[ 326 ] [Serr. 
MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
On the 22d instant, we had a most remarkably heavy storm of wind and rain, indeed 
severe enough to warrant the appellation of an English tornado. The rain descended in 
torrents, the puddles of water bubbling like a boiling pot. This storm, from its violence, 
was, in course, of short duration, and partial throughout the country. It has been followed 
by two beautiful drying harvest days, worth a king’s ransom ; and we may hope will prove 
the efficient cause of dispersing the matériel of rain and storm, and of inducing the atmos- 
pheric balance of a long series of fine weather. ‘This speculation, however rational, is yet 
in the style of ancient weather-wisdom ; which, to the bitter disappointment, and heavy loss 
of us farmers, has, throughout the past and passing season, proved mere fallacy and folly. 
We have, in a former report, excepted the summer of 1799, which will never be out of our 
recollection: with that exception, the present harvest has been the most embarrassing and 
expensive of all the very many that we have known. The difficulty, more especially, in 
distant northern counties, has extended equally to latter haysel, as to the corn harvest. 
The flattering sunshiné of two or three hours, has encouraged and urged the anxious 
farmer to break the cocks of hay, and prepare for carrying to the stack ; when suddenly, 
momentarily, the flood-gates of heaven would open, and a second deluge descend, drenching 
the supposed thorough-made hay, and putting an immediate stop to the expected pleasing 
labour of securing it. Then came the disheartening task of once more spreading and dry- 
ing; and when dry, the farmer’s next comfort was to see his hay dispersed, and blown 
half over his farm, the sport of furious winds! Too many hundreds of farmers know this 
to be no exaggeration ; yet is this nothing, the mere tender mercy of fortune, put in com- 
parison of flooded lands and general havock, destruction, and ruin. 
The corn harvest, some time finished in the southern counties, is now at its height in 
the northern and in Scotland; in the south, considerable breadths of beans haye been cut, 
and should the weather improve, this latter and finishing business of the season, will make 
some amends for its former inauspicious course. The new wheats, our grand national 
object, will fill the bushel ; will have more bulk than weight, and will tell far more for 
quantity than quality. In fact, really fine and dry wheat, from its extreme scarcity, will 
command almost any price. We do not refer to wheat that has been sodden with repeated 
rains in the sheaf, and afterwards bleached and sun-dried ; they who grind for the bakers, 
know too well the difference. Full three-fourths of the crop of wheat has received damage, 
litile or much, from a continually varying temperature, and from excess of humidity ; and 
good old dry wheats, without the admixture with which the new will not grind, must be 
indispensable, even in the spring. With some favourable exceptions, the continental 
harvests have been nearly as unfavourable as our own. It is curious that, in the rainy 
climate of Ireland, the farmers are reported to have been more fortunate; and, as a proof 
of the actual ascendancy of that hitherto degraded and impoverished country, the rural 
labourers have, during the present year, found more employment and better pay at home, 
than in any former season within memory. 
The golden crop, conjoining quantity and quality, and including the whole island, will 
probably fall short of a fair average, by four bushels per acre ; a loss which must chiefly fall 
upon the consumer. The late advance in the price of wheat, may be stated at about nine 
shillings per quarter. In addition to the difficulties of the present harvest, labourers in some 
parts were scarce ; chiefly by the absence of the Irish, comparatively few of whom have 
arrived during the present season. This circumstance, together with a blameable tardiness 
in too many parts, kept much wheat abroad which might have been safe in the stack. When 
once wheat is ripe, in a catching season, it is very hazardous policy to aim at carrying it 
perfectly dry. The fortunate cultivators of good sound, dry, and well sheltered lands, where 
the corn has not been much beaten down, will make a good hand of the present, to others, 
unfortunate season. Wheat, in general, had caught a blight previous to the flowering season, 
before the completion of which, the rains set in. There will assuredly be much black or 
smutied wheat, which is always attended with this ludicrous circumstance—our ultra and 
infallible seed steepers will never allow that they have any smut, restricting their mishaps, 
if any, to mildew, and cautiously avoiding all mention of the monosyllable. Considering the 
quantity of corn beat out and strewed about the land, the harvest of shack for animals, and 
of gleaning, must indeed be a plentiful one. 
Barley, oats, beans, peas, tares, are, at any rate, in the first instance, great in straw, and 
will, doubtless, be found considerably so in quantity of produce ; but with the drawback of 
great injury to the barley particularly, in point of quality. Of that grain, there will be 
plenty of the discoloured, the green, the sprouted, and the mow-burnt ; and old malts are 
likely to be in equal request with old wheats ; all root crops are large, but the turnips are 
too forward, and full of moisture, to stand a rigorous winter (which may well be expected) 5 
and those cattle feeders will act the wisest part, who draw and store the largest portion of 
them. It has been a bad season for saving either turnip or grass seeds. The naked fallows 
