132 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



Throw Jovvn the smallest barrier to become more 

 civilized. Open the close shut coast ofChina or Ja- 

 pan to mankind, and from tiiat hour the condition 

 of the people will be in pronjress of improvement. 

 The barbarian and the despot hate the stranger. 

 Yet (or the fullest civilization, (ieedom, and enjoy- 

 ment of which earth is capable, the one ihing 

 needful is ihe fullest intercourse of nation with 

 nation, and of man vvith man. 



The European passion for the railroad is cer- 

 tainly one of the most singular, as it is one of the 

 most cheering characteristics of the age. Like 

 all instruments ol" national power, it may be made 

 an instrument of evil. It may give additional 

 strength to the tyrannical, and accumulate force 

 against the weak, pour resistless invasion against 

 the unprepared, and snfite the helpless with un- 

 exampled rapidity of ruin. But its faculties are 

 made for peace, its tendency is to make nations 

 feel the value of peace; and unless some other 

 magnificent intention shall come to supersede its 

 use, and obliterate the memor}' of its services. 

 we cannot suffer ourselves to doubt that the whole 

 system which is now in the course of adoption, 

 witli such ardor throughout Europe, will yet be 

 acknowledged as having given the mightiest pro- 

 pulsion to the general improvement of mankind. 



From tlie London Mcclianics' Magazine. 

 EAST INDIA CAOUTCHOUC. 



It is well known that a large supply of this 

 valuable substance might be procured li-om India, 

 if the same care were to be taken in gathering it 

 as in South America. " The London Caoutchouc 

 Company," impressed with this idea, accordingly 

 sent to India an offer of a premium of filty pounds 

 for the first hundred weight of East India caout- 

 chouc which should be shipped for England. When 

 the offer arrived, however, it was somewhat of 

 the latest, the great demand existing at home 

 for the article had been previously heard of, and 

 large quantities were already on shipboard; com- 

 pared to which the "hundred weight." stipulated 

 for was but a molehill to a mountain! The whole 

 affair forms an apt illustration o( the doctrine that, 

 in commerce, the dirce of self-interest is far supe- 

 rior to that of artificial bounties. 



ORIGIN OF COAL,. 



Coal is supposed by some writers to be the re- 

 mains of antediluvian timber which floated in the 

 waters of the deluge until several mineral strata 

 had been formed; others conceive it to be antedi- 

 luvian peat bog. It was used in England anterior 

 to the reign of Henry HI; fir that monarch, in 

 1234, renewed a charter granted by his fiithcr to 

 the inhabitants of Newcastle, by which they were 

 permitted to dig coal on the payment of £ 100 per 

 annum. Coals had been introduced into London 

 before 1306, for in that year the use of them as 

 fijel had been prohibited, from the supposed ten- 

 dency of their smoke to corrupt the air. About 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century the best 

 coals were sold in London at the rate of 4s. Id. 

 per chaldron, and at Newcastle no more than 2s. 

 Qd. for the same. During the ensuing century, 

 however, they were received into such general 

 use, that in 1648, on the scarcity of coal in Lon- 



don, many of the poor were said to have died 

 from the want of fuel. The whole quantity of 

 coal sent into London on an average of lour years, 

 lias been estimated at 1,170,000 cbaldrons per an- 

 num. There has been much dispute on the ori- 

 gin of coal, but J3rogniart has given the following 

 as the general conclusions of naturalists: — 1. That 

 coal was formed at the same time as, or after the 

 existence of, organizeil bodies. 2. That this mine- 

 ral when first formed was liquid, and in a great 

 degree of purity. 3. That the same cause which 

 produces tliis substance is several times renewed 

 in the same places and under the same circum- 

 stances. 4. That the cause, whatever it may be, 

 is nearly ihe same over all the earth, since the 

 beds of coal always exhibit nearly the same phe- 

 nomena in their structure and accidental circum- 

 stances. 5. That these beds have not been de- 

 posited by any violent revolution, but, on the con- 

 trary, in the most tranquil manner ; since the or- 

 ganized bodies that are found in them are often 

 found entire, and the leaves of vegetables impress- 

 ed in the slate which covers the coals are hardly 

 ever bruised or otherwise deranged. — Merthyr 

 Chronicle. 



From the proccodings of tlic seventli meetins; of tlic British As- 

 sociation, for tlie advancement of Science.- 



REMARKABLE CLEARNESS OF THE AIR A 

 PRECURSOR OF RAIN. 



Professor Lloyd said that the distinctness and 

 vividness with which distant objects were seen 

 in some states of the atmosphere was quite asto- 

 nishing : on one occasion lie had seen from the 

 neighborhood of Dublin the Welsh hills from 

 their very bases, and brought so near, apparently, 

 that he could absolutely see the larger inequalities 

 of the surliice upon sides of the mountains. That 

 the atmosphere was at the time very much loaded 

 with vapor in a hiulily transparent state, was ob- 

 vious fi'om the fact, that immediately after a very 

 heavy fall of rain took place, and continued for a 

 considerable time. Professor Stevelly wished to 

 confirm what had fallen from Professor Lloyd and 

 M. de la Rive by stating that whenever the 

 Scotch hills appeared with peculiar vividness and 

 distinctness, fi-om the Lough of Belfast, the fish- 

 ermen always looked upon it as a sure precursor 

 of lieavy rain and wind. A friend had inllirmed 

 him that on one occasion lie had noticed this ap- 

 pearance while standing on the beach at Holly- 

 wood, and |;ointed it out to an old fisherman ; the 

 old man immediately gave notice to all his ii'iends 

 to whom he had access, who instantly set about 

 drawing up tlieir boats and placing their small 

 craft in more secure places; early the next morn- 

 ing a violent storm came on, which did much dam- 

 age upon the coast, to those who had not been si- 

 milarly forewarned. It might, perhaps, be ac 

 counted for by supposing that on these occasions 

 the intervening air became actually converted into 

 a large magnifying lens. 



From tlie same. 



j\lr. Black communicated a paper '-'On the in- 

 fluence of Electricity on the processes of Brew- 

 ing." According to his statements a thunder- 

 storm not only checks the fermentation of worts, 

 hut even raises the gravity of the saccharine fluid, 



