The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-08 00:00:00

The Harvest in Scotland.

DENNY.—Since the beginning of the present week, as
during the closing days of the last, the weather has been
on the whole favourable for harvest operations. Com-
paratively little now remains to bo reaped, but a consi-
derable breadth is still in stock. Both autumn and
spring sown wheats are a good crop, and the quality of
the grain will be pretty fair, while the produce of straw
will be fully an average. This remark applies both to
dry-field and carse wheats. The anticipation that barley
and oats would be deficient in grain and straw has been
verified on most of the farms on the lower part of the
district. In the higher districts, where the chief cereal
grown is oats, the weather for the last few days has
been favourable for filling, and where the crop has not
been injured by the frost the yield will be pretty fair.
Potatoes aro turning out well, and no disease has yet been
reported. At the sales which have taken place in the dis-
trict, they have fetched from 5s to 6s 6d per 100 yards, ac-
cording to kind and quality. Hay is selling at from £3los
to £3 15s per ton, and in one or two cases as much as £4
has been obtained. Turnips aro giving good promise, the
weather having been propitious for their growth. Grass
lands afford an excellent and nutritious bite for grazing
stock, which are making good progress, and continue to
command a high price.

KELSO. —Reaping may be said to be finished within
a radius of several miles round Kelso, and within the
last two or three days a largo quantity of grain has been
safely deposited in the farm-yards. In the hilly districts,
however, farmers are not so far advanced, and it is to be
hoped will not require to let their cut grain remain so long
in the fields as those in low and early parts of the county.
In some parts of Berwickshire near the coast cutting had
just commenced last week, some of the crops being very
good, and as yet not damaged by the weather. The recent
wet has not done the damage which was at one time anti-
cipated, and if the weather now keep dry for some days,
the great bulk of the grain in this district will be housed
in fair order. Symptoms
_of disease among potatoes are
showing themselves.

The SHAKERS.--The New York Times described
recently a Sunday morning among the Shakers, a body who
take their name from their custom of dancing together in
their religious services, shaking and clasping their hands,
and singing a monotonous and repeated psalm or song. The
sect appears to be a distortion of Puritanism, and an in-
stance of extremes meeting. It was founded in America
by one Ann Leo, who went thither from England towards
the close of the last century with ten of her disciples. More
interesting" than the peculiarity of their worship is the
mode of life of these people. The men and the women,
though they dance together on Sundays, live in separate
communities, bound to celibacy, and they are stated to be
the only class who in America have succeeded in main-
taining the community principle through a long series of
years. Their time is devoted to work. They are thrifty
farmers, their barns full, and their hands hard with honest
labour. They supply "the world of mankind," as their
Phrase is, with excellent butter, fat turkeys, and fine
cattle. They have a good repute for honesty, but they are
careful to have their full amount of money for money's
worth. In the season the women make knick-knacks and
ornaments for ladies visiting the country, and take plea-
sure in amusing the young city people who go to see them.
Like their meeting-houses, their dwellings are plain,
but neat, and kept with scrupulous cleanliness. Their
horses and cattle are in excellent condition, and their fields
are industriously tilled. The writer of the article from
which these statements are taken says that the men from
" well kept," but the women he describes as a haggard set,
their faces old and wizened, though in their Sunday wor-
ship they dance with wonderful agility. On the Sunday of
which he speaks, at a meeting-house near Lebanon Springs,
there were 50 or 60 women, four-fifths of them over 40
years of age, and at least three-fifths over 50 ; there were a
fow younger women "of pale, attenuated, almost lifeless
faces ;" their discipline appears to aim at a passionless life.
It is stated that they are a declining class. Of course, what-
ever increase they make is from the world without. They
have a number of boys "bound to them," and the disap-
pointments of life may supply them with a certain number
of disciples. They live very plainly, dress in antique
Puritan costume, and are useful in their way.

IMPORTATION OF DISEASED SHEEP.—At a meeting
of the Sanitary Committee of the Hull Board of
Health, held on Wednesday afternoon, the Board's cattle
inspector reported that he had seized and destroyed several
sheep which were suffering from a disease which was entirely
new to him. The inspector stated that his attention was
drawn to a number of sheep which were being driven
through the streets to a slaughter-house. On arriving at
their destination he examined them, and found that they
were peculiarly affected about the throat. He made a very
careful examination of the whole flock, and he found that
the throat of each animal was full of lumps about the size
of a small nut. As the disease was a new one, the inspector
sent for Mr. Lockwood, cattle inspector for her Majesty's
Customs at Hull. Mr. Lockwood having examined the
sheep, declared they were suffering from cold. The inspec-
tor was not satisfied that this was so, and on the following
day he again went to the slaughter-house. The sheep had
in the meantime been slaughtered and dressed. On exam •
ining the carcasses he found the liver and lungs of one of
them had been attacked by the disease, and the genital
organs of another. In the latter case the pustules had
broken. The intestines of the sheep were found to be
covered with the same kind of lumps. Although the animals
had only been slaughtered on the previous day, they had
begun to smell most offensively. Under the circumstances
the inspectorseized the whole of the carcasses, and had them
destroyed. Mr. WMillan, a surgeon and a member of the
committee, said that he had paid considerable attention to
the cattle disease, and he believed that the rinderpest at-
tacked sheep as well as horned cattle. The inspector stated
that the sheep above alluded to had been brought from
B:.inen, and h 3 believed that at the ti 3 they were landed
no true .o# disease was outwardly visible.