10 



Insects. 

 Tent caterpillars arc more plentiful than for several years, 

 but ma}'^ be easily controlled, and serious damage prevented. 

 Other insects reported as doing damage are potato bugs, 

 currant worms, canker worms, apple-tree borers, elm-leaf 

 beetles, flea beetles, white grubs, grasshoppers, onion mag- 

 gots, cut worms, the San Jose scale and the caterpillars of 

 the gypsy and brown-tail moths. 



Spraying. 

 Spraying against insects attacking fruit is not practised to 

 any great extent, except by fruit specialists, but the practice 

 continues to gain slowl}^ in favor in all quarters. This being 

 generally an off year for aj)ples, less spraying will be done 

 in the aggregate by farmers than in 1901. 



Farm Help and Wages. 

 Farm help appears to be rather more difficult to obtain than 

 for several years, due in a measm'e doubtless to foreigners 

 who have worked as farm laborers in past years beginning 

 farm operations for themselves, either on forms they have 

 purchased or on rented land. The proportion of good help 

 to the general supply appears to be fairly good, though 

 strictl}^ first-class help is alwa3^s hard to obtain. Twenty 

 dollars per month with board seems to be a fair average of 

 the wages paid, and $35 per month without board, though 

 little help is employed in this wav. For daj^ work, $1.50 

 per day seems to be the price commanded at all seasons, 

 instead of only at haying and harvesting time, as was for- 

 merly the case. 



Acreage of Farm Crops. 

 The acreage of farm crops generally remains about as 

 usual, with possibly a slight increase in that of corn and 

 also in that of onions in the Connecticut valley. Owing to 

 the present drought, more than the usual acreage of forage 

 crops and of crops for the silo will probably be put in. 



