Crop Eeport for the Month of August, 1909. 



Office of State Board of Agriculture, 

 Boston, Mass., Sept. 1, 1909. 



Bulletin No. 4, Crop Report for the month of August, 

 is herewith presented. In this number will be found an 

 article contrasting eastern and western methods of growing 

 and handling apples, entitled "Western methods in New 

 England orcharding," by Prof. F. C. Sears, professor of 

 pomology at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. There 

 is no question that New England apples excel those from 

 the west in flavor, at least not on the part of those who have 

 tried them from both sections, knowing which were western 

 fruit and which the home-grown article. On the other hand, 

 the western growers have succeeded in putting out a product 

 which is very attractive to the eye ; and the apples which we 

 see offered at retail for 10 cents apiece and similar prices 

 are usually western fruit. How to meet our western rivals 

 on their own ground is the subject of this article, and in it 

 Professor Sears tells, from an extended experience and study, 

 what we must do to meet this competition and win back the 

 better market of the east to our own apples. 



Progress of the Season. 



The Crop Reporting Board of the Bureau of Statistics 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture (Crop Re- 

 porter for August, 1909) estimates, from the reports of 

 the correspondents and agents of the Bureau, that the 

 average condition of corn on August 1 was 84.4, as com- 

 pared with 89.3 a month earlier, 82.5 on Aug. 1, 1908, and 

 82.6. the average on August 1 for the past ten years. 



Preliminary returns indicate a winter wheat yield of about 

 15.5 bushels per acre, or a total of about 432,920,000 bushels, 

 as compared with 14.4 and 437,908,000 bushels, respectively, 



