DEVOTED TO AGBICULTUKE, HORTICUTiTtTRE, AND EXWDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, July, 1867. 



VOL. I.— NO. 7. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Publishers, 

 OrfiCE, 34 Merchants' Row. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWK, 

 8. FLETCHER, 



Editors. 



JULY.— THE HAY MONTH. 



'I am a true laborer. I earn that I eat, get that I wear, 

 owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness, glad with 

 every man's good, and content with my own farm." — 

 Skakspeare. 



ET us earnestly strive 

 to use the above lan- 

 guage in sincerity, and 

 we shall find each suc- 

 ceeding July a hap- 

 pier month than any of 

 its predecessors. 



What a month of 

 fruition the abundant 

 spring rains and vivi- 

 fying suns of June have 

 made it. How the farm 

 has filled up — what a 

 I fullness there is all 

 about the homestead. 

 The fences are half hid- 

 den in the spires of the 

 ripening red top, the heads of herdsgrass and 

 sweet blossoms of the red clover. You had a 

 near neighbor a month ago, but now his dwell- 

 ing is out of sight. ' Honeysuckles of varied 

 hues and odors twine around the pillars of the 

 piazza, or kindly climb over the lattice of the 

 old porch to shut out the noonday sun. The 

 world don't look half as large as it did a month 

 ago, but a great deal more crowded. 



How appropriately are all things ordered to 

 aid us in our labors ! The heat is now greatly 

 increased, just at the moment when we are en- 



gaged in the great Hay Harvest, — and the 

 showers that are usuall}^ so plentiful in June 

 are in a measure held back, so that the farmer 

 is able to cut the grass and rapidly prepare it 

 for storing away in the barn. 



But nature is still lavish in her bounties. 

 The grass fields are shorn of their beauty, it is 

 true, soon, however, to be clothed anew in 

 "living green." While they are recuperating, 

 other plants are coming into vigorous maturity. 

 Besides the flowers of last month, there are 

 now the candytuft, the catch-fly, columbines, 

 egg-plants, marigold, marvel of Peru, roses 

 and lilies. So the woods and groves produce 

 new flowers, and the roadsides are ornamented 

 with the blue bell and other gay blossoms to 

 gladden the traveller's eye and heart. 



Before the month closes, the rye will be yel- 

 low and ready for the sickle. The "oats will 

 whiten apace, and quiver, each individual gram 

 on its light stem, as they hang like rain-drops 

 in the air." The wheat and barley assume a 

 dull green, while their swelling ears bow be- 

 fore every breeze that blows over them. 



Haying, now, is the work which calls for 

 most of the farmer's time. Indeed, on many 

 farms it commences in June. Many pieces of 

 clover are ready for the scythe during the last 

 week in June, and deteriorate essentially if not 

 cut. But hoeing ought not to be neglected. 

 It is better to suspend haying for a day or 

 two to hoe the growing crops, than to allow 

 weeds to take possession of the ground. It 



