Feeling fall; Mass. anticipating autumn influx.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Bill Fortier

Fall starts at 10:49 this morning and with it comes the smoky fragrance in the early morning from wood stoves, the sound of cheering crowds at football games and hordes of people visiting country fairs and roadside stands under a deep blue sky that brings people from all over the world to our neighborhood.

Last year, disease producing wet weather and Tropical Storm Irene teamed up to put a damper on fall tourism in the state, said Betsy Wall, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism.

This year should be different, she said in explaining that information coming into her office said lodging reservations for September and October are 20 percent above average in the state east of Worcester and 27 percent above average west of the city.

"I'm not in the business of predicting, but by all accounts we're on track to have a very good year," she said yesterday afternoon just before Gov. Deval L. Patrick stopped by Tougas Farm, 234 Ball Street, Northboro, to check out the fall crop of fruits and vegetables.

Tougas Farm co-owner and manager Andre M. Tougas said that while a March heat wave followed by a severe mid-April freeze caused massive damage to apple crops in Michigan and parts of New York, the Central Massachusetts summer that saw temperatures average about three degrees above normal with above normal rainfall has resulted in a good apple harvest.

Mr. Tougas said recent cool nights are helping turn the apples red.

"It really has been classic fall weather," Mr. Tougas said. "Plus, the cool weather makes people realize it's fall and they stop thinking about going to the beach."

William "Kip" Graham Jr., Worcester County executive director of farm services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said farmers he's talked to have told him the apple crop this fall is average.

"The reports I get is that it's not a bumper crop and it's not a small crop," he said.

While Mr. Tougas said his farm's trickle irrigation system helped produce a healthy crop of pumpkins, Mr. Graham said some others have faced a challenge this year.

For example, Jeff S. Howe, owner of Howe's Farm in Paxton and Holden, said the hot, dry July cut down on the amount and size of pumpkins because that is the month in which they do most of their growing. He said he grows pumpkins on between 25 and 30 acres and some acres have produced less than half of the amount of pumpkins that would mature in a better year.

Still, Mr. Howe said there...