



DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, NOVEMBER, 1854. 



NO. 11 



RAVXOLDS & NOURSE, Proprietors. „ ^ „,^ „ FRED'K HOLBROOK. ? Associate 



Office. ...auiNCY Hall. ^™^^ BROWN, Editor. ^^^^^ ^ FKENCII, \ Ed.torr. 



CALENDAE FOR NOVEMBER. 



"With kindred pleasui-es moved, and cares opprest, 



Sharing alike our weariness and rest ; 



Who lives the daily partner of our hours 



Through every change of heat, and frost, and show'rs; 



Partakes our cheerful meals, partaking first 



In mutual labour and fatigue and thirst ; 



The kindly intercourse will ever prove 



A bond of amity and social love." 



Hus sang Bloom- 

 field, the poor 

 slicpherd-boy, ma- 

 ny years ago ; and 

 it is his idea, con- 

 coivcd amid the 

 toils and hardships 

 incident to such a 

 condition, that we 

 should like to in- 

 troduce into the family of every farmer 

 in NewEngland. That November should 

 no longer be considered a month in 

 which people may, with great propri- 

 ety, hang or drown themselves, on 

 account of its gloom, but rather with the poet 

 that each shall ])0 with kindred pleasure moved, 

 and that their kindly intercourse of life shall 

 prove 



'•A bond of amity and social love." 



And how much cause there is for this in No 

 vember, about the farmer's home ! Beneficent 

 Heaven lias crowned his labors with success. His 

 barns, and granaries, and cellars, are filled with 

 the fruits of the earth ; his cattle come to their 

 winter home sleek and fat with rich pasturage, 

 wliile his clioerful fireside attractions invite to that 

 delightful intercourse of which the poet sings. And 

 we believe this to be an object as worthy of cul- 

 ture and care, as were the glowing fruits and 

 golden grain of the orchard and the fields. These 

 will sustain our physical nature, but that will 

 strengthen the immortal part, by giving elasticity 

 and contentment to the mind. 



Nature is the great Teacher — her seliool-house 

 doors ever stand open, inviting the inquirer in — 

 but November is the month in which we may be 

 more constant in her courts, because better op- 

 portunities are afforded for thought and applica- 

 tion than in the summer months. We urge the 

 young to find benches and books and teachers all 

 about them ; in the solid earth and stones upon 

 which they tread — in the air they breathe — in the 

 leaves which dance upon the breeze — in the sun- 

 light and shade, the vapors, frosts, dews and 

 clouds. Each will impart some useful truth to 

 him who is willing to seek it. Wisdom is the 

 price of careful application — it cannot be gained 

 by idle and listless minds. Study and labor will 

 overcome all obstacles ; books and teachers are now 

 abundant everywhere. To become an earnest stu- 

 dent, it is not necessary to enter the school-house 

 with modern desks and seats and conform to codes 

 and regulations. An active mind will find ob- 

 jects for research and contemplation everywhere, 

 in every employment and place. If these occupy 

 his attention, they will lead him to books, and 

 these will reveal to him the thoughts and efforts 

 of other minds as earnest as his own. Men of 

 great acquirements, dull over systematic lessons, 

 and restive under arbitrary rules, have filled the 

 car of the world, and thus proved that tlioy were 

 students, all the while, in the great school-room 

 of Nature. Tiicy prepared themselves for the ac- 

 tive business of life, rather than to be nice and 

 critical in mere book-learning. 



For this preparation, none have better oppor- 

 tunities than the young farmer. Six months of 

 the year afford him as much leisure as is desirable 

 for study and investigation, and during flic other 

 si.x, while engaged in his out-door pursuits, he 

 may apply his acquirements to the things about 

 him. In this way his mind will become stored 

 with useful facts, such as are applicable to the 

 profession of his choice. As these arc mastered, 

 the mind will stretch away into other studios, 



