1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



59 



it will melt lead ; at twenty-one miles melt gold ; 

 at seventy-four miles cast iron ; at ninety-seven 

 miles soft iron ; and at one hundred miles from 

 the surface all will be fluid as water, a mass of 

 seething and boiling rock in a perpetually molten 

 state, doomed possibly never to be cooled or crys- 

 tallized. The heat will exceed any with which 

 man is acquainted ; it will exceed the heat of the 

 electric spark, or the effect of a continued voltaic 

 current. The heat which melts platina as if it 

 were wax, is as ice to it. Could we visually ob- 

 serve its effects, our intellect would afford no 

 means of measuring its intensitj'. Here is the 

 region of perpetual fire, the source of earthquake 

 and volcanic power. — Recreative Science. 



CHEAP CISTEKNS AND CHEAP PILTEBS. 



Instead of incurring the great expense of exca- 

 vating wells, stoning them and supplying expen- 

 sive pumps for obtaining water for the ordinary 

 purposes of a farm-house or barn, a much cheap- 

 er and more satisfactory arrangement will be 

 found in the use of my cheap mode of construct- 

 ing cisterns and filtering the water. A cistern 

 of the dimensions that I shall describe will hold 

 one thousand gallons, will cost but eight dollars, 

 and its capacity may be doubled for less than 

 fifty per cent, additional cost. One of the size 

 above named will be found sufficient for farmers' 

 families generally, and will insure soft water, 

 which is rare in wells. 



Directions for Excavating Cisterns. — Stake 

 and line out a plat near the building 8x18 feet ; 

 excavate this one foot in depth ; then set ihe 

 lines in 18 inches on all sides ; then excavate all 

 within the lines, or 5 x 15 feet, to the depth of 4 

 feet in the middle, making the middle level some 

 9 inches in width, sloping the banks on all the 

 sides and ends to the lines last placed, which will 

 make a section of the pit either way V shaped, 

 except that 9 inches of the bottom will be level, 



In digging the banks use care not to disturb 

 the soil not thrown out. When the digging is 

 completed, plaster the bottom, the level part with 

 a good coat of cement mortar, and place a board 

 on it to stand on to do the balance of the work, 

 cutting the board in two equal parts before lay- 

 ing it on the mortar. This done, plaster the entire 

 surface on the ground to the lines last named, 

 then remove one-half of the board and stand on 

 the balance and build a 4 inch brick wall across 

 the pit, about in the middle, laying the bricks, 

 which should be soft, (common salmon brick,) in 

 cement, but plastering neither side. 



Lay the wall to the line, then remove the bal- 

 ance of the board and put a coat of mortar where 

 it lay. The cistern is now complete, save the 

 covering ; this may be done by laying plank over 

 the whole bedding, then on the surface of the 

 first excavation in mortar, or splitting logs from 

 the woods and laying them flat side down, and 

 closing the joints with mortar. The pump pipe 

 should be laid into one end and the leader pipe 

 from the house gutter laid into the other before 

 it is covered. This done, return earth enough to 

 cover the surface at least one foot deeper in the 

 middle than the surrounding ground ; level it off 

 neatly and sward it, and you have a complete 

 filtering cistern for eight to twelve years. — Amer- 

 ican Farmer. 



V7ISDOM FOR WINTER. 



Never go to bed with cold or damp feet. 



In going into colder air, keep the mouth reso- 

 lutely closed, that by compelling the air to pass 

 circuitously through the nose and head, it may 

 become wai-med before it reaches the lungs, and 

 thus prevent those shocks and sudden chills which 

 frequently end in pleurisy, pneumonia, and other 

 serious forms of disease. 



Never stand still a moment out of doors, espe- 

 cially at street corners after having walked even 

 a short distance. 



Never ride near the open window of a vehicle 

 for a single half minute, especially if it has been 

 preceded by a walk ; valuable lives have thus been 

 lost, or good health permanently destroyed. 



Never wear India-rubber boots in cold, dry 

 weather. 



Those who are easily chilled on going out of 

 doors should have some cotton-batting attached 

 to the vest or outer garment, so as to protect the 

 space between the shoulder-blades behind, the 

 lungs being attached to the body at that point ; a 

 little there is worth five times the amount over 

 the chest in front. 



Never begin a journey until breakfast is eaten. 



After speaking, singing, or preaching, in a warm 

 room in winter, do not leave it for at least ten 

 minutes, and even then close the mouth, put on 

 the gloves, wrap up the neck, and put on a cloak 

 or overcoat before passing out of the door ; the 

 neglect of these has laid many a good and useful 

 man in a premature grave. 



Never speak under a hoarseness, especially if 

 it requires an effort, or gives a hurting or painful 

 feeling, for it often results in a permanent loss of 

 voice, or a long life of invalidism. — Hall's Jour- 

 nal of Health. 



Sheltered Farms. — On former occasions we 

 have discussed at some length the importance of 

 growing timber as protection to farm crops, and 

 its effects upon climate. A case in point is given 

 by a correspondent in one of our exchange papers. 

 He speaks of a piece of five acres of wheat in 

 Delaware which grew alongside of a grove of tim- 

 ber ; it made a good crop ; there were seventy 

 acres exposed to the full blast of the winter's 

 wind, and the consequence was it was hardly 

 worth cutting. He also speaks of the effects of 

 the protection of woods to orchards in Michigan. 

 He says : 



"Our orchards here did well when the country 

 was new and the clearings were small. But as 

 our forests recede from the orchards, the bark on 

 the west side of many a fine tree is killed by the 

 piercing west wind. Some of our neighbors have 

 very considerately preserved belts of timber, and 

 clusters of shell-bark, black walnut and butter- 

 nut ; while others, like Time, have cut down all, 

 and are now reaping the fruits of their folly in- 

 stead of their orchards." — Valley Farmer. 



Blackberries and Raspberries. — During the 

 last five years, the editor of the Connecticut 

 Homestead has tried the Lawton, Dorchester and 

 Newman's thornless blackberries, and the Hud- 

 son River red raspberry, and now says, "anybody 

 is welcome to our plants who will be at the trou- 

 ble to take them up." 



