270 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



and converted into oleetricity. it will give us a great advantage over 

 the states which have not tliis opportunity? And the day will not 

 be far distant when rou will be using this motive power on your 

 farms. 



While I am on this subject of forestry, I want to call your atten- 

 tion to the splendid possibilities in forestry. Last January we 

 started a Department of Forestry at the Pennsylvania State Col- 

 lege, and the first morning we had twelve students. I went into the 

 Commissioner's office at Harrisburg not long ago, and he told me 

 if w^e had twelve young men ready he would take every one of them, 

 and last week at Lansing, Governor Pingree said they had twenty- 

 six men now in their Forestry Department, and would take two 

 hundred and sixtv if thev could find them. 



Pennsylvania is the second horticultural state in the Union, 

 citrous fruits excepted. What is of greater importance than the 

 development of this opportunity which opens up before you? It 

 may be doubted whether there is another state in the Union which 

 is capable of raising apples of such uniformity and high quality 

 as the State of Pennsylvania. The soil and the climatic conditions 

 are adapted to the different varieties of fruits. The matter of fungus 

 growths will require some scientific investigation, but I might say 

 this to you, gentlemen. I have no doubt that methods will be devised 

 which will thoroughly overcome them. There is a striking lack of 

 knowledge of methods of fertilizing and cultivating that apply to 

 the raising of trees. There has been a wonderful development of 

 this knowledge in the line of wheat and corn, and it has brought 

 results; but in the line of horticulture little or nothing has been 

 done, and it is high time that something is done in this matter — 

 and 1 am not speaking as a horticulturist, but as an agromomist. 



Yesterday I examined, among others, a young Indian of Hin- 

 doostan, who had studied agriculture at the University of Calcutta 

 before he ca.me to this country, and I said to him, "You have been 

 in this country two years before yon came here. In these two years 

 s'ome questions must have come to you that did not come to your 

 notice at home, when you left the University of Calcutta. Now. 

 what striking phases or things have impressed you, as compared 

 with what you knew before you came here." And he replied, without 

 hesitation. "Three things. The first is your animal industry, includ- 

 ing your dairy husbandry; that is one thing we know nothing about 

 in India; the second striking thing is your application of machinery, 

 and the third is the improvement, by selection and by breeding, of 

 farm crops. Our farmers know nothing about that. These are the 

 three striking things which impress me." 



Now, gentlemen, here are three things which may well set the 

 farmers of Pennsylvania and of other states thinking. They are the 

 three most important factors of successful farming. First, is 

 animal husbandry. This has already been discussed before some of 

 you gentlemen, but, I believe a speaker said this afternoon, if you 

 have a message you cannot repeat it too often, and I believe I have 

 a message on this subject of animal industry. 



Some of you know that it was in ISOo that the first cattle were 

 driven over the Allegheny mountains, and from that day up to very 

 recent times the eastern farmer has had to compete with the west- 

 ern farmer in the matter of live stock; but during the last few 



