12 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the need of a Journal or paper devoted particularly to the interests 

 of the calling in which ii<' is engaged. A doctor, without a Medk-al 

 Journal to keep him posted and in touch with the progress made by 

 his profession, would soon lose professional standing, as well as in- 

 terest in his work. The successful banker or merchant could not 

 think of doing without the help derived from his business paper, and 

 as farming is both a business and profession, farmers, as a class, 

 need this help even more than others. The superior character of 

 the Leading agricultural papers published in our own Slab', and in 

 other stales, which have a circulation in Pennsylvania, together 

 with the very reasonable price at which they may be secured, puts 

 every Pennsylvania farmer within reach of help that he can not 

 afford to do without. 



With the increased mail facilities enjoyed by people living in the 

 country since the introduction of Rural Delivery, a daily news 

 paper is a valuable adjunct to the literature of the farm home, and 

 it is a source of gratification, that the daily paper in the farmer's 

 home is becoming the rule and not the exception. In addition, to 

 the satisfaction it affords the intelligent farmer to know what every 

 day's doings are as time passes, the cost of his daily paper is paid 

 many times during the year by his being able to read the daily 

 market reports. I remember having once lost over $4.0.00 in selling 

 a bunch of cattle, simply because, through somebody's neglect, I 

 missed getting my paper for two days in succession and did not know 

 that prices had advanced 25 cents per hundred. 



CONCLUSION. 



In concluding this report, I wish to acknowledge my very high ap- 

 preciation of the untiring devotion to duty manifested during the 

 year by all the officers, as well as the entire clerical force of the De 

 partment. The Department is entirely free from "dead timber." 

 Everybody connected with the Department has enough to do and 

 does it well and willingly. I desire also to acknowledge the debt of 

 gratitude I owe to your Excellency, for the substantial aid you have 

 given the Department and the readiness with which you have em- 

 braced every opportunity for strengthening the hands of the Secre- 

 tary, and increasing the helpfulness of the Department to the agri- 

 culture of the State. 



The thanks of the Department are due also to the Public Press 

 of the State for the willingness with which space has been given for 

 the free publication of communications that have gone out from the 

 Department, for the information of the people concerning changes 

 made in laws relating to Department work, and other subjects of 

 general interest to the public. 



Veiy truly yours, 



Secretary of Agriculture, 



