DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRSD ARTS AND SOIENOBS. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1856. 



NO. 12. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor 

 Office.. ..QciNCT Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K nOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY P. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



y^ii^M^-: 



z^ 



DECEMBER'S SUGGESTIONS. 



"He marks the bounds which winter may not pass, 



And blunts his pointed fury ; in its case, 



Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ 



Uninjured, with inimitable art ; 



And, ere one flowery season fades and dies. 



Designs the blooming wonders of the next." — Cowper. 



ECEMBER, like all the 

 other months, comes 

 ■with its own peculiar 

 characteristics. The 

 year has grown old, 



- — its last sands are 



- ebbing out, soon to 

 be numbered with 

 the days and months 



nd years that have 

 lolled away before 

 it. The external as- 

 pects of Nature are 

 in harmony with it. 

 Spring, Summer and 

 Autumn have had, each, its 

 gloiies, worn well its honors, 

 and gracefully yielded them to 

 the unceasing march of Time, so that 

 Winter may close the scene, and give 

 -' repose to the plants that have been 

 so active through all the former year. 



Our thoughts and feelings partake of these char- 

 acteristics of the months. When Spring bursts in- 

 to life and enchantment, they are full of joy and 

 animation and hope. The heart beats in unison 

 with the nature around it, with the cheerful sun- 

 shine and the singing of birds, or dilates in gladness 

 with the opening flowers. In Summer, the young 

 hope is strengthened by the i)rogress of the vege- 

 table Idngdom, and the heart kindles with lauda- 

 ble ambition, and feels strong in the glowing world 

 that inspires it. So when Autumn perfects the 

 plants that have been the objects of so much care, 

 and the sunlight streams on golden grains, and 

 fruits and ripened crops, the heart is serene. 



and is pervaded by a sweet and calm content. But 

 as Winter approaches, and the leaves fall, the flow- 

 ers fade, the trees throw their naked branches to 

 the wind, and the meadows and fields are bleak 

 and bare, the heart falls into deep sympathy with 

 it, and confesses that these natural periods are sug- 

 gestive of a review of the past, and of resolutions 

 of a truer future life. Our spring, and summer, 

 and autumn, also, hasten on, on tireless wing, — our 

 moments fly with the fleeting year, and bring uf. 

 near the winter of our days ; but if of days rightly 

 lived, not a winter of discontent, but of a steady 

 abiding love and perfection. The perfection of our 

 being, as is the coming of winter the perfection of 

 the plant. 



Let us indulge, then, in this privilege of retre-- 

 spection — each for himself, looking into his inmost 

 heart, to examine its motives, desires and hopes, 

 and to kindle in it a broader humanity, and new 

 determinations of usefulness to the world. 



Our connection with surrounding nature is most 

 intimate ; "it is God's air that we breathe, and God's 

 sun that enlightens us. The graceful vicissiUide of 

 day and night, the revolutions of the seasons, 

 marked by the regular return of summer and win- 

 ter, seed-time and harvest, are all appointed by Hi^- 

 unerring wisdom. It is His pencil that points the 

 flower, and His fragrance which it exhales. By 

 His hand the fields are clothed in beauty, and caused 

 to teem with plenty. At His command the moun- 

 tains rose, the valley sank, and the plains were 

 stretched out. His seas surround our coasts, and 

 His winds blow, to waft to us the treasures of dis- 

 tant lands, and to extend the intercourse of man 

 with man.'' It is in His love, only, that we can be 

 sustained. 



The more completely this thought pervades our 

 mindsj the more thoroughly shall we cultivate our 

 affections and our fields, and approach that true life 

 illustrated in the example of the Master while with 

 us on earth. 



This train of thought in Decemher, will stimulate 



