20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The fruit crop is rapidly increasing in importance among us. Many 

 orchards have recentl}' been set, which are just coming into bearing 

 and the increase is beginning to tell on the crop. Planting is still 

 soino; on, and this, together witli more attention to the needs of the 

 trees, which is ever3'where manifest, will soon giA'e additional im- 

 portance to the crop. The business of shipping apples to England 

 has recently assumed an importance not before reached, and the 

 superior keeping and handling qualities of Maine fruit render it 

 especially valuable for that trade. The chief part of our crop for 

 the past three years, which has gone on the market, has been taken 

 for shipping purposes. As long, therefore, as we can produce late 

 keeping fruit, and the shipping trade holds out, so long shall we 

 find a ready demand for all we may produce. 



The business of evaporating fruits bj^ improved and rapid pro- 

 cesses, which was introduced into the State in 1879, and has been 

 largeh' extended the past j'ear, promises to be an important industry, 

 and will relieve fruit-growers of perishable fruit which shippers will 

 not take. For this purpose also it is found that our fruits furnish a 

 superior article which the market is readj- to take at a premium. 



Dairy products have been cut short in quantity-, on account of 

 short supply of pasture grasses occasioned by drought. Butter 

 and cheese are gTaduallj' being improved in qualit}', 3-et thej' are not 

 increasing in quantity. It is a fact well worth}- of careful consider- 

 ation, that while it is conceded by all that our State is especiallv 

 adapted to the prosecution of this branch of farming, we are not 

 making as much butter as our population consumes, and of cheese 

 not more than half our consumption is supplied with our own 

 make. Associated dairying promised at one time to increase the 

 interest in this industr}-, and through that increase the products of 

 the dair}-. In 1874 and in 1875, the State Dairymen's Association 

 obtained returns from forty-three factories which were in operation 

 those two years. There ai*e now no means of knowing the number 

 still operating, yet, careful inquiry- will not warrant placing the num- 

 ber above twentj'-five. The patrons of those factories which have 

 been operated the past season, are generall}' well satisfied with the 

 business of dairying and with the associated sj'stem of cheese- 

 making. In those localities where the farmers have taken hold of 

 the business in earnest, and are making a specialty of it, the returns 

 are satisfactory, and indicate the possibilities of our State in this 

 direction. 



