Crop Beport for the Month of June, 1909. 



Office of State Board of Agriculture, 

 Boston, Mass., July 1, 1909. 



The crop report for June forms the second issue of the 

 current year. At the close of the bulletin will be found an 

 article on " Economy in labor in poultry keeping on farms," 

 by Mr. John H. Robinson, editor of " Farm-Poultry." There 

 is an impression that poultry requires a great deal of care to 

 make it profitable to maintain a flock. While it is true that 

 the large profits per hen can only be obtained by constant care 

 and a great deal of labor, it is equally true, on the other hand, 

 that a medium-sized flock of hens may be kept profitably on 

 the farm with very little labor, if the proper methods are fol- 

 lowed. The profit per fowl will be smaller than where more 

 intensive methods are used, but the profit per hour of time 

 spent in its care will be greater. Mr. Robinson has given a 

 great deal of attention to this matter and is in a position to 

 give many valuable suggestions to those who are interested in 

 this particular part of farming operations. The farm flock of 

 poultry should form a much more important source of reve- 

 nue than it does on the average farm, and this article points 

 out how it may be most easily made to do so. 



Pkogkess of the Season. 

 The Crop Reporting Board of the Bureau of Statistics of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture estimates the 

 area sown to spring wheat to be about 18,391,000 acres, or 

 1,183,000 acres (6.9 per cent) more than that sown last year. 

 The condition of spring wheat on June 1 was 95.2, as com- 

 pared with 95 on June 1, 1908; 88.7 in 1907; and 92.6 the 

 June 1 average of the past ten years. The condition of win- 

 ter wheat on June 1 was 80.7, as compared with 83.5 on 



