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DEVOTED TO AGKICULTUKE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES, 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, APRIL, 1858. 



NO. 4. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor. 

 Office., .13 Commercial St, 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HEXRV F. FKEXCH, Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR APRIL. 



How awful is the thought of the wonders underground, 

 Of the mystic changes wrought in the silent, dark profound j 

 How each thing upward tends by necessity decreed, 

 And a world's support depends on the shooting of a seed ! 



The summer's in her ark, and this sunny-pinion'd day 

 Is commisiion'd to remark whether winter holds her sway: 

 Go back, thou dove of peace, with the myrtle on thy wing, 

 Say that floods and tempests cease, and the world is ripe for 

 Spring. Horace Smitlt. 



TRIL animates all liv- 

 ing things ; quick- 

 ens the blood, giv- 

 - ing it new fire and 

 force, and starts 

 the sap in all the 

 vegetable kingdom, 

 sending it dancing 

 joyfully along into 

 every spray and leaf and 

 flower. The trees glow with 

 I a new delight, wave their 

 glad branches, or bow with 

 graceful ease to the passing 

 breeze, as young girls bend 

 in sportive grace on sunny 

 slopes or flowery lawns. Xo 

 reflecting being can be in- 

 sensible to the charms of 

 Spring; if he were so, he 

 could not be reflecting — he 

 would have lost the impress of Divinity stamped 

 upon the race. He would be less than a brute 

 or a clod ; for the animals certainly feel a new 

 life in the spring, as they give evidence in many 

 ways. And do not the clods feel the electric 

 fire, and swell -with warmth and gratitude, and 

 clothe themselves in beautiful attire, in cheer- 

 ful green, in purple and white, and sparkle with 

 dewy gems, and exhale their fragrance upon the 

 soft air? Surely, surely, that must be a dark 

 and brooding mind that the sweet influences of 

 Spring does not kindle into a delightful glow, 

 and lift it rapturously to Him who brings the 



Seasons in their order, and gives each its appro- 

 priate duties and charms ! 



Since Spring, then, has already greeted you, 

 we will speak of some of the incidents of the 

 season, whether they come a few weeks earlier or 

 later. 



And there are the spring winds and rains, and 

 their influence : those powers of the air, that for 

 a season seem to wage fierce war in the heavens, 

 and present all the fury of a battle between the 

 retreating Winter and advancing Spring. The 

 air comes whistling and roaming through the 

 barns and about our chimney-tops, as though it 

 had no object beyond expending its rage ; whirl- 

 ing the amazed weather-cock till it creaks and 

 complains in its despair of ever designating the 

 quarter whence the unruly one cometh ; rattling 

 Avindows and slamming blinds until the nervous 

 member of the family carefully wedges and fast- 

 ens all "tight as a drum ;" tossing and scattering 

 the clouds and smoke ; driving so many stout 

 vessels on our dreadful coasts, and giving over 

 the poor fellows on board to the mercy of the 

 waves. 



One is almost convinced that the Latin poet 

 had arrived at the truth of it, when he represent- 

 ed a grim old jailer of the winds imprisoning 

 them in a vast cave, while they, with the first 

 chance, escape, and rush forth to commit a thou- 

 sand wild freaks. 



To this idea of the grim ^olus, and fitful 

 winds that blow by chance, contrast the meteo- 

 rologists of the present day, quietly reviewing 

 masses of information derived from all quarters 

 of the world, and at last astounding many of us 

 with the declaration that there is a system ruling 

 the atmosphere that envelopes tlie globe, as icell as 

 the waters that cover it! By discoveries already 

 made, science proves that chance no more rules 

 the directions and violence of the winds, than it 

 regulates the rise of the tide wave, or the even, 

 more wonderful ocean-currents. 



And to this conviction we must come in what- 



