10 



conditions in the future. Tiiere are a few complaints of fall 

 seeding winter-killing, but in general it wintered well, and 

 is now in excellent condition. 



Fruit Bloom. 

 The fruit bloom was excellent for all kinds of fruit except 

 apples. Winter apples made a light bloom and other apples 

 only a fair one in most sections, probably owing to the year 

 being generally an off year and the crop of last year having 

 been unusually heavy. Strawberries appear to be setting 

 well and other berries bloomed well. No damage from frost 

 was reported from any section. 



Insects. 

 Insects are doing practically no damage as yet, many cor- 

 respondents reporting that none had appeared at the time of 

 making returns. The tent caterpillar is the one most gener- 

 ally reported, and they are not far enough advanced to do 

 any noticeable amount of damage. Other insects reported 

 as present are canker worms, cut worms, currant worms, 

 potato bugs, onion maggots, wire worms, elm beetles, aspara- 

 gus beetles, cattle flies and brown-tail moths. 



Spraying. 

 The returns again indicate that, while spraying is practised 

 and is constantly increasing, the proportion done to that 

 which could be profitably done is not large, nor is the in- 

 crease as rapid as it should be. Some correspondents report 

 that little spraying will be done, owing to its being an off 

 year for apples. We can only repeat our former advice to 

 all farmers to spray, even where fruit is a very minor part 

 of their product, as no outlay they can make will be more 

 immediately profitable to them. 



Farm Help and Wages. 



There are more reports than usual of a scarcity of farm 



help, pointing to a somewhat smaller supply than usual in 



certain localities; but there is, generally speaking, a fair 



supply of fairly good help. The supply of strictly first-class 



