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DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUBE AND ITS KINDHED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XIV. 



BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 1862. 



NO. 9. 



NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office.... 100 Wasuixgtos Striei. 



SIMON BROWN Editor. 



HENRY F. FRENCH, Associate Editor. 



CALENDAR FOB SEPTEMBER. 



O, goodness, every year made new ! 



O, gifts, with rain and sunshine sent ! 

 Thy bounty overruns our due, 



Thy fulness shames our discontent. Whittier. 



eptember, the first 

 of the Autumn 

 Months, is again 

 with us, and again 

 do we witness on 

 all hands the evi- 

 dences of another 

 of those fulfilments 

 of the promise that 

 "seed time and 

 harvest shall nev- 

 er cease," which, 

 while they are designed to 

 be sufficient to stimulate 

 hope and to encourage the 

 putting forth of those ef- 

 forts on our part which are 

 made the condition of the pro- 

 mise, are not intended to be posi- 

 tive enough to warrant that kind 

 of faith which seeks to manifest 

 itself "without works." Not know- 

 ing, positively, whether this or that should pros- 

 per, we cast in the seed, with just enough of hope 

 to give us courage to work bravely, and with just 

 enough of fear to make us realize that we are but 

 co-workers with a higher Power, on whom we are 

 dependent for the increase, however carefully we 

 may plant. 



"0, Painter of the fruits and flowers, 



We thank Thee for Thy wise design, 

 Whereby these human hands of ours 



In Nature's garden work with Thine. 

 And thanks tliat from our daily need 



The joy of simple faith is born ; 

 That he who smites the summer weed 

 May trust Thee for the autumn corn." 



September is, in many respects, one oi the 

 most pleasant months of the year, being, in this 



climate, an agreeable compound of summer and 

 fall weather — of warm days and cool nights. The 

 work of summer and the work of fall, as well as 

 the climate of the two seasons, seems to begin 

 and end during this month, or rather, we may 

 say, are divided by it. The harvesting of our 

 English grains and the gathering of our early 

 fruits occur during the season of haying, which, 

 in many sections of New England, includes the 

 early part of September ; while the gathering of 

 the later fruits, digging of potatoes and other- 

 roots, with the harvesting of the corn crop, are de^ - 

 ferred to the next month, or to quite the last of ' 

 this. The good farmer, therefore, should find io. 

 September, not a mere boundary line only, but a 

 liberal vacation between summer work and fall 

 work. A vacation not for idleness, not so much 

 even for relaxation as for active efforts for tbe ac- i 

 complishment of certain well-considered and; per- ' 

 hans long deferred plans for various 



LITTLE IMPROVEMENTS 



about the farm and its appurtenances, for ■which 

 September seems to be the most favorable time 

 in the whole year. 



We do not propose at this time to advise par- 

 ticularly what these improvements shall be. They | 

 probably differ on nearly every farm. But this ' 

 year, more especially than any other in the past 

 history of our country, is one in which every citi- 

 zen Avill count carefully the cost of all undertak- 

 ings, while, at the same time, there are many rea- 

 sons why he should take counsel' of iiis hopes 

 rather than of his fears. 



While we would now, as we ever have done 

 caution against inconsiderate and extravagant 

 outlays for agricultural purposes, especially by 

 those of limited means, we believe there is occa- 

 sion this year to fear that many farmers will be 

 over-cautious, and thus verify in their own expe- 

 rience the truth of the precept, that "there is 

 that which withholdeth more than is meet, and it 



