No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 373 



There should be a law requiring bulletin boards to be provided at 

 every station where an agent is employed, upon which shall be 

 written a statement as to whether or not trains will be on time, and 

 in case a train is late, a truthful statement as to how much late it 

 is. Many times some one waiting for a train could, if he should 

 know that it will be an hour late, leave the station and attend to 

 some business or take a meal if near meal time, which he cannot 

 risk doing if not informed as to the time when the train may be ex- 

 pected to arrive. Railroad companies should be required also to 

 keep their ticket offices open long enough before the departure of 

 each train to enable every one desiring so to do to purchase a 

 ticket, and in every instance the ticket office should be open at 

 least one-half hour before the departure of each train. Few things 

 are more annoying than to be compelled to enter the rush that is 

 sometimes made for the ticket window when, as is frequently the 

 case on some special occasion, the waiting room is full of passen- 

 gers and the window is opened but five or ten minutes before train 

 time. 



The condition in which waiting rooms and passenger coaches are 

 kept in some sections of the State, especially on roads running be- 

 tween coal towns and other places having public works, at which 

 foreigners are employed, is revolting. Railroad companies should 

 be required to keep their waiting rooms and coaches clean and in 

 proper sanitary condition. 



In conclusion. Agriculture being the base of all property which 

 is proven by all past History, we assert as follows: 



Any nation that looks after the agricultural interests of the 

 country has prospered on every hand, but, wherever the agricul- 

 tural interests have been neglected, retrogression and downfall has 

 been the result. 



Therefore, in the opinion of this Board every effort should be put 

 forth to foster our agricultural interests. Every dollar advanced 

 for agricultural education will return an hundred fold. We believe 

 that this end cannot be served better than to use every effort to 

 promote the greater development of our State College, our Ex- 

 periment Station, our Farmers' Institutes, Schools of Agriculture, 

 etc., so that our State College, of which we are so proud, may yet 

 "blossom as the rose" and favorably compare with our sister states, 

 yea, place our grand old Commonwealth among the leading states 

 of our Union. 



A. J. KAHLER, Chairman, 

 HOWARD G. McaOWAN, 

 JASON SEXTON, 

 MATTHEW RODGERS, 

 S. S. BLYHOLDER. 



SPECIAL REPORT OF LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE. 



WHEREAS, the Pennsylvania State Department of Forestry, in 

 behalf of the whole body of citizens of the Commonwealth, has 

 purchased, paid for, and now controls more than three-quarters of 

 a million acres of land which it is now protecting and reforesting 

 just so far and so rapidly as the means placed at its disposal will 

 enable it to do; and 



