6 ANNUAL REPORT, OP THE Off. Doc. 



introduclioii of uiaiij of the niodeni convenionces into farm homes 

 wliicli were, until iccciill.v, fduiul (iiily in cities and towns, and with 

 the {greater oppoilunities for mental culture that our rural people 

 are now seekinj:;-, we may witness a satisfactory change in the 

 future and (hat the disposition of the young people to leave the 

 farm may not be so marked as it has been in the past. 



DESTRUCTIVE PESTS. 



The destructive pests against which the farmer is compelled to 

 wage war are not only many, but they appear to be increasing rather 

 than diminishing. We have the San Jos6 Scale, the Oyster-shell 

 and Scurfy Scale, the Canker and Army Worm and almost every 

 vai'iety of pest known to this climate. This Department during the 

 year, through the Economic Zoologist, has been doing everything 

 possible, with the means available, to strengthen the hands of those 

 engaged in this warfare. Known methods of extermination have 

 been published in bulletins and by public addresses, demonstra- 

 tions have been given as to manner of application of remedies con- 

 sidered reliable, and investigations have been carried on with a 

 view to discovering the full life history of some insects, concerning 

 which comijaratively little is known, in order that the proper means 

 for their destruction may be applied at the right time, or when such 

 application may be most effective. 



Other enemies or despoilers are found among the birds and mam- 

 mals native to our State. Propositions relating to their control or 

 destruction have been repeatedly thrashed over at farmers' insti- 

 tutes and meetings of scientific men, as well as by out representa- 

 tives in our State Legislature, and yet conditions remain as they 

 have been for a number of years past. The question of paying boun- 

 ties for the destruction of certain predatory birds and mammals 

 has had its various phases in all the states of the Union; but, at the 

 present, it seems to have resolved itself into the payment of mimi- 

 mum bounties, because, wherever the bounty system has been fully 

 tried it has been demonstrated, that while the expenditure was cer- 

 tain and sometimes of large proportions, the good accomplished was 

 scarcely perceptible. In a recent statement made by Professor Pal- 

 mer of the Biological Survey of the National Department of Agri- 

 culture, it appears that within the past twenty-five years there has 

 been expended not less than ^3,000,000 in bounties, but not a single 

 noxious species aimed at has been exterminated or very sensibly 

 diminished. This attempted extermination was directed against 

 almost everything from English sparrows to brown bears, with such 

 negative results that today nearly every state in the Union has 

 repealed its bounty laws. This subject is important to the people 

 of Pennsvlvania, because of the fact that in certain sections of the 

 State there seems to be some dissatisfaction with existing conditions 

 in relation to it, and the course that is to be pursued in the future 

 is uncertain. It is a matter in which the farmers of the State are 

 deeply interested and to which they should give special attention. 

 In case of any radical changes being made in our game and bounty 

 laws, there is danger that some of the farmers' best friends and 

 most valuable benefactors may fall victims to ignorance and nar 

 row-minded prejudice. 



