104 Agricultural Report. JAN. 



riant ; which, however, must be understood as relative to those upon the warmest and most 

 fertile soils ; since, generally, and upon poor lands especially, the coming Christmas will 

 exhibit the shortest and most backward show of wheat upon the lands within memory. 

 Unavoidable late sowing, and the foul, sodden, and chilled state of the earth, are obvi- 

 ously the joint cause. The frosts have had the beneficial effect of checking the ravages of 

 the slug, which had commenced its destructive career. Tares, clover, and the artificial 

 grasses, have made good progress. Opinion has; again varied in respect to the wheat crop, 

 which, it is now asserted, will not prove so considerable in quantity, as was supposed during 

 harvest. The poorer class of farmers have perhaps generally disposed of the greater part of 

 their stock of wheat, in order to discharge, as far as within their power, the very pressing 

 demands upon them ; and many in better circumstances, from one motive or another, have 

 thinned unusually their stack-yards. The barley and pulse crops are in sufficient plenty; but 

 the greater part of the former stained by the wet, and the latter soft, and hence not readily 

 saleable ; and all gradually declining in price. The quantities of barley, fit for malting, 

 offered at market, have been very limited during the season a circumstance apparently of 

 no great consequence, the brewers holding great stocks of malt as well as hops, of which the 

 deficiency of the late crop has had no great effect in raising the price. The stocks in hand, 

 and the foreign import, which must continue during the spring, preclude all expectation of 

 a rising corn market. 



The cattle markets, both for fat and store stock, are supposed to have, reached their 

 minimum of autumnal price, and are quoted with a shade of advance. There has been a 

 fine opportunity of purchase for those who have possessed the means, together with the 

 materials of winter keep. They cannot fail of a profitable return. With respect to those, 

 the majority, it is to be feared, in reduced circumstances, they have been enabled to pur- 

 chase on credit, even where an old arrear has subsisted, from the absolute necessity of sale 

 in the glutted markets. Winter cattle feeding, however, may prove a serious concern, 

 more especially in the event of a long frost, (no unreasonable expectation) from the general 

 failuie of the root crops, of mangold beyond the others, which, when successful, affords 

 such immense supplies. Its total deficiency will be severely felt in the coming season, 

 turnips also being a failure, and potatoes below an average crop. Carrots and parsnips, by 

 far the most nutritious of all our roots, fitted indeed only to one particular soil, are 

 much neglected in England, even upon the proper soils. The carrots of the present season 

 are particularly fine, and of substantial quality. Apples are superabundant, and the metro- 

 polis is amply stocked, not only with the new varieties, but with increasing quantities of 

 the old and excellent sorts, the nonpareil, russetin, rennet, and pippin of improved quality. 

 Cider in the west is retailed at twopence the quart ! 



Flesh meat has sold in the country at an old-fashioned price, very ill suited to present 

 cost. In Wales, good beef and mutton have been retailed at three-pence per Ib. Here we 

 have a verification of the old adage, " down corn, down horn." It would seem, however, 

 there must subsist some other cause for this, than the inability to purchase food, in, we 

 hope, yet a small comparative minority. Fine things, nevertheless, have commanded a fine 

 price ; and a small lot of Devon oxen, the prime beef of England, of about seventy stones 

 each, the property of his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, have been sold at somewhat above one 

 shilling per Ib ; some Scots, of about sixty stones weight, at the same price. In the late fully 

 attended annual London cattle show, the animals brought to their existing state of fatness, 

 at such an expense of time and money, (no palpable evidence of poverty in the country) 

 have met with considerable prices. At the cattle show at Chelmsford, Mr. Western, M.P. 

 for the county of Essex, exhibited three pure Merino wedders, not only valuable for the fine- 

 ness of their fleece, but for their general symmetry and fatness of carcass. This gentleman, 

 with Mr. Towers of the same coumty, and the late Mr. Trimmer, whose fine stock will 

 soon be on sale, have deserved well of their country, for retaining and improving this most 

 valuable breed, so unaccountably neglected by the great body of our flock -masters, who now 

 complain so much of the depreciation of British wool, and of the preference shown to 

 foreign. 



The accounts from various parts of the country are horrible, and nationally disgraceful . 

 From such parts, a dread of the difficulties to be encountered during the winter, in regard 

 to the maintenance of the surplus labourers, appears to be most appalling ; whilst in dis- 

 tricts more favourably circumstanced, there appears almost an incredulity on the subject, 

 and a general apathy. Our sympathy for the suffering of the labourers is shocked,- and 

 materially reduced, by that disgusting demoralization by which they are too generally dis- 

 graced. Incendiarism and horrible cruelty to animals, appear to be their favourite modes of 

 revenge. Among so many similar instances, the shoulder of a poor sheep has been lately 

 severed from its living carcass, and the animal left in that mangled and tortured state ! The 

 wrongs and cruelties inflicted on the suffering poor, have, no doubt, from the beginning 

 been enormous, and an attention to their morals either totally neglected, or conducted, 

 more especially of late years, on erroneous principles ; but they possess yet too much of the 

 common sense of the times, and sufficient acuteness, to merit forgiveness or apology for 

 their enormities. These wretches, so prone and ready for mischief and diabolism, would 

 skulk and hang back on any honest, patriotic call for their co-operation and assistance, even 



