298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Some fields have yielded near a hundred bushels per acre, and 

 the weight "has gone as high as forty-three pounds per bushel. 



The quality of tobacco is said to be not as good as last year, 

 owing to premature ripening ; and the same cause, it is thought, 

 will show a falling off in the weight. There was less set than 

 last year. 



Of onions there was a greater breadth planted in this vicinity 

 than ever before. The price started at two dollars, but soon ran 

 down to sixty or seventy cents, where it has remained. It is 

 the opinion of some growers that, even at this price, they can be 

 profitably raised. The crop has been fair in quantity where 

 properly cultivated, but somewhat deficient in quality. This is 

 attributed by some to poor'seed, but it is quite likely, as in other 

 cases, it was owing to imperfect ripening. 



In regard to fruit my observation has been limited. As far 

 as it extends, among apples the Roxbury russets have resisted 

 the adverse influence that has affected them better than most 

 other kinds. Cherries, in our vicinity, have shared the common 

 fate. The only fruit I have seen the past season was grown 

 upon native or ungrafted trees. Is it not possible that this deli- 

 cious fruit needs regenerating by a new supply of seedlings ? 



Of other fruits, strawberries are being more and more culti- 

 vated, and the demand . for them, as a market fruit, keeps pace 

 with the increase. Pears and grapes are receiving more atten- 

 tion. Of the latter, the Delaware and the Concord seem to 

 promise the best. The Delaware, in particular, I have heard 

 favorable accounts of in a number of instances, and I should 

 not be surprised if it proved a great favorite in the Connecticut 

 River Valley. 



The effort made, a few years since, to introduce the cultiva- 

 tion of sorghum has not been productive of marked results. 

 Still, it seems to have left a germ which may ripen into perma- 

 nent and extensive good. In the town of Hadley there are two 

 or three individuals who have raised it on a small scale, and 

 with good success. The accommodations for the manufacture 

 are only a cheaply constructed mill, operated by horse-power, 

 for expressing the juice, and a common boiler for reducing it to 

 sirup ; yet, with these rude appliances, they get at the rate of 

 IGO gallons to the acre, which sells readily at one dollar per 

 gallon. * 



