CAPABILITIES OF THE MACHINE.

The machine is adapted to the manufacture of stockings of every size and texture, undershirts, drawers, neck comforts, table covers, head dresses, cravats, caps, purses, rigolets and shawls, sontags, tidies, ladies' opera caps, undersleeves, nubias, scarfs, suspenders, &c. PRICE WAY TO GET IT WITHOUT MONEY!

The price, owing to taxation, &c., has been increased $5 within the last month or two, and is now fifty dollars, including oil-can, wrench, screw driver, 20 extra needles, skein holders, yarn winder, and a book of instruction. But even this, for a machine adapted to so many uses, and with which so much may be made by even the younger members of the family in a short time, is cheap; and we recommend to all families dependent upon their fingers for support, to all Soldiers' Aid Societies, and to all others, who, in these trying times desire to contribute to the public good by every species of honorable economy, to send to Branson & Elliot, Gen. Agents, No. 120 Lake St., Chicago, and get a machine.

But even $50, small as the amount is, will not be found in times like these 'growing on every bush,' and we have accordingly offered the machine to every enterprising friend of the FARMER who will furnish us with a club of 150 subscribers at one dollar each. If there are any young men whose mothers or sisters are dependent upon their hands for support, or any middle-aged men whose wives would cordially welcome so valuable a labor-saver as the Knitting Machine, now is their time to do two things at once-secure a handsome present for those most dear, and at the same time extend the circulation of a worthy journal devoted to the best material and social interests of the people of the Northwest.

THE PRIZE SEWING MACHINES.-As will be seen by the Prospectus on cover, we offer several Sewing Machines as prizes for large lists of subscribers next year. In the next number we shall publish illustrations of the machines in question.

SCIENCE, ART, STATISTICS.

American Musical Instruments.-The Prize

Melodeon.

First in the character of her utilitarian inventions, America might have rested on her laurels won in this department, at least for a number of years yet. But the universal Yankee Genius could not be thus content: it must

likewise rank first in the higher domain of Art and in the arts akin.

It has already been seen that she was more than a match for the Europern nations in the departments of Painting and Sculpture, at the Great Exhibition, and that she also excelled in the construction of some of the most important musical instruments-bearing off the Great Medal for the best piano, &c. But it is not alone in the superior quality of her musical instruments that America ranks first; she is also first among the nations in the extensive use of them by her people-in the number manufac

tured and sold.

Thus of pianos, alone, the number manufactured and sold amounts to a sum no less than

$15,000,000 annually: other instruments in like proportion.

THE MELODEON is a more modern instrument

than the piano; and being better adaptad to some kinds of music-especially sacred music

and withal much less expensive, it is growing rapidly in favor as a substitute for the more costly organ in our country churches, and in thousands of our families. Externally resembling the piano, the notes are determined by touching the keys of a finger-board. Each key lifting a valve, allows a current of air from a bellows, worked meanwhile by the foot on a pedal, to agitate the corresponding one of a series of metallic free reeds. The compass is 5 to 7 octaves.

Great improvements have been made within the few years past in the style and musical value of the melodeon, so that it now has a "prompt" sounding and flute-like quality of tone. In 1859, 22,000 instruments of this kind were manufactured in the United States, and the demand is constantly increasing.

The most extensive and and the most popular makers in the world are the Messrs Geo. A. Prince & Co., of Buffalo, N. Y. About 30,000 of their melodeons are already in use and their immense establishment is constantly taxed to its utmost to supply the demand. The greatest care is taken in its thirty-nine different departments, and none but the most skillful and experienced workmen are employed.

SPLENDID PRIZE MELODEON.

third fine fibres. Probably about ten per cent. of useful fibre may be extracted from the stems of this plant.

The Neilgherry nettle, the mudar, the well known jute of commerce, the safet bariala, the the moorva, the agave Americana, the foureuambaree, the hemp, the jettee, the pine apple, ya gigantea, the plantain, the yucca gloriosa, the phormium tenex, or New Zealand flax, etc., etc., may also be employed for the same purpose. All of these, except the last two enumerated, are indigenous to India, and contain fibres which may be more or less usefully applied to the manufacture of paper, and of textile fabrics.

The Wonders of the Atmosphere.

The atmosphere rises above us with its cathedral dome arching toward heaven, of which it is the most perfect synonym and symbol. It floats around us like that grand object which the apostle John saw in his vision, "a sea of glass like unto crystal." So massive is it that when it begins to stir it tosses about great ships like playthings, and sweeps cities and

it.

church.

This elegant instrument is offered by us for the largest list of dollar subscribers not less than 350. As it cannot be bought for less than $150.00, it will be seen that our offer is an exceedingly liberal one.

Who will have the Prize Melodeon?

Materials for Paper.

Flax holds the first place among fibres which from their strength, flexibility, and other practical qualities, are fittest for the manufacture of paper. Flax has hitherto been grown in India in large quantities, but almost entirely for the sake of the seed. Various means have from time to time been used to extend the cultivation of this useful plant in India, and it has been produced in the Punjaub of a quality equal to that of the best kinds received from Russia. The plant which stands next to flax for the quality of its fibre is the rheea of Assam and other parts of India. The plant grows to a height of from three to four feet, and being a perennial, the expense of cultivation is less than that of most plants. It will bear cutting down three times in a season; the first crop yielding coarse, and the second and

And yet it is so noble that we have lived years in it before we can be persuaded that it exists at all, and the great bulk of mankind never realize the truth that they are bathed in an ocean of air. Its weight is so enormous that iron shivers before it like glass, yet a soap bubble sails through it with impunity, and the tiniest insect waves it aside with its wing. It ministers lavishly to all our senses. We touch it not, but it touches us. Its warm south wind brings back color to the pale face of the invalid; its cool west winds refresh the fevered brow, and makes the blood to mantle our cheek; even its north blasts brace into new vigor the hardened children of our rugged climate.The eye is indebted to it for all the magnificence of sunrise, the full brightness of midday, the chastened radiance of the morning, and the clouds that cradle near the setting sun. But for it the rainbow would want its "trium phant arch," and the winds would not send the fleecy messengers on errands around the heavens; the cold ether would not shed snow feathers on the earth nor would drops of dew gather on the flowers. The kindly rain would never fall, nor hailstorm nor fog diversify the face of the sky; our naked globe would turn its tanned and unshadowed forehead to the sun, and one dreary, monotonous blaze of light and heat dazzle and burn up all things.

Were there no atmosphere the evening sun would in a moment set, and without warning plunge the earth into darkness. But the air keeps in her hand a shield of her rays, and lets them slip but slowly through her fingers, so that the shadows of evening are gathered by degrees, and the flowers have time to bow

their heads, and each creature space to find a place of rest and to nestle to repose. In the morning the garish sun would at one bound burst from the bosom of night and blaze above the horizon; but the air watches for his coming and sends first but one little ray to announce his approach, and then another, and then a handful, and gently draws aside the curtain of night and slowly lets the light fall upon the face of the sleeping earth, till her eyelids open, and like man she goeth forth again to labor until the evening.-Quarterly Review.

Origin of Speech.

Man in his primitive and perfect state was not only endowed, like the brute, with the

power of expressing his sensations by interjections, and his perceptions by onomatopea; he possessed likewise the faculty of giving more articulate expression to the rational conceptions of his mind. That faculty was not of his own making. It was an instinct, an instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any other instinct. So far as language is the production of that instinct, it belongs to the realm of nature. Man loses his instincts as he ceases to want them. His senses become fainter when, as in the case of scent, they become useless. Thus the creative faculty, which gave to each conception, as it thrilled for the first time through the brain, a phonetic expression, became extinct when its object was fulfilled. The number of these phonetic types must have been almost infinite in the beginning, and it was only through this same process of natural elimination which we observed in the early history of words, that clusters of roots, more or less synonymous, were gradually reduced to one definite type.—Max Mueller.

Both births and deaths are more frequent in the night than in the day. One-fourth of men are capable of bearing arms, but not one out of a thousand is by nature inclined to the profession. The more civilized a country is, the more full of vigor, life, and health are the people. The notion that education enfeebles and degenerates the human frame, is not borne out by fact.-Once a Week.

EDUCATIONAL.

Duty of Parents to the Neighborhood School. MR. EDITOR: In your last number you were so kind as to give us subjects for discussion as well as a cordial invitation to write for your excellent Journal. I, therefore, will, as a pleasure, take up my “rusty pen," and proceed to " air my talent."

I choose the most important, and at the same time the most neglected of your four subjects "The Parent's duty to the Neighborhood School."

Most people think, if they furnish a comfortable school house, employ a good teacher, and visit the school once or twice during each term, that they have performed their duties to the school wondrously well. Surely, that is something, more, I am sorry to say, than is always done, much more. But is this all that is necessary to render each term as successful as possible? I think not. In fact, I consider it to be more important for parents to send their children to school than for them to go themselves. Not three, nor four days a week, but each day of every week during the entire term. Keeping children out of school half a day, or even half an hour for every trifling excuse is productive of much more disorganization in classes and general disturbance in the school room than most parents are aware of, or I can not but think it would be practiced less.

Another very important duty is that of sus

children to think

No one, except

less so.

studies, and strive in every way to gain the approbation of their teacher; but weaken or destroy this reverential feeling in the child, and you have much diminished, if not entirely destroyed the usefulness of the teacher. Parents should, therefore, carefully cultivate this feeling, not only by commending all that is good in the management of the teacher, but also in avoiding all criticising, fault finding comments about the school or the abilities of the teacher. Neither is it necessary to lend an eager ear to all the reports children bring home and then tell your next door neighbor all about it. Children are liable to make mistakes and misunderstand. They even have been known to manufacture little stories, when reports were readily received, and easily credited at home.

But if anything pertaining to the school should appear to be going wrong, it is the duty of every parent who has children in attendance to confer with the teacher at once and ascertain the exact truth in the matter, and to demand reformation, if it should be found necesary-not leave it to the Misses Hearsay and Guesswork, who with their busy tongues are always making mountains out of mole hills, and thus often destroying the usefulness of an entire term of school, when a little judicious investigation, or perhaps timely counsel, would have smoothed the difficult places, and all would have gone pleasantly and profitably along.

If people wonld banish all petty jealousies, neighborhood feuds, and party schisms from their schools, and unite in sustaining their teachers in every possible way, this constant cry of worthless teachers and entire terms spent worse than in vain would seldom be

From the Wisconsin Journal of Education. Letters to the Governor on our Educational Wants.

1.-MILITARY EDUCATION

SIR-In the Old World those in authority are sovereigns and the people are subjects.In the Free States of America, the people are sovereigns and their rulers are their servants. This is not so paradoxical as it might seem.The employer may conform to the directions of his employee or his servant; may cheerfully submit to the application of rules by his servant, emanating from his own authority. In like manner the people readily obey the laws which they themselves by their representatives have made, and conform to the exercise of authority by those to whom they have for a limitited period entrusted it.

But the people also reserve to themselves the right of expressing their opinions and their wishes, not only by Legislative action, but in less formal ways. Not only may they at all times meet in peaceful public assemblies, but a Free Press is open to the discussion of all subjects of public interest.

I avail myself, Sir, of this privelege, and propose to address to you, as our Chief Magistrate, some thoughts upon several educational topics, confining myself more particularly to what I conceive to be our Educational Wants. I address myself to you, Sir, rather than to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, because his official attention to our educational ed; and because any measure that should also interests may be supposed to be already pledggain your official attention and recommendation, would carry with it additional weight.

I do

1. I speak first of Military Education. this because I am quite sure that I shall have a ready attention. Although war must be regarded as an abnormal and exceptional condition of civilized society, and although there is something monstrous in the spectacle of a great nation torn and bleeding by civil strife, yet the lessons of all past history as well as the exigencies of the hour, teach us that in peace we must be prepared for war. Whatever beneficial results, under Providence, may finally accrue to our common country and to humanity, from this terific struggle. still we must feel that all those portions of our country at least, which neither desired nor expected such a contest, were unprepared for it. A minority, comparatively weak at first in numbers, could never have conceived, much less attempted, the rebellious project which in some dark hours has seemed almost likely to succeed, had they been conscious that every loyal man was ready, if need be, to gird on his armor for the defence of his country. That we were unprepared, and had almost proved a victim to the sudden irruption upon us of a traitorous domestic foe, was because military education had been neg