290 
boys’ department 
paper. In the native country of the “Bamboo” 
Bambusa arundinacea, the stately culms, or stems, 
furnish spars for sail boats, as well as stout walk¬ 
ing-canes, much valued by pedestrians; and of 
some of its congeners are made the pretty “ rattans” 
and “ supple jacks—and fishing rods,” such as good 
old Izaak Walton never dreamed of. 
Excellent mattrasses are made from the soft inner 
husks of Indian corn, properly dried and hetchelled. 
Nothing affords a warmer thatch for outhouses 
than rye straw; and in Great Britain the cottages 
of the laboring classes are universally roofed with 
it; and what could our neat housewives do without 
the aid of the fine branching panicles of the broom 
corn ? (Sorghum saccharatum.) 
The creeping suckers and tangled roots of seve¬ 
ral species of otherwise useless grass, are exten- 
sivety useful both in Europe and America, in fixing 
the shifting sands of large tracts of sea coast, and 
preventing the ravages of the winds and tides—for 
this purpose the Arando arenaria and Cynodon 
dactylon are most valuable. But I should weary 
my young friends, as well as myself, were I to save 
them the pleasant labor of finding out all the ways 
in which grass contributes to our comfort and luxu¬ 
ry-mats, bags, ropes, ladies’ bonnets, boys’ hats, 
and a hundred other useful and ornamental articles. 
Even the melancholy sounding ■whistle, which 
every schoolboy can make of a green rye straw— 
not knowing or dreaming perhaps, that he is doing 
what men did thousands of years ago,—when they 
first invented the musical instrument, since called 
n Pan’s pipes,” which after various modifications 
became the soul-entrancing flute ! 
I dare not mention among the useful productions 
the much abused whiskey distilled from rye, nor 
the rum and ratafia from the sugar-cane. 
Straw, kept dry, appears almost incorruptible, 
which is owing to the abundance of silex which 
pervades the cuticle or skin, for they have no bark 
—that it is so filled can easily be proved by burn¬ 
ing a straw upon a piece of glass, when the vege¬ 
table portion will be consumed, and the complete 
skeleton left in the silex. 
It would be an agreeable and useful employment 
for the boys, to collect and preserve a specimen of 
each kind of true grass, and arrange them according 
to their natural affinities, in books made of straw- 
paper, loosely stitched together. Each specimen 
should have a label of writing paper, with the sci¬ 
entific and common names, neatly written, the place 
and mode of growth, cultivated, naturalized or 
indigenous, time of flowering and of ripening the 
seeds, with the several uses it can be made to 
answer in rural economy, to man or to animals. 
Eutawah. E. L. 
BOYS, BE KIND TO DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
One of the patriots and heroes of the War of In¬ 
dependence, who died suddenly, some years ago, 
in his barn-yard, said, with his last breath, to his 
servant, near by, “ Take care of these creatures.” 
By the same kind direction we are bound to study 
the means of preserving the health and administer¬ 
ing to the wants of domestic animals, by all those 
precepts in “ Holy Writ,” which recommend kind¬ 
ness to them, and protection from outrage and op¬ 
pression. A portion of the humane spirit of those 
precepts has pervaded all countries, and descended 
in a particular manner to the nations of the East. 
One of the tales of a philosopher of India, elucidates 
this fact in a striking manner. A traveller who w r as 
permitted to visit the place of punishment of cri¬ 
minals, saw there every part of the body of a man 
of high rank in flames, except one of his feet. Up¬ 
on asking the reason why that part of his body, 
alone, was exempt from the rage of the fire, he was 
told, that the only kind action that man had per¬ 
formed during his whale life, was to liberate a lamb 
which had been entangled, by one of its feet, by 
means of a brier, in crossing a field, and that, as a 
reward for that act, his foot wras exempted from 
punishment. 
We are also bound to study the diseases of do¬ 
mestic animals, and the remedies that are proper to 
cure them, by a principle of gratitude. They live 
only for our benefit. They require in exchange 
for their labor and all the other advantages w r e de¬ 
rive from them, nothing from us but food, shelter, 
and these often of the cheapest and coarsest kind, 
so that there is constantly due to them an immense 
balance of debt from us. This motive to take care 
of their health and lives will appear more striking 
when we consider the specific benefits we receive 
from each of them. The horse is not only an im¬ 
portant appendage, but a necessary part of the ce¬ 
ment of civilized society. He plow’s our fields, 
he draws home our harvests and fruits to our barns 
and cellars. He conveys them from distant parts of 
the country, oftentimes over rough and difficult 
roads, to our sea-ports and market towns. He re¬ 
ceives, in exchange for them, the products of foreign 
climes, and transports them to the interior and re¬ 
mote parts of our country. He administers to our 
health and to our pleasures under the saddle, and 
in the harness. In short, he adds to the increase 
of our commerce, national wealth, and happiness. 
To the horned cattle and sheep, w T e are indebted for 
many of the blessings and comforts of life. The 
strength and patience of the ox in the plow and in 
the team, have added to the wealth of the farmer in 
every age and country. The cow has still greatei 
demands upon our gratitude. Her milk, in its sim¬ 
ple state, furnishes subsistence to a great part of 
mankind. Its products in cream, butter, and cheese, 
form the most agreeable parts of the aliment, and 
even the luxuries of our tables. Her flesh affords 
us food. Her skin protects our feet and legs from 
the inclemencies of the weather in the form of boots 
and shoes. The sheep affords us, by her wool, a 
great portion of our clothing during every year of 
our lives, and likewise furnishes us with a whole¬ 
some aliment in the form of mutton and lamb. The 
hog is said, like the miser, to do good only w r hen he 
dies. But this is so far from being true, that he is 
dishonored by the comparison. He fattens upon 
the offals of our kitchens, -and is also made to per¬ 
form the office of scavenger in cleaning our streets. 
At his death he bequeaths us his flesh for food, his 
hair for brushes, and his fat for culinary pur¬ 
poses, and is useful in the arts. Other benefits are 
derived from the ass, the goat, the cat, the dog, and 
other animals. *W.* 
