No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 285 



venient way to preseut these subjects, and have no other questions 

 injected into the dairy sessions but dairying and the same with the 

 other two subjects. 1 make this suggestion that the county chairmen 

 confer with the Director and get the necessary information and get 

 the programs more in conformity with the object of the movable 

 schools, that we may spend more time on one subject, going further 

 into detail and getting more out of it. 



MK. T. J. PHILIPS: I do not know whether it is hardly worth 

 while for two Chester county men to succeed each other. 1 suppose 

 Secretary Mai-tin and myself are the only two men possibly in this 

 room who can speak of the institutes from the beginning to the present 

 time. We were both Members of the House and Members of the Agri- 

 culture Committee when the bill creating this department became 

 a law. You remember that in the beginning we imported our institute 

 men from other states, Ohio, New York and so forth. There were no 

 men in Pennsylvania thought fit for the work. In a year or 1 wo men 

 in this State were equipped for the work. How wf^ll they have done 

 it I leave to you to judge, and I speak freely beca».s, ' hat^e been in- 

 terested from the beginning until a comparati^ ely i-cci:">t time. I 

 think I am capable at least of judging what has been Jone. what has 

 been accomplished. I was prompted to take this thought hecjuse of 

 the meeting day before yesterday at Harrisburg to get those city 

 men who control these commitees to give us the funds we need. It 

 they would know of the good work and of the i)rofit in dollars 

 and cents that has been accomplished through this department 1 am 

 sure they would never hesitate before making that appro])riation. We 

 were told this morning that the poultry industry in Pennsylvania 

 amounted to over f 20,000,000 in eggs alone, and while I am no poultry- 

 man, still I was a dairyman and know more about that end of it. I 

 have not the figures but I honestly believe if it was possible to gather 

 them that $20,000,000 represents an increase of egg production due to 

 the farmers' institutes far greater than any annual appropriation; so 

 that in just that one line of increase in the chicken industry the far- 

 mer is entitled to that a5)ropriation. 



But that was not the line of thought I wanted to speak about. I 

 speak freely on the subject because in a sense I have graduated from 

 the institute work, but I have been over the country and I find that it 

 has spread abroad in this State a great influence. They have had a 

 great influence. As one of our friends on the other side of the plat- 

 form said, possibly no greater influence has been exerted than that of 

 elevating the farmer and his calling. He did not consider himself a 

 business man. He was not a professional or even a good business man. 

 To-day he ranks among the first in the land and to be a successful far- 

 ir(,r he must be a good business man and he is so looked upon by the 

 youth. Only within the last year a young man came to our town as 

 principal of our high school. He came from another county, an en- 

 tire stranger to me and after he was there for awhile I learned that as 

 a boy he had heard me discuss a problem in a German county town at 

 noon one day during an intermission in the session of the institute 

 and he said that here was a farmer who could stand upon his feet and 

 talk intelligently. It was an inspiration to him and he determined 

 then and there that lie would secure an education and that he would 



