The New England Farmer Volume 12 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 Excerpt: ...to the hope of a future. I do not ask him to make it an article of his faiih that the flowers feel; but I do ask him, for his own sake, not to make it an article of his faith that they do not." Nothing can be more grateful to the mind than this flush of animated existence--these promises of future crops How attractive and delightful are the changing hues of the grain-fields. The rye is turning yellow, indicating that its time of ripening is at hand. The wheat and barley are of a dull green, while the oats are whitening, and all are gracefully bending to the summer breeze as it passes over them. "What can be more beautiful to look on, from an eminence, than a great plain, painted all over with the party-colored honors of the early portion of this month, when ths all-pervading verdure of the spring has passed away, and before the scorching heats of summer have had time to prevail over the various tints and hues that have taken place." How stately the trees stand on the lawn or road-side, and how lovingly they have intermingled their branches in the forest, and ever sing in harmony that "the Hand that made them is Divine." The influence of these trees on man is neither small nor unimportant, for without them our climate would probably undergo an entire change. They furnish the soil with that unorganized matter on which alone perfect plants can live, by the decay of leaves, and ultimately by the decay of trunks and branches. So the waters of a country, the rivers and lakes, are necessarily affected by th; state of the woods of that country. These woods must, in all cases, act more or less as a sponge in retaining the water which falls on them; and water must thus be supplied more gradually to the rivers, in countries covered with wood, ...