COUNTRY LIFE
Early Harvest
Harvest has begun early, in the second week of July ; and there seems to be a general idea that it must be indifferently good. This is not true. Over very wide areas, especially in the Noah, rain has been plentiful enough for all the main crops. Did ever the best potato lands in Smith Lincolnshire look better, or the sugar beets of Suffolk ? And these two crops are among those that are said to have suffered especially. The wheats on the heavy clays of Huntingdon as on the loam of Bedford seldom looked better, and there are more wheat-fields than England has seen for a good many years. The truth seems to be that on some uncongenial soils and ill- farined land the spring-sown crops are almost as bad as they can be, and there has been a general failure of some of the root crops. For the rest the harvest promises well and a good deal of money has been made. The returns from hops were immense last year and promise to be good again ; and in spite of the collapse in stock prices, which has been very serious, there is more hopefulness on British farms than we have seen for a number of years.
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