DEVOTED TO AGKICULTURE AND ITS KIISTDRED ARTS AWD SCIENCES. 



VOL. XVI. 



BOSTON, MAY, 1864. 



NO. 5. 



NOURSE, EATOX & TOLMAX, Proprietors. 

 Office 102 AVashi;«gton Street. 



SIMON BROWX, EcrroK. 



THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY MAY. 



OR all time, 

 the charms of 

 this lovely 

 month have 

 been the 

 theme of the 

 poets. But 

 th^' sang of 

 them in sum- 

 mer climes 

 and milder 

 ' -fy regions, far 

 ^ from us, to- 

 wards the ris- 

 ing sun. Our 

 own poets 

 have sung its 

 charms with 

 equal tender- 

 ness and zeal, 

 but rather from the inspiration caught in reading 

 the highly-wrought descriptions of others, we take 

 it, than from any real existence of those charms, in 

 our month of May. This month certainly has its 

 days of calm and unsurpassed loveliness, — of 

 balmy airs, brilliant suns, singing birds and open- 

 ing flowers. The earth and the trees, and all an- 

 imated things, reveal themselves anew, and put 

 on a glory that is as fresh and beautiful as though 

 we were beholding it for the first time. The j 

 brooks sing as well as the birds. The meadow is 

 dotted with gay cowslips and the orchard is a ' 

 mass of blossoms, making the farm fragrant with ! 

 their delicate odors. 



But May, in this climate, is fickle as well as j 

 April. We have mornings that are glorious, 

 when the buds expand and promise opening flow- 

 ers at once ; — when whole troops of the red- 

 winged blackbird visit the orchard and make the 

 air vocal with their lively chatterings for half an 



hour, and then fly back to the lovy grounds to 

 feed ; — when the meadow-lark utters his piercing 

 note from the highest twig of the big maple, just 

 as he did last September. He seems to be the 

 self-same bird, come back to the fields where he 

 sung his morning song last year, and watched and 

 waited upon his mate while she reared theip ten- 

 der brood. But lo, in the afternoon, the scene is 

 changed ! East winds come in from the adjacent 

 sea filled with icicles, or something else as sharp, 

 and pierce one to the bones with their benumb- 

 ing power. Towards night this yields to the 

 northwester. The temperature decreases. Swell- 

 ing buds shrink back and are again enclosed in 

 their firm outer coverings. Flowers contract 

 their delicate petals and hide themselves from the 

 coming cold in their hardy sheaths, and the next 

 morning the grape blossoms and tender plants are 

 drooping in the sun's rays, pinched by frost ! 

 Such is May. Boys and girls scour the woods 

 on the day of its advent for the Trailing Arbutus, 

 or some other bold and beautiful thing, — but ten 

 chances to one, they go in thick boots, mittens 

 and overcoats, and return with the mere exercise 

 of their tramp for their pains ! But they have 

 had their walk and social intercourse, and will be 

 all the better for it, and have found plenty of op- 

 portunity to imagine what they cotdd not really 

 find developed in the floral kingdom. 



The keen and delightful sensations that ani- 

 mate most of us in this month spring, in a great 

 degree, from the contrast afforded by the extremes 

 of temperature, and the general atmospheric con- 

 dition. The grass has put forth its tender leaves 

 in every sunny place, and decorates the earth 

 with its bright green, so wide in contrast with the 

 snow, and so pleasant to the eye. Warm rains 

 fall and refresh it, so that it rapidly spreads and 

 covers deformities made by the frost. Xew voices 

 are heard, not only from the returning buds, but 

 from bleating sheep and lowing kine, — voices 

 showing a tender attachment for the vnunp- which 



