107 



winds. Qiieena: Under .suo\t; the river still frozen one foot tliick, and 

 used as a In^rliway ; ft'ood sleigliing in some parts of the connty. Oneida : 

 Winter g-rains are now covered by one to two feet of snow, and the 

 winter has been steadily cold. Ontario : Poorest condition known for 

 thirty years, owing- to absence of snow^ and freezing and thawing. 

 Ulster : No snow ; bnt tlie ground frozen four feet dee}>, witli an occa- 

 sional surface th.aw. ^Sohvykr: Very bad; the ground vras very dry 

 last fall, so that the plants got a poor start, and the winds blew the 

 earth from the roots, there being' little snow to protect them. There 

 Vv'as but one fall of snow of over six inches in depth, and that remained 

 upon the ground only four days. Ilensselarr : AV"h(^at, rye, clover, and 

 timothy all appear to be dead, though v/e hope it may turn out better 

 than that. It has been the liardest vrinter for seventy years. One- 

 third of the potatoes frozen, and tv\'o-thir<{s of the bees dead. The 

 heaviest teams crossed the river at Albany, the ice being three feet 

 thick. Ground frozen from three and a half to five feet deep. 



Most of the New Jersey returns represent the ground poorly covered 

 with snow, while the temperature was low and the soil deeply frozen. 

 In [Morris County winter-grain was "much injured by freezing and 

 thawing;" in Burlington " few fields have.an average appearance, while 

 many'look worse than for seven years past;" in Cumberland the 

 "plants liad a. good start in the fall, are w' ell rooted, bat as yet look 

 bad;" in Camden "winter commenced in November, with very high 

 winds, which seemed to kill the tops of the gTain, and there was but 

 little snow to protect it, so that little evidence of vitality appears, ex- 

 cept in protected situations or fields earlj- sown;'' in Hunterdon, as the 

 result of freezing, " many farmers contemplate plov\"ing tlieir fields for 

 corn and oats wiien the Aveather permits;" in Union, where the ground 

 was reported to be frozen to the depth of PA) inches at the date of the 

 report, the appearance of wheat and rye fields is bad; and similar re- 

 ports come from Hudson and Essex, where high winds iiave prevailed, 

 with little snow. The fly has been busj- in Warren jind Burlington, 

 The latter report says : " I have irefjuentiy found as maiw as four in a 

 single stalk. Of course here, as elsewhere, the fly does most harm 

 where neither'the soil nor farmer supply the plant with the lood'necl*;- 

 sary for vigorous gTowth. Much of the soil in the wheat-growing por- 

 tion of our county is of that texture v/hich best withstands the effects 

 of a winter like that just p^st, (will not blow Vvhen dry; will not run 

 when freezing and thawing,) and a favorable spring may yet give us a 

 crop on this soil. E.ye is grown on our lightest soil, and will bear a 

 higher mark than wheat." 



The reports tr-om Pennsylvania refer to the severity of the winter and 

 the depth of freezing ; in some cases 2 J feet, in others 4 feet, at the diite 

 of mailing. There was "constant freezing from November 23 to April 

 1" in Cambria, and "fields that were green in fall are now bare;'' 

 "fields look as if scorched by fire" in Westmoreland ; fields are injured 

 by the tly and by frost in Lancaster ; winter-wheat in Dauphin "has the 

 appearance of having- been frozen oil', as the stem in many x^laces can 

 be lifted from the roots ;" small growtli w^as made in the fall in Brad- 

 ford; looks poor in Cumberland, "but roots are living and commencing 

 to grow;" much winter-killed in Mifflin, where a very large crop was 

 gTOWu last year, half of it the Fultz \ iiriety. ISimih'ir reports come 

 from Wayne, York, Perry, Cliuto]), Chester, Tioga, Bucks, Indiana, Elk, 

 Beaver, Susquehaima, Greene, Armstrong, Lawrence, Lycoming, Hun- 

 tingdon, Mercer, Wyoming, Adams, \Varren, Northumberland, Wash 

 iugton, and Lehigh. The tiy is reported in several counties. 



