1 827.] Monthly Agricultural Report. -559 



wheats on good lands exhibit such a prospect as is to be seen in the best seasons only ; and 

 those sown in January have succeeded ; the late autumnal sowing has proved the least 

 fortunate. The rains have brought the grass forward at a sudden and great raie, and our 

 staple .article of growth in this country never cheared the sight with a more bright and 

 beautiful verdure, or exhibited a fairer prospect of a thick bottom and heavy crop. In the . 

 sheep and cattle districts this crop has been and must be anticipated. During the pinch of 

 the season, sheep and even cattle were, from necessity, turned upon the bare pastures; and 

 from the same cause, the first crop must likewise be speedily anticipated, and grazed down. 

 In the poor-land districts, the farmers' teams are said to have been weak, from the scarcity 

 and clearness of provender. In those particularly, the barn-yards do not make much shew 

 of sacks. Small portions of turnips remained in the ground late, but of little worth in 

 quality. Hay and straw, however deemed short in quantity, have been throughout the 

 season obtainable for money, and transmitted in all directions, on the cheapest terms of car- 

 riage, by the canals, shewing the immense national importance of that system. Fat stock 

 of all kinds is in request, at advanced and advancing prices, and lean stores must advance 

 likewise as the grass grows; indeed stores must be expected to hold a considerable price 

 from the number, in any tolerable state of flesh, which were slaughtered during the ex- 

 treme pressure for keep. Speculation, on the first intelligence of the particular provisions 

 ol the new corn bill (which beyond a doubt will pass) raised the price of wheat a few 

 shillings per quarter; but it has been since descending to its former level ; and how it is 

 likely to prove by and by, defies and puts all speculation at fault. In the north, the distress 

 of the season has been encountered with a success that could scarcely have been expected. 

 Their straw has been strictly meted out to their cattle, by weight, with a true Scotch eco- 

 nomy. Their agriculture proceeds, pari passu, much on a level, and their prospects, with 

 ours in the south. Wages in the northernmost parts seven to ten shillings per week, equal at 

 least to thirteen shillings in the south. The great shew of fruit-blossom must inevitably 

 receive some deterioration from the continuance of the sharp easterly winds, perhaps some- 

 what more favourable from inclining to the south side of the east : but the wind seems 

 varying northward with an extreme chilling and blighting haziness. Business at present in 

 hand, preparation of the land for potatoe planting and sowing turnips. The farmers of the 

 United States have commenced the hop culture, it is said, extensively. 



From the general tenor of our correspondence, the country seems heartily weary of those 

 long-winded discussions into which it has been so earnestly and perseveringly urged, and at 

 present quite inclined to sit down quietly and wait the event. In all probability, the agi- 

 tators of this subject have incurred the usuul error of complainants, by giving our agricul- 

 tural distress too high a colouring, a tone ever suspected, and sure to render a cause, in 

 itself unpopular, infinitely still more so. The picture so blazoned, does not well accord 

 with the general active and good management of agriculture in Britain, or with the phrase, 

 whichhas sometimes escaped from the same quarter, " why cannot our meddling government 

 'let well alone?'" We confess purselves astonished also at, in our opinion, the strange 

 misapprehensions of certain of our correspondents, who tell us that, not only the farmers, 

 but the labourers, and persons of all descriptions in trade, are on the brink of ruin from a 

 reduction of the currency, and that from such reduction, they are unable to pay their taxes. 

 Now this appears to us one of the most causeless of causes; since the reprobated diminution 

 of currency has neither diminished their stock of corn and cattle, nor prevented their sale at 

 a market, indeed at a good price, nor the receipt of their money as ( usual. Taxes indeed may 

 be, and are, far too heavy. The want of demand for wool is laid on the overburthened 

 branch of the free-trade system ; but how much of it is justly attributable to avaricious, over- 

 acted, and self-destructive speculation, which is ever prompted and nourished by too exten- 

 sive a paper-currency ? How can a demand arise for either wool or woollen goods, until that 

 immense stock be worn off, with which our steam-engine creators of that which used to be 

 manufacture, piling mountain upon mountain, have overwhelmed the world'? A farming 

 correspondent, of the class of talents, and the writer of various able essays in the country 

 papers, complains to us, that the monstrous abortion of addled brains (of \vhose we are yet 

 uninformed) known by the name of "equitable adjustment," is so generally foisted into 

 petitions lor reform ; most certainty well calculated to throw a ridicule over, and excite a 

 degree of suspicion and disgust against the most reasonable and patriotic petitions. The 

 late change in the Ministry, from the accounts which have come to our hands, appears to be 

 generally popular in the country. The spring intermittent, caused by easterly winds, and a 

 yarinble temperature, formerly distinguished by the very apt arid expressive term influenza, 

 has afflicted individuals in most parts of the country. 



Smithjicld.Eeef, 4s. to 5s. 6d. -Mutton, 4s. Sd. to 6s. 2d. Veal, 5s. 4d. to 6s. 2d. 

 Pork, 4s. 4d. to 6s. 2d. Lamb, 6s. 4d. to 7s. 4d. Raw fat, at 2s. 6d. 



Corn Exchange. Wheat, 44s. to 68s. Barley, 36s. to 46s. Oats, 24s. to 42s. 

 Bread, 9d, the 4lb. loaf. -Hay, 84s. to 128s. Clover ditto, 90s. to 135s. Straw, 40s. 

 to 48s. 



Coals in the Pool, 31s. 3d. 39*. per chaldron. 

 Middlesex, April W, 1*27. 



