LETTER VIII 



The Farmers' Troubles Fickle Climate Mild Weather- Hard 

 Frosts in May Damage done by Frost Wood-pigeons Food 

 for Young Birds Stallions and Mushrooms. 



22nd May, 1894. 



MY DEAR MARCO It has often been re- 

 marked that farmers are a grumbling lot and 

 never satisfied under any circumstances, but I 

 think, from my experience of them since liv- 

 ing in the country, that^ they certainly do not 

 deserve this character. I have, on the con- 

 trary, been much struck by the manly patience 

 with which they have lately struggled on 

 through these years of agricultural depres- 

 sion ; and really, when one lives in the coun- 

 try, as I do, with a small garden to look after, 

 you soon find cause to sympathise with the 



