AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 23$ 



stance. The unavoidable late cutting of the clovers has, of course, robbed the 

 second crop. The cow-grass hay, and that of some of the best meadows 

 westward, was abroad a week since, as also the trefoil seed, of which there is 

 a vast breadth in those counties, probable to make an equal return. Their 

 crop of sainfoin is also productive, and tolerably well saved. Much of the 

 artificial grass hay was so hurried from the land, by apprehension and fear 

 of the weather, that more stacks were obliged to be cut and moved than 

 ever before remembered. The late and present showery weather will se- 

 cure great plenty of sheep food, on which account, during the drought, there 

 existed considerable alarm. The breadth of turnips this year is held to be 

 equal, or superior, in extent to any preceding. That prince of agriculturists, 

 cultivators, and rural patriots, COKE OF HOLKHAM, has five hundred acres, 

 all wide-row, drilled and cleaned by well employed and contented labourers, 

 so that candle and lanthorns would be necessary to detect a weed among them. 

 There seems to have been little or no indication of the fly during the present 

 season, and the turnip crop, that indispensable winter support of our flocks 

 and herds, will, we have little apprehension, prove equal to any crop we have 

 witnessed ; and (additionally fortunate) will contribute to make the damaged 

 hay go down more pleasantly with the sheep and cattle. We have not 

 heard so much at this season of Swedes and mangel wurzel. 



Wheat, parent of the staff of life, demands a separate consideration. The 

 wheats, generally partial to dry seasons, yet suffered their share from the 

 drought of May, and if they were improved by the rains which followed, in some 

 respects, chiefly in an additional growth of straw, the most important part 

 the ear, being fully formed, could not be subsequently encreased in length 

 or size. In the ears which we have gathered, the most prominent and large, 

 we have by no means found an extraordinary number of kernels. We ad- 

 verted in our last to the blasted ears which we observed in Surrey, and have 

 since found a considerable sprinkling of shrivelled and thoroughly smutted 

 ears, the same in this county (Middlesex), and fear that smut in some de- 

 gree will be almost general in the wheats of the present season, notwith- 

 standing the preventive of brining and liming the seed ; which seems 

 to indicate that the infection of smut may as well be caught from foul air as 

 from foul seed. Wherever the wheat was beat down by the storm of June 

 llth, the damage to that extent will be considerable, as the straw was much 

 of it broken down, and the heads blown away ; that also which remains 

 whole on the ground will, as it ever does in such cases, receive considerable 

 damage. The loss on some farms is laid by the tenants at seven or eight 

 bushels of wheat per acre. The opinion entertained by the most sanguine 

 is, that wheat will be a full average crop on the best soils. In our views, 

 this is somewhat uncertain. As to the poor, middling, and ill-tilled soils, 

 there is no question but that the crops will fully accord ; on such, particu- 

 larly, the ears are short, small, and irregular, the crop thin on the land, and 

 the straw small and short. The accounts frm the frugiferous lands on the 

 continent, whence we derive our necessary supplies, tally correctly with ours. 

 No wonder, then, at the late advance in wheat of nearly ten shillings per 

 quarter, and of a corresponding rise in the price of bread. 



Potatoes are said to have planted very poorly ; and indeed we have seen 

 in several parts, and on good soils, the plants very poor and many bare spots. 

 On the other hand, we have walked over a few very fine and forward pieces 

 of this, craving Don Cobbett's pardon, most useful, salubrious, and now in- 

 dispensable root. No doubt but the defect, extensive or otherwise, has 

 been occasioned by diseased or barren sets, as we hinted in our list. Of the 

 hops, we hear none but good tidings, nor many complaints of damage from 

 the hurricane. They are getting very forward into burr, whence an early 

 picking is expected. The apple news has somewhat surprised us, compared 

 with early speculations. It is now said that, malgre all the buffetting, bough- 



