1G4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



I heard Booker AVashington say last Sunday that at 

 Tuskegee they have many acres of land connected with the 

 institution, which, when bought a few years ago, was not 

 considered worth anything for tillage purposes. They 

 bought it for $2 an acre, and the people were very glad 

 to ffet rid of it. But he said no land in that vicinity could 

 now be bought for $100 an acre, because it had been learned 

 that peaches would grow on that land better than on any 

 other land in the country. It was a discover}^ of great 

 value to that section. It is experiments which are leading 

 to such discoveries as these that the national government is 

 making. 



I remember that when south recently I found the cotton 

 growers particularly pleased because the national govern- 

 ment had found an ant that would prey upon and destroy 

 the insect that was destroying the cotton crop. 



We have a problem in this State, and I am glad to see 

 that one of our Congressmen has introduced a bill in the 

 national Legislature providing for national help in fighting 

 the gypsy moth. It is just as important for the national 

 government to be interested in this as in the insect that was 

 destroying the cotton crop in the south ; just as important 

 as it was to be interested in the disease that was killing 

 the cattle in this Commonwealth about two years ago, and 

 which threatened so much destruction. It is in the interest 

 of the nation, but the Commonwealth, the locality and the 

 individual cannot neglect their duty in this matter. 



In other ways the national government is giving aid. It 

 tells the farmer of the coming of the storm and of the 

 changes in temperature. Our own agricultural department 

 is doing for the State what is being done by the nation 

 for the entire country. It is working along similar lines, 

 and the more successful it is, the greater Avill become the 

 aericultui-al interests of this Commonwealth. 



I did not intend to talk to you so long, but there is one 

 who, I understand, is to ftivor us with a poem, and she was 

 kind enoudi to tell me the subiect of it. It reminded me of 

 the words of Edward Everett, when he delivered his famous 

 address on vegetable and mineral gold, where he compared 



