DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUKE AN"D ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES, 



VOL. X. 



BOSTON, MAY, 1858. 



NO. 5. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor. 

 Office.. .13 Commercial St. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, Editors. 



MAY. 



"0 ! knew he but his happiness, of men 



The happiest lie, who, far from public rage, 



Deep in the vale with a choice few retir'il, 



Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life ! 



Rich in content, in nature's society rich, 



In herbs and fruits, whatever greens the Spring:, 



When Heaven descends in showers or bends the boughs, 



When summer reddens and when autumn beams, 



Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies 



Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest sap, 



These are not wanting: — 



This is the life which those who fret in guilt. 



And guilty cities never knew ; the life 



I,ed by primeval ages uncorrupt. 



When acgels dwelt, and God himself with man." 



AY, more than 

 any other month, 

 awakens and 

 kindles those 

 emotions of the 

 heart which beat 

 in unison with 

 the changes and 

 appearances of 

 Nature. The 

 pleasures of ru- 

 ral life, and es- 

 pecially those of 

 spring, have 

 been a standing 

 theme of admi- 

 ration, from time 

 immemorial. 



Wherever the 

 harmonizing in- 

 fluences of civil- 

 ization have been felt, there have not been want- 

 ing those who delight to sing, paint or chisel the 

 joys of husbandry. 



The Idyls of Theocritus and the Bucolics of 



Virgil are imperishable monuments of the high 



estimation in which agricultural pursuits were 



held by the most eidightened nations of antiquity. 



Cincinnatus deemed it an honor to exchange 



the helm of state, to which he had been called by 

 a nation's voice, and which he had so conducted 

 as to secure a nation's approbation, for the plow, 

 and the purer and more simple pleasures of rus- 

 tic life. 



The most successful efforts of genius have been 

 expended upon rustic simplicity. 



Among enlightened nations of modern times, 

 no order of poetry has so many admirers as pas- 

 toral, no style of painting awakens such enthusi- 

 asm, and commands such universal admiration, as 

 landscape. 



The merchant, amid the toils and perplexing 

 cares of city tiade, sighs for the sweets of coun- 

 try life, — longs to hold communion with nature 

 in her rustic retreats. With the laboring man, 

 the mechanic, and the artisan, the height of am- 

 bition of his being is to gain undisputed posses- 

 sion of a "little farm well tilled ;" and the pro- 

 fessional man and the man of letters are ever 

 looking forward with pleasing anticipations, to 

 the time, when they may be permitted to enjoy a 

 dignified retirement in a sequestered spot, where 

 art is less conspicuous than nature, and where 

 they can contemplate the varying aspects of 

 country life, ramble over sunny hills or meditate 

 by purling brooks, or find unalloyed enjoyments 

 in the cultivation of the soil and the growth and 

 care of the inferior animals dependent upon 

 them. 



Indeed, nearly all our ideas of comfort, of 

 calm satisfaction, are associated with country life. 

 The paradise in which Adam and Eve found 

 their chief joys, was a garden, in which gi-ew 

 every conceivable variety of plant. Listen to 

 their charming conversation : — 



Adam to Eve — 



"To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east 

 With first approach of light, we must be risen, 

 And at our pleasant labor to reform 

 Von flowery arbors, yonder alleys green. 

 Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown. 

 That mock our scant manuring, and require 

 More hands than ours to lop their wanton gi-owth j 



