24t5 ANNUAL REPORT. OF THE> Off. Doc. 



eral agricultural crops, the fundamental principles remain the same, 

 and we must get back of all this. When a few years ago 1 visited 

 this famous little farm down at Flourtown in the suburbs of Phila- 

 delphia, I found there a man, modest in general makeup, a man who 

 had been making a little fifteen-acre plot of land which years ago 

 would not have been considered sutlficient for the support of two 

 cows and a horse — I found that man there on that fifteen acres, pro- 

 ducing the sum and substance of the livelihood of thirty head of 

 dairy cattle, including two horses. When I found this, I made up 

 my mind that the agricultural possibilities of this country were still 

 locked up and in the region of the unknown in manj- of the so-called 

 farms in this country. Here then is a scientific truth which I want 

 to leave with you. We must first thoroughly understand the con- 

 ditions with which we are working. It makes no difference whether 

 you are growing cow-horn turnips or something else — I see some 

 of you smile, I can't help smiling myself when I speak of those crops 

 and Seeds the expert. Any farm is capable of producing an enormous 

 crop of roots on a given area if well handled. When properly uti- 

 lized, that crop has a certain value from an economic as well as a 

 scientific point of view. One man in this State, whose name is 

 known throughout the institute world as "Bob'' Seeds, has w-orked 

 out a problem with cow-horn turnips on a so-called abandoned farm 

 which to-day has given him the results about which he speaks; and 

 results are what we are all looking for. It is the results that 

 we are after, and without results of satisfactory character, our bank 

 account at the end of the year^ usually turns in the wrong direction. 

 Some of you have produced fruit of an exceptionally fine character, 

 and when I want sufficient evidence of that, all I have to do is 

 to turn to this table here at my right, to see it demonstrated. 

 I have on my desk at the present time an item coming from a 

 Pennsylvania farmer asking, why it is that Pennsylvania does not 

 produce more apples of a commercial character, suitable for the 

 export trade and desirable for our home markets. It is not meant 

 to say that she does not produce some fruit such as it is on the 

 farms throughout the State. In passing over the territory through 

 which I traveled yesterday afternoon coming over here, I saw pile 

 after pile of apples on the various farms, and their appearance was 

 certainly fine; at the same time there is a possibility on these soils 

 and on these hills for a far better production along this particular 

 branch of horticulture, and whenever you find horticulture and these 

 ideas well advanced, you find men who are studj ing the problems in 

 such a way that they get down to the bottom facts, and when they 

 get to the bottom of those facts, they are getting results, and when 

 they get the results, they get their returns in the form of money. And 

 J really believe, as I stand here, that one of the greatest possibilities 



