13 



5. How is planting progressing ? 



6. Is farm help scarce or plenty, and what proportion can 

 be called good help ? 



7. What are the average wages paid farm help in your 

 vicinity, with board ? Without board ? 



8. Will there be any marked change in the acreage of the 

 usual farm crops, particularly corn and j)otatoes, and do you 

 note any new enterprises in the line of agi-iculture ? 



9. Are pheasants doing any appreciable damage in your 

 vicinity ? If so, what is the nature of this damage ? 



Returns were received from 121 correspondents, and from 

 them the following summary has been compiled : — 



The Season. 

 The month of May has been unusually cold and wet, mak- 

 ing the season from ten days to two weeks late in almost all 

 parts of the State. Following an exceedingly rainy April, 

 the rains of the past month have filled the ground with water 

 to such an extent that it has been impossible to even plow 

 land which is the least bit low. On high, normally dry lands 

 the ground is in excellent condition, but the temperature has 

 been so cold, as a rule, that germination has been slow and 

 uncertain, and growth has been very much retarded. It 

 seems, so far, to have been a very unfavorable season except 

 for gTass land and fruits, although the man with an early 

 farm should do well this year. The rain and cold continued 

 up to the very last of the month. 



Pastures a^b Mowings. 

 The copious and continued rains were just what the grass 

 land was in need of after the severe droughts of the last two 

 years, and, except where all burned up during these droughts, 

 the meadows and pastures are in excellent condition. The 

 ground, however, is now saturated, and water is standing on 

 much of the low land, and a good stretch of warm, sunny 

 weather is needed to hasten the growth which is so well 

 started. Pastures promise better feed than for a number of 

 years, and there probably will not be so much need for the 



