'^ 



;V\ 



tFE 



--^,v-- (© 



MMER 



DiilVOTiUD TO AG-RtCtTLTUHE, HOKTICULTtTKE, AND KlUDBBD ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, June, 1871. 



VOL. v.— NO. G. 



R. P. EATOX 5i CO., Plblishers, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' How. 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BRO^^'N, I FniTORs 

 S. FLETCHER, ( ^DI^OR^- 



SOME THINGS ABOUT JUNE. 



Evprytliini; is liappy now, 



Evfrythiiig is upward striving; 

 'Tis as easy ii'iw for the hoart to be true, 

 As for grass to lie green or slsifs to he blue — 



'Tis tlie natural way of living. — tf. It. iMwell. 





V i 



\y 



I MMKU IS come, 

 and June, the 



month of Ko- 

 <e.s. and every- 

 where, about 

 our feet in the 

 lields, flocks of 

 wild flowers 

 I "do paint the 

 Yj ( ini'adows with 



%i To make the 

 v>fcas. contrast still 



more stiiking 



between the seasons, one 

 mu^t jro forth amid "the 

 pomp of groves and gar- 

 niture of fields, and not only lin- 

 ger there in the declining day, 



but be out in the freshness of the 



morning, when the flowers are opening their 

 leaves to the sun, and when field and gro^e 

 are vocal with the concerts of birds. 



The two giand husbandry occupations 

 among our English neighbors in June, are the 

 Hay -harvest and the Sheep-shearing. One of 

 their writers has charmingly described the lat- 

 ter. Sheep-shearing, he says, if not so full of 



variety as the Hay-harvest, is more lively, an- 

 imated, and spirit-stirring ; and it besides re- 

 tains something of the character of a rural 

 holiday — which rural matters need, in this age 

 and in this country, more than ever they did 

 since it became a civilized and happy or.e. 

 Tlie sheep-shearings are the only stated peri- 

 ods of the year at which we hear of festivities, 

 and gatherings together of the lovers and prac- 

 ticers of English husbandry. * * * Now 

 then, on the first really summer's day, the 

 whole flock being collected on the high bank 

 of the pool formed at the abrupt winding of 

 the mill-stream, the sheep are, after a silent 

 but obstinate struggle or two, plunged head- 

 long, one by one, from the precipitous bank ; 

 when, after a moment of confused splashing, 

 their heavy fleeces float them along, and their 

 feet guide them towards the opposite shallows, 

 that steam and glitter in the sunlight. Slid- 

 way, however, thev submit to the rude grasp 

 of the relentless washer ; which they undergo 

 with as ill a grace as preparatory school boys 

 do the same operation. Then gaining the op- 

 posite shore heavily, and shaking their stream- 

 ing sides, they go bleating away towards their 

 fellows on the adjacent green, wondering 

 within themselves what has happened ! 



How natural this picture, and how many 

 will be carried back to boyhood days, to the 

 old mill and its plashing stream, or the little 

 pond improvised for the occasion by a tempo- 

 rary dam of stakes and slabs ! To the boys — 



