

SEVOTUD TO ASRIGULTUilE AND ITS KINDHED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. V. 



BOSTON, JULY, 1853. 



NO. 7. 



RAYNOI.US & NOURSK, FnorKiETOiis. 

 OPFICE (luiNCY Hail. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLIiROOK,! Associate 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR JULY. 



■"Now comes JuLV, and wiih his fervid noon 

 tinsinews hihiir. The swinkt* mower siteps; 

 The weary mnid r«kes feelily; the warm swain 

 ■Pitches his liwid reJuctar.i; ihe faint st«er, 

 Lashing his sides, draws sulkiJy along 

 The slow eucjiubereJ wain in middiy heat." 



A great many of the words we use, as well as 

 a great many of the arts we practice and customs 

 we observe, are borrowed from the Germans. Thus 

 we heard a nei^libor say the other day, that he 

 '"always had to slang the hay out of a certain 

 meadow." The word being new to us, we aeked 

 such questions as caused him to repeat his remark 

 two or three times, until we were satisfied that he 

 meant to say ho Avas obliged to pole out his hay. 

 On reference to ^Vebster we found the word stang, 

 common to several languages, the Saxon, Danish, 

 German and Swedish, and means a pole. 



To ride the stang, is to be carried on a pole on 

 men"'s shoulders, in derision. 



The word is u.sed here, only among the descend- 

 ants of the old English settlers. 



The old Saxon and German Avords are often beau- 

 tifully expressive. JuLr, they called AcTimewa (A, 

 which probably expressed the meaning of the Ger- 

 man word hain, signifying wood or trees, and 

 hence henmonath might mean foliage month. They 

 also called it heymonath, or hay month ; because 

 "therein they usually mowed and made their hay- 

 harvest." 



It is to be regretted that so few of our writers 

 give their thoughts and pens to descriptions of the 

 changes and beauties of the seasons, instead of 

 the senseless tales of fiction which are enfeebling 

 the minds of so many of our youth, and exciting 

 them to revel in the voluptuous scenes they de- 

 scribe. 



It is their truthfulness to nature— their strong 

 common sense views of the living and breathing 

 world about them, that gives such life and force 

 to the writings of the old English authors. They 

 will exist and instruct, long after mountains of the 

 * ^vnnKT.— Over-labored, tired. 



modem trash will he consigned to their merited 

 dust. 



In his '^Months," Leigh Hunt, with his accus- 

 tomed minuteness of observation, says "the heat 

 is greatest in this month on account of its previous 

 duration. The reason why it is less so in August 

 is, that the days are then much shorter, and the 

 influence of the sun has been gradually diminish- 

 ing. There is a sense of heat and quiet all over 

 nature. The birds are silent. 'J he little brooks 

 are dried up. The earth is chapped with parch- 

 ing. The shadows of the trees are particularly 

 grateful, heavy, and still. The cattle stand in the 

 shade, or stand in the water. The active and air- 

 cutting swallows, now beginning to assemble for 

 migration, seek their prey about the shady places, 

 where the insects, though of differently compound- 

 ed natures, 'fieshless and bloodless,' seem to get 

 for coolness, as they do at other times for warmth." 

 There are, also, strange humming sounds in the 

 air as of innumerable insects, though none can be 

 seen — 



"Their murmuring small trumpets soumleu wide," 



as Spencer says. And in the blazing sun, by the 

 dusty way-side, the locust utters his harsh note 

 with screechinj: wins:. 



A thousand other pleasant things press on the 

 thoughts, which we will not utter, lest some de- 

 clare "they are not practical, they do not teach the 

 art of rearing slock, or of cultivating luell.'" Here, 

 then, we are at issue— for it is our firm belief that 

 the larmer who closest observes the operations of 

 nature, such as the birds and animals and insects 

 she periodically brings ; notes their habits, the 

 food they require and their modes of propagation, 

 will, all other things being equal, be the best and 

 thriftiest farmer, the best citizen, and the better pre- 

 pared for Heaven ivhen his last crops are harvested 

 here ! 



The poet did n )t take too much license when he 

 said there is "sermons in stones" — they are there, 

 just as much as there is sound doctrine and whole- 



