.1 - ;v .'>. ' 



DBVOT3D TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VII. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1855. 



NO. 2. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor, 

 Office.. ..QriscY Hall. 



SIMOK BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K IIOLBKOOK, ) Associate 



JIENRY F. I'KEXCII, 5 EDITOR:^. 



CALENDAR FOa FEBEUARY. 



" Loud howls tliG wind along the vale ! 

 Shipwreck and death are in the gale ! 

 Soon, weary travellers, as they go, 

 Are wildered In the trackless snow. 

 And dread, at every step, that sleet 

 And snow may be their winding-sheet." 



EBRUART, in this latitude, is 

 usually a blustering month . 

 December commonly gives 

 us a strong nij) of Winter 

 for a week or two, then it 

 seems to rest awhile in order 

 to get breath. Then January 

 comes with occasional warm 

 south winds and showers ; bare 

 spots are in the fields and runners grate harshly 

 on the gravel roads ; silver streams glide on the 

 clear ice, and the roljins, perhaps, leave the thick 

 swamps and make us a visit ; but it is a brief 

 one, for the north wind suddenly assumes the 

 mastery. The elm tops sway and yield to its 

 fierce breath ; all. is frigidity and congelation 

 again; the condensed ice cracks like pistol re- 

 ports, and wakens the drowsers in the chimney 

 corners. 



vSo all the Months have their peculiar charac- 

 teristics. The agreeable author of the "Mirror 

 of the Months " says " some one has said of the 

 Scotch novels, that that is the best which we 

 happen to have perused last. It is thus that I 

 estimate the relative value and virtue of the 

 Months. The one which happens to be present 

 with mo is sure to l)c that one which I happen to 

 like better than any of the others. I lately in- 

 sisted on the supremacy of January on various 

 accounts. Now I have a similar claim to put in 

 in favor of the next in succession. And it shall 

 go hard but I will prove, to the entire satisfaction 

 of all whom it may concern, that each in her 

 turn is, beyond comparison, the ' wisest, virtu- 

 ousest,discreetest,best.' Indeed I doubt whether. 



on consideration, any one (but a Scotch philoso- 

 pher) will be inclined to dispute the truth of this, 

 even as a logical proposition, much less as a sen- 

 timent. The time present is the best of all pos- 

 sible times, because it is present — because it is — 

 because it is something ; whereas all other times 

 are nothing. The time present, therefore, is es- 

 sentially better than any other time, in the pro- 

 portion of something to nothing. • * * The clev- 

 erest Scotch philosopher that ever lived has said, 

 in a memoir of his own life, that a man had 

 better be born with a disposition to look on the 

 bright side of things, than to an estate of ten 

 thousand a year. He might have gone further, 

 and said that the disposition to which he alludes 

 is worth almost as much to a man as being com- 

 pelled and able to earn an honest livelihood by 

 the sweat of his brow ! Nay, he might almost 

 have asserted that, with such a disposition, a man 

 may chance to be happy even though he be born 

 to an estate of twenty thousand a year ! But I, 

 not being (thank my stars) a Scotch or any other 

 philosopher, will venture to go still farther, and 

 say, that to be able to look at things as they are, 

 is best of all. To him who can do this, all is as 

 it should be — all things Avork together for good — 

 whatever is, is right. To him who can do this, 

 the present time is all sufficient, or rather it is 

 all in all ; for if he cannot enjoy any other, it is 

 because no other is suscepti])le of being enjoyed, 

 except tlirougli the medium of tlie present." 



Head Work. — We trust the suggestions in last 

 month's calendar to improve the head as well as 

 to occupy tlie hands, have had duo consideration, 

 and that this important work will be continued 

 through the month of Februai-y. 



Plans. — The work of spring and summer should 

 1)0 arranged now while there is husurc to consider 

 it in all its bearings. What fields shall bo devot- 

 ed to corn, oats, barley, wheat, potatoes? Where 

 the i^cas, l)ean3, turnips, carrots? Where the 

 early vegetables, the tomatoes, radishes, egg-plants, 



