COLORS FOR THE ALTAR IN USE IN RITUALISTIC EPISCOPAL CHURCHES IN THE UNITED STATES, White.-From the First Service (First Vespers) of Christmas Day to the Octave of Epiphany, Inclusive (except on the Feasts of Martyrs); on Maundy Thursday (for the celebration); from the First Service of Easter Day to the Vigil of Pentecost (except on Feasts of Martyrs and Rogation Days); on Trinity Sunday, Conversion of St. Paul, Purification, Annunciation, St. John Baptist, St. Michael, St. Luke, All Saints, Saints who are not Martyrs, and Patron Saints (Transfiguration and Dedication of Church). Red. From First Vespers of Pentecost to the First Vespers of Trinity Sunday (which includes Ember Days, Holy Innocents (if on a Sunday), and Feasts of all Martyrs, Violet-From Septuagesima to Maundy Thursday (Easter Eve); Advent Sunday to Christmas Eve; Vigils, Ember Days (except in Whitsun Week), and Rogation Days; Holy Innocents (unless on Sunday). Black, Good Friday and at funerals. Green, All other days. These regulations as to colors are general. A more minute code changing with each year is published in the church almanacs. The year 5675 is an ordinary imperfect year of 353 days, and 5676 an embolismic perfect year of 385 days. Cotton Corn. Wheat. Oats. Barley Rye White beans Sept. 1 to 30... June Light loam.. May 10 to June 10. Clay loam........ Sandy loam...... July 15 to Aug. 30. Loam or muck. Apr 1 to May 15. Sandy loam, ....... Seed bed, Mar..... Sandy loam........ 8 tons.. 8 tons.... 8 tons.. 3 tous. 8 tons... 5 to 10 tons.... 8 to 10 tons.. 8 to 12 tons.. 10 to 15 tons... 10 tons.. STATES, SOUTHERN 1% bush. 5 to 10 bu h... 1 to 6 lbs... 6 to 8 lbs....... 2 to 3 pecks... Oz. to 6 sq. rd. Feb. to May 15. 2 to 6 lbs....... 6-8 (1) The standard varieties of seed planted in the several sections of the United States are as follows: Corn-New England, leaming, sanford, flat; Middle States, leaming, white dent, yellow dent; Central and Western States, leaming, sanford, flint, white dent; Southern States, hickory king, goard seed, Cox prolific. Wheat-Middle States, fultz; Central and Western States, fultz, poole, fife; Southern States, fulcaster. Oats-New England, white; Middle States, white, black; Central and Western States, gray Norway, silver mine, Russian; Southern States, Texas rustproof. BarleyMiddle States, mansbury; Southern States, Tennessee Winter. Rye-New England, white; Middle States, white, Winter; Central and Western States, Winter; Southern States, excelsior Winter, Buckwheat- Middle States, silver hull; Central and Western States, silver hull. Potatoes-New England, green mountain, carmen 3, rose; Middle States, rose, carmen 3, rural 2; Central and Western States, hebron, rural, early rose, early Ohio. Tobacco-Central and Western States, yellow prior, Spanish, white burley. Hay, clover-Middle States, medium red. Sweet Potatoes-Middle States, yellow Jersey: Southern States, yellow Jersey. Cotton-Southern States, Texas stormproof. Spring wheat is to some extent grown in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and many other States. It matures in eighteen to twenty weeks (2) In Texas the black loam is a good soil for cotton, corn, wheat and most other field crops. THE MOON. Of all the secondary planets the end the earth's satellite is by far the most interesting and important, in a period whose mean or average length is 27 The moon completes her circuit days 7 hours 43. 2 minutes; but in consequence of her motion in common with the earth around the sun, the mean duration of the lunar month, that is, the time from new moon to new moon, is 29 days 12 hours 44. 05 minutes, which is called the moon's synodical period. If the earth were motionless in space the moon's orbit would be nearly an ellipse, having the earth in one of the foci; hence her distance from the earth varies during the course of a lunar month. Her mean distance Her maximum distance, however, may reach 252, 830 miles, and from the earth is 238, 850 miles. the least distance to which she can approach the earth is 221.520 miles. Her diameter is 2, 162 of the surmiles, and if we deduct from her distance from the earth the sum of the two radii of the earth and Her orbit is a very intricate one, because the around the sun carries the moon along with it; hence the latter is sometimes within and sometimes without the earth's orbit. Its form is that of a serpentine, curve, always concave toward the sun, and inclined to the plane of the earth's orbit at an angle of 50 9', in consequence of which our satellite appears sometimes above and sometimes below the plane of the earth's orbit, through which These points or positions are called nodes, and no two consecutive she passes twice in a revolution. nodes occupy positions diametrically opposite on the lunar orbit. The nodes have a retrograde motion, which causes them to make an entire revolution in 18 years, 218 days, 21 hours, 22 minu es and 46 seconds. This motion was well known to the ancients, who called it the Saros, and was made use of by them in roughly predicting eclipses. moon, viz., 3, 962 and 1,081 miles, respectively, we shall have for the nearest appth in moving In remote ages the lunar surface was the theatre of violent volcanic action, being elevated into cones and ridges exceeding 20,000 feet high, and at other places rent into furrows or depressions of corresponding depth. The lunar volcanoes are now extinct. A profound silence reigns over the desolate and rugged surface. It is a dead world, utterly unfit to support animal or vegetable life. THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. The earth's sensible atmosphere is generally supposed to extend some forty miles in height, probably further, but becoming at only a few miles from the surface of too great a tenuity to support life. The condition and motions of this aerial ocean play a most important part in the determination of. climate, modifying, by absorbing, the otherwise intense heat of the sun, and, when laden with clouds, hindering the earth from radiating its acquired heat into space. - Whitaker. EXPLANATION. -The white spaces show the amount of moonlight each night. January 1, March 1, etc., full moon, when moonlight lasts the whole night; January 7, February 6, etc., when the moon rises at or near midnight, when the latter half of the night has moonlight; January 15, February 14, etc., new moon, no moonlight during the whole night; January 23, February 22, etc., the moon sets at or near midnight, when the first half of the night has moonlight. |