DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KIISTDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1858. 



NO. 2. 



JOEL NOURSE, Froprietor. 

 0FricE...13 Commercial St. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, \ Editors. 



FEBRUARY. 



"When the days begin to lengthen, 

 Then the cold becins to strengthen." 



jEBRUARlus was giv- 

 en as a name to the 

 second month in 

 the Roman Calen- 

 dar, from Februa, 

 a festival ■which oc- 

 curred in this month, 

 in which sacrifices were 

 offered to the manes of 

 the departed. Those 

 who participated in this fes- 

 tival were called Februati, or 

 purified, and were .supposed 

 to be purified from the sins 

 which they had committed 

 during the previous year. 



The Sun has now made 

 considerable progress in his 

 return from the tropic of Capricorn, 

 the limit of his southern declination, 

 and consequently the days have be- 

 come proportionably longer. Yet we often have 

 the coldest days of winter in February. The 

 snow and ice have accumulated in the northern 

 regions. The waters of the ocean have become 

 cooled down to the lowest point. The currents 

 of the atmosphere, in passing over these regions, 

 are deprived of the caloric which they bore from 

 the regions of the south, and reach the eastern 

 shores of our continent loaded with sharp parti- 

 cles of frozen vapor, which penetrate the warm- 

 est clothing, and pierce to the very bones. This 

 region is 



"The armory of Winter, where his troops, 

 The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy sleet, 

 Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail, 

 And snow,, tha t often blinds the traveller's course. 

 And wraps him in an unexpected tomb." 



February is the month of winds and drifting 

 snows. The snow is borne bv the winds from 



the hills and level plains, and heaped in deep 

 masses in the valleys and highways, by the fences 

 and walls, and in the deep cuttings of the rail- 

 ways. 



"From the bellowing east, 



In this dire season of the whirlwind's wing, 

 Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains 

 At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks, 

 Hid in the hollow of two neighboring hills. 

 The billowy tempest whelms ; till upward urged, 

 The valley to a shiny mountain swells, 

 Tipped n-ith a wreath high curling to the sky." 



This description sheds light rather upon Eng-- 

 lish modes of farming than ours, for the "whirl- 

 wind's wing" would rarely "sv.'eep up the burden 

 of whole wintry plains," on our "hapless flocks," 

 for they are not trusted in "the hollow of two 

 neighboring hills," at this inclement seasoix. We 

 find warm barns economical, and cannot afford to 

 do without them. 



And now comes the labor of breaking out the 

 roads and removing the obstructions iji, the way 

 of the traveller. This is often vervsevere work, 

 and has to be repeated sometimes every day in 

 certain places. But the snow plow, the shovel 

 and the patient ox do their work. They never 

 give over till it is accomplished., "We have often 

 been surprised to see how soon the highways in 

 New England, when filled to a.level with the walls, 

 are rendered passable, and.haw soon the rail cars 

 are again M'hizzing on the track that was buried 

 many feet under hard driven snows. The snow 

 shoes which bore the aborigines and our fore- 

 fathers over the patliless fields and through the 

 forests, are now rarely seen. Now the gaily 

 painted sleigh is out, and the merry bells are 

 heard in every direction. The people at this 

 season have become accustomed to the cold, and 

 wrapped in woollens and furs, they defy its pow- 

 er, and fearlessly face the cutting winds and driv- 

 ing snows. 



Now that the days arc longer, the farmers are- 

 hauling home their year's stock of firewood, and 

 the timber for rails and posts, and the boiu'd logs 



