24 P.D. 123 



September a small flood occurred in Plymouth County which damaged 

 summer resorts, cranberry bogs and highway construction. Assistance 

 was given in bringing together the necessary agencies for clearing the 

 channels and adjusting the flow through dams, which lessened the damage. 

 With greater facilities and a little more authority over streams the Board 

 could often prevent a large portion of the damage caused by these small 

 floods. Authority is needed to regulate storage reserves and to have ob- 

 structions in river channels removed in such emergencies. 



During the great flood of November the Board's consulting engineer 

 examined the Blackstone River, the Charles River at Medford, the damage 

 between Milford and Springfield, the Connecticut River between Spring- 

 field and Northampton, the Westfield River and the site of the Becket 

 dam. A special report was prepared covering these observations with a 

 view to determining principally the damage to agriculture and methods 

 of preventing of the damage both to agriculture and communities. The 

 recommendations outlined are briefly: 



1. Have the State join with the United States Weather Bureau in es- 

 tablishing a system of flood warning, especially for the Connecticut River 

 Valley. 



2. Ask the Legislature to remove the care of dams from the counties 

 and establish a State agency with power to inspect all dams and regu- 

 late the use of the water in there stored. 



3. Have the State indicate to local communities the possibilities of 

 flood protection, and aid in carrying out such plans. Existing legislation 

 to be simplified for that purpose. 



4. Endeavor to obtain joint action between Massachusetts, Vermont 

 and New Hampshire for flood protection. 



5. State to co-operate with the United States Geological Survey in 

 gaging the streams of the State. 



6. Have a board of expert engineers and lawyers study and make 

 recommendations for revising the water laws. 



Respectfully submitted, 



STATE RECLAMATION BOARD 



By Leslie R. Smith, Secretary. 



SOIL SURVEY 



The soil survey of Massachusetts is steadily going forward. Hampden 

 county was finished during the season of 1927 and a little over 100 square 

 miles of Hampshire county was surveyed. Reports of the survey are now 

 available at this oflSce of Norfolk, Bristol, Barnstable, and Worcester 

 counties. Reports of Middlesex, Essex, Berkshire, Hampden, Dukes and 

 Nantucket counties are in process of printing. There still remains the 

 balance of Hampshire and all of Franklin counties to be surveyed. This 

 will complete the entire state and this will be accomplished without doubt 

 during the season of 1929. 



FAIRS 



The first agricultural fair to be held in the United States was in 1810 

 at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Since then the fair has spread into every 

 state in the Union and to all parts of Canada. The extent to which this 

 sort of outdoor exhibit has grown and the importance to which it has 

 attained may be seen by the following figures given in the annual report 

 of President E. L. Richardson of the International Association of Fairs 

 and Expositions for 1927. 



There were held in Canada and the United States during 1927, 2,368 

 State, District and County Agricultural Fairs, which were attended by 

 39,468,550 people and at which there were paid in premiums the sum of 

 $8,400,714.00. 



In Massachusetts during the season of 1927, there were held 110 agri- 



