Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-08-22
HARD TIMES IN ENGLAND.
A Lean Year-.-Perhaps More are Com.
ing.
London Times, July 80.


the fruits of the earth may be said
equally to depend. 1t is but a week
since the country was beginning to de-
/ SPAR Of the hay harvest, and to give
way to piteous forebodings of the poor
fare which our horses and cattle would
be reduced to for u twelvemonth. Ii
was even in some alarm us to the fate
Of our wheat and other grain crops.
Suddenly the continual canopy of clouds
rolled away, and for several days the
rural population were busy in the
meadows and in the brick-yards. Never
theless, old people shake their heads
and tell us the hay was not ripened,
and will not ferment to the same sweet
ness as il did last year. Something
more is wanted than freedom from rain,
and an overcast sky is often worse than
occasional showers. Saturday and
Sunday were not sunny, drying, ripen-
ing days, They were sultry, dull, and
withouta breeze. Yesterday was better,
but still cloudy, and thus in the midst
of haymaking, at the most critical
point Of the growth of the wheat plant,
with the fate Of the potato hanging in
the balance, and our gardens and
orchards asking for light and heat we
know not what good or i'll the next hour
may do them all round. The wheat
ear is filling but slowly; the stalk is thin,
the blade Of II somewhat sickly hue,
and it is quite within the compass of
possibility that the yield will be indif-
ierent in both quantity and quality, and
that our best bread will be from abroad.
In the course of last week the dreaded
potato blight showed itself here
and there, and now threatens
to be general. Apples, poor
crop to begin with, suffering
from heightened and recurrent frost and
from scanty sunshine, show worse every
day. The fruits that should have been
ripened have come to their day without
ripening, and consequently without
flavor or tenderness. Strawberries, rasp-
berries, and currants only remind us Of
what they ought to have been, and have
to be largely supplemented with sugar
and cookery. Cherries very early sue
cumbed to tho inclemency of the season.
Everything in our gardens has been
running to stock and leaf. There is a
full crop of peas, but everybody notices
that they want flavor. Beans will fail
III quantity as we'll us in quality. As
for the wall fruit, happy are they who
possess no walls, or 40 trees trained
against them. Barley and oats may be
said to have the summer still before
them; but the former is in i'll color, and
will not be an abundant crop. What
seems hardest of all, and will be para.
dox to some of our readers, the meadow
grass itself is poor, 2nd does not feed
or cheer the cattle rs il ought. II wants
body and flavor. A few weeks of really
fine weather would set things right and
put Nature, so to speak, in her proper
course; but, without them, this will be
" very bad year.
Though we have got very little way
into the causes of things in the science
of weather, we can still form some fore
casts of the crops II month or two be-
torehand. From the very rare and
occasional notices sent us former wears
having general resemblance to the
present, it may be concluded that such
comparisons are not often made, pos
sibly from the want of materials. Pepvs
and Evelyn left i'll their journals some
notes Of u year very similar to this; but
the recorded phenomena are generally
those of II striking and picturesque char
acter, such rs very long and severe
frosts, snow lying deep for months, ex-
cessive heat and violent tempests. Yet
what is called rainy overcast weather is
as potent for evil as any Of them. There
can be little controversy as to the very
exceptional weather we have had now
since last September Winter began in
October, and continued with increasing
severity till the beginning of May,-that
is, for seven months. Shortly there set
III rain, which was at first borne cheer
fully, rs an incident of the expected
transition from cold to heat, which
some thought would be MS excessive ~
the cold had been. But The rain it
rained and rained on for evermore, and
some began to talk of sun spots, cosmi-
cal change and even planetary in
lluences. 1t was not even relieved Ivy
many or long intervals of sunshine.
Jupiter Pluvius ruled the skies, and
II thing would thrive or grow except to
i hhrren supeTlully curing MS reign.
The spring, late rs it began, may al
most treading on the heels Of the sum
mer,-Ieiused to make up for lost time,
and rs the result there never was so
backward n season. According to u
record Of the wheat crop kept hy a
practical Yorkshire farmer, quoted in
our columns yesterday, the shooting OF
the ear, which usually is to be observed
4 in the middle or the early part of
June, and in only one instance III
twenty years was rs late rs July Z,
or in July at all, was this year not to be
detected till July $, and the inference
drawn from the comparison Of the
twcuty-one series Of dates Is that reap
ing viii not begin till Sept Is, and the
harvest will not close till Oct. 9. The
further we advance into autumn the
more precarious will 10 tile weather,
and unless the next two months arc un.
usually fine the harvest will be poor in
every respect, and inditlerently got in.
Nor does the mischief end here. A very
late harvest cannot fail 70 throw much
OF the autumn sowing late into the
year. Besides the losses entailed by