THE FARMER AT HOME. 



11 



destroy life at the end of one or two years. It is confidently affirmed, 

 that the huntsmen on the Alps, who hunt the wolves, and other wild 

 animals, dip their arrows in the juice of these plants, which renders 

 the wounds occasioned by them mortal. A decoction of the roots has 

 been used to kill bugs ; and the powder disguised in bread, or some 

 other palatable vehicle, has been employed to destroy rats and mice. 

 Mathiolus relates that it was given by way of experiment to four con- 

 demned criminals, two at Rome in 1524, and two at Prague in 1561. 

 Two of them died and the other two with great difficulty were 

 recovered. 



ACORN. The seed or fruit of the oak ; it was reckoned, in for- 

 mer times, an important article of human sustenance. We are told 

 by historians, that the natives in the forests of Germany and Britain, 

 fed on this fruit as a luxury ; and that violent quarrels sometimes 

 arose between the chiefs of their clans, respecting the division of 

 their crops of acorns. According to Yolney, the peasants of Syria, at 

 this day, depend for a considerable part of their food on oak- acorns, 

 which they gather upon Mount Lebanon ; for if they raise barley and 

 wheat, the Arabs of the wilderness come in harvest time, and rob 

 them of their crops. * 



ACRE, a quantity of land containing one hundred and sixty 

 square rods or perches ; four thousand eight hundred and forty square 

 yards ; and forty-three thousand, five hundred and sixty square feet. 

 This is the English statute acre. In measuring an acre by yards, the 

 usual practice is to trace off seventy yards in length and seventy in 

 width ; this in a rough way may be considered near enough for most 

 practical purposes in laying out a farm ; but as seventy yards each 

 way make four thousand nine hundred square yards, they exceed one 

 acre by fifty square yards. To determine an accurate acre, it should 

 be measured seventy yards in length by sixty-nine and one-seventh 

 yards in breadth. This will be an acre wanting a few inches. 

 Still greater accuracy will be attained by measuring off two hundred 

 and nine feet one way and two hundred and eight feet, five and one- 

 eighth inches the other. This will be precisely a square acre, or 

 exceeding it only two-sevenths of a square foot. The acre of Scot- 

 land contains six thousand, one hundred and fifty-one and two-fifths 

 square yards. The French arpent or acre is nearly equal to the 

 Scottish acre. The Irish acre is seven thousand, eight hundred and 

 forty square yards. 



AFFINITY is an elective attraction, or a tendency that different 

 species of matter have to unite, and combine with certain other 

 bodies, and the power that disposes to continue in combination. 



AGRICULTURE. The art of cultivating the earth, so as to 

 increase the quantity and improve the quality of its vegetable pro- 

 duction. This may be considered the most ancient, and is certainly 

 the most important, of all arts. It forms the basis of society, and 



