Country Life
DELAYED HARVEST.
THE rains amount almost to a catastrophe, as "depressions" become chronic and August pours out, to its own cheek, a quarter of the year's rainfall. August, we know though we hardly believe it, is a wet month. It rather suggests hot harvest fields and, stubbles hammered till they gleam with the broad.wheels of farm carts. But it is wet in statistics because the rains when they come are heavier than winter rains and more water falls within a short time. This August we have "enjoyed," as country people say, weight of rain plus con- tinuity, till even upland fields forbid harvest machinery. The worst catastrophe the rains bring is inability to work. Really good crops stand unreaped while they grow over-ripe and spill their seed, and while the green weeds envelop the straws. Such a season for growth never was. Every tree, shrub, and weed grows and grows. Some that I have carefully measured have grown more than two inches within twenty- four hours ! If there is one thing that the farmer does not want at this date it is growth among his grain crops or his potatoes : and here and there he finds growth even in the ears of the oat-sheaves standing in the too verdant stubbles.
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