultivating the soil to 

 seek the best possible opportunities for self-improvement along 

 the lines they have chosen for their life-work. 



Pennsylvania has always been prominent- as an agricultural 

 State. During her colonial period the military campaign that re- 

 sulted in wresting all the territory within her borders from the 

 French government, was directed to move through Pennsylvania 

 because of the possibility of subsisting the army and its baggage 

 trains upon the fruits of the well cultivated farms of the colony. 

 Pennsylvania was among the foremost of the colonies in bearing 

 the burden of feeding and otherwise supjiorting Washington's 

 army in the struggle for Independence. During the Civil War 

 it was General Robert E. Lee's knowledge of the well filled barns 

 of Pennsylvania farmers and the fine herds of cattle grazing upon 

 their fields that led him to make the strenuous effort he did to 

 get his army firmly established in this State, and to make Pennsyl- 

 vania, instead of Virginia the seat of war so far as his army was 

 concerned. When the Civil War closed and Pennylvania again 

 started with renewed energy upon her grand career as a great 



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