274 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



sometime before the institute would be held, that the traveling 

 libraries might be used in conjunction with your institutes. If you 

 have a syllabus, it would be necessary, I suppose, to have some 

 books to aid one beyond the syllabus, so that one would be better 

 prepared to recognize what the instructor was saying. The State, 

 as you know, supplies the traveling libraries, and I believe they 

 have received a rather larger apportionment of the State's money 

 this year than ever before. My very dear friend, the Hon. Mr. Mont- 

 gomery, is the State Librarian, and I know that he would do any- 

 thing in his power to bring his Department into touch with the 

 farmers' interests. Mr. Montgomery has always had a great love 

 for farming, and his farm I think most of you passed yesterday on 

 the way over to my farm. These books are obtainable in sets of 

 either twenty-five or fifty, and suppose, for instance, that one of the 

 topics of discussion should be corn and the syllabus would explain 

 the different points that would be brought up; by having one or two 

 books in this traveling library on corn, it would be a help to the 

 locality. The books could remain from one month to six months. 

 I merely present this matter to you for your consideration, as I 

 thought this to be the educational section of your institute. 



A Member: What are the conditions necessary in order to get 

 the books? 



MR. KATES: A formal application is made to the State Librarian 

 who is a member of the traveling library commission, and afterwards 

 there is a very simple form to be filled out, one or two persons be- 

 coming responsible for this library. It is absolutely a mere matter 

 of form. The books always come back, and almost always in very 

 good condition. The cost is that of transportation only. The idea 

 of the traveling library is, that after a community becomes accus- 

 tomed to having these fresh, new, nice looking books with them from 

 time to time, it stirs up an interest, and this traveling library soon 

 grows into a stationary library. The books, of course, would be 

 chosen by the institute lecturers and by Mr. Martin, and I know- 

 that his aptitude for taking up everything in the line of agricul- 

 ture in the State, would assure a good selection, and I know he would 

 find Mr. Montgomery a very congenial individual to work with. 



The DEPUTY SECRETARY: I might add, in a supplementary 

 way, that I have found the present librarian, Mr. Montgomery, a very 

 friendly ally in the way of procuring and distributing literature of a 

 high standard, such literature as is well adapted to the needs and 

 wants of the farming communities of Pennsylvania; and since it has 

 cropped out here on one or two occasions that we farmers are not 

 just quite up on reading, that is, that we are a little deficient in our 

 reading, T at this time take occasion to suggest to the county man 



