Crop Report For April

March was remarkable for high teniperature and moderate amount of precipitation. Reports are not yet at hand from all stations in the State, but at tlie State Board of Health station at Lansing, the records show it to have been the warmest March in sixteen years. Tiu mean temperatura of the month was ■40.48 degrees, or ü degreea above the normal. The mean temperatura of the! ürsi twenty-four days was about 44.t;ö degrees, or 13 degrees above tlie normal. The highest temperatura reeorded was 74 degrees on tlie 18th. A cold wave passed over the State on the 25th, and the weather from tliat date to the end of tiie month was severoly cold. The meao temperatura of ihe ast week of the month was below 28 degrees. On tlie 25th the temperatura dropped to H) degrees. This was the lowest point during the month. Since April 1 the temperatura has gone below the Ereezing point on all except two days The average precipitation in March was 1.26 incoes. Three iuches of snow ell on the 28. As usual wheat on the summit and west side of hills, and on elay and undrained lands, has been somewhat injured, but as a whole the erop has wintered well. The averages of the e.siimates of correspondents are for the southern eounties 89 per cent; central counties, il per cent; northern eounties, 94 percent; and State, 90 per cent, comparison ijeing with average years. Correspondents, in their rem ar ka, report, the erop in good condition, much bettercondition thau usual at theend of an "open" March. In 1893 the average condición April 1, in the southern eounties was SI , central 91, State 84; in 1892, BOüthérn eounties ÍK), central 89, State 90. The average condition this year, in the southern eounties is eight pointe lietter, and in the State six points better tban on April 1, 1893. The total number of bushels of wheat reported niarketed by farmers in March j is ,138,557. At 27 elevators and milis ] from whicli reports have heen received, there was no wheat niarketed during the month. The average condition of dover meadows and pastures is as follows: Southern eounties !) per cent, central 87, northern 95 and State 82 per cent. Farm animáis are in good cond.t'.on. IHning the warm weather that prevailed previous to the 25th of Maivh fruit buds developed to some considerable extent, and grave fears were feit that the cold wave of that date woul 1 work great harm if not ruin to the erop. A large number of letters, which vvill be published in f uil in the final report, have been received from fruit specialists since April 1, but at the time tliey were written the growers themselves were not entirely satisfied as to the amount of damage. The Grand River Yalley Horticultura) Society, March 27, believed no harm had been done, but one of its members a few days later found pears and peaches badlv injured. Iouia grawere tliink tlieir erop injured but a trifle. A St. Joseph correspondent tbinks peaches all killed. At South Haven n fair erop of all kinds of fruit is expeeted. In Washtenaw peach buds had "started to blooin," in soine cases showiug color. All such on low ground are killed, wllile those OU higher ground are ïiot injured. Apples and other fruit on high lands have escaped. A fair conclusión froni these letters is tliat the early and tender varieties of fruit, especiaily peaclies and pears, have been injured, but the later and hardier kinds are yet safe. Tliis is partieularly true of apples. There is no reasou whv a l'ull erop of tliis fruit ahould not be expeeted, Hardwood ashes are worth from L22 to $40 per ton for use as fertilizers in the eastern states, yet you can find an ash pile in tlie rear of neaxly every farm house in the country. Ihey are worth just as much to the farmers here as they are iu New York and Pennsylvania. If properly used they wiil return to you the ir valué in an increase of erops. Xhey are partieularly rich in the elements tUat contribute to the growth of fruit. Many of these apparently trivial mattere are the leaka that take away the profits oï the {arm and cause the farmers to announce that "farming don't pay." Poor farming don't nor never will..