Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-11-09
NO. 266
NOVEMBER.

Low the leaves lie in the forest on the damp earth
brown and chill;
Gather near the evening shadows; Hark the wind
is sorrowing still.
Vanished are the pine-crowned mountains, hid
den in dusky cloud;
See the rain talleth from the and dreary
sky;
Rusheh on the swollen streamlet wildly W hirling,
foaming by;
And the branches, leaiess, waving in te Fall
wnd low and bowed"
November. the month of Thanksgiving
Days; the season of thanksgiving hearts.
The crops are harvested and secured and
though drought, or other causes, may have
cut some of them Short an abundance tor
all, man and beast, is left.
The terrible tamines which occasionally
cut off the people of other lands, will not
probably be felt here. Our country is SO
widely extended, that some portion of
it will always be blessed with abundant
harvests. If drought, insects or storms
prevent crops from maturing in this re-
gion. some other in the wide domain Of
our sister States will have surplus to
spare.
In earlier times, this might not have
availed us much; but now that the country
is threaded with railroads and canals,
transportation is so rapid and cheap, that
one portion of the country can supply
another and distant one with the necessi-
ties of life in very short period. In this
we are highly favored 1t is one of the
great securities against those terrible ca
lamites which have occasionally taken
place in other portions of the world. Three
or four hundred years ago, the most griev-
Gus famines occurred in England, because
the land was wretchedly cultivated. Men,
women and children perished of actual
hunger by thousands; and those who sur
vived kept themselves alive by eating the
bark of trees, acorns, and pig-nuts.
A deficiency in staple article here, has
more than once been made up from the
abundance of the West, and this change
is always going on in this country.
The November work of nature is now
going on. Heavy rains usually saturate
the earth, fill up the ponds and streams,
carrying with them not only moisture for
the roots of plants, but treasuring up
warmth for winter use. The observing
farmer says :-''It will be cold winter"
Why? it is asked. Because little rain has
fallen, the ponds and streams are low.
and the winter will be cold one. And
SO III WOllu prove ii lHc TdiH were Witu-
held. The full streams and ponds con-
tain certain amount of heat which is
given off in the winter, and the weather
is considerably modified by it.
But the rains not only do this ; they also
carry warmth to the SOIL and various ele-
ments of fertility, which feed and stimu-
late the roots of plants, and prepare them
for vigorous spring growth.
November frosts are also as useful as
the dews of June or the showers of July
They have their time of coming and their
part to perform, and will not postpone
them to another season.
All these operations in nature ought to
be suggestive to the farmer, that he, too.
has various labors to perform in Novem-
Der, that ought not to be left for Decem-
ber.
The permanent improvements of tho
farm, the care of the animals which serve
him, preservation of the fruits and other
crops, which have been harvested, the Sc
curity OF buildings and cellars against
storms and frosts, and the social inter-
changes between neighbors and relatives,
all require the attention of the farmer in
November.-Neao England Farmer.