30 JUNE 1928, Page 13

HAYSEL AND HARVEST.

The hay harvest scents the air of the greater part of South England. The fragrant crops, cut rather early in response to modern theory, are light ; but for that reason are likely to be carried and stacked, as many have been, with the minimum of loss. Midsummer sun has been as kind as the earlier rain. The corn crops have developed very rapidly. Sheaves of oats, already full in ear and over six feet in height, were exhibited at Horsham even before Midsummer Day. If the corn harvest (though it is the smallest in area in our last three hundred years of history) should prove as bountiful as, say, the straw- berry harvest, we may see the promised revival of agriculture sooner than even the optimists prophesy.

W. BEACH THOMAS.