THINGS HANDY TO KNOW

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 15, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 50.

THINGS HANDY TO KNOW.

THE following is a capital list of questions, that you can put to your brothers and sisters—after having answered them yourself.

Boys should never go through life satisfied to be always borrowing other people's brains. There are some things they should find out for themselves. A farmer's boy should discover for himself what timber will bear the most weight, what is the most elastic, what will last longest in the water, what out of the water, what is the best time to cut down trees for firewood. How many kinds of oaks grow in your region? and what is each specially good for? How does a bird fly without moving a wing or a feather? How does a snake climb a tree or a brick wall? Is there a difference between a deer's track and a hog's track? What is it? How often does a deer shed his horns? and what becomes of them? In building a chimney, which should be the largest, the throat or the funnel? Should it be wider at the top, or drawn in? The boys see many horses. Did they ever see a white colt? Do they know how old the twig must be to bear peaches, and how old the vine is when grapes first hang upon it? There is a bird in the forest which never builds a nest, but lays her eggs in the nests of other birds. Can the boys tell what bird it is? Do they know that a hop-vine always winds with the course of the sun, but a bean-vine always winds the other way? Do they know that when a horse crops grass he eats back towards him, but a cow eats outward from her? Why?—Selected.