32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



under this Board a bureau of organization and marketing, the 

 work of which shall be along these general lines. 



1. To ascertain as far as possible the sections of the State 

 adapted to the production of certain crops, and to organize 

 these sections to produce such crops. 



2. To connect these separate small units with a greater State- 

 wide organization for the distribution of this crop, 



3. Through the marketing department of this bureau to assist 

 in placing these products on the markets to the best advantage 

 of all concerned. 



4. To assist cities and towns in establishing markets , and 

 improving market facilities. 



Along with this general program should also go the move- 

 ment to develop our now unproductive land areas both wet and 

 dry. There are thousands of acres of wet land, much of it far 

 more fertile and more easily workable than a great deal of the 

 land now under cultivation, and where small areas of this land 

 have been used very surprising results have been obtained. 

 One section reports producing 6 tons of hay per acre; another 

 better than $500 worth of market-garden crops. What is 

 needed for this land is a comprehensive scheme for under- 

 drainage in fairly large tracts. As these tracts are usually in 

 the hands of several proprietors, in this work they simply must 

 co-operate, and there must be some way of preventing one 

 obstinate landholder from blocking the scheme for all. It was 

 for this purpose that the statute which is now known as 

 chapter 195 of the Revised Laws was passed in colonial days. 

 This law is practically an enabling act which authorizes a 

 majority of the proprietors of a tract of wet land to have com- 

 missioners appointed by the Superior Court to do the work, and 

 then the cost is levied and collected as taxes on the lands of the 

 owners benefited. The great trouble with this law is that it 

 does not provide for the payments to be made in installments. 

 An amended act with this installment provision in it, and also 

 a provision for the issue of bonds to defray the cost of the work 

 until the installments are collected, was introduced by the 

 Board last year, but was referred to the next General Court by 

 the committee on joint judiciary. 



The secretary recommends that a similar bill be introduced 



