AMERICAN JOURNAL 
or 
AGRICULTURE AND SCIENCE. 
CONDUCTED BY C. N. BEMENT, ALBANY. 
VOL. Vn. JULY, 184S. No. 7. 
SUMMER— JULY. 
The season of mid-summer has now reached us, with all its 
richness and splendor; but it brings also that degree of heat which 
as it regards our feelings at the time, we should like to dispense 
with. The month of temperate breezes and interminable verdure, 
has now given way to a season of parching heat and scorching 
sunshine, which has seared the verdant brows of the hills, and 
driven away the vernal flowers that crowned their summits. They 
have all fled from the uplands, to escape the heat and drought, 
and have sought shelter in the watery meadows or under the damp 
shade of the woods. And yet even this degree of heat may be 
useful for many purposes. It teaches us, at least, that great and 
various and preponderating as are our blessings and our means of 
enjoyment, we are not without some alloy of our pleasures, and 
cannot claim an entire exemption from suffering. 
The cattle have taken shelter under the canopy of tree.«!, to 
escape from the hot beams of the sun, and many of them may be 
seen standing in the pools, in the shallow streams, or the margins 
of ponds, for refreshment and protection from insects. All ani- 
mated nature is indulging a languishing repose, and the feeble 
breeze is scarcely sufficient to shake the leaves of the aspen, as 
they pass by them faint and exhausted with the sultry heats of 
July. 
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