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DEVOTSD TO AGRIOUIiTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS Al-ID SCIENCES. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, MAY, 1857. 



NO. 5. 



JOEL NOUESE, Propriktor. 

 Office.. .13 Commercial St. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K IIOLBROOK, ) Associate 

 HEI.'KY F. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



THE GABBED. 



"First Sprikg came tripping on from southern bowers, 



And strewed her sunny paths with fragrant flowers 



Bade the still brook from out its torpor wake, 



And freed from icy bonds the captive lake ; 



Then, smiling back upon the smiling land, 



Resigns the rule to Summer's warmer band." — Anon. 



^f^!^\]> '°f^ JTi^ AY, in olden times, 

 ■was regarded as 

 the boundary, or 

 demarcating line, 

 separating the fron- 



i,fr tiers of the antith- 



■'"'if -I I 

 ':|'| etical seasons of 



' !,| Winter and Sum- 

 "' iiier. April, with 

 its strange caprices 

 -,jf and fluctuations of 

 '\^ storm and sunshine, 

 / |f lights and shadows, 

 -^/^^ has passed, and 

 S^^n been succeeded by 

 1 that period in the cycle 

 j of the vegetative months, 

 J which, if we credit the lan- 

 ", guage of poesy, and, may 

 we not likewise add, of our 

 own experience, past as well 

 as present, is always so re- 

 plete with pleasure, both to the old and young. 

 To how many who have now passed 

 *'Into the sere and yellow leaf," 



was May Day, to adopt the expressive language 

 of the author of "Acteon and Diana," 



"The choice time of the year." 



And to how few, indeed, when we recal the past, 

 does the beautiful and impassioned eulogy upon 

 May-Day customs in Pasquil's "Palinodia," appear 

 extravagant or exaggerated ? 



"Happy the age, and harmlessVere the days, 

 (For then true love and amity was found,) 



When every village did a May-pole raise, 

 And whitsun ales and May-games did abound : 



'"--r5S>fc I 



And all the lusty younkers in a route. 

 With merry lasses danc'd the rod about ; 

 Then friendship to their banquets bid the guests, 

 And poor men paid the better for their feasts." 



For US, we confess, there lingers something of 

 pleasing interest in the remnants of those rural and 

 social pastimes in which our forefathers were wont 

 to engage, and we linger over them with a feeling 

 of pleased delight. 



Early in this month. The Garden will demand 

 attention. As an art, gardening may be contem- 

 plated as the surest indication — the most unerring 

 exponent — of civilization. But let it be borne in mind 

 that in speaking thus of gardening, we do not mean, 

 simply, the cultivation of esculent vegetables ; for 

 although this should always form a prominent con- 

 sideration, yet there are other matters of importance 

 to be attended to. We hold that, in all things, it is 

 ever advisable to mingle the uiilo with the dulci, — 

 the useful with the agreeable. There should be 

 something of the agreeable and ornamental even in 

 the kitchen garden, which should be laid out with 

 the triple object of convenience, profit and beauty. 



The beds, borders and walks should be so ar- 

 ranged and laid out, as not only not to offend good 

 taste, but should be so constructed with regard to 

 each other, as to present to the senses the luxury 

 of a complete and perfect whole — a system in which 

 all the parts and appendages accurately harmonize, 

 and contribute, each in its due degree, to the achieve- 

 ment of tiie several ends designed. When so 

 managed, the garden dispenses a greater degree of 

 comfort to its possessor than any other portion of 

 the farm. But this can only be the result when it 

 is cultivated with a view to the achievement of high 

 and noble purposes, and an inflexible determination 

 to overcome every obstacle to success. 



The Japenese, in ihfir gardening, display the 

 most astonishing art. Ma) low, in his work on Ja- 

 pan, published at Amsterdam in 1830, asserts thait 

 the, Dutch agent of Commerce, at Nagoeni, was of- 

 fered a snuff box one inch in thickness by three in 

 height, in which grew a fig tree,, a bamboo and a 



