cylinder, and the small piston ƒ is acted upon in the same ratio as the piston of the engine; to the piston rod g is attached the index hand d, in the end of which is affixed a pencil, which is acted upon by the piston f, when rising or falling from the effect of either pressure or vacuum. The small cylinder c is covered with a sheet of paper, and at its upper extremity is an ordinary watchspring h; the horizontal pulley 1 has a cord b, passing from its edge around the perpendicular pulley J.

12

145

By attaching the cord b to the radius bar of the engine, at such a part that its movement will be equal to the circumference of c, it will readily be perceived, that from the movement of the piston f and the cylinder c, the paper will receive a mark similar to the dotted line described in the annex ed cut, (which is an exact representation of one taken on board the British Queen reduced to one fourth the original size,) the straight line o is called the atmosphere line, or line of zero, on the scale. To ascertain the average pressure from steam and vacuum, first divide the atmospheric line into ten equal parts, as represented in the cut; measure these lines from one dotted line to the other, each of an inch, being one pound; add all the results together, and divide by ten-this gives the mean pressure per inch on the piston. If desired to know the pressure and vacuum separately, it is only necessary to measure from the atmospheric line to the farther dotted line for the vacuum, and to the nearer dotted line for the pressure, which will give the same average result. Am. Rep. of Arts.

155

16

16

162

16 3

16 4

16 5

15

10 154.4

15.44

THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD.

"Well, sir," said the chairman, eyeing the candidate from head to foot, "do you possess the necessary requisites for a public-school teacher ?" "I guess I do," answered Slick, whittling his stick.

"Do you understand Latin?" asked one of the Committee men, a Dutch farmer.

"I guess I do," replied Slick again, rounding the end of his stick with his knife. "Well, let's hear some of your Latin," said the Chairman.

"Quambo hic squashicum, et punkinitum lingum," said Slick.

"Humph!" exclaimed the Dutchman, "ish dat Latin? Who's te author.

"Josephus," replied Slick; "he says in his life of Governor Hancock :-"Sic transit gloria Monday morning-Hancockibus quaderat demonstrandum."

"Dat's goot!" exclaimed the Dutchman rubbing his hands, "tere never vas better Latins!" "Now, sir," said the chairman, "I suppose you understand geography?"

"I guess I do," said Slick, sharpening the end of his stick.

"How far have you been?"

"As far as the Deestrict of Columby."
"What state is it in ?"

"A state of desperation."

"What latitude are we in ?"

"According to the thermometer we're ten debelow zero."

grees

"Which is the most western point of North America?"

"Cape Cod."

"Good. Now, sir, let us know how far you studied mathematics. What's the area of a square acre of land ?"

"That depends upon the quality," replied Slick snapping the blade of his knife.

"Well suppose it to be good corn land!"
"Why it depends upon the number of hills."
"Say-five hundred."

THE following capital hit, illustrative of the
qualifications of both masters and inspectors of
Common Schools, in too many instances can scarce-
ly be called an exaggeration. It is too true, that
in many parts of our country, those who are elec-feet horizontally perpendicular."
ted to judge of the abilities of school teachers,
and those who are employed to lay the founda-
tion of education and moral discipline in our youth,
are about as well qualified to judge, and to teach,
as the Dutchman and pedagogue in the following
sketch.

"Guess you might as well tell a feller how many grains to the hill?" "Five."

"Then, accordin' to Euclid, it would be 742

A board of "School Commissioners," who encumbered a consequential little village in Maryland, being in want of a teacher, advertised in the newspapers for "a well disposed moral man, who was capable of teaching the dead languages, and did not chew tobacco or drink whiskey." After a fortnight of this advertising had been elaborated, a raw-boned Yankee made his appearance, with a knife and pine stick in one hand, and a Cape Cod Protection, alias a cake of gingerbread, in the other, and held the following dialogue with the committee aforesaid.

"Excellent! Pray, sir, where are you from?" "Staunton, down in the Bay State-and I can do 'most anything."

"No doubt, but there is one thing you cannot do; you cannot humbug us. You can go."

TIGHT LACING.

THE females of Italy, according to Lady Blessington, are quite past their beauty and bloom at twenty-five years of age. The larger part of our girls in this country never have any beauty to lose, owing to the murderous practice of tight lacing; and the few whose constitutions are able to bear up under this abominable practice, are quite as handsome and interesting at thirty-five or forty, as at twenty or twenty-five.

SMALL POX.

THIS disease is an eruptive fever, which, in its pustules, engenders an infectious matter, by means of which the disease may be communicated to other persons who have not been before attacked by it. After the infection has taken place, about seven days usually elapse before the virus operates and produces the disease. Then a feverish shivering pervades the body, which regularly lasts about three days, after which a number of red spots appear, first in the face, then over the breast, hands, and the whole body, sometimes very numerous, sometimes in a small number. This eruption also lasts about three days. From the spots rise pustules, which become inflamed and suppurate. The fever, in the mean time, continues without intermission. After the suppuration, the pustules begin to dry up, and to form a crust-a change which generally commences the eleventh day.

With us this disease never originates of itself, but only by infection. Commonly, however, the small-pox virus infects but once. A person who has had the small-pox will not have it again; nor does this virus infect at all times: on the contrary, it seems that a person must have a certain susceptibility for it, for numerous instances have occurred in small-pox epidemics of persons being spared who became infected at a later period, and even of some who have escaped during their whole life.

cated by accidental contact, where the cuticle the human subject. That the subjects who have has been removed, or by means of inoculation to taken the vaccine diseases accidentally, were thereby secured from the small-pox, was popularly known in several of the dairy counties of England. But it was reserved for Jenner to show that the cow-pox could be propagated by inoculation, and that the inoculated disease possessed the same prophylactic power as the original disorder. Several years before Jenner wrote on the subject, some eminent physicians had heard of the but doctor Jenner was the first who wrote a treafact, and mentioned it casually in their writings; tise with the express view of bringing the remedy into general application. This was in 1798; and the treatise was entitled an "Inquiry into the Causes and effects of the Variola Vaccinæ, a Disease discovered in some of the Western Counties

of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and ue of the discovery was at first a subject of warm known by the name of the Cow-pox." The valcontroversy; but its great importance is generally acknowledged. The cow-pox is not a merely local affection, but produces a general though extremely mild disturbance of the constitution, which is ordinarily so trivial as not to excite any alarm in the very youngest subjects. It seems probable, at present, that it is not an infallible security against the small-pox, although the number of failures is very small, when due allowance has been made for mistakes and misrepresentations. A small inflamed spot, distinguishable about the third day, shows that the inoculation has succeeded. This increases in size, becomes hard, and rises above the level of the skin. A small

According to some Arabic writers, this disease, as well as the measles, came first from Ethiopia to Arabia, about A. D. 572. In the first half of the seventeenth century it passed to Egypt. The wars which were carried on in the east, and par- quantity of fluid can be discerned in the centre ticularly the crusades in the thirteenth century; on the sixth day, and the pustule increases until introduced it into Europe, first into Spain and the tenth day. This fluid will communicate the France, and then into the other countries. When disease by inoculation. On the eighth day, when Maximilian I. made an expedition to the Nether- the pustule is fully formed, the constitutional lands, upon the termination of which the men-at- effects begin to appear, and manifest themselves arms returned to Germany through the French by slight pain in the part, headache, shivering, provinces, the small-pox was carried by them loss of appetite, &c. These subside spontaneousfrom France, for the first time, into Germany in ly in one or two days. During the general indis1495. From Europe it was transplanted to America and Africa; from Denmark it found its way, in 1733, even to Greenland.

position, the pustule becomes surrounded with a broad, circular, inflamed margin, called the areola. Afterward the fluid dries up, and a dark-brown Inoculation had long been practised in Turkey, body forms, which remains for about a fortnight, especially among females, for the preservation of and, on disappearing, leaves a depression. The the beauty of young girls, when the celebrated spot continues distinguishable through life, either Lady Montague introduced it into Western Eu- by the circumstance of the depression, or of its rope. In Constantinople, whither she had accom-color being somewhat lighter than that of the panied her husband, she caused her son, six years neighboring parts.

old, to be inoculated, and after her return to England, in 1722, her daughter also. From that time inoculation became common in England, notwithstanding the opposition of many physicians, and afterward in other countries, but never became universal, because many prejudices were entertained against it, and because the disease, although mitigated, is yet not quite without danger. More recently the common mode of inoculation has been entirely superseded by vaccination, which is far more safe.

The material for vaccination is a poison derived from certain specific sores on the teats and udders of cows, and capaple of being communi

NEW SILK MILL.

AN English manufacturer, residing in Turin, is said to have invented a new silk mill, the mechanism of which is so extremely simple, that it may be worked by children only ten years old, and yet produces three times the quantity of twist made by the old mills in the same period, and of a much superior quality.

The scenery about Conway is interesting and picturesque in a high degree. It is a flourishing town of nearly two thousand inhabitants. The soil is excellent; a great part being alluvial, or intervale. But the river sometimes rises suddenly, by the freshets, nearly twenty feet above its usual level; which sweep off the bridges, and cause other evils and inconveniences to the inhabitants. Conway is adjoining Fryeburgh, in the county of Oxford, Maine; and it is nearly the same distance from Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, that it is from Portland. The view here presented, contains some evergreens of the fir kind; and a hut, or log house, such as were, and still are the dwellings of the early settlers in New Hampshire and Maine.

derived from the Dutch, and, contrary to the and they are at the distance of about thirty miles. common opinion, signifies the same as the former A distant view of them is given in the engraving appellation. These two little colonies were above. united by charter procured by Williams from Charles I. in 1643-4. A second charter was obtained from Charles II, in 1663, and is the basis of the present government; Rhode Island being the only state in the union without a written constitution. The last historic event, particular to this little colony for upward of one hundred years, was the foundation of Brown University in 1664. This tranquil period was terminated in 1765, by the stamp-act, against which, and every other violence of the British government, the people of Rhode Island opposed a steady and effectual resistance. As early as 1774, the royal stores and artillery in the colony were seized; and when the day of open war dawned, one of the most effective generals of the Anglo-American nation sprung like a youthful lion from among the farmers of Rhode Island. Though morally united from the outset of the contest, it was however, the last of the "thirteen" which acceded to the present form of government under the constitution of 1787. Her acquiescence was not obtained until May, in 1790.

CONWAY lies on both sides of the river Saco, which falls into the Atlantic ocean, in Maine, between the towns of Saco and Biddeford. It is about sixty miles distant from Portland; and the principal road from Portland to the White Mountains, passes through Conway. There is a fine view of these remarkable mountains from Conway;

DESERT OF CALIFORNIA.

Am. Mag.

THIS immense plain, the existence of which was, until very recently, wholly unknown, is situated in the central part of Upper or New California, in Mexico. It is limited on the north by a mass of rocks, which separate it from the head waters of the Lewis river, on the west by an irregular chain of mountains, extending in parallel ridges along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, on the east by the western branches of the Colorado, and on the south by the valley of the Colorado. Its area is equal to that of Virginia, and consists of an elevated plateau or table-land, flanked on all sides by descents more or less inclined, accord

to.

The Piedmontese reel should be used. In a few weeks they will learn to reel as well as you may desire; and then let them take one or two girls as apprentices to learn to reel. By the time the last crop of worms have spun cocoons, you will have four reelers, who will be able to use up the cocoons speedily. The result will be twenty-four to twenty-eight pounds of raw silk, which you can either send to market, or cause to be made into elegant silk dresses for your daughters, who have so well deserved them. Next year double this amount may be made, and every year from two to five hundred dollars worth of silks may be produced without any cost to yourself.

ing to their geological structure. In all its es- | couple of intelligent girls to reeling. You can sential features, this remarkable waste resembles teach them from the Silk Journal above referred the great Sahara of Africa. It presents little else than an arid surface, broken at intervals by a few detached mountains of limited extent; but rising in some instances above the region of perpetual snow. From these mountains small streams flow during the rainy seasons. On reaching the plains, these torrents instantly disappear in the sand, leaving no other trace of their existence than the fragments of rocks and other debris, which are borne down by the current and deposited at the bases of the hills. No regions can present a more dreary and desolate appearance. A solitary antelope or black-tailed deer, wild in the extreme, and a few straggling Indians, among the most wretched objects in creation, may sometimes be seen traversing the plains. The country beyond the mountains which bound the desert on the west, is habited by numerous tribes of the shorthaired Indians. They occupy the valleys of the Buenosventura, and hunt the elk, antelope, blacktailed deer, grisly bear, &c. Immediately adjoining the desert on the northeast is situated one of the most extensive lakes in this part of the continent. In common with all other isolated lakes of great extent, its waters are strongly impregnated with rock salt, which abounds in the mountains on the east.

FARMERS' DEPARTMENT.

NOW IS THE TIME TO BEGIN. EVERY thrifty farmer in the Union ought to plant at least one acre of ground with mulberry trees; some out-of-the-way old field, some chestnut ridge, some inconvenient hill-side, that yields little or no profit. A thousand trees should be obtained and planted, either in layers or cuttings, and there will enough be certain to grow to occupy the ground.

Plant them in rows, four feet apart, and if they grow so that they stand nearer than two feet apart in the row, take up intervening trees and plant them where failures have left open spaces; and if you have still more than the above proportion, extend the field.

In June, they will have grown so far as to enable your daughters, or your female servants or children, to feed worms; and you may then hatch ten thousand eggs. Any common room will do to keep them in, and the first volume of the Silk Journal will teach you how to manage them.When the first crop is three weeks old, hatch twenty thousand more, to be ready to take the place of the first as soon as they spin cocoons. When the second crop is three weeks old, bring out the last, the main crop of fifty thousand to hatch. As five thousand trees will produce five thousand pounds of leaves, and as each worm will eat one ounce of leaves, your five thousand trees will feed eighty thousand worms which you will have fed on the above three parcels. As soon as your first crop has finished the cocoons, set a

Then why not begin? How hard must a farmer work to produce a hundred dollars in wheat, corn, or tobacco; or in flour, whiskey or pork, or any other product? Let us see:-He must break up four acres of ground; there are eight or ten days of hard work at ploughing and seeding in October. During winter he is tantalized with promises of good weather, that seldom happens, and in the spring he fears his wheat is "winter killed;" or, if it escapes that, in March there comes a season of thawing and freezing, that threatens to spew it out of the ground. Well, it escapes even that, and now the fly flits about, but even that spares it. The spring passes, and summer, with its cradles and rakes, and harvest labour is required and performed. The harvest is in the stack; October again arrives, and the flail tells heavily of six or eight days' more hard labor. But the wheat is in the sack, and two or three days more hard labour with the four-horse wagon, is required to carry the one hundred bushels of wheat to the mill. The wheat is ground, and the flour in the barrels. Well, now we have two or three days' labour with the four-horse wagon àgain to carry the sixteen barrels to market, and some time in November, the farmer returns home weary and hungry, with his hundred dollars. Here we have hard work enough, and time enough occupied too, for a hundred dollars surely. Let this picture be placed by the side of the little cocoonery of eighty thousand worms, and then choose between them. But we would not interfere with the growing of wheat, nor with the production of any other staple. We would not take the hardy ploughman from his plough. But while he labours in the field to produce his hard won dollars in wheat and corn, he would enable the more delicate inmate of his house to add something to his income.

And this he will be able to do if he will only in the first instance furnish them with a small mulberry orchard.

Try it, farmers, try it.

THE GARDEN.

THERE are few things more certainly indicative of good taste and a cultivated mind, in an individual of any class, than a well laid out, and neatly managed ornamental tree and flower-garden; and rarely indeed do we find a man who has any claims to the title of a good farmer, who does