346 AMEEIOAK' AaEIOIJLTTJEIST. LAugust, 
currens, our only representative of a genus else¬ 
where found In Chiii and New Zealand. This tree 
does not occur at a lower elevation than four thou¬ 
sand feet, and above that hight it has a wide range 
throughout the Sierra Nevada and the mountains 
of Southern Oregon. The hight of the tree is from 
one hundred and twenty to two hundred feet, with 
a trunk naked for eighty to one hundred feet, and 
seven to eight feet in diameter. The foliage, as 
seen by the engraving, bears a resemblance to that 
of the Arbor Vitae. The tim¬ 
ber of this tree is among the 
most valuable, at least to 
farmers, of the many line 
kinds of California. It is 
light, yellowish in color, and 
of great durability, being in 
this respect rated above that 
of the Redwood. For rails, 
and fencing generally, it is 
much preferred by the farmers 
to whom it is accessible, to 
any other timber. Like many 
other gigantic forest trees, 
this, when young, and grown 
without the crowding that it 
receives in the forest, is a 
highly ornamental tree, as¬ 
suming a compact, pleasing 
form, and especially attractive 
on account of the deep, rich, 
glossy-green of its foliage. 
This White Cedar has been 
tried in a number of localities 
in the Eastern States, and 
while it does not appear to be 
sufficiently ha^dy to be recom¬ 
mended for general planting 
north of Virginia, yet, with the 
care given it at Rochester, 
New York, it succeeds in that 
rather severe climate. Proba¬ 
bly, like many other ever¬ 
greens, it becomes more robust 
with age, and if afforded slight 
protection while young, will 
soon be able to do without 
it. The trouble with this, 
and similar trees is, they continue to grow so late 
in the season, that their wood does not have time 
to ripen sufficiently to endure the winter. It is all 
important that such trees have a light and well- 
drained soil, and one that is not especially rich. 
Temperatures—Practical Hints—Ther¬ 
mometers. 
1. H. MATER, M.D. 
There should be a good thermometer in every 
house. A very little attention to what it reveals 
to us will be of much practical use to farmers, and 
indeed to all others. Our feelings are affected by 
BO many internal and external conditions that they 
are no certain indication of the actual heat or cold. 
The right temperature of rooms in winter is im¬ 
portant. For strong men, properly fed and 
clothed, this is not so material. To them forty- 
eight to sixty degrees is felt as comfortable. 
Young children and aged persons require much ar¬ 
tificial warmth. The newly-born infant requires 
sixty-five to seventy-five degrees, often more. Some 
old people are benefited by a still higher tempera¬ 
ture. The air in a sick room or a hospital should, 
ns a rule, be sixty degrees. Fever cases sometimes 
do best in forty to fifty degrees. 
The importance of the temperature of the water 
In bathing can scarcely be overestimated. Both 
vapor and hot water baths above ninety-seven de¬ 
grees are decidedly stimulant. The warm bath, be- 
tweet ninety-seven and eighty-five degrees, is sooth¬ 
ing, and beginning with ninety-seven degrees is 
suited for infants and of much use in securing n 
robust growth and laying the foundation for a 
“good constitution.” The tepid bath, between 
sixty-five and eighty-five degrees, is useful for 
cleanliness and tq promote insensible perspiration 
—to keep the pores open. The cold bath, between 
thirty-two and sixty-five degrees, acts primarily as 
a stimulant, next as a tonic, and finally as a seda¬ 
tive ; though few, except strong persons with 
healthy lungs should indulge in this luxuiy. The 
natural temperature of man in health is ninety- 
eight to one hundred degrees (98.4 degrees) and 
exposing the whole body or part of it to water 
thirty-five to sixty-six degrees colder is unsafe. 
Well or spring water is usually from forty to sixty 
degrees, and water to be used for bathing if 
above sixty degrees or below forty degrees should 
be avoided by the greater part of mankind. 
Digestion takes place at ninety-eight to one hun¬ 
dred degrees in man, and in case of low vitality a 
drink of milk at one hundred degrees or higher is 
most grateful to the stomach. Fresh water is usu¬ 
ally a tonic to the stomach far preferable to any 
“ stomach bitters” or anything else. Ice water, in 
large or even small quantities, taken by those un¬ 
accustomed to its use, paralyzes the functions of the 
stomach and produces serious results. In experi¬ 
ments in ovens Blagden and Fordyce bore two 
hundred and sixty degrees, while their own tem¬ 
perature rose only two and a half degrees, 
but the air was dry and the heat of their bod¬ 
ies was kept down by free perspiration. Higher 
heat may be endured without discomfort in a 
dry atmosphere than in districts abounding in 
moisture. Sixty degrees below zero and even 
lower has been endured without fatal results. 
Air at thirty-two degrees contains about ten per 
cent, more oxygen than at eighty degrees. Hence 
the vitalizing infiuence of cold, bracing air, and the 
rapid breathing or panting of animals on a hot day. 
Over one hundred and ten degrees heat of 
the body indicates the extremest danger in dis¬ 
ease, and when the blood of the vertebrate animals 
exceeds one hundred and thirteen degrees the re¬ 
sult is necessarily fatal, as it coagulates one of the 
albuminous bodies in the muscles. Nearly all, 
perhaps all infectious material, if thoroughly ex¬ 
posed to two hundred and twelve degrees (boiling 
heat) is destroyed. 
The temperature of a toad and of many varieties 
of fishes is about fifty-one degrees, and in cold¬ 
blooded animals generally it is about the same. 
The ape has a temperature of scarcely ninety-six 
degrees ; the whale and seal, one hundred and four 
degrees; and the squirrel, one of the wannest 
mammals, one hundred and five degrees. Tha.t of 
the swallow and heron rises above one hundred and 
eleven ; of the hen scarcely one hundred and six 
degrees, which the incubator must imitate; one 
hundred and seven is fatal to the chick. 
During the flowering process plants evolve unu¬ 
sual heat—in some only a few degrees, while in 
blossoms of Arum cordifoKum it rises to one hun¬ 
dred and eleven and even one hundred and twenty- 
one degrees, while the external air is only sixty- 
six degrees. Growing plants are slightly warmer 
than the surrounding atmosphere. 
A thermometer is useful in many ways. Milk 
yields best results if kept at or slightly above forty 
degrees—the same as good spring water. Cream 
is most readily churned at from fifty-seven to sixty 
degrees. Curd cheese is best produced by expos¬ 
ing thick milk at eighty-five degrees. Sweet pota¬ 
toes keep best if never exposed below forty de¬ 
grees ; while fruit of all kinds requires a room 
under thirty-five degrees. A cellar for bees should 
be forty degrees ; if well ventilated it may be fifty. 
A wine cellar about sixty degrees is best, both for 
fermenting and keeping. Grapes are most success¬ 
fully propagated from cuttings, single eyes, etc., in 
a temperature of eighty degrees. In propagating 
houses for soft wood of various vines and plants the 
bottom heat should be from sixty-five to seventy de¬ 
grees, with the air about fifteen degrees cooler than 
the sand—hot-beds the same or ten degrees higher. 
Many other uses will be found for the thermome¬ 
ter besides telling when it is “ ninety-eight degrees 
in the shade” in summer or below zero in winter. 
A Farmer’s Work-bench. 
A cheap and convenient work-bench is shown in 
the engravings. The legs are of two by six-inch 
scantling, thirty-four inches long, and the top is 
made of a two-inch plank in front, and inch boards | 
at the back. Good pine makes a bench that will | 
last many years, and is easy to handle if necessary 
to use it outside of the shop. In the front are 
strips, inch or inch-and-a-quarter thick, six inches i 
wide, with the edge bevelled from centre both 
ways, as shown in figure 1, a, a, the slide, s, is * 
fitted to move between these strips. ' 
A bench eight feet long, two and-a-half wide, i 
and three feet high, is in good proportion. A wide 
board coming half way or more down the front of |1 
the bench is sometimes used, but by making the | 
bencli as shown, you can nail in a bottom to the i 
lower strips, and have all the space under the Ji 
bench for storing tools, boxes, etc. The vise, v, i, 
should be of hard-wood, about two inches thick, t 
and eight inches wide at the top. The screw is placed !| 
as shown in figure 2, and the piece at the bottom is 
fitted into a mortise and firmly fastened. Cut the 
four end pieces twenty-seven inches long, and nail 
them firmly to the legs. Let the two-inch front 
plank project a little beyond the end pieces, and 
level the top so that it will be 
flat and smooth. Set in all the 
nail-heads an eighth of an 
inch, that they may not dull 
any tools. If any of the pa¬ 
tent adjustable “dogs” are 
used, fit them into the plank 
about ten inches from the 
end, and six inches from the 
front edge. A large three-inch screw will an¬ 
swer, but is less convenient. A case of draw¬ 
ers may be made to set in under the bench 
for holding small tools, brads, screws, rivets, etc. 
Home-made Essence op Celebt.— Soak half an 
ounce of celery seed in a gill of pure brandy for 
two weeks. A few drops will give a pleasant flavor 
to a tureen full of soup, or the stuffing for a fowl, 
D 
Tig. 3. 
