DEVOTED TO AGIUCTJLTUIIB AND ITS KIUDSED ARTS AINTD SCIEUGES. 



VOL. XIY. 



BOSTON, APRIL, 1862. 



NO. 4. 



KOraSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Opficb 100 Washington Street. 



SIMOX BROAVN- EwTOR. 



HENRY F. TRENCn, Associate Editor. 



CALENDAK FOR APRIL. 



PRIL IS supposed by 

 scholars to have 

 derived its name 

 from the Latin 

 ''word Aperire, sig- 

 nifying to open, 

 because in those 

 countries Avhere 

 our mouths v.ere 

 named, the buds 

 open themselves at 

 this season of the year. 

 They also tell us that Char- 

 lemagne, in his new calen- 

 dar, called it grass viontlt, 

 the name still given to it by the 

 Dutch. It is possible that if 

 these scholars, Charlemagne and 

 the Dutch, had lived in Xew 

 England, the christening of their Ape- 

 rire, or grass month, "would have been 

 postponed at least one new moon. 

 To be sure, the buds do open themselves some- 

 what, and the grass starts more or less before the 

 last blast on the horn of April is blown, but with 

 us both buds and grass often have occasion to re- 

 pent of their rashness and haste. Only last year, 

 (1S61,) in the first part of the month, the earth 

 ■was covered a foot deep with snow, where it lay I 

 as it fell ; and from two to six feet, where drifted 

 by the wind. Near our own residence there was i 

 a drift about three feet deep, extending for rods, , 

 and terminating in a pile, against an embankment j 

 wall, measuring eight feet in height. Highways 

 were blocked up, and passenger trains on the rail- ' 

 roads delayed. This, we know, was an unusual 

 storm for April, but unusual chiefly in respect to 

 the depth of the snow. Storm and sunshine are I 

 the order of the month. We must dodge the one 

 as well as we can, and improve the other the best j 

 we know how. There is much work to be done I 



in April. While the Italian, French, and even 

 the English farmer, have tln-ee or four months of 

 veritable spring weather, we have but two at best ; 

 and old winter claims a portion of one of these, 

 and in some parts of New England enforces her 

 claims for the lion's share of April. 



Much as there is to do, however, in so little 

 time, don't drive the boys too hard at fii'st. After 

 studying in a warm room for tliree or four months, 

 it is rather tough — we remember it very well — to 

 face these cold winds, and to take hold of out- 

 door work in earnest. It may encourage some of 

 these tender-handed school-boys to be told that it 

 is not the sons of New England alone that com- 

 jilain of similar hardship. According to one of 

 the oldest of the ancient poets, those farmers who 

 dwelt in the comparatively warm climate of the 

 region bordering on the Mediterranean Sea made 

 a great fuss about the cold and hardship of plow- 

 ing time. They went so far as actually to cry, — 

 "bawl," the Yankees would call it, — while ploAV- 

 ing the ground and sowing the seed. It seems 

 that the poor fellows got bravely over this "crying 

 spell" before harvest, for they are represented as 

 quite jolly at reaping time. AVe make a brief ex- 

 tract from the poem alluded to, as some of our 

 readers may be glad to preserve even a small por- 

 tion of perhaps the most ancient agricultural po- 

 em extant : 



"Thoy that sow in tears 



Shall reap in joy : 



He that goeth forth and weepeth, 



Beariii!;; ])recious seed, 



Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 



Bringing his sheaves with him." 



We quote from the same author, whose writings 

 were probably the models of the sayings of Frank- 

 lin's "Poor Richard," one of the old saws with 

 which parents, four thousand years ago, used to 

 encourage their sons to brave the chills of April : 



"The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold ; 

 Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing." 



