DEVOTED TO AGBICULTURE AND ITS KINDKiJD ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XV. 



BOSTON, JULY, 1863. 



jN'O. 7. 



NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office 102 Washington Street. 



SIMOX BUOWX, Editor. 



CALENDAR POK JULY. 



"From brightening fields of ether fair disclosed, 



Child of the sun, refulgent Summer cornea, 



In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth ; 



He «omes attended by the sultry hours. 



And ever fanning breezes on his way." 



E R V E N T 



with heat, or 

 as our poet 

 says, "attend- 

 ed by the sul- 

 try hour s," 

 July has 

 come round 

 again, and it 

 is to be hoped 



t 4'555,'-£^' fanning 

 ■rS ^'^>:.'^>;<-K breezes" will 



come too. 

 Yet if we had 

 not this heat 

 of which we 

 sometimes 

 complain a s 

 being oppres- 

 sive and disagreeable, there would be no hay, no 

 vegetables, none of the articles which may be 

 reckoned as the necessaries of life. There is 

 nothing in nature without a purpose, and this is 

 the purpose of weather which sends the mercury 

 to ninet>/-five in the shade, and sets mankind to 

 grumbling as if they were a much abused race — 

 namely, to provide them with future comforts and 

 luxuries. 



When the long drought came in May, 1860, 

 and the ground, as it was turned up with the spade, 

 seemed like ashes, when potatoes lay in the soil 

 for weeks witliout sprouting, there seemed a sorry 

 prospect for the farming world, — but in spite of 

 all our dismal forebodings, a beautiful rain fell 

 upon the thirsty earth one Saturday — steadily it 

 fell, filling cisterns and hogsheads, and refreshing 



every living thing, and the Sabbath came clear 

 and lovely — the wind which had been east so long, 

 blew gently from the Mest, and the long horror 

 was over. From tliat time, perhaps, the prospect 

 for an abundant harvest M-as as good as usual. 

 And we have queried whether the average weath- 

 er of different seasons is not more equal than is 

 sometimes supposed, and whether, consequently, 

 we are not guilty of bon-owing a great deal of 

 trouble about the Avealher, the crops, <S:c., when 

 nature really knows how to take excellent care of 

 the treasures committed to her. She has had a 

 long experience in this time, and has seldom been 

 known to fail us. People talk about having "an 

 early spring," but unless some one can show sta- 

 tistics to the contrary, we are inclined to believe 

 that, in a general way, there is a remarkable uni- 

 formity in "seed time and harvest." It is true, it 

 occasionally happens that the snow leaves early, 

 and a few warm days persuade us that the year is 

 going to be an exception to ordinary rules, but if 

 tliese sunny days last long enough to bring out 

 the buds or blossoms prematurely, how often it 

 happens that "there comes a frost, a killing frost," 

 and checks the early development, so that in the 

 end nothing is gained by it. 



The old New England Primer used to say — 



"Youth's forv.iird slips, 

 IVatIi soonest nips.'" 



Whatever that couplet may be supposed to have 

 meant in the primer, it certainly applies to the 

 case in hand — for the forward slips of vej^etation, 

 are by no means the ones most likely to furnish 

 us food in time of need ! 



From this uniformity in nature's laws and 

 works, we learn to place confidence in her, and 

 when we plant "in due season," we expect to 

 "reap." Our mother Earth has about the only 

 "bank" where we can invest our "capital" without 

 fear of failure. She is always ready to meet her 

 notes on demand ! 



And when the spring has finished Us work, and 

 given place to the rich luxuriance of summer, 



