No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 13 



ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF 

 FARMERS' INSTITUTES FOR THE YEAR 1904-5. 



Harrisburg, Pa., January 1, 1906. 

 To the Honorable N. B. Critchfield, Secretary of Agriculture: 



Sir: I have the honor to present herewith the Eleventh Annual 

 Report of the Division of Farmers' Institutes. 



At no period in the history of agriculture has there been a more 

 urgent demand for accurate information in all the varied lines of 

 farm operations. We are brought face to face with a greater number 

 of problems confronting agriculture in Pennsylvania than probably 

 any other state in the Union, because of the multiplied and diversi- 

 fied crops produced within the State. This being true, in order to 

 meet the increasing demand for information in so many directions, 

 has led us to discriminate more closely in the selection of instructors, 

 as the demand is for men and women of well-matured and practical 

 experience on the farm and in the home, in the way of working 

 out, by actual practice, the lessons and problems which are so im 

 portant to be imparted to those of our farmers engaged in the same 

 line of work. If the benefits derive! from these institutes were to 

 be judged by the attendance, we might refer to any one of the 

 counties of the State in order to demonstrate the large attendance 

 at these meetings. In Bradford, Bucks. Butler. Chester ;:nd Lan- 

 caster counties, the attendance in each, averaged above seven thou- 

 sand. Many of these farmers drove a distance of fifteen miles in 

 order to avail themselves of the lessons given at these meetings. 



Whilst Pennsylvania is properly classed as the greatest manufac 

 turing and mining state in the Union, yet the fact must not be over 

 looked that she stands in the front rank for the value and diversity 

 of products grown upon her 224,000 farms. In order that our words 

 may be more fully verified, we further on in this report give the 

 acreage, production and value of a number of cereals, vegetables 

 and live stock grown and produced on farms in the year 1904, by 

 which Pennsylvania stands first in value and production of rye, 

 second in value of potatoes, second in value of buckwheat; also 

 second in value in the hay crop, which amounted to 53,000,000. In 

 the value of dairy products, it stands second, exceeded only by New 

 York, the dairy cows alone being valued at $32,000,000. These 

 figures are cited in order to bring to our minds not only the position 

 Pennsylvania holds amongst the agricultural states, but the import- 

 ance of developing within the farmer a more accurate knowledge of 

 the soil he cultivates, as well as the most approved practice in the 

 breeding and management of all the different kinds of animals raised 

 on the farm, market gardening, the cultivation of small fruits, care 

 and management of the orchard, how to control insect enemies 

 and fungus diseases. The preparing for a profitable market of 

 all these different products of the farm and garden demands in- 

 structors of no ordinary ability. The results accomplished within 



