( XIX ) 
the 27th inst, the rainfall of 1826 far exceeded that of either of the 
three years mentioned, amounting for the four months, April, May, 
June, and July, to 7"G3 in., and yet that year is remembered all 
over the country as ' the hottest and driest ever known,' and old 
farmers assure me that nothing like it has been known since then 
until the present. The reason for this must be sought, then, not 
in the amount of rainfall, but in the excessive heat, in the absence 
of cloud, in the wonderful dryness of the atmosphere, and in the 
consequent excessive evaporation. A glance at Mr. Symons's tables 
will show that in respect to temperature, June of 1826 was two 
degrees higher than June of 1868, and that July of 1868 will 
exceed the corresponding month of 1826. 
" One word about the crops. There is an opinion prevalent that 
wheat docs not want rain, and to a certain extent it is tnie. No 
doubt there are many very fine crops of wheat this year, and on 
deep rich clays and loams they are probably unsurpassed ; but I 
cannot think that taking the country through, light and heavy 
land together, the yield will come near that of 1863, when the 
wheat crop, after being strengthened and stiffened and braced up 
by the spring drought, was fed by the copiovis . showers of June 
almost to its full capability. Barley has, much of it, never come 
into ear at all, and will probably not exceed half a crop in many 
important districts. Oats are nearly as bad. Beans almost totally 
destroyed by fly, and green crops a total failure." 
COEN : Importations, Sales, and Prices. 
Quantities of Wheat, Wheatmeal and Flour, Bablet, Oats, Feas and 
Beans, Imported into the United Kingdom in eaqli of the First Six 
Months of the Year 1868. 
1863. 
meat. 
Wlieatmeal 
and Flour. 
Barley. 
Oats. 
Peas. 
Beans. 
January .. 
February 
March 
April 
May 
cwts. 
2,724,152 
2,283,426 
3.457,943 
3.095.369 
3,219,849 
cwts. 
255,898 
■253,311 
264, 158 
248,368 
198,878 
cwts. 
227,181 
332,038 
728,979 
508,233 
367,593 
cwts. 
404, £^67 
98,6^^,9 
750,332 
746,027 
534.893 
cwts. 
171 , 308 
34.722 
13,278 
33 ,002 
42,668 
cwts. 
128,345 
136,415 
213,547 
145,952 
168,064 
June 
Total in) 
Six 
Months, j 
2,915,764 
206,409 
422,505 
951.504 
101,823 
305,368 
17,696,503 
1,427,022 
■ 
2,586,529 
.. 
3,486,392 
:. : 
396,801 
■ 
1,097,691 
Note. — The average weights per quarter of com, as adopted in the office of the 
Inspector-General of Imports and Exports, are as follows : — For wheat, 485J lbs., 
or 41 cwts. ; for barley, 400 lbs., or 3i cwts. ; for oats, 308 lbs., or 2f cwts. Corn 
has been entered and charged with duty by WeiijM instead of measure since Sep- 
tember 1864. 
