wards ground as they may be required for use. -ENCYCLOPEDIA. VIII.-Sugar. In-clude', to enclose; to | Jûice, sap; liquor. take in. Cen'tu-ry, a hundred years. Sim'i-lar, resembling; like. agement; course. ; SUGAR is got from a jointed reed called the sugar cane. The cane plant, including its leaves and flower stem, rises to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. It is a native of the East Indies, and was known to the ancients but sugar was not introduced into Europe till about the thirteenth century. At present the cane is cultivated both in the East and West Indies, particularly in the latter, where it attains great perfection in the dark rich loam of St. Christopher's, and the soil of Jamaica. Trenches, six or eight inches deep, and at the distance of three feet and a half, are formed; and the cuttings of the canes, having five or six joints, are laid down flat at the bottom of the trench, and covered with earth to the depth of two inches. The sprouts appear in twelve or fourteen days; and as they shoot up, the soil is gradually drawn about them, till, in the course of a few months, the ridges of earth are all level. The sugar does not grow in the fruit, but is a sweet juice in the body of the cane. The plant becomes ripe in twelve or fourteen months. It is then cut down, and the leaves and top being separated, the stems are tied up in bundles, and carried to the mill, where they are passed through iron-plated rollers. The juice being thus squeezed out, is boiled in large coppers, and some blood, or similar animal matter, is mixed with it for the purpose of clarifying the liquid, and a quantity of quicklime is added, to separate some acid, which would prevent the crystallization. When it is sufficiently concentrated and purified, the syrup is conveyed to coolers, where the sugar crystallizes, and the molasses separate. The sugar is then carried to the hogsheads in the curing-house, the bottoms of which are perforated that the molasses may drain off into a cistern below; and when the sugar is sufficiently dry, it is brought to market under the name of muscovado, or raw sugar.-ENCYCLOPEDIA. Ac'ci-dent, chance; alty. IX.-Glass. casu- Fuse, to melt. District, a tract of country. I'sin-glass, a fine kind of glue. [for use. U'ten-sil, any instrument Veg'e-table, N. a plant; THE making of glass, which is composed of sand and soda, was discovered by accident. Some travelling merchants in the East, being obliged to stop in a sandy district, placed lumps of soda to sustain their cooking utensils, while they made a fire underneath; the soda and the sand combining by the heat, a substance was formed which surprised them. This substance was glass. In glass-works, the sand and soda being mixed in proper quantities, are made to combine by a small degree of heat, without being melted; in this state the mixture is called fret. The heat is then increased till the substance is melted; the scum is taken off, and when it is sufficiently cool, the glass is either cast or blown into the required forms. This is the process of making window glass. A great many things are made of glass; but in former times it was not applied to so many useful purposes as it now is. The Romans were not unacquainted with it, but they never applied it to any useful purpose; and it was probably a very scarce production among them. We read, in history, of the Emperor Nero breaking a glass cup, which cost fifty thousand pounds. Windows have been made of the skins of animals, of isinglass, of talc, and you may see horn used instead of glass in lanterns at the present time. Bottles, too, were made of the skins of animals, which were sometimes taken from them nearly entire. You know, it is said in Scrip ture, "that men do not put new wine into old bottles, lest the bottles should burst." Now, old glass bottles are as good as new ones; but skin bottles, when old, would be very liable to burst: thus we see how useful general knowledge is to enable us to understand some parts of Scripture. Bottle-glass is made from coarse sand, and an alkali from the soap-boilers' refuse or dregs, which is the ashes of a kind of seaweed; its green colour is owing to the presence of iron, which all vegetable ashes contain. Indeed, all the different colours of glass are produced by various metallic substances; green and red, by copper and iron; violet by manganese, and so on. Flint-glass, which is the most beautiful of any, is made of quartz, a very fine kind of flint, and sometimes of rock crystal fused along with soda, and a small quantity of red lead, which makes the glass less brittle. It is then cut into the beautiful patterns which we see on sugarbasins, wine-decanters, and a great many useful and ornamental articles very common in our houses.-PARLOUR BOOK. SECTION III. SCRIPTURE HISTORY. I-Joseph and his Brethren. Peace'a-bly, quietly. Sheaves, stalks of corn bound together. O-bei'sance, a bow; an act of reverence. Re-buke', to chide. Wil'der-ness, a desert. Spi'cer-y, aromatic productions. Myrrh, a precious kind of gum. Con-ceal', to hide; to keep secret. De-vour', to swallow up Com'fort, to Con-spire', to plot. greedily. console. Ca'naan, Ben'-ja-min, Rach'el, She'chem, Jo'seph Ish'ma-el-ites. JACOB dwelt (in the land wherein his father was a stranger) in the land of Canaan. And Jacob had twelve sons, of whom Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Rachel, were the youngest. And Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. |