438 Monthly Agricultural Report. [OcT. 



yet productive: enough to clear the present season from the character of being n bad one. 

 We have, perhaps, not had such a barley year \vithin the last twenty. The acreable 

 quantity, on some fine and rich lands, is stated so high in certain of our letters, that we 

 ure really ufraid to repeat it. The barley crop is rich both in corn and straw, and the best 

 samples beautifully plump, bright, and weighty ; a small part, however, is stained by 

 exposure to the rains. Wheat, on the best soils, is considerably above an average crop, 

 on the whole, full an average, and (be qualify of the best samples excellent. Oats, where 

 they are best, are a good crop ; but it is a strange error which has appeared in some 

 quarters, to suppose oats, generally, a large crop. Oats and beans are considerably below 

 an average, but the general quality of the latter will be very good. Pease are a crop, and 

 fine in quality. Of Potatoes, there will be a supply fully equal to every possible demand, 

 the greater part of fine quality, a portion blighted, bard, and ill flavoured. The supply of 

 Straw will be generally ample ; that of hay more valuable for quality than bulk. Hops 

 have greatly exceeded early expectation, and more particularly in the vicinity of Farnham, 

 where perhaps the finest in the world are grown. In Kent, they speculate on two to three, 

 and five bags per acre ; where, also, the crop of Canary seed is great, and likely to 

 meet a ready sale and high price. Seeds, Clover, &c., generally, will prove an inferior 

 crop. Winter tares a failure, the Spring species reported promising, from some parts, from 

 others the direct reverse. In the great turnip districts, Norfolk, Suffolk, and others, there 

 will be abundance, and a greater breadth of the Swedish turnip than perhaps ever 

 before cultivated in England. On less fortunate soils, the root crops will be considerably 

 defective. MangoM-wurtzel, that most useful of roots, as far as regards quantity, 

 increasing yearly in culture, is a flourishing crop, its substantial foliage bidding defiance 

 to blight and fly. Fruit is in vast abundance, particularly the superior fruits and grapes ; 

 but the vicissitudes of the summer season reduced the quality of a considerable part of the 

 wall fruits. We noted in our last the remarkable failure of the Wheat and Potatoe crops, 

 in the Carse of Gowry, and the Lothians, the most fertile parts of North Britain. The 

 Wheat is said to be scarcely two thirds of an average crop, and much of it very indifferent 

 in quality. The sides of the ears which had a northern exposure are not half filled, and 

 some ears entirely barren a true description of atmospheric blast. It is also represented as 

 standing equally thin on the ground as in the most unproductive seasons. Their Barley is 

 large, but the quality not fine. They estimate their Oats at above an average, with a large 

 bulk of straw. The same of pulse and turnips. The Irish crops may be nearly assimilated 

 with the English, as to Wheat and Barley being the most productive ; Oats, in Ireland, have 

 failed on the whole, much of that crop being blasted and smutted. 



The rains, during the season of harvest, were universal, though heaviest and most 

 continuous in the far western counties. The intervals of fair and dry weather were also 

 equal, and somewhat regular. Had the farmer been endowed with prescience of this, 

 Corn would have received as little damage in harvesting during the late, as in any season, 

 probably, which has occurred. But that could not be ; modern farmers, however improved, 

 not being conjurors. The sudden scorching gleams of the sun were deceptive, and Corn 

 was supposed fit to be carried, which proved far short of that criterion, really wanting- 

 more time in the field ; though Barley was, in some few instances, cut and carried, 

 without damage, in the same day. The anxiety of the farmer, however, influenced by 

 the variable atmospheric character of the season, urged him to be too eager in taking- 

 time by the forelock, and to hurry forward building of ricks, which be could not possibly 

 get thatched with sufficient speed. The consequence is a considerable quantity of sprouted 

 and discoloured corn, much of which will be unfit to grind until late in the Spring. 

 Perhaps waiting the event, in this case, is the least risk of the two. The following gossip 

 in this relation, has been communicated to us by a correspondent. A farmer from a distant 

 county, was lately a guest at a market dinner. An inhabitant of the vicinity was boasting 

 of the fatherly care of Providence, in watching over his and his neighbour's crops ; for had 

 the rain continued one day longer, their Corn had been all damaged. On this, the stranger 

 shrewdly remarked, he had reason to wish that himself and his neighbours bad not been 

 forgotten, for, in their vicinity, the rain actually continued three or four days after the day 

 quoted, and, in consequence, half their Corn sprouted. 



The report, correct or otherwise, is nearly general, that the stock of bread corn in the 

 country, was nearly exhausted before the new came to market ; with respect to Oats and 

 Beans, the fact is undeniable. Nevertheless, complaints are made of the importation of 

 Oats ; groundless, surely, since our own growth never affords a sufficient supply. In the 

 poor land districts, labourers' wages are declining, and the prospect of winter is b} r no 

 means cheering. There is one single distressing fact, which unfortunately sets at nought 

 all schemes for improving the situation of, at any rate, the present nice of agricultural 

 labourers they are too numerous. The threshing machine is an eminent and useful exer- 

 tion of mechanic ingenuity; but it now becomes a question, whether its use ought not to 

 be suspended during the approaching winter, where labourers superabouncl. Happily for 

 the country, commerce is reviving, and the manufacturing operatives are fully eniplojcd in 

 every part, at wages on which they can live, independently of parochial assistance. Wheat 

 was advancing considerably, but the Mid:adn!;i: demand fur money has replenished the 



