DEVOTED TO AGRICTjIjTURE A2."D ITS KINDRED AETS A^TD SCIENCE S. 



VOL. XV 



BOSTOX. MAY, 1S63. 



>'0. 5. 



yoraSE, T.\J<:^'S k TOUIAX. ?ao?arxio 



5ai''>y BRTiWy, Er.rrot 



SUGGESTED BY THE HETUBIf OP MAY. 



"In Tonder T»alt of liqaid blae, 



A blander Iirh: is kinJUn; ~'~ : 

 Swrrt m/rr-. ocr cr-r '.ir'ii; hrT ieir, 



Ci'er wc->i, and X3.lt, ari L:;;-.ir:air; trow. 

 Kar. Ic-rks abroad apon the earth. 



With hopeful ere and tmsting heart 

 The promised seed time now hath come. 



And chilliBg winds depart." 



T this sea- 

 son, develop- 

 ment is the 

 phenome- 

 non that meets 

 ,us at eTerv 

 turn, during 

 this glorious 

 'month. In 

 what does this 

 mysterious 

 principle of 

 growth — this 

 silent appor- 

 tionment of 

 r parts — which 

 -- we behold in 

 the vegetable 

 world, con- 

 sist? 



With the 



retreat of winter, all the long pent and dormant 

 forces of nature break forth afresh ; verdure robes 

 the hill and the vallev, and every leaf and spire 

 of grass respond to the vivifying influences of the 

 sun and air. From the dawn of creation, it has 

 been constantly and vigorously at work — never 

 reposing — never flagging — ever the study and 

 wonder of the learned, whether developing its re- 

 sults in the upheaving of islands in the sea, or in 

 arranging and perfecting the minute mechanism 

 of the leaf or flower ; and yet it is as much a mys- 

 tery, and. in its essence, as far beyond the range 

 of his investigations, as it was when Adam walked 



with his beautiful Eve amid opening flower* in 

 the primal Eden ! 



"Almost every particle of the world visible to 

 as," says an elegant writer, "has been, at some 

 time, within the organized body of some plant or 

 animaL It has felt the vitalizing influence of this 

 mysterious principle of life, and been separated 

 by it, perhaps, unto its ultimate atoms. We 

 gather a handful of the black vegetable mould at 

 our feet. It is now inert, but how many changes 

 have passed upon it in the last six thousand years '. 

 Had we the power of evoking from it the history, 

 of these changes, it would make one of the most 

 instructive voluices ever written. The most of it 

 is from the decay of plants, the carbon of which 

 once floated in the air as gas, carried in every di- 

 rection by the winds, until taken up by the leaves 

 of plants. How many voyages round the worid 

 have been completed by these particles ? A por- 

 tion of it is made up of animals. Here are minute 

 particles of mica, feldspar and quartz, too small 

 for the eye to distinguish — traces of soda, potash, 

 chlorine, alkalies and acids only detected by the 

 most delicate chemical tests. What rocks did 

 they once enter into ; what animal fimns hare 

 they been incorporated with, and whence hare 

 they been borne, in the earth's changes, to their 

 present resting places ? Once, possibly, this par- 

 ticle dwelt in a granite boulder, and was borne 

 from the remote Xorth, in the ice period, and de- 

 posited in its present neighborhood." 



These changes, each and all, have an intimate 

 relation to the phenomena and operations of the 

 farm ; and this principle of life and vital action, 

 as developed in every leaf, in every bud, and ev- 

 ery living form, — whether animal or vegetable, — 

 should be made the study of the mind. — not. per- 

 haps, to study the mystery of its origin or of its 

 more recondite laws, but to ready and familiar ap- 

 preciation of whatever most directly acts upon 

 unorganized matter in the prodoctioa, rapport 

 and perfection of living forms. 



