114

THE YOUTHS CABINET.

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hurra. The teacher seemed willing to
allow this, and then said,

‘““My boys, I am glad you know
what is right, and that you approve it;
though I am afraid some of you could
not have done it. Learn from this time,
that nothing can make a falsehood ne-
cessary. Suppose Duncan had taken
your evil advice, and come to me with a
lie ; it would have been instantly detect-
ed, for I was a witness of what passed.
I trust he has been governed in this by a
sense of God’s presence, and I exhort
you all to follow his example, whenever
you are placed in like circumstances,”—
Youth’s Penny Gazette. .

 

Long Vitality of Seeds.

q3° completely is the ground impreg-
S nated with seeds, that if earth is
-) brought to the ate from the
lowest depth at which it is found,

some vegetable matter will spring from
it. I have always considered this fact as
one of the many surprising instances of
the power and bounty of Almighty
God, who has thus literally filled the
earth with his goodness, by storing up a
deposit of useful seeds in its depths,
where they must have lain through a
succession of ages, only requiring the
cnergies of man to bring them into ac-
tion. In boring for water lately, at a
spot near Kingston-on-Thames, some
earth was brought up from a depth of
three hundred and sixty feet, this earth
was carefully covered over with a hand
glass, to prevent the possibility of any
other seeds being deposited upon it; yet

in a short time plants vegetated from it,
If quicklime be put upon land which
from time immemorial has produced no-
thing but heather, the heather will be
killed, and white clover spring up in its
place. A curious fact was communicat-
ed to me, respecting some land which
surrounds an old castle, formerly be-
longing to the regent Murray, near Mof-
fat. On removing the peat, which is
about six or eight inches in thickness, a
stratum of soil appears, which is suppos-
ed to have been a cultivated garden in
the time of the regent, and from which
a variety of flowers and plants spring,
some of them little known even at this
time in Scotland.—Jesse’s Gleanings of
Nutural History.

Silk and Silk-worms.

n the year 1840, the average im-
portation of silk into Great Britain
equaled 4,999,971 pounds, or, in
round numbers, 5,000,000 pounds.

An interesting calculation has been made,
which shows the enormous number of
silk-worm caterpillars which must bury
themselves to meet the demand of that
kingdom alone upon their manufacture.
Each cocoon, on the average, weighs
about three or three and a quarter grains,
and in length will probably contain 300
yards of silk. Now, to produce the
yearly sum above mentioned, it will be
found we require about 18,000,000,000
worms, which will consume in its pro-
duction about 96,000,000 pounds’ of
leaves, grown upon about 9,600,000
trees. — Selected,