Now genial suns and gentle breezes reign, JUNE is really, in this climate, what the poets represent May to be, the most lovely month in the year. Summer is com menced, and warm weather thoroughly established; yet the heats rarely arise to excess, or interrupt the enjoyment of those pleasures which the scenes of nature, at this time, afford. The trees are in their fullest dress, and a profusion of the gayest flowers is every where scattered around, which put on all their beauty, just before they are cut down by the scythe, or withered by the heat. Soft showers are extremely welcome to wards the beginning of this month, to forward the growth of the young herbage. Such a one is thus described by Thomson: Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm; that not a breath Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, At last The clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap? One of the earliest rural employments of this month is the shearing of sheep; a business of much importance in various parts of Great Britain, where wool, being the basis of the principal manufactures, is one of the most valuable products that the country affords, England has been for many ages famous for its breeds of sheep, which yield wool of various qualities, suited to different branches of the manufacture. The Downs of Dorsetshire and other southern, and western counties, feed sheep, the fine short fleeces of which are employed in making the best broad cloths. The coarser wool of Yorkshire and the northern counties, is used in the narrow cloths. The large Leicestershire and Lincolnshire sheep are clothed with long thick flakes, proper for the hosier's use; and every other kind is applied to some valuable purpose. The season for sheep-shearing commences as soon as the warm weather is so far settled, that the sheep may, without danger, lay aside great part of their clothing. The following tokens are laid down by Dyer, in his Fleece, to mark out the proper time. If verdant elder spreads Her silver flowers; if humble daisies yield Before shearing, the sheep undergo the operation of washing, in order to free the wool from the foulness which it has contracted. On the bank Of a clear river, gently drive the flock, And plunge them one by one into the flood: With his white flakes, that glisten thro' the tides; The sturdy rustic, in the middle wave, The shearing itself is conducted with a degree of ceremony and rural dignity, being a festival, as well as a piece of labour. At last, of snowy white, the gather'd flocks A sweet fragrance now arises from the fields of clover in blossom. Of this plant there are the varieties of white and purple ; |