!l8(i5.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
319 
\ 
3B©Y§ ^ MRM' (S®IE.¥lMio 
£njoyiuents at Home. 
To visit one's neighbois occasionally is pleasant and 
profitable; tlio young ns well as llie adult should learn 
hy or;irtice liow lo behave in society, how to give as 
well as receive enjoyment. But it is a mistake to look 
away from home for the greatest pleasure. Rather try 
lo make home the happiest place in the world. IlavoN 
you plenty of fruit, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, straw- 
berries, blackberries, currants, etc? These will add 
much pleasure to all in tlie house, and to visitors, but 
none will enjoy them as mucli as he who raises them. 
Almost every boy on a farm can do something at this. 
He can learn liow to graft, and make the old orchaid 
teem v%ith tlie choicest apples ; plant pits of peaches, 
cherries, etc., and bud them, with the best varieties ; 
lake cuttings of currants, procure plants of berries, and 
in a few years have abundance of luscious fruit of his 
oun raising. He will find in the Agriculturist from lime 
lo time, full directions for cultivation, pruning, etc., and 
will soon become an interested reader of the men's col- 
umns of the paper, 
and thus be grow- 
ing manly himself. 
How many boys 
will make a begin- 
ning lliis month 
by setting out a 
bed of strawber- 
ries, from which, 
with pi oper atten- 
tion, they may 
gather some fruit 
next Eumcncr? 
Then when the 
leaves have fallen, 
invest a little mon- 
ey in a few good 
grape vines, and 
soonaslheseasoa 
anives, get Iho 
fruit ejilerprise in- 
to operation. The 
pleasure of seeing 
your plants grow 
will well repay 
lor the trouble, 
and the fruit and 
practical knowl- 
edge obtained will 
be clear gain.— The girls may cullivate flo wers, and them- 
selves at the same time ;. making roses bloom in the yard 
and on their own cheeks, and thus beautifying tlie whole 
houselioUI. Then there will be the insects to watch. 
Most of them must be killed, but a few each year may be 
caught, caged, fed and reared, so that you may learn all 
their habits. This will be full of interest, and you may 
make observations which will benefit many olheis. 
Every lioy has or should have a knife, with which he may 
whittle out many amusing and useful things ; windmills 
for the cornfield ; weather vanes for the barn , figure 4 
traps for the rats, etc. Above is a plan for a very comical 
wcatliercuck. Make the figure of a man say about a 
fuot high. For arms, have twb blades set like those of a 
windmill, and let them be fastened at the siioulders by a 
wire running through the body, in which it should turn 
freely. Place the figure on an upright wire ftstened on 
the end of a pole, or at the top of a building. This wire 
should pass through a metal plate connecting the feet, 
and at the point where it supports the body, insert a nail, 
so that the whole may turn easily. Then when the wind 
blows, you will be amused lo see tlie queer antics the 
image will perform, bealin? the air with his cudgels, and 
facing about right and left, very often at double quick 
time. One which the writer put up many years ago is 
still an object of curiosity to the passers, who frequently 
stop to watch Its amusing pranks. With plenty of such 
employments which young people niay find for their 
leisure, there need be no complaint of dullness at home, 
or desire to '* go somewhere" to find enjoyment. 
About '%Vci;;:Uts an«l Aleasnrcs. 
How long is a foot? "Twelve inches," is the ready 
answer of the girls and boys. And how long is an inch ? 
"Three barley corns." says the aritlimetlc. But some 
kernels or corns of barley are longer than others, and if 
the yard measure of some storekeepers were to be made 
by taking these as a standard, they would certainly pick 
out the very shortest ones. Edward H, King of Englai'd, 
in i:i24, made a law that the barley corns should l)e round 
and dry ; this, however, was a very loo^e way of fixing 
the standard, and without doubt the lenglh of (he foot 
and the yard varied much with different dealers. A va- 
riation of so small a quantity as the iiundiedth part of an 
inch in the measure would make much dilTerence in the 
profits, where large quantities of costly goods were sold. 
In the years I73G and 1742, a soi-iety of learned men in 
England, by comparison of the standards of measure 
used by difl^erent nations, buth ancient and modern, and 
by other means, such as determining the length of a pen- 
dulum beating seconds, fixed the length of the standard 
yard. In 1T58 and 1700, the English Parliament caused 
two copies of this standard lo be prepared, and adopted 
them as the measure by which all others in the kingdom 
were lo be regulated. These were destroyed by fire in 
1S34, and it was a nioredifficult matter than you may sup- 
pose to construct another which should be exactly like 
the first. Tlierc were of course thousands of copies all 
over the kingdom, each of them accurate enough for 
general purposes, but yet most of them varied very slight- 
ly from each other, and it was not easy to tell which was 
just right. In adjusting the one finally adopted, over 
200,000 measurements were made under the microscope 
with the most delicate instruments. Copies of this stand- 
ard were early introduced into this country, and all our 
measures are required by law to correspond to them. 
The weights in use in England and the United States, 
were originally derived from the weight of kernels of 
grain. Henry III, enacted that an English penny should 
weigh 32 grains of wheat gathered out of the middle of 
the ear ana well dried ; 20 pence (pennyweights) to an 
ounce, and 12 ounces a pound. The pound avoirdupois 
contains 7000 grains. Standards for the pound Troy were 
made in 17n8, by Mr. BirJ, the same gentleman who pre- 
pared the standard yard. The standard of the gallon is 
a vesse' containing 53,372.2 grains ; the bushel contains 
543,391.89 grain?. Copies of these are kept at Washing- 
ton, and also at the Capitals of the several States. 
I>o you ICno-w Ho^w to Rea.d? 
Not many boys or girls, or even men or women have 
learned how to read. " But you do not mean here in the 
United States," says some one who is surprised that the 
truth-telling Agriculturist should make such a statement, 
Yes, we are thinking and writing about our own country, 
where schools are so plenty, and where it is thought al- 
most disgraceful for any person lo grow up ignorant of 
reading and writing. Not long since the writer saw a 
boy with a book he had taken from a library, which he 
seemed to be reading very industriously. He turned over 
page after page, and in a few hours closed the volume 
saying '"Ihave read that through." " And what was it 
about?'* "e asked. ''Oh about the Indians, and the 
Spaniards and English who first came to this country. 
" What about the English ?" " Oh I don't know exactly ; 
they fought with the Indians, and got their lands away 
from them, and settled the country." A few more ques- 
tions proved that this lad had been very patiently calling 
off the words in the book, but that he had received and 
kept very few of the thoughts which the words were 
meant lo convey to his mind. He had gained very little 
knowledge, only a few scraps, which floated loosely in 
his memory, and which would all be gone in a few weeks 
at farthest. Now il is believed that more than one half 
of all that is called reading is done in this way ; the 
names of the words are called, and that is all. What 
would be thought of a boy who should swallow chest- 
nuts whole ? How much pleasure would he have in 
eating them ? How much nourishment would he receive 
from them? Now every sentence Is like a shell contain- 
ing an idea, and whoever merely receives the words 
without getting the idea, takes his mental nuts uncracked. 
This is one reason why so few are really fond of read- 
ing. They have not learned to feed the mind by it. He 
who lightly reads a book, has taken the ideas it contains 
and made them his own thoughts. Then he can com- 
pare them, sift out the good ones, and lay them up in his 
memory with other knowledge for future use. To do 
this requires that the mind be kept actively at work while 
the reading is going on. At first it may be necessary to 
read a page over many times before tlie attention can be 
so fixed that all the ideas can be held by the mind. But 
it is better to read a book six times and thus know what 
is in it, than to skim six books without retaining what they 
teach. In reading many works, especially descriptions, 
it will be of great help to the student to imagine just how 
each scene looks ; to try and make a picture of it in the 
mind. If a representation or map showing tlie thing or 
place described can be had, it will be a great help, and 
should be constantly used. Those who studied the news 
from the war in this way, as it came day by day. have a 
clear idea of tlie great operations of our armies, and 
will remember them much more ea&ily. Whoever learns 
to read in this way, passing over nothing which is not 
made clear to the understanding, and deeply iinpresse<l 
on the memory, will have the surest foundation for a good 
education. An excellent practice is to read a page or a 
chapter, anil then try to write out the ideas in one's own 
language. Practice will make it easy, and the habit 
formed while young, will be lasting, ami of incalculable 
benefit, especially if proper care be taken to re.id only 
good books ; and it will be found that the love of reading 
in this way will increase with each new volume with 
which the mind is fed. 
Kvntliiig: Hig:]i Postag;c Rates. 
It is related that at one time the poet Coleridge stopped 
at a country inn jxist as the postman brought a letter for 
the servant girl. She looked at it and asked '* How much 
postage?'' "One shilling'* (24 cents), was Ihe reply. 
Sighing deeply she handed it back saying slie was too 
poor to pay it. Coleridge, though poor himself, immedi- 
ately offered to pay it, which lie did in spite of some 
rather surprising nods and winks from the girl to prevent 
his doing so. When the postman had gone, she confessed 
that the letter contained no writing. Owing to the very 
high rate of postage, this girl and her brother had con- 
trived a set of hieroglyphics to be used on the outside of 
their letters, by which they communicated with each oth- 
er, without paying. A few years after this, by the exer- 
tions of Sir Rowland Hill, postage was reduced to one 
penny per letter, and there remained no excuse for such 
contrivances to cheat the Post Office. 
Ne-\v Puzzles to l>e Ans-vrered* 
No. 175. Arithmetical Question. — A and B traveled on 
the same road and at the same rate from Jarreltsville lo 
Cooptown. At the 50th mile-stone from Cooptown, A over- 
took a drove of geese which were proceeding at the rate 
of 3 miles in 2 hours ; and 2 hours afterwards met astage 
wagon, which was moving at the rale of 9 miles in 4 
hours. B overtook the same drove of geese at the 45tli 
mile-stone, and met the same stage wagon exactly 40 
minutes before he came to the 3Ist mile-stone. Where 
w as B vvhen A reached Cooptown. Please send solutions. 
No. 176. Illustrated licbus.— "Worth remembering. 
No. 177. Charade.— I am composed of 17 letters. My 
I, 4, 8, 10, 17, 6, 13 were much needed in the late war. 
My 1, 2, 16. 4, 9. 13, 17 Is the offspring and the bane of 
liberty. My 13, 2, 1, 4, 9, 16, 17 is a rare virtue, much 
practised by a great General. My I, 8, 10, 7 is a general 
favorite who often indulges in my 14, 17, 8, 5, 13, and who 
never should be a 11, 2, 1, 6. My 10, 4, 3, 6 is owed by 
most who engage in my 3, 12. 13, 2, 9, 4, 13. My whole 
forms the pillars of the Republic. 
No. 178. Illustrated Rebus,— A very serious question, 
Aus'wcrs to Problems nn<l Puzzles. 
The following are answers lo the puzzles, etc., in the 
August and September numbers. On page 255, No. 169. 
Prolijic Word —Brained .... No. 170. Illustrated Rebus.— 
Beak wick tool urn th eel s son switch e vents tea ch, or : 
Be quick to learn the lessons whicl. events teach — No. 
172. Illustrated Rebus.— '&wm boy in the U. S. by patient 
in dust tree is pre paring hynms elf four the Pre.'^ident C, 
or: Some boy in the United States by pallmt industry. Is 
preparing himself for the presidency No. 173. Cha- 
rade—The American Agriculturist — On page '^87. No. 
173. Illustrated Rebus.— Better B poor and good than 
rich and good for nothing No. 174. Illustrated Rebus, 
B under nose in four nose laver e is half so pane fool, or; 
Be under no sin, for no slavery Is half so i)atnful. 
The following have sent in correct answers up to Sep- 
tember loth : Wm. H. Paine, 162, 165 ; Carrie Nevins, 
165, 165: Charles E. Bishop. 162, 165: Jim U. Hale. 105; 
Daniel U. Hosterman, 161, liVJ, 103; Lymaji H. Basset. 
16G: J. M. Johnson, 16S ; James A. Dorsey, 161, 162, 165; 
Sala. 105 ; John C. Green, 16-', 1G;J ; Samuel A. Sims, !73 ; 
JohnG. Bundy, \<C'2 . Elma M. Taber, 172; George L. 
Brown, 172 ; Walter S. Wales, 169, 171 : Lucy R. Weeks, 
169, 173 ; Robert G. Weeks, 172, 173 ; " O L. S.," 172, 173. 
