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DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IV. 



BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1852. 



NO. 10. 



RAYNOLDS <t NOURSE, Proprietors. 

 Office. ...Qcincy Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K IIOLBROOK, 1 Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, J Editobs. 



THE FARM IN OCTOBER. 



This is the tenth month of the year. Terstegan 

 says our Saxon ancestors called it Wyra-monat ; 

 wyn signifies wine ; "and alheit they had not an- 

 ciently wines in Germany, yet in this season had 

 they theui from divers countries adjoining." Dr. 

 F. Sayer says they also called it Winter-fulleth. 



October, in our climate is a delightful month. 

 The early frost in Septemher brought the first sad 

 symptoms of decay for the year, and prepared our 

 feelings for the general dissolution of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom which must follow in October. The 

 first shock to our senses being over, we now find 

 the chief beauty of the month arises from vegtable 

 death itself. It is seen everywhere in the drooping 

 vines, the ripening corn and changing leaves with all 

 their lights and shades of green, amber, red, light 

 red, light and dark green, white, ( brown, russet, and 

 yellow of all sorts. Heavy dews prevail ; the 

 mornings and evenings increase in mistiness, while 

 the middle of the day is the perfection of climate 



"The orient is lighted with crimson glow, 



The night ami its dreams are fled, 

 And the glorious roll of nature now 



Is in all its brightness spread. 



The autumn has tinged the trees with gold, 



And crimsoned the shrubs of the hills ; 

 And the full seed sleeps in earth's bosom cold ; 



And hope all the universe fills." 



"We delight to linger with the poetry of the farm 

 — for poetry it has at all seasons — to ramble in the 

 forest, 



"Where the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the 

 woods is still," 



drop a hook in the dark holes of the winding trout 

 brook, and while waiting for a nibble, call up the 

 memories of old Izaak Walton, and Herbert, or 

 father back, of Cincinnatus, Cato and Columella, 

 or sketch upon the sand the quaint cuts in Mark- 

 ham's Farewell to Husbandry, which he has given 

 as samples of pruning and shaping the heads of 

 apple trees. Ah ! these are true enjoyments 

 which every farmer may share— and as we have 

 now alluded to them sufficiently to set his "expec- 



tation on tip-toe," we will mention some of the 

 other business of the Farm — and first 



Of its Neatness. — We often form our opinions 

 of the farm and the farmer from the first view we 

 have of the premises, the covp d'cdl, as the French 

 sajr, when we take in at a glance all its general 

 appearance, and that impression, whether it be 

 favorable or unfavorable, is strongly retained on 

 the mind. And this appearance is a pretty good 

 indication of what the farmer in reality is — whether 

 farmer Trim or farmer Slack, and his profits will 

 usually be in accordance with the habits which he 

 has chosen from one of the two characters. Neat- 

 ness in the house, barn, door-yard, and under 

 the fences and walls, indicate economy and thrift; 

 bright implements and order in arrangement indi- 

 cate cheerfulness and contentment, while well-fed 

 horses, cattle and swine, with sleek hides and fat 

 ribs, indicate a feeling heart, as well as the other 

 virtues mentioned. When these are combined, 

 united with the habits of a good parishoner, the 

 farm becomes the blest abode of man. He need not 

 sigh for the Eden of the Euphrates, or power and 

 popularity as bestowed by the world ; his Paradise 

 is begun, fashioned by his own hands, watered by 

 the rain, and visited by the sunshine of heaven, 

 and whose memory thereof shall never be blotted 

 from his mind. 



October is the month, of all seasons, for the 

 farmer to establish throughout his borders this 

 neatness and order, the stamp of genuine farming-. 

 He will level the humps and hillocks of his fields, 

 and scatter them with manure and grass seed ; lev- 

 el double, and fill up, dead furrows ; dig out bush- 

 es from the wall, and cart away the rich earth 

 which has been turned against it for many suc- 

 cessive years, and prepare it for a crop of pota- 

 toes next spring, so that a year's cultivation may 

 exterminate the roots. He will gather the rank 

 weeds (if he has been so unwise as to let them 

 stand till this time) and small brush and deposit 

 them with muck and quick lime for future use. — 



