DIVISrON OF INFORMATION 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 136 State House 



ARTHUR W. GILBERT, COMMISSIONER 



BOYS' FARM PLACEMENT BUREAU 



Boston, itoss. , 

 March 15, 1981. 



FARM LABOR INVESTIGATOR 



Mr. Charles ?.. Green, Librarian, 

 I.i. A. G. , 

 Amherst, Mass. 



Dear LIr. Green: 



Your inquiry of March 12 about the annual re- 

 ports of this Department for 1918 and 1919 brings 

 out the fact that the title pages of both these re- 

 ports are incorrect. 



You will remember that the old Board of Agri- 

 culture was abolished in 1918, the act taking effect 

 on September lof that year. By that act the new de- 

 partment was legally entitled "The State Department 

 of Agriculture", rhe report for 1918 was not, however, 

 the annual report oi the State Department because 

 the old State Board continued to exist until Seoteraber 

 1, so that the State Department could properly claim 

 only three months of that year. Since the Department 

 was in existence at the end of the year, however, the 

 report was gotten out as the first annual report of 

 the State Department. 



I'he next year, 1919, the Department v/as reorganized, 

 the act taking effect from and after December 1. 

 Since December 1 was the first day of a new state year, 

 the report for 1919 should have been entitled "The 

 First AJinual Report of the State Department of Agri- 

 culture" because it was the first and only year during 

 whiCii the State Department existed and acted through- 

 out the twelve months. The report for 1919 was, how- 

 ever, published by the present Deoartment of Agricul- 

 ture and, through inaccuracy, was published as the 

 first annual report of the Department of Agriculture 

 instead of as a report of the otate Department of Ag- 

 riculture. As the reoort for lyxb was the first annual 



