No. 123.] REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 39 



The Department formerly had a series of large bulletins of 

 one hundred and fifty pages or more on — 



No. 1. Poultry Culture. 



No. 2. Apple Growing. 



No. 3. Grasses and Forage Crops. 



No. 4. Small Fruits and Berries. 



No. 5. Vegetable Growing. 



No. 6. Dairying. 



According to the present plans all of these, except No. 3 

 and possibly No. 6, will be revised and reprinted as rapidly as 

 possible and kept on hand hereafter. The demand for No. 3 

 is now comparatively small and may possibly be met by pub- 

 lications from other sources, and an attempt is being made to 

 secure publications from other sources to meet the demand for 

 No. 6, but if this proves impossible a new edition of No. 6 

 will be undertaken. It is generally agreed, however, that the 

 first book in this series should deal with farming opportunities 

 and conditions in Massachusetts under the title of "Farming 

 in Massachusetts," or something similar. Material is now 

 being collected for this bulletin under the headings Geography, 

 Climate, Soils, ^Markets and Transportation, Agricultural Or- 

 ganizations and special types of farming, such as Dairying, 

 Orcharding, Market Gardening, Poultry Keeping, Cranberry 

 Growing, Tobacco Growing, etc. Data should be available 

 from the 1920 agricultural census to provide recent statistics, 

 and arrangements are being made to get detailed information 

 about local conditions in each county from county farm bureaus 

 and improvement leagues and some leading farmers in each of 

 the important lines of agricultural w^ork. Illustrations are also 

 being secured for this book to show the topography of the 

 different parts of the State, some of the important crops, 

 thoroughbred herds, and the like. Brief information was con- 

 tained in the list of farms published by the Department in 

 1911 and earlier, but it seems certain that a more extensive 

 and detailed account of the agricultural resources of the State 

 will be of value and will obtain a wide circulation. In order 

 to have some material about agricultural conditions in the State 

 which could be distributed before the publication of the pro- 



