Crop Eeport for the Month of July, 1907. 



Office of State Board of Agriculture, 

 Boston, Mass., Aug. 1, 1907. 



Bulletin No. 3, Crop Report for the month of July, is 

 presented herewith. Attention is called to the article on 

 " Hatching and Rearing Chicks by JSTatural Methods on the 

 Farm," at the close of the bulletin, by John H. Robinson, 

 editor of " I^arm Poultry." The literature dealing with the 

 incubation and rearing of chicks is in the main devoted to the 

 artificial methods, so that an article on natural methods, 

 giving full directions as to the best and easiest courses to 

 pursue, will doubtless be of interest and value to the great 

 number of poultry raisers who produce from one to two 

 hundred chicks each season. l^Tatural methods are still prac- 

 tised and generally found superior on most of our farms. 

 Mr. Robinson has had a great deal of experience with these 

 matters, and his article is an extremely valuable one. 



Progress of the Season. 



The Crop Reporting Board of the Bureau of Statistics of 

 the Department of Agriculture (Crop Reporter for July, 

 1907) finds that the preliminary returns show the acreage 

 of corn planted to be about 98,099,000, an increase of about 

 1,361,000 acres, or 1.4 per cent, as compared with the final 

 estimate of the acreage planted last year. The average con- 

 dition of the growing crop July 1 was 80.2, as compared 

 with 87.5 on July 1, 1906, 82.7 in 1905, and a ten-year 

 average of 85.9. 



The average condition of winter wheat July 1 was 78.3, 

 as compared with 77.4 a month earlier, 85.6 on July 1, 1906, 

 82.7 in 1905, and a ten-year average of 80.4. The average 

 condition of spring wheat July 1 was 87.2, as compared with 

 88.7 a month earlier, 91.4 on July 1, 1906, 91 in 1905, and 

 a ten-vear average of 88. The average condition on Julv 1 



