We have reached the crisis. The winter oats have been
reaped and stand in stook in order—how sarcastic a hope !— to dry and mature. Though all crops, especially the spring- sown are late, the bulk of the grain is now approaching full ripeness. Another week of rain or, perhaps, even of sunlessness would be altogether fatal. The weakness of British grain, even of Sir Rowland Biffen's Yeoman II., is that it contains too much moisture. If you hold in your hand what some farmers call the berries, the Canadian look almost diaphanous, and very hard and strong. The British look more opique and soft. Flavour is all on the side of the home-grown and it is probably more wholesome ; but in a wet season the moisture contained in each grain is excessive, and the sheaves must be left in the open to mature for more days after the cutting ; and there face the danger—this year it has looked like the certainty—of a further soaking.
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