No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 387 



of the buildings, and it is infinitely better, gentlemen, that the Com- 

 monwealth should have a pound of prevention rather than a ton of 

 cure in matters of health and the preservation of human life. 



Now the second thing would be to work out the problem on that 

 farm of reducing the effort of performing the farm duties to a mini- 

 mum. I know farms in Pennsylvania where the women and children 

 and indeed the farmer himself, are practically worn out at the end 

 of the day because they have to walk three or four times as fai* 

 as necessary to perform the duties around the buildings morning 

 and evening. The thought of that! Economy in steps means econ- 

 omy in energy, in strength, and therefore increased efficiency on the 

 farm. And then I should like also to have some attention paid to the 

 setting of a man's farm property so that when he wants to sell his 

 property, it will appeal to the purchaser not only as a desirable thing 

 from the point of view of its productiveness and from its accessibility, 

 but from the point of view of its appearance to himself and to his 

 friends as they travel . to and fro before it. Some of 

 our beautiful farm buildings in this State are sources of great 

 pride to us, and some of them are so forbidding and ugly and un- 

 sanitary that it is a positive shame to look upon them or to note 

 that they exist in this great Commonwealth. (Applause.) Nobody 

 is to blame for that condition; it is an inherited thing, something that 

 we have gone on and done and done and done, each man in his own 

 way, by the best light that he possesses. The Commonwealth 

 ought to come in there and without one cent of expense to the farmer 

 give him scientific guidance in producing maximum satisfaction in 

 the treatment of his farm buildings and farm property. If we can 

 do that, we will have done something worth while. 



Finally, because I must not trespass upon your time, I have in 

 mind another thing I want to lay before you. Last year, after four 

 months of rather earnest eff'ort on the part of the Highway Depart- 

 ment putting our roads in condition that was at least as satisfactory 

 as the money at our command would permit, we organized a thou- 

 sand mile tour in Pennsylvania to see our highways, and we actually 

 carried people on that tour v/ho did not believe that Pennsylvania had 

 that many miles of good roads, and we had to, mile by mile, work 

 that thought into their systems until it became a fixed and demon- 

 strated fact that it was true. The truth about the matter is, that 

 next to the State of New York, Pennsylvania has the largest mileage 

 of good roads of any state in this Union and she has built them 

 without a dollar of bonded indebtedness upon the Commonwealth. 

 (Applause.) Now we are going to increase that amount of mileage 

 and we are trying, with all the energy and skill and honesty that we 

 possess, to make the money of the people count in the road problem. 



Now what would you think and how would it appeal to you good 

 people if, next Autumn, instead of going out on a road observation 

 tour, some of us would organize a party and come out and see what 

 kind of apples you have grown in Pennsylvania? (Applause.) What 

 kind of pigs you have got on your farms in Pennsylvania, and what 

 kind of corn you are growing in Pennsylvania, and what 

 kind of babies you are rearing in your homes? (Applause.) And 

 bring the whole administrative side of your Commonwealth service 

 into sympathetic touch with the man on the farm, who is the prince 



