DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VI, 



BOSTON, AUGUST, 1854. 



NO. 8. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, PnopRiETOKS. 

 Office Quincv Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK,, i Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH 5 Editors. 





land, 



CALENDAR FOE AUGUST. 



The fit'Iiis are all alive with sultry noise 

 Of labor's sounds, and insect's busy joys ; 

 The reapers o'er their glittering sickles stoop. 

 Starting full oft the partridge corers up ; 

 Some o'er the nestling scythe go beuding on ; 

 And shockers follow where their toils have gv.ie. 

 Heaping the swaths that rustle in the sun. 



Clare's S/itpli€rd''s Calendar 



UGUST, with US, is not 

 the principal harvesst 

 month. The wheat and 

 rye crops are gathered 

 in July, in New Eng- 

 und we believe in all the 

 wheat-growing States. But the 

 oats, barley, peas and beans, and some 

 early fruits and vegetables, arc harvest- 

 ted in August. The late meadow grass 

 is also cut in this month, which closes 

 up the hay-harvest, with the exception of the "after- 

 math," as the English call it, or, as. we usually 

 term it, the "second crop." 



The "Mirror of the Months" likens August to 

 "that brief, but perhaps best period of human 

 life, when the promises of youth are eith(!r ful- 

 filled or forgotten, and the fears and foretli(.>nght, 

 'connected with decline }iave not yet grown strong 

 enough to make themselves felt ; and consequent- 

 ly when we have nothing to do but look around 

 U8, and be happy." Fur it is in this month that 

 the year, "like a man at forty, has turned the cor- 

 ner of its existence ; but, like him, it may still 

 fancy itself young, because it does not fed itself 

 getting old. And perhaps there is no period like 

 this, for encouraging and bringing to perfection 

 that habit of tranquil enjoyment, in which all 

 true happiness must mainly consist ; with pleasure 

 it has in<leed little to do ; but with happhuss it is 

 everything." 



The great pressure of the season is over, and 

 that is what the amiable writer whom we have 

 quoted moans, when he says "we have nothing to 



do but look around us and be happy." For in 

 haying and early harvest, every body is in motion 

 — every available hand is pressed into the service, 

 "llay-days" do not continue long, and they 

 must be briskly improved. But now that the 

 grass and rye and wheat-fields are smoothly shorn 

 and their contents heaped in generous profusion 

 in the bays and on the scaffolds of the barn, the 

 farmer breathes freer, and looks upon the labors 

 of his hands with a pride and satisfliction never 

 equalled, unless, perhaps at the close of the gi-,:r 

 Indian Corn Harvest. 



But we gather our ample harvests in a more 

 matter-of-fact manner than did our ancestors. — 

 We make no demonstrations of gratitude or joy. 

 "They crowned the wheat sheaves with flowers, 

 they sung, they shouted, they danced, they invit- 

 ed each other, or met to feust, as at Christmas, in 

 the halls of rich houses ; and what was a very 

 amiable custom, and wise beyond the commoner 

 wisdom that may seem to lie on the top of it, ev- 

 ery one that had been concerned, man, woman and 

 child, received a little present — ribbons, lacts, or 

 sweetmeats." But we arc. grateful, notwithstand- 

 \t\"-, and read the newspapers and calculate^ mop' 

 than did our ancestors. 



But we must not linger too long in tiiis pleat- 

 ant field. Changes are taking place — the floweri^ 

 are sensibly diminislied, while later and hardier 

 kinds appear, especially in waste places. Towards 

 the end of the month the beech tree turns yellow, 

 or the maple into cr;.!i>5on and purple, the first 

 symptom of approaching autumn. The birds hav- 

 ing reared their broods, are now in social eompa- 

 nios feeding on the perfected seeds, or those who 

 find more congenial aliment in insoet life are con- 

 gregating in larger companies, and make them- 

 selves busy in preparations for their annual mi- 

 gration Houth. The "swallow peo[)le" hav<' either 

 gone, or have gathered upon the roof of the barn, 

 the old apple tree, the top rail of the fence, or the 



