SEPTEMBER 337 



had hoped to secure a second cut of hay. However, the splendid 

 weather has been a great help this harvest, as without it I really 

 do not know how we should have dealt with our heavy corn crop, 

 much of which must have spoiled had the season proved wet. 

 Farmers cannot get everything to their liking. We have had 

 a good haysel and a good harvest, and the weather that suits the 

 corn does not suit the roots and grass. 



Certainly we have to fight against a tricky and a variable 

 market. A few months ago wheat was as high as fifty-three 

 shillings a quarter ; to-day its average price is twenty-six 

 shillings and tenpence, which is six and threepence lower than 

 during the corresponding week last year. Barley is twenty-seven 

 shillings and ninepence, and oats only seventeen shillings and ten- 

 pence the quarter. It would seem that those who manage the 

 corn-market are not as much impressed as they ought to be by 

 the jeremiad of Sir William Crookes. 



September 14. — We expect to finish harvest to-morrow, after 

 having been engaged on it for five weeks short of one day — a very 

 long time considering that from first to last the work has only 

 been stopped for two hours by rain. I hope devoutly that the 

 cast of corn will turn out to be proportionate to the ' boolk ' we 

 have carried. To the labourers this ' boolk ' is a positive nuisance. 

 Very naturally they desire to win the harvest as quickly as pos- 

 sible, for the sooner it is done with the sooner they pocket the 

 sum for which they have agreed, and are in a position to recom- 

 mence the earning of their weekly wage. To them, therefore, a 

 plentiful harvest is in fact a disadvantage. For this state of 

 affairs co-operation seems to be the only remedy. It is in the 

 air, we hear of it at every gathering, and read much about it in 

 the papers. But is it practicable ? I do not remember having 

 seen any scheme which gives much prospect of its successful 

 working — that is, where the land and its fruits are concerned. 



Certainly, if a system of co-operation had been in force during 

 the last ten years, by which I understand a system that would 



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