like ours, where animal food is necessary to sustain a strong and healthy physique, it is a most valuable article of diet. But though the supply of nutritious food is the chief service rendered, there is no part of the ox that is not of some use to us. The hair is valuable in various manufactures, and the hide when tanned supplies us with the material for our boots. The fat and tallow are used for candles. Saddlers use a fine sort of thread prepared from the sinews, which is much stronger than any equally fine, and serves to hold together the most important part of that harness without which horses would be wild and unmanageable. The blood is used as the basis of the common colour known as Prussian blue. The thinnest of the calves' skins are manufactured into vellum, a material much used for titledeeds and other legal documents. The bone is a cheap and efficient substitute for ivory, and is often so cleverly prepared that only the practised eye can distinguish the one from the other. The dung is useful as manure, and greatly enriches the soil; it is also extensively used in dyeing. Strong glue is made from the tendons, cartilages, and gristle. A coarse gelatine, used in the manufacture of lace, is obtained from the cellular membranes. From the feet a valuable jelly is prepared for invalids; as also an oil, called neat's-foot oil, much used for softening leather and other similar purposes. Boxes, combs, knife-handles, and drinking vessels are made from the horns. These when softened become so pliable as to be formed into transparent plates for lanterns. They are not so transparent as glass, but are more serviceable for rough work; a hard blow will no more break them than it will break a piece of leather. These plates were first invented by Alfred the Great, who used them to preserve the candles by which he measured the lapse of time from the uneven combustion caused by fluctuating draughts and winds. It is frequently pointed out by scientific men that throughout all Nature the strictest economy goes hand in hand with the most prodigal bounty. The various orders and ranks of being have such exact relationships towards each other that waste is impossible. Men are beginning to learn the lesson great Nature teaches, and in their use of the ox we see a good illustration of the way they endeavour to turn to advantage every possible capability of the gifts a bountiful Providence bestows. "Waste not, want not" is a motto as good as it is old; and to act upon it is to follow out a Divine plan. But the goodness of God is not only seen in giving for our use such useful creatures, but also in the wide extent of the gift. In varying species oxen flourish all over the world; and they are always found abundant in countries that are thickly populated. They have flourished in our country as far back as history can definitely speak. Julius Cæsar, who made a descent upon our island fifty-four years before the birth of Christ, speaks of the great numbers of our cattle, and describes how the wild barbarians neglected tillage and lived on milk and flesh. With good pasturage cows will yield a large quantity of milk. The grass and herbs of English fields are very suitable, and hence cows thrive with us remarkably well. In Cheshire large herds of seventy, eighty, and even a hundred are a very common sight roaming at will over immense fields of a luxuriant verdure; and the butter and cheese made in this picturesque and beautiful country will compare favourably with that made in any other part of England, or of the whole world. There are peculiar kinds of cows in the Channel Islands. Alderney, Guernsey, and Jersey have each its own sort, and very beautiful creatures they all They are generally small, but give a large quantity of rich milk, which makes beautiful butter of a dark yellow colour. What is commonly called the Alderney cow in England is really the Guernsey cow. Alderney is little more than a large rock with extensive fortifications, and very few of its cows are ever exported. are. These animals are all the more serviceable on account of their obedient and tractable disposition. They are uniformly staid and serious in their demeanour, and, with very few exceptions indeed, never indulge in naughty or rebellious tricks. They seem to recognise the useful functions they are called to fulfil, and with a humble and patient perseverance endeavour to do all that can be reasonably asked of them. The bulls, indeed, when excited grow furious, and by their amazing strength can inflict great damage when they lower their heads and rush forward to catch between their terrible horns the object of their displeasure. But the cows, which are the most useful, and which in point of numbers form an overwhelming majority, are very seldom incensed, and even the wildest of bulls are generally capable of being managed by skilled and careful herdsmen, In the simple agricultural life of ancient Oriental natives no animal was held in higher esteem, as certainly none were more useful or more necessary. Upon his patient labours all farming operations depended. It was his strength that drew the plough through the furrow, and that trod out the corn after the fields had been reaped. For all purposes of draught oxen were used, being generally yoked in couples; also as beasts of burden. The ox did what we regard as his proper share of labour, and, besides, discharged the duties which we lay upon horses alone. It was his great usefulness probably that led to his being deified. Both India and Egypt abounded with sacred cows, which occupied important places in the elaborate idolatries of those nations. It was probably in imitation of ceremonies they had witnessed in Egypt that the Israelites made the golden calf which they adored in the wilderness. It was probably in imitation of the idolatrous nations around him that Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. A bovine worship offered more inducements to the ancient people of God than the spiritual service of the Most High. Does not this show the depravity of the human heart? God's very best gifts-the sun to enlighten, the ox to feed us and toil for us-instead of constraining men to the love and service of God, have been made into idols, and drawn the heart further away from the Giver of every good and perfect gift. In proof of the wisdom of the Creator it is worthy of remark, that throughout the almost innumerable varieties and species of the ox, every modification of the structure of the animal has a direct reference to its locality and circumstances. The result is that it thrives on the frozen fields of Iceland and in the burning desert of Lybia, and the wants of the populations of all the countries between those two extremes are supplied. Only infinite power and wisdom could adapt the same animal to such different diet and air and conditions. PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL BOYS. XI.-PRODUCTS OF SKILLED LABOUR.-COTTON.] MONG all the materials which the skill of man converts into comfortable and elegant clothing, that which appears likely to be most extensively useful, though it was the last to be generally diffused, is the beautiful produce of the cotton plant. This material bears so much resemblance to the earlier-known article of sheep's wool, that among the ancients it was called the "wool of trees; by the Germans it is called "baumwolle," or "tree-wool;" and in our own language it bears the name of cotton wool, though the properties of this vegetable substance differ greatly from those of the animal fleece. Cotton is a vegetable down, the produce of plants and small trees growing in warm climates, and indigenous in India and America. Cotton will not grow in England, the climate of our country not being sufficiently warm. The common cotton plant grows in the East Indies to the height of three feet, and has leaves of a bright darkgreen colour. Its blossom expands into a pale yellow flower, with five red spots at the bottom. When the flower falls off a pod appears, which, when fully developed, is about the size of a walnut. The expansion of the wool then causes the pod to burst, when it discloses a ball of snow-white or yellowish down. A field of cotton at the gathering season is singularly beautiful, and in the hottest countries, where the yellow blossom or flower and the ripened fruit are seen at the same time, the beauty of the plantation is, of course, still more remarkable. There is a kind of cotton plant which grows in the West Indies from four to six feet in height, and produces two crops every year, each plant yielding at the two gatherings about one pound of cotton. In appearance the shrub has a considerable resemblance to the currant bush. Cotton likewise grows upon trees, which are found on all the Indian mountains, but their produce is coarse in quality. The cotton plant in all its varieties requires a dry and sandy soil. A marshy soil is wholly unfit for the plant, and so little congeniality has it for moisture, that a wet season is destructive to the crop. The operation of gathering the ripe cotton needs to be performed with care. The women and young people who are employed in it go through the plantation several times, as the pods do not all open together, and the cotton should be plucked within a few days after it has been opened. The cotton and seeds are plucked, leaving the husk behind. Fine weather is chosen, as any degree of wet on the cotton would make it afterwards become mouldy, and would cause the oil of the seeds to be spread upon the wool. That it may be more completely dried, it is exposed to the heat of the sun on a platform of tiles or wood for several days after it is gathered; by this means, not only the wool, but also the seeds become dry, in which state they are more easily separated from the wool. To detach the cotton from the seeds which it envelopes is a work of some difficulty, and one which must be performed effectually before the cotton is packed, else it will be rendered unfit for spinning. To do this by hand would be a very slow and expensive process. All nations at any remove from barbarism, therefore, employ some kind of machinery. When the cotton is thus cleansed, it is gathered up, and by means of screws it is forced into bags. These are sewn up, pressed, and made of as small size as possible, so as to occupy little room in the ships in which they are sent to other countries. The quantity of raw cotton imported into this country yearly is over 1,000,000,000 lbs. RISE AND HISTORY OF COTTON MANUFACTURE. The use of cotton clothing spread very slowly, except when it was moved onward by the impetuous tide of Mohammedan conquest and colonisation. The manufacture was general in India, and had attained high excellence in the age of the first Greek historians-that is, in the fifth century before Christ, at which time it had already existed for an unknown period; yet eighteen centuries more elapsed before it was introduced into Italy or Constantinople, or even secured a footing in the neighbouring Empire of China. England was among the latest countries to receive the cotton manufacture. The exact period when it was introduced, according to one of our principal authorities on the subject, is unknown. No mention has yet been found of it earlier than the year 1641; and there are good reasons for concluding that it could not have existed long before that period. It was but little used for purposes of manufacture till the middle of the eighteenth century. The settlement of some Flemish emigrants in Lancashire led to that district becoming the principal seat of the cotton manufacture, and probably the ungenerous nature of its soil induced the people to resort to spinning and weaving to make up for the unprofitableness of their agricultural labours. Having gained a footing the manufacture was quickly developed. In 1739 it was remarked in the Daily Advertiser that within the last twenty years the manufacture of cotton, mixed and plain, had attained such perfection "that we not only make enough for our own consumption, but supply our colonies and many of the nations of Europe.' Within a century from that date the consumption of cotton wool in the British manufacture increased two hundred fold. At the present date, the number of persons employed in its several departments is not less than half-a-million! Seeing, however, what magnitude this branch of industry had then attained, it is surprising to read that "up to the year 1760 the machines used in the cotton manufacture in England were nearly as simple as those of India, though the loom was more strongly and perfectly constructed, and cards for combing the cotton had been adopted from the woollen manufacture." Spinning was performed from the earliest periods by the spindle and distaff. The first advance on this primitive process was the introduction of the spinning-wheel, a very simple machine, in which motion, imparted by the hand to a large light wooden wheel, was conveyed by an endless band to a spindle, which was thus caused to rotate rapidly, while with the other hand the spinner drew off from the mass of carded wool attached to it sufficient to form a single thread. The same kind of instrument was used for two successive operations. First, the formation of a thick loose cord, called a roving, from the carded wool; and secondly, the extension of the roving itself into a fine thread or yarn. These processes were essentially slow, as it was impossible for the spinner to produce more than one thread at a time; and consequently, as the manufacture of cotton goods increased, it became utterly impossible for the spinners to keep pace with the demand for yarn. The earliest successful attempt to overcome this difficulty was the spinning-jenny invented by James Hargreaves, a Lancashire weaver, about 1764. By this machine eight threads could be spun with the same facility as one. Directly the spinners of the locality got knowledge of this machine that was to do eight times as much as any one of them, they broke into the inventor's cottage, destroyed the jenny, and compelled him to fly for the safety of his life to Nottingham. It was, however, subsequently improved and brought to such perfection that a mere child could work no fewer than from eighty to one hundred and twenty spindles ! This machine, it appears, was applicable only to the spinning of cotton for weft, being unable to give to the yarn that degree of firmness that is required in the longitudinal threads or warp; but this deficiency was soon supplied by the introduction of the spinning frame, that wonderful machine which spins a vast number of threads of the strength and hardness suitable to warps, leaving to man merely to feed the machine with cotton, and to join the threads when they happen to break. The water-twist, as the yarn produced by the new machinery was called, was confessedly superior to any other cotton yarn, and was found suitable for the warp of calico, or cotton-cloth; yet such was the envy and opposition of the manufacturers generally, that they formed a combination to refuse to purchase yarn of |