414 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



transparent fin. Its motions are very lively. Its food consists of small 

 water plants and different animalcule. The mouth has very minute 

 eetb. About five or six weeks after it is hatched, the first change 

 .akes place. The hind legs first appear, and, gradually increasing in 

 length and size, are succeeded, in about two weeks, by the forelegs, 

 which are formed at an earlier period beneath the skin. The tail now 

 decreases, so that in a day or two, it is quite obliterated. After this 

 change, the animal leaves the water and 'reposes upon the shore. 

 Sometimes they are there seen in countless multitudes. The appear- 

 ance of so many young frogs has probably induced the popular but 

 groundless belief of their having fallen from the clouds in showers. 

 Tadpoles, just after they are hatched, are perfectly transparent ; and 

 when placed before the double microscope, the pulsations of the heart 

 may be easily seen, arid the blood protruded thence, may be observed 

 in its passage through the whole body. 



TALLOW. This is an animal substance, or fat, melted from the 

 membraneous matter which is naturally mixed with it. When pure, 

 tallow is white, and nearly tasteless ; but the tallow of commerce 

 usually has a yellow tinge. A very large proportion of the tallow 

 that becomes an article of export from the country where obtained, 

 is furnished by Russia, which annually exports 250,000,000 pounds, 

 mostly furnished by the steppes of Southern Russia. The cattle are 

 brought by thousands, driven to the salgans, or tallow factories, and 

 there fattened and slaughtered. After the animals are slaughtered 

 and skinned, a little of flesh and intestines are removed, and the rest 

 of the carcase, cut into pieces, is thrown into the boilers, of which 

 there are from four to six in every salgan, each large enough to contain 

 the flesh of ten or fifteen oxen. During the boiling, the fat, as it col- 

 lects on the top, is skimmed off with large ladles, and before it is quite 

 cold, it is poured into the casks in which it is afterwards shipped. 

 The first fat which comes off is the best, and is quite white, while 

 that which follows has a yellowish tinge ; and a still coarser tallow is 

 obtained by squeezing the bones and flesh in presses. 



An ox, in prime condition, will yield from two to three hundred 

 pounds. The merchants of St. Petersburg divide the tallow which 

 they receive from the interior, into white and yellow candle tallow, 

 and common and Siberian soap tallow ; the latter, which is considered 

 the best tallow for soap-making, being brought by water transit from 

 Siberia. Yellow candle tallow, when good, should be clear, dry, hard 

 when broken, and of a fine yellow color throughout. The white can- 

 dle tallow, when good, is white, brittle, hard, dry, and clean. The 

 best white Russia tallow, is brought from Woronesch. In our own 

 country and England, tallow is obtained, as in Russia, from the melted 

 fat of cattle and sheep. With the fat, however, there is left remain- 

 ing as little meat as possible, as that is worth more to be cooked for 

 food, than to be boiled with the fat for tallow. The membraneous 



