The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-28 00:00:00

THE HARVEST IN SCOTLAND.

Another week of most splendid weather, during the
greater part of which the barometer and thermometer stood
alike high, has gone far to wind up the arrears of harvest
!show- over the whole length and breadth of the South of
Scotland. Hills and moors there may be on which portions
of crop remain to be led and even cut ; but these are ex-
ceptions to the general rule, and it would be difficut to
point to a single district, howerer bleak, in which ricks,
more or less goodly, are not rapidly rising around every
farm steading. In Dumfries, Kirkmahoe, Tinwahi, Kirk-
michael, Kier, Clo3eburn, and many other parishes we could
name, a mere scantling of stooks remain exposed, and
should the present weather hold to the end of the week,
harvest-home will be celebrated, in nineteen cases out of
twenr, from Portpatrick to Moffat in one direction, anti
fro / S inquhar to the gates of Carlisle in another. The
whore grain gathered lately was secured in most superior
order, •and from the non-necessity throughout of opening
out, if we except very trifling instances, the present
harvest must have been one of the most economical as
regards waste and wages, which the farmer has expe-
rienced fur several years. Judging from the eye, the barn-
yards seem exceedingly well filled ; wherever the farms
are large the stacks arc capped and banded in the most
workman-like order ; the elements theinselvei cannot now
assail them so as to produce the sl;gliteA harm, anal in
walking or riding along it is delightful to see the elements
of future competence, as regards the indutArious tiller of
the soil, and of peace anti plenty as regards tho consumer,
scattered so lavishly over the land. What measure of
produce the grain crops will yield when brought to tie test
of the barn-floor, is as yet guessed rather than known, but
from the experiments already made in the few instances
that have come under our own knowledge, we feel inclined
to augur favourably on the whole. From the high measure
cf solar heat vouchsafed in a marvellously brief space, uni-
formity of sample in oats, wheat, and barley, will this year
be pretty common—of itself a highly comfortable circum-
stance for buyer as well as seller. Last season the gene-
ral state of the crops was distressingly the reverse, and
many a corn-factor found, to his cost, that. the difference
between top, medium, and inferior samples, was literally
such that his customers would hardy believe inits reality.
The turnips are still vegetating vigorously, and hence the
high price paid for sheep at the last Falkirk market, com-
pared to the transactions at Inverness.
As September is
root,
Considered the best growing month for this particular
the bulbs must have progressed greatly during the late
splendid weather. The late potatoes mtu;. also have been
advancing in mealness AS Well as Stv,wli Tev,T !hey remise
unscathed by frost, Alany fields fortunately at ip this
situation, and so tar as we know, the frosthas not imp
severe, morning or evening, for the last weak or more.
Au extensive Dumfries-shire agriculturist, who has
recently returned from a northern tour, in which he vi.
sited many of the Highland Isles, Jura among tho
num.
u taJr, informs us that almost everywhere the progress
of npro%em-.nt a visible, and that the facilities afford. d
by steam navigation, have already, in the course of
1t few years, revolutionized the face of eine country.
Still he avers that there are localities—more particularly
among the Isles—where turnip husbandry is perfectly tine
known in soils admirably adapted for it, and where the
science of practical agriculture lags at least 100 years be-.
hind the successful enterprise of Dumfries•shire. The
most important. part of his communication is that the
Highland and. Island proprietors with whom he consorted
have, one and all, the very highest opinion of the agricul-
tural ability of thefarmers of the South of Scotland, find
would offer every facility to the removal of such a tenantry,
and the spirit of enterprise along with them, to a new
sphere of usefulness in the north. There are many estates,
both on the islands and mainland, where extensive farms
may he had, almost at a pepper-corn rent, compared with
the terms nearer home, and which, after a few years, would
repay
toil and agricultural energy by a golden harvest.—
Dumfries Courier.