DEVOTED TO AGRICULTUKE, HORTICULTURE, AND KINDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. Boston, Febniary, 1807. VOL. I.— NO. 2. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Publishers, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' Row 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, 

 S. FLETCHER, 



Editors. 



FEBRUARY THOUGHTS. 



I'm the spirit of snow, and my compass is wide ; 

 I can fall in the storm, in the wind I can ride; 

 I am white, I am pure, I am tender, I'm fair, 

 I was horn in the seas, to the seas I repair; 

 By frost I am harden'd, by wet I'm destroyed. 

 And, united with liquid, to Ocean decoy'd. 



J. R. Prior. 



EBRUARY 



in New 

 England 

 is usually 

 a rough, 

 cold 

 month. 

 Snows 

 have ac- 

 c u m u 1 a- 

 ted, so 

 that the 

 roads are 

 often ob- 

 structfed, 

 and trav- 

 elling on 

 them is 

 tedious 

 and slow. 



Especially is this the case in the hilly and 

 mountainous parts of New England, where 

 the population is thin, and travel has not been 

 sufficiently constant to keep the roads open. 

 To do this, however, would be a task of no 

 ordinary kind. Old Boreas is king. He 

 roams where he pleases. Sweeps through the 



valleys, scoiu-s the plains, or roars over the 

 mountain tops unrestricted in his vagaries, 

 heajiing the snow into fantastic forms, or send- 

 ing it in whirling clouds tlirough the freezing- 

 air. 



Those who live in thickly-settled communi- 

 ties, where the public road is always kept open 

 from nearly every farm-house in the town to 

 the centre of the village, can have only a slight 

 appreciation of the difficulties with which those 

 have to contend who live where the population 

 is sparse. In some districts, if one rides a 

 dozen miles, he will be obliged to pass over 

 pastures and meadows, through swamps and 

 woods, cross doubtful streams, and go circuit- 

 ous routes through valleys and over hills, in 

 order to reach his destined goal. He will not 

 be able to keep in the highway half the time. 

 Then, if night approaches, and his faithful 

 steed shows signs of fatigue,, those dismal fore- 

 bodings will be likely to take possession of the 

 mind, which poets, speaking of . night-bound 

 and snow-bewildered travellers, have so vividly 

 portrayed in the books : 



"See, how the traveller scarce resists the storm t 

 Mark, how he strives along with fainting feet I 

 And doomed, without the friendly welcome warm. 

 To perish in its freezing winding-sheet I" 



Scarcely anything is more bewildering to 

 the mind, than to be abroad in a winter night, 

 when the earth is covered with snow, and we 

 lose the points of compass, and the well-known 

 landmarks are covered up, or only stand like 

 dim and imcertain spectres in the dusky gloom 



