The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-12 00:00:00

aro light, and all goods are being made to order. Yarns
hold firm, at very high rates. . .

LEICESTER, Sept. 10.—The hosiery trade remains in an
active state, and during the week there has bees quite as
average amount of business doing at the warehouses. In
the rural districts also the workpeople aro fully employed.
The wool market is quiet and prices remain high. There
is a tolerable demand for yarns, which are realising extreme
rates, and spinners are well engaged.

The Harvest and Appearance of the Crops.

(From the Liverpool Mercury.)

Since the appearance of our last article on this subject
the extraordinary drought which had prevailed for upwards
of four months in the southern and midland counties had
been brought to a close by abundant refreshing showers of
rain. Already the whole aspect of the country is fresh and
green, and if ws should have a continuance of the present
mild, moist weather during the month of September and
the earlier part of October the root crops wi'l turn out better
than was expected, and the meadows and pastures will soon
be well covered with grass. In the south and east of Eng-
land the grain crops are all secured in excellent condition,
and promise at all events a fair return, especially of wheat.
The principal anxie,y is new about grass and other kinds
of food for cattle and sheep during the autumn and winter
months. That they will be scarce it cannot be doubted,
notwithstanding the present most seasonable rains, but there
is still time for a considerable improvement even in that
respect. The following notes relate chiefly to tne appear-
ance of the root, grass, hop, and fruit crops in the southern
counties, and especially in the counties of Surrey, Kent, and
Essex.

arting from London towards the hop gardens of Kent,
we find the train crowded with women and children, and a
few men, going down into the country to the hop picking.
At this season upwards of 10,000 of the poorer part of the
population of London turn out and encamp for weeks among
the fertile and romantic hills of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex,
to assist in picking hops. They take their cooking vessels
with them, and large loaves of bread, and beg or buy any-
thing else that they require down in the country, sleeping
in barns, hop drying houses, malt houses, or in the hop fields
on worm dry nights. It is a yearly " out" to thousands
of poor families, in which they leave the dull and noisome
alleys of London to breathe the pure air of the Kentish
hills for three weeks or a month, and pick up as much

money as will pay their rents, in the light and pleasant
occupation of hop picking. At this season of the year the
thinly-scattered population of the hop-growing districts
is quite insufficient to secure the crops. Tho human hand
alone can gather the delicate fruit or flower of the hop bino,
just as the hand only can pick the bean of the coffee tree and

wool of the cotton plant. No machinery, and scarcely any
tool or implement, is of use in any part of the operation of
hop picking. All must be done by the hand, and done in a
few days, or the whole result of the year's labour is loot.
The result is that there is a great demand for hop pickers at
this time, and that the whole district is overrun with swarms
of men, women, and children during this month, when the
hop is ripe. The principal hop districts have hitherto been
Maidstone and Canterbury, in Kent—Farnham, in Surrey

—Ticehurst, and the other Hursts, in Sussex—lpswich, in
Sutiolk—East Thetford, in Nottinghamshire—and several
districts in Worcestershire andllerefordshiro, Kent and

Surrey are, however, in an especial manner the hop counties
of England, both on account of the great quantity and the
fine quality of the hops grown in their chalky and loamy
soils. Now that the hop duty has been repealed, which
tended to confine the cultivation of hops to a few districts,
they will probably be grown in some other districts,
though the hop plant requires a very choice soil and climate
to bring it to perfection, by giving it its finest flavour.
The hop harvest of the present year promises to be very
good. The bines are well grown and thickly covered with
hops, and both the leaves and the plants aro of a healthy
colour, the leaves being of a dark shining green, and the hops
of a light yellowish green. We did not see a single hop
ground in a ride of 150 miles in which there was not a good
show of hops. In point of beauty the hop grounds ot Eng-
land at this season far surpass the vineyards of France and
the Rhine, and are only surpassed by the festooned vines
yards of Italy.
In that charming part of Surrey which lies between
Herne-hill and Sydenham, the recent rains have greatly
improved the appearance of the fields and gardens. The
burnt-up look of the fields is gone, and young fresh grass is
springing up amongst the withered herbage. All the corn
is in s'ock, not a single sheaf remaining in the fields, and
the young clovers are coming up in the stubbles where the
land is laid down for a clover crop. The stubbles in which
grain is to be succeeded by roots are many of them alrendy
broken up, ready for the winter frosts. The soil is a deep
brown-coloured marl, but becomes lighter in colour on ap-
proaching the chalk near Sydenham, The whole district is
well wooded with noble forest trees, chiefly elms and oaks.
Turning eastward into Kent the soil is still a strong brown
loam, very favourable to the growth of wheat and grass.
The wheat is all safe in the stack. The grass land shows
the effect of the rains in a crop of young grass springing up
amongst the dry herbage, and sweetening for the sheep and
oat tle, which are very numerous and fine. Beyond Bromley
we come to the first hop-gardens, end find them afterwards
all through Kent. The plant is very tall and green, and
thickly covered with clusters of hops, which aro beginning to
change colour and assume a slight shade of yellowish green.
In this neighbourhood and all through Kent the mangold
crops are very healthy, and promise a good return. This
valuable root is very extensively grown both in Kent and
Essex for cattle and sheep, and does much better in dry
seasons like the present than either Swedish or yellow tur-
nips. The field cabbage is also extensively cultivated, and
is doing well this year. The turnips are thin and patchy.
Large quantities of coppice wood rue grown in this district
for hop poles, for which there is a vary' great demand. The
shoots are cut down every seven or eight years, only such
.roes being grown as send out fresh shoots as long as the

tree livos.
At the Sevenoaks Junction hundreds of hop-gatherers
leave the train, forming a merry company, chiefly of women
and children, and spread themselves over the country in
search of work, going southwards towards tho chalk and
cretaceous soils, most favourable to the growth of hors.
The soil about the Sevonoaks Junction is somewhat strong,
and more suitable fur corn and grass than for hops. Many
large fields of potatoes and mangold are looking very well.
At Farmingham-road marks of heavy rain during the
previous night. To the north, as far as the Thames, a
great range of wheat land laid out in large fields, with
farm-houses surrounded by corn-stalks; to the south, chalky
hills and downs, well cultivated and wooded, and with hop
plantations in every sheltered nook. All the mangold and
potato• crops good ; most of the turnip crops poor. The
second crops of clover much better than in the eastern
counties.

From Rochester to Canterbury the road—still on the rich,
brown corn lands of Kent, but with the chalk close on the
right band—is so near that the products of both kinds of
soil can be seen. On the stronger soil a succession of
orchards, the trees covered with ripe apples, pears, plums,
and walnuts. Here also are the great cherry orchards, now
stripped of their fruit, and the filbert-woods covered with
ride filberts. The corn lands stretch northward to the
Thames, and far beyond the river over the whole corn dis-
trict of Essex, so famous for its fine wheat. Only three
fields of corn uncurled in a ride of more than 100 miles,
and those three oats. Twenty corn stacks and upwards
appeared in many of the stack yards, and the farmers speak
of the corn crops as very good this year on these strong,
retentive soils.
To the south the land rises in chalk hills, which extend
from the Medway to the North and South Forelands. The
soil light, and the crops chiefly barley, clover, and turnips
with numerous flocks of sheep. Hop plantations in all the
valleys and sheltered places. All the crops are good except
the turnips, and they improve as we approach the sea, either
from occasional showers during the dry months or the nature
of the soil.
The green valley in which Canterbury stands is fresh and
pleasant, as it always is, the meadow being kept constantly
fresh by irritation of the water of the River Stour, which
flows through the city. The hop grounds are very extensive
and productive, and all the crops, including even turnips,
look well in this well-watered neighbourhood.
The downs and valleys from Canterbury to the sea form
this year the freshest and greenest district in the south of
England. The turnip crops are generally very good, the
potato and mangold crops still batter ; and the grain is all
secured in excellent condition.

SFECITLATION IN PIG.IRON WARRANTS.—
BROKERS' CLAIMS ON BANKRUPTS.—Important
legal discussions, in connection with the right of brokers to
claim upon bankrupt estates for losses through speculations
in pig-iron warrants, are likely to arise out of Registrar
Hill's decision in the bankruptcy of Messrs. B. Barker and
Son, of Birmingham; the Registrar having admitted the
claim; and the assignees having expressed their intention
of appealing to the Lords Justices. The grounds upon
which the proof was admitted were, that the transactions
appeared to have been bona fide sales and purchases,
and not time bargains; but ii should be remem-
bered that all dealings in pig-iron warrants are
of the nature of time bargains, and that until within
the last few years this was so openly acknowledged
that, in the event of the buyer choosing to draw iron against
his warrants, he could not.require the delivery of the par-
ticular brands and proportions represented on those war-
rants, but was bound to accept any of reputed equal quality.
The Registrar admits that no debt was due to Messrs.
Walduck from the bankrupts at the time of the bankruptcy ;
the iron bought was never delivered, nor was there any
thought of delivering it, and previous payments wore
simply the payments of differences to the bankrupts.
If differences upon speculative dealings be admitted as
debts due from bankrupt estates, it is difficult to understand
why public companies should not prove against bankrupt
shareholders for the amounts uncalled upon all shares
which they have subscribed for.—/tfining Jou) nal,
COPPER ORES,—At the Cornish ticketing on
Thursday 2,C83 tons of copper ore realized £10,937 10s.
Averages :—Standard, L 124 Gs. ; prico per ton, £d 55. ;
produce, 61. Lompared with the sale on September 1 the
standard has slightly advanced, and with the corresponding
monthly sale it has advanced £1 10s. Price per unit of
produce at the sale on ThAreday last, £los, 31d,