20 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



larger crops have been ])r()duced, to get the producer in touch with 

 the consumer, and for this work the Department is not, but should 

 be equipped. 



SAVE OUR RESOURCES 



An enormous waste of both land, on account of gases thrown off 

 by the coke ovens, and the nitrogen that passes into the air with these 

 gases, occurs in the manufacture of coke. In the United States, 

 in 1910, seventeen per cent, of the nitrogen contained in coking coal 

 was recovered, while iii Pennsylvania, the greatest coke manufactur- 

 ing state in the Unl(m, only two per cent, was saved. If all the 

 coking coal mined annually in this State should be converted into 

 smokeless fuel, or coke, and the nitrogen it contains were recovered 

 by the use of possible a])pliances there would be nitrogen enough 

 to furnish ten pounds of this most expensive element of fertility 

 for every acre of improved farming land in Pennsylvania and all 

 the rest of the North Atlantic States. If this were done the price 

 of nitrogen would be cut in two and the expenses of the farmer vastly 

 diminished. Rut not only is this valuable plant food thrown away, 

 but the utter destruction of all plant life U])on thousands of acres 

 by sul^jhurous and other gases in the vicinity of these coke ovens 

 follows. Surely our Agricultural Colleges should be able to devise 

 and bring into use some process by which this nitrogen could be 

 saved and the soil destruction ended. 



Another great waste of fertility is that of the sewage of our cities 

 by which our streams are contaminated. The Federal and State 

 Departments of Agriculture, the Experiment Stations and Agricul- 

 tural Colleges could do no greater service for the sanitation of the 

 country and the maintenance of the fertility of the soil than by 

 devising a process by which this sewage could be collected and the 

 fertility it contains recovered and put into a condition to be easily 

 applied to the soil. These institutions should be equipped by ade- 

 quate appropriation for such work. 



A number of serious bacterial diseases, such as the crown gall, 

 root rot, fire blight, peach yellows, canker in its various phases, 

 and many other fungicidal diseases now infesting our apple, pear 

 and peach orchards, should, in order to save these orchards from 

 perennial destruction, be investigated so that their character and 

 methods of propagation may be thoroughly understood and effective 

 remedial agencies discovered for their cure. Work of this character 

 should be done by the well trained scientists connected with our 

 Agricultural Colleges, and when thoroughly understood by them, 

 the remedies for these diseases should be made so simple that they 

 can be applied by the average farmer and fruit grower. Our General 

 Assembly should not hesitate to make competent appropriations for 

 such work. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AND EXPERIMENT STATION 



Within the past eight years the number of students in our State 

 Agricultural College has increased from a little over on hundred to 

 over six hundred, and there are but few more facilities for the six 

 hundred than there were for the one or two hundred. Such a con- 

 gestion exists that pupils are obliged to stand for hours during 

 recitations. This is a condition to be deplored and is entirely due 



