12 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



soon as the latter are ready to take the steps so much needed to 

 afford relief. 



By what has been said about transportation and cold storage and 

 middlemen, I do not mean to shield the mnvoitliy farmer who pro- 

 duces milk and makes butter, to apreciate the llavor of which tlie 

 consumer must have years of training, nor the man wli(» sells sick 

 animals to the butcher or kills them himself and sells the carcass to 

 the consumer, nor the farmer who, when o])port unity offers, will 

 charge profits even to four huudied })er cent., like the unscrupulous 

 middlenmn. These all come under the same condemnation and are 

 a discredit to the agricultural industry aud injurious to our indus- 

 trial system because they take from the uitinuite consumer an un- 

 righteous i)rot1t for an inferior article. 



INTENSIVE FARMING 



In the report of this Department for 1009 it was showed that in 

 all probability |90,0()0,OOU worth of feeding stuff's were imported inro 

 Pennsjivania, annually, the greater part of which could be raised in 

 the State which would mean an income annually for each one of 

 the 218,304 farmers of 1112.00. The deficiences in farm products 

 in this State consist largely of dairy products, meats, vegetables 

 and feeding stuff's for dairy cows and meat-producing animals. If 

 statistics can be relied on, it is evident that progress has been made 

 rather slowly in intensive farming, with the exception of a steady 

 increase in the production per acre of several of the staple crops, an<l 

 even this has been slow and has not kept pace with the increase in 

 population. The improved acreage of farm land in 1910 amounted to 

 12,6()6,000 acres, in 1000 to 13,200,000 acres, in 1800 to 13,210,000 

 acres and in 1880, to 13,423,000 acres, or the improved acreage in 

 1910 is 763,000 acres less than it Avas in 1880, thirty years ago. The 

 population of the State in 1900 numbered 6,302,115; in 1890, 5,258,- 

 113: in 1880, 4,282,891, an increase of two million nineteen thousand 

 tAvo' hundred and twenty-four or 32 per cent, between 1880 and 1900, 

 whereas the improved acreage of agricultural land has decreased 

 more than 6 per cent. All data for 1910 are not available. There is 

 one gratiflcation in this: That increased production per acre, the 

 object for which this Department has been working, is beginning t'l 

 show results. 



To illustrate what could be done along other lines: I do not be- 

 lieve that there are many two acres in the dairy section of the State 

 that would produce feeding stuff sufficient, if farmed intensively, to 

 feed one dairy cow for a year. If we would take only one-third of 

 the 12,660,000 acres of improved land for dairying Ave Avould haA'-e 

 4,220,000 acres which would keep 2,110,000 dairy cows, nearly twice 

 the number we now have. This Avould leave 8,440,000 acres for 

 raising other farm crops which, if farmed as intensively as the 4,- 

 220,000 acres for dairying Avould have to be, would produce equally 

 good returns. But intensive farming is not confined to raising farm 

 crops only, but applies to all farm operations and therefore includes 

 the raising of the right kind of dairy coavs and other animals, if 

 the 2,110,000 cows that could be fed on one-third of the acreage of 

 improved farming land in the State in 1910 would produce at the 



