NEW I 



MER 



DEVOTED TO AGmCDTiTITHE, HOBTICUIiTUKE, AND KTNDEED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. Boston, September, 1867. VOL. I.— NO. 9. 



R. P. EATON & CO., PoBMSHEKS, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' liow. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, j ■o-r.-n.^^. 

 8. FLETCHEIi, \ Editoks. 



SEPTEMBER. 



"Sweet, is the voice that calls 



From babbling waterfalla 

 In meadows where the downy seeds are flying; 



And soft the breezes blow, 



And iddyiiig come and no 

 In faded gardens where the rose is dying." 



^_^ EPTEMBER, once more, in the 

 - ' X^^y never-ceasing march of the 

 n seasons, calls upon us this year 

 for the exercise of all our powers of 

 industry and skill, to gather up and 

 secure for future use the abundant 

 crops of our fruitful soils. 



Never before, it seems to us, have 

 the trees and all large plants been so clothed 

 with a dense, high-colored and vigorous fo- 

 liage, while the face of the earth is covered, 

 almost beyond precedent, with all crops com- 

 moH to the season. Timely and copious rains, 

 warmed by genial suns, have percolated the 

 soil in all her pores, found the minerals there 

 which plants require for a full development of 

 their parts, and 



"Thrust blooming thence the vegetable world." 

 In addition to the abundant hay-harvest of 

 June and July, the "aftermath," "rowen," or 

 second crop of August, has been so abundant 

 as scarcely to find room in the already crowded 

 bams. 



The Indian corn has a luxuriant growth of 



leaf and stem, is a little late, and if spared by 



frosts, and if properly secured, will add largely 



to the aggregate value of next winter's fodder. 



The root crops, also, have a redundant fo- 



liage, which is gi'eatly relished by all the farm 

 stock. AH these are prime sources of milk, 

 butter, cheese, beef, mutton, &c., and if care- 

 fully husbanded, will materially swell the prof- 

 its of the farm. 



The impression with some is that the price 

 of hay will be low during the next six months. 

 There are some reasons why it may not be. 

 At the commencement of the present haying 

 season, scarcely ten tons of old hay could be 

 found in any one of our best farming towns. 

 All the poorer kinds of fodder had been econ- 

 omized, chopped, grain added to it, and fed 

 out in order to send the best hay to market, 

 and get from $35 to $50 per ton for it ! This 

 state of things extended far into the coimtry, 

 where the best hay was pressed and sent for- 

 ward, and the poorer used at home. Before 

 June came, the barns in nearly all parts of New 

 England were empty as they had not been be- 

 fore for many years. 



In addition to this, the demands of our vast 

 armies during the war had swept off our beef 

 cattle to an unparalleled extent, and horses in a 

 still larger proportion, so that most of the 

 farms in the country had scarcely more than 

 one-half the stock they had been in the habit 

 of feeding. 



Now, farmers are purchasers. They caro 

 to sell only those animals that happen to be in 

 excellent condition for market, and those which 

 they are fatting on account of age, because 

 they are poor milkers, or for some other cause. 



