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DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 18G1. 



NO. 2. 



NOURSE, EATOy & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office.... 34 Merchants' Row. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, 

 HENRY F. FRENCH, : 



Associate 

 Editors. 



CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY. 



The "common people" liave become uncommon ; 



A few remain, just here and there, the rest 

 Are polished and refined ; child, man and woman, 



All imitate the manners of the beat ; 

 Picking up, sometimes, good things from their betters, 



As they have done from them. Then they have books ; 

 As 'twas designed they should, it hen taught their letters. 



And nature's self befriends their very looks ; 

 And all this must, and all this ought to be — 



The only use of eyes, I know of, is — to see. 



EBRUARY is not tne 

 month of roses, 

 but roses would be 

 rare in June were 

 it not for the 

 healthful influen- 

 ces of February. 

 Though the winds 

 howl, and snow 

 and sleet pelt the 

 traveller and wea- 

 ry the beast, or 

 keep us at home, 

 this month can no 

 better be spared 

 than balmy June 

 or fervid July. — 

 Covered with its 

 wrapper of snow. 



warm 



the earth is reposing like the 

 sleeping giant, gathering vigor 

 for future harvests. The trees are leafless and 

 thin, allowing the winds to pass through their 

 branches unimpeded in their progress, while 

 their roots lie inactive in the soil, or stimulated 

 by an early thaw and the life-giving sun, as by 

 an electric touch, pass into temporary activity to 

 become dormant again when Borean winds sweep 

 over the fields and clouded skies shut out the 

 invigorating solar rays. 



Sometimes Februai-y is the severest of the win- 

 ter months, and it usually has a period of the 



most intense cold of the season. We may not 

 feel its power so keenly as when winter first as- 

 serts its sway, because we have become more in- 

 ured to it, and our winter arrangements are more, 

 complete. When this period has been properly- 

 provided for, it may be as comfortable as that of' 

 any other season, and crowded with contentment 

 and substantial progress. 



No profession in life, it seems to us, aff'ords 

 better opportunities for social intercourse, for 

 friendly visits and observation of each others'' 

 modes of agricultural labor, than that of the far- 

 mer — no one is more favorable to study and to 

 an investigation of the laws Avhich afl'ect or con- 

 trol the materials with which he has to deal. 



In the learned professions, as they are called, 

 where it is necessary that the mind be active dur- 

 ing the day, the evening hours must be devoted 

 to rest or recreation, or the mind soon loses its 

 balance and falls into decay. In the mechanical 

 arts, men are accustomed to labor a part or all the 

 evening, and thus little time is left to them at 

 any season of the year for uninterrupted studj'. 

 It is not so with the farmer. Ifhe plans his af- 

 fairs judiciously, and exercises sound wisdom 

 with regard to his personal labor — neither being 

 slothful in business nor exacting too much from 

 his physical powers — he will find himself suffi- 

 ciently fresh to devote the long evenings in Feb- 

 ruary with a keen relish for literary pursuits. 

 Steadily occupying those evenings through a 

 single winter, with well-directed eff'ort and a sub- 

 ject before him that shall arouse and call forth 

 all the energies of his mind, the young farmer 

 will be surprised at the progress he has made, 

 untrammelled by the arbitrary rules of others. 



Let us, for a moment, look at the farmer as one 

 of a class. He has a farm, and holds its title 

 deeds, and there is no earthly power to wrest it 

 from him without his consent. He knows that 

 the earth will generously return to him an ample 

 reward for his labor, and that with common in- 



