gesipei* fa imjpfre all Classes htenslefc in Bail Critare 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN -Washington. 
OIIAIVGE JUS>I>, A. M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
VOL. XVI.—No. 6.] 
Og^BIusiness Office at No. 191 Watcr-st. 
E^Tor Contents, Terms, dec. see page 144. 
JJgpNotes to Correspondents, pages 139-40 
gp'for itusiness Notices, see page 141. 
jC^Fot 1 Advertisements, see pages 142-3. 
WORK FOR THE MONTH. 
They come ! the merry Summer months 
Of beauty love and flowers ; 
They come'. the gladsome months that bring 
Quick leafiness to flowers. 
Up, up, my heart! and walk abroad, 
Fling work and care aside ; 
Seek silent hills, or rest thyself 
Where peaceful waters glide.” 
We think the poet a little too fast in his 
exhortation to throw work and care aside, 
though there is strong propensity, in all who 
have their esthetic natures at all cultivated, 
to follow his counsel in this most charming 
month of the year. Every thing invites to 
out-door enjoyment now, but every nook of 
the farm and garden urges quite as strongly 
to work. There is perhaps on the Ameri¬ 
can farm too much work and care, especial¬ 
ly at this season, and too little opportunity 
to study the fervent work of Nature, which is 
going on now so rapidly in field and forest. 
Our climate has no doubt had much to do 
with the character of the cultivators of the 
soil. The Springs are long and tedious, and 
the ground is not in good working condition 
for two months after the Winter is broken. 
Then, when the April rains are over, and tha 
soil becomes fit for the plow, every thing 
hastens to make amends for the cold and 
dripping skies. The sun comes out with in¬ 
tense energy, and winds from the northwest 
sweep over the fields, and dissipate the 
superabundant moisture. The farmer hast¬ 
ens to sow and plant, that the early crops 
may have the advantage of every sunny day. 
They come forward rapidly, and by the first 
of June almost every crop is pushing, and 
the weeds are calling for the cultivator and 
the hoe. It is impossible for any one who 
has any interest at stake in the field, to 
stand idle among the springing corn and 
roots. He catches unconsciously the fervid 
glow of the season, and hurries up the team 
as he threads his way between the waving 
rows of maize and the potato drills. Already 
the grasses are luxuriant in the meadow, 
and the wheat and rye are waving their 
plumes in the summer breeze, reminding 
him that the days of the sickle and the 
reapers are not far in the future. He feels 
that meditations upon Nature’s work were 
better left to poets and philosophers, while 
he, if he would reap abundant harvests, 
must join her labors. Weeds are the de¬ 
NEW-YORK. JUNE, 1857. 
mons that disturb his meditations, if he have 
any, and nothing but a veritable hoe or cul¬ 
tivator will exorcise them. 
There is undoubted truth in his view of 
the case, and he must put off the enjoyment 
of Nature’s work, until his own is done. This 
seems to be a necessity of farm life, as it is 
now constituted in most parts of the land. 
Were it conducted on a larger scale, and 
with more capital and labor, so that the pro¬ 
prietor would find full employment in the 
work of supervision, he might enter more 
into the sympathies of the poet, and grow 
enraptured with the scenes of beauty spread 
out on every hand. As it is, the Summer’s 
loveliness and light are not all lost upon the 
tillers of the soil. Readers and thinkers are 
multiplying among them, and many are 
found who appreciate both the flowers 
of the field, and the graces of rhetoric, who 
are as much at home in the shade with mi¬ 
croscopic specimens, pencil and paper, as 
they are in the sunshine, with the hoe and 
the cultivator. We are glad to know that 
science is lending its aid to husbandry, and 
that the sons and daughters of the farm are 
pushing their explorations into other fields 
than those which bloom with corn and clover. 
Some of the most diligent students of bota¬ 
ny and entomology are found among culti¬ 
vators, and the whole class are growing more 
careful observers, and are constantly re¬ 
porting the results of their experience in 
our journals of horticulture and husbandry, 
and are accumulating the facts which must 
be the basis of an agricultural science if 
we ever have one. 
The increasing intelligence and thrift now 
abundantly apparent, in almost all the dis¬ 
tricts visited by our journal, are throwing 
new attractions around farm life, and crea¬ 
ting new worlds of enjoyment. Old home¬ 
steads are so refitted and improved, that they 
would hardly be recognized by their former 
occupants. The weather colored clap¬ 
boards and shingles are now covered with 
paint, and climbing roses are clustering be¬ 
tween the green blinds of the windows. 
There are walks in the garden, and in the 
yard by the front door, sacred to the uses of 
hospitality, bordered with shrubs and flowers, 
showing that the potato is no longer the only 
idolized blossom of the farm. New planted 
orchards are stretching over hill-tops and 
meadows, and their first fruits are not far in 
the distance. Many have learned how to 
plant and to cultivate the finer varieties of 
fruits, and pears, peaches, plums, cher¬ 
ries and aDricots are beginning to bloom in 
( $1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
( SINGLE NUMBERS 10 CENTS. 
[NEW SERIES—No. 125. 
companionship with the currant, once the 
only inevitable fruit of the farm-garden. 
There is certainly much more to be enjoyed 
in these improved rural homes than former¬ 
ly, and every year, now, will add to their 
charms. He who plants a Norway spruce 
or other ornamental tree in a good position, 
and properly cares for it, lays the founda¬ 
tion of a new world of beauty and happi¬ 
ness. Every year will give to it new charms, 
and he will have before him a living book, 
in which to study what is beautiful in a tree. 
This contemplation of the beautiful in Na¬ 
ture is the proper reward of the husband¬ 
man’s labors. A part at least of the graces 
of the objects he cultivates, is the work of 
his own hands, and this, perhaps, is one rea¬ 
son why we admire a fine tree in a lawn 
more than one in the forest. Art has as¬ 
sisted Nature, and enabled her to bring out 
more perfectly the constitutional qualities of 
the tree. But no cultivator will rest satis¬ 
fied with the contemplation of what he has 
already accomplished in adorning his home. 
The very pleasure experienced from past at¬ 
tainments, as well as lower motives will im¬ 
pel him to new labors. Among the interest¬ 
ing events in this month is the 
SHEEP WASHING. 
This is regarded with peculiar sstisfac 
tion by young and old, and is almost a holi¬ 
day for the boys. It is a release from the 
dull labors of the hoe, and the plow, and 
usually their first experience in bathing, for 
the Summer. Even the flocks partake of 
the hilarity of the scene, and are driven 
along to the river’s brink with manifold 
bleatings of ewes and their lambs. Old 
Tusser says, 
“ Wash sheep (for the better) where water doth run, 
And let him go cleanly and dry in the sun : 
Then shear him and spare not at two days an end ; 
The sooner, the better his corps will amend.” 
The place commonly selected for this busi¬ 
ness is a pond or stream, three or four feet 
deep, where the washer stands up to his 
middle in the water, and squeezes the dirty 
wool between his hands. Where a large 
flock is to be washed, there is a good deal of 
exposure to colds, in this long standing in 
the water, and in the olden time a free use 
of intoxicating liquors was made to guard 
against the evil. Both the evil and the 
remedy may be avoided, by the selection of 
a better place for washing. A small stream 
will answer the purpose, if there be 
fall enough. Throw across it a temporary 
dam, and put in a cheap flume made of 
boards, and the washers may stand on each 
side of the fli;me, and do their work with- 
