OFFICIAL DOCUiMENT. No. 6. 



TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 

 OF THE 



SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE 



To His Excellency, Martin G. Brumbaugh, Governor of Pennsyl- 

 vania : 



Sir: In compliance with the act of Assembly, creating a Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of Pennsylvania, I have the honor herewith to 

 submit my report of said Department for the year 1915. 



Agriculture is the oldest industry and farming the greatest science 

 in the world. Yet, too frequently, have the tillers of the soil lost 

 sight of the scientific feature of farming, thereby depleting their 

 lands through worn-out methods that should have long since been 

 eliminated. Pennsylvania agriculture in the nineteenth century, 

 for more than forty years underwent great stress and trial in com- 

 peting with the newer states in the Great West. It had been the 

 leading state in agriculture and led the procession of the Common- 

 wealths of the Union. But Pennsylvania lost its distinction through 

 causes that grew out of the great westward movement that took 

 from the State tens of thousands of its best and wide-awake farmers 

 who were drawn to the broad prairies of what are now Indiana, Illi- 

 nois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. There, the rich soils recompensed 

 the tiller with great crops, produced with less labor, which were 

 moved eastward and entered into competition with the eastern pro- 

 ducer, who, with more labor and greater cost could not compete, 

 hence the farming industry, on account of low values, languished. 



Conditions, however, have changed. A too constant tilling of their 

 soil weakened the productive power of the lands of the West; also 

 the home consumption became greater, so that the competition in the 

 East was not so marked, and agriculture in Pennsylvania took on 

 new life. The crisis is past ; and under new conditions, with a wider 

 knowledge of the science of farming, the eastern farmer is readjust- 

 ing himself to meet the twentieth century problems. One of these 

 problems is 



THE TREND TOWARD THE CITY 



Possibly the greatest problem that confronts the American farmer 

 is the drift from the farms to the cities and industrial centers. And 

 for half a century this drift lias been going on. increasing rapidly 



(3) 



