Drouth in Parts of Europe.
A DROUTH unparalleled since 1798 was, at our latest advice by steamer, prevailing in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of a character so general and severe as to cause very gloomy apprehensions. In parts of France, Spain, and Germany, the want of sufficient rain is complained of, but it had not reached the proportions of a serious drought. The want of rain is attributed to the prevalence of polar, rather than of equatorial influences, by which the atmosphere of a rainless region has been distributed over England for a period of unusual duration. Whatever may be the cause, its effects on production, and the wants which may be supplied by food from more fortunate regions, will no doubt be carefully considered. The wheat harvest of England is being gathered in better order, so it is stated, than usual; but there is a great falling off in the crop of oats, barley, and hay, and, what is more important, the root crop, except what was planted early, and the pastures are nearly dried up. Its first effects upon our market were shown in the considerable demand a few weeks since for cheese and butter, and in the advance in the price of Indian corn. The supposed extensive crop of wheat harvested and being harvested in England has prevented any rise there in the price of wheat; but wheat came very slowly upon their local markets, and it will doubtless be found that the grain is very much shrunk. Our wheat is obtained by the English at all seasons, for the purpose of being mixed with theirs, as by the union better bread is the result; but whatever may be the extent of their crop of wheat, an unusual amount will be required to supply the loss of other crops. The quantity of land depastured in a country so diversified with hill and dale as England, is greater than the quantity under plow, and when the pasturage fails, whatever crop may be in excess of the usual production is called upon to supply this want, and that, also, of the crops which suffer from the same cause. “Nationally, in the longest sense,” says the Economist, in a late number, “nothing, it is said, matters but the wheat crop, and though the saying is exaggerated, the essence is true: Give us cheap bread for man, and the price of food for other animals matters but very little.” To this it may be safely answered, that when the other harvests all fail, cheap bread is an impossibility. A drought is one of the most serious calamities that can be visited upon a people; and although only about three-tenths of the English population are agriculturists, and the full amount of food produced there falls far short of the total consumed, yet it will be found that the effects of the drought—the English not being accustomed to it—are not accurately understood by those who urge that it may be compensated for in an unusual wheat crop. Strabo remarks of the climate of England, “that the sun generally shines only for a few hours, and that in the morning and evening it is hid in clouds or fogs.” The freshness and peculiar luster which vegetation almost universally exhibits, except in winter, are due not so much to heavy as to drizzling rains, and to frequent dews and fogs; but this season the English can boast of the brightness of an Italian sky. As the matter possesses unusual interest, we select some statements from our English files to show the duration and extent of this visitation. WALES.—“The farmers in the Welsh valleys are suffering severely, there being nothing for cattle to eat. The grass is literally burned up, and on being felt by the hand, crumbles into dust just like dried herbs. To make matters worse, there is no dew, the land being as dry at early morn as at noonday. The farmers on the hill-sides are still worse off, as water has to be carted up for all purposes, the springs and small mountain streams being completely dried up. The farmers are driving the cattle on to the mountains, which are usually more moist.” THE MOORS.—“On one moor it is said more than half of the young birds are gone for want of water, none surviving but those hatched near springs or burns. You may travel for miles on the high ground and not see a single grouse. In my opinion there will not be more than twenty brace killed by one gun this season. Crops of all kinds are gone here. I do not know what is to be done for want of fodder.” At the trial of the Leicester agricultural show, on the 13th of July, of steam and other plows, it is observed, “The leading feature of the day has been the immense number of broken shares, resulting of course from the baked state of the ground. Passing from one field to another, the visitor has come upon numberless heaps of disabled iron-work, and it has not been difficult to discover the history of their grief.” “Many wheat fields in this district (Newcastle) are now literally swarming with insects, much resembling the common flea in both color and size, which have located themselves in close proximity to the grain. Several large fields in the vicinity of Walker present a very remarkable appearance from this cause, the mass of insects imparting a dark tint to the summit of every stem, and the damage caused by their troublesome presence is likely to inflict heavy loss upon the farmers. It is one of the most destructive species of the Aphis.” “The harvesting time on this farm (the Prince Consort’s model farm at Frogmore) this year is considered to be six weeks earlier than the average of seasons.” Wheat heavy and in fine condition, beans and oats cut, and above the average. The London Express of the 6th says: “The long-continued drought is becoming a matter of serious import to the country. The traveler by railway, through any part of England, reads the same story in county after county. Fields which should be green and fresh have an arid and rusty look, as if their vegetation were artificial, and had grown shabby. The soil is hard and droughty, and the hedges are bald and brown, while the grass of parks and pleasure grounds is burned down as completely as if it had been singed. London is suffering too. Our sewers and drains are abnormally offensive, and our streets have, over and above the general closeness and stuffiness of July, a fusion of foul flavors. The taints and odors are spreading from the courts and alleys over our handsomest and most spacious thoroughfares, and are intensifying and thickening in their native homes as well. Night after night does the sky give promises which the morning breaks. The sparse driblets of the last week have done little more than sharpen our sense of the evil. When will the rain come? is still on our lips.” The Daily News of the 7th says: “The want of rain is beginning to be seriously spoken of in Ireland. In consequence of the continued drought, the hay harvest is extremely light (though of the best quality), and the supply of milk and butter is necessarily curtailed, owing to the distress which cattle endure from want of sufficient moisture.” The Freeman’s Journal says: “Since the summer of 1798, such a season has not been known. We have had no winter, and March was only equalled in its genial character by April and May, in which we had nearly all sunshine and no showers.” The Mark Lane Express of the 12th inst. collects together reports from all parts of England, which confirm what we have thus presented. We give some specimens of these reports: FROM LINCOLNSHIRE.—“Intense heat continues. In many cases it is damaging the wheat, and as for barley, it is now past recovery, and is dying prematurely, to become, without doubt, bad in quality and in quantity. Pastures can never recover under any circumstances, so that fat meat, after a few weeks, must be scarce and dear, and the chance of a turnip crop is hopeless.” WARWICKSHIRE.—“The root crops in this district are generally very poor, and in not a few instances have been given up as entirely lost.” SUFFOLK.—“The drought continues, parching up every thing green, and rendering the country most dreary.” From the east coast of Scotland.—“We are still without rain so much needed by spring corn and root crops.” A correspondent of the Gardener’s Chronicle, in England, writes that he was then at an elevation which commanded a view of the country for thirty miles in extent, and that the hedges and trees which send their roots deep into the earth were alone green, and that the pastures were universally suffering. “The popular delusion,” he adds, “that grass is green, will soon be among the forgotten fallacies of the past.” The Manchester Guardian, of the 13th ult., says: “Rain has fallen on only three out of the last 104 days in the Manchester water-shed, and the fall on those occasions was so small that it was entirely absorbed in the ground, and the reservoirs received none.” Advice by telegraph shows that the drought was broken about the 24th of July. The fact that the existence of a drought “in the interior provinces of the north of Spain,” and in parts of Germany and France is also spoken of, shows its extension upon the Continent, but in a much less severe form than that prevailing in Great Britain and Ireland. In England the price of meat had fallen, because both cattle and sheep had been slaughtered in excess of what was usual, owing to the scarcity of hay, oats, and pasturage; but wheat has fallen but little, as the crop had reached the market much earlier than usual, although not in large quantities. The question whence the supply will be obtained to make up this unfortunate deficiency is one of great interest. The crop of wheat in California will amount this year to seventeen millions of bushels, such is the estimate; and as freights are low at San Francisco for outward-cargoes, competition from that quarter may be expected. In many parts of Europe the crop of grain promises to be full, and in the United States, a wheat harvest unprecedented in quantity is now being gathered. The law of distribution, by which the deficiency in one country is supplied from the excess in others, will soon be in full operation to the advantage of the United States as one of the countries upon which the favors of Providence, in respect to what is gathered and what is promised, have been bountifully bestowed.—Harper.