1861. 



NEW ENGLA^^D FARMER. 



355 



canes, or turned into oval sticks for worshippers, 

 to divine whether the gods will hear or refuse 

 their petitions. The tapering culms are used for 

 all purposes that poles can be applied to in car- 

 rying, supporting, propelling and measuring, by 

 the porter, the carpenter and the boatman ; for 

 the joists of houses and the ribs of sails, the 

 shafts of spears and the wattles of hurdles, the 

 tubes of aqueducts, and the handles and ribs of 

 umbrellas and fans. 



The leaves are sewed upon cords to make rain 

 cloaks, swept into heaps to form manure, and mat- 

 ted into thatches to cover houses. Cut into splints 

 and slivers of various sizes, the wood is worked 

 into baskets and trays of every form and fancy, 

 twisted into cables, plaited into awnings, and wo- 

 ven into mats for scenery of the theatre, the roofs 

 of boats and the casing of goods. The shavings, 

 even, are picked into oakum, and mixed with 

 those of rattan, to be stufifed into mattresses. 

 The bamboo furnishes the bed for sleeping and 

 the couch for reclining ; the chopsticks for eat- 

 ing, the pipe for smoking and the flute for enter- 

 taining ; a curtain to hang before the door and a 

 broom to sweep around it ; together with screens, 

 stools, stands and sofas for various uses of con- 

 venience and luxury in the house. The mattress 

 to lie upon, the chair to sit upon, the table to 

 dine from, food to eat, and fuel to cook it with, 

 are alike derived from it ; the ferule to govern 

 the scholar, and the book he studies, both origi- 

 nate here. The tapering barrels of the sang, or 

 orgati, and the dreaded instrument of the lictor, 

 one to make harmony, and the other to strike 

 dread ; the skewer to pin the hair, and the hat to 

 screen the head ; the paper to write on, the pen- 

 cil handle to write with, and the cup to hold the 

 pencils ; the rule to measure lengths, the cup 

 to guage quantities, and the bucket to draw wa- 

 ter ; the bellows to blow the fire, and the bottle 

 to retain the match ; the bird-cage and crab-net, 

 the fish-pole and sumpitan, the water-wheel and 

 eave-duct ; wheel-barrow and hand-cart, etc., are 

 one and all furnished or completed by this mag- 

 nificent grass, whose graceful beauty when grow- 

 ing is comparable to its varied usefulness when 

 cut down. — Bev. B. S. Maclay. 



As we have stated before, we do not ivork our 

 liogs, either in harness or on the manure heaps. 

 When they have taken their meals and what ex- 

 ercise they please, they retire to a dry, roomy 

 bed, lie down and grow, and make a business of 

 it. An Irishman can overhaul the manure heap 

 much cheaper than the hogs can. 



How TO Raise Pork. — The reader will find an 

 interesting and instructive article in another col- 

 umn from our intelligent correspondent, "More 

 Anon," upon the subject of rearing and fattening 

 hogs ; a subject which demands more attention 

 than it has heretofore received from farmers. 

 Hogs may be kept profitably or unprofitably, ac- 

 cording to the manner in which they are man- 

 aged. A farmer once inquired of us what the 

 price of pork was at that time, stating that he had 

 some twenty hogs to sell. "How old are they?" 

 said we. "Fifteen months, eighteen months to 

 two years." "What will they weigh ?" "All the 

 •way from two to three hundred !" We slaugh- 

 tered swine last fall, made from pigs that weighed 

 less than 36 pounds each, eleven months before, 

 and the hogs weighed, when handsomely dressed, 

 from ybur hundred and fifty to four hundred and 

 seventy five pounds each ! 



CHEMISTinr FOR THE MHjLION. 



"Chemistry made easy" and applied to all use- 

 ful purposes, 4s our object in these articles. We 

 have given somewhat protracted accounts of oxy- 

 gen as one of the most abundant and important 

 elements of matter. If we were to enlarge as 

 much on each of the other fourteen elements, of 

 which, in combination with oxygen and with each 

 other, nearly all known bodies are composed, it 

 would take too long, and the reader would despair 

 of coming to any practical application of these 

 things to the necessities and conveniences of life. 

 We therefore give below a very brief description, 

 little more than a definition, of the other fourteen, 

 requesting that the reader will review what we 

 have said of oxygen, and form as definite an idea 

 as he can from so short a description of the fol- 

 lowing: 



Chlorine. — A yellowish green gas, twice and a 

 half heavier than air ; exists largely in sea water ; 

 constitutes more than half of common salt ; enters 

 slightly into all soils, and is essential to their fer- 

 tility. The most economical way in which a soil 

 deficient of it can be supplied, is in the form of 

 cheap agricultural salt, such, for instance, as 

 comes from fish barrels, or has been damaged by 

 shipping, and is worth little or nothing for other 

 purposes. 



Sulphur. — A yellow, solid substance, insoluble 

 in water, pretty generally known as roll brim- 

 stone ; flour of sulphur, a fine yellow powder, 

 or the milk of sulphur {lac sulphuris,) a still finer 

 powder, nearly white. Sulphur exists in all soils 

 — constitutes a portion of guano, superphosphate 

 of lime, of animal manures and of fertilizers gen- 

 erally. If we were to analyze 86 pounds of ground 

 plaster, we should find it to consist of precisely 

 32 pounds oxygen, 20 pounds lime, 16 pounds 

 sulphur and 18 pounds water. Derived from the 

 soil and fertilizers, sulphur passes through the 

 food into the animal economy, forming a part of 

 the tendons, skin, horn, hoof, and especially of 

 hair and wool. 



Phosphorus. — A yellowish substance, of about 

 the hardness of bees' wax, existing in all good 

 soils, essential to the growth of the cereals, grass- 

 es, and most other crops. Is supplied to the soil 

 originally from the decomposition of the rocks. 

 Re-supplied to soils exhausted of it in the form 

 of guano, superphosphates and barn manures. 

 Passes from the soils to the crops, and thence to 

 animals, making up a large part of the bones and 

 a considerable portion of the muscles, blood, and 

 some other parts. 



Carbon. — Charcoal is carbon, mixed with a lit- 

 tle soot and ash. Diamond is pure carbon. Plum- 

 bago, wrongly called black lead, as used in our 

 pencils, is a less pure form of carbon. Strange 

 as it may seem to our young readers, diamond, 

 charcoal and plumbago, are one and the same 



