Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1882-08-24
The English Wheat Crop a Failure.
(From the Londnn Times. AuRust 1.


(From the London Times August ID
At the close of July it is possible to
form some estimate OF the prospects
of the years harvest. we know pretty
well What the harvest at its best can
be. We see the point beyond which
We cannot expect that it will go. How
far it will fall short of this we have
no means of determining. The
weather in August will decide the
matter, and we cannot predict what
the weather in August is to be. But,
under the most favorable weather con-
ditions. the prospects for the coming
crops are by no means universally
good. We publish this morning full
and careful report on the present state
of the crops in various potts of the
country. 1t is hopeful in some re-
spects, but terribly disappointing in 9TH
ers. The wheat harvest, our CORES
pendent says, will be once more below
the average. In many places it will
be very considerably below the aver
age. The general report about wheat
Is that on good soils the straw will be
good; that on poor soils it will be bad !;
and that on both good soils ard poor
soils the yield of grain will be no
better than il has been during the
last 1--WE years, or, in other words,
that 1t will not nearly amount to a
fair average crop. This is bad news
indeed, but when we have given it
we have given the worst. On no
other crop is our correspondents re-
port quite "a unfavorable as it is on
wheat. The barley in some parts Of
the country IS looking well. In Dor
setshile our correspondent has seen
some fine, rich crops, bending in ripe
ness and giving almost certain promise
OF good mailing grain. From Essex
the crops are reported as good. In the
Midlands they are less promising. In
barley, as in wheat, the straw seems
likely. on the whole, TO be the best
part of the crop. The yield of grain
will be rather less than the average I;
possibly it will not be equal to last
years yield. We come next TO oats
and beans, and 10 far brighter prospects
as far as these are concerned. Oats,
our correspondent says, will exceed in
both quantity and quality the average
OF the last seven years. They will be
good both in straw and in grain. In
potatoes he has observed no disease as
yet, but the real time of trial has
scarcely yet come. August is dan
gerous month for patotoes, and even
already he has heard reports that in
Scotland and in Ireland, and in some
parts of this country, toe potato dis
ease has begun to show itself. The
hay harvest of the year is now a GER
tainty, and it Is unhappily, bad GER
tainty. Never has the grass been more
plentiful, and never has the weather
been moie unfavofable to the process
of turning it into hay.
Whatever our wheat may turn out
- be, and in whatever degree it may
fall short Of our correspondents
gloomy estimate, our supply of food is
In no danger. We draw this from so
wide an area that we can always
reckon with confidence upon obtaining
it at demand. If the harvest is bad in
one part of the world, it is not bad in
all parts, and we get our wheat, &C
cordingly, without much regard to the
seasons. The worst OF the matter is
that England seems just now to be the
particular part of the world 10 which
"a bad harvest is most certain to come
The price of wheat is not raised, but
the farmer suffers, and the country
suffers with him. We are not starved
and we are in no danger of being starv-
ed, but our home trade is crippled
TIE money which ought to lie in the
pockets of the English farmer is
transferred to the American farmer
In spite Of free trade, bad harvest at
home is SO much dead loss TO the coun.
try, and this it will ALWAYS be. The
report of large harvest in America
will be good news to everybody else
but it will not be good news to the
farmer. II will mean for him that his
wheat, which will be small in amount
will command a low price. and that
even the partial improvement which
he has lately secured will not last be.
yond the near date when the American
corn ships will begin to arrive and
will once again flood our markets with
the golden grain from Minnesota and
the far West. The case is hard, but il
is not exceptional. From one cause
or another our farmers seem AWAY
to be under pressure. The one thing
which would certainly bring them relief
would be a bountiful harvet in this
country and general failure else
where. But this Of late has been pre-
cisely what they have not obtained
The best remaining chance for them is
to do more toward adapting their
methods of cultivation to the climate
conditions which they may expect
They have begun to move, and seem
ingly i'll the right direction. Cannot
they quicken their pace? If English
farmers are to thrive there must come
change somewhere. Either they
must change or English weather must
change. 1t is only on one or on the
other condition that they can hope to
escape the grave repeated losses which