10 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[January, 
helped out, by mother or sister, or perhaps by father, or a 
subserviaut teacher. It is a very strong objection to 
private or home schools and tutors, that with few pupils, 
the teacher helps the children too much, and they also 
lack the stimulant of competition. In large families of 
children they have each to fight his own way along 
among compeers, and thus a healthful self-reliant spirit 
is acquired. 
We have said enough to illustrate our idea. Let every 
parent consider the subject well, and see what he can do 
to cultivate this self-reliant spirit in his children. Let 
the training begin in very early life. Every time we see 
a mother sit down to work out the boy’s “ sums” for 
him, and help him dig out bis other lessons, we feel that 
she is by so much teaching him to lean upon others, 
and lessening his manly independence. If he is over¬ 
tasked to absolute despair, let the task be lessened an¬ 
other time, but in every case let. him “ paddle his own 
canoe.” Kindly encourage him to do it, but do not do it 
for him. While still very young, give him full charge of 
some work that he must accomplish entirely without aid 
from others. We think it well to give every boy on a 
farm at least a small plot of ground, in the care and di¬ 
rection of which he is to be absolute sovereign, suffer¬ 
ing its losses and enjoying its profits. In its manage¬ 
ment let him have little of your aid or even advice. He 
will thus both learn self-reliance, and be led to plan and 
study for himself. Though there be a score of servants 
in the house, the child should not harbor the idea that he 
can run to them for every thing wanted. In short, what¬ 
ever the station, let the children have a considerable 
number of duties and cares that they must attend to 
without leaning upon any one. 
With this courageous self-reliance secured, a habit of 
economy —not a mean or miserly parsimony—will go far 
to ensure a man’s success. We believe every boy should 
have a money purse, and always have something in it. 
If you can only spare him three cents a month, let him 
learn to spend but two of them, and to keep an account 
of the expenditures. It is as important for him to do 
this, for the habit it, begets, as for the millionaire to 
enter a sale of a hundred thousand. A business man of 
our acquaintance, possessed of large wealth, came to this 
city almost penniless, and engaged to work at a very 
small salary. Himself and wife took apartments which 
allowed them to save $200 a year. While his fellow 
clerks took a three shilling noon lunch, he contented 
himself with one costing half that sum, but quite as 
nourishing. The money saved by these two economies 
was just what he needed when a little business enterprise 
opened to him, that laid the foundation of his present 
wealth. Getting rich depends not so much upon what a 
man receives, as upon what he saves. The sons of the 
rich seldom acquire these habits of economy, but com¬ 
mencing where their fathers leave off, they retrace his 
steps and they leave off where he began—at the small 
end of the horn. 
Put Water on the Stove Now. 
A BIT OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE. 
If everybody knew the amount of comfort and health 
to bn derived from it, there would not be a fire lighted 
this winter without having an open vessel of some kind 
containing water, upon every stove and in every heating 
furnace in actual use. Let the reader look a little into 
the practical science of the matter, for it is not diffi¬ 
cult to be understood. If you warm a portion of air it ap¬ 
pears to have the property of combining with water, and, 
so to speak, hiding it. If you cool the air again, it lets 
go its hold of the water. On a warm day, we say, a 
pitcher or tumbler of cold water “ sweats,” for we see 
moisture ou the outside. The truth is, no water passes 
through the sides, but it cools the warm air, and then 
this air lets go its concealed water, and it settles on the 
outside of the cooled vessel. When the air above us by 
any means become cooled, it gives up its moisture ; the 
hidden vapor or particles of water unite in great numbers 
until eacli little mass becomes too large and heavy to 
float longer, and it falls as a rain drop. Millions of these 
drops make a rain shower. 
A room 10 feet square and 10 feet high contains 1,000 
cubic feet of air. When this amount of air is just ice 
cold, (32" F.,) it will hold 2,350 grains of water—that is, 
5 1 1 3 ounces, or one-third of a pint. [A pound or pint of 
water weighs T,000 grains.] Set 10 pounds or pints of 
water in a dish on the floor, and it will stay there ; the 
air will not take any of it, because it is already just 
full of watery vapor. 
Now warm the air a little—say 8°, or to 40° of the Fah¬ 
renheit thermometer, and after a while you will find that 
the dish has lost 1,300 grains of water, which the air has 
picked up. Let the air be cooled down again to 32° by 
cold upon the outside of the windows, and this 1,300 
grains of water (nearly 2 gills) will be thrown out by the 
air and will settle on the window glass. You can write 
your name on the damp, foggy film of water... .Now heat 
the air up to 70°—a moderate summer warmth—and 
after a while your dish of water will have lost 5,540 grains 
of water, or about four-fifths of a pint, though the air 
appears no damper than before, because it has hid away 
this extra water, or made it insensible. If you now cool 
it again as before, there will be nearly a pint of water on 
the window glass... .If yon heat the air to 100", it will 
pick up and hide more than a quart (16,770 grains) of 
extra water. Here is a table showing how many grains 
weight of water air will take up and hide, at several 
temperatures: 
1000 feet of air at 0°, contains ISO grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 32°, contains 2350 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 40°, contains 3060 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at SIF, contains 4240 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 60°. contains 5S20 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 70°, contains 7910 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 80°, oontains 10730 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 90°, contains 14330 grains of water. 
1000 feet of air at 100°, contains 19120 grains of water. 
The air is always very eager to get just what moisture 
is natural to it at the different temperatures, and if you 
don’t furnish a supply in an open dish where it can i-ead- 
ily pick up the watery particles, it will gather it from the 
walls and furniture, and from your skin, and dive down 
into your lungs, and gather it there, and you will feel 
dry and parched outside and inside. The lungs, and the 
voice itself will become dry and husky—and you will feel 
uncomfortable. 
We hardly need now to explain the necessity of keep¬ 
ing a supply of evaporating water on a stove which is con¬ 
stantly heating the air first, in the room, and the cooler 
air that comes in to supply the place of that which has 
risen and escaped over the doors, through cracks, and 
through the ceiling. The old-fashioned open chimneys 
took out so much air, and brought in so much fresh air 
that we did not feel the lack of moisture. But now, with 
closed rooms and stoves, there should always be plenty 
of water evaporating from vessels with wide tops like 
basins, so that the air can get at the water rapidly.- 
We consider warm air furnaces very healthy, because 
they constantly bring in large volumes of fresh, pure air 
from the supply pipe coming from out of doors. This 
air is warmed as it passes through the furnace chamber; 
it is not de-oxidized, if the furnace irons be not red hot 
on their outer surface, as they seldom are ; so we get a 
beautiful volume of warmed, pure air coming up through 
the registers. But to be healthful, and comfortable, there 
must be a broad-top pan or two of water in the furnace 
chamber, to give the air its natural supply of water as it 
is warmed, or it will rob our skin and our lungs of their 
natural moisture, and it will dry out and shrink our doors, 
and our furniture, causing it to get loose iu the joints. 
- i .- 
“Shall I Send my Farmer Boy to 
College?” 
Thus asks one of our Ohio readers. He further in¬ 
forms us that he has a good farm, large enough for all 
three of his sons, and that they intend to follow this 
business, but that one of them wants first to go through 
College ; that he has the means to send him, but doubts 
if it will pay. We answer, yes, it will pay, even if the 
grown lad intends to live only to “make money.” The 
thorough hard study required to master the mathematics 
and languages of a college course, is to the mind what 
the discipline of breaking-in a colt is to the true, well- 
trained horse. Let the student sit down to dig out a 
hard Latin sentence in Virgil or Livy, or a Greek one in 
Homer or Sophocles, or let him try to solve a problem in 
the higher mathematics. It will require close applica¬ 
tion, steady thought, and the strong exercise of his rea¬ 
soning powers. At first the mind will fly off like 
the frisky colt, but the set task is to be accomplished, 
and the student brings his mind back into the thinking 
traces again and again—again and again—day after day, 
week after week, and month after month,.in one severe 
study after another, until he acquires control over it— 
until he is able to readily concentrate his whole thoughts 
upon the subject in hand. This is educating the mind. 
To use another illustration, this hard study is like the 
discipline undergone by the apprentice blacksmith. He 
begins to strike with feeble and ill-directed blows at 
first; but he keeps on striking month after month and 
year after year until the exercise developes powerful 
muscles in his arms and shoulders, and he learns to di¬ 
rect the blows exactly to the right spot, and what powerful 
effective blows he can then deal out! So the blows of 
the mind upon the mathematical studies and the lan¬ 
guages, develope the mind’s muscles, so to speak, and 
increases one’s ability to concentrate the reasoning facul¬ 
ties upon any particular topic. 
We might here add, parenthetically, that the studies so 
long maintained in most colleges—the higher mathema¬ 
tics and the Greek and Latin languages—are just the 
ones best fitted to develope this mind power, aside from 
any other advantages they possess, and we greatly fear 
the effect of the present inclination to modify this long- 
tried course of study, and allow students to choose other 
studies that suit their whims or caprices. The fact that 
a child or student does not like, or has not a natural ap¬ 
titude for, any line of study, clearly shows that certain 
faculties of his mind are weak, and there is all the more 
reason why it should be drilled in the very.studies he 
dislikes, if you would give him a well-balanced mind. 
And for a like reason, we would give the greatest atten¬ 
tion to the education of the naturally weaker-minded 
child of a family—and make up by discipline and cul¬ 
tivation wliat is not bestowed by nature. It is injustice, 
nay cruelty, to bestow our educational efforts upon the 
“smart” sons and daughters, and neglect the weaker 
ones because they are weak. Exactly an opposite course 
should be pursued. 
To return, does any one doubt that the young man who 
thus comes forth from college with educated, trained, 
strengthened mental powers, will not be a stronger and 
more effective man for it, even in the business of farm¬ 
ing? If the whole business of farming consisted in 
turning over so many feet of ground, sowing or planting 
so many seeds, reaping or thrashing so many acres, and 
nothing more, the case would then be a little altered. 
But farming is now becoming a science. To judge of the 
capabilities of the soil; of the adaptability of crops ; of 
the effect of season and weather; of the relative values 
of various products in the home and foreign markets; 
of the probable prospective supply and demand gene¬ 
rally for the different products, grain, roots, meats, dairy, 
wool, fruits, etc. ; of the effects upon the markets of po¬ 
litical changes and national disturbances; how and where 
to market—for after his own food is supplied, a man’s 
success depends quite as much upon profitable marketing 
as upon good crops—these and a thousand other ques¬ 
tions can be best grappled with by that man whose mind 
is most thoroughly trained to right reasoning, and whose 
mental powers are the most expanded and strengthened. 
A man does not go to college solely for what he learns 
there—he could fill in more mere knowledge by staying at 
home and constantly stuffing from books—but he goes 
for the discipline he gets. A collegiate may, on leaving 
college, forget every word he has learned, and yet have a 
strong mind—one able to grapple with the facts and 
business of life. 
There has been an idea—until recently almost universal 
—that because a man was educated, he must of course go 
into some one of the learned professions, so-called. It is 
coming to be understood that be is to be educated be- 
cause'it will make him a better and stronger business 
man, whatever his calling. We are now finding college 
educated men in the various business callings, farming 
included, and of fifty we could name, five-and-forty are 
doing well. 
' The loss of time is, with many young men, and their 
parents, a strong objection to devoting four, five or six 
years to college training. Let us see. Suppose that, at 
the age of 18,a man has an average probability of living, 
say thirty years. If he spend five or seven of these years 
in preparation, will not the remaining twenty-five years 
be far more valuable to himself and to others, than thirty 
years spent without this training ? We are sure it will. 
Bee Notes— By M. Quinby. 
Apiary for January.— Bees crowd closely in 
cold weather to keep warm, and grow more dense as the 
weather grows colder, occupying that part of the combs 
where there is no scaled honey, and many empty cells. 
Small swaarms often freeze to death this month. Where 
there are bees enough to generate moisture, it gathers on 
the sides of the hive and on the combs. This sometimes 
freezes, so that no honey outside the cluster of bees can 
be reached by them. When they have consumed all the 
honey within reach they must starve, unless warm wea¬ 
ther supervene, or they bo taken to a warm room for a 
time sufficient, to melt the frost and enable the bees to 
reach their stores. Tlie sun, if allowed to strike the 
hive fairly, will often dissolve the most of this frost. 
Care should be taken that the water thus produced does 
not run to the bottom of t ho hive, there to freeze again 
and stop the air-passages with ice. 
Raise the hives occasionally and sweep out the dead 
bees and dirt. The presence of mice may be known by 
the nibblings. Exclude them by covering all passages, 
except a space just large enough for a bee to pass, with 
wire-cloth. Swmep the snow from the alighting board 
lest it choke the entrance, except when the whole hive 
is covered, when it will effectually protect it from the 
cold. 
In my non-patented hives, the space allowed for sur¬ 
plus boxes in summer should be filled with straw in win¬ 
ter, making them warm and safe on the top, except, per¬ 
haps, from mice. Bees properly housed will need looking 
to, only to prevent the ravages of rats and mice. 
