414 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Do8. 



law-abiding people and no people quicker to add to the worth of 

 the State and the Union than the farmers of this State and mother 

 states. (Applause.) 



But there is one thing that I can't help talking about, and that 

 is where I kno\v tbat the farmers, outside of their farming interest, 

 have been of great help to the cities of the Commonwealth. In all of 

 the cities, particularly in the city where I come from, and where 1 

 have spent all my life, some of the best citizens have come from the 

 farmers of Pennsylvania. Some of its most prominent men in pro- 

 fession and business have been farmers' sons who have come to the 

 city. Many of its representative men in business and philanthropy 

 have been the boys who were trained at the country fireside, and 

 have there been taught the duties of citizenship, and they have done 

 and are doing everything to make the city better as well as adding 

 to the growth of the State of Pennsylvania. 



I don't want to talk long today, but I want to thank you for send- 

 ing that committee to me and to assure you how highly I appreci- 

 ate you. And while the farmer, like many other citizens of the State, 

 may have a great deal to ask for that it is impossible for me to give 

 him, I will always be ready to hear and talk, and do everything in 

 my power to advance the cause of one of the greatest interests of 

 the State, and one which may not have been as highly appreciated 

 as it should have been by those making appropriations, and anything 

 I can reasonably do, I will do to advance the cause of the great farm- 

 ing interests of our Commonwealth. (Applause.) 



The CHAIRMAN: The discussion of the lime question will be con 

 tinued. 



MR. WING : I would like to continue my remarks about the mag- 

 nesia limestone in my own country. Now, there are grown in our 

 country, round about me, probably 10,000 tons of alfalfa each year, 

 and it grows so easy that it seemed to us it would grow anywhere. It 

 seemed to us that it grew to advantage in the soil containing the 

 limestone pebbles. But I have seen farmers in Pennsylvania who 

 put loads of manure on their land, fail to grow alfalfa, and, knowing 

 the character of our land at home, where we grow alfalfa so easily, 

 it seemed to me that the land must be deficient in limestone. I be- 

 gan to think it was because the limestone pebbles in our soil would 

 not neutralize the acid of the alfalfa and red clover that we grew 

 them so easily, while in other countries where they have not these 

 limestone pebbles, and cannot grow it, the acids must become 

 neutralized by the lack of limestone. That is the reason I was sorry 

 to hear the Doctor say the lime would do harm. One hundred tons 

 of crushed limestone would make eight tons to the acre in a twelve- 

 acre field, and I have been advising some of the farmers who failed 

 to grow alfalfa to try it, and I am sorry if I have misled them. 



DR. FREAR: I don't think that Mr. Wing has been giving these 

 people advice that will lead to their injury or loss. The question 

 does not apply to acid that is needed by the land in the form of 

 crushed limesto]iv\ but do not apply it in the form of slaked lime. As 

 I have shown this morning, the carbonates of lime are not nearly 

 so harmful as the use of the lime itself. 



MR. WING: How much does crushed limestone cost you here? 



