Crop Report for the Month of August, 1908. 



Office of State Boabd of Agriculture, 

 Boston, Mass., Sept. 1, 1908. 



Bulletin 'No. 4, Crop Eeport for the month of August, 

 is herewith presented. We have had a great many inquiries 

 as to artificial methods of hatching and rearing chicks, and 

 this month include a special article on the subject, by Henry 

 D. Smith of Rockland, Mass. Mr. Smith has had a great 

 deal of experience as a grower of South Shore roasters, 

 where only artificial methods are used, and is remarkably 

 successful in artificial incubation and brooding. As he puts 

 it, he is not a professional writer, but has had some success 

 in making chickens live, and in this article he tells what 

 his methods are and how the result may be achieved. 



Peogkess of the Seasoist. 



The Crop Reporting Board of the Bureau of Statistics of 

 the Department of Agriculture (Crop Reporter for August, 

 1908) finds the condition of corn on August 1 to have been 

 82.5 per cent of normal, as compared with 82.8 per cent 

 a month earlier, 82.8 in 1907, and 83.1, the ten-year 

 average. 



Preliminary returns indicate a yield of winter wheat of 

 about 14.3 bushels per acre, or a total of 425,940,000 bushels, 

 which compares with 14,6 bushels and 409,442,000 bushels, 

 respectively, the final estimates of last year's crop. The 

 average quality of the crop is 90.1, against 90.5 last year. 

 The average condition of spring wheat on August 1 was 



80.7 per cent of normal, as compared with 89.4 a month 

 ago, 79.4 in 1907, 86.9 in 1906, and a ten-year average of 

 82.7. 



The average condition of the oats crop on August 1 was 



76.8 per cent, as compared with 85.7 a month earlier, 75.6 



