296 NATURAL HISTORY 



of modern husbandry. Such a run of wet 

 seasons a century or two ago would, I 

 am persuaded, have occasioned a famine. 

 Therefore pamphlets and newspaper letters, 

 that talk of combinations, tend to inflame 

 and mislead ; since we must not expect 

 plenty till Providence sends us more fa- 

 vourable seasons. 



The wheat of last year, all round this 

 district, and in the county of Rutland, and 

 elsewhere, yields remarkably bad : and our 

 wheat on the ground, by the continual 

 late sudden vicissitudes from fierce frost 

 to pouring rains, looks poorly ; and the 

 turnips rot very fast. I am, &c, 



LETTER XX. 



TO THE SAME, 



DEAR SIR ; Selborne, Feb. 26, 1774. 



1 HE sand-martin, or bank-martin, is by 

 much the least of any of the British liirun- 



