AMERICAN JOURNAL 
OP 
AGRICULTURE AND SCIENCE. 
CONDUCTED BY C. N. BEMENT. ALBANY. 
VOL. VII. DECEMBER, 1848. No. 12. 
WINTER IN PROSPECT— DECEMBER. 
Winter, stern winter is upon us, with all its glories and all its 
terrors. December is the last — the old age — the grave of the 
year. The sun rises late and sets early. Dark clouds obscure 
the sky — howling tempests greet the ear — blast follows blast, 
and the dismantled groves moan and roar: 
" On driving gales, sharp hail indignant flies, 
And sleet, more irksome still, assails our eyes."' 
All nature is bound in icy fetters; the fast falling snow is filling 
the road and blinding our eyes; and the frozen earth yields no 
sustenance to animals. 
We have traveled with the year, from month to month, and the 
year has traveled with us. It has brought us to the verge of 
December, and winter. Our month in prospect is the only 
month left to complete the year and calendar. Frost, the 
harbinger of whole months of settled cold, has given us un- 
mistakable evidence of a visit — cut down our tender plants, and 
warns us to barricade our premises against his intrusion. Once 
more, therefore, we may look for frosts, sleet, hail, snow, and the 
sharp salute of keen " north-westers." 
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