DEVOTED TO AQRICULTUBE AND ITS KUTDRED AKTS AND SCIENCES. 



THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY JUNE. 



UNE, in the climate 

 of New England, is 

 in many respects 

 the most pleasant 

 month of the year, 

 and, better than 

 any other, realizes 

 the "balmy sweets," 

 the "ethereal mild- 

 ness," and the uni- 

 versal activity and 

 gladness of nature, which 

 foreign writers have rep- 

 resented as characteristic 



y- 



The mornings are no longer 

 frosty. The north-east winds 

 have lost their chill. The air is balmy, 

 but not as yet sultry. The forests and 

 fields now wear their best dress — the 

 freshest and brightest of the year. 

 The grass, which has "come creeping, 

 creeping," everj^where, spreading as a carpet over 

 pasture and meadow, at once for food and repose 

 to the "cattle upon a thousand hills," is now 

 sweeter and softer than at any other time during 

 the season. In a word, New England is in her 

 glory, and to be seen to advantage, must be seen 

 in June — early in a June morning. 



The various shades of verdure, the profusion of 

 flowers, the melody of bird, and insect song, are 

 richer in June than during any other month of the 

 year. 



But some farmer, -whose eye has followed our 

 -words thus far, may be thinking, if he does not 

 say : "All this is fine enough for those who have 

 plenty of money to spend in hunting out land- 

 scapes, and plenty of time to stop and admire 

 . them, but to farmers whose backs ache and whose 

 limbs are stiff by attempting more work than they 

 ought to do, and which they do not feel able to 



pay others for doing, the weeds in our fields, 

 whose rank growth outstrips our strength, catch- 

 es our eyes and blurs the beauty of the scene." 



June brings to farmers long days and hard 

 work — so long and so hard that whatever of po- 

 etry there may have been in us at first, is soon 

 sweated out, and passes off in "invisible exhala- 

 tion." We know that most of the farmers of New 

 England necessarily work hard. But we do not 

 believe that it is necessary for them so to overtask 

 the body as to incapacitate the mind for the enjoy- 

 ments 'of the beauties of nature. True it is, that 

 they have no slaves "to fan them while they sleep, 

 or tremble when they wake," but how many ser- 

 vants have they obedient to their call, how many 

 even of the very elements minister to their gratifi- 

 cation and tend to promote their comfort and hap- 

 piness. 



Let us, borrowing something of the coloring of 

 another, figure to ourselves an inhabitant of some 

 peculiai'ly favored spot, with all the powers of na- 

 ture contributing to his enjoyment and pleasure, 

 — the clear, blue sky above his head, shaded occa- 

 sionally by clouds which drop down fatness in fer- 

 tilizing showers ; — the green earth beneath his 

 feet throwing from her bountiful lap a profusion of 

 flowers in every form of loveliness ; around him 

 venerable trees, full of leafy honors, stretching 

 wide their branches to afford him a grateful shel- 

 ter from the meridian heat, or bearing fruit to 

 gratify his taste ; hard by, the sparkling of a cool, 

 transparent stream, as it hastens to join the broad 

 river, flowing majestically through meadows of 

 emerald to lose itself in the distant ocoaa; — in. his 

 groves, bii'ds of note cheer him -with their sweet 

 music ; — on his lawns the lowing of cattle, on liie. 

 hills the bleating of sheep ; — in his stables beasts, 

 of draft to cultivate his fields, and of burden to. 

 convey him swiftly and at ease on distant journeys ; 

 in his store-houses, ingenious machines and im- 

 plements, which, like "things of life," perform in 

 the most expeditious and satisfactory manner 



