THE FARMER AT HOME. 4 15 



matter remaining, after the fat is extracted, called scraps or graves, on 

 being macerated in warm water, softens and swells, and becomes a 

 wholesome and palatable article of food for poultry, dogs, and other 

 domestic animals. It is extensively used in fattening poultry, and 

 sometimes swine, for market. 



TALIPOT. A remarkable tree, that grows in the greatest luxuri- 

 ance in the island of Ceylon. Robert Knox, who is said to have given 

 the best account extant of Ceylon, tells us, that one of the leaves of 

 the talipot is capable of covering ten persons. When it is dry, con- 

 tinues he, it is at once strong and pliant, so that you may fold and 

 unfold it at pleasure, being naturally plaited like a fan. In this state, 

 it is not bigger than a man's arm, and extremely light. The natives 

 cut it into triangles, though it is naturally round, and each of them 

 carries one of those sections over his head, holding the angular part 

 before, in his hand, to open for himself a passage through the bushes. 

 The soldiers use this leaf as a covering to their tents. They consider 

 it, and with good reason, as one of the greatest blessings of Providence, 

 in a country burnt. up by the sun, and inundated by the rains, for six 

 months of the year. 



TALLOW TREE. There are various plants whose expressed 

 oil is sufficiently thick, and in sufficient abundance to answer the pur- 

 pose of tallow, and to be employed instead of animal oil, in the manu- 

 facture of candles, and which are hence called tallow trees. It is 

 about the height of a cherry tree, its leaves in form of a heart, 9f a 

 deep shining red color, and its bark very smooth. Its fruit is enclosed 

 in a kind of pod, or cover, like a chestnut, and consists of three round 

 white grains, of the size arid form of a small nut, each having its pe- 

 culiar capsule, and within a little stone. This stone is encompassed 

 with a white pulp, which has all the properties of true tallow, both as 

 to consistence, color, and even smell, and accordingly the Chinese 

 make their candles of it ; which would doubtless be as good as those 

 in Europe, if they knew how to purify their vegetable, as w r ell as we 

 do our animal tallow. All the preparation they give it is to melt it 

 down, and mix a little oil with it, to make it softer and more pliant. 

 It is true, their candles made of it yield a thicker smoke, and a dim- 

 mer light than ours ; but those defects are owing, in a great measure, 

 to the wicks, which are not of cotton, but only a little rod of dry wood 

 covered with the pith of a rush wound round it ; which, being very 

 porous, serves to filtrate the minute parts of the tallow, attracted by 

 the burning stick, which, by this means, is kept alive. In like man- 

 ner, the Americans make wax candles of the waxy berry of the candle- 

 berry myrtle, which burn with a fine clear light, for a long time, and 

 possess a fragrant myrtle odor. 



TAMARINDS. Of the two species of the genus Tamarindus 

 the fruit is much larger in the East Indian than the West Indian. 

 The shell being removed, there remains the flat, square hard seed, 



