DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XL 



BOSTON, JUNE, 1859. 



NO. 6. 



JOEL NOniSE, Proprietor. 

 Office. ..34 Merchants Row. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOI.BROOK, ) Asr^oriATE 

 HENRY F. FUEXCH, Editors. 



OALENDAK FOR JUNE. 



••For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; 



"The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of 



birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." 



u N E , in the 

 months, is like 

 our early man- 

 hood in life, 

 crowded with full- 

 ness and strength, 

 and flushed with 

 activity and joy. 

 The birds mate 

 and sing, insects 

 flutter from leaf 

 to leaf, or sport in the 

 wirm evening rays; — 

 flowers exhale their fra- 

 grant odois, and gentle airs waft 

 ~ - yi\\ them to us, and regale our sens- 

 /__ ^^^^ es as though from Hesperian 

 &^1 





showers. 



fields. The plants stretch away from 

 the ground and bathe in the sun- 

 light, spreading their leaves, like so 

 many hands, to catch the condensing 

 vapors, or absorb the softly-falling 

 June is not perfection, it is only the 



month of progress — the flush and promise of ro- 

 bust youth. A little later in the season will 



bring maturity in some plants, and that comes 



so near the next step in Nature's course, decay, 



as to break the charm. But June suggests no 



decay — it is all promise — and arouses in any 



feeling heart, something of that benevolence and 



love which beams from its great Architect, and erald jewel, with which the year adorns herself, 



fruit, the odor of the budding grape vine,the song 

 of the lark and the cooing of the turtle-dove, 

 (not the veritable mud-turtle, as we thought in 

 our juvenile ignorance,) the murmuring of the 

 brook Kidron, no longer rushing in a torrent 

 over its rocky bed, but flowing gently, as was its 

 wont in summer — and the olive-trees on Mount 

 Olivet clad in fresh green. Later in the season, 

 he watched for the "Rose of Sharon" and the 

 "lily of the valley." Ninety generations of men 

 have since passed away, and yet such is the uni- 

 formity with which nature does her work, that 

 we, of a world then unthought of, can find no 

 words more appropriate than those of Solomon 

 to express our joy when "the flowers appear on 

 the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is 

 come." And until the internal fires of our plan- 

 et shall burst their shell, we are told "seed-time 

 and harvest, summer and winter, shall not cease." 



Yet, from this very harmony of nature, so won- 

 derful when we think of it, we are apt to under- 

 value many of our blessings as commonplace. 

 The sun rises and scatters the vapors away, bring- 

 ing life and joy to the animal and vegetable world, 

 yet, were it mentioned as a subject of gratitude, 

 many of us would reply in the spirit of the man, 

 who, when his attention was directed to the Falls 

 of Niagara, merely said, — "Vfhy shouldn't it fall 



what hinders it?" But hear the exclamation 

 of one who had endured a six months' winter in 

 an Arctic region. "To-day, blessed be the great 

 Author of light, I have once more looked upon 

 the sun." 



And this month of June — this gem— this em- 



kindles and glorifies all 



That Solomon was a close observer of nature, 

 is manifest from his writings, and we can imag- 

 ine some of the sights and sounds which would 

 greet him as he walked out nearly three thous- 

 and years ago, in the country about Jerusalem. 



There was the fig-tree covered with young 



how many merely regard it as the same old June 

 they have always known, the month that comes 

 after May — and never give it another thought. 

 But no, it is not the same June, and you may see 

 in it wonders you never discovered before, if you 

 will not insist on walking through the world 

 blindfold. 



