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The Illinois Faemer 



VOL. VI. 



SPRINGFIELD, MARCH 1861. 



NO. 3. 



March. 



• 



"As yet the trembling year is yet nnconfirmed, 

 And winter oft at eve resumes the breeze, 

 Chills the pale moon, and bids her driving sleets, 

 Deform the day delightless." 



Thompson's Seasons. 



" The heart of the winter is broke/' and 

 the genial sun smiles on the landscape just 

 waking from her hyperborean slumber. The 

 mild breeze is laden with the cool exhala- 

 tions from the yet frosty earth. Birds of 

 passage are wending their way to the further 

 north. The Snowdrop, the Crocus, the Jon- 

 quils, the Narcissus, and the more gaudy 

 Tulips are springing up along the garden 

 borders. The signal notes of spring are 

 given, and the farmer is again called forth 

 to resume his labors in the field j not the 

 labor of the galley slave, not the labor of 

 one steeped to the dregs in poverty, borne 

 down by vicious habits, but the free labor of 

 the mind and of the hands, an intelligent 

 labor that can enjoy and appreciate the 

 beauties of the season. 



" When day, with farewell beam, delays 

 Among the opening clouds of eve, 



And we can almost think we gaze 

 Through golden vistas into heaven." 



The waking up of vegetable and of insect 

 life, as the sun climbs the southern sky, and 

 as the warm air spreads itself through space, 

 IS worthy of our study and most earnest at- 

 tention. The deep blue of the evening sky, as 

 we look out into the night, yet filled with 

 the lingering frosts of winter, congealing 

 the earth over the newly harrowed grain, 

 pulverizing and making it pliable beneath 

 its touch. 



" When night with wings of starry gloom, 

 O'ershadows all the earth and skies. 



Like some dark, beautious bird, whose plume 

 Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes." 



The Spring wakes up slowly ; it does no 

 burst upon us in a day ; its warning notes 

 are heard far in the distance, and none but 

 laggards fail to regard its warning. Fences 

 must now be looked to, manures must be 

 hauled out into the garden, field and orchard 

 trees must be pruned that have not been at 

 tended to before, the wood pile put in order 

 for the summer, and the straggling cohorts 

 of the farm needs brought into line. This 

 is the month for the sowing of spring wheat, 

 but it must in all cases be sown on fall 

 plowed land, on prairie broken last season, 

 on potato ground or clean corn stubble. 

 The seed should be washed in strong brine 

 and lime, for the purpose of swimming out 

 the oats and to destroy the sporule of smut. 

 The garden borders will need looking after 

 not with a view to hasten growth, but in 

 most cases to check it, for often in this 

 month a few warm days are followed by 

 chilly winds and sleet, which may endanger 

 the young plantt . 



The plans for the season will now begin 

 to assume form, thought will become action 

 and the swelling bud will soon be a leaf, and 

 the leaf a branch. The embryo flower will 

 spread its petals to the sun, and the sun will 

 paint it with its most gorgeous pencilings. 

 When its beauty shall fade, the fruit germ 

 will appear, and thus the beautiful shall 

 give place to the useful, yet combining both 

 use and beauty. As we plant in the spring 

 cultivate in the summer, so shall we reap 

 in the autumn. 



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— Men are generally deserted in adversity. 

 "When the sun sets, our very shadows refuse to 

 follow us. 



