Nc. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 447 



poultry keeping within the year just past. They have spent this money 

 not altogether because these systems promised wealth unbelievable, 

 but because they really wished information on poultry-keeping and 

 knew of no other source to get it. If the State of Pennsylvania could 

 or would get out an up-to-date and trustworthy bulletin on poultry 

 keeping and give it some publicity, it is more that likely that over 

 a hundred thousand copies would be applied for within a year. 



Poultry keepers have been very slow in taking the initiative in 

 securing legislation for bettering the conditions of the poultry indus- 

 try. But, there is a change of sentiment now going on and it will be 

 a matter of only a few years when poultry people will not only seek, 

 but demand poultry class legislation. One of the signs of this, is the 

 enormous gain in membership within the last year of our National 

 Poultry Association, the Pennsylvania Division of which has alone 

 added, since last September, over one hundred members at ten dol- 

 lars each. The avowed purpose of this gathering together of the 

 poultrymen is for the purpose of doing things and getting things. 



An encouraging sign is securing within the year past large ap- 

 propriations for the encouragement of poultry keeping from various 

 State legislatures, notably, our sister state of New York; and of the 

 Western state, Missouri. 



It is to be hoped that Pennsylvania with its large army of out-and- 

 out poultry people and its vast poultry product, both utility or mar- 

 ket, and pure-bred or fancy, will not lag behind the other states, but 

 that poultry will receive its due share of fostering care and encourage- 

 ment from the State and the State Department of Agriculture. To 

 this end, Pennsylvania should have a Bureau of Poultry Husbandry 

 as a Division of its Department of Agriculture. Should have at 

 State College a poultry plant and equipment worthy of the institu- 

 tion and State, and not as now, a plant and equipment which brings 

 a blush of shame to the face of any well informed poultrymen or one, 

 no successful poultryman would be willing to take, rent free. 



Pennsylvania includes within its borders thousands of breeders 

 of pure-bred poultry, a few, at least, with a world wide reputation 

 for the high excellence of their stock. Also, held the last year close 

 to one hundred poultry shows, including some of the best and biggest 

 shows in the country, as at Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Scranton, Wil- 

 liamsport and Allentown. The total paid attendance at these Penn- 

 sylvania shows must have been upwards of a quarter of a million. 

 And yet the percentage of pure bred poultry on the farms of Penn- 

 sylvania is as yet relatively small. Although our dung-hill, mongrel 

 poultry is utterly out-of-date and worthless ; and when found on a 

 farm at once stamps the owner as unprogressive and careless, it is 

 my painful duty to report that I found such poultry, within the year, 

 on the faruis of some of the members of this Board. 



There has been great activity in this and neighboring states with- 

 in the last year in prosecuting dealers in "Bots & Spots" in eggs and 

 in formulating the general idea that cold storage eggs were bad eggs. 

 And while Pennsylvania certainly wants the enforcement of the law 

 against rotten eggs, it also wants inspectors with discretion. Cold 

 storage of eggs is the great equalizer of prices; making possible the 

 profitable returns to the producer of summer eggs and saving great 

 loss, and in keeping the price of some, winter eggs, at least within 

 the reach of the working class. It is fair to suppose, that, eliminating 



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