The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-06 00:00:00

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Simultaneously with the intelligence of a
orther increose in the price of coal, the country
seen with regret, and in many places almost
to dismay, the effects of the broken weather
:pon the crops. It is manifest that the storm
raid, passed over London on the night of
iunitty the 24th ult, and on the following day
travelled over most of the midland and &Went
:ouuties, hes been attended with results which
:re viewed with anything but complacency by
oe farmers of the districts which were the jui-
n...lint.; thettro of the visitation. The standing
turn has lc en beaten down by the combined
attion of toe wind and of the tropical descent
If rain, while the wheat which was previously
..inod up in staves has since prouted, and
c 0,,, utiwholesome. No wend, r
&hitless was the retoit, pr
meat eharte!eri;tie of the corn markets, aiel
hat in many cases an savonee of from Is to 2s
r jr. was toot, ii. In fact, at the critical time
ui veal, lc coilierilig, the reboil:A of such a
' '

_
.mtpest th tt which Ilea lately swept over the
ind are well-nigh inealculable. The storm
loud and th.: mighty r.sbing wind, reverbera
.g peals of thunder, and the vivid fltslies of
s i•aetiaies blue as the watt•rs of the
iea, at others dieing elong the heavens a.
hough it would rind them bit twain—are viewed

coin very ditf.rvnt topects. The philosopher
eI the meteorologist, c din and secure in his
ittly, regards the elemental strife raging with.
mt bis windows with the utmost complacency.
I.isakes his netes of some peculiar electrical
listiorbance with the greatest coolne-s and de-
iteration anti so far from the boisterous
veather having a tendency to interfere with his
income, it may pnssibly operate in the opposite
direction by adding to his reputation as an acute
observer of the laws whit!!i govern the physical
economy of tint universe. But with the anxious
igriculturist, it bevy that' leratorin in %tignat
or September is quite another matter, and oftvn
turns outs very serum; affair. It is then that
he looks forward to reaping the reward of a
whole year of thought and care, and watchful.
Email. Through the long and dreary time of
winter, the gradually lengthening days of spring,
tnil while the fierce heats of July open wide
fissures i • the hard anti thirsty ground, the
tiller of the soil works on ins condition of mini
anything hat pleasant, tantilised alternately by
'tope and fear. All looks promising, when
suddenly the wind shifts to the westward, vast
banks of cloud drive up from the boundless ex.
of the restless Atlantic, the rain descends day
after day, and . considerable loss attends the
labours of a whole twelvemonth. It is not un-
common to hear, daring tbe visitations of violent
thunderstorms, that not only has corn been
beaten to the ground, bat that, in the low-lying
lands haystacks and cattle have been swept away
by rapidly rising Hoods. It would be almost
impossible to name any other occupation which
is so completely at the mercy of atmospheric
disturbance. The sadden veering of the wind
to the east in the spring time blights a promis-
ing fruit crop, just as an unexpected accession
of moisture later in the mitten materially inter-
feres with the succe,s of the corn harvest. It
is really extraordinary that with all the progress
, which the science mm teorology has made, it is
tunable to account for the remarkable vati tions
in the ckaracter of our summers. Take two
years of recent meniory as illustrations. The
summer of 1867 was wet and broken by rains
and storms, while that of 1868 was the hottest
and the driest ever known in this country.
Week after week, and month after month, there
was a cloudless sky, aril not a drop of rain
cattle were starving for want of keep, and the
grass in the fields became so dry anti parched as
to be easily set on fire by o ptissitig train. Way
there should hav-t been slittli a difference is open
only to conjecture, and with all our knowledge