4 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



lion, ;ii the present day, thinks it no hardship to call the right man 

 half way across the continenl to talk upon subjects relating to 

 breeds and breeding, while an eminently successful dairyman can 

 name his <>\\n price to come from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, to 

 address an association of dairymen upon measures and methods 

 to be pursued to make the dairy business profitable. The up-to-date 

 farmer, of whom there are many, talks as intelligently today of 

 cereal breeding as he does of breeding cattle or sheep. To him there 

 is as much significance in the vigor and prepotency that may be 

 bred into a variety of corn, as there is in the breeding of the same 

 qualities into any variety of live stock. 



All these conditions indicate that agriculture, the oldest of all 

 industries, is become young again, and in the vigor of renewed 

 youth, is making advancement that seems almost incredible. 



The steady increase in crop production in the State also indicates 

 improvement in methods employed. If Pennsylvania were a new 

 State, increased production might be attributed to increased acre- 

 age, but in a State as old as Pennsylvania, there is not likely to be 

 much change from year to year in the number of acres devoted 

 to any given crop. The corn crop of 1905, notwithstanding the fact 

 that in many parts of the State there was so much wet weather 

 during the growing season, as to make the proper cultivation of 

 corn impossible, was 8,450,155 bushels in excess of the production 

 of 1904, the total crop for the year being estimated at 56,985,903 

 bushels against 48,535,748 bushels. The increase in the wheat crop 

 over the production of 1904 was 6,002,710 bushels, the entire crop 

 amounting to 27,860,671 bushels, against 21,857,961 in 1904. ^re- 

 production of barley in 1905 was 217,300 bushels, an excess of 12,- 

 680 bushels over previous year. The total number of bushels of 

 rye grown in the State during 1905 was 5,886,505, an increase over 

 1904 of 519,397 bushels. The buckwheat crop shows a gain of 

 48,935 bushels over the year 1904, the entire crop amounting to 

 4,467,960 bushels. The production of hay in 1905 shows an increase 

 over the former year of 108,607 tons, the entire crop being 

 4,608,032 tons. Of the leading farm crops, all show a grat- 

 ifying increase in production, except oats and potatoes. The 

 oat crop showed a loss of 281,494 bushels, while the loss 

 in the potato crop was 4,332,536 bushels when compared with the 

 yield of 1904. The loss in the oat crop was no doubt largely owing 

 to the fact, that the long continued wet weather, which prevailed 

 in many portions of the State during the period for harvesting 

 oats, made it impossible to take care of the crop. In many sections, 

 the ground at the time the harvesting should have been done, was 

 so soft as not to permit going upon it with harvesting machines, 

 and as the old process of cutting with the cradle is very nearly 

 obsolete, a large per cent, of the crop was left upon the fields. The 

 unusually wet summer also had an adverse influence upon the 

 potato crop, as potato blight, which was remarkably prevalent in 

 our State, may always be expected as one of the attending results 

 of such a season. 



DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME. 



Chief among the hindrances to success is the scarcity of farm 

 labor. From every section of the State comes the complaint of 



