ed to compensate the hundredth part of the injury it inflicts on vegetables; yet we are inclined to think that, especially in a grub state, it might be more frequently employed for the feeding of poultry, than it is at present. Nor does it appear to us impracticable, to feed and fatten great numbers of swine with these chafers, if they were previously bruised, and mixed with such vegetables chopped, or cut small, as are eagerly eaten by hogs.
We shall farther communicate, to artists, a curious fact lately published by M. Busch, a German writer. He informs us, that an uncommonly beautiful brown colour, of a reddish shade, for painting, may be easily obtained from the cock-chafer: this colour is said to be of superior lustre and delicacy to every other water-paint hitherto discovered. The colouring matter is found in the throat and stomach of the winged insect, and probably consists of its food, when changed into chyle. After separating the posterior part of the body, there appears to be a thin, white canal, or duct, which should be carefully opened, the juice oozing out, collected on a fine painter's pencil, and then deposited on a shell. Each chafer affords at least three drops of this juice, which may be employed without any farther preparation; and is not liable to fade, or spoil, by long keeping. The most proper time for performing this operation, is the evening, and before the chafers begin to swarm; because they will then be replete with nourishment.
CHAFF, in husbandry, the husks of the corn separated from the grain, by screening or winnowing it. This term is also applied to the rind of corn, which in grinding it, produces the coarser part of the meal.
By treating corn in a manner similar to that practised by the Tartars with buck-wheat (see pp. 376 and 377), it may be easily deprived of its rind, or, in a manner, blanched; and the same effect may be produced by merely steeping it in water, and expressing the starch: but the husky part thus separated, cannot with propriety be called chaff, as it is in reality part of the grain. Nor do we think that cut straw deserves that appellation; because it is a distinct part, or the stalk of the plant. For this reason, we shall delay the description of its properties, as well as the various machines invented for saving the labour of cutting straw by the hand.
Chaff-Cutter. See Straw-Cutter.
CHAIN, a series of rings, or round pieces of metal linked one into another: it is of various forms and sizes, and applied to different purposes.
Notwithstanding the general utility of this article, for almost every branch of extensive manufactures, we have but lately been furnished with a chain, so constructed as to become an effectual substitute for ropes, and in every respect as pliable, while it is far more durable. The metal rope, or chain, we allude to, is that invented by the ingenious William Hancock, of Birmingham; for which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in 1796, liberally granted him a premium of fifty guineas.
This chain is particularly useful in the working of coal, and other
