No. 123.1 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 23 



Commissioner's Travel. 



Your commissioner has done very little traveling outside the 

 State beyond three trips to Washington and one to Michigan, 

 Indiana and New York. 



One of the trips to Washington was to attend the meeting of 

 farm organizations. This body represents a large number of 

 farmers organized throughout the country, and has been instru- 

 mental in getting the farmer some recognition in Washington 

 in relation to war measures. It was as a result of this meeting 

 that the President appointed the Agricultural Advisory Com- 

 mittee, which has been of considerable help in directing the 

 agricultural policy of the administration. 



The western trip was to look over wet land conditions in 

 Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and New York, and while this trip 

 had to be somewhat hurried, it proved to be of great value in 

 seeing at first hand what other States are doing with the same 

 kind of land of which Massachusetts has an abundance and 

 which here is lying idle and unproductive. The great swamps 

 of Ohio and Michigan have been drained and are producing 

 large crops, while all about them is seemingly good land, very 

 much the same as in our State. The same objection to the 

 development of these areas was raised in these States as is 

 common here, namely, that as long as there is still some un- 

 occupied land no new land should be developed. The objectors 

 seldom realize that much of the land we are now using should 

 never have been developed, while these areas of swamp, when 

 once drained, make the most easily tilled land. Great mis- 

 takes in drainage are apparent in some of these areas. There 

 is often the tendency to take out too much water, and in some 

 instances the wrong types of soil have been drained. Remark- 

 able crops of onions, celery, market-garden crops, hay and 

 grain were noted, while in some places the smaller drained 

 areas were used for dairying. In New York many areas of 

 less than 20 acres have been drained and are used largely for 

 growing lettuce and cabbage, and the farmer is considered 

 lucky who has one of these bogs on his farm. 



