OFFICIAL DOCUMENT. No. 5. 



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LWITARY 



NBW yoKK 



•^•rAWlCAL. 



TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE 



Hon. John K. Tener, Governor of Pennsylvania: 



My Dear Sir: In compliance with the requirements of the Act of 

 Assembly creating the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture it 

 becomes my dut}^ to submit to you my report for the year just 

 closed. 



In conformity with my custom in the past, this report, although 

 outlined at the close of the year 1914, will be found to contain some 

 matter relating to, and completed in the year 1915. For example, the 

 Farmers' Institute work for each year begins in the latter part of 

 one year and closes in the early part of the year following; hence, in- 

 formation given concerning this work necessarily embraces parts of 

 two calendar years. Information also relating to the operations of 

 the State Board of Agriculture can not be given until after the annual 

 meeting of the Board, the proceedings of which have relation parti- 

 cularly to the work of the year immediately preceding the year in 

 which the meeting is held. The same is true of some other agricul- 

 tural associations, that have no direct official connection with the 

 Department, the record of whose proceedings furnishes much import- 

 ant farm literature that would lose much of its value it if were held 

 over until the close of the year during the early part of which such 

 meetings are held. 



AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS JN PENNSYLVANIA 



Ranking second in population, manufacturing, commerce and 

 wealth, Pennsylvania is justly entitled to the high position she holds 

 Si in the sisterhood of states. That she ranks fifth in the amount and 

 value of her agricultural products, is owing to the fact that a large 

 C- per cent, of her territory is mountainous, in which sections, much 

 of the surface is so broken and rough as to make cultivation dif- 

 ficult, if not impossible, and the soil is thin and unproductive. 



In the southeastern section of the State, however, there are large 

 areas of land unsurpassed in fertility and general conditions favor- 



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