And smell'st the breath of great-eyed kine, Of short, sweet grass, as backs with wool; A shepherd piping on the hill. On which the young men and maids meet Thy witty wiles to draw, and get The lark into the trammel net;" BRYANT'S "SONNET FOR NOVEMBER." YET one smile more, departing distant sun! One mellow smile through the soft vapory air, Ere o'er the frozen earth the loud winds run, Or snows are sifted o'er the meadows bare. And the blue Gentian-flower, that in the breeze Shall murmur by the hedge that skirts the way, The cricket chirp upon the russet lea, And man delight to linger in thy ray. Philips's "Cider." BOOK I. THE SUBJECT; THE SOIL, CULTURE AND USE OF THE APPLE. INVOCATION TO THE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF HEREFord. Ye Ariconian knights, and fairest dames, To whom propitious Heaven these blessings grants, Attend my lays; nor hence disdain to learn, How Nature's gifts may be improved by art. DEDICATION TO MR. MOSTYN. And thou, O Mostyn, whose benevolence, Of dear respect; that, when this body frail Is mouldered into dust, and I become As I had never been, late times may know THE PROPER ASPECT FOR AN ORCHARD; OPEN TO THE WEST, Whoe'er expects his laboring trees should bend Naught fear he from the west, whose gentle warmth Next, let the planter, with discretion meet, 48 To what adapted, what it shuns averse : SOIL PROPER FOR ORCHARDS; WHERE RYE GROWS WELL; ETHELBERT AND OFFA. ETC. But, farmer, look, where full-eared sheaves of rye Grow wavy on the tilth, that soil select For apples; thence thy industry shall gain Ten-fold reward; thy garners, thence with store Surcharged, shall burst; thy press with purest juice Shall flow, which, in revolving years, may try Thy feeble feet, and bind thy faltering tongue. Such is the Kentchurch, such Dantzeyan ground, Such thine, O learned Brome, and Capel such, Willisian Burlton, much-loved Geers his Marsh, And Sutton-acres, drenched with regal blood Of Ethelbert, when to the unhallowed feast Of Mercian Offa he invited came, To treat of spousals: long connubial joys He promised to himself, allured by fair Elfrida's beauty; but deluded died In height of hopes-O! hardest fate, to fall By show of friendship, and pretended love! ALLUSION TO THE SLIDING OF MARCLEY HILL. I nor advise, nor reprehend the choice Of Marcley Hill; the apple nowhere finds A kinder mould yet 't is unsafe to trust Deceitful ground: who knows but that, once more, This mount may journey, and, his present site Forsaking, to thy neighbors' bounds transfer The goodly plants, affording matter strange For law debates? If, therefore, thou incline To deck this rise with fruits of various tastes, Fail not by frequent vows to implore success; Thus piteous Heaven may fix the wandering glebe. CLAYEY AND GRAVELLY SOILS MAY BE MADE TO GROW PEARS. But if (for Nature doth not share alike Or rough unwieldy earth, nor to the plough, EVERY SOIL GOOD FOR SOMETHING, NATURALLY OR BY CUL- SAMPHIRE-GATHERERS. Thus naught is useless made; nor is there land, But what, or of itself, or else compelled, Affords advantage. On the barren heath The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf, Sufficient; after them the cackling goose, Close grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want. What should I more? Ev'n on the cliffy height Of Penmenmaur, and that cloud-piercing hill, Plinlimmon, from afar the traveller kens, Astonished, how the goats their shrubby browze Gnaw pendent; nor untrembling canst thou see How from a scraggy rock, whose prominence Half overshades the ocean, hardy men, Fearless of rending winds, and dashing waves, Cut samphire, to excite the squeamish gust Of pampered luxury. Then, let thy ground Not lie unlabored; if the richest stem Refuse to thrive, yet who would doubt to plant Somewhat, that may to human use redound, And penury, the worst of ills, remove? MUCKING APPLE-TREES IS BUT OF TEMPORARY BENEFIT. There are, who, fondly studious of increase, CIRCULAR TRENCHING AND WATERING IMPORTANT TO APPLE- Tho' this art fails, despond not; little pains, In a due hour employed, great profit yield. The industrious, when the sun in Leo rides, And darts his sultriest beams, portending drought, Forgets not at the foot of every plant To sink a circling trench, and daily pour A just supply of alimental streams, Exhausted sap recruiting; else, false hopes He cherishes, nor will his fruit expect The autumnal season, but in Summer's pride, When other orchards smile, abortive fail. THE EFFECTS OF THE SUN ON SOIL. DROUGHT AND HEATS DESCRIBED. FEVERS.-SMALL-POX. PESTILENCE. Thus the great light of heaven, that in his course Surveys and quickens all things, often proves Noxious to planted fields, and often men Perceive his influence dire; sweltering they run TRIBUTE TO MISS WINCHCOMB. Such heats prevailed, when fair Eliza, last Of Winchcomb's name (next thee in blood, and worth, O fairest St.John !) left this toilsome world THE LEGEND OF ARICONIUM, A CITY IN HEREFORDSHIRE; DE- But if it please the sun's intemperate force In elder days, ere yet the Roman bands, Of kings, and heroes resolute in war, CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF ARICONIUM; DROUGHT; For now the fields Labored with thirst, Aquarius had not shed Sulphur, and nitrous spume, enkindling fierce, DISTRESS AND DISTRACTION OF CITIZENS. — EARTHQUAKE. Where should they turn Distressed? Whence seek for aid? when from below Hell threatens, and even fate supreme gives signs Of wrath and desolation? Vain were vows, And plaints, and suppliant hands, to Heaven erect! Yet some to fanes repaired, and humble rites Performed to Thor, and Woden, fabled gods, Who with their votaries in one ruin shared, [mood, Crushed, and overwhelmed. Others, in frantic Run howling through the streets, their hideous yells Rend the dark welkin; horror stalks around, Wild-staring, and, his sad concomitant, Despair, of abject look at every gate The thronging populace with hasty strides Press furious, and, too eager of escape, Obstruct the easy way; the rocking town Supplants their footsteps; to and fro they reel Astonished, as o'er-charged with wine; when, lo! The ground adust her riven mouth disparts, Horrible chasm; profound! with swift descent Old Ariconium sinks, and all her tribes, Heroes, and senators, down to the realms Of endless night. Meanwhile, the loosened winds, Infuriate, molten rocks and flaming globes Hurled high above the clouds; till, all their force Consumed, her ravenous jaws th' earth satiate closed. SOLE REMAINS OF ARICONIUM; NAME, COINS, URNS, BONES. Thus this fair city fell, of which the name Survives alone; nor is there found a mark, Whereby the curious passenger may learn Her ample site, save coins, and mouldering urns, And huge unwieldy bones, lasting remains Of that gigantic race; which, as he breaks The clotted glebe, the ploughman haply finds, Appalled. Upon that treacherous tract of land She whilome stood; now Ceres, in her prime, Smiles fertile, and, with ruddiest freight bedeckt, The apple-tree, by our fore-fathers' blood Improved, that now recalls the devious Muse, Urging her destined labors to pursue. LOVES AND AVERSIONS BETWEEN PLANTS. THE VINE HATES The prudent will observe what passions reign The colewort's rankness; but, with amorous twine, Or walnut (whose malignant touch impairs GRAFTING CRAB-STOCKS. Wouldst thou thy vats with generous juice should froth? Respect thy orchats; think not that the trees Spontaneous will produce an wholesome draught. Let art correct thy breed: from parent bough A scion meetly sever; after, force A way into the crab-stock's close-wrought grain To the new pupil; now he shoots his arms [trunk, REASONS WHY A CRAB-STOCK IS PREFERABLE. Whether the wilding's fibres are contrived To draw th' earth's purest spirit, and resist Its feculence, which in more porous stocks Of cider-plants finds passage free, or else The native verjuice of the crab, derived Through th' infixed graff, a grateful mixture forms Of tart and sweet; whatever be the cause, This doubtful progeny by nicest tastes Expected best acceptance finds, and pays Largest revenues to the orchat-lord. QUINCE-STOCKS AND SLOE-STOCKS.-IN-EYING. Some think the quince and apple would combine In happy union; others fitter deem The sloe-stem bearing sylvan plums austere. [loss And pears of sundry forms; at different times And men have gathered from the hawthorn's branch MONTHLY FRUITS. — VIRGIL; HIS DISCURSIVE FANCY; BRAKEJUICE, SLOES, HIPS, SERVICE-BERRY JUICE. Nor is it hard to beautify each month With files of parti-colored fruits, that please The tongue and view, at once. So Maro's muse, Thrice sacred muse! commodious precepts gives Instructive to the swains, not wholly bent On what is gainful sometimes she diverts From solid counsels, shows the force of love In savage beasts; how virgin face divine [wares, Attracts the hapless youth through storms, and Alone, in deep of night: then she describes The Scythian winter, nor disdains to sing How under ground the rude Riphæan race Mimic brisk Cider with brakes' product wild; Sloes pounded, hips, and servis' harshest juice. THE GIFTS OF EXPERIENCE IN FARMING. THE PRAISE OF Let sage experience teach thee all the arts The blood distempered from its noxious salts ; THE WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE. THE FORMS OF PLANTS FOLDED IN SEEDS AND BUDS. She found the polished glass, whose small convex Enlarges to ten millions of degrees The mite, invisible else, of nature's hand Least animal and shows what laws of life The cheese-inhabitants observe, and how Fabric their mansions in the hardened milk, Wonderful artists! But the hidden ways Of Nature wouldst thou know? how first she frames IMPROVEMENTS EVER TO BE ASSIDUOUSLY SOUGHT AND To meliorate thy stock; no way or rule THE PRUNING OF APPLE-TREES ; WHAT TIME THE STORK RETURNS. "T will profit, when the stork, sworn foe of snakes, Returns, to show compassion to thy plants, Fatigued with breeding. Let the archéd knife Well sharpened now assail the spreading shades Of vegetables, and their thirsty limbs Dissever for the genial moisture, due To apples, otherwise misspends itself In barren twigs, and, for the expected crop, Naught but vain shoots and empty leaves abound. MUCH OF THE FORMING FRUIT IS TO BE PINCHED OFF. When swelling buds their odorous foliage shed, A slender autumn; which the niggard soul SCARECROWS; A DEAD KITE THE BEST. It much conduces, all the cares to know Of gardening; how to scare nocturnal thieves, And how the little race of birds, that hop From spray to spray, scooping the costliest fruit, Insatiate, undisturbed. Priapus' form Avails but little; rather guard each row With the false terrors of a breathless kite. This done, the timorous flock with swiftest wing |