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Adulterations," which was listened to by a large and appreciative audience.

On motion, adjourned until 9.30 Thursday morning.

THURSDAY MORNING, October 13, 1887. Board called to order at 9.30 A. M., by Capt. M. W. Oliver in the chair.

JOHN I. CARTER of Chester county, read an essay on "Milk Separation by Centrifugal-and Milk Tests," which called out questions and discussion by Messrs. Underwood, Carter, Oliver. Brinton, Barnes, Clapp, Hoffa, Reeder, Camp, Dr. Edge and Secretary.

Dr. JOHN P. EDGE of Chester, then read an essay on "Underground Currents and Their Surface Indications," the subject matter of which was discussed by His Excellency Governor Beaver and Messrs. Barnes, Weston, Scott, Herr, Oliver, Searle, Tewksbury, Smith and Secretary.

The question of the influence of forests upon rainfall and climate, having been incidentally brought into the discussion, it was, on motion of Governor BEAVER, seconded by Mr. GARRETSON of Adams, resolved that the Chair name a committee of three to draft a request that Professor Lesley of the State Geological Survey, devote a portion of one of his reports to the subject of rainfall and water supply of farms. As such committee the Chair named Messrs. Dr. Edge, Searle and Eves, who afterwards reported the following:

WHEREAS, In the discussion of the paper of Dr. J. P. Edge, on "Underground Currents and their Surface Indications," as they relate to the subject of domestic water supply. His Excellency Governor Beaver requested that the attention of the State Geological Survey be called to the importance of the question, therefore be it

Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to convey to Professor J. P. Lesley, chief of the State Geological Survey, the desire of this Board that he shall prepare. as a portion of the work, a paper on "The Underground Water Supply of the State." Adopted unanimously.

E. L. WESTON of Brooklyn, Pa, then read an essay on "Applestheir Variety and Culture," which caused discussion from Messrs. Barnes, Weston, Scott, Herr, Oliver, Searle, Tewksbury and Governor Beaver.

G. R. RESSIGUIE of Brooklyn, Pa., then read an essay on "Methods and Profits of Strawberry Culture," and CHARLES S. STEARNES of Har ford, one on "Strawberry Culture,' "the subject matter of which was discussed by Messrs Dr. Edge, Powell, Smith, Hiester, Resseguie and Secretary.

On motion, adjourned until 2 P. M.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON, October 13. 1887. Board called to order at 2 P. M., by His Excellency Governor Beaver, in the chair.

On motion, H. W. Kratz of Montgomery, read an essay on "The Construction and Mending of Public Roads."

On motion, the regular order for the afternoon session was resumed, and Colonel D. W. Searle welcomed the Board to Montrose, as follows:

General Beaver and gentlemen of the State Board of Agriculture:

I have been selected to bid you a hearty welcome to Susquehanna county, but as far as the Governor is concerned, the sea of upturned faces of citizens of Susquehanna county who were assembled at Hallstead to-day to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the first settlement of the county, greeted him with a better and more hearty welcome than any words of mine can express. Their smiling faces and ringing cheers proved their love and respect for James A. Beaver, the man, as well as confidence and respect for James A. Beaver, the Chief Executive of this State.

Gentlemen, you are the official agricultural representatives of the great State of Pennsylvania-a Commonwealth whose extent of territory, wealth and population might well entitle it to be called a nation. It is our proud boast that the State founded by Penn obtained the title to her soil from the aborigines by purchase, and that we are guiltless of the force and bloodshed with which the land of all the other States were wrested from their first possessors. Pennsylvania has within her borders Philadelphia, that busy hive of manufacturing industries, where more of her citizens own their homes than in any city in the worldPhiladelphia, rich in patriotic and historic renown. It was there that that great declaration of human rights was given to the world; there that that matchless constitution which cemented feeble colonies into a peerless nation was framed. The varions Legislatures of our State have from time to time in their wisdom passed laws festering and protecting our mining and manufacturing industries, and as a result the State is a hive of industry from one end of her broad domain to the othera domain so broad that, as Governor Beaver said this morning in his address to the children of the graded school, "no man has ever seen the whole of it;" and when we think of its vast extent and the limited life of man, no one can ever see all of its hills and valleys.

Pennsylvania is known and celebrated throughout our nation and the whole world for the development of her mining and manufacturing industries, while she is scarcely known beyond her borders as a great agricultural State, and this in the face of the fact that more of her citizens are engaged in that labor which produces the bread of life than in all other industries combined. While our Legislatures have been justly mindful of the necessity of aiding in the development of our mineral wealth, and of the necessity of removing burdens from manufacturing industries, they have given but little attention to this greatest of all our industries, and whatever advancement has been made in the development of our agricultural resources has been made. without State aid.

Susquehanna county is an agricultural county. There is no man within her borders engaged in business of any kind but who is dependent upon the prosperity of this great industry for his own success. If the crop of the farmer is a failure, the merchants, ministers, doctors and lawyers are all alike hard up. The State Board of Agriculture is the creation of measurably recent legislation. I imagine that its province and duties extend far beyond the assembling together and reading essays upon the best means of raising different cereals. The State has in a measure committed to your hands a supervision of the interests of our industry of industries, and every thing that can advance the interests of agriculture should receive your careful attention. Our State government has rightly aided in bringing the products of

our mines and manufactories to their markets, but there is something radically wrong in the results of legislative action when the farm products of the far west can be transported by the doors of farmers of Susquehanna county to our eastern seaboard cities on railroads chartered and protected by our State cheaper than can the products of our own Susquehanna county farmers. This wrong calls for legislative remedy.

Gentlemen, we welcome you here to-day in the hope that your presence here shall prove the herald of a brighter day for the farming interests of our county and State.

To which Governor Beaver, as President of the Board, replied as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen. It is usual upon occasions of this kind to have the address of welcome and its appropriate reply at the commencement of the exercises. In this case this relation has been reversed and they are brought in at the close of the work. I, however, now see many advantages in this variation from the general plan. Í can now respond for my brethren of the Board very much better than I could have done at the opening of our meeting yesterday. At the end of a visit we are in a much better position to judge of the extent and character of our welcome, and, therefore, it is much easier for me to reply now.

From what one of the bachelor members of our Board has said to me, I may judge that some of them wandered around your streets somewhat aimlessly last evening. One of them, who unfortunately has no one at home to take care of him, informs me that he walked around the town looking in at the open windows and pleasant homes, and saw no one, and he returned to the hall a little disappointed with his welcome.

Colonel Searle has very correctly intimated that if you had been with me at the centennial celebration at Hallstead yesterday you would have realized the fact that if there was anything deficient in your welcome here it was due to the fact that all the citizens of Montrose were at the Hallstead celebration. The deficiency which our bachelor member has noted was owing to the fact that the citizens were not here, and it was not due to any lack of welcome upon their part.

Now, I have been here before, and I knew that there would be no lack of welcome upon their part, and had you adjourned yesterday and gone with me to Hallstead you would have there received as royal a welcome as anywhere in the Commonwealth, and, after your other meetings in other parts of the State, this is saying a great deal. The people were gone, the ladies were gone, and our two bachelor members should have been with me at Halstead where the Montrose ladies

were.

Now, suppose that we had been here yesterday morning at the opening session, and I had been compelled to reply to the kind words of Colonel Searle then, I would, of course, have told you how glad we were at our welcome to Montrose, how nicely we had been entertained, and how we had enjoyed ourselves here; but there would not have been anything in it, for it would have been at the very commencement of our visit. Now, if our wandering brethren of last night will but turn their faces to the audience, I can assure them of a right royal welcome from those whom they last night seemed to think were deficient in this respect, and if they will go around this evening and make themselves known, I will assure them of a welcome which will

fully compensate them for their disappointment last evening; but the trouble is that they and you will leave on the five o'clock train and will miss it all again. Having been here before, I can assure you of the cordiality of the welcome which you have missed by unfortunately holding your meeting at the same time as the centennial celebration at Hallstead. If your meeting had been held a little earlier in the autumn, while the golden foliage was still on the trees, a golden welcome would have awaited you. You missed that too.

As I drove over from New Milford with my friend Grow this morning, we saw the piles of Baldwins, Greenings, Pippins, Seek-nofurthers, Spice, no doubt of the King of Tompkins County, of which we have just heard so much. They gave us the promise of an entertainment next winter, when they have come to their perfection, when we sit down by the fire at evening, or at the table at meal time, or eat them in the form of apple-sauce, which is said to have been the favorite dish of one of our Governors. The wealth thus spread out before us during our ride over here was an indication that if we send up to Susquehanna county, and send the cash along with the order, we can have all the apples we want.

Col. Searle has said, and truly, that the State Board of Agriculture is designed not only to contribute to the intellectual culture and education of the farmers of the State, but that it is also designed, in a certain sense, to legislate for this same important interest. I do not, of course, mean by this that you are to pass laws and exact statues; but I do mean that if the State Board of Agriculture, with due delib eration, arrives at definite conclusions in relation to the different agricultural interests of the Commonwealth, that these conclusions must and should receive at the hands of our law-making power the attention and influence which they so well deserve. Representing the agricultural interests of the whole Commonwealth, as you do, you are bound to receive at the hands of the Legislature and the Executive that consideration to which the great interest which you represent is entitled; when you wisely legislate within the powers of your Board, and arrive at conclusions and make these conclusions known, you may feel certain that they will receive a favorable recognition; if you have not thus made your power and influence felt the fault is your own, and is due to the fact that you have not made the agricultural wants of the farmers known to the Legislature and to the Executive.

I believe that this Board contains the best thought of the interest which it represents, and is entitled to an influence second to no other power. You have a broader sphere than the mere meeting together with the people of the State to discuss agricultural topics and practices (valuable as this is); you represent, as Col. Searle has truly said, one of the greatest interests of the Commonwealth, and you have the largest constituency of any body except the Legislature itself.

I would say to the good people of Montrose that we fully appreciate the interest which they have shown in our work during our meeeting here, and that we believe that their hospitality is fully equal to their altitude, and that is saying much. I believe that there is only one other county besides this which is as high above sea level; I believe they claim that in Somerset they exceed Susquehanna in altitude, and perhaps in Sullivan they may claim as much; they also claim as good grass as you have. They have the same interests as you have and are represented in this Board just as you are.

Gentlemen, we welcome you to our meetings and express our re3 BD. AGR.

grets that owing to your centennial you were not able to attend all of our sessions. We appreciate the importance to the county of Susquehanna of this centennial at Hallstead, and can only hope that when we again meet here we may have no such exercise to detract from our work and meeting.

So far as my own experience goes I have never attended a meeting of the Board that I did not learn something of value from its practical papers and discussions, and there is not a man or woman in the State who might not have learned something from your discussions of yesterday and to-day; something of profit and value even in the cultivation of but a small patch of strawberries or potatoes. We heard this morning essays and discussions of practical usefulness that I have not heard excelled anywhere; they were practical and can be fully appreciated by all practical farmers; they contained not mere theory but were evidently the result of the practice of men who knew what they were writing and talking about. While these essays and discussions are put into proper shape and printed, yet they do not have that widespread circulation among the farmers of the State that they should have and that their value entitles them to.

Now we have further exercises upon our programme, and in order that we may complete what we have before us, we will now proceed to the consideration of the general question of the construction and repair of public roads, and on behalf of the Board, and in accordance with our rules, I cordially invite you all to participate freely in the discussion and let us understand fully what the farmers of Susquehanna county want in this special and important direction.

The general discussion of the road question was then declared open, and was participated in by Messrs. Searle, Tewksbury, Curtis, Barnes, Smith, Oliver, Carmalt, Tilden, Herr and Garretson."

J. F: BUTTERFIELD, D. V. S., then read an essay on "Breeding Hereditary Diseases," which was discussed by Messrs. Smith, Carmalt, Curtis, Eves and Secretary.

Dr. W. S. ROLAND of York, then offered the following:

"WHEREAS, The autumn meeting of the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture will now soon close, it seems proper that we should put upon record an expression of our gratification and satisfaction at our kind reception in Susquehanna county; therefore

"Resolved, That the thanks of the Board are hereby tendered to our resident member, R. S. Searle, for the satisfactory arrangements provided for our pleasant meetings, and for our personal entertainment and comfort at the Trabell House, and to the citizens of Montrose and of Susquehanna county for their kindness, attention and contribution of interesting and valuable papers and discussions at the meetings of our Board.

"Resolved, That the address of welcome by Colonel D. W. Searle of Montrose, and the response by our President, Governor Beaver, command our highest esteem and thanks.

(Signed,)

WILLIAM S. ROLAND,
J. P. BARNES,
L. B. SPEAKER.”

R S. SEARLE then introduced the subject of sugar making from sorghum, when after a partial discussion, it was, on motion of Governor Beaver, resolved that R. S. Searle be requested to produce at our next meeting a paper upon this topic.

89

On motion, adjourned to meet at Lewisburg, Pa., December 7 and 1887.

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