THE HARVEST.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2111, 10 February 1870, Page 2

THE HARVEST.

The gloomy forebodings of the up-country settlors, we are glad to say, are not likely to bo realised. The harvest is turning out well in districts in which they were most rife, and the chief well-founded complaint is that laborers are not to be had, even at extravagant rates of wages. The following extracts from country papers will be read with interest :

Contrary to the expectations of mail}', the crops in this district are turning out remarkably well, ami promise a very satisfactory yield. It is true that the recent high gales, where the crops were nearly ripe, have had an injurious effect upon them, and considerably lessened the yield per aero ; but where crops have not been so injured we believe they will fully average those of last year. The past week has in every sense been harvest weather, and has almost brought on the crops too quick for the supply of labor that is obtainable, to gather them. Hands are scarce, and, ns a natural sequence, wages rule high, and farmers are, in a great measure, placed at the mercy of the men. In some instances we know that serious inconvenience, if not loss, has arisen from the difficulty experienced in obtaining men who will work, even when remuneration almost at their own price has been offered them. This is to be regretted, and cannot but recoil on the beads of those who are silly enough to take advantage of their temporary position. At the present rate, however, at which harvesting operations arc being prosecuted, a very few weeks will suffice to gather in the crops in the district, and we can only hope that the weather will hold out, and enable the settlers to secure their grain in good condition. — Wailcouaiti Herald.

We out this way (at the Flag Swamp) cannot lind time to get dull. £VVe arc now in the very heat of harvest, and all hands arc as busy as bees. Last week there were live reaping machines at work in this district, besides all the available scythemen, so you may be sure there is a number of acres in stock. To all appearance the crops in the district are above the average, although 1 regret to say that a good deal of the wheat is affected with rust, but oats (the principal crop) seem remarkably clean ; there is therefore no reason to complain. We have without doubt this year the best crop of barley that has ever been grown in the district, and there is a far greater breadth of this crop than has ever been sown down before. Eye lias been tried in the district, but not very successfully. Green crops this year are as to acreage far behind what they were last. The cause is attributed to potatoes being so cheap during the last two or three years, but from general appearances 1 should say that both as regards quantity and quality there will be a very good crop. In turnips there is about the average breadth under crop, which promises to be a remarkably good one. This is a crop which at one time was very much neglected, but experience has proved to the farmers that it is an important one as a winter food for both horses and cattle, and it is receiving much more attention at their hands now than formerly. The Flag Swamp district has greatly progressed since last year, and the improvements which have been made in it are of an extensive and permanent character’. — Ibid.

The weather during the past week has been most favorable for harvest operations, and these have been pushed forward with all speed. From the appearance of the plain, we should say that nearly half the grain has already been cut down, and should line weather continue the harvest will be a short one. Complaints of the scarcity of men are heard from all quarters, and as the work is now so far advanced, there is little likelihood that the demand for labor will be met to any appreciable extent. Neighbors are thus obliged to work to each other’s hand, and do the best they can under the circumstances.— Bruce Herald.