No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 427 



alone are worth almost as much as his farm, and yet they have taken 

 nothing from his annual crops, but rather increased them by re- 

 ducing evai»oration over the tields. At least 4,UU0,UU0 acres of cleared 

 farm land in Pennsylvania are tit only for growing trees. ^Vhy are 

 they not being planted? Simply because the farmers do not know 

 how, what or when to plant and the returns which may be had 

 from planting. Education must be the keynote of our activity. The 

 present schemes must be intensified, new schemes must be devised, and 

 every means used which will bring economic farm education to every 

 farmer and his family. 



There must be more co-operation on the part of the Departments 

 concerned — principally those of Education, Agriculture, and For- 

 estry. School gardens, elementary agriculture, agricultural clubs. 

 Arbor Day, and so on must be gotten into the schools. The school 

 buildings should be the social centers of the communities, and if 

 necessary, the Government must send out social settlement workers. 

 Agriculture and forestry must no longer be left out of county and 

 local teachers' institutes, nor should a consideration of the schools 

 and forestry be left out of farmers' institutes. There are no forestry 

 institutes, but lectures, bulletins, sample plantings and all manner 

 of assistance must be provided for. It behooves every member of 

 our Departments to make each appropriation reach as far as pos- 

 sible, but it is more important that results are obtained from what 

 is done, and then the results themselves must and will speak for in- 

 creased assistance from the Legislature. 



During the past year the activities of the Department of Forestry 

 advanced steadily both along established lines and along new lines. 

 There have been added to the reserve area 17,000 acres, making the 

 total area of reserves now oAvned by the State 933,582 acres. There 

 are thirty-nine trained foresters and eighty-five rangers in charge 

 of this large area, using every means available to develop it as rapidly 

 as possible and to bring it up to the best economic production. 



The importance of protection, especially from fires, is appre- 

 ciated, but only a small part of a perfect system of protection could 

 be carried out. The survey, opening and marking of boundaries 

 has been continued. Over 1000 miles of roads or trails have been 

 opened this year, making possible the better management of the re- 

 serves, and at the same time making them more accessible to the 

 citizens of the State. Old material which would otherwise become 

 fuel for fires or a hindrance to young growth has been gathered and 

 sold at a profit. A number of fire observatory towers have been 

 built and should now be connected with the foresters' headquarters 

 by telephone. Improvement cuttings have been made and some old 

 and decaying trees manufactured into lumber, the object in all cases 

 being to make room for good, sound, young growth yielding a high 

 rate of interest instead of that which is decreasing in value. 



About 1;^ millions of forest tree seedlings have been planted this 

 year on the reserves and several hundred thousand more were raised 

 in the nurseries and sold at cost to ]>eoi)le of the State. In addition 

 to this, the Depaj-tnient gave assistance to many individuals who' 

 wanted to make plantations by making planting plans for them and 

 then superintending fho iilnnting itself. Tn the nurseries of the re- 

 serves there are over .5.0(10.000 seedlings, and the area and production 

 of our nurseries are being increased as rapidly as possible. The De- 

 partment aims at a planting record of 20.000,000 seedlings a year on 

 State holdings alone, and that is none too few. 



