BOMBARDED CROPS.
The bombardment of all our fields by wind and rain and hail of scarcely paralleled continuance or severity is all the worse because of the intrinsic excellence of the crops. In many parts of Canada cora growing is only 'made possible because what rain there is falls by a happy accident just at the date
when the growing plant has imperative need of moisture. So in England this year the earlier rains did nothing, but good on all the lighter soils. Tall straw and full ears succeeded. The heavy hay crop and yet heavier clover are followed by grain crops of no less weight. Alas ! Corruptio optimi pessima. The longer-strawed crops fell most completely to the onset. You might infer from the tangled confusion of some of them that gigantic beasts had been gambolling about them, though here and there fields are to be seen of an almost uniform flatness : no little upright pitches advertise the collaime of their neigh- bours. Now the worst of the " laid " crops, though in any case they will be costly to harvest, may be cut and bound, and yield well, if the sun is kind. If not, the grain degenerates at a great pace and may soon sprout in the ear.
Previous page
