DEVOTED TO AOBICULTUHE AJSTD ITS KINDHED ABTS AND SCIENCES. 



YOL. XIII. 



BOSTON, OCTOBER, 1861. 



NO. 10. 



NOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office.... 3-1 Merchants' Row. 



SIMON BROWN, EDITOR. 



FRED'K HOLBROOK, ) Associatb 

 HEXRY F. FRENCH, ] Editors. 



CAIiBNDAR FOB OCTOBEB. 



•'There is a beaQtiful spirit breathing now 

 Its mellow richness on the clustered trees, 

 And from a beaker full of richest dyes, 

 Pouring new glories on the Autumn woods 

 And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. 



LONQPSLIOW. 



•^^ 





CTOBER is the mid- 

 dle of autumn. 

 Everything around 

 us is sober, touch- 

 5 ed M'ith a slight 

 shade of sadness. 

 The mirthful songs 

 of the birds have 

 ceased. The lambs 

 are no longer 

 frisking on the 

 hill - side. The 

 flowers have van- 

 ished from the 

 eight. The rich 

 green of the fields has 

 changed to the "brown 

 and sere." The autumnal 

 flowers, nipped by the frost, are 

 drooping their heads. But still Oc- 

 tober is one of the pleasantest 

 The sun, as its car as- 



months of the year, 

 ceuds the sky, melts away the mist and haze of 

 the early morning, and shines out bright and 

 clear. All nature is in a state of repose. The 

 productive labors of the season are over. The 

 birds and insects have done their annual work, 

 and are taking their rest. The cricket and the 

 locust are lazily chirping in the field. The cattle 

 are reposing in the shade, and chewing the cud of 

 contentment. The vegetables have ripened their 

 seeds, and secured the continuance of their spe- 

 cies. The golden corn is perfecting its grain, 

 and awaiting the sickle. The full-cheeked and 

 ruddy apples are maturing their juicy pulp, under 

 the chemical influences of the warm sunlight. 



The frosts has opened the burrs, and the nuts are 

 dropping from the trees, and the busy squirrels 

 are laying up their winter stores. The shy trout 

 is sunning his glistening sides in the little open 

 coves and bays of the brook, and the farmer is 

 quietly and steadily gathering the latter harvest, 

 and garnering it up for winter use. 



As we look abroad over the fields, and up to- 

 wards the hills, every object we behold is veiled 

 in a delicate, filmy haze. 'Tis pleasant to stroll 

 by the bank of the river, and along the margin of 

 pond and meadow, and observe the gorgeous 

 tints of the maple, the ash and the beech. 



Our New England forests at this season present 

 a picture peculiarly striking to the stranger frons 

 the old world, and from the South. In the tropical 

 regions, animated nature wears a bright and gor- 

 geous livery, and the birds and fruits reflect the 

 rays of the sun like golden balls, among the deep 

 green foliage, while the birds and fruits of our 

 clime are clothed in more sober costume ; but the 

 rich, varied and brilliant hues of our forests, in 

 the early autumn, rival the splendors of the trop- 

 ical birds and fruits. But this glorious coloring 

 will soon pass away, and the "coat of many col- 

 ors" that now clothes the forests, will fade into a 

 russet brown, growing paler and paler as a pre- 

 monition of the white covering that will soon 

 spread, like a winding-sheet, over forest and 

 plain, while nature reposes in the death-like 

 sleep of winter. How wonderful, and how varied 

 are the operations of nature, and how worthy of 

 the study of rational and intelligent beings ! The 

 seed germinates in the spring, and pushes its rad- 

 icle into the soil, and its plumule into the atmo- 

 sphere, that it may draw nourishment from both. 

 First the blade appears, and then the ear, and 

 then the full corn in the ear. The matured seed 

 drops into the soil, and either takes root, like the 

 grain of wheat, preparatory for the growth of the 

 next year, or folded in its many-plied pericarp, 

 remains in the ground till the warmth and mois- 



