[ 364 ] 
[May 1, 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
=e Z 
rpue change, during Easter week, toa 
cold and blighting temperature, had a 
visible effect upon vegetation, ‘and was 
very injurious to the fruit blossoms. ‘The 
wheats had previously suffered in colour 
and condition, from similar alternations. 
From such appearances it has been augured 
that the crops on the ground will not 
equal in produce those of several preceding 
years, but this must depend on the subse- 
quent weather, Ineltiding spring-wheat, 
the greater part of which is Talavera or 
Spanish, the extent is very great. All 'the 
spring crops, except broad-cast beans, have 
been well got in, though, on difficult soils, 
with much trouble and expense. Potatoe 
planting has proceeded successfully and 
on the usual large scale. The arable lands 
are almost universally in a foul and dete- 
riorated state’; in part from the mildness of 
the winter season, but chiefly from the de- 
ficient means of the farmers. Rape, cole, 
and seeds, are promising crops. - amb is 
in great plenty, and of fine quality, from 
the unfailing abundance of food for the 
ewes, Wool, as usual, is quoted, in one 
part of the country, on the advance ; and, 
in others, on ‘the’ decline.’ ‘The great 
plenty of feed has improved the price of 
lean stock, in some degree; and: other 
temporary causes have advanced the price 
of wheat. It is even reported that farms 
are letting at an advanced rent,and imder 
a stroug competition of the tenantry, ‘in 
the west of England. The» London ticsh- 
markets ate still filled to an overflow. 
A provincial paper states, that—‘ Plenty 
of every ‘sert, either in actual possession 
or prospective, surrounds us $ and yet, such 
is the perverted order of things, that we 
hear nothing but cries of ruin, distress, and 
misery.” 
Smithficld.—Beef 2s. 6d. to: 38. 4di— 
Mutton 2s. 6d. to 3s, 8d.— Lamb 3s. to 6s. 
—Veal 3s. 4d. to 4s, 8d.—Pork. 28.64. 
to 4s. 8d.— Bacon ——.—Raw Fat 2s. 43d. 
Corn Exchange.— Wheat 52s. to 64s,— 
Barley 15s. to 26s,—Oats 14s. to» 263,.— 
The quartern loaf in London 7d, to 9d. 
—Hay 52s. to 84s,—Clover 42s. to 100s. 
—Straw 26s, to 36s.—Rye straw 40s. 
Coals in the, pool 28s. 6d. to 40s, Gd. 
Middlesex, Apris 22, 1822. 
POLITICAL AFFAIRS IN APRIL. 
ee : 
GREAT BRITAIN, 
HE following is the extraordinary 
Report of the Committee of Par- 
Tiament on the distresses of the landed 
interest. It-will- be seen, that the ad- 
vantage of making provisions dear is 
insisted on, and that this is the sole ob- 
ject of the' Committee! The people of 
England demand, however, a reduction 
of taxes and public expenditure, as the 
Jegitimate and rational remedy. 
The Select Committee appointed to in- 
quire into the allegations of the several 
petitions which haye’ been presented to 
‘parliament in the last and present sessions 
of parliament, complaining of the distressed 
state of the agriculture of the United King- 
dom, have considered that among all the 
important objects referred to them, none 
could be more deserving of their earliest 
attention than an inquiry into any mea- 
‘sures that could be suggested for affording 
-some temporary relicf to the distresses of 
which the nimnerous petitioners with so 
much reason complain, and which appear, 
from the returns of the average priees of 
‘corn during the late 'wecks, to be progres- 
sively increasing rather than diminishing. 
Your committee donot yenture to deter- 
“mine, whether the ‘present state of the 
corn-market be owilig'to an excess of pro- 
duction, or to what extent that excess may 
reach, beyond the usual and requisite sup. 
ply; or whether the necessities of the occu- 
piers of land cause an unprecedented ea- 
gerness to dispose of their produce at 
almost any price : but it appears, from an 
official return, that the quantity of British 
wheat and oats (but not of barley) sold in 
Mark-lane, between the 1st of November 
and the ist of March last, has very consi- 
derably exceeded the quantity sold in the 
corresponding months of the twenty: pre- 
ceding years. 
Such an excess of supply beyond’ de- 
mand can have no other effect than to 
continue the depression of price, and’ in- 
crease the accumulation of the stock upon 
hand ; while it is evident, from the present 
very low rate of price on the continent of 
Europe, as compared with prices in: this 
country, that there is no chance of resort- 
ing to the natural expedient of relieving 
the market by exporting any portion of our 
own corn, even with the aid of any bounty 
which would not be excessive. 
Two other modes have therefore been 
under the consideration of your committee; 
by the first’of whicli it: was proposed, that 
one ‘million of Exchequer-bills should be 
applied to purchasing, through the agency 
of government, and laying up in store,/a 
certain portion of wheat grown in ‘the 
United Kingdom and by the seeond, that 
facility and encouragement should be 
offered to individuals to deposit a part of 
their stock in warchouses, so that amd 
night 
