248 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



MILL FOR GRINDING SCRAP CAKES. 



I am in want of a mill or some kind of a ma- 

 chine for granulating the hard cakes made from 

 beef scraps. Where can I get one, and at what 

 cost? Subscriber. 



Remarks. — We do not know of any such mill 



For the New England Fanner. 



PIFTH AWNUAL REPORT OP THE3 MASS. 

 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I have glanced my eye over this paper of about 

 300 pages, and find it truly practical and instruc- 

 tive. As was to be expected, much of it is filled 

 with the details of the Exhibition, held under 

 the supervision of the Board. This is as it 

 should be. Such an exhibition should be a pre- 

 sentation of the best products of the Common- 

 wealth — and such a Report should be a fair view 

 of what was presented. In this way alone, from 

 year to year, can we have a correct idea of the 

 progress made. That our agriculture is in healthy 

 progress, no one who has carefully observed for 

 the last thirty years can for a moment doubt. That 

 our State has done better than any of her neigh- 

 bors, I am not prepared to say. That there is 

 room for many and greater improvements, I can- 

 not doubt. Essex. 



BOYS' DEPARTMENT. 



MATHEMATICAL MYSTERIES. 

 _ Take a straight line one inch in length, and di- 

 vide it into two equal parts or halves, divide the 

 half into two quarters, the quarters into two 

 eighths, the eighths into two sixteenths, and so on, 

 continually bisecting the fraction last arrived at. 

 It is logically obvious that, by this process of 

 perpetual halving, we can never reach the end of 

 the line, although its length is only one short 

 inch. There will always remain a fraction to bi- 

 sect. By increasing the number of bisections 

 indefinitely, we can approach indefinitely near to 

 the extrenuty of the line, but through all eterni- 

 ty we could not actually arrive at it ! There is a 

 geometrical curve called the hyperbola, Avhich is 

 so related to a straight line called the asymptote, 

 that they approach each other continually and 

 never meet. 



The geometer will show you in a diagram both 

 curve and line, not many hair breadths apart, and 

 yet he can demonstrate, by logic the most vigor- 

 ous, that the line may travel through all eternity 

 toward the curve, and still no meeting take place 

 between them. There is an eternal convergence 

 across a space not broader than our pen, but no 

 possible concurrence ! 



The algebraist will show you the commence- 

 ment of a series of numbers, the terms of which 

 are absolutely infinite, and yet the sum of the 

 whole— the precise sum— may be no more than 

 one, two, three or four. He will tell you respect- 

 ing a progression beginning with unity as the 

 first term— what the second term is, what the 

 hundredth term is, whatthehundredth-thousanth- 

 millionth term is, Avhat any term you please to 

 ask him is ; and he will further tell you that the 

 whole infinitude of terms added together amounts 

 to exactly four — no more, no less — and yet he 



will also tell you that eternity alone would suffice 

 to writedown the terms whose sum is really com- 

 prised in that insignificant number four! — an 

 eternity of duration, and an innumerable host of 

 ever busy writers ! 



Now the whole mystery and contradiction in 

 these well known mathematical truths, arises 

 from the presence of infinity. Expel that ele- 

 ment and all mystery would vanish ; retain it, and 

 facts known to a school-boy are incomprehensible 

 by a Newton. Newton admits them, uses them, 

 knows them to be true, but cannot explain them — 

 and never will be able to explain them, norabso 

 lutely to comprehend them, even though his occu- 

 pation in heaven were the study of mathematics 

 and nothing else forever. It is a mistake to sup- 

 pose that all mysteries will be solved hereafter; 

 for every mystery of incapacity — which is the only 

 real, ultimate incomprehensibility — must remain 

 forever uncomprehended by the creature. No 

 progress can elevate the finite into the infinite. 

 Happy for us that this is so ! Were it otherwise, 

 a period in eternity might arrive when truth 

 would be exhausted, and our felicity Avould be 

 overclouded by a grief to which the weeping Al- 

 exander's was a childish sorrow. 



THE BEST SCHOLAR. 



In every school there is one who is called the 

 best scholar. Teachers and pupils have no diffi- 

 culty in deciding who is entitled to this honora- 

 ble distinction, and when we once heard the pu- 

 pils of a school exclaim, as a bright-eyed boy en- 

 tered the room, "Here comes Frank ; he is the 

 best boy in school," — we thought, "What a good 

 introduction to a new teacher." After becoming 

 acquainted with the scholars, we found that they 

 had told the truth. Frank was the best boy in 

 school, and will no doubt become one of the best 

 men in the city. Think of it, boys. "The best 

 boy in school." Who would not be proud of 

 such a title ? It is worth more than millions of 

 dollars. But perhaps some scholars will say, 

 "We can't all be the best." This is true, but you 

 have a right to try, and the one who will try hard- 

 est will succeed, for there is power in that little 

 word trij. Frank could not be the best boy in 

 his school if he did not try. If j'ou cannot be 

 the best, be careful and not be the Avorst. Every 

 school has one boy who is worse than any other 

 scholar. We pity him ; we pity his parents, his 

 brothers and sisters. AVhat a disgraceful title — 

 "The worst boy in school." He will no doubt 

 become one of the worst men in the community. 

 Let every boy who reads this resolve to be "the 

 best boy in school." 



Practice at the Bar. — Whoever stoppeth at 

 the bar of him who bar-tcrs, distilled bar-ley, 

 drawn from a bar-xe\, bars himself from ever ad- 

 vancing at the bar of life. He will live like a bar- 

 bar-ian — an outcast from civilized society — and 

 his memory Avill be to him as a bar-bed arrow, 

 when he thinks of the bad bar-gains he made 

 when under the influence of bar-m. His bar-h 

 will founder on the sand bars in the stream of 

 life, and his life will be bar-ren of any good, in 

 consequence of the 6(7?--rier he has placed between 

 himself and the world, and no bar-d will chant a 

 bar at his de-&ar-king. — Merri/s Museum. 



