382 STATE OP WHEAT CROPS. [JUNE. 



wheat in May, and went right sorrowful away : I 

 came to my wheat in Jane, and went away whistling 

 a merry time. After a dripping summer, bread corn 

 is generally dear, as there is no weather so inimical to 

 the wheat on the ground as wet. especially on the 

 deep rich lands, where the largest crops are raised ; 

 iind even on poor chalky soils, it is matter of doubt 

 with me, whether a wet summer be not rather in- 

 jurious than beneficial to the wheatcn crop, though 

 such moist weather may haply increase the growth 

 of straw. But although this reasoning generally 

 holds good, yet I have sometimes known the crops 

 of wheat turn out very prolific after a wet summer. 

 The year 1777 was one of the wettest that could 

 have been remembered, and the spring had been 

 uncommonly wet and chilly, so that the farmers, 

 from the great abundance of straw, and from an 

 rvation of the unkindly state of the air through- 

 out the summer, expected that their wheaten crops 

 .would turn out to bad account, and that conse- 

 quently this grain would fetch an advanced price 

 in the ensuing winter, but the event falsified their 

 prediction, and the public were ' with bread 



at a .:ible rate throughout the winter, the 



price of wheat never exceeding 42s. or 43s. per 

 quarter. This unexpected fertility was occasioned, 

 as I ooriceiire, by a kindly and favourable season at 

 the blooming time, for in this year the wheat was 

 /.I in coming out of the hose, and dur- 

 ing the time it remained in blossom, the weather 



was 



