No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 259 



about 49 cents, and the yield 109| bushels. Blight and beetles were 

 not so much in evidencethc past year as to make spraying so neces- 

 sary as other years. 



On the whole it was a good year for the American farmer, and the 

 war in Europe made better prices possible than otherwise could have 

 been realized, and it is a case of one nation's loss being another's 

 gain. But the American farmer is learning to rotate his crops so 

 as to get a legume or clover crop every few years, instead of follow- 

 ing corn after corn or wheat after wheat, as they tried in the spring 

 wheat states till their soils got so full of foul seeds that they liad 

 to change their rotation to get in a cultivated one to kill weed seeds. 



One of the hopeful and encouraging signs of the times in agricul- 

 ture is that more students are taking the agriculture courses in 

 college and more business men are buying farms as a business pro- 

 position, while the average farmer is trying to grow crops more 

 profitably, not because he wants to have more money to buy more 

 land to grow more corn. But farmers want to make more money to 

 enable them to have in their homes the comforts, cenveniences and 

 pleasures which will make them and their families better contented 

 and happier on the farm, and to some extent stop this exodus of the 

 best blood to town to enjoy some of the advantages there which 

 farmers should try to have in their homes or in their neighborhood 

 by working together as a community along that line for which their 

 soil or section is best adapted. 



ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR BRUMBAUGH 



I am not, of course, in a position to discuss this as 

 a presiding officer; but if you will allow me tliat courtesy for 

 a minute, I should like to say a word or two as bearing upon it. 

 My thought would be that any action now either favorable or un- 

 favorable to the report of this Volunteer Committee would be un- 

 wise, just as I take it that any report by the trustees of State College 

 this afternoon would be unwise. If I may make the suggestion, I 

 would suggest notifying the trustees this afternoon that you have 

 the committee of this body willing to confer with a committee of 

 their body to work this problem out and in that way take the ini- 

 tial step for conference and not take an initial step of absolute 

 declaration of your purpose. In other words, I think it is always 

 good, brethren, to hear both sides of the case before you make up 

 your mind as to the disposition thereof. 



That is merely a suggestion in passing. If such a committee were 

 designated here, it could carry this report or any other matter that 

 would be presented here to the committee of the trustees of the 

 college, and since you have exactly the same interests at heart that 

 they have, surely you could get together in that way. That prob- 

 ably would be the most satisfactory to both of you and perhaps to 



