No. 4.] MASSACHUSETTS CROPS. xxxiii 



correspondents considered prices to have been higher than 

 usual, 67 average and 11 lower than usual. Milk, butter, eggs 

 and meat brought high prices throughout the year. Apples 

 generally brought better prices than usual, owing to short 

 crop and better quality. Prices for tobacco were fully up 

 to the normal. 



Sixty correspondents, slightly under a majority, considered 

 hay to have been among the most profitable crops ; 41, corn ; 

 24, apples; 11, potatoes; 7, tobacco; 5, cabbages; 4, sweet 

 corn; and 4, oats; while 71 correspondents, more than a ma- 

 jority, and an unusually large leading number, considered 

 potatoes to have been among the least profitable crops ; 9, 

 apples; 6, onions; 6, cabbages; 6, cranberries (an unusually 

 large number for this crop) ; and 4, strawberries. 



The season was generally considered to have been a profit- 

 able one by the correspondents, 80 stating that it had been 

 profitable; 16, that it had been fairly profitable; 12, that 

 it had been an average year for profit ; while 3 held that it 

 had not been very profitable, and 14 that it had been unprofit- 

 able for the farmers of their sections. The crops were gen- 

 erally good, despite the drought, and prices ruled high, which, 

 with the good hay crop and well-filled barns, made it difficult 

 to figure the year as anything but profitable, unless the view 

 is adopted that no year is profitable for those engaged in 

 farming. 



Crops were shortened in some instances by drought, but 

 there was surprisingly little damage from this source when 

 the shortage of rainfall for the year was considered. The 

 most serious efl"ect of the drought was on the water supply, 

 and in many sections farmers faced the prospect of drawing 

 water from a distance throughout the winter, unless heavy rains 

 came before the ground froze. Streams, springs and wells 

 were reported as lower than for many years, and many of 

 them as dry. One well which had not failed since it was dug, 

 one hundred and fifty years ago, was reported to have dried 

 up, and there were many instances of wells and springs which 

 had never failed before, but which were entirely dry at the 

 close of October. 



