The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-09-14 00:00:00

THIS YEAR'S HARVEST.

The followinz synopsis of the harvest of the present
year, sent to The Times for publication, will no doubt
interest many readers
The main balk of the English corn crops being n,w secured,
and eonsider.mie quantiti3 of giant in various dietrlets
thrwhed out, an approximate estimate may be formed of the
proMMe general yield. .

In farming operations a good seed bed is rsually considered
half the battle towards insuring a good crop, but lost
autumn this was dented in the c .se of wheat ; the winter
condoned wet and unuaturally mild, consecrates tile
soil into a dud, oftal mass, in which state it remained
until spring, when, for want of fro,ts to heave it up
and open Its pores, it became hidelvaind, with few
opportunities to relieve It from that condition by the appli-
oath ti of the horse or hand hoe. The finest weather could
not then altogether compensate for such a bail beginning as
I ventured to predict in your columns on the lath id May
and again on the tat of July, and uulortunatel y the result DOW
proves the correctness of the predictions. Oa Maine:l and
steam, tilled laud these conditions were percsptibly modified,
and I have seen many i stemma vrheat crops which will yield
from $O to 88 bushel. an acre, alongside of others on similar
soile—undrained and shallow ploughed—from which scarcely
half there quantities will be obtained. On a heavy land farm
iu Bedfordshire, about 300 acres of which were drained three
years ago, the tenant itvorms me that he houagd his crop
this year, as he did last, a week ea. Her, hr.s thrashed out
bu.hels an acre more corn, front 3lb. to CM. a bushel
heavier than from the undrained pis, thin of his farm. Wet
lands thus appear to contraet unfavourably in wet seasons
with those artificially drained or naturally dry. For seine
yeers past wh•ft may at me time have been called the drain-
age mania ins been in abeyance, and the drainage navvy in
danger of besontiog extinct; int as the pecuniat y induce-
ment evidently remains, and there is still much work to do,
an e frly and general resumption of the operation is not au
unlikely event.
- • - • - • • - •

Burley was equally unfortunate in not obtaining a good
seed bed, and although the soils congenial to its growth are
lest] liable to injury from wet than them beat eotipted f r
wheat, the crop is gee rally deficient, mad devoid of that
Ini,tht colour so essential to its principal use, the produc-
tion of pale ale.
Oats being a ul at adapted to high altitudes and low tem-
perature inds stood Ilse viol-alludes of tae season without
Injury, and appears everywhere our only extra canal or
pulse crop.
Peas immediately before and during reaping time were
I,llqto-stionailly a well-podded and 111xUrialet coop, bus Mots
It could be gathered it was subjected to such frequent rains,
alternating with sunshine anti drying winds, that the pods
first swelled and then rowned, and in many canes half the
prof M. was loft on the grOillid ; the outcome, therefore.
Nal be very much under an average yield.
Beans throughout bare been strong and promising, and
although they are not yet all secured, they escaped the
injury from frosts to which they are so liable when growing,
and are likely to turn out an average enty

-
Coming now to the potato crop, the state of which over-
shadows all the good features of the season. I can report its
condition from personal inepeetion up to witldn two days of
the pewit time in all the potato districts In Middlesex,
Snrrey, Kent, Essex, Hertz, Cambridge, Surf ilk, and part of
Huntingdonshire. lu several of these districts eepecially
around Chatteris and On Libeach in Cameridgeehde, there Ye
many entail growers to whom, like hay to the Middlesex
farmer, the potato crop to their all ; and, as in numerous
Instances they will not this year realize £2 an acre from
land which usually yields £2O, their ruin is complete
On the larger farms whore the pntato breaks only fern •
fractional part of the areas occupied, the loss will be les,
felt by the growers. On an average, I thiiik three-fourths
of lie crops are conic, and the insidious fanos is rapidly
Increasing its Pomade upon the tubers still in, the ground.
deny et these will be allowed to remain where they are, as
to dig an acre of ground for a ton of taitited ware, to be sold
at a depreciated price, would not pay for the cost of labour,
was not surprised to find salt corresponds with my own
experience, that new reciting potatoes and those planted
whole have shared the Caine fate as those subjected to the
usual, but unnatural, process of cutting. On some thousands
of acres around Chatter's, the Victories, a seedliaig brought
out a few years ago by the great seed grower nab-rem, id
Damien, have nearly superieded the old Scotch and York-
shire ri gents but this year they and all other sorts are
equally blighted.
In, an experiment which I made last year with 13 different
Unite of mitat C 3 and manures I found-1, that exi esaive
itimurieg produced haulm six feet long and literally no
tuliers ; 2, that arab dal manures—namely. guano, super-
pi le sphete of limo, nitrate of soiia, rape dust, emit, and salt,
made the plants more sensitive to the influence of the
we:tiller, and, commetemly, to disease, than farmyard
manure; mid as there is now about £.5.001, 00 worth of
teem artincfals used annually in England, thy may piissihly
Moe aggravated the present calamity; 3, that without any
etressieg the pro-taco 33.44 small, but c im,ialatively sound.
I ado tried the effect of moeing the haulm in tine month
of July, ard found in September that it had not protected
the tubers from taint. arid had lessened the protium to such
an extent that the diggers, who were plaid by the ton,
made a claim loran extra rate forgettine- It up 1 also tried
the experiment of leaden up the demand messing down the
sell by walking along the rows, and as the crop witi then
nit arly ripe I found it stopped the tonal by rutting off the
atmospheric condos:it r to the routs, and did not materally
lemon the crop. By subsequently digging the peta!oes and
strewing them on the surfece elite ground they stilt be very
inutile hardened by the exposure, ainl if gathered mad sorted
before frost sets ia mere ware reed aunt op' food will be
obtained than would otherwise be saved nom the wreck I
have eractemil Oils with success, and can therefore reels-
mend it. In Cheshire the practice Is nuivereei to harden
seed for early plautlng, and if hunt lime was ecattered over the
ground at the game lime, Ii would help the operation anal
' beetilt the land.
- - - -- •

Farina mills were erectiml In many districts, especially in
Scotland, dturing the !owner great potato blight, and on an ,
avirage a ton of farina worth £2O was obtained from six
tons of potatoes ; lot then° have fallein into disuse, and it
would take more time to re erect them than present circum-
stances will allow. Pulping and storing the material in un-
eerground pits from w !licit the air was excludid might
preserve it for a time, or boiling and storing the produce, as
has slimly been suggested by a correspondent in your
eilunpas, might ne prolltably resorted to.
Other meliorating crops sink into Maignlflcsace compared
with the potato, but as they are justly considered the basis
of all good farming, and are indispensable as winter food
Par stick, their 5UC..13.3 or failure is of national Importance.
One mission they have not fainted this year—that of
cleaning the land, for, from wet and want of labour, in-
stances are nut few in which they may be seen nearly
smothered in weeds. lint they have struggled through,
and, when exam examined, both Mangold and Swedos, are found
to be full average enps, except on wet lands, where
they base been chilled. In many counties I find
Kohl Rohl deservedly progressing in favour, and in
Northamptonshire it now covers half the area devoted
to green crops. The palpable deficiency of stock to eon-
mane these abundant crops is now a puzzling considera-
tion for the agriculturist. Grass land can be broken op
when there is not stock enough to cot sume the produce, but
green crops are indispenasible to successful corn-grossing and
the maintenance of fertility in the soil. If, then, wo main-
tain our present green area, or increase It as we ought, wills-
tat increasing our present number of consuming animals, we
will have to grow root* for convenion Into sugar, sail now

•

done at Lavenham, In Suffolk, or into brandy, as Is now
being done at Buseot, In Berks. We would thus, however,
loose our best manure makers, and It will therefore he
more conducive to the permanent welfare of the land to
take whatever steps are necessary to increase the number of
our live stock. For a time the equilibrium between keep
auddts consumers IA gone.
- - •

With regard to the non-mannre produ leg hop crop,
oceupyhig 01,000 acres around Farnham. the finest berries
are hanging in clusters on almost every lane ; in most,of th
Kett districts it Is a strong crop, very well clad, and almost
free from injury by rust or insects but fr on the limited
Worcestershire go dens the rep irts are unfavoura:ile. The
erupts, probably, triple v hat it van last year, and when it is
added that the carriage of the Kent crop last year on the
South.Rastern Railway realised £ll,OOO less than that of the
year before, it is quite clear that a successful crop like the
present must confer outrun!l benefits on the poor hop-picker%
and many others beside the owners.
In mcurdieg In general tering the opinion Thor, formed
from a prrsonal inewctiou of the crops in the eastern,
we. ecru southern, anti several of thv Midland Counties
within the last three months, I would first any that there
will be no exc.:salve v heat 3 ield any where, to ometer-
balra.ce s centrally deficient cr.q.. Neither tail in on nor
last has abundance cf stem been airy index to the quantity or
quality of grain The heads this Near are sinentarly small .iLd
...ea..... • . .. •

trom ilirerto six grains in the iiimer cells awantilig. Nihen
thrashing time cunts it will therefore be likes certain opera-
tion upon a well-known domestic animal "much cry and little
Assumihg the crop tu the United Kinguoni to occupy
300,000 acres :eaa than last year We should tare in round
numbers, 3,5 0,000 acres un !cr wheat, abdmtima, g he yi,id
at seven budiels In quastity below average, watch Is token
to be 3,/ b„,liels an acre, and on* bush,!. or NOM in qualdy. ,
we h..v, a resdne of 22 bushel., or 9,655,0e0 qrs. Valuing ,
the detici- n. y at 603. pr qr. shmts a lora between an
average crop and the present of £t0,500,000. Additg
the potato lon to this as uuder :—on 400 00) acres iu
Enelsn I, 200,000 in Scatlaecl. and 1 070,000 in li eland—
making 1,670,000 liet•i; Wing half this es mne, or 005.000
acres and the value of the crop at £2O an acre, we have
700,000, which, a•hloci to the wheat delicienPy, makes us
nationally £27,200 000 poorer thee if we had hat an average
crop of wheat and a sound crop of potatoes. lit England and
6cotiand this will be merely a lots of capital, but to Ireland
It la essentially a loss of food and though the larger ocm..
piers may tide over it without ruin because they are nowso
rich in live stock, among the million 0( small tquotters who
have noun it will lead to starvation. The Irish people are
now accost mod to the use of maize in the shape ot "yellow
meal," and a timely supply may Wad them from a repetition
of a former [Aniline from a similar cattle.
The timely warnings In Ike Toilet last au:umn In con-
nexion c ith our own deficient wheat crop are well known to
have caused prompt and adequate importations, and these,
I..rtunately, acre aided by a mild winter, light consumption,
and abundance of cheap vegetab!es. We have, therefore,
hail moderate-priced bread and a great diminution of
pauperism.

Animal food, however, has gone Up in price, and continues
to ascend, and as there are strong ine 'cations of discontent
among consumers that all that could have been done has nit
been uone. I would again urge, iss has already been done in
your celumns, that the slaughter of animals under 12 months
old be interdictel, surely the country has a more sertou:
interest in propagating cattle and sheep than hares and
partridges, anti yet these are protected by law half the year
round ? The consumption of animal food Is now double
what it was 100 years ago, and as the ability of the work-
ing p .pulation to obtaiu it increase., it is being allowed
to reeeee from their grasp. At present we are pay-
leg to theforeigner between £60.000,000 and £70,000,00i a
year for meat and bread stuffs, much of winch o •uld lie pro-
duced at home, if the laud was made to produce and main-
tain all that it was capable of doing. I mentioned the other
day in your columns, lii a letter you did me the homer to in-
sert, that Olcre was now sewage enough at command to irri-
gate 150,000 acres, and that probably only 5,000 acres were
under the oneratim. I have sinoo obtained a return of the
land factually under sewage irrigation, and find it comprises
twenty farms and an area of 2,370 acres, if We lied, as
e ought to have, a nitional experamental and example
farm, the unsolved question of sewage irrigation and
many others would soon be settbd. Labour and the
tot and mouth disease have been the great disturb-
ing elements among agriculturists thia year. I have repeatedly
proved that toot and mouth disease may be cured In three
days lay toe application of a blue stems waah to the mouths
and feat of the animals affected, and if the movements of
stock where transition is necessary was more strictly regu-
lated and Carefully a atehed, and disinfectants used in every
cattle shed and at gateways, I am eatialled the disease could
not be propagated slid would soon disappear. The labour
difficulty is not so easily solved, because the tranktion
; from statue d guidance end the dissolution of old
attachments appear complete, and farmers, unlike others,
have not the option of discontinuing their operations. Like
American nee,aities, it will no doubt stimulate the it.ven-
Oen and necessitate the adoption of more machinery, coin-
hived with piecework and specific engaceinents, and it is to
lie hoped that, at the same tune, it will einem an improve-
meet—for which there Is ample room—in the housing and
habits of the labourers themselves. Only the most wortbl as
among them will use the leVer sse have put into their hands,
and threaten emphyers with increased pour rates and the
workhouse, and, perhaps, better education will gradually
weed eveu these from the iudustrial community.—l am, ctc.,

Tuomes C. Soon'.
19, ling's Amu-yard, Iloorgatentreet, Loudon, Sept. 7.