16 



WORCESTER COUNTY. 



Ashhuryiham (E. D. Gibson). — Indian corn condition, 75. Crop 

 of rowen will be 10 per cent of nonnal. Prospect of late potatoes, 

 40 to 50 ; 50 per cent were affected by early blight. Fruit prospect : 

 apples, 25 ; pears, 50 ; grapes, 90. Pasturage condition, 25. Oats was 

 all cut for hay, and yielded a 75 per cent crop. Late market-garden 

 crops are in 60 per cent condition. The season has been generally 

 unfavorable to all cultivated crops. Extreme drought, with many 

 days of intense heat, has kept the ground very dry, and even 

 corn is vei'y backward. 



Petersham (B. W. Spooler). — Indian corn is late, and many 

 fields are dried up. No rowen to be cut. Late potatoes offer a better 

 prospect than early ones did; one-tenth of the eroiD is affected by 

 blight. Fruit prospect: apples, very few; pears, j^lentiful; peaches, 

 scarce; plums, light; gi-apes, normal. Pastures are all dried up. 

 Oats is not yet harvested. 



Huhhardston (Charles C. Colby). — Condition of Indian corn, 

 80. Rowen will be a 50 per cent croj^. Late potatoes offer the 

 prospect for a 70 to 75 per cent crop ; very few are affected by 

 blight. Apple prospect, 30 to 40. Pasturage condition, 70. Oats 

 and barley are grown mostly as forage crops. This has been a 

 poor season for farmers, owing to late frosts and di'y weather 

 through the summer. 



Dana (Lyman Randall). — Many pieces of corn were entirely 

 ruined by drought; condition, 40. Rowen crop is the smallest ever 

 seen, and will not be more than 10 per cent of normal. Late po- 

 tatoes will not be over a 50 per cent crop; no rot or blight, but 

 they are burned and dried up. Fruit prospect: apples. 20; pears, 

 30; peaches and plums, 10; quinces, 50; grapes, 60; cranbemes, 

 50. Condition of pasturage, 25. Oats has yielded a 70 per cent 

 crop. Condition of late market-garden crops, 40. It is hard to 

 report accurately as we have experienced the worst drought ever 

 known. All crops are dried up, except where grown on very wet 

 ground. Old fields will have to be ploughed and reseeded before 

 they will produce grass again. 



Barre (John L. Smith). — Ensilage corn is in 75 per cent con- 

 dition; very little corn raised for grain. Rowen will be a 10 per 

 cent crop. Fruit prospect : apples, 25 ; grapes, 100. Condition of 

 pasturage is 50 per cent of what it should be, and 25 per cent 

 poorer than in the last three years. Oats as a fodder crop yielded 

 75 per cent of normal. This is the hardest year for the farmer 

 in my experience. Crops and pastures are poor on account of the 

 dry weather, and hay was not over 75 per cent of normal. Frost 

 damaged the apple crop considerably. 



