255 



JULY 



July i. Half the year has now gone by. So far it has been a 

 somewhat curious season, that is when considered from the farming 

 point of view. It opened with mild and beautiful weather, followed 

 by a cold stormy spring and a wet and bitter early summer, with 

 a general prevalence of northerly and north-easterly winds. The 

 strange thing is, under the circumstances, that the crops should 

 look so well as they do. Hay, which does not require much 

 warmth, is everywhere a heavy ' cut,' though doubtless more sun 

 would have improved the quality. Wheats are tall and strong, 

 but it remains to be seen how they will fill. Barleys look only 

 moderate, but with fine warm weather may yet be a good sample. 

 Oats seem rather short in the straw, and I doubt whether they 

 will give anything like the return expected from this crop if it is 

 to pay, namely, almost double the yield per acre that can be 

 credited to wheat. Beet are about a three-quarter plant, but back- 

 ward ; they are sun lovers, and we have had no sun. Swedes are a 

 very full plant in this village. Beans stand tall in the stalk, but 

 the cold seems to have prevented them from podding satisfactorily, 

 so that I fear they will give but a light yield per acre ; indeed, con- 

 trary to general experience, spring beans appear to be better than 

 autumn sown. Pease, on the other hand, look well with us. All 

 nature is now crying aloud for warmth and sunshine, and upon 

 the character of the weather during the coming month to a very 

 large extent will depend the amount and quality of the year's 

 increase. Wretched as it has been so far, I prefer it (speaking 

 as a farmer) to the scorching suns and rainless days of recent 

 summer seasons. 



To-day is dull and rather cold, but as the rain has held off we 



