young corn, and adorned with numerous flowers opening on every side. The trees put on all their verdure; the hedges are rich in fragrance from the snowy blossoms of the hawthorn; and the orchards display their highest beauty in the delicate bloom of the apple-blossoms.

One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms.

THOMSON.

All these promising signs of future plenty are, however, liable to be cut off by the blights which peculiarly occur in this month, and frequently commit most dreadful ravages. The history and cause of blights is by no means exactly ascertained, and it is a subject which, from its importance, deserves investigation. There appear to be three kinds of blights: the first occurs in the early spring, about the time of the blossoming of the peach, and is nothing more than a dry frosty wind usually from the north or north-east, and principally affects the blossoms, causing them to fall off prematurely, and consequently to become unproductive. The two other kinds occur in this month, affecting principally the apple and pear-trees, and sometimes the corn. One of these consists in the appearance of an immense multitude of aphides, a kind of small insect of a brown, or black, or green colour, attacking the leaves of plants, and entirely encrusting the young stems. These pests are, I believe, always found to make their appearance after a north-east wind; and it has been

Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere;
When you're number'd with the dead,
In your still and narrow bed,
In the happy spring I'll come,
And deck your silent home,
Creeping, silently creeping everywhere.

Here I come creeping, creeping everywhere;
My humble song of praise

Most gratefully I raise
To Him at whose command
I beautify the land,

Creeping, silently creeping everywhere.

supposed by many, that they are actually conveyed hither by the wind.

For oft engendered by the hazy north,

Myriad on myriads, insect armies warp

Keen in the poisoned breeze; and wasteful eat,
Through buds and bark, into the blackened core
Their eager way.

THOMSON.

Many circumstances indeed favour this opinion, as the suddenness with which they appear, being generally in the course of a single night; and those trees that are sheltered from the wind being uninfected; indeed, it frequently happens that a single branch that chances to be screened, will escape unhurt, while the rest of the tree is quite covered with these minute destroyers. A third reason may be derived from the inactivity of these insects; they generally remain almost immovable on the branch or leaf where they are first seen, and are, for the most part, unprovided with wings; yet the places where they are commonly found, are those parts of a tree which are furthest from the ground, and most exposed to the wind. The last kind of blight is preceded by a south or south-west wind, unaccompanied by insects; the effects of which are visible in the burnt appearance of all leaves and shoots that are exposed to that quarter; it attacks all vegetables indiscriminately, but those suffer most from it which are the loftiest, and the leaves of which are the youngest; the oak therefore is peculiarly injured.

A cold and windy May is, however, accounted favourable to the corn; which, if brought forward by early warm weather, is apt to run into stalk, while its cars remain thin and light.

The leafing of trees is commonly completed in this month. It begins with the aquatic kinds, such as the willow, poplar, and alder, proceeds to the lime, sycamore, and horse-chesnut, and concludes with the oak, beech, ash, walnut, and mulberry; these last, however, are seldom in full leaf till June.

No tree in all the grove but has its charms,
Though each its hue peculiar; paler some
And of a wannish gray; the willow such
And poplar, that with silver lines his leaf,
And ash, far stretching his umbrageous arm.
Of deeper green the elm; and deeper still,

BUTTERCUPS.

Lord of the woods, the long surviving oak.
Some glossy-leaved and shining in the sun,
The maple, and the beech of oily nuts
Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve
Diffusing odours: nor unnoted pass
The sycamore, capricious in attire,

Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet
Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright.

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COWPER'S TASK.

Among the numerous wild flowers, none attracts more notice than the cowslip,

Whose bashful flowers

Declining, hide their beauty from the sun,
Nor give their spotted bosoms to the gaze
Of hasty passenger.

On hedge-banks the wild germander, of a fine azure blue, is conspicuous, and the whole surface of meadows is often covered by the yellow crowfoot. These flowers, also called buttercups, are erroneously supposed to communicate to the butter at this season its rich yellow tinge, for the cows will not touch the plant on account of its acrid biting quality; this is strikingly visible in pastures, where, though all the grass is cropped to the very roots, the numerous tufts of this weed spring up, flower, and shed, their seeds in perfect security, unmolested by the cattle; they are indeed cut down and made into hay together with all the other rich vegetation that usually occupies a large proportion of every meadow; and in this state are eaten by cattle, partly because they are incapable of separating them, and partly, because, by drying, their acrimony is considerably subdued; but there can be no doubt of their place being much better supplied by any sort of grass. In the present age of agricultural improvement the subject of grass lands among others has been a good deal attended to, but much yet remains to be done, and the tracts of the ingenious Stillingfleet, and of Mr. Curtis, on this important division of rural economy, are well deserving the notice of every liberal farmer. The excellence of a meadow consists in its producing as much herbage as possible, and of such kinds as are agreeable and nutritious to the animals which it feeds. Every plant of crowfoot therefore ought, if practicable, to be extirpated, for,

so far from being grateful or nourishing to any kind of cattle, it is notorious, that in its fresh state nothing will touch it. The same may be said of the hemlock, kex, and other umbelliferous plants which are common in most fields, and which entirely overrun others; for when fresh they are not only noxious to animals that are fed upon hay, but from their rank and straggling manner of growth occupy a very large propor tion of the ground. Many other plants that are commonly found in meadows may upon the same principles be objected to; and though the present generation of farmers has done much, yet still more remains for their successors to perform.

The gardens now yield an agreeable product in young gooseberries and currants, which are highly acceptable at our tables; the winter-store of preserved fruits being now generally exhausted.

Early in the month the latest species of the summer birds of passage arrive, generally in the following order: fern-owl or goat-sucker, fly-catcher, and sedge-bird.

This is also the principal time in which birds hatch and rear their young. The assiduity and patience of the female during the task of sitting is admirable, as well as the conjugal affection of the male, who sings to his mate, and often supplies her place; nor can anything exceed the parental tenderness of both when the young are brought to light.

Several species of insects are this month added to those which have already been enumerated; the chief of which are the large white cabbage butterfly, papilio brassica; the may-chaffer, the favourite food of the fern-owl; the horse-fly, or forest-fly, so great a plague to horses and cattle; and several kinds of moths and butterflies.

Towards the end of May the bee-hives send forth their earlier swarms. These colonies consist of the young progeny, and some old ones, now grown too numerous to remain in their present habitation, and sufficently strong and vigorous to provide for themselves. One queen bee is necessary to form each colony; and wherever she flies they follow. Nature directs them to march in a body in quest of a new settlement, which, if left to their choice, would generally be some hollow trunk of a tree. But man, who converts the labours and instincts of so many animals to

GLOW-WORMS, SPRING-FLOWERS, ETC.

197

his own use, provides them with a dwelling, and repays himself with their honey. The early swarms are generally the most valuable, as they have time enough to lay in a plentiful store of honey for their subsistence through the winter.

About the same time the glow-worm shines. Of this species of insect the females are without wings and luminous, the males are furnished with wings, but are not luminous; it is probable, therefore, that this light may serve to direct the male to the haunts of the female, as Hero of Sestos is said to have displayed a torch from the top of a high tower to guide her venturous lover, Leander, in his dangerous passage across the Hellespont.

These little animals are found to extinguish their lamps between eleven and twelve at night.

Old May-day is the usual time for turning out cattle into the pastures, though frequently then very bare of grass. The milk soon becomes more copious, and of finer quality, from the juices of the young grass; and it is in this month that the making of cheese is usually begun in the dairies. Cheshire, Wiltshire, and the low parts of Gloucestershire, are the tracts in England most celebrated for the best cheese.

Many trees and shrubs flower in May, such as the oak, beech, maple, sycamore, barberry, laburnum, horse-chesnut, lilac, mountain ash, and Guelder rose; of the more humble plants the most remarkable are the lily of the valley, and woodroof in woods, the male orchis in meadows, and the lychnis, or cuckoo-flower, on hedge-banks.

This month is not a very busy one for the farmer.