172 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



cooling, it may be produced by too bountiful feeding, and his swal- 

 lowing his food greedily, while very warm and hungry. Under such 

 unfavorable circumstances, the poor animal, after resting, instead of 

 being refreshed, is stiff and sore ; his rest, food, and drink, being more 

 destructive to health than constant action and abstinence. On the 

 contrary, had he been allowed to cool gradually, and fed sparingly, he 

 would have escaped injury. The reader is referred for a cure of 

 founder to Cole's Diseases of Animals, published by J. P. Jewett, and 

 to Youatt on the Horse, published by Derby and Miller. 



FORK. Forks are first mentioned in an inventory of a prince's 

 plate, in 1379. Before this period, the knife only was used for the 

 purpose of cutting up food. The use of the fork spread from Italy to 

 the northern parts of Europe. Thomas Coryate is said to have intro- 

 duced it into England. The use of the fork was considered so great 

 a luxury, that many monastic orders forbade their members to indulge 

 in it. The Asiatics, even to this day, use no forks, as is also the case 

 with the Turks. The Chinese, instead of forks, make use of two 

 small sticks, which they hold in the same hand between different 

 fingers. 



FOUNTAIN. A natural spring of water rising out of the 

 ground ; also a stream of water ejected through a pipe by means of a 

 machine contrived for this purpose. Artificial fountains are various 

 in their forms, but they all act on the principle of a pressure, either 

 from a head of water, or arising from the spring and elasticity of the 

 air. When fountains are formed by the pressure of a head of water, 

 or any other fluid of the same kind, with the fountain or jet, then 

 will this spout up nearly to the same height as that head, allowing a 

 little for the resistance of the air, with that of the adjutage, &c., in 

 the fluid rushing through ; but when the fountain is produced by any 

 other force than the pressure of a column of the same fluid as itself, it 

 will rise nearly to the altitude of the fluid, whose pressure is equal to 

 the given force that produces the fountain. 



FOWLS. The culture of fowls, although very common among 

 farmers, is by no means estimated according to its importance. Poul- 

 try are among the chief luxuries in culinary economy. Without their 

 meat and eggs, what substitute could be furnished, not leaving a 

 lamentable deficiency to the epicure, and even to those who eat 

 mainly for the purpose of keeping soul and body together. In 

 secluded situations, when no butcher's cart or shop is near, how con- 

 venient nay how almost indispensable it is, if a friend from a 

 distance unexpectedly make a call, or if there be indisposition in the 

 family, and chicken broth is needed, that there be at hand a poultry 

 establishment, to furnish materials for the occasion ! What could be 

 (done without it ? Nor is the profit of fowls, when kept for the 

 market to be overlooked, or under-estimated. The profits of fifty hens, 

 with proper care, besides paying for their feed, will not fall below fifty 



