Elements of Useful Knowledge, for the Use of Schools and Private Families - Tapa blanda

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860. Excerpt: ... Q. How are geese fattened? A. They are turned into the fields, as soon as the grain is carted off, when they pick up all the grains of com that have been shaken out in the progress of reaping; thus they are fattened without expense. Q. Why is the goose the most useful of all the domestic birds? A. Because she yields so many feathers, it is to the goose we are chiefly indebted for comfortable soft beds. Q. Who principally breed poultry? A. The farmers, who rear them for profit, the same as they do other stock. CHAPTER X. THE SUN. Q. Which is the most splendid and glorious object visible to human eyes? A. The sun, the great dispenser of light and heat to the earth, and to the other planets which move round him. q. I thought the sun, being without life, was of the neuter gender, why therefore do you say him, which we all know is masculine? A. We give the masculine gender to the sun on account of his mighty power, and the feminine to the moon, because she receives her light from the sun. Q. Is not the sun a very large body? A. Yes, more than a million times the size of the globe on which we live. Q. Is the sun much larger than the moon? A. Yes, many millions of times. Q. Then why does the moon appear nearly as large? A. Because the sun is many millions of times more distant. Q. Then objects appear large or small according to their distance? A. They do; thus a large balloon capable of taking up a number of persons, when high in the air appears like a small dark speck. Q. Is not the moon next in size to the sun? A. No, the moon is much smaller than any of the heavenly bodies that can be seen with the naked eye. Q. The stars appear much smaller? A. They do, because they are at a very great distance, and the moon, is comparatively speaking, close at hand. Q. When...