92 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



in making it thoroughly wet ; the slowness with which it conducts 

 heat ; the softness, lightness, and pliancy of its texture. 



Cotton cloth, though it differs but little from linen, approaches 

 nearer to the nature of woolen, and, on that account, must be 

 esteemed as the next best substance of which clothing may be made. 

 Silk is the next in point of excellence, but it is very inferior to cotton 

 in every respect. Linen possesses the contrary of most of the proper- 

 ties enumerated as excellences in woolen. It retains the matter of 

 perspiration in its texture, and speedily becomes imbued with it ; it 

 gives an unpleasant sensation of cold to the skin ; it is very readily 

 saturated with moisture, and it conducts heat too rapidly. 



CLOTH TREE. A remarkable and very useful tree growing in 

 the Sandwich Islands : the natives call it Touta. Of the bark of 

 this tree, neatly twisted, they form the twine which they use for fish- 

 ing lines, for making nets and for some other uses. It is of different 

 degrees of firmness, and may be continued to any length. They have 

 also a finer sort, which they make of the bark of a shrub named 

 areemah ; and they make a cordage of a stronger kind, from cocoa- 

 nut fibres, for the rigging of their canoes. 



CLOUDS. A collection of vapor suspended in the atmosphere. 

 In other words, it is a congeries of watery particles raised from the 

 waters, or watery parts of the earth, by the solar or electrical fire. 

 These watery particles, in their first ascent, are too minute, and too 

 much separated by their mutual repulsion, to be perceived ; but as 

 they mount higher and higher, meeting with a greater degree of cold, 

 losing their electricity, or by some process employed by Nature for this 

 purpose, they are in a certain degree condensed, and rendered opaque, 

 by the reunion of their parts, so as to reflect and absorb light, and be- 

 come visible as clouds. 



The lowest part of the air being pressed by the weight of the upper 

 against the surface of the water, and continually rubbed upon it by 

 its motion, attracts and dissolves those particles with which it is in 

 contact, and separates them from the rest of the water. And since 

 the cause of solution is the stronger attraction of the particles of water 

 towards the air than towards each other, those that are already dis- 

 solved and taken up will be raised still higher by the attraction of the 

 dry air, which lies over them, arid thus will diffuse themselves, rising 

 gradually higher and higher, thereby leaving the lower air not so 

 much saturated, but that it will still dissolve and take up fresh parti- 

 cles of water ; which process is greatly promoted by the motion of 

 the wind. 



When the vapors are thus raised into the higher and colder parts 

 of the atmosphere, some of them will coalesce into small particles, 

 which, slightly attracting each other, and being intermixed with air, 

 will form clouds ; and these clouds will float at different heights, 

 according to the quantity of vapor borne up, and to the degree of heat 



