DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. V. 



BOSTON, MAY, 1853. 



NO. 5. 



RAYNOLDS & NOUR?E, PROriuETORS. 

 Office. .. .Quixcv Hail. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. ^^^^^^ p FRENCH J ErnxoR 



CALENDAR FOR MAY 



Sweet May — 



For thee, the fragriint zephyrs blow, 

 For thee descends the sunny shower ; 



The rills ii; softer )Murmursflow 

 And brighter blossoms gem the bower. 



So sang Darwin, and scarcely a poet but praises, 

 or describes, or alludes to the beauties of this 

 month. He sings it as the offspring of the solar 

 beams, and invites it to approach and receive the 

 greetings of the elemental beings. 



The year awakes from her winter nap in April ; 

 but she only gets half awake, and does not seem 

 to feel certain wliether it ought to be winter or 

 spring! So she gives us a touch of both seasons 

 — now fierce and cold winds, and then balmy airs ; 

 scowling clouds and soft sunshine ; now hail and 

 snow, then soft, pattering rains, washing the face 

 of the fields, and bringing out a bright color here 

 and there in her new dress. 



But May unfolds unnumbered charms. She 

 spreads the earth with green, and dots it with 

 flowers of varied hue ; fills the trees and shrubs 

 with bursting buds and expanding blossoms, and 

 loads the air with fragrance. All is activity and 

 love in lovely May ! Fair maidens and bounding 

 youth skim the hills, the margin of the winding 

 brooks, and sheltered nooks in the wood, for early 

 flowers. As the expanding flowers, so expand 

 their beating hearts, and knit in holy love, they 

 ripen together here for a still lovelier May-Day in 

 the skies ! 



The elms and maples that for a week or two 



have held their pendent tassels, and invited whole 



colonies of bees to taste their sweets, now scatter 



innumerable seeds, and go on with their work of 



growth. The robin is here, and the blue-bird, the 



early swallow, the wren, the warbling sparrow, 



chattering black-bird, and lark, and occasionally 



• * * '^all hurst fonh in choral minstrelsy, 

 As if one quick and sudden gale had swept 

 An hundred airy harps." 



But May is too busy a month to afford us much 

 time in a description of its beauties. It is as 



crowded with active duties for the husbandman, 

 as it is active in vegetable and animal life. Lag- 

 ging will not answer now. Your plans being 

 laid, and your implements in order, you go to 

 work with good nature, with a stout heart and 

 willing hands, and every stroke will tell. 



Grafting. — There are thousands of old orchards 

 still remaining in New England, which would pay 

 well for being newly worked over by plowing, ma- 

 nuring, pruning, scraping and grafting. If there 

 is a healthy shell of four inches thickness, we con- 

 sider the tree worth this labor. Many trees where 

 the heart-wood is entirely gone, bear plentifully 

 through many successive years. Fruit may be 

 obtained from old trees in a much less time than it 

 can be from young ones ; beside, they are often 

 old friends, have long served us well, and form a 

 pleasant part of the landscape. Do not, then, 

 cut down the old trees. At least, grafted and 

 well tended, they will produce food for your cattle 

 and swine more cheaply than you can produce po- 

 tatoes, corn or hay. 



In grafting, do not cut off all the limbs the first 

 year , in so doing you check its natural forces and 

 induce an unhealthy state. Beside, the suitable 

 season for grafting is not the best time for prun- 

 ing. Therefore cut off only the limbs to be graft- 

 ed, and leave the others to shelter the young sci- 

 ons through the summer, and prune gradually af- 

 terwards. 



The Garden. — Examine, carefully, all the trees, 

 shrubs, and plants in the garden, to see thnt noth- 

 ing exists to obstruct their growth. Insects may 

 have been sheltered on them through the winter 

 which can now easily be destroyed ; or moss may 

 have gathered which must be rubbed off, and the 

 trees washed with soft soap and water. 



Sow an abundance of seed for kitchen vegeta- 

 bles ; beets, parsnips, carrots, early turnips, let- 

 tuce, radish ,cabbage,cauli9ower, broccoli, also mel- 

 ons of various kinds, and if not done in April, set 

 raspberries, currants, gooseberries and strawber- 



