

^ 



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DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. XVI. 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY, 1864. 



NO. 2. 



NOURSE, EATON & TOLMAN, Proprietors. 

 Office 102 Washington Street. 



SIMON BROWN, Editoe. 



THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY FEBRUARY. 



"Read nature ; nature is a friend of truth ; 

 Nature is Christian, preaches to mankind, 

 And bids dead matter aid us in our creed." 



EBRUARY, with the 

 farmer, affords a 

 comparative season 

 for rest. Not that 

 he has nothing to 

 do, or only a little 

 to do, for he may al- 

 ways have enough. 

 )But, after the prop- 

 ! er care of the stock, 

 }in this month, he 

 I may indulge in vis- 

 'iting, or reading, 

 or some amuse- 

 ment, without that 

 detriment to his in- 

 terests which would 

 certainly follow, if 

 he were to do so in the 

 midst of his planting, or sum- 

 mer or autumnal harvests. He 

 can, properly, find relaxation and rest from his 

 more severe summer labors, and with a decided 

 profit both to body and soul. 



It is probable that man has never lived in 

 so interesting an age of the world as the pres- 

 ent. An age of energy, of thought and of effort 

 never before equalled. Never before were the ad- 

 vances of science and literature so great, if we ex- 

 cept, perhaps, the time of Elizabeth, in England. 

 Scholars are exploring the immensity of the solar 

 system, and plunging into the very depths of ocean 

 and earth, and in all their efforts are developing 

 some substantial good for the human race. The 

 war, cruel and bloody as it has been, has stimu- 

 lated the genius of our people to its utmost ten- 

 sion, and has been the cause of unfolding a thou- 

 sand useful contrivances, indirectly, for the arts of 



peace, that might have slumbered for ages, but for 

 this moving power. And this progress has not 

 been in the art of war alone. While new death- 

 dealing instruments have been devised and multi- 

 plied to an astonishing degree, and war vessels 

 constructed with such a terrible power as to par- 

 alyze and upset all previous notions of the mari- 

 time world, — new contrivances have been sought 

 out for the workshop and the farm ; new books 

 upon astronomy, geography, mechanics, chemistry 

 and the art of agriculture, have been written in 

 the most attractive style, and are crowded with 

 that information which the farmer needs. 



Now, then, is his golden moment to read such 

 books and establish a treasury of knowledge in 

 his mind that shall become a perpetual well-spring 

 of gratification and intellectual power. Many of 

 these works have a direct bearing upon his occu- 

 pation of life, and if these were understood, wouhl 

 become the source of permanent pleasure, as- 

 well as increase the profits of his labor. It is 

 not now so essential to study the manipulations 

 of the farm as it might have been fifty years ago. 

 In this respect great progress has been made. 

 Every observing farmer's son has had the means 

 of learning, either in examples at home, or in his 

 vicinity, the best modes of planting, cultivating, 

 and securing harvests, — something of the stock 

 best fitted for his purposes, and of the construc- 

 tion and arrangement of farm buildings, and that 

 light, well-made and efficient implements and ma- 

 chines are cheaper than those that are made, like 

 "Pindar's razors," merely to sell. 



What he needs now, is to better understand 

 the principles which govern things ; the laws, for 

 instance, by which he can procure the best horses, 

 oxen, sheep, or cows, and something more of 

 animal physiology, so that he may know how to 

 treat them, when obtained, and so to secure the 

 largest possible profit from a given outlay. Every- 

 thing is governed by fixed laws ; all vegetable as 

 well as animal products; all mechanism and art, 



