AMERICAN AGrRICULTTJRIST 
[September, 
TOYS 4 mw CGD]L¥MM§o 
'I'lae Woctor’s Talks 
In our last “ Talk ” about matter and its properties 
I had something to say about Capillai'y Attraction, and 
I hope you have kept m mind what was there said, 
as I wish to have some more talk about this same 
CAPILLARY ATTRACTION. 
There is so m uch to be said about matter and the forces, 
that you may think I am getting along at a rather slow 
rate' But I do not think it well to go too fast, and it is 
better to learn one thing well, than to have a mere smat¬ 
tering knowledge of many things. Though I told you 
last month about Capillary Attraction, I wish now to 
show you some of its applications, and how, without 
knowing—or thinking of it, we daily make use of it. 
You will recollect that this force received its name 
from capillus, a 
hair,because it was 
first noticed in 
very small and 
hair - like tubes; 
but it was shown 
that it was exer¬ 
cised by any sur¬ 
faces that were 
wetted by liquids, 
as seen by the ex 
periment with two 
pieces of window 
glass. There is one 
point that I should 
-have stated more 
distinctly last month—it is this: for Capillary Attraction 
to take place, the liquid and the solid should be of a kind 
that one will adhere to the other. You must look to last 
month's talk for the 
1.—MERCURY. 2.—WATER. 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COHESION AND ADHESION. 
Briefly —cohesion takes place between particles of the 
same kind, and adhesion, between those of a different 
kind. If you were to dip a piece of glass into mercury 
(quicksilver) it would come out without any of the metal 
adhering to it; if you dip the same piece of glass into 
water, it will come out wet; that is the adhesion of the 
water to the glass was sufficient to overcome the cohe¬ 
sion of the particles of water one to another. In the 
mercury the particles cohere together, stronger than they 
adhere to the glass. We say that mercury does not wet 
glass, while water does; wetting is due to the adhesion 
of a solid to a liquid. If yoq had two narrow glasses, 
and were to pour mercury into one, and water into the 
other, and carefully observe the surfaces, you would see 
that the mercury, having little or no adhesion to the 
glass, would appear convex as in figure 1, while the sur¬ 
face of the water would appear concave as in figure 2, 
8. SOIL EXPERIMENT WITH CAPILLARY ATTRACTION. 
there being an adhesion between it and the glass. You 
can not expect Capillary Attraction to take place unless 
THE SOLID CAN BE WETTED BY THE LIQUID. 
The fibres of a piece of cloth present numerous sur¬ 
faces close to one another, and if you put the eud of a 
towel, for example, in water, the liquid will rise up 
through the texture of the towel. Should you careless¬ 
ly leave your towel so that one end is in the water of the 
wash basin, and the other hangs down over the edge, the 
basin would after a time be emptied, the water rising 
through the towel and finally dripping upon the floor. 
THE USE OF BLOTTING PAPER 
to take up an ink spot, is an illustration of the utility of 
Capillary Attraction. You know that blott ing paper will 
take up the ink and that letter paper will not. You 
know that you can write upon letter paper, but upon the 
paper used for newspapers you can not usually write on 
account of the spreading of the ink. Why is this? Blot¬ 
ting paper and most printing paper are porous, i. e., there 
arc open spaces between the fibres of which they are 
made, and the surfaces of these fibres attract the ink; 
take it up by Capillary Attraction. The writing papers 
and the finer kinds of printing papers are sized, that is, 
have the spaces between the fibres filled up with glue, 
and there is no chance for the ink to enter and spread. 
A LAMP WICK 
was mentioned last month as a daily—or rather nightly 
illustration of this force—Capillary Attraction, the spaces 
between the cotton fibres of the wick, acting in the same 
manner as minute tubes, and bringing the oil up to the 
surface. The saine thing takes place in the candle, when 
the heat of the flame keeps a little of the tallow, or other 
material, melted, so that it can rise in the wick and lie 
burned. If you have a piece of rattan (which is the slen¬ 
der stem of a kind of Palm growing in tropical countries) 
and cut a piece between the joints five or six inches long, 
and put one end of it in a phial containing kerosene, 
after a while the kerosene will rise through the rattan, 
and may be burned there as if the stick were a wick. 
THE STEM OF THE RATTAN, 
though hard and polished on the outside, is very porous 
within, and contains numerous minute tubes and spaces 
through which the oil can rise by Capillary Attraction. 
There is one thing to be noticed in all the illustrations 
of Capillary Attraction ; however high it may be raised, 
THE LIQUID NEVER OVERFLOWS. 
For example, if you have a glass tube so fine that water 
will rise in it for six inches, if you make the tube four 
inches long, the water will rise to the top,and stop; the 
same would occur if the tube were an inch long, the at¬ 
traction carries the liquid to the top, but there is no over¬ 
flow. It is fortunate that this is so, or we should be 
obliged to take the wicks from our lamps every day ! But 
if when a capillary tube is full, we remove the liquid from 
the top, more rises to take its place. In the lamp wick, 
we remove the oil from the top by burning it, and so 
long as any remains in the lamp, it rises to take the place 
of that burned away. But I have left the most important 
of the many uses of Capillary Attraction to the last. 
THE CAPILLARY ATTRACTION OF TUE SOIL 
is of the greatest importance not only to the farmer, but 
to all who live upon the earth. Did not the soil possess 
this property, vegetation could not live, and the earth 
would be a desert. You can make an experiment show¬ 
ing the action of this force in the soil, if j'ou have any 
piece of glass tube, such as a broken lamp chimney; tie 
a piece of muslin or any thin fabric over the lower end, 
and then fill the tube to near the top with sand, or sandy 
soil, (any other soil will answer, but these operate more 
rapidly.) that has been thoroughly dried by being spread 
in the sun. Place the lower end of the chimney in a dish 
of water, and hold it in an upright position, as shown at 
figure 3, or by any other contrivance that will keep it from 
falling over. The water will be seen to gradually rise in 
the tube, and its progress may be seen by the darker 
color of the wetted soil, as seen in the engraving The 
water rises here by Capillary Attraction ; the particles 
of the soil, present surfaces which act like minute tubes, 
or like the plates of glass shown last, month. Just what 
happens in this tube, happens over your whole farm—in 
fact over the whole earth. As the sun and the winds dry 
the surface soil, and the growing plants evaporate great 
quantities of moisture from the surface of their leaves, 
WATER RISES FROM BELOW, 
whore it has accumulated from the rains. Were it not 
for this, so soon as the soil within a short distance of the 
surface had dried out, the plants would wither and die. 
But as it is, as the upper soil becomes dry, the water 
rises from below, and it is only in a very long drouth that 
the supply is exhausted and the plants suffer. Thunder 
storms and torrents of raiu are noisy, and we notice 
them when they bring needed water to the soil, but here 
is a still, small force, constantly at work, bringing life to 
our crops from far below the surface. We do not see it, 
seldom think of it, yet keeps on, like many other bless¬ 
ings, -whether we are thankful for it or not. You will 
learn that, as the most noisy people are not those who 
do the most, so the grand and noisy forces are not the only 
once that we should admire. This quiet rising of the 
water in the soil by Capillary Attraction, when we think 
what it does for us, becomes one of the grand phenomena. 
Tlee Doctor’s Correspomlcnce. 
WHY SOME LETTERS ARE NOT ANSWERED. 
It sometimes happens that my young friends forget 
that a number of weeks must pass between the time at 
which they write and that at which an answer can reach 
them through the paper. This must happen in a month¬ 
ly paper. Some answers would be all too late to be of 
use, and I do not give them. For example, a boy wrote 
me that he had found the cocoon of an insect and asked 
what he should do to make it hatch. From the descrip¬ 
tion I knew that the insect would come from the cococa 
long before he could get my reply, and I did not give it. 
THERE IS ANOTHER REASON 
why letters are not answered. I have just torn up a dozen 
or more that had no signature—that is, no name to the let¬ 
ter. I have stated many times that it is very improper 
to write a letter and not sign it with your own name. It 
is well to learn this while you are young, and never be so 
impolite as to address a letter to another without putting 
your name to it_“II. D. B.,“ Ingham Co.. Michigan, 
would like to know about 
THE GAME OF “AUNT SALLY." 
It is not much of a game, but a sort of rude sport. In 
England, at races, fairs, and at other gatherings, various 
outside amusements are provided by those who make it 
a business, just as around our fairs there will be Flying 
Horses, Fandangos, “Test your Lungs” affairs, “Weigh 
j'ou for a Cent ” chaps and others. “Aunt Sally" is very 
common there, and I have now and then seen it in this 
country. The “Aunt " is mostly all head; a roughly carved 
wooden head is fastened at the top of an iron rod, the 
other end is stuck in the ground, to make the head about 
three feet high. The face is rudely painted, usually 
black, and where the mouth should be, a hole is bored 
in which a common clay pipe may be inserted. 
This is all that is really needed to make an Auntie, but 
stie is often furnished with a kind of skirt or frock, and 
a cap made in an extravagant style. Figure 1 shows 
the anatomy of the old lady, and figure 2 gives her dress¬ 
ed for company. Each of the players has three sticks, 
or clubs, about a foot and a half long; he stands at a 
line marked at 10 or 12 paces from the figure, and throws 
the sticks in such a manner as to break the pipe if possi¬ 
ble. The players pay a small sum for their three chances, 
or shots, but whether they get. anything if they hit the 
pipe, I don’t know. Indeed I do not know the rules of 
the game, not having had the pleasure of seeing Aunt 
Sally except at times when no one was playing_“ How 
to capture it?” is a question “G. C.” asks 
ABOUT A HORNET’S NEST. 
I never tried but one, and will tell him how I managed 
that. My horse one day, some years ago, was hitched 
at a post under a tree. “Jock” was not noted for his 
activity, but upon this occasion had enough of life to 
make up for several years of laziness. He was being 
stung by hornets, and it was no little trouble to get him 
out of their reach. Upon search, there was found in the 
tree a hornet's nest, larger than a “stove-pipe hat,” that 
had not before been noticed. The Hornets must be dis¬ 
posed of, or there would be daily trouble for Jock. 
Brimstone (sulphur) was melted, a rag made into a roll, 
tied to keep it in shape. This was dipped into the 
melted brimstone, and when cool, there wash brimstone- 
match, in size between a lead-pencil, and the little fin¬ 
ger, and throe inches or so long: this was fastened, bj- 
mcans of a fine wire, to a stick long enough to reach the 
nest, and we were ready. When night came, and alt 
was quiet, the end of the match was lighted, and pre¬ 
sented at the Hornets’ front door. They had their ,match r 
for I doubt if a single one of the hornets in that particu¬ 
lar nest ever stung after that; the cure was complete. 
-- 
Our Piizzk-lSoY. 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
My initials spell the name of a territory ; my finals 
give the name of a city in the same. 
1. A garment. 5. An actress. 
2. A water animal. 0. Encircling. 
3. A man’s name. 7. A goddess. 
4. Frequently. 8. Peculiar. 
Denver, C. T. 
