Star.
London, England, 1829-09-04 00:00:00

DUMFRIES, September 1.

THE HARVEST.
Harvest labour proceeds apace, though still liable to
serious interruption. Last week we bad four dry days, with two
wet ones intervening. On Saturday, the weather appeared to have
set in warm and dry, but on Sunday the atmosphere became close
and moist, and the same state of things continued yesterday. At
times, the sun burst forth with great power, and considering the
previous damp, many considered it as the most critical day we
have seen during the season. So many changes are truly per-
plexing, and it may be said with truth, that during the last fort-
night, the farmer's hopes and fears, like the instrument that acts
as an index to the clouds, have been in a constant state of oscil-
lation. A very few hours' repose is all the husbandman can claim
at present, and however early he may rise in the morning, his toils
are sometimes protracted till the moon or stars have set as well as
the sun.
Yesterday we made it our business to consult various respectable
farmers, all of whom auute us that no damage has been done to the
crops as yet, though their fears begin to point to a disastrous future.
The grain ripens very slowly, and after-growths are common even
in the furrow.. Still the ears are well filled, and fall well to the
barn floor. Various meters of meal have been made, and we
have heard of different parcels of oats that yielded fully more
than a stone per bushel. Around Dumfries two-thirds of the
wheat have been cut and carried, free from sprouting, or indeed
damage of any kind, but still in a softer state than could be wished.
A considerable quantity of barley has also been stacked; but of
the oat crop three-fourths remain to be reaped, while the quantity
carried is very trifling. On Thursday last there was a roup of
growing grain in the immediate neighbourhood of this town. The
day was dismal, and the crops sadly twisted, bleached, and fatten-
ed. The buyers of course were in bad spirits, and one field of
wheat went off " worth the money." Next morning the weatbe
was favourable, with a smart breeze, when Mr. Dickson, naturally
anxious to make the most of his opportunities, set a great number
of people to work, and actually reaped and stacked the produce bes
fore be went to bed in the evening. The grain was remarkably
clean in the bottom, and secured, as is believed, in a good state.
Instances of this kind are well worth recording, though we are
sorry to add they are rather rare.
Our agricultural informants still cling to the opinion that the
crops around Dumfries are above an average. Front the higher
districts, the accounts, we are sorry to say, are less flattering.
There the oats and barley are in many cases thin on the ground,
though, at the same time, plump in the pickle, and sufilciently
corny. A redundancy of moisture is considered unfavourable to
the bulbing of turnips; still the crop has a healthy appearance, and
is covering the ground to admiration. The potatoes on dry soils
are strong and luxuriant, and may be expected to yield a large re-
turn. On wet lands the prospect is not so good, where they are
probably getting sour and stunted at the root. The pastures were
never rougher at the same period ; and how can it be otherwise
when the streams are so full ?

The NMI, on Thursday afternoon, was as high as we ever saw
It in summer, and must have deluged various fertile hoims, if we
may judge from the numerous sheaves which were seen floating on
its surface to the sea. In addition to these, a drowned stirk was
grappled and pulled on shore near the town, and as every burn and
river was in the same flooded state, these may be very trifling
items in the list of casualties that occurred on the whole. The
Lochar in particular looked more like a lake than an ordinary stream,
and ft was melancholy to see goodly crops of grain, to take no note
of the peatman's harvest, bent, flattened, and as completely sub-
merged as If they had been buried many fathoms down.
The heavy rains of lest week and the week preceding, appear to
have been general in Dumfries-shire and Galloway. On the dread-
ful Saturday recorded in our last, the storm raged with peculiar
severity in the upper and lower districts of Wigtownshire, pros-
trating the crops, where at all heavy, and flooding the merses to a
considerable extent. Around Wigtown, harvest has been in pro-
gress for nearly three weeks; and a correspondent Informs us
" that the crops, to aU appearance, are moat abundant. In the
Baldoon district they are particularly heavy; and It is hardly too
much to say that the lands possessed by Mr. Arbuckle and Me.
Hannay rival the Carte of Gowrie itself."

SPOR

'ING.

,L'S. Sam 3.
7 to 2 sg.t Voltaire 15 to 1 —Exquisite (tak.)
61 to 1 —Sir Hercules (tak.) 20 to 1 —Stotforth (taken)
61 to 1 —Rowton 20 to 1 apt Felt
10 to 1 --Frederick (tak.) 20 to 1 —Rhodacantha
12 to 1 —Clodlde 22 to 1 —Apollonla (taken)
7 to 4 on the held apt two.
WARWICK RACKS—Sm. 2.

TATTERS A
Q. L