403 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



then go one step further, and when the soil becomes unproductive, I 

 would like to have the farmers send down to Washington and get 

 some of that stuff by which they vaccinate the soil, so as to make 

 that more productive. I presume that if all these reforms are car- 

 ried into effect, that these farmers who farm the farmers will begin 

 to farm their own farms, and there will be a scratching on the farms, 

 far more vigorous than the scratching of those hens in the Buck- 

 eye state. 



Prof. Shaw, of Minnesota, was called upon and spoke as follows: 



ADDRESS OF PROF. THOMAS SHAW. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture: 

 I must say, gentlemen, that I listened with a good deal of interest, 

 particularly to the report that was made on the live stock industry, 

 and I fancy I do not require to tell you as a piece of information, that 

 that is beyond all comparison, the most important agricultural in- 

 dustry in the United States. I take it for granted that you know 

 that the relations between the prosperity of the live stock industry 

 in the State and the value of the land, and the profits that are made 

 from the land, are of the very closest kind. I take it for granted 

 that you know— I simply speak of it by way of reminder — that the 

 State that leads in the United States in the production of live stock, 

 is the State of Iowa, is the same State that leads in the profits that 

 are obtained from the land per acre, and as it is everywhere in the 

 different states of the Union, that the relation between the value of 

 the live stock kept in the state and the profit made by the people of 

 that state from agriculture — that the relation between them is 

 simply inseparable. I take it for granted that you have noticed that 

 in communities where live stock flourishes most, that there the land 

 is still best, that there the fertility of the land is best maintained. 

 I take it for granted, Mr. Chairman, that you know that the relation 

 between the value of the land and the amount of the live stock kept 

 on the land, is of the closest character, so close that the two are 

 practically inseparable. In the southern part of the State of Min- 

 nesota farm lands have sold for f 100 per acre, while in the Red River 

 Valley, where the land is equally good, where they have good lands 

 but where wheat growing only has been carried on and the growing of 

 live stock has been neglected, there you will find that land sells for 

 only $20 to $30 per acre, and the only solution of that which I can 

 give which explains the difference in the value of the land in the 

 Red River Valley and the southern part of the State of Minnesota 

 to which I have referred, is that in the one case they grow grain, 

 and in the other case the farms are well stocked. I take it for 

 granted that the State of Pennsylvania gives its attention to that 

 matter which it is important to observe. 



I was surprised at the report given in regard to the sheep industry. 

 Why, it seems to me, gentlemen, that from what I saw' yesterday, 

 that I never passed over a state that was better adapted to the 

 growing of sheep than on these hills of this same State of Pennsyl- 

 vania; and I must say, sir, that I was somewhat pained to know 

 that there are fewer sheep in the State of Pennsylvania now than 

 there had been some time previously. I was surprised to know that 

 the dogs in the State of Pennsylvania had more power than the farm- 



