The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-16 00:00:00

HARVEST PROSPECTS.

There has just been completed this week (says the
Tines) one of the finest hay harvests that have been
gathered for a great number of years in the agricultural
counties of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester. The rains
in the early part of the summer excited a luxuriant growth
in the grass, and during the last three weeks there has
been almost uninterrupted sunshine. The crop is generally
very heavy, and owing to the favourable weather it has
been got in in excellent condition. Only in two or
three isolated positions is any grass now uncut, and farmers
are beginning to think of the corn crops. These are
generally good, and the recent hot weather has much
improved their appearance. The cold and wet a month
ago had a damaging effect for the time on the wheat
crop, which made no progress, but the blossoming time
just over has been a vet y favourable one. Wheat
is now just filling, and a slight change of colour is
visible in the landscape. In some situations the corn is
thin, Lut on strong clay lands, well farmed, the wheat
promises an abundant yield. Winter beans are very
thick on the ground, and generally well podded, but
some farmers complain of want of pod. Spring
beans are free from blight. Peas are now being
harvested in the Vale of Evesham. Oats are not
much grown in Worcestershire, but on the Cots•
wok! Hills in Gloucestershire and in Herefordshire the
promise is good. Barley is a promising crop. Marigolds
are now doing well, the hot weather suits them, but
swedes would be benefited by a few July showers. Hops
are much blighted ; the cold weather in June was greatly
against them, but if anything can restore them and give a
chance of a crop it is the present hot sunny time. Apples
and pears are a good average crop, and plums in the Vale
of Evesham are abundant. Potatoes good, and free from
disease at present,

The Western Morning News, in an article on the crops
in North Devon, says that the wheat crop, notwithstand-
ing the icy cold rains of May and the high, biting winds
which prevailed during the first ball of June, appears, on
the whole, to be looking well, and nearly every district
promises a good crop .- indeed almost the only complaint
one hears is of the immense number of poppies. Earley
dues not promise to Le so good a cmp, having first been
checked by an unfavourable May, and latterly by the
drought. The same remarks in a great measure apply to
oats, which are in general short in the straw. Man-
gold wurtzel having taken deep root before the
drought set in, looks well everywhere ; it is
expected that the crop will be immense. Flat-pole
cabbages too, which are not so much affected by drought
a 4 turnips, appear to be getting in more request. With
reference to turnips, if copious rains do not quickly set in,
the crop must again he a failure, for one sees as yet but
very few fields in which turnip seed has germinated.
Pasture land is already getting very bare, and it is feared
that farmers will be compelled to force a sale of their
stock, which may for a week or two occasion a fall in the
present very high price of animal food, but it must of
necessity be followed by a rebound, particularly if the
turnip crop again prove a failure.