No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. ICH;: 201 



The Chairman, Mr. McCreary, will excuse me for speaking of him 

 personally. It just now comes to my mind that nearly a quarter 

 of a century ago, when I first came into the State Board of Agri- 

 culture, as a representative of my own county of Somerset, one 

 of the first men, and perhaps the very first man, to bid me welcome 

 was Samuel McCreary of Lawrence county. I remember just as 

 well as if it were today, in the old Supreme Court Room at Harris- 

 burg, when I felt very young — a good deal younger than I am now, 

 and a good deal younger than I really was, — I was twenty-five years 

 younger, and I felt a great deal younger, because I did not then 

 have the experience with public men, and in public life that I 

 have since acquired— and I felt it thrill my heart when Samuel Mc- 

 Creary came across that great room, and reached out his big, broad 

 hand, broadened and hardened by honest labor, and told me 1 was 

 welcome. 1 don't know, Mr- McCreary, whether you remember it, 

 but when we came back, you were going to New Castle and I to 

 Johnstown, we sat together and talked all the way, and I felt then, 

 and feel yet, that I was the better for having met him. And then, 

 succeeding him, we had a man by the name of Johnson, a good, 

 earnest worker — I met his brother here tonight — always ready to 

 lay his hand to anything that would further the interests of agri- 

 culture in Pennsylvania. And then, sir, we are not forgetful of 

 the fact that our IMr. Martin, whom we are proud to recognize among 

 our friends, and as Director of Institute work for the past ten 

 years — we don't forget that he came from Lawrence county. 



We are glad to be with you, and we are glad, as I have already 

 said, to hear these earnest, cordial words of welcome, and I hope 

 that when the labors of the week are ended, and when this able 

 program that has been prepared has all been gone over with, and 

 we come to take our departure, we shall go away with very pleas- 

 ant feelings and memories of the citizens of New Castle and of 

 Lawrence county, and I hope that you and your people will feel 

 that some little good has come to you because of your association 

 with us. 



Now, Mr. Chairman, I do not intend — in fact, I did not intend to 

 make a speech at all, when I got up. I am not a speech-maker, 

 anyhow, and when Mr. McCreary said he was going to put me on 

 the program, I demurred, but, as you all know, most of us like to 

 see our names on the program, and I did not say very much, I 

 was like the darky, who, when he was asked, "Sam, can you change 

 me five dollars"? said, ''No, boss, I have no five dollars, but I thank 

 you for the compliment all the same." So, while I did not intend 

 to make a speech, I was proud my name was there, and I feel very 

 much obliged to Mr. McCreary. 



What I pretty nearly forgot to say was that we heads of Depart- 

 ments sometimes work by putting other people to work. We are 

 obliged to have our assistants. What would I do, for instance, 

 with a great, big department of six divisions on my hands, with 

 every one of them nearly as large as the State Government, if 

 it were not for my assistants? We have our assistants, and we 

 have one of them in the audience tonight, who learned to talk 

 when he was young. He was brought up on the farm, married a 

 farmers' daughter, who made him a first-rate farmers' wife, and 

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