DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IV. 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1852. 



NO. 6. 



RAYNOLDS «fc NOURSE, Proprietors. „.„„.„ „ T . T „ FRED'K HOLBRQOK, j AssocIATE 



Or F .c E ....a U . N cv Hall. SIMON BROWN > Editob ' HENRY F. FRENCH,} eTtorI 



FARM WORK FOR JUNE. 



And after her came jolly June, arrayed 

 All in green leaves, as he a player were ; 



Yet in his time he wrought as well as played, 

 That by his plow-irons mote right well appear. 



Spenser. 



' March, April and May, the three spring months 

 for 1852, have been with us, performed their part 

 in the cycle of the seasons, and are gone. That 

 part has been rather a rough and boisterous one ; 

 now thick with sweeping snows, or changing into 

 pelting hail ; stinging with intense frosts, or pour- 

 ing their drenching rains. March came in like a 

 lion and went out so, wearing his grim visage 

 through the month. It snowed all day on the 

 second, and part of the thirty-first. April has the 

 character of a flirt, whereof the memory of man 

 runneth not to the contrary, and this year it was 

 more fickle than ever, being so lachrymose as to 

 run nearly all to tears ! Imitating her sister 

 March, she invaded the realms of Old Winter and 

 sometimes arrayed herself in unbecoming garments 

 — white, and spotless, it is true, but cold and 

 heartless as the mercenary lover. May, once re 

 joicing all hearts at her return, and calling scores 

 of youths and maidens into the field to pluck her 

 fragrant flowers, the first offerings of the floral god- 

 dess to young and pure hearts — 0, May ! how art 

 thou fallen ! It was the delight of old Cato, and 

 Virgil, and Columella, as well as of many of our 

 nearer neighbors, to sing of thy charms, and praise 

 thy rare delights in their immortal verse. But, 

 alas ! thou hast become as fickle as April, and we 

 are prone to seek thy former beauty in thine other 

 sister that follows in thy train. But thou art not 

 all coldness and cloud ; thy gentle nature gains the 

 ascendant, as the month grows old, bringing the 

 reluctant bud and blossom, with green fields and 



our cheerful friends, the birds, again. Welcome, 



" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, 

 Bridal of the earth and sky." 



Harbinger of lovely June! Welcome, with thy 

 carpets of green, spicy gales, songs of birds, and 

 low of kine. 



Planting being over, there will be a little respite, 

 a brief breathing place to look into all the affairs 

 of the farm more leisurely, and attend to the small- 

 er, but not minor, matters which the haste to get 

 in the seeds has prevented. And first, let him 

 who has had the forecast to plant a tree either 

 this season or before, extend his care to it and ex- 

 tirpate its enemies, 



TnE Borers: — They will make sad havoc with 

 your fair orchard unless your own eye, and knife, 

 and wire and hand are active. Now is the time 

 to dislodge them ; by scraping the earth carefully 

 away from the base of the tree and closely examin- 

 ing it, the spoiler may be discovered either by his 

 hole, his castings, which resemble saw-dust, or by 

 some peculiar appearance of the tree. By insert- 

 ing a small wire with the smallest possible hook 

 upon its end, they may generally be drawn out ; 

 but if not brought to light the wire will kill them. 



Thistles, mulleins, dockroots, burdocks, and all 

 such rank herbage, will constantly spring up, es- 

 pecially about the buildings, unless the farmer is 

 in the habit of destroying them. By neglect they 

 sometimes cover large patches of excellent ground 

 and render it worthless, beside disfiguring the 

 premises and scattering their seeds over the farm. 

 An hour or two at the right season will arrest them 

 and save crop and character. The cure is to cut 

 them off just below the surface and drop a handful 

 of salt upon the bleeding wound ; or sink the 

 spade and start their roots and pull them up bodi- 

 ly. These, and the ox-eye daisy, or white weed, 

 which is becoming so prevalent all over New Eng- 

 land, should be wed out of the grain and grass fields 

 upon their first appearance. 



Hoeing. — No implement on the farm is in more 

 demand than the Hoe in the month of June. Get 

 a good one and keep it smooth and bright. Le 

 it be of the right weight, remembering that he 

 "who makes with a common hoe, two thousand 

 strokes an hour, should not wield a needless 



