and if the foregoing recommendations are carried out, will be a source of great relief. In the prosecution of its work the Commission was aided by the use of the following table, which indicates also the scope of the inquiry. AVERAGE WHOLESALE PRICES OF FOODSTUFFS, PITTSBURG, COMPARED WITH AVERAGE OF FOUR OTHER CITIES, JANUARY 7, 1907. FRESH MEATS. Steers, Cwt., Cows, each, Sheep, each, Lambs, each, Hogs, each, AVERAGE WHOLESALE PRICES OF FOODSTUFFS, PITTSBURG, COMPARED WITH AVERAGE OF FOUR OTHER CITIES, JANUARY 7, 1907. NOTE: Furnished by Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. PENNSYLVANIA FARM PRODUCTS. In the earlier years of our country Pennsylvania was in the front rank in point of agricultural products. Its farm life was developed to a higher degree than that of any other state. Industrially it is still so important that the statistics pertaining to it deserves place among those of the other interests of the State. Future efforts will be made to give such statistics in greater detail than it now here possible. A crop statement, compiled from National official sources in 1905, permits the following deductions: In point or acreage, production, value of product, compared with other states in the Union, Pennsylvania occupied the following positions: Rye, 346,265 acres; 5,885,505 bushels; worth $3,825,228 and first in rank. Hay, 3,072,021 acres; 4,608,032 tons; worth $54,973,822, making the State second in rank. Potatoes, 253,997 acres; 22,841,730 bushels; worth $14,847,124, placing the State second in rank. Buckwheat, 232,398 acres; yielded 4,647,960 bushels; worth $2,602,858, placing the State second in rank. Oats, $1,161,186 acres; produced 39,480,324 bushels; value at $14,212,917, giving the State sixth rank. Wheat, 1,629,279 acres; yielded 27,860,670 bushels; worth $24,238,784, and the State ranked eighth. Corn, 1,441,997 acres; produced 36,085,903 bushels; valued at $30,286,388, and tenth in rank. The value of eggs produced in 1905 was $15,000,000. The entire farm products above listed amounted in value to $159,987,121. A comparison of the foregoing crop products with those of 1907* shows but little change in the matter of acreage. But, in most instances, the average yield per acre was greater and the average market price higher than those averages for the entire United States. The value of the total products in 1907, was $169,338,000, not including 40,320,000 pounds of leaf tobacco. FARM ANIMALS. The rank of Pennsylvania in the matter of farm animals was as follows: Milch Cows, 1,097,590; worth $37,647,337, third in rank. Other cattle than milch cows, 867,436, worth $15,093,386, seventeenth in rank. Mules, 40,459, worth $4,302,002, the State being eighteenth in rank. The total value was $142,372,840. A year later the value of such farm stock was reported by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture as $144,381,829. THE FRUIT INTERESTS. The fruit interests of the State are of far greater importance than is generally supposed. From the report of complete inspections made in four counties by the Division of Zoology of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture the following estimates and deductions are permitted to show the possible condition in the entire State. The counties named are hardly representative fruit sections, hence the calculation may be accepted as very conservative, and with the full belief that there is no over-estimate of the number of fruit trees in the State or their probable value to the owners. *As compiled for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company by William J. Rose of Harrisburg, Pa. Forest, Snyder, Sullivan, Warren, Total, Arranged in tabular form the following exhibit is shown: Taking the farm lands of the above four counties, totaling 590,172 acres, and comparing them with the area of farm lands of the whole State, 19,375,037 acres, there is produced the ratio of 1.32 5-6. on that basis of proportion there are in the entire state the following fruit trees: Assuming that each tree of whatever nature is worth $5.00 per tree only, there is produced a value of $68,302,320. Great as that is, it is capable of being increased almost indefinitely by the development of the fruit growing industry of the Commonwealth. A helpful adjunct of the revived industry is the Pennsylvania nursery. Two thousand, nine hundred and ten acres are occupied by the one hundred and fifty-six nurseries of the State, and their plants and trees have been carefully and systematically inspected to insure against disease. FARM WAGES. There was a wide range in the farm wages paid in 1907. The wages of male labor per year, with board, varied from $180.00 to $300.00, the average for the entire State being $220.00. The amounts paid for labor in summer months only, when board was provided, varied from $17.00 per month to $30.00, the average for the State being $22.50. Farm employment for males, when board was not provided, was compensated at an average rate of $315.00 per year. The average daily pay for labor, not including the harvest period, was, when board was provided, $1.10; when board was not provided, the average rate was $1.45 per day. There was remarkable uniformity of rate paid to household female help with board provided, the rate in most counties being $2.50 per week. However, in a few counties, the pay was as low as $2.00. In a number the rate was $3.00, and in a very few $3.50 or $4.00, making an average rate per year of $2.75 per week for the entire State for female farm wages. These figures demonstrate that farm labor in Pennsylvania is not inadequately compensated and when the matter of cheaper living in the country is taken into consideration ample inducement is found for a movement from over-crowded cities to country places, or the farm itself with its more wholesome conditions and privileges. Moreover when once the farming community shall have the privileges and benefits of the social unlift, so happily recommended by President Roosevelt, the conditions will not only be vastly more tolerable, but country life will be so attractive that those who can be in closer touch with its advantages will gladly embrace the opportunity to become suburbanites. PENNSYLVANIA'S LIQUOR BUSINESS. Interesting data upon the liquor business of Pennsylvania has been gathered from various sources, mainly from the reports of the National Government, and more particularly from those relating to the internal revenues. They are here given as matters of information and for reference, because they sustain such an important relation to the several industries of the State and the general welfare of the Commonwealth. For convenience in collecting the internal revenues the territory of the State of Pennsylvania is divided into four districts, which, so far as the United States Government is concerned, are known by numbers only, but which, for the convenience of the general reader, may be designated also locally: The first district under this classification embraces Philadelphia and surrounding counties. The ninth district embraces the counties contiguous to the foregoing, including the counties located centrally in the State, with revenue offices at Harrisburg and Lancaster. |