20 
animals—are the principal grasses, while many other grasses, native and intro- 
duced, have become common in many counties, and compose the sward, which is 
formed by a natural process upon soils that are left at rest for a few seasons. 
The length of season in which stock can feed in pastures exclusively is generally 
reported at from six to seven months, though two or three return as low as five 
and five and a half months; a large proportion, however, fix the season at six 
months, while the estimated cost per month ranges from $1 to $3 50, averaging 
about $1 50 permonth. Wayne, Crawford, Somerset, and Washington estimate 
the cost at something less than $1, while Lycoming, Montgomery, and Bucks 
place it at $2 50, Delaware at $3, and Lancaster at $3 50. 
7. Pennsylvania grows most of the fruits adapted to northern latitudes— 
apples being the staple, the cultivation of which has been increasing for several 
years in the western counties, and the quality of the fruit improved by careful 
culture. The crop of 1867 was quite poor throughout the State, but the yield 
of the preceding year was largely remunerative in the counties where attention 
is given to the fruit. Our correspondent in Alleghany county says: “ In 1866 
Mr. Van Kish realized about $1,200 from an orchard of about eight acres, and 
others did proportionately well.” From Westmoreland a correspondent writes : 
“With so diversified a soil as ours, composed in a large degree of the debris of 
animal, vegetable, and mineral matter, and embracing hill and dale that lie 
exposed to the morning and evening sun, with many springs of the purest 
water, our county is capable of producing, in great perfection and profusion, all 
the fruits known and cultivated in the northern temperate zone. On my own 
farm we seldom have an entire failure of the apple, pear, or peach crop. Grapes, 
embracing about sixty varieties, have never entirely failed, nor have they been 
seriously injured by rot or mildew. This year our apples have commanded 
$1 25 per bushel, when the surplus crop was sold in October. Our orchards 
are kept in grass, which is ploughed down only once in ten or twelve years. 
A crop of hay, made from a mixture of orchard grass, clover, and spear grass, 
is taken off in June. It is pastured after the fruit is gathered. We consider 
the hay and pasturage equivalent to all expenses attending the fruit culture, 
and with a full crop of fruit we net from $1,000 to $1,200 from a twelve-acre 
lot.” Peaches are an uncertain crop in most localities, when spared by the 
frosts, being subject to much injury from insects. Our York correspondent 
writes: “Of fruits we raise, or try to raise, apples, peaches, pears, plums, 
cherries, &c.; the large fruits have, of late years, failed. Of the small fruits 
there is a fair yield annually.” In Dauphin “apples do reasonably well one 
year in three; peaches somewhat better; pears do still better; grapes, in proper 
situations, do well in favorable seasons; the Catawba ripens finely, and is re- 
garded as the standard of tenderness for this latitude. All varieties ranking in 
hardiness with the Catawba, and above, will endure the winter without protec- 
tion.” In Berks “the insects have caused great deterioration in fruit products. 
Formerly apples yielded enormous crops, but since the appearance of the borer 
and curculio the crop has been a failure. Pears are the most reliable; grapes 
entirely free from rot, climate favorable; small fruits successfully cultivated.” 
In fact, throughout the State, insects are reported as the great enemy of fruit 
crops. From Erie our correspondent writes: “ Apples, pears, and quinces, with 
most of the small fruits, do well in parts of this county, while the portion bor- 
dering on the lake is unsurpassed in capability to produce these fruits, and it is 
generally conceded that the south shore of Lake Erie is one of the best grape- 
growing sections this side of California.” Beaver county reports the establish- 
ment of many new vineyards, particularly along the Ohio river, and that some 
of the young vineyards, two or three years old, yield $500 to $600 per acre. 
