PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OFFICIAL LIST, 1912` N. B. CRITCHFIELD, Secretary, A. L. MARTIN, Dep'y Sec'y and Director of Farmers' Institutes, Enon Valley, Lawrence County. M. D. LICHLITER, Chief Clerk, E. C. FIRST, Clerk, Farmers' Institute Division, BERTHA H. SIEBER, Stenographer, MARTIN S. TAYLOR, Messenger, JAMES FOUST, Dairy and Food Commissioner, MAY V. RHONE, Clerk, Dairy and Food Commissioner, WILLIAM R. SWARTZ, Messenger, Dairy and Food Commissioner, Duncannon, Perry County. H. A. SURFACE, Economic Zoologist, JOHN K. MUSGRAVE, Assistant Economic Zoologist, V. A. E. DAECKE, Clerk, Economic Zoologist, KATHRYN P. FIRST, Stenographer, Economic Zoologist, J. C. SIMMONS, Messenger, Economic Zoologist, C. J. MARSHALL, State Veterinarian, T. E. MUNCE, Deputy State Veterinarian, RUSSEL T. WHITSON, Clerk, State Veterinarian, MARY E. CHADWICK, Stenographer, State Veterinarian, Harrisburg. EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE Harrisburg, Pa., December 31, 1912. Hon. John K. Tener, Governor of Pennsylvania: Dear Sir: In compliance with the law relating thereto I have the honor to submit the following report of the Department of Agriculture for the year just closed. PRINCIPAL CROPS GROWN CORN Corn has come to be considered the most valuable feeding crop that the Pennsylvania farmer produces. Not many years have passed since, in many counties of the State, comparatively little corn was raised. On the higher altitudes and in the northern boundary counties, the season being too short to mature the larger and heavy yielding varieties of corn, farmers were content with raising sufficient to fatten their pork, after running their hogs on pasture during the summer, and the main feeding crops were rye, oats and buckwheat. A great change has taken place within the last three or four decades. Earlier varieties of corn have been introduced into these sections of our State, and so much attention has been given to seed improvement by careful selection and breeding, that very fair crops of this valuable cereal are now being raised in every part of the State, while in the southeastern section and in some of the limestone valleys in the central part of the State as good, and even better crops, are being grown than are being produced in the great Corn Belt of the Middle West. The prizes awarded at the corn shows held in connection with the annual meetings of the Pennsylvania State Livestock Breeders' Association for several years past, and the organization of Boys' Corn Clubs in different sections of the State, have done much to increase the interest in corn production, by showing what can be accomplished by careful seed selection, proper tillage and thorough cultivation. The total yield of corn in Pennsylvania in 1912, according to the United States Crop Reporter, from which all our statistical figures are taken, was 61,582,000 bushels, worth $38,797,000, against 63,858,000 bushels, worth $43,423,000 in 1911. The average per acre for the two years, respectively, was 42 bushels in 1912 and 441 bushels in 1911, |