571 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



equinoctial gales, which frequently make such havoc under other circumstances ; 

 that is, when seed-lime has happened so late that the tender sprouts were not 

 sufficiently rooted in the earth. 



An early harvest can scarcely fail to produce a good seed-time for wheat, because 

 it enables the husbandman to take advantage of the weather ; but, although an early 

 sowing-time is suitable for most parts of the kingdom, for the midland and southern 

 counties in particular, it is not found to answer so well in Lancashire. Ifwhe.it 

 be sown unusually early in the Palatinate just mentioned, it gets too forward prior 

 to the winter, and suffers very much if that season happen to be severe. It is a 

 common observation amongst the laborious farmers of Lancashire, that they do 

 * not like two summers upon their wheat," alluding to the fine weather which 

 frequently occurs at the latter end of the month of October and the beginning of 

 November : if the wheat be well up before Christmas, they are satisfied : the land 

 is principally a light sandy black soil. On the stiffclays of the county of Chester, 

 on those of Yorkshire, Leicestershire, &c., wheat can scarcely be sown too soon. 



Thepotatoe crops in Lancashire (where this highly useful vegetable is cultivated 

 more extensively, and attains much greater perfection, than in any part of the 

 kingdom,) failed very much in the years 1833 and 1834, owing, beyond all 

 question, to keeping the same ground too long under the plough and the potatoe 

 fork : the present year has scarcely produced a fair average crop ; but abundantly 

 sufficient to supply the market, as the price would scarcely average eighteen pence 

 per bushel of 85 or 90 Ibs. The war price was seldom under three shillings, and 

 occasionly reached seven. The farms in Lancashire are small, the cultivators of 

 the ground are a very hard-working industrious race ; and as, owing to the very 

 numerous population of this county, and the many large towns which it contains, 

 a ready sale is experienced for the minor productions of the garden, the farmers 

 are enablefl to meet the pecuniary demands made upon them more easily than the 

 same class of persons in other parts of the kingdom. 



The Grazier and the Dairyman have not suffered in the same proportion as the 

 Agriculturist, as beef and mutton, as well as cheese and butter, have not ex- 

 perienced so great a depression of price as every kind of grain without exception. 



The heat and uncommon dryness of the weather which characterized the summer 

 of the present year, and particularly the latter end of it, proved injurious to the 

 turnip crops ; more so than to mangel wurtzel ; while the aftermath was unable 

 to make its appearance till a period too late to render that essential utility which 

 is generally derived from it. All that fine grazing country on the north western 

 side of Northamptonshire, as well as the grass lands from this county to the banks 

 of the Trent in Derbyshire, suffered severely from the excessive drought which oc- 

 cured at the latter end of the summer. 



The grazier may perhaps be enabled to procure the means of existence by the 

 present price of his produce ; but I must honestly confess I can discern no pros- 

 pect of bettering the condition of the agriculturist, unless the expenses of govern- 

 ment, and the interest of the national debt, were reduced in some degree of 

 proportion to the descent which has been experienced in the various ramifications 

 of busy life Peel's bill, while it reduced the cultivator of the soil to beggary, 

 nearly tripled the property of the fund holder ; and, consequently, enhanced the 

 enormous sum bequeathed to the originator of this baneful measure by his father, 

 precisely in the same manner ! Is this consistent with reason and justice ? 



I well recollect observing, some years ago, the persevering efforts made to 

 cultivate many of the moorlands of the north, even half way up the dreary hills ; 

 I well recollect their return to moorlands on the decline in the price of grain. 

 Of the policy of the corn laws, I was always inclined to doubt, and at length we 

 have arrived at such a state, that, notwithstanding the most ample legal restrictions, 

 the price of agricultural produce will scarcely pay for the cultivation of the land, 

 to leave rent altogether out of the question. No legal enactment, however, of this 

 description, can reach the source of the disease, and consequently no permanent 

 cure can be expected : indeed, temporary excitement cannot be thus produced. 

 The commercial prosperity of the country is frequently rung in our ears; yet the 



