10 



The Season. 



The spring thus far since the first week in April has been 

 rather cold, with an excess of moisture. This has been ex- 

 cellent for grass, but has delayed all planting and farm work 

 and held vegetation somewhat in check. The returns indi- 

 cate that the season is at present about a week behind the 

 normal in most sections. Low lands are still too wet to 

 work in many localities. "With warm, dry weather the 

 season would soon come up to the normal, but continued 

 coolness and excessive moisture would be most injurious to 

 many crops. 



Pastures and Mowings. 



Mowings are reported everywhere to be in first-class con- 

 dition, and a good hay crop would now seem to be assured. 

 What with the abundant moisture of last season and the 

 copious rains thus far in this, pastures have secured a remark- 

 ably good start, and now promise to give a good supply of 

 feed throughout the season. The returns show fall seeding 

 to have wintered well in almost every case, and, like all 

 other grass, it has made a good growing start. 



The Fruit Bloom. 

 The fruit bloom appears on the whole to be about the 

 average bloom of a bearing year. Apples generally made a 

 full bloom, though there are some complaints that Baldwins 

 did not blossom as fully as other varieties ; this cannot, how- 

 ever, be called general. Pears, cherries and plums appear to 

 have made a good bloom, though there are a few complaints 

 of a shortage in pears and plums. Peaches seem to be below 

 the normal, many localities reporting no blossoms at all. 

 Small fruits and berries generally blossomed full. The fruit 

 bloom is perhaps a trifle late, although the correspondent in 

 Fitchburg reports that apple trees bloomed one day earlier 

 than the average for forty-two years. 



Insects. 



As yet but little damage from insects is reported. Prob- 

 ably the cold, wet spring has done much to hold them in 

 check. As usual, the tent caterpillar is the insect oftenest 

 spoken of as doing damage, but it appears to be nowhere 



