[ 478 ] [APRIL, 



,aIA 



. 



MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 







THROUGHOUT the present month, the weather has been generally favourable for the 

 occupations of agriculture, and the advantage seems to have been taken, in all parts of the 

 country, with an eager diUigence and assiduity, in order to recover the lost time occa- 

 sioned by the frost. The oat and pulse crops, with few exceptions, may be said to be 

 finished ; and, upon forward soils, some of them are appearing above ground. Barley, 

 upon some good light lands, was judiciously put in early, the obstacles and press of business 

 considered ; and such lands are in good progress of culture for mangold and turnip sowing. 

 The former is the most tender of the roots in use, and the least able to endure frost, and 

 is generally found to succeed best from early planting. After all, the turnips prove to be 

 less injured by the frost than had been expected, receiving greater damage from a single 

 casual frosty night subsequently, no doubt, on account of the renewal of vegetation by the 

 change of temperature. It is generally found that the rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, has 

 been more affected by the frost than the common English ; whence it is supposed, that 

 foreign root, originally chosen for its presumed superior hardness as well as nourishment, 

 has at length degenerated on our soil. There is not much complaint yet of a short quantity 

 of turnips. Notwithstanding the weather has been favourable to agricultural labour, 

 repeated variations of temperature have had an ill effect on the health of many ; sore 

 throats have been frequent, with fevers of a very malignant type ; and even the small pox 

 has prevailed in some parts, to an alarming degree. 



The wheats, on the best lands, begin to exhibit a luxuriant and healthy appearance, 

 thickly planted ; on poor, exposed, and neglected soils, a too large proportion, they are 

 backward, thin, and weak, which has given rise to an opinion that a general good crop 

 must not be expected. This, however, will materially depend on the nature of the 

 coming seasons. The grasses have stood remarkably well, and there is great expectation 

 of a general crop. Last year's seeds, with one or two exceptions, have failed, and the 

 clovers are scarce and of very bad quality. Winter tares continue to improve. The 

 Stock of potatoes, a never failing and most important article of national consumption, 

 will not only prove sufficient, but the quality is far beyond expectation. Apples, two and 

 and sixpence the bushel ; and did we want a distinctive characteristic for the year twenty- 

 nine, it might well be styled the apple year. It has been found difficult to obtain oats 

 fit for seed, and the price of such has been high. 



Hoeing the wheats has been necessarily backward ; on many farms it will be totally 

 omitted, and, on but few, will be efficiently performed, from the almost general foul and 

 neglected state of the land ; indeed, farming operations, in most parts, seem to be 

 hurried on, with more attention to getting through at any rate, than solicitude on the 

 score of good husbandry, to which the times are not propitious. The accounts from 

 markets and fairs, and of the general state of the country, are so various, and often contra- 

 dictory, that it is by no means easy to form, or safe to hazard, a decisive opinion ; yet, on 

 a general view, there appear to be indications of a favourable change both in agricultural 

 and manufacturing concerns ; whether we ought to be sanguine enough to hope for a 

 degree of prosperity^ under our present system, adequate to the removal of that heavy 

 and almost unaccountable load of distress which so bitterly oppresses this land of wealth, 

 of overflowing plenty, and profusion, is an uncertain and fearful proposition. The great 

 fairs have been fully, and well attended, and in some, store cattle have gone off briskly 

 and at improved prices, sheep being in limited numbers and in demand ; in others, the 

 old leaven has prevailed vast herds of store cattle and flocks of sheep, uncalled for and 

 unsold. Fat stock has every where met with a quicker sale, though at reduced prices. 

 The national stock of cattle, as of every thing else, population included, with the almost 

 single exception of home-grown bread corn, has been indeed superabundant. Our 

 letters from the stall-feeding districts, speak of a general hesitation as to purchase, the 

 feeders having suffered so severely in their last year's accounts. The cheese and butter 

 trade is in a state of great depression the former especially. Much wort has been sold, 

 or rather parted with, for the sake of raising the needful ; though, according to a single 

 account from a great sheep district, some has been sold at an advance of fifty per cent. 

 In fine, there can be no doubt of a riddance anon, of this embarrassing surplus of the 

 necessaries of life, from the very nature of things. 



Accounts still continue to afflict us, of a universal want of money in the country this 

 medium has been converted into stock, and the sale of that stock must produce its return ; 

 at least, so much of it as bad markets have left, the other portion becoming the property 

 of the public at large. This, if no cause of merriment to the losers, is the legitimate 

 merry-go-round of political economy. But the heaviest cause of affliction is the immense 

 number of unemployed labourers, no doubt arising, iu great measure, from the' "Irish 

 invasion." 



