-41865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
319 
3B(0)Yi & (SdBlLWMM^o 
Enjoymen.t<^ at Home. 
To visit one’s neighbors occasionally is pleasant and 
profitable ; the young as well as the adult should learn 
by practice how to behave in society, how to give as 
well as receive enjoyment. But it is a mistake to look 
away from home for the greatest pleasure. Rather try 
to make home the happiest place in the world. Have 
you plenty of fruit, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, straw¬ 
berries, blackberries, currants, etc? These will add 
much pleasure to all in the house, and to visitors, but 
none will enjoy them as much as he who raises them. 
Almost every boy on a farm can do something at this. 
He can learn how to graft, and make the old orchard 
teem with the choicest apples ; plant pits of peaches, 
cherries, etc., and b>id them, with the best varieties ; 
take cuttings of currants, procure plants of berries, and 
in a few years have abundance of luscious fruit of his 
own raising. He will find in the Agriculturist from lime 
to time, full directions for cultivation, pruning, etc., and 
will soon become an interested reader of the men’s col¬ 
umns of the paper, 
and thus be grow¬ 
ing m.anly himself. 
How many boys 
will make a begin¬ 
ning this month 
by setting ont a 
bed of strawber¬ 
ries, from which, 
with proper atten¬ 
tion, they may 
gather some fruit 
next summer? 
Then when the 
leaves have fallen, 
invest a little mon¬ 
ey in a few good 
grape vines, and 
so on as the season 
arrives, get the 
fruit entei'prise in¬ 
to operation. The 
pleasure of seeing 
your plants grow 
will well repay 
for the trouble, 
and tile fruit and 
liraclical knowl¬ 
edge obtained will 
be clear gain.—The girls may cultivate flowers, and them¬ 
selves at the same time making roses bloom in the yard 
and on their own cheeks, and thus beautifying the whole 
household. Then there will be the insects to watch. 
Most of them must be killed, but a few each year may be 
caught, caged, fed and reared, so that you may learn all 
their habits. This will be full of interest, and you may 
make observations which will benefit many others. 
Every boy has or should have a knife, with which he may 
whittle out many amusing and useful things ; windmills 
for the cornfield ; weather vanes for the barn , figure 4 
traps fur the rats, etc. Above is a plan for a very comical 
weathercock. Make the figure of a man say about a 
foot high. For arms, have two blades set like those of a 
windmill, and let them be fastened at the shoulders by a 
wire running through the body, in which it should turn 
freely. Place the figure on an upright wire fastened on 
the end of a pole, or at the top of a building. This wire 
should pass through a metal plate connecting the feet, 
and at the point where it supports the body, insert a nail, 
so that the whole may turn easily. Then when the wind 
blows, you will be amused to see the queer antics the 
image will perform, beating the air with his cudgels, and 
facing about right and left, very often at double quick 
time. One which tlie writer put up many years ago is 
still an object of curiosity to the passers, who frequently 
stop to watch its amusing pranks. With plenty of such 
employments which young people may find for their 
leisure, there need be no complaint of dullness at home, 
or desire to “go somewhere” to find enjoyment. 
Atbont Weija^lits anti Measures. 
How long is a foot ? “ Twelve inches,” is the ready 
answer of the girls and boys. And how long is an inch ? 
“ Three barley corns,” says the arithmetic. But some 
kernels or corns of barley are longer than others, and if 
the yard measure of some storekeepers were to be made 
by taking these as a standard, they would certainly pick 
out ihe very shortest ones. Edward II, King of England, 
in 1324, made a law that the barley corns should be round 
and dry ; this, however, was a very loose way of fixing 
the standard, and wdthout doubt the length of the foot 
and the yard varied much with different dealers. A va¬ 
riation of so small a quantity as the hundredth part of an 
inch in the measure would make much difference in the 
profits, where large quantities of costly goods were sold. 
In the years 1736 and 1742, a society of learned men in 
England, by comparison of tlie standards of measure 
used by different nations, both ancient and modern, and 
by other means, such as determining the length of a pen¬ 
dulum beating seconds, fixed the length of the standard 
yard. In 1758 and 1760, the English Parliament caused 
two copies of this standard to be prepared, and adopted 
them as the measure by which all others in the kingdom 
were to be regulated. These were destroyed by fire in 
1834, and it was a more difficult matter than you may sup¬ 
pose to construct another which should be exactly like 
the first. There were of course thousands of copies all 
over the kingdom, each of them accurate enougli for 
general purposes, but yet mostof them varied very slight¬ 
ly from each other, and it was not easy to tell which wms 
just right. In adjusting the one finally adopted, over 
200,000 measurements were made under the microscope 
with the most delicate instruments. Copies of this stand¬ 
ard were early introduced into this country, and all our 
measures are required by law to correspond to them. 
The weights in use in England and the United States, 
were originally derived from the weight of kernels of 
grain. Henry III, enacted that an English penny should 
weigh 32 grains of wheat gathered out of the middle of 
the ear and well dried; 20 pence (pennyweights) to an 
ounce, and 12 ounces a pound. The pound avoirdupois 
contains 7000 grains. Standards for the pound Troy were 
made in 1758, by Mr. Bird, the same gentleman who pre¬ 
pared the standard yard. The standard of the gallon is 
a vessel containing 53,372.2 grains ; the bushel contains 
543,391.89 grains. Copies of these are kept at Washing¬ 
ton, and also at the Capitals of the several States. 
I>o you Know Iiow to Head? 
Not many boys or girls, or even men or women have 
learned how to read. “ But you do not mean here in the 
United States,” says some one who is surprised that the 
truth-telling Agriculturist should make such a statement. 
Yes, we are thinking and writing about our own country, 
where schools are so plenty, and where it is thought al¬ 
most disgraceful for any person to grow up ignorant of 
reading and writing. Not long since the writer saw a 
boy with a book he had taken from a library, which he 
seemed to be reading very industriously. He turned over 
page after page, and in a few hours closed the volume 
saying “I have read that through.” “ And what was it 
about?” we asked. “Oh about the Indians, and the 
Spaniards and English who first came to this country. 
“ What about the English ?” “ Oh I don’t know exactly ; 
they fought with the Indians, and got their lands away 
from them, and settled the country.” A few more ques¬ 
tions proved that this lad had been very patiently calling 
oflf the words in the book, but that he had received and 
kept very few of the thoughts which the words were 
meant to convey to his mind. He had gained very little 
knowledge, only a few scraps, which floated loosely in 
his memory, and which would all be gone in a few weeks 
at farthest. Now it is believed that more than one half 
of all that is called reading is done in this way ; the 
names of the words are called, and that is ail. What 
would be thought of a boy who should swallow chest¬ 
nuts whole ? How much pleasure would he have in 
eating them ? How much nourishment would he receive 
from them ? Now every sentence is like a shell contain¬ 
ing an idea, and whoever merely receives the words 
without getting the idea, takes his mental nuts uncracked. 
This is one reason why so few are really fond of read¬ 
ing. They have not learned to feed the mind by it. He 
who rightly reads a book, has taken the ideas it contains 
and made them his own thoughts. Then he can com¬ 
pare them, sift out the good ones, and lay them up in his 
memory with other knowledge for future use. To do 
this requires that the mind be kept actively at work while 
the reading is going on. At first it may be necessary to 
read a page over many times before the attention can be 
so fixed that all the ideas can be held by the mind. But 
it is better to read a book six times and thus know what 
is in it, than to skim six books without retaining what they 
teach. In reading many works, especially descriptions, 
it will be of great help to the student to imagine just how 
each scene looks ; to try and make a picture of it in the 
mind. If a representation or map showing the thing or 
place described can be had, it will be a great help, and 
should be constantly used. Those who studied the news 
from the war in this way, as it came day by day, have a 
clear idea of the great operations of our armies, and 
will remember them much more eakily. Whoever learns 
to read in this way, passing over nothing which is not 
made clear to the understanding, and deeply impressed 
on the memory, will have the surest foundation for a good 
education. An excellent practice is to read a page or a 
chapter, and then try to write out the ideas in one’s own 
language. Practice will make it easy, and the habit 
_ formed while young, will be lasting, and of incalculable 
benefit, especially if propei’ care be taken to read only 
good books ; and it will be found that the love of reading 
in this way will increase with each new volume with 
which the mind is fed. 
Invading' I'ostag'c 
It is related that at one time the poet Coleridge stopped 
at a country inn just as the postman brought a letter for 
the servant girl. She looked at it and asked “ How much 
postage?” “One shilling” (24 cents), was the reply. 
Sighing deeply she handed it back saying she was too 
poor to pay it. Coleridge, though poor himself, immedi¬ 
ately offered to pay it, which he did in spite of some 
rather surprising nods and winks from the girl to prevent 
his doing so. When the postman had gone, she confessed 
that the letter contained no writing. Owing to the very 
high rate of postage, this girl and her brother had con¬ 
trived a set of hieroglyphics to be used on the outside of 
their letters, by which they communicated with each oth¬ 
er, without paying. A few years after this, by the exer¬ 
tions of Sir Rowland Hill, postage was reduced to one 
penny per letter, and there remained no excuse for such 
contrivances to cheat the Post Office. 
I®wi 2 ! 2 !les t® l>e AMS’W'ered. 
No. 175. Arithmetical Question, —A and B traveled on 
the same road and at the same rate from Jarrettsville to 
Cooptown. At the 50th mile-stone from Cooptow n, A over¬ 
took a drove of geese which were proceeding at the rate 
of 3 miles in 2 hours ; and 2 hours afterwards met a stage 
wagon, which was moving at the rate of 9 miles in 4 
hours. B overtook the same drove of geese at the 45th 
mile-stone, and met the same stage wagon exactly 40 
minutes before he came to the 31st mile-sdone. Where 
was B when X reached Cooptown. Please send solutions. 
No. 176. Illustrated Rebus. —Worth remembering. 
No. 177. Charade. —I am composed of 17 letters. My 
1, 4, 8,10, 17, 5, 13 were much needed in tiie late war. 
My 1, 2, 16, 4, 9, 13, 17 is the offspring and the bane of 
liberty. My 13, 2, 1, 4, 9, 16, 17 is a rare virtue, much 
practised by a great General. My 1, 8, 10, 7 is a general 
favorite who often indulges in my 14, 17, 8, 5, 13, and who 
never should be a 11, 2, 1, 6. My 10, 4, 3, 6 is ow-ed by 
most who engage in my 3, 12, 13, 2, 9, 4, 13. My whole 
forms the pillars of the Republic. 
No. 178. Illustrated Rebus. —A very serious question. 
Asiswers to a.ii4l Puzzlcat. 
Tlie following are answers to the puzzles, etc., in the 
August and September numbers. On page 255, No. 169. 
Rrolific Word. —Brained_No. 170. Illustrated Rebus .— 
Beak wick tool urn th eel s son switch e vents tea ch, or : 
Be quick to learn the lessons which events teach — No. 
172. Illustrated Rebus.—Sum boy in the U. S. by patient 
in dust tree is pre paring hymns elf four the President C, 
or: Some boy in the United States by patient industry, is 
preparing hiinself for the presidency — No. 173. Cha¬ 
rade.—The American Agriculturist-On page 287. No. 
173. Ilhistrated Rebus.—Better B poor and good than 
rich and good for nothing — No. 174. Illustrated Rebus. 
B under nose in four nose laver e is half so pane fool, or: 
Be under no sin, for no slavery is half so painful. 
The following have sent in correct answers up to Sep¬ 
tember loth ; Wm. H. Paine, 162, 165 ; Carrie Nevins, 
162, 165 ; Charles E. Bishop, 162, 165 ; Jim R. Hale, 165 ; 
Daniel R. Ilosterman, 161, 162, 163; Lyman H. Basset, 
166 ; J. M. Johnson, 168 ; James A. Dorsey, 161, 162, 165 ; 
Sala. 165 ; John C. Green, 162,16.5 ; Samuel A. Sims, 173; 
John G. Bundy, 162; Elma M. Taber, 172; George L. 
Brown, 172 ; Waller S. Wales, 169, 171 ; Lucy R. Weeks, 
169, 173 ; Robert G. Weeks, 172, 173 ; “ 0 L. S.,” 172,173. 
