DE"\rOTED TO AGRICULTUHE AND ITS KINDHED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VII . 



BOSTON, JANUARY, 1855. 



NO. 1 



JOEL NOURSE, PiiorRiETOu. 

 Office Quincy Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, f Associate 

 IIKNRY I'. 



HOLBROOK, ■> Assocu 

 I'. fBi:NC'Il, \ . i.nxi 



CALENDAE EOK JANUARY. 



for 



" Great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend 

 lie saith to the snow, be thou on the earth." 



" By His commandment He maketh the snow to fall apace ; 

 as birds flying lie scattereth the snow ; and the falling down 

 thereof is as the lighting of grasshoppers ; the eye marvek-th 

 at the beauty of the whiteness thereof ; and the heart is aston- 

 ished at the raining of it." 



ANUARY, — t'le month of con- 

 gratuliitions and good wish- 

 es, as well as of new hopes, 

 new promises and determi- 

 nations. Every first of Jan- 

 uary that we arrive at, is an 

 imaginary mile-stone on the 

 turnpiiie track of human 

 life ; at once a resting-place 

 for thought and meditation, and a starting-point 

 for fresh exertion in the performance of our jour- 

 ney. I'he man who does not at least propose to 

 himself to be better //i?s year than he was the last, 

 must be either very good or very bad indeed ! 

 And only to propose to be better, is something; 

 if nothing else, it is an acknowedgment of our 

 need to be so, — which is the first step toward 

 amendment. But in fact, to propose to oneself 

 to do well, is in some sort to do well, positively ; 

 for there is no such thing as a stationary point in 

 human endeavors ; he who is not worse to-day 

 than he was yesterday, is better ; and he who is 

 not hotter, is worse. Let us, then, from this 

 stand-point, look l)ack and note the errors of the 

 past, so as to shun them in the future, and make 

 its excellencies the starting-place of more signal 

 virtues throughout this new period of revolving 

 Time. 



Some persons s-igh for "city life" in the win- 

 ter — "the country is so barren and dull, — there 

 are no theatres or balls to attend, and no notabili- 

 ties to lecture." Ah, then they have not assist- 

 ed to make the country what it should be in win- 

 ter. Are there more intelligent or more brilliant 

 assembles under any gas lights in the city than 

 gathered at the Town Hall last night? Indeed, 



the city itself was there. Did hearts ever beat 

 with keener enjoyment, or swain ever "trip 

 through the mazy dance," with more appropri- 

 ate delight than in the presence of that refined 

 and intellectual assemblage : And as to theatres, 

 stars of the first magnitude may well envy the 

 beauty and brilliancy of the women, or the wit 

 and heroism of the men, who occasionally "bring 

 down the house" in thunders of applause in the 

 Old Academy Halls. Bare walls, smutty roofs 

 and dirty streets, bound the vision in the city, 

 while squalid wretchedness, crime and destitu- 

 tion are ghastly objects in the fore-ground. Cities 

 we must have, but they are necessary evils ; let 

 us not foi-get the advantages of our own positions, 

 in longing for the unsatisfying attractions of 

 crowded and artificial life. 



The country, it is true, has changed — tlio fields 

 are "brown and sere," the singing birds vre gone, 

 the earth is hard and unyielding, and tlie trees 

 are leafless and bare. But all these changes re- 

 veal new beauties, — the thick leaves had long 

 concealed the bloom-buds of the fruit trees which 

 now stand out upon the otherwise bare branches, 

 and, "dressed in their wind-and-water-proof 

 coats, brave the utmost severity of the season." 



The leaves, having performed tlicir office for 

 the season, now fall to the ground, tliere to sup- 

 ply nourishment for future crops. But there is 

 one left, which neither frost, nor winds, nor 

 beating rains have parted from its stem : — 



" The one red leaf, the last of its clan, 

 That dances as often as dance it can ; 

 Hanging so light and hanging so high. 

 On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky," 



was influenced by, and did influence, the lowest 

 rout wliich pierces tiie humid soil. The earth, 

 hard and rugged as it now is, is treasuring the 

 keen frosts, in order to throw up its comjuict sur- 

 face into light and jwrous forms when vernal suns 

 invito the sower again to scatter his seeds. Now 

 the processes of nature for the renewal of her 



