720 Agricultural Report. 



than any picture in the exhibition; and it magnificent picture; the water is liquid, 



is the best in it for expression, character, and clear, and full of motion. While Turner 



colour. His u Boniface" is almost equal to is struggling to arrive at a point by poe- 



it. Yet Newton is not an R. A. ! tical effect, Stanfield appears to arrive at 



COLLINS is the same as ever rich in it unconsciously, and almost without an 



sea-side stories, and exquisite little touches effort, 

 of scenery and character. EDWIN LANDSEER has two or three 



STOTHARU'S Frith of Clyde is interesting pictures; one containing portraits of the 



as it shows how wretchedly a clever man Duke of Atholl and others, is partly spoiled 



can paint if he chooses. by the nature of its subject. The dogs and 



CLINT is improving in colour; but his deer are admirably painted. This picture is 



" Love, Law, and Physic" is not equal to in parts almost unrivalled for its lightness 



his " Charles XII." His portrait of Lord and elegance of touch. 



Suffield is a deplorable failure, and contrasts LIN TON has a tasteless and purply coin- 

 very curiously with position called " Zagarolo," very different in 



Mrs. CARPENTER'S portrait of H. Hoare, its style to one that hangs opposite it, viz. 

 Esq. which is remarkable for its simplicity LEE'S Water Mill, a bold, fresh, and 



and freedom. In this picture there is no finely coloured picture, full of nature, and 



straining after effect no vulgarity of taste. aiming at nothing more. 



STANFIELD'S Mount St. Michael is a 



MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



WE have before remarked on the anomaly, and a remarkable one it is, that malgrt the 

 great distress actually existing in the country, all rural occupations are proceeding regularly, 

 the land is fully tilled, though certainly not in the best and most advantageous manner, more 

 corn, particularly wheat, has been sown than in any former year, and more cattle bred. .Thus 

 our distress and want, and predicted ruin, co-exist with the most exuberant and super- 

 abundant national stock of all the necessaries, conveniences, and luxuries of life money, 

 that never fails to make " the mare to go." included. It would require a long and painful 

 disquisition, for which here is no place, to solve this politico-economical riddle. The last 

 year's wheat crop has proved even more defective than was apprehended before Christmas, 

 by our most sensitive alarmists ; and granting more abundance of other corn and pulse, 

 their condition was such from the continued unfavourable state of the weather during the 

 summer season, that whatever the farmer might have profited by large acreable quantity, 

 was lost by depreciation on sale. No surer proof can be adduced of the great, and not of 

 late years, paralleled deficiency of our wheat crop, than the paucity of British samples 

 which has been so long exhibited at the Corn Exchange in London, and the immense num- 

 ber of foreign, the price, at the same time, to be considered high, with seldom any 

 material declension, the demand also increasing in various parts of the country for foreign 

 wheat. The circumstance particularly attracted our attention some time since, that fine 

 foreign wheat was worth ninety-two per quarter, when the finest and best English would 

 scarcely obtain eighty-two; a superiority of price in foreign wheat of which we have no previous 

 recollection. In former days, English wheat, with very few and occasional exceptions, always 

 yielded the highest price in our markets. Doubtless, the last unfortunate season, both 

 with respect to com and cattle, must have brought heavy losses on our whole farming 

 interest, but it has been remarked, that one bad year alone could not ruin such a number of 

 the tenantry. In all probability, the seeds of this distress had been previously sown. But how 

 are we to reconcile this risk and loss on the tillage of the land, with the following informa- 

 tion ? Very lately, some small pieces of land at Devizes, Wilts, belonging to a public 

 charity, were let at the enormous rent of seven and nine pounds per acre. 



The last two months, bating about a fortnight in April, and the intervention of several 

 changes to a north-eastern temperature, have been most propitious to all the growing crops. 

 The fortnight of unfavourable weather much retarded the final preparations for seed, of 

 heavy and wet lands. Thus though a favourable, this is not a very forward season, yet from the 

 healthy and luxuriant appearance of the corn crops, should the summer solstice commence 

 favourably, and the redoubtable St. Swithin prove auspicious, we may reasonably expect an 

 early harvest. The wheats, with the exceptions formerly made, of poor, hungry soils, and 

 of the late-sown and insufficiently tilled, exhibit universally a rich, healthy, and exuberant 

 show of deep and shining verdure. The same verdict may be given of the Spring crops, 

 both corn and pulse, particularly of the early sown, though those unavoidably deferred to 

 the last have been committed to the ground under very favourable circumstances, and are 

 springing up with the appearance of much health and vigour. Winter tares perhaps the 

 worst crop of the year ; those of the Spring will produce a heavy burden. The ground in- 

 sects, wire-worm and grub, have thinned much of the poor land wheats. The early barley, 

 generally flourishing, on some farms are thin sown ; a circumstance generally attributed to 



