P.D. 123 5 



9. The exercise of the police power of the Commonwealth in requiring 

 all milk dealers to pay the price fixed by the board for all milk purchased 

 outside of the Commonwealth. 



10. The operation of this law as emergency legislation to continue so long 

 as the Governor felt that the emergency existed. 



This Department will endeavor to bring to the attention of the legislature the 

 advantages that will accrue to the dairy farmer under the provisions of this milk 

 control act, and it is expected that all agricultural organizations will unite in 

 furthering the passage of this legislation. 



During the closing months of 1933, the Federal government put into operation a 

 milk marketing license and agreement in the Boston area that included in addition 

 to suburban Boston cities and towns on the north shore as far as Gloucester and 

 along the south shore including the Cape. This code attempted to fix the price 

 p^d to the producer for his milk and to fix the prices which the consumer paid for 

 milk in its various grades and classes. There was considerable dissatisfaction in 

 the practical opera,tion of this marketing license and agreement, in view of the 

 fact that many of our local dairy farmers had never received any surplus price for 

 milk and were unwilling to equalize sa,les with shipped-in milk from the northern 

 states. The protest from the local farmers was so vigorous that the first marketing 

 agreement and license was cancelled by the Federal government and all parties at 

 interest were invited to attend a hearing to ascertain the causes that affected 

 adversely the successful operation of the license, and to adjust, if possible, the 

 differences in the market, so that a new marketing agreement and license might be 

 forthcoining. 



During the last few months of 1933, several important projects were started 

 under the supervision of this Department, for the rehef of the unemployed and 

 Federal funds approximating $1,000,000 were used for this purpose and the ex- 

 penditure of these funds was administered by a State board. The following projects 

 had an important relation to agriculture and were supervised by the Department 

 of Agriculture : 



1. Sanitary milk project 4. White pine blister rust project 



2. Apple pest control project 5. Fire protection project 



3. European corn borer project 6. Knitting project 



7. Mosquito control project 



The sanitary milk production project gave employment to approximately nine 

 hundred men for a period of five months and the work consisted of cleaning, disin- 

 fecting and white-washing cow barns and advising dairy farmers in proper and 

 inexpensive methods of producing milk under sanitary conditions. This project 

 brought about a much needed relief to dairy farmers who had been receiving such 

 a low price for their milk during a considerable period of time that it was a financial 

 impossibility for them to hire help for this purpose. 



Our inspection program required that the barns be cleaned and disinfected and 

 the opportunity to provide a thorough cleaning with Federal funds assisted in no 

 small measure to the successful accomplishment of our inspection program. Out of 

 a possible 355 cities and towns, 322 were visited, and work was done on 8,615 

 dairy farms with a cow population of 93,306. The total cost of labor, trucking, 

 materials and other costs was $263,064. 



Under the Apple Pest Control project, work was done in 296 cities and towns 

 and 1 ,725 persons were employed at a total expenditure of $392,837 for labor and 

 materials. The objects to be accomplished under this project were the cutting 

 down of old apple trees and cleaning up of such other trees and under-brush that 

 were infested or likely to be infested with insect pests and diseases. The apple 

 trees that were cut down were commercially valueless as fruit trees, and in most 

 cases, were positively a menace to neighboring commercial orchards. About half 

 of the trees cut down were wild cherrj^ trees that were infested with insects. Fifty 

 per cent of the commercial orchards in the Commonwealth were cleaned up and 

 protected under this project and approximately fifteen per cent of the smaller 

 orchards. Due to the closing down of this type of Federal relief project all of the 

 commercial orchards could not be properly protected, but the entire project received 



