NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 63
the hay crops, which were not heavy, but were again of excellent quality, as
in the previous year. Corn crops grew very rapidly after this rain, and made
up to a good bulk, though a second drought set in at once, and lasted until
August 9th, by which date the bulk of the corn in forward districts was safely
in stack, the harvest being the earliest since 1868. The writer began cutting
white oats on July 13th and wheat on July 14th, and carted his last load of
corn on August 7th.
Root crops on light land suffered severely during the second half of July
and first half of August, and grass feed became very scarce ; but there was a
great growth of Autumn grass, as a result of the September rains, which came
very serviceable to live stock owners. The early sown roots also improved
very much, and where a good plant had been secured made fair crops, but the
season was unfavourable for late turnips, which are very scarce, and on many
occupations flock-masters will be hard put to find feed for their sheep, if the
early months of 1897 should bring a spell of severe weather.
The heavy rainfall of the Autumn interfered a good deal with the work
on the land, neutralizing to a large extent the advantage gained by the early
harvest, but November was a fairly dry month, enabling the arrears of wheat
sowing to be overtaken, and the year goes out with open weather and farm-
work generally fairly forward. The season, as a whole, may be put down as
a distinctly good one for corn farmers, except on very light land, and with the
improved prices recently obtained for wheat will certainly rank a-head of
anything since 1892, and we can all devoutly hope that it may be the beginning
of better times.
Note.—The rainfall in many districts quite near by us was much heavier
than it was here, particularly during August—some districts in the upper
reaches of the Colne reporting between 3 and 4 inches in this month, Here
we had no ground rain until September 1st, after June 10th."