DEVOTED TO AQKICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AJNTD SCIENCES. 



VOL. XV. 



BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 18G3. 



NO. 9. 



NOL'RSE, EATON & TOUIAN, Propeietors. 

 Office.... 102 Washujoton Street. 



SIMON BROWN, Editoil 



SEPTEMBER. 

 "Farewell the pomp of Flora ! vivid scene ! 



Welcome sage .liitumn, to invite the year — 

 Farewell to summer's eye-di'lighte<l green ! 



Her verdure fades — autumnal blasts are near. 

 The silky wardrobe now is laid aside, 

 With all the rich regalia of her pride." 



NGLisH writers usually 

 speak of September 

 as the " Ingathering 

 Month," and that term 

 is given it by some of 

 the pleasantest writers 

 on the Seasons. Why 

 such a term should be 

 especially applied to 

 this month, is not very 

 clear. The great har- 

 vest of breadstuff in 

 Vw-^ England is wheat, and 

 f^\, that, certainly, is not 

 secured in September, 

 but in July and August. Long before this month 

 comes, the grass crop has been saved, and little is 

 left, beside fruit, to be harvested. In the English 

 "Year Book," 'tis said that "September is the 

 month of in-gathering, when the produce of the 

 year is ware-housed for our subsistence while na- 

 ture reposes during winter, and is awakened in 

 the spring, and while she is doing the summer bus- 

 iness, until, in the ensuing autumn, she offers to 

 our use the provision for another year." 



The accomplished author of the ^'Mirror of the 

 Months," says, now "the year is on the wane. It 

 is declining into the vale of months. It has reached 

 a certain .tge. It has reached the summit of the 

 hills, and is not only looking, but descending into 

 the valley below. But, unlike that into which the 

 life of man declines, this is not a vale of tears ; 

 still less does it, like that, lead to that inevitable 

 bourne, the kingdom of the grave. For though 

 it may be called 'the valley of the shadow of death,' 

 yet of death itself it knriws nothing. No — the 



year steps onward towards its temporary decay, if 

 not so rejoicingly, even more majestically, and 

 gracefully, than it does towards its revivification. 

 And if September is not so bright with promise, 

 and so buoyant with hope as May, it is even more 

 embued with that spirit of serene repose, in which 

 the only true, because the only continuous enjoy- 

 ment consists. Spring never is, but always to be 

 blest ; but September is the month of consumma- 

 tions — the fulfillment of all promises, the fruition 

 of all hopes, the era of all completeness." 



In this extract, the reader will perceive that the 

 idea with which we started is dwelt upon with em- 

 phasis. In England, we cannot see it to be trtie, 

 — but here it would be more applicable. Our 

 grass and grain crops are gathered before Septem- 

 ber, hut some of our principal harvests do not take 

 place until late in this month, and through much 

 of the month of October. The glory of our New 

 England crops — the Indian corn — is rarely gath- 

 ered until October, and so of the variety of roots, 

 which now make up an item of great value in our 

 winter stores of feed for cattle. 



It is often remarked, that our seasons have 

 changed, — that the spring is later and that the fine 

 autumnal weather continues longer than hereto- 

 fore. These remarks are, probably, mere impres- 

 sions, and not declarations based upon any relia- 

 ble data. An examination of tables recording the 

 time of the flowering of apple trees for some fifty 

 years past, satisfies us that the condition of the 

 atmosphere has had no sensible change during thai 

 period ; the time of flowering has been remarka- 

 bly alike, and so it has of planting the usual crops 

 Unless a record is kept from day to day, most per- 

 sons can remember very little of the state of tht 

 weather, even from one month to another — mucl. 

 less from one year to another. Some isolated casef 

 will be strongly impressed, because combined wit!, 

 other remarkable circumstances, and these few 

 cases will form the basis of a general opinion. 



Everv month has its own nppi)li;i»"c!inv.9c'pr anc 



