A shower in July, when the corn begins to fill,
Is worth a plough of oxen and all belongs theretill.
A dry summer never made a dear peck.
Drought never bred dearth in England.
The same thing, and no more, is meant by the following enigmatical rhyme:—
"When the sand doth feed the clay,
England woe and well-a-day;
But when the clay doth feed the sand,
Then is it well with old England."
The first of these two contingencies occurs after a wet summer—the second after a dry one; and, as there is more clay than sand in England, there is a better harvest in the second case than in the first.
Dry August and warm doth harvest no harm.