YESTERDAY afternoon it occurred to me how depressingly similar this autumn's weather is to last autumn's. I was driving round Hull and the rain was torrential.

After an indifferent summer the cool, dry autumn, for which many of us had hoped, turns out to be a wet, cold and windy September. Already water is standing in some rows of potatoes. Those cereals remaining to be harvested look more than a bit sad.

The residents of Norton, Malton, Stamford Bridge and Gowdall, in particular, but all those who had their houses devastated by flooding last winter, must be beginning to wonder whether their nightmare may be repeated.

Most of the large schemes which many river authorities and drainage boards are planning have not been implemented. There just has not been time.

It might be worth remembering that streams and rivers are supposed to be able to get water away, as quickly and efficiently as possible, to the sea.

They have other uses, for recreation of one sort or another, and for commerce. These uses are important and very important in some places. But their main use is for drainage.

If that means extra maintenance, then such maintenance should be carried out, and it should be carried out as soon as possible. If that is dredging, or of removing foliage of any kind which may slow the flow of the water, then so be it. One house or arable field flooded unnecessarily is one too many.

Last year's downpours caused less wheat to be drilled in the autumn than has been normal in recent years. The yields obtained this harvest have also been less than usual, because of the poor weather experienced since last autumn.

Farmers are now being blamed for a shortage of wheat. It looks as if yields, nationally, may be five million tonnes less than last year's 17 million tonnes. The retailers say that this shortage is causing the cost of producing a loaf of bread to rise.

In 1988 we were paid, on our farm, £140 per tonne for breadmaking wheat. The equivalent price in 2001 is between £75 and £90. I have not noticed the price of bread fall in the intervening years to reflect this reduction.

The £10 per tonne rise between this year and last is supposed to be the cause of a proposed rise of 20p per loaf. Since the cost of the wheat in a loaf is about 6p this seems something of an over-reaction.

The weather is yet another blow to an already devastated industry. Because exports of livestock are banned, due to foot and mouth disease, many producers have been unable to sell stock at all. Those who have find a seriously reduced price.

UK lamb producers are, at present, being offered approximately £1.40 per kilo deadweight. That is about 65p per pound. German lamb producers, because of the lack of competition from the UK product, are getting about £4 per kilo.

Until foot and mouth is eliminated, UK producers cannot set about getting back the export markets developed over the years.

A very bleak future faces the sheep industry, especially that part of it which, usually for geographical reasons, is unable effectively to undertake any other form of farming.

The dry stone walls and well-tended fields, which tourists come to look at, are not naturally occurring. Farmers put them there, either out of past profits or in anticipation of future profits.

The way things are going we may be watching an experiment to see how quickly the hills can go back to nature.