44 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



merits which are essentially agricultural, and it was hoped to 

 bring within its scope animal industry, forestry, and fish and 

 game. However, the Legislature thought otherwise, and two 

 departments were formed: one, agriculture, and the other, 

 conservation. 



The agricultural department has retained all of its old work, 

 and under the bill adopted has been able to start new work 

 along lines for which the Department has been working for 

 years, and with the establishment of these new divisions the 

 Department should have a very complete organization. There 

 has been a very strong movement over all the country among 

 departments of agriculture to get their work on a similar basis, 

 and it is indeed unfortunate that Massachusetts should not 

 have seen the problem as it really existed and have tried to 

 build on constructive lines. 



In the new organization the board is merely advisory, and 

 the Commissioner is the final and real authority. This polic\^ 

 is in accord with the general line of the entire State reorganiza- 

 tion. 



Labor and Agriculture. 



The past year has been marked with great unrest among 

 working people. Strikes have become so common as to cause 

 little comment. Demands of certain elements in labor organiza- 

 tions have become so extreme that organized labor has hurt 

 itself in the minds of many people and a general reaction against 

 labor has set in. 



Many of the demands of labor have been poorly advised and 

 made with little thought as to their effect on labor itself. It 

 has not seemed to occur to labor that an increased price for its 

 work simply means a general lifting of prices for all things, and 

 that instead of shorter hours and more pay, the country needed 

 greater production per man. All of this agitation has, of course, 

 been felt by the farmer. It at first would seem that strikes 

 would benefit the farmer, at least to the extent of furnishing 

 more help, but this has not been the case, as the striking men 

 seem to prefer to loaf, and there also seems to be plenty of 

 money for them to spend. 



Agriculture depends very much on labor, particularly at cer- 

 tain times of the year when there are crops to be put in or 



