MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 573, 29 January 1851, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

IX . D.. .k, 1 -c .1 _ r OlUli nAuvEai. jjy uic cißl Ul Hie tITSC week in September the results of the harvest ; ought to be pretty well known. There are ■some points, indeed, in which speculation and f alarm can find room to work even for months j after the crop has been gathered and housed, |but there can no lonyer be ranch margin for difference oi opinion when the produce is once I'sale from the weather. Judging by the tet nor of the reports which have reached us from ? every part of the kingdom, we feel little doubt of an average harvest. Of barley and oats there is no doubt whatever that the crops are above the average. The late storms of wind and rain are said to have injured the wheat Sferop, which is admitted to have been ready ‘for the sickle somewhat earlier than usual. . On the whole, the weather has been favourable for the operations of harvest, the chief | difficulty being want of hands. If then, we jeannot congratulate the country on the prospect of extraordinary abundance, we may at least express our thankfulness that the food | which is the subsistence of most classes in | these islands, and the prosperity of all, is | granted for one more year in merciful suffici- ? ency.— Times. Sept. 9. The Harvest in Ireland.—The cereal harvest is now nearly completed in most parts ; of the country, and the general result is unI usually satisfactory. Although the potatoe I is seriously affected in many districts, the | proportion remaining sound is so considerable, i that an abundant supply for the winter and I spring is calculated upon. Between Dublin [ and Limerick, along the line of railway, ■ there are few cornfields uncut, and the green crons present a luxuriant appearance. The deficiency of the wheal crop is still estimated at about a third in the southern counties. In , the few .districts where wheat is largely cultivated the loss will probably be -still greater, for the grain is often very poor and shrivelled. But oats, in all ditections, are a healthy and most abundant crop. Tbe - northern counties appear to be more fortunate than other parts of the country in regard to tbe wheat crop. “ In our neighbourhood,” I says the Downpatrick Recorder, “ may be seen as luxuriant and heavy wheat crops as the eye might delight to rest upon.” Alto- : geth<-r, however, the present wheat crop is . certainly a short one, falling materially below | an average ; and already there is a manifest jupward tendency in the market price. Congsiderable speculations in French flour are in in this country, and the opinion is ground that there will be importations gof wheat and flour for twelve months to come, gwhile we are likely to have a large surplus produce of oats for export. In tbe proceedg’ngs of a new western poor-law union, called jjGlennamaddy, in Roscommon, I observe that |the relieving officers have reported to the Foard of guardians, to the effect that “the potato crop has been attacked generally throughout the whole union—that at least •one-fourth are affected by disease; the quanBity of corn is equal, if not beyond some of past seasons ; that wneat has never been jpuch sown in this union, but that the small ■quantity planted this year is affected by smut or blight.” These successive failures of jwheat, although partial in extent, will probably cause a still more diminished cultivation jof that delicate and uncertain crop next year ,F 1 this country. Irish farmers are very nrofperly turning their attention to oats, barley, fend green crops, in preference to wheat, |which is a perilous crop in our moist and pckle climate. All things considered, the “present harvest, is likely to produce an abundant supply of food ; and so far the farmers |run no risk of a renewal of those enormous gpoor-rates which, during the famine, had led to such disastrous consequences. ‘ | The “ Lives” of Bank Notes. —The gaverage period which each denomination of [London notes remain in circulation has been |oalculated, and is shown by the following “Ac- | C °unt of the number of days a Bank-note isjsued in London remains in circulation— — 5 > 72-7 days; £lO, 77-0; £20,57-4; rf3o, 18-9; .£'4o, 13-7 ; £5O, 38-8; £lOO, |2<M; £200,12-7 ; £3OO, 10-6; £5OO, 11-8 p- 000, il-1. The exception to theseaverages jarefew, and, therefore, remarkable. The time jduring which some notes remain unpresented reckoned by the century. On the 27th s- September, 1845, a £5O note was pre- | ,eiiu > hearing date 20th January, 1743.

Another lor £5, issued on the 19th November 1762. was not paid till the 20th April, 1843. lhere is a legend extant, of the eccentric possessor of a £lOOO note, who kept it framed and glazed for a series of years, preferring to feast his eyes on it, to putting the amount it represented out at interest. It was converted into gold, however, without a day’s loss of time by his heirs, on his demise. Stolen and lost notes are generally long absentees. Ihe former usually make their appearance soon after some great horse race, or other sporting event, altered or disguised so as to deceive bankers, to whom the Bank of England furnishes a list of the numbers and dates of stolen notes. Carelessness gives tbe Bank enormous profit, against which the loss of a mere £30,000 is but a trifle. Bank-notes have been known to light pipes, to wrap up snuff, to be used as curl papers ; and British tars, mad with rum and ptize money, have not unfrequently, in time of war, made sandwiches of them, and eaten them between bread and butter. In the forty yeais between the years 1792 and 1812 there were out-standing notes (presumed to have been lost or destroyed) amounting to one million three hundred and thirty odd thousand pounds; every shilling of which was clear profit to the Hauk.-Dickens’ Household Words, No. 18.