DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE ATH) ITS.KINDBED ARTS ANT) SCIENCES. 



VOL. XIV. 



BOSTON, JANUARY, 1862. 



NO. 1. 



KOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAX, Proprietobs. 

 Office luO Washington Street. 



PIMON BROWX Emtoe. 



HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Ebitor, 



CALENDAR FOR JANTTARY. 



f^ o R eleven 



success ive 

 holiday sea- 

 sons we have 

 been permit- 

 ted, as Edi- 

 tor, to wish 

 the readers 

 of the New 

 E n gland 

 Farmer, a 

 JHL-iPPY New 

 k^Q, Yeah, and 

 to express a 

 few thoughts 

 suggested by 

 January, and 

 by the open- 

 ing of a new 

 volume, 

 ren years I How much of mingled good 

 and ill, of hope and fears, of resolutions and non- 

 performance, of success and failure, is compre- 

 hended in this record. At first thought, it seems 

 but a brief period since January, 18.52, and yet, if 

 we stop to measure it by events and changes of 

 deep interest to ourselves, individually, it vail seem 

 much less brief to most of us. 



We love to review and contrast these years, and 

 to dwell upon the evidences which they afford of 

 progi-ess and imjjroveraent in regard to the soil 

 and tlae mind, to the field and the house. But 

 upon the commencement of this new period of 

 time, it is both customary and proper to confine 

 our thoughts, mainly, to the incoming and outgo- 

 ing years. 



At this point in the calendar, it is sometimes 

 said that every body thinks ; that there is a sort 

 of necessity imposed on us all, to look back on the 

 past, and forM'ard to the future. The name of the 

 fii-st month of the year might imply that mankind 



Elev 



have always begun the year in this thoughtful way. 

 January beir^g derived, as the books say, from 

 "Janus," an old Roman Deity, who presided over 

 the begmiung of every thing, opening the year and 

 the seasons, as well as all great gates and doors, 

 and to whom suppHcations were addressed at dawn 

 of every day, and sacrifices ofTered at the beginning 

 of every year. This god was represented with two 

 faces, one looldiig back upon the year past, and 

 the other forward to that to come, and to him wtis 

 the fhst day of the year especially sacred. 



Whether, then, we contemplate the events of the 

 old year, or look forward to those of the new, our 

 thoughts unavoidably centre around that topic 

 wliich is first and uppermost in the minds of all. 



Our government is at war, but not with a for- 

 eign foe. From external enemies it has nothing 

 to fear. The past liistory of oiu* country has de- 

 cided two long mooted questions ; one as to the 

 capacity of the people to estabhsh a practicable 

 form of self-government ; the other, as to their 

 abUity to defend it against attacks and opposition 

 from without. A still more important question 

 remains for solution : Can such a government be 

 maintained against the intrigues of the ambitious, 

 the treachery of the unprincipled, and the rebellion 

 of the lawless, among its own citizens ? One mil- 

 Hon of our countrymen have risen up as dispu- 

 tants in this fearful controvery, which is witnessed 

 by an audience to whom the address of the mad- 

 man, "Attention, the whole world," is but a mod- 

 est salutation. We can hardly reahze that tliis is 

 no mere "war of words," but a fierce and deadly 

 struggle — a civil war — Avhich has already caused 

 "tears in the houses, as well as blood in the field." 

 Our hope as to its final result, is as firm as our 

 faith in man's capacity for self-government. We 

 cannot believe that the few are always to govern 

 the many, nor that free government has as yet 

 proved a failure. 



This, however, is not the time to "talk poli- 

 tics." Our business is with the farm — the farm 



