The right-hand knife, adjustable by means of a wedge and lever, should
stand exactly parallel with the stationary knife. It trims the side of
the slug on which the ribs are formed, and it serves to bring the slug
to the exact thickness required.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: From Theodore L. De Vinne's _Modern Methods of Book
Composition_, pp. 403-425. The Century Company, New York, 1904.]
THE EXPOSITION OF A PROCESS IN NATURE
THE PEA WEEVIL[3]
_Jean Henri Fabre_
Peas are held in high esteem by mankind. From remote ages man has
endeavored, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and sweeter
varieties. Of an adaptable character, under careful treatment the plant
has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us what the
ambition of the gardener desired. To-day we have gone far beyond the
yield of the Varrons and Columelles, and further still beyond the
original pea; from the wild seeds confided to the soil by the first man
who thought to scratch up the surface of the earth, perhaps with the
half-jaw of a cave-bear, whose powerful canine tooth would serve him as
a ploughshare!
Where is it, this original pea, in the world of spontaneous vegetation?
Our own country has nothing resembling it.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65