The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-28 00:00:00

THE HARVEST.

FROM the earliest ages has the cultivation of the
soil been regarded as cue ef the roost important
occupations which it could fall to the lot of roan
to fulfil. The dory of the Creation iself is
snrrouuded with imagery, telling of the presetlce
A apicnitural pursuits. It was a garden in
which our first parents were placed a garden
shaded with trees bearing the different descrip-
tions of fruits peculiar to un Eastern climate.
The hiqor3. of Cain and Abel, associated as they
were with the keeping of sheep and the tillage
of the ground is kLown to the youngest child
in our Sunday schools. It is recorded that
Is:4ex wont out into the fiolds at eventide to pray,
and that Niturod was a thighty bunter before the

Lord. Moses kept the flOck-s of his father-in-
law in Midian ; and:centuries later the shepherds

were watching over their flocks near the City of
Bethlehem at the time of the Nativity. Indeed,
from beginning to end the Bible teems with re.
ferences to agriculture. It is not thebusy town
but the silent fields which supply the most im-
pressive lessons.
In our own times, when the influence of great
cities is so marked, and when the most successful
works of man are to be seen amid the hones

vast populations, the occupation of the farmer
has lost none of its interest. The residents in
the town may seldom see a ploughshare at work,
and may be but very imperfectly acquainted with
the duties performed by a harrow ; but the
weather and its results upon egricultural pro-
spects in the summer months feria pneeineel
topic of conversation. In our own islands, when
the atmospheric currents are so uncertain in
their mevements, this is especially the case. We
get n.) trade winds, constantly kowing in one
direction; no rainy season, as such, which may
be regularly expected and consequently provided
for; no long spells of uninterrupted best; no
ovuilowing of a Nile upon which the prosperity
of a whole year depends. The conditions on
which our crops are raised are totally dissimilar
from any of these. The harvest of the present
year is an illustration of the tickle and uncertain
character of British agricultural experience.
With all the advance of science the farmer is
compelled to rely upon the weather for the suc-
cess of months of patient and unremitting labour.
The most perfect appliances are brought into
use so that the earth may yield her increase.
The steam-plough may take the place of the
rude machine which was so often guided by the
hands of our fathers; the threshing machine may
be constructed on the most approved principles,
so that at the beginning and the ending the
sowing of the seed and the ingathering of tilt:
h3rvestw.- hurcan skill shall do its utmost. But,
as in the most priweval days, when man had not
called science to his assistance, and find to he
content solely with his own unaided hands, while
the seed is in the ground he is entirely depend-
ent upon the weather for the !niece:43 or failure
of his labours. No skill can nr.ke the dew fall
softly upon the fertile valley ; oo science can
avert the destructive thunderstorw.

TriV ha like thLEc lui.ve been forcib!y brought
home to us during the present 5..1,50n. Nothing
couid be finer than the Frornii:e towards the end
of June. There was a buret. ef weicame summer
beat, and wheat bade fair to be unusually good.
Barley was declared to be the crop of the year.
Peas showed a full blossoming on great bulk.
Hay alone threatened to be less than usual,
owing to a dry May, which benefitted almost
everphing else. A dripping June succeeded a
thirety May, and when July came in nothing
could ty3 better than the prospects of the crops.
A hot July would have been worth millions of
money to the English farmers, and would have
gone far to counterbalance the losses of the
disastrous season of 1879. Unfortunately the
rains of June, which did so much good, were
continued in July, when they did an iofiiiitnde
of harm. The weather of the dowering seasob
was ttost itijnriou?; many earl% of wheat are in
coflp. q lenee inferti,e ; the crops are laio, 'end itt
oa,o countries mildewed ; peas b: came spoilt'd
and potato' a rotten ; atvi the emilr eut of graF4,
when not washed away has bin damaged 11
ibodi. Ihe ihund. r,torms of July were tropics
hi their violence, and nevastatingiu their effects.
Even when there was some break in the drench-
ing rain, the sky was cloudy and thus the heat
was txcluded from the laud where it would have
been so grateful. It often enough happened
that the nights were clear, while the days were
overcast with cloud. The masses of cloud, which
would have dons no harm whatever in the night,
prevailed in the day, adding positive lose to
material gloom. This is a part of the penalty
which our farmers have to pay for living in a
temperate climate. Many days in August, a
month which, in years gone by, was one of ex-
treme heat, have been as chilly as any in Octo-
ber. The invariable topic of conversation in
these islands, the weather at harvest time, be-
comes a more absorbing subject than usual; and
in the populated town, no less than amid the
quietude of the rural retreat, many a thought is
directed to the work of the farmer, and many a
Irish is expressed for the success of an industry
which affects so much the comfort and the pro-
speri:y of the entire community.