THE FARMER AT HOME. 81 



an account of the nature of the power which produces these combi- 

 nations. 



CHERRY. There are two kinds of the cherry tree which are of 

 considerable importance ; the first, the wild or black cherry of our 

 forests, is much valued for the excellence of its wood, which is used 

 extensively for the manufacture of furniture. It is one of the most 

 beautiful of our forest trees, throwing up a tall straight trunk, from 

 six to nine feet in circumference, some seventy or eighty feet. 

 While the use of liquor was more tolerated and fashionable than at 

 present, the cherries of this tree were in great demand, to be steeped 

 in rum. The other kind of cherry is the cultivated variety, and is 

 one of our most valuable fruit trees, easily grown, very hardy, and 

 early in the season. Cherries flourish best in a dry and rather light 

 soil ; and a heavy wet or clay soil is not only injurious to the tree, 

 but the fruit on such trees is of an inferior quality. For the varieties 

 of this fruit see Cole's American Fruit Book. 



CHESTNUT TREE. A tree that is common in the United 

 States, and highly valuable both for its timber and fruit ; it some- 

 times grows to a prodigious size. In the Gentleman's Magazine, of 

 1770, we are told of a Spanish chestnut, measuring fifty-seven feet in 

 circumference, which grows in Gloucestershire in England. It is 

 supposed by Evylin and Bradley to have been planted in the reign of 

 king John, from mention of it in records of that antiquity ; and if so, 

 it must have been about six hundred years old. According to Dr, 

 Howel, the famous chestnut tree of Mount Etna is one hundred and 

 sixty feet in circumference, but quite hollow within ; which, however 

 affects not its verdure ; for the chestnut tree, like the willow, depends 

 upon its bark for subsistence, and by age loses its internal part. In 

 the cavity of this tree the people have constructed a commodious 

 house, which they use for various purposes ; it is called the tree of a 

 hundred horses, as so many may at one time be shelterd under its 

 boughs. The wood of the chestnut tree (says St. Pierre) is never 

 attacked by insects, and is excellent for wainscotiug. A judgment 

 (he adds) may be formed of the beauty and of the duration of its 

 wood, from the ancient wainscoting of the market of St. Germain, in 

 France ; of which the joists are of a prodigious length and thickness, 

 perfectly round, though more than four hundred years old. 



CHIMNEY. In architecture, a particular part of a house, 

 where the fire is made, having a tube or funnel to carry off the smoke. 

 The effect of chimneys is often destroyed by their being constructed 

 on unscientific principles. It will be found for the most part that the 

 smoking of chimneys arises from their being carried up narrower at 

 the top than at the bottom, and from their being thrown in a zigzag 

 direction. Now it is evident from the very principle on which smoke 

 rises at all in a chimney, that the higher it rises the less is the force 

 that drives it, and the slower it must move, and consequently the 

 4* 



