September 25.
Wearaer reports from distant localities are not, as a rule, very exciting to read, except for those who have a business interest in them, when taken one by one. In the aggregate, however, they wear a different aspect: and lookin, back upon the outport letters whi we have received during the last three months, we cannot fail to be strack by the deplorable repetition of drought or floods, with failure of crops, famine and public disorder in their train. A good harvest seems to have become the exception rather than the rule. As our correspondent in North Western Shantang expressed it, in writing on August 4, the old-fashioned soaking downpours have " gone out." When they do come, it is often with so much violence that the crops suffer hardly less than they would have suffered without rain at all: as has happened in the Nanning dis trict, Kuangsi, to name but one instance. Out of twenty-six letters from various regions making special mention of crops since the middle of June, but two give unqualified praise'to the season, namely Cheng-chou in Honan, and Kirin, though this namber might be augmented from official commercial reports. In other districts a favourable verdict on the first harvest is neutralized to some extent by fears for what may become of the second, or by a continuance of high prices due to other causes. At Ningpo for example, our correspondent states, on August 13, that the first crop of rice has proved to be one of the most prolific for several years past and prices have come down proportion ately. But in the same letter he adds: " Anxiety is being manifested by the farmers owing to the continued dry weather. y of the canals are almost dry. If the drought continues, prices will rise again owing to the small reserve of rice in stock." A very similar report comes from Kashing on September 12: and although at Wa-chang the rains arrived in time to save the crops, on the opposite bank they caused renewed floods on the Han river and loss to the farmer.
Bat from districts farther north, particularly from South-West Chibli and from Shantung generally, the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.