158 



NEW ENCxLAND FARMER. 



April 



being tilted np at the rate of 23i degrees in 

 three months ; or, any given place on the north- 

 ern hemisphere is approaching the sun at the 

 rate of 470 miles a month, or about as fast as 

 an ordinary man would walk. We shall soon 

 be in a warmer climate. Taurus will be the 

 reigning sign in the Zodiac, and the earth will 

 open her bosom to the genial warmth of the 

 sun, the buds will swell, and flowers will begin 

 to open, the leaves will unfold, and all nature 

 will spring into life and beauty. 



But climate does not depend entirely upon 

 latitude. It is influenced by various local 

 tauses. The latitude of Rome, the home of 

 Virgil, is not very different from that of Bos- 

 ton. The warm waters of the Mediterranean, 

 and the warm south winds from the arid sands 

 of Africa, make the season at least a month 

 earlier than ours. The month of April in 

 that part of Italy, is more like our May, 

 in which we may more properly speak of the 

 opening year. The "Aprici dies," or sunny 

 days of Virgil, are rare in this climate, in 

 April, where the east winds, blowing over the 

 icebergs of the Atlantic, take the place of the 

 African winds on the shores of Italy. But the 

 life-giving influences of the sun will be felt in 

 due time, and all nature will rejoice. 



APBUi HAS COME. 



"April has come, and In the silent wood 

 The light rain patters, as if fairy feet 

 Upon the crisp leaves gambolled. There's a Bcent 

 Of blowing flowers on the soft eouth air, 

 * * * while along the rills 



The gross springs green and balmy, and the earth 

 Is fragrant with a thousand springing seeds." 



Mrs. B. H. Tluymas. 



April has come. Welcome, April, after 

 the long and severe winter which has kept us 

 ice-bound and snow-bound for three long 

 months. All the more welcome will April be 

 for this, with its showers and flowers, its sing- 

 ing birds and fltful skies. All the more heart- 

 ily will the farmer enter upon his spring work, 

 and the flower- folk <;et into the garden to see 

 how things prosper there. 



The old adage, "Take Time by the fore- 

 lock," is worth remembering, as we enter 

 again upon the new life of spring. We sup- 

 pose it means that we shall take hold at once, 

 promptly and efiiciently, of whatever work we 

 have to ptTform. To plow, to dress the land, 

 and to sow in season, so that crops may have 

 the iufliience of sun and rain at the proper 

 time, rccjuires as much skill as for the merchant 



to introduce his goods to the world just at the 

 moment when they are most needed and there 

 is a demand for them. 



Certain crops, as the grains, demand April 

 and May influences, and must have them, or 

 they will be unprofitable crops. You may give 

 them July and August, and add to them all 

 the resources of your skill, and still they will 

 languish. April and May were their birth- 

 months and their growth-months, and they 

 never will flourish without them. 



Without, then, enumerating the important 

 duties which devolve upon the farmer and gar- 

 dener in April, it is enough for us to call 

 attention to them, and urge that no one of 

 them be left to be taken care of by the lag- 

 gard's motto : "there is time enough yet ;" but 

 that every thing be done seasonably and well, 

 and then peace and prosperity will pre»ide 

 over the house, garden and fields. 



WHEAT CULTURE IN MAINE. 

 The Maine Farmer publishes a circular of 

 S. L. Goodale, secretary of the State Board 

 of Agriculture, announcing the vote of the 

 Board, "That the several Agricultural Socie- 

 ties receiving bounty from the State be, and 

 they are hereby directed, to offer in premiums 

 for the encouragement of wheat culture, dur- 

 ing the current year, a sum not less than one- 

 fourth of the amount of bounty so received 

 during the year." The secretary says, there 

 is good reason for the belief that, even now, 

 the average production per acre of wheat in 

 Maine, over the limited breadth sown is greater 

 than the average product per acre in the 

 Western grain-growing States, and no doubt 

 exists that, with improved culture, more judi- 

 cious rotations, better manuring, and under- 

 draining of such lands as suffer from a reten- 

 tive subsoil, the acreage product can be greatly 

 increased. The most successful method of 

 culture in that State is stated to be — to pre- 

 pare the land thoroiiulily in the fall by plough- 

 ing and manuring; ; and to foUotr this with 

 seeding at the «mi .iest opportunity in the 

 spring— when tlio I: "at is first out for a little 

 depth. The ravages of the wheat midge or 

 fly, which for a term of years were terribly de- 

 structive, have been much less harmful for some 

 years past, and there are reasons to hope they 

 may not again become a serious hindrance to 

 the cultivation of wheat in that State. 



