No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 149 



PAPERS READ AND ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT 

 THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FARiAIERS' NOR- 

 MAL INSTITUTE, HELD AT STROUDSBURG, PA., 

 MAY 26 TO 28, 1914. 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME 



HON. CHARLES B. STAPLES, Stroudshurg, Pa. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am sure that it is a 

 pleasing thing to our community here to have in its midst any repre- 

 sentative body from the State of Pennsylvania, and especially is it 

 so to have a representative bod}'' of farmers, for Monroe county is 

 largely an agricultural district, and we know that "the first farmer 

 was the first man." 



When Pennsylvania is spoken of, the first thought in the mind 

 of the ordinary person is: "That is the State where they mine so 

 much coal; it is one of the states where they make so much cement; 

 one of the states that manufactures so much steel and iron, and 

 has thousands of miles of railroads." They forget that Pennsyl- 

 vania also sizes up well as an agricultural state; it stands first, in 

 its production of rye, of which it grows a sum total of five million 

 bushels a year; second, in hay and potatoes; and, notwithstanding 

 the great territory in the West where they raise wheat, Pennsyl- 

 vania today is eleventh in wheat; and it should be a pleasing thing 

 to every citizen of Stroudsburg today to welcome you who represent 

 the farmers of this great agricultural State of Pennsylvania, and 

 I welcome you for them; and we hope that while you are here you 

 will enjoy what we call "a pleasant little town"; and we know that 

 when you get acquainted with our people, they will give you a pleas- 

 ant little reception. 



It is not my intention today to talk to you about farming. I tried 

 that once, and talked about apple raising. I made what I thought 

 was a nice little talk, but when I got through a farmer got up, and 

 said that if they were to work along such ideas, they might as well 

 give up at once. I have not attempted it since. But there are sev- 

 eral things that I want to talk to you about because they have been 

 brought to my attention, and I know that you are interested in them. 



One of them is the State highways. The reason I call them to 

 your attention is, because I think that such a representative body 

 of men should take almost as much interest in the highways of the 

 State as they do in the production of crops, because we know that 

 good roads make a better market, a safer market, and an easier mar- 

 ket; while bad roads practically put the farmer out of the market. I 

 don't know whether you gentlemen and ladies know much about it, 

 but the roads of our county, as they exist today, are a shame and a 



