1838.] THE SUNFLOWER. 167 whereof we are made,-He remembers that we are but dust,-He sees our trials and difficulties; and He is ever devising means that His banished ones may be brought back to Him. How important is the office of conscience! and how necessary are times of trial and difficulty when its voice is loudest, and the heart is best prepared to receive its reproofs! In how many cases has conscience slumbered till it pleased God to send some trial by which it has been powerfully awakened; and the salvation of the sinner was the result! "Before I was afflicted I went wrong." Though salvation be the free gift of God, yet He gives it not to any who do not earnestly seek it. The deeper the conviction of guilt and helplessness is, the more earnest is the application to God for mercy likely to be. They whose salvation costs them strong crying and tears, are not likely (humanly speaking) to part with it lightly; they remember the vinegar and the gall, and they watch and pray that they enter not into temptation. The religion that costs us nothing, is to us worth nothing.-Selections from Adam Clarke. Sent by G. B. THE SUNFLOWER. THE value of this plant, which is easily cultivated, and ornamental to the garden, is scarcely known in most parts of the kingdom. The seed forms a most excellent and convenient food for poultry; and it is only necessary to cut off the heads of the plant when ripe, tie them in bunches, and hang them up in a dry situation, to be used as wanted. They not only fatten every kind of poultry, but greatly increase the quantity of eggs they lay. When cultivated to a considerable extent, they are also capital food for sheep and pigs, and for pheasants. The leaves, when dried, form a good powder for cattle; the dry stalks burn well, and form an abundance of alkali, and when in bloom, the flower is most attractive to bees.Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Or this tribe, those without tails are generally distinguished by the name of apes; those that have short tails are called baboons; and those which have long tails are called by the more general name of monkeys. ORANG OTANG. The Orang Otang is of the ape kind; he is a frightfully ugly creature,-though, in form, he is more like the human species than any of the rest; they can be taught 1838.] NATURAL HISTORY. 169 strange tricks, and sometimes imitate the manners of men most strangely. They are savage creatures, and given much to mischief even after they have been tamed. BABOON. The baboon is an ugly creature too, and we think our print is uglier still. These creatures are generally fierce and mischievous; and in their natural state are dangerous to meddle with; and even when tamed, it is not very safe to trust too much to them. Monkeys inhabit the warm climates, such as parts of Asia, Africa, &c. The hedgehog is a gentle creature, and lives chiefly on roots and different sorts of vegetables. Many abusive stories are told of this poor little animal,-that he sucks the milk from cows,-that he mounts up into trees, and picks off the fruit; and other such mischiefs are laid to his charge; he is therefore shamefully used, and is often tormented and torn to pieces by dogs. I hope that none of my young readers will join in such cruelty. He is, in truth, a very harmless, useful little animal; and because he has no power to match with other animals of the same size, it has pleased God to protect him with a fine strong coat of mail, in which he can roll himself up, like a ball. It is a savage and a cruel thing, then, to force him out of this protection which Providence has given to him, and to worry him in the manner which we too often behold. The little mole is provided for, in a most beautiful manner, by the goodness of that Providence whose mercy is over all His works. He has to live under ground, and there to find his food, of worms, grubs, and other creatures which live below the surface of the earth. If he had the same sort of eyes as other animals, they would be of no use to him under ground; and the dirt would be a great injury to them; his eyes, therefore, are made very small, and deeply imbedded in his head, and protected by his fur. He is not quite blind, but has just sight enough to warn him when he is approaching the light, that he may go down again, and get out of danger. His fur is beautifully soft and smooth, and enables him easily to slip through the ground. His legs are particularly short, and broad, so that he can shovel away the dirt, and make his way easily. If he had long narrow legs, they would be of no use to him, but would be a very great inconvenience. V. KEEPING PIGS. THE Cottager's pig should be bought in the spring, or late in winter, and, being then four months' old, he will be a year old before killing time; for it should always be borne in mind that this age is required in order to insure the greatest quantity of meat from a given quantity of food. If a hog be more than a year old, he is the better for it. The flesh is more solid and more nutritious than that of 1838.] KEEPING PIGS. 171 a young hog. The pork or bacon of young hogs, even if fatted on corn, is very apt to boil out, as they call it ; that is to say, it comes out of the pot smaller in bulk than it goes in. When you begin to fatten, do it by degrees, especially in the case of hogs under a year old. If you feed high all at once, the hog is apt to surfeit, and then a great loss of food takes place. Peas, or barley-meal is the food the latter rather the best, and does the work quicker. Make him quite fat by all means. The last bushel, even if he sit as he eat, is the most profitable. Lean bacon is the most wasteful thing that any family can use. In short, it is uneatable, except by drunkards, who want something to stimulate their sickly appetite. The man who cannot live on solid fat bacon, well fed, and well cured, wants the sweet sauce of labour, or is fit for the hospital. But, then, it must be bacon, the effect of barley or peas and not of whey, potatoes, or messes of any kind. A correspondent has sent us the above extract from the "Poor Man's Corner, of the Northampton Herald." When the writer speaks against giving "whey, and potatoes, and messes," we suppose that he means at the time when the pig is fattening. At other times such things may be well bestowed on the pig, though they may not be solid enough for the last process of fattening. The writer speaks highly in praise of fat bacon; and this has, for a long time, made a considerable part of the food of a thriving cottager; but it has of late been greatly in fashion, at the breakfast tables of the rich; and its effects have, in many cases, been surprisingly beneficial. It is not that there is any medical virtue in the bacon, but it is a rich and nourishing food; and every sort of food that is eaten, and properly digested, helps to make a man strong and healthy. But some sorts of food are heavy, and do not digest easily; other sorts have, perhaps, but little that is nourishing in them; others are in their nature difficult to be digested; and it is not the quantity that a man eats that does him good, but the quantity of nourishing food that he digests. With some people, fat bacon will not digest at all; and if they make it a part of their dinner, it disagrees with them. Rich people |