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DEVOTSD TO AGRICUIiTUR3 AND ITS KINDR3D ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. IX. 



BOSTON, AUGUST, 1857. 



NO. 8. 



JOEL NOURSE, Propkietor. 

 Office. ..13 Commercial St. 



SIMON BHOWN, EDITOR. 



I'UED'K IIOLBUOOK, ) Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENOI, j Editors. 



AUGUST. 



"Wide flies the tedded grain ; all in a row 

 Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field, 

 They spread their breathing harvest to the sun, 

 That throws, refreshful round, a rural smell ; 

 Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground, 

 And drive the dusky wave along the mead. 

 The russet hay-cock rises thick behind, 

 In order gay. While heard from dale to dale. 

 Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice 

 Of happy labor, love, and social glee." 



Thompson's Seasons — Summer. 



UGL'ST. — For several 

 years from the time 

 the senior editor as- 

 sumed the duties of 

 the big arm-chair of 

 the JVeio England 

 Farmer, he gave his 

 readers a leading 

 article at the be- 

 ginning of each 

 month, in which he 

 nought to point out 

 the i^roper work to 

 be attended to, and 

 which he at times endeavored to 

 illustrate, by some familiar sketch 

 of farming life, as applicable to 

 the season at which he wrote. — 

 About a year ago, under the impres- 

 sion that his readers might say, with 

 Lord Byron, "Something too much of 

 this," he introduced his patent editori- 

 al cut off, and from that time to this, the peculiar 

 steam, applicable to that particular subject, has not 

 been suffered to escape. He will now open the 

 valve a trifle, and see what will come for the single 

 month of August, and then, perchance, shut off or 

 keep going, as he may think best, or his readers 

 may indicate a desire. 



From May to September are the farmer's months, 

 emphatically. No one of all the annual round 

 presents any time for idleness, but during those 



b:^ 



indicated, the w'ork of the farmer is constantly 

 treading on his heels, and if he does not push ahead 

 with vigor, he will soon find it travelling right over 

 him. That farmer who gives so much of his time 

 to political affairs as to neglect to trim his apple 

 trees, as we did in June, 1856, will find his error 

 the next year, just as we did, while laboring early 

 and late through our orchard last June. We've 

 learned the lesson now, and hope you, dear read- 

 er, will profit by our experience, and attend to your 

 orchards, instead of presidential nominations ! You 

 will find plenty of people ready to do the latter 

 work for you, gratis, but, when it comes to trim- 

 ming orchards, it is quite the reverse. Trimming 

 politicians are very plenty, but trimming orchard- 

 ists are scarce, and hard to be got .' 



But we sat down to enlighten our readers about 

 August, and here we are writing about June. But 

 what of August ? 



Well, my friend and brother farmer, you have, 

 if you are up to your work, a goodly crop of tur- 

 nips, the seed of which you sowed in July, now 

 coming forward most promislnglj'. But don't you 

 see how much too thick they are? Now is your 

 time to thin them out, if you wish to have turnips 

 next fall looking like white porcelain cofl'ee saucers, 

 turned upside down.^ Turnips, like crinoline skirts, 

 must have room to spread themselves; otherwise, 

 like the witty poet, Fessenden's parsnips, beets and 

 carrots, they will 



"Stretch their roots with ease. 



Clear through to our antipodes, 



And Chinese rogues, if fame say true, 



To rob our farmers, pull them through." 



Now, unless you want long tailed turnips, and a 

 chance of losing them as abo''e described, thin 

 them out nicely this very month. 



The season of rain has been for some time over, 

 and the earth is usually at its dryest point in Au- 

 gust ; this i>!, consequently, the month for digging 

 meadow mud for manure, and, if your land requires 

 ditching, you may kill two birds with one stone by 

 using the mud which is dug out in ditch in g'.Jor 



