ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 



STATION — 1938 



INTRODUCTION 

 F. J. Sievers, Director 



Experiment stations, as public service agencies, are organized to contribute 

 to the promotion of the general welfare of the nation. In the past, they have 

 confined themselves very largely, if not entirely, to the research necessary to 

 solve the problems of the farmer. As a result of their efforts it can be shown, 

 quite convincingly, that there have been pronounced advances in the efficiency 

 of agricultural production. This contribution might have proved more adequate 

 if there had been provision for the assimilation of the products of efficiency. 

 Unemployment is a natural product of efficiency and unless it is so recognized 

 and dealt with it readily reaches a stage where it prominently affects public 

 welfare. Industry, irrespective of its concern with problems of public welfare, 

 is not primarily organized to make the solution of these problems its major 

 objective. On the other hand, under our national democratic policy, we are 

 unfamiliar with and resent government interference with business and, as a 

 result, it has been a fond hope that the profit system of industry would, if given 

 free rein, solve unemployment, our major social and economic problem. To the 

 extent that a solution has not been forthcoming there has been an appeal to public 

 service agencies. This attitude, while not entirely new, has become more evident 

 during the last several years than through any other similar period in our history. 



Fortunately, in the field of agriculture, the experiment stations through their 

 research programs have, in the course of the last fifty years, fortified themselves 

 with much factual material regarding the progress and future of this industry. 

 To give intelligent leadership to agriculture, an industry so intricately involved 

 in our entire social and economic scheme, is, nevertheless, an assignment that 

 should not be accepted without assurance of comparative freedom from bias or 

 prejudice. In a nation where industry has been practically without restraint 

 in its operations and where extreme competitive activities have had free rein 

 during all time, it requires considerable faith and courage to promote a program 

 that has public welfare and not profit as the first objective. The experiment 

 stations will establish leadership in this service to just the extent that their 

 direction is sound and their research is applicable and dependable. Develop- 

 ments will naturally be slow and no spectacular changes in program or in the 

 nature of results should be anticipated or encouraged. 



The major problems confronting present-day society, while not difficult to 

 locate, are so involved in nature that their solution seems an almost insurmount- 

 able task without resort to such regulatory measures as are considered generally 

 undesirable. As an illustration, there is produced within the New England states 

 sufficient milk to confront the dairy farmer with difficulty in finding a profitable 

 outlet, while another portion of the population, within the same area, is econ- 

 omically unable to obtain a sufficient supply of this commodity to insure the 

 requirements of good health. It is questionable, however, whether this matter 

 can be properly adjusted without dealing with milk as a public utility. The 

 market gardener suffers because of low prices for his produce, while the urban 



