DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. VI. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1854. 



NO. 12. 



JOEL NOURSE, Proprietor. 

 Office Quinct Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, 1 AssoCLtTR 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, I Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER. 



THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR. 



"Glad Christmas comes, and every hearth 

 Makes room to give him welcome now, 



E'en want will dry its tears in mirth, 

 And crown him with a holly bough. 



Though tramping 'ncath a wintry sky, 



O'er snowy paths and rimy stiles. 

 The housewife sets her spinning by. 



To bid him welcome with her smiles." 



Clare's Shepherd's Calendar. 



TERN December 

 closes u p the 

 train of the 

 Months, and 

 with it, ends the 

 rolling Year 

 Tlje Harvests are 

 all gathered, and 

 although the clouds long re- 

 fused to shed their gladdening 

 rains upon the parched earth, 

 most of the crops have been suf- 

 ficient, and some abundant. The hay-harvest was 

 full ; the small grains were cut short, and in 

 many localities a failure ; the potato crop plen- 

 tiful, and of better quality than for several pre- 

 ceding years ; the Indian corn crop, far short of 

 last year, but a full three-fourths average of for- 

 mer years ; vegetables fine, and in abundance, and 

 fruit, with the exception of peaches, a largo supply 

 and of excellent quality. Tiie grape crop has 

 been plentiful, and the fruit of unusual richness 

 and value. With a better knowledge of the 

 means of preserving it, the grape will become one 

 of our most wholcsomoand delicious winter fruits. 

 While the earth has generously yielded to us, 

 and filled our garners with its fruits, the same 

 watchful Providence that has given vitality to the 

 minutest seed, and caused its germ to spring to 

 the air and light, has .shielded us from unseasona- 

 ble heats and colds, and averted the pestilence 

 and internal commotions which have afflicted 



some other nations. There is, then, every reason 

 for grateful and happy hearts, and none for mur- 

 muring or despair. We have seen that " every 

 thing is beautiful in his season," that every thing 

 displays " the power and goodness of God." His 

 Providence directs us, step by step, developing 

 the faculties of the mind, and enlarging its power 

 of administering to the necessities of the race. 

 New modes of life, new comforts and occupations 

 spring from the wonderful activity which impels 

 our people. The language of the Shepherd Poet, 

 which we have quoted above, would be applicable 

 to few of our homesteads now ; for the spinning 

 wheel is the thing of a past age, and has sung its 

 cheerful song in thousands of our rural home- 

 steads for many years, but that song animates 

 our maidens no longer ; running waters and 

 scalding vapors are now made to propel the wheels 

 that spin the wool, the cotton and flax ! All 

 the occupations present new aspects ; strange 

 machines are in the barns, and fields, and work- 

 shops, and manufactories, saving the toil of mil- 

 lions of thews and sinews by an increased activity 

 of the mind. 



Urged on in the calling which we have chosen, 

 not only by a desire to discharge a duty, but by 

 the unnumbered charms which it presents, the 

 year has passed rapidly and pleasantly away. 

 Our visits to the homes of the people, and our as- 

 sociations through these columns have been agree- 

 able and profitable ; and we trust that these rela- 

 tions will long be continued with mutual advan- 

 tage. 



It is not so much to be desired that we shall 

 live fast, or long, as that we shall live well ; that 

 each day shall find its duties faithfully discharged, 

 and the mind calmly waiting either for another 

 day of active duty, or for a suspension of the cares 

 and amusements of life, and a summons to that 

 wider field of action where only the culture of the 

 nobler faculties will be required. 



The purauit of agriculture as an occupation ia 



