AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
For the Farm, Garden, and Household. 
• 9 
"AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN."— WASHINGTON. 
Volume XL.— No. 5. 
NEW YORK, MAY, 1881. 
New Series—No. 412. 
A SUNSHINY RAINY DAY IN MAY .— Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
There are two classes of rainy days ; those 
of spring and those of autumn. A day of 
cold rain in November, with the clouds thick 
and heavy, when all nature is silent in the 
chill of decay and death, is never welcome, 
but very sure to come in all its gloom and 
sadness as the year fades away. There is no 
life to be seen in the forests or the fields, the 
joyous birds have either gone to their south¬ 
ern, winter homes, or are hushed and hidden 
in some secluded nook from the storm that is 
raging around them. The cattle, sheep, and 
horses, find comfort only in the warm stable, 
while the husbandman seeks the warmth of 
the fireside, and feels glad because he is not 
obliged to be out in the cold, the wet, and the 
mud. He is thankful that the season of ac¬ 
tivity and growth “ has filled his barns with 
plenty, and his home with light and joy.”— 
It is the weather that makes him happy only 
by the contrast which it brings into his mind : 
The darkness and gloom of the world with¬ 
out makes him love still more the brightness 
and the cheerfulness of the home-life within. 
A day of rain in May is quite another thing 
from the driving, shivering storm of late au¬ 
tumn. It is rain, and therefore will wet who¬ 
ever may be exposed; but it comes more like 
a benediction than anything else. It is min¬ 
gled with bursts of sunshine that set all the 
leaf and flower laden trees aglow, and waters 
and warms them into a still more vigorous 
growth. The chickens prefer it to the dry, 
old coop ; the lambs skip and play, as if try¬ 
ing to dodge between the drops. Instead of 
gloom, it fills the very air with a mingled per¬ 
fume, and warms the heart with the thought 
that it comes to bring life into the world. 
The artist has given us a picture of a May- 
day Shower, and to young and old alike, it 
can but please, and we hope instruct. The 
children have taken advantage of the rain— a 
warm, sunny, cheerful shower—and with the 
family umbrella are making a tour among the 
bright flowers and happy chicks and lambs. 
COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY ORANGE JUDD COMPANY. 
Entered at the Fost Office at New Yoke, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
