DEVOTED TO AGRIOULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. V. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1853. 



NO. 12. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, Phoprietors. 

 Office.. ..Uluncy Hall. 



SIMON BROWN, Editor. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, 1 JV.SSOCIATE 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, 5 Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER. 



"While I have si home, and ciin do as 1 will, 

 December may rage over ocean and hill, 

 And batter my door — as he does once a year — 

 I laugh at his storming, and give him good cheer. 



"I've a trencher and cup, and something to ask 

 A friend to sit down to — after each daily task; 

 The best of all methods, to make winter smile, 

 Is living as I do— in a plain social style." 



Winter may now be considered as having set in 

 — heavy rains and high winds have swept oflF the 

 few remaining leaves from the trees, leaving the 

 woods and forests nothing but a naked assem- 

 blage of bare boughs. But Winter has its charms 

 as well as the other seasons. How many have 

 descanted on the delights of Spring, the pleasure 

 of cooling shades in Summer, and of the fruits of 

 mellow and glowing Autumn, while the comforts 

 and attractions of winter, have been mostly left 

 unheeded and unsung. 



If our households are properly regulated, the 

 contrast afforded between the elements without 

 and the comforts within will prove a source of high 

 and constant enjoyment. How many New Eng- 

 land Homes are the prototypes of this description 

 by an old writer. "The day is closed, the fire 

 made up and blazing, and the curtains drawn ; 

 the table is set for Tea, and the hissing Urn or the 

 Kettle is scarce heard among the fierce whistling, 

 and roaring produced alternately or together by 

 most every species of sound that wind can pro- 

 duce in the chimnies and door crannies of the 

 house. There is a feeling of comfort, and a sensi- 

 bility to the blessings of a good roof over one's 

 head, and a warm and comfortable hearth, while 

 all is tempest without, that produces a peculiar but 

 real source of pleasure. Two or three friends sit- 

 ting up over a good fire to a late hour, and inter- 

 changing their thoughts on a thousand subjects, 

 may, perhaps, beguile the hours of a stormy 

 night, with more satisfaction than they can a 

 Midsummer evening under the shade trees in a 

 garden of Roses and Lilies." 



But there are sources of enjoyment still greater 

 than these. The months when the crops are to 

 be planted, tended and gathered, do not afford to 

 the farmer who desires to conduct his affairs intel- 

 ligently, as much leisure as he would like to de- 

 vote to books and investigations into the operations 

 of nature upon the plants and animals he is rear- 

 ing. Now, however, when the earth is locked 

 with frost, and is reposing beneath a covering of 

 snow, the farmer's labors upon it are in a great 

 degree cut off, and he has opportunity to study, 

 examine, and improve his mind in relation to his 

 calling. And in this may be found a source of the 

 highest gratification and enjoyment, as well as an 

 actual increase of capital upon the farm ; for 

 knowledge is power, and if through his study he 

 finds some way of raising ten bushels of corn or 

 carrots with the same labor that has been required 

 to raise five, heretofore, it will be as much an 

 available capital, as though it were in cash, to pay 

 for the exertion of human muscle, and toil. The 

 winter months, then, may be made to rest and 

 refresh the system, overwrought by the pressing 

 duties of summer and autumn ; to add to the gen- 

 eral intelligence of the family, and lay by a capi- 

 tal stock equal to cash, to be drawn upon as it may 

 be needed. For "what enables you to see any 

 advantage and adopt it ? Your mind. What culti- 

 vates your farm better than your neighbor's? Your 

 mind. If that alone be left uncultivated around 

 you, — at every point, at every turn, in every field, 

 in every hedge, in every ditch, in your house, in 

 your dairy, in your stable, in your barn, every- 

 where and at all times, by day and night, in win- 

 ter, spring, summer and autumn — the neglect that 

 has been allowed to sow itself, the moral weed- 

 crop, will meet your eye to baffle and torment you 

 with the feeling so truthfully expressed, when 

 you say you 'have not a single /«?W you can de- 

 pend upon ! ' " 



Do you feel, even now, after all your experience, 

 aa though you could depend upon your own mind? 



