|_ 696 ] [Dec. 



MONTHLY AGIUCULTURAL REPORT. 



At this late pei'iod of the season, tliere is little variety to report in the ordinary 

 course of husbandrjs the detail of which necessarily consists of mere repetition. 

 But unfortunately at the present crisis, there is too much intelligence of a different 

 nature, yet strictly connected with the subject and indispensable as to its promul- 

 gation, with which all the country letters are fiUed. Upon all light and dry soils, 

 the process of wheat sowing has been completed with that dispatch and in that 

 excellent order which we noticed in our last report ; indeed on such, the present 

 has been one of the most early and successful seasons within memory ; but where- 

 ever there have been heavy falls of rain within the present month, the operation 

 has been retarded in poachy and heavy clay lands ; thence on such, the business 

 will be protracted to the first, probably the second, week of December. The 

 showery weather with warm SW. winds, forced up the early-sown wheats with 

 such rapidity, that the young blades luxuriated above ground within six days, 

 causing an apprehension that they would outgrow their strength ; the late suc- 

 cession, however, of frosty nights had the beneficial effect of impeding their sudden 

 and immature career. In the moist climate of South Wales, on their earliest 

 sown heavy lands, the young plants have run up to a height which they had not 

 strength to support, whence they have fallen, to the risk of their roots being 

 washed out of the soil. There is also a complaint in most parts of the south of 

 the slug and grub. These, however, are the common-place of every season, which 

 must necessarily have its share of difficulties of some kind or other, and on the 

 whole, the present has been most fortunate both with regard to the very extensive 

 breadth of wheat sown, and the expedition with which it has been performed. In 

 the above regards, we have fewest complaints from the north, and should the 

 expected crop prove abundant, we shall be able to judge of what England can do 

 for herself, under her present burden of population. The opinion which we 

 lately gave of the extent of the present variable crop (the fourth bad crop in too 

 many parts), seems to be generally and fully confirmed, and the foreign supply 

 in bond, our last resource of that kind, winter being so near at hand, amounted lately 

 to somewhat short of a million quarters of corn. The superabundant and excellent 

 potatoe crop, will be materially instrumental in economizing the consumption of 

 wheat. Tlie fallows for spring crops are generally in a forward state, excepting 

 on heavy, wet, and intractable lands, to which a short course of dry weather and 

 aeration is indispensable. From the various qualities of the wheat and barley, 

 prices have differed to an uncommon amount; but markets, with all their tem- 

 porary and usual fluctuations, have still maintained a steady high price for good 

 samples, the finest wheat generally commanding full four pounds per quarter. 

 The grass, where the soil is not too wet and poachy, still continues abundant, and 

 the cattle, particularly where sheltered, are in a healthy and thriving state. 

 Turnips fully answer the character already given of them as to quantity, but 

 there exists some apprehension that the inordinate quantity of moisture which 

 has forced them up, may also have had the effect of reducing the quantity of the 

 root. It will be a great risk to store the mildewed Swedes, and also the mangold 

 which may have been carried in a wet state. The universal threshing of wheat 

 and barley, as a preparation for the festivities of Christmas, must have diminished 

 considerably the stocks in the country. The purchase of wheat for seed at a high 

 price, whilst their own inferior crop has been sold to the millers at a very low one, 

 has hung very heavy on the circumstances of too many farmers. In cutting and 

 earning the late crop, a vast quantity of the ripest grain was shed, being parched 

 by the sudden intense heat of the sun, the consequence was a number of green 

 luxuriant crops in the stubbles. We recollect an instance many years since, when 

 several of these self-sown wheat crops were suffered to stand, producing, according 

 to report, two and three quarters per acre. Considerable breadths of land are 

 reserved in the north, for sowing with turnips as a late spring food. Those 

 farmers in the best counties, who have not sufficient stock to consume their turnips, 

 obtain from 30s. to 40s. per acre, by letting them to others. 



The local variations of demand "and supply must ever occasion a variety and 

 inequahty of market price, but on the whole, perhaps, with the exception of 

 Scotland, all kinds of live stock, particularly stores, have sujjported a very high 

 autumnal price, and perha])s are, even at present, on the advance. Large cattle 

 are purchased most reasonably, but sheep, jngs, cows and calves, if of good quality, 

 are worth almost any price that can be asked, and it is averred, make 15 per cent. 

 above last year's prices. The late great fairs have been at no rate overstocked 

 with sheep, and from the constant extreme moisture of the weather, a continuance 



