1829.] [ 327°] 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
REPORTING since the commencement of last autumn, on the weather, the condition of the 
lands, the forwardness of every agricultural process, the prosperous state of the crops, and 
the well-doing of every kind oflive stock, has proved to us a very satisfactory and pleasing 
task. It would be even difficult to conceive a state of greater prosperity and of promise. 
We cannot, however, say so much in favour of the accounts that we are constantly receiving 
from our farming friends, which are of the most gloomy, desponding, and even reproachful 
nature ; nor are we well able to reconcile or digest the discrepancies ; for how would it 
be possible for a tenantry in re, and actually ruined, beggared, and pauperized, as so many 
of them declare themselves to be, to find the ability to cultivate their farms in the superior 
state wherein they are found, sow such vast breadths of corn and agricultural productions of 
all kinds, and feed such immense numbers of live stock, in the depressed circumstances 
under which they are said to groan ? 
The late frost atoned for the shortness of its duration, by its remarkably intense severity ; 
and the lands, on its commencement, being generally in a dry and favourable state, it had 
a very speedy and salubrious effect ; and although its dissolution was succeeded by a 
renewal of hard weather, an alternation generally dangerous to the crops on the ground, 
yet the second frost lasting but a short time, no visible ill effects, to any extent, have 
ensued. The wheats were checked in their ultra-exuberance, as also was the foliage 
and stem of the turnips; and the former at present, having taken a fresh start since the 
frost, wear perhaps as promising an appearance as any man can recollect to have witnessed. 
In course, we speak of the aggregate, for upon poor, low, and wet lands, where the slug had 
been most active, the wheats appear thin, weak, and not, thus far, of a healthy com- 
plexion ; but a warm and moderately dry spring may do much for such lands. 
Never was there a more rapid and effective destruction of the slugs and vermin than 
appears in those parts of our country which we have lately gone over, and a similar good 
report seems universal. This speedy destruction, it may be apprehended, was the result 
of the suddenness and intensity of the frost, and the want of a deep cover of snow. 
An infinity, too, of the mischief workers of the feathered race, are said to have 
perished from the same cause. Few of the common turnips escaped some damage, and 
most of them upon improper soils were completely rotted, and unfit for sheep; espe- 
cially as so many flocks must yet be regarded as only in a state of convalescence. No 
season, however, can be better calculated to encounter a loss of this kind than the present. 
The Swedes have not been much, or at all affected; and the few Scotch (Aberdeen) 
turnips, some very excellent seed of which several of our friends purchased last year of 
Messrs. Gibbs, have stood the frost nearly or equally well as the Rutabaga. A friend of 
ours, against sound advice, left two acres of mangel abroad, when it was totally 
‘destroyed by the frost, for any other purpose than that of manure. The young clovers 
are in a flourishing state, and we may hope for a better crop than the late, both 
of clover and sanfoin seed, inthe present year. The frost is said to have had the further 
happy effect of checking, and, we trust, in this fine season, of putting an end to an ende- 
mie febrile disease, which has prevailed in certain low and damp situations, since the in- 
cessant rains and floods of the last summer. 
The clays have been in a most favourable degree freable, and the lands in general have 
worked admirably well ; a dry March will put a good spoke in the wheel of prosperity to 
the crops of the season. Farmers in forward districts have nearly got through with their 
bean and oat sowing ; and under a continuance of the present favourable weather, the 
present will be an early seed season, always the harbinger of good expectation. On 
Wool there is nothing novel, far less favourable, to advance. Complaints still prevail 
against the excessive price of store stock, and asseverations are continued of the losses, or, 
in other words, the no profit of the graziers and feeders. Yet fat stock and meat certainly 
make high prices ; at least, the consumers deem them such. Mutton must continue dear, 
from the late prevalence of rot in the low lands; but we have good hope of a repair 
for our losses, in the present successful lambing season ; in which, perhaps, as few ewes 
have warped (slunk their lambs) as has been remembered. In Lincolnshire, and the 
fen districts, the Pigs have been almost as unhealthy as the Sheep; and from the same 
cause, superabundant moisture, numbers have died, and still greater numbers have been 
killed in a state of unsoundness. This disease, in swine, has not been hitherto generally 
understood ; but we have long since known it, to our cost, having lost great numbers, 
even from damp lodging, the disease usually commencing from the symptom called the 
“ heavings.”” The inflammation was so great in some of them, that their skins, after 
death, were red as morocco leather. Of Horses there is nothing new to report; the 
dearest season for them is immediately at hand. 
