1924

Cheerless weather

The cheery optimism of those people who told us a few weeks ago that the weather would come right, and that there would be a good, if not abundant harvest, has given place to a brooding pessimism.

We have every reason to be alarmed at the harvest prospects. Reports from all parts of the country go to show that the corn crop, which usually at this time of the year makes happy music as the golden heads nod peacefully with the western wind, has “lodged” so badly that resort will have to be had to the old-fashioned scythe to cut it.

Hay in many places has been rotting for weeks in waterlogged fields. The potato crop is beginning to show symptoms of disease. In the Connemara country, the blight is general, and the yield of the crop is expected to be about a quarter of that of last year.

In this connection it is significant that a Galway flour mill which has always had a big trade connection with Connemara is kept going at full pressure to supply the demand for flour.

The failure, or partial failure of the potato crop in Ireland, has always synchronised with winters of poverty and want, and the prospects for next winter are not at all cheer.

Pictured: Saving the hay near Terryland Castle on the Dyke Road.