NATURAL PERIODIC PHENOMENA. 91 
in the neighbourhood, but, by careful isolation, the disease has 
been prevented from spreading. 
I am indebted to my friend Mr. Richard Tellum (an excellent 
botanist, whom I must get to send to our Jowrnal his large contri-. 
bution to what I have long wished to see—a Cornish Flora), for 
many of the following observations on the character of the year as 
to agriculture in this neighbourhood. 
Wheat. The crop of 1871 proved very deficient in quantity 
and quality. The young plant suffered severely from the cold dry 
weather of the Winter and Spring; and, in many places, large 
pieces of a field were destroyed by that agricultural pest, the 
Wire-worm, which appears to have increased during the last two 
or three hot and dry summers. January came in excessively 
cold, doing great damage to early vegetation ; the cold, dry usher- 
ing in of Spring made the wheat thin, and similar weather at the 
end of May and the beginning of June did not tend to improve 
it. On the 5th of June we had a sharp frosty morning (Ther- 
mometer 29°), followed by a good deal of stormy weather. July 
was generally wet, with a low temperature. There was a lack of 
good warm sun-beam for ripening, and consequently the grain was 
not well kerned, and there was a deficiency of good flour. Added 
to this, a great deal was secured in bad condition. The wheat 
crop was very far below the average. 
Barley was very light in the Straw, and the grain imperfectly 
kerned ; anda sample fit for malting purposes was hard to be ob- 
tained. The bushel proved under the average weight, and much 
below the usual yield in quantity. 
Oats, on the whole, were a moderate crop, but not well saved. 
The early Hay crop was light, and deficient in clover. The 
later crop was heavier; but a great part was damaged by the wet 
July weather. 
In many places, the Mangel Wurzel crop failed, on account of 
the dry cold Spring; but where the surviving plants were thick 
enough, a good and heavy crop was taken up. 
The Turnips generally turned out a good average crop, not 
having suffered much from the fly ; and the late rains were much 
in their favour. 
Potatoes suffered more from their inscrutable disease than for 
many years past. They were slow to come up, and the frosty June 
N 
