THE FARMER AT HOME. 153 



over its surface, for the performance of which offices it is, during the 

 waking hours, in incessant motion, ft screens the eye also from ex- 

 cessive light, which might often be 'injurious or destructive to it. 

 The sympathy between the eye and its lids is very close, as was ab- 

 solutely necessary to their proper action ; and this is so much the case, 

 that in weakness of the nerve of the eye, the smarting, which warns 

 us to close them, is always felt in the lids. Their diseases, like those 

 of the eye, are various, but of minor importance. 



FAGOT. In agriculture, is a bundle of any sort of small wood 

 tied up closely together by means of a withe, or other kind of ligature. 

 They are mostly made up from the cuttings or thinnings of under- 

 woods, coppices, and hedges, being sold in many districts to the 

 bakers, for the purpose of heating their ovens. They usually fetch a 

 good price in many situations, especially near large towns. In mak- 

 ing up these bundles the workmen trim off the superfluous spreading 

 branches from the sides and ends, which gives them a neater appear- 

 ance. These trimmings are put in the middle of the fagots which 

 are to be made up, by which they appear to greater advantage. 



These trimmings are of little or no use in the fagots, and ought to 

 be left on the ground ; for being small, they would soon rot there, 

 and would manure the ground so as to be of more advantage to the 

 next growth than is easily imagined The leaves of the trees falling 

 to the earth, manure it very much ; but this is nothing to the advan- 

 tage of these little pieces of wood ; any rotten wood, but in a moder- 

 ate quantity, will turn a common bad earth into good garden mould, 

 and the growth of young trees is more forwarded by this manure 

 where it is left, than by any other means that can be used to it. We 

 always see the land where wood-stacks have stood enriched to a sur- 

 prising degree by them, and the same advantage will occur wherever 

 wood of any kind is left to moulder and rot upon the ground. That 

 sort of small wood which is bound up in fagots is called fagot- wood, 

 and sometimes bush-wood. 



FAIR. In England, a greater kind of market granted to a town, 

 by privilege, for the more speedy and commodious buying aiid selling, 

 or providing such things as the place stands in need of. It is inci- 

 dent to a fair in England, that persons should be free from being 

 arrested in it for any debt, except that which has been contracted in 

 the same, or, at least, promised to be paid there. There is a toll 

 usually paid at fairs, for the privilege of erecting stalls, from which 

 to sell goods, as well as booths, either for entertainment or pastime. 

 The most important fairs now held are probably those of Germany, 

 and particularly the Leipsic fairs. In German, a fair is called Messe, 

 which also signifies a mass. High masses, on particular festivals, 

 collected great numbers of people, and thus, probably, became the 

 origin of markets, and, at a later period, of fairs, which as we have 

 already said, are only privileged markets. 

 7* 



