1HE 



MMER 



DEVOTED TO AGRtCULTUEB, HORTICULTUKE, A:>J"D KIWDRED ARTS. 



NEAV SERIES. 



Boston, January, 1870. YOL. IV.— NO. 1. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Publishers, 

 Office, 3-1 Merchants' liow. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROWN, ) editors 

 S. FLETCHER, I editors. 



JANUARY, 1870. 



"January I Darkness and light reign alike. Snow 

 is on the ground. Cold is in the air. The -winter Is 

 bloBBoming in frost flowers. Why is the ground hid- 

 den? Why i'S the earth white? Bo hath Ood wiped 

 out the past ; go bath He spread the earth like an un- 

 written p;ige, for a new year I Old sounds are silent 

 in the forest and in the air. Insects are dead, birds are 

 gone, leaves have perished, and ail the foundation of 

 soil remains. Upon this lies, white and tranquil, the 

 emblem of newnes^^ and purity, the virgin robes of the 

 yeti.un=taincd year !'' 



ANUAUY, with 



stately march, 

 commences the 

 grand rounds of 

 the Seasons for 

 another Year. 

 Let us enter 

 the coiu'se with 

 a determination 

 to explore their 

 recesses with 

 more earnest- 

 ness and fidel- 

 ity than ever 

 before, and 

 store the mind 

 with varied and 

 useful knowledge. 

 Knowledge that will 

 not only confer happiness upon 

 "^^ ' ourselves and those about us, but 

 will tend to lessen human toil, to spread our 

 fields with abundant crops, and to fill the 

 pocket of the farmer with those "rocks'''' upon 

 which a great many men split, but which, in 



the hands of the cultivator of the soil, usually 

 bring comfort and convenience. 



Winter is upon us ; mid-winter. Perhaps 

 the snow lies deep in field and forest ; too 

 deep for comfortable chopping or safe team- 

 ing. Perhaps the January thaw has flooded 

 icy roads ; the south wind is drifting worlds 

 of vapor to the north, or is gradually veering 

 round to give us a nor' wester to-morrow that 

 will make all loose things clatter again. We 

 cannot tell. Obliged to anticipate, we lose 

 something of the inspiration which might be 

 caught, if writing these notices of the Months 

 amidst their peculiar characteristics. 



While Nature has her sway out-of-doors, 

 let us look back and see how our ancestors 

 regarded the opening of the New Year, and 

 what they did to give it significance and re- 

 membrance. 



Scarcely any themes have been more charm- 

 ingly sung by our English ancestors than those 

 of the opening New Year, Christmas, winter 

 scenes and firesides. Many of their peculiar 

 customs were common far back in history, 

 and are enumerated in records of antiquity. 

 Among the foremost of the noisy observances, 

 was the practice of ringing the bells. All 

 over merry England, through every valley, 

 and reverberating from every hill top, was the 

 sound of merry, merry bells. To these joyous 

 sounds, sung and danced thousands who were 

 merry on that day, if on no other. Clad in 

 their best garments, their tables soread with 



