Excerpt from Thirteenth Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 1907 Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, Pa., January 1, 1908. To his Excellency, Hon. Edwin S. Stuart, Governor of Pennsylvania: Sir: In compliance with the requirements of the Act of Assembly creating a Department of Agriculture of Pennsylvania, I have the honor to submit my report of said Department for the year ending December 31, 1907. The past year has demonstrated that the advanced era in agricultural development, to which reference was made in a preceding report of this Department, has been reached and it is to be hoped that the progress made will be permanent. The importance of employing improved methods is being recognized and everywhere those engaged in the various branches of agriculture are seeking more light. There never was a time when farmers felt as they now feel the importance of knowing more concerning the laws governing plant growth, stock breeding and all the operations conducted upon the farm. This desire for information, is in some measure, met by the Farmers' Institutes held throughout the State, and the agricultural press. These important agencies, however, perform their greatest service by leading the younger men who expect to devote themselves to cultivating the soil to seek the best possible opportunities for self-improvement along the lines they have chosen for their life-work. Pennsylvania has always been prominent as an agricultural State. During her colonial period the military campaign that resulted in wrestling all the territory within her borders from the French government, was directed to move through Pennsylvania because of the possibility of subsisting the army and its baggage trains upon the fruits of the well cultivated farms of the colony. Pennsylvania was among the foremost of the colonies in bearing the burden of feeding and otherwise supporting Washington's army in the struggle for Independence. During the Civil War it was General Robert E. Lee's knowledge of the well filled barns of Pennsylvania farmers and the fine herds of cattle grazing upon their fields that led him to make the strenuous effort he did to get his army firmly established in this State, and to make Pennsylvania, instead of Virginia the seat of war so far as his army was concerned. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.