23t 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



JTASr. 8, 1S140 



MISCELLANEOUS 



NATURE. 



BY BOBEBT C. WA1 ERSTON. 



I LOVE thee, Nature, — love thee well — 



In sunny nook and twiliglu dell, 



Where birds, and hees, and hlossnms dwell, 



And leaves and fluwers ; 

 And winds in low sweet voices lell 



Of happy hours. 



I love thy clear and running streams, 

 Which mildly flash with silver gleams, 

 Or darkly lie, like shadow-dreams, 



To bless the sight; 

 While every wave with beauty teems, 



And smiles delight. 



I love thy forest deep and lone. 

 Where twilight shades are ever thrown. 

 And murmuring winds with solemn tone, 



Go slowly by, 

 Sending a peal like ocean moan. 



Along the sky. 



I love to watch at close of day. 

 The heavens in splendor melt away. 

 From radiant gold to silver gray, 



As sinks the sun : 

 While stars upon their trackless way, 



Come one by\)ne. 



I love, I know not which the best, 

 The little wood-bird in its nest. 

 The wave that mirrors in its breast 



The landscape true. 

 Or the sweet flower by winds caressed. 



And bathed in dew. 



They all are to my bosom dear. 

 They all God's messengers appear — 

 Preludes to songs that "ngels hear — 



Mute prophecies — 

 Faint types of a resplendent sphere 



Beyond the skies ! 



SILK FROM THE SPIDER. 



In a late number of Chambers' Edinburgh Jour- 

 nal, there is an interesting article on the subject of 

 Silk from the Spider, from whicli we make an ex- 

 tract: 



" Some years ago the Society of Arts conferred 

 one of their lionorary medals on a gentleman of 

 the name of Rolt, for obtaining silk from the gar- 

 den spider, aranea diailema. This is the insect 

 wlioso webs in autumn are so conspicuous on the 

 surface of shrubs, and in other situations. On al- 

 lowing one of these animals to crawl over his hand, 

 Mr Rolt found that it drew a thread with it wher- 

 ever it went. He likewise, without any difficulty, 

 wound some of this thread over his hand, finding 

 that tlie spider C(mtinued spinning wliile the tliread 

 was winding up. On this hint ho connected a 

 small reel with the steam engine of the factory in 

 which he was occupied, and, putting it in motion, 

 at the rate of ]50 feet per minute, found that the 

 spider would thus continue to afford an unbroken 

 tliread during from three to five minutes. The 

 specimen of this silk which Mr Rolt presented to 

 the society, was wound off from twentyfour spiders 

 in about two hours. Its length was estimated at 

 16,000 feet; its color was white, and its lustre of 

 metallic brilliancy, owing, probably, to its greai 



opacity. He did not attempt to combine two or 

 more filaments into ono winding, nor to form it into 

 thread by throwing. The thread of the garden 

 spider is so much fi[ier than that of the silk-worm, 

 that the united strength of five of the former is, 

 according to Mr Rolt, equal tn only one of the lat- 

 ter ; and assuming that the weight is in proportion 

 to the strength, and that a spider will yield twice a 

 year a thread 750 feet in length, while that produ- 

 ced by a single silk-worm is 1900 feet, it follows 

 that the produce of one silk-worm is equal to that 

 of ()3 spiders. Now, says the Report in tlie So- 

 ciety's Transactions, ' as on an average it takes 

 about 3.500 silk-worins tn produce a pound of silk, 

 it would take about 22,000 spiders to produce an 

 equal quantity. Besides, spiders are not so easily 

 confined as silk-worms, and whenever two come in 

 contact a battle ensues, which ends in the destruc- 

 tion of the weaker one. Spiders kept for silk must 

 therefore be each in separate dens or cells ; and 

 the apparatus contrived by Mr Rolt for this purpose, 

 although very ingenious and well adapted to carry 

 on a course of e.xperitnents With a hundred nr two, 

 would manifestly be wholly inapplicable to any 

 purpose of commercial utility.' 



" But a gentleman of Languedoo went a great 

 deal further than tlie English experimenter, for he 

 established a manusacture of spider silk, and so far 

 succeeded thac he made gloves and stockings from 

 the fibres of the web. The great impediinent, 

 however, to his complete success, was the implaca- 

 ble hostility of those insects to each other. Reau- 

 mur placed .5000 in 50 different celLs, and tlie larger 

 destroyed the smaller, till only one or two were left 

 in each cell. But there is a species of spider no- 

 ticed by Dr Walsh in hia travels in Brazil, to which 

 this objection does not apply. Here the insect was 

 not solitary but gregarious ; and colonies of more 

 than 100 occupied the same web. The doctor's 

 account of it is as follows : — 'Among the insects 

 is an enormous spider, which I did not observe 

 elsewhere. In passing through an opening be- 

 tween some trees, I felt my head entangled in some 

 obstructions, and on withdrawing it my light straw 

 hat remained behind. When I looked up, I saw it 

 suspended in the air, entangled in the ineshesof an 

 immense cobweb, which was drawn like a veil of 

 thick gauze across the opening, and was expanded 

 from branch to branch of the opposite trees, as 

 large as a sheet, ten or twelve feet in diameter. — 

 The whole of this space was covered with spiders 

 of the same species (aranea maculuta) but of dif- 

 ferent sizes; some of them, when their legs were 

 expanded, forming a circle of six or seven inches 

 in circutnference. They were particularly distin- 

 guished by bright spots. The cords composing the 

 web were of a glossy yellow, like the fibres of 

 silk-worms, and equally strong. I wound oif sev- 

 etal on a card, and they extended to the lengtli of 

 three or four yards.' There is here a fair field for 

 the Brazilian speculator. The spider's web, which, 

 in single threads, could support a straw hat, must be 

 much stronger and tougher than the frail tissues of 

 our own country, and might certainly be manufac- 

 tured into articles of wearing apparel, if a proper 

 quantity of it could be obtained. As these gigan- 

 tic spiders of Brazil are not eaters of their own 

 specio.5, large colonies of them might be maintain- 

 ed with ease, and, we doubt not, advantage to the 

 experimenter." 



' ' Holloa, lend us your penknife ?" " I can't — I 

 haven't got any ! Besidts, I want to use it myself." 



Truth. — Adhere always rigidly and undevia- 

 tingly to truth ; but while you express what ii 

 true, express it in a pleasing manner. Truth ia 

 the picture, the manner is the frame that displays 

 it to advantage. If a man blends his angry pas. 

 sions with his search after truth, become his supo- 

 rior by suppressing yours, and attend only to the 

 justness and force of his reasoning. Truth, con- 

 veyed with austere and acrimonial language, sel- 

 dom has a salutary effect, since we reject the truth, 

 because we are prejudiced against the mode of 

 communication. The heart must be won before 

 the intellect can be informed. A man may betray 

 the cause of truth by his unreasonable zeal, as, he 

 destroys its salutary effects by the acrimony of hia 

 manner. Whoever would he a successful instruct- 

 er, must first become a mild and affectionate friend. 



Wo.sDEns OF Cultivation'. — There is scarce- 

 ly a vegetable which we now cultivate, that can be 

 found to grow naturally. Buffon has stated that 

 our wheat is a fictitious production, raised to its 

 present condition by the art of agriculture. Rye, 

 rice, barley, or even oats, are not to be found wild, 

 that is to say, growing natural in any part of the 

 earth, but have been altered by the industry of 

 mankind from plants not now resembling them, 

 even in such a degree as to enable us to recognize 

 their relations. The acrid a/.d disagreeable opium 

 graveotens, has been transformed into delicious 

 celery, ;;nd the cokworl, a plant of scanty leaves, 

 not weighing altogether half an ounce, has been 

 improved -into cabbage, whose leaves alone weigh 

 many pcjunds, or into the cauliflower of considera- 

 ble dimensions, being only the embryo of a few 

 buds, which in their natural state would not have 

 weighed as many grains. The potato again, whose 

 introduction has added millions to our population, 

 derives its origin from a small bitter root, which 

 grows wild in Chili and Monte Video. 



A few days ago, a butcher in this neighborhood, 

 who has always been considered " wide awake," 

 lost a shoulder of mutton: and having ascertained 

 that it had been stolen by a dog belonging to a cer- 

 tain attorney, he lost no time in repairing to its 

 owner, and accosted him as follows ; — " Pray, sir, 

 if a dog conies tn my shop and runs away with a 

 joint of meat, cannot I make the owner pay for 

 it?" " Certainly," replied t'le attorney. "Then 

 I will thank you for 3s. 9d., which is the price of 

 a shoulder of mutton your pointer has just stolen 

 from me." Ihe lawyer paid the money, and the 

 knight of the cleaver thanking him and wishing 

 him good morning, was leaving the office; but the 

 solicitor said, " Stay sir, I must trouble you for my 

 fee. Yon came to consult me, I gave you my opin- 

 ion, and the charge is 6s. 3d." The butcher look- 

 ed exceedingly " sheepish," but instantly paid the 

 amount, and returned home with the loss of his 

 mutton, and an additioual 2s. lid. — English paper. 



Foote advised a gentleman who desired to attend 

 a masquerade ball in a neio character, to " go sober." 



THE JVEW E!^■G1.A^D FAKItlEK 



Is published every Wednesday F.vening, at S3 per annuni 

 payable at the end of the year— 'but those who pay wilh;n 

 sixty days from the time of subscribing are entitled to a ce- 

 ducl'ionof 59 cents. 



TUTTLE, DENNETT AND CHISHOLM, PRINTFRS, 



17 aonnoL 8tri;et bostu:^ 



