COUNTRY LIFE
JULY opened with the reaping of two here and there in the south,
where, incidentally, a covey or two of partridges were strong on the wing in the first week of June. Both events may be claimed as almost the earliest on record. The date of the opening of harvest has been put forward on one farm by the sowing of barley in the autumn. It used to be regarded as an essentially spring-sown crop. Indeed, I remember the very caustic handling of a rather urban parson who had implied in a sermon that barley was sown in autumn. Potatoes—a temporary glut on the market—were both planted and dug at an abnormally early date, and flourished beyond the normal, not least in West Wales, which is singularly frost-free. All autumn-sown crops, above all wheat, which is the most important, have flourished.
Previous page
