excellent condition. Grass has not made a very rapid growth, 

 but is reported as very thick at the bottom, and to promise 

 excellently for the future. !N"ot much fall seeding was done 

 last fall, as compared with the normal. Fields seeded early 

 seem to have come through the winter in good shape, but 

 late seeding got a poor start, and was ill prepared to stand 

 the alternate freezing and thawing of a winter where the 

 ground was bare of snow much of the time, and did not 

 come through well in many sections. 



Fkitit Bloom. 

 The fruit bloom is generally reported to be heavy, except 

 for winter apples, which are reported as light in some sec- 

 tions. Peaches, plums and pears bloomed full, taking the 

 State as a whole, as did also strawberries. Small fruits were 

 not generally in bloom at the time of making reports, but 

 were well budded and promised a good bloom. The fruit 

 bloom was perhaps a little later than usual, and winter apples 

 were not in bloom in many sections at the time of making 

 returns. There had been no frosts to do damage at the time 

 of going to press. Light frosts were reported in a few sec- 

 tions, but not sufficiently heavy to be of injury. 



Ixsects. 

 The cold spring generally operated to hold insects in 

 check, and very little damage was reported. Almost half 

 the correspondents report that there is no damage from in- 

 sects. Thirty-seven report that tent caterpillars have ap- 

 peared. The gypsy and brown-tail moths are evidently ex- 

 tending their areas, 7 correspondents mentioning gypsy moth 

 caterpillars and 14 brown-tail moth caterpillars. Other in- 

 sects mentioned are cut worms, onion maggots, currant 

 worms, white grubs, potato bugs, wire worms, elm-leaf beetles, 

 canker worms and asparagus beetles. 



