136 TIME OF HARVEST. 
intended for seed it should be grazed down to the end 
of the first week in June, and then fenced up, after 
dressing over the field, levelling dung, &c. The seed- 
clover of this year, 1805, was generally harvested the 
end of September, and beginning of October; the 
crop promising, and well got together, the weather 
having been favourable for that purpose; also, Sep¬ 
tember, 1807, saw a piece of seed-clover very pro¬ 
mising, at ’Squire Smith’s, of Erdiston, in the west of 
the county. 
TIME OF HARVEST. 
The harvest of this county is early, particularly on 
the fertile soils, which include the sandy or light 
gravelly soils in the north, and the deep rich clay or 
loam in the middle, south, and west of the county. 
There is, in the air and climate of these parts of Wor¬ 
cestershire, a mildness, softness, and salubrity, which 
brings to perfection the fruits of the earth, a full 
fortnight earlier than in the country thirty miles north ; 
insomuch, that it has been usual for reapers, from 
Cheshire and Lancashire, to assist in the reaping of 
Worcestershire, afterwards in that of Staffordshire, 
and to get home in time for that of their own country. 
In Worcestershire the fertile clays, though apparently 
inclined to w r et, are thus early, as well as the sandy 
and gravelly soils; the present season, 1805, I take to 
be a fortnight later than average ; and, from showery 
weather, the harvest nearly a fortnight longer in con¬ 
tinuance, than in a settled season ; the harvest was 
pretty generally begun Monday, August 5, and as 
generally 
