ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF 



AGRICULTURE. 



The year 1912 has been a backward year for the farmer. 

 The cold wet spring deprived him of the opportunity of putting 

 in his crops when they should be put in, and he was obliged to 

 change his plans and put in others that he did not intend to 

 grow, crops that were not for his advantage, causing him a 

 great loss in not growing those that will demand the best prices 

 in the market. One of the most important outlooks for the 

 State is the farm crop, and if the farmer does not succeed, it 

 affects in a way the whole State ; for we are called on more and 

 more every year to reach out with our farm products and feed 

 the large and increasing population of New England and other 

 parts of the country. And the farmer must receive more for 

 his crops in the future to enable him to cultivate more land to 

 keep up with the increasing population of consumers. The past 

 year most of the crops have fallen short of those of the two 

 years previous. Though the heavy rains that fell the past season 

 did interfere with the crop growing, it is a blessing that we had 

 so much rain. It will surely assist us in the future. Still the 

 rainfall, coming when it did, was a great drawback to all 

 branches of agriculture in the State; but let us hope that we will 

 get better conditions and better crops another year. 



POTATOES. 



The reports of the United States Department do not give us 

 a^ large a yield of potatoes as last year. I believe that while 

 in the northern part of the State the crop is not as large, the 

 southern and central parts of the State have made quite a 

 gain, so that our crop will be nearly as large as that of 191 1, 



