DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XI. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1859. 



NO. 12. 



NOUKSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors, oriwrow T?T?nwTir ptittor FREn'K HOLBROOK, I Associate 



OPFIOE...34 Merchants Row. feiJViUJN BKOWN, EDITOR. HENRY F. FRENCh! Editors. 



DECEMBER. 



"Old Winter i? coming again, alack '. 



How icy and cold is he ! 

 He cares not a pin for a shivering back — 

 He's a saucy old chap to white and black — 

 He whistles his chills with a wonderful knack, 



For he comes from a cold countree." 



;i^ 



ECEMBER has come 

 round again, and 

 we must now pre- 

 pare for that "three 

 months of winter," 

 and nine months of 

 '- considerable "cold 

 ' weather," which 

 somebody says is 

 , the usual allotment. 

 There are vari- 

 ous ways of prepar- 

 ^ "=-- — ^^^ ing for the unwel- 

 come tyrant, in or- 

 der to make his 

 reign as tolerable as possi- 

 ble, and it is curious to 

 note the eiforts for this end 

 made by man and beast. The bear 

 retires to his den, and "sucks his 

 paws till spring," it is said, which 

 ■we always considered a highly philosophical pro- 

 ceeding, besides being a great saving of food and 

 fuel, to say nothing of wear and tear of nerves in i 

 bewailing those contingencies which cannot be 

 avoided. 



The birds, those summer friends of ours, [we 

 hardly know whether it is quite fair to call those 

 robins that stole all our cherries and strawber- 

 ries, "our friends,"] most of them leave us, and 

 sing their songs to other ears. The frog goes 

 down somewhere out of sight, and never deigns 

 another croak, till spring lets loose the streams 

 and rivers once more. He greatly enjoyed his 

 summer life in that pool with the yellow cowslips 

 on its bosom, and the wild pines and hemlocks 



on its margin. The old moss-covered log that 

 fell across it ten years ago, and has been slowly 

 going to decay ever since, has got to be a kind 

 of home to him, but he knows too much to put 

 his head out such weather as this, so we will leave 

 him to his meditations till next April. 



And the dragon-fly and devil's darning-needle, 

 which used to hold their carnivorous revels over 

 that same pool, where are they now ? Is it pos- 

 sible that creatures so insignificant, are remem- 

 bered by the great mother Nature, and have had 

 imparted to them the secret of self-preservation ? 



Go, lean over the tumble-down rail fence by 

 that "frog pond," next summer, and you will be 

 convinced that it is so indeed ; for you will see, 

 if not the identical insects that you knew a year 

 ago, at least, their children and grand-children. 



But man, the lord of creation, cannot shirk 

 out of winter by retiring to his den, or diving 

 into the mud, there to await returning spring. 

 It is his to battle with the elements, and to turn 

 their fury to his own account. Those animals 

 which lie torpid during the winter, lose nothing 

 thereby. To be active, would be to suffer ; while 

 they sleep, they are not falling behind the march 

 of progress, but they will come out of their tor- 

 pidity precisely on a level with the rest of their 

 race. Yes, even the toad which lives a hundred 

 years imbedded in a solid rock, will be no whit 

 behind his fellow toads, who have enjoyed all the 

 privileges of the age. But man cannot afford to 

 lose three months in ignominious oblivion. There 

 are planets to be discovered, Atlantic telegraphs 

 to be invented. Great Easterns to be got to the 

 Western Hemisphere, and balloons to be perfect- 

 ed ; so he builds him a house for shelter, he has 

 a fur coat to brave the northwester, and fires to 

 make his dwelling of summer temperature. So 

 to every creature, according to its degree, is giv- 

 en wisdom sufficient for its comfort and preser- 

 vation. 



The mere matter of warming our houses, by 



