18 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



FULIKTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT (JF THE DIVISION OF 

 FARMERS' INSTITUTES FOR THE SEASON OF 1907-8. 



Hakkisbukg, Pa., January i, 1D09. 



To the Hon. X. p.. Crilclifield, Seoretaiy of A<2:ricnltnre: 



Sir: I have the honor to i>r('sent herewith the Fourteenth Annual 

 Report of the Division of Farmers' Institutes. 



This report carries witli it a word of encouragement to the farmers 

 of Pennsylvania in, that whilst a certain degree of business ilepie^:- 

 sion has prevailed for some months past, adversely affecting com- 

 mercial ai'd inaustrial interests, tlie ])roducts of the farm have main- 

 tained a steady and uniform price and a ready home market. Special 

 attention has been given in the past year to the betterment of soil 

 conditions, which in our judgment no other subject is of equal inipor- 

 lance to the u^jbulhliiig of agriculture,, for as the soil increases in 

 ]>roductiveness even so does the owner thereof reap a better reward 

 tor labor expended, but he is also building a thorough foundation 

 for a ]>ernianent agriculture, without which no state or nation can 



long contmue. 



DAIRYING. 



In Dairy Husbandry special effort has been made, giving instruc- 

 lion. at ])ractically all the two day meetings in the departments of 

 Animal Breeding, Stable Construction, Light and Ventilation, Feed- 

 ing, Care and Handling of the Milk, Butter Making, Cream Separa- 

 tion and Testing Milk for Butter Fat Content. This latter work is 

 now thoroughly demonstrated at our Movable Schools, a limited 

 number of which were held the past year. These schools bring to the 

 farmer more thorough instruction by which actual demonstration 

 work is carried on either at his barn, orchard or poultry house, thus 

 developing the best and most ap])roved method of handling any and 

 all of the different branches of farming carried on in a given com- 

 niiu'ity. As a result of a Schodl M(MMing held in Tioga county last 

 season when the most thorough and careful discussion of (he ques- 

 (ioi) of Economical Feeding was taken up in a dairy neighborhood 

 and where but few silos were in use, I am informed that some 2.5 

 silos have been erected and put into practical use. The advantages 

 of tlicse silos as economy in dairy management and feeding can 

 scarcely be overestimated. We may safely say that one of tlie 

 results from a series of teaching at the Farmers' Institutes has been 

 to fix a practice of regular feeding of silag(^ to the Dairy Cow as a 

 pai't of her daily ration, since the problem of feeds suitabl" for the 

 Dairy Cow enter so largely into the ques(ion of profit or loss in the 

 business, we have developed quite thoroughly the question of profit- 

 able feeds j'ud lations. In so doing the farniei' has been encouraged 

 to cultivate and grow all the clovers and legumes, including Alfalfa, 



