The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-08-06 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR JULY.

The thunder storms of Sunday the 7th confirmed the ten-
dency to decided wet, for which those of June ' the 18th had
paved the way ; and from the former of those visitations we
may date the introduction of the periodical rains of the sum-
mer. July is usually a dripping season ; it is seldom other-
wise, unless the summer be peculiarly arid ; but those rains
admit of modification, which render them perfectly consistent
with the finest summer weather.

We lament that we cannot congratulate our agricultural
brethren on that ground in the present retrospective report.
for a more decidedly gloomy and showery season is not within
our recollection, since the year 1828 and 1829. The land is
soaked,—poached with waters, yet still the rain pours down
with unrelaxed pertenacity, and we have now another proof of
the general correctness cif' the equinoctial criterion.
All the storms of the present summer have been attended
with hail, a concomitant of a peculiar electric or magneto-
electric condition, which almost invariably predicts and
accompanies copious periodical rains. The temparature,
however, has been general, though not high, and hence
vegetation is in the greatest activity ; a season more propitious
to the turnip and green fodder crops, is scarcely, perhaps,
in the memory of man ; but haymaking is cruelly protracted,
and much valuable hay is reduced to a lamentable state of
decay. The mercury of the barometer has wavered about
the point called "-changeable"—that is, from 20.50 cents to
39.70 cents ; and it still fluctuates midway between these
two points, while the wind wavers between south and west,
either boisterous in force, or calm to sultriness. Such a
meterological condition is drepressing to the nervous energy
of the human frame, and equally so to the exertions of the
husbandman. We are not, therefore, to be surprised at the
readiness with which the mind succumbs under gloomy an-
ticipations.

This remark brings us at once to the present condition of
the corn crops. The effects produced by the wet weather and
low temperature of the four last days of June, have been
clearly discerned of late. About three weeks since some
ears of wheat were found to be entirely destitute of grains,
and among many of those which were well filled, a few
solitary husks, scattered dispersedly among the ears, assumed
that reddish tint which indicates the red gum. Vhenever
a floret, so tinted, is opened, it is seen that the grain has
been starved, and its place partially supplied by the orange
fungus, which bears the above familiar name. Under the
microscope it appears like glutinous connected masses of
powdered amber. The wheat was in full bloom at the period
of low temperature, in June, and received a decided check
at that important stage ; but this was not all : the stamina,
or at least their pollen, was washed off by the rain, and thus
failed to impregnate the ovules. In such a condition the grains
would, to a greater or less degree, become abortive; and the
vital principle of the evelopes being paralysed, they would be-
come the proper nidus and nutriment of the fungus. It has
been seen that some seeds occasionally recover, and in that
case the parisite perishes, for the advance of the seed and the
progress of the fungus seem to be incompatible. We are in-
structed by the mischief thus inflicted of the great importance
of fine sunshine and high temperature at the time of flowering ;
that stage, therefore, cannot be carried through too rapidly—
it forms one of the critical periods of the wheat plant, for if
impregnation be perfectly effected, the advance of the grain is
too decisive to permit any of its parasitical enemies to flourish
at its expense.
Notwithstanding this partial deterioration wheat is very
fine, and much earlier than at this time last year ; it turns
rapidly, notwithstanding the absence of sun, and the frequent
recurrence of copious showers. We saw a field in shock,
near West Drayton, on the-26th; and a friend, just arrived
from the Isle of Wight, informs us that he observed some
in sheaf in Surrey. Barley is looking admirably fine, but
will " fall over" if much more rain, with wind, occur : we
perceive a change in its colour. Oats progress fairly—they
are good, and some of the earliest are being cut.
No complaints have reached us from quarters which are
worthy of confidence ; and of Scotland we are enabled to re-
port very favourably from direct authority, of a kind which,
to us, is undoubted. " Nothing," we were told a few days
since, by a Scotch gentleman, who had passed through many
hundred miles of the two kingdoms on an agricultural tour—
" nothing could be more marked than the contrast between
the two seasons, 1838 and 1839 ; the former was all gloom,
and to he compared with 1816, and as ruinous to the crops.
The present year offers every promise of abundance. And as
to potatoes, of which so much has been unadvisedly written
of failure, the fields were in a flourishing, healthy condition."
We may repeat that the green crops—turnips, clover, tares,
and what lucent we have seen, are extremely good ; and, no-
thing is wanting to complete " the joy of the harvest," but
" the bright shining of sun after the rain." May that
blessing, with its assured result of abundance, be accorded.