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24 



THE ILLINOIS FAHMEK. 



Jait. 



From the Atlantic Monthly for January, 



The Planting of the Apple Tree. 



BT WILLIAM CULLEN BRTANT. 



Come, let US plant the apple tree ! 



Cleave the tough greensward with the spade ; 



Wide let its hollow bed be made ; 



There gently lay the roots, and there 



Sift the dark mould with kindly care, 



Aiid press it o'er them tenderly. 

 As, round the sleeping infant's feet, 

 "We softly fold the cradle-sheet; 



So plant we the apple-tree. 



What plant we in the apple-tree ? 



Buds, which the breath of summer days 



Shall lengthen into leafy sprays; 



Boughs, where the thrush with crimson breast, 



Shall haunt, and sing, and hide her nest. 



We plant upon the sunny lea 

 A shadow for the noontide hour, 

 A shelter from the summer shower. 



When we plant the apple-tree. 



What plant we in the apple-tree ? 

 Sweets for a hundred flowery springs. 

 To lead the May-wind's restless wings. 

 When, from the orchard-row, he pours 

 Its fragrance through our open doors ; 



A world of blossoms for the bee ; 

 riowers for the sick girl's silent room ; 

 I'or the glad infant sprigs of bloom. 



We plant with the apple-tree. 



What plant we in the apple-tree ? 

 Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, 

 And redden in the August noon. 

 And drop, as gentle airs come by 

 That fan the blue September sky ; 



While children, wild with noisy glee, 

 Shall scent their fragrance as they pass. 

 And search for them the tufted grass 



At the foot of the apple-tree. 



And when above this apple tree 

 The winter stars are quivering bright. 

 And winds go howling through the night. 

 Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth. 

 Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth. 



And guests in prouder homes shall see. 

 Heaped with the orange and the grape. 

 As fair as they in tint and shape, 



That fruit of the apple-tree. 



T*ie fruitage •f this apple-tree 

 Winds and our flag of stripe and star 

 Shall bear to coasts that lie afar. 

 Where men shall wonder at the view, 

 And ask in what fair groves they grew; 



And they who roam beyond the sea 

 Shall look and think of childhood's day. 

 And long hours passed in summer play 



In the shade of the apple-tree. 



Each year shall give this apple-tree 

 A broader flush of roseatebloom, 

 A deeper maie of verdurous gloom. 

 And loosen when the frost-clouds lower, 

 Tne crisp-brown leaves in thicker shower ; 



The years shall come and pass, but we 

 Shall bear no longer, where we lie. 

 The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh. 



In the boughs ot the apple-tree. 



And time shall waste this apple-tree. 

 Oh, when its aged branches throw 

 Thin shadows on the sward below 

 Shall fraud and force and iron will 

 Oppress the wt-ak and helpless still ? 



What shall the task of mercy be. 

 Amid the strifes, the toils, the tears. 

 Of those whe live when length of years 



Is wasting this apple- tree? 



'•Who planted this old apple-tree ?" 



The children of that distant day 



Thus to some aged man shall say ; 



And, gazing on its mossy stem. 



The gray-haired man shall answer them : 



"A poet of the land was he, 

 Born in the rude but good old times ; 

 'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes. 



On planting the apple-tree." 



BAKER & PHILIil-S 



• FUBLISHEBS. 



M. L. DUNLAP, Editor. 

 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JANUARY, 1864. 



The year eighteen hundred and sixty-three has 

 quietly gone to its grave, but its memory will long 

 remain. If it has shown great virtues and high 

 patriotism, it has also shown deep vices and treach- 

 erous disloyalty. If the Western farmer has been 

 made happy in high prices for the products of his 

 acres, he has had to pay higher ones for his needs 

 and luxuries while his crops have been less than 

 usual. It is little satisfaction to him if corn is 

 worth a dollar a bushel, if he has none to sell, and 

 still less interesting if he has to buy. The drouth 

 and the early frost combined have shorn the far- 

 mer of a large share of the years labor, and should 

 this be followed with what we now predict, a long, 

 cold, snowy winter, the cup of the stock feeders 

 and of the wool growers will be filled with an un- 

 pleasant reminder, that the weather is not in their 

 keeping. Let them be admonished that shelter is 

 to some extent food, and that pine boards and wind 

 breaks of rails and refuse straw will assist to eke 

 out a short supply of fodder. " Shelter your stock" 

 should be written on every corner of the farm, on 

 every post, and at night when he sleeps with his 

 cattle exposed to the pelting storm, or stand ahiy- 

 ering behind some dilapidated fence, he should 

 dream of the wizzard's of the storm riding him 

 throug the night air amid the biting cold. 



Cut AMD Housx touk Firxwood. — An abuadact 



