ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AJSD FARMING. 85 



WINTER NIGHTS FOR READING. 



As the winter is a season of comparative leisure, it is the 

 time for farmers to study. It is a good time for them to 

 make themselves acquainted with the nature of soils, of 

 manures, of vegetable organization — or structural botany. 

 Farmers are liable to rely wholly upon their own experi- 

 ence, and to despise science. Book-men are apt to rely on 

 scientific theories, and nothing upon practice. If these 

 two tendencies would only court and marry each other, 

 what a hopeful family would thoy rear I IIow nice it would 

 look to see in the papers ; 



Married. — By Philosophical Wisdom, Esq., Mr. Prac- 

 tical Experience, to Miss Sober Science. [We will stand 

 godfather to all the children.] 



FEATHERS. 



The quality of feathers depends on their strength, elasti- 

 city and cleanness ; and these, again, depend upon the condi- 

 tion of the bird, its health, food, and the time of plucking 

 its feathers. Down is the term applied to mider-feathers — 

 most abundant in water fowl, and in those especially which 

 live in cold latitudes, being designed to protect them from 

 wet and cold. The eider-down, from the eider-duck, is of 

 the most repute. It is brought from extreme northern 

 latitudes, and is used for coverings to beds, rather than for 

 beds themselves, as, by being slept upon^ it loses its elasti- 

 city. 



Poultry feathers^ as those of turkeys, ducks, and chick- 

 ens, if assorted and the coarse ones rejected, afford very 

 good beds ; but they are not so elastic as geese-feathers. 



