18 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Reorganizations of the Department, 191 S and 1919, 



In the annual reports for 1918 and 1919, brief accounts were given 

 of the change from the Board of Agriculture to the Department of 

 Agriculture and the subsequent reorganization of the Department 

 into its present form. For purposes of record it seems appropriate 

 to present additional detail about these reorganizations. 



The basis of representation for the State Board of Agriculture, 

 first established in 1852, was destroyed by the so-called Anti- 

 aid Amendment to the State Constitution, adopted in 1917, 

 because this amendment made impossible the payment of 

 bounties to private agricultural societies. The General Court, 

 therefore, during the session of 1918, passed an act establishing 

 the Department of Agriculture, to consist of a board of four- 

 teen members appointed by the Governor, with the advice and 

 consent of the Council, and a Commissioner of Agriculture to 

 be elected by the board for a term of three years and subject 

 to removal by the board for cause. This law did not increase 

 nor define more particularly than before the powers and duties 

 of the board or Department, and it left the Commissioner 

 responsible and subordinate to the board. 



The next year, under article 66 of the Amendments to the 

 Constitution, which required that the executive and administra- 

 tive work of the Commonwealth be organized in not more than 

 twenty departments, a general reorganization of the State de- 

 partments, including the Department of Agriculture, was under- 

 taken. In the bill which was ultimately adopted (chapter 350, 

 General Acts of 1919), the Department was reorganized again 

 on the same plan as other administrative departments (sections 

 34-38 inclusive). These sections provide that the Department 

 shall be under the supervision and control of a Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture and an advisory board of six members, 

 all appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of 

 the Council. The Commissioner is made the executive and 

 administrative head of the Department in full charge of all its 

 work, while the advisory board exercises only advisory powers. 

 It is further provided that the Commissioner shall organize the 

 Department in divisions, including a Division of Dairying and 

 Animal Husbandry, a Division of Plant Pest Control, a Division 

 of Ornithology, a Division of Markets and a Division of Recla- 



