CARTING FARM PRODUCE TO THE PHILADELPHIA MARKET.

During Summer and Autumn 1,500 Teams, loaded with New Jersey Fruit and Produce, cross the Camden and Gloucester Ferries, daily, into Philadelphia.

Report of the Secretary.

The farmer's chief business is the cultivation and improvement of the soil for the production of such crops as may to him seem best for his purpose. Of the total acreage in New Jersey reported in 1850, which was 2,752,946 acres in farms, there has been a steady encroachment during the five decades to date by cities, towns, parks, railroads, &c, amounting to 90,937 acres, making the total at this date about 2,662,009 acres.

There was, in 1850, a total of unimproved land in the State of 984,955 acres. By underdraining, clearing, and, in general, improved methods of agricultural work, the farmers have reclaimed 322,063 acres of this; so that there is now, of what may be called unimproved land, which is mostly wooded, but 662,892 acres included in farm

areas.

The uses to which these 1,999,117 acres of improved land are devoted are perhaps more varied in New Jersey than in any other eastern State; that is, there is a greater variety of crops grown for market purposes. Crops that are grown in other States only for the farmer's family are in New Jersey produced as a money crop. This is due to the favoring climate, peculiar to this State, and the millions of consumers engaged in other callings so near to and within our borders.

Estimated annual product of the farms of New Jersey, by census of 1890, is $28,997,349.* This sum, divided by the total number of farms, gives a return per farm of $940 annually, and a yield per acre for each farm of $10.93. This calculation includes all the land comprised in the farm. If the wood, natural meadow and waste lands are deducted the average yield per acre for the improved land would be somewhat greater.

On the basis of the census of 1880, the product per acre in New Jersey was $10.26, being $2.81, at that time, higher than in any other State, and the present calculation shows that New Jersey farmers are

*See tables at close of this report.

maintaining their position as leaders in progressive agricultural work. And I may say, from careful observations throughout the State, that, as a class, the farmers of New Jersey are improving in knowledge of the requirements of their diversified business, and, under intelligent management, the important industry of agriculture is advancing to greater productiveness.

The State Experiment Station work, as carried on under its efficient corps of professors, has contributed, in a very positive way, to the farmers of the State essential fundamental knowledge necessary to intelligent farm practice and profitable returns.

Another helpful agency in this particular is the Farmers' Iustitutes, arranged and conducted under the State Board of Agriculture law. While they are largely the farmers' winter school of methods, they also give opportunity for our professors of the Experiment Station to present the more scientific questions of agriculture, with which they are experimenting each year, to the farmers in person. Thus, by personal contact, questions are asked and answers given of great immediate value, which, without this agency, might be a long time in reaching so many farmers and so effectually.

For the present fall and coming winter thirty such meetings have been arranged for in eighteen of the twenty-one counties. An increase in the appropriation of one thousand dollars would enable the Board to hold fifty such meetings--three in each of the larger counties and two in the others. Such appropriation would pay the State. Agriculture is a productive industry, and by such means our farms would increase in productiveness and taxable value and the exports of our products be much greater.

The annual meeting of the State Board, held at the State House in January, has grown in popularity and usefulness each year. Three days are now required for the transaction of its business, and the papers and addresses are from the most advanced practical students of agriculture, stock management and dairying available. These papers, printed in the Annual Report, have a permanent value, and go to the farmers of the State for reference and study. We have on file numerous strong testimonials as to the value of these reports.

A majority of the County Boards of Agriculture hold regular meetings three or four times a year, and consider local questions of interest connected with their work. The State Horticultural Society, which annually draws three hundred dollars from the appropriation of the

State Board, holds one meeting each year, which is chiefly devoted to matters connected with horticulture.

Formerly the Executive Committee of the State Board of Agriculture was required to pass upon its report, which was bound in and circulated with that of the State Board, but of late years the society has issued its own report. The society is doing good work for the industry it represents.

It would be a highly valuable contribution to our knowledge of the resources, yield and annual earnings of our farms, market gardens, greenhouse crops, orchards, dairy cows, poultry, etc., could we give, from correct, itemized returns, such a statement. I earnestly hope the Legislature will give the State Board of Agriculture authority to collect, through the assessors, possibly, such information annually, such returns to be tabulated by this office and presented to the Governor and Legislature at the close of the agricultural year. The cost would be small; the facts obtained highly valuable. Why not know the returns of our agricultural interests as well as those of our mines and manufactures? The United States Department of Agriculture does not collect this information. Their investigations are confined more especially to the heavier crops. New Jersey is each year becoming more and more a horticultural, market-garden and dairy State, and to place ourselves, as a State, in our rightful place as in comparison with other producing States, the annual yield and value of the products of our farms should be published. As intimated in a previous report, "such knowledge would be of great value in attracting to our State worthy settlers seeking farm homes."

We have conclusive evidence that farming lands hundreds of miles west of New Jersey, and not nearly so well located as to market facilities, are held at and command a higher price than do the highly improved, near-the-markets farms of New Jersey. Buyers do not know the advantages this State has to offer them in the cheap and highly-improved farms, bast markets on every side, transportation facilities, school opportunities and social privileges.

Railroad facilities are unexcelled. No spot in the State, it is believed, is more than seven miles distant from a railroad. The advent and extension of stone roads is another advantage of exceptional value to all producers; and to those who grow quickly-perishable products, particularly so. A large load can be easily and quickly transported to the place of sale without delay or injury.