No. 123.] REPORT OF COMMISSIONER. 53 



of our war activities immediately place on the market a 

 surplus of labor which will be hard to employ at wages which 

 will be at all satisfactory to the wage earner. Many of the 

 men who left the farms will naturally seek to come back, and 

 we may safely say that there will be an ample supply of help. 



A great many farmers have changed over their methods so 

 that they will not need as much help as the}'^ did before the 

 war, but there will probably be a gradual return to pre-war 

 conditions. It will undoubtedly be necessary to continue for a 

 year or two under these changed conditions, for the cost of 

 shifting back will be an expensive operation. We shall un- 

 doubtedly see quite an extension of live-stock breeding in the 

 next few years, and this should continue, provided some ade- 

 quate selling conditions can be arranged. 



That there will be an expansion of agricultural activities 

 seems almost certain. That Massachusetts and New England 

 will raise more of its food is certainly true, but in order to do 

 this agriculture must be better able to stand on its own feet and 

 not look too much to government and State aid. Although 

 these both will be necessary to a certain degree, much of the 

 future of agriculture depends upon wise legislation. A definite 

 program, large enough to cover a good many years of work, 

 should be laid out and some of the details taken up each year. 

 Massachusetts is spending each year far too much for educa- 

 cational agriculture and far too little for constructional agri- 

 culture. 



We are fast drifting into a state of making ourselves believe 

 that we are doing the right thing simply because we have a lot 

 of agencies and are spending a lot of money, while there does 

 not seem to be any real demand for practical results. As long 

 as this condition prevails, and as long as our people are willing 

 to fool themselves into believing that we are accomplishing 

 results, just so long will the real development of agriculture be 

 retarded. The rapidly growing system of bureaucratic control 

 of all governmental functions has extended to an alarming 

 degree during the war, and there is great danger of its getting a 

 permanent hold over our country unless it is checked by the 

 wise counsel of those who see clearly the menace in this system. 

 Its danger to agriculture is very apparent. It fastens a tax 



