The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-07-05 00:00:00

pampshirc.

AGRlCOtrltat. RIP()Itr Yoe HAUPttleiltlL The
to the present
still prevails, and in looking to the past we are
nimble
to find • parell•l season. The nearest approach
present was the your 1864, but the register of
rainfall at Greenwich for that season records neer],
double the mount of ruin up to thie date than It doer
for the six months now expired of 1870. Let as, how.
ever, take foe eompuison the year 1868, which gave us
the heaeiestoroo of bay, %nuttily and quality combined,
ever grown in &glad. Up to this data, too, the roots
penned well. At the present time there bat been
soured in good condition ono of the lightest drops of
hay f rom the arable land ever known, TLe parks and
dry pastures, of which there lose much in the Southern
division of the oonnty, hal soareely given a pro-Igoe
worth cutting, whilst hundreds of acres have from
neoeuity been fed by tattle. This will, no doubt, he-p
hay at • rather high price; but it should be remembered
that we have now so many substitutes in our catalogs,-
of feeding materials, and most of them capable of being
supplied by foreign importation, that the value of these
will regulate the pries of hay. Straw, too, will be a
vi ry short produce, sad as it now enters so largely into
sorranmption for sheep and rattle its scareity will have
to be estimated. The trop of sainfoin Is an exception,
and is a line crop this year and well got up. In report-
!fig apes the prospect of our grain trope we must bear
in mind that dry and hot seasons are always favourable
for the wheat crop. The plant of wheat on the chalk ,
hills and gravel soils have suffered so much by loss of
plant, through the effect of frost in winter, that ooto
siderable breadths here been ploughed and ro-sown
with spring corn. At thesame thus we shoold remember
that the seed Pm* was so favourable throughout that
a lager breadth was sown than usual, and this, too,
upon the heavy and dilficalt soil.; and it is precisely
noon each lands where the crop livery promising this
year. Therefore, too much stress must not be laid upon
the ploughing op Or loss of plant, for oven the thinned
wheat, where the land has been farmed well. hu made
great improvement—the ears are large and filling vr,ll.
We will, in closequencer of the wheat being so good on
the strong and loamy soils, refer to an old saying,
" When the vales feed the hills, then the crop it over
an average in Ragland." Barley and oats are very
deficient, and should rain come no• the damage done
is too great and serious to be mitigated, These crops
moat, therefore, be estimated as much under the
average ; in fact, some farmers are cutting the lighted
of the crops, gad feeding house and cattle with the
green fodder; othen are dole, so, and intending to
fold over with sheep, a. mesh of it will never pay the
expenses of harvesting, thrashing, &a Beane, both
winter and spring, ars very abort. and, although not
infested with aphis, cannot yield half • stop where they
are a regular plant. Peas on strong land are looking
fairly and podding well, but on all light soils are dying
off, the bloom falling, and will, in many instances, he
cut for key. Roth bean" and peas will, therefore, fall
far short of an average produoe. Vetches and trifolium
have produced so little feed this year, and so large a
portion entirely destroyed, that but little his been saved
for seed We shall, therefore, have to depend greatly
upon importations from Fruite and other countries.
The prospect for the roots is very poor at present, large
breadth, of early lamina and swedes have been cured
off by the fly, and where there is • plant they cannot
make progress without rain. The mangel crop is gene.
rally well planted, and a larger acreage pot in than
nsuaL They are, however, making some progress, as
they do not suffer from the absence of rain like other
roots. If we may judge from the effect that drought,
in 1868, had upon prime of lean cattle and stock sheep,
ther must heat • low prior this year, for th comparison
I. certainly unfavourable to the present season. There
is, however, • probable diff.renoe as regards the stook
in hand, which may make some differenee, for the breed
of lambs in 1867 and 1868, were both moo& over the
average, whereas this year %they are considered ooly a
bare average, beside' which the stocks of sheep have
been unduly drawn upon during the past two years, so
mush so that if we are to the statistics of lest
year we were actually 1,360,000 sheep short of the
previous year, and, without doubt, all these matters
must be considered in estimating this years nrices.—•
JOSEPH BLUSDELL, Southampton, June 29, 1870.