No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 289 



Now where does the other four-fifths of the poultry consumed in 

 the states of New York and Pennsylvania come from? They come 

 from the West. We are importers where we ought to be producers. 



Within a hundred miles of Pittsburg I know of a county-seat 

 grocer who has used in a single season three carloads of eggs that 

 he imported from Chicago in order to supply his people, and many 

 of them were sold to the farmers of the surrounding country who 

 ought to have produced them instead of importing them for their 

 own use. There is a ready market, I say, for all that you can pro- 

 duce and the business is one, I will not say that anybody can learn 

 in a moment — it is not true that any superannuated minister or 

 school teacher can take hold of it and immediately make a profit out 

 of it, because it is not a business that does not require the very 

 best of care in order to make it a success, but almost anyone with 

 reasonable effort and care should be able to succeed well enough, 

 and to produce poultry ami eggs enough for the family table, and 

 something besides. 



Some of the states are giving more attention to the subject than 

 is Pennsylvania. I might call your attention to the fact that the 

 great State of New York is holding poultry institutes lasting two 

 days, and they get the best speakers obtainable. They seem to be 

 getting profit as well as pleasure out of it. The State of New York 

 has made rapid strides along this line in the hope that they will be 

 able to supply that which they have for years been importing. 



In discussing this subject, the subject of poultry rearing and egg 

 production, I am not referring so much to the man who lives in a 

 village or a town, but rather to the man or the woman who lives on 

 a farm. No village man or woman has the opportunity enjoyed by 

 the farmer who lives out in the country somewhat isolated from his 

 neighbors. In fact, the farmer ought to be the one who raises the 

 best horses, the best cattle, the best sheep, the best swine, and he 

 also ought to have the best poultry. 



I think it is not egotism on my part to say that I am fairly familiar 

 with poultry conditions from New England and Florida to Texas 

 and over the great Northwest, for I have studied poultry conditions 

 in all those states with considerable care, and I want to say to you 

 that I do not know of a man who has made a profit two years in suc- 

 cession who has done so with mongrel and low-grade fowls. It has 

 always been done with pure bred or high-grade flocks. 



Seeing Mr. Franklin Dye, the Secretary of Agriculture of New 

 Jersey here, reminds me of an incident that occurred over in his 

 state, when I was talking on the subject of uniformity of flocks, and 

 \vp passed along in a carriage in which Mr. Dye takes his trips, and 

 as we were riding along, he said as we approached a farmhouse, 

 19—6—1905 



