The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

1.1113P1y . year ; and it need not be said that to have
ranee as a competitor will exercise a great influence
°n our American trade, We shall have a winter of
InPezatively dear bread. The farmers may be saved
."'Y high prices; let us hope that there will be work
clinugh for the great consuming mass to make it bear
"ne extra charge without much difficulty. . . .
The present harvest, which promised fairly in July,
ust now be reckoned as below the average; but for
‘ne present at least we are unwilling to believe that it
be so much under as is commonly feared. The
l'ains of August have damped the cheerful prophecies
With which Mr. Kains-Jackson and others favoured
Ile some weeks ago; we must, at least, no longer
for a yield of nine and a half million quarters of
Wheat, Still, the farmers must not too hastily make
lup their minds to a second '79. There is no analogy
)etween the two years. That was all bad; at
ieaet half of this has been favourable. The light,
nut good hay crop will be supplemented by a second
which, if the sky soon clears, will be of first-
tta'r.e excellence: and the larger roots are looking ex-
,remely well. Potatoes are in danger; but the disease
'P not yet largely declared. It must not, moreover, be
'°rgotten that for garden produce of all kinds this
,''eac has been quite a different affair from the annee
terrible—the year when neither fruit, nor flowers, nor
vegetables could be got to grow, and when the
?ardener's care was rewarded with no other crop
81an a luxuriant one of sow-thistle and bindweed.
n the whole, the cultivators' motto, at least for
VI present, might be that of the old Ho meric
bear up, brave heart! thou hast borne "worse
halt than these." The ordeal through which they
ye passed and are passing is a cruel one; but
-"e3" may get safely through it yet. And some
Practical good may flow from this forcing to the
'rent of the political and social
questions connected
With our agricultural population. Acts of Parliament
nnot make good harvests, but they can at
Vast relieve agriculture of burdens that unfairly
n,PPrese it. It is becoming tolerably evident
IPat our system of land law, of local taxa-
nn, and of looal government wants a thorough over-
tmuling ; and nothing is so likely to promote a settle.
rent of that whole class of questions as the struggle
r existence that our farmers are now going through.
Colonel Tomline, the candidate for North Lincoln-
Shire, expresses the feeling of a vast number of
veuntry people when he protests that he "does not
F,4kre a straw about the boundary between Greeoe and
iturk•ily, but that he cares very much about local taxa-
fl°ll-) We fear that a country like ours cannot yet af-
circl to lose all interest in "the boundary between GI eece
14,11(1 Turkey ;" but still the feeling that Colonel
on:dine expresses is natural enough. If the farmers,
4.nd the landlords, too, will set themselves to work to
"If°rni the weak and worn-out parts of our rural
I:llftehinery, they will have done much for the country,
ofneh for themselves, and something for the prospects
future sufferers from the bad harvests by which
'nese islands are periodically afflicted.

to'Clie Archbishop of York has addressed the following letter
the archdeacons of the diocese of York on the subject of
‘ge harvest :
August 27, 1881.
hIY dear Archdeacon,—l request the clergy, thr Dugh
J°ll, to use in their churekes the prayer for fair
rteather, and also to direct the minds of their people,
:rough their pulpit teaching, to their dependence on
e goodness of God, and to the many sins which keep
from Him. The present anxieties about the harvest
ay thus be the means of drawing many to think
iVre of God, and of His goodness and forbearance in
,Put, and to devote themselves more to Him.
„" 'ming you every blessing in your work, I am, ever
(Mrs truly, W. Emit.