The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-11 00:00:00


THE PAST HARVEST.

Now that the month of October is so far on its
way, and the harvest thanksgivings which have
of late years become so popular in the country
districts are drawing to a close, the opportunity
seems a convenient one for casting a retrospective
glance over the results of the year, so far as the
ingatheriug of the crops is concerned. In order
properly to do this, we must carry our recollec-
tions back at least twelve months. It will be re-
membered that in the first week of October, 1872,
began that season of wet weather, which lasted
almost without intermission for fifteen weeks, and
• did not come to a close until the middle of Janu-
ary in the present year. The vast quantity of
rain which fell interfered very materially with
agricultural operations, and, as a consequence,
" considerably less than the usual quantity of
wheat was sown. The effects of continuous
moisture are also seen in the failure of the potato
I crop. The spring of the present year was cold
and ang,enial ; a succession of east winds swept
over the land, checking vegetation to a serious
Eve. op to the beginning of June great
coats and winter wraps were brought into requisi-
tion, to the dismay of the farmer, and to the loss
of the tradesman who had lcmg looked forward to
brighter days as the season for the disposal of his
summer goods. Before, however, we were half
way through June, there was a favourable turn in
the weather, which now became sunny and warm;
and such was the progress of the crops that there
was every hope of beneficent influences counter-
acting the effects of agencies which had pre-
viously tended to deterioration. In July we were
visited by a wave of fierce heat, which rapidly
brought the grain to maturity ; and this was most
fortunate, for in consequence of the wet autumn
there was a large average of spring sown wheat.
It now seems, however, that the forcing heats of
July have in no degree compensated for the 15
weeks of autumnal rains, the hard and ungenial
easterly winds of spring, or the stormy and broken
August and September of the present year. The
wheat crop is described as being very inferior, and
much below the average, and although barley is a
good crop, it by no means counterbalances the
falling off in the wheat. The produce of oats is
nearly equal to that of barley, but it appears that
beans and peas are the prineipal crops of the
year. It is, however, to the wheat harvest that
the people of this country attract the greatest
importance, and the fact that there is again a
falling off, following so closely upon the defi-
ciency of ilia year, must once more make us
extensive purchasers of grain in the food markets
of the world. Such a diversion of capital is, we
may say, by no means so serious a matter as it
would have been a generation ago. Then the im-
portation of corn meant the payment of a con-
siderable sum to the Custom House for every
quarter of grain landed from a foreign ship; now
it reaches our people absolutely free, even the
shilling duty imposed as a registration fee having
been abolished within the past few years. Thirty
years ago the failure of the harvest meant suffer-
ing, wide-spread distress, and in many cases ruin
to the agriculturist—for the population was mainly
dependent upon home-grown corn for its year's
supply of 'ood—now, with the abolition of import
duties, and with more attention on the part of the
farium to the raising of cattle, a deficient harvest
is not looked upon as such a very grave matter,
for the nation is rich, and can well afford to go
beyond its own borders for the food required by
its people.