THE CULTIVATOR. 
lis 
the Senate. Amazed, and anxiously inquiring; “if all was well,” 
he desires his wife Racilia to bring his gown from the cottage with 
all possible haste. No sooner had he wiped away the dust and 
sweat, and thrown around him his garments, than the ambassa¬ 
dors with congratulation, salute him dictator, and invite him to 
the city, declaring that the army was overwhelmed with terror. 
In a ship prepared at the public expense, Quintius and his three 
sons are conveyed to Rome : his relatives and friends, and all the 
nobles go forth to meet him. Surrounded by an immense multi¬ 
tude, and attended by lictors, he is conducted to his future abode. 
Having met and overcome the enemy, and restored peace to the 
city, he resigned the office of dictator at the close of the sixteenth 
day, although elected for six months, choosing to cultivate his 
humble farm, and abide in his humble cottage, rather than con¬ 
trol the destinies of the Roman people.” 
Let those who cultivate the soil with their own hands, reflect 
upon the following facts in the story of Cincinnatus. He was a 
humble farmer—possessed only four acres of land—dwelt in an 
humble hut or cottage—was found by the commissioners actually 
employed in labor—was covered with dust and sweat, the neces¬ 
sary accompaniments of rural toil ; and yet even this man by the 
unanimous voice of the people, was placed at the head of the Ro¬ 
man empire, with absolute power over the property and lives of 
his fellows citizens. Having accomplished the object for which 
he was elected, he most readily and cheerfully resigns his office 
and retires to the shades of private life. The name of Cincinnatus 
will never die; while simplicity and virtue remain on earth, it 
will stand emblazoned in characters that “ can be seen and read of 
all men.” 
Vernon, June 21, 1835. ONEIDA. 
INTERESTING FACTS IN CHEMISTRY. 
1. Chemistry is the study of the effects of heat and mixture, 
with the view of discovering their general and subordinate laws, 
and of improving the useful arts.— Black. 
2. Whenever chemical action takes place, a real change is pro¬ 
duced in the substance operated upon; and its identity is destroy¬ 
ed. If a little carbonate of lime (powdered chalk,) be put into a 
glass of water, the chalk will sink to the bottom of the vessel. 
Though it should be mixed with the water, if left at rest it will 
soon subside ; no chemical action has taken place ; therefore the 
water and the carbonate of lime both remain unaltered. But if a 
small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid be added to a glass of 
chalk and water, a violent eft'ervesence will commence the mo¬ 
ment they come in contact with each other ; a chemical union of 
the two substances will be the consequence of this chemical ac¬ 
tion ; the identity of each substance will be destroyed, and sul¬ 
phate of lime, or gypsum (a body very different from either of the 
substances employed) will be produced. 
3. Heat has a tendency to separate the particles of all bodies 
from each other. Hence nothing is more necessary to effect the 
decomposition of many bodies than to apply heat, and collect the 
substances which are separated by that means. 
4. It is evident that water exists in the atmosphere in abundance, 
even in the driest season, and under the clearest sky. There are 
substances which have the power of absorbing moisture from the 
air at all times, such as the fixed alkalies, potash and soda, and 
sulphuric acid, the latter of which will soon absorb more than its 
own weight of water from the air when exposed to it. Fresh 
burnt lime absorbs it rapidly ; and earth that has been freshly 
stirred absorbs it in a much greater degree, at night, than that 
which is crusted and compact. Hence the importance of stirring 
the soil among tillage crops in time of drought. 
5. Bishop Watson found, that even when there had been no rain 
for a considerable time, and the earth was dried by the parching 
heat of summer, it still gave out a considerable quantity of water. 
By inverting a large drinking glass on a close mown grass plat, 
and collecting the vapor which attached to the inside ot the glass, 
he found that an acre of ground dispersed into the air about 1600 
gallons of water in the space of 12 hours, of a summer’s day. 
6. Lavoisser has explained solidity thus : “ The particles of all 
bodies,” says he, “ may be considered as subject to the action of 
two opposite powers, repulsion and attraction, between which 
they remain in equilibrio. So long as the attractive force remains 
stronger, the body must continue in a state of solidity ; but if, on 
the contrary, heat has so far removed these particles from each 
other as to place them beyond the sphere of attraction, they lose 
the cohesion they before had with each other, and the body ceases 
to be solid.” 
CHAPTER OF FACTS.— measures of length. 
Measures in length are the distance of one object from another, 
in some agreed standard. 
A line is the tenth of a digit and the 100th of a foot. 
A geometrical pace is 4-4 feet English ; and an English mile 
contains 1200, or 1760 yards, or 5280 feet. 
A Scotch mile contains 1500 paces; a German mile 4000 ; a 
Swedish and Danish mile 5000; the Russian mile 750 paces. 
A hand, used in measuring the height of horses, is 4 inches. 
A degree of latitude at the equator, is 69 l-7th English miles. 
A surveyor’s chain is 4 poles, or 66 feet, divided into 100 links 
of 7-92 inches. A square chain is 16 poles, and 10 square chains 
are an acre. 640 acres are a square mile ; and 4,840 square yards 
are an acre. 169-58 yards each way. 
The Irish acre 7840 square yards. 
The Scotch acre 1.27 English. 
A French arpent jjths of an English acre. 
121 Irish acres are equal to 196 English. 
48 Scotch acres are equal to 61 English. 
11 Irish miles are equal to 14 English. 
80 Scotch miles are equal to 91 English. 
A sea league is 3.4536 miles, or the 20th of a degree. 
6078 feet are a sea mile. 
A degree at the Equator is 365,101 feet, or 69.148 miles, or 
67 1-7tli nearly. In latitude 66.20 Maupertius measured a degree 
of latitude, in 1737, and made it 69.403 ; and Swanburgh in 1803, 
made it 69.292. At the equator in 1744, four astronomers made 
it 68.732 : and Lambton, in lat. 12, 68.743. Mudge, in England, 
makes it 69.148. Cassina, in France, in 1718 and 1740, made it 
69.12, and Biot, 68.769 ; while a recent measure in Spain, makes 
it but 68.63, less than at the equator ; and contradicts all the others, 
proving the earth to be a prolate spheroid, which was the opinion 
of Cassini, Bernouilli, Euler, and others, while it has more ge¬ 
nerally been regarded as an oblate spheroid. 
Degrees of longitude are to each other in length, as the cosines 
of their latitudes. For every 10° they are as follows :— 
Equator,. 
. 69 
2 
50° . 
10° . 
. 68 
15 
55 . 
20 . 
. 65 
27 
60 . 
30 . 
.59 
93 
70 . 
40 . 
. 53 
1 
80 . 
. 12.02 
The pendulum which vibrates seconds, 39.1393 inches at Lon¬ 
don, is the standard for the British measures. One mile is equal 
to 1,618.833 such pendulums. 
WEIGHTS. 
The standard of weights, is, the cubic inch of distilled water, 
weighing 253.458 Troy grains; the Troy pound 5,760 grains, or 
2,281.57 inches. The same standard of 7,000 Troy grains, makes 
the pound avoirdupois, 277.274 cubic inches; ten of which, or 
277.274, being the imperial gallon, or a quart 69.32; and a gill 
of five ounces of water, equal 8.664. 
The American quintal is 100 pounds. 
The weight of a cubic inch of distilled water, in a vacuum, is 
252.722 grains, and in air, is 252.456 grains. 
The Turkish pound is 7,578 grains—the Danish 6,941—the Irish 
7,774—the Naples 4,952—the Scotch, pound Troy, 7,620.8. 
A cubic foot of loose earth or sand weighs 95 pounds. 
A cubic foot of common soil weighs 124 pounds 
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