20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



average yield of hay, Tvbich docs not much exceed a ton per acre, — 

 perhaps it may a little, while with better treatment, an average of 

 two tons might be had just as easily. The reason alleged, or excuse 

 offered for the practice was, that as it is, they have quite as much 

 bay as they could cure, or store, or use, and more than this would be 

 of no value. 



Among the few exports from the Aroostook valley, may be named 

 herds grass and clover seed. Last year, Mr. John Allen, near 

 Presque Isle, offered for premium a crop of two thousand and 

 twenty-four pounds clover seed, grown on seven acres, and which 

 be sold at fifteen cents per pound. He stated the profit on the crop 

 to be one hundred and sixty-three dollars sixty cents, or upwards 

 of twenty-three dollars per acre. I heard of a crop upon ten acres, 

 in another locality, of twenty-five hundred pounds. It is deemed 

 very profitable when the heads "seed well," but this is by no means 

 sure always to occur. It is rarely cut for seed unless promising 

 upwards of one hundred pounds per acre ; and sometimes three 

 hundred are realized. In 1850, six hundred and sixty-one bushels 

 clover seed, or forty thousand pounds, and ten hundred and eighty 

 bushels of other grass seeds, were grown in the county. Herds 

 grass, or timothy, usually yields six or seven, and sometimes ten 

 bushels of seed per acre. In one instance, I learned of one hundred 

 and four bushels grown on ten acres. 



Fruit. Of the culture of fruit in Aroostook, it may be prema- 

 ture to speak with confidence ; but the prospect is strongly in favor 

 of ultimate success. There are a number of nurseries established, 

 principally of the apple, and many trees have been planted out. In 

 the village of Iloulton I was told that little success had attended 

 the planting of any other than the Siberian crab apple, which lived 

 and bore well, but that a few miles out they succeeded tolerably 

 well. Here, also, I saw plum trees of choice varieties which had 

 borne abundant crops, quite too heavy indeed for their ultimate 

 good. The appearance of the apple trees in this vicinity indicated 

 a growth of wood too late to become well ripened and hard, and so, 

 unfit to withstand the severity of winter. The circumstance of the 

 roots being for a large part of ordinary winters in a soil above the 

 freezing point, and the tops, at the same time, in a much lower 

 temperature, may also have had an injurious influence. On higher 



