DEVOTED TO AGmCULTUKE, HORTICULTURE, AND KTNDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. Boston, May, 1868. VOL. IL— NO. 5. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Publishers, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' Row. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, 

 S. FLETCHER, 



Editors. 



MAY. 



AY day, poe- 

 try of the Fa- 

 ther land; 

 May -poles 

 twined with 

 flowers ; the 

 Queens of the 

 May, with 

 their bevy of 

 fair compan- 

 ions, crowned 

 with g a r- 

 lands ; and all 

 the sports of 

 the green, of 

 which we so 

 delighted to 

 read in the 

 days of our 

 childhood are 

 sadly out of 

 season with us. From such scenes we are 

 separated by the cold waters of the broad 

 Atlantic, and the icebergs rolling and tum- 

 bling in its stormy waves, and our fair dam- 

 sels, instead of weaving the mazy dance in 

 the open air, with their arms bare, .and heads 

 covered only with flowery wreaths, are still 

 wearing their furs and shivering under the 

 folds of woolen garments. But the season 

 for putting in the seed has come, and "he that 

 will not plough by reason of the cold, shall 



u3' 



beg in harvest, and have nothing." The work 

 must go on. The spring time has come, — the 

 seed time promised, — and it must be improved. 

 We must act in accordance with nature's laws, 

 and the time and the season are as much fixed 

 by her laws as any other conditions on which 

 success depends. Would that we understood 

 her laws better, and observed them with more 

 care. Living in the presence of nature, and 

 in constant communion with her, how greatlj' 

 would the farmer's happiness be promoted by 

 a knowledge of her laws, — of the natural sci- 

 ences. He is constantly observing effects. 

 Why should he not know the causes which 

 produce them ? While nourishing and cherish- 

 ing vegetable life, — while engaged in covering 

 the earth with beauty, — in bringing forth the 

 flower and fruit, and perfecting the harvest, 

 how much pleasure would he find in a knowl- 

 edge of vegetable phjsiology, which would 

 reveal to him the processes and the instrumen- 

 talities by which' all these results are accom- 

 plished. Some rare plant, some new and 

 beautiful flower, arrests his attention. Could 

 he call to his aid the knowledge of botany, 

 and learn its habits, its uses, and its name, 

 how much would his pleasure be increased ? 

 Almost constantly delving in the earth, how 

 would his labor be lightened by an acquaint- 

 ance with geology which would teach him the 

 nature and composition of the soil he is work- 

 ing ? As he follows the plough, and opens • 

 the bosom of the beautiful soil, he would be 



