154 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



The CHAIR: 1 see here our friend, Mr. John 1. Carter, a Chester 

 county farmer. I will be glad to hear from him. 



MR. CARTER: Mr. Chairman, and Members of the State Board of 

 Agriculture: I won't undertake to make a speech ;it all. Like 

 our friend, Mr. Downing, I am very glad to meet you here and 

 to see some members of the old Board again. Some of the most 

 pleasant times that I can recall are when the State Board of Agri- 

 culture met, with Governor Robert E. Pattison as Chairman of the 

 Board. Those days were pleasant days and I think profitable, and 

 have left good seed in the land that is goin<: to bring forth fruit. 

 I am glad to meet you all. 



The CHAIR: I see my friend, Mr. Fox, from over in Chester Valle\ 

 present. I know that we would all like to hear from him. 



MR. FOX: Mr. Chairman, it is a well known fact that I am not 

 a public speaker, but I assure you that we plain farmers of Chester 

 county are pleased that you have come to the city of West Chester 

 to hold your annual meeting. When it was announced to us some 

 time ago that you would meet with us, we thought then, or we under 

 stood it would be in the Fall, and we had been making an effort to 

 bring together the farmers to try to show you what we can pro- 

 duce in the way of agricultural products. That led to an organiza 

 tion which we trust will not only be a pleasure but a practical benefit 

 to the farmers of this community. We have organized an agricul- 

 tural society brought about by your decision to come here and meet 

 with us. 



One of your members thought that you would meet here in Octo 

 ber or some time in the Fall. We then, as I have said before, began to 

 work together for the purpose of organizing a county fair, and that led 

 to the organization of a permanent association. We hope that 

 many of you will be with us in the Fall to witness our own exhibit 

 in that line. 



I am glad to learn that one of our farmers invited this body to 

 visit the farm across the valley and see how they manage things 

 out there. You will see many farms that are productive in this 

 valley, not exactly along the line of our neighborhood in this val 

 ley, but carefully, economically and scientifically carried on. 



This is a dairy county, one of the best dairy counties I think 

 in Eastern Pennsylvania, in fact, I do not know its equal anywhere. 

 It is well adapted to that industry. We are not depending on 

 clover entirely for that purpose, to produce grass. Our highlands 

 along the Brandywine Creek grow excellent grass; it is surprising 

 that they produce as mueh as they do and it is due to the natural 

 fertilitv of the soil. 



