6 ANNUAL RErORT OF THE 0£E. Doc. 



This Depai-tmeul, tlirough the agency of the Farmers' Institutes, 

 has been trying to stimulate the raising of oats, particularly in the 

 northern counties of the State, for the reason that, with climatic con- 

 ditions especially well adapted to the growing of oats, it would take 

 the place of corn as a grain ration for animals, 



RYE 



Pennsylvania raises a larger acreage of rye, a larger average yield 

 per acre with a greater value per acre than any state in the Union. 

 As suggested in my report for 1909, there are many soils especially 

 adapted to growing rye, and when farmers are behind with their 

 work and the season for sowing other cereals has passed, rye can 

 be sowed with assurance of receiving a crop, and for these and 

 other reasons a larger acreage should be grown. 380,000 acres were 

 sowed with rye in 1910, yielding at the rate of 17 bushels per acre, 

 or a total of 0,460,000 bushels, worth December 1, $4,710,000. The 

 yield per acre in 1909 was 15.3 bushels and the money value of the 

 crop was |4,406,000, or $310,000 less than in 1910. 



BUCKWHEAT 



Pennsylvania, with one exception (New York), raises a larger 

 acreage of buckwheat than any other state in the Union. The short 

 season required for growing tliis crop and the large yields that can 

 be raised in poor soils, and its value as feed for all animals as well 

 as for man, should induce raising it, when and wherever possible. 

 290,000 acres were sowed with buckwheat in 1910, yielding, 5,655,000 

 bushels, or at the rate of 19.5 bushels per acre, worth December 1, 

 $3,506,000. 



BARLEY 



Of the 7,257,000 acres sown with barley in the United States, Penn- 

 sylvania had only 9,000 acres, yielding 238,000 bushels, at the rate of 

 26.5 bushels to the acre, worth December 1, $150,000, or at the rate of 

 63 cents per bushel. Barley is not so much a cool weather crop as 

 is oats. It can be grown in a shorter season, will endure hot weather 

 better, and therefore is a better crop than oats for the Southeastern 

 section of the State where it seems to me it should, to a large extent, 

 take the i)lace of oats. 



HAY 



There was an increase in the yield of hay for 1910 over 1909 of 

 691,000 tons, making the tonnage approximately what it had beeu 

 for the previous nine years. There was an increase of 94,000 acres 

 in the acreage, which is as it should be because it is needed. 3,212,000 

 acres were sowed with grass in 1910, capable of yielding under 

 present conditions a crop of at least 4,818,000 tons, at the rate of 

 one and a half tons per acre, worth $72,270,000, making it the most 

 valuable farm crop of the State. 



POTATOES 



In 1909 there were only six states in the Union that had a lower 

 yield per acre of potatoes than Pennsylvania, and among these were 

 North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. This is not as it should 



