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DEVOTiJD TO AURICULTUEJE, HOKTICULTUKE, AJSTD KTNDRED ARTS. 



NEW SERIES. Boston, December, 1871. VOL. v.— NO. 12. 



R. P. EATO^ & CO., PLT.MsiiiiiRS, 

 Office, 34 Merchants' Kow, 



MONTHLY. 



SIMON BROUTSr, ( „ . 



8. FLETCHER, \ Editors. 



DECEMBER— THE LAST MONTH OP 

 THE OLD YEAR. 



"Thou .art passing, passing old year, 

 In the fhadowy mist afar, 

 "With thy last faint flash of revelry, 

 Like the light of a falling star. 



Mrs. Brooks. 



rcEMHER, the last 

 mouth of the year 

 usually brings to 

 lis established 

 ^Mnter weather 

 before it clos- 

 ,^ es. The trees 

 ire stripped 



)f their leaves, 

 he flowers have 

 ^ faded, the fields | 

 ^^5E^^=.ire brown and I 

 " uninviting, or, 



perhaps, covered j 



with snow ; the cloudy ! 

 atmosphere wraps us 

 about with dewiness and 

 chilliness ; the birds have mostly 

 gone, and the reptiles and other 

 creatures, that sleep or hide dur- 

 ing the cold weather, have retired to their 

 winter quarters. 



The operaMons of the farmer on the soil are 

 now greatly contracted, so that he can give 

 time and careful attention to the domestic ani- 

 mals which are dependent upon him for com- 

 fort, and even for the means of sustaining life 

 itself. They have been faithful co-workers 



with him in preparing the soil for the produc- 

 tion of crops, in cultivating them during the 

 growing season, and, -when ripened, in secur- 

 ing the rich harvests that are to sustain all, 

 man and beast, during the inclement winter 

 months. 



To the superficial observer, all nature now 

 seems inactive and dead. But it is not so. 

 There is more of decay and death in the sum- 

 mer than in the winter montlis. When the 

 soil is open and the sun sends its creative 

 beams upon it, and gentle rains send their re- 

 freshing influences through its every pore, then 

 vegetable matter springs into life rapidly, 

 comes to perfection and dies. Plants in per- 

 ( petual succession, — from early April to the 



j time when the earth is bound in solid frosts, 



start into life, grow, ripen their seeds and cast 

 them upon the ground. Their little life is 

 then over. They have performed their part, 

 have done all they could to perpetuate their 

 kind, and then return to their native dust. 

 And so it is with insect life. They come, live 

 their brief day, perform their part in the grand 

 scale of animated nature, and go down to the 

 dust, to be succeeded by others, whose appro- 

 priate season had not yet arrived. 



If we turn our thoughts more closely to the 

 operations of Nature, we shall not find De- 

 CEAU'.ER less efficient in carrying on the grand 

 work of the months than any of her sisters 

 which have preceded her. There is little of 

 decay or death now. Millions of buds are 



