NEV 



DEVOTED TO AaRICULTUKE, HORTICULTURE, AN"D KINDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, 31{ire]i, 1871. 



VOL. v.— XO. 3. 



R. V. EATOIf & CO., PuBi,isnE;RS, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' Kow. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BKO-\\Tsr, / -t,^. „ 

 8. FLETCHEK, ( Editors. 



MAKCH IN" NEW ENGLAND. 



March, month of "many weathers,'' ■wildly comes, 

 In hail, and snow, and rain, and threatening hums. 

 And floods : — 



******* 

 Loosed from the rnshing mills and riv^r-locks, 

 With thund'ring sound and overpowering shocks. 

 From hank to bank, along the meadow lea, 

 The river spreads and shines a bttle sea. 



Clart'9 Shepherd's Calendar. 



ARcri comes in 

 heralding the 

 Spring months, 

 lit by no means 

 excluding win- 

 ter weather. In 

 ^^ our climate, 

 ^ March is some- 

 times more bois- 

 terous and try- 

 ing than either 

 month of the 

 winter, — alter- 

 nating with 

 snow and rain, 

 hail and fierce 

 Sometimes the 

 are blocked 



wnids, 

 ro.l(]>^ 



"3 ^^^'^ ^^' 'f*^"' 'which are fro- 

 , ,™ 7en b\ frosty nights, so 



^''^^ that it is dangerous to attempt 



a passage over them, and then softened by the 

 sun's rays, so that when once in them it is dif- 

 ficult to get out again. Even the raih-oads 

 become so much obstructed as to stop travel 

 for hours in succession, — snow ploughs are in 



demand, and unwonted screams of an aijo-re- 

 gation of locomotives fill the air. But this, 

 usually, is of short duration ; just long enough, 

 perhaps, to remind the elder class of our citi- 

 zens of the slow and wearisome modes of trav- 

 elling by stage coach or wagon. 



Only some 30 or 40 years ago, stages were 

 run daily from most of the villages of New 

 England to their large cities. At 20 miles from 

 Boston, a team of four horses and coach would 

 leave at 4 o'clock in the morning and reach 

 Boston at 10 A. M., or at 2 P. M., or 9 at 

 night, as the weather and condition of the roads 

 might be. Nine passengers inside, three on 

 each seat, with legs dovetailed into each other ; 

 noses blue and cold ; fingers numb, and feet 

 freezing ! The stout passengers inside get- 

 ting altogether the best time of it, — having 

 fallen asleep, and rolling over plump into 

 their neighbors every time the coach gave a 

 lurch by thumping over a stone or dropping 

 into a frozen rut. The airy position outside 

 with driver, was scarcely less desirable than 

 the crowded one within, — for there was room 

 enough for stamping the feet and threshing 

 the arms. 



The roads through the month of March 

 were usually in very bad condition, by one 

 or another of the things enumerated above. 

 The 20 mites' ride waS occasionally sufficient- 

 ly exhausting to require 'a day's rest before 

 proceeding to business. 



But New England has not been alone in 



