Hens moult, or lose their feathers, during this month. The smaller birds do not moult so early; but all renew their plumage before Winter, when they are in their finest and warmest clothing.

Young partridges are found at this time among the corn.

The farmer's chief employment in July, is getting home the various products of the earth. It is the principal hay-month in the northern parts of the kingdom, and the work people suffer much fatigue from the excessive heat to which they are exposed.

Flax and hemp are pulled in this month. These plants are cultivated in various parts of Europe, more than in England. The stalks of both are full of tough fibres or strings, which, separated and prepared in a particular manner, become fit for spinning into thread. Of flax, linen is made, from the finest cambric, to the coarsest canvas. Hemp is chiefly used for coarse cloth, such as strong sheeting, and sacking; but it is sometimes wrought to considerable fineness; it is also twisted into ropes and cables.

The corn-harvest begins in July in the southern parts of the island; but August is the principal harvest-month for the whole kingdom.

AUGUST.

Fair Plenty now begins her golden reign;

The yellow fields thick-wave with ripened grain;
Joyous the swains renew their sultry toils,

And bear in triumph home the harvest's wealthy spoils.

In the beginning of this month, the weather is still hot, and unusually calm and fair. What remained to be perfected by the powerful influence of the sun, is daily advancing to maturity. The farmer now sees the principal object of his culture, and the chief source of his riches, waiting only for the hand of the gatherer. Of the several kinds of grain, rye and oats are usually the first ripened; but this varies according to the time of sowing; and some of every species may be seen fit for cutting at the same time.

Every fair day is now of great importance; since when the corn is once ripe, it is liable to continual damage while standing, either from the shedding of the seeds, from the depredations of birds, or from storms. The utmost diligence is therefore used by the careful husbandman to get it in, and labourers are hired from all quarters to hasten the work

Pour'd from the villages, a numerous train

Now spreads o'er all the fields. In form'd array
The reapers move, nor shrink for heat or toil,

By emulation urg'd. Others dispers'd

Or bind in sheaves, or load or guide the wain
That tinkles as it passes. Far behind,
Old age and infancy with careful hand

Pick up each straggling ear.

This pleasing harvest-scene is beheld in its perfection only in the open-field countries, where the sight can take in at once an uninterrupted extent of land waving with corn, and a multitude of people engaged in the various parts of the labour. It is a prospect equally delightful to the eye and the heart, and which ought to inspire every sentiment of benevolence to our fellow-creatures, and gratitude to our Creator

Be not too narrow, husbandmen! but fling
From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh! grateful, think,
How good the God of harvest is to you,

Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields.

THOMSON.

In a late season, or where favourable opportunities of getting in the harvest have been neglected, the corn on the ground often suffers greatly from heavy storms of wind and rain. It is beaten to the earth; the seeds are shed, or rotted by the moisture; or, if the weather continues warm, the corn grows, that is, the seeds begin to germinate, and put out shoots. Grain in this state is sweet and moist: it soon spoils on keeping; and bread made from it is clammy and unwholesome.

Harvest concludes with the field peas and beans, which are suffered to become quite dry and hard before they are cut down. The blackness of the bean pods and stalks is disagreeable to the eye, though the crop is valuable to the farmer. In these countries they are used as food for cattle only, as the nourishment they afford, though strong, is gross and heavy.

The rural festival of harvest-home is an extremely natural one, and has been observed in almost all ages and countries. What can more gladden the heart, than to see the long-expected products of the year, which have been the cause of so much anxiety, now safely housed, and beyond the reach of injury?

Inwardly smiling, the proud farmer views

The rising pyramids that grace his yard,

And counts his large increase; his barns are stor'd
And groaning staddles bend beneath their load.

SOMERVILLE.

The poor labourer, too, who has toiled in securing another's wealth, justly expects to partake of the happiness. The jovial harvest supper cheers his heart, and prepares him to begin without murmuring, the labours of another year.

This month is the season of another kind of har vest in some parts of England, which is the hop-picking. The hop is a climbing plant, sometimes growing wild in hedges, and cultivated on account of its

use in making malt liquors. They are planted in regular rows, and poles set for them to run upon. When the poles are covered to the top, nothing can make a more elegant appearance than one of these hop-gardens. At the time of gathering, the poles are taken up with the plants clinging to them, and the scaly flowering heads, which is the part used, are carefully picked off. These are a finely-flavoured bitter, which they readily impart to hot water. They improve the taste of beer, and make it keep better. Kent, Sussex, and Worcestershire, are the counties most famous for the growth of hops.

The number of plants in flower is now very sensibly diminished. Those of the former month are running fast to seed, and few new ones succeed. The uncultivated heaths and commons are now, however, in their chief beauty, from the flowers of the different kinds of heath or ling with which they are covered, so as to spread a rich purple hue over the whole ground. Many of the fern tribe now shew the rusty-coloured dots on the back of the leaves, which are their parts of fructification.

Some of the choicest wall-fruits are now coming into season.

The sunny wall

Presents the downy peach, the shining plum,

The ruddy fragrant nectarine, and dark

Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig.