THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: Correspondent writes from Stewartstown about the prospects for the harvest in Tyrone

On this day in 1892 the News Letter published the following report on the condition of the harvest in Co Tyrone which it had received from a correspondent in Stewartstown.

It read: “The incessant showery weather has had a most detrimental effect on the harvesting prospects for east and south Tyrone. Up to last week the outlook was promising enough, and farmers everywhere were heard expressing hopes of a good harvest. In many places the real work of harvesting had begun, and fields of golden grain were rapidly giving way to the sickle of the reaper, when a meteorological change set in, and further operations had, for the time being, to be suspended. The value of many large fields of oats will, therefore, be considerably lessened, as the grain is overripe.”

The report from Stewartstown continued: “The heavy rains, too, in low lying lands have beaten to the earth large tracts of corn, which is certain to suffer no inconsiderable amount of damage.”

It wasn’t all bleak news from Tyrone, the report noted: “The hay crop, which was a fairly good one, was saved in the most perfect condition, and under the most favourable circumstances. The bulk of it has been transferred to the stockyards, and only a few solitary fields remain.”

Concluding the report the paper’s correspondent in Stewartstown wrote that there was hope that the weather conditions were on the change for the area: “Today the heavy depression which has passed over the North of Ireland shows signs of clearing off, after which good weather may be experienced, when the work of harvesting will be resumed.”