







DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XV. 



BOSTON, MARCH, 1863. 



NO. 3. 



NOURSE, EATON' k TOLMAX, Proprietors. 

 Office.... 102 'Washinotgn Street. 



SraON BROWN, Epitob. 



THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY THE RE- 

 TURN OP MARCH. 



Sweet are the omens of approaching spring. — Clare. 



0\V ADMIRABLY 

 adapted toour^\-ants 

 is the change of the 

 j^j, seasons. We quick- 

 '^ ly tire of the same 

 thing. In the win- 

 ter we exclaim, "O, 

 !iow glad we shall 

 be when the spring 

 ■omes ! When the 

 warm south wind 

 blows, the brooks 

 babble and the blue- 

 birds and robins 

 sing again about the 

 house. We long to see the crocus and snowdrops 

 peeping out from among the dry leaves in the 

 garden, and hear the lark's shrill note as he 

 mounts to the skies." So it is with us all, in 

 greater or less degree. By nature, or by habit, 

 these feelings possess us, and so the changing sea- 

 sons gratify, in some degree, this tendency to 

 cliange and excitement, and constantly inspire us 

 with fresh hope and courage. 



Let us quote a little from William Howitt : 



thing in the freshness of the soil — in the mossy 

 bank — the balmy air — the voices of birds — the 

 early and delicious flowers, that we have seen and 

 felt only in childhood and spring." 



How delightfully Mr. Howitt writes. What a 

 charming sympathy with huinanity, and even in- 

 animate nature. How his mind is filled with 

 sweet memories of the seasons, stored up in child- 

 hood and finding expression in later years, to cheer 

 and instruct us amid the trials of life. Thanks, 

 thanks, to him, and his amiable and genial wife, 

 for the kindly influences they have spread broad- 

 cast throughout the civilized world ! 



What most of us object to in March, are its bois- 

 terous winds, whistling and tearing about, some- 

 time driving snow before them, and then rain, or 

 hail, or sleet, — banging every unlatched door, or 

 rattling reproachfully the loose boards that the 

 farmer neglected to make fast last fall. True, to- 

 wards the last of the month, these winds some- 

 times blow mingled with odors of violet and daf- 

 fodil, that have ventured to 



"Come before the bluebird dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty.'" 



But "even the winds of March," notwithstand- 

 ing all we may say against them, "are far from 

 being virtiieless ; for ihey come careering over 

 our fields, and roads, and pathways, and while 



they dry up the damps that the thaws had let 

 "March," says he, "is a rude and boisterous ! j^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ previous frosts had prevented sink- 

 month, possessing many of the characteristics of , .^^ .^^^ ^^^^ ^^^_^^^ .p.^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^.^.^^ j.^^.^^^, ^^^ 



winter, yet awakening sensations perhaps more 

 delicious than the two following spring months ; 

 for it gives us the first announcement and taste of 

 spring. What can equal the delight_ of our 

 hearts at the very first glimpse of spring — the 

 first sprinkling of buds and green herbs. It is 

 like a new life infused into our bosoms. A spirit 



words of which, tell talcs of the forthcoming 

 flowers." * * • "The sap is alive in the seeming- 

 ly sleeping trunks that everywhere surround us, 

 and is beginning to mount slowly to its destination ; 

 and the embryo blooms are almost visibly strug- 



of tenderness, a burst of freshness and luxury of' gling towards light and life, beneath their rough, 

 feeling possesses us : and let fifty springs have ' unpromising outer coat— unpromising to the idle, 

 broken upon us, //as joy, unlike many joys of time, ^j^g unthinking and the inobservant; but to the 

 is not an atom impaiVed. Are we not young ? ; ^^^^ ^^^ ^--^^ ^^^^ beautiful, in virtue 



rof"L°tS'.h„u^:: iro'.Tuhe'Vaptr™ , o< the „righ.„e». .nd the beauty that they cover, 

 scenes of all our hapi)ier years ? There is some- ' but not conceal." 



