The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-17 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL PROSTECTS.

A cold spring, the heavy rainfall; the changeable
weather of late, and the provoking succession of heat and
cold, wet and sunshine, with which we are being visited,
have together made up a most anxious timefor the farmer.
Few periods of the year are more critical than the present.
The weather is day by day telling with the greatest effect
upon the crops, deciding the quantity and the quality of
the various harvests. Wheat is just bursting into ear ; the
other cereals are spewing their the hay harrcab is
being gathered in; and the whole of the agricultural dis-
tricts are eagerly watching " the signs of the times." The
reports received from all parts of the country regarding
the state of the crops betoken this anxiety. Everything
turns on an "if." If the wet and cold forsake us for
a space, if we have real summer weather for a time, all
will be well. But the continuance of the unsettlement
forbodes ill. Already the cold has retarded the develop.
ment of the crops, and will cause a late harvest. Should
the weather still continue unfavourable, the results will
be disastrous.

The sun shone out gloriously last week, and (so the farm ers
say) did more good in four days than is often done in a
fortnight. "Itis an ill wind that blows nobody good,"
and if we shall not have more than an average yield of
wheat, there will be a large harvest of straw. If the barley
looks had, the peas and beans are more than promising.
If in some cases the clover and artificial grasses are behind,
the meadow bay is almost universally good.

Advices from all parts of the country tally most singu-
larly. The weather has been almost identical throughout
the land, and the crops have progressed simultaneously.
Perhaps Northumberland presents the most discouraging
feature of them all. Wheat in this county looks very
thin and exceedingly poor. It promises only half of what
was gathered in last year. Barley, on the other hand—
which in most other districts has been thinned and damaged
by the wind—is in Northumberland good, reported to be the
best looking of any crop. Farther south, in South Lanca-
shire and South Cheshire, the land has absorbed a good
deal of wet without any very serious injury, and where
good drainage is provided wheat looks well enough. In
Yorkshire also—in the larger portion of it, at least—the
wheat is very fair on good lands. But throughout the
northern counties especially a late harvest must be expected.
Some districts are more forward than others. Hardly any,
however, expect to get in their crops so early D.
usual. In this matter the year 1869 is the
very opposite of 1868. Last year the cereals
were safely carried nearly a month earlier than the
" calendar time." The need of warmth is insisted upon
in the case of most of the other crops, as of wheat in the
north. Barley throughout is reported unpromising.
Beans are the very reverse ; and peas, where grown, are
in the very best condition. The root crops are not so
forward as might be wished ; in some cases the crusted
earth has retarded them a little ; but they look healthy,
and promise well. Meadows, hay, and pastures give great
delight to the grazier, but in many cases the grass crops
uncut are beginning to rot at the bottom, and the univer-
sal wet of the last few days has spoiled the hay in forward
districts.
The Midland crops are much the same as those further
north. The reports speak more decidedly, perhaps, of
a late harvest. In Shropshire it will be mere than a fort-
night after the usual time, and in Warwickshire will be
at least a week behind. Farmers having sown heavily of
barley in some parts of the first-named shire, will lose
seriously by the bad yield. Potatoes are also very bad in
the neighbourhood. The other root crops look well. In
Staffordshire the root crops are late. In Cambridge the
marigolds are sickly, and the swedes are attacked by flies.
In Buckingham the peas are very good ; the beans and
potatoes are in first-class condition.
In Norfolk and some of the Eastern counties, the barley
promises an average crop, and will amply repay the
farmer for planting. On heavy soils, both in Norfolk and
in Suffolk, the wheat is stated to be in capital condition.
Throughout the Eastern district a very large breadth of
land has been given to peas and beans ; the crops are
large and advancing to perfection. Oats in the same
district look up better than elsewhere, and betoken an
average yield.
In the South and West late harvests are also certain.
The oat crop promises well in most cases. Potatoes alto-
gether seem thriving. In South Hants the farmers are
just now vowing vengeance on the wire-worm, which is re-
ported to be doing a great deal of damage to the wheat and
barley crops. The cereals have not yet recovered from the
cold, and some accounts say it is doubtful whether they will
do so.

Taking the reports as a whole, they point to an
average wheat crop to be gathered late ; to a poor
barley crop, also late ; to average root crops, good pots•
toes, and—if the insects will only spare them—a fair yield
of swede and mangold ; to fine gatherings of beans and
peas, as abundant as we have had of late years. These
reports, however, will necessarily be much modified by the
unusually wet, cold, and windy weather of the last few
days. 'rhe wheat is now very generally in blossom, and
the rough winds must be most damaging to the prospects
of the farmer. The state of the weather is now a cause
of the utmost anxiety.

in a strong gale on Tuesday from the north-east .0
vessel was wrecked off Dunbar, and six lives were lost. Tht
name of the vessel is unknown.

111 R. KURE'S ANNUAL CONCERT.

Mr. Kuhe's concert, which is always considered
one of the great events of the musical season, took
place yesterday afternoon at St. James's Hall, and
long before the commencement of the programme a
brilliant audience occupied every seat in the spacious
building. The vocalists were Madame Adelina
Patti, Mdlle. Vanzini, Mdlle. Grossi, Mdlle. Lieb-
hart, Miss Edith Wynne, Madame Florence Lancia,
Mdlle. Drasdil, Madame Sainton-Dolby, Mdlle.
Titiens, Signor Mongini, Herr Reichardt, Mr. Ver-
non-Rigby, Signor Foli, M. Jules Lefort, and Mr.
Santley. The instrumentalists : Violin, Madame
Norman-Neruda ; violoncello, Signor Piatti ; harp,
Mr. - John Thomas ; and pianoforte, Mr. Kuho.
Such an array of talent is seldom to be met with in
a single programme, and when we add that we had
neither absentees nor excuses we have said suffi-
cient to convince every lover of music that the con-
cert must have been one of extraordinary goodness.
Part 1 opened with Kreuzer's trio " Trenne nicht
das Band der Liebe," by Madame Lancia, Ilerr
Reichardt, and M. Jules Lefort, which was given
with much excellence, the soprano part more espe-
cially. Then came the first of the many beauties
which followed, viz., a duo for pianoforte and vio-
loncello—Mendelssohn's " Thema con variazoni,"
by Mr. Kuhe and M. Piatti, and a more masterly
performance certainly has never been beard
within St. James's Hall. The execution of
M. Kuhe was extraordinary, both as regards
finish and delicacy of touch, and the intense ex-
pression M. Piatti drew from his instrument called
forth the most enthusiastic applause. On hastily
glancing down the programme we find it will be
an impossibility in our limited space to particularise
every item of the concert, we must therefore content
ourselves with selecting some of the most prominent,
and to carry out that intention we come to Mdme.
Titiens' Aria " Non mi dir." Never has the en-
chanting composition of Mozart been more finely
sung, and at its conclusion the audience were
completely carried away by the iperformance,
and an encore was insisted on. The great
vocalist, with that good humour for which
she is so remarkable, at once complied ; but
instead of repeating the air, she sang " The Last
Rose of Summer," which actually converted the
enthusiasm into a positive extacy of delight. On
silence being restored, Mongini appeared, and sang
Donizetti's romance from "La Favorite," " Una
Vergina," with remarkable power and sweetness.
Miss Edith Wynne sung Benedict's beautiful ballad
" Rock Me to Sleep," the composer splendidly
accompanying the vocalist. Then came a duo from
Figaro, " Sull' aria," by Mdmes. 'Miens and Patti,
and here again another triumph was achieved, but
this time the audience were gratified with a
repetition of the aria, to their intense
delight. Mr. Sautley's singing Schira's aria, "to
t'amai," with Piatti's violoncello obligato, was
superb. Mr. Kuhe having given another exempli-
fication of his wonderful power and control of the
pianoforte by the performance of a brilliant arrange-
ment of his own of the airs from "Dinorab," Mdme.
Patti again appeared, and this time she created the
greatest enthusiasm by her singing the old Scotch
song, " 'Twas within a mile o' Edinburgh town,"
which was increased by her wonderful rendering of
the finale to "La Sonnambula." Madme. Vanzini
sang Meyerbeer's " Robert toi que j'aime " with re-
markable brilliancy. Mdme. Norman-Neruda per-
formed a solo on the violin with a firmness and
purity of tone that was truly astonishing. Mr. John
Thomas gave a brilliant fantasia on the harp, and
Drasdil sang two English ballads, the one
by Benedict, " I murmur not," eliciting the greatest
amount of applause. Mdme. Sainton-Dolby sang
a ballad by Plimpton ; but the truth must be told ;
time, and wear, and tear have not spared even the
voice of the once great contralto. Mdme. Lieb-
hart met with rather a discomfiture, for, notwith-
standing:all herlittle playful eccentricities, herVulk-
shied "Ruck ruck" fell very flat. The concert, as a
whole, was really a splendid one, and we congratu-
late Mr. Kuhe on the great success which attended
the brilliant entertainment.