DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VII. 



BOSTON, MARCH, 1855. 



NO. 3. 



JOEL NOUKSE, Proprietor, 

 Office.. ..QriscT Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K IIOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HENK.Y F. FRENCH, J Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR MARCH. 



The weathtT now l)e,i;ius to lie warmer, but we have sometimes 

 very cold, frosty cUiys, and the bare trees and flowerless fields 

 still appear winterly, while hasty showers of snow fall and 

 cover the dry herbage or flocks who have been allowed to 

 ramble in the pastures. 



^:!>. ARcn is a much-abused month . 

 People grumble, and vent 

 their spleen upon it, as 

 though its flurries of snow, 

 its roaring winds, its sharp 

 frosts and swollen streams, 

 had nothing else to do but 

 plague them, — when, poor 

 souls, March would blow and 

 snow, and freeze and thaw, 

 just as she pleased, if there were 

 no such grumblers in existence ! 

 March has her duties to perform, 

 as well as June or September, 

 and we could as well spare one as 

 either of the others ; and though, like 

 • v-iT *^^ frolics of the bear with her cubs, 

 f^'lTr they may seem to lack something of 

 gentleness and aflfection, they are kind- 

 ly intended, and will answer their purpose very 

 well, after all. So you that sit over the firos, 

 and only peep through the panes at March, had 

 better seek comfort in studying out her ways, 

 and tlius make her the sliortest and most agreea- 

 ble month in the year. And you need not escape 

 to the city to do tliis, for there are even now ru- 

 ral sights and rural sounds, which have much to 

 charm the eye and please the car ; and what are 

 glittering shops, and passing crowds, and dusty 

 streets, and gloomy walls, to these? And tlicn 

 the winds, notwitbstanding all we have said 

 against them, arc "far from being virtueless ; fur 

 they come careering over the fields, and roads, 

 and patliways, and while they dry up the damps 

 that the thaws had let loose, and the previous 

 frosts had prevented from sinking into the earth, 

 'pipe to the spirit ditties' the Avurd.s of which 

 tell talcs of the forthcoming flowers.'" 



ITie sap is alive in the seemingly sleeping trunks 

 that everywhere surround us, and is beginning to 

 mount slowly to its destination ; and the em- 

 bryo blooms are almost visibly struggling towards 

 light and life, beneath their rough, unj^romising 

 outer coats — unpromising to the idle, the un- 

 thinking, and the inoliservant ; but to the eye 

 that "can see Othello's visage in his mind, bright 

 and beautiful, in virtue of the brightness and the 

 beauty that they cover, but not conceal." Some 

 of the birds, too, have come, and now and then a 

 crocus, yellow, blue, striped, or white, peeps up 

 in the clear sunshine, just to tell us what we may 

 expect by and by. 



March is not friendly to the bronchitis or 

 lumbago, — but to the saturated fields, the trees, 

 and indeed all the farmer's interests. We cannot 

 spare it yet, and those who do not like it must 

 find some engrossing occupation in-doors, until 

 it blows itself out and makes way for its scarcely 

 less fickle sister, April. 



"Now shifting gales with milder influence blow, 



Cloud o'er the skies, and melt the falling snow ; 



The softened earth with fertile moisture teems, 



And, freed from icy bonds, down rush the swelling streams." 



Now let US see what some of the j^rticular 

 things are to be done in March — and first, the 



Garden Arrangements. — No better thing can 

 be done in March than to determine what garden 

 work you will do in April and May. Make all 

 the arrangements for beds, for the various seeds 

 to be sown, and for the flowers, shrubs, currants, 

 gooseberries, strawberries, trees, &c. This ar- 

 rangement requires a consideration which you 

 cannot afford to give it when the season has ap- 

 proached for the work to be done, and the sun 

 has warmed the earth for the reception of the 

 seed. Finish this during tha evenings or stormy 

 days in March. 



M.\NLREs. — While the surface is frozen and the 

 teams can go over the fields without cutting in, 

 it is well to haul out the bulk of the manure and 

 place it in compact piles near where it will be 



