No. 7. DEPAIITMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 9 



The expenditure for labor in 1910 reached the sum of |25,079,000, 

 as compared with |16,G48,000 in 1900, an increase of |8,431,000, or 

 50.6 fjer cent. 



The expenditure for fertilizers amounted in 1910 to |G,756,000, 

 while in 1900 it was |4,686,000, an increase of |2,070,000, or 44 per 

 cent. 



PENNSYLVANIA AN IMPORTING STATE 



Notwithstanding the enormous values of our farm crops and the 

 slight increase in production per acre for the year 1910, Pennsylvania 

 does not produce enough to feed her citizens, and instead of being an 

 exporting State she imports millions of dollars worth of farm pro- 

 ducts, and an importing State of farm products like an importing 

 nation should and must liave, for her own best interests, an intensive 

 agriculture. 



In my report for 1909, under the head of Feeding Kequirements, an 

 estimate was made of the feed required for farm animals and a show- 

 ing of about hoAv much is imported into the State over the amount 

 raised. Under the head of Dairying and Raising Crops for the 

 Dairy, a statement was made of the crops that should and could be 

 raised to furnish food for dairy cows. Under the head of Crop Ra- 

 tions, rotation was suggested of crops for the various sections of the 

 State to furnish the roughage and grain for the dairy cows in use, 

 in connection with the silo. An effort was also made to show how the 

 fertility of the soil is destroyed and removed and how it may be pre- 

 vented. Reference is made to this matter again, for the reason that 

 the maintenance of the fertility of the soil is fundamental, because 

 it stands for a permanent agriculture, and any nation that has a 

 j.ermanent agriculture will have a permanent existence. A Beatitude 

 something like the following can be applied to such a nation: "Blessed 

 is the nation that has a permanent agriculture, for she shall endure." 



A permanent agriculture means constructive farming or the pro- 

 duction and the keeping on the farm of so much fertility as is used by 

 the crops raised. The fact that fertility is purchased and brought to 

 the farm instead of being produced there, is proven by the increase 

 of the fertilizer bill of the farmers of the State of |2,070,000 since 

 1900, or an increase of 44 per cent. 



CENTRALIZATION OF CONSUMERS OF FARM PRODUCTS 



The possibility of getting the food supplies from every climate of 

 the country through the agency of our transportation companies, 

 has led to the centralization of our factories where labor is plentiful 

 and cheap and at or near where the raw materials used by the manu- 

 facturer are located or to where they can easily be transported. 

 Pennsylvania, on account of her enormous supplies of coal, oil, gas, 

 limestone, iron ore, and until recent years, wood, and her early 

 ]^restige as an agricultural state and her splendid location for ship- 

 ment to domestic and foreign markets, has become a manufacturing 

 center and therefore a center of enormous consumption of agricul- 

 tural products. These natural advantages have given to Pennsyl- 

 vania markets that are unsurpassed, and the ambition of Pennsyl- 

 vania farmers should be to supply these markets, as nearly as pos- 

 sible, with everything they need, and thereby reduce importation to 

 a minimum. 



