The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-25 00:00:00

The WEATHER and the HARVEST

The prospects of the harvest have not become brighter
during the present week. In Western Yorkshire we
have not had a day without - rain siuce Sunday, and
Thursday was a completely soaking, damaging day,
with almost incessant rain, and scarcely a breath of
wind to counteract its injurious effects. Though the
rain has ceased, the. weather is still gloomy, with a.
" changeable" ba:ometer and hale briskness in the
wind. Some corn has been cut in this neighbourhood
during the week, but very little stacked. In the prin-
cipal wheat-growing counties of the South, a good deal
of produce had already been secured in fair condition,
though there they complain of an excess of moisture.
In the Midland counties the harvest is tolerably ad-
vanced, but there is still a great deal of corn eut and
uncut in the fields. The tendency of the corn markets
under these circamstances, is naturally upwards, and
further advances are anticipated. Should the unfavour-
able harvest weather cause any considerable portion of
the English grain of the present year to prove more
than usually soft and unsound, we sh,dl require a large
quantity of fine dry old foreign grain to mix with our
home-grown stock ; • and the 1,660.399 quarters of
wheat entered for home consumption in the first six
months of the present year, followed by further sup-
plies, will be found available for rendering the food of
the people wholesome and n tritious till the next har-
vest. This will be one of th first-fruits of the new
corn-law, a consequence whic the general failure of
the potato crop will render invaluable. As to that crop,
we must refer for a view of its alarming condition to
other parts of our present paper; we only remark here
that in England, Scotland, and Ireland, the accounts are
month of August of the year 1845. Whatever may be
' mthuequmaloitrye
or
dispiriting
the present harvest, the supply of food for cattle will be
must abundant ; already an unusually large quantity of
hay of prime quality has been secured ; the meadows
th e
quantity this
of human food produced by
year than they were in the
ch
and pastures are full of herbage from the rains of July
and. August; and the turnip crop has seldom been so
promising as at the present season.—
Leeds Mercury.
SIIEAREIa WAGES.—Harvesters, notwithstanding the
numerous arrivals from Ireland, as well as from parts of the
West Highlands, s to be scarce throughout the coun-
try; while wages, re'sglated by suppl—
, and demand—are
consequently high. In llumbarton!thire, as high as four
shillings and sixpence, and even five shillings per day
has been paid for resident shearers, two of them being, it is
said, preferable to three promiscuously hired at our Cross,
where wages have this week ranged from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d.
The following wages have been, paid elsewhere :—ln Hen-
frewshire, 3s. to 4e. per day i in East Lothian, 18s. to 20s.
per week, with victuals; in /slid-Lothian, 16s. and 18s.
per acre, without victuals, is the common rate; in
Stirlingshire, men 165.,6d. to 215., women 11e. to 12s. per
week. In other parts of Scotland, as well as throughout the
North of England, wages are proportionably high, and
shearers in great demand. the numbers of reapers WllO have
this week arrived here from Ireland is about 7,000 or 8,000.
The demand for harvest labourers is not diminishing, but, on
the contrary, will increase if the weather continue fine.—
Glasgow Saturday Post.
Nor QUITS DEAF Errou9if.—A curious incident oc-
curred last week before the Civil Tribunal of the Seine: A
medical man, whose wife ball fortune in her own right, ap-
plied to the tribunal to compel her to grant him a mainte-
nance, on the ground of . his having become so deaf as to be
unable to follow his profession. The wife declared, through
her advocate, that her husband was only deaf because he
would not hear, and thereforeobtected to his application.
The pleadings on both sides being over, the President of the
Tribunal, turning to the husband; who was present, said to
him in a moderate tone of voice,_ You are then absolutely
destitute of the means of support?" "Oh yes, sir, absolutely,
absolutely," replied the husband, forgettinghis deafness.
The tribunal instantly dismissed his suit.—Paris Paper,