222 



The mean temperature of the above three months together, 

 constituting the summer of 1879, was 58°'l, being exactly three 

 degrees below the average of 1 4 years. 



The effects of this low temperature, combined with the wet, 

 were most disastrous to agriculture. The crops, which had 

 already had to struggle through a cold Avinter and spring, now 

 sustained further injury. 



In many places they Averc laid by the heavy storms and became 

 mildewed, or turned yelloAv, and were everpvhere " choked with 

 weeds." In very few parts of England had the harvest commenced 

 by the end of August. The Mark Lane Express of that date 

 remarked that, owing to the excessive wet, the crops were even 

 then (the last day of August) " more backward than they were 

 in the spring, considering the average time at which harvest 

 commences." 



Prospects improA'ed but little in September. The rainfall was 

 much less — a little helow the average instead of above it — but there 

 were few days entirely without rain, and there was very little 

 sun. The corn never ripened properly ; the harvest in consequence 

 was very late and long protracted. * What corn was cut before 

 October was said to have been carted and stacked under most 

 unfavourable conditions, and for some time afterwards not fit for 

 threshing, the yield, when at last threshed, proving deficient in 

 every way, " small in quantity and poor in quality." Mudi corn, 

 indeed, was still standing when October came; and even "hay- 

 making was not finished in North Wilts in mid-September." 

 Altogether, it was stated in one of the daily journals to have been 

 " one of the worst harvests the country had ever known." 



In respect of weather, however, October revealed an improved 

 state of things. There seemed to be a gradual passing away of 

 those atmospheric conditions, which had been the cause of so pro- 



• A correspondent, writing to the AfjrkuUural Gazette respecting the 

 harvest prospects in North Wilts (September 25tii), says :— " I have seen 

 seventy summers, but never remember so late a harvest as the present one." 



