AGRICULTURAL HE POUT. 



.has now reached its last act. Heaven send that it may not " en definitive" 

 embroil all Europe* Spain is moving her armies toward the Portuguese 

 frontiers, urged on by the powers of the north, while the French government 

 has formally decided on recognizing Donna Maria. In the meantime the 

 state of Portugal is dreadful. The cholera is making frightful ravages seve- 

 ral towns have lost one-third of their population. In Lisbon the mortality is 

 said to be enormous. 



In Spain, the ceremony of the Jura passed off quietly ; the ministry L- 

 changed, and Ferdinand is represented as wishing to abdicate and retire to 

 Rome, as he conceives that in whatever way the Portuguese question may 

 terminate, he will be equally ruined. The Russian minister has protested 

 against this freak. 



In France, the question of the fortification of Paris has been adjourned. 

 The French army is in future, with some great modifications of the system, 

 to be organized " a la Prussienne." But the attention of the Parisiens is 

 solely engrossed by the approaching fetes on the anniversary of the three 

 days. By this time the statue of Napoleon towers above the column of the 

 Place de Vendome. 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The weather since our last has been quite seasonable, referring to the late 

 three or four seasons, so remarkable for mutability of temperature. The wind 

 has been perpetually, or almost daily, chopping from east to west, and from 

 north to south, with an alternation of great solar heat with piercing chills, 

 especially by night. Showers have been in sufficient plenty. From this 

 cause the weather has been in some degree influenza!, and several cases of 

 Asiatic cholera have occurred, both in the metropolis and in the country. In 

 the opinion, however, of the present writer, that disease among us ought 

 rather to be styled Britannic than Asiatic, since it has been very obviously 

 bred and born in this country, originating in her own morbific resources. 



That grand national object, the Harvest, is entitled to our earliest consi- 

 deration. The late prediction of its being hastened, and that it would be 

 early, will not be fulfilled. The moist state of the atmosphere, from the 

 late and present St. Swithin's showers, will obviate premature ripeness in 

 the corn. Some will no doubt be ready for the sickle towards the end of the 

 present month, but harvest will not be general until mid August, although 

 wheat has been already cut in the vicinity cf Southampton. We shall pro- 

 bably be found warranted in our late opinion that oats will prove the heavi- 

 est crop of the season. Barley is probably but thinly planted, excepticg on 

 the finest soils. Both ears and straw are generally short, so that the crop, on 

 the whole, cannot be abundant. Peas, it is supposed, will be greatly defec- 

 tive, and beans also, to a considerable degree. There are, however, some 

 good crops of beans in this our strongland county, and also of clover. Beans 

 being short in the straw, received perhaps less damage than any other crop 

 from the late storm, with a degree of benefit from having the insects and 

 their ova blown from them. Winter vetches have received much benefit from 

 the rains, have blown afresh, and are likely to produce a satisfactory crop. 

 Hay, on watered meadow, and on strong moist soils, will be nearly as pro- 

 ductive as last year ; in general, the crop will be far short of it, but the qua- 

 lity of that which has been well got, and well saved, is pronounced excellent, 

 on the ground that it has continued such a length of time to smoke in the 

 stack held by our forefathers as a certain indication of richness and sub- 



