DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE AND ITS KITiTDIlED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XIIL 



BOSTON, JULY, 186L 



NO. 7. 



NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors. ^.TTurnivr tsuowtnt -c-nyTr^-o FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) 



Office.... 34 Merchants' Row. SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. HENRY F. FRENCH, j 



, i associatb 

 Editors. 



SUGOESTED BX JULY. 



"O, balmy, breezy, bounteous, beauteous summer ! 

 To men and women, little girls and boys, 

 To birds and beasts thou bringest many joys, 



And art, indeed, a truly welcome comer ! 



Now stroll in pastures green, fat sheep and cows. 

 Now vernal blades prepare for autumn sheaves, 

 And woods (though stationary) take their leaves, 



And all politely make their prettiest boughs 



Now the blithe farmer in the early morn 



With sturdy steps strides o'er the fallow field, 

 And plants in hope that, though awhile concealed, 



The grateful harvest may produce the corn ; 



And so return him from the fruitful mould, 



His gift augmented by a hundred fold." 



ULT comes to the 

 farmer burdened 

 ■with many duties. 

 He has been 

 taught by the 

 great teacher, Ex- 

 perience, that he 

 must "make hay 

 while the sun 

 shines ;" while his 

 hay and grain fields, in 

 ^ .., \^><s^^j^ different stages of develop- 

 //^^^^ri l\ ^^^ ment, suggest the necessi- 

 tii ^vJ^* -y ty of accelerating the early har- 

 'CO^ / ' vest, while the buckwheat fields 

 T- vi» ^"^ fields of turnips are yet to be 

 sown. The "world" of spurious 

 vegetation, which springs up in his 

 corn-fields, also requires to be extir- 

 pated, and his tillage lands generally 

 should be looked to, and cleansed of 

 Aveeds, before he commences harvesting 

 his hay crop. It should be the aim of the farm- 

 er, during this season, to do all the work which 

 devolves upon him in the extended routine of 

 his vocations, in the most perfect and thorough 

 manner. 



If it be true, as Montesquieu remarks, that 

 "countries are not cultivated in proportion to 



their fertility, but to their liberty," our own coun- 

 try must soon take precedence in perfection of 

 culture ; and if that perfection attains to a par- 

 allel with the popular liberty enjoyed, we shall 

 have no equal on the earth, for no people enjoy 

 greater freedom, or are better qualified to profit 

 by their advantages, than the farmers of our own 

 happy land. 



The labors of July are, it is true, more fa- 

 tiguing than we are called on to perform in the 

 other months embraced in the annual cycle. 

 Haying, with all that has been accomplished by 

 science in mitigating its toils, is laborious and 

 exhausting to physical strength. But it is not 

 by any means necessary for those employed in 

 this avocation, to destroy the health in its per- 

 formance. The farmer who rightly understands 

 his business, and the capabilities of those whom 

 he employs, will find no difficulty in obviating 

 such results. The mowing machine and the horse 

 rake will so far lighten the most irksome parts 

 of the work, as to render severe fatigue unne- 

 cessary. With good weather, the hay crop can 

 now be secured in less time, and in much better 

 condition than was required for its accomplish- 

 ment twenty, or even ten years ago, and with pro- 

 portionably less expense. Science has done, and 

 is still doing, much to alleviate the labors of the 

 farmer, as well as to increase his profits. "If," 

 says a late writer, "we contrast the condition of 

 the farmer of the present day, with the condition 

 occupied by the farmer of 1800, we shall find the 

 discrepancy almost as great as that at present 

 existing between the Southern master and his 

 slave." This is too wide a range for us to accede 

 to, — but it is true that we have yet much to learn, 

 even in the details of agriculture, and that we 

 are still far behind our transatlantic brethren in 

 the acreable product of our soils. Numerous 

 causes have led to this result, though it ought 

 not to be expected of us, now in our youth, com- 

 pared with those older countries, to shov,- as good 



