24. 



It is felt that not only can we put interested persons in touch 

 with such groups, but we can learn a great deal from the farming 

 and gardening experiences the groups have had. 



April ; 



The 8th and 10th were important dates for this division 

 as we held the public hearings needed for the rules & regulations. 

 One hearing was held in Boston in the offices of the department, 

 and the other took place in the Farley Club House on the University 

 of Massachusetts campus in Amherst. 



The Boston hearing was v/ell attended both by the press 

 and interested persons and groups to find out in detail what this 

 new gardening and farming program was all about. 



One of the interested groups was one called R.A.P. or 

 Roxbury Action Program. This is a Boston based organization that 

 has recently formed a farming coop in an effort to locate parcels 

 of land and grow some of the vegetables needed for home consumption 

 in the Roxbury section of Boston. 



As can easily be imagined there are dozens and dozens of 

 vacant lots and other unused plots of land located throughout the 

 city of Boston that could, in some cases, be turned into productive 

 gardens without much effort. 



The R.A.P. organization contacted the Division of Agri- 

 cultural Land Use to see if we coxild help obtain permission to use 

 a 2 acre site in the Roxbury section of Boston. It was found that 

 one-half acre of this land was owned by the D.P.V/. and the balance 

 by the Boston Redevelopment Authority. This particular site was 

 selected because of its size, the fencing surrounding it, and the 

 fact that it only needed topsoil in order to put it into shape for 

 gardening. 



An on-site inspection was made by the acting director 

 along with personnel from the V/althara Field Station. This was 

 necessary to determine exactly what had to be done and to v^at 

 degree. It was agreed that after using a weed killer to get rid 

 of the American Bamboo growing on the site, that ^0 inches of 

 subsoil followed by 10 inches of topsoil would put this location 

 in good shape for gardening. 



The entire proposal for up-grading this site was taken 

 to the Commissioner of Public Works, as it was thought that there 

 was the possibility of using some highway funds for this site. 



The proposal for using this site came too late for this 

 spring's planting, but it was hoped that all the paper work and 

 red tape could be completed by the fall of 1975. At the end of 

 this fiscal year, R.A.P. was still seeking funding for this program 



