DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

GENERAL WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT.

The past year has been one of advance all along the line of the work falling under the care of the Department, and, except possibly in a few minor instances, we find the work in advance of its position at the same time one year ago. The efficiency of the farmers' institutes has been increased by the additional amount appropriated for this purpose by the Legislature; the work of the Dairy and Food Commissioner has been extended by the passage of acts relating to cheese, vinegar and preservalines; the Forestry Commissioner has been strengthened by a special appropriation which will enable him to more efficiently carry on the duties imposed by the act of March 13th, 1895; the State Veterinarian, through the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, has been enabled to not only increase the efficiency of his work, but to also greatly extend its scope and usefulness by a special appropria tion for an investigation into the preventable diseases of animals, and also by the authority given by the Legislature to exercise control over milk cows and breeding animals brought into our State, and to thus shut out diseased animals which ultimately would prove, under our existing laws, a burden and an imposition upon the Live Stock Sanitary Board.

The results and effects of the different acts which the Legislature of 1897 placed upon our statute books, and the proposed manner of carrying them into effect, will be distinctively noticed in their appropriate places in this report, and I need only here allude to them by the statement that, in effect, this additional legislation has about doubled the duties of the Dairy and Food Commissioner without any increase in the amount of funds accorded to him for expenses.

An item of great importance in the work of the Department, which is made more evident each year, is its educational feature as is shown by the correspondence of the officers and by the advanced ideas and views as noticed at our farmers' institutes, and I regard this as among the most important work, and the results achieved during the past year are of the most encouraging character.

Our farmers much better understand the intent and object of the Department and its officers, and are rapidly realizing that in it they have a department essentially their own and for their own benefit, and that if they do not receive the full measure of this benefit, the fault is their own, and does not revert to the Department or its officers.

Every division of the Department has a work to perform which, when properly appreciated by our farmers, will more than repay the cost of all of the divisions. Thus the work of the analyses of commercial fertilizers much more than repays the whole cost of the Department; the benefits obtained from farmers' institutes, especially in localities where they are properly understood and taken advantage of, more than repays the total expenses incurred in supporting the Department; the benefits gained by the work of the State Live Stock Sanitary Board, who, with the exception of the Governor, are all officers of the Department, in its work of suppressing tuberculosis, glanders and other contagious diseases, has been the means of saving live stock of much more value than the entire cost of the Department, and the work of the Forestry Division, in educating the people of the State and members of the Legislature which rendered the forestry legislation of the last session possible, will also more than repay the outlays on account of all of the work accomplished by the Department during the year.

The general correspondence of the Department has been greatly increased during the past year, and its value as a source of information to farmers thereby greatly extended. The Secretary has, so far as possible, retained this feature with his special care and, while all matters specifically related to the sub-divisions have been referred to their heads, yet the correspondence of a strictly general nature has been large, and it is believed that in this manner we have been able to confer lasting benefits upon the farmers of the State.

During the twenty-one years in which this correspondence has been under my care, a gradual and healthy change has taken place in its character, a change which clearly shows that our farmers are thinking more for themselves and depending less upon what is told them by those who too often have other interests more deeply at heart than those of the people whom they claim to represent.

We find that our farmers, largely through the avenues opened up to them by the Department of Agriculture and the Experiment Station, are doing more progressive thinking and acting than at any time during the past two or three decades and it is believed that, as the work of the Department progresses, this education will make itself increasingly felt, and that corresponding benefits will accrue which will show the wisdom of the act creating this department of the State Government for the benefit of the farmer.

FARMERS' INSTITUTES.

In 1859, the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture appointed a committee "to consider and report upon the propriety of institute meetings similar to teachers' institutes;" this appears, so far as can be ascertained from existing records, the origin of the movement for farmers' institutes in the United States.

During the same year the committee reported strongly in favor of the proposed institutes, but no definite action appears to have been taken until 1871, when the committee recommended that all agricultural societies having representatives in the Board should "be requested to organize an annual meeting for lectures and discussions." In February, 1878, the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture held a series of three meetings, which were known as "farmers' institutes of Massachusetts;" in 1880 the Secretary of the Board was directed to "attend as many farmers' institutes as the other duties of his office would permit." In 1889, the Massachusetts board made it obligatory upon every society having a representative in its membership, to hold institutes, and in 1880 the reports show that 36 societies represented in the board had held 129 institutes.

In 1861, authority was given the Michigan Board of Agriculture to “institute a winter course of lectures for others than students of the State Agricultural College, under necessary rules and regulations," and its is claimed by some that these were in reality the first farmers' institutes held in the United States.

In 1869, it appears from the reports that, supported by local contributions, Profs. Welsh, Roberts and Bessy, assisted by Mrs. Tupper, held farmers' institutes in Iowa, and the report of 1871 contains a full account of the proceedings of these institutes.

In 1842, the New York State Agricultural Society instituted a course of winter meetings which, in many respects, resembled farmers' institutes of the present day, and, six years later, the society, by unanimous vote, resolved to continue them.

An examination into the history of the movement for farmers' institutes in Pennsylvania shows that much confusion has existed as to the difference between meetings of the farmers' clubs and the farmers' institutes of the present day, and authorities vary greatly in their views upon the question, but a majority agree that the main difference is that the meetings of the farm clubs are supported from private sources, while the expenses of the farmers' institutes are paid by the State.

If we accept this definition, and I find no better point at which to draw the dividing line, it follows that the first Pennsylvania farmers'

institute was held by the State Board of Agriculture, May 22d, 1877, and that this body has annually maintained them up to the transfer of the work to the Department of Agriculture, in 1895.

From May 22d, 1877, to June 22d, 1885, the Board of Agriculture maintained its farmers' institutes, necessarily limited in number, from its funds for general purposes, but, their value having been demonstrated to the satisfaction of all concerned, the Legislature, in 1885, made a specific appropriation of $1,000 per year, for two years, "for the actual and necessary expenses of conducting local farmers' institutes," and this may be justly claimed as the primary appropriation directly for this purpose. Since the latter date annual appropriations have been made to the Board of Agriculture as follows:

These appropriations were expended by the Board in holding insti

From June 1st, 1895, until the present time, the Legislature has made the following appropriations to the Department of Agriculture for the specific purpose of holding farmers' institutes: