No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 167 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' ANNUAL NORMAL IN- 

 STITUTE HELL) IN MEMORIAL HALL, WEST CHESTER, PA., 

 MAY 23-26, 1905. 



Memorial Hall, West Chester, Pa., 

 Tuesday Evening, 7.30 o'clock, May 23, 1905. 



Dr. M. E. Conard in the Chair. 



The CHAIR: The address of welcome will be given by Charles 

 H. Penny packer, Burgess of West Chester, Pa. 



Mr. Pennypacker's address is as follows: 



ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 



Bv Charles H. Pennypackkr, Burgess, West Chester, Pa. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: On behalf of this munici- 

 pality of 10,000 people, I extend to you gentlemen, and ladies also, a 

 cordial welcome to our town. 



When William Penn stepped for the first time on the shore of 

 Pennsylvania, he turned to his clerk, Caleb Pusey, and said to him, 

 "This is a goodly land, what shall we call it?" And Caleb promptly 

 replied, "Chester, after the place in England from whence we came." 

 That name was conferred upon the mother county of this great Com- 

 monwealth, and I think that that county thus named, has for two 

 centuries exercised considerable influence in the management and 

 direction of affairs in the Keystone State. 



It was a President of the United States who said that agricul- 

 ture was the grand work of the nation, and all the world smiled at 

 General Grant's quaint remark. It was, I think, then, it had been 

 true for centuries and it is true to-day. 



Now r , my friends, the hopes, the hearts, the good wishes of the 

 people of this Commonwealth are centered in the farmers' homes of 

 Pennsylvania. Upon the escutcheon of this Commonwealth is in- 

 delibly stamped the plow, the oldest, the most useful, the most 

 honored implement in all the history of agriculture; and in this old 

 county of Chester of 720 square miles, containing about ninety thou- 

 sand people, the agricultural interests are predominant, and to the 



