How many ties, how many resources, he has; his friendships with his cattle, his team, his dog, his trees, the satisfaction in his growing crops, in his improved fields; his intimacy with nature, with bird and beast, and with the quickening elemental forces; his co-operations with the cloud, the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost.
Nothing will take the various social distempers which the city and artificial life breed, out of a man like farming, like direct and loving contact with the soil. It draws out the poison. It humbles him. Teaches him patience and reverence, and restores the proper tone to his system.
Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow your heart and your brain upon it, so that it shall savor of you and radiate your virtue after your day's work is done.
WHAT IS MADE OUT OF PIT-COAL.
Once mankind saw nothing in mineral coal but a kind of black stone, and the person who first found out by accident that it would burn, and talked of it as fuel, was laughed at. Now it is not only our most useful fuel, but its products are used largely in the arts. A few of them are described below:
- An excellent oil to supply lighthouses, equal to the best sperm oil, at lower cost.
- Benzole–a light sort of ethereal fluid, which evaporates easily, and, combined with vapor or moist air, is used for the purpose of portable gas lamps, so-called.
- Naphtha–a heavy fluid, useful to dissolve gutta percha, india rubber, etc.
- An excellent oil for lubricating purposes.
- Asphaltum–which is a black, solid substance, used in making varnishes, covering roofs, and covering over vaults.
- Paraffine–a white, crystalline substance, resembling white wax, which can be made into beautiful wax candles; it melts at a temperature of one hundred and ten degrees, and affords an excellent light. All these substances are now made from soft coal.
SMOOTHING HIS FATHER'S WRINKLES.
Children are very observing, and they apply their observations in funny ways sometimes. "A six-year-old genius who lives out West rejoices in the name of Henry. One day his mother was ironing out some recently-washed linen.