No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. xxxvii 



people who do not use it for agricultural purposes, or even 

 if they do, the products generally go to satisfy some fancy 

 farming scheme, and are not materially used in the general 

 market. The holdings of these people are becoming gi^eater 

 and greater each year. Our farmers seem willing to sell 

 their places at the rather attractive prices offered them, not 

 realizing that the amount of money which they might re- 

 ceive for their farm put out at interest would not give them 

 the kind of living that they had on the farm. Another phase 

 of this situation is that many of these holdings by non-agTi- 

 cultural people are within a short distance of the cities, and 

 are in many cases the old farms from which the cities got 

 their milk supply. This is more true of Boston than of the 

 other cities, and now Boston is suffering from what might 

 be termed, for lack of a better name, long-distance milk, 

 and in many instances the very people who are most con- 

 cerned about Boston's milk supply are either living on or 

 own one of these farms which have been withdrawn from the 

 producing line. 



Another side of the question which should be considered 

 has to do with the cultivating of land which is being held 

 near large cities for speculative purposes. This land should 

 not be allowed to be idle, as it is in many cases for years, 

 but should be rented to desirable persons who would use it 

 for growing their own vegetables and fruit. Many city lots 

 are now being used in this way, but I refer more particularly 

 to land lying immediately outside of cities. If our people 

 from mill towns could but use this land and grow on it a 

 pal't of their own food, there would be less talk of the high 

 cost of living and the red flag would disappear from the 

 streets of our mill towns. 



The Daiey Bueeau. 

 This Bureau has conducted its work in the same efficient 

 manner as in the past, and under its able general agent cases 

 of fraud against the dairy laws have been prosecuted. The 

 relations between this Bureau and the Board have been har- 

 monious; so much so that the Board has placed the appro- 

 priation of $15,000 for the encouragement of dairying in 



