582 Agricultural Report. [iiov. 



Little novelty has occurred on this point since our last Report. The prime article, 

 wheat, on a general average, is judged, by some perhaps hastily, to be near one- 

 third minus. In the great corn county, Sufi'olk, too many of the lands have 

 returned barely three sacks per acre, much of the crop mildewed, or the grain 

 thin and shrivelled from its too speedy maturity. There are, however, exceptions 

 to this ill fortune in most or all districts, some lands escaping, the produce of which 

 is said to be of fine quaUty, the kernels plump and heavy ; but in very few parts 

 is the acreable quantity much boasted. Barley, not equal to last year's crop, on 

 the whole, is not perhaps deficient in quantity and weight of sample, but the 

 quality is so generally inferior, that the maltsters wiU not find samples very 

 profitable for their purpose in great plenty. Barley, however, will be much in 

 demand where beans and pease have not been productive. Oats have partaken of 

 the uncertainty of the season, failing in some parts, but generally they are little, 

 if any, below an average, but, like other grain, defective in height and bulk of 

 straw. In the great barley county, Norfolk, that crop is said to be one quarter 

 short of an average, the quality still further deficient. The constant rains of the 

 last and beginning of the present month, with the subsequent high temperature, 

 have forced an immense vegetation of the grasses, and have had a similar beneficial 

 eifect upon the root crops. All these equal or exceed in bulk that of any year 

 within memory. There are very few failures in turnips, for the Swedes, which 

 have escaped the mildew, appear likely to be highly productive. Potatoes are a 

 vast crop over the whole island, and in Ireland, and the breadth planted in England 

 was probably greater than in any former year. This root, improved and improving 

 in quahty, its salubrity and indispensable use (honour to the memory of its intro- 

 ducer, Raleigh,) are acknowledged by all but the infallible Cobbett ! Price in 

 Berks 2s. 6rf. a sack, in Wales Is. a cwt. Mangold or cattle beet, where the plants 

 did not fail in the first instance, is a fine, productive crop. Somerset seems to 

 stand a single exception in South Britain as to an abundance of graminous pro- 

 duct. The complaint from thence, early in the month, was, that their strong 

 grass soils, insufliciently covered, were filled with cracks and fissures, on whicli 

 the slight occasional showers had little or no ettect, and that the deficiency of 

 grass has been severely felt in the low and backward condition of the grazing 

 beasts. The effect has been similar on their arable lands, rendering them so 

 clodded and stubborn, as almost to defy the power of pulverization in the heaviest 

 stone rollers. 



Hop-picking was finished towards the end of the last, and about the first week 

 of the present month, and very considerable quantities being left upon the poles, 

 as deemed not of sufficient quality to bring a price adequate to duty and expences, 

 seem to indicate that the crop is not deficient in quantity. The sample, like other 

 products of the year, will be variable, the mould having prevailed in some planta- 

 tions to a great extent. There is, nevertheless, in most hop counties, a considerable 

 quantity of great strength and fine flavour. The Farnham hop, as of old, retains 

 its full superiority of quality and price. At Weyhill fair, Farnham pockets 11/. to 

 \2L — Kent 6/. to "?/. 7«.— duty estnnated at 165^000/. Apples, in the nearer parts 

 of the S.W., sell at lOs. per bushel. In the western and cider counties, that 

 beverage, surely more sanctioned by custom than its fitness to support the strength 

 of the labourer, seems to be gradually seceding in public estimation, and nourishing 

 and invigorating malt-liquor getting uppermost. The general cry of the total 

 repeal of the malt duty, an impracticable demand, we fear, has probably operated 

 in favour of this change of sentiment. Cider is selling slowly at 50«. per hhd. The 

 produce of honey has been far greater than during several past seasons ; indeed the 

 culture has been long in a state of neglect among both farmers and labourers. 

 Present price in the country, Td. to 9d. per lb. In 1787 we purchased it from the 

 labourers in Essex at 2d. and 3d. 



The cattle fairs and markets have, as usual, in our fortunate and plentiful 

 country, exhibited a supply fully equal to the demand, notwithstanding the 

 acknowledged depression of agriculture, and our greatly increased and increasing 

 population. Fat stock has rendered profitable prices to the feeder ; and the 

 favourable circumstance of so vast a crop of latter crass and roots, has greatly 

 enhanced the demand and price of stores. Store sheep (warranted) are every 

 where in demand, at a very large advance on last year's price ; and indeed none 

 would leave a market unsold, but for the want of money said to prevail so much 

 among farmers. In some parts the high price of three-pence per head per week 

 has been oft'ered by farmers, to eat down their grass and fold their wheat land ; in 

 the north young sheep are taken to feed on turni])s, at the low jn-ice of two-pence 

 each per week. Large store pigs are in demand in the bacon counties, where the 



