33(3 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Plant. 



Your committees have now 1 automobile truck equipped for spraying, 

 12 modern power-spraying machines, 3 auxiliary pumps, 1,000 feet of hose 

 with each spraying machine and with each pump, and 2 watering carts. 



This year we bought 1 new sprayer and rebuilt 3 of the old ones, making 

 them as good as new. We have still two or three machines which are two 

 and three years old, which will probably be sold. 



Persons in Charge of the Actual Work. 



The actual work was in charge of the State Forester's department, 

 under Mr. F. W. Rane. Mr. George A. Smith, gypsy moth superintendent, 

 supervised the work, and was extremely efficient and interested. Locally, 

 the work was in charge of Mr. Saul Philhps, who has been in charge practi- 

 cally ever since the work started, five years ago. He had with him his 

 assistant, Mr. M. H. Donovan. 



Your committees arranged that, in order to secure efficient inspection 

 and rapid repairs, Mr. Phillips should have an automobile and Mr. Dono- 

 van a motorcycle. Your committees feel that we owe a great deal to 

 these^entlemen and their able foremen for their tireless labors, especially 

 during the spring season. 



Under the State law it is doubtful whether it was legal for the men to 

 be employed more than eight hours a day. The men desired to work more, 

 and would have left us if they had not been allowed to work more hours, 

 because they wished to secure the additional pay. Consequently, your 

 committees arranged so that the men worked for the State eight hours a 

 day, and your committees employed them and paid them at the same rate 

 for the additional hours they put into the work, thereby securing the best 

 results. 



It seemed to your committees that the authorities should have ruled 

 that this was emergency work, as it was evident that cm-tailing the hours 

 would mean that 30 less acres would be sprayed each day and that the 

 moths would be allowed to destroy the woods on that much territory, 

 or at any rate seriously injure them, and of course it is clearly evident that 

 30 acres a day less for the twenty-three days would mean that the moths 

 would have been allowed for that thirty days to defoliate some 690 acres of 

 woods. 



We hope that some legislation will be passed this year which will help 

 the matter and exempt spraying, at least, from the eight-hour law. 



How the Money was Secured. 

 Governor Foss early in the year agreed that the State would co-operate 

 in 1912 as it had been doing ever since 190S. The State Forester's depart- 

 ment took charge of the whole work. The following appropriations were 

 secured : — 



