The Sun.
London, England, 1836-04-01 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR

MARCH.

The Reporter of one of the first agricultural journals of
the day, observes that, "if variety were always pleasing,
the by-gone winter quarter should have been the pleasantest
of any for many years. Rain and sleet, frost and snow,
wind and calm, storm and tempest, heat and cold, have suc-
ceeded each other, and many of them in the same day/ with
the most endless variety." Now, be it understood, the
foregoing was written a month since ; and the remarks
applied chiefly to North Britain. But what have we
Southrons to advance in opposition, or as a set-off to this
sufficiently lugubrious catalogue of meteorological muta-
tions, which, in good truth, have proved more disagree-
able " than the mild winters and the green Yules of past
years ?" We may go on, step by step, with the Reporter,
and then add, that the criterion month of March has been
variable like its precursors, " and much more abundantly."
In fact, with the exception of a few weeks in November
and December, the entire winter has proved a season of
extremes ; and March, that month of promise, whose dry-
ing winds in ordinary cases have proverbially been the fore-
runners of verdure and bloom, has passed by without one
of its usual concomitants, unless we consider as such the
boisterous storms from the South-west, which have " con-
founded navigation," and spread dismay on the coasts.
Three days of brilliant sun-light have we been favoured
with, and the day of the equinoctial entrance of the sun into
Aries (the 20th) was one of them. So far the prognostics
may have been promising. The temperature also was high
on one occasion, for the thermometer •indicated 62 degs. in
the afternoon of the 19th inst., but the wind was unfa-
vourable, and the cold rains and stiff westerly breezes of the
season have returned, and still continue. In fine, and by
a few words, we may thus sum up the character of the
.month which has introduced the vernal quarter, and placed
the sun in the ascendant :—The weather has been cold to
the degree of winter. The rains, though not productive of
a volume of water, have been extremely frequent ; the sun
has appeared as if " shorn of his beams ;" and the wind
has not, to the present day (25th) veered to any one of the
Easterly points.
We might be led to conclude, from the unpromising
state of the season, that the wheat must have suffered ; but
such is not the fact in any situation within our sphere of
observation. The plant is very short, but it is strong and
full of verdure ; no blanks occur, and it has grown a little ;

rot a yellow tinge can we discern, nor could we infer from
appearances that frosts of 15 degrees have succeeded within
a few hours to a temperature of 45 or 50 degrees. But we
have inspected one of the finest corn districts of the mid-
land counties, and are prepared to admit that upon cold
and binding clays the appearances may be unfavourable.
Thus our intelligence from Northamptonshire is not cheer-
ing, and it corresponds in a degree with that which we col-
lect from the Scottish Report, where we read that " the
young wheat, especially on strong land, is backward, and
even sickly in many instances, owing, in the first instance,
to the unfavourable state of the land at seed-time, and the
subsequent very changeable weather." We read also, and
are directly informed, that the price of farm produce is on
the advance—that of live stock and sheep in particular.
The deficiency of the late turnip crop may partially account
for the latter result. Stock, it is expected, will pay well for
their keep, " having been bought in at a reasonable rate in
autumn, and prices assuming a firm aspect for the spring."

Such is the sum and substance of whatever is considered,
even by interested parties, as unpromising ; but for all that
come and gone yet the crops may do well, and be pros-
In truth, we are sure that the wheat grows and

perous.

Alves, though its progress is very slow. The oats, to a
considerable extent, have been sown, and the land appears
to be in high condition ; and we have also the pleasure to
observe that our fears of the general failure of the trifolium
had been too far excited by the overcoloured report of those
who had not investigated sufficiently. Some fields are with-
out a plant, it is true, but others, whereon the plough had
not passed at the time of sowing, seem to promise as fine a
crop as • any one could desire. With bright gleams and
genial temperature, nature will speedily assume its gayest
livery ; and it will be seen that mere retardation is any.
Viing but destruction. Our worst fears and anticipations
harp" upon the prospect threatened by the equinoctial
prognostic ; but though the grain crop might suffer by a
showery summer, that would bring us a store of grass,
potatoes, and turnips. In the mean time we entreat the
agriculturist to consult his true interests by enlarging
the circle of his rotation. Why should he not introduce
cabbages, lucern, saintfoin, carrots, and field beet, or
mangol ? He has acquired that fine and productive
green crop, the trifolium, a plant which yields a bulk of
the best fodder, and meliorates the land. Cabbages and
potatoes alternate most successfully almost ad infinitum,
and the list might be enlarged. The great point is to keep
the land in heart—to tax it to the utmost—not indeed by
reiterations of white crops, /but by a wise inter-rotation
which will obviate the time-wasting fallow, cleanse the soil
from fecal depositions, and increase its ultimate yield. Has
all been done that could be effected—have the productive
powers of the land been called into action, or rather, we
would ask, does it yield—has it ever yielded, one third of
the total return which application, aided by science might,
beyond a doubt, induce ? We leave it to the good sense of
the observant cultivator to furnish him with suitable replies.
Recurring to the actual state of the weather, the 26th
day of the month was ushered in with a keen frost ; the
forenoon improved, but a severe N. W. storm of hail, snow,
and rain, with furious wind, followed, and when the gale
subsided, a clear night introduced a frost of unusual keen-
ness. We witnessed 7 degrees (25 Farenheit) at Ba. m.
of the 27th, with much rime ; and this with (a great fall
of the mercury) threatens but too long a continuance of
that which rarely visited us in 1835, when it was more re-
quired.
The month of March we think may be regarded as a me-
teorological curiosity, and we invite our philosophical friends
to observe minutely, and register its results.
March 28.