1830.] Agricultural Report. 361 



of the clover which had been cut was carried away by the wind, dispersed and totally lost. 

 Two large chestnut trees were blown down, numbers of others stripped of their branches, 

 and one branch of the weight of IGlbs., with many others, was taken up into the air by 

 the raging element, and carried half a mile. Hop-poles were blown about in all direc- 

 tions, trees uprooted, barns overthrown, and as the most extraordinary proof of the vio- 

 lence of the gale, a post-chaise, at Ashford, taking shelter under a gateway, was driven by 

 the wind to the opposite side of the street, and dashed with great violence against a win- 

 dow. With several narrow escapes, happily no lives were lost. The storms of this day 

 were local, and generally at no great distance from the sea coast. The heavy rains of this 

 month, in Ireland, in particular near Enniskillen, have been attended with far more fatal 

 effects, the floods having carried off and destroyed great part of the crops and property of 

 the poor inhabitants, with the loss of a considerable number of lives. 



The early hay harvest was most troublesome and expensive, and it is to be feared that the 

 portion saved in good condition, was inconsiderable in comparison with the less fortunate. 

 With the clovers, and the grass which was reserved in expectation of more favourable 

 weather, corn and hay harvest thus coming together, the result has been fortunate. The 

 stock of hay, however, next season, though again abundant, will not be generally fine. 

 There is a good prospect for lattermath, or a second cut, especially in the grasses which 

 were mowed earliest. The growing clovers, vetches, and sainfoin, are in many parts 

 blighted. The bulk of wheat upon the ground appeared fully to warrant the judgment 

 of a general and full average in the crop, which we trust will be ultimately confirmed 

 upon the barn floor. The straw is great upon good lands, the ears of imposing size, and 

 apparently well tilled. On poor and neglected soils, of course, we do not look for such a 

 splendid show ; but a most fortunate peculiarity distinguishes the present harvest ; from 

 some occult cause or virtue in the seasons of this year, favourable to poor soils, such, and 

 most remarkably in Essex and Norfolk, have been uncommonly productive. The rust or 

 red-gum, masses of the eggs of the blight insects, upon the wheat, were fortunately pre- 

 vented from reaching maturity, by the favourable change of weather. On submitting 

 various ears of wheat to the magnifier, we found the dinginess and roughness of blight, 

 with spots cf rust upon the chaff, but the kernels fair and untouched, bating some few 

 shrivelled or decayed. Judgment on the crops of barley and oats, is yet in abeyance ; but 

 though they are for the most part satisfactory, they are not in point of quantity, deemed to 

 hold equal proportions with wheat. Beans are, indeed, a magnificent crop, probably having 

 thrown out the largest and tallest stalks witnessed by any living man. But Nature, in her 

 ordinary course, does not confer double benefits, and for our superabundance in haulm, we 

 must make an abatement in pods : there will nevertheless be an ample stock of beans, 

 which cannot be said of pease, the least successful of this year's crops. The old error of 

 far too narrow rows, with beans, as with all other chilled crops, has doubtless operated 

 here. The bean stalks have been drawn up to a greater height and bulk, by the closeness 

 of their position. Potatoes, that never failing addition to the national stock of bread, 

 promise to be fine in quality, and a bulky crop. The turnip seed, put into the ground too 

 generally with all the difficulties and obstructions of imperfect and foul tilth, has neverthe- 

 less produced abundance of plants, a sufficiency of which seem to have outgrown the fly. 

 As to the general foul state of the lands, it is useless for us to declaim the tenantry, it 

 is insisted, cannot afford to keep men and cattle sufficient for the purposes of good hus- 

 bandry. With regard to a considerable part of the occupiers, we remain still incredulous. 

 Were we to speak of the glorious exhibition of docks and thistles, which we have lately 

 witnessed upon corn lands, we should not degrade them by describing them as shrubs, but 

 equal them for bulk and altitude with the trees of barren soils ! Weed vegetation is 

 eating out the heart of British land. Our country newspapers are reaping a plenteous 

 harvest from the advertisements of farms to be let, and estates to be sold. The former 

 too, in counties where, in the prosperous days of yore, a man might with equal chance of 

 success seek a place at court, as the tenancy of a farm. Mangold or cattle beetroot (not 

 marygold, according to a late misprint), is a good and healthy plant. This favourite crop 

 is said, however, to be rather waning in repute, it being discovered, at last, that quality 

 is at least of as much consequence as quantity ; and that the rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, 

 the culture of which may yet be much improved, is a greatly superior article. To class 

 great producers together, we quote for the first time, the symphytum asperrimum, or 

 prickly compey, lately introduced by Mr. Grant, of the nursery, Lewisham, Kent, as green 

 food for all kinds of live stock. The hops, as well as the other productions of the soil, 

 have received considerable benefit from the change of weather ; but that most precarious 

 of crops is said to have been too deeply injured, to admit of the hope of a perfect recovery, 

 or of a large produce. 



Nothing of novelty offers with respect to live stock. Our fairs and markets have been 

 generally filled, as usual of late years, to an overflow ; some fortunate sellers, generally 

 the holders of prime articles, retiring contented with a quick sale, and good price, others 

 driving away their bargains unsold. Complaints are still general that grazing is unat. 

 tended with profit, and that pigs are so numerous that nothing can be acquired by breed- 

 ing them. Wool continues marketable at an improving price, and one great holder lately 



M.M. Neiv Series VOL. X. No. 57. 2 Z 



