20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Sept... 



the cattle through the winter season. The feeding of these 

 crops can be supplemented by silage. The beef producer can 

 also raise his own corn and smaller grains for the fattening-off 

 process of his beeves. There is a steadily growing demand 

 for Connecticut grown or finished beef. 



FRUIT RAISING. 



Though the climate of Connecticut is severe, the growing 

 season is of sufiicient length to mature and ripen most fruits 

 common to Xorth America, conditions being especially favor- 

 able for the securing of good crops of apples of many varieties. 

 The product of Connecticut's apple orchards for 1917 was 

 478,545 barrels. 



The severe winter nearly ruined Connecticut's peach crop,, 

 not only cutting out the peaches, but destroying most of the 

 trees. Connecticut's annual yield of nearly a million baskets 

 vvas cut down to only a few thousand for the present season. 

 Peach trees are quick growers and early bearers, and we be- 

 lieve that those who are interested in the growing of peaches 

 are not discouraged, and that in a few years Connecticut will 

 again be producing its usual quantity of this fruit. 



There is no gainsaying the fact that Connecticut is as good 

 a location in which to raise peaches as any other part of 

 New England. The apples grown in Connecticut are not ex- 

 ceeded in color or flavor by those of any other state. 



The auto truck and good state roads now bring our high- 

 land fruit farms within reasonable hauling distance of the rail- 

 roads and in many instances of the consuming city markets,, 

 thus greatly shortening the length of tiruQ required for trans- 

 portation. 



TOBACCO. 



Tobacco finds a congenial soil in both the Connecticut and 

 Housatonic River Valleys, but it is in the Connecticut River 

 Valley that the very best cigar wrappers in the world are 

 grown. 



There are three distinct types grown. Shade grown to- 

 bacco has proved most successful, and there is the Havana seed 

 leaf which is grown mostly west of the Connecticut River,, 



