No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICIJLTURE. 293 



ing for the farmer, it would astonish you. Take for instance, a car 

 load of twenty tons of feed. This car costs the farmer $22.00 a ton. 

 That would be |-44:4 he pays for it on sight draft. Now suppose this 

 car is made up of oue-lifth adulterant, you have the sum of $88; 

 but a large percentage of this feed is adulterated from one-fourth 

 which would run it over $100. Then if you take into account this 

 low grade feed which is not digestible, you are still adding to the 

 loss side of this claim. But I do not wish to make this my first re- 

 port too lengthy. This is a subject to which we are giving our best 

 efforts to try and save the farmers of this State from buying this 

 worthless feed. 



We are often asked the question. Has not one of the Courts of 

 Philadelphia declared the commercial feeding stuff law unconstitu- 

 tional? I would state for the information of the Board that they 

 have not declared this law that we are working under now uncon- 

 stitutional, but Judge Audeuried declared the amendment to the 

 law of April 25th, 1901 unconstitutional as far as it regards bran 

 and middlings. He declared the proviso which is as follows: "Pro- 

 viding that nothing in this act shall be construed with prohibitng 

 persons engaged within the State of Pennsylvania in the business of 

 manufacturing flours, from selling at the place where made their 

 own manufacture of bran and middlings." The Department of Agri- 

 culture did not take this matter to a higher court, as the Legislature 

 was considering the present law and that portion of the new law 

 was changed and was worded as to not raise that question. In the 

 trial of the cases under the new^ law up to this time, the attorneys 

 for the defense in the cases that we have brought have not ques- 

 tioned the constitutionality of the law. We cannot tell what they 

 will do, but if I am rightly informed, a section of the law can be 

 declared unconstitutional and not effect the general law. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FLORICULTURE. 



Bt Edwin Lonsdale, Choirman. 



Your Committee beg leave to report that the demand for flower- 

 ing and decorative plants and cut flowers is on the increase. For 

 the season covering the latter part of the year 1906 and the first 

 half of the year 1907, it was the very best in the history of commer- 

 cial floriculture, both for the volume of business done, and the re- 

 munerative price obtained. This statement applies all along the 

 different lines — with those who issue catalogues and fill orders 

 through that medium, and from which small orders are delivered 

 through the United States mails and the larger ones through the 

 different express companies. It is amazing, the number of plants 

 that are carried to the furthermost ends of this and other countries 

 through the mails, and there would be far more plants carried by 

 this method if heavier packages than is now lawful were allowed by 

 Act of Congress to be transmitted in that way. 



