It would provide systematic instruction to our farming people, a necessity in every course of instruction that is to be of value and is to continue.

It would awaken an interest in agriculture in every community, and contribute to the success of the general county institute held in the winter.

It would disseminate information of the most valuable kind and be an opportunity for interesting the young country people in agricul ture, and be a means of influencing them to take advantage of the higher institutions of learning established to fit young people for agricultural pursuits.

It would prove an efficient agent for the establishment of reading circles among our farmers, and bring to their attention the latest and best literature upon the subjects related to their calling.

It would transform the farmers' institute into a complete and wellequipped educational institution for the education of the farmers, and bring to their doors the latest and best methods of agricultural practice known.

The value of the agricultural institute is dependent upon the efficiency of the teachers employed to give instruction, and the future progress of the institute work will, therefore, be in exact proportion as these teachers increase in knowledge of the scientific and practical facts upon which successful agriculture is founded.

The important problem, therefore, for the future institute director to solve is to discover such a plan as will insure a sufficient number of competent teachers who will be willing to engage in this work, and be at hand for service whenever and wherever their presence is required.

Respectfully,

JOHN HAMILTON,

Deputy Secretary and Director of Institutes.

REPORT OF THE STATE ZOOLOGIST.

HARRISBURG, PA., January 1, 1898.

HON. THOMAS J. EDGE, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE :

Dear Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith the following report of work done during the present year, together with a brief abstract of work outlined for 1898. I have also included a short resume of miscellaneous papers on a number of zoological topics, several of which are or will be ready for the annual report of the Department.

These miscellaneous papers relate to subjects which are of especial interest to the citizens of this Commonwealth. Containing, as some do, a large amount of matter the result of careful field observations, they will, it is believed, be of especial interest and profit to those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits. If, in your judgment, these miscellaneous papers and special reports will exceed the space assigned in your annual report for the fiscal year, I would respectfully suggest that they be printed in bulletin form at as early a date as may be practicable.

The residents of this Commonwealth can obtain from the division over which I have the honor to preside, much useful information, if the matter now prepared or nearing completion is printed in an attractive form and given wide circulation, such as it should have.

These several miscellaneous papers, together with others in course of preparation, embracing a large number of subjects, are discussed in a popular way, and they will be acceptable, it is believed, alike to farmers, horticulturists, poulterers, natural history students and sportsmen.

The work of the division has, it is needless to say, been seriously hampered by the disastrous fire of February last, which consumed my private library of several hundred volumes, with note books containing data collected in my field work during the past twenty years. I also lost in the fire several thousand replies, which had been kindly sent by farmers, fruit growers and naturalists in Pennsylvania for the use of your Department, to circulars in relation to birds, insects and mammals. The loss of this valuable material is one which is almost irreparable. I have made several visits to Washington, D. C., and through the kindness of the heads of the several divisions of the agricultural and other departments have been enabled to replace a number of the scientific books, reports, bulletins and papers which were devoured by the flames. I have also spent considerable time at the 6--6--97

Smithsonian Institution and National Museum, Washington, D. C., the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and the Philadelphia Wagner Free Institute of Sciences, obtaining necessary data for the work of this division. This interruption in the work of my branch of your Department has prevented me from engaging in certain lines of active field work which had been determined upon last year when my annual report was submitted to you.

Early in January, last, I was detailed by you, at the suggestion of His Excellency, Governor D. H. Hastings, to assist the members of the Board of Game Commissioners in their work. In consequence of radical changes made in the game laws by the last Legislature, a very widespread interest has developed in all parts of the Commonwealth concerning the said laws, and a very universal interest is manifested by all classes of our State's citizens as to the importance and necessity of giving better protection to game, (birds and mammals).

To date I have answered fully two thousand letters on matters relative to game laws, game protection and other business of the Board of Game Commissioners. Several thousand postal cards and circulars giving information which the people wanted concerning laws relating to game, fish and wild birds and other matters, have been issued and distributed from this office.

I have sent to subordinate granges, Farmers' Alliance clubs, sportsmen's associations and individual farmers whose names were sent to this office by members of the Senate and House of Representatives, seven or eight thousand circulars making inquiries concerning game, fish and the economic relations of a number of our common birds and mammals, about which so many wrong impressions appear to exist in the popular mind. A vast amount of particularly valuable material has been received in reply to these circulars, and much of this matter will soon be available for publication in such form as you may deem proper to direct.

During the year drawing to a close, 357 specimens (39 species) of insect life have been received from farmers and horticulturists throughout the State. All have been identified and brief descriptions, with, in many cases, remedies for their destruction, have been mailed to persons who desired such information; 78 specimens (45 species) of birds-chiefly sparrows and warblers-have been received and identified. The common and technical names of these birds were returned, with short accounts of their food habits, to the farmers, sportsmen and ornithological students who requested such explanations. Eight specimens of mammals also reached this office and, as with the birds and insects, the desired information relating to the same was promptly returned to the senders.

Last year, when my preliminary report was sent to you, I had in manuscript eight or nine bulletins relating to different topics of especial interest to farmers, pomologists, naturalists and sportsmen,

ready for publication. With two or three exceptions these papers which had been prepared with much labor, both in field and office, and at considerable money expense, were totally or partly destroyed in the fire previously referred to. I have, however, had time to rewrite most of this matter, and will, at an early date, be able to give them to the public in bulletin form. Fortunately, one of the most valuable reports of this series, a paper, entitled "The Economic Status of the Mole Family in Pennsylvania," by Mr. Harry Wilson, an able and bright young naturalist of Chester county, was preserved in its entirety. This special report, prepared at your instance by Mr. Wilson, under the direction of the head of the Division of Zoology, is a most exhaustive and valuable one, and as it deals with a subject of especial interest to the agriculturist, it should not fail to meet with a cordial reception from farmers, many of whom are unjustly prejudiced against the moles, which are so often mistaken for field mice.

Assisted, as I have been most generously, by my good-hearted and brilliant colleague, Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Forestry Commissioner, I have, during the past few months, collected from numerous lumbermen and other sources a large amount of particularly interesting and valuable data, showing the character and extent of losses to many species of wild birds and mammals through devastating forest fires. This important and instructive matter will, with your permission, be prepared and published with other papers as a joint bulletin or special report by Dr. Rothrock and myself.

After a great deal of trouble I have collected (thanks to a good act of Assembly prepared by our Forestry Commissioner) "bounty and scalp" statistics from nearly all the counties of the State. These records, when published, will show clearly the folly of such wasteful and unwise legislation which leads frequently to the killing of many of the most valuable feathered and furred friends which the tiller of the soil has, and which devour the insect pests that attack his crops by night and day.

For several years past the writer has labored untiringly to prevent the passage of unjust scalp acts. By our united efforts, with the valuable assistance given by a number of the members of the State Board of Agriculture, we were enabled to bring about, after a very spirited contest, the repeal of some unwise and vicious provisions in the odious bounty act of 1885, which cost the counties (other than Philadelphia and Allegheny) fully $150,000 (estimated) in less than two years. has been clearly shown that a very large part of this money was expended for the killing of birds and other animals which preyed almost exclusively on insidious insect foes and voracious mice that yearly destroyed probably fully ten per cent. of the cultivated crops.

Birds and certain other kinds of insect-destroying animal life are the agencies designed by Divine power to keep in check such pests

when they invade man's fruitful possessions. If, through unjust prejudice, brought about by ignorance and greed, we disturb nature's balance, but one result is the logical sequence, namely, hardship and great money loss to farmers and horticulturists, forsooth, a very important class of our State's citizens. Indeed, they are foremost among the people for whose succor your branch of the State administration was created.

From replies to circulars, by correspondence and through other avenues, we find, I regret to say, a strong sentiment in favor of perpetuating bounty laws, which in some form or other have existed since the days of our Puritan ancestors.

The payment of liberal premiums is favored by many of our citizens for numerous kinds of birds and animals which they appear to believe do little else but catch poultry, game and fish, and when tiring of such food, they, or at least some, visit the farmer's premises to devour the young of sheep, pigs or horned cattle.

Strange as it may seem, many of the birds and other animals for which bounties are urged are, contrary to prevalent impression, spe·cies which subsist mainly on detrimental forms of animal life, such as May beetles, white grubs, cut worms, army worms, grasshoppers, mice, etc.

Many sportsmen and some fish culturists favor a liberal bounty for the tufted head of the kingfisher because he catches trout, bass and different kinds of small-sized fish. The osprey, or fish hawk, the great blue heron, the night heron and the familiar fly-up-the-creek or green heron, which is also known by other common names much more expressive than elegant, are condemned in strong terms and their extermination advocated.

Several countries on the continent have tried the experiment of paying bounties for fish-destroying birds and quadrupeds with results that have proven most expensive and othewise unsatisfactory.

It is hoped that this Commonwealth's lawmakers and governors will never sanction measures which encourage the destruction of the lively and noisy kingfisher and the little remnant of the heron family which frequent our streams, lakes and ponds.

The sparrow, introduced from Europe, like a good many other bad things which have crossed the ocean to plague honest and industrious American citizens, is another one which is, very properly, in bad repute.

Because this bird commonly, but incorrectly, called English sparrow, does a great amount of damage, the cry "place a small bounty on the sparrow," is heard. If this species could be eradicated by such an expenditure of public funds, it would be money well spent.

However, a premium for the head of the worthless English sparrow would not cause his extermination, but it would, through ignorance.