SCOTLAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 188, 21 October 1879, Page 3

SCOTLAND.

The pp.'.ablc yid-i "! " the harvest is always an imporinr.t question at this season, but this y--nv (lie topic is forcing itself up.'ii pub : :'e attention with an urgency which is happily unusual. We have had literally no summer to speak of in most parts of Scotland, the weather being cold and wet almost beyond precedent, Even in Edinburgh, which is a dry place, the rainfall during July was almost double the average. This month the weather has been little, better, and though August is now closing, the hay crop is not yet gathered in, and ihe cereal crops are still quite green for want of sunshine to ripen them. It is slated that the districts which look most promising this year are Morayshire, Easter Boss and Dumfriesshire, while Argyleshire ia not far behind them. Most of the bad weather having been from the east, the usually backward districts of the west this year compare better with the Lythians and Fife than they generally do, though everywhere there is a great room for improvement. Taking Scotland as a whole, it is believed that the deficiency of the wheat crop ■will-be-fully 20 per cent., and that of barley nearly 30 per cent. Oats promise better,-though-so late that on highly ground the harvest cannot bo looked for till'the middle of October ; and some despondent fanners talk of eating off their crops with stock, expecting it to fail almost as entirely ris the same crop did in 1782, when in some places the oats did not even shoot. Potatoes are much diseased, and are likely to cause heavy loss, especially in Forfarshire, where the deficiency is expected to reach 50 per cent. Turnips, it is feared, will be 25 per cent, under the average, though very much worse than that Aberdeenshire Ff<>, and fhe Lothians. There is only to.' ranch reason to ferr that the actual state of tilings wlli be worse than these estimates, which have been framed in a hopeful spirit ; and it is impossible not to sympathise with the fanners, who are hr-ginning to lose heart altogether.—Exchange.