No. 123.] REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 49 



of their usefulness in informing producers, dealers and con- 

 sumers of the probable supply of the various crops in all parts 

 of the country. The Bureau of Crop Estimates of the Federal 

 Department already has a service which covers Massachusetts, 

 but the Bureau desires to extend and improve this service. 

 With co-operation it will be able to secure better results and 

 to supply this Department with more information about crop 

 conditions for its own use and for distribution to the citizens 

 of the State. 



5. Partly in connection with the previous recommendation 

 the Department repeats its recommendation made last year 

 that assessors be required to collect statistics about probable 

 crop acreages. Since the bill of last year was referred to the 

 General Court of 1921, it can be brought up by a motion 

 to take it from the files. Consequently, it does not appear 

 necessary to file it again. 



6. The Department has received many complaints during 

 the year about thefts of poultry which have become very 

 frequent in some sections. The Department is not now pre- 

 pared, however, to present a specific bill so framed as to 

 strengthen the present law. 



7. Some applications have been made to the Department to 

 reimburse owners of currant and gooseberry bushes destroyed 

 prior to the year 1918. According to the resolve passed at the 

 last session, reimbursement can be paid by the Department only 

 for bushes destroyed during the years 1918 and 1919. Bills to 

 provide for such reimbursement and to authorize the necessary 

 appropriation will, the Department understands, be introduced 

 by others. The Department is willing to consider cases which 

 arose prior to 1918 and to provide for paying reimbursement if 

 authorized and required to do so. 



Daylight Saving. 



One of the principal pieces of legislation in which farmers 

 were interested last year was the question of daylight saving, 

 and a bill was introduced into the Legislature providing for a 

 change in time of one hour from the last Sunday in March to 

 the last Sunday in October, inclusive. The farmers of the 

 State object to this measure because it interferes with their 



