THE FARMER AT HOME. 39 j 



different colored rays are not subject to further division. No change 

 is effected upon any of them by being further refracted or reflected ; 

 and as they differ in refrangibility, so also do they differ in the power 

 of inflection and reflection. The violet rays are found to be the 

 most reflexible and inflexible, and the red the least. 



SOUTHERN CORN-SHELLER. 



The machine here represented is sometimes called the Virginia 

 corn-sheller, and is mostly used in Virginia and Maryland, where are 

 cultivated very extensive corn fields. Here it is invaluable from the 

 despatch with which it operates. It may be worked by one or two 

 men, or by horse power. By manual labor it will shell three hundred 

 bushels in a day, and by horse seven hundred bushels. It separates 

 the cobs from the corn, leaving both unbroken, and in the best con- 

 dition. It is of simple construction and not liable easily to get out of 

 order. 



SPIDERS. In England, and the more densely populated parts of 

 our own country, where all the insect tribes are kept under by human 

 assiduity, the spiders are but small and harmless. We are acquainted 

 with few but the house spider, which weaves its web in neglected 

 rooms ; the garden spider, that spreads its toils from tree to tree, and 

 rests in the centre ; the wandering spider, that has no abode like the 

 rest ; and the field spider, that is sometimes seen mounting, web and 

 all, into the clouds. These are the chief of the spiders known to us, 

 which, though reported venomous, are entirely inoffensive. But they 

 form a much more terrible tribe in Africa and in Central America. In 

 those regions, where all the insect species acquire their greatest growth, 

 where the butterfly is seen to expand a wing as broad as our sparrow, 



