328 



COLONIES COLOSSUS. 



this operation, there is a constant succession provided 

 of heathy material. This paring for the heath is a 

 ioint operation performed by the men in a kind of 

 military lines. The society pays each for the work 

 he performs, and, when the average cost is ascer- 

 tained, the sods are sold to the several households at 

 the same price, and are carried to their respective 

 farms in small one-horse carts, which are kept by the 

 society for that and for similar purposes, to which 

 mere manual labour cannot be so beneficially applied. 

 When these sods are dried and conveyed to the barns 

 of the colonists, they are piled in a kind of stack, and 

 portions of it are pulled out, not cut out, to ensure 

 their being broken into small fragments. With these 

 the bedding of the cows or sheep, as the case may 

 be, is formed. The use of bog-turf or peat, as one 

 of the materials of compost, is not approved. It im- 

 pedes the process of fermentation, which is the most 

 important part of the preparation of the heaps of 

 manure. Another expedient is therefore adopted, 

 by paring the second year's grass land, whether of 

 clover, ray grass, or fiorn. These clods, containing 

 a proportion of the roots of the plants which have 

 been before harvested from them, and much garden 

 mould, become useful auxiliaries to the heathy turf, 

 and spare the use of tliat material, which, if solely 

 applied, would require almost as much land to sup- 

 ply it as the farm itself. Fresh material is added to 

 the bedding of the cattle every morning and evening, 

 and remains under them seven days, when the whole 

 is wheeled to the dunghill. Each morning, that 

 which lies near the hinder part of the cow is thrown 

 outward, and the part towards its head takes its 

 place, and fresh heather, about a quarter of a fodder, 

 or 250 pounds, added to the bedding ; the same is 

 alsp done every evening. The sheep and pigs are 

 only supplied with fresh heather once a-day. It is 

 reckoned that ten sheep make an equal quantity of 

 dung with one cow. It must be obvious to every 

 one/ that the changing and consequent turning over 

 thirteen times must make the mixture of the animal 

 and vegetable substances more equably rich ; and 

 the uniform treading of it must break it into small 

 particles, and give greater scope to the fermentative 

 putrefaction. Each week, the stalls are cleaned, 

 and the dung conveyed to the place appointed at the 

 back of the barn. This is of a round shape, from 

 three to four feet in depth. The bottom and sides 

 are walled with either clinkers or turf, and made 

 water-tight. It is commonly from twelve to four- 

 teen feet in diameter, and sufficiently capacious to 

 contain the dung made by the cattle in the course of 

 four weeks. The mass is thus composed of portions 

 which have remained from four weeks to one day, 

 over which the ashes from the household and all 

 the sweepings of the premises are strewed. Ad- 

 joining to the dung -heap is the reservoir, into 

 which the drainings of the stalls are conveyed. 

 Equal care is taken that every other material for 

 compost is preserved. In Scotland, little attention 

 is paid to these matters ; and even in agricultural dis- 

 tricts, many of the most valuable ingredients for fer- 

 tilizing the earth (soap-suds, for instance) are con- 

 stantly thrown away. This sesspool, containing 

 about a hogshead is never allowed to run over, and, 

 if it has not rained, is every other day filled up with 

 water, and then, with a scoop, taken up, and sprin- 

 kled over the heap of dung. This heap contains 

 four weeks' dung, or thirty fodder, or fifteen tons ; 

 and the administering fourteen such portions of rich 

 fermenting matter must vastly enhance the value of 

 the whole for the purposes of vegetation. At the 

 end of the fourth week, the dung-hole (called, local- 

 ly, the gterback) is emptied, and its contents thus 

 again turned over the most putrid parts being, by 



this means, brought up to the top: it is formed into 

 a heap from three to five feet high, and carefully 

 covered with sods : by this covering the fermenta- 

 tive heat is prevented from evaporating, and the 

 rain-water is kept from the mass, into which, if it 

 penetrated it would check fermentation. When the 

 heap has lain and fermented during one, two, or three 

 months, it is carried to the field which is to be ma- 

 nured with it. The covering of sods is separated 

 from the heap, and carried to the dung-hole, where 

 it is laid at the bottom of the next monthly accumu- 

 lation, and imbibes with it an equal proportion of ve- 

 getative power. 



The following are the sums of produce and expen- 

 diture for each family for one year : 



Total produce, 50 



Expenses, including rent, . . . . 42 



Surplus each year, 8 



The desire of gain, and the approbation of the super- 

 intendents, are, in general, found to be sufficient en- 

 couragements both to industry and good conduct. 

 When these are not enough, forfeiture of privileges, 

 confinement and hard labour are resorted to. There 

 are also badges of honour, medals of copper, silver, 

 and gold. Those who have the copper medal may 

 leave the colony on Sundays without asking leave ; 

 the silver is given to those who have made some 

 savings, and they are allowed to go beyond the co- 

 lony in the intervals of labour on working days ; and 

 when they are entitled to the gold medal, by having 

 shown that they clear 22 a-year by their labour, 

 they are free-tenants, and released from all the re- 

 gulations of the colony. These privileges may, 

 however, be suspended for offences. In the course 

 of seven years from its first establishment, the co- 

 lony of Frederics Oord contained a population of 

 6778, including that of Omne Schanze, which is un- 

 der a more rigid control. Among the number were 

 2174 orphans and foundlings. The total number 

 forming all the colonies in Holland was stated to Mr 

 Jacob as 20,000, but he thinks it exaggerated ; there 

 were, however, 8000 in North Holland. Every at- 

 tention is paid to the education of the young. 



COLOSSUS (Lat. ; xo*.tnr<ros, Gr.), in sculpture ; 

 a statue of enormous magnitude, whence the Greek 

 proverb xo*.o<rfa.M <ro ft,'fya.\es. The practice of exe- 

 cuting statutes of colossal dimensions and propor- 

 tions is of very high antiquity. The people of the 

 East, from the most ancient times, have been cele- 

 brated for colossal sculpture. The pagodas of 

 China and of India, and the excavated caverns of the 

 East, abound with colossi of every denomination. 

 The Asiatics, the Egyptians, and, in particular, the 

 Greeks, have excelled in these works. The cele 

 brated colossus of Rhodes was reckoned one of the 

 seven wonders of the world. This statue, which 

 Muratori reckons among the fables of antiquity, was 

 raised, by the Rhodians, in honour of Apollo. 1 here 

 are many contradictory accounts in ancient authors 

 concerning this colossal statue of Apollo ; but the 

 following gathered from several sources, is not de- 

 void of interest, though mixed up with much fable. 

 When Demetrius, king of Macedon, the son of Anti- 

 gonus, laid siege to the city of Rhodes, because the 

 Rhodians would not renounce their alliance with 

 Ptolemy Soter, they were succoured by their allies, 

 and particularly by Ptolemy, so effectually, that the 

 besiegers were compelled to abandon their enter- 

 prise. The Rhodians, in recognition of their re- 

 gard for these services of their allies, and of the pro- 

 tection of their tutelary deity, Apollo, resolved to 

 erect a brazen statue of the sun, of a prodigious 

 size. Chares, the disciple of Lysippus, was intrust- 

 ed with the project. He had scarcely half finished 

 the work, when he found that he had expended al' 



