THE ENGLISH HARVEST.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 28 October 1880, Page 2

THE ENGLISH HARVEST.

A fortnight's fine weather at the boginning of harvest is an advantage which cannot easily be overrated. Although it arrived too late to affect materially the yield of the crops, it has enabled farmers! so far to make the best of what they have,, and to save a great deal of grain that' would be wasted in a wet harvest, besides greatly economising the expenses of gathering in. In the southern and eastern counties a largo acreage of. wheat and some barley have been cut and stacked. Laid crops, which would have been sprouted and seriously deteriorated in value in rainy weather, have been speedily cut by the reaping machine. The grain of such crops is of course thinner than it. would have been if they had not beom beaten down - before arriving at; maturity, and the yield is correspondinglysmaller ; but, being dry, the corn will] be marketable, and the wheat will make? fairly good flour, 'while the barley, if not; plump enough for malting, will be bright: enough for distilling. But badly laidl crops are not very common, except in the. Midlands and a few other districts whichi suffered especially from the heavy storm of July. As a rule, the wheat stands up fairly where it is not cut, and the barley is twisted rather than laid flat.

Wheat has suffered very extensively from mildew as well aa from blisht. Tho former disease was late in making its appearance, and where the grain was well matured it is but little affected, although the straw is deteriorated in feeding and selling value. In late districts the attack, came soon enough to affect the grain ; but. fortunately the fine weather checked theprogress of the disease, so that the latewheats will probably be nearly as sound; as the early crops. As a whole, however, the latest reports from nearly all parts of the country show that the: wheat crop has been over estimated. Thefull effects of blight and mildew were not. apparent until the crop became ripe, audi many favorable reports have lately beem discounted by -those who sent them. An examination of the ears, shows great deficiency in corning in- most cases, especially with some of the more delicate varieties of white wheat. Tho middle, spikelets in the sets are very empty, or contain only shrivelled kernok. This is especially the case with wijeafe grown on wet land. Where the crop ift free from disease, however—and many bright and sound pieces, of wheait in all parts of the country—=both yield and quality will be highly satisfactory. The closest estimate that, can be formed from the consideration of many varying reports is that the wheat crop of 18SCL will be much better than that of last, year, but still below the average. If" the fine weather continues, the geaerat quality will be rather high. Sovsvul of : tho samples that have been brought tomarket are all that could be desired.

The barley crop is much better than tW | wheat crop in all parts oJf the country.. Some of it is badly laid, and in such cases; it will be thin. Very generally, too, thft berry, even when tolerably plump, i 3l small, probably owing to the beating down, to which all the best crops were subjected! before they arrived at maturity. As fu | whole, the crop may be estimated at a fnlll average, or a little above it. Oats vary greatly. They suffered more than other white-straw cropa from the drought eff May and Junobut in the north of England, in Scotland, and in Ireland the crop is well spoken of, and it may be reckoned at a full average. Beans and peas arft ! moderately good crops, the former being the better of the two. In some diatrifits the pea crop is very defective.. Of the potato crop the reports, ara almost uniformly favorable as far as yield is concerned ; but more or less disease has appeared in all parts of England* in f lo3t districts of Scotland, and to a less extent in Ireland. Mangolds are backward, small, and generally ratheif thin in plant. The turnip crop is th,e finest that has been, grown for many years. As for meadowhay and clover, the first cut was ratherlight, and the greater portion of it waSi badly injured by the wet weather. Thereis now, however, a remarkably abundant second crop ready for cutting as soon as farmers oan do it.

On the whole, farmers' prospects are much brighter than they were at this time last year ; but we fear they are not sufficiently promising to give very strong hopes of relief to those who depend on the results of this harvest to save them from threatened ruin.—Pall Mall Budget-