112 
April. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Hints aLont Candles. 
A little inquiry into the nature of flame, teaches 
some important facts in the manufacture of candles, 
not always well understood. 
1. Flame is perfectly transparent. It is true we do 
not see common objects through it, because the bright 
light of the flame eclipses all the fainter light of the 
objects beyond. The transparency is proved by the 
fact that the flame of a candle never casts a shadow, 
when placed between another candle and the wall; 
and also by the fact that an oblong or flat flame gives 
precisely as much light seen edgewise or with its broad 
side. 
Fig. I. Fig. 2. 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 3. 
2. The brightness and combustion are all at the out¬ 
side. The interior consists merely of the gas , which 
is constantly manufacturing from the tallow, the heat 
and light being at the outer surface of this portion of 
the gas, when it is in contact with the oxygen of the 
air, as shown in Fig. 1. This may be proved by hold¬ 
ing a piece of paper for a moment across the flame, 
when the outer or hot portion will burn a ring in the 
paper, leaving the interior uninjured, Fig. 2. Or it may 
be shown by quickly and dexterously thrusting the 
point of a phosphorous match into the interior of the 
flame, a Fig. 1, where it will not be lighted, the wood 
merely being burned off by the outer heat. 
3. These facts explain why an unsnuffed candle gives 
so little light. The large black snuff hides the light of 
a large part of the transparent flame—the consumption 
of tallow being always the same in either case, accord¬ 
ing to experiment. 
4. For the same reason, a large, loose wick, by giv¬ 
ing a broad black snuff to the candle, produces a great 
loss of light for the amount of tallow consumed. A 
smaller, compactly twisted wick, is more agreeable to 
the eye and more economical. The large wick produces 
a tall flickering blaze, often throwing off smoke, Fig. 
3. The smaller, compact wick, on the other hand, gives 
a more compact flame, which never flickers nor throws 
off smoke, Fig. 4. Hence the latter is less injurious to 
the eyes. The large hot wick often causes the tallow 
to run down the candle, although all candles are liable 
to this difficulty if carried about. 
A small wick feeds the melted tallow to the flame 
more slowly than a large one, and consequently the 
small wick candles burn the longest. In consequence 
of the black snuff, imperfect combustion, and waste by 
smoke, in the one shown in Fig. 3, it gives but little more 
light than Fig. 4, yet experiments show that the tallow 
is consumed nearly twice as fast The candle in Fig. 
3 will burn an inch in about 35 minutes—that in Fig. 4 
an inch in 65 or 70 minutes, while the amount of use¬ 
ful light from the latter is nearly equal to that of the 
former, saving nearly 100 per cent. Therefore, a fami¬ 
ly which consumes yearly twelve dollars worth of the 
first described sort, need not require more than about 
seven dollars of the latter. 
The best candles we have tried, had a wick made of 
four cords of common cotton pack-thread, twisted to¬ 
gether, for a candle three-fourths of inch in diameter. 
This will give an idea of the proper size of the wick, 
yet it may without inconvenience be smaller. It is 
much better, both for convenience and economy, and 
for the eyes, to burn two candles at once with small 
wicks and a clear steady light, than one only with a 
large one, giving off a large, dancing, smoking flame. 
All these remarks are intended - to apply to the use 
of good, pure tallow—a bad material will fail in any 
case. 
Blow to Make Farming Profitable. 
Messrs. Editors — I notice Dr. Lee’s remarks in 
Co. Gent, of Feb. 18, p. 107. I don’t think he fully 
comprehends my meaning. What- I mean, is, that 
every farmer in Western New-York ought to feed 
something better than hay and straw to his sheep and 
cattle during winter, and to their stock cattle as well 
as to those fattening for an early market. I say that 
every flock of sheep would pay, and well, too, to be 
fed at least 60 lbs. of grain or 50 lbs. oil-cake meal 
during winter, even when fed hay. 
I know I can keep either sheep or cattle more pro¬ 
fitably by feeding part grain or oil meal than in feed¬ 
ing hay alone, even if I am going to keep them two 
years before fattening for the butcher. For instance, 
I bought a lot of lean lambs 28th of Nov., 1856, at $2 
each—fed them 12 ounces oil-cake meal each daily 
the first winter, with straw only—gave them good pas¬ 
ture from April until the 14th of last Dec., when 1 
commenced feeding them 1 lb. each of oil-cake meal 
daily, with occasionally 1 lb. each of oats in place of 
the meal; they had also good hay. On the 8th of the 
present month, I sold them at $9.22 each. Now that 
is the way I would have farmers keep their young 
stock. I always feed my breeding ewes corn meal or 
oil meal. The lambs at 14 days old, will commence 
eating meal. In this way they will weigh more than 
two kept in the common way, when they are five 
months old. Just the same way with calves. Now I 
know every farmer in the State of New-York can have 
stuff to feed his sheep and cattle equally as well as I 
do, if he tries to do it. All cannot get oil-cake con¬ 
venient, I know, but every one of them can have oats, 
corn, barley, peas, or buckwheat. Let them feed from 
i to | of a pound to each sheep per day, beginning 
whenever the pasture fails, and I will warrant it to 
pay. No matter whether the sheep are for market in 
one or three years; let them keep up the feed every 
winter, and by increase of wool, increase of lambs, 
and by increase of the size and weight of the sheep, 
they will be abundantly paid for the extra feed, not 
even taking into account the extra manure, which is 
no small item with me. 
As to resting land—if seeded with clover and timo¬ 
thy, thoroughly plastered, and not eat off too close by 
sheep or cattle, four years such rest in Western New- 
York will make it bring good crops of grain. I notice 
