The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-19 00:00:00

Etie -stourbrib•ge Obstotr.

SATURDAY, JULY 19th, 1379.

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

FEW readers of a newspaper, whether their
bent of mind be political, literary, or
philosophical, fail to take an interest, about
this time of the year, in the prospects of the
harvest. Some may pass their lives in the
study, and scarcely ever gaze upon a field;
others, devoting their existence to the work-
int, out of some great problem, are as far as
the poles asunder from devoting a thought
to agricultural pursuits, yet in the months
of early autumn they cannot but be led to
think over the hopes of those who till the
soil, and the fruits of whose labours so
entirely depend upon the conditions of the
atmosphere.
Many a year has come and gone since
either the manufacturer, the tradesman, or
the farmer passed through such a season as
that in which all are now suffering alike.
The manufacturer has for years been face
to face with stagnant enterprise, crippled
commerce, silent mills, and smokeless
chimneys. The spindle and the loom once
so busy, have stood still, and no orders have
come in from our overstocked markets. The
tradesman has seen a long winter swallowing
up the entire spring goods; and even the
summer months have not brought summer
weather. When overcoats and comfortable
wraps are required in July, people do not
want light summer attire. With not less
reason does the agriculturist put on a gloomy
face when he encounters nothing but week
after week of flooding storms, low temper-
ature, and absent sunshine. It is the most
disastrous season which he has had for
certainly twenty years. The nearest parallel
to it was in 1860, when there were only six
dry weeks out of the whole fifty-two. At
present, even on well-farmed and well-drained
lands of a clayey nature, the crops are
considerably injured, while on ill-farmed and
undrained laud the matter is simply ruinous.
The visitors to the great Kilburn Show can
form some idea of the condition of stiff clays.
Altogether the outlook is a sad one. Many
farmers find that attempts at weeding are
hopeless ; and that unless we get some dry hot
weather, the grass and clover crops, and
even peas, will rot for want of gathering.
The root crops, no less than the wheat and
the hay, want sunshine, and this they find it
impossible to get. It is perhaps a darker
time for the tenant farmer than even for the
tradesman, seeing that the results of his
labours are more directly affected by
climatic changes. Seldom has he contem-
plated a summer that was more foreboding,
or that gave less promise of performing its
allotted work. He has found a winter of
unueual severity followed by a midsummer
of a singularly uncongenial character. Instead
of being nearly all saved, as it generally is
at this time of the year, the scythe has
scarcely touched the hay-crop in many an
English shire. Turnips, on which the
winter keep of our cattle so much depends,
have not been half got in; and it is feared
that upon hundreds of acres devoted to the
rearing of this vegetable, the yeild will not
be worth gathering. Many of the early
sowings have suffered from the heavy rains
and the cold, while the tempestuous weather
has been most injurious to the young wheat
blossoms. It is not only the farmer who
thus directly suffers from a continuation of
unseasonable weather. Dependent upon
the rain and upon the sunshine is also the
arrricultural labourer, and he, no less than
his employers, is disheartened and dismayed
at the long succession of gloomy skies and
of cheerless noons. And so the tiller of the
soil, both master and man, is depressed in
spirits, as day after day he listens to the
wild westerly gales which sweep in from the
Atlantic. While the Archbishop of Canter-
bury directs special prayers to be offered in
the churches for such weather as will enable
the farmer to gather in his crops, thire
little break in the vast masses of cloud
which are driven in from the sea. Indeed
the clouds, so far from clearing away, seem
only to bring up reinforcements. The wind
heavily charged with moisture, passes over
the land with a wail of melancholy; its
mournful tones are echoed from the dripping
foliage of the trees ; and its chilling breath
is felt in the streets of our great towns. In
town and country alike nothing is now met
with but discouragement and gloom.
Unfortunately it is not by human effort
that an improvement can be effected in the
atmospheric conditions by which the uni-
verse is regulated. We can no more change
the eternal laws which govern the seasons
than we can by our own will add to our
stature. The poet Longfellow has told me
that
"Anis of Gad—if he but wave his ban,l.
The clouds callee, the mists descend in rain."
All our science and our skill cannot raise
the temperature. or clear the sky from banks
of cloud. All that man can do is to improve
upon those great original agencies which
came into force with the creation that is to
put to the best possible use the means which
Nature has supplied. And if, at times,
Nature seems to be doing her work imper-
fectly, and not in accordance with the
pledge that while the earth remaineth, seed-
time in harvest shall not cease, we have still
the promise that the Judge of all the earth
shall do right. When we have once more
continuous sunshine; and with a revival of
trade, we shall forget our present grief, and
be thankful to that all-seeing wisdom which
has sent plenty and cheerfulness to the peo-
ple of this world.

THE IRON TRA.DE.
WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday.
The market to-day was very fiat in most
departments, but prices svere held somewhat
firmer on the basis of £7 10s. for marked
bars. Scarcely anything was done in this
branch of the trade. For unmarked iron,
:however, some f ,ir orders were secured by
manufacturers from the district. Hoopr,
nail rods, and galvanisers' sheets met wilh
mcst demand, the latter at about £7 for
singles and the first named at £7 2s. 6d.
Boiler plates and tank plates very much
neglected, but girder glates had an increased
demand, and rivet iron was bought up mu( h
more readily to-day. In the pig trade part-
mine was the most saleable, and Noah-
onntry pigs were in more inquiry. Melt-
ing iron was in fair request. The business
transacted in forge pig was principally
in small lots. Fuel of all kinds had
a limited sale. The factors in the home
hardware market have had increased d.is
counts allowed them by the hollow war
and light ironfounders of 21 per cent., bite
he latter will in future refuse to pay tALt
urine on email parcels.
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