AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
219 
Agricultural Exhibitions for 1858 
STATE. 
Place. Where held 
California.Marysville. Aug. 
Missouri.St. Louis. Sept 
Amer. Pomol. Soc.New-York. 
No. Western Virginia... Wheeling Island 
Vermont.Burlington. 
Ohio.Sandusky. 
New-Jersey,.Trenton. 
National Horse Show ..Springfield, Mass. 
Illinois.Centraha. 
Rhode-Island.Providence. 
Maine.Augusta. . , 
Pennsylvania.Pittsburg.Sept. 28 Oct. l 
Iowa.Oscaloosa. “ 28 “ 1 
Kentucky.Louisville. “ 28 
Wisconsin.Madison. Oct. 
Indiana.....Indianapolis. “ 
New York.Syracuse. “ 
New Hampshire. Dover. “ 
Connecticut...Hartford. “ 
Alabama.Montgomery.... “ 
United States.Richmond, Va.. “ 
North Carolina.Raleigh . Nov. 
South Carolina...Columbia. 
COUNTY FAXES. 
ILLINOIS. 
Date. 
23-28 
6—11 
— 14 
14—16 
14-17 
14—17 
14-17 
14—17 
14—18 
14—18 
21—21 
2 
4- 8 
4— 9 
5— 8 
6 — 8 
12—15 
18—22 
25—30 
2 — 0 
9-12 
Androscoggin.. 
West Somerset 
York. 
Pittsfield. 
8-10 
. Hillsboro. 
. “ 28 Oct. 
— 1 
.Hey) Paris. 
. “ 28 “ 
1— 
Quincy. 
“ 29 “ 
1 — 
Tremont. 
Oct. 
6— 7 
MAINE. 
.South Paris_ 
Oct. 
5— 7 
. Lewiston. 
“ 
5— 7 
.Anson. 
44 
6— 7 
.Saco . 
44 
12—13 
-Lee.. 
«< 
13—14 
MASSACHUSETTS 
Worceste West 
Champaign. 
Richland 
Mahoning. 
Stark. 
Morgan... 
... Lowell. 
Sept. 
15—17 
.. .Framingham- 
21—22 
44 
22—23 
ft 
22-24 
ft 
24— 
28-30 
_Dedham. 
28-29 
ft 
29— 
.. . Bridgewater_ 
44 
29—30 
29—30 
.. .Sturbridge. 
il 
29 — 
..Barre . 
“ 
30— 
Oct. 
5- 6 
tt 
6- 7 
(i 
6- 7 
‘ 4 
6— 7 
tt 
6— 8 
.. Amherst. 
It 
12-13 
tt 
13-14 
ilin and Hampden.. 
tt 
13—14 
NEW-YORK. 
.. .Mechanicsville... 
Sept. 
7— 8 
14—17 
tt 
15—17 
44 
21-24 
...Syracuse. 
44 
22—23 
44 
22—24 
“ 
23—24 
44 
23—24 
44 
29— 
. .Canandaigua- 
Sept. 29 
Oct. 1 
Oct. 
13—15 
“ 
26— 
OHIO. 
Sept. 
7— 9 
7— 9 
7—10 
. ..Twinsburg. 
8—10 
14—17 
tt 
20—22 
. .Olive Branch... 
ft 
21—24 
ft 
22—24 
ft 
22—54 
• t 
22-24 
tt 
23-24 
ft 
20-27 
ft 
28-30 
ft 
28—30 
ft 
28-30 
ft 
28-30 
tt 
29—30 
...Urbana.Sept. 28 Oct —1 
.. 28 ‘ 
— 1 
44 29 4 
— 1 
“ 29 1 
— 1 
..New Lisbon. 
“ 23 ‘ 
— 1 
.. Delaware. 
“ 29 • 
— 1 
“ 29 • 
— 1 
.. Canfield.— 
Oct. 
5— 7 
ft 
5— 7 
ft 
6— 7 
. .Marietta. 
tt 
6— 8 
. .Hamilton. 
tt 
6— 8 
6- 8 
ft 
6— 8 
6- 8 
.. Me.Connellsville, 
if 
6— 8 
ft 
6- 8 
ft 
6- 8 
ft 
6- 8 
6— 8 
7— 8 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
Sept. 
29—30 
.. Conneautville... 
Oct. 
5— 7 
tt 
6— 9 
Boys’ and Girls’ Own Columns. 
Albont Microscopes. 
This month we will write something about the micro¬ 
scope, which we hope will both interest and instruct our 
young readers—and perhaps older ones, too. 
We suppose you all know that a Microscope is an instru 
ment which magnifies objects, that is, makes them look 
a great deal larger than they really are. With the aid of 
this we can make a very small thing—one so small that 
we can hardly see it—appear so large that the minut¬ 
est part of it will appear plain to the eye. And this instru¬ 
ment reveals a world of wonders to us, which, without its 
aid, we should never have dreamed of. There are thou¬ 
sands of curious common things which we see and handle 
daily ; but there are a thousand times as many very curi¬ 
ous things that we have not seen. The moss by the brook 
or on a tree, the fiowe r s, the insects, are all familiar, and 
you perhaps think you have seen all that is interesting or 
beautiful in them. But in -their delicate structure are 
things more marvelous than their external or visible forms 
and colors. For example, the bluish mold on an old 
shoe, or on stale bread, looks like an irregular mass of 
filth; but the microscope presents the smallest particle of 
this mold as a beautiful forest of trees—and such it is— 
with branches and foliage as perfect as the finest grove of 
oaks. The eye of the common house-fly appears but an 
oval globule, without special beauty or interest ; the 
microscope shows it to be composed of many hundreds of 
perfect little eyes placed side by side. And so it is of 
the different parts of various insects, plants, etc. 
To see all these things in their greatest perfection, we 
need large costly instruments ; but one object of this 
article is to show you that there are instruments so simple 
and cheap that almost any boy or girl could get one per¬ 
fect enough to show much that is hidden to us without its 
aid. We have, for several years, carried in our vest 
pocket a microscope that cost less than three dollars, 
hichhas answered in most cases where we have desired 
to examine insects, plants, or soils, to ascertain their 
structure. 
T. 
E 
But first let us try and understand something of how it 
is that a bit of glass magnifies a small object—though we 
must refer you to your school books for a fall explanation 
of the laws of light, etc. 
We see an object by means of rays of light which come 
from every part of it, and entering the eye, make an impres 
sionupon it. These rays of light usually go in straight 
lines, and we suppose a thing, or any part of a thing, to be 
just where the rays of light from it appear to come from. 
But these rays are often turned out of their course, as 
when they pass through water, or glass. Let us examine 
fig. 1, which we have drawn to illustrate this. L is a solid 
piece of clear glass of oval shape, called a Lens , which is 
placed between the eye E, and the little rod a, b , c, d. 
Upon the rod we have marked the four dots, a, b, c, d. 
Now, a ray of light going from a through the glass is bent 
down a little, and as it goes out on the other side, it is 
bent down still more, and goes straight into the eye. But 
the eye is deceived by the direction in which the ray en¬ 
tering it, appears to come from, and so the dot a appears 
to be at A. On the contrary, the ray going from d, is bent 
upward, and the eye sees d at D. For the same reason b 
is seen at B, and c at C. But there are millions of little 
points between a and d, and these are seen all along be¬ 
tween A and D. In this way the short line a—d is, to the 
eye, lengthened to A — D. As the glass Lis round, the line 
is widened also at the same time by other rays ; that is, it 
is magnified in every direction. Any other small object, 
put in the place of the rod, would, in like manner, be en¬ 
larged. Its myriads of points would be spread over greater 
apparent space, so that the eye could examine each 
minute part. 
Now, a microscope is neither more nor less than a convex 
lens , that is, a piece of clear glass, shaped, like L in fig. 1. 
It is usually put into a frame, as in a, fig. 2, for conve¬ 
nience of holding and carrying it. When a higher mag¬ 
nifying power is desired, we often place two glasses or 
lenses, one uporQhe other, to bend the rays more than one 
would do, and this makes the object look still largei. In 
fig. 2, there are two of these glasses, a, a, which are put 
together when used, so that we see an object through 
both of them. In this instrument there is also a thin slip 
of metal, b, with a hole through the centre of it. The ob 
Fig. 3. 
ject of b is to cut off superfluous light from other objects, 
and admit, only, rays from the object directly before it. It 
also prevents distoited rays entering the eye from the im¬ 
perfect edges of the glass. 
Fig. 3 shows fig. 2 closed up, for carrying in the pocket. 
They are usually just about the size of our engraving, 
though sometimes smaller. 
But, for reasons we cannot now explain, a very small 
glass or lens is superior to a large one, and good magnify¬ 
ing glasses are seldom made larger than those shown in 
figs. 4 and 5. 
In fig. 4, a is a piece of glass, partly ground out in the 
middle, so as to leave a little lens upon each end. It is 
then put into the short tube having the twisted handle and 
ring to hold it by. When not in use, the double cap, b. 
is closed over the glass, to protect and keep it clean. As 
the whole apparatus is no larger than our engraving of it, 
you will see that it can be put into the pocket, or even 
carried upon a watch-chain, ready for use at any time you 
want to examine an insect that is destroying your garden 
or field plants, or look at any small object, or a portion of 
one. To use it. the object to be examined is brought near 
the eye, and the glass interposed, as shown in fig. 1. A full 
light should shine upon the object to be examined ; and a 
little practice is necessary to get it in just the right posi¬ 
tion, and also to learn to hold the glass steadily. 
Fig. 5. (next page,) is another form of casing, a is the 
lube holding the double lens, and b the double cap. The 
two cuts are the same instrument, opened and closed. 
The form shown by fig. 2 is quite common. Figs. 4 and 
