231 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



THE north-east winds periodically returning, and continuing a considerable 

 length of time in this late season, producing constant vicissitudes of sharp 

 chilling air, and dog-day solar heat, cannot fail of producing ill effects on vege- 

 tation, however mature ; and more especially on the human constitution, pro- 

 tracting and extending that epidemic which has so long prevailed, the leading 

 symptom of which is cholera morbus, and which indubitably originated in the 

 constitutional derangement induced by sudden and repeated changes of tempera- 

 ture. It is probably, also, and in analogy with cases of past times, that the 

 disease is contracted by atmospheric, not personal contagion. 



Accounts of the crops are almost universally favourable, from some parts, 

 brilliant. Indeed, on all dry and rich soils, there is promise of abundance, on 

 some beyond an average, of" both corn and grasses ; so much, however, cannot 

 be rationally expected on poor, particularly heavy, wet lands, to which the 

 state of the weather, throughout the spring, was in an especial manner inimical. 

 And however abundant the quantity of produce on the former, it is not possible 

 but that the quality of the grain must, in many parts, be considerably deterio- 

 ated by the long prevalence or frequent recurrence of the blighting effects of the 

 atmosphere. Some damage, happily to no very great extent, by beating down 

 the corn, has been suffered from two heavy storms of wind and rain ; the one in 

 June, the other in the present month. The first caught the early blooming 

 wheats, a period most unfortunate for them. We have very lately been over 

 the wheats, in several parts of the country, and they seem, in general, to have 

 stocked plentifully, and the stalks of great part appeared of the natural colour, 

 unaffected by the weather ; whilst a great part exhibited evident proofs of the 

 affection of blight upon the stalks and chaff of the ears, which may be, fortu- 

 nately, only skin-deep, not reaching the grain, so as to have any decided ill 

 effect. Some degree of injury must nevertheless be sustained, and particularly 

 by the straw, which being discoloured and rusted, can never be equally good 

 food for cattle, as in its natural state. They write from Suffolk and the eastern 

 counties, that wheat- straw is generally much spotted, and the ear also affected 

 by blight. We saw no signs of smut, though that foul vegetable disease is 

 announced from several quarters, and has appeared in some, during the last 

 three or four unfriendly seasons. The harvest will not be early, which might 

 fortunately have been the case, had there been a continuance of genial solar 

 heat, unchecked, and unretarded by chilling and benumbing winds. 



The spring crops, barley, oats, and tares, with few exceptions, are expected to 

 produce a full average. Beans and peas, as more exposed to the effects of the 

 seasons and the depredations of insects, are necessarily more uncertain crops ; 

 on some soils they are much injured, on others, give promise of a fair acreable 

 produce. The crop of grasses, both natural and artificial, excepting on poor, 

 cold, or worn-out soils, is universally great, uncommon ; and a more successful 

 hay-harvest has not been experienced during the last thirty or forty years. A 

 complaint, however, which we never heard of before, has issued from several 

 western counties, namely, that the sainfoin stalks were found spotted by the 

 evil influence of the weather and the seed blighted ; in consequence, its worth 

 as cattle food must become considerably diminished ; a serious loss in those 

 districts where that grass is so generally in use and depended on. In proportion 

 as the grass crop has been abundant, has that of turnips, Swedes and common, 

 been the reverse, and to continue the analogy, a crop equally deficient has not 

 been witnessed, perhaps, during the above period. Sowing and re-sowing has 

 been practised everywhere to the third time, without success, for no sooner did 

 the plants appear above the surface of the earth, than the blasting air devoured 

 them. This general dilemma has set the wits of our sagacious corps of remedy- 

 mongers to work, and all the infallible cures of past times, which never yet 

 worked a cure within our knowledge, are periodically and occasionally re-intro- 

 duced. One would suppose it must occur to these sages, after so long experience, 

 that there can be only one remedy, which is to make interest in our favour with 

 the prince of the air. The vast quantity of hay and the bulk of straw on the 



