No. 123.] REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 25 



to continue obligations assumed during 1918 and also to sell out 

 what machinery there was on hand in 1919. The whole of the 

 machinery has been sold under this arrangement and the work 

 stopped. 



The value of this experiment has been well demonstrated. It 

 has given the farmers of the State a chance to see the place of 

 the tractor in their operations, and it has also given them an 

 insight into general use of labor-saving devices on their farms. 

 Certainly, more machinery than ever before is in use on our 

 farms, and while labor conditions have forced this, still the 

 demonstration of this State-owned machinery has done much 

 toward bringing this matter to the farmers' attention. While it 

 would no doubt be unwise to continue this work as during the 

 war period, still the State should own and operate some heavy 

 machinery, as ditching and dredging machines, and, possibly, 

 at the various State farms, some of the best types of tractors. 



Marketing Work. 



It should be a source of great satisfaction to realize that at 

 last this Department is to have a Division of Markets. We 

 have been very much behind other States in this respect, but 

 should now come into the field with a chance to profit by their 

 examples and avoid many of the mistakes made by these de- 

 partments in the past few years. 



In July, when the United States Department of Agriculture 

 dropped the co-operative city market reports, this Department 

 was able, through an arrangement with the Boston Market 

 Gardeners' Association, to continue, this work, and it has been a 

 source of much satisfaction to have done so. Mr, Harry Camp- 

 bell, who carried on the work with the government, was re- 

 tained to do the reporting, and while it increased the work in 

 the office very considerably, there has been a very great willing- 

 ness on the part of all the office employees to help get out the 

 report. 



Most Massachusetts farmers need the assistance of a Division 

 of Markets, although farmers have got to be classified in order 

 to come within the definite scope of this work. 



Farmers near cities can be assisted greatly by making better 

 marketing conditions within the cities they serve, also by in- 



