No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 345 



You, no doubt, are aware that we can analyze samples of feeds for 

 any of you gentlemen where it is suspected the guarantees are not 

 met. We are ready and willing to at all times give you all the in- 

 formation on the subject of feeds which we possibly can. If any 

 feeds which you gentlemen buy does not look good, send a sample to 

 the Department for examination. We want your hearty cooperation 

 in this work, so therefore, do not hesitate, at any time to call on us 

 for information. 



Before closing, I desire to call your attention to another problem 

 with which the Department is confronted. Samples are sent to the 

 Department Laboratory, from time to time, which are suspected of 

 causing illness to stock; and in these cases it is seldom found that 

 the trouble was due to the feed. If any of you gentlemen have any 

 cause to suspect illness or death from feeding any brand of feed, you 

 should get a veterinarian to make an examination of the stock, as 

 in many cases, it has been found that the trouble is caused by some 

 form of illness rather than to the feed being used. 



ADDRESS OF DR. THORNE 



It is always a pleasure to me to meet the Pennsylvania farmers, 

 and especially to meet this Pennsylvania State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, who have shown their interest in the practical work of the farm 

 in so many ways. Your conditions over a large part of your State 

 are quite different from those in Ohio, and yet you have in north- 

 western Pennsylvania, conditions very similar to those we have in 

 northeastern Ohio. The results that we have attained, therefore, in 

 our northeastern Ohio location, on the soil selected there are of con- 

 siderable value to the farmers of northwestern Pennsylvania. Our 

 conditions do not so nearly represent those of eastern Pennsylvania 

 where you have more limestone in your soil than we have in eastern 

 Ohio, but our station has been allowed to adopt the policy of extend- 

 ing its work over all the typical soils of the State or over the principal 

 typical soils of the State, through the means of test farms or county 

 experiment farms located in different parts of the State. We have 

 been able, therefore, through this medium, to reach some of the 

 larger types of soils in our State as well as the one on which the Ex- 

 periment Station itself is located, and it is by this means that we 

 have been able to check up and tally the work done at the central sta- 

 tion in such a way as to many times modify our judgment and cause 

 us to go slow in announcing results. And on the other hand, to feel 

 the more sure in some cases that the results attained are of general 

 application. 



It seems very much like carrying coals to Newcastle to come into 

 Pennsylvania and talk about liming the land, for our traditions re- 

 specting the use of lime on the land came into Ohio, carried by the 

 Pennsylvania farmer when he came across and settled in our State; 

 but 25 years ago the use of lime on the land was practically unknown 



