DEVOTED TO AGBICUIiTURE, HORTICULTUEE, AUD KHSTDEED AKTS. 



NEW SERIES. 



Boston, April, 1868. VOL. IL— NO. 4. 



R. P. EATON & CO., Publishers, 

 Office, y-t Merchants' Kow. 



MONTHLY. 



SmON BROW^, ) Editors 

 S. FLETCHER, i -^^ditors. 



APBIIi. 



" Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Tau- 

 rus.'' — VlHOIL. 



The white Bull opens the year with his golden horns. 



ET a boy take 

 an orange, 

 and thrust a 

 wire through 

 it from stem 

 to calyx. Let 

 oneend of the 

 ■wire point to 

 the north, 

 and the other 

 to the South. 

 Draw a line 

 round the 

 centre at 

 right angles 

 ■with the wire, 

 and set it 

 spinning 

 round from 

 west to east. 

 The orange 

 now repre- 

 senis the earth revolving cr ,u axis, and the 

 line, the equator. Let the light of a candle 

 fall upon it, so that the rays shall fall di- 

 rectly upon the line. The sun is now over 

 the equator, and the days and nights are 

 equal. We will call it the vernal equinox, 

 which occurs about the 20th of March. Now 



tilt up the northern end of the wire gradually, 

 until the direct rays fall 23^ degrees north of 

 the equator. Here make another hne around 

 the oranfre. This is the tropic of Cancer, and 

 indicates the distance from the equator, at which 

 the direct rays of the sun fall upon the north- 

 ern half of the earth's surface about the 20th 

 of June, the longest days of the year. 



Now begin to turn down the northern end 

 of the wire, and about the 20th of September 

 you will get the earth into the same position 

 it occupied when you began the experiment. 

 This we will call the autumnal equinox. Keep 

 on gradually turning it down, and about the 

 20th of December, the direct rays of the sun will 

 reach 23^ degrees south of the equator. Here 

 .draw another line around the orange. This 

 will represent the tropic of Capricorn. Now 

 the days are shortest in the northern half of 

 the earth, and longest in the southern. 



Now begin to tilt down the northern end, 

 and upon the 20th of March, you will get it 

 again into a horizontal position. Remember 

 that the orange is to be kept spinning round 

 on its axis all the while that you are tilting it 

 up and down. These motions of the orange 

 will give us a tolerably correct idea of the 

 movements of the earth in relation to the sun, 

 and the cause of the difference in the tempera- 

 ture, and in the length of the days, at differ- 

 ent seasons of the year. 



On the 20th of March, the earth's axis was 

 horizontal. The northern end of it is now 



