The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-06 00:00:00

EP,e toittb.ribge ellsertrer.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6tb, 1879.
THE HARVEST.

THF long-continued course of wet weather
has given rise to the most serious appre-
hensions respecting the yield of the crops.
This is proverbially the month of barley
harvest, when the work of the reaper is in-
vested with a sentiment of the deepest inter-
est, when the sheaves are supposed to be
bound up long after the sun has gone down,
and under the pale light of the harvest
moon, and when we imagine the gleaner to
pursue his task under the blue firmament of .
heaven. That is the theory; but in practice, i
so far as 1379 is concerned, the opening of ,
September finds the season less advanced
than it has been for twenty years. It was
in 1850 that the last plague of rain and
waters descended on the land; but certainly
the rainfall of the present year has exceeded
it. The year used to be divided into four
quarters; bat our most recent experience
has been that the winter lasted six months
—from November to May,—and that there
ha.s been neither spring nor summer as we
formerly remembered them. The rivers,
both great and small, have overflowed their
banks, and created enormous damage both
in town and country; hay has been carried
off by hundreds of tons into the seething
floods ; valleys have been converted into
lakes, and gentle hill side streams into rush-
ing torrents; arable and pasture land has
been submerged for miles together; the corn
has rotted up to its ears in water; the hops
have been destroyed, and the potatoes have
rotted into a pulp in the sodden soil. The
damage by the heavy rains and the devastat-
ing storms is in many places irreparable.
Statisticians who have made a careful in-
spection of the crops have estimated the loss
to this country, through the deficient yield,
to be from thirty-five to fifty millions ster-
ling.
"Is it not wheat harvest to-day ? " we
are asked, in the First Book of Samuel; and
long before those words were written, the
setting of the bow in the heavens was a ful-
filment of the Divine promise to Noah, that
while the earth remained seed-time and
harvest should not cease. Unless the world
is to be turned in a desert, a harvest of some
kind there must be; but the sum of money
plot( d above shows the immense difference
between a good year and a bad one. For
several years past the farmer, while seeing a
less quantity of produce brought into his
garner, through a succession of bad seasons,
has also obtained less money for his goods.
From 1873 to 1879 he has, on an average,
obtained 495. 7d. per qr. for his wheat, while
from 1867 to 1873, he obtained 655. sd.
This is a very material falling off, and it is 1
to be accounted for only in one way. The '
population is greater than in 1867, and the
consumption of bread is therefore larger
than it was twelve years ago. The fall in
the price of wheat is therefore not due to
any lessening of the demand. But within
the past few years. vast quantities of Ameri-
can wheat have been exported, and of the
whole, 73 per cent. has come to these
islands. The valley of the Mississippi alone
is capable of growing corn enough to feed
the whole civilized world. The result, there-
fore, can easily be imagined of appropriating
even a small proportion of the outspreading
American continent to the growth of wheat.
With o, virgin soil and. Tie necessity to give
the land rest, as in a country where cultiva-
tion has been going on for centuries, a
splendid yield of wheat is speeedily pro-
duced; and with the cheap freights which
are a consequence of the depression in the
shipping trade, it can be brought across the
Atlantic cheaper than it can be raised in
England. Hence the lowered prices. If the
farmer could have in some degree made up
for this result by growing increased quanti-
ties, all might still have been well; but
unfortunately the seasons have been against
him ; this is the sixth bad harvest in succession
and a Royal Commissionof Inquiry has been
appoin+ecl to ascertain what can be done.
The sentiment which prompted so many
Script aral allusions to the harvest and to the
cornfields exists to a great extent even to
this day, and the work of the reapers is re-
p; in some districts almost with a sort
of superstitious reverence. There is no
occupation upon the land which is conducted
so entirely at the mercy of the elements as
that of the farmer. At no time of the year
is he safe, The cutting winds and frosts of
May destroy his fruit blossoms as ruthlessly
tr, the drenching rains of a sunless summer
spoil his ha; and wheat crops; and he has
eanly to look on while the work of devasta-
tion i 5 in progress, powerles alike to mitigate
tee frost, or to etay the course of the storm.
Bat as agriculture is a most important factor
in contributing to the united wealth of the
entire community, the depression of such an
interest must be a matter of deep concern
to all. The results of the farmer's work
appear every day upon the tables of crowded
ponaisaions ; aerl both town and country will
flow with anxiety the inquiry of the Royal
Commission, while deeply regretting that
such a cause for its appointment sherdd have
arisen.