278 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



veyed to the brain, and thus we are enabled to 

 take an interest in the objects which pass before 

 our eye. Now, when the eye is too convex, we 

 use one kind of glasses to correct the fault ; and 

 if it be not convex enough, or if we wish to 

 look at objects at a different distance, we use 

 glass of entirely another description. 



But, as birds cannot get spectacles, Providence 

 has given them a method of supplying the defi- 

 ciency. They have the power of contracting 

 the eye, of making it more convex, so as to see 

 the specks which float in the atmosphere, and 

 catch their food ; and also of flattening the eye, 

 to see a great distance, and observe whether any 

 vulture or other enemy is threatening to destroy 

 them. In addition to this they have a film or 

 coating which can suddenly be thrown down 

 over the eye to protect it ; because, at the velo- 

 city at which they fly, and with the delicate 

 texture of their eye, the least speck of dust 

 would act upon it as a penknife thrust into the 

 human eye. This film is to protect the eye, and 

 the same thing exists, to some extent, in the eye 

 of the horse. The horse has a large eye, very 

 liable to take dust. This coating, in the horse's 

 eye, is called the haw, or third eyelid, and if 

 you will watch closely, you may see it descend 

 and return with electric velocity. It clears away 

 the dust and protects the eye from injury. If 

 the eye should catch cold, the haw hardens and 

 projects, and ignorant persons cut if off, and 

 thus destroy this safeguard. 



You all know, if you take a pound of iron 

 and make of it a rod a foot long, what weight 

 it will support. Eut if it be a hollow rod, it 

 will support a weight many times greater than 

 before. Nature seems to have taken advantage 

 of this, also, long before mathematicians had 

 discovered it, that all the bones of animals are 

 hollow. The bones of a bird are large, because 

 they must be strong to move their large wings 

 with such velocity ; but they must also be light 

 in order to float easily on the air. Birds also 

 strikingly illustrate another fact in natural phi- 

 losophy. If you take a bag, make it air tight, 

 and put it under water, it will support a large 

 weight, say a hundred pounds. But twist it, or 

 diminish the air in it, and it will support no such 

 weight. Now a bird has such an air bag. — 

 When he wishes to descend, he compresses it, 

 and falls rapidly ; when he would rise he in- 

 creases it, and floats with ease. He also has 

 the power of forcing air into the hollow parts of 

 the body, and thus to assist his flight. The 

 same thing may be observed in fishes. They 

 also have an air bag to enable them to rise or 

 sink in the water till they find their proper tem- 

 perature. 



If they wish to rise, they increase it ; if they 

 wish to sink they compress it, and down they 

 go. Sometimes the fish in sinking makes too 

 strong an effort to compress his air bag, and 



bursts it ; then down he goes to the bottom, and 

 there remains for the rest of his life. Flounders 

 and some other fish have no air bag, and so they 

 are never found swimming on the surface, but 

 must always be caught on the bottom. 



In this way are the principles of science ap- 

 plied to almost every thing. You wish to know 

 how to pack the greatest amount of bulk in the 

 smallest space. The forms of cylinders leave 

 large spaces between them. Mathematicians 

 labored a long time to find what figure could be 

 used so as to lose no space ; and at last found 

 that it was the six-sided figure, and also that 

 three planes ending in a point formed the strongest 

 roof or floor. The honey bee discovered the 

 same things a good while ago. Honey-comb is 

 made up of six-sided figures, and the roof is 

 built with three plane surfaces coming to a point. 



If a flexible vessel be emptied of air, its sides 

 will be almost crushed together by the pressure 

 of the surrounding atmosphere. And if the 

 tube partly filled with fluid be emptied of its air, 

 the fluid will rise to the top. The bee under- 

 stands this ; and when he comes to the cup of 

 the tall honeysuckle, and finds that he cannot 

 reach the sweet matter at its bottom, he thrusts 

 in his body, shuts up the flower, and then ex- 

 hausts the air, and so possesses himself of the 

 dust and honey of the flower. The feet of flies 

 and lizards are constructed on a similar princi- 

 ple, and they thus walk with ease on glass or a 

 ceiling. Their feet are made so as to create a 

 vacuum beneath them, and so they have the 

 pressure of the atmosphere, fifteen pounds to the 

 square inch, to enable them to hold on. The 

 cat has the same power to a less extent. 



Plants require the sunlight, and some flowers 

 turn themselves towards the sun as it travels 

 round from east to west. The sunflower does 

 this, and so does a field of clover. These facts, 

 though we have not yet got at the reason of 

 them, are still extremely interesting. 



SHAKER FARM. 



The present settlement of Shakers, or United 

 Brethren, at New Lebanon, was the first spot 

 on which this sect ever located. They com- 

 menced here about forty years ago. The so- 

 ciety consists at present of about six hundred 

 persons, more than half of whom are females. 

 From small beginnings they have acquired large 

 possessions, holding at this time not less than 

 seven thousand acres of land, mostly lying con- 

 tiguously. We spent a few hours examining 

 various objects connected with this community. 



Their buildings are all built in the most sub- 

 stantial manner, and are constructed with parti- 

 cular regard to convenience. One of their barns 

 is considered in all respects the best contrived 

 and the most perfect of any we have seen. It 

 is one hundred and forty-one feet long, fifty feet 



