6 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



agencies hold an annual convention each year, the program 

 and organization of which is largely directed and controlled by 

 a committee made up of representatives of these farm organi- 

 zations. This is the Winter Meeting of the Union Agricultural 

 Organizations. 



Work of the Staff. 

 I again wish to record the enthusiasm and vigor with which 

 all members of the staff have carried on their work during the 

 past year. There has been no regard for hours of labor, but 

 each has worked to the best of his or her ability to bring about 

 best results in our field. 



Changes in the Staff. 



The Department of Agriculture has been most fortunate in 

 securing the services of Dr. Charles D. Woods as Director of 

 the Division of Information. Dr. Woods for many years has 

 been director of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 where he gained an enviable reputation as one of the best 

 known and highly respected experiment station directors in the 

 country. He brings to this Department and to the State a 

 wealth of knowledge and information which is a great asset to 

 the work which this Department is attempting to perform. 



Mr. John W. Plaisted, the former Director of the Division of 

 Information, has been assigned to duties in connection with 

 regulatory law enforcement and the carrying out of the provi- 

 sions of other laws entrusted to this Department that require 

 the technical knowledge for which, by his legal training, he is 

 especially fitted. 



Recommendations. 



1 . To change Administration of Laws regulating Sale of Fertilizers 

 and Feedingstuffs. — The police laws of the Commonwealth are, 

 for the most part, handled, as they undoubtedly should be, by 

 the executive branch of the government. The laws concerning 

 dairy products, plant and orchard and forest pests, grading and 

 packing of agricultural products, and the like, are entrusted to 

 the Department of Agriculture for their enforcement. The laws 

 regulating the sale of commercial fertilizers and commercial 

 feeding stuffs were enacted prior to the establishment of the 

 Department of Agriculture. These laws are now entrusted to 

 the Director of the Experiment Station, a department of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. In like manner the old 



