[ 102 ] [JAN. 



MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



YESTERDAY morning brought a change of the weather, giving hopes of a period to the 

 constant rains, which, during many weeks past, have deluged the country. In the northern 

 parts, especially, great hindrance has thence arisen to the culture of the soil, to wheat sowing, 

 and considerable damage to the young wheats, much of the plants being washed out of the 

 ground, together with the manure, and some activity of the slug experienced. On the best 

 soils, though the wheats look most beautifully healthy and luxuriant, they are deemed some- 

 what too proud and forward, to the apprehended premature exhaustion of the substance of the 

 roots. The turnip has wonderfully improved, the mildew abated, and on the best soils the 

 crop is great. Never was a more plentiful grazing season, or one in which dry fodder has 

 been more spared for spring use, or in which the stock of roots was more abundant most 

 fortunate, should the winter prove severe, as has been prognosticated, on the continent ; an 

 idea which receives some countenance from the early visits of wild fowl to our rivers. In the 

 north, the damage to the wheat crop, from the variable and wet latter harvest, has been 

 great ; aud few good samples will be produced from those parts. Their barley, also, has 

 been much damaged, and is selling at a very low price. A similar complaint is made of aH 

 kinds of live stock, pigs excepted, which still retain their full market value, or even an 

 increase, in all parts. Tilths, too, are backward in the north. The reverse of all this, how- 

 ever, is, fortunately, the case, on all our good lands southwards. Wool remains in every part 

 of the country in the same dull state, with the exception noted in our last. 



Wherever the harvest was protracted and difficult, the sample of both wheat and barley is 

 considerably inferior in weight and quality to that of last year. Farmers, in general, have 

 thrashed very freely, yet good wheats bear a high price, and find a ready sale, whilst the 

 inferior are scarcely moveable, at a very low comparative rate. There seems yet, notwith- 

 standing former reports, a sufficient stock of old wheat on hand to grind with the inferior new. 

 Beans and peas, not fortunately harvested, are, in course, soft and not readily saleable. 

 Potatoes, as we before stated, are a great crop, and purchased at a low price, in the distant 

 counties, and in Scotland, for the London markets. They make a large and comfortable 

 bread-store through every season. In our great cattle districts, stock of the improved kind, 

 fetch great and satisfactory prices. Sheep, notwithstanding former losses by mortality, are 

 sufficiently numerous for the demand, and mutton is lower in proportion than beef. In the 

 horse markets, there is no noticeable variation ; good ones of all kinds are neither plentiful 

 nor cheap. Nothing is yet said of preparation for the forward crops. Notwithstanding the 

 crop of apples was so abundant, that cider is much below the price of late years, considerable 

 quantities of apples have been imported. It seems probable that good wheats will hold their 

 price throughout the ensuing season ; and that flesh-meat, from the very favourable circum- 

 stances which have attended grazing during autumn, and the great stock of winter provision, 

 will experience a reduction of price. 



The Smithfield cattle-show still maintains its full attraction with farmers, graziers, and 

 the public, though it is remarked that few of the men of rank, formerly its constant visitors, 

 have, of late years, honoured it with their presence. Manufacturing and engineering 

 ingenuity is annually on the rack to produce something new, ofttimes useful for this 

 exhibition ; and the farmers are by no means reluctant or backward with their encourage- 

 ment. Feeding for the SHOW is, as much as ever, the fiddle and hobby-horse of the country ; 

 and bullocks, fattened up, at vast expenses, to elephantic dimensions and weight, do not, 

 indeed, travel post, but are sent up five or six score miles from the country in carriages or by 

 water ! Even the ladies, in imitation of the late-lamented and patriotic Duchess of Rutland, 



have caught the make-fat mania, and we had, at the late show, a fine beast fattened by Miss . 



These remarks are not given to ridicule or disparage the system, which we are practically 

 convinced has been, in various modes, eminently serviceable to the country, if nor profitable, 

 in the particular instances, to the feeders of the animals exhibited. 



The meeting of parliament approaching, all other topics seem absorbed on that grand 

 one, of the success of the new corn bill, among that bustling and energetic party in the 

 country, which has, for years past, kept alive such a strenuous opposition. They have, 

 perhaps, overshot the mark, and injured their own cause, in that excessive high colouring 

 which they have given to their arguments. Neither their present, nor probable 

 future distress, in that gloomy picture which they are perpetually exhibiting, have ob- 

 tained credence or countenance with the nation at large ; and, it is said, on aserted con- 

 fidential authority, tl:::t the way is actually smoothed in the upper house for the easy passage 

 of the bill, by the opinions of certain noble lords having taken an opposite course. Our 

 great and growing population will be the security of the landed interest against any material 

 depression of the national agriculture. The artillery of empty words, however harmless, 

 constantly directed against Mr. IIubkis!>on, lias been impolitic ; he is honoured by the nation 



