Star.
London, England, 1825-07-21 00:00:00

BUCKIAGIM3L JULY 17.

Ti e unvaried brightness and intense heat of the
eather are beyond what has been experienced for
many years. A more cloudless sky, or a more fervid
sun never ripe:'ed the olives of Attica, or pouted their
splendour over the vale of Arno " purpled with the
vine." It it were not for a gentle west wind, which has
been blowing for some days, the heat without doors
would be perfectly intolerrible ; and nithin it is almost
insufferable. In fact, the summer of the poets seems
to have returned: it reminds us most forcibly of tliel
bees of Thomson—
" Frotu bright'ning fields of ether fair disclosed.
Child of die Sun, refulgent Summer comes;
He comes attended by the sultry Hours,
And ever-fanning breezes on his way,
While from his ardent gaze, the virgin Spring
Averts her blushing face; and earth and shies,
MI smiling, to his hot dominion leaves!"
The effect is already very apparent on the wheat crops
in this county. The tinge of harvest is becoming vi-
sible; nothing can be more abundant, or in finer con-
dition, than the wheat. In many places between Wen-
dower and the Vale of Aylesbury, and between the
latter place arid Buckingham, I saw fields of that grain
in which the stein ran about six feet high, arid the ear
*bout six inches long. very healthy and full. The oldest
far mers say, that a finer and mote productive wheat
season is not in their remembrance. In many parts of
this county, the corn fields are beautifully intettpersed
with beech woods of a very luxuriant growth ; and this
union of scenery gives the happiest combination of the
plentiful and picturesque. These beech woods were
exceedingly valuable during the late war, as the
timber supplied die provi•ion trade with the ma-
teiial for tub-staves, and at that time the wood-
cutters and sawyers were very numerous here, and
kept in contirnal employment. Still a tolerable
traffic is carr'e l on in this article, by the manufac-
turers cf chairs, saddletrees, &c. but nothing like
formerly. Tree woods abound with the will straw.
berry, which diffuses through them a most aromatic
fragrance. The silvery stems of the beech are relieved
by ti e daik green of the holly, which seems to be indi-
genous here, as it abounds in all the hedges, and gives
them a very rich effect. A farmer from the neigh-
bourhood of Chesham, told me, last Friday, that in his
neighbourhood the crops of wheat are more produc-
tive than he ever recollects, and he espects to begin
the harvest as early as to-morrow (Monday) week. The
state of the Lent corn, or the oats and barley, is very
d:fferent. rey want rain exceedingly ; they tun in
general very light. The ear is poor, and the straw
very short. If there should not happen to be rain soon,
these grains will be far under the average crop. The
peas are rather good, at least in the vale of Aylesbury,
where a great deal is grown; the beans not quite an
average ; potatoes are, in general, productive, and of
good quality, but most of the garden vegetables are
now neatly burnt up by the, sun. The hay harvest is
in most places quite finished, in others the last hand is
putting to it ; the crops were thin and short, particu-
larly in the uplands. The after-grass wants rain. The
turnip has been very much visited by its destructive
enemy the fly. In some instances, whole fields have
been destroyed. Others have, however, escaped the
ravage altogether. A Gentleman intelligent in agri-
cultural pursuits, who resides at St. Leonard's, tells me
that he pre:eaves his turnips from this insect by a dif-
ferent mode of sowing from that of the farmers, who
are too much bigoted to old customs to adopt anything
novel, until necessity forces it upon them. His plan is
not to sow as is the common practice immediately after
the plough, but to let the land remain unsown eight
days after it has been ploughed. He says that the
turnip-fly is generated in the earth within two or three
dais after the ploughshare has passed through it; when
the seed is not put in until the eighth cla.y, the By, not
having nutriment, perishes, or makes its way to the
hedges, and leaves the land clear. The fruit has, in a
great measure, suffered in this county by the frosty, and
eold rains in the early part of the season. The apples
were checked in the blossom, and much mischief has
been done to the cherry orchards, which only spew a
scanty growth where there was accustomed to be a pro-
fusion ; currants and gooseberries are rather abundant.
The price of provisions is rising; mutton is seven-pence per lb.
and beer in proportion. Horses also are dear, and particularly
colts. poor-rates in the parish of Aston Clinton are only three
-billings, but in a few places are as high as fourteen. Labourers
wages vary from six shillings to half-a-guinea, and during the
harvest, a good labourer can have nine or ten shillings a week, be-
sides his victuals. The hay is likely to be all saved without a drop
etc rain. The exekevnent among el*etioneerets is checked by the
envansigimsplesaise at present, that Parliament is not to be ins-
selNNedi dimly& " The freeholders of the county, and the free-
Hundreds of Aylesbury, art in hopes of a contest in
be& pines.
At the Windsor Quarter Sessions, held at the Town
Hall on Friday, the 15d3 *eft. Richard Trees, a private
soldier in the Life Gnarcli, wits ennvii;ed on a chargb
of haying assaulted Mr. Thaw Dash; landlord of the
Star and Garter Inn, on qrritlkiy• evening, the Ist of
Itlay last, ancrsentel'icech to sir rrrottlie hard labour in
.fie House of Correetit..