1858. 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



461 



it regards whatever of glare or glitter, of military 

 display, of jockeyisui, or political influences, that 



supply of carbon, and to allow it to recoil to its 

 natural condition of carbonic acid gas. The more 



mav give tone or coloring to these festivals of ^ ^y^ale exerts his locomotive powers, the often- 

 ' er It is necessary for him to breathe, or "blow," 



as the Avhalers term it. 



the farmer. "We shall steadily oppose them all, 

 under whatever blandishments they may present 

 themselves, or by whomsoever they may be in- 

 troduced. Nothing on earth can keep them pure, 



As amid abundant granaries and well-stored 

 market-houses where there is little danger of 

 falling short of a due supply of daily food, it is 



and make them useful, but a steady, uniform ad- i °^'^"^^f ^ that in the economy of nature there is 



no real necessity lor this extraordinary supply of 



herence to the principles upon which they were 

 established, viz., improvement in the art and sci- 

 ence of Agriculture. When this is lost sight of, 

 and the occasion is made mainly to minister to 

 the passions, then will one of the best customs 

 of our people have lost its efficacy as a co-op- 

 erator in the progress of rural art, and other 

 customs will rise upon their ruins, having at 

 least doubtful, if not decidedly demoralizing ten- 

 dencies. We utter these words now, before the 



a surplus stock of carbonaceous fuel, enveloping 

 the ribs of human beings. 



The hump on the back of the camel — the loco- 

 motive engine of the wild deserts of Asia and 

 Africa — may be deemed by the superficial ob- 

 server as a deformity, or as a sort of natural 

 saddle, ready prepared to bear the impositions of 

 loads of merchandise, and thus stamping this an- 

 imal as a "beast ot burthen," apparently by the 

 original design of the Creator. But this uncouth 



appendage, so far from being designed expressly 



. , I. /. • • 1 • I for the purpose of a saddle, does really subserve 



opening of the season of festivity, because in the more essential purpose of a knapsack of pro- 



some cases last year we thought the true object 

 was lost sight of, and display and excitement 

 ruled the hour. We trust that wisdom will guide 

 the counsels of our various societies, and that no 

 word of reproach shall justly be suffered to rest 

 upon them. 



USE OF FAT IN" ANIMAL ECONOMY. 



The extraordinary abundance c^ fat in the bod- 

 ies of animals inhabiting the intensely cold polar 

 regions may be philosophically considered as a 

 surplus stock of fuel, to be burnt for sustaining 

 animal heat and motive power. Without this in- 

 ternal resource for a supply, during periods 

 when no other available supplies of food are pro- 

 curable from external sources, the animals of the 

 arctic regions would speedily become frozen, re- 

 maining like marble statues fixed on the surface 

 of the fields of ice and snow. 



A most remarkably abundant provision of fatty 

 and oily matter, formed from hydrogen and car- 

 bon, is found in the blubber which envelopes the 

 bodies of the stored-up whales like a thick blan- 

 ket. The philosophy of this surprising provis- 

 ion of available food and fuel, accumulated in 

 these large fishes, admits of the following expla- 

 nation. It appears that whales, in ranging from 

 one feeding-ground to another, sometimes have 

 to cross broad oceans. Without an extraordina- 

 ry supply of carbon, provided like a stock of 

 coals in the bunkers of a steamer, for sustaining 

 continuous combustion during a long voyage, 



visions, to supply from this superabundant de- 

 posit of fat, which principally composes this 

 hump, the carbon necessarj*for propelling the lo- 

 comotive mechanism of his body across the wide 

 wastes of sand, where no blade of grass is found 

 to replenish his exhausted supplies of carbona- 

 ceous food. A surplus supply of water is simi- 

 larly provided in the extraordinary sacs of his 

 stomach, as a substitute for the tank applied to 

 an artificial locomotive engine. 



Adventurous mariners navigate their barks 

 among the icebergs of the polar regions, to pro- 

 cure the valuable store of fat organized into the 

 bodies of the whale, of the seal, and walrus, which 

 they transport to marts of commerce for distribu- 

 tion, for the purpose of being burned as fuel in 

 the lamps, instead in the lungs, the purpose for 

 which it was originally designed. Men strip off 

 the fur and down from the bodies of animals, 

 whose breasts, exposed by submersion into icy 

 water, and to keen wintry winds, require these 

 non-conducting coverings, to sustain the animal 

 heat generated by combustion in their bodies. 

 These prized spoils of soft downs and furs are 

 appropriated as a covering to sustain the same 

 genial excitation within the glowing bosom of a 

 civilized belle. In the colder bosom of an Esqui- 

 maux belle, residing in a crystal palace, and be- 

 neath a dome built of blocks of ice, not only are 

 these soft external appliances of robes of fur ne- 

 cessary for sustaining a genial glow of life's vv'arm 

 current, but also the most extraordinary combus- 

 tion of fatty, oily matter in her lungs. One of 

 these belles, according to Capt. Parry's narrative 

 the whales might fail in exerting a motive power of his voyage to the Arctic regions, sipped the 

 sufficient to propel their great bodies through the [oil from an extinguished lamp, "and received a 



waters of the broad ocean. Whales have been 

 captured from whose bodies more than two hun- 

 dred barrels of oil have been extracted. As sper- 



tallow candle as an acce;jtable bon-bon, the cour- 

 teous captain kindly warning her by signs, not to 

 choak heisclf by attempting to swallow the wick. 



maceti and cetine contain above 90 per cent, of! It thus appears that the quantity of organic car- 



carbon and hydrogen, one of these fishes, there- 

 fore, carries with him about ten tons of combus- 

 tible fuel, which is ready at all times to become 

 absorbed and burnt, whenever this leviathan of 

 the deep desires to develop posverful impulses of 

 motive pov/er, and rises to the surface of the 

 ocean, to draw in a long breath of air, contain- 



bon which is scarcely adequate to serve as fuel in 

 developing warmth and locomotive power in the 

 bodies of, human beings dwelling in the Arctic 

 regions, would over-heat the bodies of the same 

 individuals in warm tropical climates, and would 

 speedily induce fatal inflammatory disorders. 

 To the ignorance of this simple fact may be 



jng the requisite quantity of oxygen to burn his j ascribed the deaths of myriads of voyagers from 



