FARMER'S TOOLs; the plouGH; HARROW; ROLLER; HOE; SCYTHE; SICKLE; FORK; RAKE; WAGONS; FLAIL; FAN. Prepared with these plain virtues, now the swain With courage enters on his rural works. First he provides the needful implements.
Of these, the honored plough claims chief regard. Hence bread to man, who heretofore on mast Fed with his fellow-brute in woods and wilds, Himself uncultured as the soil he trod. The spiked harrow next, to break the clods, And spread the surface of the new-ploughed field; Nor is the roller's friendly aid unsought. Hoes he provides, with various arms prepared, To encounter all the numerous host of weeds, Which rise malignant, menacing his hopes. The sweeping scythe's keen edge he whets for grass, And turns the crooked sickle for his corn. The fork to spread, the gathering rake to save, With providential care he treasures up. His strong, capacious wain the dull slow ox
Drags on, deep loaded, grinding the rough ruts ; While with his lighter team, the sprightly horse Moves to the music of his tinkling bells. Nor will his foresight lack the whirling flail, Whose battering strokes force from the loosened sheaves
Their hidden stores profuse; which now demand The quick rotation of the winnowing fan, With blasts successive, wafting far away The worthless chaff, to clear the golden grain.
FARM-LABORERS; THE PLOUGHMAN; MOWER; THRESHER; SHEPHERD; FARM-GIRLS; SPINNERS; MILK-MAIDS, ETC. And now, compelled to hire assistant strength, Away he hastens to some neighboring town, Where willing servitude, for mutual wants Of hind and farmer, holds her annual feast.1 "T is here the toiling hand of industry Employment seeks. The skilful ploughman, lord And leader of the rustic band; who claims His boy attendant, conscious of his worth And dignity superior; boasting skill To guide with steadiness the sliding share, To scatter with an equal hand the seed, And with a master scythe to head the train, When the ripe meadow asks the mower's hand. Here, too, the thresher, brandishing his flail, Bespeaks a master, whose full barns demand A laboring arm, now ready to give up Their treasure, and exchange their hoarded grain For heaps of gold, the meed of honest toil. The sunburnt shepherd, too, his slouching hat Distinguished well with fleecy locks, expects Observance; skilled in wool, and lessoned deep In all diseases of the bleating flock.
Mixed with the rustic throng, see ruddy maids, Some taught with dexterous hand to twirl the wheel,
1 This is called in the country a 'statute,' and is held annually at most market towns in England, where servants of all kinds resort in quest of places and employments.
Or stroke the swelling udder; some expert To raise from leavened wheat the kneaded loaf; To mash the malted barley, and extract Its flavored strength; or, with a housewife's care, To keep the decent habitation neat. But now let loose to revelry and sport, In clamorous mirth, indelicate and rude, The boisterous swains and hoyden nymphs provoke Outrageous merriment. Yet not alike
Is every swain, nor every sylvan maid; As Verulam the pleasing tale records, Where Patty, lovely Patty, graced the crowd, Pride of the neighboring plains.
PATTY THE MILK-MAID DESCRIBED.
Of Patty, the fair milk-maid? Beautiful As an Arcadian nymph; upon her brow Sat virgin modesty, while in her eyes Young sensibility began to play With innocence. Her waving locks fell down On either side her face in careless curls, Shading the tender blushes in her cheek. Her breath was sweeter than the morning gale, Stolen from the rose or violet's dewy leaves. Her ivory teeth appeared in even rows, Through lips of living coral. When she spoke, Her features wore intelligence; her words Were soft, with such a smile accompanied, As lighted in her face resistless charms. Her polished neck rose rounding from her breast With pleasing elegance that lovely breast! Ah! Fancy, dwell not there, lest gay desire, Who, smiling, hovers o'er the enchanting place, Tempt thy wild thoughts to dangerous ecstasy. Her shape was moulded by the hand of ease; Exact proportion harmonized her frame; While grace, following her steps, with secret art Stole into all her motions. Thus she walked In sweet simplicity; a snow-white pail Hung on her arm, the symbol of her skill In that fair province of the rural state, The dairy; source of more delicious bowls Than Bacchus from his choicest vintage boasts.
THE EFFECTS OF BEAUTY ON RUDE NATURES.
How great the power of beauty! The rude swains Grew civil at her sight; and gaping crowds, Wrapt in astonishment, with transport gaze, Whispering her praises in each other's ear. As when a gentle breeze, borne through the grove, With quick vibration shakes the trembling leaves, And hushing murmurs run from tree to tree; So ran a spreading whisper through the crowd.
THYRSIS FALLS IN LOVE WITH PATTY.
Young Thyrsis hearing, turned aside his head, And soon the pleasing wonder caught his eye. Full in the prime of youth, the joyful heir Of numerous acres, a large freehold farm, Thyrsis as yet from beauty felt no pain;
Had seen no virgin he could wish to make His wedded partner. Now his beating heart Feels new emotion; now his fixéd eye, With fervent rapture dwelling on her charms, Drinks in delicious draughts of new-born love. No rest the night, no peace the following day Brought to his struggling heart: her beauteous form, Her fair perfections playing on his mind, With pleasing anguish torture him. In vain He strives to tear her image from his breast; Each little grace, each dear bewitching look, Returns triumphant, breaking his resolves, And binding all his soul a slave to love.
PATTY ENAMORED OF THYRSIS; THEIR HAPPY UNION. Ah! little did he know, alas! the while Poor Patty's tender heart, in mutual pain, Long, long for him had heaved the secret sigh. For him she dressed, for him the pleasing arts She studied, and for him she wished to live. But her low fortunes, nursing sad despair, Checked the young hope; nor durst her modest eyes Indulge the smallest glances of her flame, Lest curious malice, like a watchful spy, Should catch the secret, and with taunts reveal. Judge then the sweet surprise, when she at length Beheld him, all irresolute, approach, And, gently taking her fair trembling hand, Breathe these soft words into her listening ear: "O, Patty! dearest maid, whose beauteous form Dwells in my breast, and charms my soul to love, Accept my vows; accept a faithful heart, Which from this hour devotes itself to thee! Wealth has no relish, life can give no joy, If you forbid my hopes to call you mine." Ah! who the sudden tumult can describe Of struggling passions rising in her breast? Hope, fear, confusion, modesty, and love, Oppress her laboring soul. She strove to speak, But the faint accents died upon her tongue. Her fears prevented utterance. At length, "Can Thyrsis mock my poverty? Can he Be so unkind? O, no! yet I, alas!
Too humble e'en to hope." No more she said; But gently, as if half unwilling, stole Her hand from his; and, with sweet modesty, Casting a look of diffidence and fear, To hide her blushes, silently withdrew. But Thyrsis read, with rapture, in her eyes The language of her soul. He followed, wooed, And won her for his wife. His lowing herds Soon call her mistress; soon their milky streams, Coagulated, rise in circling piles
Of hardened curd; and all the dairies round To her sweet butter yield superior praise.
THE FARM THE POULTRY-YARD; THE PEACOCK, TURKEYCOCK, GEESE, DUCKS, PIGEONS.
But turn, my muse, nor let the alluring form Of beauty lead too far thy devious steps.
See where the farmer, with a master's eye, Surveys his little kingdom, and exults In sovereign independence. At a word, His feathery subjects in obedience flock Around his feeding hand, who in return Yield a delicious tribute to his board, And o'er his couch their downy plumage spread. The peacock here expands his eyeful plumes, A glittering pageant to the mid-day sun : In the stiff awkwardness of foolish pride, The swelling turkey apes his stately step, And calls the bristling feathers round his head. There the loud herald of the morning struts Before his cackling dames, the passive slaves Of his promiscuous pleasure. O'er the pond, See the gray gander, with his female train, Bending their lofty necks; and gabbling ducks, Rejoicing on the surface, clap their wings! Whilst wheeling round in airy wanton flights, The glossy pigeons chase their sportive loves, Or in soft cooings tell their amorous tale.
Here stacks of hay, there pyramids of corn, Promise the future market large supplies: While with an eye of triumph he surveys His piles of wood, and laughs at winter's frown. In silent rumination, see the kine, Beneath the walnut's shade wait patiently To pour into his pails their milky stores; While pent from mischief, far from sight removed, The bristly herd within their fattening styes, Remind him to prepare, in many a row, The gayly-blooming pea, the fragrant bean, And broad-leaved cabbage for the ploughman's feast.
THE EMPLOYMENTS AND ENJOYMENTS OF THE FARMER. —
These his amusements, his employments these ; Which still arising in successive change, Give to each varied hour a new delight. Peace and Contentment with their guardian wings Enclose his nightly slumbers. Rosy health, When the gay lark's sweet matin wakes the morn, Treads in his dewy footsteps round the field; And cheerfulness attends his closing day. No racking jealousy, nor sullen hate, Nor fear, nor envy, discompose his breast.
THE FARMER'S ENEMIES; THE FOX, BADGER, KITE, STOTE, WEASEL, PARTRIDGE, HARE, OTTER, MOLE; SPORTING. His only enemies the prowling fox, Whose nightly murders thin the bleating fold; The hardy badger, the rapacious kite, With eye malignant on the little brood, Sailing around portentous; the rank stote Thirsting, ah, savage thirst! for harmless blood; The corn-devouring partridge; tim'rous hare ; The amphibious otter bold; the weasel sly, Pilfering the yolk from its enclosing shell;
And moles, a dirty, undermining race. These all his foes, and these, alas! compared With man to man, an inoffensive train. 'Gainst these, assisted by th' entangling net, The explosive thunder of the levelled tube, Or toils unwearied of his social friend, The faithful dog, he wages rural war ;
And health and pleasure in the sportive fields Obtaining, he forgives their venial crimes.
RURAL HAPPINESS OF THE INDEPENDENT FARMER. — DISGUSTING ACCOMPANIMENTS OF RANK.
O, happy he happiest of mortal men! Who far removed from slav'ry as from pride, Fears no man's frown, nor cringing waits to catch The gracious nothing of a great man's nod : Where the laced beggar bustles for a bribe, The purchase of his honor; where deceit, And fraud, and circumvention, drest in smiles, Hold shameful commerce; and beneath the mask Of friendship and sincerity, betray.
THE POMPS OF WEALTH TEMPT NOT THE FARMER; NOR AM- BITION, AVARICE, OR LUXURY.
Him, nor the stately mansion's gilded pride, Rich with whate'er the imitative arts, Painting or sculpture, yield to charm the eye; Nor shining heaps of massy plate, enwrought With curious costly workmanship, allure. Tempted nor with the pride nor pomp of power, Nor pageants of ambition, nor the mines Of grasping avarice, nor the poisoned sweets Of pampered luxury, he plants his foot With firmness on his old paternal fields, And stands unshaken.
THE FARMER'S HOMESTEAD DESCRIBED.
There sweet prospects rise Of meadows smiling in their flowery pride, Green hills and dales, and cottages embowered, The scenes of innocence and calm delight. There the wild melody of warbling birds, And cool refreshing groves, and murmuring springs, Invite to sacred thought, and lift the mind From low pursuits, to meditate the God!
THE WEALTHY INVITED TO BECOME AGRICULTURISTS. — THE SCIENCE AND ART OF FARMING.
Turn then, at length, O turn, ye sons of wealth, And ye who seek through life's bewildering maze, To tread the paths of happiness, O turn! And trace her footsteps in the rural walk; In those fair scenes of wonder and delight, Where, to the human eye, Omnipotence Unfolds the map of nature, and displays The matchless beauty of created things. Turn to the arts, the useful pleasing arts Of cultivation; and those fields improve Your erring fathers have too long despised. Leave not to ignorance and low-bred hinds That noblest science, which in ancient time
THE GOD PAN; MUSIC OF THE SPHERES; THE ELEMENTS: A VISION OF NATURE AND PAN.
List! list what harmony, what heavenly sounds Enchant my ravished ear? 'T is ancient Pan,1 Who on his seven-fold pipe, to the rapt soul Conveys the fancied music of the spheres. See by his strains the elements inspired, Join in mysterious work; their motions led By active fire, in windings intricate,
But not perplexed, nor vague. And who are they? What pair, obeying in alternate rounds
The tuneful melody? Majestic one,
And grave, lifting her awful forehead, moves In shadowy silence, borne on raven wings, Which, waving to the measured sounds, beat time. A veil obscures her face; a sable stole, Bedecked with sparkling gems, conceals her form; As wreaths of bending poppy crown her brow. The other, raised on swan-like spreading plumes, Glides gayly on a milk-white robe invests His frame transparent; in his azure eyes Dwells brightness, while around his radiant head, A shining glory paints his flying robe, With all the colors of the watery bow.
1 Mythologists have thought the universal nature of things to be signified by this god; and that his pipe, composed of seven reeds, was the symbol of the seven planets, which they say make the harmony of the spheres.
2 According to Dr. Boerhaave, and other philosophers of his time, all the motion in nature arises from fire; and, taking that away, all things would become fixed and immovable fluids would become solid; a man would harden into a statue; and the very air would cohere into a firm and rigid mass.
PROCESSION OF THE SEASONS; SPRING AND SUMMER PER- SONIFIED AND DESCRIBED.
Proceeding now, in more majestic steps, The varying seasons join the mystic train. In all the blooming hues of florid youth, Gay Spring advances smiling; on her head A flowery chaplet, mixed with verdant buds, Sheds aromatic fragrance through the air; While little zephyrs, breathing wanton gales, Before her flutter, turning back to gaze, With looks enamored, on her lovely face. Summer succeeds, crowned with the bearded ears Of ripening harvest; in her hand she bears A shining sickle; on her glowing cheek The fervent heat paints deep a rosy blush: Her thin light garment waving with the wind, Flows loosely from her bosom, and reveals To the pleased eye the beauties of her form.
AUTUMN AND WINTER PERSONIFIED AND DESCRIBED.
Then follows Autumn, bearing in her lap The blushing fruits which Summer's sultry breath Had mellowed to her hand. A clustering wreath Of purple grapes, half hid with spreading leaves, Adorns her brow. Her dew-besprinkled locks Begin to fall, her bending shoulders sink, And active vigor leaves her sober steps. Winter creeps on, shrivelled with chilling cold; Bald his white crown, upon his silver beard Shines the hoar frost, and icicles depend. Rigid and stern his melancholy face; Shivering he walks, his joints benumbed and stiff, And wraps in northern furs his withered trunk.
THE HYMN OF NATURE. VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY.
And now great Nature pointing to the train Her heaven-directed hand, they all combine, In measured figures, and mysterious rounds, To weave the mazy dance; while to the sound Of Pan's immortal pipe, the goddess joined Her voice harmonious; and the listening muse, Admiring, caught the wonders of her theme.1
To God, supreme Creator! great and good! All wise, Almighty Parent of the world! In choral symphonies of praise and love, Let all the powers of nature raise the song!' The watery signs forsaking, see the sun, Great father of the vegetable tribes, Darts from the Ram his all-enlivening ray; When now the genial warmth earth's yielding breast Unfolds. Her latent salts, sulphureous oils, And air, and water mixed, attract, repel, And raise prolific ferment. Lo! at length The vital principle begins to wake:
The emulgent fibres, stretching round the root, Seek their terrestrial nurture; which conveyed In limpid currents through the ascending tubes, And strained and filtered in their secret cells;
1 The philosophy of this hymn is built on that experimental foundation laid by the learned and ingenious Dr. Hales, in his vegetable statics.
To its own nature every different plant Assimilating, changes. Awful Heaven! How wondrous is thy work, to Thee! to Thee! Mysterious power belongs! Summer's fierce heat Increasing rarifies the ductile juice.
See, from the root, and from the bark imbibed, The elastic air impels the rising sap.
Swift through the stem, through every branching arm And smaller shoot, the vivid moisture flows, Protruding from their buds the opening leaves; Whence, as ordained, the expiring air flows out In copious exhalations; and from whence Its noblest principles the plant inhales.
THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE; LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND FRUITS. See! see! the shooting verdure spreads around! Ye sons of men, with rapture view the scene! On hill and dale, on meadow, field, and grove, Clothed in soft mingling shades from light to dark, The wandering eye delighted roves untired. The hawthorn's whitening bush, Pomona's blooms, And Flora's pencil o'er the enamelled green, The varying scenes enrich. Hence every gale Breathes odors, every zephyr from his wings Wafting new fragrance; borne from trees, from Borne from the yellow cowslip, violet blue, [shrubs, From deep carnations, from the blushing rose, From every flower and aromatic herb,
In grateful mixtures. Hence ambrosial fruits Yield their delicious flavors. The sweet grape, The mulberry's cooling juice, the luscious plum, The healthful apple, the dissolving peach, And thy rich nectar, many-flavored pine. These are the gracious gifts, O favored Man! These, these to thee the gracious gifts of Heaven, A world of beauty, wonder, and delight.'
ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE TO GOD.
To God, supreme Creator! great and good! All-wise, Almighty Parent of the world! In choral symphonies of praise and love, Let all the powers of nature close the strain.'
Of different soils, and their culture. Mr. Tull's principles and practice. Of the principles and practice of the Middlesex gardeners. Of various manures, and other methods of improving land. Of hedging and ditching. Of planting timber-trees. Of draining wet and flooding dry lands. Of gardening, and the gardens of Epicurus.
THE PROPERTIES OF VARIOUS SOILS; ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A SANDY SOIL.
Descending now from these superior themes,
O muse, in notes familiar teach the swain The hidden properties of every glebe, And what the different culture each requires. The naturalist to sand, or loam, or clay, Reduces all the varying soils, which clothe The bosom of this earth with beauty. Sand,
Hot, open, loose, admits the genial ray With freedom, and with greediness imbibes The falling moisture: hence the embryo seeds, Lodged in its fiery womb, push into life With early haste, and hurried to their prime, Their vital juices spent, too soon decay.
HOW TO IMPROVE A SANDY SOIL.
Correct this error of the ardent soil With cool manure: let stiff, cohesive clay
Give the loose glebe consistence and firm strength; So shall thy laboring steers, when harvest calls, Bending their patient shoulders to the yoke, Drag home in copious loads the yellow grain.
HOW TO MANAGE A CLAYEY SOIL.
Has fortune fixed thy lot to toil in clay? Despair not, nor repine: the stubborn soil Shall yield to cultivation, and reward The hand of diligence. Here give the plough No rest. Break, pound the clods, and with warm Relieve the sterile coldness of the ground, [dungs Chilled with obstructed water. Add to these The sharpest sand, to open and unbind The close-cohering mass; so shall new pores Admit the solar beams' enlivening heat, The nitrous particles of air receive, And yield a passage to the soaking rain. Hence fermentation, hence prolific power, And hence the fibrous roots in quest of food, Find unobstructed entrance, room to spread, And richer juices feed the swelling shoots : So the strong field shall to the reaper's hand Produce a plenteous crop of waving wheat.
EXCELLENCES OF A LOAMY SOIL.
But blest with ease in plenty shall he live, Whom Heaven's kind hand, indulgent to his wish, Hath placed upon a loamy soil. He views All products of the teeming earth arise In plenteous crops, nor scarce the needful aid Of culture deign to ask. Him, nor the fears Of scorching heat, nor deluges of rains Alarm.
His kindly fields sustain all change Of seasons, and support a healthy seed In vigor through the perils of the year.
TULL'S THEORY OF VEGETATION.
But new improvements curious wouldst thou learn, Hear then the lore of fair Berkeria's son, Whose precepts, drawn from sage experience, claim Regard. The pasture, and the food of plants, First let the young agricolist be taught: Then how to sow and raise the embryo seeds Of every different species. Nitre, fire, Air, water, earth, their various powers combine In vegetation; but the genuine food
1 The late Mr. Tull, of Shalborne, in Berkshire, in his Horse-hoeing Husbandry, or an Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage.
THE THEORY WHICH ASSERTS MANURE TO BE UNNECESSARY. -TILLAGE THE BEST FERTILIZER.
Is earth the food of plants? their pasture then By ceaseless tillage, or the use of dung, Must or ferment, or pulverize, to fit
For due reception of the fibrous roots: But from the steams of ordure, from the stench Of putrefaction, from stercoreous fumes Of rottenness and filth, can sweetness spring? Or grateful, or salubrious food to man? As well might virgin innocence preserve Her purity from taint amidst the stews. Defile not then the freshness of thy field With dung's polluting touch; but let the plough, The hoe, the harrow, and the roller lend Their better powers, to fructify the soil; Turn it to catch the sun's prolific ray,
The enlivening breath of air, the genial dews, And every influence of indulgent heaven. These shall enrich and fertilize the glebe, And toil's unceasing hand full well supply The dunghill's sordid and extraneous aid.
THE CULTIVATOR, HOE-PLOUGH, AND DRILL.
Thus taught the Shalborne swain; who first with
Led through the field the many-coultered plough ; Who first his seed committed to the ground, Shed from the drill by slow-revolving wheels, In just proportion, and in even rows; Leaving 'twixt each a spacious interval, To introduce with ease, while yet the grain Expanding crowned the intermediate ridge, - His new machine, formed to exterminate The weedy race (intruders who devour, But nothing pay), to pulverize the soil, Enlarge and change the pasture of the roots, And to its last perfection raise the crop. He taught, alas! but practised ill the lore Of his own precepts. Fell disease, or sloth, Relaxed the hand of industry: his farm, His own philosophy disgracing, brought Discredit on the doctrines he enforced.
THE EFFECTS OF SLOTH ON THE FARM; FILTH, WEEDS; THE NIGHTSHADE; CHILD POISONED.
Then banish from thy fields the loiterer sloth, Nor listen to the voice of thoughtless ease. Him sordidness and penury surround, Beneath whose lazy hand the farm runs wild; Whose heart nor feels the joy improvement gives,
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