Saxons holy-month, in allusion to the festal sea- 
son of Christmas. 
The pervading or controlling principle of a na- 
tural calendar is simply the law of the earth’s 
yearly revolution round the sun ; and the direct 
development of it in the phenomena of meteorolo- 
gy, as well as the indirect development of it in 
the phenomena of animated nature and of vege- 
tation, is what constitutes the seasons of spring, 
summer, autumn, and winter. See the article 
Szasons. Some of its chief and most obvious 
displays in the animal kingdom are connected or 
identified with the migrations of birds, the trans- 
formations of insects, the pairing of quadrupeds, 
and the hybernization and awakening of reptiles 
and molluscs. Its displays in vegetation are 
at once numerous, intricate, and conspicuous. 
“Heat, like light,” observes Keith, “acts as a 
powerful stimulus to the exertion of the vital 
energies of vegetables. Seeds will not germinate 
at a very low temperature, even though placed in 
a proper soil. Hence, such as are self-sown, as by 
dropping from the plant in winter, do not generally 
come up till the spring, when the temperature 
has been raised to some considerable height by 
the rays of the returning sun. The same thing 
happens in the case of the development of the 
leaves, flowers, and fruit. They do not protrude 
themselves simultaneously, but at different periods 
of the spring or summer, dependent, as it would 
appear, upon temperature. This forms the foun- 
dation of what Linnzeus has poetically styled the 
Calendarium Flore, that is, Flora’s Almanack. 
It embraces the several periods of the leafing and 
flowering of plants, together with that of the 
ripening of the fruit. * * Such are the pri- 
mary facts on which a Calendarium Flore should 
be founded. They have not hitherto been very 
minutely attended to by botanists ; and perhaps 
their importance is not quite so much as has 
been generally supposed; but they are at any 
rate sufficiently striking to have attracted the 
notice even of savages. Some tribes of American 
Indians act upon the very principle suggested by 
Linnzeus, and plant their corn when the wild-plum 
blooms, or when the leaves of the oak are about 
as large as a squirrel’s ears. The names of some 
of their months are even designated from the 
state of vegetation. One is called the budding- 
month, and another the flowering-month ; and 
the autumn is designated by a term signifying 
the fall of the leaf. Thus the French revolution- 
ists were anticipated even by the Indians in their 
new names for months and seasons.” 
Artificial calendars, both in the sense of alma- 
nacs, and in the practical and important sense 
of registers of natural appearances and out-of- 
door work peculiar to the respective seasons 
and parts of seasons, are now so numerous that 
a mere reference to two or three of the best 
might be quite sufficient for the purposes of 
many of our readers. Yet a calendar of our own 
seems indispensable both for the completeness of 
Nites so 
CALENDAR. 
‘considered as either depicting all the phases of 
627 
our work, and for the guidance of such readers 
as have not access to separate calendars. We 
shall briefly notice some of the chief phenomena 
and operations of each month; yet must not be 
the seasons, or presenting a complete catalogue 
of the duties of farming and gardening. Our 
calendar can affect no higher aim than to exhibit 
meagre specimens of ‘seasonal phenomena, and | 
suggest a few leading hints for connecting these 
with cultivation. “Our notices under each | 
month,” to adopt the words of Loudon, “must 
extend only to a few of the leading features of 
country work. To attempt to insert everything 
or even most of the things that require attending 
to, we conceive impossible, and, if it could be 
done, quite useless. A man will always act bet- 
ter when guided by his own judgment, than 
when following implicitly that of another. Cal- 
endars should only be considered as remembran- 
cers, never as directories.” Besides, instructions 
as to the proper timing of every operation of any 
importance, and of the management of each par- 
ticular crop or plant, are given so fully in the 
articles on the several operations and crops and 
plants, that anything more in this place than mere 
general indication would be a sheer waste of 
words. Yet even as a brief list of hints, a meagre 
monthly summary of duty,—a Calendar is not a 
little valuable. “At the beginning of every 
month,” remarks Arthur Young, “a good farmer, 
whether he has or has not a Calendar, is obliged 
to reflect on the work he has to perform in that 
month ; he ought to foresee the whole at once, or 
it is impossible he should make a proper pro- 
vision for its due performance. I leave it to any 
one to judge if such an estimate of monthly 
business can be gained so easily, completely, or | 
systematically, without such an assistance to the | 
memory as is afforded by a Calendar ; and even | 
if a Calendar but once a-year gives intimation of 
some important work, which might otherwise be 
forgotten, its worth must be acknowledged..” 
The almanac time of any one Calendar can obvi- 
ously adapt itself to only one set of latitudes, ele- 
vations, soils, and climate ; and requires to be so | 
modified by readers, in other sets of these cir- 
cumstances, as to become adapted to their own 
purposes. We adopt, as our average, the lati- 
tude, low situation, and well cultivated lands in 
the immediate vicinity of London; and readers 
may easily adapt this average to their own cir- 
cumstances, simply by reckoning the phenomena 
and the operations of spring four days later for 
every 70 miles north of London, or for every 600 
feet of higher elevation than that of London, or 
for any cooling effects of soil and exposure which 
may be equal to the removal northward of a de- 
gree of latitude. Thus a low, flat, and excel- 
lently cultivated soil 350 miles in a straight line 
north of London, is, in all respects, twenty days 
later in spring than the soil to which our calen- 
dar applies; an excellent arable soil, at the same 
