136 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



all the elements that are essential to its vigorous growth, it 

 will still be a puny thing, ready to droop, if exposed to a 

 summer's suii, or to be prostrated by the first visitation of a 

 winter's blast. Compare now, this wretched abortion, with 

 an oak or maple which has grown upon the comparatively 

 sterile mountain pasture, and whose branches, in Summer 

 are the pleasant resort of the happy songsters, while, 

 under its mighty shade, the panting herds drink in a refresh- 

 ing coolness. In Winter it laughs at the mighty storms, 

 which wildly toss its giant branches in the air, and which 

 serve only to exercise the limbs of the sturdy tree, whose 

 roots deep intertwined among its native rocks, enable it to bid 

 defiance to anything short of a whirlwind or tornado. 



To a population, who, for more than two-thirds of the 

 year, are compelled td. breathe an atmosphere heated by 

 artificial means, the question how can this air be made, at a , 

 moderate expense, to resemble, as far as possible, the purest 

 ether of the skie^ is, (or as I should rather say ought to be,) 

 a question of the utmost interest. When open fires were 

 used, there was no lack of pure air, whatever else might 

 have been deficient. A capacious chimney carried up 

 through its insatiable throat, immense volumes of air, to be 

 replaced by the pure element, whistling in glee, through 

 every crack, crevice and keyhole. Now the house-builder 

 and stove-maker with but few exceptions* seem to have 

 joined hands in waging a most effectual warfare against the 

 unwelcome intruder. Ry labor-saving machinery, they con- 

 trive to make th& one, the joints of his wood-work, and the 

 other, those of his iron-work, tighter and tighter, and if it 

 were possible for thera to accomplish fully their manifest 



* The beautiful open or Franklin stoves, manufactured by Messrs. 

 Jagger, Treadwell and Perry, of Albany, deserve the highest com- 

 mendation : they economize fuel as well as life and health. 



