164 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



numberless fixed stars, of the nature, bulk, and properties of the sun ; 

 but because they are at such immense distances from the earth, they 

 appear to our eyes only as so many beautiful shining points. They 

 are called fixed stars, because they do not change, like the planets, 

 their relative position ; and they are distinguished from the planets by 

 their twinkling light. 



It is supposed that the fixed stars have primary and secondary 

 planets revolving round them, as the planets of our system revolve 

 round the sun. Were the sun as far from us as these stars are, it 

 would doubtless appear as they now do. It is certain that they do 

 not reflect the sun's light as do the planets ; for their distance is so 

 great, that they would not, in that case, be visible. All the fixed 

 stars, with the exception of the polar or north star, notwithstanding 

 they do not change their relative position, appear to have a motion 

 like the sun and moon, rising in the east, increasing iii altitude until 

 they approach the meridian, and declining to the western horizon, 

 where they disappear. This apparent motion is caused by the revo- 

 lution of the earth on its axis from west to east. 



FLAIL. This is a wooden instrument for threshing corn. The 

 construction of this implement is too well known to require description. 

 The ancient Romans used a kind of whip-flail, to a limited extent, 

 for the performance of this agricultural process ; but the prevailing 

 mode, among the nations of antiquity, for separating grain from straw, 

 was for cattle to tread it out in the open air. In modern times the 

 flail is perhaps the universal implement used in this process, unless 

 threshing is performed by machinery. All large farmers should have 

 a threshing machine ; and even among small farmers there should be 

 one in every neighborhood of a dozen families ; for the labor saved in 

 a single season would be more than an equivalent for the cost of it. 

 A good machine, to be operated by one horse only, with two men and 

 a boy to tend it, will thresh from seventy-five to an hundred bushels 

 in a day. 



FLAME OF A CANDLE. Is a curious mechanical action and 

 re-action of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon. Whenever the light gas, 

 called hydrogen, is excited, oxygen combines with it, and produces 

 heat, and if carbon is combined with the evolving hydrogen, light is 

 the result. A tallow candle, or the wick of a lamp, consists of hydro- 

 gen and carbon, and on being evolved by great motion, as by the 

 touch of a match, or any other flame, the oxygen flows in and is 

 fixed, and causes heat, and at the distance from the wick, where the 

 efflux and influx cross each other, the film of the flame is created ; 

 less carbon, makes blue light, a due proportion, white light, and an 

 excess, the smoke of a candle, an excess of hydrogen, makes the blue 

 light, and an excess of oxygen, red light. In truth, a candle is a 

 prism, arising from the same principles differently exhibited. 



FLANNEL, A kind of woolen stuff; composed of a woof and 



