308 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
CHILDREN EATING MACCARONI IN THE STREETS OP NAPLES. 
stone or ore. The operation of separating metals from 
their ores is called reducing. This iron-stone that I 
first mentioned, tire oxide of iron, is the most easily re¬ 
duced of all. Hero in this ore you have iron and oxygen, 
and to get the iron by itself, we must get rid of the oxy¬ 
gen ; to do this we must present to the oxygen something 
that, so to speak, it likes better than it does the iron. To 
reduce this ore, we must take the oxygen away, and this 
is done by offering it carbon ; at a high heat the oxygen 
will unite with the carbon, to form carbonic acid, an in¬ 
visible gas, and the iron being left to itself will melt and 
run. You will ask how the carbon is to be got. Char¬ 
coal is nearly pure carbon, and wood and mineral coal 
consist largely of the element, carbon. Iron was known 
in early times, and the history of its introduction is lost. 
There is a tradition that some 1500 years B. C., the burning 
of a forest reduced the iron that was in the iron stones 
there, and thus gave the hint for the first iron manufac¬ 
ture. Iron is procured in India at the present day by a 
very rude process. A rough furnace is made of clay and 
filled with broken iron-stone, and charcoal ; the fire 
being lighted, a blast of air from a rude bellows, made of 
skins, is forced in at the bottom of the furnace; when 
the coal is all burned out, the clay furnace is broken, and 
a lump of iron weighing a few pounds, is obtained. Our 
iron furnaces are tall iron cylinders lined with firebrick, 
into the bottom of which passes a powerful blast of air 
forced by a steam engine; the iron ore and stone-coal 
are put in at the top of the furnace, and at the proper 
times the melted iron is drawn off below, allowed to run 
into molds or troughs of sand, where it cools. The iron 
ore and coal are added as often as needed, and the work 
goes on day and night, month after month, without let¬ 
ting the fire go down. The iron as it runs from these 
furnaces is cast iron. It has taken so long to tell you 
how iron is first obtained, that I must wait until another 
month before I can describe the difference between the 
different kinds of iron, and between these and steel. 
The Doctok. 
'I'lie Maccaroni Eaters. 
In warm countries the people live much more out of 
doors than we do, and their food is much simpler than 
ours. In those countries people live largely upon fruit, 
using it as food, and not as we do, as a luxury. The 
poorer people in such countries rarely get meat, and seem 
to do quite well without it. In Mexico, where railroads 
and telegraphs are almost unknown, and stage coaches 
are rare, the mail, when it goes at all, is carried on horse¬ 
back, and if one wishes to send a special message, ho 
must employ a runner, or correro. These men, with only 
a shirt and pantaloons of cotton cloth, and leather san¬ 
dals on their feet, travel for several days on a sort of jog 
trot, and carry their food with them. All that they take 
is a small bag of piwle and a gourd-shell for a cup. Pi¬ 
nole is made of Indian corn roasted and ground into a 
a meal; this is mixed with some sugar and a little spice. 
When the runner finds water he can make a meal. He 
has only to stir enough pinole with water in his gourd- 
shell cup, to make a gruel; this he drinks, and his din¬ 
ner is done. These runners do fatiguing work with no 
other food. In Mexico, the working people live largely 
upon corn in one shape or another, just as they do upon 
rice in China and other parts of the East. In Italy the 
food of the common people is Maccaroni. This is a 
paste made of flour and water, and dried in various 
forms. The wheat raised in that country has less starch 
than ours, and makes a very tough paste. By means of 
a machine, the paste is formed into quill-like pieces, like 
large pipe-stems, or it is sometimes merely rolled out 
thin, cut into strips and dried. This, when boiled, is in 
the shape of tough white strings, and is a very whole¬ 
some food. The Maccaroni sellers are to be found at al¬ 
most every turn in Naples and other cities of Italy, and 
the poorer people live almost entirely upon Maccaroni 
and fruit. The engraving shows the manner in which it 
is eaten ; the two street urchins are evidently enjoying it. 
