DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IV. 



BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 1852. 



NO. 9. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, Proprietors. 

 Office Quincy Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, i Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, > Editors. 



FARM WORK FOR SEPTEMBER. 



"The harvest-men ring Summer out 

 With thankful song and joyous shout; 

 And, when September comes, they hail 

 The Autumn with the flapping flail." 



The Summer for 1852 has past away, and Au- 

 tumn, with its gentle influences, has come to lead 

 us quietly and gradually into the embraces of Win- 

 ter. If summer has its fierce heats, its sudden 

 showers with the lightning's flash and thunder's 

 roar, — its profusion of flowers and songs of birds, 

 autumn has no less its own character, which dis- 

 tinguishes it from all other seasons. It has suc- 

 ceeded, perhaps, a season of intense heat, causing 

 copious evaporation when the usual rains have 

 fallen, and giving heavy dews and fogs. The pe- 

 culiar feature of autumn is that of tranquillity, but 

 interrupted by the September equinoctial and some 

 other changes. 



In September, the vegetable tribes have ad- 

 vanced through their stages of production and ma- 

 turity, and are approaching the verge of old age. 

 But still, the earth is clothed in beauty. The fields 

 so lately mown are covered with the liveliest green 

 by the young clover, or tinted with their varied 

 flowers. The corn looks rank and strong and be- 

 gins to beam with gold, while the pastures as- 

 sume a cheerful hue, refreshed by the periodical 

 rains. 



The woods have exchanged the soft green of 

 spring for the more sober shades that indicate ma- 

 turity, but maintain their leafy pride and hide in 

 their shade the various nuts which they produce. 

 The birds which love to be near the habitations 

 of men, have mostly left to people other lands and 

 cheer the laborers of other fields. Now and then 

 the bob-o-link, on russet wing, flits by, or the lark 

 springs from the meadow, whistling as he mounts 

 to the clouds. 



So autumn has its own peculiar character, and 

 these are a few of its foreshado wings. The hur- 

 ry and bustle of haying being over, the husband- 

 man pauses in his labor and takes a retrospective 



glance at his past efforts ; then examining the 

 standing crops, meditates upon what there is far- 

 ther to be done. He brings into view the opera- 

 tions of the coming spring, and inquires whether 

 this field shall remain in grass or be sowed with 

 Bummer grains ; whether the meadow now luxuri- 

 ating in hassocks, hard-hack, skunk-cabbage and 

 elecampane shall be browsed another year by the 

 cattle, or shall he add a sturdy team, a stout plow 

 with a little "book farming," and make it turn out 

 two tons to the acre of good herds-grass and red- 

 top next July. In his survey he brings into view 

 all the operations of the farm, the orchard, the 

 garden, pastures, meadows, hill and plain land 

 and swamps. He finds still enough to do — that 

 labor is most beneficently diffused over the year, se- 

 as not to cause too great a pressure of employment 

 at any season ; and the perfected crops being gath- 

 ered, while waiting for the great Indian corn har- 

 vest and the roots and fruits, he turns his atten- 

 tion more particularly to the permanent improve- 

 ments of the farm, such at first as 



Draining. — When the springs are low and lit- 

 tle water is flowing from the hills is a good time to 

 engage in this most important operation . You will 

 plow deep and sub-soil in vain, if the cold water 

 trickles from the hills and passes through the bot- 

 tom which you have plowed in search of an out- 

 let. It will exclude sweet and nutrient vegeta- 

 tion. When you contemplate plowing meadows 

 and swamps, thorough draining must be the pi- 

 oneer, or disappointment will be the result. When 

 the drainage is complete, we have only to reiter- 

 ate the remarks recently made of applying a suit- 

 able team and plow, at first, and there may be 

 profit in reclaiming almost any swamp or meadow. 

 They are among our best New England lands, be- 

 ing composed of the wash of the hills and rich ac- 

 cumulations of successive ages. 



Ditchin"- through the lower part of meadows 

 does not accomplish the work desired ; the water 

 must be arrested and led off before it flows over 



