1828.] Monthly Agricultural Report. 657 



are improving rapidly ; and, should the wind continue in the southern or western quarters 

 (whither it returned on the 24th inst.), for any length of time, the effect, at this critical 

 season, will be most important and beneficial. A still more important crisis is at hand, 

 including the blooming or flowering process of the wheat : and there is an ancient specu- 

 lation, that a warm and moist winter is generally succeeded by a chilly, dry, and ungenial 

 summer. There must, however, be many exceptions to this old rule, and we trust our 

 better fortune will provide us with one in the present year ; otherwise, the unfavourable 

 difference will be great indeed, in both the quality and quantity of the crops. 



Barley sowing was not generally so forward as we had hoped in our last report ; much 

 seed, upon the heavy lands, not having been got in until the middle of the present month. 

 With respect to such lands, but to such pnly, no doubt the delay will prove advantageous. 

 The early-sown barleys, in certain parts of the country, are represented as choked with 

 charlock or may -weed ; a fact not very creditable to the farmers of those districts, or to 

 English husbandry ; but too many farmers, as we have before stated, entertain a strange 

 predilection for their old friends, the perennial or heir-loom weeds. Thence, one great 

 source of the complaints against farming. Though the wheats stand thick upon the soil, 

 they begin now to be described as one-legged, single, and spiry, not branching in the 

 luxuriance of the most productive seasons ; in course, the chief hope arises from a large 

 and well-filled ear, granting such advantage can arise from a weak stem. This character 

 of the crop, we apprehend, does not extend to the best, or to good lands. Barley and oats, 

 it is supposed, will be the most productive corn crops of the present year, though the wire- 

 worm has been particularly busy with the latter, as have the slug and grub, those blessings 

 of a mild winter, with the beans and peas ; the fly, also, has been injurious to peas in 

 upland grounds. Nevertheless, these pulse crops are of considerable promise. Vetches, 

 clovers, and all artificial grasses, have succeeded in the highest degree, and stand first of all 

 crops, for bulk and luxuriance. We have cut grasses, but have not yet begun haysel, in 

 this county. The expectation of a heavy crop continues, with a great after-grass, should 

 the summer prove favourable, the bottoms being so thick. 



Little or nothing is said of the hop culture, but that their price is advancing, from the 

 late unfavourable state of the weather, and that the stock in the hands of the growers is 

 very light. In some parts, the breadth of potatoes will be considerably reduced ; in others, 

 particularly in Scotland and in Wales, they are planting to the full extent of last year, 

 notwithstanding the present very low and losing price, on the speculation of a demand for 

 the potatoe-flour manufacture, and of their increased consumption as cattle food ; this root 

 and mangold wurtzel having lately, in many quarters, superseded the use of the common 

 turnip. We must own, we have not yet acceded to the fashionable opinion of any advan- 

 tage to be derived from the use of potatoe-flour. Potatoe planting is finished on the best 

 cultivated lands ; indeed, those planted early in April are said to be most productive, and 

 of superior quality. Beet-sowing was finished after that of the barley, and the lands 

 promise to be in a fine condition for the reception of the turnip-seed. The blossom for the 

 orchard and common fruits has escaped sufficiently for the promise of a fair crop ; not 

 quite so with the wall fruits. 



Of live stock, the fat are declining and the store advancing, both seasonably, in price. 

 Feeding, it is said, has not been a profitable concern during the last three years, from the 

 too great price of stores ; the remedy for which can lie only in the hands of the graziers 

 themselves. The fall of lambs, in general, may be deemed satisfactory, though a consider- 

 able number of them, and some ewes, have been lost, from the variable and harsh nature 

 of the spring temperature. Mutton suffered a considerable reduction of price on the finish 

 of the turnip crop, as it would be attended with risk to put fattened sheep upon green food. 

 Milch cows and pigs stand upon their usual ground of advantage in sale. Horses are, on 

 the average, somewhat cheaper, the spring demand being satisfied ; but that scarce commo- 

 dity, good ones strange that they should be scarce are yet of high figure, and so likely 

 to continue. 



Wales appears to have suffere'd most, and Scotland least, from a mild and wet winter 

 and inclement spring. Bones have become the crack manure of the day, beating salt and 

 saltpetre out of the pit* In fattening cattle, is is not improbable that, anon, linseed will 

 take the upper hand of its cousin, cake. The jeremiads on the approaching corn bill yet 

 continue in full feather, to the height of utter ruin at least, emigration to New South 

 Wales. But this really is, and will be soon found, a highly prejudiced and erroneous view 

 of a most important national question. 



SmithfteM.Eeef, 3s. to 4s. 6d Mutton, 4s. to 4s. 4d.~ Veal, 4s. 4d. to 5s. 4d. 

 Pork r 4s. 6d. to 6s. 2d. Lamb, 4s. 4d. to 5s. 8d. Raw fat, 2s. 3d. 



Corn Exchange. Wheat, 40s. to 68s Barley, 28s. to 35s Oats, 16s. to 30s. 

 Bread, O^d. the 4 Ib. fine loaf. Hay, 72s. to 105s. Clover ditto, 90s. to 115s. 

 Straw, 30s. to 40s. 



Coals in the Pool, 27s. to 37s. 3d. per chaldron. 



Middlesex, May 26, 1828. 

 M.M. New Series. VoL.V. No. 30. 4 P 



