DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AWD ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES, 



VOL. XI. 



BOSTON, MAY, 1859. 



NO. 5. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor. 

 Office. ..34 Merchants Kow. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FPvEn'K noi.BROOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, \ Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR MAY. 



"When rosy May comes in wi' flowers, 



To dfck her gay, green spreaiJing bowers, 



Then busy, busy are her hours — 



The gardener wi' his paidle. 



The crystal waters gently fa', 



The meiry birds are lovtrs a', 



The fcented breezes round tiim blow — 



The gardener wi' his paidle." — Burns. 



AY is more cele- 

 brated in song 

 than any other 

 month in the year 

 — but it must 

 have been a May 

 different from 

 ours, that inspir- 

 ed the poet in 

 some of his at- 

 tractive strains. 



The Spectator 

 says — "A celebra- 

 ted French novel- 

 ist in opposition to 

 those who begin their 

 Ufj rominces with the flowery 

 ^ season of the year, enters 

 "5^ on his story thus : — 



" 'In the gloomy month 

 of November, when the 

 people of England hang and drown themselves, a 

 disconsolate lover walked out in the fields,'" &c. 

 The reason why the writer commenced in this 

 way is quite obvious. He had a disconsolate lov- 

 er to dispose of— a lover who, for aught we 

 know, was at that very moment walking out in 

 search of a place wherein to drown himself, a 

 V Anglaise. 



Had he begun it thus— "In the beautiful 

 month of May, when all nature was rejoicing — 

 when birds were singing in every tree, and flow- 

 ers were blooming in every nook," &c., &c., po- 

 etic truth would have required, not the intro-| 



^•j^W^ 



duction of one solitary lover on suicidal thought 

 intent, but a pair of lovers "sitting on a mossy 

 bank," looking untterable things at each other. 



Philosophize as we may, the weather does have 

 a great influence over the spirits of the wisest of 

 us, and we cannot help sympathizing with her 

 varying moods. In the case of the "lover" afore- 

 said, we would hazard a guess that the lady dis- 

 missed him in an equinoctial storm, and that if 

 he contrived to live through the winter, they 

 made it all up, and were married the following 

 May, with all the orange flowers and "honiton" 

 suitable to the occasion ! 



Heaven's sunshine dissipates "vapors" •f more 

 than one kind, and "Melancholy often conveys 

 herself to us in an easterly M'ind." 



Geologists tell us that when the earth emerged 

 from chaos, there was a period in which nothing 

 but enormous lizards perambulated its surface, 

 and that it took some time to fit it up for the 

 residence of human beings. We have often been 

 reminded of this in looking out upon a world 

 just waking from its winter nap — and as day af- 

 ter day, a man plods amphibiously along through 

 mud, water and snow — a pair of long rubber 

 boots beneath his feet, and an umbrella over his 

 head, he may be supposed to have pretty vivid 

 conceptions of those primitive settlers of the liz- 

 ard tribe. But then came the dry land, the 

 green grass, the birds, the flowers — verily, it is 

 the old story of the garden of Eden over again ! 



"And the Lord God took the man and put him 

 into the garden of Eden to dress and keep it." 



We would not indulge in idle speculations, 

 but may we not fairly infer from this passage, 

 that husbandry, in some form, was his natural 

 and original occupation ? Is it not true, also, that 

 the necessity for the three learned professions, 

 as they are called, arises entirely from the sins 

 and infirmities of mankind ? The minister calls 

 not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It 

 is the lawyer's business to heal dissensions occa- 



