We have got September in August,—not a little rain with
that slight chill and crispness in the air which make the autumn morn- ing and evening so invigorating,—and it is to be feared that we may have October in September; but for all that, there is no doubt that we shall have one of the best harvests of the last ten years, and a much better one than any of the last seven. The wheat alone will be poor, and that rather because it threshes out into very small ears, than because it is deficient in the number of ears. It would not seem that continued heat is essential to a good harvest, as there has hardly been more than one really hot summer day during the whole summer, and very few weeks in which fire-lovers have not frequently had a fire in the evening. Indeed, the professional critics say that even the defective wheat harvest is not due so much to want of heat in the summer as to the mildness of the winter, which favours the growth of the straw, and is unfavourable to the flower and the ear. If so, cool sum- mers appear to be perfectly consistent with excellent harvests, unless, indeed, the mildness of the winter is connected in any way with the coolness of the summer,—and even then, it is only the wheat which appears to suffer.
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