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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/farmersdictionar01wils 
 
V 
 
— —- - — I 
 
 THE 
 
 FARMER'S DICTIONARY; 
 
 OR A 
 
 CYCLOPEDIA OF AGRICULTURE, 
 
 IN ALL ITS 
 
 DEPARTMENTS, PRINCIPLES, METHODS, RECENT IMPROVEMENTS, AND 
 
 BUSINESS AFFAIRS, 
 
 AS TAUGHT AND PRACTISED BY THE 
 
 MOST DISTINGUISHED BRITISH AGRICULTURISTS OF THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 REY. JOHN M. WILSON. 
 
 A. FULLARTON & CO., 
 
 STEAD'S PLACE, LEITH WALK, EDINBURGH ; 
 AND 106 NEWGATE STREET, LONDON. 
 
EDINBURGH: 
 
 FCLLARTOH AND MACNAU, HUNTERS, LEITH WALK. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Farmer's Dictionary addresses itself to all classes of practical farmers, and 
 offers them complete information on everything connected with their art. It com- 
 bines science with practice, and endeavours to exhibit every subject in the clearest 
 and fullest light. It details all matters belonging to elementary and permanent 
 agriculture, — narrates many useful things which are practised only in particular dis- 
 tricts or in foreign countries, — records all speculations, experiments, and discoveries 
 which promise to be of any practical service, — and discountenances or exposes both 
 the nostrums of quacks and the pretended exploits of empirics. Yet it does not 
 dictate to its readers, but always gives them ample materials to judge for them- 
 selves; and, in general, it speaks so plainly, so practically, so apart from the depths 
 of logic and the nights of science, that all ordinary men who have enjoyed but a 
 common education, will rarely if ever have any difficulty in understanding it. The 
 utmost care is used to bring into full view all new and known means of agricultural 
 improvement, — every thing in experimental farming, mechanics, economics, geology, 
 botany, natural history, chemistry, and general philosophy, which can be turned to 
 good practical account ; and, at the same time, scarcely less care is taken to exclude 
 all needless, prosy, foreign matter, and, in as far as could comport with accuracy, to 
 state scientific things in easy popular forms of speech. 
 
 The Farmer's Dictionary, therefore, is not a miscellany of articles, without mu- 
 tual connexion or oneness of aim, — not a collection of papers, all independent of 
 one another, from a multitude of separate pens, — not a compilation of scraps and 
 extracts, of pieces and patchwork, from random gatherings of books and talk and 
 observation ; but a digest, an essence, a concentration of all useful agricultural liter- 
 ature, old and new, theoretical and practical, Scottish, English, Continental, and 
 American. The advantages of the digest form of Cyclopedia are great, and cannot 
 fail to be highly estimated by practical men. One is the harmonizing of the strifes 
 of opinion which arise by the hundred in the separate discussions of even the ablest 
 writers, and which, when allowed to burst in the clash of conflict upon the attention 
 of plain farmers, are liable to perplex and confound them. Another is condensation 
 of thought, as much really useful matter being obtained in any given space in the 
 digest method, as would unavoidably spread itself over two or three or more times 
 that space in the way of either miscellany or ordinary compilation. A third is due 
 proportion in the departments of the work, every article being uncontrolled by the 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 particular tastes of any one writer, and made long or short solely according to the 
 merits of its subject. And a fourth is the enriching of each considerable topic, such 
 as manure or soil or fallow or wheat or cattle, with the wisdom of many minds, and 
 the wealth of all available sources ; not consigning it to be treated according to any 
 one method of discussion, but concentrating upon it whatever is best within the 
 entire circle of agricultural literature, and blending all the principles and practices 
 which bear upon it, from the highest reaches of philosophy to the nicest manipula- 
 tions of art, into one harmonious whole; not treating manure, for example, chiefly 
 in the way of history, or in the way of chemistry, or in the way of mineralogy, or in 
 the way of action upon plants, or in the way of classification and comparative value, 
 or in the way of adaptation to soils and crops, or in the way of modes arid times of 
 application, but in all these ways together, and with every possible kind of illustra- 
 tion which all the ablest writers and experimenters afford. Other advantages might 
 be named ; but these are enough to show that the digest method of Agricultural 
 Cyclopedia is the right one; and they certainly were kept steadily in view, and 
 formed a grand part of the Editor's care, throughout the preparation of The Farmer's 
 Dictionary. 
 
Multitudes of comprehensive things might be grouped into an Introduction to a Cyclopedia 
 of Agriculture; but nearly all have specific limits, and are far better disposed of in separate 
 articles throughout the alphabetical arrangement; and only two, a historical sketch of agri- 
 culture and a systematic outline, appear to us to belong really to the whole work, or to be 
 appropriately preliminary ; and these form topics widely asunder from each other, and will 
 require our Introduction to be twofold, — the one part Historical, and the other Systematic. 
 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Primeval Husbandry. — Agriculture dates back to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from 
 paradise. So long as man continued upright, he could not know pain or want or toil ; but, 
 in the act of becoming a sinner, he became also a mortal, — and he thenceforth required to 
 worm his way along the soil, till he should sink into the grave. " Therefore the Lord God 
 sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." 
 
 But he was not a brute; nor did he even, till a long time after, become a savage. He 
 retained much of the mental power and the exalted knowledge of his pristine state; he had 
 not lost all, or perhaps any, of his acquaintance with physical nature, — with plants, and ani- 
 mals, and the million wonders of creation, and the glories shed on them in the Divine school 
 of Eden; he was still rational, — and, though all perverse on moral subjects, he could reason 
 well on material ones; and he therefore continued immensely superior to the most sagacious 
 of the lower animals, — and needed only to learn the process of converting principles into 
 practice, — and stood ready equipped to commence "the tilling of the ground" in a manner of. 
 comprehensive, far-sighted, energetic agriculture. He was no hunter, no roaming root-dig- 
 ger, no ignorant and hungry dependant on the beasts of the forest for a precarious dinner, 
 or on spontaneous fruits and seeds for a scanty supper; but he at once expanded into a wise 
 and steady farmer. The entire 'common theory about the primeval condition of society hav- 
 ing been a savage one is false. Men receded into barbarism, just as they receded into hea- 
 thenism, by degrees; they lost enlightenment in arts and customs much in the proportion in 
 which they lost it in religion ; they retrograded in knowledge and culture, not even as they 
 retrograded in moral character, but as they retrograded in the recognition and worship of the 
 true God ; and seldom did they become " mighty hunters" till they had become great heathens. 
 Agriculture burst upon the earth all-splendid, in connexion with the remains of Edenic know- 
 ledge, the worship of the Infinite One, and the faith of the Divine Redeemer ; and, though 
 afterwards wading through clouds, or alternately veiled and revealed by thunder-bursts, in 
 the course of its fitful progress among the polytheisms and the reformations of the world, it 
 will eventually climb the zenith, and shed thence its perfect effulgence, only when Chris- 
 tianized science shall have everywhere cleared and azured the sky. 
 
 Cain, the first-born son of Adam, was " a tiller of the ground," and seems to have well 
 known both " the strength" of it in working, and the prolificity of it in " fruit." But Abel, 
 the brother of Cain, was a keeper of sheep, — or, as the margin reads it, " a feeder of sheep;" 
 and he appears to have attended duly to both the rearing and the produce of his flocks, — for 
 
vi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 he used both "the firstlings" and "the fat" of them in sacrificial offering. The brothers 
 divided agriculture between them, into the two great departments which continue to charac- 
 terise it till the present day; the one pursued the arable husbandry, or employed himself 
 mainly in raising crops, and the other pursued the pastoral husbandry, or employed himself 
 mainly in managing flocks ; and though they had all the world before them, and could select 
 and migrate and modify at will, they everywhere felt an irresistible necessity to exert the 
 force and the skill of both head and hand. The malediction was working against them which 
 had fallen so terribly on their father, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt 
 thou eat of it all thy days ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt 
 eat the herb of the field ; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto 
 the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
 The whole human race, indeed, are sharers in this curse, — and entire tribes and classes are 
 touched very slightly and remotely by its agricultural lash ; but Adam and his sons were 
 under its first infliction, and suffered it in terrorem before the face of all posterity, and may 
 therefore be presumed to have gone through much of the pains and the anxieties, the labours 
 and the patience, which are common to universal agriculture. Cain, too, learned by and bye 
 that the substitution of a particular curse for the general one was agony; and when he was 
 told that, on account of his fratricide, he should cease to reap the rewards of tillage, and 
 should be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, he declared the punishment to be greater 
 than he could bear; and he went into another land, and built there a city, and became the 
 type of at once the idlers, the roamers, and the slaves, who inherit the miseries of either the 
 unprofitable waste or the suffocating town. 
 
 The antediluvians as a whole, then, or at least the better portions of them, may be figured 
 to our mind as hard-working farmers; and they could scarcely fail, amid the theism and the 
 inventiveness which seem to have prevailed throughout their age, to preserve and extend all 
 the farming principles of the first family. Three brothers, belonging to the seventh genera- 
 tion from Adam, made inventions which indicate progress ; one was " the father of such as 
 dwell in tents and have cattle," another was " an instructor of every artificer in brass and 
 iron," and a third was " the father of all such as handle the harp and organ;" and, without 
 any great license of fancy, the cattle-keeper and tent-builder may be figured as an improver 
 in stock-feeding and sheltering, the metallurgist as a forger of agricultural implements, and 
 the harper and organist as " a whistler at the plough," and a cheerer of the harvest-field. 
 And eventually so high rose the hopes of the future from the successes of the past, that when 
 Lamech begat a son, " he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us con- 
 cerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." 
 
 Noah's first care, after coming forth from the ark, was to .attend to the affairs of religion; 
 and his next was to attend to the affairs of agriculture. These were the twofold basis, the 
 former for eternity and the latter for time, yet the two so clenched into each other as to form 
 one foundation, on which he reconstructed the interests of the human race. " And Noah 
 builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and 
 offered burnt-offerings on the altar; and the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said in his 
 heart, I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake, neither will I again smite any 
 more every living thing, as I have done; while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
 and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Soils and 
 climes and meteorological influences were now altered ; the surface stratum of all land had been 
 formed anew, or triturated and enriched, by the diluvial action; a milder and more mellowing 
 system of chemical control over air and land and vegetation was established by the Divine 
 benevolence, a promise of genial sunniness, and of the permanent returns of the seasons, was 
 revealed in a covenant between the Most High and the Earth, and inscribed upon the bow 
 in the heavens; and henceforth agriculture would have scantier causes of sorrow, and far 
 more ample powers of action and capacities of development and joys of harvest, than in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Vll 
 
 world before the flood. It made a flourishing commencement, — in the style fully more of 
 the garden than of the field, — for " Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a 
 vineyard;" and, if it did not go on to bless the world, and to work it rapidly up to a condition 
 remotely similar to that of the original paradise, it was turned aside from this glorious mis- 
 sion only by the ungodliness and folly and brutality of man. 
 
 All the human race, excepting a single family, soon degenerated into heathenism, — and 
 many passed on to the degradations of savagism; but the chief tribes retained a goodly 
 knowledge of the principles of agriculture, and transmitted them as precious heir-looms to 
 their descendant nations. The practices of the Noahic family round the skirts of Ararat 
 were repeated on the Euphrates, and taught throughout all the countries of the dispersion. 
 The Chaldeans, the Assyrians, and the Persians of Central Asia, the Chinese and the Indians 
 of Eastern Asia, the Hebrews and the Phoenicians of Western Asia, the Egyptians of Northern 
 Africa, and the Greeks and the Latins of Southern Europe, who constituted the earliest 
 nations of the several great regions of the old world, all passed through " a golden age," 
 when kings were husbandmen, and soils were " perpetual," and flocks and apiaries made the 
 lands " flow with milk and honey." Poetry no doubt waves a magic wand over these early 
 scenes; but philosophy, in the light of revelation and of authentic record, depicts no mean 
 portion of them as assured realities; and our theory — after a careful consideration of the 
 subject — is that agriculture was in its glory during all the cradling periods of the world, that 
 it shed ease and opulence on the founders and fathers of nations, that it became dimmed and 
 dismal by the volcano-eruptions of wickedness and war, and that it will shine again in a 
 brighter than its pristine glory only when all men shall behold it through the clear atmo- 
 sphere of Christianity, — when " they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks, and shall not learn war any more." The art of the primitive 
 husbandmen may have been simpler, vastly simpler, than ours; but it was at least as well 
 adapted to its circumstances, and it had a happier spirit, and obtained more abundant returns. 
 
 Ancient Oriental Husbandry. — The Chaldeans kept great flocks and herds, and assi- 
 duously cultivated their lands; they let in the waters of the Euphrates, by means of sluices 
 and floodgates, to deposit annual top-dressings of silt upon their low alluviums; they proba- 
 bly possessed and plied some equally efficient means for maintaining a high degree of fer- 
 tilization on their other corn-lancte; and they are said by Herodotus to have reaped an 
 increase upon their seed-corn of from two hundred to three hundred-fold. Their soils were 
 always in heart, and their harvests generally profuse; and so fertile did their country con- 
 tinue even after it became a province of the Persian empire, that it furnished subsistence to 
 the kings and their immense armies during four months of every year, while all the other 
 provinces together were needed .to furnish it during the remaining eight. 
 
 The Assyrians understood well the most efficient management of such thirsty alluviums as 
 constituted a main part of the arable soils of their hot country; they diligently raised water 
 from rivers by machines, and distributed it for irrigation through systems of ducts and 
 embankments; they seem, in a degree, to have combined the practices of the Chaldeans with 
 those of the Egyptians ; and they early laid a broad foundation, in agricultural prosperity 
 and in the accumulation of its gains, for eminence in arts and for extent of empire. 
 
 The Persians ever esteemed agriculture the most excellent of occupations ; and continued 
 to assign to it all honour, even after they became proficients in weaving, needle-work, and 
 embroidery. Their kings sometimes practised it within their own parks, and generally 
 laid aside their state once a month to eat with husbandmen ; and their priests or magi taught 
 its principles as lessons of religion, and inculcated the maxim, that he who tills the ground 
 with care and diligence acquires greater merit than if he were to repeat ten thousand prayers. 
 
 The Chinese, who probably were early or even immediate descendants of the Noahic 
 family, preserve traces, in ancient laws and customs still in use, of having always treated agri 
 culture with pre-eminent consideration; and they owed to traditions and immemorial usage 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a number of practices in tilling and manuring and farming economy which kept them far 
 a-head of all Europeans till a long time after our revival of letters. — The Indians, in their 
 earliest polytheism, worshipped the founders and improvers of agriculture as their gods, and 
 especially performed high rites in honour of the planter of vineyards and the first worker of 
 the plough with oxen. 
 
 The Hebrews, in all the periods of their history prior to their enthralment in Egypt, were 
 princely exemplifiers of the pastoral husbandry ; and, in their simple affluence, their patriarchal 
 courts, their numerous flocks, and their occasional wanderings, they figure sumptuously 
 before us, in the persons of Abraham and Lot, of Isaac and Laban, and of Jacob and Esau. 
 They sometimes practised tillage and reaped exuberant harvests, as when " Isaac sowed in 
 the land of Gerar, and received in the same year an hundredfold;" but, in general, they were 
 induced, by the nature of their country and the thinness of its population, to give their main 
 attention to the rearing and managing of flocks; and they have bequeathed their most charac- 
 teristic customs to their descendants, through Ishmael and Esau, to the present day. 
 " Scarcely anything seems to have changed in the habits of men in those countries of pastoral 
 tribes. Where Abraham pitched his tent, with his sheep and oxen and asses and camels, — 
 where he sat at the door of his tent, — where the stone was rolled from the wells from which 
 his maidens drew water, — there the Arab or the wandering Turcoman encamps, and all the 
 scene is like a vivid panorama of the past. In the case of the present people of the Desert, — 
 their tents, their journeyings, their household cares, their flocks, their camels, their wells, — 
 all informs us with what a matchless fidelity the Sacred History has been told." 
 
 The Phoenicians — so well known to readers of the inspired volume under the name of 
 Philistines, and contemporary both with the Patriarchal Hebrews and with the Common- 
 wealth Jews — possessed the gorgeous plain of Sharon, " the excellency of Carmel," and the 
 "glory" of " the goodly mountain Lebanon;" they cultivated their rich territory with care 
 and skill, and drew from it magnificent returns; they sold their superfluous produce to 
 neighbouring nations, and in consequence became the earliest great commercial commu- 
 nity in the world, — whose capital was " the joyous city, the crowning city, whose mer- 
 chants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth;" and, when they 
 suffered repression and impoverishment by the Hebrew conquest, they sent off explorers 
 and colonists throughout the northern coast of the Mediterranean, and became the founders 
 and propagators of Asiatic agriculture in southern Europe. 
 
 Egyptian Husbandry. — The Egyptians ever regarded agriculture as all-important; and 
 they made it the foundation of their general policy, their social customs, and a large pro- 
 portion of their religious observances; and, in common more or less with all the great 
 nations of antiquity and with the Peruvians of the new world, though much more eminently 
 than any, they owed to it their national wealth and aggrandisement and stability. " All 
 these nations, anciently celebrated for their agriculture, present one common feature, — that 
 of long duration ; and the extent is remarkable to which in all of them other arts succes- 
 sively flourished and rose to perfection, out of the basis laid by the early industry and 
 success of their husbandry. By supplying a larger annual amount of wealth than was suffi- 
 cient for the annual wants, it not only rendered them rich and powerful, but it rendered 
 them historical; for the very records from which, in the case of Egypt especially, a history 
 and a chronology of the nation might be afterwards collected, could only be bequeathed by 
 means of a capitalised wealth applied to the erection of stupendous architectural works, 
 enclosing specimens of art." 
 
 The Egyptians, besides enjoying the same traditional instruction as the other primitive 
 nations, were taught agriculture with great force by the peculiar circumstances of their 
 country. The long valley of the Nile, gently sloping from both sides toward the river, 
 exulted from end to end in the utmost luxuriance, and possessed a wonderful appliance for 
 the annual renovation of its fertility; a large portion of it was top-dressed with alluvial silt 
 
 ■4 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 from the overflowings of the river during three months of every summer and autumn, and 
 the rest lay so low that the same enrichment could easily be drawn to it by means of small 
 irrigating canals; the deposit everywhere produced the same effects on both tillage and fer- 
 tilization, and caused forage and cereal grasses to rush up in very prodigality of vegetation 
 after the subsidence of the waters; and onlookers previously acquainted with the first prin- 
 ciples of agriculture were, in consequence, shown how the killing of the former year's herbage 
 and the exposure of a new land-surface made vigorous preparation for a season of vegetable 
 growth, — how the addition of manurial matter, in the form of such dissolved salts and orga- 
 nic remains and fine mud as compose river-silt, renders the growth strong and fructiferous, — 
 how the artificial sowing and covering of seeds upon prepared land can be made to supersede 
 natural vegetation by luxuriant crops of any kind a cultivator may choose, — and how the 
 artificial management of comparatively infertile lands, by tillage or irrigation or manuring or 
 after-culture or otherwise, will readily invest them with the same productiveness as the most 
 naturally fertile. Or if the Egyptians did not learn these lessons in the systematic way in 
 which we have stated them, they at least saw that their country teemed with corn, and 
 needed scarcely any coaxing to produce it annually in vast abundance; and they therefore 
 could not fail to be great farmers. * 
 
 They worshipped, as two of their chief deities, Osiris, whom they believed to have been 
 the inventor of agriculture, and Isis, whom they regarded as the discoverer of the use of 
 wheat and barley; they symbolized the former as an ox and the latter as a cow, and thus 
 identified them with respectively the working of the plough and the uses of the dairy ; and 
 they acquired such phrenzy of devotion to the supposed invisible agencies of the farm, as 
 even to pay religious homage to leeks and onions and other cultivated plants. Yet they 
 probably luxuriated in agriculture far more than they promoted it; and may be viewed 
 rather as drawing wealth to themselves from the peculiar resources of their country, than as 
 benefitting other nations by good or model examples of farming practices. A common opi- 
 nion, indeed, ascribes to them, what they themselves ascribed to Osiris, the invention of 
 agriculture, — and adds that a sarcle or kind of pick which they employed for stirring the 
 soil, and which figures in many of their monuments, was the earliest rude type of the plough ; 
 but this opinion, besides being inconsistent with the facts at which we have glanced in the 
 primeval history of other lands, seems fully refuted by the peculiarities of Egypt. This 
 country is all low, fiat, rich alluvium, and could not afford model-farming for countries 
 with tumulated surface and diversity of soil; it owed all its fertilization to prolonged annual 
 floodings of the Nile, and could not furnish examples to countries which have no overflowing 
 rivers, and which must derive their chief fertilization from manuring and the weather; it 
 admitted artificial aid mainly from irrigation and from slight stirrings of the recent silt, and 
 could not suggest either the labours or the implements which are requisite for the dry, deep, 
 stubborn processes of ordinary tillage. 
 
 Great works of embankment, irrigation, and drainage were executed in Lower Egypt, espe- 
 cially in the Delta, in very early times; and many more were added by Sesostris, in the 17th 
 or 18th century before the Christian era. Vast artificial canals, about eighty of which still 
 remain, of the capacity of rivers, all artificially excavated, and some from twenty to forty 
 leagues in length, received the inundations of the Nile, and either conveyed them into reser- 
 voirs, or circulated them through great tracts; immense embankments served partly to con- 
 fine the inundations within the limits of the cultivated lands, and partly to restrain the 
 torrents of sand which occasionally blew from the Desert, and threatened to overwhelm the 
 valley; the large lakes Moeris, Mareotis, and Behire acted as immense reservoirs for the 
 general country, and multitudes of ponds and basins acted as small ones for particular tracts 
 or for individual farms ; ramified systems of ducts distributed the waters from the canals and 
 reservoirs over all the low-lying lands ; and ascending series of hydraulic works, principally 
 alternations of lifting apparatus and conveying aqueducts, carried the waters up the slopes of 
 
 b 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rising-grounds and athwart the summit of hills and tableaux. A common lifting-apparatus 
 for affusion over gardens and farm -plots, was a machine worked by the foot, somewhat in the 
 manner of a tread-mill; one for affusion across a ridge or over the face of an upward slope 
 was a basket lined with leather, suspended on the middle of a rope, and swung between two 
 men; and one for conveying from a low level to an aqueduct on a higher one was a hydraulic 
 machine, on a similar principle to the modern Persian irrigating wheel, turned by oxen. 
 
 " Generally upon the subsidence of the Nile," says Pliny, " the Egyptian husbandmen cast 
 their seed upon the silty land and immediately turn in their swine to trample it down while the 
 soil is still wet; or, at all events, they sow their seed, usually about the beginning of Novem- 
 ber, upon the slime and mud, and then go over it with the plough, turning it in with a light 
 furrow. A few afterwards weed the ground; but most, after sowing a field, never step into it 
 again, till they go with the sickle at the end of March to reap the crop. Against May, the 
 harvest home is sung, and the work of the year completed. In Lower Egypt, the seed lies 
 very dry, over a subsoil of sand and gravel, and without any pabulum except the annual 
 deposit of the river, so that the straw of the corn is never a cubit long; but in Upper 
 Egypt, especially in the low flat tracts about Thebes, the farmers are better and the harvests 
 tnore abundant." 
 
 All the lands which the river overflowed, and all which could be easily and cheaply irri- 
 gated, were either quite unsuited to the pastoral husbandry, or could be more profitably 
 employed in tillage. The Egyptians of all ages preferred aration to pasturage from the cha- 
 racter of their country; and those of the ages after the primitive ones also abhorred the latter 
 from a political cause. A race of shepherd-conquerors had rushed upon them from some of 
 the older countries of Asia, and had waved over them the shepherd's crook as a badge of 
 power, and had inscribed their effigies as shepherd-kings upon the national monuments, and 
 had overspread their oppression like a nightmare along all the green valley of the Nile, and 
 had held fast their position over the struggling nation throughout a sanguinary civil war of 
 about thirty years ; and, when Joseph went into Egypt, the overthrow of them was recent, 
 the remembrance of their crimes was strong and rankling, and " every shepherd was an abo- 
 mination to the Egyptians." " It shall come to pass," therefore, said Joseph to his brethren, 
 " when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, ? What is your occupation?' that ye shall say, 
 ' Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we and also 
 our fathers/ that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen," — a tract not naturally overflown by 
 the river, and suitable to be used for pasturage. 
 
 Yet the Egyptians were far from being inattentive, in a subordinate way, to the rearing of 
 live stock, particularly cattle, beasts of burden, and poultry. When Pharaoh gave permission 
 to the Israelites, through Joseph, to settle in the land, he added, " And if thou knowest any 
 men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle;" and when the "very 
 grievous murrain" was inflicted as one of the ten plagues, it " fell upon the cattle in the field, 
 upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep." A 
 sort of stone painting or fresco, called the Tablet of Rutkur, taken from a tomb at Thebes, 
 and preserved in the British Museum, exhibits three scenes of stock-husbandry, in a manner 
 indicative of their ordinary occurrence in the economy of the Egyptian farm. In one are a 
 humped bull and some cattle like our own, passing in review before a farm-steward, — herds- 
 men standing by, and many goats and asses appearing behind; in another, water-fowl, known 
 from other monuments to have been a favourite food of the Egyptian gentry, are being 
 counted by a purveyor; and in the third a multitude of geese, seemingly fattened for the 
 market, are undergoing package into baskets, — one of them struggling in the hands of the 
 packer, and a crowd of their young looking on as wistful and wondering spectators. 
 
 Israelitish Husbandry. — The Israelites were a nation of agriculturists. Their very priests 
 and Levites, though set apart to the public duties of religion, drew their income from agri- 
 cultural produce; and all the rest, at their settlement in Canaan, received landed property, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 and were set down upon it to prosecute agricultural labour. One law assigned a particular 
 tract to each laical family, and established its boundaries with a line and with landmarks; 
 another rendered it inalienable, by sale or otherwise, during a longer period than till the close 
 of the half-century; another empowered the vendor of any part of it, or his nearest relative, 
 to redeem it for a fair price at any period after sale; and another enacted the regular appro- 
 priation of a tithe of all its produce for the use of the priests and Levites. The families pro- 
 secuted either arable husbandry or pastoral husbandry, either chiefly corn-cultivation or 
 chiefly fruit-cultivation or chiefly dairy husbandry, or a mixture of any two or more, accord- 
 ing to the nature and situation of their farms; all, from the chiefs of the tribe of Judah to 
 the lowest branch of the tribe of Benjamin, even including the noble and the kingly, long 
 continued not only to hold agriculture in the highest esteem, but to work in it with their 
 own hands; and even after the captivity, when some luxuriated in ill-gotten wealth and 
 others ran to search for it in the arts or in merchandise, the great body of the people con- 
 tentedly drew a competence from the toils of cultivation. But by fraud or force or both, 
 some of the most powerful families eventually trampled down the laws of equal distribution, 
 and accumulated great estates; with the immediate effect perhaps of reclaiming some waste 
 lands, but to the ultimate serious detriment of the common welfare. For example, " Uzziah, 
 king of Judah, built towers in the desert, and digged many wells, for he had much cattle 
 both in the low country and in the plains, husbandmen also and vine-dressers in the moun- 
 tains and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry;" and so voracious did the land-eaters become 
 in the days of the prophet Isaiah that the Divine denunciation went out against them, 
 " Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that 
 they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!" 
 
 The soil of Palestine presented to the Israelites the finest possible scope for steady, indus- 
 trious, skilful farming. It was rich in mineral constitution, warm with brilliant sunshine, 
 dry and almost arid upon a thirsty subsoil, affused with daily dews and periodical rains, 
 abruptly diversified in depth and altitude and exposure, free alike from desolating blights and 
 from great natural fertilizements, replete with breaks and varieties which challenged ingenuity 
 in the processes of culture, and strong in the aggregate capacity which gives teeming harvests 
 to good cultivators and starving ones to bad. It smiled all the year round beneath the loving 
 look of Heaven; but was ready to sicken and die if ever it should incur the Divine maledic- 
 tion. So long as it was farmed by well-behaved families of the Chosen people, it performed 
 prodigies of fertility; but after it began to be overrun by the brutal and the wicked, it dege- 
 nerated into a wilderness. The early Israelites, therefore, are proved, by the silent evidence 
 of its history, to have been able farmers. And they also evinced their keen care in tillage by 
 the emphatic word which they used to denote it, — a word which literally signifies " to serve 
 the ground;" and David exemplified it, on a great scale, by his arrangements for the super- 
 vision of his royal farm, — appointing one overseer for the field-tillage, another for the barns 
 and granaries, another for the vineyards, another for the vintage, another for the orchards, 
 another for the orchard stores, another for the herds in Sharon, another for the herds in the 
 valleys, another for the flocks of sheep, another for the camels, and another for the asses. 
 
 The fertilizers used were few and simple, but at the same time cheap and powerful. One 
 was irrigation, through ducts and mimic canals, from fountains and rivulets, — serving both to 
 supply a natural deficiency of water and to impregnate the soil with alkaline salts. Another 
 was the ashes of w^eeds, brushwood, husks, straw, and stubble, — affording all the inorganic 
 matter of vegetable manure, without any encumbrance of its useless hydrogen and carbon. 
 A third, — though on a vastly more limited scale than in modern European practice, much of 
 the dried dung of the domesticated animals being required for fuel, — was the accumulated 
 refuse and cleanings of the cattle-houses. A fourth, of course, was the droppings of the 
 herds and flocks upon the pastures ; and while this was a main or at least important source of 
 nitrogenous supplies, it both was more abundant than with us, in consequence of the majority 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the animals being almost perennially in the fields, and was less exposed to dissipation 
 through the air, in consequence of the stronger chemical aptitude of the soil to fix and retain 
 it. A fifth, we believe — though to what extent or through what periods, we are not informed 
 — was night-soil regularly buried in the land, with the threefold effect of using completely up 
 the most powerful manure ever yet known, of maintaining cleanly habits among the population, 
 and of eluding one of the most disgusting nuisances and one of the most awful enemies of the 
 public health which outrage the decencies and the wellbeing of modern times. And a sixth 
 was the fallow, the complicated chemical action, the manifold silent fertilization of the sabbatic 
 y ear — during which there was no tilling, no sowing, no reaping, no pruning, no fruit-gather- 
 ing, no vintage, no agricultural operation whatever except the feeding of live stock. We 
 have glanced at this institution, in regard to its physical tendencies, in our article on Fallow; 
 and we consider it to have possessed a beautiful and benign accordance with some of the most 
 striking modern discoveries of agricultural chemistry ; and — notwithstanding that a theological 
 question is involved in the matter, — a question, however, which admits of easy solution — we 
 would risk a conjecture, that a considerable degree of the remarkable fertility of ancient Pales- 
 tine may have arisen from a wealth of fossil and mineral phosjphates in its cretaceous soil, — 
 that one beneficial effect of the seventh year fallow may have been the husbanding and digest- 
 ing of these in the course of arable rotation, — and that before the country, in its present 
 barren state, can be restored to its former productiveness, it may require liberal applications 
 of some such manure as guano or superphosphate of lime. 
 
 Preparatory tillage was done in furrows and ridges, somewhat similarly to the prevailing 
 British practice of the present day ; and though comparatively slight and shallow, it seems to 
 have been generally performed with great care and diligence, and at many periods of the 
 year. The common designation of it etymologically signified " silent thought and attention;" 
 and one of the proverbs of Solomon implies that none but sluggards neglected it in winter. 
 It consisted chiefly in a free and various use of the plough, but also comprised a pulverizing 
 of the clods and a levelling of the ridges with a sort of rude harrow. The plough of even the 
 earliest period possessed both a coulter and a ploughshare ; and that of the time of the pro- 
 phet Micah, or at least a variety of it then in use, possessed even the refinement of wheels. 
 The ploughman bore a name which signifies " the ridger of land," — and kept a keen and con- 
 stant eye upon his implement, in order to secure straightness of line and uniformity of 
 action, — and carried a long sharpened pole, for the twofold purpose of cleaning his plough 
 and goading his cattle, — and altogether was scarcely, if at all, an inferior artist to a dexter- 
 ous worker of the modern swing-plough of Britain. The beasts of draught were either bulls 
 or asses, — the former often improperly called in the English version of the Scriptures oxen ; 
 they were harnessed to one another with a yoke laid upon their neck and shoulders, — and 
 to the plough with ropes made fast to the beam ; and as the bulls were liable to impulses of 
 fury, and the asses to fits of stubbornness, and both were much less tractable and docile than 
 horses, they must often have greatly complicated the ploughman's toils; yet they were far 
 the fittest draught animals for the circumstances of the country and people, — more economi- 
 cal, more peaceful, less suggestive of pride and war than horses, — and the two species were 
 never allowed to be yoked together in the same draught. 
 
 The seed-time of wheat extended from the latter part of October to the latter part of De- 
 cember; and that of barley occurred in January and February. All seed corn was carefully 
 cleaned from every admixture, and committed in a sound condition to the ground. The 
 principal field-crops, additional to wheat and barley, were spelt, millet, pepperwort, beans, 
 lentils, meadow-cumin, flax, cotton, and perhaps rice and several kinds of gourd and cucum- 
 ber. Sowing was done broadcast, from a basket, and so thinly as to allow great scope for 
 after-culture and for tillering; and the seed was covered sometimes with the rude harrow, 
 but more commonly by a superficial cross-ploughing. After-culture was practised with hoes 
 and mattocks; and though probably designed only to extirpate weeds, it promoted aeration, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and gave the grain crops much of the same benefit as our turnip fallows. The crops in the 
 warmest districts ripened about the middle of April ; and those of the coolest districts, about 
 three or four weeks later. And a main peculiarity of the aggregate agriculture — one which 
 afforded wide scope to the play of skill, and demanded in all cases a considerable exercise of 
 judgment, and rendered the choice of crops and the timing of operations far more critical than 
 in any European country — arose from great and abrupt diversities of climate; for while 
 tracts around the water-shed, as at Jerusalem and Bethlehem, have a temperature similar to 
 the south of Italy, those in the deep eastern plain, as at Jericho and along the Jordan, have 
 a temperature nearly as high as that of central India. 
 
 Travellers were allowed to take ears from any person's crop for immediate use, but not in 
 the manner or to the amount of reaping; and watchmen sat on trees or on small towers, to 
 keep off birds, quadrupeds, and thieves. Reaping was done with either a sickle or a small 
 scythe. The reapers were masters, men-servants, maid-servants, children, and mercenaries ; 
 and they performed their work cheerily and merrily, and made the welkin ring during all the 
 harvest with songs and laughter. The cut corn was gathered in the arms, and bound into 
 sheaves or bundles, and set up in small open heaps or shocks, and conveyed away, on carts 
 or waggons, to the thrashing-floor or the barn; but was never formed into stacks. The cor- 
 ners of the field and the gleanings were left for the poor; and the operations of thrashing and 
 of winnowing were conducted in the open air, — the former with the appliances noticed in our 
 article Thrashing, and the latter with shovels, hand-fans, and sieves. 
 
 Some of the most charming features of Israelitish husbandry were the vineyards, festooning 
 the hills with their outspread growth, and empurpling the vales with their clusters of fruit, — 
 the olive-groves, shading the rocky mountains and table-lands, all the year round, with their 
 ash-grey foliage, — the palm plantations, waving their feathery heads and their harvests of dates 
 over the sunniest rills of the plain of Jordan, — the orchards of fig-trees and pomegranates, of 
 terebinths and pistacias, of all other native fruit-trees, and of the kinds which were intro- 
 duced or popularized by Solomon, dappling and dazzling many of the choicest tracts of both 
 hill and dale with their manifold tints and produce, — single trees and tufts and groups of all 
 the pleasant and profitable species, scattered athwart the general landscape, and giving luscious 
 relief to fields and pastures; and connected with these were some of the most delightful and 
 elaborate processes of rural labour, — the planting and pruning of trees, the gathering of fruit, 
 the clearing of the woods, and the operations of the vintage and the oil-press. But as such 
 matters throw very little light on the agriculture of our own clime, we pass them without 
 further notice. 
 
 The Israelites attended well to their pastoral husbandry, and must have felt induced, by 
 rivalry with neighbouring nations, by veneration for the memory of their own ancestors, and 
 by the character of a large portion of their country, to give it full or even excessive promi- 
 nence. All their neighbours on the east and the south, long continued wealthy in herds and 
 flocks, — and a single prince of Moab rendered to a king of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100,000 
 rams, with their wool ; all their principal ancestors, both direct and collateral, had been a kind 
 of shepherd kings, — and Job, whose history they must all have known and admired, had pos- 
 sessed 14,000 sheep, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 6,000 camels, and 1,000 she-asses; and extensive 
 districts of their territory, such as Bashan beyond the Jordan, had ever won the fame of pre- 
 eminently excellent pastures, — and indeed continue to deserve that fame to the present day. 
 The Israelites had stalls for their cattle, and cotes for their sheep ; they prepared provender 
 of cut-straw and barley for their horses and asses ; they tied up their calves and bullocks for 
 the purpose of fattening; and they were well acquainted with the arts of the dairy, with the 
 shearing of sheep, and with the management of wool. 
 
 Greek Husbandry. — The classical Greeks borrowed their ideas of" the golden age "from the 
 traditions of older nations, and transferred them, by poetical license, to the early flock-mas- 
 ters of their own land. They themselves were colonists, or the offspring of colonists, and 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 always devoted their thoughts by preference to city industry and the fine arts, and seem 
 never, as a people, to have held agriculture in high esteem ; for though a few extolled it as 
 good and noble, the great body regarded it as but a superior kind of brute force, for extract- 
 ing from the ground the raw material of food. The aborigines of their country had been 
 savages, living on forage, roots, and acorns; and they probably were reduced by the incomers 
 to the condition of helots or serfs, and condemned to remain in all ages the enthralled, 
 obscure, hard-working tillers of the ground. The Boeotians sent richer loads of farm pro- 
 duce to market than any other people of Greece, yet were the standing butt of Athenian 
 derision as clowns and hobnails ; and all farmers were more or less despised by most polished 
 artists and proud philosophers, as at best a mid-way class between the barbarous and the 
 refined. And the gradations which the Greek literature assigned to the social scale, as well 
 as, in some degree, the actual facts of human development within the Grecian states — at bot- 
 tom the life of a roaming savage, next the life of a shepherd, next that of ordinary agricul- 
 ture, and highest of all the employments and amenities and dissipations of city-life — appear 
 to us the origin of the common modern theory which, without due advertence to the testi- 
 mony of revelation and of the oldest monuments, supposes all nations to have been originally 
 barbarous, and all their earliest farmers infantine or brutal. 
 
 Yet the classical Greeks assigned to agriculture a high honour in their own way, by giving 
 it a prominent place in their elaborate mythology. They ascribed the invention of it to Ceres, 
 as the Egyptians did to Osiris and Isis; and they therefore worshipped her as the goddess of 
 corn and of harvests. They supposed Pelasgus, the Phoenician, to have brought some of the ear- 
 liest important knowledge of it to their shores ; and therefore they worshipped him also 
 as a god. They believed that Triptolemus of Eleusis had been sent by Ceres, as a mis- 
 sionary through the world, to teach mankind the arts of tillage ; and therefore they deified 
 him, and established the Eleusinian mysteries, which were both the most famous and the most 
 enduring of all their religious rites. They had also a tutelary deity over every principal 
 affair of agricultural vegetation, — one over the soil, another over manures, another over the 
 process of exfoliation, another over the process of blossoming, another over the flow of the sap 
 and the secretion of the juices, another over the processes of earing and seeding, another over 
 the process of ripening, Ceres herself over the concerns of harvest, another to protect the 
 growing crops from blight, and another to protect the reaped and harvested ones from every 
 kind of injury. And though few of their extant authors make any mention of agriculture, 
 those who do so treat it with respect. Hesiod treats it didactically, and attempts to make 
 its useful avocations supersede the demonry of war; Theophrastrus gives a catalogue of 
 plants, and dilates on the composition and action of manures ; Theocritus expatiates on the 
 pastoral husbandry ; Homer depicts some of his princes as husbandmen, and represents one 
 old king as divested of power and wealth and grandeur, and as living happily on a well-cul- 
 tivated little farm; and Xenophon describes the practices of Greek agriculture with consi- 
 derable detail, and says, " Where agriculture prospers, the other arts thrive; and where 
 agriculture is neglected, the other arts perish." 
 
 The implements of Greek husbandry comprised, among others, ploughs, spades, hoes, ox- 
 goads, rakes, sickles, and carts ; but probably differed widely as to both form and number, in 
 different ages and different districts. — The soil was exceedingly various; and consisted 
 largely of rocky surfaces, largely of marsh and fen, and largely of clays and sands and gravels 
 on a calcareous subsoil; and it tumulated irregularly over vale and hill, and over broken 
 plain and intricate mountain. — The fertilizers, either actually used by the farmers, or recom- 
 mended by Theophrastus and Xenophon, comprised the ordinary manures of the farm-yard, 
 the clearings of ponds and ditches, the ashes of weeds and stubbles, the entire mass of grow- 
 ing green crops turned in with the plough, various kinds of mineral mixtures and heteroge- 
 neous composts, and perhaps the majority of other fertilizing appliances which were used in 
 subsequent ages by the Romans. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The georgy of the Greeks was severe and various, and suggests high lessons of assiduity 
 and toil and patience to the modern farmers of more favoured lands. They reclaimed the 
 tracts which eventually became the most fertile from the flood and the morass ; they inter- 
 sected their low grounds with ditches and water-courses, and maintained these in a state of 
 openness by frequent cleansing; they spread or carried soil over the face of bare slopes and sur- 
 face rocks, and bore mineral manures and fertilizing composts up the steep sides and on to the 
 summits of lofty hills. Some literally created arable fields out of a wilderness ; some were 
 familiarly known as " tillers of the rock;" and some kept tracts in good tillage which, when 
 neglected but a few years, returned to the state of worthless or pestiferous swamps. 
 
 The operations of culture were conducted on principles of experience, skill, completeness, 
 and adaptation to soil and season. One maxim was, that no man could become a good 
 farmer without much practice ; a second, that the selection of crops for any field should be 
 determined by comparative trials of species, or by the kind and character of its weeds; a 
 third, that bare fallowing or frequent spring and summer ploughing was of great advantage; 
 a fourth, that the stirring of the soil at any time could be neither unseasonable nor unprofit- 
 able; and a fifth, that every thing possible should be done, by cleaning and after-culture, to 
 keep growing crops and the soil beneath them freely exposed to sunshine and the air. All 
 ordinary arable land, in every preparation for a crop, received three ploughings, — one in 
 autumn, another in spring, and a third immediately before the sowing of the seed. A 
 ploughman required to be well fed, to commence his work at a very early hour in the morn- 
 ing, to go almost naked in summer, and to wear a coarse, warm, substantial, clothing of skins 
 and hides in winter; he was thought to be at his prime about the age of forty; and if a good 
 workman, he kept his eye fixedly on the plough, so that he might make a straight furrow, and 
 exercised keen attention in sowing, so that he might make an equable distribution of the seed. 
 The sowing was done broadcast; and the covering of the seed was done with a rake. Har- 
 vesting and barn- work were nearly the same as among the Israelites. Reaping was done with 
 a sickle; the cut corn was bound into sheaves, and afterwards carted to a thrashing-floor; 
 the grain was separated from the straw by the trampling of oxen ; winnowing was effected 
 by tossing the stuff into the wind; and the cleaned grain was stored in granaries and chests, 
 to be taken out and pounded in querns or mortars as it was wanted. 
 
 The field crops cultivated by the Greeks comprised all the cereal grasses and all the sarco- 
 lobous legumes which are now cultivated in Britain and France ; but did not comprise any 
 ordinary or routine crops for forage and fodder, whether grasses, herbs, or root-plants. The 
 misletoe and some species of woody or very hardy legume, possibly the common lucern or 
 some other medicago, were employed for fodder in times of scarcity. Meadows and the most 
 luxuriant pastures were probably used alike or alternately or indifferently, as circumstances 
 required, for grazing and for hay. Flax and perhaps hemp were grown occasionally in 
 patches for fibre; the grape-vine was extensively cultivated in vineyards for wine; olive- 
 trees and fig-trees were cultivated isolatedly or in small groves for oil and food ; and most 
 kinds of fruit-trees suitable for the climate were grown in orchards and gardens for the 
 dessert. 
 
 Boeotia had excellent breeds of cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats ; Thessaly had a celebrated 
 breed of horses ; and all Greece had good varieties of the ass, excellent mules, excellent work- 
 ing oxen, and an abundance of poultry. Some of the mules were famed for their speed, and 
 others worked well as beasts of draught and burden. Oxen were most commonly used for 
 the plough, — and in the early periods, were yoked by the horns ; and those of between four 
 and five years of age were esteemed the best. In winter, a large proportion of the live 
 stock, particularly the working animals, were fed under cover on hay, straw, mast, and forest 
 foliage. 
 
 Roman Husbandry. — The Roman chiefs of the earliest periods practised agriculture; those 
 of the time of Numa publicly encouraged it ; and those of all succeeding ages, till the Roman 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 power filled the civilized world, variously appreciated and promoted it. Yet the agriculture 
 of the territories around imperial Rome, or that which prevailed in the best parts of Italy 
 during the reign of the first Caesars, was rather an importation from other lands than an article 
 of native growth. Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, and Greece, as we have seen, had long been 
 arenas of enlightened husbandry; the Carthaginian States, which comprised Sicily, Sardinia, 
 Spain, and North-Western Africa, had also made distinguished agricultural progress, — and, 
 in one or two instances, had even preceded Greece; and when these regions were overrun by 
 the Roman armies, their choicest usages of husbandry were transferred piece by piece to Italy, 
 and there adapted to new circumstances, and worked into an amalgamated system. Roman 
 agriculture increased in splendour as long as it could continue to borrow light from the older 
 nations ; it attained its utmost glory a little before the zenith of Roman greatness, or about 
 two centuries before the Christian era; it dwindled away to dimness, behind the thickening 
 smoke of luxury and ambition, previous to the time of Nero ; and it was hurled into extinc- 
 tion, or at best reduced to a flickering and fitful glare, by the irruption of the Goths and 
 Vandals. But though short-lived, it spread itself over a large proportion of Europe, and 
 became the parent of all the tolerable husbandries of the middle ages; and though possessing 
 little originality, or owing scarcely anything to Italian invention except new combinations 
 and some new mechanical facilities, it enjoyed the profound respect of the proud and polished 
 Romans, and embodied the principles or even the practices of some boasted modern improve- 
 ments; and it therefore challenges the study and wonder of European farmers of the pre- 
 sent day. 
 
 The Romans had an agricultural literature. An elaborate agricultural work of twenty- 
 eight volumes, written by the Carthaginian general Mago, was ordered by the Roman senate, 
 after the taking of Carthage, to be translated into the Latin tongue. Cato, the Censor, who 
 subdued many warlike tribes, and governed extensive provinces, wrote an elegant treatise on 
 rural affairs. Varro, a soldier, a consul, a grammarian, a historian, and a philosopher, wrote 
 a learned work on farm labour, on live stock, and on the farmery and its offices. Virgil, the 
 prince of Latin poets, described agriculture in the language of the muses, and adorned it with 
 the beauty and elegance, the pathos and majesty of his immortal verse. Columella, a Spaniard 
 who spent most of his life in Italy, and devoted it to agricultural pursuits, wrote a complete 
 system of husbandry, including forestry and gardening. The elder Pliny, governor of Spain, 
 an eminent naturalist, and a voluminous author, wrote a compilation of all the previous agri- 
 cultural literature of all nations, or rather of all extant geographical, georgical, and natural 
 science. Palladius, whom some critics assign to the second century and others to the fourth, 
 wrote a poetical compend of all the agricultural works to which he had access. Lucretius, 
 the famous didactic poet, shed the rays of his bright genius over the physical sciences in their 
 connexions with husbandry, illustrating the stability of natural agencies, and their manifesta- 
 tion of Divine wisdom. Other great men also, whose writings are lost, but whose names 
 continue on the roll of fame, used their high powers to "make agriculture eloquent;" and 
 some of these, as for example Tremellius Scrofa, rendered it honour and service, not less by 
 their personal toils on the farm, than by their tongue and their pen. " I see," said Varro, 
 " coming this way, Tremellius Scrofa, who has the reputation of being the most skilful agri- 
 culturist in Rome; and justly too, — for one of his farms is better worth inspection than all 
 the princely palaces of the city." Nor are the extant Roman rural writers deficient in prac- 
 tical value; for — to adopt the words of the perspicacious author of " the Husbandry of the 
 Ancients" — " instead of schemes produced by a lively imagination, which we receive but too 
 frequently from authors of genius unacquainted with the practice of agriculture, we have good 
 reason to believe that they deliver, in their writings, a genuine account of the most approved 
 practices, — practices, too, the goodness of which they had themselves experienced." 
 
 The Romans, like the Greeks, put agriculture under the protection of their gods, and 
 mixed it in many a way with their mythology. But, unlike the Greeks, all classes of them, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xvii 
 
 the learned and the noble, as much as the illiterate and the plebeian, treated it with the 
 highest practical consideration. All were cultivators of the soil, and delighted in their villa- 
 grounds or farms ; and some of the most illustrious in the senate and in the battle-field pre- 
 ferred the humblest husbandry to the proudest politics or the most triumphant wars. The 
 greatest statesmen of the earlier periods affected magnificence only on state occasions, and 
 dressed and laboured as farmers during all the periods of recess from public duty ; several 
 generals who achieved the greatest victories and made the greatest extensions of the empire 
 were impatient to return from the camp and the city to the quietude of the farm ; and, even 
 in the later and more luxurious periods, men of consular dignity, who would no longer stoop 
 to hold the plough with their own hand, esteemed it a reward of their public services to ob- 
 tain leave to retire into the country, and were respected by the whole community as much 
 when superintending their farms as when seated in the chair of state. And many of the 
 noblest families and most famous citizens linked themselves permanently and paramountly to 
 agriculture by their very names. The Pisones, the Fabii, and the Lentuli, all patricians, 
 were etymologically pease, beans, and lentils; Serranus, the consul, was a dexterous sower; 
 and Cicero, the greatest of orators, was a chick-pea, or a vetch. " In those days," says Pliny, 
 " when a man was meant to be highly spoken of, he was called an agriculturist or a good 
 husbandman; and whoever was thus praised was thought to be highly honoured." 
 
 In the earliest ages of Rome, a tract of only two Roman acres, equal to something less 
 than two English ones, was assigned to each citizen ; after the expulsion of the kings, a tract 
 of seven Roman acres, equal to about six English ones, was allowed ; and not till after many 
 conquests and aggrandizements on the part of the patricians, nor till after prolonged and re- 
 iterated and frantic opposition on the part of the people, was the law so altered as to permit 
 the wealthiest to become extensive landowners and the less wealthy to become mere tenant- 
 farmers. The statute of restriction to seven acres was regarded in the Republic as essential 
 alike to good policy and to good farming ; and it afterwards figured, in most of the broils 
 and insurrections of the Empire, as a national patrimony, which aristocratic fraud and rapine 
 had usurped from the industrious millions. " The mob of Rome," remarks Mr. Hoskyns, 
 "could never forget that, in the good old days gone by, every man had his seven jugera of 
 land in some snug allotment outside the walls of the city ; and were as little disposed as the 
 Chartist of modern times to recognise the justice of that eternal and immutable law of nature 
 by which some men grow rich and others grow poor, from the same original start, and would 
 be found in the same predicament to-morrow if a re-distribution of property took place to- 
 day. At every weak conjuncture of the Senate's powers, at every vacillating moment 
 that grew out of some hard-fought question between the Tribunes and the Consuls, at every 
 news of a military reverse that reached the capital, 'the agrarian law' was the rallying 
 watch-word of the popular party, urged and re-urged upon the Senate with a pertinacity to 
 which none but such an historian as Livy could have done adequate justice. It appears in 
 every page with a repetition which the school-boy, who has not yet had experience of turn- 
 ing over the leaves of Hansard, or wading through the Blue-Books, and has never even 
 heard of 6 the Irish question,' believes to be without a parallel in the annals of dulness and 
 reiteration." The landlords, however, kept a firm grip of what they had got, and quietly 
 added more to it when they could ; and they let out allotments and farms on a variety of 
 systems, and sometimes granted leases of considerable duration, and altogether acted not much 
 unlike the British landlord of the present day, except that, for the most part, they were as 
 good practical farmers as the best of their tenants. 
 
 The agricultural implements of the Romans were more numerous and better contrived 
 than those of older nations. All their ploughs were complex, and possessed more than a 
 medium excellence between the simple ploughs of the Israelites and the best British ploughs 
 of the present day; and most had a beam, a cross-bar handle, a ploughshare, two mould- 
 boards, a coulter, and a plough-staff; and some were furnished also with wheels; while 
 
xviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 others, which were adapted for the simplest kinds of tillage, wanted the mould-boards or the 
 coulter. See the article Plough. The other chief implements were a rude grubber or 
 scarifier, a harrow, a hand-rake, a large draw-hoe, a small hand-hoe, a large two-pronged 
 hoe, with a clod-breaking hammer at its other end, mattocks, spades, shovels, sickles, 
 scythes, reaping-machines, and a variety of contrivances for thrashing, winnowing, rippling, 
 and other operations. 
 
 The Roman soils, as to composition, surface, altitude, exposure, and all other characters, 
 were at least as diversified as those of Britain. But the advantages of classifying them, of 
 studying their adaptations, and of variously treating them in accordance with their various 
 characters were well understood. The thin and upland ones were devoted to pasturage, and 
 the deep and lowland ones to tillage ; light alluviums to vineyards, and clays and heavy 
 loams to corn-culture ; arid and hungry lands to crops requiring irrigation, and strong, rich, 
 grateful lands to crops which yielded a maximum of profit. All soils, as regarded their 
 adaptation to the cereal grasses, or to the ordinary field rotations, were classified into, first, 
 the fat and free, — next, the fat and stiff, — next, the lean and stiff, — and last, the lean 
 and dry. 
 
 The manures used by the Romans comprised nearly all which are anywhere in use at the 
 present day, — except our special and artificial ones; and they were classified and economised 
 and distributed with a discrimination and a care which might scarcely have blushed in the 
 presence of a modern lecturer on agricultural chemistry. They were collected from every 
 kind of source, and prepared in every kind of way, and applied for every kind of purpose. 
 They were variously vegetable, animal, and mineral, — territorial and aquatic, — from the 
 field, from the farmery, and from wastes, — systematically produced and occasionally gathered, 
 — simple and compound, — nutrimental and textural, — some for top-dressing, and others for 
 incorporation. Pigeon-dung was esteemed the most powerful; night-soil and urine were 
 esteemed the next in power ; and farm-yard manure was accumulated in basins which re- 
 tained its moisture, and was covered over with twigs and leaves to protect it from the sun- 
 shine and the atmosphere, and was applied in autumn and spring at the times of sowing. See 
 the article Manure. 
 
 Most kinds of irrigation, and the general management of meadows, were skilfully con- 
 ducted. See the articles Irrigation and Meadow. Bare fallowing was universally and ela- 
 borately practised. Some varieties of paring and burning were known. The bringing of 
 waste land into an arable condition, by grubbing up and burning all the unprofitable stuff 
 upon it, inclusive of shrubs and trees, was a favourite improvement. The enclosing of small 
 farms, of meadows, gardens, and orchards, of night-retreats for cattle, of preserves for wild 
 beasts, and of the home-grounds of large estates, was common, and was done with a great 
 variety of fences. Draining was in great vogue, both shallowly and to so great a depth as 
 four feet, both by open cuts and by covered drains, both in rude methods and in compara- 
 tively refined ones, both for preventing the stagnation of surface water and for conveying 
 away the water of springs. And from these prominent instances we may infer, that georgy 
 in general was much appreciated, and variously, skilfully, and extensively prosecuted, — and 
 that, though less elaborate than on the estates of British improvers during the last half-cen- 
 tury, it was at any rate more vigorous in proportion to the* means of enlightenment and to 
 the pressure of population. 
 
 The Romans were dexterous ploughmen, and made their furrows marvellously neat. To 
 plough out of line, or not perfectly straight, was regarded as the type of every kind of 
 errancy, and was designated by terms from which we have derived our word delirium. The 
 plough was drawn commonly by two oxen, but sometimes by three, trained to the work Avhen 
 young, and yoked abreast, commonly by the neck, but sometimes by the horns; and it was 
 guided by only one man, who both managed its movements and controlled the oxen. The 
 ploughing was done sometimes in ridges, sometimes not, and always in contiguous furrows, 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 without any circuit at the end of the field. Fallow-tillage was frequently done so often as 
 every second year; and preparation-tillage comprised so many as from three to nine plougk- 
 ings, according to the freeness or the stiffness of the soil. The furrows of a first ploughing 
 were usually about nine inches deep; and those of a scarification -ploughing, or of an advanced 
 cleaning one, were about three inches. 
 
 The green-fallow husbandry, which has generally been regarded by British farmers as a 
 modern invention, but which is really entitled to that character no farther than in the con- 
 necting of it with drilling and with turnip-growing, was perfectly understood by the Romans, 
 but seems to have been ill-worked or at least poorly appreciated. Pliny, referring to it, in a 
 comment upon Virgil, says, " Our poet thinks that alternate fallowing should be practised, so 
 as to allow the land to rest entirely every second year. And in every case where a man has 
 land enough to admit of it, this practice is correct and profitable; and in other cases, he may 
 find a substitute for it by sowing in one year wheat, and in the alternate year beans, vetches, 
 lupines, or any other crop which enriches the ground. But the practice of sowing some 
 crops, merely to serve as food to others, is, in my opinion, a poor one." 
 
 The Romans were nice about the choice of seeds, the times of sowing, the manner of 
 sowing, and the proportion of seed to the acre. They sowed by hand from a basket, and 
 moved the hand in unison with the foot ; and they covered the seed sometimes with rakes or 
 harrows, so as to make the crop come up with the full effects of broad-casting, and sometimes 
 with shallow ploughing, so as to make the crop come up with an effect similar to that of 
 drilling. After-culture comprised hand-weeding, hook-weeding, hand-hoeing, horse-hoeing, 
 earthing-up, the watering of parched crops, and the feeding-down of over-luxuriant ones. 
 Corn crops were commonly reaped with the sickle or mown with the scythe; but they were 
 sometimes decapitated with an earing- apparatus, somewhat like a modern daisy-rake, mounted 
 on an ox-cart; and, in Gaul, they were cut with a reaping-machine, which seems to have been 
 a rude type of the modern one invented by Mr. Bell. The binding of cut corn into sheaves 
 appears not to have been practised. Thrashing was done on large exposed thrashing-floors 
 by flails, by the trampling of oxen and horses, and by drawing over the corn a heavy sledge, 
 roughened with stones or iron. Winnowing was performed in the same way as by the 
 Israelites; and the dressed grain was stored in pits and granaries, of such a construction that 
 they could keep it sound for fifty years. 
 
 The cereal grasses cultivated by the Romans were wheat, far, barley, rye, oat, millet, and 
 panic-grass; the sarcolobous legumes were the bean, the pea, the lupine, the lentil, the tare? 
 the kidney-bean, the chick-pea, and the chickling-vetch; the principal forage and foddering 
 plants were clover, lucern, turnip, rape, and several species so loosely described in the extant 
 writings that they cannot now be identified; the principal plants used in the arts or for mis- 
 cellaneous purposes were flax, poppy, and oily-grain ; and the principal ligneous plants were 
 osiers, timbei-trees, vines, figs, olives, hardy fruit-trees, and garden shrubs. The order of 
 remunerativeness in which Cato ranks the different kinds of cultivated ground, is, first, a 
 well-situated and very fructiferous vineyard, — second, a well-watered garden, — third, an 
 osier plantation, — fourth, an olive grove,' — fifth, a meadow, — sixth, corn-ground, — seventh, a 
 coppice producing strong poles, — and eighth, a wood producing mast. 
 
 Bullocks and oxen continued to occupy nearly the same status among the Romans as they 
 had done among the Egyptians, the Israelites, and the Greeks. They were the principal 
 working-animals of the farm, and were carefully trained to the yoke from the time of their 
 being calves; and were well-fed, during all their years of labour, with corn, pulse, mast, and 
 various kinds of herbage. Asses were used for light ploughing, for the mill, and for car- 
 rying burdens; and were trained for work in their third year; and were fed on corn, hay, 
 and green fodder. Mules and hinni were occasionally used on both the farm and the road, 
 but only in localities where they happened to be more economical than bullocks or asses. 
 Horses were seldom if ever employed in any kind of agricultural work; yet were reared by 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 some farmers for the saddle, for the chase, and for the army. Dogs were kept to watch the 
 farmery, to assist shepherds, and to hunt wild beasts. All the common kinds of poultry, and 
 also pigeons, peacocks, turtle-doves, larks, thrushes, bees, dormice, snails, and fish were reared 
 for market-profit. 
 
 British Husbandry. — The history of British husbandry, at least in its economical develop- 
 ments, or for the sake of its practical lessons, is incomparably more interesting to British 
 farmers than that of any other husbandry, either ancient or modern ; and it is therefore dis- 
 tributed in pieces, more or less ample, in all the articles in our work which were likely to 
 derive illustration or completeness from its presence. Historical notices of things belonging 
 to the first division in our systematic outline, will be found particularly in the articles Lease 
 and Rent; to the second division, in the articles Farm and Drill-Husbandry; to the third 
 division, in the articles Farm-Buildings and Enclosure; to the fourth division, in the articles 
 Fair and Bushel; to the fifth division, in the articles Plough, Harrow, Grubber, Horse-Hoe, 
 Sowing-Machines, Winnowing-Machine, and many others; to the sixth division, in the 
 articles Soil, Humus, Downs, and Bog; to the seventh division, in the articles Manure, 
 Farm-Yard Manure, Liquid Manure, Bone-Manure, Gypsum, Guano, and a number of others; 
 to the eighth division, in the articles Agricultural Chemistry and Electro-Culture; to the 
 ninth division, in the articles Weather and Barometer; to the tenth division, in the articles 
 Draining, Irrigation, Warping, and Paring and Burning; to the eleventh division, in the 
 articles Fallow, Subsoil-Ploughing, Thrashing, and some others; to the twelfth division, in 
 the articles Wheat, Barley, Rye, Mildew, and several others; to the thirteenth division, in 
 the articles Bean, Lucern, Potato, Turnip, Flax, and several others ; to the sixteenth division, 
 in the article Meadow ; to the seventeenth division, in the articles Horse, Ass, Ox, Cattle, 
 Sheep, Goat, and some others ; and to the eighteenth division, in the articles Butter, Cheese, 
 and Wool. These articles contain almost all historical details which possess any interest or 
 value; so that they relieve us from attempting anything further here than a cursory and 
 quite general connecting narrative. 
 
 The aborigines of Britain were savages, and lived on roots, berries, milk, and flesh. Some 
 colonies who arrived from Gaul about a century prior to the Roman invasion began to culti- 
 vate the sea-coasts, and probably indoctrinated the natives with some rudimental knowledge 
 of agriculture. Many of the inhabitants at the arrival of the Romans tilled the land, used 
 marl as a manure, eared their ripe corn, and stored it in caves or small granaries. The 
 Romans obliged them to ply the arts of farming, in order both to pay the imperial taxes and 
 to improve their own comfort; they compelled them to assist the soldiery in clearing forests, 
 draining fens, and constructing highways; they partly led them by example, and partly 
 drove them by coercion, to habits of industry and refinement; and they eventually, and per- 
 haps soon, enabled them, not only to maintain themselves in steady supplies of food and in 
 comparative affluence, but to raise a large surplus of corn for exportation. In the fourth 
 century, the emperor Julian erected granaries in Britain for storing the tributary grain which 
 he exacted from the natives; and at one time, he sent a fleet of six hundred vessels to convey 
 their contents to the mouth of the Rhine, for the use of his continental subjects. " If," says 
 Gibbon, " we compute those vessels at only seventy tons each, they were capable of export- 
 ing 120,000 quarters; and the country which could bear so large an exportation must have 
 attained an improved state of agriculture." 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon conquerors found Britain rich in flocks and herds; and they seized these 
 for their own use, and devoted their attention chiefly to the pastoral husbandry and to the 
 chase. They were proud and turbulent, fond of rough sports and hunting and warfare ; and 
 they esteemed tillage too mean and quiet an employment for themselves, and assigned it 
 wholly to their women and slaves and to the native Britons. Their kings regulated the rent 
 of lands by law; their nobles erected vast tracts of land into forest and commonage; and their 
 extensive arable landowners, or proprietors of manors, divided estates into inlands and out- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxi 
 
 lands, — the former cultivated by slaves under the direction of a bailiff, and the latter let out 
 to small tenant-farmers, at very moderate rents, most commonly paid in kind. The monks 
 were by far the best farmers; and probably owed their superiority, less to their better edu- 
 cation, than to their closer practical attention and their greater diligence. " This abbot," says 
 the Venerable Bede respecting one of them, " being a strong man and of an humble disposi- 
 tion, used to assist his monks in their rural labours, sometimes guiding the plough by its 
 handle, sometimes winnowing corn, and sometimes forging implements of husbandry with a 
 hammer upon an anvil." The native Britons of the Anglo-Saxon period — or, as we would 
 now call them, the Welsh — suffered great political depression, and sank into deep poverty, 
 and probably lost much of the agricultural skill which had been taught by the Romans ; and 
 they often formed themselves into little confraternities of six or eight persons, for the purpose 
 of maintaining a plough and a yoke of oxen ; and they had some curious laws respecting 
 ploughs and harness and other common matters, which imply that their implements were 
 slight, and their farming operations rude and meagre. 
 
 The agricultural state of England at the time of the Norman conquest lies strikingly 
 depicted in Doomsday Book and in the latest laws of the Saxons, and is proved by these to 
 have been degenerate and wild. The proportion of land in tillage was so small as to support 
 a total population of not more than about two millions of human beings ; almost every manor 
 had peculiar laws and usages, and maintained a system of severe, minute, and vexatious vas- 
 salage; extensive tracts of grass lands encompassed all the arable tracts, and were kept in a 
 condition of commonage, under the joint protection of very stringent statutes and very pow- 
 erful jealousies; great woods and forests were preserved for supplies of fuel, and for the feed- 
 ing of prodigious multitudes of hogs on mast and acorns; numerous rabbit-warrens were 
 maintained, principally for supplying furs to the gentry; and enormous districts, some of 
 them equal in extent to counties, were used only as hunting-grounds, and tenanted solely by 
 herds of deer, and by wild cattle, wild boars, and wolves. 
 
 This state of desolation was in some degree increased, and in a general view perpetuated, 
 by the Normans. A great tract of smiling corn-fields in Hampshire was converted by the 
 crown into the royal chase of the New Forest; a similar tract between the Humber and the 
 Tyne was devastated, under pretext of guarding against an invasion of the Danes ; and many 
 smaller pieces of arable land throughout the kingdom were added to old hunting-grounds, by 
 the feudal barons, in their newly granted fiefs. Polished savageism and proud oppression 
 rode paramount, and trampled husbandry into degradation. " The excessive passion for the 
 sports of the field," says Hallam, " produced those evils which are apt to result from it, — a 
 strenuous idleness which disclaimed all useful occupations, and an oppressive spirit toward the 
 peasantry. The devastation committed under the pretence of destroying wild animals, which 
 had been already protected in their depredations, is noticed in serious authors, and has also 
 been the topic of popular ballads. What effect these must have had on agriculture, it is easy 
 to conjecture. The levelling of forests, the draining of morasses, and the extirpation of mis- 
 chievous animals which inhabit them, are the first objects of man's labour in reclaiming the 
 earth to his use; and these were forbidden by a feudal race, whose control over the progress 
 of agricultural improvement was unlimited, and who were not willing to sacrifice their plea- 
 sures to their avarice." 
 
 Yet, in spite of all the evils which they inflicted, the Normans, on the whole, improved 
 our agriculture. They were better acquainted with its principles than either the Saxons or 
 the British, or at least they had larger and more skilful experience in its practice ; and many 
 thousands of them, who had been able farmers on the rich plains of Normandy and Flanders, 
 established on English lands the same methods of cultivation which they had used in their 
 native country. Some of the barons, too, were famous agriculturists and improvers; and 
 Richard de Rulos, the Conqueror's chamberlain — who, however, was probably one of the best 
 of them — gave great attention to the breeding of horses and cattle, enclosed and drained a 
 
xxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 large tract of country, embanked an extensively overflowing river, built many houses and 
 even a town upon a reclaimed swamp, converted lakes and quagmires into rich meadows and 
 fertile fields, and changed a vast watery wilderness into a joyous region of farms and orchards 
 and gardens. The Anglo-Normans summer-fallowed their wheat-lands, and used marl as a 
 fertilizer next in importance to farm-yard manure, and sowed their seed-corn broadcast from 
 a sheet, and harrowed the ground with a one-horse harrow, and probably performed most 
 other agricultural operations in a style somewhat superior to their Anglo-Saxon predecessors. 
 The Welsh of their period, also, made progress, and had implements little inferior to those of 
 their descendants in the present century, yet practised some curious peculiarities, such as 
 walking backwards at the plough, and reaping their corn with a large double-handled knife. 
 
 The monks, as of old, continued to be exceedingly the best farmers. They got acquainted 
 with all the prime remains of Roman agriculture, through their missions to Italy and their 
 correspondence with other parts of the Continent ; they learned the agricultural practices of 
 the Augustan age and of the Greeks and the Egyptians, in the course of their monastic 
 studies, and of their transcription of manuscripts; they had ample leisure and capital and 
 territorial facilities for reducing their knowledge to practice; and they could not but feel 
 strong incitements, whether in regard for public morals and for social improvement, or in 
 desire for their own aggrandizement in wealth and power and station, to make a full use of 
 their advantages. They were likewise better landlords than the barons, — bestowing more 
 attention on their tenantry, making less arbitrary exactions, fixing all care upon the arts of 
 peace, and averting or mitigating the disastrous effects of occasional calls to war; and, in 
 consequence, they attracted many free settlers, and had comparatively populous estates, and 
 commanded all sorts of means of the most favourable kind both for working out their own 
 improvements and for exerting a benign influence upon, society. And they also possessed a 
 quietude and an immunity from distraction and a concentration of moral force which the most 
 peace-loving baron could not possibly enjoy among his turbulent neighbours; for, in addition 
 to all the reverence and awe which every person paid to their clerical character, they enjoyed 
 the special protection of a canon of the General Council of Lateran, to the effect " that all 
 presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, and peasants, when they are engaged in the 
 labours of husbandry, together with the cattle in their ploughs, and the seed which they 
 convey into the field, shall enjoy perfect security, and that all who molest or interrupt them, 
 if they do not desist when they have been admonished, shall be excommunicated." 
 
 The monks obtained possession of enormous tracts of waste land, and conducted operations 
 scarcely if at all inferior to some of the greatest georgic efforts of modern times, to reclaim 
 them ; and, considering that they knew nothing of agricultural chemistry, nothing of liming, 
 little of subsoil-draining, and little of paring and burning, and of other chief modern appli- 
 ances of georgy, they achieved wonderful success. They recovered from the tide much of the 
 low alluvial expanses of Somersetshire; they drained and consolidated a large proportion of 
 the fens of Lincolnshire; they reclaimed extensive pieces of marsh and moor in Kent and in 
 the inland counties; they probably were not strangers to the remarkable operation now 
 called warping; and, while they worked all sorts of reclaimed territories into corn-fields and 
 meadows and luxuriant pastures, they improved the originally rich portions of their estates, 
 particularly the sunniest loams in the bottoms of valleys and on the skirts of hanging plains, 
 into orchards and gardens. They superintended everything in person, and did many things 
 with their own hands; their very dignitaries, up to the primate himself, went often a-field 
 to inspect ploughing and sowing and harvest-work; and, however terribly they will ever 
 figure on the historical canvass before the view of politicians and protestants, they at least 
 ought to have a most monitory and bewitching look in the eyes of all modern landlords. 
 
 The progress of agricultural improvement under the monks and under the best portion of 
 the Norman barons, went somewhat steadily on till the outbreak of the long civil war 
 between the houses of York and Lancaster. A Latin work called Fleta, supposed to have 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 been written by some learned prisoners in the Fleet, in 1340, expounds wisely and compre- 
 hensively the duties of all persons concerned in the management and cultivation of a manor, 
 — gives minute instructions respecting the operations of the fallow, recommending that the 
 summer-ploughings should only be deep enough to destroy weeds, that the manure should not 
 be laid on till a little before the completion of the fallow, an d that the last ploughing should 
 be done with a deep and narrow furrow, — and contains rules for choosing and changing seed, 
 for proportioning the quantity of seeds to the quality and condition of the soil, for accumu- 
 lating and preparing and applying manures, and for performing all the other ordinary opera- 
 tions of husbandry at the proper time and in the best way. Evidence exists also that, 
 before the close of the fourteenth century, refinement had advanced so far as to shelter and 
 adorn a large extent of country with hedges and hedge-row trees. 
 
 The civil war shook the whole kingdom like an earthquake, and kept up shock after 
 shock during the greater part of the fifteenth century, and - slowly shattered the affairs of 
 agriculture into desolation and chaos. Yet it eventually purified what it destroyed ; and, 
 though a tremendous calamity while it continued, it entailed the effects of a national bless- 
 ing when it ceased. " The nobility and gentry, who took part in the conflict, were obliged 
 to commute much of the personal services due by their tenants for rents in money, in order 
 to meet their expenses in the field. Many bondsmen were thus emancipated; and acquir- 
 ing, together with their release from servitude, an interest in the soil which they had not 
 previously possessed, they applied themselves with more earnestness to its cultivation. The 
 estates of many landholders were either dismembered to pay off mortgages incurred during the 
 long continuance of that civil strife, or falling, at their death, to collateral heirs, were divided 
 among a much greater number of proprietors, who, severally drawing their subsistence from 
 a smaller portion of land, were necessarily compelled to devote more attention to its improve- 
 ment. The increase of population, and the charters granted to corporate bodies, swelled 
 the number of inhabitants in the towns; and markets, which had not previously existed, 
 were opened for the produce of the country. Although leases had been long customary, 
 yet they were voidable by the sale or alienation of the land, and the tenant's property 
 was even subject to the debts of his landlord; but both of these abuses were rectified by sta- 
 tutes passed in 1449 and 1469. Thus the dissensions by which England was agitated 
 throughout the greater part of the fifteenth century, gradually contributed to the ameliora- 
 tion of her civil institutions, and gave rise to that middle order of society to which much of 
 its prosperity in the succeeding ages is to be attributed." 
 
 The grand impulse which was given to the public mind, in the sixteenth century, by the 
 invention of printing, the revival of literature, the discovery of America, the liberalizing of 
 governments, the overthrow of feudalism, and the reformation of religion, produced powerful 
 and enduring effects on British agriculture. The Book of Husbandry and the Book of Sur- 
 veying and Implements, written in the early part of the century by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and a practical farmer of more than forty years' standing, 
 were the first fruits of our agricultural literature; and they inculcated many things which 
 continue to be usefully suggestive to the present hour, and served the double purpose of rousing 
 the ordinary farmers of the period to reflection, and of provoking a few of the best informed 
 and most intellectual to authorship. Sir Anthony urged landlords to grant leases to 
 improving tenants, pointed out the great advantages of enclosures, recommended ditching, 
 draining, and hedging, advised an ample practice of marling and fallowing, and handled the 
 subject of sheep and cattle like an experienced storemaster of the nineteenth century. His 
 works, too, were as terse and vigorous, denunciative and castigatory, as they were far-sighted 
 and intelligent; and having been promptly adopted as the agricultural text-books of his 
 time, they indicate the energy and fire, the regret for the past, and the determination for the 
 future, with which the spirit of the nation had been seized. 
 
 Severe checks, at successive periods, were given to the accelerated agricultural progress by 
 
xxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 some impolitic statutes respecting the price of labour and provisions, by interferences of the 
 state with the regulation of markets, by arbitrary enactments respecting the exportation of 
 farm produce, and by the dissolution of the monasteries, together with accompanying changes 
 in the proprietorship of estates. But all the checks were temporary; and the last, however 
 truly repressive, acted even at the worst as a very trivial check compared to what it would 
 have done in earlier centuries, and eventually served to accelerate the very movement which 
 it momentarily retarded. The learning and the liberal management which had so long 
 rendered the monks- the best farmers and landlords of the country, were only comparative, 
 and had reference entirely to the feudal state of society ; and now learning equal to the richest 
 they had ever possessed was becoming common among the yeomanry, and management equal 
 to the most liberal they had ever practised was already general among the lay landlords ; so 
 that the monks were fast approaching the very death of their agricultural power, and, if let 
 alone, might have been tempted to use calamitous and crushing means for regaining their 
 lost ascendancy. In the fourteenth century, the suppression of the monasteries would have 
 shackled agriculture and sent it into slavery; but in the sixteenth, the same thing prevented 
 it from being fettered, and gave it a guarantee of freedom. 
 
 The results of progress from the revival of literature till the time of Elizabeth were great 
 and many. Feudalism was dying out; the yeomanry were multiplying; extensive tracts of 
 rich hunting-ground were disparked and thrown open to the plough; multitudes of small 
 farms were consolidated into large ones; enclosures were increased and improved; the breed- 
 ing of horses was greatly encouraged; attention to economical cattle-feeding was aroused; 
 hops and flax and hemp were cultivated; and a material average increase in the aggregate 
 produce of farms, both in crops and in live stock, was obtained. A high authority — no less 
 than the description of England prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicles — states that, at this time, 
 the average yield per acre of the arable lands throughout the kingdom, was from sixteen to 
 twenty bushels of wheat or rye, thirty-six bushels of barley, and four or five quarters of oats; 
 and, though this astounding statement may possibly be in some degree an exaggeration, it 
 must at least be in keeping with the general narrative in which it occurs, and may be taken 
 as fair evidence that the georgy and tillage of the periods immediately succeeding the feudal 
 had achieved wonderful improvements. 
 
 The principal writers on agriculture in Elizabeth's reign were Thomas Tusser, Barnaby 
 Googe, and Sir Hugh Piatt. The " Five Hundred Points of Husbandry" by Tusser is a dog- 
 gerel poem, replete with practical good sense ; and mentions carrots, turnips, and cabbages as 
 kitchen herbs which had been recently introduced ; and was found so highly appreciated by 
 the farmers of the period, and by their descendants, that they wore all the copies of it away 
 to shreds and fragments by the mere attrition of frequent use. The " Whole Art of Hus- 
 bandry" by Googe is principally a compilation from the rural writers of Rome and Greece, — 
 proving that the agricultural usages of the ancients were then felt to be instructive ; and it 
 mentions a number of English rural writers cotemporary with Fitzherbert, whose works 
 have not been preserved, — evincing that a wide-spread revival of agricultural literature had 
 accompanied the revival of good agricultural practice. Sir Hugh Piatt, the author of " The 
 Paradise of Flora," " The Jewel House of Art and Nature," and some other works, accelerated 
 the rapid progress of the age fully as much by his practice as by his writings; and was re- 
 markable, in particular, for bringing into use or prominence many new kinds of manure, — 
 salt, clay, fuller's earth, street-sweepings, bog earth, willow-tree earth, burnt weeds, soaper's 
 ashes, liquid manure, broken pilchards, and several sorts of composts and farm-yard mixtures. 
 
 The period from Elizabeth till the Restoration was one of alternate retrogression and 
 advance, — of mingled disaster and prosperity; but though it gained little from James, nothing 
 from Charles, and less than nothing from the civil wars, it retained all the improvements of 
 the previous periods, and made great additions to them in the time of the Commonwealth. 
 Its principal rural writers were Walter Blythc, who called attention to the cultivation of 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 I _ 
 
 I clover; Sir John Norden, who recommended clover to be sown with other grass seeds ; Sir 
 i Richard Weston, who vigorously introduced the use of clover, and may be regarded as the 
 ! modern founder of the alternate husbandry; Gabriel Plattes, who drove agriculture forward in 
 | many a way with his pen, from the middle of Elizabeth's reign all down to the Common- 
 | wealth, and was rewarded by starvation to death on the streets ; and Samuel Hartlib, who 
 ; proposed the endowment of an agricultural college, and enjoyed the fast friendship of Milton, 
 and was rewarded with a pension from Cromwell. Some of the chief improvements of the 
 period were the extensive drainage of the Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire fens, the incipient 
 commencement of the alternate husbandry, and the adoption of practical farming by large 
 numbers of those landed gentry who had previously been living in the idle, wasteful fashion 
 of the feudal barons, but had become impoverished and sobered by the events of the civil 
 war. Cromwell himself possessed a good business acquaintance with agriculture, and used 
 all his influence and patronage to promote its public interests. 
 
 Improvement was arrested during the dissipated reign of Charles II., and did not start again 
 into speed, or almost into motion, till far in the next century. A periodical, called "Hough- 
 r ton's Collections on Husbandry and Trade," was commenced in 1681, and contains the earliest 
 notices of feeding sheep on the ground with turnips. Worlidge's " System of Agriculture," 
 published in 1688, discusses the draining of pastures, the irrigating of meadows, and the cul- 
 ; tivation of vetches, spurrey, and some other green crops. Various works, both technical and 
 general, show that the potato was making a hard but unsuccessful struggle to draw the atten- 
 tion of farmers. Bacon's curious observations on agriculture in his natural history, Ray's 
 interesting display of phytological facts in his popular scientific writings, and Evelyn's phi- 
 losophical views of cultivation in his admirable treatises on soil and planting and horticulture, 
 | were earnestly but vainly courting practical agriculturists to elevate their art to an aquaint- 
 i ance with first principles. And Mortimer's " Whole Art of Husbandry," published in 1706, 
 | gave a general picture of English farming, which, while true and graphic for its own proper 
 period, was scarcely less so for a period twenty-five years earlier, or for one fifty years later. 
 
 Jethro Tull, the inventer of the drill husbandry and the first staunch advocate for thoroughly 
 pulverizing tillage, rose among the farmers like a preceptor among school-boys, and hushed 
 their twaddle and frivolity in order to call them to new and earnest lessons. He pursued 
 agricultural improvement with the fervour of a passion, and lavished upon it toil and wealth 
 1 and genius, and effected greater achievements for it than any other man who ever trod the 
 British soil ; and yet encountered a hurricane of derision from his contemporaries, and sank 
 unhonoured and heart-crushed into the grave long before his labours began to work out their 
 benign results upon society. He extended his experiments and inventive processes through 
 many years, and published the first portion of his principal work, the " Horse-Hoeing Hus- 
 bandry," in 1731, and died in 1740. But his system was first brought into notice, in 1762, 
 by Mr. Dawson, a tenant-farmer, at Frogden, on the Scottish Border ; and even then, it had 
 to fight its way to fortune. M When Mr. Dawson first settled at Frogden," says the Agri- 
 cultural Survey of Northumberland, " the whole of that district was under the most wretched 
 ! system of management, and the farmers unacquainted with the value of turnips, artificial 
 : grasses, or lime. At first his practice met with many opponents, and was ridiculed by the 
 i old, the ignorant, and the prejudiced; but his superior crops and profits soon made converts, 
 the practice in a few years became general, and this district is now amongst the best cultivated 
 in the kingdom, the land treble in value, and the aspect of the country greatly improved." 
 
 Agricultural progress, since the establishment of the drill husbandry, has been an absolute 
 whirl, and makes the unpractised head giddy to contemplate it, but happily is so well known 
 to the present race of farmers that it does not need to be described. Some of its most strik- 
 ing features, in nearly the order of their development, have been the improving of the breeds 
 of sheep and cattle, the field culture of the potato, the routine use of turnips in the feeding of 
 live stock, the general practice of liming, the establishment of regular green and white crop 
 
 c 
 
xxvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rotations, the introduction of Swedish turnips and of spring and summer wheats, the inven- 
 tion of new agricultural implements and the improvement of old ones, the enclosing of com- 
 mons and wastes, the reclaiming of bogs and morasses, the sheltering and economising of 
 bleak and upland tracts with plantations, the organizing of farriery and the adapting of it to 
 the farm, the multiplication of agricultural societies, the establishing of agricultural shows 
 and agricultural schools, the introduction and common use of special manures, the practice of 
 subsoil-draining, the marrying of agriculture to chemistry, geology, phytology, and other 
 sciences, and the exalting of all the affairs of the farm, the commonest and humblest as well 
 as the more rare and lordly, to their position of true dignity as at once the most complicated, 
 the most scientific, the most physically useful, and the most morally benign of all human arts. 
 The literature of this period, too, is a mass of light, an expanse of glory; and, though readily 
 permitting the recognition of a few special stars on its outskirts, such as Young and Sinclair 
 and Davy, looks on the whole like a perfect galaxy. 
 
 Concluding Remarks. — Our aim, throughout the preceding sketch, has been utilitarian, — to 
 elicit practical suggestions, — to make history teem with instruction, — not to indulge taste or 
 to pamper curiosity. We have therefore omitted all notice of the husbandries of rude ancient 
 nations, of the Peruvians, of the Saracens, of modern Asiatics, of modern Continental 
 Europeans, and even of the Scotch and Welsh and Irish as distinguished from the English; 
 for these either teach no useful lessons whatever, or teach the self-same ones as the husban- 
 dries which we have "sketched. All or most of the suggestions made by particular portions 
 of our narrative will spontaneously present themselves to intelligent readers, and do not re- 
 quire to be named; but three general inferences, of great weight and moment, from the whole 
 story, are not quite so obvious, and may be advantageously illustrated in one or two brief 
 remarks. 
 
 One of the three general inferences is, that a stationary or retrograde condition of agriculture 
 more or less accompanies a stationary or retrograde condition of general knowledge. See 
 how barbarous tribes have ever united the rudest husbandry, or no husbandry at all, with 
 savage life; how the earliest nations receded into degenerate farming as they receded into 
 popular ignorance; how the Romans passed from high agricultural skill to drivelling and 
 dotage before the surge of barbarism ; how Britons of all the ages since the revival of litera- 
 ture have advanced little further on the steadily flowing tide of knowledge than to regain the 
 agricultural position lost by their ancestors; and how our ablest farmers at the present hour, 
 notwithstanding the number and magnitude of recent achievements, stand but a few paces in 
 advance of the ancient Greeks and Israelites and Egyptians! And what may the lout expect 
 who refuses to learn new ideas, and who doggedly treats the land exactly as his father treated 
 it before him? He stands still while his neighbours and the markets and the powers of pro- 
 duction have run past him ; and he must ultimately become a bankrupt or a beggar. 
 
 The second of the general inferences is, that the rate of speed in a progress of agricultural 
 improvement is somewhat similar to the contemporaneous rate of speed in the progress of 
 general information. The Israelites rose at once to a new platform of religious and intellec- 
 tual and political knowledge by means of the Divine communications to them in the wilderness ; 
 and they correspondingly rose at once from ability to cultivate land merely in the manner of the 
 Egyptians to ability to cultivate it in all the diversified methods of mixed husbandries and of a 
 boldly tumulated country. The Romans rose with slowness from the narrow learning of Latium 
 to the comprehensive information of the civilized world; and they rose with corresponding 
 slowness from the rude husbandry of their earliest times to the enlightened agriculture of 
 their palmy ages. The British of the period between the fall of feudalism and the nineteenth 
 century rose by slow and unequal gradations from the darkness of illiteracy to the light of 
 learnedness ; and they rose by similarly slow and unequal gradations from the fettered hus- 
 bandry of brutal serfs to the excursive husbandry of intellectual freemen. And the British 
 and French and Germans and Americans of the last half century have outmatched all the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 previous generations of mankind in the amount and value of their discoveries in geology, 
 chemistry, physiology, mechanics, and other physical sciences; and they have correspond- 
 ingly outmatched them in the breadth and variety, the intellectual animus, and the glowing 
 promise of their agricultural improvements. Our present farmers, we have said, stand but a 
 j few paces in advance of the farmers of ancient Rome; yet, if the recent speed of progress 
 : shall be maintained, they seem to be standing miles in the rear of the farmers of the twenty- 
 j first or perhaps even the twentieth century. If, some time hence, a season's tillage should be 
 performed in a day, and with little or no aid from animal power, — if all manures should be 
 j reduced to an essence, and managed as facilely and pleasantly as a hair-dresser's perfume, — 
 : if new crops should be introduced to our northern fields from the tropics, and our old ones be 
 rendered manifoldly more productive, — if imponderable agents at present unknown or but lit— 
 ! tie understood should play a powerful part in the routine processes of the farm and the farm- 
 yard, — or if many other changes and results, as vast and astounding as these, should be 
 established, and all should work together to spread constantly over the earth the wealth and 
 wonders of a paradise, the fit physical accompaniments of the millennium, little if any more, 
 after all, would be accomplished than seems fairly promised by the recent marriage of agri- 
 culture to the sciences. " A time will come," remarks Liebig, " when plants growing upon a 
 field will be supplied with their appropriate manures prepared in chemical manufactories, — 
 I when a plant will receive only such substances as actually serve it for food, just as at pre- 
 sent a few grains of quinine are given to a patient afflicted with fever, instead of the ounce 
 of wood which he was formerly compelled to swallow in addition." And even already, " in- 
 vestigations for enabling a farmer, like a systematic manufacturer," to keep an exact account 
 of the mineral condition and nutritional stores and chemical fluctuations of every field on his 
 farm, "are a necessity of the times in which we live; but, in a few years, by the united dili- 
 gence of the chemists of all countries, they will probably be brought to a most satisfactory 
 conclusion; and, by the aid of intelligent farmers, we may confidently expect to see estab- 
 ! lished, on an immoveable foundation, a rational system of farming for all countries and for all 
 soils." What a laggard, then, must that farmer be who howls like a whipped child about the 
 I momentary disasters of a political change, and does not look merrily up like a man amid the 
 brilliant and abiding hopes of scientific encouragement ! 
 
 The last general inference is, that agriculture has an important bearing upon man's moral 
 and eternal interests, — not merely that it ebbs and flows with public religion as with public 
 I knowledge, but that it wields powers of its own for the advancement of religious wellbeing. 
 This appears distinctly from our notices of the Primeval Husbandry, of the Israelitish Hus- 
 bandry, and of the later centuries of the British Husbandry; it would appear also, though 
 ' not so distinctly, from our other notices, if we could take time to trace the connexions and 
 the influences of the several husbandries discussed; and it appears most luminously, and with 
 ample effect for our present purpose, from the relation of agriculture to the physical sciences, 
 j These have an immensely grander mission to mankind than " the analysis of a soil, the culti- 
 vation of a plant, or the filling of a granary or a museum;" they are the expounders of " the 
 Book of Nature," — the commentators on that great scroll of heaven and earth which teaches 
 " the eternal power and Godhead" of the Deity; they owe their very mastery over the secrets 
 of tillage to the discovery of His will who " made the worlds," and fills them with his glory; 
 and, in every act of their instructing men how to multiply and sweeten the productions of 
 the soil, they say something to them respecting the wisdom and love of the All-Benevolent, 
 and tell them to " seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Nay, the lessons of 
 ! agriculture, partly in its connexion with these sciences and partly in its own most simple oper- 
 | ations, soar to the very centre of moral light, and melt amid the fervours of revelation; and 
 i the man who studies them, though dealing only with dew and rain, or with sowing and 
 I reaping, may ascend on the metaphors of the Bible, as on " chariots of fire and horsemen of 
 i fire," till he find himself in the third heaven of evangelical truth. About one-fourth or so of 
 
xxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 all the Holy Book's allusions to physical things, even in the propounding of its highest doc- 
 trines, are allusions to the phenomena and the acts of agriculture, and disclose their richest 
 stores of meaning to persons who are well acquainted with the farm. Ought not an intelligent 
 farmer, then, to be, in the best sense, a good man? 
 
 SYSTEMATIC INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Three good systematic accompaniments are wanted to such a work as the Farmer s Dic- 
 tionary, — an index of all the principal topics treated in it, a methodical summary of the 
 principles and practices and business affairs of agriculture, and a vade-mecum for young far- 
 mers, or a general guide to their inquiries; and all the three may exist together, and be made 
 to aid one another's purposes, in the form of a single introduction. 
 
 In so far, indeed, as the Farmer's Dictionary is a book of reference, it needs no index, — 
 for, by means of its alphabetical arrangement, it can be promptly consulted in any circum- 
 stances, by any class of persons, on any agricultural topic, — and therein lies no mean part of 
 its value. But it is also a book to be read, a book to be studied, a book of great, intricate, 
 complete systems of information ; and, in these respects, it probably needs an index more 
 than if it were one continuous treatise. Multitudes of its topics are unknown to young per- 
 sons, very many are but slightly known to even experienced and intelligent farmers, and 
 some are known as yet to only the studious and the learned; and if these were not enumer- 
 ated and placed in array, in front of the work, they either would continue unknown to its 
 readers, or would draw but a fitful and partial attention, in the course of desultory openings 
 of the volumes. 
 
 A methodical summary of agriculture is essential to clear, connected, comprehensive views 
 of the whole subject of farming, whether as explained in books or as prosecuted in practice. 
 It shows, at a few glances, the multitudinous topics which agriculture embraces, and may 
 therefore suggest to very well informed farmers some important things which they have omit- 
 ted to study. It exhibits each topic in a specific place, in the midst of a group of others with 
 which it has the most intimate connexion, and therefore tends to throw new light on the truest 
 relations and most economical arrangements of things with which practical readers have been 
 long acquainted. And, in general, it serves the same kind of ends in regard to the theory and 
 art and business of farming which a calendar does in regard to the seasonal course of operations. 
 
 A vade-mecum for students of agriculture, particularly for young farmers, enables them to 
 make large attainments in little time, and to pursue the most direct road to proficiency wjth 
 the fewest possible wanderings and misadventures. Persons who enjoy ample opportunities 
 of practical training are tempted to think that they will learn matters best by attending to 
 them simply as they occur, — and others, who see the necessity of a little system, imagine 
 that a calendarial one is as good as any other; but all such consume excessive time on trifles, 
 and distort or dwarf or omit many subjects of prime moment, and huddle up their knowledge 
 more in the way of a rubbish-heap than in the way of a cabinet, and seldom become able to 
 obtain improving hints from theory, or even to make an early wise use of published disco- 
 veries and inventions. A young man, who studies according to even a good calendar, can 
 scarcely aim higher than to learn and practise every thing which is already done on his 
 teacher's farm; while another, who studies according to a good vade-mecum, will equal or 
 excel him in half the time, and will also learn to make progress. No art, no science, 
 especially no combination of the two, exceeds agriculture in width and depth and intri- 
 cacy; and therefore none makes a louder demand for the aid of a methodical syllabus to its 
 students. " 
 
 Now if we can fuse together the index and the summary and the vade-mecum into one docu- 
 ment, we shall at once save space, and avoid the bewilderment of a treble list, and make the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxix 
 
 index and the summary, and also the index and the vade-mecum, mutually subservient; for 
 the same list will serve alike any of the three purposes, — and while it indicates to a practical 
 farmer any useful subject which he has not sufficiently attended to, it will also show him that 
 a discussion of it may be found in the Farmer's Dictionary, — and while it delineates to a 
 student the proper course of study to be pursued, it will also give him, in exact methodical 
 order, the titles of all the articles in which the successive parts of it are treated. But we 
 must warn our readers not to expect perfection. Our system has been constructed with great 
 care, and aims to be clear and consecutive, natural and complete, and is both more compre- 
 hensive and far more minute than any previous one we have ever seen; yet it no doubt has 
 its full measure of the defects to which all systems are subject, and possibly is not free from 
 some peculiar ones of its own. All the character we claim for it is the utmost possible adap- 
 tation to utility. We have also to say that we shall not place in our list any of our numer- 
 ous articles which are merely definitional, or which occupy each only two or three lines. 
 
 The general heads are nineteen: — I. The Legal Relations of Land. II. The General In- 
 terests of Agriculture. III. Buildings and Enclosures. IV. Marketing and its Incidents, or 
 the Traffic-Business of Farming. V. Implements. VI. Soils. VII. Manures. VIII. Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry. IX. Meteorology. X. Georgical Improvement. XI. Cultural Opera- 
 tions on Tilled Lands, together with their Incidents and Sequents. XII. White Crops. 
 XIII. Green Crops, inclusive of Miscellaneous and Orchard ones. XIV. Weeds and Vermin. 
 XV. The Physiology and Diseases of Plants. XVI. Grass Lands. XVII. Live Stock. 
 XVIII. Animal Produce. And XIX. Farriery, or the Sanatory and Medical Treatment of 
 the Domesticated Animals. 
 
 The propriety of this classification may probably not become apparent to some students till 
 they shall go through the subsequent details, yet will be seen by reflecting minds almost at 
 the first blush. First come the ownership and tenancy of land; next, the general question of 
 devoting it to cultivation ; next, the applotting of it into farms, and the raising of farm- 
 steads and fences; next, the economics or money-matters connected with farming it; next, 
 the instruments and machines which are requisite for farming it; next, the soils which 
 constitute the raw material of its produce, or the primary matter of every thing manu- 
 factured out of it; next, the manures which maintain or improve its workable and remu- 
 nerative condition ; next, the nature of its soils and manures, the natural processes which 
 go on within its bosom, and the connexions between these and farming operations ; next, the 
 agencies and influences in air and climate and weather which affect its chemistry and control 
 its produce; next, the reclaiming and improving of its waste tracts and faulty fields; next, the 
 processes of tilling it, together with the operations which are attendant or consequent upon 
 its tillage; next, the raising of cereal crops; next, the raising of root and forage and miscel- 
 laneous crops; next, the keeping down of the weeds and vermin which infest crops; next, the 
 averting or modifying or curing of the morbid affections of plants which injure or destroy 
 crops; next, the management of grass lands; next, the routine treatment of the animals and 
 flocks which feed upon part of the produce of the tillage lands and upon the herbage of the 
 grass lands; next, the management of the produce of animals and flocks; and finally, the 
 treatment of the domesticated animals, in every surgical and pharmaceutical way which tends 
 to either the promotion of economy, the conservation of health, or the cure of injury and 
 disease. 
 
 I. The Legal Relations of Land. This subject has very extensive and ramified con- 
 nexion with political economy and jurisprudence, and admits of deep and prolonged study 
 through many standard books on national ethics and on law literature. We have found room 
 in the Farmer's Dictionary for only a few pickings of it; and these we classify into four 
 sections, each of which may be regarded as presenting to the student only specimen topics. 
 
 1. Various Kinds and Tenures of Landed Property. These form the subjects of the arti- 
 cles Estate, Manor, Abbey-Lands, Gavel-kind, Rundale, Runrig, and Udal Tenure. 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 2. Measures of Land. These form the subjects of the articles Carrucate, Ox-Gang, Hide of 
 Land, and Acre. 
 
 3. The Tenancy of Land. This, together with brief specimens of the most important inci- 
 dental topics involved in it, is the subject of the articles Agreement, Lease, Rent, Quit-Rent, 
 Tenant, Tenant-Right, Entry of Farms, Fiars, Tithes, Agistment, Fixtures, and Hay-Bote. 
 
 4. Incidents of Landed Property. These form the subjects of the articles Entail, Tithes, 
 Land- Valuer, and Land-Surveying. 
 
 II. The General Interests of Agriculture. This head might comprise many things on 
 the general question of cultivation, particularly on the comparative agriculture of different 
 zones, and on the reciprocal illustrations of agriculture and- horticulture, and of agriculture 
 and forestry, which could not appropriately be introduced to our work, and which a vigorous 
 and large-minded student may advantageously prosecute through other books ; it might also 
 be made to include the whole subjects of the history, the economics, the political connexions, 
 and the moral influences of agriculture; but, as discussed, or rather specimened, in the Far- 
 mer's Dictionary, it has been necessarily limited to the five subjects of appliances for pro • 
 moting agriculture, the general practice of agriculture, the varieties of agriculture, the classes 
 of farmers, and the classes and affairs of farm -servants. , 
 
 1. Appliances for Promoting Agriculture. These form the topics of the articles Agricul- 
 tural. Education, Agricultural Schools, Agricultural Literature, Agricultural Societies, Agri- 
 cultural Shows, and Experimental Farm. 
 
 2. The General Practice of Agriculture. This is sketched in the articles Husbandry, Agri- 
 cultor, Crop, Ameliorating Crops, Rotation of Crops, and Calendar. 
 
 3. The Varieties of Agriculture. Some of the chief of these are discussed in the articles 
 Alternate Husbandry, Drill-Husbandry, Spade-Husbandry, Farm, Pastoral Farm, High Farm- 
 ing, Dairy, Cottage-Husbandry, Allotment System, and Cottage Economy. 
 
 4. The Classes of Farmers. These are noticed in the articles Farmer, Husbandman, Stock- 
 I Farmer, Hay-Farmer, Grazier, and Yeoman. 
 
 5. The Classes and Affairs of Farm-Servants. These are noticed in the articles Agent, 
 Farm-Servants, Farm-Labourers, Ploughman, Shepherd, Herdsman, Bondager, Bothy, Ear 
 nest, and Wages. 
 
 III. Buildings and Enclosures. We distribute this head into seven sections; and we feel 
 obliged to assign to one or two of these several things which strictly are neither build- 
 ings nor enclosures, but which cannot elsewhere find a fitter place in our system. 
 
 1. The Buildings of the Farmery. These form the topics of the articles Farm-Buildings, 
 Farm- Yard, Barn, Granary, Hay- Barn, Hay-House, Cow-House, Hammel, Ox-Stalls, Stable. 
 Stall, Manger, Hay-Rack, and Thatch. 
 
 2. Erections connected with the Farmery and the Farm. These form the topics of the arti- 
 cles Outhouse Stack, Rick, Sheep-Stell, Shealing, Hovel, Earth-Buildings, Canvas-Sheds, 
 and Kennel. 
 
 3. Other Buildings than those of the Farmery and the Farm. These form the topics of the 
 articles Cottage, Kiln, Mill, and Windmill. 
 
 4. Works connected with Water. These form the topics of the articles Embankment, Ditch, 
 Pond, Horse-Pond, Tank, Puddling, Pump, Well, Artesian Well, Boring, Spring, and Stag- 
 nant Water. 
 
 5. Enclosures. These form the topics of the articles Enclosure, Field, Paddock, Outfield, 
 and Infield. 
 
 6. Fences. These form the topics of the articles Fence, Hedge, Scarcement, Switching, 
 Wall, Gate, Cage-Gate, and Stile. 
 
 7. Materials for Fences. These form the topics of the articles Hawthorn, Elder, Furze, 
 Privet, Holly, Feal, Hurdle, and Wattle. 
 
 I IV. Marketing and its Incidents, or the Traffic-Business of Farming. This division. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 far beyond any other in our system, ramifies itself into miscellaneous knowledge, and rests 
 upon observation and experience, and suffers control and modification by localities and cir- 
 cumstances. Any man can learn the business of farming and become expert in it, just as any 
 other man can become a proficient in any other business, mainly by the wise use of good 
 practical advantages. Books can do little for him except to supply him with leading facts 
 and with general rules; and most books on general knowledge, as also periodicals and news- 
 papers, have to the full as large a share in doing even this as the most comprehensive books on 
 agriculture. A young farmer, therefore, ought to master the traffic department of his pro- 
 fession by close inspection of such ordinary farm-transactions as come in his way, by collect- 
 ing and sifting the marketing-knowledge of his district, by investigating the causes which 
 influence local market prices, by noting all the details of practical agriculture which control 
 the quantity and the quality of produce, and by concentrating the lessons of the widest pos- 
 sible general information upon the economics of a farm. 
 
 All the practical parts of our work, particularly those on the treatment of soils and stock 
 and produce, bear with more or less ultimate force on economics and on business; but the 
 parts which bear directly on marketing are few, and will serve their purpose better to be re- 
 garded as mere hints and specimens, than to be considered as affording any complete circle of 
 information. They are chiefly such as form the articles Farm- Accounts, Stock, Road, High - 
 way, Market, Corn-Market, Fair, Forestalling, Average, Horse-Dealer, Arbitration, Adul- 
 teration, Boll, Bushel, Firkin, Peck, Firlot, and Truss. 1 
 
 V. Implements. These are noticed, in a general way, in the article Implements; and they 
 j may be classified into the ten following sections : — 
 
 1. Implements of Cattle-Houses. Some of these are the topics of the articles Baikie, Bin, 
 Corn-Bin, Hay- Rack, Probang, and Trochar; and others are identical with things enumer- 
 ated under the head of Buildings and Enclosures, and under that of Farriery. 
 
 2. Implements of Tillage and Georgy. These are the topics of the articles Plough, Hack, 
 Hacken, Ridder, Hash, Harrow, Brake, Bush-Harrow, Grubber, Norwegian-Harrow, Moulde- 
 baert, Roller, Spade, Caschrom, Breast-Plough, Dung-Hawk, Earth-Hack, Hoe, Horse-Hoe, 
 Pick, and Tile; and they are partially discussed also in the articles Draught, Animal Power, 
 and Steam-Ploughing. 
 
 3. Implements of Sowing. These are the topics of the articles Sowing-Machine, Broad- 
 cast-Sowing, Hand-Drill, Dibble, and Rusky. 
 
 4. Implements of Harvesting and of tJie Barn-Yard. These are the topics of the articles 
 Reaping-Machine, Scythe, Cradle, Hainault-Scythe, Sickle, Hay-tedding Machine, Rake, 
 Hay-Rake, Boss, Hay-Stand, Hay-Sweep, Fork, Ladder, and Haybinding-Machine. 
 
 5. Implements of Barn- Work and of Mill- Work. These are the topics of the articles Thrash- 
 ing-Machine, Steam-Engine, Flail, Riddle, Sieve, Wecht, Shovel, Hummeller, Hordeometer, 
 Winnowing-Machiue, Barley-Mill, Bolting, Quern, and Sack. 
 
 G. Implements of Carriage. These are the topics of the articles Carriage, Wheel- Carriage, 
 Cart, Waggon, Wain, Tumbrel, Bavin-Tug, Liquid-Manure-Cart, Sledge, Wheel, Drag, Barrow, 
 and Basket; and they are partially discussed also in the articles Draught and Animal-Power. 
 
 7. Implements of the Dairy. The chief of these are the topics of the articles Cburn, Cheese- 
 Press, Cheese- Vat, Cheese-Cloths, Curd-Breaker, Galactometer, Lactometer, and Aerometric 
 Beads ; and some are noticed in the latter part of the article Dairy. 
 
 8. Implements of Harnessing. These are the topics of the articles Harness, Saddle, Yoke, 
 Bridle, Martingal, Bearing-Rein, Collar, and Geering. 
 
 9. Implements of the Preparing of Food. These are the topics of the articles Steaming-Ap- 
 paratus, Chaff-cutter, Hay-Knife, Turnip-Slicer, Linseed-Crusher, Oil-Cake-Breaker, and 
 Corn-Box. 
 
 10. Miscellaneous Implements. These are the topics of the articles Balance, Beetle, Box, 
 Muzzle, Odometer, Paragrele, Shepherd's Crook, and Snow-Harrow. 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 VI. Soils. *Fhis division must be understood with large latitude, as including not only 
 soils in the arable or strictly proper sense, but also subsoils and every kind of cultivable or 
 reclaimable surface-stratum of the earth ; and, thus understood, it may be subdivided into the 
 four following sections: — 
 
 1. The Different Kinds of Cultivable or Reclaimable Surface-Strata of the Earth. These 
 form the topics of the articles Land, Ground, Arable Land, Carse, Haugh, Common, Downs, 
 Moor, Moss-Lands, Wood-Land, Morass, and Fen j and they are partially noticed also in the 
 articles Soil, Barren-Soils, Bog, Pasture, Meadow, Peat-Fuel, and Waste-Land. 
 
 2. The Formation of Soils. This forms the topic of part of the articles Soil, Bog, Allu- 
 vium, and Diluvium; and it maybe ^p ron tably pursued by students through some of the 
 newest and most comprehensive works on Geology, — particularly the portions of them which 
 treat of the action of water, and of its most recent deposits. 
 
 3. The Composition of Soils. This is partly discussed in the articles Soil, Humus, Geine, 
 Alkalies, and Salt; it forms the topics of the articles Earth, Argillaceous Earth, Calcareous 
 Earth, Chalk, Clay, Sand, Gravel, Loam, Mould, Till, Alumina, Silica, Lime, Iron, Moor- 
 band-Pan, and Stone ; and, as to all the rarer ingredients which require to be frequently or 
 periodically supplied in the form of fertilizers, it is also more or less indirectly discussed in 
 all the articles which belong to the section on Manures. 
 
 4. The Characters of Soils. These are partly discussed in the articles Soil, Alluvium, and 
 Diluvium; they form the topics of the articles Absorbent Soils, Baking of Land, Barren Earth, 
 Barren Soils, and Fertility of Soils ; and they are largely involved in the discussion of many 
 things in the departments of Manures, Agricultural Chemistry, Georgical Improvements, and 
 Cultural Operations. 
 
 VII. Manures. These are discussed, in a general way, in the article Manure; and they 
 may be classified into the five following sections: — 
 
 L Organic Manures. These are discussed in the articles Farm- Yard Manure, Animal 
 Manures, Excrement, Night-Soil, Guano, Bone, Bone-Manure, Fishes, Herring, Blubber, Oil, 
 Horn, Hair, Furriers Refuse, Rags, Fell, Glue Manure, Liquid Manure, Urine, Guile, Shells, 
 Oyster-Shells, Green Manure, Ferns, Straw, Haulm, Feal, Tan, Sea- Ware, and Saw-Dust. 
 
 2. Inorganic Manures. These are discussed in the articles Ashes, Kiln-Ashes, Alkalies, 
 Alumina, Charcoal, Gypsum, Lime, Marl, Salt, Salt (Common), Soot, Clay, Argillaceous 
 Earth, Chalk, Calcareous Earth, Carbonates, Sulphates, Nitrates, Phosphates, Apatite, Shell- 
 Sand, Gas- Water, Sea- Water, Irrigation, Sulphuric Acid, Ammonia, Azote, and Carbonic Acid. 
 
 3. Mixed Manures. These are discussed in the articles Compost, Bog-Earth, Police Man- 
 ure, Sewerage, Road-Scrapings, Mud, Sea-Ooze, Snail-Cod, Soaper's Waste, Brewery Waste, 
 Brine, Fossil Manures, and Coprolites. 
 
 4. Artificial Manures. These, as a class, are discussed in a section of the article Manure; 
 and three of the most remarkable, which may also be considered as a favourable specimen of 
 the whole, are discussed in the articles Poudrette, Urates, and Animalized Carbon. 
 
 5. Special Manures. Some^of these are identical with certain organic manures, particularly 
 Bone-Manure, and Guano; others are identical with certain inorganic manures, particularly 
 Gypsum, Soot, Common Salt, some Nitrates, some Sulphates, and some preparations of Am- 
 monia; others form the sole or main topics of the articles Malt-Dust, Rape-Cake, Salt, Soda, 
 and Potash; and a large proportion in all the three groups, are noticed, in a general way, 
 in the articles Dressing and Top-Drcssing. 
 
 VIII. Agricultural Chemistry. This division is placed between soils and manures 
 on the one hand and the operations and results of cultivation on the other, in order that it 
 may arrest the attention and challenge the investigation of both learners and mere practical 
 farmers, as the grand expounder of the secret connexions between the inert things and the 
 active ones, the raw materials and the manufactures, the preparatory toils and the remunerat- 
 ing products of all departments of husbandry. It has hitherto been totally neglected by 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 vast multitudes of farmers, and has been duly studied by only a few of the most intelligent; 
 and it is ignorantly or prejudicedly regarded by many as an affair of sheer romance or of 
 hair-brained speculation; and, what is worse than all, it has been sorely injured by the haste 
 and blunders and excessive theorizing of some of its ablest propounders; yet it firmly grap- 
 ples with the hidden agencies of fertilization and vegetable growth and animal nutrition, and 
 possesses power to reduce all the chief processes within the soil and within field crops and 
 within farm-animals to arithmetical calculations of profit and loss, and seems destined, at pro- 
 bably no very distant period, to effect a perfect prodigy of increase upon both the cheapening 
 and the productiveness of agricultural operations. Every enterprising young farmer, there- 
 fore, ought to make himself well acquainted with it, — and in whatever degree he may fail to 
 understand it from the limited expositions in agricultural works, he ought to get enlightened 
 by attending experimental lectures, or by reading manuals and dictionaries of general che- 
 mistry; and every practical farmer who has already been initiated into it, ought eagerly to 
 follow it up to proficiency, and will do well to keep a keen eye upon the announcements of its 
 progress and discoveries in the larger periodicals. 
 
 Agricultural chemistry serves its proper uses incomparably better to be intermixed with 
 the thousand things which it immediately explains than to be kept wholly by itself and 
 taught only as a separate science; and for this reason, it is rather interwoven with the 
 general texture of the Farmer's Dictionary than laid out in separate pieces, and is far more 
 extensively taught in it than could be surmised from the number of articles which it distinc- 
 tively or mainly occupies. Yet general discussions of it are given in the articles Agricul- 
 tural Chemistry, Vegetable Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry; specimen notices of elemen- 
 tary bodies are given in the articles Azote, Oxygen, Carbon, Caloric, and Electro-Culture; 
 specimen notices of proximate principles are given in the articles Acids, Alkalies, Ammonia, 
 Carbonic Acid, and Urea; specimen notices of processes and their results in the growth of 
 plants are given in the articles Nutrition, Food of Plants, and Protein; specimen notices of 
 the nutritional constitution of plants are given in the chemical sections of the articles Oat, 
 Wheat, Turnip, and Grasses ; specimen notices of processes and their results in the growth of 
 animals may be selected in the articles Food of Animals, Feeding of Animals, and Fatten- 
 ing of Animals; specimen notices of chemical action in the ingredients of soils may be 
 selected in the articles Lime, Silica, Iron, and Humus; and specimen notices of the chemical 
 manures may be selected in the articles Gypsum, Nitrates, Phosphates, and Farm-Yard 
 Manure. 
 
 IX. Meteorology. This, as at present understood, concentrates its main interest in the 
 manifold topic of weather; but it naturally links on to the subject of agricultural chemistry; 
 and it promises, from recent and multitudinous inquiries, to multiply itself into practical 
 forces and economical rules of much value to the farmer ; so that it demands more attention 
 now than at any former period, and will probably rise rapidly in interest and importance. 
 
 The general subject of meteorology is discussed in the articles Meteorology and Weather; the 
 chief particulars of it are discussed in the articles Air, Atmosphere, Climate, Altitude, Season, 
 Cold, Temperature, Cloud, Rain, Snow, Dew, Hail, Hoar-Frost, and Wind; and the princi- 
 pal instruments used in it are discussed in the articles Barometer, Thermometer, Drosometer, 
 Rain-Gauge, and Weather- Vane. 
 
 X. Georgical Improvement. This forms the sole or predominant topic of the articles 
 Improvement of Land, Waste Land, Draining, Shelter, Paring and Burning, Warping, Col- 
 mata, and Subsoil-Ploughing; and it also occupies a large or considerable portion of the arti- 
 cles Embankment, Irrigation, Catchwork, Flooding of Land, Bog, Heaths, Downs, Grass- 
 Lands, Pasture, Stone, Furze, and many others, particularly those belonging to the next 
 division. 
 
 XI. Cultural Operations on Tilled Lands, together with their Incidents and Se- 
 quents. These may be classified into the nine following sections: — 
 
xxxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 1. Departments, Classes, and Special Methods of Tillage Husbandry. These are discussed in 
 the articles Drill-Husbandry, Spade Husbandry, High Farming, Hand-Labour, Cottage Hus- 
 bandry, Cottage-Gardening, and Con- Acre. 
 
 2. Systems or Courses of Tillage Husbandry. These are discussed in the articles Cultivation, 
 Alternate Husbandry, and Rotation of Crops. 
 
 3. The Working of the Soil Preparatorily to Sowing. This is discussed in the articles Til- 
 lage, Pulverization, Digging, Forking of Soils, Ploughing, Ribbing, *Cross-Cutting, Break- 
 Furrowing, Harrow, Grubber, Rolling, Steam-Ploughing, Subsoil-Ploughing, Trenching, and 
 Fallow; and is also an incidental topic of the articles Spade-Husbandry, Draught, and Ani- 
 mal Power, and of all the articles on the principal crops. 
 
 4. Incidents of the Preparatory Working of the Soil. Some of these form the topics of the 
 articles Tilth, Furrow, Ridge, Head-Land, and Windrow. 
 
 5. Operations of Cleaning and After-Culture. Some of these, in a general view, form sole 
 or large topics of the articles Hoe, Horse-Hoe, Rolling, Earthing, and Hand-Picking; and 
 all, in their particular applications, are discussed in the articles on all the field-crops which 
 require their use. 
 
 6. Fertilizing Operations. These form main topics of the articles Manure, Fold, Fallow, 
 and Electro-Culture; and are more or less noticed or implied in all the articles on both 
 manures and crops, and also in some on georgical improvement and on grass lands. 
 
 7. Sowing and its Incidents. These are discussed in the articles Sowing, Broadcast-Sowing, 
 Dibbling, Drill, Trending, Seed, and Agricultural Seeds; and they are also incidental topics 
 of all the articles on field crops. 
 
 8. Harvesting audits Incidents. These are discussed in the articles Ripeness, Reaping, Bag- 
 ging, Mowing, Gaiting, Bands, Shock, Gleaning, Stubble, Haymaking, Harvest, and Harvest- 
 Home; and they are also fully noticed in the articles on all such field-crops as have any pecu- 
 liarities or niceties of harvesting. 
 
 9. Barn Work and its Incidents. These are discussed in the articles Stack, Barn-Manage- 
 ment, Thrashing, and Winnowing. 
 
 XII. White Crops. These consist principally of the plants which are noticed in the arti- 
 cles Corn and Cereal Grasses ; but they include also some other plants which are useful chiefly 
 for their farinaceous seeds, and subordinately for their straw or haulm ; and they may be 
 considered under the three following subdivisions : — 
 
 1. The Several Species of White Crops. These form the topics of the articles Wheat, Barley, 
 Oat, Rye, Maize, Millet, Indian Millet, Rice, Canary-Grass, Panic-Grass, Oily-Grain, 
 Zizania, Buckwheat, Quinoa, and Bullimong. 
 
 2. The Principles, Parts, and Products of White Crops. These form the topics of the arti- 
 cles Hordein, Root, Tillering, Ear, Grain, Groats, Meal, Flour, Oatmeal, and Straw. An 
 allied topic likewise is discussed in the article Plantain-Tree. 
 
 3. The Evils which affect White Crops and Grain. Those which affect the crops belong to 
 the division on Weeds and Vermin, and to the division on the Diseases of Plants, and in the 
 latter case comprise such as are noticed in the articles Abortive-Corn, Accidents, Blight, Bar- 
 berry, Brand, Ear-Cockle, Ergot, Mildew, Rust, Smut, Wireworm, and Wheat-Fly; and 
 some of the chief which affect grain are noticed in the articles Calandra, Corn -Moth, and 
 Granary. 
 
 XIII. Green Crops. This division must be understood in such a sense as to exclude the 
 forage grasses, which are reserved for the division on Grass Lands, and to include a number 
 of miscellaneous field plants and the produce of two orchard ones; and thus understood, it 
 may be classified into the seven following sections: — 
 
 1. Fallow Crops. These consist of plants which act amelioratingly on cultivation; and 
 they are alluded to in the article Fallow, and form the topics of the articles Green Crops, 
 Ameliorating Crops, and Leguminous Plants. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 2. Leguminous Seed Crops. These consist of sarcolobous leguminosae which are useful 
 principally for their seeds or pods, and subordinately for their haulm ; and they form the sole 
 or main topics of the articles Pulse, Pea, Bean, Kidney-Bean, Tare, Vetch, and Lupine. 
 
 3. Leguminous Herbage and Forage Crops. These consist of leguminosse which are useful 
 mainly in the same way as the forage grasses ; and they have a large interest in the articles 
 Vetch, Furze, and Lupine, and form the sole or predominant topics of the articles Clover, 
 Luceru, Sainfoin, Birds-Foot Trefoil, Bush- Vetch, Everlasting Pea, Goats' Rue, Lathyrus, 
 Melilot, and Milk-Vetch. 
 
 4. Esculent Root Plants. These form the topics of the articles Potato, Aracacha, Alstrce- 
 meria, Psoralea, Wood-Sorrel, Artichoke (Jerusalem), Battatas, Carrot, Parsnip, Beet, Man- 
 gel-Wurzel, Turnip, Kohl-Rabi, Dahlia, and Earth-Nut. 
 
 5. Other Herbage and Forage Plants than those of the Legumes and the Grasses. These 
 have a large interest in the articles Brassica, Mangel-Wurzel, and Turnip; and they form the 
 sole or main topics of the articles Cabbage, Cole, Bunias, Burnet, Great Burnet, Prangos, 
 Buckbean, Cow-Parsnip, Comfrey, Day-Lily, Gourd, Lettuce, Meadow-Sweet, Mustard, and 
 Spurrey. 
 
 6. Fibre and Oil Plants. These have an interest in the articles Nettle, Hop, and Bras- 
 sica ; and they form the sole or main topics of the articles Flax, Retting of Flax, Hemp, Oil- 
 Plants, Camelina, Poppy, Rape, Sunflower, and Linseed-Oil. 
 
 7. Miscellaneous Field Plants. These form the sole or main topics of the articles Succory, 
 Madder, Teasel, Caraway, Coriander, Cumin, Liquorice, Bamboo, Cotton-Grass, Dyer's 
 Weed, Hop, Osier, Polygonum, Saffron, Woad, Saltwort, Arundo, and Tobacco; and the pro- 
 duce of two orchard crops, which may be classed with them, is discussed in the articles Cyder 
 and Perry. 
 
 XIV. Weeds and Vermin. This division, as disposed of in the Farmer's Dictionary, 
 comprises only a general view of weeds and a particular account of a few of the principal 
 ones; and it does not notice some of the rarer vermin, and leaves insects and animalcules to 
 be taken into the next division. But it may afterwards be profitably prosecuted by a student 
 of leisure and energy into a knowledge of all indigenous plants whatever, and of all animals 
 which in any way affect native cultivation, so as to comprise complete courses of British 
 botany and British zoology. It naturally, as treated by us, falls into two sections: — 
 
 1. Weeds. These are discussed in the articles Weeds, Mosses, Broom-Rape, Charlock, 
 Chrysanthemum, Coltsfoot, Corn-Cockle, Couch-Grass, Crowfoot, Daisy, Dandelion, Darnel, 
 Dock, Dodder, Equisetum, Ferns, Furze, Groundsel, Heath, Hemlock, Nettle, Poppy, Sor- 
 rel, Spurrey, and Thistle. 
 
 2. Vermin. These are discussed in the articles Vermin, Game, Field-Sports, Ant, Crow, 
 Earthworm, Field-Mice, Hedge-Birds, Mole, Mole-Cricket, Mouse, Rat, Slug, and Weasel. 
 
 XV. The Physiology and Diseases of Plants. This division, as disposed of in the Far- 
 mer's Dictionary, discusses only a few circumstances in vegetable physiology which have 
 obvious connexion with farming economy, and only such diseases of plants as occur in ordi- 
 nary farm crops. But it might afterwards be so extended by a student as to comprehend all 
 vegetable physiology whatever, and the diseases of all garden plants, of all hardy trees, and 
 even of the principal weeds. We distribute it into the five following sections: — 
 
 1. Botanical and Phytological Circumstances connected with Farming Economy. These are 
 discussed in the articles Acclimatation of Plants, Age of Plants, Anatomy of Vegetables, Food 
 of Plants, and Excretion of Plants. 
 
 2. General Matter on the Diseases of Plants. This is contained in the articles Diseases ot 
 Plants and Distemper. 
 
 3. Diseases from Atmospheric Causes. These are discussgd in the articles Accidents and Blight 
 
 4. Diseases from Fungi. These are discussed in the articles Barberry, Botrytis, Brand, 
 Ergot, Mildew, Mould, Rust, and Smut. 
 
xxxv i 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5. Diseases from Insects and Animalcules. These are discussed in the articles Insects, 
 Abortive Corn, Anbury, Aphis, Apion, Caterpillar, Ear-Cockle, Grub, Honey-Dew, Moth, 
 Pyralis, Saw-Flies, Turnip-Fly, and Wireworm. 
 
 XVI. Grass Lands. This division is complicated, in cases of wild waste pastures, with 
 the division on Georgical Improvement, — and, in cases of the alternate husbandry, with the 
 division on Cultural Operations on Tilled Lands ; but otherwise it is perfectly distinct, and it 
 may be classified into the four following sections: — 
 
 1. The General Treatment of Grass Lands. This is discussed in the articles Grass Lands, 
 Pasture, Meadow, and Lea. 
 
 2. The Herbage of Grass Lands. This has an interest in the articles Fodder and Hay; 
 and it forms the topics of the articles Aftergrass, Gratten, Haining of Grass, and Sward. 
 
 3. The Plants which Compose the Herbage of Grass Lands. These form the topics of the 
 articles Grasses, Agrostis, Aira, Alopecurus, Anthoxanthum, Avena, Brome-Grass, Cata- 
 brosa, Cynosurus, Dactylis, Danthonia, Elymus, Festuca, Fiorin, Glyceria, Melica, Milium, 
 Nardus, Panic-Grass, Phleum, Poa, Tussac-Grass, Ryegrass, Arrow-Grass, Plantain, and 
 Milfoil; and they also form part of the articles Barley, Wheat, Buckbean, and Clover, and 
 of various others which have their classified place among White Crops and Green Crops. 
 
 4. Things which Control Grass Lands for Good or for Evil. The chief of those which con- 
 trol for good are discussed in articles on Georgical Improvement, — particularly Irrigation, 
 Catch work, Draining, and Paring and Burning; and some of the chief which control for evil 
 are discussed in the articles Ash, Carex, and Rush, and also in many articles which belong 
 to the division on Weeds and Vermin, and to that on the Diseases of Plants. 
 
 XVII. Live Stock. This division must be understood within limits which exclude the 
 subjects of the two following divisions ; and even when thus understood, it is distributable 
 into nine sections: — 
 
 1. The Species and Varieties of Domesticated Animals. These are discussed in the articles 
 Horse, Ass, Mule, Ox, Bull, Cow, Calf, Cattle, Free-Martin, Sheep, Ram, Goat, Alpaca, Dog, 
 Hog, Rabbit, Poultry, Cock, Capon, Guinea-Fowl, Goose, and Bee. 
 
 2. The Varieties of the Horse. These are discussed in the articles Horse, Mare, Foal, Bay- 
 Horse, Chestnut-Horse, Brown, Black, Dun, and Ewe-Neck. 
 
 3. Zoological and Physiological Characters involved in the Economy of Live Stock. These 
 are discussed in numerous articles which belong to the division on Farriery, and also in the 
 articles Acclimatation of Animals, Age of Animals, Amble, Trot, Hide, and Habit. 
 
 i. The General Farm Treatment of Live Stock. This is discussed in most of the articles on- 
 the Species and Varieties of the Domesticated Animals, and also in the articles Live Stock 
 and Herd, and likewise figures in many of the articles which belong to the divisions of Far_ 
 riery, of Buildings and Enclosures, and of Grass Lands. 
 
 5. The Treatment of Live Stock with reference to Propagation. This is discussed in the 
 articles Breeding, Crossing, Pregnancy, Abortion, Parturition, Farrowing, and Incubation. 
 
 6. The Treatment of Live Stock with reference to Health and Cleanliness. This is discussed 
 in the articles Cleaning, Bathing, Clatting, Doddering, Exercise, Grooming, Litter, Ventila- 
 tion, Salving of Sheep, and Washing of Sheep, and likewise figures in many of the articles 
 which belong to the division of Farriery. 
 
 7. The Treatment of Live Stock with reference to Economy. This is more or less involved in 
 all the other sections of the present division, and forms the topics of the articles Breaking, 
 Backing, Driving, Ear-Mark, Branding, Boyening, Measuring of Cattle, and Shearing of 
 Sheep. 
 
 8. The Treatment of Live Stock with reference to Feeding. This is discussed in the articles 
 Feeding of Animals, Fattening of iWiimals, Stall-Feeding, Soiling, Bruising Corn, Boiling, 
 Steaming- Apparatus, Brining, Feed, Tethering, Eating-Off, Fold, and Corn-Box. 
 
 9. The Food of Live Stock. This is discussed in the articles Food of Animals, Fodder, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxvii 
 
 Green Food, Spring-Feed, Grasses, Forage, Hay, Haulm, Acorns, Beech, Bran, Brassin, 
 Broom, Carob-Bean, Linseed, Malt, Mast, Molasses, Oil-Cake, Rape- Cake, Sago, and Yew, 
 and likewise has a main interest in a large proportion of the articles on Green Crops. 
 
 XVIII. Animal Produce. This may be classified into the four following sections: — 
 
 1. The Produce of the Poultry Yard. This is discussed in the articles Poultry, Egg, Ad- 
 dled Eggs, and Feathers. 
 
 2. The Produce of the Apiary. This is discussed in the articles Bee and Honey. 
 
 3. The Produce of the Dairy. This, together with its incidents, is discussed in the articles 
 Dairy, Beesting, Milk, Churning, Butter, Butyrine, Whey, Buttermilk, Rennet, Curd, Ca- 
 seum, Cheese, Green Cheese, Annotta, Cheese-Maggot, Cheese-Mite, and Clouted Cream. 
 
 4 The Produce of the Piggery, the Farm-Yard, and the Pastures. This is discussed in the 
 articles Bacon, Brawn, Meat, Veal, Tallow, Mutton, Lamb, Fleece, and Wool. 
 
 XIX. Farriery. This division, as disposed of in the Farmer's Dictionary, comprises 
 only so much of the science and practice of veterinary medicine as is requisite for a farmer's 
 own sanatory and medical treatment of the domesticated animals in ordinary cases, and for ena- 
 bling him to judge when his own treatment ought to be superseded by that of a professional 
 person in extraordinary ones; and it therefore leaves a student who would become a 
 thorough master of farriery to acquaint himself from other sources with the extensive and 
 complicated subjects of anatomy, pathology, materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics. 
 We shall also make but a very general classification of diseases ; and we suggest it as an use- 
 ful exercise for a young farmer, after he shall have gone over our classification, and mastered 
 the crowd of articles contained in it, to reclassify the diseases in various other ways — for 
 example, into local and general, — into epidemical, endemical, and non-contagious, — into such 
 as affect only one species or class of domesticated animals, and such as are common to all the 
 principal species, — and into those of respectively the limbs, the skin, the organs of sense, the 
 head, the stomach, the intestines, the reproductive system, the respiratory system, and the 
 other great classes of organs and functions. But we warn him that no classification of diseases 
 can be quite perfect, — that every comprehensive one is liable to both redundancies and de- 
 fects, — and that even so general an one as our own, in the three main particulars of chronio 
 acute, and local, does not everywhere give exact limits, some diseases being both chronic or 
 acute, or having sometimes the one character and sometimes the other, and some being both 
 local and either chronic or acute. We distribute our discussions on farriery into the eleven 
 following sections: — 
 
 1. General Matters on Farriery. These are contained in the articles Farrier, Diseases of 
 Animals, and Epidemic Diseases. 
 
 2. Anatomical, Physiological, and Pathological Matters. These are contained in the arti- 
 cles Anatomy of Animals, Back, Brisket, Ear, Eye, Nose, Parotid Glands, Teeth, Tongue, 
 Foot, Fetlock, Ann, Tail, Udder, Bladder, Cartilage, Dandriff, Moulting, Appetite, Perspi- 
 ration, and Pulse. 
 
 3. Operations and Appliances with reference to Economy. These are discussed in the arti- 
 cles Cropping, Docking, Nicking, Castration, Spaying, Shoeing, and Calkins. 
 
 4. Operations and Mechanical Appliances with reference to Pharmacy. These are discussed 
 in the articles Bleeding, Blister, Firing, Neurotomy, Physicking, Raking, Poultice, Charge, 
 Barnacles, Casting-of-a-Horse, Rowel, Setou, Probang, Trochar, and Twitch. 
 
 5. Habits and Characters which affect Economical Value. These are discussed in the arti- 
 cles Soundness, Warranty, Clicking, Crib-Biting, Foul-Feeding, Kicking, Overreach, Quid- 
 ding, Restiveness, Shying, and Stringhalt. 
 
 6. Medicinal Appliances. These are discussed in the articles Alteratives, Antispasmodics, 
 Aperients, Ball, Physic, Diaphoretic, Diuretic, Drench, Glyster, Gruel, Hay-Tea, Mash, and 
 Absorbent Treatment. 
 
 7. Injuries and Diseases from Insects and Entozoons. These are discussed in the articles 
 
xxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Acari, Ascarides, Bots, Filaria, Fluke, Fly-in-Sheep, Hydatid, Louse, Mange, Tick, Worms, 
 and Cleg. 
 
 8. Injuries and Diseases from Accidents. These are discussed in the articles Bruise, Chok- 
 ing, Cut, Cutting, Fracture, Poison, Poll-Evil, Rupture, Nose, Tail, Strain, and Wound. 
 
 9. Ulcerous, Numerous, Cuticular, and Local Diseases. These are discussed in the articles 
 Abscess, Ulcer, Tumour, Anbury, Angle-Berries, Barbies, Boil, Blood-Spavin, Bog-Spavin, 
 Bone-Spavin, Broken-Knees, Capulet, Cancer, Canker, Cow-Pox, Small-Pox, Exostosis, False- 
 Quarter, Fistula, Footrot, Foul-in-the-Foot, Galling-of-a-Horse, Grease, Pelt-Rot, Hide- 
 bound, Lampas, Mallenders, Navel-Ill, Ozena, Phimosis, Pip, Polypus, Pumiced-Foot, Quit- 
 tor, Scab, Scrofula, Sitfast, Spavin, Splent, Swelled Legs, Thorough-Pin, Thrush, Wart, Vives, 
 Windgalls, Parotid Glands, Black-Muzzle, Ear, Nose, Teeth, Tongue, Aphthae, Blindness, 
 Moon-Blindness, Amaurosis, Cataract, and Ophthalmia. 
 
 10. Chronic Diseases not included in the Preceding Section. These are discussed in the arti- 
 cles Anchylosis, Black Leg, Blackwater, Broken Wind, Calculus, Caries, Consumption, Cos- 
 tiveness, Cough, Debility, Diabetes, Diarrhoea, Dropsy, Epilepsy, Fardlebound, Fellon, 
 Founder, Grogginess, Hunger-Rot, Lameness, Ossification, Palsy, Plethora, Redwater, Rheu- 
 matism, Stone-in-the-Bladder, Thick-Wind, Urine (Incontinence of), and Urine (Retention of). 
 
 11. Acute Diseases. These are discussed in the articles Anticor, Blain, Braxy, Bronchitis, 
 Chest-Founder, Chipping, Colic, Cords, Coryza, Cramp, Cropsick, Distemper, Dysentery, 
 Enteritis, Erysipelas, Farcy, Fever, Gall-Lamb, Gangrene, Garget, Gastritis, Giddiness, 
 Glanders, Grainsick, Peritonitis, Hemorrhage, Hoove, Hot- Yellows, Hydrothorax, Inflamed 
 Vein, Inflammation, Inflammatory Fever, Influenza, Jaundice, Laryngitis, Louping-Ill, 
 Mammitis, Measles, Megrim, Murrain, Palpitation, Pharyngitis, Pining, Pleurisy, Pneumo- 
 nia, Puerperal Fever, Quinsy, Rabies, Roup, Staggers, Strangles, Strangury, Surfeit, Tetanus, 
 Water-Farcy, Water-in-the-Head, Wood-Evil, and Udder. 
 
THE 
 
 FARMER'S DICTIONARY, 
 
 OR 
 
 CYCLOPEDIA OF AOEICULTUKE. 
 
■m 
 
THE FARMER'S DICTIONARY. 
 
 ABBEY-LANDS. 
 
 ABORTION. 
 
 ABBEY-LANDS. Lands which formerly be- 
 longed to monastic establishments. They com- 
 prise a large proportion of the surface of Great 
 Britain and Ireland. They often excel the lands 
 which surround them, in both fertility and 
 beauty; and those of England possess interest 
 to the farmer, for their general exemption from 
 the payment of tithes. Some of the abbey lands, 
 as held by their original monastic proprietors, 
 were tithe-free by real composition; some, by 
 the Pope's bull of exemption ; some, by unity of 
 possession, — or in consequence of both the lands 
 and the rectory of a parish belonging to the 
 monks ; some by prescription, having been al- 
 ways in spiritual hands, and never having paid 
 tithes according to the maxim, ecclesia decimas 
 non solvit ecclesice; and some by virtue of the 
 constitutional character of the peculiar monastic 
 order to which the monks belonged. Exemption, 
 up to the time of the Reformation, rested directly 
 on some one of these grounds ; but, since the 
 Reformation, it rests on them only through the 
 medium of a special act passed in the 31st year 
 of the reign of Henry VIII. That act, says 
 Blackstone, " enacts that all persons who should 
 come to the possession of lands of any abbey 
 then dissolved, should hold them free and dis- 
 charged of tithes, in as large and ample a man- 
 ner as the abbeys themselves formerly held them. 
 And from this original have sprung all the lands 
 which, being in lay hands, do at present claim 
 to be tithe-free : for if a man can show his lands 
 to have been such abbey-lands, and also imme- 
 morially discharged of tithes by any of the means 
 before-mentioned, [real composition, bull, unity 
 of possession, prescription, or constitutional cha- 
 racter of peculiar order,] this is now a good pre- 
 scription de non decimando. But he must show 
 both these requisites : for abbey-lands, without 
 a special ground of discharge, are not discharged 
 of course, neither will any prescription de non 
 decimando avail in total discharge of tithes, un- 
 less it relates to such abbey-lands." 
 I. 
 
 Some lands in Scotland also are tithe-free; 
 and these are technically said to be held cum 
 decimis inclusis et nunquam antea separatis, and, 
 in order to secure the enjoyment of the exemption, 
 must be so described in title-deeds dated before 
 the act of annexation 1587, c. 29. After the Re- 
 formation, the crown claimed right to the whole 
 revenues of the regular clergy, and to the estates 
 of bishops and chapters, and also to all benefices 
 which were under ecclesiastical patronage ; and 
 early in the reign of James VI. grants had been 
 made by the king or the regents of much of the 
 property so acquired, and particularly of the 
 abbacies and priories, to noblemen and others. 
 These grantees were called lords -of- erection 
 when the estates bestowed on them were erected 
 into temporal baronies, and titulars when they 
 merely received heritable rights to the teinds. 
 Subsequently also to the final abolition of Epis- 
 copacy in 1689, various grants of church-lands 
 were made to hospitals, universities, and other 
 public institutions. 
 
 The farmer feels no interest in the tithe-free 
 condition of abbey-lands, under the peculiar law 
 of Scotland : and he has lost most of his interest 
 in it, under the recently altered law of Ireland ; 
 yet he may almost everywhere see, in the abbey- 
 lands themselves, in their architectural monu- 
 ments, or in their historical associations, some 
 features which shall give them a distinctive 
 character in his thoughts. Not a few of them 
 were large benefactors to various useful arts; 
 and especially to the arts of gardening and farm- 
 ing. — Blackstone' 's Commentaries, Book ii. c. 3. — 
 Letters relating to the Suppression of Monasteries. 
 Published by the Camden Society, 1843. — Third 
 Report of the Commissioners of Religious Instruc- 
 tion, Scotland, 1837. 
 
 ABORTION. The premature expulsion of 
 calf, lamb, or foal from the womb. What con- 
 stitutes abortion, as distinguished from a birth, 
 is the appearance of the foetus in so incomplete 
 a state of its formation as, if life exist, to render 
 
ABORTION. 
 
 2 
 
 ABORTION. 
 
 the continuance of it impossible. An abortion I 
 among live stock is, in popular language, some- 
 times termed a miscarriage, and sometimes a 
 casting or warping, but more commonly a slip- 
 ping or slinking. The indications of approach- 
 ing abortion are sometimes the sudden filling of 
 the udder as in the approach of parturition, 
 sometimes the flow of bloody matter from the 
 vagina, and more generally great restlessness 
 and languor. The precurrent circumstances are 
 the death or mortal disease of the foetus, and 
 the disturbance or derangement of the functions 
 of the womb ; and the usual causes — though 
 these, as well as the symptoms, exhibit modifica- 
 tions in the different classes of animals — are 
 falls, bruises, or other accidents, — over-driving, 
 sudden exertion, or unwonted fatigue, — such ex- 
 cess or deficiency of food as to occasion fatness 
 or emaciation, — such severe fright as violently 
 to agitate the nerves, — and even such foetid 
 smells or putrid sights, as excite disgust, or in- 
 duce a morbid sympathy. 
 
 Abortion in the Cow. — Abortion occurs oftener 
 and more readily in the cow than in any other 
 animal ; and is one of the most vexatious classes 
 of occurrences on a farm. A cow which has 
 once been afflicted with it can never be de- 
 pended on for further breeding, but would very 
 probably miscarry on every, future occasion as 
 on the first; and hence, to prevent repeated 
 disappointments and losses, she must be dis- 
 carded from the cow-house, and fattened for 
 the butcher. The loss of her calf also occasions 
 a blank in the number of live stock to be brought 
 up during the season, and obliges the farmer 
 to procure a young animal by purchase. Yet 
 any farmer who happens to be tried with the 
 occurrence, must have a fair knowledge of the 
 numerous causes of abortion, and must exercise 
 considerable assiduity and skill in the use of pre- 
 ventives and remedies, in order to his probably 
 escaping far worse consequences than the mis- 
 carriage of a single cow, and the necessity of 
 purchasing a single calf. 
 
 Abortion sometimes becomes remarkably fre- 
 quent, and even appears to assume an epizootic 
 or epidemic character, in particular districts, or 
 upon particular farms. Chabert, in his Veter- 
 inary Instructions, relates an instance of a farmer 
 at Toury, who unwittingly introduced an abor- 
 tive habit among his cows by the purchase of a 
 strange cow at a fair, — who witnessed the trans- 
 mission of the habit, apparently from that one 
 animal, to all his breeding-cows, during the long 
 period of thirty years, — who could discover no- 
 thing in either the previous condition or the 
 current treatment of any of his cows to indicate 
 a predisposition to the habit, — who sold off cows 
 that had aborted, purchased seemingly sound 
 cows in their stead, rebuilt his cow-house, altered 
 the whole economy of his live-stock, repeatedly 
 changed his bull, and tried every other expedient 
 he could think of to put an end to the pest, — 
 
 and who was baffled at every step, and tortured 
 to see the abortive habit as prevalent and power- 
 ful as ever, until at last he sold his whole herd, 
 and introduced an entirely different set of ani- 
 mals, altogether free from sympathy with any 
 individual of his former set of cows. Both this in- 
 stance and many other instances of a similar char- 
 acter seem, at first sight, to indicate the existence 
 of some contagious or infectious virus in the cow's 
 abortion; but, when more carefully considered, 
 they show the disorder to be propagated rather 
 by the sympathies of a delicate smell, by the 
 keen power of an irritable imagination, or by 
 some other influence of an equally subtle nature, 
 and altogether peculiar to the cow. "A more 
 common cause of slinking than any others," says 
 Mr. Skellett, " and which is peculiar on the in- 
 fluence of this animal, is a disagreeable, nauseous 
 smell. The cow is remarked to prepossess a very 
 nice and delicate sense of smelling, to that de- 
 gree, that the slinking of one cow is apt, from 
 this circumstance, to be communicated to a great 
 number of the same herd : it has been often 
 known to spread like an infectious disease, and 
 great losses have been suffered by cow-feeders 
 from the same." " Some," says Mr. Youatt, " have 
 imagined abortion to be contagious. It is de- 
 structively propagated among cows ; but this is 
 probably to be explained on a different principle 
 than that of contagion. It has been stated that 
 the cow is an animal considerably imaginative, 
 and highly irritable during the period of preg- 
 nancy. In abortion, the foetus is often putrid 
 before it is discharged ; and the placenta, or 
 after-birth, rarely or never immediately follows 
 it, but becomes decomposed, and, as it drops 
 away in fragments, emits a peculiar and most 
 noisome smell. This smell seems to be singularly 
 annoying to the other cows — they sniff at it, 
 and then run bellowing about. Some sympathetic 
 influence is produced on their uterine organs ; 
 and, in a few days, a greater or less number of 
 those that had pastured together likewise abort." 
 These views, though not demonstrable nor even 
 tolerably certain, are very far from being unphi- 
 losophical; and as they possess quite as much 
 force as any plausible theory, they ought to in- 
 duce every farmer and cow-feeder to keep the 
 cow-house of breeding cows in a clean, sweet, 
 and well-ventilated condition, — to attend to the 
 frequent and thorough cleansing, not only of the 
 feeding-troughs, but of the urine gutters, — to 
 protect the straw or other material for the litter 
 of the cows from any stain of blood or putridity, 
 — to cut off, promptly and finally, all vicinity of 
 an aborted cow from other breeding animals of 
 the cow-house, — and to remove and inhume, with 
 all speed, every vestige of the uterine discharge. 
 Such practices, however, as the fumigation of 
 the cow-house, the burning of feathers, tar, and 
 sulphur, and the smearing of the parts of the 
 cow with tar or fetid oils, as means of destroying 
 smell and preventing contamination, ought either 
 
ABORTION. 3 
 
 to be wholly avoided or very cautiously observed ; • 
 for they have not been known, in even one in- 
 stance, to produce a decidedly good effect, and 
 they, in all cases, incur a hazard of creating the 
 very evil which they are intended to avert. The 
 transmission of the abortive habit in the seem- 
 ingly epizootic form, is confessedly an obscure 
 subject, — possibly yet untraced to its real cause, 
 —and certainly ill combated by any remedies 
 yet devised ; and hence every intelligent farmer 
 will deal with it according to the best of his own 
 judgment, and keep his mind open to any ex- 
 planations of it which accident or observation 
 may disclose. 
 
 The causes of the abortion of the cow, in its 
 more common forms of occurrence, are better 
 known. — One of these causes is overfeeding. Cows, 
 when in an extravagantly high condition, are in 
 continual excitement, and constantly liable to 
 inflammation of the uterus, and consequent abor- 
 tion. M. Cruzel narrates that three cows out of 
 ten, belonging to a certain farmer who consulted 
 him, aborted in the first year of their breeding, 
 — that two of these three aborted also in the 
 second year, whilst the third produced a feeble 
 calf which died on the second day, — that a fourth 
 of the ten cows aborted in the third year, — that, 
 on then being called in to examine and prescribe, 
 he observed all the cows to be in an unnecessarily 
 high condition, and drew blood from them all, 
 and ordered a material reduction in the quan- 
 tity of their food, — and that, as the result of his 
 treatment, their habit of abortion was completely 
 removed. — Another cause is the feeding of cows 
 with bad hay. Mr. Lindsay states that no fewer 
 than ten out of twenty-two cows of a respectable 
 friend of his who kept a dairy aborted in one 
 year, — that other animals of his friend's stock, 
 contracted diseases, some fatal and most of them 
 disastrous, about the same period, — and that both 
 the abortions and the other diseases were clearly 
 traceable to the unavoidable feeding of the cattle 
 with very badly saved or very badly preserved 
 hay. — A third cause is the autumn grazing of the 
 cow upon fields thickly covered with hoar-frost. 
 In Switzerland, abortion, though occurring at 
 all seasons of the year, sets in with virulence and 
 becomes multiplied tenfold, at the period when 
 hoar-frost begins to appear on the fields. This 
 cause of abortion, however, may be resolved into 
 the more general one of feeding cows on any pas- 
 ture which has a tendency to produce inflamma- 
 tory disorders. Cattle of all kinds are exposed 
 to serious injury, and sometimes incur palsy of 
 the rumen or dangerous inflammation of the 
 bowels, from feeding in autumn upon fields cov- 
 ered with hoar-frost ; and whatever has a ten- 
 dency to create general excitation in the bestial 
 system, is likely, during the pregnancy of the 
 cow, to produce inflammation of the womb. — A 
 fourth cause is grazing upon pastures containing 
 acrid plants, or upon the coarse, rank herbage of 
 low, marshy, and woody grounds. This cause 
 
 ABORTION. 
 
 operates with great force also in producing the 
 disease called Red - Water : see article Red- 
 Water. — A fifth cause is the drinking of stag- 
 nant or putrescent water, Mr. White mentions 
 that three successive tenants of a farm near 
 Berkeley in Gloucestershire relinquished posses- 
 sion in consequence of serious losses in cattle by 
 abortion, red-water, and other diseases, — that a 
 fourth tenant suffered similar losses during five 
 years, but eventually observed his cattle-pond to 
 consist of stagnant water, impregnated with dung 
 and urine, and suspected this to be the source of 
 his cattle's disorders, — and that he shut up the 
 pond, procured a supply of good spring water by 
 digging or boring, and was rewarded both by the 
 disappearance of all disease from among his cows, 
 and by a great improvement in the quality of the 
 butter and cheese manufactured from their milk. 
 — A sixth cause is the drinking of water impreg- 
 nated with iron. A writer in a German periodical 
 states that, in 1822, twelve of his pregnant heifers, 
 which drank from ponds of water strongly impreg- 
 nated with iron, cast their calves, — that, in 1823, 
 twelve other pregnant heifers drank from the 
 same ponds, and likewise cast their calves, — and 
 that, in 1824, ten cows which drank other water 
 safely calved, while one cow which drank of the 
 ferruginous water aborted. — A seventh cause is 
 feeding with hard, unsucculent food, or occasion- 
 ing cows to drink large quantities of water. Mr. 
 White states that, in January 1782, all the cows 
 of a farmer near Grandvilliers in Picardy mis- 
 carried, — that they had been kept upon the straw 
 of oats, wheat, and rye, and had been obliged to 
 drink large quantities of bad water in order to 
 obtain sufficient nourishment from the straw, — 
 and that the causes of their miscarrying appeared 
 to be the distension produced by the large quan- 
 tities of water which they drank, and the injury 
 sustained by the third stomach in expressing the 
 fluid parts of the masticated mass. Mr. White 
 also states that, in one year, sixteen out of twen- 
 ty-eight cows in a dairy at Charentin miscarried, 
 — that, during the preceding season, which had 
 been unusually dry, the cows had been pastured 
 in a muddy place, flooded by the Seine, and had 
 generally stood up to the knees in mud and water, 
 feeding on crowfoot, rushes, and other similar 
 vegetation, — and that some of them had, not long 
 before, been brought from Lower Normandy, where 
 they had suffered indigestion from feeding on 
 lucerne, and had obtained relief by the operation 
 of paunching. Mr. White likewise mentions that, 
 in 1789, all the cows in the parish of Beaulieu, 
 near Mantes, miscarried ; and states that all the 
 land of that parish is very retentive of water, 
 and that so much rain fell upon it in 1789 as re- 
 peatedly, and for long periods, to flood all the 
 pastures, so that the grass became rank and sour. 
 — An eighth cause is the too great weight, or 
 some other unsuitable property, of the bull. The 
 use of a too heavy male among the breeders of 
 sheep, is an error well understood, and every- 
 
ABORTION. 
 
 ABORTION. 
 
 where exploded ; but it was formerly very com- 
 mon among the breeders of black cattle, and even 
 yet is occasionally practised. Many instances 
 might be named of the infliction of serious dam- 
 age by a great, overgrown bull ; and an instance 
 is mentioned by Mr. Wedge of a bull which caused 
 a whole dairy of nearly twenty cows to abort in one 
 year, — which was sold to a neighbouring farmer, 
 and caused all his cows also to abort, — and which, 
 on being repurchased by the original owner, and 
 again put to the trial, caused another set of cows 
 to abort. — A ninth cause is a cow's being afflicted 
 with catarrh, or having a tendency to consump- 
 tion. A cow long subject to catarrh rarely be- 
 comes pregnant, or, if she does, is very likely to 
 cast ber calf ; and a cow which has become ac- 
 tually consumptive is almost certain to miscarry. 
 — A tenth cause is a cow's being subject to hoove 
 or flatulent distension of the stomach, or her be- 
 ing so placed while pregnant as to incur hoove. 
 Any considerable distension of the rumen seems 
 to press so strongly on the foetus as to injure or 
 destroy it ; and even an inconsiderable distension, 
 if suddenly produced by change from poor to luxu- 
 riant food, often occasions abortion. Cows which 
 have been half-starved on meagre herbage during 
 winter, and have been incautiously removed to a 
 rich pasture in the spring, are in much hazard of 
 miscarrying. A farmer whose dairy has hitherto 
 been free from the mischiefs of abortion, ought, 
 on purchasing every new cow, to ascertain her 
 previous habit of feeding, lest by too sudden a 
 change she incur hoove, and acquire a habit of 
 miscarrying.' — An eleventh cause is either a cos- 
 tive or especially a relaxed condition of the bow- 
 els. " It must be observed," says Skellet, " that, 
 though it is necessary to preserve a free state of 
 the bowels, a laxity of them will often produce 
 abortion. Cows fed very much upon potatoes, 
 and such other watery food, are very apt to slink, 
 from their laxative effects. In the food of the 
 cow, at this time, a proper medium should be 
 observed, and it should consist of a due propor- 
 tion of other vegetable matter mixed with the 
 fodder, so as the bowels may be kept regularly 
 open, and no more." — A twelfth cause is fright. 
 Various instances have occurred of whole herds 
 of cows having cast their calves in consequence 
 of the terror of an extraordinary thunderstorm ; 
 and more than one instance may have been seen 
 or heard of by almost every farmer, of individual 
 cows having been driven to abortion by common 
 frights. — A thirteenth cause, and rather frequent 
 one, is connexion with the bull after the com- 
 mencement of pregnancy. — A fourteenth cause is 
 injury from fatigue, from the blows of the cow- 
 herd or of other persons, or from the contacts of 
 other cows in season or of unskilfully castrated 
 oxen. — A fifteenth cause is similar to one of those 
 assigned for the apparently epizootic character 
 which abortion occasionally presents, — the preva- 
 lence of any bad odour. " Of what nature that 
 odour is which gives offence," says Skellet, " we 
 
 cannot altogether be certain ; but the author has 
 remarked that its effects occur at one season 
 more than a&^a&other, and particularly when the 
 weather has been wet, and the cows have long 
 been kept at grass. From this fact, it will ap- 
 pear that the smell is of a vegetable nature, and 
 connected with their feeding at that time." — Yet 
 though so many causes of abortion have been 
 distinctly ascertained, and may, with more or 
 less frequency, be still found in operation, in- 
 stances of abortion occur in the case both of in- 
 dividual cows and of whole herds for which no 
 apparent cause can be assigned. The Leipsic 
 Agricultural Gazette of March 22, 1777, states 
 that, " by an unheard-of fatality, the abortion of 
 cows in that district was almost general, and 
 that, after the most anxious research, no assign- 
 able cause for it could be discovered, nor would 
 any medicine or medical treatment arrest the 
 plague." In 1784, according to Chabert, all the 
 cows and mares at Chalons, from cause or causes 
 quite unknown, aborted; and in 1787, all the 
 cows at Bournonville, though they had been in 
 the cow-house during the whole winter, and had 
 been well taken care of, cast their calves. 
 
 The suitable preventives of abortion, in the 
 case of individual cows, are distinctly suggested 
 by the causes of the disorder, and need not be 
 mentioned in detail. But as some of the causes 
 are only occasional, and some can exist only in 
 peculiar localities or under unusual circumstan- 
 ces, and some are liable to come obscurely as 
 well as suddenly into operation, each farmer 
 ought to determine to which of the several causes 
 his particular farm or herd is most likely to be 
 obnoxious, and to adopt his principal preventives 
 against what he believes to be the most likely 
 causes. Yet a few precautions or modes of pro- 
 tective treatment are desirable, and even neces- 
 sary, on almost every farm, — such as the regular 
 feeding of the cows, the use of only good food 
 and in moderate quantities, the affording of free 
 access to good water, the cleanliness and perfect 
 ventilation of the cow-house, the avoiding of all 
 sudden exposure to considerable increase of heat 
 or cold, the checking of all tendency to plethora 
 or undue fulness of habit, the cautious but steady 
 counteraction of any tendency toward emacia- 
 tion, the adapting of particular varieties of food 
 to the particular tastes of the several animals, 
 the gentle correction of any tendency toward 
 either constipation or relaxation of the bowels, 
 the prohibition of all rough usage on the part of 
 the cow-herd, and the various little arts of con- 
 sideration and kindness whi?h are suggested to 
 good feeling and sound judgment by a knowledge 
 of the cow's delicate organisms and comparatively 
 tender susceptibilities. Only a brutal-minded 
 cow-owner will pronounce such attentions too 
 refined for a mere animal ; only a lazy and slug- 
 gardly one will think them too troublesome for 
 his observance ; and only one of narrow know- 
 ledge, ill-trained principles, and wasteful econo- 
 
ABORTION. 
 
 my will regard them as unnecessary to the re- 
 munerative working of his dairy. 
 
 The abortion of the cow takes place at various 
 stages of pregnancy, from the half of the usual 
 period of gestation to the end of the sixth, and 
 even the end of the seventh month. The symp- 
 toms of its approach bear some resemblance to 
 the indications of approaching parturition ; but 
 as they are often much feebler than these, and 
 are usually not expected, and sometimes occur 
 only under the observation of the cow-herd or 
 other parties who may be implicated in causing 
 them, they are exceedingly liable to escape the 
 notice of the proprietor till they have become 
 greatly aggravated, and gone quite beyond the 
 reach of remedy, In its earlier stages, the cow 
 loses appetite, ceases rumination, becomes dull 
 and oppressed, suffers a slight enlargement of 
 the abdomen, staggers a little in her walk, pro- 
 longs the periods of reclining, and stands a com- 
 paratively long time motionless after rising ; and 
 in its later stages, she loses the natural round- 
 ness of the abdomen, begins to express pain by 
 moaning, exhibits a small, wiry, and intermit- 
 tent pulse, shows laboriousness and slight con- 
 vulsiveness of breathing, and discharges a yellow 
 or red glairy fluid from the vagina. The last of 
 these symptoms is almost always decisive. But 
 in certain cases, particularly when the abortion 
 is caused by violence or extreme fatigue, the 
 animal evinces such severity of suffering as can- 
 not be mistaken, — she ceases not only to rumi- 
 nate but to eat, paws the ground, rests her head 
 on the manger while she is standing or on her 
 flank when she is lying, suffers either uterine 
 hemorrhage or a spasmodic contraction of the 
 uterus, and endures a succession of very violent 
 throes for the expulsion of the foetus. 
 
 The calf or foetus, in the majority of cases, is 
 expelled dead or putrid ; and in other cases is so 
 imperfect and feeble, that it very rarely lives. 
 When an occasional case does occur of the expul- 
 sion of a well-formed living foetus, or of delivery 
 at a comparatively advanced stage of pregnancy, 
 a doubt might probably arise as to whether it is 
 properly an abortion or a parturition ; for so 
 considerable a variation exists in the actual pe- 
 riod of healthy gestation among cows, that M. 
 Tessier observed, in 1,131 instances, a minimum 
 of 240 days, a maximum of 321 days, and a con- 
 Fequent extreme difference of no less than 81 
 days. The effects of abortion upon the cow, 
 even in their mildest form, but especially in bad 
 cases, are often very serious. When the foetus 
 has been several days dead, and the uterus ex- 
 periences considerable spasmodic action, and the 
 labour is difficult, prolonged, and very painful, 
 the cow is much more exhausted than in natural 
 parturition, — she acquires little or no appetite, 
 and yields no milk, — she appears feeble, wasted, 
 and as if shrivelling into meagreness of bulk, — 
 she probably contracts some internal chronic 
 disorder, or the elements of consumption, — and 
 
 5 ABORTION. 
 
 she either drops away into death, or recovers 
 with slowness and difficulty. Even when the 
 abortion is of mild form, and entails no seemingly 
 disastrous consequences, the cow loses much of 
 her strength and character as a breeder, — she 
 will almost certainly not become pregnant on the 
 next occasion of being in season, — she may ac- 
 quire a kind of nymphomania, and become a nui- 
 sance among a herd, — and, as already stated, 
 when she does again become pregnant, she is al- 
 most certain to have another abortion. Some 
 persons assert, indeed, that the enfeeblement 
 of the system is only temporary, — that each 
 succeeding abortion occurs at a later and later 
 period of gestation, — and that in the course 
 of three or four years, the cow, if properly treat- 
 ed, will overcome her habit of abortion, and be- 
 come a tolerably safe breeder. But no farmer, 
 who has a due regard to his own interest, will 
 keep an unprofitable animal for so long a period 
 upon his premises ; nor, for the sake of remote 
 and contingent good, will he incur the serious 
 hazard of spreading the abortive disorder among 
 the rest of his breeding stock. The aborted cow, 
 whenever she begins to recover, ought to be fat- 
 tened and sold ; and in any case in which there 
 is an unconquerable reluctance to part with her, 
 she ought, at all events, to be kept separate from 
 her companions for at least two months, and if 
 possible for ever. 
 
 If abortion be suspected, and the earlier symp- 
 toms of it be observed, the evil may, in many 
 cases, be averted. A cow which seems to be 
 menaced with it ought to be instantly removed 
 from the field to a comfortable shed or cow-house, 
 away from the other cattle. If the fluid she dis- 
 charges be only glairy but not offensively smelled, 
 and especially if any motion of the foetus can be 
 observed, the threatened abortion may possibly 
 be averted. "The farmer," says Mr. Youatt, 
 "should hasten to bleed her, and that copiously, 
 in proportion to her age, size, and condition, and 
 the state of excitation in which he may find her ; 
 and he should give a dose of physic immediately 
 after the bleeding. The physic beginning to 
 operate, he should administer half a drachm of 
 opium and half an ounce of sweet spirit of nitre. 
 Unless she is in a state of great debility, he 
 should avoid above all things 'the comfortable 
 drink,' which some persons so strangely recom- 
 mend, and which the cowleech would be almost 
 sure to administer. He should allow nothing 
 but gruel, and he should keep his patient as 
 quiet as he can." The quantity of blood proper 
 to be drawn from a cow in good condition may 
 probably be five or six quarts ; and the dose of 
 physic suitable after bleeding may be either half 
 a pound of Epsom salts, or three or four drachms 
 of powdered aloes, or three or four ounces of 
 castor oil, administered in a quart of gruel. But 
 should the animal be in very poor condition, and 
 her bad symptoms have been induced by expo- 
 sure to cold, bleeding ought to be dispensed with, 
 
ABORTION. 
 
 6 
 
 ABORTION. 
 
 and the chief reliance placed upon gruel and an 
 opiate. — When the symptoms earliest observed 
 are indicative of death in the foetus, and espe- 
 cially when the fluid discharged by the cow has a 
 decidedly offensive smell, abortion may be re- 
 garded as inevitable, and should on no account 
 be attempted to be hindered, but by every fair 
 and possible means be expedited. The cow, if 
 much fever exist, ought to be bled : she may 
 even, in some cases, receive with advantage ' the 
 comfortable drink' which cow-leeches so indis- 
 criminately administer ; and she ought, in all 
 other respects, to be treated in the same manner 
 as for parturition. The grand difficulty is, not 
 with the foetus, but with the placenta or after- 
 birth. The foetus, instantly on being obtained, 
 ought to be buried deep, in some spot which no 
 cow is likely ever to frequent ; and the placenta, 
 in consequence of being in an unprepared state 
 to separate from the womb, and of the proba- 
 bility of its being so long retained as to contract 
 putridity or corruption, ought to be the subject 
 of prompt and sedulous concern. "A dose of 
 physic," says Mr. Youatt, "should be given; the 
 ergot of rye should be administered ; the hand 
 should be introduced, and an effort made, cau- 
 tiously and gently, to detach the placenta : all 
 violence, however, should be carefully avoided, 
 for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be 
 speedily produced." Yet, whenever the placenta 
 does not easily yield to ordinary appliances, or 
 come away in the course of a few hours, or at 
 the utmost a day, the farmer will do well to call 
 in the aid of a veterinary surgeon. Skellet re- 
 commends, as a means of bringing off the placenta, 
 to administer to the cow, when fasting, a drink 
 containing 3 oz. of juniper berfies, 2 oz. of bay 
 berries, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1 oz. of anise seed, -| 
 oz. of gentian, \ oz. of myrrh, \ oz. of assafcetida, 
 1 quart of mild warm ale, and 1 quart of penny- 
 royal tea, and to repeat the dose daily till all the 
 placenta be evacuated. But such compound and 
 intricate drugging wants the simplicity of the 
 best veterinary practice ; and at all events ought 
 scarcely to be practised or imitated by the far- 
 mer, in indiscriminate cases, or without compe- 
 tent advice. Youatt, immediately after the pas- 
 sage which we have already quoted from him, 
 says, "The parts of the cow should be well- 
 washed with a solution of the chloride of lime ; 
 and this should be injected up the vagina, and 
 also given internally. In the meantime, and 
 especially after the expulsion of the placenta, 
 the cow-house should be well-washed with the 
 same solution." — When abortion has once oc- 
 curred on a farm, the breeding cows ought, for a 
 year or two, to be watched and treated with un- 
 usual care, — they ought to be sedulously pro- 
 tected from the various causes by which abor- 
 tion is induced, — they ought to be well fed, yet 
 not suffered to become fat, — and unless they 
 happen to be very lean and weak, they ought, be- 
 tween the third and fourth months of every oc- 
 
 casion of pregnancy, to be bled and mildly phys- 
 icked. 
 
 Abortion in the Ewe. — Abortion in the ewe is 
 not so common as abortion in the cow, and sel- 
 dom if ever assumes an epizootic appearance ; 
 yet it is sufficiently frequent to be a great an- 
 noyance, and is sometimes so extensive as to dis- 
 arrange all the sheep-owner's plans, and entail 
 upon him very serious pecuniary loss. It may 
 occur at any stage of pregnancy, but happens 
 most frequently about mid-time of gestation. Its 
 causes are unusual storminess of the weather, 
 the endurance of fatigue in snow, over-driving, 
 sudden fright, leaping over hedges or ditches, 
 annoyance from the ferocity of dogs, the too free 
 use of salt, and, above all, profuse and unquali- 
 fied feeding upon turnips and other succulent 
 food. The last of these causes, indeed, does not 
 always operate, and may often appear to a sheep- 
 farmer to be perfectly innocuous ; yet in seasons 
 when an abundant vegetation in autumn is fol- 
 lowed by an unusual proportion of wet weather 
 in winter, it is almost certain to operate with 
 great virulence and to a wide extent. Mr. Spooner 
 states that, only a spring or two ago, numerous 
 instances occurred in Southamptonshire of the 
 use of succulent food occasioning abortion in 
 ewes ; and he mentions a particular instance of 
 a farmer who, at that time, had nearly a hun- 
 dred aborted ewes, a good many of which died. 
 These ewes, he says, " had been turned on a fine 
 field of turnips, and subsisted entirely on them 
 and water-meadow hay for some time previous 
 to the commencement of the mischief, which be- 
 gan soon after Christmas, and continued for sev- 
 eral weeks. Though the greater number of ewes 
 recovered, yet they suffered much, and some died 
 from inflammation of the womb, and others be- 
 came paralyzed." 
 
 The symptoms of approaching abortion in the 
 ewe, in consequence of the woolly covering of the 
 animal, cannot be so well observed as those in 
 the cow ; yet a listlessness in the creature's move- 
 ments, and a redness under the tail, may excite 
 the notice of any ordinary shepherd, — and a loss 
 of appetite, an unusual degree of bleating, a mop- 
 ing manner of separation from the flock, and oc- 
 casionally trembling over the body, slight labour- 
 pains, or even the relaxation of the uterus, may 
 confirm suspicion when once it is fairly aroused. 
 
 Pregnant ewes ought never to be fed upon a 
 turnip field, but ought to be placed upon dry 
 pasture-ground, and either abundantly supplied 
 with hay, or moderately fed with drawn and car- 
 ried turnips, sliced and mixed in troughs with 
 chaff or with bruised corn. Such treatment may 
 possibly impair their condition, but will at least 
 prevent the more serious calamity of their abort- 
 ing. The treatment, when abortion actually oc- 
 curs, ought to vary with the circumstances of 
 particular cases, and must be, in some degree, 
 similar to that of aborted cows. " If," says Mr. 
 Youatt, " the foetus had been long dead, proved 
 
ABORTION. 7 ABORTIVE CORN. 
 
 by the fetid smell of it, and of the vaginal dis- 
 charge, the parts should be washed with a weak 
 solution in water (1 to 16) of the chloride of 
 lime, some of which may also be injected into 
 the uterus. If fever should supervene, a dose of 
 Epsom salts, timeously administered, will remove 
 the symptoms. If debility and want of appetite 
 should remain, a little gentian and ginger, with 
 small doses of Epsom salts, will speedily restore 
 the animal. Care should be taken that the food 
 6hall not be too nutritive or too great in quan- 
 tity." Mr. Spooner recommends that the ewe 
 be placed in a sheltered situation away from the 
 rest of the flock, that she be allowed plenty of 
 fresh air, that she receive on the first day ^ oz. 
 of Epsom salts, 1 drachm of laudanum, and \ a 
 drachm of powdered camphor in some nourishing 
 gruel, and that she receive also on the second 
 day the second and the third of these medicines, 
 but not the salts unless she happen to be costive. 
 The aborted objects ought to be carefully and 
 deeply buried, and ought not to be approached 
 by the shepherd lest he should convey infection 
 from them to some other ewes of the flock. 
 
 Abortion in the Mare. — Abortion in the mare 
 is not infrequent. Its usual causes are over- 
 exertion, falls, kicks, and improper feeding. A 
 pregnant mare may sometimes be seen on the 
 worst pasture of an injudiciously conducted farm, 
 half-starved on insufficient herbage, and totally 
 deprived of the nutritive feeding and the special 
 care bestowed upon working horses ; and, in such 
 circumstances, she incurs considerable hazard of 
 miscarrying. She does not require, indeed, to be 
 fed in the same high manner as if she were fully 
 and constantly at work ; yet she ought to have a 
 little better food than common herbage during the 
 whole period of gestation. She ought to receive 
 one or two feeds of corn a-day during the latter 
 half of that period, and she will be all the better, 
 and none the worse, to perform moderate work till 
 within a few days of the calculated time of par- 
 turition. If, on the other hand, she be unduly 
 indulged, and too luxuriously fed, she will incur 
 risk of inflammatory action throughout her sys- 
 tem, of excitement and disturbance in the uterine 
 organism, and of consequent abortion with ag- 
 gravated and dangerous accompaniments. The 
 most common period of abortion in the mare, as 
 in the ewe, is about mid-gestation. " Good feed- 
 ing and moderate exercise," says Mr. Youatt, 
 "will be the best preventives of this mishap. 
 The mare that has once aborted is liable to a 
 repetition of the accident, and therefore should 
 never be suffered to be with other mares between 
 the fourth and fifth months ; for such is the power 
 of imagination or of sympathy in the mare, that 
 if one suffers abortion, others in the same pas- 
 ture will too often share the same fate. Farm- 
 ers wash, and paint, and tar their stables, to 
 prevent some supposed infection ; — the infection 
 lies in the imagination." — Whitens Natural His- 
 tory. — Skellet on the Parturition of the Cow. — 
 
 Water's Cattle Doctor. — Chabert^s Instructions Ve- 
 terinaires. — Youatt on Cattle. — Youatt on Sheep. — . 
 Spooner on Sheep. — Youatt on the Horse. 
 
 ABORTION. An accidentally barren or an 
 immaturable condition in the seeds or seed-ves- 
 sels of plants. True barrenness consists in the 
 total absence of seed, or of the organs which form 
 it ; but abortion consists in the stopping and de- 
 feating of the actual process of the seed's forma- 
 tion. Thus a flower falls off, without being fol- 
 lowed by a fruit or seed-vessel ; or a fruit, a 
 receptacle, or a legume is fairly formed, but, in- 
 stead of coming to perfection, shrivels, corrupts, 
 and falls. The most common causes of abortion 
 are injuries to the flower, from the weather or 
 from abrasion, — to the incipient fruit or seed- 
 vessel, from insects or from ill-usage by man, — to 
 the leaves, from insects, particularly the catter- 
 pillars of moths and butterflies, < — to the fruit- 
 stalks, from insects, particularly the aphidaa and 
 the cocci, — and to the roots, from exposure to 
 the atmosphere, or from a too free use of the 
 knife or hatchet. Other causes might be named ; 
 but they will be pointed out and discussed iu the 
 articles referred to in the short article Diseases 
 of Plants. 
 
 ABORTIVE CORN. A diseased condition of 
 growing corn, prominently noticed nearly a cen- 
 tury ago in France. A chief description of it 
 occurs in a prize essay of M. Tillet, presented to 
 the academy of Bourdeaux ; and this description 
 is, in substance, adopted both in English agricul- 
 tural works of eighty years ago, and in agricul- 
 tural works of the present day. The distemper 
 of abortive corn, says M. Tillet, shows itself long 
 before harvest, when the stalk is not more than 
 1 8 inches in height, and may be known by a de- 
 formity in the stem, the leaves, the ear, and even 
 the grain. The stems of plants affected by the 
 distemper are generally shorter than those of 
 other corn-plants of the same kind and age ; and 
 are crooked, knotted, and fragile. The leaves are 
 usually of a bluish green colour, and curled up 
 in various ways, — sometimes like wafer -cakes, 
 and often in a spiral form. The ears have very 
 little of a natural shape ; and they are lean and 
 withered, and show very imperfect rudiments of 
 either the chaff or the grain. All these symp- 
 toms, however, occur only in the most thoroughly 
 distempered plants. The stems are often pretty 
 straight, the leaves but little curled, and the 
 chaff tolerably well formed ; but the last of these, 
 instead of enclosing a small embryo, white and 
 soft at the summit, contains only a green kernel, 
 terminating in a point, not unlike a young pea 
 when forming in its pod. The abortive kernels 
 have two or three very visible points, and are 
 then fashioned as if two or three were joined at 
 the base ; and when they acquire their ultimate 
 condition, they become dry and black, and pos- 
 sess so close a resemblance to the seeds of cockle, 
 as to be readily mistaken for them by farmers 
 unacquainted with the distemper of abortive 
 
ABSCESS. 
 
 8 
 
 corn. M. Tillet suspected the distemper to be 
 occasioned by insects; and he observed on the 
 sickly plants small drops of a very limpid liquid, 
 which he believed to be extravasated sap. 
 
 ABSCESS. A collection of pus or of other 
 matter, in a limited cavity under an animal's 
 skin. It is the result of a morbid process, and 
 may be induced by either an external cause, 
 such as a bruise, or the insertion of a nail or 
 thorn, or by some internal cause, such as pecu- 
 liarity of constitution or impurity of blood. It 
 differs from an ulcer in this, that in the latter 
 the pus is formed from a surface exposed to 
 the air. While the abscess is forming, the skin 
 is usually very tender, the whole system is some- 
 times in a state of considerable irritation, and 
 the part immediately affected is always the seat 
 of pain, swelling, and an unusual degree of heat. 
 A watery or dropsical swelling, on being pressed, 
 retains, for some time, the mark of the fingers ; 
 and an emphysema, or windy swelling called 
 technically abscessus spirituosus, is even more 
 yielding than the watery tumour ; but a true 
 abscess, though also in some degree elastic or 
 impressible, resumes its former shape the instant 
 the pressure is removed. 
 
 Any abscess is bad in nearly the proportion 
 of its hardness, redness, and power of resisting 
 pressure. If an abscess, in its earlier stages, be 
 yielding and well- supplied with fluid it soon sof- 
 tens, 'points,' diminishes in pain, and approaches 
 a state of maturity. At the time of the abscess 
 • pointing,' the matter of it can be felt more dis- 
 tinctly at one particular part than in any other 
 part, and a tendency appears at this particular 
 part to burst, and to let out some or all of the 
 collected matter. The bursting, however, "should 
 not be permitted ; but at this stage, the abscess 
 should be opened at the lowest part, or that which 
 would admit most readily of its discharging itself. 
 The opening should be large, and no dressing will 
 be required except the continuance of the fomen- 
 tation, which should previously be used. It 
 should be observed, that if the abscess is languid 
 and slow in forming, a stimulant, such as harts- 
 horn and oil, rubbed in occasionally, will be use- 
 ful." The wound ought to be kept quite clean ; 
 the edges of it ought to be trimmed of their hair 
 or wool; a bran poultice may be applied as a 
 substitute for a foment ; and, if the wound be 
 very slow in healing, a liniment, consisting of 
 equal parts of sweet oil and spirits of turpentine 
 may be injected once or even twice a-day, and 
 the animal may be indulged with an increased 
 degree of nutritiousness in its food. The stuffing 
 of the wound with tallow, tow, or other mate- 
 rials, as is often practised by empyrics, tends at 
 best to retard the process of healing, and may 
 possibly produce a far worse distemper than that 
 which it is intended to remove. 
 
 When an abscess forms under a part of the 
 skin which is thick and inelastic, or in any part 
 
 which will not readily distend, so as to accom- 
 modate itself to the collection of distempered 
 matter, it is more likely, than in ordinary cases, 
 to escape for a time the observation of the pro- 
 prietor or his servant, and is attended with much 
 more pain, far more serious consequences, and 
 several additional and strongly sympathetic 
 symptoms to the animal. An abscess in the foot 
 of an irritable horse, for example, is sometimes a 
 cause of death ; and abscesses in various other 
 concealed and resisting parts of the body, occa- 
 sionally baffle even a skilful veterinary surgeon 
 by their intricate symptoms, and are not abso- 
 lutely known to exist, till the animals die of 
 them and are dissected. Such exceedingly bad 
 cases are happily not frequent ; and when they 
 do occur they may reveal themselves to the dia- 
 gnosis of the general practitioner, though scarce- 
 ly to that of the mere veterinary surgeon, by the 
 animal's loss of appetite, his hot skin, his consti- 
 pated bowels, his quick and hard pulse, — or, in 
 one word, by his suffering a fever for which no 
 other cause can be discovered. 
 
 ABSORBENT SOILS. Such soils as most 
 freely absorb moisture from the atmosphere. 
 Yet though the absorbing capacity of soils is I 
 usually defined as having reference only to mois- 
 ture from the atmosphere, it is equally distinct, 
 and scarcely less important, in reference to 
 gases from the atmosphere, and from decompos- 
 ing vegetables. See the articles Aeration and 
 Soil. 
 
 ABSORBENT TREATMENT. The use or ad- 
 ministration, in veterinary medicine, of drugs 
 for internally neutralizing acids or externally 
 absorbing moisture. Prepared chalk and similar 
 substances are administered for the purpose of 
 destroying acids which lodge in the stomach 
 and bowels, and which are originated by weak 
 digestion; and wheat flour, calamine powder, 
 Armenian bole, and some other dry and finely 
 pulverized substances, are applied in dustings 
 between folds of the skin, in powderings upon 
 the surface, and in other methods for the cure of 
 galled skin, wounds from friction, excoriations, 
 blisters, diffused bruises, sores between the toes 
 of dogs, foul in the foot of black cattle, foot-rot 
 in sheep, canker in the foot of the horse, and 
 some varieties of the disease called mange. The 
 absorbent powders are occasionally used also as 
 styptics to arrest haemorrhage. 
 
 A CARL Minute insects which form, feed 
 upon, and propagate scab in sheep and mange in 
 horses, and of which one or other species are 
 known to infest almost every tribe of the animal 
 kingdom. Though no larger than the hole formed 
 by the point of a fine pin, they burrow under 
 the skin, irritate the flesh below it, and travel 
 from place to place on the body, extending their 
 devastations. " If one or more female acari," 
 says M. Walz, " arc placed on the wool of a sound 
 sheep, they quickly travel to the root of it, and 
 
1 
 
 ACCIDENTS. 9 ACCIDENTS. 
 
 bury themselves in the skin, the place at which 
 they penetrate being scarcely visible, or only dis- 
 tinguished by a minute red point. On the tenth 
 or twelfth day, a little swelling may be detected 
 with the finger, and the skin changes its colour, 
 and has a greenish blue tint. The pustule is now 
 rapidly formed, and about the sixteenth day 
 breaks, and the mothers again appear, with their 
 little ones attached to their feet, and covered by 
 a portion of the shell of the egg— from which 
 they have just escaped. These little ones imme- 
 diately set to work, and penetrate the neighbour- 
 ing skin, and bury themselves beneath it, and 
 find their proper nourishment, and grow and 
 propagate, until the poor animal has myriads of 
 them to prey on him and to torment him, and it 
 is not wonderful that he should speedily sink. 
 Some of the male acari were placed on the sound 
 skin of a sheep, and they, too, burrowed their 
 way, and disappeared for a while, and the pus- 
 tule in due time arose ; but the itching and the 
 scab soon disappeared without the employment of 
 any remedy." Both sexes of the insect are pre- 
 sent when the disease is propagated. The female 
 appears to be very prolific, producing from eight 
 to fifteen in a litter. Though most of the insects 
 perish before the severity of winter, yet some 
 survive it, and occasionally recommence their 
 devastations in spring. See the article Scab. 
 
 ACCIDENTS. Occasional injuries to live stock 
 or to growing crops. The most serious accidents 
 which happen to live stock will be noticed in the 
 articles Wound, Bruise, Strain, and Poison 
 [which see]; and the chief which happen to 
 growing crops are such as arise from heavy rains, 
 from fogs or mist, from frosts, from hail, from 
 snow, from excessive heat, from blight, from 
 calms, from variable weather, and from insects, 
 birds, and vermin. Some of these will be fully 
 examined, and others partially noticed, in their 
 own alphabetical places ; and any need be noticed 
 in this place, only so far as to afford a connected 
 view of the injuries to which crops are liable. 
 
 Heavy rains, when wheat is in flower, wash 
 away its pollen, and prevent it fecundating and 
 fructifying; they sometimes, on insufficiently 
 drained land, keep the roots of plants in so wet a 
 state as to occasion abortion in the ear ; and they 
 frequently throw large portions of a crop pros- 
 trate, or, in farmers' phrase, lay or lodge it, — to 
 the risk of its not coming to maturity, or of its 
 being harvested with difficulty— Fogs, when so 
 prevalent as to make a succession of moist and 
 gloomy weather, especially during the period 
 when corn is at the height of its vegetation, 
 sometimes subject whole crops, particularly those 
 of wheat, to sickliness and disease. — Frost, if the 
 ground is in fine tilth and full of moisture, fre- 
 quently elevates the surface of the soil, together 
 with the young wheat plant, and separates the 
 latter from its seminal roots ; and when a thaw 
 comes, the plant, in consequence of its supply of 
 
 nourishment having been cut off, turns black or 
 dies. So long as wheat continues in a low grassy 
 state, it usually recovers from any checks which 
 frost gives it ; but when _t is making its princi- 
 pal shoot previously to its producing its blossom, 
 it grows for a little time with excessive rapidity, 
 is very sensitive to changes in the atmosphere, 
 and receives certain and severe damage from 
 frost or from even a sudden fall of temperature. 
 The injury ascribed to frost, however, — except 
 when roots and tissues are ruptured by mechani- 
 cal action of the soil, — are really occasioned by 
 the play of subsequent heat or of the sun's rays 
 upon the plant ; and, in the case of early pease, 
 of garden potatoes, and of half-hardy flowering 
 plants, it may generally be prevented by giving 
 a watering a little before sunrise. " The damage 
 done to wheat by frost," remarks Sir John Sin- 
 clair, "depends much on the temperature and 
 brightness of the succeeding day. Should it be 
 cold and gloomy, the injury is less; and if rain 
 should fall, the plants will escape unhurt. But 
 if the morning be warm and bright, the leaves 
 of the plant often become black, and never re- 
 vive, the effect corresponding to the degree of 
 the returning stimulus." 
 
 Hail, occasionally in Great Britain but fre- 
 quently on the European continent, beats down, 
 shakes, prostrates, and otherwise damages corn ; 
 and, in some instances, when the crops were in 
 full ear and nearly ripe, it has desolated whole 
 districts of France, and occasioned scarcity and 
 dearth of food. — Excessive heat or prolonged 
 drought deprives corn plants of their necessary 
 degree of moisture, renders them sickly and 
 feeble, forces them into premature ripeness, and 
 occasions them to be very light in straw and 
 comparatively unproductive in grain. — Atmo- 
 spheric influences of various kinds, particularly 
 those of electricity and of unusual wind^ are 
 supposed to occasion some of the disease* in 
 corn-crops loosely designated blights: see the 
 article Blight. — A prolonged calm or a high de- 
 gree of shelter deprives corn-plants of the requi- 
 site degree of ventilation and exercise from the 
 wind, arrests or dwarfs their growth, and some- 
 times forces them into decay and death. The 
 circulation, the cleansing power, and the gently 
 shaking action of the air, are chief means of sup- 
 porting healthy plants, and bringing them to 
 perfection ; and when these are prevented, either 
 by a prolonged calm, by the great height of 
 hedges, or by overshadowing woods, the plants 
 unduly retain the moisture of dews and rains, 
 want the requisite degree of motion or exercise 
 for the maintenance of their vigour, and, in 
 consequence, become weak, dwarfish, or dis- 
 eased. — Much variableness of weather, particu- 
 larly in great and frequent transitions of tem- 
 perature, damages the tender organs of plants 
 by alternate expansion from heat and contrac- 
 tion from cold, and sometimes engenders diseases 
 
ACCLIMATATION OF ANIMALS. 10 
 
 which completely perplex the farmer as to both 
 their nature and their cause. — Various larvae 
 and minute flies often inflict enormous damage ; 
 but they will be noticed under the words Grub, 
 Wheat-Fly, and numerous others. — Sparrows, 
 pigeons, crows, game, rats, mice, and other birds 
 and vermin, often prey largely upon crops when 
 they are ripening, or while they are winnowing 
 in the field, and after they are secured in the 
 stack-yard and the granary ; but these also will 
 be noticed in various articles, under their appro- 
 priate headings. 
 
 The hazards to which crops are liable, and the 
 accidental losses which a farmer may sustain, 
 are thus more numerous and far more serious 
 than a superficial observer would suppose ; yet 
 many or even most of them may be much allevi- 
 ated or wholly prevented or repaired by foresight, 
 skill, and the operations and appliances of en- 
 lightened husbandry. The proportion of dam- 
 age ultimately sustained from accidents by a 
 thoroughly good farmer on a properly conditioned 
 farm of the nineteenth century, is little more 
 than a trifle in comparison to the average amount 
 of damage sustained by almost any kind of far- 
 mer of the middle ages of Europe. 
 
 ACCLIMATATION OF ANIMALS. The en- 
 abling of domestic animals to sustain, without 
 serious injury, a great change of climate. In 
 removing oxen, for example, from the climate of 
 Kentucky or of Tennessee to that of Louisiana 
 in America, farmers and cattle-dealers have long 
 known that the most serious risk is incurred, 
 and have been in the practice of earnestly using 
 means — many of them absurd and capricious — 
 for averting or lessening the risk. The average 
 pulse of the ox in a cold climate is about 50 in 
 a minute, while its average in the climate of 
 Louisiana is from 68 to 75 ; so that when any 
 individual of the species is removed from its 
 native country to a place of considerably higher 
 temperature, the action of its heart is powerfully 
 stimulated, and its whole constitution undergoes 
 a violent change. The injury done to any ani- 
 mal by a sudden, great, and permanent increase 
 of the circulation must necessarily be serious ; 
 but, in consequence of its arteries being smaller 
 in proportion than those of the ox and of some 
 other animals, it is particularly serious to the 
 ox. The proper treatment for averting danger, 
 or duly acclimating the creature, is a gradual, 
 steady, and considerable reduction of its animal 
 energy. Dr. James Smith of Louisiana, in a 
 paper on this subject in the Quart. Journ. of 
 Agriculture, says : — " The quantity of food which 
 the system will in ordinary circumstances re- 
 quire must be diminished, and all the common 
 exciting causes of increased arterial action, such 
 as the heat of the sun, quick motion of any kind, 
 be avoided. Besides these, medicines which have 
 a tendency to diminish the heart's action, must 
 not only on the first attack of fever be resorted 
 
 > ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS. 
 
 to, but should, we think, even in a state of health 
 (though no advocate for such treatment gener- 
 ally), from time to time be administered. Bleed- 
 ing, though the most valuable of all remedies on 
 the attack, must not previously be resorted to, 
 from a tendency which it has to produce in the 
 system increased action, for the purpose of re- 
 producing the matter taken away. Proper doses 
 of the Digitalis purpurea (foxglove) may also be 
 resorted to, and indeed all remedies which have 
 a tendency to diminish the heart's action. Shade, 
 a plentiful supply of water, for the animal to 
 stand in during the heat of the day, I conceive 
 to be of all things the most essential." 
 
 Animals imported from a very warm or a very 
 dry country to a very cold or a very wet one are 
 liable to become unfruitful ; and, in order that 
 they may maintain their fecundity, even though 
 their general health should not be imperilled, 
 they ought to be removed by gradations, or 
 brought slowly and cautiously into the new cli- 
 mate, and afterwards placed for a considerable 
 time in such artificial circumstances as will pro- 
 duce some similarity of warmth and dryness to 
 their native regions. Adult animals are better 
 able than young ones to bear the shock of change 
 of climate upon the health ; but young ones, on 
 the contrary, are better able to bear it upon the 
 habits and the constitution. 
 
 ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS. The ac- 
 customing of plants to thrive in a climate which 
 differs widely from their natural one, and which, 
 previous to their being accustomed to it, would 
 damage their organism or derange their func- 
 tions. The principles of acclimatation may 
 readily be illustrated to the farmer by two fa- 
 miliar instances, — those of the potato and the 
 dahlia. 
 
 The potato was introduced to Europe from 
 the mountainous parts of South America, about 
 the middle of the 16th century ; and it has not 
 now been grown in the gardens of Great Britain 
 above 187 years, nor, to any considerable extent, 
 in our fields above 92 years. During the whole 
 period of its cultivation it has been treated with 
 the greatest care ; yet it was, for a long time, so 
 decidedly exotic as to refuse to mature its seeds ; 
 and even yet, in some unfavourable situations, 
 particularly in the Highlands, it sometimes suf- 
 fers general and utter destruction by one night's 
 early frost. Acclimatation has already done 
 much for the potato by working out many earlier 
 varieties ; and by training the later sorts to ma- 
 ture their seeds, and to resist the action of mo- 
 derate frosts ; but it will probably do yet much 
 more for it by such frequent, careful, and scien- 
 tific sowings, as will not only yield valuable new 
 varieties, but produce comparatively hardy plants, 
 capable of offering a sturdy resistance to early 
 winter. — The dahlia was introduced from Mexico 
 to Spain in 1787, but reached Paris only in 1802, 
 and did not come into general cultivation till 
 
ACCLIMATATION OF PLANTS. 11 
 
 ACIDS. 
 
 several years later ; and yet it has already passed, 
 from habits of excessive tenderness, and of very 
 late flowering, to those of semi-hardiness, and of 
 a comparative degree of earliness. It was at first 
 raised only in the hothouse ; it was with diffi- 
 culty transferred to the open border ; it not very 
 long ago refused to bloom in the open air earlier 
 than about the middle of October ; and now it is 
 very nearly as hardy as the potato, — it is culti- 
 vated and preserved by closely similar methods 
 to the potato, — it sometimes, when treated almost 
 exactly as the potato, blooms freely in the open 
 air in Scotland from about the 8th of September 
 to about the 24th of November, — and it has alto- 
 gether undergone so great acclimatation as al- 
 ready to seem quite capable of being raised in 
 the fields for food. — The aracacha, one of the most 
 useful vegetables of South America, is in some 
 respects a more interesting object of both the 
 physiologist's and the farmer's attention than 
 the dahlia, or even the potato ; and, though at 
 present conflicting with the difficulties of our 
 climate, it has, for some time, been justly ob- 
 taining a large portion of observation and care. 
 See the article Aracacha. 
 
 Plants, in general, bear to be removed from 
 cold to heat better than from heat to cold ; and, 
 therefore, a greater proportion of the plants of 
 this country thrive in the south of Europe, than 
 of the plants of the south of Europe will thrive 
 in this country. Yet the reverse of the general 
 rule, in both of its applications, may frequently 
 be observed. The removal of some of our plants 
 to considerably warmer climates than our own, 
 is often a task of much inconvenience and diffi- 
 culty ; and the successful removal of a few others 
 is an utter impossibility. Wheat and barley, for 
 example, will not grow within the tropics ; and 
 several of both our shrubby and our succulent 
 plants would soon wither to extinction in any 
 region of much heat and drought. Many plants 
 of hot countries, on the other hand, readily ac- 
 commodate themselves to our climate, either by 
 means of the protection they obtain during win- 
 ter from snow, or with the help of the warmth 
 and shelter afforded by our shrubberies and plan- 
 tations. "Every one, on entering a wood in 
 winter, must have been struck with the differ- 
 ence of the temperature from that of the open 
 field, as well as seeing there several plants, such 
 as the cowslip, violet, and snowdrop in full flow- 
 er ; while, in the neighbouring gardens, their 
 leaves have scarce made their appearance. It is 
 well known that many rare plants, which had 
 disappeared with the cutting down of a wood, 
 have reappeared when it has again grown up." 
 Yet constant shade in summer might, in many 
 instances, far more than counterwork all the ad- 
 vantages of constant shelter in winter ; and the 
 want of a free soil and a suitable ventilation 
 during winter itself, may, in some cases, be ill 
 compensated by mere protection from some de- 
 
 grees of cold. The shelter of woods and shrub- 
 beries as a means of acclimatation, therefore, 
 must be understood to have decidedly restricted 
 limits, and ought to be employed only in the case 
 of plants which naturally grow on poor soils, and 
 receive little damage from the dropping and the 
 shade of trees. 
 
 Any farmer of ordinary intelligence and skill 
 may easily turn the doctrines of acclimatation 
 to considerable practical account. He will as 
 nearly as possible calculate the comparative 
 warmth and coldness of the different soils and 
 situations upon his farm; and if these should 
 exhibit very sensible differences and gradations, 
 he will not in every instance subject the whole 
 to indiscriminate cropping and rotation, but will 
 occasionally, or as often as comports with higher 
 considerations, assign the warmest soils and 
 situations to the most tender varieties of plant, 
 and the soils and situations of quickest power to 
 such varieties as are tardiest in ripening. He 
 will regard the thorough draining of light land, 
 as equal to a removal some lines nearer the 
 equator, and as probably capacitating his field 
 to produce a species or a variety seldom hitherto 
 grown so far to the north. He may occasionally 
 harden a new and favourite but somewhat ten- 
 der variety of a plant by growing it, for a series 
 of years, under conditions at first fostering, and 
 afterwards less and less genial. He may possi- 
 bly introduce a half tender garden-plant to the 
 fields, or a plant of a warmer zone to a colder 
 one, by cultivating his earliest specimens with 
 care, and afterwards combining from year to 
 year a lowering of the conditions of culture with 
 a strict selection of seeds from only the healthiest 
 and strongest plants. He may work out rapidly 
 maturing varieties of grain, such as may be 
 suitable for the most backward soils and situa- 
 tions, by sowing an existing early variety, select- 
 ing his seed-corn for next season only from a 
 few plants of it which ripen before the great 
 bulk of the crop, and repeating this process for 
 a brief series of years. He may, in one word, 
 conduct one set of acclimating experiments on a 
 small plot expressly allotted to them, and ano- 
 ther set co-ordinately with his routine business 
 of culture and cropping ; and may, as the result, 
 effect upon several of the most useful species or 
 varieties such modification as will both increase 
 the profits of his farm and render him a bene- 
 factor to his profession and to society at large. 
 A few experiments, so far as they do not waste 
 his time or substitute any speculative practice 
 for sound and well-tested husbandry, can at all 
 events do no harm, and will at least produce the 
 incidental good of increasing his acquaintance 
 with the vitality and the functions of plants. 
 
 ACCOUNTS. See Farm Accounts. 
 
 ACIDS. A very important class of compound 
 substances, requisite to be known in questions 
 of agricultural chemistry. The name acid as ori- 
 
ACIDS. 
 
 12 
 
 ACIDS. 
 
 ginally and for a long time used, meant strictly 
 a sour substance; but, as chemical discoveries 
 have expanded and multiplied, it has come to be 
 applied to several liquid, solid, or gaseous sub- 
 stances quite destitute of sourness, and to some 
 others whose sourness is barely perceptible. The 
 characteristic property of an acid, as now under- 
 stood, is its property of uniting with alkalies, 
 earths, or metallic oxides, to form some of the 
 very numerous and important class of substances 
 called salts. But by far the greater number of 
 the acids also possess the original characteristic 
 of sourness, and some possess it to a degree 
 highly acrid and even perfectly corrosive ; most 
 of them combine, in any proportions with water, 
 and, in the act of combining with it, decrease in 
 volume and send out heat ; all, with a few ex- 
 ceptions, are converted into vapour or decom- 
 posed into simple substances by the action of 
 moderate heat; and very nearly all have the 
 power of changing the purple colours of vegeta- 
 bles into a bright red. Some of the acids, as 
 the carbonic and the chloric, are gases ; some, 
 as the sulphuric and the acetic, are liquids ; and 
 some, as the tartaric and the citric, are solids. 
 Some are strictly natural products ; some are the 
 results of chemical agency ; and some are both 
 natural and artificial. Some exist or can be ob- 
 tained in great abundance ; and others are ob- 
 scure and very rare, or can be obtained only in 
 small quantities and with considerable difficulty. 
 Some, as the nitric, can be retained only in wa- 
 ter or in a base ; a few are evanescent or very 
 easily decomposable; and many have an inde- 
 pendent and very sturdy subsistence. 
 
 A classification of acids which has been very 
 generally adopted, distributes them into mineral, 
 vegetable, and animal, — or such as are derivable 
 from respectively mineral, vegetable, and animal 
 substances ; but though this classification is fa- 
 cile, popular, and apparently quite clear, and 
 though, for these reasons, it will be adopted in 
 much which we may have to say respecting agri- 
 cultural chemistry, yet it is neither sufficiently 
 analytical, nor scientifically correct. Another 
 classification distributes acids into such as are 
 simply compound, and such as are doubly com- 
 pound, or into those which have only one acidi- 
 fied basis, and those which have two or more 
 bases ; but this is at once vague in its character, 
 uncertain in its application, and obscure in its 
 comprehension. A much preferable classifica- 
 tion, for combining clearness and facility with 
 correctness and comprehensiveness, divides acids 
 into organic and inorganic, and subdivides inor- 
 ganic acids into such as contain neither hydrogen 
 nor oxygen, such as contain hydrogen, such as 
 contain oxygen with metallic bases, and such as 
 contain oxygen with non-metallic bases. Oxygen 
 is a simple gaseous substance, one of the most 
 pervading and valuable in the world, forming 
 the vital air of the atmosphere, and acting as 
 
 the chief agent in combustion, and in animal and 
 vegetable decomposition ; and this gas received 
 its name of oxygen — which means the generator 
 of acid — from its great power of forming acids 
 by entering into combination with earths and 
 metals, and from its having been originally sup- 
 posed to be the only substance by which this 
 power is possessed. Hydrogen is another simple 
 gaseous substance, of widely different properties 
 from oxygen, and forming a principal constituent 
 of water. Now, as many acids are both formed 
 and decomposed in the processes which are con- 
 stantly going on upon a farm — as some by form- 
 ing themselves may be drinking up the simple 
 gases, while some by resolving themselves into 
 their elements may be giving off these gases, it 
 becomes useful to know which acids are • formed 
 by oxygen, which by hydrogen, which by chlorine 
 or fluorine, which by oxygen with a metal, which 
 by oxygen with some other substance than a 
 metal, and which by an union of chemical an£ 
 vital action in the intricate organisms of vege- 
 tables and animals. Most of the inorganic acids 
 will be sufficiently understood for all the pur- 
 poses of a farmer, if known simply as belonging 
 to their respective classes, or as formed princi- 
 pally of oxygen and a metallic base, of oxygen 
 and a non-metallic base, of hydrogen and either 
 an earthy or a metallic base, or of elements dif- 
 ferent from those of the oxygen and the hydro- 
 gen acids. Yet several of them act so prominent 
 and exceedingly important parts either in the 
 economy of vegetable life and growth, or in 
 manurial operation upon the soil, or in the pro- 
 cesses by which manurial composts are prepared, 
 that they require to be well-known in their in- 
 dividual characters and powers. Carbonic acid, 
 in particular, demands thorough individual no- 
 tice for its agency in supplying all plants with 
 carbon, one of the very chief constituents of 
 their bulk; nitric acid, for its agency in sup- 
 plying the cereal grasses and other nutritious 
 plants with nitrogen or azote, a distinguishing 
 element in the composition of their alimentary 
 pulps and juices; phosphoric acid, for its agency 
 in providing nutritious plants with phosphates, 
 an invariable constituent of the seeds of all kinds 
 of grasses, beans, pease, and lentils; and sul- 
 phuric acid, both for its immediate power as a 
 manure on some special soils, and for its exten- 
 sive agency in supplying manurial salts, and in 
 controlling important processes in the prepara- 
 tion or enrichment of farm-yard manures. The 
 organic acids, as a class, are far more compound 
 in their constituents, elaborate in their forma- 
 tion, and numerous in their chemical aspects, 
 than the inorganic acids ; and as most of them 
 are identified with only a class or a genus or even 
 a single species of organic substances, they can 
 be properly understood only when individually 
 studied and known. But so large a proportion 
 are either obscure or of very limited existence. 
 
ACORNS. 
 
 13 
 
 ACRE 
 
 or of ill-developed character, or of feeble and un- 
 important agency, that even a very intelligent 
 farmer may discard them from his vocabulary 
 without risk to either his interest or his reputa- 
 tion. Hence only about four or five of the or- 
 ganic acids and so many of the inorganic as 
 either exert an extensive agency, or possess a 
 very distinct character, are requisite topics for 
 discussion in agricultural chemistry. 
 
 ACORNS. The seed or fruit of the oak. 
 They were used as food by the early Greeks, by 
 the ancient Britons, and by other primitive 
 tribes of the human race ; but those used by the 
 Greeks were much sweeter and more succulent 
 than English acorns are, and those used by the 
 ancient Britons appear to have been gulped down 
 more in obedience to Druidical superstition than 
 under the direct promptings of a regular appe- 
 tite. Acorns continue also to be used as food by 
 some of the Spanish peasantry ; but, like those 
 of ancient Greece, they must not be judged of 
 by the acorns of England, — and they may be 
 supposed, besides, to be eaten only in conse- 
 quence of the sheer dearth of better food. 
 
 Farmers, in various parts of Germany, parti- 
 cularly in some districts of Saxony, successfully 
 employ acorns for the winter fattening of sheep. 
 English farmers, however, either totally neglect 
 them or use them almost solely for the feeding 
 and fattening of hogs. In Hertfordshire and in 
 the New Forest district of Hampshire, hogs, in 
 many instances, receive very little other food 
 than acorns, and commonly attain great firmness, 
 fatness, and weight, and yield a decidedly good 
 and well-flavoured pork. Yet such as are, for a 
 short time, withdrawn from the acorn diet, and 
 have their fattening completed by four or five 
 bushels of barley flour or pease meal to each, are 
 judged by some persons to yield pork of still 
 better substance and superior flavour. The far- 
 mers of Gloucestershire bestow nearly as much 
 care upon the fruit of their oak-trees as upon 
 the produce of their orchards ; they seldom sell 
 their acorns, or can find any in the market, yet 
 usually estimate their value at from Is. 6d. to 2s. 
 per bushel according to the price of beans ; and 
 they regard them as decidedly superior to beans 
 at once for fattening hogs, for increasing their 
 weight, and for rendering their bacon firm. — 
 Hogs fed upon acorns, however, require to be 
 treated with some precaution ; for if they are let 
 loose among them at will, or unduly restricted 
 in their liberty and other means of exercise, they 
 either will remain lean and light, or will contract 
 a distemper called the garget. Two methods 
 have been recommended for preventing the dis- 
 temper; the one, to moisten some pease and 
 beans with water, and mix them up with a little 
 powdered and sifted antimony, and to administer 
 a dose or meal of the mixture on every alternate 
 day for two or three weeks ; the other, to dig, 
 in a warm place a hole of several bushels in ca- 
 
 pacity, — to fill this with acorns, and moisten 
 them well with water, holding in solution a 
 handful or two of common salt, — to let them 
 remain in the hole till they have germinated, 
 and sent out shoots of about three inches in 
 length, — and then to dry them by winnowing in 
 the shade, and employ them, to the exclusion of 
 all unprepared acorns, for the hog's food. Yet 
 even the prepared acorns must never be given in 
 such quantity as to permit a surfeit ; nor must 
 they be given oftener for a day or two than twice 
 a-day, or oftener at any period than three times 
 a-day= 
 
 ACRE. The standard measure of land through- 
 out Great Britain and Ireland. The imperial 
 acre, or English statute acre, comprises 4 roods ; 
 one rood comprises 40 square perches ; one 
 square perch comprises 30^ square yards; and 
 one square yard comprises 9 square feet. Hence 
 the lineal measure, whose squares constitute the 
 fractions or subdivisions of the acre, is inversely 
 expressed thus, — three feet make one yard, and 
 5| yards make one perch. The English stand- 
 ard acre, now the imperial acre of Britain, is 
 a square raised from the basis of the chain of 66 
 feet or 4 perches : ten of these squares forming 
 the acre, which thus contains 4,840 square yards. 
 By the act 5° Geo. IV. c. 74, the imperial acre is 
 declared the standard throughout the United 
 Kingdom from and after May 1st, 1825. But 
 the establishment of the imperial acre as the 
 standard or only legal measure of land through- 
 out the United Kingdom, was afterwards, by 6° 
 Geo. IV. c. 12, fixed for January 1, 1826 ; and it 
 is still very far from being uniformly recognised 
 in practice. The length of the linear perch, in 
 the measure of most of Devonshire and part of 
 Somersetshire, is 5 yards instead of 5\ ; in the 
 measure of Cornwall, 6 yards ; in that of Lanca- 
 shire, 7 yards ; in that of Cheshire and Stafford- 
 shire, 8 yards ; and in that of the Isle of Pur- 
 beck and some parts of Devonshire, 15 feet and 
 1 inch ; — and the acre, in all these cases, corre- 
 sponds to the squaring of the perch, and differs 
 in corresponding degrees from the imperial acre. 
 In the tenantry fields of Wiltshire, and some 
 parts of the adjacent counties, an acre formerly 
 consisted of only 120 square perches or 3 roods ; 
 and in many parts of Wales, the common acre 
 was equal in area to two English acres. The 
 acre in Scotland is equal to 1 acre, 1 rood, and 
 nearly 2 perches of English measure; and it 
 comprises 4 roods, while each rood comprises 40 
 square falls, each fall 36 square ells, and each ell 
 9 square feet and 73 square inches. It is raised 
 from the chain of 24 ells ; and until of late years 
 it was the practice of land-surveyors to measure 
 with a chain of 74*4 feet in length : the ell hav- 
 ing been erroneously estimated at 37*2 inches. 
 Hence the Scots acre came to be about 6,150 
 square yards. The proportion of the Scots acre 
 to the imperial acre is as 1'26118345 to 1. A 
 
ACRE. 
 
 14 
 
 ADULTERATION. 
 
 Scots rood is equal to -31530 parts of an imperial 
 acre ; and a Scots ell to '000219 parts. In Irish 
 measure, 64 plantation acres are equal to 49 in 
 forest measure ; 625 plantation acres are equal 
 to 784 Conyngham acres; 36 plantation acres 
 are equal to 49 woodland or Burleigh acres ; 121 
 plantation acres are equal to 196 imperial acres ; 
 and 1,369 plantation acres are equal to 1,764 
 Scottish acres. Hence 1 plantation acre — or 
 par excellence, Irish acre — is equal to 3 roods and 
 2^ perches of forest measure ; to 1 acre, 1 rood, and 
 seven-tenths of a perch of Conyngham measure ; 
 to 1 acre, 1 rood, 6 perches, and one-tenth of a 
 perch of Scottish measure; to 1 acre, 1 rood, 17 
 perches, and four-fifths of a perch of woodland 
 measure ; and to 1 acre, 2 roods, 19 perches, and 
 one-tenth of a perch of imperial measure. On 
 the grounds already stated also, 100 imperial 
 acres are equal to 120 acres, 3 roods, and 20 
 perches of Devonshire measure; to 119 acres, 2 
 roods, 26 perches of the Isle of Purbeck measure ; 
 to 84 acres and 4 perches of Cornish measure ; 
 to 47 acres, 1 rood, and 2^ perches of Cheshire 
 and Staffordshire measure ; to 133 acres and 2 
 roods of Wiltshire tenantry measure ; to 79 acres, 
 1 rood, and 6| perches of Scottish measure ; and 
 to 61 acres, 2 roods, and 37^ perches of Lanca- 
 shire or Irish plantation measure. — Surveyors, 
 in measuring land, use a chain, 4 perches in 
 length, and divided into 100 equal parts called 
 links ; and they make their computations in 
 chains and links, but exhibit the result in acres 
 roods, and perches, — 10 square chains, or 100,000 
 square links constituting an acre. A square 
 mile comprises 640 imperial acres ; and a hide 
 of land, mentioned by writers of former times, 
 comprised 100 acres. The Strasburg acre is 
 equal to about one-half of an English acre ; and 
 the French acre, or arpent, comprises 51,691 
 English square feet, and is therefore nearly equal 
 to one English acre and three-fourths of an Eng- 
 lish rood. 
 
 In 1820, the commissioners on weights and 
 measures reported, that the following customary 
 acres were in use throughout England. 
 
 Bedfordshire: Sometimes 2 roods. 
 
 Cheshire: Formerly, and still in some places, 
 10,240 square yards. 
 
 Cornuidll: Sometimes one of the Welsh acres of 
 5,760 yards. 
 
 Dorsetshire: Generally 134 perches. 
 
 Hampshire: From 107 to 120 perches, but some- 
 times 180. 
 
 Herefordshire: Two-thirds of a statute acre, 
 of hops about half an acre, containing 1,000 
 plants. 
 
 of wood, an acre and $ or 256 perches. 
 Leicestershire : 2,308| square yards. 
 Lincolnshire: 5 roods, particularly for copyhold 
 
 land. 
 
 Staffordshire : Nearly 2| acres. 
 
 Sussex: 107, 110, 120, 130, or 212 perches. 
 
 Short acre, 100 or 120 perches. 
 
 Forest acre, 180 perches. 
 Westmoreland: 6,760 square yards, or 160 perches 
 
 of 6^ yards square ; in some parts the Irish acre 
 is used. 
 
 Worcestershire: Hop acre, 1,000 stocks, or 90 
 perches; sometimes 132 or 141 perches. 
 
 N. Wales: Erw, or true acre, 4,320 square yards; 
 stang, or customary acre, 3,240 square yards; 
 as in Anglesey and Carnarvonshire, making b\ 
 llathen =160 perches W. of 4^ yards square, 
 called paladr ; 8 acres making an ox-land, and 8 
 of these a plough-land, in Pembrokeshire. 
 
 The term acre sometimes denotes a measure of 
 length ; and, in this sense also it varies considerably 
 in different districts of England. Thus in 
 
 Bedfordshire, \ a' chain of 4 poles, or 22 
 Buckinghamshire, ) yards. 
 Derbyshire, 4 " i-oods," each of 7 or of 8 yards. 
 Yorkshire, 28 yards. 
 
 ACRE-DALE. A term sometimes met with 
 in old Scottish deeds and writings, signifying 
 lands in the neighbourhood of towns or villages 
 which were let in small portions of about an acre 
 in extent. 
 
 ADDLED EGGS. Eggs which are unhatch- 
 able, and which become rotten under the hen. 
 The epithet addled or addle is used by farmers in 
 some parts of England in the broad sense of un- 
 productive, and is applied to any barren or in- 
 fertile object. 
 
 ADULTERATION. The mixing of cheap fo- 
 reign substances with articles of food and medi- 
 cine, in order that purchasers may be deceived, 
 and large profits obtained. Many farmers, mil- 
 lers, provision-dealers, bakers, dairymen, grocers, 
 confectioners, and druggists, are very unscrupu- 
 lous adulterators ; and just because they traffic 
 in the commodities which most nearly affect 
 human health and life, they are incomparably 
 guiltier in the sight of God than adulterators of 
 any of the other classes of society. An adulter- 
 ator of food is at best a robber of the poor, and 
 a cheat in general society ; and, in most instances, 
 he is also in some degree — occasionally in a very 
 dreadful degree — a secret stabber at the life of 
 his fellow-creatures, — an unsuspected, a well- 
 disguised, and therefore an eminently guilty 
 poisoner of his fellow-men. 
 
 Grain of inferior quality is sometimes mixed 
 with superior ; and the grain of the stock is often 
 worse in itself, or less clean, than the grain of 
 the market sample. The butter of the interior 
 or lower part of a cask or other vessel, is some- 
 times much inferior to that at the top. The milk 
 of town and city dairies, retailed to the families 
 of citizens, is often diluted with water, and 
 sometimes abominably medicated with watery 
 preparations of chalk. Ground pepper from the 
 grocer can scarcely ever, if at all, be obtained 
 genuine ; mustard often contains a mixture of 
 insipid substances ; and tea is not unfrequently 
 a coarse mixture of home and foreign leaves. 
 Most kinds of comfits, or articles of confectionary, 
 very generally contain a mixture of gypsum, 
 chalk, or other substances, very debilitating to 
 the stomach, and fitted to form obstructions and 
 
ADULTERATION 
 
 15 
 
 AERATION. 
 
 concretions in the bowels. Ales, wines, and 
 other stimulating drinks, very often as sold in 
 retail, and frequently even as sold in wholesale, 
 contain a large proportion of very deleterious 
 and even directly poisonous ingredients. Drugs 
 — though they ought above all things to be gen- 
 uine and of the best qualities, and though adul- 
 terations of them almost necessarily defeat all 
 medical prescription, and occasion slight attacks 
 of disease to be mortal— are, as a class of sub- 
 stances, probably more adulterated than any 
 other; and not only are feeble and worthless 
 mixtures sold in name and stead of active com- 
 pound medicines, but vile manufactured imita- 
 tions are vended in lieu of powders, gums, and 
 other simple substances. 
 
 The rascality which carries on adulteration in 
 all these departments, and in hundreds of others 
 — which, in fact, keeps up a laboratory of evil at 
 almost, every source of supply for the public 
 markets, for the shops, or for the daily wants of 
 man — is far too extensive in its range, and too 
 subtle in its operations, to be investigated and 
 exposed within our narrow limits. All we can 
 do is to exhort farmers, by the highest consider- 
 ation, to keep themselves uncontaminated by so 
 great a wickedness, and to warn them against 
 being imposed upon in making their own pur- 
 chases for the family and the farm. Two impor- 
 tant matters in which they incur some risk of 
 being made victims, are those of doctored seeds, 
 and of worthless imitations of guano ; and these, 
 as well as some other matters, will be noticed 
 under the words Seed and Guano, and in some 
 other articles. One exceedingly important mat- 
 ter, connected with farm-produce, in which the 
 public are extensively victimized, is the adul- 
 teration of flour ; and this we shall here briefly 
 notice, both on its own account, and for the sake 
 of giving a specimen exposure of adulterations 
 in general. 
 
 " It has been found so difficult," says Mr. Bab- 
 bage, " to detect the adulteration of flour, and to 
 measure its good qualities, that, contrary to the 
 maxim that government can generally purchase 
 any article at a cheaper rate than that at which 
 they can manufacture it, it has been considered 
 more economical to build extensive flour-mills, 
 and to grind their own corn, than to verify each 
 sack purchased, and to employ persons in con- 
 tinually devising methods of detecting the new 
 modes of adulteration which might be resorted 
 to." A mixture of gypsum or of ground bones 
 with flour is not a little noxious, but, if in con- 
 siderable quantity, may be detected by the dis- 
 proportion of the bulk of the flour to its weight, 
 and if in only small quantity, may be detected 
 by their incombustion, or remaining as white 
 heavy powder, when a little of the flour is burned. 
 The mixture of potato-starch, and of bean-flour 
 and pea-flour, with white flour is very exten- 
 sively practised; and, though quite unlike the 
 
 poisoning kinds of adulteration, it deteriorates 
 quality, diminishes amount of nourishment, acts 
 directly as a fraud, and is therefore essentially 
 wicked. If a vessel which contains exactly one 
 pound of pure wheat-flour, have put into it a 
 compound of a mixture of wheat-flour and pota- 
 to-starch, it will be found unfilled to nearly the 
 quantity of potato-starch employed ; or, rather, 
 a vessel which contains exactly one pound of 
 pure wheat-flour, will contain 1^ pound of pota- 
 to-starch, or 1| pound of equal parts of flour 
 and starch. A few drops of nitric acid will 
 change the colour of wheat-flour into a fine or- 
 ange yellow, but does not alter the colour of po- 
 tato-starch. Strong hydrochloric or muriatic 
 acid changes the colour of wheat-flour into a 
 deep violet, but reduces potato-starch into the 
 condition of a liquid. Wheat-flour absorbs a 
 greater proportion of water than potato-starch ; 
 so that a comparison of the quantity of water 
 taken up by a genuine specimen of flour, and a 
 potato-adulterated one, will show their character, 
 and indicate the proportion of starch employed. 
 When boiling water is poured upon a mixture 
 of wheat-flour with the flour of either beans or 
 pease, the presence of the latter is instantly an- 
 nounced by the smell of beans or pease in the 
 vapour. little of the solution of gum guia- 
 cum in water, if poured upon pure wheat-flour, 
 will change its colour into blue, but will be re- 
 sisted in its colouring action by most foreign 
 substances. If a few drops of nitrate or muriate 
 of barytes be let fall upon a watery paste of 
 bread containing alum, a white heavy powder 
 will be disengaged, and thrown down as a preci- 
 pitate. If a breakfast knife heated nearly to red- 
 ness be thrust into a new genuine loaf, and immedi- 
 ately drawn out, it will be very nearly clean ; but 
 if thrust into a new loaf containing a mixture of 
 potato-starch, it will, when drawn out, be thickly 
 skinned or covered with feculae. — Babbage on 
 the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. — 
 Thomsons Vegetable Chemistry. — lire's Dictionary 
 of the Arts. — Accum on Adulterations of Food. 
 
 AERATION. The intermixing of air with 
 the soil. The presence and circulation of the air 
 in the soil, in as many minute streams and as 
 large aggregate quantities as possible, is impor- 
 tant for bringing abundance of carbonic acid 
 and of ammoniacal gas into contact with the 
 spongioles of plants, for supplying oxygen to the 
 requisite process of decomposing vegetable ma- 
 nures and other dead vegetable substances in 
 the soil, and for carrying off disadvantageous 
 gases formed by the excrementitious deposits of 
 plants. Any degree of vegetation requires aer- 
 ation of the soil as absolutely indispensable ; and 
 a free or luxuriant vegetation, all other condi- 
 tions being equal, will be promoted in the exact 
 degree in which aeration exists. 
 
 The grand means of effecting aeration are such 
 as maintain porosity of the soil. Mere pulveri- 
 
AERATION. 
 
 IG 
 
 AFTERGRASS. 
 
 zation — designed to be effected by the most 
 thorough processes of tillage, and so much and 
 justly insisted on as a prime and essential fea- 
 ture of good farming — brings particles of soil 
 into contact with all the radicles and spongioles of 
 plants, so as to employ and stimulate them all in 
 the work of taking up nourishment to the inte- 
 rior of plants : and though it often, at the same 
 time, makes the soil thoroughly porous, and in 
 consequence secures the processes of aeration, 
 yet it occasionally makes no provision whatever 
 for these processes, but rather tends to prevent 
 them. Suppose a soil to consist of minutely 
 comminuted particles, to be free from stones or 
 gravel, to possess a considerable tendency to co- 
 hesion or consolidation — suppose it to be one of 
 those clays, or fine loams, or greasy moulds which, 
 when wetted and slightly rubbed, take a skin or 
 surface almost as smooth as crockery — a reflect- 
 ing farmer will see at a glance that, under cer- 
 tain conditions of weather, this soil may, by the 
 very process of thorough pulverization, be in a 
 short time rendered almost impenetrable by the 
 air, — and that, in order to effect its aeration, the 
 tilling of it must be accompanied with such a 
 kind of manuring as, either by mechanical or 
 by chemical action, will diminish its tendency to 
 cohesion. The fine powdering of the soil, let it 
 be understood, only occasions every part of a seed 
 or root to be in contact with the materials of 
 food; and the porosity or loose texture of the 
 soil, during the whole period of a plant's growth, 
 is requisite for the digestion of these materials 
 by the supply of air. Hence, the utility of hoe- 
 ings and other stirrings of the soil during the 
 growth of plants, — and the necessity of propor- 
 tioning the extent or number of these operations 
 to the degree of stiffness or looseness naturally 
 possessed by the soil. 
 
 Air is , supplied, however, not only in a direct 
 manner by the atmosphere, but indirectly and 
 quite as necessarily and efficiently by water. The 
 free circulation of water in the soil, by its ready 
 descent as liquid and its ready ascent as vapour, 
 is essential for the sake of the water's own agency 
 upon plants, — so much so that the farmer must 
 provide for both a free filtration at the surface, 
 and a free drainage in the subsoil ; but this cir- 
 culation of water — at least downward — is not less 
 important for the conveyance into the soil of 
 oxygen, carbonic acid, and ammoniacal gas, the 
 last contained in rain-water itself, and the first 
 and second contained in the atmospheric air. 
 All water which is exposed to the atmosphere 
 contains a sufficient proportion of the atmosphe- 
 ric gases to be distinctly perceived by the human 
 palate ; and hence running waters taken directly 
 from fountain or river, have always an agreeable 
 gout or flavour, while the same waters, when de- 
 prived of their atmospheric gases by boiling or 
 distillation, are always disagreeable and vapid. 
 Any running water, therefore, when permitted 
 
 to circulate freely in the soil, carries along with 
 it a certain amount of aeration. But rain-water 
 is most eminently aerative; for it descends so 
 far and in such small drops, and is so tossed by 
 the wind or moving air, that it completely satu- 
 rates itself with the atmospheric gases ; and, as 
 already hinted, it also brings down the ammoni- 
 acal vapours which escape from animal decom- 
 positions, and, by depositing these in the soil, 
 supplies one of the most fertilizing and vital of 
 manures. 
 
 AEREOMETRIC BEADS. Instruments for 
 ascertaining the comparative richness of any 
 specimen of milk in the elements of butter and 
 cheese. New milk, on account of containing the 
 oily matter of butter, is lighter than skimmed 
 milk ; and skimmed milk, on account of contain- 
 ing the curdy matter of cheese, is heavier than 
 whey. Now if any specimen of new milk, as soon 
 as cooled, be tried by the aereometric beads, if 
 the skimmed milk of it, immediately after the 
 removal of the cream, be also tried, and if the 
 whey, immediately after the extraction of the 
 curds, be likewise tried, the difference of specific 
 gravity which the beads indicate between the 
 new milk and the skimmed will show the pro- 
 portion of butter, and the difference of specific 
 gravity which they indicate between the skim- 
 med milk and the whey, will show the proportion 
 of cheese. These beads were invented in 1816 
 by Mrs. Lovi of Edinburgh. See the articles 
 Lactometer and Milk. 
 
 AFTERBIRTH. The membranaceous or solid 
 discharge which follows the expulsion of a foetus. 
 It is technically called placenta, from its simi- 
 larity of form to a cake. See the articles Abor- 
 tion and Parturition. 
 
 AFTERGRASS. The second crop of grass in 
 a season, or that which grows after mowing. 
 The word is often applied to the second crop of 
 grass under any conditions, and sometimes even 
 to the grass which is cut after some kinds of 
 corn crops ; but it is better understood when re- 
 stricted to the second crop of meadow lands, or 
 to that which follows a first and mown grass 
 crop. The late Mr. G. Sinclair, who conducted a 
 course of elaborate experiments to ascertain the 
 comparative nutritiousness of the various grasses 
 to one another, and of the same grasses under 
 different conditions, found that a certain quan- 
 tity of perennial ryegrass, when taken in flower 
 from a water meadow which had been fed off 
 with sheep till the end of April, contained 72 
 grains of nutritious matter, — that the same 
 quantity taken from a portion of the same mea- 
 dow which had not been fed off, contained 100 
 grains, — that the same quantity taken from a 
 rich old depastured field which had been shut up 
 from stock at the end of April, in order to its 
 yielding a crop of hay, contained 95 grains, — 
 and that the same quantity taken from a por- 
 tion of the same field which had not been recently 
 
AFTERGRASS. 
 
 17 
 
 AFTERGRASS. 
 
 depastured, contained 120 grains. This analysis 
 not only is of great general interest, for evincing 
 how very widely the intrinsic value of a grass 
 varies under different conditions of growth ; but 
 also possesses special interest on the subject of 
 aftergrass, as showing that the plants of which 
 it consists are likely to be much affected in their 
 worth by the treatment which the field receives 
 both before the growth of the spring crop and 
 after it is cut down. Mr. Sinclair analyzed 64 
 drachms weight of each of several kinds of grasses 
 in the spring crop, and in the aftergrass of mea- 
 dows, and found the following results :— Sweet- 
 scented vernal grass contained 1 drachm 3 grains 
 of nutritious matter in the spring crop, and 2 
 drachms 1 grain in the aftergrass ; sweet-scented 
 soft grass contained 4 drachms 1 grain in each 
 of the crops ; smooth-stalked meadow-grass con- 
 tained 1 drachm 3 grains in each of the crops ; 
 short blue meadow-grass contained 2 drachms in 
 each of the crops ; cow grass contained 2 drachms 
 
 1 grain in each of the crops ; creeping fescue- 
 grass contained 1 drachm 2 grains in each of the 
 crops ; round panicled cock's-foot grass contained 
 
 2 drachms 1 grain in the spring crop, and 1 
 drachm 2 grains in the aftergrass ; meadow fox- 
 tail grass contained 3 drachms 1 grain in the 
 spring crop, and 2 drachms in the aftergrass ; 
 larger- leaved creeping bent -crested dog's-tail 
 grass contained 4 drachms i grain in the spring 
 crop, and 2 drachms 2 grains in the aftergrass ; 
 hard fescue-grass contained 3 drachms 2 grains 
 in the spring crop, and 1 drachm 1 grain in 
 the aftergrass; Welsh fescue-grass contained 2 
 drachms 1 grain in the spring crop, and 1 drachm 
 1 grain in the aftergrass ; and yellow oat grass 
 contained 3 drachms 3 grains in the spring crop, 
 and 1 drachm 1 grain in the aftergrass. Thus 
 only one of the grasses, and that a mere condi- 
 ment, was found of greater value in the after- 
 grass than in the spring crop ; five, and these of 
 only second or third rate importance, were found 
 of equal value in the two crops ; and six, of ag- 
 gregately more important character than the 
 others, were found to be of very much greater 
 value in the spring crop than in the aftergrass. 
 Yet the case of perennial ryegrass already stated, 
 — on account of its being the case of by far the 
 bulkiest of the artificial grasses usually grown, 
 and on account also of the very marked variations 
 which it exhibits in the value of the plant under 
 different conditions of growth, — is much the 
 most important of them all, and strongly proves 
 the necessity of making the principles and cal- 
 culations of an enlightened economy to bear upon 
 the general treatment of grass-lands. 
 
 The aftergrass of meadows of all kinds, when 
 not designed to be cut down for hay or rowen, 
 ought, in every well-regulated system of hus- 
 bandry, except in extraordinary circumstances, 
 to be fed off during autumn and the earlier parts 
 of winter. If the lands be firm, and the season 
 I. 
 
 dry, the grass may be consumed by any class of 
 stock ; but some meadows cannot without dam- 
 age be depastured at any time by horse or black 
 cattle, and most meadow lands are unsuited for 
 them, or for any stock but sheep during winter. 
 The bite of horses is so close as often, in soft 
 ground, to tear up the herbage, to the damage 
 or destruction of its roots ; and the tread of 
 black cattle, on clayey or moist grounds, makes 
 holes which destroy the herbage for years, and 
 which hold stagnant water to the utter damage 
 of the surrounding plants. An excellent practice, 
 in most circumstances, is to depasture after- 
 grass with heavy stock during the dry part of 
 the year, and to restrict it to sheep during win- 
 ter. In Middlesex, black cattle are usually re- 
 moved from meadow lands in November ; horses, 
 in December ; aud sheep, not till February. But 
 in Leicestershire, in Lincolnshire, and in many 
 other districts, stock of all kinds are allowed 
 to remain on meadow lands, not only during 
 winter, but till May, and sheep even till April. 
 Much, it is obvious, must depend on the special 
 character of the lands for firmness and fertility ; 
 something also on the particular character of the 
 season, particularly the comparative dryness of the 
 winter ; and a good deal likewise on the other re- 
 sources of the farm for the supply of food to stock. 
 Yet a good farmer will be chary about damaging the 
 young grass by too advanced pasturing in spring ; 
 he will take care to prevent the grass-roots of 
 his meadow from destruction by tearing and 
 deep treading ; and for these reasons, as well as 
 for others — if not urged by some unusual con- 
 currence of circumstances — he will have all his 
 aftergrass fed off clean against the first or second 
 stage of winter, and will possess a sufficient store 
 of hay, straw, mangel-wurzel, carrots, turnips, 
 and other storeable provender for the entire feed- 
 ing of his stock during the middle and last stages 
 of winter, and for their partial feeding from the 
 beginning of spring till the month of May. 
 
 A peculiar treatment of meadows, called fog- 
 ging, was ascertained to prevail in the latter half 
 of the last century in South Wales, and was 
 introduced to English husbandry, and recom- 
 mended, by the well-known Arthur Young. This 
 treatment — to speak paradoxically — converted 
 the whole yearly produce of the meadows into 
 aftergrass ; for it consisted in shutting up the 
 meadows from all stock early in May, and keep- 
 ing them completely untouched by scythe or 
 beast till November or December, and then mak- 
 ing them the feeding-ground of the whole stock 
 of the farm till next May. " Many years ago," 
 says Mr. Young, " I knew a Suffolk clergyman 
 who was in the regular habit of this singular 
 practice, and spoke of it as a most profitable one. 
 I have tried it thrice, and with success; it 
 thickens herbage greatly, and yields far more 
 valuable winter and spring food than any person 
 would expect who never tried it." This method, 
 B 
 
AFTERGRASS. 
 
 18 
 
 AFTERGRASS. 
 
 however, as may be seen at a glance, can be pro- 
 fitable or even practicable only on very dry firm 
 land ; and hence, it existed in South Wales only 
 upon upland pastures, and was tested by Mr. 
 Young upon the sandy and semiarid grounds of 
 Norfolk. 
 
 Another practice is, after cutting down and re- 
 moving the hay crop of meadows, to keep the 
 aftergrass untouched by either beast or scythe 
 throughout the autumn and the winter, and to 
 employ it for the spring feeding of sheep. This 
 practice, we believe, is unknown in Scotland or 
 the north of England, and seems to us at once 
 wasteful, slovenly, and not over healthy ; yet it 
 has been recommended by such eminent men as 
 Young and Marshall and Dr. Wilkinson, and is 
 asserted by many to provide the cheapest spring 
 food for sheep in general, and a better food than 
 turnips, cabbages, or any other kind whatever for 
 ewes and lambs. Our objections to the practice 
 — subject however to such slight modifications 
 from peculiar circumstances as probably account 
 for the recommendations of these eminent agri- 
 culturists — are that the grasses matured in au- 
 tumn are, in a great measure, wasted, — that the 
 remains of these grasses, in the form of what Mr. 
 Young most inappropriately terms "hay," are 
 half-rotted by the moistures of winter, and can- 
 not be wholesome food, — that some of the spring 
 grasses are prematurely bitten down, and pro- 
 bably damaged, — and that the whole of the lands 
 are liable to a choking moisture about the roots 
 of their plants, and will be found more or less 
 overrun by slugs and insects. Some allowance, 
 and possibly an ample one, must be made for the 
 dry climate, the arenaceous soils and the peculiar 
 grasses which have been concerned in the success- 
 ful instances of kept aftergrass ; but. on the usu- 
 ally moist winter-grounds of Scotland and the 
 north of England, and with the ordinary mixtures 
 of pasture-grasses, whether spontaneous or sown, 
 we should expect every farmer who might try 
 this practice to find it at once dear, dirty, and un- 
 wholesome. A little confusion exists as to the 
 proper name for kept aftergrass, Mr. Young call- 
 ing it rowcn and the Rev. Mr. Rham calling it 
 fog, — while the former name is more commonly 
 applied to the cut autumn crop, and the latter 
 to the kept growing grass of the whole year for 
 the spring feeding of the entire stock of the farm. 
 
 In the northern districts of England, the after- 
 grass is frequently kept untouched till November 
 or even a later period, and is then used for the 
 fattening of stock for the shambles, or for the 
 pasturage of cows in order to the manufacture of 
 cheese of superior quality. But this practice, as 
 already hinted, occasions, in almost every in- 
 stance, an extensive destruction of the grass- 
 plants of meadows ;• and it also causes the neglect 
 or loss of the lower growth of the grasses which 
 cannot be bitten by cows, but might be fully 
 available for sheep. The name eddish is applied 
 
 to the aftergrass treated according to this prac- 
 tice ; and — as another instance of the looseness 
 of agricultural nomenclature — the same name is 
 applied to the grass which grows among the stub- 
 ble of cut corn. 
 
 We have hitherto viewed the aftergrass as 
 eaten off, or constituting pasture : but we must 
 now glance at it as cut down, and constituting 
 hay or rowen. In the former light, it is properly 
 aftergrass ; and in the latter, it becomes techni- 
 cally aftermath or lattermath. When meadow 
 lands are rich, or when meadow hay is valuable, 
 the treatment of the aftergrass as a crop for 
 mowing will usually be found profitable. Yet no 
 general rule can be given to show, in every case, 
 whether the depasturing or the mowing be the 
 preferable course. When abundance of manure 
 can be procured, or stimulating irrigation can be 
 practiced, or lamb-sucking is prevalent, or the 
 market-price of hay is high, most farmers will 
 probably judge it wise to cut a second crop of 
 hay, and to assign only the aftergrass of that se- 
 cond crop to the depasturing of stock. Yet in 
 the neighbourhood of London, where manure is 
 very abundant, this practice is regarded as un- 
 economical and ultimately mischievous. When, 
 on the other hand, a meadow is unusually low, 
 wet, and retentive of water, it ought to be en- 
 tered as seldom as possible by stock, and will 
 yield better aggregate returns from second mow- 
 ings than if it were trodden and ruptured by a 
 full course of eating off. In most or all other 
 circumstances, a meadow, if made to yield two 
 crops of hay in the year, is certain to suffer more 
 or less exhaustion, and, by wanting a requisite 
 degree of pounding and abrasure from the feet of 
 sheep or cattle, would probably become more or 
 less infested with the vegetation of moss plants. 
 As regards a field of sown grasses, however, the 
 desire and effort of almost every farmer are, by 
 all means, to obtain if possible a good second crop 
 of hay. 
 
 The cutting of the second crop of grass re- 
 quires more skill and attention on the part of 
 the mower, than the cutting of the first. The 
 grass of the second crop is, in general, much 
 lighter and shorter than the grass of the first ; 
 and the scythe, except when in the hand of an 
 expert workman, is apt to slice it, slip through 
 it, or even rise over it. " Crops of this sort," re- 
 marks Mr. Loudon, "should always be cut as 
 much as possible when the dew is upon them, 
 and as soon as ever there is a tolerable growth ; 
 as, by waiting, the season is constantly getting 
 more unfavourable for making them into hay ; 
 and when not well made, this hay is of little or 
 no value." Another important matter is to have 
 the surface of the meadow in a firm condition, 
 and with levels or slopes or inclined planes as 
 smooth' if possible as a bowling-green ; for if the 
 surface be otherwise — especially if it abound in 
 roughnesses and tiny undulations, the scythe will 
 
AFTERGRASS. 
 
 19 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 cut down only the body of the longest grasses 
 and the tops of some of the shorter ones, and will 
 leave an amount of understubble of tall plants 
 and thick matting of dwarf plants, probably 
 quite as great as the portion of herbage it re- 
 moves. If a complete depasturing with sheep is 
 to follow the mowing, the smoothness of the sur- 
 face is of less consequence ; but if only a partial 
 depasturing or no depasturing whatever is to 
 follow, the annual loss occasioned by the rough- 
 ness of a meadow's surface may be very serious. 
 
 The hay of the aftermath — technically called 
 rowen — is inferior in value to that of the spring 
 crop. The main reason of this is its great com- 
 parative deficiency in nutritious properties, as 
 shown by the analysis of Mr. Sinclair which we 
 » jticed at the outset ; and another reason is that 
 it wants the seed-stalks of the plants, and in con- 
 sequence is defective in some chief ingredients of 
 the chemical composition of good fodder. This 
 hay is not suitable for horses, especially for such 
 as work hard, or are driven fast, or evince any 
 tendency toward feebleness of the lungs ; yet it 
 is quite good for sheep and black cattle, and par- 
 ticularly for ewes and milk cows. Rowen, when 
 well saved, is even a very profitable fodder for 
 cows giving milk ; for, in consequence of its 
 being of a soft and succulent nature, and not so 
 heating as other sorts of hay, it is well fitted to 
 produce a large flow of milk. A consideration 
 closely akin to this, is one reason why dairy far- 
 mers cut the grass of their meadow lands so 
 many times during summer ; though two other 
 reasons are the procuring of the fodder in a very 
 tender and succulent condition, and another is 
 the stimulating of the grass plants to extend and 
 multiply their herbage. Rowen is suitable and 
 beneficial for feeding such ewes as are suckling 
 house-lambs during winter, because in their case, 
 as in the cow's, it produces a comparatively 
 large flow of milk ; and it is well adapted, also, 
 for the feeding of such sheep as require the aid 
 of hay during winter, and for the support of 
 calves and of all sorts of young cattle which are 
 kept as store stock. 
 
 The failure of the second crop of clover in any 
 of the prevalent rotations in approved mixed 
 husbandry, is now unhappily an event of fre- 
 quent occurrence, and produces all the effects, in 
 farm economy, of the failure of aftermath, and in 
 fact is often spoken of under that designation. 
 A frequent device hitherto for compensating for 
 the failure, or obtaining a substitute for the pro- 
 vender a-wanting, is to grow tares. But this 
 crop has the serious double disadvantage of 
 greatly exhausting the soil, and of not affording 
 in its green state sufficient nourishment for 
 hard-working animals. A much more suitable 
 substitute is a combination of such grasses as 
 will mature their culms or flower-stems in the 
 same season in which they are sown, and arrive 
 successionally at height and ripeness so as to af- 
 
 ford a succession of forage, and, at the same time, 
 admit of being treated as the basis of a grass- 
 course of several years in continuance, or of what 
 is technically designated permanent pasture. A 
 combination of exactly this character is recom- 
 mended by Mr. Bishop of Methven Castle, in a 
 paper which was published among the Highland 
 Society's Prize Essays in 1839, and is stated to 
 have been put to the test of experiments the re- 
 sults of which excited the attention and the high 
 gratification of several gentlemen in the vicinity. 
 Mr. Bishop's first combination of seeds consisted 
 of 4 bushels of Italian ryegrass, Lolium Italicum, 
 — 8 lb. of broad-leaved Timothy-grass, Phleum 
 pratense, — 4^ pecks of fescue grasses, including 
 2^ pecks of meadow fescue, Festuca pratensis, — 
 20 lb. of crimson clover seed, Trifolium incarna- 
 tum, — 8 lb. red clover, Trifolium pratense, — and, 
 to secure permanent pasturage, 12 lb. of white 
 clover, Trifolium repens, — the whole sown on the 
 4th of May, on about 2| imperial acres of land ; 
 and so astonishingly did it grow that it yielded 
 a mowing for the food of horses on the 15th of 
 August, — it was afterwards partly cut a second 
 time, — and it continued to yield an abundant 
 supply till the end of October. " The weight of 
 green produce cut in a dry state on the 26th of 
 September, yielded at the rate of 10 tons 7 cwt. 
 per imperial acre, and in hay 2 tons 3 cwt." 
 Mr. Bishop's combination, in the second year of 
 his experiment, had also distinguished success : 
 and it differed from the first, by increasing the 
 red clover to 7 lb., lessening the crimson clover 
 to 7 lb., adding 4 lb. per acre to the Timothy 
 grass, adding | lb. per acre of meadow foxtail 
 grass, Alopecurus pratensis, and, to secure a bet- 
 ter form of permanent pasture, adding some of 
 the poa and festuca genera to the white clover. 
 •See the articles Hay, Grass-Lands, Meadow, 
 Sheep, and Cattle. — A. Young's Farmer s Kal- 
 endar. — Hunters Georgical Essays. — Sinclair's 
 Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. — Low's Practical 
 Agriculture— Loudon 's Encyclopedia of Agricul- 
 ture. — Rkam's Dictionary of the Farm. — Sinclair 's 
 Code of Agriculture. — Sproules Treatise on Agri- 
 culture. — Prize Essays and Transactions of the 
 Highland Society. 
 
 AFTERMATH. See Aftergrass. 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. Either the average total 
 lifetime of any species of animals, or the succes- 
 sive or precise period of lifetime of any individual 
 of a species. In general, the term of life among 
 the mammalia is in direct proportion to the time 
 which they severally take in arriving at their full 
 growth, exclusive of the period of gestation. Buf- 
 fon calculated, from many observations, that they 
 lived seven times the period of growth ; but it is 
 very often only six times this period. Among 
 the most remarkable exceptions to the above rule, 
 we find man, with whom the average duration of 
 life is far less than that of other species, relative 
 to his time of growth. As he does not attain his 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 20 AGE OF ANIMALS 
 
 full size until about the age of twenty years, his 
 life ought to average a duration of 120 to 140 
 years. Several individuals have attained these 
 ages, and some have even passed them ; but of 
 those few who survive the first years of infancy, 
 by far the greater number do not pass beyond 
 the ages of seventy or eighty. This anomaly to 
 the rule of Buffon is due to a multitude of cir- 
 cumstances, such as the mode of life, the abun- 
 dance and excess of food, the want of temperance, 
 and other results of an imperfect and misdirected 
 civilization. For the same reason, the relation 
 which the period of growth bears to the whole 
 term of life, is not without many exceptions 
 among the domestic animals. On the one hand, 
 they receive the influence of a superabundant 
 nourishment, and, on the other, are more fre- 
 quently preserved from those excesses to which 
 this abundance might have given rise. Hence, 
 the duration of life is often prolonged among the 
 domestic animals beyond the term already speci- 
 fied. The growth of the horse being commonly 
 completed in about four or five years, it lives 
 twenty-five or even thirty-five, provided the na- 
 tural term of its existence has not been shortened, 
 as happens too frequently, by ill treatment of every 
 kind, by violent fatigues, as well as the want of 
 attention and suitable nourishment. This animal 
 presents, notwithstanding, several instances of 
 remarkable longevity, and some individuals have 
 been known to attain the advanced ages of sixty 
 and even seventy years. As the ass takes nearly 
 as long as the horse in reaching its full growth, 
 the duration of its life ought to be nearly the 
 same ; yet it often breaks down before that period 
 through injuries or neglect, which it receives most 
 undeservedly from all quarters. It is observed 
 that animals, naturally disposed to chastity, live 
 longer than those of different propensities. The 
 mule and bardeau are usually unable to procreate, 
 and accordingly they live longer than either the 
 horse or ass. Very frequently mules die at the 
 age of forty, and one has been known to attain 
 the age of eighty years. The bull takes about 
 two or three years in growing, and the natural 
 period of its life terminates at fifteen to twenty 
 years. The buffalo approaches the former very 
 nearly in both of these respects ; yet it appears 
 to take a little longer time in reaching its full 
 growth, and hence lives to a more advanced age. 
 The sheep has nearly the same period of growth, 
 and also a corresponding period of life. The goat 
 approaches to the same terms, both in respect to 
 its growth and the duration of its existence ; yet 
 the extreme attachment of these two last-men- 
 tioned species to sexual propensities serves to 
 abridge the ordinary period of their lives, in those 
 few cases where man does not terminate their ex- 
 istence suddenly for his own advantage. The hog 
 being two years in attaining its full development, 
 may reach the age of fifteen or twenty years, if 
 uot fattened before the term of puberty, as is 
 most commonly done, though some old boars have 
 
 been known to pass far beyond the above-men- 
 tioned terms. We may thus perceive that the 
 relation of the period of growth to the duration 
 of life does not remain constant among the do- 
 mestic animals. It is, however, more precise with 
 the wild mammalia. The lion lives twenty-five 
 years, according to Buffon, though several lions 
 of the Tower-menagerie of London lived in con- 
 finement to the extraordinary ages of sixty-three 
 and seventy years, on the authority of Shaw. 
 The mococo {Lemur catta) lives at least twenty 
 years, the rabbit eight or nine ; the hare seven ; 
 the mouse only a short time. The elephant, it is 
 said, lives for two hundred years ; the bear thirty ; 
 and the wolf fifteen or twenty. Further, the dog 
 usually lives fourteen years, though the lives of 
 some individuals have been prolonged to twenty ; 
 the cat lives nine or ten years, and the dromedary 
 forty or fifty. Nothing positive is known regard- 
 ing the ages to which the seals and the cetacea 
 respectively attain ; it is, however, probable, from 
 their near approximation to the fishes, in exter- 
 nal characters, that they resemble them also in 
 the average duration of life ; in other words, they 
 live to a very advanced age. This presumption 
 is further confirmed with the seals, by the fact 
 that they take a very long time in growing. But 
 such facts as these are of a thousandfold less inter- 
 est to the farmer than the indications or criteria 
 of particular age in individual horses, cattle, and 
 sheep. 
 
 Age of the Horse. — The chief criteria of a 
 horse's age are certain successive and distinctive 
 appearances of the teeth. The full set of teeth, 
 or that possessed by the horse during the period 
 of its vigour, amounts in number to forty, and 
 consists of nippers, grinders, and ttishes. The 
 nippers are twelve in number, six above and six 
 below ; they are situated in front, and correspond 
 to the incisors or front teeth of man ; and they 
 have their name from the peculiar action with 
 which the horse twitches or nips off the succes- 
 sive portions of grass on which be browses. A 
 polished and exceedingly hard substance, called 
 enamel, covers all the parts of the nippers situated 
 outside of the gum ; and as this is gradually worn 
 away by the action of the teeth in gathering food 
 and nipping the grass, a portion of it passes over 
 the upper surface of the teeth, bends inward, sinks 
 into the bone, and forms a little pit ; and the black- 
 ening of the inside and bottom of this little pit by 
 the food constitutes what is technically called the 
 mark of age, — a mark, which is at first broadly 
 distinct, but which gradually diminishes in con- 
 sequence of the wearing down of the edge, and 
 which therefore forms, during several years, an 
 unerring criterion of the animal's age. The tus/ies 
 are four in number, two above and two below, at 
 the sides of the nippers, separating them from 
 the grinders ; they are situated closer to the nip- 
 pers than to the grinders, and closer to the nip- 
 pers of the lower jaw than to the nippers of the 
 upper ; and they increase their distance from the 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 21 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 grinders in both jaws, as the age of the animal ad- 
 vances. They have some resemblance in form to a 
 cone ; the) 7 protrude about an inch from the gum, 
 and have a curved and sharp-pointed extremity ; 
 they belong far less to the mar,e than to the male 
 horse, being only stumps or germs in the former 
 at five years of age, though fully developed in the 
 latter ; and they perform no apparent office in 
 mastication, but seem to have served, in the wild 
 condition of the horse, as his principal weapons 
 of offence. The grinders — also called molars, jaw- 
 teeth, or back teeth — are twenty-four in number, 
 twelve above and twelve below ; they are strong 
 double teeth, with sharp edges, but gradually lose 
 their sharpness and become smooth as the animal 
 advances in age ; and they have great strength 
 and endurance, and are employed in grinding 
 down the hardest portions of the horse's food. 
 Enamel, similar to that of the nippers, completely 
 covers the tops and sides of the grinders ; but 
 this is gradually worn from the tops by the mutual 
 attrition of teeth and food ; and what remains is 
 a compound surface of alternate layers of crusted 
 petraser, enamel, and ivory. Each grinder of the 
 upper jaw consisted in embryo of five bony sub- 
 stances or teethlets agglutinated by a powerful 
 cement into one compound tooth ; and each 
 grinder of the lower jaw consisted in embryo of 
 four teethlets, and is smaller, narrower, and more 
 regular than an upper grinder ; and both, in con- 
 sequence of their complex formation and mutual 
 adjustment, possess a power of trituration, a 
 strength of resistance, and an adaptation to the 
 peculiar wants and constitution of the horse, 
 which, in common with all the innumerable in- 
 tricacies of animal organism, strikingly indicate 
 the wisdom of the Creator. Neither the upper 
 nor the lower grinders are placed horizontally ; 
 but the upper have their higher side without, 
 and shelve inward ; the lower have their higher 
 side within, and shelve outward, — and thus they 
 achieve the grinding motion with, a facility of 
 action and a maximum of power, which indicate 
 the beneficence and skill of the Almighty Maker. 
 The highest criteria of age are afforded by the 
 nippers ; the next highest, by the grinders ; and 
 the least, by the tushes. 
 
 At the time of the foal's birth, or within three 
 or four days after it, the first and second grinders 
 of both jaws protrude through the gums, and are 
 very large in proportion to the size of the jaw. 
 About seven or eight days after birth, the two 
 central nippers will be seen, as represented in Fig. 
 1, Plate I. ; and though they afterwards seem small 
 in comparison with the permanent teeth of the se- 
 cond set, they at present appear so large as to fill 
 the front of the mouth. Before the end of four 
 weeks, the third grinder protrudes both above 
 and below ; and before the end of six weeks, 
 two nippers, additional to the two first, and at 
 the sides of them, will protrude both above and 
 below, so that if you, on raising a colt's lips, find 
 that he has only four nippers, two in each jaw, 
 
 you will know that he is a week old ; but if, in- 
 stead of four, he perceives eight, as in Fig. 2, 
 Plate you may know he has been dropped at 
 least a month. At the end of two months after 
 birth, the two first nippers will have attained 
 their full height ; and before the end of the 
 third month, ftie second pair will be on a level 
 with the first. From the third month till between 
 the sixth and the ninth, both pairs of nippers will 
 begin to be a little worn, and their outer edge, 
 which was originally somewhat sharp and raised, 
 will be reduced to a level with their inner edge 
 Between the sixth month and the ninth month, 
 a third pair of nippers will protrude from above, 
 and also a third pair from below ; thus completing 
 the colt's set of incisors, as in Fig. 3, Plate I. From 
 this time till between the second and the third year, 
 the several pairs of nippers will undergo change, 
 and indicate age, only in their gradual wear. 
 The foal's nippers — altogether twelve in number, 
 and technically called milk-teeth or foal-teeth — 
 are easily distinguished by their smallness and 
 whiteness from the permanent ones which succeed 
 them ; they bear considerable resemblance to the 
 foreteeth of a man ; they are rounded in front, 
 and somewhat hollow behind ; and, previous to 
 their being worn to a level by use, they possess 
 a cutting surface, with the outer edge rising 
 slantingly above the inner edge. When the ani- 
 mal is a year old, the first and the second pairs 
 of nippers are nearly level on the surface, and 
 the third pair have lost some of their slant and 
 sharpness ; and 1 the mark ' in the first pair is 
 wide and faint ; in the second pair, darker, longer, 
 and narrower than in the first ; and in the third 
 pair, darker, longer, and narrower than in the 
 second. Either at the completion of the first 
 year, or soon afterwards, the animal gets a fourth 
 grinder, so as to have six nippers and four grinders 
 above, and the same number below; and from 
 these indications — liable, however, to a little va- 
 riation from differences in the time of weaning, 
 and in the nature of the food subsequently used 
 — its age may be accurately known. At the age 
 of eighteen months, all the nippers are worn flat ; 
 and the mark in the central pair is much shorter 
 and fainter than at twelve months, while that in 
 the other pairs is also much changed ; and at 
 the age of two years, the indications in the mark 
 of the nippers are increased, the fifth grinder 
 protrudes both above and below, and the front or 
 first grinder gives way, and is succeeded by a 
 large and permanent tooth, the first of the set or - 
 series belonging to the adult horse. 
 
 The teeth of the second or permanent set begin 
 to be secreted even at the foal's birth ; they slowly 
 and gradually grow beneath the roots of the first, 
 pressing upon them, and causing them to be taken 
 progressively away by the absorbent vessels ; and 
 in general they continue this process till the 
 crowns of the milk-teeth are quite deprived of 
 their roots, and drop out ; but in a few instances 
 they push so far by the side of the milk-teeth, 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 22 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 rather than right beneath their roots, as to occa- 
 sion their temporary transmutation into what is 
 technically called wolfs teeth. The crown of a 
 milk-tooth pressed sideways by its successor is 
 pushed out of its place to the forepart of the first 
 grinder ; it remains there for a considerable time, 
 causing soreness of the gums, and sometimes ex- 
 coriation in the cheek ; and, very generally, it 
 cannot wisely be left to the slow process of ab- 
 sorption for removal, but must be forcibly ex- 
 tracted. The period between the fall of the first 
 pair of milk-nippers, and the full growth of their 
 successors, affords a well-defined indication of 
 age, and is often distinguished by difficulty in 
 the colt's grazing, or by a necessity for his being 
 partly fed with cut food, or with mashes and corn. 
 At three years of age, the teeth of the colt will 
 consist of the central pair of nippers, large and 
 growing ; the other two pairs of nippers wasting ; 
 and six grinders above and six below, the first 
 and the fifth level with the central ones, and the 
 sixth protruding. The ' mark ' in the central 
 nippers is long, narrow, deep, and black ; that of 
 the pair next the central ones is nearly extinct ; 
 and that in the third or corner pair is very much 
 reduced. The appearance of the mouth at this 
 time is shown in Fig. 4, Plate I. The indi- 
 cations of age here are so many and strong — 
 especially those afforded by the lowness, large- 
 ness, sharpness, and broad mark of the new or 
 central nippers, and by the comparative small- 
 ness and the worn condition of the other nippers 
 — that a novice might suppose nothing to be more 
 easy or certain than the identifying of a three- 
 year-old colt. Yet this is precisely the period 
 when rascality makes its first great attempt to 
 deceive the horse-purchaser. " The ages of all 
 horses used to be reckoned from May ; but some 
 are foaled even so early as January, and being 
 actually four months over the two years, if they 
 have been well nursed and fed, and are strong 
 and large, they may, with the inexperienced, have 
 an additional year put upon them. The central 
 nippers are punched or drawn out, and the others 
 appear three or four months earlier than they 
 otherwise would. In the natural process they 
 could only rise by long pressing upon, and caus- 
 ing the absorption of the first set. But opposi- 
 tion from the first set being removed, it is easy 
 to imagine that their progress will be more rapid. 
 Three or four months will be gained in the ap- 
 pearance of the teeth, and these three or four 
 months may enable the breeder to term him a late 
 colt of a preceding year. To him, however, who 
 is accustomed to horses, the general form of the 
 animal, the little development of the forehand, 
 the continuance of the mark on the next pair of 
 nippers, its more evident existence in the corner 
 ones, some enlargement or irregularity about the 
 gums from the violence used in forcing out the 
 teeth, the small growth of the first and fifth 
 grinders, and the non-appearance of the sixth 
 grinder, which, if it is not through the gum at 
 
 three years old, is swelling under it, and prepar- 
 ing to get through, — any or all of these circum- 
 stances, carefully attended to, will be a sufficient 
 security against deception." — [Youatt on the 
 Horse.] 
 
 At three years and a half of age, or between 
 that period and four years, the second pair of 
 grinders and the second pair of nippers will be 
 shed, the central pair of nippers will have at- 
 tained nearly their full size, the second pair of 
 new or permanent nippers will be beginning to 
 protrude from the gum, and the third or corner 
 pair of nippers will be worn down, diminished in 
 breadth, and divested of a considerable portion of 
 their mark. Any attempt of the horse-dealer to 
 give the animal's mouth at this time the appear- 
 ance of an additional year, may easily be detected 
 by a similar examination to that for discovering 
 the fraud upon a three-year-old colt. At four 
 years of age, the permanent central nippers have 
 attained their full size, and are beginning to lose 
 a portion of their edge and of their mark ; the 
 second pair of permanent nippers are partially 
 developed, and have a deep mark, extending 
 quite across them ; the corner nippers are larger 
 than the second pair, yet have diminished in their 
 own size, and almost wholly lost their mark ; the 
 sixth grinder has attained the same level as the 
 other grinders ; and in males the tushes begin to 
 appear, though in mares only the germs of the 
 tushes as yet exist, and even these only in the 
 chambers of the jaw. The appearance of the 
 
 mouth 
 
 a four - year - old colt is shown in 
 
 Fig. 5, Plate I. Strenuous efforts are usually 
 made by dishonest dealers to pass off a four-year- 
 old colt for a five-year-old horse ; but these may 
 be detected by the unworn condition of the first 
 and second pairs of nippers, by the smallness and 
 unmarkedness of the corner nippers, by the em- 
 bryo condition of the tushes, by the smallness of 
 the second grinder, and even by the comparative 
 thickness and small depth of the whole mouth. 
 The tushes, however, if treated as the sole cri- 
 terion, may possibly occasion the animal to be 
 pronounced younger than he really is ; for while 
 they cannot be forced by knavish practice into 
 a greater advance of development upon nature 
 than a few weeks, they may fail to be naturally 
 developed till the animal is four and a half years 
 of age. 
 
 At about four and a half years of age, or be- 
 tween that period and five years, the central nip- 
 pers are considerably worn, the second pair are 
 beginning to show evidences of usage, the third 
 or corner pair of the foal set are shed, the corner 
 pair of the permanent set are beginning to ap- 
 pear, and the tush, in general, is half an inch in 
 length, and has externally a rounded prominence, 
 with a groove on each side, but is evidently hol- 
 low in the interior. At this stage, the colt be- 
 comes, in popular language, a horse; and the filly 
 becomes a '.ware. At five years of age, the corner 
 nippers arc quite up, and have their mark long. 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 23 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 deep, and irregular ; the two other pairs of nip- | 
 pers show evidence of increased wearing; the 
 tush is much grown, and has nearly lost its 
 grooves and become regularly convex, but is still 
 concave within, and retains most of the sharp- 
 ness of its edge ; the sixth grinder is quite up ; 
 ail( i_ w hat forms by far the most distinctive cri- 
 terion of a five-year-old animal, as distinguished 
 from a late four-year-old— the third grinder is 
 shed. A knave may force up the nippers a few 
 months, and the tushes a few weeks, before their 
 time ; but he cannot, except in very extraordinary 
 circumstances, occasion a premature shedding 
 of the third grinder. At this stage, the horse, as 
 to the state of his teeth, has experienced his last 
 change, and approached^within a degree of per- 
 fection ; for he never sheds his tushes or his last 
 three pairs of colt grinders. The appearance of 
 his mouth at five years is represented in Fig. 6, 
 Plate I. 
 
 The fifth year being the period at which the 
 animal is provided with his full set of permanent 
 teeth, we are henceforth compelled in judging of 
 his age, to seek for other signs ; and these are 
 to be met with in the alterations which the teeth 
 themselves undergo, particularly the faces or 
 wearing surfaces of the incisive teeth. Thus 
 at six years, the central nippers have lost their 
 mark, and possess instead of it a slight dis- 
 coloration and irregularity; the second pair of 
 nippers have their mark shorter, broader, and 
 fainter than before; the corner nippers have 
 the edges of their enamel more regular before, 
 and show evidences of wearing on the surface ; 
 the tush is full grown, and is convex with- 
 out, and concave within ; the third grinder is 
 distinctly up ; and all the other grinders possess 
 one level of surface. At this stage, the teeth 
 of the animal, regarded in the aggregate, are in 
 their perfect condition. At seven years, the 
 second pair of nippers of the lower jaw, as well 
 as the first, have wholly lost their mark ; the 
 corner nippers of the lower jaw have lost a con- 
 siderable portion of their mark ; and the tush is 
 rounded on the point and the edges, and begin- 
 ning to be rounded in the interior. At eight 
 years, all the nippers of the lower jaw have totally 
 lost their mark ; and the tush, in all respects, is 
 more rounded than before. Fig. 7 in Plate L re- 
 presents the lower jaw of a horse with the corner 
 teeth undergoing their third change, and the pits 
 in the others almost or quite obliterated. 
 
 As all criteria of age have now ceased to exist 
 on the nippers of the lower jaw, a method of ar- 
 tificially renewing the mark on these teeth was 
 invented by a rascal of the name of Bishop, and 
 is still well-known under the appellation of bishop- 
 ing. The man who practises this knavery, throws 
 down a horse of eight or nine years of age, and 
 with an engraver's tool digs small holes in the 
 corner nippers, and small irregularities in the 
 other nippers, and then so touches or burns these 
 with a heated iron as to make them resemble the 
 
 mark in a horse of seven years of age. But the 
 trick is too coarse in its own execution, and too 
 much out of keeping with the other appearances 
 of the animal's mouth and body, to deceive an 
 experienced or even a careful eye. 
 
 The criteria which we have given of a horse's 
 age, from a few weeks after foaling up to eight 
 years, are tolerably uniform and certain, yet must 
 not be regarded as without exceptions or as in- 
 fallible. In some individuals the tushes have 
 been found blunted and rounded at eight -years 
 old ; in others, they appear still sharp and curved 
 at eighteen. A stable-fed horse will lose the mark 
 sooner than one fed in the fields; and a horse 
 which has the habit of crib-biting may lose it so 
 fast as, at some stages of his lifetime, to appear 
 to even the best judge twelve, twenty, or twenty- 
 four months older than he really is. Under the 
 old system, too — which always calculated the age 
 of horses from the first day of May — the most ex- 
 perienced judge might have been unable to say 
 whether any given animal was a late foal of one 
 year or an early foal of the next. — But from eight 
 years till twenty-one, the criteria become increas- 
 ingly indistinct; and after twenty- one, they 
 amount to little more than one amassed indica- 
 tion of the last stage of existence. The mark of 
 the nippers of the upper jaw remains for a con- 
 siderable period after that of the lower nippers is 
 effaced ; so that — in a loose sense, or with rather 
 large allowance for variations under diversified 
 circumstances — the extinction of the mark in the 
 central upper nippers may be viewed as indicat- 
 ing nine years of age, the extinction of the mark 
 in the second pair of upper nippers as indicating 
 ten years, and the extinction of the mark in the 
 corner upper nippers as indicating eleven years. 
 The shape of the upper surface of the nippers af- 
 fords a proximate criterion of age from eight 
 years of age to twenty-one. At eight years, all 
 the nippers have an oval surface, the length of 
 the oval extending parallel with the jaw, or from 
 tooth to tooth ; at nine, the central nippers are a 
 little rounded, or have lost some of their oval 
 outline, and are slightly separated from each 
 other; at ten, the other nippers begin to be a 
 little rounded, and separated; at eleven, the 
 second pair of nippers are completely rounded, 
 and distinctly separated ; at thirteen, the corner 
 nippers are completely rounded, and distinctly 
 separated ; at fourteen, the central nippers have 
 a somewhat triangular face ; at seventeen, all the 
 nippers have a somewhat triangular face ; at 
 nineteen, the central nippers are oval in a re- 
 verse direction to the original oval; and at twenty- 
 one, all the nippers are oval in a reverse direction 
 to the original oval. 
 
 The general indications of old age are various 
 and distinct. The teeth of an old horse are yel- 
 low, and sometimes brownish. The gums are 
 worn and sunk ; and occasion a portion of the 
 stumps of the teeth to appear long and naked. 
 The bars of the mouth, which in youth were al- 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 24 
 
 AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 ways fleshy, and formed a series of distinct ridges, 
 are now lean, dry, and smooth, with little or no 
 rising. The eye-pits, which in youth generally 
 appear fleshy, plump, and smooth, are now sunk 
 and hollow, and make the animal look lugubrious 
 and ghastly. A horse which was formerly grey 
 is now white; a horse which was formerly all 
 black, is now probably grey over the eye-brows, 
 or over a large proportion of the face ; a horse, 
 which was formerly black, but had a star or blaze 
 fringed round with grey, is now grey or whitish 
 over much of the face ; and most horses, according 
 to the variety of their colour or constitution, 
 sooner or later become flea-bitten over most of 
 their body except about the joints. All horses, 
 when very old, sink more or less in their back ; 
 some, which are naturally long-backed, become so 
 sunk that a saddle can hardly any longer be found 
 to fit them ; and most become so stiff in their 
 joints as to trip and stumble upon even a smooth 
 and almost level road. But long before a horse 
 is transmuted into one of the mere animated 
 skeletons which are sometimes seen to drag them- 
 selves along the streets of a market town, every 
 respectable farmer will have repudiated the cruelty 
 of fastening it under a harness. 
 
 Age of Black Cattle. — The horn of a cow is often 
 regarded as affording, in the number of its rings, 
 a distinct criterion of the animal's age. The 
 horn of a heifer, in ordinary cases, remains smooth 
 or unprotuberant till the expiration of the second 
 year of the animal's life ; a circle of thicker mat- 
 ter, or a kind of horny button begins then to be 
 formed, and is completed in a twelvemonth ; this 
 circle of thicker matter moves next year from the 
 head, or is impelled by a cylindrical growth of the 
 horn ; another circle of thicker matter is then 
 begun to be formed ; and, after a second twelve- 
 month, is also impelled outward by a cylindrical 
 growth ; and these alternations of ring and cylin- 
 der follow each other year after year, during the 
 whole period of the animal's existence. Hence, 
 were the growth of the horn quite uniform in all 
 cows, and were the alternations of ring and cylinder 
 in each horn always distinct, the most common ob- 
 server, simply by counting the number of rings 
 on any cow's horns, and adding two to their sum, 
 ought to be able to determine unerringly her age. 
 But though two or three of the earlier rings are 
 usually quite distinct, the later ones are often 
 exceedingly confused ; so much so that the two 
 horns of one individual sometimes appear to dis- 
 agree with each other to the amount of two en- 
 tire rings. Any heifer, too, which goes to the 
 bull when she is about two years of age, imme- 
 diately forms the first ring of her horns ; and if 
 judged by the common rule, would ever after- 
 wards be pronounced a year older than she really 
 is. A knavish cattle-dealer, besides, can easily 
 rasp off two or three rings from the horns of an 
 unsalcably old cow, and can so smoothen the rest 
 of the horns as to make it look in good keeping 
 with the portions from which lie rasps the rings. 
 
 Let any sober-looking cow appear in the market 
 with neat, small, smooth, glossy horns ; and a 
 young farmer, if not simpleton enough to con- 
 strue these horns into indications of handsome- 
 ness and mere middle-agedness, may pretty dis- 
 tinctly learn from them that the animal is in 
 extreme old age, and has been doctored /or the 
 market by heartless knavery. — The rings in the 
 bull's horns do not begin to appear till he is five 
 years of age, and are often or even usually too 
 confused to be counted. The horn of the ox is 
 so very strongly modified by his peculiar condi- 
 tion as to be totally unlike that of the bull ; and 
 the horn of the heifer, as we have seen, is imme- 
 diately and powerfully affected by the early com- 
 mencement of gestation : so that the horn's con- 
 figuration and peculiarities are indicative rather 
 of constitution than of age. 
 
 The teeth of the cow afford criteria of age which 
 possess almost perfect certainty, and are nearly 
 incapable of being artificially altered. Newly 
 born calves, indeed, present a diversity of appear- 
 ance, corresponding to excess or deficiency in the 
 average period of the cow's gestation; and the 
 cow from six to nine years of age admits of only 
 such conjectures respecting her age as may be a 
 few months in error ; but, with these exceptions, 
 the criteria are not only certain but exact, — and 
 they have also the recommendation of existing 
 solely in the incisors or front teeth, so as to be 
 easily seen. At birth, in ordinary circumstances, 
 the two central incisors either are protruding 
 through the gum, or have actually attained a 
 considerable size. About the middle or end of the 
 second week, the second pair appear ; at the end of 
 the third week, the third pair ; and at the end of the 
 fourth week, the fourth or last pair. The edges of 
 the teeth are exceedingly sharp ; and their enamel 
 covers their crown, but does not enter into their 
 composition. The wearing of the edges now con- 
 stitutes for some time the chief criterion; yet 
 this occurs, not across the top of the teeth, but a 
 very little out of the line of their inner surface ; 
 and it, in consequence, does not, till about the 
 third month, begin to destroy the exceeding 
 sharpness of the edges. At six weeks, the first 
 pair are evidently worn ; at two months, the 
 second pair ; at three months, the third pair ; and 
 at four months, the fourth pair. At three months 
 also, the wearing down of the edges is observa- 
 ble ; and at four months, this has produced a de- 
 gree of flatness in the surface of the teeth, with 
 a broad line in the centre. About this time com- 
 mences an absorption which slowly but gradually 
 diminishes the size of the teeth, makes them 
 slowly shrink from one another, causes the inner 
 edge to be more worn down than the outer one, 
 and occasions the form of the mark to be changed 
 from a broad line to a sort of triangle. At eight 
 months, the central pair of incisors are so much 
 diminished as to be not more than one half of the 
 size of the next pair ; at eleven months, the 
 second pair are diminished, and both this pair 
 
AGE OF ANIMALS. 
 
 25 
 
 AGE OF PLANTS. 
 . 
 
 and the central pair have very visibly shrunk, so 
 as to leave intermediate spaces ; at fifteen months, 
 the third pair are diminished, and no two teeth 
 are in mutual contact ; and at eighteen months, 
 all the incisors are so dwarfish and so far shrunk 
 from another, that an inexperienced examinator 
 wonders how the animal can contrive to eat a 
 sufficient quantity of provender. 
 
 During the whole of this process of absorption, 
 not only the roots of the teeth as in man and the 
 horse, but also the body and the crown, have been 
 diminishing ; and, in its latter stage, or after the 
 eighteenth month, it becomes slower in its pro- 
 gress, operates upon the pairs of teeth in the 
 order of their age, and so pertinaciously reduces 
 them that each tooth is eventually no larger in 
 the body than a crow-quill. During four or five 
 months following the eighteenth, the central pair 
 of incisors waste slowly away till they attain their 
 minimum size. At the end of the second year, or 
 a little before, the central pair of the permanent 
 teeth push out the wasted remnants of their prede- 
 cessors, and begin slowly to elevate their own body, 
 large, spreading, and massive. At three years, the 
 second pair of permanent incisors are well up. At 
 four years, the third pair of permanent teeth are 
 up ; and the corresponding pair of milk teeth will 
 sometimes be so huddled behind them, as to give 
 great annoyance to the animal, and to require to 
 be extracted. At five years, the fourth or last 
 pair of permanent incisors have appeared, but 
 are small ; and the central pair are beginning to 
 be worn down in a flat or slightly inclined direc- 
 tion at the edges. At six years, the last pair of 
 incisors are full-sized, the flattening of the top 
 extends over all the incisors, and the central pair 
 begin to show a dark line in the middle, bounded 
 by a line of indurated bone. At seven years, in 
 ordinary circumstances, the dark line with bony 
 boundary appears in all the teeth, and a second, 
 broader, and more circular mark appears within 
 it in the central pair ; and at eight years, this 
 second and more circular mark appears in all the 
 incisors except the last pair ; yet from six till nine 
 years, the criteria are far from being exact, and 
 will be modified, to the amount of several months, 
 by the manner in which the animal is fed. At 
 nine years, a process of absorption, similar to that 
 which reduced the milk-teeth, but neither so 
 rapid nor so powerful, has commenced, the cen- 
 tral pair of teeth have become visibly smaller 
 than their neighbours, and the two dark marks 
 have been fused into one in all the teeth except the 
 corner pair. At ten years, the second pair of in- 
 cisors, as well as the first, are diminished in size ; 
 and the mark in all is smaller and fainter than 
 before. At eleven years, the third pair are di- 
 minished ; and all, except the corner pair, show a 
 visible decrease in the mark. At twelve years, 
 the corner pair are diminished; and the other 
 three pairs have almost wholly lost the mark. In 
 subsequent years, the teeth progressively dwindle 
 and wear away ; and after the fourteenth or the 
 
 sixteenth year, they belong to an old and ex- , | 
 hausted animal, and rarely serve to maintain her J 
 longer in full condition. A cow is seldom of full 
 or fair value to a dairyman after she is twelve 
 years of age. The same criteria which show the 
 successive ages of the cow, show those also of the 
 bull and the ox. 
 
 Age of Sheep. — The age of all horned sheep may, 
 in a general view, be known from the rings of 
 their horns ; yet not with much more certainty, 
 nor with mpre protection from the tricks of j 
 knavery, than in the case of horned cattle. The 
 horn of the sheep appears in the first year, and 
 very often at birth ; and it grows a ring annually 
 to the end of life. — The teeth, as in the case of 
 black cattle, furnish better criteria than the 
 horns. The sheep, in its second year, has two 
 broad teeth ; in its third year, four broad teeth ; 
 in its fourth year, six broad teeth : and in its fifth j 
 year, eight broad teeth. But after its fifth year, 
 its age is known chiefly by the wearing of the 
 teeth, and, in many or even most cases, cannot 
 be accurately or even very proximately deter- 
 mined. The lamb, at birth, has two milk teeth, 
 and in the course of a few weeks, obtains all the 
 other pairs. The sheep, about the end of its first 
 year, loses the central pair of the milk teeth ; at 
 eighteen months, loses the second pair of the milk 
 teeth ; and at three years, displays only such teeth 
 as are even and pretty white. The teeth of the 
 full-mouthed animal — the sheep of five years of 
 age — seldom continue long sound, but some be- 
 come blunt, loose, black, and broken ; and hence 
 many sheep which have passed their prime — 
 especially such as have fed much on turnips — 
 are, in technical phrase, broken-mouthed. The 
 criteria of the sheep's age, while very indefinite 
 after five years of age, are not even certain in the 
 earlier years, and must be understood as supply- 
 ing only a general rule ; for the permanent teeth 
 appear in some cases much earlier, and in others 
 considerably later, than the normal period. — 
 Magazine of Domestic Economy. — Buff on' s Natural 
 History. — Gibson on Horses. — Touatt on the Horse. 
 — Culley on Live Stock. — Water's Cattle Doctor. — 
 Touatt on Cattle. — Spooner on the Sheep. — Quar- 
 terly Journal of Agriculture. — Loudon's Ency. of 
 Agriculture. — Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. 
 
 AGE OF PLANTS. Either the average total 
 existence of any species of plants, or the parti- 
 cular period of its existence at which any indi- 
 vidual plant has arrived. The existence of a 
 plant, in a general view, is commensurate with 
 its performance of organic functions, and does 
 not include the exertion of vital energy, either 
 by reproduction or otherwise, after the plant is 
 eradicated, cut down, or dismembered ; and the 
 existence of the short-lived kinds of plants ter- 
 minates with the completion of a single fructifi- 
 cation, while that of the long-lived kinds includes 
 many fructifications, and extends beyond the last 
 of them till exfoliation ceases, or the root is torn up 
 or dissevered from the stem. Some of the minute 
 
AGENT. 
 
 26 
 
 AGENT. 
 
 fungi, commonly termed mould, seldom exist 
 above a few days. All plants, in reference to 
 their total period of existence, are usually distri- 
 buted into three classes, — annuals, biennials, 
 wad. perennials. An annual germinates, fructifies, 
 and dies off at the roots in the course of a single 
 season ; a biennial germinates and grows in one 
 season, and fructifies and dies off at the roots in 
 the second season : and a perennial fructifies 
 oftener than once, and may perform organic 
 functions during any number of years from three 
 to several thousands. 
 
 AGENT. An inferior officially acting for a 
 superior in the management of an estate, of a 
 farm, or part of a farm. Agents are of vari- 
 ous classes, and have various powers ; and some- 
 times two or three of the same class, or with the 
 same powers, have different names. To prevent 
 confusion, therefore, we shall in this article no- 
 tice all the principal ones. 
 
 Persons who conduct the business of an estate 
 are the most important class of agents, and are 
 usually called agents in Ireland, factors in Scot- 
 land, and stewards, land - stewards, or resident 
 managers in England. They are of three classes, 
 — the agents, factors, or stewards of absentee 
 landlords, — the agents, factors, or stewards of re- 
 sident landlords, who, from nonage, ignorance, 
 disinclination, or other cause, take no interest 
 in the details of management, — and the agents, 
 factors, or stewards of resident landlords, who 
 exercise personal inspection over their estates, 
 maintain personal acquaintance with the condi- 
 tion of their farms and tenants, and bestow con- 
 siderable time and care on all the more important 
 departments of business. The first class usually 
 wield all the power of the proprietor without any 
 effective control ; the second class wield all the 
 proprietor's power, subject occasionally to a con- 
 trol more mischievous than beneficial ; and the 
 third class are rather the assistants of proprietors 
 than their representatives, and possess only lim- 
 ited and indirect powers of either achieving good 
 or inflicting evil. Any farmer will see at a glance 
 that an estate under the third kind of agency is 
 likely to be incomparably better managed for the 
 interests of both the proprietor and the tenant, 
 than an estate under the first or the second kinds ; 
 and that, so far from being exposed to the priva- 
 tions and mischiefs of mere delegated power, it 
 enjoys or ought to enjoy all the advantages of the 
 proprietor's personal supervision, aided by that 
 of an intelligent assistant. But agents of the 
 first and the second classes possess responsibility 
 of the highest order, and wield powers which are 
 likely to have a heavier influence upon tenantry 
 than the direct powers of proprietors ; and hence, 
 except when they are men of high qualifications 
 and fine moral character, they rarely fail to be 
 more or less scourges of society, and to earn for 
 themselves an inglorious reputation. A large 
 proportion of land -stewards are mere men of 
 
 business or legal practitioners, without any fair 
 degree of acquaintance with rural affairs, far 
 more solicitous to obtain prompt payments of 
 rent than well informed as to the kind of treat- 
 ment by which these are best secured, — and gen- 
 erally ignorant respecting at once the wise man 
 agement of tenantry, the real resources of estates, 
 and the true interests of proprietors ; and they, 
 in consequence, become capricious, short-sighted, 
 domineering, and oppressive, driving good ten- 
 ants into difficulties, privations, or despair, pro- 
 voking worthless tenants into litigiousness and 
 acts of wanton damage, and converting their very 
 zeal for regular and large proceeds of rent into 
 the certain and rapid impoverishment of at once 
 the tenantry, the estate, and the rent-roll. In 
 Ireland especially this is felt to be the case in a 
 great proportion of instances. " The agent's 
 duties generally," said a witness, himself a barris- 
 ter-at-law, in evidence before the Parliamentary 
 Commissioners in September 1844, " an agent's 
 duties generally consist in enforcing the rents by 
 the aid of his bailiffs, and putting money into his 
 landlord's pockets, and a per-centage into his 
 own, and in nothing else." Other land-stewards, 
 however, besides being, in all respects, profes- 
 sionally qualified for their responsible office, are 
 incapable of any conduct but such as is just, 
 generous, or noble ; and such men have, in not a 
 few instances, acquitted themselves to the full as 
 wisely and patriotically as if they had been, in 
 their own persons, the very best of landlords. 
 
 Every land-steward ought to possess skill in 
 accounts, acquaintance with the law of landlord 
 and tenant, considerable knowledge of human 
 nature, large experience in negotiating with 
 equals and inferiors, perfect integrity of moral 
 character, much suavity and firmness of temper, 
 and a full knowledge of practical agriculture, of 
 land-surveying, of planting, and of all the por- 
 tions of science and mechanics which are con- 
 nected with the explanation of agricultural phe- 
 nomena, and the promotion of agricultural im- 
 provement. His skill in accounts is requisite for 
 the correctness and good order of his numerous 
 pecuniary transactions, not alone with the ten- 
 antry, but in connexion with his general manage- 
 ment; his acquaintance with law is necessary 
 for avoiding litigations, and inducing a liberal 
 construction of the conditions of leases; his know- 
 ledge of human nature, and his experience in 
 general society, are requisite for successful deal- 
 ing with the variety and the occasional knotti- 
 ncss of character which he may have to encoun- 
 ter among tenants ; his uprightness in moral 
 principle and conciliatoriness in general manners, 
 are essential for his commanding the respect of 
 his people, dissuading them from folly and vice, 
 and inducing them to resort to him as their coun- 
 sellor and peacemaker ; his knowledge of practi- 
 cal agriculture is requisite for his acting intelli- 
 gently in the details of agricultural management 
 
AGENT. 
 
 27 
 
 AGENT. 
 
 and negociation, and even for his escaping the I 
 derision or mistrust of his people ; his knowledge 
 of land-surveying is requisite for his advantage- 
 ously laying out half- waste lands, and for his 
 checking the proceedings of professional men ; 
 and his knowledge of the principles of engineer- 
 ing, the laws of mechanical science, and the dis- 
 coveries of chemistry, meteorology, electro-mag- 
 netism, vegetable physiology, and experimental 
 philosophy, are requisite for his superintending 
 processes of thorough-draining, laying out water- 
 meadows, directing the construction of the mill 
 and engine-works of the farmery, assisting in 
 analyses of soils, explaining the phenomena of 
 occasional failure in crops, directing a judicious 
 selection and application of manures, detecting 
 minute causes of depredations in the action of 
 insects and fungi, encouraging eligible experi- 
 ments in fertilizing and culture, and promoting 
 the hundreds of other processes for improvements 
 in farming which are suggested by the combined 
 progress of scientific discovery and artistic skill. 
 If it be said that few men possess all these quali- 
 fications, then the sooner every land-steward be 
 required to possess them all the better ; and, in 
 the meantime, let only him be selected for the 
 next vacancy in the office of land-steward, who 
 possesses as many of them as possible. Or if it 
 be said that to require all these qualifications 
 from a land-steward is to exact more from him 
 than is required in a landed-proprietor, let it be 
 understood, — first, that a steward really requires 
 additional qualification to compensate for the 
 care and energies which arise from the mere pro- 
 prietorial zeal of the landowner, — next, that all 
 landlords who manage their own estates would 
 speedily find it their interest to task themselves up 
 to the possession of the utmost possible amount of 
 these qualifications, — and, thirdly, that, judging 
 from the present rapid march of improvement, 
 the time is not far off when every land-steward 
 and every land -owner must either possess all 
 these qualifications to the full, or incur the com- 
 miseration and scorn, not only of farmers, but of 
 farmers' hinds. 
 
 The land-steward ought statedly to reside either 
 in the mansion of the estate, or in some other com- 
 fortable and equally central abode ; and if a por- 
 tion of the estate lie at such a distance as not to 
 be under easy supervision from his stated resi- 
 dence, he ought to have there a comfortable se- 
 condary residence, and to spend in it small pe- 
 riodical portions of his time. His professional 
 apartments ought to be a principal office, a com- 
 modious business-room, a small ante-room, and a 
 safe-keep or small fire-proof room ; and his pro- 
 fessional furniture ought to include a general 
 map of the estate, portable separate maps with 
 accompanying registers, books of valuation of 
 each field and tenement, rental-books, a general 
 register of trees and copsewood, legal documents, 
 a book of abstracts, a small laboratory, an agri- 
 cultural library, arid the instruments for survey- 
 
 ing, measuring, mapping, and levelling. Yet 
 some of the details of furniture and appliances 
 of management which are quite essential for con- 
 ducting the agency of a minutely divided estate, 
 farmed by ignorant peasant-tenantry in Ireland, 
 would be quite useless and even absurd in the 
 factorship of a largely divided, opulently tenanted, 
 and intelligently farmed estate in the best agri- 
 cultural districts of Scotland ; for in the former 
 case the agent deals with a rabble and boorish 
 crowd of potato-fed tenants -at-will, while, in the 
 latter, the factor deals with a small body of well- 
 conditioned gentlemen, almost or altogether his 
 equals in both intelligence and rank. 
 
 A land-steward either may be the bailiff of a 
 manor in his own person, or may enjoy the as- 
 sistance of such an officer in the person of another 
 man. When an estate possesses not the status of 
 a manor, its powers of legal agency are wielded 
 by the steward ; and when an estate does pos- 
 sess that status, these powers are wielded by 
 the bailiff. A steward cannot bind his principal 
 beyond the limits of his delegated authority ; 
 for though, if he were a general agent, he would 
 in every official proceeding bind his principal, 
 yet, because he is an agent, or holds an appoint- 
 ment for only a particular purpose, he can bind 
 no farther than to the extent of instructions 
 given. A lease agreed for with an agent who 
 acts under power of attorney, and executed by 
 such an agent in terms of agreement made with 
 him, binds the principal. The bailiff of a manor 
 is appointed only to collect rents, gather fines, 
 enforce forfeitures, and perform similar offices ; 
 and having no interest or estate in the manor it- 
 self, he can neither make leases for years, nor 
 enter into any other contracts which affect the 
 property of the manor. Yet, simply in connex- 
 ion with his collecting rents, and in order to 
 prevent loss to his principal from the expiry of 
 leases during the latter's absence, or incapacity, 
 the bailiff has power to make leases at will, or to 
 continue the quondam lessees in possession under 
 the new character of tenants-at-will ; and he may 
 also receive a special delegated power to grant 
 leases for years, — that power, however, being only 
 such as might be delegated to any other person, 
 and not becoming identified with the bailiff's 
 official character, and capable of being exercised 
 only within the strict limits assigned in the act 
 of delegation. A bailiff may repair the materials 
 of a building, but cannot substitute one kind for 
 another, as, for example, slate for thatch ; and, 
 in general, he may do any thing which is obvi- 
 ously for his principal's benefit, but cannot, with- 
 out his consent, do anything which might be 
 construed to be for his disadvantage. 
 
 The principal subagents or assistants of the 
 land-steward, on a large estate, or on one which 
 consists of mutually detached portions, are the 
 land-reeve, the book-keeper, the solicitor, and 
 the land-surveyor. The land-reeve — also called 
 | the woodward, the ground-officer, and the stew- 
 
AGENT. 
 
 28 
 
 AGREEMENT. 
 
 ard's bailiff— is appointed over a district or de- 
 partment of the estate, and attends to the condi- 
 tion of the woods, the fences, the hedge-trees, 
 the gates, the roads, the water-courses, and the 
 buildings, to the stocking of commons, to the 
 prevention of encroachments, and to the repres- 
 sion of all sources of damage whether among ten- 
 ants or among interlopers and strangers. The 
 book-keeper — also called the office-clerk and the 
 under-steward — forms the registers of the estate, 
 makes out rentals, keeps the accounts, and assists 
 in all the more immediate and responsible duties 
 of the stewardship. The solicitor, attorney, or 
 law-assistant, is a professional person, occasionally 
 called in, and is employed only when the steward 
 does not possess a sufficient amount of legal 
 knowledge and accountantship to perform the 
 duties ; he is not a desirable officiate upon an 
 estate ; yet, when unavoidably employed, he 
 usually, for a comparatively small salary or allow- 
 ance, collects the rents, keeps the accounts, and 
 gives requisite advice to the other officers of the 
 estate. The land-surveyor is likewise a profes- 
 sional man; and is employed, as occasions re- 
 quire, to measure and map portions of the estate, 
 to act as a referee or an arbiter, and to effect an 
 amicable adjustment of disputes. 
 
 The farm-steward — usually called in England 
 the farm-bailiff, and in Scotland the grieve — is 
 the farmer's chief assistant, and often his repre- 
 sentative and second-self, upon a large farm of 
 either tillage or mixed husbandry. He ought to 
 have a tolerably good education, a knowledge of 
 accounts, ability to measure work, land, and tim- 
 ber, and a thorough acquaintance with all the 
 departments of practical farming, from the coars- 
 est cases of the farm-yard to the nicest manipula- 
 tions of the husbandman's art. He inspects and 
 controls the field-workers and the ploughmen ; he 
 exercises all authority over the farm during the 
 farmer's absence or temporary incapacity ; he 
 has charge of the corn-barn, the granaries, and 
 the provision-stores; he performs all the nicer 
 and more responsible duties of the farm, but sel- 
 dom works with horses, or stoops to offices of 
 drudgery or hard labour ; and he ought to be 
 active, considerate, shrewd, and upright, — con- 
 stantly studying the combination of the interests 
 of his master with the utmost possible comfort 
 of the servants. — The bailiff and gardener, or the 
 gardener and grieve, is a mongrel officiate be- 
 tween farm-steward and kitchen-gardener ; he 
 seldom excels in the duties of either of his capa- 
 cities ; and he is usually found only on farms of 
 small extent and indifferent condition. — The 
 forester or head woodsman has a similar charge 
 over woodlands to that which the land-reeve pos- 
 sesses over an arable district of an estate ; and 
 he directs and superintends the operations of 
 planting, pruning, rearing, barking, and felling 
 trees, of making charcoal, and of forming, thin- 
 ning, or otherwise managing fences, coppices, 
 and plantations. The demesne-steward conducts 
 
 the management and business of the parks, lawns, 
 and other home-grounds immediately around a 
 mansion; he even extends his care over the 
 whole of an estate, when it is small in extent, 
 and wholly retained by its proprietor ; he like- 
 wise wields influence in the stables, in the gar- 
 den, and in other departments ; and he may be 
 regarded as discharging, within the demesne or 
 the estate, the duties of a land-steward, a bailiff, 
 and a forester, and, in some degree also, those of 
 a house-steward. — Other officials than those we 
 have named cannot properly be included in the 
 class of agents, and will be noticed in the article 
 Farm-Servants : which see. 
 
 AGISTMENT. The eating of crops by cattle 
 upon the ground, or the pasturing of another 
 person's cattle for hire. " If," says Blackstone, 
 "a man takes in a horse or other cattle to graze 
 and depasture in his grounds, which the law calls 
 agistment, he takes them upon an implied con- 
 tract to return them on demand to the owner. 
 He cannot, like an inn-keeper, retain them till 
 payment." — The tithe exigible from crops eaten 
 upon the ground, or from pasturage consumed 
 by hire, is called the tithe of agistment. This 
 tithe, in the case of eaten crops, is estimated 
 according to the value of what is supposed to be 
 consumed ; and, in the case of grasslands, it is 
 payable on clover and similar crops, when first 
 fed and then permitted to run to seed, — on grass- 
 crops first depastured and afterwards cut down, 
 — and, with some exceptions, on whatever pasture 
 lands within a parish are occupied by cattle which 
 are untitheable as live stock, and are sold or re- 
 moved from the parish. The agistment tithe is 
 calculated from the time of the cattle being 
 severally placed upon the land till that of their 
 being turned off ; and it is usually rated at one- 
 tenth of the rack-rent of the land, or at one- tenth 
 of the hire paid by strangers for the cattle's graz- 
 ing, or at one-tenth of the rate usually charged 
 in the neighbourhood for pasturing, or, in the 
 case of feeding upon turnips, at such an estimated 
 rate per head of cattle as shall correspond to the 
 value of the crop. Exceptions to the payment 
 of this tithe occur in the case of all depastured 
 aftergrass of meadows which, in the same season, 
 have yielded a crop of hay, — in the case of all 
 stall-fed or straw-yard cattle, tithe being exigible 
 from the cut or removed crops on which these 
 are fed, — in the case of all cattle which become 
 profitable to the tithe-owner by the production 
 of young, or by being milked, or shorn, — and in 
 the case of all working cattle which are employed 
 wholly or partially within the parish, of all cows 
 which are maintained for the supply of the far- 
 mer's family, of all sheep and oxen which are 
 slaughtered for consumption on the farm, and 
 of all young stock which are reared for the 
 plough or the dairy, and not removed from their 
 native parish. 
 
 AGREEMENT. The statement of conditions 
 between tenant and landlord, on which a farm is 
 
AGRICULTOR. 
 
 29 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 rented or leased. In England it needs to be 
 made in writing for a lease of more than three 
 years ; and, though an unwritten one for a less 
 period than three years will suffice, yet, for the 
 sake of both parties, an agreement ought, in 
 every case, to be in writing. In Scotland a lease 
 of land is not susceptible of proof upon mere 
 parole evidence, if for more than a single year ; 
 and either party is entitled to resile at the end 
 of each successive year. An agreement to make 
 a lease amounts, in equity, to an actual lease ; 
 but whether any particular agreement constitutes 
 a present lease, or a lease to commence at some 
 future period, depends on the intention of the 
 parties, and must be ascertained from its own 
 language. See the article Lease. 
 
 AGRICULTOR or Agriculturist. A person who 
 is skilled in the art and science of cultivating land. 
 Agricultor is the pure Latin name, and agricultu- 
 rist is the modified name in common English use. 
 An agriculturist is a scientific person, and may 
 or may not be engaged in actual farming ; and a 
 farmer is a practical person, and may or may not 
 have a knowledge of the scientific principles of 
 his art. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. The science 
 which professes to teach the application of the 
 established principles of chemistry, in regular 
 and systematic form, to the theory and practice 
 of agriculture. "Agricultural chemistry," says 
 Sir H. Davy in his opening lecture on this sub- 
 ject, "has for its object all those changes in the 
 arrangements of matter connected with the 
 growth and nourishment of plants, — the compar- 
 ative values of their produce as food, — the consti- 
 tution of soils, — the manner in which lands are 
 enriched by manure, or rendered fertile by the 
 different processes of cultivation." 
 
 In 1795 the Earl of Dundonald addressed a 
 ' Treatise showing the intimate connexion that 
 subsists between Agriculture and Chemistry,' to 
 the cultivators of the soil in Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and the proprietors of West Indian 
 estates. The Earl, adopting the language and 
 espousing the enlightened views of the French 
 chemists of the day, drew together much element- 
 ary matter on the composition of earths and 
 vegetables, and the treatment of soils for agri- 
 cultural purposes on just chemical principles; 
 but his lordship's book was generally disregarded 
 as the speculation of a mere theorist unworthy 
 the attention of 'practical men,' — as if practice 
 alone is not almost as fruitful in mistakes as mere 
 theory. Sir Humphrey Davy's course of lectures 
 before the Board of Agriculture from the year 
 1802 to 1812, attracted some attention to the theo- 
 retical cultivation of agriculture, particularly the 
 analysis of soils, the mutual effects of vegetables 
 and the atmosphere, — the doctrine of manures, — 
 and the proper rotation of crops. Since the pub- 
 lication of these lectures, in 1814, various impor- 
 tant contributions to scientific agriculture, or in 
 explanation of the principles which ought to 
 
 regulate the practice of the agriculturist, have 
 been made both in our own country and on the 
 continent. The writings of Berzelius, Mitscher 
 lich, Mulder, Johnston, and Liebig, — of the lat- 
 ter especially — have developed the special and 
 important bearings of chemical science on agri- 
 cultural art in a way which must command the 
 attention of all whose occupations or interests 
 are connected with the cultivation of the soil. 
 
 "The development," says Liebig, "of the stem, 
 leaves, blossoms, and fruit of plants is dependent 
 on certain conditions, the knowledge of which 
 enables us to exercise some influence on their in- 
 ternal constituents as well as on their size. It 
 is the duty of the natural philosopher to discover 
 what these conditions are ; for the fundamental 
 principles of agriculture must be based on a 
 knowledge of them. There is no profession which 
 can be compared in importance with that of 
 agriculture, for to it belongs the production of 
 food for man and animals ; on it depends the 
 welfare and development of the whole human 
 species, the riches of states, and all commerce. 
 There is no other profession in which the appli- 
 cation of correct principle is productive of more 
 beneficial effects, or is of greater and more de- 
 cided influence. 
 
 " In addition to the general conditions, such as 
 heat, light, moisture, and the component parts 
 of the atmosphere, which are necessary for the 
 growth of all plants, certain substances are found 
 to exercise a peculiar influence on the develop- 
 ment of particular families. These substances 
 either are already contained in the soil, or are sup- 
 plied to it in the form of the matters known under 
 the general name of manure. But what does the 
 soil contain ? And what are the components of 
 the substances used as manure? Until these 
 points are satisfactorily determined, a rational 
 system of agriculture cannot exist. The power 
 and knowledge of the physiologist, of the agri- 
 culturist and chemist must be united for the 
 complete solution of these questions ; and, in or- 
 der to attain this end, a commencement must be 
 made. 
 
 " The general object of agriculture is to produce 
 in the most advantageous manner certain quali- 
 ties, or a maximum size, in certain parts or or- 
 gans of particular plants. Now, this object can 
 be attained only by the application of those sub- 
 stances which we know to be indispensable to the 
 development of these parts or organs, or by sup- 
 plying the conditions necessary to the produc- 
 tion of the qualities desired. 
 
 "The special object of agriculture is to obtain 
 an abnormal development and production of cer- 
 tain parts of plants, or of certain vegetable mat- 
 ters, which are employed as food for man and 
 animals, or for the purposes of industry. 
 
 "The means employed for effecting these two 
 purposes are very different. Thus the mode of 
 culture employed for the purpose of procuring 
 fine pliable straw for Florentine hats, is the very 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 30 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 opposite to that which must be adopted in order 
 to produce a maximum of corn from the same 
 plant." 
 
 Nutriment of plants. — There are two prevailing 
 views in reference to the nutriment of plants : 
 the one regarding it as wholly derivable from in- 
 organic matter and decomposed organic matter, 
 — the other, as partly or even chiefly from unde- 
 composed though dead organic matter. The for- 
 mer of these views has been ably advocated by 
 Liebig by reference to numberless chemical and 
 physiological data; and even though it should 
 not prove to be wholly correct, his essay can 
 scarcely fail to exert a very modifying and im- 
 proving influence on many important topics in 
 the science of agriculture. The principal advo- 
 cates of the opposite opinion are Boussingault, 
 Saussure, Hermann, Payen, Mulder, and Madden. 
 We shall present a condensed view, first of Lie- 
 big's theory, and next of that of his opponents. 
 
 VIEW OP THE THEORY THAT THE NUTRIMENT OP PLANTS 
 IS DERIVED SOLELY PROM INORGANIC MATTER. 
 
 There are four elements which in general form 
 the organic matter of plants ; carbon, hydrogen, 
 oxygen, and nitrogen, two or more of which united 
 in variable proportions constitute an almost in- 
 finite number of proximate principles. Plants 
 derive nourishment from the atmosphere and the 
 soil. The former consists of carbon from carbonic 
 acid, nitrogen from ammoniacal gas, and oxygen 
 and hydrogen from watery vapour ; and the latter 
 consists of the same elements from decomposed 
 organic matters and from water. Humus was 
 formerly supposed to yield the principal aliment ; 
 but it is now known to be both an indirect and 
 a quite secondary source. 
 
 Assimilation of Carbon. — Humus is soluble in 
 an extremely minute degree in water, but when 
 treated with alkalies, the humic acid formed is 
 somewhat soluble. Suppose this acid to be ab- 
 sorbed in the form of that salt which is most 
 soluble, the humate of lime, and suppose that 
 potash, soda, the oxides of iron and manganese 
 take up the same quantity of the acid as lime, 
 Berthier found that 1,000 lbs. of dry fir- wood 
 yielded 4 lbs ashes, containing 53 per cent, me- 
 tallic oxides. A Hessian acre yields annually 
 2,920 lbs. fir- wood, containing 6 - 17 lbs. metallic 
 oxides. Then 1 lb. of lime, uniting with 12 lbs. 
 humic acid, the 6*17 lbs. of the oxides would in- 
 troduce 74 lbs. humic acid, which, containing 58 
 per cent, carbon, would correspond to 100 lbs. of 
 wood ; but the acre really yields 2,920 lbs. In 
 the same way the oxides in wheat straw would 
 produce 93*6 lbs. woody fibre to the acre, whereas 
 the produce is 1,961 lbs. of straw composed simi- 
 larly to woody fibre. 
 
 Calculating the quantity of this acid which 
 plants might receive under the most favourable 
 circumstances by the agency of rain-water, and 
 supposing all the rain which falls on an acre to 
 be received by the plants, and all to be saturated 
 
 by humate of lime, then the plants would receive 
 only 330 lbs. humic acid, while the acre produces 
 2,843 lbs. of grain and straw, so that the 330 of 
 acid would only account for a small quantity of 
 the carbon actually obtained. 
 
 Again, the Hessian acre of wood or meadow 
 yields 1,109 lbs. carbon in its wood or hay, — 1,032 
 in the beetroot without the leaves, or 1,124 lbs. 
 in straw and grain ; equal surfaces of average 
 fertility yielding equal quantities of carbon ; and 
 yet the conditions in the growth of these plants 
 have been very dissimilar. 
 
 Moreover, the soil of meadow and forest, in- 
 stead of losing carbon, actually increases its quan- 
 tity, notwithstanding the removal of so much in 
 the wood or hay, and the soil of a field which is 
 manured contains no more than a meadow or 
 forest which is not manured. 
 
 These considerations prove that the common 
 view of the nutrition of plants by humic acid is 
 incorrect. Whence, then, is their carbon de- 
 rived % 
 
 The quantities of carbonic acid in the air aver- 
 ages 4 vols, in 10,000 vols., so that the weight of 
 carbon which presses on an acre of land is about 
 7 tons. The quantity of oxygen estimated to be 
 consumed by the respiration of 1,000,000,000 of 
 men in one year is 0'79745 cubic miles. A 
 town of 7,000 inhabitants consumes annually 
 551,000,000 cubic feet of oxygen in the combus- 
 tion of wood. Hence we may conceive of the 
 enormous quantity of carbonic acid constantly 
 thrown into the air by the respiration of men 
 and animals, by combustion, and the putrefac- 
 tion of animal and vegetable matter. Now, anal- 
 ysis shows that the quantity of oxygen is the 
 same now as it was 1,000 years since. There 
 must be, therefore, some means of replacing the 
 oxygen consumed, and of removing the carbonic 
 acid which is formed. 
 
 Plants effect both of these changes, absorbing 
 carbonic acid, decomposing it and giving off 
 oxygen. A plant placed in water containing 
 carbonic acid, and exposed to the sun's light, 
 removes the acid and evolves oxygen, which may 
 be collected in a receiver and examined ; it in- 
 creases in weight more than can be accounted 
 for by the carbon taken up, which shows that the 
 elements of water are assimilated at the same 
 time. The quantity of carbon in the air may be 
 shown to be 3,300 billions of lbs., which is more 
 than all the plants and the strata of coal on the 
 earth. Calculating from the quantity of carbonic 
 acid absorbed by a freshly white-washed surface 
 in a given time, a Hessian acre might absorb in 
 200 days 11*353 lbs. carbonic acid, containing 
 3,304 lbs. carbon, which is 3 times as much as 
 obtained from plants growing on the same sur- 
 face. 
 
 Carbonic acid is absorbed from the air by the 
 loaves, and from the soil by the roots, for it forms 
 an atmosphere in the soil around decaying humus. 
 When exposed to sun-light it is decomposed while 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 3 
 
 1 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 oxygen is evolved, but at night this action ceases, 
 and the acid is emitted while oxygen is absorbed. 
 The emission of the acid is a simple mechanical 
 process, the absorption of oxygen a chemical pro- 
 cess, due to its action on the various organic sub- 
 stances in the flowers, fruits, &c, but neither 
 have any thing to do with the process of assimi- 
 lation. Thus volatile oils, tannin, &c., have a 
 tendency to oxidize, and hence plants containing 
 them absorb more oxygen than others ; the taste- 
 less leaves of the Agave Americana absorb 03 of 
 their volume of oxygen in the dark during 24 
 hours, the leaves of the Pinus abies absorb 10 
 times, and those of the Quercus robur 14 times 
 their volume. 
 
 These and other facts prove that the quantity 
 of oxygen thrown into the atmosphere by plants, 
 is greater than that which they receive from it. 
 
 To conclude, the carbon contained in plants is 
 derived from the carbonic acid of the atmosphere, 
 through the leaves or from that contained in the 
 soil through the roots. 
 
 Origin and action of Humus. — All plants and 
 vegetable structures undergo two processes of de- 
 composition after death. One of these is named 
 fermentation ; the other, 'putrefaction, decay, or 
 eremacausis. 
 
 The decay of woody fibre — the principal con- 
 stituents of all plants — is accompanied by a phe- 
 nomenon of a peculiar kind. This substance, in 
 contact with air or oxygen gas, converts the latter 
 into an equal volume of carbonic acid, and its 
 decay ceases upon the disappearance of the oxy- 
 gen. If the carbonic acid is removed, and oxy- 
 gen replaced, its decay recommences, that is, it 
 again converts oxygen into carbonic acid. 
 
 Woody fibre in a state of decay is the substance 
 called humus. Its property of converting sur- 
 rounding oxygen gas into carbonic acid dimin- 
 ishes in proportion as its decay advances, and at 
 last a certain quantity of a brown coaly-looking 
 substance remains, in which this property is en- 
 tirely wanting. This substance is called mould ; 
 it is the product of the complete decay of woody 
 fibre. 
 
 Humus is a continued source of carbonic acid, 
 which it emits very slowly. An atmosphere of 
 carbonic acid is therefore contained in every fer- 
 tile soil, and is the first and most important food 
 for the young plants which grow in it. 
 
 The roots perform the functions of the leaves 
 from the first moment of their formation ; they 
 extract from the soil their proper nutriment, 
 namely, the carbonic acid generated by the 
 humus. 
 
 By loosening the soil which surrounds young 
 plants, we favour the access of air, and the for- 
 mation of carbonic acid, which is absorbed, and 
 is replaced by atmospheric air, by which process 
 the decay is renewed, and a fresh portion of car- 
 bonic acid formed. A plant at this time receives 
 its food both by the roots and by the organs above 
 ground, and advances rapidly to maturity. 
 
 When a plant has quite risen above ground, 
 and when the organs by which it obtains focd 
 from the atmosphere are formed, the carbonic 
 acid of the soil is no further required. 
 
 The power which roots possess of taking up 
 nourishment does not cease as long as nutriment 
 is present. When the food of a plant is in greater 
 quantity than its organs require for their own 
 perfect development, the superfluous nutriment 
 is not returned to the soil, but is employed in the 
 formation of new organs. At the side of a cell, 
 already formed, another cell arises : at the side 
 of a twig and leaf, a new twig and a new leaf are 
 developed. 
 
 The functions of the leaves and other green 
 parts of plants, to absorb carbonic acid, and with 
 the aid of light and moisture, to appropriate its 
 carbon, are continually in operation. But the 
 new products arising from this continued assimi- 
 lation are no longer employed by the perfect 
 leaves in their own increase ; they serve for the 
 formation of woody fibre, and all the solid mat- 
 ters of similar composition. The leaves now pro- 
 duce sugar, amylin or starch, and acids, which 
 were previously formed by the roots, when they 
 were necessary for the development of the stem, 
 buds, leaves, and branches of the plant. 
 
 The organs of assimilation, at this period of 
 their life, receive more nourishment from the at- 
 mosphere than they employ in their own sus- 
 tenance ; and when the formation of the woody 
 substance has advanced to a certain extent, the 
 expenditure of the nutriment, the supply of which 
 still remains the same, takes a new direction, 
 and blossoms are produced. The functions of the 
 leaves of most plants cease upon the ripening of 
 their fruit, because the products of their action 
 are no longer needed. They now yield to the 
 chemical influence of the oxygen of the air, gen- 
 erally suffer a change in colour, and fall off. 
 
 A peculiar transformation of the matters con- 
 tained in all plants takes place in the period be- 
 tween blossoming and the ripening of the fruit ; 
 new compounds are produced, which furnish con- 
 stituents of the blossoms, fruit, and seed. An 
 organic chemical transformation is the separa- 
 tion of the elements of one or several combina- 
 tions, and their reunion into two or several 
 others, which contain the same number of ele- 
 ments, either grouped in another manner, or in 
 different proportions. Of two compounds formed 
 in consequence of such a change, one remains as 
 a component part of the blossom or fruit, while 
 the other is separated by the roots in the form of 
 excrementitious matter. 
 
 Hydrocyanic acid and water are decomposed 
 by contact with muriatic acid into formic acid 
 and ammonia ; the muriatic seeking to be satu- 
 rated by a base, selects the elements nitrogen and 
 hydrogen to form ammonia, with which it unites, 
 and its power of producing farther change is lost. 
 By the separation of ammonia, the remaining ele- 
 ments unite to produce formic acid. The am- 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 3 
 
 monia represents the substance assimilated by j 
 the plant, and the formic acid the excrementi- 
 tious matter. 
 
 By means of chemical transformations a great 
 variety of products may now be obtained artifi- 
 cially, which, having been found in plants and 
 animals, were supposed to result from the vital 
 principle. The volatile oil of valerian may be 
 obtained from the oil generated during the fer- 
 mentation of potatoes ; the oil of Spiraea ulmaria 
 from the crystalline matter of the bark of the 
 willow. We can form malic, oxalic, and formic 
 acids, urea, &c. 
 
 Transformations of existing compounds are 
 constantly taking place during the whole life of 
 a plant, in consequence of which, and as the re- 
 sults of these transformations, there are produced 
 gaseous matters which are excreted by the leaves 
 and blossoms, solid excrements deposited in the 
 bark, and fluid soluble substances which are 
 eliminated by the roots. Substances containing 
 a large proportion of carbon are excreted by the 
 roots and absorbed by the soil. Through the ex- 
 pulsion of these matters unfitted for nutrition, 
 the soil receives again with usury the carbon 
 which it had at first yielded to the young plants 
 as food, in the form of carbonic acid. 
 
 The soluble matter thus acquired by the soil is 
 still capable of decay and putrefaction, and by 
 undergoing these processes furnishes renewed 
 sources of nutrition to another generation of 
 plants ; it becomes humus. 
 
 Humus does not nourish plants by being taken 
 up and assimilated in its unaltered state, but by 
 presenting a slow and lasting source of carbonic 
 acid, which is absorbed by the roots, and is the 
 principal nutriment of young plants at a time 
 when, being destitute of leaves, they are unable 
 to extract food from the atmosphere. "Many 
 physiologists," says Mr. Shier, in the notes to his 
 edition of Sir H. Davy's ' Elements of Agricultu- 
 ral Chemistry,' "maintain that plants derive a 
 great part of their carbon from humous matter 
 in the soil, and that they absorb it in solution in 
 the form of humates of lime and ammonia. Lie- 
 big, while he admits that organic matter in the 
 soil is useful in supplying carbon, denies that it 
 is in the form of humates that it is taken up. 
 Organic matter in soils to which air has access 
 is continually undergoing decay, and carbonic 
 acid thus formed constitutes the carbonaceous 
 nutritive matter supplied by the soil. Liebig's 
 principal arguments against the common theory 
 may be thus condensed. 1st, The humic acid of 
 chemists does not occur in appreciable quantity 
 in fertile soils ; it is formed in the course of the 
 chemical processes had recourse to to procure it. 
 If humates existed in the soil and constituted 
 the food of plants, they would communicate a 
 brown tint, and be readily detected in the water 
 of springs, brooks, and rivers, but they are not 
 so ; neither do they occur in sea- water, hence, it 
 must be from carbonic acid that the immense | 
 
 12 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 crops of algee that grow on the bottom and shores 
 of the sea derive their carbon. 2d, The humates 
 are so little soluble, that it can be shown, that 
 all the rain that falls during the growth of com- 
 mon crops is incapable, even if it were all to be 
 saturated with humates, and to pass through the 
 plants, of affording a tithe of the carbon they 
 require. 3d, There was no original humus, and 
 hence it is not absolutely essential. 4th, Many 
 plants have but a point of attachment in the 
 soil, and live almost entirely by absorption from 
 the air. 5th, Neither in cultivated land that is 
 regularly manured, nor in forest and meadow 
 lands that are not, does the humus decrease ; in 
 the latter cases, indeed, it increases. Boussing- 
 ault shows in the case of the five- course rotation 
 already referred to, that the carbon contained by 
 the crops exceeded that contained by the man- 
 ure, by 4745-5 kilogrammes per hectare = 4233'9 
 lbs. per imperial acre. The carbon, therefore, 
 must, to this extent at least, have been derived 
 from the air ; and at the close of the rotation the 
 humus had not decreased. Hence, it may be in- 
 ferred, that the carbon derived from the organic 
 matter in the soil was also taken up in the form 
 of carbonic acid. Of recent attempts to settle 
 the question by direct experiment, those of Saus- 
 sure have attracted most attention. He endeav- 
 oured to show that soluble humates are taken up 
 and assimilated by causing plants of the bean 
 and polygonum to grow in a decoction of mould 
 in bicarbonate of potash. Liebig has criticised 
 these experiments, and shown, that they are in- 
 exact and inconclusive ; and that the results are 
 capable of a satisfactory explanation only on the 
 principles they were intended to refute. On the 
 whole then, it appears that there is no sufficient 
 reason for holding that soluble humates form any 
 appreciable or important part of the food of 
 plants, however useful humus may be, both as a 
 textural constituent of soils, and as affording car- 
 bonic acid by gradual decay." 
 
 Assimilation of Hydrogen. — We can conceive 
 of the formation of wood by the decomposition 
 of water ; its hydrogen uniting with the elements 
 of carbonic acid, and oxygen being eliminated. 
 Thus 100 parts carbonic acid unite with 8'04 
 hydrogen, to form woody fibre, and separate 
 7235 oxygen, which was combined with the 
 hydrogen. 
 
 From their generating caoutchouc, wax, fats, 
 and volatile oils containing hydrogen in largo 
 quantity, and no oxygen, we may be certain that 
 plants possess the property of decomposing water, 
 because from no other body could they obtain 
 the hydrogen of those matters. It has also been 
 proved by the observations of Humboldt on the 
 fungi, that water may be decomposed without 
 the assimilation of hydrogen. Water is a re- 
 markable combination of two elements, which 
 have the power to separate themselves from one 
 another, in innumerable processes, in a manner 
 | imperceptible to our senses ; while carbonic acid, 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 3 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 on the contrary, is only decomposable by violent 
 chemical action. 
 
 All the hydrogen necessary for the formation 
 of an organic compound is supplied to a plant 
 by the decomposition of water. The process of 
 assimilation, in its most simple form, consists in 
 the extraction of hydrogen from water, and car- 
 bon from carbonic acid, in consequence of which, 
 either all the oxygen of the water and carbonic 
 acid is separated, as in the formation of caout- 
 chouc, the volatile oils which contain no ox} r gen, 
 and other similar substances, or only a part of it 
 is exhaled. 
 
 The formation of acids is accompanied with 
 the smallest separation of oxygen ; the amount 
 of oxygen set free increases with the production 
 of the so-named neutral substances, and reaches 
 its maximum in the formation of oils. Fruits 
 remain acid in cold summers ; while the most 
 numerous trees under the tropics are those which 
 produce oils, caoutchouc, and other substances 
 containing very little oxygen. 
 
 Assimilation of Nitrogen. — There is no reason 
 for believing that the nitrogen, contained in all 
 parts of a vegetable structure, is derived from 
 that gas in its free state, for, excepting in the 
 case of ammonia, it cannot be made to unite di- 
 rectly with any element excepting oxygen. Am- 
 monia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, 
 and the last product of the putrefaction of animal 
 matters. It is capable of undergoing a multitude 
 of transformations, in contact with other bodies, 
 into the most various forms ; either alone or with 
 acids, it is very soluble in water; and hence it is the 
 chief form in which nitrogen is conveyed to plants. 
 
 The thousands of millions of men and animals 
 by death and decay yield a large quantity of am- 
 monia, a portion of which must escape into the 
 atmosphere ; and the reason why it has not been 
 previously detected is, that the quantity of air 
 submitted to analysis is very small. Liebig proved 
 its existence in pure rain-water by evaporation 
 with muriatic acid ; the sal ammoniac had always 
 a brown or yellow colour, with the offensive odour 
 of perspiration or animal excrements, from which 
 its origin might be inferred. It has since been 
 found by many others in rain-water, snow, and 
 hail. If we suppose 1 lb. of rain to contain £ 
 grain of ammonia, then 26,910 square feet (1 
 Hessian acre) must receive annually 88 lbs. of 
 ammonia or 71 lbs. of nitrogen, which is more of 
 the latter (in the form of vegetable albumen and 
 gluten) than is contained in 2,920 lbs. wood, 
 3,085 lbs. hay or 10 tons beetroot (the produce 
 of such an acre), but less than the grain, straw, 
 and roots of grain, on the same surface. 
 
 Ammonia is evidently taken up by the roots 
 of plants, and may be detected in many parts of 
 their structure, in the juice of the maple tree, in 
 the beetroot ; it is obtained in the distillation 
 of flowers, herbs, and roots, with water ; the juice 
 of the fresh tobacco leaf, and of the vine contains 
 ammonia. 
 
 I. 
 
 The quantity of gluten (a nitrogenous body) 
 contained in grain, seems to increase with the 
 quantity of ammonia arising from manures. Thus, 
 wheat grown in a soil manured with cow-dung 
 (containing a little nitrogen) yielded only 1T95 
 per cent, gluten, while in a soil manured with 
 human urine it afforded 35*1 per cent. Putrefied 
 urine contains a large proportion of nitrogen in 
 the form of ammoniacal salts. Guano yields also 
 much ammonia, and hence a part of its fertiliz- 
 ing effects. 
 
 Gypsum (plaster of Paris) acts beneficially by 
 fixing ammonia in the soil and preventing its 
 evaporation ; for the sulphate of lime and carbo- 
 nate of ammonia mutually decompose into sulphate 
 of ammonia and carbonate of lime. The use of 
 burned clay as manure and the fertility of ferru- 
 ginous soils depend on the fixation of ammonia 
 by alumina and sesquioxide of iron, with which 
 it forms chemical compounds. Powdered char- 
 coal absorbs 90 times its volume of ammonia, 
 decayed wood 72 times, and hence in part the 
 use of humus. 
 
 The conclusion, then, is well established that 
 the nitrogen of plants is derived from the am- 
 monia of the atmosphere. 
 
 Inorganic constituents of Plants. — Plants ab- 
 sorb the soluble materials in a soil indiscrimi- 
 nately, retaining such as are necessary and re- 
 turning the others as excrement. The various 
 acids in plants are combined with potash, soda, 
 lime, and magnesia, which regulate their forma- 
 tion, and when the plants are incinerated, these 
 salts remain as carbonates. And since certain 
 acids are peculiar to plants and essential to them, 
 alkaline bases must be equally necessary. The 
 capacity of saturation of these acids being uni- 
 form, the quantity of alkaline bases must be in- 
 variable. 
 
 The following analyses of ashes of two pine 
 trees by De Saussure, and of two fir trees by Ber- 
 thier, show that equivalent quantities of alkali 
 are present. 
 
 Pine from Mont Br even, 
 Carbonate of potash 3-60 contains of oxygen, 041 
 lime 46-34 " " 733 
 
 " magnesia 6 77 " " 1'27 
 
 56-71 Total oxygen 9 01 
 
 Pine from Mont La Salle, 
 Carbonate of potash 7-36 contains of oxygen 0'85 
 
 lime 51-19 " " 8-10 
 
 " magnesia 0000 " " 
 
 58-55 8-95 
 
 Fir from Allevard, 
 
 Potash 1 16 . 8 con tains of oxygen 342 
 Soda J 
 
 Lime .... 29-5 " " 8-20 
 
 Magnesia . . 32 " 1-20 
 
 45-5 Total oxygen 12 82 
 
 Fir from Norway, 
 
 Potash . . . contains of oxygen 2-4 
 
 Soda .... 20-7 " " 5-3 
 
 Lime • . . . 12 3 " « 3-45 
 
 Magnesia . . • 4-35 " " 1-69 
 
 5145 Total oxygen 12-84 
 
 f) 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 34 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The quantity of oxygen is too nearly the same 
 in the bases of the pines, although the bases vary, 
 to suppose it accidental; and in the fir trees, 
 after deducting the oxygen of the bases which 
 were combined 'with phosphoric, sulphuric, and 
 chlorohydric acids, the remainders are 11 "62 and 
 11-47 respectively. Hence the quantities of 
 oxygen being the same, equivalent quantities 
 of bases are saturated although these vary ma- 
 terially. 
 
 "If potatoes are grown where they are not 
 supplied with earth, the magazine of inorganic 
 bases (in cellars for example) a true alkali, called 
 solanin, of very poisonous nature, is formed in 
 the sprouts which extend towards the light, 
 while not the smallest trace of such a substance 
 can be discovered in the roots, herbs, blossoms, 
 or fruits of potatoes grown in fields. 
 
 "The conclusion to which all the foregoing 
 facts lead us is, that the alkaline bases existing 
 in the ashes of plants must be necessary to their 
 growth, since if this were not the case they would 
 not be retained. 
 
 "The perfect development of a plant accord- 
 ing to this view, is dependent on the presence of 
 alkalies or alkaline earths ; for when these sub- 
 stances are totally wanting, its growth will be 
 arrested, and when they are only deficient, it 
 must be impeded." 
 
 Ten thousand parts of oak-wood yield 250 
 parts of ashes, the same quantity of fir-wood 
 only 83, of linden-wood 500, of rye 440, and of 
 the herb of the potato-plant, 1,500 parts. 
 
 Firs and pines find a sufficient quantity of al- 
 kalies in granitic and barren sandy soils in which 
 oaks will not grow ; and wheat thrives in soils 
 favourable for the linden tree, because the bases 
 which are necessary to bring it to complete ma- 
 turity, exist there in sufficient quantity. 
 
 The Equisetaceao and all the genera of grasses 
 contain in the outer parts of their leaves and 
 stalk a large quantity of silicic acid and pot- 
 ash in the form of acid silicate of potash. The 
 proportion of this salt does not vary percepti- 
 bly in the soil of corn-fields, because it is again 
 conveyed to them as manure in the form of 
 putrefying straw. But this is not the case in a 
 meadow, and hence we never find a luxuriant 
 crop of grass on sandy and calcareous soils, which 
 contain little potash, evidently because one of 
 the constituents indispensable to the growth of 
 the plants is wanting. Soils formed from basalt^ 
 greywacke, and porphyry, are, cceteris paribus, 
 the best for meadow-land, on account of the 
 quantity of potash which enters into their com- 
 position. The potash abstracted by the plants is 
 restored under the annual irrigation. 
 
 A harvest of grain is obtained every 30 or 40 
 years from the soil of the Luneburg heath, by 
 strewing it with the ashes of the heath-plants 
 {Erica vulgaris) which grow on it. These plants 
 during the long period just mentioned collect the 
 potash and soda which are conveyed to them by 
 
 rain-water ; and it is by means of these alkalies 
 that oats, barley, and rye, to which they are in- 
 dispensable, are enabled to grow on this sandy 
 heath. 
 
 A proprietor of land in the vicinity of Gottin- 
 gen, in order to obtain potash, planted his whole 
 land with wormwood, the ashes of which are 
 well known to contain a large proportion of the 
 carbonate of that alkali. The consequence was, 
 that he rendered his land quite incapable of 
 bearing grain for many years, in consequence of 
 having entirely deprived the soil of its potash. 
 
 The supposition that alkalies or inorganic mat- 
 ter in general are generated by plants is refuted 
 by these facts. Steam and vapours have a re- 
 markable power of transporting solid fixed mat- 
 ter, either in the form of a gas or dissolved in 
 one. 
 
 It is known that in sea-storms, leaves of plants 
 in the direction of the wind are covered with 
 crystals of salt, even at the distance of from 20 
 to 30 miles from the sea. But it does not re- 
 quire a storm to cause the volatilization of the 
 salt, for the air hanging over the sea always con- 
 tains enough of this substance to make a solution 
 of nitrate of silver turbid, and every breeze must 
 carry this away. Now, as thousands of tons of 
 sea- water annually evaporate into the atmosphere, 
 a corresponding quantity of the salts dissolved in 
 it, viz. of common salt, chloride of potassium, 
 magnesia, and the remaining constituents of the 
 sea-water, will be conveyed by the wind to the 
 land. 
 
 By the continual evaporation of the sea, its 
 salts are spread over the whole surface of the 
 earth ; and being subsequently carried down by 
 the rain, furnish to the vegetation those salts 
 necessary to its existence. This is the origin of 
 the salts found in the ashes of plants, in those 
 cases where the soil could not have yielded them. 
 
 A rt of Culture. — Carbonic acid, ammonia, and 
 water yield elements for all the organs of plants. 
 Certain inorganic substances — salts and metallic 
 oxides — serve peculiar functions in their organ- 
 ism, and many of them must be viewed as essen- 
 tial constituents of particular parts. 
 
 The atmosphere and the soil offer the same 
 kind of nourishment to the leaves and roots. 
 The former contains a comparatively inexhaus- 
 tible supply of carbonic acid and ammonia ; the 
 latter, by means of its humus, generates con- 
 stantly fresh carbonic acid, while, during the 
 winter, rain and snow introduce into the soil a 
 quantity of ammonia, sufficient for the develop- 
 ment of the leaves and blossoms. 
 
 In whatever form we supply plants with those 
 substances which are the products of their own 
 action, in no instance do they appear to have 
 any effect upon their growth, or to replace what 
 they have lost. Sugar, gum, and starch, are not 
 food for plants, and the same must be said of 
 humic acid, which is so closely allied to them in 
 composition. 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 35 
 
 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The products generated by a plant may vary 
 exceedingly, according to the substances given 
 it as food. A superabundance of carbon in the 
 state of carbonic acid conveyed through the roots 
 of plants, without being accompanied by nitro- 
 gen, cannot be converted either into gluten, albu- 
 men, wood, or any other component part of an 
 organ ; but either it will be separated in the form 
 of excrements, such as sugar, starch, oil, wax, 
 resin, mannite, or gum, or those substances will 
 be deposited in greater or less quantity in the 
 wide cells and vessels. 
 
 The increase or diminution of the vital activity 
 of the vegetables depends only on heat and solar 
 light, which we have not arbitrarily at our dis- 
 posal : all that we can do is to supply those sub- 
 stances which are adapted for assimilation by the 
 power already present in the organs of the plant. 
 But what then are these substances 1 They may 
 easily be detected by the examination of a soil, 
 which is always fertile in given cosmical and at- 
 mospheric conditions. Sand, clay, and lime are 
 the names given to the principal constituents of 
 the different kinds of soil. Pure sand and pure 
 limestones, in which there are no other inorganic 
 substances except siliceous earth, carbonate or 
 silicate of lime, form absolutely barren soils. But 
 argillaceous earths form always a part of fertile 
 soils. There must, therefore, be something in 
 aluminous earth which enables it to exercise an 
 influence on the life of plants, and to assist in 
 their development. The property on which this 
 depends is that of its invariably cpntaining pot- 
 ash and soda. 
 
 In order to form a distinct conception of the 
 quantities of alkalies in aluminous minerals, it 
 must be remembered that feldspar contains 17| 
 per cent, of potash, albite 11 '43 per cent, of soda, 
 and mica 3 — 5 per cent. ; and that zeolite con- 
 tains 13 — 16 per cent, of both alkalies taken to- 
 gether. The late analyses of Ch. Gmelin, Lowe, 
 Fricke, Meyer, and Redtenbacher, have also shown, 
 that basalt contains from f to 3 per cent, of pot- 
 ash, and from 5 — 7 per cent, of soda, that clay- 
 slate contains from 275 — 3*31 percent, of potash, 
 and loam from 1| — 4 per cent, of potash. 
 
 If, now, we calculate from these data, and from 
 the specific weights of the different substances, 
 how much potash must be contained in a layer 
 of soil, which has been formed by the disintegra- 
 tion of 26,910 square feet (1 Hessian acre) of one 
 of these rocks to the depth of 20 inches, we find 
 that a soil of 
 
 Felspar contains . . . 1,269,000 lbs. 
 
 Clinkstone ... from 220,400 to 440,000 ... 
 
 Basalt 52,300 82,600 ... 
 
 Clay-slate 110,000 220,400 ... 
 
 Loam 95,800 330,600 ... 
 
 Potash is present in all clays ; according to Fuchs, 
 it is contained even in marl ; it has been found 
 in all the argillaceous earths in which it has been 
 sought. 
 
 Air, water, and the change of temperature pre- 
 
 pare the different species of rocks for yielding to 
 plants the alkalies which they contain. A soil 
 which has been exposed for centuries to all the 
 influences which affect the disintegration of rocks, 
 but from which the alkalies have not been re- 
 moved, will be able to afford the means of nour- 
 ishment to those vegetables which require alka- 
 lies for their growth during many years ; but it 
 must gradually become exhausted, unless those 
 alkalies which have been removed are again re- 
 placed ; a period, therefore, will arrive when it 
 will be necessary to expose it from time to time 
 to a further disintegration, in order to obtain a 
 new supply of soluble alkalies. 
 
 The exhaustion of much of the soil in Lower 
 Virginia by successive crops of wheat and tobacco 
 during a long period of time, proves the necessity 
 of alkalies for these plants, for in the ,space of a 
 century 13,200 lbs. of alkalies per acre were re- 
 moved in leaves, grain, and straw, and the land 
 became unproductive. When the soil is thus 
 exhausted it requires the lapse of time for the 
 action of air, water, change of temperature, and 
 carbonic acid, to decompose fresh portions of the 
 rocky constituents of the soil, and set free more 
 alkaline matter. 
 
 Potash is not the only substance necessary for 
 the existence of most plants ; indeed it has been 
 already shown that the potash may be replaced 
 in many cases by soda, magnesia, or lime ; but 
 other substances besides alkalies are required to 
 sustain the life of plants. 
 
 Phosphoric acid has been found in the ashes 
 of all plants hitherto examined, and always in 
 combination with alkalies or alkaline earths. 
 Most seeds contain certain quantities of phos- 
 phates. In the seeds of different kinds of corn 
 particularly, there is abundance of phosphate of 
 magnesia. 
 
 Plants obtain their phosphoric acid from the 
 soil. It is a constituent of all land capable of 
 cultivation, and even the heath at Luneburg con- 
 tains it in appreciable quantity. Phosphoric acid 
 has been detected also in all mineral waters in 
 which its presence has been tested ; and in those 
 in which it has not been found, it has not been 
 sought for. 
 
 It is evident that the seeds of corn could not 
 be formed without the phosphate of magnesia, 
 which is one of their invariable constituents ; the 
 plant could not under such circumstances reach 
 maturity. 
 
 Some plants, however, extract other matters 
 from the soil besides silica, potash, and phospho- 
 ric acid, which are essential constituents of the 
 plants ordinarily cultivated. These other mat- 
 ters, we must suppose, supply, in part at least, 
 the place and perform the functions of the sub- 
 stances just named. We may thus regard com- 
 mon salt, sulphate of potash, nitre, chloride of 
 potassium, and other matters, as necessary con- 
 stituents of several plants. 
 
 Clay-slate contains generally small quantities 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 36 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 of oxide of copper ; and soils formed from mica- 
 ceous schist contain some metallic fluorides. 
 Now, small quantities of these substances also 
 are absorbed into plants, although we cannot 
 affirm that they are necessary to them. 
 
 De Saussure remarked that plants require un- 
 equal quantities of the component parts of soils 
 in different stages of their development ; an ob- 
 servation of much importance in considering the 
 growth of plants. Thus, wheat yielded 1 ^§q of 
 ashes a-month before blossoming, while in 
 
 blossom, and j q o o a ^ er the ripening of the seeds. 
 It is therefore evident that wheat, from the time 
 of its flowering, restores a part of its organic 
 constituents to the soil, although the phosphate 
 of magnesia remains in the seeds. The fallow 
 time is that period of culture during which land 
 is exposed to a progressive disintegration by 
 means of the influence of the atmosphere, for the 
 purpose of rendering a certain quantity of alka- 
 lies capable of being appropriated by plants. It 
 is evident, that the careful tilling of fallow-land 
 must increase and accelerate this disintegration. 
 Now many plants in the family of the legumino- 
 sce are remarkable on account of the small quan- 
 tity of alkalies or salts in general which they 
 contain. They belong to those which are termed 
 fallow-crops, and the cause wherefore they do not 
 exercise any injurious influence on corn which is 
 cultivated immediately after them is, that they 
 do not extract the alkalies of the soil, and only 
 a very small quantity of phosphates. 
 
 Two plants growing beside each other will 
 mutually injure one another, if they withdraw 
 the same food from the soil. Hence it is not 
 surprising that the wild chamomile {Matricaria 
 chamomilla) and Scotch broom {Spartium scopa- 
 rium) impede the growth of corn, when it is con- 
 sidered that both yield from 7 to 7*43 per cent, 
 of ashes, which contain ^ of carbonate of pot- 
 ash. Plants will, on the contrary, thrive beside 
 each other, either when the substances necessary 
 for their growth which they extract from the 
 soil are of different kinds, or when they them- 
 selves are not both in the same stages of develop- 
 ment at the same time. 
 
 On a soil, for example, which contains potash, 
 both wheat and tobacco may be reared in suc- 
 cession, because the latter plant does not require 
 phosphates, salts which are invariably present in 
 wheat, but requires only alkalies, and food con- 
 taining nitrogen. According to the analysis of 
 Posselt and Reimann, 10,000 parts of the leaves 
 of the tobacco-plant contain 16 parts of phos- 
 phate of lime, 8*8 parts of silica, and no magne- 
 sia; whilst an equal quantity of wheat straw 
 contains 47'3 parts, and the same quantity of the 
 grain of wheat 99*45 parts of phosphates. Now, 
 if we suppose that the grain of wheat is equal to 
 half the weight of its straw, then the quantity 
 of phosphates extracted from a soil by the same 
 weights of wheat and tobacco must be as 97*7 : 
 10. This difference is very considerable. The 
 
 roots of tobacco, as well as those of wheat, ex- 
 tract the phosphates contained in the soil, but 
 they restore them again, because they are not 
 essentially necessary to the development of the 
 plant. 
 
 Alternation of Crops. — Experience has shown 
 that the same crop cultivated on the same soil 
 through successive years, deteriorates and will 
 finally cease to yield profitably ; that certain 
 plants will thrive better after others, and that 
 these last will then again become productive. 
 
 The experiments of Macaire-Princep prove 
 that substances are excreted from the roots of 
 plants, some of which he termed acrid and re- 
 sinous, others mild like gum. The former he 
 regarded as injurious, the latter nutritious. 
 Hence the opinion that the same plant will not 
 thrive in a soil where its excretions accumulate. 
 
 Decandolle supposes that plants absorb soluble 
 matter of every kind from the soil, and thus re- 
 ceiving much matter unnecessary for nutrition, 
 return it as excrement to the soil. 
 
 The excretion consists of two parts, that which 
 is returned to the soil in an unaltered state and 
 that arising from transformations which have 
 taken place within the plant. The former, al- 
 though useless to a particular plant, may be 
 nutritive to another. The latter appears to 
 change into humus by a more or less gradual 
 change, and then yielding carbonic acid, forms 
 the nutriment of young plants. 
 
 This artificial production of humus constitutes 
 one advantage of the alternation of crops, and 
 such plants are employed as excrete abundantly. 
 
 Another advantage lies in the different kinds 
 of inorganic matter required by different plants. 
 Thus two plants requiring the same, and grown 
 successively on the same ground, gradually ren- 
 ders it incapable of producing them profitably ; 
 but where one follows another requiring different 
 inorganic constituents, the decomposing action 
 of atmospheric agents during the lapse of time 
 prepares the soil again for the production of the 
 first. 
 
 Manure. — We may regard organic and many 
 inorganic substances as manures ; but we find 
 them varying much in their value both practi- 
 cally and by an analysis of their constituents. 
 Thus the solid excrements of the cow and horse 
 contain but little nitrogen, human fasces more ; 
 urine contains a large proportion. But the ex- 
 crements of animals contain much silicate of 
 potash and phosphates, human faeces the latter, 
 while urine is rich both in nitrogenous matter 
 and phosphates. Too much cannot be said on the 
 employment of human excrements both liquid 
 and solid, for while they constitute fertilizing 
 manure of the highest value, they are usually 
 rejected in British agriculture. See Manure. 
 
 We have presented an outline of the newer 
 views in agricultural chemistry, chiefly due to 
 Liebig, whose essay we have followed and freely 
 extracted from, not, however, from a conviction 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 37 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 of their truth in every respect ; for we believe 
 that, although he has adopted a true method in 
 elevating agriculture and physiology by the appli- 
 cation of chemical principles, he has by no means 
 proved that carbonic acid, water, and ammonia 
 constitute the sole source of the organic parts of 
 plants. We therefore offer the opinions of others 
 likewise grounded on experimental evidence. 
 
 VIEW OP THE TIIEORY THAT PLANTS DERIVE THEIR 
 NUTRIMENT PROM ORGANIC AND INORGANIC MAT- 
 TER. 
 
 Saussure has conducted some very able experi- 
 ments which seem to prove that some plants do 
 take up humus, not in the form of carbonic acid. 
 He showed, contrary to the experiments of Har- 
 tig, that humus extracted from mould by alkali is 
 absorbed by the roots ; and that since a strongly 
 coloured solution of humate of potassa becomes 
 discoloured in the Polygonum Persicaria, while 
 other colouring matters, such as ink, unfitted for 
 nutrition, are not — that this humic material is 
 assimilated. Without denying that carbonic acid 
 and water are assimilated as nutritive matter, 
 he holds humic extract is likewise useful to 
 plants ; that plants produced by the former 
 alone are not as thrifty as with the use of mould. 
 The following are his general conclusions : — 
 
 1. That fertile soil contains a mixture of solu- 
 ble and insoluble organic matter ; and that the 
 introduction of the former by the roots into a 
 plant is a powerful aid to that nutrition which 
 is afforded by the atmosphere and water. 
 
 2. That the insoluble organic, greatly prepon- 
 derating over the soluble, undergoes, by the as- 
 sistance of water, slow fermentation, hence pro- 
 ducing soluble nutritive matter. 
 
 3. That plants receive their nitrogen almost 
 entirely by absorption of soluble organic matter. 
 
 4. That those coloured substances adapted to 
 the nutrition of plants change colour, while those 
 not nutritious enter a plant without undergoing 
 decomposition. 
 
 Hermann has discovered that the chief part of 
 the extractive matter in the juice of plants con- 
 sists of similar constituents to humus, containing 
 humic acids, crenic and apocrenic acids, and ex- 
 tractive humus. See Humus. 
 
 Mulder's experiments lead to the conclusion 
 that, by the decay of vegetable substances, ulmin 
 and ulmic acid are formed when the air is not 
 freely admitted, and these again, by the action 
 of the air, pass into humin and humic acid. His 
 analyses of the humic acid in turf, decayed wood, 
 and vegetable mould from various localities, 
 prove that it is combined with ammonia, and the 
 remarkable resemblance in the deduced formulae, 
 seems to prove conclusively that there is a class 
 of humus bodies, which, although differing among 
 each other, must be ranked together. 
 
 Mulder supposed this ammonia to have been 
 abstracted as such from the air, but Hermann's 
 experiments prove that during the decay of wood 
 
 1 volume of nitrogen and 2 vols, of oxygon are 
 absorbed from the air, and 4 vols, carbonic acid 
 given off, and that ammonia is a residual trans- 
 formation. 
 
 These researches of Saussure, Mulder, and 
 Hermann are certainly opposed to the views of 
 Professor Liebig, and we may add to them the 
 elaborate researches and conclusions of Boussin- 
 gault and Payen. The following is the definition 
 of powerful manures by the two last-named chem- 
 ists : — Manure is the more valuable in proportion 
 as the quantity of nitrogenous organic matter is 
 greater than the non- nitrogenous organic mat- 
 ter ; and in proportion as the decomposition of 
 quaternary compounds acts gradually, and agrees 
 with th e progress of vegetation. They have there- 
 fore constructed a table showing the value of man- 
 ures, that is, the quantity of nitrogen they con- 
 tain. See Manure^ 
 
 Boussingault holds that plants receive a large 
 proportion of nutriment from the air, but also 
 receive no inconsiderable amount of organic ma- 
 terial directly from the soil. He believes that 
 the process of fallowing has chiefly the advantage 
 of destroying weeds ; that the system of rotation 
 of crops does not depend on the injurious action 
 of the excrements of plants, since Braconnot's 
 experiments prove that such excrements are not 
 produced, but it rather depends on the alterna- 
 tion of such plants as only extract nutrition from 
 the soil, like the Graminese, and of such as take 
 much nutriment from the air, like the Legumi- 
 nosse, and whose stubble ploughed under is in 
 itself a good manure. 
 
 In conclusion, we may remark that Liebig has 
 shown that a large proportion of the organic 
 matter of plants is due to the assimilation of car- 
 bon from carbonic acid, but not that it is wholly 
 due to this cause. He has not shown that their 
 nitrogen is obtained chiefly from the ammonia 
 of the atmosphere ; while the formation of am- 
 monia by the decomposition of animal manures, 
 seems distinctly to indicate that one great source 
 of nitrogen lies within the soil, a view strength- 
 ened by the experiments and inferences of Bous- 
 singault and Payen. Whether we adopt with the 
 former the view that nitrogen is the measure of 
 nutrition, we hold with him that the nitrogenous 
 compounds in the soil are partly useful because of 
 the more ready decomposition of compounds con- 
 taining nitrogen, so that the carbon and hydrogen 
 of such substances are more readily assimilated. 
 
 Again, Liebig censures the application of the 
 principles of animal nutrition to vegetable phy- 
 siology, and yet more than once draws such a 
 comparison himself. It may be wrong to apply 
 these principles in the same manner in both 
 cases, but the principles themselves may hold 
 good of both. Thus, while he has shown the 
 importance of one constituent of the air, car- 
 bonic acid, another acts an equally important 
 part to animals ; for, without the action of the 
 oxygen in producing internal transformations 
 
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 38 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 
 
 and throwing off carbon, food cannot be regarded 
 as nutriment. The oxygen of the air therefore 
 serves in part for the nutrition of animals. While 
 thus plants derive much nutrition from the air 
 and a portion from the soil, animals derive much 
 from the soil and a portion from the air. See 
 farther the articles Excrement, Guano, Humus, 
 Manure, Organic Chemistry, and Soil. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Special 
 training for the skilful, scientific, and most pro- 
 fitable performance of the duties of a farmer. 
 Not an art is practised by man which includes a 
 greater variety of operations or involves a greater 
 amount of scientific principles than farming ; 
 and yet almost every other art is popularly re- 
 garded as far more technical and intricate, and 
 as requiring far higher qualifications, and a far 
 more systematic and prolonged course of prepar- 
 ation for its successful performance. Popular 
 opinion justly imposes _ a long apprenticeship 
 upon every candidate for any department of mere 
 handicraft, a long course of preparatory study 
 upon every candidate for scientific or intellectual 
 employment, and both an apprenticeship and a 
 course of preparatory study upon every candi- 
 date for several of such professions as combine 
 art and science ; and yet, with marvellous incon- 
 sistency, it, in most instances, imposes no ap- 
 prenticeship and no special study whatever upon 
 the candidate for an employment far more noble 
 and intricate than any handicraft, and eminently 
 combining the influence of at least two-thirds of 
 all the physical sciences, with the most varied ma- 
 nipulations of very complex art. How monstrous 
 is it that, while one man is apprenticed seven 
 years in order to make a shoe, another is not ap- 
 prenticed at all in order to manage a farm, — 
 that while one is required for many years to be 
 both an apprentice and a student in order to make 
 the contents of the British statute-book bear 
 upon a case of litigation, another is not required 
 to be either apprentice or student in order to 
 make the experience of all countries and ages of 
 the civilized world, and the principles and dis- 
 coveries of some of the most profound and com- 
 plex of human sciences, bear upon the diversified 
 and multitudinous practices of agriculture ! One 
 year to a shoemaker's apprentice, and three 
 years to a young lawyer, ought to be every parti- 
 cle as effective as seven years to a candidate for 
 farming ; and with not more than one or two ex- 
 ceptions, not an artificer, an artist, or a profes- 
 sional man exists, who requires more special 
 training or a larger amount of technical know- 
 ledge than a farmer, or who possesses equal facil- 
 ities to turn a liberal and munificent education to 
 excellent practical account. Were the next gen- 
 eration of farmers all over the civilized world to 
 be educated comparatively with other men in 
 something like the proportions of their callings, 
 human society would at one move experience al- 
 most as great a transition as when it passed from 
 the degradation of the feudal ages to the dignity 
 
 of the nineteenth century. Even an old Roman 
 author, amid the martial condition of a proud, 
 vicious, and heathenish empire, had the sagacity 
 to see the paramount importance of agricultural 
 education, and the honesty to utter his astonish- 
 ment at its neglect. "Nothing equals my sur- 
 prise," says he, " when I consider that while those j 
 who desire to learn to speak well select an orator 
 whose eloquence may serve them as a model; 
 while those who are anxious to dance, or become 
 good musicians, employ a dancing or a music 
 master; in short, that while every one looks 
 for the best master in order to make the best 
 progress under his instructions, the most impor- | 
 tant science, next to that of wisdom, has neither 
 pupils nor teachers. I have seen schools estab- 
 lished for teaching rhetoric, geometry, music, 
 dancing, &c, and yet I have never seen a master 
 to teach agriculture, nor a pupil to learn it." 
 
 Actual farmers, who have had no special train- 
 ing may, in multitudes of instances, improve 
 their knowledge and their general qualifications 
 by free intercourse with persons better informed 
 than themselves, — by accepting the advantages 
 of example and instruction afforded on the home 
 or model farms of many well-conducted estates, 
 — by watching the proceedings, and receiving 
 the assistance, of the agricultural societies of 
 their country or province, — by attending any 
 occasional or serial agricultural lectures which 
 professional or scientific gentlemen may deliver 
 in their vicinity, — and by making a diligent and 
 discriminating use of one or more of the best 
 books on agriculture. Thousands of the worst 
 instructed classes of farmers — particularly such as 
 the small peasant-farmers of Ireland — might, by 
 the use of several of these means, or even of any 
 one of them, speedily acquire such knowledge as 
 would enable them to draw twenty or thirty per 
 cent, of additional produce from their farms ; not 
 a few, also, of such farmers as have enjoyed a 
 tolerably fair general education, but have not been 
 taught to subordinate it fully to their profession, 
 may turn any one or more of these means to 
 eminent advantage ; and even the small number 
 of farmers who possess a fair acquaintance with 
 all the principles of their art, and can assign a 
 scientific reason for every practice and phenome- 
 non on their farms, ought, for their neighbours' 
 sakes, to give all such means their strongest 
 sanction, and will scarcely fail to derive from 
 them an important amount of benefit. 
 
 All descriptions of young persons training to 
 be farmers require to spend a large portion of 
 their time upon a farm, to observe with all possi- 
 ble frequency the practices of the farmery and 
 the field, to take full and daily part in the oper- 
 ations of every season, and to learn, in a practi- 
 cal manner, the nature and conditions of every 
 piece of labour, from the coarsest drudgery to 
 the nicest and most artistic performance. Mere 
 looking on, mere reading, mere listening, mere 
 occasional acting, or all these four combined 
 
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 39 
 
 will far less enable a man to conduct a farm than i 
 even teach him to make a shoe or construct a ] 
 steam engine. Pupil-farmers do not require, in- - 
 deed, to become adepts in every agricultural prac- 
 tice, — they do not need to be the best workmen i 
 on the farm, — the ablest ploughmen, the most skil- ; 
 ful sowers, the most expert manipulators of the : 
 stable and the barn ; yet they certainly must ac- i 
 quire sufficient proficiency in every art and pro- i 
 cess, or at least sufficient practical acquaintance : 
 with the tact and methods of performing it, to < 
 be able to instruct others respecting it, and to : 
 judge when it is well and expertly done. They 
 must fully labour, that they may understand the 
 work ; they must fully obey, that they may know 
 how to command ; they must take part in every 
 thing, that they may learn to make judicious ap- 
 plications of the grand economical principle of 
 the division of labour ; they ought, in fact, to ac- ■ 
 quire the same comprehensive views of the opera- : 
 tions of the farm as the farmer himself or the < 
 farmer's steward, and to share by turns in all the 
 operations which these comprise. If the pupil : 
 naturally reside on a large, well-conditioned, and 
 well-conducted farm, he of course cannot learn 
 better than where he is ; if he reside on a stock- 
 farm, or small and ill-conditioned arable farm, : 
 he ought, if possible, to be placed, during two i 
 years, on a farm of superior character ; and if he 
 reside, in either town or country, with parents ; 
 or guardians who are not farmers, he ought to 
 be apprenticed for three or more years with a 
 skilful, scientific, extensive, upright farmer, who : 
 shall agree to treat him as if he were his son. 
 
 Yet mere practical learning — as we have al- 
 ready hinted — will as completely fail to make a 
 man a wise farmer as mere theory. The pupil, 
 by carefully imitating all around him, may be- 
 come a very expert monkey ; but, unless he learn 
 a reason for every operation, he will never farm 
 like a rational being. His business, in preparing 
 to become a farmer, is to learn the science of 
 agriculture as truly as the art, — the principles of 
 it as thoroughly as the practices. He ought, 
 therefore, during the whole course of his practi- ; 
 cal instruction on the farm, to be receiving ex- 
 planations of the phenomena which he witnesses 
 and the practices in which he shares, — to be : 
 soliciting information respecting every matter : 
 which he does not clearly understand, — and to 
 be exercising his judgment as to the fittest mode 
 of performing operations, the likeliest mode of • 
 overcoming difficulties, and the most feasible 
 mode of attempting improvements. When he is 1 
 under the care of a father or a kind master who ; 
 farms intelligently, and possesses a fair share of : 
 science, he ought to acquire from him a large ' 
 amount of the requisite intellectual instruction ; ; 
 yet, even in this case — and unspeakably more if he 1 
 be under the care of a mere imitative farmer — 1 
 he requires the aid of such stores of knowledge i 
 as can be obtained only from other sources and i 
 by separate study. He needs, in fact, to be i 
 
 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 
 
 scientifically trained with books and by a school- 
 master, not less than to be practically trained 
 with implements and by the farmer. 
 
 Whatever any ordinary school can furnish, in 
 the departments of English education, writing, 
 arithmetic, book-keeping, and elementary mathe- 
 matics, ought, as a matter of course, to be ac- 
 quired by every son of a farmer, and by every 
 other boy who is likely to become an agricultur- 
 ist ; and till more suitable institutions shall be 
 called into existence, select academies, schools of 
 art, mechanics' institutions, occasional series of 
 lectures, private courses of scientific lectures in 
 cities, and the public lectures in universities, — 
 or, in the absence of all these, public libraries and 
 private copies of select books, — must be looked 
 to as the grand sources of all the other requisite 
 departments of information. Four general topics 
 — chemistry, veterinary surgery, natural history, 
 and natural philosophy — comprise the whole 
 circle of those sciences which the agricultural 
 pupil requires to study : and though two of them 
 include the numerous and important subdivisions 
 of geology, mineralogy, botany, vegetable physi- 
 ology, zoology, anatomy, meteorology, electricity, 
 magnetism, pneumatics, dynamics, and mechan- 
 ics, yet all may be competently studied in them- 
 selves, and sufficiently understood in their adap- 
 tations to agriculture, in the course of three 
 years' attendance at such seats of learning as 
 Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Glasgow, Aberdeen, 
 or Belfast, — or in the course of four years sedu- 
 lous and judicious use of the best public appliances 
 which the nearest considerable town affords, com- 
 bined with copious reading and reflection. The 
 whole time consumed in the professional training 
 of a young farmer, would thus be three years on 
 the farm and three at a seat of learning; and 
 surely, when we consider the great comparative 
 importance of his vocation, and the vast power 
 which he acquires from knowledge to render that 
 vocation productive to himself and to society, 
 this amount of time cannot but be pronounced 
 economically small. Whatever comfortable farmer 
 grudges his son so moderate a quantum of pro- 
 fessional education, deserves, in punishment of 
 his parsimony, to be constantly worried with the 
 attacks of vermin and the blunders of boors. We 
 must not be understood, however, as saying either 
 that the three years of practical education are all 
 to be spent in sheer labour on the farm, or that 
 the three years of scientific education are all to 
 be spent in sheer study at a seat of learning, or 
 that the topics and appliances which we have 
 named are the only ones worthy of the pupil's 
 attention. The more the practical part of the 
 training is intermixed with science, the sooner 
 and better will the principles of it be understood ; 
 the more the scientific part of it is interspersed 
 with periods of recess from the seat of learning 
 and of labour on the farm, the more freely will 
 its acquisitions adapt themselves to both present 
 and permanent utility; and the more liberally 
 
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 40 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 the pupil can look into collateral topics, such as 
 materia medica, or avail himself of directly pro- 
 fessional aids, such as the regular lectures on 
 agriculture in the universities of Edinburgh and 
 Aberdeen, the more fully and effectively will he 
 work out the grand designs of all his educational 
 training. See Agricultural Schools. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. See Farm 
 Servants. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. The ag- 
 gregate of published writings on the subject of 
 agriculture. The amount of this is enormous. 
 But one great portion of it is obsolete ; another 
 great portion is vapid, unreflecting, worrying re- 
 petition of what everybody knows ; and a third 
 great portion is mere theory and speculation, — 
 either the monomania of practical improvers, or 
 the wild day-dream of Utopian philosophers. Yet 
 it comprises numerous works of high value, and 
 several series of periodicals of not a little excel- 
 lence ; and though it can boast but few and brief 
 specimens of beauty or eloquence, it possesses a 
 fair share of the far more valuable properties of 
 sound learning and useful tendency. A view of 
 its ancient and progressive condition is included 
 in the historical section of our General Introduc- 
 tion ; and a vidimus of its best works on all the 
 subjects most interesting to the farmer, is afforded 
 by our lists of authorities at the end of all our 
 principal articles. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. Institutions 
 for training young men in both the art and the 
 science of agriculture. In the degree in which 
 any of them are so constituted and conducted as 
 to make their pupils at once thorough practical 
 farmers and complete or even tolerable scientific 
 agriculturists, they serve precisely the great pur- 
 poses which we have desiderated and recom- 
 mended on the subject of Agricultural Educa- 
 tion. But some of them are too superficial, others 
 are not sufficiently practical, and most or all are 
 too stiff, too formal, too academical, too little 
 possessed of the actual, business, every-day charac- 
 ter of both the working and the thinking of real 
 agriculture ; and hence some are more likely to 
 produce pedants and pretenders than true scien- 
 tific farmers, — and the best seem adapted rather 
 to educate gentlemen's sons for practising an in- 
 telligent supervision of their estates, than to train 
 young men of the middle classes of society for an 
 effective performance of the thousand hard duties 
 of practical farming. Yet several of them possess 
 great excellencies ; and all the principal ones de- 
 serve to be made as fully known as possible, both 
 for their own sakes, and that they may stimulate 
 and direct the founding of better institutions. 
 
 The institute of agriculture and forestry, at 
 Hohenheim, near Stuttgard, was founded by the 
 celebrated Schwartz, and placed on its present 
 basis in 1817 by the King of Wurtemberg, and 
 extends its influence over the whole of that state, 
 and into parts of the adjoining countries. It was 
 endowed by the king with a royal seat and ex- 
 
 tensive buildings ; it has attached to its school- j 
 rooms and lodging-houses, farming and other 
 grounds to the extent of 960 acres ; and it pos- 
 sesses, for the use of pupils, a museum, a library, 
 a small laboratory, a collection of apparatus, a ; 
 cider-press, a vinegar-manufactory, a beet-sugar 
 manufactory, a brewery, a distillery, and various 
 other appliances. Its grounds are divided into 
 about 501 acres of arable land, 242 acres of mea- 
 dow land, 13 acres of woodland, 67 acres of nur- 
 sery ground, 2 acres of hop plantation, 14 acres 
 of botanical garden, 1 acre of kitchen and flower 
 garden, 33 acres of experimental ground, and 85 
 acres of reserve ground. The institution is di- 
 vided into two departments, — the lower, devoted 
 chiefly to practical training, — and the higher, 
 intended principally for scientific instruction. In 
 the lower school, natives of Wurtemberg, who 
 cannot pay, are admitted gratis ; in the higher 
 school, all pupils are expected to pay; and to 
 either school, but on a higher scale, foreign- 
 ers may be admitted. Pupils are not admissible 
 till the age of seventeen; and are expected to 
 have previously acquired all elementary attain- 
 ments. The number of pupils in the lower school 
 is limited to 27 ; that in the higher school in 1836 
 •was 72 : and the total number in both depart- 
 ments from 1829 to 1836 was 539. The pupils in 
 the lower school usually engage to remain three 
 years ; they take part in all the operations of the 
 farm, the garden, and the other scenes of labour ; 
 they receive some instructions during the inter- 
 vals of labour, and attend some of the lectures 
 delivered to the pupils of the higher school ; and 
 they generally receive wages for their work, and 
 make payments out of these for their maintenance 
 and clothing. The pupils of the higher school, 
 if previously well trained, attend only one year, 
 but, in general, they attend during two years ; 
 those enrolled for the school of forestry also at- 
 tend during two years ; so that all who enjoy a 
 full course attend during four years or eight ses- 
 sions, — each year consisting of two long sessions 
 and two short vacations, — the sessions extending 
 from the first of November to Palm Sunday, and 
 from two weeks after Palm Sunday to the first of 
 October. The topics of instruction during the 
 first year are the general principles of farming 
 and gardening, the culture of the vine, the breed- 
 ing of cattle, the growing of wool, the training 
 of horses, the rearing of silk-worms, the arrang- 
 ing and directing of farms, the valuing of farms, 
 and book-keeping ; during the second year, the 
 general principles of forestry, the botany of forests, 
 the culture and superintendence of forests, the 
 uses of forests, the technology of forests, and 
 the laws and taxation affecting forests ; during 
 the third year, veterinary surgery, agricultural 
 technology, the manufacture of beet-sugar, brew- 
 ing, distilling, vinegar-making, zoology, materia 
 medica, chemistry, meteorology, and vegetable 
 physiology ; and during the fourth year, theoreti- 
 cal and practical mathematics, or geometry, trig- 
 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 41 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS 
 
 onometry, algebra, and arithmetic. The practical 
 department of the institution, or that belonging 
 to the lower school, appears to be far more de- 
 sirably conducted than the scientific ; and while 
 the higher school has probably produced a race 
 of agricultural pedants, and can hardly fail to 
 imbue its pupils with the monstrous error of sub- 
 stituting mere science and speculation for effec- 
 tive knowledge, the lower school, even in spite of 
 serious defect in theoretic instruction, seems to 
 have exerted a highly advantageous influence 
 upon the agricultural condition of most of Wur- 
 temberg. " The pupils of the lower school," we 
 are told, " rise to their work in summer at three 
 o'clock, when they commence to feed and clean 
 the cattle, groom the horses, remove the litter, 
 &c, until about five o'clock ; they then break- 
 fast, and at half-past five take their station in 
 the yard, whence they issue forth in a quiet and 
 orderly but lively manner to their respective em- 
 ployments, under the direction of the superin- 
 tendent, with their teams of 24 oxen and 10 
 horses. At eleven, there is a cessation of work, 
 during half-an-hour for dinner ; then succeeds 
 the feeding of the cattle, and a new distribution 
 of employments ; and work continues until seven. 
 After supper, lessons are given ; in winter, school 
 instruction is also afforded in the course of the 
 day. The beneficial results of this system are 
 widely diffused through Wurtemberg ; and the 
 peasantry are everywhere found an enlightened 
 class, always ready to give a clear and ready an- 
 swer to any questions proposed regarding their 
 ( agricultural practice." 
 
 The celebrated institution of M. de Fellenberg 
 at Hofwyl, in the canton of Berne in Switzerland, 
 combines the various objects of a moral, scientific, 
 and general education, and subordinates them 
 partly to the purposes of general industry, and in 
 a main degree to the pursuits of agriculture. It 
 comprises extensive buildings for instruction and 
 residence ; a farm of 170 or 250 acres, for experi- 
 mental and industrial labour in farming ; facili- 
 ties and apphances for instruction and experiment 
 in various departments of handicraft ; and an ex- 
 ceedingly numerous corps of tutors and profes- 
 sors, so selected, qualified, and classified as to 
 communicate all the details of instruction by the 
 easy and agreeable method of mere oral teaching. 
 All the pupils remain during nine years, or till 
 they attain the age of twenty-one ; and all un- 
 dergo constant training in habits of industry, 
 frugality, docility, veracity, mutual kindness, and 
 general morality. But they are divided into two 
 great classes, — the higher, or boys who anticipate 
 the spending of their life in affluence, — and the 
 lower, or boys who anticipate the necessity of 
 self-support throughout a lifetime of active la- 
 bour. Pupils of the higher class pay rather hand- 
 somely for their education, — especially if they are 
 not natives of the canton of Berne ; and during 
 the first three years, they are taught the Greek 
 language, Grecian history, and the sciences of 
 
 mineralogy, botany, and zoology ; during the 
 second three years, the Latin language, Roman 
 history, and the geography of the Roman empire ; 
 during the last three years, modern languages, 
 modern literature, modern history, general geo- 
 graphy, chemistry, and natural philosophy ; and 
 during the whole nine years, mathematics, draw- 
 ing, music, and gymnastic exercises. The lower 
 class of pupils are distributed into three divisions 
 according to their age and strength ; and they 
 spend the whole of their time in working, learn- 
 ing, and making progress in the acquisition of 
 healthy and useful habits. The pupils of the first 
 division receive half-an-hour's instruction in the 
 morning, then breakfast, then work on the farm 
 till noon, then spend an hour at dinner, then re- 
 ceive an hour's instruction, and then work on 
 the farm till six o'clock in the evening; and, 
 during the wintry portion of the year when farm 
 labours are few and brief, they plait straw and 
 rushes, make baskets, saw and split timber, knit 
 stockings, grind colours, and thrash and winnow 
 corn ; and any of the lower class whatever who 
 have a wish to acquire a knowledge of artificer- 
 ship, receive practical instructions in the crafts 
 of the shoemaker, the tailor, the smith, the wheel- 
 wright, or the carpenter. Each pupil of the lower 
 class, on the average, contributes to the establish- 
 ment in labour and otherwise to the value of be- 
 tween £59 and £60; and he costs, for maintenance, 
 instruction, and all other items, about £56. The 
 pupils of the higher class, on completing their 
 course, are usually found to be well conducted and 
 very intelligent ; and those of the lower class, to be 
 as well behaved, as temperate, and as hardworking 
 as the choicest of the general body of the peasan- 
 try, and far superior to them in agricultural skill, 
 artificer's tact, practical wisdom, and many de- 
 partments of useful and general knowledge. The 
 school-rooms, the extensive accommodations, and 
 the numerous staff of tutors for the higher class 
 of pupils, and the farm, the workshops, and the 
 practical instructors for the lower class, consti- 
 tute two grand departments of educational me- 
 chanism which possess fine coherence, afford a 
 large amount of mutual support, and lay deep 
 foundations for the reciprocal working, through- 
 out life, of the principles respectively of landlord 
 and tenant, or of gentleman and artificer. " The 
 farm," says a writer in the ' Edinburgh Review,' 
 " is undoubtedly benefited by the institution, 
 which affords a ready market for its produce, and 
 perhaps by the low price at which the labour of 
 the boys is charged. But the farm, on the other 
 hand, affords regular employment to the boys, 
 and also enables M. de Fellenberg to receive his 
 richer pupils at a lower price than he could other- 
 wise do. Hofwyl, in short, is a great whole, 
 where 120 or 130 pupils, more than 50 masters 
 and professors, as many servants, and a number 
 of day-labourers, 6 or 8 families of artificers and 
 tradesmen, altogether about 300 persons, find a 
 plentiful and, in many respects, a luxurious sub- 
 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 42 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 sistence, exclusive of education, out of a produce 
 of 170 acres; and a money income of £6,000 or 
 £7,000, reduced more than half by salaries, af- 
 fords a very considerable surplus to lay out in 
 additional buildings." 
 
 The far-famed German agricultural college of 
 Moeglin, is situated near Frankfort on the Oder. 
 It was founded about thirty-two years ago by the 
 King of Prussia ; placed under the direction of 
 M. Von Thaer ; and constituted a royal academy, 
 with a staff of professors, who should have the 
 same rank as the professors of a university. An 
 estate of 1,200 English acres was attached to it, 
 — chiefly poor land, and yielding an annual ren- 
 tal of only about .£300 ; and, in the course of not 
 more than 10 or 11 years, this estate became so 
 greatly improved as to be worth an annual rental 
 of £1,800. M. Von Thaer, the first president and 
 professor, was a gentleman of much agricultural 
 and scientific celebrity, and was intrusted with 
 the high duty of appointing the other professors ; 
 and his son, M. Von Thaer, the second president, 
 has acquired a higher fame than even the father, 
 is favourably known in literature as the author 
 of a work entitled ' Rational Principles of Hus- 
 bandry,' and has conducted the college of Moeg- 
 lin up to a very eminent status of both character 
 and influence. Pupils admitted to the institu- 
 tion require to have spent five or six years in the 
 practices and manipulations of husbandry, and 
 are supposed to be in quest principally of scien- 
 tific instruction ; they board at the same table 
 with the president, and have their dormitories 
 within the buildings of the college ; and they re- 
 ceive from the president daily general directions 
 and weekly lessons in rural economy, and from 
 the professors prelectional instructions in the 
 various departments of agricultural science. One 
 professor lectures to them on mathematics, chem- 
 istry, and geology; another, on veterinary surgery ; 
 a third, on zoology, botany, and the materia 
 medica; and a fourth gives them instructions 
 how to apply their various scientific acquisitions 
 to the purposes of practical husbandry. Much 
 aid is afforded by a laboratory for analyzing soils 
 and for other chemical operations; a large botanic 
 garden, for explaining the prelections in botany ; 
 a museum of implements, for illustrating the 
 operations of tillage ; and a set of workshops for 
 the fabrication, by well-qualified artificers, and 
 with the assistance of the pupils, of all the articles 
 of carpentry and smith-work required on the 
 farm. The pupils are from 20 to 24 years of age, 
 and pay such fees as only gentlemen or persons 
 in decidedly easy circumstances can afford. 
 
 The French agricultural college of Grignon, in 
 the valley of Gaily, near Versailles, was founded 
 in 1826, and brought into organized operation in 
 1829. One half of the sum of £25,000, raised in 
 shares by a joint-stock company of learned and 
 patriotic men, was devoted to the general ad- 
 vancement of the cause of agriculture, and the 
 other half to the establishment of two agricul- 
 
 tural schools, — the one a college for the thorough 
 education of gentlemen-farmers, and the other a 
 seminary for the superior training of gardeners, 
 ploughmen, shepherds, and other agricultural 
 labourers. The joint-stock company purchased 
 the demesne of Grignon, and placed it under the 
 management of M. Bella, one of the ablest pupils 
 of M. Von Thaer ; and Charles X. attached to it 
 his adjoining demesne, gave the company the 
 title of the ' Royal Agricultural Society,' and in- 
 corporated or formally sanctioned it by a royal 
 ordinance. The lands of the institution comprise 
 1,100 acres, — variously disposed in tillage, pas- 
 ture, meadow, water-meadow, and woodland. 
 The pupils consist of two great classes, internal 
 and external : the first board and lodge within 
 the college buildings, and pay each from £30 to 
 £60 a-year ; and the second find board and lodg- 
 ing for themselves, and pay for their instruction 
 from £8 to £20 a-year. Every pupil must attend 
 during at least two years ; and at the end of that 
 period, he undergoes examination, and, if found 
 duly qualified, receives a diploma as a sort of 
 master of arts in agriculture. The topics of in- 
 struction during the first year, are mathematics, 
 geography, chemistry, natural philosophy, botany, 
 vegetable physiology, book-keeping, and farm- 
 management ; and during the second year, the 
 application of science to practical agriculture, the 
 application of mathematics to mechanics and 
 astronomy, the application of chemistry to an- 
 alysis, the application of natural philosophy to 
 farming economics, the subordination of miner- 
 alogy and geology to georgical improvement, gar- 
 dening, rural architecture, and the farmer's de- 
 partment of political economy. The best agricul- 
 tural implements invented in Great Britain and 
 Germany, and the newest methods of agricultural 
 practice adopted or recommended in these coun- 
 tries, are put to the trial at Grignon, with a 
 view to their being condemned or sanctioned ac- 
 cording to their merits. 
 
 Numerous model farms exist in France, alto- 
 gether distinct from the great national one at 
 Grignon ; and some of these are maintained by 
 private enterprise, but most are supported wholly 
 or principally at the expense of the territorial 
 department in which they are situated. The 
 earliest of them was the model farm of Roville, 
 situated in the vicinity of Nancy, and founded by 
 M. Mathieu de Dombasle ; but this, though con- 
 fessedly a source of extensive benefit to the king- 
 dom, has been mainly useful in stimulating the 
 formation of other institutions, particularly the 
 college of Grignon. Some of the departmental 
 model farms are quite insignificant ; but others 
 are considerable in both extent and efficiency. 
 A favourable specimen of the latter, situated near 
 Rennes, was visited by the well-known Irish ag- 
 riculturist and patriot, Martin Doyle, and is re- 
 ported on by him as follows : — " The farm consists 
 of 72 acres of arable land held by lease of 15 years 
 from a wealthy proprietor, by M. Bodin, who was 
 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 43 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 assisted by the principal authorities of the depart- 
 ment of He et Vilaine to take the direction of it. 
 M. Bodin had been a pupil at Grignon, and sub- 
 sequently managed a small farm in a similar 
 capacity, before he obtained the present one, 
 which was in 1837. The rent of the farm is 3,500 
 francs (.£140), of which the department pays 2,000 
 francs, and the director the remainder, with taxes 
 and repairs, which amount to about 500 francs 
 more. He also supplies all capital for improve- 
 ments and all outgoings, clears all losses, and of 
 course has all the profits. There are in this school 
 20 pupils, paying .£12 a-year each; the depart- 
 ment in which the school is situated, pays for six, 
 and the government pays for the remaining four- 
 teen, who are nominated by the prefects of three 
 other departments in Brittany. In case of dis- 
 missals for misconduct, the prefects nominate 
 other pupils, and they are unwilling to select 
 youth from the towns, or any not accustomed 
 to field labour ; they are generally the sons of 
 well-conducted farmers, and, at the expiration of 
 two years, go to the aid of their parents, or as 
 hired stewards. They are taught by M. Bodin, 
 or an assistant, the ordinary subjects suited to 
 their employment, and have no charge except for 
 books, which they must supply for themselves. 
 They rise in winter at four o'clock, and in sum- 
 mer at five, and work six hours each day (more 
 in busy seasons), having the remainder of the day 
 for meals and instruction in schools. They have 
 also ten days holidays in spring, and a month in 
 autumn by sections, as a sufficient number must 
 be retained for the farm-work. M. Bodin has a 
 factory for implements, and disposes of many of 
 them to farmers, even in very distant localities." 
 
 Three sheep farms, entirely supported by the 
 French government, exist at Rombouillet, Per- 
 pignan, and La Hayevaux. They are devoted to 
 the rearing of the best breeds of sheep, and to 
 the conducting of experiments in crossing. The 
 principal breeds to which they had attended, up 
 to 1840, were the merino, the naz, and the Eng- 
 lish long- wool. The number of sheep, in 1839, 
 on the Rombouillet farm was 715, on the Per- 
 pignan farm 504, and on the La Hayevaux farm 
 312. The aggregate flock of the English breed 
 amounted to 320 ; and these were proposed to be 
 removed to some place near Calais or in Nor- 
 mandy, in order that they might enjoy a climate 
 as nearly as possible resembling that of England. 
 — Three veterinary schools, wholly supported by 
 the French government, exist at Lyons, at Tou- 
 louse, and at a place in the vicinity of Paris. 
 The course of education in these schools extends 
 through four years, and includes not only veter- 
 inary surgery, but anatomy, botany, and chem- 
 istry. Dissecting rooms exist for the illustration 
 of anatomy ; botanic gardens, for the explanation 
 of botany ; and an hospital of invalid horses, for 
 the practice of veterinary surgery. The pupils 
 undergo searching examination ; all who are 
 qualified receive diplomas ; and some obtain 
 
 government appointments. The number of stu- 
 dents at the school in the vicinity of Paris, in 
 1839, was 280 ; and each was lodged, boarded, 
 and instructed for <£14 a-year. — Three haras or 
 studs, wholly supported by the French govern- 
 ment, and designed to offer their advantages to 
 all the French public, exist at Du Pin, Rozieres, 
 and Pompadour. The hara at Du Pin, in Nor- 
 mandy, is the largest of the three, promotes the 
 diffusion of the best English breeds of horses, and 
 was proposed, four or five years ago, to have at- 
 tached to it an establishment for the diffusion of 
 the Durham short-horn breed of horned cattle. 
 The hara at Rozieres is devoted principally to a 
 mixed breed, called the Race ducale, which has 
 long been established in the neighbourhood. The 
 hara at Pompadour has 40 Arab mares, and a 
 great many Arab horses, and is devoted almost 
 solely to the Arabian and Persian breeds. In 
 1839, the total number of horses in the three 
 haras was 1,300, — of thorough-bred stock, 167 
 stallions, 98 mares, and 121 colts and fillies, — 
 of covering stallions for the departments 870, 
 annually serving on the average 30,450 mares. 
 — The French government, besides support- 
 ing these various institutions, the departmental 
 model farms, and the great national model farm 
 at Grignon, disseminates agricultural information, 
 and promotes agricultural improvement, by ex- 
 periments, by lectures, by district societies, and 
 by local associations. The government grant to 
 each society is about £40 a-year, and to each as- 
 sociation from £S to £20. In 1824, the number 
 of societies was 17, and of associations 41 ; and, 
 in 1839, the number of societies was 154, and of 
 associations 468. The total annual cost of the pub- 
 lic agricultural establishments of France to gov- 
 ernment, amounted in 1839 to £119,452. 
 
 Two institutions in other parts of Switzerland 
 have been founded on the model of that of M. De 
 Fellenberg at Hofwyl, — both connected with con- 
 vents, — the one in the canton of Fribourg, and 
 the other in the canton of Thurgovie. An insti- 
 tution for training persons to become masters of 
 industrial and agricultural schools for poor or- 
 phans, framed somewhat on the model of the in- 
 stitution of M. De Fellenberg, and conducted by 
 a former zealous and faithful assistant of that 
 gentleman, was founded by the municipality of 
 Constance. An agricultural college, under the 
 immediate patronage of the Emperor, has existed 
 for some time in Russia ; and agricultural schools, 
 for combining instruction in the science of agri- 
 culture, with training in its practice, are in ope- 
 ration at St. Petersburgh and Moscow. An agri- 
 cultural institution, belonging to M. Voght, is in 
 operation at Flottbeck in Flanders. 
 
 Very many of the ordinary farms of the north 
 of Germany may be regarded as, in point of fact, 
 a low yet efficient species of agricultural schools. 
 Many peasant lads of 16 or 17 years of age bind 
 themselves during three years to farmers, to serve 
 in the double capacity of pupils and apprentices, 
 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 44 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 to pay for their maintenance, and to take part in 
 all the successive labours of a regular course of 
 husbandry, from the care of cattle and the work 
 of the farm -yard, to the management of the 
 plough, the hand- sowing of seed, and the keep- 
 ing of farm-accounts. At the expiration of his 
 apprenticeship, a pupil engages himself, during 
 two years, to serve on some larger farm, as second 
 verwalter or under-bailiff ; and at the end of 
 these two years, he either may find a situation as 
 first verwalter or farm-steward, or may enter an 
 agricultural institution to qualify him for the 
 tenantcy of one of the royal farms,* or for the 
 management of the farm or estate of an absentee 
 proprietor. " A system of long and laborious 
 educational discipline among the peasantry such 
 as this," remarks Mr. Martin Doyle, " would ne- 
 cessarily produce good results in Ireland, where 
 husbandry is so generally defective. The advan- 
 tages of having a great supply of good operative 
 husbandmen, to meet the demands which both 
 the theoretical and practical diffusion of improved 
 agriculture among the higher classes of farmers 
 must necessarily create, would considerably aid 
 all the progress of improvement with mutual 
 benefit to the employers and the employed." But 
 the system of farm-apprenticeship which prevails 
 on some of the great practical farms of England 
 totally differs from the farm -apprenticeship of 
 Germany, and has for its object, far less any real 
 instruction in agriculture, than the working out 
 of a decent pretext for ignorant, frivolous, fox- 
 hunting young gentlemen taking the nominal 
 management of farms or estates. A fop, a 
 fashionable idler, or any sort of young gentleman 
 who has no better prospect of worldly promotion 
 than to become a gentleman-farmer, and who 
 scarcely knows a dock from a bean-stalk, or a 
 grubber from a wheel-barrow, pays £ 100 or ,£200 
 a-year of apprentice-fee to an extensive and dis- 
 tinguished farmer, stares occasionally at the ope- 
 rations of the farm-servants, learns the names of 
 two or three crops and half-a-dozen implements, 
 and, possibly at the end of a single year, is pro- 
 nounced by himself and his partial friends suffi- 
 ciently qualified to superintend the business of a 
 farm. Training like this — if training it can be 
 called — is sheer derision upon farm-apprentice- 
 ship, and a monstrous insult upon agriculture. 
 
 In 1839, resolutions were adopted by meetings 
 of influential gentlemen at Maidstown to frame 
 and mature a scheme for a Kent agricultural col- 
 lege, and to adopt and prosecute measures for 
 obtaining such an amount of subscriptions as 
 would be requisite for its establishment. In 
 1840, a scheme was published for establishing an 
 agricultural college and a model farm in York- 
 shire ; and this scheme proposed that the capital 
 for the institution should amount to from .£6,000 
 to £10,000, and should be raised in £10 shares, 
 
 * Each royal farm is let on a lease of twenty-one 
 years ; but, to a correct and skilful tenant, is nearly 
 a perpetuity. 
 
 — that the supreme management should be vested 
 in a fluctuating board of twenty-one proprietors, 
 elected by the shareholders, — that the college 
 should be conducted by a professor of agricul- 
 ture and assistant-masters, — that the subjects of 
 the lectures in the college should be agriculture, 
 geology, botany, chemistry, mechanics, and veter- 
 inary surgery, — that the students at the college 
 should, in company with the professor of agri- 
 culture, attend the farm, and receive practical 
 instructions there, during six hours of each of 
 three days in the week, — that the farm should be 
 conducted by a master, a matron, a farm-steward, 
 and a dairy-maid, — that pupils on the farm de- 
 voting their main attention to the acquisition of 
 practical knowledge, should be permitted to at- 
 tend some of the lectures at the college, — and 
 that the farm should be managed with direct 
 subordination to the market -profits of its pro- 
 duce, yet should be available for all experiments 
 proposed by the Royal and Yorkshire agricul- 
 tural societies. And a magnificent College, on 
 plans somewhat similar to these, was eventually 
 established at Cirencester. 
 
 An agricultural school was founded in 1821, at 
 Bannow, in the county of Wexford ; but, in con- 
 sequence chiefly of the pupils paying only a no- 
 minal sum for their maintenance, and being in 
 general too young to perform a fair amount of pro- 
 ductive labour, it was kept in operation during 
 only seven years. Its farm was a rent-free tract 
 of 40 acres, poor in soil, and naturally unproduc- 
 tive ; its instructional management was con- 
 ducted by an able superintendent and two mas- 
 ters ; and its course of education included read- 
 ing, writing, arithmetic, mensuration, surveying, 
 geometry, mechanics, agricultural chemistry, prac- 
 tical farming, and horticulture. — An agricultural 
 school was founded, in 1827, at Templemoyle, five 
 miles east-north-east of the city of Londonderry. 
 The members of the North-west of Ireland So- 
 ciety, with whom the plan of the school origi- 
 nated, contributed, in shares of £25 each, about 
 £3,000 towards its establishment ; and other 
 parties, chiefly the Grocers' Company, on whose 
 estate it is situated, contributed about £1,000. 
 The institution is supported by fees of £10 a-year 
 for each pupil, by the produce of labour and crop- 
 ping on its farm, and by contributions from the 
 Irish Society, and from the Grocers', Drapers', 
 Fishmongers', Mercers', and Cloth-workers' Com- 
 panies. The farm comprises 172 acres, and is 
 managed by a steward, a ploughman, and a gar- 
 dener ; the buildings are extensive and commo- 
 dious, and include the principal dormitories, 
 each 40 feet long, 2H wide, and 13 high ; and its 
 instructional course is conducted by two masters, 
 and comprises a wide sphere of both elementary 
 and general education. The business of instruc- 
 tion in the school alternates with that of labour 
 on the farm ; yet it is neither sufficiently com- 
 prehensive to make the pupils scientific farmers, 
 nor so strictly professional as to be unadaptcd to 
 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 45 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS, 
 
 avocations which have little or no connexion with 
 agriculture. The total number of pupils in the 
 institution from its commencement till August 
 1841 was 418 ; and out of these, as well as of any 
 others who left it previous to September 1843, 
 so many as 93 emigrated to the colonies, 13 be- 
 came shopkeepers, 11 became clerks, some became 
 schoolmasters or land-surveyors, and only a little 
 more than two-thirds of the whole devoted them- 
 selves to domestic farming, — 36 as farm-stewards, 
 and the remainder as farmers or farm-servants. 
 Yet the Templemoyle institution has evidently 
 achieved great good ; and last year it experienced 
 a considerable increase to its prosperity, and was 
 about to receive an accession to its buildings. — 
 Several other schools in Ireland partake of an 
 agricultural character, and one or two have com- 
 menced with considerable pretensions ; but they 
 are either practical failures, or of meagre charac- 
 ter and influence. 
 
 The professorship of agriculture in the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh was founded in 1790, by Sir 
 William Pulteney. The first professor, Dr. Cov- 
 entry, occupied the chair from 1791 till his death 
 in 1831. His early classes consisted of upwards 
 of 70 pupils ; his subsequent classes consisted of 
 30 or 40 pupils ; and his later classes diminished 
 almost to extinction, and were held only on al- 
 ternate years. Mr. Low, the next professor, en- 
 joyed important aid from the Board of Trustees 
 for the encouragement of arts and manufactures 
 in Scotland ; formed a valuable museum of models, 
 portraits, and other articles, for illustrating his 
 lectures ; and made an important contribution to 
 agricultural literature in 1834 by the publication 
 of his ' Practical Elements of Agriculture.' — A 
 lectureship of agriculture was a year or two ago 
 appointed in Marischal college, Aberdeen; but 
 the appointment was understood to be a mere 
 experiment, and was made for only three years, 
 and upon an annual salary of only £40. — An en- 
 dowment is said to exist for a professorship of 
 agriculture in one of the colleges of Oxford. — The 
 Veterinary college of London was founded in 
 1791, and is supported by yearly subscriptions, 
 and occasional parliamentary grants. The busi- 
 ness of the college, till quite recently, was devoted 
 chiefly to the diseases of the horse ; but, in vir- 
 tue of a grant of £300 a-year from the Royal 
 Agricultural Society of England, it now comprises 
 attention to the diseases of the other animals 
 reared or kept on farms. — The Veterinary college 
 of Edinburgh originated in the personal enter- 
 prise of its first and talented professor, Mr. Wil- 
 liam Dick. From 1818 to 1823, that gentleman 
 laboured gratuitously for the diffusion of veter- 
 inary science ; in 1823, he obtained formal sanc- 
 tion and a small salary from the Highland and 
 Agricultural Society of Scotland ; and during 
 subsequent years he raised the college to so gre"at 
 an elevation as to be annually attended by from 
 70 to 100 pupils. Students at the Veterinary 
 college are admitted gratis to the lectures on 
 
 human anatomy and physiology in Queen's col- 
 lege ; and, after attending both colleges, or at 
 least the former, during two or more years, they 
 are examinable for a diploma in veterinary sur- 
 gery. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. The seeds of crops 
 grown on farms. Though, as usually understood, 
 these seeds are strictly such as are used in farm- 
 culture, and are exclusive of all seeds of trees, 
 shrubs, garden-plants, medical plants, and weeds, 
 yet they are far too numerous to be here defined 
 or even enumerated. The number of botanical 
 species grown upon a farm, indeed, is not very 
 considerable ; but the number of varieties of some 
 of these species — particularly of the grains and 
 the leguminous plants — is almost incredible. An 
 excellent manual of all the best and most curious 
 varieties of nearly all the species — containing not 
 merely an enumeration, but definitions, histori- 
 cal notices, and practical hints — is Mr. Charles 
 Lawson's ' Agriculturist's Manual, or Familiar 
 Description of the agricultural plants cultivated 
 in Europe, especially those suited to the climate 
 of Great Britain, forming a report of Lawson's 
 agricultural museum in Edinburgh.- 
 
 An astounding fact on the foreground of all 
 inquiries respecting the seeds sown by farmers, 
 is that an enormous proportion of them is de- 
 stroyed or never germinates. This proportion 
 has been computed to amount to two-thirds of 
 the entire quantity sown ; and therefore to in- 
 volve the stupendous annual waste, throughout 
 Great Britain and Ireland, of 4,666,666 quarters 
 of wheat, barley, and oats, — a quantity equal to 
 the support of one million of human beings. The 
 calculation which brings out so appalling a result 
 assumes, that the average quantity of wheat sown 
 on an imperial acre is 3 bushels or 2,685,912 grains, 
 of barley 5 bushels or 3,135,360 grains, and of oats 
 6 bushels or from 4,241,664 to 4,434,912 grains,— 
 that the greatest produce in the best districts is 
 17 times the quantity of wheat sown, and 12 times 
 the quantity of barley and oats, — that the aver- 
 age produce of these three grains on the average 
 quality of soil is only seven times the quan- 
 tity of the seed sown, — that the average number 
 of grains in an ear of good wheat is 44, in an ear 
 of barley 28, and in an ear of oats about 64, — 
 that the average tillering of vital seeds produces 
 three stems per seed of wheat and barley, and 
 two stems per seed of oats, — and that, as an in- 
 ference from these two last assumptions, the pro- 
 duce of wheat ought to be 44 times according to 
 the grains and 132 times according to the tiller- 
 ing, of barley 28 times according to the grains 
 and 24 times according to the tillering, and of 
 oats 64 times according to the grains and 128 
 times according to the tillering. It is stated by 
 Mr. Millot, that in 1830 the medium return of 
 wheat for the seed sown, taking the average of 
 all France, was about 5 1-5 times. 
 
 The mean produce was 12 hectolitres per hec- 
 tare. 
 
AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 46 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 The maximum produce was 20 hectolitres per hec- 
 tare. 
 
 The minimum produce was 4*62 hectolitres per 
 hectare. 
 
 The above, reduced into English weights and 
 measures, gives — 
 
 The mean produce 13 1-5 bushels per acre. 
 The maximum 22 bushels per acre. 
 The minimum 5 1-10 bushels per acre. 
 
 He states the produce in Germany to be 40 
 hectolitres per hectare, which is 44 bushels 
 per acre ; and probably refers (though not so 
 stated by him) to the maximum produce. Some 
 portion, or even a considerable one of the com- 
 parative smallness of the actual produce, it is 
 true, must be ascribed, not to a destruction of 
 seeds, but to such thick sowing as crowds the 
 plants, prevents the growth of tiller-stems, and 
 half strangles the process of fructification ; but 
 this cause is very far from being general, and can 
 never exist, except in an exceedingly small de- 
 gree, in any of the farms or districts in which a 
 normal quantity of seed for producing a full crop 
 has been ascertained by experiment, and estab- 
 lished by long practice. The actual destruction 
 or non-germination of an enormous proportion of 
 the seeds, is clearly a fact of general prevalence, 
 and strongly challenges the most interesting in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 One portion of the loss of sown corn-seeds is 
 easily traceable to birds ; and whatever amount 
 of this is occasioned by the overharrowing of light 
 soils, might be prevented. Another portion of 
 the loss is traceable to the bursting and rotting 
 effect of too much moisture ; and whatever 
 amount of this is occasioned by the stagnation 
 of rain-water in furrows and hollows, ought to 
 be ascribed to bad tillage or insufficient drainage. 
 A third portion of the loss is traceable to the 
 trampling of the horses, pressing the seeds be- 
 yond the action of the air, or making holes over 
 them for stagnant water ; but this, in the pre- 
 sent state of husbandry, cannot be avoided. A 
 fourth portion of the loss is traceable to the ex- 
 clusion of air by adhesive clays, or undue exposure 
 to frost or heat by sandy soils ; and this, as well 
 as the greater evil of comparative infertility, 
 might be cured by a little georgical improvement. 
 A fifth portion of the loss is very probably caused 
 by the depredations of the numerous insects 
 which inhabit the soil; yet, as the seed is not 
 eaten by them, but damaged or destroyed in con- 
 sequence of their peculiar habits of existence, 
 this source of loss is a proper subject of investi- 
 gation for entomologists. A sixth portion of the 
 loss is, in some instances, very probably caused 
 by noxious metallic salts existing in combination 
 with the soil ; and this evil, as well as other evils 
 of greater magnitude, forms a decided reason for 
 a careful, chemical analysis of soils. A seventh 
 portion of loss is possibly, though not certainly, 
 traceable to high electric influence ; and this 
 consideration, in spite of being merely theoretic, 
 
 is strong enough to concur with reasons of greater 
 weight for urging upon scientific agriculturists 
 the study of electricity and of electric agency 
 on soils and vegetation. An eighth portion of 
 the loss is, in many instances, manifestly occa- 
 sioned by the over-ripeness, the bad preservation, 
 or the otherwise damaged vitality of the seeds ; 
 and this — often a very abundant portion of loss 
 — may easily be prevented by using only seed- 
 corn, all the grains of Avhich, when tested in the 
 sample of one or two handfuls, will sink readily 
 in water. A ninth portion of the loss — and this 
 both a general and a large portion — is caused by 
 damage to the seed, or absolute destruction to 
 its vitality, from the blows of the scutchers or 
 the flail in thrashing ; and this ought to be pre- 
 vented by a slow, cautious, and quite partial 
 thrashing of the selected sheaves for seed-corn, 
 leaving the remainder of them to be afterwards 
 thrashed in the usual manner for edible grain. 
 A tenth portion of the loss, and the last we 
 shall mention, is indiscriminate sowing, or the 
 want of adaptation in the quantity of the seed 
 to the powers of the soil. To give the same 
 quantity or even variety of seed to all sorts of 
 land, good, bad, and indifferent, is an error as 
 discreditable as it is common. " Experiments 
 instituted and conducted with care for a series 
 of years, on the quantity of corn which is required 
 to sow various kinds of land in different situa- 
 tions, would doubtless present most important 
 results. But to render these experiments as 
 conclusive as they should be, the land ought pre- 
 viously to be thoroughly drained, in good heart, 
 and under judicious treatment. With these 
 means and appliances to the land, and a few 
 authenticated experiments of the quantity of 
 seed requisite for sowing the various qualities of 
 land, we have no doubt it would be proved that 
 much less seed would be sufficient to produce 
 even better crops than we reap ; and though na- 
 tural causus will always exist to check our hopes 
 of enjoying a prolific crop every year, a consider- 
 able saving would annually accrue in seed-corn." 
 Were due care used to avoid all the occasions 
 which we have pointed of damaging or destroy- 
 ing seed-corn both before and after sowing, or 
 rather were care used to avoid such of them as 
 are perfectly under our control, probably about 
 one-half of the quantities of seed-corn at present 
 sown would be found quite sufficient, and the 
 crops from them would be very observably im- 
 proved. 
 
 Adaptation of the variety of seed to soil and 
 climate, is not only a general preventive of partial 
 loss of seed-corn, but sometimes a requisite to the 
 growth, the health, or the fructification of a 
 whole crop. The change of most good varieties 
 from one soil to another — provided the soils are 
 not widely different in character — often stimu- 
 lates the seed, and prevents it from degenerating ; 
 but any change from one set of influences to an- 
 other set of considerably different power — et>pe- 
 
AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 47 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS 
 
 cially as respects the combined influences of tem- 
 perature and moisture — is frequently followed 
 by disastrous consequences. Thus, some varieties 
 of oats, the Angus, and others, which succeed 
 well in most parts of Scotland, do not fill in the 
 ear, but shrivel up after blossoming, in the south- 
 ern counties of England ; and some varieties of 
 wheat, such as the woolly-chaffed white sorts, 
 which succeed well in Kent and Essex, rot in 
 the ear under the comparative moisture of even 
 the climate of Lancashire. Special varieties of 
 pease and beans, in particular, require a very 
 nice adaptation to both soil and climate ; and as 
 an example of this, the early varieties of pease, 
 in all respects grow and mature well on the hot 
 gravelly soils of the south of England, while the 
 late grey pea, in the same circumstances, pro- 
 duces no pulse and but little haum. Any farmer, 
 when settling in a district with whose agricul- 
 tural conditions he is not thoroughly acquainted, 
 will, for a year or two, do well to select only the 
 best seeds which he can find in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, contenting himself with merely 
 cleaning them from imperfect grains and from 
 the seeds of weeds. 
 
 The use of only unmixed, unadulterated, unde- 
 generated seeds, is not quite so easy as most 
 young farmers might suppose, and vastly more 
 important than they are likely to conjecture. 
 Many seeds which appear good have naturally 
 lost their vitality ; many, especially of the clover 
 classes, are, by chemical appliances, doctored from 
 a state of rottenness into an appearance of sound- 
 ness ; many, of almost all sorts, are mixtures of 
 good, bad, and indifferent ; many have been pro- 
 cured from dwarfish, stunted, or unhealthy 
 plants ; and many belong to degenerated, ob- 
 scure, or worthless varieties. If rape seed have 
 not been procured from the strongest and largest 
 rooted plants, it will not, even on the best soils 
 and under the best treatment, produce a good 
 crop. If the seeds of carrots or of mangel-wur- 
 zel have been obtained from plants with small, 
 deformed roots, they will, in any circumstances, 
 produce a poor and sickly growth. If the corn- 
 seed of wheat, no matter how plump and good- 
 looking in itself, belong to certain unprolific vari- 
 eties, it may not yield much more than three- 
 fourths or four-fifths of the crop which would 
 rise from seed of the choicer varieties. If turnip 
 seed be mixed with the seed of other plants of 
 the genus Brassica, or have been obtained from 
 plants of small roots and degenerate character, 
 it will probably produce the merest and most 
 wretched apology for a crop. " Five and twenty 
 years ago," said Mr. P. Shirreff in 1828, "the vari- 
 ety of turnip cultivated in East Lothian, was 
 spurious and worthless in the extreme ; but since 
 its seed has been judiciously propagated, the 
 crops of this root have been improved in nutri- 
 tious value upwards of three hundred per cent." 
 The propagation of only undegenerated seeds of 
 the best varieties, while it would greatly increase 
 
 the bulk of crops and considerably improve their 
 quality, is an improvement which neither destroys 
 any existing investment of capital nor involves 
 any new expenditure of money or labour, but only 
 requires a little attention in the selecting of seeds, 
 a little patience in propagating them, and a little 
 care in keeping them free from intermixture. 
 Mr. Shirreff calculates that, as the result of a few 
 years' practice of this most cheap and easy im- 
 provement, the disposable produce of each far- 
 mer might probably, on the average, be increased 
 nearly ten per cent. ; and he adds, " The facility 
 of propagating genuine seeds will become mani- 
 fest from a statement of my practice. In the 
 spring of 1823, a vigorous wheat plant, near the 
 centre of a field, was marked out, which pro- 
 duced 63 ears that yielded 2,473 grains. These 
 were dibbled in the autumn of the same year ; the 
 produce of the second and third seasons was sown 
 broadcast in the ordinary way ; and the fourth 
 harvest put me in possession of nearly forty quar- 
 ters of sound grain. In the spring of this year 
 (1828) I planted a fine purple-top Swedish turnip, 
 that yielded (exclusive of the seeds picked by 
 birds, and those lost in thrashing and cleaning the 
 produce) 100,296 grains, a number capable of fur- 
 nishing plants for upwards of five imperial acres. 
 One-tenth of an acre was sown with the produce, 
 in the end of July, for a seed crop, part of which 
 it is in contemplation to sow for the same pur- 
 pose in July 1829. In short, if the produce of 
 the turnip in question had been carefully culti- 
 vated to the utmost extent, the third year's pro- 
 duce of seed would have more than supplied the 
 demand of Great Britain for a season." 
 
 The power of distinguishing new or special 
 varieties of seeds, and of instantly or rapidly 
 forming a judgment of their comparative value, 
 is of great importance to any farmer, not only for 
 his guidance in selecting seeds by purchase, but 
 for enabling him to detect any desirable new 
 varieties which might happen to appear among 
 his own crops. "Valuable varieties," remarks 
 Mr. Bishop in his Casual Botany, "may some- 
 times appear to those who have it not in their 
 power to prove them by trial ; and if they have, 
 the probability is, that the means to be employed 
 require more care, time, and attention than they 
 are disposed to bestow on plants the merits of 
 which are doubtful ; whereas were such persons 
 capable of forming an estimate of the worth of 
 varieties from their appearance, then would they 
 use means for their preservation, whenever their 
 appearance was found to indicate superiority. 
 That this is an attainment of considerable im- 
 portance, will be readily allowed ; yet that it in 
 some cases requires the most strict attention, ap- 
 pears from the circumstance of varieties being 
 oftentimes valuable, though not conspicuously so. 
 Let us suppose, for instance, that in a field of 
 wheat there exists a plant, a new variety, having 
 two more fertile joints in its spike, and equal to 
 the surrounding wheat in every other respect, a 
 
I 
 I 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 48 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 man accustomed to make the most minute obser- 
 vations would scarcely observe such a variety, 
 unless otherwise distinguished by some peculiar 
 badge ; nor would any but a person versed in 
 plants know that it was of superior value if 
 placed before him. How many varieties answer- 
 ing this description may have existed and escaped 
 observation, which, had they been observed and 
 carefully treated, would have proved an invalu- 
 able acquisition to the community ! The num- 
 ber of fertile joints in the spike of the wheat 
 generally cultivated, varies from eighteen to 
 twenty-two ; and the inhabitants of Great Britain 
 and Ireland amount to nearly the same number 
 of millions ; therefore, as the wheat produced in 
 those islands has been of late years sufficient, or 
 nearly sufficient, to supply the inhabitants thereof 
 with bread, it is evident that a variety with two 
 additional fertile joints, and equal in other re- 
 spects to the varieties at present in cultivation, 
 would, when it became an object of general cul- 
 ture, afford a supply of bread to at least two 
 millions of souls, without even another acre being 
 brought into cultivation, or one additional drop 
 of sweat from the brow of the husbandman." 
 
 One grand means of improving seed-corn is, on 
 the first occasion of sowing, to obtain the finest 
 and most productive quality suitable to the par- 
 ticular soil and climate, to clean it, as thoroughly 
 as possible, from all broken grain and seeds of 
 weeds, and to give it the best conditions of culti- 
 vation which good draining, good tillage, and 
 good exposure can command; and then, for a 
 series of years, at the time of the ripening of the 
 crop, to select as large a number, as time and 
 circumstances will permit, of the strongest and 
 healthiest of the plants for the seed-corn of the 
 next year's sowing. Two plants growing beside 
 each other, under the same conditions of culture, 
 often differ widely in both their total and their 
 nutritious contents ; and the practice of selecting 
 some of the strongest and plumpest for inter- 
 mixture with the portion of crop set apart for 
 seed-corn, would have the additional advantage 
 of creating the habits of minute and discriminat- 
 ing observation which Mr. Bishop desiderates, 
 and might probably lead to the detection of some 
 entirely new and valuable varieties. Plants which 
 grow together in enormous numbers like the 
 cereal grains and the other common vegetable 
 productions of a farm, are constantly exhibiting 
 individual instances of great change in their 
 habits of growth, of development, and of fructifi- 
 cation, from the operation of chemical agency in 
 the soil, of obscure expansions or contortions in 
 the individual organism, of electric or gaseous 
 influence in the atmosphere, of the hybridizing 
 power of foreign varieties which happen to be pre- 
 sent, and of several other causes to which super- 
 ficial thinkers are not likely to advert ; and were 
 the plant3 raised from choice and selected seed, 
 observed from year to year with a tolerably know- 
 ing eye — were they even glanced at, along the 
 
 sides of a field, during a few minutes of each of 
 several days when their ripening is in progress — 
 they could scarcely fail, on almost every farm, to 
 present some specimens which would richly re- 
 ward the observer's care. Yet a judicious man, 
 in all his observations and efforts for the improve- 
 ment of seed-corn, will bestow an hundredfold 
 more pains in improving a confessedly good 
 variety already in possession, than in nursing a 
 new variety of doubtful character, or making a 
 strenuous effort to offer an original contribution 
 to the good varieties of the shops. Some far- 
 mers — and these not always well qualified for 
 the task — seem to have almost a passion to be- 
 come the discoverers of new varieties of grain, 
 and to give their names in connexion with them 
 to the world ; and many have expended large 
 portions of their time in watching, and nursing, 
 and forcing pet plants of their detection, with no 
 other result than blank disappointment, or at 
 the best the contribution of varieties which had 
 little or nothing to recommend them but their 
 novelty. The system of accidental discovery, in 
 fact, has, with a very few exceptions, been a 
 plague to the discoverers, and a nuisance to the 
 world ; and hence the necessity of new varieties 
 being sought only by minute, practised, and 
 scientific observation, or by the artificial but 
 still more certain process of hybridizing. 
 
 Hybrid plants have a character among vege- 
 tables exactly corresponding to that of mules 
 among animals ; and they may, like mules, be 
 produced either spontaneously or with the aid of 
 arts and encitements applied by man. The pollen 
 or fecundating dust of a plant of one variety is 
 sprinkled upon the stigma or reproductive or- 
 ganism of a plant of another variety ; and the 
 ripened seeds of the latter produce plants which 
 combine the properties of both varieties, probably 
 wanting the objectionable properties of each, and 
 possessing the desirable properties of both. Some 
 hybrids, of course, may be sheer deteriorations ; 
 some may be merely equal in worth to either of 
 the parent varieties ; and only some are decided 
 improvements, and these in various degrees. As 
 hybridizing proceeds without as well as with 
 human interference, it may often be a source of 
 the partial deterioration of a portion of the 
 seed-corn of crops ; and it ought to be a decided 
 reason for every farmer sowing a field with only 
 one variety of seed, and using care to keep every 
 prime variety perfectly unmixed. " Hybrid va- 
 rieties of agricultural plants, when suffered to 
 intermingle with the original kind, disseminate 
 their influence around them like cross-bred ani- 
 mals, unrestrained in their intercourse with the 
 general herd, till the character of the stock be- 
 comes changed, and consequently deteriorated 
 or improved." Care should be exercised also not 
 to use any hybrid which has directly sprung 
 from very widely different varieties ; for such 
 hybrids, like those between two species of a 
 genus, may continue fertile during only three or 
 
AGRICULTURAL SEEDS. 
 
 49 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SEEDS 
 
 four generations, and may then either die out, or 
 revert to the type of one of the varieties whence 
 they sprung. Some genera of plants, too, far 
 more readily and healthily hybridize than others ; 
 and unhappily wheat is one of the genera most 
 averse to the process. But, with these precau- 
 tions, hybridizing is a power of great moment, 
 and, if generally understood and used, might be 
 made subservient to the great and rapid improve- 
 ment of all agricultural seeds. The flowers of 
 turnips, cabbages, and other plants of the brassica 
 genus, are fully open to the action of light winds 
 and the contact of insects ; and they, in conse- 
 quence, often receive cross-impregnation by the 
 scattering of pollen, and have, for thirty years 
 past, produced so many most valuable new va- 
 rieties, that the aggregate value of the genus to 
 the farmer has already become doubled and al- 
 most trebled. Dale's hybrid turnip, and the 
 amazingly improved turnips in the general hus- 
 bandry of Scotland, are illustrations of the won- 
 ders which may be effected. Even wheat may, 
 with great promise, be artificially hybridized. 
 u The anthers or male part of wheat and other 
 ceralea seldom escape from their casement till 
 after the ear has been four or five days devel- 
 oped, according to the state of the atmosphere ; 
 and this process takes place when the air within 
 the glume is suddenly expanded by sunshine suc- 
 ceeding a clouded or misty atmosphere. The 
 same cause produces the same effect on the en- 
 velop of the pollen, and the fecundating pollen is 
 partially discharged before the anthers explode 
 from their confinement. It is true that much 
 pollen is shed outside the glume ; but Nature is 
 profuse in ail her works connected with the pre- 
 servation of the species, and the pollen which 
 falls from the dangling anthers, after having ful- 
 filled the purposes requisite for the extension of 
 vegetable life, may be intended by the beneficent 
 Author of Nature to feed myriads of insects, 
 which, however minute, are still the objects of 
 his care. It might be considered as offering an 
 insult to the understanding of the farmers of the 
 present day, to inform them that these yellow 
 anthers are the male parts of the flower. Taking 
 it for granted that this fact is generally known, 
 the mode of ' crossing ' for ' improving the breed ' 
 is obvious. The first day that wheat, oats, or 
 barley, comes in the ear, let the farmer select a 
 few stalks as breeders ; and, with the forefinger 
 of his left hand, pressing gently on the point of 
 the chaffy cover, let him force it open, and with 
 a pair of small pointed scissors in the right hand, 
 let him cut out the three yellow anthers not yet 
 opened, and let the chaff spring back to protect 
 the stigma and embryo grain. After four days, 
 let him return to the same stalks with the male 
 flowers, or parts of the flowers of the variety with 
 which he means to cross, open up the glumes as 
 formerly, and dust the stigma gently with the 
 pollen. One stalk of barley, oats, or wheat, 
 treated in this manner, and the grains carefully 
 
 sown, may produce several new improved va- 
 rieties. Pease and beans, too, have their parts 
 of fructification concealed by the papilionaceous 
 corolla, and by similar treatment may produce 
 similar results." — [Mr. Gorrie in Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agriculture.'] 
 
 The grass or pasture seeds have been already 
 glanced at in the article Aftergrass, and will 
 occur to be fully discussed in the article Grasses, 
 yet may here form a suitable topic of two or three 
 remarks. They have been economically arranged 
 into the three classes of seeds, belonging to re- 
 spectively proper grasses for permanent pasture 
 and for alternate husbandry, ■ — • clover or pea- 
 blossomed plants, partly for intermixture with 
 the proper grasses, but chiefly for green food, 
 and for hay, — and miscellaneous plants, either for 
 intermixture with the proper grasses, or for sepa- 
 rate sowing with the view of improving land. 
 The best of the proper grasses for the uses of the 
 farmer are Alopecurus pratensis or meadow fox- 
 tail grass, Poa pratensis or smooth-stalked meadow 
 grass, Poa trivialis or rough-stalked meadow grass. 
 Festuca pratensis or meadow fescue, Cynosurus cris- 
 tatus or crested dog's-tail grass, Festuca duriuscula 
 or hard fescue, Holcus lanatus or woolly soft grass, 
 Holcus avenaceus or tall oat-like soft grass, Phleum 
 pratense majus or large meadow cat's-tail grass, 
 Lolium perenne Russelianum or Russel's perennial 
 ryegrass, Hordeum pratense or meadow barley- 
 grass, Festuca ovina or sheep's fescue, Agrostis sto- 
 lonifera latifolia or florin, Lolium Italicum or Ita- 
 lian ryegrass, and PanicumGermanicum or German 
 panic grass. The best of the clovers or pea-blos- 
 somed plants are Trifolium pratense or broad-leaved 
 red clover, Trifolium pratense perenne or cow-grass 
 or perennial red clover, Trifolium repens or white 
 clover, Trifolium minus or red suckling, Medicago 
 lupulina or non-such or hop trefoil, Medicago 
 sativa or lucern, and Hedysarum onobrychis or 
 saintfoin ; and the best of the miscellaneous 
 plants of a nature fit for intermixture with the 
 grasses, are Poterium sanguisorba or burnet, Achil- 
 lea millefolium or yarrow, Spergida arvensis sativa 
 or cultivated meadow spurrey, and Plantago lan- 
 ceolata or lamb's tongue or rib-grass, 
 
 The proper grasses which we have named con- 
 stitute the produce of every rich old permanent 
 pasture ; and, in all judicious artificial sowings, 
 are intermixed with clovers, particularly the 
 white and the perennial red, in different propor- 
 tions according to the character of the soil. If 
 only one species of grass be sown — no matter 
 which species, or how thickly sown, and no mat- 
 ter what the character or condition of the soil — 
 only a portion of the plants will prosper, and 
 blank spaces will occur everywhere among them, 
 to be speedily occupied by whatever grasses, 
 weeds, rushes, or mosses, are ripening in the 
 vicinity, and have a liking for the soil ; but if a 
 mixture of different species and of sufficient 
 quantity be sown, the plants which spring from 
 them will densely cover every portion of the sur- 
 D 
 
AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 
 
 50 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 face, and give it the properties of an ancient 
 meadow or rich old pasture. When the soil is 
 highly fertile or of a very compound nature, the 
 mixture of seeds sown upon it ought to comprise 
 a considerable number of species ; but when the 
 soil is thin, poor, or of simple character, especi- 
 ally when it consists of chalk, damp clay, siliceous 
 matter, or moorish and heath-growing gravel, the 
 mixture may comprise but few species, and, in 
 some instances, not more than three or even two. 
 The lowest degrees of these poor, thin, and semi- 
 barren soils, in fact, almost as steadily refuse to 
 produce more than one or two solitary species, 
 as the rich, compound, arable soils refuse to bear 
 fewer than four, six, eight, or a dozen. Just, 
 therefore, as the prime pasture grasses are na- 
 turally found growing in a state of abundant in- 
 termixture with one another on rich soils, so are 
 the hard, harsh, worthless kinds of grasses na- 
 turally found growing in solitary sternness on 
 wild moors, on arid sands, on ferruginous clays, 
 and on other descriptions of almost desert lands. 
 Thus the grasses Aim fiexuosa or zigzag hair- 
 grass, Nardus stricta or upright mat-grass, Sesleria 
 cerulea or blue moor-grass, Melica cerulea or pur- 
 ple melic, Agrostis canina capillaris or dog bent, 
 Agrostis palustris or marsh bent, Poa aquatica or 
 watery meadow grass, and several others, are 
 generally found uncombined with one another, 
 or with other grasses, and, if sown in a state of 
 mixture, no matter of what kind, in what pro- 
 portions or upon what soils, will refuse to con- 
 tinue social, and eventually become solitary. 
 Even the decidedly good pasture grasses are 
 much affected in their habits of growth, gregari- 
 ousness, and longevity, by the different qualities 
 of soils, and require to be modified, as to both 
 the kind and the proportion of mixture, in order 
 to be profitably adapted to different situations. 
 In a sandy loam, for example, Festuca pratensis 
 and Festuca duriuscula ought to be in nearly equal 
 proportions ; in a sandy soil, with little or no 
 loamy matter, Festuca duriusculus ought to be in 
 much larger proportion than Festuca pratensis ; 
 and, in clayey loam, Festuca pratensis ought to be 
 in twice the quantity of Festuca duriuscula. Most 
 of the other prime grasses require similar adap- 
 tation ; and nearly all will suffer more or less 
 diminution of their fertility or their perma- 
 nence by either indiscriminate mixture or indis- 
 criminate sowing. See the articles Seed, Sow- 
 ing, Grasses, Grass-Lands, Hay, Aftergrass, 
 Wheat, Barley, and Oats. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. Public exhibi- 
 tions of farm stock, farming, implements, and 
 other matters connected with agriculture. They 
 are appointed and conducted by agricultural 
 societies, and are designed to stimulate agricul- 
 tural genius and enterprise, to diffuse agricul- 
 tural information, and to give popularity and 
 importance to valuable agricultural discoveries ; 
 and they serve also to lift agricultural interests 
 triumphantly above the influence of factions and 
 
 partisanship, to excite and expand the feeling of 
 reciprocal interest between landlords and tenants, 
 and to diffuse a corps oVesprit throughout the 
 various members of the agricultural body. See 
 next article. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. Associations 
 for the diffusion of agricultural science, and the 
 promotion of agricultural improvement. Some 
 are institutions for a kingdom, others for a pro- 
 vince, and others for a very limited locality ; 
 some consist of scientific and wealthy patrons 
 and proprietors, and others of enterprising far- 
 mers and ordinary farm-stewards ; some exert a 
 motive power on the energies of improvement, 
 both suggesting enterprise and conducting it, 
 and others exercise no stronger influences than 
 those of sanctioning and news-spreading, con- 
 tenting themselves with the adoption of well- 
 tested practices, and the diffusion of valuable in- 
 formation ; and some are supported wholly or 
 partly by state endowment, others by munificent 
 and numerous benefactions and subscriptions, 
 and others by few and meagre private contribu- 
 tions. Many of the more obscure, feeble, and 
 limitedly local class have had but a brief and 
 comparatively worthless existence ; some others 
 of this class are of questionable character, pro- 
 bably doing as much evil as good ; and the re- 
 mainder — constituting the great majority — have 
 acquitted themselves well and powerfully, and 
 are wielding a vast aggregate energy for the 
 welfare of the agricultural community, yet are 
 cumulatively far too numerous, and individually 
 far too small, to be fit subjects of detailed notice, 
 or even of enumeration. Agricultural societies, 
 as a whole, are increasing in both number and 
 power, and have already achieved incalculable 
 benefit throughout many parts of Europe, and 
 particularly in Germany, France, and Great Bri- 
 tain. Both their objects and their results are 
 well-known to almost all the reading population 
 who speak the English language, and furnish 
 topics of constant, varied, and extensive notices 
 in all our periodicals, from the daily newspaper 
 to the quarterly scientific journal. " The news- 
 papers of the passing day teem with the list of 
 prizes offered in Great Britain for improving live 
 stock in all their varieties, the invention of new 
 farming implements, &c, &c, and for procuring 
 the best information on all subjects connected 
 with every department of rural and domestic 
 economy. The exhibitions of horned cattle, 
 horses, sheep, and swine, have produced the 
 most beneficial effects in the principal as well as 
 in the least favoured breeding districts ; and, by 
 a necessary connexion, tillage in all its branches 
 has been promoted. Farm servants, too, have 
 become objects of encouragement ; their skill in 
 ploughing, hedging, stack-making, herding, dairy- 
 management, cottage-husbandry, their morality 
 of conduct, and length of servitude, being subjects 
 of approbation and reward." 
 
 The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 
 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
 
 51 
 
 AGROSTIS. 
 
 land was founded so early as 1784, and has run 
 a career of distinguished splendour, and main- 
 tains undoubted pre-eminence over all agricul- 
 tural associations. It has effected great and 
 numerous improvements throughout most of 
 Scotland ; it has exalted that country, in spite of 
 the poverty of its soil and the angriness of its cli- 
 mate, to the first place among the agricultural 
 countries of the world ; it has exerted a powerful 
 though indirect benign influence on England, 
 Ireland, and the whole civilized world ; it pos- 
 sesses, in its museum, in its periodical shows, 
 and in its constant array of wealth and talent, a 
 series of the finest displays of patriotic munifi- 
 cence which ever graced the history of any mere 
 economical association ; and it has produced, in 
 the many volumes of its Transactions and of its 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, by far the 
 most opulent mass of interesting, practical, and 
 scientific information which anywhere exists 
 within the wide circle of agricultural literature. 
 — The English Board of Agriculture and Internal 
 Improvement was established in 1794; it had as 
 its president Sir John Sinclair, as its first secre- 
 tary Mr. Arthur Young, and as its patrons and 
 directors a very large body of the most distin- 
 guished men in England, including all the great 
 officers of state, the two archbishops, and many 
 of the nobility; it produced, in a remarkably 
 short period, seventy-two octavo volumes of re- 
 ports on the agricultural condition of the coun- 
 ties of the empire ; it united the influence and 
 exertions of men of all political parties in a series 
 of efforts for the agricultural and general im- 
 provement of the country ; and, with a very 
 sensible degree of permanent beneficial results, it 
 aroused a large proportion of the farmers in 
 most parts of England and Scotland to a con- 
 sciousness of deficiency in their agricultural prac- 
 tices, and a conviction of both the desirableness 
 and the practicability of great improvement. — 
 The Royal Agricultural Society of England, ori- 
 ginally called the English Agricultural Society, 
 though quite recent in origin compared with the 
 Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 
 has already for several years begun to exert 
 nearly as powerful an influence upon England as 
 that great institution does upon Scotland, and 
 is running a course of noble rivalry with it in 
 the support of minor beneficial institutions, in 
 the holding of great agricultural shows, in the 
 stimulating of agricultural talent, and in the 
 publication of a valuable course of agricultural 
 periodical literature. — The Royal Dublin Society 
 was incorporated for the advancement of hus- 
 bandry, manufactures, and the fine arts ; it at one 
 time promised to arouse the sleeping energies of 
 Ireland, and made a series of exertions for that 
 country similar to those of the English Board of 
 Agriculture for England ; it afterwards, for a 
 long period, ceased to take almost any part what- 
 ever in matters connected with agriculture, yet 
 
 had the apology, during some of that period, that 
 the interests of Irish agriculture were professedly 
 promoted by the now extinct Farming Society ; 
 and, for some years past, it has again begun to 
 hold annual exhibitions of cattle, poultry, and 
 agricultural implements, to give premiums for 
 the best specimens of these, and to offer prizes 
 for essays on subjects connected with the farmer's 
 interest. — The Royal Agricultural Improvement 
 Society of Ireland, but a recent institution, boasts 
 great numerical strength in its members, high 
 personal and official distinction in its principal 
 supporters, and comparative munificence in the 
 contributions to its funds ; and it was founded 
 to embody all sorts of practical and scientific in- 
 formation connected with agriculture, to corre- 
 spond with the principal agricultural societies of 
 Britain, continental Europe, and America, to pro- 
 pose agricultural experiments and defray such 
 losses as they might occasion, to promote im- 
 provements in the construction of agricultural 
 implements and of farm buildings and cottages, 
 to encourage and direct the application of che- 
 mistry and other sciences to husbandry, to pro- 
 mote improvements in the breeds of live stock 
 and in veterinary surgery, to stimulate know- 
 ledge and neatness in the management of cot- 
 tages and gardens, and to promote the comfort, 
 the education, and the general welfare of small 
 farmers and agricultural labourers. 
 
 AGRICULTURE. See Introduction. 
 
 AGRICULTURIST. See Agricultor and Far- 
 mer. 
 
 AGROSTIS. A genus of grasses, of a creep- 
 ing habit, and with loose branched, capillary 
 panicles of flowers. Most of them are popularly 
 called bent-grass; two of the best known British 
 species are regarded in England as troublesome 
 weeds, under the name of quitch or quicks; and 
 a variety of one of the species has, for about 
 thirty years, had great celebrity as a pasture 
 grass, under the name of fiorin. They are dis- 
 tinguished from all other British grasses, by the 
 outer scales of their flower being two in number, 
 unequal in size, membranous in texture, and 
 containing but a single floret, and by the inner 
 scales being also two in number, short, very thin, 
 and almost transparent, and the larger of them 
 occasionally having an awn at its back. Some of 
 the species grow in rank, marshy grounds, and 
 some in dry, exposed, barren situations ; and 
 most have hitherto been regarded as useless or 
 even noxious to the farmer. Yet the genus has 
 been the subject of so much controversy, and 
 one or two of its species, or at least some varie- 
 ties of those species, have been so highly extolled 
 as of supereminent value, that a number of the 
 several species and their known varieties require 
 to be distinctly noticed. 
 
 A grostis vulgaris, or common bent, is the most 
 common grass on many natural sandy pastures 
 in most parts of England ; it abounds on not a 
 
AGROSTIS. 
 
 52 
 
 AGROSTIS. 
 
 few good soils, in elevated and exposed situa- 
 tions ; and, in consequence of the rapidity with 
 which it overruns pasture and garden ground, it 
 is usually denounced by English farmers under 
 the name of quicks, and exterminated as an 
 annoying weed. Yet in spite of being a hard 
 grass, containing comparatively little nourish- 
 ment, it might probably, in some situations, 
 demand favour from the farmer on account of 
 its early habits; for it flowers from the third 
 week of June till the third week of July, and 
 matures its seeds before the end of August. Four 
 varieties of Agrostis vulgaris are enumerated 
 under the names of mutica, canina, pumila, and 
 sylvatica; and one of these is distinguished by 
 having awned healthy flowers, one by having 
 awnless diseased flowers, one by having awned 
 diseased flowers, and one by having viviparous 
 flowers. The mutica and the canina are the most 
 common varieties; and they remarkably differ 
 from each other in at once character of soil, earli- 
 ness of habit, and nutritiousness of constitution. 
 The Agrostis vulgaris mutica prefers sandy soils, 
 flowers from the third week of June till the 
 second week of July, ripens in the beginning of 
 August, and, on sandy soil, yields per acre when 
 in flower 10,209! l° s - °f g reen produce, 4,595 lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 532 lbs. of nutritious matter, 
 — and when in seed, 9,529 lbs. of green produce, 
 4,765 lbs. of dry produce, and 252 lbs. of nutri- 
 tious matter. The Agrostis vulgaris canina pre- 
 fers clayey soils, flowers in the second and third 
 weeks of July, ripens in the end of August, and, 
 on sandy loam, yields per acre when in flower 
 6,126 lbs. of green produce, 2,604 lbs. of dry pro- 
 duce, and 240 lbs. of nutritious matter. The 
 mutica is generally healthy, and obtains the popu- 
 lar names of common bent and fine bent ; but the 
 canina is attacked by rust in both its culms and 
 its leaves, and is usually called brown bent. The 
 mutica, as may be seen at a glance, is, in all re- 
 spects, much superior to the canina; and is the 
 variety distinguished, par excellence, as bent, 
 common bent, and Agrostis vulgaris. 
 
 Agrostis alba or white bent, shares with Agros- 
 tis vulgaris the English husbandman's contemp- 
 tuous designation of quicks, and indignant de- 
 nunciation as a troublesome weed ; and they are 
 the only species very distinctly known to most 
 farmers, or even noticed in some scientific trea- 
 tises. Agrostis alba, too, has the contradictory 
 character in England of a bad plant and a good 
 plant, — bad in some situations and good in 
 others ; and while denounced in the former char- 
 acter as quicks, it has often been erroneously 
 identified in the latter character with the Irish 
 florin. A grostis alba grows luxuriantly in either 
 marshes or clayey grounds ; it takes stout and 
 monopolizing possession of the soil, greatly ex- 
 hausts it, and cannot easily be eradicated ; it has 
 smaller roots than any of the other species of 
 agrostis, and can, at any stage of its growth, be 
 
 easily recognised by this characteristic ; it flowers 
 in the first week of August, and ripens about the 
 beginning of September ; and, on clayey soils, it 
 yields per acre when in flower 8,167^ lbs. of green 
 produce, 3,471 lbs. of dry produce, and 255 lbs. 
 of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis palustris, or marsh bent, has a promptly 
 stoloniferous habit, and is considered by some 
 persons as not sufficiently marked to be a dis- 
 tinct species, or as only constituting a variety of 
 Agrostis stolonifera. It grows on stiff clayey 
 soils, abounds in marshes, and occurs oftener in 
 moist woods than any other of the stoloniferous 
 grasses; but it requires so much moisture in 
 order to its thriving as to be properly a sub- 
 aquatic ; and, in some watery situations among 
 woods and shrubs, where it can obtain support 
 from bushes, it often attains a height of five feet. 
 It is greatly superior in useful properties to 
 Agrostis alba, and will even bear comparison with 
 the best kinds of Agrostis vulgaris; but it is much 
 inferior to most sorts of Agrostis stolonifera, and 
 can be viewed as little better than a weed, in- 
 festing spouty grounds, and choking up drains 
 and coppices. It flowers about the second week 
 of July, and ripens about the third week of Au- 
 gust ; and when growing upon boggy ground, it 
 yields per acre when in flower 10,209^ lbs. of 
 green produce, 4,534^ lbs. of dry produce, and 
 438| lbs. of nutritious matter, — and when in 
 seed 13,612^ lbs. of green produce, 5,445 lbs. of 
 dry produce, and 585 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis stricta, upright bent or rock bent, — 
 called by some botanists Trichodium rupestre, — 
 grows on dry, sandy, rocky soils, and is distin- 
 guished at a glance from all the other bent 
 grasses, by its possessing a fine deep, green colour. 
 It requires little stimulating from either soil or 
 manure ; it impoverishes in only a small degree 
 any soil on which it grows ; and if cultivated, 
 without manure, on poor, siliceous, thin, and 
 half-waste ground, it will for six successive years 
 yield a full and undiminishing return of crop. 
 On account of these properties, it may, in cer- 
 tain situations, be worth the attention of some 
 farmers ; yet it possesses comparatively little 
 intrinsic value, and can be profitably cultivated 
 only on soils which refuse to bear any other for- 
 age, and cannot be remuneratingly reclaimed. 
 When grown on bog, Agrostis stricta yields per 
 imperial acre when in flower 9,528| lbs. of green 
 produce, 4,764^ lbs. of dry produce, and 251| lbs. 
 of nutritious matter, — and when in seed 7,487 
 lbs. of green produce, 2,714 lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 178 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis rcpens, creeping-rooted bent or white 
 creeping bent — called by Withering Agrostis 
 nigra or black couch grass — often grows on pas- 
 ture and corn-fields, takes powerful hold of the 
 soil, has a pertinaciously stoloniferous habit, and 
 gives great trouble and vexation as a weed. So 
 exceedingly vivacious is it that the least particle 
 
AGROSTIS. 
 
 53 
 
 AGROSTIS. 
 
 of root or stolon will become a plant ; and so 
 penetrating and ramified in its intertexture with 
 the soil, that ploughing will not erase it from 
 clayey land, and paring and burning will do it 
 little damage in almost any ground. The only 
 successful or at least advisable method of at- 
 tempting its extirpation, is to follow the plough, 
 to fork out the roots, and to use care that none 
 be left to strike anew on the surface. A peculiar 
 disease, of the nature of rust, attacks this species, 
 dries up the extremity of its leaves, and gives it 
 an unsightly appearance. Agrostis repens flowers 
 in the second week of August, and ripens toward 
 the end of September; and, on clayey loam, it 
 yields per acre when in flower 6,125| lbs. of 
 green produce, 2,680 lbs. of dry produce, and 
 287 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis nivea, snowy bent or straw-coloured 
 Den t — called by some botanists Trichodium cani- 
 nvm — grows on either heathy or clayey soils, but 
 bears two times more produce on the former 
 than on the latter ; it is a plant of too infrequent 
 occurrence to be formidable as a weed ; and it is 
 too meagre in nutritious properties, and too un- 
 accommodating to any peculiarly waste soil, to 
 become an object of cultivation. It flowers about 
 the second week of August, and ripens about the 
 beginning of September ; and when growing on 
 sandy soil, it yields per acre when in flower 
 6,125^ lbs. of green produce, 2,603^ lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 239^ lbs. of nutritious matter, — and 
 when in seed 4,764^ lbs. of green produce, 1,310| 
 lbs. of dry produce, and 149 lbs. of nutritious 
 matter. 
 
 Agrostis lobata, lobed bent or sea -side bent, 
 grows partly on wet stiff clayey lands, such as 
 those of the most adhesive portions of the Lon- 
 don clay basin, but is found principally on soils 
 of various descriptions in the immediate vicinity 
 of the sea ; and though it is of considerably less 
 economical value than the Agrostis vulgaris mu- 
 tica, it might probably be well worth cultivation 
 in many situations which are exposed to the 
 storm-spray of the sea, or to frequent and dense 
 coast mists. Its seeds are produced in great 
 abundance, and germinate with great freedom 
 and vigour. It flowers in the first week of Au- 
 gust, and ripens about the end of the same 
 month; and as grown upon siliceous sand, it 
 yields per acre when in flower 6,806^ lbs. of green 
 produce, 3,403 lbs. of dry produce, and 319 lbs. 
 of nutritious matter, — and when ripe 6,125| lbs. 
 of green produce, 2,680 lbs. of dry produce, and 
 287 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis Mexicana, or Mexican bent, is a native 
 of the country whose name it bears, and was in- 
 troduced to Britain in 1780, by Mr. Gilbert Alex- 
 ander. It grows freely in a variety of soils, but 
 is much fonder of such as are calcareous or 
 argillaceous than of such as are siliceous or moory. 
 Its seeds are produced in abundance, and vege- 
 tate with freedom and power. Though quite a 
 
 hardy plant, it may nevertheless retain some dis- 
 advantageous properties which a longer and more 
 thorough acclimitation will considerably modify. 
 At present, it is late in throwing out its foliage, 
 and it but very slightly excels Agrostis palustris 
 in useful properties as herbage ; so that, except 
 for the rapidity and energy with which it rises 
 from seed to maturity, it possesses no great claim 
 on the attention of the farmer. It flowers in the 
 third week of August, and ripens toward the 
 end of September ; and when grown upon rich, 
 black, siliceous, sandy soil, it yields per acre 
 when in flower 19,057^ lbs. of green produce, 
 6,670 lbs. of dry produce, and 595^ lbs. of nutri- 
 tious matter. 
 
 Agrostis ramosissima or side-branching bent, is 
 distinguished by the number of branches which 
 ramify from its stem, and by such a hard and 
 semi-ligneous texture of its culms as somewhat 
 assimilates it in character to an undershrub. Its 
 herbage is late in appearing, and acquires little 
 bulk before the beginning of summer; and its 
 flowers do not appear till the first or second week 
 of October, and are very seldom, even in the 
 south of England, succeeded by more than mere 
 embryo seeds. The frost not only prevents its 
 fructification, but destroys its foliage, killing it 
 down to the surface of the ground, and per- 
 mitting nothing but its roots to escape ; and the 
 plant is propagated by the parting and trans- 
 planting of its roots late in autumn or early in 
 spring. This species, when in flower, and when 
 grown upon a strong clayey loam, yields per acre 
 28,586^ lbs. of green produce, 11,434 lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 893^ lbs. of nutritious matter ; so 
 that, excepting some species of Agrostis stoloni- 
 fera, it is the richest in nutritious properties of 
 all the bents. 
 
 Agrostis canina mutica, awnless brown bent or 
 creeping - stalked brown bent — called by some 
 botanists Trichodium caninum muticum — has a 
 strongly aquatic habit, abounds more than any 
 other grass on deep bogs, and may often be seen 
 in luxuriance on such boggy grounds as are under 
 water during six months in the year. It is a 
 small plant, seldom having leaves of more than 
 three inches in length ; it produces too little her- 
 bage, and possesses too little nutritious matter, 
 to be ever deserving of cultivation ; and it is of 
 use to the farmer principally in indicating to 
 him that the soil on which it grows is capable of 
 being converted into rich meadow by irrigation. 
 It closely resembles Agrostis nivea in general 
 structure ; and principally differs from it in the 
 want of awns and in the length of the culms. It 
 resembles Agrostis canina fascicularis in having 
 knots or bundles of leaves attached to its decum- 
 bent shoots. It flowers in the second and third 
 weeks of July, and ripens about the middle of 
 August ; and when growing on bog, it yields per 
 acre when in flower 5,445 lbs. of green produce, 
 1,497^ lbs. of dry produce, and 149 lbs. of nutri- 
 
AGROSTIS. 
 
 54 
 
 AGROSTIS. 
 
 tious matter, — and when in seed 6,125| ; lbs. of 
 green produce, 2,603| lbs. of dry produce, and 
 239J; lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis canina fascicularis, tufted bent or 
 bundle-leaved bent, abounds on poor, light, moist, 
 soils, which lie on a retentive subsoil, and have 
 long been under pasture ; and, in common with 
 the woolly soft grass, it is, in some districts, 
 popularly designated winter fog. Tufts or bundles 
 of leaves rise from its shoots in autumn, and run 
 along the surface of the other herbage ; and this 
 phenomenon gives the variety its name of Fasci- 
 cularis, constitutes the distinguishing feature of 
 that variety, and is caused by the cattle leaving 
 scattered roots of this plant untouched when 
 they are eating the accompanying grasses. This 
 plant is the least valuable of all the bents, and 
 totally unworthy of cultivation ; and the chief 
 care which it gives the farmer — and that no mean 
 one — is how he may best root it out or choke it. 
 It flowers in the first and second weeks of August, 
 and ripens in the end of the same month ; and 
 when growing upon sandy soil, it yields per acre 
 when in flower 2,722| lbs. of green produce, 680^ 
 lbs. of dry produce, and 85 lbs. of nutritious 
 matter. 
 
 A grostis canina capillar is or fine-panicled brown 
 bent, grows wild in isolated patches on moors and 
 heath -producing grounds; and is occasionally 
 found in portions of pasture lands which have a 
 siliceous soil ; but it seldom occurs in commixture 
 with any other species of grass. It possesses a 
 close resemblance to Agrostis canina fascicularis. 
 It flowers about the beginning of A.ugust, and ri- 
 pens about the end of that month ; and when in 
 flower, and growing upon sandy loam, it yields 
 per acre 4,764^ lbs. of green produce, 1,310^ lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 149 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis stolonifera aristata or awned creeping 
 bent, abounds in bogs, occasionally grows in mix- 
 ture with other grasses in pastures, and has a 
 strongly stoloniferous habit. It is eaten by cattle 
 in common with the meadow fox-tail grass and 
 the rough-stalked meadow grass ; and it produces 
 a much greater amount of nutritious matter than 
 several of the species of bent which we have 
 noticed ; but it is very far inferior in value to 
 fiorin, and, if carelessly taken as a fair specimen 
 of the varieties of Agrostis stolonifera, is fitted to 
 bring them into great comparative discredit. It 
 flowers about the third or fourth week of July, 
 and ripens about the second or third week of 
 August, and when grown upon bog, it yields per 
 acre when ripe 8,848 lbs. of green produce, 4,210f 
 lbs. of dry produce, and 368| lbs. of nutritious 
 matter, — and in the month of December 10,209^ 
 lbs. of green produce, 4,594^ lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 438| lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia or narrow-leaved 
 creeping bent, is the most common variety of 
 stoloniferous bent in moist woods, and on cold, 
 retentive, clayey soils. It produces a greater 
 
 amount of nutritious matter than any other bent 
 except fiorin ; yet it does not appear to be relished 
 by cattle, but, on the contrary, is totally neglected 
 by them as long as they can obtain any of the 
 better pasture grasses. It flowers in the second 
 and third weeks of July, and ripens about the 
 end of August ; and when grown on bogs, it j 
 yields per acre when ripe 16,335 lbs. of green j 
 produce, 7,350f lbs. of dry produce, and 765f lbs. 
 of nutritious matter, — and in the month of De- 
 cember 17,015 lbs. of green produce, 8,507^ lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 930^ lbs. of nutritious mat- 
 ter. 
 
 Agrostis stolonifera latifolia, fiorin or broad- 
 leaved creeping bent, is the grand topic of in- 
 terest and controversy on the subject of the genus 
 agrostis, and has been eulogized by some parties 
 as the most valuable of all the pasture grasses, 
 and contemned by others as one of a series of 
 worthless and annoying weeds. But this varie- 
 ty of Agrostis stolonifera, while it is the only true 
 fiorin, and constitutes the only grass referred to 
 by the extreme eulogists of Agrostis stolonifera, 
 has a close -resemblance to Agrostis stolonifera 
 aristata, to Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia, and 
 to two other and more obscure varieties of Agrostis 
 stolonifera, called respectively syhatica and joa£ws- 
 tris; and, at the same time, it is scarce while 
 they are plenty, — it occurs in comparatively rare 
 and isolated situations, while they are exten- 
 sively diffused, — it seems to be naturally peculiar 
 or nearly so to Ireland, while they are found in 
 many parts of England, — it far excels them all, 
 both in quantity of nutritious produce, and in 
 adaptations for winter forage, — and it has vastly 
 oftener been confounded with some one or other 
 of them, or even with several of the still less 
 valuable species which we have enumerated, par- 
 ticularly with Agrostis alba, Agrostis palustris, 
 and one of the varieties of Agrostis vulgaris, than 
 distinguished from them and separately identi- 
 fied. Can we wonder, then, that the most con- 
 flicting and even contradictory opinions have 
 been maintained respecting fiorin 1 The original 
 eulogists of fiorin, too, promulged the praise of 
 its good properties, before fair time had trans- 
 pired for detecting and estimating its defects ; its 
 subsequent eulogists have sometimes been hur- 
 ried into superlatives by the excitement of con- 
 troversy; and not a few of its opponents have 
 been indiscriminate and unmeasured in their de- 
 nunciations, not alone from total mistake of the 
 real plant, but probably from prejudice against 
 Ireland where its praises originated, and from 
 low, perhaps contemptuous, estimation of the 
 general agricultural status of its earlier eulogists. 
 But this subject is at once so important in itself, 
 so interesting in agricultural experiment, so cu- 
 rious in some historical associations, and so com- 
 plicated in the conflicts and antagonisms of opi- 
 nion, that we must reserve a full notice of it for 
 a separate article under the word Fiorin. 
 
AIR. 
 
 55 
 
 AIRA. 
 
 The name agrostis is derived from a Greek 
 word which signifies ' a field,' and it was used 
 by the ancient Greeks as a general name for 
 every kind of grass. The total number of spe- 
 cies of true agrostis known to botanists is not- 
 fewer than about one hundred and ten, — Sinclair's 
 Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. — Sproules' Trea- 
 tise on Agriculture. — Transactions of the High- 
 land Society. — Boyle's Practical Husbandry. — 
 Richardson s Essay on Fiorin. — Loudon s Eacyclo- 
 pcedia of plants. — Catalogue of the Highland So- 
 ciety's Museum. — Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual. 
 
 AHL. See Liquid Manure. 
 
 AIR. The gaseous fluid which constitutes the 
 great bulk or pure portion of the atmosphere, 
 and which forms an essential aliment of both 
 animal and vegetable life. It consists of oxygen 
 and nitrogen, in the proportion of one atom of 
 oxygen and two atoms of nitrogen, or of two 
 grains of oxygen and seven grains of nitrogen, 
 or of one cubic inch of oxygen with four cubic 
 inches of nitrogen. This proportion — which we 
 have thus stated in the three forms of atom, 
 weight, and volume — is usually represented in 
 the form of 20*82 per cent, of oxygen, and 79*16 
 per cent, of nitrogen. A wonderful fact — beau- 
 tifully illustrating both the wisdom of the Crea- 
 tor and the benign care of his government — is 
 that this proportion, so far as has been ascertain- 
 ed, prevails in all parts of the atmosphere, — 
 that, in spite of the enormous consumption of 
 oxygen in the processes of breathing, combustion, 
 putrefaction, oxidation, and acidification, a uni- 
 versal provision exists for restoring volumes of it 
 equal to the quantities consumed, — that not- 
 withstanding the vastly greater consumption of 
 it in some places than in others, an universal 
 agency is in operation for maintaining the fair 
 balance, or the equal diffusion of it in all localities 
 of the earth and at all heights in the atmo- 
 sphere, — and that, in defiance of an abundant and 
 irregular ascent of ammonia, carbonic acid, mi- 
 asmata, and other poisonous matters from almost 
 all parts of the material surface of the world, 
 chemical and meteorological appliances are every- 
 where at work to prevent these matters — except 
 in small localities for the punishment of human 
 filth, or indolence, or wickedness — from so ac- 
 cumulating as either to alter the air's composition 
 or to impair its vital action. 
 
 Yet though the air itself, or pure air, never 
 and nowhere sensibly varies in the proportions 
 of its constituent oxygen and nitrogen, it is uni- 
 versally subject to two admixtures, and locally 
 liable to numerous deteriorations, which more or 
 less modify its power over vegetables and animals. 
 Carbonic acid is generally mixed with the air in 
 the proportion, by weight, of about one part to a 
 thousand; and this ingredient is, on the one 
 hand, continually abstracted or drunk up by 
 plants for assimilation into a main ingredient in 
 their bulk, and is, on the other hand, as con- 
 
 stantly evolved from numerous processes and de- 
 grees of animal and vegetable combustion and 
 decay ; and wherever, from want of ventilation 
 or from confinement of the processes which 
 evolve it, or from enormous local disproportion 
 between these processes and those which consume 
 it, or from any other causes kept in operation by 
 the folly or carelessness or sin of man, it is al- 
 lowed to form any considerable local accumula- 
 tion, it totally overpowers the salubriousness of 
 the air, and proves most noxious to every kind of 
 animal. Watery vapour is everywhere suffused 
 through the air, usually or averagely in the pro- 
 portion, by weight, of about one part to an hun- 
 dred ; and the increase or the diminution of its 
 quantity very sensibly affects the weight and the 
 other mechanical conditions of the air, and modi- 
 fies its action considerably on animals and very 
 greatly on vegetables. 
 
 The deteriorating substances which rise into 
 admixture with the atmosphere, directly from 
 the presence of animals, from the crowded- 
 ness of human population, and from the filthy 
 habits, the manufacturing processes, the culpable 
 negligence, and the wicked conduct of man, are, 
 in all respects, foreign substances; and by a 
 singular law which strongly illustrates the doc- 
 trine of a moral providence — they have power to 
 become less or more noxious or fatal almost ex- 
 actly — perhaps quite exactly — in the degree in 
 which they arise from the animal corruptibility 
 or from the moral delinquency of man. Thus, 
 ammoniacal gases, which arise merely from ani- 
 mal decay, however large a proportion they bear 
 to the air in large cities, seldom of themselves 
 exert any noxious influence, but, on the other 
 hand, contribute largely to the most valuable 
 processes of vegetation; while the miasmata 
 which arise in company with the ammoniacal 
 gases from scenes of filthiness and carelessness, 
 the exhalations which ascend from stagnant 
 ponds and undrained marshes, and the gases and 
 malaria which originate in conditions of territory 
 produced by human guilt or by processes of manu- 
 facture rendered necessary by human folly and 
 wickedness, almost constantly diminish the air's 
 healthy power over both vegetables and animals, 
 and often become concentrated into the very 
 virus of epidemic and pestilential diseases. Air, 
 or pure air, is the constant gift of the Divine 
 bounty ; and impurity of air is the product, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, of man's sin. See the arti- 
 cles Aeration, Ventilation, Ammonia, Car- 
 bonic Acid, and Agricultural Chemistry. 
 
 AIRA. A genus of grasses belonging to the 
 bromus tribe, and popularly called hair-grasses. 
 They are distinguished by their aquatic habits, 
 and by the attenuated, filamentous, hairy form 
 of their leaves. They flower from the first week 
 till the third week of July, and ripen from the 
 beginning till the end of August. They are very 
 far inferior to some other grasses, both in tho 
 
AIRA. 
 
 50 
 
 ALKALIES. 
 
 bulk of their green produce and in the quantity 
 of their nutritious matter ; and even if they were 
 intrinsically deserving the attention of the far- 
 mer, they are, in a great measure, rendered unlit 
 for field culture by their aquatic habits. Yet 
 they possess sufficient features of interest to de- 
 mand from us a comparatively full notice. The 
 species of them examined and analysed in con- 
 nexion with agricultural inquiry, are four in 
 number, and bear the designations of Aquatica, 
 Oristata, Ccespitosa, and Flexuosa. 
 
 Aira aquatica, or water hair-grass — now some- 
 times called Catabrosa aquatica, or water food- 
 grass — grows naturally on the margins of pools 
 and in the mud of slowly running water, but is 
 easily and profitably cultivated on imperfectly 
 drained fens. It is excelled, in the proportion 
 of sugar to other nutritious matters, by the 
 grasses Glyceria fluitans, Poa aquatica, Elymus 
 arenarius, and Poa nemoralis angustifolia. It 
 flowers in the second and third weeks of J uly ; 
 and when grown on mud covered with water, it 
 yields per acre when in flower 10,890 lbs. of 
 green produce, 3,267 lbs. of dry produce, and 382f 
 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Aira cristata, or crested hair-grass — called by 
 the older botanists Poa cristata or crested mea- 
 dow-grass, and now sometimes called Koeleria cris- 
 tata or crested Koeleria — is plentiful in some dis- 
 tricts upon dry pastures, and may be cultivated 
 as easily and successfully as Festuca ovina on any 
 kind of dry soil ; but it thrives best and remains 
 permanent on moist and clayey lands. It is ne- 
 glected by cattle so long as they can obtain Lo- 
 lium perenne, Cynosurus cristatus, Festuca ovina, 
 Hor oleum pratense, A vena flavescens, or even Aira 
 flexuosa; but the cause of their dislike to it seems 
 to be, not its taste or composition, but the soft, 
 hairy character of its foliage. It differs little in 
 nutritious power from the grasses which cattle 
 prefer to it ; and approaches nearest to A ira 
 fluxuosa, but has a smaller proportion of bitter 
 extractive matter, and a greater proportion of 
 tasteless mucilage. It flowers about the first 
 week of July, and ripens about the first week of 
 August ; and when grown on sandy loam, it yields 
 per acre when in flower 10,890 lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 4,900^ lbs. of dry produce, and 340^ lbs. of 
 nutritious matter, — and when in seed, 6,806£ lbs. 
 of green produce, 3,403 lbs. of dry produce, and 
 127| lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 
 Aira ccespitosa, tufted hair-grass or hassock- 
 grass — now sometimes called Deschampsia cmpi- 
 tosa or tufted Deschamps'-grass — delights in wet, 
 clayey soils, which abound in surface water, but 
 occurs in almost every variety of pasture land, and 
 forms dense tufts of hard, stiff, worthless herbage, 
 which farmers designate hassocks and bull-faces, 
 and justly regard as a pest upon their fields. 
 Though not inferior to several decidedly useful 
 grasses in either the bulk of its produce or the 
 proportion of its nutritious matter, it has so 
 
 harsh and wiry a texture as to be totally unfit 
 for cultivation ; and it sums up nearly all its in- 
 terest in the bad fame of annoying farmers with 
 its ' hassocks,' and being a troublesome and stub- 
 born weed. Some farmers attempt to extirpate 
 it, by digging up the hassocks, and filling their I 
 place with lime compost ; some, by cutting down 
 the hassocks in a series of frequent mowings ; I 
 and some, by shaving it clean, and depriving it 
 of its early shoots in spring. But eventually the 
 most profitable cure, and by far the most effec- 
 tual, is the thorough draining of the land, — ac- 
 companied, if the clay be very stiff, by such 
 georgic treatment as will create some porosity L 
 in the soil. Aira ccespito flowers about the 
 third week of July, and ripens toward the end of 
 August ; and when growing upon clayey land, it 
 yields per acre when in seed, 10,209 lbs. of green 
 produce, 3,318 lbs. of dry produce, and 319 lbs. 
 of nutritious matter. 
 
 Aira flexuosa, zigzag hair-grass or wavy moun- 
 tain hair-grass, prefers a deeper though not a 
 richer soil than Festum ovina, and naturally grows ! 
 among furze, while Festuca ovina grows among 
 heath ; yet it frequently occurs intermixed with 
 that grass ; and it forms a very suitable ingredi- 
 ent in a mixture of artificially sown grasses, for 
 the second-rate improvement of heathy and furzy 
 lands. Its produce on a heathy soil is double of 
 its produce on loam. It flowers in the first week 
 of July, and ripens in August ; and when grown 
 on heathy, clayey land, it yields per acre when in 
 flower 10,209^ lbs. of green produce, 3,318 lbs. of 
 dry produce, and 319 lbs. of nutritious matter, — 
 and when ripe, 9,528| lbs. of green produce, 
 3,5 73| lbs. of dry produce, and 29 7| lbs. of nutri- 
 tious matter. — Sinclair s Hortus Gramineus Wo- 
 burnensis. — Loudon 's Encyclopaedia of Plants and 
 Hortus Britannicus. — Catalogue of the Highland 
 Society's Museum. — Treatise on Husbandry in Lib. 
 of Usefid Knowledge. 
 
 ALKALIES. Substances of opposite chemical 
 properties to those of acids. They have a hot, 
 acrid, bitter taste ; they counteract or neutralize 
 the sourness of acids, and all the effects which 
 that sourness produces ; and, in general, they 
 possess the well-known properties of the ley of 
 wood -ashes. The name alkali is used by all 
 British chemists and scientific agriculturists as 
 the generic appellation of all the substances 
 which resemble potash in their properties and 
 action. All the alkalies, like potash, turn vege- 
 table blues into green, convert vegetable yellows 
 into reddish-brown, and restore such vegetable 
 blues as have been turned into red by acids ; 
 and they can easily be detected by means of an 
 infusion of turmeric, or an infusion of red cab- 
 bage, or of pieces of paper stained with either 
 of these infusions. Yet the alkalies do not re- 
 sult from the action of any specific or alkalizing 
 principles, but are very variously constituted. 
 
 The principal alkalies, or those which make the 
 
ALKALIES. 
 
 57 
 
 ALKALIES 
 
 most conspicuous figure in agricultural chemis- 
 try, are ammonia, potash, and soda. Ammonia 
 is popularly called the animal alkali, because con- 
 tained in animal substances; potash, the land 
 vegetable alkali, because contained in land vege- 
 tables ; and soda, the sea vegetable alkali, because 
 contained in sea vegetables ; — ammonia, the vola- 
 tile alkali, because it naturally flies off in vapour ; 
 and potash and soda, the fixed alkalies, because, 
 in all ordinary conditions, they resist evaporiza- 
 tion. But these three principal alkalies require 
 a little additional definition ; and a large number 
 of other alkaline substances require to be brought 
 into view. Ammonia consists of hydrogen and 
 nitrogen, is obtainable in a separate form only by 
 chemical operation, exists naturally in the exu- 
 dations, the urine, and the excrements of animals, 
 evaporates into the atmosphere so as to mix gase- 
 ously with the air and in rain, and, even when 
 artificially obtained, is usually met with only in 
 such combinations as constitute liquids or salts. 
 Potash and soda, though long supposed to be 
 simple substances, and regarded as unique in 
 both character and action, are now known to be 
 metallic oxides ; potash consisting of oxygen and 
 a metallic substance called potassium, and soda 
 consisting of oxygen and a metallic substance 
 called sodium. Various other alkaline bodies are 
 constituted in a manner precisely similar to pot- 
 ash and soda, and are designated alkaline oxides 
 or alkaline earths. Lime, one of the most impor- 
 tant examples of these, consists of oxygen and a 
 metallic substance called calcium ; and magnesia, 
 another important example, consists of oxygen 
 and a metallic substance called magnesium. Yet 
 lime and magnesia, in this primary and proper 
 sense of alkaline earths, must not be confounded 
 with the lime and the magnesia of popular phra- 
 seology; for these are carbonates of lime and 
 magnesia, and hold the alkaline matter of the 
 earths in a state of dilution and alteration by 
 chemical union with carbonic acid. Even the 
 alkalinity of the true alkaline earths is far less 
 active or powerful than that of potash and soda. 
 Yet, with the exception of magnesia, all the 
 alkaline earths, as well as potash, soda, and am- 
 monia, are acrid to the taste, and have a caustic 
 action on the skin. Another important class of 
 alkaline substances exist as characteristic con- 
 stituents of certain plants, are produced in these 
 plants during the progress of vegetation, and 
 bear the general designation of alkaloids, or 
 vegeto-alkalies. They consist of various, yet in 
 each instance, definite proportions of oxygen, car- 
 bon, hydrogen, and nitrogen ; and yet though so 
 very differently constituted from ammonia, they 
 possess a considerable resemblance to that power- 
 ful and unique alkali in their alkaline properties 
 and modes of chemical action. 
 
 Ammonia passes into vapour at a very low tem- 
 perature, and is decomposed at a high tempera- 
 ture ; potash, soda, and the other alkaline oxides 
 resist, the evaporating power of comparatively 
 
 high temperatures, and, though they may imbibe 
 oxygen, are not decomposed by the action of heat 
 in the open air; and all the alkaline bases or 
 alkaloids are decomposed at high temperatures, 
 and yield up their constituent elements to the 
 formation of new compounds. All the alkalies 
 readily combine with acids to lose their own 
 alkalinity of action, to destroy the acidity of the 
 acids, and to form new substances called alkaline 
 salts; and ammonia and many of the alkaline 
 oxides combine with metallic oxides — as am- 
 monia with the oxides of cobalt, copper, and 
 nickel, and potash and soda with silica, alumina, 
 and the oxides of lead and zinc — to form another 
 class of latently alkaline substances. The alka- 
 line salts perform a part in the laboratory of the 
 soil and in the chemistry of vegetation, second in 
 importance only to the alkaline oxides them- 
 selves, — being readily decomposed by chemical 
 forces which there attack them, and freely giving 
 out their elements to act chemically upon the soil 
 and alimentarily upon plants. 
 
 Argillaceous or clayey earth — such mineral 
 matter as contains a proportion of alumina or the 
 concentrated principle of clay — forms a compo- 
 nent part of by far the greater portion of fertile 
 soils ; and in any rare instance in which it is ab- 
 sent from land capable of cultivation, some 
 source, either natural or artificial, exists for the 
 supply of its characteristic elements. Now the 
 whole fertilizing power of this earth consists in 
 its invariably containing alkalies and alkaline 
 oxides, with sulphates and phosphates. Alumina 
 exercises an influence on vegetation, not by 
 chemical action upon accompanying earths, nor 
 by mechanical control over the roots, nor by en- 
 tering the organism of the plant, nor by forming 
 an element in its substance, but by attracting 
 and retaining water and ammonia, and by yield- 
 ing up its potash or soda to exert their directly 
 alkaline influence upon surrounding silicious 
 matters in the soil, and upon the juices, secre- 
 tions, and general vegetation of the plant. " In 
 order to form a distinct conception of the quan- 
 tities of alkalies in aluminous minerals," says Dr. 
 Liebig, " it must be remembered that felspar con- 
 tains 17| per cent, of potash, albite 11 '43 per 
 cent, of soda, and mica from 3 to 5 per cent., and 
 that zeolite contains from 13 to 16 per cent, of 
 alkalies. The late analyses of Ch. Gmelin, Lowe, 
 Fricke, Meyer, and Redtenbacher, have also 
 shown, that basalt and clinkstone contain from 
 | to 3 per cent, of potash, and loam from \\ to 4 
 per cent, of potash. If now we calculate from 
 these data, and from the specific weights of the 
 different substances, how much potash must be 
 contained in a layer of soil, formed by the disin- 
 tegration of 26,910 square feet of one of these 
 rocks to the depth of 20 inches, we find that a 
 soil of felspar contains 1,152,000 lbs., of clinkstone 
 from 200,000 to 400,000 lbs., of basalt from 47,500 
 to 75,000 lbs., of clay slate from 100,000 to 200,000 
 lbs., and of loam from 87,000 to 300,000 lbs." 
 
ALKALIES. 
 
 08 
 
 ALKALIES. 
 
 Potash and soda have been so invariably found 
 in all the numerous clayey soils which have been 
 analyzed, that they may fairly be pronounced in- 
 gredients in absolutely every description of argil- 
 laceous land. Potash always exists as a distinct 
 and separate substance in the leys of alum manu- 
 factories ; and it is formed from the ashes of the 
 stone and brown coal, which contain much ar- 
 gillaceous earth. The mixture of the clayey 
 matter properly called loam with the quartz of 
 the new red sandstone formation, or with the 
 lime in the different limestone formations, in so 
 very trivial a proportion as one part to a thou- 
 sand, affords as much potash to a soil only twenty 
 inches deep as will supply a growing forest of 
 pines with a sufficient quantity of alkali for a 
 century; and a single cubic foot of felspar, a 
 mineral which contains a large proportion of 
 alumina, will afford as much as an oak wood, 
 growing upon a surface of 26,910 square feet, will 
 require during five years. 
 
 The land around Vesuvius in the vicinity of 
 Naples, is one of the most fertile soils in the 
 world; it possesses, in its different districts, a 
 greater or less degree of fertility according to its 
 proportion of clay or sand ; and as it entirely con- 
 sists of disintegrated lava, it owes its fertility, 
 not to the product of any vegetable decomposi- 
 tion, but solely to the presence of mineral alkalies. 
 When lava or volcanic ashes have been exposed 
 for some time to the simple influence of air and 
 moisture, they produce the most luxuriant crops 
 of any sorts of plants which their occupants 
 please to cultivate ; and they obviously acquire 
 all their power from the reduction of their al- 
 kalies, their alkaline oxides, and their silica into 
 such a condition as to be absorbable by the spon- 
 gioles of the plants. The multitudes of soils 
 which, in all parts of the world, have been formed 
 by the disintegration of rocks, either through 
 mere atmospheric influence upon the spot, or 
 through the action of water in transmission to a 
 distance, are generally rich in alkaline oxides, 
 and yield them up to the purposes of vegetation 
 only in a slow and gradual process co-ordinately 
 with their own increasing pulverization. Thou- 
 sands of years have been necessary for the disin- 
 tegration of rocks into the condition of arable 
 lands ; and, in many instances, thousands of years 
 more will be necessary to effect such a fine com- 
 minution of these lands as to expose their minut- 
 est particles to the dissolving power of air and 
 moisture, and to exhaust them of their alkalies. 
 Yet not only do virgin or uncultivated soils part 
 slowly with their alkalies under the wasting 
 power of weather, but they continually regain a 
 compensating quantity of alkaline matter, and 
 even add to its amount, by alkaline deposits from 
 their own vegetation, from the saline vapours of 
 the sea, and from the ammoniacal gases concen- 
 trated and brought down by rain. " We see from 
 the composition of the water in rivers, stream- 
 lets, and springs," says Dr. Liebig, " how little 
 
 alkali the rain water is able to extract from a 
 soil even after a term of years ; this water is gen- 
 erally soft, and the common salt which even the 
 softest invariably contains, proves that the alka- 
 line salts, which are carried to the sea by rivers 
 and streams, are returned again to the land by 
 wind and by rain. Let us suppose that a soil has 
 been formed by the action of the weather on the 
 component parts of granite, grauwacke, moun- 
 tain limestone, or porphyry, and that the vege- 
 tation upon it has remained the same for thou- 
 sands of years ; now this soil would become a 
 magazine of alkalies in a condition favourable 
 for their assimilation by the roots of plants. The 
 interesting experiments of Streeve have proved 
 that water impregnated with carbonic acid de- 
 composes rocks containing alkalies, and then dis- 
 solves a part of the alkaline carbonates. It is 
 evident that plants also, by producing carbonic 
 acid during their decay, and by means of the 
 acids which exude from their roots in the living 
 state, contribute no less powerfully to destroy the 
 coherence of rocks. Next to the action of air, 
 water, and change of temperature, plants them- 
 selves are the most powerful agents in effecting 
 the disintegration of rocks. Air, water, and 
 change of temperature prepare the different 
 species of rocks for yielding to plants their alka- 
 lies. A soil exposed for centuries to all the in- 
 fluences which affect the disintegration of rocks, 
 but from which the alkalies have not been re- 
 moved, will be able to afford, during many years, 
 the means of nourishment to [cultivated] vege- 
 tables requiring alkalies for their growth." 
 
 But the processes of cultivation entirely alter 
 the alkaline conditions of virgin soils, rapidly 
 drawing off their native alkalies to exhaustion, 
 and rendering requisite either a frequent arti- 
 ficial supply of fresh alkalies in the form of 
 manures, or the periodical abandonment of the 
 land to a slow reacquirement of alkalies from 
 saline vapours, rain water, and the chemical de- 
 compositions of spontaneous vegetations. When 
 any virgin soil, no matter how rich in native 
 alkalies, is subjected tounmanured cropping, and 
 worked onward to exhaustion, it may experience 
 a series of recruitings merely by such periodical 
 and prolonged exposures of it to the weather as 
 will effect the further comminution of its parts, 
 and lay open its more minute or ultimate alkaline 
 constituents to solution ; but, if continued to be 
 worked without any other appliance, it will even- 
 tually lose all its intrinsic alkalinity, or become 
 intrinsically barren, and will be capable of reac- 
 quiring fertility only by the attainment of fresh 
 alkalies from manures or from the atmosphere. 
 The first colonists of Virginia found a virgin soil 
 remarkably rich in native alkalies; and they 
 drew from it annual harvests of wheat and 
 tobacco, without the aid of manure, for a cen- 
 tury ; but now their successors are obliged to 
 treat whole districts of it as mere poor pasture- 
 land, or occasionally to work portions of them 
 
ALKALIES. 59 ALKALIES. 
 
 into a condition of tillage, at the cost of a large 
 supply of manure. No less a quantity of alkalies 
 than 12,000 lbs., in leaves, grain, and straw, was 
 removed from every acre of this land during the 
 first hundred years of its cultivation ; and the 
 land became infertile, solely because it was de- 
 prived of almost every particle of alkali which was 
 capable of being absorbed by the spongioles of 
 plants, and because the fresh portion of alkali 
 obtained, in the course of one or two years, by 
 further comminution, by the decomposition of 
 spontaneous vegetation, and by deposits from the 
 atmosphere and from rain water, was not suffi- 
 cient for the requisite support of another crop. 
 Almost all the cultivated land in Europe — at 
 least of such as has been for a considerable time 
 in cultivation — is in a similar condition to this 
 land of Virginia, and has so totally lost its native 
 alkalies as to require continual fresh supplies of 
 alkalies, through the processes of fallowing and 
 manuring, in order to its retaining fertility. 
 
 Wheat, whose habits appear so fastidious and 
 capricious to an unpractised or unreflecting ob- 
 server, requires certain phosphates for the for- 
 mation of its grain [see Phosphates and Wheat], 
 and a comparatively large proportion of silicate 
 of potash for the strength and growth of its culm. 
 Hence, when sown upon sandy or calcareous soils, 
 which have not a considerable intermixture of 
 clay, and in consequence cannot afford a requisite 
 aliment of silicate of potash, the young plants 
 will be dwarfed and arrested ; and when sown on 
 a soil of decayed wood in Great Britain, or even 
 on any of the rich humous soils of Brazil, the 
 plants, though almost immersed in the seemingly 
 nutritious products of vegetable decomposition, 
 will so pine for the want of mere silicate of potash 
 as to be feeble and dwarfish, and speedily to droop 
 and fall. — All the grasses and all other plants of 
 similar structure and habits require some pro- 
 portion of silicate of potash, and therefore thrive 
 by irrigation, which both conveys this substance 
 to meadows and reduces it to solution in the soil. 
 The numerous plants of the equisetum or horse- 
 tail type, and also the various kinds of reeds and 
 canes, all of which require a large proportion of 
 silicate of potash, grow luxuriantly in marshes, 
 in ditches, in streamlets, and in such argillaceous 
 soils as abound in potash, simply because they 
 obtain, in these situations, easy and large sup- 
 plies of their favourite alkaline aliment. Most 
 deciduous trees, particularly such as carry a large- 
 leaved and very profuse foliage, require for their 
 leaves from six to ten times more alkali than 
 pines or firs ; and hence they either do not grow 
 at all, or are very dwarfish, on many sandy or 
 calcareous lands which are highly favourable to 
 the growth of pines or firs, — hence also the finest 
 forests of oaks, such as could not be produced on 
 sandy or calcareous lands, are found on soils of 
 gneiss, granite, and mica-slate in Bavaria, of 
 clinkstone on the Rhone, of basalt in the Vogels- 
 berge, and of clay-slate on the Rhine and in the 
 
 Eifel. " Can we, then, regard it as remarkable," 
 asks Dr. Liebig, " that oak copse should thrive in 
 America, on thtfse spots on which forests of pines 
 which have grown and collected alkalies for cen- 
 turies, have been burnt, and to which the alka- 
 lies are thus at once restored ; or that the Spar- 
 tium scoparium, Erysimum latifolium, Blitum 
 capitatum, Senecio viscosus, plants remarkable for 
 the quantity of alkalies contained in their ashes, 
 should grow with the greatest luxuriance on the 
 localities of conflagrations?" An obvious and 
 important inference, in regard to the cultivation 
 of wheat, of strong culmy grasses, of deciduous 
 shrubs and trees, and of any other plants which 
 require large supplies of alkaline matter, is that, 
 when the land intended for them has been de- 
 prived by cultivation of its native soluble alka- 
 lies, it must be specially prepared, or brought 
 into a condition of fitness, by one or more of the 
 appliances for impregnating it with fresh alka- 
 lies, either the abandonment of it to a state of 
 nature, or the growth upon it of crops which do 
 not require alkalies, or the enriching of it with 
 such manures as contain a large proportion of 
 alkaline ingredients. 
 
 One of the prime offices performed by water in 
 connexion with vegetation, is the reduction of 
 the alkalies to such a state of solution as to ren- 
 der them absorbable by the spongioles of plants. 
 During spring and the early part of summer, 
 while soils are in a moist condition, a greater 
 quantity of alkaline bases and salts enters the 
 organism of land-plants, than during the middle 
 and later parts of summer, when soils are com- 
 paratively dry or arid. The descent of rain upon 
 a soil is the introduction of certain necessary 
 alkaline matter in a state of readiness for use 
 by both soil and plant, and the action, of water 
 within the soil is the preparation of other neces- 
 sary alkaline matter in combination with accom- 
 panying aliments for the vegetable organism. 
 The necessity of rain for these purposes is so spe- 
 cially great at certain stages of the growth of 
 plants, that, in many districts, the stuntedness 
 or the luxuriance, the strength or the weakness, 
 the opulence or the poverty, of a whole season's 
 crop of corn may depend on the presence or ab- 
 sence, the copiousness or the paucity, of one day's 
 rain, or even of a single shower. In dry seasons, 
 the lower leaves of annual plants in summer, the 
 lower leaves of herbaceous perennial plants at a 
 later period in summer or early in autumn, and 
 the lower leaves of deciduous perennial short- 
 rooted plants just before autumnal maturity, lose 
 their vitality, become yellow, shrink, and fall. 
 These leaves were the earliest developed; they 
 received alkaline juices from the ascending sap 
 of the plant, and carbonic acid and ammonia 
 from the surface action of the atmosphere ; they 
 elaborated these ingredients into the constituents 
 of new leaves, buds, and twigs ; and, when a con- 
 tinuance of drought occasions a scantiness or a 
 cessation in the supply of alkaline matter through 
 
ALKALIES. 
 
 60 
 
 ALKALIES. 
 
 the ascending sap, they part with nearly all their 
 own alkaline juices for continued elaboration 
 with the ammoniacal and carbonic acid gases, 
 till they cease to have a sufficient quantity for 
 the maintenance of their own health and ver- 
 dure ; and they, in consequence, sicken, fade, and 
 die. Hence, the withered leaves are found to 
 contain mere traces of soluble alkaline salts, 
 while the buds and sprouts are remarkably rich 
 in these substances. " The reverse of this pheno- 
 menon is seen in the case of many kitchen-plants, 
 when they are supplied with rich manure con- 
 taining an excess of mineral ingredients ; salts 
 are separated from the surface of their leaves, 
 and cover them with a thin white crust. In con- 
 sequence of these exudations, the plant becomes 
 sickly, the organic activity of the leaves dimin- 
 ishes, the growth of the plant is destroyed, and 
 if this condition lasts, the plant finally dies. 
 These observations are best made on plants with 
 leaves of large dimensions, through which large 
 quantities of water are evaporated. This disease 
 generally attacks turnips, gourds, and pease, when 
 the soil is drenched with sudden and violent rain, 
 after continued dry weather, at a time when the 
 plants are near, but have not attained, maturity ; 
 it is also necessary for its occurrence, that dry 
 weather should again happen after the rain. By 
 the rapid evaporation of the water, absorbed by 
 the roots, a larger quantity of salts enters the 
 plants than they are able to use. These salts 
 effloresce on the surface of the leaves, and when 
 they are juicy, act as if the plants had been 
 treated with solutions of salts, in greater quantity 
 than their organism could bear. Of two plants 
 of the same kind, the one nearest maturity is 
 most liable to this disease ; if the other plant has 
 either been planted at a later period, or if its de- 
 velopment has been restrained, the causes which 
 exercised injurious effects upon the first plant 
 accelerate the development of the latter. The 
 germ springing out of the earth, the leaf on com- 
 ing out of the bud, the young stem, and the green 
 sprouts, contain a much larger quantity of salts 
 with alkaline bases, and give ashes on incinera- 
 tion much richer in alkaline ingredients, than 
 parts of the matured plant. The leaves, being 
 the part in which the absorption and decomposi- 
 tion of carbonic acid is effected, are much richer 
 in mineral ingredients than other parts of the 
 plant. The simple fact that a plant is restrained 
 in growth by the want of rain to convey to it 
 alkalies, proves completely that these alkalies 
 play a most important part in vegetation." 
 
 The formation of sugar, starch, and other non- 
 azotised constituents of plants is effected by means 
 of soluble alkaline salts, or of vegetable acids in 
 chemical combination with alkalies ; it does not 
 take place in such fruits and seeds as contain 
 vegetable acids in a free state, or uncombined 
 with alkalies, as in the lemon and the chick-pea, 
 which contain respectively citric acid and oxalic 
 acid in a free or uncombined condition; awl it 
 
 takes place on the largest scale, and accumu- 
 lates the greatest stores of sugar, starch, and 
 similar substances, in those plants which are 
 richest in soluble alkaline salts, or in the bases 
 and the acids of which these are formed. A de- 
 ficiency in sugar, starch, and woody fibre, in the 
 plant, is the necessary consequence of a deficient 
 supply of alkaline matter in the soil ; and a luxu- 
 riant produce in these, or a large amount of the 
 vegetable elements of nutrition for animals, is a 
 general consequence of an abundant supply of 
 alkalies. Hence an excellent crop, as to either 
 the vigour of its growth, the soundness of its 
 organism, or the large amount of its food for the 
 use of man, can be obtained only when the soil 
 possesses alkaline bases in sufficient quantity for 
 the plant's use, and in a condition suitable for 
 absorption. " The compounds containing nitro- 
 gen and sulphur, as well as the alkalies and phos- 
 phates," remarks Dr. Liebig, " are constituents of 
 the blood of animals ; but the conversion of the 
 former into blood cannot be conceived without 
 the presence and co-operation of the latter. Ac- 
 cording to this view, the power of any part of a 
 plant to support the life of an animal, and to in- 
 crease its blood and flesh, is in exact proportion 
 to its amount of the organic constituents of the 
 blood, and of the materials necessary for their 
 conversion into blood, — viz., of alkalies, phos- 
 phates, and chlorides (common salt or chloride of 
 potassium). It is highly worthy of observation, 
 and of great significance to agriculture, that the 
 vegetable compounds containing sulphur and 
 nitrogen, which we have designated as the or- 
 ganic constituents of the blood, are always ac- 
 companied, in the parts of the plants where they 
 occur, with alkalies and with phosphates." The 
 tubers of the potato and the roots of the beet 
 contain vegetable albumen, alkaline salts, and 
 soluble phosphate of magnesia ; the seeds of pease, 
 beans, lentils, oats, rye, barley, and wheat contain 
 starch, alkaline phosphates, and earthy salts ; and 
 the parts of these plants which are poor in the 
 properties of food for animals, are proportionally 
 poor both in the substances which result from 
 the combined action of alkalies and organic acids, 
 and in those which result from the joint presence 
 of alkalies, phosphates, nitrogen, and sulphur. As 
 regards, therefore, either the azotised or the non- 
 azotised adaptations of cultivated vegetables for 
 the uses of man and the domestic animals, one 
 invariable and most important condition of every 
 good crop is the presence in the soil of an ample 
 supply of soluble alkaline matter. But this great 
 topic, under certain modifications, will again and 
 again meet us in a number of our future articles. 
 
 ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. The letting of small 
 plots of ground to cottagers, for cultivation dur- 
 ing leisure time with the spade, and as a means 
 of increasing their families' maintenance and 
 bettering their condition. The plots vary in size 
 from less than a rood to several acres, but proba- 
 bly do not average more than one-third of an 
 
ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 61 
 
 ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 acre ; and they are let under such conditions as 
 oblige the occupants, not to prosecute labour on 
 them as their chief or permanent employment, 
 but to use them only as a supplementary or an 
 occasional resource. They differ widely, in both 
 principle and tendency, from the small farms of 
 Ireland; they are subjected, not to general or 
 mixed husbandry, but only to the raising of cereal 
 and culinary crops by spade tillage; and they 
 both furnish employment to farm cottiers who 
 are out of situations, and serve as resources to 
 the various descriptions of farm labourers who 
 have industrious habits, or who can command 
 assistance in labour from some members of their 
 families, or who were formerly small farmers, and 
 lost possession of their holdings in consequence 
 of the consolidation of farms. The tendency of 
 the allotment system, when judiciously planned 
 and managed, is to encourage and develop indus- 
 try, to initiate the young members of cottiers' 
 families to early habits of active husbandry, to 
 raise the tone of morals and economy among all 
 classes of the rural peasantry, and to substitute 
 productive labour for pauperism, sturdy inde- 
 pendence for effeminate sycophancy, comfort for 
 penury, and general social well-being for a starv- 
 ing, discontented, relaxed, and dislocated condi- 
 tion of society. 
 
 A system, similar to the modern allotment sys- 
 tem, was suggested to the legislature in the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth; but it seems not to have 
 been fairly appreciated, and was reduced to very 
 limited operation. Another similar system was 
 partially adopted, in the year 1707, in the duchy 
 of Cleves ; but this also appears to have been of no 
 great extent. A similar system was commenced 
 in 1818, by the establishment of institutions called 
 free colonies, in various parts of Holland and 
 Belgium ; and this, unlike the preceding, has 
 been eminently useful in the case of the former 
 country, though not equally so in the case of 
 Belgium. The free colonies — so called because 
 their inmates were voluntary — were established 
 by national subscription, aided by the govern- 
 ment. They were commenced in Holland by the 
 purchase of 1,300 acres of tolerably good land, 
 and 2,600 acres of heath-district, at Frederick's 
 Oord or district, near Steenwyk, on the confines 
 of the Drenthe, Overyssel, and Friesland. This 
 land was divided into plots of seven acres each ; 
 and placed under the control of commissioners, 
 who should superintend the industry and inspect 
 the moral conduct of the tenants. The colonies 
 are of various grades, or under various regula- 
 tions, adapted to four different classes of occu- 
 pants; one grade being designed for the least 
 reduced and best behaved kind of paupers, a 
 second grade for the lower and culpable kinds of 
 paupers, a third grade for orphans, and a fourth 
 grade for general misdemeanants or for persons 
 expelled from the former grades in consequence 
 of bad conduct. The colonists are employed partly 
 in manufactures, but chiefly in husbandry ; they 
 
 labour solely with the hand, unaided by machin- 
 ery; and they amounted, several years ago, to 
 about 10,000. The original expense of establish- 
 ing each individual was £22 6s. 4d. ; an advance 
 of capital, when requisite, was made in form of a 
 loan ; and an obligation was imposed to pay rent 
 to the amount of twelve shillings per acre. Many 
 of the free settlers or better sort of paupers, have 
 already repaid the sums advanced to them; and 
 some of even the poorest sorts of tenants are 
 growing into prosperity; yet the colonies still 
 require to be maintained by public subscription. 
 A gentleman who visited the colony of Freder- 
 ick's Oord a number of years ago, said, " The 
 crops were luxuriant, the colonists healthful, and 
 the houses comfortable. Several of the colonists 
 had acquired considerable property. Many gar- 
 dens were planted with currant bushes, pear and 
 apple trees, and tastefully ornamented with flow- 
 ers. Additional live stock, belonging to the co- 
 lonists themselves, was frequently pastured out ; 
 and around not a few of the houses lay webs of 
 linen bleaching, which had been wove on their 
 own account by persons who, only four years be- 
 fore, were among the outcasts of society. The 
 families found at dinner had quite the appear- 
 ance of wealthy peasants ; and from the quantity 
 and quality of food before them, they might have 
 been considered as not inferior to the smaller 
 tenantry of this country." The settlements in 
 Belgium are — as we have hinted — far behind the 
 colony of Frederick's Oord in prosperity. One 
 of the greatest errors committed by their found- 
 ers appears to have been the establishing of the 
 infant colonies upon a soil so sterile as to require 
 tenfold labour and expense in tillage and manure. 
 
 About the year 1800, Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath 
 and Wells, set the first example of instituting the 
 modern allotment system in Great Britain. About 
 the same time, Sir H. Vavasour communicated 
 to the Board of Agriculture a statement of some 
 experiments which had been made to test the 
 Flemish system of free colonies, and which had 
 proved that system to be highly advantageous. 
 In 1802, Charles Howard, Esq., set another ex- 
 ample of instituting allotments. In following 
 years, up to the present day, the patrons and 
 promoters of the allotment system have been very 
 numerous ; in not a few instances, they have been 
 both distinguished for their rank and eminent 
 for their zeal; and among the most prominent 
 may be named Captain Scobell of High Little- 
 ton in the vicinity of Bath, Sir Henry E. Bun- 
 bury of Boston, Lords Winchelsea, Beverley, Car- 
 rington, and Brownlow, Sir Thomas Bernard, Sir 
 John Swinburne, Mr. Burdon of Castle-Eden, Mr. 
 Babington of Leicestershire, Mr. Gilbert of East- 
 bourn, the rector of Springfield in Essex, and a 
 considerable number of the Established clergy. 
 In 1831, the Labourers' Friend society — whose 
 direct object is to promote the allotment system, 
 and whose course of effort has hitherto been emi- 
 nently successful — was formed in London; and 
 
ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 62 
 
 ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 this great and most useful association was patron- 
 ized by William IV. and Queen Adelaide, and 
 also enjoys the patronage of her present majesty. 
 Since 1831, various societies for counties, dis- 
 tricts, and parishes, have been formed, either on 
 the model or after the example of the Labourers' 
 Friend society; and so far as England is con- 
 cerned, they have in general been successful and 
 beneficial. Within a recent period, likewise, par- 
 ish-officers have had legal authority to rent or 
 purchase land, not exceeding twenty acres for 
 each parish, and to lay it out in allotments for 
 the labourers of the parish. 
 
 Considerable diversity exists in the principles, 
 details, and management of the very numerous 
 series of allotments which have been instituted 
 throughout England ; yet all may be summarily 
 viewed as rejecting the Flemish plan of home 
 colonies for giving entire employment and sup- 
 port to settlers, and as embracing only the plan 
 of family allotments for giving occasional or sup- 
 plemental employment during leisure hours or at 
 particular seasons. A plan somewhat similar to 
 that of the home-colonies, indeed, has been estab- 
 lished and prosecuted on the reclamative crown- 
 lands of Ireland, and on the estates of the Irish 
 Waste Land society; yet it really has a much 
 closer resemblance to the small farm system which 
 prevails throughout Ireland than to the home 
 colony system ; and in so far as it resembles the 
 latter, it is altogether inapplicable to the circum- 
 stances of almost any district in England. Home 
 colonies on waste lands have been recommended 
 as a means of support for the redundant labouring 
 population ; but, however suitable they may, in 
 common with emigration, be regarded for that pur- 
 pose, they cannot, by any possibility, have either an 
 enduring or an efficient tendency to elevate the 
 rural population's tone of character, or improve 
 their physical, domestic, and social condition. 
 The plan of family allotments, when duly guard- 
 ed against abuse, and fully accompanied with 
 provisions for maintaining good husbandry and 
 sound morals, has been found fully and rapidly 
 to achieve all the benefits proposed by the allot- 
 ment system. 
 
 The Labourers' Friend society — who have ex- 
 perimented the plan on the largest scale, and 
 have a pre-eminent title to be regarded as ex- 
 hibiting a model for general imitation — give the 
 following formal statement of their principles: 
 " First, The Labourers' Friend society does not re- 
 commend the investment of capital in land, either 
 in shares or any other form, except so far as it 
 may be deemed expedient, by parishes or local as- 
 sociations, to rent a suitable quantity to carry their 
 plans into effect. Second, Home-colonization, or 
 the settling a pauper population in any part of 
 the country for the cultivation of waste or other 
 lands, is not the plan recommended by the so- 
 ciety. Third, The society recommends the let- 
 ting to the labourer so much land only as he can 
 cultivate with the aid of his family during his 
 
 leisure time ; consequently, not sufficient to make 
 him a small farmer, or in any way independent 
 of his regular labour. The question of the prefer- 
 ableness of small or large farms comes not within 
 the society's province. Fourth, The land allot- 
 ment system does not tend to the promotion of 
 a cottier population similar to that which exists 
 in Ireland, the quantity of land being limited to 
 that which the labourer can cultivate during his 
 leisure houf s, and the rent not exorbitant, but 
 the sum paid by the neighbouring farmers. Fifth, 
 In recommending spade-husbandry, the society 
 confines its remarks to the effects of voluntary 
 labour, on the small portions of land proposed as 
 an allotment, without reference to the question 
 of profit and loss on a large scale, or of its appli- 
 cability to agriculture in general. Sixth, The 
 society does not encourage the removal of labour- 
 ers from one parish to another, but proposes rather 
 to benefit them wherever they are found, to at- 
 tach them to the soil, and to equalize the supply 
 of labour to the demand. Seventh, The system 
 recommended by the society is founded on the 
 basis of profit to the labourer, not charity or 
 almsgiving. It assumes that there is a surplus 
 of labour, and that, in some parts of the country, 
 the labouring man cannot obtain such full and 
 constant employment as is adequate to his sub- 
 sistence ; it proposes, by allotting to him a small 
 quantity of land, to find him profitable occupa- 
 tion for that part of his time which his employer 
 does not require; and thus, by furnishing him 
 with the means of raising a proportion of his 
 most wholesome food in the most economical 
 manner, he is made, by his own exertions, inde- 
 pendent both of the parish and the charity of his 
 neighbour." 
 
 The following rules, adopted in the parish of Wo- 
 burn, are submitted by the society to the considera- 
 tion of other country - associations : "First, The 
 rent to be paid yearly, on the 11th of October. Se- 
 cond, No occupier will be suffered to relet his allot- 
 ment. Third, No person shall be employed on the 
 land who does not belong to the parish. Fourth, 
 No occupier will be allowed to plough his land, but 
 be required to cultivate it solely by spade husbandry. 
 Fifth, If any occupier is found neglectful in the cul- 
 tivation of his land, he will not be permitted to hold 
 it after the current year. Sixth, No occupier who 
 is at work for the parish or for any employer will be 
 allowed to work upon his land after six o'clock in 
 the morning, or before six in the evening, without 
 permission from his master. Seventh, No occupier 
 will be suffered to trespass upon another's allotment. 
 Eighth, All occupiers will be expected to attend 
 regularly at divine service, to conduct themselves 
 with sobriety at all times, and to bring up their fami- 
 lies in a decent and orderly manner. Ninth, Any 
 occupier who may be convicted of poaching, thiev- 
 ing, or of any other offence against the laws of his 
 country, will be deprived of his garden." Other 
 rules recommended for adoption are, that any occu- 
 pier shall not plant more than half of his allotment 
 with potatoes in any one year; that every occupier 
 shall manure his allotment, at least once in two 
 years, with not less than twelve cart-loads of rotten 
 dung per acre, or a proportionate quantity of other 
 manure; that any occupant shall be at liberty to re- 
 
ALLOTMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 63 
 
 ALLOTMENTS OF LAND. 
 
 linquish his allotment, by giving six weeks' notice to 
 the committee, who shall accept a new tenant, and 
 cause a valuation to be put upon the crop, to be paid 
 by the incoming tenant ; that if the rent of any allot- 
 ment be in arrear fourteen days after the time fixed 
 for payment, the committee shall be at liberty to 
 resume the occupation of such allotment, paying the 
 occupier the value of the crops, after deducting the 
 rent due; that the quantity of land let to any person 
 be at the discretion of the committee, yet shall in 
 no case exceed a quarter of an acre ; and that if any 
 occupier be a drunkard, or in the practice of fre- 
 quenting public-houses or beer-shops, and shall per- 
 sist in such habits after having been reproved, he 
 shall not be allowed to continue to rent his allotment 
 after the end of that year. 
 
 In 1844, or only thirteen years after the so- 
 ciety's formation, no fewer than 100,000 families 
 are supposed to have obtained allotments or field- 
 gardens, through the instrumentality of the La- 
 bourers' Friend society. The advantages realized 
 by this great body of population have been many 
 and great; and the additions which, in conse- 
 quence, have been made to the national wealth, 
 the general improvement of society, and the ad- 
 vancement of knowledge and morality, are far 
 from being inconsiderable. The mere money 
 profit obtained per acre from the lands under 
 allotment, has been estimated by Sir Henry E. 
 Bunbury, who has had part of his estates in field 
 gardens for twenty-eight years, at from £7 to 
 ,£10 ; by Mr. Harris Weatherly of Basingstoke, 
 who gave allotments to seventy-five families dur- 
 ing the years 1830-32, at £10 and upwards ; and 
 by several of the most extensive and experienced 
 promoters and observers of the system — particu- 
 larly by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who has 
 500 allotments on his own property, and by Cap- 
 tain Scobell, who testifies to upwards of one thou- 
 sand allotments — at from £20 to £25. Many, per- 
 haps most, of the occupiers themselves have readily 
 concurred in these high estimates of their pro- 
 fits ; and not a few have declared that, in indirect 
 methods, and by industrial and moralizing ten- 
 dencies, additional advantages have been gained, 
 of a kind even more valuable than the direct 
 money profits. The landlords have obtained as 
 regular and ample returns of rents as from any 
 other class of tenants ; the farmers have found 
 their labourers steadier, manlier, and more in- 
 telligent and active ; the parish officers have found 
 pauperism and the prevalence of dissolute habits 
 very materially decreased; and general society 
 have been delivered from a large amount of nui- 
 sances, petty depredations, juvenile delinquen- 
 cies, and degrading immoralities. In one parish, 
 the influence of the allotment system, combined 
 perhaps with the influence of contemporaneous 
 circumstances, reduced the poor rates in a few 
 years from £2,074 2s. 8d. to £649 ; in another, 
 from £206 8s. to £4 12s. 6d. ; and in another, in 
 the course of one year, from £3,200 to £2,000. 
 " The moral effects of the system," remarks Mr. 
 Doyle, " cannot be disputed. The honesty, so- 
 briety, and industry, the emulation in cultivat- 
 
 ing the land, the punctuality in the payment of 
 rent, the good feeling created between the land- 
 lord and his tenant, and the improved attention 
 of the latter to his social and religious duties, 
 are amongst the beneficial effects which are ap- 
 parent in some hundreds of villages in different 
 parts of England. In the publications of the 
 Society, many interesting instances are given of 
 an entire moral reformation of character having 
 been effected by means of an allotment of land, 
 of men of vagrant, dishonest, and immoral habits 
 — some of whom had been guilty of grievous 
 penal offences — becoming steady, industrious, and 
 respectable members of society." Much of the 
 distinctive character of the allotment system de- 
 pends on the restriction of labour to the use of 
 the spade. See therefore the article Spade Hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 In July 1843, a Parliamentary committee ap- 
 pointed to inquire into the results of the allot- 
 ment system, reported favourably of it, and re- 
 commended the following arrangements and re- 
 gulations in conducting it : 
 
 1 . As it is desirable that the profits of the allot- 
 ment should be viewed by the holder of it in the 
 light of an aid, and not of a substitute for his ordi- 
 nary income accruing from wages, and tbat they 
 should not become an inducement to neglect his 
 usual paid labour, the allotment should be of no 
 greater extent than can be cultivated during the leisure 
 moments of the labourer and his family. The exact 
 size which would meet this condition must of course 
 vary according to the nature of the soil, the strength 
 and numbers of the family, and their leisure time ; 
 but one quarter of an acre is the size usually adopted, 
 and best suited to the average of cases. 
 
 2. The allotment should also be near the dwelling 
 of its occupier; much of its benefit depends upon the 
 facility afforded to the man, his wife, and his chil- 
 dren, of devoting spare moments to the care of their 
 ground, and being able to visit it frequently without 
 fatigue. 
 
 3. Though the land will yield larger profits under 
 this mode of cultivation, than under the usual me- 
 thod of tillage, the proprietor who wishes to benefit 
 the poor man should not exact more rent than he 
 could expect to receive if he let it out to be farmed 
 in the ordinary way. 
 
 4. Tithes, parochial rates, taxes, and all other 
 charges should be included in the rent, and paid by 
 the owner and not by the occupier, for the purpose 
 of saving trouble in the collection, of preventing the 
 accumulation of arrears, and of guarding the tenant 
 against frequent and sudden demands for payments 
 which he might not be prepared to meet. 
 
 The rules adopted in places where the allotment 
 system has been most successful, have insisted upon 
 spade culture, have forbidden all underletting and 
 working on Sunday, and have required that all causes 
 of forfeiture, viz. non-payment of rent, gross mis- 
 conduct, or wilful neglect of the land, should be 
 embodied in the agreement signed by the tenant. 
 The rotation of crops has sometimes been enjoined 
 in the rules ; but that is a matter which may well be 
 left to the discretion and experience of the cultivator. 
 
 ALLOTMENTS OF LAND. The sections or 
 proportional parts into which an enclosed com- 
 mon is divided. They belong to the parties who 
 possessed right of commonage ; and ought to be 
 proportionate to the respective extent of claim, 
 
ALLOWANCE. 
 
 64 
 
 ALOPECURUS. 
 
 founded on the possession of lands and tenements I 
 in the parish, townland, or other district in which 
 the divided common is situated. 
 
 ALLOWANCE. A deduction from rent, either 
 on account of the total or partial loss of the sub- 
 ject let, or for the repair of farm-buildings, the 
 improvement of land, or any other special pur- 
 pose. It is also known as Deduction or Abate- 
 ment. The following summary of principles ap- 
 plicable to the subject is taken from Mr Hunter's 
 ' Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant 
 
 1st, Where the loss is occasioned by natural or 
 artificial causes, which the lessee could not contem- 
 plate at all, or which are contrary to probability, or 
 which may be accidentally inherent in the subject, 
 the lessee will be entitled to exemption or deduction. 
 These causes may be natural, as — with relation to 
 agricultural subjects, permanent sterility, storm, or 
 inundation — to fisheries, a change of the stream, or 
 migration of the fish — in minerals, exhaustion, or the 
 occurrence of impenetrable strata ; or they may be 
 artificial, as fire, the fall of a neighbouring house, a 
 foreign enemy, or a mob. 
 
 2dly, Exemption or deduction may be claimed, al- 
 though the sterility or vastation be not total ; if it 
 be what is termed plus quam tolerabile. No definition 
 of this phraseology is given either in the Roman or 
 Scotch law ; but the common opinion is said to be, 
 that the tenant will be liable for the rent, if the pro- 
 duce exceed the expense of production. On this topic 
 there is much learning in the works of the civilians, 
 but too subtle to be useful. 
 
 3dly, The cause of loss must not be such as, though 
 natural, can be deemed to have been in the contem- 
 plation of the lessee when he contracted. The gra- 
 dual deterioration of the soil, short of sterility, blight, 
 insects, injury by rain after reaping, decay of fruit- 
 trees, or similar causes, will not operate, although 
 they may not only prevent profit, but exhaust capi- 
 tal. Increase of depth, or accumulation of water in 
 a mine, will not give liberation or abatement to the 
 lessee, although the addition to the expense of work- 
 ing should create positive loss. A lessee of fisheries 
 will not be exempted although the adjoining pro- 
 prietors, exercising their known legal rights, erect 
 works which may injure the fishery. 
 
 4thly, Loss arising from the abandonment of a 
 neighbouring market, or, conversely, from a greater 
 supply, or from a supervenient law or judicial de- 
 termination, does not come within the exemption. 
 There is a series of decisions in accordance with these 
 maxims. 
 
 ALLUVIUM. An expanse of matter deposited 
 by river, lake, or sea, and either constituting ac- 
 tual land, or existing under water in a state of 
 fitness to become soil. Thunder-showers, ordi- 
 nary rains, and the thawings of snow and ice, 
 sweep down disintegrations from the summits of 
 mountains to their sides ; rills and torrents break 
 up the rocky fragments into smaller particles, 
 and carry them from the sides of mountains to 
 the upper parts of the higher valleys ; brooks, 
 rivulets, and freshets, triturate the gravels into 
 gritty or half-pulverized earths, and bear them 
 along to the lower valleys ; and streams, rivers, 
 and occasional or seasonal inundations, commi- 
 nute the earths into silts or argillaceous sands, 
 and career away with them to lakes, deltas, estu- 
 aries, or the open sea ; and when the lakes burst 
 
 or fill up, or when the rivers shrink within their 
 outspread beds, or when the deltas consolidate 
 and the estuaries and sea-bottoms rise perma- 
 nently above the sweep of the tides, the expanded 
 deposits lie revealed in the form of low plains and 
 rich meadows, or in the form of what the Scotch 
 call carses, holms, and haughs. 
 
 The composition of alluvium is exceedingly vari- 
 ous, and depends partly on the mechanical condi- 
 tions under which it was deposited, but principally 
 on the character of the rocks, soils, and other sur- 
 faces whence its materials were obtained. Such 
 alluvium as was deposited in still water is much 
 more argillaceous and far more finely pulverized 
 than if it had been deposited by eddies, rapid 
 currents, or turbulent waters ; and such as was 
 deposited under a slow, regular, and very pro- 
 longed process, is incomparably more uniform in 
 both composition and texture, than if it had been 
 deposited by the bursting of a lake or any other 
 single, extraordinary, or violent action. Alluvium 
 from the debris of a limestone basin will be found 
 predominantly calcareous ; from the debris of a 
 micaceous and softly granitic basin, predomi- 
 nantly argillaceous ; from the debris of a green- 
 stone or basaltic basin, predominantly loamy ; 
 from the debris of a quartzose and sandstone 
 basin, predominantly silicious ; from the debris 
 of a rocky basin, predominantly mineral ; from 
 the debris of a diluvial basin, characteristically 
 full of decayed vegetable fibre ; and from the 
 debris of coasts and islands, characteristically 
 marked with calcareous sand or comminuted 
 shells. Yet the great majority of alluvial lands 
 are so exceedingly diversified in the mechanical 
 conditions under which they were formed, and 
 particularly in the sources whence their mate- 
 rials were derived, and the agencies by which 
 these materials were pulverized, compounded, 
 and modified, that they cannot be referred to 
 any one type, but may be regarded as severally re- 
 presenting nearly all the varieties of simple soils. 
 Most are fertile ; a large proportion are emi- 
 nently rich ; and not a few are wonderfully deep. 
 
 ALOPECUPtUS. A genus of grasses, some- 
 what allied to the bents, and popularly called 
 foxtail-grasses. The number of species which 
 grow wild or naturally in Great Britain is six ; 
 the number of introduced exotic species is about 
 nine or ten ; and the total number known to bo- 
 tanists is upwards of twenty. Several of the in- 
 digenous species, and one of the introduced exotic 
 species, possess more or less agricultural impor- 
 tance. Of the indigenous species, the bulbous, 
 Alopecurus bulbosus, grows wild in salt marshes 
 in England ; the meadow, Alopecurus 2~>ratensis, 
 in meadows in England and Scotland ; the al- 
 pine, Alopecurus alpinus, on mountains in Scot- 
 land ; the slender, Alopecurus agrostis, at road- 
 sides in England and Scotland ; the knee-jointed, 
 jointed, floating or awned, Alopecurus geniculatus, 
 in meadows in England and Scotland ; and the 
 
ALOPECURUS. 
 
 65 
 
 ALOPECURUS. 
 
 short-awned or orange-spiked, Alopecurus fulvus, 
 in ponds in England. The bladdered and the 
 slender are annuals ; and the other six species 
 are perennials. The species which make the 
 strongest demand on our attention, and which 
 we shall more particularly notice, are the slen- 
 der, the bulbous, the knee-jointed, the meadow, 
 and the black-headed. 
 
 The slender foxtail-grass, Alopecurus agrostis, 
 is one of the very worst species ; it produces no 
 herbage of any economical value ; it is untouched 
 by every description of live stock ; and it often 
 nourishes as a very troublesome weed among 
 wheat, and is abhorred by farmers under the 
 name of black bent. Its seed is very abundant, 
 and serves as acceptable food to pheasants, par- 
 tridges, and the smaller birds. It is distinguished 
 from Alopecurus pratensis, the most useful species 
 of foxtail-grass, by the total absence of woolly 
 hairs from its spike. It flowers in the first week 
 of July, and onward thence till October; and, 
 when grown on sandy loam, it yields per acre 
 8,167 lbs. of green produce, and 3,165 lbs. of dry 
 produce, and only 223 lbs. of nutritious matter. 
 This worthless and annoying species prevails in 
 poor soils, especially when they have been ex- 
 hausted by avaricious cropping; and it resists, 
 and more or less defeats, every kind of effort for 
 its extirpation, except the prosecution of a wise 
 and fertilizing rotation of crops. " It will be 
 found a vain and unprofitable labour," says Mr. 
 Sinclair, " to attempt the removal of this grass 
 by any other means than the opposite to that 
 which gave it possession of the soil, which is 
 judicious cropping. To return land in this state 
 to grass, in the hope of overcoming this unpro- 
 fitable plant, will be found of little avail. I have 
 witnessed this practice ; and the slender foxtail, 
 instead of disappearing in these instances, re- 
 appeared with the scanty herbage, and in greater 
 health and abundance. The soil must first be 
 got into good heart by very moderate and judi- 
 cious cropping, which includes the proper appli- 
 cation of manure, a skilful rotation of crops, and 
 the most pointed attention to the destruction of 
 weeds; which last can only be effected, in this 
 sense, by adopting the drill or row culture for 
 the crops. After this, the land may be returned 
 to grass for several years, with every prospect of 
 success." The slender foxtail, while growing, 
 sends forth flowering culms from the first week 
 of July till the season of frost; so that, though 
 repeatedly cut in one season, it suffers no mate- 
 rial injury to its vitality or its powers of repro- 
 duction. 
 
 The bulbous foxtail-grass, Alopecurus bulbosus, 
 appears to be but a degree less worthless than 
 the slender species ; but, in consequence of its 
 fondness for salt marshes, it does not intrude 
 upon the important situations of a farm in the 
 troublesome and mischievous fashion of the other. 
 A well-defined and permanent variety of the knee- 
 jointed species,— the bulbous-rooted, knee-jointed 
 
 foxtail-grass, Alopecurus geniculatus bulbosus — is 
 very liable to be mistaken for the bulbous foxtail- 
 grass. This is distinguished from the true geni- 
 culatus by having a bulbous root ; and by grow- 
 ing on a much drier soil. But it possesses so 
 comparatively small a proportion of nutritive 
 matter, as to be nearly useless to the farmer. 
 
 The prevailing variety of knee -jointed fox- 
 tail-grass, Alopecurus geniculatus, is a fibrous- 
 rooted perennial, of taller growth. See Fig. 
 3. Plate V. It occurs very frequently in the 
 surface drains of meadows, and at the entrance 
 of cattle - ponds ; and is specially abundant in 
 these situations upon clayey soils. It seems to 
 be but little relished by either horses, cows, or 
 sheep. Its proportion of nutritive matter is 
 comparatively small; and its fondness for very 
 moist soils renders it unsuitable for cultivation. 
 It begins to flower in June, and continues to 
 flower till the end of summer. The Alopecurus 
 geniculatus bulbosus, when in flower,- and when 
 grown upon sandy loam, yields per acre 5,445 lbs. 
 of green produce, and 1,089 lbs. of dry produce, 
 and only 85 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The black - headed foxtail - grass, Alopecurus 
 nigricans, was introduced to Great Britain so re- 
 cently as the year 1815, and promises to be of 
 considerable importance among the gramineous 
 productions of British farms. It thrives in good 
 loams, or in rich silicious soils containing a com- 
 petent mixture of argillaceous matter; and, if 
 merely sown on the surface, and not compressed, 
 it grows with facility and luxuriance. W. P. 
 Taunton, Esq., of Ashley — in honour of whom 
 the species is sometimes called Alopecurus Taun- 
 toniensis — made experimental sowings of it in 
 1841, upon strong woodsour clay over chalk, in a 
 tolerably well sheltered situation, but without 
 any extraordinary manuring, and at an elevation 
 of some 500 or 600 feet above the level of the 
 sea; and he found that, before the close of April, 
 some of its stalks were in flower, and had at- 
 tained a height of upwards of three feet ; and he 
 was induced to say respecting it, in a letter to 
 the secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England, " Its bulk, hardihood, succulence, 
 and precocity, inspire me with the hope that the 
 committee will think that, in pursuing the cul- 
 ture of this grass, I shall be making a useful ac- 
 quisition to English husbandry." Though it comes 
 into flower in the end of April or the beginning 
 of May, it continues to send up flowering culms 
 till October ; so that, while distinguished for the 
 remarkable earliness of its herbage, it also pro- 
 duces as much late herbage as some of the best 
 grasses which do not flower till a late period in 
 summer. Its roots are very slightly yet quite 
 evidently stoloniferous or creeping ; and, though 
 they in consequence unfit it for some of the most 
 prominent purposes of the system of alternate 
 husbandry, yet they very specially and eminently 
 qualify it for others ; for they are just stoloni- 
 ferous enough to secure the continuance and ex- 
 E 
 
ALOPECURUS. 
 
 GG 
 
 ALPACA. 
 
 tension of the plant, without producing such en- 
 cumbering and exhausting effects as result from 
 the roots of Triticum repens, Holcus mollis, Poa 
 pratensis, and other powerful creepers. Three 
 ounces and four grains of nutritious matter were 
 obtained by analyses from sixty-four drachms of 
 Alopecurus nigricans ; two ounces and fifteen 
 grains from the same quantity of A lopecurus pra- 
 tensis; three ounces from the same quantity of 
 Festuca heterophytta ; and four ounces and four- 
 teen grains from the same quantity of Triticum 
 elongatum ; and, what materially adds to the 
 comparative effect of these results, the Alopecurus 
 nigricans used in the analysis was in flower, and 
 the other three grasses were ripe. 
 
 The meadow foxtail-grass, Alopecurus praten- 
 sis, is a native, not only of Britain, but of most 
 parts of Europe, and particularly of Italy, France, 
 Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, 
 and Russia. It constitutes the principal herbage 
 in many of our rich natural pastures, and may 
 easily be distinguished from the other species of 
 Alopecurus by its superior size, — from Phleum 
 pratense, which it somewhat closely resembles, by 
 its having only one palea, and from its beard be- 
 ing attached to the base of its palea and not to 
 its glumes, — and from all other British grasses, 
 by its flowers growing in close cylindrical heads, 
 and consisting of two equally sized glumes, and 
 a keeled and compressed figure enclosing a single 
 palea. It is one of the earliest and most valu- 
 able of our native grasses, vegetates with ex- 
 traordinary luxuriance, and yields a large pro- 
 duce both as a first crop and as aftergrass. Its 
 root-leaves are very broad, long, soft, and slen- 
 der ; and, when eaten down by live stock, they 
 grow again with great rapidity. Yet it is better 
 adapted for pasture than for hay ; for its culms 
 are far from being proportionate in number or 
 bulk to its root-leaves, and are sparingly furnished 
 with side foliage. But whether used as pastur- 
 age, as green fodder, or as hay, it is much re- 
 lished by sheep and horses, and seems far from 
 being unacceptable to cows and oxen. Its seeds 
 are produced in great abundance ; and in conse- 
 quence of its overtopping most other grasses, 
 they may easily be gathered while the crop is 
 growing ; but they are seldom found in hay, for 
 they generally ripen and fall before the other 
 grasses are ready to be mown. It is exceedingly 
 luxuriant under irrigation, keeps possession of 
 the crowns of the ridges, and retains so strong 
 possession of the soil as to be eminently peren- 
 nial. When grown on a sandy loam, and com- 
 bined with nothing but white clover, it yields 
 sufficient pasturage during the second season to 
 support per acre five couples of ewes and lambs. 
 It does not acquire its full productiveness till 
 the fourth year after being sown ; and hence is 
 inferior to many other grasses for alternate hus- 
 bandry, or for brief periods of pasture ; but it is 
 excelled by no grass in aggregate value for 
 strictly permanent pasture, and ought never to 
 
 bear a smaller proportion than one-eighth in any 
 mixture of grass seeds for a sowing intended to 
 remain during a considerable number of years. 
 It requires, however, to have a loamy or meadowy 
 soil, — decidedly good land, of medium character 
 for moistness ; and loses very much of its value, 
 as to both bulk and nutritiousness, when grown 
 upon any poor dry soil. Its produce on a clayey 
 loam is nearly three-fourths greater than on a 
 silicious soil ; and the quality of this produce is 
 also superior in the proportion of about three to 
 two. It flowers in April, May, and June, ac- 
 cording to the period up to which it has been 
 depastured ; and it ripens its seeds in June and 
 July, according to the period at which it has 
 flowered. Its produce in lattermath exceeds its 
 produce in the flowering crop, in the proportion 
 of about four to three. Its produce per acre, 
 when grown on silicious sand, and when it is in 
 flower, is 8,507 lbs. of grass, 2,552 lbs. of hay, and 
 133 lbs. of nutritious matter ; but when grown 
 on clayey loam, and when in flower, 20,418 lbs. 
 of grass, 6,125 lbs. of hay, and 478 lbs. of nutri- 
 tious matter. 
 
 The author of ' British Husbandry,' after briefly 
 noticing the meadow foxtail - grass, Alopecurus 
 pratensis, says, " There are two other species of 
 the fox-tail, which all flourish chiefly on strong 
 moist soils; but, although each bearing nearly 
 the same character, this is the best. Mr. Taun- 
 ton says, that on his dry ground he found them 
 all considerably weakened, and that one of them, 
 a German black-seeded species, had nearly dis- 
 appeared ; but where they were mixed in a mea- 
 dow on clay, with a dark moory mould on the 
 surface, they each maintained their size and bulk 
 as well, or better, than any other grass. They 
 indeed grow to great perfection on all moist 
 loams and clays ; and although not cut until late 
 in the summer, when the radical leaves of many 
 other grasses are decayed or withered, these con- 
 tinue green, and present no impediment to the 
 scythe. ' In fine, it possesses all the requisites of 
 a good grass — namely, quantity, quality, and ear- 
 liness.' It yields also abundance of seeds; but 
 they are subject to be destroyed by an insect." 
 One important recommendation of the new valu- 
 able species, Alopecurus nigricans, is that if it 
 should prove to be subject to the same disease in 
 its seeds as Alopecurus pratensis, it can propagate 
 itself independently of them by means of its sto- 
 loniferous habit. — Loudon's Encyclopaedia of 
 Plants. — Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Wobu men- 
 sis. — Sproule's Treatise on Agriculture. — Treatise 
 on British Husbandry in Library of Useful Know- 
 ledge. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England. — Catalogue of the Highland Society's 
 Museum. — Low's Elements of Practical Agricul- 
 ture. 
 
 ALPACA, or Paca, — zoologically Auchenia Al- 
 paca. A South American quadruped, possessing 
 considerable resemblance to the sheep and the 
 goat, very often regarded as merely a variety of 
 
ALPACA. 
 
 07 
 
 ALPACA 
 
 the sheep, and recently the object of great in- 
 terest for its sheep-like habits, and especially for 
 its wool, but really belonging to the camel family, 
 and formerly considered by naturalists as an ac- 
 tual species of camel. The whole of the genus 
 Auchenia or Llama, so far as known, possesses 
 points of considerable interest to the British 
 stock farmer, and at least another species of it, 
 besides the Alpaca, presents strong claims for 
 adoption as a domestic animal upon British hill- 
 farms. Hence, were we strictly methodical, we 
 would reserve a notice of all the species for an 
 article on the word Llama; but, as the Alpaca 
 is the species of greatest interest, and has become 
 popularly known among farmers, and is the me- 
 dium through which interest in the other species 
 is felt, and forms the topic of much mercantile 
 speculation respecting both the naturalization of 
 the animal and the produce of its wool, we make 
 logic give way to utility, and set up the Alpaca 
 as the representative of the whole genus Auch- 
 enia. 
 
 The llama was classed by Linnams, and other 
 distinguished naturalists of the last century, as 
 a camel ; and it was constituted a separate and 
 distinct genus by Illiger, and named Auchenia in 
 allusion to the comparatively great length and 
 slenderness of its neck. It differs from the 
 camel in being a much smaller animal, in having 
 no hump on its back, and in wanting the broad 
 elastic pad on the foot, which is so admirably 
 adapted for traversing the arid wastes of the 
 sandy wilderness; but it closely resembles the 
 camel in the general structure and cellular ap- 
 paratus of the stomach, in the remarkable power 
 of enduring prolonged thirst, in the expression 
 of its large, full, overhung eye, in the division 
 and mobility of its upper lip, in its fissured 
 nostrils, slender neck, and meagre limbs, and in 
 the long, woolly, and finely filamentous character 
 of its clothing. The foot of the llama is directly 
 and most beautifully adapted for climbing craggy, 
 alpine heights, and proceeding with a free and 
 fearless step among the chasms, pinnacles, and 
 rocky wastes of mountain precipices ; and, in 
 common with the entire structure and all the 
 instincts and natural habits of the animal, indi- 
 cates the purpose of the infinitely wise and bene- 
 ficent Creator, that the llama should enjoy com- 
 fort to itself, and minister to the wants of man, 
 amidst rugged and savage uplands of too stern a 
 character, or too lofty an altitude, to be easily 
 traversed, or profitably stocked, by any other de- 
 scription of domesticable animal. Two springy 
 toes, terminating in strong, short hoofs, and pro- 
 vided beneath with rough, elongated cushions, 
 constitute the body of each foot; the toes are 
 completely divided from each other, yet lie 
 mutually close, and assist each other's action ; 
 and the hoofs are laterally compressed, pointed 
 at the tip, and hooked over nearly in the form of 
 claws, their upper surface like an acute ridge, 
 and their under surface linearly concave. 
 
 The native country of all the species of llama, 
 is the most grandly mountainous in the world, 
 the alpine portion of Chili and Peru, the sublime 
 region of the Andes or Cordilleras from the equa- 
 tor to nearly the southern extremity of South 
 America, second in altitude only to the Him- 
 alayan mountains of Hindostan, rising in suc- 
 cessive ranges tier over tier from the seaboard of 
 the Pacific to altitudes far above the line of per- 
 petual snow, and possessing, between base and 
 summit, an epitome of all the climates and al- 
 most all the countries of the globe. Along the 
 seaward base of this stupendous region extends 
 a narrow belt of plain, scorched with the rays of 
 a vertical sun, and almost never refreshed by a 
 fall of rain, yet so invigorated by heavy dews 
 from the clouds, and animated by fertilizing rills 
 from the mountains, as to enjoy a perpetual 
 spring, and luxuriate in the richest vegetation. 
 But along the acclivities, the summits, and the 
 vast terraces of the lower ranges, tropical heats 
 and plants are suddenly succeeded by those of 
 the temperate zone; and after the summits of 
 the middle ranges are attained, the rays of the 
 sun lose their fervour and energy, the air is 
 chilled, and vegetation dwarfed by freezing 
 winds, and the ascents of the land are a series 
 of rocky, barren, icy regions, called by the na- 
 tives punas, rising ridge above ridge in a struggle 
 for terrific wildness and sterility, and succeeded 
 in the far sky-soaring distance by an upper world 
 of rocky crests and deep ravines, of alpine pin- 
 nacles and massive crags, of awful precipices and 
 horrid chasms, which human foot has never trod, 
 and the eagle's wing has scarcely overshadowed. 
 In the zone of these wondrous regions, a little 
 below the line of perpetual snow, and at altitudes 
 of from 8,000 to 12,000 feet above the level of the 
 sea, flocks of the domesticated species of the 
 llama subsist themselves on the wild and scanty 
 herbage, and constitute the chief care and the 
 principal wealth of the mountaineer Indian ; 
 and m a still higher zone, at altitudes of from 
 12,000 to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 under almost perpetual mist and snow, and in 
 situations chiefly inaccessible to the foot or even 
 the eye of man, live the wild species of the 
 llama, travelling from peak to peak with the 
 facility of the chamois and the swiftness of the 
 gazelle, and seeming to find sustenance and com- 
 fort almost from the naked rocks and glittering 
 snows. " Here, amidst broken and precipitous 
 peaks, on the parapets and projecting ledges, 
 slightly covered with earth, or in the valleys 
 formed by the mountain ridges, like the Pyre- 
 nean chamois, the llama and alpaca pick up a pre- 
 carious subsistence from the mosses, lichens, ten- 
 der shrubs, and grassy plants, which make their 
 appearance as the snow recedes ; or, descending 
 lower down, revel in the pajonales, or, as they are 
 called in some parts of the country, ichuales, 
 natural meadows of the ichu plant, the favourite 
 haunts of the tame and wild kinds, Thus the 
 
ALPACA. 
 
 68 
 
 ALPACA. 
 
 hand of man never prepares food for either kind, 
 — both readily find it on their native mountains. 
 Besides the extremes of cold, these animals have 
 equally to endure the severities of a damp atmo- 
 sphere ; for while below it seldom rains, in the 
 summer months, when evaporation from the sea 
 is abundant, clouds collect, and being driven over 
 the lower valleys by strong winds from the south 
 and west, and condensed by the cold, burst on 
 the highlands, where the rain falls in torrents, 
 amidst the most awful thunder and lightning." 
 
 When the Spaniards first invaded Chili and 
 Peru, they found the llama, not only in a wild 
 state, but also domesticated by the inhabitants ; 
 and struck with the similarity of its uses to those 
 of the sheep of Europe, they called it ' the sheep 
 of the country,' and began to employ it in the 
 same manner as the natives. Its flesh was eaten, 
 its skin was made into leather, and its wool was 
 spun and manufactured into cloth, The living 
 animal was also in great request, and of high 
 value as a beast of burden ; it carried ore from 
 the mines in the mountains, in loads of from 80 
 to 100 pounds, at the average speed of twelve or 
 fifteen miles a-day, along difficult tracts, and 
 through the most rugged passes ; and when too 
 heavily laden, or when urged to travel beyond 
 its ordinary pace, it lay down, and obstinately 
 refused to proceed. Augustine De Zarata, Span- 
 ish treasurer-general of Peru in 1544, committing 
 the common mistake of his countrymen in con- 
 founding this remarkable animal with the sheep, 
 says, respecting the llama, " In places where 
 there is no snow, the natives want water, and to 
 supply this they fill the skins of sheep with 
 water, and make other living sheep carry them, 
 for, it must be remarked, these sheep of Peru are 
 large enough to serve as beasts of burden. They 
 can carry about one hundred pounds or more, 
 and the Spaniards used to ride them, and they 
 would go four or five leagues a-day. When they 
 are weary, they lie down upon the grounds and 
 as there are no means of making them get up, 
 either by beating or assisting them, the load 
 must of necessity be taken off. When there is a 
 man on one of them, if the beast is tired, and 
 urged to go on, he turns his head round, and 
 discharges his saliva, which has an unpleasant 
 odour, into the rider's face. These animals are 
 of great use and profit to their masters, for their 
 wool is very good and fine, particularly that of 
 the species called pacas (alpaca), which have 
 very long fleeces ; and the expense of their food 
 is trifling, as a handful of maize suffices them, 
 and they can go four or five days without water. 
 Their flesh is as good as that of the fat sheep of 
 Castile. There are now public shambles for the 
 sale of their flesh in all parts of Peru, which was 
 not the case when the Spaniards came first ; for 
 when one Indian had killed a sheep, his neigh- 
 bours came and took what they wanted, and then 
 another Indian killed another sheep in his turn." 
 D'Acosta, one of the earliest naturalists who 
 
 visited the new world, and who published his 
 observations in 1790, says, " There is nothing in 
 Peru more useful or more valuable than the 
 country sheep called llamas, and they are as 
 economical as they are profitable. They have a 
 long neck, similar to the camel, and this they 
 require ; for being tall and upright, they stand 
 in need of an elongated neck to reach their food. 
 The meat is good : that of the fawn is best and 
 most delicate, although the Indians use it spar- 
 ingly ; their principal object in rearing this breed 
 of cattle being to avail themselves of its wool for 
 clothing, and of its service to carry loads. The 
 wool they were accustomed to weave into gar- 
 ments, one of their kinds of cloth, called huasca, 
 being coarse, and in more general use ; while the 
 other, known by the name of cumbi, was of a 
 finer and more delicate quality. Of the latter, 
 they still make mantles, table-covers, quilts, and 
 various articles of ornamental dress, which are 
 durable, and have a gloss upon them, as if partly 
 made of silk. The Indians still possess large 
 droves, consisting of 400 or 1,000 head each, 
 which they load, and with them perform jour- 
 neys, travelling like a string of mules, and carry- 
 ing wine, cocoa, chuno, quicksilver, and other 
 articles of merchandise, and more especially that 
 which of all others is the most valuable, namely, 
 silver, ingots of which they bear from Potosi to 
 Arica, a distance of seventy leagues, as they for- 
 merly did to Arequipa, more than twice as far. 
 They are accustomed to a cold climate, and thrive 
 best in the highlands. Often does it happen that 
 they are covered with snow and sparkling with 
 icicles, and yet healthy and contented." Inca 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, a native Peruvian, said, 
 at a later period than D'Acosta, " The domestic 
 animals which God was pleased to bestow on the 
 Indians, congenial to their character, and like 
 them in disposition, are so tractable that a child 
 may guide them, more particularly those accus- 
 tomed to bear burdens. The skin was anciently 
 steeped in tallow, in order to prepare it ; after 
 which the Indians used it for shoes, but the lea- 
 ther not being tanned, they were obliged to go 
 barefooted in rainy weather. Of it, the Spaniards 
 now make bridles, girths, and cruppers for sad- 
 dles. The paca (alpaca) was chiefly valued for 
 its flesh, but more especially for its wool, long, 
 but excellent, of which the natives made cloths, 
 and gave to them beautiful and never-fading 
 colours." Similar accounts are given by De Laet 
 and Captain G. Shelvocke. 
 
 The number of known varieties of the llama is 
 five, — the taruga, the domestic llama, the guan- 
 aco, the alpaca, and the vicugna. The first and 
 the second of these appear to be varieties of re- 
 spectively the alpaca and the guanaco ; and the 
 third, the fourth, and the fifth, appear to be dis- 
 tinct species. Yet Baron Cuvier and Mr, Ben- 
 nett pronounce the guanaco and the vicugna to 
 be the only distinct species, and regard the al- 
 paca, the taruga, and the domestic llama as all 
 
ALPACA. 
 
 varieties of the guanaco, the first being distin- 
 guished simply by an ample development of its 
 wool. The alpaca, however, appears to us to pos- 
 sess quite a sufficient breadth of peculiar charac- 
 ter to entitle it to the rank of a separate species. 
 The brown llama figured in the Naturalist's Li- 
 brary, and supposed there to be a distinct species, 
 appears to be merely a dark-woolled individual of 
 the domestic llama ; and the Chilihueque, which 
 the writer of the article ' Brown Llama ' in that 
 work seems to think a different animal from any 
 of the ascertained species of llama, is just the 
 domestic llama as found among the Chilese, — the 
 names Chilihueque, Hanaca, and Guanaco, being 
 merely variations of one another, — and the first 
 of these names being applied by the Chilese to 
 the domestic llama, while the second and the 
 third are applied by most writers to the wild 
 guanaco, or original form to which the domestic 
 llama belonged. 
 
 The taruga or taruca is rather obscurely known, 
 and figures principally in the accounts of De Laet. 
 Though seemingly most allied to the alpaca, it pos- 
 sesses the distinctive characters of a solitary or 
 ungregarious habit, and of light and pendulous 
 ears. It is larger, swifter, and of a more burnt 
 colour than the vicugna ; and it rarely associates 
 with its fellows, but wanders solitarily about pre- 
 cipices and among wild crags. In the time of 
 the Incas, it was very abundant, and even ap- 
 proached the immediate vicinity of towns. Gar- 
 cilasso de la Vega mistook it for a species of small 
 deer. Its solitary habit, combined with its simi- 
 larity in constitution and value to the alpaca, 
 may possibly, at some very early period, instigate 
 a search for it, and recommend its introduction 
 to the most broken and rocky districts of Scot- 
 land and Wales, where herbage is too scanty to 
 afford sustenance to flocks. 
 
 The domestic llama differs from the guanaco 
 chiefly in such properties as result from long 
 domestication, but is both stouter in the body 
 and shorter in the neck ; and it must be under- 
 stood as the variety principally referred to in 
 all statements respecting the former Peruvians' 
 domestic animals and beasts of burden. How 
 early it became domesticated, is not known ; but 
 at the date of the Spanish invasion, it was found 
 performing nearly the same offices to the Peru- 
 vians, which the camel still performs to the 
 Arabs. Its neck is very long ; its tail is a little 
 raised and curved down ; its height at the top of 
 the shoulders is about three feet and a half; its 
 colour is occasionally brown, but usually either 
 white or a mixture of white and brown ; and its 
 wool is considerably developed, and, but for the 
 superior quality of that of the alpaca and the 
 vicugna, would be in great request. It feeds 
 chiefly upon mountain herbage, particularly upon 
 a coarse rushy grass called ichu or ycho; and 
 when it can obtain a sufficiency of this food, it is 
 never known to drink ; yet it possesses these re- 
 markable habits of sustenance, as well as some 
 
 69 ALPACA. 
 
 other valuable properties, quite in common with 
 the guanaco, the alpaca, and the vicugna. Its sa- 
 liva is always abundant and exceedingly offen- 
 sive ; yet though formerly thought to be acrid, has 
 been ascertained to be perfectly innocuous. The 
 animal is, in general, very quiet and quite inof- 
 fensive ; yet it occasionally yields to rather slight 
 provocation ; and when fairly irritated, it ener- 
 getically strikes with its fore-feet, and inflicts 
 very severe blows. Though still of much econo- 
 mical value in its native land, it has been almost 
 wholly superseded as a beast of burden by the 
 introduction of the horse, the ass, and especially 
 the mule, and has been lessened in its importance 
 for wool and flesh by the introduction of the 
 sheep, the goat, and the ox. 
 
 The guanaco is more slender, and has the ap- 
 pearance of more spirit and energy than the do- 
 mesticated llama ; but it soon accustoms itself to 
 captivity. Its wool is finer than that of the do- 
 mestic llama, but not so long ; and its colour is 
 grey in the head and ears, and a rich rufous 
 brown in the body. It lives among the moun- 
 tains during summer ; but descends to the val- 
 leys, and is hunted by dogs and men on the ap- 
 proach of winter. " The guanaco," says Mr. Dar- 
 win, in the Voyage of the Beagle, " abounds over 
 the whole of the temperate parts of South Amer- 
 ica, from the wooded islands of Tierra del Fuego, 
 through Patagonia, the hilly parts of La Plata, 
 Chili, even to the Cordillera of Peru. Although 
 preferring an elevated site, it yields in this re- 
 spect to its near relative, the vicugna; on the 
 plains of Southern Patagonia, we saw them in 
 greater numbers than in any other part. Gen- 
 erally they go in small herds from half-a-dozen 
 to thirty together ; but on the banks of the St. 
 Cruz, we saw one herd which must have contained 
 at least five hundred. On the northern shores of 
 the strait of Magellan, they are also very numer- 
 ous.. Generally the guanacoes are wild and ex- 
 tremely wary. The sportsman frequently receives 
 the first intimation of their presence by hearing 
 from a distance the peculiar, shrill, neighing note 
 of alarm. If he then looks attentively, he will 
 perhaps see the herd standing in a line on some 
 distant hill. On approaching them, a few more 
 squeals are given, and then off they set at an ap- 
 parently slow but really quick canter along some 
 narrow beaten tract to a neighbouring hill. On 
 the mountains of Tierra del Fuego, and in other 
 places, I have more than once seen a guanaco, on 
 being approached, not only neigh and squeal, but 
 prance and leap about in the most ridiculous 
 manner, apparently in defiance as a challenge. 
 These animals are very easily domesticated, and I 
 have seen some thus kept near the houses, al- 
 though at large on their native plains. They 
 are, in this state, very bold, and readily attack a 
 man by striking him from behind with both 
 knees. The wild guanacoes, however, have no 
 idea of defence ; even a single dog will secure 
 one of these large animals till the huntsman can 
 
ALPACA. 
 
 70 
 
 ALPACA. 
 
 come up. In many of their habits, they are like 
 sheep in a flock. Thus, when they see men ap- 
 proaching in different directions on horseback, 
 they soon become bewildered, and know not which 
 way to run. This greatly facilitates the Indian 
 method of hunting, for they are thus easily driven 
 to a central point and encompassed." The flesh 
 of the guanaco, though good, is inferior to that 
 of the domesticated llama. 
 
 The alpaca is as large as the guanaco, but pro- 
 portionately shorter in the limbs ; it is less fleet 
 than the guanaco, yet resembles it in general 
 habits ; it frequents a higher and colder range of 
 elevation, and is frequently seen with herds of 
 the vicugna; its forehead, instead of being re- 
 gularly arched to the nose, rises abruptly promi- 
 nent above the eyes ; its colour is occasionally 
 black, but usually a deep fawn ; and its wool is 
 long, silky, delicately fine, and disposed in long 
 flakes or tassels. Mr. W. Dawson, at the ninth 
 and tenth meetings of the British Association, 
 held in Birmingham and Glasgow, exhibited na- 
 tive samples of alpaca wool, and manufactured 
 undyed specimens in imitation of silk, as black 
 as jet ; and he urged that the animals producing 
 it ought to be propagated in England, Ireland, 
 Scotland, and Wales, and stated that it was emi- 
 nently adapted by its natural habits to at least 
 the Scottish and the Welsh highlands. The wool 
 of the specimens exhibited was from six to twelve 
 inches in length. Alpaca wool became known to 
 the British manufacturer only about the year 
 1834 ; and the quantity of Peruvian wool, prin- 
 cipally alpaca, imported into Britain during the 
 six following years was 8,000 bales in 1835, 12,800 
 in 1836, 17,500 in 1837, 25,765 in 1838, 34,543 in 
 1839, and 34,224 in 1840. The total consump- 
 tion of alpaca wool in this country, in the seven 
 years ending December 1843, is estimated by Mr. 
 Walton at 12,000,000 lbs. 
 
 The vicugna or vicuna is a smaller animal, and 
 more slender in its proportions, than either the 
 guanaco or the alpaca. Its limbs are thin ; its 
 neck is attenuated and curved somewhat like 
 that of the swan ; its forehead is broad and pro- 
 minent, yet not so abrupt as that of the alpaca ; 
 its muzzle is narrow ; its head is short ; its eyes 
 are large; its ears are long; the height of its 
 body at the tip of the shoulder is about two feet 
 and a half ; its colour is a pale yellowish white, 
 passing into white on the under parts ; and its 
 wool is extremely delicate and soft, resembles the 
 fur of the beaver, is from one inch to three inches 
 in length, and possesses the property of resisting 
 heat, so as to be a most suitable material for the 
 manufacture of caps. The vicugna, except for 
 having no horns, and being rather large, might 
 very readily be mistaken for a goat ; it lives in 
 herds, and has great swiftness of foot ; it is in- 
 vigorated, rather than annoyed, by frost and 
 snow ; it closely resembles the chamois of the 
 European alps in agility, vigilance, wildness, and 
 timidity ; and it frequents the most rocky and 
 
 precipitous retreats, on bleak and elevated ranges 
 of the mountains, close on the region of perpetual j 
 snow. It occurs in Chili, but is found principally 
 in the Cordilleras of Copiapo, Coquimbo, and Peru; 
 it was, at one time, very numerous, but has now j 
 become much more rare. For the sake of its 
 wool alone, thousands of individuals of it are 
 annually killed by every method of ensnarement j 
 and assault. We have given a very accurate re- I | 
 presentation of this species in Plate IV. Fig. 1. 
 
 All the species and varieties of the llama, but 
 particularly the alpaca and the vicugna, hold so 
 conspicuous and valuable a place among wool- 
 bearing animals, that one might have expected 
 them to be introduced to Europe, and domesti- 
 cated upon the mountains of Spain, Italy, Swit- 
 zerland, Germany, and Great Britain, with all 
 possible speed after the conquest of America. 
 Europeans found some domesticated, and the 
 others domesticable, throughout Chili and Peru ; 
 they observed and admired their rich combina- 
 tion of useful properties, and their remarkable 
 adaptation to new and difficult situations ; they 
 saw their wool to be singularly fine and silky, 
 and to be easily convertible into woven fabrics by 
 even the clumsy manipulations of the Indians ; 
 and yet, with a surpassing indifference which 
 excites our highest astonishment, neither they 
 nor their successors of eight generations seem to 
 have formed a thought of introducing the hardy 
 and rich wool-bearing race to the countries of 
 Europe. Now, however — though in a very in- 
 ferior degree to what the interests of stock far- 
 mers, of fabric-manufacturers, and of the whole 
 community demand — attention to the llama 1 
 genus as a suitable line for very upland districts, 
 has been generally excited throughout Great Bri- 
 tain. " Mr. Bennet of Faringdon," says Mr. Wal- 
 ton, in his Memoir of the year 1841, " had a pair 
 of llamas sent to him from Peru, twenty years 
 ago, and fed them as sheep are usually fed, with 
 hay and turnips, in the winter. From his own 
 experience, he found that they are particularly 
 hardy and very long lived. He increased his 
 stock, and has actually had six females at a time 
 which have had young ones. Of these, very few 
 have died. The number of Peruvian sheep in 
 the kingdom at present (July 1841) may be esti- 
 mated thus ; — the Earl of Derby, Knowsley Hall, 
 Lancashire, sixteen ; the Marquis of Breadal- 
 bane, one ; the Duke of Montrose, three ; Earl 
 Fitzwilliam, one ; Zoological Gardens, Phoenix 
 Park, Dublin, six ; Zoological Gardens, Regent's 
 Park, two; J. J. Hegan, Esq., Harrow -Hall, 
 Cheshire, seven ; Charles Taylcure, Esq, Park- 
 field, near Liverpool, five; John Edwards, Esq., 
 Pye-Nest, Halifax, six; Mr. Stephenson, Oban, 
 six; William Bennett, Esq., twelve; Mr. Cross, Sur- 
 rey Zoological Gardens, one ; Mr. Atkins, Zoolo- 
 gical Gardens, Liverpool, three; and in travel- 
 ling caravans, four ; — total, seventy-nine. Lately 
 six more arrived in Liverpool. The existence of 
 this number among us, supported by their healthy 
 
ALSTRCEMEEIA. 
 
 -71 
 
 ALTERATIVES. 
 
 appearance, as reported to me from every quar- 
 ter where I have been able to institute inquiries, 
 is a better proof of the capacity of Andes sheep to 
 adapt themselves to our climate than any further 
 arguments or elucidations which I could adduce." 
 The animals, too, would obviously thrive far bet- 
 ter when enjoying liberty on the mountains, than 
 when imprisoned in caravans, in zoological gar- 
 dens, and in gentlemen's parks ; they could sus- 
 tain themselves on the coarsest herbage, such as 
 the ycho of their native cordilleras ; they would, 
 in not a few situations in Great Britain, live and 
 prosper where sheep would famish and die ; they 
 most probably would escape all the accidents from 
 snow-storms, and most of the attacks from disease 
 to which our sheep are liable ; and, from the sin- 
 gular richness of the wool, and the smartly in- 
 creasing demand for it which follows the intro- 
 duction of fair specimens to the market, they 
 would not improbably, on even lowland farms or 
 on costly pastures, yield a more profitable return 
 than sheep. See article JVool. — The Pictorial 
 Museum of Animated Nature. — The Naturalist's 
 Library. — Voyage of the Beagle. — Mr. W. Walton s 
 Memoir on Peruvian Sheep, as quoted in John- 
 son's Farmer's Encyclopaedia. — Portraits and Spe- 
 cimens in the Highland Society's Museum. 
 
 ALSTRCEMERIA, or Alstr<emer's Lily. A 
 genus of interesting herbaceous exotic plants, 
 of the amaryllis family. Several hardy species 
 and a great many tender ones have been intro- 
 duced to Britain from Chili, Peru, Mexico, and 
 other parts of America ; and though the majority 
 are valuable or attractive only to florists and bo- 
 tanists, yet one or two make a strong claim on 
 the attention of farmers. They are characterized 
 by the form of their perianth flower, or coloured 
 calyx, and by the form of their seed-vessel, — the 
 perianth having a naked orifice, and consisting 
 of six segments, the two lower of which are 
 somewhat tubular at the base, — and the seed- 
 vessel being round or oval, three or six angled, 
 three valved or pulpy within, and not opening. 
 
 The ovate alstrosmeria, or eatable-rooted lily, 
 possesses special interest. It is a hardy, econo- 
 mical, tuberous-rooted, twining-stemmed herb ; 
 and was introduced from Chili in 1824 ; and is 
 now recommended to the notice of both gardeners 
 and farmers as a substitute for the potato. Its 
 tubers weigh from 3 to 6 ounces, and are oval, 
 and not furnished with buds or eyes ; its stems 
 are slender, and about 4 feet high, and twine on 
 other plants or on sticks for support ; its leaves 
 are ovate ; and its flowers have a reddish colour, 
 interspersed with green and yellow, and bloom 
 in June and July. Its tubers are cooked and 
 used as food by the inhabitants of Chili, Peru, 
 and the West Indies ; and they are now sold by 
 British nurserymen, as one of the group which 
 they call the potato tribe, consisting of the po- 
 tato itself, the sweet potato, the eatable-rooted 
 lily, the Jerusalem artichoke, the Lathyrus tu- 
 
 berosus, the Oxalis Deppii, and the Oxalis 
 crenata. 
 
 Several other species of alstrcemeria, besides 
 the A. ovata, are either actually cultivated in 
 their native country for food, or at least possess 
 edible properties. One of these is the eatable, 
 A. edidis, a tender twiner of 6 feet in height, a 
 native of South America, carrying green and 
 crimson flowers in June and July ; and another 
 is the Salsilla, a tender twiner of 5 or 6 feet in 
 height, a native of Chili, carrying diversified 
 coloured flowers of purple and orange and white 
 from May till July. 
 
 ALTERATIVES. Medicines designed to effect 
 a slow salutary change in a diseased condition of 
 horses or cattle, without interfering with their 
 food or work, or exciting any sensible evacuation. 
 But by conventional usage, alteratives have come 
 to mean only such medicines as are designed to 
 remove diseases of the skin, the digestive organs, 
 or the circulation; and, in a shamefully large 
 proportion of instances in actual practice, they 
 mean drugs of all sorts which are prescribed by 
 empiricism or administered by well-meaning but 
 culpable ignorance. Alteratives appear to have 
 become a sanction for all sorts of slow-dozing and 
 general physicking, and ought either to be rigidly 
 defined or totally abolished. Common sense re- 
 quires that when an animal is unwell, the precise 
 disease under which it suffers should be ascer- 
 tained, and a precise and expeditious remedy 
 applied. If the illness of a horse be a disease of 
 the skin, let nitre, sulphur, and black antimony 
 be used ; if there be any tendency to grease, let 
 some resin be added to each ball ; and if there 
 be accompanying weakness, let a little gentian 
 and ginger be added ; but, be the case what it 
 may, let not the delusion of alterative treatment 
 be permitted to prescribe the use of any form of 
 mercury, or of any of the heating spices, the min- 
 eral acids, or the mineral tonics. 
 
 If a cow is unwell, let her be bled or physicked 
 according to the exact nature of her disease, but 
 let not her digestion be nauseated or her consti- 
 tution ruined by a constant dozing with various 
 drugs. " To a cow with yellows or mange," says 
 Mr. Youatt, " or that cannot be made to acquire 
 condition, or where the milk is diminishing, 
 small quantities of medicine are often adminis- 
 tered under the tempting but deceptive term of 
 alteratives. They had much better be let alone 
 in the majority of cases. The want of condition 
 and thriving in cattle is far more connected with 
 a diseased state of their complicated stomachs, 
 and particularly with obstruction in their many- 
 plies, than with any other cause ; the alteratives 
 then should be small quantities of purgatives 
 with aromatics, as Epsom salt or sulphur with 
 ginger, or, what would be still preferable, rock 
 salt in the manger for them to lick, or common 
 salt mingled with their food. There can, how- 
 ever, be no doubt that, in many cutaneous 
 
ALTERNATE HUSBANDRY. 
 
 72 
 
 ALTITUDE. 
 
 affections, and especially where mange is sus- 
 pected, alterative medicines will be very bene- 
 ficial. They should be composed of iEthiop's 
 mineral, nitre, and sulphur, in the proportion of 
 one, two, and four, and in daily doses of from 
 half-an-ounce to an ounce." 
 
 ALTERNATE HUSBANDRY. The system 
 of farm management which alternates land be- 
 tween grass and tillage ; so as to have part of a 
 farm in sward, and part clear of all herbage ex- 
 cept the tillage crop. This system changes any 
 field or series of fields from grass to tillage, or 
 from tillage to grass, as the nature of the land 
 or the comparative profits of grazing and tillage 
 husbandry require ; and, in many situations, it 
 is more remunerating, less laborious, and keeps 
 lands freer from weeds, and from the risk of 
 manurial exhaustion, than the system of a con- 
 stant rotation of tillage crops or of mere occa- 
 sional summer fallowing. See the articles Grass 
 Lands and Rotation op Crops. 
 
 ALTITUDE or Elevation. The height of 
 land above the level of the sea. This is an im- 
 portant element in all just calculations respect- 
 ing vegetable physiology, the making of planta- 
 tions, and the rotation of crops. Vegetation, in 
 ascending above the level of the sea, undergoes 
 modifications analogous to those which attend 
 its progress from the equator to either pole. 
 Thus 600 feet of altitude above sea -level is found 
 to be equal, in its influence upon both indigenous 
 and cultivated vegetation, to a removal of one 
 degree from the equator, or between 60 and 70 
 miles toward the north or south; so that a 
 situation only a few feet above sea-level in the 
 latitude of Edinburgh is equal, in its genial 
 powers, to a situation about 3,000 feet above sea- 
 level in the latitude of London, and the height of 
 4,000 or 5,000 yards in the hottest parts of the 
 globe produces changes as distinct as the 2,000 
 leagues or more which lie between the equator 
 and the polar regions. 
 
 Any considerable altitude in the position of a 
 farm, not alone affects it with a lower tempera- 
 ture, a greater moisture, and stronger winds than 
 if it were situated in a low plain or valley, but 
 entails upon it a number of both consequent and 
 accompanying disadvantages. Its grass lands 
 yield a less succulent and nourishing herbage, 
 and are slower in reproduction ; its cereal crops 
 bear less plump grain, run more to straw, and 
 are longer in ripening and more liable to acci- 
 dents ; its soils are more seriously washed away 
 by heavy rains, and more deprived of their finest 
 particles after every process of tilling and pul- 
 verization ; its facilities for obtaining extraneous 
 manures are much fewer, and its obstacles to 
 every description of horse labour more numerous 
 and stubborn ; its lands are colder, more denuded 
 of argillaceous and calcareous powders, more 
 gritty, gravelly, and churlish, and less fitted, in 
 both mineralogical and mechanical condition, for 
 
 producing wheat or the other valuable grains; 
 and its whole economy is less compact within, 
 less independent of exterior aids, and less freely 
 connected with surrounding farms and the neigh- 
 bouring markets. But the directly climatic in- 
 fluence of altitude upon a farm is comparatively 
 great. In latitudes 54° and 55° in Great Britain, i 
 an altitude of 500 feet above sea -level is the j j 
 highest at which wheat can be cultivated with 
 any probability of profit; and even there, the 
 grain is liable to be very light, and will fre- 
 quently be a month later in ripening than such 
 as grows on the neighbouring plains. In the 
 same latitudes, an altitude of from 600 to 800 ; 
 feet, according to the exposure, the nature of 
 the soil, and other modifying circumstances, is 
 the highest at which barley and oats can be pro- 
 fitably cultivated ; and in backward seasons, j 
 crops grown at these altitudes will be of small 
 value, and will sometimes yield nothing but 
 straw. Yet in the loftiest hills and second-rate 
 mountains of the county of Wicklow in Ireland, 
 rye has long been successfully cultivated on lands 
 and in positions where barley and oats would be 
 entire failures. 
 
 On farms in high and humid situations in the 
 lowlands of Scotland, or in the practicable parts 
 of the Scottish highlands, the principal objects 
 of husbandry ought to be good grass for pasture, 
 and the securing of an ample supply of winter 
 food for live stock ; and the attainment of these 
 objects ought to be sought by the improvement 
 of grass lands, the wise management of hay-mea- 
 dows, the cultivation of lands fit for producing 
 turnips and other green crops for cattle, the 
 growing of potatoes for the use of man, and the 
 incidental production of grain crops in the or- 
 dinary steps of rotation necessary for the most 
 regular, permanent, and profitable supply of 
 grass, hay, and turnips. See Grass Lands, Pas- 
 ture, Farm, Wastes, Draining, Irrigation, and 
 other articles. In all such situations tillage is 
 advisable only in so far as it conduces to the pro- 
 duction of turnips and hay, and the permanent 
 improvement of the soil for pasture ; and the 
 crops of grain, which necessarily form parts of 
 the rotation, can never be depended on for profit, 
 except as yielding straw for the feeding and Ut- 
 tering of cattle, and for the preparation of suit- 
 able manure for turnips. The most suitable ro- 
 tation is, first, oats from old ley ; next turnips, 
 and the necessary proportion of potatoes, with 
 the whole of the manure produced on the farm ; 
 next, early oats or barley, sown with grass and 
 clover seeds ; next, hay ; and then a continuation 
 of the grass into pasture during at least three 
 years, and during as much longer a period as 
 will comport with a due extent of the farm being 
 under tillage for the raising of turnips and the 
 full consumption of manure. — Keith's Botani- 
 cal Lexicon. — Humboldt's Travels. — Dr. Front's 
 Bridgewater Treatise. — M. C. F. B. MirbeVs qcn- 
 
ALUMINA. 
 
 73 
 
 AMBLE. 
 
 eral Views of Vegetable Nature. — Treatise on Plant- 
 ing in Library of Useful Knoivledge. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. — Sir John Sin- 
 clair's General Report of Scotland. 
 
 ALUMINA. The pure earth or characteristic 
 matter of clay. It was called alumina in conse- 
 quence of having been obtained in a state of the 
 greatest purity from alum, by the chemical ab- 
 straction of the potash and the sulphuric acid 
 with which it is there combined. It is exactly 
 twice the weight of water ; and when heated, it 
 parts with a portion of water, and contracts in 
 bulk. Its strong affinity for water under low 
 temperatures, and the readiness with which it 
 gives off water under heat, account for the con- 
 stant wetness and plashiness of clay soils during 
 winter, and for their contractions, crackings, 
 hardness, and aridity, after a period of drought 
 in summer. Clay always contains a large pro- 
 portion of other substances than alumina, some 
 in a state of chemical combination with it, and 
 some in a state of mechanical mixture or accom- 
 paniment ; and the earthy smell which it emits 
 when breathed upon, is occasioned by the pre- 
 sence of oxide of iron. See Clay. Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy, though he did not succeed in ob- 
 taining from alumina a metallic base in a separ- 
 ate state, conducted experiments which quite or 
 nearly demonstrated that alumina is the oxide of 
 a metal which has since been termed aluminum. 
 
 Alumina exists, in a greater or less proportion, 
 in all cultivated soils ; yet it exerts an influence 
 on vegetation, chiefly by attracting and retain- 
 ing water and ammonia, and is very rarely found, 
 as a separate earth, in the ashes of plants. One 
 three-fifths of a grain of alumina are found in 
 thirty-two ounces of the grain of wheat, and 
 about four grains in thirty ounces of the grain 
 of barley or oats. But it constitutes 3*72 parts 
 in 100 of the entire plant of the sunflower, 7*11 
 of the entire plant of Turkey wheat, and 14 of 
 the entire plant of the fumitory. The chief alu- 
 minous minerals, whose disintegration yields 
 alumina to soil, and contributes argillaceous or 
 clayey earths to arable land, are potash and soda 
 felspars, Labrador spar, mica, and the zeolites ; 
 and these minerals occur in mechanical mixture 
 with other substances in granite, gneiss, mica- 
 slate, porphyry, clay-slate, greywacke, clinkstone, 
 basalt, greenstone, mountain limestone, transi- 
 tion limestone, dolomite, muschel kalk, and vari- 
 ous sandstones, — rocks which constitute proba- 
 bly nine-tenths of all the hills and mountains of 
 the three kingdoms, and a very large proportion 
 of the immediate substrata of plains and valleys. 
 Aluminous or argillaceous earths, however, owe 
 all their value in the soil to their invariably con- 
 taining alkalies and alkaline salts, with sulphates 
 and phosphates. " In order," says Dr. Liebeg, 
 " to form a distinct conception of the quantities 
 of alkalies in aluminous minerals, it must be re- 
 membered that felspar contains 17| per cent, of 
 
 potash, albite 11-43 per cent, of soda, and mica 
 from 3 to 5 per cent., and that zeolite contains 
 from 13 to 16 per cent, of alkalies. The late 
 analyses of Ch. Gmelin, Lowe, Fricke, Myer, and 
 Redtenbacher, have also shown that basalt and 
 clinkstone contain from § to 3 per cent, of pot- 
 ash, and from 5 to 7 per cent, of soda ; that clay- 
 stone contains from 2 - 75 to 3'31 per cent, of 
 potash, and loam from 1| to 4 per cent, of pot- 
 ash." See Alkalies, Potash, Soda, and Argil- 
 laceous Earth. — Sir Humphrey Davy's Agricul- 
 tural Chemistry. — Liebig's Chemistry of Agricul- 
 ture. — Johnstone's Lectures on Agricultural Chem- 
 istry. — Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry. 
 
 AMAUROSIS, Gutta-Serena, or Glass-Eye. 
 The total blindness of horse, ox, or sheep, from 
 the paralysis of the optic nerve. The pupil of 
 the eye is unusually dilated, and is immoveable, 
 bright, and glassy ; yet the appearance of the 
 eye is sometimes so slightly or almost imper- 
 ceptibly altered, that the existence of the disease 
 is detected only by the effects of total blindness. 
 Amaurosis is usually produced by determination 
 of blood to the head, and therefore sometimes 
 follows the disease called staggers. The pressure 
 of blood on the base of the brain first inj ures the 
 optic nerve, and then destroys its function. Any 
 attempt to cure or alleviate amaurosis in the ox 
 or the sheep would be absurd ; and the instant it 
 is ascertained to exist, the animal must be de- 
 stroyed. Successful treatments of it in the case 
 of the horse are on record, but very rarely occur. 
 The seat of the disease is beyond our reach ; and 
 any effect produced on it must be achieved 
 through the medium of the constitution. The 
 most feasible remedies are bleeding, purging, 
 and the administering of strychnine, — the last, 
 noon and night, in doses first of half a grain, and 
 afterwards cautiously and watchfully increased 
 to two grains. But the proprietor of the animal 
 ought to consider whether the exceedingly slen- 
 der hope of success be worth the trouble and 
 expense of attempting a cure. A blind horse is 
 worth something, and might be damaged, as well 
 as needlessly pained, by any such amount of 
 operating on his constitution as might have 
 even the slightest probability of restoring his 
 optic nerve. 
 
 AMBLE, — Scotice, Canter. A pace in which 
 the horse moves alternately his two right legs 
 and his two left. Various methods are practised 
 for bringing a young horse to amble. Some try 
 to toil him in his foot pace through new-ploughed 
 fields, and compel him, as a means of relief, to 
 lift alternately his two right feet and his two 
 left ; but they are very apt to weaken the ani- 
 mal, to lame him, or to give him a permanent 
 halt. Others attempt so to stop him in a gallop 
 or a trot as to throw him accidentally into the 
 ambling pace ; but they may spoil a good mouth 
 and rein, and are liable to give him a hoof-reach 
 or sinew-strain. Some incumber the horse with 
 
AMELIORATING CROPS. 
 
 74 
 
 AMMONIA, 
 
 very heavy shoes or with thick pieces of lead 
 about the fetlock pasterns, intending to force 
 him into an ambling motion by the mechanical 
 action of the weights ; but they do not consider 
 that both expedients are liable to make him 
 strike short with his hind - feet, and that the 
 pieces of lead around the fetlock pasterns may 
 give incurable strains, or crush the coronet, or 
 breed ring-bones. Some heavily load the animal 
 with side-weights, designing to force him me- 
 chanically into a sort of oscillating or swinging 
 motion ; but they are very apt to sway the back, 
 to overstrain the fillets, or to inflict other serious 
 evils. Some endeavour to make him amble in 
 hand before they mount him, and, when he treads 
 false, to check him in the mouth with the bridle- 
 hand, and correct him with a rod on the hinder 
 hoofs or under the belly ; but if he be a spirited 
 animal, they are in great danger of spoiling him 
 before he can possibly understand what they 
 wish him to do. " The best method seems to 
 consist in trying with your hands, by a gentle 
 and deliberate racking and thrusting of the horse 
 forwards, by helping him in the weak part of his 
 mouth with your snaffle, which must be smooth, 
 big, and full, and correcting him first on one 
 side, then on the other, with the calves of your 
 legs, and sometimes with a spur. If you can by 
 this means make him fall readily into an amble, 
 though in a shuffling and disorderly manner, 
 much labour will be saved ; for that aptness to 
 amble will render the trammel more easy to him, 
 and he will find the motion without stumbling 
 or being frighted." 
 
 AMBURY. See Anbury. 
 
 AMELIORATING CROPS. Such crops as 
 are supposed to improve the lands on which they 
 are cultivated. The most common ameliorating 
 crops are carrots, turnips, artificial grasses, and 
 most others of the green or fallow class; yet 
 though some of them occasionally ameliorate 
 land, by altering the chemical condition of the 
 soil, by choking weeds, and by intermixing with 
 the soil a very large amount of manure, they 
 rarely benefit land by their direct influence, but, 
 in general, are merely the occasion of improve- 
 ment by manuring and cleaning. An ameliorat- 
 ing crop either destroys weeds by taking entire 
 possession of the soil ; or occasions weeds to be 
 destroyed, oxygen to be absorbed, and inert mat- 
 ter to be decomposed, by frequent workings of 
 the soil ; or exhausts mischievous excrementiti- 
 ous deposits of preceding cereal crops ; or makes 
 such excrementitious deposits of its own as are 
 useful to succeeding cereal crops ; or occasions a 
 thorough preparation of the soil, by means of 
 previous manuring and a series of ploughings, 
 for subsequent cereal crops ; or brings large con- 
 tributions of manure, and a great amount of 
 useful mechanical pressure, by its being fed off; 
 or contributes the whole of its own substance to 
 the soil by being ploughed in as a green manure ; 
 
 or makes large returns to the soil by contri- 
 butions of its substance to the dung -heap of 
 the farm -yard. See Rotation op Crops and 
 Fallow. 
 
 AMMONIA. The volatile alkali. It acts a 
 very prominent and important part in most of 
 the processes of agricultural chemistry, and ought 
 to be thoroughly studied and well understood by 
 every farmer. It does not naturally exist in a 
 separate condition, and usually acts in combina- 
 tion with acids in the form of salts, with water 
 in the form of liquid, with atmospheric air and 
 vapours in the form of gas, or with decayed ani- 
 mal and vegetable matters in the form of pu- 
 trescent manures ; yet it requires to be under- 
 stood, not only in these combinations, but also as 
 a separate substance. 
 
 Ammonia is easily obtained from the sal am- • 
 moniac of commerce, or by the dry or destructive 
 distillation of animal substances. It is a trans- 
 parent, colourless, and consequently invisible gas ; 
 and possesses elasticity and the other mechanical 
 properties of the atmospheric air. It consists by 
 weight of 0.125 of hydrogen and 1.75 of nitrogen ; 
 or by atomic combination of three atoms of hy- 
 drogen and one atom of nitrogen. It possesses 
 an exceedingly pungent smell, and a very acrid 
 taste ; and constitutes all the pungency and acrid- 
 ity of the well-known spirits of hartshorn, sal- 
 volatile, and smelling salts. It extinguishes com- 
 bustion, and speedily kills any animal which is 
 immersed in it. Water very rapidly condenses 
 it ; and can easily dissolve a quantity of it equal 
 to one-third of its own weight, or 460 times its 
 own bulk ; and when brought into contact with 
 a tube full of it, water rushes into the tube with 
 explosive velocity. Ammonia, when in contact 
 with other bodies, or when operated upon by 
 various elementary substances and by light, heat, 
 and electricity, is capable of undergoing an abso- 
 lute multitude of transformations ; and in conse- 
 quence passes into such varied combinations, 
 makes such great transitions, and assumes such 
 different and contrasted forms as no human mind 
 but a chemist's would suspect. When it is per- 
 fectly dry and mixed with oxygen, the electric 
 spark explodes it, and converts it into water and 
 nitrogen ; yet if the oxygen with which the am- 
 monia is mixed be in excessive quantity, it acidifies 
 a portion of the nitrogen into nitrous acid. Am- 
 monia forms neutral compounds or soluble salts 
 with all the acids ; and when in contact with cer- 
 tain other substances, it completely loses its alka- 
 line character, and assumes exceedingly various 
 and even opposite forms. In many of its combina- 
 tions and transformations, it is a healthful stim- 
 ulant; but, in others, it passes into the most 
 virulent poisons. Pure ammonia, when trans- 
 mitted through charcoal in combustion in a tube, 
 forms prussic or hydrocyanic acid ; and formate 
 of ammonia, when under the influence of a high 
 temperature, changes, without separation of its 
 
AMMONIA. 
 
 75 
 
 AMMONIA. 
 
 elements, into prussic acid and water. Ammonia 
 forms urea, or the characteristic substance of 
 urine, with cyanic acid, and a series of crystal- 
 line compounds with the volatile oils of mustard 
 and bitter almonds ; and it changes into splendid 
 blue or red colouring matters when in contact 
 with the bitter principle of the bark of the apple 
 tree's root, with the sweet principle of the lichen 
 dealbatus, or with the insipid matter of the true 
 dyer's orchall. But by far the most interesting 
 transformation of ammonia — and one which the 
 other transformations are of value chiefly for illus- 
 trating — is its evolving itself from the putrefac- 
 tion of all animal matter, and contributing its 
 azote to the formation of gluten, albumen, and 
 other nitrogenous substances of the most nutri- 
 tious parts of plants. 
 
 Ammonia achieves its grand office on the farm, 
 not alone as a principal ingredient in all animal 
 manure, but as an element in atmospheric vapours, 
 in rain, and in snow. It is the final product of 
 the decay of all animal substances, and goes off 
 from their decomposition as a gas in union with 
 carbonic acid into the atmosphere. In the tro- 
 pics, indeed, it frequently combines with oxygen 
 to form nitric acid, and therefore suffers a trans- 
 formation into the very opposite of its proper 
 or alkaline character ; yet even there it ascends 
 largely, and in the other zones of the world it 
 ascends wholly, into the atmosphere in its strictly 
 ammoniacal condition, and becomes dissolved in 
 the vapours which descend to the earth in rain and 
 snow. Nitrogen is a very large element in every 
 animal body ; it is separated from the other ele- 
 ments in every process of decomposition, whether 
 by exudation or excrementition in the living 
 body, or by putrefaction in the dead carcass ; it 
 has a stronger affinity for hydrogen than for any 
 other element ; and on being liberated from any 
 animal organism by decomposition, it instantly 
 rushes into combination with the hydrogen of 
 any aqueous matter in its vicinity, and so forms 
 I ammonia, the simplest and the most facilely con- 
 stituted of all nitrogenous compounds. As ra- 
 pidly therefore as any animal substance decays, 
 so rapidly does ammonia rise out of all its nitro- 
 gen, and either combine with adjacent acids to 
 form ammoniacal salts, or mount into the atmo- 
 sphere as a gas. Its gaseous evolution, in the 
 instances of old urine, stable dung, and some 
 others, is so pungently and stingingly sensible as 
 to be known to every observer ; and, though not 
 sensible in other instances, may either be in- 
 ferred from analogy, or proved by appeal to some 
 general facts, — and principally to the existence 
 of a larger proportion of ammonia in rain-water 
 than can be accounted for upon any other hypo- 
 thesis. 
 
 "Experiments made in this laboratory with 
 the greatest care and exactness," says Dr. Liebig 
 in reference to his own laboratory at Giessen, 
 " have placed the presence of ammonia in rain- 
 water beyond all doubt. It has hitherto escaped j 
 
 observation, because it was not searched for. 
 All the rain-water employed in this inquiry was 
 collected six hundred paces south-west of Gies- 
 sen, whilst the wind was blowing in the direction 
 of the town. When several pounds of it were 
 distilled in a copper still, and the first two or 
 three pounds evaporated with the addition of a 
 little muriatic acid, a very distinct crystallization 
 of sal ammoniac was obtained ; the crystals had 
 always a brown or yellow colour. Ammonia may 
 likewise be always detected in snow-water. Crys- 
 tals of sal ammoniac were obtained by evaporating 
 in a vessel with muriatic acid several pounds of 
 snow, which were gathered from the surface of 
 the ground in March, when the snow had a depth 
 of ten inches. Ammonia was set free from those 
 crystals by the addition of hydrate of lime. The 
 inferior layers of snow resting upon the ground 
 contained a quantity decidedly greater than those 
 upon the surface. It is worthy of observation 
 that the ammonia contained in rain and snow 
 water possesses an offensive smell of perspiration 
 and putrifying matter, — a fact which leaves no j 
 doubt respecting its origin. Hiinefield has proved ! 
 that all the springs in Greifswalde, Wick, Eldena, 1 
 and Kostenhagen, contain carbonate and nitrate 
 of ammonia. Ammoniacal salts have been dis- 
 covered in many mineral springs in Kissingen 
 and other places. The ammonia of these salts 
 can only arise from the atmosphere. Any one 
 may satisfy himself of the presence of ammonia 
 in rain by simply adding a little sulphuric or 
 muriatic acid to a quantity of rain-water, and by 
 evaporating this nearly to dryness in a clean por- 
 celain basin. The ammonia remains in the resi- 
 due in combination with the acid employed ; and 
 may be detected either by the addition of a little 
 chloride of platinum, or, more simply, by a little 
 powdered lime, which separates the ammonia, 
 and thus renders sensible its peculiar pungent 
 smell. The sensation perceived upon moistening 
 the hand with rain-water, so different from that 
 produced by pure distilled water, and to which 
 the term softness is vulgarly applied, is also due 
 to the carbonate of ammonia contained in the 
 former." "We cannot doubt," says Saussure, 
 " that ammonia exists in the atmosphere ; for we 
 know that sulphate of alumina (common alum) 
 is gradually converted into ammoniacal alum by 
 exposure to the air." Other distinguished chem- 
 ists have repeated Dr. Liebig's experiments upon 
 rain-water ; and have, like himself, not only found 
 it to contain ammonia, but very distinctly recog- 
 nised in the ammonia yielded by it the offensive 
 odour of animal perspiration, excrements, and 
 putrefaction. The ammonia evolved from the 
 decay of animal matter rushes into combination 
 with carbonic acid to form carbonate of ammo- 
 nia, or the vapour or volatile matter of what is 
 popularly termed smelling salts ; and in this state, 
 it is so exceedingly soluble in water that it must 
 immediately deliquesce in the humid vapours 
 with which it meets, and be held in mechanical 
 
AMMONIA. 
 
 76 
 
 AMMONIA. 
 
 mixture with them till they bring it back to the 
 ground in the first fall of rain or snow. Rain- 
 water, in consequence, must always contain am- 
 monia, and possess a decidedly manurial power ; 
 yet less in winter or spring than in summer, — 
 less on the second day of any constant rain than 
 on the first, — less after a brief than after a long 
 interval of drought, — and most of all in a thun- 
 der-shower at the end of a long tract of dry and 
 sunny weather. Dr. Liebig supposes the quan- 
 tity of ammonia in a pound of rain-water to 
 amount, on the average, to about one-fourth of a 
 grain ; while the reviewer of his " Organic Chem- 
 istry" in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
 computes it to amount to only '092 of a grain ; 
 and they very probably differed in their esti- 
 mates, solely on account of the former having 
 used the rain-water of occasional showers, and 
 the latter the rain-water of frequent rains. On 
 Dr. Liebig's computation applied to the rain- 
 gauge of Germany, the quantity of ammonia an- 
 nually deposited by rain upon every 26,910 square 
 feet of land is upwards of eighty pounds; and 
 according to his reviewer's computation applied 
 to the rain-gauge of Scotland, the quantity of 
 ammonia and of common salt annually deposited 
 by rain upon every acre of land is respectively 
 71 "8 and 641*4 pounds. Some portion of the am- 
 monia which falls, indeed, will be re-evaporated 
 with the water; but quite enough of it must 
 sink into the soil and operate upon vegetation, 
 to act as both a stimulating and an alimentary 
 manure, — at once preparing the materials around 
 it for the plant's assimilation, disposing the spon- 
 gioles to absorb the food presented to them, and 
 entering the interior of the plant chiefly to con- 
 tribute its azote to the plant's nitrogenous secre- 
 tions, partly to undergo other transformations in 
 the economy of the plant's growth and matura- 
 tion, and partly to remain unaltered and act as 
 an interior stimulant. 
 
 The quantity of azote in each eighty pounds 
 of ammonia, which Dr. Liebig computes to be 
 annually deposited by rain upon every 26,910 
 square feet of land, is so great as seventy pounds ; 
 and this is much more than the quantity con- 
 tained in all the gluten and vegetable albumen 
 of any average crop of wood, hay, or beet-root 
 which that extent of land can produce, yet less 
 than the gluten and vegetable albumen of the 
 straw, roots, and grain of a crop of corn. The 
 mere ammonia of rain-water, therefore, affords 
 an ample supply of azote for trees, grasses, and 
 green crops, but must be supplemented with ni- 
 trogenous manures, such as those of the farm- 
 yard, for all cereal crops ; yet, in every case, it 
 is so strongly and even necessarily alimentary as 
 to afford a very broad and easy explanation of 
 the fact, that artificial waterings with the water 
 of streams are generally a miserable substitute 
 for the rains of heaven. [See also the articles 
 Aeration and Azote.] The juices of maple-trees, 
 birch-trees, and beet root, when mixed with lime, 
 
 emit a strong odour of ammonia ; the products 
 of the distillation of flowers, herbs, and roots 
 with water, and all extracts of plants made for 
 medicinal purposes, contain ammonia ; the trans- 
 parent, gelatinous pulp of the unripe almond and 
 peach, when treated with alkalies, emits a large 
 proportion of ammonia ; the fresh or unwithered 
 leaf of the tobacco plant, contains ammoniacal 
 salts ; the juice of a wounded vine, evaporated 
 with a few drops of muriatic acid, evolves much 
 ammonia ; and, in short, the juice of the roots, 
 the stem, the blossoms, and the fruit of all albu- 
 minous plants, in an unripe stage, have been 
 proved by experiment or may be inferred from 
 analogy, to contain both ammoniacal and sac- 
 charine matters, and to be in consequence under 
 the precise chemical conditions for forming azo- 
 tised secretions and products. But while the 
 plants are ripening, the juices gradually dry up, 
 the ammonia diminishes in quantity, the sugar 
 disappears along with the ammonia, and the per- 
 manent nitrogenous products of the plants, such 
 as albumen, gluten, and vegetable casein, com- 
 prising all the most nutritious and valuable con- 
 stituents of most cultivated crops, are evolved. 
 
 Animal manure exerts a very complex action 
 upon plants ; yet, as regards its supply of nitro- 
 gen, or its agency in assisting the formation of 
 nitrogenous products, it acts only by its contri- 
 butions of ammonia. Either an increased quan- 
 tity of any one kind of it, or the use of any vari- 
 ety of it which is richer in ammonia than varie- 
 ties previously used, occasions both an increase 
 in the number of grains or seeds in a crop, and 
 an enlargement of the proportion which their ni- 
 trogenous contents, such as gluten and albumen, 
 bear to their other constituent elements. Wheat 
 grown on a soil manured with cow-dung — a man- 
 ure which evolves less ammonia than most other 
 animal manures — has been found to contain only 
 11*95 per cent, of gluten, and 62*34 per cent, of 
 amylin or starch ; while wheat grown, in the 
 same circumstances, on a soil manured with hu- 
 man urine — a manure remarkably rich in ammo- 
 nia — has been found to contain 35'1 per cent, of 
 gluten, or nearly three times the proportion con- 
 tained in the other. Urea, the most prominent 
 ingredient in urine, is converted by putrefaction, 
 or under the influence of heat and moisture, into 
 carbonate of ammonia, or the very form of am- 
 moniacal salt which exists so largely in solution 
 in rain-water ; native urine contains also a pro- 
 portion of both the phosphate and the muriate 
 of ammonia ; so that putrid urine is a singularly 
 powerful combination of ammoniacal forces, and 
 may easily be understood to elicit the formation 
 of threefold more gluten in a grain crop than 
 can result from the action of so comparatively 
 feeble an ammoniacal manure as cow-dung. Gu- 
 ano operates as a mighty manure almost exactly 
 on the same principle ; for, when genuine, it con- 
 sists solely of the urate, the oxalate, the phos- 
 phate, and the carbonate of ammonia, and a few 
 
AMMONIA. 
 
 77 
 
 AMMONIA. 
 
 earthy salts. See Urine, Guano, and Manure. 
 Even plants, such as tobacco, goosefoot, borage, 
 and sunflower, which require nitrates as neces- 
 sary constituents, owe their nitric acid to the 
 transformation of ammonia, and thrive only when 
 they are fed with large supplies of ammonia, and 
 when the action of the sun's rays is sufficiently 
 powerful so to disengage oxygen within their 
 leaves and stem that it may combine with the 
 ammonia to form nitric acid. 
 
 Ammonia, in its ordinary form of carbonate, is 
 exceedingly volatile, and makes a gradual and 
 constant escape from all such animal manure as 
 lies on the surface of the ground, or is otherwise 
 exposed to the open air. All the pungent por- 
 tion of the odour from stables and dung-heaps 
 consists wholly of particles and volumes of am- 
 monia, in the act of escaping and of becoming 
 diffused through the atmosphere. If any quan- 
 tity of animal manure lie for a sufficient time 
 either in a heap or distributed over the mere 
 surface of soil, it will lose all its ammoniacal 
 matter, and become a mere carbonaceous residue 
 closely similar in nature to charcoal. But, on 
 the contrary, when the ammonia yielded by any 
 substance is either evolved in the form of a sul- 
 phate, a phosphate, a muriate, or an oxalate, or 
 is reduced by foreign combination from a volatile 
 to a fixed condition, it is a permanent or insep- 
 arable constituent of manure, and is expended, 
 without one particle of loss, in stimulating, nour- 
 ishing, and maturing the processes of vegetation. 
 Sal ammoniac or muriate of ammonia is a famil- 
 iar instance of a fixed salt of ammonia, possess- 
 ing full ammoniacal influence upon plants, and 
 yet perfectly free from both volatility and am- 
 moniacal odour; and a soluble sulphate of am- 
 monia of precisely kindred properties to this salt 
 is, jointly with carbonate of lime, formed by the 
 combination of gypsum with carbonate of ammo- 
 nia, either as existing in rain-water or as imme- 
 diately evolved out of animal decomposition. 
 The strewing of stables and the sprinkling of 
 dung-heaps with gypsum, therefore, are practices 
 which both prevent the disagreeable odours of 
 putrefaction and save a large proportion of the 
 most valuable manure ; and the strewing of gyp- 
 sum upon a meadow so completely fixes the por- 
 tion of carbonate of ammonia in rain-water which 
 would otherwise go off in evaporation, as to ren- 
 der the grasses both luxuriant in growth and 
 eminently nutritious in constitution * " In order 
 
 * When putrid urine or the draining of dunghills, 
 in a state emitting an ammoniacal smell, is distributed 
 over an arable field for manure, a sprinkling of gyp- 
 sum or of chloride of calcium ought to be made upon 
 the field to convert the ammonia into a fixed salt. 
 But a better practice is to fix all the ammonia, by 
 means of gypsum, chloride of calcium, superphos- 
 phate of lime, muriatic acid or sulphuric acid, in the 
 stable, in the water-closet, and in all other places 
 where the ammonia is generated. A basin of con- 
 centrated muriatic acid, properly situated in a water- 
 closet, will prevent disagreeable odours, and convert 
 all the ammoniacal gases of the place into sal-ammo- 
 
 to form a conception of gypsum," says Dr. Lie- 
 big, " it may be sufficient to remark that 100 lbs. 
 of burned gypsum fixes as much ammonia in the 
 soil as 6,250 lbs. of horse's urine would yield to 
 it, even on the supposition that all the nitrogen 
 of the urea and hippuric acidt were absorbed by 
 the plants without the smallest loss, in the form 
 of carbonate of ammonia. If we furnish to a 
 field 40 lbs. of gypsum, and if we suppose that 
 the tenth part of this enters into plants in the 
 form of sulphate of ammonia, we would actually 
 supply nitrogen sufficient for 100 lbs. of hay, 50 
 lbs. of wheat, or 60 lbs. of clover. Water is ab- 
 solutely necessary to effect the decomposition of 
 the gypsum, on account of its difficult solubility, 
 (one part of gypsum requires 400 parts of water 
 for solution,) and also to assist in the absorption 
 of the sulphate of ammonia by the plants : hence 
 it happens that the influence of gypsum is not 
 observable on dry fields and meadows ; while the 
 gaseous carbonate of ammonia formed by the 
 decay of animal manures on such fields, on the 
 other hand, does not fail in producing a favour- 
 able effect. The decomposition of gypsum by 
 carbonate of ammonia does not take place in- 
 stantaneously ; on the contrary, it proceeds very 
 gradually ; and this explains why the action of 
 the gypsum lasts for several years." See Gypsum. 
 Alumina and peroxide of iron form solid com- 
 pounds with ammonia ; salts of alumina or iron 
 combine with ammonia to form true ammoniacal 
 salts ; and minerals containing alumina or oxide 
 of iron attract ammonia from the atmosphere and 
 retain it. Soils, therefore, which contain burnt 
 clay or oxides of iron absorb ammonia from both 
 the atmosphere and rain-water, make such chem- 
 ical combinations with it as to constitute fixed 
 salts, contribute it in these combinations to act 
 manurially upon plants, and thus perform the 
 same fertilizing office as a mineral acid would do, 
 if extensively spread over their surface. Coal 
 soot, as is well known, exerts a highly beneficial 
 action as a top-dressing, when not employed in 
 a greater proportion than about 20 or 25 bushels 
 per acre, and is apt to stunt and scorch and kill 
 vegetation when employed in excessive quantity , 
 and it owes both its beneficial and its mischie- 
 vous power to the presence of a large proportion 
 of sulphate of ammonia, — this salt acting fertiliz- 
 
 nia; and any of the other substances which we have 
 named — and which are both low in price and easy of 
 being procured — will collect and concentrate the am- 
 moniacal gases of the stable, the cow-house, the pig- 
 gery, the poultry-yard, and every other part of the 
 farmery. The ammonia which usually escapes in 
 the form of gas in the stable is not only lost to the 
 farmer, and noxious to the eyes of horses, but it 
 works a slow and steady destruction of the walls of 
 the edifice, combining with the lime of the mortar 
 to form nitric acid, and converting the whole cement 
 of the lime into the condition of soluble nitrate. This 
 mischievous chemical process in stables is known in 
 Germany by the special name, salpeterfrass. 
 
 f Hippuric acid is a constituent of the urine of 
 herbivorous animals; and, during putrefaction, is de- 
 composed into benzoic acid and ammonia. 
 
AMMONIA. 78 AMMONIA. 
 
 ingly in moderate doses, and in mixture with the 
 carbonaceous matter of the soot, and possessing, 
 in large doses, a degree of energetic causticity 
 which operates with destructive violence on the 
 tender organs of plants. 
 
 Ammonia, in all its manurial action, appears 
 to operate best in a state of natural mixture with 
 the various ingredients of farm-yard dung, and 
 next best in a state of thorough mixture with 
 the several vegetable and mineral ingredients of 
 a long-wrought arable soil ; so that, in order to 
 its most beneficial effects being developed, it 
 either ought never to be distributed in a sepa- 
 rate or concentrated condition, as in that of salts, 
 guano, or putrid urine, or ought, previous to dis- 
 tribution, to be thoroughly mixed with a large 
 proportion of loamy and vegetable soil. The ni- 
 trogen which it supplies to plants requires to be 
 in combination with certain other elements, in 
 order to serve as the most suitable food or the 
 peculiar nourishment of animals; and these other 
 elements are usually furnished in the most effec- 
 tive proportions either by average farm-yard man- 
 ure or by a complex and thorough mixation of 
 chemical manures with the soil of arable lands 
 or the virgin soil of forests. Ammonia, though 
 always useful and often indispensable, does by 
 no means require to be in every instance supplied 
 to the ground even as an ingredient of farm-yard 
 manure, and still less in any such concentrated 
 form as that of guano, putrid urine, ammoniacal 
 salts, or ammoniacal water ; for when any soil, 
 whether newly reclaimed from the forest, or en- 
 riched by prolonged fallow, or worked into prime 
 condition by judicious cropping, contains a suffi- 
 cient supply of the other ingredients required 
 for combination with nitrogen, the ammonia ob- 
 tained from the atmosphere may be perfectly 
 ample for every purpose of luxuriant vegetation. 
 See Alumina, Azote, Humus, Manure, and Food. 
 The action of an artificial supply of ammonia, 
 even in the main capacity of this substance as a 
 source of nitrogen, is limited, like that of hu- 
 mus as a source of carbonic acid, chiefly to an 
 acceleration and rarely to an augmentation in 
 the development of our cultivated plants; and 
 when the supply is made in any incautious or 
 concentrated form, it overstimulates the plants 
 to the diminution or exhaustion of their vital 
 energy, or even exerts such a caustic power upon 
 their roots or foliage as speedily to kill them. 
 Any ammonia, exhibited to plants in the form of 
 a caustic vapour, is certain to peril their vege- 
 tation. Ammoniacal water, such as is obtained 
 in the manufacturing of coal gas, though used 
 with a highly fertilizing effect in various capaci- 
 ties, and particularly as a top-dressing to grass 
 lands, yet requires to be employed with consider- 
 able caution, and, if administered in too great 
 strength, will work utter mischief and disaster. 
 This liquid, as procured at the public works, is 
 of three different strengths, and might, in any 
 instance, have its strength tested by instruments; 
 
 yet it ought never to be applied till so far diluted 
 with rain or river water that it will not, when 
 tested on a grass sward, farther discolour the 
 narrow root-leaves of any of the grasses than 
 slightly to lighten the tinge of their verdure. 
 Even genuine guano, in spite of its well-estab- 
 lished and very great power as a fertilizer, pos- 
 sesses such a caustic superabundance of ammoni- 
 acal matter, that, if applied to the soil in an 
 undiluted state or not well mixed with a very 
 large proportion of mineral ingredients, it will 
 seriously injure most kinds of plants, and rapidly 
 kill not a few. Yet the fixed salts of ammonia, 
 particularly the sulphate, the muriate, and the 
 phosphate, require, for quite an opposite reason, 
 to be thoroughly diluted with foreign matters, or 
 administered only as ingrediential parts of com- 
 pound manures; for when exhibited in powder, in 
 solution with water, or in mixture with only a 
 small proportion of soil or other mineral diluent, 
 they remain in a chief degree inactive, and are 
 but very limitedly absorbed by plants. The true 
 cause of their efficiency to any extent in the soil is 
 believed by Boussingault to be their reconversion, 
 by means of calcareous matter, into carbonate of 
 ammonia ; and as this reconversion is invariably 
 resisted in the laboratory or upon the surface of 
 the ground, and takes place only in the peculiar 
 and complicated circumstances of their contact 
 with other manures and partial exclusion from 
 the air in diffusion through the soil, they exert 
 their ammoniacal force upon vegetation just or 
 very nearly in the degree of their removal from 
 an undiluted or unmixed condition. A true 
 knowledge of the complicated relations of am- 
 monia, will thus tend to fix attention upon it 
 chiefly as an ingredient in rain-water and in 
 compound manures, and will inculcate extreme 
 caution respecting its undiluted or concentrated 
 artificial use. 
 
 At a recent meeting of the French Academy 
 of Sciences, M. Boussingault made a commu- 
 nication relative to a new ammoniacal man- 
 ure. Having remarked that magnesia, the basis 
 of which has always been regarded as injuri- 
 ous to vegetation, was found in the ashes of all 
 vegetables, and in a proportion in accord with 
 the quantity of phosphorus also found in the 
 ashes, and of that of the azote, which enters into 
 the composition of plants, he was led to infer 
 that vegetables must assimilate with ease and 
 advantage the ammoniated-magnesian phosphate. 
 Being desirous of verifying this by experiment, 
 he planted on the 1st of May last some early 
 maize, which had already germinated in two se- 
 ries of pots, into the half of which he had poured 
 15 grammes (about half an ounce) of double phos- 
 phated salt for each pot. The two series of pots 
 were then placed in the open ground. During 
 the first twenty-five days the vegetation was the 
 same with both series ; after that there was a 
 difference in favour of the pots which had been 
 watered with the phosphate. On the 25th of 
 
AMMONIA. 
 
 79 
 
 AMMONIA. 
 
 July the plants in them were double in height 
 to those of the other series, and the diameter of 
 the stems was two-thirds thicker. By the 25th 
 of August the proportion had diminished ; the 
 height of the plants watered by the phosphate 
 was then only one-third greater, and the size of 
 the stems double. At the moment of their com- 
 ing to maturity, the phosphated plants bore two 
 sound ears, and one that had failed to come to 
 maturity; the other plants had only two ears 
 each — viz. : one complete, and one that had 
 failed. This was not all ; each grain of the ears 
 of the phosphated plants was double in weight 
 to that of the non-phosphated plants. M. Bous- 
 singault concludes, therefore, and with great rea- 
 son, that the salt in question may be used with 
 great advantage as an artificial manure. 
 
 Diluted ammoniacal water, in the proportion 
 of an ounce of the liquor ammonite of the shops 
 to a pint of rain or river water, has of late years 
 been successfully employed for checking the ve- 
 getative power of potatoes, and prolonging their 
 suitableness for food. Potatoes immersed during 
 four or five days in this liquid, retain all their 
 edible properties unimpaired throughout a twelve- 
 month; they suffer no apparent effects except the 
 desirable ones of postponed vegetation and im- 
 proved appearance, flavour, and mealiness ; and 
 they so completely lose by volatilization all the 
 ammonia which they absorbed, that the most 
 fastidious person could not detect the fact of its 
 ever having been present. The action of the 
 liquid upon them makes no chemical change on 
 their composition, but merely consolidates their 
 substance and extracts their moisture. The po- 
 tatoes, immediately after their immersion, require 
 to be spread in an airy place to dry ; and pota- 
 toes so used, and after being kept ten months in 
 a warm kitchen closet, have been found perfectly 
 good. This easy and cheap process is of great 
 value for the exportation of potatoes to the tro- 
 pics, for adding to the comforts and the healthful 
 diet of seamen, and for providing private stocks 
 of fine edible potatoes for the use of families dur- 
 ing the scarce season from March till July. Im- 
 mersion in a strong solution of salt and water 
 produces exactly the same effects, but requires 
 to be followed by frequent washings and steep- 
 ings in order to the removal of the whole of the 
 salt. If potatoes immersed in diluted ammonia- 
 cal water be not removed at the end of five days, 
 but allowed to remain in the solution during 
 three weeks, they are tough and shrivelled when 
 removed, and assume a totally new character 
 when dried, — much consolidated in bulk, greatly 
 deprived of their natural properties, and, when 
 boiled, assuming the appearance of sago or starch, 
 but, when used dry and uncooked, having the 
 flavour of meal and some of the apparent proper- 
 ties of corn. 
 
 Ammonia water kills animals of all kinds, and 
 has recently been found very serviceable for de- 
 stroying slugs in fields, vermin in store-houses, 
 
 and insects in hot-houses. When used for de- 
 stroying rats, it is far superior to traps, and needs 
 only to be applied to the rats' holes ; and when 
 used for destroying insects, it is at once cheaper, 
 more effective, and much easier of application 
 than tobacco or other established remedies, but 
 requires to be so treated as to give out its am- 
 monia in the form of a gas. A hole large enough 
 to admit the pipe of a watering-pot is to be made 
 near the bottom of one of the doors of the hot- 
 house : a watering-pot, containing a quantity of 
 ammonia water, is to be placed aslant, and to 
 have its pipe inserted in this hole ; a small quan- 
 tity of turf, wood, or coal is to be kindled under 
 the watering-pot ; and the ammoniacal gas will 
 become disengaged from the water, and diffuse 
 itself through the house. If the quantity of gas 
 introduced to the house do not exceed in volume 
 one-fifth of the whole cubic space which the house 
 comprises, it will inflict no injury on even the 
 most delicate stove or conservatory plant, and, 
 in less than fifteen minutes it will kill every 
 plant-louse and every mealy bug within the walls; 
 but at the end of fifteen minutes, it ought to be 
 drawn off from the house by the opening of the 
 ventilators ; and if it be needed for the destruc- 
 tion of the scaly bug, it must be applied from the 
 tube of a retort, or other fit vessel, to the part of 
 the plant affected. Ammoniacal gas, it is obvi- 
 ous, might be used to destroy flies and moths in 
 the farm-house; and ammonia water might be 
 employed to sweep away a large proportion of 
 vermin from the farmery. Among the most re- 
 cent applications of ammonia is that for prevent- 
 ing incrustation on steam-boilers, first suggested 
 by Dr. Ritterbandt, who uses the chloride of 
 ammonium for this purpose. This substance does 
 not discolour the water, nor communicate to it 
 any unpleasant taste or smell ; it has no injuri- 
 ous effect upon the metal of the boiler ; it does 
 not increase the density of the water, and there- 
 fore does not produce ' priming ;' nor does its 
 application involve any alteration in the boilers 
 now in general use. The action of the chloride 
 of ammonium is to change the carbonate of lime 
 into chloride of calcium, which is not deposited 
 by heat ; and as the crystallization of other salts, 
 such as the sulphate of lime, depends in a great 
 measure upon contact, the absence of nuclei of 
 solid carbonate prevents, in a great measure, their 
 formation. In marine boilers this is very evi- 
 dent, for after adding chloride of ammonium, and 
 thus preventing the precipitation of insoluble 
 carbonate of lime, it is almost impossible to ob- 
 tain crystals of common salt ; thus ' blowing off* 
 is rendered almost unnecessary. 
 
 Ammonia, in several forms and in numerous 
 compounds, is somewhat extensively used in hu- 
 man medicine; but it is both sparingly and rather 
 doubtingly used in veterinary practice. In the 
 form of aromatic spirit of ammonia, in doses of 
 from one ounce to two ounces, and in a simple 
 menstruum of warm water, it has, in cases of fiat- 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 SO 
 
 ANBURY. 
 
 ulent colic, been administered to horses, with de- 
 cidedly good effect, and after other remedies had 
 failed. In the form of hartshorn, it is an useful 
 ingredient in some stimulating liniments, parti- 
 cularly such as are used for paralytic affections 
 in cattle. In the form of carbonate, it has been 
 much extolled as a specific for hoove in cattle ; 
 but, when tried in this capacity by Mr. Youatt, 
 who always doubted its efficacy, it failed. " It 
 was administered," says he, " as a chemical prin- 
 ciple, it being supposed that the alkali would 
 neutralize the acid gas that was extricated from 
 the fermenting food ; but it has been proved that 
 this gas consists chiefly either of carburetted or 
 sulphuretted hydrogen; besides which there is 
 another consideration, that, except administered 
 by means of Read's pump, not one drop of the 
 ammonia would find its way into the paunch." 
 — lire's Dictionary of Chemistry. — Liehig's Or- 
 ganic Chemistry. — Johnston's Lectures on Agricul- 
 tural Chemistry. — BoussingauW s Rural Economy. 
 — Annales de Chimie et de Physique. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — Journal of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society. — Loudon's Gardener 's Maga- 
 zine. — Youatt on the Horse. — Youatt on Cattle. 
 
 ANALYSIS. The reduction or separation of 
 compounds into their component ingredients. 
 The word is applied, in a logical sense, to the 
 reduction of complex arguments and intricate 
 reasonings to their several premises and propo- 
 sitions ; in a metaphysical sense, to the reduction 
 of compound ideas, involved thoughts, and even 
 the mental powers themselves, to their consti- 
 tuent parts or their several phases ; in a mechan- 
 ical sense, to the separation by force of mineral 
 or vegetable mixtures into their several ingredi- 
 ents ; and in a chemical sense, to the reduction 
 of a compound substance, whether animal, vege- 
 table, or mineral, by means of heat, electricity, 
 decomposition, and recombinations, or generally 
 by means of what are termed chemical affinities, 
 into either less compound substances or its ab- 
 solute elements. Logical and metaphysical ana- 
 lyses are quite beyond the sphere of the farmer ; 
 but both mechanical and chemical analyses are 
 of exceedingly high value to him for the testing 
 of ashes, animal manures, vegetable composts, 
 and especially soils. Mechanical analysis always 
 brings the ingredients of a mixture into a state 
 of separation from one another; but it rarely 
 reduces them to their elements, or is capable of 
 reducing any compactly compound substance ; 
 and it is effected by bruising, sifting, washing, 
 filtering, weighing, and similar gentle and wily 
 applications of force. Chemical analysis encoun- 
 ters every kind of compound substance from a 
 commingled gas to a metalliferous rock, and from 
 the leaf or the sap of a tree, to the bone or the 
 secretions of an animal ; it sometimes brings the 
 ingredients or elements into a severally separate 
 condition, but much more frequently reduces and 
 ascertains them by causing them to enter into 
 
 new combinations; and it usually achieves its 
 results by means of a number of simple substan- 
 ces, in a state of great purity, of well-known and 
 thoroughly established chemical affinity, and usu- 
 ally designated chemical reagents. The analysis 
 of soils and manures is of prime value in agricul- 
 ture, and ought to be well understood by every 
 farmer who makes pretensions to even a moderate 
 scientific knowledge of the principles of his art. 
 The apparatus for performing it is neither costly 
 nor very complex; it consists principally of a 
 balance, a set of weights, a compound or serial 
 sieve, an argand lamp and stand, some glass bot- 
 tles, some fire-proof crucibles, some evaporating 
 basins, two or three filters, a series of vessels for 
 collecting and measuring gases, one or two re- 
 torts, and small quantities of a few chemical re- 
 agents. Or when the entire apparatus is, in any 
 instance, thought too complicated for the scale 
 of the farm or the means or leisure of the far- 
 mer, at least the portion of it required for me- 
 chanical analysis ought to be provided and to 
 be in frequent requisition. But as the consti- 
 tuents of soils, manures, and subsoils require to 
 be well understood before any judicious analysis 
 of them can be attempted, we reserve a detail 
 of principles and processes to the article Soil. 
 
 ANATOMY OF ANIMALS. The study of the 
 structure, composition, mutual connection, and 
 respective situation of the members and organs 
 of animals, by means of the dissection of their 
 carcass, and the ocular examination of cuts and 
 openings made by the knife. The anatomical 
 structure of the principal domesticated animals, 
 and an outline of the anatomical structure of 
 man, are taught in veterinary schools ; and a 
 knowledge of both, particularly as illustrating 
 each other, is of much value to the farmer, in 
 regulating his treatment of the numerous domes- 
 tic animals of the farm. 
 
 ANATOMY OF VEGETABLES. The study 
 of the structure of vegetables by sectional cutting 
 with the knife. This study is the true basis of 
 the science of vegetable physiology, and of all 
 true knowledge of the constitution and functions 
 of plants ; and, though not personally prosecuted, 
 yet ought to be known in its results or discov- 
 eries, by every gardener and farmer. 
 
 ANBURY. A kind of wen, or spongy wart or 
 tumour on the legs or flanks of the horse. It is 
 usually full of blood ; and may be removed either 
 by the fastening of a ligature round its base till 
 it dies away, or by the application first of the 
 knife and next of some caustic substance such as 
 a solution of blue vitriol, to destroy its connec- 
 tion with the absorbent vessels. Taplin recom- 
 mends that it should be carefully anointed once 
 in three or four days with the butyr of antimony, 
 which, he says, will effectually cure the disease. 
 
 ANBURY, Ambury, or Hanbury. A perplex- 
 ing, stubborn, and desolating disease in turnips. 
 It takes the name of anbury from its early de- 
 
ANBURY. 
 
 81 
 
 ANBURY. 
 
 veloping small knots or tubercles, of a form 
 similar to the anbury in the horse ; and it also 
 bears the designations of fingers and toes and of 
 canker, — the former from its producing such a 
 series of united tap-roots as make the turnip 
 have the shape of a boxer's glove, and the latter 
 from its eventually eating away most of the in- 
 terior substance of the turnip, and occasioning 
 the rest to be fetidly putrescent. 
 
 Anbury, till a few years ago, threatened to exter- 
 minate the turnip in some districts of Britain, and 
 even to render the cultivation of it in any district 
 adventurous ; and it has been the topic of much con- 
 troversy, many theories, and general uncertainty 
 as to at once its history, its nature, its causes, 
 and its cure. One theory supposes it to be a 
 topical disease, and to have been propagated from 
 one place to another by the carnage of seeds ; 
 another supposes it to have arisen from a peculiar 
 combination of soil, climate, and culture in one 
 locality, and to have been propagated by infec- 
 tion ; a third supposes it to be the consequence 
 of an excessive or unduly prolonged cultivation 
 of the turnip, and to have been forced into exist- 
 ence wherever such cultivation had been prac- 
 tised ; a fourth supposes it to have originated in 
 variableness and inclemency of weather through- 
 out a season, and to be propagated or repressed 
 according to the adverseness or favourableness of 
 the weather of succeeding seasons ; a fifth sup- 
 poses it to be an inoculation from a similar dis- 
 ease in other varieties of the brassica tribe, and 
 to have been propagated by the migrations of 
 the insects by whose means it is inflicted ; and a 
 sixth supposes that it is strictly constitutional in 
 the turnip, and must necessarily become devel- 
 oped whenever the plant is produced in a high or 
 even fair degree of healthiness and strength. 
 Nor are these theories respecting its origin and 
 propagation so conflicting as opinions respecting 
 its nature. One theory asserts it to be a disease 
 in the organism of the turnip ; another asserts it 
 to be a disease in the secretions ; a third asserts 
 it to be a poisoning from some peculiarity in 
 either soil or manure ; a fourth asserts it to be 
 consumption by an insect common to the turnip 
 with other varieties of brassica ; a fifth asserts it 
 to be consumption by an insect peculiar to itself; 
 a sixth asserts it to be poisoning by the voided 
 secretions of some one or other insect; and a 
 seventh asserts it to be commenced in organic 
 feebleness and completed by insectal depreda- 
 tion. Differences of opinion as to the best means 
 of curing or preventing it, or even as to the prac- 
 ticability of its prevention, are, as we shall after- 
 wards see, quite as numerous and conflicting. 
 Had not quite recent experience proved that 
 thorough cultivation will not only prevent but 
 exterminate anbury, we might probably have 
 summed up all true existing knowledge respect- 
 ing anbury in the humiliating statement, that 
 this one disease in a single variety of vegetable 
 has bewildered wise men and stultified science. 
 I. 
 
 But we have now distinct reason for asserting 
 that anbury is of a complex nature and diversi- 
 fied origin, and that it is always and most effec- 
 tively prevented by such stimulating cultivation 
 as occasions the young turnip plant to have a 
 rapid and vigorous growth. Yet the facts which 
 have brought out this gratifying conclusion are 
 so recent, that — were it only for the purpose of 
 recording curious and instructive matter for 
 future history — we must compose a summary of 
 previous observations and statements respecting 
 the diseas's history, appearances, and effects. 
 
 Anbury seems to have been known in Suffolk 
 during upwards of a century ; and yet it c&d not 
 begin to attract the general attention of British 
 farmers, or to make its appearance in more than 
 two or three districts of country, till about the 
 year 1810 or 1815. The late Arthur Young, Esq., 
 writing in 1819, says, " To my knowledge, the 
 disease in turnips called fingers and toes has been 
 known in Suffolk above fifty years ; and I am in- 
 formed it was known long before that period. 
 But I am quite unacquainted with the districts 
 in which it first appeared." In the latter part 
 of last century, and in the early part of the pre- 
 sent, it made great havoc in Holderness, a dis- 
 trict in the vicinity of Hull in Yorkshire ; and 
 in 1812, Mr. Spence, the entomologist, published 
 a very sensible pamphlet, entitled ' Observations 
 on the Diseases in Turnips, termed in Holderness 
 Fingers and Toes.' The disease appeared in 
 Berwickshire and Roxburghshire about the year 
 1799 ; it was supposed by some persons to have 
 been brought thither from Holderness, yet did 
 not become known in the vicinity of Newcastle 
 till several years later ; it was not seen in Ber- 
 wickshire and Roxburghshire for thirty years 
 after turnip cultivation had been commenced; 
 and, from the time of its appearance till about 
 the year 1830, it occasionally fluctuated in both 
 prevalence and power, but on the whole made 
 such a steady, progressive, and alarming increase 
 as menaced all turnip-culture with speedy exter- 
 mination. In 1819, the disease prevailed to a 
 very disastrous extent, not only in these Scottish 
 counties, but in several of the principal agricul- 
 tural counties of England ; in September of that 
 year, a general meeting of the Caledonian Horti- 
 cultural Society, addressed formal inquiries into 
 its phenomena and treatment, to a number of 
 the most eminent cultivators in Great Britain ; 
 and afterwards, communications in reply from 
 Mr. George Sinclair of "Woburn Abbey, Messrs. 
 D. and A. Macdougall of Cessford near Kelso, the 
 Rev. George Jenyns, prebendary of Ely, and the 
 well-known Arthur Young, Esq., and Sir John 
 Sinclair, Bart., were published in the Society's 
 Memoirs. In 1828, the Highland Society offered 
 an honorary premium for the best practical essay 
 on the appearances and prevention of anbury, 
 founded on the personal knowledge of the au- 
 thor; and in their Transactions of August 1830, 
 they published one prize essay by the Rev. James 
 F 
 
ANBURY. 
 
 Farquharson of Alford, in Aberdeenshire, another 
 prize essay by Mr. John Abbay of Kirby Hall in 
 Yorkshire, and extracts from a communication 
 by Mr. M. Birnie of Hyde Park near Aberdeen. 
 From 1830 till about 1840, the disease seems to 
 have somewhat steadily decreased ; and about the 
 latter date, it became nearly or altogether ex- 
 tinct on all the well-managed farms of the most 
 thoroughly cultivated districts. 
 
 Anbury infests, not the turnip only, but the 
 cabbage and other varieties of brassica, and even 
 the hollyhock and some other tap-rooted plants. 
 It frequently attacks the young cabbage in the 
 seed-bed, and appears then in the form of a gall 
 or wart upon the stem, in the immediate vicinity 
 of the roots. If the wart be opened, it will be 
 found to contain a small white maggot, the larva 
 of a little insect ; and if the wart and the maggot 
 be removed, and the plant again placed in the 
 soil, the latter, unless it sustain another attack, 
 will recover from its wound, and suffer little re- 
 tardation of its growth. But if the wart be not 
 disturbed, the maggot will feed upon the alburnum 
 till the period of transformation into the next 
 stage of insect existence approach ; and it will 
 then gnaw its way through the exterior bark, 
 and leave the plant in a state of disease beyond 
 the power of any remedy. The wart has now 
 increased into a gall, which encircles the whole 
 stem ; the alburnum is so extensively destroyed 
 that the sap of the plant can no longer ascend ; 
 and the whole plant, in consequence of ceasing 
 to obtain a sufficiency of moisture through the 
 roots to compensate for the transpiration of the 
 leaves, loses all its healthy appearance, and be- 
 comes flagging in its foliage and pallid in its 
 colour. The swelling of the gall continues to in- 
 crease ; the vessels of the alburnum continue to 
 afford a larger supply of juices than can be con- 
 veyed away ; air and moisture pass, through the 
 perforation made by the maggot, into the interior 
 of the excrescence ; the wounded vessels ulcerate ; 
 and putrefaction and death speedily supervene. 
 The tumour has probably become larger than an 
 ordinary hen's egg, and has a rugged and mouldy 
 surface, and a strong and offensive smell ; and the 
 fibrous roots are generally thickened, distorted, 
 and awry, and exhibit, through their whole 
 length, unnatural swellings, of monstrous appear- 
 ance, and seemingly occasioned by a long series 
 of strenuous efforts in the plant to form recep- 
 tacles for the sap which could no longer be spis- 
 sated by the leaves. 
 
 The anbury in turnips is rarely if ever visible 
 in plants of less than seven weeks old, and is first 
 indicated by the loss of natural vigour in the 
 leaves. Though the leaves of a diseased root 
 should happen to be larger than those of a sound 
 plant, yet, whenever they receive the rays of the 
 mid-day sun, they decline from their natural pos- 
 ture into a flaccid condition ; and when thus en- 
 feebled, they are generally attacked by a minute 
 species of acarus, and become tinctured witli its 
 
 ANBURY. 
 
 delicate bluish-white web. The flagging state of 
 the leaves is so distinct as to afford an easy and 
 certain indication of the extent and direction of 
 the disease athwart a field. In the earlier stages 
 of the disease, small knobs or tubercles, occa- 
 sioned by the punctures of insects, and contain- 
 ing the larvae of their future progeny, appear 
 upon the roots of the plants ; and in the ulterior 
 stages, the true roots are destroyed, the excres- 
 cences or subsidiary roots spread out in the form 
 of digitation ; and the bulb is altered in both 
 structure and qualities, becomes thoroughly pu- 
 trid, and emits an offensive smell. "Mr. Marshall 
 very correctly describes the form which this dis- 
 ease assumes when it attacks the turnip. It is 
 a large excrescence appearing below the bulb, 
 growing to the size of both hands, and, as soon 
 as the hard weather sets in ; or it is, by its own 
 nature, brought to maturity, becoming putrid, 
 and smelling very offensively. On the last day 
 of August when the bulbs of the turnips were 
 about the size of walnuts in the husk, the am- 
 buries were as big as a goose's egg. These were 
 irregular and uncouth in their form, with inferior 
 excrescences, resembling the races of ginger hang- 
 ing to them. On cutting them, their general ap- 
 pearance is that of a hard turnip, but on examin- 
 ing them through a magnifier, there are veins or 
 string-like vessels, dispersed among the pulp. 
 The smell and taste somewhat resemble those of 
 turnips, but without their mildness, having an 
 austere and somewhat disagreeable flavour, re- 
 sembling that of an old stringy turnip." [Mr. 
 George W. Johnson.] One or more galls are per- 
 ceptible on the roots of a plant whose flaccid 
 leaves indicate it to be affected ; and these, as in 
 the case of the cabbage anbury, become large ex- 
 crescences inhabited by larvae or small maggots. 
 Each larva, in very young plants, has the appear- 
 ance of a minute globule of water, and cannot be 
 distinguished by the naked eye. As soon as the 
 insect is prepared to leave its nidus, the excres- 
 cence becomes soft, spongy, and putrescent, the 
 rind bursts, and a fetid smell, peculiar to decom- 
 posing vegetable matter, is emitted. Partridges 
 appear to be very fond of the larva ; and when- 
 ever they are seen to congregate among affected 
 turnips, they are found to perforate the galls, and 
 take out the larva. " Several insects are now 
 attracted to the putrifying mass. A species of 
 musca deposits its eggs on the surface. The 
 larvae burrow in the mass ; these are followed by 
 different species of staphylinus, paederus, &c. 
 The former of these seem to live on the larvae of 
 the musca, for two of these lived three months, 
 while supplied with these larvae, but died soon 
 after the supply was discontinued. They did not 
 appear to touch the matter of the turnip on 
 which the larva of the fly lived. Under these 
 circumstances, when moist weather occurs, the 
 mass affected soon wastes away, and frequently a 
 large root is found a mere shell." [Mr. Sinclair.] 
 ' The insect whose larva occurs as either cause 
 
 82 
 
ANBURY. 83 ANBURY. 
 
 or accompaniment of anbury in turnips is the 
 curculio pleurostigma of Mr. Marsham's Entomo- 
 logia Britannica, the curculio sulcicollis of Pay- 
 kull's Fauna Svecica, the curculio affinis of Pan- 
 zer's Faunae Insectorum Germanicae, the rhyn- 
 chaenus sulcicollis of Gyllenhal's Insecta Svecica 
 Descripta, the falciger sulcicollis of Dejean's Ca- 
 talogue des Coleopteres, and the cryptorhynchus 
 alanda of Germar's Insectorum Species Novas. 
 Mr. Marsham describes it as a coleopterous in- 
 sect, one line and two-thirds in length, of a dusky 
 black colour, and its breast spotted with white. 
 Mr. Kirby, in Kirby and Spence's Introduction 
 to Entomology, says, " I have bred this species of 
 weevil from the knob-like galls on turnips, called 
 the anbury, and I have little doubt that the same 
 insects, or a species allied to them, cause the 
 clubbing of the roots of cabbages. Mr. Sinclair 
 also says, that, in its head, mandibles, jaws, &c, 
 the larva of the turnip anbury is similar to the 
 larvae which live on the root of cauliflower, broc- 
 coli, and other varieties of brassica, and he ob- 
 serves that however many may be the larvae in- 
 habiting a single root, each individual occupies a 
 distinct cell ; yet he states that it appears to him 
 to be a species of the cynips of Linnaeus, and the 
 diplolepariae of Leach, Geoffroy, &c." But Mr. 
 Sinclair probably confounded, to some extent, the 
 galls which sometimes grow on the bulbs of tur- 
 nips with the anbury which grows upon the roots. 
 The galls on the bulbs may readily enough be 
 mistaken for a mild form of anbury, though they 
 are a very different disease, having a different 
 seat, appearing at a much later period, and pos- 
 sessing a far less pernicious character ; and these 
 certainly are occasioned by a cynips or gall-fly, 
 and, when opened, will be found to contain a yel- 
 lowish maggot, of quite different appearance and 
 size from that of the anbury larva. The principal 
 mischief of the galls upon the bulbs of turnips, is 
 an exposure of the interior to moisture and the 
 frosts of winter, and the consequent superinduc- 
 tion of an earlier decay than in healthy turnips. 
 
 Anbury does not arise from any imperfection 
 or peculiarity in the seeds of turnips. If two 
 crops grow, in adjoining fields, from the same 
 seed, the one may be much diseased and the other 
 altogether healthy; and even when anbury at- 
 tacks any one field, it very frequently makes but 
 partial devastations, or appears only in small and 
 isolated patches. Nor does anbury arise from any 
 unfavourableness in the time of sowing, or from 
 unpropitiousness of weather during the growth of 
 the crop ; for, if it did, it might be expected to 
 make somewhat uniform and nearly simultaneous 
 attacks in all districts of similar soil and charac- 
 ter, and similarly affected by the supposed un- 
 suitableness of meteorological circumstances to 
 sowing and early growth ; yet it is found to be 
 both partial and capricious in its attacks upon 
 some districts, occasionally very violent in a few, 
 and either exceedingly slight or altogether un- 
 known in many. Neither is anbury occasioned 
 
 by any peculiarity in the composition or chemi- 
 cal action of soil : for it occurs, in the same dis- 
 trict, upon soils of very widely different and 
 almost contrasted character, and, in the same 
 field, appears at uncertain intervals, or in one 
 year totally disappears and in another breaks out 
 and spreads with virulence. Anbury, when once 
 known in any district, is most likely to appear in 
 fields which have been frequently cropped with 
 turnips or which have quite recently produced 
 either turnips or cabbage ; yet it arises on such 
 fields, only from the presence of the inseot which 
 feeds upon it, and not from any " tiring " or ex- 
 crementitious poisoning of the soil by turnip 
 cropping; for it often does not devastate more 
 than mere patches of an old turnip field, and oc- 
 casionally breaks out in fields which have not 
 been previously cropped with turnips during 
 many years or even within the memory of man 
 Farmers, therefore, may save themselves the an- 
 noyance and expense of attending to any nostrums 
 which assume the anbury to arise from any of 
 these causes, or even to be stimulated by their 
 action. Yet weather has so far an effect that 
 drought provokes and aggravates the disease, and 
 rain averts or mitigates it. Wet weather pro- 
 motes the rapid growth of the turnip, so as to 
 accelerate its arrival at a condition in which it 
 ceases to be liable to the disease ; it enables the 
 turnip, when affected, to contend more sturdily, 
 by means of a copious supply of moisture, against 
 the injury inflicted by the larva ; and it prevents 
 the leaves of an infected plant from flagging, 
 lessens their exhausting transpiration of watery 
 particles, and occasions to be brought up, through 
 the organism of the ascending sap, a more copious 
 supply of nourishment from the soil. Stagnant 
 water or sponginess of soil, however, will produce 
 no such good effects ; but will act in the same 
 malign manner upon turnips as upon most other 
 crops. A free and abundant circulation of mois- 
 ture, such as occurs during showery weather upon 
 a porous soil, operates most benignly on turnips 
 in almost any circumstances, — and not less so 
 when they are either menaced or attacked with 
 anbury ; and this important remedy may, in most 
 cases, be applied, during droughts, to small crops 
 of turnips, such as those of the kitchen garden, 
 by artificial waterings. 
 
 Soot and charcoal dust, spread to the depth of 
 half an inch upon the surface of the land, and 
 mixed with merely a thin superstratum of the 
 soil, have been recommended as exterminators of 
 anbury or preventives of its recurrence ; and 
 both are believed to operate on the double prin- 
 ciple of finely divided carbon being offensive to 
 insects and antagonistic of vegetable putrefac- 
 tion, and the soot on the additional principle, 
 that sulphur is very repugnant to insects. Marl 
 also has been recommended as an exterminator ; 
 but whether chalky marl, clay marl, chalk and 
 clay marl, chalk and silex marl, the calcareous 
 marl of limestone alluvial, or the calcareous marl 
 
ANCHYLOSIS. 
 
 84 
 
 ANIMAL MANURES. 
 
 of shell deposits, is not recorded, and possibly 
 was not known to even the parties who applied 
 and tested it. Yet if one variety of marl were 
 proved to be of the most decided efficacy, another 
 variety might be perfectly powerless or even a 
 little noxious ; and hence the want of a chemical 
 analysis and proper nomenclature of marls, com- 
 pletely prevents the judicious imitation of any 
 successful use of them either against anbury or 
 for any other specific and difficult purpose. Com- 
 mon salt has been much recommended, and ap- 
 pears to have, in various instances, been employed 
 with decided success ; but it is very liable to be 
 exhibited in such overdose as to be temporarily 
 poisonous to the soil, and, even when adminis- 
 tered in the best possible proportion, is probably 
 an imperfect preventive. Dry hydro-sulphuret of 
 lime, such as may easily be obtained at the pub- 
 lic gas-works, has been recommended, in the form 
 of a slight dressing of the surface soil, as a pre- 
 ventive of both anbury and the attacks of the 
 turnip-flea. But the grand and only really effi- 
 cient preventive of anbury, as we formerly hinted, 
 is thorough cultivation as to at once draining, 
 tilling, and manuring. A general law of the 
 controlling providence of God over all agricul- 
 ture, is that careless cultivation is punished by 
 eventual devastation and sterility, and that wise 
 and sedulous cultivation is followed by soundness 
 and luxuriance ; this law associates the reflection 
 and labour of man with his well-being, subordi- 
 nates his enlightened toil to his happiness and 
 prosperity, and comprises all the multitudinous 
 influences which bear upon the physical history 
 of a farm ; and, in few instances, does it operate 
 more conspicuously than in those, like the an- 
 bury, in which the ill-directed and inadequate 
 labours of the sloven are utterly discomfited by 
 the silent and almost invisible antagonism of one 
 of the tiniest of insects. — Stephens'' Book of the 
 Farm. — Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Ento- 
 mology. — Marsham's Entomologia Britannica. — 
 Paper of G. W. Johnson, Esq., in No. 39 of Q. 
 Journal of Agr. — Paper by Mr. Stephens in No. 
 4 of Q. Journal of Agr. — Papers of Rev. Jas. Far- 
 quharson, Mr. M. Birnie, and Mr. John Abbay, in 
 Transactions of Highland Society. — Papers of Mr. 
 George Sinclair, Arthur Young, Esq., Messrs. B. 
 and A. Macdougall, Rev. Geo. Jenyns, and Sir 
 John Sinclair, Bart., in Memoirs of Gal. Horti- 
 cultural Society. 
 
 ANCHYLOSIS. A disease in animals' joints, 
 consisting of ossification of the ligaments which 
 unite bone to bone. Few horses which were 
 overworked in their youth, or strained or sud- 
 denly pulled upon their haunches in maturer age, 
 escape anchylosis in some of the bones of the back 
 or the loins ; and all horses which have, to any 
 considerable extent, become anchylosed, are un- 
 pleasant to ride, turn with difficulty in their stall, 
 are reluctant either to lie down or to rise, have 
 a singular straddling action, and are popularly 
 
 said to be broken-backed, or chinked in the 
 chine. 
 
 ANEMOMETER. See Wind. 
 
 ANEMOSCOPE. See Weather- Vane. 
 
 ANGLE-BERRIES. Small warty tumours on 
 the skin, disagreeable in appearance, and some- 
 times very sore. On the eyelids of an animal, 
 they are a great and constant annoyance ; and 
 on the teats of a cow, they both occasion the ani- 
 mal much pain, and render her difficult to milk. 
 If a piece of waxed silk be tied firmly round the 
 base of each, and tightened every day, the tu- 
 mours will drop off without the effusion of blood, 
 or the inoculation of the neighbouring parts. If 
 they are large and very numerous, they ought to 
 be cauterized ; but if they are small and few, so 
 that they can neither be tied nor cauterized, 
 they ought to be daily touched with nitrate of 
 silver, strong nitrous acid, or a strong solution 
 of nitrate of silver, and they will speedily disap- 
 pear. When angle-berries grow in great num- 
 bers, or reappear after being reduced, so as to 
 indicate a strong constitutional tendency to their 
 growth, this tendency will probably be destroyed 
 by the administration of iodine. 
 
 ANIMAL MANURES. The excrements, flesh, 
 bones, hair, wool, or putrescent products of ani- 
 mals, employed as fertilizers of the soil. These 
 substances act a highly conspicuous and most 
 valuable part in the practical chemistry of agri- 
 culture ; and, as to at once their differences from 
 one another, their several chemical constitutions, 
 and their respective modes of action both separ- 
 ately and in mixture, they ought to be thoroughly 
 known by every farmer. Yet we cannot treat 
 them at length as a separate topic, but must re- 
 strict ourselves to some general remarks upon 
 them, particularly upon animal excrements, and 
 must refer, for a full view of them, to our arti- 
 cles, Manure, Farm-yard Manure, Liquid Ma- 
 nure, Night Soil, Urine, Gulle, Excrement, 
 Bone Manure, Guano, Fish, Geine, Poudrette, 
 Ammonia, Azote, and some others. 
 
 The excrementitious matter of animals is 
 partly solid, and partly liquid, the former pass- 
 sing through the intestinal canal, and the latter 
 through the urinary passages ; and the solid kinds 
 are habitually more or less dense, or more or less 
 mixed with water, in the proportion in which 
 the species of animal uses more or less of liquid 
 nourishment. The faeces or solid excrements 
 consist of undigested or ill-digested remains of 
 vegetables, alkaline and earthy salts, and oxides 
 derived from vegetable food and water, refuse se- 
 cretions from the animals' own bodies, and some 
 peculiar compound substances formed partly out 
 of their food, and partly out of their refuse secre- 
 tions; and urine or liquid excrement consists 
 principally of water holding in solution mucus, 
 albumen, urea, uric acid, hippuric acid, am- 
 monia, and various kinds of salts and other sub- 
 stances. The several matters hitherto detected 
 
ANIMAL MANURES 
 
 by chemical analysis in animal excrements are 
 water, vegetable or woody fibre, wax and resin, 
 chlorophyle or the green colouring matter of 
 leaves, deposited humus, a fatty substance, mu- 
 cus, a peculiar brown colouring matter, vegetable 
 albumen, animal gelatine, animal fibre, salivary 
 matter, osmazome, hippuric acid, uric acid, lactic 
 acid, benzoic acid, urea, bilious matter, bilious 
 resin, picromel, oxide of iron, oxide of manga- 
 nese, silica, alumina, magnesia, common salt, 
 various alkaline salts, ammonia, hydrogen, car- 
 buretted hydrogen, phosphuretted hydrogen, and 
 sulphuretted hydrogen. But chemical analysis 
 of excrements is so very vile and repugnant a 
 process, that few will attempt it in any form, and 
 even these few in but a slovenly matter ; and 
 were it carefully and searchingly conducted, it 
 would very probably detect many more sub- 
 stances, particularly of the unique kind which 
 are formed in the interior organism under the 
 combined agencies of organic chemistry and ani- 
 mal life. 
 
 The composition and the manurial value of 
 animal excrements are greatly modified by the 
 age of the animals, their kind, their mode of em- 
 ployment, the quality and quantity of their food, 
 and the quality and quantity of their drink. — A 
 considerable quantity of lime, nitrogen, and 
 phosphoric acid is required for the formation of 
 the bones of young animals, and of carbon, sul- 
 phur, chlorine, and soda, for the growth of their 
 bodies ; and as these substances are obtained 
 only from food — which generally is of the same 
 nature when the animal is young as when it is 
 adult — the proportion of them in the excrements 
 of young animals must be considerably less than 
 in those of old animals. Manure from young 
 stock, accordingly, has long been known to far- 
 mers to be much inferior in power to manure 
 from adult stock ; and, on account of its defi- 
 ciency in nitrogenous ingredients, it is peculiarly 
 ill suited for crops of wheat, barley, beans, clover, 
 and turnips. — Some kinds of animals secrete cer- 
 tain elements of food which others reject ; some 
 masticate their food into a state of much finer 
 trituration than others ; and some very thor- 
 oughly digest their food, while others only half- 
 digest it ; and hence two animals of different 
 species, fed on the same food, and in the same sit- 
 uation, yield excrementitious manures of widely 
 different composition and power. Cows require, 
 for the chemical constitution of their body or for 
 the formation of their milk, more nitrogen and 
 phosphate of lime than sheep ; and sheep require, 
 for the formation of their wool, more sulphur and 
 common salt than cows ; so that if a cow and a 
 sheep be fed on the same pasture, the excrements 
 of the former will contain an excess of sulphur 
 and salt, and those of the latter an excess of 
 nitrogen and phosphate of lime. Sheep both 
 chew and digest their food much more thoroughly 
 than cows, reducing it to a state of much finer 
 
 ANIMAL MANURES 
 
 attrition in the mouth, and extracting from it a 
 much larger proportion of nourishment in the 
 intestines ; and hence, when a sheep and a cow 
 are fed on the same pasture, the excrements of 
 the former will operate more rapidly on the soil 
 than those of the latter, but will exert much less 
 manurial power, and operate for a considerably 
 shorter period. — When animals are so poorly fed 
 as to lose flesh, they very thoroughly digest their 
 food ; but when so well fed as to become fattened, 
 they secrete but a portion of the nutritious mat- 
 ter which they eat ; so that their excrements in 
 the former case are poor and exhausted, and in 
 the latter case are very strong, and contain much 
 of the elements of nutrition, and much refuse 
 animal matter. The more nutritious the food is, 
 provided it be in quantity and condition to fat- 
 ten, the stronger are the excrements resulting 
 from it, and the more do they abound in the im- 
 portant elements of phosphorus, sulphur, soda, 
 potash, chlorine, lime, magnesia, and nitrogen. 
 Excrement from scalded food for oxen, in conse- 
 quence of the woody fibre and other hard vege- 
 table matter having been softened by the process 
 of scalding, will operate more quickly upon soil 
 than excrement from unscalded food, but will 
 exert a much inferior amount of manurial power. 
 The free use of common salt in the food of fatting 
 stock occasions a great increase in the fertilizing 
 power of their excrements ; and a plentiful use 
 of pond or river water by any species of animal 
 involves a considerable increase in the saline ele- 
 ments of manure. An ox daily drinks eighty 
 pounds or upwards of water ; and this quantity 
 of most kinds of pond or river water contains 
 from half an ounce to an ounce of saline matters, 
 consisting of gypsum, common salt, phosphate of 
 lime, carbonate of lime, carbonate of potash, and 
 carbonate of magnesia ; so that, in the course of 
 a year, about sixteen pounds of these saline mat- 
 ters, obtained from drink and discharged by ex- 
 crement, are supplied by an ox to a statute acre 
 of land. A sickly animal, in consequence of im- 
 paired digestion, usually yields stronger manure 
 than an animal in perfect health ; and animals 
 in summer, in consequence of enfeebling heat 
 and relaxed muscle, usually yield stronger man- 
 ure than during the braced nerve and robust 
 health enjoyed in winter. Animal excrements 
 may always be regarded as great in manurial 
 power when they pass quickly into the putrefac- 
 tive state, and develop a large quantity of pun- 
 gent and offensive gases ; for then they are rich 
 not only in sulphur, phosphorus, and nitrogen, 
 but also in chlorine, soda, potash, lime, and mag- 
 nesia ; and therefore are eminently fitted to re- 
 store the fertility of exhausted soils, or to qualify 
 land for producing wheat, barley, beans, and other 
 albuminous crops. The specific excrementitious 
 manure of cows, sheep, horses, and other animals, 
 will be noticed in the articles Excrement and 
 Urine. 
 
 8,5 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 
 
 86 
 
 ANIMAL POWER. 
 
 The flesh and intestines of quadrupeds are 
 sometimes used as manures ; and as they under- 
 go a rapid and very wasteful and offensive de- 
 composition when exposed to the open air, they 
 ought when fresh to be either covered with the 
 soil, or mixed up with earthy substances into a 
 compost. The refuse of shambles is always a 
 powerful manure, and ought when fresh to be 
 mixed up with earthy matter for a compost ; and 
 the carcasses of domestic animals, which die from 
 accident or disease, ought, immediately after 
 death, to be laid in shallow pits, covered with 
 earth containing a mixture of quicklime, allowed 
 to dissolve in that position, and afterwards 
 treated with the surrounding soil as a compost. 
 Blubber may be very beneficially employed as a 
 manure, and ought always to be formed into a 
 compost with earthy matter. The garbage of 
 sea-fish is an efficient manure for every kind of 
 crop, and may be obtained in considerable quan- 
 tity in fishing villages where fish are smoked or 
 salted. Herrings, in some years of great plenty, 
 have — wickedly, as we think — been fished in 
 such enormous quantities as to be sold profusely 
 in cart-loads to farmers as manure. Fresh-water 
 fish are sometimes obtained in sufficient quan- 
 tity, in the shallows of fenny countries, to be 
 employed as manure ; and, though of very ques- 
 tionable propriety, they have confessedly a very 
 high manurial power. Sprats for manure, are 
 purchased in thousands of bushels at a time by 
 the farmers of Essex and Suffolk, and are carried 
 in waggons to districts ten or fifteen miles dis- 
 tant from the coast ; and when mixed with earth, 
 allowed to dissolve, and used as a compost, they 
 operate with great power, especially upon tur- 
 nips, yet expend nearly all their force upon a 
 single crop. Woollen rags, chopped small, and 
 strewed along the drills in the proportion of 3 
 or 4 cwt. to an acre, are an excellent manure for 
 potatoes, but are employed chiefly for hops ; and 
 they are known to be used by English farmers 
 to the aggregate amount of 20,000 tons a-year, 
 and obtained at so high a price as five guineas 
 per ton. Various other animal substances, — the 
 refuse of manufactories in which wool, skin, fea- 
 thers, and hair are employed, — such substances 
 as the refuse of the currier and the offal of the 
 gluemaker — are used in the same manner, or 
 upon the same principle, as woollen rags. Bones 
 are so efficient, well-known, and generally used 
 a manure, as to demand lengthened notice in an 
 article of their own. See Bone-Manure. Horn 
 is a substance of similar properties to bones, and 
 equally efficient as a manure ; but it can be ob- 
 tained in only very limited quantity, and, on that 
 account, is of inferior importance. Hair and 
 feathers are also similar in chemical composition 
 to bones ; but, for the same reason as horn, they 
 never can make a prominent figure among man- 
 ures. The remains of the silk-worm are em- 
 ployed by the inhabitants of silk - producing 
 
 countries, as manure for reviving the mulberry 
 tree and stimulating some other plants. The 
 pulverized shells of oysters, mussels, and other 
 shell-fish, is used as manure for turnips ; but it 
 possesses only about half the manurial power of 
 bones ; and is frequently employed by nefarious 
 venders as a means of adulterating bone-dust. I 
 The common shells of the shores of Great Britain, 
 such as those of cockles, whelks, and mussels, 
 are found in large quantities upon some rocky , 
 districts of coast, and upon shallow beaches 
 which are swept by powerful tidal currents ; and, 
 when applied in the proportion of sixteen bushels 
 per acre, they act as a very suitable manure for 
 turnips. All animal substances whatever, no 
 matter how completely of the nature of waste or 
 offal, or how apparently unlike in nature to the 
 more common manures, act upon the soil as fer- 
 tilizers, and may be beneficially employed either 
 singly or in composts. The principal in use, 
 additional to those which we have named, are 
 various kinds of oils and oil-cakes, animalized 
 black, animalized sea -weed, cockchafers, dried 
 muscular flesh, blood in various conditions, dregs 
 of bone glue, and cow-hair flock. — Paper of Dr. 
 Sprengel in Journal of R. Agr, Society. — Bous- 
 singauUs Rural Economy. — Johnson on Fer- 
 tilizers. — Br. Dana's Muck Manual. — Armstrong 's 
 Treatise on Agriculture. — Liebig's Organic Chem- 
 istry. — Johnston's Lectures on Agr. Chemistry. — 
 Low's Practical Agriculture. — Sproule's Treatise 
 on Agriculture. — Stephens' Book of the Farm. 
 
 ANIMAL POWER. The exertion of the 
 strength of animals to produce motion or physi- 
 cal change. The principal varieties of this upon 
 a farm are the several kinds of horse labour, in 
 moving implements, vehicles, and machinery. 
 Animal power has been principally or wholly 
 superseded by mechanical power, chiefly that of 
 the steam-engine, on railways and in multitu- 
 dinous manufactories ; it has also been partially 
 superseded by mechanical power on the farmery 
 of large farms ; and it has, of late years, been 
 frequently threatened by theorists with being 
 superseded by mechanical power in almost every 
 department of agricultural labour. But animal 
 power may easily be shown to possess impJpartant 
 adaptations to farm labour, which mechanical 
 power does not possess, to be free from some seri- 
 ous objections with which the use of mechanical 
 power is encumbered, and, in particular, for all 
 the ordinary purposes of draught upon farms or 
 of traffic upon common roads, to be at once sim- 
 pler in its application, more economical in its 
 use, and more certain in its effect. In all cases, 
 indeed, in which considerable velocity is required, 
 the power of a horse may be principally or wholly 
 exhausted in moving his own body, and, when 
 the road is level and smooth, must necessarily 
 be far inferior to the mechanical power of a 
 steam-engine. But in every case in which great 
 velocity is not an object, and in which frequent 
 
ANIMAL POWER. 87 ANIMALIZED CARBON 
 
 though slight obstructions occur, the power of a 
 horse possesses very decided advantages. He 
 admirably adapts himself to the peculiarities of 
 his work, increases or diminishes his efforts ac- 
 cording to the variations of his draught, rests 
 and reinvigorates himself by relaxed exertion 
 when his utmost strength is not needed, and 
 makes extra-exertions or summons up his hus- 
 banded force when any impediment or obstruc- 
 tion is to be overcome. In fact, by his alterna- 
 tions of comparative relaxation and comparative 
 over-exertion, he probably expends more aggre- 
 gate strength than when, as on a perfectly level 
 railway and at an uniform rate of speed, he con- 
 stantly uses his average degree of power ; and if 
 it be remembered that on most ordinary roads, 
 obstructions and facilities occur in continual 
 succession, and the rate of draught often varies 
 in the proportion of six or eight to one, the 
 horse's accommodating faculty of alternating 
 the degrees of his strength to the alternations 
 in his draught will be seen, at a glance, to pos- 
 sess high value for the rugged labours of a farm, 
 and such as, in the present condition of me- 
 chanical science, cannot be profitably or almost 
 possibly superseded by the steam-engine. The 
 relative strength of horses, asses, and men, has 
 been estimated as follows : 
 
 I horse is equal to 5 men, 
 
 1 .7 men, 
 
 1 . . 14 men, 
 
 2 men, 
 
 (Desaguliers. 
 (Smeaton. 
 
 Bossut, &e. 
 
 Schulze. 
 
 Bossut. 
 
 2 horses, according to Amontons, exert a force 
 of 150 pounds when yoked in a plough. 
 
 1 horse, according to Desaguliers, can draw 
 with a force of 200 lbs. 2^ miles an hour, 
 and continue this action for 8 hours every 
 day. When he exerts a force of 240 
 pounds, he can continue it only 6 hours 
 every day. 
 
 I horse, by means of pumps, can, according to 
 Mr. Smeaton, raise 250 hogsheads of water 
 10 feet high in an hour. 
 
 1 horse walking on a good road, and loaded 
 with about 2 hundred weight, can travel 
 25 miles in 7 or 8 hours. 
 
 1 horse raising coals by means of a wheel and 
 axle, and moving at the rate of about 2 
 miles an hour, can, according to Mr. Fen- 
 wick, raise a load of 1,000 pounds avoirdu- 
 pois with a velocity of 13 feet per minute, 
 and continue this for 12 hours. 
 
 l horse, according to the same author, can 
 exert a force of 75 pounds, moving at the 
 rate of 13 feet per minute, and continue it 
 for 9^ hours. 
 
 According to Regnier, the mean draught of 4 
 horses was 36 myriogrammes in 794 hours. 
 
 1 horse can draw more up a steep hill than 
 three men can carry ; that is, from 450 to 
 750 lbs. Desaguliers. 
 
 1 strong horse can draw 2,000 lbs. in a cart, 
 up a steep hill which is but short. Desa- 
 guliers. 
 
 1 horse has sometimes carried 650 or 700 lbs. 
 for 7 or 8 miles without resting, as its ordi- 
 nary work. Desaguliers. 
 
 1 horse at Stourbridge carried 11 hundred 
 weight of iron, or 1,232 lbs. for eight miles. 
 Desaguliers. 
 
 1 mule works in the West Indies, 2 hours out 
 of about 18, with a force of about 150 lbs. 
 walking 3 feet in one second. Cazand. 
 
 From Desaguliers' measure of the force of a 
 horse already given, it follows that its force is, 
 
 Pounds. Foot. 
 According to Desaguliers, 44,000 raised 1 in 1 min. 
 According to Smeaton, 22,916 . 1 in 1 
 According to Mr. Watt. 33,000 . 1 in 1 
 
 Mr. Watt's steam-engines are, however, calcu- 
 lated to work equal to 44,000 lbs. raised 1 foot 
 per minute, as he considers the difference, or 
 11,000 lbs. raised 1 foot per minute, to be lost in 
 the friction, &c. of the engine itself. 
 
 The power of one horse is supposed capable of 
 driving 100 spindles with preparation of cotton 
 water-twist, 1,000 spindles with preparation of 
 cotton mule yarn, and 75 spindles with prepara- 
 tion of flax yarn. 
 
 The following are the results respecting horses 
 given by M. Hachette : 
 
 Daily action TW .,, 
 measured by ^ se ^ 
 the draught n effect P-, 
 and the road dynamical 
 Kilog. Kilom. travelled. umts 
 
 1. A cart-horse 140 X 40 . 5,000 
 
 2. A post-horse 90 X 38 . 3,420 
 
 3. A horse moving in a circle and) 
 working a pump, . . j 
 
 4. Id. working 12 hours, and rais-) , aQ , 
 ing plaster, } A ' b84 
 
 5. Mean of three horses working) -, 1Q - KO - 
 at a pump, . . . j bJb 
 
 6. Mean of 8 horses raising water) nlo 
 
 by a pump, . . . | 2 ' 948 6,0 
 
 7. Two horses raising coals, 1,560 
 
 8. A horse drawing a load ofl Doubtful. 
 150,000 kilogrammes through)- g Q 
 
 8 kilometres, ) 
 
 9. The force of a horse acting 24) - n ~, , 
 
 hours, is equal to . . | 5,974 dynain.unita 
 
 See the articles Draught, and Horse, and Steam. 
 
 ANIMALIZED CARBON. A manufactured 
 manure, invented and patented in France, used 
 to a considerable extent on the continent, and 
 introduced to Scotland in 1834. Mr. Owen of 
 Copenhagen, who learned from its patentee how 
 to manufacture it, and who established a manu- 
 factory of it in Denmark, says, " The chief excel- 
 lency of this manure is, that it is powerful in its 
 effects, occupies but little room, is easily separ- 
 ated, and conveniently used either by hand or 
 drill ; its effects are farther to insure a rich crop, 
 by gradually ameliorating the soil, and rendering 
 fallowing unnecessary. For wheat, rye, buck- 
 wheat, barley, and similar descriptions of corn, 
 
 585 
 
 842 
 
ANNOTTA. 
 
 88 
 
 ANT 
 
 about 8 cwts. 1 qr. 16 lbs. is used per acre : it 
 may be either broad cast or drilled in before har- 
 rowing. For flax, hemp, beet, potatoes, &c, 
 about \\ cwt. per acre ; and 12 cwts. 2 qrs. 10 
 lbs. per acre for artificial meadows, different sorts 
 of cabbage, rape, culinary plants, and for refresh- 
 ing natural meadow land. For plants that are 
 set in rows, a handful is put to each plant ; for 
 those which are transplanted, a child follows the 
 planter, and throws a very small handful of the 
 manure into each hole, which is immediately 
 covered over with earth; in several places for 
 rape, it is scattered out in rows along the roots 
 of the plant, which the plough covers by forming 
 a new furrow. On meadow land, it must be 
 spread out in December or January, when the 
 snow is not on the ground. What characterizes 
 this manure most is, that it develops its effects 
 so slowly and gradually, that it may be applied 
 without danger in contact with the seed or roots 
 of plants; in this it differs from a number of 
 other manures, which are less rich but more 
 heating." Three varieties of animalized black 
 appear in a long and valuable list of manures 
 analyzed and mutually compared by Messrs. 
 Payen and Boussingault, — one prepared for 
 eleven months, another from the neighbourhood 
 of Paris and recently made, and another made 
 at Lyons and called Dutch manure ; and the 
 first of these contained 1'96 per cent., of azote, 
 the second 2'96 per cent., and the third 2'48 per 
 cent. ; while coal soot, which figures in the same 
 list, was found to contain 1*59 per cent., wood 
 soot 1*31 per cent., animal black of the sugar re- 
 finers 2-04 per cent., English black 8 02 per cent., 
 and average farm-yard manure 1*95 per cent. 
 — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Boussin- 
 gauWs Rural Economy. 
 
 ANNOTTA, or Arnatto. The precipitate 
 from a maceration of the seeds of the Bixa orel- 
 lana, — an evergreen tree of the tropics. One 
 variety of it is manufactured in Cayenne into 
 flags or cakes, each 2 lbs. or 3 lbs. in weight, of 
 a bright yellow colour, softish to the touch, of 
 considerable solidity, and usually wrapt in ban- 
 ana leaves ; and another variety — that commonly 
 employed in English dairies — is manufactured in 
 Brazil into small rolls, each two or three ounces 
 in weight, hard, dry, and compact, brownish 
 without and red within. A few of the paler- 
 coloured yellow or orange cheeses are coloured 
 with marigold flowers, saffron, and carrots ; but 
 most of even the paler-coloured, and all the high- 
 coloured, derive the whole of their peculiar com- 
 plexion from annotta. The cheese- makers of 
 Gloucestershire give one ounce of annotta to one 
 cwt. of cheese ; and those of Cheshire give eight 
 dwts. to GO lbs. But as these quantities are far 
 too small to medicate the cheese, or even to 
 affect its flavour, the only advantage derived from 
 the annotta is mere colour ; and surely the ap- 
 pearance of Stilton or Dunlop cheese upon the 
 
 table is to the full as agreeable as that of Glou- 
 cestershire or Cheshire cheese. The use of an- 
 notta, therefore, is sheerly whimsical, imposing 
 perfectly useless trouble on the manufacturer, 
 and some small ridiculous expense upon the pur- | 
 chaser. The mode of using it is to dissolve it in 
 the hot milk immediately before the earning. 
 
 ANT. A well known tribe of insects, of the , 
 hymenopterous order. Some species which occur 
 in the west of Africa and other foreign countries 
 inflict ravages and perform feats of a stupendous 
 and almost incredible character ; and even some 
 of our indigenous species, though guiltless of any i 
 extensive depredations, are sufficiently mischie- 
 vous and abundant to be objects of painful inter- , 
 est to all cultivators of the soil. All the species 
 are gregarious ; they live in segregations of nests, 
 which have not inaptly been termed cities ; and 
 in many instances — some of which are not a little 
 remarkable — they conduct united or combined 
 operations for the common good of their com- 
 munities. The members of each community com- 
 prise males, females, and workers, besides eggs, 
 larvae, and pupae. The males and females, on 
 emerging from the pupa state, have each four 
 delicate transparent wings ; and they serve prin- 
 cipally for propagating the species. The workers 
 are neuters or imperfect females, and never have 
 any wings ; and they feed the larvae, protect the 
 females, bring in provisions, make roads, con- 
 struct bridges, and, in general, conduct the vari- 
 ous operations of building, foraging, devastating, 
 defending, and fighting. 
 
 The ants of the warmer countries of the world, 
 particularly those of Africa, South America, and 
 the West Indies, construct large, intricate, and 
 wonderful dwellings, which have astonished tra- 
 vellers, and challenged the admiration of the 
 most phlegmatic naturalists; but the ants of 
 Britain, though very various in habits, construct 
 abodes which are more remarkable for their an- 
 noyance to man or their mischievousness to the 
 soil than for either size or intricacy. The turf 
 ant, Formica ccespitum, a small dusty brown in- 
 sect, frequent in commons and pasture-fields, 
 usually selects a tuft of herbage, piles up small 
 grains of earth into the partitions of cells and 
 chambers, and makes the stems of the herbage 
 serve as props and the grassy leaves as covering. 
 The yellow ant, Formica flava, gnaws portions of 
 wood into saw-dust, mixes this with earth and 
 spiders' webs, and employs the mixture in con- 
 structing the chambers, stages and galleries of 
 its mimic city. The fallow ant, Formica rufa — the 
 largest of the British species, and not uncommon 
 in woods and pleasure-grounds — constructs very 
 numerous galleries and chambers in a series of 
 successive stories, from an excavated base to some 
 height above the surface of the ground, and gives 
 the whole such an exterior finish as to make it 
 resemble a considerable mound or little hillock of 
 sand and earth, with bits of wood, leaves, twigs, 
 
ANT. 
 
 80 
 
 ANT. 
 
 and grains of corn in apparently indiscriminate 
 mixture. The red ant, Myrmica rubra, common 
 in gardens, and not unfrequent in pasture-fields, 
 makes burrows and chambers under stones or in 
 the ground. The brown ant, Formica fusca, in- 
 geniously and industriously constructs habita- 
 tions with a series of stories in clay. The jet 
 ant, Formica fuliginosa, excavates horizontal gal- 
 leries in a series of stories in the trunks of old 
 oaks or willows ; and these galleries are all even- 
 tually stained black, and sometimes have the 
 appearance, though on a mimic scale, of elaborate 
 carved work. 
 
 The males and females of an ants' nest usually 
 emerge from their pupa state in August or Sep- 
 tember ; and they may then be seen commencing 
 a new course of existence, issuing from their nest, 
 rising into the air, and settling on posts, gates, 
 and stones, and sometimes forming little clouds, 
 which whirl and twist through the air, and seem 
 to comprise thousands or even myriads of beings. 
 The males have neither stings for defence nor 
 sufficiently strong jaws for labour and the collec- 
 tion of food; and they speedily perform their 
 peculiar function and perish. A vast proportion 
 of the females, in common with all the males, are 
 either devoured by birds or driven into rivers, 
 lakes, and ponds ; and some of the remaining por- 
 tion of the females re-establish the old nests, 
 some found numerous new colonies, and all 
 speedily lose their wings, and commence laying 
 eggs. — Ants are torpid during winter, and do not 
 need, like bees, to lay up stores of provision. 
 They are singularly fond of the sweet juice, pop- 
 ularly called honey-dew, exuded by aphides ; and 
 colonies of them, particularly of the yellow ant, 
 often appropriate particular trees or branches of 
 trees for the sake of their honey-dew, or actually 
 enclose groups of aphides and keep them as pe- 
 culiar property, angrily and steadily resisting the 
 encroachments of all other ants upon their pre- 
 mises. — Some species of ants, particularly the 
 fallow ant of Britain and the remarkably work- 
 ing ants of tropical countries, frequently perform 
 emigrations. Rival colonies of the fallow ant 
 sometimes engage in battle, thousands on each 
 side ; and they occasionally fight with such en- 
 grossing pugnacity and such pertinacious ob- 
 stinacy as to be incognizant or careless of human 
 observation. The workers or neuters of the rufes- 
 cent and sanguineous ants, Formica rufescens and 
 Formica sanguinea, common on the continent, 
 though very rarely if ever found in Great Bri- 
 tain, compel the workers of the species Formica 
 fusca and Formica cunicularia, to serve as their 
 auxiliaries or slaves. Various other interesting 
 facts might be pointed out in the industrial 
 national history of European ants ; and an ab- 
 solute volume of interesting facts, many of them 
 utterly astonishing, might be collected respect- 
 ing the industry, economy, achievements, and 
 policy of the ants of the tropics. " The ants are 
 
 a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat 
 in the summer." " Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; 
 consider her ways, and be wise." 
 
 The more common kinds of British ants, For- 
 mica fusca and Formica rufa, frequently establish 
 their colonies at the root of fruit-trees, ascend 
 the stems at their convenience, and prey largely 
 upon the fruits ; they often associate themselves 
 with wasps, wood-lice, and earwigs, and share in 
 their depredations ; and, in many districts of 
 country, they destroy considerable quantities of 
 linseed, hempseed and rapeseed, and take very 
 extensive and most mischievous possession of 
 grass fields and other dry pasture-lands. Their 
 nests or hillocks in the fields look to the eye like 
 mimic mounds or small hay-cocks ; they utterly 
 impoverish or rather temporarily destroy every 
 inch of land which they occupy ; and they very 
 often have possession of one-twelfth or one-tenth 
 of a field, — and, in the case of old and neglected 
 dry pastures, they sometimes succeed in usurping 
 one-third, one-half, or even more than one-half. 
 A species of one of the smallest kind of ants, 
 Myrmica unifasciata, found its way some years 
 ago into the very heart of London and some other 
 large towns, passed in swarms and mimic torrents 
 into the interior of houses, and, in some instances, 
 made such dismal havoc and took such large pos- 
 session as to compel the inhabitants to flee, and 
 occasion the houses to be condemned. 
 
 Ant-hills on grass lands ought all to be destroy- 
 ed in the same season in which they appear. 
 Some farmers, either in summer or autumn, dig 
 up the ant-hills, cut them in pieces, and scatter 
 them in the vicinity; but the ants, instead of 
 being destroyed by this treatment, conceal them- 
 selves for a little among the roots of the grass, 
 and then form new communities and ant-hills, 
 and in consequence are mischievously dissemi- 
 nated. When the ant-hills are interfered with in 
 summer or autumn, they ought to be lifted by 
 the spade into heaps, and burned ; but they are 
 far more effectively and at the same time, easily 
 destroyed in winter, simply by being turned up- 
 side down and placed a little aside by the spade ; 
 in order that the ants may be killed by the frost. 
 " The most usual mode is to cut off the crown of 
 the ant-hill with a sharp spade of a semicircular 
 form — somewhat in the shape of a week's old 
 moon, with the horns at about ten inches dis- 
 tance — and laying it with the grassy side down- 
 wards upon the ground. The ants are thus clear- 
 ed out, the clods being completely pulverized and 
 thrown around ; and the hole is left empty for 
 three or four weeks to secure the destruction, by 
 the frost and rain, of any insects which may still 
 remain ; after which the sod is replaced in its 
 former position, and trodden or rolled down un- 
 til even with the surface. The operation is com- 
 monly done at any leisure time during the win- 
 ter ; but some farmers either burn the clods, or 
 else put quick lime in the holes before digging 
 
ANTHOXANTHUM. 
 
 90 
 
 ANTHOXANTHUM. 
 
 them up, in which case they deem it preferable 
 to defer the process until the early part of the 
 spring, as a top dressing is thus formed for the 
 growth of the seeds." An expeditious method 
 long ago practised in Norfolk is, with any one of 
 several ploughs invented for the purpose, to cut 
 off the ant-hills level with the field, and after- 
 wards to cart them away ; but this method seems 
 merely to diminish or greatly check the ants, and 
 not to exterminate them. Little cumuli or heaps 
 of sandy particles, called sprout hills, are some- 
 times formed in meadow or hay fields by ants in 
 wet weather, and they very quickly blunt the 
 edge of the scythe, and serve as niduses for new 
 communities ; but they may readily be destroyed 
 by heavy rolling, or even by the studied tread of 
 the feet of the hay-makers. — No better method 
 of assailing the home kind of ants can be prac- 
 tised than to scald them with boiling water. u I 
 was astonished one morning in going into my 
 dairy," says a correspondent in the ' Magazine of 
 Domestic Economy,' " to see the walls and floor 
 for the space of a yard literally covered with these 
 insects, and for a time considered their expulsion 
 to be hopeless ; however, I searched carefully to 
 discover if there were any opening where they 
 could obtain egress ; and at length found the 
 mass of life was most dense and full of motion at 
 one spot. It was a very small hole at the junc- 
 tion of the wall and floor. I immediately had a 
 tea-kettle of boiling water brought, and delibe- 
 rately poured half of it into the hole, and the re- 
 mainder over the ants that were around. Their 
 death was instantaneous ; and the dairy being 
 on the ground floor, no ill consequences could 
 arise from the damp occasioned by the water." 
 — Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature. — Mr. 
 Duncan on Insects in Quar. Journal of Agr. — 
 Smellie's Philosophy of Natural History. — Trea- 
 tise on British Husbandry in Lib. of U. Knowledge. 
 — SprouWs Treatise on Agr. — Society of Gentle- 
 men 's Complete Farmer. — Magazine of Domestic 
 Economy. — A. Young 's Farmer's Calendar. 
 
 ANTHOXANTHUM. A small genus of grasses 
 belonging to the bromus tribe, and popularly 
 called Spring-grasses. A number of exotic spe- 
 cies are known to botanists, and two or three of 
 these have been introduced to British collections 
 of grasses ; but an indigenous species, Anthoxan- 
 thum odoratum, popularly called sweet-scented 
 spring-grass, or sweet-scented vernal-grass, is the 
 only one which can be considered as agricultural, 
 and challenges nearly all the attention due to the 
 genus. It is a perennial, and grows about one 
 foot high, and flowers about the middle or to- 
 ward the end of April. It inhabits most of our 
 meadows and pastures ; it imparts to all our mea- 
 dow hay its peculiar sweet odour, resembling the 
 fragrance of the woodrofF ; and it diffuses this 
 delightful odour, also, through the air of the 
 uncut meadows from its ripening seeds. It is 
 one of the very few plants which, both in their 
 
 green and in their ripe state, contain benzoic 
 acid ; it derives its generic name of anthoxan- 
 thum or yellow flower, from the circumstance of 
 the valves of its calyx being sprinkled over with 
 minute yellow dots, similar to those of black cur- 
 rant berries ; and it is supposed to yield its rich 
 fragrance from the connection of these dots with 
 its benzoic acid. It constitutes part of the her- 
 bage of almost all varieties and situations of na- 
 tural pasture ; yet though habituated to every 
 kind of soil, and though found in meadow and 
 on mountain throughout England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, it attains perfection only on soils which 
 are deep and moist. It challenges considerable 
 attention for the earliness of its growth ; and yet 
 it yields a smaller proportional bulk of vernal 
 herbage than some grasses which are late in 
 flowering. It is, in all respects, a very hardy 
 grass ; and may be ranked as one of the most en- 
 during or technically permanent. It continues 
 to vegetate and throw up flowering stalks till 
 the end of autumn ; and appears to be consider- 
 ably more valuable in the herbage of its after- 
 grass than in that of its spring crop. It gives a 
 grateful odour to both meadows and meadow- 
 hay, and has been observed to abound in such 
 pastures as produce richly flavoured mutton ; and 
 it has, in consequence, been recommended as a 
 large ingredient in a mixture of artificial grasses 
 or of sown pasture land, with the view of im- 
 proving the flavour of mutton. Yet its seeds are 
 gathered with considerable difficulty, and are 
 comparatively high in price ; its stalks are of 
 little value, and seem to be much disliked by 
 cattle ; and even its leaves, though eaten in pas- 
 tures along with other herbage, are by no means 
 so much relished as those of the majority of pas- 
 ture grasses. If sown with nothing but clover, 
 sheep will probably not touch it ; if sown with 
 clover and only another grass, such as a species 
 of meadow foxtail, it will still be scarcely touched ; 
 and not till sown as but a minor ingredient in 
 rather a numerous mixture will it be tolerably 
 well relished, and fully accomplish its peculiar 
 uses. This grass contains little saccharine matter, 
 abounds in mucilage, and contains a larger pro- 
 portion of bitter, insoluble, extractive matter 
 than most other grasses. The green plant, in its 
 early spring condition, has been ascertained to 
 contain 80 per cent, of mucilage, 2 of saccharine 
 matter, and 18 of bitter extractive ; and the ma- 
 tured plant, at the time of its seed being ripe, 
 has been ascertained to contain 86 per cent, of 
 mucilage, 8 of saccharine matter, and 6 of bitter 
 extractive and salt. When grown upon sandy 
 loam, it has been found to yield per acre, in the 
 first of April, 3,484 lbs. of green produce, and 95^ 
 lbs. of nutritive matter ; when in flower, 7,827£ 
 lbs. of green produce, 2,103| lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 122^ lbs. of nutritive matter; when its seed 
 is ripe, G,125| lbs. of green produce, 1,837| lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 311 lbs. of nutritive matter ; 
 
ANTICOR. 
 
 91 
 
 APHIS. 
 
 and when in aftergrass, 6,806| lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, and 239| lbs. of nutritive matter. But 
 though considerably inferior to some other grasses 
 in nutritious value, and in spite of its not being 
 very well relished by cattle, it ought always, in 
 small quantity, to be an ingredient in the sown 
 grasses of at once meadows, dry pastures, parks, 
 and pleasure-grounds. An essential oil which can 
 be obtained from this grass, has an agreeable 
 odour, and may be used as a mild aromatic and 
 stimulant. — Withering* $ Botany. — Loudon's Enc. 
 of Plants. — Low's Elements of Practical Agr. — 
 Sproule's Treatise on Agr. — Liebig's Chemistry of 
 i I Agr. — Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. 
 
 — Treatise on British Husbandry in Library of 
 I Useful Knowledge. 
 
 ANTICOR. A malignant swelling in the breast 
 of horses, sometimes extending to the very sheath 
 under the belly, and accompanied with fever, 
 great depression and weakness, and a total want 
 of appetite. Large and repeated bleedings are 
 required, to abate the inflammation ; emollient 
 clysters, each containing an ounce of sal prunella, 
 ought to be injected twice or thrice a-day ; and 
 unguents and opening poultices ought to be daily 
 applied to the swelling. On the fourth or fifth 
 day, when the inflammation in the throat is sub- 
 dued, the swelling on the breast should be so 
 treated as to be brought if possible to a state of 
 suppuration ; and when suppurated, it must be 
 opened with a knife, and dressed with strong tur- 
 pentine ointment. If the swelling will not sup- 
 purate, and if it so increases as to endanger suffo- 
 cation, it must be pierced with a hot-pointed 
 cautery, and afterwards dressed with very stimu- 
 lating ointment, such as a turpentine ointment 
 sharpened with a little cantharides and euphor- 
 bium, and the adjoining parts bathed and fo- 
 mented with preparations of marshmallows. Two 
 distinguished veterinary surgeons of the old 
 school, advised that, when the swelling will not 
 suppurate, a piece of black hellebore steeped in 
 vinegar should be introduced through an open- 
 ing of the skin, and allowed to remain during 
 twenty-four hours, to act as a stimulant, and oc- 
 casion a counter-irritation. 
 
 ANTISPASMODICS. Medicines which coun- 
 teract spasms in animals, and have a tendency 
 to alleviate or cure spasmodic habits or affections. 
 Opium is the most powerful antispasmodic, and 
 is exceedingly serviceable in cases of locked jaw. 
 Oil of turpentine is almost a specific for spasm in 
 the bowels of the horse ; and various essential oils 
 exert a general antispasmodic tendency. But 
 camphor, assafoetida, and various other sub- 
 stances which operate as antispasmodics in the 
 human subject, have a very doubtful effect on the 
 horse, or may be considered as very nearly inert. 
 
 APATITE. Native or mineral phosphate of 
 lime. It is similar in composition and action to 
 bone earth, and therefore is a very valuable ma- 
 nure, either in itself, or as an ingredient in fine 
 
 composts. It lies distributed in minute propor- j 
 tions through every fertile soil ; and occurs in a j 
 crystalline form in many kinds of rocks. It con- j 
 stitutes small crystals in granitic portions of ! 
 plutonic and volcanic rocks, as in the mines of j 
 Johann, Georgenstadt, and Schneeberg, in Ger- 
 many, and in the loose granitic gravel in the vi- 
 cinity of Berlin ; it occurs in small crystals in the 
 syenite of Meissen, and in large crystals in the 
 syenite of Friedrichswern in South Norway ; it 
 is found in hypersthene at Elfdalen in Sweden, 
 at Lobau in Saxony, at Tuhlowitz in Bohemia, 
 and at Meiches in the Vogelsberge, — and in the 
 last of these districts, which is celebrated for 
 large and valuable produce in wheat, the propor- 
 tion of it is comparatively large ; it is found in 
 the trap rocks of Wickenstein, Hamberg, Cabo de 
 Gata, Laacher See, and other places ; it occurs in 
 various metamorphic rocks, particularly talcose 
 and chloritic schists ; it occurs in large yellow 
 crystals in the micaceous schists of Snarum in 
 Norway ; it is found in the calcareous deposits of 
 Pargas in Finland and of the Lake Baikal, and 
 in deposits of magnetic iron ore in various places 
 in Sweden and Norway ; and it occurs in the lime- 
 stone strata of Amber and other places, and in 
 the chalk formations of Cape la Heve at Havre, 
 and Capes Blancnez and Grisnez at Calais. See 
 Lime and Phosphates. 
 
 APERIENTS. Medicines which are gently 
 purgative, or which tend to keep the bowels of 
 animals gently open. The principal ones used 
 in veterinary practice are aloes, castor oil, epsom 
 salts, and glaubers' salts. 
 
 APHIS. An exceedingly extensive, generally 
 diffused, and wonderfully numerous tribe of mi- 
 nute insects, of the order homoptera. Dr. Leach 
 treats them as a tribe or family, under the name 
 of aphides, and divides them into the two genera 
 of aphis or plant-louse, and eriosomaor blight-bug, 
 — the latter genus comprising about one-fifth of 
 the number of species comprised in the former ; 
 but they are treated as strictly one genus by Lin- 
 naeus, and by all naturalists from his time to that 
 of Dr. Leach, — they are capable of subdivision into 
 at least four groups, by marks nearly as distinct 
 as those of the group eriosoma, — they possess as 
 little diversity throughout their entire numbers 
 as each of several genera which have never been 
 divided, — they are all known to the farmer and 
 the gardener under the common name of plant- 
 louse, blighter, or blight-bug, — and they there- 
 fore require, for every purpose of distinctness and 
 utility, to be treated as strictly one group. The 
 name aphis means in Greek a bug, and is derived 
 from a word which signifies to suck a plant ; and 
 the name aphides may be regarded as its plural. 
 The name plant-louse seems to have been sug- 
 gested by a fancy, that the aphis infests plants 
 in a similar manner to that in which the louse 
 infests man ; and the name blighter or blight- 
 bug alludes to the fact that the aphis causes 
 
APHIS. 
 
 92 
 
 APHIS. 
 
 many of the most destructive varieties of the 
 mischiefs and desolations of plants which have 
 long been popularly termed blights. 
 
 The aphides are vastly more multitudinous, 
 and far more generally and minutely diffused 
 than any other tribe of insects ; they inflict 
 enormous damage upon the hop-grower, entail 
 many serious evils upon the general farmer, are 
 principal pests and tormentors of the gardener, 
 and perpetrate devastations in temperate lati- 
 tudes, which correspond in some degree to the 
 devastations perpetrated by locusts in warmer 
 countries ; and yet they are individually minute 
 and insignificant, — they are rarely so large as a 
 medium-sized louse, and often appear to the naked 
 eye mere moving points, — they form fine subjects 
 of microscopic observation, and disclose gorgeous 
 tints, wonderful organisms, and an astonishing 
 economy to the pocket magnifier, — and they 
 constitute the microscopic world of animated be- 
 ing, the crowded communities of the leaves of 
 the forest and the grasses of the field, the para- 
 disaical inhabitants of the perfumed and honeyed 
 interior of flowers, the wonderful counterparts 
 on plants of animalcules in water, of which popu- 
 lar natural history has written so many glowing 
 descriptions, and the fancy of many thousands of 
 young learners have formed such vivid and ex- 
 aggerated conceptions. The aphides inhabit 
 every kind of plant from the smallest grass to 
 the most stately tree ; and sometimes exist in 
 myriads upon a single herb, of only two or three 
 feet in height. Their species were supposed by 
 naturalists of the last century to correspond in 
 number and adaptation to all existing genera of 
 plants; and, though only about seventy have 
 been accurately observed and scientifically de- 
 scribed, they possibly — if varieties or minor spe- 
 cific differences be included — do not fall short of 
 twelve or thirteen hundred. Some of the species 
 inhabit several or even numerous genera of 
 plants ; and other species are separated from one 
 another in distribution among mere varieties of 
 one species of plant ; but by far the greater 
 number occur in strict appropriation of a dis- 
 tinct species of the insect to one precise and ex- 
 clusive genus or species of plant, — each variety 
 of the insect having its own distinct plant, and 
 receiving from it the specific name by which it is 
 known in science. 
 
 Two species, which particularly infest some of 
 the most common plants of the garden and the 
 farm, may be briefly described as fair specimens 
 of the whole group. — The cabbage plant-louse, 
 Aphis brassicce, is one -twelfth of an inch in 
 length ; and its general colour, when un winged, 
 is pale slaty gray, with a white mealy down over 
 the body, and, when winged, dark green, with 
 the head, eyes, and wing-ribs black. This spe- 
 cies is found on cabbage, turnips, broccoli, cauli- 
 flower, mustard, and similar plants; and com- 
 mences its ravages about the end of May or be- 
 
 ginning of June, and continues them till checked 
 by the frost. It made fearful havoc upon cauli- 
 flower in 1826, upon cabbages in 1833, and upon 
 turnips in 1827 and 1836 ; and it may usually 
 be seen in myriads under cabbage-leaves in July, 
 and hid in the leaves of the crumpled broccoli 
 so late as the end of November. — The turnip-leaf 
 plant-louse, Aphis rapce, is nearly allied to the 
 cabbage plant-louse, but can readily be distin- 
 guished by its long tubes, and the small apical 
 cells of its wings. The head of the male is 
 blackish ; its collar is ochreous and brown ; the 
 disc of its thorax is shining black ; its abdomen 
 is greenish ; its spiracles or breathing-pores are 
 brown ; its tubes are long and slender ; its wings 
 are iridescent, and have light brown nervures ; 
 and its feet, its claws, and the tips of its thighs 
 are black. The female is bright green sha- 
 greened, and has fuscous horns. This species 
 abounds on the leaves of the English turnip in 
 the latter part of summer; it infests carrots, 
 beet, spinach, tomato, and some other plants ; 
 and during a considerable time, it was widely 
 and confidently accused of causing the terrific 
 potato disease of 1846. See the article Potato. 
 — Most of the many species which prey upon gar- 
 den and farm crops are readily destroyed by fumi- 
 gations of tobacco or by aspersions of soap-suds 
 or tobacco-water. 
 
 The aphides, in their economy of pairing and 
 reproduction, are the most remarkable animals 
 yet known. Bonnet, Bazin, Reaumur, Trembley, 
 Lyonnet, and other naturalists, ascertained, by 
 experiment and observation, some facts in this 
 economy so wonderful as to be utterly incredible 
 except on high and complicated authority. Bon- 
 net selected a plant-louse which he had seen born 
 the instant before of a mother without wings, 
 and placed it upon a leafy spindle-tree branch, 
 which he had carefully and minutely ascertained 
 to be free from the presence of any other indivi- 
 dual aphis. He fixed the branch with the insect 
 in a phial of water, placed the phial in a garden- 
 pot of mould, covered the whole with a glass 
 vessel, and so completely buried the edges of the 
 vessel in the mould that there could not possibly 
 be any communication between the imprisoned 
 insect and the external world. He commenced 
 his experiment on the 20th of May; and day 
 after day, he hourly, from five in the morning 
 till nine or ten at night, watched the insect wiUli 
 a magnifying glass ; and he found that it four 
 times changed its skin, and grew like a cater- 
 pillar, that on the 1st of June it produced a 
 living young insect, and that, from that date till 
 the 22d of the same month, it brought forth 
 ninety-five young insects. Bazin made similar 
 experiments and observations upon the poppy 
 plant-louse and the rose plant-louse, and found 
 them also to produce progenies of young without 
 having paired. Trembley put an elder-tree plant- 
 louse on a slip of elder, enclosed this in a glass 
 
JS 7 ! APHIDES [Plant lice] and. their destroyers. 
 
 i [''ulhiricui .'•('" London X'F.iiiuourjfh 
 
APHIS. 
 
 93 
 
 APHIS. 
 
 tube, plunged one end of the tube in water and 
 plugged the other with cotton, and found the 
 insect about two months after beginning to pro- 
 duce young, and -subsequently producing more 
 at intervals according to the temperature of the 
 atmosphere. Trembley's breeding apparatus is 
 shown in Fig. 15, Plate XVI., Reaumur's in Fig. 
 16. Bonnet, not contented with his first experi- 
 ments, instituted a new series, and ascertained 
 that at least five generations of the elder-tree 
 plant-louse, and no fewer than nine generations 
 of the oak plant-louse, may be produced with- 
 out any pairing. Lyonnet afterwards confirmed 
 these ulterior observations of Bonnet ; and Du- 
 van observed some individual plant-lice during 
 seven consecutive months, and found eleven 
 generations to be produced without pairing. 
 This extraordinary and truly wonderful fecundity 
 of female aphides, however, becomes exhausted ; 
 and pairing becomes as indispensable for its re- 
 newal as it is for the reproduction of any other 
 animal. Yet the female, after having paired, 
 does not produce living young but eggs or a kind 
 of pupge resembling eggs ; the insects evolved 
 from the eggs produce living young ones without 
 pairing ; all the young of successive generations 
 till the approach of pairing time are females; 
 and in autumn or at the close of summer, when 
 fecundity is exhausted and pairing becomes 
 necessary for its renewal, some males are pro- 
 duced. How mighty and glorious are the evi- 
 dences of the Divine skill and superintendence 
 throughout each of the infinite diversities of 
 organism and economy among creatures ! 
 
 The rapidity with which the aphides multiply 
 is almost as astonishing as their peculiar mode 
 of generation. Calculating on the data of Bon- 
 net's observations, reckoning 90 for the first 
 generation from a single mother, and supposing 
 that each individual will be equally prolific with 
 the parent, the second generation will amount to 
 8,100, the third to 729,000, the fourth to 65,610,000, 
 the fifth to 5,904,900,000, and the ninth to 
 350,970,489,000,000,000. Yet several naturalists 
 estimate the increase at considerably greater 
 rates; and Dr. Richardson, in particular, cal- 
 culates the ninth generation to amount to 
 25,065,093,750,000,000,000, and does not include 
 in this number the generation of pupae immedi- 
 ately before winter for the renewal of the race 
 or progeny of the following season. Major re- 
 cords that, in September, 1829, he saw swarms 
 of the apple bug-blight alighting in clouds, and 
 covering every kind of tree or plant within the 
 space on which they alighted. And White of 
 Selborne says, " On the first of August, about 
 half-an-hour after three in the afternoon, the 
 people of Selborne were surprised by a shower 
 of aphides which fell in these parts. They who 
 were walking the streets at that time found 
 themselves covered with these insects, which 
 settled also on the trees and gardens, and black- 
 
 ened all the vegetables where they alighted. 
 These armies, no doubt, were then in a state 
 of emigration, and shifting their quarters, and 
 might perhaps come from the great hop planta- 
 tions of Kent and Sussex ; the wind being that 
 day at north. They were observed at the same 
 time at Farnham and all along the vale at Alton." 
 
 Some entire species of aphides, and certain 
 portions or generations of other species, appear 
 to be migratory. All the individuals of the 
 Aphis humuli, though sufficiently numerous to 
 cover the leaves of the hop plantations in millions, 
 have been observed, for several successive years, 
 to disappear soon after mid-summer. The bean 
 dolphin, the zebra plant-louse, and some other 
 species, are also seen to make a total disappear- 
 ance at some period in summer; and though 
 they may in some instances die on or near the 
 place where they disappear, yet, in the majority 
 of instances, they obviously migrate either to 
 other districts to obtain supplies of food, or to 
 the sea-coast to be drowned and washed away in 
 the same manner as the locusts of oriental coun- 
 tries. " I once," says a naturalist, " witnessed, 
 to my great annoyance, an emigration of aphides, 
 when travelling in the Isle of Ely. The air was 
 so full of them that they were incessantly flying 
 into my eyes, nostrils, &c, and my clothes were 
 covered by them ; and in 1814, in the autumn, 
 the aphides were so abundant for a few days in 
 the vicinity of Ipswich, as to be noted with sur- 
 prise by the most incurious observer." The pro- 
 vision made by the Creator in their organism 
 and economy, for enabling them to migrate, and 
 for regulating the time and the extent of their 
 migrations, has the same wonderful character as 
 the laws of their reproduction. In spring, all 
 the aphides which appear are wingless females ; 
 as the season advances, some winged females 
 appear and remove to a distance ; in the new 
 quarters of the winged females, most of the next 
 generation are wingless females ; and in autumn, 
 at the appearance of the last generation of the 
 season, most of the males are wingless to retain 
 them with the main body of the females on the 
 spot, and a few are winged to enable them to 
 migrate to distant colonies. The winged insects, 
 both male and female, pair with the wingless 
 ones; and all the young which are destined to 
 become winged have the elements of the wings 
 folded up in little bunches at the shoulders, and 
 are not practically winged till after the third or 
 fourth casting of the skin. 
 
 Several species of the sylviadse or soft-billed 
 birds, particularly the yellow wren, the gold- 
 crest, the babillard, and a number of others, feed 
 upon the aphides. The beautiful beetles coc- 
 cinellae, popularly called lady - birds and lady- 
 cows, comprising about thirty British species, 
 prey, in both their larva and their perfect state, 
 most conspicuously upon the aphides, and some- 
 times destroy entire swarms. "Their method 
 
APHTHiE. 
 
 94 
 
 APION. 
 
 of attacking the aphides," says Mr. Curtis, " is 
 curious. I have seen one of the latter struggling 
 whilst this little insect alligator threw his fore- 
 legs about it, and was greatly amused at the skill 
 it exhibited ; for, fearing that the aphis might 
 escape, it gradually slid along to the wings, which 
 were closed, and immediately began to bite them 
 so that in a very short time they were rendered 
 useless, being matted together ; it then returned 
 in triumph to the side of its helpless victim, and 
 seizing the thorax firmly in its grasp, it ate into 
 the side, coolly putting its hind-leg over those of 
 the aphis, whose convulsive throbs annoyed its 
 relentless enemy." The coccinellse are often at- 
 tracted in myriads to feed upon the aphides of 
 the hop plantations, the gardens, and the or- 
 chards ; and in some seasons when the aphides 
 were unusually multitudinous, they have ap- 
 peared in some districts in such enormous num- 
 bers as to alarm the ignorant and superstitious. 
 The grubs of hemerobidae or lace-winged flies — 
 easily recognisable by their slow flight, their 
 broad, greenish, gauzy wings, their bad odour, 
 and their shining, amber-like eyes — are so vora- 
 cious devourers of aphides as to be often called 
 aphis-lions. The maggots of some syrphidae or 
 wasp-flies, feed on the cabbage plant-lice, and 
 possibly on some other species of aphides. Some 
 small species of ichneumons deposit their eggs 
 in the bodies of the latter or autumnal genera- 
 tions of two or three species of aphides ; and all 
 the earwigs devour plant-lice, particularly such 
 species as cause the leaves of plants to shrivel. 
 All the aphides are easily seized by the most 
 slowly moving perfect insects and even by their 
 larvae, for they make no effort to escape. — Paper 
 by Professor Rennie in Q. Journal of Agr. — Paper 
 by Mr. Curtis in Journal of Royal Agr. Soc. of 
 England. — White's Natural History. — Pictorial 
 Museum of Animated Nature. — Virey Des Mwurs 
 et des Instincts. — Journal of a Naturalist quoted 
 in Quar. Journal of Agr. — The Entomologist. — 
 Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. — Hunter's Geor- 
 gical Essays. — Salisbury's Hints on Orchards. — 
 Treatise on Husbandry in Lib. of Useful Know- 
 ledge. 
 
 APHTHiE or Thrush. A disease in the mouth 
 of sheep and black cattle. It resembles blain or 
 gloss-anthrax, and has often been mistaken for 
 it, but is less severe. It consists in pustules or 
 vesicles along the sides of the tongue, at the root 
 of the tongue, athwart the palate, and sometimes 
 backward to the fauces and forward to the out- 
 side of the lips ; it occasionally extends and ag- 
 gravates itself into a general ulceration of the 
 mouth ; and it is frequently accompanied by in- 
 ability to feed, loss of appetite, and general lassi- 
 tude. It often appears at the time when the 
 foot is affected with foot-rot, and has been sup- 
 posed, not without reason, to have some con- 
 nexion with that disease, for the sheep, being in 
 the habit of licking its foot when sore, may suck 
 
 in some of the acrid discharge of foot-rot, and in 
 consequence contract a pustulous condition of 
 the mouth. Alum water, applied as a lotion to 
 the mouth, will speedily remove the tenderness 
 which prevents the animal from feeding ; and, if 
 promptly used as soon as the earliest symptoms 
 of the disease appear, will effect a cure before 
 any of the worst symptoms can have time to be 
 developed. When a lamb is affected with aph- 
 thae, it communicates the disease to the ewe's 
 udder, is prevented by the ewe from continuing 
 to suck, and gradually pines away. The infected 
 udder swells and sometimes suppurates, always 
 making the ewe lose flesh, and sometimes occa- 
 sioning one or both teats to slough, and render- 
 ing the animal useless for a stock ewe. When a 
 flock of young and old are partly affected, the 
 diseased ought to be promptly and completely 
 separated from the sound, and the affected parts 
 of the former may with advantage be dressed 
 every morning with a detergent mixture of half 
 a pound of simple oxymel, six ounces of burnt 
 alum, and two drachms of sulphate of copper. 
 Aphthae, especially in unusually cold and wet 
 weather in spring or winter, is sometimes an 
 epizootic in both sheep and black cattle ; so that, 
 whenever it appears, precautions ought to be . 
 adopted to prevent it from spreading. The dis- 
 ease is rarely so severe in black cattle as in 
 sheep, sometimes healing of its own accord, sel- 
 dom exciting sufficient fever to impair the ap- j 
 petite, and never exciting so much as to indicate 
 any danger. It may continue during ten or 
 fourteen days or even during a longer period ; 
 but it gradually disappears under the action of 
 a few mild doses of physic. — Cleeve's Prize Essay 
 on the Diseases of Sheep in Journal of Eng. Agr. 
 Society. — Spooner on Sheep. — Youatt on Cattle. 
 
 APIARY. A group of garden bee-hives, or a 
 place in which bees are kept. See Bees. 
 
 APION. A large genus of insects of the cole- 
 opterous order. It comprises many of the small- j 
 est individuals of the weevil tribe ; and possesses 
 a sad interest to the farmer in its devastations 
 upon the seeds of clover. About ninety species 
 of it have been enumerated by naturalists ; but 
 many of these can be distinguished from one an- 
 other only by the aid of a microscope ; and only 
 two or three are conspicuous enough in mischief 
 to challenge any special notice. The largest in- 
 sects of the genus do not exceed two lines and a 
 half in length, and some measure scarcely one 
 line. Their crust is usually very hard, and not 
 unfrequently adorned with somewhat vivid me- 
 tallic tints, and sculptured with deep parallel 
 furrows and catenulatcd lines. They take their 
 name from a Greek word which signifies a pear, 
 and present a considerable miniature resem- 
 blance to that fruit in shape. In their states of 
 at once larva, pupa, and perfect insect, they feed 
 on plants ; and in the case of several of their 
 species, they are permanently and exclusively 
 
APION. 
 
 do 
 
 APPETITE. 
 
 attached to particular plants in the same appro- 
 priating manner as the species of aphides. Most 
 feed upon leguminous plants, and certain species 
 feed chiefly or exclusively upon the cultivated 
 clovers, the restharrow, the meadow vetchling, 
 and the tufted vetch. 
 
 Apion apricans — also called A pion flavifemora- 
 tum — feeds upon red clover, Trifolium pratense, 
 and is considerably the most mischievous species 
 of apion. It usually abounds on stones and warm 
 banks by the sides of fields, and seems to occur 
 in all parts of Great Britain. Its length is about 
 one line and a half; its body is black ; its head 
 is finely punctured ; its rostrum is long, shining, 
 filiform, finely punctured, and somewhat thick- 
 ened in the middle ; its antennae are prevailingly 
 black, but yellowish at the base ; its thorax is 
 thickly punctured, and has a faint line on the 
 back; its elytra are broadly ovate, somewhat 
 glossy, and marked with parallel lines of punc- 
 tures ; its legs are black ; and its thighs, the two 
 anterior coxae, the tibiae, and all the trochanters 
 are yellowish-red. Its larva is an extremely mi- 
 nute whitish worm, with a black head ; the pupa 
 is small, oval, and white ; the skin of the pupa 
 is so transparent that the limbs of the enclosed 
 insect, at an advanced stage of the pupa condi- 
 tion, can be distinctly seen ; and the perfect in- 
 sect, on emerging from the pupa, is soft and 
 white, but soon acquires its permanent colours 
 and other distinguishing properties. The perfect 
 insect passes the winter in a torpid condition 
 beneath the bark of trees, among moss, under 
 stones, and in other similar situations ; and at 
 the time when red clover is ready to flower, the 
 female deposits her eggs on the calyx of the 
 florets, usually placing them near the base. The 
 larva, as soon as it is hatched, begins to eat its 
 way through the base of the floret, and consumes 
 the rudiment of the seed ; and, when increased 
 in size and strength, it proceeds through a series 
 of seed-vessels, and subsists entirely on their con- 
 tents. The injury inflicted sometimes amounts 
 to the total destruction of considerably more 
 than one half of all the clover seed of a crop, and 
 the serious deterioration of much of the remain- 
 der by partially gnawing or by deprivation of its 
 juices. The immediate loss of the destroyed seed 
 falls of course, only upon seed growers ; but the 
 eventual loss to the farmer may be very serious, 
 partly by the enhancement of the price of seed, 
 and chiefly by the deterioration of the portion 
 which he purchases. The destruction of the 
 eggs or the young larvae by saturation of the 
 clover heads with some pungent liquid would 
 probably be too difficult and expensive ; and, in- 
 stead of it, the destruction of the parent insect 
 in spring, might be attempted by sweeping all 
 suspected places in and around fields with small 
 nets sufficiently close in the meshes to catch and 
 retain the insects. 
 
 Apion fiavipes is also a very common and mis- 
 
 chievous species, and attaches itself to white 
 clover, Trifolium repens, in the same manner in 
 which Apion apricans preys upon red clover. Its 
 length is about one line and a quarter ; its body 
 and its rostrum are black and shining ; its ros- 
 trum is not very long, and slightly thickened at 
 the base and the apex ; its antennae are yellowish 
 at the base, and inserted behind its middle ; its 
 thorax is scarcely wider than its head, thickly 
 punctured, and marked behind the middle with 
 a short, impressed, dorsal line; its elytra are 
 broadly ovate, marked with close punctured lines, 
 and not so much inflated as those of Apion apri- 
 cans; and its legs are yellow, the tarsi and coxae 
 are black, the latter parts sometimes yellow on 
 the two anterior pair of legs. This species con- 
 ducts its depredations in the same manner and 
 with the same results as Apion apricans; and 
 can be combated or destroyed only by similar 
 means. — Apion assimile has a somewhat close re- 
 semblance to "Apion apricans^ and attaches itself 
 to the Trifolium ochroleucum. — Apion ononis at- 
 taches itself to the restharrow, Ononis arvensis, 
 and has been known to occasion that plant an 
 almost total loss of its leaves. — Paper of Rev. Mr. 
 Duncan in Quar. Journal of Agr. — The Linncean 
 Transactions. — Paper of Mr. J. Walton in the 
 Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. 
 
 APPETITE. A desire to eat, combined or 
 accompanied with an uneasy or painful sensation 
 in the stomach. A regular appetite is generally 
 indicative of good health; and either a feeble 
 appetite or a voracious one is indicative of de- 
 rangement of some of the organs or debility of 
 the whole constitution. When a horse has a 
 feeble appetite, or in common phrase a want of 
 appetite, he eats an insufficient quantity of food, 
 mangles his hay or leaves it in the rack, loses 
 flesh or at least acquires very little, and dis- 
 charges pale and habitually soft excrement. The 
 relaxed state of constitution, or weakened con- 
 dition of the organs of digestion which is in- 
 dicated by these appearances of feeble appetite, 
 may either be hereditary, or habitual, or the 
 effect of using too much hot meat, or of other 
 improper management. A good method of treat- 
 ment, when the feebleness of appetite is heredi- 
 tary or habitual, is to give him much gentle ex- 
 ercise in the open air, to confine him as much as 
 possible to a dry diet, to beware of oppressing his 
 stomach with large seeds, to indulge him with 
 an occasional handful of beans among his oats, 
 and in general to give him light, dry, grateful, 
 nourishing food, and a constant and free supply 
 of pure air. If he do not speedily improve under 
 this treatment, or if he appear to suffer uneasi- 
 ness in his bowels, he ought to receive a few 
 gentle purges, followed by aromatic drinks. But 
 when the feebleness of appetite is occasioned by 
 too much feeding, especially scalded bran or other 
 hot diet, the best treatment is to bleed and purge 
 the horse, and at the same time to rowel him in 
 
APPETITE. 
 
 9G 
 
 ARACACHA 
 
 the belly. When a horse is overfed, or stimu- 
 lated with strong hot food, he is liable first to 
 become suddenly fat, next to have overrich or 
 greasy secretions in the alimentary ducts, next 
 to suffer relaxation and weakness in these organs, 
 and next to acquire squeamishness and intestinal 
 worms ; and he, in consequence, comes to have 
 eminent need of purging, proper exercise, and a 
 clean diet. 
 
 When a young horse has a fiery temperament, 
 and suffers enfeeblement of appetite from fretting 
 and devilment, he ought to have always a cool 
 diet, and to be allowed ample scope for sobering 
 himself by free exercise and exuberant frolics in 
 the field. " Let these sort of horses run abroad," 
 says Gibson, " especially where they have stables 
 and warm ranges, to keep them from the inclem- 
 ency of the weather in winter ; for they are al- 
 ways tender, being, for the most part, extremely 
 thin-skinned, and their blood of a thin texture, 
 and easily put in motion. For the same reason, 
 the best way, in summer, is to bring them up in 
 the day time, and only let them run abroad in 
 the night, they being more hunted with the flies 
 than any other, which keeps them continually 
 upon the fret, and hinders them from thriving. 
 When such horses live till they are full aged, 
 their heat and fieriness often abate, so that they 
 grow more useful; but while they are young, 
 they are more subject to inward imposthumations 
 than horses of a cooler temperament ; and these 
 often kill them suddenly, or bring them into 
 lingering consumptive maladies, which in some 
 measure may be prevented by the above method." 
 
 Voracity of appetite in its worst forms, is 
 known to farmers and veterinary surgeons un- 
 der the name of Fou l- Feeding : see that article. 
 But this disease, as it occurs in other domestic 
 animals than the horse, is comparatively rare, 
 and scarcely ever assumes any unpleasant ap- 
 pearance which may not be removed by slight 
 alterations or the mere regulation of diet. But a 
 remarkable instance is on record — and may pro- 
 bably be but a specimen of occasionally occur- 
 ring instances — in which constitutional and in- 
 curable voracity in the cow was caused by mal- 
 formation of the manyplies. Two cows were 
 observed, throughout their lifetime, to eat always 
 more food than other cows, and sometimes so 
 much as double, or even treble, and yet never to 
 become fatter than other cows, or to yield as 
 good or as much milk; and, when they were 
 slaughtered, the internal surface of the many- 
 plies of the one displayed rugie not so long as a 
 man's finger, and that of the manyplies of the 
 other displayed corrugations even less strongly 
 marked. The animals were thus so constituted 
 that they could not more than half digest their 
 food, so that they were compelled to eat double 
 the normal quantity in order to obtain sufficient 
 nourishment for their continuing in health. — 
 Gibson on the Diseases of Horses. — The Veteri- 
 
 narian. — The Society of Gentlemen's Complete 
 Farmer. 
 
 APRIL. See Calendar. 
 
 ARABLE LAND. Land capable of being tilled 
 with the plough. Arable land is very often, by 
 an abuse of words, made to mean land in a state 
 of actual tillage ; and, in this sense, it is not only 
 much more limited than in its proper one, but I 
 constantly shifts and varies in its application to 
 any one district or farm, with the alternations of 
 ley or grass and active courses of rotation. Arable 
 land, in its true meaning, comprises, not only all 
 ground in actual tilth whether by the plough or 
 by the spade, but all gardens, lawns, and deep- 
 soiled meadows in thoroughly cultivated coun- 
 tries, and all tracts of deep-soiled, open ground in 
 the countries of the wild beast or the savage ; and 
 it is contrasted to woodland, mountain pasture, 
 morass, sandy wilderness, rocky ground, and all 
 other varieties of the earth's surface which are 
 impracticable to the plough. Most of the arable 
 lands of the world have been formed by the dis- 
 integration of rocks, the growth and decay of 
 cryptogamic plants, and the deposition of silt and 
 sand and gravel from running water ; some have 
 been laid bare or rendered available to man by the 
 recession of the ocean and the bursting or drain- 
 ing of lakes ; and a few have been formed by the 
 decomposition of beds of pyrites, the eruptions 
 of volcanoes, the overflowings of the sea, and 
 various artificial processes of draining morasses, 
 changing the texture of dry bogs, and mixing 
 foreign and fertilizing ingredients with arid sands. 
 The composition of the different kinds of arable 
 lands will be pointed out in the article Soil; 
 the distribution of arable lands in thoroughly 
 cultivated countries will be noticed in the ar- 
 ticle Farm ; and the methods of improving, cul- 
 tivating and managing arable lands will be de- 
 tailed under the words Draining, Ploughing, 
 Rotation or Crops, Manure, and in several 
 other articles^ — ChaptaVs Chemistry of Agricul- 
 ture. — Liebig's Chemistry of Agriculture. — Brit- 
 ish Husbandry. — Rham , s Dictionary of the Farm. 
 
 ARACACHA. An economical, perennial, her- 
 baceous, tuberous-rooted plant, of the umbelli- 
 ferous tribe. It has no beauty, but possesses 
 remarkable utility in furnishing food for man, 
 and might probably, by diffusion and judicious 
 cultivation, become one of the most valuable 
 plants in the world. It grows indigenously in 
 New Granada and other parts of Columbia ; it is 
 there known under the name of Apio, and is con- 
 sidered the most useful and agreeable of all the 
 plants whose roots are used as human food ; it 
 has, for a considerable time past, attracted the 
 attention of horticulturists both in Europe and 
 the United States ; it was, about fifteen years 
 ago, introduced by some botanists and amateur 
 cultivators into Great Britain ; and it has been 
 made the subject of many interesting experi- 
 ments and observations at Montpellier,at Geneva, 
 
RECENTLY DISCOVERED PLANTS 
 -AVn SUITABLE FOR STEED CULTURE IN BRITAIN 
 
 ^ -■ — _K- — .i — ■ — — "* " iBoSSFKgjp 
 
ARACACHA. 97 
 
 at Fromont, in the south of France, in the south 
 of England, and in other places. It does not 
 thrive in the hotter regions of South America, 
 acquiring very small size of tubers, and expend- 
 ing its main strength in the production of stems ; 
 it thrives well in the districts whose mean heat is 
 not greater than (50°, and best of all in the moun- 
 tainous districts whose mean heat is between 
 58° and 60° ; it is cultivated, with excellent re- 
 sult, in the Caraccas ; it promises to adapt itself 
 very readily to the climate of Italy, Spain, and 
 the south of France ; and though hitherto it has 
 required the heat of the greenhouse in England, 
 it has thriven in a sufficient number of instances 
 in the open air, to warrant the hope that it may 
 speedily be so acclimated as to nourish under field 
 cultivation in the hop counties of England, and 
 especially in all the southern and south-eastern 
 counties of Ireland. We are not aware that 
 any trials of it have been made in the counties 
 of Cork, Wexford, or Kilkenny ; but we are san- 
 guine as to the results whenever they shall be 
 judiciously made ; and we would suggest that, 
 in the present disastrous state of potato cultiva- 
 tion, trials of the aracacha should be made 
 throughout all the south and the centre of both 
 Ireland and England. 
 
 The stems of the aracacha grow to the height 
 of from two to four feet ; the leaves are long and 
 pinnated, and resemble those of celery ; and the 
 roots are large fleshy tubers, somewhat resem- 
 bling, in their form and clustering, the tubers of 
 the dahlia. The knobs or tubers of the root, 
 however, are of two clusters and kinds : those 
 produced from the upper part of the root are 
 comparatively small in size, incline upwards, and 
 individually produce several germs or shoots to- 
 ward the tip ; and those produced from the cen- 
 tral and lower parts of the root, are larger than 
 the former, descend into the soil, excel the root 
 itself in tenderness and in the delicateness of 
 their flour, and are the kind preferred for food 
 and generally brought to table. Eight or ten of 
 these large and chief tubers, besides small ones, 
 are produced by each parent root ; they are shaped 
 somewhat like a cow's horn, but taper suddenly 
 off, and terminate in a few small fibres ; they 
 have a diameter of 2 or 2| inches in almost every 
 part of their length, except the more tapering 
 extremity ; and the largest of them has usually a 
 length of 8 or 9 inches. Different varieties of 
 the plant have respectively white, yellow, and 
 purple tubers ; but all the varieties are quite or 
 very nearly identical in nutritiousness, flavour, 
 and other principal properties. In the district 
 around Santa Fe, where the plant is indigenous, 
 and where its tubers are as universally used for 
 food as those of the potato are in England, it is 
 propagated by planting pieces of the root, each 
 containing an eye or shoot, and it acquires in 
 three or four months a sufficient size and ripe- 
 ness of tuber to be suitable for culinary purposes, 
 
 ARBITRATION. 
 
 and, when allowed to grow during six months, 
 increases the tubers to a vast size without any 
 deterioration of their flavour. Mr. D. Fanning 
 of London, describing in 1829, the mode of culti- 
 vating the plant in the Caraccas, says, "Take a 
 young plant or sucker, and cut it close to the 
 top, leaving only two leaves on it. After it is 
 cut, let it remain a day or two in the shade, in 
 order to allow the cut part to heal. Plant them 
 out early in April, about two feet apart, on the 
 top of drills, barely placing the plants in the 
 earth. Let them remain thus till the latter end 
 of August or beginning of September, when the 
 roots will be fit for use. Then take up both root 
 and plant, and place them in a warm dry situa- 
 tion until April, and then prepare again for plant- 
 ing as stated above." The mode of experimental 
 cultivation in England, is in deep black mould, 
 in a temperature as nearly as possible ranging 
 between 55° and 62°. Mr. Hamilton at Ply- 
 mouth, where the mean temperature of the month 
 of J uly is 63° 50', found his experimental ara- 
 cacha plant to grow more luxuriantly in the open 
 air than in the house, and to thrive and flourish 
 beyond his most sanguine expectation. 
 
 The tuber is tender and easily cooked, and is 
 prepared for food in the same manner as pota- 
 toes, but requires to be very thoroughly boiled. 
 It is grateful to the palate, congenial to the 
 stomach, and at once so nutritious and so easy of 
 digestion as to be a fit principal aliment to young 
 children, sick adults, and all persons of feeble or 
 impaired powers of digestion. Its flavour has a 
 medium character between that of the potato 
 and that of the parsnip. Some persons relish it, 
 and others rather dislike it, at the first time of 
 tasting it but even the latter speedily relish it, 
 and all persons like it increasingly the longer it 
 is used. A fecula manufactured from it is em- 
 ployed as both starch and pastry-flour ; and the 
 pulp of it enters into the composition of certain 
 South American fermented liquors, which are 
 supposed to be efficacious as tonics. The tubers 
 have been thought to resemble in flavour and 
 other properties the small, sweet, pleasant, fari- 
 naceous, nutritious tubers of the great earth-nut, 
 Bunium bulbocastanum, zxiA Bunium fiexuomm,m 
 well known in many of the dry pastures of Great 
 Britain, and so greedily sought after and highly 
 relished by children and hogs. — Curtis 's Botanical 
 Magazine. — Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. — Re- 
 pertory of Inventions. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. 
 
 ARBITRATION. A private mode of deciding 
 differences, by a voluntary reference of disputed 
 claims to the decision of one or more persons 
 named as arbiters by the parties. This method 
 of terminating disputes certainly deserves encour- 
 agement, on account of its tendency to diminish 
 expense to parties, and to allay that heat and 
 animosity which is too often produced and fos- 
 tered by the proceedings in a public court of 
 G 
 
ARBITRATION. 
 
 ARROW-GRASS. 
 
 justice. The decision or award of the arbiters 
 proceeds upon a deed of submission, which is a 
 contract entered into by the parties, whereby 
 they fix and determine the matters in con- 
 troversy, define the powers of the arbiters, 
 and mutually bind themselves to abide by the 
 award. 
 
 Experience having shown the great advantage 
 of these peaceable and private tribunals — especi- 
 ally in settling matters of account, and other 
 mercantile transactions, which it is extremely 
 difficult to adjust on a trial at law — the English 
 legislature established the use of them by statute 
 9 and 13, William III., c. 15, which enacts, that 
 all merchants and others, who desire to end any 
 controversy, (for which there is no other remedy 
 but by personal action or suit in equity,) may 
 agree that their submission of the suit to arbitra- 
 tion or umpirage shall be made a rule of any of 
 the king's courts of record ; and after such rule 
 made, the parties disobeying the award shall be 
 liable to be punished as for a contempt of the 
 court, unless such award shall be set aside for 
 corruption or other misbehaviour in the arbitra- 
 tors or umpire, proved on oath to the court within 
 one term after the award is made. And in con- 
 sequence of this statute, it is now become a con- 
 siderable part of the business of the superior 
 courts, to set aside such awards, when partially 
 or illegally made ; or to enforce their execution, 
 when legal, by the same process of contempt as 
 is awarded for disobedience to such rules and 
 orders as are issued by the courts themselves. 
 
 When a submission is made to two or more 
 persons as arbiters, it is usual to stipulate, that 
 another person shall be called in as umpire, (im- 
 perator or impar ; in Scotland, oversman), in case 
 of disagreement ; to whose sole judgment the 
 dispute is then to be referred. 
 
 The decisions of arbiters have been at all times 
 so favourably viewed that among most nations 
 they are not reducible on the ground of injustice 
 or iniquity, but only on the ground of corruption. 
 By the old practice of Scotland, indeed, decrees- 
 arbitral were reducible on the head of iniquity 
 in the judge, or of enormous lesion of the party ; 
 but by act of regulations 1695, c. 25, it was de- 
 clared, that no decree-arbitral, proceeding on 
 written submission, should for the future be re- 
 ducible on any ground but those of corruption, 
 bribery, or falsehood. Of course all decrees in 
 which the arbiters have exceeded the powers com- 
 mitted to them, are reducible ; they may also be 
 challenged when the arbiter has not fully heard 
 parties, or where he has taken proof in absence of 
 one of the parties, or pronounced a decision pal- 
 pably at variance with the principles of justice. 
 
 Arbiters are but private persons, in whom the 
 law has vested no jurisdiction ; and, hence, they 
 cannot compel witnesses to appear and depose 
 before them, or possessors of writings to exhibit 
 them. But this defect is supplied in Scotland by 
 
 the court of session, who, at the suit either of the 
 arbiters, or of either of the parties, are in use to 
 grant warrants in course for the citing of wit- 
 nesses, or for the exhibition of writings before 
 the arbiters. 
 
 As arbiters derive their whole powers merely 
 from the consent of the parties submitting, their 
 award or decree, if it be not given in strict con- 
 formity to those powers, is null, not being founded 
 upon any proper authority. Hence arbiters can- 
 not inflict, on the parties submitting, any penalty 
 or fine higher than that which they themselves 
 have agreed to in the submission. Hence, also, 
 if the parties submitting limit the power of the 
 arbiters to any fixed day, decree cannot be pro- 
 nounced after that day ; though it may, in' ipso 
 termino, i. e. on the very day betwixt and which 
 the arbiters had powers given them to decide. 
 Where arbiters take upon them expressly to de- 
 termine points not referred to them, the decree- 
 arbitral may be declared null, upon an action of 
 reduction, as being pronounced ultra vires com- 
 promissi. 
 
 ARGILLACEOUS EARTH. Any earthy sub- 
 stance, whether soil or stone, powder or rock, 
 sand or paste, which contains alumina, or has an 
 admixture of clay. The soils called carse lands, 
 and the rocks called claystones and clay-porphy- 
 ries, are the most conspicuous specimens of ar- 
 gillaceous earths ; and all adhesive lands, loams, 
 and pasty or soluble soils usually contain a large 
 proportion of argillaceous matter. Argillaceous 
 earth, in all its varieties, always contains alkalies 
 and alkaline salts, with sulphates and phosphates ; 
 and, in consequence, it is eminently fertilizing, 
 or rather, is an indispensable and bulky ingre- 
 dient in all productive land. See Alkalies, Alu- 
 mina, and Clay. 
 
 ARM. The upper division of the foreleg of a 
 horse. It extends from the lower bone of the 
 shoulder to the knee, and, though strictly one 
 bone in an old horse, consists of two bones in 
 a young horse. The front and larger bone of 
 the arm is nearly straight, and technically bears 
 the name of radius ; the hinder and shorter bone 
 has a comparatively long and powerful projection, 
 and technically bears the name of ulna; and 
 these are connected by cartilage and ligament, 
 which eventually become ossified so as to render 
 the t wo bones one. Good j udges of horses, though 
 differing in opinion as to various points about 
 the arm, are agreed that this important member 
 of the animal ought to be large and muscular — 
 that every thoroughbred horse has a full and 
 swelling arm, — and that a horse whose arm is 
 narrow in front, flat on the side, and deficient in 
 play and power of muscle, can neither raise his 
 knee for rapid action, nor throw his legs suffi- 
 ciently forward for the purposes of either grace- 
 fulness, agility, or strength. 
 
 ARNATTO. See Annatto. 
 
 ARROW-GRASS —botanically, Triglochin. A 
 
ARTESIAN WELL. 
 
 99 
 
 ARTESIAN WELL. 
 
 genus of perennial herbaceous plants, of the alis- 
 ma tribe. They derive both their popular and 
 their botanical name from having triangular, 
 three-celled capsules ; and all are aquatics, and 
 grow to the height of about a foot. The marsh 
 species, Triglochlin palustre, grows indigenously 
 in the watery meadows of Great Britain, and pro- 
 duces a green flower in July and August ; the 
 sea species, Triglochin maritimum, grows indi- 
 genously in the salt marshes of Britain, and pro- 
 duces a green flower from May till August ; and 
 both of these species are greedily eaten by cattle, 
 and form both a healthful and a seasonable her- 
 bage in the early part of spring. 
 
 ARTESIAN WELL. A flow of water to the 
 surface of the earth, from strata situated be- 
 neath the lowest subsoil, through a perpendicular 
 boring made with a long auger and rod. It is 
 called artesian from the supposition, that the art 
 of making it was first known and practised in 
 the district of Artois in France ; yet it appears 
 to have been known in Italy at a very ancient 
 period, and it belongs, in modern times, fully 
 more to the United States of America than to 
 the old world. The artesian well is of great 
 value on farms and in districts in which a sum- 
 mer supply of good water is scarce ; and it has, 
 within a recent period, refreshed and enriched 
 many a spot whose soil was comparatively infertile 
 with aridity, and whose inhabitants suffered un- 
 happiness and disease from thirst or from noxi- 
 ous water. Some artesian wells have been bored 
 to the depth of 2,000 feet before a plentiful and 
 permanent flow of good water has been obtained ; 
 and many, at both great depths and small, have 
 brought up in arid districts such copious supplies 
 as have provoked the astonishment of all un- 
 scientific observers. 
 
 The Abattoir de Grenelle in Paris being at too 
 high a level to obtain an adequate supply of water 
 by the ordinary means, it was proposed to sink 
 an artesian well within the premises, which pro- 
 posal having been agreed to, the work was per- 
 severingly carried forward through many diffi- 
 culties during eight years, until the boring was 
 terminated by the auger penetrating the water- 
 bearing strata on the 26th February, 1841, when 
 a sudden and violent rush of water occurred, 
 overflowing at the surface of the ground. As 
 the boring progressed, tubes of rolled iron, and 
 subsequently of copper, were inserted to support 
 the sides ; the first being 12^ inches diameter, 
 and the lowest about 6^ inches diameter, reach- 
 ing to a depth of 1,794£ English feet. The quan- 
 tity of water thrown up while the bore remained 
 in this state was about 880,000 imperial gallons 
 per day, at a temperature of 82^° Fahrenheit. 
 
 The principle of these wells is exactly that of 
 natural springs or fountains ; and is very closely 
 exemplified in the ascent of water through a 
 fault or fissure or natural orifice in the strata of 
 a slanting, hilly mass of rock. Water absorbed 
 
 into the ground from the surface of a hill or 
 superior piece of plain, descends till it meets an 
 impervious stratum ; it then flows slowly through 
 the portion of porous strata immediately incum- 
 bent on the impervious bed, following the dip or 
 inclination of that bed, and proceeding, in some 
 instances, for miles before finding an outlet ; and 
 whenever it arrives at an orifice, whether natural 
 or artificial, it ascends to any level not greater 
 than that from which it has descended. In most 
 of the terrestrial parts of the world, therefore, 
 streams of water, of greater or less volume, are 
 flowing beneath the surface, to well up in the 
 myriads of springs which constitute the sources 
 of rills and rivers; and wherever an artificial 
 boring can be so made as to connect any of these 
 substrata streams with a spot on the earth's sur- 
 face not higher than the spots at which their 
 waters entered, an artesian well will be formed. 
 But in some cases the stream is so small, and in 
 others it flows at so enormous a depth, that a 
 tolerably good geological knowledge of a district 
 is requisite for determining when an attempt to 
 form an artesian well is likely to be cheap and 
 successful, or when it is likely to be either very 
 costly or altogether vain. At the Plymouth 
 meeting of the British Association, Professor 
 Sedgwick, after reviewing the general principle 
 of artesian wells, noticed two districts, in the one 
 of which attempts to form the wells are emi- 
 nently successful, and in the other totally ineffec- 
 tive. " In the eastern part of Essex, the chalk is 
 covered by sandy beds of the plastic clay, and 
 these by several hundred feet of impervious strata 
 of London clay, all dipping together towards the 
 east. The arenaceous beds below the London 
 clay rise higher towards the chalk than the clay 
 does, and absorb a considerable part of the water 
 from the high grounds. By boring through the 
 clays to this sand, springs of water immediately 
 rise above the surface, and are carried off by 
 natural channels. By this supply of water, the 
 value of the land has been materially increased, 
 since the country, though abounding in peat- 
 bogs and stagnant ponds during winter, suffers 
 much from the summer drought. The district 
 of opposite character, in which all attempts to 
 form artesian wells are failures, is that near Lin- 
 coln, which, though surrounded by fens covered 
 with water in the winter, is not sufficiently sup- 
 plied during the summer. But the clays sup- 
 porting the fens of the Bedford Level are below 
 the chalk ; and though there are pervious beds 
 beneath them, which rise to the north-west, yet 
 the clays are of such enormous thickness that 
 they have never been penetrated ; and even were 
 that accomplished, the high land is so distant 
 that intervening fissures, filled up with imper- 
 vious materials, might intercept the supply. 
 Expensive sinkings have been made at Lynn, and 
 also at Boston; but, after boring through many 
 hundred feet of clay, they have utterly failed; 
 
ARTICHOKE. 
 
 100 
 
 ARUNDO 
 
 and, in any future operations in this district, the 
 chance of success would be very remote." — [Edin- 
 burgh Philosophical Journal.] 
 
 ARTICHOKE (Jerusalem),— botanically Heli- 
 anthus tuberosus. A perennial, tuberous, escu- 
 lent-rooted, herbaceous plant, of the composite 
 family. It is called artichoke from a resemblance 
 in the flavour of its tubers to that of the edible 
 heads of the true artichoke ; and it bears the ab- 
 surd epithet Jerusalem from an ignorant corrup- 
 tion of its Italian name girasole. It is a native 
 of Brazil, and was introduced to Great Britain 
 in 1617. It grows to the height of from 5 to 10 
 feet, has three-nerved scabrous leaves, and pro- 
 duces a yellow flower in September and October. 
 Though the native of a warm country, it is one 
 of the hardiest of our cultivated plants ; and it is 
 easily propagated and very productive, and grows 
 on the poorest soils. It was highly esteemed by 
 our ancestors for its tubers ; and, though inferior 
 in flavour and other qualities to the potato, it 
 scarcely deserves the general disrepute into which 
 that more esteemed, esculent root has thrown it, 
 but merits considerable attention, and would well 
 repay somewhat extensive cultivation. It grows 
 under shade ; it can be cultivated in woods and 
 half-waste grounds ; it is sometimes planted in 
 English woods, and left to propagate itself, in 
 order to aflbrd shelter to game ; and it might 
 very advantageously be raised on semi-barren or 
 exhausted soils as food for stock. It does not 
 ripen its seeds in Great Britain, yet is very facilely 
 propagated from its tubers, in precisely the same 
 manner as potatoes. Either entire small tubers 
 or eyed sets of large tubers may be planted in 
 drills, at wider distances between both rows and 
 plants than in the case of potatoes ; and if planted 
 in spring, they will be ready for use in Septem- 
 ber ; yet they may be planted also in autumn. 
 Most English cultivators cut the stems over in 
 July, to prevent them from falling down. In 
 Alsace, Jerusalem artichokes are always grown, 
 without any rotation, and with manure only 
 every second year, upon the same land. At Be- 
 chelbronn, upon somewhat shallow soil, they pro- 
 duce per acre 10 tons of tubers and 11^ cwts. of 
 dried stems ; and in many situations, upon land 
 of medium quality, and without any manure, 
 they produce per acre about 500 bushels of tubers. 
 The leaves and stems are used on the continent 
 as both green and dry fodder ; but only the tu- 
 bers, so far as we know, have hitherto been used 
 in Scotland. The plant, when growing, is very 
 unsightly, and when once in full possession of a 
 spot of ground, cannot easily be exterminated, 
 but is apt to overrun every plant in its vicinity ; 
 and, for these reasons, it ought not to be intro- 
 duced to a garden or to any choice piece of field- 
 ground. The tubers are more watery and less 
 agreeable than potatoes, and frequently have the 
 effect of raising much flatulence ; yet, though not 
 fattening, they are eagerly eaten by most grani- 
 
 vorous animals, and constitute decidedly good 
 food for farm stock ; and they even form a deli- 
 cate esculent for man, when they are served, in 
 a boiled condition, in white sauce. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. See Grasses. 
 
 ARUNDO. A genus of coarse grasses, belong- 
 ing to the brome-grass tribe, and popularly called 
 Heeds. Three species cf it, the cultivated, the 
 common, and the sea- reed, possess more or less in- 
 terest to farmers. The cultivated species, Arundo 
 donax, is a native of the south of Europe, the 
 Caucasian mountains, Egypt, and Siberia, and 
 was introduced to Britain from the first of these 
 regions in 1648; it grows to the height of 10 
 feet ; flowers in July and August, and sometimes 
 has leaves as broad and long as the blade of a 
 small sword ; it is cultivated in Italy and the 
 south of France for fishing-rods, fences, vine- 
 supporters, and several other purposes ; and it is 
 grown and prepared in Spain and Portugal for 
 exportation to Britain as material for weavers'- 
 reeds, fishing-rods, and other similar implements. 
 
 The common species, Arundo phragmites, grows 
 wild in the ditches of Great Britain, has a height 
 of about six feet, and blooms from July till Sep- 
 tember. It is used for protecting sea-embank- 
 ments, thatching houses, ceiling cottages, con- 
 structing rustic verandahs, laying the bases of 
 mortar-floors, and forming hot -bed covers for 
 tender culinary plants. Its flowers are a green 
 dye for wool ; and its roots are said to have some 
 good medicinal effects in diseases of the liver. 
 
 The sea-reed, marrum, or mat-grass — though 
 called by some modern botanists Ammophila 
 arundinacea, and by others Psamma arenaria, 
 — was formerly known to all botanists, and is 
 still best known to many as Arundo arenaria, 
 and may be noticed more appropriately here 
 than under either of its new names. It grows 
 in vast abundance on the sea-coasts of Britain, 
 and of other maritime countries of Europe. It 
 pierces the sand banks of the shores with its 
 tough subterranean stems, and in consequence 
 converts them into powerful barriers against the 
 inroads of the ocean ; and it is planted and ex- 
 tended on the sandy, exposed, and mouldering 
 coasts of Norfolk and of Cornwall, and amazingly 
 protects them from the destructive action of wind 
 and tide. A Scottish parliament at a remote date 
 passed an act for the preservation of this plant 
 and of Elymus arenarius on the coasts of Scot- 
 land ; a British parliament, in the reign of George 
 II. 1742, passed an act for their preservation on 
 the north-west coasts of England ; and so rigidly 
 do these plants continue to be protected by law, 
 that they may not be anywhere cut on the coast 
 by even the proprietors of the soil, except by such 
 parties as claim prescriptive right of cutting it 
 on the sea-coasts of Cumberland. The sea-reed 
 is very rigid, has bluish rolled-up leaves, and a 
 stem two or three feet high, terminates in a dense 
 tuft of flowers, and blooms in the months of J une 
 
ASCARIDES. 
 
 101 
 
 ASHES. 
 
 and July. It is used for thatch, mats, ropes, 
 hats, and several other purposes. 
 
 ASCARIDES, or Needle -Worms. Small in- 
 testinal worms in the horse. They have a needle- 
 like form, with flattish heads ; and some of them 
 are white, others azure-coloured. They seem to 
 make their lodgment in the upper part of the 
 small intestines, near the stomach; but they 
 often accumulate in the large intestines, and de- 
 scend in hundreds to the rectum. They breed at 
 all times of the year ; and frequently when one 
 brood is destroyed, another succeeds. They do 
 not occasion any mortal disease, or even, in gen- 
 eral, incapacitate a horse for his work ; yet they 
 cause much pain and sickness, they impair the 
 appetite and reduce the strength, they sometimes 
 prey like an intermitting pest upon the constitu- 
 tion, and they are always troublesome and very 
 difficult to be exterminated. Even when a horse 
 which is infested with them feeds heartily, and 
 does his work tolerably well, he always looks lean 
 and jaded, he often strikes his hind-feet against 
 his belly, he frequently pauses in eating under a 
 paroxysm of sickness or strong griping, and he 
 betrays other symptoms of serious uneasiness and 
 decided want of health. A smart purge in the 
 stable sometimes brings away the ascarides in 
 vast numbers; but an injection of linseed oil, or 
 of a solution of aloes in warm water, is much 
 more suitable and effective when they have ac- 
 cumulated in the rectum. — Youatt on the Horse. 
 
 ASH. The residue of an organic substance 
 after combustion. See the article Ashes. 
 
 ASH, or Ash-Tree, or Common Ash, — botani- 
 cally Fraxinus Excelsior. A well known indi- 
 genous tree, of the olive-tree tribe. We notice 
 it partly on account of its foliage being greedily 
 eaten by sheep and cattle, and still more on ac- 
 count of its mischievous intrusion on all farm- 
 fields, where it grows as a hedge-tree. It usually 
 rises to the height of about 80 feet, but often ex- 
 ceeds 100, and sometimes attains to upwards of 
 120. Its branches are flatly smooth ; its leaflets 
 are generally arranged in five pairs, with an odd 
 one at the end, and are of a very dark green col- 
 our, somewhat stalked in position, pointedly 
 spear-shaped inform, and slightly serrated in the 
 edge ; and the flowers have a green colour, are 
 produced in long spikes from the side of the 
 branches, and bloom in April and May ; and the 
 seeds or "keys" which succeed the flowers are 
 flat, and ripen and fall in autumn. 
 
 The ash will grow on any kind of soil, but at- 
 tains it greatest bulk and vigour upon clayey 
 loam. But scarcely any tree is so hurtful as the 
 ash to all sorts of neighbouring vegetables ; for 
 it occupies a comparatively great breadth of site 
 by its roots, impoverishes or exhausts all the soil 
 of that site, and robs every adjacent plant of 
 every degree of requisite nourishment. It ought 
 never, therefore, to be allowed to grow in hedge- 
 rows; for it will both kill the hedges, and impov- 
 
 erish the portion of any kind of crop which may 
 be grown in their vicinity. Nor ought it to be 
 permitted to grow within reach of cattle, not only 
 because it will itself sustain damage from being 
 browsed, but because it gives a rank taste to all 
 the butter from the milk of cows which eat its 
 foliage, — though, says an old writer, " the ashen 
 boughs are first chewed even to admiration be- 
 fore any other by the tender-mouthed heifer." 
 "Close groves," says Marshall, "are the only 
 proper situation for the ash ; its uses require a 
 length and cleanness of grain ; and it would be 
 well for the occupiers of land, and indeed for the 
 community at large, if a severe penalty were laid 
 upon planting it in any other situation. But we 
 know of no species of timber so likely to be worn 
 out in this country as the ash. The just com- 
 plaints of the husbandman are expelling it very 
 properly from our hedges ; and we are concerned 
 to see, amongst the numerous plantations which 
 have of late years been made, so few of this ne- 
 cessary tree. It is therefore more than probable 
 that no tree will pay better for planting ; not 
 however in single trees and hedge-rows, but in 
 close plantations." 
 
 ASHES. The earthy and saline remains of 
 the combustion of vegetables, animal substances, 
 or mixtures of minerals with vegetable or animal 
 matters: Most ashes which meet observation, or 
 can be employed for useful purposes, are obtained 
 from fresh or recent plants, or from such dead 
 vegetable matter as still retains its fibrous or 
 cellular character ; but many are obtained also 
 from hardened, altered, and ancient vegetable 
 matter, in the form of coal, — many, from mix- 
 tures of vegetable and mineral matter in the 
 form of sward, — some from mixtures of princi- 
 pally a mineral character in the form of clayey 
 or loamy soil, — some from substances almost 
 wholly animal, — some from mixtures of vege- 
 table, animal, and mineral matters, in the form 
 of the refuse of yards, — and some from other het- 
 erogeneous compounds, of very diversified form 
 and character. When either sound or decayed 
 plants are burnt in the open air, and most of 
 their substance is evaporated or dispersed by 
 thorough combustion, an impalpable and incom- 
 bustible powder remains, of a flaky appearance, 
 of a whitish colour, soft to the touch, and desti- 
 tute of both taste and smell. This powder is the 
 only true vegetable ash, the most valuable part 
 of all the substances which are usually designated 
 vegetable ashes, and even the type of all the 
 varieties of the residue of combustion; yet it 
 very rarely exists in a pure condition, it possesses 
 a wide diversity of chemical character corre- 
 sponding to the different kinds of plants from 
 which it is obtained, and it is almost always 
 modified in both character and action by un- 
 burnt portions of the plant, or by the mineral 
 and animal ingredients with which it is mixed. 
 Ashes, therefore, in the practical sense of the 
 
ASHES. 
 
 102 
 
 ASHES 
 
 word, or when spoken of in their connexion with 
 agriculture, must not be further identified with 
 this powder than in chemical analysis of their 
 characteristic and most valuable element ; but 
 must be understood to include the charred debris 
 of half-burnt wood, the smouldered, shrivelled, 
 and exsiccated leaves and stems of half- burnt 
 herbs, the calcined residue of burnt sward and 
 clay, the incinerated remains of burnt bones, 
 hair, and horns, the cinders of half-burnt coke 
 and coal, the promiscuous contents of every kind 
 of ashpit, the heterogeneous residue of the com- 
 bustion of all sorts of rubbish, and even the pow- 
 dery portions of the matter ejected by volcanoes. 
 
 Ashes have, in all ages, held a conspicuous 
 place among manures ; but, in consequence of 
 their very diversified nature," they have, as a whole, 
 been always ill understood. Both the ancient 
 Jews and the ancient Romans burnt their stub- 
 ble ; and the ancient Britons burnt both their 
 stubble and their straw, and scattered the ashes 
 over their land. Cato recommends the ashes of 
 the twigs and branches of trees as manure ; Pal- 
 ladius says that this manure will maintain land 
 in good condition during five years ; and a Ger- 
 man writer of the sixteenth century, states that 
 the farmers of Lombardy regarded ashes as a 
 much better manure than dung. Such crude 
 notions show that ashes were both greatly and 
 ignorantly appreciated. Even British farmers 
 of the present day universally employ this man- 
 ure, and, in the great majority of instances, seem 
 unaware of the wide diversity of its composition, 
 and the precise character of its various modes of 
 action ; and not a few of them commit egregious 
 errors in applying it, and are quite unable to 
 account for its highly fertilizing power in some 
 circumstances, and its utter uselessness in others. 
 The ashes of wood, turf, and coal, when these 
 substances are used as domestic fuel, are often 
 mixed up with the ordinary contents of the farm- 
 yard dunghill, — and, in this case, they occasion 
 little difference in the properties of the com- 
 pound manure; but when they constitute the 
 principal mass of a dungheap, as'in towns and 
 at cottages, they necessarily rule the action of 
 the manure in all its intermixtures with the 
 soil ; and when they are applied alone, they very 
 generally act beneficially both as diluents and as 
 top-dressings, — in the former case, loosening and 
 stimulating clays, and heavy tenacious loams, — 
 and, in the latter case, strengthening the her- 
 bage, improving its quality, and encouraging the 
 growth of white clover. In order to give a full 
 view of this important, universal, and exceed- 
 ingly diversified manure, we shall first take a 
 general notice of vegetable ashes, and next par- 
 ticular and successive notices of wood ashes, peat 
 ashes, turf ashes, straw ashes, soap boiler's ashes, 
 coal ashes, bone ashes, clay ashes, and volcanic 
 ashes. 
 
 Vegetable Ashes. — The ashes of vegetables vary 
 in composition according to the nature of the 
 
 plant, the quality of the soil in which it grows, 
 and the chemical character and action of the 
 manure with which the soil is mixed. Plants 
 which grow in a silicious soil yield ashes which 
 are richer in silica than those of plants of the 
 same kind which grow upon calcareous soil ; 
 plants which grow upon a calcareous sand, 
 and plants which grow upon a granitic sand, 
 when these sands have been treated with the 
 same kind of manure, yield the same kind of 
 ashes ; and different kinds of plants, though 
 grown on one kind of soil, with one kind of both 
 manure and culture, yield ashes of either differ- 
 ent constituent ingredients, or of different pro- 
 portions of the same ingredients. Yet the con- 
 stituents of ashes of all varieties seldom if ever 
 exist in the ashes in the same state in which 
 they existed in the plant ; but are almost always, 
 or perhaps without exceptions, the altered results 
 of combustion. Potash, soda, lime, silica, mag- 
 nesia, the oxide of iron, the oxide of manganese, 
 chlorine, phosphoric acid, carbonic acid, and sul- 
 phuric acid, are the substances which usually 
 constitute the ashes of land plants ; and alumina 
 and oxide of copper have occasionally, yet very 
 seldom, been detected. Of these substances pot- 
 ash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina, silica, iron, man- 
 ganese, and copper, possess the chemical charac- 
 ter of bases, while chlorine and the three acids 
 operate as combining and neutralizing powers ; 
 so that many salts of a nature to exert distinc- 
 tive and even energetic manurial action may be 
 formed, — particularly sulphate of soda, sulphate 
 of magnesia, chloride of sodium or common salt, 
 bone-dust, or phosphate of lime, alum, copperas, 
 gypsum, and a kind of bone-dust, salt of iron, or 
 phosphate of iron. Some of the salts derivable 
 from the combination of the bases and the acids, 
 such as the compounds of potash and soda with 
 chlorine, silica, carbonic acid, and sulphuric acid, 
 are soluble in water ; while others, such as the 
 compounds of lime, and one or two of the other 
 bases, with silica, carbonic acid, and phosphoric 
 acid, are insoluble. More than one-half of the 
 entire bulk of the ashes consists, in very many 
 instances, of carbonate of lime. The quantity or 
 proportion of ashes, obtained from plants which 
 have been dried in the air, varies from 1^ to 3|, 
 and even 6 per cent, of their weight, and is af- 
 fected, not only by the genus or species of the 
 plants, by the aggregate amount of their ex- 
 posure to the sun, and by the character of the 
 soil in which they grew, but also by the peculiar 
 secretions or constitution of the different parts of 
 individual plants, and even by accidental circum- 
 stances in the same part of two plants of one 
 species. 
 
 Very carefully dried specimens of plants and 
 parts of plants, of the kinds most commonly 
 cultivated, were analyzed by M. Boussingault, 
 and ascertained to contain a percentage of 
 ashes as follows : — wheat straw '070, wheat 
 •024, rye straw *036, rye -023, oat straw 051, 
 
ASHES. 
 
 103 
 
 ASHES. 
 
 oats '040, potatoes '040, beet -root '063, tur- 
 nips '076, Jerusalem artichoke '060, stems of 
 Jerusalem artichoke '028, white pease "031, pea 
 straw "113, clover hay '077, meadow hay *090, and 
 meadow aftergrass "100. The ashes of various 
 plants and parts of plants were analyzed by M. 
 de Saussure ; and the results, in a few cases, 
 were as follows : — the ashes of chestnuts contain 
 •120 per cent, of earthy phosphates, -280 of phos- 
 phate of potash, "030 of sulphate and chloride of 
 potash, *510 of carbonate of potash, '005 of silica, 
 and -003 of metallic oxides ; the ashes of buck- 
 bean in flower contain *150 per cent, of earthy 
 phosphates, '120 of sulphate and chloride of pot- 
 ash, -572 of carbonate of potash, -050 of earthy 
 carbonates, '020 of silica, and "005 of metallic 
 oxides ; the ashes of buckbean, cleared of seed, 
 contain -060 per cent, of earthy phosphates, -020 
 of sulphate of potash, -140 of chloride of potash, 
 •310 of carbonate of potash, '370 of earthy car- 
 bonate, '028 of silica, and '007 of metallic oxides; 
 the ashes of beans contain "259 of earthy phos- 
 phates, '439 of phosphate of potash, *020 of sulphate 
 of potash, '009 of chloride of potash, -225 of car- 
 bonate of potash, and '005 of metallic oxides ; the 
 ashes of wheat straw contain *062 per cent, of 
 earthy phosphates, '050 of phosphate of potash, 
 •020 of sulphate of potash, '030 of chloride of pot- 
 ash, *125 of carbonate of potash, '010 of earthy 
 carbonates, '615 of silica, and "010 of metal- 
 lic oxides ; the ashes of selected wheat contain 
 •445 per cent, of earthy phosphates, '320 of phos- 
 phate of potash, mere traces of sulphate of pot- 
 ash, -002 of chloride of potash, '150 of carbonate 
 of potash, '005 of silica, and '002 of metallic ox- 
 ides ; the ashes of wheat bran contain '465 per 
 cent, of earthy phosphates, '300 of phosphate of 
 potash, "002 of chloride of potash, "140 of carbon- 
 ate of potash, *005 of silica, and *002 of metallic 
 oxides ; the ashes of Indian corn-straw contain 
 '050 per cent, of earthy phosphates, '097 of phos- 
 phate of potash, '013 of sulphate of potash, '025 of 
 chloride of potash, '590 of carbonate of potash, 
 •010 of earthy carbonates, '180 of silica, and '005 
 of metallic oxides ; the ashes of Indian corn con- 
 tain '036 per cent, of earthy phosphates, '475 of 
 phosphate of potash, '002 of sulphate of potash, 
 •003 of chloride of potash, -140 of carbonate of 
 potash, "010 of silica, and '001 of metallic oxides; 
 the ashes of barley straw contain '078 per cent, 
 of earthy phosphates, *035 of sulphate of potash, 
 •160 of carbonate of potash, '125 of earthy carbon- 
 ates, "570 of silica, and '005 of metallic oxides ; 
 and the ashes of barley in the husk contain '325 
 per cent, of earthy phosphates, '092 of phosphate 
 of potash, '015 of sulphate of potash, '003 of 
 chloride of potash, '180 of carbonate of potash, 
 •355 of silica, and '003 of metallic oxides. 
 
 The constituent ingredients or elementary 
 combinations of ashes, as we already hinted, are 
 not in the condition in which they existed before 
 incineration. Certain organic acids constantly 
 exist in plants, and are generally in combination 
 
 with alkaline mineral bases, particularly with 
 potash, soda, lime, and magnesia ; and, in the 
 process of incineration, these acids are destroyed, 
 and the bases which were combined with them 
 are let loose, and enter into combination with 
 carbonic acid to form the carbonates of the ashes. 
 The phosphates, the sulphates, and the chlorides, 
 however, possess the power of resisting a high 
 degree of heat, and pass without change into the 
 ashes from the plant. — But when vegetable ashes, 
 as in many parts of America^ are obtained in 
 large quantities, and subjected to the process 
 termed leaching for the preparation of ley, they 
 are deprived of nearly all their potash and soda, 
 and of all their acids except the phosphoric. The 
 residue of this process, therefore, or what are 
 termed spent ashes, are fearfully deteriorated as a 
 manure, and owe all their strength to their small 
 portion of bone-dust salts, and their vestiges of 
 potash and soda ; and they ought never to be 
 used on a wet soil, but always scattered over 
 light, porous, open sandy ground. Yet all vege- 
 table ashes derive their chief manurial value from 
 their alkalies, and when intended to be used for 
 fertilizing soil, ought always to be protected from 
 every process or exposure which might deprive 
 them of any portion of their alkaline properties. 
 — One important lesson from the saline composi- 
 tion of vegetable ashes is, that a substitute for 
 them as fertilizers may be, more or less, found 
 in almost all the cheap and common salts of com- 
 merce. " In fact," as Dr. Dana remarks, " al- 
 most all salts which occur in a large way, as re- 
 fuse materials from manufactures or other sources, 
 have been used, and all with greater or less suc- 
 cess, as manures. And if you cast your eye over 
 the acids and bases of common ashes, this seems 
 quite reasonable. It is not expected that a plain 
 farmer, possessing little or no chemical know- 
 ledge, should be able to tell beforehand what 
 the effect of a salt would be, applied to his land ; 
 but if he understands what the composition of 
 ashes is, he may be sure that in any quantity in 
 which the salt is likely to occur, it cannot be in- 
 jurious, provided it is mixed up with plenty of 
 mould, and a little ashes or alkali, which will kill 
 or neutralize any excess of the poisonous acid." 
 See articles Salt, Alkalies, Acids, and Man- 
 ure. 
 
 Wood Ashes. — The ashes of timber, or»of the 
 billets, branches, and spray of timber trees, are 
 of vast importance as manures, both because of 
 their superior alkaline wealth, and on account of 
 the comparative abundance in which they are 
 obtained from fuel. The farmers of some parts 
 of Germany esteem them of so great value as to 
 procure them from a distance of 18 or 24 miles ; 
 and many farmers of the inland counties of Eng- 
 land, where wood is the principal article of fuel, 
 contract with cottagers around them for all the 
 ashes they accumulate, and pay them wholly or 
 partially by drawing home for them faggots in 
 return. Wood ashes, when lixiviated with cold 
 
ASHES. 
 
 water, contain silicate of potash in exactly the 
 same proportion in which it is contained in 
 straw; they also contain considerable quantities 
 of phosphates, — those of oak 4 or 5 per cent., those 
 of firs and pines from 9 to 15 per cent., those of 
 hazel 12 per cent., those of poplar 16| per cent., 
 and those of beech about 20 per cent. ; they give 
 to the soil out of every four hundred pounds of 
 their weight from oak, or out of every one hun- 
 dred pounds from beech, as large an amount of 
 phosphates as is yielded from every 460 pounds 
 of fresh night soil; and they, in consequence, not 
 only correct or neutralize into useful salts a large 
 proportion of any acidity which may exist in even 
 the sourest land, but vigorously exert the very 
 same manurial power which is possessed by farm- 
 yard dung, or by the richest composts. A seri- 
 ous practical error, however, is, that almost all 
 farmers employ wood ashes without any discrim- 
 ination of the sorts of timber from which they 
 are obtained ; and an important theoretical error 
 into which the discriminating few are liable to 
 fall is, that the comparative superiority of differ- 
 ent kinds of ashes depends more upon the pro- 
 portion of phosphates than upon that of potash. 
 Trees of different genera, and even of different 
 species, differ widely from one another in the 
 proportion of potash which they yield by incin- 
 eration ; and were they classified and always es- 
 timated according to that proportion, and those 
 yielding large quantities of potash burnt separ- 
 ately from those yielding small quantities, farmers 
 would be able to make both a more judicious and 
 a more economical application of their ashes to 
 the soil. Trees, in a general view, make a plen- 
 tiful yield of potash, somewhat in the degree of 
 their hardness, their heaviness, and the closeness 
 of their texture ; and the chief of them may, 
 upon this principle, be distributed into four 
 j classes, — first, the oak, the ash, the yew, the 
 beech, the chestnut, the pear, the crab, the 
 blackthorn, and the broom, — second, the elm, the 
 maple, the hornbeam, and the whitethorn, — third, 
 the pines and the firs, — and, fourth, the birch, 
 the alder, the poplar, the hazel, the alder, and 
 the willow. When six loads of the ashes of the 
 first class are sufficient for an acre of land, ten 
 or twelve loads of the ashes of the fourth class 
 may be required ; and when twelve loads of the 
 fourth class have been used with good effect, 
 twelve or even ten loads of the first class might, 
 in a dry season, exert so caustic an influence as 
 to destroy or at least seriously damage the crop. 
 Ashes of furze obtained from respectively the 
 lime-kiln and the brick-kiln, ought also to be es- 
 timated and employed in the same proportional 
 manner as the ashes of different classes of tim- 
 ber. A considerable portion of the limestone in 
 the lime-kiln, and of the clay in the brick-kiln, 
 is calcined and reduced to powder by the action 
 of the fire, and falls to the bottom, there to mix 
 with the ashes of the furze faggots ; and just in 
 the degree in which calcined lime is a more 
 
 powerful stimulant than burnt clay, ought the 
 proportion of matter mixed with the ashes in 
 the lime-kiln to be estimated above the propor- 
 tion mixed with them in the brick-kiln. Every 
 farmer, in fact, ought to ascertain as closely as 
 possible the comparative alkalinity and causticity 
 of the kind of wood ashes he employs, and both 
 to proportion the quantity and modify the uses 
 of the manure according to its power. He who 
 treats all wood ashes alike is always a spend- 
 thrift, and occasionally a depredator. 
 
 Peat Ashes. — The ashes of peat, dried bog, de- 
 cayed and fossil moss, or the lower strata of 
 morass-turf, differ very widely in general chemi- 
 cal character from those of wood ashes, and yet 
 are scarcely, if at all, inferior in importance to 
 agriculture. They possess great adaptation and 
 value for turnip fields, sour meadows, and all 
 kinds of artificial grass lands, principally applied 
 as a top-dressing ; they are prepared in large 
 quantities in various parts of England, especially 
 at Newbury in Berkshire, for the uses of the 
 farmer ; and they are very extensively made in 
 Holland, for general use throughout that king- 
 dom and Belgium, and even for exportation into 
 Great Britain and other countries. They owe 
 their fertilizing power — not like wood ashes, to 
 potash and the phosphates — but principally to 
 gypsum or the sulphate of lime, partly to car- 
 bonate of lime, partly to calcareous and alumin- 
 ous earths, and subordinately to small quantities 
 of the sulphate of potash, and the chloride of 
 soda or common salt. Sir Humphrey Davy found 
 that the peat ashes of Newbury contained from 
 33 to 25 per cent, of gypsum, that those of Stock- 
 bridge in Hampshire contained a still larger pro- 
 portion of gypsum, that those of Wiltshire con- 
 tained a considerable proportion of gypsum, and 
 yet that those of various districts in Wales, Scot- 
 land, Ireland, western England, and northern 
 England, contained no such quantity of gypsum 
 as could be useful, but abounded in oxide of iron, 
 and in silicious and aluminous earths. He re- 
 marks, however, that " vitriolic matter is usually 
 found in peats ; and if the soil or substratum is 
 calcareous, the ultimate result is the production 
 of gypsum." The existence of even a compara- 
 tively small proportion of oxide of iron in any 
 peat ashes instantly reveals itself to the eye by 
 the redness of their colour. The ashes of some 
 Irish peat contain a noticeably large quantity of 
 sulphate of potash. The ashes of some very cele- 
 brated peat ashes, brought not many years ago 
 from Holland, were found by Professor Brande 
 to yield 32 per cent, of silicious earth, 12 of gyp- 
 sum, 6 of sulphate and chloride of soda, 40 of 
 carbonate of lime, 3 of oxide of iron, and 7 of im- 
 purities and loss ; some peat ashes from Bassy 
 in the department of the Marne, were ascertained 
 by Berthier to yield 26 per cent, of gypsum, 22| 
 of silica, alumina, and oxide of iron, 6\\ of car- 
 bonate of lime and magnesia ; and some peat 
 ashes from Fichtelgebirge were found by Fiken- 
 
ASHES. 
 
 105 
 
 ASHES. 
 
 tscher to yield 4^ per cent, of gypsum, 36^ of 
 silica, 173 of alumina, 33 of oxide of iron, 2 of 
 carbonate of lime, 3h of magnesia, ^ of chloride 
 of calcium, and 2*7 of carbonaceous residue. 
 
 The bog whence the Newbury peat ashes are 
 made lies beneath good meadow soil, generally 
 about five feet from the surface, in a bed of from 
 one foot to nine feet in thickness, and at such a 
 level below neighbouring hills of chalk as to re- 
 ceive large calcareous depositions from floods or 
 during heavy rains. Peats or squared clods of 
 it are cut, laid out to dry in a similar manner to 
 the peats or turf of the Scottish and Irish bogs 
 for fuel, and, after being thoroughly dried, are 
 burnt upon the spot in such accumulated heaps 
 as usually yield, in each case, a mass of ashes two 
 or three yards deep, and seven yards in diame- 
 ter ; and the ashes are then sifted, and conveyed 
 away in covered carts to sheds, to be there kept 
 perfectly dry till they are wanted for the land. 
 Slow combustion is found to produce a larger 
 proportion of alkali than rapid combustion ; and 
 the storing of the ashes is found to maintain their 
 manurial powers in a vastly stronger and more 
 active condition than if they were exposed to 
 the weather. The proportion of ashes yielded by 
 any quantity of peats is seldom equal to one- 
 fourth of their bulk, yet occasionally amounts to 
 two-fifths, and has even been known to amount 
 to twelve parts in thirty -five. The ashes are 
 usually employed at the rate of from 12 to 15 
 bushels per acre of turnip or clover land, and 
 from 18 to 20 bushels, per acre of meadow-land ; 
 when used for top-dressings, they are applied in 
 March and April ; and when otherwise used, they 
 are either spread on the land in autumn, or more 
 generally with the sowing of the seed in spring. 
 They are a poor manure for corn crops ; they an- 
 swer well for turnips in wet seasons, and are be- 
 lieved to act beneficially against the turnip fly, 
 but, in dry seasons, are apt to give the crop a 
 burned appearance ; and they have so powerful 
 an effect upon clover as to increase the produce 
 of it nearly a ton per acre above the ordinary 
 yield ; but they maintain a vigorous action during 
 only two seasons, and then almost totally cease 
 to have influence. They require to be spread in 
 perfectly calm weather; and one man, with a 
 double cart, can manure several acres with them 
 in one day. Some inferior kinds are sold at 
 threepence per bushel, and the best kinds are 
 sold at sevenpence. 
 
 The peats cut in Holland for fuel, in the same 
 manner as those in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 burn easily, but yield a whitish kind of ashes 
 which are of little use as a manure. But from 
 the bottom of the pools or ditches which are made 
 by cutting these peats, soft or mud bog is fished 
 up with hooped bags at the end of long sticks, 
 and is poured on the adjacent ground to be 
 drained of its water; and, after being consoli- 
 dated by a few days' exposure to the air, it is cut 
 into pieces of the size of building bricks, and 
 
 dried for use as fuel. The ashes obtained from 
 it are the Dutch ashes which have for about half 
 a century been celebrated as fertilizers ; and they 
 are obtained in the ordinary course of the con- 
 sumpt of fuel, and carefully gathered into carts 
 which go the round of the cottages and other 
 houses in which the mud -prepared peats arc 
 used. Peats of apparently quite the same kind 
 — manufactured out of the bog mud at the bot- 
 tom of cut bog-holes, and possessing a blackness, 
 a hardness, and a semi-mineral fracture almost 
 like the soft kinds of coal — are extensively made 
 in several districts of Ireland, and, if properly 
 inquired into and economized, might probably 
 be found to yield quite as good ashes as those of 
 Holland. In Belgium, where the Dutch ashes are 
 in general request as a most valuable or even indis- 
 pensable manure, they are used for nearly all fer- 
 tilizing purposes in both the garden and the field. 
 They are scattered over the surface of gardens, 
 after the plots and beds are sown and raked ; and 
 they are found to act beneficially on nearly all 
 the kinds of culinary vegetables. They are ap- 
 plied to hops, in the manner of a handful to each 
 plant. They are sown on clover, wheat, and pas- 
 tures in March and April ; on oats and beans, in 
 the beginning of May; and on rye, in October 
 and November. When given to clover, they are 
 distributed in a proportion which corresponds, in 
 our measures, to 19 bushels per acre ; and when 
 applied to grain, they act partly in accelerating 
 its early growth, but principally in increasing its 
 quantity. In Holland, the ashes are used in the 
 proportion of about 20 bushels per acre; and after 
 the reaping of wheat and the harrowing of the 
 ground, are strewed upon clover which was sown 
 with the wheat in spring; and they are thus applied 
 in the wheat and clover season of a rotation which 
 consists of potatoes, rape, pease, wheat, clover, 
 and oats. An eminent Dutch agriculturist, F. 
 L. W. Brakkel, commends this method of using 
 the ashes as highly advantageous ; but another 
 agriculturist, J. R. Schwarz, says that they ought 
 to be used in a dry state, and thinly strewed, and 
 that, on ploughed land, they ought to be harrowed 
 in before or at the time of sowing. The Dutch 
 ashes began to be somewhat extensively imported 
 to Leith about the year 1833, and to be sold there 
 at a total charge of £3 per ton, so as to be avail- 
 able for manuring lands in the vicinity of that 
 port at the cost of about £l per acre. Mr. John 
 Mitchell of Leith, who in that year introduced 
 them to the notice of Scottish farmers through 
 the medium of the Highland Society's Transac- 
 tions, says, " The Dutch ashes require no previ- 
 ous expense or preparation in this country, but 
 can be immediately applied after being landed ; 
 whereas bones and rape -cake have to undergo the 
 process of grinding before they are fit for use. 
 As a top-dressing, these ashes are superior to 
 common manure, it having been found, on mak- 
 ing comparative trials in Flanders, that the crops 
 of clover where the ashes were used, were much 
 
ASHES. 
 
 106 
 
 ASHES. 
 
 earlier, heavier, and superior in every respect to 
 those which had undergone a top-dressing of 
 horse and cow dung. As a top-dressing to the 
 second crop of clover, they will be found highly 
 advantageous, as by being used this way, they 
 wonderfully increase the rapidity of growth and 
 produce. One of the best proofs of their useful- 
 ness is the fact, that while we have frequently in 
 this country very backward and light crops of 
 clover and grass, in Flanders, where this top- 
 dressing is used, such a defection seldom if ever 
 occurs. They are therefore likely to be of great 
 use to the farmer on the lands which have grown 
 sick of clover ; and the importance of having a 
 good crop of clover is the more obvious, when it 
 is considered that, in general, the succeeding 
 crop of wheat is only good when the preceding 
 crop of clover has been so. Besides fertilizing 
 the land, the ashes may be of great advantage in 
 preventing the injuries arising from worms or 
 insects ; and will no doubt be highly useful as a 
 top-dressing, if regularly persevered in for a cer- 
 tain time, in destroying the mosses and lichens 
 so apt to injure the lawns and natural pasture in 
 this country." 
 
 Turf Ashes. — Turf ashes, as distinguished from 
 those of peat, are the residuum of the burning of 
 sward, and are usually obtained by the process so 
 well known under the name of paring and burn- 
 ing. See article Paring. They not only differ 
 widely in chemical constitution from any purely 
 vegetable ashes, and necessarily contain a large 
 proportion of the mineral constituents of the in- 
 cinerated sward, but also vary exceedingly and 
 constantly in themselves according to both the 
 vegetable and the mineral nature of the parti- 
 cular sward from which they are obtained. If 
 the soil of the sward be very sandy, the ashes are 
 very silicious and of little or no value ; but if the 
 soil be calcareous or argillaceous, they consist to 
 a great extent of calcareous and aluminous bases, 
 in combination with various acids, and often con- 
 tain a large proportion of oxide of iron. Yet, as 
 a whole, they are very indeterminate in charac- 
 ter, and are fitted to perplex both the agricul- 
 tural chemist and the practical farmer. Those 
 of light weight are usually much superior to those 
 of heavy weight ; those of a soft, flaky, crumbling, 
 and very finely pulverulent kind, somewhat re- 
 sembling pure vegetable ashes, are in all cases 
 valuable ; but those which are gritty and of a 
 very reddish-brown colour, evincing by the one 
 quality the predominance of silica, and by the 
 other the presence of much oxide of iron, are 
 usually little better than sheer poison to the soil. 
 
 A specimen of turf ashes, expressly burnt for 
 the purpose, was analyzed by Sir Humphrey 
 Davy, at the request of the Board of Agriculture, 
 and may afford guidance respecting all turf ashes 
 of similar origin and appearance. The turf from 
 which they were obtained was formed and cut 
 upon a chalk soil in Kent, and was taken partly 
 from the outside and partly from the inside of a 
 
 heap, in order that the specimen might be of aver- 
 age character. The ashes produced from an acre 
 of the land amounted, when dry, to 2,660 bushels 
 or a little upwards of 77 tons ; they were in the 
 form of small lumps, from the size of a pea to 
 that of a hazel nut ; they were soft and easily 
 broken, and had neither taste nor smell; and 
 most were of a reddish colour, some were black 
 or blackish-brown, and a few were white. When j 
 treated with acids, a considerable portion effer- I 
 vesced ; when treated with pure water, they did 
 not yield to the liquid any alkalinity ; and when 
 first heated to redness with powdered charcoal, 
 and afterwards treated with diluted acid, they 
 emitted a smell of sulphuretted hydrogen. Two 
 hundred grains of these ashes contained 80 grains 
 of carbonate of lime, 11 of gypsum, 9 of charcoal, 
 3 of saline matter, principally sulphate of potash 
 and muriate of magnesia, 15 of oxide of iron, and 
 82 of insoluble earthy matter, principally alumina 
 and silica. Another specimen of ashes was an- 
 alyzed from the turf of a soil in Leicestershire, 
 composed of nearly three-fourths of sand, and one- 
 fourth of clay, with about 4 per cent, of chalk ; 
 and 100 grains of this specimen contained 82 
 grains of sand, clay, and chalk, 9 of oxide of iron, 
 6 of charcoal, and 3 of saline matter, principally 
 common salt and sulphate of potash. A third 
 specimen of ashes was analyzed, from the turf of 
 a strong slay soil in Cornwall ; and 100 grains of 
 this contained 81 grains of clay and sand, 2 of 
 chalk, 7 of oxide of iron, 8 of charcoal, and 2 of 
 common salt and other saline matter. 
 
 Straw Ashes. — The ashes of straw, though figur- 
 ing as manure in some valuable agricultural 
 treatises, ought, with all speed and decision, to 
 be banished from the nomenclature of manures. 
 Ashes can, in any circumstances, be obtained 
 from straw, only with enormous loss of true 
 manurial matter, and with not a particle of real 
 gain. Straw which has been thoroughly dried at 
 a high heat, yields only 4'02 per cent, of ashes, 
 and consists, in addition, of 46*37 per cent, of car- 
 bon, 5 - 68 of hydrogen, and 43 - 93 of oxygen. No 
 matter how rich the ashes may be in the most 
 fertilizing salts, the loss of substance for farm- 
 yard manure, in the driving away of so much 
 carbon and oxygen, is far greater than these salts 
 can possibly compensate. Advantageous experi- 
 ments which have been made of burning the 
 stubble of corn-fields as preparation for clover, 
 owe all their true value to the destruction by fire 
 of the rudimental forms of insects, and of the 
 seeds and foliage of weeds ; and in the degree in 
 which they have been effectual, they have re- 
 quired the stubble to be long, in order to give 
 the fire full power, and have proportionally with- 
 held from the farm-yard the substance which 
 forms the chief bulk of its most valuable manure. 
 On the wolds of Lincolnshire, indeed, the very 
 straw of thrashed grain has, in some instances, 
 been largely burnt for manure, and is reported to 
 have, in some comparative trials, been found 
 
ASHES. 
 
 superior to farm-yard manure, in the proportion 
 of five tons of the straw to ten tons of the man- 
 ure ; but either some egregious mistake has been 
 committed in the report, or some enormous over- 
 sight was made in the experiments ; for the asser- 
 tion, or the alleged general principle, that the 
 reduction of straw to ashes produces more fertil- 
 izing power than the employment of it in the 
 usual manner for farm-yard manure, is simply an 
 absurdity. 
 
 Soap-Boilers' Ashes. — Soap-boilers' ashes, in the 
 days when kelp and barilla were in universal use, 
 formed a manure of considerable importance, but 
 of disputed, ill-understood, and somewhat peculiar 
 mode of action. They consist of the insoluble 
 parts of the kelp, barilla, or other coarse alkaline 
 -matter used in soap-making, mixed with carbon- 
 ate of lime, common salt, other saline substances, 
 and a considerable proportion of cinders. The 
 insoluble portion of barilla consists principally of 
 carbonate of lime, charcoal, silica, and oxide of 
 iron ; and the insoluble portion of other alkaline 
 matters used by soap-boilers, usually consists of 
 the same ingredients and some phosphate of lime. 
 Soap-boilers' ashes are most useful upon peat- 
 moss, cold wet pastures, strong, cold soils, and, in 
 general, upon whatever kinds of land are most 
 benefited by large additions of lime and chalk. 
 About sixty bushels per acre are suitable for 
 turnips, to be harrowed in with the seed; six 
 loads per acre, for wet grass lands ; seven loads 
 per acre, for wet arable lands ; ten loads per acre, 
 for poor loamy land ; and, in general, nearly as 
 large a quantity as common quick-lime, for any 
 purpose of general improvement. 
 
 Coal Ashes. — The ashes of coals very consider- 
 ably vary in character, according to the chemical 
 constitution of the particular coal from which 
 they are obtained. The ashes of anthracite, or 
 almost entirely carbonaceous coal, — the ashes of 
 flaming and caking coal, or of such as is in a very 
 large degree bituminous, — the ashes of cannel or 
 shining coal, or such as is employed in the manu- 
 facture of the carburetted hydrogen of the gas 
 works, — the ashes of earth-coal, or such as con- 
 tains a large admixture of shaly, stony, and argil- 
 laceous matter, — the ashes of sulphurous coal, or 
 such as is much impregnated with sulphur, — the 
 ashes of metalliferous coal, or such as contains a 
 very sensible proportion of iron and other metallic 
 ores, — the ashes of not a few varieties of coal, in- 
 termediate in character among most of the chief 
 or specific kinds, — all these ashes necessarily differ 
 much from one another in constitution, and exert 
 a very different influence upon the soil. Yet 
 coal ashes may, in a general view, be character- 
 ized as containing a large proportion of earthy 
 and metallic cinders, and a considerable propor- 
 tion of carbonate of lime and sulphate of lime, 
 and as exercising upon the soil an influence ac- 
 cordant with the nature of these ingredients. 
 
 Most coal ashes are mixed with the numerous 
 refuse matters of towns, and reach the farmer 
 
 ASHES. 
 
 only as one ingredient of what is usually desig- 
 nated police manure. Yet though the compost 
 to which these belong must be fully noticed in 
 our article on Composts, we may here advert to 
 the general fact that, whenever it contains a large 
 proportion of coal ashes, it seriously and rapidly 
 deteriorates the proper mechanical action of all 
 light and porous soils. Hard porous masses of 
 matter, or firm irreducible cinders, are formed, 
 in the process of combustion out of all the por- 
 tions of coal which are strongly impregnated with 
 iron and other metallic ores ; these cinders pos- 
 sess the power of absorbing a considerable quan- 
 tity of fluid ; and when they are mixed with the 
 soil, they become saturated with soluble organic 
 matter, the most valuable portion of the food of 
 plants, and, in consequence, completely withhold 
 it from serving its great purpose of vegetable 
 nutrition. This food of plants, indeed, is subject 
 to be partially washed out of the cinders by heavy 
 rains ; but, even in the degree in which it is thus 
 returned to the soil, it wants both equal diffusion 
 and steady action, and, at the same time, may be 
 totally unavailable at the precise periods of the 
 plants' growth when its agency is most required. 
 The cinders, besides, are altogether infertile in 
 themselves, and quite irreducible to a fertilizing 
 condition ; and they consequently act in mixation 
 with light soil, both as diluents of its strength 
 and destroyers of its slender cohesion. They 
 might appear, indeed, to have a serviceable adap- 
 tation to strong clayey soils, which require to be 
 diluted in their aluminous power, and diminished 
 in their cohesive resistance; but unfortunately 
 the fertilizing ingredients which usually accom- 
 pany the cinders in police manure, are ill suited 
 to clay, and best adapted to sands and very light 
 loams. 
 
 Coal ashes, in an unmixed condition, serve as 
 an excellent top-dressing, on clayey lands, for 
 lucern, red clover, sainfoin, and other forage 
 crops ; and, when they happen to abound in gyp- 
 sum and to be comparatively free from cinders, 
 they are suitable, on most soils, for turnips. They 
 are also very serviceable, as a coating or surface- 
 covering in the garden, to prevent the depreda- 
 tions of mice ; and if spread over a sowing of early 
 pease to the thickness of from a quarter of an 
 inch to half an inch, they will stimulate the crop 
 to an earlier maturity, by several days, than in 
 most other modes of culture. They are usually 
 employed in gardens either for protecting from 
 mice, or for forming walks, or for increasing the 
 porosity of clayey soil ; and, when employed as a 
 manure, they are generally applied in too large 
 quantities, and in consequence have been hastily 
 pronounced hostile to various herbs and trees, 
 which their moderate application would rather 
 serve than damage. 
 
 Bone Ashes. — Berzelius, in analyzing the bones 
 of oxen, found that they yielded 66*7 per cent, of 
 ashes, and that the constituents of this percent- 
 age were 57*35 of phosphate of lime, with a little 
 
 107 
 
ASHES. 
 
 108 
 
 ASS. 
 
 fluoride of calcium, 3*85 of carbonate of lime, 2'05 
 of phosphate of magnesia, and 3-45 of soda, with 
 a very little chloride of sodium. The ashes of 
 the bones of men contain about 4 per cent, less 
 of phosphate of lime, and nearly 1\ per cent, more 
 of carbonate of lime than the bones of oxen. The 
 incineration of bones differs widely from the in- 
 cineration of vegetables in effecting chemical 
 changes during the process of combustion ; for, 
 with the exception perhaps of phosphate of mag- 
 nesia, all the ingredients in the ashes of bones 
 exist in exactly the same condition in the ashes 
 as in the bones. Yet bones burnt till quite white, 
 and recently heated to redness, absorb 1\ times 
 their volume of pure ammoniacal gas. Animal 
 ashes, under the name of bone ash, are sometimes 
 employed as a manure ; but they have less fertil- 
 izing power than ground unburnt bones. See 
 article Bone-Manure. 
 
 Clay Ashes. — Various burnt and calcined pre- 
 parations are extensively employed in England 
 as top-dressings and manures, under the name of 
 clay-ashes ; and though more the products of cal- 
 cination than proper incineration, they require, 
 on account of their popular name, to be here 
 fully noticed. Many, perhaps most, of these pre- 
 parations differ from the ashy and calcined pro- 
 ducts of paring and burning, only in their raw 
 material being taken from ditches, banks, hedge- 
 rows and waste-grounds, and in their true ashes 
 being smaller in quantity, and less saline in con- 
 stitution. Whenever the raw material has any 
 kind of sward, the clay ashes obtained from it 
 are substantially the same thing as the turf ashes 
 which we noticed in a former section of this 
 article ; whenever the raw material is a sandy or 
 loamy earth, intermixed with weeds and roots, 
 the 'clay ashes ' obtained from it owe their chief 
 value to the portion of vegetable ashes yielded 
 by the roots and the weeds ; and whenever the 
 raw material is chalky earth or true clay, with 
 scarcely any vegetable intermixture, the clay 
 ashes are sheer calcinations, and owe their fer- 
 tilizing power partly to mere mechanical action 
 upon the soil, and partly to the mineral alkalinity 
 of their calcareous or aluminous nature. The 
 practice of preparing these clay ashes as manures 
 has been long and extensively prevalent in Suffolk, 
 in Yorkshire, and in other districts ; it is highly 
 recommended by several eminent practical agri- 
 culturists, who have inquired into its merits ; and 
 yet it does not seem to have been very scientifi- 
 cally examined, nor is it practically reported 
 upon with a sufficient precision of terms to af- 
 ford proper guidance for its adoption in dis- 
 tricts where it has been hitherto unknown. The 
 Suffolk method of this practice, though differing 
 in some unimportant particulars from that of 
 other counties, may be regarded as a model. 
 " This method is to dig old borders, surfaces of 
 banks, <fec. ; turn it over, and, when dry, cart it 
 to a heap and burn ; formerly much wood was 
 
 used, but haulm, straw, dry weeds, and a few 
 bushes, whins, or anything of that kind may be 
 employed ; then build a circular wall of turfs 
 around it, cover the heap slightly with turfs and 
 earth, and set fire to it in several places ; feeding 
 with the most inflammable materials at first, 
 afterwards clay or any earth will burn ; when all 
 the earth is on the heap, the walls may be pulled 
 down and thrown on, raising it by degrees as the 
 fire ascends, in the shape of a cone, till all is con- 
 sumed." The ashy and calcined product costs 
 about 16 pence per load, and is distributed over 
 land in the proportion of 50 loads per acre. 
 
 Volcanic Ashes. — Some ashes which fell from 
 Vesuvius at Naples in 1822, were of a greyish 
 colour, and without taste, and were found, on 
 analysis, to consist of alumina, oxide of iron, 
 muriate of ammonia, gypsum, potash, copper, 
 manganese, charcoal, and carbonate of lime. 
 Some other ashes ejected from Vesuvius in the 
 same year were in fine powder and grey in colour ; 
 when brought to a red heat in a close vessel, they 
 yielded sulphur, but, when brought to a red heat 
 in exposure to the oxygen of the atmosphere, they 
 threw off the sulphur in the form of sulphurous 
 acid ; and, upon analysis, they were found to con- 
 sist of 28*1 per cent, of silica, 18" of gypsum, 
 20-86 of sulphuret of iron, 8' of alumina, 2*6 of 
 carbonate of lime, 1' of charcoal, and 21/42 of 
 alumina and sulphate of copper, with traces of 
 sulphur, a muriate, and moisture. A glance at 
 the constitution of these ashes explains the pe- 
 culiar appearance of vegetation around the base 
 and upon the acclivities of both active and ex- 
 tinct volcanoes. — Dr. Dana's Prize Essay on Man- 
 ures. — BoussingauWs Rural Economy. — Davy's 
 Agricultural Chemistry. — Liebig's Chemistry of 
 Agriculture. — Johnston's Lectures on Agricultural 
 Chemistry. — Johnson on Fertilizers. — Annales De 
 Chimie etDe Physique. — Booth and Boy e's Encyclo- 
 paedia. — Keith 's Lexicon. — Paper by Dr. Madden in 
 Quar. Journal of Agriculture. — The Bath Papers. — 
 Malcolm's Compendium of Modern Husbandry. — 
 Essay by Mr. Mitchell in Transactions of the High- 
 land Society. — Treatise on Flemish Husbandry in 
 Lib. of Useful Knowledge. — Museum Rusticum. — 
 The Society of Gentlemen 's Complete Farmer. — 
 Bradley's Husbandry. — Miller's Dictionary. 
 
 ASS. A well-known quadruped, of the horse 
 genus of the thick-skinned class of animals. The 
 variety of ass generally known in Great Britain 
 and Ireland, is of a very inferior character ; and 
 affords a very inadequate representation of either 
 the best domesticated varieties of other countries, 
 or the most spirited and symmetrical of the 
 known varieties of the wild ass. Our popular 
 notions of this animal — based principally on 
 contempt, and prompting chiefly to neglect and 
 cruelty-^-are a gross outrage upon common sense, 
 natural history, and even religious feeling, and 
 are wofully inconsistent with the enlightenment 
 of the nineteenth century, and the boasted civili- 
 
109 
 
 ASS. 
 
 zation of the British people. The ass — except 
 in so far as he is starved and thrashed and half- 
 butchered out of his natural disposition — pos- 
 sesses scarcely a trace of the disagreeable temper 
 which popular belief assigns to him, and is dis- 
 tinguished by several most useful habits and 
 most desirable properties for which not one Bri- 
 ton in twenty will give him a particle of credit ; 
 he figures very anciently, most extensively, and 
 not a little respectably, in the history of the 
 civilized world ; he was held in high esteem by 
 several ancient and enlightened nations, whose 
 opinions on most other matters connected with 
 civilization are respected by posterity ; he was 
 domesticated and generally useful before either 
 the horse or the dog, and was long retained in 
 the service of the peaceful arts after the horse 
 became subservient to the purposes of war ; and, 
 above all, he figures with considerable frequency 
 and with uncommon interest in the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, and is there exhibited to us in connexion 
 with one of the most simply sublime and beauti- 
 fully affecting passages in the personal history of 
 our Redeemer. The Christian who thinks con- 
 temptuously of the ass, loses instruction out of 
 various parts of Scripture ; the farmer who 
 thinks meanly of him, deprives himself of much 
 profitable service in draught labour upon his 
 farm ; and the mere hobnail or schoolboy who 
 sneers at the ass's alleged stubbornness and stu- 
 pidity is, in the popular use of the word, a greater 
 ass than the animal he despises. 
 
 In Western Asia, the ass was domesticated long 
 before the commencement of profane history, and 
 has ever since been held in high esteem, and con- 
 tinues to be carefully bred and reared ; yet in 
 Europe, it was little known till a considerable 
 period after the commencement of profane his- 
 tory, and has never, except in limited districts, 
 attained its due situation of consequence. In 
 the time of Aristotle, the ass was unknown in 
 Pontus, in Scythia, and in the great territory 
 which now constitutes Germany and France ; 
 and so late as the time of Elizabeth, it was ex- 
 tremely rare in England. Wherever the horse 
 preceded him as a domestic animal, the ass found 
 difficulty in obtaining a fair degree of favour, or 
 even honest consideration of his claims ; his in- 
 feriority to the horse in size and strength in- 
 stantly excited strong depreciation, and seems to 
 have originated the unjust contempt in which he 
 continues to be held ; and his deprivation of all 
 means for attaining improvements in breed, cor- 
 responding to the improvements in that of* the 
 horse, has hitherto had the appearance of justi- 
 fying, in a large degree, his stern exclusion from 
 favour. "He is the sport, the butt, and the 
 drudge of the vulgar, who, without the least 
 thought or concern, drive him along with a cud- 
 gel, beating, overloading, and tiring him. We 
 do not remember, that, if there were no horses, 
 the ass would be considered, both with regard to 
 
 himself and us, as the most useful, most beauti- 
 ful, and most distinguished of animals. Instead 
 of being the first, he is now the second ; and from 
 this accident alone, he is held in no estimation. 
 It is the comparison that degrades him : he is 
 considered, not in himself, but relatively to the 
 horse. We forget that he is an ass, that he has 
 all the qualities of his nature, all the gifts an- 
 nexed to his species ; and think only on the figure 
 and qualities of the horse which are wanting in 
 him, and which it would be improper for him to 
 have." 
 
 The facts respecting the wild ass are, in some 
 instances, ill-authenticated and obscure, and, in 
 general, badly methodized and ill squared with 
 science. Some animals which he calls wild asses 
 were seen by Bruce in Abyssinia. A wild ass is 
 noticed by Bell as an inhabitant of Tartary, hav- 
 ing waved white and brown hair resembling that 
 of a tiger ; but no such Tartarian wild ass is 
 otherwise known to naturalists. The proper wild 
 ass of Tartary, called koulan by the Tartars, and 
 believed to be the origin of the ordinary domestic 
 ass, is of a uniform silvery grey colour, with a 
 broad, coffee-coloured stripe extending along the 
 spine, and crossed on the shoulders by a trans- 
 verse band. The wild ass of Khur or Ghurkhurd 
 in Persia stands ten or twelve hands high ; its 
 limbs are beautifully slender ; its coat or fur is 
 sleek, and of a reddish colour, passing into silvery 
 grey on the belly and hinder parts ; its mane is 
 short and black ; and the tuft which terminates 
 its tail is also black ; but no band of contrasted 
 colour, as in the Tartarian wild ass and the ordi- 
 nary domestic ass, passes along the back or across 
 the shoulders. The wild ass of the Himalayan 
 provinces, called by the inhabitants Kiang, has 
 shorter ears than the wild ass of Khur, and is in 
 other respects so different as to be obviously a 
 distinct variety. The wild ass of Mongolia and 
 the borders of Thibet and China, called by the 
 inhabitants Dzigguetai, is prevailingly of a pale 
 yellow colour, passing into white on the under 
 parts, and having a dark chocolate-coloured band 
 along the spine. An animal of the south of Africa 
 is described by Le Vaillant as a wild ass, as hav- 
 ing a pale yellow colour, as occurring in large 
 herds, and as called by the Greater Namquas, 
 the white zebra ; but it has not been reported on 
 by any traveller except himself, and may not im- 
 probably, according to a suggestion of Colonel 
 Hamilton, have been the female of the Isabelline 
 antelope. The wild ass of Cutch and North Gooj- 
 rat, and the two varieties already noticed as the 
 wild ass of Khur and the wild ass of Mongolia, 
 are thought by Colonel Sykes to be strictly iden- 
 tical with one another ; and he suggests that " the 
 discrepancies of descriptions may be easily re- 
 medied by the supposition, that animals examined 
 by different individuals, at different seasons of 
 the year, did really slightly differ, owing to the 
 difference of seasons." " The wild ass of Cutch 
 
ASS. 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 ASS. 
 
 and the north of Goojrat," says he, "is not found 
 farther south in India than Deesa, on the banks 
 of the Bunnas river, in lat. about 30° 30', nor 
 have I heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of 
 longitude on the south side of the Himalaya 
 mountains. In Cutch and Northern Goojrat, it 
 frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of 
 Thoodpoor, Jaysulmer, and Bickaneor. By swim- 
 ming the Indus, it may communicate through 
 Scind and Baloochestand with Persia ; and in 
 Persia it evidently exists, from Sir Robert Ker 
 Porter's descriptions. To the north and east, 
 Persia abuts upon the peculiar localities of the 
 Dzegguetai, through Bucharia to the deserts of 
 Cobi, where it delights in the salt marshes, as it 
 does in India, and thence to Tartary, Thibet, 
 and South Siberia." The Syrian wild ass is both 
 larger and more handsome than the wild ass of 
 Khur ; and the species improves to the westward 
 of the Euphrates, becomes very fine on the 
 mutual borders of Asia and Africa, and appears, 
 from the accounts of Burckhardt, to be very 
 abundant in Arabia Petrasa. The Tartars hunt 
 the wild ass in preference to all other beasts of 
 chase, and are very fond of its flesh. The Sher- 
 arat Arabians also hunt it, privately eat its flesh, 
 and publicly sell its skin and hoofs to the tra- 
 velling merchants from Damascus. Even the 
 polished and luxurious epicures of imperial Rome 
 held the flesh of the wild ass in the same kind 
 of estimation in which modern epicures hold 
 venison ; and Pliny intimates that a sort of re- 
 gular trade was maintained in supplying the 
 Roman market with ass - foals, of what were 
 reckoned the most delicate and best flavoured 
 kind, from the north of Africa. 
 
 Several of the domestic varieties of the ass in 
 other countries than our own, particularly in 
 those of Western Asia, are of a very superior 
 character to our variety, and might be most ad- 
 vantageously imported for crossing and improve- 
 ment. The foal of an African variety was not 
 long ago imported to the Surrey Gardens at Lon- 
 don, and is known to belong to a race of compara- 
 tively great speed and power. Some individuals 
 of a variety reared on the island of Gozo, in the 
 Mediterranean, have been brought to Britain as 
 stallions for the production of mules ; and either 
 they or other individuals of the same race, have 
 attained the height of fourteen hands, and been 
 sold for the sum of 100 guineas. Three or four 
 different breeds are raised in Syria, and treated 
 with great care and attention ; and one of these 
 is a small but spirited kind, on which the Syrian 
 ladies are accustomed to ride. A domestic breed 
 in W estern India are not much larger than good- 
 sized Newfoundland dogs ; they are often seen, 
 as frequently the domestic ass of Europe, asso- 
 ciated with gypsies ; and they are used partly in 
 droves to carry small loads of salt or grain, and 
 partly by pot-makers to carry their clay. But 
 by far the most interesting race, jointly for in- 
 
 trinsic excellence and for extensive distribution, 
 is the ass of Arabia, — which is not only the 
 fostered domestic breed of the country whence 
 it takes its name, but one of the favourite breeds 
 of Syria, Persia, and most other parts of Western 
 Asia. " The asses of Arabia," says Chardin, 
 " are among the finest in the world. Their coat 
 is smooth and clean. They carry their head ele- 
 vated, and have fine well-formed legs, which they 
 throw out gracefully in walking or galloping. 
 They are used only for the saddle, and are im- 
 ported in vast numbers into Persia, where they 
 are frequently sold for 400 livres, and, being 
 taught an easy ambling pace, are richly capari- 
 soned, and used only by the rich and luxurious 
 nobles." An improved and costly domestic 
 breed, used principally for the production of 
 strong, active, and high-priced mules, occurs in 
 Kentucky and other central parts of the United 
 States. Numbers of these are fifteen hands high, 
 and some are sixteen ; and all are the offspring 
 of Maltese asses crossed with asses of Spain and 
 the South of France, none of which as imported 
 stood more than fourteen hands high. Instances 
 have recently occurred in America of £250 being 
 refused for a yearling female ass, of a two-year 
 old male ass being estimated at upwards of ,£600, 
 and of an ass of great celebrity having been sold 
 for £1,000. Yet the average market price of the 
 unimproved, abused, dwarfish ass of Great Bri- 
 tain and Ireland is only about twenty shillings. 
 
 The ass, when properly trained and humanely 
 treated, is docile, sagacious, good tempered, and 
 susceptible of strong attachment to his master ; 
 in his natural temper, he is as humble, patient, 
 and quiet, as the horse is proud, fiery, and impe- 
 tuous ; and, though he eventually acquires indo- 
 cility and stubbornness from injudicious training 
 and brutal treatment, he long resists the natural 
 effects of unkindness, and always, in a high de- 
 gree, bears chastisements and blows with firm- 
 ness or even with courage. With regard to both 
 the quantity and quality of his food, he is emi- 
 nently temperate, often maintaining himself on 
 one-half of what would seem to be sufficient for 
 his wants, and uniformly contenting himself with 
 dry leaves, briars, thistles, road-side forage, and 
 almost any sort of harsh or disagreeable herbs, 
 which the horse and other domestic animals will 
 not touch; but in his drink, he is very nice, 
 using only such water as is perfectly clear, and 
 preferring to drink at portions of limpid brooks 
 with which he has become acquainted. He re- 
 quires very little management ; he sustains hun- 
 ger, thirst, neglect, and labour, more than most 
 other animals ; he is seldom or never sick ; and, 
 after hard labour, and as if to save his driver all 
 trouble, he rolls himself on a rough hard road, 
 and rises refreshed and good-humoured. He 
 may be lightly worked, or at least actively trained 
 at two years of age ; he is fully able for routine 
 work at three years ; and, if tolerably well used, 
 
ASS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ASS. 
 
 he will continue to labour till the age of thirty. 
 The milk of the female is very light and nutri- 
 tious, and is used by persons of diseased powers 
 of digestion ; and the skin of both the male and 
 the female is peculiarly hard and elastic, and is 
 used for parchment, drum-heads, and other spe- 
 cial purposes. The female breeds at two years 
 of age. It is universally known that many ani- 
 mals will continue to give milk not only after the 
 young are removed, but even for years, when the 
 impression of having had young must have been 
 entirely forgotten. The cow and the goat are in- 
 stances of this kind ; but in the ass the secretion 
 of milk is not continued after the mother has 
 lost the impression of her foal's existence. This 
 is a fact so well known to the keepers of asses, 
 that whenever an ass's foal dies, they take every 
 means in their power to keep up the impression, 
 in the mother, of the foal being still alive, to 
 keep her in milk. For this purpose they take off 
 the skin of the foal and preserve it, so that it 
 may be occasionally thrown over the back of an- 
 other foal, and smelled by the mother, more par- 
 ticularly at the time they are milking her. The 
 ass, under the deception of having her own foal, 
 gives down her milk, and the secretion is carried 
 on as usual ; but if this artifice be neglected she 
 soon goes dry. To ascertain this fact more ac- 
 curately, the celebrated Mr. John Hunter put it 
 to the test of experiment. He took an ass, in 
 milk, and kept her apart from her foal every 
 night, but had the mother milked in the morning 
 in presence of the foal. This was done for more 
 than a month, without there being any diminu- 
 tion in the morning's milk. The foal was then 
 taken away altogether, and the mother was 
 milked instead of being sucked by the foal, par- 
 ticularly in the evening, at the same hour at 
 which the foal had been taken from her, and 
 again in the morning at the usual hour. The 
 milk taken in the morning was always compared 
 with that taken in the morning before, but in 
 three mornings the quantity was lessened ; and 
 the fifth morning there was hardly any. The 
 foal was then restored to her ; but she would not 
 allow it to suck. The experiment was repeated 
 with similar results. 
 
 The ass, even in his present unimproved con- 
 dition in Great Britain and Ireland, deserves ten- 
 fold more attention from farmers than he has 
 hitherto obtained. On the cabin-farms of Ire- 
 land, where the routine-work is greatly too little 
 for the employment of the horse or even of the 
 ox, the services of the ass are very available and 
 in extensive requisition. An American donkey 
 plough was not long ago introduced to Ireland ; 
 and while sufficiently light to be drawn by any 
 ordinary ass, it is capable of turning the soil to 
 the depth of nine or ten inches. This imple- 
 ment, drawn by an ass and managed by a man 
 or a stout boy, easily ploughs half an English 
 acre per day, or does as much work as twenty 
 
 spades, — and, for all ordinary purposes in the 
 field, does it as well ; and it has even been used 
 with entire success in the drill-culture of pota- 
 toes and turnips on the farm, and in the common 
 tillage operations of the kitchen garden. The 
 ass was often employed by the ancient Jews, the 
 ancient Romans, and other ancient nations, also, 
 in ploughing and in other agricultural opera- 
 tions ; and it continues to be in high request in 
 many of the civilized parts of the world for 
 facilely and economically doing various kinds of 
 work which Britons of the present day usually 
 assign to the horse. 
 
 But even on the large farms of England and 
 Scotland, the ass might, with great saving of 
 care and money to the farmer, be, to a consider- 
 able extent, effectively employed instead of the 
 horse. What, for example, should prevent the 
 ass from acting as efficiently as the horse in 
 opening small drills, earthing up cabbages, cart- 
 ing home turnips or rape, going to the mill or 
 the market, turning a churn-wheel, and, in gen- 
 eral performing the numberless kinds of light 
 draught 1 And if the ass might be as serviceable 
 as the horse in only one instance in ten in which 
 draught- labour is required, what but sheer pro- 
 digal waste is it, sanctioned by nothing better 
 than stupid prejudice, to maintain horses for all 
 draught-labour whatever, and not, as far as prac- 
 ticable, to substitute them by the ass? Or if 
 any farmer cannot, consistently with the econo- 
 mics of his farm, diminish the number of his 
 horses, he might derive considerable benefit to 
 his land and corresponding increase to his profit, 
 by employing an ass or two, with children for 
 drivers, and panniers for means of carriage, in 
 performing some kinds of work, which are at 
 present ill attended to, and for which the horse 
 is not adapted. For example — to adopt the hint 
 and use the words of the Knowledge Society's 
 Treatise on British Husbandry — " the saving of 
 food by weeding may not amount to much in a 
 money calculation, though many herbs thus 
 thrown away would be found palatable if gathered 
 for cattle ; but were these animals only employed 
 to remove the weeds from the ground when hoed, 
 it would be of great service, for at least one-half 
 of them strike root again after the first shower, 
 and the remainder, if not eaten, is lost to the 
 dung-heap, whereas that loss would be prevented 
 were they raked up and collected." — Naturalist's 
 Library. — Buffons Histoire Naturelle. — Pictorial 
 Museum of Animated Nature. — FenneWs Natural 
 History of Quadrupeds. — The Irish Farmer's 
 Magazine. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
 — Mortimer's Husbandry. — Treatise on British 
 Husbandry in Library of Useful Knowledge. — 
 Doyle's Practical Husbandry. — Culley on Live 
 Stock. — Sproules Treatise on Agriculture. 
 
 ATMOSPHERE. The agencies of the atmo- 
 sphere act in intimate connection with all or- 
 ganic functions and very many mineral changes 
 
ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 112 
 
 AVENA. 
 
 in our world ; and therefore affect the interests 
 and occupations of the cultivators of the soil at 
 a thousandfold too many points, or in a thousand- 
 fold too many ways, to be mentioned or even 
 hinted at in a brief general notice. Some of the 
 chief are more or less fully discussed in our articles 
 Agricultural Chemistry, Air, Oxygen, Car- 
 bonic Acid, Ammonia, Azote, Caloric, Climate, 
 Rain, Snow, and Aeration ; and others form the 
 topic of a considerable portion of many of our 
 other articles. We shall here do no more than 
 state a few practical inferences, bearing upon the 
 health, comfort, and professional success of gar- 
 deners and farmers. 
 
 The sites of dwelling-houses and of farmeries 
 ought to be selected in places remote from ponds, 
 marshes, and stagnant waters. The apartments 
 of dwelling-houses ought to be spacious and easily 
 ventilated ; and no dormitories for servants or 
 buildings for the housing of cattle should be low, 
 moist, or excluded from free and frequent circu- 
 lation of the air. The temperature of inhabited 
 apartments ought to be graduated, and ought 
 never to rise above 64° of Fahrenheit ; and the 
 temperature of dormitories ought, as nearly as 
 possible, to be uniform throughout the night, 
 and ought never — as too frequently happens — 
 to make the wide and very trying range of a rise 
 or fall of 10° between the hour of going to bed 
 and the hour of rising. A few trees around a 
 dwelling or a farmery modify the feverish heats 
 of summer, carry off a portion of the caloric with 
 the moisture they exhale, and offer a degree of 
 shade which is frequently suificient to avert or 
 lessen lassitude. 
 
 All seeds ought to be deposited so near the 
 surface of the soil as to be freely fanned by the 
 atmospheric air, and, at the same time, so far be- 
 low the surface as to obtain a sufficiency of mois- 
 ture for their germination. When small seeds 
 are buried unduly deep from the air, they either 
 utterly rot, or germinate so feebly as never to 
 send their plumules to the surface. — Soils, when 
 loose and pulverulent, are very bibulous of water, 
 and readily transmit the dews which fall upon 
 them to the roots of plants ; but when they pos- 
 sess a compact constitution, or are unpulverised 
 by tillage, or are skinned and encrusted by alter- 
 nations of rain and sunshine, they reject most 
 rain in multitudinous rills of surface, and permit 
 almost all dew to be dissipated by the earliest 
 rays of the morning sun. Hence, all land which 
 is under drilled and hoed crops ought to be fre- 
 quently stirred and kept permeable to the atmo- 
 sphere, and all arable land whatever ought, as 
 fully as possible, to possess and maintain a porous 
 condition. 
 
 All the carbonaceous, nitrogenous, hydrogen- 
 ous, and oxygenous portions of manure, consti- 
 tuting all but a fraction of both its bulk and its 
 value, pass by a natural chemical transmutation 
 into liquid or gaseous forms, and if not economi- 
 
 cally used before this transmutation commences, 
 are dissipated in the atmosphere and lost. All 
 strictly organic manure, in fact, begins slowly to 
 pass directly or indirectly into an aeriform state 
 the instant its vitality ceases ; and it proceeds 
 with increasing rapidity in this process of decom- 
 position till the whole of it becomes invisible. 
 Carbonic acid is disengaged, and rises viewlessly 
 into the atmosphere ; nitrogen rushes into com- 
 bination with hydrogen, and sends up invisible 
 volumes of ammoniacal gas ; water is formed by 
 combination of oxygen and hydrogen, and sinks 
 into the ground, or runs off with falling rain, — 
 in either case to be eventually carried to the 
 clouds in vapour ; and just in the degree in which 
 these chemical changes are permitted to occur, 
 or in the proportion of time during which they 
 are allowed to carry on, the manurial mass dimi- 
 nishes in bulk, and is robbed of its fertilizing 
 powers. When manure undergoes decomposition 
 in the dungyard, on the surface of the field, or 
 otherwise in direct exposure to the atmosphere, 
 it is wholly lost to the farmer, and only when it 
 undergoes decomposition in a state of mixation 
 with the soil, does it yield its elements as the 
 food of plants. 
 
 AUGUST. See Calendar. 
 
 AVENA. A genus of grasses, popularly called 
 oats and oat-grasses, and forming the type of a 
 large tribe which is botanically called Avenacea?. 
 This genus, as formerly constituted, and as still 
 understood by many botanists, includes some spe- 
 cies which have recently been assigned to five or 
 six of these genera ; yet, independently of these 
 species, it comprises about forty known species, 
 seventeen of which are either indigenous in 
 Great Britain, or have been introduced from 
 foreign countries. We shall reserve all the cereal 
 species for discussion in the article Oat ; and 
 shall here notice only the most important of the 
 forage and the weedy species. 
 
 The yellow or golden oat-grass, A vena fiavescens, 
 now called Trisetum fiavescens, is a perennial weed 
 of Great Britain, growing to the height of about 
 18 inches ; and, if attempted to be cultivated by 
 itself, it will not thrive ; yet it prospers, and is 
 well worthy of cultivation, in mixture with some 
 other grasses, for either hay or pasture ; it is the 
 most useful of all the oat-grasses for forage ; it 
 arrives early at maturity, and yields a consider- 
 able bulk of fine herbage ; and it has the smallest 
 seed of all the oat-grasses which are indigenous 
 in Britain. The grasses with which it suits best 
 to be combined are Cynosurus cristatus, Anthox- 
 anthum odoratum, and Ilordeum pratense. It oc- 
 curs in the richest natural pastures, and is found 
 wild in almost every kind of meadow ; but it 
 thrives best, as an artificial grass, on dry cal- 
 careous soil. It is peculiarly suitable to lofty 
 and exposed situations ; for it prospers on them 
 better than most other grasses, and is quite as 
 readily devoured by sheep. It contains in its 
 
A VENA. 
 
 nutritive elements a larger proportion of bitter 
 extractive than occurs in the nutritive elements 
 of the grasses with which it is usually combined ; 
 and, on that account, is an important ingredient 
 in the herbage of rich pasture land. Though a 
 perennial grass, it speedily dies out if allowed to 
 bear seed. It usually flowers in the first and 
 second weeks of July, and ripens its seed in the 
 beginning of August. When grown upon clayey 
 loam, it yields per acre, when in flower, 8,167^ 
 lbs. of green produce, 2,858^ lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 478i lbs. of nutritive matter, — when its seed 
 is ripe, 12,251^ lbs. of green produce, 4,900| lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 430f lbs. of nutritive matter, 
 — and when in aftergrass, 4,083| lbs. of green 
 produce, and 79| lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The meadow oat-grass, Avena pratensis, is a 
 perennial native of the pastures and meadows of 
 Great Britain, and usually grows to the height 
 of about a foot ; but it is much less common 
 than either the yellow oat-grass or the downy oat- 
 grass. It occurs on a greater variety of soils 
 than most other kinds of grasses, — on dry heaths, 
 in moist meadows, on sandy loams, and in chalky 
 fields ; but is most frequent and abundant on the 
 last of these kinds of soils. It thrives under irri- 
 gation, and exhibits a greener and more healthy- 
 looking foliage on meadows than on dry elevated 
 soils ; yet it yields quite or very nearly as great 
 a produce on these soils as on an irrigated mea- 
 dow. Its nutritive elements contain a smaller 
 proportion of extractive and saline matters than 
 thosf of the other herbage species of oat-grass ; 
 and its aggregate character, habits, and produce 
 assign to it a lower place in the scale of economi- 
 cal value than belongs to either the yellow oat- 
 grass or the downy oat-grass. It flowers in July, 
 and ripens its seed in August. When grown 
 upon sandy loam, it yields per acre, when in 
 flower, 6,806£ lbs. of green produce, 1,871| lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 239^ lbs. of nutritive matter ; 
 and when its seeds are ripe, 9,528| lbs. of green 
 produce, 2,858f lbs. of dry produce, and 149 lbs. 
 of nutritive matter. 
 
 The downy oat-grass, Avena pubescens, now 
 called Trisetum pubescens, is a perennial native 
 of the chalky pastures of England, and naturally 
 grows to the height of about eighteen inches. 
 But it deserves the attention of the farmer on 
 account of its hardiness, and of its being but a 
 slight impoverisher of the soil; and when it 
 is cultivated as an artificial grass, in tolerably 
 rich soils, it attains a greater height than when 
 growing wild, and loses the downy hairs which 
 cover its leaves when growing upon poor, dry, 
 chalky grounds. After its first flowering culms 
 are cropped, it does not send forth any more, and, 
 on this account, is well suited for permanent pas- 
 ture on such dry soils as are easily impoverished. 
 But its nutritive elements contain a greater pro- 
 portion of bitter extractive than those of other 
 grasses which are suited to such soils ; and, for 
 
 AVERAGE. 
 
 this reason, it ought not to be a large ingredient 
 in any mixture of grasses for permanent pasture 
 on these soils. It flowers in the second or third 
 week of June, and ripens its seed about the be- 
 ginning or middle of July. When grown upon 
 sandy loam, it yields per acre when in flower, 
 15,654J lbs. of green produce, 5,870^ lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 367 lbs. of nutritive matter ; and 
 when its seeds are ripe, 6,806^ lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 1,361J lbs. of dry produce, and 212| lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. 
 
 The tall oat-grass, Avena elatior, also called 
 Holcus avenaceus, and now fixed in the newest 
 systematic botany as Arrhenatherum avenaceum, 
 is a perennial native of the meadows and pastures 
 of Great Britain, and usually grows to the height 
 of about five feet ; and though a coarse plant, it 
 vegetates with luxuriance, and has been per- 
 mitted a place among the agricultural grasses. 
 Yet it contains but a comparatively small portion 
 of nutritive matter ; and is ill relished by cattle, 
 and much disliked by horses. — The barren, fly, or 
 animated oat, A vena sterilis, is an annual grass, and 
 was introduced to Great Britain from Barbary in 
 1640. It is interesting chiefly as a curiosity ; its 
 ripe seeds having a form somewhat like a fly, 
 and being so exceedingly mobile as to seem at a 
 little distance as if animated. — The alpine oat- 
 grass, Avena alpina, or Avena planiculmis, now 
 called Trisetum alpinum, grows wild on the Scot- 
 tish mountains, is a perennial grass, and has a 
 height of about 18 inches. — The insipid oat-grass, 
 Avena fatua, is an annual weed of the cornfields 
 of Britain, and grows to the height of four feet. 
 — The early oat- grass, Avena prazcox, formerly 
 called Air a prcecox, is an annual weed of the 
 heathy grounds of Britain, and usually grows to 
 the height of about six inches. — All the other 
 species of avena are exotics, devoid of any interest 
 to the British farmer. — Sinclair's Hortus Gram- 
 ineus Wobumensis. — Prize Essays of the Highland 
 Society. — Loudon's Hortus Britannicus. — Davy's 
 Agricultural Chemistry. — Millers Dictionary. — 
 Useful Knowledge Society's British Husbandry. — 
 Low's Elements of Practical Agric. — SprouWs 
 Treatise on Agriculture. — Catalogue of the High- 
 land Society's Museum. — Lawson's Agriculturist's 
 Manual. 
 
 AVERAGE. The medium between two ex- 
 tremes, or the mean of several sums. But it is 
 used in various technical senses in commerce ; 
 and, in particular, it has a peculiar sense in the 
 corn-trade. In 1770, it was enacted that the jus- 
 tices at quarter-sessions should order returns to 
 be made weekly of the price of corn from not 
 less than two or more than six towns in each 
 county, to a receiver of corn returns, appointed 
 by the lords of the treasury, who was directed 
 to publish an abstract of such returns weekly, in 
 the London Gazette. The first of these weekly 
 averages appeared in the Gazette of Nov. 24. 
 1770. In 1781, it was enacted that the prices 
 II 
 
 113 
 
AWNS. 
 
 114 
 
 AZOTE. 
 
 for regulating exportation should be determined 
 by the averages of the London Corn-exchange ; 
 and, in 1789, England and Wales were divided 
 into twelve districts, in each of which the jus- 
 tices of the peace were directed to appoint per- 
 sons to ascertain the prices of corn at the sea- 
 ports and principal market-towns, and to make 
 returns thereof weekly to the receiver in London, 
 who, on the first day of February, May, August, 
 and November, was to ascertain the average of 
 the previous six weeks, — except as to oats, the 
 price of which was to be taken on an average of 
 twelve weeks. The averages thus ascertained 
 were sent to the customs' officers in each district 
 to regulate the importation for the ensuing three 
 months ; but exportations were still regulated by 
 the average tables weekly. In 1791, the number 
 of districts in the kingdom was increased by 
 adding Scotland, and dividing it into four dis- 
 tricts; but the districts themselves were still 
 kept separate, and the distinction between aver- 
 ages for regulating exports, and those for fixing 
 the duties on imports, was retained. In 1804, 
 the returns from all England were directed to be 
 taken together, and one average price struck ; 
 and the same was done in the case of Scotland ; 
 and in the following year one average price was 
 adopted in England and Scotland for both im- 
 ports and exports. In 1815, the celebrated Corn- 
 law enacted that the averages should be fixed 
 every three months upon the prices of the pre- 
 • vious six weeks, and should continue the same 
 until the expiration of the quarter. 
 
 AWNS. The beards or long bristles which 
 project from the chaffs or exterior of the seeds of 
 barley, spring wheat, and some other grasses. In 
 some parts of England they are called ails. 
 
 AXLE. The bar which connects the two wheels 
 of a two-wheeled or a four-wheeled vehicle, and 
 on which the body of the vehicle is supported. 
 See the article Cart. 
 
 AZOTE. A gas, the largest constituent of the 
 atmospheric air, and one of the most important 
 elementary substances in the world. It was dis- 
 covered, as a distinct substance, in 1772, by Dr. 
 Rutherford of Edinburgh, and ascertained to be 
 a constituent of the atmosphere, about 1775, by 
 Lavoisier and Scheele. Its name azote means 
 ' without life,' and was given to it by Lavoisier 
 on account of its total want of adaptation to sus- 
 tain animal life ; and its name nitrogen means 
 ' the generator of nitre,' and was given to it on 
 account of its being an essential element of nitric 
 acid and all nitrate salts. It does not naturally 
 exist in a separate condition, and is usually ob- 
 tained in experimental chemistry, by an intricate 
 process of abstraction from the oxygen and the 
 other elements of the atmosphere. It cannot, 
 without great difficulty and much elaboration of 
 chemical process, be obtained in a pure condition ; 
 and, in consequence, it is liable to be blamed, for 
 bad odours and even worse properties, which 
 
 really belong to partial combinations with it of 
 some other elements. When quite pure, it is the 
 most seemingly negative of all the gases, totally 
 destitute of colour, taste, or smell, quite incapable 
 of acting upon blue vegetable colours, and dis- 
 tinguished from other gases more by negative 
 characters than by any striking or very active 
 property. It cannot support combustion, but 
 extinguishes the flame of all burning bodies 
 which are dipped into it ; and it cannot support 
 animal respiration, but extinguishes the life of 
 all animals which are immersed in it; yet it 
 operates upon both flame and life rather by ne- 
 gation than by action, — rather by the want of 
 intermixed and accompanying oxygen, than by 
 any deleterious or even positive influence of its 
 own. Hence an animal which dies by immer- 
 sion in it exhibits, upon post mortem examination, 
 no traces of injurious action upon either the lungs 
 or the general functionary system. 
 
 So very seemingly inactive is azote, that, 
 though constituting about four - fifths of the 
 whole atmosphere, it has been supposed by some 
 chemists to serve merely as a diluent or men- 
 struum of oxygen, weakening the strength or 
 softening the energy of that mighty principle of 
 combustion, acidification, and respirational ac- 
 tion, and preventing the oxygen from exerting 
 such a stimulating effect upon the animal func- 
 tions as should speedily wear them to extinction. 
 Even some adepts in organic chemistry, in spite 
 of their meeting it as an abundant element in 
 animal substances, as an essential accessory to 
 vegetation, as an important element in some of 
 the most valuable seeds, as in fact a perfectly 
 characteristic principle of both animal and vege- 
 table nutrition, have been bafiled in every attempt 
 to ascertain its mode of action, and induced to 
 regard it as a chemical enigma. M. Le Comte 
 Chaptal, for example, says, " This principle ap- 
 pears to exercise the least influence of all upon 
 substances belonging to either of the three king- 
 doms of nature. The action of nitrogen is, in 
 fact, so unimportant as far as it is known, that 
 we are at fault to assign any reason why nature 
 should have been so lavish in its diffusion 
 throughout the atmosphere. It has, indeed, been 
 considered by some in the light of a vast aerial 
 magazine, intended to receive all the gases, ex- 
 halations, and vapours, which ascend from the 
 earth's surface, and out of which these are again 
 withdrawn, as they may be needed either for the 
 support of animal life, or to quicken vegetation, 
 or for the production of those numerous pheno- 
 mena of composition and decomposition which are 
 incessantly renovating the surface of the globe." 
 Yet azote is now distinctly known to play a most 
 conspicuous part upon both animal and vege- 
 table organisms, to supply from the atmosphere 
 part of the nourishment of some plants, to sup- 
 ply from plants a main part of the nourishment 
 of all granivorous animals, to evolve from the 
 
! AZOTE. 
 
 decay of animals a chief sustainer of the life of 
 plants, to run a continual circle of connecting 
 agency through non-organic matter, vegetables, 
 and animals, and, in general, to act so prominent 
 and constant a part in the grand reciprocities of 
 the vegetable and the animal worlds as to be the 
 chief of the chemical elements which demand the 
 thorough study of every well-informed cultivator 
 of the soil. Though the mode in which it acts 
 is still, except in a few instances, obscurely 
 known, yet the facts of its acting are exceedingly 
 obvious and for beyond controversy ; and these 
 facts give azote its main interest to even a scien- 
 tific chemist. Its serving as a diluent of oxygen 
 and as a vast storehouse receptacle for this and 
 other gases— =or its being a gas at all and so large 
 an element of the atmosphere — are unquestion- 
 ably circumstances of great value in themselves, 
 and also show how, under the will of the infin- 
 itely wise Creator, a grand physical agent, made 
 to serve an ulterior purpose, may at the same 
 time equally serve a subordinate one ; yet they 
 must be strictly regarded as mere accessory cir- 
 cumstances, and not confounded with the main 
 designs and uses of the gas. " After oxygen." 
 remarks Liebig, " few substances are of more im- 
 portance in the economy of nature than nitro- 
 gen. Forming so great a part of our atmosphere, 
 it is scarcely possible to conceive that it must 
 not be subservient to other important purposes, 
 besides that of merely diluting oxygen gas. It 
 is dissolved in the water of the sea, of lakes, 
 springs, and rivers. It enters largely into the 
 composition of some vegetables, and of all ani- 
 mals; and it is extremely probable that great 
 phenomena, now obscured, such as the renova- 
 tion of the air, rain, and perspiration, would be 
 solved by an accurate knowledge of this gas." 
 
 Compound chemical elements containing azote 
 are technically said to be nitrogenous, azotated, 
 or azotized ; and the chief of these found in ani- 
 mals and plants are gelatine, albumen, gluten, 
 ' caseum, legumine, urea, osmazome, and fibrin. 
 All plants imbibe or absorb and fix azote ; yet, 
 when viewed in the aggregate, they contain so 
 very small a proportion of it compared to their 
 other elements, that, till a few years ago, it was, 
 in many instances, unobserved or unheeded in 
 their analysis. Animals, on the other hand, pos- 
 sess so large a proportion of it in their blood, in 
 their juices, in their organisms, and generally 
 throughout their system, that its presence is the 
 cause of many of their most characteristic chemi- 
 cal features. All the higher orders of animals 
 receive their nourishment directly or indirectly 
 from vegetables ; they obtain the characteristics 
 of that nourishment, or the constituents of blood, 
 in the form of nitrogenous elements ; for each 
 pound of nitrogen which they require in order 
 to the sustenance of life and the maintenance of 
 health, they must consume as much vegetable 
 matter in the form of food as contains a pound 
 of nitrogen ; and as both the proportion of nitro- 
 
 AZOTE. 
 
 gen in each healthy animal and the quantity of 
 it in each edible vegetable is fixed or uniform, an 
 exact correlation exists between the nourishment 
 of any animal, and the nitrogenous contents of 
 each kind of vegetable aliment. Yet as both 
 animals and vegetables are composed of several 
 proximate principles or compound elements, and 
 as these principles exceedingly differ from one 
 another in their nitrogenous character, some, as 
 the fat of animals and the woody fibre of plants, 
 being wholly destitute of nitrogen, while others, 
 as albumen and gluten, contain it in great quan- 
 tities, so animals may increase in nitrogenous 
 elements to the neglect of non-nitrogenous ones, 
 or may increase in non-nitrogenous elements to 
 the neglect of nitrogenous ones, according to the 
 nature of their food. Fatty matter, for example, 
 requires for its formation an excess of hydrogen, 
 but neither contains nor requires any nitrogen ; 
 while muscle requires no excess of hydrogen, but 
 consists almost wholly of the nitrogenous ele- 
 ments, albumen, fibrin, and osmazome, and, in 
 consequence, requires a high excess of nitrogen. 
 If, therefore, cattle are fed upon substances which 
 contain a small proportion of nitrogen and an ex- 
 cess of hydrogen, such as oil cake, they speedily 
 become fat, without acquiring a proportional in- 
 crease of beef or muscle ; and if, on the contrary, 
 they are fed on substances which are rich in 
 nitrogen, such as the seeds of leguminous plants 
 and of the cereal grasses, — especially when they, 
 at the same time, enjoy the powerful excitant to 
 the increase of muscle which is afforded by steady 
 and habitual muscular exertion, — they speedily 
 become fuller and rounder in their masses of 
 muscular tissue, without acquiring any propor- 
 tional increase of fat. An obvious inference is, 
 that to feed an animal with the view of fattening 
 him, and to feed him with the view of strength- 
 ening him, are totally different processes, and re- 
 quire totally different aliments ; and another in- 
 ference, though not so obvious an one, is, that 
 neither of these processes can be much or long 
 continued to the exclusion of the other, without 
 causing very serious damage to the constitution. 
 
 As the proportion of azote is always greater in 
 animals than in vegetables, so the more of azote 
 any vegetable contains, the less of that vegetable 
 is required for the nourishment of any animal ; 
 and the less of azote another vegetable contains, 
 the more of this vegetable is required for the 
 animal's nourishment. This principle is of the 
 highest moment in all the economics of a farm, 
 and indeed of human life and the world's affairs ; 
 and it has been worked out and vindicated by an 
 energy and a bulk of experimental proof which 
 must force conviction on even the dullest thinker. 
 A number of experiments were instituted, a few 
 years ago, by various individuals on the conti- 
 nent, with the view of ascertaining the nutritive 
 powers of various kinds of food, and were per- 
 formed both with mechanical care as to the quan- 
 tities of the food employed, and with chemical 
 
 115 
 
AZOTE. 
 
 116 
 
 AZOTE. 
 
 skill as to the known or ascertained consti- 
 tuent elements. " Cattle and horses were fed 
 upon weighed quantities of different kinds of 
 food, and the effect produced upon them accu- 
 rately observed, both as regarded increase of 
 weight, health, and vigour ; and as the results of 
 these experiments, a table of the relative nutri- 
 tive powers of different articles of food was drawn 
 up, each article having an equivalent assigned to 
 it, — 100 lbs. of meadow hay being taken as the 
 standard of comparison. From a careful perusal 
 of these tables, M. Boussingault was led to the 
 conclusion, that the difference in the value of the 
 various articles of food corresponded with the 
 difference in the proportion of their azote. He 
 therefore analyzed with great accuracy a consi- 
 derable number of vegetables, and arranged them 
 in a table, in which the equivalents assigned to 
 each plant designated the exact quantity of azote 
 which it contained as compared to 100 lbs. of 
 meadow hay, the equivalent, of course, increasing 
 as the proportion of azote diminished. Now, on 
 comparing these two tables, the most astonish- 
 ing concordance is observed ; indeed, when it is 
 considered that M. Boussingault's results must, 
 of necessity, be absolute, whereas the practical 
 equivalents may be rendered uncertain by many 
 fortuitous circumstances, as the health of the 
 particular animal employed, &c, the coincidences 
 which occur are truly surprising. For example, 
 concerning one of the least nutritious kinds of 
 food, the turnip, M. Boussingault considers 612 
 as its equivalent, and M. Thaer, who examined 
 it practically, fixes it at 611. This table, which 
 is full of interest, is published in the 63d volume 
 of the ' Annales de Chimie et de Physique.' Surely 
 such experiments as these must prove to demon- 
 stration that, cwteris paribus, that food is most 
 nutritious which contains the greatest quantity 
 of azote, and, vice versa, that a deficiency of azote 
 in any article of food will indicate a correspond- 
 ing deficiency in its power of supplying nourish- 
 ment." [Dr. Madden in Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture.'] 
 
 Every plant, during its life, fixes azote ; and 
 appears to obtain some of it from the atmosphere, 
 most of it from manures, and probably all of it 
 in the form of ammonia and nitric acid. All the 
 organs of a plant, without exception, commence 
 their formation with a nitrogenous matter analo- 
 gous to fibrin ; and they ever afterwards have 
 this matter in association, not only with the amy- 
 laceous secretions, but even with the cellular and 
 the ligneous tissues. The nitrogen fixed by every 
 nascent or rudimental plant produces a concrete 
 fibrinous substance, which constitutes the rudi- 
 ment of all the vegetable organs ; and this sub- 
 stance is never afterwards destroyed, but is al- 
 ways to be found, no matter in how minute an 
 aggregate quantity, or how excessively or almost 
 atomically divided by the interposition of enor- 
 mous proportions of non - nitrogenous matter 
 among its particles. Nor does this substance 
 
 merely serve as the germ and the delineator of 
 the several organs ; but it also produces the 
 liquid albumen which the coaguble juices con- 
 tain, and the caseum which is so often con- 
 founded with albumen, but whose separate exist- 
 ence in many plants can be easily recognised. 
 The fibrin, the albumen, and the caseum of plants 
 are their grand nitrogenous elements ; they have 
 a closely similar composition to one another ; and 
 they present a striking parallel or counterpart to 
 respectively the ligneous matter, the amidine 
 and the dextrine. For fibrin, like the ligneous 
 matter, is insoluble, — albumen, like amidine or 
 starch, coagulates by heat, — and caseum, like 
 dextrine, is soluble ; these nitrogenous elements, 
 as well as the three parallel non-nitrogenous ele- 
 ments, are neutral ; and they act the same part 
 by their abundance in the animal kingdom, which 
 the ligneous matter, the amidine, and the dex- 
 trine, act by their abundance in the vegetable 
 kingdom. " Besides," says M. Dumas, " in like 
 manner as it suffices for the formation of non- 
 azotated neutral matters, to unite carbon with 
 water or with its elements, so, also, for the for- 
 mation of these azotated neutral matters, fibrin, 
 albumen, and caseum, it suffices to unite car- 
 bon and ammonium with the elements of water ; 
 forty-eight molecules of carbon, six of ammo- 
 nium, and seventeen of water, constitute, or may 
 constitute, fibrin, albumen, and caseum. Thus, 
 in both cases, reduced bodies, carbon or ammo- 
 nium and water, suffice for the formation of these 
 matters ; and their production enters quite na- 
 turally into the circle of reactions, which vege- 
 table nature seems especially adapted to pro- 
 duce." The great facts, then, that fibrin, which 
 serves as the rudiment of all the organs of plants, 
 is a nitrogenous element, — that albumen and 
 caseum, which are so largely diffused in all the 
 most nutritious plants, and which are assimilated 
 or modified by animals according to the exigen- 
 cies of their nature, are nitrogenous elements, — 
 that these three chief proximate elements of bulk 
 in animals, which correspond to the three chief 
 proximate elements of bulk in vegetables, are 
 nitrogenous elements, — these facts powerfully 
 evince that the function of nitrogen in plants, 
 and the part which it plays in the reciprocities 
 of elements upon a farm, are worthy of very seri- 
 ous study. 
 
 A considerable part of the azote fixed by 
 plants appears to be obtained, if not from atmo- 
 spheric air, at least from gaseous matter held in 
 mechanical mixture with the atmosphere. M. 
 Boussingault instituted experiments, to ascer- 
 tain whether developed plants, endowed with 
 perfect organization, obtain azote, when they 
 are cultivated in a soil absolutely deprived of 
 organic matter ; and he found that clover grown 
 in sand, which had previously been calcined to a 
 red heat, receives into its organization a certain 
 quantity of azote, and that pease grown under a 
 similar regimen, and having for their whole food 
 
AZOTE. 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 AZOTE. 
 
 nothing but water and air, flowered and produced 
 seeds to perfect maturity. From these facts, and 
 some others, he infers that, " in many conditions, 
 certain plants are apt to draw from the azote in 
 the air ;" and he adds, " but in what circum- 
 stances and in what state azote fixes itself in 
 vegetables, is as yet unknown to us. Indeed, azote 
 can enter directly into plants, if their green parts 
 are fit to fix it. Azote, too, can be conveyed into 
 vegetables by water, which is always aerated, 
 and which is always taken up by the roots. In 
 short, it is possible, as many physicians think, 
 that it exists in the air in very small quantities 
 of ammoniacal vapour." M. Boussingault is thus 
 as vacillating and doubtful as to the form in 
 which the azote enters plants, as he is certain 
 respecting the fact of their obtaining it from the 
 atmosphere; and while he commences his very 
 brief statement on the subject by seeming to as- 
 sert that they extract it from atmospheric air, 
 he terminates with the suggestion that they pos- 
 sibly receive it under the form of ammoniacal 
 gas. Yet no evidence whatever exists that plants 
 can assimilate nitrogen from atmospheric air, 
 while very satisfactory evidence has been exhib- 
 ited by Liebig, and tested by other eminent 
 chemists, that they very readily obtain it from 
 ammoniacal gas in the atmosphere, not alone by 
 the suffusion of that gas around them, but also 
 and chiefly by its descent to their leaves and 
 roots in a state of solution in rain-water. Who- 
 ever peruses our article on Ammonia, and assents 
 to the doctrines which it advocates, will have 
 scarcely a doubt that most, and very probably 
 all, of the nitrogen fixed by the clover and the 
 pease in M. Boussingault's experiments, was ob- 
 tained from ammonia held in commixture with 
 the atmosphere. 
 
 Dr. Liebig, indeed, assumes such high ground 
 as to assert that all the nitrogen of plants, in all 
 circumstances whatever, is obtained in the form 
 of ammonia, — that, when brought into contact 
 with them in the soil in any other form, it com- 
 bines with hydrogen to constitute ammonia be- 
 fore being available to them, — and that in the 
 case of fertilizing by the use of nitrates, a doubt 
 is due whether the fertilizing power may not re- 
 
 side in the base of the salt rather than in the 
 nitrogen of its nitric acid ; and, in reference to 
 plants obtaining nitrogen from the atmosphere, 
 he says, " Plants, as we know, grow perfectly well 
 in a mixture of charcoal and earth, previously 
 calcined, if supplied at the same time with rain- 
 water. Rain-water can contain nitrogen only in 
 three forms, as dissolved atmospheric air, as 
 nitric acid, or as ammonia. Now, the nitrogen 
 of the air cannot be made to enter into combina- 
 tion with any element except oxygen, even by 
 the employment of the most powerful chemical 
 means. We have not the slightest reason for 
 believing that the nitrogen of the atmosphere 
 takes part in the process of assimilation of plants 
 and animals ; on the contrary, we know that 
 many plants emit the nitrogen which is absorbed 
 by their roots, either in the gaseous form, or in 
 solution in water. But there are, on the other 
 hand, numerous facts, showing that the forma- 
 tion in plants of substances containing nitrogen, 
 such as gluten, takes place in proportion to the 
 quantity of this element conveyed to their roots 
 in the state of ammonia, derived from the putre- 
 faction of animal matter." The conclusion which 
 Dr. Liebig afterwards attempts to found upon 
 other premises, that plants receive the whole of 
 their nitrogen in the form of ammonia, appears 
 to us, and has appeared to far abler judges, to be 
 hasty and ill-reasoned ; yet no reasonable doubt 
 can exist that most or all plants receive their 
 chief supply of nitrogen in the ammoniacal form. 
 This, for all the practical purposes of agriculture 
 or of gardening, is the whole drift of the ques- 
 tion of nitrogen, — the grand and momentous fact 
 which challenges the cultivator's attention; and 
 with this fact before them, our readers will do 
 well to give a very careful perusal to our article 
 on Ammonia. — Turner's Elements of Chemistry. — 
 Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry. — Thomson's Sys- 
 tem of Chemistry. — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 
 — Liebig' 's Chemistry of Agriculture. — Boussin- 
 gault's Rural Economy. — ChaptaVs Chemistry ap- 
 plied to Agriculture. — Johnston's Lectures on Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry. — M. Dumas in the Philosophi- 
 cal Magazine. — Dr. Madden in Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. — Edinburgh New Phil. Journal. 
 
118 
 
 BACKING. 
 
 B 
 
 BACK. The spine of an animal. The back of 
 a horse consists of a chain of 18 bones, called 
 the dorsal vertebra^ This part of the animal 
 bears all the weight of burden, and has been so 
 wonderfully constructed by the Creator as to 
 combine the greatest degree , of strength with 
 ease of locomotion. In order to prevent violent 
 jolting, and to assist in turning, the back consists 
 of a chain or series of bones with interpositions 
 of highly elastic cartilage ; and in order to occa- 
 sion the highest degree of strength, the bones 
 are inserted into one another somewhat in the 
 manner of a rick of cups, the interposed carti- 
 lage is more resistive of fracture than even the 
 bones, and a series of powerful ligaments runs 
 along the broad lower surface of the bones, 
 lengthening and contracting in the same man- 
 ner as the great ligament of the neck. A long- 
 backed horse has speedy motion and easy paces, 
 but is comparatively weak, and cannot bear a 
 heavy burden ; and a short-backed horse is strong 
 and enduring, but wants both speed and ease of 
 motion. An overworked or ill-used horse some- 
 times suffers ossification in the ligaments of the 
 spine, and becomes broken -lacked. A strong 
 and beautiful horse, possessing the most desirable 
 form of back, has a little depression behind the 
 withers, and is nearly straight-lined thence to 
 the loins ; a saddle-backed horse has a compara- 
 tively deep depression behind the withers, a3 if 
 a hollow existed for the saddle, and he has easy 
 paces, but wants strength and is apt to sprain ; 
 and a roach-backed horse has a slightly arched 
 spine, somewhat like the curvature in the back 
 of a roach, and he is, in consequence, sadly defi- 
 cient in at once beauty, strength, and practical 
 adaptations. 
 
 BACKING. The first mounting of a colt, or 
 teaching him to receive and endure a rider. A 
 snaffle and cavesson only should be used, until 
 the horse has been somewhat taught. Some of 
 the elder writers on horsemanship recommend 
 the use of the bit from the beginning ; and this 
 practice prevailed much in some of the French 
 schools. But we conceive it to be the better prac- 
 tice to dispense with the bit at first, as it is apt 
 to occasion too much pressure on the bars of a 
 young horse, to make him carry his head low, 
 and impede the free motion of his shoulders. 
 The bit and bridle should not be introduced, 
 until the horse has been taught to carry his 
 head high, and he has become well determined, 
 light in hand, and free in his motions. The 
 horse must be accustomed, from the beginning 
 
 to stand still to be mounted, and not to move 
 until the rider please : and, for this reason, care 
 should be taken not to alarm him. 
 
 Backing also means the teaching of a young 
 saddle-horse to move backward. The horse at this 
 time must necessarily have acquired considerable 
 sensibility in his mouth, as well as suppleness in 
 his limbs and joints. But the rider should not 
 neglect, every time he stops, to back a few paces, 
 and then put the horse forwards by a little at a 
 time, by approaching both legs gently to his 
 sides, with an equal degree of pressure, and play- 
 ing with the bridle. In backing, if the horse at- 
 tempts to rear, push him out immediately into 
 a full trot. The pressure with the legs, which 
 is sometimes necessary in backing, in order to 
 collect the horse, and prevent him from going 
 too much on his shoulders, ought to be very 
 small, and to be taken away the moment that he 
 puts himself sufficiently upon his haunches. In 
 all his exercises, indeed, the horse should be 
 kept, to a proper degree, upon his haunches, 
 with his hinder legs well placed under him, 
 which will render him pleasant to himself and 
 his rider ; light in hand, and ready to execute 
 whatever may be demanded of him with facility 
 and vigour. 
 
 The backing of a young draught horse, in the 
 sense of teaching him to move backward at the 
 command of his driver, is fully more important 
 than that of a saddle horse, and constitutes an 
 essential part of his training; and it must be 
 conducted by a person of experience and skill 
 and coolness, — and so managed that the horse 
 shall perform the motion M'ith promptitude and 
 steadiness. 
 
 Backing likewise means the restive or vicious 
 backward motion of a draught horse, in circum- 
 stances where he ought to move forward. Some 
 horses practise this trick only at starting, and 
 others practise it on almost any sort of occasion ; 
 some acquire it by some act or process of bad 
 breaking, such as painful adjustment of the collar, 
 pulling up hill, or sudden starting, and some ap- 
 pear to practise it from laziness, caprice, or bad 
 temper ; some may readily be cured of it by adroit 
 management, gentle whipping, or the placing of 
 strong obstacles in the way of backing, and others 
 can scarcely or but temporarily be cured by such 
 strong remedies as assigning them the middle 
 place of an agricultural team of three or the 
 near-wheeled place of a stage-coach yoke of four, 
 where they will be dragged along by their com- 
 panions till they find a forward draught much 
 
BACK-SINEWS. 119 BACON. 
 
 easier than a backing resistance. Backing, in 
 this last sense, is also called qibbing. 
 
 BACK-SINEWS. The strong tendons in a 
 horse, which extend along the hinder part of the 
 shank from the knee to the heel. They are con- 
 fined to their situation and defended from in- 
 jury, by an enclosing sheath of dense cellular 
 substance ; and they are kept in a lubricated 
 condition, and protected from injurious friction, 
 by the interposition of a mucous fluid between 
 them and the sheath. A peculiar hurt, techni- 
 cally but improperly called a sprain of the back- 
 sinews, is one of the most frequent accidents 
 which occur to a horse, and is often very trouble- 
 some, and sometimes followed by very prolonged 
 bad consequences. When a horse is overworked, 
 or overladen, or violently exerted, or ridden hard 
 upon dry ground, or makes a bad false step, or 
 has the heels of his shoes too much lowered, a 
 rupture is made in some of the fibres which con- 
 fine the tendons, or inflammation is excited 
 in the delicate membrane-lining of the sheath ; 
 a coagulating liquid is exuded, adhesion is 
 effected between the tendons and the sheath, 
 and the motion of the limb becomes difficult 
 and painful. When these injuries occur, or the 
 sprain, as they are called, has been produced, 
 swelling is easily observable in the sinews, and 
 sometimes extends over their whole length from 
 the knee to the heel, and the horse does not care 
 to set his hurt foot even on the ground, but, when 
 standing, usually sets it before the uninjured 
 foot. Cold charges, often renewed; frequently cure 
 this malady. Currier's shavings bound round 
 the knee with a bandage, have sometimes been 
 employed with success. Vinegar or verjuice 
 mixed with bole, soaked warm into the sinews 
 many times in a day, has been still oftener and 
 more signally successful. Even fomentations 
 with warm water, every half hour, and inter- 
 mediate poulticings with linseed meal, are emi- 
 nently efficacious. But when any risk exists of 
 the local inflammation producing general distur- 
 bance of the system, the animal should be bled 
 at the toe and physicked. When any lameness 
 or swelling remains after the reduction of the in- 
 flammation, and the fair use of topical washes, 
 foments, and poultices, a mild blister, free from 
 all corrosive matter except such as is requisite 
 to effect the blistering irritation, will, in general, 
 effect a cure. Hot and relaxing oils, though re- 
 commended by many practitioners, ought by no 
 means to be used : for they are apt to engender 
 bad wind-galls, to make the veins on each side 
 of the sinews full and gorged, to aggravate all 
 the evils which they are designed to assuage, and 
 even, in some instances, to induce a lameness of 
 two or three years' duration. A very severe 
 sprain, or a sprain which has been confirmed and 
 aggravated by bad treatment, may require the 
 application of the cautery. " Blistering in this 
 case," says Gibson, " has very little or no effect ; 
 firing through the vein till the blood comes be- 
 
 ing only sufficiemc. After the firing, the whole 
 leg, from the knee down to the heel, and all the 
 hollow places on both sides, must be charged 
 with a good strengthening plaster, which will 
 perfect the cure, especially if the horse be turned 
 to grass for a month or five weeks, or, in the 
 winter, if he run a little while in a smooth yard, 
 where he has good dry litter." Any person who 
 examines a horse with the view of purchasing 
 him, ought to observe narrowly whether there 
 be any thickness in the cellular substance around 
 the back sinews ; for if there be, the horse has 
 almost certainly suffered a severe sprain, and 
 will probably become lame and unsound within 
 a day or two of being put to ordinary hard work. 
 — Gibson on the Diseases of Horses. — Youatt on the 
 Horse. — Water's Every Man his own Farrier. 
 
 BACON. The salted and dried carcass of the 
 hog. But the salted and dried hams are usually 
 regarded as a distinct commercial article from 
 bacon; only dried and smoked flitches are fre- 
 quently regarded as bacon ; salted and half dried, 
 but ill-smoked flitches are called sometimes bacon 
 and sometimes green bacon ; and salted but un- 
 dried flitches are called sometimes green bacon 
 and sometimes salt pork. All parts and condi- 
 tions of the salted carcass of the hog, however, 
 must, for the sake of a correct and comprehen- 
 sive view of the subject, be treated by us as 
 bacon ; and, in this large sense, they include on 
 the one hand a bulky, important, and very com- 
 mon aliment of the agricultural poor, and, on 
 the other hand, a highly esteemed and very gen- 
 eral luxury of the middle and upper classes of 
 both town and country. 
 
 The fat of the hog differs from that of other 
 quadrupeds and of man, at once in quality, in 
 consistency, and in mode of distribution over the 
 body. " The fat of man, and of those animals 
 which have no suet, as the dog and the horse," 
 remarks Buffon, " are pretty equally mixed with 
 the flesh ; and the suet of the sheep, the goat, 
 and the deer, is found only at its extremities ; 
 but the fat of the hog covers the animal all over, 
 and forms a thick, distinct, and continued layer 
 between the flesh and the skin." Well-fed, pro- 
 perly killed, and judiciously salted bacon, whether 
 dried or undried, is a pleasant, valuable, and com- 
 paratively cheap provision for the peasantry in 
 many parts of Great Britain ; and even miserably 
 fed and abominably prepared bacon, in its crudest 
 salted condition, serves many tens of thousands 
 of the Irish population in lieu of all other animal 
 food, and performs, in their case, the requisite 
 function of a mixture of animal aliment with 
 vegetable matter in maintaining health in the 
 human constitution. But the luxurious forms 
 of smoked ham used in cities by the middle 
 classes and the rich, are far more a condiment 
 than an aliment, and often act deleteriously 
 upon health. The best bacon usually sold in 
 London is the ill-cured flesh of rapidly fattened 
 hogs, and, though not a bad food of its kind, is 
 
BACON. 
 
 120 
 
 BACON. 
 
 always too salt to be perfectly wholesome. The 
 use of even this best sort, and especially of in- 
 ferior sorts, as a corrector of bile and a strength- 
 ener of the stomach at breakfast, is a gross and 
 puerile delusion. Though a perfectly suitable 
 breakfast meal for all persons with whom it 
 agrees, yet, in many constitutions, it seldom fails 
 to develop sebacic acid and to produce decided 
 acetous fermentation. All thoroughly dried bacon 
 is more trying to the gastric power than such as 
 is ' green ' or but partially dried ; and a fried por- 
 tion of any one ham or flitch — a portion used in 
 the prevailing ' rasher ' fashion of bacon con- 
 sumption in towns — is also more trying than a 
 portion which is boiled. But, above all, the dis- 
 eased and nauseous dried flesh which is hurriedly 
 manufactured out of Irish pigs, and sold in the 
 markets of England under the name of Irish 
 bacon, and often under the names also of Lanca- 
 shire bacon, Somersetshire bacon, and Yorkshire 
 hams, is both disagreeable to the stomach, and 
 injurious to the health. A drove of ill-fed and 
 hastily fattened swine are landed, half sea-sick, 
 at Liverpool or Bristol from an Irish steam- 
 packet ; they are speedily driven across the 
 country, to the certainty of their being fevered 
 or otherwise much injured in health ; and, with- 
 out being subjected to any restorative regimen, 
 but while they continue half prostrate with ex- 
 haustion and disease, they are slaughtered, and, 
 with the profuse aid of salt, converted into bacon 
 and hams. Their flesh, of course, is soft, flabby, 
 disgusting, and unwholesome, and cannot, by any 
 excess or prodigality of salting, be purified from 
 its abominations. Real Irish bacon, indeed, or 
 such as is cured in Ireland, particularly in Bel- 
 fast and Newry, for exportation to England, is 
 generally good in quality, sound, healthy, and 
 tolerably well prepared; and the bacon of the 
 best British districts for the supply of the gen- 
 eral market — particularly the bacon of Hamp- 
 shire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Dumfries- 
 shire, Kircudbrightshire, and Wigtonshire — is, 
 for the most part, eminently good ; yet, as a gen- 
 eral rule, all bacon which is intended for the 
 general market, or which is cured in any circum- 
 stances with a view to pecuniary return, is both 
 worse fed and worse prepared than such as is 
 intended for consumption on the spot. The very 
 best bacon in England is cured in Buckingham- 
 shire, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, and part of Hamp- 
 shire ; yet, except in the form of presents, scarcely 
 an ounce from these districts ever reaches the 
 markets of London. 
 
 One great requisite for obtaining prime bacon 
 is, that the hog be of an improved breed ; but 
 this we defer for consideration to our article on 
 the Hog. Another and still greater requisite is 
 that the hog be properly fed and fattened, either 
 in a clean sty or upon clean ground, so that the 
 flesh and the lard shall be of firm texture and 
 agreeable flavour. In Buckinghamshire, where 
 hog's flesh is the only animal food used by the 
 
 agricultural classes, and where the local bacon is 
 equal in every excellence to the best in any other 
 part of Great Britain — in Gloucestershire also, 
 especially in the royal forest of Dean, where 
 swine's flesh is the chief food, and where the 
 forester identifies his wealth with a pair of fat 
 hogs in his sty and a pair of flitches of bacon in 
 his house — the swine feed heartily on beech mast, 
 acorns, and the other edible productions of the 
 woodlands. But we must reserve this topic also 
 for the article on the Hog, and direct our pre- 
 sent attention to the third great requisite, the 
 manner of preparing the bacon. Yet we must 
 be understood, not as interfering with the regu- 
 lar ham-curer, or with any party who trades in 
 pork or bacon which he does not rear, but simply 
 as affording information to farmers and other 
 hog feeders, who kill their swine either for do- 
 mestic consumption or as part of the profits of a 
 farm. 
 
 In order to clear the stomach of food and the 
 intestines of faeces, and to prepare them for be- 
 ing properly divested of all the mudgen lard, the 
 animal should be kept from eating during at least 
 twelve hours previous to its being killed. The 
 proper method of slaughtering is so universally 
 known, that it needs not be described ; and, in- 
 deed, is more properly the work of the village 
 butcher than of any cottier or agricultural opera- 
 tive. The usual manner of removing the hair 
 and producing cleanness and smoothness of the 
 skin, is to lay the dead animal upon a table or 
 broad board, to scald it piece by piece with boil- 
 ing water from a tea-kettle or other vessel, and 
 to scrape or shave each scalded piece with a large 
 sharp-edged knife. In most farm-houses, pork 
 intended for home use is merely well salted, cut 
 to pieces, deposited in kits, covered with a very 
 strong and well purified brine, and kept in that 
 situation from a few weeks to two or even three 
 years. The brine should be made sufficiently 
 strong to float an egg, and simmered over a 
 gentle fire till its impurities rise to the surface 
 and be skimmed off, and ought not to be poured 
 upon the pork till quite cold ; and if the bacon He 
 in the brine upwards of two years before being 
 used, it is superior in flavour, firmer in its fat, 
 and more resistive of waste when boiled, than if 
 kept for a shorter period. But the general 
 method of proper killing and preparing for the 
 market is described as follows by Henderson : — 
 " After the carcass has hung all night, lay it 
 upon a strong table or bench upon its back, cut 
 off the head close by the ears, and cut the hinder 
 feet so far below the -hough as not to disfigure 
 the hams, and have plenty of room to hang them 
 by. Then take a cleaving knife, and, if you 
 choose, a hand mallet, and divide the carcass up 
 the middle of the backbone, laying it in two 
 equal halves. Then cut the ham from the side 
 by the second joint of the backbone, which will 
 appear on dividing the carcass ; then dress the 
 ham by paring a little off the flank or skinny 
 
BACON. 
 
 121 
 
 BACON 
 
 part, so as to shape it with a half round point, 
 clearing off any top fat that may appear. Next 
 take off the sharp edge along the backbone with 
 the knife and mallet, and slice off the first rib 
 next the shoulder, where he will perceive a bloody 
 vein, which you must take out, for if it is left in, 
 that part is apt to spoil. The corners must be 
 squared off where the ham was cut out. In kill- 
 ing a number of swine, what sides you may have 
 dressed the first day lay upon some flags or boards, 
 piling them up across each other, and giving each 
 flitch a powdering of saltpetre, as it opens the 
 pores of the flesh to receive the salt, and besides 
 gives the ham a pleasant flavour, and makes it 
 more juicy. Let them lie in this state about a 
 week, then turn those on the top undermost, 
 giving them a fresh salting. After lying two or 
 three weeks longer, they may be hung up to dry 
 in some chimney or smokehouse. Or, if the 
 curer chooses, he may turn them over again, 
 without giving them any more salt ; in which 
 state they may lie for a month or two without 
 catching any harm, until he has convenience for 
 drying them." But the flitches, while being 
 salted, should be laid with the rind underneath, 
 and placed in such a position, either upon a gut- 
 tered tray or an inclined plane, as to allow the brine 
 to run from them. A smokehouse is, in general, 
 a mere hut, about seven feet high, and so closed 
 on all sides as to cause all the smoke to ascend 
 by a small hole in the roof; the fuel is saw-dust 
 spread to the depth of five or six inches over the 
 whole of the floor ; the fire is a slow, smoulder- 
 ing, and inflaming combustion, equally supported 
 throughout day and night ; the flitches and hams 
 are well rubbed with bran, and suspended from 
 the roof or from cross-bars at such a height as to 
 .reach within 2\ or 3 feet of the floor ; flitches 
 are hung with the neck downward, and are 
 usually well enough, and without much loss of 
 weight, dried and smoked in a fortnight ; and 
 the hams, if thoroughly prepared to combine 
 luxury with nutriment, require to be smoked for 
 a considerably longer period, and lose one-seventh 
 or one-sixth of their weight. A very small smoke- 
 house will serve for a large number of hogs, and 
 can be both constructed and maintained for a 
 trifling expense. But whenever wood fuel is 
 used in the farmhouse or the cottage, the drying 
 and smoking are usually effected by suspension 
 in the chimney ; and the use of oaken billets and 
 oaken brushwood, in particular, is said to impart 
 a very superior flavour. 
 
 The bacon and hams of Buckinghamshire, 
 which have the reputation of being the best in 
 Great Britain, are prepared according to a dif- 
 ferent method from Henderson's. The carcass, 
 instead of being scalded and shaven, is divested 
 of its hair by singeing with straw and scraping. 
 The head, the tongue, the chines, and the 
 shoulders, are salted in the ordinary manner of 
 salting meat ; and the flitches and the hams are 
 placed respectively apart for separate treatment. I 
 
 Two ounces of finely pulverized saltpetre are 
 well rubbed over each flitch, especial care being 
 used to apply a larger quantity to the parts 
 whence the ham and the shoulder have been re- 
 moved ; the flitches are then placed, during ten 
 or twelve hours, upon the salting form ; a mix- 
 ture of seven pounds of salt and a pound and a 
 quarter of coarse moist sugar, is heated in a 
 frying-pan, and so stirred as to attain an uniform 
 temperature ; the flitches are rubbed all over 
 with this mixture in as hot a state as the hand 
 can possibly bear it ; they are then placed, the 
 one upon the other, in a salting-pan, when the 
 brine immediately begins to form ; they are well 
 basted and rubbed with the brine and turned 
 twice a-week, the under flitch being placed up- 
 permost at every turning ; and at the end of four 
 weeks, they are hung up to dry, and afterwards 
 smoked. The two hams are cured simultaneously 
 with the flitches. Each ham, like each flitch, 
 is well rubbed with two ounces of finely pulver- 
 ized saltpetre ; it is then placed, during ten or 
 twelve hours, in a separate dish, with the rind or 
 back part downward ; it is next rubbed with a hot 
 mixture of salt and sugar, in the same manner as 
 the flitches, with the simple difference that only 
 four pounds of salt are mixed with the pound 
 of sugar for the hams ; it is then put into a salt- 
 ing-pan to make its own brine ; it is rubbed and 
 basted with the brine and turned every day dur- 
 ing five weeks ; and is then hung up to dry, and 
 is afterwards smoked. The two brines may now 
 be mixed with each other, and with half a pound 
 of moist sugar, and may be boiled, skimmed, and 
 cooled, as a preparing brine for a further luxury. 
 A number of neats' tongues, salted during twenty- 
 four hours to make them disgorge, and a number 
 of sheep's, hogs', and deer's tongues, previously 
 put in salt for a few hours, may be immersed and 
 digested in this general brine for three weeks, 
 preparatory to their being either immediately 
 taken to the table, or to their being dried and 
 smoked. The flitches and the hams are sus- 
 pended cn nails or on a bacon-rack in the ceiling 
 of the kitchen, till they are externally quite dry, 
 and have their remaining pickle crystallized upon 
 their surface ; and they are then hung in the 
 chimney to undergo the action of the smoke from 
 the wood fires. A considerable degree of the 
 peculiar excellency of Buckinghamshire bacon is 
 thus dependent on the method of curing; but 
 much also arises from the domestic use of wooden 
 fuel, and still more from feeding in the woodlands, 
 and from cleanliness, nicety, and attentiveness of 
 management. 
 
 In Hampshire, the method of curing is very 
 similar to that in Buckinghamshire, with this 
 difference, that, for the flitches, four pounds of 
 white and two pounds of bay salt are mixed with 
 two pounds of coarse brown sugar and four ounces 
 of sal prunella, and, for the hams, two pounds of 
 white and one pound of bay salt are mixed with 
 two pounds of brown sugar and three ounces of 
 
BACON. 
 
 122 
 
 BACON. 
 
 sal prunella. Along the coast and in the islands 
 of this county, both the flitches and the hams 
 are smoked with dried sea-weed, and, in conse- 
 quence, acquire a rich and delicious flavour. — In 
 Suffolk, the quality of pork is much inferior to 
 that of the forest-fed swine of Buckinghamshire 
 and Gloucestershire, and yet the quality of bacon 
 is so improved by the mode of curing as to be 
 little if at all inferior. The hot pickle for the 
 flitches consists of three pounds of white and 
 two of bay salt, six ounces of sal prunella, and 
 four 'pounds of coarse brown sugar ; and that for 
 the hams consists of two pounds of white and one 
 pound of bay salt, three pounds of coarse brown 
 sugar, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of sal 
 prunella, a few grains of whole black pepper, a 
 few grains of whole Jamaica pepper, and a quart 
 of very stale strong ale, — the whole purified by 
 heat and skimming, boiled till nearly dry, and 
 rubbed into the hams in as hot a state as the 
 hand can possibly bear. Both flitches and hams 
 are prepared for the pickle by salting and twenty- 
 four hours' disgorgement, and are wiped very 
 dry before the pickle is applied ; the flitches are 
 rubbed, basted, and turned three times a-week 
 for four weeks ; the hams are basted and turned 
 every day during five weeks ; and both are even- 
 tually smoked either in chimneys where wood 
 fuel is consumed, or elsewhere with leaves, brush- 
 wood, and branches of trees mixed with litter. — 
 In Yorkshire, the curing is similar to that in 
 Buckinghamshire, but with less salt and more 
 sugar; and the smoking is effected in smoke- 
 houses, with wood, shavings, and a few aromatic 
 herbs, the fire being made to smoulder and yield 
 a profusion of smoke by means of wet straw 
 placed on the top. 
 
 In Somersetshire, the flitches are disgorged un- 
 der salt for twenty-four hours in wooden troughs; 
 they are then wiped dry, and the troughs well 
 washed and wiped ; they are next replaced in the 
 troughs, and are rubbed once a-day for four days, 
 with as much hot bay salt as they will absorb, — 
 the salt being heated in a frying-pan, and ap- 
 plied in as hot a condition as the hand can bear, 
 — and the flitches being turned only every se- 
 cond day ; they then remain in their brine 
 from 16 to 21 days according to their size, and 
 are turned on every second day of this period ; 
 and they are finally hung up to dry, but are not 
 smoked. — In Gloucestershire, the bacon possesses 
 so extraordinary excellence from superior feed- 
 ing that, were it prepared in the Buckingham- 
 shire or Suffolk manner, it would be surpassingly 
 delicious; but it is cured in nearly the same 
 method as that of Somersetshire, with the simple 
 difference of preparing each flitch for its first 
 dose of hot salt, by rubbing it with four ounces 
 of saltpetre, and allowing it to lie three or four 
 hours till the saltpetre is absorbed. — In West- 
 moreland, each ham is hard rubbed with bay 
 salt, and left on a stone bench to drain off its 
 brine ; after four or five days, it is again rubbed 
 
 with bay salt mixed with about an ounce of finely 
 pulverized saltpetre : and about a week after this 
 second rubbing, it is hung up in the chimney, 
 cither so as to be dried by the heat without ex- 
 posure to the smoke, or so as to receive the full 
 fumigation of all the smoke which arises from 
 either wood or peat. — In the bacon counties of 
 Scotland, the general method of curing is Hen- 
 derson's, modified by circumstances and locali- 
 ties, and very extensively substituting the use of 
 the chimney as in Westmoreland for that of the 
 smokehouse. — A somewhat general practice of 
 late years has been to doctor recent salted pork 
 with chemical preparations of pyroligneous acid, 
 creosote, and other abominations, applied with 
 the brush, so as to save the labour of thorough 
 curing and of smoking, and to make the pork pass 
 for well cured and well smoked bacon and ham ; 
 but the result is both offensive to a nice palate 
 and decidedly hurtful to the stomach ; and the 
 practice, altogether, classes rather with the adul- 
 terations of food than with its preparations. 
 
 The method of curing and smoking the cele- 
 brated Westphalian hams might seem to promise 
 the best model for preparing prime bacon ; but 
 that method does not very widely differ from the 
 Suffolk method ; and all the really superior West- 
 phalian hams owe their principal excellence to 
 their being the flesh, not of the domestic hog, 
 but of the wild boar and the stag. A method 
 practised and published by a writer in the fourth 
 volume of the Magazine of Domestic Economy, 
 appears to combine all the good points of both 
 the Westphalian method and the best English 
 methods, and though quite too refined in its 
 superadded appliances for producing a superior 
 flavour, is well worthy of attention. " The mo- 
 ment the hams are cut from the hog," says this 
 writer, " they are to be rubbed with common 
 salt, then placed upon a flat board with another 
 over them ; and two half-hundred weights placed 
 upon the upper board over each ham. Under 
 this pressure they must remain 24 hours. They 
 are to be then taken up and wiped ready for the 
 pickle, which must be thus prepared in readi- 
 ness. A pound of bay salt and one of common 
 salt, two pounds of moist sugar, four ounces of 
 saltpetre, two ounces of sal prunella, a quarter of 
 a pound of juniper berries bruised in a mortar, 
 three bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, one of sweet 
 basil, one of marjoram, one of sweet brier if it is 
 to be had, and one of tarragon, also a few pepper- 
 corns and grains of allspice, are put into a sauce- 
 pan with a quart of the strongest and stalest ale. 
 The whole is boiled together, keeping the sauce- 
 pan covered for about twenty minutes. When 
 sufficiently cool for the hand to bear it, but being 
 still of a high temperature, the herbs are thrown 
 into the pickling-pan, the hams placed imme- 
 diately upon them, and the whole of the hot 
 pickle well rubbed into the hams. The brine is 
 soon formed, and the hams are to be turned in it 
 and basted with it every day during a month, 
 
BAGGING. 
 
 123 
 
 BALANCE. 
 
 when they must be taken out, dried and smoked 
 in the following manner. Being hung in a large 
 chimney without a grate, a layer of dry straw is 
 put down, upon this a layer of mixed shavings, 
 next a layer of mixed sawdust, with a good hand- 
 ful of juniper berries, and over the whole a man- 
 tle of wet straw or litter, which makes the tire 
 smoulder and emit much smoke without burning 
 rapidly. The dry straw is now lighted, being 
 lifted up a little so that it may well ignite, and 
 also catch the shavings and sawdust. This 
 smoking must be repeated several times until 
 the hams are quite dry, when they must be 
 placed in the warm kitchen upon shelves near 
 the fireplace, and turned twice a-week. To cure 
 bacon by the same process, the only difference is 
 that a pound each of common and bay salt are 
 added, and the sugar reduced to a pound and 
 a-half. All the rest of the process is the same." 
 — Henderson on Swine and Bacon. — The Magazine 
 of Domestic Economy. — The Board of 'Agriculture 's 
 Reports of Counties. — Marshall's Gloucestershire. — 
 Doyle's Practical Husbandry. — The Knowledge So- 
 ciety's British Husbandry. — Hunter's Oeorgical 
 Essays. — MacGulloch's Commercial Dictionary. 
 
 BAGGING. The reaping of corn or pulse by 
 chopping it with the sickle. The reaper does 
 not, as in the ordinary method, make a drawing 
 cut, but he strikes and separates the stems by 
 side cuts, hooks them up toward him, and then 
 lays them on bands as in ordinary reaping. This 
 method makes shorter stubble, or brings away 
 more straw than the common method ; but, un- 
 less carefully and dexterously conducted, it drops 
 and disperses a greater number of stems. 
 
 BAIKIE. A species of binder, for attaching 
 the cow to the stake. Two ropes connect a short 
 bar of hard wood with a perpendicular stake, and 
 are firmly fastened to the bar, but have an an- 
 nular or sliding attachment to the stake; the 
 lower rope passes under the neck of the cow, and 
 is permanently attached to the stake ; and the 
 upper rope passes above the animal's neck, and 
 is temporarily attached to the stake by means of 
 a knot and eye. See the article Cow -House. 
 The word baikie, in Scotland, is also the name 
 of a kitchen four-cornered bucket. 
 
 BAIT. A feed of oats or other provender, ac- 
 companied with a brief rest, during labour or 
 travelling. Also, u lure for catching a fish or a 
 wild land-animal 
 
 BAKING OF LAND. The forming of a hard 
 skin or crust on the surface of adhesive, tena- 
 cious, and finely pulverulent soils. The skinning 
 or baking is, in some instances, gradual and uni- 
 form, and, in others, sudden and merely occa- 
 sional. When it is gradual and uniform, it re- 
 sults from the excessively argillaceous nature of 
 the soil, which always prevents in a greater or 
 lesser degree the necessary aeration of the soil, 
 and can be prevented, or even tolerably well cor- 
 rected, only by altering the mechanical condition 
 
 of the soil by the intermixture of sand, lime, or 
 other arenaceous or calcareous substances. When 
 it is sudden and merely occasional, it occurs in 
 dry, strong, loamy soil, soon after sowing, or be- 
 fore the soil has had time to settle, and in conse- 
 quence of first a fall of rain and next a play of 
 sunshine ; and it frequently, to the great damage 
 of the crop, prevents the plumules or young stems 
 of the corn-plants from coming up ; but is usually 
 prevented by the practice of rolling after sow- 
 ing, — a practice which so consolidates the soil as 
 to render sudden wetting and drying by succes- 
 sive rain and sunshine impossible. Land which, 
 is subject to being baked, and which cannot con- 
 veniently be improved, ought to be sown, as often 
 as a judicious rotation will permit, with winter 
 wheat or vetches. 
 
 BALANCE. A simple machine for ascertain • 
 ing the weight of any body, or for finding a 
 quantity of any substance equal to a given weight. 
 It is a variety of the lever, with two arms rest- 
 ing on a fulcrum, and showing an equilibrium 
 when the power and the moveable object — the 
 weight and the thing weighed — are equal. 
 
 The common balance has a horizontal beam, 
 turning on a fulcrum exactly at its middle and 
 having suspended from its extremities two scales, 
 — the one for holding known weights, and the 
 other for holding the substances to be weighed. 
 Its equilibrium, or the equal state of the contents 
 of its scales, is indicated by its horizontal posi- 
 tion ; and in order to render the indication pre- 
 cise and obvious a slender vertical projection 
 called the tongue rises from the centre of the 
 beam, and points to the top of the handle on 
 which the balance is suspended. 
 
 The Roman steelyard is an instrument for 
 finding the weights of different bodies, by means 
 of a single weight, which is placed at a greater 
 or less distance from its fulcrum, or centre of 
 suspension. It consists of a scale, and some- 
 times of a hook placed at the end of the shorter 
 arm for carrying the body to be weighed, and of 
 a weight which is made to slide along the longer 
 arm. When the body to be weighed is suspended 
 at the end of the shorter arm, the constant 
 weight is slipped along the long arm, till the 
 equilibrium is indicated by the tongue or index. 
 When this is effected the number at the point 
 at which the weight rests, indicates the weight 
 of the body. 
 
 The Danish and Swedish steelyard is a lever 
 with a constant weight fixed at one extremity, 
 and a scale for holding the body to be weighed at 
 the other extremity. The point of suspension is 
 therefore variable, and is generally a ring, which 
 is moveable along the lever till an equilibrium 
 takes place. 
 
 Euthven's steelyard, invented upwards of 20 
 years ago, by Mr. John Ruthven of Edinburgh, 
 is well suited to the use of farmers and of per- 
 sons who deal in farm-produce. It comprises a 
 
BALK. 
 
 124 
 
 BAMBOO. 
 
 longer arm, a shorter arm, a weight moveable 
 along the former, a scale suspended to the latter, 
 a rod with looped vertical uprights in the ends 
 for suspending and confining the arms, and a 
 stand for supporting and poising the whole ma- 
 chine. The longer arm has so limited a range 
 of motion at its extremity as to prevent the 
 jerks and long vibrations to which common steel- 
 yards are subject ; the weight cannot escape at 
 either extremity of the arm, and consequently 
 can never be mislaid or lost; and the scale is 
 ingeniously contrived to open one end and dis- 
 charge its contents at a touch, and is therefore 
 very convenient for weighing grain, flour, small 
 seeds, and similar commodities. 
 
 BALK. A piece of arable land left unploughed, 
 either through careless management, or by pro- 
 digal waste, or with design to serve as a boun- 
 dary, or for some other purpose. Balk is also 
 the name of the summer-beam or dorman of a 
 house ; and balks or bawks are poles laid over a 
 stable or other building for a roof. 
 
 BALL. Any thing rotund or globular. But 
 the word is technically used in farriery to desig- 
 nate a cylindrical or egg-shaped mass of medi- 
 cine, tightly skinned with paper, and adminis- 
 tered as a dose to a horse. A ball, in this techni- 
 cal sense, has the same convenience of form in 
 farriery, as a pill has in medicine for the human 
 subject. It may, of course, be exceedingly varied 
 in composition, but it ought to be made up with 
 oil rather than with honey or syrup, and to be 
 administered with only a thin pellicle of oiled 
 paper and in as fresh a state as possible, before 
 it has had time to harden. It ought never to 
 weigh more than an ounce and a-half, or to mea- 
 sure more than an inch in diameter, and three 
 inches in length. 
 
 An instrument called a balling-iron is some- 
 times used for administering it ; but is quite as 
 likely to inflict mischief as to afford facility. 
 The best method of administration is described 
 as follows by Mr. Youatt : — " The horse should 
 be backed in the stall; the tongue should be 
 drawn gently out with the left hand on the off 
 side of the mouth, and there fixed, not by con- 
 tinuing to pull at it, but by pressing the fingers 
 against the side of the lower jaw. The ball, 
 being now taken between the tips of the fingers 
 of the right hand, is passed rapidly up the mouth, 
 as near to the palate as possible, until it reaches 
 the root of the tongue. It is then delivered with 
 a slight jerk ; and, the hand being immediately 
 withdrawn and the tongue liberated, the ball is 
 forced through the pharynx into the oesophagus. 
 Its passage should be watched down the left side 
 of the throat ; and if the passage of it is not 
 seen going down, a slight tap or blow under the 
 chin will generally cause the horse to swallow 
 it, or a few gulps of water will convey it into the 
 stomach.'' 
 
 White says, with respect to the hard or soft state 
 
 of a ball, " it should be made more or less soluble, 
 according as we wish it to operate upon the 
 stomach, large intestines, or rectum : for those 
 medicines which — like gamboge — are readily dis- 
 solved in the stomach, are quick and violent in 
 their effects, and liable to derange the functions 
 of this viscus ; while those, on the contrary, 
 which are not so easily soluble, pass through a 
 large portion of the intestinal canal before they 
 take effect. Thus colocynth, whose active prin- 
 ciples reside both in soluble and insoluble ele- 
 ments, has a wide range of operation ; and aloes, 
 which are still farther insoluble, pass through 
 the whole alimentary canal before they are suffi- 
 ciently dissolved, and, consequently, act more 
 especially upon the rectum than any other bowel. 
 This enables the practitioner to vary the effects 
 of different medicines, by rendering them more 
 or less soluble ; and we know by experience that 
 the operation of aloes is quickened, and its ten- 
 dency to irritate the rectum diminished, by com- 
 bining it with soap or an alkaline salt. Thus, 
 when it is wished to empty the large bowels only, 
 and aloes be administered for this purpose, they 
 should be sufficiently softened with water or 
 treacle to cause them to act with greater expedi- 
 tion. With respect to cordial balls, they should 
 always be made very easy of solution, as they are 
 intended to act principally on the stomach ; and 
 those balls that contain turpentine, or any resin- 
 ous substance, should always be combined with 
 soap, otherwise they become very hard and are 
 dissolved with difficulty. When many balls are 
 made at one time, great care should be taken to 
 mix the powders well together before they are 
 formed into a mass, in order that all the balls 
 may contain an equal proportion of the ingredi- 
 ents of which they are composed." 
 
 BAMBOO. A genus of very gigantic foreign 
 grasses, of the reed tribe. They have a singularly 
 interesting appearance, a great commercial value, 
 and an exceedingly diversified and paramount 
 economical importance ; and yet they are imper- 
 fectly understood by botanists. A strong, jointed, 
 creeping, subterranean root-stock serves as the 
 trunk or stem ; and strong, light, graceful, 
 straight, rod-like, shoots, soaring from the root- 
 stock to a great height, appear to be stems, and 
 are popularly called so, but really possess the 
 character of branches. When these have at- 
 tained their full height, they send off horizontally, 
 or at right angles from themselves, a series of 
 rigid lateral branches ; and any full-grown series 
 of shoots and offshoots, or of chief vertical 
 branches and subordinate horizontal ones, is in 
 consequence a dense tuft of rigid, straight- lined 
 vegetation. The shoots are externally hard and 
 coated with a powerful silicious secretion, re- 
 sembling flint; they are internally a series of 
 cylinders, separated from one another at the 
 nodes by strong horizontal partitions ; and the 
 cylinders are occupied generally with water, but 
 
BAMBOO. 
 
 125 
 
 BAEBELS. 
 
 sometimes with an opaque, white, flinty secretion, 
 called tabasheer, and possessing some curious op- 
 tical properties. 
 
 The reedy or Indian Bamboo, Bambusa arun- 
 dinacea, is the species longest and best known, 
 and most diversifiedly economical. It is a native 
 of India, and commonly attains a height of about 
 40 feet; but has grown in a dwarfish way in 
 many hothouses, and even in the open ground 
 against hot walls, in many parts of Britain. It 
 is employed in India, whole, split, or in sections, 
 for house-building, house-thatching, scaling-lad- 
 ders, rails, palankeens, wicker-work, mats, bas- 
 kets, boxes, spear-shafts, bows, fishing-rods, car- 
 riers' tents, boat-frames, and many other pur- 
 poses. The young shoots, when small and ten- 
 der, are generally eaten in the same manner as 
 asparagus, or boiled with milk, or made into 
 broth with animal food, spices, salt, and water, 
 or prepared and digested in the manner of a 
 pickle. 
 
 Several species of bamboo are natives of Amer- 
 ica, and may not improbably be naturalizable, 
 and made subservient to some valuable economi- 
 cal purposes in Great Britain. " The bamboos of 
 America," says Humboldt, " offer the same ad- 
 vantages as in India. The Guadua bamboo is 
 solely employed for the construction of entire 
 houses. The oldest and largest stalks serve to 
 form the walls ; with the smaller ones the inhabi- 
 tants form the main roof. The upper covering 
 is composed of the young branches of the plant, 
 furnished with leaves as they are, and of which 
 they put many layers one over the other. The 
 doors, the tables, even the beds, are made of 
 bamboos. The advantages which the inhabi- 
 tants of America find in making use of the plant, 
 rather than of the very lofty and very hard tim- 
 ber which surrounds them, are, first, the facility 
 with which they cut them, and transport them 
 to very great distances : second, the small degree 
 of labour which is required, since the inhabitants 
 employ the plants entire, or only split length- 
 ways into two parts; third, in its durability, 
 which may be compared to that of the best tim- 
 ber ; fourth, and lastly, in the circumstance that 
 their houses, all open to the air, and protected 
 from the heat of the rays of the sun by a wide 
 and thick roof, preserve within doors a cool and 
 agreeable temperature in the midst of the strong- 
 est heat of the day. It is particularly in the 
 mountain of Quindu, that the Guadua bamboo 
 grows ; it forms forests of many leagues in ex- 
 tent, and appears to delight in elevated situations, 
 which offer a mild temperature. It descends also 
 into the very hot valleys, but is never seen on 
 the high mountains. We have cut a great 
 number of bamboos, and in all of them we 
 have found clear water of an agreeable taste." 
 The Bambusa Guadua frequently attains the stu- 
 pendous height of from 65 to 100 feet. The 
 series of hollow cylinders within its stem is some- 
 
 what regularly divided by the nodes or partitions 
 at distances of from 11 to 12 inches. The water 
 within these cylinders, though containing traces 
 of sulphates and chlorides, cannot be distinguish- 
 ed from the purest water of springs, and affords 
 a convenient and most grateful supply to travel- 
 lers. 
 
 The bogs and marshes of the southern counties 
 of England and Ireland may possibly, in a few 
 years, be used for the highly profitable culture 
 of the American bamboos, while the adjacent 
 fields may be occupied with the aracacha from 
 the same land ; and then longer and lighter stilts 
 and leaping-poles than at present will be fur- 
 nished to fenmen, more magnificent cover for 
 wild fowl, better poles for punts and barges, — 
 better spars for vessels, — lighter, stiffer, and more 
 portable materials for bridges, rafts, hurdles, 
 fences, and stack-supports, — superior shafts for 
 wheel-carriages, for scaffolding-poles, rafters, roof 
 side-timbers, flooring- joists and beams, — and a 
 better material for every other purpose in which 
 an elastic, stiff, straight, and durable material is 
 required. — Humboldt' 's Plantes Equinoctiales. — The 
 Materia Medicaof Hindostan. — Loudon's Garden- 
 er 's Magazine. — BoussingauW s Rural Economy. 
 
 BANANA. See Plantain-Tree. 
 
 BANDS. Two stripes of wheat or other corn, 
 twisted together at the ear-ends, and used as the 
 binding of a sheaf. The bands ought to be laid 
 in the morning, that they may not crack ; for, 
 after the sun is up, the strain loses its elasticity, 
 and cannot properly be twisted, but becomes 
 brittle and liable to break below the ears. The 
 reversing of a few of the straws in each stripe, so 
 as to place their stubble ends among the ears of 
 the other strains, adds greatly to the strength 
 and the toughness of the bands. But though the 
 bands should always be made while the morning 
 dew is upon them, they ought not to be spread 
 out in moist weather, lest they should sprout and 
 be wasted, nor ought the sheaves to be bound up 
 moist, lest they become mouldy and spoil. Farm- 
 ers and stewards sometimes pay insufficient at- 
 tention to the binding of their sheaves, and suffer 
 the reapers, for despatch, to tie the bands just 
 underneath the ears, and the consequence is that 
 the sheaves can scarcely hold together to be flung 
 into the cart, and are certainly in great risk of 
 falling to pieces before they are thrashed. — The 
 bands of a saddle are two pieces of iron, flat, and 
 three fingers broad, nailed on the bows of a sad- 
 dle, one on each side, to hold the bows in the 
 proper saddle-shaped situation. 
 
 BANE. The rot in sheep. See article Rot. 
 
 BANGLE-EARS. A deformed position in the 
 ears of the horse. The deformity can be rectified, 
 but not without much pain to the animal. 
 
 BANK. See Embankment. 
 
 BARBELS, or Barbs. Inflamed knots or ex- 
 crescences of flesh, in the mouth of the horse or 
 the cow. They are formed sometimes during 
 
BARBERRY. 
 
 126 
 
 BARBERRY. 
 
 catarrh, and more frequently during any inflamed 
 condition of the mouth ; and they usually accu- 
 mulate under the tongue, and may be fully seen 
 by drawing it aside. The method of cure recom- 
 mended in old works on farriery, and still prac- 
 tised by most cattle doctors, is to cut or burn 
 them away ; but this both inflicts very unneces- 
 sary pain upon the animal, and incurs a serious 
 danger of converting the barbels into severe and 
 even gangrenous ulcers. A mere cathartic and 
 a little patience may be sufficient ; or if any ten- 
 dency to ulceration should appear, an alum wash 
 will be enough. Should any abscess be formed 
 in consequence of bad treatment, first chloride of 
 lime and afterwards an alum wash or an infusion 
 of catechu may be applied = 
 
 BARBERRY, or Pipperidge-Bush, — Berberis 
 vulgaris. An ornamental, economical, and fruit- 
 bearing shrub, constituting the type of a natural 
 order of plants which are botanically designated 
 Berberidese. It grows naturally in the hedges 
 of England, and in most other parts of Europe, 
 but is cultivated in gardens for its fruit. It pre- 
 fers light and chalky soils, and often grows to 
 the height of from 8 to 10 feet. Many stems rise 
 from one root ; their bark is white on the out- 
 side and yellow on the inside ; sharp thorns, 
 usually growing in threes, arm both the stems 
 and the branches; the leaves are oval, obtuse, 
 and slightly serrated ; the flowers are produced 
 in small bundles from the wings of the leaves, 
 like those of the currant bush ; and the fruit is 
 oval, and at first green, but afterwards a fine 
 red. Six well established varieties, all cultivated 
 and valued for their fruit, are now to be met 
 with in the nurseries, and are designated violacea, 
 alba, lutea, purpurea, nigra, asperma, and dulcis, 
 or violet -fruited, white -fruited, yellow -fruited, 
 purple-fruited, black-fruited, seedless, and sweet- 
 fruited. Only the first and the second of these 
 varieties, however, are indigenous, the others 
 having been imported from the continent of 
 Europe. The white-fruited variety has whiter 
 bark and lighter green leaves than the normal 
 variety, but it seldom bears fruit. The seedless 
 variety was long supposed by the most eminent 
 horticulturists to be only accidental in very old 
 plants ; but it is now ascertained to be strictly 
 permanent, and to maintain its characteristic in 
 young and healthy plants on the most favourable 
 soil ; and it is sometimes designated the maiden 
 barberry. The other varieties are distinguished 
 chiefly by the peculiar colour or flavour of their 
 fruit. All the varieties may be propagated from 
 either suckers or layers. Young shoots of one 
 season should be layered at the falling of the 
 j leaf in autumn ; and the plants from them ought, 
 j exactly a twelvemonth after, to be removed to 
 their final situation. 
 
 The barberry has long — though most eminent 
 phytologists think it has unjustly — had the bad 
 fame cf exerting a poisonous influence upon corn, 
 
 particularly upon wheat. "This," says Marshall, 
 "is a circumstance which has been long known 
 to the common farmers in different parts of the 
 kingdom, especially in Norfolk, where the farmers 
 are more observant and much more enlightened 
 than those useful members of society generally 
 are. The idea, nevertheless, has been treated by 
 theoretical writers on husbandry as chimerical 
 and superstitious, and has been brought forward 
 as one of those vulgar errors of farmers which 
 ought to induce gentlemen and men of genius to 
 rescue so useful a science as that of agriculture 
 out of the hands of ignorance. Being, however, 
 always ready to hear the opinion of professional 
 men, and having been assured by many sensible 
 farmers of the truth of this matter, we had a few 
 years ago a barberry bush planted, in the month 
 of February, in the centre of a large piece of 
 wheat. No obvious effect took place until the 
 corn began to change its colour before harvest, 
 when a long blackening stripe became so conspi- 
 cuous amongst the growing whiteness of the 
 wheat, that it might have been distinguished at 
 a mile's distance. It resembled the tail of a 
 comet, the bush representing the comet itself; 
 and what rendered the experiment striking, 
 whilst on one side the eflect did not reach more 
 than three or four feet, on the opposite side it 
 was obvious to the distance of ten or twelve 
 yards, notwithstanding the top of the shrub 
 planted was not much larger than the head. At 
 harvest, the ears of wheat which grew in the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of the bush, stood erect, 
 the grains shrivelled and empty ; as the distance 
 from the barberry increased, the eflect lessened, 
 vanishing imperceptibly ; whilst the grain of the 
 rest of the field was of a good quality." The 
 Rev. Br. Singer, the author of the Agricultural 
 Report of Dumfries-shire, in a short paper among 
 the published Transactions of the Highland So- 
 ciety, states an apparently strong fact or two re- 
 specting the devastations of rust or mildew on 
 corn-crops, and the identification of the cause of 
 it with the influence of the barberry. " On one 
 farm alone," says he, " that of Kirkbank on the 
 estate of Annandale, Mr. John Aitken, the re- 
 spectable tenant, lost about ,£100 in his oat crops 
 yearly ; and altogether the damage in this county 
 was, without doubt, considerably above £1,000 
 yearly. The views of Sir Joseph Banks, and of 
 some intelligent practical farmers, relative to the 
 evil influence of the Berberis vulgaris, induced 
 the Late Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope to 
 give orders for the total extirpation of the bar- 
 berry bushes which grew intermixed with thorns 
 in the hedge-rows ; and since that was done, and 
 for above twenty years, no such distemper has 
 appeared in these fields. The same thing has 
 been done in some parts of Ayrshire, and the 
 same result has followed." The same unsparing 
 extirpation of the barberry from hedges, though 
 far from being in every case followed by any ob« 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 127 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 servable good effects, has been general or almost 
 universal throughout England. 
 
 Yet, even in the face of these seemingly strong 
 facts, we are not at all disposed to concur in the 
 accusation against the barberry. Mere theory, 
 indeed, even though vindicated by the scientific 
 observations of such distinguished phytologists 
 as Duhamel, Broussonet, and others, would not 
 induce us to resist a general and well-concocted 
 testimony by farmers. But practical agricul- 
 turists themselves are far from being unanimous 
 in denouncing the barberry, and many of them 
 concur with experimental phytologists of the 
 highest credit in declaring it perfectly innocuous. 
 L. A. Staudinger, an experienced and enlightened 
 cultivator at Flotbeck, near Hamburg, made ob- 
 servations on mildew and ergot between the years 
 1799 and 1830, and, in a published report of them, 
 has completely exonerated the barberry. Horne- 
 mann planted wheat and surrounded it with bar- 
 berry bushesin the botanic garden of Copenhagen ; 
 yet, though he repeated the experiment several 
 times, he did not obtain any mildew. Jussieu 
 conducted a similar experiment with the same 
 result, in the garden of Trianon. Mr. Knight 
 also conducted a similar experiment, enjoyed an 
 opportunity of seeing the wheat mildewed during 
 the course of his experiment, and ascertained, by 
 careful examination, and by a series of compara- 
 tive trials, that the barberry was not to be 
 blamed for the mildew. The Rev. Mr. Henslow, 
 professor of botany in Cambridge, likewise had 
 opportunity of instituting examination of mildew 
 in the vicinity of the barberry, and ascertained 
 that it might with as much plausibility be as- 
 cribed to the shade of trees or the wetness of the 
 soil as the influence of this plant. The bar- 
 berry is subject to attack from a minute para- 
 sitic fungus called JEcidium berberidis, and wheat 
 is subject to attack from a quite different minute 
 parasitic fungus called Puccinia graminis ; and 
 the general accusation against the barberry seems 
 to have mainly, if not even wholly, arisen from 
 the confounding of these fungi. 
 
 BARBS. See Barbels. 
 
 BARLEY, — botanically Hordeum. A genus of 
 grasses, next in importance, in the British Islands 
 and in many other parts of the world, to the 
 genus triticum or wheat. Some of the species, 
 indeed, rank as mere weeds, with scarcely an 
 English name; others rank as coarse herbage 
 under the name of barley-grasses ; and both of 
 these groups ought, according to our usual prac- 
 tice, to be noticed under the word Hordeum ; yet, 
 for the sake of affording a full view of barley in 
 all its connections, we shall discuss the whole in 
 the present article. 
 
 Ancient Barley. — Barley, as a cereal grass, was 
 known at a very early age of the world, and 
 figures in remote records of both sacred and civil 
 history, and has been unintermittedly and ex- 
 tensively cultivated, in many parts of the world, 
 
 from ancient times till the present day. During 
 the hail-plague which fell in Egypt, previous to 
 the exodus of the Israelites, " the flax and the 
 barley were smitten ; for the barley was in the 
 ear, and the flax was boiled." In the peculiar 
 system of sacred law, which was established 
 over the Israelites through the ministry of Moses, 
 " an homer of barley-seed was valued at fifty 
 shekels of silver." The land of Canaan, when the 
 Israelites were about to be conducted into it as 
 their patrimony, was described to them as " a 
 good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
 and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a 
 land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig- 
 trees, and pomegranates, a land wherein they 
 should eat bread without scarceness." When 
 Naomi and Ruth travelled from the land of Moab 
 into the country of the Israelites, they " came to 
 Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest 
 and the latter obtained the notice and the favour 
 of Boaz in connection with the gleaning and the 
 winnowing of barley. David, at a critical mo- 
 ment, during the rebellion of Absalom, received 
 from some of his loyal followers an opportune 
 supply of "beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, 
 and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched 
 corn." When Solomon was at the apex of his 
 princely glory, " his officers provided victual for 
 King Solomon, barley also and straw for the 
 horses and dromedaries." Other ancient notices 
 of barley in the sacred record are equally explicit ; 
 and some of them occur in association with cir- 
 cumstances and lessons of deeply impressive 
 character. 
 
 Pliny, the Roman naturalist, gives such a de- 
 scription of the hordeum known and cultivated in 
 the first century as completely identifies it with 
 the British barley of the present day. He says 
 that the root of hordeum comes out of the oppo- 
 site end of the seed from the blade, that the 
 radical end of the seed is larger than the blade 
 end, that the blade of hordeum is rougher than 
 the blade of triticum, that the ear of hordeum is 
 almost bare, while that of triticum is covered 
 with many coats, that hordeum has a shorter 
 stalk but a rougher and sharper beard than triti- 
 cum, and that some kinds of hordeum have only 
 two rows of grain in the ear, while other kinds 
 have five. Columella mentions two kinds of bar- 
 ley which were cultivated in Italy, the one called 
 hexasticum or cantherinum, and the other called 
 distichum or galatichum. Cato also speaks of 
 barley, and classes it with such crops as are ex- 
 hausting to land. Palladius says that barley 
 delights in an open and dry soil, and, if sown 
 upon a wet soil, dies. Virgil says, " When the 
 sun in Libra makes the days and nights equal, 
 then sow barley, even towards the distant showers 
 of the impracticable winter solstice." Varro says 
 that six modii of barley ought to be sown upon 
 a jugerum. Other Roman notices of barley are 
 quite as distinct, and show it to have been a 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 128 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 generally cultivated grain ; and a few of them 
 even give minute directions as to the mode of 
 treating it, which would be highly instructive to 
 many a modern farmer. 
 
 Generic character. — The flowers of barley are 
 hermaphrodite, and are arranged into a compact 
 spike, in alternate order on each side of a ter- 
 minal rachis. They consist of imbricated bracts ; 
 and the exterior of these bracts are husks or 
 glumes, while the interior, which immediately 
 enclose the organs of fertility, are palese, or chaff. 
 Three florets constitute a spikelet, and two glumes 
 belong to each floret. The glumes are extremely 
 narrow, very unlike those of wheat, and amount- 
 ing to little more than bristles. The palese are 
 two and alternate, the inner one closely invest- 
 ing the seed, and the outer one enwrapping and 
 folding over the inner, and furnished with a long 
 awn, beard or arista, beset with three rows of 
 acute, upward-pointing bristles. The scales at 
 the base of the outer palese are two in number, 
 and very minute ; and near them, in the situa- 
 tion which botanists call hypogynous, or fixed 
 below the base of the seed, are the three fila- 
 ments, with their three anthers, which lie con- 
 cealed within the palese. The ovary is simple, 
 the styles are two, the stigmas are feathery — and 
 these also are concealed. The pericarp is gener- 
 ally not distinguishable from the seed. The al- 
 bumen of the seed is farinaceous ; and the em- 
 bryo lies on the outer side of the albumen at its 
 base. The cotyledon and the plumule are devel- 
 oped; and the root becomes a fibrous rhizoma. 
 The culm, which becomes the straw, is cylindri- 
 cal, closed at its nodes or joints, hollow in the 
 spaces between the nodes, and coated on the ex- 
 terior with a silicious or flinty secretion. The 
 leaves are alternate, and have a split sheath in- 
 vesting the entire spaces of the culm from node 
 to node. 
 
 Barley is regarded as constitutionally more 
 tender than some other cereal grasses, and, in 
 many instances, cannot bear the rigour of our 
 ordinary winters ; and yet it grows wild over a 
 wide extent of both the old world and the new, — 
 it is successfully cultivated athwart a greater 
 breadth of the globe than any other of the valu- 
 able grains, — it flourishes under the heat and 
 drought of the borders of the torrid zone, and 
 grows sturdily and maturely on the northern 
 verge of the temperate zone, — and, in general, it 
 thrives and ripens, in not a few exposures and 
 under various adverse circumstances, which the 
 constitutionally hardier wheat is totally unable 
 to resist. This singular phytological paradox is 
 partially, if not wholly, explained by the peculiar 
 nature of barley's inflorescence. If a young 
 green ear be examined, it will be seen that the 
 spikelets — then closely packed together on each 
 side of the rachis — consist each of three distinct 
 florets, each with its pair of slender setaceous 
 bracts, and that the central floret is larger and i 
 more prominent than the side ones, and furnished [ 
 
 with a long bristly awn which reaches quite or 
 nearly to the summit of the spike. On opening 
 this central floret with a needle, the rudiments 
 of the seed, stamens, and stigma, will be visible 
 with the aid of a magnifying glass ; but on open- 
 ing the side florets, they will, in the case of all 
 the two-rowed barleys, be seen to consist of little 
 more than the very imperfectly formed integu- 
 ments of glumes and palese, and to be in conse- 
 quence barren. When the stamens, anthers, and 
 styles of the fertile florets are completely formed, 
 they will be seen to conduct the process of 
 impregnation under phytological circumstances 
 which afford a peculiar protection from exterior 
 disturbance, and from most of the ordinary causes 
 of injury. In wheat, the three filaments, with 
 their delicate versatile anthers, are protruded 
 and exposed to every vicissitude of the weather ; 
 but in barley, these vital organs, while equally 
 perfect in organization, are masked and protected 
 by the floral integuments. The latter's process 
 of impregnation, therefore, is conducted,, through 
 all its stages, in complete shelter from wind, rain, 
 and hail ; it escapes all the most serious risks of 
 miscarrying to which the impregnation of wheat 
 is exposed ; and, in particular, it is free from the 
 disastrous liability of being damaged or rendered 
 barren at the critical moment when the pollen is 
 liberated by the expansion of the anthers. 
 
 The Species of Barley. — Many writers classify 
 all barley, according to the time of sowing, into 
 winter barley and spring barley. But some va- 
 rieties of confessedly the same species, or of 
 strictly similar botanical characteristics, are so 
 hardy as to be quite suitable for winter growth, 
 while others are so tender that they can be sown 
 only in spring and several kinds, whether spe- 
 cies or varieries, which suit best for autumn 
 sowing, and are with the greatest propriety de- 
 signated winter barleys, may with perfect suc- 
 cess be treated also as spring barleys. — Other 
 writers classify all barley, according to the num- 
 ber of rows of grains in the ears, into six-rowed, 
 four -rowed, and two -rowed barleys. But all 
 four-rowed kinds are partially six-rowed, and can 
 easily be proved to be mere deteriorations of true 
 six-rowed kinds, or deviations from them ; and 
 the two-rowed kinds are so exceedingly diversi- 
 fied as clearly to require amongst themselves a 
 specific classification. — Other writers classify all 
 barley, according to the adhesion or non-adhe- 
 sion of the corolla to the ripe seed, into awned 
 and naked. But this distinction, though a very 
 marked one for the popular observer, accords ill 
 with either the botanical distribution or the 
 phytological habits of the different kinds, and 
 besides is far too limited for the purposes of 
 either assisting the memory or making a dis- 
 crimination of qualities. — Other writers classify 
 all barley, according to the barrenness or fertility 
 of the side florets, into flat-eared and square- 
 l cared barleys. But this distinction merely re- 
 I resolves the six-rowed and the partially four- 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 129 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 rowed kinds into one class ; it burdens itself with 
 exceptions and explanations, to account for the 
 differences between the six-rowed and the four- 
 rowed ; and it groups all the numerous and the 
 widely different kinds of two -rowed into one 
 undistinguished mass. — Other writers classify all 
 barleys into Scotch and English, — calling the 
 six-rowed and the four-rowed kinds Scotch, and 
 the two-rowed kinds English, — and subclassify 
 all the latter, according to their earliness or late- 
 ness of ripening, into rath-ripe barleys and late- 
 ripe barleys. But any late-ripe sort, which has 
 been grown for some years upon strong and cold 
 soils, will become rath-ripe by being sown a few 
 times upon light dry soil, and will retain its ac- 
 quired early habit for three or four years upon 
 its original cold soil ; and any rath-ripe sort, 
 which has been grown upon light warm soil, will 
 be rendered late-ripe after a few years' cultiva- 
 tion upon cold heavy soil. 
 
 All these distinctions, in fact, not only exclude 
 the whole of the weeds and the mere herbage 
 grasses of the barley genus, but are considerably 
 too narrow for the purposes of practical agricul- 
 tural classification. The number of species, as 
 determined by permanent and well-defined bo- 
 tanical characters, and quite irrespective of the 
 multitudinous varieties of some of the cultivated 
 kinds, is fifteen according to Professor Kunth, 
 and eighteen according to Loudon's Hortus Bri- 
 tannicus ; and even the number of cultivated 
 species, including the cereal grasses of other 
 countries, and the useful herbage grasses of our 
 own land, is variously stated at not fewer than 
 from eight to ten. Every intelligent farmer, 
 therefore, ought clearly to be acquainted with a 
 wider range of classification than most agricul- 
 tural writers exhibit. Yet the distinctions of 
 winter and spring barley, and of rath-ripe and 
 late-ripe barley are of important practical use. 
 Winter barley is usually of the four-rowed and 
 six-rowed kinds, and is sown principally in coun- 
 tries, such as Spain, Italy, and the south of France, 
 where winter is mild and the spring is dry, or 
 such as Russia, Poland, and some portions of 
 North America, where snow lies throughout win- 
 ter, and a genial and steady sun -heat usually 
 commences with the disappearance of the snow. 
 Spring barley seldom yields so large a produce of 
 grain as winter barley, and is likewise so much 
 later in ripening as to interfere, in some degree, 
 with the wheat harvest; yet it incurs far less 
 risk, and on the whole is more suitable in a cli- 
 mate, like that of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 where the winter is an- alternation of frosts and 
 thaws, and the early part of spring is usually 
 cold and wet. Rath-ripe varieties of spring bar- 
 ley generally yield a smaller produce of grain 
 than late-ripe varieties : and therefore ought not 
 to be preferred to the latter except for cold late 
 soils, or with the express design of affording an 
 early barley-harvest. 
 
 The Barley-grasses. — The meadow barley-grass, 
 
 Hordeum pratense, is perennial, and grows wild 
 in the moist meadows of England, but is rare in 
 Scotland. Its side florets are barren, and have a 
 short beard ; its glumes are rough and bristly ; 
 its culms are kneed, not very straight, and grow 
 to the height of about two feet ; its foliage is 
 scanty ; and its roots are fibrous. It flowers in 
 June, and ripens its seeds in August. It is 
 adapted to irrigation, has very hardy habits, con- 
 tains a large proportion of nutritious matter, and 
 often occurs naturally on good rich meadow-land. 
 Yet it yields a comparatively small amount of 
 herbage ; it is liable to rust ; its seeds cannot be 
 very easily procured ; its long sharp awns are in 
 risk of irritating and inflaming the gums of cat- 
 tle : and, on these accounts, it can scarcely claim 
 to be worthy of cultivation. 
 
 The wall barley-grass, mouse-barley, or way- 
 bonnet grass, Hordeum murinum, is an annual 
 weed, of the salt marshes, way - sides, beaten- 
 paths, and other waste grounds of Great Britain. 
 Its root is fibrous ; its culms ascend in numbers 
 from one root, to the height of about 15 or 18 
 inches, and they have three or four joints, and 
 are procumbent at the base, erect in the upper 
 parts, and considerably thicker than those of the 
 meadow barley-grass ; its spikes are brittle, two 
 or three inches in length, of a dirty yellow col- 
 our, and less slender than those of the meadow 
 barley-grass ; and its long, stiff awns, when they 
 enter into the composition of hay, are apt to in- 
 flict damage on the mouths of horses. It is said 
 by Withering to be eaten by horses and sheep ; 
 yet is asserted by other careful and competent 
 observers to be uniformly avoided by even half- 
 famishing animals which feed by the road-sides. 
 Its proportion of nutritive matter is exceedingly 
 small, and consists principally of mucilage and 
 insoluble extractive matter. It flowers from 
 April till August, and ripens its seed about the 
 beginning of the latter of these months. 
 
 The sea barley, or squirrel tail grass, Hordeum 
 maritimum, is also an annual weed of the salt 
 marshes, and the sea-shore pastures and maritime 
 sandy ground of Great Britain. It resembles the 
 wall barley-grass in general habit, but is smaller 
 and more glaucous, and has rougher awns, with 
 minute bristly teeth. It grows to the height of 
 about a foot, and flowers in J une and J uly. It 
 abounds in the Isle of Thanet, but, in general, 
 is of scattered and comparatively scarce occur- 
 rence. — The bulbous barley-grass, Hordeum bul- 
 bosum, is an uninteresting perennial of Italy ; it 
 was introduced to Great Britain in 1770; and it 
 grows to the height of three feet, and flowers in 
 July. — The cape barley-grass, Hordeum Capense, 
 is an uninteresting annual of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and was introduced to Britain in 1817; 
 and it grows to the height of about a foot, and 
 flowers in July and August. — The maned barley- 
 grass, Hordeitm jubatum, is a curious biennial of 
 North America, and was introduced to Britain in 
 1782 ; and it grows to the height of about a foot, 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 130 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 and flowers in July and August. — The porcupine 
 barley-grass, Hordeum hystrix, is a curious an- 
 nual of Spain, and was introduced to Britain in 
 1821 ; and it grows to the height of about a foot, 
 and flowers in June and July. 
 
 The Cereal Barleys. — All the cultivated barleys 
 rank as annuals ; yet most of the six-rowed kinds 
 are sown toward the close of autumn, and treated 
 as slightly biennial, while one of these kinds suc- 
 ceeds well to be sown in summer, and treated as 
 thoroughly biennial. Great confusion prevails 
 in classifying the six-rowed barleys, and distin- 
 guishing their species and varieties. Most of 
 this confusion arises from mistaken notions of 
 the six -rowed and the four -rowed kinds, and 
 may be prevented by a little definition. " There 
 is no barley," remarks Professor Low, " to which 
 the term four-rowed can be (properly) applied. 
 Barley is termed two-rowed or six-rowed, accord- 
 ing to the number of its fertile florets. In two- 
 rowed barley, one row of florets in each of the 
 two sides of the spike is fertile, and consequently 
 one row of seeds on each side is perfected. In 
 six-rowed barley, three rows on each side of the 
 spike are fertile, and consequently three rows on 
 each side are perfected. In this sense only, it is 
 termed six-rowed barley. But there is no spe- 
 cies known to us in which only two rows on each 
 side of the spike are fertile. Slightly examined, 
 indeed, six-rowed barleys frequently present the 
 appearance of four rows ; but this is in appear- 
 ance only ; for such barleys have always the 
 three rows on each side perfect. In poor soils 
 and unfavourable situations, two of the rows run 
 much into each other, and this has perhaps given 
 rise to the mistake ; but the two rows which 
 thus run into each other in appearance, are on 
 the opposite sides of the rachis." The name 
 hexastichon or six-rowed, which has usually been 
 restricted to one well-marked species of six-rowed 
 barleys, would thus become the proper designa- 
 tion of the whole, and is so used by Professor 
 Low. Yet the alteration or disturbance of estab- 
 lished names is exceedingly undesirable, and in 
 this case unnecessary, the mere definition of them 
 being quite sufficient. By hexastichon or six- 
 rowed, as distinguished from every other kind of 
 barley, we mean a species which is always truly 
 six-rowed, and whose ears stand out from one 
 another in the spreading and characteristic man- 
 ner of two-eared sprat or battledore barley ; and 
 by all other square or six-rowed barleys — begin- 
 ning with Hordeum vulgare, and ending with 
 Hordeum Nepalense — we mean barleys which, 
 while always six-rowed at the base, are usually 
 more or less four-rowed at the top, according to 
 soil, culture, and phytological habit, and whose 
 ears lie compactly toward one another in the 
 manner of the ears of bere or bigg. 
 
 The common barley, usually, though impro- 
 perly, called the four-rowed barley, Hordeum vul- 
 gare, seems to have been a native of the south of 
 Europe, particularly of Sicily, but was intro- 
 
 duced to Great Britain and to the countries of 
 central and northern Europe, at too remote a 
 date or in too obscure circumstances to be known 
 in record. In common with every other cereal 
 species of barley, it ranks as an annual plant ; yet 
 it furnishes the chief varieties of cultivated win- 
 ter barley, and is therefore practically a biennial. 
 All its florets are fertile ; its middle grains form 
 two distinct rows; and its side grains form a 
 kind of double row toward the base, but unite in 
 such a manner as to form one row toward the 
 top ; and yet, in some instances, they remain so 
 nearly separate from base to extremity as to ren- 
 der it a true six-rowed barley. Three of its 
 varieties are so conspicuous as to be pretty gen- 
 erally treated as distinct species ; and many are 
 so obscure, so fugitive, or so worthless as to have 
 challenged scarcely any notice. 
 
 Bere, bigg, barley-bigg, or rough barley, is one 
 of the best known and most extensively diffused 
 varieties of common barley. It is cultivated in 
 Denmark, in Sweden, in Russia, throughout the 
 Scottish Highlands and Hebrides, and on exposed 
 light grounds in the hilly portions of the Scottish 
 Lowlands. Its ear is about 2^ inches in length ; 
 the number of grains in each ear is about sixty ; 
 the grains taper or have a pointed form at both 
 ends ; and the awns are about 3^ inches in length, 
 and adhere to the grain. Though its grains are 
 more numerous than those of the two -rowed 
 kinds of barley, yet they have less weight in pro- 
 portion to their bulk. Bere is, in consequence, 
 regarded as an inferior crop, fit only for bad cul- 
 tivators, or for poor cold lands ; but it ripens 
 very early when sown in spring, and is therefore 
 a great and beneficial boon to climates which 
 are too cold and late to ripen the better kinds of 
 barley. — The square barley, called in France orge 
 caree, differs from bere in having a thinner skin, 
 and in being three or four days sooner ripe ; yet 
 in other respects so closely resembles it as to be 
 almost identical. It is extensively cultivated in 
 some parts of Germany. — The white four-rowed 
 winter barley, called in France orge carie dliiver, 
 has thicker and longer ears, thicker-skinned, and 
 larger grains, and an aggregately coarser appear- 
 ance than bere ; and the lower three or four tiers 
 of its florets are frequently barren. It is exten- 
 sively cultivated in the north of France, and has 
 the reputation of being very suitable for malting. 
 When sown in autumn — as is the usual practice 
 with it in France — it ripens before any of the 
 spring-sown barleys ; but when sown in spring, 
 it docs not ripen till a fortnight after the latest 
 of these barleys. — The Tangier, Morocco, or Afri- 
 can barley, is shorter in the ears and the straw, 
 and larger, thicker-skinned, and less plump, than 
 the preceding variety ; its awns are long and 
 spreading, and are not easily separated from the 
 grain ; and its foliage, when green, is very broad, 
 and is greedily devoured by rabbits and hares. 
 It was, not many years ago, introduced to Great 
 Britain from Morocco. — The Bengal barley re- 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 sembles the Tangier variety, but is not so strong 
 in the straw. — The giant barley, Hordeum gigan- 
 teum, has been regarded as one of the most per- 
 manent varieties of bere ; yet it is characterized 
 principally by its tallness, usually growing to the 
 height of about four feet, while bere grows to 
 the height of only three. It was introduced to 
 Great Britain from the Levant. 
 
 The black winter barley, called in France orge 
 caree noir, and sometimes called botanically Hor- 
 deum nigrum, has so marked a character as to 
 have been sometimes treated as a distinct spe- 
 cies. Its spike is long ; its grains are from 60 to 
 70 in number, and larger than those of bere ; its 
 paleaa have a black or dark-bluish colour, and 
 are alluded to in its distinctive name of ' black ; ' 
 and its awns are long and dark-coloured, and ad- 
 here to the grain. In spite of the blackness of 
 its paleae, it yields as white flour as any other 
 sort of barley. It is very prolific, but is not liked 
 by maltsters. It is less hardy, but more early, 
 and better adapted for spring-sowing than the 
 white four-rowed winter barley ; yet, if not sown 
 very early in spring, it vegetates as a biennial, 
 and will not run to seed till the following year. 
 The French either sow it before the end of March, 
 in order to reap its grain as an annual, or sow it 
 in June and July in order to feed sheep with it, 
 and to enjoy its advantages as a biennial. 
 
 The Siberian barley, or four and six rowed 
 naked barley, is regarded sometimes as a variety 
 of common barley under the name of Hordeum 
 vidgare nudum, and sometimes as a distinct spe- 
 cies under the names of Hordeum coeleste and Hor- 
 deum gymno-hexastichon. Its ear is shaped like 
 that of bere, but is more decidedly six-rowed ; 
 the grains are more numerous than those of bere, 
 and considerably smaller than those of other kinds 
 of naked barley ; and its awns are rather upright, 
 easily detached when ripe, and so readily falling 
 off with the paleae or husk as to render the bar- 
 ley, in technical phrase, ' naked,' like wheat. It 
 was introduced to Great Britain in 1768, and 
 promised, for a time, to become a favourite 
 grain, and to pass into general cultivation. But, 
 whether from prejudice, from bad management 
 in the trials of it, or from ascertained unsuit- 
 ableness to the soils and climate where it was 
 tried, it soon ceased to be much noticed. Yet it 
 is extensively cultivated in the north of Europe, 
 in Germany, and in some parts of France ; it is 
 generally held in high esteem, on the continent, 
 for its fertility ; it is regarded, in some parts of 
 Germany, as the most valuable kind of barley 
 known ; it obtained its distinctive botanic name 
 of coeleste from the French, in compliment to its 
 supposed eminent productiveness ; it has been 
 much extolled by several distinguished agricul- 
 tural writers of the continent, particularly by 
 the eminent and well-known Thaer ; it ripens in 
 our country a week earlier than bere ; and it 
 both deserves attention and a fair trial in the 
 improved agricultural districts of Great Britain, 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 and might be found a valuable acquisition, as a 
 substitute for bere, throughout the Scottish 
 Highlands and Hebrides. 
 
 The Nepaul barley, Himmalaya naked barley, 
 or Nepaul wheat, is generally treated as a distinct 
 species, under the name of Hordeum nepalense or 
 Hordeum trifurcatum. It grows wild on the Him- 
 malayan mountains, near the line of perpetual 
 snow, and was introduced thence to Great Britain 
 in 1817. It was regarded as wheat by the parties 
 who introduced it ; and even yet is sometimes 
 called Nepaul wheat ; yet not only is it a true 
 barley, but it differs from the Siberian kind, or 
 Hordeum coeleste, principally in the form of its 
 awns, and is, like that kind, six-rowed, naked, 
 early, and prolific. Its awns are very short, and 
 generally bent down upon the chaff or inner 
 paleae, while the wings of the outer paleae rise 
 to about one-eighth of an inch on each side, and 
 form with the awn a sort of three-forked termi- 
 nation, which is alluded to in the specific name 
 trifurcatum. The three-forked termination, how- 
 ever, is not a permanent character; for the grain, 
 after being cultivated for some time in Britain, 
 elongates its awns like those of Siberian barley, 
 or even exhibits on one ear some grains with 
 short awns and trifurcati, some with long and 
 erect awns, and some with awns of intermediate 
 length and form. The Nepaul barley is earlier 
 than the Siberian ; its straw is short, and, under 
 favourable culture, stiff and erect ; and its foli- 
 age, when young, is broad, and of a glaucous green 
 colour. 
 
 The true six-rowed barley, Pomeranian barley, 
 or six-rowed white winter barley, Hordeum hex- 
 astichon, is the coarsest in sample of all the bar- 
 leys, but hardy and prolific. Professor Low re- 
 gards it as simply the sprat barley, or Hordeum 
 zeocriton, with all the side florets as well as the 
 central ones fertile, and calls it six-rowed sprat 
 barley, or Hordeum hexasticho-zeocriton. Its grains 
 are situated in six distinct and equidistant rows ; 
 and the lower ones spread out at nearly right 
 angles with the rachis, so that the awns are ex- 
 ceedingly divergent. All its florets are herma- 
 phrodite and awned ; its spike is thicker and much 
 shorter than that of bere ; the number of grains 
 in a spike or ear is about one-third greater than 
 that in a spike of bere ; and its grains are long, 
 and not well filled, and have the awns adhering 
 to them with great tenacity. This species is 
 occasionally sown in France and in England as 
 both a winter and a spring barley, and succeeds 
 well under either treatment ; but it is usually a 
 fortnight later in ripening than bere. No defined 
 or marked varieties of it, or deviations from its 
 normal character, are in cultivation. 
 
 The sprat, spelt, fan, battledore, rice, or Put- 
 ney barley, or German rice, Hordeum zeocriton, is 
 a two-rowed species, easily distinguished to even 
 the unpractised eye by the spreading form of its 
 spike, alluded to in the names fan and battledore. 
 Its spike is short, broad at the base, and some- 
 
 131 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 132 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 what tapering toward the top ; its grains stand 
 out from the rachis, in a manner almost resem- 
 bling the expanded wings of a bird ; its awns 
 spread very divergently on both sides ; and its 
 entire appearance, with the exception of the 
 number of its rows, is precisely similar to that of 
 Hordeum hexastichon. Professor Low, as already 
 observed, regards the two species as one, with 
 the accidental difference of barrenness or fertility 
 in the side florets ; and he calls sprat barley Hor- 
 deum disticho-zeocriton. The name Putney bar- 
 ley, sometimes given to it, alludes to the fact of 
 its having at one time been extensively cultivated 
 in the vicinity of Putney ; and the names rice 
 barley and German rice are given to it, not on 
 account of its possessing any resemblance to rice, 
 but because, as decorticated or pot -barley, it 
 swells much by boiling, and forms a tolerable 
 substitute for rice in broths and puddings. It 
 was at one time in considerable favour with Eng- 
 lish farmers, and is still much esteemed in Ger- 
 many ; but it has gone almost completely out of 
 cultivation in England, and is thought by some 
 scientific agriculturists to be undeserving renew- 
 ed attention. Yet, except for the shortness of 
 its straw, it might be found profitable for some 
 soils and situations, particularly for marly lands, 
 in a bleak or cold district ; it is, at all events, 
 both hardy and productive ; and it ought, at 
 least, to be kept in view by experimental and 
 enterprising farmers. 
 
 Two-rowed or long-eared barley, Hordeum dis- 
 tichon, is the species commonly cultivated in 
 England and the lowlands of Scotland. It has 
 ramified itself into several well-marked, generally 
 diffused, and highly esteemed varieties ; and it 
 is also identical, as a species, with very numerous 
 varieties of inferior value, local diffusion, or ill- 
 defined and fugitive character. All its side 
 florets are male and barren, and are more minute 
 and less distinct than those of six-rowed barleys ; 
 its spike or ear is considerably longer than that 
 of six-rowed barleys, and is as broad at the centre 
 and the top as at the base ; and its grains are 
 more imbricated than those of sprat barley, or 
 are so situated as to overlap one another instead 
 of spreading out from the rachis. The number 
 of its grains in an ear usually ranges from twenty- 
 four to forty, according to the variety, while that 
 of the six-rowed barleys ranges from about sixty 
 to seventy ; yet, in spite of this great inferiority, 
 the two-rowed barley has obtained a very decided 
 preference, and a very superior care from farm- 
 ers, not only in Great Britain, but in France and 
 in many parts of Germany. The greater actual 
 produce of the two-rowed barley is the apparent 
 reason of the preference, and the greater fineness 
 of the sample was probably the inducing or ori- 
 ginal reason, but adventitious advantage result- 
 ing from better culture, is, perhaps, the only true 
 reason, or that which accounts for both the others. 
 Were equal care to be bestowed upon the best ex- 
 isting varieties of six-rowed barley, as that which 
 
 has been so long, so profusely, and so generally 
 lavished upon two-rowed barley, in adapta- 
 tions to soil, in hybridizing, and in selecting 
 specially superior ears, scarcely a doubt can exist 
 that eventual varieties might soon be obtained 
 which would yield considerably greater produce 
 than the best two-rowed kinds at present in cul- 
 tivation, and at the same time be not one jot in- 
 ferior in the sample. 
 
 The common English two-rowed barley was 
 long a favourite variety ; but has been so much 
 ramified into subvarieties, and blended through 
 the medium of these into other varieties, as to 
 have, in a considerable degree, lost its distinctive 
 character. Its ear, in general, is from three to 
 four inches long, and about one-third of an inch 
 broad ; its grains amount to from twenty to forty 
 in the ear, but in the best sorts usually amount 
 to from twenty-eight to thirty, and are not very 
 closely set on the rachis ; and its awns extend 
 about the length of the spike beyond its top. It 
 is less prolific, and five or six days later, than 
 bere ; and it is less adapted for poor soils and 
 elevated situations ; but it is superior in quality, 
 and is decidedly preferred by both the miller and 
 the maltster. Its straw is not very long, and 
 makes good winter fodder. Some subvarieties of 
 it called long-eared, usually have from 24 to 40 
 grains in the spike ; but they are comparatively 
 weak in the culm, and are liable to be much laid 
 by heavy rains, or overpowered by the weight of 
 their own ear. A subvariety called the Molda- 
 vian was for some time in much favour ; but it 
 seems to have degenerated, or at all events was 
 driven out of use by the discovery and diffusion 
 of newer and better subvarieties. Some other 
 subvarieties have run the same round, and shared 
 the same fate as the Moldavian. A curious plant 
 of common English barley was presented in straw 
 to Lawson's Agricultural Museum in Edinburgh, 
 by a gentleman in Fifeshire : it has three stems, 
 two of them having ears of the usual form, and 
 the other having a compound spike resembling 
 that of Egyptian wheat, and containing 63 grains. 
 
 The Scotch, the Thanet, and the Lincoln bar- 
 leys, though very frequently mentioned in the 
 conversation of farmers and the writings of agri- 
 culturists, are mere subvarieties of the common 
 English barley. The Scotch barley admits of 
 great latitude in the time of sowing, and, though 
 usually not sown later than the middle of May, 
 has produced a satisfactory crop when sown so 
 late as the 12th of June. But when late sown, 
 its straw is liable to be soft, weak, and very easily 
 lodged ; though when sown early, the straw is as 
 strong and resisting as that of most other bar- 
 leys. The Scotch barley, previous to the intro- 
 duction of the more fertile kinds which are at 
 present in chief favour, was very highly esteemed 
 by the best Scottish farmers, and was preferred by 
 brewers and distillers to almost any barley grown 
 from English seeds. — Ware barley, long well 
 known in the south-eastern districts of Scotland, ■ 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 is simply Scotch barley grown two or three times 
 upon land manured with sea-weed ; and it pos- 
 sesses an acquired habit of superior earliness, 
 and, on that account, is in request for seed-corn 
 by farmers in the later and more inland districts 
 of the country. — Thanet barley so very closely re- 
 sembles the Scotch as to appear the very same 
 subvariety, a little modified by being sown for a 
 number of years in a warmer climate. When 
 sown early in the season on rich land, it possesses 
 much strength and vigour, has a round and 
 rather coarse grain, and yields a comparatively 
 large produce ; but it seldom has a bright colour, 
 and does not bring the best price in the market. 
 Its grain is plump and thin-skinned, and is in 
 request, far less for malting, than for pot-barley 
 and barley-meal. — Lincoln barley is a late sub- 
 variety, with a coarse, ill-working grain, and 
 suitable only for sharp soils and warm situations, 
 where no better a sort of barley can be obtained. 
 It was formerly sown upon land which had been 
 summer fallowed ; but, since the introduction of 
 better husbandry and improved rotations, it is 
 not wanted, and has been driven almost entirely 
 out of cultivation. 
 
 The Chevalier barley, as to its origin, is only a 
 variation of the long-eared subvariety of the 
 common English barley; yet it possesses such 
 distinctive characters as to constitute a well-de- 
 fined variety of itself. Its ears resemble those of 
 the common English barley, but usually contain 
 two or four more grains in each ; its grains are 
 rounder, much plumper, and contain a larger 
 proportion of sugar; its general character, for 
 the purposes of both the miller and the maltster, 
 is superior ; and its habit of tillering is so strong 
 that a proportion of its seed-corn half a bushel 
 per acre less than that of common English bar- 
 ley, will be equally productive. Yet it is eight 
 or ten days later in ripening than common bar- 
 ley, and, on that account, is less suitable for cold 
 soils and exposed situations. Its straw also is 
 weaker and harder, and therefore more liable to 
 be laid, and not so palatable to cattle. But, as a 
 whole, it is a very valuable variety, and has, for 
 a number of years past, been regarded with gene- 
 ral and high favour throughout all the best agri- 
 cultural districts of Great Britain. A gentleman 
 of the name of Chevalier observed in his field an 
 ear of barley of larger size and with plumper 
 grain than he had ever before seen ; he care- 
 fully preserved it, sowed it in his garden, saved 
 the seed, and re-sowed it, till he had a sufficient 
 quantity for field-culture and general diffusion ; 
 and he thus not only nursed and sent abroad the 
 fine variety which bears his name, but practically 
 taught all intelligent farmers the important les- 
 son of how much profit may be acquired and how 
 great good may be done by close and skilful ob- 
 servation. The Rev. Mr. Rham, who early put 
 the excellence of this variety to the test, and 
 lent his powerful aid to bring it into notice, said 
 in 1833 or 1834, " That hitherto it has a decided 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 superiority over the common sorts, no one who 
 has tried it fairly in well-prepared land seems to 
 deny ; but unless great care be taken in cultivat- 
 ing picked parcels for seed, selecting the finest 
 ears and plumpest grain, it will probably share 
 the fate of its predecessors, — degenerate, and lose 
 its reputation." 
 
 The Annat barley has grain of a bright yellow 
 transparent colour, and observably more round 
 and plump than even that of the Chevalier bar- 
 ley. " This new and seemingly very superior 
 variety," said the Editor of the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture in 1835, " is the produce of three 
 ears which were picked by Mr. Gorrie, Annat 
 Gardens, in a field on the farm of Flawcraig, Carse 
 of Gowrie, Perthshire, in the harvest of 1830 ; 
 since which period it has been grown at Annat 
 Gardens: hence its name. Last season it was 
 sown on a ridge in the middle of a field with 
 common barley on the one side and Chevalier on 
 the other. In bulk of straw it seemed to have 
 the advantage of both these kinds ; it was five 
 days earlier ripe than the former, and about a 
 fortnight before the latter ; and it was also 2| 
 lb. per bushel heavier than the Chevalier." This 
 variety, however, requires a good soil ; and, 
 judging from the peculiar situation in which it 
 originated, it is not likely to possess near so wide 
 a range of adaptation or to exert near so strong 
 a resistance to deterioration as either the common 
 or the Chevalier varieties. 
 
 The golden, Italian, or Alpine barley, was in- 
 troduced not many years ago, from the Italian 
 side of the Alps ; and is now somewhat exten- 
 sively cultivated in Stirlingshire under the name 
 of golden barley, and in Ayrshire under that 
 of Italian or Alpine barley. Its ear is short, but 
 very close, broad, and compact ; and its grains 
 have a bright light yellow colour, and are larger 
 than those of the common English barley. It 
 appears to be a decidedly superior variety, and 
 well worthy of cultivation. — Dunlop barley, though 
 recently introduced, is pretty extensively culti- 
 vated in Perthshire and Forfarshire. Its ear and 
 its grains are similar in shape and size to those of 
 common English barley ; but, in common with 
 the straw, are considerably darker in colour. It 
 ripens about a week earlier than common barley, 
 and, on that account, is adapted to exposed and 
 elevated situations. — Chancellor barley is inferior, 
 in aggregate qualities, to some of the preceding 
 varieties. Its ear is rather long ; but its grains 
 are not very closely set. — Royston barley also is 
 inferior, and darker in colour; and its grains, 
 though large, are rather widely set. — Stain's bar- 
 ley has a slender ear, and is tolerably good in 
 quality. It is sometimes called Siberian barley ; 
 but this name, as already shown, properly belongs 
 to the naked six-rowed barley. The principal 
 other varieties of common two-rowed barley, at 
 present known in Great Britain, are Norfolk 
 spring barley, Black's superlative barley, Brown's 
 barley, Bute barley, Lord Western's barley, Not- 
 
 133 
 
BAKLEY. 
 
 134 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 tingham long -eared barley, Ospisdale barley, 
 Potter's barley, Providence barley, and Suffolk 
 short-necked barley. Specimens of all these vari- 
 eties have been deposited in the Museum of the 
 Highland Society. 
 
 Two-rowed black barley has so very marked a 
 character as to be treated sometimes as a per- 
 manent variety under the name of Hordeum dis- 
 tichon nigrum, and sometimes as a quite distinct 
 species under the name of Hordeum nigrum; yet 
 the latter of these names belongs just as fully to 
 the six-rowed black barley, and is therefore of 
 doubtful application. Two-rowed black barley is 
 prolific in both quantity of grain and bulk of 
 straw, but does not ripen till six or eight days 
 after the common English barley. Its grains are 
 large, coarse in shape, and black or dark-blue in 
 colour. — The Cape of Good Hope barley is closely 
 allied to the two-rowed black barley, but has its 
 grains more closely arranged in the spike, and its 
 barren florets of a whitish colour. 
 
 Two-rowed naked barley is sometimes treated 
 as a permanent variety under the name of Hor- 
 deum distichon nudum, but more frequently and 
 more correctly as a distinct species under the 
 name of Hordeum nudum. Its ear is long ; and 
 the grains of each usually amount to twenty- 
 eight or thirty, are very large, and separate from 
 the palese or chaff in the same manner as wheat. 
 One sort of it is believed by some botanists to be 
 so decidedly specific in its awn-shedding char- 
 acter as to be fully entitled to the specific name 
 Hordeum nudum, while another sort is so far 
 capable of losing that character as to be properly 
 a variety of common two-rowed barley, under the 
 name of Hordeum distichon imberbe. But sub- 
 varieties of it, of slightly different character, and 
 obtained from mutually independent sources, 
 have at several periods been brought into culti- 
 vation under different names, and all driven out 
 of favour. Miller says, " There was cultivated to 
 a considerable extent in Staffordshire, about sixty 
 or seventy years since, under the name of Triti- 
 cum speltum, a sort of naked barley or wheat bar- 
 ley, the ear shaped like barley but the grain like 
 wheat ; and it made good bread and good malt, 
 and yielded a good increase." But, upwards of 
 half a century ago, this Triticum speltum appears 
 to have passed out of cultivation into total ob- 
 livion. "About seven or eight years since," 
 said Mr. Lawson in 1836, "Mr. Loudon intro- 
 duced two -rowed naked barley from the north of 
 Europe, under the name of Siberian barley, and 
 distributed it among several cultivators in various 
 parts of Britain. One portion, consisting of 
 about 50 grains, which he sent to Mr. Gorrie, 
 Annat Gardens, Perthshire, and which was sown 
 in the garden, yielded a considerable return of 
 grain, and ripened early ; but on its cultivation 
 being extended to the field, its straw was found 
 to become very brittle and tender towards the 
 period of ripening, so as to be unfit for support- 
 ing the ears, and completely incapable of forming 
 
 into ropes for binding. Its cultivation was there- 
 fore abandoned. The grain, however, on being 
 ground, yielded a good barley-flour ; and had it 
 not been for the above-mentioned circumstance, 
 it might have been cultivated with advantage 
 for that purpose." — The only other species of 
 cereal barley known to us are a rye-like species, I 
 Hordeum secalinum, mentioned in writings of 
 nearly a century and a half old, and the flattened 
 species, Hordeum complanatum, introduced to 
 Great Britain from the south of Europe about 25 
 or 26 years ago. 
 
 Cultivation of Barley. — In the rotation of crops, 
 barley may follow either a summer fallow, pota- 
 toes, turnips, pulse, or any forage or herbage 
 crop. An universal practice, during the imma- 
 ture or transition period of modern husbandry, 
 was to sow wheat after a summer fallow, and 
 barley after wheat ; but this practice entailed the 
 wasteful necessity of another fallow after the 
 barley ; and it was first modified by sowing clover 
 with the wheat, and either dispensing with the 
 barley or assigning it a later place in a longer 
 rotation ; and was afterwards pretty generally 
 abolished, by sowing barley with clover after the 
 summer fallow, and sowing wheat after the clover. 
 Yet in some peculiar circumstances, when the 
 soil is a very friable loam, when the autumn is 
 unusually dry, when wheat stubble can be plough- 
 ed and reduced to a fine clean tilth before the 
 commencement of close winter weather, and when 
 several ploughings and harrowings can be given 
 in spring, barley may, even in the present highly 
 improved state of husbandry, advantageously 
 follow wheat ; yet these circumstances are of 
 comparatively rare concurrence, and ought in no 
 case to be further calculated on than as affording 
 an excellent and profitable opportunity of arrest- 
 ing or preventing the deterioration of land which 
 always, in some degree, results from a long and 
 unvarying routine of even the best rotation. In 
 most cases, too, in which barley can judiciously 
 be made to follow wheat, the land cannot be 
 sufficiently freed from the seeds and roots of 
 weeds to be fit for an accompanying sowing of 
 clover and grass seeds ; so that in such cases, the 
 barley ought to be sown alone. 
 
 When barley profitably follows a summer fal- 
 low, the soil is strong, comparatively adhesive, 
 much fitter for wheat than for turnips, so firm 
 and compact that if a crop of turnips upon it 
 were fed off by sheep, or removed with carts, it 
 would be most mischievously consolidated during 
 winter by the tread of the sheep's feet or the 
 pressure of the carts' wheels. Land of this kind, 
 though highly fertile under suitable mechanical 
 conditions, cannot without much labour and tact 
 be brought into a sufficiently pulverulent and 
 porous state for the luxuriant or even healthy 
 growth of barley ; and, therefore, in various dis- 
 tricts, particularly in Essex and Suffolk, it is 
 subjected to a fallow of 18 months, from harvest 
 till the second spring, in order that it may be 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 135 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 perfectly cleaned, and rendered thoroughly por- 
 ous, powdery, and mellow, by the tillage of au- 
 tumn, the frosts of two winters, and the plough- 
 ings, scarifyings, and harrowings of a summer 
 and two springs. Though the loss of time and 
 the expenditure of labour by such a fallow are 
 great, yet they are, in general, well compensated 
 by the produce of the subsequent crops. The 
 land is completely divested of weeds ; the barley 
 finds ready access to the nourishment in the soil, 
 and obtains that nourishment without competi- 
 tion from noxious herbage ; the clover sown along 
 with the barley obtains ample possession of the 
 ground, and contributes the most effective pre- 
 paration for wheat ; the crop of wheat, if the 
 tillage be in keeping with that of the commenc- 
 ing fallow, will be luxuriant; a well manured 
 and a diligently hoed crop of beans may follow 
 the wheat ; and a second crop of wheat may be 
 interposed between the beans and a repetition of 
 the fallow. Any clever, calculating farmer will 
 see, almost at a glance, that a rotation like this, 
 beginning with barley and including two crops of 
 wheat, is likely, even with all the deduction of 
 the long fallow, to afford quite as good a remu- 
 neration, as a rotation of a different and shorter 
 kind, beginning with wheat after the ordinary 
 turnip or summer fallow. The long fallow fol- 
 lowed by barley, however, must be understood as 
 appropriate only upon the kind of soil which we 
 have indicated, and as most wastefully unsuited 
 to soils of a lighter and more prevalent descrip- 
 tion. When, in any case, barley follows an 
 ordinary summer fallow, the land is ridged up in 
 the same manner as for wheat, is left in that 
 condition till spring, and is either thrown into 
 seed-furrow, or stirred and pulverized with the 
 grubber immediately before sowing. 
 
 Barley is seldom sown after potatoes; for wheat, 
 at that stage of a rotation, is, in all ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, quite as suitable, ancfr is preferred on 
 account of its superior value. But when, in any 
 case, barley does succeed potatoes, the land is 
 treated in nearly the same manner as when this 
 crop succeeds a summer fallow. — When barley is 
 sown after beans or pease, the land, after these 
 are removed, receives one or more ploughings ; it 
 is then ridged up so as to lie dry and become 
 pulverized during winter ; and it receives one or 
 more ploughings or grubbings in spring, imme- 
 diately before sowing. But wheat far oftener 
 and more appropriately succeeds beans, both be- 
 cause it is a more valuable crop than barley, and 
 because it and beans have a preference for the 
 same kinds of soil. 
 
 In all the places of a rotation which we 
 have mentioned — after a fallow, after potatoes, 
 and after pulse, winter barley, except on tena- 
 cious soils or in wet autumns, might as ap- 
 propriately be sown as spring barley ; and, in 
 accordance with a statement which we made 
 when generally comparing the two kinds, the 
 winter barley might very advantageously be pre- 
 
 ferred. The mode of preparation for it is the 
 same as for winter wheat, with the difference 
 that every appliance must be used to bring the 
 soil into a thoroughly porous and powdery condi- 
 tion, and to have it both dry and freshly stirred 
 at the time of sowing. — The bere of Highland 
 districts, when sown as spring barley, ought if 
 possible to have the same tilth and the same 
 place in rotation as the two-rowed spring barley 
 of England and Lowland Scotland ; but as the 
 preparation for it is generally effected by dig- 
 ging, and cannot in numerous instances be ef- 
 fected with horse-drawn implements, the main 
 points to be attended to are, that the instrument 
 employed be an actual spade, and not some 
 miserable apology for one, and that this instru- 
 ment be so handled as to destroy all perennial 
 weeds and reduce the soil to a fine powder. 
 
 The grand place for barley, in almost every 
 kind of rotation, and upon all soils of medium 
 character for lightness, or even upon soils which 
 verge close upon the extremes of tenacity and 
 sandiness, is after turnips, and in accompaniment 
 with a sowing of clover and grass seeds. This 
 principle is universally admitted in the present 
 improved British husbandry, and is generally 
 acted upon in all the best barley districts of both 
 England and Scotland. Yet the preparation for 
 barley after turnips is not quite the same in Eng- 
 land as in Scotland, and requires to be consider- 
 ably modified in adaptation to different soils. 
 Barley yields a tolerably fair produce upon light 
 sandy lands, which are too poor to nourish wheat ; 
 it yields not a bad produce upon half moorish 
 lands, whose soil is somewhat pulverulent ; it suc- 
 ceeds with difficulty, and makes wretched re- 
 turns, upon any land which is adhesive, reten- 
 tive, compact, and badly aerated ; it thrives 
 pretty well upon clayey lands which lie dry, and 
 have been considerably commixed and rendered 
 mechanically porous, with ashy and calcareous 
 manures ; it is luxuriant on good light dry land, 
 such as rich black mould ; and, in general, it 
 makes its best returns upon lands of any kind 
 which are chemically fertile and mechanically 
 dry and powdery, or, in other words, which are 
 rich in manurial elements and finely pulverized 
 by thorough and skilful tillage. Yet both turnips 
 and barley are necessarily grown upon soils of 
 widely different character, varying from the 
 tenacious clay to the almost drifting sand ; and 
 any reflecting person will therefore see at a 
 glance that preparation for barley must be modi- 
 fied always by the nature of the soil, and some- 
 times by the comparative wetness or dryness of 
 the season. 
 
 In very light soils, such as those of a large 
 proportion of the turnip lands of Norfolk, Suf- 
 folk, and Essex, a chief part of the preparation 
 for barley, is effected simply by the processes of 
 cultivating the turnips, and feeding them off 
 with sheep. " When the land has been properly 
 prepared for turnips, and well manured, and the 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 136 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 turnips have been carefully hoed, so that no 
 weeds of any kind remain, it is then in the finest 
 state for barley as soon as the turnips are off. 
 Turnips require a well pulverized soil, and so 
 does barley. If the soil is very dry and light, 
 the sheep folded upon it consolidate the surface 
 by their treading, and enrich it by their urine 
 and dung. As soon as a part of the field is 
 cleared, and the hurdles removed, the land is 
 ploughed with a shallow furrow, and thus the 
 sheep and the ploughs are often seen in the same 
 field succeeding each other, that no time may be 
 lost in turning in and covering the dung, which 
 is very volatile, and would soon lose much of. its 
 qualities by the action of the sun and winds. 
 This is sufficient preparation for the seed, which 
 may now be sown or drilled without delay." — 
 [Rham's Dictionary of the Farm.] The improve- 
 ment made upon the soil by the excrements of 
 the sheep and the contact of their bodies, is called 
 in Norfolk ' the teathe and the ploughing in of 
 this, as closely as possible to the flocks, is called 
 the ' sealing ' of it. 
 
 The old method of treating all land in Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, after clearing it of turnips either by 
 sheep-feeding or by carting-off, was to plough it 
 once, twice, or thrice, for either barley or any 
 other kind of seed-corn, — the ordinary farmers 
 ploughing once, the better farmers twice, and the 
 best ploughing thrice. On very dry soils, this 
 method incurred no farther disadvantages than 
 useless waste of labour, and partial dissipation of 
 the volatile portions of the sheep's urine; but 
 upon soils of a stiffer kind it turned down the 
 surface which had been pulverized by the frosts 
 of winter, and brought up the adhesive, cloddy, 
 bottom soil, which had not been duly influenced 
 by either the frosts, the air, or the ammoniacal 
 manure. " Those who are used to attend to the 
 effects of tillage on different soils," remarks Mr. 
 Arthur Young, " know well that loam and clays 
 of various degrees of tenacity, if they have been 
 properly formed into lands for winter, and not 
 poached by horses trampling, receive the frosts 
 to advantage, and are found with a friable sur- 
 face in the spring. If rain comes, it dries, and 
 leaves the surface still in good order, and ready 
 for any operation. But plough such lands, and 
 turn up the more adhesive bottom, not acted 
 upon by frost, and let rain fall on such fresh- 
 turned furrows, it remains stiff and soddened, it 
 does not become porous again, the air cannot get 
 into it, and if drying sharp winds at north-east 
 follow, the furrows become longitudinal slices of 
 clod, very difficult to be acted upon by any in- 
 strument, and the farmer finds himself in a most 
 unpleasant situation. He no more recovers a 
 fine friable surface ; and it becomes twenty to 
 one whether he has a good crop." The new 
 practice, which began to be adopted about fifty 
 years past, was to employ the scarifier instead of 
 the plough, and in consequence to loosen, pulver- 
 ize, and aerate the land without turning down 
 
 its surface. The scarifier has been of different 
 breadth and different forms, according to the 
 progress of improvement ; but, in general, it has 
 stirred the soil to the depth of from four to six 
 inches, and has been drawn by horses walking 
 only in the furrows, and not trampling the pre- 
 pared land. In some cases, one scarifying and 
 two harrowings are given ; in other cases, two 
 scarifyings and three harrowings ; and, in other 
 cases, two scarifyings with small tines, one scari- 
 fying with large tines, and a proportionate de- 
 gree of harrowing. The amount and the modi- 
 fication of the work are entirely dependent on 
 the comparative tenacity or consolidation of the 
 soil, and can be readily determined by the look 
 and tread of the experienced farmer. The ope- 
 rations are speedily performed ; they put the 
 stitches or ridges into excellent order for the 
 immediate reception of the seed-corn ; and they 
 are much less liable to be surprised and defeated 
 by unfavourable weather than the slower and 
 more critical operation of ploughing. 
 
 On lands which are decidedly cohesive, how- 
 ever, whether in consequence of their own na- 
 ture, or from the effects of some temporary con- 
 solidation, ploughing may be indispensable for 
 breaking the masses of the soil into minor frag- 
 ments. Even Mr. Arthur Young says, " Upon all 
 clays, and loams of any degree of tenacity, which 
 have been sheep-fed lately, the surface may be 
 firm and trodden. The degree will depend upon 
 the weather that has taken place, whether wet 
 or dry ; but if the farmer has a strong and heavy 
 hoe in his hand, or a spade, he will easily per- 
 ceive whether or not the temper of the surface 
 will let the scarifier work effectually. If this 
 tool works well, or is likely to work well by the 
 20th of March, its use should preclude the plough ; 
 but if, from the state of the surface, compared 
 with that of the soil at the depth of five inches, 
 it appears that a ploughing is really necessary, 
 the prudent farmer will of course give it." The 
 general practice in Scotland is to perform the 
 whole tilth, on all sorts of land, by turning down 
 the surface with the plough, and, when neces- 
 sary, to make a free subsequent use of the har- 
 rows and the roller. Though the scarifier or 
 grubber is now well appreciated and freely used 
 in the husbandry of some of the best farmers, 
 still the plough continues to be the characteristic 
 implement of preparation for barley after tur- 
 nips. This apparent weddedness to old practice 
 is greatly modified by improvements in the con- 
 struction of the plough, and by the use of different 
 kinds of ploughs in adaptation to different soils 
 and circumstances ; and, so far as it is not thus 
 modified, it is in a great measure, if not wholly, 
 accounted for by the prevailing stiffness and 
 comparative wetness of soils, and by the superior 
 execution, the diversified manner, and the highly 
 improved character of the general style of plough- 
 ing. Sir John Sinclair's Report for all Scotland, 
 I published in 1814, says, " After turnips or pulse, 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 137 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 barley is sown with one ploughing only, and as 
 quickly afterwards as possible, upon what is 
 termed hot-fur, so as not to allow time for the 
 newly turned up soil to lose its sap. When, how- 
 ever, these soils happen to turn up very coarse 
 and cloddy, it is sometimes judged proper to 
 harrow and roll the land, and to give a second or 
 even a third ploughing, to reduce the soil to good 
 tilth. This is often more especially necessary on 
 the land where the last of the turnip crop has 
 been consumed, when a considerable drought has 
 set in after the surface has been much trampled 
 upon in consuming the turnips, by which the 
 soil becomes so hardened and consolidated, as to 
 require the industrious use of the plough, har- 
 rows, and roller, to render it proper for receiving 
 the barley seed, which if possible ought always 
 to be sown on a fine tilth." Be the precise imple- 
 ments and the precise methods what they may, 
 the soil must be reduced to a state of compara- 
 tively dry powder, else barley ought not to be 
 sown ; and should weather or other circum- 
 stances be unfavourable, let the farmer rather 
 postpone the sowing to the latest possible period, 
 than deposit the seed upon waxy, cloddy, or ill- 
 pulverized ground. See the articles Grubber, 
 Plough, and Tillage. 
 
 In well managed farms, the only manuring for 
 barley is the amelioration of the soil by the pre- 
 ceding turnip crop being fed off with sheep. Yet 
 when the turnips require to be carted off, and 
 the land is in a somewhat exhausted condition, a 
 good dressing of well-fermented spit-dung, in a 
 state of thorough decomposition, may be given. 
 In districts near the coast, sea-weed, when abun- 
 dant and easily obtained, is sometimes very effi- 
 ciently applied as a top-dressing after the barley 
 has germinated and appeared above ground ; 
 and this appliance is, of course, especially useful 
 when the turnips have not been consumed upon 
 the field. Soot was formerly given in some parts 
 of England as a top-dressing after germination, 
 but not with good effect. A common custom, in 
 former times also, was to sprinkle malt dust upon 
 newly sown fields, in the proportion of about forty 
 bushels per acre. In the higher parts of Scot- 
 land, lands which have been fallowed in prepara- 
 tion for bere, are sometimes manured in the same 
 manner as for turnips ; yet even in these districts, 
 the method, now almost universal in England and 
 Lowland Scotland, is practised of giving no man- 
 ure to barley except indirectly through a pre- 
 ceding crop of turnips. In the old Scottish sys- 
 tem of husbandry, when the best of the ' infields' 
 or home lands were under a continual course of 
 cropping, the whole farm manure was applied to 
 one-third of the infield for a crop of barley. This 
 division of the infield received three or more 
 ploughings, or a kind of bastard spring fallow ; 
 and the other two divisions were under either 
 oats or pease. As the outfield never received 
 any manure, and contributed the whole of its 
 straw to the farm-yard, an ample quantity of 
 
 manure was always available for the barley 
 break. But the whole of the barbarous system 
 of infield and outfield, together with its appro- 
 priation of all the manure of the farm to barley, 
 oats, and pease on the home lands, can now be 
 found only in the worst parts of the Highlands 
 and Islands, and is steadily in the course of ex- 
 termination from even its fastnesses among the 
 mountains and on the islands. 
 
 Barley may be sown at any time, according to 
 soil, climate, situation, and weather, from the 
 early part of March till the end of May. The 
 best practical rule is to sow as early after the 
 middle of March as the ground is dry, and a 
 prospect exists of a day or two's drought ; and to 
 postpone sowing till May, so long as the ground 
 is wet and the weather unsettled. The soil can 
 scarcely be too dry at the time of receiving the 
 seed ; and, if it afterwards obtain the moisture 
 of only two or three showers to promote vegeta- 
 tion, it can produce a good crop though it should 
 continue dry throughout the summer. Barley 
 has been known to germinate, grow, and ripen, 
 without receiving so much as one shower from 
 the time of sowing till that of reaping ; and, on 
 the other hand, the fall of a single shower upon 
 a field of strong soil, immediately after being 
 sown with barley, will burst and otherwise kill a 
 large proportion of the seeds, and inevitably 
 cause the crop to be thin. In general, early- 
 sown barley, when the soil and the weather are 
 dry, tillers better and produces a heavier crop of 
 grain than late-sown barley. On strong lands, 
 in particular, late-sown barley is liable to tiller 
 badly, to rush up into long and feeble culms, and, 
 in consequence, to be easily laid and subjected 
 to discolouration and waste ; while, on weak 
 lands, it will fail to possess even tolerably large 
 culms, and will yield both a small and a com- 
 paratively bad harvest of both straw and grain. 
 Yet, in some seasons, early sown barley is liable 
 to be very seriously injured by smart frosts or 
 heavy rains ; and late-sown barley obtains favour- 
 able weather, and produces much the better crop. 
 Discrimination, indeed, must be freely and wisely 
 exercised, not alone as regards the state of the 
 soil and the weather, but as regards the climate, 
 the quality of the soil, and the late or early habits 
 of the species or variety of the grain. Cold and 
 poor soils require to be sown earlier than warm 
 and rich soils ; and late varieties of barley, other 
 circumstances being equal, require to be sown 
 earlier than early varieties. 
 
 Barley may be sown either broadcast or by the 
 drill. If sown broadcast, every handful, in order 
 to effect regularity of dispersion upon the inelastic 
 surface of the finely pulverized soil, requires to 
 be cast with considerably greater force than is 
 requisite for any other sort of grain ; and in order 
 that the sower may not be exhausted with fa- 
 tigue, and may possess the best grasp of the plump 
 and slippery seed-corn, he ought to walk in short 
 steps, and sow in small handfuls. But sowing by 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 138 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 the drill is better adapted for the light soils on 
 which barley is generally grown, ensures a more 
 equable distribution of the seed, and affords far 
 superior facility for a subsequent undisturbing 
 sowing of clover and grass seeds. The most usual 
 distance of the drill-rows is eight inches in light 
 soils, and nine inches in heavier soils. — Winter 
 barley requires to be but slightly covered, and 
 very freely tillers in ordinarily good land. Spring 
 barley ought to be deposited at the depth of from 
 one and a half to three inches, according to the 
 nature of the soil and the circumstances of the 
 season ; for if deposited at less depth, it will 
 probably not sprout well, and may not become 
 sufficiently anchored by the roots to resist the 
 dangers of being laid. An uniform depth of all 
 seeds in the same field is requisite for securing 
 an uniform shoot in germination, and an uniform 
 forwardness in ripening ; for when the depth is 
 irregular and various, some plants rise to the 
 surface earlier than others, and some will be 
 ready to shed their seed from over-ripeness be- 
 fore others have parted with their hue of green- 
 ness. 
 
 The usual quantity of seed sown is from 2^ 
 to 4 bushels per acre broadcast, and not ex- 
 ceeding two bushels in drill. But the quantity, 
 whatever might be pronounced its normal amount, 
 ought always to be modified by considerations of 
 the species or variety of the seed, the character 
 of the land, and the comparative earliness or 
 lateness of the time of sowing. Some varieties 
 of spring barley, inclusive of several of the most 
 esteemed kinds, have a powerful habit of tiller- 
 ing, and, if sown as thick as the kinds which til- 
 ler less, will grow up in a half smothered and 
 weakly condition. The qualities of land best 
 adapted to barley, and most opulent in the ele- 
 ments of fertility, may require, in any given cir- 
 cumstances, only ten pecks of seed, broadcast, 
 when land of medium qualities would require 
 twelve, and land of the poorest qualities would re- 
 quire fourteen or even sixteen. Any land, also, 
 when sown late in the season, requires more seed 
 than when sown early ; for, in consequence of the 
 rapid growth of barley, the increase by tillering 
 is considerably less from late sowing than from 
 early sowing. Yet some agriculturists — contrary 
 to both the theory and the practice of others — 
 contend that barley ought, in all circumstances, 
 to be sown pretty thick, and without any refer- 
 ence to its increase by tillering. Mr. Brown, for 
 example, says, " Little argument is necessary to 
 prove, that thin sowing of barley must be attended 
 with considerable disadvantage ; for, if the early 
 part of the season be dry, the plants will not 
 only be stinted in their growth, but will not send 
 out offsets ; and if rain afterwards falls, an oc- 
 currence that must take place some time during 
 the summer, often at a late period of it, the 
 plants then begin to stool, and send out a num- 
 ber of young shoots. These young shoots, unless 
 under very favourable circumstances, cannot be 
 
 expected to arrive at maturity; or if their ripen- 
 ing is waited for, there will be great risk of 
 losing the early part of the crop, — a circum- 
 stance that frequently happens. In almost every 
 instance, an unequal sample is produced, and the 
 grain is for the most part of inferior quality. By 
 good judges it is thought preferable to sow a 
 quantity of seed sufficient to ensure a full crop, 
 without depending on its sending out offsets. 
 Indeed, when that is done, few offsets are pro- 
 duced, the crop grows and ripens equally, and 
 the grain is uniformly good." 
 
 The sowing of the seeds of clovers and grasses 
 with barley is an almost universal practice in 
 Great Britain, and is generally esteemed one of 
 the greatest improvements in the modern hus- 
 bandry of rotations. This sowing may take place 
 either at the same time as the barley, or after 
 the latter has appeared above ground. When 
 the barley is sown either with or without clover 
 and grass seeds, a light rolling is given, to press 
 the soil into thorough contact with the seed, and 
 to prevent too rapid an evaporation of moisture ; 
 and when the plants have sprung and are begin- 
 ning to tiller, another rolling is given, and some- 
 times also a slight harrowing, to make a gentle 
 stirring of the surface for aeration, and to thin 
 out any excess or overcrowding of the shoots. 
 When the clover and grass seeds are sown at the 
 same time as the barley, they are sown imme- 
 diately previous to the last turn of the harrows, 
 and are settled in their place by that turn of 
 harrowing and by the rolling; or they may be 
 sown after the harrowing, and settled solely by 
 the rolling. When not sown till the barley is 
 above ground, they are sown immediately before 
 the second rolling, and are settled by it in the 
 soil. Should heavy rain occur between the sow- 
 ing of the barley and the time of its expected 
 appearance above the surface, a crust or skin will 
 be formed by it so persistent as not to be easily 
 penetrable by the young plants ; and this must 
 be destroyed by a gentle harrowing as soon as 
 the land is dry. When a harrowing is given in 
 dry weather after sowing, it ought to be given 
 very cautiously, and with very light wooden- 
 teethed harrows ; for if performed in the ordinary 
 way, it is not a little liable to break, tear, and 
 eradicate the plants to such a degree as to do 
 vastly more harm than good. Hoeing barley • 
 land ought never to be requisite for the purposes 
 of weeding or cleaning ; but when resorted to on 
 drilled barley land as a better method of loosen- 
 ing the soil than harrowing, it forms a good pre- 
 paration for the sowing of the clover and grass 
 seeds. After the last rolling is given, and the 
 water furrows and drains are cleaned out, the 
 processes of cultivating barley ought to be in a 
 state of completion till harvest. Yet if weeds 
 should appear, they must, at any reasonable 
 amount of expense, be immediately pulled up by 
 hand ; for, if not promptly extirpated, they will 
 take firm possession of their site, and retain 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 it throughout the whole subsequent growths 
 of the clover and grasses. For this reason, but 
 especially for reasons of far greater importance, 
 the practice of sowing clover and grasses with 
 barley, is not quite so superlatively excellent as 
 to be above the reach of doubt or question. The 
 clover and grasses sustain to the barley the rela- 
 tion of weeds ; and, as such, they rob it of part 
 of its nourishment, and interfere with the free- 
 ness of its tillering ; and though they possess far 
 less of this objectionable character, when sown 
 after the barley is above ground than when 
 sown at the same time as itself, yet in the latter, 
 case the clover incurs some risk of being seriously 
 curbed or even altogether smothered. In some 
 seasons, the clover is so very luxuriant as mate- 
 rially to injure the barley ; and in wet seasons, it 
 so mixes its succulent stems with those of the 
 barley at reaping, as to render it difficult to dry 
 the barley in the field or to prevent it from heat- 
 ing in the stack. The grand uses of sowing 
 clover and grasses with the barley are to obtain 
 a profitable and improving crop after the barley 
 without further tillage, and to make an easy and 
 most effective preparation for wheat ; and cer- 
 tainly these, uses are so very rich as to bear the 
 deduction of some little loss from the weight of 
 barley. In sandy soils in Flanders, a white car- 
 rot is sown along with barley; and after the lat- 
 ter is cut down, the ground is thoroughly har- 
 rowed, and sprinkled with liquid manure. The 
 carrots make exceedingly little growth of stem or 
 leaf while the barley is growing, and can scarcely 
 be observed when it is cut down ; yet they after- 
 wards grow with rapidity, and become a good 
 crop before the commencement of winter ; and 
 they are found to be of great value for feeding 
 swine, and for causing large secretions of urine 
 in black cattle. 
 
 Weeds. — One principal weed which infests bar- 
 ley fields is the corn or way thistle, Cirsium a/r- 
 vense; it is perennial, has creeping roots, takes 
 possession of a comparatively large spot of ground, 
 and usually grows to the height of about two feet ; 
 and it ought to be pulled up by hand as soon as 
 it appears, or cut down with a weed-hook be- 
 tween the time of its being 9 inches high and of 
 its passing into flower; for if not promptly de- 
 stroyed, it not only acts detrimentally on the 
 plants immediately around it, but wafts its 
 plumed seeds over a large extent of circumjacent 
 ground. Another chief pest is the annual corn 
 charlock, Sinapisarvensis; it is especially trouble- 
 some when street or police manure has been used; 
 and it ought to be pulled up by hand when the 
 barley is broadcast, and hoed up when the bar- 
 ley is in drills. Two other principal weeds are 
 the pretty annuals, the doubtful poppy and the 
 common corn poppy, Papaver dubium and Papaver 
 rhccas. The deep scarlet flower of the latter, in 
 particular, has a remarkable and brilliant appear- 
 ance, and may sometimes be seen at a great dis- 
 tance, but never reflects any credit upon the 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 condition of the tillage. Another considerable 
 annoyance is the cleavers or sticking-grass, Ga- 
 lium aparine; it is a climbing annual, of the bed- 
 straw kind, growing to the height of about three 
 feet ; and its seed is exceedingly hard, and does 
 not become softened, but feels almost like a mi- 
 nute stone, after having been boiled with pot-bar- 
 ley. 
 
 Harvesting. — In even the best seasons, barley 
 requires more care in reaping and harvesting 
 than any other grain : and in unfavourable sea- 
 sons, it sometimes cannot be secured in tolerable 
 condition without great labour and exceeding 
 difficulty. When fully ripe, its straw is extremely 
 brittle, and its ears are very liable to break off 
 in handling ; so that it ought to be cut down 
 while the straw retains a considerable proportion 
 of sap, and before the grain has lost all its pulpy 
 softness. The best marks of due ripeness for 
 reaping are a bright golden colour in the straw, 
 from the bottom to the middle or upper part of 
 the stem, and the disappearance of the purple 
 hue, the appearance of a light straw colour, and 
 the inclination to a slightly drooping position in 
 the ears. If a skilful farmer walk through a 
 field of ripening barley, select a few of the green- 
 est heads, and finds that the grain of these can 
 be separated from the chaff by rubbing them be- 
 tween his hands, he knows that even these green- 
 est grains are out of their milky state, and that 
 the whole crop ought immediately to be reaped. 
 Greenness in the upper part of the straw is of no 
 consequence ; for if the lower part of the straw 
 be quite yellow, all nourishing or maturing com- 
 munication from the soil is ended, and the whole 
 plant is truly and healthily ripe. Yet thorough 
 care must be used not to cut the crop a moment 
 before true ripeness is attained ; for the increase 
 of value during the three weeks preceding real 
 maturity amounts to nearly one half of the entire 
 produce, and the increase during the last five or 
 six days amounts to about four or five per cent. 
 
 Barley is very generally cut in England with a 
 cradle scythe, and is deposited by that instru- 
 ment in a regular swathe. But when a sufficient 
 number of labourers, at reasonable wages, can be 
 obtained, it is much more profitably cut with 
 the Hainault scythe, or even with the common 
 sickle or reaping-hook. The latter instrument, till 
 of late, was the only one used in reaping barley in 
 Scotland ; but the Hainault scythe, after a little 
 practice, and in the hands of an expert reaper, cuts 
 down, in any given space of time, a much larger 
 quantity than the sickle can cut. See the articles 
 Scythe, Hainatjlt Scythe, Mowing, and Reaping. 
 A common practice in England is to rake the 
 swathes into heaps ; but this frequently occasions 
 the shedding of as much seed as would suffice for 
 re-sowing the field. The binding of the barley 
 into sheaves, and the placing of these sheaves in 
 hooded stooks, not only prevents this great waste 
 by shedding, but affords a better protection from 
 the effect of rains, and presents a far less expo- 
 
 139 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 140 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 sure of the grains to the depredations of birds. 
 Mr. Arthur Young — speaking without particular 
 reference, yet so that he must be understood as 
 referring to the barley harvest of Norfolk, Suf- 
 folk, and similar districts — says, "The barley 
 crops should generally have good field room, lying 
 five or six days after mowing. They will im- 
 prove ; and if a heavy shower of rain comes, it 
 will not diminish the farmer's profit ; it will 
 make the grain swell and measure more per acre; 
 for maltsters reckon much on their profit in such 
 dry harvests that the barleys receive no rain after 
 they are mown." This practice, however, if not 
 conducted within rigid limits, would be a peril- 
 ous one in most seasons in Scotland, in Ireland, 
 or in the north of England, and must not be car- 
 ried to an intrepid length in even the driest 
 parts of eastern and southern England. Hence 
 even Mr. Young adds, " While barley lies in the 
 swathe, if much rain comes, it is apt to sprout. 
 In the wet harvest of 1801, this crop in Norfolk 
 presented a most melancholy spectacle. Three 
 or four wet and very warm days made it grow to 
 such a degree, that when the swathes came to be 
 turned, they looked as if feathers had been strew- 
 ed along every swathe. Many thousand acres 
 were thus damaged. Those farmers escaped best 
 who £ lifted' the swathes before they were dry 
 enough to turn ; they raised them lightly from 
 the ground with forks to let air in, — a practice 
 worth recommending." The greatest antagonist 
 which British barley has, in fact, is the moisture 
 of our climate ; and the main care of a wise 
 farmer, throughout the entire treatment of bar- 
 ley, from the sowing till the complete securing 
 of it, is to protect it from this antagonist. So 
 exceedingly apt is barley to sprout, under even 
 a brief duration of moisture, especially when the 
 temperature is above 45° or even 40°, that ears 
 of it may sometimes be seen in full germination 
 actually before the crop is reaped ; and sprouted 
 barley, even when its further vegetation is check- 
 ed by dry weather or by the kiln, is so exceed- 
 ingly deteriorated in quality as to be fit only for 
 feeding poultry and swine. When reaped in 
 showery or humid weather, it ought to be ga- 
 thered into single sheaves slightly bound near 
 the end, and set upon their spread-out butts ; and 
 when such sheaves are ready to be carried, they 
 should be rebound in the manner of ordinary 
 sheaves. When the crop is mown, it ought to lie 
 no longer in the swathe than till moderately dry; 
 and it ought then to be gathered into sheaves 
 and stooked. The crop should remain in stooks 
 till the grain is completely hardened, and the 
 straw perfectly freed from natural sap ; else it 
 will be exceedingly apt to heat in the stack. The 
 risk of heating is, in almost any case, considerable; 
 yet it may be entirely avoided by letting the 
 crop completely dry before removal, and by stor- 
 ing its stacks with open frames, bosses, or cages 
 through their centre, and duly thatched with straw. 
 See the articles Stack, Farm, and Harvest. 
 
 Thrashing. — Barley will keep well unthrashed 
 for a year ; and when intended for malt, it may 
 be kept till the second spring ; but if kept longer 
 than eighteen months, or at the utmost two 
 years, it is almost certain to be overrun and de- 
 stroyed by insects. On account both of the awn- 
 edness of its grains, and the texture of its straw, 
 it requires more care in thrashing than any 
 other cereal crop. When it has been mown, all 
 the straw, independently of the necessity of se- 
 parating the awns, requires to be twice thrashed; 
 and whether mown or otherwise reaped, the 
 grains must undergo an additional process to 
 ordinary thrashing in order to be freed from 
 their awns. This additional process is called 
 hummeling; and the contrivance for effecting 
 it is called a hummeler. See the article Hum- 
 meler. 
 
 Produce. — The produce of barley in England is 
 said to vary from 15 to 75 bushels per acre. The 
 average produce in Middlesex has been estimated 
 at about four quarters per acre ; in England and 
 the south of Scotland, at 32 bushels ; and in all 
 England, all Scotland, and Wales, at 28 bushels. 
 The ordinary produce of good varieties, on good 
 soil, and under good culture, is from 30 to 50 
 bushels per acre, and from 45 lbs. to 58 lbs. weight 
 per bushel ; but this quantity is sometimes, in the 
 most favourable concurrence of circumstances, 
 considerably exceeded ; it is always liable to 
 some modification from causes over which a far- 
 mer has little or no control ; it is mainly affected 
 by the quality of soil, climate, weather, tillage, 
 and sowing ; and it is, in no inconsiderable de- 
 gree, modified by the particular variety of the 
 seed. The weight per bushel of some of the best 
 varieties, according to specimens deposited in 
 the Highland Society's Museum, is of common 
 two-rowed English barley 54 lbs., — of Chevalier, 
 54^, 56^, and 58 lbs., — of Annat, 54^ and 57 lbs., — 
 and of Bunlop, 53^ lbs. 
 
 Diseases. — The diseases to which barley is sub- 
 ject, are fewer and less virulent than those which 
 attack wheat. It is sometimes affected by smut, 
 principally from the minute but now well-known 
 fungus called Uredo segetum. See the article 
 Uredo. It is preyed upon by the larvae of several 
 insects, especially by those of a small moth called 
 Tinea hordei. From 20 to 30 eggs of this fly are 
 deposited in one grain of thrashed or stored 
 barley; and each of the larvae, when hatched, 
 selects a grain for itself, bores its way into the 
 interior, and there lies concealed. When the 
 Tinea hordei is timeously observed in a granary, 
 it may be exterminated by spreading out for it a 
 few handfuls of the barley, carefully covering all 
 the rest of the unattacked grain, and roasting or 
 destroying the decayed handfuls after they have 
 received the insects' eggs, and before these have 
 time to be hatched. An insect, hitherto either 
 not at all or confusedly described, sometimes at- 
 tacks and materially damages the growing crop. 
 Mr. Crisp of Rugby, near Alnwick, says respect- 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 141 
 
 BARLEY. 
 
 ing it, in the 58th No. of the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture, " It is now several years since a 
 neighbour directed my attention to a great de- 
 fect in his barley crop, which was apparently 
 caused by the ravages of some insect in the larva 
 state living in the sheath, and feeding upon the 
 ear previous to its appearance from the shot- 
 blade, which, like nearly all the injuries of in- 
 sects in the embryo state, goes by the designation 
 of grubbing. Every year I have observed more 
 or less injury to the crop by the same cause ; but 
 it appears most serious in a late or wet cold year 
 upon stiff soils. At the time when I gathered 
 specimens of it, the healthy plants were shot and 
 at full growth ; the attack of the insect must, 
 therefore, prevent all these stalks from yielding 
 any grain ; and that such is the case, I can tes- 
 tify by my experience at the harvest. The in- 
 jury appears to be caused by the larvae feeding 
 upon the internal parts of the plant in its ear- 
 liest state ; and the transformations are made 
 within the shot-blade." 
 
 Analysis. — An analysis of the grains of Norfolk 
 barley, but without any specification of the va- 
 riety of the plant or of the circumstances of its 
 culture, was made by Sir Humphrey Davy, and 
 resulted in 79 per cent, of mucilage or starch, 7 
 per cent, of saccharine matter, and 6 per cent, of 
 gluten or albumen. An analysis of ripe grains of 
 barley by the German chemist, Einhof, resulted 
 in 70*05 per cent, of meal, 18*75 per cent, of husk, 
 and 11-20 per cent, of water; and an analysis of 
 the meal resulted in 67*18 per cent, of starch, 5*21 
 per cent, of uncrystallizable sugar, 4'62 per cent, 
 of gum, 3*52 per cent, of gluten, 1*15 per cent, of 
 albumen, 0'24 per cent, of superphosphate of lime, 
 and 10-79 per cent, of water and loss. An an- 
 alysis of unmalted grains of barley by Proust, re- 
 sulted in 1 per cent, of resin, 4 of gum, 5 of sugar, 
 3 of gluten, 32 of starch, and 55 of hordein ; and 
 a corresponding analysis of malted barley re- 
 sulted in 1 per cent, of resin, 15 of gum, 3 5 of 
 sugar, 1 of gluten, 56 of starch, and 12 of hordein. 
 The principle or substance which Proust desig- 
 nates hordein, which has been regarded as the 
 characteristic principle of barley, and which 
 would appear from Proust's analysis to play a 
 main part in the seed's germination, and to be 
 chiefly transmuted by germination into starch, 
 gum, and sugar, will be noticed in its own alpha- 
 betical place. See Hordein. The incineration 
 of barley grain with its skin was ascertained by 
 Saiissure to yield 18 per cent, of ashes, and the 
 incineration of barley straw to yield 4| per cent. 
 An analysis of the ashes of the grain, by the 
 same distinguished chemist, resulted in 18 per 
 cent, of potash, 9'2 of phosphate of potash, T5 of 
 sulphate of potash, 0'25 of muriate of potash, 
 32*5 of earthy phosphates, 35*5 of silica, 0-25 of 
 metallic oxides, and 2.8 of loss. 
 
 Uses. — One great and too often a principal use 
 made of the grain of barley in Great Britain, and 
 in other non-vinous countries, is to convert it 
 
 into malt for beer, ale, and other fermented in- 
 toxicating drinks, A similar but not so general 
 use is malting for the distillation of alcoholic 
 liquors. The best and heaviest grain is usually 
 selected for both of these purposes; and portions 
 of the finest agricultural districts are employed 
 in its cultivation. The number of bushels of malt 
 charged with duty in the United Kingdom in 
 1821 was 29,393,441; and the amount of duty 
 paid thereon, £5,297,389. In 1845, duty was 
 paid on 36,545,990 bushels ; the amount of duty 
 being £4,937,958. See the article Malt. A 
 third, but far different and altogether desir- 
 able use is for human food, in the form of 
 either barley -meal, or decorticated barley, — the 
 latter usually called pot and pearl barley, and 
 variously used for soups, broths, and puddings. 
 Inferior or half-spoiled barley is generally used 
 for the feeding of poultry, pigs, and cattle. Green 
 or growing barley, or the whole plant in its un- 
 ripened state, particularly the Siberian six-rowed 
 barley, is excellent spring food for milk cows, 
 becomes available at an early period of the sea- 
 son, occasions a large secretion or flow of milk, 
 and is highly appreciated by the dairymen in the 
 vicinity of London. It is also very suitable for 
 horses ; it serves both as a nourishing food, for 
 increasing their flesh and improving their con- 
 dition, and as an excellent spring physic, for 
 gently cleaning their intestines ; but it must at 
 first be given in small quantity, else it will act 
 as a smart purgative. It is more nourishing and 
 earlier available for sheep than rye ; and when 
 fed off to the surface in April, will spring again, 
 and, under fair circumstances, produce a good 
 crop of grain in August. Decoctions of the pre- 
 pared grain are serviceable during many kinds of 
 disease in the human subject; they are particularly 
 useful in all pulmonary complaints ; and, when 
 acidulated with the juice of lemon or any similar 
 vegetable acid, they are cooling, gently nourish- 
 ing, and extremely grateful in fevers. 
 
 The straw of barley, in favourable circum- 
 stances, is suitable fodder for cattle ; but, in 
 general, it is serviceable chiefly as litter ; and in 
 no case can it be eaten by horses without pro- 
 ducing some tendency to disease. It is always 
 soft and somewhat clammy ; and when newly 
 thrashed, it has a heavy disagreeable odour. 
 Even for litter, it is neither so cleanly, durable, 
 nor comfortable as wheat-straw ; and for thatch, 
 it is too soft, too difficult of assortment into 
 lengths, too pervious by rain, and too liable to 
 rot. Barley chaff is readily eaten by both old 
 and young cattle, and never injures their mouths 
 with its awns; but it soon heats in the chaff- 
 house, and cannot, without considerable care and 
 labour, be long kept from fermentation. — The 
 Farmer's Magazine. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Elliot's Field Husbandry. — Mortimer 's 
 Husbandry. — Mill's Husbandry. — Lisle's Husban- 
 dry. — Knowledge Society's British Husbandry. — 
 Boyle's Practical Husbandry. — fyiroule's Treatise 
 
BARLEY. 
 
 142 
 
 BARN 
 
 on Agriculture. — Du HameVs Husbandry. — Mu- 
 seum Rusticum. — Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. 
 —Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. — RJtam's 
 Dictionary of the Farm. — Stephen's Booh of the 
 Farm. — Low's Elements of Agriculture. — Young's 
 Farmer's Kalendar. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of 
 Agriculture.- — Sir John Sinclair's General Report 
 of Scotland. — Dickson's Husbandry of the Ancients. 
 — Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual. — Loudon's 
 Hortus Britannicus. — Withering' s Botany. — Cata- 
 logue of the Highland Society's Museum. — Annales 
 de Chimie et de Physique. — Liebig's Chemistry of 
 Agriculture. — Turner's Elements of Chemistry. — 
 Brown on Rural Affairs. 
 
 BARLEY (POT AND PEARL). The grains 
 of barley, in a prepared state for use as human 
 food. Pot barley was formerly called decorti- 
 cated barley, and is simply the grain deprived 
 of its husk or skin ; and pearl barley is the fine 
 round portion of the grain which remains after 
 the outer portion is ground off. The two kinds 
 differ only in the degree of reduction by grind- 
 ing ; and both are prepared in the barley-mill. 
 See the article Barley-Mill. 
 
 BARLEY - CHOPPERS. Small hummeling 
 instruments, wielded by the hand. See II um- 
 meler. 
 
 BARLEY-GRASSES. See Barley. 
 
 BARLEY-HUMMELER. See Hummeler. 
 
 BARLEY-MILL. A machine for taking the 
 husks from barley. A barley-mill of the most im- 
 proved construction is represented in Fig. 1. of 
 Plate VII. The water wheel A is eighteen feet six 
 inches diameter, and carries fifty buckets, each 
 of which is three feet three inches wide. On the 
 water shaft B, that carries the water wheel, is 
 fixed the spur wheel C, which is eighteen feet 
 diameter, reckoning from the pitch stroke, and 
 has 340 teeth. The spur wheel C impels the 
 pinion D, of thirty-two teeth, and one foot 8"4 
 inches diameter, fixed upon one extremity of 
 the shaft E, while the other extremity carries the 
 wheel P, of 150 cogs and seven feet 11'45 inches 
 diameter, to the pitch stroke. The wheel F 
 drives the pinion G, fixed on the stone spindle H, 
 and having a diameter of four feet six inches. 
 The spindle H carries the millstone I, which is 
 four feet six inches in diameter, and one foot five 
 inches thick, and which performs 280 revolutions 
 in a minute. The wheel K, of fifty teeth and 
 two feet diameter, impels the wheel L of the 
 same number of teeth and diameter, which is 
 fixed upon the spindle R. On the spindle R is a 
 conical place, upon which the pinion M, of twenty- 
 five teeth and one foot diameter, is fixed by 
 means of a brass bush fitted into the centre of 
 the pinion, and then bored exactly to fit the cone 
 in the spindle R. Below the base of the cone is 
 a brass ring 3, to keep the pinion M firm upon 
 the cone, by means of four screw-bolts, which 
 bring the pinion firmer to the base of the cone. 
 On-the other side of the pinion are two projec- 
 tions 1, lj commonly called snugs, which take 
 
 into similar projections on the end of the catch 
 2, 5. This catch slides along the spindle R, by 
 moving the lever N, but goes round with the 
 spindle by means of two tongues fixed on the 
 opposite sides of the spindle, one of which is 
 partly visible at 4 in the figure. Two grooves are 
 cut on the inside of the catch, to admit the 
 tongues, in order to carry the catch round with 
 the spindle. The wheel NO, having 102 teeth, 
 and a diameter of four feet H mc h to the pitch 
 stroke, is screwed to the sides of the hoops or 
 cases that enclose the stone. These hoops, a sec- 
 tion of which is represented by a, b, c, d, are made 
 in two parts, and screwed together by four bolts, 
 6, 6, 6, 6. They are lined with milled iron, 
 pierced into small holes, in order to permit 
 the escape of the dust, and prevent the bar- 
 ley from being carried along by means of the 
 millstone. When the hoops are turned round 
 by the wheels already described, they are sup- 
 ported and kept clear of the stone by the collars 
 h and i. The collar h is larger than i, in order 
 to give room to the spout PT to fill the hoops 
 with barley. This is effected by a thin plate of 
 iron k, about an inch larger in diameter than the 
 inside of the collar, which is kept close to the 
 side of the collar next the stone by the staple I 
 on each side of the stone spindle. The other end 
 of it is kept fast by the cover of the pillow block 
 m. In the plate k, a hole is cut for the end 
 of the spout PT. When the barley is made, 
 the hoops are stopped by putting the lever N 
 towards / : a small sluice which is upon the side 
 of the hoops, as at a, b, is then opened, and the 
 made barley is allowed to run off into the trough 
 Q. When the hoops are thus emptied, the sluice 
 is shut, and the lever N is brought to g. By this 
 means the wheel M engages with the spindle R, 
 by the catch 2, 5, and the sluice X being opened, 
 the hoops are filled with fresh barley. 
 
 BARLEY-RIDDLE. See Riddle. 
 
 BARM. See Yeast. 
 
 BARN. A building devoted to the storing and 
 thrashing of the cereal grasses. In every country 
 where corn cannot be thrashed on the harvest- 
 field, and immediately transferred to the granary, 
 it must be stored under protection from the 
 weather, and afterwards thrashed within a roof- 
 ed building. The barns of Great Britain were 
 formerly of so large capacity as to contain all the 
 produce of farms, whether grain or fodder ; and 
 even so late as about 30 or 40 years ago, such 
 enormous barns were regarded by many farmers 
 as essential to their prosperity. Dr. Hunter, who 
 published six volumes of Georgical Essays in 1804, 
 occupies an entire essay with the refutation of 
 the reasons which were usually urged by these 
 farmers, — that corn can be built at less expense in 
 the house than in the rick-yard, that it is better 
 protected in the former than in the latter, and 
 that the storing of it in the house is much more 
 convenient for thrashing. But modern improve- 
 ments in rick-building, in thrashing, and in the 
 
BARN. 
 
 143 
 
 BARN. 
 
 arrangement of farmeries, have convinced the 
 most hesitating, that the rick-yard is both the 
 cheaper and the better place for the great bulk 
 of the produce, and that the barn is needed only 
 for the operations of thrashing, and for the stor- 
 ing of as much corn as will keep these operations 
 in steady progress. A barn which contains a 
 thrashing-floor, thrashing implements, and as 
 much sheaf-corn as would make a rick, is now 
 found to be sufficiently capacious for a middle- 
 sized English farm. But two requisite append- 
 ages on every farm of considerable extent are 
 houses or apartments for winnowing the corn 
 and storing the thrashed straw; and these are 
 usually called the corn-barn and the straw-barn. 
 
 Small barns in which all thrashing is effected 
 by hand, have all their floor on one level, the 
 thrashing-floor near the middle, and two large 
 doors opposite each other, and on a line with the 
 thrashing-floor ; and they require, even more 
 urgently than other barns, to have their floor 
 perfectly dry, and quite inaccessible to damp. 
 But barns in which most of the thrashing is 
 effected by machinery are now so universal on 
 farms of any considerable size, that they alone 
 require any special notice. Very many, perhaps 
 most, of these barns have been built in some one 
 or other of four forms, each adapted to the situ- 
 ation and arrangement of the other offices of the 
 farmery. In one of the forms, the barn and its 
 appendages stand on a straight line, and form one 
 side of a court, the corn-barn and the straw-barn 
 at the sides, the barn itself in the middle, and 
 the horse-course, the wind-tower, or the water- 
 wheel on the back of the barn or exterior to the 
 court. In another form, the barn stands at one 
 corner of the court, the two appendages form 
 wings to it, but stand on different sides of the 
 court, or at right angles to each other, and the 
 horse-course is situated behind the part which 
 adjoins the straw-barn. In a third form, the 
 barn abuts backward from the centre of the 
 north side of the court, in shape like the letter 
 T, having the straw-barn in a line with the 
 court, and the corn-barn projecting from its mid- 
 dle into the stack-yard, with the mill at the end 
 next the straw-barn, and the horse-course in one 
 of the angles. In the fourth form, the barn is 
 the upper part of a two-story building, and the 
 corn-barn and straw-barn occupy the ground floor. 
 
 But whether built in any of these forms or in 
 some other, a barn is capable of being greatly 
 modified in size to suit the extent of the farm, in 
 internal construction to suit the particular me- 
 thod of farm management, and in exterior adap- 
 tation to suit both the peculiarities of the site 
 and the general arrangement of the farmery. 
 When foreign wood and slate roof are employed 
 in the erection, the barn is usually much wider, 
 than when home-grown timber and roofs of heath 
 or thatch are used. Some barns, even in excel- 
 lent farming districts, have a width of only 18 
 feet within the walls ; but no really good barn 
 
 has a width of less than 20 feet. A barn of 35 
 feet in length and 20 feet in width, exclusive of 
 the space occupied by the machinery, can contain 
 as much as two moderately sized ricks, or from 
 50 to 60 bolls ; yet a barn for a very large farm 
 — in order, both to afford ample storage for un- 
 thrashed corn in unfavourable weather, and to 
 allow space for a straw-cutter, clover-thrasher, 
 and other subordinate matters — ought to have 
 an extent of 60 feet in length, and from 20 to 24 
 feet in width. The straw-barn should be situated 
 in immediate adjunction to the thrashing-ma- 
 chine ; it must contain storage for at least fod- 
 der-straw and litter-straw ; and it ought, if pos- 
 sible, to afford both space and easy outlet for 
 straw of the different grains, or of four principal 
 qualities. The corn-barn must be proportionate 
 in size, and must have attached to it a chaff- 
 house, and a communication by stair or gangway 
 with the granaries. See the articles Thrashing, 
 Winnowing, Granary, and Farm-Buildings. 
 
 A barn situated on the face of a rapid slope, and 
 built two-story high, might have its own floor on 
 a level with the rick-yard, and the floor of its 
 corn-barn and its straw-barn on a level with the 
 court ; an arrangement which would happily fa- 
 cilitate both the ingress of the unthrashed corn 
 from the ricks, and the egress of the thrashed 
 straw to the cattle-houses. A barn whose floor 
 is on a level with the whole of the surrounding 
 ground, may be provided with wide and lofty 
 gates through its sides, to permit a loaded cart 
 to enter, unload, and pass on ; but, in this case 
 — if provided, as it ought to be, with a thrashing- 
 floor for samples of grain and for the whole bulk 
 of such small seeds as those of clover — it will 
 sustain serious damage from both the tread of 
 the horse and the abrasure of the wheels. A 
 ground-floor barn, without gates, may be provided 
 with an opening or pitch-hole, through which 
 the unthrashed corn can be forked from a loaded 
 cart on the outside; but this device occasions 
 the unloading to be extremely tedious, and is 
 either useless or mischievous in showery weather. 
 A barn on an upper story may communicate 
 with the rick-yard by a gangway, and receive, its 
 supplies of unthrashed corn by hand-carriage or 
 by the wheel-barrow ; or the building in which 
 it is situated may be provided across one end with 
 a covered space or sort of rude piazza, wide and 
 lofty enough to admit a loaded cart, and having 
 a side opening or pitch-hole to allow the corn to 
 be forked into the barn. A common roofed two- 
 story barn may be so extended by lateral erec- 
 tions, as to overshadow and shelter with its roof 
 a series of cattle-sheds ; and its straw-barn on the 
 ground-floor might be provided with slits or 
 openings for affording to these sheds immediate 
 supplies of fodder and litter. 
 
 The walls of a barn are variously built of 
 earthen composition, timber, brick, and stones. 
 Earthen composition ought never to be used 
 when better materials can be economically ob- 
 
BARN. 
 
 tained ; and, when unavoidably employed, it 
 ought to consist either of a similar preparation 
 to what is suitable for thrashing-floors, or of 
 well-tempered and unabsorbent mineral matter, 
 mixed or alternated with chopped straw. Earth 
 and timber are sometimes jointly used, by a 
 frame-work of boards being erected two feet in 
 width, a hard packing of perfectly dry earth being 
 consolidated into all the frame-work, and a coat 
 of plaster of Paris, or of very fine mortar, being 
 laid over all the exterior. When stone or brick 
 is employed, all the interior should receive a coat 
 of plaster, and the ceiling should be lathed and 
 plastered ; and when the stone is built in rubble 
 masonry, a coat of rough-cast plaster ought to be 
 given to the exterior. The stone or brick walls 
 of properly constructed barns, after the roof is 
 put on, are built at the top, by some careful 
 farmers, close up to the covering, and well plas- 
 tered between the scantlings. 
 
 The roof ought, for the sake of economy, to be 
 so constructed, as to acquire all requisite strength 
 from the least possible expenditure of timber. 
 The imposing of the whole weight upon strong 
 horizontal beams, without producing aid from 
 trussing, displays a meagre, uninventive, hobnail 
 state of mind, scarcely worthy of a Caffre or a 
 Hottentot. When tiles are used for covering the 
 roof, they ought to be laid in mortar, or, what is 
 much better, in coarse, compact hay. Straw 
 thatch, though a very common covering, affords 
 a ready and almost impregnable retreat for rats. 
 Any reeds which contain a considerable quantity 
 of silica, or which have a hard and brittle tex- 
 ture, make an excellent covering, both for re- 
 sisting vermin and affording full shelter from the 
 weather. 
 
 The floor of the barn, if it be a one-story build- 
 ing, or of the corn-barn, if it be situated below 
 the thrashing-barn, requires to be carefully con- 
 structed in some manner which will afford per- 
 fect protection from both damp and vermin. If 
 the floor be laid with deal, and not built solid 
 with stone and mortar, the spaces between the 
 scantlings maybe filled with very clean, dry gravel, 
 well beat down ; or if gravel cannot be obtained, 
 or should not be deemed necessary, openings 
 ought to be left under the floor to admit cats to 
 every point where vermin might lodge. In clay 
 floors, to prevent the burrowing of vermin, a 
 considerable quantity of broken glass is some- 
 times mixed with the materials of the floor, for 
 the space of three feet all round the walls. Mr. 
 Stephens mentions, in his " Book of the Farm," 
 a very effectual method of construction which he 
 adopted for preventing the attacks of either damp 
 or vermin. " The earth, in the first instance," 
 says he, " is dug out of the barn to the depth of 
 the foundations of the walls, which should be two 
 feet below the door-soles ; and in the case of a 
 new steading, this can be done when the founda- 
 tions of the walls are taken out. The ground is 
 then spread over with a layer of sand, sufficient 
 
 M ■ 
 
 BARN. 
 
 to preserve steadiness in the stout rough flags, 
 which are laid upon it, and jointed in strong 
 mortar. Twelve-inch thick sleeper walls of stone 
 and lime are then built on the flags to serve the 
 purpose of supporting each end of the joists of the 
 floor. The joists, formed of 10 by 2§ inch plank, 
 are then laid down 16 inches apart, and the 
 spaces between them filled up to the top with 
 stone and lime. The building between the joists 
 requires to be done in a peculiar way. It should 
 be done with squared rubble stones, and on no 
 account should the mortar come in contact with 
 the joists, as there is nothing destroys timber, by 
 superinducing the dry rot, more readily than the 
 action of mortar upon it. For this reason, great 
 care should be observed in building in the joists 
 into the walls, in placing the safe-lintels over the 
 doors and windows, the stones being dry-bedded 
 over them, and in beam-filling between the couple- 
 legs. The floor is then properly laid on a level 
 with the door-sole, and finished with a neat skift- 
 ing board round the walls of the barn. By this 
 contrivance, the vermin cannot possibly reach 
 the floor but from the flags, which are nearly two 
 feet under it. This construction of floor admits 
 of abundance of air above and below to preserve 
 it, and affords plenty of room under it for cats 
 and dogs to hunt after the vermin." 
 
 A thrashing-floor is, of course, a principal fea- 
 ture of all barns when no thrashing-machine is 
 used ; but it is highly desirable and even requi- 
 site in other cases, for the thrashing out of small 
 seeds, such as those of clovers and grasses, for 
 which the thrashing-machine is not properly 
 adapted. The thrashing-floor of a one -story 
 barn is generally situated across the centre ; and 
 when the width of the barn is not sufficient for 
 it, porches are added to the doors, to admit of 
 its elongation. The divisions of the barn which 
 are separated by the floor, or situated between it 
 and the ends, are called the bays, and the storings 
 of unthrashed corn in them are called the mows. 
 But, when a barn is so constructed as to receive 
 its supplies or unloadings of unthrashed corn at 
 one end, the thrashing-floor is situated across 
 the other end, and the corn is stored in the in- 
 termediate space. In a barn upon the second 
 story of a building, the thrashing-floor must be 
 firmly supported and kept quite steady hy pillars 
 or a partition wall below, and must be so strong 
 and well-jointed as not to permit a filtration of 
 fine dust. An ordinary thrashing-floor measures 
 from 18 to 20 feet in length, and from 12 to 14 
 in width ; yet every one must be modified in ex- 
 tent to suit the number of flails which it is ex- 
 pected to keep in play. A brick thrashing-floor 
 is liable to bruise the corn, to imbibe moisture, 
 to give off pulverizations of its substance into 
 mixture with the corn, and to hurt the hands 
 and damage the implements of the workers. A 
 stone-thrashing-floor may or may not be eligible 
 according to the nature and texture of the stone 
 employed, and to the degree of skill employed in 
 
 144 
 
BARN. 
 
 the dressing and laying of the stone ; but, in most 
 instances, it is nearly or quite as objectionable 
 as a brick thrashing-floor. Some earthen or 
 mineral composition thrashing-floors are toler- 
 ably good, others are of medium character, and 
 others are altogether bad, according to the na- 
 ture of their materials and the method of their 
 construction ; yet by far the greater number are 
 subject to the very serious objection of slowly 
 pulverizing and passing into commixture with 
 the corn. The following method of forming an 
 earthen floor is noticed by the Rev. Mr. Rham 
 as an usual one : — " The soil is taken out to the 
 depth of six or eight inches or more, and, if the 
 subsoil is of a moist nature, a layer of gravel and 
 dry sand is laid on the bottom 3 or 4 inches 
 thick, and trod smooth and level. A mixture is 
 made of clay or loam and sand, with water, to 
 the consistency of common building mortar, to 
 which is added some chalk or pounded shells or 
 gypsum, where these can be obtained ; chaff, cow- 
 dung, and some bullock's blood are added ; and 
 the whole is well worked up together. Of this 
 a coat is laid on the prepared bottom with a 
 trowel, about an inch thick, and spread evenly. 
 This is allowed to dry ; another coat is then put 
 over, and all the cracks carefully filled up. This 
 is repeated till the desired thickness is produced. 
 When it begins to harden, the whole is well 
 rammed with a heavy wooden rammer, and 
 every crack filled up so as to give it the appear- 
 ance of a uniform solid body. This is left to 
 harden slowly, neither exposed to the rays of the 
 sun nor to draughts of air, and in a short time 
 the floor becomes sufficiently hard to be used. 
 It is advisable, however, to give it some months 
 to consolidate entirely. The best time for lay- 
 ing such a floor is in spring, that it may be com- 
 pletely hardened before the succeeding winter." 
 A kind of thrashing-floor not dissimilar to this 
 was common among the Romans. Columella states 
 that they first dug up the ground to some depth, 
 in order to moisten it with fresh lees of oil, — that 
 they then mixed it with chaff, and rammed it 
 down as closely as possible, — that, after it be- 
 came dry, they stopped up all cracks and crevices 
 which appeared, — that they continued, with great 
 force, to beat it down, and render it quite level, 
 — and that, finally, they strewed it with chaff, 
 trod the chaff into it, and left the surface to be 
 completely dried by the sun. Columella, Cato, 
 and Varro, all assert that the preparing of the 
 thrashing-floor with the lees of oil prevented 
 the appearance of mischievous vegetation, and 
 contributed to preserve the corn from the at- 
 tacks of mice and ants. A thrashing-floor of 
 oak or of other lasting timber, though more ex- 
 pensive than any other kind of thrashing-floor 
 in its original construction, is eventually the 
 cheapest and in all respects the most eligible ; 
 and, in particular, it gives far the best play and 
 rebound to the flail, and yields neither discol- 
 ouration nor powdery matter to the grain. The 
 I. 
 
 oaken planks ought to be 2| inches thick, well 
 joined at the edges by dowelling, or by plough- 
 ing and tongueing, and made firm upon oaken 
 sleepers by means of a few iron spikes. Beech 
 planks may be used, 2 inches thick, well dowelled 
 together, and laid upon a bed of small boulder 
 stones ; and they are considerably more econo- 
 mical than oaken planks, and will wear very 
 smooth, and not splinter. Planks of elm may 
 also be very successfully employed. 
 
 The preservation of corn from a close and 
 musty smell, and from other indications of 
 chemical change and decay, exceedingly depends, 
 not only upon perfect protection from moisture, 
 but upon a free and abundant circulation of air. 
 Every barn, therefore, ought to be pierced with 
 a sufficient number of slits or openings to admit 
 of such a circulation ; and the corn ought to be 
 so laced and so lightly built as to allow the air to 
 percolate everywhere to its centre. An excel- 
 lent contrivance for combining perfect circulation 
 of air, with facility of shelter during a rainy har- 
 vest, and with one or two other important con- 
 veniences, is a structure called a skeleton barn. 
 This is a barn, not in any degree for thrashing, 
 but wholly for storage; and sustains a middle 
 character between a large corn-rick and the bays 
 of a thrashing-barn. On a timber platform, laid 
 upon capped stones, is erected a rough timber 
 frame of a perfect two - story barn ; the roof is 
 covered with thatch or tiles; and a downward 
 extension of the roof is so far continued on both 
 sides as to overhang open wings or piazzas of 
 sufficient width and height to admit a corn-laden 
 cart or waggon. The whole of the interior of 
 the barn frame is used for the storing of un- 
 thrashed corn, and serves exactly the purposes 
 of a huge rick, with the double advantage of 
 saving all the cost and trouble of annual thatch- 
 ing, and of affording entire protection at every 
 height, or to a store of corn a few feet high as 
 fully as to a store which reaches to the roof; and 
 the wings serve as a shelter, under which carts 
 or waggons can be drawn and unloaded, and 
 afterwards may either be used as cart-sheds, or 
 provided with platforms, and used, like the cen- 
 tre, for the storage of unthrashed corn. The 
 convenience of such an erection is, in almost any 
 circumstances, considerable, and, during a criti- 
 cal rainy harvest, is exceedingly great ; nor, in 
 most cases, will it, upon an average of years, cost 
 much more, or perhaps any more than ordinary 
 annual rick-building. Another kind of skeleton 
 barn — oftener used, however, for hay than for 
 corn — consists simply of the wooden frame of a 
 common one-story barn, without wings or gates, 
 the bays being used for storage, and the central 
 place of the gates and the thrashing-floor being 
 left open and unoccupied for the unloading or 
 the temporary shelter of a cart of hay. 
 
 Skeleton hay barns are very common in some 
 districts of England, and, where they exist, are 
 generally much appreciated. The skeleton of a 
 K 
 
BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 common one-story barn serves well for the ac- 
 commodation of farms in which hay is tied up 
 in trusses for the supply of the market ; and 
 barns of a larger size and firmer construction, 
 with a foundation of masonry, a slight open 
 frame-work, and a fixed roof, are highly service- 
 able as store-houses of hay for home consumption 
 on the farm. Suppose one of the latter sort to 
 cost fifty pounds, and to have capacity for fifty 
 loads of hay, the annual cost of its storage may 
 be computed at from eighteenpence to two shil- 
 lings per load; and the barn, for this trifling 
 cost, affords a safe receptacle for hay as soon as 
 it is dry, saves the expense and trouble of 
 stacking, gives protection from the effects of a 
 heavy shower in the act of unloading, and affords 
 complete shelter to all broken cuts of the hay 
 during winter. A curious skeleton hay barn, or 
 sort of permanent rick-frame, with a vertically 
 moveable roof, is extensively used in Holland. It 
 consists of strong upright poles, and a roof which 
 is supported by them, and can be lowered or 
 raised ; and it is usually pentagonal, or com- 
 prises five poles, situated at the angles of a re- 
 gularly pentagonal area. The poles are kept 
 erect and firm by means of a strong sill on a 
 brick foundation, and of diagonal bars acting as 
 spurs ; and the roof is light, pentagonal, and 
 thatched, and is provided at the angles with 
 strong wooden blocks, which have perforations 
 for the admission of the poles. Each pole is 
 pierced with a series of holes ; iron pins are in- 
 serted in these holes, as supports to the blocks 
 of the roof; and by removing the pins to lower 
 or higher holes, the roof is lowered or raised. 
 The work of raising the roof is progressive, or 
 from angle to angle of the pentagon, and from 
 hole to hole of each pole ; and it is effected, in 
 each act of the process, by means of a small jack, 
 similar to what is used in lifting waggons or 
 heavy-laden carts to let their wheels be removed. 
 A similar skeleton hay barn exists in some parts 
 of France, and has its roof lowered or elevated 
 by means of a screw in the centre. The purpose 
 served by the mobility of the roof is to have the 
 hay always closely covered ; and it is raised 
 piecemeal when the hay is stored in small quan- 
 tities and on different days, and lowered from 
 time to time as the uppermost parts of the store 
 are removed for forage. — Sir John Sinclair's 
 General Report of Scotland. — Marshall's Rural 
 Economy of the Southern Counties. — Marshall's 
 Rural Economy of the Midland Counties. — Survey 
 of Essex. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — Knowledge 
 Society's British Husbandry. — Doyle's Practical 
 Husbandry. — Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. — 
 Stephens' Book of the Farm. — Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. — Dickson's Husbandry of the 
 Ancients. — The Society of Gentlemen's Complete 
 Farmer. 
 
 BARN MANAGEMENT. Neat, economical, 
 orderly management of barn work, and the con- 
 sequent presenting of clean corn at the market, 
 
 are strong indications of good farming. Barn 
 work is performed principally during winter, 
 and affords a pleasing alternation to the labours 
 of the field. The extent and intricacy of it are, 
 in some degree, proportioned to the size of the 
 farm ; yet a notice of its details on a rather large 
 scale will sufficiently indicate its duties on farms 
 of any size. The hand implements used in it 
 are few and simple. The flail, where the thrash- 
 ing-machine does not exist, is as primitive and 
 homely an instrument as could well be conceived 
 for accomplishing a great and most valuable re- 
 sult. See Flail. The corn barrow, used for 
 wheeling sheaves from the rick -yard up the 
 gangway to the upper barn, is a long-shaped 
 wheel-barrow, made light and open with spars. 
 Riddles, employed in sifting, have their mesh- 
 work either of wires or of stripes of ash ; and are 
 of various meshes, to suit the different kinds of 
 grain, and the different objects of sifting ; but 
 all are of simple construction, and easy price. 
 Wechts for lifting thrashed corn, ought each to 
 contain at least half a bushel ; and, when made 
 of broad slips of ash, are light and handy. The 
 bushel, used for measuring the thrashed corn and 
 filling it into sacks, cannot be too lightly con- 
 structed, provided it is hooped with iron on all 
 the parts which are most subject to abrasion; 
 and it best serves the purposes of both conveni- 
 ence and stability, when it is nearly as wide at 
 the top as at the bottom, and has a couple of 
 handles about one-third way from the top. A 
 strike, for making an exact level of grain across 
 the surface of the bushel, suits better to be flat 
 than cylindrical; for a zigzag motion arranges 
 the grain into a truer level than a direct motion. 
 Shovels made each of one piece of plane-tree, 
 with a broad mouth, a little turned up on each 
 side, and handled like a common spade, are the 
 best adapted to both the corn-barn and the 
 granary. A hand hummeler for barley is indis- 
 pensable wherever a hummeling apparatus is not 
 connected with the thrashing-machine, and, oi 
 course, whenever thrashing is done with the flail. 
 A light broad hand-hoe, made of wood, with a 
 very short handle, is an useful implement for 
 drawing the thrashed grains into the wechts. 
 See the articles Wecht, Bushel, Riddle, Shovel, 
 Barrow, and Hummeler. 
 
 The flail, though one of the simplest and most 
 ancient of implements, is still used for thrashing 
 in most parts of Ireland, in many parts of Eng- 
 land, and on most Scottish farms which cannot, 
 in the routine of their horse husbandry, employ 
 two pairs of horses. To erect a thrashing-mill I 
 on any farm which has not regular work for two 
 pairs of horses, would be decidedly uneconomi- j 
 cal ; so that the line of demarcation between the 
 profitable use of the flail and the propriety of j 
 superseding it by machinery is very distinct and j 
 broad. The saving from the use of a thrashing- 
 machine on even a very large farm is greatly 
 less than superficial observers and even many 
 
BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 147 
 
 BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 farmers suppose. The costs of flail - thrashing 
 and of machine-thrashing, indeed, cannot, with 
 perfect accuracy, be very directly compared ; for 
 the flail-thrashing of long-strawed corn is accom- 
 plished in the same length of time as the flail- 
 thrashing of short-strawed corn, while the ma- 
 chine-thrashing of corn is nearly proportionate 
 in speed to the shortness of the straw ; so that 
 if the cost of thrashing one crop with the ma- 
 chine should be one-fourth less than with the 
 flail, the cost of thrashing another crop with it 
 might be one-fourth more. Yet, on the assump- 
 tion that the crop is of medium character, the 
 following calculation may be adopted : — " The 
 quantity of corn which a man and six women 
 could take into the barn and thrash, in a short 
 winter day, would not exceed 22 quarters. That 
 quantity may be considered good work for that 
 number of people, with an ordinary six-horse 
 power thrashing-mill, propelled by an abundant 
 supply of water. The wages of six women at 8d. 
 per day, and the man, being a trusty one, at 2s., 
 would give 6s. for taking in and thrashing 22 
 quarters of grain, or 3|d. per quarter. It would 
 take four women and the same man a day in 
 winter to clean completely and measure 22 quar- 
 ters of grain, that is 4s. 8d., or 2M. per quarter. 
 Both would give 5|d. per quarter. The ma- 
 chinery of the mill, with its ark, dam-sluices, and 
 fore and back leads, for bringing to and taking 
 away the water from the mill, could not be exe- 
 cuted for less than £200 of outlay of capital, 
 which, at 7 per cent, per annum for tear and 
 wear of machinery, and interest of capital sunk, 
 would be <£14 a-year ; and if the farm yielded 
 only 370 quarters of grain, that would be 9d. per 
 quarter expense, which, added to the 5f d., would 
 give a total of 14|d. per quarter of expense in 
 thrashing a crop by means of a water-power 
 thrashing-mill. Now the ordinary amount of 
 thrashing corn by the flail is 13jd. per quarter ; 
 and allowing the barn-man four women one day 
 to clean the 22 quarters of grain, his own wages 
 being included in the allowance, their wages will 
 be 2s. 8d., or l^d. per quarter. Both will be 14f d. 
 per quarter. No expense of taking in the crop 
 to the barn, in the case of thrashing with the 
 flail, would be incurred, because, when such a 
 mode is adopted, the thrashing-barn is placed 
 conveniently to the stacks for the purpose. 
 Hence, on the score of mere pecuniary saving, 
 unless a farm were to produce more than 370 
 quarters of grain, it would scarcely be worth 
 while to lay out capital for the erection of a six- 
 horse power thrashing-machine, propelled by 
 water-power." — [Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
 ture.'] Yet the thrashing-machine, quite irre- 
 spective of its immediate work, wields a great 
 and valuable controlling power over the economy 
 of the farm ; it affords an ample supply of forage 
 and litter, at the farmer's will, for the live stock; 
 it permits a superior command of labour for the 
 field, in adaptation to the exigencies of weather ; 
 
 and, especially, it commands the time and the 
 market for the safety and the sale of grain. 
 These advantages are worth far more than the 
 mere costs of thrashing ; and they rise in magni- 
 tude and value proportionably to the amount of 
 the cereal produce of a farm. 
 
 When the supply of unthrashed corn in the 
 barn is exhausted, the contents of a rick must 
 be taken in from the rick-yard. If these are re- 
 moved with a cart, the ricks have been built so 
 far apart from one another as to permit with 
 ease the passing among them of a loaded cart ; 
 and the sheaves are forked from the rick to the 
 cart, and again from the cart into the barn. But 
 when they are otherwise removed, a more com- 
 plex process is necessary. A large sheet of coarse 
 linen cloth or of thin canvass is spread on the 
 ground at the foot of the rick, to receive the 
 sheaves as they are thrown down; part of the 
 thatch of the rick, if not too wet, is spread be- 
 neath to soften the fall of the sheaves ; and a few 
 of the sheaves are laid along the exterior sides of 
 the sheet, to prevent it from being ruffled by the 
 wind or trodden by the workers. The man who 
 has charge of the barn-work, lifts the sheaves 
 with a light fork in an opposite course to that in 
 which they were built, and pitches them upon 
 the sheet ; one of the barn - women loads the 
 sheaves upon corn-barrows ; two or three women, 
 each using a barrow, according to the extent of 
 the work, and the distance to the barn, wheel 
 the laden barrows up the gangway into the barn; 
 and two pack the sheaves into convenient order 
 for thrashing, and put aside for the earliest 
 thrashing all sheaves which have become loose 
 in the handling. In some instances, the old 
 method of carrying the sheaves on the back is 
 still practised; and in others, hand-barrows of 
 canvass are used instead of corn wheel-barrows. 
 When the thrashing-machine is driven by horse- 
 power, the carriage of corn from the rick to the 
 barn is advantageously effected by horse and 
 cart, and may go on simultaneously with the 
 thrashing ; for as three pairs of horses are re- 
 quired for the mill, field horse-labour, on every 
 moderately - sized farm, must be in abeyance 
 whenever the mill is at work. Under this ar- 
 rangement, only four women are required ; but, 
 when the mill is driven by water, wind, or steam 
 power, six women, with the superintending man, 
 are needed ; and though they cannot simultane- 
 ously carry and thrash, yet they can do both, for 
 one rick, in the shortest winter day. After the 
 whole rick has been lifted, the shed corn upon 
 the sheet is carefully collected, and all grain- 
 straws upon and around the site of the rick are 
 raked together and saved. Should any of the 
 sheaves at either the top or the bottom of the 
 rick be damaged, they are placed aside and 
 thrashed separately from the rest of the corn ; for 
 if, through carelessness or inadvertence, they are 
 not thus treated, they will seriously deteriorate the 
 sample and price of the produce at the market. 
 
BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 148 
 
 BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 Of the seven persons who conduct the work 
 within the barn of an ordinary - sized water- 
 power thrashing - mill, the man feeds the corn 
 into the mill, two women supply him with 
 loosened sheaves, two women riddle the corn 
 and attend to the chaff in the corn-barn, and 
 the remaining two women fork up and build the 
 straw in the straw-barn. All these workers are 
 required for the performing of good work with 
 a powerful mill ; and an eighth person is needed 
 to drive the horse in a horse-power machine. So 
 few as three persons are employed in many a 
 barn, — the man to feed the machine, a woman 
 to supply him with sheaves, and a woman to do 
 the work of the corn-barn ; but though these 
 may go through the task in a slovenly manner, 
 they cannot possibly give due attention to the 
 working of a well-driven six-horse power thrash- 
 ing-machine. 
 
 The feeding and managing of the thrashing- 
 machine are the most onerous part of the work, 
 but cannot be properly understood without a 
 knowledge of the machine's structure and mode 
 of operation, and will be noticed in the article 
 Thrashing. The work of the corn-barn is sim- 
 ultaneous with that of the upper barn. One 
 hopper in the winnowing-machine sends down 
 to the floor of the barn the good grain, with an 
 admixture of the heavier kinds of foreign sub- 
 stances ; and another hopper sends down the 
 light corn, the heavier parts of the chaff, ears of 
 corn which have been broken off and partly 
 thrashed, and the larger parts of weeds. The 
 good grain is hand-riddled into a heap at a con- 
 venient part of the barn ; it is afterwards kept 
 free from all chaff, straws, and larger refuse; 
 and the tails or lower portions of the heap are 
 re-riddled before being shovelled up to the top. 
 The refuse of the riddlings is added to the mat- 
 ters sent down by the second hopper; and all 
 these together are called roughs or shag, and 
 are variously treated according to the nature 
 and condition of the grain. The roughs of bar- 
 ley are all reserved for the peculiar process of 
 hummeling ; and the roughs of oats and wheat 
 are subjected to thorough hand-riddling in the 
 same manner as the disgorgements of the first 
 hopper. The refuse of the ordinary roughs of 
 oats may be thrown into a heap, to be used as 
 fodder ; and the refuse of the roughs of wheat 
 or of badly thrashed oats are collected upon a 
 chaff- sheet, and carried up to be re-thrashed. 
 But in some thrashing -mills, an apparatus of 
 buckets revolves with the machinery, and car- 
 ries up all the roughs from the spout of the se- 
 cond hopper to be re-thrashed ; and, in such 
 cases, only one riddlcr, instead of two, is required 
 in the corn-barn. 
 
 The chaff, during the process of thrashing, is 
 thrown into an apartment by itself; and this 
 ought to be thoroughly partitioned from the 
 corn-barn, to prevent the communication from 
 it of clouds of dust. The riddlers of the grain 
 
 look, from time to time, through a convenient 
 opening into the chaff - apartment, to observe 
 when the chaff makes a great accumulation at 
 the end of the winnowing-machine, and to re- 
 move it thence into the interior. — The straw, as 
 it passes from the machinery into the straw-barn, 
 is forked by the workers into a mass, and built 
 up and tramped in the manner of stacking hay. 
 In some instances, the straw slides down a rack 
 from the shaker of the mill; and any corn or 
 chaff which it may have swept along with it falls 
 through the rack. The corn is more readily se- 
 parated when the straw passes under, than when 
 it passes over, the shaker of the mill. 
 
 A process of winnowing and cleaning follows 
 the thrashing and winnowing process ; it is, in 
 most cases, all performed by hand in the corn- 
 barn ; and, in these cases, to correspond with the 
 scale of labour which we have described, it re- 
 quires four women and a man. But, in some in- 
 stances, a second winnowing-machine is placed 
 below the first, in connexion with the thrashing- 
 mill, and is made to serve all the purposes of 
 thorough or final winnowing ; and, in others, a 
 second is placed on the same level as the first, 
 but also in connexion with the thrashing-mill, 
 and receives the grain after it has been riddled 
 by the hand on a roller of canvass. The latter of 
 these contrivances is the better of the two, as it 
 permits the riddling to occur between the two 
 winnowings, and in |eneral brings the grain into 
 such a clean condition as to be fit for immediate 
 storing in the sacks. Yet even when either of 
 the contrivances works with the utmost possible 
 efficiency, a hand winnowing - machine is fre- 
 quently desirable, or all but indispensable, for 
 performing occasional pieces of work, of much 
 importance to the farmer, but too small in 
 amount to repay the cost and trouble of setting 
 on the mill-power. Hence, by far the most gen- 
 eral practice is to effect the second winnowing 
 in the corn-barn, by means of a hand winnowing- 
 machine. 
 
 When no chain of buckets is attached to the 
 thrashing-mill to carry away the riddled roughs, 
 these are passed through the hand -winnowing 
 machine ; and, in order that the chaff which they 
 contain may not pollute the barn, but may be 
 blown away, the end of the machine is placed so 
 as to project out of the barn-door. The roughs 
 are fed by the hand through the hopper ; and the 
 grain, if passably clean, is riddled upon the heap 
 of good grain, — but if not pretty clean, is riddled 
 into a heap by itself, to be subjected to another 
 winnowing. The barn-man drives the machine ; 
 one of the women feeds the grain through the 
 hopper with a wecht; another takes away the 
 corn, wechtful by wechtful, from the machine ; 
 and the two others stand at a little distance, re- 
 ceive each into a riddle one-half of every wecht- 
 ful of the corn, and riddle it together upon a 
 heap. The machine is regulated according to 
 the condition and quality of the grain ; the hind- 
 
BARN MANAGEMENT. 
 
 149 
 
 BARNACLES. 
 
 board is placed so high as to prevent any of the 
 grain from being blown over with the chaff ; and 
 the inner side is so placed as to allow all the light 
 grain to escape over it. The fans should generate 
 a good blast of wind ; the motion should be as 
 steady as the application of human force can 
 possibly make it ; the supply of grain to the hop- 
 per should be regular ; and, as regularity of mo- 
 tion greatly depends upon the pressure of a good 
 weight upon the shoe, the hopper should be always 
 kept full. See the articles Winnow and Winnow- 
 ing-Machine. 
 
 The riddling is the most important of the 
 manual operations. It separates, or ought to 
 separate, from the corn all the heavy heads of 
 weeds, short pieces of straw, small stones, little 
 bits of hard earth, and grain enclosed in their 
 capsules, which the wind of the machine is not 
 strong enough to blow away. Yet the dexterous 
 or proper practice of it is almost as difficult as it 
 is important ; it cannot be learned, or even un- 
 derstood, from any mere printed description of it ; 
 and, though appearing to the eye, to be very 
 simple and easy, requires much practice and a 
 considerable degree of cleverness and adroitery. 
 If it do not separate all, or very nearly all, foreign 
 matter from the grain, it fails to serve its par- 
 ticular purpose, and is badly performed. The 
 end of each riddling of the riddleful of grain is 
 brought towards the side of the heap, that it may 
 be riddled over again before it is shovelled up to 
 the top of the heap. Yet one course of winnow- 
 ing and riddling is seldom sufficient to effect a 
 thorough cleaning. A slow transit through the 
 hopper, followed by very expert riddling, is some- 
 times quite successful ; but, in general, a second 
 passage through the machine is requisite for oats, 
 and both this and a second riddling are requisite 
 for barley and wheat. When a second winnow- 
 ing, but not a second riddling, is practised, one 
 of the women drives the machine, another sup- 
 plies the hopper, another carries away the grain 
 from the machine to the bushel, the fourth assists 
 to hold the sack for the reception of the grain 
 from the bushel, and the man fills the grain into 
 the sack, and wheels the latter away with the 
 corn-barrow. When a second riddling is prac- 
 tised, the process is the same as at the first, with 
 the exception that the grain may be allowed to 
 pass more rapidly through the machine. The light 
 grain which has escaped over the inner slide of 
 the machine is now winnowed and riddled till it 
 parts with all the good grain which is mixed 
 with it ; and the refuse of the riddling, or the 
 finally light grain, is re-riddled from remaining 
 commixations of sand, weed-seeds, husks, and 
 other impurities. Purified final light grain of 
 oats and barley can be set apart for the use of 
 poultry ; and that of wheat, if not malted by wet 
 weather, will make good household bread. 
 
 Though we have represented cleaned oats as 
 measured, wechtful by wechtful, into the bushel 
 during the progress of the second winnowing, yet 
 
 most farmers are probably aware, that the mea- 
 suring of grain from a heap, while the barn-floor 
 is in a state of perfect rest, brings out a some- 
 what larger result. " It is found by experience," 
 says a writer in the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture — whose casuistry or moral reasoning on 
 this subject, however, has not altogether our 
 concurrence — "It is found by experience, that 
 when a bushel is filled at once, it can be filled 
 with a less quantity of grain than when it is filled 
 by degrees with small quantities. On the same 
 account, a bushel, when filled, should not be 
 heaped up with grain high above its rim, nor 
 should the grain be forcibly poured into it, nor 
 should a commotion be allowed on the barn-floor, 
 particularly if it is a wooden one, when grain is 
 being measured. Hence one reason for the ex- 
 pediency of the plan to measure from the heap 
 instead of the machine, from which the bushel 
 would be filled only by small quantities, and each 
 quantity shaken down by the tremulous motion 
 imparted to the floor by the machine. There is 
 no trick or unfairness in a farmer taking these 
 advantages in filling his measure when they are 
 in his power, and when he thinks it worth while 
 to pay attention to them. He is obliged to fill 
 the measure by ordinary means, but he is not 
 obliged to use means to press or tramp the grain 
 into it, into the least bulk it can assume. On a 
 large quantity of corn, and for a series of years, 
 the difference produced between a proper and 
 impressed measure of it might be very consider- 
 able. We are not aware that this difference has 
 ever been accurately ascertained by experiment, 
 any more than the leakage of grain in a granary, 
 or, what is still more difficult to be ascertained 
 than either, the shrinkage of grain in the stack 
 after it has stood in the stack-yard a second year. 
 The difference in the measurement of grain, like 
 the shrinkage of it in the stack, must depend, we 
 presume, very much on the quality of the grain, 
 and the state in which it had been harvested. 
 Good, plump, dry grain must both measure out 
 its quantity more certainly, and shrink less, than 
 ill-filled hungry stuff." The fact seems to be that 
 prime grain in prime condition will measure 
 quite or very nearly the same under any mode 
 of filling the bushel; and that light, chaffy, 
 moist, ill-conditioned grain is capable of the en- 
 larging effects of a soft method of measuring, 
 very nearly in the proportion of its worthlessness. 
 Hence our demur at the alleged justice of a 
 bushel being filled with all possible absence of 
 shaking or compression. — We might now, with- 
 out overstretching the subject of barn manage- 
 ment, proceed to speak of the making up and re- 
 moval of grain to the purchaser ; but we defer 
 this topic to the article on Market. 
 
 BARNACLES. Instruments used by farriers 
 to put upon the muzzle of horses, when they will 
 not stand quietly to be shod, bled, or dressed. 
 The object of these instruments, and of anoiAer 
 called the twitch, is to produce as much pain in 
 
BAROMETER. 
 
 150 
 
 BAROMETER. 
 
 the muzzle as will draw away attention from the 
 pain caused by the shoeing or the surgical opera- 
 tion. The common barnacles are rollers of wood, 
 bound together, and made to enclose and com- 
 press the muzzle ; another kind have handles, 
 and operate like pincers ; and a third sort are 
 held together at the top by a ring enclosing but- 
 tons. Much unnecessary pain is often, from 
 inconsideration or cruelty, inflicted with these 
 instruments; yet, in some instances, even the 
 highest degree of it fails to accomplish the ve- 
 terinary surgeon's purpose, so that he is obliged 
 to have recourse to the strong means of restraint 
 afforded by the side-line or the hobbles. 
 
 BAROMETER. An instrument for determin- 
 ing the weight of the air, and the variations of 
 its pressure ; and as every change in the weight 
 of the air is accompanied with a change in its 
 density, and with a corresponding or consequent- 
 change in its disposition to absorb or to deposit 
 moisture, the barometer also indicates probable 
 changes of weather, and is therefore called a 
 weather-glass. It is likewise used much and 
 with excellent effect in determining the altitude 
 of accessible hills and mountains. 
 
 The barometer was invented, about the middle 
 of the 17th century, soon after the discovery of 
 the weight of the atmosphere, by Evangelista 
 Torricelli, a pupil of Galileo. He conjectured 
 that the same cause which raises water 33 or 34 
 feet high in a vacant tube whose end is inserted 
 in a pond or open well, ought to raise mercury, 
 which is nearly 14 times heavier, only 29 or 30 
 inches high ; and he therefore took a tube of 
 glass, several feet long, and hermetically sealed 
 at one end, and filled it with mercury through 
 the orifice at the other end, and inverted it in 
 an open vessel of mercury; and he found the 
 result to be exactly as he had anticipated. 
 
 The common perpendicular barometer of the 
 present day differs little from Torricelli's tube, 
 except in usually having a small reservoir at- 
 tached to its lower extremity, or rather in having 
 the bottom of the tube itself swelled out into a 
 bulby form, instead of the bason or open vessel 
 of mercury ; but it is made in various ways, and 
 is always most accurate, other circumstances 
 being equal, when it has either a true bason or 
 at least a comparatively large bulb. In this 
 country, the lowest station of the mercury is 
 observed to be about 28 inches, and its highest 
 31 inches above the level of the mercury in the 
 bason ; and when the instrument is to remain in 
 a fixed position near the surface of the earth, we 
 may consider the interval between these two 
 points as the range of the barometrical scale. 
 The scale which consequently will embrace three 
 inches, may be subdivided into smaller divisions, 
 according to the degree of nicety required. Each 
 inch is commonly divided into ten equal parts ; 
 and these are subdivided into hundredths of an 
 inch, by a contrivance called a vernier scale. 
 
 By this means the height of the mercury is as- 
 certained, by inspection, to the T<3oth of an inch. 
 For nice purposes, the vernier may be made to 
 indicate the xwoth of an inch. Besides these 
 lineal divisions, the scale is divided into other 
 points, having a reference to the instrument in 
 its capacity of indicating the probable state of 
 the weather. At 31 inches, the highest point of 
 the scale of variation, set fair is marked on the ; 
 one side, and set frost on the other; at 30 inches, \ 
 fair is written, in like manner, on the one side, 
 and frost on the other ; and at half an inch below 
 is written the word changeable, which answers 
 for both summer and winter. 
 
 The mere rising or falling of the mercury, how- 
 ever, and not the absolute level of it at any precise 
 height or opposite any precise word or line, con- 
 stitutes the true indication of change of weather. 
 The barometer, in its capacity Of a weather-glass, < 
 is inscribed with the words " changeable," " fair," 
 " set fair" and so on, for situations not appre- 
 ciably higher than sea-level ; so that when used 
 at considerably higher elevations, it always in- 
 dicates far fairer weather in reality than is indi- 
 cated by its readings. For example, when it 
 stands at " changeable " on a hill or tableau or 
 other high ground of 440 feet of altitude above 
 sea-level, it indicates exactly the same thing as 
 when it stands at " fair" on a beach or plain or 
 valley not more than a foot or two higher than 
 the sea. Hence, whenever a farmer sets up a 
 barometer to guide him in prognosticating the 
 weather, he ought to ascertain the precise alti- 
 tude of the situation, and to subtract from all 
 the written indications on the instrument t\> of 
 an inch for every 88 feet of altitude above sea- 
 level. Or if he cannot find the altitude of the 
 situation, let him make a register of the height 
 of the barometer, every morning and evening at 
 . 10 o'clock, during one year, — let him, at the end 
 of the year, sum up the 730 observations, and 
 divide them by 730, — and let him adopt the re- 
 sulting number as the changeable point of the 
 barometer, or the point by the mercury's rising 
 above or falling below which indications of the 
 changes of weather are given. 
 
 The general weather prognostics of the baro- 
 meter are few and easily remembered; yet re- 
 quire to be well understood by every farmer who 
 places reliance on the instrument, and ought 
 always to be compared by him with the most 
 obvious of the meteorological prognostics which 
 he will find mentioned in our article Weather. 
 A high and stationary position of the mercury 
 indicates a continuance of steady fine weather ; 
 a slow and regular rise indicates the setting in 
 of steady fine weather ; a sudden fall usually 
 prognosticates a gale of wind; a slow and re- 
 gular fall prognosticates rain ; and a fluctuating 
 condition of the mercury, particularly when its 
 rises and falls are frequent and sudden, indicates 
 very unsettled weather. In tin's climate, easterly 
 
BAROMETER. 
 
 151 
 
 BAROMETER. 
 
 and north-easterly winds very seriously affect the 
 indication of the instrument, and often lead per- 
 sons to suppose that it cannot be depended upon ; 
 for they cause the mercury to stand higher under 
 any given circumstances than it does during the 
 prevalence of other winds, — insomuch that a 
 change of wind from east or north-east to west, 
 south-west, or south-east, without any change in 
 the barometer, is to be considered equivalent to 
 a rise, and the reverse of this as equivalent to a 
 fall. The quantity thus controlled may be es- 
 timated at about a of an inch. 
 
 After it was observed that the different heights 
 of the mercury served, in some degree, to indicate 
 the state of the weather, many attempts were 
 made to enlarge the extent of the barometrical 
 scale, in order to measure the smallest variations 
 in the weight of the atmosphere ; and these at- 
 tempts soon gave rise to a considerable variety 
 of barometers, differing in form from the common 
 barometer, and whose scales, though less accurate, 
 were so much increased in extent, as to point 
 out the most minute changes in the pressure of 
 the air. We are indebted to Hooke for the 
 wheel -barometer, which he invented in 1668. 
 This form of the barometer, on account of its ex- 
 hibiting the rise and fall of the mercury in a 
 very conspicuous manner, is become extremely 
 common. The tube is generally concealed in the 
 frame ; it is about 40 inches long, but six inches 
 of the lower end is bent upwards, so as to become 
 parallel to the rest of the tube. As an inch of 
 rise of the mercury in the longer leg will cause 
 an inch of descent in the shorter, the bores being 
 equal, the two surfaces will thus be two inches 
 apart ; and this alteration cannot be effected by 
 a less pressure of the air than that which causes 
 2 inches of rise in the Torricellian tube. Hence 
 the range of the scale is only half that of the com- 
 mon barometer. But this defect is compensated 
 by converting the perpendicular motion of the 
 mercury into a rotatory one, and exhibiting it on 
 a circular dial plate. For this purpose, a piece 
 of ivory of a bell form is made to float on the sur- 
 face of the mercury in the shorter leg, having a 
 silk thread fastened to its upper end, which pass- 
 ing over a pulley, is stretched by a weight that 
 is nearly a counterpoise. By this means the mo- 
 tion of the mercury is communicated to an index, 
 which turns round a graduated circle, and thus the 
 vertical range is enlarged at pleasure. 
 
 It is extremely desirable, for meteorological 
 purposes, to have a regular and successive series 
 of the changes which take place in the pressure 
 of the atmosphere during any given period ; but 
 as this would require constant attendance on the 
 part of the observer, mechanical contrivances 
 have been adopted for registering the indications 
 of the barometer, and retaining them in a con- 
 nected form. When the instrument is fitted up 
 in this manner, it is called a self-registering baro- 
 • meter. The most simple kinds of self-registering 
 
 barometers are such as indicate the greatest rise 
 and fall of the mercury, or its extreme range, 
 during any stated period ; and when this only is 
 required, the object is easily accomplished. Of 
 this description is the self-registering barometer 
 invented by Alexander Keith, Esq., F. R. S., Edin- 
 burgh. The mercury in the shorter leg sup- 
 ports a float, to which is affixed a slender 
 wire terminating in a bend or knee. This knee 
 embraces a very small wire stretched along the 
 scale, and pushes upwards or downwards two 
 bits of glazed silk which slide along the wire 
 very easily, yet so as to retain the position to 
 which they are moved by the ascent and descent 
 of the mercury. The instrument is prepared for 
 experiment by bringing the two bits of silk in 
 contact with the bent knee of the float wire ; the 
 points to which they may afterwards be removed 
 indicate the extreme range of the mercury during 
 the interval of any two observations. - When not 
 only the greatest and least altitude of the mer- 
 cury is sought for any given time, but also its 
 precise height at every intermediate moment, 
 more complicated contrivances must be em- 
 ployed ; the instrument must then consist of a 
 barometer connected with a time -piece, and a 
 crayon or pencil affixed to a float obeying the 
 motions of the mercury. The greater number of 
 self-registering barometers of this nature are so 
 constructed, that the crayon is made to describe 
 a continuous line on a vertical cylinder, turning 
 on its axis by means of clock-work, and making 
 a certain number of revolutions in some stated 
 time. The cylinders are divided longitudinally 
 by parallel lines into equal spaces, corresponding 
 to some particular portion of time ; and thus the 
 line described by the crayon in that time, indi- 
 cates the successive heights of the mercury dur- 
 ing its continuance. 
 
 The barometer, together with two thermo- 
 meters, may be readily used by any hill farmer 
 for ascertaining the altitude of the several heights 
 and uplands and high-lying fields of his farm ; 
 and if judiciously used, may afford him very 
 nearly as correct results as could be obtained 
 from nice geometrical measurements. It shows 
 the altitude of any higher situation or spot re- 
 latively to a lower one by a depression of the 
 mercury at the rate of to of an inch for every 88 
 feet, — or more nicely by a depression of to of an 
 inch at the height of 87 feet, T 2 o at 175, A at 262, 
 T % at 350, t 5 o at 439, A at 527, t 7 o at 616, at 
 705, to at 795, and 1 inch at 885 ; and one of the 
 two thermometers which are used along with it 
 is attached to itself to show the temperature of 
 the mercury, and the other is kept apart and 
 freely exposed to show the temperature of the 
 air ; and all the instruments should be well de- 
 fended from the sunshine, — and should not, if 
 possible, be brought into use till the two thermo- 
 meters indicate the same temperature. Two 
 barometers, however, observed simultaneously at . 
 
BARREN SOILS. 
 
 the upper and the lower stations serve the purpose 
 much better than one, and can easily be observed 
 simultaneously by the help of a signal or at a 
 moment previously agreed upon ; for when only 
 one is used, any change which takes place in the 
 weight of the air during the time consumed in 
 passing from the one station to the other gives 
 an error in the deduced altitude. 
 
 BARREN CORN. See Abortive Corn. 
 
 BARREN EARTH. The unstirred subsoil of 
 any land which has long been in cultivation. 
 But the term as thus applied, though of frequent 
 occurrence in old books on agriculture, is a gross 
 misnomer. Some subsoils, indeed, contain very 
 little matter which can nourish plants, or are 
 even impregnated with very noxious matters, 
 and might therefore be loosely designated barren 
 earth ; but they possess their bad properties, not 
 at all in the capacity of subsoils, but solely in 
 consequence of their peculiar mineral composi- 
 tion. No stratum of pulverulent earth, merely 
 by lying unstirred below a long cultivated sur- 
 face stratum, either is barren or becomes so ; but 
 every stratum, unless naturally possessing some 
 poisonous ingredient, is capable, if brought to 
 the surface, of being rendered immediately ser- 
 viceable as a soil. Two main uses of all soils are 
 to serve as the feet and legs of a plant by keep- 
 ing it steady and upright, and to act as its stom- 
 ach by circulating moisture, and gases; and these 
 purposes can be accomplished, in the case of most 
 cultivated plants, by almost any pulverulent sub- 
 soil which may be brought to the surface. A 
 third and only other chief use of soils is to afford 
 nourishment to plants, principally from alkaline 
 matters and from humus ; and even this use — 
 which formerly was very generally regarded as 
 the entire function of soils — can in part be largely 
 served by the felspathic, aluminous, and calcare- 
 ous ingredients which exist in almost all subsoils, 
 and will in remainder be fully accomplished, in 
 most instances, by the addition of ordinary 
 manures. The whole practice of trenching, in 
 fact, as well as knowledge afforded by miner- 
 alogy and agricultural chemistry, demonstrates 
 the utter nonsense of the old notion of barren 
 earth. 
 
 BARREN LAND. See Waste Land. 
 
 BARREN SOILS. Soils or surface - strata 
 which have little or no vegetation, or which 
 cannot be reclaimed or cultivated, or which pro- 
 duce only poor, coarse, and scanty herbage, or 
 which can render only meagre and unremunerat- 
 ing returns to the farmer. The phrase, in the 
 first of these senses, designates absolute wilder- 
 ness ; in the second, perfectly waste or inacces- 
 sible morass or mountain; in the third, wild, 
 shallow, moorland pasturage ; and, in the fourth, 
 stubborn, churlish, refractory land. Many far- 
 mers use the phrase in only the last of these 
 senses ; few use it in more than the third and 
 the fourth; and some occasion much confusion 
 
 of idea by applying it also to naturally good land 
 in a bad condition, or, in technical phrase, to j 
 arable land out of heart. We shall use it princi- 
 pally as the farmers do ; yet we must occasion- 
 ally extend it to its more legitimate or literal 
 meanings. 
 
 Some soils, as mere sands, mere clays, or mere 
 gravels, are barren in consequence of the enor- j 
 mous predominance of only one kind of earthy 
 matter ; and most of such lie upon subsoils which 
 are exactly like themselves, and therefore unable 
 to furnish requisite elements of fertility. Other 
 soils, as the surfaces of bogs, fens, and morasses, 
 are barren in consequence, partly of over satura- 
 tion with stagnant water, and partly of the enor- 
 mous predominance of unfermented, antiseptic, 
 organic matter. Other soils, but seldom of more 1 
 than very limited extent, are barren in conse- 
 quence of poisonous impregnation with saline 
 matter such as saltpetre, or of corrosive mineral 
 matters such as the oxides of iron. Other soils, 
 as those of portions of ill-managed farms in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, and of many extensive tracts 
 of country in Italy, in Asia Minor, and in Syria, 
 are temporarily barren in consequence of the 
 quondam extraction from them of their elements 
 of fertility, by the most scourging husbandry, 
 and the subsequent abandonment of them to 
 utter pruriency of noxious vegetation. Many 
 soils, particularly in the mountainous regions of 
 the world, are barren in consequence of their 
 unfavourable geological position, or of their con- 
 sisting of the debris of rocks unsuited to sustain 
 vegetation. Clayey soils, which belong to the 
 geognostic formations called London clay, plastic 
 clay, wealden clay, Kirnmeridge clay, Oxford 
 clay, cornbrash and forest marble, and the coal 
 measures, are generally barren ; clayey soils be- 
 longing to the gault formation, the upper lias 
 shale, the lower lias shale, and the lowmost lias 
 rocks, are frequently barren; sandy and rocky 
 soils belonging to the green sand formation, the 
 coral rag, the new red sandstone, and the old red 
 sandstone, are frequently barren ; and sandy and 
 rocky soils belonging to the diluvial formation, 
 the upper chalk, the Ashburnham beds, the upper 
 oolite, the great oolite, the magnesian limestone, 
 the millstone grit, the carboniferous limestone, 
 the Silurian rocks, the Cambrian rocks, mica 
 schist, gneiss, serpentine, granite, and quartz 
 rock, are almost always barren. 
 
 General surface appearances afford, to a prac- 
 tised eye, decided indications of the comparative 
 barrenness of a district ; and yet are not always 
 useful in indicating the character of a farm or of 
 a field. A farmer is often able to estimate at a 
 glance the general condition of as much of a 
 country as lies within the range of vision, when 
 he would be totally incapable of forming a toler- 
 able estimate of one-half of it piece by piece. 
 When he removes from the geological formation 
 or the particular class of soils to which he has 
 
 1 
 
BARREN SOILS. 
 
 153 
 
 BARREN SOILS. 
 
 been accustomed, he is ever liable to be deceived 
 by colours, consistences, and other characteristics 
 of a field which appear to the eye to resemble 
 those of his own farm, or of farms in his vicinity, 
 but in real mineralogical character are very 
 widely different. The most obvious indications 
 of comparative infertility in a district are rocky 
 mountains, moorlands, heaths, bogs, marshes, 
 l downs, wolds, woods of beech, larch or Scotch 
 pine, stone fences, extensive deer - parks, vast 
 sheep-walks, much stagnant water, abundance of 
 rabbits, abundance of bramble-bushes, furze, and 
 black thorns, many ant-hills, numerous lapwings, 
 plovers, and curlews, large flocks of goldfinches 
 in autumn, and the feeding of the wild goose on 
 stubble. 
 
 All bleak and very elevated districts are bar- 
 ren. Few if any naturally fertile fields occur at 
 a greater elevation than 1,500 feet above the 
 level of the sea. A few of the grasses, indeed, 
 have a stunted and lingering growth at greater 
 elevations; but most of these few are totally 
 destitute of agricultural value. When old sward- 
 land on an elevated situation is mown, its hay- 
 crop is both late and light ; and a late hay-crop, 
 where spring-feeding is not practised, is always 
 an indication of comparative barrenness in the 
 soil. Even on decidedly excellent arable land at 
 an elevation of 1,000 or 1,200 feet, wheat, with 
 the common resources and management of the 
 farmer, either will not ripen, or is of inferior 
 quality. Yet modern agriculture has made great 
 achievements in what is called ' high farming ; ' 
 and, chiefly by means of draining, strong man- 
 uring, and improved cultivation, has produced 
 the same effects as if mountains were deprived of 
 several hundred feet of their elevation, or were 
 placed several degrees nearer the equator. 
 
 The colours of barren land exhibit the utmost 
 conceivable diversity, and are, in some instances, 
 identical with those of fertile land. Yet certain 
 colours, in the case of particular soils, are con- 
 clusive indications of barrenness. Nearly white 
 thin chalk soil, — chalk soil with pale white-col- 
 oured flints, — diluvial soils with a dead white 
 gravel near their surface, — dark-brown or nearly 
 black moors and bogs, — moorlands with white 
 gravel near their surface, — white silvery sands, 
 — black sands, — pink - coloured sands, — yellow 
 sands, — white clays, — blue clays, — yellow clays, 
 — pink-coloured clays, — and gravelly lands whose 
 ditches have a shining, ferruginous, or peach- 
 coloured scum, — all these are, in every instance, 
 barren. The colour of herbage varies so much 
 with the season, the weather, the prevalent kinds 
 of grasses, and other circumstances, that, except 
 in a few very obvious cases, it cannot be regarded 
 as an indicator of the soil. Herbage which, when 
 growing or uncut, has the appearance of half- 
 made hay, always consists of rough, coarse, un- 
 I palatable grasses, and indicates the land to be 
 very bad pasture, and utterly useless for the 
 
 plough. The herbage of barren land is scarcely 
 ever green, either in spring, in summer, in au- 
 tumn, or in winter, but generally appears brown 
 or reddish-brown. 
 
 The consistency of the surface-strata of land 
 affords, in a large proportion of instances, an ex- 
 cellent criterion to a practical farmer. Naked 
 rock, pure sand, and mere clay of any depth, and 
 coatings of mould or earth only 2, 3, or 4 inches 
 in thickness upon any of these, are always barren. 
 Such coatings, indeed, occasionally possess her- 
 bage of a lively green colour, well fitted to deceive 
 the unpractised eye ; but when they are pierced 
 with a spade, or examined at any ditch, pool, or 
 other break, their almost worthless character is 
 readily seen. Clay soil which cuts like soap, and 
 afterwards dries like brick, — sand which is so 
 light as to be liable to drifting by the wind, — 
 clays or sands which have not a large intermix- 
 ture of decomposed vegetable matter, — a clay and 
 sand soil of such texture as to be agglutinated 
 after a brisk rain, and to take a surface like 
 cement, — a soil of alternate layers of sand and 
 various coloured clay, — every kind of quicksand, 
 — a deep surface stratum of sand and gravel, — 
 and a soil of not more than 4 inches in depth, 
 incumbent on sand, gravel, clay, flinty or chalk 
 rock, or dry, rubbly, slaty, or compact rock, — all 
 these soils are, in every instance, barren. 
 
 A common practice in inspecting bad land for 
 valuation, is to describe its vegetation in very 
 general terms, and without specification of any 
 of its grasses or other plants. A valuator, for 
 example, might say, respecting the several parts 
 of a comparatively barren tract of land, " The 
 herbage of one piece is of a bad quality ; the bot- 
 tom is mossy ; the herbage of another piece is 
 short, but sweet, and thick at the bottom ; this 
 piece will produce very tough fodder, and is 
 coarse and benty; that piece will produce a 
 rough, peaty, sour grass; and yonder piece is 
 covered with poor benty herbage." But though 
 such general notices are, in some degree, useful, 
 an observation of the precise plants which con- 
 stitute the herbage of any soils is essential to a 
 fair knowledge of such indications of barrenness 
 as are afforded by vegetation. Some plants in- 
 variably demonstrate the comparative infertility 
 or worthlessness of every spot of soil on which 
 they are found ; and others demonstrate barren- 
 ness only when they occur in considerable quan- 
 tities, yet sometimes indicate it when they are 
 not abundant, and always ought at least to excite 
 suspicion, and provoke thorough examination. 
 Most of the plants which we shall name are of 
 the former kind ; and all ought to be readily re- 
 cognisable by every person who pretends to judge 
 of the infertility of land from the character of its 
 herbage. 
 
 The following plants grow indigenously on very 
 poor or almost worthless grassy lands: — Agri- 
 mony, Agrimonia eupatoria, on dry sandy soil ; 
 
BARREN SOILS. 
 
 154 
 
 BARREN SOILS. 
 
 r mgh dandelion, Apargia hispida, on dry barren 
 pastures ; common daisy, Bellis perennis, on land 
 of all kinds, from medium quality to barren, but 
 never on good pastures ; wood betony, Betonica 
 officinalis, in woods and shady places ; clustered 
 bell-flower, Campanula glomerata, on elevated 
 chalk pastures ; round-leaved or heath bell-flower, 
 Campanula rotundifolia, on heaths and dry barren 
 pastures ; the prickliest thistle, Carduus acantlioi- 
 des, and some other species of Carduus, and of 
 the genera immediately allied to it, on corn-fields, 
 on embankments, and among rubbish ; early 
 flowering' rush, Carex prwcox, on wet heaths and 
 poor meadows ; flea rush, Carex pulicaris, and 
 several other carices, particularly the well-known 
 and much- disliked carnation grass, on boggy 
 meadows and wet elevated grounds ; star thistle, 
 star knapweed, or blue bottle, Centaurea calcitrapa, 
 on barren meadows ; white goosefoot, Chenopodi- 
 um album, on. very poor cultivated land ; moon- 
 flower, ox-eye daisy, or greater daisy, Chrysanthe- 
 mum leucanthemum, on walls, road-sides, and 
 poor dry pastures; corn marigold, yellow ox- 
 eye, gule, or gule-gowans, Chrysanthemum segetum, 
 on poor, sandy, cultivated soil ; cursed thistle or 
 creeping plume-thistle, Cnicus arvensis, on bad 
 cultivated land; marsh plume -thistle, Cnicus 
 palustris, on wet clayey pastures; smooth or 
 roof hawksbeard, Crepis tectorum, on walls, roofs, 
 and bad pastures ; foxglove or bloody-finger, Digi- 
 talis purpurea, on dry, gravelly, sandy ground ; 
 nailwort or whitlow grass, Draba verna, on walls 
 and arid places ; common heath, ling, or heather, 
 Erica vulgaris, on moors, in woods, and on com- 
 mons ; common eyebright, Euphrasia officinalis, 
 on moors and dry barren meadows ; cheese ren- 
 net, yellow goosegrass, or yellow ladies' bedstraw, 
 Galium verwn, on dry, hilly pastures ; ground- 
 ivy, alehoof, turnhoof, or catsfoot, Glechoma hede- 
 racea, on poor, ,shady spots of ground ; chafeweed 
 or common cudweed, Gnaphalium germanicum, 
 on barren meadows ; smooth catsear, Hypochazris 
 glabra, on sandy and gravelly soils ; scabious 
 sheep's-bit or hairy sheep scabious, Jasione mon- 
 tana, on arid grounds, on moorlands, and on 
 sandy, barren pastures and meadows ; common 
 field rush, Juncus campestris, and other species of 
 j uncus, on poor, wet, spouty land ; carnmock, 
 petty-whin, restharrow, or ground furze, Ononis 
 spinosa, on barren pastures ; wild carline thistle, 
 Onopordum vidgaris, on dry pastures and mea- 
 dows ; hoary plantain or lamb's lettuce, Plantago 
 media, on all sorts of soils, but chokes good her- 
 bage ; silver weed, Potentilla anserina, on arid 
 sands and on low grounds which are subject to 
 winter floods ; barren strawberry, Potentilla fra- 
 garia, on dry, stony, barren grounds ; cowslip, 
 Primula veris, on strong clayey land ; primrose, 
 Primida vulgaris, on clayey soils, on moorlands, 
 and in woods and thickets ; penny grass, hen- 
 penny, coxcomb, or yellow rattle, Rhinanthus 
 Christa-galli, on pastures and meadows ; sheep's 
 
 sorrel, Rumex acetosella, on gravel walks and on 
 sandy pastures and meadows ; common broom, 
 Spartium scoparium, on dry pastures ; coltsfoot', 
 Tussilago farfara, on limestone rubbish, and on 
 moist, stiff, clayey soil ; wild thyme, Thymus ser- 
 pyllum, on moorlands and barren alpine grounds ; 
 furze, gorse, or whins, Ulex names, on barren 
 commons ; and calfstail, black mullein, or sage- 
 leaved mullein, Verbascum nigrum, on dry, sandy 
 lands. 
 
 The following grasses grow indigenously on 
 soils which are dry, sandy, and elevated, or which 
 are wet, peaty, or morassy, and on which good 
 pasture grasses, even when artificially sown on 
 them, either will not grow, or will speedily be- 
 come extinct. — Common bent, Agrostis vulgaris, 
 on moors and dry pastures, not only in low situ- 
 ations, but so high as 2,000 feet above sea-level ; 
 brown bent, Agrostis canina, in patches on poor, 
 wet, peaty soil; white-rooted bent, Agrostis alba, 
 on dry, sandy meadows, and on poor dry pastures, 
 whether low or very mountainous ; creeping- 
 rooted bent, Agrostis repens, on clayey soils ; nar- 
 row-leaved creeping bent, Agrostis stolonifera 
 angustifolia, on clayey soils, by the sides of ditches, 
 and on cold wet mountains to the elevation of 
 2,000 feet ; marsh bent, Agrostispalustris,mdamp, 
 shady, stagnant places, and on similar mountains 
 as the preceding ; rock bent, Agrostis stricta, on 
 damp boggy soils ; water hair grass, Aim a quatica, 
 in ditches and wet muddy places, whether hilly 
 or champaign; tufted hair grass, Aim ccespitosa, 
 in large tufts, on very coarse ground, not only in 
 low situations, but on mountains to the elevation 
 of 1,500 feet above sea-level ; wavy mountain hair 
 grass, Aim flexuosa, on heathy and alpine ground, 
 to the elevation of 3,500 feet above sea-level ; 
 crested hair grass, Aim cristata, on rocky grounds 
 and dry pastures, to the elevation of 1,500 feet 
 above sea-level; slender foxtail grass or black 
 bent, Alopecurus agrostis, on badly cultivated or ill- 
 cleaned arable land ; floating foxtail grass, Alo- 
 pecurus geniculatus, in pools and on wet clayey 
 grounds, to the elevation of 1,500 feet above sea- 
 level ; dodder, doddering toms, or common quak- 
 ing grass, Briza media, on poor soils, to the ele- 
 vation of 1,500 feet above sea-level ; drank or 
 barren brome grass, Bromus sterilis, on dry sandy 
 soil and on shady ground, to the elevation of 
 600 feet above sea-level ; soft brome grass, Brom us 
 mollis, on poor, exhausted pasture ground, to the 
 elevation of 1,000 feet above sea-level ; sheep's 
 fescue grass, Festuca ovina, on downs and wolds, 
 and on dry, sandy, alpine pastures, to the eleva- 
 tion of 4,000 feet above sea-level ; viviparous fes- 
 cue grass, Festuca vivipara, on elevated, light, 
 sandy soils ; purple fescue, Festuca rubra, on sandy 
 grounds, particularly near the sea ; wood or 
 thicket fescue, Festuca dumetorum,'m damp woods 
 and soft, shady places to the elevation of 1,000 
 feet above sea-level ; wall fescue or tailed mouse- 
 tail, Festuca my urus or Mygnlurus myajurus, in dry 
 
BARROW. 
 
 155 
 
 BATHING. 
 
 barren places ; smooth fescue, Festuca glabra, on 
 moist pastures ; wall barley, Hordeum murinum, 
 on dry, light soils, to the elevation of 500 feet 
 above sea-level ; woolly soft grass, Holcus lanatus, 
 on shady banks, in woods, and on moist, peaty 
 pastures, to the elevation of 1,500 feet above sea- 
 level ; creeping soft grass, Holcus mollis, on light 
 sandy soil, to the elevation of 1,500 feet above 
 sea-level ; wild sainfoin, Hedysarum onobrychus on 
 dry, barren, chalky pastures ; purple melic grass, 
 Melica ccei'idea, on moors, peat-bogs, and damp 
 heathy places, to the elevation of 1,500 feet above 
 sea-level ; upright mat grass, JVardus stricta, on 
 dry moors and alpine heathy grounds, to the ele- 
 vation of 4,000 feet above sea-ievel ; lesser mea- 
 dow catstail grass, Phleum pratense minus, on 
 very stiff, clayey land; alpine meadow grass, 
 Poa alpina, on lofty mountains, to the elevation 
 of 4,000 feet above sea-level ; and flat-stalked 
 meadow grass, Poa compressa, on mountains, to 
 the elevation of 3,000 feet above sea-level. 
 
 BARROW. An implement of land carriage. 
 Yet the name is so very loosely and extensively 
 applied as to designate any one of numerous im- 
 plements of carriage, two- wheeled, one-wheeled, 
 and wheelless. A two-wheeled barrow for ordi- 
 nary out-of-door carriage is shaped nearly like a 
 miniature cart, with the addition of two support- 
 ing feet ; and, when about a yard in diameter, is 
 extremely convenient for the carriage of small 
 loads either in cities or upon farms. A common 
 one-wheeled box-barrow may be of various shapes 
 and sizes, and either light or heavy ; and is an 
 indispensable implement on the mimic establish- 
 ment of a cottage-farm, and a very useful imple- 
 ment in much of the home carriage of a large 
 farmery. A light-sparred open one-wheeled bar- 
 row is the most economical and convenient im- 
 plement for conveying the corn of a rick from the 
 rick-yard up the gangway into the threshing- 
 barn. The two-wheeled load-barrow, with small 
 low-wheels, fixed with their axle near the lower 
 and scooped extremity of the machine, is emi- 
 nently serviceable for moving full sacks of grain 
 in the corn-barn, in the granary, or in flour- 
 mills. A box hand-barrow, carried between twp 
 men, is sometimes necessary for carrying earth or 
 manure on wet land ; and an open hand-barrow 
 is used, on very many farmeries, for conveying 
 farm-yard manure from the cattle-houses to the 
 dung-heap. 
 
 BARS. The portions of the hoof-sole of horses, 
 which are reflected inwards, and which form 
 arches between the frog and the quarters. The 
 bars of the mouth are the fleshy rows which run 
 across the mouths of horses, and reach almost to 
 the palate. The bars of the mouth are very dis- 
 tinguishable in young horses. 
 
 BAR-SHOE. A horse-shoe of particular con- 
 struction, adapted to a tender foot, and designed 
 to protect a sore or weak point from pressure, by 
 causing the whole weight of the limb to be borne 
 
 by the other portions of the sole. Its chief fea- 
 ture is a continuation of the common shoe round 
 the heels ; and its principal use is in cases of 
 corn, sand-crack, and pumiced feet ; but it re- 
 quires to be made thick, and sometimes presses 
 very injuriously on the heels. 
 
 BARTH. A warm enclosure or sheltered pas- 
 ture for calves or lambs. 
 
 BARTON, or Barken. The yard of a farm- 
 house. 
 
 BASIN, or Bason! A reservoir or artificial 
 pond, for the retention of water in a garden, or 
 on the home-ground of a farmery, for either use 
 or ornament. Also, a tract of country surrounded 
 by a system of water-sheds or summit-levels, and 
 comprising all the drainage into a lake or river. 
 
 BASKET. A utensil for holding dry goods, 
 or a vehicle for their hand-carriage. Baskets are 
 made generally of the twigs of willows, but some- 
 times of the twigs of birch, hazel, and other elastic 
 brushwood, splinters of elastic timber, culms of 
 strong grass, and stems of rushes and other soft 
 filamentous plants. They are constructed like- 
 wise of a great variety of shapes and sizes, and 
 for a vast multiplicity and diversity of uses. 
 Most of the multitudinous baskets of the regular 
 basket-maker are too ornamental and costly to 
 suit the purposes of a farm ; but numerous coarse 
 kinds of osier baskets, from the small fruit pot- 
 j tie to the large potato basket, or the still larger 
 j pannier, are of eminent service. They are too 
 j well-known, however, to need any description. 
 BATHING. The cleansing or medicinal appli- 
 cation of water or other liquids to animals. The 
 cold bathing of a horse is accomplished by making 
 him swim in a river. This remedy has been 
 known to remove a case of obstinate costiveness ; 
 and, when repeated at certain intervals, has been 
 found beneficial in cases of locked jaw. It has 
 been recommended also, but without good reason, 
 in cases of lameness arising from strains. The 
 use of a warm bath, when it can be rendered 
 practicable, seems to be serviceable in spasmodic 
 complaints. The bathing of particular parts of 
 the body with lotions or medicated waters, is, in 
 very many and various cases, serviceable. 
 
 The bathing of sheep is the application of me- 
 dicated liquid by rubbing, syringing, or dipping, 
 for the purpose of destroying the ked or sheep- 
 tick, and of preventing cutaneous eruptions. 
 The ked is an insect which greatly annoys sheep 
 towards the autumn, and provokes them to rub 
 and break their skin ; and cutaneous eruptions of 
 various kinds and degrees, even to the extent of 
 scab, are very apt to be produced by a change of 
 food from grass to turnips, or by any other equally 
 great transition of habit. The principal ingre- 
 dients — perhaps the only useful ones — in the 
 bathing liquids which have been longest in use, 
 are tobacco-water and the spirit of tar ; a very 
 good bathing liquid is made by mixing one pound 
 of black soap and thirty-two pounds of tar with 
 
BATTATAS. 
 
 156 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 a sufficient quantity of water or soap-suds ; and 
 numerous bathing liquids have of late years been 
 brought into notice, medicated with such dan- 
 gerous and dreadfully active ingredients as ar- 
 senic and corrosive sublimate, or made up with 
 quack mixtures of unknown composition, but, in 
 one or two instances, of considerable celebrity. 
 The old method of bathing is practised by pour- 
 ing or syringing the animal on a bathing-stool ; 
 and the new method is practised by dipping him 
 in a bathing-box, placing him upon a drainer, and 
 letting him slide down a short inclined-plane into 
 a pen. The bathing-stool is wide and sparred for 
 the body of the animal, and has a close seat at 
 its short end for the operator ; and the bathing- 
 box, the drainer, the inclined-plane, and the pen, 
 unitedly constitute one apparatus, specially con- 
 structed for the process of bathing. The method 
 by pouring is effected by the operator shedding 
 the wool in lines, and an assistant applying the 
 liquid along the shedding ; and the method by 
 syringing is effected by the operator introducing 
 the point of the charged instrument among the 
 roots of the wool, and pushing it forward in a 
 direction parallel with the length of the body. 
 A kindred operation to the bathing of sheep is 
 smearing. See the articles Salving op Sheep 
 and Washing. 
 
 BATTATAS, or Sweet-Potato. A tuberous 
 and esculent rooted, perennial plant, of the con- 
 volvulus family. It was formerly called by botan- 
 ists Convolvulus Batatas; but is now called fyo- 
 moea Batatas. It is a native of the tropics, and 
 was introduced to Great Britain about the end 
 of the 16th century. Its tubers were formerly 
 imported, in considerable quantity, every year 
 from Spain and Portugal, and sold in our markets 
 under the name of Spanish potatoes; and they 
 are the potatoes referred to in Shakspeare's 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, — " Let the skye rain 
 potatoes, and hail kissing-comfits." The tubers 
 are sweet-tasted, nutritious, and productive, and 
 are extensively cultivated and much esteemed 
 for food in India, and in many other hot countries 
 of the world. They are very palatable, when 
 cooked in almost any ordinary manner ; and they 
 form a most delicious dish, when cut into slices 
 raw, and fried with butter. The plant is culti- 
 vated in the same manner as the common potato, 
 but requires much more room. Many trailing 
 stems grow from one tuber, and extend in all 
 directions, to the length of from four to six feet ; 
 and at their joints, they strike root, and form 
 large tubers ; so that from one tuber, no fewer 
 than 40 or 50 large tubers are produced. A few 
 plants are raised as curiosities in the hothouses 
 of Great Britain ; and some unsuccessful attempts 
 have been made to bring them to maturity in the 
 open ground. 
 
 BATTS. The flatulent colic in horses. See Colic. 
 
 BAVIN'S. Faggots or bundles of brushwood 
 for fuel, made with full-length brushwood. 
 
 BAVIN-TUG. A waggon used in many of the 
 woodland districts of England for transporting 
 bavins from the wood or coppice to the farmery. 
 It carries, at one load, 150 bavins, each 4 feet 
 in length and 3 feet in girth. It consists of a 
 long, low frame, mounted on two axles, 14 feet 
 apart ; and it can be used, without much risk of 
 upsetting, on even the narrow and almost im- 
 passable cross country roads of the weald of Kent, 
 and neighbouring districts. 
 
 BAY. The part of a thrashing barn which is 
 occupied by a mow ; also, an evergreen tree of 
 the laurel genus ; also, by a figure of speech, a 
 bay-coloured horse. See the articles Barn and 
 Bay-Horse. 
 
 BAY-HORSE. A horse whose entire or pre- 
 vailing colour is bay. The dark-tinted bay colour 
 approaches nearly to brown, but is more gay and 
 shining. The bright bay-horse is exceedingly 
 beautiful; for he generally has a reddish tint, 
 with a gilded appearance, while his mane and 
 his tail are black, and his back is streaked along 
 the spine with a black or dark list. Many horses 
 of medium-coloured bay have also black manes 
 and tails, and the dark list along their back. Most 
 dark bay-horses have their knees and pasterns 
 black ; and several kinds of bays have the whole 
 of their limbs black, from their knees or their 
 thighs to their feet. Most bays which want the 
 list along their back, have a black colour over 
 their reins ; and this goes off by an imperceptible 
 gradation to a light colour toward their belly and 
 flank. Some of these bays incline to brown, and 
 are more or less dappled. Horses of all the dif- 
 ferent shades of bay present a pleasing appear- 
 ance to the eye ; and, unless they were spoiled by 
 some accident when they were colts, they are 
 generally well-formed and healthy. 
 
 BAY-SALT. Common culinary salt, obtained 
 by the evaporation of sea water or other saline 
 water, in the open air, without the application of 
 artificial heat. The crystals of it are much larger 
 than those of artificially evaporated salt, and have 
 the form of regular cubes, while those of the lat- 
 ter are hollow four-sided pyramids. A cheap and 
 easy mode of obtaining it is afforded in natural 
 hollows of the shore, overflowed only by spring- 
 tides, in countries which enjoy much sunshine, 
 and have long continued droughts. Bay-salt con- 
 tains a smaller admixture of foreign materials, 
 or a larger proportion of chloride of sodium, than 
 any other kind of culinary salt, except rock salt ; 
 and it is the best suited for the salting of both 
 butter and provisions. 
 
 BEAN, — botanically Faba. A well-known cul- 
 tivated plant, of the vetch division of the legumi- 
 nous family. It is cultivated in both the garden 
 and the field, for the sake of its large, nutritious, 
 dicotyledonous seeds ; and is so universally known 
 to our population, both urban and rural, as not 
 to require any description. Its flowers are of 
 the butterfly kind, large, beautiful, and grate- 
 
157 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 fully odoriferous ; its pods are of very uncommon 
 size, one-celled, and provided with a deep, downy 
 packing for the seeds ; and its cotyledons, com- 
 pared with those of the great multitude of exo- 
 genous plants, are gigantic, remarkably well 
 denned, and admirably adapted to display the 
 wonders of embryo vegetable development. Even 
 if the bean were not a plant of great economical 
 value to the farmer and the gardener, it could 
 not fail to possess a fascinating interest for at 
 once the archaeologist, the florist, the phytologist, 
 and the vegetable chemist. 
 
 History of the Bean. — The bean figures in very 
 ancient notices of agriculture, and was more 
 esteemed than any other kind of pulse by both 
 the ancient Greeks and the early Romans. The 
 Athenians used sodden beans in their religious 
 festivals in honour of Apollo ; and the Romans 
 presented beans in a festival which they held in 
 honour of Carna, the wife of Janus, and to which, 
 in allusion to the beans, they gave the name of 
 Fabaria. Janus, whom the Romans always repre- 
 sented with two faces, was a personification of 
 Noah, looking backward to the world which had 
 been destroyed, and forward to the world which his 
 offspring were to replenish. Carneus was another 
 name given to Noah by his descendants; and 
 hence the name Carna was used to designate 
 his wife, — the wife of Janus ; and the bean was 
 presented on her festival, as well as on many 
 other occasions, on account of the resemblance of 
 the shape of its pod to the form which tradition 
 assigned to Noah's ark. In Egypt also, the ship 
 of Isis was a type of the ark, as Osiris was a per- 
 sonification of Noah ; and in every anciently in- 
 habited country, some of the earliest traditions 
 or most venerated legends make reference, more 
 or less direct, to the awful events of the deluge, 
 and, in most instances, embody some type or 
 illustration of Noah's wonderful deliverance. On 
 this account, the bean, from the supposed ark- 
 like shape of its pod, seems to have been generally 
 adopted among the more civilized polytheists of 
 antiquity as a sacred type of the Noahic deliver- 
 ance, and as an important element in the symbols 
 of idolatrous worship. The bean appears to have 
 been regarded in Egypt as typical of some of 
 those mysteries which the priests constantly 
 endeavoured to conceal from the knowledge of 
 the uninitiated, and therefore was publicly shun- 
 ned by the priests as an object too sacred for 
 ordinary observation. Pythagoras, who travelled 
 into Egypt in search of knowledge, and who 
 obtained there a large portion of his philosophy, 
 seems to have adopted the Egyptian priests' notion 
 of the bean ; for, during the period of his influence 
 in Greece, he forbade this legume to be used. The 
 bean is held sacred by the modern Hindoos, and 
 is mentioned in some of their wildest and most 
 ancient legends. 
 
 The noble and powerful family of the Fabii 
 among the ancient Romans are supposed by some 
 writers to have taken their name from special 
 
 connexion of their ancestry with the cultivation 
 of the bean. A dish or meal of beans was called 
 in Latin [omentum, and was eaten with whole 
 corn in a gruel or pottage. Beans were used by 
 the Romans, in taking the votes of the people, 
 and in the election of magistrates. They were 
 likewise used for medicine ; and when bruised 
 and boiled with garlic, were regarded as a cure 
 for old and stubborn coughs which had baffled 
 every other remedy. The meal or flower of beans 
 was thought to possess the power of removing 
 wrinkles and smoothing the skin, and was in 
 consequence used by the Roman ladies as a fa- 
 vourite cosmetic. 
 
 The bean is said by some travellers to be grow- 
 ing wild in Persia, near the shores of the Caspian 
 sea ; and it either may be indigenous there, or 
 may have been brought thither by some of the 
 numerous tribes and armies which, in ancient 
 times, rushed across Persia in careers of conquest. 
 The bean is indigenous in Egypt, Barbary, and 
 Morocco ; it is believed to have been origin- 
 ally introduced from the first of these countries 
 into Great Britain ; it was transplanted by the 
 Moors from Barbary into Spain, and by the Por- 
 tuguese from Spain into Portugal; and the Ma- 
 zagan variety, which has long been regarded in 
 Britain as the best for an early crop, was obtained 
 from a Portuguese settlement on the coast of 
 Morocco, called Mazagan. 
 
 Roman cultivation of the Bean. — The f 'aba of the 
 Roman writers on rural affairs, though treated 
 by them as the most important of their legumin- 
 ous plants, has been pronounced by learned com- 
 mentators a plant different from the present 
 faba of botanists, and possessing characteristics 
 which are not found united in any existing 
 legume. But so very useful, prominent, and 
 widely diffused a plant as the Roman faba can 
 scarcely by any possibility have become lost ; 
 most of the recorded characteristics agree quite 
 closely with those of our common small field 
 bean ; one or two circumstances, rather than 
 characteristics, are discordant or inexplicable, 
 principally from obscurity or ambiguity in the 
 language which states them ; and, at the very 
 utmost, the Roman faba may have been a variety 
 of bean, which is now slightly obsoleted by 
 changes in climate and culture, and by the in- 
 fluences of hybridizing and improvement. 
 
 Pliny says that the faba does not come up till 
 from 15 to 20 days after it is sown; that it is 
 longer in coming up than grain or any other 
 kind of pulse ; that it comes up in a leaf, and 
 then puts forth the stem ; that its stem is 
 single, and is not divided by knots ; that its 
 leaves are round and numerous ; that a crop 
 of it flowers during so long a period as forty 
 days ; that, though no one stem flowers so long, 
 yet when one stem is passing out of flower, an- 
 other is but beginning to bloom ; that the seed 
 is perfected in forty days after the flowering; 
 that the pods are produced alternately on each 
 
BEAN. 
 
 158 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 side of the stem ; that the straw of the autumnal 
 sowing is better than the whole crop of the 
 spring sowing ; that the pods are long, and of a 
 breadth corresponding to the shape of the seed ; 
 that both the pods and the stems are good fodder 
 for cattle ; that the faba is the most useful of the 
 legumes ; and that, if a proper order is observed, 
 the turnip ought to be mentioned next to corn, 
 or at least next to the faba, Throphrastus no- 
 tices some of the same characteristics of the 
 faba, and adds that it puts forth many leaves on 
 all sides, carries pods very near to the soil, and 
 is the only one of the legumes which has a per- 
 fectly erect stem. Cato mentions the faba among 
 the crops which improve land, and directs it to 
 be sown on a strong soil. Varro says that the 
 time of sowing it is about the end of October, and 
 that four modii of seed were required for a 
 jugerum of land. Virgil directs the corn-seed of 
 the faba to be steeped in an infusion of nitre and 
 amurca, in order that the crop-seed might grow 
 large in the pod. Columella says, " Land very 
 rich naturally, or well dunged, is set apart for 
 the faba ; and if this land has rested a year, and 
 is situated in a valley, which receives sap from 
 higher grounds, the seed should be sown on the 
 firm soil, then ploughed in, ridged, and harrowed, 
 that so the seed may be covered the deeper ; but 
 if the land has carried a crop immediately before, 
 let the straw be cut down, and twenty-four loads 
 of dung spread on the jugerum ; after this, it may 
 be treated like the land that has carried no crop 
 the preceding year." Palladius says, " The Greeks 
 assert that the faba seed which is steeped in ca- 
 pon's blood is not hurt by destructive weeds; that, 
 if infused in water the day before sowing, it will 
 spring the sooner; and that, if sprinkled with 
 water which has nitre dissolved in it, it is more 
 easily boiled." 
 
 Varieties of the Bean. — The bean was formerly 
 treated as a species of vetch, under the name of 
 Vicia faba; but it is now regarded as constitut- 
 ing a genus of itself, under the name of Faba. 
 Two principal subspecies of it are easily distin- 
 guishable from each other ; the one called botani- 
 cally Faba vulgaris arvensis, Faba vulgaris minor, 
 or Faba vulgaris aquina, and popularly field bean, 
 small bean, horse bean, or grey bean; and the 
 other called botanically Faba vulgaris hortensis, 
 or Faba vulgaris major, and popularly garden 
 bean, large bean, or white bean. But several 
 well-established varieties are included in each; 
 three well-established varieties may be included 
 under either ; and therefore all the kinds of beans 
 in cultivation may be arranged into three classes, 
 — field beans, garden beans, and field or garden 
 beans. 
 
 The Scotch bean or common horse bean is al- 
 most the only variety of field bean cultivated in 
 Scotland ; and though not so prolific as the tick 
 beans cultivated in England, recommends itself 
 by its superior height of stem, and especially by 
 its greater hardiness. Its seed is from half an 
 
 inch to five-eighths of an inch in length, and three- 
 eighths of an inch in breadth ; irregularly com- 
 pressed and wrinkled on the sides, and often a 
 little flattened or hollowed at the end ; of a light 
 brownish colour, occasionally clouded and dap- 
 pled with a darker colour, especially toward the 
 end, and always black in the eye. Its stem mea- 
 sures from three to five feet in height ; and the 
 average weight of its seed is 62 pounds per bushel. 
 Yet the Scotch bean is far from possessing uni- 
 formity of characteristics and appearance ; and 
 must be considered, much less as one defined va- 
 riety, than as a very variable mixture of several 
 varieties. The fact of such a mixture is readily 
 and abundantly apparent in the vast and beauti- 
 ful diversity of colours in the flowers of any Scot- 
 tish bean-field, and may even be frequently de- 
 tected at a glance in the diversified tints and 
 minor characteristics of the seeds. In common 
 with all varieties of beans, however, the Scotch 
 bean is much affected in both shape and colour 
 by peculiarities or changes of climate, soil, and 
 culture ; and hence it is always plumper and 
 whiter in a warm dry year than in a cold and 
 damp one, when raised on a strong rich clay 
 than when raised on a?ay kind of light soil, and 
 when cultivated in drills than when sown broad- 
 cast. 
 
 The tick beans, cultivated in the fields in Eng- 
 land, are more prolific in pods and much more 
 suited to light soils than the Scotch or common 
 horse bean, and therefore have, for a very long 
 period, been preferred to that bean by the great 
 majority of English farmers. Yet the common 
 tick, or variety of tick most extensively in use 
 and highest in favour, is often called in England 
 common horse bean or common field bean. Its 
 seeds are smaller and more cylindrical than those 
 of the Scotch bean, and are rounded at the ends. 
 The weight of its seeds per bushel is about 67 
 pounds. — The Harrow tick bean is smaller in all 
 its parts, and better adapted for light soils than 
 the common tick ; and its seeds are remarkably 
 plump and hardy. — Other subvarieties of tick 
 bean are the fiat tick, the Essex tick, the French 
 tick, the May bean, and several more ; but they 
 differ from the common tick only in being culti- 
 vated on different soils, or under different cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 The winter bean, called in France La feverolle 
 oVhiver, grows to the height of three or four feet, 
 and is both very hardy and very prolific. Its 
 seed is small, very plump, very heavy, smooth, 
 and full in the sides, very black in the eye, and 
 of the same colour as the Scotch bean, but with 
 the addition of a dark greenish spot on the short 
 side. This variety was introduced to England 
 about the year 1825, and stands well the severest 
 winters both there and in France. — The Heligo- 
 land bean is very closely allied to the winter 
 bean, and has even been pronounced identical. 
 
 The pigeon is the smallest of all the field 
 \ beans, and has its name from being used instead 
 
BEAN. 
 
 159 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 of pease for feeding pigeons. It is early, prolific, 
 and of dwarfish growth ; and its seed is consider- 
 ably darker in colour than either the Scotch or 
 the tick beans. It originated in Germany, and 
 is extensively cultivated there on the lighter 
 bean soils ; but it has as yet found little favour 
 in Great Britain. — The purple field bean has also 
 been little tried in this country, yet might pro- 
 bably succeed as a winter bean, and certainly de- 
 serves attention. Its flower has a pinkish tinge, 
 and is otherwise redder and darker than that of 
 the common winter bean ; its seeds have a red- 
 dish-brown or purple colour ; and it is later in 
 ripening than the pigeon bean, and not so proli- 
 fic. — The Alexandrian field bean grows to about 
 the same height as the Scotch bean, but is later 
 in ripening ; and its seeds resemble those of that 
 bean in shape and size, but are not so plump, and 
 have a dull reddish-brown colour. — The new large 
 red or scarlet field bean was discovered in a field 
 of Scotch beans, in the Carse of Gowrie, in 1834 : 
 and is a very prolific and remarkably distinct 
 variety, with large reddish-coloured seeds. — The 
 Swiss bean is a lately acquired variety of winter 
 bean ; it stands the frosts of England without 
 injury ; it may be sown from the middle of Sep- 
 tember till the middle of October ; it pods about 
 the first of J une, ripens in the latter end of July, 
 and escapes the attacks of insects and mildew ; 
 and it appears to be peculiarly suited to the 
 warmer districts of England. — Two other varie- 
 ties of field beans are the Ainfield and Mac- 
 Phail's. 
 
 The Mazagan and the long-podded beans have 
 a medium habit and a medium size of seed be- 
 tween the field beans and the garden beans ; and 
 are suitable alike for garden culture and for the 
 better kinds of field culture. — The Mazagan bean, 
 as already noticed, is a native of the quondam 
 Portuguese settlement of Mazagan, on the coast 
 of Morocco, immediately west of the Straits of 
 Gibraltar. Its seeds, as grown in its native 
 place, are said to be smaller than even those of 
 the Scotch bean ; but they grow to a larger size 
 in Portugal and in England. " If the seeds are 
 saved two years in England," remarks Miller, 
 " the beans will become much larger, and not 
 ripen so soon, which is called a degeneracy." 
 The stem of the Mazagan bean is about four feet 
 high, and rather slender ; its pod is narrow, and 
 from four to five inches long, and contains four 
 or five seeds ; its flower is white, with dark 
 brownish stripes on the standard, and two dark 
 brown spots on the wings ; and its seed is of a 
 whitish colour, and both large and more flat- 
 tened than that of the horse bean. This variety 
 loves soil of medium quality, as near as possible 
 to normal loam, and dislikes both strong clays 
 and very light soils. Miller complains that, in 
 his time, in consequence of the slovenly garden- 
 ing of the Portuguese, a large proportion of the 
 seeds imported from Portugal were bad. The 
 Mazagan bean has as yet been seldom tried in 
 
 the field in Scotland ; though, from its early and 
 prolific habits, it would almost certainly succeed 
 in any favourable situation. — The Portugal bean 
 is simply the Mazagan bean a little modified, and 
 somewhat deteriorated by cultivation in Portu- 
 gal ; and is now seldom mentioned as a distinct 
 variety. — The small Spanish bean is another 
 modification of the Mazagan, sweeter in taste, 
 and a little later in habit, than the Portugal. 
 
 The long-podded bean is somewhat more proli- 
 fic than the Mazagan, and generally about a week 
 later. Its stem grows to the height of from four 
 to five feet ; its pod measures from six to seven 
 inches in length, and about one inch and a quar- 
 ter in breadth, is rather pendulous, and contains 
 four or five seeds ; and its seed measures about 
 an inch in length and five-eighths of an inch in 
 breadth, and is flat, rounded at the end, and of 
 a whitish colour when ripe. The subvarieties of 
 this bean are very numerous, and are constantly 
 changing ; for any one kind is much modified by 
 two or three years' culture under widely different 
 circumstances from those to which it has been 
 accustomed, and almost any two kinds become 
 assimilated to each other after two or three years' 
 culture in the same farm or garden. Yet many 
 of the subvarieties have distinctive names ; and 
 several possess considerable pretensions to dis- 
 tinctiveness and permanence of character. Among 
 the best known are the Sandwich, the Lisbon, 
 the early Lisbon, Child's new early long pod, the 
 old early long pod, the Hangdown long pod, the 
 large long pod, and the early mom. The Sand- 
 wich was known and esteemed in the days of 
 Miller, and was cultivated as the next in succes- 
 sion in the garden to the Spanish. Child's new 
 early long pod was recently introduced by the 
 seedsman whose name it bears ; it is rather ear- 
 lier and more prolific than the common long pod: 
 and its seed is thicker and less symmetrical in 
 shape. But three varieties of long pod, the green, 
 the Dutch, and the white-blossomed, are quite 
 unsuited to field culture, and rank wholly as 
 garden beans. 
 
 The white Windsor bean has long been re- 
 garded as the best variety for the table ; and it 
 is everywhere in great request for garden culti- 
 vation. It is the earliest of the late garden beans; 
 it is also a sure bearer ; and, as it does not ripen 
 regularly, it affords a prolonged daily succession. 
 Its stem grows to the height of four feet ; its pod 
 is short and broad, and contains two or three 
 seeds ; and its seed is fiat, circular, about an inch 
 in diameter, and whitish in colour, but varies in 
 size according to season, soil, and culture. The 
 principal subvarieties of the white Windsor, are 
 the broad Windsor and Taylor's Windsor. But 
 three other named and well-known subvarieties 
 of white garden bean, the Mumford, the Broad 
 Spanish, and the Turkey, are so nearly allied to 
 the white Windsor as to be readily confounded 
 with it in regard to both character and habit. 
 The broad Spanish was known, highly esteemed, 
 
BEAN. 
 
 160 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 and frequently cultivated in the time of Miller ; 
 and was viewed as a good bearer, and treated for 
 succession between the latest of the Mazagans 
 and the earliest of the late broad white beans. 
 
 The green Windsor bean closely resembles the 
 white Windsor in size, form, and habit. But its 
 seeds are of a green colour when ripe, and may 
 therefore be used at table in a more advanced 
 state of maturity than those of the white Wind- 
 sor. It is very nearly contemporaneous with the 
 white Windsor, or at least does not lag behind 
 more than a few days. — The red or scarlet Wind- 
 sor, also called the dark red bean, is a prolific 
 late bean, of good quality; but is disliked by 
 many persons on account of the colour of its 
 seeds. Its stem grows to the height of four feet; 
 its pod is narrower than that of the white Wind- 
 sor, yet contains the same number of seeds ; and 
 its seed is similar in shape and size to that of the 
 white Windsor, but is of a darker colour when 
 young, and changes to a bright scarlet when of 
 full size, and to a deep red when quite ripe. 
 
 The cluster or dwarf fan bean is a long known, 
 an esteemed, and a prolific plant, and ranks as 
 both the earliest and the most dwarfish of all the 
 garden beans. Its stem grows to the height of 
 two and a-half feet ; its pod is short and nearly 
 cylindrical, and contains three cr four seeds ; and 
 its seed is larger and rather more flattened than 
 that of the common Mazagan. — The Dutch long 
 podded bean is very prolific, rather late, and not 
 very well known. Its stem grows to the height 
 of four or five feet ; its pod is long, broad, and 
 slightly pendulous, and contains five or six seeds; 
 and its seed is about the size of that of the white 
 Windsor bean, but more elongated. — The green 
 long pod, also called the green nonpareil, and 
 the green Genoa, is a prolific plant, and of good 
 quality. It differs from the common long pod 
 in being of much later habit, and in its seeds be- 
 ing green when ripe. 
 
 The Toker bean is very prolific, and of medium 
 habit between early and late ; it was well known 
 and much cultivated in the time of Miller ; but 
 it is now considered rather coarse, and is there- 
 fore less in favour than the white Windsor. Its 
 stem grows to the height of five feet ; its pod is 
 long and very broad, and contains three or four 
 seeds ; and its seed is of a whitish colour, and an 
 elongated oval shape. — Johnson's wonderful bean 
 has been quite recently introduced, and appears 
 to be very good and prolific. Its pod is long, and 
 contains six or eight seeds ; and its seed resem- 
 bles that of the white Windsor in both size and 
 shape. — The white blossomed bean, oalled also 
 the white blossomed long pod, has the whitest 
 flowers and the blackest seeds of all the known 
 varieties of beans. Its stem grows to the height 
 of nearly four feet ; its flower is pure white, and 
 has not any dark spot on the wings ; its pod is 
 long, nearly cylindrical, and slightly pendulous, 
 and contains four or five seeds ; and its seed is 
 about three-quarters of an inch in length, and 
 
 half an inch in breadth, rather thick or plump, 
 and of a black colour, mixed with dark brown. 
 It is at a glance distinguishable from every other 
 variety by the colour of its flower. It is toler- 
 ably prolific, of medium habit between early and 
 late, and is free in a great degree from the pecu- 
 liar harsh flavour which characterizes every other 
 variety of bean ; yet its seeds, when approaching 
 maturity, are disliked by many persons on ac- 
 count of their extremely dark colour. This va- 
 riety is very liable to degenerate ; and must not 
 be' judged, or propagated, from deteriorated 
 seeds. 
 
 The violette bean is a rather early variety, and 
 arrives at maturity about the same time as the 
 common long pod. Its stem grows to the height 
 of about four and a half feet ; its pod is long and 
 broad, and contains three or four seeds ; and its 
 seed has a size and shape intermediate between 
 that of the long pod and that of the white Wind- 
 sor, and is of a very light purple colour when 
 young, and of a dark red colour when quite ripe. 
 — The red or scarlet blossomed bean is most 
 beautiful in flower, and very prolific in seed ; yet 
 is disliked by the fastidious on account of its 
 colour. Its stem grows to the height of four j 
 feet : its flower varies in colour from a pale red i 
 to a reddish-tinted black, but is generally a bright 
 red approaching to scarlet ; its pod is middle- 
 sized, and contains four or five seeds ; and its 
 seed has a darkish rusty brown colour, and re- 
 sembles that of the long pod in shape, but is 
 somewhat longer. — A black-blossomed bean men- 
 tioned by Miller seems either to be lost or to 
 have become mixed and identified with the red- 
 blossomed. 
 
 Farmers ought to be guided in the choice of 
 varieties of the field bean, by reference to the 
 peculiar circumstances of cultivation, and espe- 
 cially to the particular nature of the soil. Some 
 varieties, as we have seen, are suitable only for 
 heavy soils, and others are adapted in various 
 degrees to lighter soils ; and any variety ought 
 to be selected in preference to others, not from 
 blind regard to the fashion of a district, but from 
 an intelligent recognition of its fitness for the 
 conditions of its intended cultivation. The pre- 
 vailing and almost invariable use of the Scotch 
 bean in Scotland, is altogether unworthy of the 
 enlightened husbandry of the Scottish lowlands ; 
 and the general use of the tick bean in England, 
 to the prejudiced exclusion of the Scotch bean 
 from at least stiff soils, is grossly inconsistent 
 with the liberality and enterprise of the best 
 English farming districts. Arthur Young, even 
 in reference to the light-soil counties for which 
 the tick bean is most suitable, said, " The com- 
 mon little horse bean has the advantage of all 
 others, in being more generally marketable ; for 
 in certain situations, it is not always easy to dis- 
 pose of ticks, Windsors, long-pods, and various 
 other sorts. They also grow higher, shade the 
 ground in summer more from the sun, and yield 
 
BEAN. 
 
 161 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 a larger quantity of straw, which makes excellent 
 manure. But some of the other sorts are gener- 
 ally supposed to yield larger products. This, 
 however, is a point on which some well-conducted 
 comparative experiments are wanting." 
 
 Bean-seeds retain their vitality very long after 
 they become so dry as to be shrivelled and hard ; 
 yet when long kept, they do not germinate so 
 soon as when comparatively fresh. In judging 
 of their age and their other qualities, one or two 
 should be so bitten across as to make them crack 
 or split in an opposite direction to that of their 
 length. A bean which is easily fractured, and 
 whose interior exhibits a dry and husky but not 
 powdery appearance, is either old or has been 
 kiln-dried or heated in the mow. But a bean in 
 full possession of its vitality and of its capacities 
 for speedy and vigorous germination, can be al- 
 most as easily bitten asunder in any other direc- 
 tion as down the middle, and cannot without 
 difficulty be cracked or fractured, and exhibits a 
 toughish and fresh-looking interior. When none 
 but oldish beans can be obtained for seed, they 
 ought to be sown fifteen or twenty days earlier 
 than if they were fresh. 
 
 The Physiology of the Bean. — A bean of any of 
 the larger varieties affords a remarkably distinct 
 and most beautiful exemplification of the phe- 
 nomena of germination and nascent vegetable 
 growth. The cotyledons or seed-lobes are large 
 and fine specimens of phytological albumen [see 
 our second article Albumen], and serve as stores 
 or sources of suitable nourishment for the infant 
 plant in a manner analogous to the albumen of 
 eggs for embryo birds, or to the milk of the ani- 
 mal breast for the young of the animal. The 
 plume, plumule, or germ of the future stem, is 
 a very distinct small white point between the 
 upper part of the cotyledons; and the radicle 
 or germ of the future root, is an equally distinct 
 small curved cone at their base. " The matter 
 of the seed, when examined in its common state, 
 appears dead and inert, — it exhibits neither the 
 forms nor the functions of life ; but let it be acted 
 on by moisture, heat, and air, and its organized 
 powers are soon distinctly developed. The coty- 
 ledons expand, the membranes burst, the radicle 
 acquires new matter, descends into the soil, and 
 the plume rises towards the free air. By degrees 
 the cotyledons become vascular, and are converted 
 into leaves, and the perfect plant appears above 
 the soil." This is Sir Humphrey Davy's general 
 description of vascular, or at least of dicotyledon- 
 ous germination ; and, in all its parts, it is most 
 observably exemplified in the bean. When a 
 bean seed is placed in humid soil, under a mo- 
 derate degree of heat, either in the open air or 
 with access to an atmospheric current, its coty- 
 ledons soon swell, burst their skin or enveloping 
 membrane, and open like a bivalve shell. The 
 radicle and the plumule now appear as a small 
 oblong body, proceeding from the joint of the 
 opened cotyledons ; the radicle pushes rapidly 
 I. 
 
 downward, to elongate and ramify itself into the 
 stem and fibres of the root; and the plumule 
 rises upward, carrying the cotyledons along with 
 it, and exerting so mighty a mechanical force as 
 easily to pierce the soil, and even, if necessary, to 
 perforate or split asunder considerably cohesive 
 clods. All this commencing growth of both the 
 radicle and the plumule is effected by the decom- 
 posing power of moisture, air, and heat, upon a 
 portion of the albuminous matter of the coty- 
 ledons, and by the assimilation of the products 
 of the decomposition into the substance or organ- 
 ism of the nascent root and stem. The swelling 
 cotyledons obtain oxygen by the imbibition of 
 moisture and air ; they give up a portion of their 
 carbon to combine with this oxygen, and to go 
 off with it in the gaseous form of carbonic acid ; 
 and they, in consequence, are, to a large degree, 
 converted into a mild, milky, highly nutritious 
 fluid, which is drunk up by the minute nascent 
 vessels of the radicle and the plumule, and serves 
 at once for the support of life, the increment of 
 substance, and the full discharge of every organic 
 function. The soil yields no aliment or influence 
 whatever toward the nascent growth, but serves 
 merely for the retention of moisture, the moder- 
 ating of heat, and the mechanical anchoring of 
 the root ; and if it have been either ill pulverized 
 or subsequently trodden, it offers an amount of 
 resistance which much of the young plant's power 
 is expended in overcoming. When a footpath is 
 led across a field newly sown with beans, or when 
 large indurated clods remain unbroken by the 
 tillage, the nascent stem often makes long spiral 
 evolutions in attempts to worm its way to the 
 surface, and the cotyledons are drawn after it 
 into the crevices which it makes, and sometimes 
 are there held tight till released by the fall of rain. 
 While the oxygenic action within the cotyledons 
 is in progress, and while their originally hard 
 substance is in consequence undergoing transmu- 
 tation into the alimentary fluid, new and minute 
 vessels are formed throughout to convey that 
 fluid from every part of them to the growing 
 radicle and plumule ; and, at length, when the 
 radicle is fairly formed into a young root, with its 
 fibrous ramifications and its absorbing spongioles, 
 — when the plumule rises above the soil, enjoys 
 the influences of the open air, and assumes all 
 the offices of a young stem, — when, in one word, 
 the plant has passed out of its nursling condition, 
 and has acquired the organs and the position for 
 feeding itself with all requisite elements from the 
 soil and the atmosphere, the cotyledons cease to 
 yield nourishment, emerge above the soil, change 
 into seed-leaves, and begin to assist the new 
 mode of growth by elaborating the radical sap 
 with the atmospheric gases. Who can contem- 
 plate this wondrous process, without observing 
 both solemn and delightful evidences of the exist- 
 ence, wisdom, and power of the all-benevolent 
 Creator ? 
 
 Farm -cultivation of the Bean. — The south of 
 L 
 
BEAN. 
 
 Ireland and the somewhat moist districts of the 
 champaign parts of Great Britain, are much more 
 favourable to the cultivation of the bean than 
 either the mountain valleys or the comparatively- 
 arid plains. A very moist climate prevents the 
 setting of the blossoms; and a very dry one 
 occasions a destructive abundance of the bean 
 fly. A climate of medium humidity is the most 
 suitable ; and a dry summer in such a climate, 
 favours the production of the seed, and a wet one 
 the luxuriance of the straw. 
 
 Rich clays and strong moist loams were for- 
 merly regarded as the only soils in which beans 
 could be advantageously grown ; but free loams 
 and the richer kinds of light turnip soils have, for a 
 considerable time past, been found almost equally 
 suitable. A rich strong loam, such as is most 
 favourable for wheat, is the best for the bean ; 
 and, if properly prepared, will produce a crop of 
 fifty or even one hundred per cent, superior to 
 the average crop of any soil of medium quality. 
 A cold wet soil, or particularly a stiff retentive 
 clay, appears, during the early growth, to be per- 
 fectly suitable ; but it is far more favourable for 
 the straw than for the seed, and, unless exceed- 
 ingly well managed, yields but a poor return at 
 harvest. The bean is an excellent substitute for 
 a clean fallow upon inferior, wet, heavy land, 
 exactly as the turnip is the cleaning, strength- 
 ening, consolidating, commencing, member of a 
 rotation upon inferior, dry, light land ; and the 
 harvest appearance of these two crops, respec- 
 tively upon the heavy and the light soils, affords 
 one of the best possible criteria of the farmer's 
 industry and skill, and a quite decisive indica- 
 tion of the artificial changes which have been 
 effected on the mechanical and chemical condi- 
 tion of the land. The strong, penetrating, and 
 ramified root of the bean, cleaves and subdivides 
 the stiff soil, so as to draw down a free circulation 
 of atmospheric air, and to dry, pulverize, and 
 mellow the clayey earth ; and its succulent leaves 
 absorb a large amount of nourishment from the 
 atmospheric gases, and, by their fall and decay, 
 communicate the elements of most of that nour- 
 ishment to the soil. A crop of beans, while 
 eliminating nearly as much nutritious matter 
 for the use of animals as a crop of wheat, pro- 
 duces a far less exhausting effect upon the soil ; 
 and, in general, but especially upon heavy land, 
 it excels every other crop in making a remuner- 
 ating return for manure, and in effecting a suit- 
 able preparation for oats or wheat. 
 
 The bean, from its habit of growth, and the 
 manner in which it may be cultivated, is usually 
 regarded as a cleaning crop, and made prepara- 
 tory to corn ; yet, owing to the different adapta- 
 tions of its several varieties, and to the different 
 methods of cultivation of which it admits, it may 
 be very variously treated in systems of rotation. 
 It may be sown on land broken up from grass, 
 and will perfectly well succeed in such a case ; 
 yet it is not so suitable here as oats, and ought 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 in general to follow a corn crop, and to be treated 
 as a substitute for a clean fallow. When regarded 
 as an auxiliary to the profitable management of 
 heavy soils, it prolongs the remunerating series 
 of a rotation, or enables the farmer advantage- 
 ously to postpone the recurrence of summer fal- 
 low. If a good bean soil be in a proper state of 
 freedom from weeds, and have not been exhausted 
 by overcropping, it may receive the bean either 
 preparatory to corn or subsequently to corn, or, 
 in favourable circumstances, may grow the two 
 in alternation for a series of years ; but when 
 either weedy or exhausted, it ought, if a heavy 
 soil, to be laid up to naked fallow, and, if a 
 lightish soil, to be cropped with turnip. In the 
 richest districts of Kent, beans and wheat — by 
 cultivating the former in drills, giving plentiful 
 doses of manure, and making a diligent use of 
 the hoe — may, without any change or fallow, be 
 grown many years in succession. Throughout 
 the Isle of Thanet, the common rotation is bar- 
 ley, beans, and wheat ; and in the district around 
 Maidstone, the bean crop most commonly follows 
 clover, but sometimes it follows wheat, or barley, 
 or oats, and in a few instances it follows turnips. 
 One rotation of six crops tried by Arthur Young, 
 together with the produce of each of the crops 
 per acre, was beans 24 bushels, beans 32 bushels, 
 beans 40 bushels, cabbages 8f tons, beans 32 
 bushels, and wheat 33 bushels ; another was 
 beans 24 bushels, barley 39 bushels, beans 32 
 bushels, barley 44 bushels, beans 33 bushels, and 
 wheat 25 bushels; and another was beans 24 
 bushels, wheat 22^ bushels, beans 26^ bushels, 
 wheat 27J bushels, beans 24 bushels, and wheat 
 24 bushels. The chief use of these examples, 
 however, is to show how much may be made of 
 beans, or with what freedom and frequency they 
 may recur, — certainly not to inculcate that, in 
 any ordinary circumstances, they ought to be 
 treated with such remarkable prominence. Pro- 
 bably the most profitable stated recurrence of the 
 bean, on a moderately light loam, is in a rotation 
 of turnips, barley, clover, beans, and wheat ; or, 
 on very richly conditioned loam, turnips, barley, 
 clover, oats, beans, wheat, and beans. 
 
 Stubble land intended for beans should be 
 ploughed as early in autumn as attention to the 
 other duties of the farm will admit, and, in all 
 cases, with as deep a furrow as the strength of 
 the horses can accomplish. The bean is a per- 
 pendicular-rooted plant, extracting its peculiar 
 nourishment from a considerable depth below the 
 surface. The soil, therefore, should be deeply 
 ploughed, not only that it may be duly mellowed 
 by the frosts of winter, but that the root of the 
 bean may be enabled freely to penetrate and 
 ramify itself in search of its necessary aliment. 
 Some farmers, with the view of giving only one 
 spring ploughing, and that endlong, give the 
 autumn ploughing across the lands or ridges ; 
 and others, intending to give two spring plough- 
 ing*, give the autumn ploughing endlong. The 
 
 162 
 
BEAN. 
 
 163 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 latter of these practices is greatly the preferable, 
 especially on strong clays ; for it lays the field in 
 a better situation for throwing off moisture in 
 winter, and for becoming sufficiently dry for the 
 tilling and sowing operations in early spring. 
 Yet all wet, adhesive land, no matter how natur- 
 ally fertile, ought to have been previously relieved 
 of its superabundant moisture by thorough drain- 
 ing ; for as beans must necessarily be sown at a 
 very early period in spring, an undrained field of 
 this description can rarely be brought into a 
 condition of mellow, pulverized tilth in sufficient 
 time for the reception of the seed. 
 
 The amount and manner of preparatory tillage 
 in spring, immediately before seed-time, vary in 
 different districts, and obviously depend, in a 
 great measure, on the character of the weather, 
 and on the nature and condition of the soil. In 
 good weather, light and well-drained lands are 
 easily prepared ; and in wet weather, ill-drained 
 heavy lands cannot be even moderately prepared 
 without a maximum degree of both skill and 
 labour. Though spring ploughing for corn crops 
 is now very generally superseded by easier till- 
 age, yet on clayey soils, when beans are to be 
 sown as a substitute for a fallow, two spring 
 ploughings, preceded by an endlong autumn 
 ploughing, are highly advantageous. The first 
 of these ploughings should be given across the 
 ridges, as early in spring as the land is sufficiently 
 dry to admit of the operation ; immediately after- 
 wards, all the inter-furrows, furrows of the head- 
 lands, gaw-furrows, and cross-cuts, should be 
 carefully opened up by the plough or shovel, in 
 order to prevent the stagnation of surface-water; 
 and the second spring ploughing may belong to 
 the seed-process, and either form the drills for 
 sowing, or receive the seeds under furrow. Har- 
 rowing and weed-gathering ought, in every prac- 
 ticable instance, to be prosecuted and repeated 
 till the soil is thoroughly pulverized, and till as 
 many roots as possible of Triticum repens and 
 other vivacious weeds are removed. Yet in even 
 the best bean-growing districts, many farmers, in 
 dealing with wet or heavy land, form the drills 
 on the winter-furrow, — some dispensing with all 
 other spring tillage, and others adding only one 
 good harrowing. In these cases, however, the 
 deep, open furrows ought to be levelled in, and 
 any root-weeds which are exposed by the plough 
 in forming and reversing the drills, ought to be 
 carefully collected and removed. " It would, 
 perhaps, be found a judicious practice," says a 
 writer in the Farmer's Monthly Miscellany, " to 
 give strong adhesive soils, intended for beans, a 
 course of tillage in autumn, or at any suitable 
 opportunity before the severity of the winter 
 season sets in. The land, after being ploughed 
 and harrowed in a sufficient manner, may be 
 formed into drills in the usual way, in which 
 state it remains till the period of sowing arrives. 
 The manure is then laid on in the hollows be- 
 tween the drills, the seed deposited by the sow- 
 
 ing-machine, and all covered in by reversing or 
 splitting the drills. The advantages resulting 
 from this mode of autumn-tillage, are, that the 
 soil is effectually pulverized by the action of the 
 frost and other atmospheric changes during win- 
 ter ; many of the roots of perennial weeds, and 
 the larvae of insects, are destroyed by the same 
 agency ; and the land, by being formed into 
 raised drills, is preserved in a dry condition dur- 
 ing the winter months. By preparing the ground 
 in this way in autumn, the seed can be sown at 
 the proper season ; the soil is finely pulverized and 
 well prepared for its reception; and there is every 
 favourable prospect of an abundant return in 
 harvest." 
 
 The bean is a crop which makes an ample com- 
 pensation for manuring ; and when it figures in 
 a rotation which is quite or nearly free from tur- 
 nips, potatoes, and any similar crop, all the dung 
 of the farm may be advantageously given to it as 
 a preparation for wheat. The manure for it, of 
 whatever quantity, is sometimes spread upon the 
 surface, and ploughed in when giving the winter- 
 furrow ; and, in this case, the manure tends to 
 keep a strong clayey soil loose and open in the 
 bottom, and the land is in a state of considerable 
 forwardness for the operations of early spring. 
 Another and not infrequent practice is to apply 
 one-half of the manure immediately before the 
 autumn ploughing, and the other half immedi- 
 ately before the spring tillage. When either the 
 whole or part is reserved till the latter season, it 
 ought, at convenient times during the winter 
 frosts, to be carted to some spot in the field, 
 there laid in a heap, and, afterwards at a proper 
 time before being required for use, turned over 
 in order that it may undergo the requisite degree 
 of fermentation ; and, at seed-time, while the 
 drills are being formed, it should be carted from 
 the heap, dragged out in small portions into the 
 hollows of every third or fifth drill, and distri- 
 buted equally along the intervals. In the coast 
 districts of the bean-growing baronies of Forth 
 and Bargie, in the south-east of Ireland, fresh 
 sea-weed is spread on the stubble land during 
 autumn and early winter, and the bean-seed is 
 ploughed into the ground in ridges immediately 
 before Christmas ; and in the interior districts of 
 these baronies, composts of dung or sea-weed, 
 earth, sand, and other materials are accumulated 
 during autumn and early winter, and carted to 
 the field and ploughed in at the time of sowing. 
 But beans grown in these baronies — though 
 owing partly to the inferior plant and the infe- 
 rior culture, as well as to the manure — do not, in 
 the Scottish markets, bring within five shillings 
 of the price of those grown in the carses of Fal- 
 kirk and Gowrie. 
 
 Beans may be either sown broadcast or dibbled 
 or drilled. The broadcast method is commonly 
 practised in Ireland ; the dibbling method is ex- 
 tensively practised in England ; and the drilling 
 method is almost universal in Scotland. The 
 
BEAN. 
 
 164 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 broadcast metnod greatly economises time and 
 labour, and in some rare instances perfectly 
 serves all the purposes of the crop as to both the 
 produce and the land ; but, in general, it is most 
 slovenly, wasteful, and pernicious, — occasioning 
 a prodigal expenditure of seed, encouraging 
 carelessness in tillage, cherishing the growth of 
 weeds, preventing all the most useful operations 
 of after-culture, and rendering the crop befouling 
 and exhausting instead of cleansing and restora- 
 tive. 
 
 Dibbling in rows at regular intervals, when 
 the process is carefully performed, is a greatly 
 superior method to broadcasting ; yet though 
 well suited to the cottier and the small farmer, 
 it is far less adapted than the drill system to 
 fields of considerable extent. It effects a con- 
 siderable saving of seed, occasions perfect aera- 
 tion to every plant, and induces flowering and 
 podding at the lowest possible points of the stem; 
 yet, on a large farm, it consumes an amount of 
 time and labour, and involves a greatness of risk 
 in reference to the vicissitudes of weather, which 
 more than counterbalance its advantages. The 
 absurd practice formerly prevailed in England of 
 paying for dibbling according to the number of 
 pecks or bushels of seed deposited ; and this in- 
 volved a powerful inducement to dishonesty and 
 carelessness, and a corresponding risk of serious 
 limitation of the crop from paucity of seed. But 
 of late years dibbling-machines have been in- 
 vented for the speedy performance of dibbling 
 work upon a large scale ; and these, though in- 
 ferior in their mode of acting to hand-dibbling, 
 give the farmer a power of greatly accelerating 
 the work, and at the same time protect him from 
 the consequences of irregular sowing. See the 
 article Dibble. 
 
 Drill-sowing is effected in two or three differ- 
 ent methods, according to the kind of the pre- 
 paratory tillage, the nature of the soil, the in- 
 tended amount of after-culture, and the character 
 of the weather. When a previous spring-plough- 
 ing has been given across the ridges of the autumn 
 ploughing, the lands or ridges are divided by the 
 plough into hollow drills with intervening ridge- 
 lets, or one-bout stitches, at intervals of 26 or 27 
 inches. When manure is to be applied, the seed 
 is first sown, the manure is then drawn out and 
 divided in the manner formerly noticed, and the 
 high drills or ridgelets are next split out or re- 
 versed, by means either of the common plough, 
 or of a plough with two mould-boards. — In an- 
 other mode of drill-sowing, the manure is spread 
 over the surface of the winter furrow, and both 
 this manure is ploughed in and the seed is sown, 
 simultaneously with a single spring -ploughing. 
 Three ploughs start in succession, the second 
 immediately after the first, and the third im- 
 mediately after the second ; a drill - barrow or 
 sowing-machine is fixed between the handles of 
 the third plough ; and the seeds are thus depo- 
 sited in every third furrow, and covered by the 
 
 succeeding furrow-slice. This mode of sowing 
 may, of course, be so extended on a large farm 
 as to have either six or nine ploughs in simul- 
 taneous operation. — Another and better method, 
 when manure is applied at seed-time, is to plough 
 down the spread manure with a strong furrow, 
 and afterwards to draw light furrows for the re- 
 ception of the seed. But whichever of the methods 
 be practised, the whole field ought, in every ne- 
 cessary place, to be carefully and industriously 
 water-furrowed, by means cf the plough and the 
 shovel. The time of sowing is as early as pos- 
 sible after the severity of winter is past, — at 
 Christmas if the climate, as in the south of Ire- 
 land, is very mild, — in February, if possible, 
 throughout even the coldest parts of Scotland, — 
 and never, in any district, later than the end of 
 March. 
 
 Much difference of practice prevails, in both 
 the dibbling and the drilling systems, as to the 
 distance between each row of seeds. Some Eng- 
 lish farmers form their bean-rows at distances of 
 9 or 10 inches, others at distances of 15 inches, 
 and others in double rows of 4 inches asunder, 
 at exterior distances of 18 inches. But in all 
 such instances, hand-hoeing alone can be brought 
 into requisition in the after-culture ; and this is 
 comparatively inefficient for eradicating weeds, 
 and keeping the soil clean and pulverulent, on 
 heavy land. Drill-rows are sometimes formed 
 at distances from one another of three yards, and 
 ought never to be formed at smaller distances 
 than about 27 inches; for an ample width be- 
 tween them, is not only indispensable for the 
 important operations of horse-hoeing, but also 
 occasions a healthy and even requisite circula- 
 tion of air. 
 
 The quantity of seed considerably varies ac- 
 cording to the character of the soil, the condition 
 of the tillage, the method of culture, and the 
 variety of the seed. But, in average cases, with 
 the common horse bean, five bushels per acre is 
 a proper quantity broadcast, four bushels when 
 sown in drills, and two or at most three bushels 
 when dibbled. But in England, in consequence 
 of the climate being more favourable for the 
 ripening of the bean than in Scotland, the pro- 
 per quantity of seed is considerably smaller. A 
 thinly sown crop seldom succeeds well in Scot- 
 land, except upon very rich soil. — An useful 
 practice, in either broadcast or drill sowing, is 
 to mix about a bushel of pease or vetches with 
 every six bushels of the beans: for the pease 
 considerably improve both the quantity and the 
 quality of the fodder, and they also serve at har- 
 vest for binding up the beans into sheaves. A 
 mixed crop of this kind is called, in the agricul- 
 tural language of Scotland, a crop of beans with 
 a dropping pea. — The depth at which harrowing 
 deposits broadcast seed, is necessarily very vari- 
 able and quite uncertain ; the depth of deposi- 
 tion by drilling after the plough, or in what may 
 be called ploughing under, is from 3 to 4 inches ; 
 
BEAN. 
 
 165 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 and the depth, in the better and more accurate 
 method of sowing in hollow drills, covered over 
 by the splitting or reversing of the ridgelets, is 
 originally much deeper, but is afterwards re- 
 duced to 4 or 5 inches by the harrowing down 
 of the ridgelets into the hollow interspaces. 
 
 A new method of bean culture was commenced 
 a number of years ago on M. de Fellenberg's 
 farm at Hofwyl in Switzerland, and has since 
 been successfully practised, for several years, at 
 Ockham Park in England. It consists in so 
 treating beans and cabbages, that a fair crop of 
 both is obtained from the same land in a single 
 season. In February, the beans are dibbled in 
 double rows at 4 inches asunder from each other, 
 and at exterior distances of 3 feet; and these 
 wide exterior distances permit the subsoil plough 
 or the double mould-board plough to pass freely 
 along, without injury to the beans, as often as 
 the state of the soil may require till the planting 
 of the cabbages. The cabbages are sown in a 
 garden seed-bed in the previous autumn, pricked 
 out in a corner of the garden in March, and 
 planted between the rows of beans in the field in 
 May or June. They are of the thousand-headed 
 variety, and are planted at distances from one 
 another in the row of about two feet, and ought 
 to be from 5 to 8 inches out of the ground. The 
 beans are generally removed early in August; 
 the space which they occupied is then ploughed; 
 and the cabbages, though hitherto restrained in 
 growth, now grow with such rapidity as effec- 
 tually to prevent any considerable growth of 
 weeds. The cabbages yield a great bulk of green 
 food towards Christmas, and, if then stripped of 
 their leaves, produce a second sprouting at the 
 end of March or beginning of April. But as food 
 for breeding stock is much more important in 
 early spring than at Christmas, the cabbages 
 may be left untouched till the supply of turnips 
 is exhausted; and then, in the latter part of 
 March and early part of April, they may be eaten 
 off the ground in couples. The quantity of keep 
 afforded by them, in the latter mode of consump- 
 tion, is equal to that which would be yielded by 
 the same area of many kinds of turnips ; and im- 
 mediately after their being eaten off, the land 
 needs but a single ploughing to be ready for the 
 reception of spring corn. The yield of the bean 
 crop, too, so far from being diminished by the 
 great width of the rows and the accompaniment 
 of the cabbages, was found at Ockham Park to 
 be actually increased; for the average annual 
 produce during five years previous to the adop- 
 tion of the new method was 35 bushels per acre, 
 and the average annual produce during five years 
 of the accompaniment of the cabbages was 41 
 bushels. 
 
 The after-culture of the bean, in all the or- 
 dinary methods, is somewhat operose and not a 
 little important. In cases of broadcast sowing, 
 the harrow is used of course to cover in the seed; 
 but it is also used afterwards, in order to destroy 
 
 young annual weeds, either immediately before 
 the plants appear at the surface, or just after 
 they are fairly above ground, and have trans- 
 muted their cotyledons into seed-leaves. The 
 young bean plants, between the time of their 
 appearing at the surface and the time of their 
 obtaining their first green leaves, are so brittle 
 that their necks would be broken by the harrow; 
 but afterwards they yield without fracture, and 
 receive benefit rather than injury from the im- 
 plement, while, of course, a greater amount of 
 annual weedy growth is destroyed. When the 
 beans are sown in drills, the harrow ought to be 
 used ten or twelve days after the sowing, or as 
 soon after that number of days as the weather 
 will permit. The harrowing is given across the 
 drills so as at once to level down their summits, 
 to destroy the annual weeds which have vege- 
 tated, and to lay the soil level for the subsequent 
 operation of hoeing. The grass-seed harrow, or 
 even the common harrow, is very commonly em- 
 ployed ; but the kind of curved drill-harrow, used 
 in some districts, to perform a similar office in 
 the cultivation of the potato, is to be preferred. 
 This implement consists of two light curved har- 
 rows, adapted to the curvature of the drills, and 
 drawn by one horse. The two parts are mutually 
 connected, and severally provided with handles ; 
 and by means of these handles, the workman 
 keeps them fair on the drills, and disengages 
 them from weeds, large clods, or other obstruc- 
 tions. If the field is at all likely to retain any 
 surface water, the replacing of all the water- 
 furrows must be carefully attended to, both after 
 the harrowing, and after the subsequent clean- 
 ing operations. 
 
 These subsequent operations consist of repeated 
 horse-hoeings, hand-hoeings, and hand-weedings, 
 and ought, in every instance, to be performed 
 when the ground is in a medium condition be- 
 tween wet and dry. Before the introduction of 
 the horse-hoe, a common small plough, drawn by 
 one horse, was driven once up and once down in 
 the interval between every two drills, gathering 
 the soil from the drills into a ridgelet in the 
 middle of the interval ; a hand-hoeing was then 
 given, to cut the weeds close to the rows ; a se- 
 cond hand-hoeing followed, to destroy any fresh 
 growth of weeds ; and, some time after, a small 
 double mould-board plough, also drawn by one 
 horse, split open the ridgelet in the middle of 
 the interval, and laid it up as an earthing against 
 the sides of the drills. The implements now gen- 
 erally used, in addition to the common small 
 one-horse plough, are various kinds of drill-har- 
 rows or grubbers, provided with different sets 
 and shapes of coulters and tines, and powerfully 
 adapted to destroy weeds and pulverize the soil. 
 The small plough, when employed, first pares 
 away a portion of the sides of each drill ; and the 
 scraper, grubber, or drill-harrow then follows to 
 reduce, level, and clean this removed portion of 
 the soil. But the plough is really not needed; 
 
BEAN. 
 
 16G 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 for the most improved drill-grubbers can per- 
 fectly perform the whole work without its aid. 
 Wilkie's drill-grubber or horse-hoe, in particular, 
 is a most effective implement : its first or central 
 coulter has a double-feathered sole ; its other two 
 coulters are only single-feathered, and are so pro- 
 longed and hinge-jointed at top as to be capable 
 of expansion and contraction; and while these 
 coulters are admirably adapted for cutting all 
 weeds, a small attached harrow follows, and 
 brings the cut weeds to the surface. Another 
 excellent and very suitable implement is a spiked 
 roller, of such size as to suit the interval between 
 the rows, its spikes capable of being removed 
 from the cylinder so as to convert the implement 
 into a scarifier or a grubber, its frame provided 
 with a cross-bar for the attachment of different 
 kinds of coulters and tines, and its point mounted 
 on a small wheel to facilitate the transit from in- 
 terval to interval at the end of the rows. After 
 horse-hoeing or drill-grubbing has done its ut- 
 most, some women and boys, or some otherwise 
 disengaged men, must give a thorough hand- 
 hoeing, in order to remove whatever weeds may 
 have escaped the horse-hoeing, or may be situated 
 beyond its reach. These operations ought to be 
 repeated from time to time till all weeds are 
 thoroughly exterminated, or till the bean-plants 
 have attained so forward a growth that any far- 
 ther tillage would be injurious rather than benefi- 
 cial. A well-managed field of beans ought to be 
 as clean as a garden bed, and always is so under 
 the care of an industrious farmer. Nothing can 
 be a grosser outrage upon every principle of good 
 husbandry, or can more effectually defeat the 
 luxuriance of the cultivated crop itself, or the 
 preparatory tilth for the corn crop of the fol- 
 lowing year, than for a crop of beans to labour 
 hard for subsistence amidst a choking growth of 
 weeds. A common practice, after the several 
 hoeing and weeding processes are concluded, is 
 to raise a portion of the soil up to the stems of 
 the plants, in the same manner as is done with 
 potatoes. When the land is undrained and of a 
 retentive nature, this practice facilitates the 
 escape of surface-water, and tends to preserve 
 the crop in a dry position ; but, in other circum- 
 stances, it has scarcely any other effect than to 
 prevent the reapers from cutting the plants suf- 
 ficiently near the root in harvest, and to occasion 
 inconvenience in afterwards ploughing up the 
 land for wheat. 
 
 Topping of the Bean.— The removal of the tops 
 of bean-stems by lopping or nipping is almost 
 universally a part of bean-culture in the garden, 
 and is sometimes advantageously practised in the 
 field. The principal object of it is to avert the 
 devastations of the minute insect called the bean- 
 dolphin ; and subordinate objects are to invigor- 
 ate the flowering, and induce comparative regu- 
 larity in ripening. The structure and habits of 
 the bean-dolphin may be sufficiently learned from 
 the article Aphis. Fumigating with sulphur has 
 
 been tried against the insect ; but has seldom if 
 ever been successful without being of such 
 strength as greatly to damage the plants ; and 
 the removal of the tops is the only known effec- 
 tual remedy. The honey-dew which accompanies 
 the appearance of the aphis usually begins to be 
 observed about the middle of May, and is in many 
 districts popularly called the mildew ; it indicates 
 itself by embrowning the points of the leaves ; it 
 afterwards extends over the whole surface of the 
 leaves, and deepens the embrowning into black ; 
 and, if unchecked, it eventually blights all the 
 fructification, and kills the plant. The insect 
 itself, which is of a coal black colour, makes its 
 first appearance on the summit of the stem ; and, 
 if not dislodged, it soon swarms over the whole 
 of the top leaves, and eventually spreads down 
 the stem, and multiplies in myriads till the suc- 
 culency and the very vitality of the plant perish. 
 But if the progress of the flowering be watched, 
 some ants may be observed on the ground around 
 the plants ; and their presence is a certain indi- 
 cation that honey-dew is in the course of origi- 
 nation, and therefore a practical hint that the 
 time has arrived for the operation of topping. 
 See the article Ant. This operation is performed 
 either by a man walking along the intervals be- 
 tween the rows, and cutting off the heads of the 
 plants with a sword-blade or with a small scythe 
 set in a handle, or by women and children pass- 
 ing close along the side of the rows, and pinch- 
 ing off the heads of the plants with their hands. 
 In the former method, the loppings ought after- 
 wards to be gathered from the ground, and re- 
 moved from the field; and in the latter, they 
 may be deposited in bags or aprons, and emptied 
 from time to time into a cart. Operators pinch- 
 ing with both hands will perform the work with 
 far more expedition than would at first thought 
 be supposed possible, and their labour amounts, 
 in extreme cases, to the actual saving of the whole 
 crop. 
 
 Harvesting of the Bean. — In a cold and humid 
 climate, the harvest management of the bean, 
 on account of the succulency of the plant, and 
 the lateness and irregularity of its ripening, is 
 peculiarly difficult. The crop ought to be well 
 ripened before being cut, for otherwise it will 
 not easily be brought into a dry enough condi- 
 tion for being ricked, it will incur serious risk of 
 injury from unfavourable changes in the weather, 
 and it will, in any event, suffer considerable de- 
 terioration in its quality. If allowed to become 
 over ripe, some of the seed will be lost by shed- 
 ding, and much of the remainder will acquire a 
 dark colour in its outer skin, and occasion a 
 diminution in the market value of the sample ; 
 and if not allowed to become ripe enough, the 
 pods will shrink and deteriorate, and the haulm 
 will incur great risk of partial or even total fer- 
 mentation. After the eye of the seed is thor- 
 oughly blackened, and the skin has acquired a 
 yellowish and leathery colour and texture, even 
 
BEAN. 
 
 though the pod should be neither black nor dry, 
 the crop is in a fit condition for being cut down. 
 When wheat follows the bean, the latter ought 
 not to remain uncut after the first week of Oc- 
 tober; and, should any obstruction occur to a 
 sufficiently early housing of the crop, it ought, 
 immediately after being bound into sheaves, to 
 be removed to anothor field to be dried. The 
 expense of twice removing it — first to another 
 field, and afterwards to the rick-yard — will be 
 very richly compensated by the superior yield 
 from duly sown wheat, or especially by escaping 
 the risk of being compelled to withhold wheat 
 and substitute barley. 
 
 A somewhat common method of reaping beans, 
 is with old sickles which are not fit for reaping 
 corn ; another very common method, called bag- 
 ging, is with an instrument in the form of a 
 sickle, but broader in the blade, and as sharp as 
 a scythe ; and another method, though not so 
 common, is to mow them. Whichever of these 
 methods is practised, the crop ought to be cut as 
 near as possible to the ground, both that as much 
 of the straw as possible may be secured for fod- 
 der, and because the best pods are often situated 
 very near the base of the stems. A fourth 
 method, when the haulm is short, as in the case 
 of the Mazagan bean, is to pull up the crop by 
 the roots, and this method has the recommenda- 
 tion of leaving the land in a state of far better 
 tilth than if the crop were cut ; but it requires 
 a comparatively large number of workpeople, is 
 difficult or nearly impossible on firm or adhesive 
 soils, entails the duty of a very careful cleaning 
 of the roots previous to the operation of thrash- 
 ing, and, in almost any case, is unsuited to the 
 economy of an extensive farm. 
 
 The reaped crop ought to be left for a few days 
 in the swathe if mown, or in loose broad-band 
 quantities if cut with the sickle ; and when the 
 plants have somewhat lost their succulency, or 
 begin to be comparatively dry, they ought to be 
 bound into very small sheaves, either with the 
 twisted haulm of intermixedly grown pease, or 
 with bands of straw, hop-bine, or yarn. The 
 sheaves should be set on their buts, to dry, in 
 double rows or stocks, without any hoods or 
 riders ; or if a prolongation of moist weather be 
 apprehended, they may be piled into small round 
 ricks, so constructed as to admit a free and 
 searching circulation of air. 
 
 Beans continue to incur considerable risk even 
 in the rick-yard, and must be stored there with 
 careful regard to their being kept dry and ven- 
 tilated, so as to escape mould or heating. They 
 may be built in round ricks in the same manner 
 as wheat ; but whenever these ricks are not very 
 small, each should be constructed with a boss, or 
 conical opening through the centre from the base 
 to the top, so as to permit a free and constant 
 circulation of air. But when the crop is large, a 
 better method of storing is in large oblong stacks, 
 resembling a house in outline, and constructed 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 with a considerable number of both vertical and 
 horizontal subdivions. The top of such a stack 
 is formed and thatched like the roof of a house, 
 and does not impose its weight upon the beans ; 
 its subdivisions are made by cross-rails, which 
 serve the double purpose of preventing pressure 
 and permitting ventilation ; its base rests on 
 staddles, # which cut off all direct communication 
 with the ground ; and the portion of beans within 
 each of its subdivisions has a perfectly separate or 
 independent lodgment, so that the stack can be 
 diminished piecemeal to suit the minutest con- 
 veniences of thrashing or consumption. The 
 cost of the frame-work of such a stack, including 
 staddles, and measuring 40 feet at the base, about 
 44 feet in length, and about 18 feet in height at 
 the eaves, needs not be more than at the utmost 
 £12 ; and, if properly used, it will last during 
 many years. 
 
 Beans may be thrashed either with the flail or 
 with the thrashing-machine ; and they are dressed 
 by the winno wing-machine in the same manner 
 as corn ; but, in the process of riddling, all their 
 light seeds and broken shells ought to be care- 
 fully skimmed off with the hand. Thrashing by 
 the flail is better suited to progressive consump- 
 tion, and to the preservation of comparative suc- 
 culency than thrashing by machinery: and it 
 ought, therefore, to be preferred in every instance 
 when the haulm is given as food to working 
 horses. 
 
 Produce of the Bean. — The bean is the most 
 uncertain and fickle of all the field crops of Great 
 Britain, except pease, and ranges from a degree 
 above mere worthlessness to a degree superemi- 
 nently remunerating. The amount of produce is 
 affected not only by the habits of the plant itself, 
 but very powerfully by culture, weather, and the 
 aggregate of agricultural accidents. Professor 
 Low says, "Forty bushels to the acre are re- 
 garded as a great crop ; thirty bushels are a full 
 and satisfactory one ; and probably the average 
 produce of the kingdom does not amount to 
 twenty-four." Sir John Sinclair says, " A good 
 crop of beans on a fit soil, well managed, and in 
 favourable seasons, may sometimes exceed 42 
 bushels per statute acre, but from 24 to 32 bush- 
 els are reckoned a satisfactory produce. In un- 
 favourable seasons, even on very good soils, the 
 crop sometimes turns out almost an entire blank, 
 so far as the grain produce is concerned, and not 
 worth thrashing, except to clean the straw from 
 soil and mouldiness, before using it as fodder." 
 And Loudon, exhibiting the opinions of several 
 other eminent agriculturists, says, " The produce 
 of beans, when proper management is exercised, 
 and where diseases have not occurred, is generally 
 from 25 to 35 bushels per acre. Donaldson says 
 that a crop of beans, taking the island at large, 
 may be supposed to vary from 16 to 40 bushels, 
 but that a good average crop cannot be reckoned 
 to exceed 20. In Middlesex, Middleton tells us, 
 that bean crops vary from 10 to 80 bushels per 
 
 167 
 
BEAN. 
 
 168 
 
 BEAN. 
 
 acre. Foot says the average produce is from 3^ 
 to 4 quarters per acre. In Kent, A. Young 
 thinks, they probably exceed 4 quarters ; but in 
 Suffolk he should not estimate them at more 
 than 3 ; yet 5 or 6 are not uncommon." 
 
 Farm- Uses of the Bean. — Beans are better suited 
 for feeding horses, and are more nutritious, than 
 oats ; and they ought, when thus used, to be split 
 or bruised in a mill, and given in mixture with 
 cut or chaffed hay or straw. When beans are 
 given whole to horses, they are liable to be 
 swallowed without proper mastication, and to 
 cause indigestion and a laboured action of the 
 lungs. Beans, given first whole, and afterwards 
 ground, are very extensively employed in Eng- 
 land for the fattening of hogs ; and as they have 
 a tendency to render the pork very firm and not 
 sufficiently delicate, they are usually superseded, 
 in the last stage of fattening, by barley meal. 
 Bean meal is also well adapted to the fattening 
 of oxen, and renders their flesh better flavoured 
 than oil-cake does ; and when mixed with the 
 drink of cows, it very materially increases their 
 yield of milk. Millers in England allege that 
 new or soft wheat will not grind without the 
 mixture of a small quantity of beans ; and they 
 generally make this mixture far larger than even 
 their own allegation asserts to be necessary. 
 The adulteration of wheat -flour with beans is 
 known to almost all flour-dealers and bakers ; it 
 can easily be detected, and is usually allowed for, 
 in wholesale purchases; and it in consequence 
 imposes only on a few ignorant purchasers and 
 on the retail consumers. 
 
 In Scotland, beans are used, either whole or 
 broken, and mixed with oats, for feeding farm- 
 horses ; between the close of turnips and the 
 commencement of pasture, for fattening cattle ; 
 and in districts where grain payments prevail, 
 and where the ordinary household bread is made 
 of barley meal mixed with pease meal or bean 
 meal, for the partial payment of farm-servants. 
 When bean meal is given to cattle, great care 
 ought to be taken that each beast eat no more 
 than its proper quota ; for a master ox, if not 
 restrained, may devour far more than his share, 
 and may die of a surfeit. — Bean straw, especially 
 when mixed with that of pease, is of great value 
 as fodder for working-horses ; and, when well 
 harvested, is reckoned very hearty feeding. But, 
 in some working-horses, and in all riding-horses, 
 this food is apt to produce extreme flatulence, 
 colic pains, and a painful action of the lungs. 
 Bean stubbles, if the crop have been properly 
 cultivated and harvested, are of small value, 
 and, when wheat follows, require to be speedily 
 ploughed in ; yet, in some miserable instances, 
 when very censurable cultivation occasions the 
 ground to be matted with couch, knotgrass, 
 and other vivacious weeds, these stubbles are 
 apparently excellent pastures. 
 
 Garden cultivation of the Bean, — Beans are 
 sown in the open ground of the garden from Oc- 
 
 tober till near the end of June ; and when raised 
 as a luxury for the tables of the rich, they are 
 occasionally forced by artificial heat. They pre- 
 fer, like field beans, a rather strong, rich, moist 
 soil, yet will succeed in almost any kitchen-gar- 
 den mould. The seeds should be dropt regularly 
 into drills at three, four, or five inches distance 
 from seed to seed, according to the comparative 
 size of the plants. The soil should be pressed 
 firmly upon the seeds ; as the plants advance, 
 they should receive a little earthing up, and the 
 spaces between the rows should be kept free 
 from weeds ; when the blossoms expand, the 
 tops of the stems ought to be nipped off; and if 
 the bean-dolphin should obtain complete posses- 
 sion previous to the removal of the tops, the 
 plants ought to be cut down to within five or six 
 inches of the soil, and all the loppings carried 
 away. The quantity of seed of the smaller early 
 varieties, required for a row of eighty feet, is 
 about a pint ; and for the main crops, when the 
 seeds are planted further apart, the quantity is 
 proportionally less. 
 
 The kind of bean sown in the various succes- 
 sions, from the end of October to the end of Jan- 
 uary, is the small early Mazagan. In the warmer 
 counties of England and Ireland, this bean, for 
 all these successions, may be sown in any shel- 
 tered situation, which enjoys an exposure to the 
 sun ; but in the colder counties, and throughout 
 Scotland, it ought to be raised on a small warm 
 seed-bed, and afterwards transplanted. The seed- 
 bed may be about six feet square ; the soil must be 
 reduced to a fine powdery condition ; small drills 
 must be made three inches asunder, two inches 
 deep, and very solid and even at the bottom ; the 
 seeds must be sown at distances of about three 
 inches, and covered with fine soil, firmly pressed 
 around them; the seed-bed must be protected 
 either by a frame and lights, or by an archwork 
 of hoops covered with mats, or by some equally 
 effective contrivance ; and the coverings must be 
 removed in mild weather, and free airings other- 
 wise given with all possible frequency. Open 
 ground for the final growth of the plants must 
 be prepared by manuring, digging, and pulver- 
 izing ; drills must be made in it, two feet apart, 
 and sufficiently deep to receive the mass of roots; 
 and in settled weather, in February, or early in 
 March, the plants must be transplanted into 
 these drills, the soil being brought into close 
 contact with their fibres, and earthed up to the 
 height of two inches around their stems. — The 
 long-pod varieties may be sown from the first 
 week of February till the end of May, in drills 
 three feet asunder, and two or three inches deep ; 
 and the other varieties, described in a former 
 section of this article, may be sown in the order 
 of their respective lateness of habit, — the Wind- 
 sor varieties being usually selected for the main 
 crop. 
 
 Analysis of the Bean. — The ashes of the bean, 
 according to Buchner, contain 68-.50 per cent, of 
 
BEARING-REIN. 
 
 169 
 
 BEE. 
 
 phosphates of potash and soda, 9*35 of phosphate 
 of lime, 19*11 of phosphate of magnesia, T84 of 
 sulphate of potash and chloride of sodium, and 
 1*11 of silicate of potash. The bean itself, ac- 
 cording to Sir Humphrey Davy, on the authority 
 of Einhoff, in every 3,840 parts, contains 1,312 
 parts of starch, 31 of albumen, and 1,204 of other 
 nutritive matters, such as gum, starch, and fibrin. 
 Every 100 pounds of beans, according to Profes- 
 sor Johnston, contain 40 pounds of starchy sub- 
 stances, and 28 pounds of albuminous matter; 
 and from two to three pounds of beans, accord- 
 ing to the same authority, contain as much nour- 
 ishment for cattle as 10 pounds of hay, 5 of oats, 
 60 of turnips, 35 of carrots, 28 of potatoes, 55 of 
 oat straw, or 52 of wheat straw. — Dickson's Agri- 
 culture of the Ancients. — Young's Farmer's Kalen- 
 dar. — Marshall's Rural Economy of the Southern 
 Counties. — Mill's Husbandry. — Laioson's Agricul- 
 turist's Manual. — Sir John Sinclair's General Re- 
 port of Scotland. — Hunter's Oeorgical Essays. — 
 Brown on Rural Affairs. — Agricultural Report of 
 Berwickshire. — Loudon's Hortus Britannicus. — 
 Catalogue of the Highland Society's Museum. — 
 Magazine of Domestic Economy. — Treatise on 
 British Husbandry. — Sproule's Treatise on Agri- 
 culture. — Low's Elements of Agriculture. — Doyle's 
 Practical Husbandry. — Miller's Dictionary. — 
 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. — Liebig's Chemis- 
 try of Agriculture. — Farmer's Monthly Miscel- 
 lany. — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Jour- 
 nal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
 
 BEAN (Kidney). See Kidney Bean. 
 
 BEARING-REIN. The rein which occasions 
 the bit to press most effectually on the jaw of 
 the horse, and which compels the animal to carry 
 his head high, corrects his tendency to stumble, 
 and holds him in check when he is disposed to 
 run away. It is useful on level ground, indis- 
 pensable in fastwork, and generally necessary to 
 a horse who has become accustomed to it : yet it 
 prevents him from throwing his whole weight 
 into the collar when ascending an acclivity, and 
 is often, through useless and cruel inconsidera- 
 tion, made so tight as to excoriate the angles of 
 his lips, and painfully cramp the muscles of his 
 head. Yet, says a judicious writer in the New 
 Sporting Magazine, "The charge against it of 
 cruelty at once falls to the ground, because to 
 make a team work together in fastwork, every 
 horse's head must be as much restrained by the 
 coupling rein as it would be and is by the bear- 
 ing rein. Its excellence consists in keeping 
 horses' mouths fresh, in enabling a coachman to 
 indulge a horse with liberty of rein, without let- 
 ting him be all abroad, which he would be with 
 his head quite loose, and of additional safety to 
 the coach horse, as proved by the fact of either 
 that or the crupper always giving way when he 
 falls down. There are, however, teams in which 
 it may be dispensed with, and the horses have 
 an advantage in their working against hills." 
 
 BEAST. Any quadruped which is used for 
 labour or fed for the shambles. 
 
 BEATERS. The parts of the thrashing- 
 machine which beat out the grain, and the 
 parts of any other machine which have a beat- 
 ing action. 
 
 BEE. A well known economical insect, of the 
 hymenopterous order. The honey-bee is univer- 
 sally celebrated for its remarkable instincts, and 
 highly prized for the valuable products of its 
 industry. Multitudes of treatises, both learned 
 and popular, have been written upon it ; and 
 we cannot do more, within our restricted limits, 
 than present an outline of the most interesting 
 facts. 
 
 The Natural History of the Honey-Bee. — Three 
 sorts of individuals form a community of honey- 
 bees, — the female, mother, or, as she is commonly 
 called, queen, — the males, or drones, — and the 
 working bees, improperly termed neuters, as they 
 are actually females, though, in a peculiar re- 
 spect, imperfect. A hive commonly consists of 
 one mother or queen, from 6 to 800 males, and 
 from 15 to 20,000 working bees. The last men- 
 tioned are the smallest, have 12 joints to their 
 antenna, and 6 abdominal rings : the first joint 
 or square portion of the posterior tarsi is en- 
 larged at the posterior angle of its base, and 
 shaped like a pointed auricle, having its internal 
 surface covered with a fine, short, close, silky 
 down. They are provided with stings. The 
 mandibles are spoon-shaped, and not dentated. 
 There is on the outside of the hind legs, a smooth 
 hollow, edged with hairs, called the basket : the 
 silky brush of the first joint of the posterior 
 tarsi has 7 or 8 transverse striae. The mother, 
 or queen, has the same characteristics, but is of 
 larger size, especially in the abdomen : she has 
 a shorter sucker or trunk, and the mandibles 
 grooved and velvet-like beneath the tip. The 
 males, or drones, differ from both the preceding 
 by having 13 joints to the antennae ; a rounded 
 head, with larger eyes, elongated and united at 
 the summit ; smaller and more velvety mandibles, 
 and shorter anterior feet, the two first of which 
 are arched. They have no auricular dilatation 
 nor silky brush on the square part of the posterior 
 tarsi, and are destitute of stings. 
 
 When we examine the internal structure of 
 the honey-bee, we find at the superior base of 
 the trunk or sucker, below the labrum, a con- 
 siderable aperture, shut by a small, triangular 
 piece which has been called tongue, epipharynx, 
 &c. This opening receives the food, which is 
 thence conveyed by a delicate oesophagus, through 
 the corselet, to the anterior stomach, which con- 
 tains the honey; the second stomach receives 
 the pollen of flowers, and has, on its internal 
 surface, a number of transverse and annular 
 wrinkles. The abdominal cavity of the queen 
 and working bees also contains the little bag of 
 poison communicating with the sting. In the 
 
BEE. 
 
 170 
 
 BEE. 
 
 queen there are, moreover, two large ovaries, 
 consisting of a great number of small cavities, 
 each containing 16 or 17 eggs. These ovaries 
 open near the anus, previous to which they dilate 
 into pouches, where the egg is delayed to receive 
 a viscous coating from an adjacent gland. The 
 inferior half-circles, except the first and last, on 
 the abdomens of working bees, have each on their 
 inner surface two cavities, where the wax is 
 formed in layers, and comes out from between 
 the abdominal rings. Below these cavities is a 
 particular membrane, formed of a very small, 
 hexagonally-meshed net work, which is connected 
 with the membrane lining the walls of the abdo- 
 minal cavity. 
 
 Besides the distinctions remarked in the fe- 
 male, male and working bees, Huber regards the 
 working bees as of two sorts ; one devoted to the 
 collection of provisions, and all the materials 
 necessary to the comb, as well as to its construc- 
 tion; these he calls cirieres. The others are 
 more delicate, small and feeble, and employed 
 exclusively within the hive, in feeding and tak- 
 ing care of the young. — The resemblance existing 
 between the working and female bees first led to 
 the idea that they were of the same sex, and the 
 ingenious experiments and accurate observations 
 of Huber enabled him to establish this fact in a 
 most satisfactory manner. Having deprived a 
 hive of the mother or queen, he found that the 
 working bees immediately began to prepare a larve 
 of their own class to occupy this important sta- 
 tion. This was effected by enlarging the cell to 
 the dimensions of a maternal or royal chamber, 
 and feeding the selected individual on food ex- 
 clusively destined for the nourishment of the 
 royal larves. If merely fed upon this food, with- 
 out an accompanying enlargement of the cell, 
 the maternal faculties were but imperfectly ac- 
 quired, as the female did not attain the proper 
 size, and was incapable of laying any eggs but 
 those which produced males. — The cells of the 
 comb compose two opposite ranges of horizontal 
 hexagons, with pyramidal bases: each layer of 
 the comb is perpendicular, and attached by the 
 summit, and . separated from the rest by a space 
 sufficient for the bees to pass in and out. The 
 comb is always built from above downward. 
 The cells, with the exception of those for the 
 female larve and nymph, are nearly of equal size, 
 some containing the progeny, and others the 
 honey and pollen of flowers. Some honey cells 
 are left open, others are closed for future use by 
 a flat or slightly convex covering of wax. The 
 maternal or regal cells vary from 2 to 40 in 
 number, are greatly superior in size, nearly 
 cylindrical, and somewhat larger at the ex- 
 tremity. They have small cavities on the out- 
 side, and commonly depend from the comb like 
 stalactites, so that the larve has its head down- 
 wards. 
 
 The season of fecundation occurs about the 
 
 beginning of summer, and the meeting between 
 the females and males takes place high in the 
 air. This one fecundation is thought to be 
 sufficient to vivify the eggs which the mother 
 may lay in the course of two years. The laying 
 begins immediately afterwards, and continues 
 until autumn. Reaumur states that the female, 
 in the spring, lays as many as 12,000 eggs in the 
 lapse of 24 days. Each sort of egg is deposited 
 in the appropriate cell, unless a sufficient num- 
 ber of cells have not been prepared : in this case, 
 she places several eggs in one, and leaves to the 
 working bees the task of subsequently arranging 
 them. The eggs laid at the commencement of 
 fine weather all belong to the working sort, and 
 hatch at the end of 4 days. The larvae are re- 
 gularly fed by the workers for 6 or 7 days, when 
 they are enclosed in their cell, spin a cocoon, and 
 become nymphs, and in about 12 days acquire 
 their perfect state. The cells are then imme- 
 diately fitted up for the reception of new eggs. 
 The eggs for producing males are laid two months 
 latter, and those for the females immediately 
 afterwards. This succession of generations forms 
 so many particular communities, which, when 
 increased beyond a certain degree, leave the 
 parent hive to found a new colony elsewhere. 
 Three or four swarms sometimes leave a hive in 
 a season. A good swarm is said to weigh at least 
 6 or 8 pounds. The life of the bee, like that of 
 all the other insects of its class, does not continue 
 long after the great business of providing for the 
 continuance of the species is completed. 
 
 The Swarming of the Hive. — Though the hive 
 be amply stored with honey and wax, and the 
 young brood gradually approaching to maturity, 
 seems to leave nothing to be desired by the bees, 
 they all of a sudden desert their habitation to 
 go in quest of another. For this incident, which 
 is called swarming, there is no ostensible cause, 
 nor do the reasons assigned for it by different 
 observers prove satisfactory in our estimation ; 
 for its occurrence is irregular, and its frequency 
 is uncertain. According to common apprehen- 
 sion, swarming ensues from a hive being over- 
 stocked with bees, and especially from a young 
 queen seeking a new dwelling. It never takes 
 place, we acknowledge, unless the bees be numer- 
 ous ; but there are so many exceptions, that we 
 cannot say it is from wanting room : and instead 
 of the young queen, it is always the old one that 
 leads out the swarm ; nay, should an old queen 
 have conducted a swarm of this year, she will also 
 be found at the head of the first which next year 
 leaves the hive. Each subsequent colony depart- 
 ing is led by a young queen. An old queen never 
 leaves her hive until she has deposited eggs which 
 will become future queens, nor until her princi- 
 pal laying of the eggs producing drones is over ; 
 the common bees construct royal cells only, while 
 she lays those eggs which will be transformed 
 to drones ; and after this laying terminates, her 
 
BEE. 
 
 171 
 
 BEE. 
 
 belly being more slender, she is better able to fly ; 
 whereas it is previously so heavy and surcharged 
 with eggs, that she can hardly drag herself along. 
 One chief cause or concomitant of swarming ap- 
 parently consists in the agitation of the queen. 
 She is suddenly affected, hastily traverses the 
 combs, abandoning that slow and steady progres- 
 sion which she ordinarily exhibits : her agitation 
 is communicated to the bees ; they crowd to the 
 outlets of the hive, and the queen escaping first, 
 they hasten to follow her. Commonly the whole 
 take but a short flight, and the queen having 
 alighted, the bees cluster around her. This con- 
 stitutes the new swarm. 
 
 With regard to the precursors of swarming, 
 there is no infallible guide : those on which ob- 
 servers are accustomed to rely, the most fre- 
 quently prove fallacious. The general indications 
 given by Reaumur — a naturalist of the first emi- 
 nence, who draws his conclusions from facts, and 
 has fallen into few errors — are first, the appear- 
 ance of drones in a hive ; for no swarm will pro- 
 ceed from one where there are none : secondly, 
 when the bees are so numerous, that part crowd 
 about the outside of the hive, or lodge on the 
 board in clusters of thousands : and thirdly, which 
 is the least equivocal sign of the day of swarm- 
 ing, when fewer bees than usual go abroad for 
 collection, and return without honey or wax. 
 Most observers also affirm, that in the evening 
 before swarming an uncommon humming or buzz- 
 ing is heard in the hive, and a distinct sound 
 from the queen, called tolling or calling. Mr. 
 Hunter compares it to a note of a pianoforte ; 
 and other authors to different tones. 
 
 The extraordinary instinct and precautions so 
 conspicuous in bees, are apparently affected dur- 
 ing the period of swarming. We cannot. admit, 
 with those observers who seem more actuated by 
 the love of the marvellous than an exposure of 
 truth, that they are endowed with that prescience 
 which induces them, before their departure, to 
 prepare a place for their reception. On issuing 
 from the hive, bees, so nearly as we can deter- 
 mine, have no object in view; and they often 
 resort to situations the most unlikely, and evi- 
 dently unsuitable for their convenience or pre- 
 servation. After rising in the air, it is commonly 
 some tree that arrests their progress, and the 
 queen frequently alights at the unsheltered ex- 
 tremity of a branch, where the bees that may 
 have formed into various clusters in the vicinity, 
 come to surround her. But we have known them 
 repeatedly swarm on the grass, near the hive 
 they had forsaken, notwithstanding trees were at 
 no great distance. Bees swarm only during the 
 best weather, and in the finest part of the day. 
 Sometimes all the precursors of swarming, dis- 
 order and agitation, have been seen ; but a cloud 
 passed before the sun, and tranquillity was re- 
 stored. If a hive swarms oftener than once, the 
 new swarms consist of those bees that have been 
 
 abroad when the first event took place, added to 
 young ones come from the eggs laid by the queen 
 before her departure. Each is led out by a young j 
 queen, as there are usually several royal cells in a j 
 hive : but the bees can prevent the whole queens i 
 nearly of an equal age from leaving their cells, I 
 though come to maturity : and when they do lib- ! 
 erate them, it is according to their age, which they I 
 have some secret means of ascertaining ; for the ! 
 oldest are invariably liberated first. The young j 
 swarm, whether removed from the place where it | 
 settles or not, begins to work ; cells are con- 
 structed of wax from the honey the bees have 
 carried along with them ; and nature has so ar- 
 ranged it, that the first eggs laid by the queen 
 produce the operative part of the community. 
 
 The Site of the Apiary. — The situation and ar- 
 rangement of the apiary claim the cultivator's 
 attention. Each hive should stand on a wooden 
 sole, or rest, supported on a single wooden post 
 driven into the ground, or on three close together, 
 near the centre of the board, that the enemies of 
 the colony may have difficulty in crawling up from 
 below. It should be fixed securely, so as to es- 
 cape being overturned by the wind ; but the 
 common custom of laying a turf on the top must 
 be avoided, on account of the harbour it affords 
 to noxious insects. Hives should stand far apart ; 
 if there are six hives in one portion or division 
 of the apiary, they should not be less than nine 
 or twelve feet asunder. But too great a number 
 never should be situated in the same district. 
 The collections of bees are drawn solely from 
 flowers, and likewise, in some small measure, 
 from honey -dew, which at times appears on 
 leaves, and is said to produce an inferior honey ; 
 it is therefore evident, that immense quantities 
 of bees, actively employed, would not be long of 
 exhausting the whole. The number of hives 
 should, therefore, be regulated by the situation 
 of the apiary. A district abounding with flowers 
 and blossoms will admit of more than one where 
 the chief product is grain. An apiary ought to 
 stand in a quiet sheltered place, where the bees 
 may perform their labours totally undisturbed ; 
 flowers, particularly those most fruitful in honey, 
 should be copiously disseminated around ; and, 
 for the facility of saving swarms, it is better to 
 have low flowering shrubs in the vicinity than 
 lofty trees. Means should be practised to obtain 
 a succession of flowers in successive seasons, that 
 the bees may always have the collection of honey 
 in their power and without going to a distance. 
 It is not known how far they fly : some think 
 they traverse several miles; others, that their 
 flight hardly exceeds half a league : but the ac- 
 cidents to which they are exposed render it im- 
 portant for provisions to be near at hand. In 
 the low country, mignonette is said to afford the 
 finest honey, and may be kept in blossom a large 
 portion of the year. Bromwich, an intelligent 
 writer, relates that, in 1779, he planted a great 
 
BEE. 
 
 quantity of it before two bee hives, at a consi- 
 derable distance from any other bees. With such 
 abundant supplies as this afforded them, few ever 
 left his garden. In September he took the honey, 
 and found it exceed, by above a third, what he 
 obtained from any other two of his best hives, 
 where the bees were obliged to fly farther, and 
 equal in fragrance and odour to what is imported 
 from the warmer climates. It is a favourite 
 flower among bees ; for we have observed patches 
 of it, in the very centre of the city of Edinburgh, 
 resorted to from hives beyond the suburbs. Bon- 
 ner aflirms, that he has often " seen a hive, by 
 being placed nigh heath, become ten, twelve, or 
 fifteen pounds heavier in the month of August ; 
 whereas, if it had remained in its original early 
 situation, it would probably have become every 
 day lighter after Lammas." 
 
 The Feeding of Bees. — When seasons are pecu- 
 liarly unfavourable for the secretion of honey, 
 sometimes all the bees of an entire swarm may 
 perish in the middle of summer. Then, or when 
 they are deprived of too great a portion of their 
 stores, it becomes the cultivator's care to supply 
 the deficiency. There are various methods of do- 
 ing so, always regulating the supply by the num- 
 ber of bees and the temperature of the atmosphere. 
 The hive may be placed above a section of an- 
 other hive containing several combs with honey ; 
 or combs may be laid on the boards of the hive 
 before the entrance, which is less to be recom- 
 mended from exposing the bees and their provi- 
 sions to the invasion of strangers. Syrup of 
 sugar, treacle, and other sweet substances, may 
 be given them as food, introducing their allow- 
 ance every afternoon in nutshells, or in a vessel 
 with a grated covering, by an opening in the 
 back of the hive. Unless the supply be daily ad- 
 ministered, it is extremely difficult to preserve 
 the bees ; and by admitting of longer intervals, 
 the most skilful cultivators have failed. A prac- 
 tical operator informs us, that he takes an oblong 
 box, in one end of which is a reservoir contain- 
 ing honey, that is allowed to flow from the bot- 
 tom of the reservoir under a thin float buoyed 
 up by cork. This float has many small perfora- 
 tions, through which the bees standing on it 
 supply themselves with the honey. There is one 
 hole in the side of the box, which is to be applied 
 to the entrance of the hive, for admitting the bees 
 above the float, and another on the opposite side, 
 which is opened at pleasure, to allow them to es- 
 cape, should the box be too much crowded. The 
 lid of the box is a glass pane. On pouring honey 
 into the reservoir, the float rises, whence there 
 should not be such a quantity as to raise it close 
 to the lid or pane above. The box is about ten 
 inches long, four broad, two and a half deep, and 
 the reservoir is an inch wide. When used, the hole 
 in the side is to be placed close to the entrance 
 of the hive, which must be gently rapped on if 
 the bees do not immediately find the way down. 
 
 BEE. 
 
 It is entertaining to observe bees accustomed to 
 be fed in this manner, watching the approach of 
 the feeder ; when the ordinary time draws near, 
 they rush down to the box the moment that it 
 is put on the board, and after speedily filling 
 themselves they return to the hive, from which 
 they very soon come back for a second supply. 
 By throwing a little fine flour on those leaving 
 the box, it will be seen that they can fill them- 
 selves in three minutes, and are absent not above 
 five. One convenience that attends feeding in 
 such a box, is the exclusion of stranger bees : as 
 the sole communication with the interior is from 
 the entrance of the hive. Several practical ope- 
 rators recommend a mixture of sugar and small 
 beer as food, which we should warn others to be 
 cautious of adopting, as they will find honey or 
 syrup quite adequate to their purpose. It is 
 maintained that fruit may likewise be presented 
 to bees for feeding them. 
 
 How to take the honey and the wax. — It is un- 
 grateful to reflect, that, after all our care in 
 watching the progress of bees, in screening them 
 from injury, added to our admiration of their 
 singular industry, we must at once sacrifice so 
 many thousand lives in order to come at their 
 stores. Yet such is the general, though perni- 
 cious practice ; and whole colonies, which, in an- 
 other year, would send forth tens of thousands 
 equally industrious as themselves, are utterly ex- 
 tirpated. The mode of doing so is well known. 
 When the hives cease to increase in weight, or, 
 rather, when they begin to grow lighter, a hole 
 is dug in the ground, and some rags dipped in 
 melted brimstone being inserted in the clefts of 
 twigs stuck into the earth, the matches are kin- 
 dled, and, putting the hive above them, the bees 
 are quickly suffocated, and fall down in a heap. 
 Some authors strenuously defend this practice, 
 contending, that all expedients to save the bees 
 are both difficult and precarious, and that they 
 do not produce the same advantages. We con- 
 ceive that its facility, combined with inveterate 
 adherence to established customs, has proved a 
 strong recommendation. But the majority of 
 modern cultivators are disposed to preserve the 
 bees, while they share their collections. To- 
 wards the end of September, when all the flowers 
 have faded, when there is little brood in the 
 combs, and the bees are beginning to consume 
 the honey they have laid up, they may be fright- 
 ened out of the hive by beating on it, and the 
 combs then safely taken away. This, however, 
 would reduce the owner to the necessity of feed- 
 ing them during winter, whence an earlier sea- 
 son is generally chosen for it, that the bees may 
 still have time to lay in winter provender. The 
 highest part of a hive being always filled first, 
 and with honey of the finest quality, it may be 
 taken in the midst of summer if the bees are 
 kept in boxes, simply by removing the upper one, 
 and substituting another below, if that be rc- 
 
 172 
 
BEE. 
 
 173 
 
 BEECH, 
 
 quired. As every comb is seen in the leaf hive, 
 any one of the whole can be removed at will, and 
 new divisions inserted. The stores of the bees 
 should be moderately partitioned with them, and 
 due regard always paid to the advancement of 
 the season, and the state of the atmosphere. We 
 cannot tell how much they will produce. Thor- 
 ley declares that, in some summers, he has taken 
 two boxes from one hive, each containing thirty 
 pounds of honey. We hear of hives weighing 
 seventy, eighty, or even an hundred pounds; 
 but these bear no comparison with what M. Du- 
 hamel relates. A clergyman in France, who had 
 placed a well-stocked hive over an inverted tub 
 with a hole in the bottom, obtained no less than 
 420 pounds of honey and six of wax from it. The 
 cultivator should know the exact weight of his 
 hives, and mark their gradual increase or diminu- 
 tion, which will enable him to ascertain the pro- 
 per time of taking the honey. Bonner j udiciously 
 observes, that " the harvest of honey, like that of 
 corn, is earlier or later, more plentiful or scarce 
 in different years, according to the weather and 
 the climate, and the variety of the seasons and 
 situations." Sometimes he has known a hive 
 become gradually lighter after the first week of 
 August ; at other times, in favourable weather, 
 hives situated near heath have continued work- 
 ing actively during the whole of August, and 
 the greater part of September, and daily become 
 heavier. 
 
 How to separate the honey and the wax. — Of the 
 practical separation of honey and wax we need 
 say little, as it is universally understood by those 
 who cultivate bees for profit. That honey which 
 is most fluid, and runs most easily from the comb, 
 is considered the best and finest. To promote 
 the separation of the rest, the combs should be 
 cut into very small portions, and exposed before 
 a fire, to render the honey more liquid ; the pro- 
 duct will be honey of the second degree of fine- 
 ness ; and the remainder should be heated still 
 more in a vessel over a fire, and then squeezed 
 through a canvass bag, which will produce a 
 coarser kind, well adapted for feeding bees. It 
 facilitates the operation, to erect a stage of three 
 or four sieves, one always finer than the other 
 from the top, and in a short time the separation 
 is effected. Honey comb, wrapped in paper, and 
 kept in a cool place, may be preserved entire dur- 
 ing a whole winter or longer. To purify the wax, 
 nothing more is necessary than boiling the empty 
 combs, and those deprived of the honey, in water, 
 and removing the scum which will rise in succes- 
 sive meltings. The Abbe della Rocca proposes 
 to put a quantity of comb, tied up in a linen or 
 woollen bag, into a cauldron of water; as the 
 heat increases, the wax liquefies, and, escaping 
 through the interstices of the bag, rises to the 
 surface, while the refuse is retained behind. 
 This is a simple, and, as we conceive, very effec- 
 tual method. 
 
 The cultivation of bees forms one considerable 
 branch of rural economy, and we could wish to 
 see it much farther extended. This country is 
 capable of supporting at least four or five times 
 the number of hives now kept in it ; and, with- 
 out indulging in the speculations of extravagant 
 profit, which are generally entertained by tho 
 authors who write on the subject, we will confi- 
 dently affirm, that every one who attempts keep- 
 ing bees on a moderate scale, and pays them some 
 attention, will find it advantageous. See the ar- 
 ticles Honey, Honey Comb, and Wax. — See 
 Swammerdam Biblia Natural. — Maraldi sur les 
 Abeittes, Mem. de VAcademie des Sciences, 1712. — 
 Reaumur, Memoires pour servir a VHistoire des 
 Insectes, torn. v. — Schirach, Histoire Naturelle de 
 la Heine des Abeittes. — Bergman, De Apibus et Mel- 
 lificii vicissitudinibus ex Alveorum ponder atione 
 cestimandis. — Ray, Memoire sur VHistoire des 
 Abeittes, Journal de Physique, torn. xxiv. — Bonnet, 
 (Euvres, torn. v. — Delia Rocca, Traite complet sur 
 les Abeittes. — Butler's Feminine Monarchy. — Hart- 
 lib's Commonwealth of Bees. — Thorley's Inquiry 
 into the Nature, Order, and Government of Bees. — 
 Wildman on the Management of Bees. — Brom- 
 wich's Experienced Bee-keeper. — Bonner s New 
 plan for speedily increasing the number of Bee- 
 Hives in Scotland. — Huberts New Observations on 
 the Natural History of Bees. — Cotton's Bee Book. — 
 Transactions of the Linnwan Society, vol. vi. — Ren- 
 nie's Insect Architecture. — Kirby's Monographia 
 Apium. — Taylor's Bee-Keeper's Manual. — Nutt's 
 Humanity to Bees. 
 
 BEECH, or Beech -Tree, — Fagus Sylvatica. 
 A well known hardy tree, of the amentaceous 
 tribe. We notice it principally on account of the 
 economical uses of its seeds. It abounds in many 
 of our woods ; and is one of our most ornamental 
 forest trees. It is a native of the greater portion 
 of northern Europe ; but whether it is a native 
 of Great Britain, or was introduced at an early 
 period of our sylvan cultivation, is extremely 
 doubtful. Had it formed any part of our ancient 
 forests, its mast could scarcely have failed to be 
 preserved in our peat mosses along with hazel 
 nuts and pine cones ; yet it either does not exist- 
 in these mosses, or occurs in such paucity as 
 hitherto to have escaped observation. It usually 
 attains a height of about 70 feet, and sometimes 
 soars to a far greater altitude ; it has a grand 
 and massive, though somewhat formal and heavy 
 outline ; and it almost vies with the oak in state- 
 liness of character and impressiveness of effect. 
 Its stem is robust and powerful; its bark is 
 smooth and silvery, and gives to the tree a neat, 
 cleanly, and tasteful aspect ; its branches are 
 numerous and spreading ; its foliage is peculiarly 
 soft, smooth, and pleasing in summer, and be- 
 comes deeply tinted and almost gorgeous in its 
 autumnal decay ; its male flower has a bell-shaped 
 five-cleft calyx, and from five to twelve stamina, 
 and appears in April and May ; and its female 
 
BEESTINGr. 
 
 174 
 
 flower blooms on the same tree as the male, and 
 has a four-cleft calyx, and two or three styles ; 
 and its seed is an angular or three-cornered nut, 
 disposed singly or in couples in a muricate, four- 
 valved capsule. 
 
 The nut or seed, popularly called beech mast, 
 is pleasant to the taste; when eaten in great 
 quantities, it occasions giddiness and headache ; 
 when well dried and powdered, it may be made 
 into wholesome bread ; and when dried and care- 
 fully roasted, it can be used as a substitute for 
 coffee. Hogs are very fond of the mast ; and in 
 some districts of England, where there are ex- 
 tensive beech woods, these animals are main- 
 tained, for successive months, entirely on this 
 food. They thrive exceedingly on it ; and many, 
 of less than a year old, are killed for the market, 
 after having been fattened exclusively with the 
 mast; though others, which have been fed for 
 four or five weeks on barley-meal or pease, yield 
 better pork. A distemper called the garget, is 
 liable to be produced in hogs from feeding on 
 either beech-mast or acorns; and this may be 
 prevented, by giving the animals, on every alter- 
 nate day for two or three weeks, a few pease or 
 beans, moistened with water, and sprinkled with 
 a little finely-pulverized antimony. — An useful 
 oil is obtained from beech nuts by expression ; it 
 is nearly equal in flavour and delicacy to the 
 best olive oil ; it can be kept longer than that oil 
 without becoming rancid ; and it is used by the 
 poorer inhabitants of Silesia as a substitute for 
 butter. Two millions of bushels of beech nuts 
 have been obtained, in a single season, from the 
 forests of Eu and Crecy, in the department of 
 the Oise. The refuse of the nuts, after the ex- 
 pression of the oil, is given as food to poultry, 
 swine, and cattle. 
 
 BEESTINGr, or Biesting. The first milk taken 
 from a cow after her calving. It is thick, yellow, 
 and different in chemical composition from ordi- 
 nary milk. If it be not drawn clean off after a 
 cow's first calving, she may not have a proper 
 flow, or even any flow whatever, of ordinary milk, 
 
 BEET, — botanically Beta. A genus of herba- 
 ceous plants, of the goosefoot tribe. The species 
 are seven or eight in number, and are distin- 
 guished from those of other genera of the goose- 
 foot family, by having a large succulent root, and 
 a green calyx united halfway to a hard rugged 
 nut. Three species are culinary ; two are unfit 
 for economical purposes ; and two or three, be- 
 sides varieties, are extensively cultivated in the 
 field. The three-styled species is a perennial; 
 and all the other species are biennials. 
 
 The common beet, Beta vulgaris, is a native of 
 the shores of the Mediterranean, and was intro- 
 duced to Great Britain about the middle of the 
 16th century. It grows wild in Egypt and the 
 maritime districts of the south of Europe ; and 
 has long been cultivated in British gardens for 
 the sake of its sweet, tender, carrot-like roots. 
 
 The principal varieties of it are the green, the 
 red-rooted, and the yellow-rooted, — viridis, rubra, 
 and lutea. The leaves of the green variety are 
 used either as a pot herb in mixture with other 
 vegetables, or a plain boiled esculent served to 
 the table by itself ; and the roots of the red va- 
 riety are used for pickling, or boiled for slicing 
 cold in salads, or eaten as a salad by themselves 
 with spice and vinegar. The small red subvariety 
 and the long yellow subvariety have the reputa- 
 tion of being the sweetest, the most delicate, and 
 the richest in flavour ; and are cultivated with 
 extraordinary care at Castelnaudary in France, 
 and known to the French as the red and the 
 yellow beets of Castelnaudary. Any of the varie- 
 ties become forked in the roots, and compara- 
 tively destitute of succulency, when grown upon 
 stiff or stony land, and can be obtained in per- 
 fection only on light sandy soils, which their 
 roots can easily penetrate. The short or turnip 
 rooted sorts do best for shallow or loamy land ; 
 and the long-rooted kinds are most suitable for 
 light deep soils. The seeds must be sown in the 
 end of March or beginning of April, and well 
 covered with soil ; the young plants, whether in 
 drills or beds, must be thinned out to distances 
 from one another of one foot in ordinary land, or 
 of 18 inches on land of the most suitable kind ; 
 and the roots for the table ought to be taken up 
 in September, and stored with sand in a dry place 
 inaccessible to frost, and will remain good during 
 winter, but will become stringy in spring. 
 
 The field beet, or mangel-wurzel, is regarded 
 by some botanists as a distinct species under the 
 name of Beta altissima, and by others as a hybrid 
 between the red beet and white beet, or Beta 
 vulgaris and Beta cicla, under the name of Beta 
 hybrida. But, as it makes a prominent figure in 
 agriculture, and is far more generally known 
 under its German name than as a beet, we re- 
 serve a notice of it for the article Mangel- Wur- 
 zel. — The long-rooted beet, though a common 
 name of a variety of the Beta vulgaris, is properly 
 the name of a distinct species, which was intro- 
 duced to Great Britain from the Caucasus in 
 1820. This species is botanically as well as popu- 
 larly named long-rooted, — Beta macrorhiza ; and 
 is readily distinguishable from all the varieties 
 of Beta vulgaris by its usually growing to the 
 height of six feet, while they usually grow to the 
 height of only four. 
 
 The Sicilian or white beet, also called the chard, 
 Beta cicla, is a native of Portugal, and was in- 
 troduced to Great Britain in 1570. Its root is 
 seldom larger than a man's thumb ; its stem 
 grows erect, and usually attains the height of 
 about six feet ; its leaves are oblong spear-shaped, 
 and grow close to the stem ; its lower leaves are 
 thick, succulent, and have broad footstalks, and 
 remarkably thick midribs ; and its flower-spikes 
 are produced from the wings of the leaves, and 
 have narrow leaflets between the flowers. Its 
 
BEET SUGAR. 
 
 175 
 
 BEET SUGAR. 
 
 leaves are white, yellow, green, orange, or deep 
 crimson, according to the variety ; and its prin- 
 cipal varieties are the common white beet, and 
 the great white beet or Swiss chard. The stem 
 and the leaf-rib are peeled and dressed like as- 
 paragus or scorzonera, and are the parts properly 
 called chards ; and the leaves, deprived of these 
 parts, are used as a pot herb. The seeds ought 
 to be sown thinly, on an open and not too moist 
 spot of ground, in the beginning of March. If 
 the plants rise crowdedly, the leaves will be 
 small, full of fibres, and comparatively worthless ; 
 and the common white ought not to be left 
 nearer to one another than six inches, — the 
 Swiss chard not nearer than ten inches. Fre- 
 quent hoeings are required ; and one bed of 
 plants will yield leaves for use till the end of 
 the second season. 
 
 The sea beet, Beta maritima, grows wild on 
 the sea -coast and in salt marshes, in various 
 parts of England. It has a prostrate habit, 
 usually attains a length of only about a foot, and 
 has a tough woody root, and numerous entangled 
 branches. Its leaves are small, oval -shaped, 
 rather sharply pointed, succulent, and of a deep 
 green colour; and its flowers are produced in 
 spikes, and appear in August. Its leaves are 
 used as spinach ; and, when well dressed, are 
 delicate, well-flavoured, and easily reducible to 
 pulp. It is propagated from seeds in the same 
 manner as the common beet ; and it thrives in 
 almost any garden soil, w 7 ith little cultivation. 
 
 The curled beet, Beta crispa, was introduced 
 to Britain from the south of Europe in 1800 ; 
 and it grows to the height of six feet, and is a 
 hardy culinary plant. — The three-styled beet, 
 J Beta trigyna, is a rather pretty but nearly use- 
 less plant from Hungary. 
 
 BEET SUGAR. Crystallized sugar, manufac- 
 tured from the root of the white beet. Chemists 
 have, for about a century, been aware of the 
 saccharine wealth of different kinds of beet ; a 
 functionary of Berlin first publicly proposed the 
 manufacture of sugar from beet, by boiling, 
 slicing, and pressing the roots ; Buonaparte 
 caused beet to be annually cultivated, to the 
 aggregate extent of upwards of 100,000 acres, 
 in order to afford a substitute for the British 
 colonial sugar, which he forbade to be imported ; 
 many establishments, small and great, private 
 and public, have since been set up, in several 
 countries of Europe, for the manufacture of beet 
 sugar; and some fond speculations have occa- 
 sionally been entertained as to the probability 
 of this manufacture becoming an important de- 
 partment of British industry, and a valuable 
 stimulus to the labours of agriculture. But 
 either to sketch a history of the manufacture, or 
 to attempt an estimate of its capabilities, would 
 be to accumulate an enormous mass of both 
 political and fiscal matter, totally unsuited to 
 the character of our work. 
 
 One brief passage may serve as a specimen of 
 the whole. While the French government en- 
 couraged the manufacture of beet sugar, experi- 
 ments were made on a considerable scale, and 
 with great success, in the town of Bruges. " The 
 machinery was inexpensive, and the remaining 
 cost was merely that of manual labour, and a 
 moderate consumption of fuel. The material 
 itself came at a very low rate, about ten shillings 
 British by the ton; and to this circumstance 
 may be chiefly attributed the cessation of the 
 manufacture. Instead of encouraging the culti- 
 vator, the government leaned altogether to the 
 manufacturer, and made it imperative on every 
 farmer to give up a certain portion of his land 
 to this root, without securing to him a fair re- 
 muneration. The consequence was, that the 
 manufacturers, thus supported, and taking ad- 
 vantage of the constrained supply, have, in many 
 instances, been known to refuse payment even 
 of the carriage of a parcel, in other respects sent 
 in gratuitously; and a consequence still more 
 natural was, that the farmers, wherever they had 
 the opportunity of shaking off so profitless a 
 crop, converted the space it occupied to better 
 purposes. To the manufacturer, the profit was 
 ample ; an equal quantity of sugar with that of 
 the West Indies, which at that time sold for five 
 shillings the pound, could be produced on the 
 spot from mangel-wurzel at less than one shilling 
 by the pound ; and to such perfection had the 
 sugar thus made arrived, that the prefect, mayor, 
 and some of the chief persons of Burges, who 
 were invited by a manufacturer to witness the 
 results of his experiments, allowed the specimens 
 he produced to exceed those of the foreign sugar." 
 — \Newby > 8 Beta Bepicta.] 
 
 The root of the white beet, although so largely 
 employed in Europe in the manufacture of sugar, 
 has not received a very minute chemical inves- 
 tigation. The quantity of sugar varies from 8 
 to 12 per cent. ; but in the progress of manufac- 
 ture a portion of it is rendered uncrystallizable. 
 The quantity of juice obtained on an average is 
 about 66 per cent, with 34 per cent, of pulp, 
 and the amount of crystallized sugar about 5 per 
 cent, of the weight of the root. The following is 
 the ordinary process of extracting the sugar : — 
 The roots are reduced to a pulp by pressing them 
 between two rough cylinders ; the pulp is then 
 put into bags, and the sap it contains is pressed out. 
 The liquor is then boiled, and the saccharine mat- 
 ter precipitated by quicklime ; the liquor is now 
 poured off, and to the residuum is added a solu 
 tion of sulphuric acid, and again boiled ; the lime 
 uniting with the acid is got rid of by straining ; 
 and the liquor is then gently evaporated, or left 
 to granulate slowly, after which it is ready for 
 undergoing the common process of refining raw 
 sugars. The French manufacturers have acquired 
 so much experience in this process, that, from 
 every 100 lbs. of beet, they extract 12 lbs. of sugar 
 
BEETLE. 
 
 176 
 
 BIRD'S FOOT TREFOIL. 
 
 in the short space of twelve hours. The total 
 quantity of beet root sugar manufactured in 
 France in the year 1845-6, amounted to 39,403,754 
 kilogrammes, or nearly 40,000 tons. 
 
 BEETLE. A hand wooden implement, of the 
 nature of a mallet, very various in size, form, and 
 uses. A small one-handed beetle is used for beat- 
 ing clothes ; a larger one-handed beetle is used 
 by cottage-farmers, as a substitute for a roller, 
 for pulverising the clods of loamy and clayey 
 soils ; and a still larger beetle, with one, two, or 
 more handles, is used for splitting wood, and 
 driving wedges and hedge-stakes. 
 
 BEEVES. Oxen or black cattle. The word 
 beeves is properly the plural of beef. 
 
 BELL-WETHER. A sheep which has a bell 
 on its neck, and which leads the flock. 
 
 BENT. See Agrostls. 
 
 BERE. See Barley. 
 
 BIGG. See Barley. 
 
 BIN, or Binn. A coarse fixed box, or structure 
 resembling a large open chest, or crib, for hold- 
 ing corn or other agricultural produce. The corn- 
 bin of the stable contains grain or other proven- 
 der for the supply of the horses ; the yard-bin 
 contains straw or other bulky fodder for the sup- 
 ply of the animals of the farm-yard ; and bins of 
 other forms contain hops, bottled wine, or other 
 matters, and are called hop-bins, wine-bins, &c. 
 
 BIRD. See Hedge-Birds. 
 
 BIRD'S FOOT TREFOIL— botanically Lotus. 
 A large genus of leguminous plants, comprising 
 two British herbage species of considerable agri- 
 cultural importance. 
 
 The small horned bird's foot trefoil, Lotus cor- 
 niculatus, is a perennial deciduous trailer, and 
 grows wild on the open pastures of Great Britain. 
 Its root is branching, and somewhat ligneous, 
 and has its fibres marked with small granula- 
 tions ; several stems rise from each root, are 
 either simple or branched, spread in every 
 direction along the ground, and have a length 
 of from three to about twenty inches ; the floral 
 footstalks are either erect or recumbent, and 
 five times as long as the leaves; from two to 
 five flowers grow on each footstalk, appear from 
 June till August, and are bright yellow when 
 fresh, orange when decaying, and dark green 
 when dried. Linnseus says that sheep and swine 
 do not relish this plant, and that goats, cows, and 
 horses eat it. Dr. Anderson, mistaking it for an 
 astragalus, recommends it as excellent for both 
 green fodder and hay. Mr. Curtis and Mr. Wood 
 speak favourably of it as an agricultural plant. 
 Professor Martyn says that, in common with 
 several other leguminous plants, it renders hay 
 firm and substantial, and probably increases both 
 its wholesomeness and its agreeable flavour. Mr. 
 Woodward says that, in moist meadows, it grows 
 to a greater height than the clovers, is equal, if 
 not even superior, to most of them in quality, and 
 makes extremely good hay. Mr. Sinclair gives 
 
 it a qualified recommendation, and shows it to 
 possess both good and bad properties, and to be 
 suitable for some situations and unsuitable for 
 others. Sheep, contrary to Linnaeus' opinion, 
 readily eat it along with the herbage among which 
 it grows. Its flowers, indeed, appear to be much 
 disrelished, and are always left untouched ; and, 
 on dry pastures, on account of the plant's dimin- 
 utive size and creeping habit, the flowers are un- 
 happily the chief part of it which cattle can reach. 
 But sheep treat white or Dutch clover very nearly 
 in the same manner as this plant, seldom touch- 
 ing the flowers as long as they can obtain any of 
 the foliage. Small horned bird's foot trefoil con- 
 tains a larger proportion of bitter extractive and 
 saline elements than the clovers ; and the latter 
 plants contain a greater proportion of these prin- 
 ciples than the grasses ; and small horned bird's 
 foot trefoil might, therefore, be an advantageous 
 admixture where clovers are scarce, but is too 
 bitter and saline to be anywhere, with propriety, 
 a large ingredient in pastures. It is fond of dry 
 soils ; it soars to unusual height, and nearly 
 loses its procumbent habit, when growing among 
 shrubs ; and it ought either to exist in very small 
 proportion, or to be altogether awanting, in irri- 
 gated meadows or in any moist pasture grounds 
 which produce a succulent herbage. It makes 
 no contribution to the exigencies of pasturage in 
 spring, but continues to vegetate to a late period 
 in autumn. An acre of it, according to the Wo- 
 burn experiments, yields 10,209 lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 3,190 lbs. of dry produce, and 358 lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. 
 
 The greater birds' foot trefoil, Lotus major, 
 grows wild in wet shady grounds in Great Britain ; 
 and is also a perennial, deciduous trailer. It 
 possesses fully double the value of the preced- 
 ing species; and yet, by careless observers, or 
 even by practical farmers, has often been con- 
 founded with it. Its fondness for wet situations 
 is quite as decided as that of the small horned 
 bird's foot trefoil is for very dry soils ; its stems 
 are from one foot to three feet in length, covered 
 with long and loosely-spreading hairs, and not so 
 procumbent as those of Lotus comiculatus; its 
 leaves are fringed with hairs similar to those 
 upon the stems ; and its flowers are of a duller 
 hue than those of Lotus corniculatm, grow in 
 groups of from six to twelve in each head, and 
 bloom from about the third week of June till 
 August. On clavey soils, on all kinds of moist 
 soils, and on the richest kinds of dry soils, it 
 yields a larger produce than perennial red clover ; 
 but the nutritive matter of this produce is about 
 one-fifth less than that of the clover, and contains 
 a very sensible and unpleasant degree of bitter 
 extractive. The plant in its green state is dis- 
 liked by all classes of live stock ; but when made 
 into hay, it is readily eaten by deer, sheep, and 
 black cattle. It matures a smaller quantity of 
 seed than the small horned species, but amply 
 
BIT. 
 
 177 
 
 BLACKWATER. 
 
 compensates this defect by propagating itself in 
 the manner of the strawberry and of stoloniferous 
 grasses. It might be a very profitable substitute 
 for red clover on all wet and stiff soils ; but, on 
 account of its large proportion of bitter and sal- 
 ine principles, it requires a comparatively large 
 accompaniment of other herbage. An acre of it, 
 according to the Woburn experiments, yields 
 21,780 lbs. of green produce, 8,142| lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 680| lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 BISHOPING. " See Age of Animals. 
 
 BIT. The iron part of a bridle, put into a 
 horse's mouth, and of chief use for restraining 
 and controlling him. Many a bit is too sharp, 
 and sometimes ulcerates the base of the mouth, 
 and wears part of the lower jaw down to the 
 bone, or tears portions of it away. Little sores 
 in the mouth, usually ascribed to rustiness of 
 the bit, are far oftener occasioned by contusions 
 either from a sharp bit, or from a too severe use 
 of a moderate one. Extreme play of the bit is 
 sheer wanton cruelty to a docile animal, and may 
 sometimes provoke an obstinate one so to rear as 
 to endanger both himself and his rider. 
 
 BITE. A wound inflicted on one animal with 
 the teeth of another. An ordinary bite must be 
 treated as a lacerated wound ; and a venomous 
 bite, whether inflicted by a reptile or by a hydro- 
 phobous quadruped, must be treated first for the 
 extraction of the poison, and next for the heal- 
 ing of the incision. See the articles Wound and 
 Poison. 
 
 BLACK. A colour caused by the refraction of 
 all the rays of light. When all the rays are pre- 
 sent or reflected, the effect is whiteness ; and 
 when all are absent or refracted, the effect is 
 blackness. — A black colour in horses, especially 
 a glossy jet black, well marked, and without 
 much intermixture of white, is highly esteemed. 
 Any considerable proportion of white, especially 
 when it spreads round the eyes, or a great way 
 up the legs, adds nothing to either goodness or 
 beauty. The black horses of England have 
 usually more white than the black horses of any 
 other country, particularly those of Denmark, 
 Holland, Spain, and Arabia. Yet a star or blaze 
 of white, or a white muzzle, or a tipping of one 
 or more of the feet with white, always looks well 
 and lively, and is regarded by some persons as 
 an indication that the animal is better tempered 
 than if he were wholly black. Some blackish 
 horses have brown muzzles and brownish flanks, 
 and are often called black browns ; some have a 
 lighter colour about the muzzle, and are called 
 mealy-mouthed; and some have a white circle 
 round their eyes, and sometimes more or less 
 white upon the hips, and are called pigeon-eyed. 
 Blackish horses which partake most of the brown 
 admixture, are generally the strongest in consti- 
 tution. 
 
 BLACK BENT. See Alopecurus. 
 BLACK CANKER. See Turnip-Fly. 
 
 BLACK CATTLE. See Cattle. 
 
 BLACK-LEG, or Leg Evil. A formidable dis- 
 ease in the legs and sometimes in the neck of 
 sheep. It is frequent in the midland counties of 
 England, and is called the wood-evil in Stafford- 
 shire. The hoof or the knee is usually the first 
 seat of it ; and this swells, and makes the sheep 
 quite lame. The diseased limb is generally cov- 
 ered with small blisters, filled with a bluish fluid ; 
 and the skin is of the same colour, and soon 
 breaks into ulcers. The part affected should be 
 cleared from wool, well cleansed with soapy water, 
 and dressed with basilicon rendered caustic by 
 the addition of a little red precipitate, or with 
 any similar caustic ointment ; or the sores may 
 be thinly powdered with a little pulverized burnt 
 alum, and the whole limb wrapped in a cloth 
 thinly spread with the scab ointment. — When 
 the disease attacks the neck, it causes the sheep 
 to carry the neck awry ; and it may be treated 
 in a similar manner as when it attacks the legs. 
 — The name black-leg is also one of several pro- 
 vincial designations given to inflammatory fever 
 in the cow. See the article Inflammatory Fe- 
 ver. 
 
 BLACKMUZZLE. A disease in the face of 
 sheep. It is an erysipelatic eruption on the nose, 
 and sometimes extends up the face. It resembles 
 scab in outward appearance, but does not arise 
 from the same cause, and is not contagious. In 
 lambs, it has been ascribed to cutaneous affection 
 in the teats or udder of the dam ; but it is nei- 
 ther peculiar to lambs, nor of common occurrence 
 at any age ; yet as it is always limited to the 
 face, and generally spreads from the nose, it pro- 
 bably arises from some cause connected with 
 feeding. A mild mercurial ointment, holding in 
 combination some resin and some Venice turpen- 
 tine, will easily cure this disease. 
 BLACK OATS. See Oat. 
 BLACK PALMER. See Turnip-Fly. 
 BLACKWATER. A disease in sheep and in 
 black cattle. Blackwater in sheep is supposed to 
 be caused by rank pasturage, and is indicated by 
 the discharge of a black and sometimes bloody 
 serum from the kidneys; and when it proves 
 fatal, a serum of the same kind is found in the 
 stomach. The proper treatment for it is the ad- 
 ministration of tonics and gentle aperients, — the 
 tonics consisting of bark or steel, or of vitriolic 
 acid in infusion of bark. — Blackwater in black 
 cattle, and sometimes in sheep, is simply the con- 
 cluding stage of the disease called red water ; and 
 it cannot be made to yield to any known remedy, 
 but ought to be prevented by a prompt and skil- 
 ful treatment of the precurrent symptoms. " In 
 the last stage of redwater," remarks Mr. Thom- 
 son, " when the urine assumes a dark brown or 
 black colour, no remedy seems to have any effi- 
 cacy, the animal is sunk beyond recovery, the 
 bowels lose their action, suppression of urine fol- 
 lows, the animal stretches itself out and dies, as 
 M 
 
BLAIN. 
 
 178 
 
 BLEEDING. 
 
 if perfectly exhausted. It is the duty of the 
 owner, therefore, to attend to this disease at its 
 commencement, and pursue a determined course 
 of practice." See the article Redwatee. 
 
 BLAIN". A disease of black cattle and sheep. 
 It is sometimes called inflammation of the tongue ; 
 yet though it seems always to have its origin or 
 its chief seat in the membrane of the mouth be- 
 neath or above the tongue, it extends its ravages 
 widely over the system, and involves inflamma- 
 tion and gangrene of the oesophagus, the paunch, 
 and the abomasum. Frequent popular names of 
 it are hawker, glossanthrox, and gargyse. It is 
 a disease of both great virulence and very rapid 
 action, — sometimes proving fatal in a single day ; 
 and it ought not, in any case, to be trifled with 
 for even one moment. It occurs at all seasons, 
 and on all sorts of pastures ; but is most frequent 
 in sultry summer weather, on rich pastures, in 
 low and moist situations. It seems to be very 
 often induced by the contraction of a common 
 cold, while the vascular system is full of rich 
 blood, or while the animals are in a high condi- 
 tion ; yet some persons have ascribed it to a sud- 
 den rising of the blood, and others to the licking 
 up of a small red worm. An animal, on con- 
 tracting it, appears dull and languid ; the eyes 
 are inflamed, and make a trickling discharge of 
 water; a swelling appears round the eyes, and 
 sometimes on other parts of the body ; the pulse 
 is accelerated ; the flanks exhibit more or less of 
 a heaving motion ; the bowels, in some cases, are 
 constipated ; but, above all, and as the charac- 
 teristic symptoms of the disorder, blisters are 
 formed under the tongue or at the back part of 
 the mouth. When the disease is suffered to ad- 
 vance without a proper and prompt check, or 
 when its earlier stages happen to escape observa- 
 tion, a copious discharge of saliva flows from the 
 mouth, often mixed with purulent, bloody and fetid 
 matter, the tongue is much and rapidly enlarged, 
 and the animal suffers languor and exhaustion, 
 and seems in hazard of suffocation. A proper 
 and very expeditious remedy is thoroughly to cut 
 the blisters in the mouth ; and if much fever be 
 present, five or six quarts of blood should be taken 
 away, an aperient drink may be given, and the 
 mouth may be washed with a solution of one 
 drachm of chloride of lime in a quart of water. 
 If sickly debility remain after the fever is sub- 
 dued, a drink may be given once or even twice 
 a-day, consisting of two drachms of gentian, 
 one drachm of ginger, one drachm of tartrate of 
 iron, and a pint of gruel ; and till the animal ac- 
 quire appetite for ordinary food, or soundness of 
 mouth for using it, thin gruel ought to be kept 
 within its reach, and a proper quantity of thick 
 gruel given it with the horn. The disease, how- 
 ever contracted, may infect other cattle ; and 
 the purulent discharges of it, if falling on 
 any skinless part of the human body, occasion 
 such troublesome ulcers as cannot well be re- 
 
 duced without the application of lunar caustic. 
 All cattle, therefore, ought to be kept at a dis- 
 tance from a diseased animal ; and the human 
 attendant on the latter ought thoroughly to pro- 
 tect any spot of his hands which may be sore or 
 scratched. Sheep affected with blain require to 
 be treated in nearly the same manner as cattle. 
 
 BLAST. Blight in vegetables, or hoove in 
 sheep and black cattle. See the articles Blight 
 and Hoove. 
 
 BLEEDING. The surgical letting of blood, 
 for the alleviation or cure of disease. It is one 
 of the readiest and most powerful remedies for 
 the cure of various disorders, particularly those 
 of the inflammatory class ; yet though one of the 
 simplest, most common, and most useful of reme- 
 dial operations, it is very often both unseasonably 
 and bunglingly performed. In all acute and rapid 
 diseases, whether in the horse, the cow, or other 
 valuable domestic animals, it is of the greatest 
 importance, and ought in every case to be prac- 
 tised. In colds and inflammations of the lungs, 
 it is always required, and is the principal remedy 
 which can be used. In colic, suppression of 
 urine, and inflammation of the bowels, it cannot 
 do harm but is generally serviceable, and ought 
 always to be applied. In inflammation of the 
 eyes, the brain, or any other organ, whether oc- 
 casioned by external or by internal causes, it is 
 invariably suitable and ought to be promptly 
 practised. 
 
 In the case of neat cattle, in particular, all 
 swellings of the joints and all inflammatory 
 diseases, no matter of what organ or from what 
 cause, may be reduced by general bleeding ; blain 
 may be attacked by general, but more success- 
 fully by local bleeding ; enlargement of the glands 
 of the throat or of those between the jaws, should 
 be reduced by bleeding in order to arrest con- 
 sumption or other dangerous diseases of the 
 lungs ; feverishness or constipation as accompani- 
 ments of the yellows ought to be attacked by 
 bleeding ; contusions on the head or any wounds 
 or bruises whatever which are likely to occasion 
 inflammation involve a necessity for bleeding ; and 
 violent cold or catarrh which resists the power of 
 a few antifebrile drinks, may be cured by bleed- 
 ing. 
 
 Horses which stand much in the stable and 
 are full fed have greater need of bleeding under 
 any ailment than such as enjoy daily exercise ; 
 and when their eyes are heavy and inflamed, or 
 when their lips or the interior parts of their 
 mouth are unduly red, or when they mangle their 
 hay and seem unusually heated, they are in par- 
 ticular need both of being bled and of having 
 their diet lowered. The bleeding of young horses 
 when they are shedding their teeth, relieves their 
 pain and frees them from feverish heats. Bleed- 
 ing is sometimes desirable in spring to decrease 
 the ardour and strength which then characterize 
 the blood ; and it is sometimes necessary in sum- 
 
BLEEDING. 
 
 179 
 
 BLEEDING. 
 
 mer for reducing excessive heats and preventing 
 serious fevers. Some farriers, by way of averting 
 disease, and maintaining an easy and healthful cir- 
 culation, draw off a small quantity of blood, not 
 much or at all exceeding a pint, three or four 
 times a-year. But frequent bleeding creates a 
 plethoric habit, and cannot without great danger 
 be discontinued, and sometimes issues in a mis- 
 chievous diminution of the animal's strength, or 
 an almost ruinous irritation of the particular 
 veins which are opened. The cases however 
 which most require bleeding in horses, are colds, 
 fevers of almost all kinds, falls, severe bruises, 
 wands of the eyes, strains in hard riding or draw- 
 ing, and all other accidents where a stagnation 
 of the blood may be suddenly expected, or where 
 the small vessels may be broken and the blood 
 extravasated. Those horses which refuse their 
 food after riding or any sort of work, require to 
 be bled more frequently than others, to prevent 
 fevers and inward inflammations of the lungs, 
 the liver, or any of the principal viscera. Horses 
 just recovered from purging at grass, and begin- 
 ning to gather flesh, or horses upon any unusual 
 pasture, and contracting a heavy appearance 
 about the eyes, sometimes require to be bled. 
 When any epidemic appears among horses, the 
 bleeding of the sound animals may possibly act 
 as a preventative ; and if the epidemic continue 
 for a considerable time, the bleeding, in very 
 moderate quantity, may be repeated ; yet a much 
 safer and more rational preventative of contagion 
 is the prompt and continued separation of the 
 uninfected animals from the infected. 
 
 Local bleeding is the letting of blood for the 
 relief of some one part of the body ; general 
 bleeding is the letting of blood for the relief of 
 the whole system ; and the former, as its name im- 
 plies, draws off blood from the small vessels of the 
 part, while the latter draws it off from a great 
 or leading vein. An opinion was formerly enter- 
 tained that general bleeding was more effective 
 from certain great veins than from others ; but 
 this opinion is now quite laid aside. The most 
 convenient are the veins of the neck, of the arm, 
 or of the thigh, — particularly the first ; yet other 
 great veins are altogether as suitable. In all 
 diseases .of the head, and in all fevers and general 
 inflammations, the jugular vein is peculiarly 
 fit, at once from its situation, its size, and the 
 facility with which it can be cut. In local in- 
 flammations, any of the adjacent superficial veins 
 will suit. In diseases of the hinder extremity, 
 the saphoena or thigh vein is the best. In affec- 
 tions of the shoulder or of the fore-leg, the plate 
 or arm vein is preferable. In diseases of the 
 foot, the coronet but especially the toe is suitable. 
 
 Various kinds of lancets and phlemes are used 
 for performing the operation ; but in all ordinary 
 bleeding of horses or cattle, the common phleme 
 is the safest instrument, the most effective, and 
 the most easily used. It is more certain than 
 the lancet in the extent of the wound which it 
 
 makes ; and it can be applied with far less risk 
 of accident or mismanagement ; for it needs only 
 to be placed with its star fairly upon the part of 
 the vein to be cut, and to be smartly struck 
 directly above the star with a blood-stick or piece 
 of wood. The size of the star insures a sufficient 
 opening; and the blunted part or blade of the 
 phleme prevents it from going too deep. The 
 spring phleme is not so facile in operation as the 
 common one, and ought never to be used by an 
 inexperienced operator. The lancet, in the hands 
 of a novice, is not a little dangerous ; and, even 
 in the hands of a skilful operator, cannot be re- 
 gulated with precision. The resistance of the 
 integuments, the restlessness of the animal, and 
 the depth of thrust requisite to make a proper 
 incision, all endanger the success of the operation; 
 and very experienced veterinary surgeons have 
 been known, when using the lancet, to wound 
 the carotid artery. In bleeding sheep, dogs, and 
 small cattle, however, the lancet is the most 
 handy instrument. 
 
 A horse about to be bled is blindfolded on the 
 side on which the operation is to be performed, 
 or his head is turned and held well away. The 
 operator smooths the hair along the course of the 
 vein, and makes sufficient pressure on the vein 
 below the point of the intended wound to arrest 
 the flow of the blood, and make the vein rise 
 distinctly into view, but not enough to give it a 
 thoroughly swelled and rounded surface. He 
 places the phleme in a line with the course of 
 the vein, with the star close to the vein and di- 
 rectly over its centre ; he strikes the phleme 
 smartly but not very strongly with a piece of 
 wood called the blood-stick ; and should he un- 
 happily miss his mark or fail to make a fair in- 
 cision, he repeats the stroke, taking care to 
 place the star of the phleme in the external 
 opening, and in such a direction as to be exactly 
 on the centre of the vein. The pressure upon 
 the part of the vein below the wound must be 
 continued till a sufficient quantity of blood is 
 taken; for on the pressure being removed, the 
 blood will cease to flow. The blood ought to be 
 received into a vessel of known dimensions, or, 
 what is better, into a graduated vessel containing j 
 marks for every half pint of its capacity, so that 
 the operator may readily observe at any moment 
 the quantity of blood which has been abstracted. 
 The operator ought also to make the blood fall in 
 a regular stream into the centre of the vessel, 
 and not allow it to trickle down the sides, so 
 that it may regularly undergo the changes which 
 indicate the degree of existing inflammation, and 
 the proper time to stop the bleeding; yet he 
 ought to base the chief weight of his opinion on 
 the state of the pulse, and on the collective symp- 
 toms. 
 
 " The blood," says White, " should always be pre- 
 served, that the quantity drawn may be accurately 
 known, and that its quality may be ascertained. 
 If, after it has coagulated, a white or rather a i 
 
BLEEDING. 
 
 light buff -coloured jelly is found on the surface, 
 an inflammatory state of the body is indicated ; 
 but in order to render this criterion useful, the 
 blood must not be taken from too small an orifice, 
 nor should it be suffered to run down the sides 
 of the vessel which receives it. Blood drawn 
 from a healthy horse very soon coagulates, and 
 appears like an uniformly red jelly with a small 
 quantity of fluid, resembling jelly, floating on its 
 surface. This red jelly may, by washing, be ren- 
 dered of a light buff colour, and exactly resem- 
 bles the buff or size, as it is termed, of inflamed 
 blood. The most healthy blood, therefore, con- 
 tains this size, and the cause of its not being 
 conspicuous in such blood is, that coagulation 
 takes place before the red colouring matter can 
 have time to separate from it. But as blood that 
 is drawn from an animal labouring under general 
 inflammation or fever always preserves its fluid- 
 ity much longer than healthy blood, and as the 
 red colouring particles are specifically heavier 
 than the fluid with which they are mixed, they 
 will of course be gradually subsiding as long as 
 the mass continues fluid, leaving a coat of buff- 
 coloured jelly on the surface." " Should a whitish 
 or light buff-coloured jelly appear on the surface 
 of the blood, after it has coagulated or settled, 
 and should this jelly be of considerable thickness, 
 rather firm, not easily penetrated by the finger, 
 we may be satisfied that the horse's complaint is 
 inflammatory, that bleeding was a proper remedy, 
 and that, if the symptoms continue, the operation 
 may be repeated with advantage. But if the 
 blood coagulates quickly, is uniformly of a dark 
 liver colour, loose, and easily broken, with a con- 
 siderable quantity of water upon its surface, it 
 denotes debility, and shows that the disease 
 arises from a weakness of the system, and that, 
 instead of bleeding, tonic and cordial medicines 
 are to be employed, with every thing that may 
 tend to restore the animal's strength." 
 
 When the flow of blood is stopped, the edges of 
 the wound ought to be placed closely together, 
 and made fast in that position by passing through 
 them a small sharp pin. But in performing this 
 operation, the skin ought not to be unduly drawn 
 from the neck, else blood from the wound may 
 lodge between the skin and the underlying mus- 
 cles, and occasion an ugly and perhaps mischiev- 
 ous swelling. A little tow or a few hairs may be 
 wrapped round the pin, so as to cover the whole 
 face of the wound; and the horse's head ought to be 
 made fast for two or three hours, so as to prevent 
 him from rubbing the wounded part against the 
 manger. If the wound be not pinned, the orifice 
 may not close with sufficient firmness and expedi- 
 tion to allow the horse soon to resume labour, espe- 
 cially collar-work, with safety ; and if the animal 
 have liberty to depress his head below the man- 
 ger, the pressure of the column of blood ascend- 
 ing in the neck, may occasion the rupture of the 
 coagulum, and cause such a flow of blood as, if 
 unobserved, may very seriously injure and per- 
 
 BLEEDING. 
 
 haps destroy the animal. Yet pinning may, in 
 certain circumstances, be omitted without bad 
 consequences ; and in the case of dogs and black 
 cattle, it is very seldom practised. 
 
 The operation of bleeding a horse sometimes 
 induces a disease almost if not quite as bad as 
 that which it is intended to cure. The wound 
 becomes the seat of swelling and suppuration ; 
 and the cut vein becomes inflamed and is event- 
 ually obliterated. The most frequent cause of 
 this disastrous issue is the improper closing up 
 and subsequent treatment of the wound. If the 
 edges of the wound are pinned ajar, a slight sup- 
 puration may be occasioned by the contortion; and 
 if the tow be so firmly wrapped round the pin 
 that the pus cannot escape, inflammation first 
 spreads upon the cellular membrane around the 
 wound, and then upon the vein itself; yet the pro- 
 gress of the inflammation may be arrested before 
 the vein is attacked, by removing the pin, washing 
 away the pus and the coagulated blood, and 
 bathing the part with hot water or with a proper 
 solution of sugar of lead three or four times a- 
 day, and applying a poultice at night. — Again, if 
 the pin be inserted unduly far from the edge of 
 the orifice, the portion of the skin outside of it, 
 becoming dead and detached as a dry scab, is so 
 large an obstruction to the circulation, that, 
 before its detachment can take place, suppura- 
 tion is provoked, and occasions inflammation to 
 attack the membranes and eventually the vein. 
 — Farther, if the pin be passed through a large 
 portion of one side of the wound, and scarcely if 
 at all through the other, the parts are not brought 
 into contact, and mischievous irritation is ex- 
 cited. — Moreover, if the pin be inserted too near 
 either end of the orifice, and a single hair or any 
 other minute foreign body be enclosed, or even a 
 portion of the coagulated blood be allowed to re- 
 main, the same kind of disastrous effects may 
 follow. Much depends also on the situation of 
 the part in which the incision is made ; for if 
 the vein be opened lower than six inches down 
 the neck from the point where it divides into 
 three branches, and if the animal operated upon 
 be a draught horse, the retardation of the circu- 
 lation of blood in the vein by the pressure of the 
 collar, may cause the internal opening to break, 
 and occasion such an escape of blood beneath the 
 integuments as will irritate and inflame the cel- 
 lular membrane and eventually the vein. A 
 horse, too, who has been accustomed to be reined 
 up in harness, and who, after being bled, is sent 
 to grass, will so hang his head in obtaining his 
 food, as to retard the progress of the blood to the 
 heart, and to make the weight of it press against 
 the sides of the vein which was wounded, and 
 which is not yet sufficiently healed ; so that the 
 orifice is ruptured, a portion of blood escapes be- 
 neath the skin, and swelling and inflammation 
 are produced. External irritation, also, such as 
 friction from the rein of the bridle, or abrasion 
 by the animal rubbing his neck against a post, 
 
 180 
 
BLEEDING. 181 BLIGHT. 
 
 sometimes produces the same effects. Other 
 causes, though of less frequent occurrence, are 
 bluntness and rustiness in the phleme or lancet, 
 the adhesion of particles of dust to the inner 
 edges of the wound, the hacking repetition of the 
 incision before the blood is made to flow, the re- 
 opening of the wound after an interval of some 
 hours for the taking away of more blood, and the 
 accidental destruction, in any manner, of the 
 coagulable lymph which holds the edges of the 
 wounds together during the early period of the 
 process of healing. These several and diversified 
 causes of inflamed vein, show the dangers which 
 attend the operation of bleeding, and suggest the 
 precautions with which that operation ought to 
 be performed ; but the disease which they pro- 
 duce is so distinct and serious, as to be a proper 
 subject for separate discussion. See the article 
 Inflamed Vein. 
 
 The bleeding of neat cattle is a strictly similar 
 operation to that of the bleeding of horses ; yet 
 may require one or two particular remarks. A 
 rope or strap is usually passed round the neck, 
 and made pretty tight, in order to raise the 
 vein ; but this occasionally produces alarming 
 symptoms, and ought to be dispensed with by 
 every regular practitioner. The pressure of the 
 finger, as in the case of the horse, ought to be 
 quite sufficient for raising the vein. The lancet 
 is the instrument most suitable to be employed ; 
 and it ought to be broader-shouldered than the 
 lancet used for the horse. Yet when a mere 
 rustic or the farmer himself, and not a skilful 
 practitioner, performs the operation, he ought to 
 use the old phleme and bloodstick. Inflamed 
 vein is sometimes occasioned in as bad a form in 
 the ox as in the horse ; and it ought to be guarded 
 against by similar precautions ; and, when pro- 
 duced, must be cured or alleviated by similar 
 remedies. 
 
 When a sheep is about to be bled from the 
 jugular vein, he is held between the limbs of the 
 operator, with his croup against a wall. The 
 operator, with his left hand, presses upon the 
 vein a little below the spot where he intends to 
 cut it ; and, with his right hand, makes an ob- 
 lique incision in the vein, at the spot where it is 
 largest, and can be most distinctly felt through 
 the skin. The obliquity of the incision secures a 
 better flow of blood, than a cut either along the 
 vein or across it. But when bleeding from the 
 jugular vein is undesirable, a large vein which 
 passes from the foot along the back part of the 
 leg to the ham, and then goes obliquely over to 
 the fore part of the limb may be selected ; and 
 this vein is nearest the surface and sufficiently 
 large for the operation, at a spot a little above 
 the knee. The operation in this case is best per- 
 formed by securing the other three feet of the 
 animal, grasping the limb above the place where 
 the vein is to be opened, causing it to swell to 
 a state of sufficient development, and making 
 
 an oblique incision in it similar to what we have 
 recommended in the case of the jugular vein. — 
 A diseased or ruptured bleeding, as from the 
 navel or from wounds, will form the topic of a 
 separate notice. See the article Hemorrhage. 
 — Gibson on the Diseases of Horses. — Mackenzie on 
 the Diseases of Sheep. — Papers of Mr. Dick in 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Clater's Cattle- 
 Doctor. — Youatt on Cattle. — Youatt on the Horse. 
 — Spooner on Sheep. — White's Veterinary. 
 
 BLEMISH. Any feature of a plant or an ani- 
 mal which mars its beauty or deteriorates its 
 value, without seriously injuring its utility. 
 
 BLIGHT, or Blast. Any disease which seri- 
 ously damages or totally prevents the fructifica- 
 tion of a crop. It was long a subject of bewilder- 
 ment and apprehension to both farmers and gar- 
 deners ; and is still talked of by many cultivators 
 in a looseness of phraseology wretchedly out of 
 keeping with the enlightenment of the nineteenth 
 century. It was regarded by the ancient Greeks 
 as a blast from the offended deities, quite super- 
 natural in its origin, and altogether irremediable 
 in its influence ; it was known among the ancient 
 Romans under the name of rubigo, and supposed 
 to be a scourge in the hand of a particular deity, 
 whom they called Rubigus ; and it was ascribed, 
 by writers on agriculture and gardening of almost 
 all ages preceding the present, to causes which 
 were either conflicting, mystical, or at best alto- 
 gether misunderstood. Some of the most familiar 
 and devastating kinds of it, have at length been 
 fully investigated, and are known to be caused 
 by insects, by fungi, or by well-defined chemical 
 or meteorological agencies, and have been de- 
 scribed with an accuracy and a minuteness which 
 enable us readily to distinguish them from one 
 another, to designate them by distinctive names, 
 and to point out at once their origin, their in- 
 dications, and their prevention, alleviation, or 
 cure. See the articles Mildew, Smut, Rust, 
 Honey - Dew, Brand, and several others. Yet 
 one or two kinds of blight which are still men- 
 tioned by most writers under the name of blight, 
 and which are either principally or wholly as- 
 cribable to meteorological influence, may here 
 be noticed. 
 
 One kind of blight is occasioned by prema- 
 turely mild weather, followed by sharp frosts 
 and easterly winds, in spring. The very early 
 appearance of buds and blossoms excites delight 
 in the inexperienced, but apprehension in the 
 judicious; for subsequent frosts and east winds 
 may very probably arrest the flow of sap from 
 the roots, occasion the young leaves and shoots 
 to shrivel and die, and cause the arrested juices 
 to swell and burst the tender vessels, and to be- 
 come the prey of innumerable aphides. The 
 general result is either the death of the plant, 
 the destruction of its growth for the season, or at 
 the least the infliction upon it of a great degree 
 of temporary feebleness. The aphides which feed 
 
BLIGHT. 
 
 182 
 
 BLINDNESS. 
 
 upon the extra vasated juices, though but a con- 
 sequence of the blight, are sometimes mistakenly 
 regarded as the cause of it, and supposed to be 
 wafted by the east wind. Unskilful gardeners 
 I occasionally aggravate the blight by their very 
 | solicitude to avert it, closely matting up its trees 
 or keeping them protected during the day, so as 
 to render them so exceedingly tender that even 
 a slight subsequent frost does them material 
 damage. The sudden evaporation of hoar-frost 
 from the opening leaflets of a young hedge, by a 
 | powerful sun, in a calm vernal atmosphere, some- 
 | times so utterly destroys the incipient shoots and 
 | kills all the young foliage as to produce, in a few 
 j days, the appearance of a severe scorching by 
 fire. A hedge thus blighted, occasionally remains 
 leafless throughout the summer, or only shows 
 some feeble symptoms of exfoliation toward the 
 beginning of autumn ; and it ought, in every 
 case, to be left untouched till, by its own vitality 
 or without any artificial appliance, it has re- 
 covered strength and vigour. 
 
 Another kind of blight occurs in summer, 
 when farm crops have attained their full growth, 
 and is usually ascribed to sultry and pestilential 
 vapour. This blight formerly made great havoc 
 upon the vineyards of Italy, and still partially 
 scathes some of our potato crops, and scorches 
 and shrivels considerable portions of our crops of 
 hops and wheat. The Romans observed that it 
 generally occurred at the season of the ripening 
 of grapes, about noon, after short and heavy 
 showers, followed by sunshine, and that it made 
 j the greatest devastation in the centre of vine- 
 j yards ; and the English hop-growers of the pre- 
 j sent day observe that it occurs most frequently 
 j about the end of July, after rain followed by hot 
 sunshine, and that, whether general or partial, 
 it usually begins in the centre of the hop-ground, 
 and inflicts there its largest proportion of injury. 
 In one instance which was minutely observed, 
 the blight happened a little before noon, during 
 a very light or little more than perceptible wind, 
 and ran in the direction of the wind and at right 
 angles with the direction of the sunbeams. A 
 marked instance of this summer blight in wheat, 
 is recorded in the following terms by a close ob- 
 server. " In the summer of 1809, 1 had watched 
 the progress of the growth of a field of wheat on 
 rather a light and sandy soil, merely from having 
 had occasion to pass through it every Sunday in 
 going to serve a church. It came up with every 
 appearance of health, and also into ear, with a 
 fair prospect of ripening well. I had taken par- 
 ticular notice of it on a Sunday about the begin- 
 ning of J uly, as exceeding anything I could have 
 expected on such a soil. But on the following 
 Sunday, I was surprised to find a portion of the 
 crop, on the east side of the field, to the extent 
 of several acres, totally destroyed, — being shrunk 
 and shrivelled up to less than one half the size of 
 what it had formerly been, with an appearance 
 
 so withered and blasted that I for some time I 
 imagined I had got into the wrong field. The 
 rest of the field produced a fair crop." But 
 though such instances as this are ascribed wholly 
 to atmospherical causes, a careful inspection of j 
 the straw might possibly detect the presence of 
 minute parasitic fungi. 
 
 A third kind of blight, popularly called in Eng- 
 land the white blight, is occasioned by deficiency 
 or failure of proper nourishment ; it occasionally 
 attacks all kinds of plants, both wild and culti- 
 vated ; it is, as might be expected, most common 
 in thin gravelly irretentive soils, in very dry sea- 
 sons; and it usually consists in throwing the 
 plants prematurely into blossom, and ripening 
 the ear or pod before the body or more than the 
 mere embryo of the seed is formed. — The only i 
 known palliatives or preventatives of these three i 
 kinds of blight are proper condition and thorough 
 culture of the soil. 
 
 BLINDNESS. The want or deprivation of j 
 sight. Blindness occurs frequently in horses, j 
 and very greatly deteriorates their value, — ren- 
 dering them useless for some kinds of work, and 
 only half useful for others. The causes of it are 
 too obscure or recondite to be detected before 
 they produce their effect, or to be even conjec- 
 turally counteracted by any other means than the 
 general good treatment of the animals. Two 
 common but quite incurable kinds of blindness 
 are noticed in the articles Amaurosis and Moon- 
 Blindness; and a third kind is occasioned by oph- 
 thalmic inflammation. The blindness of a horse, 
 when induced, may be known by the uncertain, 
 unequal, and hesitating manner of his gait, by 
 his occasionally lifting the foot as if to step over 
 an obstacle when no obstacle exists, by his prick- 
 ing up his ears and moving them in a peculiarly 
 listful manner when any person enters the stable, 
 by his hanging back timidly and hesitatingly in 
 his halter, and especially by the dilatation or 
 contraction of the pupil of the eye under sud- 
 den transitions from light to darkness, or from 
 darkness to light. See the article Eye. But 
 when a blind horse is mounted by an expert 
 horseman, he may show none of the symptoms 
 in hesitation of gait, but, under the action of the 
 spurs, and from adroit management, may move 
 with perfect resolution and freedom. A horse 
 blind in but one eye may, according to cir- 
 cumstances, either be very little or very much 
 deteriorated. " The loss of one eye," says Mr. 
 Percivall, " does not enfeeble sight ; because the 
 other acquires greater energy, though it much 
 contracts the field of vision. It is said to render 
 the conception erring ; and the case of misjudg- 
 ment of distances is the one commonly brought 
 forward to show this. All I can say on this point 
 is, that the best hunter I ever possessed, a horse j 
 gifted with extraordinary powers for Leaping, was 
 a one-eyed horse; and this animal carried me 
 through a hunting season, without, to my recol- i 
 
BLINDNESS. 183 BLISTER, 
 
 lection, making one single blunder in leaping." 
 But, says Mr. Youatt, " although a one-eyed horse 
 may not be absolutely condemned for the common 
 business of the carriage or the road, he is gene- 
 rally deteriorated as a hunter, for he cannot 
 measure his distances, and will run into his leaps. 
 Many a sportsman, puzzled and angry at the 
 sudden blundering of his horse, or injured by one 
 or more stunning falls, has found a very natural 
 although unexpected explanation 6f it in the 
 blindness of one eye, and that perhaps produced 
 through his own fault, by over-riding his willing 
 and excellent servant, and causing a determina- 
 tion of blood to the eye, which proved fatal to 
 the delicate texture of the retina. Even for the 
 carriage or the road, he is considerably deterio- 
 rated ; for his field of observation must be mate- 
 rially lessened." 
 
 Blindness is much more frequent, but far less 
 inveterate, among sheep than among horses. If 
 almost any flock of sheep be carefully examined, 
 the eyes of one half of them will either show 
 symptoms of partial or total blindness, or present 
 indications of quite recent recovery from blinding 
 disease. The most common causes are prolonged 
 fatigue, hard driving, chasing about by dogs, 
 burying beneath the snow, warm days followed 
 by frosty nights in winter, and, as some think, 
 the blowing of the pollen of flowers into the eyes, 
 and sometimes either infection or some undefined 
 description of epidemic influence. In some kinds 
 of blindness, the whole surface of the eyeballs has 
 a light blue colour, resembling the colour of deep 
 salt water when seen perpendicularly in clear 
 sunshine ; # but in the more common kinds, a 
 white film gradually spreads over it till the whole 
 surface assumes a pearly whiteness. All the 
 kinds, however, appear to be preceded or accom- 
 panied by inflammation ; and when properly 
 treated, or even sometimes when they are merely 
 let alone, they, with few exceptions, gradually 
 and speedily disappear. The principal remedy, 
 in all bad cases, is to bleed the vein under the 
 inner angle of the eye, on the side of the nose. 
 The operator either takes the sheep between his 
 knees, placing its rump against a wall, or lays it 
 on its back, to be held in that posture by assist- 
 ants ; he next, with his left hand, presses the vein 
 about two inches from the angle of the jaw, and 
 opposite the third grinder ; and, immediately 
 upon the vein becoming sufficiently full, he punc- 
 tures it at a spot about an inch from the eye. 
 All stimulating applications, such as a solution 
 of white vitrol and other kinds of common " eye- 
 water," ought to be carefully avoided ; for they 
 will only increase the inflammation, and augment 
 the risk of permanent blindness. Almost the only 
 wash which can be of service is either a drop or 
 two of vinous tincture of opium introduced to 
 the eye, or a lotion consisting of a teaspoonful of 
 common tincture of opium and half a pint of 
 water freely applied to the exterior. Incurably 
 
 blind sheep incur some risk of drowning in ponds 
 or of other fatal accidents, and, on that account, 
 may at once be sent to the butcher ; yet, after a 
 few days of awkwardness and confusion, they are 
 almost certain to become perfectly accustomed 
 to the paths of the pastures, and to be taken un- 
 der the voluntary and constant guidance of some 
 other sheep of the flock. 
 
 Blindness not unfrequently attacks poultry, 
 and may, in general, be easily cured. It is gen- 
 erally a consequence or an accompaniment of 
 roup, and disappears when that disease is cured. 
 It is sometimes the result of pure inflammation 
 of the eye, and may consist in either cloudiness, 
 ulceration or enlargement of that organ, and may 
 be cured by a few fomentations with warm water, 
 each followed by the introduction of a few drops 
 of very diluted laudanum between the eyelids. 
 It is sometimes also the effect or symptom of 
 some other disease, and consists in the closing up 
 of the eye with mucous matter ; and in this case, 
 it may be removed by such simple means as the 
 cleaning of the coup, and a slight protection in 
 any manner from cold winds and chilly air.— 
 Transactions of the Highland Society —Per civall 
 on the Veterinary Art. — Youatt on the Horse. — 
 Clater's Cattle Doctor. — Gibson on the Diseases of 
 Horses. 
 
 BLINKERS. Leather plates permanently at- 
 tached to the sides of a bridle, and so adjusted 
 as to prevent a horse from seeing objects on 
 either side, without obstructing his vision in 
 front. 
 
 BLISTER. A medicinal preparation for in- 
 flaming the skin, and producing vesicles filled 
 with a watery or serous liquid. It is one of the 
 most effective appliances of the healing art, and 
 constitutes the chief remedy in the case of a 
 considerable number of diseases. The main prin- 
 ciple on which it acts is that of counter-irrita- 
 tion, or of reducing inflammatory action in an 
 interior organ of the animal system by exciting 
 a stronger local inflammation on the nearest ex- 
 terior part of the system ; and a subordinate prin- 
 ciple is the accelerating of the action of the near- 
 est vessels, or the rousing of the local absorbents 
 to a temporary condition of unusual energy. 
 
 Blisters are eminently efficacious in dispersing 
 such callous swellings as arise from strains, 
 bruises, and other similar causes. They are of 
 great service in reducing the inflammation of 
 parts remote from the surface : thus inflamma- 
 tion of the internal parts of the foot is reduced 
 by blistering the pastern ; inflammation of the 
 bowels, by blistering the abdomen ; and inflam- 
 mation of the lungs, by blistering the sides. 
 Blisters are also the best remedies for curbs, 
 windgalls, spavins, and various other disorders. 
 When properly made and free from any such 
 caustic ingredients as sulphuric acid and corro- 
 sive sublimate, they inflict no permanent damage 
 on the skin, and do not prevent the hair from 
 
BLOODSHOT EYE. 184 BLUBBER. 
 
 growing; and when they are not successful in 
 the first application, they can with all safety be 
 repeated. But a blister ought never to be ap- 
 plied to a part which is irritated or tender, for 
 it might then produce extensive and virulent 
 ulcer ; nor ought it ever to be applied where 
 there is a tendency to grease, for it will probably 
 aggravate the disorder ; and whenever it requires 
 to be applied during winter, thorough care ought 
 to be used to protect the animal from cold or 
 from a current of air about the legs. 
 
 When a blister is to be applied, the part should 
 previously be cleared as much as possible from 
 hair, a quantity of the blistering ointment 
 should be well rubbed into it, and a thin coat of 
 the ointment afterwards spread over it with a 
 moderately warm knife. A horse on beginning 
 to feel the action of the blister, is very apt to bite 
 the part, and, in consequence, both to do serious 
 mischief to the part and to blister his mouth ; 
 and to prevent this, he ought either to be tied 
 up to the rack, or to have what is called a cradle 
 placed about his neck. When a blister is applied 
 to any of the legs, the litter must be completely 
 swept away in order to prevent irritation of the 
 blistered part by straws. 
 
 The most active ingredient in the great majo- 
 rity of suitable blisters, is pulverized Spanish 
 flies. One common blistering ointment for horses 
 is compounded of half an ounce of pulverized 
 Spanish flies, an ounce of oil of turpentine, and 
 four ounces of hog's lard or simple wax ointment ; 
 another is compounded of an ounce of pulverized 
 Spanish flies, an ounce of oil of turpentine, two 
 drachms of sulphuric acid, and four ounces of hog's 
 lard ; and a third is compounded of 1^ or two 
 ounces of pulverized Spanish flies, half an ounce 
 of oil of origanum, two drachms of sulphuric acid, 
 two ounces of hog's lard, and four ounces of com- 
 mon tar. The last of these is said to be pecu- 
 liarly suitable for removing enlargements of the 
 back sinews or windgalls. Sulphuric acid ought 
 to be omitted in every case in which a somewhat 
 caustic influence is undesirable. Corrosive sub- 
 limate has frequently been recommended as an 
 ingredient ; yet, except when very severe blister- 
 ing, as in a case of bone spavin, is required, it 
 ought in every instance to be omitted, for it is 
 very apt to ulcerate the skin, and it leaves a 
 permanent mark or blemish. Good mustard, 
 made into a paste with hot water, and applied 
 hot, often blisters as well as Spanish flies' oint- 
 ment ; and ought to be used in inflammation of 
 the kidneys, and in any other case in which a 
 mischievous operation of Spanish flies is to be 
 apprehended. Tincture of croton, and some of the 
 preparations of iodine, also make active blisters. 
 
 BLOODSHOT EYE. The inflamed eye of an 
 animal. A proper remedy is bathing with ano- 
 dyne or cooling lotions, — for example, cold spring 
 water, either by itself, or with a slight admixture 
 of laudanum. 
 
 BLOOD -SPAVIN. A dilatation of the vein 
 which runs along the inside of the horse's hock. 
 It forms a little soft swelling in the hollow part, 
 and frequently causes weakness or lameness of 
 the limb. It may be bathed twice a-day with 
 vinegar or verjuice; or it may be fomented with 
 a decoction of oak-bark, pomegranate, and alum, 
 basted in verjuice, and afterwards bound over 
 with a flannel roller, soaked in the same prepar- 
 ation. If these remedies fail, " the skin," says 
 Bartlet, " should be opened, and the vein tied 
 with a crooked needle, and waxed thread passed 
 underneath it, both above and below the swelling, 
 and the turgid part suffered to digest away with 
 the ligatures ; for this purpose the wound may 
 be daily dressed with turpentine, honey, and 
 spirit of wine, incorporated together." But this 
 method of proposed cure by ligatures is now con- 
 demned by all skilful veterinary surgeons ; and 
 the ulterior methods at present practised are the 
 same as for bog-spavin, — blistering and firing. 
 See the article Bog-Spavin. 
 
 BLOW-MILK. Milk which is skimmed by the 
 method of blowing off" the cream. 
 
 BLOWN. The cattle disease more commonly 
 called hoove and hoven. See the article Hoove. 
 
 BLUBBER. The portion of the fatty sub- 
 stance of the whale which remains after the oil 
 has been separated by the process of boiling. It 
 is obtained in large quantities at the several 
 ports which have connexion with the whale 
 fisheries ; and when judiciously used, is an ex- 
 cellent manure. It operates by giving out large 
 supplies of carbon and hydrogen, to combine 
 with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and afford 
 aliment to plants ; and it exerts a prolonged in- 
 fluence, or is what farmers call a durable man- 
 ure, in consequence of its resisting the action of 
 water, and but slowly yielding to that of air. 
 But, if applied in its crude state, it will destroy 
 vegetation ; and even if too largely applied as an 
 ingredient in a compost, it will produce a disas- 
 trous effect. A good method of using it, is to 
 mix each ton of it with about twenty tons of 
 very fine mould, frequently to turn over the com- 
 post during a period of three or four months, and 
 to spread it on the surface of land in autumn, 
 and plough it in. It ought not, however, to be 
 indiscriminately applied to any kinds of soils or 
 at any periods of a rotation, but as nearly as 
 possible adapted to such a position as the pre- 
 paration of lea ground for oats. 
 
 The late Lord Somerville, who was one of the 
 first agriculturists to bring it into notice as a 
 manure, and who applied it to both the arable 
 and the pasture lands of his farm of Fairmile in 
 Surrey, mixed it with sandy earth and allowed 
 it to dissolve in the heap ; and he found its action 
 to continue during two or three years, and to 
 produce prime crops, i A farmer, speaking of his 
 own use of it during twelve years, says, " My 
 first essay was with it in its crude state, when it 
 
BOG 
 
 SECTION Or A BAM HT TIE BOG- OT ALLEN. 
 
 Z feet-. 
 
 '<feel 
 
 -AS feet . 
 
 10 fed 
 
 4 feel 
 
 Dark reddish brown,- mass compact; ' 
 no fibres or 'moss visible: surface of boa 
 decomposed by the atnwsphere. 
 
 Lfrfht reddish brown j fibres of moss 
 very perfect. 
 
 Pale yellowish brown; fibres of moss 
 very perceptible' 
 
 ep reddish brown.-nbres of moss 
 rcepufble . 
 
 ckish brown-fibres of moss scarcely 
 xpdble: contains numerous twias 
 dibwuclies ofbu^cbuaiderJcfir. 
 
 DuRyellowish brown- fibres notvisiblei 
 coictaxns much empyreumatLc oil; \ 
 uutss compact. 
 
 brown- mass conipaxt,tlbres 
 <le-ccntains mack empyrai 
 
 Blachnnass very compact has a stroru, 
 rcscj/ib'a/icc ofpicdi or coal -nurture 
 ccn chcidal in every directum and 
 lustre shining. 
 
 Marl, contains 64pTct ofc.irhcnotc 
 of lime. 
 
 if,,, -' . • ■ ■_ ~~ , 
 
 -.f^sti— x -_i ■ = - ; -.. —'J " " J 
 
 J Bovmr sc'Edin? 
 
BOAR. 
 
 185 
 
 BOG. 
 
 destroyed instead of assisting vegetation. I have 
 since made the blubber into a compost, in the 
 proportion of nine loads of earth to one load of 
 blubber. My plan is, first, to make a layer of 
 earth two feet thick, the length and breadth in 
 proportion to the quantity of blubber to be made 
 into compost. This layer of earth is covered 
 with blubber, about one foot in thickness, on 
 which another layer is laid, and so on alter- 
 nately, until the blubber is composted, covering 
 the whole three feet with earth, close beat down 
 at the top and sides, the same as is done to se- 
 cure potatoes from the frost. In this state, it 
 will ferment, and the whole of the earth becomes 
 impregnated with the foul air of the blubber. 
 When this fermentation abates, which it will do 
 in about two months, I then turn the heap over 
 from top to bottom. The bottom layer of earth, 
 in consequence, becomes the top or cover, and 
 will require some addition to secure the escape 
 of the air by the second fermentation. When 
 this abates, the compost is again turned over ; 
 and, after a third fermentation, becomes fit for 
 use." And in this state he very advantageously 
 applied it to both grass and tillage land at the 
 rate of from 20 to 30 tons per acre. 
 
 BOAR. The male of the swine. See Hog. 
 
 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. See Agricul- 
 tural Societies. 
 
 BOG. A superficial and quite recent geognos- 
 tic formation of alluvial earths and dead herba- 
 ceous vegetation, soft, watery, and antiseptic, 
 occasionally intermixed with dead trees or tinc- 
 tured with metallic oxides, and varying in me- 
 chanical character from pulverulent or gravelly 
 peat to spongy and aqueous moss. One well- 
 defined variety of it occurs principally on the 
 sides of mountains, and sometimes on not very 
 retentive substrata in low-lying districts, and 
 may be called mountain bog. This consists 
 chiefly of the decayed roots and stems of heath 
 and coarse grasses, but contains some earthy 
 matter ; it is of a dark brownish-black colour, 
 and produces heath and coarse grasses ; and it 
 varies in depth from a few inches to three or 
 four feet. Another well-defined variety was 
 formed on the site of lakes, or of prolonged or 
 frequent over-floodings of comparatively tranquil 
 water, and may be called lacustrine bog. This 
 consists of the decayed roots and stems of aquatic 
 plants, contains a considerable proportion of both 
 earthy and animal matters, is of a blackish col- 
 our, and generally, in its natural state, produces 
 coarse aquatic plants. The fens of Lincolnshire, 
 Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, consist principally 
 of lacustrine bog, and are the most profitable 
 kind of boggy surface on which the British geor- 
 gist can operate. A third well-defined variety 
 of bog is the well-known kind called flow or 
 fibrous bog, and often regarded as comprising all 
 i he varieties of true bog. It consists chiefly of 
 numerous species of decayed or decaying moss- 
 
 plants, with a great predominance of Sphagnum 
 obtusifolium ; it is deep, wet, and spongy, re- 
 markably antiseptic, and quite or nearly free 
 from earthy ingredients ; and, though sometimes 
 occurring on the sides of mountains which have 
 a retentive subsoil, it exists principally in low 
 flat situations, and appears to have, in many in- 
 stances, grown upon the surface of lacustrine 
 bogs. This variety constitutes Lochar Moss in 
 Dumfries-shire, Chat Moss in Lancashire, and the 
 enormous and many- membered Bog of Allen in 
 Ireland ; it has engaged the attention of the 
 most eminent georgists, with a view to its re- 
 clamation ; and it is bog par excellence, or the 
 only variety of moss formation speculated upon 
 in the vast majority of schemes which have been 
 promulged, during the last half century, for bog 
 improvement. 
 
 When any part of the surface of the earth 
 is so barren as not to produce plants which 
 grow by striking root in the soil, some of the 
 coriaceous lichens and smaller bryums and hyp- 
 nums, which have no rostel to send into the 
 soil, but lay hold on the surface with their 
 small fangs, and obtain their whole nourishment 
 from air and water, first occupy the ground ; 
 and these little vivacious and persistent crypto- 
 gams usually thrive and multiply with a rapidity 
 proportioned to the constancy, abundance, and 
 stillness of the plashes and ponds of water spread 
 athward the surface. When a considerable and 
 permanent supply of water exists, cushions of 
 bryums and hypnums, but especially of Bryvm 
 palustre, begin to form over the original growths, 
 and serve as dams to detain more water. The 
 Sphagnum obtusifolium, in its several varieties, 
 then occupies the hollows ; some very branched 
 kinds of lichen grow thick on every hillock ; 
 some of the other parasitical and aqueous musci 
 and lichens lend their aid to the accumulation ; 
 and thus, in the low, flat, unproductive districts 
 of cold and rainy countries, wherever water is 
 stagnant and husbandry neglected, a thick stra- 
 tum of living moss is formed, which, by rapid 
 reproduction above and constant decay below, 
 speedily creates an expanse of bog. 
 
 When the parasitical plants have formed a 
 spongy mass of sufficient thickness to retain a 
 permanent and plentiful supply of water, and 
 especially when they have effected some degree 
 of decomposition in the lower portion of the 
 mass, they become a fit soil for sturdier and 
 more accumulative marshy plants of our country, 
 phsenogamous as well as agamous. The three 
 marsh species of cotton grass, in particular — 
 Eriophorum polystachyon, E. angustifolium, and E. 
 pubescens — very speedily appear and flourish, and 
 are always found in the softest and wettest parts 
 of bogs, the last in England, and the other two 
 in both England and Scotland. Several species 
 of rushes — especially Scirpus cosspitosus, S.pauci- 
 florus, S. caricinus, S. rufus, Isolepis setacea, and 
 
BOG. 
 
 18G 
 
 BOG. 
 
 Eleocharis multicaulis, — soon succeed, and com- 
 municate solidity to the spot which they occupy. 
 The roots of some of these rushes, particularly of 
 the attenuated or almost hairy kinds, penetrate 
 deeply into the stratum of mosses; and, along 
 with the roots of the cotton-grasses, constitute 
 the very durable substance which the manufac- 
 turers of peat-fuel call ket. A yellow-flowering 
 plant of the asphodel tribe, is also very frequent 
 in wet moss ; but it ceases to be distinguishable 
 when any stratum which contains it has passed 
 by decay into peat. A number of other marshy 
 or aquatic phaenogamous plants are found in the 
 strata of bogs, and have of course contributed to 
 their formation ; but some, though almost uni- 
 formly present, are inconspicuous in aggregate 
 bulk; and others, though occasionally making 
 large contributions of substance, are not necessary 
 concomitants of the true peat-forming vegetables. 
 One of the latter class, Juncus squarrosus, may be 
 viewed as a sort of representative of the others, 
 particularly of marsh junci; and this, in conse- 
 quence of its requiring a soil of a more solid con- 
 sistence than mere moss, is found only in bogs 
 to which age and a mixture of earthy matter 
 have given some degree of solidity ; and in bogs 
 of this description, it is sometimes a large ingre- 
 dient. 
 
 But though bog is naturally based on such 
 parts of the surface of the earth as are incapable 
 of originally nourishing any higher tribes of 
 plants than lichens and musci ; it is also formed 
 over all soils, however fertile, when their power 
 of exerting fertility is obstructed. Any exten- 
 sive stagnations of water, whether occasioned by 
 the fall of woods, the choking up of streams, or 
 any other cause of permanent or prolonged ope- 
 ration, may originate bogs ; and such stagnations 
 have, in point of fact, given rise to far the largest 
 proportion of the existing bogs which occupy 
 hollow or low tracts of country in the several 
 divisions of the United Kingdom. A writer in 
 the Philosophical Transactions, says, " The Ro- 
 mans under Ostorius, having slain many Britons, 
 drove the rest into the forest of Hatfield in York- 
 shire, which at that time overspread all the low 
 country ; and the conqueror, taking advantage of 
 a strong south-west wind, set fire to the pitch- 
 trees, of which the forest was chiefly composed, 
 and when the greater part of the trees were 
 thus destroyed, the Roman soldiers and the 
 captive Britons cut down the remainder, ex- 
 cept a few large ones which were left growing 
 as remembrancers of the destruction of the 
 rest. These single trees did not long with- 
 stand the action of the winds, but, falling into 
 the rivers, intercepted their currents, and caused 
 their waters to rise and flood the whole flat 
 country; hence the origin of the mosses and 
 moory bogs which were afterwards formed there." 
 A principal similar destruction of the portion of 
 the great Caledonian forest which sheeted the 
 upper and middle districts of the basin of the 
 
 river Forth, is said to have occasioned the forma- 
 tion of the great bogs along the course of that 
 river ; and this, when viewed in connexion with 
 the process of alluvial formation which had there 
 been going on for many ages, perfectly accounts for 
 the character of these bogs, and for the uniformly 
 rich land which lies beneath them, and which 
 is obtained for the purposes of culture by cutting 
 them away. The formation of fens upon great 
 expanses of shallow lake is precisely a kind of 
 stagnation to occasion the growth of the musci, 
 the eriophora, and the cyperaceae ; and can be 
 very distinctly recognised as the origin of flow or 
 fibrous bog in some of the flat districts of England. 
 The levelling surge of some great flood or series 
 of floods westward across the vast limestone plain 
 of Ireland, and the subsequent choking up of its 
 water-courses by the same excess of aquatic vege- 
 tation which may still be partially witnessed 
 along the course of the rivers Brosna, Suck, and 
 Shannon, afford a summary explanation of all 
 the great phenomena of the enormous tracts of 
 bog aggregately called the Bog of Allen, — the 
 latter fact accounting for the growth of the bogs, 
 and the former for the flatness of their bed, and 
 the general prevalence beneath it of limestone 
 diluvium and calcareous clays. 
 
 In all flats and hollows, which do not possess 
 declivities or free channels for the speedy drain- 
 age of surface water, a stratum of moss soon 
 forms, rapidly accumulates, always retains much 
 moisture among its fibres, and is often so soft as 
 not to be able to support the tread of quadruped 
 or man. Little channels are gradually worn 
 athwart this soft substance by the slow but 
 steady flow of the water of heavy rains; and 
 when these deepen, they render the face of the 
 mossy expanse somewhat drier than before, and 
 occasion it to become a congenial soil for the 
 growth of heaths. The heaths cannot grow on 
 moss when it is distended by a great excess of 
 water ; but they find it eminently suited to their 
 habits when it becomes somewhat drained and 
 consolidated, and in consequence speedily appear 
 upon such portions of it as are comparatively 
 cleared of water by any process of natural drain- 
 ing. But in the very progress of their growth, 
 they choke up the little channels, occasion a dif- 
 fusion and stagnation of surface water, and event- 
 ually though indirectly secure their own death. 
 The musci now form a new stratum, to be in its 
 turn intersected by little channels, overgrown by 
 heaths, and buried in decay ; and thus the bog 
 rises higher and higher, in a process of constant 
 augmentation, by alternate beds of such marsh 
 plants as are altogether aqueous, and such as 
 prefer a comparatively dry but purely vegetable 
 soil. So distinctly and regularly are these alter- 
 nate beds, in many instances, formed, that, i£ a 
 perpendicular section of the upper or but par- 
 tially decomposed portion of a bog be exposed for 
 a year or two to the weather, a somewhat proxi- 
 mate computation might easily be made of its age. 
 
BOG. 
 
 187 
 
 BOG. 
 
 Mere vegetable bog possesses nearly the same 
 i character in all situations and under all condi- 
 tions, varying only according to its age, to the 
 pressure it has undergone, and to the proportions 
 of the several plants of which it is composed. 
 Yet the whole extent of many bogs and large por- 
 tions of others contain mixtures of mineral sub- 
 stances, and very considerably vary in at once 
 the quantity, the quality, and the mechanical 
 conditions of these substances. Springs which 
 flow into a bog frequently hold some mineral sub- 
 stance in solution, and deposit it, in a permanent 
 and intermixed form, in the bog. Some springs, 
 for example, impregnate a bog with lime, or de- 
 posit in it a mixture of calcareous earth ; others 
 impregnate portions of a bog with sulphur, and 
 occasion peat-fuel dug from them to emit a sul- 
 phurous smell during combustion ; and others 
 deeply impregnate parts of bogs with iron, and 
 cause the ashes of their peat to have a rusty red 
 colour, indicating the presence of oxide of iron. 
 But by far the largest and most important kind 
 of mineral admixture is that of earths, carried 
 over the surface of successive strata of bogs, by 
 land floods from higher adjacent grounds. When 
 a large extent of comparatively high ground de- 
 clines toward a flat bog, the flow of water from 
 it is great and powerful, descends in floods or tor- 
 rents at every heavy fall of rain, spreads along the 
 border of the bog the alluvial accumulations of 
 clay, sand, and gravel, with which it is laden, 
 and, making gradual advances, sometimes makes 
 earthy deposits athwart every portion of the 
 surface. After the alluvium acquires sufficient 
 thickness to consolidate the mass, the parasitic 
 musci and the eriophora and cyperacea and other 
 marsh plants perish ; and land herbage succeeds, 
 more or less adapted to pasture, according to the 
 comparative freedom of the surface from excess 
 of water. Mere vegetable moss, spongy and sa- 
 turated with moisture, is the most useless and im- 
 practicable kind of bog ; and, on the other hand, 
 moss which has become naturally consolidated, first 
 with an alluvial deposit, and next with a sward 
 of land herbage, is the most valuable and the 
 least refractory. It yields from its lower strata 
 a solid, warm, and lasting fuel ; it affords, after 
 exposure for some time to the weather, a variety 
 of peat-earth which makes an excellent ingredi- 
 ent of compost-manure ;• it is easily convertible, 
 athwart its surface, into valuable meadow or pas- 
 ture; and it can, at no great expense, be ren- 
 dered good soil for the fruitful cultivation of 
 both green and cereal crops. 
 
 The formation of some bogs upon shallow pools 
 or lakes is rendered probable by the resemblance 
 of their site to the lacustrine expansion of a river- 
 course, and almost or altogether certain by the 
 existence of beds of shells and calcareous marl at 
 their bottom. The probable process of the for- 
 mation is thus stated in the Report of the Ord- 
 nance Survey : — " A shallow pool induced and 
 • favoured the vegetation of aquatic plants, which 
 
 gradually crept in from the borders towards the 
 deeper centre. Mud accumulated round their 
 root and stalks, and a spongy semi-fluid moss 
 was thus formed, well-fitted for the growth of 
 moss, which now, especially sphagnum, began to 
 luxuriate. This, absorbing a large quantity of 
 water, and continuing to shoot out new plants 
 above, while the old were decaying, rotting, and 
 compressing into a solid substance below, gradu 
 ally replaced the water by a mass of vegetable 
 matter. In this manner, the marsh might be 
 filled up, while the central or moister portion 
 continuing to excite a more rapid growth of the 
 moss, it would be gradually raised above the 
 edges, until the whole surface had attained an 
 elevation sufficient to discharge the surface- 
 water by existing channels of drainage, and cal- 
 culated by its slope to facilitate their passage, 
 when a limit would be in some degree set to its 
 farther increase." The surface strata sometimes 
 became a floating mass by the decay of the roots 
 which were attached to the ground ; and they, in 
 a great degree, consist of long interlaced fibres, 
 which the Irish separate from the rest of the 
 bog, and call old wives' tow. The decomposed 
 roots and vegetable fibres constitute a paste of 
 black mud, not heavy enough to sink to the bot- 
 tom, and so mixed with the water below the 
 floating superficial strata as to constitute what 
 is termed a quaking bog. The vegetation on the 
 surface of the floating strata has often the appear- 
 ance of green sward; and the roots are some- 
 times so strong and matted as to form an elastic 
 web-work sufficient to bear the light and rapid 
 tread of an expert ' bog-trotter.' 
 
 The vegetable material of bogs does not ferment 
 and decay in the rapid manner of land herbage, 
 but is slowly decomposed in a similar manner to 
 the duramen or perfect wood of trees. The upper 
 strata of every bog which has not become car- 
 peted with alluvium, or otherwise deprived of its 
 purely mossy character, are always in a living or 
 but very slightly decayed state ; and the strictly 
 superficial stratum is never older than a single 
 year, — the superficial stratum of any one year 
 being succeeded by a new growth in the next. 
 The resistance of putrefaction on the part of the 
 upper strata is the main reason why they cannot, 
 in their natural state, yield nourishment to land 
 plants ; and it is occasioned, not by any acid or 
 peculiar chemical principle in the strata, but by 
 the special organic constitution of the moss 
 plants, by their great elasticity, and by their 
 acting in both their living and their half-decayed 
 state, as sponges for retaining large quantities of 
 water in a stagnant condition. Moss, while un- 
 decayed, is specifically lighter than water ; while 
 decaying, decreases in lightness and bulk ; when 
 fully decayed, is comparatively compact, and 
 somewhat heavier than water ; and when reduced 
 to its final condition, is deprived of all such por- 
 tions as can be dissolved in water and carried 
 off by slow currents, retains most of the ingredi- 
 
BOG. 
 
 188 
 
 BOG. 
 
 ents which were deposited as alluvium or inter- 
 mixed by mineral impregnation, and is at once 
 heavier, more consolidated, and farther removed 
 from organic character than more fully decayed 
 moss. Such portions of the moss plants as 
 are soluble in water during the progress of 
 their decay, may be made to contribute nourish- 
 ment to useful vegetation ; and such portions as 
 most powerfully resist putrefaction, may be acce- 
 lerated in their decomposition, and forced into a 
 condition of fitness for the partial sustenance of 
 useful plants, by top dressings and intermixtures 
 of earthy substances. When a deposit of allu- 
 vium is made on the border of a bog by land- 
 streams, or a top dressing is spread on its interior 
 surface by the hand of georgic improvement, an 
 increase in fertility is soon observable, both too 
 rapid in progress and too large in amount, to be 
 possibly produced by the mere presence of the 
 earthy matters, or ascribable to any cause but 
 their decomposing power upon the moss-plants. 
 
 The aggregate extent of bog in Great Britain 
 and Ireland is so exceedingly great, and at the 
 same time so widely spread, as to render it emi- 
 nently worthy of the attention of many farmers, 
 most landlords, and all scientific georgists. The 
 mountain bogs of Scotland are very abundant in 
 most of the highland districts ; but, with few ex- 
 ceptions, are capable of only slight improvement 
 for the purposes of upland pasture. A great ex- 
 tent of bog of various character, from moorland 
 to flow moss, lies dispersed throughout many 
 parts of the Scottish lowlands, particularly in 
 Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, and the districts 
 of Carrick and Galloway. A considerable aggre- 
 gate of deep flow bog stretches along the banks 
 of the middle part of the river Forth, and was, 
 in one part, the scene of the celebrated bog-im- 
 proving operations of Blair-Drummond ; and a 
 very extensive flow bog, in several respects the 
 most curious in the three kingdoms, and bearing 
 the name of Lochar Moss, occupies the site of a 
 great quondam arm of the sea in Dumfries-shire, 
 down to the shore of the Solway frith. 
 
 Mountain bogs abound among the uplands of 
 Northumberland, the mountains of Wales, the 
 great hilly range of the south of England, and 
 some of the hilly portions of the English midland 
 counties. A vast tract of lacustrine bog expands 
 around the region of the Bedford Level, princi- 
 pally in the shires of Cambridge and Lincoln. A 
 tract of flow bog, about six miles in length and 
 three miles in extreme breadth, is traversed by 
 the railway between Liverpool and Manchester, 
 and exhibits a vast accumulation of pure mossy 
 matter, without the slightest admixture of sand, 
 gravel, or any other earth. 
 
 But Ireland, as all fame has long ago pro- 
 claimed, far exceeds Great Britain in the propor- 
 tion which its bogs maintain to the rest of its 
 territorial area. The Irish bogs are exceedingly 
 variable in depth, wetness, and consistency ; but 
 the larger proportion are either quite level or 
 
 very slightly sloped bogs, situated in low plains 
 or athwart the far-spread summits of low table- 
 lands ; and many of these are completely saturated 
 with water, spouty, fennish, and intermixed with 
 quagmires ; while most are reddish in colour, 
 spongy in consistency, the same in character as 
 the flow mosses of Great Britain, and distinc- 
 tively designated by the Irish red bogs. Moun- 
 tain bogs lie at nearly all altitudes above sea- 
 level, — from the skirts of the mere hills to the 
 higher acclivities of the loftiest mountains ; and 
 they consist, for the most part, of thin sheets or 
 strata of peaty matter, dry, firm, and easily re- 
 claimed. The Commissioners appointed to in- 
 quire into the nature and extent of the bogs of 
 Ireland, say, " A portion of Ireland, of little more 
 than one-fourth of its entire superficial extent, 
 and included between a line drawn from Wicklow- 
 Head to Galway, and another drawn from Howth 
 Head to Sligo, comprises within it about six- 
 sevenths of the bogs in the island, exclusive of 
 mere mountain bogs, and bogs of less extent than 
 500 acres, in its form resembling a broad belt 
 drawn across the centre of Ireland, with its nar- 
 rowest end nearest to the capital, and gradually 
 extending in breadth as it approaches to the 
 western ocean. This great division of the island, 
 extending from east to west, is traversed by the 
 Shannon from north to south, and is thus divided 
 into two parts ; of these the division to the west- 
 ward of the river contains more than double the 
 extent of the bogs which are to be found in the 
 division to the eastward : so that if we suppose 
 the whole of the bogs of Ireland, exclusive of 
 mere mountain bog and of bogs under 500 acres, 
 to be divided into twenty parts, we shall find 
 about seventeen of them comprised within the 
 great division we have now described, twelve to 
 the westward, and five to the eastward of the 
 Shannon, and of the remaining three parts, about 
 two are to the south and one to the north of 
 this divison. . . . Most of the bogs which 
 lie to the eastward of the Shannon, and which 
 occupy a considerable portion of the King's 
 county and county of Kildare, are generally 
 known by the name of the Bog of Allen ; it must 
 not, however, be supposed that this name is ap- 
 plied to any one great morass ; on the contrary, 
 the bogs to which it is applied are perfectly dis- 
 tinct from each other, often separated by high 
 ridges of dry country, and inclining towards dif- 
 ferent rivers, as their natural directions for 
 drainage, and so intersected by dry and cultivated 
 land, that it may be affirmed generally there is 
 not a spot of these bogs to the eastward of the 
 Shannon, so much as two Irish miles distant 
 from the upland and cultivated districts." The 
 total extent of the red or wet champaign bogs of 
 Ireland, including an estimated amount of the 
 multitudinous small ones, is 1,576,000 acres ; and 
 the total extent of peat soil, forming the covering 
 of mountains, is 1,255,000 acres. 
 
 The depth of the flow bogs of Scotland is com- 
 
BOG. 
 
 189 
 
 BOG. 
 
 monly from 4 to 8 feet, sometimes from 8 to 16 feet, 
 and very rarely more than 20 feet ; but that of the 
 red bogs of Ireland is seldom less than 12 feet, 
 sometimes about 42 feet, and on the average about 
 25 feet. " The bog,'' say the Irish Commission- 
 ers, in reference to the latter, " varies materially 
 in its appearance and properties, in proportion 
 to the depth at which it lies. The upper surface 
 is covered with moss of various species ; and, to 
 the depth of about ten feet, is composed of a mass 
 of the fibres of similar vegetables in different 
 stages of decomposition, proportioned to their 
 depth from the surface, generally however too 
 open in their texture to be applied to the pur- 
 poses of fuel. Below this generally lies a light 
 blackish-brown turf, containing the fibres of 
 moss, still visible though not perfect, and ex- 
 tending to a further depth of perhaps ten feet 
 under this. At a greater depth, the fibres of 
 vegetable matter cease to be visible, the colour 
 of the turf becomes blacker, and the substance 
 much more compact, its properties as fuel more 
 valuable, and gradually increasing in the degree 
 of blackness and compactness proportionate to 
 its depth. Near the bottom of the bog, it forms 
 a black mass, which when dry has a strong re- 
 semblance to pitch or bituminous coal, having a 
 conchoidal fracture in every direction, with a 
 black shining lustre, and susceptible of receiving 
 a considerable polish." In Plate IX. are a view 
 and explanations of a section of a turf-bank in 
 the Bog of Allen, which particularly elucidate 
 this statement, and at the same time afford some 
 illustration of the general account we have given 
 of the formation of bogs. 
 
 The question of the reclamation of bogs has been 
 a subject of keen debate, and cannot be regarded 
 as yet settled. The Commissioners on the Bogs of 
 Ireland say, " It may naturally be expected that 
 we should express our opinion whether any, and 
 what general measure should be adopted to fur- 
 ther the reclamation of this great extent of land, 
 at present so unprofitable, and which the con- 
 current testimony of every person, except one, 
 whom we have employed, represents as not 
 merely susceptible of improvement, but as pro- 
 mising to afford a greater profit on the operation 
 than perhaps any other application of agricul- 
 tural skill and capital. Various as are the modes 
 of improvement, and the estimate proposed by 
 our different engineers, we consider that the fair 
 average of their opinions, that by an expenditure 
 of from £l to ,£20 per acre, the reclamation 
 would secure to the improver a permanent rent 
 of from 10 to 15 per cent, on the expenditure. 
 Some of them on whose judgment we place great 
 reliance, are even of opinion, that the whole of 
 the capital employed would be returned by the 
 produce of the first crops which effected the im- 
 provement. Supposing, then, the capital em- 
 ployed to be finally lost, still the rent obtained 
 would abundantly compensate for its application ; 
 but on the other supposition, of the capital itself 
 
 being repaid, it would follow that the rent would 
 finally become the reward merely of the skill and 
 labour of the improver. Nor is it on mere theo- 
 retical speculation that these premises are rested. 
 Our engineers uniformly adduce the example of 
 hundreds of acres actually improved within their 
 respective districts, to justify their estimates. It 
 may, perhaps, then be inquired, why all these 
 bogs have not long since been improved ? or it 
 may be asserted, that their present desolation in 
 the midst of so much apparent inducement, is in 
 itself a sufficient proof that such premises must 
 be practically fallacious. We are convinced, 
 however, that this circumstance may be other- 
 wise accounted for, and that it is not to physical 
 obstacles that the present situation of these wastes 
 is principally to be ascribed. The arable lands 
 around the extremities of each bog, belong, pretty 
 generally, to a great variety of proprietors, the 
 mearings of whose estates, it is generally admit- 
 ted, must be contained within the area of the in- 
 terior bog, but the precise situation of which is 
 seldom ascertained. The external boundary of 
 the bog forms a turf bank ; the interior is a quag- 
 mire, in its present state inapplicable to any 
 other purpose than the affording a very scanty 
 summer pasture to a few wandering cattle, who 
 are turned in to seek for it, at the risk of being 
 lost. The cultivators who occupy the contiguous 
 farms have usually annexed to the enjoyment of 
 the lands a right of turning in their cattle on the 
 part of the bog adjoining to their respective 
 farms ; and when these are tempted by hunger to 
 wander further, reciprocal convenience forbids 
 its being considered as a trespass. These farmers 
 have usually terms of lives or years in their hold- 
 ings too short to tempt them, even if possessed 
 of capital and of skill, to enter on the permanent 
 improvement of the bog, while they are yet abun- 
 dantly sufficient to render such an operation im- 
 practicable for the landlord. The landlord has 
 demised to the tenant a vague possession of what 
 he considered of little or no value ; the shortness 
 of the tenure obliges the tenant to leave his 
 holding in its unprofitable state ; but were the 
 landlord to propose to improve it, the tenant 
 having a present right to prevent him, that right 
 would become valuable just in proportion to the 
 intended exertions of the landlord, and would in- 
 evitably be set up by the tenant." 
 
 A writer in MacCulloch's Statistical Account 
 of the British Empire, says, by way of critique 
 on this statement of the Commissioners, "The 
 bogs are generally, indeed, at such an elevation 
 above the sea as to allow of drains being cut to a 
 depth sufficient to permit the escape even of the 
 bottom water. But the Commissioners observe, 
 that ' the bogs partake of the nature of a sponge, 
 and are completely saturated with water.' Al- 
 though, therefore, a vent were made for the bot- 
 tom water, it does not follow that the water held 
 in suspension by the bog could also be carried 
 off. On the contrary, experience shows that, 
 
BOG. 
 
 190 
 
 BOG. 
 
 when drains are cut through a bog, though at no 
 considerable distance from each other, the inter- 
 mediate portion continues nearly as wet as ever. 
 But supposing that this apparently insuperable 
 difficulty were overcome, and that the bogs were 
 completely drained, still we have to inquire 
 whether any advantageous result would follow. 
 According to Mr. Wakefield, the drainage of the 
 bogs would render them ' masses of dry inert vege- 
 table matter ; and unless some means were discov- 
 ered of bringing it into a state of putrefaction, one 
 might as well attempt to cultivate an immense 
 wool-pack.' The fact is, that, in the present state 
 of the bogs, nothing but a covering of earth, clay, 
 marl, or limestone and gravel, will do any good ; 
 and this can be applied better without large sur- 
 face drains recommended by the Commissioners, 
 than with them. The elaborate estimates given 
 in the reports of the engineers employed by the 
 Commissioners of the expense of draining and 
 improving bogs, are altogether hypothetical, and 
 are entitled to very little weight. Had a single 
 extensive bog been drained by speculators, and 
 brought into a state of profitable cultivation, 
 there would have been some foundation to go 
 upon. This, however, has not been done ; and, 
 till it be done, there are plainly no data to refer 
 to in relation to this subject on which any reli- 
 ance can be safely placed. We do not mean to 
 insinuate that we look upon the cultivation of 
 the bogs of Ireland as impracticable ; should the 
 wealth of the country increase, they will, no 
 doubt, be gradually, though we believe very 
 slowly, reclaimed. At present, however, we con- 
 fess it appears to us that there are no grounds 
 for thinking that their cultivation, if undertaken 
 upon a great scale, would be otherwise than ruin- 
 ous. Even in Great Britain, most of those who 
 have distinguished themselves by attempts at 
 bog improvement have been heavy losers. Blair- 
 Drummond moss, in Perthshire, has not been im- 
 proved but exterminated. And it is abundantly 
 obvious that, in Ireland, the chances of loss from 
 any public improvement would be incomparably 
 greater." 
 
 Sir C. G. Monteath, Bart., of Closeburn, a well- 
 known, enlightened, extensive, and most success- 
 ful georgist, fully admits all the difficulties and 
 pecuniary hazards of the various methods of bog 
 improvement suggested previous to 1838, and 
 yet has confidence that all flow bogs, as well as 
 all the % worst varieties of lacustrine bogs, may, 
 by a new method, be certainly and economically 
 reclaimed. He states that he would so far fol- 
 low previous improvers as to drain off the astrin- 
 gent water from any flow bog, in order to con- 
 solidate the upper stratum and arrest its growth, 
 and to apply quicklime and earthy matters in 
 order to accelerate its decomposition and assimi- 
 late it to the nature of our more prolific soils ; 
 and he adds, " All this and no more has been 
 done already, and yet it is found inferior to the 
 lacustrine or fen bog, and is still considered a dan- 
 
 gerous subject for the investment of capital. The 
 cause of this is a subject worthy of inquiry, and 
 one which does not appear to have been hitherto 
 accounted for. The following is my view of it. 
 Although we may have succeeded in assimilating 
 the soils, still there exists a material difference 
 between the subsoils. In the case of the lacus- 
 trine bog, there is more or less earthy matter to 
 the very bottom, by which a due circulation of 
 moisture is promoted, — a circumstance which, in 
 my opinion, is of the greatest importance to both 
 soils and subsoils. But, in the case of the flow 
 bog, all below the soil is a mass of dead inert 
 peaty matter, almost impervious to moisture and 
 air ; and the moisture it does contain must be of 
 an astringent and pernicious quality, and injuri- 
 ous to vegetation. In order to remedy this evil, 
 I would propose, after the bog has been drained 
 and consolidated, to lay an artificial subsoil of 
 clay, sand, and gravel, three, four, or more inches 
 in thickness, at the depth of about eight inches 
 under the surface, so as to cut off all connexion 
 with the lower portion of the bog. By this means 
 all the pernicious moisture rising from below will 
 undergo an important chemical change in its 
 passage through the subsoil. The subsoil will 
 also make the soil more firm, and whenever we 
 see bog resting on a sufficiently earthy subsoil, 
 we generally find it productive, unless the soil is 
 very ferruginous. The manure will have more 
 effect. The soil will decompose more freely, es- 
 pecially if an inch or two of its surface has been 
 burned ; and it will ultimately be converted into 
 a rich moory loam, fit for the cultivation of most 
 crops, especially if it has had a due admixture of 
 earthy matter, and certainly in the case of an 
 artificial subsoil much less will suffice. If then 
 my views are correct, this would be a permanent 
 improvement to bog, and on that account would 
 amply repay any additional expense which would 
 be incurred over ordinary methods, which, in 
 fact, have been mostly found ineffectual. I have 
 little doubt that a fair trial would, in a few years, 
 demonstrate its complete success ; and thus, by 
 and by, we would see some millions of acres of 
 dreary, dull, worthless, waste bog, converted into 
 rich smiling corn fields and meadows, and the 
 climate improved. I allude more particularly to 
 Ireland. It is a remarkable fact, that wherever 
 bogs occur, especially in this country, the ele- 
 ments for their improvement are at hand. Wo 
 have here in our diluvial deposits the best of 
 clay, gravel, and sand, for the purpose, being 
 chiefly of a calcareous nature. On the verge of 
 Lochar Moss, if my memory is correct, are de- 
 posited abundance of materials from the grey- 
 wacke and new red sandstone formation, admi- 
 rably adapted for its improvement. As a means 
 which this would afford of ameliorating the con- 
 dition of the labouring classes of this naturally 
 highly - favoured country, it is superfluous to 
 speak." 
 
 The use of bogs as turbary has frequently been 
 
BOG-EARTH. 
 
 191 
 
 BOG-SPAVIN. 
 
 urged as a reason for not attempting to improve 
 them ; but if properly viewed, is really a strong 
 inducement to the reclamation of at least all 
 large bogs. Turf for fuel can at present be ob- 
 tained from only the borders of these bogs, their 
 interior being rendered useless and even inacces- 
 sible by excessive moisture ; but, were they re- 
 claimed, turf might be cut from reserved pendi- 
 cles in any part of them, and in consequence ob- 
 tained in an hundredfold or even thousandfold 
 greater quantity. The subject of bog-fuel affects 
 all Ireland, all the Scottish Hebrides, much of 
 the Scottish Highlands, and a considerable por- 
 tion of the British Lowlands ; and it possesses, 
 in these districts, an engrossing degree of econ- 
 omical interest of which the inhabitants of 
 coal countries can form little conception. Mr. 
 Bicheno remarks, " The rainy climate of Ireland, 
 and the wet occupations of the people, with the 
 nature of their food, make a fire more important 
 to them than to most others, and, in fact, is fre- 
 quently the substitute for clothing, bedding, and, 
 in part, shelter. Had it not been for the bog, 
 the measures taken in former times to extirpate 
 the nation might probably have succeeded; but 
 the bog gave them a degree of comfort upon 
 easy terms, and enabled them to live under severe 
 privations of another kind." Light fuel-turf, cut 
 from the surface strata of a flow bog, is only 
 two-fifths the weight of water. A cubic yard of 
 this light turf, closely packed, weighs 500 pounds; 
 of good turf, 900 pounds ; and of very dense turf, 
 1,100 pounds. Light turf yields about 74 per 
 cent, of volatile matter, 23 of charcoal, and 3 of 
 ashes ; and dense turf yields 71 per cent, of vola- 
 tile matter, 21 of charcoal, and 8 of ashes. Bog- 
 turf, even in its best natural varieties as prepared 
 for fuel, wants sufficient density for many econ- 
 omical purposes, and, though yielding a vast 
 body of volatile inflammable ingredients, evolves 
 at no one point an intense heat ; but when me- 
 chanically compressed into a condition in which 
 it may be sold in Ireland for from 6s. to 8s. per 
 ton, it possesses a calorific power little inferior 
 to coal : and when so carbonized as to cost not 
 more than 20s. per ton, it yields about 30 per 
 cent, of fine coherent coke, of greater density 
 than that of wood charcoal. — Reports of the Com- 
 missioners on the Bogs of Ireland. — MacCidloctis 
 Statistical Account of the British Empire. — Br. 
 Kane's Indust rial Resources of Ireland. — Ordnance 
 Survey of the County of Londonderry. — Philoso- 
 phical Transactions. — Sir John Sinclair's General 
 Report of Scotland. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — RJiarris Dictionary of the Farm. — Mill's 
 Busbandry. 
 
 BOG-BEAN. See Buckbean. 
 
 BOG -EARTH. Dry powdery black bog, in 
 a state of mechanical mixture with silicious silt 
 or with any finely-powdered variety of mineral 
 alluvium. The most esteemed kind of it com- 
 prises about twenty-five per cent, of vegetable 
 
 matter, and has the appearance of a blackish 
 and very fine mould ; and this is in high request 
 among gardeners as the most suitable soil for 
 many kinds of flowering plants, particularly 
 some of the American shrubby kinds ; and when 
 artificially combined with good ordinary mould, 
 or occasionally some quicklime, it acts much 
 better, both stimulatingly and nutriently, than 
 any description of artificial manure. It may be 
 obtained sometimes on the surface, but particu- 
 larly on the borders, of drained and improved 
 bogs, whose natural growth was arrested and 
 terminated by alluvial depositions; and some- 
 times in superficial alluvial beds, formed over 
 clays or other impervious substrata, by the silty 
 sediments of streams flowing remotely from bogs. 
 Artificial imitations of it — in many instances 
 very similar to itself in ultimate composition, 
 and little if at all inferior in manurial action — 
 are often made by mixing the light mud of ponds 
 and ditches with leaves, weeds, and grasses, in 
 pits or little reservoirs, frequently turning and 
 watering the mixture, and finally exposing it in 
 heaps to the air till it acquires the requisite 
 consolidation and pulverulence. The kind of 
 bog-earth, which forms a suitable ingredient of 
 coarse composts for field farming, is more fre- 
 quently designated peat earth or simply peat, 
 and consists simply of the more compact or peaty 
 portions of bogs, laid open to the weather till 
 they become dry and powdery. 
 
 BOG-SPAVIN. A soft tumour, of the nature 
 of a windgall, on the hock of the horse. Dr. 
 Bracken regarded it as a collection within a bag 
 or cyst of the brownish, gelatinous, or mucous 
 matter which naturally serves for lubricating 
 the joint, — the common membrane which en- 
 closes the joint forming the cyst ; and he illus- 
 trates both the disease itself and the mode of 
 treating it by an instance which occurred in a 
 young colt of his own. He found that, by press- 
 ing the spavin hard on the inside of the hock, a 
 small tumour appeared on the outside, and he 
 therefore concluded that the disease had its seat 
 in the inside; and he cut into it, discharged 
 a large quantity of the glutinous or mucous 
 matter, dressed the sore with dossils dipped in 
 oil of turpentine, and put into it, on every third 
 or fourth day, a powder composed of calcined 
 vitriol, alum, and bole. By this treatment, the 
 tumour sloughed off, and came away ; and a com- 
 plete cure was effected without leaving any scar. 
 But a less critical method, and indeed the only 
 one with which any ordinarily bad case of bog- 
 spavin can be prudently attacked, is, by means 
 of blistering or of firing, to excite the absorbent 
 vessels in the interior of the limb, and imme- 
 diately around the seat of the disease, to carry 
 away the encysted fluid which constitutes the 
 tumour. The majority of cases, however, will 
 resist even this method ; and all cases occurring 
 in the draught-horses of a farm, or in any other 
 
BOIL. 
 
 192 
 
 BONE. 
 
 horses not required for rapid action, ought to be 
 entirely let alone. Bog -spavin often induces 
 permanent though not very great lameness ; it 
 is, in every instance, a decided unsoundness 
 in a horse ; and when removed by skilful 
 medical treatment, it is very liable to be re- 
 induced. 
 
 BOIL. An inflamed and suppurating tumour 
 in any of the fleshy parts of cattle or sheep. A 
 boil ought to be brought to a head by the appli- 
 cation to it of a plaster composed of wheat flour, 
 yolks of eggs, and tar ; and when it feels soft to 
 the touch, it ought to be opened with a lancet, 
 in order that the purulent matter may escape. 
 Ellis recommends that, after it has been opened 
 and freed from pus, it first be anointed with 
 ointment of tobacco, and next covered with a 
 plaster made of equal parts of turpentine, burnt 
 salt, honey, and galbanum, and about a quarter 
 more than an equal part of resin. 
 
 BOILING, or Ebullition. The rapid expan- 
 sion of a liquid by heat, and violent escape of 
 successive portions of it in the form of vapour. 
 In ordinary evaporation, a liquid passes off slowly, 
 quietly, and insensibly ; but in boiling or ebulli- 
 tion, it escapes rapidly, tumultuously, and very 
 visibly — balls of vapour rising from the bottom or 
 sides of the body of the liquid, of so great size and 
 in such swift succession, as to cause a tumbling 
 commotion through all the interior, and a cloud- 
 ing aloft of steam from the top. 
 
 The process of boiling is well known to effect 
 great and important changes in both the chemi- 
 cal and the mechanical condition of food, and to 
 render many substances suitable for the digestion 
 of man and beast, which, in their raw state, are 
 indigestible, or even inedible, or unwholesome. A 
 boiling house for the preparing of cattle's food, 
 and for various other purposes requiring the use 
 of hot water, is now an indispensable part of 
 every proper series of farm buildings, and ought 
 to be situated in the immediate vicinity of the 
 cow-house. Moveable boilers or boiling-machines 
 can serve only for very small establishments ; and 
 either fixed boilers of the construction common 
 in this country, or caldrons of a semi -conical 
 shape suspended on a crane, and loosely inserted 
 in an inverted semicone of brickwork, are requi- 
 site for all farms which have a large home stock. 
 In these vessels, roots may be reduced from hard- 
 ness to an eatable condition ; chaff, weak corn, 
 and other kinds of barn refuse, may be rendered 
 palatable and more nutritive; hay-tea may be 
 prepared, as an agreeable and nourishing drink 
 to sick cattle ; food may be cooked for swine and 
 poultry ; and water may be boiled for steeping 
 harsh articles of food, or for any other of scores 
 of useful purposes. But the same kind of chemi- 
 cal and mechanical changes which are made on 
 the food of cattle by boiling in water, are effected 
 also, and generally with greater advantage or in 
 a superior degree, by the action of steam ; and 
 
 they will afterwards be the subject of a separate 
 notice. See the article Steaming. 
 
 BOLL. A Scottish measure of grain. It is 
 generally understood to contain four bushels. 
 But in the old Scottish measures of oats and bar- 
 ley, four lippies were equal to one peck, four 
 pecks to one firlot, four firlots to one boll, and 
 sixteen bolls to one chalder. A boll of oatmeal 
 weighs 140 pounds ; and three-fourths of a boll 
 of oats is equal to a boll of wheat, pease, or rye. 
 
 BOLLING. The rolling inward and amassing 
 of the leaves of some of the varieties of Brassica 
 oloracea into heads. The principal varieties 
 which boll are savoys and all the common kinds 
 of cabbage. Boiling is often called by the Eng- 
 lish cabbaging, and corruptedly by the Scotch 
 booing. 
 
 BOLTING. The separating of flour or meal 
 from husks or bran, by a process of sifting. A 
 framed sieve, with a bottom of linen-cloth, hair- 
 cloth, or fine wirework, is employed for the pro- 
 cess, and called a bolter ; and a mill or machine, 
 enclosing the bolter, and having a high degree of 
 lateral or circular motion, is called a bolting- 
 mill. The cloth for the sieve is made of different 
 degrees of fineness, and designated by numbers to 
 express its comparative quality. Bolters which 
 can be worked by the hand are used by bakers ; 
 but large ones, kept in motion by the common 
 moving-power of the mill, are used by millers. 
 A hand-bolting-machine is in much use, consist- 
 ing of a half cylinder of wire, with cross brushes 
 enclosed in a box, and costs from three to five 
 guineas. 
 
 BONDAGER. A day-labourer or field-worker 
 on a farm. The designation seems to have arisen 
 during the feudal period, and has been perpetu- 
 ated in consequence of every first class plough- 
 man being bound to provide a day-labourer ; but 
 it is now a mere nickname, or epithet of degra- 
 dation ; and it ought to be discontinued. Most 
 of the labourers usually designated bondagers are 
 women. See the article Farm-Labourers. 
 
 BONE. Any part of the skeleton or solid 
 framework which supports or protects the soft 
 parts of the body of any vertebrated animal. 
 Bones are not uniformly compact thoughout their 
 mass; but are comparatively dense toward the 
 exterior, and more or less cellular or spongy in 
 the interior. They have both externally and in- 
 ternally a covering membrane called periosteum, 
 by which the ramifications of the blood-vessels 
 and the nerves pass into them ; and this consists 
 of a dense gelatinous tissue, and is converted by 
 boiling into gelatin or glue. The long or cylin- 
 drical bones, such as those of the extremities, 
 are hollow, and generally filled with marrow. 
 All bones consist of a living or organic portion, 
 furmed of cartilage, and an earthy or inorganic, 
 formed mainly of phosphate of lime, with a cer- 
 tain portion of carbonate of lime. The cartila- 
 ginous portion is formed before the deposition 
 
BONE-MANURE 
 
 193 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 of the earthy takes place ; and the ossification 
 always starts from certain fixed points, called 
 points of ossification. 
 
 The organic or cartilaginous portion of the 
 bones may be obtained in a separate state by im- 
 mersion of a bone in diluted muriatic acid at a 
 temperature of 54° or less, and by subsequent 
 steepings in cold water ; and it is entirely con- 
 verted into gelatine by boiling in water, with the 
 exception of a few fibres, derived from the fine 
 blood-vessels which remain insoluble and may be 
 separated by filtration. — The earthy or inorganic 
 portion contains different relative proportions of 
 phosphate and carbonate of lime in different spe- 
 cies of animals, — mixed with small and variable 
 proportions of phosphate of magnesia and fluoride 
 of calcium ; and it is most easily obtained in a 
 separate state by means of calcination, — though 
 it then comprises some principles, such as sul- 
 phate of soda, and alkaline carbonates, which were 
 formed by recombination of the original prin- 
 ciples under the action of the heat. 
 
 BONE -MANURE. Bones employed for fer- 
 tilizing the soil. They have been applied in a 
 very great variety of conditions and forms, raw 
 and boiled, fresh and rotten, fermented and un- 
 fermented, whole, broken, bruised, and powdered, 
 digested in powerful solvents or reagents, reduced 
 to incineration, and mixed in several conditions 
 with various diluents and composts. 
 
 Bone-manure began, long ago, to be used in 
 the hothouses of Germany; it became slowly- 
 known as a fertilizer to the best informed class 
 of English cultivators ; it was at first tried, in 
 this country, with hesitation, in obscurity, and 
 under very bungling processes of management ; 
 and it eventually acquired the fame of being one 
 of the most facile and powerful appliances for 
 enriching the fields of our cold and humid cli- 
 mate. In some of the earliest farm applications 
 of bone-manure in Great Britain, the bones were 
 uniformly calcined or incinerated, and, in con- 
 sequence, deprived of oil, gelatine, and other 
 matters which constitute a considerable portion 
 of their fertilizing power; and, in others, they 
 were broken by the hammer, or reduced by lime, 
 or decomposed by urine, or distributed along the 
 bottom of the farm-yard heap, or otherwise so 
 prepared as either to occasion loss of their own 
 virtues or a wasteful expenditure of labour. But 
 when better methods of preparation were devised 
 and introduced to general practice, bones be- 
 came suddenly recognised as both an economical 
 and a most powerful manure ; and they acquired 
 a celebrity nearly as great, and not one- fourth 
 so factitious, as that which has since been ac- 
 ceded to guano. 
 
 Bones have, for many years past, been im- 
 ported in large quantities from all the principal 
 ports of the north of Europe ; and, for some time, 
 though in smaller quantities, from the south of 
 Europe and even from South America. The 
 I. 
 
 only importations at first, and the principal im- 
 portations for a considerable time afterward, 
 were from Germany ; and, when the bones from 
 that country had brought the uplands of Not- 
 tinghamshire, the western parts of Holderness, 
 and some other originally poor districts, into a 
 state of high cultivation and fertility, a proverb 
 arose, " that one ton of German bone-dust saves 
 the importation of ten tons of German corn." 
 As Malta formerly covered her naked rocks with 
 soil from foreign lands, so England fertilized her 
 barren clays and sandy heaths with bones from 
 Germany. Most of the imported bones have 
 never been boiled ; a large proportion appear to 
 have been buried in the earth or in composts 
 till the soft parts have become detached; and 
 some seem to have belonged to carcasses whose 
 fleshy portions have decayed in the open air. 
 The bones from some of the seaboard districts of 
 Germany are partly the exhumations of burying- 
 grounds, — the robbery of the repositories of the 
 human dead being ironically excused by its ren- 
 dering the bone trade popular ; those from some 
 other parts of Germany have been deprived of 
 their gelatine, and appear to have been boiled 
 for glue, — but these, though easily bruised and 
 rapid in their action, are not much esteemed ; 
 those from Russia are reduced to a somewhat 
 bruised state, partly that they may occupy less 
 room in stowage, and partly that they may com- 
 port with a Russian law which forbids their ex- 
 portation unless they be more or less manu- 
 factured; those from the south of Europe are 
 drier, more brittle, more reducible to fine pow- 
 der, and capable of a more uniform distribution 
 in the soil than those from the north, but at the 
 same time more rapid in their action and less 
 durable in their power ; and those which are 
 collected in our own large towns are, in all re- 
 spects, the best which can be obtained, but are 
 far too meagre in quantity to meet more than a 
 small fractional portion of the existing demand. 
 In a report on agricultural produce and shipping, 
 which was printed by order of the House of Com- 
 mons in February 1842, statistics are given of 
 eleven ports of the northern countries of Conti- 
 nental Europe; and two of these ports were 
 found to export no bone-manure to Great Bri- 
 tain, Hamburgh made exportations to a large but 
 unascertained amount, and Rotterdam, Bremen, 
 Lubeck, Kiel, Rostock, Stettin, Elsinore, and 
 Dantzic, annually exported, in the aggregate, 
 13,084 tons. 
 
 " Bone-dust," said Dr. Shier in 1844, " is much 
 used all over Scotland, but in no district so uni- \ 
 versally as in Aberdeenshire and the adjoining 
 counties, where it is for the most part applied in 
 supplement to farm -yard manure in growing 
 turnips. During the year from the 1st June 1840 j 
 to 1st June 1841, there were imported into Aber- ; 
 deen from foreign ports 4,355^ tons, and on the 
 average of the last six years, 3,461 tons annually. 
 N 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 The best bone-dust is found to weigh 54 lbs. per 
 bushel ; and reckoning 20 bushels of such dust a 
 sufficient dose for an imperial acre of turnips, 
 the average quantity imported into Aberdeen 
 should dress 7,178| acres ; and that not merely 
 for the green crop, but for the whole of the usual 
 five or six course rotations. And used in sup- 
 plement to a dose of 10 tons of farm-yard man- 
 ure, the more common and certainly more profit- 
 able way of using it, on open soils, the 3,461 tons 
 would suffice for from 14,356 to 17,946 acres." 
 
 Almost every seaport of any consequence on 
 the east coast of Great Britain has one or more 
 mills for crushing bones into a condition to be 
 used as manure, and annually imports a number 
 of cargoes from continental Europe. Yet Hull 
 excels all the others in this traffic; and some- 
 times has in its docks, at one moment, not fewer 
 than thirty or forty cargoes of bones, — all des- 
 tined to be crushed in and around the town, and 
 a considerable proportion to be sent up the in- 
 land navigations of the Humbcr for dispersion 
 through the interior of the country. In 1823, 
 the declared value of the bones imported into 
 Great Britain was only .£14,395 ; in 1837, it was 
 £254,600 ; and, since the latter date, the quan- 
 tity must have very greatly increased. In 1815, 
 the quantity imported into Hull was about 8,000 
 tons; in 1833, it was 17,500 tons; and, in 1835, 
 it was 25,700 tons. Most are ordered from com- 
 mercial houses in Hamburgh, who have ramifi- 
 cations in all the western seaports of the conti- 
 nent ; and the greater part are brought to Bri- 
 tain in vessels belonging to the Netherlands, to 
 the free towns of Germany, to Denmark, and to 
 the Baltic. 
 
 Bones are carefully collected in both town and 
 country throughout Great Britain. Every well 
 conducted farmstead has a large old cask or some 
 other suitable receptacle for them, situated in 
 some such place as the inner court of the cart- 
 shed, and protected by a cover from the aggres- 
 sions of dogs, cats, and rats, In large towns, 
 numbers of very poor persons earn a miserable 
 livelihood by collecting them from every mass of 
 rubbish or ashes where they are possibly to be 
 found; and, in London, the bone-boilers daily 
 send around spring-carts to collect them from 
 shambles, inns, eating-houses, and all simi- 
 lar places. When a bone - boiler has a bone- 
 mill, he first sends them through his coarsest 
 breaking cylinders, and then puts them into 
 boilers; and when he has not a bone-mill, he 
 employs men to chop them into small pieces 
 with short-handled axes, and then to pitch them 
 into the boilers. When the bones are well boiled, 
 the fat is skimmed off, — the finer portion to be 
 used in the manufacture of soap, and the coarser 
 portion for coach and cart grease ; and when no 
 more fat can be obtained, they are stacked up in 
 the yard, either to be crushed on the same estab- 
 lishment, or to be sold to the bone-crushers of 
 the ports along the east coast. 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 Boiled bones are freed, by the process of boil- 
 ing, from all greasy, fleshy, and fibrous matter ; 
 and they may, in consequence, be reduced to a 
 state of comparatively fine powder. " I find," 
 says Mr. Halkett of New Scone, " that numbers 
 of agriculturists, and even scientific men, who 
 have analyzed bones, are of opinion that the mar- 
 row and fatty matter in them are of great use in 
 their operation as a manure ; and I must confess 
 that at one time I was led to believe, from its 
 plausibility, and what I thought a common sense 
 view of it, that this was the case. But now, 
 after the test of experience, by numerous trials, 
 between what we call green bones with all the 
 marrow and fat in them, and dry ones free from 
 it, I have always found that the latter raised by 
 far the best crops. Therefore, I have arrived at 
 the conclusion, that the less animal fat in them 
 the better, and that the boiling of them before 
 crushing, instead of injuring them, is a benefit." 
 A report on bone-manure by the Doncaster Agri- 
 cultural Association corroborates Mr. Halkett's 
 observation, and states that bones in their green 
 state were found to be less effective fertilizers than 
 bones which had passed through the manufactories. 
 General experience, too, seems not to have de- 
 tected, at all events has not established, any dif- 
 ference between the value of the two kinds ; for, 
 in the great majority of instances, the same price 
 is paid for both to the bone-crushers. Yet both 
 scientific principles and careful persevering ob- 
 servations dissent from these conclusions, and 
 Affirm that bones which have not been deprived 
 of their fat and gelatine, though probably not so 
 rapid in their action or aggregately so efficient 
 upon turnips as boiled bones, have both a more 
 durable and a more powerful influence upon the 
 soil, and yield considerably richer results through- 
 out the cumulative produce of the rotation. 
 
 All " green " bones, and such boiled ones as are 
 not intended to be completely pulverized, are 
 crushed or brought into a suitable mechanical 
 condition for application to the soil, by being 
 passed through toothed cylinders, of one, two, or 
 three pairs ; and in the case of the green bones, a 
 set of malleable iron scrapers is attached to the 
 lower part of the cylinders, in order to clear away 
 adhering animal matter from the teeth. Small 
 machines with two cast-iron toothed cylinders, 
 for breaking bones into sufficiently small pieces, 
 have been erected on some large farms ; yet, ex- 
 cept in rare cases, the crushing of bones is a dis- 
 tinct occupation, conducted upon an extensive 
 scale, and effected in comparatively large and 
 powerful mills. Mr. James Anderson of Dundee, 
 about seventeen years ago, erected a singularly 
 excellent bone-mill, worked by a twelve-horse- 
 power steam-engine, for the supply of the districts 
 around Dundee; and he sent an elegant metal 
 model of it to the Museum of the Highland So- 
 ciety, and received from that institution a pre- 
 mium in approbation of both his own exertions 
 and the construction of his machine. The bones 
 
 194 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 195 
 
 to be ground in Mr. Anderson's mill are conveyed 
 from the mill-floor to the upper part of the ma- 
 chinery, by a series of buckets, attached to a 
 double chain. They are discharged upon a sheet 
 of canvass, extending over two revolving rollers, 
 by the motion of which they are conveyed to two 
 cast-iron rollers, to which are fixed concentric 
 rings of malleable iron, with teeth, so as to present 
 a serrated edge. The bones are thus partially 
 bruised, and fall down upon a similar pair of 
 rollers, but with the rings and teeth more closely 
 set. Immediately underneath this second pair of 
 rollers, is a riddle, kept in motion by a crank. 
 The bones which have been completely ground 
 fall through the riddle, and are received into a 
 small division or apartment beneath. The rougher 
 bones, or those which are only partially ground, 
 and have not fallen through, are conveyed by the 
 motion of the riddle to a third pair of rollers 
 formed like those above, but with their rings and 
 teeth still more close. Immediately underneath 
 these last rollers, is placed a second riddle, kept 
 in motion like the other, through which the bone- 
 dust falls directly into the division below formed 
 to receive it, while any of the bones not suffi- 
 ciently ground to pass through the riddle are car- 
 ried forward by its motion into another apart- 
 ment or division, from which they are either 
 taken to be sold in their rough state, or are con- 
 veyed up by the buckets as before, to pass again 
 through the machinery. A paper in the portion 
 of the Highland Society's Transactions published 
 in August 1829, whence we have borrowed our 
 notice of this bone-mill, contains both vertical 
 and front views of it, and a detailed technical de- 
 scription. 
 
 In some districts, the bones are crushed into 
 the four different conditions designated, in refer- 
 ence to the size of the largest pieces, inch, three- 
 quarters-inch, half-inch, and dust, — the last being 
 in a great measure collected by riddling the inch 
 and the three-quarters-inch ; in other districts, as 
 in Yorkshire, they are crushed into the three con- 
 ditions of inch, half-inch, and quarter-inch or 
 dust ; and in others, as in Perthshire, they are 
 crushed into only the two conditions of half-inch 
 and dust. In the first of these methods, the inch 
 and the three-quarters-inch kinds consist almost 
 wholly of pieces from the maximum size of the 
 designation down to about a quarter of an inch ; 
 the dust consists of a mixture of large grits and 
 fine powder ; and the half-inch consists of a mix- 
 ture of powder, grit, and pieces to the maximum 
 size of the designation, and is generally and most 
 justly regarded as considerably superior to any 
 of the other varieties. In the second or York- 
 shire method, the dust consists of everything 
 which passes through a sieve of little more than 
 a quarter of an inch in calibre ; it contains all the 
 sand and earthy matters accidentally lodged in 
 the hollow of the bones, all the carious and rotten 
 portions of the bones, and all the very old or par- 
 tially decayed bones which are reduced to powder 
 
 by the first touch of the cylinders ; it is much in- 
 ferior in quality to the inch and the half-inch va- 
 rieties, and acts for a much shorter period in 
 the soil than they ; yet it is heavier, comprises a 
 much larger quantity of matter in a bushel, and 
 will spread over a larger superficies of land ; 
 and it acts more rapidly in pushing up turnips 
 to a braird, and therefore operates, to a cer- 
 tain degree, as a preventive against the ravages 
 or even the attacks of the turnip-fly. The half- 
 inch variety, as prepared in the Yorkshire method, 
 is free from the impurities of the more pulverized 
 variety, and, when made from good bones, is, in 
 most respects, superior ; yet when sown unmixed, 
 it passes slowly into decomposition, and is tardy 
 in pushing turnips to the braird. Whenever 
 bones are crushed in the Yorkshire method, they 
 will act most advantageously if the half-inch va- 
 riety and the small variety be mixed in equal 
 portions, — the latter to braird the turnips, and 
 the former to operate durably in the soil. But 
 the Yorkshire crushers mix them only when spe- 
 cially ordered to do so ; and then they measure 
 the two kinds separately, and, in consequence, 
 give, in point of fact, little more than two bushels 
 under name of three, — the powder of the small 
 variety disposing itself in the interstices of the 
 other variety. 
 
 Bones from various parts of the continent, but 
 principally from those places whence they have 
 been longest and most bulkily imported, are fre- 
 quently so much adulterated with stones, hoofs, 
 horns, and every kind of cheap or waste matter 
 which will add to their weight, that they require 
 to be handpicked before they can, with safety 
 to the teeth of the cylinders, be subjected to the 
 process of crushing. But a vastly more mis- 
 chievous adulteration is extensively practised by 
 the crushers themselves, — one which not only in- 
 demnifies them for the loss by foreign adultera- 
 tions, but which sometimes imposes to a grievous 
 extent upon farmers, and indirectly occasions a 
 serious paucity of crops. Some farmers, too, have 
 an extreme fondness for finely pulverized bone- 
 dust, and blindly afford the utmost facility for 
 the practice of the adulteration. One ingredient 
 very extensively used, more extensively perhaps 
 than any other, is the refuse lime of tan-works, 
 after it has been employed in removing wool and 
 hair from skins. This is passed, in clotted lumps, 
 into the cylinders of the bone-mill ; it is freed 
 from wool and hair, and mixed with a proportion 
 of bone-dust; and it appears very small, has a 
 very pungent smell, and readily commends itself 
 to the unwary as prime bone-dust. " I am aware," 
 observes Mr. Halkett, "that this mixture has 
 often raised a good crop of turnips in damp sea- 
 sons. I have likewise known it destroy the seed 
 entirely, when good bones beside it did well. I 
 have no objection that it should be used as a 
 manure for turnips ; but why call it bone-dust, 
 and not sell it for what it is ? I once saw it used 
 by itself, without any admixture of bone-dust. 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 196 
 
 BONE-MANURE 
 
 and it proved an utter failure ; and I am led to 
 believe that it is the small quantity of bones in 
 it that sometimes raises the crop without any as- 
 sistance from the lime whatever." Old mortar 
 or plaster lime is also used ; but it is inodorous 
 and absolutely useless ; and should it happen to 
 be not thoroughly pulverized, it may easily be 
 detected by its admixture of hair. Soap-boiler's 
 waste is likewise employed ; and it is powdery, of 
 a bluish-white colour, and probably acts no other- 
 wise on the soil than by imparting a slight de- 
 gree of alkaline matter. The refuse of bone-dust 
 from the manufacture of sal-ammoniac is also oc- 
 casionally employed ; and, like the refuse lime of 
 tanneries, it has pungent properties, and is apt, 
 in some seasons, to burn the seed. Saw-dust, 
 slaked lime, rotten wood, and various other in- 
 gredients are used ; but, in general, are more 
 easily detected than those already named. Every 
 purchaser of crushed bones, and especially of 
 bone-dust, who has not an opportunity of watch- 
 ing the process of manufacture, ought to make a 
 thorough examination of any quantity submitted 
 to his inspection. 
 
 Bone-manure has been applied, with great suc- 
 cess, as a top-dressing for grass lands. In this 
 case, it must be sown by the hand broadcast, in 
 the same manner as corn ; and either applied in 
 the state of powder if the land is soon to be sub- 
 jected to the scythe, or applied in pieces of the max- 
 imum size of a walnut if sufficient time is to be al- 
 lowed for crumbling down by decomposition. It 
 suits ill upon clover of the firstryear, or even upon 
 grass of not more than the third year after tillage ; 
 and, when applied to old grass lands, it must be 
 used in a considerably larger proportion than is 
 suitable for tillage cropping. Upwards of 600 
 acres of pasture land upon one estate in Cheshire 
 have, within the last thirteen years, been raised, 
 by the application of bone-manure, from a value 
 of from 10s. to 15s. to a value of from 30s, to 40s. 
 The cost of the application has been about £10 
 per acre ; and 7 per cent, of it is added to the 
 rent payable by the tenants. The manure is ap- 
 plied in pieces about the size of walnuts, in quan- 
 tities of from 30 to 35 cwt. per acre, and never 
 upon land which has been in grass for a less pe- 
 riod than seven years. It is most successful on 
 old sour sward with a clay subsoil ; it never fails 
 upon any strong sward which is free from surface 
 water ; and it is also advantageous, though not to 
 the same degree or with the same unfailing uni- 
 formity, upon dry friable pasture with a sandy 
 substratum. " The end of April," says the re- 
 porter of the Cheshire case, " I consider the best 
 time to apply bones : no stock ought to be put 
 upon the land before the following spring. If the 
 land is not too poor to produce a crop of hay, I 
 do not object to its being mown the first year, 
 but on no account afterwards. It is now twenty 
 years since I first saw bone-dust applied to pas- 
 ture land, on a field adjoining Lord Combermcre's 
 estate. At the time the bones were put upon the 
 
 land, it certainly was not worth more than 10s. 
 an acre ; and though so long a period has elapsed 
 since the field was manured with bones, it is now 
 worth 35s. an acre, though I think the land is 
 not quite so good as it was five years ago. I con- 
 sider bones the cheapest of all manure for mow- 
 ing-grounds. Eight years ago, I manured part of 
 one of my mowing-fields with bones, 35 cwt. to 
 the acre ; the land has produced me a good crop 
 of hay every year since, quite equal to the other 
 part of the field, which had been manured with 
 good farm-yard dung every two years. Once in 
 eight or nine years is quite enough to manure 
 mowing-lands with bones ; and I am quite certain 
 that pasture land on which bones have been ap- 
 plied never will (so long as it remains in grass) 
 return to the state it was in before the bones 
 were put on." As a general rule, bone-manure 
 is best applied to dry pasture, whether natural or 
 artificial, in spring; but to meadow land, the 
 growth of which has been fed off, it is best ap- 
 plied at the earliest possible moment after the 
 cattle are removed. Yet this rule is subject to 
 exceptions, occasioned by the state of the land 
 and the character of the season : for if the mea- 
 dow land be wet, either habitually or from the 
 unusual prevalence of rains, the application of 
 the manure to it ought to be postponed till the 
 ground becomes dry and the weather warm. 
 
 Bone-manure has been variously applied, with 
 great success, as a preparation for wheat and 
 other tillage crops ; but, by universal observation, 
 it is found to operate with the most eminent ad- 
 vantage, as to both its immediate and its more re- 
 mote effects, when used for turnips at the com- 
 mencement of a rotation. It is sometimes spread 
 broadcast, but is much more generally drilled in 
 with a machine. When spread broadcast, if it be 
 in a state of decay or of complete readiness for 
 operating on the soil, it is, in very many instances, 
 harrowed in with the last ploughing or imme- 
 diately previous to the sowing ; but, if in a fresh 
 state, without having been boiled or fermented, 
 it ought to be allowed to lie a sufficient time 
 upon the surface of the ground, to subject it to 
 incipient decomposition, and fit it for developing 
 its powers upon the nascent crop. Some very in- 
 telligent farmers prefer the broadcast method for 
 the reasons, that the turnip plants receive much 
 more nourishment through the side-radicles than 
 through the tap-root, and will therefore be better 
 fed by broadcast than by drilled bone-manure, — 
 that a serious difficulty exists in mixing drilled 
 manure with the soil by after -ploughing, — and 
 that, although this difficulty is lessened by cross- 
 ploughing the ridges, yet the stripes of land be- 
 tween the drills never receive their due propor- 
 tion of benefit. A medium method is practised 
 by some farmers, of first sowing the manure 
 broadcast, and then gathering it into ridges with 
 the mould-plough. But general experience, based 
 on thousands or even myriads of experiments in 
 all the best farming districts of Great Britain, 
 
BONE-MANURE. 19 
 
 gives decided preference to the drill method, — 
 and this, whether the bone-manure be used alone, 
 or in combination or accompaniment with other 
 materials. 
 
 The usual manner of dropping bone-manure in 
 drills, is either simultaneously with the turnip 
 seed, by means of a machine for the purpose, at- 
 tached to the turnip sowing-machine, or in de- 
 positions separately made from the seed, by 
 means of a machine wholly employed for itself. 
 Models of five machines for the former of these 
 methods, and of one for the latter, may be seen 
 in the museum of the Highland Society ; and are 
 described, in language which we shall quote, in 
 the descriptive catalogue of the museum. One 
 of the turnip and bone-dust sowing-machines is 
 adapted for sowing two drills, with a simultane- 
 ous deposit of the seed and the manure. " It 
 is mounted on two wheels, which serve to turn 
 both the seed and the bone-dust apparatus. The 
 former consists of the common tin seed-barrels ; 
 the latter, of two wooden hoppers to contain the 
 bones, and carrying in their bottom each a wide- 
 toothed or notched wheel, which, by its revolu- 
 tion, discharges the bones into a tube which ter- 
 minates, in common with the seed-tube, in the 
 chamber of the coulter. The discharge of the 
 bones is regulated by a slider which enlarges or 
 diminishes the passage from the hoppers. The 
 machine is drawn by one horse ; and the distance 
 between the coulters is regulated by hand-gear." 
 Another turnip and bone-dust sowing-machine 
 was invented by Mr. Nicol of Guildy in Forfar- 
 shire, and bears date 1830, but ranks merely as 
 one of the early combinations of the machinery 
 for simultaneously depositing the seed and the 
 manure. " The principles of this machine," says 
 the Catalogue, " are much like those of the for- 
 mer ; though the arrangement of the parts and 
 modes of communicating the motions are some- 
 what different. The machine moves on one large 
 roller, and a fore- wheel without a swivel-bar; 
 the former gives motion to the sowing-gear ; and 
 the adjustment of the coulters is effected by 
 hand-gear not self-acting." A third turnip and 
 bone-dust machine bears the date of 1830, and 
 was invented by Mr. Hamilton of Dumfries-shire; 
 but it merely possesses the same properties as the 
 preceding, with some differences of arrangement. 
 A fourth and quite different turnip and bone-dust 
 machine bears the date of 1835, and was invented 
 by Mr. Liston of Blairgowrie. " In this sowing- 
 machine, a new system of depositing the seed 
 and manure was attempted. Instead of sowing 
 continuously, this machine was intended to de- 
 posit a portion of seed and manure together, at 
 stated intervals, whereby a saving might accrue, 
 both in the seed and manure, and the first thin- 
 ning of the braird might be dispensed with. The 
 construction of the machine differs both from 
 previous turnip and bone-dust sowers, except in 
 the depositors; these consist of a short double 
 conical roller, which forms the groove or rut, in 
 
 7 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 a continuous form, for the reception of the seed 
 and manure, and this followed by a short cylin- 
 der, partly incased in a cover. The cylinder is 
 chambered on the periphery ; in these, certain 
 quantities of the seed and manure are collected ; 
 and as the cylinder re vc Ives, and the machine 
 progresses, these little collections are discharged 
 at the proposed distances. In practice, however, 
 it was found that the chambered cylinder did 
 not deliver its contents at intervals, but nearly 
 uniform, except when the machine travelled so 
 slow as to be ineffective." The fifth turnip and 
 bone-dust sowing-machine bears date 1840, is the 
 invention of Mr. Nicol of Guildy, and was in- 
 tended as an improvement on Mr. Liston's, escap- 
 ing its faults, and achieving its proposed pur- 
 poses. " Its construction is nearly the same as 
 the last described, except the dropping apparatus. 
 This consists of a raised fillet encircling the front 
 rollers, and having also obtuse dibbles proceed- 
 ing from it at nine-inch spaces, which, while the 
 roller levels the top of the drill, forms also a 
 smooth channel, with dibble-holes at nine inches 
 apart, along its surface. Into this channel, the 
 seed and bones are deposited continuously ; but 
 an iron instrument or scraper follows close be- 
 hind, having a protuberance that follows in the 
 channel of the drill; this member sweeps the 
 bones and seed before it till they fall into the 
 first dibble-hole, and so on." The last bone-sow- 
 ing machine which we require to notice, is that 
 which deposits the bone-manure alone, or with- 
 out the seed. " This machine is employed for 
 depositing bone-dust or other granulated man- 
 ures in drills, and is adapted to serve three drills 
 at each turn. The bone-chest is mounted on 
 two wheels, one of which gives motion to the 
 three distributing wheels placed inside the chest; 
 the revolutions of the latter give out the manure 
 to the sheet-iron tunnels, which deliver it into 
 the furrows previously prepared by the plough. 
 The quantity to be discharged is regulated by 
 sliders which lie over the orifices. In depositing 
 manure by this machine, it is laid in the fur- 
 rows between the first-formed drills-, and is then 
 covered up by passing the plough along the 
 drill and cleaving it. After this operation, the 
 seed is deposited by the common turnip sowing- 
 machine. The bone-sower may be drawn by one 
 horse." All these machines, however, are so 
 costly that any occupier of a small farm cannot 
 prudently purchase them, and can seldom obtain 
 an occasional use of them except at an unrea- 
 sonable hire. 
 
 The quantity of bone-manure suitable for an 
 acre of tillage land varies according to the condi- 
 tion of the manure, the character of the soil, and 
 the nature of the crop ; yet it usually has certain 
 limits of utility, or limits beyond which all appli- 
 cations of it are wholly wasteful. It has some- 
 times been applied to the extent of 100 bushels 
 per acre, and often, for the sake of experiment, to 
 the extent of forty or fifty bushels ; but, in all 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 198 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 such cases, it is, in a great degree, prodigally 
 wasted. The average quantity of all conditions, 
 stated in the report of the Doncaster Association, 
 is 39 bushels ; and the quantity of the powdered 
 varieties, as there stated, ranges from a little less 
 than 20 bushels to something upwards of 30. 
 But the most approved practices in England 
 appear to give from 25 to 30 bushels of half-inch 
 bones, and about 20 bushels of bone-dust. In 
 general, about 25 bushels of any medium variety 
 is quite sufficient for producing a good crop of 
 turnips, and exerting a fertilizing power over a 
 subsequent rotation, on poor light sandy soil ; 
 and any quantity above this which may, in any 
 case, be thought desirable, ought to be applied at 
 some future period, as a preparation for some 
 white crop of the series. But, says a writer in 
 Vol. ix. p. 103 of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture, " we have universally in Scotland a no- 
 tion that the half, at least, of the turnips raised 
 by means of bone-dust ought to be eaten off by 
 sheep ; for, without such assistance from other 
 manure, we conceive the bone-dust would have 
 too much to do of itself in supporting all the crops 
 during the rotation. This being the notion in 
 Scotland, the practice originating from it is, that 
 never more than sixteen bushels generally, though 
 some farmers apply twenty bushels, is applied to 
 the imperial acre. We have also a notion in 
 Scotland, that bone-dust has a caustic quality, 
 and that considerably more than sixteen bushels 
 to the acre on light soils, would do more harm 
 than good. We have ourselves experimentally 
 tried the effects of different quantities of bone- 
 dust in raising turnips on light gravelly soil, 
 from twelve to twenty-five bushels per imperial 
 acre, and found the crop improve decidedly to 
 sixteen bushels, but not in the least beyond that 
 quantity. So far, therefore, as the turnip crop 
 was concerned, any quantity above the sixteen 
 bushels was thrown away." " Bones," says the 
 Rev. Mr. Rham, " have been drilled with wheat 
 at the rate of 30 bushels of bones and 2| of wheat 
 per acre, and a good crop (twenty-four bushels 
 per acre) has been obtained on very poor soil ; 
 while portions of the same field sown without 
 any bones, in order to ascertain the effect, did 
 not produce sufficient plants to cover the ground 
 or return the seed." 
 
 A wide difference, or rather a complete con- 
 trast, of opinion exists among farmers as to 
 whether newly-crushed or old-crushed bone-man- 
 ure be the best ; some asserting that they never 
 have good turnips except from newly-crushed 
 bone-dust, and others, that the best turnips they 
 ever had were from old bone-dust. " Both in- 
 stances," remarks Mr. Halkett, " may be true ; 
 but at the same time it may also be true, that 
 both, from season and management, may have 
 the best crop of turnips they ever had, with the 
 worst bone-dust they ever used." We must look 
 beyond the conflict of practical opiuion to one or 
 two unquestionable facts respecting the manure 
 
 itself, in order to know the relative value of the 
 old and the new. All newly-crushed bone-man- 
 ure, however dry, heats and ferments with a 
 rapidity and a violence proportioned to the de- 
 gree of moisture and of heat in the heap ; and in 
 general, it rises in temperature and in ferment- 
 ing action till about the fifth or the eighth day, 
 and then slowly subsides into a cool and quies- 
 cent condition ; and in the process of cooling — in 
 consequence partly of evaporation, but chiefly of 
 becoming more friable and so losing its sharp 
 points as to lie more closely together — it suffers 
 a diminution of bulk which, though not observ- 
 able by the unpractised eye, can very readily be 
 detected by re-measuring. If a parcel of bones, 
 amounting to 1,000 bushels, be crushed in Febru- 
 ary, and not sold till the middle of May, it will 
 then measure only about 960 bushels ; and while 
 a bushel of it when it was newly crushed would 
 weigh only 47 pounds, a bushel of it in the mid- 
 dle of May will weigh 49 pounds. The purchaser 
 of old bone-dust, therefore, unless he pay a pro- 
 portionally higher per centage for it, obtains 
 more material for his money than the purchaser 
 of newly-crushed bone-dust. The only intrinsic 
 difference between the two varieties, also, seems 
 to be in favour of the old dust for turnips or for 
 any other purpose which requires speedy evolu- 
 tion of the manurial power ; for the effect of the 
 fermentation is simply to induce nascent decom- 
 position, or to bring the bone-dust into quite or 
 very nearly the same state as if it had lain for a 
 short period in the soil. 
 
 Old bone-dust remaining unsold at the close of 
 the turnip-sowing season, may sometimes be ob- 
 tained at a somewhat reduced price ; and, when 
 purchased by a farmer, requires a little peculiar 
 treatment for its proper conservation, till the 
 next season. If it has been crushed in a previous 
 year, and more than once heated, it possesses 
 either a bluish or a yellow tint ; and when exa- 
 mined through a microscope, will be found full 
 of small mites. When either this decomposing 
 bone-dust, or even comparatively fresh dust of 
 the season, is purchased by a farmer, it ought to 
 be laid on a dry floor, in a cool place, as com- 
 pletely removed as possible from all access of 
 damp vapour. In consequence of the re-arrange- 
 ment of its particles and the admission of air 
 into its mass, it will heat after being removed to 
 its new place of storage, though not to the same 
 degree as on the first occasion ; and for the same 
 reasons, it will heat again on every occasion of 
 its being turned or much disturbed. When spread 
 thin on the floor, it will not heat so much as 
 when spread thick ; but, in almost every instance, 
 it will send off so much putrescent vapour as to 
 rot a wooden floor above it, and damage the 
 boarded floor on which it lies. It ought never 
 to be kept in bags, for it will speedily destroy 
 them, nor in the vicinity of horses or cattle, for 
 it will provoke them to restiveness, and perhaps 
 incite disease by its disgustingly foetid odour. 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 199 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 When a soil is of a very decidedly open tcx- I 
 ture, bone-dust ought to be applied to it only in 
 accompaniment with farm-yard manure, — the 
 latter being first spread in the drills, and then 
 the bone-dust sown over it, before covering 
 in with the plough. This accompaniment of 
 farm-yard manure with bone-dust is peculiarly 
 suitable for dry seasons and early sown turnips. 
 A good proportion of the two manures, in ordi- 
 nary cases, is from 8 to 10 bushels of the bone- 
 dust, and about 10 tons of the farm-yard manure. 
 — But another and more common method of 
 jointly applying the two is previously to mix 
 them, to induce nascent decomposition of the 
 bones, and to commingle all the ingredients of 
 the farm -yard manure with them into a compost. 
 The proportions in which they may be mixed, for 
 this mode of application, is either about 50 bush- 
 els of bones and 4 or 5 tons of farm-yard dung, 
 or about 20 bushels of bones and 4 or 5 tons of 
 dung, or about 12 bushels of bones and about 8 
 tons of dung. The bones, when mixed in any of 
 these proportions, or in any intermediate ones, 
 and thrown together with the dung in a well- 
 covered heap, will very rapidly undergo decom- 
 position. One farmer states, " that he has used 
 as much as 35 bushels of bone-dust, per acre, 
 without manure, in the same field where he laid 
 six loads of fold manure and ten bushels of bone- 
 dust ; but the turnips on the part manured with 
 bone-dust alone were not so good as those on the 
 part manured with the compost, and the suc- 
 ceeding crops were still worse in comparison." 
 
 A frequent and usually advantageous method, 
 for soils of a less light and open kind than those 
 for which the commixation of bone-dust and 
 farm-yard manure is suitable, is to work the 
 bone-manure into a compost or mixture with 
 ashes, loams, clays, or decayed vegetable mat- 
 ters, according to the particular character of 
 individual soils, with clay for sandy soils, with 
 ashes for clayey soils, and with loam or decayed 
 vegetable for soils of medium porosity. Many 
 intelligent farmers have reported, as the result 
 of their own experience, that bone composts of 
 these various kinds have acted more beneficially 
 than bones alone ; yet they do not seem, in gen- 
 eral, to have adverted to the fact that such com- 
 posts are valuable chiefly if not solely in the 
 case of ' green ' or unboiled bones, and that the 
 rationale of their superiority consists in their 
 solvent action upon the gelatine and the fat. 
 Some farmers give to each acre a compost of 50 
 bushels of bone-dust and 5 loads of burnt clay 
 or of good earth, and, by applying it broadcast 
 and ploughing it in, have found it increasing the 
 value twenty per cent, of all the crops of a rota- 
 tion excepting clover. Other farmers apply to 
 each acre a compost of 40 bushels of two-inch or 
 three-inch bones, 5 loads of farm-yard manure, 
 and a considerable but indefinite quantity of 
 earth, and have observed a very visible effect 
 from it upon the wheat crop at the end of a four- 
 
 year rotation. Other farmers use a compost of 
 bone-dust, rape-dust, soot, farm-yard manure, 
 and the ashes of weeds or of house fires, and find 
 it eliminating a vast heat and undergoing a pro- 
 portionately active fermentation. Mr. Shier re- 
 commends, as the best method of application to 
 meadow or old pasture, such a compost of bone- 
 dust, urine, and earth, that 8 or 10 bushels of 
 bone-dust shall be given to each acre. 
 
 A writer in the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
 ture of March 1833 asserts, as a result of his own 
 experience, that about one-half of the usual quan- 
 tity of bone-dust is efficient for the turnip-crop, 
 when prepared into a compost with common 
 coal-ashes. He says, " The quantity of bone-dust 
 usually applied is two quarters per imperial acre : 
 I use only one quarter per acre, but I always mix 
 the bones with coal-ashes. These ashes may be 
 procured in towns and villages, at a price not 
 exceeding 5s. per ton ; and the quantity mixed 
 with the bones depends in a great measure on 
 the quantity of ashes that can be obtained ; the 
 more of course the better, but it should never 
 be less than one or two quarters per acre. The 
 ashes are put in a dry place, under cover, such 
 as a cart-shed or an out-house, and riddled as 
 small as bone-dust itself. That which passes 
 through the riddle ought only to be mixed with 
 the bones. The bones should be very carefully 
 and equally mixed through the mass, which will 
 be best effected by frequent turnings with the 
 shovel. The turnings also assist in drying the 
 ashes, which, if they are not, they will not pass 
 easily through the hopper of the sowing-machine. 
 The ashes should be collected as early in the sea- 
 son as possible, that they may get thoroughly, 
 dried. After the bones are mixed with the ashes, 
 the mass ferments, and evolves a considerable 
 degree of heat, which subsiding, assists the dry- 
 ing of the ashes considerably. To expedite the 
 drying of the ashes, when they cannot be pro- 
 cured early enough in the season, I would recom- 
 mend their being strewed with a dusting of hot 
 lime, while the mass is turning over, in the same 
 manner that pickled wheat is dried with lime 
 to render it fit for sowing. I never tried this 
 expedient, because I always procured an early 
 supply of ashes ; but I feel confident it will an- 
 swer the purpose. The compost is sown with the 
 usual machine. Turnips raised with this com- 
 post of bone-dust and coal-ashes, in the quantity 
 alluded to, I have sold for £7 per acre, to be 
 eaten off with sheep ; and they always possessed 
 the same characters of a close crop, firm root, 
 and hardiness to resist the rigours of winter, that 
 turnips raised with bone-dust alone evince." 
 
 A method of treating bone-manure with sul- 
 phuric acid before applying it to the soil, has 
 recently come into extensive use, and seems, from 
 many experiments and concurrent observation, 
 to be superior to all the older methods. It was 
 originally designed merely to reduce the bone- 
 manure to a state of fine powder, to occasion it 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 200 
 
 BONE-MANURE 
 
 to mix more intimately with the soil, and to in- 
 crease its readiness or aptitude for assimilation ; 
 but it has been found, by subsequent improve- 
 ments upon it, to accomplish also the other and 
 broader purposes peculiar to bone-manure. Dr. 
 Liebig, who suggested this new practice, says, 
 " The most easy and practical method of effect- 
 ing their division is to pour over the bones, in a 
 state of fine powder, half their weight of sulphuric 
 acid diluted with three or four parts of water, 
 and, after they have been digested for some time, 
 to add about one hundred parts of water, and to 
 sprinkle this acid mixture (phosphates of lime 
 and magnesia) before the plough. In a few se- 
 conds, the free acids unite with the bases con- 
 tained in the earth, and a neutral salt is formed 
 in a state of very fine division. Experiments 
 instituted on a soil formed from grauwacke, for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the action of the 
 manure thus prepared, have distinctly shown 
 that neither corn nor kitchen - garden plants 
 suffer injurious effects in consequence, but that, 
 on the contrary, they thrive with much more 
 vigour." — In a comparative experiment, made 
 in 1843, on the home -farm of Gordon-castle 
 in Morayshire, one acre was manured with 8 
 bushels of bone-dust and 14 yards of farm-yard 
 dung; one, with 315 lbs. of guano; one, with 16 
 bushels of bone-dust; one, with 2 bushels of 
 bone-dust, dissolved in 83 lbs. of sulphuric acid, 
 previously diluted with 12 gallons of water, — the 
 mixture allowed to remain between two and 
 three days in a tub, and then diluted with 388 
 gallons of water, and applied to the drills by 
 means of a water-cart ; and one, with 8 bushels 
 .of bone-dust, mixed with 83 lbs. of sulphuric 
 acid, previously diluted with 12 gallons of water, 
 — and the mixture, nearly in a dry state, sown 
 by hand along the drills. The soil on which the 
 experiment was made was poor, light, and sandy; 
 the turnips, raised immediately upon the man- 
 ures, were Dale's hybrid, sown in drills 27 inches 
 apart, and the one-half drawn for cattle in the 
 yards, the other half eaten on the ground by 
 sheep ; the land was afterwards, without any 
 manure, sown down with barley and grass seeds. 
 After, in each case, deducting the cost of man- 
 ure, the total value of the turnips and barley 
 crops, was, on the bone-dust and farm-yard dung, 
 £5 18s. l^d. ; on the guano, .£5 17s. 9|d. ; on the 
 bone-dust alone, £6 4s. lid.; on the liquid ap- 
 plication of bone-dust and diluted sulphuric acid, 
 £7 10s. l|d. ; and on the powdery application of 
 bone-dust and diluted sulphuric acid, £6 16s. 9d. 
 — Another comparative experiment, of an inter- 
 esting character, and exhibiting still more de- 
 cisive results in favour of the preparation of 
 bones with sulphuric acid, was made, in the 
 same year, on Lindor's farm, St. Briavel's, in 
 Gloucestershire. The scene of this experiment 
 was a worn-out arable field of sandy soil ; the 
 sowing was in the beginning of August with im- 
 proved stone turnips, in lots of a quarter of an 
 
 acre ; the ground was ridged up at 24 inches, 
 the seed drilled on the ridge, and hoed out to 8 
 inches ; the turnips were horse-hoed three times, 
 and hand-hoed twice ; and one perch of each lot 
 was pulled, topped, and weighed on 8th Jan- 
 uary, 1844. One lot was manured with 15 
 yards of fat rotten pig's dung, cost £3 for man- 
 ure, and produced 15 tons 2 cwts. 3 qrs. of tur- 
 nips ; another was manured with 3-| bushels of 
 bone-dust and 80 lbs. of sulphuric acid, cost £l 
 6d. for manure, and produced 13 tons 1 cwt. 1 
 qr. ; another was manured with 40 bushels of 
 coal-ashes, which were saturated in the winter 
 of 1842-3 with human urine, cost £l 3s. for 
 manure, and produced 12 tons 12 cwts. 3 qrs. ; 
 another was manured with 20 cubic yards of 
 road-scrapings, mixed with 280 gallons of human 
 urine, and twice turned over in 1842, cost £2 
 3s. 6d. for manure, and produced 10 tons 12 
 cwts. 2 qrs. ; another was manured with 2 cwts. 
 of guano, mixed with 12 bushels of pure charcoal 
 dust, cost £2 Is. for manure, and produced 10 
 tons 5 cwts. 3 qrs. ; another was manured with 
 
 7 cwts. of urate, cost £2 Is. 6d. for manure, and 
 produced 9 tons 11 cwts. 2 qrs.; another was 
 manured with 20 bushels of bones, half dust, cost 
 £2 14s. for manure, and produced 9 tons 1 cwt. ; 
 another was manured with 6 bushels of bone- 
 dust and 20 bushels of charcoal dust, cost £l 13s. 
 for manure, and produced 8 tons 17 cwts.; an- 
 other was manured with 16 bushels of bones, 
 half dust, cost £2 4s. for manure, and produced 
 
 8 tons 2 cwts. 3 qrs. ; another was manured with 
 15 yards of half-rotten common straw dung, cost 
 £l 10s. for manure, and produced 6 tons 13 cwts. 
 1 qr. ; and another received no manure what- 
 ever, and produced 1 ton 10 cwts. 2 qrs. Mr. 
 Purchas, who reports this experiment in the 
 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, men- 
 tions that the accidents of the weather were pe- 
 culiarly unfavourable to the full play of the pre- 
 paration of bone-dust with sulphuric acid, and 
 states " that perhaps half the quantity will be 
 sufficient, and that the great chemist Liebig, to 
 whom we are indebted for this valuable dis- 
 covery, is right when he says that a much 
 smaller quantity of bones and acid (viz., 40 lbs. 
 fine bone-dust and 20 lbs. sulphuric acid per 
 acre) will produce a good crop of turnips." 
 
 Several inconveniences, involving both risk 
 and cost, occur in the method of preparing bone- 
 dust with sulphuric acid as recommended by Dr. 
 Liebig, and practised in the Gordon-Castle ex- 
 periment. The carriage of the sulphuric acid 
 from the manufactory or the market town, is 
 hazardous, and may be expensive ; the process of 
 mixation with sulphuric acid upon the farm, may 
 inflict very serious accidents upon persons so un- 
 acquainted with the tremendously acrid powers 
 of that acid as almost all farm-servants are ; suit- 
 able vessels for making the preparation either do 
 not exist upon a farm, or can be purchased only 
 at a considerable cost, and are useless for almost 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 201 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 any other purpose ; and the distribution upon 
 land of so voluminous a quantity of liquid as 26 
 cwt. of dilution for every 58 lbs. of bone-dust, 
 cannot be effected at any time without much 
 trouble, and may, at the busy season of turnip- 
 sowing, occasion serious derangement of the 
 routine business of the farm. " From experience 
 of these difficulties," says Mr. Shier, " I was led 
 some years ago to try a dry preparation of bone- 
 dust with sulphuric acid ; and this dry prepara- 
 tion has been found to combine so many advan- 
 tages, that it is now very generally adopted in 
 the county of Aberdeen. For making this pre- 
 paration, the finest bone-dust is employed. Dust 
 prepared from bones from the north of Europe 
 may be got, by sifting, of the weight of 58 lbs. 
 per bushel ; but as the dry bones from the south 
 readily yield it of the weight of 75 lbs., the latter 
 is of course to be preferred. Any convenient 
 quantity of dust is laid in an oblong heap on a 
 flagstone floor, a depression is made in the top of 
 the heap, and one-fourth part of its weight of 
 concentrated sulphuric acid is added in small 
 quantities at a time, the mass being thoroughly 
 turned and mixed, by means of wooden shovels, 
 after each addition of acid. Alternately with 
 each portion of acid, as much water is added. 
 When the whole acid and water have been added, 
 and the mixture is completed, the mass is hot 
 and somewhat moist ; after lying in the heap for 
 a day or two, it becomes quite dry, and is fit for 
 sowing, either by hand or machine. The quan- 
 tity of sulphuric acid in this mixture is but half 
 that used in the liquid way, but it has been as- 
 certained by many trials, that any increase above 
 the quantity recommended is not so economical ; 
 and indeed where, as occasionally happens, sifted 
 bone-dust cannot be obtained, a farther diminu- 
 tion may be made with advantage. Concentrated 
 sulphuric acid has been specified, but in places 
 where only unconcentrated acid is made, it is 
 cheaper to use that, a proportionally greater 
 weight being employed. The value of the acid 
 is of course determined by the hydrometer ; and 
 it should be of the kind made from sulphur, and 
 not from pyrites, as the latter generally contains 
 a large quantity of arsenic. Although of this 
 dry preparation a larger dose is required than of 
 the wet one, the advantages attendant on its use 
 render it, on the whole, a cheaper preparation. 
 Some of its advantages are that it is prepared by 
 the manufacturer, who can go to a better market 
 for all the materials than the farmer, and, from 
 conducting the operation on a large scale, can 
 make it of better quality, both from the employ- 
 ment of suitable machinery, and from the skill 
 acquired by the workmen ; and further, the ex- 
 pense of carriage and application to the land is 
 not greater than that of an equal weight of un- 
 prepared bone-dust." 
 
 Except on land which contains a large propor- 
 tion of organic matter, either the liquid or the 
 dry preparation of bone-dust with sulphuric acid 
 
 ought to be applied for turnips, only in accom- 
 paniment with a moderate quantity of farm-yard 
 manure. When the turnips are to be succeeded 
 by winter wheat, indeed, the preparation of bone- 
 dust and sulphuric acid may be administered 
 alone, in order to force the turnips into rapid 
 and vigorous growth, and to hurry them onward 
 to speedy maturity ; but when the land is not to 
 be cropped till spring, the accompaniment of 
 some such slowly decomposing substance as farm- 
 yard manure is in a greater or less degree indis- 
 pensable, especially in a dry and hot season, for 
 preventing an arrest upon the growth of the tur- 
 nip bulbs before they arrive at their due size and 
 weight. Five or six bushels of the dry prepara- 
 tion per acre, given in accompaniment with ten 
 tons of farm-yard manure, have been found, from 
 comparative trials on all kinds of turnip soils, to 
 produce four or five tons more of turnip bulbs 
 than can, in any equal circumstances, be obtain- 
 ed from 20 tons of farm-yard manure without 
 bone-dust. " The dry preparation," says Mr. 
 Shier, " has also been found a cheap and very 
 efficient special manuring for grain-crops and 
 grass. When used for grain crops, the best re- 
 sults have been got when it was applied to a 
 grain crop immediately succeeding a green-crop 
 grown after farm-yard manure alone ; and here 
 too the same tendency to bring the plants early 
 to maturity is manifested, the grain being ready 
 for reaping fully a fortnight before portions of 
 the same crop dressed with other manures ; the 
 weight of the grain per bushel being increased, 
 and the straw firm and healthy. Bone-dust, 
 with sulphuric acid, has also been found to an- 
 swer well for potatoes, especially when mixed 
 with a little sulphate of magnesia." 
 
 Bone-manure is by no means equally suitable 
 for all kinds of soils, but confers superlative ad- 
 vantage on one kind, medium advantage on 
 another, and little or no advantage on another. 
 An experimental trial, recorded by Mr. Sinclair, 
 in a letter to the secretary of the Highland So- 
 ciety, states that it proved eminently fertilizing, 
 not only for turnips but for the subsequent crops 
 of a rotation, upon silicious soil, and that it pro- 
 duced scarcely any perceptible effect upon cal- 
 careous stony soil, while stable -yard manure 
 upon the latter was eminently fertilizing. Four 
 hundred parts of the silicious soil to which it 
 proved most highly advantageous were ascer- 
 tained by analysis to comprise 167 parts of fine 
 silicious sand, 43 of calcareous sand, 99 of water 
 of absorption, 24 of decomposing animal and ve- 
 getable matter, destructible by fire, 25 of impal- 
 pable carbonate of lime, 23 of silica, 9 of alumina, 
 3 of oxide of iron, 5 of soluble animal and vege- 
 table matter, principally vegetable extract, with 
 indications of muriate of soda, and 2 of moisture 
 and loss ; and four hundred parts of the soil on 
 which it did not appear to produce any benefit, 
 comprised 217 parts of calcareous sand and gravel, 
 nearly pure carbonate of lime, 17 of decomposing 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 202 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 animal and vegetable matters, destructible by 
 fire, 39 of impalpable carbonate of lime, 85 of 
 silica, 20 of alumina, 5 of oxide of iron, 4 of solu- 
 ble matter, principally vegetable extract, with 
 sulphate of lime, and 13 of moisture or loss. 
 The two soils — whose most important chemical 
 differences were the respective deficiency and 
 excess of carbonate of lime, and the lesser or 
 greater proportion of alumina — differed also in 
 the important mechanical property of respective 
 fineness and coarseness of their particles. — The 
 report of the Doncaster Association on bone- 
 manure corroborates, for the most part, the 
 general principle of Mr. Sinclair, and, at the 
 same time, exhibits it in more detailed appli- 
 cation. "Upon very thin sandy land," says 
 that report, " the value of bone-manure is not 
 to be estimated ; it is not only found to bene- 
 fit the particular crop to which it is applied, 
 but extends through the whole course of crops ; 
 and even in the succeeding courses, its effects 
 are visible in the improved quality of the land, 
 and the efficiency of a smaller quantity than 
 would at first have insured a crop. Upon much 
 of the high land about Babworth, which is a 
 light sandy soil, the crops under ordinary farm 
 management were comparatively unproductive ; 
 but since the introduction of bones, after having 
 been dressed with several fallows with 60 or 70 
 bushels per acre, they have not only become pro- 
 ductive, but so much improved in quality as to 
 return an equal crop with a much lighter dress- 
 ing of manure or bones throughout the next 
 course." On the wolds of Yorkshire and Lincoln- 
 shire, "before bones were generally used with 
 turnip seed, many thousand acres were annually 
 sown for that crop without any manure whatever, 
 from the impossibility of getting fold-manure for 
 more than one-third or fourth of their fallows. 
 The turnips upon such unmanured land were 
 consequently very indifferent ; and the benefit of 
 sheep-feeding upon their tops — for of bottoms 
 they seldom had any — was very trifling. Since 
 the use of bones has, however, become general, 
 the turnip crop has been in many instances ten- 
 fold, and in few less than four or fivefold its for- 
 mer bulk. All the succeeding crops of grain and 
 seeds have been amazingly increased ; and, up*on 
 the four or five shift system, there is no doubt 
 the land will go on progressively improving, re- 
 quiring a less quantity of bones annually, from 
 its increased fertility and power." Upon even 
 the calcareous soils of the Yorkshire wolds, land 
 which formerly produced only from 8 to 10 tons 
 of poor turnips per acre from farm-yard manure, 
 now produces heavy crops of good turnips from 
 16 bushels per acre of bones. On well-drained 
 and dry peat soils, a manuring with from 15 to 
 20 bushels per acre of bone-dust, applied in the 
 drill method, has a far more powerfully fertilizing 
 effect than any ordinary dressing of stable dung, 
 or than even an application of pigeons' dung and 
 lime. Gravelly soils of a light and dry character are 
 
 much benefited by bone-manure; but stiff clayey 
 gravels, especially heavy water -logged yellow 
 clays with admixtures of stones and grit, receive 
 no benefit whatever from this manure, no matter 
 in what manner it is applied. All clays and 
 heavy loams, with such occasional exceptions as 
 may be accounted for mainly on the influence of 
 unusually dry seasons, are quite beyond the reach 
 of any material fertilization from bones. Yet a 
 farmer near Nantwich in Cheshire states, in the 
 New Farmer's Magazine, "that he occupies a 
 farm, the soil of which is a clay loam, scarcely 12 
 inches deep, the subsoil a grey sand mixed with 
 coarse clay, which the farmers call rammel, on a 
 bed of good clay marl ; and that two years ago, 
 he covered the field with bone-manure, previous 
 to which the grass was so sour as not to be worth 
 ten shillings per acre, but it is now full of most 
 excellent herbage, consisting of white clover and 
 trefoil ;" and he adds, " that, in another of his 
 fields with a clay soil, a small portion of it was 
 manured 32 years ago, by a former tenant, with 
 bones, and that, although it has been 20 years in 
 tillage, yet that part still shows a superiority over 
 the rest." 
 
 The aggregate opinions of farmers as to the 
 length of time during which bone-manure operates 
 on the soil may be gathered from the prevailing 
 rates of allowance for it in the valuations of farms. 
 In some places an allowance of six years is made 
 for bone-manure on pasture, of four years on grass 
 lands successively mown, and of four years on 
 arable land ; in other places, of ten years on pas- 
 ture, six years on mown grass lands, and four or 
 six years on arable lands ; and in other places, a 
 still larger allowance. When one white crop has 
 been taken after the application of bone-manure, 
 two-thirds of the prime cost and of the expenses 
 are allowed ; after two white crops are taken, one- 
 third is allowed ; and after three are taken, no 
 allowance is made. But bone-dust is adjudged 
 less durable than merely crushed bones, is valued 
 at one tillage less than the latter, and usually 
 ranks in valuation with farm-yard manure, or is 
 regarded as coextensive with a four years' rota- 
 tion. The actual power of bone-manure upon the 
 soil, however, is in many instances of vastly longer 
 duration than these rates of allowance would 
 seem to indicate. One field, noticed in the Don- 
 caster report, was manured in one part with bones 
 and in another part with farm-yard dung; and 
 the boned part was visibly superior to the other 
 during the long period of 15 or 16 years. Ano- 
 ther instance, noticed in that report, is precisely 
 similar to the preceding, but exhibits visible im- 
 provement from the bones during even a much 
 longer period. Another and still more remark- 
 able instance, reported in the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture of March 1832, exhibited the reclama- 
 tion of almost wasteland by moans of bone-manure 
 about 25 years before the close of last century, 
 and the continuance of visible good effects from 
 the bones down to the time at which the report 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 203 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 was written. Many other instances of enduring 
 advantage might be giveD , and hundreds of in- 
 stances of well-conducted and most interesting 
 and successful experiments might be quoted ; but, 
 in the present advanced and universally diffused 
 state of information respecting the practical worth 
 of bone-manure, any further appeal to experience 
 is altogether unnecessary. 
 
 The mode in which bone-manure acts upon the 
 soil and upon plants is an important topic of in- 
 quiry ; but cannot be understood without allusion 
 to the chemical analysis of bones. A rough but 
 common estimate of the constitution of the best 
 kinds of bones employed in manure asserts them 
 to consist of 40 per cent, of earthy and saline 
 matter, 40 of cartilage and jelly, and 20 of fatty 
 matter. But these proportions vary in different 
 classes of animals, in individual animals at differ- 
 ent ages, and in the same kind and age of bones 
 in different states of preservation ; and the spe- 
 cific nature and normal amount of the earthy 
 matters in any one variety of bones employed for 
 manure require to be minutely noted. The bones 
 of not a few genera and orders of animals differ 
 most widely from one another, in the proportions 
 of the very elements, such as the carbonate of 
 lime and the phosphate of lime, which have either 
 the most peculiar or the most powerful manurial 
 action. For example, the quantity of carbonate 
 of lime which is combined in bones with every 
 100 parts of phosphate of lime, is 2*52 in fish, 
 2'63 in lions, 5*76 in frogs, 11 70 in fowls, 19*54 
 in man, and 24' 12 in sheep. The bones of very 
 young animals are soft, and principally consist of 
 cartilage, in which the earthy matters are after- 
 wards gradually deposited ; and the bones of the 
 same animals, when they attain maturity, possess 
 a large proportion of both earthy and fatty mat- 
 ters, but vary according to food, health, and 
 habits. Spongy bones or bones of loose texture 
 have a comparatively large proportion of vessels 
 and consequently of organic matter; and com- 
 pact bones are comparatively abundant in earthy 
 phosphates. According to the mean of four ana- 
 lyses of these two kinds of bones from the same 
 animal, spongy bones contain 37*82 per cent, and 
 compact bones 31*20 per cent, of organic mat- 
 ter, spongy bones contain 50*81 per cent, and 
 compact bones 59*10 per cent, of earthy phos- 
 phates, and spongy bones contain 11-29 per cent, 
 and compact bones 9*77 per cent, of carbonate of 
 lime. Bones which have long been exposed to 
 the air, whether on the open ground, or at such 
 a small depth beneath the soil as to be accessible 
 to atmospheric influence, are deprived of a large 
 proportion of their original quantity of organic 
 matter. Some bones of the bear which had been 
 buried for an unknown length of time near the 
 surface of the ground, yielded by analysis 4-20 
 per cent, of organic matter, 62*11 of phosphate of 
 lime, 13*24 of carbonate of lime, 12*25 of sulphate 
 of lime, 2*12 of fluoride of calcium, 0*50 of phos- 
 phate of magnesia, 2*12 of silicic acid, 2*12 of 
 
 oxides of iron and manganese, and 1*34 of soda ; 
 and some bones of the bear which had lain buried 
 for an unknown length of time at a considerable 
 depth in the ground, yielded 16*24 per cent, of 
 organic matter, 56*01 of phosphate of lime, 13*12 
 of carbonate of lime, 7*14 of sulphate of lime, 1*96 
 of fluoride of calcium, 0*3 of phosphate of mag- 
 nesia, 2*15 of silicic acid, 2*0 of oxides of iron and 
 manganese, and 1*08 of soda. The analysis of 
 human bones has been conducted far oftener and 
 with greater care than that of any other kind of 
 bones ; and therefore deserves to be noted in 
 connexion with our present subject. The thigh 
 bone of an adult male, after being freed from 
 periosteum and fat, and thoroughly dried, yielded 
 27*23 per cent, of cartilage insoluble in muriatic 
 acid, 5*02 of cartilage soluble in muriatic acid, 
 1*01 of vessels, 52*26 of basic phosphate of lime, 
 1*0 of fluoride of calcium, 10*21 of carbonate of 
 lime, 1*05 of phosphate of magnesia, 0*92 of soda, 
 0*25 of chloride of sodium, and 1*05 of oxides of 
 iron and manganese, and loss. Most of the bones 
 employed in manure are those of phytivorous 
 animals, and in consequence contain consider- 
 able proportions of carbonate of lime. 
 
 The principal element in the manurial action 
 of bones is the phosphate of lime. This salt is 
 scarce in soils, sparingly dispersed, and speedily 
 exhausted; and yet it is indispensable to the 
 vigorous growth of nearly all .cultivated plants, 
 and forms the principal stimulant to the vitality 
 and power of several. The phosphate of lime, 
 Dr. Thomson asserts to be " a constant ingredi- 
 ent in plants ;" and though it may be impercep- 
 tible in some, and but barely traceable in many, 
 it constitutes a very conspicuous ingredient in 
 the inorganic or ashy part of not a few of the 
 most valuable. It is found in the pea-pod, in 
 the marsh-bean, in the Scotch pine, in rice, in 
 fuci, in the quinquina of St. Domingo, in the pol- 
 len of the date tree, and in the roots of the peony 
 and the white water lily. " M. Raspael," we are 
 told, " has detected it in the leaves of Phyto- 
 lacca decandra, and in the bulbs of the orchis, or- 
 nithogalum, and narcissus, under the form of 
 needle-shaped crystals attached to the exterior of 
 the cells." According to analyses by Saussure, 
 Vauquelin, and some other eminent chemists, 
 39*3 per cent, of it are contained in the ashes of 
 the grain of oats, 44*5 in the ashes of the seeds 
 of wheat, 46*5 in the ashes of bran, 32*5 in the 
 ashes of the seeds of barley, 7*75 in the ashes of 
 the chaff of barley, 6*2 in the ashes of the straw 
 of wheat, 27*92 in the ashes of the seeds of 
 vetches, 17*5 in the ashes of the seeds of pease 
 22*5 in the ashes of the ripe plant of turnsole 
 24*0 in the ashes of the leaves of oak, 4*5 in the 
 ashes of the wood of oak, 4*5 in the ashes of the 
 bark of oak, 13*0 in the ashes of the leaves of 
 poplar, 16*75 in the ashes of the wood of poplar, 
 23*0 in the ashes of the leaves of hazel, 35*0 in 
 the ashes of the wood of hazel, 5*5 in the ashes 
 of the bark of hazel, 23*0 in the ashes of the wood 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 204 
 
 BONE-MANURE. 
 
 of hornbeam, and 4*5 in the ashes of the bark of 
 hornbeam. These proportions forcibly show how 
 indispensable the phosphate of lime is to the 
 health and growth of the most useful plants of 
 both the farm and the forest, and, in consequence, 
 how mighty an influence is exerted upon them 
 by bone-manure. Turnips, potatoes, and white 
 clover, too, though not named in our list of spe- 
 cial plants, are so powerfully affected by the 
 presence of phosphate of lime in the soil as to be 
 mainly dependent on it for their vigour and lux- 
 uriance. White clover, when well stimulated by 
 bone-manure, grows with such energy as to take 
 almost entire possession of the soil, or to dwarf 
 and exterminate the coarse kinds of herbage ; 
 and, when first grown upon boned ground in 
 England, was foolishly, though not very naturally, 
 supposed by some farmers to derive its very seeds 
 from the bone-manure, so that, as they imagined, 
 it did not require to be sown. The seeds of this 
 plant, not only contain a large proportion of 
 phosphate of lime, but possess extraordinary 
 longevity, and are most extensively though dor- 
 mancy diffused in almost all kinds of soils and 
 situations in England ; so that whenever they 
 are brought within the reach of aeration, and 
 subjected to the manurial action of phosphates, 
 they germinate and grow with surprising vigour. 
 White clover has sprung up after a conflagration 
 in a large town, simply because the action of the 
 heat occasioned aeration of the ground, and the 
 incineration of the wood set free upon the soil a 
 comparatively large proportion of phosphate of 
 lime ; and, for similar reasons, it has sprung up 
 as if by magic, and flourished with almost super- 
 natural luxuriance, in fields which have been 
 suddenly phosphatized by the introduction of 
 bone-manure. The highly fertilizing power of 
 phosphate of lime, also, affords a main explana- 
 tion of the fact that bones are beneficial nearly 
 in the ratio of the porosity of the soil, and are 
 almost totally useless in wet tenacious clays ; for 
 this salt, as it exists in bones, is always slow of 
 liberation, and can in any case be set free only 
 under the action of the air; and hence it is 
 readily evolved in soils which possess a full and 
 rapid aeration, and remains perfectly fixed and 
 stubborn in soils which lock it up from atmo- 
 spheric influence. 
 
 But another powerful method in which crushed 
 bones exert a fertilizing power, consists in their 
 extraordinary capacity for absorbing and retain- 
 ing moisture. When any vigorous plant upon a 
 boned field is pulled up, it will generally bring 
 up small pieces of bones with its roots; and 
 when it is minutely examined, it will be seen to 
 have grasped the little pieces and pervaded their 
 cavities with its radical fibres, while these cavi- 
 ties will be seen to be clammy or even copious 
 with the liquid nourishment on which the spon- 
 gioles were feeding. The very contact which the 
 radical fibres of young turnips obtain with bone- 
 manure, and which they cannot, in any of the 
 
 ordinary methods of application, obtain with 
 farm-yard dung, has been assigned by some in- 
 telligent farmers as the sole reason of the para- 
 mount power of bones over the turnip crop. — • 
 " Contact with manure," says a writer in the 41st 
 number of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
 " will cause turnip-seed to vegetate in a short 
 time. Could the seed have been placed in con- 
 tact with farm-yard manure as easily as with 
 bone-dust, the latter would never have acquired 
 the fame it has as a turnip manure. The firm- 
 ness with which the roots of the turnip grasp 
 the manure, shows the great capacity for manure 
 which they possess in the early stage of their 
 growth. It is this tenacity for manure of the 
 root-fibres which raises so much of the bone-dust 
 to the surface of the ground, by adhering to the 
 roots of the ejected plants ; for it is found, in 
 singling the turnip crop it is liable to be brought 
 up to the surface of the ground, by the root-fibres 
 of the ejected plants ; and whenever turnip-seed 
 vegetates in contact with farm-yard manure, the 
 same inconvenience results." The plentiful supply 
 of moisture for turnips which bone-manure at- 
 tracts and maintains in open and comparatively 
 arid soils, affords another though but secondary 
 explanation of its specially beneficial action upon 
 light and porous land ; and the repulsive power 
 which fatty matter exerts against moisture, fully 
 explains the apparent superiority of boiled bones 
 to unboiled ones in fertilizing effect upon the 
 turnip crop. 
 
 Another source of the manurial power of bones, 
 though applicable, not to the turnip crop, but to 
 the succeeding crops of the rotation, is their 
 gelatine and their fat. Both of these substances 
 consist of elements which enter very largely into 
 the organic substance of all plants ; so that, 
 throughout the whole process of their decom- 
 position on the soil, they resolve themselves into 
 direct and perfectly prepared food for the grow- 
 ing crops. The more the bones have been fer- 
 mented, too, the more soluble is their gelatine, 
 and the more prepared for assimilation is their 
 fatty matter ; and hence the high advantage of 
 working unboiled bones into fermented composts, 
 or mixing them with foreign substances fitted to 
 promote their fermentation. Yet as the presence 
 of oil and gelatine resists the attraction of mois- 
 ture, retards the development of the manurial 
 power upon turnips, and constitutes a kind of 
 manurial agency similar to that of the most com- 
 mon fertilizers, and not at all of the specific and 
 mighty nature of the phosphate of lime, a very 
 serious question arises whether more profit might 
 not accrue to the farm from extracting the oil 
 and the gelatine from all unboiled bone-manure, 
 and applying them to other uses. " By compar- 
 ing all the facts," says one writer, " we naturally 
 come to the conclusion, that the most economi- 
 cal use of bones is to extract from them the oil 
 and gelatine, which, if not of sufficient value for 
 the manufacture of glue or of ammonia, may be 
 
BONE-MANURE. 
 
 205 
 
 BONE-SPAVIN. 
 
 used as a supplementary food for pigs, in the 
 form of a broth or pot liquor, which, mixed with 
 meal, will greatly accelerate their growth or in- 
 crease their fat." When rapid action upon tur- 
 nips is desired, either this measure, or thorough 
 previous fermentation, or digestion in sulphuric 
 acid, ought to be adopted ; and in every instance 
 in which large quantities are in requisition, a 
 calculation ought to be made as to which of the 
 several methods of applying bone-manure will 
 prove most economical for the general results of 
 the rotation or of the farm. 
 ' A method of preparing bones by steam was 
 recently published by Mr. James Blackhall of 
 Edinburgh; and claims to be a much cheaper 
 method than the crushing one, and more facile 
 than that of solution in sulphuric acid, and at 
 the same time equally efficient. It consists in 
 exposing them for a certain length of time to the 
 action of high -pressure steam ; and it brings 
 them into a state of such fine division, as may 
 readily though mistakenly be supposed by a gen- 
 eral observer equivalent to solution. Dr. Ander- 
 son, the chemist of the Highland and Agricultural 
 Society of Scotland, found by analysis that a spe- 
 cimen prepared by Mr. Blackhall himself consisted 
 of 12-66 per cent, of water, 27*37 of animal matter, 
 and 59-97 of bone-earth, and that a specimen 
 prepared according to Mr. Blackhall's method by 
 another gentleman consisted of 13 - 86 per cent of 
 water, 19-90 of animal matter, and 66*24 of bone- 
 earth ; and in order to make a determination of 
 their relative value, he at the same time analysed 
 a specimen of ordinary one-inch drill bones, a 
 specimen of ordinary fine-crushed bones, and a 
 specimen of entire bones in the state in which 
 they are sold to the bone crushers by the persons 
 who collect them in Britain, and found the first 
 to consist of 10 per cent, of water, 41*88 of ani- 
 mal matter, and 48*12 of bone-earth, — the second 
 to consist of 10*39 per cent, of water, 42*6 of 
 animal matter, and 47*01 of bone-earth, — and the 
 third to consist of 14 - 89 per cent, of water, 37 - 02 
 of animal matter, and 48*17 of bone -earth. 
 Steamed bones are thus one-half or less poorer 
 in gelatinous or nitrogenous principles than 
 crushed bones ; and though a process might be 
 adopted for recovering the lost gelatine, to be 
 used either in stock-feeding or in compost-ma- 
 nure, yet the consequent cost and trouble would 
 probably go far or even go all lengths or more to 
 neutralize the alleged economy of the steaming 
 method. " Mr. Blackhall's process, 1 ' concludes 
 Dr. Anderson, "may, notwithstanding prove valu- 
 able in remote districts, where small quantities 
 of bones may be collected at such a distance from 
 a bone-mill as to render it impossible to transport 
 them to it. The superiority of steamed bones as a 
 manure is a question which can be properly deter- 
 mined only by experiment in the field ; and it is 
 not impossible that good results may be obtained 
 from them, though they can never form a sub- 
 
 stitute for bones dissolved by an acid." — Reper- 
 tory of Inventions. — Report of the Boncaster Agri- 
 cultural Association on Bone- Manure. — New Far- 
 mer s Magazine. — Nos. 1, 6, 16, 18, 20, 24, 41, 47, 
 50, 57, and 59, of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Vols. 2, 4, and 5, of the Journal of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society. — Transactions of the 
 Highland Society. — Catalogue of the Highland 
 Society'' s Museum. — Bayldon on Rents and Til- 
 lages. — Mill's Husbandry. — Bavy's Agricultural 
 Chemistry by Shier. — Biebig's Chemistry of Agri- 
 culture. — Turner's Chemistry. — Thomson's Che- 
 mistry. — British Husbandry. — Rham's Bictionary 
 of the Farm. 
 
 BONE-MILL. See Bone-Manure. 
 
 BONE-SPAVIN. A bony excrescence or hard 
 swelling on the inside of the horse's hock. It 
 assumes various aspects and possesses various 
 virulence, from a slight and easily curable dam- 
 age to an inveterate blemish or incurable dis- 
 ease. It is induced by kicks, bruises, leaping, 
 overstraining, and rapid galloping, but especially 
 by the overworking of a young horse before its 
 limbs have become properly knit, and by the ab- 
 surd though common practice of forming a horse's 
 shoes with raised parts, or what are technically 
 termed calkins on the outer heel. A spavin from 
 a kick or blow is usually a mere bruise on the 
 bone, or on the membrane which covers it, and 
 can easily be cured ; a spavin on the lower part of 
 the hock is of less consequence than one between 
 the two round processes of the leg-bone ; a spa- 
 vin near the edge of the limb is not so bad, be- 
 cause it does not so much affect the bending of 
 the hock, as one towards the middle ; and a spa- 
 vin of any kind in a colt or young horse is less 
 inveterate than a spavin of the same kind in a 
 fully matured horse, and very much less so than 
 one in a decidedly old horse. 
 
 In the earlier stages of bad bone-spavin, a de- 
 gree of lameness is always induced, — and this is 
 sometimes so great as to render the animal ap- 
 parently all but worthless ; but in the maturer 
 stages, when the membrane of the bone becomes 
 accommodated to the excrescence, the lameness 
 decreases, and often totally disappears. A spa- 
 vined horse is usually quite able for slow work, 
 and may not only take part in most of the 
 draught-labour of a farm, but derive benefit from 
 the laborious but steady exercise of his limbs. 
 A farmer will generally procure such an animal 
 at a comparatively low price, and may find him 
 an excellent bargain. The slow, regular, and 
 heavy action of the limbs in plough-draught, 
 rouses the absorbent system to vigorous action, 
 and incites it to withdraw a portion of the bony 
 matter which forms the excrescence, yet without 
 either renewing the local irritation or inflamma- 
 tion ; and therefore achieves an important alle- 
 viation of the disorder. 
 
 The proper medicinal application for any or- 
 dinary bone-spavin is a blister. The hair over 
 
BOOSE. 
 
 206 
 
 BOTS. 
 
 the affected part should be cut close to the skin ; 
 blistering ointment ought, in the morning, to be 
 spread thickly over the part ; and in the even- 
 ing, a plaster of pitch or any other sticking sub- 
 stance may be laid over it, and bound on with 
 broad tape. A second application may be made 
 after the scabs from the first blistering begin 
 to peel off ; and this is usually more effective 
 than the first, and in the case of colts or young 
 horses, generally completes the cure. In very 
 bad cases, so many as six or seven successive ap- 
 plications may be necessary ; and they are not 
 at all likely to aggravate the disease or occasion 
 any other blemish, but, on the other hand, will 
 generally effect a cure ; yet, after the second 
 time, they must not be repeated with greater 
 rapidity than at intervals of fourteen or even 
 twenty-one days. A spavin among the sinuosi- 
 ties of the joint, and any ordinary spavin in an 
 old animal, may be regarded as incurable. Blis- 
 tering, at all events, will not subdue such cases ; 
 and either the use of the hot iron or the applica- 
 tion of some powerfully caustic and corrosive 
 agent is the only probable remedy, but ought not 
 to be employed without full consideration of 
 risks, and may not unlikely destroy the limb or 
 at least greatly aggravate the existing lameness. 
 The safest method in even the worst cases is to 
 give full trial to blistering ; and, when this fails, 
 to rest contented with whatever degree of ameli- 
 oration can be obtained from the slow and steady 
 working of the animal. 
 
 BOOK-KEEPING. See Farm-Accounts. 
 
 BOOSE, or Boosing. A stall for cattle. A 
 boose-stake or a boosing-stake is the post at the 
 head of a stall, to which an ox or a cow is fastened. 
 
 BORD-LANDS. Lands which, under the feu- 
 dal system, proprietors retained in their own 
 possession for the supply of their board or table. 
 
 BORD-SERVICE. The tenure of bord-lands, 
 which, under the feudal system, obliged tenants 
 to find provisions for their superior's table. 
 Some traces of this degrading tenure still exist ; 
 but the tenants affected by it pay only a small 
 rent in lieu of the provisions. 
 
 BORING. Piercing the upper strata of a field 
 with an auger, either to ascertain the nature of 
 the subsoil, to examine the mineralogical char- 
 acter of the strata, to discover and tap springs 
 which injure the immediate subsoil or the neigh- 
 bouring ground, or to obtain a supply of good 
 spring water in circumstances in which super- 
 ficial springs or productive shallow wells do not 
 exist. See the articles Draining and Artesian 
 Well. 
 
 BOSS. A slender triangular or conical cage in 
 the centre of a rick or stack, to insure a circula- 
 tion of air, and prevent heating and fermentation. 
 A pole is adjusted to the centre of the rick-stand ; 
 three or more straight sticks are fixed slantingly 
 against the pole, so as to form an open triangle 
 or cone, with the base upon the rick-stand ; and 
 
 railings are nailed transversely upon the sticks, 
 or a strong straw rope is fastened round them, 
 to prevent the sheaves from falling in. The 
 summit of the boss does not reach the top of the 
 rick ; but when the builder arrives at the sum- 
 mit, he attaches to it a sack filled with straw, 
 and, having built round part or most of it, pulls 
 it up from time to time till he completes the 
 rick ; and thus a free ventilation from base to 
 top of the rick is secured. The boss is a Scottish 
 invention, and is eminently useful in the ricking 
 of beans and of the cereal crops in an unsettled 
 and critical harvest. See the articles Bean; 
 Stack, and Harvest. 
 
 BOTHY. The apartment in a farmery, in- 
 habited by unmarried ploughmen. It serves at 
 once as kitchen, eating-room, and sleeping-room • 
 and, both in its furniture and its character, pos- 
 sesses more resemblance to a barrack-room than 
 to a proper domicile of farm- servants. Its in- 
 mates are usually all the unmarried ploughmen 
 of the farm ; every two of them have a bed and 
 bed-clothes in the apartment; and the whole 
 body cook for themselves, and live together al- 
 most as if they formed a bachelor establishment 
 on an island inaccessible to the rest of their spe- 
 cies. All receive their chief wages in the form 
 of a proper allowance of each kind of requisite 
 provisions, fuel, and other necessaries of life ; and 
 the several individuals receive separate amounts 
 of money wages, proportioned to 1 their real or 
 reputed skill as ploughmen. The heartless 
 bothy-system, as this mode of ploughman life is 
 called, prevails somewhat extensively in some of 
 the best farming districts of Scotland ; and is cer- 
 tainly a most undesirable substitute for the good, 
 old, cordial practice of treating unmarried plough- 
 men as servant-members of the farmer's family. 
 
 BOTRYTIS. A genus of minute, dust -like, 
 parasitic fungi. They take their name from the 
 circumstance of their spores, as seen through a 
 microscope, appearing to hang naked on threads 
 in a manner similar to a bunch of grapes. About 
 twenty species occur in Britain ; and several of 
 these possess great interest to farmers from the 
 extensiveness of their diffusion over field crops, 
 or from their having been often identified, though 
 mistakenly, with mildew blights, and in one in- 
 stance extensively regarded as a main cause or 
 only one of the great potato disease of 1845. See 
 the articles Mould, Mildew, and Potato. 
 
 BOTS, Botflies, or Gadflies, — scientifically 
 (Estridce. A tribe of dipterous insects, well known 
 to farmers for the annoyance which several of 
 their species give to sheep, oxen, and horses. 
 The perfect insects are short-lived, and seldom 
 seen ; and the larvae spend most of their existence 
 under the skin, within the stomach, or otherwise 
 in the interior of ruminating animals. Yet the 
 whole tribe, in all the stages of existence, is re- 
 markable for extraordinary habits, nice mechani- 
 cal adjustments, and a general character of won- 
 
BOTS. 
 
 drous instinct and beautiful organization. Two 
 genera particularly challenge the farmer's notice, 
 Gasterophilus and (Estrus; and these differ from 
 each other principally in the latter having trans- 
 verse nervures towards the apex of the wings 
 closing the cells, and in its wing-scales or wing- 
 lets being so very large as to cover the whole of 
 the halteres. The gasterophilus was constituted 
 a separate genus by Dr. Leach ; and it includes 
 five British species, and possesses a bad pre-emi- 
 nence for its constant and instinctive infesting 
 of the horse. The antennae are inserted in a 
 .cavity of the face ; the eyes, in both sexes, are 
 equally distant ; the mouth is either a-wanting, 
 or consists of an indistinct linear opening, with- 
 out the usual appendages ; the alimentary canal 
 has no opening at the anterior extremity ; and 
 the posterior margin of the wings has no trans- 
 verse nervures. 
 
 The great spotted horse-bot, Gasterophilus equi, 
 is one of the largest and by far the most com- 
 mon, not only of the genus, but of the tribe. Its 
 length is about seven lines ; its general colour is 
 clear yellowish - brown ; its head is broad and 
 obtuse ; its thorax has a somewhat greyish col- 
 our ; its abdomen is rusty brown, with a tinge 
 of yellow, and a series of dorsal spots ; and its 
 wings are whitish, with a black undulated trans- 
 verse fascia behind the middle. The female, in 
 a series of sudden descents or dartings, deposits 
 her eggs upon the hair of some part of the horse, 
 within reach of his mouth, making them in- 
 stantly adhere by means of a glutinous secretion 
 which she gives out along with them, and some- 
 times depositing upon a single horse so many as 
 four hundred or five hundred eggs. Each egg 
 is somewhat conical in shape, the attached end 
 forming the apex; and, when seen through a 
 magnifying glass, is shagreened on the surface 
 with transverse and longitudinal striae. The 
 horse, in licking himself, takes up a considerable 
 proportion of the eggs with his tongue ; the eggs 
 disclose their animated contents either while on 
 the tongue, or very speedily after passing into the 
 stomach; and the larvae immediately attach 
 themselves to the stomach's inner tissue, and 
 there remain in security, from the end of 
 summer or beginning of autumn, till late in 
 spring, enjoying a temperature of about 102° of 
 Fahrenheit, suffering no injury from the action 
 of the gastric juices, feeding upon the mucus or 
 the chyme, and gradually though slowly growing 
 to maturity of size. Each larva is shaped some- 
 what like a flask or elongated bag ; it has a pale 
 yellowish colour ; it possesses at the sides of its 
 mouth two hooks, with which it anchors itself to 
 the stomach's membrane ; and it is engirdled 
 with several belts or rings of spinelets and pro- 
 jecting points, by means of which it regains its 
 position when, at any time, it accidentally loses 
 its hold. When it attains maturity, it disen- 
 gages itself from its anchorage, is carried with 
 
 BOTS. 
 
 the horse's food into the villous portion of the 
 stomach, passes out of it with the chyme, and is 
 evacuated with the dung. The ejected maggot 
 seeks a place of shelter, buries itself in the 
 ground, and contracts and changes into a chry- 
 salis. The insect, in this latter form, resembles 
 the larva in shape, but is more rigid, and has a 
 reddish-brown colour ; and, after lying for a few 
 weeks inactive, it escapes by the narrow end of 
 the pupa- case, and assumes its final form of an 
 imago or a fly. 
 
 Many stern opinions have been entertained as 
 to excessive injuries done to the horse by the 
 great common bot which we have described, and 
 as to the desirableness of using strong medi- 
 cinal means for destroying the insect ; but all 
 such opinions, in the matured judgment of mo- 
 dern farriers, are very nearly without foundation. 
 "The bots," says Mr. Youatt, "cannot, while 
 they inhabit the stomach of the horse, give the 
 animal any pain, for they have fastened on the 
 cuticular and insensible coat. They cannot 
 stimulate the stomach and increase its digestive 
 power, for they are not on the digestive portion 
 of the stomach. They cannot, by their rough- 
 ness, assist the trituration or rubbing down of 
 the food, for no such office is performed in that 
 part of the stomach — the food is softened, not 
 rubbed down. They cannot be injurious to the 
 horse, for he enjoys the most perfect health when 
 the cuticular part of his stomach is filled with 
 them, and their presence is not even suspected 
 until they appear at the anus. They cannot be 
 removed by medicine, because they are not in 
 that part of the stomach to which medicine is 
 usually conveyed ; and if they were, their mouths 
 are too deeply buried in the mucus for any medi- 
 cine, that can safely be administered, to affect 
 them ; and, last of all, in due course of time they 
 detach themselves and come away. Therefore, 
 the wise man will leave them to themselves, or 
 content himself with picking them off when they 
 collect under the tail and annoy the animal." 
 Yet the consequences to the horse, and through 
 him to man, might have been very disastrous if 
 those protecting laws to which Mr. Youatt refers 
 had not been established by the infinitely wise 
 Creator of animals and of animal instincts, or 
 even if very powerful checks had not been placed 
 in constant operation upon the multiplication 
 of the insects. " It is fortunate," remarks Mr. 
 Clark, " for the animals infested by these insects, 
 or rather most beautifully ordained, that their 
 numbers are much reduced, and kept within due 
 limits, by the hazards they are exposed to in the 
 singular round of their propagation." Some of 
 the eggs, in the very act of their deposition, are 
 shaken off by the movements of the horse ; some, 
 though firmly deposited, are not taken up by the 
 horse, or are externally hatched from the action 
 of rain or other moisture, and in consequence 
 perish; many are destroyed during the horse's 
 
 207 
 
BOTS. 
 
 208 
 
 BOTS. 
 
 process of mastication; many fail to make a 
 lodgment in the stomach, but pass on to the in- 
 testines ; and not a few of the matured larvas are 
 dropped in such situations as to be crushed by 
 the horse's foot, picked up by birds, or unable to 
 find a suitable retreat for their transmutation 
 into chrysalides. Altogether, one hundred or 
 upwards perish in the state of either egg or larva, 
 for every individual which attains the perfect 
 condition of the fly. 
 
 The red-tailed horse-bot, Oasterophilus hcemor- 
 rhoidalis, also infests the horse, but in a different 
 manner from the great spotted horse-bot, and is 
 not much more than one-half of the size of that 
 fly. Its forehead is white ; its eyes are brown ; its 
 thorax is black in the centre, brownish on the 
 sides, and thinly pubescent ; its abdomen is 
 white at the base, black in the middle, and red- 
 dish-yellow at the extremity ; its legs are pale ; 
 and its wings are unspotted. Its eggs somewhat 
 resemble those of the great spotted horse-bot, but 
 are so elongated at the apex as to have the ap- 
 pearance of standing upon footstalks ; and they 
 are attached, not to the hairs of the horse, but 
 to his lips. The horse suffers great annoyance 
 from the deposition of the eggs, and offers it an 
 angry resistance. Whenever a fly approaches 
 his lips, he tosses his head, gallops away if he 
 can, and dashes his tormentor, if possible, into 
 water ; and, when an egg is deposited upon him, 
 he shows great agitation, rubs his mouth against 
 the ground or upon his forelegs, and frequently 
 makes outward strokes with his forefoot. The 
 larvas are smaller, rounder, and proportionally 
 longer than those of the great spotted horse-bot ; 
 and they attach themselves, in exactly the same 
 manner, to the membrane of the stomach ; but, 
 before making their exit from the intestines, 
 they attach themselves for a considerable time 
 to the rectum, and there occasion the horse so 
 great uneasiness as to make him often kick, and 
 sometimes to render his movements awkward. — 
 Three other species of gasterophili — designated 
 nasalis, salutiferus, and Clarlcii — occur in Britain, 
 but are so comparatively rare as not to challenge 
 description/ 
 
 The ox-bot, (Estrus bovis, is a very annoying 
 insect ; and, as its name implies, it usually in- 
 fests animals of the ox species. It is about the 
 same size as the great spotted horse-bot, or rather 
 larger ; its forehead is white, and densely hairy ; 
 its thorax is yellow in front, black in the middle, 
 and ash-coloured behind; its abdomen has an 
 apex with tawny-yellow hairs, and a black fascia 
 in the middle, and is ash-coloured at the base ; 
 its wing-scales are white and very large ; and its 
 legs are black and tarsi pale. Its eggs are depo- 
 sited either on the skin, or in oviposital per- 
 foration through it ; and its larva) grow beneath 
 the skin, principally along the sides of the ox's 
 spine, and occasionally on his loins, and cause 
 tumours or abscesses analogous to the galls on 
 
 the leaves of willows and other trees, but often 
 as large as pigeons' eggs. When cattle are at- 
 tacked by the fly, they frequently become furious, 
 bellowing with violence, and running off at their 
 utmost speed, with extended tail and outstretched 
 neck ; and if attacked when yoked to the plough, 
 they instantly become so unmanageable that 
 many ploughs used to be provided with a con- 
 trivance for giving them immediate liberation. 
 A herd of cattle when almost driven home have 
 been struck with such terror by meeting an ox- 
 bot, that they instantly wheeled about, ran off 
 in a brisk retreat, and defied the shouts, sticks, 
 and stones of their drivers, till they found pro- 
 tection in a pond of water; and frequently a 
 team of oxen, when attacked at their work in 
 the field by a bot, and not instantly liberated by 
 means of the contrivance to which we have re- 
 ferred, have fled witfi the plough at their heels, 
 totally regardless of both their driver and the 
 enormous encumbrance upon their flight. The 
 larva of the ox-bot has an oblong-oval shape ; it 
 consists of eleven segments, formed by transverse 
 bands, which are crossed at the sides by longi- 
 tudinal lines ; and it has, on each side of every 
 segment, a distinct spiracle or breathing-hole. 
 A cyst or minute cell within the substance of 
 the skin is the abode of the young larva, and 
 the commencement of the abscess or tumour; 
 this gradually enlarges with the growth of the 
 larva ; a secretion of pus, occasioned by the local 
 irritation, supplies the insect with food ; and a 
 minute opening on the crown of the tumour, 
 permits the insect to place the extremity of its 
 principal air -tube in contact with the atmo- 
 sphere, and afterwards, at the season of maturity, 
 to withdraw its whole body from the, tumour. 
 A curious and very beautiful instinct incites 
 every larva, when about to become a chrysalis, 
 to withdraw from its nidus, neither during the 
 night when it would perish before it could get a 
 place of refuge, nor during the heat of the day 
 when it would be destroyed by the intensity of 
 the sun's rays, but exactly at the time of the 
 morning when temperature and other circum- 
 stances are most suitable to its condition. In 
 its earlier stages of existence, the larva is white 
 like that of most other flies ; in the later stages, 
 it darkens in colour till it becomes almost black ; 
 and, on its passing into the pupa -state, it is 
 transmuted into so rigid a chrysalis, that the fly, 
 when perfected, escapes from it only through a won- 
 derful contrivance in its formation, resembling 
 in microscopic miniature, the lid of a snuff-box. 
 
 The tumours occasioned in the skin of cattle 
 by the ox-bot have long been popularly regarded 
 as a disease under the name of -warbles, wornials, 
 or womils; and in the years 1823 and 1824, they 
 were so exceedingly numerous and virulent 
 upon the cattle of the department of Loiret in 
 France, as to occasion fever, inflammation, and 
 death. Except in rare*instances, however, war- 
 
BOTS. 
 
 209 
 
 BRAKE. 
 
 bles do not affect the healthy condition of cattle, 
 but, on the contrary, are regarded by butchers 
 as indications of soundness and strength. Yet 
 hides which have been affected with warbles are 
 irretrievably damaged, and are readily and greatly 
 depreciated by the tanner ; the tortures, too, 
 which cattle suffer at the deposition of the eggs, 
 are injurious to their welfare, and sometimes oc- 
 casion considerable accidents ; and, for these rea- 
 sons, efforts ought to be made, in every district, 
 to exterminate or at least keep down the bot. 
 Either the insertion of a red-hot needle, or the 
 application of a little corrosive liquor, or squeez- 
 ing out and crushing with the finger and thumb, 
 will kill the larvae ; and if all the farmers of a 
 district would examine their cattle and destroy 
 the larvae, warbles would speedily become very 
 rare. Yet Linnaeus, Bracy Clark, and other 
 eminent naturalists, contend — on principles which 
 certainly harmonize well with the general laws 
 of utility and beneficence which govern all the 
 works of the all-wise Creator — that all kinds of 
 bots, instead of being on the whole pernicious, 
 are positively beneficial to the general health of 
 the animals which they infest. 
 
 The sheep-bot, (Estrus ovis, is the only other 
 species which we require to notice. Its length 
 is scarcely five lines ; its forehead has a dusky-red 
 colour, with a blackish depression ; its antennae 
 are black : its thorax is ash-grey, with numerous 
 small, black, hairy warts ; its abdomen is a vari- 
 egated silky-white and light-yellow ; its legs are 
 pale red ; its wings are clear and unspotted ; and 
 its wing-scales are white and large. The eggs 
 are supposed to be deposited on the margin of 
 the nostrils of the sheep ; and the deposition of 
 them appears either to inflict or to occasion 
 much pain, — and at all events is greatly dreaded 
 by sheep, and attempted to be warded off by va- 
 rious methods of defence. Sheep, when attacked, 
 in dry hot weather, run into public roads, lie 
 down upon the dusty ruts, and hold their heads 
 close to the ground ; or they continue to stand, 
 and place their nose between their fore-legs al- 
 most in contact with the ground ; or, in an open 
 field, they rush together into a dense assemblage, 
 and so push their noses together or hold them to 
 the ground, that only those on the outskirts of 
 the flock remain accessible to the fly. The larvae 
 are soon hatched by the heat and moisture of the 
 nostrils ; they speedily effect a lodgment in the 
 frontal maxillary and in other cavities of the 
 face ; they feed upon the pus which their irritat- 
 ing presence occasions to be secreted ; and when 
 they become full-grown, they drop through the 
 nostrils, and seek an asylum of transformation 
 into a pupa state, beneath some loose soil or in 
 adhesion to a blade of grass. — ClarFs Essay on 
 Bots. — WestwoooVs Entomology. — Papers of Mr. 
 Duncan in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — 
 Youatt on the Horse. — Cattle, in Library of Know- 
 ledge. — Ba rtlets Farriery. — Wh ite's Veterinary. 
 
 BOUND. See Costiveness and Hidebound. 
 
 BOWS OF A SADDLE. Two pieces of wood 
 laid archwise to fit the upper part of the horse's 
 back, and to give the saddle its proper form, and 
 keep it steady. 
 
 BOX. A vessel for containing any dry mate- 
 rial, — usually a square wooden vessel with a lid, 
 for holding or packing any articles which are not 
 liquid. But few English words have more nu- 
 merous and conflicting meanings, whether clas- 
 sical, colloquial, or technical. Some wooden ves- 
 sels, as chests and trunks, are not boxes ; some 
 boxes, as those for carrying snuff in the pocket, 
 are not wooden vessels ; many kinds of boxes, as 
 the box of a stage coach, the box of a wheel, the 
 box of a plough, and the box of a bridge, are pro- 
 perly not vessels at all ; and some figurative 
 boxes, such as blows and difficulties, have no con- 
 ceivable analogy to literal boxes. The box of a I 
 wheel is the cavity in which the axis turns ; and 
 the box of a plough is the cross piece which sup- 
 ports the two crow-staves. 
 
 BOX-CHURN. See Churn. 
 
 BOX DRAIN. A drain so built that a verti- I 
 cal section of it has the same outline as that of a 
 box. Its sides are upright ; and its cover is flat. 
 See the article Draining. 
 
 BOYENING. The letting of cows' milk to a 
 professed milkman. The boyener, as the milk- 
 man is called, pays a stipulated sum annually to 
 the farmer for each boyened cow, and has the 
 whole responsibility and charge of drawing and 
 disposing of the milk ; and the farmer provides 
 him with lodging and implements, and gives all 
 requisite pasturage, fodder, and housing to the 
 cows. This curious practice is not uncommon in 
 Ayrshire ; and takes its name from the word 
 boyn, which signifies a milk-pail. 
 
 BRACKEN. See Brake and Ferns. 
 
 BRAIRD. The spring of annual or other her- 
 baceous plants. When the unfolding plumules J 
 or first leaves of sown crops are vigorous and 
 promising, they form what is technically called a 
 good braird, 
 
 BRAKE, or Bracken, — Pteris Aquilina. An 
 abundant and well known British fern. It grows 
 wild, in great profusion, in the heathy wastes of 
 most parts of Britain. Its root is perennial, long, 
 tapering, creeping, and outwardly black ; its 
 fronds are annual, more than triplicately pin- \ 
 nated, from one foot to six feet in height, but 
 usually about three feet, with horizontal, spread- 
 ing, light-green, smooth-ribbed branches ; and its 
 main stem is sharply angular, and wounds the 
 hand which suddenly or firmly grasps it. This j 
 plant is often greatly damaged by severe spring j 
 frosts ; and it cannot bear to be transplanted. 
 The peasantry of many districts, residing near 
 wastes or hilly commons where it abounds, cut it ! 
 down in large quantities, and make very profit- ! 
 able use of it as litter in their cottage piggeries. 
 See the articles Manure, Litter, and Ferns. 
 
 
210 
 
 — - 
 BRAN. 
 
 BRAKE. A herbaceous thicket, or wildly lux- 
 uriant portion of a common, a heath, or a glade. 
 It is properly a place of the brake, — the fern de- 
 scribed in the preceding article ; but the name 
 is, by accommodation, applied to every spot of 
 similar character to that of a rank growth of 
 brakes. 
 
 BRAKES. Tools and implements of very vari- 
 ous kinds, used either in husbandry or in some 
 of the arts connected with it. The common 
 brake is a large and heavy common harrow, used 
 for the reduction of stubborn and adhesive soils. 
 The levelling-brake, the revolving-brake, Wilk- 
 ie's-brake, and some other brakes for the pulver- 
 izing of soils, are either harrows, or grubbers, or 
 compounds of the two, and will come to be no- 
 ticed in the articles Harrow and Grubber. A 
 brake in machinery is a constraining wheel di- 
 vided into joints, which, when necessary, stops 
 another wheel that revolves within it. A flax- 
 brake is a wooden toothed instrument for so 
 bruising the stern of flax or hemp as to separate 
 its cortical parts from its interior fibres. The 
 brake of a pump is the handle with which it is 
 worked. A smith's brake is an instrument for 
 restraining refractory horses while they are being 
 shod. See Barnacles. A bridle brake is a sharp 
 bit or snaffle. 
 
 BRAMBLE. — botanically Rubus. A large genus 
 of plants, belonging to the same natural order as 
 the rose, and comprising some interesting in- 
 digenous fruiting species, particularly the com- 
 mon bramble or Rubus fruticosus, the raspberry 
 or Rubus idceus, the dewberry or Rubus ccesius, 
 and the cloudberry or Rubus chamcemorus. 
 
 The first of these species, however, is the only 
 one which claims to be described in the present 
 article. It is a prickly trailing shrub, almost as 
 well known as the common hawthorn. It grows 
 wild in many situations, but especially in hedges 
 and on neglected commons, in almost all parts 
 of Great Britain. The trailing stems usually 
 attain a length of about ten feet ; they are an- 
 gular and channelled; they have a thickly set 
 and powerful armature of strong, crooked, back- 
 turned prickles ; and, in winter, some are green 
 in colour, others reddish-purple, and others partly 
 green and partly red. The leaves are palmate, 
 — some with three lobes, and others with five ; 
 their upper surface is smooth and beautifully 
 green, and their under surface has a whitish 
 colour. A series of prickles extends along the 
 midrib of each lobe, and down the footstalk of 
 each leaf; and they continue on the plants dur- 
 ing most of the winter, yet become brown and 
 fading after Christmas. The flowers have a pink 
 colour, and appear from June till September; 
 and the fruit is successively green, red, and black, 
 and attains the last or ripened colour in the latter 
 part of autumn. 
 
 The bramble, though abhorred by some farmers 
 as a most troublesome weed, and despised by mul- 
 
 titudes of the general population as an ill -looking, 
 scratching, vulgar-fruiting plant, serves benefi- 
 cent purposes to the animated creation in waste 
 parts of the country, and might readily be made 
 subservient to some important economical pur- 
 poses. When it abounds in any waste or ne- 
 glected land which is proposed to be subjected to 
 the plough, it ought to be grubbed or hoed up ; 
 and if thorough tillage speedily follow, it will 
 soon be effectually destroyed. Bramble plants, 
 mixed with hawthorns or almost any other kind 
 of hedge-plants, thicken and strengthen their 
 amassment in most descriptions of soil ; and, 
 when accompanied only with stakes or with what 
 is usually termed a dead hedge, will speedily 
 form a good fence in sandy soils of so poor a na- 
 ture as to be totally unsuited to the growth of 
 any of the ordinary hedge-plants. Yet two con- 
 siderable objections occur, — first, that the leaves 
 of the. bramble are so large as to form a noxious 
 shade over other plants, — and next that the 
 shoots so speedily decay as to render a large pro- 
 portion of an old bramble hedge dead wood. The 
 long pliable branchy shoots may occasionally 
 serve the purposes of a coarse cordage. The 
 stems, leaves, and unripe fruit, when bruised to- 
 gether, and applied externally, have been re- 
 garded as a cure for ringworm. The roots, when 
 lifted early in spring, and boiled with honey, 
 have been pronounced a remedy for dropsy ; and 
 when dried in the shade, cut into small frag- 
 ments, and used for the preparation of a weak 
 infusion, they have been regarded as almost a 
 specific against obstinate coughs. The fruit or 
 berries are great favourites with country chil- 
 dren; they are used in Provence for giving a 
 deep colour to particular wines ; and, in many 
 districts of Britain, they are in great request for 
 puddings, tarts, preserves, and British wines. 
 
 BRAN. The skin or husks of corn, particularly 
 of wheat, separated from the flour by the process 
 of bolting. When given to horses as an ingre- 
 dient in food, it operates, by mechanical irrita- 
 tion, as a very gentle aperient, merely quicken- 
 ing the passage of the contents of the intestinal 
 canal ; and when given in the form of a mash, 
 and used with caution and moderation, it cer- 
 tainly is useful as an occasional aperient. But 
 it ought, in no instance, whether in a raw or in a 
 scalded state, to be used constantly or as an ar- 
 ticle of diet ; for if so used, it is apt to weaken a 
 horse's bowels, and to excite in them many dis- 
 orders. A very large proportion of ammoniacal 
 phosphate of magnesia exists in wheat bran ; and 
 this salt forms large crystalline concretions, often 
 amounting to several pounds in weight, in the 
 ccecum of horses belonging to millers. ".Mr, 
 Ernes," says Youatt, "attended three mills at 
 which many horses were kept ; and there were 
 always two or three cases of indigestion from the 
 accumulation of bran or pollard in the large in- 
 testines." A little wheat bran, boiled in common 
 
21 
 
 L 
 
 beer makes it mantle in the cup ; and a little 
 ammonia, mixed with beer, throws down am- 
 moniated phosphate of magnesia in the form of 
 a white precipitate. The ashes of wheat bran, 
 according to the analysis of Saussure, comprise 
 44*15 per cent, of soluble salts, 46'5 of earthy 
 phosphates, 05 of silica, and 025 of metallic ox- 
 ides ; and the remaining 8*5 per cent, were lost 
 in the process. Bran is useful as dry food for 
 sheep, and in the stall-feeding of black cattle : 
 and an infusion of it is said to be a remedy for 
 scurf and dandriff. 
 
 BRAND. A diseased condition in plants, pre- 
 senting an appearance as if they had been burned. 
 When drops of dew or of rain rest on leaves, and 
 are evaporated by a sudden rise of temperature, 
 but especially by a sudden and continued play of 
 strong sunshine, the spots on which they lay lose 
 their verdure, assume a yellow or darkish colour, 
 and lose their power of exhaling moisture and 
 fixing carbon. The drops of water seem to act 
 jointly with heat and light, and probably with 
 excited electricity, in destroying portions of the 
 vegetable tissue ; and when they occupy a large 
 proportion of the surface, and lie on the bark as 
 well as on the leaves, they sometimes occasion the 
 utter ruin of plants. Brand occurs most fre- 
 , quently in the morning, when a twofold transi- 
 tion is taking place, — of the atmosphere, from 
 darkness and cold to light and heat, — and of the 
 plant from its sleep disengagement of oxygen to 
 its active absorption of carbonic acid ; and it hap- 
 pens, not only by means of dew-drops and rain- 
 drops in the open air, but by means of condensed 
 vapour under the glass covers of hot-beds. 
 
 BRANDING, or Buisting. The stamping 
 upon sheep of their owner's initials. One method 
 is to burn in the initials with a hot iron, — and 
 this is properly branding ; and another is to 
 stamp them on with an iron dipped in a boiling 
 mixture of tar and pitch, — and this is properly 
 j. buisting. The branding-iron has the letters cut 
 upon it in the form of a die, and requires to be 
 made of prime iron in order to resist the effects 
 of very frequent heating ; and the buisting-iron 
 has the letters in a form of entire relief, and does 
 not require io be made of the best iron. 
 
 BRANK. See Buckwheat. 
 
 BRASSICA. A genus of herbaceous plants, 
 I belonging to the cruciferous order, and compris- 
 ing cabbages, turnips, rape, cole and kohl-rabi, 
 and some other species and varieties of great 
 agricultural importance. It has entire stamens, 
 undivided petals, an equal and slightly spreading 
 calyx, a long, slender, and many-seeded pod, 
 spherical seeds, and a radicle contained in the 
 cavity of the folded cotyledons. See the articles 
 Cabbage, Turnip, Cole, Kohl-rabi, and Rape. 
 
 The Brassica oleracea, which comprises all the 
 varieties of colewort, cabbage, borecole, broccoli, 
 cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, has the singu- 
 lar property of communicating fecundation to 
 
 other species of brassica, and at the same time be- 
 ing incapable of receiving fecundation from any. 
 Its pollen has been successfully applied, not only 
 to other species of brassica, but even to the cul- 
 tivated \jlack radish ; and it has itself resisted 
 the pollen of all species of brassica, and of all 
 varieties except its own. Even the colsa, chou- 
 navet, or white ruta-baga, Brassica campestris 
 napo-brassica, and the navet-jaune or common 
 yellow ruta-baga, Brassica campestris napo-bras- 
 sica ruta-baga, which appear to be hybrids be- 
 tween Brassica oleracea and Brassica rapa, and 
 which possess strong resemblances to the former, 
 and have the power of fecundating species, va- 
 rieties and hybrids throughout almost the entire 
 range of the genus, — even these cannot fecundate 
 any variety of Brassica oleracea. All the varieties 
 of the different species, however, are very liable 
 to change or deterioration from the floral im- 
 pregnation of other varieties growing in their 
 vicinity, from the carriage of the impregnating 
 pollen by bees, from the impoverishment of repro- 
 ductive energy by bees and other insects, from 
 the nature of soil, from difference of climate, from ' 
 degrees of moisture in both air and land, from 
 change in the period of sowing, and from some 
 other circumstances whose precise modusoperandi 
 has not yet been properly investigated. 
 
 BRASSIN. The principal winter and fatten- 
 ing food of the stall-fed cattle of Flanders. It 
 consists of the roots of turnips, carrots, and po- 
 tatoes, and the meal of beans, rye, and buck- | 
 wheat, either boiled together in a copper cal- ! 
 dron, or first chopped together in a tub and then 
 macerated with boiling water. This food, in a 
 lukewarm state, and in the quantity of two-pails- 
 full morning and evening to each cow, consti- 
 tutes, with a little wheat-straw or barley- straw, 
 the whole of" the food of stall-fed cattle through- j 
 out the winter ; and, in greater quantity, with | 
 the addition of more meal, and sometimes bruised j 
 linseed cake, it is the only food used for fatten- j | 
 ing cows and oxen. In the vicinity of the brew- | j 
 eries of towns, grains are added to the other in- 
 gredients of the winter -feeding mixture; and 
 they occasion a large increase in the cow's milk. ; 
 
 BRAWN. The pickled flesh of the male hog. 
 Boars of all breeds, ages, and sizes, are slaughtered 
 for preparing it ; but those which are largest in 
 size and deepest in the shoulder, are esteemed j 
 the best. They are generally fed upon beans, and 
 have a mixture of sulphur in their drink, and j 
 are killed about Christmas. Their carcasses are 
 boiled, seasoned, freed from the bones, gammons, j 
 head, and feet, formed into collars, pickled, rolled I 
 up in cloth, and bound with tape. The precise j 
 method of preparation is, as much as possible, j 
 kept a secret by the manufacturers, and probably 
 varies in different establishments, and has been 
 altered and modified in the general progress of \ 
 modern improvement. But the following method 
 is mentioned in books of various kinds, published i 
 
BRAXY. 
 
 during the last eighty years : " The bones being 
 taken out of the flitches, the flesh is sprinkled 
 with salt, and laid in a tray, that the blood may 
 drain off ; after which, it is salted a little, and 
 rolled up as hard as possible. The length of the 
 collar of brawn should be as much as one side of 
 the bone will bear ; so that, when rolled up, it 
 may be nine or ten inches in diameter. The 
 collar being thus rolled up, it is boiled in a cop- 
 per or large kettle, till it is so tender that you 
 may run a straw through it ; when it is set by 
 till thoroughly cold, and then put into the fol- 
 lowing pickle : — to every gallon of water add two 
 handfuls of salt, and as much wheat-bran ; boil 
 them together, drain the liquor as clear as pos- 
 sible from the bran, and, when the liquor is quite 
 cold, put the brawn into it." A good collar is 
 about 30 lbs. in weight. Oxford has the highest 
 reputation for the making of brawn ; but Canter- 
 bury manufactures the greatest quantity. Droves 
 of boars come to the latter city about the middle 
 of October, and are immediately placed aside to 
 fatten, some singly, and others in groups of three 
 and four. 
 
 BRAXY. A virulent inflammatory disease in 
 sheep. It particularly attacks young sheep, has 
 usually a very fierce character, and, in many 
 districts, especially mountainous ones, occasions 
 more loss than all the other diseases to which 
 sheep are subject. It is the chief pest of the 
 sheep farms of Scotland ; and is there very com- 
 monly designated, as if par excellence, the sickness, 
 Hogg, the well-known Ettrick Shepherd, distin- 
 guishes four varieties of it, — the bowel sickness, 
 the sickness in the flesh and blood, the dry braxy, 
 and the water braxy ; and many of the old Scottish 
 shepherds distinguish five varieties of it, — reed- 
 sickness, small-guts sickness, blood sickness, flesh 
 sickness, and liver sickness, — and, when the body 
 of a sheep which has just died of it is opened, 
 they affect to be able to determine, almost at a 
 glance, which of the five varieties has occasioned 
 the death. The variety which Hogg calls the 
 water braxy seems to be the chief one known in 
 the centre and south of England, and is there 
 usually designated red-water. See the article 
 Red-water. 
 
 All the varieties of braxy are inflammations, 
 which spread with fearful rapidity and power, 
 attack most of the contents of the abdomen, and 
 speedily induce mortification. The abomasum, 
 the intestines, the liver, the lungs, the diaphragm, 
 the heart, the bladder, and nearly all the other 
 parts of the interior system, are sometimes most 
 visibly affected, or even converted into one pu- 
 trescent and most stenchy mass of rapidly decom- 
 posing organism ; some of the leading parts may 
 frequently be observed to be more or less affected 
 before the animal dies; and any of several of them 
 may exhibit post mortem decomposition more 
 than others, or even to the exclusion of the others, 
 in consequence of modifying circumstances in 
 the disease's progress, and even of the posture in 
 
 which the animal dies. If a sheep suffer from a 
 mild form of the disease, or in circumstances 
 which exert a check rather than a stimulus, upon 
 inflammatory action, the abomasum alone will 
 be found affected ; if he suffer either standing, 
 or in any other position which keeps the liver in 
 close contact with the abomasum, the liver will 
 be found putrid ; if he die with his head down- 
 hill, the cavity of the heart and lungs will be full 
 of serum, and the fleshy parts in the neighbour- 
 hood of these organs will be gorged with extra- 
 vasated blood, while the intestines will be pretty 
 free from inflammation ; and if he die with his 
 head up-hill, and lie in the same position for an 
 hour or two before dissection, the heart and the 
 lungs will be uninflamed, the cavity within the 
 diaphragm free of serum, and all the forequarters 
 comparatively sound, while the intestines will be 
 surcharged with serum, and the fleshy parts of 
 the flanks and head-quarters putrid with inflam- 
 mation. 
 
 These are the diversities of both appearance 
 and cause which have given rise to the popular 
 belief that braxy is of various kinds ; and they 
 are such as might almost indicate to a perspica- 
 cious mind that both the original seat and the 
 nosological character of the disease are in all 
 cases the same. " The various appearances ob- 
 servable upon opening the dead animal," remarks 
 Mr. Hogg of Atterstane, " have led to different 
 definitions of the disorder, — have occasioned dif- 
 ferent parts of the bowels to be assigned as the 
 place of its commencement, and sometimes dif- 
 ferent theories to be brought forward as to its 
 cause. The rapid or tardy progress of the disor- 
 der, however, — the position in which the animal 
 has been lying previous to or at its death, — the 
 length of time between its dying and its being 
 opened, — all these, in a carcass rapidly mortify- 
 ing, with several other considerations which 
 might be adduced, do readily, in different cases, 
 and even in the same case, in a short time, and 
 in no small degree, vary the appearance of the 
 infected organs. The writer has dissected sev- 
 eral hundreds that have died of sickness, — has 
 opened them in all stages ; and in the whole 
 course of this his experience, there has not been 
 above one case in a hundred where it was not 
 evident that the reed was, or had been, the first 
 and principal part affected." In a few cases, a 
 carcass, on being promptly opened, discloses vio- 
 lent inflammation nowhere but in the abomasum; 
 in very many, inflammation can be seen only in 
 the abomasum, and the blood, with evident ap • 
 pearance that it began in the abomasum ; and 
 only in a very few cases of tremendous virulenct; 
 and all-pervading putrefaction, when the very 
 skin is decomposing, and serum is welling out 
 upon the ground, or when the carcass is so 
 dreadfully decomposed and so horribly offen- 
 sive as to render attempts at dissection or ex- 
 amination impossible, — only in such extreme 
 cases would a careful observer have any difli- 
 
BRAXY. 
 
 213 
 
 BRAXY. 
 
 culty in assigning the abomasum as the seat of 
 the disease. 
 
 Braxy, then, is an inflammation of the abo- 
 masum, reed, or fourth and true stomach. The 
 inflammation generally commences about the 
 pylorus, or duct ol communication with the 
 small guts ; and rapidly spreads over all the folds 
 and inner coats of the abomasum. The trans- 
 mission of digested food through the pylorus is 
 soon stopped ; and the heat and swelling of the 
 abomasum and its contents speedily increase. A 
 considerable quantity of serum is engendered 
 about the bottom of the abomasum by the com- 
 mencement of the inflammation ; and this is 
 rapidly augmented by the progress of the disor- 
 der throughout the interior of the stomach. The 
 portion of food which was within the abomasum 
 at the commencement of the disease, is, in some 
 instances, found parched and exsiccated, while 
 both the internal folds and the external surface 
 of the organ containing it are a shapeless mass 
 of serum and extravasated blood. As soon as 
 the food ceases to pass through the pylorus, the 
 upper portion of the intestines becomes inflated 
 with gaseous matter of a strongly sulphurous 
 smell ; and the inflammatory action speedily 
 passes into this portion of the intestines and 
 into such adjacent organs as suffer pressure from 
 the attitude in which the suffering animal is 
 placed. 
 
 " Braxy," says Mr. Carmichael of Raploch, " is 
 not contagious, nor does it early exhibit premoni- 
 tory symptoms. The whole flock seems safe and 
 well at night, and next morning twenty, perhaps, 
 of the best (for the fattest are noticed to fail first) 
 are found dead, within a small compass of ground, 
 with no external marks of violence, and all lying 
 in such a situation as to preclude the possibility 
 of accident, but all at the same time presenting 
 one and the same appearance. On examination, 
 the body is found much swollen, and of a very 
 deep red colour, particularly the side which is 
 lying undermost, the whole intestines being 
 highly inflamed, the membrane of fat enveloping 
 the great gut extravasated with blood, and large 
 globules of water interspersed ; and, on turning 
 out the intestines, a quantity of blood and serum 
 is found floating within the body. The liver is 
 healthy, and the gall-duct full, the heart distended, 
 and the interior cavities filled with coagulated 
 blood, even while the body is still warm. The 
 lungs are very much distended, and the wind- 
 pipe full of froth or frothy mucus, resembling 
 soap-bubbles, which are largely suspended round 
 the nostrils. The kidneys are much inflamed, 
 the bladder is generally empty, the anus-duct 
 full of very hard fasces, and the small or anterior 
 portion of the intestines inflated with gas. The 
 contents of the stomach, or first bag, are exceed- 
 ingly dry and compressed, while that of the great 
 gut is quite moist, as if fermenting, with a highly 
 offensive smell." But the disease, though not 
 contagious, frequently assumes an endemic char- 
 
 acter ; for it often attacks the sheep of one farm, 
 and passes by those of a neighbouring farm, and 
 sometimes carries of so many as one-fourth of 
 one large flock, while it scarcely touches another 
 of the same breed, of similar age, and in similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 The symptoms of the attack and of the earlier 
 stages of braxy are very often unobserved ; and 
 even all symptoms intermediate between health 
 and death are sometimes unnoticed. Many sheep 
 seem well at night and are found dead in the 
 morning ; and many more, on being attacked, 
 withdraw from the flock, and conceal themselves 
 among brushwood or in other shelter, and are 
 not missed or discovered before they die. But 
 the symptoms, when observed, are described as 
 follows by the Ettrick Shepherd : — " The loss of 
 cud is the first token. As the distemper advances, 
 the agony which the animal is suffering becomes 
 more and more visible. When it stands, it brings 
 all its fore-feet into the compass of a foot ; and 
 sometimes it continues to rise and lie down al- 
 ternately every two or three minutes. The eyes 
 are heavy and dull, and deeply expressive of its 
 distress. The ears hang down ; and, when more 
 narrowly inspected, the mouth and tongue are 
 dry and parched, and the white of the eye in- 
 flamed. The belly is prodigiously swelled, even 
 so much that it sometimes bursts." Sir George 
 S. Mackenzie more summarily describes the 
 braxied sheep as " restless, lying down and rising 
 up frequently, at intervals standing with its head 
 down and its back raised, and appearing to run 
 with pain." When only one or two sheep of a 
 flock are attacked in the course of a week, they 
 not uncommonly are attacked in the morning, 
 struggle on all day, and die in the course of the 
 night ; but when many are attacked, or when 
 they seem to fall beneath braxy as an endemic 
 pest, they very often pass through all the phases 
 of the diseases in about ninety or a hundred 
 minutes. 
 
 Any remedy for braxy, in the vast majority of 
 instances, is obviously quite unavailable or even 
 altogether absurd. Most braxied sheep, long be- 
 fore their diseased condition can possibly be ob- 
 served, are far beyond all possibility of cure. 
 Only very mild cases, which happen to be de- 
 tected in the very earliest stages of the disease, 
 can be medicinally treated ; and even these af- 
 ford but a forlorn hope of success. A large 
 quantity of blood ought to be drawn from any 
 part of the body, either by notches made across 
 the under side of the tail, or by venesection of 
 any of the principal veins, but especially of the 
 jugular vein or of that under the eye. An ounce 
 of Glauber's salts, or even a handful of common 
 salt, dissolved in a quart of cold water, ought 
 then to be poured down the animal's throat ; and 
 on the second day, a clyster of broth with a good 
 deal of salt ought to be thrown up to clear the 
 lower intestines, and as much nitre as will lie on 
 a shilling should be dissolved in an English pint 
 
BRAXY. 
 
 214 
 
 BRAXY. 
 
 of cold water, and given in three doses, morning, 
 noon, and evening. On the third day, also, or 
 even on the fourth, the clystering and the dosing 
 with nitre should be renewed ; and, if requisite, 
 the bleeding may be repeated. But these reme- 
 dies, which are the best that have been tried, 
 will, in most cases, either totally fail, or at best 
 but diminish the sheep's pain and slightly prolong 
 its life ; and, in the few instances in which they 
 succeed, the restored animals will be so exhaust- 
 ed and feeble as to incur every hazard of dying 
 from leanness and inanition in the course of the 
 winter or of early spring. 
 
 The proper treatment for braxy is obviously 
 not cure but prevention ; and this can be ju- 
 diciously attempted only through acquaintance 
 with the causes of the disease. Let us know 
 what occasions braxy, and then shall we under- 
 stand how the disease may be averted. One 
 cause is boisterous, changeable weather, or rapid 
 and great transitions from frosty to fresh, and 
 from fresh to frosty. Another cause is drinking 
 cold water, or plunging into a stream or pond, 
 or being suddenly drenched with rain, or being 
 chilled by a shower of snow, while the body is 
 overheated. A third cause is winter-feeding on 
 hill pastures with a steep northern exposure, 
 and considerably overrun with ferns and brush- 
 wood. A fourth cause is a sudden or consider- 
 able change of pasture, or from a feeding on one 
 class of herbage or aliments to feeding on ano- 
 ther and considerably different class. A fifth 
 cause is the eating of very succulent grass which 
 is loaded with hoar-frost ; and so powerful is this 
 cause, that a night of hoar-frost, particularly 
 about the end of autumn and beginning of win- 
 ter, is very frequently followed on the next day, 
 or within three days, by very numerous and fatal 
 cases of braxy. A sixth and most virulent cause 
 is the eating of hard, unwholesome, or indigesti- 
 ble substances ; and this cause operates partly in 
 connexion with culpable neglect of the proper 
 care of pastures, partly in connexion with inju- 
 diciousness in the kind or manner of transitions 
 from pasture to pasture in the progress of the 
 seasons : and chief of all in connexion with the 
 want of stells, turnip-feeding, or other appliances 
 to prevent or lessen the entire dependence of the 
 flock upon the herbage of the hills during the 
 snows of winter. " When a deep snow lies long 
 on the ground," remarks Mr. W. Hogg, " the 
 hunger of the poor creature becomes excessive, 
 and it catches at everything which rises above 
 the frozen surface, such as rotten spratt, rotten 
 and half-withered fern, rock-fog, &c. ; and, in 
 some situations, where it can get at the surface, 
 of the earth, it bares away not only the sward, 
 but a good deal of clay and sand. Such unnatu- 
 ral and indigestible substances mixing and going 
 into the stomach with the food, meet with no ob- 
 struction, nor probably give the animal any un- 
 easiness, till they reach the last department 
 of the stomach. There these crudities inflame 
 
 the tender coats of the reed, the animal sickens 
 rapidly beyond all conception, and sometimes in 
 the compass of an hour dies." A seventh cause 
 — the last which we shall name — consists in the 
 improper treatment of lambs after weaning, and 
 connects itself with the fact that hoggs or young 
 sheep are the chief subjects of the disease, and 
 that wether-hoggs are more liable to be attacked 
 than ewe-hoggs. When weaned lambs are sepa- 
 rated from the older sheep, and placed in flocks, 
 or on pastures by themselves, they become im- 
 paired in their instincts, and are far less able 
 than they would otherwise be to discern between 
 wholesome and unwholesome herbage. Wether- 
 hoggs suffer great enfeeblement of constitution 
 from the effects of castration ; and, if not nour- 
 ished with the most tender food till they re-ac- 
 quire constitutional energy, have not sufficient 
 powers of digestion to resist the irritating action 
 of many kinds of herbage which are easily digest- 
 ible by strong and healthy sheep. Young sheep 
 which are heated or exhausted by travelling or by 
 any other fatigue, are impaired in stomach and 
 have predisposition to disease until they reattain 
 ease and composure. 
 
 Each of these causes suggests a correlative 
 means of prevention. A shepherd ought to be 
 well acquainted with the best prognostications 
 of weather, and to provide, by removals of the 
 flock, and other means, as fully as the condition 
 of the farm will permit, against the refrigerations 
 and excitements of great and sudden anticipated 
 meteorological changes. All care ought to be 
 used not to heat a flock by hard driving or other- 
 wise during cold weather ; and, when any heat- 
 ing has occurred, care should be exercised to 
 prevent sudden cooling. Any pasture which has 
 a steep northern exposure, or which, in other 
 respects, is so situated as to make long retentions 
 of cold and hoar-frost during the short days of 
 winter, ought not to be depastured except during 
 a steady continuance of open and comparatively 
 genial weather. Transitions from pasture to 
 pasture, especially at the close of autumn, ought 
 to be either of a gentle or of a gradual kind, and 
 never so violent as from soft, saccharine, and suc- 
 culent herbage to a hard and bristling sward of 
 bents. On every evening, which indicates hoar- 
 frost, or early in the morning succeeding a night 
 in which hoar-frost has formed, the hoggs ought 
 to be removed from their lairs to higher and 
 open ground till the hoar-frost disappears. Se- 
 dulous and skilful diligence ought to be practised 
 to eradicate all ferns, heath, and brushwood from 
 sheep-pastures, to sweeten the natural herbage 
 by means of draining and other arts of gcorgy, 
 and, occasionally, to alter and improve the quality 
 of the aggregate growth of grasses by artificial 
 sowings. The young of a flock, whenever cir- 
 cumstances and sound economy will permit, ought 
 to be pastured with the old ; all weaned lambs 
 ought to be protected from overdriving and ex- 
 haustion ; and all wether-hoggs ought to receive 
 
BREADCORN. 
 
 215 
 
 BREAST-PLOUGH. 
 
 special favour and considerable tenderness of 
 treatment till they become confirmed in consti- 
 tutional strength. Other preventatives of a gen- 
 eral kind, exerting a protecting influence against 
 all or several of the causes, are the giving of salt 
 to young sheep, especially when suddenly shifted 
 from fresh to dry food, — the erection of stells of 
 sufficient capacity to suit the needs of a flock, — 
 and especially the prompt and plentiful supply of 
 succulent food, — turnips, whenever they can be 
 obtained, and at least some oil-cake along with 
 hay. In fact, the want of turnips upon upland 
 store-farms, and the profusion of them for sheep- 
 feeding upon champaign mixed farms, is a fact 
 which of itself affords nine-tenths of a complete 
 explanation of the phenomenon, that braxy is ab- 
 solutely desolating among the hills, and is rarely 
 witnessed upon the plains. — Mackenzie on the Dis- 
 eases of Sheep. — Hogg's Shepherd's Guide. — W. 
 Hogg's Prize Essay on Braxy in the Transactions 
 of the Highland Society . — Paper by Mr. Carmichael 
 in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — A Lammer- 
 muir Farmers Treatise on Sheep. — Spooner on 
 Sheep. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England. 
 
 BREADCORN. Any grain which is commonly 
 used for making bread. 
 
 BREAD-ROOT. See Psoralea. 
 
 BREAK. Land ploughed the first time after 
 it has lain two or more years in grass. 
 
 BREAK-FURROWING. The rib-ploughing 
 of stubble-land with porous soil. Only the alter- 
 nate furrow-slice is turned ; and this is so depos- 
 ited on the adjoining space that the stubbles of 
 the very thin turned slice are applied to those 
 of -he unturned one. The stubbles, by this 
 metaod, have sufficient circulation of air to de- 
 compose ; and the porous soil is prevented from 
 being too much pulverized by the action of frost. 
 See the article Ploughing. 
 
 BLEAKING. The reducing of an animal to 
 a state of subjection; and, in particular, the ac- 
 customing of a young colt to the saddle or the 
 yoke. The foal, immediately after being weaned, 
 ought every day to be handled and partially 
 dressel, and occasionally led about and made 
 fast w.th the halter. After the second winter, 
 the co t may, for days in succession, be accus- 
 tomed, during an hour or so a-day, to a small bit 
 of suci a construction as will not hurt his mouth. 
 If he is intended for ordinary farm draught, he 
 may be accustomed to piece after piece of the 
 harness, — allowing him to be well used to one 
 piece before subjecting him to another piece, and 
 reserving the blind-winkers to the last. A few 
 dajs after he has become accustomed to all the 
 harness, he may be yoked into a team, with one 
 hoise before him, and another horse behind him, 
 anc all attached to a mere empty cart or wag- 
 gor ; he ought not to be further urged than by 
 the strain of the other horses, and by an occa- 
 6ioial patting and vocal encouragement; and 
 
 after he begins to pull with the other horses, 
 which he will do in the course of a few days, or 
 of perhaps the very first day, the waggon may 
 receive a gradually increasing load, to make him 
 exert his muscles, and acquire the habit of 
 draught. All severity and infliction of pain and 
 use of forcible means ought, from first to last, to 
 be most carefully avoided. Backing, which is by 
 far the most difficult part of his work, must not 
 be thought of till he has learned to draw ; and 
 it must be taught, first without any thing what- 
 ever being attached to him, — next, with a very 
 light cart, — next, with a light load or heavy cart, 
 — next, with a heavy load, — and, all through, 
 with studious care not to hurt his mouth with 
 the bit. Blinding him while teaching him to 
 back must not be thought of, unless he prove ob- 
 stinate and restive ; and not even then, unless 
 all methods of coaxing and adroitery should fail. 
 Prompt and uniform obedience will afterwards 
 be best inculcated by firm, steady, kind, uniform 
 treatment, and with a very infrequent, but smart 
 and severe, use of the whip or goad. Refractori- 
 ness, restiveness, and all the other varieties of 
 vicious habit in horses are, in all instances, more 
 or less produced by cruel usage. A bland and 
 soothing manner, combined with steadily com- 
 manding tone, will subdue any colt and train 
 him to a cheerful performance of any work. Even 
 when a colt is unusually resistive, and opposes 
 with high and pertinacious spirit the earlier at- 
 tempts to subjugate him, a combination of kind- 
 ness and firmness may very speedily tame him, 
 while a single act or two of harshness might 
 drive him into prolonged rebellion, aud perhaps 
 permanent viciousness. When a young farm- 
 horse is wanted for the saddle as well as for the 
 yoke, he ought to receive his first lesson when in 
 the team, and ought to be first mounted by the 
 person who has been accustomed to feed him. 
 The breaking of horses for the carriage and the 
 chase, is the work of regular practitioners or 
 ' breakers,' and therefore does not demand from 
 us any particular remark. Yet we may say that, 
 while the method usually practised by breakers 
 is unquestionably good, it might be materially 
 improved by studying the natural action of the 
 horse, and especially by discarding much of its 
 harshness, and infusing into it a considerable 
 addition of bland though firm kindness. 
 
 BREAST-PLOUGH. An implement for paring 
 off the sward or turf, in thin slices, from the sur- 
 face of any piece of grass land. It is also called 
 a paring-spade, a denshare, and a flaughter-spade. 
 It was originally constructed to work somewhat 
 like a plough, and to be pushed forward by the 
 breast of a man. It consisted of a cutting-iron, 
 about eight or nine inches long, and having one 
 of its sides turned up to cut the turf. The iron 
 was fixed to a pole bending upwards, about five 
 or six feet in length, forked at the upper end, 
 and having a crutch or cross-handle mortised in- 
 
BREECHIN. 
 
 216 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 to the forks ; and the workman placed his breast 
 against the crutch, and pushed forward the im- 
 plement so as to pare and cut the turf. The 
 breast-plough now in use is so constructed as to 
 be pushed forward by means of a board or of 
 woollen pads attached by straps to the front of 
 the thighs ; and it has a curved shaft, and is pro- 
 vided with a cross hilt which the workman grasps 
 so as to guide his operations. Workmen usually 
 break the pared turf into pieces of nearly uni- 
 form size by mere wrenches of the implement ; 
 they sometimes follow one another, in an exten- 
 sive piece of work, in the same sort of order as a 
 body of mowers ; they, in most cases, find the 
 working of the breast-plough very hard labour ; 
 and, when the land is beset with furze or root- 
 weeds, they require to be men of the most ath- 
 letic powers. See the article Paring and 
 Burning. 
 
 BREECHIK The part of a draught horse's 
 harness which, while attached to the saddle and 
 hooked on the shafts, enables him to push back 
 the cart, or other vehicle, to which he is har- 
 nessed. 
 
 BREEDING. The art of rapidly multiplying 
 and of improving domestic animals. Some weal- 
 thy and patriotic landlords expend much wealth, 
 great patriotism, and not a little labour and 
 science in improving local breeds of live-stock, in 
 introducing superior breeds from other districts 
 and countries, and in indoctrinating the agri- 
 cultural community with enlightened principles 
 in the art of breeding ; but such men are bene- 
 factors of their country rather then breeders, and 
 must be -viewed, rather as patronizing the art of 
 breeding, than as taking part in any of its ordi- 
 nary cares and toils. Professional farmers, who 
 labour for profit, are the only true class of prac- 
 tical breeders ; and, while agricultural improvers 
 desire such breeds as promise to be most bene- 
 ficial to a whole country, practical farmers desire 
 such as will yield the largest amount of profit in 
 the particular circumstances of their respective 
 farms. A wise practical breeder regards his live 
 stock as an important portion of his property, 
 and conducts the treatment and the increase of 
 it with a direct view to the obtaining of the 
 largest possible remuneration. He considers the 
 nature of his farm, — whether dairy, pastoral, ara- 
 ble, or mixed ; its locality ; the amount and 
 quality of its pasturage; the character of its 
 soil ; the adaptations of its climate, exposures, 
 and elevations; the degree and kind of its re- 
 sources for the support of stock in winter and 
 spring ; the markets to which it has the most 
 ready access ; and the varieties and comparative 
 value of pastoral produce for which these mar- 
 kets maintain a demand. He will decide whe- 
 ther sheep-walk, or the dairy, or grazing, or a com- 
 bination of objects promises to be most suitable; 
 and will select only such principle of breeding as 
 subserves the department which he adopts. " The 
 
 best beast for him is that which suits his farm 
 the best ; and, with a view to this, he studies, or 
 ought to study, the points and qualities of his 
 own cattle, and those of his neighbours. The 
 dairyman will regard the quantity of milk, the 
 quality, the time that the cow continues in milk, 
 its value for the production of butter and cheese, 
 the character of the breed for quietness, or as 
 being good nurses, the predisposition to red- 
 water, garget, or dropping after calving, the na- 
 tural tendency to turn everything to nutriment, 
 the easiness with which she is fattened when 
 given up as a milker, and the proportion of food 
 requisite to keep her in full milk, or to fatten 
 her when dry. The grazier will consider the 
 kind of beast which his land will bear, the kind 
 of meat most in demand in his neighbourhood, 
 the early maturity, the quickness of fattening at 
 any age, the quality of the meat, the parts on 
 which the flesh and fat are principally laid, and, 
 more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation 
 of constitution to the climate and soil." ( Youatt.) 
 The sheep-farmer will act on analogous princi- 
 ples with reference to sheep, — making his selec- 
 tions in adaptation to the situation and character 
 of his farm, and with a view to produce in w T ool 
 or in carcass ; the breeder of hogs will consider 
 the adaptations of his resources to one breed 
 rather than to another; and the mixed breeder 
 will take account, not only of the fitness of his 
 farm for supporting particular kinds and breeds 
 of domestic animals, but of the best methods 3f 
 so economizing it as to maintain the most pro- 
 ductive balance between the different kirjds 
 and the most powerful reciprocity upon the fer- 
 tilizing of the soil for the produce of grain. 
 
 The art of breeding live-stock for profit is rery 
 laborious to both body and mind. The purchas- 
 ing of proper stock in the best markets, the col- 
 lecting of them from different districts into one 
 farm, the managing of the offspring stock from 
 birth to maturity, and the disposing of the sur- 
 plus in the most remunerating markets, involve 
 great bodily exertion ; and the care of the large 
 capital requisite for the enterprise, the doubt 
 whether the outlay for two or three years may 
 be equivalent to the risk, the uncertainty as to 
 the purchased stock producing a progeny as good 
 in character as themselves, the daily solbitude 
 in rearing the progeny to maturity, the frar of 
 disaster from the attacks of disease, and tie ap- 
 prehension of loss from the fall of prices, impose 
 a large degree of labour and trouble on the mind. 
 Any man who begins to be a breeder, therefore, 
 ought to have great powers of both bodily aid 
 mental endurance; nor will he ever be likely to' 
 enjoy much success, unless he also possess a 
 large judgment and an enterprising spirit. A 
 breeder who cultivates any sort of stock whrh 
 he can most easily procure, or who rears it v, th 
 little trouble or with merely routine care, hasno 
 right to expect any considerable remuneratbn. 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 217 
 
 BREEDING 
 
 A thoroughly prosperous breeder selects his stock 
 with much discrimination, readily expends labour 
 and money to obtain at a distance a better animal 
 than he can procure at hand, keenly observes the 
 practices or notes the principles of other successful 
 breeders, and omits no practical precaution, how- 
 ever minu^, for securing excellence in the pro- 
 geny, averting disease, and effecting a plump, 
 early, and ample maturity. 
 
 The natural progress of the art of breeding is 
 well illustrated, by Mr. James Dickson of Edin- 
 burgh, in a supposititious case, which we shall here 
 transfer to our pages. "The securing of the 
 greatest profit in breeding with the least labour, 
 consists in procuring that breed which will at- 
 tain the greatest weight and maturity in the 
 shortest time, and on the least quantity of food. 
 On observing the progress of different individuals 
 of the same breed of cattle, every breeder may 
 have noticed that some individuals fatten quicker 
 than others under the same treatment ; and were 
 the cattle of different breeds, the difference in 
 the progress of fatness would probably be the 
 more striking. Results so obvious cannot fail to 
 rouse the inquiries of the breeder. How is it 
 that animals of different breeds, or individuals of 
 the same breed, fatten faster than others 1 They 
 all receive the same attention and care, food and 
 comfort. On inspecting the subject more closely, 
 the br|eder discovers that those animals which 
 improve fastest, are the most beautiful to appear- 
 ance, and most handsomely formed. Out of re- 
 gard for them, he has a desire to handle and fon- 
 dle them, when he makes a new discovery — he 
 finds that their skins feel agreeable to the touch, 
 are loose, and easily laid hold of. Their bodies 
 are soft and fat, and he can press his fingers into 
 the flesh, which springs back again in an elastic 
 manner. He can also ascertain the same proper- 
 ties in the parents of the respective cattle which 
 have thus exhibited them ; and when he has made 
 this observation, he has made another discovery. 
 He thereby learns, that cattle possessing certain 
 good and useful properties, have the power of 
 imparting them to their progeny. He becomes 
 convinced that good properties are hereditary; 
 and, by a parity of reasoning and observation, he 
 concludes that bad properties are also hereditary. 
 He therefore retains the breeding stock which 
 possesses the good properties, and disposes of the 
 rest which possess the bad, and fills up their 
 place with animals possessing properties similar 
 to the first. His mind having thus been awak- 
 ened to the proper course to be pursued in breed- 
 ing, he perseveres in the selection of the best 
 animals, and, in the course of time, his experience 
 and taste correct the defects which may exist in 
 even the minuter properties of his animals. Some 
 of these minute defects may not exhibit them- 
 selves for some time, even for years ; but when 
 they do appear, the animals having them are re- 
 moved, and those only cherished which have pre- 
 served all the good properties to the latest period. 
 
 " Having thus procured that breed which at- 
 tains the greatest weight and maturity in the 
 shortest time, and on the least quantity of food, 
 not absolutely but relatively to other breeds (for 
 it is perhaps not in the power of man to fashion 
 an absolutely perfect breed of cattle, which these 
 qualifications would indicate), the breeder's next 
 consideration is how to preserve the good proper- 
 ties which have been acquired in his cattle. This 
 consideration will be early impressed upon him, 
 for he knows that the possession of any good thing 
 is but a fleeting acquisition ; for he sees that 
 others more than he cannot retain a good thing 
 permanently, for everything becomes the more 
 evanescent the purer it is. He finds this to be 
 true in regard to cattle. The good properties 
 gradually disappear, one after another. The 
 more minute properties disappear first, as it were 
 stealthily, before he is aware of their disappear- 
 ance. He finds, to his amazement and embar- 
 rassment, that his cattle are undergoing an evi- 
 dent change for the worse. They are becoming 
 smaller, they are more tender, more easily hurt 
 by change of food and weather ; they show symp- 
 toms of internal disease, and some even die in 
 spite of his attempts to preserve them. He be- 
 comes alarmed, he ascribes the change perhaps 
 to some temporary change in the atmosphere, to 
 some epidemic, which will pass away with the 
 season ; and, at all events, he cannot ascribe the 
 mismanagement on his part, as a cause of the 
 disheartening change. He is not conscious of 
 having deviated from the exact line of conduct 
 which has hitherto led him to prosperity and 
 fame. He finds himself in a dilemma. If he 
 continues as he has latterly proceeded in his me- 
 thod of breeding, he fears that the value of the 
 cattle, upon which he has bestowed so much care, 
 and of whose beautiful appearance he is justly 
 proud, will decline every year. It is no easy 
 matter for a breeder to extricate himself out of 
 such a difficulty. The many conjectures which 
 he forms to account for the unfortunate change, 
 the epidemic among the rest, have now lost his 
 confidence, and he begins to distrust his later 
 management, and attempts to discover an error 
 of judgment or of practice. But although an 
 error of judgment or of practice had produced the 
 effects, its immediate connexion with them may 
 not be very apparent ; and, at all events, he is 
 reluctant to acknowledge that it is easy to ac- 
 count for so great a change as has taken place in 
 his stock. He cannot conceive that a pursuance 
 of the same plan which has perfected his animals, 
 can at any time be detrimental to them. He 
 resolves, however, to proceed in future with cir- 
 cumspection. The first precaution which he uses 
 is to change his breeding stock, in that line whose 
 progeny have shown the greatest change. He 
 purchases a bull from the best breeder in the 
 county. This is at least a safe step. On com- 
 parison, his eyes are opened to the lamentable 
 fact, that his present favourite bull which has 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 218 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 procured him his stock, is not so perfect as other 
 people's, nor what he has before had ; he is fat 
 enough, but seems bound together, and is small. 
 He resolves that he shall serve no more of his 
 own cows, but he puts him to a cow which he 
 has bought, in order to mark the results of the 
 double change which he is about to effect by in- 
 troducing a fresh bull and a fresh cow into his 
 stock. The results prove better than his expec- 
 tations. He tried the experiments in doubt, but 
 he exults in the results, because he is in the way 
 of regaining his lost stock. The fresh breed ex- 
 hibits the size, strength, hardiness, all the good 
 qualities of his best animals. He now sees the 
 necessity of changing at intervals, the blood in 
 breeding cattle, in-order to maintain them in that 
 high and palmy state which imparts the greatest 
 pleasure and profit to the breeder. He is con- 
 vinced that without a change of blood in its con- 
 stitution, or, in other words, without crossing, 
 no breed of cattle can maintain its health and 
 usefulness. 
 
 " Convinced though he be of this position in 
 regard to crossing in the same breed, still he na- 
 turally asks himself, Will any kind of crossing 
 produce similarly favourable results ? Were any 
 bull or cow used, would their progeny be as per- 
 fect as that of the crosses which he has just used ? 
 No reasoning can satisfy any man in the matter ; 
 experiment alone must answer those questions. 
 But having already made experiments and suc- 
 ceeded, he may try others. He buys a bull of 
 any breed different from his own. He puts him 
 to one of his best cows. The result proves al- 
 most a failure. The progeny is no doubt strong 
 and hardy, but it is coarse, and by no means 
 an improvement on his own breed. Such an ex- 
 periment shows that he should not rely on a con- 
 fessedly inferior bull. He then finds that the 
 crossing of breeds must not be conducted in an 
 indiscriminate manner, that a superior bull is 
 necessary, and that a superior cow cannot secure 
 him against disappointment when coupled with 
 an inferior bull. 
 
 " He will try another experiment, the converse 
 of the last. He now buys a cow of a different 
 breed from his own, and puts his best bull to her. 
 The result is much superior to the last experi- 
 ment. The progeny is not so fine as his own 
 pure breed, but it is superior to its mother. It 
 proves a rapid grower, kind feeder, has a good 
 figure and hardy constitution. He is encouraged 
 to proceed a little farther — he puts a fine bull to 
 a cow of this cross. He is still not disappointed; 
 the progeny is still not so fine as his own pure breed, 
 but it approaches nearer in similarity to it than 
 the first cross; and proceeding in this manner 
 for generations, he ultimately finds that the 
 coarse breed merges into his own. As he is still 
 in the field of experiment, he tries the effect of a 
 bull of a different breed from his own with a cow 
 which is a cross between a coarse cow and a fine 
 bull of his own. Instead of the cross improving 
 
 as it did with the fine bull, it is decidedly worse 
 than its sire. He receives no encouragement to 
 proceed in this direction. These latter experi- 
 ments prove to him, that, were it possible, from 
 the course of events, that no superior cow could 
 be obtained, a superior bull would in time raise 
 a stock similar to himself from a cow^of a differ- 
 ent breed ; and that this cross should either re- 
 main as it is, because it is certainly a good cross, 
 or it will merge, by means of a superior bull, in- 
 to his own pure breed ; but that, by an inferior 
 bull, the cross degenerates at once." 
 
 In the present state of improvement, however, 
 no man requires to pass through the progress of 
 breeding, from a low to a prime condition ; nor 
 even while modern improvement was advancing, 
 did any one man pass through the whole of that 
 progress. Mr. Dickson's supposititious breeder is 
 an impersonation of several or even most of the 
 enterprising men by whom a chief portion of the 
 existing improvement in breeds has been achiev- 
 ed. Any one man has, in general, but a limited 
 range of experience, and both learns from the 
 operations of his neighbours, and takes advan- 
 tage of the achievements of his predecessors. 
 Yet though the alleged facts in Mr. Dickson's de- 
 lineation are not imaginary — though, for example, 
 the breed which he represents as having been 
 brought to the highest degree of perfection is the 
 short-horned, and its degeneracy is indicated by 
 pursuing the breed too near akin — the principles 
 embodied in his sketch, particularly those re- 
 specting the effects and the alleged necessity of 
 crossing, are very far from being undisputed. 
 
 The general object of improved breeding is to 
 diminish or remove the defects of live stock, and 
 to acquire and perpetuate desirable properties ; 
 the general art is to make such a selection of 
 both males and females as is most likely to pro- 
 mote the object ; and the general principle is the 
 governing law of the animal kingdom, — the very 
 obvious yet much forgotten maxim, — that like 
 produces like, or that every variety, as well as 
 species of animal, propagates its own kind. The 
 simple observation, that domestic animals pro- 
 duce a progeny exactly similar to themselves, 
 formed the basis of all the proceedings of our 
 first great modern improvers of British live stock. 
 Bakewell, in particular, inferred from this obser- 
 vation, that, by bringing together a male and a 
 female both possessed of one set of good proper- 
 ties, he should obtain these properties, perhaps 
 in an increased degree, in their offspring. — and 
 that by propagating from males and females of 
 the same properties through a series of genera- 
 tions, he should eventually establish a breed pos- 
 sessing these properties as a permanent and dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic. When he carried 
 this process into effect, and found it to be suc- 
 cessful, with respect first to his long-horns, and 
 next to other breeds of cattle, the term " blood" 
 began to be used as a designation of it ; and, in 
 all subsequent periods, whenever a breed with 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 219 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 any valuable characteristic can be referred to a 
 number of ancestors of admitted excellence, this 
 term is currently and emphatically applied. The 
 principle of the improving process — that every 
 variety of domestic animal propagates its own 
 peculiar properties — is the pervading law of all 
 scientific and successful breeding, holds true with 
 regard to both the male and the female, and ex- 
 tends, not only to constitution, shape, and or- 
 ganic peculiarities, but to nosological tendencies 
 and habits, and to almost every property, no mat- 
 ter how minute, which affects an animal's economi- 
 cal adaptations and market value. The exceptions 
 to this law — even in spite of the seemingly dull 
 and unimaginative character of the cow, the ewe, 
 and some other domestic animals — are only such 
 as arise from the occasional ascendency of the 
 mental power over the organic operation, and, 
 like the vastly more frequent exceptions in the 
 human subject — more frequent, perhaps, in the 
 very ratio of the superiority of the human mind 
 to the brutish — must be wholly ascribed to the 
 play of imagination. " One of the most intelli- 
 gent breeders I ever met with in Scotland," says 
 Mr. Boswell, " told me a singular fact with re- 
 gard to what I have now stated. One of his 
 cows chanced to come in season while pasturing 
 on a field, which was bounded by that of one of 
 his neighbours, out of which an ox jumped, and 
 went with the cow, until she was brought home 
 to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots 
 and horned. The cow's owner had not a horned 
 beast in his possession, nor one with any white 
 on it ; nevertheless, the produce of the following 
 spring was a black and white calf with horns." 
 A still more remarkable instance is familiar to 
 most readers of sacred scripture, as having oc- 
 curred in the pastoral history of Jacob. Yet, 
 notwithstanding all such exceptions, the ten- 
 dency of each variety of domestic animals to pro- 
 pagate its own peculiarities, down to even the 
 minutest point, is so prevalent and powerful as 
 to be strictly a law, and perfectly accounts, not 
 only for all the successes, but also for ail the 
 failures and for most of the apparent anomalies, 
 in the progress of breeding improvements. " Let 
 it be supposed," remarks Youatt, " that the cat- 
 tle of a certain farmer have some excellent qual- 
 ities about them ; but there is a defect which 
 considerably deteriorates from their value, and 
 which he is anxious to remove. He remembers 
 that ' like produces like,' and he looks about for 
 a bull that possesses the excellence which he 
 wishes to engraft on his own breed. He tries the 
 experiment, and, to his astonishment it is a per- 
 fect failure — his stock, so far from improving, 
 have deteriorated. The cause of this every-day 
 occurrence was, that he did not fairly estimate 
 the extent of the principle from which he expect- 
 ed so much. This new bull had the good point 
 that was wanting in his old stock ; but he too 
 was deficient somewhere also ; and, therefore, 
 although his cattle had in some degree improved 
 
 by him in one way, that was more than counter- 
 balanced by the inheritance of his defects. Here 
 is the secret of every failure, — the grand princi- 
 ple of breeding. The new-comer, while he pos- 
 sesses that which was a desideratum in the old 
 stock, should likewise possess every good quality 
 that they had previously exhibited — then, and 
 then alone, will there be improvement without 
 alloy." 
 
 Three of the good properties, or " points," as 
 they are technically called, which breeders desi- 
 derate in all the species of live stock, are rec- 
 tangularity of shape, robustness of constitution, 
 and tendency to rapid attainment of maturity. — ■ 
 Rectangularity of shape is not understood with 
 literal exactness, and never supposes the total 
 absence of curvature, or the absolute filling up of 
 the angles, and is more remotely exemplified in 
 some species than in others, and in some good 
 varieties than in others ; still, it constitutes an 
 excellent abstract model, and distinctly indicates 
 the development and novelties of form which are 
 requisite for making increasing approximations 
 to perfection. The rectangle of the side figure 
 of each animal is a parallelogram, and excludes 
 the head ; and that of both the front figure and 
 the head figure is not far from being a square. 
 A full-grown ox of prime breed fills the rectan- 
 gles better than any other form of cattle on a 
 farm ; and a fat ox fills them better than a lean 
 one. A Leicester tup with full wool fills them 
 better than a tup of the same breed newly clip- 
 ped. The gelding fills them better than any 
 other form of the horse. But the hind view of the 
 horse, unlike that of the ox, is always broader 
 than the front view ; and the hind view of the 
 female is broader than the hind view of the male. — 
 Robustness of constitution implies good appetite, 
 healthy digestion, freedom from tendencies to 
 disease, great power of endurance, sturdy health, 
 steady growth to maturity, and facile ability of 
 performing the offices which belong to the parti- 
 cular animal in the economy of the farm ; and it 
 is indicated by very numerous features in each 
 animal, and by very diversified ones in the differ- 
 ent species. The principal organs or parts of the 
 body, particularly the lungs, the chest, the pel- 
 vis, the head, the neck, the muscles, and the 
 bones, must be carefully considered in order to 
 secure the possession and the due balance of the 
 desirable properties. The comparative largeness 
 of the lungs determines the comparative strength 
 and health of the whole constitution, — it deter- 
 mines, in particular, the comparative power of 
 taking up nourishment from food, and the com- 
 parative facility and rapidity of fattening ; and 
 it is therefore of very great importance, and is 
 itself determined, or rather indicated, by the ex- 
 ternal form and size of the chest. The capacity 
 of the chest depends more on its form than on 
 the extent of its external circumference ; for it 
 may have an equal circumference in two animals, 
 and yet enclose much larger lungs in the one 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 220 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 1 
 
 than in the other. The form of a truly capacious 
 chest, containing large and powerful lungs, ap- 
 proaches the outline-figure of a cone, and has the 
 apex of this figure situated between the shoulders, 
 and the base of it situated toward the loins. A 
 capacious pelvis, or lower cavity of the abdomen, 
 is essential in a female, in order to avoid danger 
 to both herself and her offspring in the produc- 
 tion of her young ; and it is indicated chiefly by 
 the width of the hips and the breadth of the 
 space between the thighs. The breadth of the 
 loins is always proportionate to that of the chest 
 and the pelvis. The comparative smallness of 
 the head facilitates parturition, and generally in- 
 dicates superiority of breed; and a head with 
 small horns, or with no horns whatever, occa- 
 sions considerably more economizing of food than 
 a head with large horns. The length of the neck 
 ought, in order to permit an easy collecting of 
 food, to be proportionate to the animal's height. 
 The muscles and the tendons, in order to permit 
 an animal to travel or to work with ease and 
 power, ought to be large. The bones, as com- 
 pared to the muscles, ought to be small ; for not 
 bones but muscles are the seats of strength ; and 
 large bones generally indicate imperfection in 
 the organs of nutrition. The several character- 
 istic good properties of the several species, how- 
 ever, as well as the features which indicate them, 
 will be fully discussed in the articles Cattle, 
 Cow, Ox, Sheep, Horse, and Hog. 
 
 A question of great niceness and difficulty, and 
 one which has been the topic of much discussion 
 and antagonism among agricultural writers, is, 
 " Whether the breed of live stock be susceptible 
 of the greatest improvement, from the qualities 
 conspicuous in the male, or from those conspi- 
 cuous in the female parent V The Highland So- 
 ciety, about twenty years ago, proposed this ques- 
 tion as a subject of prize essays ; and afterwards 
 adjudged four essays upon it to be worthy of pre- 
 miums, and published them in their Transactions. 
 Mr. Boswell of Balmuto, the author of one of the 
 essays, asserts that the male is most influential, 
 supports his opinion by an appeal to facts, and 
 concludes " that the male is the parent, from 
 motives of sense and sound polity, which we can 
 alone look to for the improvement of our breed 
 of live stock." The Rev. Henry Berry, the au- 
 thor of another of the essays, teaches that im- 
 proving power in breeds is attributable, not to 
 sex, but to high blood, or to animals, whether 
 male or female, which have been long and success- 
 fully selected and bred with a view to particular 
 qualifications ; yet concludes " that, with our 
 present scanty stock of information on this diffi- 
 cult question, one only rational course can be 
 adopted by breeders, viz., that of resorting to the 
 best male, a simple and efficacious mode of im- 
 proving such stocks as require improvement, and 
 the only proceeding by which stock already good 
 can be preserved in excellence." Mr. Christian 
 of Mill of Forest, another of the essayists, as- 
 
 serts that the offspring bears the closest resem- 
 blance to the parent, whether male or female, 
 which exerts the greater influence in the forma- 
 tion of the foetus, and concludes that no indivi- 
 dual animals, either male or female, can be trusted 
 to for improvement, and that the best breed and 
 most perfect animals of both sexes ought, in 
 every instance, to be selected. Mr. Dallas of 
 Edinburgh, the fourth essayist, asserts that the 
 male is the more powerful for external qualities, 
 and the female the more powerful for internal 
 qualities, and infers that the male ought to be 
 selected for the improvement of colour, coat, or 
 outward form, and the female for the improve- 
 ment of lactiferousness, hardiness, temper, and 
 freedom from tendency to any description of in- 
 ternal disease. 
 
 The opinions of Mr. Boswell and Mr. Berry, if 
 mutually combined, or if made to modify each 
 other, appear to contain the whole or very nearly 
 the whole of the truth upon this question ; and 
 the opinions of Mr. Christian and Mr. Dallas are 
 altogether, or very nearly altogether, fanciful, — 
 the one in theory and the other in fact. The 
 power of blood, or of regular systematic, untar- 
 nished breeding through a series of generations, 
 appears to be so great as wholly to supersede 
 mere sexual or constitutional power, — and 
 though peculiarly mighty in the male, is also 
 not a little distinguished in the female. A cow 
 possessing excellencies by pure descent from a 
 high ancestry holds them as essential elements 
 of her constitution, and will transmit them in all 
 their breadth and beauty to her progeny ; while 
 a bull, possessing by tarnished descent from a 
 near ancestry or merely by a cross of breeds on 
 the part of his immediate parents, holds them as 
 only secondary properties of his constitution, and 
 may propagate them in a very marred and muti- 
 lated condition. The mare of Arabia is the 
 grand object of the Bedouin's attention, and is 
 constantly and carefully maintained in a condi- 
 tion of eminent excellence ; and she, in conse- 
 quence, bears all sway in propagation, and often 
 transmits her peculiar properties in defiance of 
 antagonist ones in her mate. Still the male, by 
 nearly the unanimous verdict of both practical 
 and scientific observers, has, cceteris paribus, far 
 more influence than the female ; so that, when 
 simply equal to her in descent and in some minor 
 modifying circumstances, he at once maintains 
 his excellencies by a mightier energy, develops 
 them with a superior force, and propagates them 
 with both a fuller breadth and a higher certainty. 
 He also possesses a higher money value than the 
 female, and becomes connected with a vastly 
 larger number of offspring ; and for both these 
 reasons, as well as for the sake of his greater 
 constitutional influence, he demands the prime 
 attention of every breeder. 
 
 A farmer who commences to breed either cat- 
 tle or sheep, ought to make first a deliberate de- 
 cision as to the precise excellencies which he 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 221 
 
 BREEDING. 
 
 wishes his flock to possess, and next a very care- 
 ful selection of a male who exhibits these excel- 
 lencies in the fullest development, and in freedom 
 from accompanying defects. If he breed, at one 
 time, with the view of obtaining animals with 
 one set of properties, and at another time with 
 the view of obtaining animals with a different set 
 of properties, he is almost certain to miss the at- 
 tainment of both the sets of properties, or, at best, 
 to obtain them in a very deteriorated condition. 
 But if he decide on precise properties, and use 
 only males which purely and prominently possess 
 them, and steadily prosecute the establishment 
 of them in all his stock, he is morally and even 
 physically certain of becoming the owner of 
 flocks which shall exhibit them in perfection. 
 Yet the selected males ought not alone to pos- 
 sess the desired properties full and uncontami- 
 nated, but to be the descendants of a series of 
 progenitors who also thus possess them ; and if 
 they are themselves sires, their offspring must 
 likewise and most especially thus possess them ; 
 for, unless a counteracting power can be dis- 
 tinctly ascribed to the dams, the offspring al- 
 ready existing is, in all respects, a type of that 
 which may afterwards be produced. When a 
 breeder of cattle, as usually happens, has not a 
 sufficiently numerous flock to need more than 
 one bull, he ought to observe well what faults 
 are most prevalent among his cows, and to use 
 all circumspection that none of these faults exist 
 in the male which he selects ; for unless he use 
 these precautions, he may not only perpetuate 
 but seriously augment the defects which depre- 
 ciate his stock. When a farmer breeds upon a 
 large scale, and uses several males at once, he 
 can, with nicer aim and more certain effect, con- 
 duct the work of improvement ; and he ought 
 probably to select his males with slightly differ- 
 ent groupings of good properties, and to appro- 
 priate each male to a specific or classified num- 
 ber of females with, studied design to correct or 
 remove particular imperfections. Most breeders 
 of sheep use more than one ram ; and all who 
 make even moderate endeavours to improve their 
 flocks, assign to each ram those and only those 
 ewes whose defects are most likely to be reduced 
 by his characteristic excellencies. 
 
 Lord Spencer's rules for the selection of males, 
 though in some degree a repetition of what we 
 briefly stated on the subject of "points," are 
 well worthy of being quoted. " The first things 
 to be considered in the selection of a male ani- 
 mal are the indications by which it may be pos- 
 sible to form a judgment as to his constitution. 
 In all animals a wide chest indicates strength of 
 constitution ; and there can be no doubt that 
 this is the point of shape to which it is most ma- 
 terial for any breeder to look in the selection 
 either of a bull or a ram. In order to ascertain 
 that the chest of these animals is wide, it is not 
 sufficient to observe that they have wide bosoms ; 
 but the width which is perceived by looking at 
 
 them in the front should be continued along the 
 brisket, which ought to show great fulness in the 
 part which is just under the elbows; it is also 
 necessary that they should be what is called thick 
 through the heart. Another indication of a good 
 constitution is, that a male animal should have 
 a masculine appearance : with this view, a cer- 
 tain degree of coarseness is by no means objec- 
 tionable, but this coarseness should not be such 
 as would be likely to show itself in a castrated 
 animal, because it thus might happen that the 
 oxen or wethers produced from such a sire would 
 be coarse also, which in them would be a fault. 
 Another point to be attended to, not merely as an 
 indication of a good constitution, but as a merit 
 in itself, is, that an animal should exhibit great 
 muscular power, or rather that his muscles 
 should be large. This is an usual accompani- 
 ment of strength of constitution, but it also 
 shows that there will be a good proportionate 
 mixture of lean and fat in the meat produced 
 from the animal, the muscles being that part 
 which in meat is lean. A thick neck is, in both 
 bulls and rams, a proof of the muscles being 
 large, and there can hardly be a greater fault in 
 the shape of a male animal of either sort, than 
 his having a thin neck. I am inclined to say, 
 that in the new Leicester breed of sheep, which 
 is the breed to which I am accustomed, a ram's 
 neck cannot be too thick. Other indications of 
 muscle are more difficult to observe in sheep than 
 in cattle. In a bull there ought to be a full 
 muscle on each side of the back-bone, just be- 
 hind the top of the shoulder-blades ; he ought 
 also to have the muscles on the outside of the 
 thigh full, and extending down nearly to the 
 hough. It will seldom happen that a bull having 
 these indications will be found deficient in muscle. 
 As I am writing for the use of farmers, it is quite 
 unnecessary for me to attempt to give a descrip- 
 tion of what is considered a well-shaped bull or 
 ram ; it is also obviously impossible to express in 
 words what is meant by good handling. It is 
 sufficient to say, therefore, that no male animal 
 is fit to be used at all as a sire whose handling is 
 not good, and that the more perfect his shape is 
 the better." 
 
 The system of breeding within near degrees of 
 consanguinity, or, in farmers' language, of breed- 
 ing in-and-in, so as to perpetuate a stock of sheep 
 or cattle solely from its own bulls and rams, has 
 been the topic of much discussion, and was long 
 the subject of divided and unsettled opinion. 
 The degrees of consanguinity vary according to 
 the size and circumstances of different flocks; 
 but may, in a general view, be regarded as strictly 
 parallel to those which prohibit marriage among 
 the human species. The celebrated improver, 
 Bakewell, after bringing his Leicester sheep and 
 his long-horn cattle to perfection, always bred 
 from his own stock, and thoroughly succeeded in 
 preserving it from every appearance of degene- 
 racy. Mr. Mason of Chilton successfully pursued, 
 
BREEDING. 222 BREEDING. 
 
 for a time, the same course ; other distinguished 
 breeders have also, with various degrees of success, 
 and for periods of various length, pursued it ; a 
 considerable number of breeders of the present 
 day, particularly in England, still practise it, and 
 regard it as the best; and several naturalists 
 have appealed, for the vindication of it, to facts 
 in the economy of wild animals, and especially to 
 the instance of the exceedingly prolonged consan- 
 guineous propagation of the flock of wild cattle 
 at Chillingham Park. " Mr. Bakewell," says Mr. 
 Culley, " has not had a cross from any other breed 
 than his own for upwards of twenty years ; his 
 best stock has been bred by the nearest affinities ; 
 yet they have not decreased in size, neither are 
 they less hardy, or more liable to disorders ; but, 
 on the contrary, have kept on a progressive state 
 of improvement. But one of the most conclusive 
 arguments that crossing with different stock is 
 not necessary to secure size, hardiness, &c, is the 
 breed of wild cattle in Chillingham Park, in the 
 county of Northumberland. It is well known 
 that these cattle have been confined in this park 
 for several hundred years, without any intermix- 
 ture, and are perhaps the purest breed of cattle 
 of any in the kingdom ; and though bred from 
 the nearest affinities in every possible degree, yet 
 we find them exceedingly hardy, healthy, and 
 well formed, and their size, as well as colour, and 
 many other particulars and peculiarities, the 
 same as they were five hundered years ago." 
 Mr. Napier quotes this passage, and appears to 
 concur in it ; and Mr. Hay ward argues at much 
 length, on a diversity of grounds, and in formal 
 opposition to Sir John Sinclair, in support of the 
 doctrine which it inculcates. Yet the true law 
 of either improving or undeteriorating propaga- 
 tion, so far as we can deduce it from a vast mass 
 of conflicting observations, is that consanguine- 
 ousness of breeding, viewed apart from other 
 controlling or modifying circumstances, acts in- 
 differently in the wild state of animals, and has 
 a deteriorating tendency in the exact ratio of 
 domestication. Mr. Bakewell, by a choice selec- 
 tion of individuals, improved his breeds up to the 
 highest possible pitch, which became identical 
 with the utmost possible degree of domestica- 
 tion ; and he afterwards preserved his flocks from 
 degenerating, only by careful attention to the 
 utmost attainable proprieties of pairing, and espe- 
 cially by a constant and costly provision of the 
 fittest climate, the amplest shelter, and the rich- 
 est food. But had he either permitted his im- 
 proved breeds promiscuous intercourse, or allowed 
 them to live under the ordinary conditions of com- 
 mon pasturage on a common farm, he would proba- 
 bly have witnessed a deterioration almost as rapid 
 as the previous improvement. His breeds, too, were 
 but newly formed, — they, under his own manage- 
 ment, came for the first time into the possession 
 of the characteristic properties which constituted 
 them varieties of their species ; and they, there- 
 fore, in all or any of their tendencies to degener- 
 
 acy, were no more parallel to the long established 
 good breeds of the present day, than a hybrid 
 plant of the first generation is parallel to a hybrid 
 of the fourth or the sixth generation. But the wild 
 cattle of Chillingham Park are almost contrasts 
 rather than parallels ; for they have no properties 
 whatever of " a breed," — no qualities of a mere 
 variety, — no " points " whatever of the very nu- 
 merous and diversified class which characterize 
 the countless breeds of domestic animals, and 
 distinguish them from the untamed brutes of the 
 forest ; and, of course, they could not degenerate, 
 — they could not lose or deteriorate properties 
 which they did not possess. The acquisition of 
 such properties as constitute a changeable va- 
 riety is inseparable from domestication ; the pro- 
 duction of many and diversified groups of them 
 is what constitutes the numerousness of the va- 
 rieties of any species of domestic animals; the 
 segregating of a group of good ones, to the ex- 
 clusion of the bad, is what constitutes the art of i 
 breeding; and hence, the very proportion to 
 which high breeding is carried, becomes, at the 
 same time, both the proportion of domestication, 
 and the proportion of liability to deterioration 
 from breeding in-and-in. 
 
 Consanguinous breeding operates with full ad- 
 vantage in forming a new breed, or in developing 
 and establishing any attainable group of new 
 properties which may be desirable ; but it ought 
 to be thoroughly abandoned the moment the new 
 breed is fairly formed, and never practised for 
 the perpetuation of a breed which is well estab- 
 lished. It originated the good sheep and cattle 
 breeds of Bakewell, and the excellent cattle breed 
 of Colling; but it first degenerated and then 
 utterly destroyed the new Leicester breed of 
 cattle, and has, on multitudes of farms, impaired 
 the constitution and deteriorated the value of the 
 new Leicester sheep and the short-horned cattle. 
 After a breed is formed, the continuance of it by 
 breeding in-and-in may, indeed, produce one 
 generation or two generations of animals of ex- 
 traordinary tendency to fatness, of remarkable 
 form, and sometimes saleable at enormous prices ; 
 but it will just as certainly occasion the subse- 
 quent generations to be far more than propor- i 
 tionally degenerated in precisely the same pro- 
 perties. The bone of the in-and-in bred animal 
 becomes very small in size, condensed in texture, 
 and fine in form ; the skin becomes very thin and 
 porous, and ceases to afford any effectual pro- 
 tection against catarrh, consumption, and some 
 other diseases ; the hair of the ox becomes thin, 
 short, and smooth, and the wool of the sheep thin, 
 short, and watery ; the body becomes finely 
 rounded at its salient points, and looks as if 
 smoothly and delicately stuffed within the skin ; 
 the carcass becomes greatly reduced in size, and 
 possesses so powerful a tendency to fatten that, 
 in all ordinary circumstances, it looks as if in 
 constant condition for the shambles; the extre- 
 mities become fine and delicate, the head and the 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 223 
 
 BREEDING 
 
 feet small, the neck thin and drooping, the ears 
 thin and broad, and the head of the sheep bluish, 
 almost bare, and exceedingly subject to excoria- 
 tion by the sun and to attacks from the fly. The 
 entire animal decreases in healthiness and acti- 
 vity, acquires tendencies to disease, becomes 
 lean, dwarfish, and of a sickly appetite, and 
 eventually loses the very capacity of propagation. 
 The celebrated breeder Prinsep used strenuous, 
 and expensive efforts, but without effect, to pre- 
 vent in-and-in bred cattle from diminishing in 
 size. Sir John S. Sebright made many experi- 
 ments by breeding in-and-in with dogs, pigeons, 
 and farm-yard fowls, and found the breeds in 
 every instance to degenerate ; and a gentleman 
 tried in-and-in breeding with pigs till he found 
 the females either becoming totally barren, or pro- 
 ducing an offspring so small and delicate as to die 
 almost immediately after being born. Mr. Hay- 
 ward, who strenuously pleads for in-and-in breed- 
 ing, says respecting these instances, " It may be 
 remarked that pigeons, dogs, and fowls, from their 
 long domestication, are already as much removed 
 from a state of nature as nature will admit of; and 
 being bred and fed more to please the fancy than 
 for any defined object, it frequently happens that 
 the most desired qualities are the effect of disease 
 or distortion ; and therefore, on the principles 
 laid down, it might be expected that weak, dis- 
 eased, or defective males and females being se- 
 lected and paired, would produce those that are 
 still more so. In the case of the pigs also, an 
 effect is mistaken for a cause ; these failures 
 evidently arose from original defect, and a pecu- 
 liar selection in pairing having been carried to 
 an extreme, and not solely on the principle of 
 breeding in-and-in." We hold this to be a full 
 though extorted confession from one of the 
 sturdiest advocates of consanguineous breeding, 
 that the system, as regards all domesticated ani- 
 mals, and especially those which have become 
 divided into many varieties or breeds, is essen- 
 tially and mightily mischievous. For since de- 
 generacy actually follows, no practical man cares 
 a rush whether this be ascribed to in-and-in 
 breeding itself or to the mere accidents or ac- 
 companiments of in-and-in breeding ; and abso- 
 lutely all the properties which distinguish the 
 domesticated from the wild animals of a species, 
 may, on certain principles of abstract or scienti- 
 fic reasoning, be pronounced distortions from na- 
 ture, or diseased malformations, — and, at all 
 events, the most useful or the most agricultural 
 of them possess the same tendency to deteriorate 
 and disappear as those which address themselves 
 chiefly to the fancy, or are most confessedly " the 
 effect of disease or distortion." Every breeder, 
 then, who possesses a good stock, and wishes to 
 preserve it from degenerating, must, every second 
 or third year, introduce to it a new bull and new 
 rams, and banish from it the old. The new bull 
 and the new rams ought, as nearly as possible, to 
 be of the same variety or shade of breed as the 
 
 old, and from a pasturage and a climate strictly 
 similar ; they ought, in fact, to be quite the same 
 in all respects as the old, with the simple differ- 
 ence of possessing no relationship, or at least a 
 very distant one ; yet when the stock is not of 
 prime quality or is characterized by some ob- 
 servable defects, the new males ought, of course, 
 to possess not only all the same excellencies as 
 the flock, but also the additional ones which the 
 flock wants. The practice of crossing might, at 
 first sight, appear to be but the converse of that 
 of breeding in-and-in, but it really involves addi- 
 tional elements, and will form a fit subject for 
 separate discussion. See the article Crossing. 
 
 In order to prevent at once unsuitable pairing 
 in properties, breeding at an improper age, and 
 breeding at an unsuitable season of the year, the 
 males of a breeding stock ought to be separately 
 depastured from the females, and not permitted 
 access to the latter except by rule and upon 
 system ; and, in order to prevent the transmis- 
 sion of such half-tender habits as might not be 
 able to withstand the ordinary pasturing condi- 
 tions of a farm, the males ought not to be kept 
 under better shelter or in more luxuriant cir- 
 cumstances than the females. If a heifer be put 
 to the bull before she attain two years of age, 
 she will not have a sufficient supply of nourish- 
 ment for both herself and the fetus, so that both 
 will suffer damage in constitution ; and if she be 
 not put to the bull till after she has attained 
 three years of age, she may be in too high con- 
 dition, and will probably not become pregnant. 
 A heifer is generally in fittest condition between 
 the age of two years and that of two and a half 
 years. A bull ought never to be used at an 
 earlier age than two years, and may be all the 
 better if not used till three ; yet, when not used 
 till the latter age, he is in risk of becoming so 
 ungovernable and dangerous that he must be 
 killed. " Many contend," says Sir John Sinclair, 
 " that the offspring of a bull, if well bred, be- 
 comes generally better till he reaches seven or 
 eight years, and indeed till his constitution is 
 impaired by age. This doctrine, however, does 
 not agree with the practice of Mr. Vandergoes in 
 Holland ; nor can the question be finally decided 
 without a regular course of experiments." — The 
 proper age of the ram is not regarded as, by any 
 means, an affair of such nicety as that of the 
 bull. But an important rule, in reference to 
 every favourite ram, is to examine his progeny 
 of the preceding year, to observe their good pro- 
 perties and their defects in comparison with 
 those of their dams, and then to assign to him 
 only such ewes as are likely to avoid the defects 
 and to propagate all the good properties. — On all 
 farms, but particularly in high and exposed situ- 
 ations, breeding ought to be attended to at such 
 a season that the young may be produced when 
 the supply of suitable food is most ample, — neither 
 so early as to involve the young in the disasters 
 of insufficient feeding, nor so late as to expose 
 
BREEDING. 
 
 224 
 
 BRIDLE. 
 
 them, in too tender a condition of their body, to 
 the storms and rigours of winter. 
 
 A natural law is believed to exist, occasioning 
 an excess of males or of females in a flock, ac- 
 cording to modifying circumstances which are, 
 in a great degree, under the control of the far- 
 mer. This law is supposed to be, that, when 
 animals are in good condition, well fed, and re- 
 strained in breeding, or when, by any combina- 
 tion of circumstances, they are in the most fa- 
 vourable state for increase, they produce an ex- 
 cess of females ; and when they are in a bad 
 climate, or on stinted pasture, or have already 
 had a numerous offspring, they produce an excess 
 of males. But whatever be the precise nature 
 of the law itself, some experiments which indi- 
 cate and illustrate it are sufficiently obvious for 
 many of the purposes of practical guidance. M. 
 Charles Girou de Bugareingues proposed, in 1826, 
 to the Agricultural Society of Severac, so to deal 
 with flocks of sheep that an excess of males or of 
 females should be produced at option : he divided 
 each of two flocks which were submitted to him 
 into two equal parts, the one to produce an ex- 
 cess of males, and the other an excess of females ; 
 and he recommended that the divisions which 
 were designed for the excess of females should 
 be served by very young rams, and enjoy an 
 abundance of pasture, and that the divisions de- 
 signed for the excess of males should be served 
 by vigorous rams of four or five years of age, and 
 enjoy no more than a moderate pasturage. In 
 the first experiment, the division for excess of 
 females were served by one ram of fifteen months 
 and another of two years of age, and the two- 
 year old ewes of it produced 14 males and 26 
 females, the three -year old ewes produced 16 
 males and 29 females, the four-year old ewes pro- 
 duced 5 males and 21 females, and the ewes of 
 five years and upwards produced 18 males and 
 8 females, — thus showing a complete triumph of 
 the principle in all the ewes below five years of 
 age, to the total amount of 76 females against 35 
 males, but at the same time showing a failure or 
 rather misapplication of the principle in the case 
 of the older ewes, in the proportion of 18 males 
 to 8 females ; and the division for excess of males 
 were served by two strong rams of respectively 
 four and five years of age, and the two-year old 
 ewes of it produced 7 males and 3 females, the 
 three-year old ewes produced 15 males and 14 
 females, the four-year old ewes produced 33 males 
 and 14 females, and the ewes of five years and 
 upwards produced 25 males and 24 females, — 
 thus showing a triumph of the principle in the 
 aggregate of the division to the amount of 80 
 males against 55 females. The second experi- 
 ment is reported by M. Girou as follows: — 
 " During the summer of 1826, M. Courneuejouls 
 kept upon a very dry pasture, belonging to the 
 village of Bez, a flock of 106 ewes, of which 84 
 belonged to himself, and 22 to his shepherds. 
 
 Towards the end of October, he divided his flock 
 into two sections, of 42 heads each, the one com- 
 posed of the strongest ewes, from four to five 
 years old, — the other, of the weakest beasts un- 
 der four or above five years old. The first was 
 destined to produce a greater number of females 
 than the second. After it was marked with 
 pitch in my presence, it was taken to much bet- 
 ter pasture behind Panonse, where it was de- 
 livered to four male lambs, about six months old, 
 and of good promise. The second remained upon 
 the pasture of Bez, and was served by two strong 
 rams, more than three years old. The ewes be- 
 longing to the shepherds, which I shall consider 
 as forming a third section, and which are in gen- 
 eral stronger and better fed than those of the 
 master, because their owners are not always par- 
 ticular in preventing them from trespassing on 
 the cultivated lands, which are not enclosed, were 
 mixed with those of the second flock. The re- 
 sult was that the first section gave 15 males and 
 25 females, the second 26 males and 14 females, 
 and the third 10 males and 12 females." M. 
 Girou also made similar experiments with horses 
 and cattle, and found them issuing in similar re- 
 sults. — Napier's Treatise on Store-Farming. — Cid- 
 ley on Live Stock. — HaywaroVs Science of Agricul- 
 ture. — Prize Essays of Messrs. Boswell, Berry, 
 Christian, and Dallas in Transactions of High- 
 land Society. — Papers by Mr. Dickson and others 
 in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Paper of 
 Earl Spencer in Journal of Royal Agricultural 
 Society of England. — Communications to the Board 
 of A griculture. — The Farmer's Journal. — The 
 British Farmer s Magazine. — Sir John Sinclair's 
 Code of Agriculture. — BueVs Farmer s Instructor. 
 — Spooner on Sheep. — Youatt on the Horse. — 
 Youatt on Cattle. — Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. 
 — Stephens' 1 Booh of the Farm. 
 
 BREWERY-WASTE. The various refuse of 
 the processes of brewing, available for the pur- 
 poses of manure. Malt-dust, though often thrown 
 away in small breweries, is extensively sold from 
 large ones, and fully appreciated as a manure. 
 See the article Malt-Dust. But much of other 
 refuse of breweries, which might be easily and 
 cheaply collected, and would exert a powerfully 
 fertilizing influence upon the soil, is, in almost 
 all cases, destroyed as sheer waste. A sediment 
 separates and remains when the clear portion of 
 the boiled infusion of malt is run off; another 
 sediment, consisting of refuse or insoluble fer- 
 ment, is deposited in the vessels in which the 
 processes of fermentation are conducted; and 
 both of these are rich in nitrogen, and act with 
 the highest efficiency in decomposing the peat, 
 sawdust, dry leaves, and other strongly carbon- 
 ized materials of compost heaps. 
 
 BRIDLE. An implement of straps of leather 
 and pieces of metal, for keeping a horse in sub 
 jection and controlling his motion. The several 
 parts of a bridle are the bit or snaffle ; the head- 
 
BRIDLE. 
 
 stall, or leather from the top of the head to the 
 rings of the bit ; the fillet, over the forehead and 
 under the foretop ; the throat-band, buckling 
 from the head -band under the throat; the 
 nose-bands, going through the loops at the back 
 of the head-stall and buckled under the cheeks ; 
 and the reins attached to the rings of the bit, 
 cast over the horse's head, and held in the rider's 
 or driver's hand. 
 
 BRIDLE, or Muzzle. The terminating part 
 of a plough, or that to which the draught is ap- 
 plied. The bridle of the East Lothian plough is 
 attached to the point of the beam, and made 
 subservient to the varieties of the draught, by 
 means of two bolts. The foremost bolt is perma- 
 nent, and serves for the bridle to turn vertically 
 upon ; and the hindmost is moveable, and serves 
 by adjustment in different holes, to vary and 
 determine the earthing of the plough. — The bri- 
 dle of the Lanarkshire plough consists of a fas- 
 tening or attachment for the draught, a draught- 
 bolt, and a fork or sheers, — the last identical 
 with the end of the beam ; and the attachment 
 for the draught yields horizontal adjustment, 
 while the sheers yield a vertical adjustment. — 
 The bridles of other varieties of plough differ 
 from one another and from these, with the same 
 adaptation to peculiar structure as in these two 
 ploughs. 
 
 BRINE. The steep liquor of salted flesh or 
 salted fish. The name is frequently applied to 
 the liquid as prepared for steeping ; but it more 
 properly belongs to the liquid which remains 
 after the steeping process is completed, and even 
 to that which continues with the salted flesh and 
 salted fish after they are packed in casks or other 
 vessels. All brine, in the latter sense, is power- 
 ful manure, and ought not to be treated as waste. 
 It contains a certain degree of the same fertiliz- 
 ing elements as blood and oil, and is particularly 
 rich in common salt. The brine of herrings, 
 though indebted for very nearly all its fertilizing 
 power to the common salt which it contains, has 
 been extensively and effectively used for manure, 
 and would be much more efficacious in inland 
 districts than upon the coast. " A barrel of her- 
 rings," says Mr. Shier, " affords on an average 
 three gallons of waste brine, containing in solu- 
 tion about 12 lbs. of salt, which gives for the to- 
 tal quantity cured, gutted and ungutted (at all 
 the British fisheries, almost exclusively Scotch), 
 in 1841, 3,574 tons of salt; and, including the 
 undissolved salt found in the casks that have 
 been emptied to fill up the rest, the salt amounts 
 to 3,674 tons. Reckoning 2 cwt. a sufficient 
 dressing for an acre of grass or grain crop, this 
 quantity would dress 36,740 acres. The brine is 
 generally sold at sixpence per barrel, which gives 
 for the quantity mentioned ,£1,929. At many 
 stations, the brine is not so carefully saved as it 
 might be ; and at the beginning of the season, 
 when the fish are in the best condition, it is in 
 T. 
 
 BRINING. 
 
 greater demand than toward the close." See the 
 article Fish. 
 
 BRINIJSTG. The application of brine to grass 
 and grain crops, seeds, potatoes, or hay, in or- 
 der to prevent disease or fermentation. A solu- 
 tion of common salt and water, in the proportion 
 of a pound of salt to a gallon of water, aspersed 
 upon a grain-crop with a plasterer's brush, near- 
 ly with the same kind of action as the broadcast 
 hand-sowing of seed, is said to effect the instant 
 destruction of mildew ; and though it also dam- 
 ages some plants, it compensates that loss by the 
 ease and cheapness of its own application. A 
 solution of salt and common water, or an addi- 
 tion of salt to sea-water, so powerful as to float a 
 hen's egg, is one of several means Avhich have 
 been successfully tried for preventing smut in 
 wheat. The seed intended to be sown is poured 
 into this solution, and stirred in it ; all which 
 floats is skimmed off and rejected ; and all which 
 sinks is first drained upon a sieve, and afterwards 
 sprinkled with sittings of newly slaked lime. 
 The steeping of potatoes during four days in a 
 strong solution of common salt destroys or great- 
 ly retards their vegetative power, and causes 
 them to keep long in a condition fit for culinary 
 use ; yet they afterwards require to be washed 
 in several successive ablutions with clean water 
 in order to be freed from the salt. A better 
 method of effecting the same object is to use am- 
 moniacal water. See Ammonia. A writer in an 
 old agricultural work, the Museum Rusticum, 
 says that, by a peculiar application of salt which 
 is known in America as brining, he saved for the 
 use of his cattle a crop of hay which had been so 
 spoiled by rain as to be almost rotted in the 
 field. " When my servants were making up the 
 stack," says he, " I had it managed in the fol- 
 lowing manner : As soon as the bed of hay was 
 laid about six inches thick, I had the whole 
 sprinkled over with salt; then another bed of 
 hay was laid, which was again sprinkled in the 
 same manner ; and this method was followed till 
 all the hay was stacked. When the season came 
 for cutting this hay, and giving it to my cattle, 
 I found that, so far from refusing it, they eat it 
 with surprising appetite, always preferring it to 
 the sweetest hay that had not been in this man- 
 ner sprinkled with salt." See the article Salt. 
 
 BRISKET. A projection, partly muscular, 
 but chiefly cellular and adipose, from the ante- 
 rior and upper part of the chest of the ox. It 
 sometimes extends from 12 to 20 inches in a pro- 
 jecting direction, and nearly as much in a per- 
 pendicular or descending direction. It varies in 
 size in different breeds, and even in different in- 
 dividuals of any one breed ; but it has always a 
 comparatively great size in all the good breeds, 
 whether old or improved. It does not, as many 
 persons imagine, afford any indication of depth 
 or capaciousness of chest ; yet it is a very de- 
 cided index of a tendency to fatten. The brisket 
 P 
 
 225 
 
BROADCAST SOWING. 
 
 226 
 
 BROKEN-KNEES 
 
 of a well-formed ox is not only deep but promi- 
 nent. 
 
 BROADCAST SOWING. The sowing of either 
 fields or garden-plots by scattering or aspersion. 
 This method of sowing is contrasted to the drill- 
 method ; it was, for a very long time, the only 
 one practised ; and, till quite a recent period, it 
 was always performed by hand. The broadcast 
 sowing of fields by hand requires such nice, 
 peculiar, and yet simple dexterity, as almost to 
 defy verbal description ; but at the same time, 
 is so well known in all the rural districts of the 
 civilized countries of the world, as not to need 
 to be described. The measured step, the regular 
 manipulation, and the artificial cast of the sower 
 can be learned only by observation and practice. 
 An experienced and skilful sower regulates the 
 prescribed quantity of seed to the acre with ad- 
 mirable precision, and asperses the seed over 
 each portion of the ground with exactly equal 
 distribution ; but an inexperienced or a careless 
 sower lifts the seed in unequal handfuls, gives 
 more seed to one part of the field than to ano- 
 ther, leaves naked streaks between the asper- 
 sions of the successive casts, makes an irregular 
 play of fingers in each opening of the hand, or 
 fails to make due allowance for the disturbing 
 power of the wind upon the seed. Every step or 
 throw of a bad sower is sometimes distinctly 
 traceable at harvest in alternations of compara- 
 tively bare intervals and thickly crowded curves. 
 Irregular broadcast sowing not only offends the 
 eye and wastes the seed, but occasions the crop 
 to be unequal and deficient, and causes a most 
 mischievous distribution of the seeds of ryegrass 
 and clover which may be sown with the grain. 
 These seeds require to be scattered or sown by 
 very small pinches ; and when not equally dis- 
 tributed by a judicious twirl of the hand in 
 throwing them out, they grow up in such a man- 
 ner that a third or even upwards of a third of 
 the field is totally unprovided with any other 
 vegetation than weeds, and the " wales" or 
 crowded curves, on which the bulk of the seed 
 was thrown, are so crowded with plants as to be 
 unable to produce them in a vigorous condition. 
 Sowers in Scotland and Ireland carry the seed in 
 a sheet slung over the right shoulder ; and those 
 of some districts in England carry it in a basket, 
 hung round the neck, and held by the left arm 
 thrust through the handle. Some very expert 
 sowers sow with both hands, throwing it right 
 and left, and doing double the work of single- 
 hand sowers ; but they can hardly be expected 
 to sow as regularly with the left hand as with 
 the right, and may be supposed to occasion more 
 loss by inequality of work than gain by saving 
 of time. The broadcast sowing of clover and 
 grass-seeds, is considerably more difficult than 
 that of grain, and frequently requires to be per- 
 formed by a different arrangement, the sower 
 either making narrower casts or going twice 
 
 over the field. Broadcast sowing in gardens is 
 generally required on so very small a scale that 
 only the most lumpish bungler performs it ill. 
 
 Broadcast sowing in the fields, where not su- 
 perseded by drill sowing, is now, in some of the 
 best agricultural districts of Britain, particularly 
 in the lowlands of Scotland, performed by means 
 of broadcast sowing-machines. The earliest of 
 these machines in Scotland was first used in the 
 year 1817; and they have since been materially 
 improved in construction, so as to perform their 
 work with at once regularity, efficiency, and 
 economy. They deposit seeds with the same 
 nicety as the drill sowing-machines, and occa- 
 sion very considerable profit over the hand-sow- 
 ing method by the saving of the seed, and espe- 
 cially by the equal growth and superior quality 
 of the crop. The broadcast sowing-machine, 
 which is modelled in the museum of the High- 
 land Society, and which may be regarded as a 
 fair specimen of the several varieties in use, is 
 adapted to the sowing of all the white grains and 
 the grasses. " It is drawn by one or two horses, 
 and sows a breadth of 18 feet ; but is capable of 
 contraction to 15 feet, or less if required; and 
 can be regulated to sow from two to five bushels 
 per acre. It is mounted on three wheels, the 
 front wheel being on a swivel-bar, and one or both 
 of those behind serves to turn the distributing- 
 machinery. The principle of the distribution 
 consists in a line of small thin-toothed wheels 
 revolving within the seed-chest, each wheel be- 
 ing immediately over a distributing orifice ; and 
 through these orifices the seeds are discharged 
 by the revolution of the wheels, which are im- 
 mersed in the grain. A perfect graduation of 
 the orifices is obtained by means of a slider which 
 has an equal number of perforations coinciding 
 exactly with the orifices, when the full opening 
 is required. But the sliders are capable of ad- 
 justment to any degree of contraction of the ori- 
 fices by means of a screw ; and again, by a lever 
 the orifices can be shut entirely and reopened to 
 the same extent as before as often as may be re- 
 quired." A sowing-machine for grasses is this 
 common broadcast machine, with the addition 
 of apparatus, for the express purpose of sowing 
 down with grass seeds. A roller follows imme- 
 diately after the seed ; and the roller is followed 
 by a harrow. See the articles Sowing and Sow- 
 ing-Machines. 
 
 BROKEN-KNEES. Wounds in the knees of 
 the horse. They are of very frequent occurrence, 
 in some instances from accidents by obstruction, 
 in others from the faulty management of riders, 
 and in others from unsoundness or stumbling 
 habit in the animals themselves. Wounds in the 
 knees, when inflicted from the first or the second 
 of these causes, may involve not the slightest 
 permanent damage ; yet they are so frequently 
 an index to serious unsoundness, that, whenever 
 traces of them exist, intended purchasers ought 
 
BROKEN-WIND. 
 
 to make full and careful trial of the animal's ac- 
 tion and habit. When the wounds are inflicted, 
 they ought to be very thoroughly cleaned with a 
 sponge and warm water ; if they are deep, ex- 
 tensive, or much lacerated, they should be poul- 
 ticed twice or thrice a-day, for two or three days, 
 with a goulard poultice; and, should they be- 
 come worse, and emit a thin offensively-smelling 
 discharge, they must be cleansed with a hot de- 
 tergent lotion, and may possibly require to be 
 touched with the hot iron. But in all bad cases, 
 professional advice and treatment ought early to 
 be obtained. 
 
 BROKEN-WIND. A serious disease in the 
 lungs of horses. It presents considerable resem- 
 blance to thick-wind, and is often preceded or im- 
 mediately caused by that disease ; and thick-wind 
 and broken- wind jointly produce a gradation of 
 distressing symptoms to which horse-dealers and 
 farmers have given a series of expressive though 
 inelegant designations. See the article Thick- 
 Wixd. Some horses, when very fat, or when 
 violently worked on a full stomach, suffer inju- 
 rious pressure of the stomach upon the lungs, 
 emit grunting sounds like those of a hog, and are 
 popularly called grunters. Some, more from ob- 
 structions in the nose, than from disease in the 
 lungs, puff, blow, and violently distend their nos- 
 trils, whenever they are more than very mode- 
 rately exercised ; and these are called high-blow- 
 ers. Some, from contraction in the windpipe or 
 the larynx, whenever they are" for some time 
 smartly exercised, emit a disagreeably shrill 
 sound, and soon become greatly distressed ; and 
 these are designated whistlers. Some, when 
 suffering bronchitis, or when permanently afflict- 
 ed with thick-wind, emit, at all times, a sound 
 somewhat similar to that emitted by an asthma- 
 tic human subject, when under slight exertion; 
 and these are designated wheezers. Some, from 
 permanent disease in the lungs, when worked 
 into more than their usual rate of breathing by 
 a little labour, emit a louder and harder noise 
 than that of the wheezers, and are popularly 
 designated roarers ; and some of this latter class, 
 owing to contraction in the small passages of the 
 lungs, emit a strong shrill sound in quick breath- 
 ing, and are designated pipers. But truly bro- 
 ken-winded horses are in a far more diseased 
 condition, and exhibit much more distressing 
 symptoms, than any of these classes. 
 
 A cough of a peculiar kind precedes and accom- 
 panies broken-wind ; it usually begins in the 
 form of a common cough, yet, in many instances, 
 is not observed in its commencement or its early 
 stages; it afterwards becomes chronic, and is 
 accompanied with the symptoms of thick-wind ; 
 and it eventually assumes a short, cutted, grunt- 
 ing character, so decidedly peculiar to broken- 
 wind, that a horse-dealer is instantly apprized by 
 it alone of the existence of this disease. The 
 mere breathing of a broken-winded horse, also, is 
 
 BROKEN-WIND. 
 
 both distressing and peculiar ; and exhibits the 
 remarkable phenomenon of two acts of expelling 
 the air for every act of inhaling it. The inspi- 
 ration is both quicker and more laboured than 
 in a healthy animal ; and the expiration is pro- 
 longed, elaborate, and painful to both lungs and 
 abdomen. " In the first of the two efforts of ex- 
 piration, the usual muscles operate ; and in the 
 other, the auxiliary muscles, particularly the 
 abdominal, are put on the stretch to complete 
 the expulsion more perfectly; and that being 
 done, the flank falls, or the abdominal muscles 
 relax with a kind of jerk or spasm." A sudden 
 falling of the flanks indicates that the air is very 
 readily inhaled ; and a long continued exertion 
 of the abdominal muscles shows that it is slowly 
 and with great difficulty expelled. 
 
 The veterinary surgeons of the last century 
 appear to have generally regarded broken- wind as , 
 an undue enlargement of the lungs, and a loss of 
 their elasticity. Lawrence, in particular, taught 
 that the most common appearance of the lungs 
 in broken-winded horses, is a general thickening 
 of their substance, by which their elasticity is in 
 a great measure destroyed, and their weight spe- 
 cifically increased, at the same time that their 
 capacity for air is diminished. Gibson thought 
 that, in consequence of a hasty or injudicious 
 feeding of young horses, the growth of the lungs 
 and all the contents within the chest are so in- 
 creased as not to have space within the cavity of 
 the chest for the full play of their parts, or the 
 free performance of their functions. " A narrow 
 contracted chest, with large lungs," says another 
 writer of last century, " may sometimes naturally 
 be the cause of this disorder ; and it has been 
 observed that horses rising eight years old, are 
 as liable to this distemper as, at a certain period 
 of life, men fall into asthmas, consumptions, and 
 other chronic diseases. The reason why this j 
 disorder becomes more apparent at this age, may J 
 be, that a horse comes to his full strength and \ 
 maturity at this time; at six, he commonly j 
 finishes his growth in height ; after which, he 
 lets down his belly, and spreads, and all his parts 1 
 are grown to their full extent ; so that the pres- j 
 sure on the lungs and midriff is now more in- j 
 creased. But how little weight soever these rea- j 
 sons may have, repeated dissections have given ; 
 ocular proofs of a preternatural largeness, not 
 only of the lungs of broken-winded horses, but of 
 their heart and its bag, and also of the membrane 
 which divides the chest, as well as of the remark- j 
 able thinness of the diaphragm or midriff. This , 
 disproportion has been observed to be so great, | 
 that the heart and lungs have been almost of j 
 twice their natural size, perfectly sound, and i 
 without any ulceration whatever, or any defect 
 in the windpipe or its glands. Hence it appears j 
 that this enormous size of the lungs, and the 
 space they occupy, by hindering the free action 
 of the midriff, is the chief cause of this disorder; 
 
 227 
 
BROKEN-WIND. 
 
 and as the substance of the lungs was found 
 more fleshy than usual, they must of course have 
 lost much of their spring and tone." 
 
 But though the lungs of a broken-winded horse 
 are larger than their natural size, they appear to 
 acquire the chief feature of their disease from a 
 ruptured condition of some of their air-cells. 
 Numerous air-bladders occurred on the surface 
 of all which were examined by Mr. White ; and 
 these, he thinks, " must have arisen from a rup- 
 ture of some of the air-cells, for in that case 
 Borne part of the air which is inspired will neces- 
 sarily get into the cellular membrane of the 
 lungs, and diffuse itself until it arrives at the 
 surface, when it will raise the pleura so as to 
 form the air-bladders we observe." Mr. Youatt 
 also states that, " in almost every broken- winded 
 horse which he has examined after death, he has 
 found dilatation of some of the air-cells, and par- 
 ticularly towards the edges of the lobes. There 
 has been rupture through the parietes of some of 
 the cells, and they have evidently communicated 
 with one another, and the air could be easily 
 forced from one portion of the cells to another. 
 There was also a crepitating noise while this 
 pressure was made, as if the attenuated mem- 
 brane of some of the cells had given way. These 
 were the true broken cells ; and hence the deri- 
 vation of the name of the disease." 
 
 One cause of broken-wind is constitutional or 
 hereditary tendency to contract inflammatory 
 affections. Another cause is the particular kind 
 of organic conformation, such as narrowness of 
 chest or fragility of membrane, which offers most 
 resistance to a free expansion and a full play of 
 the lungs. Another cause, or rather introduc- 
 tion and almost begun formation, is the disease 
 of thick-wind. A fourth cause is plethora or 
 fullness of habit, occasioning an undue determi- 
 nation of blood to the lungs, an increase of the 
 secretions within the air-vessels, and perhaps the 
 production of acrimoniousness and viscidity in 
 these secretions. But a more frequent cause 
 than any, and one which reflects vast censure upon 
 owners and keepers of horses, is violent exercise 
 while the stomach is distended with water, but 
 especially with dry food. 
 
 Broken-wind might, in the great majority of 
 instances, be fully and easily prevented; but, 
 when once formed, it can never be cured. Yet, 
 in all its ordinary forms, it may be considerably 
 alleviated. When a horse appears to be in its 
 first stages, he may be moderately bled, and re- 
 ceive a laxative ball ; and at all subsequent pe- 
 riod, she should be regularly exercised, carefully 
 fed, and sedulously protected from costiveness, 
 and especially from violent exertion. He ought 
 to receive water only in small quantities, yfet so 
 often as five or six times a-day ; he must never 
 feed on such light and distentive matter as chaff" 
 or straw ; he may receive sparing quantities of corn 
 and bran ; he may eat somewhat freely any kind 
 
 BROME-GRASS. 
 
 of succulent food, particularly carrots ; he may, in 
 fine days, be turned into a paddock ; he must be 
 kept in a clean well-ventilated stable, free from 
 foul litter and ammoniacal vapours ; and he ought, 
 above all things, to have regular and long-con- 
 tinued exercise, and, at the same time, to be 
 carefully kept from all such exertion as would, for 
 even the briefest period, stimulate the action of 
 the lungs. — White's Veterinary. — Lawrence' 's En- 
 quiry into the Structure and Animal Economy of 
 the Horse. — Bartlet's Farriery. — Youatt on the 
 Horse. — Gibson on the Diseases of the Horse. 
 
 BROME-GRASS, — botanically Bromus. A 
 genus of grasses, belonging to the same tribe as 
 the poas and the glycerias, and comprising twelve 
 indigenous species, and nearly forty introduced 
 exotic species. Most of its species have a weedy 
 and uninteresting character, yet the majority of 
 the indigenous ones and two of the introduced j 
 exotic ones more or less challenge the attention 
 of farmers. 
 
 The rye-like species, B. secalinus, is an annual 
 weed of the corn fields of England. It grows to 
 the height of about two feet, and flowers from 
 June till August. The name rye-like alludes to 
 the form of the seeds. — The many-flowered spe- 
 cies, B. multiforus, grows wild in both England 
 and Scotland ; and has the same height, habits, 
 and duration as the rye-like species. Each spike- 
 let contains from ten to fifteen florets ; and hence 
 the epithet "many-flowered." The produce of 
 this species, when in flower, upon a soil of sandy 
 loam, as ascertained in the Woburn experiments, 
 is 22,460 lbs. of grass per acre, and 1,754 lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. It naturally occurs, in greatest 
 abundance, on poor or exhausted grass lands ; and 
 it forms a soft and downy herbage of a kind which 
 cattle do not relish. — The soft or downy species, 
 B. mollis, is also an indigenous annual of Great 
 Britain. It grows to the height of about two 
 feet, and flowers from June till August. It i 
 abounds principally about walls, and on the same 
 kinds of soil and land as the many-flowered spe- j 
 cies. Its leaves are soft and downy, and not 
 relished by cattle. The produce of it per acre, 
 when in flower, upon a sandy loam, is 10,890 lbs. 
 of herbage, and 510 lbs. of nutritive matter. — ! 
 The racemose, branched or smooth species, B. ra- \ 
 cemosus, grows wild in the meadows and pastures 
 of England ;. and has the same habits, height, and 
 duration as the preceding species. — The upright 
 species, B. erectus, is somewhat common on the 
 chalky pastures of England. It is a perennial 
 grass, grows to the height of about three feet, | 
 and flowers from June till August. Its produce j 
 per acre, when in flower, upon a rich sandy soil, 
 is 12,931 lbs. of herbage, and 555 lbs. of nutritive 
 matter. It has, for a considerable time, been in 
 great request, for lawns upon arid soils ; for it 
 forms as thorough a mat or sward as rye-grass, 
 and very powerfully resists the bad effects of 
 aridity. 
 
 228 
 
BRONCHITIS. 
 
 229 
 
 BROOM. 
 
 The field species, B. arvemis, is a perennial weed 
 of the corn fields of Britain, and occurs also in 
 many rich pastures and meadows. Its panicle is 
 compound, spreading, and drooping ; its spikelets 
 are lanceolate and sharp-pointed; eight imbri- 
 cated, smooth florets, with two close ribs at each 
 side, constitute each spikelet; the leaves are 
 hairy ; and the stem usually grows to the height 
 of about three feet. Its produce per acre, when 
 in flower, upon a sandy loam, is 23,821 lbs. of 
 herbage, and 1,488 lbs. of nutritive matter. Yet 
 though a comparatively unproductive grass, it 
 possesses several recommendations to the store 
 farmer: it affords a little early spring food to 
 sheep ; it does not strike deep root, or exhaust 
 the soil ; it offers a sturdy resistance to frost ; and 
 it readily, and without aid from man, propagates 
 itself from its seeds. — The tall or giant species, 
 B. giganteus, is ranked as a fescue-grass, and 
 called Festuca gigantea, in Smith and Sowerby's 
 I English Botany, and in Sinclair's Hortus Grami- 
 neus Woburnensis ; and an agricultural variety 
 ! of it, popularly termed the three-flowered, is 
 I called, in the former of these works, Festuca tri- 
 fiora. The root of this species is perennial and 
 | ligneously fibrous ; its stem is smooth, striated, 
 I round, naked, erect, and from two to four feet 
 | in height ; its leaves are enciform, dark green, 
 j and about 18 inches long ; and its panicle nods 
 I at the top, and has awns somewhat flexuose, and 
 I longer than the husks. It flowers from June till 
 | August ; yet generally ripens its seed toward the 
 close of July. It grows wild principally in woods, 
 and partially in meadows ; but it readily adapts 
 itself alike to shady and to open situations, and 
 everywhere prospers under cultivation. Though 
 a coarse grass, and containing comparatively 
 little nutriment, it is much superior to the spiked 
 and wood species of fescue. A long-leaved va- 
 riety of this species, B. g. longifolius, grows wild 
 on the sea-shores of Scotland, is usually about a 
 foot taller than either the normal plant or the 
 three-flowered variety, and presents some claims 
 upon the cultivator's attention. 
 
 The roof species, B. tectorum, is a biennial, and 
 was introduced to Britain from the continent of 
 Europe in 1776. It has a nodding panicle, and 
 usually grows to the height of about a foot. Its 
 produce per acre, on a light sandy soil, is 7,486 
 lbs. of herbage, and 350 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 — The unarmed or awnless species, B. inermis, has 
 a smooth stem and an awnless panicle. Its pro- 
 duce per acre, on a black siliceous sandy loam, is 
 12,251 lbs. of herbage, and 689 lbs. of nutritive 
 matter. 
 
 BRONCHITIS. Inflammation of the lower 
 part of the windpipe. It is a frequent and very 
 serious disease in both horses and cattle. It 
 does not appear to be ever contagious ; but it is 
 very evidently epidemic — sometimes attacking 
 flocks in the same general manner in which they 
 are, at other times, attacked by catarrh or by 
 
 inflammation in the lungs. But, in most in- 
 stances, it is preceded by catarrh, originates in a 
 downward course of the inflammatory action of 
 the disease, and may therefore be ascribed to the 
 neglect or the inefficient treatment of catarrh. 
 It very seldom has a sudden formation ; but is 
 usually preceded by a comparatively long course 
 of coughing and other premonitory symptoms 
 which afford a careful overseer ample warning to 
 use proper means for averting it. The usual 
 symptoms of bronchitis in both the horse and 
 the ox, are interrupted wheezing in respiration, 
 a variable coldness in the extremities, a harder 
 and more rapid pulse than in either catarrh or 
 the first stages of inflammation of the lungs, a 
 respiration as rapid as the pulse and sometimes 
 more rapid, a haggard and anxious look, an evi- 
 dent fear of suffocation, and an obstinate reluc- 
 tance to move. A variety of bronchitis which 
 often proves fatal to great numbers of young 
 cattle is accompanied with some remarkable 
 symptoms, and seems to be chiefly caused by 
 parasitical insects. See the article Filaria. 
 Bronchitis ends sometimes in suffocation, and 
 more frequently in incurable inflammation of the 
 lungs. The grand remedies for it are blistering 
 and bleeding; and subordinate ones are gentle 
 action on the bowels and nice adaptation of food. 
 But it is far too serious a disease to be dealt 
 with by any person but a skilful regular practi- 
 tioner. 
 
 BROOD-MARE. See Horse, Abortion, and 
 Parturition. 
 
 BROOM. Many species of branching shrubs, 
 bearing butterfly flowers and pea-like or vetch- 
 like pods, and belonging to the genera Cytisus, 
 Spartium, and Genista. A good number are na- 
 tives of Britain, or have become naturalized 
 among us from other countries ; but only four re- 
 quire to be particularly noticed in a work on 
 agriculture. 
 
 The common broom, Cytisus scoparius, former- 
 ly called Spartium scoparium, is very closely al- 
 lied to the well-known laburnum of shrubberies 
 and villa-grounds, but is strictly shrubby and 
 very profusely branched. It grows abundantly 
 as a weed in the dry commons and neglected 
 pastures of Britain; it is extensively sown on 
 hilly grounds as a shelter for game ; and on ac- 
 count of its delicate flowers, its flat hairy pods, 
 and especially its curious appearance, it is fre- 
 quently admitted into shrubberies and gardens. 
 Were it a rare exotic, instead of being an abun- 
 dant and troublesome weed, it could not fail to 
 be highly esteemed by all florists, amateur cul- 
 tivators, and landscape-gardeners. Its usual 
 height is about six feet ; its branches are angu- 
 lar, vertical, slender, very numerous, very flex- 
 ible, and coated with a delightfully green bark ; 
 the leaves of the lower part of the branches are 
 trifoliate, and those of the upper part are single ; 
 the flowers have a brilliant yellow colour, appear 
 
230 
 
 BROOM. 
 
 from April till July, stand upon short footstalks, 
 all along the sides of the last year's shoots from 
 top to bottom, and so completely adorn each 
 twig as to give the whole shrub a look of mag- 
 nificence beyond most of the flowering tribe ; 
 and its pods are compressed and hairy, and con- 
 tain kidney-shaped seeds. 
 
 The branches of this plant, as well as those of 
 other brooms, are very often cut and made into 
 sweeping-brooms ; and they are extensively em- 
 ployed also for thatch. The stringy fibres may 
 be used for making a kind of ropes, and seem to 
 have been employed by the ancients as a sub- 
 stitute for flax. The flowers yield a very large 
 amount of honey to bees. Mr. Bradley calculated 
 long ago that an acre of broom is worth six 
 pounds a year for the feeding of bees alone, and 
 will produce, in addition, a sufficient value of 
 withes and stumps to pay the rent. The green 
 twigs contain a comparatively large proportion of 
 carbonate of potash and other alkaline salts, and 
 therefore may be used to fertilize many of the 
 barren knolls on which they abound. The tops and 
 the green branches have a peculiar odour and a 
 bitter nauseous taste ; and an infusion of them 
 acts medicinally as an emetic, a diuretic, and a 
 purgative, and in certain cases of dropsy, but is 
 injurious in case of inflammation. The whole 
 plant is cultivated on some poor soils in the 
 south of France, for the manufacture of a kind 
 of coarse thread from the fibres of its bark. It 
 is cultivated in various parts of the continent, 
 also, as a winter food for sheep, and has been re- 
 commended for cultivation, on poor soils in Eng- 
 land, as food for both sheep and horses. But it 
 clearly affords far less nutritive matter than 
 other kinds of forage which might be produced 
 on the same soils ; and it has the very serious 
 disadvantage of acting powerfully on the urinary 
 organs of all animals which eat it. 
 
 But broom figures chiefly as a pernicious weed, 
 and must be regarded as one of the most trou- 
 blesome plants which infest pasture lands. It 
 strikes its roots deep into the soil, it continually 
 sucks moisture from the earth, it makes no com- 
 pensation by returning its leaves to act as man- 
 ure, and it sheds its seeds, not only in great pro- 
 fusion, but with habits of springing into growth 
 at periods so distant as six or seven years. One 
 method of destroying it, is to burn the land, to 
 plough it deep, and to manure it richly with 
 dung and ashes, or with calcareous matter and 
 urine. Another method, when the land is de- 
 signed for pasture, is to cut the broom close to 
 t the ground in May, when it is full of sap, and, 
 in consequence, to arrest its circulation, to pre- 
 vent its further formation of cambium, and to 
 occasion the starvation and death of its roots. 
 Another method is to pull up all young plants, 
 by hand-weeding, when the ground is saturated 
 with rain; yet this method is successful only 
 when the texture of the soil and other circum- 
 
 stances are decidedly favourable to the complete 
 extraction of all the radicles. Another method 
 is to fodder cattle upon broomy land ; for their 
 urine corrodes the roots of the plants, and their 
 treading of the land diminishes its adaptation to 
 both the spreading and the absorption of the 
 roots. 
 
 The rush broom or Spanish broom, Spartium 
 junceum, is a native of the South of Europe, and 
 was introduced to Britain about the middle of 
 the sixteenth century. It is a much superior 
 plant to the common broom, both as an orna- 
 mental shrub, and for the various economical 
 purposes, whether of forage or manufacture, to 
 which the common broom is applied. It usually 
 grows to the height of six feet, and may easily 
 be made to attain the height of ten. Its branches 
 taper, grow in opposites, and are covered with a 
 smooth green bark ; its leaves have a fine green 
 colour and a spear-shaped outline, but are few in 
 number; its flowers have a yellow colour, are 
 produced in loose spikes at the ends of the 
 branches, and bloom from July till September ; 
 and its pods are compressed and contain kidney- 
 shaped seeds. The fibre of the Spanish broom 
 is manufactured into a very good cloth, by the 
 inhabitants of Spain and the south of France. 
 The flax of it is prepared by boiling the twigs or 
 most vigorous shoots of the preceding year for 
 about an hour in water, or by steeping them two 
 or three weeks, according to the heat of the sea- 
 son, in a pond. The flax, after this preparation, 
 may be freely peeled or stripped off either by 
 machinery or by hand ; and it then requires only 
 to be well washed in cold water, well wrung and 
 shaken, and hung out in the open air to dry. 
 The twigs, after being stripped of the flax, and 
 boiled for some time in water, become tough and 
 beautifully white, and are an excellent material 
 for the manufacture of carpet brooms and some 
 other articles. 
 
 The dwarf English broom, or English pett/ 
 whin, Genista anglica, is an evergreen shrub, of 
 about two feet in height. It grows wild on moist 
 heathy grounds in many parts of Britain; yet 
 has many beauties to recommend it to the gar- 
 dener. Its branches are spiny ; its leaves are 
 small, simple, lanceolate, and alternate ; its flow- 
 ers have a fine yellow colour, are produced in 
 clusters at the end of the branches, and appear 
 in May and June ; and its pods are thick and 
 short. 
 
 The dyer's broom, or woodwaxen, or dyer's 
 greenweed, Genista tinctoria, grows wild in the 
 dry pastures of England and Germany. It has a 
 height of about three feet; its branches are 
 tapered and channelled ; its leaves are lanceolate 
 and alternate ; and its flowers are yellow, small, 
 and so profusely numerous as to cover nearly the 
 whole shrub, and they appear from June till 
 August. One variety of this species has a com- 
 paratively narrow leaf and upright habit, and 
 
BROOM-RAPE. 
 
 31 
 
 BRUISING CORN. 
 
 another has a broader leaf and a more spreading 
 habit. 
 
 BROOM - RAPE— botanically Orobanclie. A 
 genus of evergreen parasitical plants, constitut- 
 ing the main part of a tribe which is not far re- 
 moved in the natural botanical systems from the 
 primroses, and comprising seven British species, 
 three of which infest farm-fields, and occasion 
 trouble and loss to farmers. All the species are 
 leafless, and have brown or colourless scaly stems, 
 and grow on the roots of the plants to which 
 they are attached. 
 
 The taller species, Orobanclie elatior, grows in 
 clover fields, has a height of about 20 inches, 
 and carries a yellow flower in J uly and August. 
 The smaller species, 0. minor, grows also in clo- 
 ver fields, has a height of only six or seven 
 inches, and carries a yellowish white flower in 
 July and August. The branchy species, 0. ra- 
 mosa, grows in hemp fields, has a height of about 
 a foot, and carries a brownish purple flower in 
 August and September. The greater species, 0. 
 major, grows in waste places, has a height of 
 about twenty inches, and carries a brown flower 
 in June and July. This last species, though 
 usually growing on wastes, may be viewed as a 
 fair type of all the British species. It loves to 
 cling to the common broom, and seems to have 
 obtained from that circumstance the popular 
 name of broom-rape; and it not unfrequently, 
 in common with the taller and the minor species, 
 attaches itself to plants of cultivated clover. It 
 resembles, in its early growth, the sprouting of 
 asparagus ; its stems are furnished with a kind 
 of bractes instead of leaves ; its flowers have a 
 spiked arrangement somewhat similar to those 
 of the hyacinth ; and its seeds grow in oblong 
 capsules, but are so minute as to be scarcely dis- 
 cernible by the naked eye, — and they attach 
 themselves to the seeds of clover by a sort of 
 glutinous exudation, and are, in consequence, 
 sown with these seeds, so as to send up shoots 
 in parasitical attachment to the roots of clover. 
 Broom-rape is said to possess some medicinal 
 properties, particularly as a strong astringent. 
 
 BROWN". A dusky dark brick colour. Brown 
 horses vary in the shades of brownness, from light 
 to very dark ; but, as a class, they are reckoned 
 not so beautiful as bay or chestnut horses. Al- 
 most all have black manes and tails ; many have 
 black joints, though of a rustier and less shining 
 hue than those of the bays ; many also are light- 
 coloured about the muzzle; and most have a 
 shading off into lightness of colour towards the 
 belly. Many are coarse, yet strong and ser- 
 viceable, fit for burden, for draught, or for the 
 saddle. The most beautiful are a few which 
 happen to be finely dappled. 
 
 BROWN BENT. See Agrostis. 
 
 BROWSE. Such succulent spray and twigs 
 of shrubs and trees as are eaten by cattle. 
 
 BRUISE. An injury to an animal, occasioned 
 
 by the percussion or abrasion of some sharp or 
 heavy object. A recent bruise in a horse may be 
 cured principally by fomentations; but a very 
 severe bruise may involve considerable inflam- 
 mation, and requires poulticing, moderate bleed- 
 ing, and the administration of a laxative ball. 
 Blood may be let either from the vicinity of the 
 bruise or from the toe. If a bruise be followed 
 by abscess, and the discharge of fetid, dark-co- 
 loured, purulent matter, the horse must be in- 
 ternally supported by plentiful feeding with corn, 
 or, if possible, by some feeding with malt ; and if 
 he lose appetite, he must be drenched with good 
 water-gruel and strong infusion of malt, and re- 
 ceive once or twice a-day a cordial ball. Such 
 stimulating topical applications as camphorated 
 spirit and oil of turpentine, may also be of emi- 
 nent service. If a bruise be followed by a hard 
 callous swelling, an embrocation composed of \ oz. 
 of camphor, 1 oz. of oil of turpentine, and 1^ oz. 
 of soap liniment, should be rubbed well into the 
 part twice a-day ; and if the swelling still con- 
 tinue, a blister must be applied. The proper 
 treatment of bruises in the ox is very similar to 
 that of bruises in the horse. Bruises are not 
 common in sheep, — the wool generally serving as 
 a protection ; but when they do occur, they may 
 almost always be reduced by hot fomentations. — 
 White, Clater, Spooner. 
 
 BRUISING CORN. The trituration or me- 
 chanical preparation of grain for the feeding of 
 horses. Without disintegration, either by means 
 of trituration by machinery or mastication by the 
 teeth, or a combination of the two processes, 
 seeds taken into the stomach of animals retain 
 their vitality, resist the reducing action of the 
 gastric juice, withhold from the absorbents their 
 alimentary principles, and pass through the canals 
 of the viscera nearly in the same manner as hard 
 mineral substances which cannot be organically 
 assimilated. Some persons contend that, when 
 grain is to be employed as food for horses, it 
 ought simply to be cut or broken by the common 
 millstone or with grooved rollers; and others 
 contend that it ought to be so thoroughly bruised 
 as to suffer entire destruction of its organic 
 structure. When horses are fed partly on moist 
 food, the mere breaking of the grain may be suf- 
 ficient ; but when they are fed on hay and corn, 
 bruising by means of plain rollers seems to be far 
 preferable. When grain is completely crushed, 
 it not only escapes the risk of passing through 
 the system unchanged, as always happens with a 
 portion of such feeds of it as are given unbroken, 
 but it readily yields to the solvent power of the 
 gastric juice, and so easily surrenders itself to 
 the whole process of assimilation as to economize 
 the organic efforts of the animals in reducing it. 
 
 Machines of various kinds are used for bruis- 
 ing corn, some driven by hand, and some worked 
 by horse or steam power. Such as are driven by 
 hand have the convenience of being portable; 
 
BRUISING CORN. 
 
 232 
 
 BRUISING CORN. 
 
 but they occasion a considerable and uneconomi- 
 cal expenditure of labour. Every corn-bruising 
 machine, therefore, ought to be worked by a 
 power in connexion with the thrashing-machine, 
 or, where this is not convenient, by a single 
 horse power. A very simple kind of bruising- 
 machine for hand-power consists of only one rol- 
 ler, with the grooves running parallel to the 
 axes, and made to work against an obliquely 
 grooved plate. Other kinds have been construct- 
 ed with two rollers, the one having the grooves 
 running parallel, the other obliquely to the 
 axes. A good model hand-machine, in the Mu- 
 seum of the Highland Society, consists of a pair 
 of small cylinders, the one smooth, the other 
 obliquely channelled, and the latter revolving 
 with greater velocity than the former; and this 
 machine prepares oats partly by bruising and 
 partly by cutting, and is also well adapted for 
 bruising beans or pease, and may, for this latter 
 purpose, be advantageously applied to horse- 
 power. In all the well-working hand-power 
 bruisers, the grooves are cut in the form of saw- 
 teeth, having their distance between the cutting- 
 edges about one-fifth of an inch, the depth of the 
 grooves about one-sixteenth of an inch, and the 
 obliquity of the grooves to the plane of the axes 
 of the roller at an angle of about 10°. The grooves 
 are so arranged that, if the rollers are laid side 
 by side, the obliquity of both runs in one direc- 
 tion ; and hence their cutting-edges, as they work 
 in the machine, look in opposite directions, and 
 cross each other in every act of revolution, at an 
 angle of about 20°. On the prolonged axle of the 
 roller whose cutting-edges look downward is 
 fixed a pinion of eight teeth; on that of the 
 other roller is fixed a v/heel of twenty teeth, 
 driven by the pinion ; the cutting-edges of the 
 pinion-roller move in a descending direction, and 
 with 2| times mere speed than those of the other 
 roller ; and the grain, in passing between the two 
 sets of cutting-edges, is cut as with a series of 
 scissors, and, in consequence of the shallowness 
 of the grooves, is held so close to them that it 
 cannot escape their cutting action, A fly-wheel 
 is hung upon the axle of the first roller ; and as 
 a feeding-roller, driven by a motion from the 
 former, is placed above and between the two 
 cutting-rollers, it is usually of the same diameter 
 as these, and formed with six or eight longitu- 
 dinal semicylindrical channels, three-fourths of 
 an inch wide, and three- eighths of an inch deep ; 
 and these receive the grain from the bottom of 
 a hopper placed over the feeding-roller, and de- 
 liver it in due succession to the cutting-rollers. 
 Moveable bushes are constructed to contain one 
 of the cutting-rollers ; and these can be so shift- 
 ed and adjusted by screws as to suit the kinds 
 and quality of the grain, and the degree of fine- 
 ness to which it is to be reduced. 
 
 When grain is damp, it clogs grooved rollers, 
 and cannot be efficiently cleared away from the 
 
 grooves ; but it possesses less adherence to plain 
 rollers, and can easily be cleared away from them 
 by means of permanent scrapers. A machine 
 with plain rollers has been supposed to require 
 more labour than one with grooved rollers, and 
 hence has by some persons been thought less use- 
 ful ; but besides being of superior efficiency in 
 performing its office, it may, if properly con- 
 structed, be really worked with at least equal 
 ease. A good machine of this description may, 
 with moderate labour, be so worked by one man 
 as to prepare a boll of oats in an hour and a half. 
 The standard of a well-constructed one consists 
 of two frames of cast-iron, with bars of 2\ inches 
 in breadth and five-eighths of an inch in thick- 
 ness, and measuring all over 26 inches at bottom 
 and 19 inches at top. The frames are put to- 
 gether with malleable iron stretchers, and se- 
 cured with screw-nuts; and, when bolted to- 
 gether, they have a width of 17 inches at bottom 
 and 8 inches at top. The side-frames have at 
 bottom projecting palms, for increasing the base ; 
 and, at top, small palms or snugs for attaching 
 the roller-case to the standard. " The roller-case 
 consists of two cheek-plates, into which the en- 
 tire bushes are inserted for the axles of the rol- 
 lers ; the cheeks are held together by four bolts, 
 which also secure the ends of the case ; a pinion 
 of eight teeth is fixed upon the axle of the feed- 
 ing roller, and gives motion first to the wheel of 
 24 teeth, set upon the axle of one of the bruising- 
 rollers, which may be called the driver. The dia- 
 meter and position of the two bruising-rollers are 
 each seven inches in diameter, and seven inches 
 in length, while the feeding-roller is only four 
 inches in diameter. On the opposite ends of the 
 axles of the bruising-rollers, each roller is mounted 
 with a wheel of 16 teeth, working into each 
 other, thus making both rollers move at the same 
 velocity while the feeding-roller moves three 
 times faster. The handle or winch is fitted to 
 the pinion or feeding- roller, the fly-wheel being 
 mounted on the opposite end. The second or 
 driven roller is supported on moveable bushes, 
 and can be adjusted by the pinching-screws to 
 produce any degree of fineness required. For the 
 regulation of the feed, a plate is bolted on, and | 
 forms the top of the roller-case ; it is formed with j 
 a prismatic channel equal in length to the roller, : 
 2^ inches wide at top, and at bottom opens into 
 a slit | inch wide, parallel to the rollers. Two 
 moveable shutters are adapted to the upper part \ 
 of this opening, and are capable of being set at any j 
 distance, according to the degree of feed required ; I 
 which can be determined by the operator after a 
 few turns of the handle. The hopper, made of 
 deal, is secured in a temporary manner by means 
 of two hooks and eyes to the top of the machine ; 
 and the spout, fixed to the standard, carries the 
 bruised grain from the rollers, and delivers it 
 into a measure or basket." 
 
 The bruising machines which are driven by 
 
BUCKBEAN. 
 
 233 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 water, steam, or horse-power, are so simple in 
 construction and in mode of working as not to 
 require any lengthened description. Almost all 
 consist of plain rollers or cylinders of cast-iron, 
 accurately turned in the lathe, and varying 
 from 12 to 24 inches in length, and from 6 to 
 12 inches in diameter. A few are so awkwardly 
 and uneconomically constructed as to have a 
 length of only about six inches, and yet a diameter 
 of two, three, or even four feet. All perform 
 their work simply by their rollers being kept in 
 rapid motion, and by the corn being supplied 
 from a hopper, and bruised by passing between 
 the rollers. The velocity of the machines, when 
 they are moved by a sufficient power, may aver- 
 age about 300 feet per minute; and a pair of 
 rollers, when worked by four horses, will bruise 
 about 120 bushels per hour. 
 
 BUCKBEAN", or Bog-Bean— Menyanthes Tri- 
 foliate A beautiful, perennial, herbaceous, aqua- 
 tic plant, of the gentian tribe. It abounds in 
 marshes, turbaries, and bogs, and by the sides of 
 lakes and pools in many parts of Britain. Its 
 root is long, creeping, and jointed, and sends out 
 numerous verticillate white fibres ; its leaves are 
 alternate, petiolate, and ternate ; its leaflets are 
 obovate, thick, smooth, and of a deep green col- 
 our ; and its flower-stalk has a height of from six 
 to ten inches, and supports an oblong or con- 
 ical raceme of very beautiful, five-petalled, red- 
 dish-white flowers. The whole plant possesses 
 stomachic and astringent properties, and serves 
 as a natural medicine to sheep. The ingenious 
 author of two interesting ' Essays on Husbandry,' 
 published in 1764, says, respecting this species, 
 " Buckbean is a plant of an unsavoury taste ; and 
 sheep, when sound and in health, always avoid 
 eating it. But when the symptoms of the rot be- 
 gin to attack them, they search for it by instinct, 
 and devour it greedily. Where such sheep are 
 pastured, no buckbean is to be found ; for in a 
 week or two, they devour it all. Might it not 
 be prudent, therefore, in husbandmen who graze 
 large flocks, to cultivate an acre of these plants 
 in some morassy ground, which otherwise would 
 not yield them two shillings the acre % Some 
 might be cut up green for unsound sheep, and 
 given them with lucern, as occasion requires ; 
 and some might be made into hay and mixed 
 with their fodder." 
 
 BUCKTHORN, — Phamnits Catharticus. An 
 indigenous medicinal shrub, constituting the type 
 of a large natural order of plants called Rhamneae 
 or Rhamnaceae, and possessing some useful pro- 
 perties on the farm. It grows wild in woods and 
 hedges near brooks in England. Its berries are 
 small, round, black, four-seeded, and about the 
 size of pease ; and their juice, when combined 
 with castor-oil and syrup of poppies, seems to be 
 
 j beneficial in the disease called red- water in cattle. 
 BUCKWHEAT,— botanically Polygonum. Sev- 
 
 j eral annual and cultivated species, of the poly- 
 
 gonum genus or dock tribe. The principal spe- 
 cies is Polygonum Fagopyrum, called ble noir 
 and ble sarrazin by the French, miglio by the 
 Italians, trigo negro by the Spaniards, buchweitzen 
 by the Germans, brank by the farmers of Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, and, par excellence, buckwheat by 
 the educated classes of Great Britain. The Ger- 
 man name buckweitzen signifies beech -wheat, 
 and alludes to the resemblance which the seeds 
 of Polygonum Fagopyrum present to beech-mast ; 
 the British name buck-wheat is a corruption of 
 the German buckweitzen ; the name wheat al- 
 ludes to the similarity of the ground seeds to 
 the flour or farina of wheat ; and the French 
 name sarrazin is a corruption of the old Celtic 
 name had-razin, which signifies ' red corn.' The 
 generic botanical name Polygonum alludes to 
 the angular shape of the seeds ; and the specific 
 botanical name Fagopyrum, like the German 
 popular one, alludes to the similarity of their 
 appearance to beech-mast. The plant is so ex- 
 tensively diffused as, in spite of obviously pos- 
 sessing the properties of an exotic, to be usually 
 classed as a native of England and of many other 
 countries of Europe. It is supposed by some 
 writers to have been introduced from the Levant 
 by the crusaders, and, by others, to have been 
 brought from Africa by the Moors into Spain. 
 Its stem is strong, cylindrical, reddish, branch- 
 ing, and about two feet in height ; its leaves are 
 ivy-shaped and alternate ; its flowers have a pink 
 or reddish colour, are produced in bunches at the 
 ends of the branches, and begin to make a beau- 
 tiful appearance soon after the plant rises above 
 the ground, and continue to bloom in succession 
 throughout the months of July and August ; and 
 its seeds are black, angular, and nearly tetra- 
 hedronal, and ripen through a succession of 
 periods corresponding to the successive bloom of 
 the flowers. It is so tender in its young state 
 that the slightest spring frost completely destroys 
 it, and so far from being hardy in even its ma- 
 ture state that a night-frost in the end of Sep- 
 tember or early in October destroys the principal 
 part of a crop. Yet the grain of it, when fully 
 set, sustains not the slightest injury from frost; 
 and whole crops of the grain, in good condition, 
 have been carried off the field after every leaf of 
 the plants has perished. To compensate also for 
 its tenderness of habit, the plant grows with 
 such rapidity as to yield a full harvest of grain 
 only three months after being sown; so that 
 though it cannot be safely sown in many parts 
 of England till about the middle of June, it 
 ripens the principal or largest average of its 
 seeds in September, and is then in a state of the 
 most profitable readiness to be reaped. 
 
 The Tartarian species, Polygonum lataricum, 
 was introduced to Great Britain from Siberia 
 a little after the middle of last century. Its 
 stem is taller and more slender than that of 
 the common species ; its flowers have a whitish- 
 
BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 234 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 pink colour, and bloom throughout July and 
 August ; and its seeds are easily distinguish- 
 able from those of the common species by their 
 having toothed edges. It ripens more quickly, 
 has a hardier habit, and is less likely to suffer 
 damage from cold summers or from the incle- 
 mency of mountainous districts, than the com- 
 mon species ; and is therefore generally preferred 
 by the farmers of Switzerland, Piedmont, and 
 some other alpine countries. But its flowers 
 have an irregular and straggling order of bloom- 
 ing ; its flour is blackish and rather bitter ; and 
 its quantity of produce, in the estimation of 
 Von Thaer — though not in that of some other 
 celebrated agriculturists — is inferior to the 
 quantity yielded by the common species. The 
 Piedmontese farmers give the name of Formen- 
 tine de Savoie to P. Fagopyrum, and the name of 
 Granette or Formentine de Luzerne to P. tatari- 
 cum. — The notch - leaved species, Polygonum 
 emarginatum, was introduced to Great Britain 
 from China near the end of last century. Its 
 flowers are pink-coloured, and flourish in July and 
 August ; and its seeds are much larger than those 
 of P. Fagopyrum, and have larger and notched 
 wings. It is cultivated in Nepaul; but when 
 grown in our climate, a considerable proportion 
 of its flowers are abortive. — The cymose species, 
 Polygonum cymosum, was introduced to Great 
 Britain from Nepaul about twenty years ago. 
 Its seeds are larger, thicker •- skinned, and 
 more winged and flattened on the sides than 
 those of P. Fagopyrum.. — A species called Poly- 
 gonum odoratum, is said by Loureiro to be 
 everywhere cultivated in Cochin - China as an 
 esteemed vegetable for eating with broiled meat 
 and fish ; but this species does not seem to 
 have yet been introduced to Britain. — A new 
 species or variety is noticed in the Bulletin des 
 Sciences Agricoles of April 1831, as having been 
 sent by M. Kausler to the Agricultural Society 
 of Wurtemburg, for trial in their experimental 
 gardens. This species or variety was popularly 
 known as Le lie oVItalie sauvage, and had for 
 some years been preferred to the common buck- 
 wheat on account of suffering less damage from 
 the weather, yielding a larger produce, and af- 
 fording a whiter and better-tasted flour. Its 
 flower is smaller and more deeply coloured than 
 that of P. Fagopyrum. 
 
 Buckwheat is much better suited for warm 
 light lands than for cold heavy soils : and is no- 
 where so certain or uniform a crop as oats or 
 barley. It is exceedingly sensitive to climate, 
 suffers comparatively great damage from fickle- 
 ness and frequent changes of weather, and, un- 
 der a variable climate, such as that of most dis- 
 tricts of England, yields, under any amount of 
 circumstances of soil and culture, an exceedingly 
 variable produce. In countries which enjoy a 
 genial and steady climate, and which have a 
 poor light soil unsuitable for oats and not strong 
 enough for barley, buckwheat possesses such 
 
 surpassing value as to be capable of affording a 
 chief and regular means of support to the whole 
 population. It is, therefore, cultivated as a 
 principal crop in portions of Nepaul, Cochin- 
 China, Piedmont, the south of France, and other 
 countries of similar soil, elevation, and climate ; 
 as a secondary crop, in Switzerland, Belgium, 
 and many parts of Germany ; and either not at 
 all, or only as an occasional and very fitful crop, 
 in almost every agricultural district of Great 
 Britain and Ireland. Yet its eminent adaptation 
 to sandy and semiarid soils obtains for it a re- 
 cognised and systematic place in the complicated 
 rotations of the Netherlands, — commands high 
 attention to it in the light lands about Berlin, 
 particularly between Werneiche and Welsicken- 
 dorff, Lewenberg, Steinbeck, and Wollenberg, so 
 far as to the forest about Freyenwalde, — and 
 even occasions it to be regularly cultivated, to a 
 moderate extent, in Norfolk and Suffolk. But, 
 except in these two English counties, it has never 
 obtained much attention in Britain. Patches of 
 it which occur in other districts are usually of 
 small extent, unconnected with systematic hus- 
 bandry, and designed principally to encourage 
 pheasants and other kinds of game. Yet, as will 
 fully appear from a consideration of its culture, 
 uses, and adaptations, it might, with great ad- 
 vantage, be systematically cultivated in all the 
 drier and warmer districts of England, and would 
 probably be remunerating in even such parts of 
 Scotland as the light sea-board lands on the mu- 
 tual border of the counties of Haddington and 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Buckwheat is much more suitable for varying 
 well-established rotations, and stimulating their 
 weak-points, than for occupying a place in them 
 as one of their regular members. It is often 
 peculiarly advantageous at a point when land is 
 over-exhausted by the previous crops of a rota- 
 tion, and cannot be duly recruited with manure 
 for the succeeding crops ; and, when thus em- 
 ployed, especially in a dry and warm season, it 
 not only leaves the land in a better condition 
 than oats would leave 'it, but yields a more valu- 
 able return of produce. When any prime soil, 
 under one of the richest rotations, cannot be 
 thoroughly tilled and cleaned for the reception 
 of spring barley, it may most advantageously be 
 withheld from the intended barley, and subjected 
 to another month's cleaning and mellowing in 
 preparation for buckwheat ; for it may derive 
 from this months tillage all the benefits of a 
 summer's fallow, — and, should the season prove 
 dry and warm, it will yield a crop of buckwheat 
 nearly equal in money value to a crop of barley, 
 — and, in the following growths, it will most 
 probably produce a far larger volume of grass 
 and clover, as sown with the buckwheat, than if 
 they had been sown with barley. Buckwheat, 
 when sown properly or thinly with grass seeds, 
 has neither so suffocating an effect as barley 
 upon the young grass-plants, nor robs them so 
 
BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 235 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 mightily of the tender nourishment which they 
 need from both soil and atmosphere, but does 
 little else than afford them sufficient protection 
 from the scorching rays of the sun. Even as a 
 mere shade to fallow-land, buckwheat can per- 
 form important service. A fallow has frequently 
 been ascertained to suffer sensible deterioration 
 from naked exposure to the summer sun ; and, 
 when well managed, under the most improved 
 husbandry, it receives the benefit of some kind 
 of shade. A covering with boards, slates, or tiles 
 preserves its humid wealth ; and, when this can- 
 not be obtained, some kind of crop is raised which 
 will not rob the wheat, — and, in particular, yel- 
 low clover, folded off by sheep before wheat seed- 
 time, has been found decidedly advantageous. 
 But buckwheat, whether to be ploughed down as 
 a dressing for the wheat, or intended as a grain- 
 crop for harvesting in October, is both so exceed- 
 ingly rapid in growth, and so extremely succu- 
 lent in habit, as to be particularly suitable as a 
 shade ; and it would, at the same time, be in 
 itself a supernumerary crop, on good, clean, light, 
 land, between winter tares and winter wheat. 
 Arthur Young, in his ' Survey of Suffolk,' men- 
 tions this as a successful and strongly recom- 
 mended practice ; and Mr. Rham, in the ' Penny 
 Cyclopaedia,' observes, " By this means, the root- 
 weeds which had been smothered by the tares, 
 and ploughed up immediately after the tares 
 were off, will not have time to spring up again ; 
 the rapid growth and the shade of the buckwheat 
 effectually keep them down, and prevent the an- 
 nual weeds from going to seed ; thus, a crop is 
 obtained between the tares and the wheat, and 
 the land is kept perfectly clean." Another im- 
 portant purpose which buckwheat may serve in 
 a rotation, particularly as a preparation for the 
 first crop of turnips, is to be ploughed into the 
 ground as manure ; but this will be more appro- 
 priately noticed in a subsequent paragraph. 
 
 When buckwheat immediately precedes a grain 
 crop, and is itself harvested as a grain crop, the 
 stubble of it ought, with all possible despatch, to 
 be ploughed in ; for, in consequence of the length 
 of time during which the grain remains on the 
 ground to dry, a considerable quantity of it is 
 shed ; and if this were left unmolested till the 
 sowing of wheat or other grain, it would spring 
 up in the capacity of a rank and mischievous 
 weed. But when a ploughing is given immedi- 
 ately after the removal of the crop, all the buck- 
 wheat seedlings are in a few days above the 
 ground ; and when the manure is spread, and a 
 second ploughing is given, all these seedlings and 
 all other young growths are destroyed, leaving 
 the land quite clean for the reception of the 
 wheat. 
 
 Land intended for buckwheat is generally a 
 foul stubble, and ought, as soon as the business 
 of wheat-sowing is completed, and before the 
 commencement of severe frost, to receive a good 
 ploughing ; and, in order that it may be mellow- 
 
 ed by frost and snow, it should lie in the rough 
 ploughed state throughout the winter. But 
 every precaution must be used to prevent stag- 
 nation of surface-water ; and, in particular, care 
 should be taken to make clean and deep furrows 
 between the ridges, and, where necessary, cross 
 furrows, with proper judgment, according to the 
 situation of the land. When the important and 
 busy work of spring sowing is completed, this 
 land ought to be very thoroughly worked and 
 cleaned, its weeds and rubbish freed from all ad- 
 hering soil, and either burnt in heaps or carried 
 off the field, and its soil reduced to a condition 
 of fine porosity and powder. Both the fact that 
 buckwheat is a cleaning crop, and the fact that 
 its root strikes only about two inches into the soil 
 and yet so spreads its fibres as to fill a circle of 
 five or six inches in diameter, require that the 
 land for growing it should be subject to the most 
 searching preparation, and worked into a state of 
 the highest tilth. 
 
 Buckwheat, when intended for seed, is some- 
 times sown so early as the end of April, and, 
 when intended for ploughing in as manure, so 
 early as the end of May ; but it ought never, in 
 this country, to be sown for the former of these ob- 
 jects earlier than the beginning of June, or for the 
 latter, earlier than the beginning of July. When 
 sown before the middle of May, it is liable to be 
 wholly destroyed by frost in one night ; when so 
 sown as to bloom before midsummer, its flowers 
 are liable to be extensively blighted ; and when 
 intended for green fodder, it ought, in common 
 sense economy, to be sown so late as to come into 
 bloom in a scorching and withering J uly, when 
 the prime of the grass is gone, the vigour of ve- 
 getation is spent, and the pastures are exsiccated 
 and embrowned by heat. The seed should be 
 sown when it may have the advantage of a gentle 
 shower ; and it will appear above ground in six 
 or seven days. The quantity of seed proper for 
 an acre is strongly modified by circumstances, 
 and varies from eight to fourteen pecks. If the 
 land have sufficient moisture to induce a rapid 
 vegetation, from eight to ten pecks are enough ; 
 but if it be very dry, fourteen pecks, or even a 
 greater quantity, may be required to allow for 
 one proportion which the aridity will prevent 
 from ever vegetating, and for another which will 
 be greedily devoured by pigeons, crows, phea- 
 sants, and other birds. " In the year 1795, which 
 was uncommonly dry," says Dr. Hunter, " I sowed 
 four bushels per acre, and had reason to applaud 
 myself for this seeming prodigality." The seed 
 is sown broadcast; and, except for pulling out 
 all large weeds, and afterwards frightening away 
 birds from the ripening seeds, the crop requires 
 no care till the time of ploughing in or harvest- 
 ing. 
 
 Some interesting experiments have been made 
 by agricultural chemists upon the growth of 
 buckwheat, illustrative not only of the economy 
 of its own growth, but of some of the most im- 
 
BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 236 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 portant general laws of vegetation. M. Lassaigne 
 placed 15 grains of buckwheat in a platinum cap- 
 sule, containing some washed flowers of sulphur, 
 which he had moistened with distilled water, re- 
 cently prepared; he covered the whole with a 
 glass bell ; and, by means of a curved glass tube, 
 through a stop-cock in the upper part of the glass 
 bell, he from time to time poured a little water 
 on the sulphur. In the course of two or three 
 days, most of the seeds germinated ; and, conti- 
 nuing still to be watered, in the course of 15 days 
 they produced stems about two inches in length, 
 and clothed with numerous leaves. M. Lassaigne 
 now carefully collected the whole of the young 
 plants, and likewise all the seeds which had not 
 germinated, reduced them to ashes in a platinum 
 crucible, and subjected the ashes to analysis. 
 The ashes weighed about 3£ grains ; and 220 parts 
 of them contained 5 of silica and 190 of the phos- 
 phate of lime. M. Lassaigne next took 15 grains 
 of the same packet of seeds which he had sown, 
 reduced them to ashes, and obtained from them 
 the same results in both weight and analysis as 
 from the young plants and the ungerminated 
 portion of the sown seeds ; and he afterwards re- 
 peated the whole experiment with precisely the 
 same effect. " It clearly follows," says the re- 
 port of the experiment, " that, after their devel- 
 opment in distilled water, the young plants of 
 buckwheat did not contain a greater quantity of 
 alkaline salts than the seeds from which they 
 were raised ; whence we may conclude, with The- 
 odore de Saussure, that the alkalis and earths 
 contained in vegetables have been absorbed 
 and taken in from the soil." — In a series of ex- 
 periments made by Wiegmann and Polstorf 
 upon vetches, barley, oats, buckwheat, tobacco, 
 and clover, in respectively pure sand and a rich 
 and strong artificial soil, the buckwheat was 
 sown in the pure sand on the 8th of May, and 
 seemed to flourish better than any of the other 
 plants upon pure sand. By the end of May, it 
 had a height of 18 inches, and was considerably 
 branched ; on the 28th of June, it began to bloom; 
 till the 4th of September, it continued to bloom 
 without producing seeds ; and it certainly would 
 have blossomed still longer, but as it was losing 
 leaves, and was intended for an analysis, it was 
 drawn carefully out of the sand, washed over its 
 roots with distilled water, and dried and reduced 
 to ashes. In the artificial soil, the buckwheat 
 grew very rapidly, and attained the height of 2\ 
 feet ; it branched out so strongly as to require 
 the support of a stick ; on the 15th of June, it 
 began to blossom; on the 12th of August, the 
 greater proportion of its seeds were ripe ; and on 
 the 4th of September, though it was partly in 
 blossom and had a proportion of its seeds unripe, 
 yet on account of its losing too many of its lower 
 leaves, it was pulled up, washed, dried, and in- 
 cinerated. Twelve grains of the plants grown in 
 pure sand, yielded -225 grain of ashes, — of which 
 •086 was soluble in water, -094 was soluble in 
 
 muriatic acid, and '045 was insoluble in either 
 water or muriatic acid ; and 12'7 grains of the 
 plants grown in the artificial soil, yielded '507 
 grain of ashes — of which *148 was soluble in 
 water, *226 was soluble in muriatic acid, and 133 
 was insoluble in either water or muriatic acid. — 
 An analysis of the ashes of buckwheat straw, as 
 conducted by Vauquelin, exhibited 29"5 per cent, 
 of carbonate of potash, 3*8 of sulphate of potash, j 
 17*5 of carbonate of lime, 13*5 of carbonate of ! 
 magnesia, 16'2 of silica, 105 of alumina, and 9* 
 of moisture and loss. The comparatively large 
 proportion of carbonate of potash has suggested 
 the probable remunerativeness of burning the 
 straw of buckbean for the obtaining of this valu- 
 able salt ; but the relative amount of any or all 
 of the saline ingredients to the weight of the 
 crop, as shown by both of the two great experi- 
 ments which we have narrated, is modified, to a 
 prodigious degree, by the quality of the soil in 
 which the plant is grown. 
 
 Buckwheat, when intended for green fodder, 
 ought, as already hinted, to be sown in the first 
 week of June, in order that it may be available 
 at the most parched and needy period of summer. 
 It may also, for a succession, be sown in three 
 crops each a fortnight later than the preceding ; 
 and, in this case, it will of course be available 
 throughout a corresponding series of mowings. 
 When cut for fodder, it is most suitable when 
 about half in blossom ; and the quantity of it 
 wanted for each day, ought to be mown on the 
 preceding day, at a time when it is perfectly dry ; 
 for as cows eat it with the same avidity as clo- 
 ver, and are liable to become blown if they have 
 access to it in a thoroughly green state, it is best 
 adapted for them when it is quite dry and has 
 become a little withered. All domestic animals, 
 particularly cows, weanling calves, pigs, and 
 mares with foal, are exceedingly fond of this fod- 
 der, and appear to thrive well upon its use. " The 
 most economical management of it," says Dr. 
 Hunter, " is to put it into moveable racks, be- 
 cause if laid in heaps upon the ground, the cattle 
 will be apt to fight about it, and spoil a great 
 deal by trampling. What falls from the racks, 
 the pigs will take care of. In this manner, the 
 cows will fill themselves in the forenoon with the 
 greatest ease, and ought then to be brought home 
 to the fold-yard, where they will lie down and 
 enjoy rest during the heat of the day ; instead 
 of which, if they were in the pastures in search 
 of food, (which at that time of the year is often 
 very scanty,) they would be teased with flies and 
 other insects, be running about and heating them- 
 selves, and, instead of increasing their milk, would 
 shrink from it every day more and more. Who- 
 ever will make the experiment will certainly be 
 most agreeably surprised by the great quantity 
 of excellent rich milk his cows will produce, at a 
 time when all his neighbours, who have not been 
 so provident, will complain of the considerable 
 reduction of theirs." Yet some distinguished 
 
BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 237 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 agriculturists speak cautiously and even dispar- 
 agingly of buckwheat as green fodder, alleging 
 that it is greedily eaten by cattle and sheep only 
 when they cannot obtain a sufficiency of better 
 food, and that, when eaten in any considerable 
 quantity, it has a stupifying and even intoxicat- 
 ing effect ; and Banister says that he has seen 
 hogs, after they had fed heartily on it, thrown 
 into a state of such violent intoxication that they 
 could not walk without reeling. The plant it- 
 self, however, is so variable in chemical constitu- 
 tion according to the kind of soil on which it is 
 grown, the stage of growth at which it is cut 
 down, and the state of comparative wetness or 
 dryness, freshness or exsiccancy in which it is 
 used, that the conflicting accounts of it have 
 probably arisen from observations upon it in 
 widely different conditions ; and were it always 
 grown upon warm and well-drained land, and cut 
 and used in the manner recommended by Dr. 
 Hunter, it would perhaps, in every instance, 
 prove not only an unobjectionable but a decid- 
 edly desirable summer fodder. 
 
 When buckwheat is designed to be ploughed 
 in as a green manure, it ought to be sown toler- 
 ably thick ; and, in consequence of its very rapid 
 method of growth, it will become speedily avail- 
 able, and can be sown with minute calculation 
 of the time at which it shall be ploughed in. 
 When it arrives at the first flush of full bloom, it 
 possesses its maximum of succulency and weight, 
 and is in prime condition for its proposed use ; 
 and it ought then to be first laid flat by the 
 roller, and next turned neatly into furrows and 
 completely covered by means of a plough with 
 the addition of a skim coulter. When the plough- 
 ing is finished, the seams between the furrows 
 should be closed with a roller ; and when more 
 days than one are consumed in the ploughing, 
 the seams of the portion ploughed each day 
 ought to be closed by rolling towards the even- 
 ing. The land should now remain untouched 
 till the approach of the time for sowing the 
 wheat ; and, during the interval, the buckwheat 
 will fully ferment by the action of the sun upon 
 its own juices, and will form a much richer man- 
 ure than any belonging to a farm-yard dunghill 
 exposed to the play and wash of the rain. But 
 when the soil into which the buckwheat is 
 ploughed has a light and friable texture, it ought 
 to be consolidated by rolling, else the decaying 
 stems of the buckwheat will render it exceed- 
 ingly loose and hollow ; and when it is naturally 
 clayey and tenacious, and requires the very op- 
 posite process to consolidation, it receives much 
 benefit, and in particular is mellowed and made 
 porous by the mechanical mixture with it of the 
 buckwheat. In either case, the land was so bro- 
 ken and pulverized by the preceding operations, 
 and is now so freshened with the buckwheat man- 
 ure, that it requires no further preparation for 
 the sowing of the wheat upon it, than a single 
 harrowing to remove the few light weeds of the 
 
 1 latest growth. Instances are on record of land 
 manured in this manner producing 36 bushels of 
 wheat per acre, though it had formerly produced, 
 in the ordinary way, only 28 bushels. Mr. Bal- 
 lingal of Trenton, in Scotland, made, in 1826, an 
 experiment in ploughing in buckwheat as man- 
 ure, which, though not measured in its results, 
 proved quite satisfactory. " The buckwheat," 
 says he, " was sown at the rate of 2^ bushels or 
 little more per Scottish acre, so late as the 21st 
 day of July, and cut down and ploughed in on 
 the 16th of September. But the sowing of the 
 common wheat was protracted, for want of mois- 
 ture, until the 2d of October. The crop of wheat 
 raised from this vegetable manure was of excel- 
 lent quality, and equally bulky in straw as the 
 other crops of that grain produced by a suffi- 
 ciency of farm-yard dung. Not feeling sanguine 
 as to the success of the experiment, I had nearly 
 one half of the buckwheat driven home, and 
 mixed with straw as food for cattle, it being 
 universally predicted that the ensuing winter 
 would be one of scarcity of fodder. It may be 
 mentioned, that the cattle consumed the mixed 
 straw with avidity. The portion of ground left 
 was not measured in this first experiment, and, 
 for this reason, the produce was not exactly as- 
 certained; but the result fully warranted ano- 
 ther trial." A second experiment, accordingly, 
 was made by Mr. Ballingal in 1827 ; and, though 
 still not so accurately marked as could have been 
 wished, brought out results which very power- 
 fully recommend buckwheat manuring to Scot- 
 tish farmers. The field selected for the experi- 
 ment had a soil of dry gravelly loam, comprised 
 an area of 18 Scottish acres, and was equally 
 divided between an unmanured summer fallow 
 of buckwheat ploughed green into the soil, and 
 a fallow crop of potatoes both preceded and fol- 
 lowed by ample doses of farm-yard dung. The 
 whole cost of the buckwheat fallow up to the 
 time of sowing with winter wheat was £1 4s. 
 10^d. per acre, and the whole cost of the farm- 
 yard manure upon the potato portion was £5 10s. 
 per acre, a proportion of which, amounting in 
 value to £2, was supposed to be consumed by the 
 potato crop, having a cost of £3 10s. per acre of 
 manurial preparation for wheat, or an excess of 
 £2 5s. l^d. per acre over that of the buckwheat 
 fallow. Yet the produce of wheat from the buck- 
 wheat half of the field was 9^ bolls, while that 
 from the potato half was only 7 bolls, 3 bushels, 
 
 2 pecks ; and the weight of the former was from 
 15 stones 10 lbs. to 16 stones per 4 imperial 
 bushels, while the weight of the latter was 15 
 stones 6 lbs. per 4 imperial bushels. The value 
 of the potato crop obviously ought to be added 
 to the results of the potato-side of the field ; yet 
 this, though not stated in Mr. B.'s report, can 
 be pretty proximately calculated by any ordina- 
 rily experienced farmer. Let us, however, im- 
 press upon persons who have not paid much atten- 
 tion to agricultural chemistry, that green buck- 
 
238 
 
 BUCKWHEAT 
 
 wheat manuring for a wheat crop can be success- 
 ful only on the principle of supplying carbonace- 
 ous, saccharine, and amylaceous elements, and 
 that whenever a soil does not already contain a 
 sufficiency of alkaline and nitrogenous elements, 
 these must be supplied to it either in the form of 
 farm -yard dung or in that of some similarly 
 constituted manure. See the articles Wheat, 
 Alkalies, Ammonia, Salts, Bones, Farm-Yard- 
 Manure, Guano, and Animal Manures. 
 
 When buckwheat is raised as a grain crop, it 
 must be harvested at the time of its possessing a 
 maximum of ripe seed. Its succession of bloom- 
 ing and ripening is so long, that the first-formed 
 seeds may not be so full as the next-formed, 
 while either a large proportion of the earliest 
 must be allowed to shed, or a large proportion of 
 the latest cannot possibly come to perfection. 
 A good cultivator, therefore, will carefully ex- 
 amine his crop at different stages of its ripening 
 progress, and determine to reap it only when it 
 appears to possess the largest attainable quan- 
 tity of ripe and full seeds. Buckwheat may be 
 reaped either by pulling, by sickling, or by mow- 
 ing. Pulling is preferred by some cultivators on 
 account of its being less likely than the other 
 methods to shake out the ripe seeds ; and it is 
 recommended to be performed either early in 
 the morning or very late in the afternoon. But 
 mowing with the cradle scythe is, on the whole, 
 the most economical method ; and this lays the 
 crop as regularly down in swathes as if it were 
 laid by hand. The scythe is "put out" in the 
 mowing ; and, notwithstanding the singular ease 
 with which the succulent stems are cut, the 
 scythe requires to be swung by a tall and strong 
 man. A good workman will, with apparent ease, 
 mow four or five acres in a day. The crop may 
 either be tied up in sheaves or gathered into 
 small heaps as is often down with pease ; but in 
 either case, it must be protected from the depre- 
 dations of birds, and allowed to remain in the 
 field till it is perfectly dry. The crop, if it re- 
 tain any considerable degree of moisture, is ex- 
 ceedingly liable to subsequent fermentation in 
 the mass, and to a consequent depreciation in 
 the value of its flour ; and hence, in addition to 
 being well dried in the field, it ought to be 
 stacked with intervals of bush faggots, so as to 
 keep up a circulation of air, and to afford vent 
 to any heat which may be generated. Yet Mr. 
 Main of Chelsea says, " If put together a little 
 green or damp, it does not much signify; for 
 though ever so mouldy, the grain is never dam- 
 aged, and the more mouldy it is, the easier it is 
 thrashed." It ought to be thrashed early in 
 winter ; and it is the easiest of all barn-work for 
 the thrasher, — the slightest blow separating the 
 grain from the straw, and no care being required 
 to bind the straw or to assort it. The straw 
 makes excellent litter in the fold, and forms bet- 
 ter manure than any other kind of litter. The 
 produce of the grain has sometimes been so great 
 
 as seven quarters per acre ; but, even in favour- 
 able circumstances and upon good land, it pro- 
 bably does not average more than between three 
 and four quarters. 
 
 The flowers of buckwheat are rich in honey ; 
 and both for that reason, and on account of their 
 long succession, they form a valuable resource 
 for an apiary. The farmers and cottiers of France 
 and Germany greatly appreciate buckwheat crops 
 for their honey, and sometimes carry their bees 
 to them in the same manner as to blooming 
 heathlands. — The straw of buckwheat, gathered 
 before the grain is quite ripe, dried in the sun- 
 shine, freed from the grain, moistened in heaps, 
 left to ferment and decompose till it assumes a 
 bluish hue, and then gathered and baked into 
 sun-dried or stove-dried cakes, constitutes a good 
 and convertible blue colouring matter. " On 
 the cakes being boiled in water, the water as- 
 sumes a strong blue colour, which will not change 
 either in vinegar or sulphuric acid. It may, 
 however, be turned into red with alkali, into a 
 light black with bruised gall-nuts, and into a 
 beautiful green by evaporation. Stuffs dyed blue 
 with this solution, which is to be used in the 
 same way as vegetable matters of a similar spe- 
 cies employed in dyeing, become of a beautiful 
 and durable colour." 
 
 The grain of buckwheat is a principal ingre- 
 dient in the distillation of German gin ; it is the 
 basis of the beer of the Germans, which is said 
 to be well-flavoured, generous, and wholesome ; 
 it is largely used by the distillers of Dantzic in 
 producing the celebrated liquor which the Poles 
 call goldenwasser, and the French eau de vie de 
 Dantzic ; it is bought up from British farmers, 
 and imported in vast quantities from Holland, 
 and other countries of northern Europe, by the 
 gin-distillers of England for the manufacture of 
 their ' blue ruin ;' and it has been malted and 
 used in the brewing of British beer, but is found 
 to produce a liquor which, though palatable, is 
 unwholesome and dangerously intoxicating. A 
 writer in the Magazine of Domestic Economy 
 remarks, " The use of barley malt has been re- 
 sorted to in preference to any other, because 
 barley is supposed to contain a greater propor- 
 tion of saccharine or fermenting matter than 
 almost every other grain besides wheat, or, at all 
 events, than any other grain of a similar quality 
 and price. Now, buckwheat is most fruitful in 
 the saccharine principle, even much more so 
 than barley, than which also it can be raised at 
 considerably less expense. It is therefore cer- 
 tainly worth the while of both the maltster and 
 the distiller to give buckwheat a fair trial, should 
 it ever be sufficiently cultivated in this country 
 to afford them an opportunity of doing so ; and 
 there is no doubt that it will be so cultivated 
 when actual experiment shall have given evi- 
 dence of its eminent usefulness." 
 
 The flour of buckwheat is white and fine, and 
 serves well for cakes, pastry, and various other 
 
BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 239 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. 
 
 forms of edible preparation, though, in conse- 
 quence of a deficiency in gluten, it is not suffi- 
 ciently cohesive for making fermented bread. 
 It contains less starch than wheat-flour, and is 
 scarcely so white in colour ; yet it makes as good 
 and as nourishing bread, it is not so liable to 
 acidification on a weak or dyspeptic stomach, 
 and it possesses a delicacy and a fragrance of fla- 
 vour which are grateful to both children and 
 adults, and which render it peculiarly suitable 
 for cakes and tarts and the various articles of 
 pastry. It is used for making crumpets in Italy, 
 in Holland, and in other parts of Europe ; and 
 the crumpets of it, when eaten with butter, are 
 a favourite dainty of children. It is employed 
 with either water or milk for making hasty pud- 
 dings, which are eaten with butter or sugar. 
 It is very commonly mixed with the flour of rye 
 or of wheat, in most parts of the continent, by 
 both public and private bakers. In Saxony, in 
 Brandenburgh, and in Silesia, buckwheat forms 
 part or whole of all the three daily meals of the 
 lower class, and of at least two of the daily meals 
 of even the wealthiest classes. The dish of boiled 
 buckwheat is of the same consequence to the 
 German peasantry of these regions, as the meal 
 of boiled potatoes to the peasantry of Ireland ; 
 and various preparations of buckwheat figure 
 more prominently on the tables of the opulent 
 and the highborn, and constitute a more impor- 
 tant article of their diet, than potatoes among the 
 middle classes of Great Britain. Millions of the 
 German peasants not only thrive upon it, so as 
 to be as healthy, handsome, and vigorous a race 
 as any in Europe, but are not at all fastidious as 
 to the niceties of either its grinding or its cook- 
 ery. " The grain in its unsophisticated state, 
 after it has been thrashed and winnowed, is 
 coarsely broken in a common handmill, which is 
 generally a flat buhr-stone running on a pivot 
 within another, with a hole to admit the grain, 
 and having, near the edge, an upright iron han- 
 dle which serves to turn it. The grain being 
 broken, is boiled with the husks on, in water 
 containing a little salt, until the porridge is of a 
 very substantial thickness. The mess is then 
 served up with a lump of butter in it. Some, as 
 a luxury, mix milk with it after it is boiled. The 
 more wealthy have the grain prepared by the 
 miller, so as to free it from the husks, much in 
 the same manner as pearl barley in Scotland ; 
 but many true Silesians of the upper classes, 
 from youthful associations and tastes, like Kean's 
 love of a baked shoulder of mutton with potatoes 
 under it, or from that amor patrice which makes 
 even a blemish look beautiful, or from some other 
 cause which we leave to the sagacious to discover, 
 prefer the look and taste of the unseemly brown 
 husk, from the same cause perhaps that makes 
 the genuine Scotchman delight in the flavour of 
 burnt wool with which his barley broth is so de- 
 liriously impregnated when made of a singed 
 sheep's head. Whether husked or not, however 
 
 a dish of buckwheat, in its boiled form, makeo 
 its appearance at every Silesian gentleman's 
 table, and is always welcome to each member of 
 the family." For infants, as well as for more 
 advanced children, dressed buckwheat flour is a 
 wholesome, nourishing, and very digestible food, 
 promoting regularity and healthiness of the se- 
 cretions, keeping the intestinal system in an un- 
 obstructed condition, and imparting strength and 
 activity to the frame. It is far preferable to oat- 
 meal for the making of gruel, quite as cheap, if 
 not cheaper, and constituting superior nourish- 
 ment and a more substantial meal ; and it might, 
 with advantage, supersede oatmeal wholly in the 
 workhouses of the poor-law unions of England, 
 and partially in the cottages, farm-houses, and 
 towns of Scotland, Its great disadvantages are 
 its want of sufficient gluten for making good 
 fermented bread, and its considerable inferiority 
 to wheat flour in the properties of farina ; but 
 the former of these is compensated by its emi- 
 nent adaptation to every kind of pastry, pudding, 
 and dry bread, and the latter is compensated by 
 its comparatively great cheapness, — for a bushel 
 and a half of buckwheat will go as far in pro- 
 ducing human food as a bushel of wheat, and, 
 being more than two-thirds lower in market 
 value, it would cost its consumer in bread only 
 about half the price. 
 
 The grain of buckwheat ought never to be 
 given to horses, iov it heats them, and fills them 
 with bad humours; and, in general, it has so 
 decidedly different a shade of properties in a raw 
 state from those which it possesses in a cooked 
 state, that it seems to be deprived of some dele- 
 teriousness by the process of cooking. Yet it is 
 an excellent means of quickly and very economi- 
 cally fattening pigs, turkeys, and all kinds of 
 poultry. When given to pigs, it ought to be 
 broken in a mill to prevent its passing undi- 
 gested [see the article Bruising-Corn]; and it 
 ought also to be given at first in very small 
 quantities, mixed with oats or some other kind 
 of corn, and afterwards slowly increased in quan- 
 tity till it becomes the chief food. Some persons 
 recommend, indeed, that it never be given in 
 larger proportion than one-third of the whole 
 mixture of grains ; and all agree that if incau- 
 tiously given in large or even moderate doses at 
 the first, it will violently stimulate the pigs, 
 making them tumble, squeak, rise against walls, 
 roll in the mud, and otherwise behave as if ex- 
 cessively intoxicated. When these symptoms 
 are produced through incautious commencement 
 of the buckwheat, they will disappear in the 
 course of three or four days ; yet they incur some 
 risk of being followed by the animals' loss of con- 
 dition. But when buckwheat is properly used, 
 it fattens hogs in less time than any other known 
 food, and occasions their flesh to be peculiarly 
 succulent and delicate ; yet, during the last eight 
 or ten days, it requires to be accompanied with 
 ground pease in the proportion of two to one, in 
 
BULL. 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 order to give proper firmness to the fat. — The 
 grain of buckwheat is likewise admirable for fat- 
 tening poultry and pigeons ; yet, in this case also 
 it ought, during the last few days, to be accom- 
 panied or even substituted by barley. Fowls and 
 turkeys, when fattened with buckwheat, have an 
 eminently delicious flavour; and the poultry, 
 particularly the turkeys of Norfolk, very probably 
 owe to their feeding upon it all the excellence 
 which occasions them to be preferred in the mar- 
 kets of London to those of every other part of 
 England. Pheasants are so fond of buckwheat 
 that they travel miles in search of it ; and, if 
 one or two waggon-loads of it, unthrashed, be 
 laid in small heaps in different parts of the covers 
 of a preserve, all the pheasants of the immedi- 
 ately circumjacent district will be attracted thi- 
 ther as their resort. — Lawson's Agriculturist's 
 Manual. — Bulletin des Sciences Agricoles. — Ren- 
 nie's Field Naturalist's Magazine. — Literary Ga- 
 zette. — Magazine of Domestic Economy. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — Loudon s Hortus Britan- 
 nicus. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — Young's 
 Farmer's Calendar. — Liebig's Chemistry of Agri- 
 culture. — Catalogue of the Highland Society's Mu- 
 seum. — Low's Elements of Practical Agriculture. 
 — British Husbandry. — Doyle's Practical Hus- 
 bandry. — -Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. — Rham's 
 Dictionary of the Farm. — Mill's Husbandry. — 
 Duhamel's Elements of Agriculture. 
 
 BUILDINGS. See Farm-Buildings. 
 
 BUISTING. See Branding. 
 
 BULL. The full-grown male of the ox species. 
 A young male of this species, while sucking, is 
 called a bull-calf ; from one year to two years of 
 age, a stirk or a yearling bull ; from two to six 
 years of age, respectively a three-year-old, a four- 
 year-old, a five-year-old, and a six-year-old bull ; 
 and after six years of age, an old bull. A cas- 
 trated male is called, after the first year, a stot- 
 calf or stirk-stot, and then a steer ; and at four 
 years of age, he is called a bullock. 
 
 A bull serves chiefly for the propagation of his 
 species ; and though he may be subjected to the 
 yoke, yet he cannot be depended on for working 
 quietly, and may, at times, do enormous mis- 
 chief by the self-willed and even furious use of 
 his prodigious strength. He is naturally stubborn, 
 intractable, and fierce ; and, during the bulling 
 season, he is absolutely uncontrollable, and often 
 ferocious and truculent. A herd of bulls would 
 give utter defiance to all skill of man to tame or 
 manage them ; and even a single bull is not un- 
 frequently an object of just terror to a farm or a 
 district. But the male of the ox species appears 
 to possess all his obstinacy and fierceness in 
 strict connexion with the peculiar impulses of 
 his sex ; and when he is castrated at an early age, 
 he, without any damage to his constitution or 
 deterioration of his strength, becomes compara- 
 tively tractable, patient, docile, and mild, and 
 acquires increasing weight, bulk, unwieldiness, 
 
 and adaptation to the labours of coarse farm 
 draught. See the articles Ox and Cattle. 
 
 BULLEN. Hemp-stalks freed from the bark. 
 
 BULLIMONG. A mixed crop of oats, pease, 
 and vetches. Old Tusser, in his ' Five Hundred 
 Points of Good Husbandry,' says, 
 
 " Where water all winter annoyeth too much, 
 Bestow not thy wheat upon land that is such; 
 But rather sow oats or else bullimong there, 
 Grey peasal, or runcivals, fetches, or tare." 
 
 A recorded settlement of accounts between the 
 Rev. John Meadows and one of his tenants in 
 1661, says, "Snorter's hay and corne this yeare 
 was all paid in kinde. All that he ought me be- 
 fore was six pounds, of which I have received 
 three combe, two bushels, and one pecke of bulli- 
 mong, and all the hay that now lies in the old 
 barne." 
 
 BULLING. The pairing of the cow with the 
 bull. See the article Breeding. 
 
 BULLOCK. See Bull, Ox, and Cattle. 
 
 BUNI AS. A small genus of herbaceous plants, 
 of the cruciferous family. The oriental species, 
 Bunias orientalis, is a native of the Levant, and 
 was introduced thence to Britain in the former 
 part of last century. It is a hardy perennial, 
 and has challenged attention as a forage agricul- 
 tural plant. It usually grows to the height of 
 about twenty inches ; its branches, leaves, and 
 general habits of herbage are somewhat similar 
 to those of the wild succory ; and its flowers are 
 yellow, and appear from May till July. It was 
 tested as an agricultural plant, and compared 
 with other herbage plants, in the Woburn exper- 
 iments ; and was found to be well adapted for 
 mowing, to be less productive than succory, and I 
 to contain, bulk for bulk, the same proportion of 
 nutritive matter as red clover. 
 
 BUNT. See Smut. 
 
 BURNBAKING,orBuRNBEATiNG. See Paring 
 and Burning. 
 
 BURNET, — botanically Poterium Sanguisorba. 
 An indigenous, economical, evergreen, herbaceous 
 plant belonging to the same tribe as the rose. 
 It constitutes a large portion of the natural her- 
 bage of the South Downs, and grows wild on ! 
 other chalky hills of England ; it, at the same | 
 time, possesses considerable importance in culti- 
 vation as both a salad and a forage plant ; and it 
 takes the botanical name poterium or ' cup ' from 
 the circumstance of its being used in cool tan- 
 kards or cooling drinks. Its stem is angular, 
 smooth, and leafy, and usually attains a height 
 of about two feet ; its leaves are smooth, pinnate, 
 and glaucous-green ; and its flowers are green, 
 and appear in July, — some of them barren, and 
 having elegant crimson stamens somewhat like 
 silk tassels. 
 
 The leaves of this plant are used in Britain as 
 both a winter and a spring salad, and as a small 
 culinary herb ; and it is in very high esteem as a 
 
BURNET. 
 
 211 
 
 BURNT- EARTH. 
 
 salad among the French and the Italians, — so 
 high indeed among the latter, that an Italian 
 proverb affirms it to be essential to every good 
 salad. It tastes and smells like cucumbers, and 
 is therefore used to flavour other salads; and 
 produces slightly cheering and even exhilarating 
 effects. It naturally delights in calcareous soil, 
 yet thrives in either sandy ground or fine gravel ; 
 and it requires, Avithin the garden, to be culti- 
 vated in some kind of decidedly light, and, if 
 possible, calcareous soil, both poor and dry. A 
 small bed of it is sufficient for a family ; and this 
 ought to be selected in some exposed spot ; and, 
 if naturally loamy or otherwise rich, it ought to 
 be largely impoverished with an intermixture of 
 chalk, bricklayer's rubbish, or sand and gravel. 
 
 Common burnet, as a forage plant, was at one 
 time extolled as of wondrous value, but has 
 proved, from manifold experiment and prolonged 
 trial, to be of but limited and comparatively 
 small importance. It was brought into notice 
 as an agricultural plant, about the middle of last 
 century, by Mr. Rocque of Walham-Green ; and 
 it made the same kind of sensation among the 
 agriculturists of England, which the florin of Dr. 
 : Richardson made at a later period among the 
 agriculturists of Ireland. Even in one of the 
 best known works of the justly celebrated Arthur 
 Young, published so late as the year 1804, so 
 singularly laudatory a passage respecting it as 
 the following occurs : — " Burnet, I am fully per- 
 suaded, will prove a very great acquisition to 
 husbandry on many accounts, but more particu- 
 larly for the following reasons. Burnet is a good 
 winter pasture ; consequently it will be of great 
 service to the farmer, as a constant crop he may 
 depend upon, and that without ' any expense for 
 seed or tillage, after the first sowing. It affords 
 both corn and hay. Burnet seed is said to be as 
 good as oats for horses. I know they will eat it 
 very well ; judge then the value of an acre of 
 land which gives you at two mowings ten quar- 
 ters of corn and three loads of hay. The seed 
 indeed is too valuable to be put to that use at 
 present ; though it multiplies so fast, that I doubt 
 not but in a few years the horses will be fed with 
 it. It will bear pasturing with sheep. It makes 
 good butter. It never blows or hoves cattle. 
 It will flourish upon poor, light, sandy, stony, 
 shattery, or chalky land. Burnet, after the first 
 year, will weed itself, and be kept clean at little 
 or no expense. The cultivation of burnet is 
 neither hazardous nor expensive ; if the land be 
 prepared, as is generally done for a crop of tur- 
 nips, there is no danger of any miscarriage, and 
 any person may be supplied with the best seed 
 at 6d. per pound." But the only truly valuable 
 properties of burnet as an agricultural plant are 
 its adaptation to very poor soils, its sturdy re- 
 sistance of the severest frosts of winter, and its 
 yielding early spring herbage to stock. Both in 
 weight of produce and in proportion of nutritive 
 
 matter, it is much inferior to the clovers and to 
 other leguminous herbage plants. When made 
 into hay, and when unmixed with other herbage, 
 it is coarse and unpalatable. Even in its succu- 
 lent or growing state, if uncombined with grasses 
 or clovers, it is rejected by all animals except 
 when they are voracious with hunger. It is 
 much and profitably grown by stock farmers, 
 particularly by upland sheep farmers, as an im- 
 portant element of food in the scarce and pinch- 
 ing season of early spring; it enjoys a just re- 
 putation as the very best adapted of all known 
 forage plants for maintaining a winter verdure, 
 and resisting the severest frosts in bleak and ex- 
 posed situations ; and when grown mixedly with 
 the grasses of hill pastures, it is always eaten 
 close to the ground by sheep and cattle, and is 
 believed to exert upon them the influences of a 
 tonic and an aromatic. When intended for hay 
 on low grounds, or for summer pasture on up- 
 lands, it ought to be mixed with some of the 
 grasses or with white clover; and, when grown 
 on very poor chalky soils as the most profitable 
 herbage likely to be supported by their semi- 
 sterility, it ought to be combined with Echinoch- 
 loa crus-galli and small quantities of Schedonorus 
 pratemis and perennial fescue. About three 
 pecks of burnet and one bushel of Echinochloa 
 crus-galli are suitable for an acre ; and the pro- 
 per time of sowing is April. Mr. Young recom- 
 mends that about a bushel of burnet per acre 
 should be sown in April, with either barley or 
 oats, and covered at two harro wings ; and he 
 teaches also that it may be sown with buckwheat 
 in May. — Srnith. — M iller. — Loudon. — Mawe. — 
 MilVs Husbandry. — Young's Fanner's Calendar. 
 — Lowe's Agriculture. — Doyle's Husbandry. — 
 British Husbandry. — Society of Gentlemen 's Com- 
 'plete Farmer. 
 
 BURNING OF HEATH. See Heath. 
 
 BURNING OF LAND. See Paring and 
 Burning. 
 
 BURNING OF LIME. See Lime. 
 
 BURNS. Excoriations and inflamed wounds 
 inflicted upon animals by fire. They should be 
 frequently and very gently washed with a mix- 
 ture of equal parts of lime-water and linseed oil. 
 
 BURNT-CLAY. See Ashes and Burnt-Earth. 
 
 BURNT-EAR. See Brand and Smut. 
 
 BURNT-EARTH. Calcined and incinerated 
 coarse soil. It is frequently confounded with 
 burnt clay ; but may, in every case, be readily 
 distinguished by its containing the ashes of ve- 
 getable matter. The burning of clay is mere 
 calcination ; while the burning of earth, in the 
 technical sense of the phrase, is both calcination 
 and incineration. See the article Paring and 
 Burning. When burnt earth is applied as a man- 
 ure, and made the subject of valuation, it is al- 
 lowed for according to the quality of the consti- 
 tutional ingredients, the mode of burning, and 
 the cost of labour and fuel ; but, in a general or 
 Q 
 
average view, " full tillage is allowed when ap- 
 plied on fallow or turnips, and if valued before 
 producing a crop, — and half tillage after one 
 corn crop, — and after two crops, the valuation 
 ceases " — Bayldon on Rents and Tillages. 
 
 BUSH. A shrub, or a mass of shrubby plants, 
 or a thicket ; also the box of the nave of a wheel. 
 
 BUSH -DRAINING. A kind of draining in 
 which the drains are filled with bushes. See 
 Draining. 
 
 BUSHEL. A measure of capacity for grain, 
 pulse, fruit, and many other kinds of dry goods ; 
 and particularly the ruling or basis measure of 
 all corn. The standard or legal bushel in Eng- 
 land, from the time of Henry VII. till the year 
 1826, was the Winchester bushel ; and, by act of 
 parliament, passed in 1697, a Winchester bushel 
 was required to be a round vessel, with a plain 
 and even bottom, 8 inches in depth and 18^ 
 inches in diameter, and, in consequence to have 
 a capacity of 2150'42 cubic inches. This bushel, 
 like the imperial one now in use, contains four 
 pecks or eight gallons, and is the eighth part of 
 a quarter, or fortieth part of a load. 
 
 But besides the Winchester or legal bushel, 
 several bushels of different dimensions were in 
 use within certain districts, and still occasion- 
 ally make a figure in the statistics of dry mea- 
 sure. The Abingdon and Andover bushel for 
 all corn and pulse contains 9 gallons ; the Pen- 
 rith and Appleby bushel for wheat, rye, and 
 pease, contains 16 gallons; the Penrith and 
 Appleby bushel for oats, barley, bere malt, 
 and mixed malt, contains 20 gallons ; the Car- 
 lisle bushel for all grain and pulse contains 
 24 gallons ; the Chester bushel for wheat, rye, 
 and some other produce, contains 32 gallons ; the 
 Chester bushel for oats contains 40 gallons ; the 
 Dorchester bushel for oats and malt contains 10 
 gallons ; the Kingston-upon-Thames bushel con- 
 tains 8^ gallons ; the Reading and Wycombe 
 bushel contains 8| gallons ; the Stamford bushel 
 contains 16 gallons; and the Falmouth bushel 
 contains, for different articles, variously 16, 20, 
 and 21 gallons. The legal coal bushel, appointed 
 by statute of 13 and 14 William III., cap. 5, to 
 be used in London, Westminster, and every place 
 within ten miles of these cities, and generally 
 used throughout England previous to 1826, con- 
 tained one Winchester bushel and one quart of 
 water, or 2217*62 cubic inches, and was made 
 round, with an even bottom, and 19^ inches in 
 diameter ; and, as it was ordained to be heaped 
 up in the form of a cone, 6 inches above the 
 brim, it gave a space for the coals of 2814 - 9 cu- 
 bic inches. An act of Henry VII. required each 
 of the eight gallons of the legal or Winchester 
 bushel of wheat to weigh 8 pounds troy, the 
 pound weighing 12 ounces, the ounce 20 ster- 
 lings, and the sterling 32 grains. 
 
 The act of Weights and Measures, 5 George 
 IV., cap. 74, declared the imperial gallon to be 
 
 the standard measure of capacity, and appointed 
 the level bushel of eight imperial gallons to be 
 the ruling measure of corn and similar articles, 
 and the bushel of eight imperial gallons, heaped 
 up in the form of a cone to the height above the 
 rim of at least three-fourths of its depth, to be 
 the ruling measure of coals, culm, lime, potatoes, 
 fruit, fish; and all other dry goods usually sold 
 by heaped measure. But by act 4 and 5 William 
 IV., cap. 49, which came into practice on the 1st 
 of January 1835, the heaped bushel was abol- 
 ished. The standard imperial gallon contains 10 
 avoirdupois pounds of distilled water, weighed 
 in common air of 62° Fahrenheit, the barometer 
 standing at 30 ; or it contains 277'274 or a mi- 
 nute fraction more than 277j cubic inches. The 
 imperial bushel, therefore, contains 80 lbs. of 
 distilled water, or 2218-192 cubic inches; and is 
 to the old legal or Winchester bushel as 1 to 
 •969447. A general table of the subdivisions and 
 multiples of this bushel may be stated thus : — 
 
 4 gills = 1 pint, containing 34f cubic inches. 
 
 2 pints = 1 quart, — 69£ — — 
 
 4 quarts = 1 gallon, — 277£ — — 
 
 2 gallons = 1 peck, — 554f — — 
 
 4 pecks = l.bushel, — 2218£ — — 
 8 bushels = 1 quarter, — 10^ cubic feet. 
 
 5 quarters = 1 load, — 51£ — — 
 
 One imperial bushel of fine wheat will weigh 
 63 lbs.; but inferior sorts will not exceed 53 lbs. 
 The average weight is rated at 60 lbs. Five 
 such bushels make a sack = 300 lbs. ; Eight such 
 a quarter = 480 lbs.; Forty such, or 5 quarters = 
 2400 lbs. = l^cpou ton - Fine oats will weigh 42 
 lbs., ordinary, only 36 lbs. per imperial bushel. 
 Fine barley weighs 56 lbs. ; good 52 lbs.; and or- 
 dinary, 48 lbs. per imperial bushel. A bushel of 
 American Indian corn weighs 56 lbs. ; and five 
 such, or 280 lbs. form a sack ; but the average 
 weight of European Indian corn is 60 lbs. per 
 imperial bushel. 
 
 " Merchants," says Mr. Stephens, " know the 
 weight of grain by its appearance and feel, and 
 therefore, by trying the weight of a 4-bushel sack, 
 they can easily ascertain whether the grain is in 
 as clean a state throughout the whole bag as at 
 its mouth. But the introduction of the weight 
 has given rise to a species of deceitful dealing as 
 regards the public. The purchaser offers a cer- 
 tain price for every so many pounds weight of 
 the grain without direct reference to the con- 
 tents of the bushel ; and some farmers are in- 
 duced to sell on this plan, in the vain hope of 
 being able to boast that they have sold their 
 grain at such a price, wishing it to be believed 
 that the price applies to the true quarter, when 
 in fact it is given for so many pounds weight ; 
 and to deliver the number of pounds for the 
 specified sum, the bushel is heaped. This is piti- 
 ful work. The fair and common practice is to 
 ask such a price for the grain per quarter, stat- 
 ing its weight by the bushel; and of course, the 
 
BUSH-HARROW. 
 
 243 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 heavier the grain, and better the quality, the 
 purchaser will give the higher price for it." 
 
 BUSH -HARROW. A frame of wood inter- 
 woven with cut shrubs or with the croppings and 
 smaller branches of trees, and used for softly and 
 sparsely harrowing grass lands. The frame con- 
 sists of two end pieces and three or more cross- 
 bars; and the interwoven bushy matter is of 
 such a kind as to present to the ground a dense, 
 rough, and brushy surface. The bush-harrow is, 
 in many instances, moved upon two wheels, about 
 a foot in diameter, and attached to the extremity ; 
 but, in other instances, it is dragged along as an 
 unassisted, horizontal mass. A frequent substi- 
 tute is a common heavy harrow, with strong and 
 pliant branches of trees or some hedge-row thorns 
 woven through its open squares ; and another 
 and vastly better substitute is an upright series 
 of branches in a frame in the front of the car- 
 riage of a common roller. The prime uses of the 
 bush-harrow are to spread manurial top-dressings 
 sparsely and equally upon grass-lands, or, after 
 the removal of the cattle for the season from pas- 
 ture-fields, to make an equal distribution of the 
 mossy matter, the worm-casts, and the mimic 
 heaps of mould which exist upon the surface ; 
 and, in either case, it ought, in most instances, 
 to be followed by rolling, in order that the land 
 may be laid smooth for mowing, that spongy and 
 porous soils may be somewhat consolidated, and 
 that a firmer and hardier bottom may be given 
 to the sward. Now when a series of upright 
 branches in a frame in front of the roller is used 
 as a substitute for a bush-harrow, the whole pro- 
 cess is performed by one horse and one driver, 
 while the use of the harrow and the roller as 
 separate implements requires two horses and two 
 drivers; and when the upright branches are 
 somewhat worn, they can be moved farther down 
 so as to continue in a regular manner the sweep- 
 ing action upon the ground, while the horizontal 
 bushy surface of either the formal bush-harrow 
 or the common heavy- harrow substitute, soon 
 becomes flat and smoothened so as to lose its 
 power of spreading the earth. But some imple- 
 ments are expressly constructed by the machine- 
 maker to perform the work of the bush-harrow. 
 See the article Harrow. 
 
 BUSH-YETCH, — botanically Yicia septum. A 
 forage plant, of the vetch kind. Its root is per- 
 ennial, fibrous, and ramified ; its stems are nu- 
 merous, — some growing erect from the crown of 
 the root, and some rising at various distances, 
 from decurrent or ramose members of the root ; 
 its leaves are small and oval, and sit upon mid- 
 ribs, each of which terminates in a tendril ; its 
 flowers are reddish-purple in colour, have the 
 same kind of papilionaceous form as those of the 
 common vetch, and appear in the middle of 
 May ; its pods have a black colour when ripe, 
 and are flatter and much shorter than those of 
 the common vetch, yet larger in proportion to 
 
 their length ; and some of its seeds are speckled, 
 some have a clayey colour, and all are smaller 
 than those of the ordinary vetches. " Being a pe- 
 rennial," says Mr. Sweyne, " it should seem to be 
 a very proper kind to intermix with grass seeds 
 for laying down lands intended for pasture ; 
 and that it is as justly entitled to this epithet as 
 any herbaceous plant whatever, I think I may 
 be allowed to affirm, having observed a patch of 
 it growing in one particular spot of my orchard 
 for these fourteen or fifteen years past. It is 
 not only a perennial but an evergreen ; it shoots 
 the earliest in the spring of any plant eaten by 
 cattle with which I am acquainted, vegetates 
 late in autumn, and continues green through 
 the winter, though the weather be very severe ; 
 add to this, that cattle are remarkably fond of it. 
 The pods, however, do not ripen altogether ; but 
 as soon almost as they are ripe they burst with 
 great elasticity, and scatter the seeds around ; 
 and after you have procured the seeds, scarce 
 one-third part of them will vegetate, owing to 
 an internal defect, occasioned by certain insects 
 making them the nests and food for their 
 young." This plant, when grown upon brown 
 sandy loam, yields per acre 17,696 lbs. of green 
 produce, and 976 lbs. of nutritive matter. It is 
 not suited for clayey lands, but retains long and 
 steady possession of other kinds of soils. A mow- 
 ing of it may sometimes be obtained so early as 
 the beginning of March ; and three or four mow- 
 ings of it may usually be obtained in the course 
 of a year. 
 
 BUTTER. A fat unctuous substance, usually 
 prepared from the cream of cow's milk by agita- 
 tion. It is of a yellow colour, possesses the pro- 
 perties of an oil, and readily mixes with other 
 oily bodies. The process by which it is obtained 
 from cream, is that sort of agitation called churn- 
 ing, well known to everybody. When pure, it is 
 soft and concrete, and of an agreeable sweet 
 taste. It melts at the temperature of 96°, and 
 becomes transparent ; but if it be kept for some 
 time in this state, a portion of curd and water, 
 or whey, is disengaged, and it assumes exactly 
 the appearance of oil. It has now, however, lost 
 almost all its peculiar flavour. 
 
 The word butter is no doubt derived from the 
 Latin butyrum; and that from the Greek. Hippo- 
 crates is the first Greek author who mentions butter. 
 Speaking of the Scythians, he says, " They pour the 
 milk of their mares into wooden vessels and shake 
 it violently; this causes it to foam, and the fat part, 
 which is light, rising to the surface, becomes what 
 they call butter." Herodotus also, who was cotem- 
 porary with him from the year b. c. 459 to b. c. 413, 
 particularly describes the process of making butter 
 among the Scythians. This affords a presumption 
 that the article was not then known among the 
 Greeks, and that they acquired the knowledge of it 
 from the Scythians. Some have imagined that they 
 found butter mentioned in the writings of Moses, 
 the book of Job, and other parts of the most ancient 
 sacred Scriptures. According to our translation, 
 Abraham is said, Gen. xviii. 8. to have taken butter 
 
BUTTER. 244 BUTTER. 
 
 and milk, and the calf that had been dressed, to set 
 before the august strangers who visited him. And 
 in the well-known song, or historical ode of Moses, 
 which he recited in the hearing of the Israelites, a 
 short time before his death, (Deut. xxxii. 14.) we 
 have the words "butter of kine." Butter is also 
 mentioned in the song of Deborah and Barak, Judges 
 v. 25. Certain friends (2 Sam. xvii. 29.) are said 
 to have brought to Mahanaim, butter and other 
 articles, for the refreshment of David and his army 
 during the rebellion of his son Absalom. Honey and 
 butter are also mentioned Job xx. 17 ; and in chap, 
 xxix. 6. he says, " When I washed my steps with 
 butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil." 
 Butter and honey are also mentioned in the well- 
 known passage in the 7th chapter of Isaiah, where 
 the prophet foretells of the child, that he should eat 
 butter and honey. And in the 30th chapter of the 
 Proverbs it is said, " the churning of milk bringeth 
 forth butter." But it is to be observed, that in all 
 these passages, the Hebrew word rendered butter is 
 hemde, which Biblical critics agree in allowing to 
 signify sour thick milk or cream. Besides, it is 
 plain that hemde alludes to something fluid, for it 
 was used to wash the feet. The error of supposing 
 hemde to mean a concrete substance like butter, ap- 
 pears to have arisen from the Septuagint, who trans- 
 late the Hebrew term by {hovrv^ov, a word which, as 
 they lived in Egypt two centuries after Hippocrates, 
 they might no doubt have heard of, and supposed to 
 correspond to the Hebrew word hemde. That they 
 meant, however, no more than cream by the term 
 is highly probable. No doubt, the common trans- 
 lation of the passage already quoted from the Pro- 
 verbs, may be thought to prpve clearly that the 
 making of butter by churning was well known among 
 the Hebrews. But the original words signify to 
 squeeze or press; and might have been as well trans- 
 lated "the pressing of the milker bringeth forth 
 milk." And this accords better with what imme- 
 
 | diately follows, viz. "and the wringing of the nose 
 bringeth forth blood." 
 
 It was late before the Greeks appear to have had 
 any knowledge of butter. No mention is made of it 
 
 ; by any of their early poets. Homer, Theocritus, 
 and Euripides, though they frequently speak of milk 
 and cheese, say nothing of butter: and Aristotle, in 
 
 | his 4 History of Animals,' at first assigns to milk 
 only two component parts, viz. the serous and the 
 caseous ; though afterwards he remarks, as it were 
 by the bye, that there is likewise found in milk a 
 
 i fat substance, which, under certain circumstances, is 
 
 i like oil. Hippocrates, as we have already remarked, 
 is the first Greek writer who mentions butter; and 
 he frequently prescribes it as an external application 
 under another name. The poet Anaxandrides, who 
 flourished a short time after Hippocrates, describing 
 the wedding of Iphicrates, who married the daughter 
 of Cotys king of Thrace, and the Thracian enter- 
 tainments given on that occasion, mentions the use 
 of butter for food among these people as a matter of 
 curiosity; a sure proof that it was not so employed 
 among the Greeks. Strabo, who flourished about 
 thirty years before the Christian era, says the Lusi- 
 tanians and Ethiopians used butter instead of oil, 
 and iElian, who lived in the end of the first 
 century, says that the Indians employed butter to 
 anoint the wounds of their elephants. Plutarch, 
 who was his cotemporary, speaks of a visit paid by 
 a Lacedaemonian lady to Berenice the wife of Deio- 
 tarus, which according to him, seems not to have 
 been mutually agreeable; for he says the one smelled 
 so much of butter, and the other of perfume, that 
 neither of them could endure the other. Dioscorides 
 (b.c. 33,) is the first author who recommends butter 
 as an article of diet, and says it might be melted 
 fresh, and poured over pulse and other vegetables 
 
 instead of oil, and used in pastry. He also recom- 
 mends it for medicinal purposes. But Galen, who 
 wrote at Rome about 200 years later, is much more 
 full on the healing virtues of butter. He is surprised 
 that Dioscorides should have said it was made of 
 sheep's and goat's milk, for he himself had seen it 
 made of cow's milk ; and such butter, he affirms, 
 was always the fattest and best, and had from thence, 
 he believes, derived its name. He says it may be 
 used instead of oil in mollifying leather, and that in 
 cold countries which did not produce oil, butter was 
 used in the baths, and was evidently a real fat, be- 
 cause, when poured over burning coals, it readily 
 caught fire. From all this it is evident, that butter 
 in his time must have been very little known to the 
 Greeks and Romans. Strabo, speaking of the ancient 
 Britons, says, though they had abundance of milk, 
 some of them were so ignorant that they did not 
 know how to make a cheese. But Pliny, on the j 
 other hand, affirms, that "the barbarous nations," ! 
 by which he usually means the Germans and Britons, j 
 not only made cheese, but likewise butter, which 
 they used as a most agreeable food; and the use of 
 this food was a distinguishing mark betwixt the rich 
 and the poor. To these nations he ascribes the in- 
 vention of butter, and says they made it from the 
 milk of the goat, the sheep, and the cow; most com- 
 monly from the latter, but that the milk of the ewe 
 produced the fattest butter. He likewise describes 
 the form of the vessel employed by the barbarians in . 
 making it, which seems to have been not very differ- j 
 ent from what w r e now use. It was covered, he says, 
 and had holes in the lid. He is the first Latin writer 
 who mentions the word butyrum, though Vossius 
 thinks it is to be found in Columella. Whether j 
 Tacitus by lac concretum, which he affirms to have j 
 been the most common food of the Germans, means j 
 cheese or butter, it is impossible to determine. The ; 
 Greeks, then, seem to have derived their first ac- ; 
 quaintance with butter from the Thracians or the 
 Scythians, and the Romans from the Germans. Nor 
 did either of them, after learning its nature, employ 
 it as an article of food, but only as an ointment in 
 their baths, and in medicine. Their agricultural 
 writers, who treat largely of milk, cheese, and oil, 
 as food, take no notice of butter, nor is it mention- 
 ed by Apicius. The suggestion of Dioscorides, 
 therefore, formerly mentioned, that butter might be 
 conveniently used in cookery, seems not to have been 
 attended to. Fourcroy thinks, that the effect of 
 agitation in separating butter from milk, must have 
 been accidentally made by the Scythians or other 
 wandering tribes while transporting their milk from 
 place to place in skins or other vessels. Sidonius 
 Apollinaris informs us, that the ancient Burgundians 
 were accustomed to besmear their hair with butter ; 
 and Clemens Alexandrinus says, that the ancient 
 Christians of Egypt burned butter in their lamps at 
 their altars instead of oil ; a practice somewhat simi- 
 lar to that which has been retained by the Abyssini- 
 ans. In the Roman Catholic churches, it was an- 
 ciently allowed, during Christmas time, to use butter 
 instead of oil, on account of the great consumption j 
 of this in other ways. This accounts for the name j 
 " butter tower," which we find in some places, as at 
 Rouen, Notre Dame, and others. In 1500, George 
 d'Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen, finding the oil fail 1 
 in his diocese during Lent, permitted the use of but - 
 ter in their lamps, on condition that each person 
 should pay six deniers for the indulgence, with which 
 sum this tower was erected. 
 
 From all the accounts of the method of making 
 butter transmitted to us by the ancients, we have 
 reason to think that they were unacquainted with the 
 art of giving it that firmness and consistence which is 
 so valuable a quality of modern butter. They always 
 speak of it as a liquid substance. With them it was 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 poured out like oil; with us it is cut and spread. 
 Their butter was probably much inferior to ours, 
 and its use very limited. 
 
 Butter has been usually, thought to be a mat- 
 ; ter naturally distributed through the milk, and 
 existing, along with the caseous and serous parts 
 thereof, m a state of mechanical suspension, 
 similar to that in which oil is when suspended 
 in water by means of syrup or mucilage. But 
 though a mixture of this sort — commonly called 
 an emulsion — puts on a white colour like milk, and 
 its oily parts by rest rise to the top and form a 
 cream similar to the cream of milk, yet the ex- 
 periments of Messrs. Deyeux and Parmentier 
 seem to have proved, that butter does not actually 
 exist in the cream, but that it is formed from it, 
 during the process of churning, by certain che- 
 mical changes which then occur. These gentle- 
 men were led to form this opinion, by observing 
 that butter could not be produced in any other 
 way than by agitation ; whatever substances or 
 means they employed to detach either the cheesy 
 or buttery part of the cream, they always found 
 agitation or churning necessary. Fourcroy con- 
 siders the butyraceous matter of milk as quite 
 distinct from butter ; and says, it is a white li- 
 quid oil, suspended in the serum, by means of 
 the muco-saccharine and cheesy parts, which, 
 combining with oxygen, forms butter. The oxy- 
 gen he conceives it to obtain partly from the at- 
 mosphere, and partly from the milk itself. He 
 is of opinion, that butter in a small quantity can 
 be obtained without agitation; and says, that 
 the oily particles of the butyraceous matter, 
 which, from their greater levity, float, when the 
 milk is allowed to rest, on the surface of the ca- 
 seous and serous fluid, absorb oxygen from the 
 atmosphere, and become real butter. 
 
 That important chemical changes take place 
 during the operation of churning, there can be 
 no doubt ; but the nature of these is still, how- 
 ever, imperfectly understood. Farther experi- 
 • ments seem necessary to elucidate the subject. 
 In all cases, there is a considerable extrication of 
 gas ; Dr. Young affirms, that there is likewise a 
 rise of temperature equal to four degrees : and 
 Professor Traill found from experiment that the 
 rise of temperature is greater than Dr. Young 
 supposed, and ranges from five to eight degrees. 
 In the Mid-Lothian agricultural report for 1795, 
 it is stated, that cream churned in contact with 
 atmospheric air, absorbed a considerable quantity 
 of it. But Dr. Young has shown, that butter 
 
 j may be obtained from cream by churning, with- 
 out the contact of air. These two statements, 
 however, are not irreconcilable, since, according 
 to Fourcroy, the butyraceous matter takes its 
 
 ! oxygen partly from the air, and partly from the 
 milk. That this matter should absorb oxygen, 
 and thereby acquire the consistence of butter, is 
 quite analogous to what happens to other oily 
 bodies, which all become thicker by absorbing 
 
 i the oxygenous principle. The gas disengaged is 
 
 probably the carbonic acid gas ; for every person 
 must have observed, that when even sour cream 
 is churned, the butter obtained is perfectly sweetf, 
 and the milk remaining in the churn, called the 
 butter-milk, is always much less sour than the 
 cream had been. See the article Churning. 
 
 Though butter is obtained usually by agitating 
 cream, it may be also got by agitating milk as 
 drawn from the cow. and even in greater quan- 
 tity than from the cream alone of the same milk 
 — a fact well known to those who superintend 
 dairies.. The result of a series of experiments 
 by Professor Traill, upon the churning of sweet 
 cream alone, of sweet milk and cream together, 
 of slightly soured or acidulated cream, of soured 
 milk and cream together, and of scalded cream 
 or "the clouted cream" of Devonshire, showed, 
 in the first place, that the addition of some 
 cold water during churning facilitates the pro- 
 cess, or the separation of the butter, especially 
 when the cream is thick and the weather hot ; 
 secondly, that cream alone is more easily churned 
 than a mixture of cream and milk ; thirdly, that 
 butter produced from sweet cream has the finest 
 flavour, when fresh, and appears to keep longest 
 without acquiring rancidity, — but that the but- 
 termilk, so obtained, is poor, and small in quan- 
 tity ; fourthly, that the scalding of the cream, 
 according to the Devonshire method, yields the I 
 largest quantity of butter, which, if intended for 
 immediate use, is agreeable to the palate and 
 readily saleable, — but if intended to be salted, 
 is most liable to acquire, by keeping, a rancid 
 flavour ; fifthly, that churning the milk and , 
 cream together, after they have become slightly 
 acid, seems to be the most economical process on 
 the whole, because it yields a large quantity of | 
 excellent butter, and the buttermilk is of a good j 
 quality — a point of some importance when but- , 
 termilk is largely used as an article of diet, as it 
 is in Lancashire ; and sixthly, that the keeping 
 of butter in a sound state appears to depend on j 
 its being obtained as free from uncombined albu- 
 men, or caseine, and water, as it can be, by means I 
 of washing and working the butter when taken ! 
 from the churn. Even whey, by churning, yields 
 butter. In the agricultural report before quoted, 
 it is stated, that 27 Scotch pints of whey, that is j 
 about 108 English, afford at an average one pound 
 of butter. The oily part of the milk appears to 
 have so strong an attraction for the other ingre- 
 dients, that it never completely separates from 
 them. 
 
 Butter can by no means be equally well-ob- 
 tained from the milk of every sort of animal: 
 indeed, the milk of some of them can never be 
 made to yield any butter. No length of churn- 
 ing will produce it from the cream of woman's 
 milk, or of mare's milk ; while, on the contrary, 
 the cream of goat's milk, and ewe's milk, yield 
 it in abundance, and with as much facility as the 
 cream of the milk of the cow. The cream of 
 ass's milk, when long agitated, yields a soft, 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 246 
 
 white, insipid butter, which has the singular pro- 
 perty of again mixing very readily with the but- 
 ter-milk, and of being again separated from it by 
 agitating the containing vessel under cold water. 
 
 When butter is kept for a certain time, it ac- 
 quires a peculiarly disagreeable smell and taste, 
 known by the name of rancidity. This has been 
 thought to arise from the development of a pe- 
 culiar acid, similar to, if not the same with, the 
 sebacic acid ; but Deyeux and Parmentier have 
 shown, that no acid is present in rancid butter. 
 Rancid oils, however, certainly do show acid pro- 
 perties. The disposition of butter to become 
 rancid, is owing in a good measure to the pre- 
 sence of foreign matters adhering to it ; for if the 
 butter be carefully washed, so as to separate 
 completely the serous and curdy parts, rancidity 
 does not take place nearly so soon. When butter 
 is distilled, we obtain a little water and sebacic 
 acid ; the greatest part of the butter comes over 
 in the state of an oil, with a strong, pungent, 
 and very disagreeable smell; much carburated 
 hydrogen gas is disengaged, and there remains in 
 the retort a very small carbonaceous residuum, 
 with a little phosphate of lime. 
 
 The processes for making butter have been 
 various in different ages, and among different na- 
 tions. The operation of churning is well known ; 
 and we have only to observe, that though churns 
 have been constructed of different forms, they 
 may be all reduced to two, the vertical and hori- 
 zontal. The vertical, or pump-chum, as it is usu- 
 ally named, was probably the first thought of, 
 and is nothing more than a tall wooden vessel, 
 three or four feet high, narrow in proportion to 
 its height, and straiter above than below, having 
 a sort of piston or staff, about four feet long, 
 adapted to it, with a perforated head, by moving 
 which up and down with the hands, the cream 
 is agitated, and the butter at length formed. 
 The utensil is sufficiently well adapted for making 
 butter on a small scale, where the cream to be 
 churned is the produce of a few cows only. But 
 where dairying is managed on a great scale, 
 and the quantity of cream large, the operation 
 performed in this way is too tedious and labo- 
 rious for general use, and methods have been 
 contrived to expedite the process and abridge 
 the labour. This is best done by means of the 
 horizontal, commonly called the barrel-churn, 
 which is a cylindrical vessel, close at both ends, 
 and firmly fixed upon a stand, having a sort of 
 rack or trundle adapted to it within, usually with 
 four blades, and turned by a winch or handle, 
 placed on its axle, passing through the ends of 
 the churn. By this machine, as much cream 
 may be churned in an hour as could be done in 
 ten or twelve by the common upright churn. 
 Ingenious machinery for working both species of 
 churns, by means of water, and other moving 
 powers, have been contrived, and found to answer 
 well. The apparatus may be made of wood, iron, 
 or sheet-tin ; but the first is preferable. The 
 
 cream should not fill above two-thirds of the 
 churn. See the article Churn. 
 
 In the northern parts of Africa, in Egypt, and 
 Arabia, they churn by putting the cream into a 
 goat's skin, turned inside out, and pressing it to 
 and fro, in a uniform manner. Sometimes they 
 place it on an inclined plane, permitting it to 
 roll to the bottom, and then again replacing it 
 to run the same course, — a method which in a 
 short time produces butter. Dr. Chandler, while 
 travelling in Greece, observed them treading the 
 skins thus filled with their feet ; a practice which 
 has been thought to illustrate the passage already 
 quoted from the book of Job. In Bengal, they 
 churn by simply turning a stick in the milk ; and 
 that families may have the butter fresh and 
 sweet to breakfast, it is made in this way every 
 morning. In many parts of the East, they make 
 butter of the milk of the buffalo ; but this is by 
 no means esteemed equal in excellence to the 
 butter of the cow's milk. It is deficient in con- 
 sistence, colour, and flavour. 
 
 With regard to the good or bad qualities of 
 butter, a great deal has been always ascribed to 
 the pasturage of different farms or districts. 
 Recent observations and experiments, however, 
 show that much less depends upon this than has 
 been commonly imagined. The mode of manage- 
 ment appears to be of much greater consequence. 
 " In every district," says Dr. Anderson, " where 
 fine butter is made, it is universally attributed 
 to the richness of the pastures, though it is a 
 well known fact, that take a skilful dairy-maid 
 from that district into another, where no good 
 butter is usually made, and where, of course, the 
 pastures are deemed very unfavourable, she will 
 make butter as good as she used to do ; and 
 bring one from this last district into the other, 
 and she will find that she cannot make better 
 butter there than she did before, unless she takes 
 lessons from the servants or others whom she 
 finds there." — " I have frequently," continues he, 
 " known instances of this kind. And the same 
 thing takes place in the manufacture of beer and 
 many other articles. In matters of this sort, a 
 very great diversity is produced by circumstances 
 apparently of a most trivial kind." M. Tessier, 
 of the National Institute of France, says, " The 
 particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose col- 
 our, flavour, and consistence, are so much prized, 
 depends neither on the pasture nor the particular 
 species of cow, but on the mode of making. This 
 butter is of a superior quality, because they 
 make it of the richest cream, and usually in large 
 quantities at a time. As soon as it is made and 
 washed, they sprinkle it with sweet milk, spread 
 it out in flatted cakes, larger or smaller, but 
 rarely containing less than three, or more than 
 six pounds ; and lay it on a kind of pan, placed 
 on hot cinders, and covered with a copper lid, on 
 which are put cinders also. It remains there 
 some minutes, more or fewer according to the 
 bulk of the cake." This mode of managing but- 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 247 
 
 BUTTER, 
 
 ter appears from him to be a secret in certain 
 families, and to require practice and dexterity to 
 conduct it with success. 
 
 Still, however, we are disposed to believe that 
 some pastures are more favourable to the pro- 
 duction of good butter than others. Certain 
 plants, such as turnip, wild garlic, hemlock, 
 rough-leaved dandelion, charlock, the butter-cup, 
 and may-weed, are known to affect milk with a 
 disagreeable flavour, and there may be many 
 others which, to a certain degree, impair its good- 
 ness, though their effects are by no means so 
 evident. Far more, however, depends on good 
 management than on this circumstance, or even 
 on the species of cow we feed; for that some- 
 thing, likewise, is owing to this, is equally well 
 ascertained. Cows have been found whose milk 
 could not be brought to yield any butter at all. 
 It has been long remarked, that the butter in the 
 Highlands of Scotland, when properly made, 
 possesses a peculiarly rich and delicate flavour ; 
 and this has been almost universally attributed 
 to the old grass on which the cows feed in these 
 remote glens. But what more common error 
 than to mistake a concomitant circumstance for 
 a cause ? Dr. Anderson, by his experiments on 
 milk, has shown that the excellence of the High- 
 land butter may be very reasonably ascribed to 
 a quite different cause. He has proved that the 
 cream of a given measure of milk constantly in- 
 creases in quantity, and still more in quality, 
 from the first drawn tea-cupful, to the last drop 
 that can be squeezed from the udder at the time. 
 " Probably," says he, " on an average of a great 
 many cows, the proportion of the cream obtained 
 from a given quantity of the last drawn milk, 
 may be to that of the cream obtained from 
 an equal quantity of the first drawn, as ten or 
 twelve to one ; but the quality of the cream of 
 the last drawn was still more superior than its 
 quantity. The cream of the first drawn tea- 
 cupful of the milk was only a thin white film ; 
 in the last, it was of a thick butyraceous con- 
 sistence, and of a glowing richness of colour, 
 such as no other cream possesses. It is, there- 
 fore, observes Dr. Anderson, of much more im- 
 portance than is commonly imagined, to milk the 
 cows well ; for on the cream of the last drawn 
 milk depends entirely the richness and delicate 
 flavour of the butter." Now, in the Highlands 
 of Scotland, where they rear almost all their 
 calves, the common practice is to admit the calf 
 to suck the mother always for a certain time be- 
 fore milking. And when the dairy-maid judges 
 the calf has had enough, it is removed to the pen 
 or cruive, from which it had been brought. In 
 this way, the latter drawn parts of the milk only 
 are obtained for the dairy ; and the cream pro- 
 duced from it being of a superior quality, the 
 excellence of the Highland butter seems to be 
 accounted for. In the higher districts of Gallo- 
 way, a similar mode of management prevails, and 
 their butter is observed to be rich and delicate. 
 
 It has been likewise ascertained, that the cream 
 which first rises after the milk has been depo- 
 sited in the dairy-pans, is both much greater in 
 a given, space of time, than that which rises in 
 an equal space several hours after, and of a 
 greatly superior quality ; that thick milk throws 
 up less cream than thin, but of a richer quality ; 
 and that milk that has been much agitated by 
 carrying, and cooled before it is put into the 
 milk-pans, never throws up so much cream as 
 that which is immediately deposited in them 
 after milking. It is also known, that the milk 
 is not at the best till about four months after the 
 cow has calved ; and that the degree of heat most 
 favourable to the production of cream from milk, 
 is from 50 to 55 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermo- 
 meter. " If the heat of the milk-house," says 
 Dr. Anderson, " be too great, the milk suddenly 
 coagulates, without admitting of any separation 
 of the cream ; or it is so quickly turned sour, as 
 greatly to mar the operation. If, on the other 
 hand, the milk be exposed to too cold a tempera- 
 ture, the cream separates from it slowly, and 
 with difficulty ; it acquires a bitter and disagree- 
 able taste ; the butter can scarcely be made to 
 come at all ; and when it is come, it is so pale in 
 the colour, so small in quantity, and of such hard 
 and brittle consistence, so poor to the taste, and 
 of so little value in all respects, as to bring a very 
 low price at the market, compared to what it 
 would have produced had it been preserved in a 
 proper degree of heat." The same judicious 
 writer states it as his opinion, formed from ex- 
 perience and attentive observation, that since 
 neither cream nor butter can be produced from 
 milk till some portion of an acid be evolved in it, 
 the last drawn half of the milk only should, in 
 general, be set up for producing cream, and be 
 allowed to stand till it throw up the whole of its 
 cream, even till the milk tastes perceptibly sour- 
 ish; and that if this cream be afterwards judi- 
 ciously managed, the butter thus obtained will 
 be of a greatly superior quality to what can be 
 usually got at market, and its quantity not con- 
 siderably less than if the whole of the milk had 
 been originally set apart for producing cream. 
 " This, therefore," says he, " is the practice that 
 I should recommend, as most likely to suit the 
 frugal farmer ; as his butter, though of a superior 
 quality, could be afforded at a price that would 
 always insure it a rapid sale." 
 
 The degree of heat during the process of churn- 
 ing has a far more powerful influence on both 
 the quantity and the quality of the butter than 
 is commonly supposed. In the portion of the 
 Highland Society's Transactions published in 
 November 1828, appears a report of five experi- 
 ments by Dr. John Barclay and Mr. Alexander 
 Allen, as to the temperature at which butter can 
 be best procured from cream. The following 
 table exhibits the mean temperature of the cream 
 used in each experiment, the time occupied in 
 the different churnings, the quantity of butter 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 obtained from one gallon of cream in each ex- 
 periment, the gravity of one gallon of the churn- 
 ed milk produced in each process, and the com- 
 parative qualities of the different specimens of 
 butter : — 
 
 K „ Date of ex- No. of Mean Til ? e . °: Beu ' C"««tity of Quantity nf 
 
 1823, H. m. lb. oz. dwts. lb. oz. 
 
 1 Aug. 18. 15 5-o 4 1 15 7.5 8 9 
 
 2 26. 15 60° 3 15 1 15 3.2 8 8 
 
 3 30. 15 62° 3 1 14 8 8 
 
 4 Sept. 4. 15 64° 3 1 1 12 12.7 8 8 
 
 5 9. 15 70° 2 30 1 10 10.6 8 7 
 
 The butter produced in the first experiment was 
 of the very best quality, rich, firm, and well 
 tasted ; that produced in the second experiment 
 was not perceptibly inferior to the former ; that 
 produced in the third experiment was good, but 
 of an inferior consistency ; that produced in the 
 fourth experiment was soft and spongy ; and that 
 produced in the fifth experiment was decidedly 
 inferior in every respect to any of the former 
 specimens. 
 
 "From the preceding experiments," say the 
 reporters, " it appears that cream should not be 
 kept at a high temperature in the process of 
 churning. In the first experiment, when the 
 temperature was lowest, the quantity of butter 
 obtained was in the greatest proportion to the 
 quantity of cream used ; and as the temperature 
 was raised, the proportional quantity of butter 
 diminished ; — while, in the last experiment, when 
 the mean temperature of the cream had been 
 raised to 70°, not only was the quantity of but- 
 ter diminished, but, in quality, it was found to 
 be very inferior, both with regard to taste and 
 appearance. That the lowest possible tempera- 
 ture should be sought in churning, appears like- 
 wise from another result of the preceding experi- 
 ments — the specific gravity of the churned milk 
 having been found to diminish as the tempera- 
 ture of the cream had been increased ; thus show- 
 ing, that, at the lower temperatures, the butter, 
 which is composed of the lighter parts of the 
 cream, is more completely collected than at the 
 higher temperatures, in which the churned milk 
 is of greater specific gravity. From these expe- 
 riments, the subscribers conceive themselves war- 
 ranted in concluding, that the most proper tem- 
 perature at which to commence the operation of 
 churning butter, is from 50° to 55° ; and that at 
 no time in the operation ought it to exceed 65° : 
 while, on the contrary, if at any time the cream 
 should be under 50° in temperature, the labour 
 will be much increased, without any proportion- 
 ate advantage being obtained ; and a temperature 
 of a higher rate than 65° will be injurious as well 
 to the quantity as the quality of the butter." 
 
 The present professor of chemistry in Glasgow, 
 Dr. Thomas Thomson, instituted a series of ex- 
 periments last year into the relative effect of 
 different elements on the milk and butter of 
 cows, which we shall here note. " We procur- 
 ed," says Dr. T. and his assistant, " two young 
 cows from Ayrshire, of the best breed of milk- 
 
 cows in Scotland. They were selected by Mr. 
 Tennant, a large farmer at Shields, near Ayr. 
 They had calved about six weeks before we 
 got them, and they were supposed to be in 
 calf again. One of these was brown, and the 
 other brown mixed with a good deal of white : 
 on that account they are distinguished by the 
 names of brown cow and white cow. Our object 
 in getting two cows was to feed the one with 
 barley and the other with malt, and observe what 
 effect the food would have upon the milk and 
 butter of each. But it became soon evident that 
 the constitution of the two cows was so different 
 that no fair conclusion could be come to by that 
 mode of proceeding. We were obliged, in con- 
 sequence, to give the same food to each, and to 
 draw our consequences from the effects produced 
 upon both. At first we gave the cows the bar- 
 ley^ and the malt entire, after they had been 
 steeped for some time in hot water ; but we soon 
 found that it was better to grind them into meal, 
 and to digest the meal in hot water. The result 
 of the experiments is placed under the form of 
 the following table : — 
 
 Brown Cow. 
 
 I. Grass 
 II. Barley 
 
 III. Malt 
 
 IV. Barley 
 V. Barley 
 
 " Mol 
 Malt 
 Barley 
 Linseed 
 
 VI 
 VII 
 VIII 
 IX 
 
 X. Linseed 
 
 Milk, 
 lbs. 
 
 26 604 
 20-420 
 
 19- 341 
 
 22- 610 
 
 23- 187 
 
 20- 558 
 19710 
 19-396 
 20 280 
 20^814 
 
 White Cow. 
 
 XI. Bean-meal 19'590 
 
 Butter, 
 lbs. 
 
 0-735 
 
 0-7075 
 
 0-6332 
 
 0-791 
 0730 
 0-682 
 0-675 
 0734 
 0-687 
 0-755 
 
 Milk, 
 lbs. 
 
 21- 868 
 20-108 
 
 20- 417 
 
 22- 000 
 
 21- 763 
 22 703 
 21-585 
 20-088 
 20-244 
 20-814 
 19582 
 
 Butter, 
 lbs. 
 
 0-516 
 
 0-555 
 
 0-6749 
 
 790 
 
 0-678 
 
 0-654 
 
 0591 
 
 565 
 
 0741 
 
 682 
 
 0755 
 
 " These experiments," Dr. T. continues, "leave 
 no doubt that barley is more nourishing to cows 
 than malt ; at least so far as the production of 
 milk and butter is concerned. They confirm the 
 conclusions which we drew from the chemical 
 analyses of both. Barley, when malted, loses 
 almost one-fifth of its weight. The proportion 
 of azote which is necessary both for the support 
 of animal life and for the production of milk is 
 considerably less in malt than in barley." * * 
 " Previous to these trials, thus arranged, the 
 largest quantity given to the brown cow was 
 under the grass regimen. The first five days of 
 the experiment yielded 4 - 93 lbs. of butter, after 
 which the quantity diminished to the last five 
 days of the trial, when the quantity yielded 
 amounted to 3-75 lbs., a proportion not superior 
 to what was produced in some of the subsequent 
 experiments. The same law does not appear to 
 hold with reference to the diminution of the but- 
 ter as pertains to that of the milk, when the food 
 has been continued for some time. We find, on 
 the contrary, frequently the amount increasing 
 towards the close of the experiment, even when 
 it is continued for ten or fifteen days. The 
 largest amount of butter was afforded in the 
 brown cow by crushed barley. During the third 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 249 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 series of five days the amount was 3'935 lbs. ; 
 bean-meal gave the next greatest quantity, 3*69 
 
 I ! lbs. in five days ; then comes barley and linseed, 
 
 3-689 lbs. during the first five days ; barley and mo- 
 lasses, 3-63 lbs. ; and malt, 360 lbs. In the case 
 of the white cow the quantity was — beans, 3 76 ; 
 barley and linseed, 3-421 ; crushed barley, 3376 ; 
 
 I I barley and molasses, 3*26 ; and malt, 3 126. With 
 | both animals we observe that malt is lowest in 
 
 the scale, a fact which seems in some measure to 
 militate against the idea of the origin of the but- 
 ter being in the sugar of the food. Be this as it 
 1 I may, however, although there are many counter 
 arguments in favour of the opinion that sugar 
 affords such a supply, we think the tables Nos. 1 
 and 2 tend to show that there is no relation be- 
 tween the butter of the milk and the wax and 
 oil of the food, since frequently, when the olea- 
 ginous matter of the food is small, the butter is 
 more considerable than on other occasions when 
 the reverse happens. Since then the facts con- 
 tained in the tables seem to prove that the 
 butter cannot be supplied from the oil of the 
 food, it becomes an interesting point for the 
 agriculturist to learn from what element of the 
 food it proceeds. It may safely be inferred that 
 it must be formed from some other constituent 
 of the diet by means of the vascular system, 
 either as a primary or secondary stage. Sugar 
 affords the most simple element from which it 
 may be produced, because we now understand 
 how the acid of butter can originate from sugar ; 
 but even the albuminous principles might afford 
 butter. Upon these grounds, then, we can infer 
 that a certain degree of exercise would be more 
 conducive to the production of fat than if the 
 animal is allowed to remain at rest ; because, as 
 the source of the fat or butter is dependent on 
 the process of respiration, it is obvious that the 
 more the function is encouraged within moderate 
 bounds the greater the amount of oil-giving 
 principle of the food will be taken into the sys- 
 tem and converted into fat. We believe that 
 this theoretical deduction is perfectly in conso- 
 nance with the experience of good observers, who 
 find that box or hammel feeding is more condu- 
 cive to health of cattle and cows destined for the 
 butcher, or for the production of butter, than 
 close plant-like confinement, which is foreign to 
 the nature of every animal, and at variance with 
 the first principles of physiological science." 
 
 Cows, in summer, should be milked three times 
 a-day at least ; early in the morning, at noon, 
 and just before night-fall. If this be not done, 
 the greatest possible quantity of milk will be far 
 from being obtained from them. The milk is 
 secreted in the udder, very much in proportion 
 to the quantity required, as we see in the case of 
 dogs, cats, pigs, and other animals, which pro- 
 duce more young than one at a time ; and we 
 know that a cow, by scanty milking, can very 
 1 soon be put dry. It is therefore of the utmost 
 consequence, that the whole milk secreted be at 
 
 each milking carefully drawn away. The cows 
 should be as little driven as possible before milk- 
 ing ; and their teats should be washed clean with 
 water, applied by a bit of sponge, before the pro- 
 cess commences. It may be laid down as a pretty 
 general rule, that 18 pounds of milk will yield 
 one pound of butter ; and that this is the pro- 
 duce of a single cow per day during summer, and 
 half that quantity in winter. Some, however, 
 will furnish twice, or even thrice this quantity. 
 The effects of feeding, treatment, management, 
 and the idiosyncracy of particular animals, are 
 here astonishingly great. See the article Cow. 
 
 When brought into the dairy, the milk should 
 be strained through a fine sieve and then poured 
 into pans or troughs about 4 inches deep. From 
 12 to 20 hours in summer, and about twice as 
 long in winter, should be permitted to elapse be- 
 fore the milk is skimmed, after it has been put 
 into the milk-pans. If, on applying the tip of 
 the finger to the surface, nothing adheres to it, 
 the cream may be properly taken off ; and during 
 the hot summer months, this should always be 
 done in the morning, before the dairy becomes 
 warm. The cream should then be deposited in 
 a deep pan, placed in the coolest part of the 
 dairy ; or in a cool cellar, where free air is ad- 
 mitted. It is customary to stir the cream fre- 
 quently with the view of encouraging a slight 
 degree of acidity, which is deemed necessary to 
 the production of butter ; but it is well-known 
 that excellent butter can be produced from per- 
 fectly fresh cream. 
 
 In hot weather, churning should be performed, 
 if possible, every other day ; but if this is not 
 convenient, the cream should be daily shifted 
 into a clean pan ; and the churning should never 
 be less frequent than twice a-week. This work 
 should be performed in the coolest time of the 
 day, and in the coolest part of the house, where 
 there is a free draught of air. Cold water 
 should be applied to the churn, first by filling 
 it with this, some time before the cream is 
 poured in, and then by immersing it in water to 
 the depth of a foot or so, during the operation, 
 provided we use the pump-churn ; or by apply- 
 ing wet cloths to it, if we use a barrel-churn. 
 Such means are generally necessary to prevent 
 the too rapid acidification of the cream, and for- 
 mation of the butter. The winter season and 
 cold weather, of course, require an opposite prac- 
 tice ; but we can hardly be too cautious in the 
 application of heat ; for the common practices of 
 wrapping the churn in a warm cloth, plunging it 
 into hot water, adding warm milk to the cream, 
 or placing the churn near the fire, all tend to in- 
 jure the butter. The best way, perhaps, is to 
 heat the churn, by filling it with boiling water 
 before the cream is put in, and to place it in the 
 warmest part of the house ; but not close by a 
 fire. The temperature should be as near 55° as 
 practicable, and ought not to exceed 60°. 
 
 The operation of churning ought to be moder- 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 250 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 ate, equable, and uninterrupted ; for if we stop 
 or relax in our exertions, the butter will go lack, 
 
 \ as it is called ; and if the motion be too quick 
 and violent, the butter will be soft and of a white 
 colour, besides imbibing a very disagreeable fla- 
 vour. This, in some districts of Scotland, is 
 ; t known by the phrase bursting the churn. Ma- 
 chinery, as before observed, of an ingenious and 
 
 ■ convenient construction, is in some districts now 
 employed, and found to have the advantage, not 
 only of abridging labour, but of securing a more 
 regular and uniform motion. 
 
 When the operation is properly conducted, the 
 butter, after some time, suddenly forms, and is 
 to be carefully collected and separated from the 
 buttermilk. But in doing this, it is not suffi- 
 cient merely to pour off this milk, or withdraw 
 the butter from it ; because a certain portion of 
 the caseous and serous parts of the milk still re- 
 main in the interstices of the butter, and must 
 be detached from it by washing, if we would ob- 
 tain it pure. In washing butter, some think it 
 sufficient to press the mass gently betwixt the 
 hands ; others press it strongly and frequently, 
 repeating the washings till the water come off 
 quite clear. The first method is preferable when 
 the butter is made daily for immediate use, from 
 new milk or cream ; because the portions of such 
 adhering to it, or mixed with it, contribute to 
 produce the sweet agreeable flavour which distin- 
 guishes new cream. But when our object is to 
 prepare butter for keeping, we cannot repeat the 
 washings too often, since the presence of a small 
 quantity of milk in it, will, in less than twelve 
 hours after churning, cause it sensibly to lose its 
 good qualities. When the butter is very soft, 
 especially in hot weather, it should be allowed 
 to lie during ten or twelve minutes in the cold 
 water, to acquire better consistency before be- 
 ing washed. The process of washing butter is 
 usually nothing more than throwing it into an 
 earthen vessel of clear cool water, working it 
 to and fro with the hands, and changing the wa- 
 ter till it come off clear. A much preferable 
 method, however, and that which we believe is 
 now always practised by those who best under- 
 stand the business, is, to use two broad pieces of 
 wood instead of the hands. This is to be pre- 
 ferred, not only on account of its apparently 
 greater cleanliness, but also because it is of de- 
 cided advantage to the quality of the butter. 
 To this the warmth of the hand gives always 
 more or less of a greasy appearance ; and butter 
 washed by means of the wooden flappers, as they 
 are called, will always fetch at market a higher 
 price than if the hand had been employed. The 
 influence of the heat of the hand is greater than 
 might at first have been suspected. It has al- 
 ways been remarked, that a person who has na- 
 turally a warm hand, never makes good butter. 
 
 After washing, the butter should be cut and 
 sliced in every possible direction, with a serrated 
 or rough-edged knife, in order to bring out from 
 
 it the smallest hair, bit of rag, strainer, or any- 
 thing that may have chanced to fall into it. It 
 is then to be spread in a bowl, and such a quan- 
 tity of salt added as may be judged proper. If 
 the butter is to be used immediately, or kept 
 only for a short time, a small proportion will be j 
 sufficient ; and in this state it is usually denomi- ! 
 nated fresh butter. But if it be intended to be j 
 long kept, or transported to a distance, an ounce I ; 
 or two of salt will be required to the pound of J j 
 butter. The salt used in curing butter should 
 be of the purest kind, well dried, and broken 
 down, but not completely pulverized ; and it 
 must be so thoroughly worked in, as to be equally j 
 incorporated with the mass. See the article 
 Dairy. 
 
 When butter is to be sold on the spot, or in 
 the neighbouring markets, it is divided into rolls 
 of a pound, or half a pound ; or into lumps of 
 24 ounces, called dishes in some parts of Eng- 
 land ; but when it is to be kept, or carried to a 
 distance, quantities of 84, 56, or 28 pounds, are 
 put up together in casks, usually called tubs, fir- 
 kins, and half-firkins. 
 
 When the butter has been sufficiently impreg- 
 nated with the salt, by being spread out in thin 
 layers, sprinkled with it, and thoroughly wrought, 
 it is then to be gently pressed into the tub or 
 firkin, which must not, however, be filled quite 
 up, but room left at top to receive a layer of salt, j 
 half an inch or an inch in thickness. In seven I 
 or eight days, the salted butter detaches itself 
 from the sides of the firkin, shrinks, and occa- 
 sions interstices. These, if allowed to remain, 
 would injure the butter, by admitting the con- 
 tact of the air. They are, therefore, to be filled 
 up by a saturated solution of salt in water, or 
 brine strong enough to carry an egg. The but- 
 ter is then to be covered by a new layer of salt, 
 and the head of the vessel put on. Before the 
 butter is put into the firkin, care must be taken 
 that the latter — which, if new, should be of clean 
 white wood, and carefully washed inside with 
 hot brine — be well seasoned : and this is effected j | 
 by exposing it for two or three weeks to the air, 
 and frequent washing. The readiest method, 
 however, is by the use of unslaked lime, or a 
 large quantity of salt and water well boiled, 
 with which it should be scrubbed several times, 
 and afterwards thrown into cold water, to remain 
 three or four days till wanted. It should then 
 be scrubbed as before, and well rinsed with cold 
 water ; and before receiving the butter, every j 
 part of the inside of the firkin must be carefully j 
 rubbed with salt. Indeed, the surest of all me- 
 thods to preserve butter from spoiling, after it 
 has been properly salted, is to keep it constantly 
 immersed in a saturated solution of this sub- 
 stance. An excellent composition for preserving 
 butter may be prepared, by mixing one part of 
 saltpetre, one of common salt, and two of sugar. 
 This thoroughly wrought into the butter, will 
 keep it sweet for a very long time, and com- 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 251 
 
 BUTTER. 
 
 municates to it no salt or disagreeable taste. 
 Some use a mixture of half-an-ounce of dry salt 
 finely pounded, 2 drams of sugar, and 2 drams 
 of saltpetre, for every pound of butter. 
 
 Almost every kind of wood hitherto used for 
 making butter-casks communicates a woody fla- 
 vour to butter, and, conjointly with the salt, 
 even exerts so great a chemical power upon it 
 as to occasion some of it to melt and drain off in 
 the form of brine. The best oak and ash have 
 been much recommended, but they too have bad 
 properties. But, says Mr. George Moir, in a pub- 
 lished communication to the Highland Society, 
 " The lime is pre-eminently suited for the manu- 
 facture of but ter-casks. It is the only wood/;-^ 
 of acid, — a point which I have ascertained by 
 innumerable experiments. In the manufac- 
 ture of basket-salt, the splits for the baskets 
 were at first made of ash, from the circum- 
 stance of that species of wood being particu- 
 larly straight in the grain. I found, however, 
 that the acid in the ash decomposed the salt. 
 I then . made trial of every kind of wood I could 
 come at, and found none but the lime to be 
 free of acid. Next in order was the fir. The 
 acid acts most powerfully on salt, decomposes it, 
 and makes it run into a liquid, which I have 
 proved by a hundred experiments. In one in- 
 stance I got a tree of poplar, white as writing- 
 paper, and made it into baskets. I filled fifty 
 dozen of them with salt ; when they were in the 
 stove I anticipated perfection itself, but to my 
 great surprise and disappointment, on being ex- 
 posed to the air for half an hour, they became all 
 covered with spots red as blood. When again 
 put into the stove for some time, the spots disap- 
 peared, but when exposed to the air for two or 
 three days, the wood became as dark as mahog- 
 any, and retained that colour. Nor was this all ; 
 every one of the fifty dozen of baskets became 
 quite empty by decomposition, and many of them 
 after having been twelve months in the stove. 
 This induced me to endeavour if possible to ex- 
 tract the acid from all kinds of wood before using 
 it. The following is the plan which I have 
 adopted. Cut the wood into deals of the lengths 
 required ; have a boiler of a square form, the 
 lftigth of the wood, full of water : put in the 
 wood with a weight or pressure, to keep it im- 
 mersed in the water, and have a wooden cover on 
 the boiler, as it must be done by close evapora- 
 tion. When thus boiled for four hours, the whole 
 of the pyrolignous acid will be extracted. The 
 wood is then dried for use. It becomes closer 
 and more condensed, from the fibres being con- 
 tracted. By this method, while the wood con- 
 tinues hot, it can easily be brought to any shape, 
 and used for various purposes, and this is the 
 only mode by which barrels for salted butter 
 should be made."' 
 When butter is to be exposed to the heat of a 
 | warm climate, it should be purified by melting, 
 before it is salted and packed up. Let it be put 
 
 into a proper vessel, and this into another con- 
 taining water ; let the water be gradually heat- 
 ed till the butter be thoroughly melted ; let it 
 continue in this state for some time, and the im- 
 pure parts will subside, leaving at the top a per- 
 fectly pure transparent oil. This, when it cools, 
 will become opaque, and assume a colour nearly 
 resembling the original butter ; being only a 
 little paler, and of a firmer consistence. This 
 refined butter must be separated from the dregs, 
 salted, and put up in the same way with other 
 butter ; and it will keep much longer sweet in 
 hot climates, as it retains the salt better. It may 
 also be preserved sweet, without salt, by adding 
 to it a certain proportion of fine honey, and mix- 
 ing them thoroughly, so that they may be per- 
 fectly incorporated. A mixture of this sort has 
 a sweet pleasant taste, and will keep for years 
 without becoming rancid. It might of course 
 be very useful in long voyages. Dr. Anderson 
 thinks an ounce of honey sufficient to preserve a 
 pound of butter. 
 
 To preserve butter for a long time fresh with- 
 out any foreign mixture, the best method per- 
 haps is, first of all to wash the buttermilk com- 
 pletely out, and then to keep the butter under 
 pure cool water, frequently renewed. Some 
 wrap it up in a wet linen cloth, to defend it from 
 the influence of the air. But though fresh but- 
 ter be kept cool and from the air, it will in no 
 very long time become rancid. We cannot by 
 any means keep it fresh from one year to ano- 
 ther, or transport it to a distance in good condi- 
 tion. Rancid butter, to most people, is extremely 
 disagreeable. A very small quantity of it will 
 be observed by many in a large mass of meat, 
 that it may be employed to season. Few stom- 
 achs can digest rancid butter. Some are so deli- 
 cate, that the use even of fresh butter, of milk, 
 of cream, and in general of all oleaginous sub- 
 stance, affect them with difficult and painful di- 
 gestion. 
 
 Butter, to be a wholesome aliment, must be 
 free from rancidity, and not fried or burned. 
 But even in its purest state, there are few who 
 can indulge very freely in the use of this article 
 with impunity ; and health, perhaps, would not 
 suffer, though its employment as food were alto- 
 gether laid aside. Like the other bland oils, it 
 is gently laxative. Most housewives know sev- 
 eral receipts for restoring rancid butter to fresh- 
 ness. But of these the greater number are of lit- 
 tle use. Washing it well with pure water, or 
 with ardent spirit, still better perhaps. with sweet 
 milk, will deprive it in some measure of its dis- 
 agreeable smell and taste. It is of much more 
 consequence to preserve butter from becoming 
 rancid, by salting, and the other means already 
 explained. 
 
 As turnip is now become so common a food 
 for cows, and often imparts to their milk,, and 
 the butter thence made, a very disagreeable fla- 
 vour, it is of some consequence to know how this 
 
BUTTER. 
 
 252 
 
 may be best obviated. A small quantity of salt- 
 petre has been recommended ; and in the ' G-eor- 
 gical Essays,' vol. v. we have the following me- 
 thod : " Let the bowls or pans be kept constantly 
 clean, and well scalded with boiling water before 
 using* When the milk is brought into the 
 dairy, to every eight quarts mix one quart of 
 boiling water ; then put up the milk into the 
 bowls to stand for cream." Dr. Anderson says, 
 " that if the milk is to be used sweet, its taste 
 may be considerably diminished by boiling ; and 
 that other means of sweetening milk have been 
 attempted, more troublesome and expensive, and 
 not more efficacious." A disagreeable taste in 
 either milk or butter may not unfrequently be 
 removed by giving the cow in which it is ob- 
 served a dose of half-an-ounce of nitre, which is 
 always a safe and cooling medicine. 
 
 As butter made in winter is generally pale or 
 white, and its richness at the same time inferior 
 to that which is made during the summer- 
 months, the idea of excellence has been asso- 
 ciated with the yellow colour. Means are there- 
 fore employed by those who prepare and sell 
 butter, to impart to it the yellow colour where 
 that is naturally wanting. Various substances 
 have been used for this purpose, but they must 
 all be of the resinous class, or such as are soluble 
 in oils. Extractive matters, and such as are 
 soluble only in water, alcohol, &c., as beet-root 
 and cochineal, give no tinge to butter. The sub- 
 stances most commonly employed are the root 
 of the carrot, and the flowers of the marigold. 
 The juice of either of these is expressed and 
 passed through a linen cloth. A small quantity 
 of it, (and the proportion necessary is soon learned 
 from experience,) is diluted with a little cream, 
 and this mixture is added to the rest of the 
 cream when it enters the churn. So little of 
 this colouring matter unites with the butter, 
 that it never communicates to it any peculiar 
 taste. Many other colouring matters have been 
 employed, as saffron, the seed of the asparagus ; 
 but the marigold and carrot are certainly the 
 best, and it is the latter that is chiefly used by 
 the best farmers. Alkanet root will give every 
 shade of colour to butter, from the lightest rose 
 to the deepest red, by augmenting or diminishing 
 the proportions of it. 
 
 Though the milk of the cow, when fed on rich 
 pasture during the summer months, is almost 
 always found to produce butter of a rich yellow 
 colour, this is by no means the case with every 
 animal. The goat, the sheep, the mare, and the 
 ass, fed on the same pasture in the same season, 
 
 * It can hardly be necessary to observe, that the 
 utmost attention to cleanliness, with respect to every 
 vessel and instrument used, and every operation per- 
 formed in the making of butter, is indispensably 
 requisite Any neglect of this kind is fatal to its 
 goodness. It is quite necessary that the bowls or 
 pans, after scalding, be allowed to cool before the 
 milk is put into them, 
 
 produce milk which yields butter always more I 
 or less white. When a cow has recently calved, j 
 her milk is much yellower than usual, but this ! 
 soon goes off. 
 
 Some counties or districts are particularly 
 famous for the excellency of their butter. That j 
 which is made in Essex, and well known under 
 the name of Epping butter, is the most highly 
 esteemed of any in London and its vicinity. In j 
 the more restricted use of this appellation, it is \ 
 applied only to the butter made from the milk j 
 of cows which are fed in Epping forest during j 
 the summer months, where the leaves and some 
 particular plants are thought to contribute to its 
 superior flavour. In Somerset butter of nearly j 
 the same excellency is made ; but brought to j 
 market in half pounds instead of pounds. The 
 Cambridgeshire salt-butter is held in the high- 
 est esteem ; and the London cheesemongers, by 
 washing and detaching the salt from it, often 
 sell it at a high price for fresh butter. It is 
 made nearly in the same way as the Epping but- 
 ter, and when salted, put up in firkins of 56 
 pounds. Yorkshire and Suffolk butter is very 
 little inferior to that of Cambridgeshire, and is 
 often sold in London for such. Utoxeter, iD 
 Staffordshire, has long been famous for good I 
 butter. The London cheesemongers have a sort 
 of factory there for this article. It is bought 
 by the pot, of a cylindrical form, weighing 14 
 pounds. The superior excellence of the butter 
 produced in the Highland districts of Scotland, 
 has been already remarked, and we hope ac- 
 counted for. The same delicately flavoured spe- 
 cies is said to be made on the mountains of 
 Wales, and the heaths and commons of England. 
 Some of the best Irish butter brought to Lon- 
 don, after being washed and repacked, is sold as 
 Dorsetshire and Cambridgeshire butter. The 
 salt butter of Holland is superior to that of any 
 other country ; and forms about three-fourths of 
 all the foreign butter imported into Britain. 
 
 Frauds and abuses of various kinds are prac- 
 tised in the salting and packing of butter, to [ 
 increase its bulk and weight. Pots are fre- 
 quently laid with good butter for a little way at 
 the top, and with bad at the bottom. Some- 
 times the butter is placed in upright rolis, 
 touching one another above, so as to form a 
 uniform surface, but receding so as to leave 
 empty spaces below. Sometimes tallow or hogs- 
 lard is found to constitute no small proportion 
 of what the purchaser had deemed good butter. 
 
 An act of parliament (36th Geo. III. c. 86.) 
 particularly regulates the packing, salting, and 
 selling of butter. By that statute it is enacted, 
 that every vessel made for the packing of butter, 
 shall be of good well-seasoned wood, marked with 
 the maker's name, and, by a subsequent act, his 
 place of abode ; that it shall be a tub containing 
 84 pounds, a firkin containing 56, or a half-firkin I 
 containing 28 pounds avoirdupois, and no other ; 
 that it shall be of a particular weight, and neither 1 
 
BUTTER-CUP. 
 
 253 
 
 CABBAGE 
 
 top nor bottom exceeding a certain thickness, hav- 
 ing the true weight or tare of the vessel, distinctly 
 marked upon it ; with a variety of other regula- 
 tions to prevent frauds, under severe penalties. 
 Any fraud with regard to the butter, the vessel, 
 or its marks, subjects the person concerned to a 
 forfeiture of <£30 for every such offence. See ar- 
 ticles Churning, Cow, Dairy, MiJjK.—Fourcroy, 
 Systeme des Cormoissances Chimiques, torn. ix. — 
 Deyeux and Parmentier, Memoire sur le lait. — 
 Thomson 's Chemistry. — -Anderson's Agricultural 
 Recreations, vol. iii. and iv. — Andersons Essays 
 on Agriculture. — Mid Lothian Report, 1795. — 
 Aiton's Treatise on Dairy Husbandry. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — Transactions of the 
 Highland Society. 
 
 BUTTER-CUP — botanically Ranunculus Bul- 
 hosus. A perennial, tuberous-rooted weed, of the 
 crowfoot genus. It is also popularly called crow- 
 toe, butter-flower, and upright meadow crowfoot. 
 It abounds in the meadows and pastures of Great 
 Britain, produces a beautiful shining yellow 
 flower in May and June, and is almost as com- 
 mon and as well known as the meadow daisy. 
 Its stem is ramified and usually about a foot 
 high ; and its flowers are produced at the ends 
 of the branches. The whole plant is exceedingly 
 acrid, yet loses its acridity by drying. Sheep 
 and goats eat it ; but horses, cows, and swine re- 
 
 fuse it. Bees are very fond of its flowers. See 
 the article Crowfoot. 
 
 BUTTERFLY. See Caterpillar. 
 
 BUTTERMILK. The residuum of churning, 
 or the caseous and serous portions of milk which 
 remain after the butyraceous portions are sepa- 
 rated. When the milk delivered into the churn 
 has not had its coaguluin or lapper previously 
 broken, and has not passed into any degree of 
 fermentation, the resulting buttermilk has a 
 pleasant, palatable, slightly acidulous taste, per- 
 fectly free from acridity and bitterness ; and, if 
 not placed in too high a temperature, it will re- 
 main for a long time good and agreeable, free 
 from fermentation, and without any separation 
 of its caseous from its serous elements. But 
 whenever the milk, before churning, has had its 
 coagulum broken, and has fermentingly run into 
 curds and whey, the resulting buttermilk will 
 continue to ferment, and will suffer a rapid se- 
 paration of its caseous from its serous elements, 
 and will very speedily become both unpalatable 
 and unwholesome. Good and well-made butter- 
 milk is better with a mixture of one-fourth or 
 one-fifth of its volume of water, than fermenting 
 and ill -made buttermilk without one drop of 
 water. All buttermilk which is curdly, or which 
 has a sharp or bitterish taste, ought to be re- 
 jected as totally unfit for the use of man. 
 
 c 
 
 CABBAGE, — botanically Brassica Oleracea. A 
 very diversified species of hardy, economical, 
 herbaceous plants, belonging to the cruciferous 
 family. The name cabbage is formed remotely 
 from the Latin word caput or the old French 
 word cab, both signifying a head, and proxi- 
 mately from the Italian cabuccio or the Dutch 
 kabuys, and alludes to the firm head or ball which 
 is formed upon the most conspicuous varieties of 
 the plant by the natural convolution of the leaves, 
 technically designated cabbaging or boiling. 
 
 In its botanically proper sense, the cabbage 
 comprises all the varieties and subvarieties of 
 Brassica oleracea; and, in its more stringent or 
 distinctive popular sense, it includes only such 
 subvarieties of this species as have smooth boiled 
 heads. One group of the subvarieties of Bras- 
 sica oleracea has been called B. o. acephala, and 
 includes the borecoles, the cavalier cabbage, the 
 thousand-headed cabbage, and some others; a 
 second has been called B. o. costata, and includes 
 
 principally the cove tronchuda and the chou a 
 cotes ; a third has been called B. o. bullata, and 
 includes the savoy cabbage and the Brussels 
 sprouts ; a fourth has been called B. o. botrytis, 
 and includes cauliflower and broccoli ; a fifth has 
 been called B. o. caido-rapa, and includes the J 
 kohl-rabi and the chou-rave crepue ; and a sixth 
 has been called B. o. capitata, and includes the 
 l kinds which are most strictly designated cabbages. 
 If the first and the second of these be conjoined, 
 and also the third and the last, four groups will 
 be formed with very conspicuous and easily re- 
 cognisable popular characters, — the first loose- ; 
 headed, the second boiled -headed, the third 
 corymbose-fiower-budded, and the fourth turnip- 
 rooted. In our subsequent remarks, we shall in- 
 clude under the notion of cabbage, the wild nor- 
 mal plant of Brassica oleracea, all the subvarieties I 
 of B. o. capitata, and such of the subvarieties of ! 
 B. o. acephala as are cultivated in the fields and j 
 not popularly classed with the borecoles. 
 
CABBAGE. 
 
 254 
 
 CABBAGE. 
 
 The wild cabbage grows wild on the rocky 
 shores of Great Britain, and particularly on the 
 sea-cliffs of some parts of England. Its root is 
 fusiform, and somewhat hard; its leaves are 
 smooth, glaucous, waved, irregularly lobed, some- 
 what thick or fleshy, and generally rather lyrate- 
 shaped ; its flowers are yellow, and appear from 
 April till June ; and its pods are not beaked. 
 Except for the colour and smoothness of its leaves, 
 it presents, when in flower, a considerable resem- 
 blance to charlock, Sinapis arvensis; and though 
 the parent of numerous, prominent, and valuable 
 kinds of both field and garden esculents, it is it- 
 self utterly undeserving of cultivation, and takes 
 rank with some of the most worthless softs of 
 bulky weeds. " The brassica oleracea," remarks 
 Dr. Neill, " is a plant indigenous to our rocky 
 shores ; but no one, seeing it waving its foliage 
 in its native habitat, could possibly anticipate 
 that it would ever appear in our gardens, dis- 
 guised as the ponderous drum-head or sugar-loaf 
 cabbage, or on our tables as the delicate cauli- 
 flower or broccoli. 
 
 The cow cabbage, B. o. acephala arborescent, is 
 one of the most remarkable of the field subvarie- 
 ties ; and has frequently been the subject of ex- 
 aggerated recommendation and wildly impas- 
 sioned eulogy. It also bears the names of Anjou 
 cabbage, Jersey kale, branching cabbage, Caesa- 
 rian cole, chou chevalier, chou a vaches, and 
 several other designations. Its root is large and 
 spreading ; its stem is upright, strong, and usu- 
 ally from five to ten feet high ; its branches are 
 numerous, and form a head upon the stem some- 
 what similar to that of a palm ; both its stem and 
 its branches are very hard and almost ligneous ; 
 and its leaves are small, thin, smooth, and vivid 
 green. It is extensively cultivated in Jersey and 
 in some of the north-western parts of France; 
 and is there used, not only for the forage of its 
 leaves, but for the ligneous value of its stems. It 
 seems, like almost every other subvariety of 
 Brasdca oleracea, to have undergone modifica- 
 tions from natural hybridizing; and, in conse- 
 quence, it has, under new names and with slight 
 changes of appearance, been again and again in- 
 troduced to the attention of British farmers, and 
 as frequently dismissed. The Anjou cabbage 
 form of it had great though brief popularity about 
 the middle of last century, and was introduced 
 to England from the French estates of the Mar- 
 quis of Turbilly. " This kind of cabbage," said 
 the Marquis, " is one of the most useful legumi- 
 nous plants for country people. It is greatly 
 esteemed in Anjou, Poitou, Brittany, Le Maine, i 
 and some other neighbouring provinces. In 
 Anjou, farmers are bound by their leases to plant 
 yearly a certain number of these cabbages, and 
 to leave a certain number of them standing when 
 they quit their farms. This cabbage forms a kind 
 of shrub, the great utility of which may be ga- 
 thered from this, that its leaves afford nourish- 
 ment to men and cattle, and its stalk, which is 
 
 about the thickness of one's wrist, is used, when 
 dry, for fuel." A kind of cow cabbage cultivated 
 in La Vendee, and strongly recommended about 
 eighteen years ago to the notice of British far- 
 mers, is said to attain, in its native district, a 
 height of from 12 to 18 feet. " Sixty plants of 
 it," reported Mr. Hamilton of Plymouth, "are 
 said to afford sufficient provender for one cow for 
 a year ; and as the side shoots only are to be used, 
 it lasts four years without fresh planting. A 
 square of sixty feet will contain 256 plants, four 
 feet apart, or sixteen more than four cows require 
 for a year's provender, without the aid of other 
 food." The kind of cow cabbage called the Cas- 
 sarian cole was introduced to England by Mr. 
 Fullard, and was asserted by that gentleman's 
 cowherd to be so superlatively prolific, that five 
 plants of it per day are, with proper manage- 
 ment, sufficient for ten oxen or for one hundred 
 sheep. In 1836, living plants of it six feet high, 
 and raised from seed which had been purchased 
 at a shilling a-grain, were exhibited at the Bed- 
 ford conservatory in Covent Garden ; and some 
 plants of it in the ordinary course of culture are 
 said to attain a height of twelve feet, and a cir- 
 cumference of from fifteen to twenty feet, and to 
 possess stems of sufficient strength to be used as 
 rafters for the thatched-roofs of farm-buildings. 
 Another kind of cow cabbage recently introduced 
 from France is called Chou Laponic or Lapland 
 cabbage, and differs very slightly from the other 
 kinds, yet may be considered as slightly improved. 
 
 The Jersey kale, though usually regarded as a 
 cow cabbage, seems to possess an intermediate 
 character between that subvariety and the thou- 
 sand-headed cabbage. An account of it which 
 appeared about fifteen years ago, and drew con- 
 siderable attention, says, " It is much cultivated 
 in Jersey, and attains the height of from four to 
 ten or twelve feet. The little farmers feed their 
 cows with the leaves, plucking them from the 
 stem as they grow, and leaving a bunch or head at 
 the top. The stems are very strong, and used for 
 roofing small out-buildings; and after this purpose 
 is answered, and they are become dry, they are 
 used for fuel. When the gathering of the leaves 
 is finished at the end of the year, the terminating ; 
 bud or head is boiled, and said to be particularly 
 sweet." But all the eulogistic accounts of the 
 Jersey kale and of the several kinds of true cow 
 cabbage have been found by experiment to bo 
 essentially fallacious and mightily deceptive. An 
 acre of common red clover, under any ordinary 
 circumstances, probably yields as large an amount 
 of nutritive matter, and quite as profitable an ag- 
 gregate return, as an acre of any average sort of 
 cow cabbage. 
 
 The thousand-headed cabbage, B. o. acephala 
 vulgaris, presents a considerable resemblance to 
 the cow-cabbage, but is more compact in its 
 head, and both rougher and darker-coloured in 
 its leaves. About 40 years ago, Mons. Lecochere 
 cultivated it to a considerable extent in the 
 
CABBAGE. 
 
 255 
 
 CABBAGE. 
 
 vicinity of Guildford, published a small tract on 
 its merits, and made strenuous efforts for its dif- 
 fusion ; and, within the last fifteen years, many 
 of the principal seedsmen of Britain have grown 
 the seed of it for sale ; yet it has obtained com- 
 paratively little favour, and is found to be less 
 valuable than the drumhead and the Scotch cab- 
 bages. — The branchy or Cavalier cabbage, B. o. 
 ramosa, is merely one of the sorts or forms of the 
 common cabbage. — All the subvarieties and kinds 
 now enumerated belong to the open-headed or 
 borecole group, and are cultivated solely for the 
 use of cattle. Some of the true borecoles, also — 
 particularly Scotch kale and German greens — 
 are occasionally grown in the fields as forage 
 crops. 
 
 The Cove tronchuda or Portugal borecole, B. o. 
 costata oblonga, has an intermediate character 
 between the borecole group and the boiled or true 
 cabbages. It is likewise called the oblong cab- 
 bage, the large-ribbed borecole, and Chou vert a 
 larges cotes. It was extensively introduced about 
 twenty years ago from Portugal ; and is cultiva- 
 ted principally in the neighbourhood of Bragan- 
 za. Its usual height is nearly two feet ; its head 
 is loose and open ; its leaves are large and rugose, 
 and its costse, cotes, or midribs, are large, thick, 
 and almost white, and branch into whitish veins. 
 Its heart or central part is tender, very delicate, 
 agreeably flavoured, and free from the coarseness 
 which often belongs to the common cabbage ; and 
 the ribs of its exterior and larger leaves, when 
 divested of the thin green parts, and well boiled, 
 make a good dish, somewhat resembling sea-kale. 
 This plant, however, is too delicate to be culti- 
 vated in the fields, and even too tender to be 
 cultivated as winter-greens in the garden ; and, 
 as to at once its habits, its culture, its uses, and 
 its economical value, it has a far closer relation 
 to cauliflower and sea-kale than to borecoles and 
 true*cabbages. — The common large-ribbed bore- 
 cole, or Chou a, grosses cotes, B. o. costata vulgaris, 
 holds the same intermediate place between the 
 true borecoles and the true cabbages as the pre- 
 ceding.— The dwarf cove tronchuda is simply a 
 modified form of the Portugal borecole, growing 
 to the height of eighteen inches, and producing 
 sprouts. 
 
 All the boiled or true cabbages are distinguish- 
 ed by the plainness and smoothness of ther leaves, 
 and by their habit of so bundling together all 
 their leaves except the outer ones as to form a 
 compact, hard, blanched, globular or roundly- 
 conical head. The drumhead or depressed sub- 
 variety, B. o. capitata depressa, and the great 
 round Scotch subvariety, B. o. capitata sphoerica, 
 are generally esteemed the most suitable for ex- 
 tensive field cultivation. The York subvariety, 
 B. o. capitata elliptica, and the conical or sugar- 
 loaf subvariety, B. o. capitata conica, are suitable 
 for both the field and the kitchen-garden. The 
 York, in particular, has a very wide range of ad- 
 aptation, exists in a considerable number of forms 
 
 or sub-subvarieties, and possesses an eminent 
 degree of aggregate excellence. The best early 
 York combines all the best qualities of the cab- 
 bage, — firmness of boiling, compactness of heart, 
 sweetness of flavour, convenience of size, hardi- 
 ness of habit, and facility of culture. — The red 
 subvariety, B. o. capitata rubra, is strongly char- 
 acterized by the deep purple colour of its leaves ; 
 and, for the most part, is cultivated only in small 
 quantities in the kitchen garden, to be prepared 
 and used as a pickle. The Vanack cabbage is an 
 old kind, which fell into almost total neglect, and 
 has recently been re-introduced to notice. It 
 may, by means of timely sowings, be always in 
 season ; and it makes excellent spring coleworts, 
 becomes very early a white-hearted cabbage, 
 pushes fine sprouts from the stump after the 
 heads are cut away, and is inferior in quality to 
 few of the best cabbages. Other generally known 
 kinds, and even distinct subvarieties of cabbage, 
 are somewhat numerous ; and kinds slightly 
 marked, obscurely known, evanescent in char- 
 acter, or merely local in cultivation, must, from 
 the powerfully hybridizing tendency of the genus, 
 be absolutely multitudinous. A good selection 
 is the following ; — for field or cattle crops, the 
 drumhead, the great round Scotch, the great 
 American, and the large round winter ; for pick- 
 ling, the red Dutch, and the great drumhead ; 
 for early spring garden crops, from April till 
 June, the small early dwarf, the early dwarf 
 York, the Eastham, and the dwarf sugarloaf ; for 
 general summer garden crops, the large early 
 York, the large sugarloaf, the Battersea, the Pen- 
 ton, the Antwerp, the Russian, and the imperial ; 
 and for general autumn garden crops, the oblong 
 hollow, the long-sided hollow, and the large hol- 
 low sugarloaf. 
 
 Almost any soil, provided it be exposed to the 
 full influence of light and air, and be not shaded 
 or stifled by shrubs, trees, or buildings, is suit- 
 able for the growth of cabbages ; and many a 
 soil which is too stiff for the profitable cultiva- 
 tion of turnips is eminently adapted to a rotation 
 comprising cabbages, beans, and wheat. But the 
 most suitable soil for cabbages is a sound, mellow 
 loam, of the peculiar' quality and texture usually 
 designated fat or unctuous, having silex in very 
 large proportion, in extremely minute division, 
 and combined with a greater degree of alumi- 
 nous earth than in most common, gritty soils. 
 Yet the unctuousness of fat loam is occasioned 
 more by the comminuted state of its silex, than 
 by any considerable intermixture of alumina or 
 calcium ; for some unctuous loams, possessing 
 thorough adaptation to the growth of cabbages, 
 have been found, on analysis, to contain not more 
 than five or six per cent, of clayey matter, and 
 scarcely one grain of chalk. Excellent land for 
 the field cultivation of cabbages is either wet 
 sandy loam, or a deep clay in a moist and almost 
 marshy situation ; but either of these — or indeed 
 any description of land for cabbages — requires to 
 
CABBAGE. 
 
 CABBAGE 
 
 be profusely enriched and thoroughly incorporated 
 with spit dung or with some of the best kinds of 
 composts, and will also yield a fair return for a 
 subsequent dressing with the drainings of the 
 stable or with other liquid manure. 
 
 All the kinds of cabbage are sown in spring to 
 boll and be used in the autumn and winter of 
 the same year ; and again in the end of summer 
 or beginning of autumn, to boll and be used 
 in the spring and early summer of next year. 
 Most cabbage - growing farmers in the south 
 and centre of England, plant a succession in 
 April and May, and even till the end of June, 
 so as to have a constant supply of fresh plants 
 up to the time of their beginning to run to 
 seed. The best time for sowing with a view 
 to afford supplies in spring is from the 6th till 
 the 12th of August in the southern and central 
 counties of England, and from the 15th till the 
 30th of July in the north of England and south 
 of Scotland ; and the best time for sowing with a 
 view to afford supplies in autumn is toward the 
 close of March, or in the early part of April. 
 Plants from a sowing early in July are liable to 
 run to seed in the spring ; and plants from a 
 sowing in the latter part or even middle of Au- 
 gust seldom acquire sufficient strength to resist 
 the rigours of winter. 
 
 Cabbages, for growth in the garden, and even 
 for growth in the field, are usually raised in seed- 
 beds, and afterwards transplanted. The soil for 
 a seed-bed ought to be moved to the depth of a 
 few inches, and made very fine. The line for 
 indicating the drill is strained tight ; the drill is 
 cut by drawing the angle of a hoe in the direc- 
 tion of the line, with its edge resting against it ; 
 the depth of the drill is an inch or even less ; 
 the bottom of the drill is gently compressed into 
 a smooth grooved surface, by means of the cylin- 
 drical back of a wooden rake, or of a long, smooth, 
 slender pole such as the handle of a rake ; the 
 seeds are scattered, as regularly as possible, along 
 the bottom ; a mixture of two pounds of powdered 
 quicklime, one pound of coal-soot, and one ounce 
 of flowers of sulphur is dusted over the seeds, as 
 a protection from the attacks of insects; and 
 the drill is filled up with fine soil, and made firm 
 and even by pressure with the flat of the spade. 
 If the ground be in a somewhat moist condition, 
 and the weather be somewhat showery, nothing 
 more needs to be done ; but when the soil, at the 
 proper time for sowing, happens to be dusty or 
 very dry, some artificial aids to germination must 
 be brought into requisition both before and after 
 the sowing. The intended seed-bed, in this latter 
 case, should be copiously watered on each of the 
 three nights preceding the sowing ; mats should 
 be thrown over it during the intervening days : 
 and, if sunshine be clear and hot, the mats should 
 be used till the seeds vegetate. The ordinary 
 sprinklings which are usually termed waterings 
 will be of little or no use to sowings in arid soil ; 
 and the method of previous drenchings, and of 
 
 covering with mats, besides being quite effective, 
 has the advantage of inducing very rapid ger- 
 mination. The sowing ought to be thick, for the 
 several purposes of a precaution against the 
 inertness of a portion of the seeds, a provision 
 against the accidents to which the young plants are 
 liable, and a means of defeating slugs and other 
 tiny foes by gorging them with food. Yet for 
 the last of these purposes, the additional means 
 may be used of sprinkling the young plants with 
 the mixture recommended for dusting the seeds, 
 or of covering the spaces of soil between the 
 drills with dry saw-dust or chaff. When the 
 first true leaves appear, and acquire a little 
 strength; most of the danger from accidents 
 and animal attacks is over, and the young plants 
 ought to be so thinned out as to stand at dis- | 
 tances of an inch asunder ; and as they advance 
 in growth, they ought to be further thinned to 
 distances of two inches asunder, and the spaces 
 between the rows ought to be slightly hoed, in 
 order to keep the whole bed free from weeds. 
 
 The planting or transplanting of cabbage is an 
 operation of prime importance to the culture, 
 whether in the garden or in the field, and re- 
 quires a little nicety in the performance. Cab- 
 bage-plants grown to maturity on the ground on { 
 which they are sown, even in spite of the most 
 careful culture, have long unbranching roots, and 
 tall, naked, shanky stems ; and they necessarily 
 occasion the preparations and processes of sowing 
 and thinning to be dispersed over a compara- 
 tively vast breadth of surface. Transplanting 
 occasions the roots to be " stocky," or to abound 
 in short, bibulous, nutrient fibres ; it dwarfs the 
 plants, and both secures them to the soil, and 
 renders them strong and compact ; and it enables 
 the cultivator to keep a reserve of seedlings in 
 the seed-bed, and, in the event of very severe 
 weather, to protect them by coverings of mats 
 thrown over arches, formed of hoops or pliable 
 rods. The transplanting ought to be practised 
 as soon as the young plants are about three or 
 four inches high, or begin to be crowded. The 
 bed or plot for it in the garden ought to be in a 
 free open situation, and thoroughly digged, well \ 
 pulverized, and richly manured. Strong plants, 
 as nearly as possible of uniform height and ' 
 character, ought to be selected. Plants of any ' 
 free-growing or large variety ought to be planted 
 18 inches asunder from one another, in rows 18, 
 21, or 24 inches asunder ; but the small Yorks 
 will do very well at distances of 12 inches from 
 one another, in rows 16 or 18 inches asunder. 
 The soil must be brought closely into contact 
 with the whole of the roots, and made to take 
 distinct hold of every part of each radical fibre. 
 One method is to form a perpendicular drill 
 breastwork, as in transplanting seedling trees, 
 to place the young plants against the breastwork, 
 with their lowest fibres spread upon the bottom, 
 and to render them firm and complete the drill 
 by shovelling up the soil to a level with the sur- 
 
CABBAGE. 
 
 257 
 
 face. Another and more common method is to 
 form dibble-holes of sufficient depth to let the 
 whole root find place without being doubled up, 
 and to make deep lateral pressures with the in- 
 serted dibble at the depositing of each plant ; 
 or — when the weather is dry — to fill every dib- 
 ble-hole to the brim with soft water, and so to 
 press the soil at the depositing of the plant as 
 to puddle in and completely secure all the roots. 
 In all instances in which the making of dibble- 
 holes and the filling of them with water is not 
 practised, much good .is done by plunging the 
 roots of each plant, immediately before deposit- 
 ing it in the soil, in a thin paste of rich mould 
 and ditch water or the drainings of the dung- 
 hill. If the season of transplanting be early, and 
 the weather be warm and showery, the trans- 
 planted cabbages may, in most parts of the south 
 and centre of England, grow so rapidily as to 
 require the check of a second removal, or of 
 being raised up and reset ; but almost always in 
 the north, and under all ordinary circumstances 
 in the south, they may be left undisturbed, and 
 will be all the readier for culture at an early 
 period in spring. 
 
 Two autumnal hoeings and a moderate earth- 
 ing up must be given during the progress of the 
 cabbages' growth. If the winter prove mild, 
 they will continue, though very slowly, to grow ; 
 and if the winter prove severe, they will be 
 torpid during the prevalence of frost, and will 
 start into somewhat sudden and rapid renewal 
 of growth at the commencement of the genial 
 influences of spring. At the close of winter, the 
 spaces between the drills ought to be cleared 
 from fallen and inert leaves, and once or twice 
 digged or forked ; and when the plants indicate 
 their tendency to boiling, the space's ought to be 
 again well stirred. A few of the plants may run 
 up to seed; but the great majority, if the rules 
 of proper culture have been observed, will form 
 regular heads, and afford a considerable succes- 
 sional supply. The yellow and inert leaves will 
 spontaneously fall, or will yield to the slightest 
 jerk, and ought to be removed; but the firm, 
 green, exterior leaves, which affect an open 
 growth, or refuse to fold over the boiling, ought 
 not, by any means, to be disturbed when the 
 head is cut out, but should be left to perfect the 
 axillary buds which produce young sprouts ; and 
 these sprouts or secondary cabbages may be used 
 either as a delicious esculent of somewhat dif- 
 ferent quality from the original cabbage-heads, 
 or as cuttings for producing a supply of excellent 
 cabbages, true to the original varieties, or un- 
 deteriorated by the very common process of 
 natural hybridizing. When the sprouts are de- 
 signed to become esculent, one or at most two 
 of the best must be selected, and all the rest be 
 rubbed off; for if a considerable number are 
 allowed to grow, all will be small and compara- 
 tively worthless ; while if only one be allowed 
 to grow, it will rush rapidly to maturity, and 
 
 I. 
 
 will certainly equal, and not improbably excel, 
 the original head in both appearance and flavour. 
 When the sprouts are employed as cuttings, | 
 shoots of about five or six inches in length, are 
 gently twisted from the stem ; the lacerated heel 
 of each is trimmed perfectly smooth and even 
 with a very-sharp knife, but not shortened ; the 
 cutting, thus prepared, is very carefully deposited 
 in lightish, sandy fresh-moved loam, at such a 
 depth as to inhume the greater part of its stem ; 
 the dibble or setting-stick is, in three or four 
 places, thrust diagonally into the ground in the 
 direction of the heel, so as to fix it firmly in the 
 soil ; and a little water is then given to each 
 plant, to settle the soil closely about its stem. 
 
 The seed-bed of the August or July sowing, 
 besides furnishing the seedlings for the crop 
 which is transplanted in the latter part of au- 
 tumn and used in spring and early summer, is 
 itself an object of considerable care and value. 
 In severe winters, sometimes a considerable part, 
 and occasionally almost the whole of the trans- 
 planted crop is destroyed by frost ; and, in order 
 to provide against this serious exigency, a propor- 
 tion of the seedlings ought to be left in the seed- 
 bed. These, however, should be raised up, their 
 longest roots cut back nearly one-third, and the 
 plants reset in regular order and at proper dis- 
 tances. If two hundred seedlings remain, and be 
 made to stand four inches apart in rows which 
 are six inches asunder, a bed of little more than 
 twelve feet in length and about three feet in 
 width will contain the whole ; and, in severe 
 weather, this can be kept covered with three or 
 four garden mats, so that it will suffer no injury 
 while the transplanted crop is failing, and will 
 afford a pretty ample supply of plants for spring. 
 — One mode of protecting the transplanted crop 
 is to form deep drills or grooves with the hoe or 
 the spade, and to deposit the plants in these at 
 such a depth that the lowest leaves may stand 
 just above the soil ; and another method is to set 
 up the plots in ridges of nine inches in height, 
 and to plant the seedlings in the bottom of the 
 trenches between the ridges. But both methods 
 retard the growth of the cabbages in spring ; and 
 the latter has the additional disadvantage of pre- 
 venting the free and necessary application of the 
 hoe. 
 
 The spring sowing, as already stated, ought to 
 be made toward the close of March or in the early 
 part of April. The seed-bed for it should be pre- 
 pared and cultivated in the same manner as that 
 for the sowing of July or August ; and if these 
 two seed-beds be of due extent, and properly 
 managed, they will yield seedlings and shoots for 
 a succession of matured plants during nearly the 
 whole of the year. About the first of June, most 
 of the cabbages from the J uly or August sowing 
 may be supposed to have yielded their heads for j 
 use, and to have been left to produce sprouts 
 from their stems ; and at this time, such of the 
 seedlings of the March or April bed as are in a 
 R 
 
; ' ~ 
 
 CABBAGE. 258 CABBAGE. 
 
 proper condition to be transplanted, should be 
 carefully selected, and set in a bed of rich soil, 
 watered, and managed in exactly the same man- 
 ner as those of the July or August sowing. The 
 J seedlings which remain in the seed-bed should 
 be gently lifted, the ground stirred, cleaned, and 
 watered, and the plants reset at regular distances 
 of three or four inches asunder. If the plants be 
 multitudinous, a number of the best may, with 
 great advantage, be placed in a succession bed in 
 rows and at distances of six inches asunder ; and 
 these, not only will suffer an useful check to their 
 growth, but will acquire ramose and stocky roots. 
 I " If," says Mr. Towers, " a bed be formed and 
 ; planted for cabbaging in June, and thence every 
 ; two months, and especially if — as I must presume 
 — a previous transplantation had already been 
 made during May, it is obvious that a succession 
 of crops will be secured during every favourable 
 season till the end of October ; and I may add, 
 from positive experience, that if the weather be 
 then fine, and the succeeding winter prove open 
 and mild, any remaining stock in the seed-bed, 
 however long-shanked and ungainly they may 
 be, if set deep in the soil of a well-prepared bed, 
 may make good progress till the end of Novem- 
 ber, survive the winter, and produce excellently- 
 hearted and sweet-tasted cabbages in April. 
 Small they will be, and some perhaps will fly to 
 seed ; but those which do succeed will amply re- 
 ward the attentive care of the grower. My ex- 
 perience applies to the latitude of London, though 
 in a country far westward, and much later in its 
 productions ; but I presume that in the north 
 also, these hints may be rendered to a certain 
 extent available." 
 
 The field cultivation of cabbages is, as to prin- 
 ciple, seasons, and general rules of practice, ex- 
 actly the same as the garden cultivation ; and it 
 differs principally in less attention being given 
 to each individual plant, in the plough and the 
 horse-hoe being substituted for mere hand im- 
 plements, and in little or no care being used to 
 obtain a succession of supplies by means of nicety 
 in management. The preparatory tillage is nearly 
 the same as that for turnips, but always requires 
 deeper ploughings, and is often effected by one 
 plough following another in the furrow ; and 
 land which is clayey and wet, is very generally 
 laid in ridges of, in most instances, four furrows 
 each. When the land is so light and dry as to 
 be advantageously laid flat, the manure is usually 
 incorporated with it previous to the last plough- 
 ing ; but when it is so adhesive and moist as 
 to require to be laid in ridges, the manure, im- 
 mediately before planting, is spread in the fur- 
 rows between the bouts, and the ridges are turned 
 over upon it by being split asunder with the 
 plough. The proper distance between the drills, 
 is 2£ feet for the smaller kinds of field cabbage, 
 and 3 or 3| feet for the larger kinds ; and the 
 proper distance in the row between plant and 
 plant, is the same as the distance between the 
 
 drills ; but, in order to allow for failures and ob- 
 tain a full crop, the distance in the row at plant- 
 ing ought to be only one-half of the intended 
 final distance, — leaving the supernumerary plants 
 to be torn up when the desired number are fairly 
 rooted. A frequent method of planting is to lay 
 the land in raised drills, and to deposit the plants 
 by dibbling ; but this method permits careless or 
 bungling workmen to set many of the plants with 
 upturned radical stem or without proper pressure 
 of the soil around the radical fibres ; and it, in 
 consequence, is very generally followed by the 
 failure of a large proportion of the crop. A much 
 better method is to imitate the usual principle 
 of transplanting large quantities of seedling- " 
 trees. The plough opens, in the well-tilled land, 
 a deep and narrow furrow ; a woman or a child 
 passes along with a basketful of seedlings, places 
 them at the proper distances against the abrupt 
 side of the furrow, and gives to each a gentle 
 pressure to make it retain its proper position ; 
 the plough covers all the roots with the soil 
 turned over on its return ; a man passes along, 
 and obliquely presses his foot against the furrow 
 slice at the place of each plant ; and the plough 
 either omits the requisite intervening space, or 
 disposes it in shallower and broader furrows, and 
 then cuts the deep and narrow furrow for the 
 next row of plants. 
 
 The after-culture consists in horse-hoeing, hand- 
 hoeing, and weeding, and is essentially the same in 
 principle, appliances, and design, as that of other 
 drilled green crops. A frequent method of gather- 
 ing the crop of the boiling field kinds, is to chop 
 off their heads with a spade, leaving to each an 
 inch or two inches of its stem ; but this requires 
 to be modified with some kinds, and cautiously 
 conducted with all. The coleworts, cow-cab- 
 bages, and other open-headed kinds, may be ga- 
 thered by stripping off tier after tier of leaves 
 from the time of the plants being 12 or 20 inches 
 high, till the time of their beginning to run up 
 to seed, and may be allowed to remain on the 
 ground throughout the winter ; but the boiling- 
 headed or true cabbage kinds must be very 
 charily bereft of any leaves till the whole are cut 
 away in one head, and ought to be entirely re- 
 moved from the ground before the commence- 
 ment of winter ; for if single leaves are stripped 
 off, the process of boiling may be enfeebled or 
 prevented, — and if any portion of the crop re- i 
 main on the ground during winter, its outer [ 
 leaves are liable to become so much injured as 
 to impart a disagreeable flavour to dairy produce. | 
 
 The field cultivation of cabbages has often been ! 
 lauded as at once one of the most eligible, one of 
 the most remunerating, and one of the most 
 shamefully neglected departments of husbandry ; 
 and yet it has probably been quite as often de- 
 nounced as of doubtful expediency, of precarious 
 character, or even of wasteful and destructive 
 tendency. A judicious estimate .of its fitness for 
 Scotland — and, by parity of principle, for the 
 
CABBAGE. 
 
 259 
 
 CABBAGE. 
 
 north of England and the north of Ireland — is 
 made, in the following terms, by Mr. Lawson : — 
 " Much has been said and written recommenda- 
 tory of the cabbage tribe being more extensively 
 subjected to field culture in this country, for 
 feeding cattle, sheep, swine, and even poultry ; 
 but, judging from any trials which have been 
 made, as well as from the natural habits of the 
 whole tribe, their culture seems only likely to 
 be attended with any chance of decided advan- 
 tage on the most superior class of soils, particu- 
 larly on such as are of rather strong texture, and 
 where an abundant supply of manure can be 
 had ; and even in many such cases, it is ques- 
 tionable how far they ought to be preferred to 
 turnips, over which, however, they possess the 
 advantage of improving rather than deteriorat- 
 ing the quality of the milk of cows fed upon 
 them, and also of growing freely on lands which 
 are too stiff in texture for the growth of any 
 sort of turnips." A crop of open-headed cab- 
 bages has also the advantage of being easily ac- 
 cessible during frost and snow ; and a crop of 
 any kind of cabbages is almost certain to be 
 more valuable than an average crop of turnips, 
 under the present system of turnip-culture in 
 the south and centre of England. Cabbage- 
 culture on the whole, however, requires an un- 
 usual combination of warmth and moisture, in- 
 curs much risk from drought and insects, and is 
 both exhausting to the soil and drastic upon the 
 farmer's capital ; and, in consequence, it con- 
 tinues to be quite unknown in the field-hus- 
 bandry of many districts of Great Britain, and, 
 except in comparatively rare instances, is not 
 conducted upon an extensive scale in any. Yet 
 Arthur Young, in his survey of Suffolk, says, 
 that " he has seen from 40 to 70 acres of cab- 
 bages on a farm, every year, for several years ;" 
 and Mr. Marshall, in his Rural Economy of the 
 Midland Counties, says, " Among the ram-breed- 
 ers of Leicestershire, cabbages may be said to be 
 already established as a prevalent crop, and there 
 is one man within this district who has grown 
 ten, twelve, or fourteen acres a-year, for many 
 years past." One reason why cabbages have ac- 
 quired the reputation of being a very exhausting 
 crop, is the censurable practice of leaving the 
 roots and a considerable portion of the stems for 
 a considerable time in the ground, and of there- 
 fore allowing them to throw out sprouts, and to 
 rob the soil of a large portion of its most nourish- 
 ing juices ; and another reason is the equally 
 censurable practice of permitting some of the 
 open-headed kinds to run up into flower-stems, 
 and in consequence to act most impoverishingly 
 upon the soil. Cabbages are much relished by 
 cattle ; and, when used with some good hay, 
 either for stall-feeding or for the dairy, they are 
 found to be very decidedly nutritious, whole- 
 some, and economical. They are better liked 
 than turnips by hogs, and are well adapted to 
 the reaiing of calves and the feeding of broken- 
 
 mouthed sheep and cattle. According to Mr. 
 Sinclair's analyses, one pound of drumhead cab- 
 bage contains 430 grains of nutritive matter and 
 280 grains of fibre, one pound of early York cab- 
 bage contains 430 grains of nutritive matter and 
 312 grains of fibre, one pound of purple borecole 
 contains 448 grains of nutritive matter and 1,120 
 grains of fibre, and one pound of Kohl-rabi con- 
 tains 251 grains of nutritive matter and 360 
 grains of fibre ; and the average amount of the 
 nutritive matter of cabbages is superior to that 
 of common turnips in the proportion of 215 to 
 160, and inferior to that of Swedish turnips in 
 the proportion of 215 to 220. 
 
 Single cabbages are frequently obtained of so 
 great size as to weigh thirty or even forty pounds ; 
 but the average cabbages of a crop, even on the j 
 best soil and under the best culture, can rarely 
 be produced of one -third of that size. If an ! 
 average of twenty pounds could be obtained, and | 
 a space of one square yard were assigned to eacli ! 
 plant, and no blanks to occur from careless plant- j 
 ing, bad culture, or the attacks of disease, the 
 produce per acre would amount to the magnifi- 
 cent figure of forty-three tons ; but the actual 
 average produce amounts in common estimation 
 to only thirty tons, and probably amounts, in 
 most circumstances, to not more than twenty 
 tons. — When cabbages are removed late in au- 
 tumn, or early in summer, the valuation for 
 them, at the quitting of a farm, is the same as 
 for turnips drawn and consumed elsewhere than 
 upon the field ; but when they are allowed to re- 
 main so long as to rob the land of a portion of 
 its sustenance, they suffer a deduction according 
 to the discretion of the valuers. — A method of 
 cultivating cabbages as a joint crop with beans, 
 is noticed in our article on Bean. 
 
 Cabbages are subject to the same diseases as \ 
 turnips, both from the attacks of insects upon 
 the young plants, and from the formation of an- ; 
 bury in the roots; and they are subject, in their 
 advanced state, to a fearful amount of devasta- j 
 tion from the caterpillars of two species of but- 
 terflies. See the articles Turnip-Fly, Anbury, j j 
 and Catterpillar. A disease in the roots of cab- j j 
 bages, known to all cultivators under the name j 
 of clubbing, is occasioned by the deposition of j j 
 the eggs of an insect at the junction-joint of the 
 roots and the stem. The organization is dam- i 
 aged, the flow of the sap is partially arrested, the ! 
 bottom of the stem swells, and the plant becomes j 
 sickly, and cannot grow to maturity. This dis- I 
 ease occurs principally on ground which has been j 
 frequently cropped with cabbages; and seldom 
 or but mildly makes its appearance on land which : 
 is cropped with a many-membered rotation. One ! 
 preventive or cure of it is to mix the top-soil j 
 with a half-inch stratum of charcoal dust ; an- j 
 other is to apply quicklime and withhold man- j 
 ure ; a third is to trench the land, and expose it 
 in ridges to the frosts of winter ; and a fourth 
 and most effectual is to combine the last of these 
 
CAGE-GATE. 
 
 with a succession of two or three years cropping 
 of totally different vegetables. Ducks and other 
 fowls afford good assistance in clearing the ground 
 of slugs ; and hand-picking must be practised for 
 taking away caterpillars. 
 
 Cabbage-seed is so exceedingly liable to be 
 affected by natural hybridization that the saving 
 of any specimen of it, perfectly true to its sub- 
 variety, is a work of some nicety. The usual 
 method is to select a few fine plants, and to 
 transplant them to the head in some spot as re- 
 mote as possible from all other plants of the 
 brassica genus; and this method is sometimes 
 modified by selecting for them the centre of a 
 field of wheat or some very similarly situated spot. 
 — The seed retains its vegetative power for three 
 or more years ; yet the seed of the immediately 
 preceding season ought always to be preferred ; 
 and whenever seed of even two years old is used, 
 it ought to be tested by a specimen-sowing of it 
 in a flower pot, exposed to very genial heat. A 
 failure of the seed-bed may occasion a serious 
 loss of time, and ought to be carefully prevented. 
 An ounce of seed sown broadcast is sufficient for 
 a seed-bed of forty square feet ; and less is suffi- 
 cient, when sown in drills, six or seven inches 
 asunder. Half a pound of seed will produce 
 more plants than can be grown upon an acre. 
 
 When cabbages are given to milk-cows, all 
 leaves which are not perfectly sound ought to be 
 carefully stripped off, and appropriated to pigs or 
 to store cattle. When cabbages are given to 
 sheep or cattle, they ought to be sliced in the 
 same manner as beet-root or turnips ; and when 
 given for fattening bullocks, they ought to be 
 combined with oil-cake. A proper method of 
 giving them sliced to sheep, is in troughs either 
 on the field in which the cabbages grow, or on 
 any grass-land which requires to be manured 
 with the sheep's droppings. When boiled-headed 
 cabbages cannot all be successionally used before 
 the commencement of winter, the portion which 
 remains on the field must be gathered at one 
 harvesting, and may be stored somewhat in the 
 manner of turnips, but they cannot be long pre- 
 served from destructive fermentation. — Don's 
 Dictionary of Botany. — Dr. NeilVs Fruit, Flower, 
 and Kitchen Garden. — Horticultural Magazine. — 
 Baxter's Agriculture. — Marshall's Midland Coun- 
 ties. — Marshall's West of England. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — Dawson's Agriculturist's 
 Manual. — Catalogue of the Highland Society's 
 Museum. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society. — Magazine of Domestic Economy. — Doyle's 
 Husbandry. — Bayldon on Rents and Tillages. — 
 Loudon's Works. — Randall's Semi-Virgilian Hus- 
 bandry. — Sproide's Agriculture. — Low's Agricul- 
 ture. — Gardener's Magazine. — Miller's Dictionary. 
 — British Husbandry. — Rham. — Young. — Mawe. 
 
 CAGE-GATE. A small gate traversing be- 
 tween two shutting-posts, and subtended by a 
 small angular space enclosed with paling. It is 
 
 CALAKDRA. 
 
 comparatively expensive in construction ; yet it 
 is specially convenient for the transit of infirm 
 or careless persons, as it cannot be so left open as 
 to permit the passage of a cow or sheep. 
 
 CALANDRA. A genus of coleopterous insects, 
 of the curculio tribe. They possess more bad in- 
 terest to the English farmer than any other genus 
 of weevils. Their antennse are inserted behind 
 the middle of the rostrum, and are eight- jointed 
 and geniculated; the terminal joint of the an- 
 tenna) is a large knob, and the six succeeding 
 joints are short ; the rostrum is long, and slightly 
 bent ; the thorax is narrower before than behind, 
 and somewhat long and depressed ; and the ab- 
 domen is pointed at the apex, and depressed in 
 the body, and longer than the elytra. 
 
 Two species, Calandra palmarum and Calandra 
 oryzce, make fearful devastation upon respectively 
 the pith of palms and the grain of rice, in hot 
 countries. But the grain- weevil species, Calandra 
 granaria, possesses main interest to Britons, and 
 is notorious for its frequent appalling havocs 
 upon the stored produce of our corn-fields. Its 
 antennae are scarcely longer than the head and 
 the rostrum; the terminal joint of its antennae 
 is a somewhat ovate club, and the radical joint 
 so elongated as, when bent backwards, to reach 
 to the thorax; its rostrum is rather long; its 
 thorax is elongate in body, and a little narrowed 
 in front, and is covered with large oblong punc- 
 tures ; its elytra do not quite cover the abdomen, 
 and are marked with deep lines, faintly punctured 
 in the bottom ; its legs are rusty red and rather 
 short ; its entire length is nearly two lines ; and 
 its prevailing colour is pale when it emerges from 
 the pupa state, and brown or pitchy when it 
 attains maturity. The larva is a small whitish 
 worm, about a line in length, comprising nine 
 segments, the body soft, the head harder, and the 
 only external organs a pair of strong jaws. The 
 pupa is white and somewhat transparent, and 
 lies within the envelope of a grain of wheat 
 nearly like the kernel of a nut within the shell. 
 The rapidity of the transmutations, or the dura- 
 tion of the several states preceding the perfect 
 one, is greatly influenced by temperature, and 
 therefore varies in different countries, and in any 
 one country in different seasons. But on the 
 average, about forty or forty-five days transpire 
 between the period of fecundation and the evolu- 
 tion of the perfect beetle ; and the larger propor- 
 tion of this time is consumed in the larva state. 
 The insect is fearfully abundant in the south of 
 France ; it is also disastrously plentiful in all 
 the southern counties of England ; but it 
 gradually decreases in number toward the centre 
 and the north of England ; and it becomes so 
 comparatively scarce as not to perpetrate any 
 very serious mischief in Scotland. The fecundity 
 of the female is so vast that, in a single season, 
 upwards of 23,000 individuals may descend from 
 one mother ; so that when the breeders are 
 
 2G0 
 
CALANDRA. 
 
 numerous, the progeny may amount to such 
 countless millions of millions as almost to possess 
 the power of an Egyptian plague. 
 
 The grain-weevil inhabits granaries and other 
 places in which corn is stored. The female, with 
 her rostrum, perforates the skin of one grain, de- 
 posits an egg in the perforation, and closes the 
 aperture with a glutinous matter ; and she pro- 
 ceeds thus with grain after grain till the whole 
 of her eggs are deposited, never placing two or 
 more eggs in one grain, but using as many grains 
 as she has eggs. The larva is usually hatched in 
 the course of a few days ; and, by means of its 
 pair of jaws, it feeds upon the farina of the grain, 
 and continues to scoop it out and eat it till the 
 whole is consumed. The pupa is now evolved by 
 transformation of the larva, and lies enveloped 
 within the skin of the grain ; and when the per- 
 fect insect is matured, it gnaws a passage for 
 itself through the skin. The perfect insect also 
 feeds upon the grain, attacking grains which 
 have not been used by larvas, and eating portions 
 of their substance ; yet it does not appear to con- 
 sume much of their farina, but seems to inflict 
 damage principally by its numerous piercings and 
 fractures of their envelope. Grain which has 
 been destroyed by the weevil presents no external 
 indication of being unsound ; yet is easily de- 
 tected by its great comparative lightness; for 
 when a sample containing some of it is thrown 
 into water, all the unsound grains float on the 
 surface. 
 
 Proposed and attempted remedies against the 
 corn-weevil are numerous ; but some are elabor- 
 ate or difficult, and most involve nearly or alto- 
 gether as much loss or outlay as the very evil 
 which they are designed to remedy. The passing 
 of the grain through a winno wing-machine, as 
 nearly as possible at the time when the great 
 proportion of the insects are transforming from 
 larvae to pupae, is cheaper and easier than any 
 other proposed method ; and, if it were found to 
 throw away all the damaged grains in the manner 
 of chaff or light corn, it might, in the course of 
 a season or two, completely expel the insect from 
 a set of premises. The exposing of the corn to 
 heat can rarely kill the eggs or larvse without 
 raising the temperature so high as to overdry and 
 even calcine the corn. The exposing of the corn 
 to such a degree of cold as would prevent the in- 
 sects from propagating or from passing through 
 their transformation, might be successful if a 
 sufficient degree of cold could be steadily ob- 
 tained ; but, as free ventilation is the chief means 
 which can be employed, no such degree of cold is 
 attainable in summer, — the very season when the 
 experiment would require it. The mixing of the 
 corn with quicklime, sulphur, or any other sub- 
 stance which might be likely to nauseate or kill 
 the insects, can scarcely be attempted without 
 communicating a mischievous or deteriorating 
 taint to the corn. " Of the various schemes that 
 
 CALCAREOUS EARTH. 
 
 have been proposed," says Mr. Duncan, "the fol- 
 lowing is the most approved. When the indivi- 
 duals that have passed the winter in a torpid 
 state, are beginning to recover their activity, and 
 to move about among the corn, a small heap, 
 composed of that kind of corn to which they are 
 most partial (which is said to be barley), should 
 be placed at a small distance from the principal 
 store. The latter should then be turned over, 
 and tossed about as much as possible, at inter- 
 vals, that the weevils may be fairly disturbed and 
 put in motion. Naturally very fond of quiet, 
 and anxious to escape from such unceremonious 
 treatment, they take refuge in the undisturbed 
 heap placed as a decoy. When collected there in 
 numbers, they are speedily incapacitated for fur- 
 ther mischief by having boiling water poured over 
 them in such quantities as completely to saturate 
 the heap. Such individuals as escape to the walls 
 or elsewhere, may be swept together by a broom, 
 and easily disposed of. The corn of the decoy- 
 heap may afterwards be separated from the dead 
 insects by sifting. Even though this plan may 
 appear not to promise much in the recital, it is 
 affirmed that, in practice, it has been attended 
 with highly favourable results." 
 
 CALCAREOUS EARTH. Either carbonate 
 of lime in nearly a pure state, or an earthy mix- 
 ture of which it is one of the ingredients. Cal- 
 cium is a simple or elementary body, of a metal- 
 lic nature, nowhere naturally existing in a se- 
 parate condition, and artificially obtainable only 
 in small quantities and by a difficult process. 
 Lime or quicklime is an oxide of calcium, and is 
 usually obtained by expelling carbonic acid from 
 rocky or earthy bodies containing carbonate of 
 lime in large proportion. Carbonate of lime is 
 the chief ingredient in chalks, limestones, and 
 several kinds of marls and spars, and exists in 
 nearly a pure state in such limestones as consti- 
 tute the finest sorts of statuary marble ; and this 
 substance, whether as constituting lithological 
 strata in portions of the globe's crust, or as 
 crushed to powder and intermixed with other 
 substances in the forms of diluvium and alluvium, 
 is what mineralogists and scientific agriculturists 
 designate calcareous earth. 
 
 Some soils naturally contain such large pro- 
 portions of calcareous matter as to be themselves 
 properly and characteristically designated cal- 
 careous ; some contain it in sufficient proportion 
 for the purposes of fertility, either by natural 
 intermixture of limestone debris, chalk, shells, 
 or marl, or by artificial commixations and man- 
 urings of quicklime ; and others are nearly or 
 wholly destitute of it, and consist principally or 
 wholly of argillaceous, siliceous, or hypnotic 
 matter. The adding of calcareous earth, in the 
 form of either top-dressing or incorporated man- 
 ure, to the first of these classes of soils, would, 
 in most cases, be sheer poisoning ; the adding of 
 it to the second class must, in all cases, be regu- 
 
 261 
 
CALCULUS. 
 
 262 
 
 CALCULUS. 
 
 lated by the niceties of judicious husbandry ; and 
 the adding of it to the third is, in almost every 
 case, essential to the extraction from them of re- 
 munerating or even meagre crops. 
 
 AU the calcareous earths, when burnt or cal- 
 cined, become friable, and fall into a white pow- 
 der ; they evolve strong heat, and fall more or 
 less readily into powder, if, after being calcined, 
 they are drenched with water; they cannot by 
 themselves be vitrified in a close fire ; they aug- 
 ment, in their burnt state, the causticity of pot- 
 ash; and they exhibit powerful alkalinity by 
 free and copious effervescence in acids. — Cal- 
 careous earth exists nearly pure, in the form of a 
 powder, in moors, at the bottom of lakes, and in 
 the fissures of sandstone quarries,'in Oxfordshire, 
 Northamptonshire, and some parts of Sweden. 
 This powder is sometimes called lac luwje; it is 
 supposed to be the debris of limestone rock, pul- 
 verized by the motion of water ; it has a white 
 colour in England, and a colour varying to yel- 
 low and red in Sweden ; but it occurs in too 
 small quantities to admit of application to the 
 uses of agriculture. — Calcareous earth occurs both 
 friable and compact in the form of chalk ; yet, 
 when in this form, it always contains some ad- 
 mixture of other earths, and a very large propor- 
 tion of carbonic acid. White chalk is the least 
 impure of the chalks ; and yet it contains some 
 silica, and about two per cent, of argillaceous 
 earth. — Calcareous earth occurs in a gravelly 
 form in limestone gravel, and in a compact and 
 indurated form in limestone rock. Yet, in this 
 form it always contains some proportion, and 
 sometimes a very large proportion, of siliceous 
 and argillaceous earths. Some limestones, also, 
 as the dolomites, have magnesium and not cal- 
 cium for their ultimate base, and may prove 
 very unsuitable or even poisonous succedanea 
 for calcareous manure. — Calcareous and argilla- 
 ceous earths occur combinedly in the form of 
 marls ; but they exist in such widely different 
 proportions as to have occasioned a loose general 
 classification of marls into shell marls and clay 
 marls. All true marls effervesce with acids, — 
 and the strongly calcareous proportionally more 
 than the weakly calcareous ; yet some pure clays, 
 when in a dry state, evolve a quantity of air 
 under the mere action of water, as well as under 
 the action of a liquid acid, and have in conse- 
 quence been mistaken for marls. Highly calca- 
 reous marl consists principally of the shells of 
 aquatic animals, and is often so entirely free from 
 clayey matter as to be very strictly a calcareous 
 earth. See the articles Lime, Chalk, Gypsum, 
 Marl, and Soil. 
 
 CALCIUM. See Lime. 
 
 CALCULUS. Any kind of concretion formed 
 J in any part of the body of an animal, and pos- 
 sessing some resemblance, in shape or composi- 
 I tion, to a stone. Calculi are considerably varied 
 I in their manner of formation, much varied in 
 
 their seat and effects, and exceedingly varied in 
 their composition. Some appear to be formed 
 by the action of chemical affinity, and possess the 
 character of regular crystals ; and a few of these 
 may originate in the mere chemical aggregation 
 of minute particles of their elements held in so- j 
 lution in the animal fluids, while most seem to 
 originate in the attachment of their first parti- i \ 
 cles to a fragment of some foreign body, such as j 
 a minute clot of blood or mucus, a minute piece 
 of hair, or a minute speck of insoluble mineral 
 matter. Many are formed by the mere mecha- 
 nical amassment and consolidation of heteroge- 
 neous, undissolved, mineral particles, around a 
 nucleus, or by the mechanical segregation of 
 such particles, by means of animal gluten ; and 
 some are formed by regular though diseased se- 
 cretion, the absorbent vessels drawing off all the 
 liquid elements of the matter which would have 
 constituted a healthy secretion, and leaving the 
 other elements in a sedimentary condition to 
 harden into strong consistency. 
 
 Gastric calculi occur chiefly in the rumen and 
 abomasum of cattle, sheep, and other ruminating 
 animals. The gastric calculi of cattle vary in 
 weight from a few ounces to six or seven pounds, 
 and are exceedingly diversified in composition, 
 and have generally, though not always, a some- 
 what spherical shape. " Those which are decidedly 
 peculiar to cattle," says Mr. Youatt, " are com- 
 posed entirely of hair matted together by the 
 mucous secretion from the follicular glands of the 
 stomach. Sometimes they have no distinct cen- 
 tral body ; at other times it exists in the form of 
 a bit of straw or wood, or frequently of stone or 
 iron. They exist in the rumen and in the abo- 
 masum. In the abomasum, they are composed 
 exclusively of hair, irregularly matted and held 
 together by the mucus of the stomach ; in the 
 rumen, there is generally a mixture of food or 
 earthy matter in the composition of the concre- 
 tion. When simple food mingles with the hair, 
 the ball seems to be formed by a succession of 
 concentric layers, and in the centre is a bit of 
 nail or stone ; or, if the beasts have access to 
 running water, a piece of shell often constitutes 
 the nucleus." The hair is obtained by the prac- 
 tice which cattle have of licking one another; 
 and it sometimes occasions the formation of 
 large calculi in very young cattle. Calculi which 
 contain but little hair are usually an agglutinat- 
 ed mass of earthy matter and the materials of 
 food, round a small piece of metal or some other 
 hard central nucleus; and, though formed by 
 concentric layers, they exhibit these in irregular 
 thicknesses and confused succession. Many of 
 the hard and spherical calculi of the rumen, when 
 sawn asunder, display the concentric layers in a 
 perfectly regular and beautifully marked condi- 
 tion, and are susceptible of a high degree of 
 polish. Calculi are found chiefly in unthriving, 
 lean, and sickly cattle ; but whether they are the 
 
CALCULUS. 
 
 263 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 cause or the effect of want of healthy tone in the 
 stomach, is not known. 
 
 Intestinal calculi in horses are very serious 
 affairs, occasioning obstructions, inflammations, 
 violent colics, ruptures of parts of the intestines, 
 and not infrequently death itself. The earthy 
 and heaviest kinds of them vary in weight from a 
 few grains to several pounds, and lie ensconced 
 in the cells of the colon or the deep pouch of the 
 cjecum, and assume a diversity of shape accord- 
 ing to the form of the nucleus on which they 
 gather, or of the particular cell in which they lie ; 
 and, in consequence both of the cavitous charac- 
 ter of their retreat, and of the horizontal posi- 
 tion of the whole of the animal's abdomen, they 
 can make little or no way toward the rectum, 
 but are necessarily retained in their places till 
 they become so large and heavy as to cause irri- 
 tation and oppression at every movement of the 
 animal, and eventually to produce fatal inflam- 
 mation, or to rupture the cells or membranes in 
 their vicinity. They occur most frequently in 
 millers' horses and various classes of heavy draught 
 horses, and are supposed to be, in many instances, 
 induced by combinations of bran with pulveriz- 
 ed earths and stones. Other kinds of intestinal 
 calculi, which often occur in the horses of millers 
 and brewers, have irregular shapes and tuber- 
 culated surfaces, and consist principally of the 
 filamentous portion of the grain of oats, and are 
 supposed to be occasioned by the use of poor, 
 thin, husky oats, and are sometimes known by 
 the popular designation of oat-hair calculi. Other 
 kinds, usually found in voraciously feeding 
 horses, are coarse agglutinations of the same 
 matters which compose the preceding, and of 
 pieces of stone, coal, and gravel, and of many 
 sorts of coarse and indigestible ingredients, and 
 are sometimes popularly known under the vile 
 yet not altogether inappropriate designation of 
 dung-balls. No medicinal appliance for expelling 
 or reducing the intestinal calculi of horses has 
 yet been discovered ; so that prevention, and not 
 cure, must be studied. 
 
 Urinary calculi occur in the kidneys, the blad- 
 der, and the urethra of almost all the domesti- 
 cated animals, and either constitute or occasion 
 all the symptoms which are popularly called 
 stone and gravel. They closely resemble urinary 
 calculi in man as to all their nosological charac- 
 ters, but differ considerably in their chemical 
 composition. Uric acid, in an uncombined state, 
 does not seem to occur in any ; and, even in a 
 combined state, occurs in very few. The ammo- 
 niaco-magnesian phosphate occurs principally in 
 the hog, and, with the addition of animal gluten, 
 constitutes nearly all the urinary calculi of that 
 animal. Carbonate of lime constitutes about 91 
 per cent, of the urinary calculi of the ass, 87 per 
 cent, of those of the ox, and 83 per cent, of those 
 of the horse ; and the other ingredients are prin- 
 cipally phosphate of lime and animal gluten. A 
 
 calculus which was extracted, a few years ago, 
 from the bladder of a mare in Aberdeenshire was 
 found to be eight ounces in weight, and to con- 
 sist of about 40 per cent, of carbonate of lime, 
 and about GO per cent, of animal matter, appa- 
 rently mucus of the bladder and indurated albu- 
 men. Siliceous sandy particles occasionally 
 lodge and even accumulate in the bottom of the 
 bladder of every kind of domestic animal. Nu- 
 merous small calculi frequently occur in many of 
 them, and occasion retention of urine and appa- 
 rently severe pain. Calculi of comparatively 
 great size and weight, exciting disease and even 
 inducing death, sometimes occur in various do- 
 mestic animals, particularly in the dog, the ox, 
 and the horse. 
 
 Minute calculi sometimes pass spontaneously 
 away with the urine, or, if reluctant to pass with 
 it. may be incited forward by the force of diuretic 
 medicines. But most calculi of considerable or 
 even appreciable size can be prevented from ac- 
 cumulating till they prove fatal only by one or 
 other of the delicate surgical operations called 
 lithotomy and lithotrity, — the former extracting 
 them entire through artificial incisions, and the 
 latter so breaking and triturating them as to 
 make them capable of passing with the urine. 
 The calcareous calculi of herbivorous animals, 
 however, may in many instances be reduced to 
 solution in the urine by means of injecting into 
 the bladder a weak solution of muriatic acid. 
 See the article Stoxe-in-the-Bladder. 
 
 CALENDAR. Artificial calendars, both in the 
 sense of almanacs, and in the practical and im- 
 portant sense of registers of natural appearances 
 and out-of-door work peculiar to the respective 
 seasons and parts of seasons, are now so numer- 
 ous that a mere reference to two or three of the 
 best might be quite sufficient for the purposes of 
 many of our readers. Yet a calendar of our own 
 seems indispensable both for the completeness of 
 our work, and for the guidance of such readers 
 as have not access to separate calendars. We 
 shall briefly notice some of the chief phenomena 
 and operations of each month ; yet must not be 
 considered as either depicting all the phases of 
 the seasons, or presenting a complete catalogue 
 of the duties of farming. Our calendar can affect 
 no higher aim than to exhibit meagre specimens 
 of seasonal phenomena, and suggest a few lead- 
 ing hints for connecting these with cultivation. 
 We adopt, as our average, the latitude, low situa- 
 tion, and well cultivated lands in the immediate 
 vicinity of London ; and readers may easily adapt 
 this average to their own circumstances, simply 
 by reckoning the phenomena and the operations 
 of spring four days later for every 70 miles 
 north of London, or for every 600 feet of higher 
 elevation than that of London, or for any cool- 
 ing effects of soil and exposure which may be 
 equal to the removal northward of a degree of 
 latitude. Thus a low, flat, and excellently cul- 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 264 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 tivated soil 350 miles in a straight line north of 
 London, is, in all respects, twenty days later in 
 spring than the soil to which our calendar ap- 
 plies ; an excellent arable soil, at the same dis- 
 tance north, and with a southerly exposure, but 
 having an altitude of 600 feet above sea-level, is 
 twenty-four days later ; an excellent arable soil, 
 at the same distance north, and at 600 feet of 
 altitude, but with a northerly exposure, may be 
 twenty-eight days later ; and a sour, spouty, un- 
 drained soil, situated in all respects like this 
 last, may be fully thirty-two days later. 
 
 January. — January is generally the coldest month 
 in the year. The thermometer usually ranges, in 
 this month, between 20° and 50° ; it has sometimes 
 fallen to 12° or 10°, or even so extremely low as two 
 or three degrees below zero; it has occasionally risen 
 so high as 58°, or, in one recorded instance, to 64° ; 
 and it probably has a mean height, on the average of 
 many years, of about 33°. In severe seasons, the 
 maximum of cold frequently occurs about the middle 
 of the month, and is, in many instances, followed by 
 such sudden rise of temperature and accompanying 
 fall of rain as to occasion great and mischievous 
 freshets from the melting of the snow. The barome- 
 ter, in January, has a mean range of T50 inches, and 
 a mean height of about 29-80. Snow or rain falls, in 
 the average of many years, on between 14 and 15 
 days of January; and frost prevails during a consi- 
 derable majority of the nights. The quantity of rain 
 varies between one-tenth of an inch and nearly 3| 
 inches ; and the quantity evaporated during the month 
 is about half an inch. In ordinary winters, January 
 has a great prevalence of westerly winds; and in very 
 mild winters, it is often characterized by high winds 
 from between the south-west and the north-west, 
 accompanied by frequent rains. 
 
 In the first week of January, the laurustinus con- 
 tinues to bloom from December, and sometimes so 
 many as twelve or twenty species of our ordinary 
 flowering plants are scantily and unnaturally in bloom, 
 either by prolongation from autumn or by anticipa- 
 tion of spring; in the second week, the hazel begins 
 to show its catkins, the honeysuckle begins to bud, 
 and the Christmas rose and the winter aconite burst 
 into bloomy in the third week, the chickweed and 
 the daisy expand freely into flower, and the primrose, 
 the polyanthus, and sometimes the auricula show 
 some bloom in sheltered situations ; and in the fourth 
 week, the mezereon begins to bloom, the pansey and 
 the sweet-scented violet expand, and the white but- 
 ter-bur, the sweet-scented coltsfoot, and the archangel 
 show a considerable quantity of flower. The most 
 frequent or prominent flowers and fruits of the month, 
 are, in the parterre, winter aconite, Christmas rose, 
 primrose, polyanthus, wallflower, alpine alyssum, pe- 
 riwinkle, cyclamen, violet, anemone, crocus, and 
 perennial navelwort; in the shrubbery, laurustinus, 
 arbutus, pyracantha, Glastonbury thorn, alaternus, 
 pyrus japonica, mezereon, and spurge laurel; and in 
 the greenhouse, hyacinth, jonquil, polyanthus -nar- 
 cissus, mignonette, lily of the valley, pink, rose, tulip, 
 geranium, and a profusion of Cape heaths. 
 
 In the first week of January, earthworms and 
 some species of helicidas or common garden snails 
 make their appearance; in the second week, the 
 wagtail appears, and the redbreast, the mistle- 
 thrush, and the nuthatch, make attempts at song; 
 in the third week, the lark challenges attention; and 
 in the fourth week, some common house flies appear, 
 the hedge-sparrow and the large titmouse sing, and 
 garden snails and slugs become numerous in the 
 wanner parts of the garden. "The groves maybe 
 
 voiceless; no gushes of song ring from the copse or 
 greenwood ; but the feathered creation is still active, 
 and in many spots their numbers greatly exceed those 
 of spring or summer. Urged by hunger, millions 
 upon millions,— countless multitudes, come pouring 
 down upon us from the frozen realms of the north, 
 where the sources of vegetable life are completely ! 
 locked up, and where, consequently, it is impossible 
 for them to exist. Amongst these are vast numbers 
 of the tringce (sandpipers), anatidce (ducks, swans, I i 
 &c), and a vast number of hard-billed birds, such as 
 fieldfares, redwings, &c. The great period of migra- \ 
 tion takes place from September till November, ac- 
 cording to the latitude the birds have summered in, 
 and the severity of weather experienced in the north. 
 But it is the web-footed tribe which more particu- 
 larly fall under the notice of the sportsman and the 
 naturalist in this month. The great bulk of these 
 visitants have arrived in November, but the weather 
 on the coast being still open, they resort to the sand- 
 banks and mud-flats at the debouch of large rivers, 
 where they live upon the small fish, bivalves, and 
 Crustacea, which abound there, as well as upon the 
 more tender alga? or sea-weed. The north-eastern 
 winds which come sweeping over the ocean at this 
 time drive them from the open sea, and they flock to 
 the first land they make, distributing themselves in 
 ditches, rivers, and swamps, and in very severe 
 frosts, confining themselves to large rivers or unfro- 
 zen springs. Here, the sportsman, who has no easy 
 task of it at this season, in the spots which these 
 birds frequent, may occasionally start a mallard, a 
 widgeon, a teal, a golden-eye, shoveller, pintail, or 
 other bird, and if the weather be unusually hard, a 
 wild-swan or wild-goose." 
 
 In January, the ewes of some breeds of sheep, be- 
 gin to lamb, and require an unusual degree of care. 
 In storms, deep snows, and very wet weather, sheep 
 should be baited on hay; and, during severe or pro- 
 longed frosts, they may be very advantageously fed 
 on cabbages. On enclosed farms which support stock 
 chiefly on the grasses, and do not make large provi- 
 sion in turnips or cabbages, such ewes as have in form- 
 er years lambed in January should be drawn off from 
 the flock, and put into rouen, to give early lamb. 
 Cattle which run loose in the yard or yards, should 
 be well attended to, regularly supplied with straw or 
 other provender, kept upon a dry and clean litter, 
 and always permitted access to abundance of pure 
 water. The thrashing should be so proportioned to 
 the stock of lean cattle, as to make the supply of straw 
 for the yards always sufficient, and yet equally distri- 
 buted throughout the winter. Straw for provender 
 ought to be cut into chaff, and mixed with hay; and 
 when cattle are in low condition, they should receive 
 some more nutritive food, particularly turnips, cab- 
 bages, and well-saved bean-straw. If any cows are to 
 calve in January, they ought for about a month before 
 calving, to be taken into the house from the straw- 
 yard, and baited twice a-day with potatoes, cabbages, 
 turnips, carrots, or some other varieties or mixture of 
 green food. Last year's calves should now receive 
 hay and either turnips, carrots, or potatoes, — and I 
 should be thoroughly well-fed, and kept perfectly 
 clean by means of litter; for, if otherwise treated, 
 they will be arrested in their growth, and will not de- 
 rive adequate advantage from even the best feeding 
 of the following summer. Yearling calves should 
 feed apart from two-year-old steers and heifers, for 
 they require more nourishing food. The winter fat- 
 tening of cattle is at the busiest in January; and may 
 be conducted either by earn ing turnips and other 
 green food to a very sound and dry grass-field, or by 
 placing the food in mangers under open sheds in the 
 farm-yard, or by giving it in the house in the man- 
 ner of strict stall-feeding. The first of these methods I 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 265 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 requires dryness of climate, shelteredness of situation, 
 j | and veiy eminent soundness of pasture, and hence 
 i can very seldom be advantageously practised; and 
 
 the second and the third require a profuse use of 
 I litter, and the most thorough attention to cleanliness 
 
 and ventilation. January is a principal season for 
 ! the bringing forth, the rearing, and the fattening of 
 j swine, yet more for the first of these than for the se- 
 j ! cond and the third. A sow and her pigs must be 
 I kept in a sty, and fed with dairy- wash out of cisterns, 
 | and with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, cabbages, or 
 
 other food stored for them in autumn; and they 
 | ought always to be well littered, and perfectly clean. 
 I Though winter pigs are often pronounced unprofit- 
 j I able, they will certainly yield a fair return if treated 
 
 with great care, and fed with due regard to economi- 
 I cal accumulations from the dairy and the store-houses, 
 i Last year's early pullets begin to lay about the first 
 
 of January, or even a few days earlier; and such as 
 ! seem backward to lay should be fed with buckwheat 
 | or barley. 
 
 I A most important general rule in farming is to keep 
 horses constantly employed; it is altogether indis- 
 pensable in order to avert loss from the great expense 
 j of pufthasing and feeding horses ; and in no month 
 ! of the year, is it so difficult of observance, or does it 
 ! require such multiplicity of accommodation, as in 
 January. The soil is, for the most part, either 
 bound up with frost or saturated with moistm*e ; yet 
 when at any time open and comparatively dry, it may 
 be worked with the plough. During open though 
 wettish weather, all practicable carting upon roads 
 may be done, particularly in communicating with the 
 market-towns, and in bringing home distant manures ; 
 during frost, the carting of manure on the farm it- 
 self, and especially the removal of composts, ought 
 to be performed ; and during either open or frosty 
 weather, the bringing home of fuel and of mineral 
 manures, and cart-work over all the most facile parts 
 of the farm may be extensively practised. January 
 is eminently a season of thrashing, whether with ma- 
 chinery or with the flail; and it is also a principal 
 season for hedging, ditching, and draining. See the 
 articles Thrashing, Fences, and Draining. In 
 peculiar circumstances, as when the weather is very 
 open and genial, or when a dry January follows a 
 wet December, or when the land, throughout the 
 preceding autumn, was saturated with moisture, a 
 field sowing of Mazagan beans may be made in Jan- 
 ! uary. Woodlands should now be drained and open- 
 ed ; and woods and coppices which are not valuable 
 for their bark may be felled. All water-cuts made 
 in autumn for keeping arable fields dry should now 
 be examined and freed from obstructions of weeds, 
 ice, or snow. Lime-burning, when part of the eco- 
 nomy of a farm, may be performed at any time in 
 January, or throughout the winter. If snow be not 
 very deep and falling, the quarrying of stones and 
 the building of enclosures for mountain improvement 
 may proceed. 
 
 February. — The weather of February in any one 
 year may be extremely variable; and" that of this 
 month in different years sometimes exhibits the most 
 discrepant and even opposite characters. In a gen- 
 eral view, it is a fitful succession of frosts and thaws, 
 of drenching rains, violent storms, and genial calms ; 
 yet it may in one year be nearly all stern frost, — and 
 in another, nearly all genial and vernal mildness. In 
 six years, between 1807 and 1839, it was intensely 
 cold ; in other six, it was extremely rainy and tem- 
 pestuous ; and in four, it was calm, pleasant, and com- 
 paratively dry and warm. The thermometer, in dis- 
 | tricts near London, has been recorded to range, in 
 ! February, between 60° of Fahrenheit and 5° below 
 zero. The barometer has a mean range of 1*43, and 
 a mean height of about 29 85. The depth of rain is 
 
 exceedingly variable, not only in different years, but 
 in different and nearly- adjacent localities"; and the 
 amount of evaporation is very nearly, if not quite, an 
 inch. The prevailing winds of the month, in severe 
 seasons, are from between north and north-west; 
 and in mild seasons, from between south and west. 
 
 The particular character of the weather regulates, 
 in a great measure, the classification or grouping of 
 the birds which visit us. When frost prevails, our 
 rivers and ponds continue to be frequented by the 
 different kinds of the duck tribe; and our shores and 
 sandbanks are the resort of innumerable waders, in- 
 cluding the sandpipers, the tolani, and others. But 
 when mild though showery weather prevails, our 
 fields are visited by numbers of vermivorous birds, 
 and particularly by peewits and plovers ; — and in the 
 first week, larks, throstles, and chaffinches sing, 
 earth-worms appear on the surface of the soil, and 
 bees, gnats, and numerous small insects leave their 
 retreats or achieve their final transformations, and 
 sport in the sunbeams and among the opening vege- 
 tation; in the second week, linnets are numerous, 
 and geese begin to lay; in the third week, house- 
 sparrows begin to build, and rooks begin to pair; 
 and in the fourth week, the wood-lark and the black- 
 bird sing, and the partridge begins to pair. 
 
 In the first week, when the weather is mild, and 
 has been preceded by a mild January, the polyan- 
 thus, the primrose, the snowdrop, the violet, the 
 whin, and the white deadnettle are in flower, and 
 several flowering shrubs, particularly the honey- 
 suckle, the elder, and several kinds of roses show 
 bloom ; in the second week, the female catkins of the 
 hazel appear, and the dandelion and the creeping 
 crowfoot begin to flower; in the third week, the 
 catkins of many of the willows and poplars appear, 
 and the stems of' crown imperials and early tulips push 
 boldly up, in the open ground, toward their flowering 
 condition ; and in the fourth week, groundsel, wood- 
 strawberry, and several species of veronica are in 
 flower, and some varieties of gooseberry - bushes, 
 peach-trees, apricot-trees, and thorn-trees, inclusive 
 of the common hedge hawthorn, begin to expand 
 their buds. — The most conspicuous blooms, in the 
 parterre, are crocuses, snowdrops, anemones, prim 
 roses, polyanthuses, wallflowers, cyclamens, Christ 
 mas roses, periwinkles, alpine alyssums, perennial 
 adonises, daisies, daffodils, hepaticas, Persian irises, 
 and dog-tooth violets; in the open shrubbery, lau- 
 rustinus, daphne mezerium, rhododendron atrovirens, 
 cydonia japonica, pyrus japonica, phillyrea, cornelian 
 cherry, almond, cherry plum, and Glastonbury thorn ; 
 and, in the greenhouse and conservatory, hyacinths, 
 tulips, polyanthus - narcissus, primula verticillata, 
 pinks, mignonette, lily of the valley, geraniums, 
 cinerarias, roses, some amarylidas, enkianthus quin- 
 queflora, rhododendrons, azaleas, kalmias, camelias, 
 five or six kinds of acacias, and many kinds of Cape 
 heaths. 
 
 Stock ewes now begin to lamb, and must be very 
 carefully attended. The shepherd ought, throughout 
 the lambing season, to sleep close to the flock, that he 
 may be ready to tend and assist any ewes which he 
 sees near lambing, and may, if necessary, give the 
 lambs some warm cow's milk. The ewes ought to be 
 kept away from wet yards, and well attended to as to 
 at once warmth, cleanliness and proper feeding. 
 Ewes which have lambed should be drawn from the 
 flock, and placed upon rouen or new grass pasture. 
 Sheep which are feeding on turnips ought now to re- 
 ceive oil cake, not only for their own sake, but for the 
 benefiting of the land. All live stock now require 
 special attention; for, in February and March, they 
 are usually more liable to disease and damage than in 
 any other part of the year. 
 
 Beans, pease, vetches, cabbages, spring wheat and 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 266 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 black oats may now be sown. The latter end of 
 the month, if the weather be open, is the proper 
 time for sowing kohl-rabi. Part of the preparation 
 for sowing carrots in next month should now be 
 made. The general farm labour, for the economical 
 employment of both men and horses, which was 
 proper for January, should be continued throughout 
 February, — ploughing during open weather, and 
 thrashing and carting during frost. If north-east 
 winds begin to blow toward the end of the month, 
 the paring and burning of grass land, when the prin- 
 ciple of it has been approved and adopted, should be 
 carried into practice. Such borders of ploughed 
 fields as are encumbered with the clearings of ditches 
 or with accumulations of soil by the plough and the 
 harrows, or such as are in any other way raised and 
 irregular, and especially such as are overrun with 
 rank weeds and straggling bushes, ought now to be 
 brought into an orderly condition, clean, level, and 
 in perfect keeping with the well-tilled expanse of 
 the general surface of the fields. Underwood, as in 
 the preceding month, may still be very profitably 
 felled. The instant any field is thoroughly ploughed, 
 care must be used to keep it free from stagnant 
 water and from the desolating sweep of heavy rains, 
 by means of water-furrows. Top-dressings of wood- 
 ashes, lime, malt-dust, or other appropriate surface 
 manure, may now be spread upon grass lands; but 
 all such top-dressings ought to consist principally 
 of alkaline and earthy elements, or to be of a nature 
 which will sink into the soil, there to undergo slow 
 chemical decomposition, and not be speedily dis- 
 sipated into aeriform conditions by lying in immediate 
 contact with the atmosphere. Top-dressings of salt, 
 wood-ashes, soot, or any similar manure, which pos- 
 sess the double property of aiding the crop and killing 
 the grub, may now be given also to green wheat. 
 
 Great care ought to be used throughout February, 
 to keep the beasts of the farm -yard constantly, 
 cleanly, and abundantly, littered; and if the stock 
 of straw or other litter upon the farm itself appear 
 to be insufficient or stinted in quantity, agreement 
 ought immediately to be made with some more 
 provident neighbour for a regular weekly supply. 
 Broken fences in boggy or swampy situations, may 
 now be mended with truncheons of alder or of the 
 most suitable kinds of willow or poplar; and either 
 narrow belts along the sides of such hedges, or spots 
 and expanses of such open swampy ground as cannot 
 speedily be drained and tilled, may now be planted 
 with osiers and other sorts of willows. Irrigated 
 meadows now require nice attention; for if the water 
 be permitted to overflow them for many days in suc- 
 cession, a white scum of a nature very destructive to 
 the grass is generated; and if the water be then 
 turned off, and the land exposed in its wet state to 
 a night of severe frost, a large proportion of the 
 tender grass will be destroyed. If a farmer have 
 anywhere a piece of very deep, rich, dry, sound, 
 friable, sandy loam, very deeply ploughed in autumn, 
 and thoroughly pulverized and mellowed by the 
 action of the winter's frost, he may, in favourable 
 weather, about the 12th of February, sow it, if he 
 pleases, with parsnips, — the most valuable of all the 
 roots which a farmer can cultivate. If land designed 
 for a potato crop be tolerably dry, even though it was 
 well tilled in autumn, it may now receive a plough- 
 ing preparatory to the planting of the crop in the 
 beginning of March. The lime-kiln may be plied in 
 way part of February ; and lime may be carted and 
 spread whenever the carts can move without damage 
 to wet soils. The cropping of pollards for fuel 
 should cease toward the end of February. The sow- 
 ing of sainfoin should, if possible, be completed in 
 February, and ought never to be deferred beyond the 
 beginning of March. 
 
 March. — March is usually characterized as the 
 windiest month in the year; yet it very frequently 
 partakes of the same fickleness, uncertainty, and 
 contrasts of character as February. Storms and 
 strong gales occasionally blow at all times of the 
 month; and tempestuous winds, which are popularly j 
 though very absurdly designated equinoctial gales, j 
 very often occur between the 17th and the 24th, and 
 not seldom between the 24th and the end. Fierce : 
 storms, accompanied with destructive snowdrifts, ! 
 have likewise repeatedly occurred during the first I 
 week of the month. In most years, the prevailing j 
 wind blows from the north-east, and is keen, cut- 
 ting, unhealthy, dry, and powerfully evaporating; 
 but in other years, it blows from the south-west, 
 and is accompanied with excessive rains. The ther- 
 mometer has a mean height of 42°, and usually ranges 
 between 27° and 60°, but has been known to fall so 
 low as 5°, and to rise so high as 70°. The extra- 
 ordinary minimum temperature of 5°, however, oc- 
 curred in 1845; and the minimum of previous years, 
 so far as known to record, was 17°. The barometer 
 has a mean range of 1-30, and a mean height of 29 87. 
 The probable depth of rain, upon an average of many 
 years, is 1^ inch; and the probable mean evapora- 
 tion is 1*3 inch, or very nearly equal to the depth 
 of rain. 
 
 In the first week of March, the bay-tree, and two 
 or three species of willow and of poplar, are in blos- 
 som, numerous species of cone-bearing trees are in 
 full flower, and hawthorns, poplars, gooseberry- 
 bushes, and various other trees and shrubs are green 
 with young foliage ; in the second week, crocuses, 
 hepaticas, and numeroi-s primulas, are in flower, and 
 the elder, the pilewort, the honeysuckle, the creep- 
 ing crowfoot, and some kinds of roses are in leaf; 
 and in the third week and fourth week, a multitude 
 of shrubs and herbs are covered with foliage, and a 
 comparative profusion of spring-flowering plants are 
 in bloom. The most conspicuous flowers of the 
 month are, in the shrubbery, mezereon, daurian 
 rhododendron, small-calyxed rhododendron, almond, 
 cydonia japonica, mahonia, manna-ash, cornelian 
 cherry, sea buckthorn, scarlet - flowering maple, 
 peach, spurge laurel, and Spanish traveller's-joy; in 
 the parterre, wallflowers, violets, auriculas, polyan- 
 thuses, primroses, anemones, crocuses, cyclamens, 
 crown-imperials, daffodils, daisies, dog's-tooth vio- 
 let, pilewort, squills, ranunculuses, van-thol tulips, 
 hyacinths, hepaticas, gentians, Persian irises, and 
 various others; and in the greenhouse and conserva- 
 tory, jonquils, pinks, carnations, numerous amaryl- 
 lida?, honeysuckles, roses, polyanthus-narcissus, kal- 
 mias, rhododendrons, camellias, lilacs, acacias, cape 
 heaths, and many others. 
 
 In the early parts of March, earthworms, slugs, 
 and snails engender, the small tortoise-shell butter- 
 fly appears, and the tomtit, the ring-dove, the white 
 wagtail, the jackdaw, the yellow wagtail, and the 
 brown wood-owl, attract attention by either their 
 appearance, their song, or their peculiar habits; in 
 the middle parts of the month, numerous flies ap- 
 pear, the turkey-cock gobbles, and the marsh tit- 
 mouse begins his song ; in the latter part of the 
 month, the common flea appears, the field cricket 
 leaves its retreat, the yellow-hammer, the goldfinch, 
 and the green woodpecker sing, and the rook, the 
 raven, and the house-pigeon build their nests ; and 
 throughout the month, the redwing, the woodcock, 
 the fieldfare, the palmipedes, and some others of our 
 visitors, leave our shores, and pass away to the 
 shores of the Baltic, to Norway, to Siberia, and to 
 the cold parts of North America. 
 
 In March, all sheep, whether ewes, lambs, or 
 fatting sheep, require to be extremely well kept; for 
 if they be insufficiently fed or carelessly tended at 
 
1 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 2G7 
 
 CALENDAR 
 
 this season, all the money previously expended on 
 them will be nearly thrown away. Ewes, in par- 
 ticular, ought, previous to lambing, to be fed on carrots, 
 mangel-wurzel, and hay. and, after lambing, to be 
 transferred, along with their young, to sound new 
 grass; and they should be kept in a warm, dry, well 
 sheltered, and perfectly clean condition. Through- 
 out the month, all cows and lean and young cattle 
 should be kept close in the farm-yards, and on no 
 account allowed to wander over any of the fields; 
 for, when they rind their way into a grass field, they 
 not only break the sward and make a waste of man- 
 ure, but, by obtaining a mouthful or two of sweet 
 young grass, contract a repugnance to the dry and 
 somewhat artificial food of the yards. All cows and 
 mares which have quite recently produced young, 
 should be carefully and nicely attended to, for food, 
 for shelter, and especially for ventilation and thorough 
 cleanliness ; and all yard-fed or stall-fed fatting beasts 
 should be well cared* for as to food, water, and litter. 
 Colts should receive hay; and horses ought to be con- 
 stantly on full work, and daily receiving a full allow- 
 ance of hay and corn. " March," says Arthur Young, 
 "is a month in which carrots are in full perfection; 
 they have now evaporated much of their moisture, 
 and easily bend in the hand, being as it were withered. 
 Then every ounce is nourishment, and they are fully 
 as hearty as oats; insomuch that horses that have 
 had a month's carrots will refuse oats. To provide 
 this root in ample quantity for February, March, and 
 April, is an object that ought never to be omitted/' 
 Poultry, during March, require much attention : 
 their boxes or lockers should be so often replenished 
 with hay or straw as to secure perfect cleanliness : 
 their houses should be so cleansed and lime-washed 
 as to be kept free from vermin ; their supplies of corn, 
 buckwheat, boiled potatoes or other food, should be 
 good and regular; and free access ought to be con- 
 stantly afforded them to a gravelled yard, to clean 
 water, and to a range over grass. 
 
 If the soil or situation of a farm be unsuited to 
 the sowing of barley in February, or if the turnips 
 on the field intended for it were not eaten by sheep, 
 or drawn and carted in sufficient time to admit of 
 February sowing, March ought to be the principal, 
 and if possible the sole period for the sowing of bar- 
 ley; for, all other circumstances being equal, bar- 
 ley sown in March will always be a better crop than 
 barley sown at a later period. March excels every 
 other season also as a seed-time for white oats; and 
 the early part of it competes with the latter part of 
 February, the character of being the best seed-time 
 for sainfoin. All sorts of pease not sown in Feb- 
 ruary should be sown in March ; beans and parsnips, 
 if prevented by adverse weather from being sown in 
 February, ought now to be sown without delay; and 
 successive crops of tares or vetches ought likewise to 
 be sown. Any time in March will suit for sowing 
 carrots; and the latter part of the month, after some 
 days of dry weather, is suitable for planting pota- 
 toes. At any time, in favourable weather, kohl-rabi 
 may be sown for transplanting in June; in the be- 
 ginning or middle of the month, lentils maybe sown; 
 at any time, in tolerable weather, chicory may be 
 sown, and mangel-wurzel dibbled in ; and about" the 
 middle of the month, woad, if it should ever again 
 come into requisition, may be sown. 
 
 The labours of the barn, for the supply of straw 
 to the yard, and of corn to the market, are continued 
 throughout March from January and February. The 
 requisite tillage, whether entire or finishing, for the 
 various sowings which we have mentioned, requires 
 to be performed. The turnip fallow should now be 
 thoroughly stirred, cleaned, and pulverized with the 
 grubber. The rising wheat crops ought, without 
 any delay, to be cleaned and stimulated by scarifying 
 
 or hand-hoeing. All newly ploughed or newly sown 
 fields should be immediately water furrowed with 
 the plough and scoured with the spade. The water 
 should be taken off irrigated meadows for about a 
 week in dry weather, in order to allow the sward to 
 become sufficiently firm to bear the tread of sheep; 
 and, if the first week of feeding upon these meadows 
 should prove cold or rainy, a little hay should be 
 given to the ewes in the evening to intermix with 
 their moist food. Special efforts should be made in 
 March for destroying moles. Top-dressings may 
 now, as in February, be given to green wheat. The 
 burning part of the operation of paring and burning 
 may now be conducted on any scale. The only crops 
 for which composts and farm-yard dung should now 
 be carted are potatoes and cabbages. March is the 
 season for the nice, intricate, and operose work of 
 planting hops. Grass and clover fields intended for 
 mowing ought now to be stone-picked. 
 
 April. — April is usually characterized as a month 
 of alternate showers and sunshine; and it eminently 
 partakes of the fickleness of March, but has far less 
 windiness, and more sudden and frequent vicissitudes. 
 The April of many years is constantly showery; 
 and that of most is more or less showery ; yet 
 that of a few is constantly or almost wholly fair 
 and sunshiny. Some days of the April of most years 
 are very warm, and others very cold ; and not a few 
 of even the warmest days are followed by frosty 
 nights. The thermometer has a mean height of 
 about 46°; it usually ranges, during the month, be- 
 tween 28° and 68°; it has been known to fall so low 
 as 20°, and to rise so high in the shade as 81°; and 
 it sometimes makes a range within twenty-four hours, 
 or rather between 2 o'clock p.m. and midnight, of 
 not less than 45°. A large proportion of the month 
 is sometimes swept with keen easterly winds. The 
 barometer has a mean height of 29-81, and a mean 
 range of 1-25. The depth of rain, on an average of 
 many years, is about 1*8; and the quantity of evapo 
 ration is about 2-2. 
 
 The succession of the leafing of trees is a much 
 more extensive and interesting subject of observation 
 in April than in any other month. A few of the 
 most common species of shrubs, fruit-trees, and fo- 
 rest-trees, were observed by Stillingfleet to leaf in 
 Norfolk as follows; — on the 1st of April, the birch 
 and the weeping willow; on the 3d, the raspberry 
 and the bramble; on the 4th, the brier; on the 6th, 
 the plum, the apricot, and the peach ; on the 7th, the 
 filbert, the sallow, and the alder; on the 9th, the 
 sycamore; on the 10th, the elm and the quince; on 
 the 11th, the marsh-elder; on the 12th, the wych 
 elm ; on the 18th, the hornbeam and the quicken 
 tree; on the 14th, the apple-tree; on the 16th, the 
 abele and the chestnut; on the 18th, the oak; on the 
 19th, the lime; on the 21st, the maple, the plane, 
 the walnut, the beech, the robinia, and the black 
 poplar; and on the 22d, the ash and the Carolina 
 poplar. Around London, in the early part of the 
 month, primula?, open -ground hyacinths, gentianella, 
 ground-ivy, evergreen candytuft, pulmonaria, and 
 most fruit-shrubs and fruit-trees are in flower; in the 
 middle part of the month, many robinias, kalmias, 
 andromedas, rhododendrons, daphnes, and other 
 shrubby plants, as well as some herbaceous plants, 
 come into flower; and in the latter part of the month, 
 the larch is in leaf, tulips, fritillaries, and white nar- 
 cissi are in flower, ivy-berries fall, and the beech and 
 the elm are in blossom. Some of the most conspicu- 
 ous flowers of the month, are, in the shrubbery, la- 
 burnums, cherries, almonds, lilacs, peaches, barber- 
 ries, scorpion senna, cydonia, service-tree, rhododen- 
 drons, andromedas, daphnes, and kalmias ; in the par- 
 terre, auriculas, fritillaries, violets, dog-tooth violet, 
 poeonies, primulas, jonquils, narcissi, irises, anemones. 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 268 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 lychnis, fumatory, stocks, tulips, pilewort, saxifrages, 
 daisies, cretan alyssum, crown imperials, columbines, 
 ornithogalums, ranunculuses, and many others; and 
 in the greenhouse, carnations, pinks, amaryllidse, 
 corrasa, cactuses, cinerarias, geraniums, heaths, and 
 a profusion of others, both herbaceous and shrubby, 
 both forced and in their natural season. 
 
 In the early part of April, moths appear, spiders 
 abound, the trout rises, frogs spawn, tadpoles appear, 
 the viper is occasionally seen, the mistletoe -thrush 
 pairs, and the stone-curlew and the pheasant utter 
 their peculiar cry; in the middle part of the month, 
 various well-known insects appear, the crested wren 
 sings, and the hen, the duck, the pigeon, the raven, 
 and the blackbird sit ; and in the latter part of the 
 month, the common snake is sometimes seen, the 
 house-martin appears, the blackcap whistles, and the 
 bittern utters its characteristic cry. But by far the 
 most interesting feathered visitors of the month, 
 though some of them are not seen or heard till to- 
 wards the end of it, are the swallow, the wryneck, 
 the whitethroat, the yellow-wren, the willow wren, 
 the grasshopper lark, the ring-ousel, the redstart, 
 the swallow, the nightingale, and the cuckoo. 
 
 April, on account of its intervening between the ex- 
 tinction of turnips and the availableness of the pas- 
 ture grasses, is the most difficult month in the year 
 for the maintaining of live-stock, and puts good hus- 
 bandry and the general economics of the farm very 
 stringently to the test. Irrigated meadows, when 
 tolerably well managed, are a chief good resource ; 
 the sowing of grass lands with early grasses is an- 
 other; the "rouen" method noticed in our article 
 on Aftergrass, is, in certain though limited circum- 
 stances, a third ; and a careful keeping and prolonged 
 use of hay, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes 
 are a fourth. But some other methods, such as turn- 
 ing stock upon crops of wheat to feed them off, or 
 allowing them to roam over pastures and clover fields, 
 are miserably uneconomical, and occasion a very 
 great eventual loss. Ewes and their lambs must be 
 continued, from last month, wholly on grass. If a 
 farm have a good breadth of irrigated meadow, the 
 whole sheep stock may be fed entirely upon it 
 throughout April; but if otherwise, all other sheep 
 than ewes and their lambs must have a reserve 
 of turnips to maintain them till the middle of the 
 month, and may then be turned upon the pastures. 
 Fat sheep and oxen may be freely sold for the sham- 
 bles in the latter part of the month ; for they usually 
 bring a fully higher price at this time than at any 
 other period in the year. Oxen which are worked 
 in teams should be well fed with good hay, cut straw, 
 and a daily allowance of roots. Horses require to 
 be constantly at full work, and should be abundantly 
 fed with hay, corn and carrots. Mares often foal in 
 April, and require somewhat nice attention. Colts 
 of three years of age may either be now taken up and 
 trained for work, or be allowed another summer's 
 grass, and taken up for training in autumn. Sows, 
 pigs, and lean hogs, should be kept close within the 
 farm-yards, and supplied with chaff, straw, carrots, 
 parsnips, and potatoes. The young broods of poultry, 
 particularly those of turkeys, now require great at- 
 tention; and ought either to be so few as to be 
 brought up on the common barn-door system, or so 
 many as to engross the whole care and occupy the 
 whole time of a poultry maid. 
 
 Barleys not sown in March ought to be sown at 
 latest by the middle of April. Pease ought all to 
 have been sown before this month; yet they may 
 still be sown with the expectation of a full crop, but 
 not with the certainty of being sufficiently forward 
 to permit a succeeding crop of good turnips. When- 
 ever, a3 in the old Hertfordshire method, barley is 
 sown before white oats, the latter require to be sown 
 
 in April. An acre or half an acre of lettuce may be 
 drilled in April for a large stock of hogs. When a 
 succession of tares is part of the economy of a farm, 
 two sowings should be made in April, the one at the 
 beginning of the month, and the other towards the 
 end. Thorough tilth, in preparation for madder, 
 should be effected in the beginning of the month; 
 and the finishing tilth, and the planting of the crop 
 itself, should be effected towards the end. April is 
 the time for the sowing of teasel, the sowing of lu- 
 cerne, and the sowing of burnet ; and it is also not 
 unsuitable for the sowing of sainfoin and of chicory. 
 In the early and middle parts of the month, thorough 
 tillage should be given in preparation for potatoes : 
 and toward the end of the month, or as the last of 
 the great spring operations of sowing and planting, 
 the potatoes should be planted. April is the proper 
 time for the planting of autumnal sown cabbages, for 
 the drill-sowing of cabbages in the situations in which 
 they are to remain, and for the spring sowing of grass 
 seeds ; and it is also not unsuitable for the sowing of 
 flax. 
 
 The labours of the barn, for the supply of the 
 market and the farm-yard, require still to be con- 
 tinued. Land intended for buckwheat in May or 
 June should now be well ploughed and harrowed. 
 Land intended for turnips should, in this month, first 
 be scuffled, next be allowed a little rest, and next re- 
 ceive sufficient harrowings to make all the seeds of 
 weeds grow, in order that the plants of them may be 
 destroyed by next month's tillage. All work in woods 
 should now be over, and all hedge-work brought to 
 a close. Grass lands which were stone-picked in 
 last month, should now be rolled, to make them level 
 for the scythe. Any mason -Avork Avhich a farmer 
 may require to perform on his own account, should 
 be commenced in April. 
 
 May. — May has sometimes been designated the 
 most cheering month in the year; but, in general, 
 it maintains this character only during its latter half; 
 and, though sometimes all pleasant, it is likewise some- 
 times all chilly. Easterly and north-easterly winds, 
 of a cold, piercing, and sometimes foggy nature, 
 usually prevail throughout its first half, and occa- 
 sionally prevail till its end; and they frequently in- 
 termit so as to allow a short, warm, summer breeze 
 from some other point, and then suddenly return, so 
 as almost to produce a practical transition from sum- 
 mer heat to autumnal cold. But when winter dis- 
 appears from the north-west of Continental Europe, 
 these dismal winds either speedily cease to blow 
 upon us, or become very nearly as warm and plea- 
 sant as winds from the south or the west. Most of 
 the western side of Great Britain, however, es- 
 pecially the immediate western seaboard, is much 
 less subject to the vicissitudes of temperature from 
 the easterly winds than the eastern side. The 
 thermometer, on the average of many years, has a 
 mean height in May of about 53°; but it has been 
 known to fall so low as 25° in the night, and to rise 
 so high as 86" in the day. The barometer has a 
 mean height of 29-80, and a mean range of 1*02. 
 The mean fall of rain is not quite two inches ; and the 
 actual fall is very different in different years. The 
 mean evaporation throughout the month is at least 
 3£ inches; and the actual evaporation, during a sin- 
 gle day of brisk east wind and clear sunshine, is 
 sometimes considerably upwards of one-third of an 
 inch. 
 
 In the early part of May, the common barberry, 
 the horse-chestnut, the common hawthorn, the com- 
 mon maple, the sweet chestnut, the oak, the ash, 
 the tulip-tree, the water-violet, the lily of the valley, 
 and numerous other conspicuous or well-known plants 
 come into flower; in the middle part of the month, 
 the lime-tree, the forget-me-not, the water scorpion, 
 
CALENDAR. 269 CALENDAR. 
 
 grass, the deadly nightshade, and numerous American 
 flowering shrubs, and other conspicuous or well-known 
 plants are in flower; and in the latter part of the 
 month, the mulberry begins to expand its buds, the 
 oak, the ash, the beech, and numerous other forest 
 trees are in leaf, and columbine, lysimachia, the bram- 
 ble, some roses, and numerous other plants are in 
 flower. The face of every landscape daily improves, 
 throughout May, in interest and beauty. The fields, 
 the woods, the orchards, the gardens, daily increase 
 their attractions, and afford incentives to gratitude and 
 admiration. Some of the most conspicuous flowers 
 of the month are, in the shrubbery, azaleas, rhodo- 
 dendrons, kalmias, lilac, roses, snowdrop-tree, Guel- 
 der-rose, barberries, double -flowering cherry, honey- 
 suckle, crata?guses, almond-tree, Judas-tree, jasmine, 
 laburnum, and elder; in the parterre, ranunculuses, 
 anemones, irises, rockets, canterbury-bells, jonquils, 
 narcissuses, polyanthus - narcissus, lilies, American 
 cowslip, fox-glove, feverfew, lychnis, honesty, catchfly, 
 candy -tuft, columbines, gentianella, poppies, saxi- 
 frages, sweet pease, tulips, monkshoods, spiderwort, 
 fraxinella, ornithogalums, pceonies, pinks and lily of 
 the valley; and, in the greenhouse, carnations, ger- 
 aniums, roses, cinerarias, cactuses, fuschias, calceo- 
 larias, azaleas, and a profusion of others. 
 
 In the early part of May, the stinging-fly and sev- 
 eral butterflies appear, the gudgeon spawns, the 
 swift, the redstart, and the white throat appear, the 
 titlark sings, and the cuckoo is often and loudly 
 heard; in the middle part of the month, black snails 
 are very numerous, the common flesh-fly, the blue 
 flesh-fly, the lady-cow, the grasshopper lark, and the 
 large bat appear, and the turtle-dove is heard; and 
 in the latter part of the month, the goatsucker re- 
 turns, the glow-worm shines, and the dragon-fly and 
 the great white cabbage butterfly appear. Toward 
 the end of the month, and sometimes even in its ear- 
 lier parts, the air has a freshness, a softness, and a 
 fragrance which exhilarate the spirits and improve 
 the health ; and animated nature displays a multi- 
 tudinousness, a sprightliness, an unceasing activity, 
 and a joyous gladness which evoke and sustain the 
 most pleasurable emotions. 
 
 Ewes and their lambs continue on the pastures. 
 Other sheep should have turnips or other spring 
 food till about the 10th or the 12th, and may then be 
 turned into the grass -fields. The folding system, 
 where still practised, is now commenced. Fat sheep, 
 if generally ready for the operation, may, towards the 
 end of the month, be washed and shorn ; or they may 
 be suffered to continue as they are till June. Cows 
 ought, throughout the month, to be abundantly and 
 nutritiously fed on rich pasture, in order that both 
 calves and dairy may yield due remuneration. To- 
 ward the end of the month, all the older cows in sea- 
 son should receive the bull, in order that they may 
 calve in February. Any two-year old heifers which 
 are designed to be breeders should be separated from 
 the steers of the same age, and herded with the cows; 
 and when they come into season, in this month or 
 afterwards, they should receive the bull. Yearling 
 steers and two-year-old steers ought, about the 10th 
 or 15th of the month, to be turned out to grass. 
 Three-year-old oxen may be fed in the yards as long 
 as turnips and other spring food last, and may then 
 be sold ; and oxen which work in teams may be soil- 
 ed on lucerne as horses, and will thrive better on it, 
 and cost less than if they were pastured. When the 
 east winds cease to blow or to be cold, sucking calves 
 may be turned into a small paddock; and when they 
 have become weaned, they may be herded with the 
 cows and the rest of the feeding-stock. At the be- 
 ginning of the month, horses should cease to have 
 dry hay, and commence to be soiled in the stable on 
 lucerne or on tares or clover; or where this is im- 
 
 practicable, they must continue to receive a full al- 
 lowance of hay and corn. Colts should be turned 
 out, for the season, to grass. Breeding mares should 
 receive the male, in order that they may foal in April. 
 When the farm-yards are cleared of cattle, all the 
 hogs should be sorted, and such as are of proper age 
 for feeding on clover or otherwise in the fields, may 
 be separated from the rest and turned adrift ; yet, 
 though the cost of feeding may be greater, they will 
 probably yield a better return by being soiled in the 
 yards. Bees may now be expected to swarm, and 
 ought to be well Avatched. " About the twelfth of 
 May," says Arthur young, " the farmer may calculate 
 that he will have a sufficient bite of grasses to leave 
 off foddering entirely; and before that, he should not 
 think of it; for if cattle are turned into grass not suf- 
 ficiently advanced in growth, they will require such a 
 number of acres, that his mowing -ground will be 
 greatly curtailed. As soon as the yards are cleared, 
 if he is in the mixing system, the dung in them must 
 be turned over, and mixed carefully with the stuff' be- 
 neath, whether it be chalk, marl, turf, ditch-earth, or 
 whatever sort." See the article Farm- Yard Manure. 
 
 Lucerne may still be sown in the early part of the 
 month ; hemp must be sown about the middle ; and 
 buckwheat may be sown toward the end. Sainfoin, 
 if the soil be proper, may be sown with buckwheat. 
 Potatoes may be planted in any part of the month ; 
 and the drill-sowing of cabbage, in the situation in 
 which they are to remain, may be done at the begin- 
 ning. Swedish turnips should be sown in the latter 
 part or toward the end of the month ; and flax may 
 be sown in the early part or toward the middle. If 
 a succession of tares be depended on for soiling, one 
 crop must be sown in May. If the sowing of barley 
 with grass seeds have been neglected in April, and 
 be regarded as very desirable, it may still, in the 
 sluggard's fashion, be performed in the beginning of 
 May. 
 
 The operations of the barn are but partial in the 
 early part of this month ; and they nearly cease to- 
 ward its middle. Except, indeed, for a reserve of 
 summer litter and of sufficient straw for thatching 
 the earliest stacks in autumn, the barn-yard ought, 
 for the season, to be swept clean at the transferring 
 of live stock from the farm-yards to the fields. The 
 preparation of the land for turnips is a main part of 
 the business of May, and extends through all the 
 month, and sometimes a little into June ; and it ought 
 to be performed in the order in which the different 
 kinds of tm-nips are sown, — beginning with the land 
 for Swedish turnips, which are to be sown before the 
 close of this month, — and proceeding successively 
 with that for yellow turnips, and with that for white 
 turnips, both of which are to be sown in June. The 
 carrot crop, if not hand-hoed in April, must be hand- 
 hoed in May. The crops of early potatoes and the 
 April-planted crops of cabbages, madder, and liquorice, 
 must also be now hand-hoed. If any land be laid out 
 for bare summer fallow, it ought now to receive a 
 turning and cleaning. Fields of wheat, barley, oats, 
 beans, and pease, ought now to be thoroughly cleaned, 
 whether by horse, by hand, or by both. The busy 
 period of the household dairy begins in May, and will, 
 continue till the end of October. The paring and 
 burning of turf-land may still be practised at any time 
 till the end of May. Old plantations of hops must 
 now be poled; and new plantations cleaned, and 
 earthed up. The formation of irrigated meadows 
 may be successfully achieved in any time of the year 
 except during severe frosts; but it is done most 
 economically, and with least risk of failure or disap- 
 pointment, in the month of May. Very forward 
 tares, or well manured lucerne, may, after a mild 
 spring yield a mowing toward the end of this month. 
 The balancing of the yearly accounts of the farm is 
 
2 
 
 done with most convenience and suitableness in 
 May. 
 
 June. — June competes with August the character 
 of being the most pleasant month in tbe year. In 
 rare instances, most of June is cloudy and com- 
 paratively cold; and in a few, the early part of it, 
 even though preceded by a warm May, is unge- 
 nial ; but, in greatly the majority, some period of it 
 between the 6th and the 18th days, is the commence- 
 ment of the fervid heat of summer. The tempera- 
 ture has never been known, in the vicinity of Lon- 
 don, to fall lower at night than 37°; and it has re- 
 peatedly been observed to rise in the shade by day to 
 90°. The thermometer usually ranges between 40° 
 and 60° by night, and between 58° and 78° by day; 
 and it has a mean height, in the average of many 
 years, of about 50°. The mean height of the baro- 
 meter is 29*90. The prevailing wind is from the 
 south-west; and if it have been dry and northerly 
 during May, it now not unfrequently brings heavy 
 showers. The average depth of rain is about the 
 same as in May; and the average evaporation, in 
 consequence of the superior heat and the great length 
 of the day, is not less than about four inches. 
 
 In the early part of June, wheat is in the ear; the 
 broom, the nettle, the Scotch rose, the water-lily, the 
 round-leaved mallow, and numerous other plants are 
 in flower; in the middle part, many of the pasture- 
 grasses bloom, and the bulbous irises, the hardy ixias, 
 the Byzantine gladiolus, and numerous other plants of 
 the parterre come into flower; and in the latter part, 
 oats and barley are in flower, the bottle-flower and 
 numerous other plants come into bloom, the shoots 
 of ligneous plants are quite or nearly at their full 
 height, strawberries are abundant, and some varieties 
 of red and black currants are ripe. Among the multi- 
 tudes of conspicuous flowers which lend their beauty 
 and magnificence to June, some of the best known 
 are, in the shrubbery, magnolias, azaleas, Guelder- 
 rose, jasmine, roses, rose-acacia, lilacs, leriodendron, 
 snowdrop -tree, sage-tree, lavender, kalmias, honey- 
 suckle, horse-chestnut, and scarlet maple ; and, in 
 the parterre, fritillaries, saxifrages, calceolarias, By- 
 zantine gladiolus, feverfew, convolvulus, stocks, 
 amaranth, globe-flower, lilies, martagons, carnations, 
 larkspurs, scarlet lychnis, tulips, sweetwilliams, 
 pinks, ranunculuses, poppies, gnaphalium, fraxinella, 
 foxglove, campanulas, bear's-breach, irises, honesty, 
 mallow, spiderwort, American cowslip, golden-rod, 
 scabious, snapdragon, orchises, lupines, nasturtium, 
 pceonies, sweet pease, and a great multitude of others. 
 
 In the early part of June, the wasp and several 
 species of butterfly appear, the fly-catcher and sedge- 
 sparrow are seen, and a considerable proportion of 
 bees swarm; in the middle parts of the month, more 
 bees swarm, and the forest-fly, the burnet-moth, and 
 numerous other flies and moths, as well as beetles 
 and butterflies, appear; and in the latter part of the 
 month, dragon-flies appear, insects are exceedingly 
 numerous, and a considerable proportion of singing- 
 birds drop into silence and retire to the woods. 
 "The melody of the feathered songsters may be 
 still heard, but it will soon cease. A few solitary 
 birds only will sing among the verdant branches, or 
 warble through the fervid atmosphere. The music 
 of birds was the first song of thanksgiving which was 
 offered on earth before man was 'formed;' and it 
 continues to charm the ear and delight the soul of 
 man, though he is fallen and degraded. Old Isaac 
 Walton observes, with equal truth and beauty, 'He 
 that at midnight, when the weary labourer sleeps se- 
 curely, should hear, as I have often done, the clear 
 airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and fall- 
 ing, the doubling and redoubling of the nightingale's 
 voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, — 
 Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints 
 
 in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music 
 upon earth.' " 
 
 Throughout June, all kinds of sheep are depas- 
 tured within enclosed fields or on sheep-walks, 
 and, as regards their mere feeding, are very easily 
 managed. But about the beginning of the* month, 
 they must be washed; about eight days after, they 
 must be shorn ; and, in every part of the month, they 
 must be watched and protected against the attacks 
 of the fly. All sheep within enclosures, and es- 
 pecially in woodland districts, ought to be ex- 
 amined every day, lest they be fly-struck; for if 
 such as are struck be not speedily dealt with, they 
 may, in twenty-four hours, be past cure. June is 
 an excellent period for sheep-folding, with those who 
 still practise it. Sheep-stock intended for fattening, 
 such, for example, as wethers bought in April or j 
 May, and designed to be sold fat from turnips or ! 
 cabbages in the following winter, ought at present to 
 be well kept. Throughout June, all cows and steers 
 may be kept entirely upon pastures; or they may, to 
 any degree a farmer chooses, be soiled. Even the 
 latest calves should now be weaned, and turned out 
 to graze. All cows and heifers, and also all mares, 
 intended to breed, and hitherto neglected, ought now 
 to be brought to the male. In the early part of the j 
 month, horses should continue to receive green food ; 
 and towards the middle of it, they may be left, 
 throughout the night, in a pasture field. 
 
 The thorough and completing tillage of the land 
 for turnips ought, with all speed and care, to be per- 
 formed ; and yellow and white turnips — and pre- 
 viously Swedish turnips, if not sown in the latter 
 part of last month — must now be sown. Turnip 
 crops sown later than June, even in the most genial 
 districts of England, seldom attain full size ; and 
 multitudes of experienced farmers have a notion that 
 the turnip season lasts exactly a month, and is very 
 nearly coextensive with June. When Swedish tur- 
 nips have been sown in May, a second or even a third 
 sowing may, if the farmer chooses, be made in June. 
 Cabbages may now be planted in drills, either on 
 land prepared for themselves, or in fields or parts of 
 fields, on which the sowings of Swedish turnips fail; 
 cabbages planted in April, and hand-hoed or horse- 
 hoed in May, should now receive another hoeing; 
 and cabbages drill-sown in April, in situations whence 
 they are not to be transplanted, ought, in June, to 
 be carefully thinned to proper distances, and the tops 
 of their ridges well hand- hoed, and the intervals 
 skimmed, that they may be gradually reduced to a 
 state of fine pulverization. Potatoes ought, in this 
 month, to receive so thorough a hoeing as not to 
 need another. Madder must receive a cautious hoe- 
 ing in some part of the month ; and carrots may re- 
 quire one toward the end. Lucerne must be attend- 
 ed to; flax must be weeded; liquorice must be hoed; 
 and hops must be operosely cultivated. Toward the 
 end of the month, sainfoin, clover, irrigated mea- 
 dows, and some rich dry meadows, may be ready for 
 mowing. At the precise time in the month, when 
 the plants are just ceasing to bloom, buckwheat, 
 vetches, or other similar green crop grown for green 
 manure, ought to be ploughed in. During the month, 
 drilled crops of beans and pease ought to receive at 
 least one hoeing; bare fallows, whether for wheat or 
 for barley, ought to undergo a stirring; flax-crops 
 should be cautiously hand-weeded; all crops of corn, 
 when necessary, ought to be hand-weeded; and all 
 hedges, field -borders, road-sides and other harbour- 
 ages for seeding weeds, ought to be swept of their 
 rank vegetation. Rape or cole, when intended for 
 sheep feed, may be sown at any time in either June 
 or Jtdy. Many operations of an improving, a gen- 
 eral, or a miscellaneous kind, may most advantage- 
 ously be performed in June, — particularly the digging 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 271 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 of marl, clay, and chalk, the emptying of ponds, the 
 cleansing of streams, paring and burning, the planting 
 of holly hedges, the warping of low alluvial grounds, 
 the burning, carting, and spreading of lime, the burn- 
 ing of dry weeds for manure, and the improving of 
 moors and mountains. 
 
 July. — July is well known to be, on the average, 
 the hottest month in the year. Summer, in all its 
 fervom-, brilliance, and occasional sultriness, is now- 
 triumphant. — In some years, neai'ly all July is thun- 
 dery and sultry; in others, especially when south- 
 west winds blow without intermission, much of it is 
 very wet ; and in a few, it has an average cold as 
 great as generally prevails in September or the first 
 half of May; but in the majority, it is clear, hot, 
 brilliant, and comparatively dry. The thermometer 
 usually ranges between 48° and 62° by night, and be- 
 tween* 64° and Si° by day; and it has a mean height 
 on the average of many years, of about 63°; but it 
 has sometimes stood, for several successive days, at 
 or near 85°, and has been known to rise so higb as 
 99°. The barometer ranges 0-81, and has a mean 
 height of 29*88. The prevailing winds are from the 
 south-west, with intermissions from the south-east. 
 The mean fall of rain is about 2j inches ; and the 
 mean evaporation is nearly four inches. 
 
 In the early part of July, pinks and carnations are 
 in their glory, lavender is in flower, and puff-balls 
 and tremella' nostoc appear; in the middle part of 
 the month, lilies are in their glory, potatoes are in 
 flower, asparagus is in fruit, and gooseberries and 
 raspberries are ripe; and in the latter part of the 
 month, devil's bit, burnet, saxifrage, nightshade, and 
 a profusion of other plants are in flower. Among 
 the multitude and almost myriads of flowers which 
 render July the grand season of floral triumph, a few 
 of the most conspicuous, are, in the shrubbery, cis- 
 tuses, itea, fuschias, roses, rose-acacia, leriodendron, 
 brooms, buttonwood, honeysuckle, jasmine, rosemary, 
 and bramble ; and in the parterre, campanulas, rock- 
 ets, saxifrages, stocks, scarlet lychnis, veronicas, lu- 
 pines, pinks, lavateras, carnations, candytuft, sweet- 
 pease, sweet-sultan, omithogalums, pansies, nastur- 
 tiums, marvel of Peru, African marigold, larkspurs, 
 irises, scarlet-runners, columbines, cockscombs, globe- 
 flowers, Trench marigold, golden-rod, catchfly, hon- 
 esty, balsams, amaranths, calceolarias, cinerarias, 
 petunias, salvias, gladioli, feverfew, lobelias, clarkias, 
 Chinese pinks, columbines, pentstemons, hollyhock, 
 spider-wort, sweetwilliam, and sunflowers. 
 
 In the early part of July, the stone curlew some- 
 times whistles, the golden - crested wren sometimes 
 chirps, and the cuckoo ceases to sing; in the middle 
 ; part of the month, frogs migrate, hens moult, the frog- 
 j hopper abounds, and the quail is heard ; and in the 
 ] latter part of the month, partridges fly, the great 
 horsefly appears, and swallows are untiringly on the 
 wing in pursuit of flies and other insects. During 
 the hotter portion of many of the days, the greater 
 part of animated nature sinks into lassitude, retreats 
 into shelter, or drops into repose; birds languish, 
 and secrete themselves in the woods; sheep court 
 the shade and coolness of lofty enclosures; horses 
 crowd beneath the shade of umbrageous trees ; cows 
 stand ruminating in the cool pond; swine revel in the 
 mire; and insects alone seem to retain their activity, 
 and to find mirth and buoyancy in the sunbeams. 
 
 All cows, oxen, and weaned calves may be kept 
 wholly at grass throughout July; or if a proper suc- 
 cession of soiling crops have been provided, any rea- 
 sonable number of beasts may, during every day of 
 the month, receive abundance of food in the yard or 
 the stall. Beasts in the field ought to be daily, how- 
 ever generally, inspected ; and as high fed ones are 
 apt to break bounds, the fences ought to be main- 
 tained in perfectly good condition. All sheep, during 
 
 July, ought to have access to shade and pure water, 
 and ewes intended for breeders ought to be well kept, 
 in order that they may be in a healthy and strong 
 state for the ram in August. Horses should con- 
 tinue to receive a portion of green food during each 
 day, and may be allowed to remain in pasture fields 
 during the whole of each night; and as their labour 
 will be diminished towards the middle of the month, 
 they may then begin to receive a diminished allow- 
 ance of corn. Weaned pigs and sows that have pigs 
 may now receive such lettuces as were early sown on 
 rich warm land ; or the whole stock of swine may be 
 fed on clover, chicory, lucerne, or garden beans. 
 Dairy wash may now accumulate in the cisterns for 
 sows and weaned pigs, for a time when they shall 
 have more need of it than at present. Sows ought 
 to be kept away from the boar from the beginning of 
 July till the middle of November, in order that they 
 may not farrow in winter. 
 
 In the course of July, the turnip and the potato 
 crops must again be hoed ; and toward the end of the 
 month, they may be set up by the double mould- 
 board plough. In any part of the month, cole-seed 
 may be sown upon land prepared in the same manner 
 as for turnips ; and in cases in which a second sowing 
 of turnips may have failed, cole-seed may, toward 
 the end of the month, be sown as a substitute. Cab- 
 bages planted in April or May, and horse-hoed in 
 June, may possibly not need further attention till 
 August, yet, when necessaiy, ought now to receive 
 attention and labour. Weld must be pulled. Crops 
 of carrots and parsnips must be hoed. Crops of beans 
 are now so high that, when hoeing is necessary, they 
 must receive it with caution. Lucerne may again 
 be cut; and if it was drilled for horse-hoeing, the in- 
 tervals must be directly horse-hoed the contrary way 
 to the last. Crops of burnet left for seed are now fit 
 for mowing; and, in order to prevent the shedding 
 of the seed, they must be mown with great care. All 
 meadows and pastures, not mown in June, should 
 now be cut. Bare fallows ought to be duly and sedu- 
 lously worked, and not, by any means, neglected for 
 the sake of haymaking and of preparations for harvest. 
 The carting of marl, chalk, clay, and mud may still 
 proceed. Madder planted late in May or early in 
 June must now be hoed. Forward white pease are 
 ready to be cut in the former part of the month ; 
 some barley may probably be ready toward the end 
 of the month; and some wheat, when the practice is 
 adopted of cutting it ten days before it is ripe, may also 
 be ready. Any crop of wheat which shows symptoms 
 of being attacked by mildew must, with all expedi- 
 tion, be cut. Buckwheat, when sown so very late as 
 the first week of July, sometimes succeeds well, and 
 yields a large crop. Paring and burning may still 
 proceed. The work of warping ought to make pro- 
 gress with every tide. 
 
 August. — August is generally the most pleasant 
 month in the year. In some years, it is hotter than 
 July; and in very rare years, it is either unseason- 
 ably cold or exceedingly thundery ; but, in the great 
 majority of years, it possesses a maximum of the de- 
 lights of summer, with a minimum of its disagree- 
 ables, or most pleasantly blends the characters of 
 summer with those of autumn. Most of its nights 
 are close and warm; and many of its days have a 
 temperature ranging between 62° and 80°. The 
 thermometer, on the average of many years, has a 
 mean height of 62°; but it has been known to stand, 
 during several successive days, at a height of be- 
 tween 85° and 90°; and it is recorded to have re- 
 peatedly risen to 96°. The barometer ranges 1-02 
 inch; and has a mean height of 29-85 inches. The 
 mean fall of rain is about 1|- inch; and the mean 
 evaporation is 3*8 inches. The winds are similar to 
 those of July. 
 
 | 
 
CALENDAR. 272 
 
 In the early part of August, some grains have ri- 
 pened, others are rapidly ripening, and rue, burdock, 
 melilot, and yellow succory are in flower; in the 
 middle parts of the month, meadow-rue, wild clary, 
 ploughman's spikenard, potamogetons, and polygo- 
 nums are in flower; and in the latter part of the 
 month, the earlier kinds of hardy kernel fruits are 
 ripe, and teasel, autumnal crocus, and numerous other 
 plants are in flower. Some of the most conspicuous 
 of the multitudinous garden flowers of August, are, 
 in the shrubbery, cistuses, passion flowers, spirceas, 
 trumpet - flower, tamarisk, clematis, leriodendron, 
 broom, rose-acacia, roses, fuschias, jasmines, honey- 
 suckles, and yuccas ; and, in the parterre, hollyhocks, 
 mallows, sunflowers, golden-rod, scarlet - runners, 
 amaranths, asters, campanulas, nigella, lupines, cocks- 
 combs, columbines, phloxes, petunias, lobelias, ver- 
 benas, salvias, African marigolds, French marigolds, 
 dahlias, catchfly, china-aster, candytuft, starwort, 
 sweetwilliam, tricolor, capsicum, balsam, carnations, 
 mesembryanthemmns, convolvulus, nasturtium, fever- 
 few, marvel -of- Peru, collinsia, nemophila, Indian 
 pinks, zinnias, sweet pease, lavateras, stocks, and a 
 profusion of other summer and autumn flowers, be- 
 sides occasional reappearances of wallflowers, primu- 
 las, and some other spring flowers. 
 
 In the early part of August, bees kill their drones, 
 and flying-ants and the gorgeous swallow-tailed but- 
 terfly make their appearance ; in the middle parts of 
 the month, several birds resume singing, swallows 
 and young martins begin to congregate, swifts begin 
 to depart, the black-eyed marble butterfly appears, 
 and the burrel-fly lays its eggs on horses ; and in the 
 latter part of the month, rooks roost on their nest- 
 trees, and numerous birds, particularly robins, owls, 
 and stone-curlews, utter their peculiar notes or calls. 
 Insects so abound in August as most visibly to people 
 both the air and the waters. The transformations of 
 most insects and of some other animals are now com- 
 pleted. Caterpillars and maggots can no longer be 
 seen; moths and butterflies emulate the birds in at 
 once number, movements, and beauty ; the frog has 
 emerged from the tadpole, and leaves its watery home 
 to enjoy its gymnastics upon the land; and the liv- 
 ing inmates of many kinds of eggs, from the micro- 
 scopic to the great in size, have burst from their im- 
 prisonment, and luxuriate in the energies and feats of 
 life according to their several organizations and in- 
 stincts. The owl may now be seen, and more fre- 
 quently heard, uttering its lugubrious screech; the 
 weak-eyed bat flies with endless evolutions and with 
 short shrill shriek, in pursuit of the moths and other 
 insects which revel in the evening air; the glow-worm 
 occasionally lights up its tiny lamp by the hedge-side; 
 and large black slugs may frequently be seen creep- 
 ing across the shady paths of lanes and gardens, 
 either luxuriating in the moisture of past showers, 
 or affording a prognostic of showers to come. 
 
 Throughout August, cows, steers, calves, and all 
 kinds of sheep may be kept constantly at grass; and 
 horses may continue to be treated in the same man- 
 ner as during the latter half of July. Lambs and 
 old ewes designed to be sold should now be separated 
 from the rest of the stock, and may perhaps be ad- 
 vantageously disposed of at some of the nearest 
 August lamb fairs. Breeding ewes which have been 
 well kept and are in good condition should now re- 
 ceive the ram, in order to the producing of early fat 
 lambs. Many sows now produce their second litter 
 of pigs; and both they and the pigs should be fed on 
 such skimmed-milk, buttermilk, and cheese-whey as 
 have been accumulating in the cisterns throughout 
 the preceding months. 
 
 The reaping and harvesting of wheat and of other 
 valuable crops is usually so chief and prominent a 
 part of the farm-work of August, as to give a dis- 
 
 CALENDAR, 
 
 tinctive character to the month, and to impart a per- 
 vading feature to the landscapes of all the arable dis- 
 tricts of the country. Reapers should have been en- 
 gaged, the stalk-yard should have been cleared, and 
 all minor preparations should have been made; and 
 the whole work of reaping and harvesting must be 
 carried on with all possible energy and judgment, in 
 adaptation to the ripening of the crops and the vicis- 
 situdes of the weather. In the beginning of the month, 
 rape, if intended for a crop to reap, may be sown ; 
 about the same time, the second horse-hoeing should 
 be given to the crop of cabbages planted at midsum- 
 mer; in the course of the month, cabbages and bore- 
 coles for transplanting in April must be sown, the 
 broadcast crops of turnips should receive a hand-hoe- 
 ing, potato crops must, if necessary, receive a hand- 
 hoeing, and another cutting of lucerne should be 
 made; and in the last week of the month, cabbages 
 may be drill-sown in ridges on situations whence they 
 are not to be transplanted. In wet days, when 
 horses cannot be employed in carting home crops, 
 and when all the harvest men are employed in reap- 
 ing and mowing, or on other leisure or available days 
 of the reaping and harvesting period, bare fallows ' 
 ought to undergo a continuation of tillage and manu- I 
 rial preparation, and the bottom layer of the farm- 
 yard may be formed, extended, or completed, by the 
 carrying to it of marl, chalk, turf, ditch-scourings, 
 or pond-mud. In August also, such hay as is ready, 
 should be brought home to the farmery and stacked; 
 a portion of stock may be turned into the sainfoin 
 fields which were mown in June; hemp, at thirteen 
 weeks' distance from the time of sowing, should be 
 pulled ; flax also must be pulled ; and lands intended 
 for pasture — especially such as have strong, wet, or 
 heavy soils — ought to be laid down to grass. 
 
 September. — September is often characterized as 
 the most healthy month in the year. It occasionally 
 has proved the hottest month; it has, in very rare 
 instances, been known to have some frost and even 
 snow; but, in general, it concentrates all the most 
 agreeable properties of the temperate zone. Though 
 the mean temperature is very sensibly fallen from 
 that of July and August, yet the abundant radiation 
 of heat from the soil often renders the prevailing- 
 warmth but slightly inferior to that of summer. The 
 thermometer has a mean height of about 58°, and 
 usually ranges between 38° and 58° by night, and be- 
 tween 55° and 76° by day; but it is recorded to have 
 fallen so low as some points beneath 32°, and to have 
 risen so high as 89°. The barometer usually ranges 
 IT inch; and has a mean height of 29*88 inches. 
 Thunder storms occasionally happen, but are usually 
 shorter and less violent than those of July and 
 August. The mean fall of rain, on the average of 
 many years, is 1\ inches; and the mean evaporation is 
 about 2\ inches. The weather during the whole of 
 the month is usually settled, fine, and bracing; and 
 though the mornings and evenings are frequently 
 cold and misty, the greater part of the day, in general, 
 has a pleasant degree of heat, and a pure, bright and 
 glowing atmosphere. 
 
 The woods, the hedges, and the orchards now ex- 
 hibit their various and exuberant productions, and 
 challenge the admiration of observers, the care of 
 cultivators, and the delight of consumers. In the 
 early part of the month, the traveller s joy is in flow- 
 er, some fungi appear, and the leaves of the syca- 
 more, the elm, the lime-tree, the mountain-ash. and 
 the birch begin to change colour; in the middle part 
 of the month, the furze, the laurel and the ivy are in 
 flower, the catkins of the birch and the hazel are 
 formed, and all gradations of fructification from the 
 blossom to the ripe fruit are simultaneously on the 
 bramble; and in the latter part of the month, hips, 
 haws, and filberts are ripe, and the leaves of the 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 273 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 elm, the ash, the plane - tree, the hornbeam, the 
 cherry-tree, the oak, the sycamore, the willow, the 
 maple, and the hawthorn display their respective 
 autumnal hues, and jointly impart a rich and most 
 varied tinting to woodland scenery. Some of the 
 most conspicuous of the multitudinous flowers of 
 the month are, in the shrubbery, clematis, honey- 
 suckle, passion-flower, pomegranate, spirceas, roses, 
 jasmines, broom, bramble, altlncas, fuschias, chaste- 
 tree, and arbutus; and in the parterre, china-aster, 
 Indian pink, convolvulus, dahlia, nasturtium, nigella, 
 poppy, sweet sultan, spiderwort, starwort, catchfly, 
 sunflowers, stocks, amaranths, African marigold, 
 French marigold, colchicum, campanulas, balsams, 
 mesembryanthemums, feverfew, autumnal crocus, 
 golden rod, Guernsey lily, capsicum, candytuft, 
 zinnia, sanvitalia, mignonette, lavatera, hollyhock, 
 larkspur, monkshood, phlox, marvel of Peru, lupines, 
 veronicas, tricolor, scabious, tuberoses, and a profu- 
 sion of others. 
 
 In the early part of September, the bull utters his 
 peculiar autumnal cry, the swallow sings, linnets 
 congregate, and young broods of goldfinches appear; 
 in the middle parts of the month, herrings are 
 caught in vast abundance, the common owls utter 
 their dismal cry, the flycatcher disappears, and the 
 ring-ouzel, the saffron-butterfly, and the red under- 
 wing moth appear; and in the latter part of the 
 month, stares congregate, the swallow departs, the 
 fieldfare and the woodcock appear, and the woodlark 
 sings. Swallows, when preparing to depart, assem- 
 ble in large numbers on lofty buildings; they, for 
 several successive days, spread their wings and make 
 trials of their strength; and, when quite ready, they 
 promptly and simultaneously depart, sailing away to 
 summer regions, and " leaving the green meadows of 
 England for the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, 
 and for the palms of Africa." In the sunny morn- 
 ings of September, the webs of the geometric spider 
 are hung on almost every bush ; and they collect the 
 descending dew into pearly drops on almost every 
 thread, and appear, in the play of the sunshine, like 
 a wox*k of the most exquisite weaver-craft gorgeously 
 gemmed with diamonds. The minute and almost 
 microscopic gossamer, also, fabricates its mimic 
 threads, and floats them through the air, or stretches 
 them across gardens and fields. 
 
 Throughout September, all kinds of sheep continue 
 wholly at grass. If a regular flock be not kept, the 
 annual purchase may be made at any of the Septem- 
 ber fairs. A common system in many enclosed dis- 
 tricts, where the fences are very secure, and the sup- 
 plies of food are abundant, is to buy old crones in 
 September, to put the ram to them in October, to 
 sell the lambs as they become fat for the butcher, 
 and. so to fatten and dispose of the mothers that the 
 whole may be cleared off* in somewhat less than a 
 year from the time of buying; but this system is, in 
 general, inferior to that of wether lambs. Through- 
 out the month, all cows, steers, and calves may be 
 kept wholly at grass. Fattening beasts should be 
 well looked to, aud have food both good and abun- 
 dant; for they are nice in their taste, and, if they do 
 not receive ample pasturage of a quality quite to their 
 taste, they will cease to fatten, and may even begin 
 to decline. Dairy cows also must have plenty of 
 grass, else their milk will be very liable to fail; or 
 they may be profitably fed in a yard upon lucerne, 
 mown green. Horses must be kept at full work; 
 and, during the greater part of the month, they 
 should continue to receive a portion of green food ; 
 toward the middle of the month, they must be taken 
 from the grass for the night, and kept in the stable;' 
 and at the end of the month, they should cease to 
 receive green food, and begin to be fed wholly on 
 hay and oats. " Wheat-sowing," says Arthur Young, | 
 
 " is a business in which we usually stretch a point, 
 and make the ploughs do full work. Both horses 
 and oxen should be kept this month to lucerne, &c, 
 mown every day ; they will work as well on it as on 
 any other food; but while they plough, they must 
 have oats and chaff with it; for no grass at this 
 season of the year is so nourishing as it was in the 
 summer." 
 
 The labours of harvest are continued from August. 
 If the weather have been rainy, and the soil be cold, 
 wet, and backward, wheat should be sown in Sep- 
 tember; but if the weather continue dry, or if the 
 soil be comparatively dry and warm, it should not 
 be sown till October. September is the proper time 
 for cutting fern and stacking it in the farm-yard ; for 
 cutting wheat and rye stubbles, and carting them 
 home to the farm-yard ; for the picking of hops ; for 
 the ploughing of stubble-lands; for the water-fur- 
 rowing of newly ploughed wet fields ; for the sowing 
 of winter tares ; for hoeing late crops of turnips ; 
 and for dressing heavy soils with lime. Burnet fields | 
 and lands of the present year laid down to grass ought 
 to be kept intact from the tread or approach of any 
 stock. Lucerne will yield another cutting toward ! 
 the end of this month, or early in October. 
 
 October. — October is frequently the most settled 
 month in the year. Its prevailing temperature, as 
 compared with the shortness of its days, is usually 
 very high; yet this is largely occasioned by great 
 radiation of heat from the soil; and, in some years, 
 it is vastly reduced or occasionally overwhelmed by 
 frosty and snowy premonitions of winter. The ther- 
 mometer usually ranges between 35° and 54° by 
 night, and between 50° and 65° by day; and it has 
 a mean height of about 49° ; yet it not unfrequently 
 falls below the freezing point by night, and has been 
 known to rise so high as 77° by day. The barometer 
 has a mean height of 29*6 inches ; and usually ranges 
 between 28* and 81-6. The mean fall of rain, on the 
 average of many years, is about two inches; and the 
 mean evaporation is nearly inch. The winds are 
 usually soft and comparatively lull ; and, on the aver- 
 age of many years, they blow 3 days from about the 
 north, 3 from about the north-east, 2\ from about the 
 east, 3j from about the south-east, 2£ from about the 
 south, 6 from about the south-west, 4| from about the 
 west, and 6| from about the north-west. 
 
 In the early part of October, hollies and china 
 hollyhocks are in bloom, and the catkins of some 
 kinds of willows are formed; in the middle parts, 
 the leaves of the Spanish chestnut are yellow, those 
 of the weeping-birch are bright red or gold coloured, 
 those of the sugar -maple are scarlet, and most of 
 those of the ash, and some robinas and horse-chest- 
 nuts, are fallen ; and in the latter part of the month, 
 the leaves of the marsh-elder have a fine pink col- 
 our, those of the stag's horn sumach are purplish red, 
 and those of the American oaks have various tints of 
 yellow, orange, red, and purple. A tempestuous 
 snowy day, accompanied by one or two sharply frosty 
 nights in October, sometimes suddenly reduces the 
 flower-garden from beauty and brilliance to almost 
 utter desolation ; but when the whole month main- 
 tains its usually mild character, it retains to its very 
 end a large proportion of the floral gorgeousness of 
 September. Some of the most conspicuous flowers 
 which adorn it are, in the shrubbery, passion-flower, 
 evergreen cytisus, broom, bramble, althaea, honey- 
 suckle, roses, arbutus, and laurustinus; and, in the j 
 parterre, colchicums, cyclamens, golden-rods, pinks, I 
 pansies, stocks, sunflowers, china-asters, chrysanthe- 
 mums, dahlias, verbenas, French marigold, African 
 marigold, anemones, campanulas, nasturtium, Guern- 
 sey lily, pentstemon, salvias, fuschias, autumnal cro- 
 cus, scabious, carnations, Indian pink, asters, balsams, 
 adonis, lupines, sweet-sultan, and marvel of Peru. 
 S 
 
CALENDAR. 274 
 
 In the early part of October, snakes and vipers 
 commence their hybernation, and redwings, hooded 
 crows, and wood-pigeons arrive ; in the middle parts 
 of the month, wild geese remove from the fens to the 
 rye-fields, hen-chaffinches flock together preparatory 
 to migration, and the snipe makes its appearance in 
 the meadows; and in the latter part of the month, 
 rooks visit their nest-trees, the tortoise begins to hy- 
 bernate, spiders' webs abound in the hedges and in 
 the fields, the woodcock returns, and some larks are 
 occasionally heard. " The emigration and immigra- 
 tion of the feathered race still take place. The hi- 
 rundines or swallow-tribes have departed, and the 
 water-birds are nocking hither from other shores. 
 The starlings now congregate in multitudes, and do 
 considerable mischief in the fenny countries, by set- 
 tling on and breaking the reeds which grow there 
 abundantly. Many animals and reptiles and insects 
 now seek their winter quarters, and retire, as impelled 
 by their several instincts, to await the return of all- 
 reviving spring." 
 
 Much of the work proper to September may, by the 
 backwardness of a season, or the prevalence of un- 
 favourable harvest weather, be prolonged into Oc- 
 tober; and a considerable portion of the work proper 
 to October frequently requires to be postponed till 
 November. October weather, when understood with 
 practical reference to the condition and operations of 
 the farm, is the period of comparative or tolerable 
 mildness which immediately precedes such an incle- 
 ment transition to rain, snow, or frost, as puts an ar- 
 rest upon most of the labours of the field. — October 
 is commonly the month for hiring and stocking farms, 
 or for removing from one farm to another; and, on 
 such occasions, a large portion of it is necessarily 
 consumed in the toils of stocking and removing. This 
 is also the chief time for hiring farm-servants; and 
 it demands consideration, not only as to the place 
 and act of hiring them, but as to the number and the 
 qualifications to be sought. 
 
 October will most probably terminate the pasture 
 feeding of all kinds of stock for the year; so that the 
 farm-yard ought to be in a state of perfect readiness 
 for the winter's use. At the commencement of the 
 month, all cows, steers, and calves may still be at 
 grass ; but, at some time in the progress of the month, 
 when the temperature considerably falls, and the 
 grasses fail to yield sufficient nourishment, they must 
 be taken home to the yard, and variously fed accord- 
 ing to their condition and their destiny. Dry cows 
 may be fed on cut chaff; milking cows, in another 
 yard, on cabbages and chaff; young cattle, on the 
 same fare as milking cows ; and fattening beasts, on 
 turnips and chaff, or, what is better, on cabbages or 
 carrots and chaff. Such cattle as have been soiling 
 in the yard or sheds, may now have their food grad- 
 ually changed into dry meat, cabbages, or roots. At 
 the beginning of the month, ewe and wether hogs 
 are still at grass : but towards the end of it, or when 
 the pastures cease to afford proper nourishment, they 
 must be penned on turnips. All sheep intended to 
 be fattened, however, ought to be already half-fat- 
 tened when they are turned on turnips; for if they 
 leave the pastures and begin the turnips in a lean 
 condition, they will by no means make a profitable 
 return for their feeding. Selected rams ought, in the 
 early part of the month or not later than about the 
 10th, to be turned in among the breeding ewes. 
 Horses, according to the practice of some farmers, 
 continue throughout much of October, to receive a 
 portion of green food, and are not, till towards the 
 end of this month, restricted to hay, chaff, and oats. 
 Full grown hogs ought now to be put to fatten. 
 
 As soon as cattle are turned into the farm-yard, 
 the labours of the barn for the supply of fodder and 
 litter commence ; and these labours are thenceforth 
 
 CALENDAR 
 
 continued till spring. In the course of October, the 
 potato crop must be ploughed up, gathered, and 
 stored ; and about the end of the month, the carrot 
 crop should be dug up and stored. Autumnal tillage 
 of all wet or stiff lands ought to be busily prosecuted 
 in October, for, in consequence of saturation with 
 moisture, it may become impracticable in November; 
 but the ploughing of very light sandy soils can be 
 performed, during open weather, in any part of win- 
 ter. The sowing of wheat ought to be much more 
 general in October than in either September or No- 
 vember; for it is as suitable on lightish soils in 
 October as in September, and generally far more 
 suitable in heavy soils in October than in November. 
 Two successional crops of winter tares ought now to 
 be sown. Successful bean husbandly upon harsh 
 and difficult soils, chiefly depends upon the diligent 
 ploughing and due manuring of the land in October, 
 or, in favourable weather, in November. Ploughing 
 for pease, for barley, for oats, and for madder must 
 also be, at this time, diligently prosecuted. A very 
 deep digging should at present be given for liquorice. 
 In Avoodland districts, all fallen tree- leaves which 
 can be obtained at moderate cost, should be collected 
 and carted to the farm-yard for litter and conversion 
 into manure. Water-courses ought to be examined, 
 and kept freely open. 
 
 November. — November has the reputation of being 
 the foggiest month in the year. In some years, it is 
 clear, calm, and mild ; and in others, it is clear, frosty 
 and very cold ; but in most, it is dark, unsettled, and 
 stormy, and frequently wrapped in fogs and snows. 
 "We are now," remarks Howitt, "in a month of 
 darkness, storms, and mist, — of the whirling away of 
 the withered leaves, and the introduction to com- 
 plete winter. The flowers are gone ; the long grass 
 stands amidst the woodland thickets withered, bleach- 
 ed, and sere ; the fern is red and shrivelled amongst 
 the green gorse and broom ; the plants which waved 
 their broad white umbels to the summer breeze, now, 
 like skeleton trophies of death, rattle their dry and 
 hollow branches to the autumnal winds. The floral 
 splendours of our gardens are dead; their walks are 
 uninviting ; and as these summer friends of ours are 
 no longer affluent and of flourishing estate, we of 
 course desert them." The whole month is, in gene- 
 ral, damp with drizzling rains, long showers, or lazy 
 and murky fogs ; much of it is, not unfrequently, a 
 season of ceaseless rains and sleets ; and the latter 
 part of it is usually a time of wild and stormy winds, 
 and, in not a few years, has been a season of the 
 most tremendous tempests. Winds from between 
 the south-west and the north-west exceedingly pre- 
 vail, and often blow with excessive violence, and are 
 accompanied with extreme depression of the baro- 
 meter. The temperature has a mean height of about 
 42°, and usually ranges between 30° and 54°; but it 
 has been known to fall so low as 19°, and to rise so 
 high as 63°. The barometer ranges between 28*01 
 and31*17; and has a mean height of 29 - 65. Themean 
 fall of rain on the average of many years, is about 
 2^ inches; and the mean evaporation is about 0*76. 
 The winds, on the average of years, blow 3 days 
 from points about the north, 4 from about the north- 
 east, 2 from about the east, 2 from about the south- 
 east, Sj from about the south, 5£ from about the 
 south-west, 5 from about the west, and 5 from about 
 the north-west. 
 
 Though very few plants come naturally into flower 
 in November, and though nearly all the hardy au- 
 tumnal flowering plants are, in many years, reduced 
 to utter desolation by frosts and tempests in the early 
 part of this month, yet a considerable number of 
 beautifully fruiting ornamental shrubs always adorn 
 it with their fruits, several most handsome hardy 
 shrubs and herbaceous perennials always adorn it 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 275 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 with their flowers, and, in some years, many scores 
 of species of the most brilliant and showy hardy 
 flowers of autumn continue to bloom till near its 
 close, — and a few quite past its close, — while several 
 of the sweetest flowering-plants of spring lend to it 
 by anticipation a considerable portion of their bloom. 
 We observed, on the 22d of November, 1844, in the 
 open ground of a small cottage garden, so far north 
 as the border of the Scottish highlands, no fewer 
 than about fifty select species in flower, including 
 some of the most brilliant dahlias, and some of the 
 choicest and most tender kinds of such genera as 
 pentstemon, verbena, and alonsoa. Among the most 
 frequent and conspicuous floral ornaments of the open 
 ground in November, are, in the shrubbery, arbutus, 
 laurustinus, roses, china-roses, passion-flower, honey- 
 suckle, and evergreen cytisus; and, in the parterre, 
 dahlias, golden-rods, Indian chrysanthemums, asters, 
 china-asters, colchicums, anemones, daisies, violets, 
 stocks, wallflowers, auriculas, primroses and poly- 
 anthuses. 
 
 In the early part of November, the golden plover 
 appears, and the buck emits his peculiar cry ; in the 
 middle part of the month, snails and slugs disappear 
 from view, and commence their hybernation ; and in 
 the latter part of the month, greenfinches congregate, 
 and the winter moth and the common flat-body moth 
 make their appearance. In the course of the month, 
 the widgeon, the stock-dove, and some other birds, 
 including the golden plover, appear; the migratory 
 birds which contributed a quota of cheerfulness to 
 our summer are no longer to be seen, and their suc- 
 cessors are fewer in number, less mirthful, and more 
 shy and seclusive; the frog sinks to the bottom of 
 ponds and ditches, and buries itself in the mud ; the 
 lizard, the badger, and the hedgehog creep into holes 
 in the earth and into similar other retreats, there to lie 
 torpid till spring ; the dormouse sinks into a winter 
 slumber; squirrels, rats, and field-mice shut them- 
 selves up with their winter stores; and bats retire into 
 old barns, caves, and deserted buildings, and there 
 suspend themselves by their hind feet, and wrap 
 themselves in the membranes of their forefeet, either 
 to pass the whole winter in one uninterrupted sleep, 
 or to experience a temporary awaking only during 
 some interval of unusually mild weather. 
 
 The young ewes and wethers of last spring's lamb- 
 ing must continue throughout November, to be penned 
 on turnips; and their pens, when necessary, must be 
 shifted. Lean stock sheep may still be kept on the. 
 remains of the summer grass, and on the sheep walks ; 
 but all fattening and fat sheep must be kept on tur- 
 nips, or cabbages, or similar food, and ought to re- 
 ceive as much as they can possibly eat, yet without be- 
 ing allowed to occasion any waste. Rams and breeding 
 ewes ought to continue to herd together upon pastures 
 till about the middle of the month ; but, at that period, 
 the rams should be withdrawn. All black cattle con- 
 tinue, throughout November, in their respective yards ; 
 and such of them as are designed to be fattened, 
 ought to be fed at least on turnips, cabbages, or po- 
 tatoes, and, if possible, on carrots, or, best of all, on 
 parsnips. Horses continue, through the early part of 
 November, to receive full allowance of hay and corn ; 
 but, very generally, they begin, before the middle of the 
 month/to have little work and to suffer a total with- 
 drawal of their hay, and a great diminution in their al- 
 lowance of corn. Yet, with thoroughly good farmers, 
 horses ought, even at this season, to be fully employed, 
 and constantly well fed. " There are," remarks Arthur 
 Young, " many works for horse-labour that may be 
 executed in this month after ploughing is finished; 
 on light dry soils, the marl, chalk, or clay carts should 
 not stop; they may work from the first day to the 
 last; and in wetter soils, you may cart any sort of 
 manure on to grass lands, provided you use small 
 
 carts." About the beginning of the month, colts 
 should be put into a yard, or into a paddock provided 
 with a shed, and should be fed on straw and succulent | 
 roots,- such as potatoes or turnips. Swine and poultry 
 should be fed and treated as in preceding months. 
 
 The labours of the barn for the supply of fodder 
 and litter to the farm-yard must be so continued as 
 to render the supply ample and regular. The plough- 
 ing of stubble land for fallow-crops or for bare fallow 
 must proceed according to the circumstances of suit- 
 able weather and practicable character and condition j 
 of the soil. The carting home of turnips must be 
 sufficiently frequent or ample to afford a full supply 
 for the uses of the farm-yard ; and, in general — though 
 this rule must be modified by certain conditions of 
 either soil, crop, stock, or point of rotation — every 
 two or three alternate drills of the turnips should be 
 taken up and carted home, and the remainder left 
 upon the ground for the penning of sheep. Novem- 
 ber is the first suitable month for hedging and ditch- 
 ing; and the whole of it, when the state of the 
 weather permits, maybe employed in operations upon 
 the live fence, in ditcher-work, in draining, and in all 
 sorts of farm labour with the pick-axe and the spade. 
 The borders of fields should now be thoroughly 
 cleaned from thorns, brambles, thistles, and other 
 kinds of rubbishy and mischievous vegetation; the 
 winter-watering of meadows may now be commenced ; 
 stone-fences and other dry stone walls may be built; 
 mineral manures, such as marl, chalk, clay, and 
 ditch-earth, may be carted; ant-hills on pasture fields 
 should be destroyed; water -furrows which retain 
 stagnant water should be cleansed ; the vastly impor- 
 tant, heavy, and operose work of hollow draining, in 
 all its methods and departments, may be performed ; 
 the work of wood-cutting ought to be commenced; 
 the carting home of sufficient supplies of fuel ought 
 to be attended to; and fish-ponds, when thought 
 desirable, may now be formed. Toward the end of 
 the month, the hardy hog-pea may be sown on 
 such dry soils as are susceptible of good winter 
 tilth. 
 
 December. — December is sometimes designated the 
 gloomiest month in the year; yet it has very generally 
 a mere continuation of the characteristics of Novem- 
 ber, and is sometimes exceeded by that month in the 
 aggregate of real gloom and disagreeableness. In 
 some years, it has prevailingly a dry, bracing frost ; 
 in others, it has an almost uninterrupted series of 
 fogs, and drizzling rains; in others, it maintains, till 
 near its close, a considerable proportion of the clear- j 
 ness and mildness which characterize a remarkably \ 
 fine autumn ; in many, it acquires, toward its close, | j 
 a stern, relentless, wintry character; and in most, till 
 near its end, it possesses a combination of wetness, 
 storm iness, and comparative mildness. South-west 
 winds usually prevail during about one fourth of the j 
 month, and are sometimes violently accompanied j 
 with heavy rains, and occasionally with thunder. 
 Easterly and north-easterly winds frequently prevail 
 during five or six days, and are usually accompanied 
 with frost. The commencement of severe or actual | 
 winter generally occurs in the latter part or towards 
 the end of the month; and is not unfrequently pre- 
 ceded by calms, fogs, and heavy rains. The thermo- 
 meter has a mean height of about 89°, and usually 
 ranges between 17° and 55°; but it has been known j 
 to fall to two degrees below zero, and to rise so high j 
 as 58°. The barometer has a mean height of 29*69 j 
 inches, and usually ranges between 29*12 and 30-32 I 
 The mean fall of rain, on the average of many years, ! 
 is 247 inches; and the mean evaporation is 06 of an 
 inch. The winds on the average of many years, 
 blow one day from points about the north, 2\ days j 
 from points about the north-east, 3g- from points 
 about the east, 4 from points about the south-east, 
 
CALENDAR. 
 
 276 
 
 CALF 
 
 2 from points about the south, 8£ from points about 
 the south-west, 6 from points about the west, and 4 
 from points about the north-west. 
 
 Almost all annual plants of our country, whether 
 indigenous or introduced, exist during December 
 only in the epitomized and hybernating form of seed; 
 and the vast majority of other plants are in a state of 
 profound repose, resting their roots dormantly be- 
 neath the surface of the soil, and escaping the dam- 
 age or destruction which their delicate organism 
 would otherwise sustain from the rigours of frost or 
 from alternations of frost and sunshine. In mild 
 seasons, a few of the autumnal flowering plants con- 
 tinue their bloom into December, and even beyond 
 its close, and a small number of vernal-flowering 
 plants bloom more or less freely in anticipation; but, 
 in most instances, both classes have a sickly and 
 drooping appearance, and afford abundant indication 
 of being completely out of their natural season. Yet 
 the daisy and some chrysanthemums often bloom in 
 great brilliance; and hellebores, cyclamens, pansies, 
 anemones, wall -flowers, stocks, polyanthuses, and 
 primroses, not unfrequently rise far above sickliness, 
 and altogether astonish a novice by the comparative 
 flushness and fulness of their floral beauty. All the 
 evergreen shrubs, also, and many of the evergreen 
 herbs, contribute to the garden and the villa-ground 
 features of refreshing and most welcome verdure ; and 
 a few, such as the laurustinus, the arbutus, and the 
 evergreen cytisus, contribute the additional and far 
 richer feature of floral bloom. The mosses and the 
 liverworts, however, are unchecked in vegetation; 
 and, though simple in organism, and individually 
 minute, they impart an agreeable verdure to close 
 scenes, and afford an interesting subject of botanical 
 investigation during all the wintry night of the gen- 
 eral sleep of plants. 
 
 During December, almost all insects which have 
 escaped destruction are inert in their winter-torpor; 
 but respectively in the beginning and toward the end 
 of the month, appear the December moth and the 
 yellow-line quaker ; and on warm days, a few gnats 
 may be seen sporting in the sunbeams. Keptiles and 
 other animals which have torpid habits of hyberna- 
 tion, as the lizard, the frog, the hedgehog, and the 
 badger, are also everywhere out of view. Yet such 
 of our indigenous or naturalized animals as retain the 
 exercise of their instincts, perception, and locomo- 
 tivity, become more confiding in man, and excite 
 much more tender feelings of interest than during 
 summer or autumn ; and various agreeable families 
 of the feathered tribe, urged hither by increasing 
 scarcity of food in their native haunts, arrive upon 
 our shores, and pleasantly vary our specimens of 
 animated nature. The web-footed birds from the 
 arctic regions, and the timid and suppliant wrens, 
 thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, and robin redbreasts 
 of our own land especially challenge the attention, 
 and interest the feelings, during the snows of Decem- 
 ber. 
 
 All kinds of cattle throughout December, continue 
 to be constantly in the farm-yard, and must be treat- 
 ed in the same manner as in November. The littering 
 of the yards, stalls, stables, cow-houses, hog-sties, and 
 cattle-sheds, ought to be so regular, constant, clean, 
 and plentiful, as both to keep all the stock in a com- 
 fortable condition, and to prevent the loss of any 
 manure. The ewe and wether hogs ought, through- 
 out this month as throughout November, to be kept 
 folded on turnips. The ewes should continue to be 
 on grass ; but, during snow or hard frost, they must 
 receive an allowance of hay; and should any of the 
 forward ewes lamb, they must be better kept than be- 
 fore, and receive a plentiful allowance of cabbages or 
 turnips. During very severe weather sheep should 
 be brought under shelter. Horses, in consequence of 
 
 the shortness of the days and the occasional inclem- 
 ency of the weather, cannot at present work full time ; 
 and may be kept on a modified allowance of straw and 
 corn. Colts should be kept in their yard or paddock, 
 on straw and an allowance of green food. All swine 
 ought to be kept well littered, so as always to be 
 perfectly clean, and to have their skins of a bright 
 and healthy appearance ; and all fat swine, in parti- 
 cular, should be kept thoroughly tidy, and constantly 
 littered up to their belly. 
 
 All lands designed for either fallow-crops or bare 
 fallow ought, in ordinary circumstances, to be so 
 tilled before the end of December as to be laid out 
 to enjoy the pulverizing, cleaning, and mellowing 
 effects of the winter's frosts. The labours of the 
 barn must be so attended to throughout the month, 
 as to furnish the requisite supplies of fodder and lit- 
 ter. A supply of pulled and carted turnips ought to 
 be stored under a shed or in some other suitable 
 place, as a preparation against the sudden or pro- 
 longed assaults of snow or tempestuous weather. 
 The hedgers and ditchers ought to be constantly at 
 their appropriate work throughout December, so as 
 to be disengaged for other labour in Ipring. In 
 weather unsuitable for ploughing, the carts ought to 
 be constantly at work in taking home marl, chalk, 
 clay, and ditch-earth, and in removing farm -yard 
 manure into heaps on the fallow -fields. Water- 
 meadows may be flooded, improved, and extended ; 
 and the operose labours of draining may be con- 
 tinued. 
 
 Young's Farmer's Calendar. — Low's Elements of 
 Agriculture. — The Farmer's Almanac. — The Gar- 
 dener's Gazette. — Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. 
 — MarshaWs Reports. — The Gardener's Magazine. — 
 Mawe's Gardener's Calendar. — The Gardener's New 
 Calendar. — The Knowledge Society's British Husban- 
 dry. — Keith's Botanical Lexicon. 
 
 CALF. The offspring of the cow. The vari- 
 eties of the calf, the modifications of its consti- 
 tution achievable by the art of breeding, and 
 the accidents to which it is subject in the foetal 
 state and in the process of birth, are discussed 
 in the articles Cattle, Cow, Breeding, Abor- 
 tion, and Parturition. Some means of ascer- 
 taining the pregnancy of cows at an early period 
 of their gestation, or of closely calculating the 
 number of calves which will in one season be 
 produced by a herd of cows, would be of consid- 
 erable practical advantage to farmers who keep 
 a large breeding stock. A common rule is to 
 reckon every cow pregnant who does not return 
 to the bull for six weeks after being bulled ; but 
 this rule is exceedingly fallacious, and might 
 mislead a farmer to overestimate the number of 
 his pregnant cows to the egregious degree of 
 more than one half. A method has been sug- 
 gested by a very able and experienced veterinary 
 surgeon as easy and conclusive, — that a person 
 may, at a very early period of a cow's gestation, 
 place his ear close to her flank, and hear the 
 double pulsation of the foetus ; but this method 
 has been pronounced by eminent judges who 
 have tested it a mere delusion, — not the slight- 
 est intimation of the existence of the foetus be- 
 ing perceptible by any ordinary ear. Nay, says 
 Earl Spencer, " I have tried the use of a stetho- 
 scope, but from want of practice in the manage- 
 
CALF. 277 CALF. 
 
 ment of the instrument, or from some other 
 cause, I have with this also been equally unsuc- 
 sessful. I have also seen a surgeon, well ac- 
 customed to the use of a stethoscope, try it 
 and fail as completely as myself." Other me- 
 thods have been proposed ; but most or all are 
 subject to the very grave objection of a liability 
 to cause abortion. The method of punching the 
 cow in the flank, indeed, is quite conclusive, and 
 unless when performed with unnecessary violence, 
 is perfectly safe ; but it cannot be practised un- 
 til a cow has been at least six months preg- 
 nant, and it is therefore of very small practical 
 value. 
 
 A method of proximately calculating the num- 
 ber of calves which any herd of cows will produce 
 in a season was based on observation, and after- 
 wards put to the test by Earl Spencer. He noted 
 fifty cows in succession who did not return to 
 the bull within six weeks ; he then noted how 
 many of these went seven weeks, eight weeks, 
 nine weeks, and so on to twenty-one weeks ; and 
 he repeated his observations upon seven other 
 series of fifty cows each, till his facts included 
 four hundred bulled cows who did not within 
 six weeks return to the bull. The following table 
 exhibits the results. 
 
 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 21 £ g g 
 
 50 45 41 39 38 37 34 33 32 32 30 29 29 28 26 26 
 
 50 44 35 33 32 30 28 27 27 27 26 26 26 26 25 23 
 
 50 41 38 36 31 31 30 29 28 27 27 27 27 26 23 17 
 
 50 45 41 36 34 31 30 27 26 26 26 26 26 24 20 16 
 
 50 47 44 43 43 43 42 40 39 39 37 36 36 35 33 31 
 
 50 45 42 36 35 34 32 30 26 24 24 24 24 23 20 18 
 
 50 42 41 39 37 36 35 32 31 30 30 30 30 2S 26 24 
 
 50 48 47 41 41 39 39 36 36 36 34 34 34 31 29 26 
 
 100 357 333 305 292 283 272 255 245 241 235 232 232 221 202 181 
 
 He next made observations upon one thousand 
 bulled cows, in five series of two hundred cows 
 each, with the view of ascertaining the propor- 
 tion of that number who should not within six 
 weeks return to the bull. The results were as 
 follow. 
 
 Bulled. 
 
 3 weeks. 
 
 4 weeks. 
 
 5 weeks. 
 
 6 weeks. 
 
 200 
 
 158 
 
 115 
 
 107 
 
 87 
 
 200 
 
 137 
 
 92 
 
 85 
 
 71 
 
 200 
 
 142 
 
 87 
 
 80 
 
 72 
 
 200 
 
 148 
 
 94 
 
 81 
 
 78 
 
 200 
 
 139 
 
 87 
 
 74 
 
 63 
 
 1000 
 
 724 
 
 475 
 
 427 
 
 371 
 
 Earl Spencer, in order to test these tables, found- 
 ed upon them a number of calculations as to the 
 probable number of live calves he should have in 
 a season from each of several herds of cows, and, 
 in every instance, found the calculated number 
 to be remarkably near the actual number pro- 
 duced. For example, he calculated on the 22d 
 of October, 1838, that he should have 48 live 
 calves previous to the 1st of August, 1839, and 
 he had 49 ; and he calculated, on the 24th of 
 January, 1839, that he should have 53 live calves 
 previous to the 1st of November, 1839, and he 
 had 55. The principle of his calculation is very 
 
 obvious, and may, with much practical advan- 
 tage, be adopted by every farmer who possesses 
 a considerable breeding stock. "Taking the 
 first table," says the Earl, " I divided the sum 
 total of the cows in calf by the sum total of the 
 numbers in each of the previous columns, and 
 the decimals which will be the product of such 
 divisions will show the probability of a cow prov- 
 ing in calf who shall not have returned to the 
 bull at the end of each week respectively. This 
 process I apply to ascertain the probabilities in 
 the other table. I then multiply the number of 
 cows who have gone twenty-one weeks by the 
 decimal belonging to this column; the number 
 who have gone eighteen weeks and not twenty - 
 one, the number who have gone seventeen and 
 not eighteen, and so on, by the decimals respec- 
 tively belonging to these columns. I add the 
 products of these multiplications together, and 
 the sum total gives the probability of the whole 
 list : I mean it gives the probable number of 
 cows who will prove in calf. From this must be 
 deducted the number who will probably not pro- 
 duce live calves, which will be about one in ten. 
 With respect to the other table, I treat it in the 
 same manner, and assume the probable number 
 of cows to go six weeks as if they had actually 
 gone that period, and add it to the first column 
 of the first-mentioned table." 
 
 When a calf is born, the cow, by an instinctive 
 prompting, ought instantly to lick off the slimy 
 or mucous matter with which it is covered ; and, 
 in any instance in which she may seem disinclined 
 to do this, she may readily be coaxed to it by 
 the sprinkling of a handful of common salt over 
 the calf. If. after the calf is cleaned and has be- 
 gun to suck, the navel-string should continue to 
 bleed, a ligature ought to be fastened round it very 
 near, but not in contact with the belly. If the 
 place at the division of the cord should be un- 
 usually sore, it must not, by any means, be 
 touched with any caustic application, but ought 
 to be dressed with a little tow, dipped in Friar's 
 balsam, made fast with a bandage, and renovated 
 every evening and morning. An inflammatory 
 state of the navel, in some instances, is after- 
 wards induced ; but this will be noticed in the 
 article Navel-Ill. 
 
 Many persons, even with the sanction of so 
 experienced and popular a writer as Clater, take 
 away about a quart of the beastings or first milk 
 of the cow before permitting the calf to suck ; 
 and not a few of these give the calf, as its first 
 aliment, about half-a-pint of lukewarm gruel. 
 But, in every instance, whatever subsequent 
 treatment may be intended, the calf ought to re- 
 ceive, not only the first beastings, but the whole 
 of the milk until it becomes perfectly fit for 
 dairy use. The first milk possesses an aperient 
 power of clearing away the glutinous faeces which 
 had accumulated in the intestines of the foetus, 
 and which obstruct the due performance of the 
 intestinal functions of the calf, and exert a ten- 
 
CALF. 
 
 2 
 
 78 
 
 CALF. 
 
 dency toward the origination of disease ; it also 
 possesses a peculiarly nutritive power, and a 
 strongly viscid condition, well adapted and most 
 evidently intended for the early invigoration and 
 support of the young animal ; so that to with- 
 hold it is to contravene the wise provision of the 
 all -beneficent framer of the animal economy, 
 and to incur the certain hazard of damaging the 
 young animal's health, and seriously diminishing 
 its value. "Nature," remarks Mr. Marshall, 
 " has evidently prepared milk of a peculiar qual- 
 ity for the infant calf ; and this milk is useless in 
 the dairy : it is therefore doubly good manage- 
 ment to suffer the calf to remain at the teat, un- 
 til the milk becomes useful in the dairy; which 
 it usually does in two or three days. But al- 
 though it becomes, to general appearance, simi- 
 lar to that of a cow which has been longer in 
 milk, it is highly probable that it is still singu- 
 larly adapted to the yet infant state of the calf. 
 In the suckling-houses round the metropolis, it 
 is well understood, that putting a young calf to 
 a cow which is old in milk, will throw it into 
 scouring." 
 
 The destination of calves, whether for early 
 slaughter, for fattening into fine condition on 
 milk, or for rearing to maturity in connexion 
 with either grazing or the dairy, must depend 
 partly on a farmer's notions of stock-manage- 
 ment, partly on the character and economics of 
 his farm, and very largely on his comparative 
 distance from a good veal market. In dairy dis- 
 tricts, many female calves and almost all male 
 ones are slaughtered when very young, — most of 
 them when only one or two days old. Yet the 
 flesh of all unfed or but slightly fed calves is both 
 unpalatable and unwholesome, and is popularly 
 denounced by the Lowland Scotch as "slink 
 veal," and sarcastically known among the Irish 
 bogtrotters as " staggering bob," and is prohib- 
 ited from use, on pain of civil penalty, among 
 both the Swiss and the French. In pastoral dis- 
 tricts, especially such as are far from markets, 
 calves require to be carefully reared as grazing- 
 stock, and therefore incur small hazard of being 
 hurriedly surrendered to the slaughter ; and in 
 many a dairy district, where their existence is 
 at present tolerated only for the sake of milk, 
 and where it is generally brought to a very 
 speedy termination, they might, with a little 
 better management, be made good food and the 
 occasion of fair profit. So very competent a judge 
 as Mr. Aiton of Hamilton does not hesitate to 
 say, respecting the early slaughtering of calves 
 in so fine a dairy district as that of Strathaven, 
 " This is certainly bad economy, — for as milk can 
 not be turned to more profitable account than in 
 feeding calves till they are from four to six weeks 
 old, it must be bad management to kill any of 
 them when only a few days old. Veal, when mo- 
 derately fat, is an excellent species of animal 
 food, and can be brought to market with greater 
 profit than either beef or mutton. The feeding 
 
 J of calves is a simple and easy process ; and as the 
 | milk of a cow should not be used as human food 
 till a week after she has calved, and as milk can- 
 not be more profitably used than in feeding 
 calves for a few weeks, it betrays great ignorance 
 and want of economy to kill any of them till 
 they are fed on the milk of their dams for at 
 least four weeks. This is generally done in 
 France, Belgium, and Holland; and no person 
 in these countries will taste the milk of a cow, 
 till about a week after she has dropped her calf." 
 As a general rule, however, every farmer ought 
 to calculate whether the milk of his cows will 
 yield the largest returns when used for butter, 
 for cheese, for veal, or for pork and bacon ; and 
 will find a large element in his calculations for 
 veal, or for the milk-fattening of calves, to be 
 nearness to a market in which veal brings good 
 prices and is in steady request. Fat calves can 
 be safely removed from place to place only by 
 carriage ; and when the distance to a good mar- 
 ket for them is great, the expense of carriage 
 may decidedly counterbalance the profits of sale. 
 So powerfully does the mere circumstance of dis- 
 tance from market control the uses of milk in 
 the districts around London, that the whole 
 country, as far as the influence of the London 
 market can be felt, is divided into successive 
 zones for respectively milking, calf- fattening, 
 butter-making, cheese-making, and pork-fatten- 
 ing. The zone immediately around London, to 
 the breadth of about eight or ten miles, is de- 
 voted to the supply of the metropolis with milk ; 
 the next zone, to the distance of from ten to 
 thirty miles from London, is devoted to the suck- 
 ling of calves and lambs, for the supply of veal 
 and lamb ; the third zone, to the distance ot 
 from thirty to seventy or eighty miles from Lon- 
 don, is devoted to the supply of fresh butter; 
 and the districts beyond the third zone are 
 partly of miscellaneous character, partly con- 
 trolled by nearer markets, and partly devoted to 
 the supply of bacon and ham. 
 
 Every farmer within the suckling district for 
 the supply of veal to London, keeps from six 
 cows to upwards of a dozen, and employs all their 
 milk in the feeding and fattening of calves. He 
 sells cows which cease to give milk, and buys 
 others which are far advanced in pregnancy ; 
 and thus contrives to have a constant and nearly 
 uniform flow of milk. If his cow-house be single, 
 it is fitted up with a range of calf-pens behind 
 the cows ; and if it be double, it is occupied 
 with pens, from end to end, along the middle. 
 The pens are boarded enclosures, merely large 
 enough to allow the calves to turn themselves, 
 four feet high, floored with pierced boards, 
 raised at least one foot above the earthen floor, 
 and provided with a small box or manger, to 
 contain some chalk as a remedy against fever. 
 The stages used in Gloucester for pail-fed calves, 
 are pronounced by Mr. Marshall to be of "an 
 admirable construction," and described as fol- 
 
CALF. 
 
 279 
 
 CALF. 
 
 lows: — "The house or room-stead in which a 
 stage is placed, measures twelve feet by eight. 
 Four feet of its width are occupied by the stage, 
 and one foot by a trough placed on its front, 
 leaving three feet as a gangway, into the middle 
 of which the door opens. The floor of the stage 
 is formed of laths, about two inches square, lying 
 lengthway of the stage, and one inch asunder. 
 The front fence is of staves, an inch and a half 
 in diameter, nine inches from middle to middle, 
 and three feet high ; entered at the bottom into 
 the front bearer of the floor, (from which cross 
 joists pass into the back wall,) and steadied at 
 the top by a rail, which, as well as the bottom 
 piece, is entered at each end into the end wall. 
 The holes in the upper rail are wide enough to 
 permit the staves to be lifted up and taken out, 
 to give admission to the calves, one of which is 
 fastened to every second stave, by means of two 
 rings of iron joined by a swivel, one ring playing 
 upon the stave the other receiving a broad lea- 
 ther collar, buckled round the neck of the calf. 
 The trough is for barley-meal, chalk, &c, and to 
 rest the pails on. Two calves drink out of one 
 pail, putting their heads through between the 
 staves." 
 
 The best method of treating a calf with the 
 view of fattening it, is to feed it entirely on milk 
 fresh from the cow, either by allowing itself to 
 suck her, or by drawing off the milk and admin- 
 istering it in a pail. The allowing of the calves 
 to suck was at one time the general method, and 
 is still the prevailing practice of some districts ; 
 and it is frequently vindicated on the ground of 
 its causing a free secretion of saliva, and in con- 
 sequence occasioning a readier digestion and a 
 more rapid growth. But the abundant secretion 
 of saliva can easily be promoted, in the pail-feed- 
 ing method, by placing an artificial teat in the 
 calf's mouth while feeding, and by preventing 
 him from taking up the milk with unnatural 
 haste. The fixing of a piece of clean leather, 
 about three inches in length, to the bottom of 
 the pail, the placing of the dairymaid's finger in 
 the calf's mouth, or any other similar contriv- 
 ance to act in the manner of a teat, will cause a 
 perfectly sufficient flow of saliva simultaneously 
 with feeding ; and, by keeping a lump of chalk 
 constantly within the animal's reach, he will at 
 all times, by licking it, be induced to swallow 
 much saliva which would otherwise drop from his 
 mouth and be lost. Even though the sucking 
 method were considerably the best for the calf, it 
 acts very injuriously on the lactiferousness of the 
 cow, and occasions a great ultimate loss. A good 
 cow yields more milk than can be consumed 
 by a young calf, and she soon becomes so fond of 
 the calf that she will not yield her milk to the 
 dairymaid ; and unless her udder be completely 
 emptied at every milking, she suffers a gradual 
 diminution in the lactic secretion, and will ne- 
 cessarily and somewhat rapidly yield less and 
 less till she become quite dry. But, in the pail- 
 
 feeding method, every cow is made to produce 
 milk as amply and prolongedly as possible ; every 
 calf receives enough of milk for its sustenance, 
 and no more ; a feeble calf does not occasion a 
 diminution of milk in one cow, and a strong calf 
 can be fed partially or wholly with the milk of a 
 second cow; and any calf, reared for stock, may 
 be weaned by degrees, or have other food slowly 
 and increasingly substituted for milk, so as to 
 prevent injury to its stomach from a too sudden 
 change of food. 
 
 A singular practice which prevails in some 
 great suckling districts, renders the first stage of 
 pail-feeding somewhat critical. Multitudes of 
 calves which are fed and fattened in the suck- 
 ling districts, are brought to them, by profes- 
 sional calf-dealers, from the dairy districts,; and 
 the animals are, in many instances, carried from 
 so great a distance and in so injurious a manner, 
 as to be half-dead on their arrival. They are con- 
 veyed on flat, shallow carts, their four feet tied 
 together, their heads hanging over, and their 
 stomach, for whole days, unrefreshed with food 
 or drink ; and, when they arrive, some die, and 
 most require to be carefully nursed, and very 
 gently treated. " If they are allowed to satisfy 
 their appetite at first," says Mr. Rham, "they 
 invariably scour, that is, purge violently and die. 
 If the strong astringent medicine sold in the 
 shops for the scouring in calves is given to them 
 in this weak state, it only accelerates their death. 
 The best remedy is to boil the milk for them, and 
 give them little at first ; to mix some starch or 
 arrow-root with it, and to give them a raw egg 
 beat up in milk. This restores the strength of 
 the stomach, and generally cures them. When 
 the calf begins to thrive on the milk which he 
 sucks, or which is given him warm from the cow, 
 nothing more is necessary than to keep him ex- 
 tremely clean and dry, to give him plenty of air, 
 but not much light, and never to disturb him 
 between his meals." 
 
 Some calf-suckling farmers give two meals of 
 milk in the day, and others give three. Some 
 give the milk sparingly at first, in order to whet 
 the appetite, and prevent a loathing of food ; and 
 others give a plentiful supply from first to last, 
 and merely use care not to allow a surfeit. Some, 
 in order to produce superior flesh and a high de- 
 gree of fattening, feed the young calves on the 
 first-drawn milk, which contains a larger pro- 
 portion of serum than the last-drawn milk, and 
 feed the more advanced calves increasingly on 
 the last-drawn milk, till they receive, for a time, 
 that of two or even three cows ; and a few, in order 
 to prevent scouring, and economize the profits 
 of feeding, feed all calves on artificially heated 
 milk, and rearing calves on heated milk deprived 
 of its cream. An extraordinary instance of the 
 latter, in the vale of Gloucester, is mentioned by 
 Mr. Marshall. " In the practice of the first 
 breeder in the vale," says he, " the milk was 
 given to the calves scalding hot, — as hot as the 
 
CALF. 
 
 dairy-girl could bear her hand in it. The lips 
 of the calves were not unfrequently injured 
 by it. His reasons for this practice were, that 
 the heat of the milk prevented the calves from 
 scouring, made them thrive, and enabled him to 
 put his rearing calves to skim milk, immediately 
 from their being taken from the cow, or at least 
 two or three days old. They never tasted ' best 
 milk ' after they were taken from the teat at that 
 age." 
 
 Some calf-feeders mix eggs with the milk given 
 to advanced fattening calves, others mix meal 
 with it, and others try different though similar 
 methods of increasing the amount of assimilated 
 nourishment ; and not a few, when milk is scarce, 
 give wholly or partially, as substitutes for it, a 
 mixture of warm milk and meal and water, a 
 mixture of linseed jelly, hot water, and hot milk, 
 a mixture of powdered oil-cake and warm milk, 
 or even so monstrous a medicament as balls of 
 meal and water with a little gin. But all such 
 artificial methods are at once unnatural to the 
 animal's habits, deteriorating to its flesh, and 
 unprofitable to the owner. Whenever thoroughly 
 good milk is not quite abundant, some of the 
 largest and best fattened calves ought immedi- 
 ately to be sold, and all the rest fully fed on 
 milk. " The whole secret of fattening calves for 
 veal," says Mr. Aiton, "is to give them, after 
 they are three or four weeks old, abundance of 
 milk, keep plenty of dry litter under them in 
 their stalls, let them have the benefit of good air, 
 moderate warmth, and be nearly in the dark." 
 
 Calves acquire the condition of prime veal in 
 the course of from eight to twelve weeks, or, on 
 the average, in about ten weeks. A good fat- 
 tened calf usually weighs from 17 to 20 stones, 
 of 8 lbs. each, and usually sells, in Smithfield 
 market, at from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. per stone. Yet 
 the largest and heaviest does not always fetch 
 the most money; for a calf of 14 or 15 stones, if 
 of the proper age, and thoroughly fat, often sells 
 for a shilling or two more per stone than a calf of 
 from 20 to '30 stones. Some farmers, however, 
 are of opinion that, as a calf grows and fattens 
 faster, and requires less milk, after ten weeks of 
 age than before, one calf of 25 stones will really 
 yield a larger clear profit than two calves of each 
 15 stones ; especially as the former case involves 
 only one prime cost and one sale commission, 
 while the latter involves two prime-costs and 
 two sale-commissions. But both the absolute 
 and the comparative profits are greatly modified 
 by the manner of feeding, the distance from mar- 
 ket, and the particular breed to which the fat- 
 tened calves belong. The profits in the vale of 
 Strathaven are far superior to those of the 
 Liverpool and the London districts ; and they ap- 
 pear to be affected, partly by the quality of the 
 breed, and chiefly by the method of fattening ; 
 the profits of the hither side of the London dis- 
 trict are necessarily greater than those of the 
 further side; and the profits of a breed which 
 
 CALF. 
 
 produces whiteness as well as firmness in the veal 
 are aways greater then those of inferior breeds, — 
 butchers always giving the best price for the 
 whitest flesh, and being in the habit of judging 
 of the colour from the inspection of the interior 
 of the mouth and the white of the eyes. 
 
 When calves are intended to be reared as 
 stock, all males which are not well formed, and 
 all females which have not a broad pelvis and a 
 perfect udder and teats, ought to be rejected; 
 and at the end of a month, all the selected males, 
 not designed to be reared as bulls, ought to be 
 castrated. Wherever milk is in low request for 
 the market or the dairy, all calves will be reared in 
 the best possible manner by being allowed to run 
 during a year with their dams ; but wherever milk 
 is valuable, they must be sooner or later weaned, 
 — in some districts at the end of a few days, and 
 in others, at the end of a few weeks, — yet they 
 ought, in all circumstances, to suck the dam till 
 her milk becomes fit for the dairy, and after- 
 wards to receive as much congenial nourishment 
 as if they were allowed to grow up by sucking. 
 A cow's milk is the natural provision for the 
 rearing of a calf, and contains a large proportion 
 of highly nutrient principles ; and any calf which 
 is not reared, either on the milk itself or on food 
 similarly and equally nutritive, is certain to be- 
 come an ill-thriven and ungainly adult. A com- 
 mon method, in districts where milk is but of mod- 
 erate value, is, for about a month, to feed the calf 
 wholly with the cow's milk from a pail, — for an- 
 other month, to withhold a portion of the milk, 
 and substitute linseed jelly or thin watergruel, 
 — for the third month, to substitute a portion of 
 skimmed milk for the cow's milk, — for the fourth 
 month, to substitute skimmed milk wholly for 
 the cow's milk, — and after the close of the fourth 
 month, to feed wholly on the most tender kinds 
 of herbage or other provender adapted to the 
 general stock. But in districts where milk is 
 highly valuable, substitutes for portions of it 
 must be early and constantly given ; and among 
 the most approved of these are watergruel, hay- 
 tea, linseed jelly, turnips sliced in skimmed milk, 
 and turnips and carrots boiled with cut hay and 
 given warm. The treatment of calves subsequent 
 to weaning necessarily depends on the nature of 
 the farm, or the particular kinds of food which it 
 supplies. — The diseases to which calves are most 
 subject will be noticed in the articles Costiveness, 
 Diarrikea, and Navel-Ill; and the particular 
 qualities of their flesh will be noticed in the 
 article Veal. — Mortimer's Husbandry. — Buffon's 
 Natural History. — Journal of the Agricultural 
 Society of England. — Papers of Mr. Alton and Mr. 
 Main in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Mar- 
 shall's Rural Economy of Gloucestershire. — Mar- 
 shalVs Rural Economy of Yoi'Jcshire. — The Farmer's 
 Magazine. — Water's Cattle Doctor. — Sproide's Trea- 
 tise on Agriculture. — Youatt on Cattle. — Rham's 
 Dictionary of the Farm. — Low's Elements of Agri- 
 culture. — Blaine's Veterinary. 
 
 280 
 
CALKINS. 
 
 281 
 
 CALORIC. 
 
 CALK INS. Thin and sharp elevations of the 
 hinder part of horses' shoes, designed to prevent 
 slipping in frosty weather. Calkins, as they are 
 frequently made, strongly tend to strain the foot 
 and damage the back sinews ; and they ought to 
 be shaped somewhat like the point of a hare's ear, 
 and so adjusted as to maintain an equal distri- 
 bution of the horse's pressure over the whole sur- 
 face of the foot. 
 
 CALORIC. The agent or principle which 
 produces the phenomena of heat. It is hypo- 
 thetically regarded as a subtile fluid, the particles 
 of which repel one another, and are attracted by 
 all other substances. It is imponderable, and, 
 by its distribution, in various proportions, among 
 the particles of matter, gives rise to the three 
 general forms of gas, liquids, and solids. The 
 particles of water, by losing caloric, have their 
 cohesion so much increased, that they assume 
 the solid form of ice ; by adding caloric, they 
 again become fluid ; and by a still further addi- 
 tion, they are converted into vapour. 
 
 Caloric exists in two different states, — free or 
 uncombined, and in a state of combination. In 
 the former condition, it creates the sensation of 
 heat, and produces expansion in other bodies. 
 The power which any body has of exciting the 
 sensation of heat, and occasioning expansion, is 
 understood by the expression of its temperature. 
 This is supposed to vary with the quantity of free 
 caloric in a given quantity of matter; a high 
 temperature being ascribed to the presence of a 
 large quantity of free caloric, and a low tempera- 
 ture to that of a small quantity. We are igno- 
 rant, however, of the extremes of temperature, 
 and may compare it to a chain, of which a few 
 of the middle links only are exposed to our ob- 
 servation, while its extremities are concealed 
 from our view. 
 
 The expansion of bodies is one of the most uni- 
 versal effects of an increase of temperature. This 
 increase in bulk, however, is not the same in all 
 bodies. The same increase of temperature causes 
 liquids to expand more than solids, and aeriform 
 bodies much more than either. On this princi- 
 ple are constructed the various instruments for 
 measuring temperature ; since the degree of ex- 
 pansion produced by caloric bears a sufficient 
 proportion to its quantity to afford us the means 
 of ascertaining it with tolerable accuracy. Our 
 senses, it is obvious, are quite inadequate to 
 afford us this information ; for we compare our 
 sensations of heat, not with any fixed or uniform 
 standard, but with those sensations which we 
 have had immediately previous. Hence, the 
 same portion of water will feel warm to a hand 
 removed from contact with snow, and cold to an- 
 other hand which has been heated before the 
 fire. To convey precise notions of temperature, 
 therefore, we are obliged to describe the degree 
 of expansion produced in some one body which 
 has been previously agreed upon as a standard of 
 
 comparison. The standard most generally adopt- 
 ed is quicksilver, which is contained in a glass 
 ball, terminating a long, narrow tube. This in- 
 strument is called a thermometer. If quicksilver, 
 or indeed any other substance except the gases, 
 suffered equal expansion by equal increments of 
 the calorific power, then this instrument would 
 be perfect ; but the same increase of bulk is not 
 effected in the same liquid or solid, at all tem- 
 peratures, by adding similar quantities of heat ; 
 for bodies expand, by equal increments of caloric, 
 more in higl! than in low temperatures, because 
 the force opposing expansion is diminished by 
 the interposition of caloric between the particles 
 of bodies ; and, therefore, when equal quantities 
 of caloric are added in succession, the last por- 
 tions meet with less resistance to their expansive 
 force than the first. In gases, on the contrary, 
 which are destitute of cohesion, equal increments 
 of heat appear to be attended with equal aug- 
 mentations of bulk. See the article Thermometer. 
 
 As to caloric in a state of combination, solids 
 while passing into the condition of liquids, and 
 liquids while passing into the condition of 
 vapours or gases, imbibe a quantity of caloric 
 which ceases to be cognizable either by our 
 senses or by the thermometer ; and in all such 
 cases, scientific usage declares the absorbed or 
 abstracted caloric to have become combined or 
 latent, and popular usage declares cold to have 
 been produced. On the other hand, when the 
 density of bodies is increased, either by the lique- 
 faction of gases, or by the solidification of liquids, 
 or even by the reduction of the aggregate volume 
 of two fluids through means of their mechanical 
 or chemical combination, a quantity of caloric 
 which existed in a latent or combined condition 
 is evolved and becomes readily cognizable by 
 both the thermometer and the senses. For 
 example, a high temperature is produced by 
 mingling cold sulphuric acid and water ; metals 
 become intensely heated by the augmentation 
 of their density through hammering ; liquids, by 
 becoming solids, or gases by conversion into 
 liquids, also evolve caloric. A pound of water, 
 condensed from steam, will render 100 pounds 
 of water 50° warmer by 11°; whereas, a pound 
 of boiling water will produce the same rise of 
 temperature in no more than about 1312 pounds ; 
 and, since steam and boiling water affect the 
 thermometer in the same manner, this effect can 
 be produced only from the existence of a much 
 greater quantity of caloric in the former than in 
 the latter. 
 
 The sources of caloric are six ; viz., the sun's 
 rays, combustion, percussion, friction, the mix- 
 ture of different substances, and electricity ; and 
 all these are more or less constantly at play in 
 the multitudinous processes of the farm, — while 
 the first, the fifth, and the last are mightily pro- 
 minent in the grand phenomena of manurial 
 changes and of vegetation. 
 
CAMELINA. 
 
 282 
 
 CANARY-GRASS. 
 
 CALVING. See Parturition and Abortion. 
 CAMELINA, — popularly Gold of Pleasure. A 
 genus of hardy, herbaceous plants, of the cruci- 
 ferous family. The cultivated species, Camelina 
 sativa — called by Linnaeus Myagrum sativum — is 
 an annual weed of the cultivated fields of Britain ; 
 yet it does not grow with us in a truly wild state, 
 but is generally introduced among imported flax- 
 seed or by other artificial means. Its stem is 
 usually about twelve or eighteen inches high ; its 
 leaves are lanceolate, and nearly entire ; its flower 
 is pale yellow, and appears from May till July ; 
 its pods are pear-shaped, scarcely half the length 
 of their footstalks, and divided by two large and 
 two smaller ribs ; and its seeds are ovate, and un- 
 margined, with flat and incumbent cotyledons. 
 It is an oleiferous plant ; grows better on light 
 and shallow soils than any other cruciferous oil- 
 plant ; and rushes so rapidly to maturity as to 
 yield two crops a-year in the south of Europe. 
 The oil produced by it is nearly inodorous, and 
 gives a brighter flame, with less smoke, than the 
 oil of rape or of mustard. The stems also are 
 fibrous, tough, hard, and durable, and are used 
 for thatching, for temporary buildings, and for 
 making brooms, sack-cloth, sail-cloth, and pack- 
 ing-paper. This plant is cultivated in Holland, 
 Belgium, Germany, the north of France, and 
 some adjacent districts ; it is found very service- 
 able for sowing in June or early in J uly, after 
 other and more valuable crops have failed; it 
 possesses great value for the production of cattle- 
 feeding oil-cake ; and though hitherto neglected 
 in Britain, it would no doubt perfectly succeed 
 with us, as a field crop, under any ordinary 
 cultivation ; and while as easy of management 
 as almost any one of our miscellaneous cultivated 
 field plants, it has the important recommendation 
 of being unassailed by the aphides, which often 
 make such havoc upon rape, cole, and other 
 brassica crops. See the article Oil-Cake. In 
 Belgium, it is sown after a failure of rape, colsa, 
 or any similar crop ; the ground for it is ploughed 
 and harrowed ; the seed is sown at the rate of two 
 pounds per acre, in mixture with ashes or fine 
 sand, to promote its equal distribution; and a 
 sufficient covering is effected by the bush-harrow 
 or traineau. Two well-established varieties, the 
 smooth and the pilose, are also cultivated ; and 
 either one of these or some other, under the name 
 of Le Cameline Majeur, of stronger growth and 
 greater oleiferousness than the normal kind, has 
 recently obtained much favour among the farmers 
 of the north of France. Five other species of 
 Camelina, — three annual and two perennial and 
 evergreen — have been introduced to Britain ; but 
 they possess little or no interest. 
 
 CANADA RICE. See Zizania. 
 
 CANARY-GRASS, — botanically Phalaris. A 
 genus of grasses, pretty nearly allied to the bents, 
 and constituting the type of a subdivision or 
 tribe. Two indigenous species of it, the com- 
 
 mon and the reed -like, possess economical 
 interest. 
 
 The common canary-grass, Phalaris canari- 
 ensis, grows wild in some uncultivated spots in 
 Britain ; and is cultivated, for various purposes, 
 in some districts of England, and in some other 
 countries. Its culm has usually a height of about 
 two feet ; its panicle is so contracted as to have 
 the form of an oval spike; its glume is thin, 
 chaffy, and entire at the point, and has a large 
 keel and two green stripes along each side ; and 
 its seed is smooth and shining, whitish in colour, 
 and difficult of separation from the glume. The 
 shining appearance of the seed is alluded to in 
 the botanical name phalaris, which signifies 
 "brilliant;" and the form, colour, and economi- 
 cal uses of the seed are well known to almost 
 every young person in Britain, as the chief food 
 on which caged domestic singing-birds subsist. 
 The plant is cultivated in the Isle of Thanet and 
 some other English districts, for the supply 
 of our shops with bird-seed ; and in the Canary 
 Islands, for the grinding of its seeds into flour, 
 and the baking of this into bread, for the use 
 of the human population. It requires a rich 
 and thoroughly pulverized soil ; it takes a longer 
 time to arrive at maturity than either oats or 
 barley; and it is regarded, in many of the finest 
 districts of the south of England, as a consider- 
 ably precarious crop ; and yet it forms a rather 
 favourite subject of cultivation with many of the 
 farmers of the Isle of Thanet, and of the district 
 around Sandwich. 
 
 It is usually sown after summer-fallow, bean- 
 stubble, or clover-ley. If the land be not very 
 rich, a coat of thoroughly rotten farm -yard ma- 
 nure is, in many instances, ploughed into it ; and 
 whether manured or not, the land is well ploughed 
 in autumn, and completely pulverized at the ear- 
 liest possible period in late winter or early spring. 
 The seed is sown either broadcast or in drills 
 about a foot asunder, at the rate of about five gal- 
 lons per acre ; and, if sown broadcast, it is well 
 harrowed in. When the blade appears, and the 
 rows are distinct, a first hoeing is given with the 
 Dutch hoe ; and in May or June, a second hoeing 
 is given with the common hoe. The crop is later 
 in ripening than any other cereal crop ; and is 
 cut with an instrument called a " twibble " and 
 a " hink," which lays it into masses, called wads, 
 each equal to about half a sheaf. The wads are 
 left long on the ground, in order to receive suf- 
 ficiency of moisture to crack or loosen the glumes, 
 and permit the grain to be thrashed out ; and 
 they are from time to time turned, in order to 
 enjoy the full action of both moisture and sun- 
 shine. The cut crop thus remains in the field 
 till December ; and yet neither vegetates nor sus- 
 tains any kind of damage. The usual produce is 
 from three to five quarters per acre. But in the 
 Woburn experiments, on a rich clayey loam, 
 above a retentive subsoil, the quantity of green 
 
CANCER. 
 
 283 
 
 CANKER. 
 
 produce of the whole crop per acre was 54,450 
 lbs. ; of dry produce, 17,696^ lbs. ; aud of nutri- 
 tive matter, 1,876 lbs. The straw has little value 
 compared to that of other grain crops ; yet forms 
 good fodder for horses. The crop has been tried 
 in a green state for the feeding of cattle ; but, 
 irrespective of the comparatively high cost of 
 seed, it has not proved equal in abundance and 
 nutritiousness to the forage-grasses in general 
 cultivation. 
 
 The reed-like canary-grass, Phalaris arundi- 
 nacea — called by Trinius Degraphis arundinacea, 
 and by Sowerby and Smith Arundo colorata — 
 abounds in ditches, pools, and the margins of 
 rivers, in many parts of Britain, and usually 
 grows to the height of from three' to six feet, 
 flowers in July, and is perennial-rooted. Its 
 culms are upright, and nearly covered with long, 
 broad, tapering, sheathing, dark-green leaves ; its 
 panicle is spreading, crowded, and generally of a 
 dark reddish colour ; and its seed is long, smooth, 
 and shining. It has been found to yield, per 
 acre, on a black sandy loam incumbent on clay, 
 27,225 lbs. of green produce, 12,251^ lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 1,70H lbs. of nutritive matter ; and, 
 on stiff adhesive clay, 34,031 lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 17,015^ lbs. of dry produce, and 2,127 lbs. 
 of nutritive matter. Cattle generally refuse it 
 in its growing or green state, yet readily eat it 
 when made into hay, cut into chaff, and mixed 
 with other food ; and it yields so very large a 
 bulk of hay, with a fair proportion of nutritive 
 matter, as probably to be deserving a far higher 
 degree of attention from farmers than it has yet 
 received. 
 
 CANCER. A virulent and gangrenous tumour, 
 in any part of the body of an animal. Cancer in 
 the eye completely changes the visual organism 
 into a decomposing fleshy substance, which either 
 abounds with irrepressible fungous growths, or 
 ulcerates and wastes away; and this horrible 
 disease occasionally attacks cattle, but does not 
 admit of cure or even of amelioration. Cancers 
 in other parts of the body of cattle are not un- 
 common ; and, happily, they may be either averted 
 or alleviated. Tumours, which of themselves give 
 little or no pain, appear on the cheeks, under the 
 eyelids, in the channel between the jaws, on other 
 parts of either the face or its adjuncts, or in the 
 immediate vicinity of joints; and these tumours 
 are frequently the precursors of cancer, or the 
 niduses in which it is formed. In some instances, 
 they are small, broad-based, and firmly attached ; 
 and in others, they become very large, and either 
 hang loose, or have a comparatively slight at- 
 tachment ; but the former sort are far more likely 
 to break than the latter, and often give origin to 
 the most virulent cancers. When these tumours 
 break, they discharge a thin and excoriating 
 fluid, and form fungous wounds, whose " proud 
 flesh" will grow again and again, almost as quickly 
 as it can be removed. The tumours may, in 
 
 most instances, be so eradicated with the knife, 
 that no cancerous ulcer or fungous wound will 
 follow ; but when they break, the ulcers which 
 they originate are generally incurable, yet can 
 be alleviated by the use of iodine and the hydri- 
 odate of potash. Cancer is said to have received 
 its name from the resemblance of the tumid veins 
 of very bad cases of it to the claws of a crab. 
 
 CANKER. A disease in the mouth of young 
 cattle. When the teething of a calf is unusually 
 troublesome, pimples appear on the gums and 
 on the membrane of the mouth, and, in many in~ 
 stances, grow into one another, ulcerate, occasion 
 topical swelling, impair or destroy appetite, and 
 excite general fever. Epsom salts ought to be 
 administered, and diluted tincture of myrrh or 
 solution of alum ought to be locally applied ; and, 
 if the accompanying fever be severe, a fever 
 drink ought to be administered. 
 
 CANKER. A virulent disease in the feet of 
 horses. It is quite local ; and either arises from 
 accidental causes, such as high calkins or filthy 
 litter, or is an accompaniment or a consequence 
 of grease, thrush, or some other similar disease. 
 It most frequently attacks the hind feet, and is 
 generally difficult and sometimes impossible to be 
 cured. The frog is the first part attacked, and 
 becomes soft and fungous, discharging a sero- 
 purulent matter, of a peculiarly offensive smell. 
 The horny frog eventually disappears ; and the 
 sensible frog, instead of secreting horn, forms a 
 substance somewhat resembling shreds of leather. 
 The disease soon extends to the sole and other 
 parts of the foot ; and, when it reaches the coffin 
 bone, it may, in almost every instance, be re- 
 garded as incurable. " Canker," says Blaine, 
 "has been likened to scirrhus and to cancer; 
 and, in some of its external characters, it some- 
 what resembles fungus hsematodes ; but a true 
 parity cannot be maintained with any of these. 
 It can hardly be said to have any constitutional 
 origin ; it is essentially local, seldom if ever spon- 
 taneous. It appears oftener in hot weather than 
 cold, and is more frequently seen in crowded and 
 filthy stables than in well-regulated ones. It is 
 now unknown in the army ; and, as we may sup- 
 pose, were the same preventive causes applied, 
 would be almost equally unknown elsewhere. 
 The disease originates in various ways. One 
 source, as supposed, but supposed only, is the 
 high heels or calkins of the heavy draught-horse, 
 which remove the frog from that pressure which 
 seems so necessary to its healthy state. The 
 state of wet and filth these horses stand in in 
 some stables is a more likely source. Moisture 
 applied to the frogs is a most active agent ; it 
 disorganizes the frog itself, and increases the 
 growth of the horn of the heels, which aggra- 
 vates the evil, as high heels and a full healthy 
 frog are seldom seen together. Another common 
 origin is neglected thrush, in which the suppura- 
 tion, extending beyond the sensitive frog, in- 
 
CANVAS SHED. 
 
 284 
 
 CARAWAY 
 
 flames the vascular sole, and extensive ulceration 
 succeeds. Virulent and neglected grease will 
 often occasion it ; and it is no uncommon circum- 
 stance for quittor to degenerate into canker." 
 The proper treatment of this disease is to remove 
 all exciting causes, to reduce the fungous growths, 
 and to restore the healthy secretions. A perfectly 
 clean stable and perfectly clean keeping are in- 
 dispensable ; the sedulous avoiding of all unctu- 
 ous applications, and especially the preventing 
 of all access of moisture, whether directly or 
 through the surgical dressings, are essential ; the 
 removal of the fungous growths must be effected 
 by caustics, by the knife, or by both ; and the re- 
 storal of the healthy secretive function may be 
 promoted by a long and patient series of topical 
 applications. But the cure of canker is always 
 both a nice and a very tedious process ; and it 
 ought never, if possible, to be attempted except 
 under the immediate direction of a veterinary 
 surgeon. 
 
 CANKERED GRAIN. See Smut. 
 CANTER. See Amble. 
 
 CANVAS SHEDS. Tarpaulin sheds for afford- 
 ing shelter to sheep. They are particularly valu- 
 able in bleak highland districts where timber is 
 scarce and high-priced ; and can be maintained 
 in even woodland districts, at a less cost than 
 timber sheds. Each may be formed of light and 
 closely - woven tarred canvas ; it may be made 
 about two yards wide, and about forty yards long, 
 or of any length to correspond with the princi- 
 pal folds ; it may be erected along a stone-wall 
 of about 5| feet high, so as to have the wall for 
 its back, and may easily be made water-tight 
 along its line of junction with the edge or sum- 
 mit of the wall; it may be erected and made 
 firm with common posts and head -rails, one 
 range of posts being placed along the back, an- 
 other range placed along the front, and the lat- 
 ter only three feet high, and multitudinously 
 connected with the former by transverse head- 
 rails or very slender rafters ; it may be tied at 
 so very many points to both the longitudinal and 
 the transverse head-rails as to offer perfect re- 
 sistance to any force of wind which might other- 
 wise raise or disturb it ; and it may be provided 
 along the back with simple racks, for holding 
 the sheep's food. A simple contrivance like this 
 will keep sheep exceedingly snug amid the storms 
 of winter ; it would be of great value during the 
 sheep-shearing season, in a rainy district ; and 
 something similar to it might be eminently ser- 
 viceable for sheltering cattle on the grass-farms 
 of Skye, and of similar bleak feeding districts of 
 the Hebrides or the Scottish Highlands. 
 
 CAPON. A castrated male chicken. He is 
 castrated as soon as he leaves the hen, or at least 
 as soon as he begins to crow. Capons seem to 
 have, at one time, been almost as common among 
 the domestic poultry of our yards, as oxen are, 
 at present, among the cattle of our fields ; they 
 
 appear, also, to have been universally regarded 
 as superior to other chickens in at once size, 
 good temper, and readiness to fatten ; and they 
 were regarded likewise as very serviceable for 
 breeding chicks, ducklings, young turkeys, young 
 pheasants, and young partridges, and as superior 
 to the natural protectresses of these broods, both 
 in conducting them to good feeding grounds, and 
 in defending them against kites and buzzards. 
 But many persons now regard capons as not a 
 particle superior to other chickens ; many view 
 the probable advantages of them as not worth 
 the trouble of castration ; and many, who other- 
 wise would be disposed to keep capons, either 
 dislike to inflict the pain of castration, or cannot 
 contrive to get the act performed. 
 
 CAPPED-HOCK, or Capulet. A wenny swell- 
 ing or bursal enlargement on the heel of the 
 horse's hock, or on the point of his elbow. It 
 arises from bruises, kicks, and other causes, and 
 has a great diversity of both appearance and 
 character. When it is watery, or proceeds from 
 indisposition of the blood, it ought not to be 
 meddled with, but will, without aid, gradually 
 wear away. When it has a thick consistency 
 and a stubborn character, and yet appears to 
 proceed from a bad state of the blood, it may be 
 dispersed by a cautious use of repellers, rowels, 
 purges, and diuretics. When it comprises great 
 mucous secretion, and is accompanied with a 
 thickening of the integuments, and has been 
 caused or continues to be aggravated by kicking 
 or other abrasion, it may be tried with vinegar 
 or other repeller, and may next be repeatedly 
 blistered, and may finally, if the case is very bad, 
 be reduced by puncturing. But any use of the 
 knife or the lancet requires extreme caution. 
 
 CARAWAY, — Carum Carui. An indigenous, 
 economical, biennial plant, of the umbelliferous 
 family. It grows wild on meadows and pastures 
 in various parts of Britain ; and is cultivated, 
 for the sake of its seeds, in several districts of 
 Essex and Suffolk. Its root is fusiform, or 
 shaped like that of the carrot ; its stem is 
 smooth, channelled, branching, and between two 
 and three feet in height ; its leaves are smooth, 
 doubly pinnate, and cut into narrow, linear, 
 pointed, deep green segments or pinnulae; its 
 flowers are five-petalled, whitish or pale blush, 
 numerous, terminal, and generally in ten-rayed 
 umbels ; and its seeds are oblong, bent, brown, 
 about a quarter of an inch long, and marked 
 longitudinally with five straw-coloured ridges. 
 
 Caraway, being a biennial, is sown with cori- 
 ander, or sometimes with corn, on the same prin- 
 ciple on which clover is sown with barley ; but in 
 some instances, caraway, coriander, and teasel 
 are all sown together on lea-land broken up for 
 the purpose, and, when well-managed, make an 
 exceedingly profitable return. The mode of 
 cropping the three things together is described 
 as follows by Mr. Sewell, of Maplestead, in Essex . 
 
CARBON. 285 CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 — " About the beginning of March, plough some 
 old pasture-land, the soil of which should be 
 a very strong clay loam. Mix together ten 
 pounds of coriander, twelve pounds of caraway, 
 and twelve pounds of teasel seeds, which is 
 sufficient for an acre ; sow directly after the 
 plough, and harrow the land well. When the 
 plants appear of sufficient strength to bear the 
 hoe — which will be in about ten weeks after 
 the sowing — it must not be omitted ; and in the 
 course of the summer, it will require three hoe- 
 ings, as well as one at Michaelmas. The cori- 
 ander is fit to be cut about the beginning of July, 
 and should be thrashed on a cloth like cole-seed. 
 About the April following, your teasel and cara- 
 way will want a good hoeing, done deep and well, 
 and another hoeing about the beginning of J une. 
 The caraway will be fit to cut the beginning of 
 July, and must be thrashed in the same manner 
 as the coriander. The teasel will not be ready 
 till the middle of September; and some of the 
 plants do not perfect their seeds until the third 
 or fourth year, when those heads which are be- 
 ginning to turn brown are cut off at the stem 
 with a stalk a foot long. Of these, twenty-five 
 are tied in a bunch ; twenty-four of the bunches 
 are fixed on a small stick, and called a row, 
 twenty-four of which make a load, equal in bulk 
 to about a ton of hay. The goodness of the crops 
 must chiefly depend upon the care employed in 
 their cultivation." The caraway of the threefold 
 crop, if soil and culture be good, may yield so 
 much as a ton per acre, worth about ,£20 ; and 
 both the caraway and the teasel, if kept in a clean 
 and well-hoed condition, will make a profitable 
 return, not only in the second year, but also in 
 the third and the fourth, after sowing. But 
 scarcely any soil will suit except such as is too 
 rich in humus for corn ; or rather, only a kind of 
 soil will suit which an entire course of cropping 
 with coriander, caraway, and teasel will simply 
 reduce to a proper state of fertility for corn. The 
 hoeing of caraway requires great attention, care, 
 and labour, and is, in consequence, very expen- 
 sive; and the gathering of the crop must be 
 effected by a cautious cutting of the plants sin- 
 gulatum, and depositing them one by one in a 
 cloth, to be immediately carried to the thrash- 
 ing floor. 
 
 Caraway seeds have a pleasant aromatic odour, 
 and a sweetish, warm, pungent taste ; they yield 
 by distillation a volatile oil, which contains the 
 whole of their aroma and active properties. The 
 seeds, especially in a state of powder, are much 
 used in veterinary practice, as a carminative, a 
 cordial, and an aromatic. They are, in any 
 case of veterinary practice, second only to ginger 
 as an aromatic ; and in some cases, they are 
 greatly preferable. 
 
 CARBON. An element or simple body, exist- 
 ing nearly pure in diamond, constituting the 
 main bulk of charcoal, lying extensively diffused 
 
 throughout the mineral kingdom, and forming 
 a large portion of both vegetable and animal 
 substances. See the articles Charcoal and 
 Carbonic Aoid. 
 
 CARBONATES. Salts consisting of carbonic 
 acid in combination with alkaline or metallic 
 bases. They are attacked and decomposed by 
 nearly all other acids than their own ; and while 
 undergoing decomposition, or sending off their 
 carbonic acid into the atmosphere, and surren- 
 dering their bases to the attacking acids, they 
 exhibit the beautiful phenomenon of efferves- 
 cence. All are more or less affected by an excess 
 of carbonic acid, so as to imbibe more of it and 
 form supercarbonates ; and all, excepting those 
 of soda, potash, and ammonia, are very sparingly 
 soluble in pure water. Some, particularly those 
 of lime, magnesia, soda, potash, iron, and manga- 
 nese, play a very prominent part as constituents 
 of soil, either natural or added; but the most 
 important of these will be noticed, as to their 
 individual nature and their respective modes of 
 action, in the articles Lime, Soda, Potash, and 
 Iron. The carbonate of ammonia contained in 
 rain water also performs most important func- 
 tions in the feeding of vegetables, and conse- 
 quently in the chemical processes of a farm. See 
 the article Ammonia. Several of the carbonates 
 — especially those of lime, soda, potash, and 
 magnesia — besides acting directly, as consti- 
 tuents of soil, upon plants or upon their food, 
 perform the great offices, jointly with the car- 
 bonic acid of the atmosphere, of attacking and 
 reducing the silicates, which, but for their action, 
 would form an ingredient of soil as stationary 
 and unyielding as it is widely diffused and bulky. 
 " The silicic acid," remarks Dr. Dana, " acts on 
 the lime, forming silicate of lime ; while the car- 
 bonic acid, now let loose, acts as such upon other 
 silicates, and eliminates or frees the alkaline 
 bases. Let it be supposed that there is silicate 
 of alumina, that is clay, or silicate of potash and 
 alumina, in the soil. Let carbonate of lime, 
 that is marble, and slacked lime, shells, &c, be 
 added to the soil. The result is that, slowly but 
 surely, chemical action takes place, the silicic 
 acid pulling one way, and the carbonic acid 
 another, the lime is changed to silicate of lime, 
 and the carbonic acid escapes, and now in its 
 turn acts upon silicates as did carbonic acid of 
 air. The alumina remains, the soil becomes 
 more clayey. Thus sands by liming are amended. 
 This principle of the action of carbonates, un- 
 ravels the mysterious action of a vast variety of 
 substances, which appear to be very inert and 
 inefficient." 
 
 CARBONIC ACID. A colourless, inodorous gas, 
 consisting of one equivalent of carbon and two 
 equivalents of oxygen. It was discovered in 1757, 
 by Dr. Black ; and was, for some time after- 
 wards, known under the name of fixed air. Its 
 composition was first demonstrated synthetically 
 
CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 286 
 
 CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 by Lavoisier, and analytically by Mr. Smithson 
 Tennant. Lavoisier burned carbon in oxygen, 
 and obtained carbonic acid from the combustion ; 
 and Mr. Tennant passed phosphorus vapour over 
 carbonate of lime heated to redness, and found 
 that, in consequence of the phosphorus abstract- 
 ing the oxygen from the carbonate, and forming 
 phosphoric acid, and in consequence of the phos- 
 phoric acid thus formed combining with the lime 
 to constitute phosphate of lime, the carbon or 
 charcoal of the carbonate was deposited, in a se- 
 parate state, in the form of a light black powder. 
 Carbonic acid is very readily obtained, for the 
 purposes of experiment or of separate examina- 
 tion, by the action of almost any of the acids 
 upon chalk or bruised marble ; for almost any 
 other acid, particularly the hydrochloric, the 
 nitric, or the sulphuric, rapidly abstracts the 
 lime of the carbonate, and allows the carbonic 
 acid to escape by effervescence. 
 
 Carbonic acid cannot be made to burn or to 
 combine with oxygen ; and it will neither main- 
 tain combustion nor support respiration, but, on 
 the contrary, is both extinctive of flame, and de- 
 structive of breathing. So great is its extin- 
 guishing power upon combustion, that a mixture 
 of one volume of it with four volumes of atmo- 
 spheric air will prevent a candle from igniting, or 
 extinguish the flame of a candle already burning ; 
 and so great is its destructive power upon re- 
 spiration, that a quantity of it not quite suffi- 
 cient to extinguish the flame of a candle will de- 
 prive an animal of sensibility, and a quantity 
 just sufficient to extinguish flame will produce 
 almost instant death. When air contains a large 
 proportion of carbonic acid, it violently contracts 
 the glottis, and cannot even enter the lungs ; and 
 when it contains only so moderate a proportion 
 as to obtain entrance to the lungs, it operates as 
 a narcotic poison. A large proportion of car- 
 bonic acid in atmospheric air constitutes the 
 choke damp of coal mines, deep wells, and brew- 
 ers' vats, which has, in such multitudes of in- 
 stances, proved rapidly or instantaneously fatal 
 to man.; and a comparatively small proportion of 
 it, from the combustion of charcoal in rooms, 
 crowded respiration in cells or close apartments, 
 and the eremacausis of vegetable matter in fens 
 and marshes, constitutes all or most of the poi- 
 sonous air which, in so many thousands of in- 
 stances, has embittered, shortened, or destroyed 
 human life. Yet, though injurious or fatal when 
 received into the lungs, it is innocuous and ex- 
 hilarating when received, in moderate propor- 
 tion, into the stomach. It is held in solution, 
 to a greater or less degree, by all fountain and 
 river water ; it gives to all such water the agree- 
 able gout which distinguishes it from the insi- 
 pidity, staleness, and disagreeableness of dist illed 
 water or of recently boiled water ; it constitutes 
 the whole of the sparkling, brisk, and sharply 
 racy property of soda water and of the other 
 aerated waters of the manufacturing chemist ; 
 
 and it imparts to cider, ginger beer, ale, porter, 
 beer, and brisk champaign, the greater portion 
 of the agreeable pungency, which renders them 
 so highly relishable, and the loss of which, by 
 exposure to the air, occasions them to become 
 stale. 
 
 Carbonic acid abounds in the waters of many 
 mineral springs, such as those of Tunbridge, 
 Pyrmont, and Carlsbad ; it issues directly from 
 the fissures of rocks, caves, and mines, in many 
 countries, particularly in the vicinity of vol- 
 canoes ; it accumulates at the bottom of wells, 
 and in the recesses of pits and mines, where de- 
 composition of carbonates or of organic substances 
 extensively proceeds without free communication 
 with the open air ; it is evolved in vast volumes 
 or in constant streams from stagnant fermenta- 
 tions and putrefactions in fens, marshes, and 
 close forests; and, in all such situations, it is 
 liable to exert a most poisonous power upon the 
 local atmosphere, or to form, in the recesses or at 
 the surface of the earth, exceedingly noxious 
 aerial mixtures. Yet, excepting in such situa- 
 tions, it nowhere exists in such quantity as to be, 
 in even the slightest degree, detrimental to ani- 
 mal health and energy. It rises into the atmo- 
 sphere, in enormous aggregate quantities, from 
 the combustion of all substances containing car- 
 bon, from the eremacausis and the destructive 
 fermentation of all vegetable substances, from 
 the respiration of all animals, and from the pu- 
 trefactive decay of all organic matter ; for it is 
 formed, in combustion, by trie combination of 
 the carbon of the burning body with the oxy- 
 gen of the atmosphere, — in eremacausis, by the 
 resolution of the whole substance of decay- 
 ing vegetables into its elements, and the re- 
 combination of these into simpler and more 
 attenuated forms, — in destructive fermentation, 
 by the loss of oxygen and carbon, during the 
 transmutation of one ternate substance into 
 another, — in the respiration of animals, by the 
 combination of the superfluous carbon of the 
 blood with the oxygen of decomposed water, 
 or with the oxygen of the atmosphere, or with | 
 both, — and in the putrefactive decay of all ani- i 
 mal matter, by a transposition of its elements 
 or a disturbance of its attractions, such as in- 
 volves the conjoint or simultaneous evolution of 
 carbon and oxygen in the form of carbonic acid, 
 hydrogen and oxygen in the form of watery va- 
 pour, and hydrogen and nitrogen in the form of 
 ammonia. Yet though the quantity of carbonic 
 acid constantly poured from these sources into 
 the atmosphere is great, and though all carbonic 
 acid is heavier than atmospheric air, the propor- 
 tion of it relatively to the other constituents of 
 the atmosphere does not experience any observ- 
 able variation from season to season, or from year 
 to year, and the relative quantity of it, though 
 affected by drought or frost, by light or dark- 
 ness, and by luxuriance or sterility, is exactly or 
 very nearly the same in the higher regions as in 
 
CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 287 
 
 CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 the lower, or at the summit of the loftiest moun- 
 tains as at the surface of well-cultivated and 
 thoroughly - ventilated plains. The former of 
 these seeming anomalies is accounted for by the 
 fact of all vegetables assimilating the carbon of 
 carbonic acid, and giving back its oxygen to the 
 atmosphere ; and the latter is explained by the 
 well known tendency of gases to make equal dif- 
 fusions throughout one another without refer- 
 ence to their respective gravity. See the arti- 
 cles Atmosphere, Agricultural Chemistry, and 
 Vegetable Physiology. 
 
 The average proportion of carbonic acid in the 
 atmosphere is usually stated, in round numbers, 
 at a thousandth part ; but according to the most 
 exact and most recent experiments, it is •000415th 
 of the atmosphere's own volume. " We have rea- 
 son to believe," says Liebig, " that this propor- 
 tion was much greater in past ages ; and, never- 
 theless, the immense masses of carbonic acid 
 which annually flow into the atmosphere from so 
 many causes, ought perceptibly to increase its 
 quantity from year to year. But we find that 
 all earlier observers describe its volume as from 
 one-half to ten times greater than that which it 
 has at the present time ; so that we can hence at 
 most conclude that it has diminished. It is quite 
 evident that the invariable quantities of car- 
 bonic acid and oxygen in the atmosphere, must 
 stand in some fixed relation to one another ; a 
 cause must exist which prevents the increase of 
 carbonic acid by removing that which is con- 
 stantly forming ; and there must be some means 
 of replacing the oxygen removed from the air by 
 the processes of combustion and putrefaction, as 
 well as by the respiration of animals. Both these 
 causes are united in the process of vegetable life. 
 * * * The various layers of wood and mineral 
 coal, as well as peat, form the remains of a prime- 
 val vegetation. The carbon contained in them 
 must have been originally in the atmosphere as 
 carbonic acid, in which form it was assimilated 
 by the plants which constitute these formations. 
 It follows from this that the atmosphere must be 
 richer in oxygen at the present time than in 
 former periods of the earth's history. The in- 
 crease must be exactly equal in volume to the 
 carbonic acid extracted in the nourishment of a 
 former vegetation, and must, therefore, correspond 
 to the quantity of carbon and hydrogen contained 
 in the carboniferous deposit. Thus, by the de- 
 position of ten cubic feet Hessian (5'51 cubic feet 
 English) of Newcastle splint coal, (of the formula 
 C 24 H 13 0, and specific gravity 1-228), the at- 
 mosphere must have been deprived of above 
 18,000 cubic feet Hessian (9,918 cubic feet Eng- 
 lish) of carbonic acid, and must have been en- 
 riched with the same quantity of oxygen. A 
 further quantity of oxygen, amounting to 4,480 
 cubic feet Hessian (2,468 English) must have 
 been furnished to the air by the decomposition 
 of water, for ten cubic feet Hessian of coal con- 
 tains hydrogen corresponding to this amount. 
 
 In former ages, therefore, the atmosphere must 
 have contained less oxygen, but a much larger 
 proportion of carbonic acid, than it does at the 
 present time ; a circumstance which accounts 
 for the richness and luxuriance of the earlier 
 vegetation. When this became entombed, higher 
 forms of animal life were capable of existing. But 
 a certain period must have arrived in which the 
 quantity of carbonic acid contained in the air 
 experienced neither increase nor diminution in 
 any appreciable quantity. For if it received an 
 additional quantity to its usual proportion, an 
 increased vegetation would be the natural con- 
 sequence, and the excess would thus be speedily 
 removed. And, on the other hand, if the gas 
 was less than the normal quantity, the progress 
 of vegetation would be retarded, and the propor- 
 tion would soon attain its proper standard. When 
 man appeared on the earth, the air was rendered 
 constant in its composition." 
 
 The fact that plants assimilate the carbon of 
 carbonic acid, and return its oxygen to the at- 
 mosphere, was ascertained by Priestley and Sen- 
 ebier, and established by Percival and De Saus- 
 sure ; and it has been tested and illustrated by 
 multitudes of more modern chemists and phytolo- 
 gists, and may be ascertained, to his perfect satis- 
 faction, by any ordinary intelligent observer. The 
 leaves and other green parts of a plant absorb 
 carbonic acid and emit an equal volume of oxy- 
 gen, even independently of their connexion with 
 the stem and root ; for if they be detached from 
 the rest of the plant, and placed in water which 
 contains carbonic acid, and then exposed to a 
 play of sunshine, they will speedily be found to 
 deprive the water of all its carbonic acid ; and if 
 the experiment be conducted under a glass re- 
 ceiver filled with water, the oxygen which they 
 evolve from the absorbed and decomposed acid, 
 may be collected and examined. But if the same 
 leaves, or others precisely similar, be placed, un- 
 der a glass receiver, in water which does not 
 contain carbonic acid, or in water which, while 
 containing it, contains also such an alkali as re- 
 sists its assimilation, no oxygen whatever will be 
 evolved. Sir Humphrey Davy placed a piece of 
 turf, four inches square, in a porcelain dish which 
 floated on the surface of water impregnated with 
 carbonic acid ; he covered the turf with a glass 
 vessel of 230 cubic inches in capacity ; he occa- 
 sionally supplied this vessel with water, through 
 a funnel furnished with a stopcock ; he daily 
 supplied the water in which the porcelain dish 
 floated, with new water saturated with carbonic 
 acid, so as to cause a small quantity of the acid 
 to be constantly present in the receiver ; and he 
 found that — in consequence of the action of the 
 grasses of the turf upon the carbonic acid thus 
 fully and steadily supplied to them in the water 
 — the air in the receiver acquired, in the course 
 of eight days, an increase of thirty cubic inches 
 to its volume, and of four per cent, to its propor- 
 tion of oxygen. Ditches, pools, and small lakes, 
 
CARBONIC ACID. 288 CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 whose bottoms are covered with growing plants, 
 afford to every eye a familiar and most satis- 
 factory illustration of the same phenomenon. 
 When these little sheets of water are so com- 
 pletely frozen over as to have no communication 
 with the atmosphere, small globules of gas are 
 observed to escape, in rapid succession, from the 
 points of the leaves and twigs, and to accumulate 
 under the ice till they form large bubbles ; and 
 these bubbles steadily increase in volume so long 
 as the ice remains unbroken, and are found to 
 consist of pure oxygen,' — the plants which form 
 them obviously absorbing the carbonic acid held 
 in solution in the water, resolving it into its ele- 
 ments, assimilating the carbon, and liberating 
 the oxygen. 
 
 Just as these illustrations, and a thousand 
 more, evince that plants absorb and decompose 
 the carbonic acid of water ; so do other and quite 
 as clear illustrations evince that they absorb and 
 decompose the carbonic acid of the atmosphere. 
 One of these — an experiment of De Saussure — not 
 only proves the fact of the absorption of aerial car- 
 bonic acid, but at the same time shows the high- 
 est proportion of it in atmospheric air which is 
 capable of assimilation or of healthy action. " De 
 Saussure, having taken a number of young plants 
 of pease, of about the weight of twenty grains 
 each, he immersed them by the root in glasses 
 filled with water. Thus conditioned, he next in- 
 troduced them into receivers exposed to the 
 direct rays of the sun, and filled some with com- 
 mon air, and some with different mixtures of 
 common air and carbonic acid gas. In an atmo- 
 sphere of common air, exposed during ten days 
 to the sun, they were found to have increased 
 their weight by eight grains. In an atmosphere 
 of pure carbonic acid gas, they faded and withered 
 away, without any farther development. In an 
 atmosphere containing three-fourths of carbonic 
 acid gas, they withered also. But if containing 
 only one half, they lived seven days ; if but one 
 quarter, ten days, augmenting their weight by 
 five grains ; and if containing only one-twelfth of 
 carbonic acid gas, they increased their weight by 
 eleven grains. This was the maximum of its 
 beneficial application." Many and most accu- 
 rate experiments have been conducted with plants 
 artificially placed in soil destitute of carbon, and 
 observations made upon plants naturally growing 
 on sands and rocks almost destitute of humus ; 
 and they have ascertained, to a demonstration, 
 that the carbon constituting the great propor- 
 tion of the plants' substance, and the acquisition 
 and fixing of which is the chief process of their 
 growth, could not possibly have been obtained 
 elsewhere than from the carbonic acid of the at- 
 mosphere, partly carried down to the roots in 
 water, but principally or almost wholly absorbed, 
 in its aeriform condition, by the leaves and the 
 green portions of the stem and branches. 
 
 By another and very numerous set of experi- 
 ments and observations, plants have been a&<3 re- 
 
 tained to absorb carbonic acid and assimilate its 
 carbon, only during the presence of light, — to be 
 capable of absorbing any proportion artificially 
 added to the natural quantity in the atmosphere, 
 only during the play of sunshine, — to assimilate 
 the carbon of such as is taken up by the roots, 
 only when it ascends with the sap to the leaf, — 
 and to be incapable of absorbing any from the 
 atmosphere during the darkness of night, but, on 
 the contrary, to give out, during that time, a 
 small proportion into the atmosphere. An opinion 
 very generally prevails, and was not long ago all 
 but universal, that the assimilation of the carbon 
 of carbonic acid, in any circumstances, is effected 
 only during the play of sunshine, and cannot be 
 effected in diffused light ; but this is altogether 
 an error. " Exactly the same constituents," re- 
 marks Liebig, "are generated in a number of 
 plants, whether the direct rays of the sun fall on 
 them, or whether they grow in the shade. They 
 require light, and indeed sun-light, but it is not 
 necessary that the direct rays of the sun should 
 reach them. Their functions certainly proceed 
 with greater intensity and rapidity in sunshine 
 than in the diffused light of day ; but there is no- 
 thing more in this than the similar action which 
 light exercises on ordinary chemical combina- 
 tions ; it merely accelerates, in a greater or less 
 degree, the action already subsisting." 
 
 The absorption of the carbonic acid of water 
 by the leaves of aquatic plants growing under 
 water, and the absorption of the carbonic acid 
 of the atmosphere by the leaves of land plants 
 growing in the air, are processes apparently dif- 
 ferent, but really the same. The tissues of leaves 
 and other parts in the air are saturated with 
 water, either brought up to them in the form of 
 ascending sap from the spongioles, or directly 
 imbibed by them from the rains of the atmo- 
 sphere or from the nightly depositions of dew ; 
 and, being penetrated and moistened with this 
 water in every part of their succulent structure, 
 they do not inhale the carbonic acid atmosphere 
 as a gas, but receive it into solution with this 
 saturating moisture, and, in consequence, ab- 
 sorb it in exactly the same form, and dispose of 
 it by exactly the same process of assimilation, as 
 the leaves of submerged aquatics do to the car- 
 bonic acid of water. The only actual difference 
 between the two classes of plants regards, not at 
 all their behaviour with carbonic acid when sup- 
 plied to them, but merely the outward and ex- 
 traneous contrivance for affording them supplies ; 
 and this, in very many instances, furnishes a 
 beautiful illustration of the all-pervading care 
 with which the Divine Being provides for the 
 wants and the mutual adaptations of even his 
 inorganic and his unanimated creatures. In the 
 case of aquatic plants, which grow wholly sub- 
 merged and are fixed to one spot, currents of 
 water are established by variations of specific 
 gravity to bring them a constant supply of their 
 principal food; so that as soon as one portion of 
 
CARBONIC ACID. 
 
 289 
 
 CAREX. 
 
 water has approached them, and surrendered its 
 carbonic acid to their leaves, it is driven away 
 by the pressure of other portions, which are ap- 
 proaching to perform the same duty. But in the 
 case of aerial plants, the leaves unfold a broad 
 surface to the atmosphere, and readily, by reason 
 of the darkness of their colour, absorb the calo- 
 rific rays descending upon them, and in conse- 
 quence establish and maintain a warm current 
 for the constant withdrawal of expended air and 
 the constant approach of carbonaceous air; in 
 multitudes of instances also, the sensitive and 
 waving leaves stand upon slender footstalks, and 
 give way to the slightest motion in the atmo- 
 sphere, and are hence brought continually into 
 extensive and ever-changing volumes of carbonic 
 acid ; and in all instances, winds more or less 
 prevail, to sweep away expended portions of the 
 atmosphere, and bring fresh supplies of carbona- 
 ceous portions, or to mix the air of the seas and 
 the deserts with that of the land and the fertile 
 regions, and to make the carbonaceous air of the 
 middle strata of the atmosphere exchange places 
 with the oxygenous air of the lower strata. An 
 animal, whose chemical task is oxidizement, is 
 provided with instincts and locomotive powers 
 to go in search of his food ; but a plant, whose 
 chemical task is the more delicate one of car- 
 bonizement, or of reversing the effects of the 
 animal's task, and of maintaining a fair balance 
 of chemical forces in the momentous relations of 
 the atmosphere to the organic world, obtains a 
 supply of all its wants by means of exquisite and 
 ever-operating exterior contrivances of the all- 
 wise and all-benevolent Creator. 
 
 A question, implying a doubt, has been raised, 
 whether a possibility exists of all plants obtain- 
 ing their carbon from the atmosphere, or, in 
 other words, whether a sufficiency of carbonic 
 acid exists in the atmosphere for their supply. 
 But this question can easily and most satisfac- 
 torily be settled by a brief calculation. A col- 
 umn of air of 2,517 lbs. weight rests upon every 
 square foot of the surface of the earth ; a thou- 
 sandth part of this is carbonic acid ; and twenty- 
 seven per cent, of carbonic acid is carbon. Now 
 a calculation on these data, jointly with the known 
 diameter and superficies of the world, will show 
 that so vast a quantity as 3,085 billions of pounds 
 of carbon is contained in the atmosphere, — a 
 quantity greater than that existing in a solid 
 form, whether in living plants or in all the strata 
 of mineral and brown coal throughout the earth ; 
 and this quantity — especially as the supply of it 
 from respiration, combustion, fermentation, ere- 
 macausis, and putrefaction, is maintained undi- 
 minished — cannot but be most ample for the 
 supply of all vegetation. The solicitude of all 
 agriculturists of the old school, to afford their 
 crops a supply of carbon in the form of humus 
 or of decayed vegetable fibre in the soil, there- 
 fore, was an idle waste of thought, and occasioned 
 
 a perfectly gratuitous expenditure of labour. 
 The manuring of land, as is shown in many of 
 our articles, ought always to have reference to 
 the supply of elements far different from carbon. 
 See the articles Manure, Alkalies, Ammonia, 
 Charcoal, and many others. — Turner's Elements 
 of Chemistry. — Draper's Chemistry of Plants. — 
 Davys Agricultural Chemistry. — Liebig's Che- 
 mistry of Agriculture. — Keith 's Botanical Lexicon. 
 — Johnson's Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry. 
 — Dr. Madden* s Papers in Quarterly Journal of 
 A griculture. — ChaptaVs Chemistry applied to A gri- 
 culture. — The Gardener s Gazette. 
 
 CARDITIS. Inflammation of the heart. It 
 sometimes occurs in the horse ; and may possibly 
 be relieved by appliances for promoting absorp- 
 tion; but, in general, it must be regarded as 
 hopeless. 
 
 CAREX. A very numerous, prominent, and 
 extensively diffused genus of grass-like plants, of 
 the cyperaceas or sedge tribe. Eight species 
 grow wild in England, ten species grow wild in 
 Scotland, and between forty and fifty species 
 grow wild in both England and Scotland. A few 
 grow on sandy eminences, heaths and sea-shores ; 
 but most grow in marshes, fens, bogs, watery 
 meadows, flooded banks of streams, sides of 
 ditches, humid woods, and other moist grounds 
 and watery situations. Some intrude, to a con- 
 siderable degree, among our cultivated herbage- 
 plants, and are then annoying and wasteful weeds ; 
 some frequently mix with the natural grasses, 
 and form a coarse portion of the useful sward of 
 meadows; some cover extensive tracts of low, 
 fenny, alluvial country, and are available partly 
 as a very coarse herbage, and partly for various 
 economical purposes ; and many are mere waste- 
 ful occupants of waste lands, either proclaiming 
 the hopeless uselessness of the situation in which 
 they grow, or indicating the most clamant neces- 
 sity for subjecting it to thorough drainage and 
 general georgical improvement. They are, in 
 the aggregate, vastly inferior to the grasses in 
 the possession of nutritive properties, and are 
 almost distinguished for the absence of the fari- 
 naceous and saccharine principles in which many 
 of the grasses abound ; and hence, in even their 
 most favourable specimens, they are eaten by cat- 
 tle, only when the grasses or other nutritious her- 
 bage cannot be obtained. Yet many cottiers and 
 some poor farmers have recourse to them as fod- 
 der, and use them for litter, thatch, and fuel; 
 and the hop-cultivators of Kent use the leaves of 
 some of the larger kinds for fastening the vines 
 of hops to the poles. 
 
 The roots of probably all the species are per- 
 ennial ; those of most are creeping ; and those of 
 a few are tufted and fibrous. The stems of all 
 are simple ; and those of most are free from knots 
 or joints, and have thin, acute, and finely serrated 
 angles. Their leaves are linear, flat, pointed, 
 roughish in the surface, sharp along the edges, 
 T 
 
CARIES. 
 
 290 
 
 CARRIAGE. 
 
 tubular and sheathing at the base, and membra- 
 naceous, often auricled, at the summit ; and the 
 upper ones assume the character of bracts. 
 Almost all seed freely, and in consequence are 
 facilely propagated ; yet the upper spikes of all 
 consist only of male flowers, and never produce 
 seeds; " C. remota," says Loudon in his Encyclo- 
 paedia of Plants, " is a very elegant plant. C. 
 paniculata grows in bogs in immense tufts, mak- 
 ing a firm support for the heaviest bodies. C. 
 Fraseri is the handsomest species of the genus, 
 resembling at a short distance, when in flower, 
 one of the liliaceae. C. riparia has leaves half an 
 inch wide, and from one to three feet long. C. 
 arenaria increases rapidly in loose sand, and is 
 sometimes planted with a view of fixing sails of 
 this description, along with elymus and arundo." 
 
 CARIES. A mortified or dead condition of the 
 bones of animals. It is produced by inflamma- 
 tory and suppuratory action in the interior tis- 
 sues of a bone ; or by the loss of the medium by 
 which the bone is covered and partially sup- 
 ported. 
 
 CAROB-BEAN. The fruit of the Carob-Tree 
 or Ceratonia Siliqua, — a tall evergreen shrub be- 
 longing to the cassia division of leguminous 
 plants. This shrub abounds in Arabia, Syria, 
 Italy, and Spain ; and was introduced to British 
 gardens in the latter part of the sixteenth century. 
 Its stem usually grows to the height of about 
 fifteen feet ; its leaves are differently shaped from 
 those of most other evergreens, and render it an 
 agreeable variety among orange-trees, myrtles, 
 and other greenhouse arborescent plants; its 
 flowers have a reddish-yellow colour, and appear 
 in September and October, but are seldom pro- 
 duced in Britain; and its pods are long, flat, 
 horn-shaped, and brown-coloured, and contain 
 a thick, mealy, sweetish- tasted fecula. This 
 plant appears to be the locust-tree of scripture, 
 and is generally known in Spain under the name 
 of St. J ohn's bread. The shells of the pods are 
 supposed to be the husks alluded to in our Sa- 
 viour's beautiful parable of the prodigal son ; the 
 seeds are imported from Arabia into Spain, under 
 the name of algaroba beans ; and the pods of na- 
 tive growth are eaten in times of scarcity by the 
 Spanish peasantry, and were the principal food 
 of the horses of the British cavalry during the 
 peninsular war. 
 
 Carob beans, in the pod state, have for several 
 years past been imported into Britain as a sub- 
 stitute for oil- cake; and seem to be well worth 
 the attention of farmers for the purposes of fat- 
 tening. A specimen of them, analyzed in the 
 laboratory of the Agricultural Chemistry Associa- 
 tion of Scotland, was found to contain 4G'76 per 
 cent, of impure sugar, 4*46 of gum, with a little 
 colouring matter, 332 of glutten and coagulated 
 albumen, 34 of fat, 22 51 of woody fibre and 
 starch, and 22*38 of water. In consequence of 
 their being very rich in sugar, and comparatively 
 
 poor in the protein compounds, they ought to be 
 given to growing stock only in combination with 
 common beans or oil-cake, and to be employed 
 principally in the feeding of fattening stock and 
 of milch cows. Cattle eat them reluctantly till 
 they become accustomed to them ; but hogs de- 
 vour them greedily. The pods, and not properly 
 the seeds, constitute their nutritive parts. The 
 seeds are small, dark brown, and almost stone 
 hard ; and form about one tenth of the whole 
 weight of the article as imported into Britain. 
 
 CARPET-WAY. A grassy path, or unploughed 
 stripe of lea-land, through the middle of a plough- 
 ed or cropped field. 
 
 CARRIAGE. Any kind of draught-vehicle, 
 for the conveyance of goods or persons from one 
 place to another. The clumsiest cart for the 
 conveyance of coarse and heavy articles upon a 
 farm, and the most luxurious cabriolet for the 
 pleasure -drives of gentry, are alike carnages; 
 and both these and all intermediate sorts of cars, 
 waggons, and chaises, are characterized by the 
 possession of wheels and axle, — while most, in- 
 cluding all the better kinds, are characterized 
 also by the possession of springs. " Taking wheels 
 completely in the abstract," says Mr. D. Giddy 
 to the committee on the Highways of the King- 
 dom, "they must be considered as answering two 
 different purposes. First, they transfer the 
 friction which would take place between a sliding 
 body and the rough uneven surface over which 
 it slides, to the smooth, oiled peripheries of the 
 axis and box ; assisted by a leverage in the pro- 
 portion of the diameter of the wheel to the axis. 
 Secondly, they procure mechanical advantage for 
 overcoming obstacles, by introducing time pro- 
 portioned to the square roots of their diameters, 
 when the obstacles are small, as compared with 
 the wheels ; and they pass over transverse ruts 
 or hollows, small in the same comparison, with 
 an absolute advantage proportioned to their dia- 
 meters, and a mechanical one proportionate to 
 the square roots of these diameters. Conse- 
 quently, wheels, thus considered, cannot be too 
 large ; in practice however they are limited by 
 weight, by expense, and by experience. With 
 reference to the preservation of roads, wheels 
 should be made wide, and so constructed that 
 the whole breadth may bear at once ; and every 
 portion in contact with the ground, should roll 
 on without any sliding. It is evident, from the 
 well known properties of the cycloid, that the 
 above conditions cannot all unite, unless the 
 roads are perfectly hard, smooth, and flat ; and 
 the felloes of the wheels with their tire, are ac- 
 curate proportions of a cylinder. These forms, 
 therefore, of roads and wheels would seem to be 
 asymptotes, towards which they should always 
 approximate, but which, in practice, they are 
 never likely to reach. Roads must have some 
 degree of curvature to throw oft' water, and the 
 peripheries of wheels should, in their transverse 
 
CARRIAGE. 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 section be as nearly as possible tangents to this 
 curve ; but since no exact form can be assigned 
 to roads, and they are found to differ almost from 
 mile to mile, it is presumed that a small trans- 
 verse convexity given to the peripheries of wheels, 
 otherwise cylindrical, will sufficiently adapt them 
 to all roads, and that the pressure of such wheels, 
 greatest in the middle, and gradually diminish- 
 ing towards the sides, will be less likely to dis- 
 arrange ordinary materials, than a pressure sud- 
 denly discontinued at the edges of wheels per- 
 fectly flat. 
 
 " The spokes of a wheel should be so arranged 
 as to present themselves in a straight line against 
 the greatest force they are in common cases likely 
 to sustain. These must evidently be exerted in 
 a direction pointed towards the carriage, from 
 lateral percussions, and from the descent of either 
 wheel below the level of the other ; consequently, 
 a certain degree of what is termed dishing must 
 be advantageous, by adding strength ; whilst this 
 form is esteemed useful for protecting the nave, 
 and for obviating the ill effects of expansions and 
 contractions. The line of traction is theoreti- 
 cally best disposed, when it lies exactly parallel 
 to the direction of motion ; and its power is dimin- 
 ished at any inclination of that line, in the pro- 
 portion of the radius of the wheel to the cosine 
 at the angle. When obstacles frequently occur, 
 it had better, perhaps, receive a small inclination 
 upward, for the purpose of acting with most ad- 
 vantage when these are to be overcome. But it 
 is probable that different animals exert their 
 strength most advantageously in different direc- 
 tions ; and, therefore, practice alone can deter- 
 mine what precise inclination of the line is best 
 adapted to horses, and what to oxen. These 
 considerations are, however, only applicable to 
 cattle drawing immediately at the carriage; 
 and the convenience of their draught, as con- 
 nected with the insertion of the line of traction, 
 which continued ought to pass through the axis, 
 introduces another limit to the size of the wheels. 
 
 " Springs were, in all likelihood, first applied 
 to carriages with no other view than for the ac- 
 commodation of travellers : they have since 
 been found to answer several important ends. 
 They convert all percussions into mere increase 
 of pressure, thus preserving both the carriage 
 and the materials of the roads from the effect of 
 blows ; and small obstacles are surmounted when 
 springs allow the frame and wheels freely to as- 
 cend, without sensibly moving the body of the 
 carriage from its place. If the whole weight is 
 supposed to be concentrated on springs very long, 
 extremely flexible, and with the frame and wheels 
 wholly devoid of inertia, this paradoxical con- 
 clusion will most certainly follow, — that such a 
 carriage may be drawn over the roughest road 
 without any agitation, and by the smallest in- 
 crease of force. It seems probable that springs, 
 under some modification of form and material, 
 
 may be applicable with advantage to the heaviest 
 waggon." — See the articles Cart, Draught, Wag- 
 gon, and Wheel-Carriage. 
 
 CARROT, — botanically Daucus. A genus of 
 annual and biennial plants, of the umbelliferous 
 tribe. Two species grow wild in Britain ; thir- 
 teen have been introduced from foreign countries, 
 — principally the south of Europe ; and six other 
 species are known to botanists. The flowers of 
 all the species grow in umbels, and have five ob- 
 cordate, unequal petals; and the seeds of all 
 grow in pairs, and are unbeaked, and have four 
 rows of flat prickles with intermediate ribs. Four 
 of the species, the shore, the prickly-seeded, the 
 golden- flowered, and the Monte Videan, are an- 
 nual weeds of respectively Greece, Barbary, Spain, 
 and South America ; and all the other species — 
 excepting the cultivated varieties of the common 
 species — are biennial herbaceous weeds, — one of 
 Cornwall, one of Barbary,. and the rest of the 
 south of Europe. The prickly-seeded and the 
 hispid species have pink flowers ; the golden- flow- 
 ered and the small flowered species have yellow 
 flowers ; all the other species have white flowers. 
 
 The common species, Daucus carota, concen- 
 trates in itself all the true interest of the genus. 
 Its normal form is a mere weed of Britain ; but 
 its varieties comprise all the kinds of cultivated 
 carrots of the garden and the field, of Britain and 
 the continent. Its root is hard, fusiform, and 
 biennial; its stem is rough and furrowed; its 
 leaves are tripinnate, with pinnatifid leaflets, and 
 acute, lanceolate segment-lines ; its flowers are 
 white, but comprise one red or purplish barren 
 flower, in the centre of each umbel ; the umbel, 
 when the seeds ripen, assumes a contracted and 
 concave shape ; and the seeds are provided with 
 slender bristles, which render them easily buoy- 
 ant in the breeze. The wild plant abounds in 
 gravelly soil, by the sides of fields, at the base of 
 hedges, and athwart the face of pasture grounds, 
 in many parts of Britain. It is popularly called 
 the bird's nest, in allusion to the form of its um- 
 bels at the ripening of its seeds ; and it differs 
 little in the appearance of its stems, leaves and 
 flowers, from the cultivated varieties. Its root, 
 however, as compared to that of any of the cul- 
 tivated varieties, is small, forked, tough, sticky, 
 stringy, hard, woody, disagreeable and possessed 
 of powerful and almost poisonous properties ; and 
 its seeds are used in medicine, and esteemed a 
 good diuretic. Yet though this wild plant is 
 regarded by almost all botanists and cultivators 
 as the origin of the cultivated varieties, other 
 persons than mere novices have great difficulty 
 in not pronouncing it a totally and even widely 
 different species. " The plants of this sort," re- 
 marks Miller, " do not differ greatly in appear- 
 ance from the garden carrot, which has led some 
 persons into an opinion of their being the same ; 
 but those who have attempted to cultivate the 
 wild sort for many years, are fully convinced of 
 
CARROT. 
 
 292 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 their being distinct plants. I have tried to cul- 
 tivate the wild sort for many years, but could 
 never get the seeds which were sown in the 
 spring to grow ; upon which I sowed the seeds 
 in autumn, part of which have come up well ; 
 these plants I cultivated in the same manner as 
 the garden carrot, but could not improve the 
 roots in the least, for they continued to be small, 
 sticky, and of a hot biting taste ; and this has 
 been always the case, wherever the plants have 
 been sown ; therefore there can be no doubt of 
 their being different plants." Rather than be- 
 lieve the cultivated carrot to be a variety of the 
 nauseous wild carrot of our pastures, we may 
 almost suppose it to be identical with some spe- 
 cies of far warmer countries, which either has 
 escaped the researches of modern botanists, or 
 has ceased to exist in a wild state. 
 
 The cultivated varieties of the carrot are re- 
 duced, in systematic botany, to three, the yellow 
 garden carrot, D. c. kortensis, — the long-orange 
 carrot, D. c. aurantia, — and the early horn car- 
 rot, D. c. prcecox ; but they are distributed by 
 seedsmen and cultivators into at least eight dis- 
 tinct kinds, and are sometimes grouped into two 
 classes, the one suitable exclusively for garden 
 culture, and the other suitable for cultivation in 
 either the garden or the field. The principal 
 varieties which suit the garden but do not suit 
 the field are the early horn or Dutch carrot and 
 the short orange carrot ; and the principal varie- 
 ties which suit both the garden and the field are 
 the large orange, the long red, the Altringham, 
 the large white green-top, the common white, 
 and the deep red or the purple-coloured. The 
 orange kinds, particularly the large orange, are 
 generally preferred for field culture in Britain ; 
 but the white kinds, particularly the large white, 
 are generally preferred by the farmers of Belgium, 
 France, and other parts of the continent, and are 
 supposed by them both to yield a larger bulk of 
 produce, and to contain a greater proportion of 
 saccharine matter. 
 
 The early horn or Dutch carrot is the earliest 
 sort, and is very much esteemed. Its root is 
 smaller than that of any other cultivated carrot ; 
 it is of a deep red vermilion colour; it has a 
 very small heart ; it is thick and short, and ter- 
 minates abruptly at the lower end ; and it has a 
 hollow crown, and lifts it above the surface of 
 the ground. The stem or neck also is very small, 
 and even the foliage is small. Several sub varie- 
 ties of this sort are cultivated in Holland and 
 Germany ; but they differ from the small horn 
 carrot of Britain only in having a lighter colour 
 in the root, or shades between yellow and crim- 
 son, instead of deep red vermilion. — The short 
 orange carrot is of excellent quality, but, as yet, 
 is not much known. Both the earliness of its 
 habit, and the shape and size of its roots, arc in- 
 termediate between those of the early "horn and 
 those of the large orange. 
 
 The large orange carrot, or simply the orange, 
 
 though quite common in cottage gardens, is so 
 generally selected by British farmers for field cul- 
 tivation as often to bear the names of cattle car- 
 rot and large field carrot. Its root is long, thick 
 at the upper end, and regularly tapering to a 
 point ; it has a rather large heart ; it is of some- 
 what orange or light reddish vermilion colour ; 
 it lifts its crown scarcely, if at all, above the 
 surface of the ground ; and, though eminently 
 adapted for feeding cattle, and by no means un- 
 suited to the use of man, it is too coarse for the 
 table of the fastidious. — The long red or long 
 Surrey carrot has a deep red colour, and a com- 
 paratively smaller heart than the large orange 
 carrot, and is much less thick in proportion to 
 its length. — The Altringham carrot is eminently 
 suitable for both the garden and the field ; but, 
 in consequence of a strong constitutional ten- 
 dency to sport itself into new and deteriorated 
 subvarieties, it is much more difficult than any 
 other variety to be obtained genuine. Its root 
 has a smaller heart than the large orange carrot ; 
 it resembles that variety in colour ; and it differs 
 from both the large orange and the long red in 
 having a more convex or rounded head, in lifting 
 this more above the surface of the ground, in 
 tapering with less regularity, and in making a 
 more abrupt termination at the lower end. — The 
 large white green-top carrot was not long ago 
 brought into notice in France, yet is now exten- 
 sively cultivated. Its root is large and propor- 
 tionally thicker than long ; it is white under- 
 ground, but green on the top ; and it lifts its 
 crown considerably above the surface of the 
 ground. This variety has the important re- 
 commendation of being suitable for soils which 
 are too shallow for the proper growth of other 
 varieties. — The common white carrot, or simply 
 the white carrot, is of an inferior quality, and 
 does not deserve the attention of either the 
 gardener or the farmer. Its root is smaller 
 in size, more tapering in shape, and propor- 
 tionally thicker in heart than that of the large 
 white green-top carrot; and it does not lift 
 its crown above the surface of the ground. — 
 The red, deep-red, or purple-coloured carrot is 
 supposed to be better suited to marshy or other- 
 wise wet soils than any other variety; and is 
 sometimes cultivated on such soils in France. 
 Its root has a deep reddish purple colour, and a 
 comparatively large yellow heart ; and, though 
 proportionately very long, it is of smaller size than 
 the roots of most of the other varieties. 
 
 The garden cultivation of carrots, though at- 
 tempted in almost all gardens, from the smallest 
 cottage plot to the kitchen garden of the palace 
 or the fields of the market gardener, is, to a great 
 extent, characterized by signal failure. Yet the 
 carrot crop is as sure an one in farm-fields as any 
 other ; and, with a very ordinary degree of know- 
 ledge and care, might be uniformly and even 
 eminently successful in almost every garden. 
 The best soil for it is a warm, light, sandy loam, 
 
CARROT. 
 
 not less than two feet deep ; but any soil which 
 is friable, pulverulent, free from recent manure, 
 comparatively free from vegetable excretion, and 
 sufficiently deep, will suit. The finest sandy 
 loam, though it were a yard deep and in the 
 finest tilth, if it be charged with the excretions 
 of many previous garden crops, and in conse- 
 quence overrun with the eggs of minute insects, 
 may not be able to bring a single carrot crop to 
 perfection ; and a deep adhesive loam, so stiff 
 and clayey as to be utterly unpromising, if it be 
 recently recovered from a long period of grass, 
 and rendered properly porous by the intermixture 
 of arenaceous or other loosening matter, may 
 bring all the plants of a crop to a healthy and 
 even gigantic maturity. The great preventives 
 of success to carrot culture in gardens are recent 
 manure and a profusion of the eggs of insects ; 
 and the former of these is to be averted either 
 by relying wholly on the manure of some previ- 
 ous year, or by using only the most finely divided 
 old simple manure in a state of intimate inter- 
 mixture with the soil ; and the latter, in the case 
 of ground which has been long under garden 
 crops, is to be averted by such a special manner 
 of trenching as to bury nine or ten inches of sur- 
 face-stratum of the soil at least two feet deep, to 
 cover it over with a thin coat of some caustic 
 matter which will prevent the worms of its in- 
 sect's eggs from ascending out of it, and to consti- 
 tute all the new surface and central strata of 
 matter as nearly as possible resembling virgin 
 soil. Fresh manure in carrot-ground causes the 
 plants to fork; and even well-rotted dunghill 
 manure, when added year by year to any spot of 
 ground, speedily renders it so replete with minute 
 worms as to be ruinous to carrots. Whatever 
 garden soil has become foul with the eggs of in- 
 sects is certain, if sown with carrots, to surrender 
 the young, soft, succulent, saccharine roots of the 
 crop as the choicest of all food to its insect mul- 
 titudes. To trench such soil in the ordinary 
 manner is not to place its insects' eggs beyond 
 the vivifying influence of air and heat, but merely 
 to disperse them through the uplifted subsoil ; 
 and hence the necessity of carefully burying it 
 all at the bottom of a deep trenching, of treading 
 it down into its bed, and of sealing it over with 
 such a mixture of quicklime and sand as will lie 
 like a sheet of mortar between it and the new 
 soil. 
 
 The selection of seed for the garden sowing of 
 carrots, the mode of preparing it for sowing, and 
 some points of culture and harvesting will be 
 fully indicated in what we have afterwards to 
 say respecting field-carrots. The garden ground 
 for carrots may either be disposed in drills a foot 
 asunder for drill-sowing, or in beds not more 
 than four feet wide for broadcast-sowing. In the 
 latter case, it ought, before sowing, to be laid 
 perfectly smooth, and, before raking, to be gently 
 trodden. The seed, if good, should be sown thin ; 
 and the young plants, when they attain a due 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 height, should be thinned out to distances of 
 from three to eight inches, according to the sea- 
 son of the crop, and the intention of drawing 
 them for use when small, when middle-sized, or 
 not till full-grown. The different kinds of car- 
 rot, early and late, horn and long, may be sown 
 in such succession as to afford small and middle- 
 sized roots for use in March, April, May, June, 
 and July, large roots in August and September, 
 and full-grown roots of the greatest size in Octo- 
 ber, and thence, if they be properly stored in 
 sand, throughout the winter. Small crops for 
 young roots in late spring and early summer, are 
 sown in January and February ; main crops in 
 March and April ; successional crops of young 
 roots, in May, June, and July ; and crops for the 
 earliest young roots of spring, in the beginning of 
 August. The January sowing should be made 
 on a moderate hotbed, and the February sowing 
 on a warm border ; the chief main crop may be 
 most advantageously sown from the first till the 
 tenth of April ; and the crop which is sown in 
 the beginning of August and stands over the 
 winter must, in all frosty weather, be sheltered 
 with a covering of litter. 
 
 The best soil for the field growth of carrots is 
 a loose, sandy, friable loam, of at least eighteen 
 inches in depth ; and hence the light and fertile 
 sands of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Surrey have been 
 longer and more extensively used as field-carrot 
 ground than any other equal extent of land in 
 Britain. But poor soft sand, which is scarcely 
 able to produce any other crop, provided it be 
 deep enough, may be quite suitable for carrots ; 
 and, in some instances, land of this light, worth- 
 less, barren sort, has made a most magnificent re- 
 turn of carrots, when all the best loams of all the 
 gardens of the surrounding district have brought 
 scarcely one root to maturity. Soils of almost 
 any kind are suitable which possess the requisites 
 of depth, openness, and perfect freedom from 
 stones. Even drained peat soil of proper depth 
 is well fitted to produce sure and excellent crops. 
 Carrots require rather mechanical than chemical 
 fitness in soils ; and if permitted to shoot down 
 their roots unobstructedly and freely to the ut- 
 most depth which they have organic power to 
 attain, and to spread freely and far around the 
 slender hairy, filiform radicles which contain the 
 minute spongioles for the absorption of their 
 food, they can readily afford to want a very large 
 proportion of the elements of nutrition which are 
 essential to most other crops; and even when 
 these elements are present in the soil, — such as 
 those which form the nitrogenous seeds of the 
 cereal grasses, and the vitreously saline coating 
 of their culms, — the carrots leave them where 
 they find them, almost totally unabsorbed. A 
 crop of barley after carrots, provided no impover- 
 ishment be permitted by weeds, will be quite as 
 good, or within a mere trifle of being quite as 
 good, as if taken instead of the carrots, and with- 
 out their intervention. Carrots, more than most 
 
 293 
 
CARROT. 
 
 294 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 other crops, elaborate their substance out of the 
 gases and moisture of the atmosphere ; in parti- 
 cular, they form the whole of their saccharine 
 matter out of atmospheric sources ; and as this 
 matter, though not so great in the percentage of 
 each root as in beet, is exceedingly great in its 
 aggregate produce per acre, carrots might be 
 grown merely for sake of their sugar ; and if all 
 their stems and foliage, and all the refuse of 
 their roots from the sugar manufacture, were 
 carefully returned to the soil, they might be 
 raised year after year, in all the successive years 
 of a century, upon one field, without exhausting 
 it of one particle of its fertility. The conjecture 
 may seem to even scientific farmers exceedingly 
 chimerical — yet in these days of rapid and vast 
 improvement in legislation, in agricultural che- 
 mistry, and in scientific georgy, it is by no means 
 improbable — that a large portion of the bogs of 
 Ireland, at present so worthless and dismal, may, 
 in the course of two or three decads, be regularly 
 cropped with carrots, and yield to Britain an in- 
 comparably richer supply of sugar than she has 
 ever yet obtained from the fertile and beautiful 
 cane plantations of the West Indies. 
 
 The use of manure, in the field cultivation of 
 carrots, has been the subject of much debate, and 
 does not seem, as to the principle of it, to be 
 well understood ; yet, in the best carrot-growing 
 districts of England, it is generally and even pro- 
 fusely practised. Some agriculturists contend 
 that no manure whatever should be given, and 
 that the ground should as nearly as possible be 
 in the condition of virgin soil ; some, that rich 
 manuring of the previous year should provide for 
 the carrot crop ; some, that fresh manure should 
 be so applied as to lie buried at the depth of six- 
 teen or seventeen inches, to yield its influence 
 to most of the growth only in the form of ascend- 
 ing gas and vapour, and to sustain contact with 
 the tips of the roots only when they are close 
 upon maturity ; and some, that fresh manure 
 should be applied in the manner of thorough in- 
 termixture with the soil. Experiment certainly 
 seems to prove that, acre per acre, the produce 
 of richly manured carrots is bulkier than the 
 produce of carrots upon unmanured soil. One 
 experiment, for example — though it is decidedly 
 an extreme one in favour of manure — exhibits 
 the produce per acre of manured carrots at twelve 
 tons of roots and five tons of tops, and that of 
 unmanured carrots at nine tons of roots and four 
 tons of tops. Arthur Young even employs such 
 strong language as the following : " If you would 
 command your crops of this root, you should 
 manure the land with twenty-five or thirty loads 
 of dung per acre, pretty rotten, ploughed in, and 
 then cover the seed by harrowing. The dung 
 neither injures the taste of the carrots, makes 
 them grow deformed, nor causes the canker. A 
 farmer's object is to produce as great a quantity 
 as possible from every acre, which must undoubt- 
 edly be accomplished by manure." But if dung 
 
 be applied in any such manner or to any such 
 extent as Mr. Young recommends, it must cer- 
 tainly be thoroughly decomposed and so " short " 
 as to admit of perfect and even pulverulent in- 
 termixture with the soil. Any farm-yard man- 
 ure which is " long," or not completely decom- 
 posed, will certainly make the roots fork, and 
 probably subject them to the attacks of the worm, 
 and possibly render such as otherwise escape ill- 
 flavoured and unfit for either culinary or market 
 use. The Suffolk and Norfolk farmers, who have 
 long had the fame of being the best carrot-grow- 
 ers of Britain, but who generally operate upon a 
 soil of peculiar mechanical conditions, always 
 turn in a suitable proportion of well-rotted farm- 
 yard dung, at the March ploughing immediately 
 before the sowing of carrots; and, though few 
 seem to have raised the question, still less to 
 have tested it, they probably owe the acknow- 
 ledged beneficial effects of the practice, fully 
 more to the mechanical action of the manure 
 than to its supposed chemical influence. Bur- 
 rows, an intelligent Norfolk farmer, who, in a 
 communication to the Board of Agriculture, gave 
 one of the best statements on field carrot culture 
 which has ever appeared in print, always pre- 
 pared his carrot-land with a dressing of about 
 sixteen cart-loads per acre of cottagers' ashes or 
 of well-rotted farm-yard manure, — each load hav- 
 ing been as much as three strong horses could 
 draw ; and he usually selected as his carrot-land 
 wheat-stubble after clover, ploughed it first in 
 autumn and next in February, and both laid on 
 the manure and sowed the seed in the last week 
 of March or in the first or second week of April. 
 In Suffolk, carrot-land after pease is usually 
 ploughed as soon as the pea-crop is harvested ; 
 and in December, it is laid up in small balks, to 
 be mellowed by the frost ; in February, it is har- 
 rowed down, manured with farm-yard dung at 
 the rate of fifteen loads per acre, and has the 
 manure ploughed in to the depth of about four 
 inches; and, in the latter part of March, it is 
 double-furrowed and sown. In Norfolk, land for 
 carrots is usually selected after turnips ; in the be- 
 ginning of March, it is first manured, next plough- 
 ed with a common plough, and next trench-plough- 
 ed to the depth of fourteen or fifteen inches ; and 
 in the middle or latter part of March, it is very 
 finely harrowed, and then sown. In Brittany, the 
 preparation of carrot-land is effected by the joint 
 operations of the spade and the plough, and by a 
 combination of the resources of several farms. 
 " The different farmers join to bring as many 
 labourers together as will dig out a furrow as ra- 
 pidly as the plough can draw it : they divide the 
 whole length of the field equally among them. 
 As soon as the plough has made a furrow, the 
 men trench the bottom of it with their spades 
 nine or ten inches deep, throwing the earth over 
 the furrow-slice last turned ; on the return of the 
 plough, the next slice is turned into the deep 
 trench, and immediately covered by the spades 
 
CARROT. 
 
 295 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 as before. Thus an acre is readily trenched in 
 one day to the depth of fifteen or eighteen inches, 
 and all the weeds are buried : carrot or parsnip 
 seed is sown on the surface and slightly harrowed 
 in." [Rham's Dictionary of the Farm.] 
 
 Carrot seed, selected for sowing, ought to be 
 ripe and heavy ; yet if two or even three years 
 old, will vegetate as well as if quite new. Great 
 care should be used in selecting good seed ; and 
 when much nicety is desirable, only such seeds 
 as have grown on the outer border of the umbel 
 should be chosen. The seed is extremely light, 
 adheres in groups by means of hooked hairs 
 which spring from its husks, and, if not some- 
 what forced before sowing, is so very long in ger- 
 minating as to be preceded and sometimes almost 
 choked by weeds. Its lightness requires that it 
 should be sown in calm weather, and during a 
 somewhat dry condition of the soil. Its strong 
 adherence into knots and bunches by means of 
 its hooked hairs, requires that, previous to sow- 
 ing, it should be well mixed with fine dry sand ; 
 and even then, this property renders the proper 
 sowing of the seed in drills very difficult, and oc- 
 casions the young plants to come up in tufts, and 
 often at too great intervals. The slowness of the 
 seed's germination may, by a very easy method 
 of previous forcing, be so greatly quickened as to 
 let the young plants rise in ample time to make 
 a successful contest with weeds, and to be hoed 
 without risk of injury. The method is to add so 
 much water to the mixture of seeds and sand as 
 will thoroughly moisten it, to place it in a moder- 
 ately warm temperature, and, during from ten 
 to twenty days, daily to turn it over and make 
 fresh sprinklings upon it of water. Burrows, 
 who fully tested this method, and brought it into 
 notice, says, "Having weighed the quantity of 
 seed to be sown, and collected sand or fine mould, 
 in the proportion of about two bushels to an 
 acre, I mix the seed with the sand or mould, 
 eight or ten pounds to every two bushels, and 
 this is done about a fortnight or three weeks be- 
 fore the time I intend sowing; taking care to 
 have the heaps turned over every day, sprinkling 
 the outside of them with water each time of 
 turning over, that every part of the sand heaps 
 may be equally moist, and that vegetation may 
 take place alike throughout. I have great ad- 
 vantage in preparing the seed so long before- 
 hand ; it is by this means in a state of forward 
 vegetation, therefore lies but a short time in the 
 ground, and, by quickly appearing above ground, 
 is more able to contend with those numerous 
 tribes of weeds in the soil, whose seeds are of 
 quicker vegetation." 
 
 The earlier in the spring carrots are sown, pro- 
 vided the weather be dry and the climate mild, 
 the larger will be the crop, and the better the 
 quality of the roots. About the middle of March 
 is usually the best time in the southern counties 
 of England ; but the middle of April, or even the 
 latter part of that month, may be early enough 
 
 in some good farming districts in the north of 
 England and the south of Scotland. If the de- 
 cided goodness of the seed can be depended on, 
 two pounds per acre may be sufficient in drills, 
 and between four and five pounds broadcast ; 
 but if the quality of the seed be in the least de- 
 gree doubtful, the double of each quantity ought 
 to be sown. Burrows always sowed ten pounds 
 per acre broadcast. When the land is dry, rather 
 more seed is required than when the land is moist. 
 The drill method of sowing is greatly preferable 
 for the facility of weeding ; but, on account of the 
 peculiar character of the seeds, it cannot easily 
 be practised. The drills may be fourteen or fif- 
 teen inches distant from one another ; and the 
 seed may be deposited either by a machine or by 
 hand. The broadcast method is generally prac- 
 tised in all carrot-growing districts ; and it simply 
 requires a finely powdered soil, a smooth surface, 
 and a very light harrowing-in. 
 
 The after-culture of the carrot-crop consists 
 wholly of hoeing and weeding. Though the plant 
 has the appearance of obtaining its chief nourish- 
 ment from the lower end of the root, yet, on ac- 
 count of the multitudinous minute radicles which 
 grow horizontally from every part of the root, and 
 on account especially of its acquiring so large a 
 portion of its bulk from the free circulation of 
 the atmospheric gases and moisture, it receives 
 very great advantage from judicious and repeated 
 stirring of the soil. When the crop is sown on 
 raised drills, the hoeing and cleaning may be 
 effected in the same manner as in turnip crops : 
 and when sown in flat drills, they must be thin- 
 ned, cleaned, and hoed with the hand-hoe. When 
 the crop is broadcast, three or perhaps four hoe- 
 ings must be given in the season, each with a size 
 of hand-hoe suited to its precise object, and the 
 first with extreme care, as the carrots cannot, 
 without difficulty, be at that time distinguished 
 from accompanying weeds. The first hoeing, in 
 Burrows' method, occurs about five or six weeks 
 after sowing, and cuts up weeds without thinning 
 the carrots, and is performed with hoes four 
 inches long and two and a quarter inches wide : 
 the second hoeing is given as soon as the first is 
 completed and the plants are set, and is performed 
 with hoes six inches long, and two and a quarter 
 inches wide ; and the third and fourth hoeings 
 effect the complete and final cleaning of the 
 ground, and the thinning out of the plants to 
 distances from one another of from nine to twelve 
 inches. In Suffolk, the first hoeing is given as 
 soon as the carrots can be distinguished from 
 weeds, and is performed with three-inch hoes, 
 having handles of not more than two feet in 
 length ; the second hoeing is given three or four 
 weeks after the first, and is performed with com- 
 mon hoes, and not only takes up weeds and stirs 
 the ground, but thins out the carrots ; and the 
 third or final hoeing is given about the middle or 
 end of June, and, besides destroying weeds, effects 
 such a final thinning as to leave all the carrots 
 
CARROT. 
 
 296 
 
 CARROT. 
 
 at distances from one another of from eight to 
 eighteen inches. 
 
 The stems and foliage of the growing crop are, 
 in many localities, cut off as food for cattle and 
 sheep, and certainly constitute a sweet, delicate, 
 and much relished fodder ; but the loss of growth 
 to the roots unavoidably consequent upon the re- 
 moval of the leaves, is of far more value than the 
 provender obtained ; so that the stems and foliage 
 ought never to be removed till the roots are ma- 
 tured, or till they themselves begin to droop, and 
 their outermost leaves to wither. The common 
 time of taking up the crop is the last week of 
 October ; but the tops may be mown as soon as 
 they begin to droop, and the roots left in the 
 ground till the near approach of winter's frost. 
 The plough, deprived of its coulter, has sometimes 
 been employed for unearthing the roots ; but, in 
 spite of the utmost care which the ploughman 
 can use, both the plough and the horses which 
 draw it bruise and otherwise damage a consider- 
 able proportion of the crop. A three pronged 
 fork, such as is used for digging asparagus beds, 
 with bluntly-pointed and roundly-edged prongs, 
 is the most suitable instrument ; and this, when 
 stuck vertically down by the side of the rows, 
 and then pressed diagonally on the handle, brings 
 up the roots in sound, unscratched condition. 
 Burrows let the work of raising the roots to a 
 man, who hired women and children as assistants ; 
 and he says, " I take up in autumn a sufficient 
 quantity to have a store to last me out any con- 
 siderable frost or snow that may happen in the 
 winter months ; the rest of the crop I leave in the 
 ground, preferring them fresh out of the earth 
 for both horses and bullocks. The carrots keep 
 best in the ground, nor can the severest frosts do 
 them any material injury ; the first week in March 
 it is necessary to have the remaining part of the 
 crop taken up, and the land, cleared for barley. 
 The carrots can either be laid in a heap with a 
 small quantity of straw over them, or they may 
 be laid into some empty out-house or barn, in 
 heaps of many hundred bushels, provided they 
 are put together dry. This latter circumstance 
 it is indispensably necessary to attend to; for 
 if laid together in large heaps when wet, they 
 will certainly sustain much injury. When select- 
 ing such as I want to keep for the use of my 
 horses until the months of May and June, in 
 drawing over the heaps (which should be done in 
 the latter end of April, when the carrots begin 
 to sprout at the crown very fast) I throw aside 
 the healthy and most perfect roots, and have their 
 crowns cut completely off and laid by themselves ; 
 by this means, carrots may be kept the month of 
 June out in a high state of perfection." But 
 when carrots are to be followed by wheat, as well 
 as in some other cases, all require to be raised at 
 the end of autumn ; and in such instances, they 
 may easily be preserved throughout the winter, 
 either in dry cellars, or in long trenches, covered 
 with straw, in the manner of beet, turnips, &c. 
 
 The average produce of carrots is perhaps from 
 fifty to seventy-five per cent, more than the aver- 
 age produce of potatoes. The produce of an acre 
 of carrots in Suffolk is usually between 300 and 
 400 bushels ; but the average produce per acre of 
 the crops raised by Burrows was upwards of 800 
 bushels. The produce of an experimental crop 
 of white or Belgian carrots, on a farm near Exeter 
 in 1842, was at the rate of rather more than 30 
 tons per acre ; and the relative produce of experi- 
 mental crops of Belgian white carrots and Al- 
 tringham red carrots, in the same year near 
 Tockington, was 20 tons of the white and 16^ 
 tons of the red. An experimental crop of Belgian 
 white carrots, at Chester Hill in 1840, yielded at 
 the rate of 26 tons 3 cwt. per acre ; and an ex- 
 perimental crop of early horn carrots, in the same 
 year on stone-brash soil in the table-land of Fro- 
 cester Hill, on the estate of Lord Ducie, yielded 
 at the rate of 18§ tons per acre. 
 
 The culinary uses of carrots for soups, for 
 stews, for haricots, for boiling whole with beef, 
 and for other methods of cookery, are too well 
 known to require any remark. — The available- 
 ness of carrots for the manufacture of sugar has 
 already been noticed. The expressed juice of 
 carrots, in consequence of the large proportion 
 of sugar it contains, yields, after fermentation, 
 and through the process of distillation, so large 
 a quantity of spirituous liquor as twelve gallons 
 of spirit for every ton of carrots. — The nutritive 
 matter in carrots, as analysed by Hermbstadt, 
 comprises 9 per cent, of starch and fibre, 1*75 of 
 gum, 7*8 of sugar, 0*35 of oil, and 1*1 of albumen. — 
 Clater places carrots among cattle medicines, and 
 says, "These are inserted in the list of drugs, 
 because they contain the best medicine that can 
 be given, either when the animal is slowly recov- 
 ering from severe illness, or when he has much 
 cough, or considerable humour or foulness about 
 him." — Boiled carrots are readily eaten by poul- 
 try ; and, when mixed with any farinaceous sub- 
 stance, they constitute, as excellent feeding as 
 poultry can obtain. — Boiled carrots, especially if 
 accompanied with some other kinds of food, are 
 the best aliment for fattening hogs; and were 
 preferred for that purpose, by Arthur Young, to 
 pollard, white pease, buckwheat, or potatoes. — 
 Carrots are used in the dairy, during winter and 
 spring, for giving colour and flavour to butter ; 
 and, when this object is specially desired, they 
 certainly form better feeding for milk-cows than 
 any other description of green food. 
 
 But the grand use of carrots on a farm is for 
 strengthening and medicinal food to horses and 
 working oxen. Carrots are readily eaten by 
 horses, and, in some instances, are preferred by 
 them to oats ; and when given to them with cut 
 straw and a little hay, without any corn, they 
 maintain the horses in excellent working condi- 
 tion, and very visibly improve the glossy and 
 healthy appearance of their coat. Nor do they 
 merely give strength and endurance to sound 
 
CARROT. 
 
 297 
 
 CARSE. 
 
 horses, but they also give recovery and health to 
 such as are sick. " The carrot," says Stewart, in 
 his Stable Economy, "is held in much esteem. 
 There is none better, nor perhaps so good. When 
 first given, it is slightly diuretic and laxative ; 
 but as the horse becomes accustomed to it, these 
 effects cease to be produced. They also improve 
 the state of the skin. They form a good sub- 
 stitute for grass, and an excellent alterative for 
 horses out of condition. To sick and idle horses, 
 they render corn unnecessary. They are benefi- 
 cial in all chronic diseases connected with breath- 
 ing, and have a marked influence on chronic 
 cough and broken wind. They are serviceable 
 in diseases of the skin ; and in combination with 
 oats, they restore a worn horse much sooner 
 than oats alone." Most carrot-growing farmers 
 usually give carrots to their horses from about 
 the middle of December till the beginning or 
 middle of May ; and many, for a few weeks after 
 commencing the use of them, give only one half 
 of the proper quantity, and make up the differ- 
 ence with corn. The common allowance is be- 
 tween forty and fifty pounds a-day to each horse. 
 Burrows says, " I begin to take up the carrot- 
 crop in the last week of October, as at that time 
 I generally finish soiling my horses with lucern, 
 and now solely depend upon my carrots, with a 
 proper allowance of hay, as winter food for my 
 horses, until about the first week of June follow- 
 ing, when the lucern is again ready for soiling. 
 By reducing this practice to a system, I have 
 been enabled to feed ten cart-horses throughout 
 the winter months for these last six years, with- 
 out any corn whatever, and have at the same 
 time effected a considerable saving of hay, from 
 what I found necessary to give to the same num- 
 ber of horses, when, according to the usual cus- 
 tom of the country, I fed my horses with corn 
 and hay. I give them to my cart-horses in the 
 proportion of seventy pounds weight of carrots 
 a-horse per day, upon an average ; not allowing 
 them quite so many in the very short days, and 
 sometimes more than that quantity in the spring 
 months, or to the amount of what I withheld in 
 the short winter days. The men who tend the 
 horses slice some of the carrots in the cut chaff 
 or hay and barn-door refuse ; the rest of the car- 
 rots they give whole to the horses at night, with 
 a small quantity of hay in their racks ; and with 
 this food, my horses generally enjoy uninterrupt- 
 ed health. I mention this, as I believe that 
 some persons think that carrots only, given as 
 food to horses, are injurious to their constitu- 
 tion; but most of the prejudices of mankind 
 have no better foundation, and are taken up at 
 random, or inherited from their grandfathers. So 
 successful have I been with carrots, as a winter 
 food for horses, that, with the assistance of lu- 
 cern for soiling in summer, I have been enabled 
 to prove by experiments conducted under my 
 own personal inspection, that an able Norfolk 
 team-horse, fully worked two journeys a-day, 
 
 winter and summer, may be kept the entire year 
 round upon the produce of only one statute acre 
 of land. I have likewise applied carrots with 
 great profit to the feeding of hogs in winter, and 
 by that means have made my straw into a most 
 excellent manure, without the aid of neat cat- 
 tle." — Communications to the Board of Agricul- 
 ture. — Stewart's Stable Economy. — Sir John Sin- 
 clair's General Report of Scotland. — Kane's Indus- 
 trial Resources of Ireland. — Young's Farmer's 
 Kalendar. — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — 
 Journal of the R. Agricultural Society. — Lawson's 
 Agricidturist's Manual. — Hunter's Georgical Es- 
 says. — Miller's Dictionary. — Low's Elements of 
 Agriculture. — Sproule's Agriculture. — Rham's Dic- 
 tionary of the Farm. — Loudon's Works. — Mawe's 
 Gardener's Calendar. — Knowledge Society's British 
 Husbandry. — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. — 
 Clater's Cattle Doctor. — The Society of Gentlemen's 
 Complete Farmer. 
 
 CARRUCATE. An ancient English measure 
 of land. It comprised as much as a single plough 
 or team could work in a season ; and, of course, 
 was indeterminate in quantity, or modified par- 
 tially by the strength of the team, and very 
 greatly by the quality of the soil. 
 
 CARSE. A deep, argillaceous, low, level ex- 
 panse of alluvium. The names carse and haugh 
 are peculiar to Scotland, and cannot easily be 
 translated into English ; though both are fre- 
 quently, yet most incompetently, represented by 
 the word meadow. A haugh . is a lacustrine for- 
 mation, in a hill-locked valley, and became dry 
 land by the bursting of the lake or the wearing 
 down of the river-course which formed the lake's 
 outlet ; and a carse is a marine formation, in the 
 basin or valley of an estuarial river, and became 
 dry land by the slow and gradual subsession of 
 the sea or the filling up of the bottom and basin 
 of the estuary. Haughs are of all sizes, from a 
 few perches to several hundreds of acres, and 
 consist of very many varieties and depths of al- 
 luvial soil; but the principal carses are many 
 miles in extent, and consist of very fine and ex- 
 ceedingly deep argillaceous alluvium. But carse 
 clay widely differs from the plastic, pasty, infer- 
 tile clay of the clay districts of England ; and, in 
 consequence of the intimate intermixture of 
 other finely pulverized earths with its argil, pos- 
 sesses eminent adaptation, under good culture, 
 for the production of wheat and beans. The 
 carse of Gowrie along the estuary of the Tay, and 
 the carses of Stirling and Falkirk, along the 
 quondam estuarial portion of the valley of the 
 Forth — both tracts of great extent and of sur- 
 passing agricultural beauty — are justly celebrated 
 as the richest grain districts in Scotland. 
 
 Carse farms are wholly and most productively 
 arable ; and are, in consequence, totally unsuited 
 to pastoral farming. A carse farmer ought to be 
 thoroughly acquainted with the cultivation of 
 grain, but requires little knowledge of the man- 
 agement of live-stock. He needs only horses 
 
for his teams, a few milk cows for the dairy sup- 
 ply of his own establishment, and a few black 
 cattle in winter for treading his straw into man- 
 ure ; and he purchases the cows and the straw- 
 treaders, just when they are needed, and sells 
 them as soon as they have served their tempo- 
 rary purposes. His farm-stead contains but mea- 
 gre and secondary accommodation for live-stock ; 
 yet, as a main object is the conversion of the 
 enormous quantities of straw into manure, the 
 stables and the cattle-yards ought to stand in 
 immediate juxtaposition with the straw -barn. 
 Much of the management of his farm, particu- 
 larly during winter and spring, consists in effi- 
 cient surface-draining, to prevent the stagnation 
 of water upon its retentive or slowly-percolating 
 soil ; and wherever covered drains for absorbing 
 and carrying off surplus water may be thought 
 unsuitable, the spade must be diligently applied, 
 after every heavy fall of rain, for clearing and 
 scouring the furrows. Grass is grown on but a 
 small proportion of a carse farm ; and, even when 
 grown, it remains only one year, and is used 
 wholly for forage. The rotation of crops, and 
 the whole system of grain husbandry, must, 
 of course, be modified by reference to the pecu- 
 liar nature of the soil, and ought to be regulated 
 with a view to a maximum produce of wheat. 
 
 CART. A two-wheeled carriage, drawn gen- 
 erally by one horse, but sometimes by two, and 
 used for the conveyance of all kinds of heavy ar- 
 ticles, whether on the farm or on the highway. 
 Carts are exceedingly various in construction; 
 and while some kinds derive their peculiarities 
 from specific adaptation to particular purposes, 
 others derive them from caprice, custom, or 
 bungling contrivance. The waggons so common 
 in most of the agricultural districts of England 
 j are often, but improperly, termed carts, and will 
 i be noticed in the article Waggon ; and two ve- 
 hicles, the slide car and the Irish car, though not 
 in themselves carts, are used instead of them, 
 and may here be briefly noticed. 
 
 The slide- car or drag-cart has some resemblance 
 to the body of a cart without wheels ; it is used 
 in mountainous districts of Wales and Scotland, 
 where roads do not exist, and where wheels would 
 be of no service ; and it may be regarded as the 
 I original or typal form of the cart group of ve- 
 hicles. " It consists of two strong poles from 
 twelve to fifteen feet long, connected by cross 
 pieces fixed at right angles to them, by mortising 
 or pinning, so that the poles may be two or three 
 feet apart. About eighteen inches of the poles 
 project beyond the lowest cross-piece, the ends 
 resting on the ground. The other ends of the 
 poles form the shafts for the horse to draw by. 
 The load is placed on the cross pieces, over which 
 boards are sometimes nailed, for the purpose of 
 carrying stones, or such things as might fall 
 through between the cross bars : it then resem- 
 bles the body of a cart taken off the wheels. The 
 horse bears one end of the drag-cart by a strap 
 
 over his back, and drags it on by means of a 
 common cart-collar or a breast-strap. This ve- 
 hicle is extremely useful in steep and rough de- 
 scents, especially to draw stones from quarries, 
 and can be made of rough poles at little or no 
 expense. Pieces of hard wood fixed under the 
 ends of the poles, and renewed as they wear out, 
 will prevent the ends of the drag-cart from wear- 
 ing away, and will allow it to slide along more 
 easily." — {Dictionary of the Farm,] This simple 
 vehicle is very effective in conveying peats from 
 the highland bogs, and in conveying home hill- 
 harvestings over rugged or very uneven ground ; 
 and, in some instances, it is furnished at the 
 extremity of its shafts with a pair of low timber 
 wheels in lieu of the ordinary wooden slippers. 
 
 The Irish car consists of a platform, two shafts, 
 and a pair of wheels ; with the last so adjusted 
 as to move beneath the platform in the same man- 
 ner as those of a railway carriage. The platform, 
 in some instances, is horizontal ; and in others, is 
 oblique and raised behind, so as to hold what the 
 Irish call a kish. Blocks of wood are fixed be- 
 low the middle part of the platform, and are 
 bored in their lower part with holes to admit the 
 ends of the axle, so as to let the wheels revolve 
 below the platform. The simplest and most 
 common kind of wheels are circular disks of 
 wood, formed either by a junction of blocks or a 
 nailing together of pieces of plank, and sawing 
 them into circular outline. Iron tires are fixed 
 on the periphery of the wheels ; the axles are 
 sometimes bars of iron, but far more commonly 
 beams of wood, and are made tight to the wheels ; 
 and two iron pins or strong nails are driven ob- 
 liquely into the blocks so as to keep the axles in 
 their place. Cars for conveying lime or manure 
 have a boarded platform and a frame, and are 
 called box-cars; and some of this description, 
 constructed in an improved or superior manner, 
 with four-spoked wheels, were used in Leicester- 
 shire by Bake well, and may occasionally be seen 
 in some other parts of England. The Irish car, 
 in any of its ordinary forms, is recommended by 
 its great cheapness, its facility of being laden, 
 its adaptation to the light, low horses of Ireland, 
 its suitableness for mountain roads, and its very 
 small liability to overturns or collisions ; but it 
 has the serious disadvantages of small capacity 
 of load, small facility of unloading, and great 
 difficulty of making a rapid curve or sudden turn 
 in the direction of its motion. 
 
 The tilt-cart, coup-cart, or common Scotch cart, 
 is by far the most important vehicle of its class 
 in Scotland, and has, for some time past, been 
 rapidly finding its way into favour in England, 
 and, if fairly considered as to the great aggregate 
 of its advantages and adaptations, must be re- 
 garded by every person as the most suitable 
 draught-vehicle for all ordinary farms in almost 
 all parts of the world. In the lowlands of Scot- 
 land, it is employed for nine-tenths of all the 
 carriage on farms, or connected with agriculture. 
 
CART. 
 
 299 
 
 CART. 
 
 throughout the year ; and it has been found, 
 after long and general trial, to possess eminent 
 adaptation for conveying all kinds of solid man- 
 ure, for carrying stones and other materials re- 
 quired in the operations of draining, for convey- 
 ing all sorts of produce tovmarket, for carrying 
 home potatoes and turnips, for conveying all 
 other articles which can be properly discharged 
 by tilting, and, with the addition of a harvest 
 frame, for carrying home hay, sheaf-corn, cut 
 grass, cut vetches, and field pease and beans. It 
 admits of much variety of construction, as to at 
 once wheels, shafts, body, and fixedness or re- 
 moveableness of sides ; and it derives its name 
 and distinctive character from the circumstance 
 of its buck or body being so hung upon a bar- 
 pivot, and fastened with a moveable bolt to the 
 front cross-bar of the frame, that, on the with- 
 drawal of the bolt, it can be ' couped ' or tilted, 
 so as, with a single jerk, to discharge the whole 
 of its load. In a tilt-cart of ordinary construc- 
 tion, the length of the body at bottom is 5 
 feet, the length of the body at top is 5^ feet, the 
 breadth of the body at bottom is 3 feet 10 inches, 
 the breadth of the body at top is 4 feet 4 inches, 
 the depth of the body is 3 feet 8 inches, and the 
 diameter of the wheels is 4 feet 6 inches ; and in 
 one of smaller size, adapted almost exclusively to 
 home cartage on the farm, the length of the body 
 at bottom is 4 feet 2 inches, the length of the body 
 at top is 4 feet 8 inches, the breadth of the body 
 is 3^ feet, the depth of the body in front is 14^ 
 inches, the depth of the body in rear is 13| inches, 
 and the diameter of the wheels is 3 feet 10 inches. 
 In every tilt-cart of good construction, the body 
 rests by means of bolsters upon the axle ; the 
 shafts are jointed to the axle by means of a rod, 
 which passes through their ends and through 
 the bolsters ; the axle is of the bent order, with 
 2| inch arms ; the wheels are of the dished form, 
 and have a cylindrical tread or sole, and are so 
 far inclined from the vertical as to bring them 
 to the standard gauge below ; and the shafts are 
 about 9 feet 2 inches in total length, or about 6^ 
 feet for the yoke, and have large staples on their 
 upper surface for effecting the attachment to the 
 horse's harness. In Plates XI. and XII. will be 
 found various drawings to illustrate the con- 
 struction of the ordinary tilt-cart. The framing 
 is represented in Fig. 1 ; a bird's-eye view of it, 
 in Fig. 2 ; a profile of it upon the axle, in Fig. 3 ; 
 and a back-end view of it, in Fig. 4. 
 
 A two-horse tilt-cart differs from an ordinary 
 one principally in being stronger, deeper, and 
 larger, and also in readily serving as a hay-cart. 
 A plan or horizontal view of a cart of this kind, 
 fitted with frames as a hay-cart or corn-cart, is 
 shown in Fig. 5 ; a profile of it, in Fig. 6 ; and a 
 back-end view of it, in Fig. 7. But in a two- 
 horse cart, the hind-horse bears all the weight 
 which lies before the centre of gravity, the fore- 
 horse, whenever his line of draught is not from 
 the hook of his collar to the centre of the axle, 
 
 continually pulls the hind-horse downward, and 
 the two horses are variously liable to act as con- 
 flicting rather than as conjoint powers. Now, 
 in order to make the efforts of the two horses 
 coincide, two iron frames, each with a sheeve or 
 whorl, and represented in Figs. 8 and 9, are 
 fixed into the axle, as at A, Fig. 6 ; and upon the 
 sheeves of these frames, passes a rope or chain, 
 BAC, same Fig. In the outside of each shaft is 
 fixed a long iron staple, as DE, Figs. 5 and 6 ; 
 and on each staple is placed an iron slider, as BD, 
 Fig. 6, having liberty to shift either forward or 
 backward from B to E. The chain from the 
 collar of the hind-horse is hooked into the eye 
 of the slider at B ; and the chain or rOpe by 
 which the fore -horse draws, passing from his 
 collar at C, Fig. 6, round on the sheeve A, is 
 hooked into the other eye of the slider at D. 
 By this means, the two horses are so connected 
 that, whenever the one relaxes, he suffers a 
 close and severe pressure of the collar upon his 
 shoulders from the exertion of the other horse, 
 and must either be painfully pulled backward or 
 renew his own exertion; and thus the simul- 
 taneous efforts of the two horses, instead of being 
 always unsteady and often conflicting, are so 
 fused into each other as to constitute practically 
 one power ; and their combined action, in conse- 
 quence of their draught being in line, is pecu- 
 liarly suited to fields and soft roads, where the 
 wheels are liable to sink or be obstructed. 
 
 The dormant-bodied cart is suited for carrying 
 substances, such as bags of grain, sacks of flour, 
 hampers, boxes, and the miscellaneous packages 
 of mercantile transit, which require to be dis- 
 charged by lifting ; and it admits of a greater 
 variety of size and construction than even the 
 tilt-cart, yet, in general, bears a close resemblance 
 to that vehicle in all features except those which 
 are immediately connected with tilting. Its 
 shafts are prolonged backward to its extremity, 
 and have, at the axle, projections which serve 
 the purpose of bolsters ; and they usually measure 
 in entire length about 12^ feet, — the portions for 
 the yoke and for the forepart of the cart being 
 of the same length as those of the tilt -cart. 
 Varieties of this cart without any box, and with 
 large platform, are very commonly used by pub- 
 lic carriers and in large commercial towns. 
 
 The French cart has a considerable resemblance 
 to the frameless dormant-bodied machine ; but 
 is much simpler and far less scientific in its struc- 
 ture, and might not inaptly be compared to the 
 rude slide-car, mounted on vertically moving 
 wheels. Its poles or shafts are similar to those 
 of the slide-car, but stronger, and are equilibri- 
 ously poised upon the axle ; and its wheels are 
 narrow at the tire, very slightly dished, run 
 almost vertically on the road, and are often six 
 feet in diameter. A cart of this kind may be 
 called emphatically the long cart, and admits of 
 being drawn by so many as five or six horses, 
 and, on level roads, may be advantageously used 
 
CART. 
 
 300 
 
 CART. 
 
 for the conveyance of very great loads, but, on 
 hilly or uneven ground, incur enormous trouble, 
 and not a little danger, from great and sudden 
 changes of the centre of gravity. " It is obvious," 
 remarks Martin Doyle, " that the attainment of 
 great wheel-power is principally regarded in the 
 construction of the French cart. On ascending 
 and level ground, this mechanical advantage is 
 most desirable ; but in descents, it is a serious 
 inconvenience, and, though much counteracted 
 in the larger carts by the application of a friction- 
 break, and also by the removal of all the horses 
 except the shaft one to the rear, in order to hold 
 back on severe descents, by means of tight breech- 
 ing, the difficulty to that poor brute is great, and 
 the consequence is, that a vast number of the 
 cart-horses in France are injured in the hind 
 quarters by the pressure upon those parts. Then 
 there is the opposite extreme of inconvenience to 
 the shaft horse when in ascent ; the belly-band 
 squeezes him severely, and the tendency of the 
 load behind, now deranged from its equilibrium, 
 to lift him from his legs, not only deprives him 
 of any power of pulling, but distresses him ex- 
 ceedingly ; and if any relaxation of draught on 
 the part of the leading horses takes place, he is 
 unable to keep his fore-legs on the ground, while 
 he is tortured by the constriction of his belly- 
 band. So great are these opposite difficulties, to 
 be encountered with in the long cart, that we 
 must give it our unqualified condemnation ; the 
 necessity of balancing the load with precision is 
 so great, and the attention of the driver so un- 
 intermittedly demanded to direct the movements 
 of the team, that we repudiate a system of cart- 
 age which, independently of the objections to 
 which it is liable even under the most favourable 
 circumstances, has this obvious one, that the ani- 
 mals employed in drawing large carts are liable, 
 on any occasion, to be cruelly ill-treated and 
 overpowered by the brutality or the negligence 
 of ignorant or intoxicated carters." 
 
 The Hampshire cart holds 40 bushels, and is 
 usually laden with 16 cwt. when drawn by one 
 horse, and with 30 cwt. when drawn by two. Its 
 length, irrespective of the yoke portion of the 
 shafts, is 11^ feet ; its depth, inclusive of a pro- 
 jection of boarded raves, is 2| feet ; and the dia- 
 meter of its wheels is 4 feet 4 inches. — The Norfolk 
 carts are constructed on the principle of the dor- 
 mant-bodied carts, and yet are worked somewhat 
 in the manner, though very awkwardly and cru- 
 elly, of tilt- carts. " In setting on manure, a long 
 belly-band is made use of; so that the shafts rise 
 with the forepart of the cart ; the shaft-horse 
 being the only stay to its tilting up entirely. 
 Nor is this an uncommon circumstance ; the 
 shaft-horse, in this case, remaining upon his 
 hind-legs until he be drawn down again by the 
 fore-horses." [Marshal's Rural Economy of Nor- 
 folk.'] 
 
 The London hay-cart is an exceedingly clumsy 
 vehicle ; yet it is employed in the carriage of by 
 
 far the larger portion of hay, straw, and police- 
 manure in the district round the metropolis, and 
 is therefore very extensively known. It carries 
 18 cwt. of hay or straw, is provided with tail- 
 piece, fore-ladders, and iron-arms, and can be 
 drawn by one, two, or three horses, — the shaft- 
 horse being yoked under head-rails. It requires 
 great nicety in adjusting the load with a proper 
 reference to the centre of gravity, and would be 
 utterly useless in a hilly district ; and it seems 
 to be preferred to a waggon, solely on account of 
 the smaller cost of its construction, and the 
 smaller charge at the turnpikes. — A vehicle with 
 very nearly the body of a waggon, mounted on 
 two wheels, like a cart drawn by two horses, and 
 carrying with ease a load and a half of straw, is 
 advantageously used in some level districts for 
 the cartage of hay. 
 
 The tilt-cart, with the addition of a hay-frame, 
 serves as a very good hay-cart, and is used in the 
 harvesting cartage of a large proportion of the 
 farmers of Scotland. In the hay -frame, two 
 main-bearers are fitted to lie across the cart, the 
 one on the fore part close to the front, and the 
 other on the back part close to the door ; a pair 
 of light side-rails lie at right angles across each 
 end of the bearers, and are fastened to them with 
 screw-bolts ; two rails cross these at right angles 
 behind, and three in front, all the five lying par- 
 allel to the bearers; and as the three rails in 
 front project over part of the horse, they are 
 formed with an upward curve, to prevent their 
 interfering with his motions. — But various corn 
 and hay carts, more efficient than the tilt-cart 
 with a hay-frame, are in use ; and probably the 
 best of these is Robert Robertson's, represented 
 in Fig. 10, Plate XII. which was brought first 
 into trial in 1832, and is described as follows, in 
 the Transactions of the Highland Society : — " It 
 is of extreme simplicity in its construction, con- 
 sisting first of the shafts and usual framing of 
 those intended for the carriage of timber. Upon 
 this is superimposed a wooden frame, extending 
 at once to the breadth of the upper works of the 
 common cart. The outward longitudinal rails of 
 this frame are not continuous, but are cut off be- 
 fore and behind the wheels, and again connected 
 by means of an arched bar of iron. Between 
 these arches, and placed upon the inward rails, 
 there is a board rounded off, to be concentric 
 with the arched bars, and sloping outward, fol- 
 lowing the dish of the wheels. Across these 
 arches is laid a broad rail, bolted to the former ; 
 thus forming a recess for the wheels, and guard- 
 ing them from rubbing against the load. In 
 front, and immediately behind the horse, a rail 
 is raised, of sufficient height to carry the sheaves 
 above the back of the horse ; this rail is supported 
 by two iron stays standing forward on the shafts." 
 This cart possesses much simplicity and ease of 
 construction ; it can readily be transmuted into 
 a cart for conveying timber, simply by unbolting 
 the frame from the shafts, and putting in its 
 
CART. 301 CART. 
 
 place two single cross-bars, the one before and 
 the other behind the wheels ; and, when used 
 for its proper purpose as a hay or corn cart, it 
 permits the full breadth of the load to be laid 
 from the commencement, and, in consequence, 
 facilitates ladening, brings the centre of gravity 
 lower than in the tilt-cart with hay-frame, and 
 lessens the risk of upsetting from ruts, stones, or 
 other small inequalities of surface. 
 
 English farm carts, either professedly on the 
 model of the common Scotch cart, with modifi- 
 cations suited to the peculiar circumstances of 
 England, or more or less immediately on prin- 
 ciples suggested by those of the Scotch cart, 
 have of late years become somewhat common in 
 many of the best agricultural counties, and are 
 manufactured in great variety and with energetic 
 competition of skill and enterprise by a number 
 of the most distinguished agricultural implement 
 makers. Those of Messrs. Stratton, Hughes, 
 <fe Co. of Bristol, in particular, have come very 
 prominently into favour, and may here be noticed, 
 both on their own account, and as a striking 
 specimen of the eminence to which English cart- 
 making has very rapidly risen. 
 
 The " improved Scotch farm cart," as Messrs. 
 Stratton & Co. designate one of their varieties, 
 is a strong plain cart, well framed with oak and 
 ash, and boarded with elm. Its frame-work is 
 formed of plain straight-lined stuff ; its sides are 
 stiffened by strong stancheons or strouts; its 
 axle is not, as in the Scotch cart, placed so far 
 from the centre as to transmit about one-third 
 of the load to the horse ; and its shafts are 
 straight, and blocked up to the proper height 
 for the horse's draught. An excellent contrivance 
 exists in its front, for elevating the body going 
 down declivities, and for discharging the load in 
 heaps. The ordinary capacity is about one cubic 
 yard ; and this can be increased for light 
 materials by means of moveable wing-boards at 
 the sides ; and it is also made readily available 
 for harvesting purposes by means of either a hay- 
 frame or four hay ladders.— The "improved 
 farm cart with bent shafts" differs from the 
 preceding chiefly in having the body lower and 
 nearer to the axle, the shafts bent, and the 
 bottom and other frame-work curved ; and it is 
 commonly made with wheels 3| inches wide. — 
 The "plain-sided farm-cart" aims to combine 
 cheapness and strength with the other desirable 
 properties. The bottom frame-work of the body 
 is of oak; the sides are of thick deal planks 
 plated with iron ; the bottom is strongly boarded 
 with deal ; the body is placed down on the axle 
 without any intermediate blocks ; the shafts are 
 straight, and are kept at the proper height for 
 the horse's draught by being placed at the side 
 of the body instead of under it ; and the wheels 
 are 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, and run on a 
 parallel axle, and, while slightly dished, have a 
 cylindrical instead of a conical rim. — The " agri- 
 
 cultural cart" is a light machine, adapted for 
 every kind of work, and presenting a very neat 
 appearance ; and it is made of various sizes and 
 strength, according to the description of horse. 
 It has fixed wings or dripple-boards, and remov- 
 able head and tail ladders; and is kept con- 
 veniently low by the use of bent shafts. The 
 wheels are about 4 feet 2 inches in diameter. 
 
 Hannam's skeleton harvest cart has a body of 
 about 12 feet in length and 6| feet in width, 
 properly balanced on the axle, and kept as near 
 the ground as possible by the use of bent shafts. 
 The frame-work is of ash and oak, — the bottom- 
 boards of deal ; the sides are formed of open rails, 
 bent with a graceful carvature ; and the wheels 
 most commonly used are about .3^ inches wide. — 
 Hannam's harvest cart with removable head and 
 tail ladders resembles the preceding, but is only 
 about 9 feet long, and has ladders projecting 
 about 2^ feet at each end. — Morton's improved 
 skeleton harvest cart has a plainer and simpler 
 frame-work than Hannam's, without any bent 
 timber ; and is so made that the wheels and 
 axles used for it may be used also for an ordinary 
 farm cart. The frame, instead of having, like 
 common cart shelvings, two or even three par- 
 allel bars of wood at the ends, has only one rail 
 strengthened by iron stays ; and the bottom, 
 sides, and shafts are of two long pieces of ash, 
 about 17 feet in all, the body being about 10^ 
 feet long, by 7 feet wide over all, but resting on 
 an axle of ordinary length. 
 
 The Northampton prize cart consists of a 
 cranked axle manure cart, fitted with removable 
 harvesting ladders, and also with a liquid manure 
 tank; and it obtained the prize of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society for the best farm cart, at 
 the Northampton meeting in 1847. The axle is 
 cranked down in the same manner as that of the 
 low-crested carts which have come extensively 
 into use in mercantile and sea-port towns ; the 
 body has a rather larger capacity than that of 
 a Scotch cart, and is more easily filled, and tilts 
 with greater facility, and is provided with an 
 independent spindle or separate axle for tilting. 
 The liquid manure tank is made of wrought plate 
 iron, and has a delivery-pipe and valves, and is pro- 
 vided with a similar spindle to that of the body ; 
 so that with great ease the tank may be sub- 
 stituted for the body, or the body for the tank, 
 without having to remove any bolts ; and when 
 either is removed, it does not require to be lifted, 
 but is tilted up on its end against the cart-house 
 wall, and the wheels and shafts are drawn away 
 and backed against the other, which drops into 
 the bearings provided. 
 
 Some peculiar and very useful carts, also, are 
 made with adaptation to specific purposes con- 
 nected with the farm. — The meal or sack cart is 
 made with sides 28 inches deep, so as to take in 
 full sacks on their ends ; and is used for convey- 
 ing and delivering corn or other produce in sacks. 
 
CARTILAGE. 
 
 302 
 
 CASEUM. 
 
 Its shafts are straight ; its body is kept high on 
 the axle for convenience of men loading the sacks 
 on their shoulder ; and its wheels are 4^ feet in 
 diameter. — The cranked axle spring cart is made 
 with a large roomy body for carrying fat stock. 
 It has a cranked axle, and three springs ; the 
 body is about 8 feet long, 4 feet 2 inches wide, 
 and 3 feet 3 inches deep ; and the boards at the 
 head and the tail are strongly framed, and fall 
 down to serve as inclined plains for the bullock 
 to walk into and out of the cart. — The South- 
 ampton model cart takes its name from having 
 been awarded the medal of the Royal Agricul- 
 tural Society at the Southampton meeting ; and 
 it resembles the cranked axle spring cart, but is 
 smaller and lighter, and suits for carrying sheep, 
 calves, pigs, poultry, and miscellaneous farm pro- 
 duce. — Other forms of cart, for particular pur- 
 poses, will be noticed in the article Liquid Man- 
 ure-Cart. 
 
 CARTILAGE, — popularly Gristle. An ani- 
 mal substance, nearly or quite identical in 
 chemical composition with coagulated albumen, 
 but smooth, white, uniform, minutely fibrous, 
 elastic, harder than most other animal substances 
 except bone, and serving to give rigidity or ten- 
 sion to membranous organs, and especially to give 
 elasticity and articulated play to the action of 
 bones. The cartilages of all parts of the horse, 
 and particularly of his feet, are more liable to 
 ossification than those of any other animal whose 
 cartilaginous history is known ; and they al- 
 ways become more or less ossified as horses ad- 
 vance in age, so as to occasion the stiffness of 
 limb and great difficulty of movement by which 
 all old horses are painfully and very observably 
 distinguished. Ossification of the cartilages of 
 the horse's foot may occur at any period, as a 
 consequence of inflammation from bruises or 
 other injuries; and when it takes place, it inva- 
 riably constitutes what is technically called an 
 " unsoundness." 
 
 CART-LODGE. A small out-house for shelter- 
 ing carts from the weather. Carts kept under 
 proper shelter when not in use, last far longer 
 than if allowed to stand exposed in the yard. See 
 the article Implements. 
 
 CASCHROM. A very rude and primitive in- 
 strument of tillage, used in many parts of the 
 Hebrides. It is probably the oldest instrument 
 of tillage known in Great Britain ; and seems to 
 be the most rudimental form conceivable of a 
 plough. Its name means the crooked foot or 
 crooked spade ; and the instrument itself has a 
 medium character between that of a spade and 
 that of a rudimental, one-shafted plough. Its 
 shaft or handle is a bough or branch of a tree, 
 about six feet in length, somewhat curved or 
 bent, and of sufficient strength to bear the pres- 
 sure of the whole power of a labourer. Its head, 
 or part for contact with the soil, is so flattened 
 as to act rudely like a mould-board ; and is pro- 
 
 vided, at the heel, with a peg on which the work- 
 man presses his foot, in the application of his 
 power,— and, at the point, with a narrow, sharp 
 piece of iron, which serves the purpose of a shock 
 or share, to penetrate the ground. This simple 
 instrument is worked merely with the hand and 
 foot of the labourer, and makes but a pitiful rut 
 in the soil ; and though it might be useful for 
 operating among rocks or between large stones, 
 it is monstrously unsuited to the tillage of a free 
 field ; and, besides doing the work of tillage in a 
 most miserable fashion, it involves three times 
 the cost per acre of what would be occasioned by 
 the plough. Yet, in spite of both expostulation 
 and example, it preposterously continues to be 
 very generally used in many districts of the He- 
 brides. 
 
 CASEUM, or Casein. The basis or proper 
 matter of cheese. Caseum is very generally 
 identified with the curd of skimmed milk, ob- 
 tained by means of rennet, and completely separ- 
 ated from the whey by washing with water; 
 and in this state, it is white, insipid, and inodor- 
 ous, insoluble in water, soluble in alkalies, and 
 convertible, by means of alcohol, into a fetid adi- 
 pocirous substance. But, by some chemists, 
 this curd is believed to hold in combination with 
 caseum some acid or earthy salt or other foreign 
 substance, on which its insolubility in water de- 
 pends; and pure caseum is contended to be a 
 viscid body resembling gum or mucilage, inco- 
 agulable by either heat or air, soluble in either 
 hot or cold water, and obtainable from spontane- 
 ous curd, or the curd of naturally souring milk, 
 by artificially separating it from some acetic acid 
 which it holds in combination. Spontaneous 
 curd is washed and digested with water ; as much 
 carbonate of potash is added as is sufficient to 
 unite with the acetic acid ; and the mixture is 
 resolved into caseum and acetate of potash. " In 
 order to separate the caseum from the accom- 
 panying acetate, the solution, after separating the 
 cream which collects on its surface by repose, is 
 mixed with a little sulphuric acid, and the pre- 
 cipitated sulphate of caseum, carefully washed, 
 is dissolved in water by means of the smallest 
 possible quantity of carbonate of potash. If al- 
 cohol is then freely employed, the caseum itself 
 is thrown down ; but if the solution is mixed 
 with about its own volume of alcohol, a deposit 
 of sulphate of potash with some curd and cream 
 takes place, and the filtered liquor contains 
 caseum in a state of great purity." 
 
 Soluble caseum, when thoroughly evaporat- 
 ed, has an appearance very similar to gum ara- 
 ble, and remains for a long period unchanged, 
 and with perfect retention of its solubility in 
 water. It is so adhesive that it might be em- 
 ployed as a cement for paper, porcelain, and 
 glass ; so nutritive, that it might be made into 
 solution with water, flavoured with sugar and 
 aromatics, and used for food by invalids ; and so 
 
CASTING A HORSE. 
 
 303 
 
 CASTRATION. 
 
 portable and easily preserved, that it might 
 be stored for distant voyages, and employed, in 
 mixture with water, sugar, and butter, as a sub- 
 stitute for milk. When kept in a moist condi- 
 tion, caseum undergoes a kind of fermentation, 
 similar to that which takes place in moist gluten ; 
 but, except for its subjectability to this change, 
 it bears, in its insoluble state, a close resemblance 
 to albumen, — and in its soluble state, a close re- 
 semblance to gum. Caseum, according to the 
 analysis of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, consists of 
 59-781 per cent, of carbon, 7'429 of hydrogen, 
 11-409 of oxygen, and 21-381 of nitrogen; and 
 when burnt, it yields 6'5 per cent, of its whole 
 weight of a white ash, the greater part of which 
 is phosphate of lime. The pungency of old 
 cheese is ascribed by some chemists to a yellow 
 pungent oil, but by most to a peculiar proximate 
 principle called caseic acid. 
 
 CASTING A HORSE. The forcing of a horse 
 to the ground, in order to subject him to a sur- 
 gical operation. It is attended with numerous 
 and important risks ; and on account of these, it 
 has been wholly discontinued by some practition- 
 ers, and ought not, in any case, to be practised 
 unless when the restraints of the twitch and the 
 side-line are insufficient. The best means for 
 casting are the patent hobbles of Mr. Bracy 
 Clark, as improved by Mr. Budd ; and when these 
 are cautiously and skilfully employed, no danger 
 whatever may be incurred. A capacious space 
 should be selected, and should be thickly littered 
 with straw; the hobbles should be attached in 
 an order beginning with the forefoot of the op- 
 posite side to that on which the animal is to be 
 thrown ; the legs ought to be drawn as closely 
 together as possible, but with such slowness and 
 caution as not to alarm the animal; the head 
 should be held by a strong snaffle bridle ; the 
 hinder part should be superintended by an as- 
 sistant ready to direct the fall ; and then, if all 
 the assistants act in concert, they may, by one 
 quick and dexterous drawing of the rope, so 
 softly capsize the animal as neither to give him 
 the slightest shock, nor afford him power to hurt 
 himself by struggling. The instant he is thrown, 
 the rope must be fastened ; and during the whole 
 time of his being down, his head must be held 
 fast. Care must be used, however, that he fall 
 and lie in such a posture as to have perfect free- 
 dom of respiration. 
 
 CASTRATION. The gelding of male animals 
 and the spaying of females, so as to deprive both 
 of their power of reproduction. Emasculation, 
 or the castrating of male animals, is a very an- 
 cient practice, and approves itself to all civilized 
 nations as a most powerful means of modifying 
 both the temper and the physical constitution. 
 A castrated horse, though deprived of the great 
 strength and the lofty bearing of his natural 
 character, is deprived also of its ungovernable- 
 ness and furor ; and he becomes similar to the 
 
 mare in mildness and docility, loses his liability 
 to several serious diseases, acquires many and 
 thorough adaptations to the uses of man, and — 
 except for the one purpose of propagating his 
 species — is at least ten times more valuable than 
 if he had not been castrated. " It certainly," re- 
 marks Delabere Blaine, " is very poetical to la- 
 ment the degradation of this noble animal ; but 
 the finest flight of imagery on one's tomb, after 
 being worried to death by a stallion, would not 
 repay the loss of riding through life on a temper- 
 ate gelding." Equally obvious advantages, though 
 of a different kind, result from the castrating of 
 male calves, male lambs, and male swine. 
 
 The colt of the common farm-horse is, in most 
 instances, at the fittest time for castrating when 
 in his fourth or fifth month ; but other colts may 
 be best castrated at ages ranging from four 
 months to eighteen, according to their breed, 
 their health, and the purposes for which they are 
 destined. Any season of temperate heat, dry 
 weather, and freedom from the attacks of flies is 
 suitable ; and this, in general, can be best com- 
 manded late in spring or early in autumn. The 
 operation, except in extraordinary circumstances, 
 ought to be performed only by a veterinary sur- 
 geon. The old and still most common method is 
 to open both sides of the scrotum, to cut off the 
 testicles, and apply the cautery. Another and 
 brutal method, called twitching, is to make a 
 tight ligature round the bag between the tes- 
 ticles and the belly, and to allow this to remain 
 till, as a consequence of the stoppage of the cir- 
 culation and the death of the parts, the testicles 
 drop off. A third method is simple excision of 
 the testicles ; but this tends to send inflamma- 
 tory action into the abdomen, and to induce 
 fatal peritonitis. A fourth and new method, 
 likely to come speedily into general practice, is 
 called the operation of torsion ; an incision is 
 made into the scrotum ; the vas deferens is ex- 
 posed and divided ; the artery is seized, and 
 twisted six or seven times round, with a pecur 
 liarly formed pair of forceps ; and, when the for- 
 ceps are withdrawn, the coils continue on the 
 artery, no blood flows, the testicle is removed, 
 and no sloughing or other danger ensues. 
 
 The most suitable time for castrating male 
 calves is early in the second month ; and a time 
 nearly as suitable may be found at any period 
 thence till the close of the third month. An old 
 mode was simply to make a tight ligature with 
 whipcord round the scrotum, till the parts mor- 
 tified and either were cut away or dropped off. 
 The mode now commonly practised, is to start 
 each testicle through an incision of its covering, 
 to tie a ligature round the connecting blood-ves- 
 sels so as to stop the circulation, and to detach 
 the started testicles by such a division of the cord 
 that the part of it which remains may immedi- 
 ately retract into the scrotum. A barbarous 
 modification of this method is to seize the started 
 
CATABROSA. 
 
 304 
 
 CATARRH. 
 
 testicle, and pull it with sufficient violence to 
 break asunder the connecting cord. " It is cer- 
 tain," remarks Youatt, " that when a blood-vessel 
 is thus ruptured, it forcibly contracts, and very- 
 little bleeding follows ; but if the cord breaks 
 high up and retracts into the belly, considerable 
 inflammation has occasionally ensued, and the 
 beast has been lost. This tearing of the cord 
 may be practised on smaller animals, as pigs, or 
 lambs, or rabbits ; the vessels are small, and there 
 is but little substance to be torn asunder ; but 
 even there the knife, somewhat blunt, will be a 
 more surgical and humane substitute." The me- 
 thod by torsion is likely to come into as speedy 
 and general use with calves as with colts. 
 
 The most suitable time for castrating male 
 lambs is as soon as the testicles can be laid hold 
 of, or from the tenth till the fourteenth day. No 
 one week or day of the season should be set apart 
 for the purpose ; but on every third or second or 
 even successive day, as many lambs should be 
 operated upon as are of the proper age. The 
 usual method of the operation has been already 
 hinted, and does not need to be explained. A 
 nasty practice of many shepherds — one which 
 even Hogg recommends — is to separate the cord 
 with the teeth ; and this, besides being both abo- 
 minable and cruel, may be easily superseded by 
 the use of a blunt knife. In some years, an al- 
 most unaccountable mortality follows the castrat- 
 ing of lambs ; and the following precautions are 
 suggested by Hogg, as the result of his extensive 
 observation and experience : — " Care should be 
 taken that it be performed at a time when the 
 air is free of electrical fire. Heating of them, 
 too, is often very fatal ; and the operator must, 
 by all means, abstain from spirituous liquors. 
 When the lambs are very fat and strong, some 
 farmers anoint the two vacuities in the scrotum 
 with oil of turpentine ; one standing with a vial, 
 and anoints with a feather every lamb before it 
 is set away. This is a severe remedy, but it is a 
 sure one, as it repels the effects of the electrical 
 matter on the inflamed parts. It, however, stops 
 the growth of the lambs for a fortnight; there- 
 fore, if the folds are clean around, the weather 
 not sultry, and the lambs gently used, there is no 
 great risk without it." — Blaine's Veterinary Art. 
 — Youatt on the Horse. — Clater's Cattle Doctor. — 
 Youatt on Cattle. — Mackenzie on Sheep. — Hogg on 
 Sheep. 
 
 CATABROSA, — popularly Whorl -grass, or 
 Food-grass. A small genus of aquatic grasses, 
 belonging to the same tribe as the brome-grasses 
 and the poas. Only two species are known, the 
 aquatic and the greenish; and they take their 
 name of catabrosa, signifying "food," from the 
 keen relish which cattle and water-fowl show for 
 their foliage. Their root is fibrous and peren- 
 nial ; their culm, in its lower part, is decumbent 
 and strikes root at the joints, — in its middle part, 
 is oblique, — and in its upper part is erect ; the 
 
 young leaves and the portions of the culm which 
 are covered by the sheaths of the leaves, are very 
 tender, and have a sweet liquorice-like taste; 
 the leaves are broad and long, and terminate 
 abruptly at the point ; the panicle is upright, 
 and has horizontal, whorled, spreading branches ; 
 and the glumes are unequal, membranaceous, and 
 broadly ovate, and contain two beardless florets, 
 of much greater length than themselves. — The 
 aquatic species, Catabrosa aquatica, grows natur- 
 ally in Britain, in such rivulets, marshy ponds, 
 and other situations as are usually inhabited by 
 the floating glyceria. It is called by Sowerby 
 and Smith, and by older botanists, Aira aquatica, 
 and has already been partly noticed in our article 
 Aira. It closely resembles the floating glyceria 
 in general habit ; but differs in the stiff branch- 
 ing form of its panicle, and in containing only 
 two florets in its spikelets, while glyceria con- 
 tains from five to eleven. This sweet and deli- 
 cious grass thrives well on some of the irrigated 
 meadows in the vicinity of Edinburgh ; and might 
 be very advantageously made part of the herbage 
 of all irrigated meadows. — The greenish species, 
 Catabrosa viridula, grows to only two-thirds of 
 the height of the aquatic species, and usually 
 flowers about a month later. 
 
 CATARACT. A disease in the eye of man or 
 of the lower animals. Its principal feature is the 
 opacity of the crystalline lens, and the conse- 
 quent obscuration or total loss of vision. But in 
 the horse, the other internal parts of the eye, 
 also, are much deranged ; and the iris, in parti- 
 cular, adheres sometimes to the lens and some- 
 times to the cornea, and, in some cases, so con- 
 tracts its pupillary opening as to render the ca- 
 taract scarcely perceptible. Cataract in the horse 
 is never an independent disease, but occurs in 
 consequence of the inflammatory action of oph- 
 thalmia; and, when fully formed, is incurable. 
 The operation of couching or extracting, which 
 acts beneficially in some other animals, is in a 
 great measure rendered nugatory in the horse by 
 the complication of the disease over other parts 
 than the lens ; and even when partially success- 
 ful, it cannot enable the animal to discern minute 
 objects, or prevent him from always being very 
 timid and easily started. Cataract in one eye of 
 an ox is not of very rare occurrence, and does 
 not prevent him from fulfilling the ends of his 
 being ; and cataract in both eyes is much less fre- 
 quent than in the horse, and renders it expedient 
 to devote him immediately to the shambles. 
 
 CATARRH. Copious and diseased secretion 
 of mucus from the nose, mouth, throat, and bron- 
 chise of animals. It is exceedingly various in 
 extent and character, but is accompanied always 
 with more or less of inflammatory action, and fre- 
 quently with more or less of febrile excitement ; 
 and it comprises most or all of the diseases which 
 are popularly designated colds. Its varieties 
 arise, not only from degrees and modifications of 
 
CATARRH. 
 
 inflammatory and febrile action, but from the 
 extent of surface inflamed, the particular organs 
 or parts of organs affected, the mutual connexions 
 of the affected organs, the simultaneousness or 
 successiveness of attack in different parts, and 
 sometimes the special character of the exciting 
 cause and the complication of action from ac- 
 companying distemper in the stomach, bowels, or 
 general constitution. When it arises from epi- 
 demic or epizootic causes, or prolongs and exas- 
 perates itself into violent fever, it generally takes 
 the name of influenza, and requires different 
 treatment from what is proper in its ordinary 
 forms. See the article Influenza. A general 
 but slight affection of the extensive mucous 
 surface of the nose, mouth, and throat, consti- 
 tutes a common cold, or catarrh in the most 
 general sense ; and an affection of a more aggra- 
 vated kind, or one which sinks deeper into the 
 air passages, so as to produce sensations of stran- 
 gulation or dyspnoea, becomes in popular lan- 
 guage, strangles, sore-throat and inflamed breast, 
 or, in technical language, angina parotidea, 
 angina pharyngo-laryngea, and angina trachealis 
 vel bronchealis. We shall, in the present article, 
 speak only of catarrh in the most general sense, 
 or of what is popularly called a common cold. 
 
 The causes of catarrh in the horse are very 
 numerous, and often exceedingly slight and tri- 
 vial. If the system happen to be in a reposing 
 or morbidly disposed condition, catarrh is ex- 
 cited by the most trifling causes ; and even when 
 the system is energetic and in the exercise of 
 full self-defence, the disease may be occasioned 
 by exposure to rain or unusual cold, by change 
 of stable, clothing, or weather, by neglect of 
 grooming, by sudden cooling after labour, by ex- 
 posure to any great or sudden transitions of tem- 
 perature, or by the prevalence of sharp east 
 winds during the moulting of spring. An attack 
 is first indicated by a thin watery secretion from 
 the nose, and sometimes also from the eyes. The 
 lymphatic glands are irritated by the flow of the 
 acrid secretion, and become tumefied and tender ; 
 symptomatic fever follows the inflammatory ac- 
 tion ; cough, in many instances, is excited ; coag- 
 ulable lymph, and afterwards yellow muco-puru- 
 lent matter, flow from the nose; and, in the 
 course of a few days, the several symptoms either 
 vanish or become aggravated into other and 
 worse forms of disease. A mere catarrh, viewed 
 in itself, is very seldom an affair of any conse- 
 quence ; but, if neglected, and especially if mal- 
 treated, it often induces the most serious and 
 even incurable diseases of the chest and lungs. 
 
 " On the first attack of this complaint," says 
 Mr. White, " bleeding will generally be found an 
 effectual remedy. Sometimes a swelling takes 
 place in the parotid glands, which are situated 
 immediately behind the ear. Should no unusual 
 heat or tenderness be observed in those swellings, 
 apply the stimulating ointment recommended 
 I. 
 
 CATARRH. 
 
 for strangles ; but if they feel hot, are painful, 
 and appear to be in a state of active inflammation, 
 a poultice is the best remedy. If the eyes are 
 inflamed and watery, a rowel should be inserted 
 under the jaw ; and if the inflammation in the 
 throat is so considerable, as to render swallowing 
 painful and difficult, a blister will afford great 
 relief." But this is the proper treatment for 
 only such violent forms of catarrh as verge on 
 other and worse diseases : mere extra care will 
 cure the majority of cases ; mere comfortableness 
 of stable and clothing, a few warm mashes, and 
 a fever ball or two, will cure nineteen cases in 
 twenty; yet bleeding ought to be practised 
 whenever there is fever. 
 
 Catarrh in cows and oxen is popularly known 
 under the name of hoose. The causes of it, as in 
 the horse, are multifarious and often trivial ; and 
 both the symptoms and the consequences of it 
 are precisely similar. Though hoose, especially 
 when accompanied with cough, is often the pre- 
 monition of serious and incurable diseases, it is 
 very generally treated with brutal ignorance or 
 culpable neglect. A farmer hears some of his 
 cows coughing, perhaps hardly and painfully ; 
 but so long as they continue to take a fair quan- 
 tity of food, he pays no attention to their distem- 
 per. Their cough seems to be attended with but 
 little inflammation ; it remits and returns ; it is 
 aggravated by his exposing them to cold or wet ; 
 it becomes hoarse and hard, in consequence of 
 his crowding them into hot and ill- ventilated cow- 
 houses ; yet, till it ceases to be a principal symp- 
 tom, and is followed by loss of appetite and begun 
 emaciation, he does not dream that the brutes 
 are seriously ailing, — and then they are irretriev- 
 ably and vitally diseased in the respiratory sys- 
 tem, and, in spite of all he can do for them, are 
 quite beyond remedy. Yet any cold, if wisely 
 treated in any of its earliest stages, may be 
 cheaply and easily cured. Warm housing, a few 
 mashes, and a cough and fever drink will usually 
 succeed; and the last of these remedies may 
 consist of one drachm of emetic tartar, three 
 drachms of saltpetre, half a drachm of powdered 
 foxglove, and a quart of pretty thick gruel. 
 
 Catarrh in sheep has similar symptoms as in 
 horses and cows. In all mild or ordinary cases, 
 even though it attack a whole flock, and indi- 
 cate itself by nasal discharge, it is of small con- 
 sequence, and requires no further treatment than 
 a little shelter. But when it becomes so viru- 
 lent as to verge on bronchitis, or assume a highly 
 inflammatory character, it demands instant at- 
 tention. " If there is one sheep that stays be- 
 hind or will not eat," says Clater, " the shepherd 
 should catch him, and remove him to a warmer 
 situation, and bleed him, and give him the laxa- 
 tive and fever drinks, and nurse him with mashes 
 and hay. If a second or third sheep should fail 
 in the same manner, he must indeed look about 
 him ; there is danger to all, for the inflammation 
 U 
 
 305 
 
CATCHWORK. 
 
 306 
 
 CATERPILLAE. 
 
 has spread itself from the throat down the wind- 
 pipe to the air-passages of the lungs, and a very 
 dangerous disease, called bronchitis, is produced. 
 He must move the whole flock to a more shel- 
 tered situation. He must move them to a pas- 
 ture of somewhat different character. He must 
 take them from their turnips or their hay, and 
 give them whatever food his farm will afford. 
 He should, if he will take the trouble to do so 
 (and he would be amply repaid for that trouble), 
 bleed them all round, and physic them all. This 
 is strange doctrine to the farmer, who is accus- 
 tomed to look on, and let things take their course. 
 It is, however, good advice, and he will find it 
 so, if he will but follow it. Yet let him not, in 
 his determination to rouse himself to do some- 
 thing, listen too much to the suggestions 'of the 
 shepherd or the farrier. Let him not give any 
 of those abominable cordial drinks which have 
 destroyed thousands of sheep. Warmth, housing 
 at night, littering with clean straw, and warm 
 gruel, if the animal will not eat or drink, are not 
 only allowable but useful ; nay, I would allow a 
 little ginger or a little ale with the medicine ; 
 but not those compounds of all manner of hot 
 and injurious spices which would kindle a fire in 
 the veins of the animal, if it were not blazing 
 there before." — Turtoris Medical Glossary. — 
 Blaine's Veterinary Art. — White's Veterinary. — 
 Spooner on Sheep. — Youatt on Cattle. — Youatt on 
 the Horse. — Clater's Cattle Doctor. 
 
 CATCHWORK. A kind of irrigated meadow, 
 in which one set of channels act both as feeders 
 and as drains, or in which a lower set of feeders 
 catches the water in its descent from a higher 
 set. This is a very imperfect sort of water- 
 meadow ; and necessarily has a great variety of 
 alignment in its channels, adapted to the pe- 
 culiar irregularities of the ground on which it is 
 formed. " To give directions for the formation 
 of a catchwork," says Mr Stephens, " is beyond 
 the ingenuity of man ; for no two pieces of land 
 are precisely alike, which renders it impossible 
 for the irrigator to follow the same plan in one 
 field that he has done in another." 
 
 CATERPILLAR. The larva of a butterfly, or 
 of a moth. It is at first of very small size ; but 
 it has a voracious appetite, and increases rapidly 
 in bulk. Its cuticle, however, is but slightly if 
 at all extensible, and requires to be cast ; the 
 succeeding cuticle is also inextensiblc, and re- 
 quires to be cast ; and thus cuticle after cuticle 
 is thrown off, in a series of moulting, till the 
 creature attains its full size, and is ready for 
 transmutation into the future form of its exist- 
 ence. While an old cuticle is becoming too tight, 
 a new one is forming beneath; and when the 
 former has fully served his purpose, it gra 
 dually rends along the back, till the animal com- 
 pletely shakes it off, and appears with his new 
 coat, and of a larger size. During the progress 
 of the moult, the caterpillar is sluggish and 
 
 does not eat; but whenever it is completed, 
 he resumes his activity, and displays his former 
 voracity. 
 
 Almost all caterpillars have a fleshy body, and 
 an elongated, cylindrical, and serially annular 
 form. The series of conjoined rings constituting 
 the .cylinder, amounts to thirteen ; and the first 
 of the rings represents the head of the perfect 
 insect, the second, the third, and the fourth re- 
 present the thorax, and the remainder represent 
 the abdomen. On each side of the body are nine 
 breathing spiracles. The head, in most instances, 
 is more scaly than any of the other rings ; its 
 mouth is furnished with a pair of very strong 
 jaws, two fleshy under-jaws with their two palpi, 
 and an underlip with its two palpi ; and the head 
 itself is furnished with two short conical anten- 
 nas, and, on each side, with six minute shining 
 tubercles, which appear to be the rudimental 
 eyes of the perfect insect. 
 
 Most caterpilllars are covered with hairs, some 
 with tubercles or warts, and a few are covered 
 with small spines or bristles. The hairs or spines 
 of all appear to be designed for protection ; those 
 of one species are as hard and rigid as wire ; 
 those of many species produce various degrees of 
 irritation, from a slight uneasiness to a pungent 
 stinging like that caused by the nettle; and 
 those of not a few, or perhaps of the larger pro- 
 portion, enable the insects to protect themselves 
 somewhat in the manner of a hedgehog, or to 
 let themselves fall without injury from consider- 
 able heights. 
 
 A few species of caterpillars devour lard, wax, 
 and other fatty substances, — and a few feed on 
 furs, woollen cloth, and other matters of animal 
 origin; but the great majority are vegetable 
 feeders, — and many inflict more or less injury on 
 useful vegetation. Several make great havoc 
 upon the foliage of forest trees ; a number work 
 much devastation upon the leaves of cabbages, 
 gooseberry - bushes, and other garden plants; 
 several devour and desolate the herbage of some 
 of the most common and valuable grasses ; and 
 very many damage or destroy some kind or other 
 of abundant plants, whether seeds or crops, 
 shrubs or herbs, by feeding upon their foliage. 
 A few subsist on the woody portions of trees, 
 boring through their stems, and sometimes com- 
 pletely destroying their young shoots; and a 
 number feed variously upon roots, buds, flowers, 
 and seeds. Some restrict themselves to one kind 
 of plant ; and others run riot upon many, Far- 
 mers have vastly less to apprehend from them 
 than gardeners have ; and yet they suffer a great 
 deal more from some species of them than is 
 commonly supposed. For example, some hip- 
 parchia caterpillars, which feed on the most val- 
 uable of our pasture-grasses, and particularly the 
 caterpillar of the meadow-brown butterfly, ap- 
 pear every year in such numbers, and occasion- 
 ally in such vast swarms, as necessarily to con- 
 
CATERPILLAR, 
 
 307 
 
 CATERPILLAR. 
 
 surae a considerable portion of prime nutritive 
 herbage. The butterflies themselves, however, 
 do no harm to vegetation, either using no food 
 whatever, or merely sharing the repast of the 
 bee from the nectaries of flowers; and hence 
 farmers may admire their beauty, and observe 
 their flights, without other care respecting them 
 than to identify each destructive species with its 
 proper caterpillar, and to prevent it as far as 
 possible, from depositing its eggs. And we shall 
 afford a sufficient aid for every practical purpose 
 if we particularly describe the four most com- 
 mon mischievous species, — butterfly and cater- 
 pillar. 
 
 The common cabbage butterfly, or large white 
 garden butterfly, PoMia brassicce, is the chief of 
 several well known species whose caterpillars 
 devastate brassica crops. The club of its antennas 
 is abrupt, compressed, and obconic ; the terminal 
 joint of its palpi is longer than either of the two 
 preceding joints ; the claws of its legs are slightly 
 forked ; the upper surface of its wings is white, 
 with a large patch of black ; and the wings of 
 each of the sexes have some additional and char- 
 acteristic markings, chiefly in black. Its eggs 
 have a bright yellow colour, and a somewhat 
 conical shape, with raised, granular, longitudinal 
 ribs, connected by elevated cross lines ; and they 
 are deposited by the butterfly, in a thick cluster, 
 on the leaves of the numerous varieties and sub- 
 varieties of Brassica oleracea, and sometimes, 
 though rarely, on the leaves of the turnip. The 
 caterpillar — one of the most popularly known of 
 all the British larvae — has a bluish-green colour, 
 with a narrow line of yellow along the back, and 
 another along each side of the belly; and its 
 body is pretty thickly studded with black tuber- 
 cular points, each with a hair in its centre. So 
 destructive is this caterpillar that the outer 
 leaves of many brassica plants, in almost every 
 field or garden-plot, may be seen pierced and rid- 
 dled and eaten away by it. A net spread over 
 the plants would prevent the deposition of the 
 eggs by the butterfly ; and hand-picking is the 
 most effectual method of removing the cater- 
 pillars. The chrysalis has a pale green colour, 
 spotted with black, and is attached by the tail, 
 and a silken band round the middle. But a hy- 
 menopterous parasite, Microgaster glomeratus, de- 
 troys many of the caterpillars by depositing its 
 eggs in them, and prevents their transformation 
 into chrysalides. The larvae of this parasite feed 
 on the internal parts of the caterpillar till they 
 are ready to become pupae ; and they then eat 
 their way through the skin, and become trans- 
 formed into small oval cocoons, covered with a 
 bright yellow silk, and lying clustered around 
 the remains of the caterpillar. Another small 
 ichneumon, Pteromalus puparum, attacks the 
 caterpillar ; and, in this case, the chrysalis be- 
 comes brown. When caterpillars climb walls, 
 enter outhouses, and effect other and similar re- 
 
 treats, they are on their way to secluded situa- 
 tions for transformation into chrysalides. 
 
 The small white garden butterfly, Pontia raj>ce y 
 closely resembles the common cabbage butterfly 
 in every characteristic, except its being smaller. 
 But its caterpillar has both a decidedly different 
 appearance and somewhat different habits. Its 
 colour is light green, with a pale line along the 
 back, and a whitish streak, slightly punctured 
 with yellow on each side of the belly. It feeds 
 on the same plants as the common cabbage cater- 
 pillar, but insinuates itself between the folds of 
 their central leaves, and is so difficult to be 
 reached, that it not unfrequently escapes the 
 search of both cultivator and cook, and finda its 
 way as part of the brassica dish to the table. 
 The butterfly, therefore, ought either to be ward- 
 ed off from brassica plants by net-covers, or 
 caught and destroyed by means of net-bags. 
 
 The meadow - brown butterfly, Ripparchia 
 janira, is exceedingly common in every part of 
 Great Britain. The wings of the female have an 
 expanse of about two inches, but those of the 
 male are smaller. The upper wings of the male 
 are entirely brown, with a small ocellus towards 
 the apex, encircled with reddish-yellow ; and the 
 lower wings are usually brown, without any 
 spots. The upper wings of the female have in 
 the middle a large black ocellus with a white 
 pupil, — below the middle, a large transverse 
 patch of ochre -yellow, — and in the space be- 
 tween this patch and the base, an obscure ting- 
 ing with reddish yellow. The caterpillar is light- 
 green, with a white line along each side. It feeds j 
 on several grasses, but specially on the smooth- 
 stalked meadow-grass, Poa pratensis, which forms j 
 a large element in the best herbage of pasture- 
 lands, and most nutritious food of cattle. One 
 of the best methods of collecting and destroying 
 this caterpillar and others which feed on grasses, 
 is to use a large triangular net with a horizontal 
 beam in front, pushing it so smartly along the j 
 surface of the field as to displace the caterpillars 
 and make them fall into it. 
 
 The large heath butterfly, Hipparchia tithonus, 
 is considerably smaller than the meadow-brown 
 butterfly. Its upper wings are reddish-yellow, 
 the base brown, the anterior and outer sides 
 broadly margined with dark brown, and the 
 front angle marked with a rather large black 
 spot ; and its lower wings are brown with a large j 
 reddish-yellow area in the middle, having on one 
 side of it a minute ocellus. The male is much | 
 smaller and more deeply coloured than the I 
 female and has a brown cloud in the middle of 
 the lighter portion of its upper wings. The 
 head of the caterpillar is brown ; and its body 
 is greenish, with a reddish line on each side. 
 This caterpillar feeds on the annual meadow- 
 grass, Poa annua, which forms a chief part of 
 the herbage of many of our meadows and pasture 
 lands. See the article Corn-Moth. 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 CAT'S TAIL GRASS. See Phleum. 
 
 CATTLE. Animals of the domestic ox species. 
 Oar articles Bull, Cow, and Ox, give general 
 views of respectively the male, the female, and 
 the castrated male of the domestic ox ; our arti- 
 cles Breeding and Crossing discuss the artificial 
 methods of improving the form, size, and habits of 
 cattle; and our articles Feeding, Fattening, 
 Grass -Lands, Pasture, and Farm- Yard, show 
 how they ought to be reared, fed, lodged, and 
 generally treated. In the present article, there- 
 fore, we shall merely notice the characteristics 
 and the several breeds of British cattle. 
 
 The Different Breeds of Cattle. — The diversities 
 observable in the size, shape, habits and produce 
 of the cattle of Great Britain and Ireland, have 
 arisen partly from modern artificial breeding, but 
 chiefly from the prolonged and combined influ- 
 ence of climate, soil, pasturage, and general treat- 
 ment. So long as cattle were allowed their na- 
 tural liberty, unrestrained and unmodified by en- 
 closures, cultivation, and artificial treatment, all 
 were clean-made, glossy, swift-footed, shy, spirit- 
 ed, and active ; but when they became completely 
 subject to the control of man, and dependent on 
 him for food and protection, they lost their saga- 
 city and energy; such as were amply supplied 
 with nutritive food became plethoric, bulky, and 
 sluggish; and such as were ill-fed continued 
 small in size, and acquired bad shapes, and lean, 
 feeble, unproductive habits. Comparatively few 
 of them migrate from district to district, or un- 
 dergo changes of climate, pasturage, and arti- 
 ficial treatment ; but most are reared and fed for 
 generations in the same district, and many on the 
 same estate or farm ; and they consequently re- 
 tain for ages an uniformity, or at the utmost a 
 very limited diversity, of size, shape, and consti- 
 tutional qualities. Hence, particular breeds were 
 formed and fixed long before the modern period 
 of artificial improvement; large, strong breeds 
 pervade some districts, and small, weak breeds 
 pervade others ; powerful, bulky, well-formed, 
 and productive breeds are coextensive with the 
 range of climate, soil, herbage, culture, and treat- 
 ment best fitted to improve them ; such large 
 cattle as those of the eastern counties of Scot- 
 land are merely varieties of the same breed as 
 the small ones of the Grampian Mountains and 
 the Hebridean Islands ; and the smallest, feeblest, 
 worst-shaped, and least productive are capable of 
 being, in the course of two or three generations; 
 transmuted, by means of superior climate, feed- 
 ing, crossing, and management, into as valuable 
 cattle as any of the best existing varieties. 
 
 The breeds and varieties of cattle at present 
 reared on British farms are exceedingly numer- 
 ous, and approximate one another by a series of 
 the nicest and almost imperceptible gradations. 
 Yet, though capable of multitudinous classifica- 
 tion, and though often requiring, for purposes of 
 convenience, to be arranged into numerous dis- 
 trict divisions, they can be comprehensively dis- 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 tributed into five great groups; — the polled or 
 hornless, in Galloway, Suffolk, and Norfolk ; the 
 crumpled-horned, in Alderney and some parts of 
 the south of England ; the short-horned, in Dur- 
 ham, eastern Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the 
 northern English counties; the middle-horned, 
 in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, northern De- 
 von, eastern Sussex, Wales, and most of Scot- 
 land; and the lohg-horned, in Ireland, Lanca- 
 shire, and the midland counties of England. But 
 only in their native districts, or on a few select 
 estates, are these to be found pure ; and every- 
 where else they are so thoroughly and intricately 
 intermixed as to form a countless and bewildering 
 number of mongrel varieties. The polled breed 
 has existed in some districts from time immemo- 
 rial, and, in particular, is strongly identified with 
 Galloway, and yet may have orginally been a 
 mere accidental variety; the crumpled horned 
 breed is a native of Alderney ; the short -horned 
 breed seem to have been originally imported 
 into the district of Yorkshire around Hull from 
 some part of the western continental Europe be- 
 tween Denmark and France ; and the long-horned 
 and the middle-horned breeds compete, among 
 keen and numerous disputants, for the honour 
 of being the aboriginal breed of British cattle. 
 
 Mr. Youatt assigns the long-horns to Ireland, 
 and claims the middle-horns as the aboriginal 
 British. "Britain," says he, "has shared the 
 fate of other nations ; and oftener than they, al- 
 though defended by the ocean on every side, she 
 has been overrun and subjugated by ferocious in- 
 vaders. As the natives retreated before the foe, 
 th ey carried with them some portion of the wreck 
 of their property ; and this, in early times, con- 
 sisted principally in cattle. They naturally drove 
 along with them as many as they could, when 
 they retired to the fortresses of North Devon and 
 Cornwall, or the more mountainous region of 
 Wales, or when they took refuge even in the 
 wealds of East Sussex ; and there retaining all 
 their prejudices, and customs, and manners, they 
 were jealous of the strict preservation of that 
 which principally reminded them of their native 
 country before it had yielded to a foreign yoke. 
 In this manner probably was preserved the an- 
 cient breed of British cattle. Difference of cli- 
 mate gradually wrought some change, and par- 
 ticularly in their bulk. The rich pasture of 
 Sussex fattened the ox of that district into his 
 superior size and weight. The plentiful but not 
 so luxuriant herbage of the north of Devon, 
 produced a somewhat smaller and more active 
 animal, while the occasional privations of Wales 
 lessened the bulk and thickened the hide of the 
 Welsh runt. As for Scotland, it, in a manner, 
 set its invaders at defiance; or its inhabitants 
 retreated for a while, and soon turned again on 
 their pursuers. They were proud of their country, 
 and proud of their cattle, their choicest posses- 
 sion ; and there, too, the cattle were preserved 
 unmixed and undegenerated. Thence it resulted, 
 
 308 
 
The, I'ro-perty o 
 
 iLFuIltcrtOTi & C? London. & Edmbujgl 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 that in Devon, in Sussex, in Wales, and in Scot- 
 land, the cattle has been the same from time im- 
 memorial; while, in all the eastern coast, and 
 through every district of Britain, the breed of 
 cattle degenerated, or at least lost its original 
 character: it consisted of a variety of animals 
 brought from every neighbouring and some re- 
 mote districts, mingled in every possible variety, 
 yet generally conforming itself to the soil and 
 climate. The slightest observation will convince 
 us that the cattle in Devonshire, Sussex, Wales, 
 and Scotland are essentially the same. They are 
 middle-horned ; tolerable but not extraordinary 
 milkers, and remarkable for the quality rather 
 than the quantity of their milk ; active at work ; 
 and with an unequalled aptitude to fatten. They 
 have all the characters of the same breed, changed 
 by soil and climate and time ; yet little changed 
 by the intermeddling of man. We may almost 
 trace the colour, namely, the red of the Devon, 
 the Sussex, and the Hereford ; and even where 
 the black alone are now found, the memory of 
 the red prevails ; it has a kind of superstitious 
 reverence attached to it in the legends of the 
 country ; and in almost every part of Scotland, 
 and in some of the mountains of Wales, the milk 
 of the red cow is considered to be a remedy for 
 every disease, and a preservative from every evil. 
 Every one who has had opportunities of compar- 
 ing the Devon cattle with the wild breed of Cha- 
 telherault Park or Chillingham Castle, has been 
 struck with the great resemblance in many 
 points, notwithstanding the difference of colour, 
 while they bear no likeness at all to the cattle of 
 the neighbouring country. For these reasons, 
 we consider the middle- horns to be the native 
 breed of Great Britain." 
 
 The Characteristics of Cattle. — The points which 
 distinguish, or the properties which constitute, 
 the best varieties of cattle, are, to some extent, 
 matters of dispute, yet form an important sub- 
 ject of study to every judicious farmer, and ought, 
 with as much exactitude as possible, to be deter- 
 mined and understood. Some secondary points 
 affect appearance and beauty, and are matters of 
 mere taste ; other secondary points affect adap- 
 tation to particular climates or methods of feed- 
 ing, or to the purposes of respectively the sham- 
 bles and the dairy, and, in some instances, can 
 be determined only by patient investigation and 
 trial ; and all the primary points affect constitu- 
 tion, healthiness, economy, and productiveness, 
 and occur in all possible varieties of good cattle, 
 and may be regarded as the mere indications of 
 established natural laws, so that they ought to 
 be distinctly known, not only in full-grown and 
 fattened cattle, but in young and lean beasts, by 
 every man who buys, keeps, or sells live-stock. 
 Were a mere general observer to look upon a fat 
 ox of prime character, he might admire its fine 
 outline, the tint of its colours, the plumpness of 
 its body, the smoothness and glossiness of its 
 skin, the gentle expression of its countinance, 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 and the soft and cushiony yielding of its flesh to 
 the pressure of the hand ; but he could form no 
 idea of the constitutional character whence these 
 properties have evolved ; he would wonder to be 
 told that a judge can know, from its mere aspect, 
 whether the ox be in good or in bad health, — from 
 its colour, whether it be of a mixed or of an unmix- 
 ed breed, — from its expression, whether it be a 
 quiet feeder, — and from the nature of its flesh, whe- 
 ther or not it have arrived at maturity ; and he 
 probably might have difficulty in believing that, by 
 the mere touch or handling of the animal, a judge 
 can readily ascertain the quality of its flesh, and 
 estimate the degree of ease and rapidity with 
 which it fattened, and foretell the probable quan- 
 tity of fat which will be found in the interior of 
 the carcase. Were a general observer also to 
 look upon a lean ox of precisely the same breed 
 as the fat one, he might think its outline an- 
 gular and coarse, and pronounce its body to 
 be a rugged skeleton covered with a tough skin 
 and disagreeable hair ; while a judge can discern 
 the points of the lean ox as readily as those of 
 the fat one, and can anticipate, in accordance 
 with them, the condition which the animal, if 
 properly treated, will attain. — In the article on 
 Breeding, we glanced at the characteristics of a 
 beau ideal ox, as an index of a breeder's aims ; 
 and now we must glance at the characteristics of 
 good existing oxen, as an index of a stock-farmer's 
 rules of selection from among the classified breeds 
 of Britain. 
 
 One subject of consideration is purity of breed. 
 This point is of small importance on its own 
 account ; yet it possesses much practical value as 
 an index of known tendency to fatten ; for when 
 an ox is ascertained to be of unmixed descent, he 
 must be regarded as possessing exactly the aver- 
 age fattening tendency of the breed to which he 
 belongs. The colours of a pure breed, particu- 
 larly around the eyes and on the bald skin of the 
 nose, whatever the special colours may be, are 
 always definite and without spots ; and the horns 
 in some pure breeds are wholly white, in others 
 tipped with black, and, in all the long-horned 
 and all the short-horned, smooth, small, tapering, 
 and sharp-pointed. In the short-horns, for ex- 
 ample, the colour of the body is either entirely 
 white or entirely red, or predominatingly white 
 or predominatingly red, and the tint around the 
 eyes and on the bald skin of the nose is always 
 a rich cream colour ; and in the Ayrshire breed, 
 the colour of the body is a mixture of unblended 
 and variously sized spots of white and red, and 
 the tint around the eyes and on the bald skin of 
 the nose is generally black or cream colour. 
 
 The outline of a prime fat ox, of whatever 
 breed, approaches a parallelogram. The back, 
 from the top of the shoulder to the tail, is straight ; 
 the tail falls perpendicularly from the line of the 
 back ; the buttocks and twist are well filled out ; 
 the brisket projects to a line dropped from the 
 middle of the neck; the belly is longitudinally 
 
 309 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 310 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 straight, and laterally round, and filled at the 
 flanks; the ribs project horizontally, and at right 
 angles to the back ; the hooks are wide and flat ; 
 the rump, from the tail to the hooks, is flat and 
 well-filled ; the quarter, from the itch-bone to the 
 hook, is long ; the loin-bones are long, broad, flat, 
 and well-filled ; the space between the hooks and 
 the short-ribs is rather short, and well arched 
 over, in its posterior part, with a thickness of 
 beef; the space from the loin to the shoulder- 
 blade is nearly of one breadth ; the space from 
 the shoulder-blade to the front of the shoulder 
 somewhat tapers or contracts ; the neck-vein, in 
 completion of the line from the neck to the bris- 
 ket, is well .filled forward; the covering on the 
 shoulder-blade is as full out as the buttocks ; and 
 the middle ribs, in completion of the line from 
 the shoulders to the buttocks along the projec- 
 tion of the outside of the ribs, are well filled. 
 
 The bones of a prime ox are flat, small, and 
 hard ; and constitute an important point for 
 directing a judgment of lean cattle. A round 
 thick bone indicates both slow feeding and infe- 
 rior flesh ; but a bone which appears flat when 
 seen on a side view, and narrow when seen either 
 from behind or from before, indicates rapid feed- 
 ing and superior flesh. The bones, regarded in 
 the aggregate, are small-grained and hard, and 
 constitute a small proportion of the bulk and 
 weight of the carcase. The bones of the head 
 are fine and clean, and are covered, not with 
 masses of fat, but only with skin and muscle : 
 and the forearm and the hock are also clean and 
 full of muscle. The neck, unlike that of the 
 sheep, has no effect on the strength of the spine ; 
 and, contrary to the configuration of a prime 
 sheep's neck, it is small from the back of the 
 head to the middle of the neck. 
 
 The eye of a prime ox is clear, calm, and pro- 
 minent ; and is always attendant on fine bone, 
 and nicely indicative of good breeding. A dull, 
 heavy eye decidedly indicates slow feeding ; a 
 rolling eye, showing much white, is expressive of 
 a restless and capricious disposition, and indi- 
 cative of unsteady and somewhat difficult feed- 
 ing ; and a calm, complacent eye is expressive of 
 a sweet and patient disposition, and indicative 
 of steady, rapid, and kindly feeding. A clear and 
 cheerful eye accompanies good health; and a 
 dull, heavy eye — of a different cast from the eye 
 of constitutional phlegmatic dulness — indicates 
 the probable existence of some internal lingering 
 disease. 
 
 The skin of a prime ox affords a criterion of a 
 seemingly fanciful kind to the uninitiated, but of 
 perfect certainty and great moment to a judge, — 
 the criterion which is technically and emphati- 
 cally called the touch. " The touch," says Mr. 
 Dickson, " may be good or bad, fine or harsh, or, 
 as it is often termed, hard or mellow. A thick, 
 firm skin, which is generally covered with a thick 
 set, hard, short hair, always touches hard, and 
 indicates a bad feeder. A thin, meagre, papery 
 
 skin, covered with thin, silky hair, being the 
 opposite of the one just described, does not, how- 
 ever, afford a good touch. Such a skin is indi- 
 cative of weakness of constitution, though of 
 good feeding properties. A perfect touch will be 
 found with a thick, loose skin, floating, as it 
 were, on a layer of soft fat, yielding to the least 
 pressure, and springing back towards the fingers 
 like a piece of soft, thick chamois leather, and 
 covered with thick, glossy, soft hair. Such a 
 collection of hair looks rich and beautiful, and 
 seems warm and comfortable to the animal. It 
 is not unlike a bed of fine soft moss ; and hence 
 such a skin is frequently styled 'mossy.' The 
 sensation derived from feeling a fine touch is 
 pleasurable, and even delightful, to an amateur 
 of breeding. You cannot help liking the animal 
 that possesses a fine touch. Along with it is 
 generally associated a fine symmetrical form. A 
 knowledge of touch can only be acquired by long 
 practice; but after having acquired it, it is of 
 itself a sufficient means of judging of the feeding 
 quality of the ox ; because, when present, the 
 properties of symmetrical form, fine bone, sweet 
 disposition, and purity of blood are the general 
 accompaniments." 
 
 A good ox shows a fair proportion between the 
 extremities and the body, and a symmetry of 
 parts and members among the extremities. The 
 head is small, and appears as if easily carried on 
 the neck ; the face, from the eyes to the tip of 
 the nose, is long ; the skull is broad across the 
 eyes, contracts but little above them, and con- 
 siderably tapers below them to the nose ; the 
 muzzle is fine and small, and the nostrils large ; 
 the crown of the head is flat and strong; the 
 horns, whatever be the direction of their growth, 
 protrude horizontally from the sides of the crown ; 
 and the ears are large, somewhat erect, consider- 
 ably thin, and somewhat translucent. The neck 
 is light, and tapers from the front of the shoul- 
 der and neck-vein, with a gradual rise from the 
 top of the shoulder to the head. The legs below 
 the knee are clean made, and rather short than 
 long ; and they stand wide asunder, and seem so 
 placed as most easily and effectually to support 
 the whole weight of the body. The tail is com- 
 paratively thick, in indication of a strong spine 
 and great weight ; and, in most good instances, 
 it terminates in a large tuft of long hair. 
 
 A prime ox for the shambles has comparative 
 bulkiness in the members and parts whose flesh 
 is of chief value. " The position of the flesh on 
 the carcass," remarks Mr. Dickson, " is a groat 
 consideration in judging of the ox, the flesh on 
 the different parts being of various qualities. 
 That part called the spare-rib in Edinburgh, and 
 the fore and middle ribs in London, the loins, 
 and the rump or hockbone, are of the finest 
 quality, and are generally used for roasts and 
 steaks. Consequently, the ox which carries the 
 largest quantity of beef on these points is the 
 most valuable. Flesh of fine quality is actually 
 
CATTLE 
 
 AFallariOTi 8c C ? London ScEdiiibux^li 
 
CATTLE, 
 
 311 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 of finer texture in the fibre than coarse flesh ; it 
 also contains fat in the tissue between the fibres. 
 This arrangement of fat and lean gives a rich- 
 ness and delicacy to the flesh. The other parts, 
 though not all of the same quality, are used for 
 salting and making soups, and do not fetch so 
 high a price as the parts just described. A full 
 twist lining the division between the hams, called 
 the ■ closing,' with a thick layer of fat, a thick 
 flank, and a full neck-vein, are generally indica- 
 tive of tallow in the interior of the carcass ; but 
 it frequently happens, that all these symptoms 
 of laying on internal fat fail. The disposition to 
 lay on internal fat altogether depends on the na- 
 ture of the individual constitution ; for it is often 
 observed, that those individuals which exhibit 
 great fattening points on the exterior do not fill 
 with internal fat so well as others which want 
 these points. On the contrary, thin-made oxen, 
 with flat ribs and large bellies, very frequently 
 produce large quantities of internal fat. The 
 first part which shows the fat in a feeding ox, is 
 the point or top of the rump, which, in high- 
 bred animals, is a prominent point ; sometimes 
 it protrudes too much, as the mass of fat laid on 
 these is out of proportion to the lean, and there- 
 fore useless to the consumer. This is the part 
 which frequently misleads young or inexperi- 
 enced judges in the true fatness of the ox, be- 
 cause fat may be felt on this part, when it is 
 very deficient on most of the other points. The 
 parts, on the other hand, which are generally 
 the last in being covered with flesh, are the point 
 of the shoulder-joint and the top of the shoulder. 
 If these parts are, therefore, felt to be well cov- 
 ered, the other and better parts of the animal 
 may be considered ripe. Ripeness of condition, 
 however, can only be rightly ascertained by hand- 
 ling, for there is a great difference between the 
 apparent and real fatness of an ox. The flesh of 
 an apparently fat ox to the eye, may, on being 
 handled by a judge, feel loose and flabby ; but a 
 truly fat ox always feels ' hard fat.' With such 
 the butcher is seldom deceived ; while loose 
 handlers give no assurance of killing well." 
 
 Polled Cattle. — The polled or hornless breeds of 
 cattle are either jointly aboriginal in Britain 
 with the middle-horns, or, as already hinted, 
 they are more probably the offspring of an an- 
 cient accidental variety. They have existed 
 from time immemorial in Galloway ; they have, 
 for a very long period, been favourites in various 
 districts of the east and south-east of Scotland, 
 particularly in Aberdeenshire and Forfarshire ; 
 they have, for upwards of a century and a half, 
 been sent in great numbers from Galloway far 
 into England, especially to the counties of Nor- 
 folk and Suffolk ; and they are in high esteem, 
 throughout many parts of both Scotland and 
 England, for their large size, the firmness of 
 their flesh, and the readiness of their disposition 
 to fatten. They are generally designated, in 
 Scotland, dodded cattle and humble cattle, or 
 
 familiarly doddies and humlies. The principal 
 varieties or breeds of them, or those which are 
 most distinctively known in the market, are the 
 Buchan doddies, the Angus humlies, the Gallo- 
 ways, the Suffolks, and the Norfolks. 
 
 The Buchan or Aberdeenshire doddies are gen- 
 erally symmetrical. Plate XIV. Fig. 2. Their 
 back is straight, but has the rump-top and the 
 tail-head rather too much elevated. The ribs 
 have a roundish outline, and are a little flat 
 near the backbone. The side-view is pretty rec- 
 tangular ; but the brisket is deeper than the 
 flank, and the rump-top and tail-head are higher 
 than the back and the shoulder-tops. The back, 
 as seen from above, is a little too narrow, and, 
 from the hooks to the shoulder, is wedge-shaped. 
 The eye is good ; the touch is, in general good ; 
 the bones are strong and well-set ; and the flesh 
 is well developed in the most valuable parts. 
 The colour is generally black, but sometimes red, 
 dun, and brindled, with scarcely any white. A 
 well-fed ox of this breed usually attains, at four 
 years of age, a weight of between 50 and 60 
 stones ; but, in favourable circumstances, it at- 
 tains a weight of between 70 and 80 stones ; and, 
 in some instances, it attains, at five or six years 
 of age, a weight of 100 stones. This breed find 
 their way into every part of the south of Scot- 
 land ; and their beef is of fine quality, and adapt- 
 ed either for the home market or for shipping. 
 
 The Angus humlies have external characters 
 intermediate between those of the Buchan dod- 
 dies and those of the Galloways ; and, probably 
 by means of a cross with the latter, they have 
 been much improved from what they once were. 
 They extend over all Forfarshire, all Kincardine- 
 shire, a large portion of Aberdeenshire, and many 
 parts of Fifeshire ; and large droves of them are 
 annually sent to the south of Scotland and to Eng- 
 land, and are generally confounded in the latter 
 country with Galloways, They have, for some 
 time past, been constantly under a course of im- 
 provement ; and they are, at present, so far from 
 being a fixed or finished breed, that the propa- 
 gators of them, even in Forfarshire, cannot al- 
 ways depend on the precise points of the parents 
 being perpetuated in the offspring. The back of 
 most of them is a little depressed over the loins ; 
 the rump-top and the tail-head are rather too 
 high ; the shoulder-top is a little below the line 
 of level ; the buttocks are too thin ; and the 
 brisket is not sufficiently forward. The body, 
 viewed either in front or in rear, is too narrow, 
 — the hook-bones not being broad enough, the 
 ribs flattish at the back, and both the hind legs 
 and the fore legs not sufficiently asunder ; and, 
 viewed from above, it is somewhat wedge-shaped, 
 the breadth across the shoulder being less than 
 that across the hooks. The legs are well-boned 
 and of moderate length ; the muzzle is rather 
 coarse ; the eye is good ; the ears are rather too 
 thick and hairy ; the head is tufted with hair 
 and pretty well shaped ; and the neck is rather 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 312 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 too small at the junction with the head, and does 
 not carry the latter with sufficient gracefulness 
 and ease. The hair is short and smooth ; the 
 hide is thickish ; and the touch has a medium 
 character between soft and harsh. Some indi- 
 viduals are wholly or almost wholly black ; some 
 are prevailingly black, but have a few dead-white 
 spots on the face and the belly ; some are yellow- 
 red ; and some have a dull and rich hue of dark 
 red. The disposition is quiet ; and the tendency 
 to fatten rather slow. 
 
 The Galloway cattle were, till quite a recent 
 period, a mixture of polled and horned varieties ; 
 and they have eventually become wholly polled, 
 simply by the rejection of horned individuals in 
 propagation. Small or rudimental horns still 
 occasionally appear in the breed ; but they have 
 the curious character of being attached only to 
 the skin. The Galloways, though scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable from the best or most improved in- 
 dividuals of the Angus humlies, are, as a whole, 
 a decidedly better breed ; and, at the same time, 
 they have purity of blood, and steadily transmit 
 their points from parent to offspring. They are 
 also of finer quality than the Buchan doddies, 
 though usually inferior to them in weight ; and 
 while the latter are well adapted for strong ship 
 beef, the former are excellently suited for the 
 shambles of the retail butcher. The Galloways 
 are spread over all Wigtonshire, all Kircudbright- 
 shire, the southern part of Ayrshire, and a con- 
 siderable part of Dumfries-shire. But by far the 
 greater number, when two or three years old, are 
 driven away from the land of their birth to be 
 fattened on the pastures of Norfolk and Suffolk, 
 and then sold in the market of Smithfield under 
 the name of Norfolk Scots. They constitute up- 
 wards of one-third of all the cattle of Smithfield 
 from March till July; and, when in thorough 
 condition, or what is technically called f hard 
 fat,' they are highly esteemed by the London 
 butchers. — The back of a true Galloway is quite 
 straight and level, or at least has its shoulder-top 
 nearer the level than the Angus humlies. The 
 ribs are well rounded ; and the quarter is longer 
 and the loins more shortly coupled, than in the 
 Angus breed. The brisket is well forward, and 
 the buttocks are well filled down to the hock ; 
 so that the whole body has the appearance of 
 being deep. The buttocks are round, the back 
 across not flat but rounded, and the breast full 
 and expanded; so that the body, when viewed 
 either in rear or in front, is broader than that of 
 the Angus humlies. The breadth of the hooks 
 also is carried forward to the shoulder more than 
 in the Angus, so as to render the outline more 
 rectangular, as seen from above. The head is 
 better set on the neck than in the Angus, but is 
 rather large, and has a coarse appearance. The 
 muzzle is not good; the eye is dull, shows no 
 white, and indicates sullenness ; the ears are 
 thick and hairy ; and the head is crowned with 
 a rather large semispherical knob, tufted with 
 
 hair. The legs are strong and short, and they 
 are more deeply enveloped with the carcass than 
 those of almost any other breed. The skin is 
 well protected with soft longish hair, and the 
 touch is mossy and good. The prevailing colour 
 is black, with sometimes a line of a dull dusky 
 hue running along the back. 
 
 The polled cattle of Norfolk seem to have gra- 
 dually superseded a middle-horned breed of simi- 
 lar character to that of the Devons ; yet though 
 generally and highly preferred for fattening, they 
 are far from being the only cattle of the county. 
 They are strictly descendants of the Galloways ; 
 yet, while retaining the form of that breed, and 
 superior to them in size, they have very observ- 
 ably lost some of their excellencies. They are 
 taller than the Galloways, rather better milkers, 
 and capable of accumulating a greater load of 
 flesh ; but they are thinner in the chine, flatter 
 in the ribs, longer in the legs, more difficult to 
 fatten, and somewhat inferior in the quality of 
 their beef. Most are red in colour, but some are 
 black ; and others have mixtures of red or black 
 with white, and possess a peculiar golden-coloured 
 circle around the eye. 
 
 The polled cattle of Suffolk, {Plate XIX. Fig. 
 1 .) are also descendants of the Galloways ; but 
 they are broader and rounder in the body than the 
 Norfolks, shorter in the leg, more easily fattened, 
 and usually attain a greater weight. They 
 very nearly resemble the Angus humlies in most 
 external characters except size. A description 
 of those which existed nearly a century ago, says 
 that they had " a clean throat, with little dew- 
 lap, a snake head, thin and short legs, the ribs 
 springing well from the centre of the back, the 
 carcass large, the belly heavy, the backbone 
 ridged, the chine thin and hollow, the loin nar- 
 row, the udder square, large, loose, and creased 
 when empty, the milk veins remarkably large 
 and rising in knotted puffs." The prevailing 
 colours are dun, red, red and white, brindled, 
 and creamy yellow. Most of the bull calves, 
 however, are fed for veal for the London market; 
 and nearly all the heifers are reserved for the 
 dairy, for the supply of London with butter. 
 Many and wondrous statements have been made 
 respecting the milking properties of the Suffolk 
 cow ; but most of these are wild exaggerations, 
 and such as are true ought to point rather to the 
 luxuriance of the pastures than to the excellence 
 of the breed. 
 
 Crumpled- Horned Cattle. — The crumpled-horned 
 or Alderney cattle are constantly imported to Bri- 
 tain from the Channel Islands, Normandy, and 
 adjacent parts of the French continent ; yet 
 though brought from so many districts are al- 
 ways popularly called Alderneys. They are some- 
 what extensively diffused in Hampshire; but 
 they exist in other British districts only in gen- 
 tlemen's parks and pleasure-grounds, and they 
 seem ill adapted to the climate of Scotland or of 
 the extreme north of England. They are small 
 
J£K CATTLE 
 
 A Suffolk Occ 
 
 JBred oJ> JBurnhanz near Solkham, Norfolk 
 
 ABeautifuL Aerrfm^dshzre 3vJL 
 -Bred, ai ITohumAbbey 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 313 
 
 CATTLE 
 
 in size, very ill shaped, and altogether destitute 
 of some of the best points of cattle character ; but 
 their milk is surpassingly rich, and yields more 
 butter in proportion to quantity than that of 
 any other kind of cows ; and partly on this ac- 
 count, partly for fashion's sake, they are gen- 
 erally esteemed as occupants of fine parks. Mr. 
 Parkinson, speaking somewhat exaggeratingly, 
 says, " They are of as bad a form as can possibly 
 be described ; the bellies of many of them are 
 four-fifths of their weight ; the neck is very thin 
 and hollow ; the shoulder stands up, and is the 
 highest part ; they are hollow and narrow be- 
 tween the shoulders ; the chine is nearly with- 
 out flesh ; the hucks are narrow and sharp at 
 the ends ; the rump is short ; and they are nar- 
 row and light in the brisket." — " When viewed 
 from behind," says another writer, " their body 
 appears like two boards nailed together, as thin 
 as a lath." Their skin is very thin and papery ; 
 their hair is short and smooth; their cast of 
 countenance is timid ; and their colour is, for the 
 most part, a light-brownish-red, mixed sometimes 
 with white, and sometimes with white and dun. 
 
 Short-Homed Cattle. — The short-horned cattle 
 have, in recent times, acquired much more cele- 
 brity than any other breed. Their origin in Bri- 
 tain belongs to the counties of York and Durham, 
 but is very obscurely known. Toward the close 
 of the 17th century, or perhaps at an earlier pe- 
 riod, a bull and some cows, which appear to have 
 been one source of the breed, were introduced to 
 Holderness from some part of continental Europe 
 between Denmark and France. They had large 
 shoulders, fiat sides, a coarse neck, and a thick 
 head ; their coarse parts were too large, and 
 their fine points too small ; yet they were better 
 milkers, larger in size, and more capable of being 
 fattened to an enormous bulk than almost any 
 other cattle which were then known; and, on 
 these accounts, they were esteemed, propagated, 
 and intermixed with such of the native cattle as 
 most nearly resembled them. — A race of cattle, 
 of totally unknown origin, and constituting an- 
 other source of the modern short-horns, existed 
 from time immemorial within the basin of the 
 Tees, on the mutual border of the counties of 
 York and Durham, and acquired the appropriate 
 name of Teeswater cattle. " In colour," says the 
 Rev. Henry Barry, " they resembled what is call- 
 ed the improved breed of the present day, except 
 that the fashionable roan was not quite so pre- 
 valent. They are described in general characters 
 also to have differed very little from their de- 
 scendants ; possessing a fine mellow touch, good 
 hair, light offal, particularly wide carcasses, and 
 deep fore-quarters. They were also justly cele- 
 brated for extraordinary proof when slaughtered, 
 — resembling thus closely their descendants of the 
 present day. One trifling difference is alone 
 worth recording, — the horns of the old Teeswater 
 breed were rather longer, and turned gaily up- 
 wards." — During the latter part of last century, 
 
 numerous bulls, which proved a third source of 
 the present short-horns — but a source in some 
 degree identical with the first — were imported 
 to the counties of York and Durham from Hol- 
 stein and Holland. The, frame of the cattle of 
 the present day in Holstein and Holland is supe- 
 rior to that of the old Teeswater Jbreed, and some- 
 what similar to that of the modern improved 
 short-horns, but inferior to the latter in several 
 of the best points. The colours of the Dutch, too, 
 are black and white, while those of the Teeswater 
 were red and white. — Improvements of succes- 
 sive stages, but of unrecorded pedigree, were made 
 by crossings of the Teeswater with the Dutch 
 and the Holstein, till a new and established breed 
 was produced, called the Teeswater Short-horns ; 
 and this latter breed was afterwards improved, 
 by a series of recorded and widely-known cross- 
 ings, commencing with the red and white bull 
 Studley, belonging to Mr. Sharter of Chilton, till it 
 resulted in the present race of Short-horns, — the 
 finest and most celebrated breed of cattle now 
 pastured in Britain. 
 
 The frame of a thorough-bred fattened short- 
 horn, exactly corresponds to the established rules 
 respecting rectangularity of outline. "When 
 we survey the frame, we have a straight level 
 back from behind the horns to the top cf the 
 tail, full buttocks, and a projecting brisket, — we 
 have, in short, the rectangular form ; we have 
 also the level loin across the hookbones, and the 
 level top of the shoulder across the ox, and per- 
 pendicular lines down the hind and fore legs on 
 both sides, these constituting the square form 
 when the ox is viewed before and behind ; and 
 we have straight parallel lines from the sides of 
 the shoulders along the outmost points of the 
 ribs to the sides of the hind quarters, and we 
 have these lines connected at their ends by 
 others of shorter and equal length, across the 
 end of the rump and the top of the shoulder, 
 thus constituting the rectangular form of the ox 
 when viewed from above down upon the back. 
 We have, in this manner, the form of the short- 
 horn ox and heifer in perfect accordance with 
 the diagrams of the rule." But the bull {Plate 
 XIV. Fig. 1.) deviates in an elevation of the neck, 
 a dependence under the brisket, and a fulness of 
 the neck vein ; and the cow, when young, slightly 
 deviates in a thinness in the buttocks, — and when 
 old, considerably deviates in an enlargement of 
 the belly, and generally, though not always, in a 
 hollowness in the loins. The flesh of the short- 
 horn, whether ox, heifer, bull, or cow, is accu- 
 mulated and well adjusted in the most valuable 
 parts ; the fat of it is in due and even preponder- 
 ating proportion to the lean ; and the fibres of 
 the lean are fine, well mixed or even marbled 
 with fat, and abundantly juicy. The bone of the 
 head and the legs is fine, thin, and clean ; the 
 expression of the eye is calm, pleasant, and com- 
 paratively intelligent ; the horns are finely taper- 
 ing, and either white or otherwise light coloured ; 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 and the colour of the skin is red or white, or 
 various commixtures of red and white, while 
 that of the bare portion of the nose and around 
 the eyes has the tint of cream. " The external 
 appearance of the short-horn breed," remarks 
 Mr. Dickson, " is irresistibly attractive. The ex- 
 quisitely symmetrical form of the body in every 
 position, bedecked with a skin of the richest hues 
 of red and the richest white, approaching to 
 cream, or both colours, so arranged or commixed 
 as to form a beautiful fleck or delicate roan, and 
 possessed of the mellowest touch ; supported on 
 small, clean limbs, showing, like those of the race- 
 horse and the greyhound, the union of strength 
 with fineness ; and ornamented with a small 
 lengthy tapering head, neatly set on a broad, 
 firm, deep neck, and furnished with a small muz- 
 zle, wide nostrils, — prominent, mildly-beaming 
 eyes, — thin, large, veiny ears, set near the crown 
 of the head, and protected in front with semi- 
 circularly bent, white or brownish-coloured, short, 
 smooth, pointed horns ; — all these several parts 
 combine to form a symmetrical harmony, which 
 has never been surpassed in beauty and sweet- 
 ness by any other species of the domesticated ox." 
 
 The short-horned breed are the prevailing cat- 
 tle of Yorkshire and Durham ; they have become 
 common in many parts of the counties adjoining 
 these, particularly Northumberland, Cumberland, 
 and Lincolnshire ; they more or less abound in 
 Essex, Middlesex, Surrey, and some other dis- 
 tricts remote from the places in which they 
 originated ; and they have, for some time past, 
 been in general requisition on estates in most 
 parts of the three kingdoms, which are in any 
 tolerable degree distinguished for attempts to 
 improve local breeds by crossing. Till about 
 forty years ago, few were seen north of the 
 Tweed ; but, for a considerable time past, they 
 have existed in as great perfection in Berwick- 
 shire and Roxburghshire as in the counties of 
 York and Durham, and have been more or less 
 intermingled with the prevailing live stock of 
 the Lothians, Fifeshire, Perthshire, and other 
 districts of the Scottish lowlands, and have even 
 penetrated from county to county till they have 
 become not unknown in the vicinity of John-o'- 
 Groats. 
 
 Middle-Horned Cattle. — The middle-horned cat- 
 tle of North Devonshire {Plate XIII. Fig. 2.) 
 seem to be direct descendants of the aboriginal 
 cattle of Great Britain ; and they are usually re- 
 garded as a very distinct and favourable variety 
 of the middle-horns. They exist in greatest 
 purity in the district extending from the river 
 Taw westward along the sea-board of the Bristol 
 Channel to a point east of Parrett, and landward, 
 by Barnstaple, South Molton, Chumleigh, and 
 Tiverton, to a point not far from Wellington. 
 They are esteemed, in their native district, in 
 Norfolk, and in some other parts, for the richness 
 and volume of butter yielded by their milk ; they 
 are favourites, in some parts of England, for the 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 draught ; they have been tried in some districts, 
 even so far distant as the extreme west of Ire- 
 land, for the improving of other breeds ; and they 
 have themselves been eventually so much im- 
 proved that, in their own country, they would 
 probably suffer deterioration from any crossing 
 with any other distinct variety. They have 
 been tried in Scotland ; but they do not seem to 
 agree with its climate. They have yellowish 
 horns, a pure, rich red colour, and tolerably good 
 symmetry and points. They are inferior to the 
 short-horns for feeding, and to the Herefords for 
 the shambles; and, though fleshy, they cannot 
 compare with either the short-horns or some of 
 the Scotch middle- horns, for fine mixture of fat 
 and lean. "The horn of the bull," says Youatt, 
 " ought to be neither too low nor too high, taper- 
 ing at the points, not too thick at the root, and 
 of a yellow or waxy colour. The eye should be 
 clear, bright, and prominent, showing much of 
 the white, and it ought to have around it a circle 
 of a variable colour, but usually a dark orange. 
 The forehead should be flat, indented, and small ; 
 for by the smallness of the forehead, the purity 
 of the breed is very much estimated. The cheek 
 should be small, and the muzzle fine ; the nose 
 should be of a clear yellow. A black muzzle is 
 disliked, and even a mottled one is objected to 
 by some who pretend to be judges of the true 
 Devon. The nostril should be high and open ; 
 the hair curled about the head, and giving, at 
 first appearance, an idea of coarseness which soon 
 wears off. The neck should be thick, and that 
 sometimes almost to a fault. Excepting in the 
 head and neck, the form of the bull does not 
 materially differ from that of the ox, but he is 
 considerably smaller." 
 
 The Hereford cattle (Plate XIX. Fig. 1.) are 
 more similar than any other middle-horns to the 
 short-horn breeds ; and they were unaccountably 
 mistaken by Mr. Culley for a cross between the 
 Welsh and a bastard variety of the long-horns. 
 They pay the feeder better than the breeder ; for 
 their cows are very bad milkers ; while their oxen 
 and heifers, when in good condition, are exceed- 
 ingly well adapted to the shambles. They have 
 their beef well developed in the best points ; and 
 though a heavy breed, they generally sell at first- 
 rate prices in Smithfield. They seem well adap- 
 ted in form and strength for heavy farm work ; 
 but they want sufficient activity, and are now 
 very seldom seen in the yoke. " The counte- 
 nance of this breed," says Mr. Marshall, " is plea- 
 sant, cheerful, open ; the forehead broad ; eye 
 full and lively ; horns bright, taper, and spread- 
 ing ; head small ; chop lean ; neck long and ta- 
 pering ; chest deep ; bosom broad, and projecting 
 forward ; shoulder-bone thin, flat, no way protu- 
 berant in bone, but full and mellow in flesh ; 
 chest full ; loin broad ; hips standing wide, and 
 level with the chine ; quarters long, and wide at 
 the neck ; rump even with the level of the back, 
 and not drooping, nor standing high and sharp 
 
 314 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 315 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 above the quarters ; tail slender and neatly hair- 
 ed ; barrel round and roomy; the carcass through- 
 out deep and well spread ; ribs broad, standing 
 flat and close on the outer surface, forming a 
 smooth, even barrel, the hindmost large and full 
 of length ; round bone small, snug, and not pro- 
 minent ; thigh clean and regularly tapering ; legs 
 upright and short ; bone below the knee and 
 hock small ; feet of middle size ; flank large ; 
 flesh everywhere mellow, soft, and yielding plea- 
 santly to the touch, especially on the chine, the 
 shoulder, and the ribs ; hide mellow, supple, of 
 a middle thickness, and loose on the neck and 
 huckle; coat neatly haired, bright, and silky; 
 colour, a middle red, with a bald face," 
 
 The Sussex cattle, particularly those among 
 the wealds of East Sussex, appear equally with 
 the North Devons to be direct descendants of the 
 aboriginal cattle of Great Britain. They are 
 much less adapted than the Herefords and some 
 other varieties of middle-horns, for the purposes 
 of the retail butcher ; yet possess excellent adap- 
 tation for the purposes of the beef-shipper. They 
 are a large breed, generally of a red colour, with 
 no white on the face ; and they have larger horns 
 than the Herefords, plainer skins, larger bones, 
 less symmetry, and fewer points of excellence in 
 habit or goodness of flesh. Their horns project 
 and then turn up, and are thin, long, and taper- 
 ing ; and though quite distinct in form and char- 
 acter from those of the long-horned breeds, yet 
 possess very considerable resemblance. Their 
 eye is large and prominent ; their neck is coarser 
 than that of the North Devons, and both longer 
 and thinner than that of either the short-horns 
 or the long-horns ; and their shoulder has no 
 projecting point as seen from behind, but is the 
 centre of a disproportionately large development 
 of a secondary quality of flesh. 
 
 The prevailing cattle of Cornwall, Devonshire, 
 Somersetshire, most of Gloucestershire, and part 
 of Kent are middle-horn varieties, either closely 
 allied to the North Devons, the Herefords, or the 
 Sussexes, or produced from a crossing of some two 
 of these with each other, or of one of them with 
 the middle-horns of Wales.— The Welsh cattle 
 have the same kind of claim as the North Devons 
 and the Sussexes to be considered direct descend- 
 ants of the aboriginal British cattle ; and when 
 examined from county to county, as they exist in 
 the interior of the principality, they are seen to 
 be a group of varieties, considerably different 
 from one another in points and character, and 
 possessed, in some instances, of considerable val- 
 ue; but when observed only in the specimens 
 which are driven into England, and sold fat at 
 Smithfield, or lean at the markets of Rumford 
 and Epping-Forest, they appear to be of nearly 
 uniform variety, and all of very inferior charac- 
 ter. English graziers and feeders who can obtain 
 Scottish West Highland cattle, never think of 
 purchasing cattle from Wales. " The Welsh cat- 
 tle," observes Mr. Dickson, " resemble the small- 
 
 est and coarsest sorts of our Fife and Aberdeen- 
 shire runts, having thick horns, thick, coarse, 
 plain hides, and narrow backs ; and, in my opin- 
 ion, they are a very inferior breed of cattle." — 
 The native Scotch cattle, with the exception of 
 the polled varieties formerly noticed, are all mid- 
 dle-horned, and rank, in origin and general char- 
 acter, with the North Devons and the Sussexes ; 
 but whether viewed at large on their native 
 pastures, or in specimens as driven into England, 
 they are classifiable into a number of groups, so 
 very distinct from one another as to be usually 
 regarded as different breeds. The most remark- 
 able or important of these groups are the Shet- 
 landers, the cattle of Orkney and Caithness, the 
 North Highlanders, the middle-horns of Aber- 
 deenshire, the middle-horns of Fifeshire, the West 
 Highlanders, and the cattle of Ayrshire. 
 
 The Shetlanders, though easily capable of im- 
 proved growth on good pastures, are naturally 
 the smallest cattle in the Three Kingdoms ; yet, 
 in the quality of their beef, the fineness of its 
 grain, the delicacy of its flavour, and the prime 
 intermixture of its fat with its lean, they are 
 totally unsurpassed and even unequalled. Their 
 form, as tested by the established rules, is defec- 
 tive in symmetry ; the line of the back is rather 
 hollow ; the ribs are pretty round ; the tail 
 head droops ; and the forequarters and the belly 
 are comparatively too large. This form indicates 
 starvation, and may have been accidentally pro- 
 duced by severity of climate and paucity of food ; 
 and, under more favourable circumstances, espe- 
 cially with the aid of crossing, it might easily be 
 improved. The horn is sharp, the eye full, the 
 muscle fine, the hair soft and sleek, and the 
 touch excellent ; and these points combine with 
 others to indicate great superiority of constitu- 
 tion and much tendency to fatten. The colour 
 is uniformly black, light red, or black and white. 
 The weight of the forequarters is usually from 
 16 to 20 stones, and when extra fat, from 25 to 
 30 stones ; yet, in some instances of full fatness, 
 it is not more than 14 or 15 stones. The beef is, 
 in every part, of the finest quality, and as small- 
 grained as mutton. The milk of the cow is rather 
 small in quantity, but very rich in quality. 
 
 The cattle of Orkney are much larger than 
 those of Shetland, but have far less symmetry of 
 form, and a much coarser quality of beef. Their 
 back is narrow, and curves above the straight 
 line ; their ribs are flat ; their hind quarters are 
 thin ; all their bones are coarse, and those of the 
 trunk are prominent ; their head droops ; and 
 their horns are short and blunt. Their poor 
 coat and their bad shape, indicate them to be 
 slow feeders, and incapable of acquiring an early 
 maturity. — The Caithness cattle have narrow 
 backs, flat ribs, narrow chests, and large bellies ; 
 and, in general, are similar to those of Orkney. 
 A large proportion of both varieties are trained 
 to work or kept for breeding till about seven or 
 eight years of age ; and are then sold in a lean 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 31 
 
 6 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 condition, under the name of runts, — an expres- 
 sive Scotch word which properly means old cows 
 that have ceased to be capable of breeding. The 
 runts are often sold at a very low price ; yet when 
 transferred to good pastures in the south of Scot- 
 land or in England, they rapidly fatten, and ac- 
 quire a mass of tolerably good beef, and become 
 very compensatory to the feeder. 
 
 The native breed of the counties of Suther- 
 land, Ross, and Cromarty, bear the name of North 
 Highlanders, and are scarcely distinguishable 
 from the cattle of Orkney and Caithness. But 
 two other breeds in Sutherlandshire, the Dun- 
 robins and th*e Skibos, are so peculiar and inter- 
 esting as, in spite of their comparatively small 
 numbers, to challenge specific notice. — The Dun- 
 robins take their name from the Duke of Suther- 
 land's estate of Dunrobin Castle, and are well 
 known, as very superior Highlanders, both in 
 England and in Southern Scotland. They attain 
 a great size at Dunbrobin, at Skelbo, and at some 
 other places in the north ; and, when brought 
 down to the southern markets, have frequently 
 excited surprise and admiration. " I remember," 
 said Mr. Dickson in 1835, "a lot of sixty four- 
 year olds being shown about twelve years ago at 
 the October Falkirk Tryst. They had the most 
 sprightly and splendid appearance of any north 
 country cattle I ever saw. They showed beauti- 
 ful symmetry, straight level backs, round deep 
 carcasses, great substance of flesh, strong fine 
 bone, fine coats of hair, with small muzzles, quick 
 eyes, and large, sharp-pointed, spreading horns. 
 The only fault which could have been found in 
 their symmetry was the large proportion which 
 the fore bore to the hind quarters. They were 
 fine fat, and would have weighed 55 stones the 
 four quarters." — The Skibos are bred on the estate 
 of Skibo, and have, for a considerable period, been 
 driven annually to the centre of Forfarshire, and 
 there sold at exorbitant prices for private con- 
 sumption at gentlemen's tables. They are nearly 
 as small as the Shetlanders, and almost as fine in 
 the quality of their beef, and, at the same time, 
 far more symmetrical and beautiful in form. 
 They have a straight level back, pretty round 
 ribs, small bones, a sharp muzzle, keen bright 
 eyes, fine, small, sharp-pointed, spreading horns, 
 a soft, thick, hairy coat, and a sweet touch ; and 
 they possess most of the good properties of rapid 
 feeders. When viewed from above, they are dis- 
 proportionately narrow and long ; yet, when well 
 fattened, they have the tops of the ribs well 
 covered, and show remarkably fine points. 
 
 The horned cattle of the mountainous districts 
 of Aberdeenshire are a middle-sized variety, rather 
 plain skinned, of pretty good symmetry, usually 
 weighing from 30 to 50 stones when fat, excellent 
 travellers, well adapted to the shambles, and in 
 much favour with the graziers, not only of their 
 native districts, but of the counties of Banff and 
 Elgin. But the horned cattle of the interior of 
 Aberdeenshire, about Iluntly and Keith, and in 
 
 other low -lying districts, are a large, heavy 
 variety, commonly designated Aberdeenshire 
 runts. They have large, long bodies, great ends, 
 small middle, strong bones, long legs, a gaunt, 
 stalking gait, smooth hair, large hooves, thick 
 muzzle, dull, heavy eyes, and very thick, broad, 
 long, spreading, turned -up horns. Many are 
 worked in the plough till seven or eight years of 
 age, and then fattened for the shambles, or driven 
 away to the south. 
 
 An old and celebrated breed of Fifeshire cattle, 
 called the Falklands, are supposed to have been 
 imported by some of the kings of Scotland, to 
 their favourite hunting seat of Falkland, from 
 Hereford, Sussex, or North Devon ; and they pos- 
 sess considerable resemblance to the breeds of 
 these districts in both form and character ; but 
 they have become very scarce, and are likely 
 soon to disappear. The prevailing horned cattle 
 of Fifeshire are a coarse variety, which, in com- 
 mon with the ill-shaped and half-haggard varie- 
 ties of Caithness and Aberdeenshire, bear the 
 contemptuous designation of runts. Their gen- 
 eral outline is inferior to that of many of the 
 northern varieties ; the direction of the back is 
 curved, and falls below the level line ; the bones 
 are coarse ; the legs are rather long ; the eye is 
 dull ; the face has strongly marked features ; the 
 horns are long, fiat, and thick ; the hair is smooth ; 
 the touch is rather hard ; the tendency to fatten 
 is comparatively feeble till the third or fourth 
 year ; and the beef is by no means good for the 
 retail butcher, but suits well to be salted and 
 shipped. 
 
 The West Highlanders or Kyloes are both the 
 oldest and the best middle-horn breed in Scot- 
 land. Plate XIII. Fig. 1. They include several 
 varieties, and have undergone different kinds and 
 degrees of improvement. The purest variety of 
 them, though small in size and otherwise inferior, 
 exists in Skye ; other varieties of a comparatively 
 small size exist in other parts of the Hebrides ; 
 varieties of comparatively large size are found on 
 the richer pastures of Ross-shire, Argyleshire, and 
 Perthshire ; and varieties both large and small, 
 occur in the counties of Inverness, Sutherland, 
 Stirling, and Dumbarton, and in portions of some 
 other Highland counties. The back of a good 
 Kyloe is straight and level ; the upper surface of 
 the back is broad, all the way from the top of the 
 shoulder to the rump ; the sides are deep ; the 
 brisket is wide, and projects well forward ; the 
 buttocks are well filled up ; the legs are short, 
 and have strong, broad, fine bones; the muzzle is 
 fine ; the nose is a little turned up ; the eye is full 
 and sparkling ; the ears are thin, broad, hairy, 
 and pricked ; the horns are wide-set, long, white, 
 tapering, sharp-pointed, and tipped with black ; 
 the hair of the coat, the head, the mane, the dew- 
 lap, and the tail-end is shaggy, long, fine, and not 
 in the least degree curled ; the skin is mellow ; 
 the touch is soft and kindly ; the colours are fre- 
 quently black, and sometimes red, dun, or brind- 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 led, and always of a rich hue ; the habit has a 
 great aptitude for early fattening ; and the beef 
 is of the finest quality, and accumulated on the 
 most valuable parts. " Taking them all in all," 
 says Mr. Dickson, " no breed which I have yet 
 noticed, (comprising all the Scotch breeds except 
 the Ayrshires and the Galloways,) approaches in 
 character and properties so near the short-horns 
 as the West Highlanders. The climate of that 
 part of the country which they inhabit is not 
 cold, but wet and boisterous ; and, as a suitable 
 protection against the elements, their shaggy 
 coats are well adapted. They are first-rate gra- 
 zers, feeding on grass with great rapidity on their 
 native pastures ; and, when they are brought into 
 the arable districts, they thrive equally well on 
 turnips. The usual weight which they attain, 
 when fat, is from thirty to fifty stones, according 
 to the size of the particular variety." 
 
 The Ayrshire breed of cattle has a very dis- 
 tinct character from that of any of the other 
 middle-horn breeds ; yet it is evidently allied to 
 them, and seems to have risen out of one or more 
 of them ; and, though both the time and the man- 
 ner of its origin are strangely and deeply envel- 
 oped in obscurity, it is known to have had no 
 existence about a century ago, and to have come 
 into existence within the county whence it has 
 its name. It has very extensively, and for a con- 
 siderable period, though somewhat erroneously, 
 had the reputation of being the most lactiferous 
 breed in Great Britain ; and throughout Ayrshire, 
 Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire, large portions of 
 Stirlingshire, Dumbartonshire, and Linlithgow- 
 shire, and small, occasional spots in some other 
 districts, it is strictly and sedulously appropriated 
 to the purposes of the dairy. The beef, though 
 of good quality, and possessing a good admixture 
 of fat and lean, makes bad returns to the butcher, 
 and is very Hmitedly in request ; and the bull- 
 calves are usually fed for veal, while the heifer- 
 calves are kept to renew the stock of cows. 
 Short-horn cows are much larger than the Ayr- 
 shires, yet do not consume more food in propor- 
 tion to their size ; and they produce more valu- 
 able calves, yield larger quantities of milk, and 
 give less trouble in proportion to their yield of 
 milk ; and a stock of them as compared to a stock 
 of Ayrshires occupy less room, involve less risk of 
 loss from disease and death, and afford both a larger 
 and a more valuable produce. The short-horns, 
 therefore, ought, in all common sense, to super- 
 sede the Ayrshires on every large or middle-sized 
 dairy-farm; and the Ayrshires ought to be re- 
 tained as milkers only on cottage-holdings, moor- 
 side farms, and any other situations of very 
 limited capacities for food and very small demands 
 for milk. The back of prime Ayrshire cattle is 
 straight and nearly level, yet has one slight de- 
 pression at the top of the shoulder, and an evi- 
 dent tendency to another over the loins ; the ribs 
 are pretty round ; the sides are deep, but show a 
 deficiency in the filling up of the buttocks ; the 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 breast or front of the carcass is comparatively 
 narrow ; the upper surface of the carcass shows 
 far less breadth at the shoulder than at the hooks, 
 and has a kind of wedge-shaped outline ; the 
 length of the body is proportionately greater 
 than the height ; the legs are comparatively short ; 
 the muzzle is fine ; the face is broad but rather 
 short ; the eye is complacent ; the expression of 
 the face is gentle but dull ; the horns are short 
 and turned up ; the skin is smooth and thin ; the 
 touch is good, yet wants the mellowness which 
 accompanies a thick and soft skin ; and the col- 
 ours are red and white like those of the short- 
 horns, but not so rich in hue, and sometimes 
 mixed with black, and always arranged in blotches 
 and patches, which are irregular, seldom circular, 
 and never grizzled. 
 
 Three very distinct breeds of cattle prevail in 
 Ireland ; and one of these is middle -horned. 
 This seems to be as evidently aboriginal in Ire- 
 land as in Great Britain ; it is small, wild, light, 
 and active ; it occurs in almost every district of 
 the rude and mountainous regions of the island ; 
 and it may be regarded as very favourably repre- 
 sented in its best known variety, the cattle of 
 Kerry. The Kerry cow is as small as a cow of 
 the Scottish Skibos, and somewhat similar to her 
 in points and shape ; she is, comparatively to her 
 size, a very copious milker; and she possesses 
 the same kind of reputation throughout a large 
 portion of Ireland, which belongs to the Ayr- 
 shire cow in the western districts of the Scottish 
 lowlands. Kerry heifers are in constant demand, 
 at comparatively high prices ; and they may be 
 met in droves, in many parts of the low country, 
 ready to be sold in pairs or one by one to the 
 small farmers of the rural districts and the dairy- 
 keepers and cowfeeders in towns. Kerry cattle, 
 when unmolested or very gently treated, are 
 perfectly quiet ; but, when disturbed or even 
 slightly irritated, they break all bounds, and 
 overleap all the ordinary fences. Their horns 
 are small ; their muzzle is sharp ; their eyes 
 have a quick and piercing expression ; their 
 horns are long, sharp-pointed, and turned-up ; 
 and their coats are finely hairy and soft. 
 
 Long-Horned Cattle. — Ireland appears, though 
 not very distinctly, to have been the country of 
 the aboriginal long-horned family of cattle ; and 
 it, at present, possesses two perfectly distinct 
 breeds, which seem either to have had a sepa- 
 rate origin, or to have for a very long period had 
 a separate and mutually receding existence. The 
 breed of the northern parts of the island, though 
 occasionally producing individuals of a somewhat 
 symmetrical shape, is prevailingly coarse, clumsy, 
 dull, and exceedingly inferior. The head is large ; 
 the horns are long ; the bones are coarse ; the 
 skin is coarse and thick ; the body, viewed either 
 in front or in rear, is exceedingly thin ; and the 
 colour is of almost every shade on the body, but 
 generally white on the back. Large droves of 
 them, of three and four years of age, are con- 
 
 317 
 
CATTLE. 
 
 318 
 
 CATTLE. 
 
 stantly exported, at very low prices, to be fat- 
 tened by English graziers. 
 
 The other long-horned Irish breed prevails 
 over all the great central plain of Ireland, from 
 Dublin away into Connaught, and from the con- 
 fines of Ulster away to the centre of Munster ; 
 it is, in many instances, particularly in the coun- 
 ties of Roscommon, Meath, Limerick, and Tippe- 
 rary, a breed of great value, — quite worthy to be 
 compared to many of the esteemed middle-horns 
 of Great Britain ; and it appears to have been 
 the true or exclusive origin of the long-horns of 
 England ; and yet, as at present existing, it has 
 acquired material improvement from crossings 
 with some of the best long-horns of Lancashire. 
 The back of an ox of this breed is straight and 
 level ; the bones are strong ; the flesh is com- 
 pactly accumulated; the skin is thick, rather 
 hard, and profusely hairy ; the shoulders are 
 thick ; the expression of the eye and countenance 
 is placid ; the horns first project outward, then 
 form a curve, and then return to the face, threat- 
 ening in some instances to pierce the bones of 
 the nose, and in others so to pass before the muz- 
 zle as to prevent the animal from grazing ; and 
 the colour along the back is usually white, and 
 athwart the body very various, but chiefly red 
 and white blended into a coarse and unpleasant 
 roan. The beef is of medium quality, juicy, and 
 well-flavoured, but decidedly coarse in the grain ; 
 and when well fattened, it is in high request 
 with the shipping butchers. The best specimens 
 of this breed are usually to be seen in the Smith- 
 field market of Dublin ; exported droves of them 
 constitute the principal supply of the shambles 
 of Liverpool and Manchester ; and though never 
 preferred by English graziers to Scotch cattle, 
 they fatten very rapidly in their own humid cli- 
 mate, and on their own rich plains, especially on 
 the surpassingly fine pastures of Meath, Roscom- 
 mon, and Limerick. " It is perhaps owing to 
 fast feeding," says Mr. Dickson, " that the grain 
 of the flesh is larger, and it is this property which 
 makes the meat take so well at Liverpool for the 
 shipping. Many are also sent fat to the Glasgow 
 market, where the heavy parts, such as shoulders 
 and rounds, are salted for hams, that city having 
 long been famed for beef hams. The hides of 
 these cattle, on account of their thickness, give 
 from ten to twenty shillings a-piece more than 
 the hides of short -horns of the same weight. 
 Upon the whole, they are a useful breed of cattle, 
 but they have not the fine quality of the Scottish 
 Galloways or the West Highlanders, which take 
 so readily in London. But the Irish cattle can 
 be brought to great weights. I saw a lot in Dub- 
 lin market of five-year olds, which were esti- 
 mated in weight 110 stones each, and were sold 
 for i>32 a-piece." 
 
 The English long-horns have, from the earliest 
 recorded period, existed, as a distinct and pecu- 
 liar breed, in the district of Craven, — a part of 
 the West Riding of Yorkshire adjacent to Lan- 
 
 cashire, and separated from Westmoreland prin- 
 cipally by the western moorlands. Droves of 
 Irish cattle have, from time immemorial, been 
 landed in Galloway and in the north of England, 
 and driven through Westmoreland and Lanca- 
 shire toward the southern counties, there to sup- 
 ply the markets of London and other large towns ; 
 and some of these, arrested during their pro- 
 gress southward, seem to have constituted the 
 origin of the long-horns of Craven, Lancashire, 
 and Westmoreland. The Craven group appear 
 to have become settled before the groups of the 
 two adjacent counties ; they, at a subsequent 
 period, obtained the distinction of being broader 
 in the chine, shorter in the body, more symme- 
 trical in form, and more rapid in fattening than 
 the Lancashire and Westmoreland long-horns; 
 and they have been pretty generally regarded as 
 the best crossing source for effecting improve- 
 ments on all other groups of long-horns, whether 
 in Ireland or in England. The long-horns spread 
 from their original settlements into most of the 
 inland districts of England ; and, in a more or 
 less modified condition, as well as with a greater 
 or less degree of predominance, became the 
 adopted cattle of Derbyshire, Cheshire, Notting- 
 hamshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Cam- 
 bridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northampton- 
 shire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Stafford- 
 shire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, 
 Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Hamp- 
 shire ; yet, formerly over a great extent of these 
 counties, they were both intermixed and crossed 
 with the middle-horns ; and at present over an 
 additional extent, they have become superseded 
 by the short-horns. 
 
 The long-horns of England, like those of Ire- 
 land, are readily discernible from all other breeds 
 by the disproportionate length and sometimes 
 encumbering form of their horns. In the old 
 Craven breed, the horns projected almost hori- 
 zontally ; but in the offspring and improved va- 
 rieties, they either grew perpendicularly down so 
 as to render grazing difficult, or made such cur- 
 vatures as to threaten to meet before the muz- 
 zle, or swept so round as to threaten to lock the 
 under jaw, or turned their points so inward upon 
 the nose or other parts of the face as to seem to 
 be about to pierce them. Most of the present 
 English long -horns have long, spreading, and 
 sometimes drooping horns ; a dark red and brin- 
 dled colour, with white along the back; good 
 coats of hair ; rather coarse bones ; fair symmetry; 
 a good adjustment of beef along the back ; a capa- 
 city of attaining great weight ; and a habit of 
 both sound and somewhat rapid feeding. But 
 even the Craven group, like the whole of the 
 Irish long-horns, though with no such wide dif- 
 ference of value, are divisible into two great and 
 very distinct sections. The smaller Cravens in- 
 habit the moorlands and hills; are hardy and 
 easily kept ; yield a large produce of excellent 
 milk ; have a capacity of rapid fattening when 
 
CAUTERY. 
 
 319 
 
 CHAFF-CUTTER. 
 
 removed to good pastures; and are much and 
 justly prized by cottiers and small farmers. The 
 larger Cravens inhabit the low and level districts ; 
 and yield less milk in proportion to their size 
 and food than the smaller Cravens ; but possess 
 an extraordinary tendency to fatten rapidly and 
 to acquire a great bulk and weight. " As either 
 of these found their way to other districts," re- 
 marks Mr. Youatt, " they mingled to a greater or 
 less degree with the native cattle, or they felt 
 the influence of change of climate and soil, and 
 gradually adapted themselves to their new situa- 
 tion; and each assumed a peculiarity of form 
 which characterized it as belonging to a certain 
 district, and rendered it valuable and almost per- 
 fect there. The Cheshire, the Derbyshire, the 
 Nottinghamshire, the Staffordshire, the Oxford- 
 shire, and the Wiltshire cattle were all essen- 
 tially long-horns ; but each had its distinguishing 
 feature, which seemed best to fit it for its situa- 
 tion, and the purposes for which it was bred. 
 Having assumed a decided character, varying only 
 with peculiar local circumstances, the old long- 
 horns, like the Devons, the Herefords, and the 
 Scotch, continued nearly the same." The long- 
 horns were cherished in preference to all other 
 breeds, and maintained to be the best, by the 
 celebrated improver, Mr. Bakewell ; but they are 
 now generally admited to be decidedly inferior 
 in aggregate worth to the short-horns, and not 
 equal for the shambles to any one of several of 
 the Scotch breeds. — Reports of the Board of Agri- 
 culture. — Marshall's County Reports. — Transac- 
 tions of the Highland Society. — The Farmer's 
 Magazine. — The Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society of England. — Papers of Mr. Dickson and 
 other writers in Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
 — Rev. Mr. Berry's Account of the Short-Horns. — 
 Cidley on Live Stock. — Youatt on Cattle. — Sir 
 John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — BueVs 
 Farmer 's Instructor. — Mortimer's Husbandry. — 
 Martin Boyle s Works. — Dickson's Agriculture. — 
 Low's Agriculture. 
 
 CAUTERY. A searing iron which farriers use 
 red-hot, or rather white-hot, for destroying fun- 
 gous flesh and other irretrievably diseased exte- 
 rior parts of animal texture. See the article 
 Firing. 
 
 CEREAL GRASSES. Grasses whose seeds are 
 used as corn. The mythological goddess of corn 
 and harvests, among the pagan Romans, was Ce- 
 res ; and the festivals held at Rome in her hon- 
 our were termed Cerealia. The grasses which 
 yield corn, or which were cut down in harvest 
 in order that their seeds might be thrashed out 
 and used as food, were hence called cerealian 
 grasses, or abbreviatedly cereal grasses. The 
 chief of these at present cultivated, on a large 
 scale, in Europe are wheat, barley, oats, dantho- 
 nia, rye, and maize ; the principal cultivated on a 
 small scale in Europe, are canary-grass and mil- 
 let ; and the principal cultivated, on a large 
 
 scale, in the southern parts of the temperate 
 zone, and within the tropics, are millet, setaria, 
 sorghum, and rice. 
 
 CESSPOOL. A tank or cistern for collecting 
 and containing liquid manure. See the articles 
 Tank and Liquid Manure. 
 
 CHAFF. The husks of corn, separated from 
 the solid grain by thrashing and winnowing ; 
 also, the straw of oats, barley, and wheat, or the 
 hay of clover and grasses, cut into very small 
 pieces, as food for horses and cattle. See the 
 articles Barn, Farm- Yard, and Chaff-Cutter. 
 
 CHAFF-CUTTER. A machine for cutting 
 straw and hay into short chaff-like pieces, to 
 facilitate their use as food for horses and cattle. 
 It is also called a chaff-engine, a straw-cutter, a 
 hay-cutter, and a straw and hay chopper. 
 
 The only chaff-cutter in use till toward the 
 close of last century, was simply a plain box or 
 trough, fixed on four legs and provided with a 
 large lever-mounted knife or blade. 
 
 Salmon's chaff-cutter, invented in 1797, was a 
 cumbrous and complicated machine, yet long 
 maintained considerable celebrity as a valuable 
 substitute for the old trough chaff-cutter. In 
 this machine, two wheels were connected to- 
 gether by bolts inserted in their felloes ; knives 
 were fixed on the inside of the rims, with the 
 edges adjusted at an angle of 45° from the plane 
 of the wheel's motion; a box was fixed in front 
 of the wheels, to hold the straw or hay, and to 
 let the ends of it project within the action of the 
 knives ; springs were placed to press the knives 
 forward, and wedges to prevent an excess of 
 pressure ; two spiked rollers in the box were 
 turned from the outside by ratchet-wheels so as 
 to keep the straw at rest during the stroke of 
 the knives ; and the feeding-arm was provided 
 with such adjustments and apparatus that no 
 fewer than twenty different lengths of chaff 
 might, at pleasure, be obtained. 
 
 Passmore's chaff-engine, or the Doncaster chaff- 
 cutter, patented in 1804, was somewhat similar 
 to Salmon's, but much less cumbrous in its form, 
 and considerably simplified in its mechanism. It 
 was, for many years, the type of most of the 
 chaff-cutters of the midland and eastern counties 
 of England ; and " even at the present day," says 
 Mr. J. A. Ransome in his recent work on the 
 Implements of Agriculture, " few of the machines 
 in general use are found more effective." 
 
 Lester's chaff-cutter, or the Lesfeer engine, 
 patented in 1800 and 1801, was a very simple 
 machine, and seems to have suggested the main 
 principles on which the great majority of the 
 many chaff-engines of recent years have been 
 formed. Its cutter or large curved knife was 
 fixed upon a fly-wheel, and made one stroke or 
 cut at each revolution ; the fly-wheel turned on 
 a cranked spindle which, by means of a small 
 hook or catch, communicated motion to a ratchet- 
 wheel attached to the end of one of the feeding 
 
CHAFF-CUTTER. 
 
 320 
 
 CHALK. 
 
 rollers ; this geering could be so managed as, at 
 the will of the operator, to lift either two, three, 
 or four teeth at each revolution, and make cor- 
 responding differences upon the length of the 
 pieces of straw presented to the cutter ; and the 
 straw to be cut was pressed down and carried 
 forward on an endless web, which passed over 
 one roller in the fore part and another in the 
 hinder end of the box. Though the original 
 form of this machine is now qtiite obsolete, and 
 its contrivance of an endless web has long been 
 generally exploded, yet machines which closely 
 resemble it are still extensively employed. 
 
 The cylinder straw-cutter, a very distinct ma- 
 chine from Lester's, is modelled in the Highland 
 Society's Museum, and described as follows in their 
 Catalogue : — " In it the feeding is produced by a 
 pair of grooved rollers ; and the hay protruded 
 through the cutting-box is presented to the cut- 
 ters. The two cutters are fixed upon a skeleton 
 cylinder, mounted on the fly-wheel shaft, so that 
 two strokes or cuts are made for each revolution 
 of the fly. The mouth of the cutting-box is 
 formed to stand obliquely, and the edge of the 
 cutters parallel to the axis ; thus distinguishing 
 it from those wherein the cutting-box is paral- 
 lel with and the cutters oblique to the axis." 
 
 Weir's chaff-cutter is pronounced by Loudon 
 one of the best, and is the only one noticed by 
 him in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture. It has 
 two cutters on a fly-wheel, and admits a very 
 facile regulation of the pressure of the straw. — 
 Cornes' chaff-cutter gained a prize atfthe Shrews- 
 bury meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 in 1845. It has a sliding top-roller and pressure- 
 plate, cuts with three knives, and makes two 
 lengths of chaff. — Dean's chaff-cutter gained 
 prizes from the Evesham and the Gloucestershire 
 Agricultural Societies in 1844. It has steel faces, 
 rising - rollers, aud pressure - blocks, allows the 
 straw to advance so freely as to prevent any 
 liability of choking, and cuts three different 
 lengths of chaff. — Barrett's chaff-cutter cuts four 
 different lengths ; its rollers are turned and 
 grooved spirally by machinery ; and its mouth- 
 piece is case-hardened, so as to sharpen the knives 
 as they revolve. 
 
 The Uley chaff-cutter, Plate XVIII. Fig. 1. 
 gained prizes at the Royal Agricultural Society's 
 meetings at Liverpool in 1841, at Derby in 1843, 
 and at Southampton in 1844. It possesses con- 
 siderable ^novelty of principle ; its cutters are thin 
 blades, with serrated edges, coiled round a cylin- 
 der, and effect their object with much less ex- 
 penditure of power than cutters mounted on the 
 fly-wheel, and can be sharpened simply by a few 
 retrograde revolutions of the cylinder; and a 
 simple contrivance exists for changing the lengths 
 of the cut of chaff. 
 
 The Canadian straw-cutter is an American 
 invention, and acts on a peculiar principle. It 
 was first introduced to the notice of British for- 
 
 mers in the Highland Society's Transactions of 
 1838 ; and it is briefly noticed, as follows, in the 
 Catalogue of the Highland Society's Museum : — 
 " One plain cylinder of hardwood revolves in 
 contact with the cutting - edges of 24 knives, 
 which are set in the periphery of an iron cylinder, 
 placed parallel to the former, — the knives stand- 
 ing also parallel to the axis of the cylinder. By 
 this arrangement, the two cylinders feed and cut 
 at the same time by simple pressure." This ma- 
 chine cuts large quantities with small power, but 
 does not make the chaff of regular lengths. 
 
 Ransome and May's chaff- engine, patented 
 in 1840, has two shafts, with the screw which 
 impels the rollers upon the one, and the wheel 
 which carries the knives upon the other, and 
 with such a connexion of the two by toothed 
 wheels of varying diameters as easily to vary the 
 lengths into which the straw or hay is cut ; and 
 the presser, instead of being fixed to the support 
 of the upper roller, has a motion round the axis 
 of it, and so rises or falls as to give the proper 
 pressure alike to a thick feed and to a thin one. 
 This machine is represented in Fig. 2. Plate 
 XVIII. 
 
 CHALK. A species of carbonate of lime. It 
 is inodorous and insipid ; and, when applied to 
 the tongue, feels slightly adhesive. It has either 
 a white or yellowish or greyish-white colour. It 
 feels roughish to the touch ; is pulverulent and 
 not very hard ; breaks with an earthy fracture ; 
 stains the fingers, and leaves marks on wood or 
 stone ; and has a specific gravity of from 2' 3 15 
 to 2" 78. But in hardness, fracture, and lustre, it 
 is exceedingly various ; sometimes occurring soft 
 and dull, almost like a saponaceous powder, and 
 at other times occurring hard and semi-lustrous, 
 almost like fine limestone or coarse marble. It 
 dissolves in water containing an excess of car- 
 bonic acid ; but is very partially soluble in pure 
 water. It readily effervesces with almost any 
 acid, throwing off its own carbonic acid, and 
 surrendering its calcium into combination with 
 the foreign acid to form a salt. Most specimens 
 of it contain a portion of alumina ; and many 
 contain portions of silica and oxide of iron. Its 
 principal difference from limestone is its being 
 in a large degree a hydrate, or containing, in 
 combination with its carbonate of lime, a com- 
 paratively large proportion of water. Specimens 
 of limestone analyzed by Thenard and Biot con- 
 tained only 1*63 percent, of water; and speci- 
 mens of chalk, when carted from pits, and laid 
 down upon land for manure, are frequently found 
 to contain 24 or 45 per cent. 
 
 Chalk occurs in beds, strata, or vast masses in 
 Poland, some of the Danish islands, the north of 
 France, the north-east of Ireland, and particu- 
 larly in the centre and south of England, within 
 a range which commences at Flamborough-head 
 in Yorkshire, and is continued, with irregular 
 interruptions, in Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Surrey, 
 
CHAFF CUTTERS 
 
 A7aRartan.Sc C Lan3an&: Edmlrargh 
 
CHALK. 
 
 321 
 
 CHALK. 
 
 Sussex, and Hampshire, into Dorsetshire. While, 
 in a geological respect, limestones occur of a great 
 variety of age and character, from what are called 
 the primary or non-fossiliferous rocks, up to a 
 high part of the tertiary formations, chalk occurs 
 only in the upper regions or among the newest 
 members of the secondary formations, and, in its 
 most characteristic strata, is always accompanied 
 with flints. In many of the chalk districts of 
 England, the crust of the earth, to a great depth, 
 is a continuous and solid mass of chalk, and the 
 very soil itself consists of little else than carbon- 
 ate of lime and a small admixture of decomposed 
 vegetable matter. The chalk of Ireland is very 
 much harder than almost any of the chalk of 
 England ; and, even in spite of containing flints, 
 and possessing other most decided geognostic 
 indications of being in all respects chalk, it pos- 
 sesses so close a resemblance to fine limestone in 
 both appearance and properties, as to be almost 
 universally called limestone by the natives, and 
 as to be extensively imported into Scotland un- 
 der the name of Irish lime, for exactly the same 
 uses as the richest calcareous limestones of Bri- 
 tain. Some of the chalks of England, particu- 
 larly of the extreme south and of the Isle of 
 Wight, have an unctuous or saponaceous char- 
 acter, and ought to be regarded as akin to cal- 
 careous marl ; but most are hard and flakey, and 
 may be treated, for manurial purposes, as simply 
 a kind of hydrated limestones. 
 
 The chalk group of formations, viewed either 
 geognostically or mineralogically, comprises three 
 sets, — soft white chalk with flints, hard white 
 chalk with few or no flints, and grey argillaceous 
 chalk or chalk marl. The first and the second 
 contain as large a proportion of pure carbon- 
 ate of lime as some of the richest limestones, 
 but are exceedingly poor in phosphoric acid, 
 often containing scarcely a trace or little more 
 than a trace of it, notwithstanding that they 
 constitute a large part of a geognostic system 
 which is rich in phosphoric strata; and they 
 usually form a poor thinnish soil which is of 
 small value in its unimproved state for any pur- 
 poses of aration, but which can be rendered, by 
 means of good cultivation and of manuring with 
 bones, very fertile in turnips, barley and wheat. 
 The chalk marl has generally a soft texture and 
 a dirty gray colour ; and readily decomposes 
 into a fine powder when exposed to the action 
 of the weather ; and may easily be seen to con- 
 tain a mixture of silicious and argillaceous 
 matter, and have in other respects a much more 
 heterogeneous composition than the white chalks. 
 It has been very extensively quarried for manure ; 
 and whenever it crops to the surface, so as to 
 constitute the main part of soil, it produces, with 
 comparatively little aid from putrescent manures 
 or from any other manurial applications, very 
 abundant crops of clover, beans, and wheat, and 
 at the same time is capable of vast additional 
 
 L 
 
 fertilization by means of any manures which are 
 rich in nitrogen ; yet possesses in itself so 
 sufficient a proportion of phosphoric acid as to 
 receive no advantage from the application of 
 phosphates. A specimen of it, taken from a pit 
 whence thousands of loads of it had been taken 
 away for manure, was found, by analysis in the 
 laboratory of the English Agricultural Chemistry 
 Association, to contain 19'64 per cent, of insoluble 
 silicious matter, 6*45 of soluble silica, 1*82 of 
 phosphoric acid, (equal to 3*75 of bone earth,) 
 28-98 of carbonic acid, 3771 of lime, 0-68 of 
 magnesia, and 3"04 of oxide of iron and alumina. 
 
 Chalk soils, which consist mainly of pure chalk, 
 with a small intermixture of decomposed vege- 
 table matter, constitute most of the softly-rounded 
 chains and groups of hills which bear the name 
 of downs in the south, and of wolds in the north ; 
 and, in general, they are far less adapted to til- 
 lage than to pasture, and are, in consequence, 
 very extensively used as sheep-walks. Yet the 
 lower slopes and the valleys and hollows of the 
 downs and wolds have received such a large com- 
 mixture of the finest particles of the soil, from 
 the constant though slow depositions of rills 
 from the higher grounds, as to have become very 
 productive arable lands ; and they are usually 
 farmed upon the common Norfolk system, and are 
 found to make excellent returns of barley and of 
 other crops. " There is a plant," says the Rev. 
 Mr. Rham, in reference to these districts, " which 
 seems to delight in chalky soils, and to flourish 
 better there than in deeper and richer earth. 
 This is the sainfoin, Hedysarum onobrychis; and 
 its introduction among the cultivated grasses has 
 greatly raised the value of chalky land, previously 
 considered too poor to repay cultivation. It pro- 
 duces an excellent fodder, and so enriches the soil, 
 that it leaves it in a fit state to produce excellent 
 crops of grain, with little manuring. Chalky soils 
 are not subject to the same perennial weeds which 
 infest richer lands ; couch grass is seldom found 
 in chalk; but the annuals, such as may-weed, 
 charlock, poppy, crowfoot, and several others, 
 abound in it. When a chalky soil produces 
 thistles, it is an indication of its containing a 
 portion of argillaceous earth, which improves 
 its fertility." 
 
 Soils which have a large admixture of argillace- 
 ous earth, but which are immediately incumbent 
 on chalk, also derive great benefit from the growth 
 of sainfoin, but require a different course of hus- 
 bandry from the slopes and hollows of the downs 
 and wolds. Most of these soils consist of separ- 
 ate layers of hazel-loam, thin flinty clay, or strong 
 red clay, of different degrees of admixture and of 
 depth ; and wherever they are sufficiently light 
 and porous to be suitable for the growth of tur- 
 nips, they should be sown at remote intervals 
 with sainfoin, and subjected throughout the in- 
 tervals to long and diversified rotations. Sain- 
 foin cannot be advantageously repeated except 
 X 
 
CHALK. 
 
 322 
 
 CHALK. 
 
 after a long interval, and ought not to enter into 
 every rotation ; and even any ordinary crop can, 
 in few instances, be profitably repeated with the 
 same frequency as in other soils. A good rota- 
 tion on cold thin clay and flinty chalk, upon a 
 chalky subsoil, is clover for two years, or sainfoin 
 for five, six, or seven years, then wheat, then 
 turnips, upon pared and burnt land, and fed off, 
 then wheat, then pease, then turnips, cole, or 
 tares fed off, and then oats or barley. A good 
 rotation on a friable chalky loam is clover for 
 one year, or occasionally sainfoin for several 
 years, then wheat, then tares fed off, then oats, 
 then rye or cole for spring feeding, then turnips 
 manured and fed off, then beans, and then bar- 
 ley or oats with clover and grass seeds. A good 
 rotation on a strong chalky loam, or one which 
 contains a somewhat large proportion of argilla- 
 ceous earth, is clover for one year, or occasion- 
 ally sainfoin for several years, then wheat or oats, 
 then manured fallow, then wheat, then oats, then 
 beans, then turnips fed off, and then barley. A 
 proper rotation for strong red clay upon a chalky 
 subsoil does not materially differ from a proper 
 rotation for the same kind of soil in other situa- 
 tions. 
 
 Chalk acts as a fertilizer in most cases in which 
 lime is serviceable ; it has a beneficial action upon 
 soils very much in the proportion of their differ- 
 ing from itself in nature, or of their being defi- 
 cient in calcareous ingredients ; and, in particu- 
 lar, it exerts a most benign power upon any soil 
 which is eminently clayey, or upon any which is 
 eminently sandy. Yet it acts, not as a substitute 
 for animal and vegetable manures, but as a de- 
 composing and transmuting chemical agent upon 
 the mineral and organic matters existing in the 
 soil. " Pure chalk, being saturated with carbonic 
 acid gas," remarks Malcolm, " tends to alter the 
 original disposition of the parts of the soil, where 
 it meets with various substances, either vege- 
 table, animal, or mineral. The substances be- 
 coming oxygenated by their action with the 
 chalk, generate their several acids; and these 
 acids disengage the carbonic acid gas, which is 
 readily absorbed by the roots of the plants. It 
 therefore tends, by slow degrees, to separate the 
 cohesiveness of the strong soil, and to admit the 
 roots of the plants to feed upon the carbon with 
 greater facility." Chalk, though not a substitute 
 for manure, has thus such an effect upon both 
 the texture of the soil and the decomposition of 
 organic matter, as to render a smaller dose of 
 farm-yard manure or any other carbonaceous 
 compost effective. It corrects the sourness and 
 astringency of wet clayey soils, absorbs and 
 throws off their moisture, and prevents them 
 from cohering into such solidity as to constrict 
 the roots of plants and limit the circulation of 
 the atmospheric air ; it gives consistency to are- 
 naceous soils, and binds them into sufficient 
 firmness to retain a due proportion of moisture, 
 and to afford requisite mechanical support to 
 
 plants; it renders all clayey and loamy lands 
 more workable, both in the free transit of the 
 plough or the grubber, and in the ready and mi- 
 nute intermixing of the manure ; it rapidly and 
 vastly improves the herbage of coarse sour pas- 
 ture, stimulating the dormant seeds of white 
 clover and fine grasses into activity, and causing 
 their fine, sweet, delicate leaves to form a soft, 
 dense, and nutritious sward, and to smother the 
 rank and rush-like vegetation which formerly 
 abounded ; and it exerts a cooling and conserva- 
 tional power upon pastures of a hot, gravelly, 
 loamy soil, maintaining a succulency in the roots 
 of their herbage, preventing their tender grasses 
 from being exsiccated and burnt by the ardent 
 heats of summer, and, if they be subject to the 
 growth of sorrel, so noxious to lambs and sheep, 
 everywhere destroying its roots, and freeing them 
 from its presence. 
 
 Chalk, as an eminent and lasting fertilizer of 
 cold sour lands, and of stiff untractable clays, has 
 been known since before the time of the Roman 
 naturalist, Pliny, and makes a very prominent 
 figure in the English agricultural writings of the 
 early part of last century. An experienced Essex 
 farmer, writing long ago in the Museum Rusti- 
 cum, gives an excellent account of the manner 
 in which chalk operates upon clay lands, and ob- 
 serves that it insinuates itself into the small 
 pores, and, by raising a fermentation, exposes 
 the clay to the influence of frost, rain, air, and 
 sunshine, and in consequence occasions it to be- 
 come pulverized and friable. "But," says Mr, 
 Lisle, " if chalk be laid on clay, it will in time be 
 lost, and the ground again return to its clay ; and 
 if the clay be laid on chalk, in time the clay will 
 be lost, and the ground return again to its chalky 
 substance. Many people think the land, on 
 which the other is laid for a manure, being pre- 
 dominant, converts the manure into its own soil ; 
 but I conceive, in both cases, the chalk and clay 
 is filtrated through the land, on which it is laid, 
 by time, and, being soluble by rains into small 
 corpuscles, is washed through the land on which 
 it is laid ; for neither of these manures is able to 
 unite, in its finest corpuscles, with the corpuscles 
 of the land on which it is laid, so as to form so 
 strict an union and texture with it as the land 
 doth with itself, and is therefore liable to be borne 
 downwards with rains, till no sign of it be left. 
 It is said to be a common practice with many 
 tenants in Hampshire, three or four years before 
 they leave their farms, to chalk their meadows ; 
 by which means they will, for three or four years, 
 fling out a great crop of grass, but that they will 
 be much the worse for it ever after. This seems 
 to carry some reason with it ; for the chalk so 
 mellows and opens the pores of the meadow, that 
 it enables the land to exhaust its strength in all 
 parts ; for chalk does not carry so much fatness 
 as dung does to the land it is laid on ; but it dis- 
 poses the land to bear such crops by it3 sweet- 
 ness, and well disposing of, and correcting an ill 
 
CHALK. 
 
 323 
 
 CHALK. 
 
 quality the land had before : but still I do not see 
 that this is any objection to the chalking of mea- 
 dows, provided, whilst by virtue of the chalk, they 
 are bearing such burthens, you take care to re- 
 fresh them with dung. Though chalk laid on 
 meadows enables them to give a great crop for 
 three or four years, and will then impoverish 
 them, yet I take it to hold quite contrary on pas- 
 ture ; for the grass being thereby so much sweet- 
 ened and increased, keeps constantly so much the 
 more stock, by which it is maintained always in 
 the same vigour." 
 
 The unctuous, soft, and saponaceous kinds of 
 chalk are the most suitable to be used in a crude 
 state, or in the manner of marl; and the hard, 
 dry, and firm kinds are the most suitable to be 
 used in a burnt or calcined condition, or in the 
 manner of lime. The principal good effects of 
 burning hard chalk are to lessen its weight by 
 driving off its water, and to render it more capable 
 of easy and equal spreading upon the ground by 
 reducing it to a state of powder. In the dis- 
 tricts in which chalk is most abundantly em- 
 ployed as a fertilizer, it is, for the most part, 
 either mixed with earth or manure before being 
 distributed athwart the land, or laid down in 
 autumn, and not ploughed in till it has been 
 acted on by the frosts of winter. The quantity 
 of it applied to pasture commonly varies from 
 150 to 250 bushels per acre, and, on arable land, 
 from 200 or 300 to 700 or 1,000 bushels ; but, in 
 both instances, it is very generally determined 
 by mere caprice or convenience, without any ap- 
 peal to scientific principle, or any reference to 
 either the comparative richness of the particular 
 chalk employed, or the degree of calcareous po- 
 verty or destitution of the land to which it is 
 applied. It can, in any case, be economically em- 
 ployed only when found either below the fields 
 on which it is used, or at a comparatively brief 
 distance ; and it ought always to be applied with 
 strict adaptation to the calcareous wants of the 
 land. One dressing, if sufficiently rich and pro- 
 perly applied, will slowly and regularly operate 
 upon the soil through a somewhat long series of 
 years ; and a second should not be applied till the 
 first has been allowed to expend the greater part 
 of its power, or usually till a lapse of 12 or 15 
 years. 
 
 Chalk may be dug and carted throughout July, 
 August, and September, when it is designed to 
 lie on the land unploughed-in till spring, and 
 throughout October, November, and December, 
 when it is designed to be applied and covered in 
 a state of mixation with earth or manure. When 
 a stratum of chalk exists beneath the field to be 
 dressed with it, and at no greater depth than 
 twenty feet from the surface, a shaft of four feet 
 in diameter is opened to it, and is propped round 
 the sides with a basket-work of hazel or willow 
 rods and brushwood ; the earth of the shaft and 
 the chalk of the stratum are brought up by means 
 of a rope and bucket upon a very rude and inex- 
 
 pensive windlass ; one man fills the bucket, and 
 two others wind it up, and distribute its contents 
 with a wheel-barrow upon the surrounding land ; 
 and when the stratum is worked in chambers to 
 the depth of about thirty feet from the surface, 
 the first shaft is abandoned, and another at a 
 little distance is opened. One shaft, in an aver- 
 age case, supplies sufficient chalk for six acres, 
 at a cost of about sevenpence for every twenty 
 bushels. When strata of good chalk occur close 
 to the surface, and constitute the substance of 
 hills, a large excavation is made in the form of a 
 quarry ; and affords a supply, by means of cart- 
 ing, to a considerable surrounding district. 
 
 The chalk of the uppermost three or four feet 
 of a chalk formation, especially when it occurs 
 close to the surface, is usually very inferior in 
 quality to that which lies at a greater depth ; but 
 this, as well as any better kind of chalk, serves 
 well for making and repairing roads in districts 
 where stones and gravel cannot easily be obtained. 
 Many varieties of chalk are very serviceable also 
 for making mortar, and for several other coarse 
 purposes to which the lime of limestone districts 
 is commonly applied. Chalk may likewise be 
 very servicably employed for making ponds on 
 thirsty land, away from streams and springs, for 
 the use of cattle ; and if laid several inches 
 thick, and covered with a coat of sand and gra- 
 vel, it will thoroughly retain a collection of rain- 
 water, and preserve it in a clean and sweet con- 
 dition. Powdered chalk may, in small quanti- 
 ties, be thrown into all cattle-ponds, for the cor- 
 rection of acidity ; and a lump of it should be 
 laid in every pen of a fattening calf, for the ani- 
 mal to lick. Prepared or laevigated chalk, in a 
 state of fine powder and of freedom from all im- 
 purities, is externally applied, in veterinary sur- 
 gery, to ulcers which make a thin and ichorous 
 discharge, and internally administered, in com- 
 bination with catechu and opium, as a remedy 
 for dysentery and diarrhoea. " There are few 
 cases of illness in oxen, sheep, or swine," says 
 Clater, " in which there is not considerable aci- 
 dity in the stomach or bowels. Chalk is useful 
 as being an alkali, and combining with the acid, 
 and neutralizing it. It should form a part of 
 the cordial and astringent medicine of all young 
 animals. From half an ounce to an ounce will 
 be a dose for a cow ; a drachm will suffice for a 
 sheep or hog. It should generally be accompanied 
 by opium, and always by caraways or ginger." 
 Prepared chalk is used externally for ulcers and 
 burns, and internally for the correction of acidity 
 and the cure of dysentery, in the human subject 
 as in the horse. Yet it ought by no means to 
 be administered to any animal with the freedom 
 and frequency which Clater seems to recommend; 
 for it has a considerable tendency to create con- 
 cretions and calculi. See the articles Calculus 
 and Dysentery. — LyelVs Geology. — Griffith's Re- 
 ports on Ireland. — Parliamentary Gazetteer of Eng- 
 land and Wales. — Malcolm's Husbandry and Man- 
 
CHARCOAL. 
 
 324 
 
 CHARGE. 
 
 ures. — Museum Rusticum. — Lisle's Husbandry. — 
 Marshall's Midland Counties. — Young's Farmer s 
 Kalendar. — British Husbandry. — The Farmer's 
 Magazine. — Rham'sBookof the Farm. — Thomsons 
 Dispensatory. — Youatt on the Horse. — Water's Cat- 
 tle Doctor. — Doyle's Husbandry. 
 
 CHANGE OP CROPS. See Rotation of 
 Crops. 
 
 CHANGE OP SEED. See Seed. 
 
 CHARCOAL. Impure carbon, obtained by 
 the partial or smothered combustion of timber. 
 It has of late years become known as a valuable 
 general fertilizer. In an Italian cyclopedia of 
 agriculture, the Biblioteca Agraria, edited by 
 Professor Joseph Moretti and Carlo Chiolini, it 
 is said : " From numerous experiments made by 
 the Abbe G. Piccone, charcoal is considered as 
 an efficacious manure. It consists principally 
 of oxide of carbon, the primary element of vege- 
 table productions, and is, therefore, undoubtedly 
 calculated to be employed for the purpose speci- 
 fied. According to the above author, every sort 
 of charcoal, whether of oak, chestnut, or of any 
 other sort of wood, the refuse of the charcoal, 
 the small particles, or still better the dust, can 
 be used as manure for every species of plant and 
 in every soil. The charcoal of close-grained 
 wood, therefore, should be the richer in nutritious 
 particles, as it contains less ashes and earth. 
 The effect is more speedy and vigorous accord- 
 ing to the fineness of the pulverization of the 
 charcoal ; if it is coarse the effect is weaker but 
 more durable. When the charcoal is intended to 
 manure a field for several years, or the roots of 
 vines and fruit trees, it is not necessary to pul- 
 verize it very fine. It is sufficient in such cases 
 to triturate it so that the largest pieces may not 
 exceed the size of a vetch. The means used for 
 triturating the charcoal are, the olive-presses, 
 mallets, and large pestles of iron or heavy wood, 
 suspended from a beam of wood like that of tur- 
 ners' and many other machines. The dust which 
 is produced during trituration is easily laid by 
 sprinkling it with water. When the pulverized 
 charcoal is to be used in flower-pots, in furrows, 
 in seed-pans, or in seed-beds, it is sprinkled on 
 the surface and incorporated with the spade or 
 with the watering pot. This may also be done 
 after the plants have germinated, and are 2 or 3 
 inches high, according to the nature of the spe- 
 cies. In sown fields the same method is followed 
 in applying it as with manure. Therefore, in 
 treating ground burnt up by the sun, according 
 to the opinion of the Abbe Piccone, it is laid on 
 the ground towards spring, when French beans 
 are to be sown, to preserve them from drought ; 
 to these succeed common beans, and afterwards 
 wheat or any other grain without manure. In 
 soils less arid, the rotation is begun with pota- 
 toes, hemp, buckwheat, and wheat. In every 
 case the seed should be used sparingly. On arti- 
 ficial meadows charcoal dust is sprinkled in 
 
 spring on the surface as is practised with chalk 
 and lands containing saltpetre. As to the quan- 
 tity, the Abbe Piccone computes about an equal 
 weight between charcoal and woollen rags, skins, 
 and even scrapings of bones : a rubbo (about 18 
 lb. avoirdupois) of charcoal to two of new urine ; 
 three of night-soil well digested ; four of fresh, 
 and six of common manure. After this, he ad- 
 vises, for olive- grounds, vineyards, orange-gar- 
 dens, or orchards, to allow an interval of four 
 years for the first time, five for the second, and 
 six for the third, and so on between every man- 
 uring, taking care always to increase the quan- 
 tity according to the growth of the trees." 
 
 Two sets of very satisfactory experiments, 
 with respectively common charcoal refuse dust 
 and peat-charcoal or the half-burned substance 
 of peat, were recently made upon the growing of 
 turnips, — the former by the Earl of Essex and 
 the latter by W. Appleby ; and both are recorded 
 in the 5th volume of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society's J ournal. Any charcoal, however, acts 
 as a fertilizer — not mainly, or sometimes not at 
 all, by feeding crops, since all plants derive their 
 carbon mainly from the carbonic acid of the at- 
 mosphere, — but by absorbing light and generat- 
 ing heat, by absorbing moisture and diffusing it 
 through the arid soil, by absorbing atmospheric 
 air and surrendering it to chemical action upon 
 surrounding materials, by combining with sub- 
 stances around it to form nutrimental principles, 
 and by acting antiseptically and conservingly 
 upon seeds, germs, and young or tender roots ; so 
 that whenever it is employed as a fertilizer, it 
 ought to be applied only in circumstances or with 
 accompaniments suited to its peculiar modes of 
 action. "Charcoal, in a state of powder," says 
 Liebig, " must be considered as a very powerful 
 means of promoting the growth of plants on 
 heavy soils, and particularly on such as consist 
 of argillaceous earth." And he elsewhere shows 
 that a chief part of its peculiar action consists 
 in its possessing more power than any other sub- 
 stance to condense ammonia within its pores, — 
 " charcoal absorbing ninety times its volume of 
 ammoniacal gas, which is again separated by 
 simply moistening with water;" so that, besides 
 taking down for the use of crops a large supply 
 of the ammonia diffused through the atmosphere, 
 it must prevent the escape or dissipation of much 
 which is evolved from the decomposition of 
 putrescent substances within the soil, and must 
 therefore greatly economize, or render very in- 
 creasingly fertilizing, all nitrogenous matters 
 which exist around it, whether incidentally lodged 
 in such forms as that of cattle droppings, or arti- 
 ficially applied in such forms as that of farm- 
 yard manure. 
 
 CHARGE. A thick adhesive plaster, applied 
 warm to a weak or diseased part of a cow or a 
 horse, and taking so firm a hold of the hair and 
 the skin as to remain for a very long time closely 
 
CHARLOCK. 325 CHARLOCK. 
 
 attached. Charges are far less frequently used 
 in modern than in former veterinary practice ; 
 yet, in the case of several kinds of weakness and 
 disease, they might still, with eminent advantage, 
 be uniformly employed. In any case, a charge 
 may protect from cold, and serve as a bandage ; 
 in rheumatism, it not only protects from cold, 
 and supports the limb, but gently stimulates with 
 its resin ; and in windgalls, old lamenesses, and 
 other complaints which require to be blistered or 
 fired, it follows up the action of the chief remedy 
 by serving as a continued bandage. 
 
 CHARLOCK. Several yellow-flowered weeds, 
 which infest corn-fields, and belong to the cru- 
 ciferous tribe of plants. The chief is the corn 
 charlock mustard, Sinapis arvensis. This is an 
 annual; and sometimes, in spite of all precau- 
 tion, especially in fields which have been dressed 
 with police manure, occurs in so great profusion 
 as, when in flower, to spread a sheet of yellow- 
 ness athwart the whole of the corn crop. Its 
 stem is rough, and usually about 20 inches high ; 
 its leaves are rough and sublyrate ; its pods have 
 the appearance of being swollen, and are about 
 three times as long as their slender two-edged 
 beaks ; and its seeds are multangular and smooth. 
 When it infests a drill-sown crop, it ought to be 
 destroyed by the hand-hoe; and even when it 
 infests broadcast crops, it may, in some instances, 
 be pulled up by hand. "When it is permitted to 
 grow to maturity, its seeds, in the course of the 
 labours of the barn, ought to be carefully and 
 thoroughly separated from the corn with which 
 they are intermixed ; and when they exist in any 
 considerable quantity, they may be sold, along 
 with rape-seeds or any other oleiferous seeds, for 
 crushing. 
 
 Black mustard, Sinapis nigra, another indi- 
 genous annual of the mustard genus, is also 
 sometimes called charlock. But both of two 
 native varieties of this, the common black, and 
 the turgid black, are cultivated plants, and 
 usually grow to the height of four feet, and 
 ought no more to infest corn-crops than any two 
 of these crops infest each other. See the article 
 Mustard.' — The wild radish, Raphanus raphan- 
 istrura, an annual weed of the radish genus, is 
 somewhat frequently called charlock, and fully 
 contests with the corn charlock mustard the in- 
 gloriousness of being a troublesome weed. Three 
 varieties of it, with respectively yellow, white, 
 and purple flowers, grow wild in Britain ; and all 
 infest corn-fields, and bloom in June and July. 
 Its stem is beset with rigid hairs or bristles, and 
 usually attains a height of about 20 inches ; its 
 lower leaves are lyrate, its upper ones are stalk- 
 ed, and both have a glaucous green colour, and 
 are beset with hairs or bristles ; and its pods are 
 smooth, one-celled, and jointed, and contain each 
 from three to eight seeds. When it cannot be 
 weeded out, and exists in considerable proportion, 
 its seeds ought to be separated, and may be sold 
 
 and used, in the same manner as those of the 
 corn charlock mustard — Plants of rape, Brassica 
 napus, when growing wild, or when rising from 
 stray seeds of cultivated rape, are also sometimes 
 called charlock ; but besides being biennials, they 
 affect different soils from either the mustard or 
 the wild radish, and are of comparatively rare 
 occurrence, and but inconsiderable annoyance. 
 
 The mustards and the wild radish not only 
 impoverish the soil, and rob useful plants of a 
 large portion of their nourishment, and occasion 
 great trouble and damage by the intermixation 
 of their seeds with corn, but also afford nutri- 
 ment and protection to the turnip beetle, and 
 preserve it in the ground during the years of a 
 rotation which intervene between the crops of 
 turnips. " Few weeds," remarks Dr. Shier, " are 
 so difficult to deal with as Sinapis arvensis and 
 Raphanus raphanistrum. Their seeds are ex- 
 tremely tenacious of life ; a deeper ploughing 
 than usual, will often, in lands long infested with 
 them, cover the whole surface of the ground, the 
 seeds having lain dormant for many years. Some 
 instances have come under my own observation, 
 where the seeds of the Sinapis arvensis have ve- 
 getated freely after being buried for more than 
 40 years. These weeds appear in greatest abun- 
 dance among the white crop taken after lea, and 
 in the land preparing for fallow crops. In the 
 latter case, when the weather is favourable, two 
 or more crops of weeds may be made to vegetate, 
 and be destroyed in a single season. In the for- 
 mer case, they are more difficultly subdued ; but 
 a turn of the harrows, after the grain plants are 
 in their second leaf, will destroy a great many, 
 and hand-weeding must do the rest. All the 
 plants of sinapis, however, that escape, ripen, 
 and mostly sow their seeds before the white crop 
 can be gathered in. In some seasons, it happens 
 that a considerable number of cruciferous weeds 
 must be allowed to stand, and are cut and housed 
 along with the grain ; and unless their seeds are 
 carefully separated from the dressed grain by a 
 seed-sieve, they may be again sown with the 
 seed-corn. The pod of the raphanus is indehis- 
 cent, that is, it does not burst as that of the 
 sinapis does, but breaks into joints, each contain- 
 ing a seed. These may be separated by what is 
 termed a bere-riddle, through which the grain 
 passes while the joints are retained. The best 
 winnowing-machines are now provided with both 
 these sifters." 
 
 Mr. Lisle observes, that cold wet lands are 
 always more subject to charlock than chalky or 
 dry and light lands ; and he assigns as the 
 reason, that charlock-seeds, in consequence of 
 being very oily, resist putrefaction, are not easily 
 opened or penetrated by moisture, and require 
 for their germination a longer and steadier wet- 
 ness than usually occurs on chalky or sandy lands. 
 When charlock-seed and turnip-seed are sown at 
 the same time, the charlock is seven or eight 
 
CHEESE!. 
 
 326 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 days later in appearing above ground than the 
 turnips ; and as the two plants closely resemble 
 each other in appearance, and are very^iable to 
 be mistaken for each other in weeding, this fact 
 ought to be of some practical value to a farmer. 
 A person who had vast quantities of charlock in 
 a field of barley, mowed the whole when the 
 charlock was in flower, as low as he could with- 
 out cutting off more than the tops of the blades 
 of barley ; and he had the satisfaction of seeing 
 the corn-crop rising quite above the weed, and 
 of reaping from the field four quarters of barley 
 per acre. Mr. Marshall found a field of neglected 
 and unhoed young turnips overgrown with Sina- 
 pis arvensis and Brassica napus a yard high and 
 as yellow as a rape field ; and, for the sake of ex- 
 periment, ordered part of it to be mown high 
 enough to prevent injury to the turnips, and low 
 enough to get beneath the pods of the charlock, 
 and to be strewed over an adjoining pasture- 
 ground for the use of sheep and cattle. " Sheep," 
 he says, " eat the tips of the leaves of the turnips, 
 partially cut off by the scythe, and also the 
 leaves of the charlock, but left the pods and the 
 stalks of the latter in a great measure untouched. 
 Cattle, however, preferred the charlock, eating 
 the whole up clean, before they picked up the 
 turnip leaves. Four or five acres kept about 
 twenty head of young and store cattle near three 
 weeks. Had the food been given to them regu- 
 larly, and more frugally than it was, it would 
 have kept them sufficiently as store cattle a 
 month. This, added to the saving of the expense, 
 compared with that of drawing, cannot be reck- 
 oned at less than twenty shillings an acre." — 
 Withering 's Botany. — Loudon s Hortus Britanni- 
 cus. — Sinclair's Weeds of Agriculture. — Dawson's 
 Agriculturist's Manual. — Mortimer's Husbandry. 
 — Disk's Husbandry. — Doyle's Husbandry. — Mar- 
 shall's West of England. — Davy's Agricultural 
 Chemistry by Shier. 
 
 CHEESE. A well known condimental food, 
 formed principally of the pressed and dried 
 caseum or curd of milk. Cheese and curdled milk 
 appear to have been known and used so long 
 ago as the patriarchal ages of the Hebrew com- 
 monwealth. Job says, " Hast thou poured me 
 out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" David 
 was sent by his father Jesse, to " carry ten 
 cheeses to the captain of their thousand in the 
 camp, and to see how his brethren fared." Cheese 
 of kine formed part of the supplies of David's 
 army at Mahanaim, during the rebellion of Ab- 
 salom. Cheese is mentioned by Homer, Euripi- 
 des, Theocritus, and other early poets. The 
 art of cheese-making was well known to the Ro- 
 mans, and seems to have been introduced by 
 them into both divisions of Great Britain. But 
 all their cheeses appear to have been made with- 
 out the use of rennet, or simply by allowing the 
 milk slowly to sour, and afterwards pouring off 
 its whey. The art of curdling* milk with rennet 
 
 seems not to date higher in Britain than about 
 the middle of the eighth century ; and the prac- 
 tice of making cheeses of full milk, or otherwise 
 than with skimmed milk, was unknown in Scot- 
 land till about the middle of last century. 
 
 Cheeses are exceedingly various in consistency, 
 flavour, and other properties, according to the 
 peculiar qualities of the milk, but particularly 
 to the special methods of manufacture. Hard 
 and dried cheeses are adapted and often designed 
 to be long kept ; the drier and poorer they are, 
 the longer can they be preserved ; and they 
 are by far the most bulky and abundant class 
 of cheeses, and comprise an exceedingly wide 
 range of variety, from the most insipid and lea- 
 thery skimmed-milk cheese, to the richest and 
 most piquant Cheshire or double Gloucester. 
 Soft and juicy cheeses, such as all cream cheeses, 
 and the luxurious kinds called Bath cheeses and 
 Yorkshire cheeses, cannot be long kept without 
 becoming putrid, and are designed to be sold and 
 used as speedily as possible after they are made. 
 Some varieties, such as the Stilton and the Gruy- 
 eres, are intermediate in consistency between the 
 hard and the soft, and possess a medium degree 
 of capacity of preservation. The method of 
 manufacture, especially when regarded as includ- 
 ing the control of temperature, and the addition 
 of foreign ingredients, is the grand power in 
 creating and determining varieties, — insomuch 
 that not only may scores of very perceptibly dif- 
 ferent varieties be intentionally manufactured in 
 one dairy and one season, from one kind of milk, 
 but very frequently eight or a dozen quite per- 
 ceptibly different varieties are unintentionally 
 produced from one process, and among one sea- 
 son's set of homogeneous cheeses. " After all 
 that can be done," remarks Mr. Aiton, " cheeses 
 which are made in the same way from the milk of 
 the same cows, and every operation performed 
 alike, will differ considerably in quality and fla- 
 vour. This diversity is greater in the Scotch 
 than in the English cheese, owing probably to 
 the former being made in ill-constructed houses, 
 and with imperfect apparatus, while in England 
 the dairies are large, the dairy houses of superior 
 formation, and the operations more uniformly 
 conducted. Milk is more easily contaminated 
 with the slightest impurities than any other 
 substance in common use." But before men- 
 tioning the characteristics of the chief varieties 
 of cheese generally known in the British market, 
 or in the different sections of the British dairy, 
 we must make a brief sketch of the general me- 
 thod of manufacture. 
 
 Milk, when exposed for two days or so to the 
 open air, acidifies, and soon after coagulates ; 
 and its coagulum, when artificially broken, sepa- 
 rates from the larger portion of the serum or 
 whey, and may afterwards, by means of salting 
 and prolonged pressure, be formed into exactly 
 such cheese as seems to have been used by the 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 327 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 ancients. But as this cheese is, in every case, 
 hard, brittle, acrid, and ill-flavoured, means are 
 employed, in all modern cheese-making, for arti- 
 ficially effecting coagulation, and in consequence 
 obtaining sweet curd and agreeably flavoured 
 cheese. Coagulation, with various degrees of 
 rapidity, under various conditions of tempera- 
 ture, and with various results upon the quality 
 of the curd, can be effected by means of alcohol, 
 sugar, acids, supersalts, and the juices of several 
 vegetables ; but with no known substance can it 
 be effected with at once superior economy, great- 
 er convenience, and more agreeable results, than 
 with the gastric juice or the prepared stomach 
 of calves, hares, poultry, and some other animals. 
 A curd from acidulous coagulation is always 
 more or less sour ; one from alcoholic coagula- 
 tion has a disagreeably vinous gout ; and one 
 from coagulation by means of vegetable juices 
 has generally a perceptible flavour of the plants 
 whence the juices are obtained; while a curd 
 from coagulation by rennet, or the juice obtained 
 from the stomach of animals, is quite sweet, and 
 has been found by far the best adapted to the 
 manufacture of all delicately flavoured cheese. 
 Some writers — even in spite of the undoubted 
 coagulating power of alcohol and some other 
 non-acidulous substances — think that acid, in 
 some form or other, is always the coagulating 
 agent, and assert that vegetable acids effect a 
 fuller separation of serum, or produce a greater 
 bulk of curd, than other acids ; and they can at 
 least point to the curious facts that a few drops 
 of pure ammonia, put into curdled milk, dissolve 
 the curd, and that soda or potash, though acting 
 with less power than ammonia, so thoroughly 
 decompose curd as to transmute it into a black 
 fatty substance resembling oil. Rennet is pre- 
 pared very variously, in different districts or by 
 different persons ; and Mr. Aiton, alluding to one 
 grand difference between the prevailing English 
 and the prevailing Scotch methods of preparing 
 it, says, " So far from throwing aside the curdled 
 milk found in the stomach of the calves when 
 killed, or washing away the chyle, both are in 
 Scotland carefully preserved, and are found to 
 tend much to strengthen and enrich the rennet. 
 The curdled milk and chyle in the stomach of 
 the calf form more powerful rennet than can be 
 drawn from the bag alone when these substances 
 are removed. It is the chyle formed from the 
 gastric juice, mixed with the food in the stomach 
 of the animal, that forms the coagulating power; 
 and it is only from that chyle, so formed in the 
 stomach, that; the bag comes to be impregnated 
 with coagulable matter, more than any other of 
 the intestines of the animal." But the only differ- 
 ential property between the Scotch and the Eng- 
 lish rennet which at present requires to be no- 
 ticed, is the important one, that while English 
 rennet usually does not form the curd in less time 
 than from one hour to three hours, Scotch ren- 
 net commonly forms it in from five to ten min- 
 
 utes. See the article Rennet. A table-spoonful 
 of the best kind of Scotch rennet is sufficient to 
 coagulate thirty gallons of milk ; but the proper 
 quantity of any particular specimen of rennet, 
 whether Scotch or English, must necessarily de- 
 pend on its relative strength ; and, as a general 
 rule, it ought, as nearly as possible, to be simply 
 enough to effect perfect coagulation, — for when- 
 ever used in excess, as to either strength or 
 quantity, it has a tendency to make the cheese 
 swell, and possibly occasions a sort of smothered 
 fermentation. 
 
 A brief notice of the most approved method of 
 making Dunlop cheese, or the best cheese of the 
 Scottish dairies, with a slight occasional refer- 
 ence to some disagreeing points in the English 
 methods, will afford a good view of the proper 
 manufacture of all firm whole-milk cheeses, or of 
 all the best of the hard varieties which are 
 known in the English market ; and this may be 
 followed by such separate details as will explain 
 the successful imitation in one district of the 
 best produce of another district, as well as the 
 manufacture of varieties essentially different 
 from the firm whole-milk kinds. 
 
 When the milk of the cows of a farm is suffi- 
 cient to make two cheeses in the day, the pro- 
 duce of each milking, immediately on being ob- 
 tained, is passed through a sieve, collected in a 
 tub, and subjected to coagulation. But as it. is 
 fully and readily coagulable only when near blood 
 heat, and as it suffers considerable cooling before 
 the rennet can be mixed with it, a small quan- 
 tity of hot water, especially when the weather is 
 cold, may be advantageously added, to raise it to 
 the proper temperature. When two milkings 
 upon a farm are required to make a cheese, the 
 milk of the evening is kept in coolers in the milk- 
 house throughout the night ; it is mixed with 
 the milk of the morning, to form one coagula- 
 tion ; and as much of it is artificially heated as 
 is requisite to raise the whole to about blood 
 heat. In some of the English dairies, the cream 
 is skimmed off and heated in order to produce 
 the proper temperature ; but this method sepa- 
 rates part of the butyraceous matter from the 
 caseum, and occasions it afterwards to pass off 
 in an oily form with the whey. The coagulated 
 milk is cut and very softly turned up, so as to 
 allow the greater portion of the whey to sepa- 
 rate ; and when the curd is brought to the con- 
 sistency of butter, it is placed in a drainer, cut 
 into pieces of about two inches square, and sub- 
 jected to a pressure of 40 or 50 pounds, with a 
 board and weight, in order to squeeze out the 
 remaining whey. Several times during the pro- 
 gress of the consolidation by pressure, at inter- 
 vals of about a quarter of an hour, the curd is 
 turned over, cut into pieces as before, and sub- 
 jected anew to pressure. After the whey has 
 quite or nearly ceased to flow by this method, the 
 curd is cut into very small pieces with a pecu- 
 liarly formed and suitably shaped knife, and is 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 328 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 very thoroughly mixed with a proper propor- 
 tion of salt, and is then put into the cheese- vat, 
 with a piece of thin canvass around it, and sub- 
 jected to very heavy or stringent compression. 
 After being compressed for about three hours, 
 and again at every interval of about twelve hours 
 till the cheese is completely made, it is turned 
 out, freed from its damp enwrapping cloth, 
 wrapped in a dry cloth, and placed again under 
 heavy pressure. In some dairies, the cheese, 
 when beginning to cohere, or when taken the 
 second time from under compression, is put for 
 half an hour into a bath of hot water, as warm 
 as the hand of the operator can endure, and is 
 then well dried, wrapped in a cloth, and sub- 
 jected to a continuance of the compression. The 
 bath is designed to draw out the whey, and ac- 
 celerate the thorough cohesion of the cheese ; 
 but it has been thought by some dairy-farmers 
 to over-soften the cheese at the time, and to ren- 
 der it tough afterwards, and it has nowhere 
 come into general use. 
 
 A compression of about 48 hours, in all ordi- 
 nary circumstances as to the degree of the pres- 
 sure and the size of the cheese, is sufficient for 
 both the exclusion of the whey and the thorough 
 cohesion of the curd ; but this, in any circum- 
 stances, can, without injury, be somewhat pro- 
 longed. When the cheeses are taken from the 
 press, they are, for three or four days, exposed 
 to the heat of the kitchen or any similar place, 
 and are twice or thrice a-day turned upside 
 down or downside up ; and then they are removed 
 to the store-room, there to be turned on every 
 second or third day. In many small dairies, the 
 cheeses are stored on boards along the floor of a 
 garret, or of an attic story, or of a waste room, 
 or of the barn ; but in all properly constructed 
 dairies, they are placed on wooden shelves, or on 
 cheese-racks, in store-rooms expressly construct- 
 ed for the purpose, with shelter from sunshine, 
 with moderate ventilation, and neither damp 
 nor very dry. In Cheshire and Holland, the 
 salting is effected, not as in Scotland by inter- 
 mixing salt with the curd before going to press, 
 but by means of brine, or by rubbing the cheeses 
 with dry salt after they are taken from press. 
 In many, perhaps most English dairies, under 
 the mistaken notion of enriching or refining the 
 flavour, cheeses, on being removed from pressure, 
 are, in technical phrase, " sweated," or are heated 
 till they exude a portion of their butyraceous 
 matter. Scotch cheeses are never made of the 
 spherical form of the Dutch ones ; but are round- 
 ed on the edges, and flat on the sides ; and most 
 of them have a weight of from 1 5 to 50 pounds. 
 
 In 1824, and again in the following year, the 
 Highland Society offered premiums for the best 
 specimens of Scottish imitations of double Glou- 
 cester cheese ; and, in pronouncing judgment 
 upon the numerous competing cheeses submitted 
 to them, they were aided by several gentlemen of 
 long and extensive practice in the cheese trade. 
 
 On a careful examination of the cheeses of the 
 second of these years, the judges declared, that 
 " the quality of the prize imitation double Glou- 
 cester is fully equal to the real cheeses of that 
 variety, and would compete with them in any 
 market ; " and they awarded a first premium, 
 both for these cheeses and for imitation Wilt- 
 shires, to Mr. Sanderson of Blackcastle, whose 
 account of his mode of making them differs sur- 
 prisingly little from that which we have given of 
 the prevalent method of making Dunlop cheese. 
 "Not having a sufficient number of cows for 
 making a cheese at one milking," says Mr. San- 
 derson, " the evening milk, after being skimmed 
 in the morning, and heated to about 104° Fah- 
 renheit, is mixed with the morning milk hot 
 from the cows, and the cream which had been 
 taken off the evening milk also added, the heat 
 of the whole being then 98°. The rennet and 
 colouring are next added, the time of coming be- 
 ing from three quarters of an hour to an hour. 
 When sufficiently firm, the curd is gently broken 
 with a scoop, and left for a few minutes to sub- 
 side ; the whey is then taken off, and the curd 
 cut in all directions with a knife. When quite 
 freed from the whey, the curd is cut into square 
 pieces, and put into a drainer, with a cover to 
 fit into the inside. This cover is placed upon 
 the curd, and a 14 lb. weight put on it. Every 
 half hour, it is cut into small pieces, and some 
 additional weight put on. This operation is con- 
 tinued for three hours, when the curd is put into 
 a tub, and cut into very minute pieces, with a 
 knife for the purpose, in shape like the letter S. 
 At this time, the salt is added. The curd is next 
 put into the cheeser or mould, a pretty heavy 
 weight put on it, placed near the fire, and then 
 put into the screw-press. The cows are milked 
 about nine, and the cheese put to press about 
 six ; and, while it remains there, a little fine salt 
 is rubbed upon it every time it is turned. The 
 cheeseling, when finally removed from the press, 
 is again rubbed over with salt, which is repeated 
 for ten successive days, during which it ought 
 not to be exposed to much drought. It is next 
 rubbed over with a little fresh butter, and placed 
 in the store-room, where it is turned three times 
 a-week, and rubbed with a coarse towel. The 
 cheeses made in imitation of North Wiltshire, 
 are made exactly as above, only in smaller chees- 
 ers. The pine-shaped are put into a cloth, made 
 in the shape of a filtering-bag, when the curd is 
 quite green, and hung, with the point down, for 
 twenty-four hours. They are then put into a 
 net, with a cloth over it, and again suspended 
 the reverse way." 
 
 The method of making true double Gloucester 
 cheese, as exemplified in one of the largest and 
 best dairy-farms of Gloucestershire, considerably 
 differs from Mr. Sanderson's method. The curd, 
 after being cautiously, carefully, and well freed 
 from the great body of the whey, is pressed with 
 the hand into vats, covered with fine canvass 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 329 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 cheese-cloths, and placed for half an hour in the 
 press. It is then taken out of the vats, and put 
 into a curd-breaking mill, so constructed as to 
 tear the curd into small crumbs, to save all the 
 laborious toil of squeezing and rubbing it with 
 the hands, and to prevent it from losing any part 
 of its butyraceous matter in the process of pul- 
 verization. The minutely divided curd, accord- 
 ing to very general though decidedly injurious 
 Gloucestershire practice, is now scalded with hot 
 whey ; but, according to the best practice of the 
 county, it is merely pressed compactly together 
 with the hand in the filling of the vat, and is so 
 far rounded up in the centre as to admit of being 
 pressed down to a fair and dense level. "A 
 cheese-cloth is then spread over the vat, and a 
 little hot water is thrown over the cloth, as tend- 
 ing to harden the outsides of the cheese, and pre- 
 vent it from cracking. The curd is now turned 
 out of the vat into the cloth, and the inside of 
 the vat being washed in whey, the inverted curd, 
 with the cloth around it, is again returned to it ; 
 the cloth is then folded over, and the vat put 
 into the press, where it remains about two hours, 
 after which it is taken out and dry cloths ap- 
 plied, which should be repeated in the course of 
 the day ; it is then replaced in the press until the 
 cheese is salted, which is generally done within 
 twenty-four hours after it is made. The salting 
 is performed by rubbing the entire of the cheese 
 with finely powdered salt. The cheese is after 
 this returned to the vat, and put under the press, 
 in which more cheeses than one are placed to- 
 gether, care being always taken to put the new- 
 est lowest in the press, and the oldest uppermost. 
 The salting is repeated three times, the cloths 
 being removed after the second in order to efface 
 their marks, and twenty-four hours are allowed 
 to intervene between each. Thus, the cheese is 
 within five days taken from the press to the 
 cheese-room ; though in damp weather, it should 
 remain somewhat longer. There it is turned 
 every day for a month, when it is ready for clean- 
 ing, which is done by scraping with a common 
 knife, the dairy-maid sitting on the floor, and 
 taking the cheese in her lap, to perform the 
 operation. When it has been cleared from all 
 scurf, it is rubbed all over with a woollen cloth 
 dipped in paint made of Indian red or Spanish 
 brown, and small beer ; and as soon as the state 
 of the paint will permit, the edge of the cheese, 
 and about an inch on each side, are rubbed hard 
 with a cloth every week." 
 
 All the many varieties of whole-milk cheese 
 are made in methods essentially identical, or very 
 nearly so, with the methods we have described. 
 Good sound whole-milk cheese, whatever be the 
 name it wears or the district in which it is made, 
 is firm in consistency, close and even in texture, 
 unctuous to the touch, mild in taste and flavour 
 when new, becoming richer in taste and increas- 
 ingly mellow with the lapse of a little time, and 
 acquiring a very grateful fragrance and a piquant 
 
 gout when it is old. Inferior whole-milk cheese 
 is either flaccid in consistency, loose in texture, 
 harsh in taste, austere in flavour, unequal in col- 
 ouring, or merging into putrefaction ; or it pos- 
 sesses two or more, or possibly all, of these bad 
 properties. Four faults have very generally been 
 ascribed to Scottish whole-milk cheese, as com- 
 pared with prime Dunlop, or with the best vari- 
 eties of England, — first, that it is of too soapy a 
 consistency when opened, the curd being dis- 
 posed in layers, and not cohering into one com- 
 pact mass, — secondly, that it wants a due degree 
 of consolidation from chemical influence, in con- 
 sequence, as is alleged, of not having been well 
 and frequently rubbed with salt during the pro- 
 gress and after the close of compression, — thirdly, 
 that it crumbles, like a piece of short-bread or 
 over-baken oaten cake, beneath the application 
 of the knife, — and fourthly, that, even from the 
 same farm, and in the produce of any single sea- 
 son, it is so variable in quality as often to pre- 
 clude any individual cheese from being regarded 
 as a tolerable specimen of a lot. But these 
 blemishes, so far as they really exist either in 
 the cheeses of Scotland or in those of any district 
 of England, are capable of being prevented by 
 due care in the manufacture. 
 
 The cohesion, compactness, and consistency 
 of cheese are determined chiefly by the tem- 
 perature at which the milk is kept in the 
 coolers and coagulated in the tub; and they 
 may, therefore, be regulated almost at pleasure. 
 When the milk is kept at a lower temper- 
 ature than 50°, or is coagulated much below 
 blood heat, or is allowed to cool unduly down 
 after the curd is set, the cheese made from it 
 will certainly be both too soft in consistency, and 
 decidedly insipid in taste ; and when the curd is 
 formed at a temperature much above blood heat, 
 or is much handled or heated in taking off the 
 whey, the cheese will as certainly be too hard and 
 cohesive. Cracks in cheese have been fancifully 
 supposed by some writers to be occasioned by the 
 liming of the pastures on which the cows are 
 fed ; but, in the great majority of instances, they 
 are really occasioned by too early or too great ex- 
 posure to drought. The running out of whey at 
 the sides, technically called a whey-spring, is pre- 
 vented in good English cheeses by laborious 
 thrusting and skewering ; and yet it rarely oc- 
 curs in Scotch cheeses which have undergone no 
 more than the ordinary routine of compression. 
 The heaving of cheeses has sometimes been fan- 
 cifully ascribed to the cows feeding on clover ; 
 and though often of obscure and very doubtful 
 origin, it probably arises, in most instances, from 
 electric influence upon the fresh curd, from the 
 presence of a minute portion of gluten or kindred 
 impurity in the milk, or from the use of an over- 
 dose of rennet. Rankness of taste may proceed 
 from some putrid matter in the milk, from pu- 
 trid, ill-preserved rennet, from the contact of 
 putrid air with the milk or the curd, from some 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 330 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 dirtiness in the dishes, or from the want of due 
 care and speed in squeezing out the whey. 
 
 The diversity of taste and flavour which occurs 
 in whole-milk cheese of the same district and 
 even of the same dairy, is, in some respects, dif- 
 ficult to be accounted for, and, in many respects, 
 not easy to be controlled. One known cause is 
 peculiarity in the food of cows. Milk during the 
 period of feeding on turnips is well known to ac- 
 quire a peculiar flavour from these roots, and to 
 communicate that flavour both to butter and 
 cheese; and it may just as certainly, though un- 
 observedly, acquire a peculiar flavour of a differ- 
 ent kind from any one of several weedy herbs 
 which abound in certain pastures. A small quan- 
 tity of nitre, dissolved in the milk, corrects the 
 turnip flavour; and a small quantity of some 
 other and equally potent substance might be re- 
 quisite to correct the flavour communicated by 
 particular herbage. Cows, when pastured on dry 
 and steeply hilly ground, abounding in wild herbs, 
 usually yield milk which produces richer and 
 better-coloured butter, than when they are fed 
 on a pasture of artificial grasses. — Another known 
 cause of diversity in the taste and flavour of 
 cheese, is the condition and vicissitudes of the 
 weather. Not only do all the elements of weather 
 control the quality of herbage, and, through its 
 medium affect the health and produce of cows ; 
 but heat, cold, sunshine, and especially electricity, 
 powerfully modify the proporties of both milk and 
 curd. — A third known cause, and one of great 
 width of range, and diversity of operation, is the 
 exposure of the milk to impure air. One grand 
 reason why much of the cheese of England excels 
 the cheese of Scotland, is simply the compara- 
 tively limited operation of this cause in the for- 
 mer country, or the possession on the part of 
 English farmers of far superior appliances of the 
 dairy to those which are generally possessed by 
 the Scotch. While an English dairy has appro- 
 priate rooms, and persons wholly devoted to its 
 duties, the Scotch dairy, in multitudes of in- 
 stances, is merely a nook of the domestic build- 
 ings, and shares the attention of only one person 
 in common with the miscellaneous duties of the 
 kitchen. Now, when milk is exposed to many 
 variations of heat and cold, and to many changes 
 and impurities of air, — when it is coagulated in 
 a farmer's kitchen, contemporaneously with pro- 
 cesses of cooking, or of cleaning, or of miscella- 
 neous work, — when it is attended to by a servant- 
 of-all-work conjointly or alternately with duties 
 which disturb the temperature or contaminate 
 the air, — and when it is held in dishes, and worked 
 with implements which, at other times, are used 
 for exceedingly different purposes ; it cannot 
 possibly maintain either purity or uniformity of 
 flavour, and must unavoidably produce the great 
 diversity of texture, taste, and piquancy which 
 so commonly characterizes the cheese-produce of 
 Scotland. 
 
 But even the desirable and sound diversity of 
 
 flavour and gout, in whole-milk cheeses, is very 
 great, and, when considered jointly with the ca- 
 prices of cheese-consumers, occasions insuperable 
 difficulty in finding a precise or even proximate 
 standard of excellence. Good or even prime 
 cheeses differ in taste and flavour according to 
 the dairies, the methods of manufacture, the sea- 
 sons of the year, the stages of the cows' milk, 
 the state of the weather, the character of the 
 pasture, and some other controlling circumstan- 
 ces. Some fastidious consumers of cheese prefer 
 it new, others prefer it middle-aged, and others 
 prefer it old ; some relish the unctuous, some the 
 cohesive, and some the crumbling ; some prefer 
 the mild, and others the pungent ; some prefer it 
 perfectly sound, others prefer it slightly putrid, 
 and others prefer it in a state of almost thorough 
 decomposition, acrid with empyreumatic oil, sten- 
 chy with rottenness, and all alive with a tumbling 
 mass of minute insects. When not only the fla- 
 vour of good cheese itself is so diversified, but 
 when the taste of its consumers is so exceedingly 
 various, and, in the last instance at least, so 
 monstrously perverse, any final appeal as to pre- 
 eminent quality is manifestly impossible. Yet, 
 in a general way, Scotch cheese may be charac- 
 terized as less pungent, less acrid, less highly 
 flavoured, milder in the taste, and richer in buty- 
 raceous matter, than English cheese. When a 
 considerable quantity is to be eaten, the Scotch 
 cheese feels less hot and heavy on the stomach ; 
 and when only a morsel is eaten, for the sake of 
 its flavour after a good dinner, the English 
 cheese feels more potent and effective in the 
 mouth. 
 
 The cheese of Cheshire, and the cheeses of some 
 other districts, are usually stained with annatto, 
 the flowers of marigold, the juice of orange-car- 
 rot, or other similar-coloured dyes. See the ar- 
 ticle Annatto. The practice of cheese-colouring 
 was probably commenced under the notion of its 
 giving a highly agreeable tint to cheese ; and, in 
 a mercantile sense, it is still in some degree ne- 
 cessary as a popular element or established pro- 
 perty of cheeses of certain districts and classes ; 
 but, as regards both the profits of the manufac- 
 turer and • the health of the consumer, it is 
 decidedly pernicious. An Essay written by Mr. 
 Whitley of London, and published in ]841, ably 
 examines the practice, thoroughly denounces it, 
 and shows it to be encumbered with the follow- 
 ing among other evils, — that the substances em- 
 ployed in it diminish the comparative quality 
 of curd obtainable from any kind of milk, — that 
 they more or less retard the process of maturation 
 in the cheese, — and that, under the mere name 
 of annatto, they are usually adulterated com- 
 pounds, decidedly injurious to health. — In some 
 dairies, the leaves of sage, parsley, and other 
 herbs, are infused into cheese, to give it a green 
 colour. In other dairies, part of the curd, when 
 ready for the press, is exposed in a sieve to the 
 air, in order that it may become oxygenated, and 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 331 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 may render the cheese, into which it is mixed 
 with newly prepared curd, of a diversified colour, 
 and of a disposition to run speedily into putridity. 
 In a few dairies, rapid putridity is induced by an 
 intermixture of beaten potatoes. In Ross-shire, 
 cheeses are, for several days, buried within sea- 
 mark, in order that they may acquire a blue col- 
 our and a peculiar taste ; and in France, a con- 
 siderable quantity of cheese receives an offensive 
 smell, resembling that of a pig-sty, from an in- 
 termixture of fenugreek. 
 
 New cheeses require to be gradually dried and 
 slowly hardened before being lit for the market ; 
 and, for this purpose, they are usually spread, in 
 a single layer, on the floor or shelves of a cheese- 
 room, store-room, or part of a barn, garret, or 
 dwelling-house, and turned by hand daily, every 
 second day, or twice a-week, in order to alternate 
 the exposure of their surfaces to the air. This, in 
 a large dairy, is a slow and laborious operation ; 
 and as it is performed by female servants, it 
 sometimes prevents them from paying due atten- 
 tion to the maintaining of all the dairy and all 
 its implements in a state of perfect cleanliness. 
 Another objection is, that the floor or shelves 
 soon become moist, and in consequence retard 
 the progress of the cheeses' drying. A very 
 effective machine for performing the operation, 
 both with speed, and without retention of mois- 
 ture, was invented by Mr. Blurton, of Field-HalL 
 in the vicinity of Uttoxeter, and has been found 
 to combine the four additional advantages, of 
 holding three times as many cheeses as can be 
 laid on the floor of the room which it occupies, 
 of affording shade from sunshine and exposure to 
 a constant current of air over every cheese, of 
 preventing a loss of weight and deterioration of 
 quality from sweating, and of expediting matu- 
 rity for the market to a degree over the common 
 method of about five weeks in every set of cheeses. 
 The machine is merely a kind of swing-frame, 
 and is not more effective than simple. A dozen 
 strong shelves are framed together, and have bars 
 nailed from the top to the bottom of one side, to 
 prevent the cheeses from falling out in the act of 
 turning ; the frame is suspended on two strong 
 pivots, the one set in the wall of the room, and 
 the other supported by a strong post ; and two 
 catches keep the frame upright, and prevent it 
 from being turned more than half round. By 
 first filling the shelf immediately above the axis 
 of the frame, and then placing the cheeses alter- 
 nately on the two nearest shelves above that 
 which has been already filled, the preponderance 
 of the one side over the other can never amount 
 to more than the weight of one cheese ; so that 
 the whole power required, in any circumstances, 
 to turn the frame when partially or wholly filled 
 with cheeses, can never be more than is sufficient 
 to overturn one cheese, and to resist the friction 
 of the pivots. The cheeses, in the act of turn- 
 ing, drop on the shelves which, in the former 
 position of the frame, were above them ; and the 
 
 shelves require to be at such distances as to ad- 
 mit of perfect aeration, and at the same time not 
 to allow space for an injurious depth of fall to 
 the cheeses in turning. 
 
 Dunlop cheese began to come into notice dur- 
 ing the latter part of last century ; it was first 
 manufactured in the district of Cunningham in 
 Ayrshire, and took its name either from the par- 
 ish of Dunlop, or from a carrier called Dunlop 
 who carried to Glasgow a large portion of its 
 earliest specimens ; and it is now made through- 
 out the whole or chief parts of the counties of 
 Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, 
 and Wigton, and ought, in propriety, to drop the 
 name of Dunlop, and assume the designation of 
 Lowland Scotch. It is far from being so uniform 
 in taste and flavour as seme of the best-known 
 kinds of English cheese ; but, in the aggregate, 
 it pretty successfully competes with them for 
 popular favour. Part of it is too soft and com- 
 paratively insipid ; and part has a wide range of 
 both texture and flavour between poor and prime ; 
 but a large proportion is firm, solid, sound, fat, 
 and combinedly mild and piquant. Every good 
 specimen of it has a texture like soap and a mel- 
 low taste, is free from cracks and fissures, and is 
 neither hoved nor open in its pores. It is usually 
 eaten when from one month to ten months old ; 
 and not one-twentieth part of it is kept longer 
 than a twelvemonth. When it is allowed to at- 
 tain comparatively great age, it becomes strong- 
 er in taste, though still mild, and acquires a fine 
 rich flavour. The best kinds of it have a closer 
 resemblance to the cheeses of Gloucestershire 
 than to those of any other English district. 
 
 Cheshire cheese is not so fat as Dunlop cheese ; 
 and it has an austere flavour, a rough, sharp 
 taste, and a dry loose texture, with many small 
 open pores; but it is remarkably uniform in 
 character, and is generally free from cracks and 
 from putrid parts. It is always made with well- 
 trained and routine attention, in well-constructed 
 dairies, according to fixed rules, by one class of 
 persons, and invariably in one way ; and hence 
 arises its uniformity. Its curd is formed at too 
 high a temperature, and is broken or churned, by 
 several persons, during about forty minutes, be- 
 fore any portion of the separated whey is poured 
 off, and is bruised or worked, by several opera- 
 tors, during two or three hours before being put 
 to press, and is skewered, during several addi- 
 tional hours, after being subjected to pressure ; 
 so that it profusely imbibes the impurities which 
 float in the surrounding air, and undergoes a 
 certain degree of acidulation or oxygenizement, 
 and, in consequence, transfers austereness, acri- 
 dity, and comparative coarseness to the cheese. 
 The milk of the Cheshire cows, though less in 
 quantity than that of the Scottish breeds, is richer 
 in quality; and it ought to produce a richer 
 cheese ; but it is deprived of much of its butyra- 
 ceous matter by excessive heat in the process of 
 coagulation ; its curd is deprived of an additional 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 332 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 quantity by excessive manipulation, and by vio- 
 lent breaking and thrusting ; and hence the whey 
 is usually so oleaceous as to yield a quantity of 
 butter, and the cheese is proportionally impover- 
 ished in all its fatty qualities. 
 
 Old Fuller says, respecting the cheeses of Che- 
 shire, " This county doth afford the best cheese for 
 quantity and quality, and yet their cows are not, 
 as in other shires, housed in the winter ; so that 
 it may seem strange that the hardiest kine do 
 make the tenderest cheese. Some essayed in 
 vain to make the like in other places, though 
 from thence they fetched both their kine and 
 dairy-maids ; it seems they should have fetched 
 their ground too, wherein is surely some occult 
 excellency in this kind, or else so good cheese 
 will not be made : I hear not the like commen- 
 dation of the butter in this county; and per- 
 chance these two commodities are like stars of a 
 different horizon, so that the elevation of the one 
 to eminency is the depression of the other." 
 
 Gloucester cheese is characterized by richness 
 of composition, combined piquancy and mildness 
 of flavour, such a waxy texture as permits it to 
 be cut into thin slices without crumbling, and 
 such a retentive diffusion of its oily matter as 
 occasions it, in the process of toasting, to be 
 thoroughly softened without being burned. Its 
 smooth, uniform, waxy texture appears to pro- 
 ceed from proper temperature in coagulation, and 
 from judicious and careful treatment of the curd. 
 Double Gloucester, or what is technically called 
 "the best-making" cheese, ought always, like 
 true Dunlop, to be made of pure unskimmed- 
 milk ; but, in some large dairies, it is the pro- 
 duce of two milkings, the one used pure and 
 whole, and the other deprived of sufficient cream 
 and butter to supply the domestic wants of the 
 household. Single Gloucester is very varied in 
 quality, and may either be sheer skimmed-milk 
 cheese, or a manufacture from equal portions of 
 skimmed and unskimmed, or an intermediate 
 article, with its main substance of skimmed-milk, 
 and its qualifying substance of unskimmed. The 
 worst kinds of it are prepared from a milk, de- 
 prived to the utmost, and by every kind of effort, 
 of its butyraceous matter. In some Gloucester 
 dairies, the floor of the cheese-room is well rub- 
 bed with mint, elder leaves, potato stems, and 
 other herbaceous matter, for the double purpose 
 of giving the cheeses a greenish coat, and of pro- 
 tecting them from mites ; and in other dairies, 
 the newly-made cheeses are washed once a-fort- 
 night with hot whey, for the purpose of giving 
 them a clean and firm exterior. 
 
 Cheddar cheese takes its name from the village 
 of Cheddar, near the Mendip-Hills in Somerset- 
 shire; but it is manufactured throughout the 
 whole of the rich midland district of that county, 
 both in its somewhat hilly parts, and in the 
 marshes around Glastonbury. It was, for a con- 
 siderable time, sold in the London market under 
 the stolen name of double Gloucester, and may be 
 
 supposed to have been originally manufactured 
 in imitation of that cheese ; but it eventually 
 acquired so great a reputation as to be readily 
 sold, at an equal price, in its own name. The 
 cows are pastured and milked in the vicinity of 
 the dairy ; the milk is expeditiously set with the 
 rennet, and allowed to stand two hours undis- 
 turbed ; a portion of the first separated whey is 
 heated and poured upon the curd, and afterwards 
 all the whey is heated and poured back, and the 
 whole allowed to stand for half an hour; and 
 then the curd is put into the vat, subjected to 
 pressure, and otherwise treated up to maturity 
 in the usual manner. Cheddar cheese is dis- 
 tinguished by a soft, rich, butyraceous appear- 
 ance and flavour, and is supposed to possess a 
 thorough constitutional intermixture of its par- 
 ticles, and a powerful chemical habit of throwing 
 off such portions of fatty matter as may have a 
 tendency to putrescence. 
 
 North Wiltshire cheese often contests celebrity 
 with at once Dunlop, Gloucester, and Cheddar. 
 It was at first, like the Cheddar, an humble imi- 
 tation of Gloucester ; but, also like the Cheddar, 
 it now boasts an independent reputation. " One 
 circumstance," says Mr. Davis, " goes a great way 
 to explain the goodness of the North Wiltshire 
 cheese, namely, the convenient situation of most 
 of the farm-houses in the centre of the farm, so 
 that all the cows can be driven home to milk, 
 and all the milk can be put together of an equal 
 temperature, and, by beginning the work early, 
 the dairyman can make cheese twice in the day." 
 The salt of the North Wiltshire cheese, as of the 
 Dunlop, is intermixed with the curd ; the curd is 
 crumbled into very minute pieces, or as nearly as 
 possible pulverized ; and the cheeses undergo less 
 pressure, and are usually made of far smaller 
 sizes, than those of other celebrious dairy districts. 
 A frequent method of compression is, to put the 
 curd for each cheese into a filtering-bag, hung 
 with the point downwards, during twenty-four 
 hours, so as to give it the form of a pine-apple, 
 and then to put it into a net*, and hang it with 
 the point upwards till it is sufficiently dry. In 
 some dairies, a preparation of green-colouring 
 matter is made with a cold decoction in milk of 
 sage, marigold, and parsley ; and a portion of 
 this is mixed with the milk or curd of each 
 cheese-making, in order to give the cheeses a 
 greenish hue. 
 
 Stilton cheese is pre-eminently celebrated for 
 richness, high flavour, and exquisite piquancy. 
 It was first manufactured by a relative of the 
 proprietor of the Old Bell Inn at Stilton, in Lei 
 cestershire, and took from that place its name ; 
 but it is now extensively made throughout the 
 counties of Leicester, Huntingdon, and Cam- 
 bridge, and in some adjoining districts. It was 
 originally of such choice quality as to be cur- 
 rently sold for half-a-crown a pound, but it is 
 now of diversified quality, in general much de- 
 teriorated, and largely of such a kind as to be 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 333 
 
 CHEESE 
 
 sold at a shilling or even tenpence per pound. 
 All good varieties of it are made of the cream of 
 two milkings, and the milk of only one of the 
 two ; so that they contain twice as much buty- 
 raceous matter as the best of simply whole-milk 
 cheese. The curd is not greatly broken ; and 
 the whey is gently removed. All require to be 
 kept during two years, and some during three 
 years, in order to acquire^their due or character- 
 istic degree of mellowness and power ; and many, 
 it is believed, are kept in moist warm cellars, 
 while others are wrapped in strong brown paper, 
 and plunged into a hotbed. A ready and curi- 
 ous method of inoculating a new Stilton cheese, 
 or a new butyraceous cheese of any kind, with 
 the flavour of one which has become old, mellow, 
 and incipiently putrid, was communicated to the 
 secretary of the Highland Society, in 1832, by 
 Mr. Robison, the secretary of the Royal Society 
 of Edinburgh. " This," says Mr. Robison, " may 
 be done by the insertion in the new cheese of 
 portions of the old one containing blue mould. 
 The little scoop which is used in taking samples 
 of cheese, is a ready means of performing the 
 operation, by interchanging ten or a dozen of the 
 rolls which it extracts, and placing them so as to 
 disseminate the germ of the blue mould all over 
 the cheese. A new Stilton cheese treated in this 
 way, and well covered up from the air for a few 
 weeks, becomes thoroughly impregnated with the 
 mould, and generally with a flavour hardly to be 
 distinguished from the old one. In selecting 
 cheeses for this operation, I have chosen them dry, 
 and free from any unpleasant taste ; and I have 
 never failed in obtaining a good result, although 
 sometimes, when the old cheese had decayed mat- 
 ter mixed with the blue mould, the flavour and 
 appearance of the inoculated cheese differed a 
 good deal from that of the parent one. I have 
 sometimes treated half a Lanarkshire cheese in 
 this way, and have left the other half in its natural 
 state ; and have been much amused with the re- 
 marks of my friends on the striking superiority 
 of the English cheese over the Scotch one." 
 
 Parmesan cheese, though reported to be made 
 of skimmed-milk, has so decidedly an oleaceous 
 character, and possesses so piquant a taste, and 
 sells in London at so extravagantly high a price, 
 that it must be placed in the same category with 
 whole-milk cheeses. It is made not only in the 
 little Italian state whence it takes its name, but 
 throughout the luxuriant district of the Milanese 
 situated between Lodi and Cremona. The milk 
 for it is drawn from cows which are stall-fed on 
 hay throughout the winter, and on cut grass 
 throughout the summer ; and each cheese of it 
 has usually a weight of between 60 and 180 lbs., 
 and is produced by a group of dairymen, on a 
 sort of joint-stock plan of association. The milk 
 for a prime cheese of it is a mixture of the even- 
 ing's milking skimmed in the morning and at 
 noon, and of the morning's milking skimmed at 
 noon. This is gradually heated to a temperature 
 
 of about 120°, in a large copper caldron, shaped 
 like an inverted bell, and so suspended on the 
 arm of a lever as to be removable ofi" and on the 
 fire at pleasure ; it is then taken from the fire, 
 set with the rennet, and allowed about an hour 
 to coagulate ; and it is next put anew upon the 
 fire, gradually raised to a temperature of 145°, 
 and incessantly and briskly stirred till all the 
 curd separates into small pieces. Part of the 
 whey is first taken out, and a little saffron put 
 in for colouring ; and when the whole of the curd 
 is thoroughly broken, almost all the whey is 
 taken out, and a sufficient quantity of water 
 poured in to enable the operator to bear the 
 heat with his hand. The curd is now collected, 
 by means of a cloth passed beneath it, and 
 gathered up at the corners ; it is pressed into a 
 wooden frame on a platform, and covered with a 
 piece of wood and a very heavy weight ; and, 
 during one night, it throws off most of its con- 
 tained whey, and acquires a firm consistence. 
 During forty days, it is daily turned, and has its 
 uppermost side rubbed with salt, so that each 
 side receives twenty saltings ; and after the ter- 
 mination of the forty days, its outer crust is 
 pared off, its fresh surface is varnished with lin- 
 seed oil, and its convex side is coloured red. A 
 strong suspicion very generally exists that the 
 fatty or oleaceous matter which fills the pores of 
 Parmesan cheese originates in the mixing of rape 
 oil, olive oil, or hog's lard with the curd. A Par- 
 mesan cheese, at all events, in spite of being pro- 
 fessedly made of mere skimmed-milk, is the fat- 
 test, as well as the most pungent and acrid-fla- 
 voured variety of cheese in popular favour ; and 
 its fat has far more the appearance of oil or of 
 hog's lard, than of butyraceous matter or richly 
 creamy milk. 
 
 The skimmed-milk cheeses of Britain are ex- 
 ceedingly various in quality, partly from the 
 same causes which control the quality of whole- 
 milk cheeses, but chiefly from the degrees of de- 
 privation of cream which are practised upon the 
 milk. One, two, or three creamings may be 
 taken ; or the milk may stand through very 
 various periods, and under very various con- 
 ditions, so that the resulting degrees of rich- 
 ness or poverty in the cheese may be numerous 
 and wide. If but little cream be taken away, 
 the cheese may be only one degree inferior to 
 Dunlop or double Gloucester, and if the whole be 
 taken away, it may be a hard, coriaceous, indi- 
 gestible mass of mere caseum, not fit for the use 
 of a human being, and requiring rather to be 
 chopped with a hatchet than cut with a knife. 
 The skimmed-milk cheese of Suffolk, Tweeddale, 
 and some other districts of England and Scot- 
 land, where better things might be expected, is 
 so dismally bad as to serve chiefly for exercising 
 the teeth and jaws, and testing the power of the 
 stomach ; and that not long ago in general use 
 among the Scottish peasantry was so vilely manu- 
 factured as to be an absolute abomination. " It 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 334 
 
 CHEESE. 
 
 is only of late years," remarks Mr. Aiton, " that 
 due attention began to be paid in Scotland to 
 cleanliness. Till of late, the operations of the 
 dairy were carried on in the sooty and dirty 
 hovels which were then inhabited by the ten- 
 ants ; and the housewife, while she was sinking 
 her arms to the elbows in the milk or curd, was 
 alternately cooking for the family, and " — but 
 the rest of the sentence is too disgusting to be 
 quoted. " But a separate dairy-house is now 
 common in the generality of farms ; and the 
 person who sets the curd, &c, does nothing else 
 till the cheese is put under pressure." Milk for 
 skimmed-milk cheese should be put into three- 
 inch or four-inch coolers, and allowed to stand 
 between 24 and 48 hours ; it should afterwards, 
 without any delay, be freed from its cream, and 
 manufactured into cheese ; and it should be 
 heated to about the temperature of the blood, 
 and passed through a sieve into the curd-vat, 
 there to be coagulated. The subsequent opera- 
 tions are the same as for whole-milk cheese, but 
 give less trouble, and require less nicety of care. 
 
 Dutch cheeses, under the names of Gouda, 
 Friezland, Eidam, and other designations, are 
 extensively imported into Britain; and are of 
 very various quality, both whole-milk and skim- 
 med-milk, some hard, poor, and exceedingly cheap, 
 and others good, piquant, and expensive. The 
 Gouda has the highest reputation, and seems to 
 be peculiarly prepared. A method of imitating 
 and even excelling Gouda cheese was published 
 in a French Agricultural Journal in 1830, and 
 deserves the consideration of British dairy-farm- 
 ers. The rennet is prepared by digesting, during 
 three weeks, six gastric pieces, cut small, in three 
 kilogrammes of water, five kilogrammes of com- 
 mon salt, two ounces of saltpetre, and half a 
 bottle of vinegar of wine. The milk for any one 
 cheese is all of one milking ; and it is put into a 
 plain, unpainted, wooden trough, and coagulated 
 either at its own natural heat, or with the aid of 
 some heat imparted to the trough, or, in the 
 case of very rich pasturing, by the addition of a 
 very little warm water. When the rennet is 
 added, the milk is very gently stirred ; when the 
 curd begins to form, the whey is gradually poured 
 off ; and when the great body of the whey is dis- 
 charged, the curd is carefully and thoroughly 
 kneaded into one homogeneous mass, and wrap- 
 ped in a thin linen cloth of a fine but strong tex- 
 ture, and put into a frame, whose sides are pierc- 
 ed with small holes to permit the free and con- 
 stant exclusion of the expressed whey. When 
 the cheese is placed under the press, it receives 
 pressure at first but lightly, and afterwards by 
 slowly increasing degrees ; it is allowed to remain 
 during a vastly shorter period than in the English 
 methods, — shorter even than in the common 
 Dutch methods, and not so long in hot weather 
 as in cold ; and when removed from the press, it 
 is floated during five or six days in a pickle strong 
 enough to float an egg, and has its upper surface, 
 
 during the whole of that period, covered with a 
 somewhat thick layer of salt. 
 
 The Swiss cheeses, like those of Holland, are 
 various in quality, some hard and coriaceous, and 
 others soft and butyraceous, — some made chiefly 
 or altogether of whole-milk, some of skimmed- 
 milk, and some of curious combinations of milk, 
 potatoes, and meal. The Gruyeres or Jura cheese 
 has obtained a factitious fame among certain Bri- 
 tish gourmands, and yet is really a hard, coria- 
 ceous, bluish, half-insipid mass of skimmed-milk 
 curd, requiring a coat of butter to make it palat- 
 able, and usually washed down by the mountaineer 
 peasantry with a draught of fresh or of fermented 
 whey. It seems to be really prepared in the 
 manner in which the Parmesan cheese is profess- 
 edly prepared, — by joint-stock management, and 
 wholly of skimmed-milk ; but it possesses none 
 of the surreptitious fattiness and pungency of 
 the Parmesan, and ought to be considered, less as 
 cheese, than as hard, exsiccated, sodden curd. — 
 The green cheese called Schabzieger, and made 
 in the canton of Glarus, is a curious and nasty 
 preparation, and, similarly to the Gruyeres cheese, 
 though quite different from it in nature, has ac- 
 quired an unaccountable and absurd celebrity. 
 The curd for it is freed from the whey by pressure 
 in perforated boxes ; it is kept in masses till it 
 begins to putrefy ; it is then worked into a paste, 
 and has its putrefaction arrested, with a large 
 proportion of the common, aromatic, trefoil, an- 
 nual weed, Melilotus officinalis, in a dried and 
 pulverized condition ; and it is finally pressed 
 into moulds shaped like common flower-pots, and 
 left there to consolidate and harden. 
 
 Cream-cheeses are luxuries, of delicate charac- 
 ter, and requiring nice management ; and some 
 are strictly extemporaneous preparations, while 
 none can be long kept. The cream-cheeses of 
 Neufchatel consist simply of cream thickened by 
 heat and pressed in a small mould ; and they ra- 
 pidly become first sour and then mellow, and are 
 usually imported from France as luxuries, and 
 eaten in their mellowed condition. — The cream 
 for the best cream-cheeses of Britain is dried in 
 small vessels of about an inch and a half in depth, 
 with perforated bottoms, such as retain the cream 
 and allow milk to escape ; it is so covered with 
 rushes or the culms of maize, as to be capable of 
 being turned without being directly touched ; it 
 receives no other compression than with the 
 hands, between cloths ; and it is kept in a tem- 
 perature, as nearly as possible uniform, and nei- 
 ther cold nor very hot, till it evaporate and be- 
 come mellow. — An extemporaneous cream-cheese 
 may be made as follows: — "Warm a pint of 
 cream ; add one spoonful of rennet ; let it stand 
 during an hour ; put it into a sieve, first laying a 
 thick cloth into it ; let it stand during twenty- 
 four hours ; and then put it into a cream-vat. and 
 cover it with a wet napkin and a board. If the 
 process be commenced so early in the morning as 
 about five o'clock, two spoonfuls of rennet may 
 
CHEESE. 
 
 335 
 
 CHEESE MAGGOT. 
 
 be added, and the cream may stand an hour, then 
 be put into a sieve, then stand three hours, then 
 have the edges drawn as it thickens, and finally 
 be put into a vat about an hour before it is 
 wanted." 
 
 A recipe for a kind of cheese in perfect con- 
 trast to the luxury of cream-cheeses, but capable 
 of important use in the economy of cottier-farm- 
 ers — cheese from butter-milk — is given by a cor- 
 respondent in the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
 ture for October 1843. The writer obtained the 
 recipe in Long Island, in the United States, and 
 recommends it especially to the attention of Scot- 
 tish farmers. " The contents of my churn," says 
 the writer, " I put into a pot, which I hung over a 
 slow fire. The butter-milk curdled; and the 
 curd sunk to the bottom of the pot. I then 
 poured off the whey, and worked the curd as I 
 would do other cheese, giving it salt to the taste, 
 which was about half the quantity given to skim- 
 milk curd. The curd was then put in a clean 
 coarse linen cloth, tied tight, and hung from the 
 ceiling to dry for a few weeks, when the cheese 
 was fit for use. The linen cloth, when hung in 
 a net, gives a neatness to the appearance of the 
 cheese. If a little bit of butter be worked into 
 the curd, and the cheese kept for three or four 
 months, it will then be very good. I used to buy 
 small cheeses in the market of New York, which 
 I expected would be like Scotch skim -milk 
 cheese : but on finding them to taste like ewe- 
 milk cheese, I was informed they were made 
 from butter-milk." 
 
 Ewe-milk cheese, either wholly from ewe-milk, 
 or from a mixture of ewe-milk and cows'-milk, 
 was at one time extensively manufactured in 
 Britain, and is still extensively manufactured in 
 many districts of continental Europe. But, though 
 much relished by some persons, it has ceased to 
 be much esteemed in either England or Lowland 
 Scotland ; and, with very few exceptions, is now 
 made only in remote and mutually distant spots 
 of Wales and the Scottish Highlands. The writer 
 of a long article on Perthshire Husbandry in the 
 Farmer's Magazine, asserts, that the peculiar, 
 pungent, aromatic flavour which originated and 
 temporarily maintained the celebrity of ewe-milk 
 cheese, was derived from the intermixture of the 
 grossest impurities in the act of milking. — Goat- 
 milk cheese was also, for some time, in vogue ; 
 but it has shared the fate of ewe-milk cheese ; 
 and it probably owed its temporary celebrity to a 
 very similar cause. 
 
 Cheese is manufactured from potatoes and cur- 
 dled milk in Thuringia and part of Saxony, and 
 is said to be of very fine quality. A brief notice 
 of the method of making it appeared in a French 
 periodical in 1829, and is thrice copied into the 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in respectively 
 1831, 1838, and 1842. " After having collected a 
 quantity of potatoes of good quality, giving the 
 preference to the large white kind," says this 
 notice, " they are boiled in a caldron ; and after 
 
 becoming cool, they are peeled and reduced to a 
 pulp, either by means of a grater or a mortar. 
 To five pounds of this pulp, which ought to be as 
 equal as possible, is added a pound of sour milk, 
 and the necessary quantity of salt. The whole is 
 kneaded together, and the mixture covered up 
 and allowed to remain for three or four days, ac- 
 cording to the season. At the end of this time, 
 it is kneaded again, and the cheeses placed in 
 little baskets, where the superfluous moisture is 
 allowed to escape. They are then allowed to dry 
 in the shade, and placed in layers in large pots 
 or vessels, where they must remain for fifteen 
 days. The older these cheeses are, the more their 
 quality improves. Three kinds of them are made ; 
 the first, which is the most common, is made ac- 
 cording to the proportions above indicated ; the 
 second, with four parts of potatoes, and two parts 
 of curdled milk ; the third, with two parts of 
 potatoes, and four parts of cow or ewe milk. 
 These cheeses have this advantage over every 
 other kind, that they do not engender worms, 
 and keep fresh for a great number of years, pro- 
 vided they are placed in a dry situation, and in 
 well-closed vessels." See the articles Caseum, 
 Cheese -Press, Cheese- Maggot, Milk, Whey, 
 Rennet, Cow, and Dairy. — Alton's Treatise on 
 Dairy-Husbandry. — Whitley's Essay on Cheese-Col- 
 ouring. — Holland's Agriculture of Cheshire. — Ful- 
 ler's Worthies. — Davis' Survey of Wiltshire. — Com- 
 munications to the Board of Agriculture. — The 
 Bath Papers. — The Farmer's Magazine. — The Quar- 
 terly Journal of Agriculture. — Transactions of the 
 Highland Society. — The Magazine of Domestic Eco- 
 nomy. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — Marshall's 
 County Reports. — Rham's Book of the Farm. — 
 Knovkedge Society's Farmer's Series. 
 
 CHEESE-CLOTHS. Large napkins or towels 
 for enveloping the cheese-curd, preventing its 
 immediate contact with the cheese-vat, and im- 
 bibing its expressions of whey, during the pro- 
 cess of consolidation in the cheese-press. Many 
 are of' home -manufacture ; and all should be 
 strong, bibulous, of open texture, and of linen 
 fabric. 
 
 CHEESE-FLY. See Cheese-Maggot. 
 
 CHEESE-KNIFE. See Cheese. 
 
 CHEESE-LIP. A bag in which dairywomen 
 prepare and keep rennet. 
 
 CHEESE-MAGGOT. The larva of a species of 
 dipterous insect, of the piophila genus. This ge- 
 nus comprises five or six known British species. 
 Its antennae are three-jointed, and are inserted 
 in a cavity in the front of the face ; its two palpi 
 are fleshy, clavate, and pubescent ; its lip is large 
 and fleshy ; its head is nearly globose ; its eyes 
 are remote and rather small ; its thorax is nearly 
 quadrate; its scutellum is triangular; and its 
 wings are transparent, and have about twelve 
 perfect cells. The species which produces the 
 cheese-maggot, Piophila casei, is about two lines 
 in length ; its body is greenish-black, smooth, 
 and shining ; the front of its head is reddish-yel- 
 
CHEESE MITE. 
 
 336 
 
 CHEESE PRESS. 
 
 low; it thighs, at the base and the apex, are 
 ochreous yellow ; its tibiae are deeply ochreous ; 
 its anterior tarsi are black, and the others ochre- 
 ous; and its wings are clear, iridescent, and 
 slightly tinged at the base with rust-colour. The 
 female, by means of her ovipositor, places her eggs 
 deep in tfre holes and fissures of cheese. The 
 larva, cheese-maggot, hopper, or jumper, is pale, 
 somewhat transparent, and free from hairs ; and 
 it has, in front, two strong mandibles resembling 
 claws, and, in rear, some projecting points which 
 enable it to vindicate its popular name of jumper. 
 " These maggots," says Kirby and Spence's Intro- 
 duction to Entomology, " have long been cele- 
 brated for their saltatorial powers. They effect 
 their tremendous leaps — laugh not at the term, 
 for they are truly so when compared with what 
 human force and agility can accomplish — in 
 nearly the same manner as salmon are stated to 
 do, when they wish to pass over a cataract, by 
 taking their tail in their mouth, and letting it 
 go suddenly. When it prepares to leap, our lar- 
 va first erects itself upon its anus, and then, 
 bending itself into a circle by bringing its head 
 to its tail, it pushes forth its unguiform mandi- 
 bles, and fixes them in two cavities in its anal 
 tubercles. All being thus prepared, it next con- 
 tracts its body into an oblong, so that the two 
 halves are parallel to each other. This done, it 
 lets go its hold with so violent a jerk, that the 
 sound produced by its mandibles can be readily 
 heard, and the leap takes place. Swammerdam 
 saw one, whose length did not exceed the fourth 
 part of an inch, jump in this manner out of a box 
 six inches deep ; which is as if a man, six feet 
 high, should raise himself in the air by jumping 
 144 feet." When cheese-maggots are numerous 
 in a cheese, they rapidly destroy it, both by 
 crumbling it into minute particles, and by shed- 
 ding upon it a corrosive and putrefying liquid ; 
 but they may easily be destroyed, either by ex- 
 posing it to a pretty strong heat, or by plunging 
 it in such a medicated bath as will kill them 
 without altering its own substance or flavour. 
 
 CHEESE-MITE. A very minute apterous in- 
 sect, of the acarus genus. It is so small as to be 
 very nearly microscopic ; it accumulates, in great 
 multitudes, upon dry decayed cheeses ; and, by 
 an extraordinary perversity of taste, it consti- 
 tutes, in the estimation of many gourmands, a 
 grand recommendation of the putrid caseous 
 masses which it overruns and inhabits. How it 
 gets into cheeses, is not known. A colony of it, 
 as seen through a powerful microscope, are in- 
 teresting objects of both curious and scientific 
 observation ; but how they can be pleasant sub- 
 jects of human mastication, or desirable tenants 
 of the human stomach, none but gourmands are 
 able to conceive. An eminently disgusting cir- 
 cumstance is, that their excrements constitute 
 the fine brown powder which the eaters of de- 
 cayed cheese so particularly relish. A cheese- 
 mite has eight legs ; and between two claws, on 
 
 the foremost four of these, is a long-necked vesi- 
 cle which possesses great capacity of inflation 
 and contraction. When the mite sets down its 
 foot, the vesicle inflates ; and when the creature 
 lifts up its foot, the vesicle contracts. 
 
 CHEESE-PRESS. A machine for effecting 
 the compression of cheeses, and forcing from 
 them the remains of their whey while in the 
 cheese- vat. A great evil, in the simplest and 
 most primitive cheese-presses, is the imposing of 
 sudden, forcible, and maximum pressure, and the 
 consequent forcing out of portions of fatty juice, 
 the retention of which adds both richness of fla- 
 vour and highness of price ; and a considerable 
 evil, in even some of the newer and more im- 
 proved machines, is the unequal distribution of 
 the pressure, and the consequent want of uni- 
 formity in the texture of the cheese. The vari- 
 eties of cheese-presses are very numerous ; and 
 some of these varieties are in extensive use ; but 
 all, the ancient as well as the modern, may be 
 satisfactorily referred to five types. 
 
 The simplest and oldest kind of cheese-press is 
 a long timber lever, so adjusted as either to im- 
 pose the weight direct upon the cheese-vat, or to 
 let the latter be placed between the weight and 
 the fulcrum. The end of the lever — in modes of 
 adjustment which may still be seen exemplified 
 upon cottier-farms, or the farms of remote dis- 
 tricts — is fixed sometimes in a hole in the wall, 
 sometimes to a bolt, and sometimes in the trunk 
 of a tree : and the sinker forms the fulcrum, 
 while two or three undressed stones, placed on 
 the other end of the lever, constitute the weight. 
 
 A second kind of cheese-press has a large 
 square stone suspended by a screw, between the 
 side-posts of a timber-frame. The cheese-vat is 
 placed directly beneath the stone ; and the latter 
 is lowered upon the sinker, or returned to its 
 former position, by respectively the turning and 
 the re-turning of the screw. During the inter- 
 vals of the machine being used, a small block of 
 timber is placed beneath the stone, to sustain its 
 weight, and to prevent the screw from being 
 strained. This kind of cheese-press may, by good 
 management, be so constructed as to effect both 
 equal and graduated pressure ; but, in general, it 
 imposes the whole weight at once, and is consi- 
 derably liable to make an over-pressure on one 
 side. 
 
 A third kind of cheese-press consists of two 
 perpendicular side-posts, a fixed cross-beam on 
 the top, a moveable cross-beam parallel to that 
 on the top, and two screws suspending the latter 
 beam upon the former, and working it up or down 
 as required. The cheese-vat is placed upon the 
 lower beam, and screwed up into compression 
 against the upper beam. This mechanism may 
 seem to secure graduation and equal diffusion of 
 pressure ; but it can rarely, if ever, be depended 
 on for perfect working throughout any consider- 
 able period, and must be regarded as very little 
 superior to the second kind. 
 
CHEESE-RACK. 
 
 337 
 
 CHOKING. 
 
 A fourth kind of cheese-press consists of a 
 frame of cast-iron ; a fixed iron-plate for receiving 
 and retaining the cheese-vat ; a moveable iron- 
 plate for pressing upon the sinker of the cheese- 
 vat ; a perpendicular piston fixed into the move- 
 able plate, and provided over its middle and 
 upper part with a rack ; a pinion and ratchet- 
 wheel, for working in the rack, and elevating or 
 lowering the piston ; a malleable iron lever, three 
 feet in length, and grooved in several places on 
 the upper side, to hold the ring of the weight, 
 and to lessen or augment the power of the ma- 
 chine in the proportion of the weight's distance 
 from the ratchet-wheel ; and a winch-handle, on 
 the side opposite to the iron lever, to turn the 
 axis of the pinion, and apply the whole power of 
 the machine. This press — of which, as made by 
 the Shotts' Iron Company, a drawing is given in 
 Plate XV., Fig. 8 — is exceedingly effective, and 
 possesses the advantage of giving any amount of 
 pressure which may be required, and of applying 
 this either quickly and easily, or slowly and more 
 powerfully to suit the conclusion of the operation. 
 
 A fifth kind of cheese-press is known by the 
 epithet pneumatic, and was invented in 1833 by 
 Sir John Robison. " This," says the brief no- 
 tice of it in the Catalogue of the Highland So- 
 ciety's Museum, " is an ingenious and successful 
 application of science to a homely process. The 
 curd, which is to be freed of its whey, is put into 
 the form upon a permeable bottom. The air- 
 pump is then worked to produce a partial vacuum 
 in the receiver, when the atmospherical pressure, 
 acting on the curd, exerts a gentle and uniform 
 force, which causes the whey to descend into the 
 recipient below. Cheese prepared by this pro- 
 cess is found to be superior to any made in the 
 common way." — Doyle's Husbandry. — Low's Ele- 
 ments of Agriculture. — Transactions of the High- 
 land Society. — Catalogue of the Highland Society's 
 Museum. — The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
 
 •CHEESE-RACK. A swing-frame for drying 
 and turning cheeses. See the article Cheese. 
 
 CHEESE-RENNET. See Rennet. 
 
 CHEESE- VAT, or Chessel. The vessel for 
 containing the prepared curd during the process 
 of its compression into cheese in the cheese-press. 
 Its size and form necessarily vary according to 
 the desired size and form of the cheese. The 
 common cheese-vat is a very strong miniature 
 tub, with little or no interior taper, built in 
 staves of elm, and very strongly hooped. Its 
 bottom is thick, and is pierced with holes to per- 
 mit the escape of the expressed whey ; and its 
 top is exactly fitted with a strong, cross-doubled, 
 wooden cover. The cheese-vat commonly used 
 in Cheshire and some other districts, is made of 
 tin. 
 
 CHEST-FOUNDER. A disease in the pecto- 
 ral muscles of horses. It indicates itself by such 
 stiffness in moving as cannot be referable to the 
 feet; it consists in inflammatory action, swell- 
 I. 
 
 ing, sensitiveness to the touch, and sometimes 
 considerable fever ; and it seems to be occasioned 
 by exposure to cold, riding against a very cold 
 wind, too much confinement to the stable, or the 
 improper treatment of inflammation between the 
 ribs. The proper internal remedies are attenu- 
 ants, soft pectorals, gentle purges, and bleeding ; 
 and the best external appliances are rowelling, 
 warm embrocations, warm clothing, and com- 
 fortable stabling. 
 
 CHESTNUT - HORSE. A horse principally 
 or wholly of a chestnut colour. This colour in 
 horses is usually reckoned an original or simple 
 one : yet it comprises several varieties of tint, 
 from light to dark, — each prevailing tint fre- 
 quently comprises two or more shades, — and 
 some of the tints are sometimes extensively su- 
 perseded by markings of white. Dark-coloured 
 chestnut horses are often quite uniform in colour, 
 and, as a class, are much more free from mark- 
 ings than the light-coloured. Dark chestnuts 
 have, in many instances, a fiery temperament, 
 and in general are more subject to contraction in 
 the feet than any other kind of horses ; and light 
 chestnuts, in a considerable proportion of in- 
 stances, have less than an average strength of 
 constitution. 
 
 CHEVIOT SHEEP. See Sheep. 
 
 CHICKLING-VETCH. See Lathyrus. 
 
 CHICORY. See Succory. 
 
 CHIPPING. A virulent disease of the stomach 
 and bowels of chickens. It usually occurs when 
 the birds are three or four weeks old, and seems 
 to be occasioned by indigestion, or by exposure 
 to cold and wet. A chicken affected with it en- 
 sconces in a corner, contracts itself into a lump- 
 ish posture, expands or lifts erect all its feathers, 
 utters a short and lugubrious chirp, refuses to 
 eat, rapidly loses flesh, and, if unattended to, 
 very speedily dies. The disease, in its earlier 
 stages, is curable ; but, when fully established, is 
 always fatal. Chickens affected with it should 
 be kept warm, gently purged, and fed with good 
 thick gruel while ill, and with split grits when j 
 convalescent. 
 
 CHIZZLE. Bran or the husky portion of 
 ground wheat. 
 
 CHOKING. Obstruction in the gullet by 
 unmasticated food. It may occur in any kind 
 of domestic animals, but is most frequent in 
 cattle, and most dangerous in horses. When 
 potatoes, carrots, parsnips, or turnips are given j 
 to cows or horses, without being so minutely 
 sliced as to pass easily down the gullet, some are 
 liable to be swallowed with little or no mastica- 
 tion, and in consequence to stick fast in the 
 throat. The liability is greatly increased if, for j 
 the purposes of medicine or of improving the con- 
 dition, fatty, tarry, or resinous substances, or new- 
 laid eggs, have recently been administered. A 
 potato, or a very small turnip, or any other 
 roundish piece of food, also, has a greater fitness ! 
 Y 
 
CHOREA. 
 
 338 
 
 CHURN. 
 
 to fill the orifice of the throat and to press all 
 round upon its sides, and is therefore much more 
 dangerous, than a section of a tap-root or any 
 other piece of food with angularities and flat 
 sides. 
 
 A choking animal shows symptoms of great 
 suffering, stretches and labours its neck to bring 
 up the obstructing substance, discharges a pro- 
 fusion of saliva, exhibits a convulsive action of 
 the respiratory organs, soon suffers distension of 
 the abdomen from the accumulation of gas, and, 
 if the obstruction be closely fitted to the sides of 
 the throat, very speedily dies. Coarse, common 
 practice on the farm lifts a cartwhip, a piece of 
 stifnsh rope, or even the handle of a rake, and 
 forces or attempts to force the obstructing body 
 down the throat ; but this practice, especially in 
 rude hands, and more particularly when so rigid 
 an instrument as the handle of a rake is used, is 
 not a little hazardous, and may inflict very seri- 
 ous evil by both strength and obliquity of pres- 
 sure. In an extremely bad case, when rapid and 
 excessive distension has occurred, the puncturing 
 of the rumen may be highly advisable, yet this 
 ought, if possible, to be avoided. When the ob- 
 struction occurs in the very entrance of the 
 throat, it may be removed either by the hand 
 alone, or by the hand with the aid of a balling- 
 iron ; but when it occurs at a great depth down 
 the throat, it ought to be treated with both com- 
 plication and caution,— first administering half 
 a pint of oil to lubricate the passage, and next 
 introducing the probang, ascertaining whether 
 extraction or forcing-down is likely to be the 
 more successful, and making a series of pulls or 
 pushings till relief be effected. See the article 
 Probang. If the stomach be distended, and the 
 obstructing object be forced down, the probang 
 should be allowed to remain for a short time to 
 facilitate the escape of the accumulated gas. 
 When all ordinary methods fail, or when the ob- 
 structing object, on being pushed down, sticks 
 fast in the thorax, recourse should be had to the 
 operation of cutting through the skin into the 
 oesophagus ; for though this operation is confess- 
 edly perilous, it, in this case, affords a hope, which 
 otherwise cannot exist, of saving the animal's life. 
 When the cure of a case of choking has been 
 effected, no solid food should be given for several 
 days, or till the muscles of the throat have had 
 time to recover their tone. 
 
 CHOREA. A violent convulsive motion in one 
 or more muscles of the limbs. It occasionally, 
 yet very seldom, occurs in the horse. No cure 
 for it is known ; but it is not supposed to be at- 
 tended or followed by worse effects than tempor- 
 ary pain and lameness. 
 
 CHRYSANTHEMUM. A genus of herbaceous 
 plants, belonging to the same tribe of composite 
 flowered plants as chamomile, and comprising 
 two very abundant and conspicuous field-weeds 
 of Britain. 
 
 The corn chrysanthemum, C. segetum, is a very 
 common and very annoying yellow-flowered an- 
 nual ; and is known, in general popular language, 
 as corn marigold,— in Kent, as yellow-bottle, — 
 in Norfolk, as budland, — in the midland coun- 
 ties of England, as golds or gowls, — in the north 
 of England, as goldens and gules, — and in Scotland, 
 asgule, gules, gule-go wans, andyellow-go wans. Its 
 root is tapering and fibrous ; its stem is round, stiff, 
 ramose, and from 18 to 26 inches high ; its leaves 
 are bluish-green, long, very broad, narrowest at 
 the base, and deeply indented at the sides ; and 
 its flowers are yellow and brilliant, have a broad, 
 open disc, and bloom from June till August. 
 An old method of subduing this troublesome 
 though showy weed, was to manure the land in 
 autumn, to lay it out to summer fallow, and to 
 harrow it about five clays after sowing ; but at 
 once the easiest, the most economical, and the 
 most successful method of attempting its exter- 
 mination is to pull it up or cut it down by hand 
 as soon as it comes into flower. 
 
 The ox-eye daisy, Chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
 mum, is a herbaceous evergreen, quite as gener- 
 ally known as the corn chrysanthemum, but 
 contributing far more to ornament and utility 
 than to mischief. It is called sometimes the 
 moor daisy, sometimes the great white ox-eye 
 maudlinwort, and sometimes simply ox-eye. It 
 abounds in our pastures and grass fields, and by 
 the sides of our by-roads and less frequented 
 public - roads ; and is often a conspicuous and 
 pleasant feature of the concluding part of sum- 
 mer. Its root is woody, tough, branched, and 
 profusely fibrous ; its stem is erect, about two 
 feet high, and sometimes simple, sometimes 
 branched ; its radical leaves are obovate, stalked, 
 and deep green; its other leaves are oblong, ob- 
 tuse, cut, pinnatifid at the base, and sessile or 
 rather embracing the stem ; and its flowers are 
 terminal, solitary, large, and open in their form, 
 with yellow disc and brilliant white rays, often 
 far excelling in beauty some of the favourites of 
 the parterre, and usually blooming in June and 
 July. The whole plant is softly herbaceous, 
 and slightly but not agreeably aromatic ; and 
 when it grows on meadows or among the artifi- 
 cial grasses, it forms part of the hay crop. 
 
 CHURN. A machine for separating the buty- 
 raceous matter from cream or milk, and, in con- 
 sequence, making butter. Churns are exceed- 
 ingly various in size and construction, and con- 
 siderably diversified in the kind of power by 
 which they are worked, and the manner in which 
 that power is applied. 
 
 The plunge-churn worked by hand is the sim- 
 plest, and was, for a long time, the most common ; 
 but, in almost all dairies except those of mere 
 cottages, it has been completely superseded. It 
 consists of an upright, wooden, cylindrical vessel ; 
 a lid or cover, with a small central aperture ; 
 and a long moveable handle, inserted through 
 
CHURN. 
 
 this aperture, and terminating in a circular and 
 plentifully perforated board, of a size nearly to 
 fit the cylinder, and yet to admit of being freely 
 moved up and down among the cream or milk. 
 The simple perpendicular motion of the handle, 
 playing constantly up and down like a piston, 
 abundantly agitates the cream or milk by means 
 of the perforated board ; but the process is both 
 laborious and somewhat tedious. 
 
 The barrel-churn consists of a wide cylinder or 
 unbulged barrel, mounted horizontally upon a 
 frame; an axle inserted through the centre of 
 the barrel, from end to end ; fans or arms, at- 
 tached lengthwise to the axle, just broad enough 
 to revolve within the barrel, and constituting 
 with the axle a kind of fan-wheel ; and external 
 appliances, principally a toothed- wheel and a fly- 
 wheel, for putting and maintaining the fly-wheel 
 \ in revolving motion. A short horizontal handle 
 is attached to one of the spokes of the fly-wheel ; 
 and a single person, by keeping hold of this and 
 turning the fly-wheel, easily and speedily effects 
 a churning. — The box-churn is the same in gene- 
 ral construction, in position, and in mode of 
 working as the barrel-churn, but is four-sided 
 while the latter is cylindrical. — The upright bar- 
 rel-churn has a vertical position ; it is provided, 
 on the exterior of its upper end, with a small 
 cylindrical rope-coil, set in a frame or cross-bar ; 
 the rope which plays round the coil passes through 
 holes in the sides of the frame or cross-bar, and 
 is firmly attached to treadle-boards, which are 
 situated close to the churn, and on a level with 
 its lower end ; and a man, by standing on the 
 treadle-boards, and alternating his weight on 
 the right foot and on the left, causes the fan- 
 wheel to move vertically and rapidly, in a con- 
 stant series of alternate directions, and, in con- 
 sequence, effects a churning with comparatively 
 great ease and speed. — A cradle-churn is shaped 
 somewhat like a cradle, but mounted on a wooden 
 frame, and provided internally with a grate or 
 grates in the centre, to slide in a groove ; and it 
 is rocked with regular motion, not faster than 
 the pendulum of a clock, and serves remarkably 
 well for making butter.— An example of the 
 American cradle-churn is incidently noticed as 
 follows in Lambert's Travels through Lower 
 Canada and the United States : "At a farmer's 
 near Lake Champlain, we saw a machine for 
 churning butter. It was a kind of half-barrel, 
 with a place where one of the farmer's sons sat 
 astride as on horseback. The machine, moving 
 up and down, answered the double purpose of a 
 churn for making butter, and a rocking-horse for 
 his children." 
 
 Many new forms of churn have lately been in- 
 troduced, with pretensions of possessing power 
 to produce butter either more speedily or of 
 better quality than by any of the methods of mere 
 mechanical agitation; and two of these — Wes- 
 ton's and Robinson's — are peculiarly ingenious 
 
 and interesting, and have been much applauded 
 by persons who have examined them. — Weston's 
 churn, or Weston's air-churn, comprises a hollow- 
 cylinder of zinc, into which the milk or cream is 
 put, and a small air-pump which drives a current 
 of air through the bottom of the cylinder. The 
 air throws the milk into violent agitation, and 
 causes a rapid separation of the butter ; and, in 
 consequence of its affording a far ampler play of 
 oxygen than can be realized in any of the ordinary 
 methods, it may be expected generally to give 
 the butter a harder consistence. — Robinson of 
 Lisburn's churn is half-boxed in, and sets the 
 cream in motion by a revolving wheel or beater 
 as in the barrel-churn ; but, in passing from one 
 side of the* wheel to the other, the cream traverses 
 an uncovered part of the box, and is there freely 
 exposed to the air; and at this part also the 
 butter, when it begins to separate, is arrested by 
 a kind of grating, and is in consequence prevented 
 from again entering the chum and becoming 
 exposed to the action of the beaters. 
 
 In large dairies, or on large farms, churns are 
 so constructed and situated as to be worked by 
 machinery ; and in some cases, this is driven by 
 a horse or an ass or by the separate application 
 of water-power, and, in other cases, by the same 
 power which drives the machinery of a thresh- 
 ing-mill or a scutch-mill. The construction of 
 churn generally preferred for working by ma- 
 chinery is that of the plunge-churn ; it has the 
 shape and position of an upright, unbulged bar- 
 rel, and may have a capacity of from 40 to 200 
 gallons ; the perforated board or dasher, for agi- 
 tating the cream or milk, is moved up and down j 
 by a lever ; and this is connected with the mo- 
 tive machinery and power by means of a shaft 
 and crank. Churns of this construction can be j 
 accommodated to wide gradations in the quan- 
 tity of milk, simply by the addition of holes or 
 screws for regulating or altering the distance of 
 the churn-staff from the centre of the lever. An 
 excellent variety of plunge-churn for working 
 by machinery is figured and described in Low's 
 Elements of Agriculture ; and models of two 
 varieties, the one with a vertical plunge, and the 
 other double, square, and with horizontal plunges, 
 are shown in the museum of the Highland Society, 
 and briefly noticed in its catalogue. 
 
 CHURNING. The process in which butter is 
 formed out of cream or milk. Though it seems 
 to the eye to comprise its essential or main action 
 in mechanical agitation, yet it largely involves 
 chemical forces and chemical changes, and is 
 much controlled, in the quality of its results, by 
 the play of air and the degree of caloric. See the 
 articles Butter and Chum*. The butter obtained 
 on any one farm or from any one quality of milk, 
 by any one method of churning, in exactly the 
 same circumstances of place and operation, is 
 generally observed to be harder at one season of 
 the year than at another ; and also that obtained 
 
CISTERN. 
 
 on any one farm or from any one quantity of 
 milk, by different methods of churning, or in 
 different circumstances of place and operation, 
 is generally observed to have different degrees of 
 hardness. And these two facts are of great sig- 
 nificance ; the more so as hardness in butter is a 
 property much prized, and is said to be artifi- 
 cially obtained in some districts by an admixture 
 of mutton or beef fat. " The churning of milk 
 involves two operations, — a violent agitation of 
 the particles of the milk among themselves, 
 and an alternate exposure of the same particles 
 to the action of the air. The former tends to 
 break the thin coverings of the fat globules ; the 
 latter exposes these globules' to the oxygen of the 
 atmospheric air, which is continually renewed in 
 the churn, and thus puts the more fluid fat in con- 
 ditions which are favourable to its change into 
 the more solid fat. And as the time of churning 
 and the temperature of the air are rarely the 
 same in any two operations, even in the same 
 season and in the same dairy, there must neces- 
 sarily be minute differences in the chemical con- 
 ditions, and therefore in the chemical results, 
 though often unnoticed, of almost every churn- 
 ing. And from the same milk, by the absorption 
 of oxygen in greater or less abundance, a harder 
 or a softer butter may also be produced ; and, in 
 this fact, satisfactorily and chemically explained, 
 we have the key to many practical anomalies. 
 It may also enable us hereafter to arrive at a 
 modification of the usual mode of churning, by 
 which butter of the firmest consistence may more 
 frequently be obtained." [Report of the Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry Association in the Highland 
 Society's Transactions.] 
 CINDERS. See Ashes. 
 
 CISTERN. A small artificial reservoir of 
 water. It is practically the same as a tank, and 
 differs only in mode of construction, or even in 
 mere name. 
 
 CLATTINGr. The removing of a portion of 
 the wool from the tails and udders of pregnant 
 ewes a little before their lambing. The practice 
 is effected by throwing the ewes, and is very 
 useful, as a preventive of the mischievous cohe- 
 sion of the wool from the effects of purging. 
 
 CLAY. Any kind of earthy matter which is 
 characterized by the presence of alumina. See 
 the articles Alumina and Argillaceous Earth. 
 Clays, in a geological respect, are of very various 
 age and character, and are found in great abun- 
 dance, composing strata of more or less importance 
 and distinctiveness, from nearly the lowest fos- 
 siliferous beds up to the most recent alluvium. 
 Even surface clays, or clays lying near the surface, 
 are very diversified as to both their origin and 
 their mineral constitution. Some yellow clay, 
 such as abounds in many parts of Denmark, is 
 supposed to consist of the altered felspar, the 
 unaltered mica, the pulverized quartz, and the 
 recombincd magnetic and titanic oxides, of de- 
 
 CLAY. 
 
 composed granite. Most blue clays consist of 
 decomposed syenite and greenstone, and do not 
 contain any mica. Many clays have been formed 
 by the disintegration of porphyry, and are easily 
 distinguishable into thin quartzose, felspathic, 
 and peculiarly aluminous constituents. "The 
 analysis of the porcelain clays," says Liebig, 
 " proves that the felspars from which they were 
 formed have not reached their utmost limit of 
 disintegration, for they still contain potash. The 
 porcelain clays are those which are refractory in 
 the fire, and do not melt when exposed to the 
 strongest heat of our furnaces. The difficult 
 fusibility of the porcelain clays depends upon 
 their proportion of the alkaline bases, potash, 
 soda, lime, magnesia, and protoxide of iron. 
 When we compare the other kinds of clay with 
 the porcelain clays, we find that the infusible 
 clays, or clays poor in potash, are of rare occur- 
 rence. The clays diffused through the most 
 kinds of rocks, those occurring in arable land, 
 and those in the beds of clay interspersed with 
 the layers of brown and mineral coal, contract 
 when exposed to heat, and become vitrified 
 in a strong fire. Loam also melts in a similar 
 manner. When the oxides of iron are not pre- 
 sent in the clays, their fusibility is in direct 
 proportion to the amount of their alkaline ingre- 
 dients. Clays arising from the disintegration 
 of the potash felspars, are free from lime ; those 
 formed from Labrador spar — the principal com- 
 ponent of basalt and lava — contain lime and 
 soda. 
 
 " The limestones containing much clay are pro- 
 portionally the richest in alkaline ingredients. 
 The marls and stones used for cement belong to 
 this class of minerals. They differ from other 
 limestones by possessing the property, after burn- 
 ing, of hardening, when in contact with water. 
 During the burning of marl and of many other 
 natural cements, the constituents of the clay and 
 lime act chemically upon each other, giving rise 
 to anhydrous apophyllite, or an analogous com- 
 pound of silicate of potash and silicate of lime, 
 which, being brought in contact with water, 
 forces the latter into chemical combination in a 
 similar manner to burnt gypsum, and crystallizes 
 along with it. When a fragment of chalk is 
 moistened with a solution of silicate of potash, 
 the latter forms a new compound on the surface, 
 and this becomes hard and stony. The lime of 
 the chalk takes the place of potash in the sili- 
 cate of potash, and a certain quantity of potash 
 is set at liberty in the form of a carbonate. 
 
 "The preceding remarks prove very clearly 
 that arable land has had its origin in the chemi- 
 cal and mechanical actions exerted upon rocks 
 and minerals rich in alkalies and alkaline earths, 
 by which means their coherence has been gra- 
 dually destroyed. It is scarcely necessary to fur- 
 nish any further proofs that all clays, whether 
 they be pure or mixed with other minerals, so as 
 
 340 
 
CLAY. 
 
 341 
 
 CLAY. 
 
 to form soils, suffer progressive and continued 
 changes. These changes consist in the giving of 
 a soluble form to the alkalies and alkaline bases, 
 by the combined action of water and of carbonic 
 acid. This gives rise to the formation of soluble 
 silicates, or, if these are decomposed by the car- 
 bonic acid, to the hydrate of silica, -which, being 
 in its peculiar soluble condition, may be taken 
 up by the roots of plants." 
 
 A clayey subsoil requires peculiar, operose, and 
 expensive management, but will be discussed in 
 the article on Draining ; and clayey soils, of dif- 
 ferent characters, require peculiar husbandry 
 and considerable nicety of treatment, but will 
 be discussed in the articles on Soil and Rota- 
 tion of Crops. Some varieties of clay surface are 
 almost totally barren ; and others are the most 
 exuberantly fertile within the British dominions. 
 See the articles Carse and Barren Soils. The 
 worth or worthlessness of clayey land is depend- 
 ent, in many instances, on the porosity or the 
 retentiveness of the subsoil, but, in more, upon 
 its own intrinsic composition, and upon the geor- 
 gic treatment which it has received. Every clay 
 soil which contains too large a proportion of 
 alumina, or which is unduly fine, soft, and unctu- 
 ous, is over-tenacious, compact, and adhesive, and 
 requires to be improved, both in its mechanical 
 texture, by an intermixation of siliceous sand or 
 gravel, and in its chemical character, by the ad- 
 dition of farm-yard and calcareous manures. 
 Coarse, moorish clay lands, of the class so well 
 known in Scotland under the name of till, con- 
 tain a comparatively large proportion of the 
 oxides of iron, and are of a hard and obdurate 
 nature, and require a large amount of working, 
 manuring, draining, and exposure, in order to be 
 reclaimed from their stubbornness, and reduced 
 to fertility. 
 
 Burnt clay is, in some districts of England, ex- 
 tensively used and highly extolled as a fertilizer 
 Of several kinds of soils, and particularly of such 
 as are too retentive, and require to be rendered 
 porous and friable. See the article Ashes. The 
 beneficial action of so seemingly incongruous a 
 manure as mere burnt clay or calcined argilla- 
 ceous earth, is usually ascribed to the insolubility 
 which the clay has acquired from calcination, 
 and to its consequent similarity of mechanical 
 power to that of siliceous sand ; but the true 
 cause, according to Liebig, is the following: — 
 " Peroxide of iron and alumina are distinguished 
 from all other metallic oxides by their power of 
 forming solid compounds with ammonia. The 
 precipitates obtained by the addition of ammonia 
 to salts of alumina or iron are true salts, in which 
 the ammonia is contained as a base. Minerals 
 containing alumina* or oxide of iron also possess, 
 in an eminent degree, the remarkable property 
 of attracting ammonia from the atmosphere, and 
 of retaining it. Vauquelin, whilst engaged in 
 the trial of a criminal case, discovered that all 
 
 rust of iron contains a certain quantity of am- 
 monia. Chevalier afterwards found that ammo- 
 nia is a constituent of all minerals containing 
 iron ; that even hematite, a mineral which is not 
 at all porous, contains one per cent, of it. Bouis 
 showed also, that the peculiar odour observed on 
 moistening minerals containing alumina, is partly 
 owing to their exhaling ammonia. Indeed, many 
 kinds of gypsum and some varieties of alumina, 
 pipe-clay for example, emit so much ammonia, 
 when moistened with caustic potash, even after 
 they have been exposed for two days, that red- 
 dened litmus paper held over them becomes blue. 
 Soils, therefore, containing oxides of iron and 
 burnt clay must absorb ammonia, an action which 
 is favoured by their porous condition ; they fur- 
 ther prevent, by their chemical properties, the 
 escape of the ammonia once absorbed. Such 
 soils, in fact, act precisely as a mineral acid 
 would do, if extensively spread over their sur- 
 face. The ammonia absorbed by the clay or fer- 
 ruginous oxides is separated by every shower of 
 rain, and conveyed in solution to the soil." 
 
 But one large proportion of the calcined or in- 
 cinerated matter which the English farmers use 
 as manure is in a great degree calcareous ; and 
 another large proportion contains a somewhat 
 bulky admixture of vegetable ashes, — the resi- 
 duum of the combustion of grasses, sedges, rushes, 
 shrubs, and all sorts of rank and weedy vegeta- 
 tion dug up from the borders of fields, the sides 
 of hedges, and the scourings of ditches ; and the 
 former of these kinds of burnt matter operates on 
 soil in a manner similar to calcareous marl, while 
 the latter exerts a direct and mighty power of 
 precisely the same nature as the ashes of wood 
 or turf. In all manuring with what is popularly 
 termed burnt clay, close and judicious regard 
 should be had both to the precise nature of the 
 material itself, and to the particular defect or 
 needs of the land to which it is applied. The 
 treating of all sorts of burnt clayey-looking earth 
 or sward as of one nature, and the indiscriminat- 
 ing application of it to all lands of clayey charac- 
 ter, without reference to exigency or mode of 
 action, are practices totally unworthy of the en- 
 lightenment of the nineteenth century, and ex- 
 ceedingly likely to issue in a greater or less de- 
 gree of disappointment. 
 
 Native, unburnt clay, especially such as is 
 highly aluminous, is the best possible material 
 for improving light, arid, sandy soils, and white, 
 gravelly, hungry, moorish lands. But it requires 
 to be so prepared and applied as to enter into 
 ready and complete incorporation with the soil ; 
 for if it lie in lumps and masses, it will speedily 
 be washed into solution with rains, and carried 
 by infiltration to the bottom, there to form a re- 
 tentive subsoil, and render the land cold, sour, 
 and worse in quality than before. A good method 
 of securing its incorporation, is to lay it on the 
 land, while the latter is in grass, and is about to 
 
 i. 
 
CLEANING. 
 
 342 
 
 4 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 be broken up for tillage or fallow, — to permit it 
 to lie exposed on the grass, till it becomes dried 
 and pulverized by the action of winds and frosts 
 and general weather, — to divide and scatter it by 
 repeated slight harrowings, — and, after it is thor- 
 oughly distributed and well pulverized, to turn 
 it into the soil by an ordinary ploughing. About 
 50 tons per acre may, on the average, be a proper 
 quantity for deep, fine, alluvial, sandy soil, and 
 probably 150 tons for white, gravelly, moorish 
 land. — LyelVs Geology. — Beatsoiis New System of 
 Cultivation. — Liebig's Chemistry of Agriculture. — 
 Sir John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — 
 Reports to the Board of Agricidture. — Journal of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society of England. — 
 Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. — Bradley's Hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 CLEANING. The removing of every kind of 
 filth and dirtiness from the bodies of farm ani- 
 mals. The cleaning of all kinds of farm stock 
 contributes to both their beauty and their health. 
 If even swine could be cleaned as regularly and 
 thoroughly as horses usually are, they would be 
 more thriving than under their present treat- 
 ment. Swine, in a few instances, are regularly 
 cleaned by hand ; but, in most, are merely provided 
 with one or more rubbing-posts, and with fre- 
 quent renewals of litter. When cattle have their 
 legs soiled by labour or by walking on foul 
 ground, they should be driven two or three times 
 a-day through a pond ; and such of them as are 
 turned into house shelter, should be well rubbed 
 with dry straw. Picking the feet of horses and 
 cattle from gravel and small stones ought fre- 
 quently to be practised ; and combing and brush- 
 ing at the first meal of the morning or at the 
 last in the evening, or at other times when the 
 hair and the skin are dry, will well repay, in the 
 animal's health and vigour, all the labour which 
 they involve. The importance of keeping horses 
 constantly and perfectly clean is generally and 
 somewhat well understood ; but the importance 
 of cleaning the other animals of the farm requires 
 to be considered and enforced. 
 
 CLEANSING. See Abortion and Parturi- 
 tion. 
 
 CLEARING. A heap of corn in the barn large 
 enough to be winnowed ; also, the removal from 
 land of large stones, stumps of trees, and other 
 obstacles to the operation of the plough ; also, 
 the conversion of a portion of forest ground into 
 arable land. 
 
 GLEDGY LAND. Stiff, hard, stubborn, tena- 
 cious soil. 
 
 CLEG, or Gleg. Two species of fly, well 
 known for the torment they inflict on horses and 
 cattle. 
 
 The horse-cleg, or common horse-fly, is scien- 
 tifically called Haematopota pluvialis; thus bear- 
 ing a generic name which signifies ' a drinker of 
 blood,' and a specific one which signifies 'showery,' 
 and alludes to its excessive blood-thirstiness dur- 
 
 ing the prevalence of warm showery weather. 
 It is at once the most numerous, the most untir- 
 ing, and the most tormenting of the family of 
 horse-flies. Its speckled wings, its green eyes 
 with transverse, undulating, purple-brown bands, 
 its dark brown abdomen, with the hinder mar- 
 gins of the segments, a dorsal line, and a series 
 of faint spots on each side, of a light grey colour, 
 are characters by which it is readily distinguished. 
 The male is seldom seen, appears to exist in very 
 small numbers compared to the female, has its 
 oral organs much less developed than those of 
 the female, and seems to be innoxious in habit, 
 and to subsist entirely on the juicy secretions of 
 flowers. 
 
 The cattle cleg is scientifically called Tabanus 
 bovidus; and, though not very abundant in Eng- 
 land or in the Scottish Lowlands, is an excessive 
 pest of cattle in the Scottish Highlands. It is 
 robust, and about an inch in length ; and is one 
 of the largest and most conspicuous of British 
 diptera. It has similar habits to those of the 
 horse-cleg, the females feeding upon blood, and 
 the males upon floral secretions. Its larva is long 
 and cylindrical, and narrows at the head into an 
 elongated cone ; its body comprises twelve rings 
 or segments, the anal one of which appears like 
 a small tubercle ; its head besides having two 
 short antennae, is provided with two small scaly 
 hooks which it employs in locomotion, and in 
 perforating the soil ; and most of its segments are 
 encircled with a dark coloured band, which is 
 beset with numerous retractile tubercles for" per- 
 forming the chief offices of locomotion. The 
 pupa is nearly cylindrical, and of a greyish brown 
 colour ; its segments are fringed on the hinder 
 margins with grey hairs ; and its anal segment, 
 though small in size, is armed with six sharp 
 scaly points which enable the pupa to push its 
 head above the surface of the soil. 
 
 CLETCH. A brood of chickens, goslings or 
 other birds. 
 
 CLICK-BEETLE. See Wireworm. 
 
 CLICKING. See Overreach. 
 
 CLIMATE. The aggregate character of the 
 weather of any country, as controlled or deter- 
 mined by latitude, altitude, territorial configu- 
 ration, and other causes, and as consisting in 
 temperature, winds, humidity or dryness, fertility 
 or infertility, healthiness or unhealthiness, and 
 the vicissitudes and alternations of the seasons. 
 See the articles Meteorology, Weather, Atmo- 
 sphere, Altitude, Acclimatation of Animals, 
 Temperature, Caloric, Cold, Rain, and Drain- 
 ing. 
 
 The climate of Britain, with its excessive 
 changeableness, its very frequent humidity, and 
 its comparative coldness and churlishness, is 
 supposed by multitudes of British farmers to 
 be far more unfavourable to agriculture than the 
 climate of the genial and sunny regions of the 
 South of Europe. But this is- a mistake; for 
 
CLIMATE. 
 
 343 
 
 CLOUD. 
 
 doubts and risks and periodical disasters seem 
 essentially interwoven with the farming of such 
 countries as Spain and Italy and Greece, while 
 equanimity of thought and steadiness of routine 
 may, in every case, characterize the farming of 
 the northern parts of the Continent and at least 
 all the well-reclaimed and well-cultivated parts 
 of Britain and Ireland. " The intelligence of 
 the agriculturist in the South of Europe," says 
 M. Gasparin, " must be constantly on the alert 
 to repair the damages occasioned by the extremes 
 of heat or wet. There where he thought to sow 
 pulse he must raise additional forage; because 
 the drought has withered up those resources 
 on which he depended for feeding his cattle. 
 Sometimes the overabundance of hay will permit 
 him to increase their numbers ; at other times 
 he must hasten to get rid of them, because his 
 grass -crops have failed. Some seasons he will 
 have an ample supply of manures ; in others he 
 will be short of them. One year he must hold 
 back his wheat, because a plentiful harvest will 
 have reduced its price ; the next, the drought in 
 the spring will have produced a scarcity, and he 
 must plough up his pastures in order to supply 
 grain to his family. A set rule would be his ruin ; 
 nothing but an irregularity, in accordance with 
 that of nature and the seasons, will save him from 
 losses." The farmer of Britain or of the north, 
 on the contrary, may translate the lessons of ex- 
 perience into sure and easy ready-made rules, and 
 may every year carry forward a regular rotation, 
 and go on doing the same kind of things which 
 he had done before, and, in general, will find the 
 results, in every short cycle of years, both certain 
 and equable. " From the spring being so much 
 later, we reach the summer solstice when the 
 season is most regular, the weather the most set- 
 tled of the whole year, just at the moment when 
 all vegetation is most fully developing itself. 
 The necessary complement of labourers, stock, 
 and capital can be determined upon beforehand. 
 The produce is in proportion to the consumption ; 
 and all irregularity of culture is punished, be- 
 cause it finds no compensation in any correspond- 
 ing irregularity of season. The agriculture has 
 produced that steady relation of crops according 
 to formulas which please the mind by their con- 
 tinual recurrence and their almost certain returns. 
 It is an agriculture from which other regions 
 may usefully borrow partial information, but 
 which cannot, as a whole, be transplanted else- 
 where. In the hotter and more mountain cli- 
 mates, far greater firmness and forethought are 
 required on the part of the tenant to reimburse 
 himself by good returns for the deficiency of his 
 bad ones, so that he may not be alarmed at the 
 frequent or certain recurrence of the last. He 
 must have more than all these ; he must have a 
 capital sufficient to withstand the reverses which 
 may happen at the beginning of his lease. These 
 contingencies, which render farming conditions 
 
 60 difficult in the districts of the olives and the 
 vines, scarcely exist in the corn cultivation, and 
 not at all in the pastoral countries. The most 
 ordinary understanding is thus competent to 
 carry on a farm." 
 
 CLIPPING. See Shearing op Sheep. 
 
 CLIPS. Portions of the upper edge of a horse- 
 shoe, so beaten out and turned up as to lay hold 
 of the lower part of the crust, and strengthen 
 the attachment of the shoe to the foot. They re- 
 lieve the crust from injurious pressure upon the 
 nails, and, in certain cases, prevent the 6hoe from 
 being torn off. 
 
 CLOD. A lump of any kind of soil. 
 
 CLOD-CRUSHER. See Roller. 
 
 CLOGS. Billets of wood ; also, wooden-soled 
 shoes. 
 
 CLOUD. A mass of aqueous vapour, hovering 
 at a considerable height above the surface of the 
 earth, and differing from a fog only in its com- 
 paratively elevated position and in its less de- 
 gree of transparency. Thin and light clouds are 
 higher than the highest mountains ; while thick 
 and heavy ones are so low as to touch low moun- 
 tains, hills, and even steeples and trees. Their 
 average height is supposed to be about 2| miles, 
 Their size also is very various. Some have been 
 found occupying an extent of 20 square miles, 
 and their thickness, in some cases, has been ascer- 
 tained by travellers who have ascended moun- 
 tains, to be a thousand feet ; others are very thin, 
 and of small dimensions. 
 
 The natural history of clouds, not as respects 
 their chemical structure, but their forms, their 
 application to meteorology, and a knowledge of 
 the weather, has been well treated by Lucas 
 Howard, in his Essay on Clouds. He distributes 
 clouds into three essentially different formations. 
 These formations are — 1. cirrus, consisting of 
 fibres which diverge in all directions ; 2. cumulus, 
 convex and conical aggregates, which increase 
 from a horizontal basis upwards ; 3. stratum, lay- 
 ers vastly extended, connected and horizontal. 
 The clouds are generally assigned to three atmo- 
 spherical regions, the upper, the middle, and the 
 lower one, to which a fourth, the lowest, may be 
 added. In the upper region, the atmosphere is 
 in such a state, that it can receive and sustain 
 aqueous matter dissolved into its integrant parts. 
 This state of the atmosphere corresponds to the 
 highest state of the barometer. To this region 
 belongs the cirrus, which has the least density, 
 but the greatest height, and variety of shape and 
 direction. It is the first indication of serene 
 and settled weather, and first shows itself in a 
 few fibres, spreading through the atmosphere. 
 These fibres by degrees increase in length, and 
 new fibres attach themselves to the sides. The 
 duration of the cirrus is uncertain, from a few 
 minutes to several hours. It lasts longer, if it ap- 
 pears alone, and at a great height ; a shorter time, 
 if it forms in the neighbourhood of other clouds. 
 
CLOUTED CREAM. 
 
 344 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 The middle regions is the seat of cumulus, which 
 is generally the most condensed, and moves with 
 the stream of air nearest to the earth. This re- 
 gion can receive much humidity, but not in per- 
 fect solution. The humidity becomes collected, 
 and shows itself in masses rising conically, and 
 resting on the third region. The appearance, 
 increase, and disappearance of the cumulus, in 
 fine weather, are often periodical, and correspon- 
 dent to the degree of heat. Generally, it forms 
 a few hours after sunrise, attains its highest de- 
 gree in the hottest hours of the afternoon, and 
 decreases and vanishes at sunset. Great masses 
 of cumulus, during high winds, in the quarter of 
 the heavens towards which the wind blows, in- 
 dicate approaching calm and rain. If the cumu- 
 lus does not disappear, but rises, a thunder-storm 
 is to be expected during the night. If the upper 
 region, with its drying power, predominates, the 
 upper parts of the cumulus become cirrus. But, 
 if the lower region predominates (into which the 
 densest vapours are attracted and dissolved into 
 drops), the basis of the cumulus sinks, and the 
 cloud becomes stratus, which is of moderate den- 
 sity, and its lower surface rests generally upon 
 the earth or the water. This is the proper even- 
 ing cloud, and appears first toward sunset. To 
 this belong also those creeping fogs, which, in 
 calm evenings, ascend from the valleys, and ex- 
 tend themselves in undulating masses. The 
 stratus remains quiet, and accumulates layers, 
 till at last it falls as rain. This phenomenon — 
 the dissolution of clouds into rain — is called 
 nimbus. Howard further makes subdivisions, as 
 cirro-cumulus, cirro-stratus, foe. Also the real 
 stratus, the horizontal layer, of clouds, sometimes 
 rises higher than at other times, which depends 
 on the season, the polar height of the place, or 
 the heights of mountains ; the cumulus is also 
 sometimes higher and sometimes lower. On the 
 whole, however, the different kinds remain one 
 above another. 
 
 CLOUTED CREAM. A butyraceous prepara- 
 tion in great vogue in the west of England. It 
 is practically a thinnish or weakish butter, but 
 is prepared by a very different process from 
 churning. " The milk is suffered to stand in a 
 bell-metal vessei 24 hours ; it is then placed over 
 a small wood fire, so that the heat shall be very 
 gradually communicated to it. After it has been 
 over the fire about an hour and a half, and is 
 approaching to the state of simmering, the vessel 
 is struck every now and then with the knuckles, 
 or is very carefully watched. As soon as it 
 ceases to ring, or the first bubble appears, a 
 slight agitation or simmering, previous to boil- 
 ing, has commenced ; and the secret of the pre- 
 paration is, that this simmering shall not proceed 
 to boiling. The milk is immediately removed 
 from' the fire, and set by for 24 hours more. At 
 the end of this time, all the cream will have 
 arisen and be thick enough to cut with a knife ; 
 
 it is then carefully skimmed off." [Knowledge 
 Society's Treatise on Cattle.] This preparation 
 is obtained from milk in about 20 per cent, 
 greater abundance than butter ; and in several 
 parts of the West of England, particularly in 
 Devonshire, it is preferred to butter for both its 
 taste and its flavour. The residuum of the milk, 
 however, is so poor as to be fit only for the use 
 of pigs. 
 
 CLOVER. The agricultural species of the 
 trefoil genus, — herbaceous and forage plants, of ! 
 the lotus division of papilionaceous legumes. ! 
 Nearly twenty species of trefoils are now enu- j 
 merated in agricultural works as clovers ; and 
 though some of these are comparatively obscure 
 and unimportant, others are exceedingly promi- 1 
 nent, very valuable, and considerably diversified. 
 Even others, and probably not a few, of the 150 | 
 species of trefoils which have been described by j 
 botanists may eventually be found well worthy of 
 the attention of the farmer ; yet only such as have 
 already been either adopted or favourably tried, 
 shall here be treated as clovers. The flowers of all 
 the trefoils, and of course those of all the clovers, 
 are crowded in an elongated or globular spike or 
 head ; the petals generally remain attached when 
 dry or withered ; the stamens amount to nine 
 united and one solitary ; and the pods in general 
 are shorter than the calyx, and are either one or 
 few seeded. 
 
 The common red species, Trifolium pratense,i$ 
 by far the most prominent, and exists in a con- 
 siderable number of distinct and well-marked 
 varieties. It is both indigenous and exotic, — 
 both perennial and biennial; and varieties of 
 it which are perennial become biennial by long j 
 cultivation, — varieties which are biennial can be 
 prolonged through three or more years by being 
 prevented from running to seed,— ^and some vari- 
 eties which have for a time been exuberant upon 
 any locality, sometimes become suddenly shy, 
 sickly, refractory, or otherwise unproductive. 
 The stems of all the varieties are upright, branch- 
 ing, and, on the average, about two feet high ; 
 the leaflets are oval or inversely heart-shaped ; 
 the stipules are ovate and bristle-pointed; the 
 flowers grow in dense globular or slightly elon- 
 gated heads ; and the teeth of the calyxes are 
 bristly-like, and the lower one is longer than the 
 others. The colour of the flowers, though pre- 
 vailingly reddish purple, is of various shades 
 in the several varieties, and sometimes is even 
 white. 
 
 The native, wild variety of red clover grows 
 naturally in old pastures, heathy moors, neglect- 
 ed meadows, and way-sides ; and has a general 
 character of such obvious distinctiveness from 
 the cultivated varieties as to have been some- 
 times pronounced a different species. Its stems, 
 its leaves, and its flowers are darker in colour 
 than those of the cultivated red clover ; its leaf- 
 lets are narrower ; its roots are more fibrous ; and 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 345 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 its stems and its leaves have a greater degree of 
 downiness or pubescence. Several subvarieties 
 of it are observable, — differing from one another 
 both in minute organic characters and in habit 
 of growth ; but all possess its general characters, 
 and exhibit its marks of broad distinction from 
 the cultivated varieties. Every subvariety of 
 native red clover, so far as known, is strictly 
 perennial. 
 
 The common cultivated perennial variety of 
 red clover lives through a comparatively short 
 duration, is rather liable to acquire a biennial 
 habit, and differs from the thoroughly biennial 
 sorts principally in having somewhat more pu- 
 bescence on its leaves, and in its being a few 
 days later in coming into bloom. — The Duke of 
 Norfolk's perennial red clover blooms a w r eek 
 earlier, and has more fibrous roots, and darker- 
 coloured stems, leaves, and flowers, than the 
 common variety ; and it lives through a longer 
 period of duration, so as to be more truly enti- 
 tled to the designation of perennial. — The Argo- 
 vie perennial red clover is more dwarfish and 
 spreading, and has lighter-coloured leaves and 
 flowers, than the two preceding ; and most of its 
 leaflets are blotched, near their base, with light- 
 ish-coloured spots, It is extensively cultivated, 
 as a perennial clover, in France ; and was intro- 
 duced thence from Switzerland. — The German 
 perennial red clover is very similar to the Argo- 
 vie variety, but flowers a few days sooner, and is 
 rather more productive. 
 
 Biennial red clovers comprise very numerous 
 and constantly shifting subvarieties. They are 
 characterized, as a class, by a strictly biennial 
 habit, and by having more fusiform roots and less 
 pubescent leaves than the perennial red clovers. 
 Even the kind usually denominated English red 
 clover comprises somewhat numerous and contin- 
 ually altering subvarieties ; and receives modifi- 
 cations and changes, not only from the diversi- 
 fied soil and culture of different situations, but 
 from frequent intermixtures and substitutions of 
 foreign seed ; yet, in the aggregate, it may be re- 
 garded as having large seeds, a deep colour, and 
 a powerfully luxuriant habit. The French red 
 clover has small, plump, purplish seeds, roundish 
 leaflets, very smooth leaves and stems, and a 
 luxuriant and sappy appearance; and is well 
 adapted for strong soils in warm or sheltered 
 situations. The Dutch red clover has large, ill- 
 filled, yellowish seeds, a somewhat light colour, 
 and a rank and coarse habit of growth ; but is 
 well-suited to coarse clayey soils, cold, ill-drained 
 land, and exposed or damp farms. The Ameri- 
 can red clover has small, yellowish seeds, small 
 and hard stems, and only a moderate habit of 
 growth ; but is more easily prolonged into a dura- 
 tion beyond biennial than any of the other vari- 
 eties. The Normandy, the Holstein, and the 
 Cologne clovers likewise figure in our lists of bi- 
 ennial red clovers ; but they are neither promi- 
 nent nor well-tested. 
 
 White, creeping white, or Dutch clover, Tri- 
 folium repens, is an universally known indigenous 
 perennial. It grows wild in our meadows and 
 pastures, and possesses such extraordinary vital- 
 ity in its seeds as, under favourable circum- 
 stances, to spring profusely and spontaneously 
 up, in places where it could not previously have 
 vegetated for very many centuries. Its roots 
 are fibrous ; its stems are stoloniferous, or creep 
 along the ground, and strike root at the joints; 
 its leaflets are heart-shaped, and frequently have 
 near their base a black or darkish-coloured blotch ; 
 its flower-stems are erect and leafless ; its flowers 
 are arranged into globular heads, bloom from 
 May till September, and are commonly white, 
 but sometimes have a tinting of very light pink ; 
 its calyxes are unequally toothed ; and its pods 
 are four-seeded. It is suited to a very wide va- 
 riety of soil and climate, and probably excels 
 every other agricultural plant of Europe in 
 the breadth and unscrupulousness of its adap- 
 tations. Varieties of it, more or less productive 
 and nutritive, are somewhat common, and, so far 
 as they are produced by mere peculiarities of 
 soil and culture, may be regarded as fugitive ; 
 but one very marked variety of it has both a cu- 
 rious and a permanent character, is so five-lobed 
 in its leaves as to be rather a cinquefoil than a 
 trefoil, occasionally excites the curiosity and 
 provokes the search of the rambler in the fields, 
 and has received from systematic botany the de- 
 signation Trifolium repens pentaphyllum. 
 
 The hybrid or bastard species, Trifolium hyhri- 
 dum, grows wild in Finland, Denmark, Germany, 
 France, Portugal, and Italy, and was introduced 
 to Britain in 1777. It was first discovered grow- 
 ing luxuriantly in ditches at Alsike in Swecfen ; 
 and it has hence been sometimes called Alsike 
 clover. It exhibits an appearance intermediate 
 between that of T. pratense and T. repens, and 
 was in consequence thought to be an offspring 
 of their union, and designated hybrid or bastard ; 
 but it is, in all respects, a perfectly distinct spe- 
 cies. Its root is fibrous and perennial; its stems 
 are branchy, and not so erect as those of red clo- 
 ver ; its leaflets are ovate and a little serrated ; 
 its flow r er-heads are globular and stalked; the 
 tuft of its calyx is nearly equal ; and its pods are 
 tretragonal. It strikes its roots deeper, lifts its 
 head higher, and has a more luxuriant foliage 
 than the red clovers ; and, besides being suitable 
 both for the alternate husbandry and for laying 
 down to pasture, it may probably flourish on a 
 farm which, in reference to the red clover, has, 
 in technical phrase, become "clover-sick." When 
 made into hay in the northern parts of conti- 
 nental Europe, it retains its smell and colour, 
 and never becomes mouldy ; and either in hay or 
 in a green state, it is eagerly eaten by all kinds 
 of live stock. 
 
 The zigzag species, also called marl-grass, cow- 
 grass, and mediate cow-grass, Trifolium medium, 
 grows wild in the dry pastures of England. It 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 346 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 is perennial, unfastidious, and of easy culture; 
 yet, though thoughtlessly extolled by some agri- 
 cultural writers, it has the character far more of 
 a weed than of an useful plant. It is seldom, 
 and in but small quantities, eaten by cattle ; it 
 produces comparatively little seed ; it exerts so 
 powerful a lateral action by its creeping and 
 spreading roots as to starve and smother almost 
 every grass-plant in its vicinity ; and, while so 
 unsocial and usurping as to take entire possession 
 of spots of ground, and always exist in consider- 
 able patches, it loves only such situations as very 
 dry and almost barren fields, very dry banks, 
 and the earth-clad sides and summits of old walls. 
 It has often been mistaken for common red clo- 
 ver, and, besides sharing with it the popular 
 name of cow-grass, it has a considerable resem- 
 blance to it in general appearance ; yet it may 
 be readily distinguished by the creeping habit of 
 its roots, the rigid, zigzag character of its stems, 
 and the unspottedness and comparative narrow- 
 ness and darkness of its leaves. 
 
 The Alpine species, Trifolium alpestre, grows 
 wild in Hungary, Austria, and other parts of 
 continental Europe, and was introduced to Bri- 
 tain in 1789. It has sometimes been confounded 
 with the zigzag species ; but is quite distinct in 
 at once appearance, habit, and utility. Its root 
 is perennial, and more fibrous yet less usurping 
 than that of the zigzag species ; its stem is erect, 
 very hard, not much branched, and only about 
 12 or 14 inches high ; its foliage is comparatively 
 scanty ; and its flower-heads are somewhat oval, 
 and grow in pairs, and possess so comparatively 
 high a degree of beauty as to render it very wor- 
 thy of a place in the parterre. It has been re- 
 commended for farm-cultivation by continental 
 writers; but it affords little promise of being 
 able to compete with any of our present culti- 
 vated kinds in either succulency or luxuriance. 
 
 The strawberry - headed species, Trifolium 
 fragiferum, grows wild on moist grounds in the 
 seaboard districts of England. It is a perennial, 
 and has a creeping and stoloniferous habit simi- 
 lar to that of red clover ; but it is readily distin- 
 guished by the lowness of its growth, the infla- 
 tion of its calyxes, the flesh or lightish-pink colour 
 of its flowers, and the globose, strawberry-like 
 appearance of its heads. Its root is fibrous ; its 
 stein is creeping ; its leaflets are obcordate and 
 serrated ; its flower - stems seldom rise higher 
 than about 3 or 4 inches from the ground ; and 
 its calyxes are inflated, membranaceous, coloured, 
 and downy, and have two of the teeth of each 
 recurved. This species, though hitherto little 
 attended to, might probably be an advantageous 
 ingredient in a mixture for permanent pasture 
 on moist land. 
 
 The yellowish- white species, Trifolium ochro- 
 leucum, grows wild on dry pastures in some parts 
 of England. Its root is perennial; its stem is 
 erect, and about a foot high ; and its flowers arc 
 sulphur-coloured, bloom from May till July, and 
 
 have so handsome an appearance as to entitle it 
 to a place among ornamental plants. This spe- 
 cies does not seem to deserve extensive cultiva- 
 tion; yet it might form a good ingredient in 
 permanent pastures on dry and calcareous land. 
 
 The Hungarian species, Trifolium pannonicum, 
 was introduced to Britain from Hungary in 1752. 
 Its root is fibrous and perennial ; its stem is 
 strong, upright, and about 14 inches high ; and 
 its flowers have a white or whitish-yellow colour, 
 and bloom in June and July. It has so much 
 beauty as to be worthy of a place in the parterre; 
 and, were it not too tender for general field cul- 
 tivation, it probably possesses sufficient econo- 
 mical value to deserve the attention of the 
 farmer. 
 
 The brown or villous-stalked species, Trifolium 
 badium, is a native of the Pyrenees. Its root is 
 fibrous and perennial ; its stem is erect, and only 
 about 6 or 8 inches high; its foliage is scanty; its 
 flower-heads are numerous, have a bright shin- 
 ing yellow colour, and bloom from June till Au- 
 gust ; and its seeds disperse themselves as soon 
 as ripe, and cannot easily be obtained for artifi- 
 cial sowing. This species is an ornament to the 
 parterre, but seems to be of small agricultural 
 value. — All the species we have hitherto noticed, 
 excepting the biennial varieties of the red clover, 
 are perennials ; and all the species which remain 
 to be noticed are annuals. 
 
 The crimson or flesh-coloured species, Trifolium 
 incarnatum, is a native of Italy, France, and Swit- 
 zerland, and was introduced from the first of these 
 countries to Britain toward the close of the 16th 
 century. Its stem is strong, striated, branched, 
 hairy, and about 12 or 14 inches high ; its leaf- 
 stalks are long and downy ; its leaflets are cu- 
 neiform, broadly-obtuse, crenate, and hairy ; its 
 flower-heads are oblong, obtuse, and about two 
 inches in length; its flowers have a beautiful 
 deep flesh-colour, and appear in July ; its calyxes 
 are ten-ribbed, hairy, and a little compressed ; 
 and its capsules are included in the tubes of the 
 calyxes, and contain each a single, oval, compress- 
 ed, glossy, yellowish-brown seed. It is largely cul- 
 tivated in the south of France, and seems abun- 
 dantly worthy of agricultural attention in Bri- 
 tain ; and, while very productive of fodder in the 
 field, it makes a fine figure in the flower-garden. 
 In the south of France and in other continental 
 districts, it is sown in the end of August or be- 
 ginning of September, cut down in the following 
 May, and immediately succeeded by a crop of 
 potatoes or of Spanish wheat. Much stupid dis- 
 credit has been thrown upon it in consequence 
 of absurd experiments, which either assumed it 
 to be a perennial or treated it as a spring-sown 
 annual ; and doubts have been raised against its 
 adaptations to Scotland, in consequence of its 
 refusing to flourish there under the same treat- 
 ment as in the south of England. 
 
 Moliner's species, Trifolium Afolineri, is a na- 
 tive of the south of Europe, and was introduced 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 347 
 
 CLOVER 
 
 to Britain in 1820. It pretty closely resembles 
 the crimson species in at once height, appear- 
 ance, and general habit, and has even been some- 
 times regarded as merely a permanent variety of 
 that species ; but it rushes more rapidly to ma- 
 turity, has rather a hardier constitution, and 
 carries a much lighter-coloured flower. It is 
 cultivated in some districts of France and Swit- 
 zerland, and probably might be more suitable 
 than the crimson species for Scotland. Its ap- 
 pearance is decidedly handsome, yet not so im- 
 posing as that of the crimson. 
 
 The Alexandrian species, Trifolium Alexandri- 
 num, is a native of Egypt, and was introduced 
 thence to Britain in 1798. It rivals the crimson 
 species in beauty, and even competes with it in 
 intrinsic value ; yet it has a more straggling 
 habit of growth, and is less densely covered with 
 foliage. Its stem is branching and nearly erect, 
 and attains a height of from 12 to 24 inches ; its 
 leaflets are long, narrow, smooth, and slightly 
 toothed ; its calyxes are hairy, and have narrow, 
 sharply-pointed, and unequal teeth ; its flowers 
 have a pale yellow colour, and appear in June 
 and July; and its flower-heads are stalked and 
 slightly oblong or oval. 
 
 The thread-like or yellow - suckling species, 
 Trifolium filiforme, grows wild on the gravelly 
 pastures and other dry, gravelly, or rocky places 
 of Britain. It yields but a small bulk of forage, 
 and is but little relished by any kind of live 
 stock ; yet it has been recommended for cultiva- 
 tion on such gravelly, rocky, or otherwise half- 
 barren ground as cannot maintain more valuable 
 herbage; and though usually an annual, it be- 
 comes, under good treatment or when eaten 
 down by sheep, practically a biennial. Its stems 
 are procumbent: its leaflets are nearly sessile; 
 its flower-stalks are slender and bending ; and 
 its flower-heads are small, loose, five-flowered, 
 and bright yellow. 
 
 The procumbent hop species, Trifolium procum- 
 bens, grows wild in the same kind of places as the 
 thread-like species, and has a very similar char- 
 acter and value. Yet it is more compact, erect, 
 and branching ; it has usually a height of only 
 from 4 to 6 inches ; it has close, globular, shining 
 yellow flower-heads; it is exceedingly liable to 
 mildew ; and it appears to be very generally dis- 
 liked by cattle.— The lesser yellow species, Tri- 
 folium minus, also grows wild in dry gravelly 
 places ; and it has a similar habit and worthless- 
 ness to the procumbent species, but is seldom 
 more than two or three inches high. T. filiforme, 
 procumbens, and minus, are frequently cultivated 
 under the common name of yellow clover, and 
 are, in practice, often confounded with black 
 medick, Medicago lupulina. — The starry species, 
 Trifolium stellatum, grows wild upon the southern 
 coasts of England, but is nowhere abundant. 
 It has a height of 6 or 8 inches, and carries a 
 curious head of purple-coloured flowers, but is 
 not worthy of cultivation. 
 
 The principal species of clover at present ap- 
 proved and extensively cultivated in Britain are 
 thus, the crimson, in preparation for summer 
 fallow or for a crop of potatoes, — the white, and 
 occasionally some other low-growing species, for 
 laying down land to permanent pasture, — and 
 the red for the purposes of the alternate hus- 
 bandry, and for green fodder and hay. But what- 
 ever other species may, at any future time, come 
 into cultivation, are likely to be treated in the 
 same manner as one or other of these ; so that 
 all clovers, viewed in either their actual or their 
 possible connexion with the farm, take as their 
 type either the annual crimson, the perennial 
 white, or the biennial red. 
 
 Crimson clover requires to be the subject of 
 considerably more extensive observation and pro- 
 longed experience than have yet been directed 
 to it, before it possess an established and routine 
 system of cultivation for every part of Britain. 
 " It has," says Mr. Lawson, " been grown with 
 much success in England, particularly in the 
 southern counties ; but hitherto its culture has 
 not been attended with the expected success in 
 most parts of Scotland. Whether this want of 
 success should be attributed to the effects of cli- 
 mate, or to the mode of culture, has not yet been 
 satisfactorily ascertained. In England, it has 
 been found to succeed best, either drilled (in 
 rows at the distance of eighteen inches to one 
 foot), or sown broadcast on stubble after the corn 
 crops have been removed, and with no previous 
 preparation save a course or two of harrowing, 
 just sufficient to stir the soil to the depth of an 
 inch or two, so that the seed may be more easily 
 covered. In very tenacious soils, a very shallow 
 ploughing is given ; but in general, it is found 
 better to dispense with the plough altogether, 
 for the many failures which occurred previous to 
 its culture being properly understood, are now 
 attributed entirely to the ground having been 
 too much loosened and pulverized by repeated 
 ploughings. The advantages to be derived from the 
 cultivation of T. incarnatum are, that when sown 
 in autumn, it may be cut and cleared from the 
 ground in the beginning of June following, and 
 the land fallowed for wheat or spring corn; it 
 forms a valuable green food for cattle at an early 
 period of the season, and, if cut when in full 
 flower, it yields a more abundant crop, and makes 
 a superior hay to that of common clovers, at least 
 it is more readily eaten by horses. There can 
 be no doubt but the. south of England is better 
 suited for the growth of crimson clover than any 
 part of Scotland, from the circumstance that the 
 corn crops are much earlier removed, conse- 
 quently the young plants have more time to at- 
 tain strength before the winter season sets in ; 
 however, it does not follow but that it may be 
 grown with advantage in the more favourable 
 districts of Scotland, were its culture fairly un- 
 derstood. In England, about 18 lb. or 20 lb. of 
 seed is allowed to the acre; but in Scotland it 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 348 
 
 CLOVER 
 
 has been thought advisable to add a few pounds 
 more, to provide against contingencies ; when 
 drilled, of course, the quantity required will be 
 less, and it may be increased or lessened accord- 
 ing to the nature of the climate and soil." 
 
 White clover has neither a proper habit nor a 
 sufficient productiveness to be grown either as 
 an independent crop or as a member of any course 
 of alternate husbandry ; but it is eminently suit- 
 ed for herbage in any kind of pasture or grass 
 lands, and ought always to be mixed in tolerably 
 large proportion with the artificial grasses, in 
 laying down land to what is technically called per- 
 manent pasture. Though creeping and of low 
 growth, it luxuriantly intertwines with the grass- 
 es, so as to form a thick and massive mat of herb- 
 age ; and it is at once so sweet and so very 
 nutritive as to serve, in the highest manner, 
 all the immediate purposes of pasturage. Yet 
 when any instance of " permanent pasture " is 
 intended to be of comparatively short duration, 
 and to serve quite as much the remote purposes 
 of an arable rotation as the immediate purposes 
 of grazing, white clover is much less suitable 
 than perennial red ; for not only is it slower of 
 development in the earlier periods of its growth, 
 but it exerts a far feebler manurial power upon 
 the soil for the succeeding cereal crops. Its pro- 
 per place and treatment, therefore, are prominence 
 among the grasses of a long continuance of arti- 
 ficial pasture, and intermixture with the seeds 
 of those grasses at the time of their being sown. 
 It flourishes upon almost any soil, no matter how 
 heavy, provided it be sound and dry; but it 
 thrives best upon light calcareous soil ; and, in 
 very many instances, it springs, as if spontane- 
 ously, from seeds which have been dormant for 
 ages, either after the turning up of light calcare- 
 ous land which has long lain in waste or neglect, 
 or after a smart and prolonged action of calcare- 
 ous manure upon other kinds of land. 
 
 Red clover is an important element in all good 
 alternate husbandry ; but has. in a considerable 
 degree, come to be distrusted, or to be considered 
 as precarious, in consequence of having generally 
 been cultivated on too close and routine a sys- 
 tem, or at too rapid intervals. On its adoption 
 into British agriculture, it exploded the old tri- 
 ennial system, and led the way to all the valuable 
 modern improvements in courses of cropping ; 
 and its presence or absence, its prominence or 
 obscurity, its profusion or sparseness in any dis- 
 trict, is still a very distinct indication of the ex- 
 cellence or wretchedness of that district's hus- 
 bandry. It affords ample support to the remu- 
 nerating practice of soiling cattle, and, with the 
 aid of tares, may form a sufficient supply of green 
 food for all stock from the beginning of May till 
 the end of November; it so covers the ground 
 with its broad foliage, as to smother annual 
 weeds ; and it so enriches the soil by the fixation 
 of gases, and the profuse ramification of its roots, 
 as to act with the power of a fallow and make 
 
 both a mechanical and a chemical preparation for 
 a beautiful and luxuriant cereal crop. But when 
 frequently repeated, or when grown at regularly 
 recurring intervals, without efficient means being 
 used to counteract the mischief done to the soil, 
 it is, in numerous situations, exceedingly liable 
 to serious and even very signal failure. In Bel- 
 gium, it cannot, under the present system of 
 Flemish husbandry, safely recur oftener than at 
 intervals of eight or ten years ; in Norfolk, it 
 ought, according to the locally approved system 
 of rotation, to recur in every fourth year, but 
 frequently requires to be either substituted by 
 grass-seeds or pulse, or nursed and protected by 
 a special application of mineral manure ; in the 
 magnesian-limestone districts of England, it fails, 
 on the average, to the amount of about four- 
 ninths of the entire surface on which it is sown ; 
 in the oolitic districts, and in such parts of the 
 coal and the new red- sandstone districts as have 
 a light soil, it is esteemed precarious at a shorter 
 interval than about twelve years ; and on the 
 chalk wolds of Yorkshire, it has so often and egre- 
 giously failed as to have become almost totally 
 abandoned. In the last of these districts, in- 
 deed, even white clover, when grown as a substi- 
 tute of the discarded red, very often fails to the 
 amount of one half of the surface sown. 
 
 A crop of red clover which fails in consequence 
 of too frequent sowing, or in the manner of what 
 is technically called clover-sickness, springs up, 
 and vegetates till after the harvesting of the 
 cereal crops with which it was sown, and then 
 dies away during the months of October, Novem- 
 ber, December, January, February, and March. 
 The cause of its failure has been a subject of 
 great bewilderment to farmers, and of much 
 controversy among scientific agriculturists. A 
 somewhat favourite opinion ascribes the failure 
 to an exhaustion of some constituents of the soil, 
 which are required for the sustenance of clover, 
 and points to a manurial supply of these consti- 
 tuents, particularly of gypsum, common salt, and 
 phosphate of lime, as a means of preventing the 
 failure ; and another opinion, with nearly equal 
 plausibility, ascribes it to the presence of some 
 vegetable excretions which are poisonous to 
 clover, and points for a remedy either to the 
 chemical decomposition of the offensive matters, 
 or to the avoiding or modifying of the particular 
 crop by which they are deposited. But the chief 
 cause, and probably the only one, appears to us 
 to be the destruction of the cellular tissue of the 
 plants by frost, — or remotely the absence or con- 
 siderable diminution of the soil's cohesiveness, 
 and of its consequent power ,of retaining heat. 
 "Those plants, particularly clovers, which are 
 impatient of sudden change of temperature, are 
 readily destroyed by the frost ; and soils, by the 
 growth of white clover, red clover, and tares, be- 
 come more pulverulent, puffy, and less cohesive, 
 in proportion to the frequency of the growth of 
 these crops ; and this explains why these lands 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 349 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 tire of clover. The several particles of earth, by 
 the long, deep, and numerous radicles of these 
 plants, become mechanically forced from their 
 position, and their points of contact thus ren- 
 dered fewer in number ; and such soils compara- 
 tively become specifically lighter in proportion to 
 the weight of a determinate volume." A scien- 
 tific paper, by the Rev. W. Thorp, in the Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
 makes an able appeal to experiment, in vindica- 
 tion of this opinion and in refutation of the pre- 
 vailing opinions, and then shows how perfectly 
 this opinion harmonizes with the numerous and 
 hitherto perplexing phenomena of clover-sickness. 
 
 The soils of the chalk, oolite, and magnesian- 
 limestone districts of England, after losing their 
 power of producing clover, re-acquire it by the 
 enjoyment of a considerable period of rest. For, 
 " the more frequently the clovers, or tares, or any 
 large tough-root plant are sown, the less compact 
 and lighter in weight does the soil become ; and 
 at length, there is produced from this cause an 
 incapacity of the clovers growing upon them to 
 resist the frost ; yet, in time, by the decomposi- 
 tion of these roots, and the cultivation of bulb- 
 ous-rooted crops, and the treading of the soil by 
 sheep in eating them off, as is usually practised, 
 reconsolidation of the soil takes place, and the 
 same land is thus enabled again to sustain clover 
 against the severity of the frost." — In some fields, 
 particularly on the wolds of Yorkshire, the clover 
 sometimes remains alive and healthy on the 
 headlands, after it has everywhere else perished ; 
 and it appears to owe all its safety on the head- 
 lands to the incidental circumstance of their hav- 
 ing been trampled and comparatively consolidated 
 by the horses when turning round in ploughing. — 
 Clover after teazles invariably fails on the strong 
 tenacious clay lands around Hemsworth ; and 
 yet clover after teazles succeeds better than any 
 other crop, in the magnesian-limestone districts, 
 particularly around Kirk-Smeaton. For the 
 treading of the teazle-spittalers and reapers ren- 
 ders the clay land so compact as to exclude the 
 proportion of air necessary for supporting the 
 clover ; while just the same thing renders the 
 light and porous limestone sufficiently solid for 
 preserving the crop through the winter. — One 
 portion of a field which had received farm-yard 
 manure in preparation for turnips has been found 
 to maintain clover, while another portion of the 
 same field which had received bone-manure in 
 preparation for turnips has been found to let the 
 clover perish ; and the former of these portions 
 seems to have owed much of its superiority to 
 the binding or agglutinating action of the dis- 
 solved dung, while the latter owed much of its 
 inferiority to the loosening and separating action 
 of the slowly decomposing bones. — Some parts of 
 the magnesian-limestone districts will produce 
 clover every fourth year, and others will produce 
 it only every eighth year, others only every 
 twelfth year, and others not at all ; for " the 
 
 compactness of the limestone soils is very vari- 
 able, — some require pressing for wheat, others do 
 not, — some contain five per cent, of alumina, 
 others not one per cent., — some twelve per cent, 
 of lime, others not two per cent., — hence, upon 
 the more compact the clover will stand the win- 
 ter, while upon other portions it will not do so." 
 — In farms in the south of England which have 
 a light and porous soil, a working flock of sheep 
 very generally secure the successful cultivation 
 of clover ; for, by their treading and their drop- 
 pings, they both consolidate the soil and increase 
 its capacity for heat. — The claying or marling of 
 clover-sick lands in Norfolk frequently restores 
 their power of bearing ■ clover ; because it so 
 changes their mechanical texture as to render 
 their particles cohesive, and their whole sub- 
 stance less penetrable by frost. — The chalking of 
 the Yorkshire wolds, or the liming of many light- 
 ish lands in other districts, is favourable to clover, 
 — simply because it increases their tenacity ; and 
 so sensibly has the chalking this effect, that a 
 person, walking over almost any portion of the 
 wolds may know, from the sensation of firmness 
 or otherwise conveyed through his feet, whether 
 it have been chalked. — " Sprengel remarks that 
 the clovers delight in a close-topped soil, or one 
 which admits no great quantity of oxygen to the 
 roots. The best clover grown in Great Britain 
 is upon the warp soil in marsh land near the 
 river Humber; for not only is such a soil dry 
 and compact, but abounds in microscopic animal- 
 culse. Ehrenberg has discovered that the mud 
 of the various harbours in Europe contains from 
 one-third to half of its volume of distinguishable 
 organic bodies, chiefly polythalamia, from the 
 nitrogen of which no doubt these soils derive 
 their general fertility." — The practical and very 
 important inference from all this is, that ten- 
 dency to clover-sickness may, in every instance, 
 be successfully combated, and that, by rolling, 
 pressing, claying, chalking, liming, or other con- 
 solidating appliances adapted to the specialities 
 of the various kinds of soil, it may be completely 
 and quite cheaply vanquished. " I should say," 
 remarks the writer whom we have been follow- 
 ing, "lime the clover-ley when broken up for 
 wheat, press the wheat, and also press the soil 
 for barley, and after harvest, before November, 
 roll the barley with a heavy roller, and the pro- 
 bability is, that we should hear no more of clover- 
 sick lands." 
 
 Red clover is always sown in spring, and very 
 seldom sown alone. It evolves so small a bulk of 
 produce in the first year that it could not remu- 
 nerate by being sown alone ; and it enjoys posi- 
 tive advantage from the presence of another 
 crop, which shall not remain longer on the ground 
 than till August or September ; and in all ordi- 
 nary cases, it detracts from the nourishment 
 which the soil might yield to the accompanying 
 and overshadowing crop, no more than it com- 
 pensates by its own value. On strong ciayey 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 land in England, and on all kinds of wheat-bear- 
 ing land in Scotland, it is frequently sown in 
 spring among the rising crop of winter-wheat ; 
 on all kinds of land in Norfolk, and on light lands 
 in some other British districts, it is always sown 
 among barley; in Belgium, it is sown among 
 rye; in the southern and midland counties of 
 England, it is sown among barley, oats, or any 
 other convenient crop, and considered the best 
 preparation, except clean fallow, for wheat ; and 
 on any rich land, it may advantageously be sown 
 among flax which is intended to be pulled green. 
 A chief advantage of sowing it among a rising 
 crop of wheat, or any other winter crop, is to 
 prevent injury to that crop from premature lux- 
 uriance in the clover; and a disadvantage of 
 such sowing, especially if the rising crop be thick, 
 is the risk of the clover-seeds or young clover- 
 plants not obtaining sufficient circulation of air 
 for their vegetating. 
 
 The proper quantity of seed, on strong clayey 
 lands, with wheat or oats, varies from 12 to 18 
 pounds per acre ; and, on light porous soils, with 
 barley, from 10 to 14 pounds. When the weather 
 is favourable, and a range of proper time is in 
 the farmer's option, clover ought to be sown as 
 early in the spring as possible, in order that it 
 may escape the possible mischiefs of drought and 
 of insect devastation. When unmixed with grass- 
 seeds, it is always sown broadcast ; and, except 
 in the hands of a singularly expert sower, it 
 ought, for the sake of securing the utmost pos- 
 sible equality of distribution, to be sown one-half 
 lengthwise and one-half across. It requires a 
 finely pulverized soil, and a very thin covering ; 
 and the sowing of it should be immediately pre- 
 ceded by finely -tined harrowing, and immedi- 
 ately followed by bush-harrowing, and, on light 
 soils, by rolling. On heavy soils, among oats, it 
 is usually sown in March ; among rising wheat, 
 either while the wheat-plants are low and slender, 
 or after they have been eaten down by sheep; 
 and on light soils, among barley, after turnips, 
 in the course of April, or even so late as the be- 
 ginning of May. Under bad management, as to 
 either insufficient tillage or unskilful sowing, or 
 in unfavourable seasons, from the effects of 
 drought or of frost, the clover crop may partially 
 fail or may come up in mere patches ; and in all 
 such instances, tare-seeds ought to be either dib- 
 bled in, or gown and harrowed in upon all the 
 vacant spaces. 
 
 A small proportion of the seeds of rye-grass, 
 Lolium perenne, usually about a peck per acre, is, 
 in multitudes of instances, mixed with the clover 
 seeds in sowing. This intermixture of rye-grass 
 is supposed to assist in preventing clover-sick- 
 ness, to nurse and shelter the young clover plants, 
 to augment the profitable bulk of the clover crop, 
 and to serve as a corrective of the heating pro- 
 perties of clover hay, and otherwise improve its 
 good qualities as provender. So long as the in- 
 termixed rye-grass of the crop is young and suc- 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 culent, clover-hay which- contains it is at least as 
 good as pure clover-hay, and perhaps a little 
 better ; but when the rye-grass becomes old and 
 hard, it unquestionably deteriorates the crop. 
 Unmixed clover-hay always or almost always ob- 
 tains, around London, a superior price to mixed 
 clover hay ; but in many, perhaps most instances, 
 it owes its higher market value to mere prejudice. 
 When clover is intended to be strictly biennial, 
 it probably acquires little advantage, and may 
 occasionally suffer detriment from an intermix- 
 ture of rye-grass ; and when it is intended to 
 stand to a third or a fourth year, it not only is 
 benefitted by the presence of the rye-grass, but 
 requires a selection of its own perennial varie- 
 ties, and may very profitably have from two to 
 four pounds per acre of its red clover seeds at 
 sowing substituted by the same quantity of seeds 
 of white clover. " If the grass is to continue in 
 the ground only one year," says Mr. Stephens, in 
 reference to the practices of Scottish farming, 
 " a larger proportion of red clover is used than 
 when it is to continue for two or more years. It 
 is considered that 12 lb. of clover seeds and one 
 bushel of rye-grass, is sufficient for an imperial 
 acre. If the grass is to continue one year, the 
 rye-grass should be the annual, and so called be- 
 cause it only affords a crop for one year, though 
 by that time it has been two years in the ground, 
 — one with the crop in wnich it was sown, and 
 one with the clover seeds, — and though there is 
 no botanical distinction between it and the true 
 perennial rye-grass. This seed weighs 30 lb. per 
 bushel, gives 1,712 grains to one drachm weight, 
 and costs, by the quotations of 1843, from 20s. 
 to 28s. per quarter. For the same duration of 
 the grass crop, 10 lb. of red clover and 2 lb. of 
 white should be sown on the acre. The red 
 clover weighs 64 lb. per bushel, and gives 2,000 
 grains to one drachm, and the cost is from 56s. to 
 75s. per cwt. The white clover weighs 65 lb. 
 per bushel ; and, though so heavy a seed, it is so 
 small that it takes 4,000 grains to weigh one 
 drachm ; and its usual cost is from 56s. to 75s. 
 per cwt. When the grass is to remain more than 
 one year, 6 lb. of red and 6 lb. of white, and one 
 bushel of true perennial rye-grass, are considered 
 good proportions. The perennial rye-grass weighs 
 18 lb. per bushel, gives 2,000 grains to one 
 drachm, and its cost usually is from 24s. to 48s. 
 per quarter." The mixture of other hay and 
 pasture plants besides rye-grass with clover — 
 particularly Lolium Italicum, Phleum pratense, 
 Dactylis glomerata, Plantago lanceolata, and Pc- 
 troselinum sativum — has of late years been re- 
 commended; but any such mixture belongs rather 
 to the systematic cultivation of the grasses, than 
 to the clover-fallow of regular arable rotations. 
 See the article Grasses. Whenever a farmer pur- 
 chases clover seeds from any party in whom he 
 has not perfect confidence, hu ought to satisfy 
 himself that they are not " doctored." See the 
 article Seed. 
 
 350 
 
CLOVER. 
 
 351 
 
 CLOVER. 
 
 The destination of the clover crop is exceed- 
 ingly various ; and the treatment of it must, in 
 a main degree, be ruled by the destination. In 
 favourable seasons, and on rich soil, it frequently 
 attains a considerable height and luxuriance be- 
 fore the commencement of corn-harvest ; and, in 
 such instances, the corn crop amongst which it 
 grows may be cut very low, so that a portion of 
 the clover may be mixed with its straw, and 
 add to the sweetness, nutritiousness, and bulk 
 of its fodder. But when, from any cause, the 
 clover continues to be low and feeble till the time 
 of corn-harvest, it ought to escape all touch of 
 the instrument at the cutting of the corn-crop ; 
 and it may afterwards shoot up with such rapid- 
 ity as, before the close of the season and without 
 injury to itself, to afford a hearty though cau- 
 tious bite to a flock of sheep. In all situations, 
 unless when it suffers some disaster, or is diverted 
 from its natural course of productiveness, it yields 
 two disposable crops in the second year, — the 
 first and best, when it is coming into flower in 
 the beginning of summer, and the second when 
 it has again rushed into full vigour in autumn ; 
 and in some very favourable circumstances of 
 soil, situation, and weather, it even, during the 
 second year, produces three good disposable crops. 
 The most common practice is to make the first 
 of the two crops of the second year into hay, and 
 to feed off the second crop; and another common 
 practice, though a severe one, is to make both 
 crops into hay. But these practices are, in mul- 
 titudinous instances, superseded or greatly modi- 
 fied by others. Many farmers turn their stock 
 upon clover as early in spring as it will afford 
 them sustenance, and keep them upon it till 
 May ; and some afterwards treat it for a crop of 
 hay, while others let it stand for a crop of seed. 
 In general, in the vicinity of large towns, clover 
 is treated as much as possible for hay ; in dis- 
 tricts remote from large towns, it is always more 
 or less liberally fed off, and occasionally culti- 
 vated for seed; and when prolonged into the 
 third year after sowing, it is usually pastured or 
 fed off in a similar manner to turnips. 
 
 The general hay-making process with clover, 
 as well as with meadow-grass, will be noticed in 
 the article on Hay. The grand difficulty in the 
 case of clover is so to dry it, as to avert the risk 
 of moulding, and prevent damage to its tender 
 foliage ; and this difficulty is increased when, in 
 order to insure the due richness of the hay, the 
 clover is not cut till fully in flower. In most or- 
 dinary and all careless methods of hay-making, 
 both the foliage and the flowers of clover are in 
 imminent peril of being destroyed ; nor is any 
 method safe which shakes or disperses the swathe, 
 or which does more than regularly and cautiously 
 turn it. The mere drying of the crop is, in any 
 circumstances, tedious, and in wet weather im- 
 practicable. The German agriculturist Schwertz 
 dries the clover on a sort of parrot perches, stuck 
 into the ground. The perches are about 8 feet 
 
 I high, and capable of bearing a load of 2 cwt. of 
 green fodder, mowed 24 hours, and in a somewhat 
 withered condition. " This method, as I have seen 
 it practised in the Duchy of Baden," says Bous- 
 singault, " answers well ; but there is consider- 
 able cost for manual labour, and, in the first in- 
 stance, for perches." But a cheaper, easier, and 
 far more economical method was invented, tested, 
 and published, a few years ago, by "William Bell, 
 Esq. of Hunthill. He originally designed merely 
 to avert the injury which usually arises from 
 letting the clover lie in swathes just as it falls 
 from the scythe ; but he obtained results which 
 involved the superior preservation, colour, fra- 
 grance, and nutritiousness of the hay. Mr. Bell, 
 writing to the Directors of the Highland Society, 
 in the beginning of the winter of 1839-40, says : 
 "On Thursday 26th September, 1839, an acre of 
 a heavy second crop of clover was cut. On the 
 same day, a stack of oats was thrashed, being 
 also the produce of about an acre ; and the straw 
 was spread on the surface of the grass as it lay 
 on the ground. That same evening, the whole, 
 without being worked up in any way, was put 
 into hand-ricks. On Saturday the 28th, the 
 whole was spread out ; and in the evening, it was 
 put up in larger ricks, about three of the first in 
 one. On Monday the 30th, the whole was again 
 spread out, and in the evening was put in larger 
 ricks, standing about six feet high. It was then 
 considered to be quite ready to be carried to the 
 stack ; but on Tuesday the 1st October, the wea- 
 ther, which had been good, changed, and a heavy 
 rain wetted the whole to a serious extent. On 
 Thursday the 3d October, however, on being once 
 more spread out, the whole was found to be so 
 dry, that it was put up in large tramp ricks, in 
 which state it stood for about two weeks. It 
 was then stacked, and has remained ever since in 
 the best condition, no part of it having become 
 at all heated, and the whole being as fragrant as 
 the best clover hay. Horses preferred it greatly 
 to the hay of this season of good quality, and the 
 straw was eaten as readily as the grass, with 
 which it is intimately mixed." And after he had 
 experience of it till the end of spring, 1840, he 
 said, " The cattle and horses have eaten it freely, 
 and continue to do so till the present time. 
 Where a quantity of the clover happens to have 
 been kept together, it is brown in colour, as is 
 usual with the best clover hay ; where it has been 
 intimately mixed with the straw, the stem and 
 leaf remain essentially green, and the flower red ; 
 the whole mixture is fragrant, and in excellent 
 condition." This method, therefore, besides fa- 
 cilely and cheaply averting mischief from the 
 clover, secures a large, easy, and most profitable 
 increase of prime winter food for cattle and 
 horses, and may prove eminently beneficial in 
 rainy districts or in bad hay seasons. 
 
 On good land, the first crop of hay will produce 
 two tons of hay per acre, and the second crop 
 one ton and a half ; and if the land be very highly 
 
COB. 
 
 352 
 
 COCK 
 
 manured, the produce will be considerably greater. 
 In the Woburn experiments, on rich clayey loam, 
 the produce per acre of newly cut broad clover 
 was 49,005 lbs., and of long- rooted clover 74,868 
 lbs.; and on rich black loam, the produce per 
 acre of newly-cut bastard clover was 20,418 lbs. 
 Schwertz reckons that 2 cwts. of green clover 
 yield 48 lbs. of hay ; but the proportion of the 
 dried hay to the green crop is very materially 
 ruled by the age of the plants, and by the mete- 
 orological circumstances under which they grow. 
 In experiments of Boussingault, one ton of clo- 
 ver in flower of the second year yielded 7 cwts. 
 of hay, and one ton of clover of the first year 
 yielded 4 cwts., 2 qrs., 24 lbs. of hay ; clover hay 
 sent off, by complete desiccation, 21 per* cent, of 
 moisture ; dry hay yielded, by incineration, 7'76 
 per cent, of ashes ; and the elementary constitu- 
 ents of the organic parts of dry hay, or the parts 
 which were dissipated by combustion, were 47 - 53 
 per cent, of carbon, 4"69 of hydrogen, 37'96 of 
 oxygen, and 2*06 of nitrogen. — Loudon's Hortus 
 Britannicus. — Sinclair s Hortus Gramineus. — 
 Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual. — Lawson on the 
 Artificial Grasses. — Young' 's Farmer'' 's Calendar. — 
 Reports to the Board of Agriculture. — Marshall's 
 County Reports. — Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
 ture. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
 — Catalogue of the Highland Society's Museum. — 
 Transactions of the Highland Society. — Stephens' 
 Book of the Farm. — Davy's Agricultural Chemis- 
 try. — Boussingault' s Rural Economy. — Doyle's 
 Husbandry. — Sproule's Agricidture. — The Garden- 
 er's Magazine. — Low's Agriculture. — Sir John Sin- 
 clair's General Report of Scotland. 
 
 CLYSTER. See Glyster. 
 
 COAL-ASHES. See Ashes. 
 
 COB. A wicker basket for carrying on the 
 arm, or the small seed-basket carried by a sower ; 
 likewise, a mud- wall ; and formerly also a spider, 
 — hence the word cobweb. 
 
 COCK. The well known chieftain of the poul- 
 try-yard, and rural announcer of the passage of 
 time ; whose shrill clarion, heard in the still 
 watches of the night, inspires the invalid with 
 cheering hopes of the coming dawn, and informs 
 the way-worn traveller of his approach to the 
 habitations of his kind. Domesticated, but not 
 subdued, he marches at the head of his train of 
 wives and offspring, with a port of proud defiance, 
 not less ready to punish aggression against his 
 dependents than to assert his superiority upon 
 the challenge of any antagonist. At what time 
 he was brought under the immediate control 
 of man, it is now impossible to determine ; but, 
 as the forests of many parts of India still abound 
 with several varieties of the cock in the wild or 
 natural condition, it is quite reasonable to con- 
 clude that the race was first domesticated in the 
 eastern countries, and gradually extended thence 
 to the rest of the world. He is said to have been 
 introduced to Europe from Persia, and is called 
 
 by Aristophanes " the Persian bird ; " yet he has 
 been so long established throughout the west, 
 that no historical trace exists of his progress 
 thither from his native wilds. 
 
 A notched, crimson, fleshy substance, called 
 comb, surmounts the head of the cock ; and two 
 pendulous fleshy bodies of the same colour, termed 
 wattles, hang under his throat. The hen has also 
 a similar, but not so large nor so vividly coloured, 
 excrescence on her head. The cock is provided 
 with a sharp horn or spur on the outside of his 
 tarsus, with which he inflicts severe wounds ; 
 the hen, instead of a spur, has a mere knot or 
 tubercle. There is, in both sexes, below the ear, 
 an oblong spot, the anterior edge of which is red- 
 dish, and the remainder white. The feathers 
 arise, in pairs, from each sheath, touching by 
 their points within the skin, but diverging in 
 their course outwards. On the neck, they are 
 long, narrow, and floating; on the rump, they 
 are of the same form, but drooping laterally over 
 the extremity of the wings, which are quite 
 short, and terminate at the origin of the tail, 
 the plumes of which are vertical. In the centre 
 of the cock's tail are two long feathers, which 
 fall backwards in a graceful arch, and add great 
 beauty to the whole aspect of the fowl. It is in 
 vain to offer any description of the colour of the 
 plumage, as it is infinitely varied, being in some 
 breeds of the greatest richness and elegance, and 
 in others of the simplest and plainest hue. Ex- 
 cept in the pure white breeds, the plumage of 
 the cock is always more splendid than that of 
 the hen. We cannot contemplate the cock, when 
 in good health and full plumage, without being 
 struck with his apparent consciousness of per- 
 sonal beauty and courage. His movements and 
 gestures seem all to be influenced by such feel- 
 ings, and his stately march and frequent trium- 
 phant crowing express confidence in his strength 
 and bravery. He attains maturity when about 
 six months old, and possesses the power of pro- 
 pagating his species for about three years; and 
 he is so excessively salacious that one individual is 
 quite sufficient for from 10 to 15 hens. 
 
 The hen is ready to commence laying after she 
 has moulted or changed her plumage, and is not 
 at the trouble of making a regular nest. A 
 simple hole, scratched in the ground, in some 
 retired place, serves her purpose, and she gener- 
 ally lays from 12 to 15 eggs before she begins to 
 sit upon them for the purpose of hatching. 
 Having thus taken possession of her nest, she 
 becomes a model of enduring patience, remaining 
 fixed in her place until the urgency of hunger 
 forces her to go in search of food. A short time 
 suffices ; she runs eagerly about in quest of sus- 
 tenance, and soon resumes her charge. Her eggs 
 are diligently turned and shifted from the centre 
 to the edge of the nest, so that each may receive 
 a due degree of genial warmth, and it is not until 
 about 21 days have elapsed that the incubation 
 
COLD. 
 
 353 
 
 COLE. 
 
 is completed. The strongest of the progeny then 
 begin to chip the shell with the bill, and are suc- 
 cessively enabled to burst their brittle prisons. 
 She continues upon the nest till the whole are 
 hatched and dry, and then leads them forth in 
 search of food. The hen, except when accom- 
 panied by a young brood, is always timid, and 
 ready to fly from disturbance ; but when she is 
 engaged in discharging the duties of maternity, 
 her whole nature is changed. She fiercely and 
 vigorously attacks all aggressors, watches over 
 the safety of her young with the utmost jealousy, 
 neglects the demands of her own appetite to divide 
 the food she may obtain among her nurslings, and 
 labours with untiring diligence to provide them 
 sufficient sustenance. See the article Poultry. 
 
 COLD. A comparatively low degree of tem- 
 perature, or the peculiar sensation which this 
 excites in animals. The greatest cold which has 
 hitherto been observed in the open air, does not 
 exceed — 50; and probably the extreme range of 
 the inferior temperatures which occur in nature, 
 is but little below that point. The temperature 
 of a particular place on the surface of the earth 
 is determined by a variety of circumstances, some 
 of which are regular in their operation, others 
 accidental. Among the former may be stated, 
 the direct influence of the solar rays, and the 
 latitude ; among the latter, the winds, evapor- 
 ation, and the evolution or absorption of heat by 
 the surface or upper strata of the earth. The 
 causes which we have denominated regular, how- 
 ever, are not absolutely so ; for the heat produced 
 by the rays of the sun may be effected by spots 
 upon his surface, — and the temperature resulting 
 from geographical position may be modified by 
 local peculiarities. Thus the sea limits the range 
 of temperature, by moderating alike the extremes 
 of heat and cold ; while large tracts of land are 
 equally favourable to both. The winds have a 
 very powerful influence on the temperature of a 
 place. When the surface of the earth is much 
 heated by the influence of the solar rays, the air 
 immediately above it is rarified, and becoming 
 specifically lighter, ascends into the higher re- 
 gions of the atmosphere. Its place is quickly 
 occupied by a fresh portion of air rushing in from 
 every side, which, in its turn, being heated and 
 rarified, also ascends. The warm air which has 
 thus ascended, is gradually wafted to colder re- 
 gions, where it gives out its heat, and moderates 
 the rigour of the climate to which it has been 
 transported. The comparative amount of eva- 
 poration, also, whether from expanses of water 
 or from tracts of morass or from impervious sur- 
 faces of land, is a very powerful source of cold ; 
 the conversion of water into vapour, in every case, 
 and in the exact rates of its quantity, being ne- 
 cessarily accompanied with the absorption of 
 much caloric. Hence the agricultural improv- 
 nient of a country, or whatever tends to facilitate 
 the escape of the water from its surface by any 
 
 means but evaporation, has a remarkable influ- 
 ence on its temperature. The gradual ameliora- 
 tion of the climate of America, is undoubtedly 
 to be ascribed to this cause, as well as that of 
 Europe. See the article Draining. 
 
 The effects of cold on vegetation are determined 
 partly by its intensity, partly by its duration, 
 partly by the period of its occurrence, and partly 
 by the habits and position of the plants or crops 
 on which it acts. The injury so often done in 
 spring by frosts of slight degree and of short 
 continuance is mainly ascribable to the peculiar 
 vernal susceptibilities of plants, connected with 
 the full flow of the young sap, and with the ra- 
 pid swelling and expanding of the buds. The 
 principal source of cold at this season is the ra- 
 diation of caloric from the earth into space ; and 
 whenever the atmosphere is habitually clear, the 
 maximum of temperature differs more from the 
 minimum than when the atmosphere is habit- 
 ually clouded ; for a clear sky during the day is 
 favourable to the accumulation of caloric from 
 the sun's rays within the surface of the earth, 
 and at the same time a clear sky during the 
 night is favourable to the radiation of the ac- 
 cumulated caloric back again into space. See 
 the articles Hoar-Frost, and Caloric 
 
 COLD. A disease. See Catarrh. 
 
 COLE, Colsa, or Colza, — botanically Brassica 
 campestris oleifera. A hardy cultivated biennial, 
 agricultural plant, of the cabbage and turnip ge- 
 nus. It is frequently confounded with the oleif- 
 erous subvariety of rape ; but may be readily 
 distinguished from that plant by the greater size 
 of its pods and seeds, by the clearer and lighter 
 yellowness of its flowers, and especially by the 
 roughness or hispidity of its leaves. It is consi- 
 derably the most oleiferous of the brassicas ; it 
 ought always to be cultivated in preference to 
 rape, when oil is the principal object ; and it is 
 extensively cultivated as an oil plant in the 
 Netherlands. It is cultivated in nearly the same 
 manner as turnips, but requires a richer soil, and 
 admits of being sown at a later period in the 
 season ; it is sometimes sown to be fed off with 
 sheep or cattle, on land which is unsuitable for 
 turnips, or on which they fail; it sometimes 
 occurs with great advantage, in a rotation, im- 
 mediately before wheat ; and in the flat, rich 
 fennishly meadowy tracts of the counties of Lin- 
 coln, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Essex, it is 
 profitably cultivated for the double purpose of 
 early winter feeding and of oil, — the crop being 
 sown between the middle of July and the middle 
 of August, eaten by sheep from the latter part of 
 autumn till the end of January, and matured for 
 its oil seeds in the following autumn. But, in 
 order to its making an amply remunerating re- 
 turn, the land for it must either be newly drain- 
 ed fennish-meadow, or rich and newly broken up 
 pasture, or very fertile corn-land, well manured 
 with spit-dung. 
 
 Z 
 
COLIC. 
 
 354 
 
 COLLAR. 
 
 In the Netherlands, where cole is a prominent 
 and highly esteemed agricultural plant, not only 
 is it grown on rich land, with a profusion of such 
 powerful manures as night-soil and bruised rape- 
 cakes, but it is economized and strengthened by 
 a system of transplanting similar to what is prac- 
 tised with the cabbage and borecole brassicas. 
 Radcliff, in his Agriculture of East and West 
 Flanders, states the following as the usual pro- 
 cess : — " The seed-bed is sown in August or even 
 to the middle of September. In October, or 
 sooner, the stubble is ploughed over, manured, 
 and ploughed again. The plants are dibbled in 
 the seams of the ploughing — each furrow-slice 
 being twelve inches broad — and are set out at 
 twelve inches distance in the rows. Instead of 
 dibbling upon the second ploughing, they, in 
 many cases lay the plants at the proper distances 
 across the furrow, and, as the plough goes for- 
 ward, the roots are covered, and a woman follows 
 to set them a little up, and to give them a firm- 
 ness in the ground where necessary. Immedi- 
 ately after the frost, and again in the month of 
 April, the intervals are weeded and hand-hoed, 
 and the earth drawn up to the plants, which is 
 the last operation till harvest. The crop is pulled 
 rather green, but ripens in the stack, and is 
 thrashed out without any particular manage- 
 ment; but the haulm is burnt for ashes, as a 
 manure, which are found to be so highly valuable 
 beyond all other sorts which have been tried, 
 that they bear a price as three to one above the 
 other kinds ; and it is considered that upon 
 clover, a dressing of one-third less of these is 
 amply sufficient." A variety of cole with white- 
 coloured flowers may sometimes be met with ; 
 but it is less hardy than the common yellow- 
 flowered variety. The seeds for oil are treated 
 in the same manner as those of rape. See Rape. 
 The average produce of an acre of good cole is 
 about 30 bushels of seed. — Museum Rusticum. — 
 Knowledge Society s Treatise on Flemish Husban- 
 dry. — Young's Farmer's Calendar. — Society .of 
 Gentlemen's Complete Farmer. — Radcliff' s Agricul- 
 ture of Flanders. — Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 
 
 COLIC. A very painful disorder of the intes- 
 tines of animals. Spasmodic colic is somewhat 
 frequent in the horse, and occurs much oftener 
 in the small intestines than in the large. It is 
 caused by costiveness, by strictures in the bowels, 
 by tumours in the mesentery, by a feed of succu- 
 lent herbage after a course of dry feeding, by the 
 sudden application of cold water to the hot skin, 
 and by the drinking of cold water while the 
 system is heated. 
 
 Its symptoms are usually sudden, frequently 
 violent, and sometimes liable to be confounded by 
 an unprofessional observer with those of widely 
 different diseases. A horse attacked with colic 
 suddenly evinces great uneasiness, shifts his po- 
 sition from side to side, paws his litter, and im- 
 patiently stamps with his feet. An observer of 
 
 limited experience might readily suppose him to 
 be suffering inflammation of the bowels; but 
 may, by five well-defined points of diagnosis, 
 readily distinguish between that disease and 
 colic. In inflammation of the bowels, the attack 
 is progressive, or passes from mere indisposition 
 to violent pain ; but in colic, the attack is quite 
 sudden : in inflammation of the bowels, the pulse 
 is very quick and small ; but in colic, the pulse, 
 though sometimes a little quickened, is natural : 
 in inflammation of the bowels, the horse lies 
 down, suddenly rises, and seldom rolls upon his 
 back ; but in colic, he lies down, remains some 
 time down, and rolls abundantly on his back : in 
 inflammation of the bowels, the legs and ears are 
 generally cold ; but in colic, the legs and ears are 
 generally warm : in inflammation of the bowels, 
 intermissions never occur ; but in colic, short in- 
 termissions are frequent. 
 
 The necessity of discriminating between in- 
 flammation of the bowels and spasmodic colic is 
 very great ; and before a remedy in any case is 
 applied, the discrimination ought to be fully, sa- 
 tisfactorily, and promptly made. When colic is 
 seen to exist without symptoms of inflammation, 
 an antispasmodic mixture ought to be speedily 
 administered, and, if requisite, repeated at an 
 interval, according to the severity of the symp- 
 toms, of from one hour to four hours. Any of 
 the three following mixtures is confidently re- 
 commended by Blaine ; — first, half an ounce of 
 ground pepper, three ounces of spirit of turpen- 
 tine, one ounce of laudanum, and four ounces of 
 soured ale ; second, one ounce of sulphuric ether, 
 two ounces of laudanum, one drachm of oil of 
 peppermint, a quarter of a pint of common gin, 
 and a quarter of a pint of soured ale ; and third, 
 two ounces of spirit of turpentine, one drachm of 
 oil of peppermint, six ounces of castor oil, and 
 six ounces of watery tincture of aloes. Bleeding 
 ought, in every very severe case, to be speedily 
 practised ; and it ought to be more or less copious 
 according to the comparative violence of the 
 symptoms. Other suitable and concurrent reme- 
 dies, in bad and prolonged cases, are smart fric- 
 tion on the belly, relaxant glysters, very hot fo- 
 mentions, and a brisk five or ten minutes' trot. 
 Frequent popular names of colic are gripes, 
 cramp, fret, and gullion. 
 
 COLLAR. The part of harness which encir- 
 cles the neck, receives the attachment of the 
 draught, and presses against the shoulders of a 
 horse or other animal of draught. Horses' col- 
 lars are usually made of a stuffing of hair, tow, 
 or straw, within canvass, and covered with lea- 
 ther ; they ought, in every instance, to be so 
 formed and adjusted as to offer a cushiony re- 
 sistance to the utmost available pressure of the 
 animal's power ; and they require to be sur- 
 mounted with such a cape as shall prevent rain 
 from getting between the cushion and the shoul- 
 der, there to heat, irritate, and even blister 
 
COLLEY. 
 
 355 
 
 COMFREY, 
 
 the skin. A large, erect, spreading collar-cape, 
 very common in many parts of England, is a very 
 absurd appendage, affording no protection from 
 rain, and serving principally to catch the wind, 
 and in consequence somewhat to embarrass the 
 action or neutralize the power of the horse. See 
 the article Harness. 
 
 COLLEY. A black-faced, black-legged, wiry- 
 woolled sheep ; also a variety of dog much prized 
 among some of the rural classes of Scotland. 
 
 COLMATA. An artificial process for obtain- 
 ing deep and fertile deposits of alluvium in some 
 parts of Lombardy which lie lower than the level 
 of the existing channel of the principal rivers. 
 An embankment is raised round the field or 
 farm to be subjected to this process ; the dyke of 
 the nearest rivulet is so far broken down as to 
 allow the muddy water of high freshets to escape ; 
 and this water is detained in the field till it de- 
 posits its mud, and is then let off toward the 
 river by a discharging course from the lower end 
 of the field. This process is usually continued 
 from five or six to ten years, or till it effects de- 
 posits to the aggregate depth of from five to eight 
 feet ; and it may be so regulated, by means of a 
 greater or less depth in the breach of the rivu- 
 let's dyke, as either to continue a comparatively 
 long period and deposit nothing but fine silt, or 
 to continue a comparatively short period and de- 
 posit a mixture of silt, sand and gravel. The 
 process, in consequence of keeping the field for 
 so long a time from any use, is necessarily very 
 expensive ; yet the crops of only five years usually 
 repay the whole cost, and the rich crops of suc- 
 ceeding years yield a large amount of clear gain. 
 The crops of the first and second year of the new 
 soil are maize and hemp ; and those of the three 
 succeeding years are wheat, without the aid of 
 manure. A process similar to colmata has been 
 practised in the vicinity of Gainsborough. 
 
 COLSA. See Cole. 
 
 COLT. A young horse. See the article Horse. 
 
 COLT'S-FOOT, — botanically Tussilago Far- 
 fara. A frequent and most troublesome weed, 
 belonging to the jacobea tribe of composite 
 flowered plants. It inhabits moist, marly, and 
 clayey soils, and particularly abounds on such as 
 have been over-cropped or scourgingly treated ; 
 and it figures as a medicinal plant, both in the 
 herb-list of almost every old wife quack of the 
 country, and in the pharmacopoeias of Edinburgh 
 and Dublin. Its root is long and diffusely creep- 
 ing ; its stems or flower-stalks are simple, erect, 
 woolly, unifloral, and about 6 inches high; its 
 flowers droop while in the bud, but stand erect 
 when in bloom, and have a golden-yellow colour, 
 and appear in March and April ; its seed-down 
 is sessile, rough, white, and shining; and its 
 leaves are radical, footstalked, erect, cordate, 
 angled, serrated, very large, and of slow develop- 
 ment, — green, smooth, and red- veined above, and 
 woolly and white below, — and they develop 
 
 themselves after the flower, so that the plant 
 appears all -flower in spring, and all-leaf in 
 autumn. When the plant has once established 
 itself in a field, it rapidly multiplies from seed 
 and from all the pieces into which the plough 
 cuts its rambling roots, — and cannot be restrain- 
 ed without great labour, or extirpated without 
 laying down the ground to grass. The prevent- 
 ing of it from seeding, and the careful gathering 
 up of all discoverable portions of its roots are 
 the best means for repressing its extraordinary 
 and mischievous fecundity. Mr. Lisle states 
 that a neighbour of his almost smothered it with 
 two successive crops of vetches, and expresses a 
 confident opinion that it may be thoroughly 
 suffocated by such a five or six years' course of 
 grass as shall cover and mat all the surface of 
 the ground with a thick and dense sward. He 
 ploughed up broad clover in the beginning of 
 July, and turned up roots of colt's -foot, in 
 which he observed, between earth and air, many 
 little buds as if destined to be flowers or leaves 
 of the following year, — and at the depth of from 
 5 to 7 inches, shoots of a callous body as if 
 destined to be future roots. A winter's fallow 
 has little destructive power over colt's-foot roots ; 
 and even a summer's fallow permits all portions 
 which are in any degree buried by the soil to 
 shoot and bud and carry on the process of pro- 
 pagation, — and, in order to be in any tolerable 
 degree effective, must be accompanied by the 
 hand-picking and burning of all parts of the 
 plant which can be seen. 
 COLZA. See Cole. 
 
 COMFREY,— botanically Symphytum. A ge- 
 nus of hardy, perennial, herbaceous plants, of the 
 borage tribe. One species, the very rough, 
 Symphytum asperrimum, challenges the attention 
 of agriculturists as probably a valuable forage 
 plant. It is a native of the Caucasian mountains, 
 and was introduced thence to Britain in 1799. 
 Its root is tuberculated, branching, thick, and 
 fleshy ; its stem is very prickly and from 6 to 10 
 feet high ; its leaves are rough-stalked, heart- 
 shaped, broad, tapering to a point, and of a blu- 
 ish-green colour ; its flowers are cylindrical with 
 a campanulate inflated limb, and have a change- 
 ably blue and red colour, and appear from May 
 till September ; and its seeds are naked, gibbous, 
 and not pierced at the base. Both its root and 
 its stem are very farinaceous ; its root is probably 
 as esculent as that of Stachys palustris ; its stem 
 has sometimes been blanched and eaten like that 
 of angelica ; and its shoots and leaves, during all 
 the period intermediate between the seedling and 
 the hardened conditions of the plant, are greedily 
 eaten by cows. It was brought into notice as an 
 agricultural plant, by Mr. D. Grant, a nursery- 
 man of Lewisham, and was introduced to Ireland, 
 and recommended to the cottier -farmers of that 
 country, about eight years ago, by Dr. Derenzy. 
 Young mentions it in his Farmer's Calendar, 
 
COMMON. 
 
 356 
 
 COMMON. 
 
 under the name of trottles, and appears to think 
 that the whole plant is valuable ; but Dr. Derenzy 
 supposes the roots to be useless for either man or 
 beast, and recommends the plant solely for shoots 
 and foliage. It is easily propagated : and, when 
 once established, it will, without any renewal, 
 produce enormous crops for many years. Its 
 seeds seldom ripen, and its seedling plants grow 
 slowly to maturity; but its roots possess the 
 power of facile and rapid reproduction, and may, 
 at any time from October to April, but especially 
 in February or March, be taken up, cut into 
 small pieces, and set in drills at distances of two 
 feet from drill to drill and 15 inches from plant 
 to plant. The plant will thrive in poor, dry, ex- 
 posed soil ; yet it ought, if possible, to have good 
 deep soil, and will well repay an abundant dose 
 of manure ; and as it yields large and constant 
 produce for a long series of years, it requires, of 
 course, to be grown apart from any course of 
 rotation. It should be cut about the time of 
 flowering, and never allowed to go to seed. Its 
 ordinary annual produce, in green fodder, was 
 estimated by Mr. Grant, and has since been esti- 
 mated by practical agriculturists, at about 30 
 tons per acre ; and, in an experiment on the farm 
 of Carnew Castle in Ireland, it amounted to the 
 enormous quantity of 82 tons per Irish acre in 
 three cuttings of 28| tons in the middle of April, 
 31 in the middle of July, and 22| in the middle 
 of September. It is preferred to vetches by pigs ; 
 it is not, like clover, dangerous to cows or sheep ; 
 and it does not communicate any bad flavour to 
 cows' milk. A small hybrid variety of it was 
 originated in 1825. The normal plant is repre- 
 sented in Plate XXI. 
 
 COMMON, or Commonage. A property in soil, 
 pasture, turbary, fishery, or coppice, belonging 
 not to any individual, or private party, but to 
 all the inhabitants of a parish or district. A 
 commonage pasture is always a wasteful disposi- 
 tion of land ; for, except in rare instances, it is 
 neither weeded, manured, nor otherwise properly 
 managed ; and it, in consequence, affords far less 
 herbage for the stock fed upon it than if it were 
 enclosed and regularly farmed. Commonage 
 arable land is in comparatively worse condition, 
 never being properly worked, or subjected to 
 wise courses of cropping, or suffered to recover 
 the effects of the maltreatment and exhaustion 
 which they experience. The practical abolition 
 of the right of commonage, no matter how ef- 
 fected, is, in almost every instance, a great econ- 
 omizing of land and a saving to the public ; and 
 when so adjusted as to appear to give the com- 
 mon-holders no more than a bare equivalent for 
 their property, it deals them the grand boon of de- 
 liverance from a slovenly, wasteful, and execrable 
 system of farming. 
 
 COMPOST. A mixed manure, or fertilizing 
 compound. Composts for the farm are supple- 
 mentary to ordinary manures ; they are used, not 
 
 because common manures are unsuitable, but be- 
 cause they are comparatively scarce or dear ; and 
 all, or almost all, are mixtures of mineral and or- 
 ganic matters— the mineral matters of most be- 
 ing preponderant, and the organic matters, till 
 subjected to the chemical processes of the com- 
 post, being worthless and refractory. 
 
 A very common compost is formed by a mix- 
 ture of lime with weetls, hedge - clippings, dry 
 leaves, and other refuse vegetable matters of the 
 kind which are sometimes burnt for the prepara- 
 tion of manurial ashes. See the article Ashes. By 
 the action of lime upon refuse vegetable matters, 
 a soluble manure is formed, the refractory and 
 worthless character of the refuse vegetables is 
 destroyed, the hard and fibrous or the succulent 
 and spongy organisms are decomposed, and a 
 mass of putrid matter results, opulent in the ele- 
 ments of vegetable nutrition, and both chemically 
 and mechanically fit to be absorbed by the spon- 
 gioles of the cereal grasses or of other agricultural 
 plants. Yet dearth of lime, preponderance of 
 ligneous matter in the vegetable refuse, or anyone 
 of a dozen other circumstances, may sometimes 
 render the preparation of this compost less econo- 
 mical than the preparation of ashes ; and when 
 lime is cheap, the preparation of compost with 
 the succulent and herbaceous portions of the 
 vegetable refuse, and the preparation of ashes with 
 the woody and twiggy portions of it, may be the 
 most advantageous method. The compost, too, 
 whenever circumstances admit, ought to be en- 
 riched with the addition of vegetable ashes, and 
 especially of animal refuse. 
 
 Another very common compost, often good, 
 sometimes bad, occasionally execrable, and very 
 seldom rightly understood, is a decomposing mix- 
 ture of peat and lime, or of peat and farm-yard 
 dung. Peat, in its natural condition, is a foe to 
 all useful vegetation, — insoluble in itself, and so 
 saturated with antiseptic properties as to pre- 
 vent the beneficial action of all other substances ; 
 but when decomposed by means of lime, or of 
 farm -yard dung, it loses its bad qualities, and 
 surrenders its organic and saline elements as 
 available food for other plants. Yet any compost 
 with peat can be economical only when suitable 
 materials for it can be readily and cheaply ob- 
 tained ; and never, in even its richest combina- 
 tions or with its highest possible power, can it 
 compare with some other common manures, es- 
 pecially with bones, guano, or farm-yard dung. 
 When lime is cheap, and peat exists upon the 
 spot, a compost may be made of them, suitable 
 for most of the purposes of the farm ; and when 
 farm-yard dung is scarce, and peat can be obtain- 
 ed in the vicinity, a compost of seven parts of the 
 dung, and twenty-one parts of thereat, though 
 much inferior to the mere dung in quality, will 
 so greatly exceed it in quantity and in disper- 
 sivencss as to be very decidedly advantageous. 
 The best kind of peat for any compost is the kind 
 
COMPOST. 
 
 357 
 
 COMPOST. 
 
 known as water-borne peat or water-slain moss, 
 which possesses a sort of alluvial character, or 
 has been floated away, comminuted, and deposit- 
 ed by water ; and the most suitable soil for re- 
 ceiving benefit from peat composts, especially from 
 such as contain a large proportion of the peat 
 in an ill-decomposed condition, is adhesive clay 
 or such other as wants porosity and does not ad- 
 mit a sufficient aeration. 
 
 But composts by no means possess the value 
 which general opinion has of late years assigned 
 to them, and ought not to be allowed the promi- 
 nence in the aggregate practices of agriculture 
 which they have recently assumed. Even when 
 both lime and peat are abundant, many a farmer 
 might probably realize far better returns from 
 using the lime to reclaim the peat soil in situ, 
 than from the digging up of the peat and the 
 mixing of it and the lime into a compost for other 
 land. Though all pure peat is organic matter, 
 and might, on that account, appear to be emi- 
 nently fitted to yield the elements of vegetable 
 nutrition, yet it is organic matter of the rankest 
 kind, destitute of all the proximate principles of 
 the most useful sorts of plants, and packed with 
 such antiseptic and acrid secretions as are posi- 
 tively mischievous to valuable vegetation. The 
 herbage of all moorlands and peaty grounds 
 progressively increases in rankness and coarse- 
 ness from the exhaustion of the proper nutri- 
 ment of the finer plants ; and the peat gener- 
 ally employed for making composts is dung 
 from the higher or more recent strata of peaty 
 grounds, and therefore consists wholly or almost 
 wholly of the elements of the most wretched her- 
 bage. " But," says Dr. Madden, " the question 
 will be asked, Why should such an origin be con- 
 sidered a disadvantage 1 Two answers can be 
 given to this question. (1.) Because the com- 
 post will contain the peculiar saline compounds 
 which naturally exist in these plants ; and con- 
 sequently its employment as manure will tend to 
 reproduce these useless weeds, especially in soil 
 at all predisposed to infection. Lest any of my 
 practical readers should imagine that this objec- 
 tion is purely theoretical, I would just call their 
 attention to the following practical fact. All 
 persons who are acquainted with the herbage of 
 peaty soils, must have noticed the great quantities 
 of sorrel, Rumex acetosella, which grow wherever 
 the soil is at all dry. Now, in a paper upon the 
 properties and uses of peat, by John Nasmith, 
 Esq., published in the Highland Society's Trans- 
 actions, he expressly states, that peat -manure 
 should not be used for { light blowing sands' (the 
 kind of soil most prone to infection) ' as it would 
 increase the distemper of the soil, and promote 
 the growth of Rumex acetosella.'' And again, in 
 an excelleni^paper upon the use of lime, publish- 
 ed some time ago in America, the author men- 
 tions, that one of many benefits derived from the 
 use of this substance, is the destruction of the 
 Rumex acetosella, and other acid plants, which grow 
 
 so abundantly on the poorer soils in his neigh- 
 bourhood ; but lime and peat are so far incom- 
 patible, that the former always destroys the char- 
 acteristic properties of the latter. I may here 
 •remark, that this last observation proves that 
 peat-compost with lime is less objectionable in 
 this respect than that formed with farm-yard dung. 
 (2.) But another answer may be given to the 
 question, which again refers more to the lime- 
 compost, namely, that, as the quantity of azote 
 contained in plants gradually increases as we go 
 up the scale of vegetables, and as the utility of 
 manures for the higher orders of plants — as, for 
 example, our cultivated crops — depends directly 
 upon the quantity of azote which they contain, 
 it follows that a manure derived from the lowest 
 species of plants must be but ill fitted for the 
 purposes of the farm; although, in the case of 
 compost with farm-yard dung, this objection will 
 be less valid, on account of the large proportion 
 of azote existing in that substance, which, of 
 course, will add to the quantity contained in the 
 compost." 
 
 Another very common compost is a combina- 
 tion of farm-yard manure with the scrapings of 
 roads, the sweepings of ditches, the clearings of 
 headlands, and generally with all kinds of rough 
 and waste mixtures of earthy and vegetable mat- 
 ters. The mixing of farm-yard manure, while in 
 the initial stage of decomposition, with earth and 
 inert vegetable matter, consisting of the decayed 
 roots and leaves of grasses and other plants, re- 
 duces it to a humid and soluble condition, pre- 
 pares it for absorption by the spongioles of a 
 young crop, and greatly increases its bulk without 
 deteriorating its quality. The earthy and waste 
 vegetable matters imbibe a large proportion of 
 the nitrogenous juices which, in unmixed farm- 
 yard manure, usually evaporate or become gase- 
 ous during the process of fermentation ; and, in 
 consequence of the imbibition of these juices and 
 the decomposition of their own organic and sal- 
 ine principles, they become, in many instances, 
 almost or even altogether as powerfully manurial 
 as the dung with which they are mixed. A com- 
 post of this kind may, according to ruling cir- j 
 cumstances of economy, be formed either in the 
 yard in which the dung is kept, or on the head- 
 lands of the fields to which it is to be applied. 
 If the quantity of urine to be imbibed from the 
 cattle-sheds be considerable, and the earthy and 
 waste materials be near, the compost may be 
 most advantageously formed in the farm-yard ; 
 but if the urine be economically drained off into a 
 receptacle for liquid manure, and the earthy and 
 waste materials be much nearer to the fields than 
 to the farmery, the compost ought to be formed 
 on the headlands. The manner of forming the 
 compost is to spread alternate layers of the farm- 
 yard manure and of the earthy and vegetable 
 rubbish, each six or eight inches thick, and all as 
 nearly as possible regular, to cover the whole 
 with a coat or envelope of earth, till intermixture 
 
COMPOST. 
 
 358 
 
 CON-ACRE. 
 
 takes place by decomposition, and then to proceed 
 with it by carting and turning, nearly in the 
 same manner as with unmixed farm-yard dung. 
 In selecting the earthy and waste vegetable mat- 
 ter for the compost, the refuse of such grassy and 
 luxuriant places as differ most widely in charac- 
 ter from the fields to which the compost is to be 
 applied, ought in every instance to be preferred ; 
 for refuse of this kind is most likely to abound 
 in those elements of nutrition which the fields 
 have in a great degree ceased to possess ; while 
 the refuse of grounds precisely similar in charac- 
 ter and condition to the fields which are to be 
 manured could afford no supply of these particu- 
 lar elements of nutrition, and might possibly add 
 to the quantity of some deleterious excremental 
 principle which the fields have acquired from re- 
 cent cropping. " Earth taken from arable fields 
 that have been long in cultivation," remarks Mr. 
 Sproule, " seems the least suitable to enter into 
 the composition of compost heaps ; and, even 
 when in combination with the dung, possesses 
 no fertilizing properties that would not be pro- 
 duced by the application of the same earth and 
 dung separately, for there is generally compara- 
 tively little inert matter in this description of 
 earth to be rendered soluble." 
 
 A common and very useful compost on sea- 
 board districts, particularly around the whole 
 coast of Ireland, is a mixture of sea-weed with 
 sand or earth ; and when, as in many districts of 
 the Scottish Hebrides and the west and south of 
 Ireland, the sand of the mixture is calcareous, or 
 consists in a large degree of finely comminuted 
 shells, this compost is signally fertilizing. A 
 compost slightly akin to this, yet of a peculiar 
 and curious character, has been very successfully 
 used in the county of Cork. It is prepared as 
 follows: — "Let a platform of sods or clay, the 
 richer the better, be formed, about 6 inches thick, 
 1 2 feet wide, and as long as may be necessary for 
 the extent of the land to be manured. At one 
 end of this, let the first load of lime, fresh from 
 the kiln, be placed about 4 inches thick. Let 
 the lime be then not only slacked but moistened 
 with a solution of rock-salt, or any common salt 
 in water, at the rate of six pounds of salt to each 
 barrel of lime, pouring the solution or pickle gra- 
 dually and evenly on the lime, as the latter is 
 found to imbibe it. Then spread the lime, thus 
 moistened, two or three inches thick on the plat- 
 form, and cover it with 4 or 5 inches of clay. 
 Let the second load of lime be laid on the plat- 
 form near the first, and treated in the same man- 
 ner. When the entire platform is thus covered, 
 begin again with a second layer of lime ; slack, 
 moisten, spread, and cover it as the first, until it 
 be also finished, and proceed in the same manner 
 with a third and fourth layer. If the bed be not 
 collected in one place, but deposited in a long 
 row, as when the earth of a headland is used, one 
 or two layers of lime and earth will be more con- 
 venient, and will be equally advantageous. When 
 
 the whole is covered with earth, let the heap be 
 cut down and well mixed ; in which state it may j 
 be suffered to lie until a short time before it is 
 used, when it should be again turned. The pro- 
 portion of water in which the salt is dissolved, 
 depends on the state of the earth or mould. If 
 the latter be wet, 20 gallons of water with 6 
 pounds of salt dissolved in it, is sufficient for 
 each barrel of lime ; if it be dry, half a hogshead 
 of water to that quantity of salt and lime will 
 be necessary. Forty barrels of lime treated in 
 this manner, is a full dressing for an acre of po- 
 tatoes ; half the quantity is enough for a top- 
 dressing of an acre of land." [Doyle's Cyclo- j 
 pedia of Practical Husbandry.] But though 
 this compost may be perfectly suitable to arena- 
 ceous soils, under the frequent or excessive po- \ 
 tato cultivation of Ireland, it is clearly and ; 
 broadly disqualified, by its enormous deficiency 
 in nitrogenous matter, to act as a proper fer- 
 tilizer of almost any soil under the best rotations 
 of cereal husbandry. The principles of its power | 
 are explained in our articles on Alumina and 
 Alkalies ; and the principles of its unsuitable- 
 ness for cereal crops are explained in our arti- 
 cles on Ammonia and Azote. 
 
 Most good composts for stimulating and reno- 
 vating grass lands, or for application in the form 
 of top-dressing, are combinations of earths, clays, 
 sand, lime, and vegetable matter ; and require to 
 be frequently turned and well pulverized, in order 
 that their ingredients may thoroughly act upon 
 one another, and that the particles of the whole 
 may readily mix with the sward. — When a valua- 
 tion of composts is required on occasion of the 
 quitting of farms, a calculation is made of the cost 
 of the materials, the cost of carrying them, the 
 cost of mixing and applying them, and the com- 
 parative durability and power of their action ; 
 and according to the aggregate weight and ten- 
 dency of these circumstances is the amount of 
 valuation. But in all ordinary cases, all mate- 
 rials obtained within the limits of the farm are 
 adjudged free from cost, and the power of any 
 middle-rate or average compost is regarded as 
 exhausted after two crops of corn, two mowings 
 of grass, or four years of pasture. The very mul- 
 tifarious manure which is obtained from the daily 
 cleansing of large towns, may probably be viewed 
 as a very emphatic compost ; yet it has a charac- 
 ter of its own almost as distinct as its origin, and 
 will be noticed in its proper alphabetical place as 
 Police Manure. — The British Farmer's Magazine. 
 — Quarterly Journal of A griculture. — Transactions 
 of the Highland Society. — Davy's Agricultural 
 Chemistry. — Sproule's A griculture. — Hunter s Geor- 
 gical Essays. — Boyle's Cyclopaedia of Husbandry. — 
 The Gardener's Gazette. — Knowledge Society's Bri- 
 tish Husbandry. — Bayldon on Bents OMtl Tillages. 
 — Miller's Dictionary. — Donaldson's^ 'realise on 
 Manures. 
 
 CON-ACRE. A retail and cxtortional system 
 of letting land in many parts of Ireland. Most 
 
CONDITION. 
 
 359 
 
 CONSUMPTION. 
 
 of the persons who let land on this system are 
 middle-men ; and all, or very nearly all, the per- 
 sons to whom it is let are cottiers, very small 
 farmers, or parties in a state of extreme penury. 
 The rent is exorbitant, — sometimes fivefold or 
 sixfold the real value ; the pieces of land let are, 
 in general, very small, — sometimes one or two 
 roods or even but a few perches ; the kind of land 
 let is sometimes old pasture, sometimes rich ley, 
 and generally such as contains a large proportion 
 of mould and grassy fibre ; the general course of 
 cropping is first two successive years of potatoes, 
 and next a constant round of corn till the ground 
 will no longer repay seed and labour ; the usual 
 georgical treatment is uniformly to apply no 
 manure, and occasionally to pare and burn ; and 
 the common consequences are the conversion of 
 some good land into comparative wilderness, the 
 reduction of most land to temporary exhaustion 
 and uselessness, damage to the landlord, confirmed 
 penury and wretchedness to the working tenant, 
 and the prolongation of the reign of agricultural 
 ignorance and barbarism over vast districts of 
 one of the most beautiful and naturally fertile 
 countries in the world. 
 
 CONDITION. Healthiness, strength, energy, 
 and fine appearance in a horse. Condition im- 
 plies not merely plumpness and sleekiness, but 
 such a degree of high, healthy vigour as enables 
 the animal to perform extraordinary labour with- 
 out becoming over-fatigued. Every defect with 
 respect to condition originates either in bad 
 grooming or in disease. 
 
 CONSTIPATION. An animal's undue reten- 
 tion or imperfect evacuation of the faeces. See 
 the article Costiveness. 
 
 CONSUMPTION —scientifically Phthisis pitl- 
 moiialis. A well-known fatal disease of the lungs 
 of animals. It is not very uncommon in the 
 horse. It occurs in that animal, sometimes as a 
 primary or constitutional affection, but more 
 generally as a consequence of bronchitis, pleurisy, 
 or pneumonia. A horse, when attacked with it, 
 contracts a short, dry cough, loses the glossiness 
 and fine condition of his coat, and becomes easily 
 fatigued by exertion. His pulse at first is but 
 little affected, but afterwards becomes quickened, 
 comparatively small, and very easy of accelera- 
 tion. He gradually loses appetite, afterwards 
 emits from the nose a mixture of pus and mucus, 
 and eventually emits from both nose and mouth, 
 when coughing, a mixture of pus, mucus, and coa- 
 gulum. In the advanced stages of the disease, the 
 purulent and clotty discharge is fetid, the hair falls 
 off, and the whole body is emaciated ; and at last, 
 the animal either sinks under the hectic irritation 
 or is suffocated by accumulations of the coagulum 
 and pus. The virus of the disease is a tubercu- 
 lated state of the lungs ; in its early stages, the 
 tubercles are hard, and appear, on dissection, like 
 small hardened masses in the parenchyma of the 
 lungs ; but, in its progress, they soften, secrete 
 
 pus, erode the walls of the lungs, spread out into 
 ulcers and abscesses, and consume piece by piece 
 the substance of the organ, till either enough is 
 not left for the vital discharge of the pulmonic 
 function, or suffocation takes place inconsequence 
 of the purulent discharge. Various treatment 
 for the cure of the disease has been recommend- 
 ed ; but the best requires to be practised before 
 the disease is far gone, and can never restore the 
 animal to a sound or really healthy condition. 
 Consumption, in fact, either invariably kills the 
 horse, or, when seemingly palliated or cured, ren- 
 ders him unfit for the objects of his existence as 
 a working animal ; so that, in an economical 
 view, it is strictly incurable. 
 
 Consumption in cattle is frequently contracted 
 from a cause against which all farmers ought to 
 be on their guard, — hereditary predisposition ; 
 and, as in horses, it is often contracted also as a 
 consequence of bronchitis, pneumonia, and other 
 affections of the chest. It sometimes exists for 
 a considerable period without indicating itself 
 by any arresting symptom ; and it frequently 
 exhibits only such symptoms as unpractised ob- 
 servers are unable to distinguish from the symp- 
 toms of pleurisy, or even from those of pneumonia 
 or bronchitis. The earliest decided symptom, 
 and indeed the guiding symptom even in an ad- 
 vanced stage and in relapses, is a weak, hoarse, 
 hollow, painful, gurgling cough of so peculiar a 
 character as to challenge for itself the epithet 
 phthisical. " It is too common," remarks Mr. 
 Youatt, " to say carelessly, and sometimes cruelly, 
 of a human being, ' That person has a church- 
 yard cough.' The prediction is too often veri- 
 fied ; for although it,would be difficult to describe 
 that cough, there is a character of its own about 
 it which cannot be mistaken. It is so with re- 
 gard to cattle. That veterinary surgeon is igno- 
 rant of his profession, who does not at once, and 
 at a distance, recognise the cough which, although 
 it may not precisely indicate phthisis, betrays a 
 state of the lungs pregnant with danger. How 
 many a beast might the farmer save if he would 
 be attentive to this ! A bullock hooses : if the 
 cough is sonorous and clear, the lung is not yet 
 fatally injured. That cough, however, must not 
 be neglected long. It tells of inflammation ; it 
 is the product of inflammation, — and of inflam- 
 mation that may be silently, but rapidly, disor- 
 ganizing the lungs. The prudent man will not 
 suffer such a cough to continue many days with- 
 out giving a mash or a dose of physic, or per- 
 chance bleeding and inserting a seton." Yet 
 soundly economical conduct in reference to 
 phthisis in cattle, is either to prevent it, or, in- 
 stantly on its detection, to commence fattening 
 the subject of it for the shambles. An ox or a 
 cow, in the merely initial stages of consumption, 
 will fatten almost as rapidly and perhaps quite 
 as soundly as if every organ were in perfect 
 health ; and many an animal on being killed and 
 
COOP. 360 CORN 
 
 cut up by the butcher, proves to have lost, from 
 erosive waste, a large portion of its lungs. To 
 save a phthisical beast, therefore, is rather to pre- 
 vent the loss of its market value, than to protect 
 or prolong its life. 
 
 Consumption in sheep is exceedingly frequent ; 
 but, in an economical sense, is vastly better un- 
 derstood than consumption in cattle. The ear- 
 liest indication of consumption in sheep is very 
 generally made the occasion of killing the animal 
 or sending it to the butcher ; so that the disease 
 is seldom seen in its advanced stages or in a fully 
 developed condition. The usual treatment of 
 sheep, when suffering catarrh, is very bad, and 
 entails diseases of the lungs upon a far larger 
 proportion of flocks than is commonly imagined. 
 A sheep with a recently contracted cough loses 
 neither flesh nor appetite, and is therefore treated 
 as if he were in perfect health ; he continues to 
 be exposed to wet and cold ; he is shorn at the 
 same time as the rest of the flock, without re- 
 gard to either the weather or his own disorder ; 
 and he, in consequence, passes almost as certainly 
 and rapidly into consumption as if his shepherd 
 had intended to inflict the disease. Let a more 
 rational method be practised ; let a sheep, on 
 contracting a cold, be removed to a sheltered 
 situation ; let him, if the symptoms be violent, 
 receive all the aids to recovery which his shep- 
 herd can afford ; and if afterwards, and in spite 
 of this, he exhibit symptoms of consumption, let 
 him with all speed be devoted to slaughter. See 
 the article Catarrh. — Blaine's Veterinary Art. — 
 Bartlet's Farriery. — Youatt on the Horse. — Water's 
 Cattle Doctor. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society. — White's Veterinary — Youatt on Cattle. 
 
 COOP. A pen, or small covered enclosure, for 
 confining and feeding poultry, lambs, or other 
 small domestic animals ; also a cart or tumbrel 
 so enclosed as to retain the particles of sand, 
 grain, or any similarly formed material. 
 
 COPROLITES. Certain fossil concretions, 
 which abound in the geological formation called 
 crag and London clay. They have the appear- 
 ance of rounded water-worn nodules; and are 
 very abundant in some parts of Essex and 
 Suffolk ; and possess great interest and value to 
 farmers, for their containing from 50 to 60 per 
 cent, of phosphate of lime, and therefore being 
 fitted to serve similar fertilizing purposes to 
 bones and guano. They are exceedingly hard, 
 indeed, and cannot be ground without very 
 powerful machinery ; but they are readily dis- 
 solved by sulphuric acid, and can be made avail- 
 able for manure by that means in the same way 
 as vitriolized bones. Many hundreds of tons of 
 them have already been used by farmers. 
 
 CORDS, or Gut-Tie. A disease in the intes- 
 tines of oxen. It consists in the strangulating 
 tie of some part of the intestines, — usually of the 
 small intestine, — either by the spermatic cord, 
 which had retracted into the abdomen in conse- 
 
 quence of unskilful castration, or of an adventi- 
 tious membrane unnaturally and diseased formed 
 in consequence of the use of mouldy, unwhole- 
 some fodder, or of frequent stressing of the lower 
 part of the abdomen. Some of its symptoms are 
 disinclination to food, striking the abdomen with 
 the hind feet, occasionally stretching out the body 
 in so extraordinary a manner as to give the back 
 a concave curvature, voiding faeces in small quan- 
 tities, mixed with mucus and blood, and evincing 
 excessive pain when the hand of the surgeon is 
 introduced into the rectum. A dangerous and 
 difficult surgical operation seems to be the only 
 remedy. 
 
 CORIANDER, — botanically Coriandrum Sat- 
 ivum. A hardy annual plant, of the umbellifer- 
 ous order. It was originally introduced to Britain 
 from Italy, but now grows wild in fields about 
 Ipswich, and in some parts of Essex. Its stem 
 is erect, smooth, round, branching, and about 
 two feet high ; its leaves are compound, — the 
 lower ones pinnated, with cut cuneiform folioles, 
 and the upper ones thrice ternate, with linear 
 pointed segments ; both its chief and its subor- 
 dinate umbels are much rayed ; its flowers have 
 a reddish- white colour, and appear in June ; and 
 its fruit is globular and obscurely ribbed, and 
 comprises two concave hemispherical seeds. The 
 whole of the plant, in a green state, has a very 
 offensive odour; and the seeds, when ripe and 
 dry, have an agreeable aromatic smell, and a 
 somewhat warm and pleasantly aromatic taste. 
 The leaves, when raised in garden culture, are 
 used in soups and salads ; and the seeds, as ob- 
 tained by either garden or field culture, yield an 
 essential oil, have carminative and aromatic pro- 
 perties, and are extensively used for their agree- 
 able flavour in confectionary, and for their medi- 
 cinal properties or for modifying the taste of 
 nauseous drugs in pharmacy. The plant is fre- 
 quently grown, in the south of England, con- 
 jointly or mixedly with caraway ; and it might, 
 no doubt, be successfully and profitably cultivated 
 in the same manner in other parts of England 
 and in the south of Scotland. See the article 
 Caraway. But a mode of joint growth with 
 caraway, seemingly preferable to that which is 
 practised by the English farmers, would be to 
 sow the two crops in alternate drills, and so per- 
 mit the caraway to be easily hoed and cleaned 
 after the removal of the coriander. 
 
 CORN. The cereal grasses, particularly wheat, 
 barley, oats, maize, rice, and rye. By an absurd ( 
 provincial usage, the name corn is restricted by 
 most persons of the lower and middle classes in 
 Scotland to oats ; and by a general popular license, 
 it is occasionally extended, in all parts of the 
 empire, to all sorts of seed-crops grown on Brit- 
 ish farms, even to all kinds of seeds, domestic and 
 foreign, which can in any way be used for food. 
 But desirable precision in agriculture language 
 requires that the name be strictly appropriated 
 
CORN. 
 
 161 
 
 CORN-MARKET. 
 
 to the cereal grass. The articles in which most 
 matters of interest connected with corn are dis- 
 cussed, are those on Wheat, Barley, Oat, Rye, 
 Maize, Sowing, Reaping, Barn, Granary, Acci- 
 dents, Thrashing, Straw, and Chaff. 
 
 CORN. A disease in the feet of horses. It so 
 far resembles corn in the foot of man as to occa- 
 sion lameness, and to be caused by prolonged 
 pressure. It constitutes unsoundness in a horse ; 
 and though assignable to prolonged pressure as 
 its immediate cause, is always the remote conse- 
 quence of unskilful shoeing or of bad manage- 
 ment of the feet. It occurs in the angle between 
 the bars and the quarters, and gives the horn of 
 that part a red appearance and a somewhat soft 
 and spongy texture. It receives great pain from 
 pressure ; and, when neglected, it occasions suc- 
 cessively inflammation, suppuration, and quittor. 
 As soon as it is observed, it ought to be cut away 
 with a small drawing knife, and the shoe so ap- 
 plied as not to make any pressure upon the tender 
 part ; and when it is so long neglected as to en- 
 tail suppuration, an opening for the escape of the 
 pus should be made between the bar and the 
 crust, the sore should be dressed with compound 
 tincture of benzoin, the cavity should be loosely 
 filled with digestive ointment, and the foot should 
 be protected by means of a bar-shoe. 
 
 CORN-BARN. See Barn. 
 
 CORN-BIN, or Corn-Chest. An oblong box, 
 of any convenient capacity, to hold oats or other 
 grain for the use of horses. In any ordinary 
 farm-stable, it may stand in the broad passage 
 behind the horses, or any other convenient place ; 
 but it should have a communication from the 
 granary by a spout or wide square pipe ; it re- 
 quires to be strong, and to have good hinges ; and, 
 when of a high and narrow form, it should be so 
 constructed as to let part of its front fold down 
 when the supply of corn M'ithin falls low. Occa- 
 sional or periodical supplies of corn for the corn- 
 bin should be measured in the granary, and 
 shovelled through the communicating spout ; and 
 the quantities or meals for the horses should be 
 regularly measured with a vessel kept constantly 
 in the bin. 
 
 CORN-BAND. See Bands. 
 
 CORN-BARROW. See Barrow. 
 
 CORN-BASKET. A basket of close and beau- 
 tiful wicker-work, used instead of wechts in the 
 barns of some districts of England. See the 
 article Barn-Management. 
 
 CORN-BOX. A contrivance for affording sheep 
 an occasional feeding with grain, in aid or modi- 
 fication of general feeding with turnips. The 
 common corn-box is a very simple wooden struc- 
 ture ; it has a hollow bottom to contain the corn, 
 and a roofed cover to protect it from the weather ; 
 and it is open on one side, and only on one side, 
 to permit free access to the sheep. But a more 
 elaborate corn -box is in use, mounted on low 
 wheels to allow it to be easily moved from place 
 
 to place, and so constructed as to keep the corn 
 constantly covered except when sheep are in the 
 act of feeding upon it. The box itself is mounted 
 on a frame, and has the same general character 
 as a hay-rack ; the lower part of the frame is pro- 
 vided with two hinged platforms, which commu- 
 nicate with the lids of the box by means of upright 
 rods so attached as to act like levers ; the lids 
 of the box are opened by these connecting rods 
 when the platforms are trodden upon, and closed 
 when the platforms cease to be under pressure ; 
 and hence a sheep, by placing its feet upon a 
 platform, opens a lid and has access to the corn, 
 and yet, on going away, does not leave any part 
 of the remaining corn in a state of exposure to 
 the weather. A simple and obvious interior con- 
 trivance lets the lever-acting platforms command 
 the corn ; and a small hinged lid in the higher 
 part of one of the hinged sides, allows fresh sup- 
 plies of corn to be poured into the box. 
 
 CORN-BRUISER. See Bruising Grain. 
 
 CORN-BUSHEL. See Bushel. 
 
 CORN-CHEST. See Corn-Bin. 
 
 CORN-COCKLE— botanically Lychnis Githa- 
 go, but formerly Agrostemma Githago. — An 
 annual, purple-flowered weed, of the carnation 
 order. It infests the corn-fields of Britain, par- 
 ticularly fields of wheat, and makes a prominent 
 figure among the weeds of agriculture. Its stem 
 is woody and about 3 or 4 feet high ; its flowers 
 are somewhat showy and appear in June and 
 July ; and its seeds are rough, globular, black in 
 the exterior, and white in the interior. This 
 plant is sometimes the chief weed in wheat fields ; 
 and its seeds find their way into many samples 
 of good grain, and considerably deteriorate their 
 value with corn -dealers and bakers ; yet they 
 have such a colour in a ground condition as to 
 be undistinguishable from wheat flour, and are 
 quite innocuous. Corn-cockle ought to be hand- 
 weeded when in flower, or when the grain crop 
 which it infests is about 20 or 24 inches high. — 
 A foreign, white-flowered variety, called Nicean, 
 was introduced to Britain from Italy toward the 
 close of last century, and ranks among the coarse, 
 hardy, ornamental annuals. 
 
 CORN-CUTTING MACHINES. See Reaping 
 Machines. 
 
 CORN-MARIGOLD. See Chrysanthemum. 
 
 CORN-MARKET. A market-town in which 
 farmers sell their corn to bakers, millers, brewers, 
 distillers, and corn-merchants. A sample market 
 for corn is one in which farmers show only hand 
 samples of their commodity, and engage to pur- 
 chasers to deliver the stock at appointed place 
 and time ; and a stock-market for corn is one in 
 which farmers exhibit on their carts all the stock 
 which they are prepared to sell, and which they 
 deliver to purchasers as soon as it is sold. Cer- 
 tain disadvantages and inconveniences encumber 
 each of the two kinds of market ; but those 
 which encumber the sample market are the 
 
CORN-MOTH. 
 
 362 
 
 COSTIVENESS. 
 
 easiest for both farmer and purchaser. Corn- 
 market is sometimes understood aggregately, or 
 as comprehending the whole of the corn-trade. 
 
 CORN-MEASURES. See Bushel. 
 
 CORN-MOTH, or Corn-Worm,— scientifically 
 Tinea granella. A mischievous, corn-eating, le- 
 pidopterous insect, of the teneidae family of moths. 
 It sometimes attacks corn while in the sheaf, but 
 principally infests granaries ; it feeds on all sorts 
 of grain, but is most partial to wheat ; it has long 
 made great devastations among corn in France ; 
 and though not as yet so far diffused or so mis- 
 chievous in Britain as to excite any immediate 
 apprehension, it possesses instincts and habits 
 which ought to be known to all farmers, and 
 which may become matter of serious practical 
 study to some. The imago or perfect moth does 
 not exceed half an inch in length ; its wings, 
 when laid over each other, slope at the sides ; its 
 upper wings have nearly an uniform breadth, and 
 are whitish-coloured, with dark brown and dusky 
 spots ; its body is brown, variegated with white ; 
 and its head has a thick tuft of yellowish-white 
 hairs. Thirty eggs or upwards are laid by each 
 female, — all so minute as to be scarcely observ- 
 able by the naked eye ; and one or two are at- 
 tached to a single grain of corn. The young larva 
 or caterpillar is speedily hatched ; it immediately 
 bores its way into the grain, and remains in the in- 
 terior till it eats up everything but the husk ; it 
 then passes into another grain, to repeat the 
 same process, — and into another and another till 
 it becomes full-grown ; it glues together all the 
 grains which it has used, and tracks ail the path 
 over which it passes, with a silken and somewhat 
 excrementitious web ; and when full-grown, it 
 leaves the chain of emptied grains on which it 
 fed, and runs athwart all the neighbouring corn, 
 covering it more or less with greyish-white webs. 
 The full-grown caterpillar is about half an inch 
 long, and has 16 feet ; and its body is yellowish- 
 white, its head brownish-red, and its neck marked 
 with two transverse brown stripes. When run- 
 ning athwart the corn it is in search of a retreat 
 for transmutation into a chrysalis ; and, in almost 
 any barn or granary, it will readily enough find 
 such a retreat in some little crack or crevice of 
 the floor, the walls or the roof. The state of 
 chrysalis or of envelopment with cocoon is of long 
 duration, usually continuing through the whole 
 winter and the early part of spring. — When the 
 existence of chrysalides of the corn-moth in a 
 granary is known or suspected, the floors, walls, 
 and roof ought, in the latter part of autumn or 
 in winter, to be well swept with a hard brush, 
 or washed with some caustic solution ; and when 
 the caterpillars have effected a lodgment, and 
 the corn is not to be used for sowing, the whole 
 of the grain should be kiln-dried. — Another spe- 
 cies of corn-moth, Tinea hordei, is known on the 
 continent; but it confines itself principally to 
 barley, and docs not seem to occur in Britain. 
 
 CORN-POPPY. See Poppy. 
 
 CORN-RAKE. See Rake. 
 
 CORN-SACK. See Sack. 
 
 CORN-STUBBLE. See Stubble. 
 
 CORN-WEEVIL. See Calandra. 
 
 CORN-WORM. See Corn-Moth. 
 
 CORYZA. Inflammation of the nostrils, and 
 mucous, excoriating, fetid, or purulent discharge 
 from the nose, unaccompanied by cough, or by 
 inflammation of the fauces. It naturally pro- 
 duces catarrh, is very frequently accompanied by 
 it, and springs from the same causes ; yet in cat- 
 tle and sheep, it sometimes occurs alone, and it 
 should then be promptly met by suitable reme- 
 dies to prevent it from running into catarrh. A 
 mash at night and two or three doses of cooling 
 medicine will generally cure it in a cow or an 
 ox. See the article Catarrh. 
 
 COSH. The sheath or empty pod of pease and 
 beans, and the husks or chaff of oats and wheat. 
 
 COSSART, or Cosset. A lamb, a calf, or a foal 
 which is abandoned by its dam before it can shift 
 for itself, or which, in consequence of belonging 
 to a twin or triad birth, cannot receive such a por- 
 tion of her care as is necessary for its nurturement. 
 
 COSTIVENESS. An undue retention of the 
 fasces in animals, or a morbid and comparatively 
 inactive state of the intestinal canal. Occasional 
 instances of this disease, as distinguished from 
 habitual ones, are more properly designated con- 
 stipation. Some of the causes of constipation in 
 horses are violent and hard exercise, especially in 
 hot weather, a long course of comparative inac- 
 tivity in ordinary weather, and the prolonged 
 use of hard meat without grass or other cleansing 
 diet. The proper treatment of constipation in 
 horses, Blaine pronounces to be, "First, back 
 rake ; next, throw up a laxative clyster ; and 
 then proceed to give a purgative by the mouth, 
 milder or stronger according to circumstances." 
 
 But the treatment of constipation in cattle, 
 in consequence of the long and elaborate course 
 of digestion which intervenes between the mouth 
 and the seat of the disorder, is much more diffi- 
 cult. The best method seems to be to adminis- 
 ter Epsom salts in a series of moderate or mini- 
 mum doses, and in combination with aromatics 
 or cordials, such as ginger and caraway, giving 
 a minimum quantity of the stimulant with the 
 first dose, and increasing the quantity with the 
 second dose or with subsequent doses according 
 to the exigencies of the case. Constipation in a 
 cow has been known to continue unrelaxed dur- 
 ing eight days ; and it ought, in every instance, 
 to be attacked with judicious dose after dose till 
 it gives way. Mr. Youatt very wisely remarks, 
 in reference to the necessity for using cordials in 
 cases of obstinate constipation in cattle : " There 
 is something in the structure of cattle which 
 renders certain medical rules and principles alto- 
 gether inapplicable, and which, in defiance of all 
 fever, occasionally compels us to mingle strange 
 
CONSTIPATION. 
 
 3G3 
 
 COTTAGE. 
 
 doses of aromatics and stimulants with the very 
 means by which we are endeavouring to subdue 
 inflammation." 
 
 Constipation, occasioned by coagulation of 
 milk in the abomasum, and by the consequent 
 distension and obstruction of that stomach, some- 
 times occurs in calves of a few days old ; and, 
 though this is often incurable, it may, in many 
 instances, be cured by means of successive doses 
 of hot solution of Epsom salts administered with 
 the stomach-pump, — the first dose consisting of 
 two 'ounces of the salts in two or three quarts of 
 warm water, and the subsequent doses consisting 
 each of one ounce of the salts and two quarts of 
 warm water, and being administered at intervals 
 of six hours till the constipation gives way. But 
 prevention is far more important than cure, and 
 may easily be effected by not allowing the calves 
 to suck too much milk at a time, or to suck a 
 cow whose milk is somewhat old, or to feed upon 
 the indiscriminate or promiscuous new milk of 
 the dairy. — Constipation, caused by a rapid or 
 sudden change from such fluid and emollient 
 food as gruel to such hard, dry, and stimulating 
 food as hay, sometimes occurs in calves of two 
 or three months old ; and, in this case, it is at- 
 tended by an overworking and overloading of 
 the manyplies with the hard fibrous food, and 
 by a consequent stoppage of the process of rumi- 
 nation, and is not a little dangerous. The cure 
 in this instance, as in the former — when any cure 
 can be effected — is to administer solutions of 
 Epsom salts by means of the stomach-pump, — the 
 first dose to consist of four ounces of the salts in 
 a gallon of warm water. 
 
 Constipation not unfrequently occurs among 
 lambs and young sheep ; and as it either impels 
 them into fever or indicates them to be already 
 fevered, it ought to be promptly and energetically 
 attacked. Yet mere ineffectual straining of the 
 animals to effect evacuation may indicate the 
 very opposite disorder, or at least may be occa- 
 sioned by such a clotting and adherence of the 
 tail about the orifice of the rectum as to consti- 
 tute mere external and mechanical obstruction. 
 But when real constipation exists, and is shown, 
 by the heaving of the flanks, the heat of the 
 mouth, and the general restlessness of the sys- 
 tem, to be accompanied with fever, blood should 
 be let, purging should be induced, and the patient 
 should be removed to green, tender, young, and 
 succulent pasture. The means of inducing purg- 
 ing are similar to those for cows and calves ; and 
 each dose may consist of two ounces of Epsom 
 salts, either a little ginger or two drachms of 
 powdered caraway, and a sufficient quantity of 
 warm water for perfectly free solution. 
 
 Habitual costiveness characterizes some horses, 
 and is caused either by a defective secretion of 
 the intestinal fluid, or by an excessive absorption 
 of the liquid ingredients of the fa3cal mass, by 
 morbid action upon either quantity or quality in 
 
 the secretion of the bile, or by the excessive or 
 constant use of beans or of any other dry and 
 heating food. Whatever be the cause, any at- 
 tempt to reduce or mitigate habitual costiveness 
 by means of purgatives would only increase the 
 evil ; when morbid action in the secretion of the 
 bile is the cause, the treatment must be the 
 same as for jaundice ; when the excessive use of 
 dry food is the cause, occasional bran mashes may 
 be given ; and when the cause is wrong action 
 in the bowels themselves, or is general or not re- 
 cognizable, carrots may be given in winter, and 
 green food in summer. But habitual costiveness 
 may frequently exist in horses without detriment 
 to their health, or at least may be of such a na- 
 ture as to require only occasional and very par- 
 tial correction. " This disorder," says Gibson, 
 " is not easily removed : nor is it often necessary 
 to bring such horses into a contrary habit ; for 
 where this is natural, it may proceed from a more 
 than ordinary strength and rigidity in the small 
 fibres of the stomach and guts, which makes 
 them digest their aliment well, and retain their 
 excrements longer ; and when such a habit can 
 be kept within very proper medium, the horse 
 will continue in strength and vigour, without 
 any inconvenience; and it is observable that 
 these horses are, for the most part, able to en- 
 dure great fatigue and labour. However, it is 
 proper to give such horses, at all convenient 
 times, an opening diet." 
 
 COTTAGE. A small dwelling-house, either 
 plain or ornamental. Cottages for operatives, and 
 particularly for farm labourers and small agri- 
 cultural tenants, have, within the last twenty 
 years, been very greatly improved in many parts 
 of Great Britain, and particularly throughout 
 the lowlands of Scotland. Almost all cottages of 
 this exceedingly numerous and important class, 
 were at one time constructed on principles of 
 sheer sordid economy, with very little regard to 
 the health or comfort of their occupants, and 
 with no regard whatever to their self-respect and 
 to the proper tone of their moral feelings. But 
 a great and happy change has taken place. Mul- 
 titudes of landlords and farmers have become 
 enlightened and patriotic enough to identify 
 their own interests, with the domestic enjoy- 
 ments, the former of their tenantry and the lat- 
 ter of their labourers ; and they have concurred 
 in exertion to elevate the character of the peo- 
 ple's homes, and, through this, to improve the 
 character of the people's principles. The High- 
 land Society, too, has strenuously exerted the 
 whole of its powerful influence to produce a 
 general, skilful, and rapid improvement, and, in 
 particular, they appointed committees of inquiry, 
 diffused the best information, gave publicity to 
 some fine examples of cottage-building by land- 
 lords, offered many premiums throughout small 
 districts of the country, and procured and pub- 
 lished the best professional specifications for 
 
COTTAGE. 
 
 364 
 
 COTTAGE. 
 
 erecting good agricultural cottages. Either to 
 give a narrative of the improvements which have 
 been effected, or to sketch a view of the present 
 condition of cottages throughout Britain, or to 
 describe model plans of a few good individual 
 structures, would far outrun the limits within 
 which we feel obliged to restrain this subject ; 
 and we shall merely give a curtailed statement 
 of the general specifications in a prize essay by 
 Mr. George Smith, published in No. 24 of the 
 Highland Society's Transactions, and refer any 
 of our readers who desire further information to 
 that essay itself, and to other excellent papers in 
 the 44th and 52d Nos. of these Transactions, in 
 the 49th No. of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture, in the 4th vol. of the communications to 
 the Board of Agriculture, and in the 4th and 5th 
 vols, of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society of England. 
 
 Mr. Smith's specifications apply altogether or 
 very nearly to good cottages of all possible sorts 
 in stone districts; yet we may briefly indicate 
 the precise plans and the estimated cost of 
 cottages, which they were expressly written to 
 illustrate. The estimate of expense takes the 
 stones at prime cost, and assumes the builder to 
 afford all materials and workmanship, but to have 
 these carted free of expense to the site. First is 
 a single cottage, to cost ,£70; second, a single 
 cottage, £75 ; third, a single cottage, £83 ; fourth, 
 a double cottage, £130; fifth, a double cottage, 
 £136; sixth, a double cottage, £160; seventh, a 
 combined cottage for four families, £252; and, 
 eighth, a combined cottage for six families, £330. 
 The first single cottage has a kitchen and a room, 
 each 16 feet by 12 ; a space of 4| feet between these 
 for beds and lobby ; a scullery and a closet in a 
 lean-to behind ; and a cellar and other conveni- 
 ences at the rear of the scullery. The second 
 single cottage has a kitchen and a room, each 16 
 feet by 1 1^ ; a lobby and a large bed-closet be- 
 tween the kitchen and the room ; a scullery off 
 the end, and a light bed-closet off the middle of 
 the kitchen; a narrow stair behind the bed- 
 closet, leading to a loft over the whole ; wall- 
 presses in both the kitchen and the room ; and 
 cellar and other conveniences at the east end of 
 the house. The third single cottage has a porch, 
 an irregular plan, a sort of picturesque outline, 
 and a convenient and comfortable interior, and 
 might suit well for a gate-lodge or a gardener's 
 house on a property whose mansion is in the old 
 English style. The first double cottage has two 
 porches in the middle of the front, placed back 
 to back; and each of its two dwellings has a 
 kitchen of 16 feet by 12, a scullery and a pantry 
 in a lean-to behind, a cellar and other conveni- 
 ences in the rear, and a room of 16 feet by 11, 
 with wall closets in inside walls. The second 
 double cottage has porches at the ends and an 
 overhanging pavilion roof ; and each of its dwell- 
 ings has a tool-house behind the porch, a kitchen 
 of 16 feet by 13, a room of 16 feet by 11, a pantry 
 
 and a cellar, a back-scullery fitted with boiler, 
 water-pipe, and sink, and exteriorly a pig-house 
 and a poultry-house, with yards and other con- 
 veniences. The third double cottage has a hand- 
 some elevation, and a general outline like that 
 of a large single cottage ; and each of its dwell- 
 ings has a compact and convenient arrangement, 
 comprises three apartments, with closet, scullery, 
 pantry, cellar, and other accommodations, and 
 has a bed-room over the centre, and a loft over 
 the kitchen. The combined cottage for four 
 families consists of a centre and two wings ; each 
 wing is a dwelling-house, with a kitchen of 16 
 feet by 12, a room of the same size, wall-presses, 
 space for beds between the kitchen and the 
 room, an interior scullery, and exterior cellar and 
 other conveniences ; and each half of the central 
 compartment is also a separate dwelling-house, 
 with a kitchen of 17 feet by 12, a back scullery, 
 a room of 12 feet by 10§, a pantry in the lobby, 
 and exteriorly a yard, a cellar, and other con- 
 veniences ; and two of the four dwellings have 
 pig-houses, two have poultry -houses, and the 
 four have combinedly a cow-house. 
 
 In digging and levelling for the erection of any 
 of the cottages, the whole area is made uniform, 
 and the trenches are excavated to the depth of 
 2| feet below the floor-level, and made 3^ feet 
 wide. The foundation-course is laid three feet 
 broad, with large flat-bedded stones ; the walls 
 are brought in to the breadth of two feet by an 
 offset at each side ; the whole walls are built of 
 prime rubble stones, laid on their natural bed, 
 with properly prepared mortar ; the division- 
 walls of the double cottages are carried close up 
 to the slates ; the base-course, the corners, the 
 rebates, the soles and lintels of doors and win- 
 dows, the chimney-tops, the door-steps, and all 
 projections, are executed with neatly broached 
 ashlar; and the corners are broached to the 
 breadth of six inches on each face, and back- 
 checked half an inch for harling. All the ground 
 floors are formed of dressed flags, neatly squared 
 and jointed, and laid on a level stratum of lime 
 riddlings and dry stone shivers. The jambs, lin- 
 tels, and hearths of the fire-places are formed of 
 polished stone. A dwarf wall, 12 inches thick, is 
 built across, under each of the floored rooms, for 
 supporting the sleeper joists ; and four iron- 
 grated openings, each 8 inches square, are made 
 in the base-course round the floored rooms, for 
 the circulation of air under the flooring. All the 
 doors and windows have safe lintels, of one inch 
 in thickness to every foot in length, and have at 
 least nine inches of solid hold of the walls at each 
 end. The scantling for the ties and rafters of 
 the roof is not less than 6£ inches broad and 2i 
 thick, and is formed out of Baltic white wood 
 battens ; the cupples are set at the distances of 18 
 inches, on level wall plates, 7 inches by 1^ inch ; 
 the joists of the floored rooms are 7 inches broad 
 and 2£ thick, and are placed at distances of 
 18 inches, and floored over with grooved and 
 
COTTAGE ECONOMY. 
 
 365 
 
 COTTAGE GARDENING 
 
 tongued Dram timber H inch thick ; and the 
 partition-standards are 4 inches broad and 2 thick, 
 and are placed at distances of 16 inches, and, as 
 well as all the ceilings, covered over with the 
 best Baltic split lath. The outside doors are 
 made of 11 inch ploughed, tongued, and beaded 
 deal, and have each on its back three cross-bars, 
 8 inches broad, of one inch thick deal ; and all 
 are hung with strong cross-tailed hinges, and 
 mounted with strong stock-locks and iron lift- 
 ing-latches. The window-sashes are framed two 
 inches thick, with f inch astragals, and glazed 
 with 3d crown glass. The roofs are covered with 
 close-jointed f inch sarking, and slated with good 
 slates from the nearest slate-quarry or slate-mar- 
 ket ; and the ridges and flanks are covered with 
 lead, 12 inches broad, and of 5 pounds to the su- 
 perficial foot. All the walls, ceilings, and parti- 
 tions are finished with two coats of good plaster 
 lime ; and all the windows and outside-doors re- 
 ceive three coats of the best oil paint. The minor 
 details of the interior, and all the details of the 
 outhouses, are furnished in a neat and substan- 
 tial manner, in full keeping with the character 
 of the general masonry and carpentry. 
 
 COTTAGE ALLOTMENTS. See Allotment 
 System. 
 
 COTTAGE ECONOMY. The prudent, thrifty, 
 and effective management of the domestic affairs, 
 and particularly of the household expenses, of a 
 peasant's family. Cobbett's well-known tract on 
 this subject has been antiquated by the progres- 
 sion of society ; but an excellent paper, compiled 
 by French Burke, Esq., from essays submitted to 
 the Royal English Agricultural Society of Eng- 
 land, was published in the third volume of that 
 Society's Journal, and a cheap, minute, compre- 
 hensive, and exceedingly good manual, under the 
 title of ' The Working Man's Wife,' was recently 
 published by the London Religious Tract Society. 
 " To use without waste the food which Provi- 
 dence supplies for the wants of man," remarks 
 Mr. Burke, "is of the greatest importance to 
 those who have but little to spend ; and nothing 
 so completely disarms the stings of poverty as 
 the means of rendering a scanty pittance capable 
 of producing a comfortable meal. If, therefore, 
 by teaching them a little of simple cookery, it 
 can be occasionally so changed as to make it 
 somewhat more savoury at the same cost, there 
 can be little doubt that it would materially add 
 to their comforts, and then attach them still 
 more to their homes." Ample instructions on 
 this point, and on others also of far higher impor- 
 tance, are contained in the Tract Society's man- 
 ual ; and a copy of the book may be had for a 
 shilling. Many valuable hints, though somewhat 
 diffusive and suited more to the peasantry of 
 Ireland than to those of Britain, occur likewise 
 in some of the tracts and pamphlets of Martin 
 Doyle. See the article Farm-Servants. 
 
 COTTAGE GARDENING. A small piece of 
 garden ground affords a cottager useful employ- 
 
 ment during his hours of leisure, enables him to 
 add greatly to his resources and his domestic 
 comfort, and indirectly but powerfully improves 
 his moral character, and heightens the tone of 
 his healthy feeling of independence. But it ought 
 not merely to be possessed by him, but wisely 
 managed, and kept in skilful cultivation. Many 
 cottage gardens are kept in a condition only a 
 degree or two better than savage, indicating 
 total ignorance of all true principles of cultiva- 
 tion, and displaying a barbarous indifference, not 
 only to taste and beauty, but to the most com- 
 mon tidiness and order ; and these, so far from 
 really benefitting their owners, encourage their 
 miserable habits, incite them to disregard or con- 
 temn improvement, and exert a malign influence 
 upon the taste and progress of the surrounding 
 community. Ill kept cottage gardens, in fact, 
 sustain exactly the same relation to the princi- 
 ples and arts of cultivation, which filthy, irregu- 
 lar, ill-managed houses do to the principles and 
 arts of domestic economy. 
 
 The land of a cottage garden may, from being 
 situated on the lowest dip of the surrounding 
 surface, or from the comparative sponginess of its 
 soil, or from the retentiveness of its subsoil, or 
 from the overflowings upon it of some land-spring, 
 be too wet for the successful cultivation of kit- 
 chen vegetables ; and, in every such instance, it 
 ought to be promptly and thoroughly drained. 
 But, in even the worst case, the digging of a 
 ditch round the outside, and the forming of 
 either an outlet or " a swaLtow " at the lowest 
 corner, will be sufficient. When the garden ad- 
 joins a public road, or a waste, or a common 
 field, it ought to be protected by a good hedge or 
 by a ditch and hedge, or by a deep ditch and 
 paling ; but if it be an allotment piece, it ought 
 not to be separated from adjacent pieces by more 
 than a footpath, or other simple boundary line ; 
 for unless hedges are quite necessary for protec- 
 tion, they serve as retreats for slugs and mis- 
 chievous insects. All timber and ornamental 
 trees, particularly poplars, ash -trees, willows, 
 alders, birches, and mountain-ashes, when grow- 
 ing in the hedge-rows or upon the margin of cot- 
 tage gardens, are excessive intruders, and make 
 fearful curtailments upon the amount of useful 
 crops which might be raised. Unless a kitchen- 
 garden, whether old enclosure or new allotment, 
 have been quite recently trenched, a new tenant 
 should resolve to trench it piece by piece till, 
 within as short a period as his convenience will 
 allow, the whole of it obtain a new surface. 
 Trenching is indispensable for deep-rooting plants, 
 and serviceable to the most shallow-rooting ones ; 
 it deepens the soil, and facilitates the perform- 
 ance of all future operations; it buries weeds 
 and sickly mould, and converts a useless or nox- 
 ious surface into a useful, root-feeding substra- 
 tum ; and it secures a greatly improved circula- 
 tion of both air and moisture, and averts many 
 bad effects both of excessive rain and excessive 
 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 366 
 
 COTTAGE GARDENING. 
 
 drought. If the soil be very clayey, it ought, as 
 speedily as convenience and opportunities will 
 permit, to be improved by intermixture of sand 
 and fine gravel ; if very sandy, by intermixture 
 of clay ; and if boggy or very fibrous, by the in- 
 termixture of marls and calcareous gravels. 
 
 Frequent applications of manure, in some cir- 
 cumstances as intermixtures, in others as top- 
 dressings, and in others as stimulating waterings, 
 are essential to the free and constant fertility of 
 even the richest garden land. A cottager who 
 keeps a cow or a pig, should make the utmost of 
 his advantageous circumstances, by procuring 
 abundance of ferns, road-side grasses, and other 
 litter, and by not allowing a drop of the liquid 
 matters of the cow-house or the piggery to es- 
 cape ; and one who has neither a cow nor a pig- 
 should have a hollow pit in a convenient situa- 
 tion for receiving all drainage from his cottage 
 and all refuse from his garden, and should add to 
 the contents of that pit all sorts of ashes, marl, 
 lime-rubbish, soot, road-sweepings, and cattle- 
 droppings on lawns, or droppings which he can 
 conveniently obtain, and should once or twice, or 
 oftener if necessary, stir or turn over the whole 
 to promote the requisite degree of incorporation 
 or decomposition. Liquid manure, or the drain- 
 age of a dunghill, diluted if necessary with water, 
 is the most effective for cabbages and borecoles, 
 either in the seed-bed or after transplantation ; 
 and a cesspool may, in many a small holding, be 
 very advantageously sunk for the purpose of col- 
 lecting and retaining this substance. 
 
 The proportion of crops to one another and to 
 the whole garden demands the close considera- 
 tion of every occupier of a cottage garden, and 
 ought to be regulated by the real wants and the 
 judicious tastes of his family. The crop which 
 remains longest in use, and yields the largest 
 return, and is averagely of most service to a 
 household, — in other words, the potato crop — 
 will command the largest share of the ground ; 
 and other crops, such as cabbages, borecoles, sa- 
 voys, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beans, kidney- 
 beans, onions, leeks, potherbs, pease, salad-herbs, 
 and a few flowering-plants, will occur in a de- 
 scending series of prominence, as nearly as pos- 
 sible in the degree of their comparative value to 
 the family, or very nearly in the order in which 
 we have named them. Assuming a garden to 
 have an area of half a rood or 20 perches, to be- 
 long to a man who has a wife and three or four 
 children, to be disposed in a rectangle of 38 yards 
 by 16, and to come into the possession of the 
 tenant at Michaelmas, a rough model sketch may 
 be given of its distribution, which will serve in 
 some degree to direct the distribution of gardens 
 of other sizes, or belonging to cottiers in other cir- 
 cumstances. One half of the garden, measured 
 from one end to the middle, must be marked olF 
 for potatoes, and should be either trenched or 
 well dug during winter, in order to be thoroughly 
 mellowed and otherwise prepared for the most 
 
 profitable reception of the potato sets, in spring. 
 Seven yards of the length, measured from the 
 middle of the garden or end of the potato plot, 
 should, as speedily as possible after the tenant's 
 taking possession, be dug and planted with bore- 
 coles or some other variety of cabbage; and 
 about the middle of January, when the second, 
 the fourth, the sixth, and the eighth rows of the 
 young cabbage may be supposed to have been 
 used, the spaces where these rows stood should be 
 pointed over with the spade, and planted with 
 long-podded beans at distances of 4 inches. Nine 
 of the remaining twelve yards may be disposed 
 in four parallel beds, all to be cropped in March 
 and April, — the first with parsnips, the second 
 with carrots, the third with onions and leeks, and 
 the fourth with radishes, lettuces, cabbage-seeds, 
 early Dutch turnips, and a few potherbs, rhubarb, 
 salad-herbs, and flowering-plants. Some other 
 crops, such as pease and scarlet runners, can be 
 inserted in interstices occasioned by the progres- 
 sive use of cabbages, beans, and carrots ; and not 
 a few others, which are sometimes cultivated in 
 small gardens, such as cauliflower, broccoli, celery, 
 artichokes, pumpkins, and a dozen or so more, 
 are quite unsuited to the economy and the frugal 
 tastes of a well-conducted cottier family. 
 
 A most important element in the cultivation 
 of all land is to maintain a constant and judici- 
 ous rotation of cropping ; and though this can- 
 not be so easily and so steadily kept in play in a 
 cottage garden as upon a farm, it must be sedu- 
 lously observed, and is absolutely indispensable 
 to the obtaining of full returns, and to the main- 
 taining of prolonged fertility. In the second 
 year, with the exception of the three-yard mis- 
 cellaneous border of seed-beds, herbs, flowering- 
 plants and other small matters, all the half of the 
 garden which had no potatoes in the first year 
 may be cropped with potatoes, and the part 
 which was occupied in the first year with pota- 
 toes may be distributed into beds and sections 
 for cabbages, beans, parsnips, carrots, and onions, 
 — the cabbages and beans being placed next to 
 the potatoes. In the third year, the potatoes 
 may occupy the middle of the garden, and the 
 cabbages and beans may occupy the quarter fur- 
 ther removed from the miscellaneous border. In 
 the fourth year, the potatoes may occupy their 
 original position; and the cabbages and beans 
 may be placed next to the miscellaneous border, 
 — the several small crops of that border having 
 meanwhile been made to change places within its 
 own limits. In subsequent years, similar changes 
 of place among the principal crops may follow 
 one another ; and at comparatively remote in- 
 tervals, cleansing and most remunerating crops 
 of wheat or barley may be grown as substitutes 
 for the potatoes, or even, on a rare occasion, for 
 all the crops except the very smallest. 
 
 " There is one circumstance," to quote from a 
 very long and excellent paper by Mr. Main, in 
 the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
 
COTTAGE GARDENING. 
 
 367 
 
 COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. 
 
 to which we have been largely indebted in the 
 drawing up of the present article — " There is one 
 circumstance which every manager of a garden, 
 especially those who are confined to a limited 
 spot of ground, should ever be well aware of; 
 and that is the practicability of having a con- 
 stantly recurring succession of crops on the same 
 piece of ground. This is a practice which farm 
 or rural labourers in general are but little ac- 
 quainted with ; though, when judiciously plan- 
 ned and executed, it is of the greatest advantage. 
 Mixed crops are allowable in cottage gardening ; 
 for instance, a sprinkling of radish and coss-let- 
 tuce may be sown with the onions ; and when 
 the radish and lettuce are drawn, being ready for 
 use, the onions suffer no injury. Broad beans 
 are sometimes planted at the same time and in 
 the same drill with potatoes, and without any 
 very visible damage to the latter crop. But in 
 order to keep the ground in full employment, all 
 the crops, that is the standing crops, must be 
 sown or planted in drills or rows, with the inten- 
 tion that, before the first crop is off, another shall 
 be put in the intermediate spaces to follow in 
 succession. This is quite practicable with all the 
 cabbage tribe, or with any other kind of vege- 
 table which may be used in any stage of their 
 growth. Of this description are the cabbage, 
 savoy, onion, lettuce, &c. ; and when such are 
 planted alternately with others, which must 
 stand to acquire full perfection, the first may be 
 used out of the way as soon as they press injuri- 
 ously upon the second. In this way, many more 
 useful vegetables may be raised on a given por- 
 tion of land than by the old-fashioned custom of 
 sowing broadcast, only one patch of each of the 
 common sorts occupying the ground for the whole 
 summer. Even the onion ground may be planted 
 with cabbages just before the former are fit to 
 pull, which plants, whether savoys or common 
 cabbage, become fine useful stuff before Christ- 
 mas. This constant routine of cropping and re- 
 cropping may be considered as out of the power 
 of a day-labourer to perform ; but, whether he 
 may have time or not, it is highly proper that he 
 should be made acquainted with every practical 
 matter which he may endeavour to turn to his 
 advantage." 
 
 Both the general principles of cultivation, and 
 the special principles applicable to each parti- 
 cular crop, are abundantly taught in other parts 
 of our work ; yet two or three rules, so modified 
 as to have a very special bearing upon the man- 
 agement of the cottage garden, may here be 
 stated. The soil ought to be worked with either 
 spade or hoe, only when in a dry or nearly dry 
 condition, and never when drenched with rain, 
 or otherwise full of moisture. The seeds of beans 
 should be dibbled into the ground, and the seeds 
 of onions made firm in the soil by treading with 
 the feet after they are sown, for both beans and 
 onions form the most vigorous young roots in 
 firm soil ; but all other seeds should be sown in 
 
 thoroughly pulverized and pretty dry soil, and 
 allowed to strike root in as loose and friable a 
 texture of it as can be produced. Unless when 
 the surface to be sown or planted is partly occu- 
 pied with growing crops, every sowing or trans- 
 planting should be made in recently-digged and 
 quite freshly stirred soil ; and even on pre-occu- 
 pied ground, the portions to be sown or planted 
 ought, immediately before sowing, to be stirred 
 to the utmost extent compatible with the inter- 
 ests of the growing crop. All perennial weeds 
 ought to be carefully eradicated ; and all annual 
 weeds destroyed before they come into flower. 
 All coarse herbage of grasses or weeds collected 
 into the compost heap ought to be hurried into 
 fermentation by repeated turnings, and should not 
 be spread upon the soil till they are in a suffi- 
 ciently advanced state of decomposition to afford 
 security against their seeds germinating, and 
 producing a crop of weeds. Small seed-beds of 
 different varieties of cabbage, and perhaps of let- 
 tuce, or of any similar plant, should be kept up 
 to afford a constant supply of seedlings for filling 
 up every yard of ground as it becomes vacant. 
 Any attempt to cultivate fruit-trees in a cottage 
 garden is absurd ; but a row of gooseberry bush- 
 es, interspersed with two or three white or red 
 currant bushes, and arranged along the foot of 
 the garden, is not amiss. — Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society. — Sir John Sinclair's General Report of 
 Scotland. — Martin Boyle's Works.— Cobbett. — Ma we. 
 — Johnson. — Miller. 
 
 COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. Either the cottier 
 cultivation of garden or allotment plots, vary- 
 ing in size from two perches to two acres, but 
 usually ranging between half a rood and two 
 roods, or the agricultural cultivation of regularly 
 appointed farms of very small extent, usually 
 ranging between five and ten acres. The former 
 is the kind of cottage husbandry which prevails 
 in Britain, and will be found fully discussed in 
 our articles Allotment System, Cottage Gar- 
 dening, and Spade Husbandry. The latter pre- 
 vails in Ireland, and, so far as it is sound in 
 practice, or manageable on principles of true 
 economy, is discussed concurrently with British 
 husbandry throughout the numerous agricultural 
 articles of our work. The defects and peculiari- 
 ties of Irish husbandry exist rather in the low 
 moral condition and comparative agricultural 
 ignorance of the people, than in the smallness of 
 their farms, and might easily be made to dis- 
 appear without any reference whatever to sup- 
 posed difference of either status or resource be- 
 tween the peasant-farmer who occupies a cottage 
 upon six acres and the gentleman-farmer who 
 occupies a fine villa upon a thousand acres. The 
 following report by Mr. Nicholl upon the condi- 
 tion and practices of the peasant farmers of Bel- 
 gium will throw more light upon the subject of 
 Irish cottage husbandry than a whole volume of 
 speculation and advice : — 
 
COTTAGE HUSBANDRY. 
 
 308 
 
 COTTON. 
 
 " In the greater part of the flat country of 
 Belgium, the soil is light and sandy, and easily 
 worked ; but its productive powers are certainly 
 inferior to the general soil of Ireland, and the 
 climate does not appear to be superior. To the 
 soil and the climate, therefore, the Belgian does not 
 owe his superiority in comfort and position over 
 the Irish cultivator. The difference is rather to 
 be sought for in the system of cultivation pur- 
 sued by the small farmers of Belgium, and in the 
 habits of economy and forethought of the people. 
 The cultivation of the small farms in Belgium 
 differs from the Irish, — first, in the quantity of 
 stall-fed stock which is kept, and by which a sup- 
 ply of manure is regularly secured, — second, in 
 the strict attention paid to the collection of man- 
 ure, which is skilfully managed, — third, by the 
 adoption of a system of rotation of five, six, or 
 seven successive crops, even on the smallest farms, 
 which is in striking contrast with the plan of 
 cropping and fallowing the land prevalent in Ire- 
 land. 
 
 " In the farms of six acres, we found no plough, 
 horse, or cart ; the only agricultural implement, 
 besides the spade and wheel-barrow, which we 
 observed, was a light wooden harrow, which might 
 be dragged by hand. The farmer had no assist- 
 ance besides that of his wife and children, ex- 
 cepting sometimes for a short period in the har- 
 vest, when we found he occasionally hired a 
 labourer at a franc (tenpence) per day. The whole 
 of the land is dug with a spade, and trenched 
 very deep ; but if the soil is light, the labour of 
 digging is not great. The stock on the small 
 farm which we examined consisted of a couple of 
 cows, a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a 
 goat or two, and some poultry. The cows are 
 altogether stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, 
 vetches, carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup 
 made by boiling of potatoes, beans, pease, bran, 
 cut hay, &c, into one mass, and which, being 
 given to the cattle warm, is said to be very whole- 
 some, and to promote the secretion of milk. In 
 some districts, the grains of the breweries and dis- 
 tilleries are used for the cattle ; and the failure 
 of the Belgian distilleries has been reckoned a 
 calamity to the agriculture of the country, on 
 account of the loss of the supply of manure which 
 was produced by the cattle fed in the stalls of 
 these establishments. 
 
 ''The success of the Belgian farmer depends 
 mainly upon the number of cattle which he can 
 maintain by the produce of his land, the general 
 lightness of the soil rendering the constant appli- 
 cation of manure absolutely necessary to the pro- 
 duction of a crop. The attention of the cultivator 
 is always, therefore, especially directed to obtain 
 a supply of manure. Some small farmers, with 
 this view, agree with a sheep-dealer to find stall- 
 room and straw for his sheep, to attend to them, 
 and to furnish fodder at the market price, on con- 
 dition of retaining the dung. The small farmer 
 collects in his stable, in a fosse lined with brick, 
 
 the dung and urine of his cattle. He buys suffi- 
 cient lime to mingle with the scourings of his 
 ditches, and with the decayed leaves, potato-tops, 
 &c, which he is careful to collect in order to en- 
 rich his compost, which is dug over two or three 
 times during the course of the winter. No portion 
 of the farm is allowed to lie fallow; but it is divided 
 into six or seven small plots, on each of which a 
 system of rotation is adopted ; and thus, with the 
 aid of a sufficient quantity of manure, the powers 
 of the soil are maintained unexhausted, in a state 
 of constant activity. The order of succession in 
 the crops is various ; but we observed on the six- 
 acre farms which we visited, plots of potatoes, 
 flax, rye, carrots, turnips or parsnips, vetches and 
 rye, for immediate use as green food for the cattle. 
 The flax grown is heckled and spun by the farmer's 
 wife, chiefly during the winter ; and we are told 
 that three weeks' labour at the loom, towards the 
 spring, enables them to weave into cloth all the 
 thread thus prepared. The weavers are generally 
 a distinct class from the small farmers ; though 
 the labourers chiefly supported by the loom, com- 
 monly occupy about an acre of land, sometimes 
 more, their labour upon the land alternating with 
 their work at the loom. In some districts, we 
 are informed, every gradation in the extent of 
 occupancy, from a quarter or half an acre to the 
 six-acre farm, is to be found ; and, in such cases, 
 more work is done in the loom by the smaller 
 occupiers. 
 
 " The labour of the field, the management of 
 the cattle, the preparation of manure, the regu- 
 lating the rotation of crops, and the necessity of 
 carrying a certain portion of the produce to 
 market, call for the constant exercise of industry, 
 skill, and foresight among the Belgian peasant 
 farmers ; and to these qualities they add a rigid 
 economy, habitual sobriety, and a contented 
 spirit, which finds its chief gratification beneath 
 the domestic roof, from which the father of the 
 family rarely wanders in search of excitement 
 abroad. It was most gratifying to observe the 
 comfort displayed in the whole economy of the 
 households of these small cultivators, and the re- 
 spectability in which they lived. As far as I 
 could learn, there was no tendency to the sub- 
 division of the small holding ; I heard of none 
 under five acres, held by the class of peasant 
 farmers; and six, seven, or eight acres, is the 
 more common size. The provident habits of the 
 small farmers enable them to maintain a high 
 standard of comfort. Their marriages are not 
 contracted so soon as in Ireland ; and the conse- 
 quent struggle for subsistence among their ofl- 
 spring does not exist." 
 
 COTTON-GRASS— botanically Eriophonnn. 
 A genus of hardy, herbaceous, grassy-looking, 
 perennial-rooted plants, of the sedge tribe. Their 
 botanical name signifies " wool- bearer ;" and 
 both this name and the popular one allude to a 
 profuse woolly accompaniment of their seeds. Six 
 species, varying in height from about G to about 14 
 
COUCH-GRASS. 
 
 inches, inhabit the mountains, heaths, moors, 
 and bogs of Britain ; and two of these, the narrow- 
 leaved, E. angustifolium, and the sheathed or 
 hare's tail, E. vaginatum, afford sheep and depas- 
 tured cattle a little nourishment in early spring, 
 or previous to the growth of sufficient herbage o!" 
 the grasses ; but though eaten by these animals, 
 they are not well relished, and contain a very 
 small amount of nutritive matter relatively to 
 their whole bulk. On bog soil, in the Woburn 
 experiments, E. angustifolium yielded per acre 
 8,167 lbs. of entire produce, and 319 lbs. of nutri- 
 tive matter, and E. vaginatum yielded 6,806 lbs. 
 of entire produce, and 212 lbs. of nutritive mat- 
 ter. These two species, if cultivated or at least 
 freely propagated on such high boggy ground as 
 is useless for any other purpose and would not 
 repay the costs of reclamation, might probably 
 yield profitable crops of their cottony or woolly 
 matter for the manufacture of yarn and cloth. 
 About 16 or 17 years ago, some specimens of 
 stocking-yarn and of remarkably firm and beau- 
 tiful russet cloth were manufactured, under the 
 direction of Mr. Helliwell of Greenhurst-Hey, 
 near Todmorden, from the wool of cotton grasses 
 grown on his estate ; and a calculation was at the 
 same time made that this wool might, without 
 cultivation, be obtained from many parts of Stans- 
 field Common, in the vicinity of Todmorden, at 
 the cost of not more than 2d. or 3d. per pound, 
 and in quantity of two or three hundred weights 
 per acre. 
 
 COUCH-GRASS, Sutch - Grass, or Quick- 
 Grass. A most troublesome, vivacious, rapidly- 
 spreading, perennial-rooted weed, of the field- 
 wheat genus. Botanists formerly called it Tri- 
 ticum repens, but now call it Agropyrum repens. 
 It is sometimes called by British farmers field- 
 wheat, from the resemblance which its young 
 shoot or grassy blade presents to the young shoot 
 of true wheat ; and by the French, chiendent or 
 dog's-tooth, either from the outline of its shoot 
 being somewhat like that of a canine tooth, or 
 from the circumstance that dogs instinctively eat 
 it to make them purge and vomit. Its root is 
 creeping and jointed, grows with great rapidity, 
 and sends up a new plant from every new joint 
 which it acquires ; its culm or seed-stem grows 
 erect, and usually has a height of about 20 inches, 
 but is not nearly so characteristic of the plant 
 as the roots and shoots ; and its seed-spike con- 
 sists of a middle rachis and alternate floscules, — 
 each of the latter, when the plant attains maturity, 
 producing three or four chaff-protected seeds. 
 On light and porous soils, the plant propagates 
 itself with such prodigious rapidity by the roots, 
 as speedily to overrun a whole field, and as to 
 prevent its own culms from acquiring sufficient 
 nourishment to mature the whole or even a con- 
 siderable proportion of their seeds ; but in very 
 stiff soils, it makes comparatively little way 
 amidst the strong resistance of the firm land, 
 I. 
 
 COUGH. 
 
 and, in some instances, propagates itself not more 
 rapidly by its roots than by its seeds. 
 
 The existence or rather despotic usurpation of 
 couch-grass on a farm, is as disgraceful to the 
 tenant as the prevalence of docks or thistles ; and 
 when let in by a previous tenant, occasions enor- 
 mous labour and very serious loss to a wise and 
 diligent successor. A field of light and porous 
 soil overrun with this weed, must, when in a dry 
 state, in summer weather, be ploughed up with 
 a deep ploughshare, pulverized with the roller, 
 swept with the harrows or couch-rake, and as 
 thoroughly cleansed as possible with the grubber 
 or with long-tined heavy harrows, — all the couch- 
 roots brought to the surface being carefully re- 
 moved to at least the headlands, or, more wisely, 
 to the farmery ; and — as many joints and small 
 pieces of the roots are unavoidably broken off by 
 the implements, and left in the soil, and would, 
 if not smothered, very speedily produce a new 
 growth of the weed— the field must next be laid 
 down to grass, and kept, during several years, in 
 a state of depasturement with sheep and cattle. 
 A field of very stiff clay overrun with couch-grass 
 may be reclaimed with much more ease and 
 cheapness ; for, unless in some extraordinary in- 
 stances, it needs but to have the weed buried at a 
 depth of about nine inches, either by means of 
 trench-ploughing, with ordinary ploughs, or by 
 means of a single-furrowing with a heavy, four- 
 horse, deep -cutting, old-fashioned, turn -wrist 
 plough. 
 
 The roots of couch-grass, when gathered in the 
 process of cleaning, are usually burnt by British 
 farmers ; but they would be quite as thoroughly 
 destroyed, and would yield vastly more manurial 
 matter, if decomposed by means of lime. In 
 Rome and Naples, however, they are extensively 
 used either in a simply washed condition, or in 
 a state of mixture with carrots, as food for horses ; 
 and in Britain, they might be given raw to pigs, 
 steamed or boiled to horses and cattle, and wash- 
 ed, macerated, and manufactured into farina for 
 human beings. They contain nutritive matter 
 of the same kind and nearly in the same propor- 
 tion as potato tubers ; they readily yield up that 
 matter into the culinary and desirable form of a 
 starchy powder resembling arrow-root ; and on 
 arenaceous grounds in remote districts, far from 
 good markets or from the best resources of hus- 
 bandry, they might probably afford profitable re- 
 turns as a crop, — especially as they would require 
 no other cultivation than to be coaxed into rapid 
 ramification, and allowed ample scope to choke 
 and kill antagonistic weeds. 
 
 Three other and totally different grasses fre- 
 quently share at once the name, the mischievous- 
 ness, and the denunciation of couch-grass, — the 
 creeping agrostis, or black twitch, Agrostis repens; 
 the creeping-rooted soft-grass, Holcus mollis; and 
 the* smooth-stalked meadow-grass, Poa pratensis. 
 
 COUGH. A forcible expulsion of air from the 
 2 A 
 
 369 
 
cow. 
 
 chest or a violent effort of the diaphragm and 
 the intercostal and abdominal muscles, to remove 
 some obstruction to the perfectly free passage of 
 the gases in breathing. It is not a disease, but 
 the symptom of some one or more of many 
 diseases ; it varies in character according to the 
 nature of the particular disease with which it is 
 connected ; and, in any instance, it can be safely 
 interfered with or healthily removed, only by at- 
 tacking and curing the disease or diseases which 
 occasion it. Coughs of different kinds attend al- 
 most all diseases of the respiratory organs, from 
 the slightest to the most deadly, — catarrh, pneu- 
 monia, pleura, phthisis, asthma, and, what in 
 horses, are called thick wind and broken wind ; 
 and they not only indicate the existence of these 
 diseases, but, by their different kinds of sounds, 
 actions, and sympathies, materially assist the 
 professional observer to distinguish each of the 
 diseases from the rest. Other coughs, especially 
 such as are chronic or of long continuance, are 
 occasioned by diseases which might seem to have 
 little or no special connexion with the air passages, 
 — particularly by diseases of the liver, diseases 
 of the stomach, irritations of the intestinal canal, 
 and a great variety of nervous disorders ; and not 
 a few of these coughs are exceedingly perplexing 
 to practitioners, and sometimes afford occasion 
 for shrewd, far-sighted, and powerful exercise of 
 professional skill. See the articles Thick-Wind, 
 Broken -Wind 3 Catarrh, Consumption, and 
 several others. 
 
 COW. The female of the bull, or of the species 
 Bos Taurus. See the articles Ox, Cattle, Calf, 
 Breeding, Parturition, Age or Animals, and 
 Milk. 
 
 The ' points ' of a cow, or the marks by which 
 she is characterized as a good milker, are very 
 far from being identical with the 4 points ' of an 
 ox, or the marks by which he is characterized as 
 a profitable fattener. A rule or set of rules for 
 judging of the milking qualities of cows, was, 
 about seven or eight years ago, submitted by a 
 M. Guenon, a landowner at Libourne, to the 
 Minister of Public Works and Agriculture in 
 France, and was found, on examination, to be 
 original, feasible, probably of some value, and 
 certainly worthy of farther investigation ; but, 
 for reasons of deference to M. Guenon, it was 
 studiously concealed at the time. Many other 
 rules have been proposed and tested, but with 
 exceedingly little practical advantage. M. Bous- 
 singault, as appears to us, judiciously and con- 
 clusively settles this matter in the following few 
 sentences : " I have already had occasion to say, 
 that the signs by which the qualities of kine as 
 milkers were sought to be appreciated are some- 
 what deceitful. Still I am far from denying that 
 practice and experience do not enable many per- 
 sons to pronounce with some certainty upon this 
 particular. The power of doing so, however, is 
 in some sort the peculiar privilege of him who 
 
 370 COW, 
 
 „ . . , . . 
 
 possesses it ; at least I have seen all the general 
 rules that have been laid down on the subject 
 fail ; I have seen cows of the most opposite con- 
 formations productive. I have also said that race 
 or descent had much to do with this quality ; the 
 heifer that comes of a mother a good milker, will 
 be very likely to turn out a good milker also. The 
 legitimate way, therefore, of obtaining a good race 
 of milch-kine is to breed them from a stock that 
 is already noted in this respect. At the time of 
 my penning these lines, there are two animals on 
 the farm that are remarkable as milch-kine ; one 
 is a tall unseemly animal, the bones projecting, 
 and altogether thin and miserable ; the other is 
 a small cow with rounded outlines everywhere, 
 the bony frame but little conspicuous, her skin 
 soft, her hair sleek and fine ; nevertheless, these 
 two animals have one character in common, — 
 the udder is of extraordinary size." Yet all or 
 most cows of some breeds are very decidedly dis- 
 tinguished from all or most of the cows of other 
 breeds, not only in conformation, bulk, and kind- 
 liness, but in both the quantity and the quality 
 of their milk. Heifers specially intended for the 
 dairy ought to be selected first from a primely 
 milking breed, such as the short-horns or the 
 Ayrshire, and next from among the offspring of 
 decidedly superior milkers of that breed, yet only 
 from among such a portion of the breed as is al- 
 ready on the estate or farm on which they are to 
 be kept, or at least as are on an estate in the near 
 vicinity of the farm, and of somewhat inferior 
 quality of pasture. When a heifer is removed to 
 a distance from her native spot, she is liable to 
 suffer some deterioration of her properties as a 
 milker ; and when she is removed to pastures not 
 quite equal or even decidedly superior to her 
 natal ones, she is almost certain to suffer serious 
 detriment to these properties. But no heifer 
 should be condemned if she milks rather indiffer- 
 ently after her first calf; for many a prime cow 
 somewhat slowly developes her milking proper- 
 ties, and does not possess them in all their am- 
 plitude till she attains her fifth or sixth year. 
 
 The quantity of milk yielded by cows greatly 
 varies, not only with the breed and the immedi- 
 ate lineage of individuals, but with their age, 
 their situation, their treatment, and especially 
 their food. Cows grazing at liberty in South 
 America do not give more than about three pints 
 per day ; and cows either wholly stall-fed or alter- 
 nately stall-fed and grazed on rich pastures in 
 Europe, yield all gradations of quantity, from the 
 scanty amount of the wild cow to about 30 or 35 
 pints. Instances of particular cows have occa- 
 sionally been mentioned so very large, and so far 
 exceeding ordinary experience as to seem ad- 
 dressed more to our credulity than to our belief. 
 Mr. Crud asserts that cows of large size have 
 yielded 70 pints per day. Thaer records that 
 persons worthy of credit have stated the produce 
 of some prime cows on prime pastures to be from 
 
cow. 
 
 371 
 
 74 to 82§ pints per day ; and some dairymen and 
 herdsmen frequently astonish and amaze their 
 neighbours with accounts quite as boastful of 
 the produoe of some individuals in their herds. 
 But even when a very extraordinary yield of 
 milk is real and unquestionable, it is character- 
 istic less of particular cows than of particular 
 circumstances, and rarely continues through a 
 series of weeks or even through a tolerable series 
 of days ; and the aggregate yield, on good farms 
 and dairies, throughout the year, may be stated 
 as ranging from about 3,000 to about 9,000 pints. 
 M. Perault estimates the quantity at 2,992 pints; 
 M. Boussingault, at 4,368 pints; Mr. Low, at 
 5,994 pints ; and Mr. Curwen, at 6,580 pints. 
 Grognier, in the Lyonnais, states the quantity 
 from cows ill-fed in winter at 1,284 pints ; D'An- 
 geville, at Lompries in France, from stall-fed 
 cows, at 1,610 pints; De Dombasle, at Roville 
 in France, from stall-fed cows, at 2,492 pints ; 
 Thaer, at Maeglin in Prussia, from stall-fed cows, 
 at 2,648 pints ; Burger, in Carinthia in Austria, 
 from well-fed cows, at 2,752 pints ; D'Angeville, 
 in Switzerland, from stall-fed cows, at 2,992 
 pints ; Thaer, in the neighbourhood of Berlin, at 
 3.004 pints ; Schmalz, at Altenburg in Saxony, at 
 3,412 pints ; Schwertz, in the low countries of Hol- 
 land, from cows kept in the house during winter, 
 at 3,400 pints ; Schwertz, in Belgium, from cows 
 at grass and in the house, 3,967 pints ; Schwertz, 
 at Antwerp, from cows ill-fed in winter, at 4,495 
 pints ; D'Angeville, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, 
 from well-fed cows, at 4,685 pints ; Aiton, in the 
 low countries of Holland, at 7,066 pints ; and 
 Schwertz, at Campine in Holland, at 9,313 pints. 
 These wide diversities of statements, as well as 
 some of the excessive and almost incredible oc- 
 casional accounts of the produce of particular 
 cows, partly, and perhaps in no inconsiderable 
 degree, arise from loose and erroneous methods 
 of measuring the milk. The only true way of 
 securing accuracy of calculation, is to take the 
 quantity of milk yielded by each cow between 
 her period of calving in one year and the same 
 period in next year ; and to measure the produce 
 of each milking in a graduated pint measure, 
 carefully noting the number of whole pints and 
 of parts of a pint. The season of the greatest 
 flow of milk, as affected by the physiological con- 
 dition of the cow, is the first three months after 
 calving ; and the season of greatest flow, as 
 affected by climate, weather, and facile supply of 
 the best food, is the months of June, July, and 
 August. 
 
 The sapidness and flavour both of milk itself 
 and of the butter manufactured from it are pow- 
 erfully affected by the quality and proportion of 
 aromatic proximate principles present in the 
 food of cows. The milk and the butter from the 
 green, succulent, fragrant herbage of spring and 
 summer are always more grateful to the smell 
 and delicious to the palate than the milk and 
 the butter from the comparatively dry and in- 
 
 odorous food of winter. Certain rare grasses and 
 rare herbs on particular pastures also exert a 
 great controlling power over the good or bad 
 flavour of milk and butter; and several vege- 
 tables and vegetable roots are known to the 
 dairymen and farmers of all grazing districts as 
 imparting to milk and butter so special an aroma, 
 that the mere flavour of the produce distinctly 
 indicates the nature of the food. But all or very 
 nearly all the aroma-yielding principles of such 
 vegetables are strictly volatile, and can neither 
 be extracted by chemical manipulation, nor pre- 
 served by any known process of drying and stor- 
 ing ; so that only such are available for winter- 
 feeding as reside in stems or roots which can be 
 preserved in a succulent condition. So far as 
 regards the flavour of milk and butter, there- 
 fore, exceedingly much depends both on the kind 
 of food given to cows, and on the precise condi- 
 tion of growth or freshness in which it is used. 
 
 As respects the quantity and the chemical com- 
 position of milk, however, surprisingly little in- 
 fluence is exerted by either the kind or the phy- 
 siological condition of the food, or by any cir- 
 cumstances connected with it except the propor- 
 tion of its nutritiveness and the degree of its 
 digestibility. The controlling power of particu- 
 lar sorts of food over the milking properties of 
 the cow, has been almost everywhere a topic of 
 boastful declamation and pseudo-scientific dis- 
 cussion among the illiterate philosophers of the 
 dairy ; but this alleged power has either been 1 
 mistaken for some overlooked and widely differ- 
 ent controlling cause, or has existed only in the 
 heated fancy and distorted observations of its 
 advocates. " I believe," says Boussingault, " that j 
 the influence of particular kinds of forage on the 
 production of milk is often greatly exaggerated. 
 Each breeder or feeder seems to have his own ! 
 favourite article, however, so that there is nothing 
 like uniformity among them. With one, it is the 
 carrot that is in the ascendant ; with another, it • 
 is the beet that is supreme ; there is no root, in 
 fact, which has not alternately had its apologists 
 and detractors. The truth lies between the ex- , 
 tremes here as it does in so many other instances ; 
 and lam satisfied that each and all of the roots and 
 other articles of forage that are generally intro- 
 duced into the ration of milch- kine, are calculat- 
 ed to produce abundance of good milk ; it is only | 
 necessary that the substances be allowed in ample j 
 quantity, and that no mistake be committed in re- 
 gard to the nutritive equivalents of the several 
 articles. I do not hesitate to add that the opinions 
 of the generality of farmers and dairymen on the 
 subject are based on observations which are al- 
 ways more or less imperfect." Great variations, | 
 ranging from almost nothing to the greatest 
 copiousness, certainly do occur parallely with 
 changes and successions of articles of food ; but, 
 if careful comparison be made of the bulk of the 
 several articles, and especially of their relative 
 proportion of nutritive matter, these variations 
 
cow. 
 
 372 
 
 COW. 
 
 will, in every instance, be found to arise either 
 wholly or almost wholly from increase or dimi- 
 nution of absolute nourishment. A cow kept 
 through winter upon mere straw will cease to 
 give milk, and when fed in spring upon green for- 
 age will give a fair quantity of milk ; but she 
 owes the cessation and the restoral of the se- 
 cretion to respectively the diminution and the 
 increase of her nourishment, and not at all to 
 the change of form or of outward substance in 
 which the nourishment is administered. Let 
 cows receive through winter nearly as large a 
 proportion of nutritive matter as is contained in 
 the clover, lucern, and fresh grasses which they 
 eat in summer ; and — no matter in what precise 
 substance or mixture that matter may be con- 
 tained — they will yield a winter's produce of milk 
 quite as rich in caseous and butyraceous ingre- 
 dients as the summer's produce, and far more 
 ample in quantity than almost any dairyman 
 with old-fashioned notions would imagine to be 
 possible. The great practical error on this sub- 
 ject consists, not in giving wrong kinds of food, 
 but in not so proportioning and preparing it as 
 to render an average ration of it equally rich in 
 the elements of nutrition, and especially in nitro- 
 genous elements, as an average ration of the 
 greenWd succulent food of summer. 
 
 Assuming 33 lbs. of meadow hay per day to be 
 the proper ration for a milk-cow, and referring 
 to the article Food for a view of the elements of 
 nutrition in the various substances usually given 
 to cattle, and of the bulk or weight of each of 
 these which is equal in nutrimental value to 33 
 lbs. of meadow hay, we may rapidly follow M. 
 Boussingault through a course of well-conducted 
 experiments by which he ascertained the con- 
 trolling power of different kinds of food over the 
 quantity and the chemical constitution of milk. 
 One cow, who was 200 days after calving and 
 was again pregnant, and who therefore was in 
 a physiological condition to fall gradually and 
 even rapidly away in her produce of milk, was 
 subjected to seven distinct courses of feeding, in 
 periods of from 7 to 14 days, and was found, 
 during all the courses, and notwithstanding very 
 wide diversity in the substances of their food, to 
 yield milk of almost exactly uniform chemical 
 constitution. She first, during seven days, re- 
 ceived daily, 33 lbs. of hay, and she then yielded 
 milk consisting of 30 per cent, of caseum, 4'5 of 
 butter, 4*7 of sugar of milk, 0*1 of ash of caseum, 
 and 877 of water ; she next received daily, dur- 
 ing eight days, turnips equal to 297 lbs. of hay, 
 and straw equal to 3*3 lbs. of hay, and she then 
 yielded milk consisting of 3'0 per cent, of caseum, 
 4-2 of butter, 5'0 of sugar of milk, 0'2 of ash of 
 caseum, and 876 of water; she next received 
 daily, during fourteen days, field beet equal to 
 297 lbs. of hay, and chopped straw equal to 3 6 
 lbs. of hay, and she then yielded milk consisting 
 of 3'4 per cent, of caseum, 4*0 of butter, 53 of 
 sugar of milk, - 2 of ash of caseum, and 87*1 of 
 
 water; she next received daily, during eleven 
 days, raw potatoes equal to 297 lbs. of hay, and 
 chopped straw equal to 3'6 lbs. of hay, and she 
 then yielded milk containing 3'4 per cent, of 
 caseum, 4*0 of butter, 5'9 of sugar of milk, 0'2 of 
 ash of caseum, and 86'5 of water ; she was next, 
 in consequence of the heating effect of the last 
 regimen, and for a reason affecting the quantity 
 of her produce, returned for thirty days to her 
 original diet of 33 lbs. of hay per day, — she was 
 afterwards fed for ten days on the same ration of 
 potatoes and straw as before the return to the 
 hay, but with the addition to each day's allow- 
 ance of about 2^ ounces of salt, — and she was 
 next fed for a time on a quantity of Jerusalem 
 artichokes equal to 33 lbs. of hay per day, and 
 she then yielded milk consisting of 3*3 per cent, 
 of caseum, 3*5 of butter, 5'5 of sugar of milk, 0'2 
 of ash of caseum, and 87*5 of water. The aver- 
 age daily quantity of milk during the first course 
 of hay was 9 34 pints; during the course of 
 turnips and cut straw, 10*5 pints; during the 
 course of field beet and chopped straw, 9' 8 pints ; 
 during the first course of raw potatoes and chop- 
 ped straw, 87 pints ; during the second course of 
 hay, 6*2 pints ; during the second course of 
 raw potatoes and chopped straw, 5*9, or very 
 nearly 6 pints ; and during the course of Jeru- 
 salem artichokes, slightly above 6 pints. The 
 grand result, therefore, is that the chemical con- 
 stitution, or what is popularly called the richness 
 of the milk, was not appreciably affected by al- 
 ternations and very great changes of diet, — that 
 the quantity of the milk was affected principally 
 by the physiological condition* of the cow, and 
 perhaps slightly by some circumstances which 
 are not noticed in the record of the experiments, 
 — and that the main point, in altering the diet 
 of a cow, is to take care that she receive a full 
 allowance of nutritious food, and in consequence 
 have wherewith to secrete, not only all the or- 
 dinary juices, but as much milk as the state of her 
 system will admit. 
 
 But two points of considerable importance re- 
 mained to be ascertained, — whether the milk 
 soon after calving differs in chemical constitution 
 from milk at a remote period after calving, and 
 whether fresh-cut clover exerts any such power 
 upon the butyraceous richness of either recent or 
 remote milk as is confidently ascribed to it by 
 the great majority of dairymen. A cow, 24 days 
 after calving, and while fed upon a mixture of 
 hay and green clover, yielded at the rate of 18"6 
 pints of milk per day, consisting of 30 per cent, 
 of caseum, 35 of butter, 4'5 of sugar of milk, 2 
 of ash of caseum, and 88 8 of water ; and the 
 same cow, 35 days after calving, and while fed 
 upon green clover, produced 2 12 pints of milk 
 per day, consisting of 31 per cent, of caseum, 5 6 
 of butter, 4*2 of sugar of milk, 3 of ash of cas- 
 eum, and 86*8 of water. A sudden and extra- 
 ordinary increase in the proportion of butter ap- 
 peared in the second of these analyses ; and to 
 
cow. 
 
 37 
 
 3 
 
 COW. 
 
 ascertain whether this was ascribable to the clo- 
 ver, the experiment was extended through three 
 subsequent stages. The cow was long kept on a 
 daily ration of 16^ lbs. of hay and a quantity of 
 potatoes equal to 16| lbs. of hay, and, from the 
 176th to the 182nd day after calving, she pro- 
 duced 163 pints of milk per day, consisting of 3*3 
 per cent, of caseum, 4*8 of butter, 5*1 of sugar of 
 milk, 0*3 of ash of caseum, vid 86*5 of water ; 
 she was next kept, for eleven days, on a daily 
 ration of 16f lbs. of hay and a quantity of clover 
 equal to 16^ lbs. of hay, — and she was then kept, 
 for some time, on a daily ration of unmixed clo- 
 ver equal to 33 lbs. of hay, — and, during the lat- 
 ter period, she produced 17'2 pints of milk per 
 day, consisting of 4*0 per cent, of caseum, 2*2 of 
 butter, 4'7 of sugar of milk, 0'3 of ash of caseum, 
 and 89*7 of water. Thus, in the early part of the 
 experiment, a change from hay and clover to 
 clover alone was attended with an increase of 
 butter from 3*5 to 5"6 per cent. ; and in the 
 later part of the experiment, a translation from 
 potatoes and hay, through clover and hay, to 
 clover alone, was attended with a decrease of but- 
 ter from 4 - 8 to 2*2 per cent. " The small quan- 
 tity of butter in this last instance," says M. 
 Boussingault, "induced me to repeat the analysis; 
 but the result came out very nearly the same, 
 the quantity being still but 2*35 per cent." Nor 
 after the experiment was prolonged did any light 
 arise either in favour of the alleged power of 
 clover or against it ; for when the cow continued 
 to be fed on clover beyond the 204th day after 
 calving, she produced 137 pints of milk per day, 
 consisting of 37 per cent, of caseum, 3*5 of but- 
 ter, 5-2 of sugar of milk, 0*2 of ash of caseum, and 
 87*4 of water. " It would therefore appear," says 
 the learned, indefatigable, practical experimen- 
 ter, " that fresh-cut clover has no such virtue as 
 that of increasing the quantity of milk given by 
 cows. Under the winter fare, in fact, the milk 
 produced in the course of the 24 hours, amounted 
 to 167 pints ; under green clover, it was but 14'9 
 pints. It would be a great mistake, however, as 
 I conceive, to ascribe the diminution here to the 
 use of the green forage ; it is due, I apprehend, 
 exclusively to the greater length of time that had 
 elapsed from the period of calving. The chemi- 
 cal composition of the milk varied little. The 
 differences in respect of the caseum, by which, 
 let me say, I understand the whole of the azotized 
 constituents, the whole flesh of the milk, rarely 
 exceeded one-hundredth part. The proportion 
 of the fatty element varies suddenly, and as it 
 seems independently of the various circumstances 
 in which the cows are placed. The general in- 
 ference from these experiments, then, is that the 
 nature of the food does not exert any marked in- 
 fluence on the quantity and chemical constitu- 
 tion of the milk, if the cows but receive the pro- 
 per nutritive equivalents of the several sorts of 
 provender." 
 
 Cows, then, ought always to be maintained in 
 
 good condition. When they are ill-fed in winter, 
 they not only cease to give a due proportion, or 
 even any proportion whatever, of milk, but they 
 become so thin in their ordinary juices and so 
 reduced in their whole substance, that, when re- 
 stored in spring to a fair degree of feeding, they 
 spend, in filling up the waste of their system, a 
 large proportion of the time and the food which 
 would otherwise be employed in the secretion of 
 milk ; and when they decline into poor condition 
 during the months or even weeks immediately 
 preceding their calving, they afterwards experi- 
 ence so severe and prolonged a struggle between 
 the process of secretion for making up their own 
 substance and the process of secretion for supply- 
 ing milk, that they will yield a comparatively small 
 or decidedly scanty produce throughout even the 
 best portions of the following season. They 
 ought, during the whole winter, to be well-fed, 
 comfortably housed, abundantly littered, regu- 
 larly supplied with clean water, occasionally 
 combed, and in general treated with considerate 
 and kindly regard to their sympathies, suscepti- 
 bilities, and wants. 
 
 Cows, during summer, may either be milked 
 in the field, or driven gently home and milked in 
 the stall. Frequent milking, at perfectly regular 
 intervals, is essential to the maintaining of a re- 
 gular secretion of milk, and has a powerful effect 
 in increasing the quantity of it, or in keeping it 
 at a maximum. A general law in animal physi- 
 ology stimulates increased secretion of a fluid 
 which is frequently withdrawn ; and this law has 
 full operation in the instance of cows' milk. Yet 
 frequent milking must be accompanied by an 
 ample supply of the food out of which the ele- 
 ments of milk are formed, else all increase in 
 stimulating action will be a sheer wasteful ex- 
 penditure of strength. Every milking ought to 
 occur at a precisely regular interval from the 
 preceding ; for if later than that interval, it will 
 allow the udder to be gorged, and to throw back 
 a portion of its contents into the cow's system by 
 absorption ; and if earlier than the interval, it 
 will occasion the udder to have too small capa- 
 city for the milk which would naturally be se- 
 creted during the longer interval that is to follow. 
 Every drop of milk, also, ought to be drawn off at 
 each milking ; for when any portion is allowed 
 to remain, it seems to be absorbed back into the 
 system, or to serve as an indication to the secre- 
 tory vessels to secrete a proportionally less quan- 
 tity during the following interval ; so that the 
 quantity of produce at a milking after any por- 
 tion of milk has been left in the udder is likely 
 to be very perceptibly below the average. But 
 a sufficient frequency of milking is thrice-a-day 
 during the cows' fullest period of milk, and twice- 
 a-day during all other times of the year. — Bous- 
 singault 's Rural Economy. — Alton's Dairy Hus- 
 bandry. — Paper by Mr. Harley of Willowbank in 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Curwirfs Eco- 
 nomy of Feeding Stock. — Journal of the Royal 
 
374 
 
 COW-POX. 
 
 Agricultural Society. — Mortimer's Husbandry. — 
 Sprouters Agriculture. — Arthur Young's Works. — 
 Stephens. — Lowe. — Rham. 
 
 COW-CABBAGE. See Cabbage. 
 
 COW-DUNG. See Farm-Yarb Manure. 
 
 COW-GRASS. See Clover. 
 
 COW-HERD. See Herbsman and Farm-Ser- 
 vants. 
 
 COW-HOUSE. The building or apartment in 
 which milch-cows are kept. This, in Scotland, 
 is commonly called a byre. It ought to be well- 
 ventilated, comfortably warm, thoroughly dry, 
 and kept in a clean and tidy condition. Two 
 windows, in even a large cow-house, are sufficient 
 for light ; and, if properly constructed, they may, 
 jointly with a door of upper and lower halves, be 
 sufficient also for ordinary ventilation ; yet the 
 ceiling ought to be open quite up to the slates, 
 and an express ventilator is often of much ser- 
 vice in regulating the temperature and pouring 
 in desirable supplies of fresh air. The width of 
 a cow-house with one row of stalls ought to be 18 
 feet, or 2 feet for the manger, 8 for the cows, 1 
 for the urine-sewer, and 7 for a passage, for the 
 milking-pails, and for calf-pens. Each cow ought, 
 for the sake of peace and quietness, to have a 
 stall to herself \ and each stall, in order to allow- 
 free room for lying down and rising, ought to be 
 5 or 5| feet wide. The partitions between the 
 stalls may be only 3 feet high, and need not ex- 
 tend farther than to the flanks of the cows or 
 about 6 feet from the wall. The mangers ought 
 to stand on a basis of about 18 or 20 inches above 
 the level of the floor ; and when cows are fed on 
 steamed food or mashes, the mangers ought to be 
 moveable in order that they may be frequently 
 scoured. A good mode of securing cows in the 
 stalls, or of attaching them to the stakes, is no- 
 ticed in the article Baikie. The urine-sewer 
 ought to be flagged in the form of a long and 
 comparatively narrow trough ; and the rest of the 
 floor may either be causewayed, or otherwise so 
 formed as to be firm, dry, and resistive. Other 
 features of the cow-house are the same as those 
 of the stalled ox-house. See the articles Ox-Stalls 
 and Farm-Builbings, 
 
 Mr. Harley's byre of Willowbank at Glasgow 
 was long regarded, not only as one of "the sights" 
 of the commercial metropolis of Scotland, but as 
 the best-appointed cow-house in Britain ; and 
 therefore deserves to be briefly noticed. It con- 
 tained, under one roof, stalls for ninety-six cows, 
 placed in double rows across the building, two 
 rows facing each other, with an intermediate 
 passage from which the cows of both rows were 
 fed. The floors reclined toward the centre, so as 
 to discharge all liquid upon them into a central 
 or common drain, which communicated with a 
 common reservoir ; and they daily underwent a 
 thorough cleansing. The temperature was com- 
 pletely commanded by an apparatus of ventila- 
 tion, and was maintained, as nearly as possible, 
 
 at about 60° Fahrenheit. The- divisions between 
 the stalls consisted of grooved pillars of cast-iron, 
 and intermediate boards fixed into the grooves 
 of the pillars ; and each cow was bound to an 
 iron rod or slider, by means of a slight iron chain 
 round her own neck, and a sliding ring upon the 
 slider; and when she was fed with potatoes, a 
 pin was so inserted in the attachment as to pre- 
 vent her from so far raising her head as to incur 
 the risk of being choked. 
 
 COW - PARSNIP, — botanically Heracleum 
 sphondylium. An indigenous herb, of the umbel- 
 liferous tribe. It grows wild in hedges, by the 
 side of brooks and ditches, and in moist meadows, 
 in many parts of Britain. Its root is whitish, 
 sweetish, aromatic, and somewhat mucilaginous, 
 has a fleshy consistency and a fusiform or carroty 
 shape, and strikes deep into the ground ; its stem 
 is hollow, furrowed, branchy, and usually from 4 
 to 6 feet high ; its lower leaves are produced from 
 large membranes or sheaths, and stand on hairy 
 footstalks ; its flowers have either a white or a 
 reddish colour, and appear in May and June, and 
 are produced in large umbels at the top of the 
 stems, — each umbel composed of about 22 partial 
 umbels, every third having longer footstalks than 
 the others ; and its seeds are flat, bordered, brown, 
 and abundant. The whole plant is good, nourish- 
 ing food for cattle ; and is extensively used in 
 Sussex for fattening hogs. Other popular names 
 of it than cow-parsnip, are hogweed, madrep, 
 wild parsnip, and meadow parsnip. 
 
 COW-POX. A well-known pustular disease 
 of the teats of the cow. It has been proved to 
 be identical in physiological character with the 
 small-pox of the human subject ; and it furnishes 
 the means — the purulent matter of vaccination 
 —by which the deadly power of that disease 
 over the human race has in modern times been 
 broken. 
 
 But another and far milder pustular disease 
 often attacks the teats of the cow, and has very 
 often been confounded with cow-pox — indeed, 
 previous to the discovery of the remedial energy 
 of vaccination, was always confounded with it — 
 but it ought to be carefully distinguished. The 
 pustules of this are neither so large, so round, 
 nor so deep as those of cow-pox, nor have they 
 the latter's bluish colour ; they appear like small 
 vesicles, but often greatly vary in both size and 
 form ; they are filled, from the first, with puru- 
 lent matter ; if rubbed ofi°, they leave sore ulcers, 
 which are sometimes not very easily healed ; and 
 if not molested, they soon form a scab, throw it 
 off", and arc sound. These pustules are not con- 
 tagious ; and they may, in any instance, be rea- 
 dily cured by proper washing and fomenting, or 
 by the application of an ointment of lard, wax, 
 alum, and sugar of lead, suitable for ordinary 
 soreness of teats. 
 
 The pustules of cow-pox have a bluish colour, 
 a roundish form, and a little central depression ; 
 
CRACKS. 
 
 375 
 
 CROFTER. 
 
 they are filled, at first, with a thin, limpid, viru- 
 lent fluid, and they afterwards and gradually 
 become opaque and purulent ; each is surrounded 
 by a broad circle of inflammation ; they are easi- 
 ly broken in milking ; and when either broken, 
 neglected, or roughly handled, they leave ulcers 
 which are very foul and usually difficult to heal. 
 These pustules, unlike the former sort, are evi- 
 dently the eruption of a morbid virus in the 
 blood, and, though local in manifestation, are 
 strictly constitutional in character. At the time, 
 or a little before the time of their appearing, the 
 cow droops, refuses to feed, ceases to ruminate, 
 is dull and heavy in the eyes, labours under con- 
 siderable fever, and almost ceases to give any 
 milk. She should not be bled, but ought to be 
 freely purged, to receive a fever drink once or 
 twice a-day, and to have her teats washed even- 
 ing and morning with a lotion of Goulard's ex- 
 tract and camphorated spirit of wine, or with a 
 diluted solution of the chloride of lime ; and if 
 the ulcers become very bad and obstinate, they 
 may be treated in the same manner as garget. 
 See the article Garget. 
 
 The pustules of cow-pox are exceedingly con- 
 tagious, and have been known, from time im- 
 memorial, to communicate cow-pox to persons 
 who handle the teats of cows. A person infected 
 from the teats has the pustules about the ends 
 and joints of his fingers, and, if he have rubbed 
 his face with his hands, he has them also on his 
 cheek and lips ; he becomes feverish, shivers, 
 vomits, and is restless and excited ; he suffers 
 pain in the head and limbs ; and in three or four 
 days, his pustules burst, leaving ulcers which, in 
 some instances, are foul and refractory. Persons 
 thus affected were very long ago known to mul- 
 titudes of farmers both in Europe and in Amer- 
 ica, to be generally invulnerable to the attacks 
 of small-pox ; and hence the suggestion of the 
 modern and most benign practice of vaccination. 
 
 CRACCA. See Vetch. 
 
 CRACKS. Soreness in the heels of horses. 
 Ordinary forms of it are often occasioned by want 
 of care and of cleanliness ; and a virulent form of 
 it sometimes attends grease. See the article 
 Grease. 
 
 CRADLE. A wooden necklace for a horse. It 
 consists of a string of round pieces of wood ; and 
 is so hung upon a horse as to restrain him from 
 interfering with the medicinal application of a 
 blister. 
 
 CRADLE. A sort of bow or rake attached to 
 the heel of the blade of a reaping scythe, to as- 
 sist in gathering the corn into regular swaths. 
 The construction of cradle-scythes is very various. 
 See the article Scythe. 
 
 CRAG. A rocky precipice ; also, in Suffolk, 
 calcareous sand or gravel, largely consisting of 
 comminuted or broken sea-shells, and serving as 
 an excellent manure on cold, wet, or clayey land. 
 
 CRAMP. A sudden and severe spasm, akin to 
 
 tetanus, but of much shorter duration. It at- 
 tacks principally the hinder extremities of the 
 horse ; and occurs, for the most part, after the 
 animal has been hard worked, and just when he 
 is led out of the stable. A horse attacked by it 
 ought, in order to be preserved from a repetition 
 of it, to be exceedingly well groomed, and to have 
 the affected lamb rubbed hard with the hand ; 
 and if he have stood in a confined stall, he should 
 be removed to a stall of greater capacity. 
 
 CREAM. See Butter and Milk. 
 
 CREAM-CHEESE. See Cheese. 
 
 CREAM-GAUGE. See Galactometer, 
 
 CRIB. A mimic shed in a cow-house for keep- 
 ing calves ; a little shed for sheep ; a rack for 
 holding the fodder of cattle ; or a manger for 
 holding the corn or cut straw of horses. 
 
 CRIB-BITING. A vicious and diseased habit 
 of dyspeptic horses. It consists in suddenly 
 seizing with the teeth either the manger or any 
 post or gate or similar object; and is accompa- 
 nied with an eructation of gas or flatus from the 
 stomach, which popular opinion has pronounced 
 to be a process of exactly the opposite nature, 
 and has designated ' sucking-the-wind.' Crib- 
 biting seems to be indirectly occasioned by want 
 of requisite exercise, by prolonged feeding on 
 bad hay or musty oats, or by anything else which 
 enfeebles the stomach and produces a dyspeptic 
 or flatulent habit ; and it is, therefore, merely 
 symptomatic, and can be effectually cured only 
 by curing the diseased condition of the stomach 
 which occasions it. The leanness which always 
 characterizes crib-biting horses, is a consequence, 
 not of their crib-biting, but of their dyspepsy. 
 Yet the mere crib-biting wears the teeth, and 
 produces other bad consequences, and ought to 
 be prevented by the fastening of a somewhat 
 tight collar-strap round the throat. 
 
 CROCHLES. A variccy of acute rheumatism, 
 attacking cattle which are depastured on moist 
 or marshy soil. An animal affected by it suffers 
 pain in the feet, particularly the fore-feet, ex- 
 periences enlargement of the small joints of the 
 limbs, becomes hide-bound, suffers such contrac- 
 tion and enfeeblement of the hind-quarters as to 
 be unable to walk or even to stand, and finally 
 lies in one posture, loses appetite, becomes all 
 over ulcerated, and dies. The grand remedy is, 
 as soon as the disease is observed, to remove the 
 affected animal to dry soil and kindly pasture. 
 See the article Rheumatism. 
 
 CROFT. A field in a state of commonage ; 
 also, a cottager's enclosure, usually of the size of 
 a large field, with the cottage and a garden at 
 one end. A croft, in the latter sense, differs 
 little from an Irish farm, but is usually in better 
 condition and under better management. 
 
 CROFTER. The occupant of an allotment of 
 land, of the extent and nature of a croft. Crofters 
 have, in numerous instances, been settled on waste 
 lands which no ordinary farmer would rent, and 
 
CROP. 
 
 376 
 
 CROSSING. 
 
 have reclaimed them, and enjoyed the fruit of 
 their labour during periods agreed on by lease. 
 In 1836, the Highland Society, in order to en- 
 courage the reclamation of waste lands by the 
 settlement of crofters, offered a premium for the 
 most satisfactory report of any previous improve- 
 ment by means of crofting ; and they published 
 in their Transactions the reports of two compe- 
 titors for the premium. These reports occur in 
 the portion of the Transactions attached to the 
 34th No. of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture; 
 and are abundantly worthy of the attention of 
 all proprietors of moorlands, heathy commons, 
 dry upland bogs, and all similar wastes. 
 CRONES. Old ewes. 
 
 CROP. The quantity of any cultivated plant 
 growing or matured on one piece of ground from 
 one sowing or one planting. The smallest quan- 
 tities of culinary vegetables grown in the beds 
 or plots of the kitchen garden are crops; and 
 the largest quantities of green vegetables or of 
 esculent roots or of the cereal grasses grown on 
 the most extensive fields of the farm are also 
 crops. Two topics of prime interest connected 
 with crops are the rotation of them and the 
 causes of their occasional destruction. See the 
 articles Rotation op Crops and Destruction op 
 Crops. 
 
 CROPPING. A cruel and mischievous cur- 
 tailment of the ears of horses. It is effected by 
 means of a kind of curved clams called cropping- 
 irons, the ear being introduced to the clams, and 
 the upper part of it cut off at one stroke with a 
 sharp and sufficiently long knife. This barbar- 
 ous operation was invented in Britain, and was 
 at one time so common as to induce constitu- 
 tional mutilation, working into some mares the 
 habit of producing crop-eared foals ; but it has of 
 late been allowed to pass into general disuse and 
 contempt. Not only is cropping useless and 
 cruel, but it mars the beauty of the animal, ren- 
 ders him sensitive about the head, and seriously 
 impairs his naturally fine sense of hearing. 
 
 CROPSICK. The repletion and obstruction of 
 the stomach or ' crop ' of a fowl. It frequently 
 occurs where poultry are fed upon new corn or 
 upon an excess of beans ; and it may be relieved 
 by gently working some of the contents of the 
 stomach, piece by piece, upwards to the mouth, 
 or, in an extreme case, by making a small cut 
 into the lower part of the stomach, extracting 
 thence a sufficient portion of the contents, and 
 closing the wound by one or two stitches. 
 
 CROSSCUTTING. The reduction of tough 
 sward, whether peaty or heathy, into a state of 
 sufficient tilth for the reception of seed. When 
 rough, mossy, or heathy land is broken up for 
 cultivation, the plough, in any attempt at cross- 
 ploughing, can with difficulty make its way, and 
 carries portions of the furrows before it, and is 
 continually liable to be thrown out. The pro- 
 cess of crosscutting reduces this impracticable 
 condition of the sward ; and is effected by means 
 
 of a simple machine, invented about twenty 
 years ago in the island of Islay. The character- 
 istic parts of this machine are a series of parallel 
 iron plates or blades, 4^ feet long, 3^ inches deep, 
 and five-eighths of an inch thick at the back, made 
 of good foreign metal, curved into segments of a 
 circle of 40 inches in diameter, and fixed into a 
 frame-work of oak ; the main beams of this frame- 
 work are 4 feet long, 6 inches deep, and 5 inches 
 broad, the cross-bars are of proportional strength, 
 and the attached shafts for commanding the ma- 
 chine are 6^ feet long ; and the conjoined weight 
 of the frame-work and pressure of the driver upon 
 the shafts force the blades into the ground, and 
 maintain them at the proper depth in the soil. 
 The common plough is used to break up the bog 
 or heath land in autumn, but is caused to cut 
 not deeper than three inches ; the crosscutting- 
 machine is worked across the furrows in the early 
 part of winter ; and the plough and the harrows 
 afterwards complete the tilth in the ordinary 
 methods of operation. Rough mossy land, over- 
 grown with heath, sweet gale, and willow, and lying 
 immediately upon clay or till, has, by this method, 
 and with the aid of calcareous sand manure, been 
 speedily converted into good soil for either oats 
 or potatoes. 
 
 CROSSING. The modifying or hybridizing of 
 the blood and form of domestic animals in breed- 
 ing. Crossing sometimes signifies the use of re- 
 mote males of strictly the same breed as females, 
 in order to prevent the degenerating effects of 
 continued in-and-in breeding ; and, in this sense, 
 it has been sufficiently discussed in our article 
 on Breeding. Crossing means also the use of 
 males of widely different breed from that of the 
 female, in order to produce and establish an en- 
 tirely new breed; and in this sense also, it has been 
 sufficiently discussed in our article on Breeding. 
 But crossing has likewise a meaning intermediate 
 between these extremes, and signifies such a use 
 of males of a different breed from that of the 
 female as either shall improve the latter without 
 superseding it, or shall entail upon it all the 
 characteristic properties or excellencies of the 
 breed of the males ; and in this sense, it has very 
 distinct and important bearings upon agricultural 
 prosperity, and falls to be discussed in the pre- 
 sent article. To cross from remote males of 
 strictly one breed, with the simple effect of pre- 
 venting degeneracy, can do little or no good in 
 any of the multitudinous farms whose existing 
 breed of sheep or cattle is essentially bad ; and 
 to cross from widely different breeds in order to 
 produce and establish a new and good breed, is 
 not only in the present state of stock-farming a 
 very unnecessary process, but requires far more 
 knowledge, wisdom, time, and capital than any 
 one of the vast majority of stock-farmers can pos- 
 sibly command. Either, therefore, improvement 
 must be pronounced unnecessary ; or it can be 
 effected only by the medium kind of crossing, 
 which conveys to the offspring of the females of 
 
CROSSING. 
 
 377 
 
 CROSSING. 
 
 one breed some good properties of the males of 
 another breed. 
 
 No intelligent traveller can look at the miser- 
 able flocks which inhabit a very large proportion 
 of the pastures of Great Britain, without feeling 
 astonished that the necessity of improvement 
 seems to be so limitedly recognised, and the de- 
 sire for it so limitedly kindled. " Any one who 
 takes a leisurely survey of the breeds in Scotland 
 through the midland and northern counties," re- 
 marks Mr. Dickson, " must be satisfied that many 
 of them are inferior to the best kinds, and that 
 to cultivate them is just to bestow labour on 
 that which is unprofitable. It is surely not suf- 
 ficient for a farmer that he has merely a lot of 
 cattle so called, to trample down his straw and 
 eat his turnips, regardless of the return in flesh 
 which these cattle may give for the meat which 
 they consume, and the care which they require. 
 Look around the country, and see the numbers 
 of sharp -backed, flat -ribbed, and coarse-boned 
 beasts which are everywhere to be seen. Such 
 cattle have very appropriately been termed ' ra- 
 zor-backs.' These razor-backs, after they have 
 devoured more good food than the better sorts, 
 present nothing but masses of coarse beef; there 
 is not a joint of meat in them to suit the cus- 
 tomers of respectable butchers." 
 
 Many persons, however, have contended that 
 the wise course is gradually to exterminate all 
 bad breeds, by gradually supplanting them with 
 imported individuals and droves of better breeds. 
 But even supposing that such individuals and 
 droves could be obtained at prices sufficiently 
 moderate to prevent loss, and from pastures and 
 climates sufficiently similar to prevent danger, 
 they obviously cannot be procured in sufficient 
 numbers to effect the desired object without 
 enormous postponement of time, and consequent 
 loss and other evils from delay. If no more were 
 attempted than merely to substitute the bad 
 breeds of the plains by imported short-horns, not 
 only many generations of cattle but many gener- 
 ations of men would require to pass away before 
 the measure could be accomplished. Such prime 
 breeds as possess adaptation for removal to other 
 districts than those in which they have . arisen 
 and become established, are as yet far from being 
 numerous ; and while they need to maintain and 
 somewhat multiply their numbers in their native 
 districts, they can produce but a comparatively 
 small surplus for general dispersion throughout 
 the country. But the object could speedily be 
 accomplished by crossing : a few well-bred short- 
 horn bulls could be promptly introduced to every 
 little lowland region inhabited by bad breeds; 
 many hundreds of offspring would, in a very short 
 time, arise from each bull ; a few more well-bred 
 bulls could, after the lapse of two or three years, be 
 introduced for the sake of the rising stock ; the 
 bullocks of the cross-bred offspring could regu- 
 larly be fattened and sold off, leaving the whole 
 field to the influence and possession of the new- 
 
 comers ; and thus by several properly-timed im- 
 portations of merely a few bulls, a meliorating 
 revolution would speedily be achieved in the 
 blood, form, habits, and ' points ' of all the cattle 
 in the district. 
 
 But all crossing must be conducted with due 
 regard, both to the properties of the males em- 
 ployed in it, and to the adaptations of the off- 
 spring to the situation in which it is to be reared 
 and kept ; else the result may not only be a total 
 and humiliating failure of all improvement, but 
 the production of a deformed, unthriving, wretch- 
 ed race of mongrels, to the full as unprofitable 
 and unsightly as the notorious 'razor-backs.' 
 The kinds and variations of regard to be paid to 
 the properties of the males were discussed in 
 our article on Breeding, and need not be farther 
 noticed ; but the kinds and variations of regard 
 to be paid to the adaptations of the offspring, 
 have not yet been touched by us, and are very 
 generally overlooked or at least not duly consid- 
 ered by farmers, and therefore will form a fit 
 subject of special and somewhat extended re- 
 mark. 
 
 The pastures of Britain may, in a general view, 
 and for the purpose of illustration, be distributed 
 into the three great classes of mountainous, hilly, 
 and champaign, each class producing its peculiar 
 herbage, enjoying its peculiar climate, and pos- 
 sessing its peculiar adaptations. Mountainous 
 pastures, for the most part, lie on non-fossilifer- 
 ous rocks, or even on the hardest, most crystal- 
 line, and least disintegrable of these rocks ; they 
 produce a heathy, coarse, and scanty herbage, 
 and rarely possess any spots of grazing ground in 
 good feeding condition for a longer period than 
 a few months in the warmest part of the year ; 
 they are much colder than the plains, and are 
 prevailingly bleak and shelterless, and lift their 
 bare summits and shoulders into fierce abrasion 
 with every pelting storm and careering tempest ; 
 and these pastures may, on a moment's consider- 
 ation, be seen to be totally unsuitable for any 
 breed of animals which either require abundant 
 feeding, or have a fastidious taste, or do not pos- 
 sess great hardiness of constitution. Even sup- 
 pose a native race to be feeding and thriving on 
 them, and to possess perfect adaptation to their 
 herbage and climate, any crossing with it which 
 should produce an offspring quite as hardy as it- 
 self, but considerably larger in size, would result- 
 in serious disappointment. " Where a particular 
 race of animals has continued for centuries," says 
 Sir John Sinclair, "it may be presumed that 
 their constitution is adapted to the soil and cli- 
 mate. Any attempt, therefore, to increase the 
 size of a native race of animals, without improv- 
 ing their food, by which their size is regulated, 
 is a fruitless effort to counteract the laws of na- 
 ture. In proportion to their increase of size by 
 crossing, they become worse in form, less hardy, 
 and more liable to disease. In every case, where 
 the enlargement of the carcase is the object, the 
 
CROSSING. 
 
 378 
 
 CROSSING. 
 
 cross breed must be better fed than the native 
 parent." 
 
 The hilly pastures, in general, lie on rocks of 
 the transition or secondary formations; they 
 abound in natural grasses, and have a prevailing 
 greenness of colour, and produce a sufficiency of 
 herbage for the food of stock during the greater 
 part of the year ; yet, though much warmer and 
 less bleak than the mountainous pastures, they 
 suffer very considerable exposure to keen and 
 sweeping blasts, and are, in many instances, often 
 shrouded in fogs or drenched with rains. These 
 pastures are well able to maintain animals of a 
 larger size and less hardy habit than such as 
 live upon the mountains ; yet they are too chilly, 
 too moist, and not by any means dainty enough 
 for any of the tender and fastidious feeders of the 
 best districts of the plains. By far the greater 
 portion of the cattle at present found on the hilly 
 pastures of Scotland have shaggy coats, hardy 
 constitutions, and an unfastidious taste; and their 
 aggregate character sufficiently hints how foolish 
 it would be to attempt to supplant them by any 
 very fine breed. 
 
 The champaign pastures, for the most part lie 
 on the alluvial or tertiary formations ; they en- 
 joy the best of our country's luxuriance, shelter, 
 and warmth ; they are the scene of the cultiva- 
 tion of the artificial grasses, and of all the best 
 achievements and the highest refinements of 
 modern agriculture ; and, with their rich com- 
 bination of natural advantages and artificial ap- 
 pliances, they can almost everywhere adapt them- 
 selves to the habits and the maintenance of the 
 largest and most tender varieties of cattle which 
 have ever existed in our country. All the plains 
 and valleys of the north of Scotland — of the coun- 
 ties of Forfar, Perth, Kincardine, Aberdeen, El- 
 gin, Cromarty, and Caithness — as well as those 
 of the south-east of Scotland, or of the centre 
 and south of England, could readily support the 
 pure short-horned breed of cattle, — if not upon 
 their mere meadows, at least with their ample 
 aids of green crops, lea-ground, and winter-soil- 
 ing. 
 
 These three classes of pastures, the mountain- 
 ous, the hilly, and the champaign, might be ar- 
 ranged into six, or twelve, or twenty subdivisions, 
 each with its specific range of adaptation, and 
 might, in consequence, be distributed into dis- 
 tricts or sections for the maintenance of so many 
 different groups of improved or cross-bred cattle. 
 Yet, with probably as high advantages to agri- 
 culture as if any degree of subdivision should be 
 practised, each might be kept entire and appro- 
 priated wholly to one race of cattle, — the moun- 
 tainous pastures, to a cross between the West 
 Highland bull and the Shetland cow, — the hilly 
 pastures, to the offspring of the West Highland 
 cow, slightly but not in every instance altered 
 by crossing with the short-horn bull, — and the 
 champaign pastures, to the offspring of the most 
 select native cows with the best attainable short- 
 
 horn bulls. Mr. Dickson made this suggestion in 
 1837, and remarked, "Like the multiplicity in 
 the varieties of the potato, there are too many 
 varieties of breeds of cattle in this country. 
 Were those only which are proved to be most 
 profitable cultivated and encouraged, the agri- 
 cultural interest would never feel so severely the 
 depression in the prices of corn ; nor in that case 
 need breeders be. under any apprehension of a 
 foreign competition, even were the importation 
 of foreign meat permitted duty free. Could I 
 have my desire fulfilled, I should have only the 
 three breeds which I have recommended for their 
 respective situations throughout the whole coun- 
 try, namely, the cross between the West High- 
 land and Shetland for the upper pastures, the 
 West Highlanders or Kyloes for the middle pas- 
 tures, and the short-horn for the plains for pur- 
 poses of feeding; and the Ayrshire might con- 
 tinue as they are, or rather as they might be 
 improved by judicious cultivation, for the pur- 
 poses of the dairy, although I am not of the 
 opinion that the Ayrshire make the best dairy 
 cows. Could such a desideratum be consum- 
 mated, breeders would then derive the greatest 
 profit from their pastures with the least exertion, 
 and they could always depend on their cattle ac- 
 quiring the greatest weight in a given time on a 
 given quantity of food ; and this invariable result 
 would stimulate their exertions to raise a greater 
 quantity of food." 
 
 Crossing native cows with short-horn bulls has, 
 for some time past, been regarded by almost all 
 ordinary improvers as a panacea for all defects 
 in existing breeds of cattle ; and though this has 
 often been absurdly practised without due refer- 
 ence, or even without any reference whatever, to 
 adaptations of soil and climate, yet in nearly all 
 instances upon champaign pastures, and in sev- 
 eral instances in seemingly ungenial situations, 
 it has more or less answered expectation, and 
 effected very visible improvement. A rapid no- 
 tice, therefore, of crossings of the short-horn bull 
 with cows of some of the principal Scottish breeds, 
 and of one or two other breeds in situations not 
 the most favourable for the short-horns, can 
 scarcely fail to be interesting and instructive. 
 
 The cross of a short-horn bull with a Shetland 
 cow has, with common feeding, attained the 
 weight of 45 stones, and possesses such remark- 
 ably fine quality of beef as to command the high- 
 est price in the market. The substance, symme- 
 try, and weight of the native ox are greatly 
 improved, and the proverbially fine quality of the 
 beef is not deteriorated. — A cross with a North 
 Highland cow, though much inferior to that with 
 a Shetland cow, is a decided improvement. — A 
 cross with a Galloway cow, a Buchan doddie, or 
 a large-horned Aberdeenshire cow, is improved 
 in at once weight of substance, quality of beef, 
 and fineness of appearance. An ox, from a short- 
 horn bull and a large-horned Aberdeenshire cow, 
 obtained the first prize for fat, symmetry, and 
 
CROSSING. 
 
 379 
 
 CROSSWORT. 
 
 weight, at the Highland Society's show at Aber- 
 deen in 1834 ; and he weighed when alive 224 
 stones, and when dead 173^ stones. — A cross with 
 a Fife cow loses the gaunt form of the native 
 breed, and has a greatly increased disposition to 
 fatten. — A cross with a West Highland cow, is 
 very nearly equal, in both substance and sym- 
 metry, to the pure short-horn; yet though ad- 
 mirably successful in almost any part of the 
 Scottish lowlands, it is ill-suited to the excessive 
 wetness of the Hebribes and the Western High- 
 lands. — A cross with an Ayrshire cow, in conse- 
 quence of the exclusively dairy uses of the Ayr- 
 shire breed, is altogether unadvisable. — A cross 
 with a long-horned Irish cow of any of the mid- 
 land or the southern counties, is quickened in 
 disposition to fatten, and has its beef of very fine 
 quality, and thick upon the sirloin and the back. 
 — A bullock from a short-horn bull and a Guern- 
 sey cow, and fed on distillery offals, yielded to 
 the butcher 104 stones in his four quarters, and 
 22 stones of tallow. Mr. Dickson says, " I saw 
 him when fat, and he was, without exception, 
 the fattest bull I ever handled." — A heifer from 
 a short-horn bull and an Indian cow was exhibited 
 at the Highland Society's show at Kelso in 1832, 
 and was admired by every person for fatness and 
 extreme beauty ; and her back and sirloins were 
 well covered with beef. 
 
 The crossing of native ewes with Leicester 
 rams has, for a considerable time past, been 
 about as generally practised for the improvement 
 of sheep, as the crossing of native cows with 
 short-horn bulls for the improvement of cattle ; 
 and has been conducted with nearly the same 
 want of discrimination, yet with much of the 
 same preponderance of excellent result. In al- 
 most all mild situations, with tolerably good herb- 
 age, the progeny of the cross, no matter what 
 the breed or variety of ewe, has longer wool, a 
 finer skin, a better head, a cleaner bone, a larger 
 carcase, and a readier disposition to fatten than 
 the native or uncrossed race. Yet not a few in- 
 stances of great disaster have happened from the 
 folly of crossing black-faced ewes or the hardier 
 kind of Cheviot ewes with Leicester rams in 
 situations far too cold, coarse, and sterile to suit 
 the comparatively tender habits and the consid- 
 erably increased size of the offspring ; many a 
 signal failure has been occasioned by the short- 
 sighted or ignorant policy of crossing only once 
 or even twice with the Leicester ram, and then 
 using the ram of the progeny as a sire; and 
 calamitous instances of precisely the opposite 
 nature have occurred of continuing the service 
 of Leicester rams through so long a series as al- 
 most wholly to obliterate the original breed, and 
 to establish a race of absolute Leicesters. " Every 
 crossing," remarks Mr. Stephens, " should be pro- 
 secuted with caution, because the result may 
 overstep the intentions of the breeder. It is 
 clear that if the crossed stock is retained as 
 females, which, in their turn, are served by high- 
 
 bred males, the time will arrive when the charac- 
 ter of the original stock will be entirely changed, 
 and become unsuited to their native climate and 
 pasture, and will, in fact, have become the same 
 breed as their high-bred sires. It is quite pos- 
 sible to originate a race of Leicester sheep any- 
 where suited to their nature, by constantly em- 
 ploying a high-bred tup to serve cross-bred gim- 
 mers, generation after generation ; and were this 
 practice generally adopted, the time would arrive 
 when the original breeds which were crossed 
 would disappear altogether. Such a result would 
 prove injurious to the breeder himself, inasmuch 
 as the pasture would be unsuited for the stock 
 he had caused to be produced ; so that his best 
 plan is to preserve the original breeds- in the 
 higher parts of the country, and take the crosses 
 to the low country to be fed off. The temptation 
 of larger profits has already caused the Cheviot to 
 drive the black-faced breed from the lower pas- 
 tures to the highest, while the cross-bred Cheviot 
 with the Leicester have descended, on the other 
 hand, to the low country, and there have met 
 the true-bred Leicester. This result, upon the 
 whole, has done good, as it has increased the 
 quantity of mutton in the market ; and the skil- 
 ful pasturage which the hills have received since 
 a regular system of breeding has been intro- 
 duced, has caused them to yield a larger quantity 
 of finer grasses." 
 
 In conclusion, let it be strongly impressed on 
 all improvers of cattle and sheep by crossing, 
 that the use of cross-bred bulls or rams, particu- 
 larly such as are of merely the first or the second 
 generation, is in all respects injudicious, and very 
 often exceedingly disastrous. The use of a cross- 
 bred bull or ram among even the race to which he 
 belongs, or on the farm on which he has been bred, 
 may more than counteract all the benefits of the 
 original crossing, or may originate a progeny con- 
 siderably more defective in aggregate character 
 than the uncrossed and unimproved race; and the 
 use of a cross-bred bull or ram among a breed of 
 different points and different situation than that 
 of his own female ancestry, is simply to produce 
 mongrels from a mongrel, to destroy all distinc- 
 tions of breed, probably to elicit an assemblage 
 of motley and misshapen animals, and certainly 
 to enact a broad and grinning burlesque upon 
 the whole theory of crossing. — Papers, by Mr. Dick- 
 son of Edinburgh, Mr. Ferguson of Woodhill, and 
 Mr. Hogg of Stobo in Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. 
 — Sproule's Agriculture. — Stephen's Book of the 
 Farm. — Transactions of the Highland Society. — 
 Journal of the Royal A gricultural Society of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 CROW. A genus of passerinous birds, re- 
 markable for their gregarious and predatory 
 habits, and comprising the carrion crow, the 
 rook, the Royston crow, the jackdaw, and the 
 raven. Their bill is straight, strong, convex, 
 and more or less laterally flattened ; their nostrils 
 
CROW. 380 CROW. 
 
 are covered with stiff feathers, which incline 
 forward ; their sense of smell is extremely 
 acute ; and their tail consists of twelve feathers, 
 and is either round or square. They are very 
 cunning and sagacious, and are very extensively 
 diffused over the globe ; and when they exist in 
 great numbers, they make themselves much more 
 conspicuous and mischievous than any other 
 genus of the feathered tribes. 
 
 Crows of several species, particularly rooks, 
 are a' subject of keen controversy between 
 •farmers and naturalists, — the former denounc- 
 ing them as terrible destroyers, and the latter 
 maintaining that they do far more good than 
 harm. We shall not take upon us to decide 
 this question ; but shall merely make sufficient 
 quotations on both sides of it, and leave our 
 readers to judge for themselves. 
 
 u It is astonishing," says Mr. Henry Stephens, 
 " how mischievous all the species of crows are at 
 every season of the year. Some devour the seed 
 immediately after it is sown,— grub up the early 
 and late sown crops, whenever they appear above 
 the ground, — and carry off the potato plant alto- 
 gether. In these cases, they destroy the embryos 
 of the future crops, nothing but blank spaces be- 
 ing left in their room. Before the corn is nearly 
 ripe, they destroy the whole crop in those parts 
 of the fields where the straw happens to be short. 
 They alight on laid-down corn, and not only eat 
 much of it, but scratch out more with their feet. 
 They sometimes pull up the turnip plant by the 
 root, immediately after the crop is singled ; and 
 they pick holes in Swedish turnips in spring, and 
 thereby give the frost an opportunity to rot the 
 whole root. They perch on the stooks in harvest, 
 particularly on wheat ones, and apparently take 
 delight in breaking off whole heads. They ' tier' 
 the covering of stacks in winter, in the stack- 
 yard, and thereby permit the rain to enter them 
 from above. They scratch and devour a great 
 proportion of the best part of the dung which 
 may have been early driven out to the field in 
 winter. They pick out the reviving young clover 
 in the pastures, and thereby materially affect the 
 spring food for ewes and lambs. They carry off 
 cherries, apples, and pears, long ere they are 
 ripe, from gardens and orchards. Other species 
 pick out the eyes of sheep, when they happen to 
 roll over on their backs, in hot weather, and 
 sometimes let out - their entrails, and watch an 
 opportunity to pounce upon and carry off young 
 chickens, turkey-polts, and goslings. In short, 
 if there is any one way or another in which mis- 
 chief can be done, crows or ravens will attempt 
 it. And did crows appear only a few together, at 
 a time when natural food was scarce, their devas- 
 tations on cultivated crops might be borne with- 
 out a murmur ; but when flocks, containing 
 hundreds of them, nearly darkening the air, 
 alight on any of the above situations, the de- 
 struction in a short time is dreadful. I may 
 
 safely question the validity of the assertion 
 which writers on natural history generally make, 
 that crows do more good than harm; for my 
 own observations lead me to the conclusion, 
 which most practical farmers arrive at from 
 observation, that they prefer at all seasons the 
 cultivated crops to the vermes of the soil, when- 
 ever they can get them in such a state as to 
 satisfy their granivorous appetites. In summer 
 they do feed on vermes and wild berries, but in 
 that season, and for a short time only, tlfey have 
 nothing but the potato and turnip crops to feed 
 upon, and these rapidly advance beyond their 
 reach by the force of vegetation. In the hot 
 summer of 1826, insects were very numerous, 
 and if crows were particularly partial to them as 
 an article of food, they could have had abundance 
 of it without any trouble ; but instead of remain- 
 ing to feast upon them, they went, as is their 
 custom every year, to the hills in search of wild 
 berries in the morning, and returned every even- 
 ing to their rookeries, in such flocks as almost 
 to cover the turnip or grass fields on which they 
 rested for a little in the progress of their journey. 
 During the short period which elapsed in that 
 year, from the time that the turnip crop was 
 out of their reach, to that of the crops changing 
 colour, wherever the corn crops were full and 
 yet green, they always preferred feeding on them 
 to going to the hills. But whether they do more 
 harm or good throughout the year, it is the duty 
 of every farmer to protect, from even partial 
 destruction, the fruits of a whole year's labour 
 and anxiety. One method of destroying num- 
 bers of crows, is to place barley, steeped in a solu- 
 tion of arsenic, on the newly taken out dunghills, 
 and they will eat it unwittingly, with avidity, 
 and thereby pay the forfeit of their lives for their 
 temerity ; but this mode can only be successfully 
 practised in winter, for it will not entice them 
 in seed time and harvest. Scarecrows are useless, 
 after they have stood long enough to be recog- 
 nised. Gunpowder is the only source of terror to 
 crows, and to apply it in the most effectual way 
 is yet a desideratum. To station a man con- 
 stantly with a gun becomes expensive ; and, be- 
 sides, he cannot be out early enough in the morn- 
 ing in summer to effect his purpose." 
 
 " The crow," says Mr. Wilson in his 'American 
 Ornithology,' " is perhaps the most generally 
 known, and least beloved, of all our land-birds ; 
 having neither melody of song, nor beauty of 
 plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of 
 manners, to recommend him ; on the contrary, 
 he is branded as a thief and a plunderer, — a kind 
 of back-coated vagabond, who hovers over the 
 fields of the industrious, fattening on their la- 
 bours ; and, by his voracity, often blasting their 
 expectations. Hated as he is by the farmer, 
 watched and persecuted by almost every bearer 
 of a gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had 
 not Heaven bestowed on him intelligence and 
 
CROW. 
 
 381 
 
 CROW. 
 
 sagacity far beyond common, there is reason to 
 believe that the whole tribe would long ago have 
 ceased to exist. It is in the month of May, and 
 until the middle of June, that the crow is most 
 destructive to the corn-fields, digging up the 
 newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the 
 roots those that have begun to vegetate, and 
 thus frequently obliging the farmer to replant, or 
 lose the benefit of the soil ; and this sometimes 
 twice, and even three times, occasioning a consi- 
 derable additional expense, and inequality of har- 
 vest. No mercy is now shown him. The myri- 
 ads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, 
 and beetles, which he has destroyed are alto- 
 gether overlooked on these occasions. Detected 
 in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the corn, 
 and killing the young chickens, he is considered 
 as an outlaw, and sentenced to destruction. But 
 the great difficulty is how to put this sentence 
 in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along 
 the hedges and fences ; his faithful sentinels, 
 planted on some commanding point, raise the 
 alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. 
 The coast again clear, he returns once more in 
 silence to finish the repast he had begun." 
 
 " Gesner," says Mr. Knapp, in his 1 Journal of 
 a Naturalist,' "has called the common rook, 
 Corvus frugilegus, ' a corn-eating bird.' LinnsBus 
 has somewhat lightened this epithet by consider- 
 ing it only as a gatherer of corn ; to neither of 
 which names do I believe it entitled, as it appears 
 to live solely upon grubs, various insects, and 
 worms. It has at times great difficulty to sup- 
 port its life, and in a dry spring or summer 
 most of these are hidden in the earth beyond its 
 reach, except at those uncertain periods when 
 the grub of the chaffer is to be found ; and in a 
 hot day we see the poor birds perambulating the 
 fields, and wandering by the sides of the high- 
 ways, seeking for and feeding upon grasshoppers, 
 or any casual nourishment that may be found. 
 At those times, were it not for its breakfast of 
 dew worms, which it catches in the grey of the 
 morning, as it is appointed the earliest of risers, 
 it would commonly be famished. In the hot 
 summer of 1825, many of the young brood of the 
 season perished from want ; the mornings were 
 without dew, and consequently few or no worms 
 were to be obtained ; and we found them dead 
 under the trees, having expired on their roost- 
 ings. It was particularly distressing, for no re- 
 lief could be given, to hear the constant clamour 
 and importunity of the young for food. The old 
 birds seemed to suffer without complaint ; but 
 the wants of their offspring were expressed by 
 the unceasing cry of hunger, and pursuit of their 
 parents for supply, and our fields were scenes of 
 daily restlessness and lament. Yet, amid all this 
 distress, it was pleasing to observe the persever- 
 ance of the old birds in the endeavour to relieve 
 their famishing families, as many of them re- 
 mained out searching for food quite in the dusk, 
 
 and returning to their roosts long after the usual 
 period for retiring. In this extremity it becomes 
 a plunderer, to which by inclination it is not 
 much addicted, and resorts to our newly-set po- 
 tato fields, digging out the cuttings. Ranks are 
 seen sadly defective, the result of its labours, I 
 fear ; and the request of my neighbours now and 
 then for a bird from my rookery, to hang up in 
 terrorem in their fields, is confirmatory of its bad 
 name. In autumn a ripe pear, or a walnut, be- 
 comes an irresistible temptation, and it will oc- 
 casionally obtain a good share of these fruits. In 
 hard frost it is pinched again, visits for food the 
 banks of streams, and in conjunction with its* 
 congener, the £ villain crow,' becomes a wayfar- 
 ing bird, and 1 seeks a dole from every passing 
 steed.' Its life, however, is not always dark and 
 sombre ; it has its periods of festivity also. When 
 the waters retire from meadows and low lands, 
 where they have remained any time, a luxurious 
 banquet is provided for this corvus, in the multi- 
 tude of worms which it finds drowned on them. 
 But its jubilee is the season of the cockchaffer, 
 Melolantha vulgaris, when every little copse, every 
 oak, becomes animated with it and all its noisy 
 joyful family feeding and scrambling for the in- 
 sect food. The power or faculty, be it by the 
 scent, or by other means, that rooks possess of 
 discovering their food, is very remarkable. I 
 have often observed them alight on a pasture of 
 uniform verdure, and exhibiting no sensible ap- 
 pearance of withering or decay, and immediately 
 commence stocking up the ground. Upon inves- 
 tigating the object of their operations, I have 
 found many heads of plantains, the little autum- 
 nal dandelions, and other plants drawn out of the 
 ground and scattered about, their roots having 
 been eaten off by a grub, leaving only a crown of 
 leaves upon the surface. This grub beneath, in 
 the earth, the rooks had detected in their flight, 
 and descended to feed on it, first pulling up the 
 plant which concealed it, and then drawing the 
 larvae from their holes. By what intimation this 
 bird had discovered its hidden food we are at a 
 loss to conjecture ; but the rook has always been 
 supposed to scent matters with great discrimi- 
 nation. 
 
 "It is but simple justice to these often-cen- 
 sured birds, to mention the service that they at 
 times perform for us in our pasture-lands. There 
 is no plant that I endeavour to root out with 
 more persistency in these places than the tufty- 
 hair grass, Aira ccespitosa. It abounds in all the 
 colder parts of our grass-lands, increasing greatly 
 when undisturbed, and, worthless in itself, over- 
 powers its more valuable neighbours. The larger 
 tufts we pretty well get rid off; but multitudes 
 of small roots are so interwoven with the pasture 
 herbage, that we cannot separate them without 
 injury ; and these our persevering rooks stock up 
 for us in such quantities, that in some seasons 
 the fields are strewed with the eradicated plants. 
 
CROWFOOT. 
 
 382 
 
 CURB. 
 
 The whole so torn up does not exclusively prove 
 to be the hair-grass, but infinitely the larger por- 
 tion consists of this injurious plant. The object 
 of the bird in performing this service for us, is to 
 obtain the larvae of several species of insects, un- 
 derground feeders, that prey on the roots, as Lin- 
 naeus long ago observed upon the subject of the 
 little nard grass, JVardus stricta. This benefit is 
 partly a joint operation: the grub eats the root, 
 but not often so effectually as to destroy the 
 plant, which easily roots itself anew : but the 
 rook finishes the affair by pulling it up to get 
 at the larvae, and thus provents all vegetation ; 
 nor do I believe that the bird ever removes a 
 specimen that has not already been eaten, or com- 
 menced upon, by the caterpillar." 
 
 CROWFOOT. Seventeen species of herbs 
 growing wild in Britain, and belonging to the 
 genus ranunculus. One of them is the beautiful 
 and universally diffused buttercup of British 
 meadows and pastures, noticed in the article 
 Buttercup ; and three others possess a general 
 and exciting interest to farmers and graziers. 
 
 The corn crowfoot, R. arvensis, is an annual 
 weed of our corn-fields. Its root is fibrous ; its 
 stem is erect, and about a foot high ; its leaves 
 have a pale shining green colour, and are cut 
 into long, acute, narrow segments ; its flowers 
 are smaller and paler than those of the buttercup, 
 and have a lemon colour, and appear from June 
 till August ; and its carpels are all over rough 
 with little prickles. It is readily eaten by cattle, 
 but is very dangerous to them, and possesses so 
 much acridity that three ounces of its juice will 
 kill a dog in less than two minutes. 
 
 The flame spearwort crowfoot, or lesser spear- 
 wort, E. flammula, is a perennial-rooted herb of 
 moist and marshy waste places in both England 
 and Scotland. Its root consists of fascicles of 
 long, simple fibres ; its stems are round, smooth, 
 branching, leafy, about a foot high, and some- 
 what decumbent ; its leaves are alternate, lance- 
 olate, pointed, smooth, either entire or slightly 
 serrated, and stand on long footstalks ; its flowers 
 are solitary, have a bright shining yellow colour, 
 and appear from June till September ; and its 
 carpels are smooth, ovate and roundish. The 
 whole plant is acrid, caustic, and poisonous ; it 
 loses some of its acrimony by drying, and the 
 whole of it by boiling ; the distilled water is an 
 emetic antidote to poison ; and the fresh plant is 
 used in medicine as an external application for 
 irritating the skin and drawing off surrounding 
 humours. 
 
 The acrid or upright meadow crowfoot, 72. acris, 
 is a perennial-rooted, caustic, medicinal, danger- 
 ous weed, of the meadows, pastures, and waste 
 places of Britain. Its root is a tuber with fibrous 
 appendages ; its stem is erect, somewhat villous, 
 sparsely leafy, about two feet high, and branch- 
 ing at the top ; its leaves are cut variously into 
 three, five, or more parts ; and its flowers are ter- 
 
 minal, large, and of a brilliant yellow colour, and 
 appear in J une and July. This plant is usually 
 rejected by even the most hungry cattle ; and 
 when unavoidably eaten, has a malign effect. 
 Its leaves are medicinally used in the same man- 
 ner and for the same purposes as those of the 
 flame spearwort crowfoot. 
 
 CROWN-SCAB. A disease of the coronet of 
 the feet of horses. It consists of an outbreak of 
 bad humour round the coronet, accompanied 
 with a very sharp itchiness, and followed by the 
 formation of scab. A drawing and healing oint- 
 ment may be applied, and a dose or tw# of physic 
 given. 
 
 CUD. The food which is brought up from the 
 first stomach, rechewed, and sent down to the 
 second stomach, by ruminating animals. Chew- 
 ing the cud is the popular phrase for rumination. 
 The loss of cud, or ceasing to ruminate, is a symp- 
 tom of inflammatory diseases and of general de- 
 bility. 
 
 CULTIVATION. The working and improving 
 of the soil by tillage, weeding, manuring, and 
 other processes. Its object is to obtain an ab- 
 normal development and production of plants, or 
 of parts of plants, used for the purposes of food, 
 industry, or human enjoyment; and the plants 
 with which it deals are called cultivated plants, 
 and contradistinguished by it from wild plants. 
 
 CULTIVATOR. Any horse-hoeing implement, 
 but especially the grubber. See the article Grub- 
 ber. 
 
 CUMIN, — botanically Cuminum Cyminum. 
 A hardy, annual, medicinal plant, of the umbelli- 
 ferous tribe. It is a native of Egypt, and was in- 
 troduced thence to Britain toward the close of the 
 1 6th century. Its stem is slender, round, branch- 
 ing, and frequently procumbent ; its leaves are li- 
 near, narrow-pointed, and of a deep green colour ; 
 its flowers are produced in numerous, four-rayed 
 umbels, have a white colour, and appear in June 
 and July ; and its seeds are oblong, striated, and 
 of a pale brown colour, and are produced in twos, 
 which are united to each other on their flat sides. 
 The seeds have a peculiar strong odour, and a 
 warm, bitterish, unpleasant taste; they possess 
 carminative and tonic properties ; and they are 
 used in medicine as an external stimulant, and 
 in the arts for flavouring the spirits of the dis- 
 tillery. The plant is extensively cultivated in 
 Malta, Sicily, Holland, Germany, and some other 
 European countries ; and it serves the same pur- 
 poses throughout the north-west of Europe which 
 are served by caraway and coriander in Britain. 
 It requires a rich soil, and is rather late in ripen- 
 ing its seeds ; so that it is ill-suited to field hus- 
 bandry in any parts of Britain except some of the 
 best lands in the south of England. In Germany, 
 it is either soon broad-cast among spring-corn, 
 or transplanted into rows alternately with cab- 
 bages, beet, or parsnip. 
 
 CURB. A disease in the limbs of the horse. 
 
CURD. 
 
 383 
 
 CYDER. 
 
 It consists in an extension of the ligaments of 
 the hock ; it sometimes is partly or perhaps 
 wholly occasioned by the kind of distortion or 
 malformation in the limbs popularly termed 
 " sickle hams ;" but it is more frequently caused 
 by violent jerking of the ligaments of the hock, 
 or of the sheath of the tendons passing down- 
 ward from them, in leaping, rearing, kicking, or 
 sudden and excessive straining. The lameness 
 connected with curb is in some instances consid- 
 erable, in most somewhat inconsiderable, and in 
 all such as to constitute a greater or less de- 
 gree of unsoundness. The proper treatment of 
 it is the same as that of other ligamentary ex- 
 tensions. 
 
 CURD. The coagulum of milk comprising its 
 caseous ingredients, and constituting the mate- 
 rial for cheese. See the article Cheese. Curd, 
 as obtained either by the natural souring of 
 milk, or by the chemical action of rennet, or of 
 an intermixed acid, is a white, insipid, odourless 
 substance, soluble by alkalies, insoluble in water, 
 and convertible by alcohol into a very fetid mat- 
 ter, of the colour and consistency of spermaceti. 
 Nearly the whole of the curd of milk may be 
 completely separated from the whey by means of 
 steady and prolonged heat at the boiling point of 
 milk. " It still," says Dr. Thomson, " retains its 
 sweet taste ; but much of the milky flavour is 
 dissipated. If it be now evaporated over the 
 steam-bath, it deposits a number of crystals of 
 sugar of milk. Towards the end of the evaporation, 
 some crystals of chloride of potassium, and some 
 of common salt, make their appearance. Ac- 
 cording to Scheele, it contains also a little phos- 
 phate of lime, which may be precipitated by am- 
 monia. * * The sugar of milk constitutes, at 
 an average, about 35 per cent., while the saline 
 ingredients do not exceed 0*22 per cent, of whey. 
 The water, of course, constitutes about 933 in 
 the 100 parts." A very good cement for glass 
 and china consists of the viscid residuum of the 
 filtered and evaporated solution of equal parts of 
 curd and alcohol. 
 
 CURD-BREAKER. An implement or small 
 hand-machine for breaking and comminuting the 
 curd of skimmed-milk cheeses. It consists prin- 
 cipally of a hopper for receiving the curd, a hard- 
 wood cylinder studded with teeth, for cutting the 
 curd, and a winch for turning the cylinder. It 
 is held over a tub, and can be worked by a young 
 boy or girl. It admits of being easily taken down 
 and reconstructed, so as to undergo frequent in- 
 ternal washing. 
 
 CURL. A disease in plants. See the article 
 Potato. 
 
 CUSTOMS OF COUNTIES. See Lease. 
 
 CUT. A clean wound, inflicted with any sharp 
 instrument. The lips or edges of a cut in a 
 horse or in any other large animal ought to be 
 placed together by means of tow, ligaments, 
 strips of plaster, or other appliances, but ought 
 
 not to be dressed with balsams or ointments. 
 The whole art of healing a cut or clean wound is 
 to exclude the air from it, and allow it to be un- 
 disturbedly dealt with by the mere organism of 
 the system. 
 
 CUTTING. A horse's wounding the inside of 
 his fetlock-joint when travelling. The most fre- 
 quent cause of it is the inclined position of the 
 toe either inward or outward of a straight line 
 to the point of the shoulder. When the toe in- 
 clines outward, the inner quarter of the hoof is 
 generally lower than the outer quarter ; so that, 
 in order to give the foot a proper position, and to 
 prevent cutting, the outer quarter of the hoof 
 should be lowered, or the outer branch of the 
 shoe made thinner than the inner branch. When 
 the toe inclines inward, cutting takes place on 
 the inside of the knee, at the lower part of the 
 joint ; and this is technically called the speedy 
 cut, from its happening upon the trot or the gal- 
 lop, and is considered a dangerous unsoundness, 
 from its sometimes giving so sudden and violent 
 a blow as to bring the animal instantly to the 
 ground. The remedies for this are to keep the 
 toe as short as possible and to alter the improper 
 position of the foot. Whenever cutting is ob- 
 served, the precise part of the hoof or shoe which 
 occasions it should be promptly and carefully as- 
 certained ; and this ought to be rasped away as 
 much as can be done with safety, and, if neces- 
 sary, put out of its noxious position by altering 
 the inclinations of the foot in shoeing. Cutting 
 is frequently occasioned by mere fatigue or weak- 
 ness, and, in consequence, often afflicts young 
 horses which are ridden hard over deep heavy 
 ground ; and when any risk of it occurs from this 
 cause, the exposed part ought to be protected 
 with leather or a boot, or, what is far better, the 
 animals ought to be allowed rest, ease, and re- 
 cruitment. 
 
 CUTTING-BOX. A machine for cutting hay, 
 straw, haulm, or other kinds of fodder, into small 
 pieces. See Chaff-Cutter. 
 
 CYDER. A liquor made from the juice of 
 apples. The quality of this popular beverage 
 depends principally on the following particulars, 
 viz, — 1. kind of fruit ; 2. condition of the fruit 
 when ground ; 3. manner of grinding and press- 
 ing ; 4. method of conducting the requisite fer- 
 mentation, and precautions to be taken against 
 its excess. 
 
 1. The characteristics of a good cyder-ap- 
 ple are, a red skin, yellow and often tough and 
 fibrous pulp, astringency, dryness and ripeness 
 at the cyder-making season. Mr. Knight asserts, 
 that, " when the rind and pulp are green, the 
 cyder will always be thin, weak, and colourless ; 
 and when these are deeply tinged with yellow, 
 it will, however manufactured, or in whatever 
 soil the fruit may have grown, almost always 
 possess colour and either strength or richness." 
 
 2. Condition of the fruit. — Fruit should be used 
 
CYDER. 
 
 when it has attained full maturity, and before it 
 begins to decay. Each kind of apple should 
 be manufactured separately, or, at least, those 
 kinds only should be mixed which ripen about 
 the same time. Mr. Buel says, "The apples 
 should ripen on the tree, be gathered when dry, 
 in a cleanly manner, spread in an airy, covered 
 situation, if practicable, for a time, to induce an 
 evaporation of aqueous matter, which will in- 
 crease the strength and flavour of the liquor, 
 and be separated from rotten fruit, and every 
 kind of filth, before they are ground." 
 
 3. Grinding, Sc. — The apples should be re- 
 duced, by the mill, as nearly as possible to a 
 uniform mass, in which the rind and seeds are 
 scarcely discoverable, and the pomace should be 
 exposed to the air. Knight ascertained by ex- 
 periments, that, by exposing the reduced pulp 
 to the operation of the atmosphere for a few 
 hours, the specific gravity of the juice increased 
 from 1,064 to 1,078 ; and, from the experiment 
 being repeated in a closed vessel with atmo- 
 spheric air, he ascertained the accession to be 
 oxygen, which, according to Lavoisier, consti- 
 tutes 64 per cent, of sugar. For fine cyder, he 
 recommends that the fruit be ground and pressed 
 imperfectly, and that the pulp be then exposed 
 24 hours to the air, being spread and once or 
 twice turned, to facilitate the absorption of oxy- 
 gen ; that it be then ground again, and the ex- 
 pressed juice be added to it before it is again 
 pressed. 
 
 4. Fermentation. — The vinous fermentation 
 commences and terminates at different periods, 
 according to the conditions and quality of the 
 fruit, and the state of the weather. According 
 to Knight, the best criterion to judge of the 
 proper moment to rack off (or draw the liquor 
 from the scum and sediment), will be the bright- 
 ness of the liquor which takes place after the 
 discharge of fixed air has ceased, and a thick 
 crust is collected on the surface. The clear 
 liquor should then be drawn off into another 
 cask. If it remains bright and quiet, nothing 
 more need be done to it till the succeeding 
 spring ; but if a scum collects on the surface, it 
 must immediately be racked off again, as this 
 would produce bad effects if suffered to sink. — 
 Among the precautions used to prevent exces- 
 sive fermentation is stumming, which is fuming 
 the cask with burning sulphur. This is done by 
 burning a rag impregnated with sulphur in the 
 cask in which the liquor is to be decanted, after 
 it has been partly filled, and rolling it, so as to 
 incorporate the liquor with the gas. A bottle of 
 French brandy, or half a gallon of cyder-brandy, 
 added to a barrel, is likewise recommended, to 
 be added as soon as the vinous fermentation is 
 completed. 
 
 CYNOSUKUS. 
 
 CYNOSURUS,— popularly Dofs-Tail Grass. 
 A genus of grasses belonging to the tribe with 
 many - flowered panicles. Their panicles are 
 spiked ; their spikelets contain four or five florets ; 
 their florets are longer than their glumes ; and 
 they have apinnatifid or deeply cut leaf attached 
 to the base of each spikelet. 
 
 The crested species, Cynosurus cristatus, is one 
 of the indigenous, agricultural grasses of Britain. 
 It grows wild both on dry pastures and on wet 
 clayey soils ; it makes luxuriant growths on ir- 
 rigated meadows ; and, both as a natural and as 
 a cultivated grass, it is perfectly free from fasti- 
 diousness, and possesses a very ample range of 
 adaptation. Its root is fibrous and perennial ; 
 its culm is erect, and about 18 or 24 inches high ; 
 its leaves are short and somewhat narrow, and 
 taper to a point ; the pinnatifid leaves of its 
 spikelets are much longer than the spikelets 
 themselves ; and its spikelets are beardless, and, 
 together with their appendages, grow wholly on 
 one side of the panicle. Its culms are not eaten 
 by cattle, and may be seen, on even well-grazed 
 pastures, standing untouched till autumn, and 
 ripening their seeds ; but its root-leaves are 
 greedily eaten by cattle, by horses, and particu- 
 larly by sheep, and are produced in comparative 
 profusion. In the Woburn experiments, on ma- 
 nured brown loam, it yielded, per acre, at the 
 time of flowering, 6,125 lbs. of green produce, and 
 406 lbs. of nutritive matter. It constitutes a 
 very considerable proportion of the herbage of 
 many of the best sheep pastures, and deserves to 
 be extensively introduced to such sheep-walks as 
 possess either little or none of it ; but it ought 
 never to be more than a minor ingredient in cat- 
 tle pastures. It forms a close sward, and has 
 rather fine herbage; and hence is well suited 
 for bowling-greens and lawns. 
 
 The eruca-formed or linear-spiked species, Cy- 
 nosurus enccosformis, — called by some modern bo- 
 tanists Beckmannia erucaformis — is a native of 
 continental Europe, and was introduced to Bri- 
 tain about 70 years ago. It is an annual, grows 
 to the height of 2 or 2| feet, and flowers in July. 
 It thrives best on deep rich loam. An acre of it, 
 in the Woburn experiments, yielded, when in 
 flower, 6,806 lbs. of green produce, and 365 lbs. 
 of nutritive matter. 
 
 The blue species, Cynosurus coeruleus, now called 
 by some botanists Sesleria cceridea. is perennial- 
 rooted, and grows wild in the fields of Britain. 
 It occurs principally on lofty limestone grounds, 
 and seldom has a height of more than 12 or 14 
 inches. It is an early spring grass, and resists 
 the withering effects of summer droughts ; and, 
 on these accounts, it is well fitted for upland 
 sheep pasture. 
 
 384 
 
DAB-CHICK. 
 
 385 
 
 DAIRY. 
 
 D 
 
 DAB-CHICK. A newly hatched chick. 
 
 DACTYLIS — popularly Coofrs-Foot grass. A 
 genus of grasses belonging to the same tribe as 
 the fescues. The rough or glomerated species, 
 or orchard-grass of America, D. glomerata {Plate 
 XXV.),\s a well-known and valuable indigenous 
 grass. Its root is fibrous and perennial ; its culm 
 is rough, and about 2 or 2| feet high ; its leaves 
 are rough, keeled, broad, and slightly glaucous- 
 green ; its panicle is one-sided ; and its spikelets 
 are crowded and three or four flowered. Its habit 
 of growth is tufty and somewhat unsightly. It 
 abounds in most pastures and all waste places 
 which are not closely cropped by sheep or 
 cattle; and when cultivated, it yields a large 
 produce, rapidly reproduces its herbage after 
 being cut, and, if kept constantly low by the 
 scythe or by grazing, is more valuable in pasture 
 than rye-grass. In the Woburn experiments, it 
 yielded per acre, at the time of flowering, 27,905 
 lbs. of green produce, 11,859 lbs. of hay, and 1,089 
 lbs. of nutritive matter ; but it was found to lose 
 bulk and value when allowed to grow to seed. 
 When not eaten down in spring, it becomes hard 
 and coarse ; and when constantly depastured by 
 sheep or cattle, it dies out in the course of about 
 five or six years. 
 
 The tussac grass species, Dactylis ccespitosa, was 
 introduced to Britain in 1844, and promises to 
 be of great value in some departments of Bri- 
 tish husbandry ; and it is figured in Plate 
 XXL, and will be fully noticed in the article 
 Tussac Grass. — Nine or ten other species have 
 been introduced, and about as many more de- 
 scribed ; but all are worthless to the farmer, and 
 attractive only to the botanist. 
 
 DAHLIA. A genus of tuberous-rooted, mag- 
 nificently-flowering, Mexican plants, belonging 
 to the same tribe as the sun-flower and the Jeru- 
 salem artichoke. There are two species, both 
 naturally producing flowers with flattish disk 
 and one circle or series of rays ; but they sport 
 with prodigious facility into innumerable vari- 
 eties, not only with one series of rays, but with 
 so many as to render the flowers almost perfect 
 half-orbs, — and they have produced many thou- 
 sands of highly ornamental kinds which have 
 figured, in some places or others, all over Bri- 
 tain, as the most conspicuous glories of the flow- 
 er-garden. Dahlia tubers were, a considerable 
 time ago, tried in Paris as an esculent, and have, 
 for probably fifteen years, been occasionally sold 
 in the city markets of Britain under the assumed 
 name of Jerusalem artichokes ; they are capable 
 I. 
 
 of cultivation, abundant produce, and winter - 
 storage by pitting, almost exactly in the manner 
 of potatoes ; and, though hitherto disliked for 
 their flavour by both man and beast, they are 
 rich in nutritive matter, and may possibly, with 
 a slight aid from chemistry, be rendered well 
 worthy of field-culture and farm-yard consump- 
 tion. 
 
 DAIRY. An establishment for managing milk 
 and cream, and for manufacturing butter and 
 cheese. Some dairies are chiefly or wholly en- 
 gaged in supplying the inhabitants of large towns 
 with milk and cream ; some are strictly private 
 establishments for supplying the table of a great 
 mansion with the freshest and best milk, butter, 
 and cheese ; some, for any or all of the depart- 
 ments of dairy produce, constitute an element 
 or integral part of the affairs of a system of 
 mixed husbandry ; and some either chiefly for 
 cheese, or chiefly for butter, or mixedly for vari- 
 ous dairy produce, constitute the main drift of 
 all such grass farms as are depastured with milk 
 cows. We shall endeavour so to shape our re- 
 marks as to include the whole of these : yet we 
 must necessarily make chief reference to the 
 dairies either of farms entirely devoted to them 
 or of extensive farms under a system of mixed 
 husbandry. 
 
 A dairy establishment for supplying large 
 towns with milk has, in most instances, no wider 
 scope than the maintaining of a well-appointed 
 cow-house, the stall-feeding of cows, and the 
 regular, cleanly, and economical drawing and 
 distributing of milk. It may have attached 
 grounds for the raising of green crops for the 
 cows, but is seldom connected with pasture-lands, 
 or, in any ordinary sense of the word, with a 
 farm. A private dairy establishment is provided 
 with means and accompaniments, far less in the 
 manner of economy than on principles of luxury ; j 
 and therefore has a style far less in keeping with j 
 the industrious homeliness of a farm, than in 
 keeping with the opulence and splendour of a 
 mansion and pleasure-grounds. A true dairy 
 farm is as strictly rural as either a stock farm or j 
 a farm of mixed husbandry ; and, at the same j 
 time, is conducted wholly on principles of econ- j 
 omy and profit. Any tillage practised on it 
 is subservient to the feeding of its cows ; and : 
 any other of its departments of industry are 
 merely incidental to that of the dairy. No full- 
 grown stock are fed on it in winter ; and only a 
 few heifer calves are reared at any time in order j 
 to supply the places of such cows as die or be- 
 2 B 
 
DAIRY. 
 
 386 
 
 DAIRY. 
 
 come unprofitable. Bull calves are sometimes 
 fed for veal ; pigs are often fattened on the re- 
 fuse of milk ; and young horses are, in some in- 
 stances, reared on whey, spare milk, and part of 
 the pastures. The occupant of a dairy farm re- 
 quires to possess an intimate knowledge of the 
 constitution, varieties, and management of cows, 
 and of all the details of making and selling but- 
 ter and cheese ; but he does not need more ac- 
 quaintance with the operations of mixed hus- 
 bandry than will guide him in raising green 
 crops and making hay. A dairy incurs far less 
 risk from vicissitudes of weather and from va- 
 riations in the price of produce than a mixed or 
 arable farm ; and therefore it lets at a higher rent, 
 yields less profit to the tenant, and is less liable to 
 the disasters of bankruptcy. It requires minute 
 and constant attention to all the details and cir- 
 cumstances on which the obtaining of profit 
 depends ; and will hardly in any case make suffi- 
 cient returns for even the moderate maintenance 
 of a family, unless steadily and daily managed by 
 the farmer himself and his wife. Its chief prac- 
 tical difficulty is winter-feeding ; and this, in 
 most instances, is mitigated, though considerably 
 to the loss of the farmer and the detriment of 
 his stock, by managing to have the cows dry at 
 the period of greatest scarcity, and then support- 
 ing them on inferior food. The grand aim, when- 
 ever the circumstances and conditions of the farm 
 will possibly admit of it, ought to be to have as 
 much old pasture-land as will feed the cows 
 throughout the summer portion of the year, and 
 as much arable land under a rotation of green 
 crops and cut grasses as will afford them abun- 
 dance of food during winter ; and this, on very 
 large farms, may be materially aided, by break- 
 ing up the oldest or decaying portion of the pas- 
 tures in order to subject them to a manured 
 arable rotation, and by laying down to grass a 
 corresponding portion of the land which has 
 been longest in requisition for the raising of 
 green crops and hay. See the article Grass 
 Lands. The most extensive dairy districts of 
 England are in Cheshire, Devonshire, and Glou- 
 cestershire. 
 
 The proper construction ofcthe cow-house, and 
 the right management of the cows, have been 
 considered in the article Cow. The cow-house 
 ought to be sufficiently near the dairy-house for 
 the purposes of convenience, but not so near as 
 to communicate any of the malodour and con- 
 tamination of the gases and exhalations ascend- 
 ing from its dung, its urine, and its cattle. No 
 stagnant waters, nor diffusions of liquid manure, 
 nor heaps of compost, nor masses of fermenting 
 herbage, nor rank growths of docks or nettles, 
 nor any object whatever which might diffuse 
 ammoniacal or carbonaceous matters through the 
 air, or dilute the perfect purity of the local at- 
 mosphere, ought to be in the vicinity. The 
 dairy-house should be situated on a porous soil 
 
 and on the top or the declivity of a hill, or in 
 circumstances otherwise thoroughly favourable 
 to constant ventilation, pure air, and entire free- 
 dom from vapours and noxious gases; and it 
 should also enjoy shelter, whether by the con- 
 figuration of its site or by screens of trees, from 
 northerly, easterly, and south-easterly winds. 
 The principal parts of a dairy-house are the 
 milk-room, the work-room, and the cheese-room. 
 
 The milk-house ought to be of sufficient capacity 
 to contain one day's milk of all the cows which 
 are kept upon the farm. It must be cool, of uni- 
 form temperature throughout the year, thoroughly 
 ventilated, and perfectly free from damp vapours 
 and bad smells ; and it must be always kept 
 clean, dry, and sweet-aired. In cavernous coun- 
 tries, it might, in some instances, be fitted up in 
 a capacious, dry, well- ventilated natural cavern, 
 with abundance of spring water, and an open- 
 ing toward the west, — such a cavern as serves 
 best in various countries for the storing and 
 keeping of wine ; and in some of the sandstone dis- 
 tricts of Britain, it might he fitted up in an arti- 
 ficial excavation, so formed as to imitate such a 
 natural cavern. But in all ordinary circum- 
 stances it must simply be constructed on the 
 open ground, in such a manner or with such ac- 
 companiments as to exclude alike the excessive 
 heat of summer and all the proper cold of winter. 
 Its temperature in any part of the year must not 
 rise above 55° nor fall below 50°, else it will cer- 
 tainly injure the milk ; and this temperature can 
 be maintained only by means of deep cooling 
 shade in the season of intense sunshine, and of a 
 stove, surrounding flues, or some kindred appli- 
 ance, in the season of cold winds and of frost. It 
 may be constructed either by sinking the floor 
 some feet under ground, and making the roof a 
 prolonged arch of stone or brick, or by having 
 the floor on a level with the surrounding surface, 
 and forming the roof in the ordinary manner, 
 with a covering, not of slates or of tiles, but of 
 straw-thatch or of turf or " divots ;" and in the 
 latter case, it ought to enjoy the shade of over- 
 hanging trees or of adjoining lofty buildings. 
 The distance between floor and ceiling ought to 
 be at least ten feet ; the floor should be a close 
 pavement of polished sandstone, or of tiles, with 
 all its seams so completely puttied as to prevent 
 the entrance or stagnation of even the smallest 
 portion of liquid, and with a prevailing inclina- 
 tion toward a drain for carrying off the water ; 
 and the bench or table for holding the milk-pans 
 should consist of polished marble, or of beech or 
 plane-tree, or at worst of polished sandstone, and 
 should extend round the walls — if the milk-house 
 be a sunken one — at a line a little below the 
 level of the outer ground, or, in any case, not 
 more than three feet from the floor. Two win- 
 dows may open toward respectively the north 
 and the north-east, and should be covered with 
 a sieve of brass-wire or zinc- wire, impenetrable 
 
DAIRY. 
 
 to mice, and a sheet of gauze-cloth within the 
 wire, such as to exclude flies and yet to admit 
 light and a current of air. If only one window 
 can be thus constructed, or the two be insuffi- 
 cient in size for abundant ventilation, air-holes, 
 covered with wire, should be cut a little above 
 the milk-bench and on opposite sides of the room ; 
 and if the windows cannot be opened toward the 
 north or the north -east, but look in some other 
 direction, each must be shaded with a board, so 
 placed as to admit a current of air, and at the 
 same time to exclude the rays and heat of the 
 sun. Glazed windows may be added for the win- 
 ter ; yet, except in either very cold or very hot 
 weather, they are quite useless, and ought always 
 to stand open. " A complete ventilation," re- 
 marks Sir John Sinclair, " may be preserved by 
 a number of narrow openings in the outside walls 
 near the floor, covered with canvass or wire cloth, 
 to which sliding shutters are fitted on the inside. 
 If there is no apartment above, a ventilator 
 should be made on the roof, covered with weather 
 boarding, and communicating with the ceiling of 
 the milk-room by an enclosed box or case formed 
 betwixt the scantlings, with openings both on the 
 under side next the ceiling, and on the upper 
 side to the ventilator in the roof. Where there 
 is an apartment above, the case in the ceiling 
 should have openings at the ends through the 
 walls, with wire-cloth coverings. Two of these 
 cases should be made in the ceiling, with two 
 openings to each from it, about one foot square, 
 perforated with holes or covered with wire-cloth." 
 
 The milk-bench, the floor, and the walls of the 
 house ought all to be so closely constructed as not 
 to admit of the lodgment of milk, dirty water, 
 dampness, or any impurity ; the milk -bench and 
 the floor ought to be carefully washed and dried 
 every time that milk or water is dropped on 
 them ; the walls and the ceiling ought to be fre- 
 quently swept, so that no dust may accumulate 
 or cobwebs be formed ; and the drain which car- 
 ries off the water should be kept as clean as the 
 floor itself, and should communicate, not with 
 any sink or pond, but with an outward channel 
 of perfectly free and open conveyance. When a 
 little rill of water from a closely adjacent spring 
 can be made to flow along the drain of the milk- 
 room, it has a finely cooling and purifying effect, 
 carrying off effluvia, keeping up continual ven- 
 tilation, and maintaining constant freshness and 
 sweetness in the air. 
 
 The work-room requires to be as near as pos- 
 sible to the milk-house for convenience, and yet 
 to be sufficiently distant and separate not to 
 communicate to the milk-house any of the steam 
 from its boiler or of the effluvia from its floor. 
 In many small dairy farmeries, the milk-house is 
 situated on the north side of the building, and 
 the work-room on the south side between the 
 kitchen and the cow-house; but though this 
 arrangement is convenient, it always involves in- 
 
 DAIRY. 
 
 jury to the contents of the milk-house, from both 
 the steam of the work-room, and the ammoniacal 
 vapours of the cow-house. Yet the relative posi- 
 tion of the work-room to respectively the cow- 
 house and the milk-house, as well as the relation 
 of the latter to each other, must often be origi- 
 nally determined by the peculiarities of the site, 
 and cannot be fully controlled by the landlord, 
 and far less by the tenant. But the work-room, 
 no matter how situated, must have a closely paved 
 floor, and be kept quite clean, and perfectly free 
 from stagnations of milk, from putrefaction of 
 curd, from lodgments of dust, from foul vapours, 
 and from all other kinds of impurities. 
 
 On all small farms, the work-room ought to 
 be of ample capacity for all the operations of the 
 dairy, both direct and subsidiary ; on large farms, 
 it ought to comprise three apartments, — one for 
 churning, one for making cheese, and one for 
 cleansing the utensils and vessels ; in the former 
 case, a copper-boiler must be set in brick-work in 
 a corner of the work-room, while in the latter a 
 larger copper-kettle must be hung on a crane in 
 the cleansing-apartment or wash-house, for boil- 
 ing water, heating milk, and other purposes re- 
 quiring the use of fire ; and in all cases, proper 
 accommodation must exist for the clean, regular, 
 and convenient keeping of the curd-vat, the 
 milking-pails, the sieves, and the other utensils. 
 An excellent plan, is to have, between the work- 
 room and the scalding-house, a small open court, 
 where the utensils may be thoroughly aired ; and 
 a plan little inferior to this is to have a door 
 through the south side of the scalding-house, and 
 benches on the exterior of that side, where the 
 utensils may be placed to dry. A verandah round 
 both milk-house and work-room is also a very 
 desirable contrivance, shading the milk-house 
 from the sun in summer, somewhat aiding its 
 warmth in winter, and allowing the dairy uten- 
 sils to be dried and aired in rainy weather. 
 
 The cheese-room ought, in every instance, to be 
 a separate apartment, no matter in what part of 
 the farmery, but clean, moderately cool, perfectly 
 dry, and quite free from bad vapours and gases. 
 " It ought," says Mr. Aiton, " to be dry, to have 
 a moderate degree of air and some light, but not 
 too much of either, and never to admit the sun 
 to shine into it or on the cheese. If the cheeses, 
 when laid up to dry, have not some free air, they 
 will become mouldy, and will not dry and harden 
 properly ; and if they are exposed to much 
 drought, heat, or sunshine, they will dry too 
 hastily, with many cracks or fissures; perhaps 
 they will sweat or perspire, and hove like a loaf, 
 which in dairy language is termed fire-fanging." 
 See the article Cheese ; and for a full notice of 
 the operations of the dairy, see in addition the 
 articles Butter, Cow, Milk and Churn. 
 
 All milk-coolers or vessels for holding milk in 
 the milk-house ought to be wide and shallow, so 
 as to expose a large surface for the ascent and 
 
 387 
 
DAISY. 
 
 388 
 
 DANTHONIA. 
 
 disengagement of the cream. Some are fixed 
 troughs, with a stop-cock at the bottom of each, 
 so that the milk can be withdrawn and the cream 
 left in the trough ; and these are either hewn out 
 of stone, or made of wood with a lining of metal. 
 But most are moveable vessels of either earth- 
 en-ware, wedgewood's-ware, wood, tinned iron, 
 cooper-work, block-tin, zinc, alloy, or some com- 
 bination of wood and metal. Wooden ones are 
 not easily kept clean ; earthenware ones are easily 
 broken ; zinc, lead, and iron ones form noxious 
 saline compounds with the lactic acid of the 
 milk ; marble ones are expensive ; the other 
 kinds also have their respective disadvantages ; 
 and probably those of wedgewood-ware, all things 
 considered, are the most desirable. Wooden pails 
 are used for receiving the milk as drawn from 
 the cow ; and they ought to be of sufficient ca- 
 pacity to contain all the milk which is obtained 
 at one milking. The Churn and the Cheese- 
 Vat have been noticed by us in articles of their 
 own. The chief of the other utensils of the dairy 
 are sieves of hair or of wire-gauze, for passing 
 the milk through, in order to retain its impuri- 
 ties, when emptying it from the pails into the 
 cooler ; scallops, or flat dishes of horn, ivory, or 
 willow, for skimming the cream from the sur- 
 face of the milk ; jars for receiving the cream, 
 and containing it till the time of churning ; a 
 flat wooden tub for washing butter in ; balance, 
 scales, and weights, for weighing butter ; covered 
 dishes, for holding pound-pieces of fresh butter ; 
 moulds for forming prints of butter for the table ; 
 jars or firkins for the curing and packing of 
 salted butter ; a wooden vat or tub for the coag- 
 ulating of milk which is to be made into cheese ; 
 a curd-cutter and curd-breaker, or knife and im- 
 plement for the cutting and comminuting of the 
 curd ; and a drainer, or vessel pierced with holes, 
 for drawing off the great body of the whey from 
 the curd. — Alton's Treatise on Dairy Husbandry. 
 — Sir John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland, 
 — Transactions of the High land Society. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — The Farmer's Magazine. 
 — Armstrong's Treatise on Agricidture. — BueVs 
 Farmer's Instructor. — Lovj's Elements of Agricul- 
 ture. — Doyle's Cyclopaedia of Husbandry. — Ste- 
 phens' Book of the Farm. — Knowledge Society's 
 Farm Reports and Flemish Husbandry. — Rham's 
 Dictionary of the Farm. 
 
 DAISY, — Bellis Perennis. The best known of 
 all flowering plants, and so exceedingly abundant 
 as not to need any description. Both its root 
 and its leaves are perennial ; and events flowers 
 may, under various conditions, though at times 
 very scantily, be seen at almost any period of 
 the year. It, therefore, well deserves the epithet 
 perennis; nor does it less merit the name bellis, 
 signifying 'pretty' or 'handsome.' Yet it is 
 quite a weed, and an utterly wasteful one, on 
 the pastures of the farmer ; for it is not eaten by 
 any kind of stock, — it renders every spot which 
 
 it occupies, or the aggregate of its possession of 
 a field, perfectly useless or practically barren, — 
 and hence, whenever it exists in any consider- 
 able degree of abundance, it indicates sterility 
 of soil, and suggests the necessity of georgical 
 improvement. 
 
 DAISY (Ox-Eye.) See Chrysanthemum. 
 
 DAM. The mother of a domestic animal; also, 
 a bank or mole to form and retain an accumula- 
 tion of water. See the article Embankment. 
 
 DANDELION. A very common and exceed- 
 ingly well-known weed, belonging to the same 
 division of composite-flowered plants as succory, 
 and inhabiting the meadows, pastures, road-sides, 
 and ditch banks of Britain. Its root is fusiform, 
 very juicy, externally dark-coloured, and very 
 difficult of extirpation; its leaves are radical, 
 runcinate, toothed, and smooth ; its flower-stem 
 is erect, fistulous, fragile, naked, smooth, about 
 a foot high, and abounding with a milky bitter 
 juice ; its flowers are large and terminal, com- 
 prise very numerous ligulate florets, bloom from 
 April till August, and have the habit of closing 
 in the evening and expanding in the morning ; 
 and its seeds are obovate and furrowed, and are 
 furnished each with a long-striped pappus or 
 down, which causes them to be easily lifted away 
 with a breeze of wind, and widely dispersed over 
 surrounding tracts of land. As this weed is at 
 once so common, so facilely propagated, and so 
 difficult of extermination, it ought never, upon 
 a farm, to be allowed to grow to seed. It is 
 greedily eaten by rabbits, goats, and hogs ; but 
 is disliked by sheep and cattle, and totally refused 
 by horses. Its roots and its leaves are eaten by 
 many of the French people with bread and 
 butter ; and its tender leaves, grown in garden 
 soil, earthed up, and blanched, have sometimes 
 been used in England as a salad. A decoction 
 of the fresh, full-grown root, in the form of ex- 
 tract, or simply an infusion of sliced pieces of 
 the root, is used in medicine for jaundice, dropsy, 
 chronic derangements of the stomach, and various 
 diseases of the respiratory organs, the liver and 
 the skin. 
 
 DANDRIFF. The separated and powdery 
 portions of the cuticle of the horse, which are 
 raised by the curry-comb, and brushed away in 
 grooming. The cuticle is constantly undergoing 
 change and renewal ; and, being insensible, parts 
 with its exhausted portions, without pain to the 
 animal, and with evident advantage to the 
 healthiness of the skin. 
 
 DANTHONIA. A genus of grasses, of the oat 
 tribe. It is distinguished from the avena genus, 
 or true oats, by its lower palea being much pro- 
 longed, two-toothed, and so deeply divided as to I 
 make the awn appear as if inserted between the j 
 teeth; and it comprises about twenty known 
 species, — only one of which, however, the com- 
 mon, or strigose, or bristle-pointed, Danthonia j 
 strigosa, challenges the attention of a practical j 
 
DARG. 
 
 389 
 
 DEBILITY. 
 
 British farmer. This grows wild by the side of 
 hedges and in fields of oats, particularly of the 
 later sorts, in both England and Scotland. Its 
 root is annual ; its culm, about a yard high ; its 
 panicle, nearly simple, and inclined or nodding 
 to one side ; its florets bearded, and about as long 
 as the glumes ; and its seeds, thick-skinned and 
 rather small. It is often confountied by farmers 
 with the wild oat, Avenafatua; but may readily 
 be distinguished from that plant by its shorter 
 culm and its nodding panicle. This species is 
 supposed by some agriculturists to have been the 
 originally cultivated oat of Scotland ■ it continued 
 till quite a recent period to be cultivated, as a 
 bread-corn, in the Orkney and the Shetland 
 Islands, and in some parts of the Scottish High- 
 lands ; and it is still cultivated, both for green 
 and for ripened fodder to cattle, in several parts 
 j of continental Europe, particularly in France. 
 An improved variety of it, more compound in 
 its panicle, more prolific of seed, slightly lighter 
 in colour, and known as the Argyleshire small 
 oat, is cultivated for cattle in the vicinity of 
 Strontian. 
 
 DARG. The quantity of bog-turf for fuel which 
 one man can cut and two men can wheel in one 
 j day. 
 
 DARNEL, — botanically Lolium Temulentum. 
 A pernicious, deleterious, annual, gramineous 
 weed, of the rye-grass genus. It infests the wheat 
 fields of Britain, and of other countries of Europe. 
 Its seeds are about the same size as those of wheat, 
 and are gathered with them in harvesting, and 
 cannot, without much difficulty, be separated 
 from them in the operations of the barn ; and, 
 when they are numerous, and find their way with 
 'the wheat into bread-flour, they prove highly 
 noxious to man, injuring his health, and some- 
 times producing delirium, stupefaction, and other 
 symptoms of poisoning. The plant has ceased 
 to be plentiful in all good agricultural districts 
 in Britain, and has almost disappeared in some ; 
 but it continues to be dismally prevalent in some 
 parts of the continent, and fearfully deterior- 
 ates many an imported sample of foreign wheat. 
 Its root is fibrous ; its culm is stiff, erect, and 
 about four feet high, and feels rough to a finger 
 drawn upwards upon it ; its spikelets are gener- 
 ally about the same length as the glume ; and 
 its full-grown seeds are plump and about one- 
 sixth of an inch in length. — Some other grasses 
 occasionally, though with very ques^onable pro- 
 priety, share the name of darnel. The chief of 
 these are Lolium arvense, Bromus mollis, and 
 Bromus secalinus. 
 
 DAY-LILY. — botanically Hemerocallis. A ge- 
 nus of hardy, herbaceous, evergreen, ornamental 
 plants, constituting the type of a large natural 
 order which is nearly allied to lilies, tulips, and 
 amaryllides. The fulvous species, Hemerocallis 
 fulva, is a native of the Levant, and was intro- 
 duced thence to Britain toward the close of "the 
 
 16th century. Its root is fibrous ; its stem is 
 herbaceous and about 4 feet high ; its leaves are 
 long, pointed, keeled, and light green ; and its 
 flowers are copper-coloured, and bloom from June 
 till August. Its foliage is produced in great abun- 
 dance so early in the season as the middle and 
 latter part of April; it has herbage qualities 
 equal to the grasses of any water-meadow ; it is 
 greedily eaten by cattle, and does not communi- 
 cate any unpleasant flavour to either milk or 
 butter : and if cut down at any time between the 
 middle of April and the middle of May, it rises 
 again and continues to grow throughout the 
 summer. This species would hence appear to be 
 an excellent forage plant, especially for affording 
 fresh and grateful food to cattle at the precise 
 period of the year when supplies are most scanty 
 and precarious ; and it began to be recommended 
 for economical cultivation in 1829; but it is very 
 shy in producing seed, and has hitherto been 
 propagable only by the slow and operose method 
 of transplanting and dividing the roots. The 
 yellow species, II. flava, grows two feet high, and 
 has yellow flowers ; the two-rowed species, H. 
 disticha, grows two feet high, and has orange- 
 coloured flowers ; and the grass-leaved species, 
 H. graminea, grows about a foot high, and has 
 light yellow flowers. These species also have a 
 grassy-like character ; but are not so productive 
 as the fulvous species ; yet the yellow species has 
 a somewhat creeping habit of growth, and might 
 perhaps be more easily propagated. The whole 
 genus deserves the attention of agriculturists. 
 The name hemerocallis may be freely yet correctly 
 translated " the beauty of a day ;" and both this 
 name and the popular one allude to the duration 
 of the flowers. 
 
 DEANSTONIZING. See Subsoil-Ploughing. 
 
 DEBILITY. Feebleness in animals. It is 
 always both an effect and a symptom of either 
 disease or partial starvation ; and it can be re- 
 medied only by removing or alleviating its cause ; 
 so that the proper treatment for it is necessarily 
 very varied. One of its simplest and most fre- 
 quent forms is an accompaniment of dyspepsy, or 
 a consequence of indigestion ; and this may be 
 remedied by the administration of tonics. Clater 
 recommends for sheep suffering in this way a 
 gentle aperient, removal to fresh and good pas- 
 ture, and a table-spoonful daily of a well-prepared 
 decoction of an ounce of gentian-root, an ounce 
 of powdered caraway-seeds, half an ounce of ca- 
 lamba, and half an ounce of ginger, in a quart of 
 water, — the daily dose to be given in a little 
 gruel and good ale. But any equal quantity of 
 the mere bitters, without more than a third or so 
 of the aromatics, and without any whatever of 
 the ale, will probably be more beneficial ; and the 
 fresh pasture alone, without any dosing whatever, 
 except in an extreme case, will do best of all. 
 
 DECEMBER. See Calendar. 
 
 DENSHIRE. See Breast-Plough. 
 
DENSHIRING. 
 
 390 
 
 DEW. 
 
 DENSHIRING, or Devonshiring. An old 
 name for the operation of paring and burning. 
 
 DEW. A liquid deposition of watery vapour 
 from the atmosphere upon the surface of the 
 earth. It is most plentiful in clear and serene 
 weather ; and is very sparce in weather of the 
 opposite character ; and never occurs, in any 
 quantity, in nights which are both cloudy and 
 windy. The falling of it is always accompanied 
 by a reduction of the temperature of the air, and 
 of the surface of the earth, the former, however, 
 being higher than the latter. These phenomena 
 admit of an easy and elegant explanation 'from 
 the well-known effect of the radiation of caloric 
 from bodies. This radiation constantly taking 
 place in all bodies, it is obvious that the tempera- 
 ture of any body can remain the same only by its 
 receiving from another source as many rays as it 
 emits. In the case of the earth's surface, so long 
 as the sun remains above the horizon, it continues 
 to receive as well as to emit heat ; but when the 
 sun sinks below the horizon, no object is present 
 in the atmosphere to exchange rays with the 
 earth, which, still emitting heat into free space, 
 must, consequently, experience a diminution in 
 its temperature. It thus becomes not only many 
 degrees cooler than in the day-time, but also 
 cooler than the superincumbent air ; and, as the 
 atmosphere always contains watery vapour, this 
 vapour becomes condensed on the cold surface ; 
 hence the origin of dew, and, if the temperature 
 of the earth is below 32°, of hoar-frost. And 
 since the projection of heat into free space takes 
 place most readily in a clear atmosphere, and is 
 impeded by a cloudy atmosphere, it is under the 
 former condition that dew and hoar-frost are 
 formed; for if the radiant caloric, proceeding 
 from the earth, is intercepted by the clouds, an 
 interchange is established, and the ground re- 
 tains nearly, if not quite, the same temperature 
 as the adjacent portions of air. Whatever cir- 
 cumstances favour radiation favour also the pro- 
 duction of dew ; and, accordingly, under the 
 same exposure, dew is much more copiously de- 
 posited on some surfaces than on others. Gravel 
 walks and pavements project heat and acquire 
 dew less readily than a grassy surface ; rough 
 and porous surfaces, as shavings of wood, take 
 more dew than smooth and solid wood ; and glass 
 projects heat rapidly, and is as rapidly coated 
 with dew. 
 
 " If a soil be sufficiently permeable to air, and 
 not saturated with water," says Mr. Parks, " it 
 is in a state to receive accessions of moisture from 
 the atmosphere, which is a constant and inex- 
 haustible vehicle of humidity, — and if the tem- 
 perature of a sufficiently porous subsoil be at or 
 below the dew-point, as will frequently be the case 
 during some portion of the day in the summer 
 season, — the process of depositing dew will take 
 place in the interior parts of the soil during the 
 day, at the same time that the exterior or surface 
 
 of the ground may be projecting both heat and | 
 moisture into the atmosphere. This process is 
 evidently dependent on the relative temperatures 
 and degrees of aqueous repletion of the air and 
 subsoil at a given time, and independent of the I 
 hygrometric power of the latter, which is, how- ; 
 ever, a potent auxiliary to the acquisition and 1 1 
 retention of atmospheric moisture by soil, parti- 
 cularly in its interior parts. Thus, it is apparent 
 that the acquisition of moisture by soils in the j 
 form of dew is not limited to the period of the 
 night only, nor to the surface of the earth ; and it 
 has been shown that the precipitation of dew 
 cannot take place without the communication 
 of heat to the recipient substance; hence the 
 importance of sufficient pulverization to permit 
 access and change of air to the interior parts of 
 soil. One of the most beneficial effects of drain- 
 age may be also safely presumed to arise from its 
 facilitating the access and change of air to the 
 very bottom of the bed ; as, in proportion to the 
 escape of water, so will be the entrance of the air, 
 which will, pari passu, occupy the place vacated 
 by the water. 
 
 " Every observant farmer must have remarked 
 that the amount of dew precipitated during the 
 same night varies greatly on different soils in 
 fallow, and still more on the leaves of different 
 plants. .Well pulverized soils attract much more 
 dew than those which are close and compact ; as 
 the radiation of heat is effected from many more 
 points in highly comminuted than plane surfaces. 
 Sands appear to be powerful attractors, and in 
 some countries to depend altogether on the 
 nightly deposition of moisture for the support of 
 vegetation. An extreme example of the deriva- 
 tion of the aqueous element from dew alone, and 
 of its highly fertilizing qualities, is afforded by 
 the fact that, on the sandy plains of Chili, rain 
 is scarcely ever known to fall; yet that soil, 
 which under other circumstances would be 
 sterile, is maintained in a productive state by 
 the active forces of radiation and absorption. 
 The temperature of the soil is moderated during 
 the period of the sun's action by the large amount 
 of heat carried off combined with vapour ; whilst 
 the exhausted humidity is replaced by dew, 
 deposited during the resplendent nights of that 
 tropical region. Instances are also on record of 
 the flourishing growth of trees in Africa on sandy 
 districts, never refreshed by rain nor springs nor 
 by artificial supplies of water; whilst soils of 
 another nature, in the same latitude and not 
 far distant, require irrigation to enable them to 
 sustain vegetable life. 
 
 " It is to the copious dews of our own country 
 that we have in great measure to attribute the 
 productiveness of the meadows bordering streams 
 and rivers. The atmosphere in the neighbour- 1 
 hood of currents of water becomes more highly 
 charged with aqueous vapour than that of the 
 uplands ; and as the air transports and disperses 
 
DEWLAP. 
 
 this moisture over the adjoining fields, it is con- 
 densed and precipitated during the night. The 
 finely divided and filamentous structure of the 
 grasses renders them, in addition to their demand 
 for aqueous nutriment, peculiarly suitable for 
 culture in these localities. It is worthy of notice 
 that the leaves of different plants appear to act in 
 somewhat different ways as to their mode of 
 receiving and disposing of dew. A blade of grass 
 is sometimes spangled over with dew drops, but 
 it usually becomes wetted throughout its whole 
 surface by the running together of the drops, and 
 thus conducts the water to the earth in minute 
 streamlets ; whereas, the leaves of the clover, cab- 
 bage, nasturtium, and many other plants, will be 
 found to collect it in distinct globules, which may 
 be rolled about on the leaf without appearing to 
 moisten it. These drops, in fact, do not touch the 
 leaf, but rest and roll upon a pillar of air inter- 
 posed between them and the substance of the 
 leaf. I have not unfrequently procured a tea- 
 cup full of dew, early in the morning, from the 
 leaves of a single cabbage plant ; and, on very 
 translucent nights, I have seen, whilst watch- 
 ing this elegant and interesting process, the ten- 
 der clover-leaf bend beneath the weight of its 
 crystal load, discharge it on the ground, and im- 
 mediately begin to accumulate another globule. 
 In the course of three or four hours, I have ob- 
 served as many collections and discharges of dew 
 by the same leaf. The gradual diminution of the 
 size of these drops of water, by evaporation, as 
 the sun exerts its influence, has often struck me 
 to be the means provided by nature for preparing 
 plants to sustain his increasingly ardent rays with- 
 out injury; and it is generally after nights of 
 copious deposition of dew that the mornings are 
 the brightest, and the sun's heat the most power- 
 ful. Cup-formed and horizontal leaves and flowers 
 seem to retain all, or nearly all, their collected 
 dew for their special use, as if it were more bene- 
 ficial to them when so applied than to their roots." 
 
 DEWLAP. The fleshy membranaceous sub- 
 stance which is pendant on the throats of cattle. 
 
 DEWRETTING. The exposing of flax or 
 hemp to the influence of the dews, by spreading 
 it out on grassy ground, with the view of accel- 
 erating the separation of the fibre from the fecu- 
 lent matter. 
 
 DEWSTONE. A variety of limestone which 
 abounds in Nottinghamshire and in some of the 
 more northern counties of England. 
 
 DHOORA. See Indian Millet. 
 
 DIABETES. A morbid copiousness of urine. 
 It is usually occasioned by diuretic stimulus upon 
 the kidneys, either in consequence of overdosing 
 with diuretic medicines, or of the use of too 
 powerfully diuretic food, such as mow-burnt hay 
 and various green plants or parts of plants brows- 
 ed from the fields and hedges ; and it is sometimes 
 caused also by hard labour, old surfeits, or pro- 
 longed sickness. It usually begins with mere 
 
 DIARRHCEA. 
 
 copiousness and frequency of urinary discharge ; 
 it proceeds to a very immoderate flow of urine, 
 most frequently limpid like water, but some- 
 times turbid or whey-like; and, in its worst 
 form, it involves a prodigious discharge of urine, 
 and is accompanied with insatiable thirst, sickly 
 appetite, dryness of the mouth, considerable 
 feverishness, and rapid emaciation and loss of 
 strength. It ought to be combated, first and 
 chiefly, by the careful investigation and thorough 
 removal of its causes ; next with a diet of wheat, 
 barley or ground beans, occasionally and slightly 
 intermixed with carrots, beet, or similar food; 
 and next by the administration of lime water 
 and of diaphoretics and tonics. If the case be 
 recent, a ball of one drachm of opium, two drachms 
 of powdered ginger, and half an ounce of yellow 
 Peruvian bark, with a quantity of syrup sufficient 
 for amassment, may effect a cure ; but if the case 
 be prolonged and violent, and have either resisted 
 this medicine and ordinary diaphoretics and to- 
 nics, or been aggravated by neglect or bad treat- 
 ment, it will require much nicety and complica- 
 tion of management, and unless promptly com- 
 mitted to the care of a skilful veterinary surgeon, 
 will very probably prove fatal. 
 
 DIAPHORETIC. A medicine or medicinal ap- 
 pliance which keeps the pores of an animal's skin 
 open, and promotes both its sensible and its in- 
 sensible perspirations. The best diaphoretics for 
 the horse are warm clothing and good grooming ; 
 and these with sometimes the aid of exercise, 
 are usually necessary to bring out a full or even 
 tolerable effect from internally administered dia- 
 phoretics. Hot stimulating drugs, combined with 
 opiate and antimonial preparations, are useful 
 diaphoretics in some instances in which the horse 
 is feeble and hide-bound, and has a rough dry 
 coat ; but antimonial preparations alone are al- 
 most the only diaphoretics which can with safety 
 be given him internally in cases of fever. 
 
 DIARRHCEA. A relaxed condition of an ani- 
 mal's bowels. It is sometimes a mere successful 
 effort of the constitution to get rid of matter 
 which would be injurious to health; and some- 
 times arises from a temporary or stimulated over- 
 action of certain of the digestive organs ; and in 
 neither of these cases is it to be regarded as a 
 disease. But in most instances, it is truly mor- 
 bid; and in some, it is not a little dangerous. 
 It differs from dysentery in being merely a re- 
 laxation, and not an inflammation, of the mucous 
 membrane of the intestines, — in having its seat 
 principally in the small bowels, while dysentery 
 has its seat principally in the large bowels, — in 
 causing a discharge more copious, very liquid, 
 and without any glairy mucous matter, — in caus- 
 ing, from its very commencement, a free or copious 
 purging, — and in being usually unaccompanied, 
 in its early stages, with much fever or with any 
 other considerable disturbance of the health. 
 Dysentery, it may be inferred, therefore, is gen- 
 
 391 
 
DIARRHCEA. 
 
 392 
 
 DIBBLE. 
 
 erally the more dangerous disease of the two. 
 See the article Dysentery. Diarrhoea, regarded 
 physiologically, is an acceleration in the peristaltic 
 motion of the bowels, accompanied with increased 
 sesretion of fluid matter in the intestines, or with 
 a morbid inaptitude in the absorbent vessels to 
 take up the due proportion of liquid from the 
 mass which passes into the intestines from the 
 stomach. 
 
 Diarrhoea in horses is not very frequent in occur- 
 rence, and seldom serious in character or diffi- 
 cult of cure. It is occasioned variously by con- 
 stitutional weakness in the bowels, by lightness 
 and smallness in the organic structure of the 
 belly, by the drastic effect of over-purging with 
 medicine, by a suppression of perspiration, by 
 imperfect assimilation of food, by great and 
 sudden change of diet, by over- secretion of bile, 
 and, in a less degree and more infrequently, by 
 some other causes. When the disease is consti- 
 tutional, it must be palliated by a gentle and 
 constant antagonism upon its peculiar causes, — 
 whether in the form of moderating drink, mo- 
 derating labour, or tonically strengthening the 
 digestive organs ; when it arises from any ordinary 
 temporary cause, it may generally be cured by 
 change of diet and an increase of warmth ; and 
 when it is either very violent or much prolonged, 
 it must be subdued by means of astringents, 
 first by the mouth, and then, if need be, by in- 
 jection. The best astringents are powdered 
 catechu, prepared opium, prepared chalk, and 
 common alum ; but the last of these ought not 
 to be used in any but the very worst cases, 
 and the others should be administered in some 
 such emollient substance as thin boiled starch or 
 arrow-root. 
 
 Diarrhoea in cattle is much more frequent and 
 dangerous than in horses, and is distinguished 
 by veterinary nosologists into acute and chronic, 
 the former sudden and active, and the latter slow 
 and of long continuance. Acute diarrhoea occa- 
 sions an almost constant discharge of slimy, frothy 
 faeces intermixed with half-digested food ; and is 
 caused by eating unwholesome herbage, by sud- 
 den change of temperature, by passing in a heated 
 state into cold water, by lying out in cold or 
 damp weather, by fatigue in travelling, or by 
 any similarly acting circumstance, and it ought 
 to be treated by comfortably housing the ani- 
 mal, and administering a mild purgative, and, in 
 bad cases, by moderate bleeding and the adminis- 
 tering of alkalies and astringents. Chronic diar- 
 rhoea occasions a frequent discharge of liquid, 
 fetid, frothy, and somewhat dark-coloured faxes, 
 and gradual but steady emaciation of the region 
 of the eyes and of the whole frame ; and is caused 
 by foul food, undue exposure, over-fatigue under 
 feeding, exhaustion from excessive suckling of 
 calves, and similar circumstances and requires 
 great nicety of treatment, and sometimes a change 
 or series of remedial measures, but chiefly t ho 
 
 cautious use of mild aperients to carry off irritat- 
 ing secretions or obstructions, the administration 
 of mercurials and tonics to correct the morbid 
 action of the liver, the judicious exhibition of 
 astringents to act upon the relaxed mucous 
 membrane of the intestines, and the restriction 
 of the diet to hay, gruel, bean-meal mash, and 
 the driest and choicest pieces of pasture. 
 
 Diarrhoea is a very common disease of calves 
 of from two to six weeks old, and not unfre- 
 quently proves fatal. It is generally occasioned 
 either by undue exposure to the weather, by 
 sudden and injudicious weaning, or by first half- 
 starvation and next a half - surfeit. The faeces, 
 from the very commencement of the disease, 
 contain an excessive proportion of mucus, and 
 they afterwards become fetid and bloody; and 
 the animal ceases to have appetite, staggers in 
 its walk, and rapidly loses flesh. The common 
 treatment, and in general the only thing done, 
 is to give chalk ; but this either does not cure 
 the disease or cures it so slowly and bunglingly 
 as to permit serious damage to the general health 
 and perhaps to the constitution. A mild pur- 
 gative, such as two ounces of castor oil, should 
 be administered ; a proper proportion of opium 
 should, in every case, be given with the chalk ; 
 and, in all bad cases, a combination of astringents, 
 aromatics, and carminatives ought to be given 
 by mouth, and a glyster of thick gruel with a 
 proper commixture of opium given by injection. 
 
 Diarrhoea, among sheep, attacks principally 
 hoggs and two -year -old sheep, occurs almost 
 always between February and June, is accom- 
 panied with increase of appetite, and, unless in 
 weak and sickly animals, rarely proves fatal. A 
 cure may, in general, be easily effected by means 
 of astringents. But among lambs of from a day 
 to a week old, diarrhoea is both frequent and 
 dangerous ; and it is often caused by bad treat- 
 ment, and may generally be prevented by afford- 
 ing lambs proper shelter and comfort. The best 
 remedies for it are warmth and new cow's milk, 
 aided, in all bad cases, by astringents and tonic 
 carminatives. When no cause of it can be dis- 
 covered, the ewe's milk may be concluded to be 
 faulty; and then the ewe should be physicked 
 and removed to better pasture, — and if this 
 should not effect a cure, the lamb should be 
 taken from her, and fed with boiled cow's milk, 
 containing a little prepared chalk. — Diarrhoea is 
 not uncommon among poultry; and is usually 
 caused by too soft food, and may generally be 
 cured by feeding with whole wheat or with rice. 
 — Whites Veterinary. — Blaine's Veterinary Art. — 
 Claters Cattle Doctor — Youatt on Cattle.— Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. — 
 Knowledge Society's Treatise on Cattle.— Mackenzie 
 on Sheep. — Spooner on Sheep. 
 
 DIBBLE. A setting-stick, or small hand-tool, 
 to make holes in the soil for setting seeds or 
 small plants; or a specially constructed machine, 
 
DIBBLE. 
 
 393 
 
 DIBBLE. 
 
 both to make the holes and to sow the seeds. 
 The stick is used in the kitchen-garden for plant- 
 ing beans, transplanting cabbage, and all similar 
 operations, — and in the field for setting wheat, 
 for planting beans, and for transplanting cab- 
 bages and Swedish turnips; and it may either 
 be of rude form, such as a tapered upper part of 
 an old spade handle, or of neat form and endur- 
 ing structure, such as a conical piece of iron, 
 fitted with a short, upright, cross-barred handle. 
 
 Dibbling machines for field use have, at various 
 periods since 1806, been invented and patented ; 
 but none of those invented previous to 1840 so 
 far answered expectation as to recommend them- 
 selves to general adoption or to permanent favour. 
 One of the best of these for grain is a hand dib- 
 bling machine, presented to the Highland Society 
 
 i in 1835, by Mr. C. Wilton of Wicham-Market. 
 This consists of a line of blunt dibbles each at- 
 tached to a shank, and an equal number of seed- 
 
 i boxes and spoons ; and when it is lifted, the 
 spoons dip into the seed-boxes, and are filled ; 
 and when the dibbles are pressed into the ground, 
 
 j the spoons rise and discharge their contents 
 through the funnels into the line of previously 
 formed dibble-holes. One of the best for mangel- 
 wurzel is a two-wheeled machine, with handles 
 fixed in the manner of a barrow, and with dibs 
 set on the circumference of the wheels. The dia- 
 meter of each wheel is 3h feet, the breadth of each 
 is 3 j inches ; the distance between the two, or the 
 intermediate length of the axle, may be anything 
 not exceeding 34 inches; the distance between 
 every two dibs on the circumference of the 
 wheels may be either 14§, 16^, or 18| inches; 
 and each dib is 2 inches in length, and 1^ inch 
 broad at the base, and takers conically to a point. 
 
 A dibbling-machine of high promise was in- 
 vented about ten years ago, and subsequently 
 improved, by Mr. Newberry of Hook -Norton; 
 and it was early found, by five official examina- 
 tors, to be worthy of the following passport to 
 public confidence : — " We have examined the effect 
 of it, and have no hesitation in reporting the 
 superiority of the wheat -crops where the seed 
 had been planted by that instrument over those 
 which have been sown broadcast or drilled. We 
 had many opportunities of comparing, side by 
 side, the produce of these several modes of treat- 
 ment ; and, in every instance, found the dibbled 
 wheat to be much longer and stronger in the 
 straw, finer in the head, and much more free from 
 diminutive ears ; it was also much less lodged ; 
 we attribute this to the pressure of the rim or 
 iron roller of the dibble giving the seed a firmer 
 bed, sufficient grains being placed in each hole to 
 guard against contingencies and supply the crop ; 
 but as vegetation advances, each plant having 
 space to expand, and thus to derive more nourish- 
 ment from the soil and atmosphere than those 
 which are placed more thickly in the drills. We 
 
 • found that the machine deposits the seed very 
 
 regularly, at the distance of 6 inches ; both the 
 quantity in each hole, and the distance between 
 the rows can be easily regulated by the person 
 using the implement ; one bushel and a peck per 
 acre Mr. Newberry recommends, and we believe 
 it to be amply sufficient. In corroboration of 
 our opinion, we have received several letters from 
 farmers who have tried this instrument both on 
 heavy and light soils, stating that they have 
 saved one bushel per acre in the seed, with a 
 prospect of a much larger advantage from the 
 increased produce. We think also the dibbler is 
 likely to become of general use in the planting 
 of beans, as it will enable the farmer to clean 
 them more perfectly." 
 
 Dr. Newington's dibbling-machines are a still 
 newer and more efficient invention ; and were 
 employed almost as soon as known to sow an 
 immense breadth of wheat at the rate of only 
 two pecks per acre ; and have already given great 
 impetus to the important practical thought, that 
 a vast saving of seed-corn in the current prac- 
 tices of sowing is perfectly consistent with the 
 obtaining of the fullest possible crops. They 
 comprise two kinds, — hand-dibbles, and wheel- 
 dibbles, every one adapted for every kind of seed ; 
 and they are made of various sizes, from a small 
 hand one, which can be used by a woman or a 
 child, to a large wheel one, with from twenty to 
 thirty-two depositors, which is conveyed like a 
 barrow, and worked with a lever, and used by a 
 man. — A hand-dibble has two upright longitu- 
 dinal handles, — a series of perpendicular dibbling- 
 rods, — a set of thumb -screws for shifting the 
 depths of the dibble-points, — a seed box, divided 
 into as many compartments as there are deposi- 
 tors, — a galvanized tubular box, whose rim forms 
 the base of the implement, and is pierced hy the 
 iron dibs, — and a step for treading the dibs into the 
 ground when the soil is too stiff to permit them 
 to penetrate by the mere jerking of the imple- 
 ment. The action appears at first sight to be 
 double; but it really is all effected by pulling 
 up the upper handle and pushing it down again. 
 By placing the forefingers of each hand beneath 
 the ends of the under handle, the dibble-points 
 are kept down till they have fully penetrated the 
 ground; and when the dibs are withdrawn by 
 pulling up the upper handle, the rim of the tubu- 
 lar box causes the holes to be very clean for the 
 reception of the seed ; and, after the seed is 
 dropped into the holes, it is pressed into a firm 
 bed by pushing down the dibs. — A wheel-dibble 
 with twelve depositors is figured on Dr. Newing- 
 ton's catalogues, and described as follows ; — " This 
 implement consists of six stout double seed-boxes, 
 pierced by a strong bar of wood, on which these 
 boxes shift to any required distance apart, which 
 are made stationary by tightening the thumb- 
 screws on this bar. In each double seed-box there 
 are two depositors, at a distance of 4^ inches 
 apart. By the operator taking hold of the handle 
 
DIBBLING. 394 DIGGING. 
 
 of this implement, and pulling it slightly toward 
 him, the balance is upset, and the wheels advance 
 exactly nine inches, or the distance of the two 
 depositors, and the weight of the implement 
 causes the depositors to enter the soil ; but should 
 the soil be hard and dry, the man, by means of 
 the step, may throw the whole weight of his 
 body on to the depositors in addition to the 
 weight of the implement itself. If the depositors, 
 instead of protruding beyond the seed-box, were 
 obliged to be pushed out of the tubes in the seed- 
 box, it would be almost impossible for a man to 
 use more than two or three depositors at a time ; 
 but these twelve depositors standing out below 
 the seed-box like spikes, enter the earth with 
 the greatest facility. After the implement has 
 been pulled, so as to cause it to advance the nine 
 inches, the upper handle is to be pulled up and 
 pushed down ; this completes the operation. By 
 pulling the handle as before, the balance is again 
 upset, and the implement again advances nine 
 inches. As the man has no weight to lift, the 
 labour is very trifling. The spokes protruding 
 beyond the circumference of the wheels cause 
 the distance between each deposit of seed to be 
 exactly 4| inches ; the rows likewise by means 
 of the wheels are made perfectly straight. The 
 implement is wheeled on to the ground by means 
 of two light wheels, which are taken off when 
 the implement is worked. In order to cause the 
 wheel dibbles, with more than 8 depositors to 
 work satisfactorily, it is necessary to have the 
 large clods broken. When the land is free from 
 large clods, the twelve depositors on wheels work 
 admirably. Crosskill's clod-crusher and dibbles 
 of this size ought to go together." 
 
 Dibbling machines of a very efficient kind were 
 recently invented also by Mr. Jesse Ross of Lei- 
 cester, and have been put into smart competition 
 with Dr. Newington's. 
 
 DIBBLING. The transplanting of young ve- 
 getables, or the setting of beans, grain or other 
 seeds, by means of the hand-dibble or of a dib- 
 bling-machine. The dibbling of vegetables and 
 of beans may be regarded as strictly routine cul- 
 ture, and requires no special remark. The dib- 
 bling of grain, particularly of wheat, by means of 
 the setting-stick, or of such simple implements 
 as merely make the holes without dropping the 
 seed, is practised generally in Norfolk, Suffolk, 
 and the light parts of Essex, and either occa- 
 sionally or stated in numerous other districts of 
 Britain. It began to excite attention about the 
 middle of last century; it has been the subject 
 of much and interesting discussion ; and, though 
 generally admitted to possess advantages of a 
 more or less decided kind in certain combinations 
 of circumstances, it continues to provoke variety 
 and conflict of opinion. It differs from drill-sow- 
 ing in separate holes being made for the recep- 
 tion of the seeds, and in the grains being dropped, 
 not singly, but in groups of from four to seven ; 
 
 it saves at least a bushel of seed per acre ; and, 
 when properly performed, it lodges the seeds at 
 regular intervals and at uniform depths, and occa- 
 sions a more equable extraction of nourishment 
 from the soil, and a much more uniform aeration 
 among the plants, than can result from either 
 the broadcast or the drill methods of sowing. 
 But it is slow of performance, and consequently 
 ill-suited to the haste and exigencies of a critical 
 seed-time; it admits of undetected bad work, 
 the overcharging of some holes, the undercharg- 
 ing of others, or the total omission of many, on 
 the part of careless or unfaithful work-people 
 employed to drop the seeds ; and it is totally un- 
 suited to every kind of adhesive soil, and indeed 
 to all kinds of soil except the most friable, for 
 particles in any degree adhesive are thrust into 
 compactness by the dibble, and do not fall pro- 
 perly round the seeds, but allow the dibble-holes 
 to act as a sort of cup for the retention of mois- 
 ture and the rotting of the seeds. Dibble-sowing, 
 by means of Newington's or Ross's machines, or 
 even by means of Newberry's, is a very superior 
 process to common dibbling, and perfectly ob- 
 viates some of its worst disadvantages, and is 
 vastly more economical both in saving of seed 
 and in cost of labour, and probably will either 
 supersede rapidly and to a large extent the prac- 
 tices of drill-sowing, or lead to further improve- 
 ments and a new era in seed-deposition. 
 
 Many persons insist that crops dibbled in the 
 common way on even perfectly suitable lands 
 are not perceptibly superior to drilled crops ; and 
 others, not only assert their growth to be more 
 vigorous, their culms to be stronger and less 
 liable to be lodged, and their seeds to be plumper 
 and heavier, but estimate them to have a superior 
 produce in measured grain varying from two to 
 twelve bushels per acre. Diversities of opinion 
 may probably have arisen, in some degree, from 
 diversities in the suitableness of soils, and in a 
 still greater degree from diversities in the care 
 and faithfulness of the work-people employed in 
 dropping the seeds into the dibble-holes ; and were 
 all experiments to be conducted on thoroughly 
 friable soils, and by means of well-constructed 
 dibbling-machines, all opinions might probably 
 come to be pretty nearly agreed. At all events, 
 let not the merits of dibble-sowing be any more 
 tested on the old method of first making large 
 water-holding holes with setting-sticks and then 
 dropping the seeds by hand; but let them be 
 tried on the incomparably quicker, cheaper, and 
 more natural method of Newberry's or Ross's or 
 Newington's machines. 
 
 DIGGING. Making excavations or turning up 
 the soil with the spade. Digging, in the latter 
 sense, is the principal process of cultivating all 
 gardens, all allotments, all cottage plots, and 
 whatever pieces of farm-ground are impracticable 
 by the plough. Sec the article Spade-Husban- 
 dry. 
 
DIKE. 
 
 395 
 
 DITCH. 
 
 DIKE. A ditch in Cambridgeshire, an em- 
 banking mound or dam in some other parts of 
 England, the back of a ditch or sometimes the 
 ditch itself in Ireland, and an uncemented stone 
 wall or stone-enclosure in Scotland. See the ar- 
 ticles Ditch, Embankment, and Wall. 
 
 DILUVIUM. Any geognostic formation or 
 portion of the earth's crust which consists of de- 
 positions made, or supposed to have been made, 
 by one or more marine deluges. Many diluvial 
 formations are of great extent, constituting the 
 pavement or subsoil or very deep superficial mat- 
 ter of vast plains ; and all diner in a greater or 
 less degree from alluvial formations, in exhibit- 
 ing traces of marine action, in consisting of 
 larger boulders or grits of rocks, and in contain- 
 ing comparatively little intermixture of organic 
 remains ; while not a few differ also in both the 
 vastness of their extent and the greatness of their 
 depth. See the article Alluvium. 
 
 The diluvium of mountains and hills is a main 
 origin of the alluvium of valleys ; and the dilu- 
 vium of a considerable proportion of plains is so 
 far covered with alluvium as to sustain the rela- 
 tion to it of subsoil. The diluvial character of 
 the land upon an uniformly exposed range of hills, 
 but especially the diluvial character of a great 
 plain, whether that character refer chiefly to the 
 soil or chiefly to the subsoil, affords great facility 
 to the estimating of the value of fields and farms, 
 enabling any person acquainted with the agricul- 
 tural properties of any one portion of it to form 
 a ready and fair opinion of the probable compar- 
 ative fertility of any other portion. By far the 
 most interesting diluvial district of the United 
 Kingdom is the vast flcetz limestone plain of 
 Ireland, — that singularly great and uniformly 
 fertile region which has won for Erin the fond 
 name of " the emerald isle," and which has tho- 
 roughly resisted a degree of general maltreat- 
 ment which, if perpetrated upon them, would 
 long ago have utterly desolated some of the best 
 districts of Great Britain. 
 
 DISEASES OF ANIMALS. Deranged condi- 
 tions of some of the organs of animals, or vitiated 
 conditions of their blood, or their secretions. 
 Some can be traced to very obvious causes ; and 
 many are exceedingly obscure in origin ; yet most 
 are known to arise either wholly or chiefly from 
 the effects of improper food and bad air. If 
 farmers used due care that all the food of their 
 animals were sound and seasonable, that their 
 cattle houses were well ventilated, and that no 
 pond or fen should exist to create miasmata, they 
 would lose comparatively few of . their stock, ex- 
 cept from accidents and old age. 
 
 DISEASES OF PLANTS. Vitiated conditions 
 of the juices of plants, or derangement, rupture, 
 or inaction of some of their organs. The chief dis- 
 eases of plants which challenge the attention of 
 farmers are those of the cereal grasses, of field 
 legumes, of turnips, of potatoes, and of other com- 
 
 mon field crops ; and most of these are discussed 
 in the articles Blight, Mildew, Smut, Rust, 
 Ergot, Aphis, Caterpillar, Wheat-Fly, Wire- 
 worm, Anbury, Turnip-Fly, and Potato. 
 
 DISTEMPER. Any prevailing disease either 
 among crops or among farm-stock. The diseases 
 most frequently called distemper among crops I 
 are mildew, smut, and ergot ; and those most fre- 
 quently called distemper among cattle and horses 
 are catarrh, dysentery, and epizootic fever. 
 
 DITCH. A trench cut along the division- lines 
 of cultivated grounds, to serve either as a drain 
 or as a fence. Most ditches in old husbandry 
 were intended solely as open drains, and many 
 in the moor improvements of the present day 
 possess the same character ; but nearly all ditches 
 in modern arable farm-lands are designed to serve 
 also and even chiefly as enclosures, and most of 
 them are combined with a hedge, a bank, or some 
 other form of fence. Ditches are of very va- 
 rious depths and widths ; some are as wide at the 
 bottom as at the top, some slope gradually on 
 both sides from the top to the bottom, and some 
 have one side sloping and the other side perpen- 
 dicular ; and such as slope vary exceedingly from 
 one another in the degrees of their inclination. 
 Whenever a ditch has considerable depth, or is 
 cut in inadhesive strata, or is designed wholly or 
 principally for drainage, it ought to slope on both 
 sides, and to have a width at top of from three 
 to six times more than at bottom. One kind of 
 fence common in many districts consists of a 
 sloping ditch and a bank of earth, — the latter 
 formed of the earth thrown out of the former ; 
 another, which is common in many cold, clayey 
 lands of England, consists of two ditches and a 
 hedge between them ; and another, but not a 
 common one, consists of two ditches and a bank 
 between them, — the bank usually surmounted 
 by a strong hedge or by a line of trees. See the 
 article Hedge. 
 
 All sorts of ditches, but especially such as have 
 a considerable quantity of water, either flowing 
 or partially stagnant, are liable to be speedily 
 choked up with rank vegetation, and require to 
 be periodically scoured and constantly kept open 
 and clean. Among the most common of the 
 plants which grow in them, and are liable to 
 choke them up, are Poa aquatica, Poa fluitans, 
 Tussilagopetasites, Rumex crispus, Degraphis arun- 
 dinacea, Iris pseudacoris, Nasturtium officinale, Ver- 
 onica beccabunga, and Polygonum amphibium ; and 
 any of these, or of several others, can be restrained 
 within innocuous limits only by periodically par- 
 ing the sides and scouring the bottom of the 
 ditches with the spade, while the last, Polygonum 
 amphibium, can be even tolerably subdued by no 
 less severe a process than the careful extermina- 
 tion of every vestige of it which can be discovered. 
 The scouring of all ditches ought to be as dis- 
 tinctly a part of the routine or regular business 
 of a farm as the tilling of the ground or the man- 
 
DIURETIC. 
 
 aging of the crops ; and, in the case of all hedge- 
 ditches, it ought always to accompany the dress- 
 ing of the hedges. The accumulated mass of 
 mixed earth and vegetable matters obtained by 
 the scourings, yields valuable manure, whether 
 by being incinerated, or by being heaped up and 
 turned till all stems, roots, and seeds have been 
 thoroughly killed by begun decomposition. See 
 the articles Ashes and Compost. 
 
 DIURETIC. Any substance which stimulates 
 the kidneys of an animal to secrete an unusually 
 large quantity of urine. Diuretics operate more 
 easily and powerfully upon the horse than upon 
 man ; and require, in veterinary practice, to be 
 used with much judgment and considerable cau- 
 tion. Unsuspected diuretics, such as foxy oats, 
 mow-burnt hay, and certain ingredients in the 
 natural herbage of particular localities, often 
 produce slow and steady derangement of the 
 urinary organs, by frequent, daily, or constant 
 over -stimulation, till the kidneys become in- 
 flamed or some other organ severely injured ; 
 and medicinal diuretics intentionally adminis- 
 tered may, by overdosing or by too prolonged use, 
 either produce some chronic disease in the uri- 
 nary organs or excite violent and fatal inflamma- 
 tion. Yet diuretics wisely used, are of eminent 
 service in cracks, swelled legs, mild grease, drop- 
 sical affections, and all other conditions of the 
 system which require a diminished secretion of 
 the watery elements of the blood; and when 
 given in moderate doses to a horse, they do not 
 require the animal to be shut up in the house, 
 but leave him at full liberty to perform his or- 
 dinary work upon the farm. One of the cheap- 
 est and most useful diuretics for all ordinary 
 uses, is common oil of turpentine; two of the 
 best, to be combined with it in a feverish state 
 of the system, are foxglove and saltpetre ; and 
 two good but expensive ones, which possess no 
 high virtue to correspond with their high price, 
 are camphor and castile soap. Minor diuretics, 
 both in medicine and in food, are very numerous. 
 
 DOCK, — botanically Rumex. A large genus 
 of green-flowered plants, belonging to the same 
 tribe as buckwheat and knotgrass. The broad- 
 leaved or common dock, Rtimex obtusifolius, is 
 exceedingly common on grassy pastures, by the 
 way -sides, and on small waste or neglected 
 pieces of rich soil, and is the dock par excellence 
 of the English, and the docken of the Scotch. Its 
 root is fusiform, large, externally black, and in- 
 ternally yellowish; its stem is usually about a 
 yard high ; its leaves have a diversity of form 
 and size, but in general are rounded at their ex- 
 tremity, and about 10 or 11 inches in length, 
 and 5 inches in maximum breadth ; and its 
 flowers grow in whorls sitting close to the stems, 
 and appear from June till August. This plant, 
 wherever it appears on a farm, ought to be kept 
 down and exterminated by constant stubbing 
 and eradication, and ought never to be allowed 
 
 DODDER. 
 
 to grow to seed. — Ten other species grow wild 
 in Britain ; and some of them infest meadows 
 and pastures. 
 
 DOCKING. The amputation of the greater 
 part of the tail of any domestic quadruped, but 
 particularly of the horse. This practice has been 
 advocated for the three reasons of throwing into 
 the rest of the system the portion of blood which 
 would otherwise be expended upon the ampu- 
 tated tail, — of improving the appearance of the 
 animal, — and of promoting the convenience and 
 comfort of the riders or drivers of horses ; but 
 the first of these reasons is imaginary and ab- 
 surd, the second is a matter of vitiated taste, and 
 the third is, in a considerable degree, a misnomer 
 for mere fashion and caprice. All right feeling 
 and all good taste revolt from the cruelty of in- 
 flicting upon an animal the violent pain of am- 
 putation, and of, at the same time, depriving 
 him of the means of defence with which the 
 beneficent Creator has provided him against 
 thousands of torturing attacks from insects. See 
 how incessantly cattle ply their tails during the 
 heat of a summer's day ; and imagine what 
 would be their sufferings if they had no tails to 
 ply ! Yet so long as blind custom and a reckless 
 regard to a little convenience in man insist on 
 the docking of the horse, let the operation be 
 performed with as little cruelty as possible to its 
 victim. The amputation should be made at one 
 stroke, against the resistance of a hard board, 
 and without any subsequent appliance for stop- 
 ping the haemorrhage, or, at the worst, with the 
 use of a very moderate cautery, so applied as not 
 to touch the bone ; and every precaution should 
 be taken that the act of amputation go clear 
 through a joint of the tail without grazing, far 
 less splitting an articulation of bone. The pre- 
 cise joint of the horse's tail through which the 
 amputation is made, is a matter of mere caprice ; 
 some persons preferring to leave a considerable 
 portion of the tail, and others preferring to cut 
 almost the whole away so as to leave nothing but 
 a hideous rump. The docking of lambs has of 
 late years come into great vogue ; and is alleged 
 to promote cleanliness, and prevent the torment- 
 ing attraction of insects. 
 
 DODDER, — botanically Cuscuta Europwa. An 
 annual, twining, parasitical plant, belonging to 
 the bindweed tribe, and infesting crops of clover, 
 lucern, and similar plants. It has long given 
 great annoyance to the farmers of Holland and 
 Belgium, and begins to be seriously menacing to 
 the farmers of some districts of Britain. Its seeds 
 are only about a sixth part of the size of those 
 of clover ; and when they exist in mixture with 
 cither sample or stock of clover seeds, can easily 
 be separated by sifting ; but when once a very 
 few find their way into the soil, they originate 
 races of dodder plants which extend with great 
 rapidity, and cannot be extirpated without the 
 utmost difficulty. "As soon as the seed of the 
 
 396 
 
DODDER. 
 
 397 
 
 DOG 
 
 dodder is ripe," says Dr. Lindley, " it falls to the 
 ground, and usually seems to lie dormant till the 
 succeeding year. "When the spring returns, the 
 embryo sends one end down into the earth to 
 form a root ; and with the other it rises upwards 
 like a small white thread or worm. At this time 
 it is not a parasite, but seems to derive its food 
 from the soil like ordinary plants. It cannot, 
 however, do so long, but withers and perishes, 
 unless it touches some living branch or stem. If 
 it succeed in doing so, it immediately seizes the 
 live stem by means of a sucker, which is pro- 
 truded from the point of contact ; and then, 
 twining from left to right, and forming more 
 suckers as it twines, it establishes itself on its 
 victim and ceases to have any further connex- 
 ion with the soil. From that time forward it is 
 a true parasite, feeding on the juices of the plant 
 it has seized upon. After making a few turns 
 round the branch and securing itself firmly in 
 its new position, it again lengthens and catches 
 hold of some other branch, when more suckers 
 are protruded, and thus it goes on — branching, 
 and twining, and sucking, and branching again 
 — until it forms that appearance which Professor 
 Henslow well describes as resembling 'fine, closely 
 tangled, wet catgut.' Now the dodder has a new 
 and independent seat of life wherever it has 
 twined round a branch ; and as it is incessantly 
 twining and separating, and twining again, a 
 single plant is speedily in the condition of a 
 polype — so that if it be cut into a thousand 
 pieces, each piece will immediately go on grow- 
 ing, as if nothing had happened to it. Tearing 
 the dodder to pieces, then, so far from extirpat- 
 ing it, only multiplies the mischief instead of 
 arresting it. This short statement will show 
 that it is a formidable enemy that has been thus 
 unfortunately introduced to our fields ; and, as 
 these things are not very nice in their food, it is 
 not impossible that the clover dodder may next 
 take a fancy to our wheat fields, unless we can 
 speedily put an end to its presence. It is of 
 little use to cut it in pieces, — it is of no use 
 whatever to do so, if the fragments are left where 
 they can catch hold of any thing else. As it is 
 only an annual, it would be killed if we could 
 prevent its flowering ; but that is difficult, be- 
 cause of its hiding itself among the lower 
 branches of plants where it cannot well be seen ; 
 and a few heads of flowers will soon renew it in 
 a succeeding year. The right plan would be to 
 dig up the clover where the dodder appears, so as 
 to form a circle considerably beyond the patch 
 apparently formed by it, and then to burn it in 
 heaps ; or, in cases when the entire field is in- 
 fected by it to sacrifice the whole crop and burn 
 it. This may appear a violent remedy, but it is 
 the only one likely to be effectual; and even 
 this will fail if (which is not yet the case, but 
 soon will be) the dodder is allowed to form its 
 seed ; for they will fall on the ground, lie hid in 
 
 the crevices, and reappear with the next crop, — 
 when all the labour will have to be done over 
 again." 
 
 DODDERING. The clipping away of the 
 wool from the tail and from between the hind- 
 legs of sheep. The object of the operation is 
 cleanliness, and the lessening of attraction to 
 flies. 
 
 DOG. A well known group of quadrupeds, 
 belonging to the same tribe as the wolf, the fox, 
 the jackal, and the hyaena. 
 
 To no animal is mankind more indebted for 
 faithful and unswerving affection than to the 
 dog. His incorruptible fidelity, his forbearing 
 and enduring attachment, his inexhaustible dili- 
 gence, ardour, and obedience, have been noticed 
 and eulogized from the earliest times. This 
 valuable quadruped may be emphatically termed 
 the friend of man ; as, unlike other animals, his 
 attachment is purely personal, and uninfluenced 
 by changes of time or place. The dog seems to 
 remember only the benefits which he may have 
 received, and, instead of discovering resentment 
 when he is chastised, exposes himself to torture, 
 and even licks the hand from which it proceeds. 
 Without the aid of this almost reasoning animal, 
 how could man have resisted the attacks of the 
 savage and ferocious tenants of the forest, or 
 have procured sustenance in those ages of the 
 world when agriculture was unknown ! 
 
 When we attempt to trace the source or origin 
 of the species, it will be found that the changes 
 and varieties, which the influence of domestica- 
 tion and the intermixture of races have produced, 
 are so multifarious and interminable as to baffle 
 all research. Pennant is of opinion that the ori- 
 ginal stock of dogs in the old world is with great 
 reason supposed to be the jackal ; that from their 
 tamed offspring, casually crossed with the wolf, 
 the fox, and even the hyaena, have arisen the 
 numberless forms and sizes of the canine race. 
 BufFon, with much ingenuity, has traced out a 
 genealogical table of all the known dogs, deduc- 
 ing all the other varieties from the shepherd's 
 dog, variously affected by climate, and other 
 casual circumstances. From the recent observa- 
 tions of travellers in the high northern parts 
 of America, where, although dogs have been 
 employed for an incalculable length of time, they 
 still retain much of the external appearance and 
 general carriage of a wild animal, it would seem 
 that Pennant's suggestion is worthy of atten- 
 tion. But, at the same time, it should be re- 
 marked, that the breed of dogs, produced from 
 the wolf and varieties of the domestic dog, dur- 
 ing a long succession of generations, still retains 
 marked characteristics of the predominance of 
 the savage qualities derived from its untamed 
 progenitors, in the keen and vivid expression of 
 the eye, ferocity of disposition, and severity of 
 bite. 
 
 The varieties of the dog, in size, in form, in 
 
DOLE. 
 
 398 
 
 DOWNS. 
 
 colour, and in the quantity and quality of the 
 hair are exceedingly numerous, — and constitute 
 the chief physical characteristic by which the 
 species is distinguishable from jackals, wolves, 
 and foxes; yet they may be readily arranged 
 into three classes, — each comprising several of 
 the common domesticated kinds of Britain. The 
 first class has the head more or less elongated, 
 and the parietal bones insensibly approaching 
 each other, and the condyles of the lower jaw 
 placed in a horizontal line with the upper cheek 
 teeth ; and it comprises the several kinds of 
 greyhound. The second class has the head very 
 moderately elongated, and the parietal bones 
 diverging and swelling out so as to enlarge the 
 forehead and the cerebral cavity; and it com- 
 prises the several spaniels, the bloodhound, the 
 foxhound, the harrier, the pointer, the setter, 
 the terrier, and the shepherd's dog. And the 
 third class has the muzzle more or less shortened, 
 the skull high, and the condyle of the lower jaw 
 extending above the line of the upper cheek- 
 teeth ; and it comprises the bull-dog, the mastiff, 
 and the several kinds of pug-dogs. 
 
 A dog of any variety seldom lives longer than 
 fifteen years. The number of pups in each litter 
 is commonly from six to twelve ; and the period 
 of gestation is usually from sixty-two to sixty- 
 four days. The eyes are closed at birth, and 
 do not become opened till the tenth or twelfth 
 day ; the teeth begin to change about the fourth 
 month ; and the full maturity of the animal is 
 attained in two years. 
 
 Suitable food for dogs ought always to com- 
 prise both animal, and vegetable substances, see- 
 ing that the teeth and the digestive organs are 
 constitutionally formed for both flesh and farina ; 
 but it ought widely to vary in both quantity and 
 quality according to the variety of the animal, 
 to its particular habits, and to the circumstances 
 in which it is kept, — less and finer, for example, 
 being suitable for a dog who is much confined 
 and has little exercise than for one who enjoys 
 constant liberty and is continually active. " It 
 is no less curious than true," remarks Delabere 
 Blaine, "that the want of food and the excess of 
 it should both produce the same disease ; for it 
 is very seldom that a dog is badly fed for a con- 
 siderable length of time but that he contracts 
 mange, and it is also as seldom that a dog is long 
 permitted to eat to excess without becoming 
 mangy also. However, if the same cleanliness 
 and care were to be observed in both cases, the 
 lean dog would have the least of it, and his 
 mange would also prove much the most easy of 
 cure." Thorough attention ought, in every case, 
 to be paid to housing, cleanliness, and exercise. 
 See the articles Kennel, Exercise, and Mange. 
 
 DOG'S-TAIL GRASS. See Cynosurus. 
 
 DOLE, or Dool. A long narrow piece of un- 
 ploughed grassy land within the enclosures of an 
 arable field. 
 
 DOORA. See Indian Millet. 
 
 DOWNS, Downlands, or Wolds. Extensive 
 hilly tracts of land, with very light and thin 
 soils. They differ from moorlands, principally in 
 being covered with grasses instead of heaths, and 
 in having the materials of their soils in a com- 
 minuted or powdery condition. The downs of 
 most characteristic features and of greatest ex- 
 tent are the large tracts of low chalky hills, call- 
 ed downs in the southern counties of England, 
 and wolds in Yorkshire and in some other north- 
 ern districts ; and the downs of more doubtful 
 character and of more limited extent, are some 
 hilly tracts of the green-sand formation, some 
 tracts of oolitic or of calcareous sandstone 
 country, some patches or circumscribed tracts 
 of the mountain limestone formation, and certain 
 elevated and small districts of the killas or 
 schistose formations. But all true downs, what- 
 ever be their substrata, have a thin, dry, light, 
 porous, calcareous soil, and are comparatively 
 cold in climate and elevated in situation; yet 
 they necessarily comprise various degrees of both 
 calcareousness and warmth, — some consisting 
 wholly of chalk, and others having a predomi- 
 nance of fine sand, or a fair admixture of argil- j 
 laceous matter, — some tracts rising into the 
 bleakness and cold of naked mountains, and 
 others descending into the shelter and warmth 
 of hill-locked vale or cultivated plain. 
 
 Downs, in the loosest or original sense, are 
 mere accumulations of sand-drift ; and must be 
 regarded as quite alluvial in character, and as 
 the most fickle and fugitive of all geognostic for- 
 mations. "The effects of the sea, without the 
 co-operation of inland rivers," says Cuvier, " are 
 less productive. When the coast is flat and the 
 bottom is sandy, the waves drive the sand to- 
 wards the shore ; at each ebb, a portion is left 
 dry, and the wind, which generally blows from 
 the sea, casts it higher on the beach. Thus the 
 downs are formed, — those sandy hills which, if 
 the intervention of man does not teach him how 
 to fix by introducing herbage suited to the soil, 
 progress slowly but with certainty towards the 
 interior of the country, and then overwhelm fields 
 and dwellings, because the same winds which 
 convey the sand of the beach on to the down, 
 cast that of the summit of the down still farther 
 inland. Wherever the industry of man has failed 
 in confining them, these downs advance inland 
 as irresistibly as the alluvial deposits of rivers 
 advance towards the sea ; they drive before them 
 pools formed by the rain-water of the lands in 
 their vicinity, whose progress towards the sea 
 they intercept ; and their advance in many places 
 is made with alarming rapidity ; forests, build- 
 ings, and cultivated fields are overwhelmed by 
 them." Downs of this description exist along 
 the west coast of the county of Donegal in Ire- 
 land, and have, within the memory of the present 
 generation of men, made exactly such encroach- 
 
DOWNS. 
 
 399 
 
 DOWNS. 
 
 merits and desolations as Cuvier indicates ; and 
 downs of the same class, though on a compara- 
 tively small scale, and with very little power of 
 accumulation and progress, exist on the coast of 
 part of Ayrshire, part of Forfarshire, and parts 
 of other maritime counties of Great Britain. 
 
 But downs, in the English sense of the word, 
 and also in the agricultural sense of it, have 
 neither the siliciousness, nor the travelling char- 
 acter, nor the utter barrenness of these sand- 
 drifts from the sea ; and may be viewed, in the 
 aggregate, as light pastoral lands naturally pro- 
 ducing a sufficient herbage for the feeding of 
 flocks, and thoroughly capable of being profitably 
 converted into arable lands. The grasses which 
 are indigenous upon them are generally scanty, 
 and seldom luxuriant, yet almost always palat- 
 able and nutritive. Those most common on the 
 thoroughly chalky soils are Bromus erectus, 
 Bromus pinnatus, A vena pratensis, Festuca ovina, 
 Phleum pratense, and Phleum nodosum; those 
 most common upon an abundance or a predo- 
 minance of siliceous matter, are Agrostis stricta, 
 Agrostis fascicularis, Agrostis vulgaris, Festuca 
 pratensis, Festuca camhrica, Festuca rubra, Aira 
 pro3cox, Poa compressa, Briza media, Avena 
 'pubescens, and Anthoxanthum odoratum ; and 
 those most common upon a good intermixture 
 of argillaceous matter, are Lolium perenne, Poa 
 pratensis, Dactylis glomerata, Festuca duriuscula, 
 Avena Jlavescens, and Cynosurus cristatus. 
 
 The downs of the southern counties of England 
 are, in general, in a far inferior agricultural con- 
 dition to the downs or wolds of the northern 
 counties; and while the former continue to be 
 characteristically pastoral, and very extensively 
 unenclosed, the latter comprise large tracts of 
 reclaimed and cultivated land, and not an incon- 
 siderable proportion under constant arable rota- 
 tion. Yet no creditable reason can be assigned 
 for the difference. The downs of the south, as 
 to both their intrinsic character and their rela- 
 tive position, are strictly similar to the wolds of 
 the north ; and why ought they to be inferior to 
 them in agricultural condition 1 They have no 
 poorer a soil while waste, and no hungrier a one 
 when cultivated ; they are quite as rich in sub- 
 strata of excellent chalk, for the supply of the 
 materials of surface improvement and permanent 
 amelioration; they are quite as contiguous to 
 good grass lands, the cattle from which, fed ju- 
 diciously while consuming the straw, afford the 
 advantage of excellent manure ; and they quite 
 as amply command an inland navigation and a 
 railway communication for obtaining artificial 
 manures from the sea -ports, and for sending 
 their surplus produce to the market - towns. 
 " Two districts, thus similar in their nature and 
 resources, but so opposite in their mode of culti- 
 vation for the last half-century," remarked Mr. 
 Pusey in 1843, "prove the many and great ad- 
 vantages of a good system of husbandry, and the 
 
 much-to-be-regretted results of a bad one. The 
 one country continues to increase in fertility; 
 the other still remains in a state of comparative 
 sterility. The northern district, from the port 
 of Hull alone, encourages commerce to a large 
 extent. The imports for 1841 amounted to 120,865 
 quarters of linseed, 77,380 quarters of rape-seed, 
 8,346 tons of oil-cake, 5,255 tons of rape-cake, 
 and 25,908 tons of bones, — total value, £900,000. 
 The southern district makes very little use of 
 foreign productions for the improvement of its 
 light poor soils ; indeed, it is capable of promot- 
 ing in but a very small degree the home trade of 
 the kingdom, the labourers' wages being barely 
 sufficient to provide them with food ; whereas, 
 under a well-conducted alternate system of agri- 
 culture, there always exists a well-paid and well- 
 clad population, which cannot fail to cause a mu- 
 tual reciprocity of good feeling between the 
 agriculturists and manufacturers." See the 
 article Bone-Manure. 
 
 The farmer of the southern downs maybe averse 
 to encounter the great cost of procuring artificial 
 manures, the land-agent may be averse to assume 
 additional troubles of supervision and manage- 
 ment, and the landlord may be averse to incur 
 the expenditure of erecting additional farm-build- 
 ings ; yet all these classes, in the existing condi- 
 tion of the districts, are unquestionably inferior 
 in wealth and comfort to the corresponding classes 
 in the improved portions of the northern wolds. 
 Almost any ordinary or average piece of down- 
 land may be so manured and managed as to yield 
 a profitable course of crops throughont an inde- 
 finite period from the time of its being broken 
 up ; and even a tilled piece which has been grossly 
 mismanaged, or rapidly worked to exhaustion, 
 may, under judicious and persevering treatment, 
 be brought, in a few years, into a highly remu- 
 nerating condition. " The farm I now occupy, 
 on the highest part of Salisbury Plain," says Mr. 
 Pusey, " was taken in 1832, on a ten years' lease, 
 at 24s. per acre, rent and tithe. The first crop 
 was wheat, which, I believe, exceeded 4 quarters 
 per acre ; the next oats, which I ascertained 
 to be nearly 8 quarters per acre ; then turnips, 
 without manure, except one quarter per acre 
 of bone-dust for the swedes. The occupier 
 then left it, declaring that the land was ex- 
 hausted, and would ruin any one to work out 
 the lease. I ventured to undertake the farm 
 for the remaining term ; and for the first three 
 years I certainly had the worst crops imaginable, 
 — wheat and barley, little more than the seed 
 again, — oats, about 4 quarters per acre, under 30 
 lbs. per bushel ; grass seeds would not grow, the 
 land was so light, — indeed, such clouds of dust 
 frequently blew from the land, that sheep could 
 not pasture near it. The improving state of the 
 farm from the turnip system and the artificial 
 grasses, is now apparent ; seven quarters per acre 
 of oats are easily attained, and of good quality. 
 
DRAG. 
 
 400 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 The present rent and tithe, though too high for 
 the times, is 18s. per acre, at least four times its 
 original value." The grand means of profitably 
 farming all down-lands which are converted into 
 tillage, as well as of fertilizing such as have been 
 scourged to exhaustion, are to manure with bones, 
 chalk, and farm-yard manure, and to practise the 
 following five years' rotation, — first, turnips or 
 rape, — secondly, barley or oats, — third and fourth, 
 grass seeds fed green, — and fifth, wheat. Yet 
 the manures must be apportioned with judgment 
 and special adaptation ; and the rotation must 
 be occasionally varied, or, in some instances, may 
 be permanently modified. " He has boned his 
 land to a very considerable extent," says Mr. 
 Pusey respecting the occupier of a stronger and 
 better piece of down-land, than that on which he 
 had himself experimented, " and his turnips, thus 
 managed, have invariably been a great crop. It 
 is his opinion, that were the system of two corn- 
 crops in succession, and of mowing the seeds for 
 hay instead of pasturing with sheep, done away 
 with, the land would become more certain for 
 turnips, particularly swedes, than in the north. 
 He has also grown linseed with success ; for which 
 he considers the lightest of the downs particularly 
 adapted. He thus obtains a substitute for oil- 
 cake, the carrage on which from London renders 
 it very dear. Linseed is sown, instead of barley 
 or oats, in the spring. He has brought into cul- 
 tivation the whole of his own down-pasture, and 
 is enabled, by artificial grasses, to keep more 
 sheep in summer, and much better than in its 
 original state. But his greatest advantage is in 
 the winter ; a good turnip system, in lieu of hay, 
 enabling him to provide food for many more 
 sheep at a far less cost, as well as keeping them 
 in a much higher state of condition. In short, 
 the farm will bear comparison with the rich land 
 of the neighbourhood, considered of twice the 
 value." — Communications to the Board of Agri- 
 culture. — Sinclair's Hortus Gramineus Woburnen- 
 sis. — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
 
 DRAG. A contrivance for checking or regulat- 
 ing the motion of a wheeled vehicle upon a de- 
 clivity. Drags of a very diversified construction, 
 both for carts and for carriages, are familiar to 
 the most ordinary observer, and need not be de- 
 scribed. One of the simplest for carts is Knee- 
 bone's, — consisting of a piece of wrought iron so 
 formed as exactly to fit the curvature of the 
 wheel, with a chain to keep it steady, and to be 
 fastened to the near shaft ; and this implement 
 is so hung on hooks at the under part of the tail 
 of the cart as to be always ready for use. " This 
 simple contrivance," remarks Smith, " has never 
 failed to be effectual in retarding carts, or any 
 two- wheeled carriages, while descending hills, 
 taking off the great burden from the shaft horse, 
 and permitting the carriage to descend with the 
 greatest ease and safety in the most mountainous 
 
 country. It may be applied to any kind of road, 
 and is not subject to the inconvenience of lock- 
 ing-poles, which, on rough roads, among loose 
 stones or deep ruts, are very apt to overturn 
 carts by the sudden resistance they meet with. 
 Deep ruts or loose stones have not been found to 
 lessen the advantages of this drag." 
 
 DRAG. A very heavy pair of harrows. But 
 the word is thus used only in some districts. 
 
 DRAGON, — botanically Dracontium. A genus 
 of curious, evergreen, creeping, tropical plants, 
 of the order aroideae. Two species, the many- 
 leaved and the prickly, each apetalous and about 
 two feet high, were introduced to the hothouses 
 of Britain, from respectively Indian and Ceylon, a 
 little after the middle of last century ; and several 
 other species are known to botanists. The root 
 of the many-leaved species, after having been 
 artificially freed from some of its acrimony, is 
 used in India as an antispasmodic, and as a re- 
 medy for piles and for asthmatic affections ; and, 
 as sold in the bazaars, it has an odour similar to 
 that of musk, but not nearly so strong. — Dragon 
 is also the popular name of two hardy perennial- 
 rooted aroideae of the arum genus, A. dracuncidus 
 and A. dracontium, — the former sometimes called 
 common dragon, and the latter green dragon. 
 
 DRAINING. The withdrawal of superfluous 
 or injurious moisture from land, by means of ar- 
 tificial conduits. It draws off water either along 
 the surface, or in connexion with springs, or 
 through the subsoil ; and hence, though exceed- 
 ingly various in kind, it is capable of classifica- 
 tion into surface-draining, strata-draining, and 
 subsoil-draining. It is the most powerful of the 
 several processes for reclaiming waste lands, and 
 for improving stiff soils ; it is not exceeded by 
 either tillage or manuring in its beneficial influ- 
 ence upon the richest descript ion of arable lands ; 
 and it is equal or superior to all other georgical 
 operations whatever, in the great diversity of its 
 modes of action, direct and indirect, in producing 
 and maintaining fertility. Weather has scarcely 
 a more intimate relation to climate, than proper 
 draining has to efficient agriculture. The prin- 
 ciples of draining, therefore, ought to be tho- I 
 roughly understood ; its practices ought never to 
 be conducted in either a random, a blindfold, or 
 a prejudiced manner ; and all discussions of its 
 nature and utility ought to be unencumbered by 
 theory, and have reference solely to science and 
 facts. The worst of the multitudinous systems 
 of draining which have challenged public notice 
 deserve some examination ; and the best have 
 not adaptation to all lands and districts, and are 
 scarcely beyond the reach of criticism for any. 
 We shall do our best, on this great subject, to be 
 at once clear, comprehensive, and impartial ; and 
 in order that every reader may be enabled to 
 form his own opinion of the uses of draining, and 
 of the particular modes of it which may seem 
 best adapted to any given varieties of land, we 
 
J_Bcrwer scr K dhF 
 
 A pTiHartOTi &. C° Lcmdxm &. E dmkt^.. 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 shall commence by giving a somewhat full view 
 of the principles on which it acts, and of the 
 effects which it produces. 
 
 The Principles and Effects of Draining. — A su- 
 perabundance of water on the surface of bogs, 
 fens, and marshes is so obvious a cause of great and 
 manifold evils as not to require explanation ; yet 
 it operates, in many respects, quite as leniently 
 as an excess of moisture in the cultivated lands of 
 peopled districts. " The water which is retained 
 under the soil on impervious layers of earth," 
 remarks a writer in the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture, " effects incalculable mischief. While 
 hidden water remains, manure, whether putres- 
 cent or caustic, can impart no fertility to We 
 soil ; the plough, the harrow, and even the roller, 
 cannot pulverize it into a fine mould ; the grass 
 can contain no nutriment for live-stock, as the 
 finer sorts disappear, and their places are usurped 
 by coarse aquatic plants ; the stock can never 
 receive a hearty meal of grass or straw from land 
 in such a state ; they are always hungry and dis- 
 satisfied, and of course remain in low condition ; 
 the trees acquire a hard bark, stiffened branches, 
 and soon become the prey of innumerable para- 
 sites ; the roads in the neighbourhood are con- 
 stantly soft and rutted ; the ditches and furrows 
 are either plashy or like a sponge full of water, 
 — suitable receptacles for the newt and the frog ; 
 the circumambient air is always damp and chilly, 
 and from early autumn to late in spring, the raw 
 hoar-frost meets the face like a wet cloth morn- 
 ing and evening; in winter, the frost incrusts 
 every furrow and plant with ice, not strong 
 enough to bear one's weight, but just weak 
 enough to give way at every step, while the 
 snow lies lurking in crevices behind the sun till 
 late in spring, — fit feeding-ground of the wood- 
 cock and snipe ; and in summer, musquitoes, 
 green flies, midges, gnats, and gadflies torment 
 the cattle, the labourer, and his horses from 
 morning to night, whilst the sheep get scalded 
 heads and eaten up by maggots during the hot 
 blinks of sunshine." Yet dismal and horrible as 
 is this catalogue of evils, it does not point at one 
 half of the principles on which draining operates, 
 or name one half of the calamities which it con- 
 quers or repels. 
 
 The excessive humidity of our climate, parti- j 
 cularly throughout all Ireland and the western 
 parts of Scotland and England, might suggest the 
 probability of draining being as requisite for the 
 corn-fields of our country as irrigation is for the 
 rice-fields of the tropics. An excess of either 
 moisture or drought is seen by all observers to 
 injure most cultivated crops ; and an excess of 
 humidity in one set of climates, corresponding to 
 an excess of aridity in another set, might seem 
 to the most unreflecting mind to be a provision 
 of the all-wise and all-beneficent Creator to pro- 
 voke man to the exercise of forethought, pru- 
 dence, and healthful manual labour. Farmers 
 cannot control the clouds of either a dry climate 
 I. 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 or a wet one; but they can, with comparative 
 ease, supplement the former's deficient supplies 
 of rains by irrigation, and draw off the latter's 
 excessive supplies by draining. " It is the nature 
 of the climate, then, that regulates the necessity 
 for draining : and as the humid seasons greatly 
 outnumber the dry ones in this country, we must 
 therefore adopt that necessity. Had our climate 
 been like that of Italy, not only no draining 
 would have been in general necessary, but our 
 rivers, like hers, would have been directed into 
 channels to irrigate our lands, in order to pre- 
 serve to them that pleasant verdure in the height 
 of summer, on which the eye gazes with so much 
 delight, amid the rich luxuriance and the plains 
 of Lombardy." 
 
 Plants of different species have wide differences 
 of constitution for relishing or disliking moisture, 
 as well as for enduring extremes of heat and cold ; 
 and, with very few exceptions, such plants as 
 agree with much moisture contain exceedingly 
 little of the elements of nutrition for either man 
 or beast. Thorough succulent aquatics, such as 
 can thrive in the presence of constant surface 
 water, are chiefly sphagnums, hypnums, algse, 
 cotton-grasses, and other cryptogams and worth- 
 less phaenogams, fitted only to accumulate them- 
 selves into the substance of bogs, fens, and 
 morasses ; and the less decided aquatics, or such 
 as thrive only above subsoil water or with but 
 the occasional presence of surface water, are 
 chiefly rushes, sedges, coarse bents, and other 
 tall and bulky herbage, large-rooted and usurp- 
 ing enough to prevent the growth of fine grasses, 
 and consisting principally of elements and secre- 
 tions which the stomach of no domestic animal 
 can digest. The draining of morasses, therefore, 
 brings them into a condition for producing land 
 plants ; the draining of wet grass lands disposes 
 them to exchange their coarse herbage for the 
 finer grasses ; and the draining of corn-fields de- 
 ters them from giving a coarse aquatic character 
 to their produce, and enables them to bear their 
 crops in the manner of superior fertility. " On 
 drained land," remarks Mr. Stephens, " the straw 
 of white crops shoots up steadily from a vigorous 
 braird, strong, long, and at the same time so stiff 
 as not to be easily lodged with wind or rain. 
 The grain is plump, large, bright-coloured, and 
 thin-skinned. The crop ripens uniformly, is 
 bulky and prolific, more quickly won for stack- 
 ing in harvest, more easily thrashed, winnowed, 
 and cleaned, and produces fewer small and light 
 grains. The straw also makes better fodder for 
 live stock. Clover, in such land, becomes rank, 
 long, and juicy, and the flowers are large and of 
 bright colour. The hay from it wons easily, and 
 weighs heavy to its bulk. Pasture-grass shoots 
 out in every direction, covering the ground with 
 a thick sward, and produces fat and milk of the 
 finest quality. Turnips become large, plump, 
 as if fully grown, juicy, and with a smooth and 
 oily skin. Potatoes push out long and strong 
 2 C 
 
 401 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 stems, with enlarged tubers, having skins easily 
 peeled off, and a mealy substance when boiled." 
 
 Both soils and subsoils have wide differences 
 of capacity for moisture, so that a degree of 
 humidity of climate which is eminently fertiliz- 
 ing to one kind of land may produce a great ex- 
 cess of moisture upon another. Humus, clay, 
 and chalk readily absorb moisture to the degree 
 of saturation ; and when they are presented with 
 more than a saturating dose of it, they retain it 
 as if they were vast beds of minute sponges, and 
 as completely prevent its percolation as if they 
 were strata of tallow or of metal ; while silicious 
 sands and gravels, on the other hand, can receive 
 none of it into their granules, and allow it to 
 percolate amongst them with all the freedom of 
 a rapid and constant filtration. Soils of humus, 
 clay, or chalk, therefore, if not freed from an 
 enormous proportion of water by drainage, will 
 necessarily produce nothing but aquatic plants 
 in climates which naturally enrich and fertilize 
 arenaceous soils ; and substrata of clay or chalk, 
 especially substrata so high as to sustain the re- 
 lation of immediate subsoils, if not constantly 
 tapped and fissured by the action of drains, will 
 so arrest the descent of the water of prolonged 
 or heavy rains as to cause the repletion and drown- 
 ing of even sandy surfaces. The composition and 
 structure of the earth's crust, also — the great 
 number of its materials, their diversity, their 
 mixture, their differences of mechanical condi- 
 tion, their geognostic relations, the disturbed 
 connexions of alluviums and rocks, of strata and 
 crystalline protrusions — occasion amazing differ- 
 ences and sudden transitions of retentiveness 
 and porosity, rendering one place thirsty and in- 
 satiable, and another spouty and disgorging, and 
 sometimes producing as great and unconquerable 
 a necessity for artificial drainage on the farm as 
 for natural drainage at the sources of rivers. 
 But we reserve a full view of the saturating of 
 land from springs and subterranean stagnations 
 to the sections on respectively strata -draining 
 and subsoil-draining. 
 
 The natural or artificial stagnation of consid- 
 erable bodies of water frequently occasions, not 
 only the loss to cultivation of the extent of sur- 
 face which the water covers, but a very mischiev- 
 ous excess of moisture in circumjacent cultivated 
 land. Lakes and ponds, in many instances, are 
 so shallow and cover such beds of rich alluvium, 
 that the draining of them is one of the cheapest 
 and easiest possible methods of obtaining an ac- 
 cession of good land ; and even some lakes and 
 ponds which are deep, and which cover rocky, 
 gravelly, or otherwise barren bottoms, are, in some 
 instances, the causes of such wide-spread wetness 
 and spoutiness of both soils and subsoils, that the 
 draining of them is well repaid by the permanent 
 drying of the surrounding lands. The water of 
 ditches which surround fields, also, particularly 
 of such as extend along the highest side of the 
 fields, often finds its way downward info the 
 
 porous parts of the subsoil, oozes up to some 
 parts of the surface of the fields, and effects, in 
 wet weather, as great and mischievous discharges 
 and plashiness as the out -bursting water of a 
 strong perennial spring. The water of dams 
 large surface drains, and small confined rivulets, 
 whenever flowing along a higher level than that 
 of adjacent fields and meadows, is likewise a fre- 
 quent cause of considerable local wetness of land ; 
 and may be pointed out as a species of drainage 
 which itself requires draining, and as illustrating 
 the necessity of maintaining all sources of water, 
 whether natural or artificial, at a lower level than 
 the proper seat and aliment of plants in the ad- 
 jacent lands. 
 
 The drying of land by draining produces a 
 most powerful effect upon the food of cattle, ex- 
 terminating noxious aquatic plants, improving 
 the quality of the finer grasses, vastly increasing 
 the amount of nourishment, and occasioning an 
 agreeable dryness and a palatable flavour in both 
 roots and leaves. Grass lands which were for- 
 merly wet, poached, and rushy, become thickly 
 carpeted with fine nutritious grasses, maintain a 
 greatly increased number of sheep and cattle, 
 prevent the sheep from being attacked with rot, 
 render the cattle good-tempered and kindly, and 
 occasion the flesh of both sheep and cattle to be 
 greatly improved in points and flavour. " In the 
 southern districts of Scotland, particularly in the 
 counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk, and 
 Peebles," said Sir John Sinclair in 1817, "most 
 of the principal sheep farms have been very much 
 drained, and the consequence is, that the size, 
 quality, and healthiness of the stock in these dis- 
 tricts have been thereby so much improved as 
 appears almost incredible to those who were ac- 
 quainted with the former state of sheep-farming 
 in those parts. In many of these farms, the rent 
 has increased fourfold, and the rot is now hardly 
 known." Even the stiffest and most retentive 
 clay lands, such as, with slight or imperfect drain- 
 ing, would be thoroughly poached by cattle, and 
 would bring a pestilence of rot upon sheep, may, 
 by a process of complete subsoil -draining, be 
 rendered excellent turnip soils, perfectly healthy 
 for all live stock, and capable of being folded or 
 fed off by sheep in either summer or winter. 
 
 The texture of wet land multiplies the labours 
 of tillage, and is vastly improved in its workable 
 capacities by draining. Its texture, even though 
 everywhere consisting of the same materials, is 
 exceedingly and fitfully various in hardness and 
 softness. Some portions of it are spongy with 
 the springing or the percolating of water ; some 
 are consolidated by the successive expulsion of 
 moisture, tread of cattle, and drying by eva- 
 poration ; some are tough with the matted and 
 elastic roots of carices and semiaquatic grasses ; 
 some are stubborn and refractory with the firm 
 imbedding of small stones ; and some present a 
 rapid succession of depths and shallows of soil, 
 ready at one moment to fling up the plough to 
 
.DRAINING 
 
 Oott-er.sc'Edinr 
 
 A FnTlflTton 8c C° Ionian & EcHnbnrgli 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 403 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 the surface, and at another to tempt it down to 
 a perilous and impracticable depth. A plough- 
 man, in working such land, must practise the 
 utmost steadiness of eye and skill of hand ; he 
 is kept on a constant tension of vigilance and 
 effort ; he is worn with, exertion^ tantalized in 
 his efforts, vexed and plagued in temper, put 
 to a severe and constant trial of all his powers 
 as a ploughman and all his patience as a man ; 
 and even though he should be one of the ablest, 
 most experienced, most persevering, and best- 
 tempered operatives of his class, he will utterly 
 fail to maintain uniformity of depth in the fur- 
 row-slice, or to effect regularity or tolerable good- 
 ness in general execution. His plough will dip 
 in some places, and be tilted up in others ; it 
 will now be arrested and now let go, so as to 
 make a succession of violent strains and jerks 
 upon the horses ; and it will, in few places, lay 
 the furrow-slices completely over, or so effectually 
 detach their lower edges from the basement-soil 
 as to make their upturned sides cohere in the 
 manner of a continuous mass. The harrows, too, 
 will rather scratch the tops of the furrow-slices, 
 than tear their whole body into powder ; and the 
 roller will effect such a compression as to render 
 the surface somewhat like that of a footpath. 
 But when even the wettest and most clayey arable 
 land is completely drained, it acquires a free, 
 friable, homogeneous texture, as sweetly and 
 facilely workable as that of a naturally light 
 arenaceous soil. " Being all alike dry, its tex- 
 ture becomes uniform ; and being so, the plough 
 passes through it with an uniform freedom ; and 
 where ordinary-sized stones obstruct its course, 
 the plough can easily dislodge them. The plough 
 by its own gravity tends to raise a deep furrow ; 
 and the furrow on its part, though heavy, crum- 
 bles down and yields to the pressure of the mould- 
 board, forming a friable, mellow, rich-looking 
 mould, not unlike the granular texture of raw 
 sugar. The harrows, instead of being held back 
 and starting forward, swim smoothly along, rak- 
 ing the soil into a smooth uniform surface, en- 
 tirely obliterating the prints of footmarks. The 
 roller compresses the surface of the soil, and 
 leaves what is below in a soft state for the ex- 
 pansion of the roots of plants." 
 
 But the draining of wet land, besides facilitat- 
 ing and improving the labours of tillage, greatly 
 abridges their amount, and economizes their cost. 
 The operations are easier, and therefore require 
 fewer horses ; and they are far more efficient, 
 and therefore require less repetition. " I should 
 say," remarks Mr. Arkell, in his recent Prize 
 Essay on draining,— and his experience closely 
 coincides with that of all clay-land farmers who 
 have adopted a good system of subsoil-draining, 
 — " I should say my land, which is more heavy 
 in ploughing than might be thought from its 
 appearance, ploughs as easily now with three 
 horses as it formerly did with four; and as there 
 are no wet furrows to encourage grass and weeds, 
 
 the summer fallow is no longer necessary, which 
 will somewhat lessen the number of ploughings. 
 And when we also consider its ploughing up 
 mellower, its requiring less dragging and harrow- 
 ing to get it to a tilth, also no furrows or trenches 
 to be ploughed out after the seed is sown, and 
 likewise that you are often able to plough it 
 from the land being dry, when otherwise you 
 could not or ought not,' — taking the above heads 
 together, I should say there would be saved one- 
 third of horse-labour, though some will say that 
 the saving is a great deal more, provided the 
 land is only kept as clean as before, but I would 
 rather understate than overstate any thing." 
 Some portion of the saving of horse-labour, in- 
 deed, will require to be expended in the new 
 direction of cartage from increase of crops ; but 
 this is a consequence which every farmer will 
 very cordially welcome. 
 
 The draining of wet arable soil occasions a 
 great aggregate increase in the productive area 
 of fields. The laying up of ploughed lands in 
 ridges is, in fact, a method of draining ; but ex- 
 cept on fields of the most unctuous and com- 
 minuted clay, which require a system of surface- 
 draining in co-operation* with a system of sub- 
 soil-draining, it is a method no less rude and waste- 
 ful than ancient and general ; it throws off an 
 excess of water from the crown of the ridge, at 
 the expense of producing an accumulated ex- 
 cess in the furrow ; it requires the ridges to be 
 narrow or the furrows to be numerous in propor- 
 tion to 'the very tenacity or fructiferous powers 
 of the soil ; and it occasions the stripes of land 
 which constitute the bottoms of the furrows to 
 be almost absolutely barren, and the stripes 
 which constitute the flanks of the furrows or 
 the borders of the ridges to be only semi-produc- 
 tive. A glance at the utterly bare furrow-bot- 
 toms and at the thin and dwarfed produce of the 
 furrow -flanks, as compared with the tall and 
 luxuriant corn of the summits of the ridges, inci- 
 dentally illustrates the vastly fertilizing power 
 of drainage, and will probably suggest that about 
 one-twelfth or one-tenth of the entire area of 
 ridge-and-furrow fields is unproductive to the 
 farmer.* Now in consequence of the drying 
 
 * " Superficial drainage," remarks Mr. Parkes, " is 
 comparatively of little value, and is, perhaps, exem- 
 plified in its worst practical form by land tortured 
 on the ridge and furrow system. When land is per- 
 manently cultivated in high ridges, the crowns can 
 obtain but partial benefit from the action of rain. 
 The gradation from the comparative dryness and 
 warmth of the summit, to the suffocating wetness 
 and coldness of the furrows, is commonly evidenced 
 by the state of the crops grown on land so dis- 
 posed. It would be curious, but possibly more curi- 
 ous than useful, to learn the origin of this remark- 
 able artificial configuration given to land, which is, I 
 fancy, peculiar to England and to particular counties. 
 One would think that this system must have been 
 invented previous to the discovery that water would 
 find its way into cut drains; or the inventor may 
 have considered rain as his greatest enemy, and that 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 404 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 effects of good subsoil-draining upon every part, 
 every square foot, of a field, and upon all the 
 parts of it alike, the whole of this great area, 
 the one-twelfth or one-tenth of the surface of all 
 his cropped lands, is saved by subsoil draining to 
 the farmer. 
 
 Even on subsoil-drained lands which still re- 
 quire to be laid up in ridges, such as unctuous 
 clays upon retentive subsoils, some saving of pro- 
 ductive area can be effected by means of a mode 
 of ridging which cannot be practised on un- 
 drained or even on partially but imperfectly 
 drained land. " After I have drained a piece of 
 land," says an experienced georgist in reference 
 to land of this description, " if I wish to keep it 
 in ridges, which I do when the lands are wide 
 and on a clay subsoil, I plough each land alter- 
 nately ridge and cast, always ploughing the two 
 lands that lie to be ridged first, one on each side 
 of the one to be cast. By doing so, I have only 
 one finishing furrow to two lands, and that al- 
 ways on the top of the ridge, and they are gener- 
 ally plain enough to hoe or to reap without fresh 
 striking. By this mode, there is no more tread- 
 ing over the drain than over any other part, 
 and a considerable amount in manual labour is 
 saved annually in not having to make furrows 
 and water -trenches, which are quite requisite 
 before the land is drained, though, besides tak- 
 ing off the water, a considerable portion of the 
 best soil is washed off with it." 
 
 The loss of rich soil and prime manure by sur- 
 face currents on undrained retentive lantl is very 
 great. The portions of soil most thoroughly pul- 
 verized, those which possess the highest inter- 
 mixtures of ammonia, potash, and other food of 
 plants, and those which have been worked by 
 chemical action into a state of the greatest fit- 
 ness for the immediate uses of the growth of 
 plants, are precisely the portions which the rains 
 sweep away ; and the amount of them on all 
 kinds of undrained retentive land is so great as 
 to render the streams into which they are car- 
 ried exceedingly turbid ; while the amount on 
 fields which are laid up in high and narrow 
 ridges is sometimes so enormous as to render the 
 little rills of drainage almost like thin paste. 
 The manure swept away, too, is the very best on 
 the land, — either absolutely liquid manure, hold- 
 ing in solution the largest possible proportions of 
 ammonia, — or solid organic manure in the last 
 stages of eremacausis, almost ready to assume 
 the aeriform condition, and quite ready, in a 
 great degree, to be absorbed and assimilated by 
 the plants ; and though the quantity washed 
 away cannot be accurately estimated, it must in 
 ail cases be very considerable, and in some so 
 great as nearly to exceed belief. On pasture 
 lands, also, the loss is enormous. Not only are 
 some portions of the manure deposited by the 
 
 he ought to prevent its entrance into the soil, and 
 get rid of it as soon as possible." 
 
 flocks washed away piecemeal by successive 
 heavy rains during the pasturing season, but a 
 large proportion remains to be swept off by the 
 deluging rains of winter. Much of the manure 
 from the summer's depasturing is still on the 
 surface of the land in autumn ; and though por- 
 tions of it continue to sink into the soil till the 
 latter becomes saturated, yet almost all which 
 remains after the point of saturation is swept 
 away. Now thorough draining, in all instances, 
 prevents by far the greater part of this very 
 serious loss to both ploughed lands and grass 
 lands ; and whenever the draining, the soil, and 
 the weather, are such as to coax into the drains 
 the whole of the superfluous waters discharged 
 by the atmosphere, every particle of the loss is 
 prevented. 
 
 The draining of wet wheat lands occasions a 
 considerable saving in seed, and secures great re- 
 gularity and fulness in germination and growth. 
 On undrained clay soils, many seeds of wheat, 
 especially in any unusually wet season, burst and 
 perish ; some young plants are starved, dwarfed, 
 and eventually destroyed by stagnations of cold 
 moisture ; and some, in consequence of the swell- 
 ing and shrinking of the parts of the soil from 
 excess of damp, are thrown out of the ground 
 and killed by alternations of frost and thaw. 
 Draining may occasion the saving of two pecks 
 of seed per acre, and prevent the loss of from one- 
 twentieth to one-twelfth of the whole crop from 
 the destruction of seed and of young plants. 
 
 Draining prevents the injurious effects of the 
 stagnation of water. It does not, of course, and 
 cannot, diminish the quantity of water which 
 soils receive from the atmosphere ; but, besides 
 rapidly drawing off excessive supplies of it, and 
 averting some most mischievous effects which an 
 excess of it produces upon climate, soil, and vege- 
 tation, it prevents a malign chemical transmu- 
 tation of its own properties from stagnation. The 
 running water of streams is, in general, free from 
 the excrementitious refuse of plants, and charged 
 with carbonic acid, saline solutions, and commi- 
 nuted alluvium; and it, in consequence, acts bene- 
 ficially, for some time at least, upon fine and 
 nutritious herbage, and occasions all the rich 
 and luxuriant vegetation which is well known 
 to characterize irrigated meadows. Even water 
 which wells up in the form of springs from the 
 bowels of the land is, in numerous instances, so 
 highly charged with carbonic acid and saline 
 matters as to act nutriently upon many fine and 
 useful land-plants ; and, generally, when it has 
 an opposite effect, and produces the same kind 
 of mischief as arises from an excess of surface 
 water, it really ceases to be proper spring water, 
 and is converted by the local peculiarities of soil 
 and level into water of saturation. But stag- 
 nant water, whether from rain, from canals, from 
 pent-up streams, or from repressed and smothered 
 springs, is, in all instances, destitute of the car- 
 bonic acid and the alkaline mixtures which 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 nourish vegetation, and more or less charged 
 with vegetable excrementitious matter which is 
 injurious to cultivated crops. No horizontal 
 current passes across a collection of it to carry 
 off its solutions of vegetable excrement, or to 
 spread it out in a succession of surfaces for aera- 
 tion ; but, on the contrary, a slow ascending 
 current rises vertically through it, occasioned 
 by evaporation from the surface, — a subordinate 
 descending current falls perpendicularly down- 
 ward, occasioned by a lower temperature below 
 than above ; and the consequence is that the 
 roots of plants immersed in it, instead of being 
 fed with aqueous solutions of all the valuable 
 gases of the atmosphere, are steeped and some- 
 times almost drowned in a liquid which presents 
 them with scarcely a particle of nourishment, 
 and which is drugged and polluted with accumu- 
 lations of vegetable excrement. All stagnant 
 water, no matter how limpid, possesses more or 
 less of the disgusting insipidity which indicates 
 the absence of carbonic acid; and very many 
 specimens of it possess a foulness of both taste 
 and colour which indicates unwholesomeness of 
 condition. If draining, therefore, did no more 
 than prevent the stagnation of water around the 
 roots of plants, — did it merely maintain such a 
 current or circulation in water as should keep it 
 in a fresh condition, — it would exert a great and 
 benign influence upon the vegetation of the farm. 
 All this is true respecting stagnation in its mild- 
 est forms or initial stages ; and as to stagnation 
 in fens, morasses, and vegetating ponds and 
 ditches, the draining of it amounts to the avert- 
 ing of fevers and pestilences from man and all 
 the domestic animals, and of death and exter- 
 mination from almost all kinds of vegetables ex- 
 cept the lowest species of aquatic cryptogams. 
 
 The draining of wet land greatly raises the 
 average spring and summer temperature of the 
 soil, produces an effect upon the early ripening 
 of hardy crops, and upon the hardiness and vigour 
 of half-tender plants equal to what would result 
 from cultivating them a number of degrees nearer 
 the equator ; or, in some instances, it occasions 
 so great an* increase of genial warmth as practi- 
 cally to convert a drained field of Britain into a 
 field of strictly kindred powers to those of an un- 
 drained field of the same composition, exposure, 
 and elevation, in the south of France or the 
 north of Italy. — Evaporation is the only means 
 by which the stagnating and the saturating 
 waters of undrained land can escape; and at 
 whatever temperature this takes place, whether 
 high or low, it consumes, in the susception of 
 every pound of water as great a quantity of heat 
 as can be evolved from the combustion of nearly 
 2 1 ounces of coals. Suppose the aggregate fall 
 of rain on an acre of land to amount in a year to 
 the depth of 30 inches, and suppose only the one- 
 half of it to be dispersed from that acre by eva- 
 poration, the total quantity evaporated through- 
 out the year would be 54,450 cubic feet or 1,519 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 I tons, and this would amount on the average to 
 4*16 tons per day, and would absorb and carry 
 off a quantity of heat equal to all which could 
 be obtained from the daily combustion of about 
 12 cwts. of coals. Now all this enormous quan- 
 tity of heat is either actually extracted from the 
 soil on which the evaporating water lies, or is in- 
 tercepted from the sun's rays, and prevented from 
 entering the soil by the process of evaporation ; 
 so that the whole of it is truly and absolutely lost 
 for the purposes of vegetation. The depression 
 of terrestrial temperature consequent on evapora- 
 tion, or on the want of drainage, is thus so great 
 as almost to confound vulgar belief; and this 
 depression must, in every instance, be propor- 
 tionate to the degree in which the water of stag- 
 nation or the water of saturation exceeds the 
 quantity of circulating water requisite for vege- 
 tation. " Soils in that state must necessarily be 
 very cold in the spring months, and much colder 
 at the time of the commencement of vegetation, 
 and throughout the summer, than well-drained 
 or naturally drier lands. If we knew the capa- 
 city for heat of any given soil, and the weight of 
 water mixed with it in excess, over the proper 
 complement necessary for vegetation, it would 
 be easy to determine, very nearly, the depression 
 of temperature caused by its evaporation. We 
 know that the heat of a pound of water in its 
 gaseous state, that is, as steam, would raise the 
 temperature of about 1,000 lbs. of water one 
 degree; so that if the specific heats of the 
 solid and the fluid bodies were alike, the evapo- 
 ration of a pound of water would keep down the 
 temperature of 1,000 lbs. of earth one degree, of 
 500 lbs. two degrees, and so on." — But water 
 also throws back into the atmosphere by radia- 
 tion a vast quantity of heat, which, but for its 
 presence, would be received and retained by the 
 soil. "Water has been abundantly proved to be 
 one of the most powerful radiators of heat, or 
 one of the most rapidly cooling substances, with 
 which we are acquainted; and during frost, 
 steaming water will acquire a coat of ice sooner 
 than water cold from the well, and boiling water 
 thrown on the ground will freeze sooner than 
 cold water. A wet surface, therefore, is alto- 
 gether incapable of enjoying, for any consider- 
 able time, a genial heat in even the finest and 
 warmest weather ; for, in addition to the enor- 
 mous amount which it wastes in evaporation, it 
 possesses but for a brief period the richest acqui- 
 sitions of it from sunshine till they become dis- 
 sipated and lost by radiation. — Nor is this all. 
 Stagnant water is one of the very worst conduc- 
 tors of heat, and, in consequence, seriously ob- 
 structs the absorption of heat from the sun's rays 
 by the subjacent' soil ; and it also acquires a 
 slight increase of weight from the loss of heat by 
 evaporation and radiation, and, in consequence, 
 maintains within itself a constant series of dis- 
 placements of its warmer atoms from below by 
 the descent of its cooled atoms from above. The 
 
 405 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 40G 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 stratum of it which occupies its surface, in the I 
 cool of the evening, or at a fall of temperature 
 during the day, cools, becomes heavier by cool- 
 ing, and immediately descends ; and this film of 
 cooled and condensed water is immediately re- 
 placed by warmer and lighter portions, which 
 speedily form another film ; and thus stratum 
 after stratum cools, condenses, and descends, each 
 giving off a portion of its heat by radiation, and 
 forcing upward a body of atoms warmer than it- 
 self, until, in extreme circumstances, the whole 
 mass of water attains its maximum density, or 
 has sunk to the low temperature of 42°. — By all 
 these methods, then, evaporation, radiation, non- 
 conduction, and increase of density, the water of 
 stagnation — as well as in a large degree also the 
 water of saturation — exerts a constant and enor- 
 mous refrigerating influence upon soil. " On the 
 other hand, when a soil is naturally so porous, 
 or is brought into such condition by art, that 
 rain-water can sink down into the earth, it be- 
 comes a carrier, an alert purveyor, instead of a 
 robber of heat ; and tends to raise permanently 
 the temperature of the mass of useful soil ; and 
 this more particularly and beneficially during 
 the vegetative season. Rain-water, at that time, 
 conveys downwards the more elevated superficial 
 heat of the soil, and imparts it to the subsoil in 
 its course to the drains ; it leaves the soil in a fit 
 state to receive fresh doses of rain, dew, and air, 
 and in a better condition to absorb and retain 
 heat, at the same time that it promotes, in other 
 ways, its fertility and productiveness. 1 ' 
 
 A curious fact, one of the numerous apparent 
 paradoxes which often delight scientific inquirers, 
 is, that the draining of wet land acts beneficially 
 by depressing the temperature of the soil in win- 
 ter, just as truly as by elevating it in spring and 
 summer. Stagnant water, as has been already 
 hinted, attains its maximum density at 42° Fah- 
 renheit ; so that all decrease of temperature be- 
 low that point can occur only at its surface, and, 
 even when sinking to 32° and under, will affect 
 only the surface by either expansion or congela- 
 tion, and cannot penetrate through the body of 
 the water, and still less to the soil on which it 
 lies. This curious law is exemplified not only in 
 sheets of water, or in strict water of stagnation, 
 but also in all such water of mere saturation as 
 truly occupies the interstices among the parti- 
 cles of the soil. Perennial-rooted plants upon 
 wet land, therefore, stand throughout the winter 
 in a minimum heat of about 41° ; they are never 
 allowed to settle down into the dormancy or hy- 
 bernating repose which is requisite for the re- 
 cruiting of their organic powers ; they continue, 
 during the severest and most prolonged frosts, to 
 live and fritter away their strength in a semi- 
 active condition ; and when spring shakes them 
 thoroughly up, and summer evokes them to dis- 
 charge all their functions, they prove to be jaded, 
 feeble, and sickly, and are unable to bring forth 
 more than a fraction of their normal amount of 
 
 produce. But on dry and porous land, whether 
 naturally dry or dried by draining, the temperature 
 of the soil cools down to the point of obtaining 
 protection from snow, and perennial-rooted plants 
 enjoy a long and a fast sleep throughout the win- 
 ter, and then they start up in spring with the 
 energy of renovated strength and reinvigorated 
 being. 
 
 Draining acts beneficially on the roots of plants, 
 increasing their range for feeding, aiding the 
 healthiness of their absorption, and preventing 
 injury from their excrementition. The roots of 
 plants, by a most beautiful provision of the Cre- 
 ator, grow only by increment at the ends ; and 
 when stiff soils are rendered porous and dry by 
 draining, the roots are coaxed out in all direc- 
 tions, both horizontal and perpendicular, — the 
 rapid formation of spongioles or. feeding orifices 
 is induced, — both the bulk and the ramifications 
 of the entire root are greatly increased, — and, 
 when the plants die, the roots remain and decay 
 in the soil, adding to its depth, and resolving 
 themselves into accumulated humus for feeding j 
 their successors. — Absorption through the spon- 
 gioles, indeed, might seem, on first thought, to 
 be benefited by excess of water, and is known in 
 all instances to require some degree of moisture, 
 as well as seen in many to be carried on during 
 constant immersion of the roots in mere water ; 
 but, except in aquatic cryptogams and other 
 marsh plants, it requires a continual and large 
 supply of oxygen for the preparation or macera- 
 tion of its food in the soil, — it presupposes circu- 
 lation of moisture no less than successional sup- 
 plies of food, — and hence, when the soil is drown- 
 ed with either stagnant or saturating water, the 
 food of land plants is both ill-macerated and ex- 
 cessively diluted, and the absorption of it becomes 
 slow and sickly, and is followed by more or less 
 of vegetable atrophy. — The law of radical growth 
 by increment at the ends, not only pushes out 
 the spongioles in search of fresh food, but also 
 carries them away from the deposition of excre- 
 ment. " Now," says Dr. Madden, " when there 
 is an excess of water in soil, all the soluble mat- 
 ter must be continually descending 6n account 
 of the greater specific gravity of the solution ; 
 and consequently, the prevailing direction of the 
 roots of plants growing in marshy ground should 
 be perpendicular, as this is the direction in which 
 the greatest supply of food will be obtained. 
 Now, I rather think that observation will prove 
 the correctness of this remark ; at least, I know 
 well that many marsh plants have a horizontal 
 underground stem or rhizoma from which the 
 rootlets proceed directly downwards. If, how- 
 ever, the roots of plants descend, it follows that 
 the excretion of to-day will be relatively nearer 
 the surface than the spongioles of to-morrow ; 
 and consequently, if an excess of water be pre- 
 sent, all excretions of plants being at first soluble 
 in water, it will follow that the excrementitious 
 matter will become immediately mingled with 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 407 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 the food, and applied directly to the spongiole. 
 If this observation be correct, it should be found 
 that marshy plants are not so easily injured by 
 the absorption of excrementitious matters as 
 those growing in drier situations, which may 
 probably be accounted for by the greater quantity 
 of fluid at all times circulating through them." 
 The draining of wet arable land, therefore, by 
 rendering the soil porous, and preventing satu- 
 ration with water, both enables the rootlets to 
 escape laterally from the excrementitious de- 
 posits, and hinders these deposits from being 
 held in solution and from settling down to the 
 perpendicular rootlets in the manner of sedi- 
 ment. 
 
 The draining of land which has either a stiff 
 or a porcus soil incumbent on impervious sub- 
 strata, provides a reservoir or comparatively am- 
 ple supply of oxygenated moisture or of fresh 
 water during the prevalence of droughts. The 
 subsoil, whatever be its character, regulates the 
 supply of moisture. When excessively porous, it 
 occasions the superincumbent soil to be parched 
 and arid; when spongy, it imparts to the soil 
 such a capacity of saturation as renders it fit 
 only for aquatics ; and when impervious, it oc- 
 casions surface stagnation during the prevalence 
 of wet weather, and total exsiccation after a con- 
 tinuance of drought. But a subsoil of such po- 
 rosity as to act like a filter, promotes both the 
 easy descent of water during rains and the free 
 ascent of vapour during droughts ; it lets both 
 the water of rains and the heat of droughts 
 readily down to the subterranean channels, and 
 in consequence maintains the precise kind of 
 circulation which the changing conditions of the 
 soil and the weather require ; it permits excess 
 of water from either springs or surface to pass 
 away without injury to vegetation, and, at the 
 same time, maintains a sufficient supply of water 
 within range of the roots of plants, or at least 
 within range of evaporation amongst them, to 
 keep them from being withered or starved dur- 
 ing even the driest seasons. Both the mechani- 
 cal and the chemical action of drainage, also, act 
 favourably on the maintenance of moisture. " It 
 might be supposed that a soil improved by sub- 
 soil draining," remarks Dr. Shier, "would be 
 more liable to suffer during protracted drought 
 than an undrained one. This, however, is not 
 the case ; the plants being found fresh and vig- 
 orous, while those of a cold, compact, and un- 
 drained soil are burnt up. This arises from 
 several causes, — the improved texture and ab- 
 sorbent power, the greater depth and feeding 
 surface afforded to the roots, and the facility with 
 which water adheres in a state fit for nourishing 
 the roots. When the excess of water gets readily 
 down into the drains, that which adheres con- 
 tains carbonic acid, oxygen, ammonia, and other 
 necessary and alimentary substances ; while the 
 stagnant water of undrained soils is prejudicial, 
 by excluding air, by keeping injurious dissolved 
 
 substances in contact with the roots, and by the 
 cold incident to excess of moisture." 
 
 But we must distinguish between currents of 
 water at a proper depth within or beneath a 
 porous subsoil, and a body of stagnant or of sa- 
 turating water along the bosom of an impervious 
 subsoil ; for the latter sends up noxious moisture 
 into the soil by capillary attraction, — it sustains 
 the same relation to the farmer's fields which 
 abhorred " bottom water" sustains to the flower- 
 pots and flower-beds of gardeners and florists, — 
 and the necessity or at least great advantage of 
 dissipating it is one of several very cogent reasons 
 for preferring deep draining to shallow draining 
 in all lands which have retentive subsoils. Some 
 persons, indeed, question the existence of such 
 an agency as capillary attraction through the 
 minute interstices of land, and deny that either 
 soil or subsoil is expanded by water rising from 
 below ; but if they will pour a little water into 
 the pan of a common flower-pot, filled with mo- 
 derately dry soil, they will observe it to be drawn 
 speedily up into the soil, — and if they will fill 
 two flower-pots with moderately wet soil, and put 
 some water into the pan of the one but no water 
 into the pan of the other, they will observe the 
 soil of the watered pot to remain plump and full, 
 and the soil of the unwatered pot to contract, and 
 to leave a crevice between its own exterior and 
 the sides of the pot. Now either stagnant or 
 saturant water taken up by capillary attraction 
 wants both the heat and the gases which are re- 
 quisite to vegetation ; and the carrying it off by 
 means of deep drains practically amounts to the 
 withdrawal of dead and innutritious moisture 
 from the soil. 
 
 Draining acts powerfully, and in a great di- 
 versity of ways, upon the chemical condition of 
 the soil. Some of the many chemical effects 
 have not yet been investigated; others are in- 
 timately connected with the maceration of the 
 food of plants ; and others are intimately con- 
 nected with the action and affinities of multitu- 
 dinous manures. See the articles Food, Man- 
 ures, Soils, and Agricultural Chemistry. Only 
 a very few, which either are general, or relate to 
 the saline constituents of soil, or have connexion 
 with lime or with farm-yard manure, need here 
 be selected for brief notice.— The free access of 
 air and of rain water through the pores of the 
 soil occasions steady and normal decomposition 
 of both organic and mineral substances, and 
 maintains a regular and constant process of trans- 
 mutation for macerating them into food absorb- 
 able by the spongioles. Oxygen is essential to 
 all the decompositions which occur, whether in 
 porous soil or under saturation ; and the effects 
 which result from oxygen freely and profusely 
 supplied from the air, are widely dissimilar to 
 those which result from sparse and reluctant 
 supplies of it as a constituent of water. When 
 oxygen rushes down from the atmosphere, it, in 
 many ways, economizes both the organic and the 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 408 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 inorganic substances for* the use of plants, — and, 
 in particular, combines with the carbon of humus 
 to afford a constant supply of carbonic acid ; but 
 when, as in all saturated soil, oxygen is obtained 
 by decomposing substances wholly or chiefly from 
 water, the hydrogen which was in combination 
 with it is set free, — and whenever it does not 
 find a profusion of putrescent animal matter to 
 supply it with nitrogen for forming ammonia, it 
 rushes into combination with the carbon of hu- 
 mus, and in consequence diverts a considerable 
 portion of the food of plants into the useless or 
 noxious form of carburetted hydrogen. A piece 
 of sheep-skin putrefied under water becomes 
 leaden blue, gives off a fetid and very ammonia- 
 cal smell, and, when boiled in the water of its 
 putrefaction, is unaffected by tincture of galls, 
 but throws down a considerable precipitate with 
 protomuriate of tin ; and another piece of the 
 same skin, putrefied in the same temperature, 
 but kept merely moist and in contact with the 
 atmosphere, suffers no change of colour, gives off 
 a disagreeably pungent smell, as if acetic acid 
 were present, and, when boiled in water, throws 
 down a precipitate with tincture of galls, but is 
 very slightly if at all affected by protomuriate 
 of tin. This instance of putrefied sheep-skin was 
 ascertained by experiment of Dr. Madden ; and 
 though it fails to show the precise results of 
 either case of decomposition, it very distinctly 
 proves that decomposition of animal matter under 
 the action of air and mere moisture evolves very 
 different principles from decomposition of the 
 same animal matter under an immersion or sa- 
 turation of water. 
 
 The chemical effects of draining upon the saline 
 ingredients of soil may be illustrated by two 
 select instances. Carbonate of lime and muriate 
 of soda, which exist in very many kinds of soil, 
 do not act upon each other under excess of mois- 
 ture, but mutually interchange their elements 
 under slight or moderate moisture, so as to pro- 
 duce muriate of lime and carbonate of soda. 
 Both of the latter salts are valuable to soil, — the 
 muriate of lime by increasing the soil's capacity 
 of absorption, and the carbonate of lime by in- 
 creasing the solubility of its organic constitu- 
 ents. In most cases, in consequence of the 
 soil being comparatively dry when the pheno- 
 menon occurs, the carbonate of soda, immedi- 
 ately on being formed, escapes from further 
 chemical action by effervescence ; but both it 
 and the muriate of lime are soluable in water ; 
 and when, in any circumstances, they afterwards 
 meet each other in solution, they re-interchange 
 their elements, and resolve themselves into the 
 original form of carbonate of lime and muriate 
 of soda. — The sulphate of lime or gypsum exists 
 in most fertile soils, and the gaseous and very 
 valuable carbonate of ammonia is constantly 
 eliminated from the conjoint decomposition of 
 vegetable and animal matters in the soil; and 
 when these two substances are within range of 
 
 each other in moderately moist soil, they inter- 
 change elements and form sulphate of ammonia 
 and carbonate of lime. " Now this change is of 
 great consequence. Let us suppose, for instance, 
 that, from a want of proper mixture of the man- 
 ure with the soil, so much manure is in one spot 
 — which must occur for the first year or so of 
 each rotation in drill husbandry — that the quan- 
 tity of ammonia given off is more than one-half 
 per cent, of the soil around it. Should nothing 
 prevent it, the excess of this valuable ingredient 
 would escape into the air. If, however, sulphate 
 of lime were present, the alkali, which would 
 have become carbonate by union with the car- 
 bonic acid always existing in soil, would imme- 
 diately be absorbed ; and, provided the soil were 
 not too wet, the change above alluded to would 
 occur, and sulphate of ammonia be formed, which, 
 being perfectly fixed, will remain any length of 
 time without being dissipated or lost. When, 
 however, by the occurrence of a good shower of 
 rain, the sulphate of ammonia is dissolved, and 
 thus brought in contact with the carbonate of 
 lime, the opposite change gradually occurs, and 
 carbonate of ammonia and sulphate of lime are 
 reproduced." — Thus in the case of both of the 
 sets of salts which we have named, changes are 
 produced in moderately moist or properly drained 
 soil, not only of a kind important to vegetation 
 and to the economizing of the food of plants, but 
 of a nature diametrically opposite to such as take 
 place in the presence of an excess of water. 
 
 The effect of draining upon both the chemical j 
 and the mechanical action of caustic lime is great. 
 Lime naturally decomposes and converts into the 
 food of plants many varieties of dead vegetable 
 matter which, but for its action, would lie inert 
 in the soil ; but it requires a free circulation of 
 air through the interstices of the soil and among 
 its own particles, in order to its exerting its 
 power; and, when dispersed throughout a soil 
 which is saturated with moisture, it loses its 
 causticity, and becomes as worthless and almost 
 as deleterious as drowned chalk. Lime naturally 
 acts also with mechanical effect, separating the 
 particles of adhesive soil, and drying and pul- 
 verizing hard and cloddy clay ; but it can pro- 
 duce this effect only in the absence of all excess 
 or saturation of moisture ; and if applied to clays 
 in a wet and saturated condition, it would con- 
 vert them into a kind of mortar, and would oc- 
 casion them to become almost as hard as pave- 
 ment during droughts. Even when lime is 
 spread as a top-dressing upon grass-land, it can 
 produce its well known beneficial effect only if 
 the land be either naturally dry or artificially 
 drained. Many ploughed fields, in either a na- 
 turally or an artificially dry condition, contain 
 such an excess of vegetable matter as to want 
 sufficient cohesion or consistency for giving me- 
 chanical support to plants ; and when they are 
 such free filtrators as never to become stagnantly 
 saturated with rains, they derive from lime the 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 409 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 great additional advantage of having part of 
 their soft and incoherent substance converted 
 into a supporting pabulum ; but this advantage, 
 as truly as the previous ones, cannot be obtained 
 on any land which is excessively wet ; for there 
 the little masses of soft organic matter are soaked 
 with water like sponges, and the lime lies inco- 
 herently beside them like lumps and particles of 
 saturated chalk. 
 
 The effect of draining upon farm-yard manure 
 amounts, in all instances, to the opportune and 
 regular decomposition of the manure, and, in 
 some, to the economizing of a large proportion of 
 its nutrient principles. In wet land, the pulpy 
 portions of the manure are taken up by the 
 water, and deposited low in the soil as sediment, 
 and the strawy portions are saturated with water 
 and resist decomposition, — so that, during spring 
 and early summer, very little food is furnished to 
 the young plants by the manure ; and when pro- 
 longed heat eventually carries off the excess of 
 moisture, the plants are overfed in the upper 
 part of the soil by the sudden decomposition of 
 the straw, and overfed in the lower part of the 
 soil by the manurial sediment which their roots 
 are then able to reach, — and, at a late period of 
 the season, they rush rapidly up to maturity, 
 with such a surfeiting of their sap-vessels as is 
 little less diseased or mischievous than their 
 starvation and languor in spring. The result is 
 the same whether the manure be spread through 
 the whole soil or deposited in drills ; yet, in con- 
 sequence of the latter method disposing the man- 
 ure in larger masses, and offering much less 
 facility for the separation of the pulpy portions 
 from the strawy portions, the effect is less malign 
 in drills than in dispersion. " As an instance 
 in point, potatoes cannot be successfully raised 
 on wet land, when the manure is spread broad- 
 cast on the ground in autumn or early in spring. 
 Before such practice can succeed, the land must 
 be in heart. But even in drills, on wet land, 
 the manure will be decomposed in different de- 
 grees and at different times. The driest portion 
 of the soil will first and most effectually decom- 
 pose the manure; the hardest, next in degree 
 and time; and the wettest will retain it in a 
 state of maceration, as long as the water is un- 
 evaporated by drought. Besides manure remain- 
 ing inert in wet land, it also remains inert in 
 such land rendered dry by drought. In that 
 predicament, the manure becomes desiccated, 
 undecomposed, and easily separated from the 
 soil, which becomes like a sterile powder, and 
 remains so until the return of rain. Were the 
 rain to fall in moderate quantities, the decom- 
 position of the manure would be rapidly hastened 
 in the warm soil ; but if, in inordinate quantities, 
 its decomposition would be retarded as effectually 
 as by the drought, although in this case it would 
 be dissipated before decomposition. Nothing 
 can so convincingly prove the benefits of drain- 
 ing in immediately securing the fertility of man- 
 
 ure to the soil, than in contemplating the bane- 
 ful effects of too much drought or moisture on 
 manure. And to render the proof the stronger, 
 we have only to contrast these effects with the 
 effect of drained land on manure. The moment 
 that manure is deposited in a proper state, that 
 is in a state of humidity in drained land, its 
 juices are absorbed by the dry soil, and retained 
 there as in a wet sponge half squeezed. The 
 strawy portion being thus deprived of moisture 
 by absorption, and still surrounded with com- 
 paratively dry soil, which retains heat within it- 
 self, and readily absorbs more from the air, it is 
 readily decomposed, and soon becomes intimately 
 blended with the soil. Food in a semi-moist- 
 state is thus placed near and ready prepared for 
 the tender spongioles of plants to exist upon ; and 
 supposing the weather no better, but only the 
 same as in a case of manure deposited in un- 
 drained land, the progress of vegetation will com- 
 pletely outstrip that in the latter." 
 
 Draining promotes the healthiness and the 
 vigorous growth of plants by lessening the hu- 
 midity of the lower regions of the atmosphere. 
 The coldness of wet lands condenses the aqueous 
 contents of the immediately incumbent atmo- 
 sphere into vapours so thick as sometimes to be 
 visible, and the dissipation of their excess of 
 water chiefly by evaporation produces almost 
 constant accumulations of aeriform humidity 
 over their surface ; so that, from these two 
 causes, wet lands are overhung by an enormously 
 larger amount of humidity than lands which are 
 dry. Now this excess of humidity dwarfs and 
 deteriorates land plants at once by lessening 
 their absorption of carbonic acid, by decreasing 
 their evaporation of the useless portions of their 
 sap, and by diminishing the number of their sto- 
 mata or organs of communication with the atmo- 
 sphere. The absorption of carbonic acid through 
 the stomata of leaves is the principal function for 
 the supply of carbon, — the bulkiest and heaviest 
 of all the constituent elements of all land plants ; 
 absorption takes in this gaseous substance from 
 the atmosphere, to subject it to chemical change 
 within the walls of minute subcuticular cells; 
 and whenever the stomata are clogged or the 
 cells are filled with moisture from depositions of 
 finely divided vapour upon the leaves, the pro- 
 cess of absorption is, for a time, either encum- 
 bered or altogether arrested. But through the 
 same stomata, the leaves of healthy plants re- 
 quire to throw out into the atmosphere about 
 two-thirds of all the crude sap which ascends 
 from the roots, and a still larger proportion in 
 the case of land plants growing on wet soil ; the 
 evaporation of this proportion of the sap is essen- 
 tial to the elaboration of the remainder into cam- 
 bium ; and whenever the stomata are wholly or 
 partially closed by atmospheric depositions of 
 humidity, the process of evaporation is just as 
 truly impeded as that of absorption. And when 
 the clogging of the stomata by humidity is either 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 410 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 frequent or prolonged, the plants' begin to ac- 
 commodate themselves to the circumstances in 
 which they grow, and gradually close up or ex- 
 tinguish stoma after stoma till the total number 
 of their stomata becomes greatly diminished, and 
 their very power of absorption and evaporation 
 becomes correspondingly decreased. Now drain- 
 ing removes the cause of these serious evils, and, 
 in consequence, removes the evils themselves. 
 
 But the removal of excessive humidity from 
 the immediately incumbent atmosphere, con- 
 jointly with the increase of heat in both air and 
 soil which results from draining, prevents also a 
 large proportion of the injuries which accrue to 
 the crops of wet lands from hoar-frost. "The 
 hurtful effect of rime or hoar-frost on vegeta- 
 tion," observes Mr. Black, in his account of the 
 draining of the estate of Spottiswoode in Ber- 
 wickshire, "is a circumstance familiar to all who 
 have had experience of cold and elevated dis- 
 tricts, or of lower lands subject to exhalations, 
 or excluded from the influence of the sun and 
 currents of air. The frost-rime, in the swampy 
 hollows of the estate of Spottiswoode, was found, 
 even in the warmest seasons, to be productive of 
 serious inconvenience and injury to the growing 
 crops, — and that chiefly at the period when the 
 grain was approaching to its maturer state. 
 This evil, it may be said, has been removed, 
 or at least is now so little felt that the grain 
 produced in these very hollows has, for many 
 years, escaped the smallest perceptible injury 
 from this cause. Indeed, any one who will 
 look along a moist and swampy surface, when 
 the frost -rime prevails, will see the vast and 
 beneficial effects to the climate around, of the 
 removal of so obvious a source of injury. No 
 one can mistake the proximate cause of the 
 phenomenon itself, since the rime will be seen 
 to hang over every swampy place, and to follow 
 the turns of every rivulet and marshy tract." 
 Yet, during winter, hoar-frost is a decided ben- 
 efit, rather than an evil, and protects the leaves 
 of clover, brassicas, and other winter standing 
 plants from suffering a lower depression of tem- 
 perature than 32° of Fahrenheit, exactly as a 
 carpeting of snow protects the soil ; and the sea- 
 son in which hoar-frost does injury is that of the 
 maturing of annual crops, — both depriving them 
 of the dews which i't congeals, and subjecting 
 them to a mischievous degree of cold. When 
 the humidity of the lower strata of the atmo- 
 sphere is occasioned either by the condensation 
 and descent of the vapour of the clouds or by 
 the evaporation of the water of rills, rivers, and 
 lakes, and when it exists in a region and over 
 lands of sufficient warmth to avert all risk of 
 frost, it constitutes the most refreshing and fer- 
 tilizing kind of moisture which vegetation can 
 obtain, and resolves itself, during summer and 
 autumn, into "the dews of heaven," so grateful 
 and so reviving in almost every cultivated region 
 of the globe. 
 
 Now draining aids vegetation by occasioning 
 a great increase in the deposition of dews. Dry, 
 porous, and thoroughly pulverulent soils radiate 
 heat from a vastly greater number of points than 
 wet or compact soils, and in consequence receive 
 more abundant depositions of dew in compara- 
 tively high temperatures, and continue to re- 
 ceive some at such low temperatures as prevent 
 the wet and compact soils from receiving any. 
 Sands are powerful attractors of dew, and, in 
 some countries, depend almost wholly upon it 
 for the support of vegetation. The sandy plains 
 of Chili rarely receive any rain, and might seem, 
 from their position, to be closely akin to the ex- 
 tensive sandy deserts of Africa ; yet, in conse- 
 quence of their profuse radiation of heat by day, 
 and of their receiving wondrous depositions of 
 dew during the splendid nights of their climate, 
 they maintain a comparatively high fertility. 
 Even some sandy spots in Africa, which are never 
 refreshed by either springs, rains, or artificial 
 supplies of water, possess a flourishing growth 
 of trees ; while soils of some cohesiveness in the 
 same latitude, and not far distant, require to be 
 irrigated in order to their sustaining vegetable 
 life. The low meadows on the banks of streams 
 in Britain owe a considerable portion of their 
 superior r roductiveness to copious depositions of 
 dew, the volumes of air immediately over the 
 streams receiving a profusion of humidity from 
 evaporation, the wind and cold dispersing and 
 condensing this humidity by night, and the 
 finely divided and filamentous structure of the 
 meadow-grasses peculiarly fitting them for drink- 
 ing up the dewy globules. Nor is the benefit from 
 the dew confined to the superficial layers of the 
 soil. " If a soil be sufficiently permeable by air, 
 and not saturated with water, it is in a state to 
 receive accessions of moisture from the atmo- 
 sphere, which is a constant and inexhaustible 
 vehicle of humidity ; and if the temperature of 
 a sufficiently porous subsoil be at or below the 
 dew-point, as will frequently be the case during 
 some portion of the day in the summer season, 
 the process of depositing dew will take place in 
 the interior parts of the soil during the day, at 
 the same time that the exterior or surface of the 
 ground may be projecting both heat and mois- 
 ture into the atmosphere. This process is evi- 
 dently dependent on the relative temperatures 
 and degrees of aqueous repletion of the air and 
 subsoil at a given time, and independent of the 
 hygrometric power of the latter, which is, how- 
 ever, a potent auxiliary to the acquisition and 
 retention of atmospheric moisture by soil, parti- 
 cularly in its interior parts." 
 
 Draining has a powerful effect on the salubri- 
 ousness of climate ; and though this considera- 
 tion does not directly affect the soil, it touches 
 the farmer in the very sensitive points of the 
 life and healthiness of all his livc-6tock and all 
 his human dependants. Draining is the chief 
 georgical improvement or agricultural operation 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 which bears immediately upon health ; but it 
 exerts so mighty a power as to convert regions 
 of red-hot pestilence to both man and beast into 
 regions of eminent healthfulness, and of almost 
 total freedom from epizootics and epidemics. 
 Nor does it produce its salubrious effects, merely 
 upon a great scale, when practised throughout 
 a kingdom or an extensive region, but also 
 upon a small scale, when practised in a parish or 
 throughout' any particular swamp. The signal 
 instances of its great power in former times and 
 in modern days, in foreign countries and in hun- 
 dreds of British districts, are so numerous as to 
 be incapable of reduction into any one general 
 statement. The parochial reports in the Statis- 
 tical Account of Scotland strongly connect the 
 effects of drainage with the improvement of the 
 general health, in almost every county and in 
 very many parishes ; and Mr. Chadwick's Report 
 to the Poor-law Commissioners of England, says, 
 " The importance of a general land drainage is 
 developed by the inquiries as to the causes of 
 the prevalent diseases, to be of a magnitude of 
 which no conception had been formed at the 
 commencement of the investigation, — its impor- 
 • tance is manifested by the severe consequences 
 of its neglect in every part of the country, as 
 well as by its advantages in the increasing salu- 
 brity and productiveness wherever the drainage 
 has been skilful and effectual." A single instance, 
 of a kind not more remarkable than hundreds 
 of others, may be quoted for illustration : " No 
 locality, I believe, has been for some years so 
 exempt from fevers of a malignant and contagi- 
 ous character as the eastern coast of Kent. Ac- 
 cordingly, idiopathic fever, under the form of 
 synochus and typhus, very rarely occurs, and 
 when it does appear, is generally of an isolated 
 kind. Intermittents also, which 15 or 20 years 
 since were so generally prevalent in this district, 
 have become comparatively of rare occurrence, 
 and indeed have almost disappeared from the 
 catalogue of our local endemics. This exemp- 
 tion from ague and other febrile epidemics of an 
 infectious nature may be justly imputed to the 
 total absence of malaria, and of all those causes 
 which usually generate an unwholesome and 
 contaminating atmosphere, namely, from the 
 whole district being secured from inundations 
 by the most complete and effectual system of 
 drainage and sewerage, — also, from the exposed 
 state of the country favouring a free and rapid 
 evaporation from the surface of the soil." Even 
 in districts where little or no attention has been 
 given to the statistics of human disease, the sa- 
 lubrious effects of drainage have been fully mark- 
 ed upon the lower animals; and thousands of 
 rural observers cordially attest, in particular, 
 how completely drainage has swept away some 
 epizootics which used to be the scourge of sheep. 
 
 The prime object of all ordinary draining, as 
 well as its prime result, is increase in the value 
 of crops. The amount of this widely varies ac- 
 
 cording to the intrinsic properties of the land, 
 the judiciousness and economy of the draining, 
 the particular method adopted, the cost of mate- 
 rials, and some other considerations. In not a 
 few instances, in which either the land scarcely 
 if at all required draining, or the method adopt- 
 ed has been unnecessarily costly, or the execution 
 has been unskilful and ineffective, the increase 
 of crops has been little or nothing ; and in many 
 others, owing to similar causes, it has by no 
 means been great enough to compensate the ope- 
 rations. But even in the multitudinous cases 
 of ordinarily good draining, the increased value 
 of crops is very variously estimated, and seems 
 to be very various in reality ; and probably it is, 
 in a great degree, controlled both by the intrin- 
 sic properties of the land and by the particular 
 methods of draining. Land of naturally prime 
 quality derives the highest degree of improved 
 and prolonged fertility from draining ; and any 
 method of draining which effects the thorough 
 and permanent drying of the land at the least 
 possible amount of cost, necessarily yields a 
 larger remuneration than methods which are 
 either less efficient or more expensive. The best 
 index of the profits of draining which, upon the 
 whole, can be given, is contained in a few special 
 examples and in one or two general estimates. 
 A field of stiff clay which let in grass for 20s. 
 per acre, was drained at the cost of £5 12s. per 
 acre, and yielded wheat worth £11 per acre, and 
 turnips worth =£25 13s. per acre. A field, which 
 was let at 12s. per acre, and overrun with rushes 
 and furze, was drained at the cost of £5 9s. per 
 acre, and then became worth 50s. per acre for 
 grass, and yielded wheat worth £13 per acre, 
 potatoes worth £15 15s. per acre, and turnips 
 worth £21 per acre. An undrained half of a 
 field yielded potatoes worth £13 per Scotch acre ; 
 while, in the same year, 'the other half of the 
 same field in a thorough - drained condition, 
 yielded potatoes worth £45 per Scotch acre. 
 Lands amounting to 467 acres on the estate of 
 Teddesley-Hay in Staffordshire were drained at 
 the cost of £1,509, and rose in consequence 
 from the annual value of £254 10s. to £689 13s., 
 thus yielded an annual profit of 29 per cent, upon 
 the cost of draining. Some moorland at Hutton- 
 Bushel in the north of England, with shallow 
 soil, two inches of moorband-pan, and a rubbly 
 subsoil, was worth less per annum than 5s. per 
 acre ; but, merely by being drained to the extent 
 of having its pan broken up with the subsoil 
 plough, it immediately acquired the yearly value 
 of a guinea per acre. A certain extent of un- 
 drained land in the north of Scotland, yielded 6 
 tons 4 cwt. of turnips per acre ; and the same 
 land, when drained, yielded 8 tons 8 cwt. of the 
 same kind of turnips per acre. Mr. Howden of 
 Wintonhill in Haddingtonshire estimates, from 
 his own experience, that the thorough-draining 
 of wet heavy land, even though it should cost so 
 much as £7 per acre, will yield a profit, in the 
 
412 DRAINING. 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 increased value of the crops, of from 15 to 20 
 per cent, on the expense of the operation. The 
 beneficial effect upon grain crops is seldom real- 
 ized, to any considerable degree, in the first grain 
 season after draining, or till the drained ground 
 has been fallowed, or has undergone a course of 
 thorough working and of rotation-manuring ; and 
 it ought therefore to be estimated, both upon an 
 average of years, and in conjunction with the 
 average value of the inter-rotational green crops. 
 Mr. Pusey, in an Essay on the Progress of Agri- 
 cultural Knowledge, in the 3d vol. of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society's Journal, states his belief 
 that " five or six bushels of wheat per acre would 
 be a fair estimate of the increase " of produce 
 from the thorough-draining of wet land; but 
 adds, with special allusion to the saving of sur- 
 face from the abolition of the ridge and furrow 
 system, that " the advantage of draining is not 
 to be measured merely by the additional bushels 
 of corn that may be grown on an acre." But a 
 writer in the 40th No. of the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture, estimates the probable average 
 increase in the produce of barley and oats from 
 thorough-draining at 12 bushels per acre, and 
 calculates that if all the arable land of Scotland 
 were thorough-drained, the increase of yearly 
 produce throughout that kingdom would com- 
 prise 420,000 quarters of barley and 1,912,500 
 quarters of oats, — an increase, on the assumption 
 of 30s. per quarter for barley and 25s. per quar- 
 ter for oats, worth upwards of three millions of 
 pounds sterling, — and altogether exclusive of the 
 corresponding increase in the value of wheat and 
 of green crops, as well as of the great advantages 
 to grass-lands, woods, live-stock, human health, 
 and general economy. 
 
 The Ancient and Modern Practices of Draining. 
 — The simpler methods of draining, or those of 
 withdrawing water along the surface, appear to 
 have been practised from very ancient periods of 
 agricultural record. Cato, Palladius, Columella, 
 and Pliny, all mention draining, and show them- 
 selves to have been acquainted with some of its 
 most advantageous effects, and with various me- 
 thods of constructing both open and covered 
 drains ; and Pliny, in particular, describes some 
 methods of draining practised in his day, which 
 were not long ago regarded by some of our non- 
 classical agriculturists as modern improvements. 
 Many works of draining appear to have been ex- 
 ecuted by the Romans, or in imitation of their 
 example, even in Britain. The inning of Rom- 
 ney marsh, the pattern of all our other reclaimed 
 fens, is distinctly ascribed to the Romans ; and 
 the fosse-dyke in Lincoln, and many other an- 
 cient lodes and drains, were the work of their 
 legions during the intervals of active war. Much 
 labour in freeing the low grounds of England 
 from liability to inundation, seems to have been 
 performed also by the Frisian and Saxon colo- 
 nists, from the watery flats of the north-west of 
 Germany. The management of superficial drain- 
 
 ing, both in the formation of new works and in 
 the repairing and maintaining of old ones, was 
 well and abundantly sustained under the system 
 of feudalism and petty jurisdictions, — more so, 
 perhaps, than under the free and enlightened 
 tenures of modern times. Commissioners of 
 sewers, and special codes of drainage laws, very 
 considerable in number, and extending down 
 from a somewhat high antiquity, were instituted 
 in England ; and recitals of numerous enact- 
 ments, with a particular account of the great 
 national project for gaining the level of the fens 
 in the eastern counties, may be seen in Dugdale's 
 History of Embanking and Draining. But Scot- 
 land, in consequence partly of the great uneven- 
 ness of its surface and partly of its very frequent 
 political troubles, seems to have remained almost 
 ignorant of drainage till the latter part of last 
 century ; and Ireland, notwithstanding the enor- 
 mous extent of her quaking bogs and her inun- 
 dated meadow-lands, knew nothing of any public 
 commission of drainage till about 35 years ago, 
 when a great and very effective commission was 
 appointed to survey her bogs, and devise methods 
 for their reclamation. 
 
 The necessity of draining so deep, whether by 
 open or by covered drains, as to draw off bottom 
 water, did not begin to be understood in Britain, 
 nor perhaps in the world, till about the middle 
 of the 17th century. A work was then written 
 by Captain Walter Blith, which looked far in 
 advance not only of his own age but of the fol- 
 lowing age, and which propounds the theory of 
 the deep draining of swamps and meadows, with 
 a clearness and a force fitted to instruct and al- 
 most to astonish multitudes of tolerably well- 
 informed farmers of the present day ; and though 
 this work is so far-sighted and perspicacious, as 
 distinctly to perceive the desirableness of the 
 subsoil-draining of ploughed lands, it seems to 
 imply that such draining was at that time to- 
 tally unknown, and regards it as impracticable 
 on account of "the incredible expense" which it 
 would occasion, and recommends as a succeda- 
 neum the system of laying out the land in ridge 
 and furrow. Captain Blith's work passed into a 
 third edition in 1652; it is entitled 'The Eng- 
 lish Improver Improved, or the Survey of Hus- 
 bandry Surveyed ;' and it contains several pre- 
 faces, but is specially addressed to " The Right 
 Honourable the Lord General Cromwell, and the 
 Right Honourable the Lord President, and the 
 rest of that most Honourable Society of the 
 Council of State." In his instructions for form- 
 ing the flooding and draining trenches of water 
 meadows, the author says of the latter, "And for 
 thy drayning trench, it must be made so deep 
 that it goe to the bottom of the cold spewing 
 moyst water, that feed the flagg and the rush ; 
 for the widenesse of it, use thine own liberty, 
 but be sure to make it so wide as thou mayest 
 goe to the bottom of it, which must be so low as 
 any moysture lyeth, which moysture usually ly- 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 413 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 eth under the over and second swarth of the 
 earth, in some gravel or swarth, or else, where 
 some greater stones are mixt with clay, under 
 which thou must goe half one spade's graft deep 
 at least. Yea, suppose this corruption that feeds 
 and nourisheth the rush or fiagg should lie a yard 
 or four foote deepe, to the bottom of it thou must 
 goe, if ever thou wilt drain it to purpose, or make 
 the utmost advantage of either floating or drayn- 
 ing, without which thy water cannot have its 
 kindly operation ; for though the water fatten 
 naturally, yet still this coldnesse and moysture 
 lies gnawing within, and not being taken clean 
 away, it eates out what the water fattens ; and 
 so the goodnesse of the water is, as it were, rid- 
 dled, screened, and strained out into the land, 
 leaving the richnesse and the leanesse sliding 
 away from it." In another place, he replies to 
 the objectors of floating that it will breed the 
 rush, the flag, and mareblab : " Only make thy 
 drayning trenches deep enough and not too far 
 of thy floating course, and I'le warrant it they 
 drayn away that under moysture, fylth, and ven- 
 om as aforesaid, that maintains them, and then 
 believe me, or deny Scripture, which I hope thou 
 darest not, as Bildad said unto Job, ' Can the 
 rush grow without mire, or the flagg without 
 water \ ' That interrogation plainly shewes that 
 the rush cannot grow the water been taken from 
 the root ; for it is not the moystnesse upon the 
 surface of the land, for then every shower should 
 increase the rush, but it is that which lieth at 
 the root, which, drained away at the bottom, 
 leaves it naked and 'barren of relief.'" The 
 author frequently returned to this charge, ex- 
 plaining over and over again the necessity of 
 removing what we call bottom water, and which 
 he well designates as filth and venom ; observing, 
 " I am forced to use repetitions of some things, 
 because of the suitableness of the things to which 
 they are applied ; as also because of the slowness 
 of the people's apprehension of them, — the which, 
 wherever you are so draining and trenching, you 
 shall rarely find few or none of them wrought at 
 the bottom." As to the distance between the 
 draining and floating, he prescribes no certain 
 rule, saying—" If the land is sounder and drier, 
 or lieth more descending, thou mayest let it (the 
 water) run the broader ; and as thy land is moyst, 
 sad, rushey, and levell, let it run the less breadth 
 or compasse;" thus exhibiting a far more cor- 
 rect and intimate acquaintance with his subject 
 than is often to be found among the water-mea- 
 dow artificers of the present day. He gives a 
 most just account of the cause of those boggy 
 places and swamps so often formed on the slopes 
 of hills, and at their foot, and describes the mode 
 of treating them, so as to effect a perfect cure, 
 which coincides with the best practice of the 
 present day, always insisting on making deep ex- 
 cavations into the eyes of the springs, &c. For 
 all drainage purposes, he reprehends shallow 
 trenches, observing, in respect to bog-drainage, 
 
 — "But for these common and many trenches, 
 oft times crooked too, that men usually make in 
 their boggy grounds, some one foot, some two, 
 never having respect to the cause or matter that 
 maketh the bog ; I say, away with them as a 
 great piece of folly, lost labour, and spoyle, which 
 I desire as well to preserve the reader from, as 
 to put him upon a profitable experiment. As to 
 destroying the bog, it doeth just nothing, only 
 taking away a little water which falls from the 
 heavens, and weaken the bog nothing at all, and 
 to the end it pretends is of no use." He, like- 
 wise, gives a good notice of covered drains ; he 
 describes them as more expensive than open 
 drains, but as much more capacious and dura- 
 ble ; and he recommends to be placed at the bot- 
 tom of the trenches, " good green faggots, willow, 
 alder, elme, or thorne," or in firmer stuff, " peb- 
 ble stones or flint stones, and so fill up the bot- 
 tom of thy trench about fifteen inches high, and 
 take thy turf and plant it as aforesaid, the green 
 soard downwards, being cut very fit for the 
 trench, so as it may joyne close as it is layd 
 down, and then having covered it all over with 
 earth, and made it even as they do other ground, 
 waite and expect a wonderful effect through the 
 blessing of God." He prescribes also, in all cases 
 excepting for water meadows, the driving the 
 drains right up and down the fall of the land. — 
 In this account of draining water meadows and 
 swampy lands, one cannot but recognise very 
 sound principles, and these are represented by 
 Captain Blith as having been put into practice 
 by himself, and copied by others, and as having 
 raised the value and rent of land, from a few 
 shillings, to two, three, and four pounds per acre. 
 
 Captain Blith's system of drainage was proba- 
 bly understood and very generally adopted with- 
 in a limited district of country ; and, but for the 
 want of efficient means of making it known, it 
 might have found advocates in the remotest 
 parts of the . kingdom, and might have greatly 
 accelerated the progress of modern improvement. 
 Its very principles, too, appear to have been 
 appreciated, and carried out to their consequen- 
 ces ; and a system of deep thorough-drainage, so 
 perfect as almost to bear comparison with the 
 best of the present day, appears to have, in the 
 course of about a century after Captain Blith 
 wrote, become known and practised throughout 
 a main part of the large and well-farmed coun- 
 ties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertford. 
 This system, indeed, has always existed in great 
 obscurity, and eventually became so limitedly 
 and feebly known to British agriculturists that 
 the recent revival or re-discovery of it by Mr. 
 Smith of Deanston was almost universally re- 
 garded as a perfect novelty ; yet it exists, in the 
 present day, not only in monuments of past prac- 
 tice, but in continuous and routine usage from 
 the time of its institution. Mr. Pusey, writing 
 in 1842, or seven years after Mr. Smith of Dean- 
 ston's system first became known in England, 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 414 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 states that he had discovered that very system 
 to have been long practised to its fullest extent 
 in Suffolk, and that he had reason to believe that 
 a system closely similar to it had long been prac-, 
 tised in Essex, and was known even in Scotland 
 under the name of the Essex system ; and writ- 
 ing again in 1843, he adduces conclusive proof, 
 that a true and efficient system of thorough- 
 draining, such as bore close resemblance to Mr. 
 Smith's system, and such as may be supposed to 
 have arisen out of the application of Captain 
 Blith's principles, had, for a century before, been 
 practised, not only in Suffolk and in Essex, but 
 also in Norfolk and in Hertford. " In proving 
 that Mr. Smith's system is not new," says he, in 
 the earlier of his two papers, " I do not lower his 
 claims to our thanks, for he probably invented it 
 also, and at all events carried it out with an en- 
 ergy which made it new in his hands. But I 
 think the fact of its previous practice in Suffolk 
 and Essex worth notice for two reasons ; — one, 
 that any new method, however highly recom- 
 mended, must be received with doubt as long as 
 it continues new, and that consequently the best 
 praise by which any method can be recommend- 
 ed to practical farmers is, not that it is new, but 
 on the contrary that it is old and tried. The 
 other reason is this, that here was a plan of 
 draining which was regarded as novel, yet had 
 been employed and established for half a century 
 at no great distance from London ; and this is 
 by no means a singular proof how little the far- 
 mers in one part of England knew, until lately, 
 what the others were doing." 
 
 In 1764, while the system of subsoil-draining 
 continued to be very limitedly known, and while 
 very shallow and inefficient systems were gener- 
 ally prevalent, Mr. Joseph Elkington, a farmer 
 in Warwickshire, accidentally discovered the 
 system of strata-draining, and became the origi- 
 nator of a great and very general reform in the 
 draining practices of Britain. He was plagued 
 with a degree of land-wetness which rotted many 
 of his sheep; and while he was digging a deep 
 trench to serve some purpose of drainage, he 
 forced a crow-bar 4 feet through the bottom of 
 the trench with the view of ascertaining the na- 
 ture of the strata, and, on pulling it out, was 
 surprised to find it followed by a copious and 
 permanent flow of water. He made an inference 
 as to subterranean currents of water or the gen- 
 eral nature of springs, and arrived at the doc- 
 trine that the draining of subsoils or substrata 
 may be readily and thoroughly effected by tap- 
 ping with an auger or a rod. His doctrine was 
 worked into a system, put to the test of experi- 
 ment, and rapidly promulgated among wondering 
 and grateful agriculturists ; and though it was 
 speedily found to be altogether inapplicable to 
 lands which consist to a great depth of absorb- 
 ent earths, such modifications and extensions of 
 it were invented and put into practice as ren- 
 
 dered it a guide to under-draining beneath almost 
 every kind of soil. The simplest form of Eiking- 
 ton's system continued to be mere tapping ; and 
 the most elaborated form of it became a ramifi- 
 cation of main-drains, branch-drains, and subor- 
 dinate branch-drains, somewhat similar in parts 
 and connexions to the figure of a trained fruit-tree 
 on a wall or an espalier. Mr. Elkington received 
 from Parliament a reward of £1,000 for the ser- 
 vice which his discovery conferred upon the 
 kingdom ; and his system was applauded by the 
 Board of Agriculture, explained through the 
 press by the eminent drainer Mr. John John- 
 stone, and practically recommended in Scotland 
 by the well-known drainer Mr. Stephens. But 
 though this system continued to confer great 
 benefits upon Britain till about the year 1824, it 
 is now almost everywhere superseded, at least 
 on deep absorbent lands, by various systems 
 which shall be afterwards mentioned, of deep 
 subsoil-draining by means of parallel drains. 
 
 Surface-Draining. — The mere surface-draining 
 of wet arable loams and ordinary clays is always 
 an inefficient and uneconomical operation, — fail- 
 ing in a great degree to effect requisite dryness 
 of soil, and occasioning a wasteful expenditure 
 of at once labour, land - area, manure, and the 
 richest portions of the soil ; yet it is much pre- 
 ferable to a total want of draining, and may 
 be regarded as indispensable to cultivation on 
 all farms which are prevented by minute sub- 
 division, by poverty, or by prejudice, from re- 
 ceiving the advantages of proper underground 
 draining. The performance of it is very simple 
 and very easy ; and yet on multitudes of the 
 small farms of Ireland, where it is peculiarly and 
 eminently needed, it is miserably neglected. The 
 ridge and furrow system is, of course, indispen- j 
 sable to it ; and care should be used to have the 
 ridges raised to such a slope as will occasion the 
 free riddance of heavy rains, and to have the 
 furrows so regular and open as to offer neither 
 hollow nor obstruction for the partial stoppage of 
 the descending water. In fields or farms, which 
 have considerable declivity of surface, the fur- 
 rows, and of course the ridges, should be formed 
 — not directly down the declivity, else they will 
 carry off large portions of the most fertile ingre- 
 dients of the soil, to be deposited in the ditches 
 and swept away toward the sea — but obliquely 
 across the declivity at such an angle or with 
 such a slope as merely to afford a free descent 
 for water, but without permitting it to acquire 
 any considerable velocity in the escape. An old 
 practice of the farmers of clay districts in Eng- 
 land—a practice which all the enlightenment and 
 mighty agricultural progress of the nineteenth 
 century have not altogether extinguished —was 
 to dispose the ridge and furrow upon a slope in 
 a gently winding manner, so as to prevent de- 
 scending water from having a rapid flow, or from 
 acquiring excessive power of washing away soil 
 
TTYYVT DRAINING 
 
 J Sower »r> 1 nin' 
 
 A . ?\Jlarton & C° London * Edmixu-jn 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 415 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 and manure. An important rule on all ridge 
 and furrow fields, especially when no under- 
 ground drainage exists, is to maintain the fur- 
 rows at a proper and regular depth, and per- 
 fectly free from all obstructions. a I have often," 
 says Mr. George Stephens, " seen large tracts of 
 clayey land intermixed with whitish stones, ly- 
 ing in subsoils, perfectly impervious, effectually 
 drained by means of trench-ploughing, and keep- 
 ing the furrows regularly deep from one end of 
 the ridge to the other. If farmers occupying 
 clayey soils would pay more attention to the 
 formation of the ridges and furrows, and keeping 
 the open ditches and cross-furrows sufficiently 
 deep to clear the surface of all the stagnant 
 water in the hollow parts of the fields, there 
 would be much less necessity for making drains 
 for removing surface-water." 
 
 A somewhat peculiar method of surface-drain- 
 ing, consisting of open ditches, gaw-cuts, or cross- 
 furrows, and pows, large main drains, or receiving 
 canals, has long been practised in the Carse of 
 Gowrie, and is still regarded by the less enter- 
 prising class of agriculturists, as quite sufficient 
 for the purposes of that rich wheat-bearing dis- 
 trict of unctuous clay. Yet it occasions a con- 
 siderable annual expenditure of labour; it ob- 
 viously wears and wastes some of the very best 
 portions of the soil ; and it offers not even the 
 pretence of a substitute for any one of the ad- 
 vantages which result from deep subsoil-drain- 
 ing. " This mode of draining," says Mr. Henry 
 Stephens, in his ' Book of the Farm,' " does not 
 profess to interfere with any water that exists 
 under the surface of the ground, farther than 
 what percolates through the ploughed furrow- 
 slices, and makes its way into the open furrows 
 of the ridges. For the purpose of facilitating 
 the descent of water into the open furrows, the 
 ridges are kept in a bold rounded form; and 
 that the open furrows may be suitable channels 
 for water, they are carefully water -furrowed, 
 that is, cleared out with the plough after the 
 land has been otherwise finished off with a crop. 
 The gaw-cuts, small channels cut with the spade, 
 are carefully made through every natural hollow 
 of the ground, however slight each one may be, 
 and the water-furrows cleared into them at the 
 points of intersection. The gaw-cuts are con- 
 tinued along the lowest head-ridge furrow, and 
 eut across the hollowest parts of the head-ridge 
 into the adjacent open ditch. The recipient 
 ditch forms an important component part of this 
 system of draining, by conveying away the col- 
 lected waters of the field of which it forms the 
 boundary, and for that purpose is made as much 
 as 4 or 5 feet in depth, with a proportional 
 width. It is immediately connected with a 
 larger open ditch, which discharges the accumu- 
 lated waters from a number of recipient ditches 
 into the river or lake or other receptacle which 
 is taken advantage of for the purpose. • The 
 
 large ditch is from 6 to 10 feet in depth, with a 
 proportional width, and, when conveying a full 
 body of water in winter, appears like a small 
 canal." This system obviously does nothing 
 more than draw off excess of surface water, — 
 drawing off, at the same time, saline matter, 
 liquefied manure, and thoroughly comminuted 
 soil ; and it makes no provision whatever for the 
 pulverulence of the land, for its aeration, for the 
 elevation of its temperature, for the increase of 
 chemical action upon its materials, and for the 
 free circulation of moisture and atmospheric 
 gases throughout its interior. The farm-labour- 
 ers of the carse, too, expend upon this system an 
 enormous amount of spade-work, in originally 
 making the gaw-cuts, in both clearing these cuts 
 and otherwise directing the rills of accumulating 
 water after every heavy fall of rain, in annually 
 scouring out all the smaller ditches, and in peri- 
 odically scouring the larger ditches, and revising 
 the whole ramification of the drains. 
 
 A cheap and facile system of surface-draining 
 has been somewhat extensively practised on 
 sheep-walks or hilly pastures, by means of what 
 are called sheep drains; and when this system 
 is restricted to grassy hills with an immediate 
 subsoil of impervious clayey matter, without any 
 such outburst of springs or spoutiness as to de- 
 mand the operation of strata-draining, it is both 
 appropriate and efficient. When the sward is 
 fine and smooth, the drains, or at least all except 
 the principal ones, may be formed with the plough, 
 and finished with the spade ; but when the 
 sward is coarse, or the surface is intersected and 
 dappled with little swamps, they must be both 
 formed and finished with the spade; and in 
 either case they consist of a few main drains 
 and a considerable number of feeders, both cut at 
 such an angle or upon such a diagonal across 
 the slope as best to promote the joint drawing 
 and flowing of water, — the main drains so dis- 
 posed as to effect the chief part of the perpendi- 
 cular descent, and the feeders coming into these 
 in nearly rectangular directions. 
 
 The draining of ponds, lakes, and land-locked 
 morasses sometimes affects a comparatively small 
 extent of area, and is then so simple and obvious 
 an operation as not to require any description. 
 But the draining of these on a large scale, the 
 making of tunnels or deep cuts through hills for 
 the withdrawal of the enclosed and accumulated 
 waters, the cutting down or deepening or alter- 
 ing the channel of a large stream so as to mo- 
 dify the levels of natural drainage throughout 
 large portions of its basin, the protecting of great 
 tracts of periodically flooded meadow or alluvial 
 flats by means of embankments, canals, sluices, 
 and hydraulic machines, and the reclaiming from 
 the dominion of the tide expanses of salt marsh 
 or great, low-lying flats of grassy fen, are opera- 
 tions which usually require the pecuniary re- 
 sources of government or of associations, and the 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 416 
 
 skill, experience and prolonged superintendence 
 of civil engineers. The Bedford Level, the drain- 
 age of the fens of the south-west of England, and 
 the protection from the sea of the vast reclaimed 
 low plains of Holland, are works far beyond the 
 means of all single farmers and even of almost 
 all single proprietors. Yet a knowledge of the 
 best methods of draining fens and other low-lying 
 flats is often of great consequence "to farmers ; 
 and the principles of them are few and simple, 
 and may be readily comprehended by attending 
 to the natural drainage of the district, in the 
 ramifications of its streams. 
 
 The lowest attainable outfall must first be dis- 
 covered, and if otherwise obstructed, a main 
 drain led up from it into the space to be un- 
 watered. From this, there should be branches 
 drawn into those which are not commanded by 
 the main drain alone. The junctions with the 
 main drain should be oblique, and pointing clown 
 the stream, that the influx of side waters may 
 not tend to dam up those of the main. Into 
 these branches, the fence drains of the fields are 
 conducted in enclosed grounds, and the land is 
 laid up in ridges and furrows, terminating in 
 the boundary fence drain. Where the furrows 
 are so situated as to run across a hollow, the 
 waters of which they are not deep enough to 
 discharge, the water furrow becomes necessary, 
 and is drawn across them in the hollow ground, 
 so that a general ventage may be given to every 
 part of the surface by an unobstructed fall, which 
 is greatest at first, but may be gradually dimin- 
 ished, as the quantities of water increase, by 
 uniting until the whole is discharged into the sea. 
 
 Strata-Draining. — Strata-draining reclaims and 
 dries wet lands, whose wetness arises from the 
 flowing of springs or the oozing out of subter- 
 ranean waters. It far exceeds surface-draining 
 in at once importance, intricacy, the extent of 
 its range, and the amount of knowledge requisite 
 for its proper execution; and it is sometimes, 
 though ignorantly, supposed to supersede sub- 
 soil-draining, and to comprise all ulterior appli- 
 ances for drying wet lands. Its simple object is 
 to find the readiest channel by which excess of 
 water flowing in strata beneath the soil can be 
 carried off; and it presupposes both a general 
 knowledge of the geognostic structure of the 
 earth's crust, and some acquaintance, upon either 
 investigation or good testimony, with the confor- 
 mation or strata of the particular districts to be 
 drained. It does not, as some persons stupidly 
 imagine, find a drainage for the water of springs 
 after they have soaked the soil and risen to the 
 surface, — for this would be utterly useless ex- 
 penditure of labour ; but it detects the subter- 
 ranean course or channel of the water of springs 
 while it still flows at some distance below the 
 soil, and there so diverts it into drains as to cut 
 off or annihilate the springs, and prevent the 
 water from either entering the soil or saturating 
 
 1 the subsoil. So powerful is this method, that 
 the detection of a single subterranean rill or 
 feeder of springs, and the abduction of it into a 
 single drain, may, in some instances, completely 
 dry a comparatively large extent of wet and 
 spouty land. Strata-draining, in fact, constitutes 
 one of the most beautiful and important applica- 
 tions of the doctrine of hydraulics. 
 
 Subsoil-Draining. — Subsoil-draining effects, for 
 a greater or less depth of the soil, or of both soil 
 and subsoil, the same abduction of moisture which 
 surface draining effects for the surface ; and is 
 designed to reduce stiff, cold, retentive lands into 
 mechanical and chemical conditions similar in 
 kindliness, warmth, porosity, and manurial de- 
 composition to those of naturally light, friable, 
 and grateful loams. It has a greatly more diver- 
 sified, expansive, and important range of applica- 
 tion, and a vastly more varied and powerful evo- 
 lution of both mechanical and chemical forces, 
 than the two other classes of draining combined ; 
 and, in a loose view, it has as its peculiar province 
 all the wide and fair dominion of the strong and 
 deep kinds of arable land, while strata-draining 
 has only arable hills, spouty bogs, and the infe- 
 rior portions of arable plains, and surface-drain- 
 ing has only fens, land-locked hollows, and bar- 
 barously-managed fields. Yet subsoil - draining 
 sometimes conjoins itself, in a greater or less de- 
 gree, with the other classes ; it comprises within 
 itself a vast diversity of method, from covered 
 hollow draining which differs but slightly from 
 surface -draining, to exceedingly deep tile -pipe 
 draining; and it has, of late years, suffered 
 considerable complication, partly from the rapid 
 progress of agricultural science, partly from dis- 
 crepant testimony respecting the results of ex- 
 perience, and partly from conflict of theory as to 
 direction, depth, and frequency of drains, and as 
 to some other elements in its mode of action. 
 Our conscious freedom from all bias, therefore, 
 combined with our wish to give a comprehensive 
 view of the whole subject, will oblige us to 
 bring together in this section methods good, bad, 
 and indifferent, — general and local, — old, newish, ■ 
 and altogether recent. 
 
 Distinctive names of the several methods are 
 in some instances sufficiently descriptive and cor- 
 rect to afford a little assistance ; but in others, 
 they are either so ambiguous or so inappropriate 
 as to be worse than useless. Some persons call all 
 the class of drainages for the underground with- 
 drawal of rain and snow water surface draining, 
 in allusion to its abduction of water from the 
 surface, and so confound it with the class of me- 
 thods for withdrawing water along the surface; 
 others call it hollow-draining, in contradistinc- 
 tion to draining by means of open drains, and so 
 restrict it to such of its methods as employ only 
 ducts or conduits; others call it frequent-drain- 
 ing, in allusion to the numerousness of its drains, 
 and so suggest the utterly false idea that the 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 construction of its drains requires to be often re- 
 peated ; others call it parallel-draining, in allusion 
 to the general parallel position of its drains, and 
 so exclude from it such methods as do not require 
 parallelism ; others call it deep-draining, in allu- 
 sion to its tendency to dry the soil from surface 
 to base, and so exclude from it its shallow me- 
 thods, and confound its name with an old and by 
 no means obsolete designation of strata-draining ; 
 others call it furrow-draining, in allusion to the 
 older methods of it having their drains almost 
 always placed along the furrows, and so exclude 
 from view its very power of annihilating the 
 ridge-and-furrow system ; and others call it thor- 
 ough-draining, in allusion to its design of render- 
 ing the soil thoroughly dry, and so restrict it to 
 perfectly effective applications of only its best 
 methods. When men speak of the underground 
 abduction of surface-water only as it is wished 
 to be or as it ought to be, they may properly 
 enough call it thorough-draining ; but when they 
 speak of it as it is, or make comprehensive allu- 
 sion to defective as well as to perfectly efficient 
 methods, they will avoid confusion by applying 
 to it some such general designation as subsoil- 
 draining. 
 
 The proper draining of absorbent moss, or of 
 the several kinds of bog which owe all their wet- 
 ness to the retention of surface water, totally 
 differs in principle from both the surface-drain- 
 ing of land-locked morass and the strata-draining 
 of spouty and springy bogs, and must be regarded 
 as a variety, though a very simple one, of sub- 
 soil-draining. The chief operation, in a long- 
 established method of it, is to cut down the fibrous 
 turf to a proper depth, and then with the feather- 
 edged peat-spade, or slave, to take out a groove 
 in the bottom. This operation being performed 
 in summer, the shoulders will dry, and become 
 firm ; and a part of the turf extracted being dried 
 into peats, they may be placed over the groove, 
 resting on the two shoulders, and the trench 
 filled up with the broken stuff, which will be 
 found to transmit the water freely. In the schis- 
 tose countries, a slate may be laid in that way 
 over the groove, and will be very durable. Some 
 drains formed in this way have run freely after 
 thirty years, although the slope was consider- 
 able, — a proof that fibrous peat moss, when kept 
 from the sun and air, affords a good bottom for 
 hollow drains. In excavating such drains in 
 moss, it is not necessary to dig open the whole 
 length of the trench; for parts of the surface 
 may be here and there left firm, and a pipe or 
 sewer scooped out beneath them, to admit the 
 water to pass along. These solid parts will be 
 very useful as bridges, and soon becoming dry 
 and tough, will, if gravelled over, admit even 
 heavy carriages to pass on them. In this way, 
 when the size of the drain makes it worth while, 
 half of the cutting may be spared. 
 
 The subsoil-draining of moorlands and light 
 mossy soils, in the vicinity of peat bog, may be 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 cheaply and expeditiously effected by means of 
 pieces of dried peat in the form of draining tiles. 
 Dried peats which happened long ago to be 
 buried by accident in the mosses whence they 
 were dug, are occasionally brought to light in a 
 fresh, hard, and dry condition ; some which have 
 been used in draining operations, have, after the 
 lapse of thirty years, been taken out of the drains 
 solid and unimpaired ; and some are said to have 
 been boiled in the caldron of a public factory 
 during six months without suffering either dis- 
 integration or their capacity of resisting mois- 
 ture. Pieces of dried peat in the form of tiles, 
 therefore, are supposed to be quite as fit for 
 draining purposes as clay tiles, and only a degree 
 or two less durable. An ingenious spade for 
 economically and expeditiously cutting them out 
 of native masses of bog or turbary, was invented 
 about ten or eleven years ago by Mr. Hugh Cal- 
 derwood of Blackbyres in Ayrshire ; and it cuts 
 them with so much ease and rapidity, that a 
 farmer may cut from 2,000 to 3,000 of them in a 
 day, and obtain them in a state of full prepara- 
 tion for use at one-fourth or one-fifth the cost of 
 the same number of clay tiles. They have a 
 semicircular groove in the same manner as clay 
 tiles, but are far thicker and more massive in the 
 body ; they are cut out of the solid bog in as con- 
 stant a series and with as little waste of mate- 
 rial as common square peats for fuel ; they are 
 dried, and may be stacked, in the same manner 
 as common peats ; and, when used for draining, 
 two rows of them are placed along the bottom of 
 a narrow trench, the under row with their grooves 
 up and serving as soles, the upper row with their 
 grooves down and serving as covers, and both 
 combining their grooves to form a regular and 
 continuous cylindrical duct. The details of cut- 
 ting the trenches, of their depth, their direction, 
 their mutual distances, and the filling of them 
 up, are capable of great variegation, but on the 
 whole, are similar to those, afterwards to be no- 
 ticed, in draining with clay-tiles. 
 
 The oldest methods of the subsoil-draining of ara- 
 ble land comprised merely a rude series of simple 
 and primitive conduits, at such shallow depths, 
 as, though beneath the reach of the skimming and 
 scratching tillage of former times, to be within 
 the range of the ordinary ploughing of the pre- 
 sent, and either quite within or partly above the 
 beds traversed by our trench-ploughings and sub- 
 soil-ploughings. Many of the old drains which 
 have been discovered and turned up in the course 
 of modern georgical improvements, consisted 
 simply of small square conduits, without a sole, 
 and with series of three flat stones for sides and 
 cover ; they appear to have been formed on the 
 fallacious principle, that ducts situated along the 
 surface of a retentive subsoil at the base of a po- 
 rous soil are sufficient to free the latter from ex- 
 cessive moisture ; and almost all are found in a 
 thoroughly choked condition, and probably were 
 speedily filled with earth by the combined action 
 
 417 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 418 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 of moles and water, and became occasions of an 
 increase of the very excess of wetness which they 
 were designed to remedy. These paltry and mis- 
 chievous apologies for drains can, of course, teach 
 nothing to modern farmers by imitation; yet 
 they communicate broad and important lessons 
 by contrast and warning. 
 
 An early method of the subsoil-draining of 
 very wet surfaces and spongy soils, proceeded on 
 the principle of horizontally collecting water 
 through the sides of the drains from the pores 
 and layers of the stratum in which they were 
 formed; and this method, notwithstanding the 
 rudeness of its principle, is still very far from 
 being obsolete. Its drains are simply trenches or 
 ditches filled with such small boulders as occur 
 in the field or moor or bog which they traverse ; 
 and they are provincially called rumbling rivers 
 or rumbling ditches in Scotland, and French 
 drains in Ireland. But these, though stone-filled 
 drains, must not be supposed to possess any 
 affinity to the deep, narrow, soil-covered, stone- 
 filled drains of some of the most modern and im- 
 proved varieties of subsoil-draining. Both their 
 position and their principle have a character but 
 a degree or two superior to that of mere surface- 
 draining ; and their indiscriminate repletion with 
 stones of various hardness, shape, and size, pre- 
 vents them from acting freely as conduits, and 
 sometimes occasions portions of them to become 
 rather dams than drains. 
 
 An interesting old instance of subsoil-draining 
 with bricks, was discovered five or six years ago 
 on the estate of Culhorn in Wigtonshire, and 
 throws pleasing incidental light on the durability 
 of modern draining with clay-tiles and tile-pipes. 
 The brick drains were discovered during ope- 
 rations for redraining, and were proved by 
 documentary evidence to have been upwards 
 of a century old at the time of their discovery. 
 " There was on the surface of the ground," says 
 the discoverer's account of them, "no appear- 
 ance of the old drains, and these being discovered 
 merely at different points in the course of the new 
 operations, the lines of them could not be followed 
 very exactly ; but one of them appeared to be 
 cut very judiciously where the open stratum ap- 
 proached to the clay, or between the ' wet and 
 the dry,' as drainers would say, about 31 inches 
 deep, and catching a good deal of the water. 
 The others were in a moss or bog, and carried 
 through the low and wet ground, but at one 
 place pointed into a strong spring under the ad- 
 joining hill, from which they received a part of the 
 water. These last drains were also about 31 inches 
 deep, being cut through the moss into a reten- 
 tive, whitish, sandy subsoil, but were not sufficient 
 to dry the land. Part of the drains were con- 
 structed of two bricks on edge, set asunder, and 
 two laid lengthwise across them, leaving an open- 
 ing of about 4 inches square for the water, and 
 having no soles. One of the drains was larger, 
 consisting of two bricks laid side by side on their 
 
 beds to form a sole, with two bricks built on bed 
 at each side resting on the solid ground, having 
 covers of broad stones, and packed on each side 
 of this very complete opening with broken bricks. 
 These drains had run out upon low, marshy bogs, 
 and had been allowed to choke up at the mouths ; 
 but, on being opened up, the water in the whole 
 drains runs quite freely ; and, on examining them 
 at different places in their course, I found that 
 the bricks on edge upon a sandy clay bottom, had 
 not sunk in the least degree, nor was any sludge 
 deposited ; but the original small passage of four 
 inches in the small as also in the large drains, 
 was quite clear." The state of these drains shows 
 that tiles are likely to be very durable, and have 
 no need of a large bore ; and it also evinces the 
 necessity of having few outlets and a proper fall. 
 
 An early method of subsoil-draining, in the 
 eastern districts of England, where stones are 
 scarce and where many of the wet lands were 
 covered with coppices, seems to have been to 
 place along the bottom of a narrow trench a 
 series of three poles, triangularly, or one along 
 the upper side of the other two, and to fill up the 
 trench with the earthy matter of the soil and 
 subsoil ; and this method has been continued to 
 the present time, in the modified form of drain- 
 ing with billets, leafless green bushes, and vari- 
 ous kinds of thorns and brushwood. Small billets 
 of any kind of wood, particularly of old thorns, 
 are well calculated for soft and peaty lands, which 
 are unable to bear the pressure of stones ; and 
 they have been known to make good and service- 
 able drains of more than fifty years' duration, 
 such as maintained their hollowness and all their 
 powers of drying land, long after the billets them- 
 selves had crumbled away and perished ; yet, ex- 
 cept in bogs or very soft lands, most billets are 
 liable, in the course of a few years, to choke up 
 the water-way by the manner in which they rot, 
 crumble, and absorb. Green willow, however, 
 when used in a leafless state for drains, has been 
 known, in some situations, to last for ages. 
 Brushwood of various kinds, when used green 
 and leafless, has also proved serviceable, both by 
 being itself somewhat durable, and by leaving 
 the conduits hollow, open, and unobstructed by 
 its own decay. Common heath, especially when 
 obtained in large and rank growth, has likewise 
 been found a durable substance. Broom, furze, 
 ferns, and even haulm, hop-binds, stubble, and 
 straw-ropes, have likewise been successfully em- 
 ployed, and, as we shall afterwards show, are still 
 esteemed good draining materials in some parts of 
 England. But most woody and other vegetable 
 substances act fully as much by leaving conduits 
 open after they themselves perish, as by consti- 
 tuting conduits while they continue in a fresh 
 condition ; and they therefore require to be com- 
 pactly overarched with a clayey stratum or with 
 such kinds of other earthy matter as will form a 
 firm and resistive ceiling to the conduits when 
 the vegetable substances decay. Each faggot of 
 
419 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 brushwood, or bottle of straw of 120 to the load, 
 is sufficient for three perches of drain ; a cover- 
 ing of sod or of some substance of similar me- 
 chanical action must be put upon it to prevent 
 the earthy matter, with which the upper part of 
 the trench is filled, from being washed down 
 while yet loose into the conduit or pores of the 
 drain; immediately over this covering, the loosest 
 and coarsest portions of the excavated earth ought 
 to be laid; and over all should be placed the 
 finer earth or true soil, rounded up a little to al- 
 low for shrinking. " The durability of the ma- 
 terials," says Sir John Sinclair, after enumerating 
 stones, bricks, turf, wood, green bushes, black- 
 thorn, heath, fern, furze, broom, and straw, " is 
 of less consequence in clayey soils, than the pro- 
 bability of having a sufficient opening for the 
 water to flow through ; for clay sometimes forms 
 an arch over these materials, capable of support- 
 ing the incumbent soil, and leaving a clear pas- 
 sage for the water below when they decay. The 
 materials must be covered with loose straw, 
 stubble, fern, rushes, or turf, before the mould is 
 thrown in. The drains should be filled up as 
 soon as possible after they are ready for that 
 purpose, and by the most careful of the work- 
 men. They should at any rate be completed be- 
 fore winter, for if exposed to frost, they are apt 
 to crumble down." Fig. 8, Plate XXXVI. repre- 
 sents a clay drain filled with straw or brushwood. 
 
 A somewhat old yet complex method of form- 
 ing the conduits of subsoil drains combines the 
 use of billets with that of softer vegetable ma- 
 terials. The billets of wood are set on end in 
 the drains, resting on either side alternately ; 
 and the space left between them on the upper 
 side is filled with brushwood, the space above 
 with straw, rushes, or green aquatic weeds, and 
 all the higher space, as in the former method, 
 with the excavated portions of the subsoil and the 
 soil. Fig, 9, Plate XXXVI. shows this method of 
 forming a drain. — Another method, or rather a va- 
 riety of the preceding one, is to fix in a stick like 
 a hoof, at the distance of every foot or so, and to 
 lay on these the brushwood longitudinally, or to 
 lay some stout sticks across the shoulders of the 
 trench, and to cover this with spray and with in- 
 verted turf or sods. But a great defect of drains 
 formed in these methods, especially as they have 
 been usually constructed at but a small depth, is 
 their liability to be injured by the tread of oxen 
 or horses in ploughing.— A very different and 
 far more feasible method of using wood, which 
 we shall immediately notice, is to employ larch 
 tubes as a substitute for tiles. But before dismiss- 
 ing the methods of draining with miscellaneous 
 vegetable substances, let us quote the stricture 
 upon them of our contemporary, Mr. Henry 
 Stephens. " The recommendation of wooden 
 tubes for the purpose of draining land," says he, 
 " reminds me of many expedients which are 
 practised to fill drains, among which are brush- 
 wood, thorns, trees, and even straw-ropes. With 
 
 the exception of the trunks of small trees, which, 
 when judiciously laid down in drains, may last a 
 considerable time, it is not to be imagined that 
 brushwood of any kind can be durable. Hence 
 drains filled with them soon fall in. It could 
 only be dire necessity that would induce any 
 man to fill drains with straw twisted into ropes ; 
 and it could only have been the same cause in 
 situations where stones were scarce, and at a 
 time when drain-tiles were little known in Scot- 
 land, such as was the case during the late war, 
 that could have tempted farmers to fill drains 
 with thorns. No doubt the astringent nature of 
 thorn wood and bark may preserve their sub- 
 stance from decay under ground for a consider- 
 able time; but the sinking of holes in such drains, 
 as I have seen, were infallible symptoms of decay. 
 Only conceive what a mess such a drain must be 
 that is ' filled up to the height of 8 or 10 inches 
 either with brushwood, stripped of the leaves — 
 oak, ash, or willow-twigs being the best — and 
 covered with long wheat straw, twisted into 
 bands, which are put in with the hand, and after- 
 wards forced down with the spade, care being 
 taken,' the only case of it evinced in the whole 
 operation, ' that none of the loose mould is al- 
 lowed to go along with them. The trench is 
 then entirely filled up with earth, the first layer 
 of which is closely trampled down, and the re- 
 mainder thrown in loosely.' [British Husbandry, 
 vol, i. p. 457.] And yet such is the practice in 
 several of the south-eastern and midland .coun- 
 ties of England." 
 
 The method of subsoil -draining by means of 
 larch tubes was suggested to the Highland So- 
 ciety about seven or eight years ago by Mr. Scott 
 of Craigmoy in Kirkcudbrightshire, and is de- 
 scribed by him with much clearness and minute- 
 ness in the 50th and 54th Nos. of the Society's 
 Transactions. Larch, especially if felled in win- 
 ter, and allowed to dry with the bark on, is well 
 known to possess an extraordinary power of re- 
 sisting the decomposing or rotting influence of 
 ! water. The piles on which the sea-girt city of 
 Venice rests consist of larch, and remain fresh 
 after the lapse of centuries ; and pipes of larch 
 wood used as drains can scarcely be computed to | 
 have a less durability than from 30 to 50 years, 
 and might probably be made quite firm and re- 
 sisting for at least a century by the precaution- | 
 ary process of kyanising. Their grand recom- 
 mendations are their availability in some dis- j 
 tricts where draining tiles, or tile-pipes, or good ! 
 draining stones cannot be had, and the saving of j 
 time and labour in placing them in the trenches, 
 and their exemption from the accidents of frac- 
 ture and contusion either by the tread of cattle, 
 the rolling of wheels, or the compression of the 
 sole; and their grand disadvantage is the pro- 
 bability or almost the certainty of their every- 
 where costing more money than other approved 
 draining materials. They may be constructed 
 by various means, of various capacities of water- 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 420 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 way, and of different shapes, either with three I 
 sides so as to be triangular, or with four equal 
 sides so as to be square, or with two sides broad 
 and two narrow so as to have a parallelogramic 
 bore. But Mr. Scott recommends that they either 
 be pierced with small holes, or be notched with 
 small saw-cuts, or have their lower seams a little 
 open, to admit t he water, — that they be fastened 
 with pins of ash, oak, or elm, — that they present 
 a square of four inches outside, and have a clear 
 water-way of two square inches inside, — and that, 
 in constructing them, the sole be first placed on 
 the carpenter's bench, then the side pieces upon 
 the sole, then the top over all, and the pins be 
 driven through top, sides, and sole with a wooden 
 mallet. " Since writing what precedes," says 
 Mr. Scott at the conclusion of the second of his 
 memoirs, " I have been informed that larch and 
 Scotch fir had been used to a considerable extent 
 in drainage on the estate of Netherby so long as 
 25 or 30 years ago. ' The trees employed were 
 thinnings of larch and Scotch fir, split down the 
 middle, and so placed as to form a covered trough 
 or hollow drain. The wood was not perforated, 
 but loosely jointed, and the surface water escaped 
 most readily.' Sir James Graham further in- 
 forms me, that he has ' wood-drains still running 
 and quite effectual, which were laid down 25 
 years ago. Where the run of spring water is 
 constant, and where the wood is buried deep in 
 the ground, these drains will not perish, and will 
 continue useful for a long time.' Those, however, 
 which were near the surface, and intended to 
 carry off rain water, thus being alternately wet 
 and dry, having been lately opened, ' were found 
 to be decayed, and no longer serviceable.' " 
 
 The Suffolk and Essex methods of subsoil- 
 draining, historically but briefly noticed in the 
 section on " The Ancient and Modern Practices 
 of Draining," aim solely and directly at the im- 
 mediate formation of earthen or clayey conduits 
 within the substance of the subsoil, and achieve, 
 at the very outset, and without any of the risks 
 and embarrassments of the drains from rotting 
 materials, the same results which are slowly 
 evolved in a long course of years from the most 
 efficient and durable varieties of the method of 
 filling up with billets and with other vegetable 
 substances. Many varieties of these methods 
 are in practice, differing little from one another 
 in the manner of cutting the drains, but differ- 
 ing somewhat widely in the contrivances for 
 leaving hollow ducts in the lower or termina- 
 tional portions of each cut. A variety very com- 
 mon in Suffolk employs vegetable stuffings, and 
 may be specially noticed as illustrating all the 
 other varieties. A series of cuts is made, first 
 with the plough, and next with hand implements, 
 so as to form a graduated trench, terminating in 
 a narrow central spit ; and vegetable wisps or 
 stuffings are applied, not within the spit but over 
 it, of stubble, heath, straw, turf, hop-binds, or 
 any similar substance, designed to serve as a roof 
 
 to the duct of the spit, and as a floor to the earthy 
 matters in the body of the trench. The applica- 
 tion of the vegetable stuffings unfortunately bears 
 the ambiguous designation of ' filling up ; ' but 
 it really leaves all the duct or water-way per- 
 fectly open, and serves solely as a cover or ceil- 
 ing to it, or as a support of the returned exca- 
 vated earth, till an arch is formed. The drains 
 are drawn slantingly across the slope of the 
 ground, with a moderate fall ; and, at their low- 
 est points, are so met by connecting drains, that 
 each group with its connecting drain carries off 
 the water from an area of half an acre or three- 
 quarters of an acre, and each connecting drain 
 opens into the receiving ditch at a spot called 
 the eye. In cutting the drains, first, a common 
 plough goes two bouts to each drain, opening a 
 furrow 18 inches wide and 5 inches deep; next, 
 a large deep-breasted plough, kept for the pur- 
 pose in some districts, goes once along this fur- 
 row, and turns out another furrow about 10 inches 
 wide and 5 inches deep, so as to form a drain of 10 
 inches wide and 10 inches deep ; next, a labourer, 
 with a common spade, digs out, from the eye or 
 bottom of this second furrow, a trench 9 inches 
 deep, and as wide as the breadth of his spade ; 
 and next, the labourer, with a spade of 13 inches 
 in mouth-length, and of a breadth diminishing 
 from 2| inches to 1| inch, digs out, from the 
 middle of the bottom of the trench, a spit of 11 
 inches in depth, and, with a peculiarly-formed 
 and long-handled scoop, completely clears this 
 spit of all crumbs or fragments of the excavated 
 subsoil. The final depth thus attained is 30 
 inches. The vegetable stuffing is now so applied 
 by pressure as to occupy the upper part of the 
 spit to the depth of about 3 inches ; and then the 
 excavated earth, whether heavy or light, is shov- 
 elled in over the vegetable stuffing, and the com- 
 mon plough reverses its former work. The latter 
 part of the excavating process is represented in 
 Fig. 14, Plate XXXVI. ; and the spade and the 
 scoop employed in it are shown in Fig. 11. 
 
 One slight variation from the preceding method 
 consists in laying a waggon-rope along the bot- 
 tom of the spit during the process of the stuffing, 
 and afterwards withdrawing it ; but this is a 
 mere precaution against the lodgment of crumbs 
 of earth upon the bottom, and, if the scoop be 
 properly used, is altogether unnecessary. — An- 
 other variety employs pieces of peat 15 inches 
 long and 3 inches square, as a substitute for the 
 vegetable stuffing, and gently presses them into 
 the top of the spit to sustain and bear aloft the 
 returned excavated earth ; and these peats, we 
 are told, " swell speedily, and become firmly 
 fixed, and are very durable, and have this advan- 
 tage over the other methods, and also over tile- 
 draining, that a fold -stake driven into them 
 commits no damage. — Another variety dispenses 
 with all stuffing, places in the spit a board of 
 such dimensions as exactly to fill it, turns down 
 the earth upon the upper edge of the board so as 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 421 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 to form a firm and compact mass over it, and 
 then withdraws the board to the next part of the 
 spit, there to repeat the operation. — Another va- 
 riety has a sort of mongrel character, or rather 
 belongs to the methods of actually filling up with 
 vegetable substances ; for it lays billets, faggot- 
 wood, or thorns along the bottom of the cut, and 
 places soft vegetable matter over it, leaving the 
 water to find its way along the interstices be- 
 tween the pieces of wood; but this practice, 
 though sometimes followed in the eastern coun- 
 ties, ought never to be quoted as a specimen of 
 Suffolk or Essex draining. — A theoretic variety, 
 proposed by Mr. Rham, employs tiles as roofing 
 to the spits ; and this, it is believed, would have 
 a durability exceeding that of the best varieties 
 by about ten years. 
 
 The drains of the Suffolk and Essex method of 
 draining can be efficiently and durably made 
 only in stiff clay lands ; they are quite unsuited 
 to light soils and subsoils, and, if made in them, 
 will fall in ; they possess little adaptation to even 
 such stiff subsoils as have either a flakey or 
 crumbling texture, or are intermixed with small 
 water-worn stones ; nor, though much prized for 
 purely clayey lands, do they last longer, on even 
 these, than from 12 to 20 years. Yet they are 
 both so cheap and so efficient as to drain 300 
 acres for 20 years, while tile-drains of the same 
 cost would drain 100 acres for 40 years ; and when 
 they begin to fail, they do not fall in throughout, 
 but only become choked in spots, so that any 
 field which is occupied with them can be again 
 made dry by cutting a few new drains across the 
 old ones. Though they figure somewhat poorly 
 in description, and may be derided by some hot 
 partisans of newer methods, they continue, after 
 full investigation of the powers of tile-drains, 
 stone-drains, and improved drains of other kinds, 
 to be decidedly regarded, by some of the most 
 distinguished agriculturists of England, as the 
 most suitable for soils and subsoils of very tena- 
 cious clay. " Tiles and stone," says the Rev. 
 Copinger Hill, " are disregarded by us, except 
 for boggy soils, even since their use has been re- 
 called to our notice by Scotch agriculturists ; for 
 our own system answers well, and is tested by 
 time." — " This body of evidence," says Mr. Pusey 
 respecting a mass of information and testimony 
 on the Suffolk and Essex method, " sets at rest 
 any question as to the English origin of thorough- 
 drainage, showing that, for a century, it has been 
 used generally in the large and well-farmed coun- 
 ties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, as well as in 
 Hertfordshire. But it does more ; it gives us the 
 power of improving other English counties in a 
 cheaper, and, I believe, a better manner than by 
 the more modern processes of stone and tile 
 draining used in the north, — I mean on heavy 
 clay lands. It is incomparably cheaper than 
 either, and I think better ; because some of the 
 evidence shows, and I have heard and seen, that 
 tiles alone will sometimes not draw off the water 
 
 upon our heavy English clays, and the stone in 
 many such districts is not to be found." 
 
 A method of subsoil-draining somewhat akin 
 in both nature and cheapness to the Suffolk and 
 Essex method, but of much more extensive and 
 varied adaptation, and specially suited to the 
 very class of lands for which the other is unfit, 
 has received the names of clay- draining, plug- 
 draining, and wedge -draining. It is supposed 
 to have been invented by a professional mole- 
 drainer, as an improvement upon the common 
 fragile method of making mole-drains; it was 
 first tried on pasture-lands, and continues to be 
 thought most suitable for them, but has also 
 proved itself to be well suited to many kinds of 
 ploughed land ; and it began to come into prac- 
 tice about a quarter of a century ago, and has, in 
 some parts of England, become greatly extended. 
 The trenches are cut with the same kind of deep, 
 narrow, terminal spit as those of the Suffolk and 
 Essex method, but are both deeper and more 
 capacious ; a chain of blocks, plugs, or wedges, 
 (represented in Fig. 10, Plate XXXVI.,) of exact- 
 ly suitable dimensions, and so fixed to a chain 
 as to be dragged forward by a lever, is placed in 
 piece after piece of the spit ; a mass of plastic, 
 unctuous clay is spread, kneaded, trodden, and 
 rammed over the top of the spit and of the upper 
 edge of the chain of blocks, so as to form a firm 
 and retentive arch after the chain of blocks is 
 dragged away ; and, finally, the excavated earth 
 is returned into the trench, and, if the field be 
 in grass, the pared-off sod is replaced on the sur- 
 face. The operation must be performed, not only 
 with wet clay, but while the land or subsoil itself 
 is in a wet condition ; and the drains require to 
 have a fall of at least 1 in 60, and must be so 
 arranged, as to distance and subdivision, that 
 none shall sustain the risk of being gorged with 
 water during a season of excessive rain. The 
 ducts of these drains, of course, cannot receive 
 water through the clay arch of their roof, but 
 they freely and abundantly admit it through 
 their sides and bottom ; and though the portions 
 of soil directly over them should, during the first 
 season, be the wettest of the field, and even al- 
 most as wet as before the operation was per- 
 formed, the drains may be seen, by inspection of 
 their mouth, to be carrying away a profusion of 
 water. Considerable nicety and care are requisite 
 for the making of the drains in a sound manner ; 
 and no workmen should be employed on them 
 but such as are skilful and trustworthy. One 
 process of making them is clearly and minutely 
 described, with accompanying diagrams, in the 
 3d vol. of the Royal Agricultural Society's J our- 
 nal ; and another process, somewhat different, 
 and not with the same tools, is fully described in 
 the 22d and 49th Nos. of the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. The implement used in the lat- 
 ter for cutting the terminal spit, is the bitting 
 or grafting iron represented in Fig. 13, Plate 
 XXXVI. The width of the bottom at a is If in.; 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 422 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 the tongue or side-bit, b, worked out of the main- 
 bit, has 6 inches of length of cut ; the width of 
 the back of the side-bit, c, is 4| inches; the 
 length of the main-bit, d, from the treading-step, 
 e, to the bottom, is 18 inches ; and the length of 
 the handle,/, i« about the same as that of a com- 
 mon spade. The turf 12 inches wide and 6| 
 inches deep is removed with the common spade ; 
 the second cut is made at such an angle down 
 the side as to leave the bottom of the exact width 
 of the tongue of the bitting-iron, at 9 inches in 
 depth ; and the third or completing cut is made 
 with the bitting-iron 9 inches deep ; so that the 
 total cut is 12 inches wide at top, 24| inches 
 deep, and If inch wide at bottom. " The advan- 
 tages of plug-draining," says one of the writers 
 in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, " are so 
 many and important, that it is quite surprising 
 how little of it has been executed. Pasture 
 land, which before had been deluged with sur- 
 face water, has, in less than two years, under- 
 gone an entire change of character, — the aquatic 
 grasses, with rushes, which, before draining, were 
 its chief produce, having entirely disappeared, 
 with various other weeds, whose chief support was 
 derived from water, and their places have been 
 supplied by several of the best and most nutritive 
 grasses, with vast increase, both in bulk and qual- 
 ity." — A variety of the method of clay-draining 
 dispenses with the uses of the chain of blocks or 
 plugs in making the drains, and simply stuffs the 
 top of the spits with clay in the same manner in 
 which the Suffolk and Essex method does so with 
 soft vegetable substances; and a writer in the 
 Bath Papers states that, by the practice of this 
 variety, he had so improved his farm as to feed 
 off turnips with 800 sheep throughout winter on 
 land which previously was so wet as to rot green 
 crops. 
 
 A method of subsoil-draining, somewhat akin 
 to clay-draining and to the Suffolk and Essex 
 method, but decidedly inferior to both, has, for 
 a considerable period, been practised in some of 
 the clay districts of England, and is usually de- 
 signated sod-draining. Several varieties of it are 
 in use ; but all are distinguished by the employ- 
 ment of sods or grass-turf coverings, roofs, or 
 stuffings to the ducts of the drains. The cutting 
 of the trenches for sod-draining, proceeds, in 
 general, on the same principle, as that of the 
 trenches for the Suffolk and the clay methods ; 
 yet it specially adapts the lower part of the ex- 
 cavation to the several varieties of manner in 
 which the sods are applied. One variety of sod- 
 draining scoops out a groove of 5 or C square 
 inches in the bottom of the trench, leaves should- 
 ers or ledges at the sides of the top of the groove, 
 and lays the sods flat across the groove and the 
 shoulders with the grassy side undermost. But 
 in this variety, the sod rests the whole of its own 
 weight and of the weight of the incumbent earth 
 upon the shoulders of the trench, and is totally 
 unsupported in the space over the groove; and 
 
 it, in consequence, either promptly falls in from 
 the effects of pressure or accident, or speedily 
 gives way from the effects of its own decomposi- 
 tion and disintegration. Another variety digs 
 the trench about a foot wide, doubles the sod into 
 the shape of an inverted V, with the grass in- 
 wards, and so deposits the sod that it rests on its 
 edges and has its bent middle upwards ; and a 
 third variety, nearly akin to this, cuts the lower 
 part of the trench into a deep and narrow wedge- 
 shape spit, and plugs or stuffs the top of this spit 
 with pieces of sod in the form of truncated wedges. 
 If the sod used in these two varieties have an 
 arenaceous basis or an excess of vegetable matter, 
 it will speedily fall in and stop up the ducts; 
 but if it have a clayey basis and only a mo- 
 derate proportion of grass, the ducts which it 
 covers are likely to be of prolonged utility. But 
 a fourth variety of sod-draining is both more 
 common and more effective than the other varie- 
 ties. The turf along the intended line of drain 
 is cut into a four-angled shape, 9 inches wide at 
 top, and 6 inches wide at bottom ; and narrow 
 wedges are cut off on each side, so as to leave the 
 sod about 3 inches wide on the grass side, and 6 
 inches wide underneath. After the sod is re- 
 moved, two successive spits of earth are taken 
 out, of such dimensions and in such a manner, 
 as to make a trench about 18 inches deep, 9 inches 
 wide at top, and scarcely an inch wide at bottom ; 
 though both the depth and the width may vary 
 to suit inequalities of surface. The sod is next 
 placed in the trench with the grassy side down- 
 ward ; and, if carefully cut, it fits closely to the 
 trench's sides, and will bear so great a weight 
 that the more it is pressed from above, the firmer 
 is its seat upon the sides. " Drains of this kind," 
 says Mr. Brown of Heckington, "if carefully 
 made, last many years. In the only case in which 
 I have known well made sod drains require to be 
 renewed, they had lasted about 20 years. In 
 cutting ditches, sewers, &c, I have lately fallen 
 in with sod drains considerably more than 20 
 years old, which were as sound as when they 
 were first made. The expense of draining with 
 sods is less than a third of the expense of drain- 
 ing with tiles. Supposing sod drains to last 20 
 years, the interest of the money saved by substi- 
 tuting sod-drains for tile-drains will more than 
 pay the expense of renewing the sod-drains ad 
 infinitum." 
 
 A method of under-draining strong clay lands, 
 and especially meadow lands with a clay subsoil, 
 in some counties of England, is effected with a 
 draught implement called a mole-plough. A cir- 
 cular duct of about 2^ or 3 inches in diameter, is 
 made by this implement at a given and uniform 
 depth from the surface ; and may be described 
 as having the general form and character of 
 either a clay pipe or a mole run. It is formed, 
 not in the slightest degree by the extraction of 
 earth, but wholly by compression ; and the whole 
 of it, except a slit along the top, is so firm and 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 impervious as to resist the infiltration of water, 
 and to act solely as a conduit-pipe. But the slit 
 along its top is kept open either by the action of 
 the weather upon the soil, or by means of the 
 artificial insertion in it of a little plaited straw 
 or some similar substance ; so that the duct or 
 drain dries the soil, entirely by receiving per- 
 colations of water through the slit, and therefore 
 exerts a very limited range of power within the 
 soil as to cither depth or ])readth. The imple- 
 ment has a beam, stilts, and coulter, in the form 
 of a strong, rude, simple plough, and requires a 
 draught-power somewhat greater than that of 
 the common tillage plough. Its instrument of 
 boring is a well -tempered, cast-iron, conically 
 shaped share or bolt, of about 2| or 3 inches in 
 diameter at the hind end and sharp at the point ; 
 and this is attached to the beam of the plough 
 and held fast by a very strong, flat, wrought-iron 
 bar, sharp on the front edge and about an inch 
 thick in the back, and capable of being lowered 
 or heightened in position by means of bolts 
 through its mortised attachment to the beam. 
 The plough requires to be very evenly guided, so 
 as to make a level or quite regularly sloping 
 duct ; and, on this account, it is sometimes con- 
 structed with wheels upon the fore part of its 
 beam. An extraordinary variety of mole-plough 
 draining has sometimes been practised in Essex ; 
 a furrow being first formed with a common 
 plough, and then a duct being driven at the 
 depth of from 14 to 18 inches, with a mole-plough 
 drawn by 15 or 18 horses, three a-breast. Mole- 
 plough draining of any kind is obviously imprac- 
 ticable in fields which have inequalities of sur- 
 face ; and it must, in even the most favourable 
 circumstances, be regarded as of but very limited 
 efficiency. The slit along the top of the duct 
 which it makes in the soil, is cut partly by the 
 coulter and partly by the bar which connects the 
 share with the beam. 
 
 Flat-stone draining and slate draining have 
 long been practised, in a considerable variety of 
 ways, in districts which afford cheap and easy 
 access to the quarrying of schistose rocks. In 
 some places where the subsoil is deep, and of a 
 loose and friable texture, square pipes of stone, 
 called goughs, are formed at the bottom of the 
 trenches, with a series of wide flat stones as a 
 sole, with dry walls of splinters on the sides, and 
 with a series of wide flat stones as a cover. The 
 width of the duct, in these cases, is usually about 
 6 inches in the clear. In other places where the 
 subsoil is similar and schistose stones are unat- 
 tainable or scarce, goughs are constructed of 
 bricks ; and though expensive, are efficient and 
 durable. When, the bottom is firm, and the de- 
 clivity is gentle, the series of sole-stones or sole- 
 bricks is sometimes omitted. — In some instances, 
 one series of slates or of flat stones is laid along 
 the bottom of the drain as a sole, and two other 
 series are placed slantingly on the sides so as to 
 lean against each other at the top and form a 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 triangular duct ; but though these are frequently 
 kept in their position by the lateral and perpen- 
 dicular pressure of the small stones, the gravel, 
 or the porous earth, with which the part of the 
 trench immediately above them is filled up, they 
 have a considerable liability to fall in and com- 
 pletely choke the ducts. — Another variety of flat- 
 stone draining uses three series of stones, as in 
 the preceding method, but in an inverted order, 
 with the horizontal series, not as a sole, but as a 
 cover ; but this, though not in quite so great a 
 degree, is also liable to the ruinous accident of 
 falling in. — Another variety likewise uses three 
 series of flat stones, but placed rectangularly, in 
 the manner of base, perpendicular, and hypothe- 
 nuse, — the base serving as the sole, and the per- 
 pendicular as one of the sides ; but this variety 
 is even more objectionable than the preceding. — 
 Another variety places two or three or more slates 
 or thin stones on edge, side by side, and lays 
 over them a series of flat stones as a cover; but 
 this is in the highest degree objectionable. — Flat 
 stones can be set so as to give a free water-course 
 in trenches cut as narrow at the bottom as for 
 drain-tiles ; for the workman may place himself 
 in the trench in the same manner as when laying 
 tiles, and may have the stones so laid alongside 
 that he can reach them as required. One of 
 several methods of forming flat stone ducts in 
 narrow-bottomed trenches in strong clay land, is 
 the following : — The trench is cut 5 inches wide 
 at bottom ; a series of stones, each 8 or 9 inches 
 long, is placed with one end in one of the angles 
 of the bottom, and with the other end resting 
 on the opposite side, so as to leave a triangular 
 duct below ; another series of stones is so placed 
 above as to form a second triangular duct, but 
 on the opposite side of the trench ; and a stratum 
 of small stones or of sifted and gritty gravel is 
 laid above the stones, and the upper part of the 
 trench filled up in the same manner as in most 
 other methods of draining. 
 
 Two varieties of mixed flat-stone drains have, 
 within the last ten years, made a little claim on 
 attention for their alleged combination of cheap- 
 ness and efliciency, — the one a mongrel between 
 flat-stone draining and the Suffolk subsoil-drain- 
 ing, and adapted to strong clay lands, — and the 
 other a mongrel between flat-stone draining and 
 assorted small - stone draining, and adapted to 
 every kind of land. Preparation for either is 
 made by so ploughing up ridged lea-land as to 
 leave double furrows 16 inches wide at bottom, 
 32 inches wide at top, and 22 inches of depth at 
 bottom below the level cf the crown ridges ; and 
 the operation for forming the first is as follows : 
 — Leave a ledge of one inch on each side of the 
 bottom of the furrow left by the plough ; cut out 
 with the common spade a perpendicular trench 
 14 inches wide and 10 inches deep ; cut out from 
 the bottom, with a narrow-pointed spade, ano- 
 ther trench of 5 inches in depth, and 4 inches in 
 width, leaving a ledge of 5 inches on each side 
 
 423 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 424 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 of the spade ; place thin flat stones, greywacke 
 flags, or stout coarse slates upon the 5 inch ledges 
 so as to form a complete cover to the lower 
 trench ; and then fill up the upper trench and 
 the furrow, in the usual manner, with the spade 
 and the plough. The mongrel between the flat- 
 stone drain and the assorted small stone drain is 
 made as follows : — The spade takes out from the 
 bottom of the deep and wide ploughed furrow a 
 trench 16 inches deep, 8 inches wide at top, and 
 3 inches wide at bottom ; two series of flags or 
 flat stones are so placed against the sides of this 
 trench that their lower edges rest against each 
 other and form an acute angle at the bottom ; a 
 series of small hard stones is inserted between 
 them, two-thirds down, so as to act like a wedge, 
 and keep them asunder ; the space above these 
 wedge-stones, up to the top of the trench, is filled 
 with riddled small stones, such as are used in the 
 Deanston drains; and the rest of the work is 
 done by an earthing over with spade and plough. 
 Sections of drains formed according to these two 
 methods are shown in Fig. 12, Plate XXXVI; 
 
 Rubble-draining is much esteemed in many dis- 
 tricts where suitable materials for it can be ob- 
 tained. It comprises numerpus varieties, and is 
 to a certain extent connected with tile-draining 
 on the one hand, as with flat-stone draining on 
 the other ; yet it properly and generically con- 
 sists in the packing of the lower part of a nar- 
 row trench either with assorted boulders not ex- 
 ceeding in size hen's eggs, or with small pieces 
 of broken rock, similar to road-metal, and assorted 
 to diameters of from 2|- to 4 inches. The oper- 
 ations for it admit of very numerous and some- 
 what wide diversities ; and yet all have a general 
 resemblance to the operations for both the flat- 
 stone methods and the Suffolk and Essex methods. 
 Mr. Smith of Deanston, who identifies with as- 
 sorted small stone draining all his well-won cele- 
 brity as an experimental drainer, gives the fol- 
 lowing directions : — " The lines of drains having 
 been marked off in the field, the drainer begins 
 by cutting with a spade on a line, then removing 
 a first spading of about 13 or 14 inches wide all 
 along ; another follows with a narrower and ta- 
 pering spade made for the purpose, taking out 
 another spading ; and, when picking becomes ne- 
 cessary, a third man follows with a pick, and a 
 fourth with a large scoop-shovel, to cast out the 
 earth. A smaller scoop-shovel is used to clean out 
 the bottom, which should be cut as narrow as 
 will allow the last drainer a footing, generally 
 about 3 or 4 inches. From 2 to 2| feet from the 
 surface are the best depths for such drains ; the 
 latter always to be preferred. The bottom should 
 be cut as straight and uniform as possible, so 
 that the water may flow freely along at all places ; 
 and it is better to cut a little deeper, where there 
 is any sudden rise of the surface, than to follow 
 it ; and where sudden hollows occur, the cutting 
 may, on the same principle, be less deep ; atten- 
 tion to this also admits of after-straightening or 
 
 levelling of the surface, without any injury to 
 the drains. The workmen in cutting should 
 throw the earth to the right and left from each 
 alternate drain, as that allows" the plough to go 
 regularly and be constantly occupied in filling in 
 the earth, whilst each alternate ridge or space is 
 left for getting in the stones, free from the earth 
 thrown out. The stones may either be laid 
 down at intervals by the sides of the drains, to 
 be there broken ; or, being broken in masses at 
 some convenient spot, and at such convenient 
 seasons as best suit for the employment of spare 
 labour, can be brought by the carts ready to be 
 filled in. No stones should be filled in till the 
 whole line of drain has been cut and inspected ; 
 but the sooner drains are completed after having 
 been cut the better, and they should always be 
 filled from the higher level downwards. Some- 
 times, when there is much tendency of the sides 
 to fall in, it becomes necessary to fill in going 
 along. Cutting in the summer, when there is 
 little water in the soil, or in any dry season, 
 saves much of this. In soft or sandy bottoms, by 
 cutting the drains to half the depth in the first 
 instance, and allowing them to remain so until 
 the water has been voided from the upper stra- 
 tum, the lower part may then be cut out with 
 more safety from falling in." — Another distin- 
 guished drainer, Mr. Roberton, recommends drains 
 33 inches deep, 7 inches wide at bottom, and 9 
 inches wide at the height of the stones ; another, 
 Mr. Stirling, recommends drains 30 inches deep, 
 5 inches wide at the bottom, and 8 inches wide 
 at 15 inches from the bottom or at the top of 
 the stones ; and another, Mr. Stephens, recom- 
 mends drains of the width and gauge of the com- 
 mon spade ; — and all these, as well as other emi- 
 nent stone-drainers, advocate some peculiarities 
 as to either the kind and size of the stones, or the 
 manner of preparing them, or the process of fill- 
 ing them in. Boulders, however, when all as 
 nearly as possible about the size of hen's eggs, 
 clearly afford an easier, a more capacious, and a 
 more durable water-way than broken or angular 
 stones ; and broken stones of the gauge-diameter 
 of 2^ inches are obviously much more suitable 
 for trenches of only 5 inches or so in width than 
 stones of the gauge-diameter of 4 inches. 
 
 The usual practice, in making rubble-drains, 
 is to cover the bed of stones with reversed green 
 sods, or a layeis*of straw, dry leaves, dry brackens, 
 coarse bog hay, tanner's refuse, or some other 
 soft vegetable substance; and sometimes, as an 
 additional precaution against earthy matter find- 
 ing its way to the interstices among the stones, 
 a stratum of two inches or so of adhesive soil or 
 subsoil is trampled or beaten down upon the 
 vegetable layer, to assist in the formation of a 
 permanent crust. But the vegetable matter, 
 whether in a layer by itself or as part of a sheet 
 of sods, very soon decays, and, being lighter than 
 the soil, is carried downward by any water which 
 descends perpendicularly to the drain from the 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 425 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 surface ; so that the cover of vegetable matter is 
 as certainly an eventual evil as it is a present 
 good. Mr. Roberton, however, so breaks, gra- 
 duates, and fills in the stones as to make a cover 
 quite impermeable by soil, without any aid from 
 vegetable matter. The principal implements for 
 his process are a portable double screen or harp, 
 a tail-board, a small iron rake, and a beater. The 
 screen is represented in Fig. 15, Plate XXXVI. 
 The main part of it is placed over a wheelbar- 
 row, and has its bars at distances suited to the 
 materials ; its upper end is hung upon two posts 
 about 3 feet above the barrow ; a spout with 
 a moveable board is attached to the lower end ; 
 and the second screen, or subordinate part of 
 the double screen, is about half the length of 
 the other, and hangs about 10 inches below it 
 and parallel to it, and has its bars about half an 
 inch apart from one another. The tail-board is 
 a moveable trough, attached to the hinder part 
 of the cart, to receive stray stones during the 
 process of shovelling out. The small iron rake 
 is employed to make the surface of the bed of 
 larger stones in the trench level before the filling 
 in of the smaller stones. And the beater is a 
 square block of wood, of the width of the trench, 
 and with an upright and cross-barred handle, to 
 beat the smaller stones into the interstices of the 
 surface layer of the larger ones, and thus make 
 the final surface of the stones so level and firm 
 as to be impermeable by soil. " When the screen 
 is used, all the earth taken out to form the drains 
 should be thrown to one side of the drain. The 
 barrow is then placed on the other side, so as the 
 board fixed to the lower end of the spout shall 
 reach to the opposite side of the drain. The cart 
 is placed upon the same side of the drain as the 
 barrow, but a little in advance ; the workman, 
 having fixed the tail-board to the hind part of 
 the cart, then shovels the stones over the upper 
 end of the screen. The proper method is, to rest 
 the shovel upon the upper part of the screen, 
 which may be shod with plate-iron, and merely 
 turn it over, by which a separation of the stone 
 is at once made ; the larger roll down, strike the 
 board, and drop into the bottom of the drain, 
 without disturbing the earth on either side ; the 
 smaller pass through the first screen, and being 
 there separated from the rubbish by the second 
 screen, fall into the barrow whilst the rubbish 
 descends to the ground on the side of the barrow 
 furthest from the drain. The one man takes 
 charge of the filling of the drain ; his duty is to 
 move the barrow along the side of the drain, as 
 this is filled with the larger stones to the required 
 height ; to level them with the rake ; to shovel 
 the smaller from the barrow, spread them regu- 
 larly over the top of the larger, and beat them 
 down with the beater, so as to form a close and 
 level surface through which no earth can pass. 
 The stones are so broken in the quarry, as to pass 
 through a ring four inches in diameter ; a great 
 proportion of them, however, are much smaller, 
 
 and when filled into the carts generally about 
 one-fourth are so small, or, if not, should be made 
 so small, as to pass through the bars of the upper 
 screen, which are, for such materials, about If 
 inch apart, and then they will be found sufficient 
 to give to the top of the drain a covering of from 
 two to three inches in depth, which, being beaten 
 closely down, require neither straw, sod, nor any 
 thing else to cover them." 
 
 Tile-draining has, in recent times, become the 
 most extensive and conspicuous of all the methods 
 of subsoil-draining. Most draining tiles have 
 more or less of a semicylindrical form ; but all • 
 good ones are a fourth greater in height than in i 
 width, and have their top rather rapidly curved, 
 and their sides nearly perpendicular. Some tiles 
 have a flattish top and somewhat spreading sides, 
 — but these form a bad water-way, and are com- 
 paratively frangible ; and others are made with 
 flanges, or a kind of outspread feet, — but these 
 are liable to sink irregularly in the soil, and to 
 occasion both diminution and derangement of 
 the water-way. All sound and durable tiles are 
 firm, smooth, and comparatively heavy ; they 
 yield a sound like that of cast-iron to a stroke 
 with the knuckles or with a piece of stick ; and 
 they are so strong that neither the pressure of a 
 man's weight nor a smart kick with his foot will 
 break them. The tiles in use, throughout the 
 many clay districts of Britain, are exceedingly 
 various in at once form, width, height, and length; 
 and they also exhibit diversities in their mutual 
 or relative sizes for main and subordinate drains, 
 and in their means of adaptation to the junction 
 of ducts at the rectangles, or joints of a system 
 of drainage. But the varieties, the forms, the 
 adaptations, the materials, the manufacture, and 
 the prices of drain-tiles present so many ques- 
 tions of practical interest to farmers, that we re- 
 serve the discussion of them to a separate article 
 under the word Tile. — Soles ought, in every case, 
 to be laid for the tiles; and these also, when 
 made of the same material as the tiles, vary some- 
 what in form, and very much in size and quality. 
 But slates and hard stone-slabs, whenever they 
 can be readily and cheaply obtained in schistose 
 districts, make excellent soles. The use of soles 
 on very firm clayey subsoil is pronounced by 
 most agricultural writers superfluous ; but, to all 
 persons who reflect for even a few seconds on 
 the deeply erosive power of running water, it 
 will appear to be in all cases essential to the due 
 or even moderate durability of tile-drains. 
 
 The processes of forming tile-drains are vari- 
 ous; but the following, recommended by Mr. 
 Carmichael of Raploch, in the highest of three 
 Prize -Essays on the subject, published in the 
 Transactions of the Highland Society, may be 
 regarded as one of the best. The dimensions of 
 the main-drain must be determined by the pro- 
 bable volume of the water to be drawn otF ; and 
 this depends on both the extent and the quality 
 of the ground. In a field of about 10 acres, per- 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 426 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 fectly free from springs, a main-drain, with a 
 moderate fall, may consist of one tile, 8 inches 
 by 10 in the clear, upon a soled and neatly and 
 accurately adjusted bottom of about 12 inches. 
 When two tiles are thought necessary, they are 
 much stronger when placed upon two soles 
 abreast upon a bottom of 24 inches in width, 
 than when used without soles, and so inverted 
 on each other as to form a tubular or cylindrical 
 duct ; and the soles ought to rest fairly and freely 
 on the bottom of the trench, and to be adjusted 
 as closely as possible to its sides. The mouth of 
 the main-drain ought to be 12 inches or more 
 higher than the bottom of the open ditch into 
 which it flows, and should be finished with brick- 
 work or masonry, and furnished with such a 
 grating as shall exclude vermin. The trench be- 
 ing dug in the same way as for small-stone drains, 
 the workman enters the lower end of it, lays soles 
 and tiles alternately, presses each so close to the 
 preceding as to leave no irregular joint, and thus 
 proceeds, in an upward and backward direction, 
 or with his face toward the part finished, till he 
 arrive at the upper end of the drain. When the 
 duct is double, the soles are placed either across 
 the bottom or in pairs, and two tiles are placed 
 abreast ; when it is triple, the third tile, either 
 with or without a sole, is placed over the first 
 two; and when it is quadruple, the two lower 
 tiles are placed invertedly upon a tight packing 
 of tough turf, a pair of soles is laid above them, 
 and the two other tiles are placed in proper posi- 
 tion upon the soles. In sandy or very friable 
 subsoil, the sides of the trench sometimes require 
 to be cradled with wood during the process of 
 laying the tiles ; and when an open cast is re- 
 quired as a continuation of a covered drain, along 
 very low ground to the sea or to a tidal river, 
 the breadth of the cast, in order to give the re- 
 quisite slope to the sides, ought to be equal to 
 twice its depth. In forming the subordinate 
 drains, the digger of the trench commences at 
 the proposed junction with the main-drain, and 
 works backward ; and the layer of the tiles 
 speedily follows him in the same direction, 
 placing sole and tile in the same manner as in 
 a one-duct main-drain, and using care as he pro- 
 ceeds to remove every portion of fallen earth 
 which might either mar the evenness of the bot- 
 tom, or find its way into the ducts. 
 
 A covering of very porous mineral, or of some 
 kind of soft vegetable matter, is placed, by the 
 great majority of drainers, immediately over the 
 tiles, and is recommended by Mr. Carmichael to 
 be abundantly supplied. Small stones, gravel, 
 scoria, and the refuse of furnaces, are preferred 
 whenever they can be economically obtained ; 
 masses of hypnums, sphagnums, and the allied 
 cryptogams of peat moss are also thought very 
 suitable ; sods, with the grassy side downward, 
 are regarded by some theorizing drainers, as the 
 very best covering for either tiles or rubble ; and 
 straw, small brushwood, coarse bog hay, and 
 
 similar substances are extensively employed as 
 succedanea for more desirable but unattainable 
 materials. " A covering of some kind or other," 
 says Mr. Carmichael, " should not be scantily 
 supplied, particularly in strong adhesive clay 
 soil, where the compression caused by the con- 
 tinual treading of the teams in cultivated land, 
 is most apt to bring the clay into closer contact 
 with the tiles, and mar their utility. It was this 
 consideration which suggested the idea of leav- 
 ing holes in the tiles, or placing the drain a little 
 to one side of the furrow ; both of which plans 
 have now become the less necessary where the 
 above precautions are duly attended to, and no 
 teams allowed to go along the furrows in harvest- 
 ing the crops." A question, however, has of late 
 years been much debated whether a porous cover- 
 ing of drain-tiles do not impede rather than pro- 
 mote the drainage ; and this question has been 
 firmly answered by several distinguished drainers, 
 in favour of an immediate and entire filling up 
 with the excavated earth, and even of a treading 
 of it into a firm and compact condition ; and 
 though some of these say that a sod covering 
 may, in various situations, be serviceable for ex- 
 cluding sand and granulous earth, others assert 
 that a firmly trodden roofing of unctuous clay is 
 the best protection against even this evil, and 
 all deny that any facility whatever for the abduc- 
 tion of water is afforded by any sort of porous- 
 covering whatever. " In no part of draining," 
 says Mr. Beart, who may be viewed as a fair 
 representative of this school of improvers, •" is 
 there greater ignorance shown than in filling-in 
 the drain after the conduit is formed upon tena- 
 cious clay-soils. The modes adopted are very 
 numerous, many of which I am unacquainted 
 with, but the system generally adopted is to fill 
 the drain immediately over the conduit with sod 
 or turf, refuse wood, straw, or the surface-soil. 
 The use of a good tough sod one inch thick, laid 
 immediately over the tile to prevent the entry 
 into the conduit of sand or other light substances 
 with which the drain above the same is filled, is 
 in many instances beneficial ; but, with this ex- 
 ception, I am most decidedly opposed to putting 
 any of the materials named in preference to the 
 clay immediately above the conduit. I have 
 shown that attention to levelling the surface and 
 deep draining is the most effectual in laying land 
 dry, and not the material used to fill in above 
 the conduit ; but if the difficulty did lie imme- 
 diately over the conduit, and not at the surface, 
 clay is a better material than mixed soil. Where 
 drains are filled in with mixed soil, injury is 
 likely to accrue to the conduit by the soil running 
 down and choking it, and particularly so if the 
 conduit is formed of wood or 6traw, when it de- 
 cays. If the mixed soil does not run into the 
 conduit, but concretes, it will be more imper- 
 vious to the entry of water than clay, as mixed 
 soils contract much less than clay from the ac- 
 tion of the atmosphere and operation of under- 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 427 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 drains. I have repeatedly observed in heavy 
 rains, on land imperfectly drained, the water 
 running to the lower end of the field, and over- 
 flowing the lands almost to the ridges ; the 
 greater quantity will percolate rapidly through 
 the tilth and fissures to the conduit of the drain; 
 but the smaller quantity, when it is reduced to 
 the furrow, and has to filter through the deposit 
 of mud and filling-in, will be days in disappearing, 
 unless aided by drying winds or frost, which, by 
 contracting the surface soil, admits the water 
 into the fissures of the subsoil. With drying 
 winds part of the water is evaporated, but by 
 frost it is the contraction of the soil only which 
 facilitates its infiltration, so that water will dis- 
 appear in one night which would otherwise lie 
 for days." 
 
 The uniting of rubble-draining and tile-drain- 
 ing into one combined method, seems to be very 
 generally regarded as the master-piece of the art 
 of subsoil-draining. A series of soles and tiles 
 are laid in the same manner as in simple one- 
 duct tile-draining, but always with soles consid- 
 erably greater than the tiles ; small stones are 
 deposited by hand on both sides of the tile, till 
 the latter is covered; a bed of small stones is 
 next deposited by means of the drain-screen or 
 of a shovel, upon the top : and the whole is then 
 covered, filled, and finished in the same manner 
 as in simple rubble drains. The duct of the tile 
 thus laid is the smoothest possible conduit for 
 water, and is inaccessible by vermin ; packing of 
 small stones immediately round the tile, holds 
 the latter firmly in its place, prevents accidents, 
 and secures durability ; the superincumbent bed 
 of small stones presents a large area for lateral 
 infiltration from the subsoil, cuts off all injurious 
 communication by pressure from above with the 
 tile, and serves, in emergencies of excessive fall 
 of water, as an additional duct ; and, at the same 
 time, the covering and filling-in of the whole may 
 be performed either on the principles of infiltra- 
 tion from above, or on what appear to us the far 
 more enlightened principles of infiltration solely 
 from the sides. This combination of rubble- 
 draining with tile-draining is, of course, imprac- 
 ticable in districts where suitable stones do not 
 exist, and involves considerable additional ex- 
 pense in districts where suitable stones are abun- 
 dant ; and it will, in any case, commend itself to 
 prudent adoption only when the extra advan- 
 tages of it appear to be a full counterpoise to its 
 extra costs. 
 
 Draining by means of concrete or mortar tiles 
 is a recent invention of Lord James Hay, and is 
 designed as a cheap substitute for clay-tile drain- 
 ing. The concrete intimately resembles building 
 mortar ; it consists of hot lime, sharp sand, and 
 small gravel, in proportions suited to the strength 
 of the lime ; and when made from the strongest 
 kinds of lime, it is of the best quality, and hardens 
 soonest under water, or in damp situations, or 
 when used for the purposes of draining. If lime 
 
 contain 74 per cent, of carbonate, one part of it 
 requires to be mixed with 1^ part of sand and 3 
 parts of gravel ; and if the lime be ground, and 
 the sand and gravel added to it before the water, 
 the concrete will be harder than if made in the 
 manner of ordinary mortar. But if lime contain 
 90 per cent, of carbonate, one part of it requires 
 to be mixed with 7 parts of sand and gravel ; and 
 a bushel of it prepared with these admixtures 
 will make 160 tiles, each one foot in length. 
 The tiles are wrought on moulds by means of 
 cast -metal trowels; and if made on the open 
 ground, they will soon harden by exposure to the 
 weather, and may eventually be used in the same 
 manner as common clay tiles. But the concrete 
 can be carted to the field, and made into soles 
 and tiles on the bottom of trenches, so as to eco- 
 nomize labour and expense, and to render the 
 tile-making and the drain-making a simultane- 
 ous and conjoint process. The sole of the drain 
 is formed of the concrete, about an inch thick, or 
 rather more ; and then the drain tile is formed 
 over the mould, — the bottom of which is so curved 
 as to facilitate its being withdrawn, and at the 
 same time to make a groove in the sole for the 
 more ready flow of the water. A wire is placed 
 transversely under the sole, at the distance of 
 every foot ; and when the mould is drawn forward 
 in the trench, the wire is pulled vertically up, 
 so as to cut the sole and the drain at every foot, 
 and to make a slit all round them for the in- 
 gress of water ; or a mason's trowel may, in lieu 
 of the wire, be so thrust through the tile and 
 the sole at every foot as to make the requisite 
 series of openings. In clay lands, some clay may 
 be placed over the tile before the withdrawal of 
 the mould, in order to protect the concrete till 
 the latter harden; or a wedge of clay may be 
 placed for mechanical protection, and the whole 
 of the excavated earth be immediately returned 
 into the trench. In pasture lands and grass 
 fields, a sod may, with its grassy side downward, 
 be laid upon the concrete, and the trench be im- 
 mediately filled. T.he concrete, when formed in 
 the trench, should contain as little moisture as 
 will comport with free plasticity ; and it will then 
 offer a much firmer resistance to pressure from 
 above, than if it were moist and soft. It acquires 
 greatly increased compactness and mechanical 
 strength from exposure to the air during a few 
 hours in the trench, so that whenever its capa- 
 bility of resisting pressure is doubtful, it ought 
 to enjoy such exposure previous to the filling-in 
 of the excavated earth ; and, in extreme cases, it 
 may, without injury to itself and with little in- 
 crease of labour in the operation, be allowed to 
 continue exposed during several days. 
 
 Pipe-tile draining has, within the last 4 or 5 
 years, come into extensive use in several great 
 districts of England, and is strenuously advocated 
 by some of the most distinguished English agri- 
 culturists. Its ducts are pipes of small diameter, 
 and of the same materials as common clay tiles ; 
 
DRAINING. 428 DRAINING. 
 
 they act simply by receiving the water at their 
 joints, and carrying it off along their bore ; they 
 require no niceties as to either trenching or cov- 
 ering; they seem well adapted to systems of 
 very deep drainage, and are becoming, in a great 
 degree, identified with them ; and they recom- 
 mend themselves to adoption by at once their 
 simplicity, their cheapness, and their durability. 
 The first tile-pipes used for draining were made 
 about thirty-eight years ago at Horsemonden in 
 Kent, by bending shots of tile clay over wooden 
 cylindrical mandrils; and they were about 3 inches 
 in interior diameter, and had a narrow slit from 
 end to end, occasioned by the imperfect junction 
 of the two edges of the sheets of clay, and sup- 
 posed, though quite erroneously, to be requisite 
 for affording infiltration to the water ; but these 
 pipes never came into extensive use, and do not 
 seem to have ever become known beyond a very 
 limited locality. Tile -pipes, without any slit, 
 and of a perfectly cylindrical form, began, at a 
 considerably later period, to be made in Essex, 
 and were thence adopted into Suffolk and Sus- 
 sex ; yet even these were for a time unknown 
 beyond the limits of the districts in which they 
 were made, and eventually became known to the 
 rest of England conjointly with the old methods 
 of Essex and Suffolk subsoil-draining. In 1843, 
 pipe-tiles were made of various interior diameters 
 from 1 inch to 2\ inches, and were constructed 
 by means of a very simple machine which cost 
 about £6 or £7 ; and up to that date, about a 
 million of feet of them were supposed to have 
 been produced by ten little establishments in 
 nine parishes of Kent. But, at the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society's meeting at Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 in July, 1846, Mr. Parkes, the consulting en- 
 gineer of the Society, said, "There existed, in 
 1843, only a machine of a rude kind for manu- 
 facturing drain pipes; but through the wide- 
 spread information conveyed by the pages of the 
 Society's Journals, and the prizes offered by it 
 for superior machines, we have arrived, in the 
 short space of three years, to that agreeable 
 dilemma which actually renders the selections in 
 our show-yard of the most meritorious pipe-ma- 
 chine a matter of no little difficulty. From a 
 machine having the faculty of producing about 
 1,000 feet of pipes per diem, we have advanced, 
 in less than three years, to the faculty of making 
 20,000 feet in the same time ; in truth, the power 
 of production by many of these machines, is con- 
 siderably though usefully greater than the re- 
 quirements of any tilery." 
 
 So great efficiency is ascribed to tile-pipe drains 
 by their partisans, that Mr. Parkes considers the 
 fortuitous discovery of their use a powerful cor- 
 roboration of a principle at which he and other 
 distinguished English agriculturists had been 
 arriving, — that an increase of depth in the posi- 
 tion of the draining duct, down to at least four feet 
 from the surface, is attended by a corresponding 
 increase in the lateral range of the draining 
 
 power. An instance reported in the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society's Journal of 1843, may be quoted 
 as a fair illustration of both the efficiency of the 
 tile-pipes and the manner in which they are used. 
 Mr. Taylor of Brewer's Hall in Kent, after stating 
 that he had tried the original or slitten kind of 
 pipes, and been perfectly satisfied with them, 
 says, "There is now another sort of pipe-tiles 
 made by machine, having no opening in their 
 length, only at the joints, and much thinner, 
 which are used to greater advantage. I have 
 used them in drains over 40 rods long, and never 
 saw one pipe more than two-thirds full of water. 
 Within half an hour after heavy rain commences, 
 these drains run fast, and in a few hours after its 
 cessation they run but slowly; consequently a 
 large and expensive tile is useless where a much 
 smaller and cheaper one will do the same work. 
 I have my drains dug from 3 feet 6 inches to 4 
 feet deep ; the bottom of the drain is left for the 
 pipe to quite fill it, so that it is impossible for the 
 pipe to move after it is put into the drain. Clay 
 is then well-rammed over the pipes to 2 feet in 
 depth, which I prefer to anything else when it 
 can be got to cover the tile. I have also used 
 these pipes on boggy soils which would produce 
 neither grass nor corn ; they now give good crops 
 of both. These drains run throughout the whole 
 summer." 
 
 A tile duct invented by Mr. Etheridge of 
 Woodlands near Southampton, and usually called 
 after his name, possesses an intermediate char- 
 acter between the common tile and the tile-pipe, 
 and has, during the last three or four years, com- 
 peted with both for public favour. It resembles 
 the common tile in consisting of two parts, and 
 the tile-pipe in smallness of bore and slenderness 
 of proportions ; but it differs from the former in 
 having a lid instead of a sole, and from the lat- 
 ter in being usually double or treble its weight, 
 It is made of various dimensions ; and its bore 
 may either be cylindrical, semi-cycloidal, oval, 
 horse-shoe- form, angular, or flattened. Some ex- 
 perimentalists have pronounced it more effective, 
 and all have found it considerably cheaper, than 
 the common tile duct. But a joint view of some 
 of the best kinds of Etheridge tile, of some of the 
 best kinds of pipe-tile, and of the Tweddale or 
 confessedly best variety of the common tile, as 
 these were manufactured in the south of Eng- 
 land in 1843, will afford valuable aid in estimat- 
 ing their comparative merits. Tweeddale tiles 
 of 2| inches internal diameter, 6| inches area, 
 14| inches length, and 0*55 inch thickness, toge- 
 ther with their soles, weighed 5,500 lbs. per 
 thousand, or 4,631 lbs. per 1,000 feet, yielded 484 
 lineal feet per ton, and cost £2 2s. per thousand, 
 or £1 15s. 4d. per 1,000 feet ; Etheridge tiles of 
 2i- by l\ inches internal diameter, 3*18 inches 
 area, 14| inches length, and 0*65 inch thickness, 
 together with their lids, weighed 5,600 lbs. per 
 thousand, or 4,717 lbs. per 1,000 feet, yielded 475 
 lineal feet per ton, and cost .£1 10s. per thousand 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 429 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 or £1 5s. 3d. per 1,000 feet ; Etheridge tiles of I 
 H °y H i ncn internal diameter, 1*56 inch area, 
 14^ inches length, and 0'65 inch thickness, toge- 
 ther with their lids, weighed 5,152 lbs. per thou- 
 sand, or 4,338 lbs. per 1,000 feet, yielded 539 
 lineal feet per ton, and cost the same price as the 
 preceding ; tile pipes of 2f inches internal dia- 
 meter, 397 inches area, 12 inches length, and 
 0'40 inch thickness, weighed 2,844 lbs. per 1,000, 
 yielded 787 lineal feet per ton, and cost £l 18s. 
 per 1,000 ; pipe tiles of 2 inches internal diame- 
 ter, 3*14 inches area, 12 inches length, and 0'40 
 inch thickness, weighed 2,657 lbs. per 1,000, 
 yielded 843 lineal feet per ton, and cost £l 14s. 
 per 1,000; tile pipes of 1*6 inch internal diame- 
 ter, 2 01 inch area, 12 inches length, and 0*35 
 inch thickness, weighed 1,937 lbs. per 1,000, 
 yielded 1,156 lineal feet per ton, and cost £l 9s. 
 per 1,000; tile pipes of 1*35 inch internal diame- 
 ter, l - 43 inch area, 12 inches length, and - 35 
 inch thickness, weighed 1,313 lbs. per 1,000, 
 yielded 1,706 lineal feet per ton, and cost £l 5s. 
 per 1,000 ; and pipe tiles of 1 inch internal dia- 
 meter, 079 inch area, 12 inches length, and 25 
 inch thickness, weighed 1,032 lbs. per 1,000, 
 yielded 2,170 lineal feet per ton, and cost £1 Is. 
 per 1,000. 
 
 The forming of drain-trenches by means of 
 specially constructed ploughs has long been an 
 object of general desire, and repeatedly an object 
 of strenuous and ingenious attempt. The plough- 
 ing out of small surface drains on grass lands, 
 and the ploughing out of the upper part of sub- 
 soil trenches, to prepare them for the subsequent 
 operations of the draining spade, are easy achieve- 
 ments, and ought to be generally practised ; but 
 the ploughing out of the whole depth of subsoil 
 trenches, especially if that depth must be kept at 
 a minimum of 27 or 30 inches, appears, except in 
 very special instances, or without a wasteful 
 amount of cost, to be altogether unattainable. 
 Several draining ploughs which promised well, 
 and won premiums for their inventors, were soon 
 found to be sadly deficient and were thrown 
 aside ; and even two or three which excel and 
 survive the rest are efficient only in a special 
 kind of land, and with the use of an enormous 
 amount of horse-draught. The draining-plough 
 of Mr. MacEwan of Blackdub in Stirlingshire, 
 smoothly cuts its way through fine unctuous 
 clay, and somewhat regularly lays aside the large 
 tenacious furrow-slice ; but it requires for even 
 this land to be drawn by 6 pairs of horses, and is 
 utterly impracticable in subsoils which contain 
 any mixture of gravel or boulders, or which are 
 not quite fine and homogeneous in their earthy 
 constituents. The draining-plough of Mr. Pear- 
 son of Frotterden in Kent, cuts out a trench of 
 26 inches in depth, and is somewhat adapted to 
 preparation for clay-draining or plug-draining ; 
 but it requires both to be drawn by great horse- 
 power, and followed by the use of the hand- 
 scoop. The draining-plough of Mr. Robert Green 
 
 of Cambridgeshire, makes three successive cuts 
 for every drain, and eventually forms a trench 
 23 inches deep, 8 inches wide at top, and 2 inches 
 wide at bottom ; and it can achieve its object 
 only in stiff, fine, and homogeneous clay. The 
 draining-ploughs of Mr. Alexander of Taylorton, 
 in Stirlingshire, are two in number, a leader and a 
 follower, and perform their work on the principle 
 of cutting the trench on both sides with coulters, 
 and gradually elevating the cut and loosened 
 earth upon the inclined plain of the mould-board, 
 till it is thrown off and deposited at the side on 
 the surface; the leader takes out a depth of 16 
 or 18 inches, with a width of 17 inches at top 
 and 7 inches at bottom, and the follower takes 
 out an additional depth of 8 or 10 inches, with a 
 terminating width of 5 inches, and without mak- 
 ing any change in the width of the surface ; they 
 require, for their proper work, to be drawn by 10 
 horses, and are capable of being alternately trans- 
 muted into subsoil- ploughs and draining-ploughs; 
 and the cost of cutting drain-trenches with them 
 is estimated by their inventor, in his premium 
 report upon them in the Transactions of the 
 Highland Society, at a trifle more than one-half 
 of the cost of forming the trenches with the 
 spade. But even these ploughs are not at all 
 likely to come into general use. 
 
 The depth and the frequency of subsoil-drains 
 are in a great degree dependent on each other, 
 and have been subjects of much misapprehension 
 and considerable controversy. The proper depth 
 of drains in cold clay lands, in particular, pro- 
 vokes more debate and is the topic of wider dif- 
 ferences of opinion than any other great practi- 
 cal agricultural question of the present day. Yet 
 most of the differences of opinion arise from the 
 blinding influence of immediate pecuniary ad- 
 vantage ; and nearly all the remainder may be 
 ascribed to ignorance, prejudice, and fondness 
 for theory. Though proper «depth of drains must, 
 in some degree, vary according to differences in 
 the character of land, yet it cannot, in any in- 
 stance, be less than to draw water away from the 
 utmost possible range of the roots of plants, and 
 to afford free scope for the operations of the sub- 
 soil-plough. By descending only 3 or 4 inches 
 less than what is proper, drains may dry merely 
 the surface portions of the soil, and confer no ad- 
 vantage whatever upon the aggregate character 
 of the land. Or as the late Mr. Stephens long 
 ago remarked, " Land may be filled full of small 
 drains, so that the surface shall appear to be dry, 
 but the land thus attempted to be drained will 
 never produce a crop, either in quality or quan- 
 tity, equal to land that has been perfectly drain- 
 ed." The old system of placing the drains on the 
 mere bed of the soil, or in the highest stratum of 
 the subsoil, served scarcely any purpose except 
 to deceive farmers and rob them of a portion of 
 their money. Even modern systems have been 
 very generally controlled and limited by the mere 
 exigencies of culture and implements, and by a 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 narrow-sighted and mischievous though quite 
 natural desire to restrict expense whenever the 
 materials used were dear and the cost of form- 
 ing and filling the trenches great. The errors 
 hitherto committed, have, with probably not a 
 single exception, been all on the side of shallow- 
 ness and apparent parsimony ; for multitudes of 
 farmers have been obliged to drain their fields a 
 second time and at a greater depth, while not one 
 that we know of, has taken up deep-laid drains 
 and placed them nearer the surface. Both as 
 materials have become cheaper, or as cheap me- 
 thods have superseded dear ones, and as the me- 
 chanical and chemical principles by which drain- 
 ing operates upon the land have come to be better 
 understood, the propriety of increasing both the 
 depth and the distances of drains has been more 
 and more recognised. The perspicacious and 
 spirited achievements of Mr. Smith of Deanston, 
 were speedily followed by a conviction among 
 all classes of well-informed agriculturists, that 
 the proper depth of drains in even the most fa- 
 vourable clay lands cannot be less than 27 or 
 perhaps 30 inches; and the more recent re- 
 searches and experiments of Mr. Parkes, Mr. 
 Pusey, Mr. Arkell, and other distinguished Eng- 
 lish improvers, respecting the action of clay- 
 drains and tile-pipes, appear to be rapidly pro- 
 ducing a general conviction that the minimum 
 proper depth is 3| or even 4 feet. 
 
 An instance of the comparative depth of drains 
 mentioned by Mr. Parkes, together with his mas- 
 terly reasoning upon it, is so enlightening on this 
 contested subject, that we should be unjust to 
 our readers if we did not quote it. " I will now 
 mention an experiment which every farmer is 
 competent to make, and which cannot fail to 
 throw light on the action and effect of his drains, 
 and on the relative condition of different pieces 
 of land as to porosity, or filtrating activity, — I 
 allude to the simple ascertainment, by measure, 
 of the quantity of water discharged from differ- 
 ent drains, after rain, in the same time. In re- 
 ply to numerous inquiries on this subject, I have 
 only succeeded in obtaining sufficiently exact in - 
 formation from Mr. Hammond, whose intelligence 
 had led him to make the experiment without any 
 suggestion from me. He states—' I found after the 
 late rains (Feb. 17, 1844,) that a drain 4 feet 
 deep, ran 8 pints of water in the same time that 
 another 3 feet deep ran 5 pints, although placed 
 at equal distances.' The circumstances under 
 which this experiment was made, as well as its 
 indications, deserve particular notice. The site 
 was a hop-ground, which had been under-drained 
 35 years since to a depth varying from 24 to 30 
 inches ; and though the drains were laid some- 
 what irregularly and imperfectly, they had been 
 maintained in good action. Mr. Hammond, how- 
 ever, suspecting injury to be still done to the 
 plants and the soil by bottom water, which he 
 knew to stagnate below the old drains, again 
 under-drained the piece in 1842 with inch pipes, 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 in part to 3 feet, and in part to 4 feet in depth, 
 the effect proving very beneficial. The old drains 
 were left undisturbed, but thenceforth ceased 
 running, the whole of the water passing below 
 them to the new drains, as was to be expected. 
 The distance between the new drains is 26 feet, 
 their length 150 yards, the fall identical, the soil 
 clay. The experiment was made on two drains 
 adjoining each other, that is on the last of the 
 series of the 3 feet, and the first of the series of 
 the 4 feet drains. The sum of the flow from these 
 two drains at the time of the trial, was 975 lbs. 
 per hour, or at the rate of 19^ tons per acre in 
 24 hours — the proportionate discharge therefore 
 was 12 tons by the 4 feet, and 7^ tons by the 
 3 feet drain. No springs affected the results. 
 Hence we have two phenomena very satisfac- 
 torily disclosed ; first, that the deepest drain re- 
 ceived the most water ; second, that it discharged 
 the greatest quantity of water in a given time — 
 the superficial area of supply being the same to 
 both drains. It would appear, then, either that 
 the deeper drain had the power of drawing water 
 from a horizontal distance greater by the ratio 
 of 8 to 5 than the shallower drain ; or that the 
 perpendicular descent of the water was more 
 rapid into the 4 feet drain ; or that its increased 
 discharge was owing to both these causes com- 
 bined. The phenomenon of a deep drain draw- 
 ing water out of the soil from a greater distance 
 than a shallower one, is consistent with the laws 
 of hydraulics, and is corroborated by numberless 
 observations on the action of wells, &c. ; but the 
 cause of the deeper drain receiving more water 
 in a given time is not so obvious. An opposite 
 result, as to time, would rather be expected from 
 the fact of water falling on the surface having to 
 permeate a greater mass of earth both perpendi- 
 cularly and horizontally, in order to reach the 
 deep drain. A natural agricultural bed of porous 
 soil resembles an artificial filter, and it is un- 
 questionable that the greater the depth of mat- 
 ter composing such filter, the slower is the pas- 
 sage of water through it. In stiff loams and 
 clays, however, but more particularly as regards 
 the latter earth, the resemblance ceases, as these 
 soils can permit free ingress and egress to rain- 
 water, only after the establishment of that thor- 
 ough net-work of cracks or fissures, which is 
 occasioned in them by the shrinkage of the mass 
 from the joint action of drains and superficial 
 evaporation. These fissures seem to stand in the 
 stead of porosity in such soils, and serve to con- 
 duct water to drains rapidly after it has trickled 
 through the worked bed ; it is possible, too, that 
 in deeply drained clays of certain texture the 
 fissures may be wider, or more numerous, in con- 
 sequence of the contraction of a greater bulk of 
 earth than when such soil is drained to a less 
 depth. However this may be, it is asserted by 
 some respectable and intelligent farmers in Kent, 
 who have laid drains very deeply in clays and 
 stiff soils, that the flow from the deepest drains 
 
 430 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 431 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 invariably commences and ceases sooner than 
 from shallower drains, after rain." 
 
 Other instances, bearing on the same great 
 question, are detailed by Mr. Parkes in the Jour- 
 nal of the Royal Agricultural Society; many were 
 accumulated by him previous to that Society's 
 meeting at Newcastle in 1846, — so as to have 
 induced him to say, on that occasion, " The evi- 
 dence to my mind is irresistible that a less depth 
 of drain than 4 feet in any soil will not be accom- 
 panied by those beneficial results which we ob- 
 tain at that, and in some soils by a still greater 
 depth ;" and multitudes have, for two or three 
 years past, begun to present themselves to obser- 
 vation and inquiry in the best-farmed clay dis- 
 tricts of England, particularly in Kent. Drain- 
 ing at the depth of 3h and 4 feet, in fact, has 
 come to be almost the prevailing practice in the 
 choicest of the pipe-tile districts ; and has no 
 doubt been greatly encouraged by the cheapness, 
 lightness, and approved action of the pipe-tiles, 
 by the facility of laying them, and by the com- 
 paratively small cost of cutting the small trenches 
 for their reception. Experimentalists have not 
 been slow to try drains at the depth of 6 feet, and 
 have found them to answer their anticipations ; 
 and, in a rare instance or two, they have — more 
 for the sake of testing the principle of deep-drain- 
 ing than with any other view — tried them at 
 even the quixotic depth of 10 feet. A very seri- 
 ous practical, objection to deep draining upon 
 either the rubble-stone method, or the common 
 tile method, or almost any one of the older me- 
 thods, is its great extra expense over 2| feet 
 draining; but this does not, in the slightest 
 degree, affect the pipe-tile method, and probably 
 admits of modification in reference to some of 
 the other methods. The theoretic objections are, 
 that the years of experiment in four-feet drain- 
 ing were peculiarly favourable to the Assuring of j 
 clay soil, — that four-feet drains, deposited in 
 deep clay land in a state of thorough saturation 
 and compactness, would be long in succeeding, 
 and perhaps would never succeed, in so Assuring 
 the land as to keep it open,— and that, after a 
 long period of unusually continuous and heavy 
 rains, tile-pipes, at a depth of four feet, might 
 cease to have power to maintain the fissures, and 
 so permit the land to become re-saturated and 
 re-compact. Some readers may possibly attach 
 to these objections sufficient importance to draw 
 from them a lesson of caution ; but most, we 
 suspect, will regard them as wildly imaginary. 
 
 One limit to deep draining is either rockiness 
 or thorough porosity of substrata ; another is the 
 impossibility or difficulty of obtaining a proper 
 outlet for the water without deep and extensive 
 cutting or some other operose and costly provi- 
 sion ; and a third — though merely of a prudential 
 nature — is the well-tried and thoroughly proven 
 efficiency of shallower draining upon land of 
 strictly homogeneous character.— The frequency 
 of drains is so far dependent on the depth, that 
 
 it cannot be settled till the latter is determined ; 
 and yet the mutual relation of the two is very 
 far from being reducible to one fixed rule. In 
 porous subsoils, drains draw from a far wider 
 area than in clayey subsoils, and they may there- 
 fore be placed at correspondingly greater inter- 
 vals from one another ; and even in clayey sub- 
 soils, they considerably vary in the breadth of 
 area from which they draw, yet act very nearly 
 in the proportion of the homogeneousness or of 
 the gravelly mixture of the clay. A three-feet 
 drain, in the very stiffest clay land, draws from 
 6 or 7 feet on each side of it ; in a partially im- 
 pervious subsoil, 8 or 9 feet on each side ; in a 
 subsoil mediately pervious and impervious, 12 
 or 13 feet on each side ; and in very favourable 
 varieties of subsoil, from 15 to 33 feet on each 
 side ; so that the doubles of these distances are, 
 in the respective cases the proper intervals be- 
 tween the drains. But, in every instance, the 
 rule, so abundantly verified by the experiments 
 in pipe-tile draining, may be regarded as appli- 
 cable, that when the drains are made shallower, 
 they require to be closer, and when made deeper, 
 they may be at remoter distances. 
 
 The direction in which drains ought to run. 
 whether in that of the inclination of the ground, 
 or obliquely to that inclination, or quite across 
 it, has also been a question of much controversy, 
 but may now be regarded as so far settled, as 
 to be almost beyond dispute. The late Mr. 
 Stephens maintained that, " when the ground 
 has the least declivity, the drains should always 
 be directed obliquely across the slope, or as 
 directly across it as the nature of the surface 
 and outlet will allow," and that " drains winding 
 across the slope or declivity of a field, whatever 
 their number or depth may be, will have a much 
 greater effect upon tenacious or impervious sub- 
 strata than if they were made up and down the 
 slope." But these views, though long adopted 
 by most practical writers on draining, arose 
 from a confounding of the principles of subsoil- 
 draining with those of strata-draining, and have 
 been abundantly proved, both by experiment 
 and by joint appeal to hydraulics and geology, 
 to be utterly erroneous. In rare cases of well- 
 marked, regular, horizontal stratification, indeed, 
 the placing of the drains across the slope, in the 
 lines at which the bottoms or conveying levels 
 of the strata crop out, will necessarily draw far 
 more water, and effect both a more economical 
 and a more powerful drainage, than the placing 
 of them in the direction of the slope ; yet when 
 the strata are of irregular thickness, or do not 
 present within the range of artificial drainage a 
 series of conveying levels, the placing of the 
 drains across the slope of even heterogeneously 
 stratified subsoils may fail to draw water from 
 below, and serve only the useless purpose of col- 
 lecting it after it has oozed into the soil. Mr. 
 Thomson of Hangingside in Linlithgowshire, 
 narrates, in his Prize Essay in the Transactions 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 432 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 of the Highland Society, instances of drainage 
 in particular fields in which the direction across 
 the slope completely failed, while the direction 
 down the slope proved efficient ; and after stat- 
 ing that the fields, upon examination, were found 
 to consist of strata lying, not conformably with 
 the surface slope, but horizontally, he concludes, 
 " It is therefore obvious that, in making drains 
 across a sloping surface, unless they are put in 
 at the precise point where the substrata crop 
 out, they may in a great measure prove nugatory, 
 because, although one drain is near another, 
 from the rise of the ground, none of them may 
 reach the point sought." Mr. Young of Lesma- 
 hagow, in another Prize Essay in the Transac- 
 tions of the Highland Society, appeals both to 
 experiments and to the laws of hydraulics, and 
 brings elaborately out the five conclusions, — that 
 the cross-slope system has been seen to fail, but 
 never the other, at least not to the same extent, 
 — that when the two systems have been tried 
 in the same field, the down -slope system has 
 proved the more efficient, — that some apparently 
 homogeneous soils are so pervious to water as to 
 be quite undrainable by the cross-slope system 
 — that most diluvial strata are quite undrain- 
 able by the cross-slope system, — and that when 
 drains upon either system duly act, those upon 
 the down-slope system remain longer effective. 
 All these conclusions, and those of other experi- 
 mentalists, as well as the general results of drain- 
 ing experience during the last few years, are so 
 many confirmations of the doctrine which was 
 so perspicaciously propounded to the agricultural 
 world by Mr. Smith of Deanston in his Remarks 
 on Thorough-Draining : — " Drains drawn across 
 a steep, cut the strata or layers of subsoil trans- 
 versely; and as the stratification generally lies 
 in sheets at an angle to the surface, the water 
 passing in or between the strata, immediately 
 below the bottom of one drain, nearly comes to 
 the surface before reaching the next lower 
 drain. But as water seeks the lowest level in 
 all directions, if the strata be cut longitudinally 
 by a drain directed down the steeps, the bottom 
 of which cuts each stratum to the same distance 
 from the surface, the water will flow into the 
 drain at the intersecting point of each sheet or 
 layer, on a level with the bottom of the drain, 
 leaving one uniform depth of dry soil." 
 
 Deep, compact, homogeneous clay land pos- 
 sesses no perceptible strata, and suffers the per- 
 colation of water only through the cracks and 
 fissures which are made in it by the joint action 
 of droughts and artificial draining ; and it might, 
 therefore, seem to be capable of drainage quite 
 as freely in cross or oblique directions as in the 
 direction of the slope. Such, however, is not 
 the case. A drain down the slope of a very de- 
 clivitous piece of clay land receives the minute 
 rills of drainage from both sides at comparatively 
 acute angles ; a drain down the slope of an in- 
 clined but not declivitous piece receives them at 
 
 much less acute angles; a drain down the in- 
 clination of an apparently flat or almost level 
 piece receives them at angles so slightly acute 
 as to be within a degree or two of right angles ; 
 and all draw them off in their own direction, or 
 with the angles of their junction pointing down 
 the slope. Drains down the slope, therefore, 
 even on the flattest clay lands, but with increas- 
 ing ratio on inclined declivitous clay lands, are 
 precisely in the direction to effect the greatest 
 amount of drainage ; while drains across the slope 
 would simply be so many intercepting trenches, 
 to dissever the channels of the draining rills into 
 unconnected pieces, and to cut off upper sections 
 of the ground from continuous drainage with 
 the lower. " Let any one," says Mr. Arkell, in 
 his Prize Essay, in the Journal of the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society — " Let any one go to a very wet 
 piece of clay land on a steep descent, and cut a 
 drain the necessary depth up the greatest fall, 
 then cut another out of that across the piece 
 nearly on a level, just as the water will run off 
 into the other, then notice how the water enters 
 each of them, and which will dry the most land ; 
 you will see in the former the water will enter 
 equally on each side, and at the bottom ; in the 
 latter, it will come in only on the upper side, 
 and that from the top to the bottom of the 
 drain, forced in so by the weight of water above ; 
 therefore you find the land drained on each side 
 of one, but only on one side of the other, the 
 lower side namely, as there will be none dry 
 above. Now, from the water entering the drain 
 in such a manner, all upon one side, it may be 
 necessary to fill the drains with something po- 
 rous, as, if they were filled with tenacious soil, it 
 would very likely conduct the water across the 
 drain, and the drains be of little service, as they 
 do not draw the water from the dried land below, 
 but allow the land to dry itself from cutting 
 the water off above it. If they act thus on 
 steep land, it must be so in a measure on land 
 that is flatter." The cross-slope draining of de- 
 clivitous clay land, indeed, is far from being im- 
 practicable ; but, in order to be as effective as 
 down-slope draining, it requires the use, in even 
 the most favourable cases, of a closer arrange- 
 ment or considerably greater number of drains. 
 
 The durability of drains is dependent partly on 
 the comparative excellence or faultiness of their 
 formation, partly on the kind of materials em- 
 ployed, and partly on the care used to prevent 
 accidents, to repair damages, and to maintain a 
 state of integrity and vigorous action. — Proper 
 digging of the trenches, proper laying or form- 
 ing of the ducts, careful and regular adjustment 
 of declination, the proper filling up of the trench- 
 es, and the avoiding of the proximity of the roots 
 of growing trees or live fences, are essential pre- 
 cautions in the forming of the drains ; and 
 whenever the regular adjustment of declination 
 is not guided by a very decided slope in the land, 
 and by a trickling flow of water in the trench, it 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 433 
 
 DRAINING. 
 
 must be effected with the aid of the spirit-level, 
 and conducted on a gradient of from 1 in 60 to 1 
 in 100. The durability of drains of wood and 
 other vegetable matters varies chiefly according 
 to the precise nature of the substance employed, 
 and partly according to the peculiar chemical 
 action of the land ; and that of the principal 
 kinds has been mentioned in the paragraphs de- 
 scriptive of their respective character and forma- 
 tion. The durability of clay drains ought to be 
 all but permanent, from the fact of there being 
 nothing to destroy ; and that of rubble drains 
 and of good tile or tile-pipe drains, ought also to 
 be all but permanent, in consequence of the al- 
 most indestructible nature of the materials. But 
 even the best-made drains, of the best materials, 
 require due care for their conservation. Acci- 
 dents from fracture or depression, whether in- 
 flicted by the feet of cattle or in any other way, 
 ought to be speedily repaired ; deposits of earthy 
 matter in the drains, whether by the sinking 
 down of soil or by the boring of the fibrous roots 
 of plants, ought to be speedily ascertained and 
 removed; perforations or suction - holes direct 
 from the surface of the land to any drain, ought 
 to be promptly and firmly filled up ; hard and 
 rapidly - formed ferruginous deposits, from the 
 solidification of iron held in a state of light floc- 
 culent mixture with the wet subsoil, ought to be 
 combated by the use of the smallest kind of tile- 
 pipes ; and the fracture, derangement, or chok- 
 ing up of drains by the roots of trees, shrubs, and 
 rank herbaceous weeds, ought — if not averted by 
 prudence in the circumstances of forming the 
 drains — to be, as far as possible remedied, by the 
 removal of the obstructions, and the extirpation 
 of the plants. 
 
 " One cause of obstruction to drains," said Mr. 
 Parkes in his Lecture at Newcastle in 1846, "is 
 the entrance into them of the roots of trees and 
 plants. Of the former, several cases have been 
 reported to me as having occurred, and probably 
 no species of close under-drain, yet constructed, 
 can be considered to be absolutely safe from the 
 roots, if laid within the range of their travels ; 
 and the great distance from the parent tree, to 
 which roots will travel in search of food, is well 
 known to every agriculturist. It would be ven- 
 turing too much to say that a root will not enter 
 drains by any, even the smallest conceivable cre- 
 vice or pore, which will admit water ; for cases 
 have been mentioned to me almost justifying the 
 belief that roots have insinuated themselves 
 through Roman cement. They seem, however, 
 to be very capricious and choice in their attacks, 
 for I have seen drains which have continued 
 perfectly free in their action for years, adjoining 
 fences and plantations, whilst a drain, at a great- 
 er distance, has been choked by roots. In the 
 two or three cases observed by myself, I have 
 found that a single thread-like root alone has 
 entered, and then worked its way up against the 
 run of the water, increasing into a hairy mass, 
 
 something like the brush of a fox, and growing 
 in length sometimes to several yards, until it 
 closes the drain as completely as if it were stop- 
 ped full of clay. I have repaired a drain 6 feet 
 deep, thus stopped in a small plantation at Dray- 
 ton Manor, by the root of a young chestnut-tree, 
 by using 2 inch pipes 2 feet long, and collaring 
 with pipes 6 inches long with cement ; but thi& 
 serves only as a conduit, and is not intended to 
 act as a drain. I have also laid drains on each 
 side of a road, having a row of trees within a 
 very few yards of them, with sheathed pipes, not 
 cemented, as they are wanted as drains. In sit- 
 uations where close drains must be laid near to 
 trees, I would advise the keeping as far off as 
 circumstances permit, and the providing each 
 row of pipes, if joining a main, with a cess-pool 
 at their junction, in order that the discharge 
 may be visible and examined occasionally, which 
 would soon detect a stoppage if it occurred. But 
 it will be wise in all cases, if people will have 
 hedge-row trees, that the drainer so plan his ope- 
 rations as to keep as wide of them and fences as 
 possible — but, better still, to get trees felled 
 wherever they occasion a feeling of doubt as to 
 their affecting the permanency of the drainage, 
 or cause it in respect of the direction or depth of 
 the drains to be other than complete, If trees, 
 as in parks, are in the way of drains, I advise 
 the sheathing of the pipes on approaching within 
 twenty yards ; and I frequently diverge from the 
 line and pass round the tree, to regain the true 
 line of drainage. — With stoppages from the roots 
 of plants I have only very recently become ac- 
 quainted, but this evil does occur, though fortu- 
 nately it is of very rare occurrence. The first 
 case known to me took place this year in a field 
 on an estate of Mr. W. Wolryche Whitmore, at 
 Lebotwood, in Shropshire. A tenant of his laid a 
 pipe-drain last March in a boggy piece of ground 
 very wet and spongy, which was sown with tur- 
 nips. The drains were found in many places to 
 be completely stopped with very fine roots in 
 October. It seems to be difficult, indeed impos- 
 sible, to pronounce from what plant these roots 
 proceeded. I sent specimens of them to Profes- 
 sors Lindley and Danberry, who kindly examined 
 them, but neither of these botanists is able to 
 decide on the parent plant, to which the roots 
 unfortunately were not traced when the pipes 
 were taken up. The drains were shallow, not 
 exceeding two feet six inches deep anywhere. 
 The boggy soil contained many sorts of weeds, as 
 crowfoot, coltsfoot, rushes, and docks, of which 
 there was abundant evidence when I was on the 
 spot some weeks afterwards. The pipes sent me 
 contained much earth, which had got into them, 
 with the roots ; and I understand that several of 
 the pipes were almost stopped with soil alone ; 
 but it is also true that others into which the 
 roots had worked were free of earth. From all 
 the evidence I could collect on the spot, I am 
 disposed to consider this stoppage by roots to 
 2 E 
 
DRAINING. 
 
 434 
 
 DRAUGHT. 
 
 have originated in the bad laying of the pipes by 
 the farmer, and insufficient depth in a very foul 
 piece of land. It is, however, a case of warning, 
 and one to excite vigilance of observation." 
 
 Both theory and practice are greatly at vari- 
 ance as to the proportion of the costs of draining 
 which ought to be paid by respectively the land- 
 lord and the tenant. A few persons contend that 
 landlords ought to pay the whole ; a few, that 
 tenants, holding long leases, ought to pay the 
 whole ; some, that the state ought, in a great class 
 of instances, to pay a considerable or even a large 
 proportion ; and multitudes, that the landlord and 
 the tenant ought jointly, but in very variable re- 
 lative proportions, to pay the whole. One of our 
 most judicious speculators on the subject, Mr. 
 Smith of Deanston, contends that the landlord 
 ought to pay two-thirds and the tenant one-third ; 
 and another of our most judicious speculators, 
 Mr. Roberton of Ladyrig, makes statements and 
 calculations which appear to inculcate the very 
 reverse of Mr. Smith's proportions, assigning 
 one-third to the landlord and two-thirds to the 
 tenant. A few patriotic landlords have, over 
 large portions of their estates, not only borne all 
 the costs of draining, but designed or superin- 
 tended its principal operations ; and not a few 
 niggardly, skin-flint, purblind landowners, have 
 hitherto refused to bear even a fraction of the 
 cost, — while some are such screws as to deny 
 even the slight inducement of a remuneratingly 
 long lease. In some instances, the landlord pro- 
 vides the materials, and the tenant executes the 
 work ; in others, the tenant, upon a long lease, 
 bears one half of the total expense, and the land- 
 lord the other half; and in others, upon a long 
 lease, the tenant carts the materials and pays 5 
 per cent, on the total expense, and the landlord 
 pays, not only for all the materials, but for all 
 the operations. In some places, the valuation 
 for draining extends to ten years, — in others, to 
 twelve years ; and when it is made at any inter- 
 val between the finishing of the work and the 
 final term, a proportion is deducted according to 
 the time which has elapsed, — one-tenth for every 
 year of the ten-year system of valuation, and 
 one-twelfth for every year of the twelve-year sys- 
 tem. — Stephens' Practical Irrigator and Drainer. 
 — Johnstone's Treatise on Draining Land. — Ander- 
 son's Essays on Agriculture. — Smith's Remarks on 
 Thorough Draining. — The Bath Papers. — Edin- 
 burgh Encyclopaedia. — Monteath on the Draining of 
 Bogs and Marshes. — Reports of the Commissioners 
 on the Bogs of Ireland. — Sir John Sinclair's Code 
 of Agriculture. — Sir John Sinclair's General Re- 
 port of Scotland. — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry 
 by Shier. — Knowledge Society's Treatise on British 
 Husbandry. — Duel's Farmers Instructor. — Wat- 
 son's Forester's Manual. — Doyle's Cyclopaedia of 
 Husbandry. — Stephens' Book of the Farm. — Bayl- 
 don on Rents and Tillage. — Lowe's Elements of 
 Agriculture. — Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. — 
 Marshall's County Reports. — Journal of the Royal 
 
 Agricultural Society of England, Vols, i, ii, iii, iv, 
 v. — The Farmer's Magazine. — The Irish Farmer's 
 Journal. — The Gardener's Gazette. — The Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture, Nos. 13, 14, 22, 25, 26, 30, 
 31, 34, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49— Transac- 
 tions of the Highland Society, attached to Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture, Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 37, 38, 
 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 58, and New Series, 
 No. 2. 
 
 DRAPE. A farrow-cow or farrow-ewe; that 
 is, a cow or an ewe who has recently ceased to 
 give milk. 
 
 DRAUGHT. The traction or dragging of a 
 vehicle, implement, machine, or weight, by either 
 animal or mechanical power ; or the amount of 
 resistance encountered and overcome' by that 
 power in dragging. The principles of mechani- 
 cal philosophy involved in draught, and the ex- 
 ceedingly diversified application of these prin- 
 ciples in practice would form far too long and 
 intricate subjects of discussion for our available 
 space. But any reader who feels curious respect- 
 ing them may find them amply and luminously 
 discussed in an essay appended to Mr. Youatt's 
 Treatise on the Horse; and all our practical 
 readers will probably think they have quite 
 enough upon them in our articles Carriage, 
 Cart, and Wheel. 
 
 In all draught of wheeled vehicles, whether 
 carts, waggons, or whatever else, four great pro- 
 visions are necessary in order to prevent a waste- 
 ful expenditure of the dragging power, or in 
 order to obtain the maximum use of that power 
 in the transmission of weight, — first, that the 
 road or other surface dragged upon should be as 
 firm, smooth, and level as possible, and should 
 have no more curvature than is necessary for 
 preventing the stagnation of water ; second, that 
 the wheels should be as nearly cylindrical and 
 vertical as possible, and should have as ample a 
 circumference as convenience can admit ; third, 
 "that there should be a firm, unyielding con- 
 nexion in the direction of the movement between 
 the power employed, the weight moved, and the 
 wheels, — in other words, that the force should 
 always act directly and without elasticity both 
 upon the load and upon the wheels ;" and fourth, 
 that as much elasticity as possible should, by 
 means of springs, be vertically interposed between 
 the wheels and the body of the vehicle, so that 
 the wheels, in passing over ruts, stones, and other 
 irregularities of surface, may occasion as few and 
 gentle shocks and jerks as possible to the load. 
 The first of these provisions is by far the most 
 effective, — for a mere slight dirtying of a good 
 turnpike road has been proved to diminish or 
 waste the power of draught to the amount of 
 one-third of its whole force, — a soft sandy road 
 has been proved to require seven times more 
 force for the traction of any given weight than a 
 clean, firm, level turnpike road, — and the prodi- 
 giously accelerating effect of the perfectly firm, 
 smooth, and level surface of rails is now familiar 
 
DRAUGHT. 
 
 to almost every school-boy ; hence the vast im- 
 portance, in order to the economizing of draught 
 or of horse-labour, of maintaining all the roads 
 of a parish and the road-ways of a farm in the 
 firmest and smoothest condition which circum- 
 stances will admit. 
 
 Draught in the thrashing machine is the most 
 severe labour to which farm horses are subject ; 
 and it ought to be studiously and nicely adjusted 
 to the economizing of their strength. The old- 
 fashioned ring-chain, with the draught-chains 
 simply attached to it at regular distances, was 
 divided by these distances into a square, a hexa- 
 gon, or an octagon, according to the number of 
 horses ; and as the draught-chains were passed 
 over pulleys to bring them to the yoking point, 
 the horses pulled against one another ; and only 
 so long as the ring or main-chain preserved a 
 figure having equal angles, whether a square, a 
 hexagon, or an octagon, just so long had the 
 horses an equality of draught. Whenever one 
 horse, from either weakness or laziness, relaxed 
 a little of his force, some other of the horses or 
 all of them were necessarily urged into as much 
 super-exertion as would be requisite to supply 
 his deficiency; and the angles of the figure of 
 the ring-chain now becoming changed, the feeble 
 or lazy horse, by virtue of the law of oblique 
 forces, acted in resistance of the power of the 
 other horses. But a method invented about 8 
 or 9 years ago by Mr. Christie of Rhind in Fife- 
 shire, gives immutability to the figure of the 
 ring-chain, and makes such attachment of the 
 draught-chains that, when any horse either slack- 
 ens his pace or starts ahead, the only effect is 
 the diminution or the increase of the extent of 
 the loop by which he draws, and the counter 
 increase or diminution of the extent of the loops 
 by which the other horses draw ; and the force 
 exerted at each angle, or the actual power exer- 
 cised by each horse, remains precisely the same 
 as before. This new method, too, places its prin- 
 ciples so completely within range of calculation 
 or of geometrical definition, as to be capable, by 
 means of very slight and simple modifications, of 
 apportioning different degrees or proportions of 
 the draught to different horses, so as to distri- 
 bute the whole in adaptation to their various 
 strength. When the pulleys of the draught at- 
 tachments are so fitted as to move outward and 
 inward in reference to the centre of the wheel at 
 pleasure, and to be capable of being fixed at any 
 point, then may a distribution of the whole 
 draught among the several horses, according to 
 their respective strength, be made with compar- 
 ative certainty and uniformity, and without even 
 the smallest liability to change or fluctuation 
 from unsteadiness in the pace or traction of any 
 of the animals. Thus whether horses of equal 
 strength or horses of unequal strength be yoked 
 in the thrashing-machine, the whole of their 
 force may be thoroughly economized. 
 
 The draught of ploughs is a subject of quite 
 
 DRAUGHT. 
 
 as much interest to farmers as the draught of 
 carts or the draught of the thrashing-machine. 
 A series of interesting experiments was made in 
 1840, by Philip Pusey, Esq., with the view of as- 
 certaining the comparative draught of ploughs 
 of different construction ; and it was rendered 
 very definite in its indications by the use of an 
 excellent dynamometer, and the combined ob- 
 servation of a number of experienced practical 
 judges. The ploughs tried were Ferguson's im- 
 proved, iron, Scotch swing-plough ; Clark's im- 
 proved Scotch swing-plough ; Hart of Wantage's 
 one-wheeled plough, of wood with iron breast ; 
 Ransome's FF plough, with two wheels ; Ran- 
 some's FF plough, wanting the wheels, and used 
 as a swing-plough ; a Berkshire wooden-breasted 
 swing-plough ; a Berkshire heavy one-wheeled 
 plough ; Ransome's Rutland plough ; an old Berk- 
 shire plough, very cumbrous, wholly of wood, 
 with an extremely high gallows in front ; and 
 the Holkham two-wheeled plough, with a light 
 gallows. 
 
 These ploughs were first tried, with ti furrow 
 of 5 inches deep and 9 inches wide, on a field of 
 sandy loam, in a wet condition, and of such tex- 
 ture as to be freely worked ; and Ferguson's 
 Scotch swing was ascertained to have a draught 
 of 1 9 stones, Clark's Scotch swing 20 stones, Hart 
 of Wantage's 14 stones, Ransome's two-wheeled 
 FF 14 stones, Ransome's swing FF 18 stones, 
 the Berkshire swing 18 stones, the Berkshire 
 one-wheeled 17 stones, Ransome's Rutland 17 
 stones, the old Berkshire 23 stones, and the Holk- 
 ham two- wheeled 18 stones. They were next 
 tried with a furrow 6 inches deep and 9 inches 
 wide, upon a clean bean stubble of dark mould, 
 upon a subsoil of blue clay ; and Ferguson's 
 Scotch swing was proved to have there a draught 
 of 50 stones, Clark's Scotch swing 52 stones, 
 Hart of Wantage's 43 stones, Ransome's two- 
 wheeled FF 44 stones, Ransome's swing FF 44 
 stones, the Berkshire swing 48 stones, the Berk- 
 shire one-wheeled 43 stones, Ransome's Rutland 
 50 stones, and the Old Berkshire 52 stones. They 
 were afterwards tried, with a furrow of 5 inches 
 deep, upon a very poor, damp, moory soil, in a 
 state of grass lea, but with thin uprooted grasses 
 and more than half-bare surface ; and Ferguson's 
 swing had there a draught of 23 stones, Clark's 
 swing 23 stones, Hart of Wantage's 16 stones, 
 Ransome's two-wheeled FF 14 stones, Ransome's 
 swing FF 21 stones, the Berkshire swing 19 
 stones, the Berkshire one -wheeled 18 stones, 
 Ransome's Rutland 21 stones, and the old Berk- 
 shire 25 stones. 
 
 Upon these trials and a number of others, upon 
 different soils and in different methods, Mr. 
 Pusey makes the following summary report- 
 " With regard to the question of wheel and swing 
 ploughs, wherever the soil is firm enough to bear 
 up the wheels, they appear to me to be advan- 
 tageous: the best plough therefore will be one 
 the wheels of which can be taken off or put on, 
 
 435 
 
DRAUGHT. 
 
 436 
 
 DRAUGHT. 
 
 according to the state of the ground ; and as, 
 where there is one wheel only, it will be on the 
 unploughed ground, where it will be less likely to 
 become clogged, one wheel only is probably better 
 than two. It may be fairly said that the lightest 
 plough in these trials was Hart's, though Ran- 
 some's FF ran it exceedingly near, and beat it in 
 the last trial. The best and lightest plough on a 
 wet clay was the Berkshire swing with a wooden 
 mould-board. Hart's plough on our lighter land 
 goes as easily with two horses, and the Berkshire 
 on wet clay with three horses, as our old Berk- 
 shire with three horses on the former ground, and 
 with four on the latter. These two ploughs have 
 the open mould-board ; but how far that contri- 
 butes to their excellence, I cannot discover. 
 Ransome's Rutland plough appears to be a very 
 good implement, the Scotch swing plough to be 
 the heaviest of all the modern ploughs which 
 were tried, not to make a clean furrow, to be out 
 of the question upon any light soil, and to be by 
 no means the best upon a heavy one." 
 
 The average draught of all the ploughs in dif- 
 ferent soils as showing the comparative tenacity 
 of these soils, and the respective power required 
 to work them, is a subject of much practical in- 
 terest ; and this, in making a furrow 5 inches 
 deep and 9 inches wide, was 16f stones in loamy 
 sand of coral rag, 17| stones in sandy loam of 
 coral rag, 20 stones in moory land of alluvial 
 gravel, 28f stones in clay loam of Kimmeridge 
 clay, 31 1 stones in strong loam of Kimmeridge 
 clay, and 47^ stones, but with a furrow 6 inches 
 deep on one side, though with the furrow-slice 
 thrown downward, on clay loam of Oxford clay. 
 — Draught with two horses abreast was clearly 
 ascertained to be ample and advantageous on all 
 light soils ; but whether sufficient for heavy soils 
 depends on the structure of the plough, the com- 
 parative strength of the animals, and the par- 
 ticular contrivance in the mode of their attach- 
 ment. Two horses abreast, when yoked to the 
 plough by the shortest possible method of attach- 
 ment, appear to have quite or very nearly as 
 much power as three horses in line ; and when 
 pulling a plough of light draught, they may, with 
 equal ease to themselves, perform as much work 
 as four horses pulling a plough of heavy draught. 
 
 The effect of difference of speed, and the pro- 
 digiously greater retarding power of friction 
 than of cutting, are likewise topics of much prac- 
 tical interest. These two points are simultane- 
 ously reported on by Mr. Pusey ; and the former 
 was ascertained by experiment on the moory 
 land, with Clark's Scotch swing plough, drawn 
 by a pair of very fine Clydesdale horses. "The 
 Scotch horses," says Mr. Pusey, "were made to go 
 along the 5 and the 6 inch furrows, at the slow- 
 est pace to which they could be restrained, — not 
 so slow a one, however, as I have lately seen in 
 other horses at the same work. The draught 
 was 24 stone in the 5-inch furrow, and 22 in the 
 6-inch one, which I suppose was on lighter land. 
 
 They were next urged to the utmost speed of 
 their walk, more than double their former rate ; 
 but though more than a double quantity of land 
 was of course ploughed in the same time, the 
 draught was only raised from 24 to 25 or 26 stones 
 in the one furrow, and from 22 to 23 in the other. 
 The extreme slightness of this increase would 
 have surprised me still more, had I not learned 
 in the course of these trials how large a portion 
 of the draught of the plough is occasioned by its 
 friction against the soil, how small a part by the 
 splitting, raising, and throwing over a certain 
 weight of earth. Thus, in the trial at Lyford, a 
 bystander pointed out to me that, while one of 
 the ploughs was being accidently drawn down 
 a furrow already opened, such was the adhesion 
 of the clay, that the gauge actually marked as 
 high a draught at that time as turned out after- 
 wards to be the average of the plough's work in 
 the same field. Now, friction is, I believe, often 
 not increased by increased rapidity of motion in 
 the two bodies rubbing against each other. But 
 in the draught of the plough, we have its own 
 weight pressing against the bottom of the furrow, 
 and that pressure increased by the weight of the 
 furrow - slice, the latter weight not increasing 
 whatever the pace may be; we have also the 
 plough rubbing against the earth on the land 
 side, and the furrow -slice rubbing strongly 
 against the mould-board ; all these parts of the 
 draught coming under the head of friction, which 
 may not be increased by increase of speed. 
 
 But though we have thus given a continuous 
 view of the results of Mr. Pusey's experiments, 
 we consider them to be valuable more in a sug- 
 gestive sense than in an instructive one, and 
 cannot regard them as conclusive on even the 
 question of absolute draught, and still less on 
 that of the comparative power of wheel ploughs 
 and swing ploughs. Both a review of them by 
 a special Committee of the Highland Society, 
 and a testing of them by sets of very carefully 
 conducted experiments in Scotland have shown, 
 that, though deserving great attention for their 
 suggestions, they must be but loosely relied upon 
 for their results. A swing-plough may be made 
 lighter than a wheel-plough to just the amount 
 of the wheel's weight ; it is a less complex ma- 
 chine in precisely the proportion of its wanting 
 the wheel ; it can be quite as easily managed by 
 any properly trained ploughman ; it possesses 
 the eminent advantage of allowing the workman 
 to vary the depth of his furrow at will, or in 
 unavoidable adaptation to obstruction ; and it 
 has been found, from long and extensive practice, 
 to perform, on the average, better and more 
 daily work in the lowlands of Scotland than 
 the swing-plough performs in Yorkshire and in 
 some other English counties. See the article 
 Plough. 
 
 A set of very nicely performed experiments 
 upon plough-draught was conducted, in October 
 1840, at Rozelle in Ayrshire, with eight select 
 
DRAUGHT. 
 
 437 
 
 DRILL. 
 
 ploughs, in the presence of a deputation of the 
 Highland Society, the curator of their museum, 
 and a great concourse of very skilful agricul- 
 turists. The ploughs were three of Wilkie's 
 swing ploughs, respectively 175 lbs., 196 lbs., and 
 159 lbs. weight, and each made wholly of iron ; 
 a Ransome's FF plough, with a wheel under the 
 fore part of the beam, the plough itself 155 lbs. 
 weight, and the wheel 6 lbs. weight ; a Palmer's 
 patent plough, with one wheel under the fore 
 part of the beam and another wheel in the heel, 
 the plough itself 225 lbs. weight, and the wheels 
 6 lbs. weight ; a London swing-plough of wood, 
 with cast-iron mounting, 189 lbs. weight ; a Sus- 
 sex turn-wrest plough of wood, with cast-iron 
 mounting, of unreported weight ; and a Wilkie's 
 turn-wrest plough, wholly of iron, and 203 lbs. 
 weight. All the ploughs were tried, with a fur- 
 row 6 inches deep and 9 inches wide, in a two- 
 year-old grass field, of strong clay loam, on a 
 subsoil which was naturally a stubborn clay, but 
 which had been thorough-drained and subsoil- 
 ploughed; and five of them were tried, also, with a 
 furrow of the same dimensions, on a bean-stubble 
 field of much lighter soil. The draught, on the 
 lea land, of Wilkie's first swing was 38 stones ; 
 of Wilkie's second swing 37 stones ; of Wilkie's 
 third swing 40 stones ; of Ransome's FF wheel- 
 plough, both with the wheel and without the 
 wheel, 32tt stones; of Palmer's patent two-wheeled 
 40 stones; of the London swing, 40 stones; of 
 the Sussex turn-wrest, 48 stones ; and of Wilkie's 
 turn- wrest, 46 stones ; — and the draught, on the 
 stubble land of Wilkie's first swing was 23 stones ; 
 of Wilkie's second swing 24 stones ; of Ransome's 
 FF, with the wheel, 21 stones ; of Ransome's FF, 
 without the wheel, 20 stones ; of Palmer's patent, 
 with the wheels, 22 stones ; of Palmer's patent, 
 without the wheels, 20^ stones ; and of the Lon- 
 don swing, 22 stones. Three great and edifying 
 facts appear in these results, — that the resistance 
 or draught of the ploughs is by no means pro- 
 portionate to the weight of the implements, — 
 that the comparative powers of different ploughs 
 are greatly altered by difference of soil, — and 
 that the wheel ploughs acquired no advantage 
 from their wheels on the lea land, and were posi- 
 tively encumbered by them on the stubble land. 
 But a chief inference from these experiments, 
 from Mr. Pusey's and from others which we could 
 relate, is, that, while some ploughs are in all 
 aggregate circumstances far superior to others, 
 the best for one kind of soil is not the best for a 
 second, and the best for the second kind of soil 
 is not the best for a third ; so that thorough eco- 
 nomy of plough-draught, on a farm of diversified 
 soils, or on a farm whose lands are subject to 
 great variety of mechanical conditions, is unat- 
 tainable with ploughs of only one construction. — 
 Youatt's Essay on Draught — Journal of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society of England. — Transactions of 
 the Highland Society. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Stephens" Book of the Farm. 
 
 DRAUGHT. A medicinal drink. See Drench. 
 
 DRAUGHT-HORSE. See Horse. 
 
 DRAW-HOE. See Hoe. 
 
 DRENCH. A draught or medicinal drink, 
 administered to a horse against his will. It is 
 often preferred to a ball in flatulent colic and 
 other cases in which the medicine requires to 
 act with the utmost possible rapidity; and it 
 may consist of water, ale, and other liquids as 
 menstrua according to their respective adapta- 
 tion to the particular conditions of either the 
 disease or the medicine. A drench ought rarely, 
 if ever, to exceed a quart ; and, in all ordinary 
 causes, it may be administered by an expert 
 operator with a strong, smooth - necked, wide- 
 mouthed bottle, and by an inexpert operator 
 with a cow's horn, — the animal, in either case, 
 being placed in a reversed position in his stall, 
 and having his head held firm in an elevated 
 posture. But a drench is always, in some de- 
 gree, a dangerous method of exhibition ; it is 
 frequently a bungled and consequently inefficient 
 one ; and it is never absolutely necessary except 
 in diseases which oblige the animal to lie, and 
 may then be far more safely and efficiently ad- 
 ministered to him in his lieing posture. Every 
 pungent or disgusting draught is in particular 
 hazard of finding its way down the wind-pipe, 
 and exciting inflammation in the lungs ; and no 
 drench ought to be administered to an animal, 
 unless he be in danger of dying without it. 
 
 DRESSING. The ploughing and cleaning of 
 fallow land. Five ploughings are usually reck- 
 ened for a clean fallow ; and, on loamy land, are 
 estimated to cost about £3 per acre. The first 
 dressing is a winter ploughing of the land, fol- 
 lowed by the grubbing of fences and the clearing 
 of ditches; the second is a spring ploughing, 
 followed by six tines of harrowing, by rolling, 
 and by couching ; the third, is a cleansing 
 ploughing, followed by four tines of harrowing 
 and by rolling ; the fourth is the ploughing with 
 the manure ; and the fifth, is the seed-furrow, 
 accompanied with three tines of harrowing, 
 with water-furrowing, and with grooping. When 
 valuation is made for the cost of dressings 
 to be paid by an incoming tenant, the judges 
 make a higher or a lower allowance according to 
 the comparative practicability of the soil, and 
 a full or partial allowance according to the com- 
 pleteness or the slovenliness of the fallow ; and 
 should they find that, after one or two dressings, 
 the land has been neglected, so as to have re- 
 verted to its foul condition, they make no allow- 
 ance whatever. 
 
 DRESSING. A dispersed and superficial ap- 
 plication of manure. This, however, is some- 
 times, and far more properly, called top-dressing. 
 See the article Top-Dressing. 
 
 DRIFT-SANDS. See Downs. 
 
 DRILL. A straight mimic furrow in tilled 
 land, for the reception of seed. Any one drill is 
 of uniform depth and character ; but drills, in 
 
DRILL-HUSBANDRY. 
 
 general, are of very various depths to suit the 
 different kinds of seeds deposited. The sowing 
 of seeds in drills is called drilling ; and the pro- 
 secution of this practice in the farm is called 
 drill-husbandry. See next article. 
 
 DRILL-HUSBANDRY. The sowing and cul- 
 tivating of field-crops in regular and equidistant 
 rows. Drilling has, from time immemorial, been 
 practised in the garden ; but, except in the case 
 of rice and of some other crops of warm coun- 
 tries, it is quite a modern practice in the field. 
 The celebrated Jethro Tull adopted it, with the 
 view of facilitating the execution of his theory 
 as to the minute pulverizing of the soil ; and as 
 his husbandry was mainly distinguished by the 
 plying of the horse-hoe between the drills, and 
 adopted the practice of drilling only as an aid to 
 horse-hoeing, it popularly assumed the designa- 
 tion of the horse-hoeing husbandry. Had field 
 drilling been commenced on its own merits, with 
 horse -hoeing merely as an accessory, it could 
 scarcely have failed to recommend itself to speedy 
 general adoption ; but, in consequence of being 
 commenced as, not the principal, but the acces- 
 sory, it unjustly suffered, in popular estimation, 
 all the suspicion and ridicule which arose from 
 the pervading error of Tull's system, as to the 
 feeding of plants from the mere pulverulence of 
 the soil. The Scotch, so early as 1760, adopted 
 drilling and horse-hoeing in the cultivation of 
 turnips ; but the English were very slow to show 
 any favour to any part whatever of " the new 
 husbandry,' 1 the Irish are but slowly beginning 
 in the present day to be tolerably acquainted 
 with it, and not even the Scotch have as yet 
 given it fair consideration in the cultivation of 
 corn crops. 
 
 The drilling of leguminous crops, on ordinary 
 soils, and especially on wet soils, is peculiarly ad- 
 vantageous for exposing a comparatively great 
 surface to atmospheric influence, for destroying 
 weeds, for aerating the ground, and for prevent- 
 ing the stagnation of water, or the impeding of a 
 sweet, free, and rapid circulation ; yet it is quite 
 unsuited, or might be positively injurious, to such 
 very dry soils and situations as should expose the 
 raised ridges to an excessive deprivation of mois- 
 ture. The drilling of beans, in all sorts of strong 
 soils, whether loam or clay, affords the great ad- 
 ditional advantage of an abundant ventilation 
 among the pods of the lower and middle portions 
 of the stems. The drilling of pease, either by 
 themselves or with a mixture of beans, has pro- 
 duced as clean and healthy crops in the fields as 
 are usually obtained in gardens ; but it requires 
 the frequent use of the hoe along the intervals, 
 and careful hand -weeding among the plants. 
 The drilling of tares, especially of spring-sown 
 tares, if accompanied and followed by a free use 
 of the hoe, will, in dry seasons and upon ordinary 
 soils, render the crop more profitable than a crop 
 of beans. The drilling of turnips affords such 
 supereminent facilities for singling, for hoeing, 
 
 and for the entire culture, as to be readily appre- 
 ciated by minds which are too obtuse or too pre- 
 judiced to see the higher advantages of the stir- 
 ring and aerating of the soil. The drilling of 
 potatoes is almost as obviously advantageous as 
 the drilling of turnips ; but requires to be prac- 
 tised with such wide intervals between the drills 
 as to allow ample scope for the passage of plough 
 and hoe, and not to permit the radical fibres to 
 be disturbed by the horse-hoeing. The drilling 
 of carrots, beet, or mangel-wurzel, on either shal- 
 low or stiff land, has the eminent advantage of 
 making artificial ridges of soil, and of giving 
 the plants a depth of scope and a porosity of 
 bed vastly greater than they could enjoy upon 
 plain land ; but, like the drilling of potatoes, it 
 requires an amplitude of interval between the 
 drills. The drilling of borecoles and cabbages, 
 almost suggests itself as a matter of course, and 
 scarcely needs to be recommended. 
 
 The advantages of drilling grain crops are as 
 real and quite as great as those of drilling green 
 crops ; but, in consequence of their being liable 
 to some important exceptions, and of their never 
 being so obvious to the eye, they have hitherto 
 failed to secure general attention and acknow- 
 ledgment. So long ago as in 1799, they were 
 very fully and convincingly stated in an article 
 in the Bath Papers ; and at an agricultural meet- 
 ing at Holkham in 1819, they were submitted in 
 the following terms by Sir John Sinclair: — "1. 
 The draining of culmiferous or grain crops, when 
 it is conducted with skill and attention, is a prac- 
 tice in general highly to be approved of, as the 
 seed is thus deposited in the soil with great ex- 
 actness in respect of depth, regularity, and pro- 
 portion, and is so placed that the crop can after- 
 wards be improved in its progress towards ma- 
 turity. In moderately rich soils, there may be 
 also a saving of seed sufficient to defray any extra 
 expense attending the drill system ; but the ex- 
 tent of that saving must depend upon the fertil- 
 ity of the soil. — 2. In light soils, drilling has the 
 important advantage of giving the grain a good 
 hold of the ground, and of giving all the seed the 
 same hold, which prevents the frost from throw- 
 ing out the plants in spring, or the wind from 
 loosening the roots after the stem gets high, 
 or when the ear is filling. — 3. The progress of the 
 plants after the land has been stirred in spring, 
 is in the highest degree surprising, even in wet 
 districts, and in dry climates the process must be 
 still more beneficial. — 4. The expense of cutting 
 down a drilled crop in harvest, is uniformly less 
 than one which is sown broadcast ; for three 
 reapers will do as much work in the former case 
 as four in the latter.— 5. With a view merely to 
 the extirpation of weeds, drilling autumn or win- 
 ter sown wheat is not essential, as the ground 
 may be previously cleansed by a summer fallow- 
 ing, when that practice is adopted ; but that it is 
 highly important to be enabled in spring to pul- 
 verize the ground between the rows of drilling 
 
DRILL-HUSBANDRY. 
 
 439 
 
 DRILL-HUSBANDRY. 
 
 wheat, for the reception of clover seeds ; and that 
 with drilled grain, the succeeding crop of clover 
 must always be superior, both from the freer ad- 
 mission of air, and as the corn is less apt to be 
 lodged or beat down in wet seasons. — 6. In stony, 
 wet soils, and in moist seasons, sowing broadcast 
 may often be necessary, and then drilling will 
 not answer so well, unless the ridges are carefully 
 ploughed in autumn, or early in winter, to the 
 exact breadth which suits either one or two move- 
 ments of the drill machine ; and unless in spring, 
 the land is merely scarified or harrowed, (the 
 winter's frost having rendered it sufficiently fri- 
 able,) and the corn is drilled by a machine drawn 
 by a horse walking in the furrows. — 7. Crops, 
 when drilled, are some days later in ripening, 
 and in very gravelly or stony soils, or in undu- 
 lated districts, where the land is deep, or when 
 a crop is taken after lea, or where the land is not 
 in the best state of tilth, drilling cannot be exe- 
 cuted with the regularity and exactness that is 
 required to insure the success of that operation. 
 — 8. In highly cultivated soils, either thoroughly 
 cleansed, or where the crops are so luxuriant as 
 to overpower all annual weeds, sowing broadcast 
 possesses advantages over drilling, the seed being 
 scattered more evenly over the land, and the 
 roots not being so matted together as when 
 drilled. In very rich soils, also, the hoeing is apt 
 to throw the vigour of the soil into the stems or 
 foliage instead of the fruit. Hence, though the 
 straw may be strong and abundant, the grain is 
 apt to be defective in quality, and diminished in 
 quantity. — 9. In very rich soils, crops sown broad- 
 cast, and covering the whole surface, are more 
 likely to be abundant, than when only a part of 
 the soil is productive. — 10. On all lands where 
 annual weeds are abundant, white crops, sown in 
 spring, may be drilled with advantage, for the 
 purpose of cleansing the land more effectually, 
 and at a cheaper rate than hand-hoeing and hand- 
 weeding broadcast crops. The lands of moderate 
 or inferior quality will thus yield a greater pro- 
 duce, and may be brought more nearly on a foot- 
 ing with fertile lands than under the broadcast 
 system ; hence the drilling of crops in such soils 
 cannot be too strongly recommended as a most 
 important national object." The exceptions 
 made in the 7th and the 8th of these statements 
 have been found fewer and smaller in practice 
 than as they are there stated ; and those of the 
 8th statement, in particular, can occur in any 
 visible degree, or even can occur at all, only in 
 cases of too wide intervals or of too thin sowing. 
 Two considerable advantages which the state- 
 ments but slightly touch, are the saving of seed 
 and cheap harvesting ; and a very great advan- 
 tage which they nowhere directly mention, is the 
 superior size and strength of both the culms and 
 the heads of the crops. 
 
 The main objections to the drilling of grain 
 crops, and the reasons why this great practice is 
 disesteemed in Scotland, are powerfully stated, 
 
 and we think quite overstated, by the same 
 great writer who so fully exhibits the advan- 
 tages. " Wheat, rye, barley, and oats," says Sir 
 John Sinclair, " are differently circumstanced, in 
 Scotland at least, in regard to drill husbandry, 
 which, generally speaking, is not considered to 
 be applicable to these grains. The climate is too 
 variable and uncertain, especially at seed-time, 
 to admit of the minute nicety and slow progress 
 which the drill husbandry necessarily requires, 
 without considerable danger of losing the proper 
 season for committing these crops to the ground. 
 The soil is not generally well adapted for this 
 nice operation, requiring to be very equally pul- 
 verized, and completely freed from the obstruc- 
 tions of clods or stones, to admit of the ready and 
 accurate operation of the drilling implements. 
 The roots of these grains, so long as any portion 
 of the soil remains unoccupied, are also apt to 
 continue planting out or tillering by means of 
 suckers, by which the advance of the crop to- 
 wards maturity, and consequently the season of 
 ripening and of harvest, is dangerously postponed. 
 Drilled grain crops, from wanting an equable and 
 general support among their own stems, owing 
 to the distance between the rows, are likewise 
 more liable than those sown broadcast to suffer 
 injury from heavy rains and strong blasts of 
 wind, by which their stems are apt to be broken 
 down irregularly and interlaced among each 
 other, which is technically denominated 'knee- 
 shackled.' Owing to the same circumstances, 
 they are more liable to be root-fallen or wind- 
 waved, their coronal roots becoming disengaged 
 from the soil by a circular motion or waving, 
 from the irregular and changing impulse of the 
 wind, a circumstance which seldom or never hap- 
 pens to a regular close crop. Upon the whole, it 
 is the general opinion of judicious and experi- 
 enced Scotch husbandmen, after considerable ex- 
 perience in drilling, that more abundant crops of 
 wheat, rye, barley, and oats, may be raised in the 
 ordinary broadcast manner of sowing, than by 
 the drill-machine." [General Report of Scotland, 
 vol i., pp. 368-9.] 
 
 As the drilling of corn crops involves a great 
 number of intricate and complicating considera- 
 tions, and has been the subject of much conflict 
 and fluctuation of opinion among the best class 
 of farmers, we think ourselves happy to have had 
 the means of exhibiting both the pro and the con 
 of it, not only in the words, but in the positive 
 opinions, of so princely an agriculturist as Sir 
 John Sinclair ; yet we cannot suppress a notion 
 that, had he lived till the present day, he would 
 have exclaimed against the sombre colours of 
 the dark side of his own picture ; and we can 
 scarcely hesitate to dismiss the subject in the 
 pithy summary of Martin Doyle, " Though Tull, 
 the originator of the drill husbandry, was ridi- 
 culed at first even for drilling potatoes, turnips, 
 and cabbages, his system is now universally pur- 
 sued with regard to those crops, and there is no 
 
DRIVING. 
 
 440 
 
 DROPSY. 
 
 doubt of its being equally beneficial in respect to 
 corn crops." Notices of the principal drill-ma- 
 chines will be found in the articles Harrow, 
 Grubber, Dibbling, Turnip, and Sowing-Ma- 
 chines. — The Bath Papers. — Hunter's Georgical 
 Essays. — Doyle's Cyclopaedia of Husbandry. — The 
 Society of Gentlemen's Complete Farmer. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — Journal of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society. — Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. 
 
 DRINKING-POND. See Pond. 
 
 DRIVING. Urging forward domestic animals, 
 whether in travelling or in working. This is 
 often done in so bad a manner as to involve great 
 cruelty to the animals and much loss to the 
 owners. Cattle, when brought out to be driven 
 any considerable distance to market, ought to 
 have very little undigested food upon their stom- 
 ach ; and, when upon the road, they ought to 
 travel leisurely, and never be driven into either 
 fatigue or excitement, never seriously heated, 
 never much urged, never beaten, never allowed 
 to make any spontaneous run or hasty move- 
 ment, never over-gorged with food, and always, 
 as nearly as possible, maintained in the same 
 cool and easy condition as if they were moving 
 about on their summer pastures. 
 
 Sheep, when about to be driven to market, 
 should be selected, turned upon a piece of coarse 
 dry pasture, examined in their hoofs, and ochre- 
 marked on the shoulder, rump, or other parts of 
 the body ; when collected for the road, they 
 should be in a medium state between repletion 
 and hunger; and, when on their journey, they 
 should be driven slowly and coolly, 3 or 4 miles 
 on the first day, and about 8 miles on every fol- 
 lowing day, and should be restrained and con- 
 trolled by an experienced and cautious dog, and 
 should enjoy, during the long interval of daily 
 rest, an ample and quiet piece of pasture. — The 
 driving of pigs is difficult, and perhaps ought not 
 to be attempted. One excellent method of get- 
 ting them along, is sparingly and warily to drop 
 beans upon the road ; and if this method be con- 
 joined with due care to prevent the head ones of 
 the drove from bolting off, it will be incompara- 
 bly more successful than any mode of mere 
 driving. 
 
 The driving of horses in waggon-draught, and 
 especially in cart-draught, requires much atten- 
 tion, great care, and considerable kindness, and 
 is, in a deplorable proportion of instances, very 
 ill or even very cruelly performed. The driving 
 of cart-horses on the streets and in the neigh- 
 bourhood of large towns, in particular, is often 
 performed in a manner altogether heartless or 
 savage. Constant urging, frequent whipping, 
 occasional kicking or striking, and general inat- 
 tention to the several methods of averting pain, 
 or of alleviating labour, are so often the charac- 
 teristics of horse-driving in cities as to have been 
 a main cause of procuring for Britons, among our 
 
 continental neighbours, the atrocious reputation 
 of being the most cruel nation in Europe. A 
 good driver sees that both the yoke and the load 
 are properly adjusted; he avoids ruts and ine- 
 qualities upon the road ; he makes gradual de- 
 flexion in order to pass vehicles and obstructions, 
 and uses general precaution against any jerk or 
 sudden change of motion ; he pursues an oblique 
 line in winding upon an acclivity or upon a rough 
 or adhesive level ; he keeps constantly beside his 
 horse, and never rides on his cart or waggon 
 when it is laden ; he makes any occasional altera- 
 tions in the centre of gravity which are requisite 
 to equalize either the draught or the pressure ; 
 he does not permit his horse to stand with a 
 strain upon him on a declivity ; he forbears, ex- 
 cept in extreme cases, all use of the whip ; and, 
 in general, he acts with kindness, with considera- 
 tion, and with a steady regard to both the com- 
 fort of the animal and the economizing of his 
 labour. Such a man takes more work out of an i 
 inferior horse than a bad driver can get out of a 
 superior one ; and he, at the same time, prevents 
 all the outrage upon good moral order, and all 
 the enormous indirect injury to society, which j 
 arise from the practice of cruelty. 
 
 DROP-DRILL. See Sowing-Machine. 
 
 DROPSY. The morbid and excessive secre- j 
 tion of serous matter in the abdomen of man or 
 of the domestic animals. Dropsy in the horse is 
 sometimes so extensively understood as to in- 
 clude hydrocephalus or water in the head, hydro- 
 thorax or water in the chest, hydrops-pericardii 
 or water in the pericardium, anasarca or water- 
 farcy, partial oedema or swelled legs, and ascites 
 or water in the belly ; but, both for the sake of 
 method, and in order to accord as much as pos- 
 sible with popular nomenclature, we understand 
 it exclusively in the last of these senses. Abdo- 
 minal or true dropsy in the horse, is seldom a 
 primary affection, but not infrequently results 
 from some other diseases, particularly those of 
 the kidneys, the liver, and the smaller intestines. 
 Its usual symptoms are swelling of the abdomen, 
 decrease of urine, a degree of costiveness, and 
 much disinclination to exertion. When only a 
 symptomatic or secondary disease, it can seldom 
 if ever be successfully attacked; yet, when a 
 primary disease, or when in favourable circum- 
 stances a secondary disease, it may be treated by 
 tonics, aperients, smart diuretics, prolonged fric- 
 tions, frequent and gentle exercise, warm cloth- 
 ing, and well-timed, judicious tapping. 
 
 Dropsy in the cow is sometimes so acute and 
 rapid as fully to pass through all its stages, and 
 to kill the animal, in the course of two or three 
 days ; and whenever it assumes this very acute 
 character, it may be regarded as incurable. 
 Chronic dropsy in the cow, on the other hand, is 
 sometimes of such slow development as to effect i 
 enlargement of the abdomen no more rapidly | 
 than ordinary improving of condition ; and it is 
 
DROSOMETER. 
 
 411 
 
 DYSENTERY. 
 
 distinguishable to the eye from hoove and from 
 flatulent colic by its causing an enlargement, not 
 of the side, but of the whole belly, and from im- 
 provement of condition, by its being accompanied 
 with lassitude of system, dryness of skin, rough- 
 ness of coat, either emaciation or puffy swelling 
 of limb, excessive thirst, and alternate costive- 
 ness and diarrhoea. A complete cure can rarely 
 be effected ; and the most economical treatment 
 for the owner, as well as not the least humane 
 for the animal, is to reduce the enlargement by 
 tapping, to improve the health and condition by 
 means of tonics and diuretics, and then to part 
 with the brute as soon as she is rapidly and 
 pretty well improved. Torturing a dropsical cow 
 with thirst, is sheer cruelty, and has no sort of 
 sanative effect. 
 
 Dropsy in sheep — or water-sickness, as many 
 shepherds call it — is occasioned variously by 
 constitutional debility, by bleakness of pasture- 
 ground, by too free use of turnips and succulent 
 food, and by accidental circumstances. It occurs 
 most frequently among old sheep, and on bleak 
 pastures. A sheep affected with it fitfully and 
 changefully swells in various parts of the body, 
 becomes dull and languid, and eventually has 
 great and painful distension of the belly. Tap- 
 ping is sometimes useful in a ewe, but hardly 
 ever of any service in other sheep. Even tonics 
 are of very doubtful value. The chief remedy, 
 or rather palliative, is aperient action upon the 
 bowels, and the substitution of prime, dry, chaff- 
 cut hay for succulent or moist food. 
 
 DROSOMETER. An instrument for ascer- 
 taining the quantity of dew which falls. It con- 
 sists of a balance, one end of which is furnished 
 with a plate fitted to receive the dew, the other 
 containing a weight protected from it. 
 
 DROUGHT. Thirst or want of drink in ani- 
 mals ; also, long continuance of dry weather or 
 general want of rain. 
 
 DROVER. A person who drives cattle to dis- 
 tant markets. See the article Driving. 
 
 DUCK. See Poultry. 
 
 DUN. A colour partaking of brown and black. 
 Large dun horses are generally well-tempered, 
 good-feeding animals, neither swift-footed nor 
 very strong, but well adapted to the labours of 
 the farm ; but small duns, when somewhat highly 
 bred, suit excellently for the curricle or the phae- 
 ton, and when they have a dappling of a darker 
 colour upon their prevailing dun, they are thought 
 to be decidedly beautiful. 
 
 DUNG. See Excrement and Farm - Yard 
 Manure. 
 
 DUNG-HAWK. A hand-implement for draw- 
 ing composts and farm-yard manure out of carts 
 upon the fields. It has a handle of about 5 feet 
 in length, and is either a two-pronged or a three- 
 pronged fork, with the prongs formed at right 
 angles with the shaft. 
 
 DUNG-HILL. See Compost and Farm-Yard. 
 
 DURRA. See Indian Millet. 
 
 DUST-BRAND. See Smut. 
 
 DUTCH ASHES. See Ashes. 
 
 DUTCH HOE. See Hoe. 
 
 DYER'S WEED,— botanically Reseda luteola. 
 A biennial, indigenous, agricultural plant, of the 
 mignonette genus. It bears also the popular 
 names of weld, wold, yellow weed, dyer's rocket, 
 and little yellow dyer's weed. It grows wild on 
 waste grounds, and particularly among the rub- 
 bish of quarries and coal-pits, in various districts 
 of Britain ; and it is cultivated in the vicinity of 
 manufacturing towns, to the full extent of the 
 demand for it on the part of dyers. Its stems 
 are erect, from two to five feet high, and ramify, 
 toward the top, into several upright branches ; 
 its leaves are spear-shaped and entire ; and its 
 flowers are produced in long, terminal, greenish- 
 yellow spikes, and bloom in June and July. 
 
 As an agricultural plant, it gives comparatively 
 little trouble, and seems to be eminently remune- 
 rating, — for when once cultivated by farmers, it 
 seems to be, in every case, a constant favourite 
 with them as long as they can find a market for 
 it ; but it is necessarily in very limited demand, 
 and is even less so at present than it was at a former 
 period. It flourishes on almost any kind of soil, but 
 is most luxuriant upon a good loam, or upon argil- 
 laceous sand. It is sown in August, either broad- 
 cast and very lightly harrowed, or in drills and 
 very slightly covered ; or it may be sown in 
 spring, in broadcast intermixture with some 
 other crop which requires very light harrowing. 
 The proper quantity of seed for broadcast sowing 
 by itself is about twelve pounds per acre. The 
 soil must be in a state of the most thorough 
 tilth, perfectly powdery, and somewhat dry. The 
 young plants must be kept free from weeds ; and 
 the maturing plants must be pulled either when 
 expanding their flowers or just before they form 
 their seed ; for if allowed to seed, they both lose 
 some of their value for the dyer, and act exhaust- 
 ingly upon the soil. They are pulled up by the 
 roots, set in small gatherings to dry, bound into 
 sheaves, and built into stacks ; and they neither 
 incur any risk of heating in the stack-yard, nor 
 lose any of their virtue when kept there through 
 a series of years. The grand objection to the 
 cultivation of this crop is the risk of not finding 
 a purchaser ; and this is, in some degree, obvi- 
 ated, though far from being wholly so, by the 
 capacity which it has of being kept for so long a 
 time uninjured. 
 
 DYKE. See Dike. 
 
 DYSENTERY. Aninflammatory, purging, con- 
 tagious, and violent disease in the bowels of ani- 
 mals. It is very liable to be mistaken by igno- 
 rant or superficial observers for the far milder 
 disease of diarrhoea ; but it is readily distinguish- 
 able from that disease as to both its nature and 
 its symptoms ; and as it is vastly more violent 
 and frequently fatal, it ought to be easily recog- 
 
DYSENTERY. 
 
 442 
 
 DYSENTERY. 
 
 nised by every man who has charge of any 
 of the animals of a farm. See the article DiAR- 
 RHCEA. 
 
 Dysentery in the horse occurs oftener in young 
 animals than in old ones, and in robust than in 
 feeble ones; and is most frequently occasioned 
 by a sudden check to perspiration, a sudden and 
 injudicious change of food, much exposure to 
 cold and fatigue, browsing on the herbage of 
 marshes, the taking up of mineral poisons in food 
 or drink, and the excessive use of purgative or 
 drastic medicines. It sometimes begins in diar- 
 rhoea, but is more commonly an independent or 
 primary disease. It consists in inflammation of 
 the mucous membrane of the large intestines, 
 attended with an increase and a morbid altera- 
 tion of the mucous secretions, and with a general 
 inflammatory and febrile action. The faecal dis- 
 charges from it are frequent, slimy, fetid, and of 
 unctuous appearance, so as to have caused the 
 disease to be called among farriers of the old 
 school " molten grease;" and when the disease 
 becomes exceedingly virulent, and aggravates it- 
 self into ulceration of the intestines, these dis- 
 charges contain blood and leathery-looking pieces 
 of coagulated lymph. The affected animal has 
 dry mouth, heaving flanks, hot ears, great thirst, 
 no appetite, much pain, and constant irritation 
 and restiveness of the rectum. The veterinary 
 surgeon, except in the most ordinary cases, ought 
 to be consulted ; and if he be a skilful man, he 
 will bleed the animal, and probably administer 
 castor oil and opium, — and, if the case be at- 
 tended with violent inflammation, as indicated 
 by the very corded or perhaps wiry condition of 
 the pulse, — he will either apply a mustard poul- 
 tice or' order an opiate fomentation. 
 
 Dysentery in cattle is sometimes epizootic, 
 sometimes the consequence of other diseases in 
 individual animals, and sometimes, what glanders 
 and farcy are in horses, the breaking up of the 
 constitution ; and, regarded in the aggregate as 
 a scourge of flocks of the domestic ox, it is not 
 of very frequent occurrence, and yet, in some in- 
 stances, sweeps away cattle from districts by the 
 thousand. In its ordinary forms, it shares with 
 diarrhoea the popular names of scouring and 
 scouring-cow, and takes to itself the additional po- 
 pular names of braxy, bloody ray, and slimy flux ; 
 and in its most virulent forms, particularly when 
 occasioned by the general breaking up of the 
 constitution, it is known to many farmers under 
 the indefinite and incorrect yet very expressive 
 name of rottenness. When coming down upon 
 herds as an epizootic, it is, in general, curable 
 only in the mildest cases, and almost uniformly 
 fatal in smart or violent cases ; yet may usually be 
 averted by the cheap and easy precaution of ad- 
 ministering an aperient to each individual of the 
 unattacked. A description of its symptoms dur- 
 ing a particular one of its epizootic ravages, may 
 serve as a general indication of its epizootic char- 
 acter. " The disease was ushered in by a dull 
 
 anxious appearance; the eye -lids and dewlap 
 were of a yellow tinge, and in dairy cows there 
 was a total suspension of the secretion of milk ; 
 a slight muco-purulent discharge from the nos- 
 trils was also observed ; the appetite was indiffer- 
 ent, bowels costive, the dung of a dark colour, 
 having portions of blood diffused through it ; but 
 the urine was not much affected. The pulse for 
 the first 24 or 40 hours, when the disease came 
 on more gradually, was not much affected ; but 
 afterwards it became frequent, small, and hard, 
 beating at the rate of 70 or 80 pulsations per 
 minute. In extreme cases, the febrile action set 
 in from the first, accompanied with violent diar- 
 rhoea and tenesmus, the faecal discharge being 
 intolerably offensive, and consisting of a thin, 
 watery, dirty, green-coloured fluid, full of shreds 
 of coagulable lymph, mucus, and grumous blood. 
 In some, it consisted of a blackish green mucous 
 discharge ; in others, it was principally mucus, 
 coagulable lymph, and blood, with, comparatively 
 speaking, no portion of faeces along with it. The 
 extremities were alternately hot and cold ; the 
 surface of the nose sometimes dry, at others hav- 
 ing a dew upon it. Occasionally during the cold 
 fit, the eyes would become sunk in their orbits, 
 the features collapsed ; the nose, inner part of the 
 lips, and tongue were of a deadly pallidness, 
 which would be followed up by reaction, and a 
 consequent hot fit again. The bowels were af- 
 fected, in some of the extreme cases, with colicky 
 pains; and in every case, there was obstinate 
 constipation and obstruction in the second and 
 third stomachs. If relief was not afforded, the 
 disease terminated fatally on the third or fourth 
 day." In ordinary cases of dysentery, the faecal 
 discharge affords a ready indication of the dis- 
 ease being quite different from diarrhoea ; for it 
 is frothy, slimy, either brown or yellow, stringily 
 and patchily mucous, exceedingly fetid, and very 
 hot and reeking. In cases arising from general 
 debility or from the breaking up of the consti- 
 tution, the first outburst of the disease may sub- 
 side, pain may appear to wear away, and the 
 principal remaining symptoms may be lassitude, 
 want of appetite, rapid emaciation, frequent purg- 
 ing, and a peculiar and forcible manner of eject- 
 ing the faeces which is sometimes popularly called 
 " shooting." The proper treatment of dysentery 
 in cattle requires great skill and nicety ; it is, in 
 a considerable degree, a subject of dispute among 
 eminent veterinarians; and, even when most 
 judicious, prompt, and continued, it frequently 
 proves unavailing. Its principal elements are 
 bleeding, a gentle aperient, some form of opiates, 
 and — according to the judgment of a portion of 
 modern skilful farriers — mercurials, setons, fomen- 
 tations, tonics, clysters, and very powerful astrin- 
 gents. But wise farmers, the moment they as- 
 certain dysentery to appear among their cattle, 
 will use all speed in obtaining the best profes- 
 sional advice within their reach. Cattle recovered 
 from dysentery ought, till they regain strength, 
 
DYSENTERY. 
 
 to be kept away from green food and from luxu- 
 riant pastures. 
 
 Dysentery in sheep sometimes results from 
 diarrhoea, and is more frequently occasioned by 
 great and sudden changes of food and situation. 
 Many persons call it flux or scouring, — names 
 which it is made to share with diarrhoea ; and 
 some absurdly call it braxy, — a name which pro- 
 perly belongs to a totally different and very vir- 
 ulent disease — inflammation of the abomasum. 
 See the article Braxy. All shepherds ought to 
 be able to distinguish readily and promptly be- 
 tween dysentery and diarrhoea ; and they should 
 feel bound to adopt speedy measures of protec- 
 tion and cure whenever a case of dysentery oc- 
 curs. A sheep affected with dysentery is languid 
 and yet restless, and very frequently lies down and 
 rises. His mouth is hot, his nostrils are dry, his 
 eye-lids are red, his breathing is quick, his pulse is 
 wiry, and his fasces are frequent, scanty, hard, fe- 
 tid, and accompanied with mucus and blood. The 
 
 EAR. 
 
 ; disease is sometimes speedily fatal ; and some- 
 j times it slowly but steadily protracts its action 
 ; for weeks. In mild cases, mere astringents may 
 1 effect a cure ; in decidedly inflammatory cases, 
 first a mild aperient and next an opiate or two 
 are required ; and in very bad and complicated 
 cases, all appliances similar to those in the case 
 of cattle may be needed, and may be far from 
 proving uniformly effective. One very good 
 astringent drink consists of 20 drops of laudanum, 
 20 grains of prepared chalk, two drachms of tinc- 
 ture of catechu, two drachms of tincture of cin- 
 namon, and half a pint of warm oatmeal gruel. 
 — The Veterinarian. — Bartlefs Farriery. — Blaine's 
 Veterinary Art. — Knowledge Society's Treatise on 
 Cattle. — Spooner on the Diseases of Sheep. — Claters 
 Cattle Doctor. — Cleeve's Prize Essay on the Diseases 
 of Sheep in Journal of Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England. — Mackenzie on the Diseases of Sheep. 
 — Paper by Professor Dick in Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. 
 
 443 
 
 E 
 
 EADDISH. See Aftergrass. 
 
 EAR. An animal's organ of hearing. Its 
 internal structure is somewhat similar in man 
 and in the numerous species of the higher orders 
 of quadrupeds ; and it possesses, in all, a very 
 complex and yet simple organization, exquisitely 
 adapted to its functional uses, beautifully com- 
 bining utility with protection, and admirably 
 illustrating the wisdom and beneficence of the 
 Creator. Its external structure, in the several 
 animals, varies in adaptation to their respective 
 habits and constitution ; and affords, both in its 
 general form and in its wide variations, high and 
 striking evidences of most benevolent design. 
 
 The outward ear of the horse is a truncated, 
 obliquely severed, and very elegant cone, so ad- 
 mirably constructed as to receive a vast volume 
 of vibration in the air, and so exquisitely mount- 
 ed on organic mechanism as to wheel and circle 
 and oscillate with the utmost power and freedom 
 of motion. The ears of a horse, especially of a 
 spirited one, are in continual play, and are so 
 often and easily stretched in directions opposite 
 to each other as to serve the purpose of a double 
 organ, and possess such power and play of nerve 
 as to afford expressive indications of temper and 
 intention. "The ears," remarks Mr. Blaine, 
 "are usually supposed criterions of the spirit of 
 
 the animal : and I have seldom seen a horse who 
 carried one ear forward and the other backward 
 during his exercise, especially if on a journey, 
 but what was lasting and good. The reason 
 appears a plain one . a horse of spirit, strong, and 
 not easily fatigued, is attentive to everything 
 around him, and directs one ear forward and one 
 ear backward to collect sounds from every quar- 
 ter. I need not mention that the ears are an 
 indication of the temper of the animal, and that 
 he is seldom either playful or vicious but the 
 ears are laid flat on the neck. It was kind in 
 Providence to give us such a warning in an ani- 
 mal who does not want craft to surprise us, nor 
 strength to render his resentment terrible." The 
 twitching of a horse's ears in the way of disci- 
 pline or punishment may occasionally be necessary 
 in a case of great obstinacy, and in order to pre- 
 vent a severe application of the whip to other 
 parts of the body ; but generally it is both un- 
 necessary and cruel, and sometimes it inflicts 
 very painful wounds and contusions. When a 
 wound in the ear is merely a laceration of the 
 cartilage, it readily heals ; but when it is an ul- 
 ceration of the integument and the cellular sub- 
 stance, it will probably be healed by no gentler 
 means than powerful caustics or the application 
 of the cautery. 
 
EAR. 
 
 444 
 
 EARNEST. 
 
 The ears of cattle have a very different form 
 and size in some breeds than in others ; and they 
 constitute one of the minute or secondary points 
 by which the character and the comparative 
 value of breeds are judged. They are usually of 
 well-proportioned size and freely moveable in the 
 polled breeds ; and are comparatively small, in- 
 conspicuous, and stiff in most of the horned 
 breeds. But the ears of Suffolk cows and of 
 Ayrshire cows are gaunt and deformingly large ; 
 and fully formed but especially very large ears 
 are usually regarded as indications of coarseness 
 of form ; yet they possess the value of being ex- 
 cellent and adroitly-used' means for the animals 
 protecting their eyes. Contusions followed by 
 swelling and abscess and sometimes by deafness, 
 are not uncommon in the ears of cattle ; and 
 they ought to be reduced by means of such ap- 
 pliances as fomentations, anodyne lotions, and 
 astringent washes. A dry scurf often forms on 
 part of the inside of the ears, and occasions ex- 
 cessive and painful itch ; and this may, in most 
 instances, be speedily removed by means of a 
 little calamine and rosin ointment. Small fun- 
 gous growths appear, in some rare cases, at the 
 base of the ear ; and these must be removed first 
 with the knife, and next with a strong caustic 
 wash. Inflammation of the ear also occurs in 
 rare cases, and must be reduced by bleeding, 
 fomenting, and purging. 
 
 The ears of some breeds of swine are peculiarly 
 and amazingly subject, in the back part of their 
 great lops, to troublesome cracks and sores. A 
 good cure in these cases, as in that of scurf in 
 the ears of cattle, is calamine and rosin oint- 
 ment. " If there is any disposition to mange in 
 swine," remarks Mr. Clater, " it is most evi- 
 dent about the ears of these animals ; and the 
 mischief is sadly aggravated when brutes in 
 human shape set every ferocious dog at the 
 stray pig, the favourite hold of which is the 
 ear." 
 
 EAR. A spike or head of oats, barley, wheat, 
 or other cereal grass. Ears of corn, though an 
 almost universal popular phrase, is a somewhat 
 indefinite one/ and cannot be used in botanical 
 or minute description. 
 
 EAR-COCKLE, Purples, or Peppercorn. A 
 disease in wheat, occasioned by the animalcule 
 Vibrio tritici. Grains infected with it turn first 
 dark green, and afterwards nearly black ; they 
 become rounded, and acquire a form and an ap- 
 pearance somewhat like those of small pepper- 
 corns, but with one or more deep furrows on 
 their surface ; and their husks are so spread open, 
 and their awns so twisted, as to cause them to 
 be readily observable among standing corn. A 
 moist, white, cottony-looking substance is found, 
 on inspection, to fill all their interior instead of 
 flour ; and this, if soaked with a drop of water, 
 and placed under a microscope, will be seen to 
 disport itself into a multitude of eel-shaped ani- 
 malcules, twisting themselves and wriggling back- 
 
 ward and forward in the manner of snakes. 
 When the cottony mass of a quantity of wheat 
 infected with ear-cockle is extracted in the pro- 
 cess of grinding at the mill, it does not pass 
 through the cloth with the fine flour in the 
 beating, but remains with the bran. The ani- 
 malcules of an ear-cockled grain which happens 
 to be sown along with sound wheat remain in 
 it till March ; they then depart from it, travel 
 through the soil to the adjacent wheat-plants, 
 and begin gradually to ascend their stem till 
 they reach their ovules or young flower-buds ; 
 and there they deposit a great number of eggs, 
 and die and disappear. The young animalcules 
 are hatched in the course of 8 or 10 days after 
 the eggs are laid; and they speedily attain a 
 length of about '03 of an inch, and a diameter of 
 about '00083 of an inch, and in that state con- 
 stitute the cottony-looking mass of the grains ; 
 but the full-grown animalcules — those which 
 travel away from the seeds and propagate the 
 species in spring — have an enormous size com- 
 pared with the young, or with the tenants of the 
 grains, and attain a length of about '25 of an 
 inch, and a diameter of about *0125 of an inch. 
 These animalcules belong to the tribe which pos- 
 sess the very remarkable capacity of reviving 
 under moisture after lying for a long period in a 
 dry and seemingly dead condition. " If a mass 
 of them," says Professor Henslow, " is suffered to 
 become so perfectly dry that the slight touch of 
 a hair might reduce them to powder, and they 
 are again moistened in a drop of water, they will 
 speedily revive, and become as active as before. 
 They may thus be dried and revived many times 
 before they are killed. Mr. Bauer states the 
 limit to such revivals to lie between six and 
 seven years." Ear-cockle very rarely occurs in any 
 grain except wheat, and does not prevail much 
 even in wheat, and is totally unknown in some 
 districts ; yet it infests some places to such an 
 extent as to have occasioned, in the last or sedi- 
 mentary portions of wheat at the mill, so large a 
 proportion of diseased grains as about half a peck 
 in the bushel. The mere immersing of seed-corn 
 in water will not detect and separate infected 
 grains ; nor can the application of heat for the 
 killing of the animalcules be raised sufficiently 
 high without involving some risk of destroying 
 the vitality of the seeds. The chief effectual 
 preventive of repetitions of the disease on farms 
 where it has appeared, is to procure seed-corn 
 from some district in which the disease does not 
 exist. 
 
 EAR-MARK. A notching, clipping, slitting, 
 or other artificial mark, made on the ears of cat- 
 tle, sheep, dogs, or other tame animals, with the 
 design of distinguishing them from other indi- 
 viduals or flocks of their own species. 
 
 EARNEST. Any portion of price or wages, 
 paid or given as ratification of contract. The 
 smallest portion, even a penny, is sufficient ; but 
 in order to its binding the sollcr or the hireling 
 
EARTH. 
 
 44-3 
 
 EARTH. 
 
 to the terms of the agreement, it must be ex- 
 pressly stated to be earnest. 
 
 EARNING. See Rennet and Cheese. 
 EARTH. The world which we inhabit ; or all 
 the solid portion of this world ; or all the mineral 
 part of its crust ; or all mineral matter which is 
 not rocky ; or all diluvium and mineral alluvi- 
 um ; or land ; or soil ; or mould ; or the white, 
 powdery, and incombustible oxide of a metal. In 
 the sense of either the whole world, or the solid 
 portion of the world, it is distinguished as the 
 Earth ; in the sense of a white oxide, the word 
 is chemically and scientifically accurate ; in the 
 sense of soil, it is popularly correct, but falls 
 to be discussed in the article Soil ; and in all 
 the other senses, it is exceedingly indefinite, and 
 ought to be completely superseded by strict and 
 proper terms. 
 
 Earths, in the scientific and thoroughly correct 
 signification, are of two classes, alkaline and 
 pure, the former amounting to four and the lat- 
 ter to six. The alkaline earths are lime, mag- 
 nesia, strontia, and barytes, or oxides of calcium, 
 magnesium, strontium, and baritum. They re- 
 semble alkalies in neutralizing acids, and in ex- 
 erting a strong alkaline reaction with test paper; 
 and they resemble the pure earths in whiteness, 
 powderiness, incombustibility, and some other 
 properties. Barytes and strontia are, in a con- 
 siderable degree, soluble in water ; and barytes, 
 strontia, and lime are, in a powerful degree, 
 caustic. The pure earths are alumina, silica, 
 yttria, zirconia, thorina, and glucina, or oxides of 
 aluminum, silicium, yttrium, zirconium, thori- 
 num, and glucinium. Silica behaves, in a con- 
 siderable degree, like an acid, — and its basis, 
 silicium, possesses far more resemblance to carbon 
 and boron than to the metals ; and the other 
 five, though combining in a degree with acids, 
 are far less salifiable than the alkaline earths, 
 and do not exhibit alkalinity with turmeric or 
 litmus paper. All the six are white, and have a 
 thoroughly mineral appearance, and, in their 
 ordinary condition, are totally insoluble in water. 
 
 The most abundant of the earths are alumina 
 and silica, — the former the characteristic princi- 
 ple of clay, and the latter the characteristic prin- 
 
 , ciple of flint, quartz, and quartzose sand ; the 
 earths next in abundance are lime and magnesia ; 
 and these four earths, in various combinations 
 with one another, with water, with salts, and 
 with other substances, constitute the grand bulk 
 of the rocks, gravels, clays, and other solid parts 
 of the crust of the world. Yet though the enor - 
 mously major portion of the strictly mineral 
 substances of the world consists of these four 
 
 ■ earths, the skin or superficial stratum which con- 
 
 i stitutes soil always comprises more or less of 
 organic remains, or consists, in a considerable 
 degree, of the decomposed and decomposing ve- 
 
 j getable matters which are technically called hu- 
 mus or geine. See the articles Silica, Alumina, 
 
 [ Lime, Soil, and Humus. 
 
 The four principal earths, and occasionally a 
 minute portion of barytes, are taken up from 
 the soil and secreted by plants, and may readily 
 be separated from the organisms by incineration. 
 Lime, chiefly in the form of phosphate, and partly 
 in the forms of carbonate and sulphate, is com- 
 paratively abundant in very many plants, parti- 
 cularly in their roots, shoots, and seeds, and con- 
 stitutes a principal portion of their incombustible 
 matter obtainable in the form of ashes. Silica, 
 in a vitreously saline combination with potash, 
 constitutes the hard, smooth, and shining skin 
 of the grasses and the equisetaceas ; and is the 
 powerfully resistive principle which renders some 
 of these plants, such as the Dutch rush, Equise- 
 tum hyemale, so well adapted for polishing brass 
 and other alloys and metals. Magnesia occurs 
 abundantly in some of the goosefoots, somewhat 
 frequently in several of the fuci, and occasionally 
 but sparingly in some other plants. Alumina 
 occurs in very minute quantity in the bulbs of 
 garlic, the leaves of the olive, and the root of 
 some of the mallows. 
 
 Earth, in the sense of soil, but with special re- 
 ference to its aluminous constituent, appears to 
 be an essential element, if not to the nutrition of 
 cattle, at least to their digestion. " If cattle are 
 observed while they are grazing," remarks Youatt, 
 " it will be seen that many a root mingles with 
 the blades of grass ; and these roots have some- 
 times no inconsiderable quantity of earth about 
 them. The beast, however, seems not to regard 
 this ; he eats on, dirt and all, until his paunch is 
 filled. It was designed that this earth should 
 be gathered and swallowed. A portion of ab- 
 sorbent earth is found in every soil, sufficient not 
 only to prevent the evil that would result from 
 occasional decomposition" of herbage in the first 
 stomach or paunch or rumen of a ruminating 
 animal, " by neutralizing the acid principle as 
 rapidly as it is evolved ; but, perhaps, by its 
 presence preventing that decomposition from 
 taking place. Hence the eagerness which stall- 
 fed cattle, who have not the opportunity of 
 plucking up the roots of grass, evince for mould. 
 It is seldom that a cow will pass a newly-raised 
 mole-hill without nuzzling into it, and devouring 
 a considerable portion of it. This is particularly 
 the case when there is any degree of indigestion. 
 The mould here is comminuted to the greatest 
 degree, and probably possesses peculiar freshness." 
 Kids, reindeer, and wolves also eat clayey soil, — 
 and eat it in much larger proportional quantity 
 than cattle do ; human beings, in various parts 
 of South America, of Western Africa, and of the 
 Indian archipelago, eat clay as part of their con- 
 stant aliment, — some of them to the enormous 
 amount of upwards of 8 or 10 ounces a-day ; and 
 some diseased individuals of our own population 
 possess an invincible appetite for either argillace- 
 ous or calcareous earth. Farmers ought to use 
 care that all their stall-fed cattle be daily sup- 
 plied with a small quantity of fresh and very 
 
EARTH-BOARD. 
 
 fine rich loamy soil, or of richly pulverulent, 
 clay. 
 
 EARTH - BOARD. The mould-board of a 
 plough, or part which turns over the soil. See 
 the article Plough. 
 
 EARTH-BUILDINGS. Walls or houses form- 
 ed of compressed soil or clay. They are not un- 
 common in Normandy and the south of France ; 
 and, in order to obtain additional strength and 
 duraoility, some of them are constructed with 
 alternate boards of wood and layers of soil. Turf 
 cabins, which abound in Ireland, and clay cot- 
 tages, which sometimes occur in Britain, and 
 also mud walls and turf fences, are varieties of 
 earth-buildings ; but all are so rude and obvious 
 in structure as not to require any description. 
 
 EARTH-HACK. A hand implement, resem- 
 bling a large hoe. It is used, sometimes as either 
 a hoe or a cleaning scraper, but more generally 
 and properly as a drag for pulling mineral man- 
 ures out of a cart, in the same manner in which 
 the dung-drag is used for farm-yard manure. 
 
 EARTHING, or Eartuing-up. The heaping 
 of soil upon the lower part of the stems of stand- 
 ing and growing plants, with the design of blanch- 
 ing them, of supporting them, of promoting the 
 circulation of air and moisture around them, of 
 draining away superabundance of rain, or of af- 
 fording free scope for the increase of roots and 
 for imbibition of food through the spongioles. 
 The designs of blanching and supporting occur 
 only in the garden, and are thoroughly proper in 
 the case of all the plants to which they usually 
 apply ; but the other designs occur in both the 
 garden and the field, and are in most cases either 
 mischievous or doubtful. The main advantage 
 sought to be attained by earthing is the afford- 
 ing to the roots of plants an ample bed of fine 
 pulverized mould, both for their own growth and 
 for the conveyance to them of their proper food ; 
 but this ought, in nearly all cases except that of 
 the potato, and even to a chief degree in the case 
 of the potato itself, to be provided for by proper 
 draining and thorough tillage. Earthing does 
 not, in even the most remote manner, correspond 
 to any process or circumstance in natural vege- 
 tation ; and, but for our being accustomed to it, 
 would appear at a glance to be an artificial and 
 a violent supplementary remedy for some great 
 defect in the mechanical conditions of the soil. 
 
 The earthing of drilled corn is manifestly in- 
 jurious. When a crop of corn receives its last 
 dressing, its culms are usually from three to five 
 feet high, and its roots, unless already shortened 
 by the plough or the hoe, are even longer than 
 the culms, and spread athwart the whole of the 
 ground ; so that, if the drills be four feet apart, 
 the roots of the plants of each drill take up their 
 food, on the average, over a breadth of four feet. 
 Now when a plough is driven between the drills, 
 a total disruption of one-fourth of this breadth of 
 four feet is effected, one-fourth of the feeding or 
 pasturing area of the plants is practically swept 
 
 EARTHING. 
 
 away, one-fourth of the spongioles or feeding- 
 orifices and of the connecting radical fibres of 
 the plants are destroyed, and a considerable pro- 
 portion of the remaining spongioles and radical 
 fibres are injuriously exposed to the effects of 
 drought and of ardent sunshine. These surely 
 are evils of vastly too great magnitude to be 
 counterbalanced, far less compensated, by any 
 possible advantages which earthing can be al- 
 leged to produce. 
 
 The earthing of turnips, though hitherto re- 
 garded by most cultivators with much favour, is 
 probably quite as mischievous as the earthing of 
 corn. Innumerable minute radical fibres grow 
 out horizontally from turnip plants, and spread 
 themselves athwart the whole of the usual inter- 
 val between drills, and, on rare occasions, on par- 
 ticular mornings of summer, are visible to the 
 naked eye in consequence of depositions upon 
 them of dew somewhat similar in appearance to 
 hoar-frost; and these fibres, even in connexion 
 with their being so minute and so multitudinous, 
 unquestionably take up a main part of all the 
 finer nourishment for the feeding of the plants ; 
 and, in the process of earthing up, a large pro- 
 portion of them are destroyed, and of course a 
 corresponding proportion of the food of the tur- 
 nips cut off, The injury often inflicted, to a 
 considerable extent, upon the leaves of the plants 
 also averts a considerable portion of the nourish- 
 ment from the atmospheric gases, and makes a 
 serious deduction from the attainable bulk of the 
 crop. The mere hollow between the drills, too, 
 acts as a channel for surface water to carry away 
 some of the most enriching portions of the soil ; 
 the exhuming and exposure of a considerable 
 part of the manure, occasions the loss of much 
 of it partly by the sweep and drainage of the sur- 
 face water, and partly by oxygenizement and 
 gaseous escape into the atmosphere ; and the 
 unevenness or ribbedness of the ground, during 
 the whole period of the folding of sheep upon the 
 crop, prevents the soil from attaining as large an 
 amount of enrichment as would accrue to it if its 
 surface were level and smooth. 
 
 Even the earthing of potato crops, though to 
 a certain extent useful, ought to be greatly modi- 
 fied by the conditions of the soil, and, as usually 
 practised, is, in not a small proportion of cases, 
 productive of far more evil than good. Two sets 
 of roots exist in potato plants, and perform two 
 widely different kinds of functions ; the one pro- 
 per or plant-feeding roots, growing as soon as 
 the seed germinates, and shooting perpendicularly 
 or obliquely into the soil ; the other stoloniferous 
 or tuber-bearing radicles, beginning to grow only 
 after the plant is well or almost fully developed, 
 and shooting in horizontal or lateral directions 
 through the soil. Now the earthing of potato 
 plants, when judiciously performed, makes no 
 interference with the plant -feeding roots, but 
 acts solely and most beneficially upon the stoloni- 
 ferous radicles, increasing their width of range, 
 
 446 
 
EARTH-NUT. 447 EARTHWORMS. 
 
 multiplying their power of forming tubers, sup- 
 plying them with food for nourishing up their 
 tubers to a comparatively great size, and protect- 
 ing the tubers themselves from the discolouring 
 and powerfully deteriorating effects of exposure 
 to the weather. 
 
 But the earthing of many kinds of potato land, 
 particularly of porous and well-drained land, to 
 a greater depth than two or three inches, and 
 especially to a depth below the level of the plant- 
 roots and the manure, occasions a serious waste 
 of manurial nourishment, draws off an enormous 
 proportion of the requisite aqueous nourishment, 
 sometimes acts unfavourably upon the mechani- 
 cal support obtained by the plants from the soil, 
 and has been proved by experiment to subtract, 
 in some instances, the enormous proportion of 
 one-third from the aggregate value of the crop. 
 " The deepness of the earthing below the dung 
 and the roots," remarks Mr. Mackenzie of Stir- 
 ling, " allows the moisture to drain from both ; 
 and if the potatoes are earthed up when the soil 
 is moist, which is no uncommon case, the sides 
 of the drills become smooth, and often harden in 
 such a manner as to have some resemblance to 
 baked clay, so that when rain falls, it runs down 
 the sides of the drills as if tiles had been laid to 
 carry it of. Then the nourishment which the 
 fructifying showers bring to the soil for the bene- 
 fit of vegetation, is, in a great measure, lost upon 
 the potato crop. Such a mode of culture pre- 
 vents the earth from drinking in ' the rain that 
 comes oft upon it, that it may bring forth herbs 
 meet for them by whom it is dressed.' Persons 
 may satisfy themselves upon some of these points, 
 by going to a potato field which has been treated 
 in the manner above described, with a pota- 
 to fork over their shoulder ; and let them go 
 after copious showers have fallen, and they will 
 probably find the soil where the roots of the 
 plants are as dry as dust, — many of the sponge- 
 lets shrunk and unable to perform their func- 
 tions, when the well-being of vegetation depends 
 in a great measure upon their preservation ; the 
 dung, instead of being finely incorporated with 
 the soil, will have some resemblance to gramine- 
 ous peat, and might be employed as fuel to boil 
 the potatoes instead of food to nourish them. In 
 such circumstances, the potatoes will, in general, 
 be a deficient crop ; their character will be dry, 
 small, and scabbed." — BueVs Farmer's Instructor. 
 — Stephens' Book of the Farm. — Paper by Mr. 
 Mackenzie in No. 59 of the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture. 
 
 EARTH-NUT. A well known umbelliferous 
 weed of sandy and gravelly pastures and woods in 
 many parts of Britain. Its tubers are nearly 
 globular, externally black, internally white, with a 
 sweet, mucilaginous, aromatic, somewhat acri- 
 monious, and decidedly agreeable flavour ; its 
 stem is striated, solid, from 9 to 24 inches in 
 height, and branched towards the top ; its 
 
 radical leaves are twice or thrice pinnated, and 
 very finely cut, and lie near the ground ; its stem 
 leaves are long, narrow, and acute, and occur 
 singly below the ramifying points of the branches ; 
 its flowers grow in umbels like those of many 
 other plants of the same family, and have a pure 
 white colour, and bloom in May and June ; and 
 its seeds are small, oblong, and channelled. The 
 tubers lie deep, and put out fibres from their 
 bottom and sides ; they are greedily dug for and 
 voraciously eaten, by hogs and by country chil- 
 dren ; they have a taste and flavour scarcely 
 inferior to chestnuts, and formerly took thence 
 the specific name of bulbocastanum, or chestnut- 
 tuber ; they are quite delicious, as well as seem- 
 ingly very nutritious, either raw, roasted, or 
 boiled ; and, if produced in plenty and perhaps 
 somewhat enriched in flavour by cultivation, 
 they might probably command an extensive 
 and ready sale as an article of dessert. What a 
 pity that such good things should be abandoned 
 to the hogs, and degraded with the name of 
 pig-nuts ! 
 
 EARTHWORMS. Well known red-blooded 
 annelidge. They are the common red worms 
 of every ordinary soil, turned into view at 
 almost every operation of the spade or the 
 plough, and familiar to even the youngest and 
 most careless observers ; they possess the semi- 
 cartilaginous annulations, the connecting longi- 
 tudinal and oblique muscles, the double system 
 of veins and arteries, and the moist, enveloping, 
 segment-showing skin which are common to all 
 the red-blooded worms; they are devoid of 
 branchial tufts, and possess a series of minute 
 pores leading to very fine sacculi along each side 
 of the body, in common with all the abranchiate 
 division of their class ; and they are armed with 
 minute hairs or bristles, in common with the 
 nais and the hairworm. Their eggs are some- 
 what oval, and about three lines long ; they have 
 at each end a kind of lid which opens to permit 
 the exit of the matured wormlings ; and each 
 contains two yolks, and gives origin to two ani- 
 mals. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, and ex- 
 ceedingly prolific. They abound in all rich soils ; 
 and are always in a highly active state in spring ; 
 yet, as may be proved to any person who will 
 take the trouble of examining a grass plot with 
 the light of a candle, they come to the surface 
 and move about in every mild night of winter. 
 
 Earthworms are generally regarded by farmers 
 and gardeners as mischievous to their crops ; but 
 were their true character and economy fully 
 known, they would be universally recognised as 
 enrichers of the soil, and important ancillaries 
 to cultivation. " Lands that are subject to fre- 
 quent inundations," says White, in his Natural 
 History of Selborne, " are always poor ; and pro- 
 bably the reason may be, because the worms are 
 drowned. To say nothing of half the birds, 
 and some quadrupeds, which are almost entirely 
 
EARTHWORM. 
 
 448 
 
 EGG. 
 
 supported by them, worms seem to be great 
 promoters of vegetation, which would pro- 
 ceed but lamely without them, by boring, per- 
 forating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it 
 pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by 
 drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs 
 into it, and, most of all, by throwing up such 
 infinite numbers of lumps of earth, called worm- 
 casts, which, being their excrement, is a fine 
 manure for grain and grass. Worms probably 
 provide new soil for hills and slopes, where the 
 rain washes the earth away; and they affect 
 slopes probably to avoid being flooded. Gar- 
 deners and farmers express their detestation of 
 worms, — the former, because they render their 
 walks unsightly, and make them much work, — 
 and the latter, because, as they think, worms eat 
 their green corn. But these men would find 
 that the earth without worms would soon be- 
 come cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, 
 and consequently sterile. And besides, in favour 
 of worms, it should be hinted, that green corn, 
 plants, and flowers are not so much injured by 
 them as by many species of coleoptera (scarabs) 
 and tipuhe (long-legs) in their larva or grub 
 state, — and by unnoticed myriads of small shell- 
 less snails, called slugs, which silently and im- 
 perceptibly make amazing havoc in the field and 
 garden." 
 
 A piece of arable land on the sea-board of Lin- 
 colnshire lost its fertility in consequence of the 
 destruction of all its earthworms by the break- 
 ing in of the sea, and regained its fertility in 
 consequence of becoming again overrun with 
 earthworms after the effects of the sea-burst had 
 ceased. " Mr. Henry Handley," says Mr. Parkes, 
 " showed me a piece of pasture land near to his 
 house, in which worms were in such numbers 
 that he thought their casts interfered too much 
 with its produce, which induced him to have 
 the field rolled at night in order to destroy the 
 worms. The result was that the fertility of 
 the field greatly declined, nor was it restored 
 until they had recruited their numbers, which 
 was aided by collecting and transplanting mul- 
 titudes of worms from other fields." Earth- 
 worms act also as important auxiliaries to the 
 drainer in all fine alluviums, rich loams, and 
 pulverulent clays ; and even when killed by the 
 letting in of the tide in the English processes of 
 warping, they leave valuable advantages behind 
 them, and are soon succeeded by another race. 
 " Their death no doubt occurs when the process 
 of warping terminates, and the soil solidifies, but 
 their holes remain entire and open from the top 
 to the bottom of the mass, serving to admit air 
 and moisture, and to pass the water of rain in 
 finely divided streamlets to the drains ; and the 
 earthworm finally establishes himself in a soil 
 easily penetrated and most congenial to his min- 
 ing habits." 
 
 Earthworms then ought to be rather cherished 
 
 than destroyed; yet when they are resolutely 
 hated by either the prejudiced or the fastidious, 
 — when they either continue to be regarded as 
 foes to his crops by the farmer, or are disliked as 
 deformers of his lawns and walks and tidy plots 
 by the gardener, — they may be killed by a broad- 
 cast sowing of common salt, at the rate of 5 or 6 
 bushels per acre, or by a sprinkling of strong 
 lime water, or by a sprinkling of a decoction of 
 wood-ashes or of walnut leaves. 
 
 EARTHY MANURES. See Lime, Chalk, 
 Ashes, Compost, and Sand. 
 
 EATING-OFF. The consumption of a crop or 
 part of a crop by live-stock, on the field on which 
 it grows and while it continues in an ungathered 
 condition. Eating-off is a contrast to harvesting, 
 and is practised almost exclusively with green 
 crops, and principally with turnips. The prime 
 design of it is the enrichment of the soil partly 
 by the abrasions of the feet and body of the ani- 
 mals, still more by the decomposition of the re- 
 jected or uneaten portions of the crop, and chief 
 of all by the intermixation of the liquid and 
 solid excrements of the stock. 
 
 EDDISH. See Aftergrass. 
 
 EDGE. The extreme border of a ridge, a field, 
 a crop, or any other division of land or of sheets 
 of cultivation. An edge-grown crop is one which 
 has an irregular growth, and a successional ripen- 
 ing : and an edge-hoeing is the hoeing either of 
 the borders of a patch or field, or of the sides of 
 the ridges or rows of any growing, drilled crop. 
 
 EGG. The food and the embryo of a non- 
 viviparous animal. The management of the eggs 
 of farm-yard fowls will be treated in the articles 
 Incubation and Poultry. The value and 
 palatability of poultry-eggs, as an article of 
 man's food, are universally known. The white 
 is more digestible than the yolk ; and an egg so 
 slowly and cautiously cooked as to have a pulpy 
 or thickly creamy consistency is both more 
 agreeable and far more digestible than an egg 
 which is boiled to hardness. — Eggs are always 
 comparatively high priced in towns ; and the 
 great and general demand for them occasions 
 a very extensive importation to the towns of 
 Britain, at once from country districts, from 
 Ireland, and from continental Europe. About 
 30 years ago, the trade in eggs from Berwick- 
 upon-Tweed to London amounted in value to 
 about £30,000 a- year ; and about 15 years ago. 
 the trade in eggs from France to Britain yielded 
 about £83,000 a-year of prime cost to the French 
 producers, and amounted in value to about 
 £213,000 a-year to the British consumers. The 
 internal trade from most country districts of Bri- 
 tain to the nearest great manufacturing towns, is 
 very great, and in some places quite systematic ; 
 and, during a considerable number of years past, 
 an enormously extensive and minutely rami lied 
 system of poultry- keeping is maintained through- 
 out many of the sea-board districts of Ireland, 
 
ELDER. 
 
 449 
 
 ELECTRO-CULTURE. 
 
 particularly those of the counties of Londonderry 
 and Antrim, for the regular supply of eggs by 
 steam conveyance, to the great towns on the 
 west coast of England and Scotland. 
 
 ELATER. See Wire- Worm. 
 
 ELDER, — botanically Sambucus Nigra. A 
 well-known, indigenous, shrubby tree, belonging 
 to the honeysuckle tribe. It grows wild in many 
 situations, on almost all kinds of soil; and is 
 popularly known, in some districts, as the bore- 
 tree or bower-tree. Its stem has a roughish grey 
 bark, is profusely branched toward the top, and 
 usually attains a height of about 15 feet, but can 
 easily be coaxed up to a height of 30 feet ; its 
 wood is white and hard, and has a wide, soft, 
 spongy pith, and, though very brittle in young 
 shoots, is tough in old branches, and timbery and 
 valuable in large old stems ; its leaves are com- 
 pound, each consisting of five or seven oval, pointed, 
 serrated, dark-green folioles ; its flowers are pro- 
 duced in large terminal cymes, and have a creamy- 
 white colour, a bitterish taste, and a faintish 
 sickly odour, and bloom from May till J uly ; and 
 its fruit are globular, inodorous, sweetish-tasted, 
 purplish black berries, containing in their juice 
 vegetable jelly, saccharine matter, and malic acid. 
 
 This plant has been recommended, on account 
 of its cheapness, hardiness, and habit of rapid 
 growth, as a very suitable plant for hedge-fences ; 
 but it requires to be planted thickly, to be allowed 
 to grow for some time untouched, and to be 
 headed down and periodically topped to the 
 required height of the hedge ; and, even in 
 spite of such treatment, it can never produce 
 the closeness and thorough imperviousness of 
 a good or even an ordinary thorn fence. Its 
 leaves kill several species of noxious insects, 
 offend and banish moles, and are greedily eaten 
 by sheep, — and on these accounts, might seem to 
 render the plant desirable; but they are dis- 
 liked by cattle, and are offensive to man, and 
 probably act, more in the way of medicine than 
 in the way of aliment, upon sheep. 
 
 ELECTRO-CULTURE. The influence of elec- 
 tricity upon the germination of seeds and the 
 growth of plants is a subject abundantly worthy 
 of the most patient investigation, and probably 
 capable of being turned to vast practical account 
 in the arts of culture. \ But it cannot yet be said 
 to have, in any degree, become matter of science ; 
 and though it has, for a century past, and espe- 
 cially during the last six years, been anxiously 
 and often and variously subjected to both scien- 
 tific and practical inquiry, it continues to lie en- 
 sconced within the limits of theory and conflic- 
 ting report. Though much has been written 
 upon it and many experiments made, and though 
 these are now worked up into a kind of system 
 under the designation of electro-culture, we do 
 not feel warranted either to promulge a theory 
 of our own, or to adopt any one of the theories 
 of others, or even to pronounce an opinion as to 
 L 
 
 the aggregate result of the appeals which have 
 been made to experiment. 
 
 At a meeting of the Royal Institution in the 
 early part of 1845, an important paper on the in- 
 fluence of electricity upon vegetation, was read 
 by the Rev. E. Sidney. The attention of elec- 
 tricians, he stated had been drawn to the sub- 
 ject so long back as 1746, when Mr. Maimbry, at 
 Edinburgh, announced that electrified plants 
 grew more rapidly and vigorously than those 
 that were not so treated ; about the same time 
 the Abbe Nollet discovered that electrified seeds 
 germinated with increased facility ; and these ob- 
 servations were confirmed and extended by the 
 experiments of Bertholon and Jallabert, the for- 
 mer of whom attributed very marked effects to 
 the use of electrified water. The truth of these 
 experiments was supported by some electricians, 
 but denied by others, who, upon repeating them, 
 could not perceive any effect produced on the 
 electrified plants. Amongst the latter class stands 
 the name of Sennabier ; but on reading the ac- 
 count of how his experiments were performed, 
 it is no longer surprising that he failed to per- 
 ceive any effect from electricity, as he placed the 
 seeds which were to be electrified inside an elec- 
 trified vessel, — a situation in which, it is evident, 
 they would not be exposed to the electric influ- 
 ence. After briefly adverting to the more recent 
 observations of Davy, Pouillet, and others, Mr. 
 Sidney drew attention to the recent progress of 
 the subject, and the high interest it was at pre- 
 sent exciting. — The first point which the lecturer 
 insisted on was, that electricity appears to exer- 
 cise a powerful influence on growing plants ; in 
 support of which, he quoted a number of experi- 
 ments and observations, all tending to show, that 
 plants, under the influence of electricity, grow 
 with increased vigour. The manner in which 
 drooping plants have been observed to revive, on 
 the artificial application of electricity, was also 
 noticed ; and lastly, the effects which are found to 
 be produced by thunder-storms were described. 
 The rapid growth of plants during thunder-storms 
 might, no doubt, in part be attributed to other 
 causes ; but, at the same time, it was a very fair 
 inference, that the electric condition of the air 
 had something to do with the phenomena, as 
 such a conclusion was borne out by numerous 
 experiments, on a small scale, made with artifi- j 
 cial electricity. Electricity of low, like that of 
 high tension, has been found to affect germinat- \ 
 ing seeds and growing plants in a remarkable j 
 manner. It was noticed by Davy, that seeds 
 germinated more freely at the negative pole of ! 
 the voltaic battery than at the positive ; and since j 
 his time numerous experiments have been made, 
 all tending to prove, that voltaic electricity pow- ( 
 erfully affects plants. — Mr. Sidney next drew at- j 
 tention to the facility with which fresh vegetable I 
 matters conduct electricity, in consequence of 
 the good conducting power of the fluids which 
 2 F 
 
ELECTRICITY. 
 
 450 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 they contain. This was illustrated by placing a 
 small blade of grass in contact with the conduc- 
 tor of a powerful electrical machine, when it was 
 proved, that the whole of the electricity gener- 
 ated by the machine was quietly carried away by 
 the blade of grass. It was also shown, that the 
 pointed forms of the leaves and other parts of 
 plants, combined with their good conducting 
 power, fitted them most admirably to receive 
 or disperse electricity; and hence electricians 
 sometimes employed vegetable points in place of 
 metallic ones for those purposes. To show this, 
 a large Ley den jar was quickly and silently dis- 
 charged, by bringing the pointed blades of grass 
 near its outer surface, and the brass knob at the 
 top. In consequence of the high electric powers 
 of plants, as might be supposed, they exerted a 
 marked efFect on the electric condition of the at- 
 mosphere, so that when an electroscope indicated 
 abundance of electricity in the free open air, it 
 indicated none in the vicinity of a tree with 
 pointed leaves. In illustration of the good con- 
 ducting power of vegetable matter, Mr. Sidney 
 stated that it was impossible to give an electric 
 shock to a circle of people standing on a lawn, as 
 the electricity invariably took the shorter and 
 better conducting course through the grass ; 
 whilst there was no difficulty in giving a shock 
 to any number of persons standing in a circle on 
 gravel. — Thirdly ; the apparent adaptation of the 
 various parts of plants to different electrical 
 uses, was pointed out. Thus, the first leaves of 
 many plants are pointed and acute ; others round- 
 ed or globose. The buds of most plants are 
 pointed, or covered with a strong pubescence. 
 Some plants, more especially those which grow 
 rapidly, have an immense number of sharp points, 
 or pointed hairs, whilst those which grow less 
 rapidly, or are intended to meet the variations of 
 the seasons, are less pointed, but often provided 
 with dry thorns or prickles. As plants come into 
 flower, they generally tend more to a globose 
 form : the flower-buds are generally rounded, and 
 the fruit or seed-vessels, are seldom provided 
 with acute points. It may, therefore, possibly be 
 the case, that though electricity is favourable to 
 plants at one stage of their growth, it is hurtful 
 to them at others ; just as is well known to be 
 the case with light, which is essential to them 
 when full grown, but is hurtful to them in the 
 embryo state. — The general phenomena of vege- 
 tation were then considered in relation to elec- 
 trical agency. It would prove an interesting 
 subject of inquiry, to examine in how far the 
 rise of the sap in spring is influenced by electri- 
 city. It is certain, that in spring, and before 
 the leaf-buds are opened, whilst they still retain 
 their pointed form, the air is dry, and in the 
 most fitting state for electrical effects. Mr. 
 Sidney then adverted to the singular powers 
 which plants have of precipitating moisture from 
 the atmosphere, an effect which he suggested 
 might possibly be of electric origin, and endea- 
 
 voured to strengthen this view by a number of 
 ingenious arguments; amongst others, the re- 
 markable cases described by Mr. Weekes and 
 other electricians, in which showers of rain were 
 brought down by uninsulated kites. The lec- 
 turer next endeavoured to show that the forms 
 and geographical distribution of certain species 
 of plants indicate a relation to the electrical pro- 
 perties. Thus, for example, the numerous pine 
 and fir trees which abound in high latitudes, pre- 
 sent most admirable extensive discharging appa- 
 ratus for receiving or dissipating electricity ; 
 and, supposing the preceding observations cor- 
 rect, such trees would exert most important and 
 beneficial influence in equalizing the electric con- 
 dition of the atmosphere, and tending to produce 
 a greater uniformity of atmosphere. — Lastly ; the 
 subject was considered as a purely practical one ; 
 and the prospect which there exists of electricity 
 being advantageously applied to stimulate or assist 
 vegetation was inquired into. Mr. Sidney seemed 
 to think it very questionable whether electricity 
 could ever be usefully applied to the improve- 
 ment of agriculture; but in horticulture (in 
 forcing flowers and fruits) he thought there were 
 prospects of a decided benefit; and, therefore, 
 that this branch of the subject was well deserv- 
 ing a careful experimental investigation. Elec- 
 tricity, both common and voltaic, might probably 
 be advantageously employed in assisting the ger- 
 mination of old and dry seeds ; and likewise, ap- 
 plied with caution, in the culture of exotics and 
 hothouse plants, its use might be productive of 
 good results. The lecturer exhibited several 
 plants which he had caused to grow in earth 
 under the influence of a feeble current of voltaic 
 electricity, generated by a plate of zinc and ano- 
 ther of copper, connected together, buried in the 
 soil beside the roots of the plants ; and, in the 
 case of plants of potato, cineraria, and mustard, 
 which he exhibited, a very marked effect ap- 
 peared to have been produced, as the galvanized 
 plants were larger and much more vigorous than 
 those without the plates. He stated that he had 
 also produced a very good effect on pines, cress, 
 and fuchsias, but had found plants of pelargo- 
 niums killed by the application of the zinc and 
 copper plates. 
 
 During a number of years, electrical conduc- 
 tors in the form of paragreles or poles were nu- 
 merously erected throughout vineyards, and in 
 attachment to the vine-plants, in almost all parts 
 of the south of France, and were believed to act 
 beneficially in stimulating vegetation, invigorat- 
 ing the plants, and averting hail-showers ; but, of 
 late years, they have lost their reputation with 
 the great bulk of the community, and incurred 
 the derision of a portion of scientific cultivators. 
 — The electricizing of seeds and of young ligne- 
 ous plants has long been practised by experi- 
 mental gardeners; and, in spite of much con- 
 tempt, considerable ridicule, and general dis- 
 esteem on the part of the rest of the community. 
 
ELECTRICITY. 
 
 451 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 it still continues to possess great interest with 
 the class who are best able to pronounce upon 
 its value. Electrified seeds of various kinds were 
 found by M. Astier to run through the first stages 
 of vegetation with more rapidity than non-elec- 
 trified seeds; and electrified china-rose plants 
 were found by the same philosopher to produce 
 flowers sooner and in greater abundance than 
 non-electrified china-rose plants. — An experimen- 
 talist noticed in the tracts of the Cavalier Amo- 
 retti, sowed turnip-seeds in two pots, electrified 
 the plants of one of the pots as soon as they ap- 
 peared through the ground, but did not electrify 
 those of the other pot, repeated the electrification 
 of the first at the end of 15 days, and found, in the 
 course of about three weeks, that the electrified 
 plants were 4 inches higher than the non-electri- 
 fied. A fruit-tree in an orchard had electrical 
 iron conductors placed among its branches ; and it 
 produced in proportion a much larger crop of fruit 
 than any other tree in its vicinity. A branch of 
 a Gleditschia triacanthus, two feet long and fur- 
 nished with a single thorn, was found, in the ex- 
 periments of Signor Brunodi Sazzi, to attract as 
 much free electricity from the atmosphere as a 
 brass point. 
 
 But all previous experiments were both few 
 and paltry compared with thousands which, 
 within the last six years, and particularly be- 
 tween the spring and autumn of 1845, were made 
 in both the fields and the gardens of Great Bri- 
 tain. The doctrine of the invigorating and de- 
 veloping power of electricity upon plants, and 
 particularly upon barley as well as other cereal 
 grasses, was triumphantly tested and enthusias- 
 tically taught by Dr. Forster of Findrassie ; and 
 so great a sensation did it make throughout the 
 kingdom as to rouse many hundreds of cultivators 
 to put it, on their own fields or within their own 
 gardens, to the test of experiment. In 1845, it 
 was tried in the Horticultural Garden at Chis- 
 wick, in some other public gardens, and on about 
 700 acres in all parts of the United Kingdom. 
 Dr. Forster's experience, as well as his theory and 
 his instructions, had reference only to the free 
 electricity of the atmosphere and to one particu- 
 lar method of applying it ; but the experiments 
 which his example prompted, though mainly 
 conducted upon his own model, also tried various 
 other methods with free electricity, and even in 
 some instances dealt with voltaic or galvanic 
 electricity. 
 
 Dr. Forster set up poles at a considerable dis- 
 tance from each other, and in mutual relation of 
 due north and south ; and he stretched thin iron 
 wires along the top from pole to pole, and then 
 conducted them down to a couple of inches within 
 the soil, and led them round the circuit or limits 
 of the plot which he had selected for his experi- 
 ment. The plot was sown with barley, and was 
 expected to drink in the electricity through the 
 points of the plants from the wires. " It was 
 electro-cultured," says he, " with poles four feet 
 
 high. When the barley was six inches high, it 
 was very decidedly of a darker green colour than 
 the surrounding barley. On reaching a foot in 
 height, it lost this deeper colour, as its points 
 collected all the electricity within the reach of 
 the suspended wires' power of attraction ; and 
 the colour was partially, but equally clearly re- 
 stored to it, by two suspended wires, and more 
 lofty poles being adjusted. * * As to the proper 
 height of the poles, or rather of the lowest sus- 
 pended wire, where more than one is employed, 
 the rule is to have the lowest wire fully six to 
 eight feet above the highest probable altitude of 
 the vegetable under experiment, when at its full 
 growth ; and if more than one wire is required 
 for wider or larger plots, there ought to be a 
 space of three feet in elevation between them. 
 The reasons for these proportions depend on the 
 relative attractive powers for the electric fluid, 
 that many electricians have proved to exist be- 
 tween the points of plants and points or edges of 
 metals, the former being three to four times more 
 powerful than the latter ; and the preference 
 given for one line of wires, arises from the con- 
 venience of being then enabled to harrow and 
 plough without removing any of the arrange- 
 ment, and of having far larger areas in one plot." 
 
 The general results of the experiments in 1845, 
 in direct imitation of Dr. Forster's method, proved 
 unfavourable ; yet by no means, without such in- 
 stances of decided success, or with such evidence 
 in the failure cases of final appeal to the prin- 
 ciples of electric science, as either to impugn the 
 soundness of Dr. Forster's theory, or to quench 
 the hope that atmospheric electricity may, in 
 some more advanced state of scientific progress, 
 or even in the course of two or three years, be 
 made highly subservient to the purposes of agri- 
 culture. Some journalists and other public men, 
 indeed, felt themselves justified, in the autumn 
 of 1845, to pronounce all hopeful or rational ex- 
 periment on the subject at an end. A writer in 
 the Agricultural Gazette, for example, said, Ci The 
 results of experiments in electro-culture are by 
 this time generally ascertained. Our own, and all 
 others of which we have heard, show that no in- 
 fluence is exerted on the growth of plants by an 
 electro-conducting connexion between elevated 
 and buried wires, arranged either as Dr. For- 
 ster has recommended, or according to other 
 plans which have been tried. The word eUctro- 
 culture, in fact, must, for the present, be con- 
 sidered a misnomer. There has been no want of 
 electric disturbance this season in the atmo- 
 sphere ; hail and thunder-storms have been more 
 than usually frequent ; and we are, therefore, 
 bound to believe that the experiments which 
 have been tried are conclusive upon the subject. 
 Their results leave everybody at liberty, just as 
 before, to form their own opinions as to the in- 
 fluence of atmospheric electricity on the growth 
 of plants ; they only determine our ignorance of 
 any means by which this influence can be in- 
 
ELECTRICITY. 
 
 452 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 creased or controlled." Mr. Coventry, too, the ] 
 Secretary of the Agricultural Chemistry Associa- i 
 tion of Scotland, — who had cognizance of experi- : 
 ments by friends of his own in four of the best < 
 agricultural counties of the Scottish lowlands, 
 and who himself tried one experiment with the 
 additional provision of 12 or 14 sharp spikes upon 
 his wires, and another with the encircling course 
 of wire a few inches above the ground instead of 
 beneath its surface, — even this eminently quali- 
 fied judge regarded the whole affair in so de- 
 sponding a light as to feel very doubtful whether 
 he should ever be induced to put it again to the 
 test. Yet some intelligent farmers and compe- 
 tent observers were quite gratified with such ex- 
 periments as were conducted either by them- 
 selves or within the sphere of their observation ; 
 a few were so delighted with them as to become 
 enthusiastic in the praise of electro-culture ; 
 some of the public journalists expressed, in the 
 course of the summer, a conviction that the bal- 
 ance of experiments would turn out in favour of the 
 new theory ; and even some of the disappointed 
 experimentalists were perspicacious enough to 
 ascribe failures rather to deficient practice than 
 to erroneous principle, and candid enough both 
 to ascribe credit to the far-sightedness of the 
 electro-culture doctrine, and to express a hope 
 that it might prove a means of incalculable 
 benefit to mankind. " What has hitherto been 
 done on this subject," said a gentleman of the 
 last of these classes, " is of small moment : the 
 attempts have been merely trifling and theo- 
 retical. Dr. Forster has the sole merit of first 
 suggesting a useful and economical application 
 of this wonderful agency. In fact, the great ob- 
 jection to the success of his system is, that such 
 a sudden advance in cultivation as this promises 
 has never been made before, and seems almost 
 contrary to the laws of nature." 
 
 One of the successful experiments with gal- 
 vanic electricity in 1845 was conducted in the 
 agricultural department of the gardens of the 
 Royal Botanic Society of London. A plate of 
 sheet copper two feet in length and nine inches 
 in depth, and a plate of zinc of the same dimen- 
 sions, were buried in the ground, about nine feet 
 apart from each other, in an upright position, 
 and facing the magnetic north and south ; two 
 copper wires were soldered to the upper corners 
 of the plates, and extended from plate to plate 
 at the height of about three inches above the 
 surface of the ground ; and thus a galvanic bat- 
 tery was formed, the moist earth completing the 
 circuit. Within this parallelogram of ground 
 were sown clover, sainfoin, lucerne, mangel-wur- 
 zel, and turnips ; and within another parallelo- 
 gram only 18 inches distant, and of precisely the 
 same size and conditions except for being unin- 
 fluenced by galvanism, were sown an equal quan- 
 tity of the same seeds. The clover and sainfoin 
 of the galvanized plot were placed next the 
 plates, and very extensively died out when mere 
 
 plantlets ; the lucerne was placed next, and also 
 seriously failed; and even the turnips and the 1 
 mangel-wurzel, were for some time considerably 
 damaged; — and all appeared to receive injury 
 from the presence of a greater degree of galvanic 
 electricity than the early stages of their growth 
 were able to bear. But the surviving turnips 
 and mangel-wurzel, amounting to about five- 
 sixths of the whole, speedily began to receive 
 very visible benefit ; and when compared, toward 
 the end of autumn with those of the ungalvan- 
 ized parallelogram, the turnips were found su- 
 perior in the ratio of 55 to 11 — or, but for an 
 accident on the ungalvanized ground, 55 to 15 — 
 and the mangel-wurzel in the ratio of 29 to 20. 
 
 Mr. Coventry's unsuccessful experiments in 
 electro-galvanic culture figure as prominently as 
 his unsuccessful experiments in free electro-cul- 
 ture ; and his report of them, both on its own 
 account, and for the sake of some remarks which 
 he appends to it, requires, in all justice to our gen- 
 eral principles of impartiality, to be fully quoted. 
 " I now," says he, " tried galvanism. After the 
 method used by my friend Mr. Bain for his elec- 
 tric telegraph and clocks, I sunk a quantity of 
 coke, two feet deep and six wide, and (at some 
 forty yards distance) the same quantity of zinc, 
 and connected them by a copper wire, which was 
 insulated with glass, and kept from touching the 
 ground. The weather, at first especially, was 
 moist and favourable ; but still I got no result of 
 any value. This was disappointing — for the dis- 
 coveries of Mr. Bain and Matteucci had shown 
 that if any benefit attended the use of galvanism, 
 it was at least of easy application. Indeed a 
 whole country-side might be galvanized by run- 
 ning a long cordon of zinc at one end, and of 
 coke at the other, when all between would be 
 under the influence if these were connected by a 
 wire. Matteucci's very singular experiments 
 were made with a galvanic battery of little 
 power. He used, as I found on looking into the 
 Comptes Rendus for 1844, a single arrangement 
 of Bunsen and rain-water. Whether the earth 
 would be an equally good conductor of galvanism 
 of high tension, as he had found it to be of low, is 
 more, I believe, than is yet known ; but, indeed, 
 the results he arrived at were quite as unexpected 
 and inexplicable as any yet to be tried can well 
 be. But leaving this point in abeyance, and 
 without pretending to determine anything in re- 
 gard to the earth's conducting power for galvan- 
 ism of high power, I thought at least of trying 
 what effects the high power would have. It 
 would at all events present the gases in a nascent 
 state to the roots, with a variety of secondary 
 actions. For this end, I took a battery of eight 
 platinized silver plates, about four and a-luilf 
 inches square, and sixteen amalgamated zinc 
 plates, and having charged it with sulphuric acid 
 and water in the proportion of one to nine, I 
 i inserted a plate of copper at the end of a small 
 : I wooden trough, three feet long, full of earth, and 
 
ELECTRICITY. 
 
 453 
 
 ELYMUS. 
 
 a zinc plate at the other, and connected the 
 former with the zinc pole of the battery, and the 
 latter with the silver. I then sowed a quantity 
 of garden mustard, and in another trough had 
 the same quantity sown in similar earth ; and as 
 to depth and watering, the two were treated 
 alike. The plants in both appeared, but in no 
 respect was there any difference that I could dis- 
 cover. They were allowed to grow to some 
 height, but still without any perceptible differ- 
 ence. This experiment I repeated afterwards 
 with barley, and with the same result. To test 
 the efficacy of electricity still further, I called 
 in the aid of a second battery ; and my last ex- 
 periment was with barley grown under the in- 
 fluence of two Smee's batteries, but I am sorry 
 to say that I got nothing even then to encourage 
 me to make any more trials. The last plants 
 are now dried, and any one may see them. If 
 these experiments had been more successful, the 
 subject would have been worth prosecuting; but 
 I have no mind to go on. Perhaps I may resume 
 it ; but lest it should be otherwise, I will mention 
 what I thought of trying, in case there may be 
 others who may wish to take up the inquiry. There 
 is, then, an experiment mentioned in Brande's 
 Journal of Science, vol. iii. (New Series), p. 501 ; 
 and in connexion with it there should be con- 
 sidered a very curious experiment of the late 
 Mr. Barry, which is noticed by Professor Faraday 
 in his Researches, p. 95, and in the article on 
 Electricity, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 
 632. Again, the efficacy of electricity in raising 
 water in capillary tubes may suggest certain ex- 
 periments with plants ; and I may refer to Por- 
 ret's experiments, mentioned by Dutrochet, vol. 
 i. p. 70, and by Becquerel, vol. iv., p. 200, begging 
 to remind the reader, that it is pure water only 
 which can be so raised, and not a mixture of 
 water with acids. There is also an important 
 point to settle between Becquerel and Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy ; the one maintaining that the nega- 
 tive pole favours germination, and the other that 
 the positive ; and both giving very plausible rea- 
 sons, and very unhesitating statements. Lastly, 
 Sir Humphrey Davy has given us a method, as 
 everybody knows, by which either an acid or an 
 alkali may be injected into plants with the aid 
 of galvanism; and it would be important to 
 know how far this admits of being done, and 
 with what effects on succulent shrubs, forest 
 trees, and fruit trees, and on the fruits also when 
 formed. Where all this may lead, no one can 
 tell ; but looking to what the chemist has done 
 in the last few years, we may well hold up our 
 hands, and ask with Antonio, ' What impossible 
 matter will he make easy next V " — Leithead on 
 Electricity. — Davy.— Thomson. — Turner.— Frank- 
 lin. — Darwin s Phytologia. — Bulletin Des Sciences 
 Agricoles.— Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.— Gardener's 
 Chronicle. — Magazine of Domestic Economy. — 
 Agricultural Gazette. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 
 culture. — Horticultural Mag. — Farmer's Monthly 
 Miscellany. — Irish Farmers' Journal. — Gardener's 
 Gazette. — Tower £ Gardener's Manual. 
 
 ELYMUS, — popularly Lyme-Grass. A genus of 
 hardy grasses, of the barley tribe. Its spike is 
 either simple or compound ; each tooth of its 
 rachis has two or three spikelets, each contain- 
 ing three or more fertile florets ; and its lower 
 palese are entire and awned. 
 
 The jointed, knee-jointed, or pendulous species, 
 E. geniculatus, grows wild on the sea-shores of 
 England. Its root is perennial, strong, and 
 creeping, and acts exhaustingly upon the soil ; 
 its culm is winged and usually about 4 feet high ; 
 its foliage is coarse and tough ; and its spike is 
 pendulous and appears in July. It contains a 
 larger proportion of nutritive matter than the 
 hard and inedible bents, but a much smaller pro- 
 portion than any of the true agricultural grasses ; 
 and it possesses value chiefly in its eminent 
 power of binding the loose, drift sands of the 
 coast, and preventing the encroachments of the 
 sea. In the Woburn experiments, it was grown 
 upon sandy loam ; and, at the time of flowering, 
 it yielded produce at the rate of 20,418 lbs. per 
 acre. 
 
 The sandy, upright, sea, or star-bent species, 
 E. arenarius, grows naturally on the sea-coasts 
 of England and Scotland. Its root is perennial, 
 strong, and powerfully creeping, and has an ex- 
 hausting effect upon the soil ; its culm is quite 
 erect, and about 4 feet high ; its leaves have a 
 glaucous green colour, and are partly rolled in at 
 the edges ; its spike is simple, erect, and close, 
 and appears from April till June ; its spikelets 
 are generally in pairs and three-flowered; and 
 its florets are pubescent, awnless, and not quite 
 so long as the fringed glumes. This species re- 
 solves one-third of all its soluble matter into 
 sugar, and has therefore been called the sugar- 
 cane of Britain ; yet, in consequence of its hard- 
 ness and excessive coarseness, it is not eaten by 
 any of the depasturing animals of the farm. One 
 economical use of it is to cut its hay into chaff 
 and mix it with corn or with common hay for 
 the cattle of the farm-yard ; and another and 
 perhaps more important one is to grow it along 
 with the jointed species and the Ammophila arun- 
 dinacea, for binding the drift sand of the coast, 
 and resisting the aggression of the sea. 
 
 The Siberian species, E. sibiricus, is a native 
 of Siberia, and was introduced thence to Britain 
 in 1758. Its root is fibrous and perennial ; its 
 culm has a height of from 4 to 7 feet, and, 
 whether green or dry, is much relished by cattle ; 
 its leaves are long, broad, soft, tender, and nu- 
 merous, — they cover the stem almost from base 
 to summit, — and, both as herbage and as hay, 
 are readily eaten by cattle ; its spike appears in 
 June and July, hangs down, and is compound at 
 or below the middle ; its spikelets are usually 
 single on the lateral branches, and double or 
 
ELYMUS. 
 
 454 
 
 EMBANKMENT. 
 
 treble on the central spike ; its florets are com- 
 monly in fives, and longer than the slightly awn- 
 ed glumes ; and its lower paleae are terminated 
 by awns of nearly twice their own length. 
 Though classed as a perennial, it has habits of 
 duration very similar to those of the cultivated 
 rye grasses ; and, regarded as an agricultural 
 plant, it seems much better adapted to the alter- 
 nate husbandry than to perennial pasture. The 
 soil most suitable for it is a porous, dryish loam. 
 In the Woburn experiments, it was grown upon 
 rich sandy soil ; and at the time of flowering, it 
 ! yielded per acre 16,335 lbs. of green produce, 
 j 5,717 lbs. of dry produce, and 574 lbs. of nutri- 
 j tive matter. 
 
 j The rough or porcupine species, E. hystrix, call- 
 ed by Willdenow Asperella hystrix, is a native of the 
 Crimea, and was introduced thence to Britain in 
 1770. Its root is perennial ; its culm has usually 
 a height of about two feet ; its leaves are broad, 
 thin, light green, and harsh ; and its spikes ap- 
 pear in June and July, and ripen their seeds in 
 the course of about a month. In the Woburn 
 experiments, it was grown upon rich silicious 
 sandy loam ; and, at the time of flowering, it 
 yielded per acre 27,225 lbs. of green produce, 
 about half that weight of dry produce, and 1,063 
 lbs. of nutritive matter. It contains an excess 
 of bitter extractive, and is deficient in sweet nu- 
 trient elements. 
 
 The Philadelphian species, E. philadelphicus, 
 is a native of North America, and was introduced 
 thence to Britain in 1790. Its root is perennial ; 
 its culm is usually about 4 feet high ; its foliage 
 is large and rank, and appears rather early in 
 spring ; and its spikes appear in July and Au- 
 gust, and mature their seeds in the course of 
 about three weeks. In the Woburn experiments, 
 it was grown upon a clayey loam, incumbent on 
 a retentive subsoil ; and, at the time of flowering, 
 it yielded per acre 30,628 lbs. of green produce, 
 15,314 lbs. of dry produce, and 2,033 lbs. of nutri- 
 tive matter. It is too rank to be fit for pasture ; 
 but it serves well to be grown on coarse land, 
 and used either for soiling, or in cut and chaffy 
 intermixture with corn or with meadow hay. 
 The proportion of the nutritive matter of its hay, 
 compared with that of the hay of the best mea- 
 dow or sown grasses, indeed, is only as 34 to 57 ; 
 but an acre of coarse half- waste land which would 
 not produce more than about 25 cwts. of hay of 
 these grasses, produces about 6 tons of the hay 
 of Philadelphian lyme-grass. 
 
 The striated species, E. striatus, is a native of 
 North America, and was introduced thence to 
 Britain in 1790. Its root is perennial ; its culm 
 is generally about a yard high; its foliage is 
 later in appearing than that of the Philadelphian 
 species ; and its spike comes out in J uly, and 
 matures its seeds in August. Its nutritive value 
 is inferior to that of the Philadelphian species, in 
 the proportion of about 16 to 17. In the Woburn 
 
 experiments, it was grown upon clayey loam ; 
 and, at the time of flowering, it yielded per acre 
 20,418 lbs. of green produce, 8,933 lbs. of dry pro- 
 duce, and 1,276 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 EMBANKMENT. A mound, bulwark, or any 
 similar work, for either reclaiming or defending 
 land from the inundation or encroachment of 
 water. Some of the many embankments de- 
 siderated or proposed by tenants would cost far 
 more than their probable advantages would be 
 worth, and therefore cannot be expected to com- 
 mend themselves to the approbation of the land- 
 lord ; but many, perhaps far the majority, would 
 materially increase the permanent value of the \ 
 property, and require only to be clearly described 
 and accurately estimated in order to secure the 
 favour even of a landlord w r ho is generally apa- 
 thetic and miserly on the subject of improve- 
 ments. In every instance of desired embank- 
 ment, the facilities for forming it, the situation 
 and materials for it, the entire expenses of its 
 erection, and the probable value of the advan- 
 tages which it will entail, ought with all possible 
 nicety to be ascertained ; and only such an em- 
 bankment should be thought of as most nearly 
 suits the particular circumstances, — whether a 
 cheap and slender work for encountering a feeble 
 force of encroachment, or a costly and most mas- 
 sive work for offering the mightiest resistance. 
 
 If the embankment is wanted merely to resist 
 the ordinary and constant erosion of a river upon 
 its banks, it may be formed simply by throwing 
 down, at the places most liable to injury, a quan- 
 tity of rough and not very large stones, leaving 
 them to find a bed for themselves, and to form 
 by their own subsidence a slope to the margin of 
 the river's channel, either from the top of the 
 bank, or from a line a little above the ordinary 
 level of the water. But the whole deposit ought 
 to be made strictly parallel with the course of 
 the stream ; for if run out into moles and jetties, 
 as some authors recommend, with the design of 
 diverting the current from the parts where mis- 
 chievous erosion is apprehended, it will throw the 
 water with new and violent force against some 
 part of the opposite bank, and only remedy a 
 certain amount of evil on the one side by inflict- 
 ing a corresponding amount upon the other. 
 When stones cannot be obtained, a series of 
 wooden piles may be driven in along the margin 
 of the stream, and warped with branches of 
 shrubs or trees, and the spaces behind filled up 
 with furze or any similar material. When only 
 small stones can be obtained, and the erosive 
 force of the current is comparatively great, 
 wooden piles or cradles may be so driven in as to 
 act as retainers of a packing of small stones. 
 The cost of a simple embankment in any of these 
 three methods, will depend mainly on the near- 
 ness and plenteousness of the materials, and may, 
 in any particular instance, be very easily calcu- 
 lated. 
 
EMBANKMENT. 
 
 455 
 
 EMBANKMENT. 
 
 If the embankment is wanted merely to resist ) 
 occasional floods, it may, in probably every in- 
 stance, be formed solely of the earthy materials 
 of the adjacent land. But every embanking 
 mound of such materials must have a very broad 
 base, and must greatly slope from top to bottom. 
 The narrowest base on which loose earths will 
 lie so as to form a compact and unyielding 
 mound, has a proportion of from 18 to 24 inches 
 horizontal to every 12 inches of height. " If the 
 slope can be laid or built up with strong turf, it 
 could be made to stand much cheaper than this, 
 as in the case of turf dykes. But, besides that 
 these are not very permanent, unless consider- 
 ably sloped, the embankment must have strength 
 to hold in the waters of the rivers during floods ; 
 and this can only be obtained by founding it on 
 a broad basis, and sloping the sides in propor- 
 tion, otherwise it would soon be overset by the 
 powerful action of the fluid standing against it, 
 and pressing it externally with a pressure every- 
 where proportional to the square of its depth. 
 A considerable breadth is also required to pre- 
 vent the water from rushing through the bank, 
 particularly if it be of a sandy or gravelly nature, 
 unless a puddle-wall of clay be carried up through 
 the heart of it, which, however, for occasional 
 inundations, is hardly necessary. With a gentle 
 slope, also, the sides of the bank will carry crops 
 of excellent grass, and thus the ground will be 
 turned to account. In every view, then, the 
 sloping of the sides of the embankment is of ad- 
 vantage ; and however more, it should never be 
 less, than what has been stated, unless other cir- 
 cumstances should require it. In the view, for 
 example, of forming the landslope into a fence, it 
 may then be reduced, with the aid of turf, to a 
 slope of one half foot horizontal to one perpen- 
 dicular, but not less. But if stuff can be easily 
 had, it would be still better to keep up the slope, 
 and erect some fence on the top of the bank. 
 Towards the river, the slope of the bank has still 
 other advantages. As the level of the water 
 rises in floods, it enables it to spread out into 
 a wider and wider channel, and thus checks the 
 farther rise of the inundation as well as the in- 
 creasing rapidity of the current ; in which view, 
 also, the embankment is often carried a consider- 
 able way off the natural channel of the river. When 
 the current of the river, also, is rapid, the side of 
 the embankment is liable to be torn up, and the 
 loose materials which compose it washed away in 
 the stream. Nothing serves to withstand this 
 action so effectually as the sloping-plane, which, 
 presenting a larger extent of surface to the 
 waters, diminishes in proportion to the inten- 
 sity of their action, while the flatness of the 
 bank, promoting the vegetation of the grass, a 
 hard and firm surface is soon formed, which re- 
 sists completely the violence of the stream. On 
 these accounts, the slope towards the river, how- 
 ever much more, should seldom be less than three 
 
 I or four feet horizontal, to one perpendicular." 
 The top of the embankment ought to be two or 
 three feet higher than the level of the highest 
 known inundation; and the cost of forming it 
 will vary in different circumstances from 2d. to 
 6d. per cubic yard, and may easily be estimated, 
 in any particular case, by calculating the num- 
 ber of required cubic yards. 
 
 If the embankment is wanted to resist the ac- 
 tion of the tidal waves, either in a bay or upon 
 the open shore, especially if it must confront that 
 action not only during the height of spring tides, 
 but down to a portion also of neap tides, it can- 
 not be formed, in any very firm or tolerably dur- 
 able manner, of other materials or with lighter 
 work than those of a massive stone bulwark. 
 The daily action of the sea-water, and especially 
 the occasional tempestuous action of the billows, 
 in such circumstances, would speedily destroy 
 the vegetation and tear up the surface of the 
 best possible turf-clad mound. " The stone bul- 
 wark should be built along the bank, in a direc- 
 tion sloping not less than 1-| or 2 to 1 from the 
 surface of the ground up to the level of high 
 water of spring tides, from whence the remain- 
 ing height may be made up with turf sloping 3 
 or 4 to 1. The stones of the bulwark should be 
 as large as possible, well built, and as closely 
 jointed as practicable. Immediately behind, the 
 space should be filled up with smaller stones 
 thrown in at random, such as cannot be drawn 
 by the reflux of the waves through the joints of 
 the larger ones. Behind these, again, the space 
 should be filled with still smaller ones or gravel, 
 and then with turf, furze or other material, to 
 prevent the sand or earth of the embankment 
 from being washed away by the reaction of the 
 waters. These bulwarks become rather expen- 
 sive for ordinary embankments, particularly 
 where they require raising to any height. Along 
 the shores near Newhaven and Leith, for exam- 
 ple, which are protected in this manner by bul- 
 warks extending down nearly to the level of half 
 tide, and where the stones are found on the ad- 
 jacent beach, the expense runs not less than 
 from 4s. to 6s. per square yard, reckoned along 
 the surface of the bulwark, so that, if this, for 
 instance, be only 12 feet from top to bottom, 
 every linear yard will cost 15s., besides the ex- 
 pense of the embankment itself. In every case, 
 the expense will depend on the extent of surface 
 in the bulwark, and the price per yard of collect- 
 ing and building the stones. Where stones, how- 
 ever, cannot be had, or where the expense is too 
 great, other means have been resorted to for de- 
 fending the bank, such as are much used in Hol- 
 land, and in England along the coast of Lincoln- 
 shire, and other places. These consist of reeds 
 or straw kept down by planks or pieces of wood 
 pinned into the bank; faggots, wicker-hurdles, 
 nets of straw-ropes, &c, laid along the surface 
 of the bank, or wicker hedges raised along the 
 
ENCLOSURE. 
 
 456 
 
 ENCLOSURE. 
 
 bottom, or in parallel rows along the slope of the 
 bank. These plans require unremitting atten- 
 tion to repair the openings or breaks which are 
 constantly occurring in the banks ; and, for this 
 purpose, they are regularly watched throughout 
 the year." 
 
 ENCLOSURE. A piece of ground surrounded 
 by a fence ; or, according to an obvious figure of 
 speech, the fence which surrounds the piece of 
 ground. Enclosures in towns are designed to 
 protect yards, plots, and buildings from the in- 
 trusions and depredations of man and of the 
 lower animals ; and enclosures in the country 
 are designed either to mark and maintain the 
 separation of contiguous estates, — to confine 
 depasturing animals or flocks within given 
 limits, — or to protect cultivated plants, whether 
 trees, grain, esculent herbs, or pasture grasses, 
 from the depredations of men, and the aggres- 
 sions of wild animals or of stranger cattle. 
 Enclosures throughout estates, in the present 
 improved condition of agriculture, prevent the 
 trespasses of man and beast, shelter corn and 
 cattle against some inclemencies of weather, 
 afford flocks protection and peace while they are 
 feeding or at rest, beautify the face of the coun- 
 try, enhance the value of land, relieve the farm- 
 er's mind from care as to the safety of his crops 
 and flocks, and impart confidence to the landlord 
 that, so long as he maintains them, they will se- 
 cure the conservation and even the improvement 
 of his estate. 
 
 The earliest enclosures probably dated as high 
 as the origin of landed property, or the appropri- 
 ation of particular districts and tracts by fami- 
 lies and individuals of nomades and shepherd- 
 patriarchs ; but they seem to have been made on 
 only the best descriptions of land, and to have 
 consisted only in the erection of boundaries or 
 marches. When population increased, and agri- 
 cultural produce rose in value, lands of second- 
 rate quality were also appropriated and enclosed ; 
 when population multiplied, and agricultural 
 produce became dear, all lands but the very poor- 
 est were divided and enclosed ; and when popula- 
 tion became dense, and agricultural produce rose 
 to such request as sometimes to realize famine 
 prices, even the hungriest and most churlish 
 soils which possessed any capability whatever of 
 profitable culture became enclosed. Hence the 
 steady and rapid progress of the work of enclos- 
 ing waste lands, dividing commons, and fencing 
 moors and uplands within Great Britain during 
 the last century ; and hence, too, some compara- 
 tively modern acts of the British Legislature, 
 first for promoting the division and enclosure of 
 particular estates, and next for facilitating the 
 enclosure of every profitable piece of land within 
 the empire. 
 
 An ancient and very prevalent method of en- 
 closing the parts of an estate or a farm was sim- 
 ply to separate the arable lands from the pas- 
 
 tures ; and this method was, at a comparatively 
 recent period, common in Britain, and still lin- 
 gers in the outskirts of the Orkneys, the Shet- 
 lands, and some other remote and unimproved 
 districts, under the name of infield and outfield. 
 The ancient Egyptians intersected or subdivided 
 the rich corn-lands of the Nile by means of canals 
 and ditches ; the ancient Greeks probably had no 
 other enclosures than ring-fences round arable 
 lands ; and the ancient Romans enclosed gardens 
 and orchards, made ring-fences round arable 
 lands, , and had enclosures for deer, wild boars, 
 and other wild animals, but neither subdivided 
 their corn-lands into fields nor converted their 
 pastures into meadows and sheltered sheep-walks. 
 Wherever modern farming continues so antique 
 and rude as to consist simply of the two uninter- 
 mingled departments of tillage and grazing, the 
 ancient sparse and slovenly method of enclosure 
 is still more or less practised ; but wherever 
 farming has the improved and rational character 
 of alternate husbandry, whether in a merely rudi- 
 mental or in a fully vigorous condition, a subdi- 
 vided, multiform, and minutely sheltering and 
 protecting method of enclosure has, in some de- 
 gree, been found necessary. Throughout France, 
 in consequence of the great subdivision of pro- 
 perty occasioned by the extinction of the law of 
 primogeniture, field enclosures are of rare occur- 
 rence, and rows of trees, a few march-stones, or 
 even distant series of single trees, frequently 
 serve as the boundaries of estates. Throughout 
 Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy, enclo- 
 sures occur chiefly in the immediate vicinity of 
 villages and farm-houses, and a large proportion 
 of the tillage lands are quite open and exposed. 
 But throughout Holland, Belgium, and a great 
 part of the south of England, hedges and hedge- 
 row trees are so multitudinous and superabundant 
 as to crowd and almost choke the landscape. 
 Throughout Ireland, too, enclosures, though 
 usually of a bald appearance and often of in- 
 efficient character, are so numerous and minute 
 as to cut most of the arable lands into mere plots 
 and patches. In the north of England, however, 
 and in many of the lowland districts of Scotland, 
 the prevailing enclosures possess admirable adap- 
 tation to the improved condition of agriculture, 
 and are abundantly creditable to the economizing 
 and utilitarian spirit of the age. " There, not 
 only whole farms are enclosed, but the size of the 
 enclosures conforms to that system of husbandry 
 which is suited to the nature of the soil. There, 
 the growing crops of all kinds receive shelter 
 from the vicissitudes of the weather, and protec- 
 tion from the depredations of live stock ; and the 
 live stock themselves enjoy, as a recompense for 
 their confinement within the enclosures, peace 
 and plenty unmolested." 
 
 Enclosures, though in their own nature highly 
 and unqualifiedly beneficial, may be, and often 
 are, so constructed as to entail upon a farm con- 
 
ENCLOSURE. 
 
 457 
 
 ENCLOSURE. 
 
 siderable disadvantages and losses. Enclosures 
 suitable for one kind of lands, may be decidedly 
 unsuitable for another kind. Enclosures of small 
 and multitudinous character upon low fertile 
 lands, occasion a needless and somewhat great 
 waste of surface, and considerably embarrass the 
 operations of tillage and of horse-hoeing hus- 
 bandry. Enclosures of thick, bushy, overgrown 
 hedge, especially when unnecessarily numerous, 
 produce too much shade, harbour insects, dilute 
 the fertility of the margins of fields, and occasion 
 sheep and cattle fully as much torture as shelter. 
 Enclosures of inconvenient shape, and disposed 
 unconformably with the slope or position of the 
 ground, cause excessive waste and embarrass- 
 ment, and ought, in most instances, to be totally 
 destroyed and remodelled. Enclosures formed of 
 plants with decurrent roots, or enclosures of per- 
 fectly suitable plants intermixed with such trees 
 as willows, poplars, the common elm, or the com- 
 mon ash, damage drains, deteriorate or destroy 
 the borders of the fields, and make large under- 
 ground encroachments upon the space which 
 ought to be occupied by tillage crops. " It has 
 also been remarked," says Sir John Sinclair, 
 "that enclosures are attended with this disad- 
 vantage, that they retain moisture among the 
 trees and hedges, and prevent the full effect of 
 wind in drying the crop during harvest. But 
 this inconvenience is in some degree compensated 
 by the corn becoming earlier ripe, from the 
 warmth which the enclosures furnish. Some 
 have imagined that the soil might be injured by 
 the greater evaporation which the warmth of 
 enclosures may occasion ; but it can hardly be 
 disputed, that evaporation is more promoted by 
 free air and wind than by heat." Yet though 
 these latter evils are fanciful, those from ill- 
 adaptation, over-abundance, bad shape, wrong 
 material, and intermixed decurrent-rooted trees 
 are real, and ought to be studiously avoided. 
 Mr. Grant, speaking in 1845 of Devonshire and 
 the neighbouring couniies, and alluding to the 
 enclosure-statistics of 10 parishes as a specimen 
 of the whole district, says, " The hedges occupy 
 in some cases fully 10 per cent.,— but, on an 
 average of these ten parishes, 1\ per cent, or 1 
 acre in 14. They shade and injure at least half 
 as much ; most persons, landlords as well as 
 tenants, whose opinions I have asked, say quite 
 as much more. They harbour birds and vermin 
 which injure the crops ; and that this is no small 
 evil any one may satisfy himself, by going into a 
 field just before harvest. They are nurseries for 
 weeds ; they prevent that free circulation of air, so 
 necessary to the healthy growth of plants as well 
 as animals ; they are obstacles to the drainage 
 of the soil, the roots found in them frequently 
 choking up the drains. They are expensive to 
 erect as well as to keep in repair. The soil on 
 each side of them is generally thinner, from the 
 materials for making the banks being taken 
 
 from it. So many small enclosures require a 
 much greater number of gates ; which have to 
 be kept up and renewed ; and they cause a much 
 greater number of small lanes and cart-tracks 
 leading from one place to another. The fences 
 being in the most cases crooked, and the fields 
 of every shape but right angled, the labour of 
 every operation of the farm, particularly plough- 
 ing, is most materially increased. This evil is 
 anything but a trifling one, especially when to it 
 is added the labour caused by the roots of trees 
 which shoot out into the fields. In any parish 
 this is felt ; but in such a parish as Rewe, where 
 there is much timber, one may see, when the 
 ground is laid open by the plough, that the roots 
 of the trees cross each other from opposite sides 
 of the field." 
 
 Carse lands, or other flat clay lands, in conse- 
 quence of their unsuitableness for permanent pas- 
 ture, require enclosures less as a protection from 
 the trespasses of cattle than as a shelter from the 
 weather ; yet, though in many instances thought 
 too valuable to be subdivided otherwise than by 
 drain-trenches, they obviously acquire an incre- 
 ment of value from judiciously disposed thorn- 
 fences. Enclosures on all parts of all farms of 
 mixed husbandry are indispensable. A division 
 fence ought to be run between the clay portion 
 and the loam portion of every estate which con- 
 sists partly of clay and partly of loam. Enclo- 
 sures for the sheltering of flocks on mountain- 
 pastures, frequently require to be aided by belts 
 and masses of plantation, and, in all cases, ought 
 to be disposed in large divisions. The enclosures 
 of extensive upland sheep-farms, besides being so 
 comprehensive as to allow amplitude of scope 
 proportionate to the scantiness of the herbage, 
 ought to comprise a ram-park for the seclusion 
 and sole use of rams, an hospital-park for the 
 extra-shelter and rich feeding of diseased sheep, 
 a water-meadow or park of early grasses, and 
 plots or fields of sufficient extent for the raising 
 of supplies of turnips and other green food for 
 the pinching periods of winter and early spring. 
 
 The position of enclosures ought to be deter- 
 mined chiefly by the inclination of the ground 
 and the direction of its ridges. The corners of 
 all enclosures of arable land ought to be right- 
 angled, because the plough can turn over a 
 greater aggregate of surface in four square cor- 
 ners, than in two obtuse-angled and two acute- 
 angled corners. In most circumstances, particu- 
 larly on stiff lands, a perfectly square enclosure 
 is the shape most economical for tillage ; but 
 when the ploughing is always in one direction, 
 the parallelogram or oblong rectangle is decidedly 
 preferable; and, in the latter case, the longer 
 sides of the parallelogram ought if possible to ex- 
 tend east and west. Contiguous or successive 
 enclosures ought all to run parallel to one ano- 
 ther ; and whenever any wedge-shaped or non- 
 rectangular piece is unavoidable, it ought to be 
 
ENCLOSURE 
 
 458 
 
 ENTERITIS. 
 
 disposed on the border of the farm. A fence 
 along the summit of a broad-ba'cked rising-ground 
 affords more shelter than in any other situation, 
 and eminently confers it on both sides ; so that, 
 whenever other circumstances permit, the lines 
 of enclosure should be selected along the highest 
 ground. " But it generally happens that the 
 lower ends of fields cannot be enclosed in a 
 straight line, — a rivulet or hollow between two 
 rising grounds frequently terminating their lower 
 ends. In that case, the fence ought to follow 
 the course of the water or hollow ground, in 
 order to provide an egress for the surface-water 
 coming from both sides of the rising ground. A 
 serpentine fence in a hollow, contrary to one on 
 a rising ground, affords more shelter than a 
 straight one, in the direction of the wind, which 
 almost always takes the direction of the valley. 
 A public road or canal passing through a pro- 
 perty, or an old plantation growing in the mid- 
 dle of the land, affects the shaping out of enclo- 
 sures. Whether any of them exists before or 
 after the land is enclosed, the irregular sides of 
 the enclosures which alone should contain wedge- 
 shaped ridges, should be placed next the ob- 
 stacle." 
 
 On carse farms, and on farms of every other 
 kind devoted wholly to the produce of a maxi- 
 mum quantity of corn, the number of enclosures 
 ought to correspond with the courses in the ro- 
 tation of crops. A clay farm of 210 acres, with 
 a rotation of fallow, wheat, barley, grass, oats, 
 or wheat, beans, and wheat, or any other rota- 
 tion of seven courses, might be divided into either 
 14 fields of 15 acres each or 7 fields of 30 acres 
 each ; but 14 fields would occasion an unneces- 
 sary waste of ground with the occupancy of 
 fences, and an unnecessary outlay for the fences 
 themselves, for gates, and for keeping the enclo- 
 sures in repair ; and each of 7 fields of 30 acres, 
 if disposed in a parallelogram of 580 yards in 
 length and 250 yards in breadth, is not too large 
 for enjoying all the sheltering benefits of the 
 fences, and, if level, would freely allow the draught 
 horses of the plough to traverse from side to side 
 at a single breathing-time. On farms of mixed 
 husbandry, whatever be the rotation practised, 
 the welfare of live-stock is as much an object of 
 solicitude as the economizing of ground and 
 labour, and is very materially promoted by small- 
 ness of herds and freshness of pasture ; so that, 
 on farms of this kind, an enclosure of about 25 
 acres, disposed in a parallelogram of about 450 
 yards by 270, would be a very suitable size and 
 shape, adapting itself at once to facile labour in 
 the tillage years of the rotation, to the feeding 
 of sheep on turnips on the ground in winter, and 
 to the grazing of cattle in the summer and au- 
 tumn of the years of lea-land. An excellent size 
 and disposition of farm with loamy soil and 
 under mixed husbandry — excellent for both the 
 tenant and the landlord — is 500 acres so divided 
 
 as to assign four fields of each 25 acres to each of 
 the systems of rotation. But two or three small 
 enclosures, of from one acre to five acres each, 
 and situated in the vicinity of the farm-offices, 
 are requisite on every large or moderately sized 
 farm which rears live-stock ; and these may be 
 used for rams when out of season, for calves when 
 weaning, for ewes when lambing, for a mare and 
 her young foal till she acquire strength, for a 
 stallion at grass, and for the seclusion or the 
 special shelter and careful feeding of sick and 
 convalescent animals. A farm of loamy soil, 
 under the mixed husbandry, and not more than 
 125 acres in extent, ought for the sake of econo- 
 my in ground and management, to have only as 
 many fields as there are years in the rotation, — 
 five fields of 25 acres each, if for a five years' 
 course, or six fields of nearly 21 acres each if for 
 a six years' course ; and when a smaller quantity 
 than an entire field is at any time wanted for a 
 purpose which requires enclosure, it may be se- 
 parated by some cheap and facile temporary 
 fence. The principal kinds of enclosures, and 
 the methods of making and preserving them, will 
 be discussed in the articles Fence, Hedge, and 
 Wall. — Miller's Dictionary by Rennie. — Quarterly 
 Journal of Agriculture. — Journal of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society of England. — Sir John Sin- 
 clair's Code of Agriculture. — The Farmer's Maga- 
 zine. — Doyle's Practical Husbandry. — Loudon's 
 Gardener's Magazine. 
 
 ENTAIL. Either a simple settlement of pro- 
 perty which cuts off the heir at law in favour of 
 an arbitrary destination, or any kind of deed 
 which secures the succession to a long series of 
 heirs, and contains the strictest prohibitions from 
 selling, alienating, contracting debts, <fcc, and 
 guarded by irritant and resolutive clauses. The 
 evils which strict entails inflict upon the aggre- 
 gate agricultural interests of a country, are great 
 and intricate ; but have of late years been so gen- 
 erally exposed and become so well understood, 
 that they need not be here explained. 
 
 ENTERITIS. Inflammation of either the peri- 
 toneal or the muscular coats of the intestines of 
 an animal. It is not uncommon in horses and 
 cows ; it is often called red colic by farriers ; and 
 it has some causes and symptoms in common 
 with those of spasmodic colic. Its progress is 
 rapid, and its danger imminent. The most com- 
 mon causes of it are plunging in a heated state 
 into a pond or river, dashing cold water upon 
 the heated animal, drinking cold water when the 
 system is heated, prolonged and severe costive- 
 ness, neglect or improper treatment of spasmodic 
 colic, and the translation of inflammatory action 
 from some other part of the body. A horse af- 
 fected with it is restless, has a hot skin, wants 
 appetite, is costive, has a parched mouth, kicks 
 at his belly, stamps on the ground, scrapes and 
 paws upon his litter, looks often and painfully 
 round to his sides, and has a small and rather 
 
ENTRY OF FARMS. 
 
 ENTRY OF FARMS. 
 
 wiry pulse at about 90 or 100. When his stamp- 
 ing remits, his pulse softens, and his costiveness 
 gives way, he may be expected to recover ; when 
 his extremities continue cold, his pulse acceler- 
 ates or wavers, and his costiveness either is ob- 
 stinate or finds relief only in a black and fetid 
 discharge, he is in a very critical condition; and 
 when he has cold sweats, delirium, and excessive 
 debility, and his belly becomes increasingly tense, 
 he will almost certainly sink under the disease. 
 Enteritis is frequently fatal within 24 hours of 
 its commencement ; and even in the most favour- 
 able case, it cannot be successfully combated by 
 medicine, unless it be vigorously dealt with before 
 the second day. The grand remedies are bleeding, 
 relaxing the bowels, and blistering ; and all the 
 three are usually needed. Blood, in a young, 
 large, and plethoric horse, may be taken to the 
 amount of 6 or 7 quarts ; and ought to be drawn 
 rapidly and from a large orifice. The relaxing 
 of the bowels should be effected chiefly by means 
 of back-raking or other mechanical appliance; 
 and partly by means of laxative glysters, or — in 
 the event of the glysters proving ineffective — by 
 means of mild laxative drinks. The blistering 
 or artificial excitement of external inflammation 
 requires to be both great and speedy, and cannot 
 be induced with sufficient rapidity and power by 
 any ordinary application of cantharides. One 
 method of effecting it is to foment the belly for 
 15 or 20 minutes with hot water, and then apply 
 a poultice of mustard and oil of turpentine ; an- 
 other, is to rub profusely in tincture of cantha- 
 rides or a turpentine decoction of cantharides ; 
 and another, when no better one of an active na- 
 ture can be readily had, is to scald with boiling 
 water poured direct from the kettle, or to scorch 
 with a hot shovel drawn athwart the belly. — The 
 causes, symptoms, and treatment of enteritis 
 in the cow, are nearly the same as in the horse. 
 
 ENTRY OF FARMS. The time of the year 
 at which out-going tenants of farms leave them, 
 and in-coming tenants enter. This, and the 
 usages which accompany it, are exceedingly vari- 
 ous, not only in the different counties of Britain, 
 but frequently in contiguous districts of a single 
 county. In some instances, the first day of Jan- 
 uary is preferred as the time of entrance, on ac- 
 count of its being the commencing day of the 
 civil year ; in others, the second day of February, 
 or Candlemas day, is preferred, on account of its 
 having been the term in use among the ancients ; 
 in others, the 25th of March, or Lady-day is pre- 
 ferred as, on calculation, the most suitable time 
 for taking possession jointly of houses and land ; 
 in others, May-day or Whitsunday, is preferred 
 on account of its being the general term of all 
 classes of the population for removing to houses ; 
 in others, Michaelmas, or the 29th day of Sep- 
 tember, is preferred on account of its affording 
 the in-coming tenant full scope to make winter 
 preparation throughout the farm ; and in others, 
 
 Martinmas or the 22d of November is preferred, 
 on account of its occurring at or near the slackest 
 or least connected point of the continual series 
 of farm operations. In very many instances, also, 
 some two of these terms of entry are conjointly in 
 use — the one as the term of entry to the farm- 
 houses, and the other as the term of entry to the 
 land. Yet diversified as are these times of entry, 
 the usages which prevail in the valuations, trans- 
 ferences, and conditions which accompany entry, 
 are still more diversified. See the article Lease. 
 
 The principal object dependent on the time of 
 entry is to make the least possible derangement 
 in the cultivation of the farm ; and the main 
 difficulties to be disposed of are the use of the 
 last or of the growing crops, and the use and 
 preparation of the land which is in the course of 
 tillage. Now the processes of cultivation consti- 
 tute so continuous a series, and are in so many 
 ways linked into one another, that, more or less 
 at any point or on any day of the year which 
 could possibly be fixed for change of occupancy, 
 large portions of crops would be found either 
 growing or unconsumed, and large values of 
 labour, manuring, or other accessories of cultiva- 
 tion would lie invested in the ground, and require 
 remuneration to the out-going tenant from the 
 in-comer. Each of the terms at present in use, is 
 encumbered with its peculiar difficulties, and 
 might be made more advantageous than it is by 
 improvements in the accompanying customs of 
 removal. But, for the sake of preventing litiga- 
 tions, of accommodating parties who remove from 
 a district under one set of existing usages to a 
 district under another set, and of promoting the 
 general harmony and the aggregate well-being of 
 the agricultural community, some one term, with 
 accompanying code of usages, ought, to the ex- 
 clusion of all others, to be appointed for univer- 
 sal observance ; and this, all things considered, 
 might, with the utmost probable maximum of 
 advantages, be Lady -day. Bayldon, in his work 
 on Rents and Tillages, makes this proposal, and 
 accompanies it with the following statement : — 
 " The fallow for wheat must be prepared by the 
 quitting tenant, and the in-comer is liable for 
 rent and taxes, seed, labour, and manure, if it be 
 paid for by custom ; if not, for carting only. If 
 the crops be taken at valuation, rent and taxes 
 will be deducted from the amount. In order 
 that the winter ploughing may be performed at 
 the proper time, accommodation may be pro- 
 vided by agreement at Candlemas, or at 1st of 
 January, for a part of the necessary strength, and 
 the out-going tenant may be bound also by agree- 
 ment to plough the lands to nearly the term of 
 quitting, on being paid the customary charge, 
 such a part of performance not to include all the 
 work necessary to be done, so as to interfere too 
 much with his avocations elsewhere. Such an 
 arrangement would carry on the work at the 
 proper season as if no change was intended : the 
 
EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 
 
 wheat crop being transferred to the in-comer, and 
 the spring crops being sown by him, the out-goer 
 has no further to look after, and the in-comer 
 enters at once into the sole possession. He gets 
 the crops of that year, and consequently pays 
 rent at the expiring of the first six months after 
 entry, and pays none after he quits. If custom 
 would yield and advance a step, and allow no 
 valuation where a crop of any kind has been got, 
 the arrangement would be much simplified ; but 
 if valuations must endure, the tillages of fallows 
 and green crops would be valued as usual, and 
 for the labour performed. The crops, if not 
 taken, will be used by the out-goer as usual, and 
 the straw left free. At Lady-day, straw and hay 
 and green crops will be mostly consumed, and 
 the dung will be in the yards, or carted out and 
 preparing for use. If any hay be left, it may be 
 valued ; but dung and straw should in all cases 
 be free. Pasturing will be prohibited, except by 
 the usual number of sheep ; and payment of seed 
 and labour for young grasses is in all cases un- 
 derstood." — Kennedy and Grainger s Present State 
 of the Tenancy of Land in Great Britain. — Bayl- 
 don's Art of Valuing Rents and Tillages. 
 
 EPIDEMIC DISEASES. Diseases which, at 
 any one time, have an extensive prevalence, and 
 attack many animals of a species. The epithet 
 epidemic signifies "upon the people," and pro- 
 perly designates prevailing distempers among 
 human beings ; and the epithet epizootic signify- 
 ing " upon brutes," is the corresponding proper 
 designation of prevailing distempers among the 
 lower animals. Yet many writers speak of epi- 
 demic diseases in reference as much to brutes as 
 to men. Familiar examples of these diseases are 
 epidemic catarrh among cattle, and foot lameness 
 among sheep. 
 
 EPILEPSY, or Fits. A violent nervous dis- 
 ease in man and in domestic animals. An epi- 
 leptic horse appears suddenly nonplussed, stares 
 vacantly, trembles, falls, and is more or less con- 
 vulsed ; and, when the fit subsides, he rises, looks 
 astonished, discharges urine, and coolly resumes 
 his usual habits. He ought, if a valuable animal, 
 to be submitted to the treatment of a skilful 
 veterinary surgeon ; yet, even though he should 
 seem to become cured, he may possibly be again 
 attacked, and can never be safely used for the 
 saddle. Happily, epilepsy is of rare occurrence 
 among either horses or cattle. When it attacks 
 the latter, its symptoms are nearly the same as 
 in horses; the general cause of it is improper 
 feeding ; and the most suitable treatment for it 
 consists of bleeding, purging, and spare diet. 
 Epilepsy sometimes, though not often, attacks 
 sheep, — principally in spring ; and if it occasions 
 either severe fits or frequently recurring ones, 
 it may be treated, as in cattle, by bleeding and 
 purging. 
 
 EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. See Epidemic Dis- 
 eases. 
 
 EQUISETUM. 
 
 EQUISETUM,— popularly Horse-tail. A genus 
 of perennial-rooted, herbaceous, marshy plants, 
 possessing a sort of intermediate character 
 between ferns and grasses. They are usually 
 ranked as mere weeds, and they often prove an 
 excessive pest to the farmer on wet soil. Their 
 height varies in different species from about 
 two inches to two yards ; their stems and 
 branches are leafless, and regularly articulated ; 
 their articulations rise out of tubular sheaths, 
 and may in some instances be easily separated 
 without rupture or fracture ; their stems, parti- 
 cularly at the joints, have a hard, flinty epider- 
 mis, similar to that of the grasses, and, but 
 for the articulation throughout their structure, 
 might be regarded as culms; and their repro- 
 ductive organs are in terminal spikes or heads, 
 composed of peltate several-sided scales, produc- 
 ing on their under-surface from four to seven 
 elongated involucres containing the seed. The 
 branches have a verticellate arrangement and a 
 horse-hair-like appearance, and are alluded to in 
 the names equisetum and horse-hair, — the latter 
 being a literal translation of the former ; the 
 seeds are remarkable for a hygrometrical move- 
 ment ; and the whole plant was formerly used 
 in medicine as an astringent and a diuretic, 
 and is decidedly, though in various degrees, 
 injurious to cattle. Eight species grow wild 
 in Britain ; but only three of the most common 
 need be particularly noticed. 
 
 The corn horse-tail, E. arvense, abounds in 
 many wet meadows and moist corn-fields, and is 
 a very troublesome weed on ploughed land, and 
 both a troublesome and a noxious one on pas- 
 tures. Its root is very branched and creeping ; 
 its stems are smooth, cylindrical, pale brown, 
 juicy, and about 6 or 8 inches high ; and its fruc- 
 tification is produced in solitary spikes or catkins 
 from the summit of the stems, and appears in 
 March and April. This plant is eaten by horses, 
 but &cts mischievously upon sheep, and produces 
 violent diarrhoea in such cattle as are induced 
 by the gnawings of hunger to eat it. 
 
 The bog horse-tail or paddock -pipe, E. palus- 
 tre, grows wild in spongy bogs, marshy flats, open 
 drains, and other very wet or spouty situations. 
 Its stem is- deeply furrowed, somewhat slender, 
 and usually about 20 inches high ; its branches 
 are slender, angular, rough, and minute, and are 
 produced from bottom to top of the stem in 
 whorls ; and its fructification is many-spiked, 
 and appears in June and July. This species is 
 as noxious to cattle as the corn species; and, 
 when it establishes itself in drains, it often grows 
 into a matting of roots and stems several yards 
 in length, and totally obstructs the flow of water. 
 
 The great river horse-tail, E.furiatih\ abounds 
 on the margins and low banks of some rivers, 
 ponds, and lakes. It is by far the largest of our 
 indigenous species, and usually has a height of 
 about 6 feet. Its fructification is a large cylin- 
 
 460 
 
EREMACAUSIS. 
 
 461 
 
 ERGOT. 
 
 drical catkin, with four or five pale teeth on a 
 separate short stem, and appears in April and 
 May. Its stems are perfectly erect ; and its 
 branches are long and slender, and grow from 
 bottom to top of the stem in whorls. This spe- 
 cies is greedily eaten by horses, and appears to 
 yield them agreeable nourishment ; and, in some 
 districts of Sweden, it is collected and stored for 
 their use as winter food. 
 
 EREMACAUSIS. The slow oxidation of the 
 combustible elements of a dead organic body, by 
 exposure to the air. The process formerly shared 
 with changes in living organic bodies the general 
 name of decay ; and it was first, and very appro- 
 priately, designated eremacausis by Liebig. The 
 changes which occur in it are precisely those of 
 combustion, except that they are slow, gradual, 
 and unaccompanied by flame or by the evolution 
 of sensible heat. Familiar examples of erema- 
 causis are the transmutation of wood into hu- 
 mus, the decay of dead vegetable matter unac- 
 companied by fermentation, and the formation 
 of acetic acid out of alcohol, or the vinegarizing 
 of liquids containing a large proportion of spirit. 
 " Vegetable juices of every kind, parts of animal 
 and vegetable substances, moist sawdust, blood, 
 &c, cannot be exposed to the air, without suf- 
 fering immediately a progressive change of col- 
 our and properties, during which oxygen is ab- 
 sorbed. These changes do not take place when 
 water is excluded, or when the substances are 
 exposed to the temperature of 32° ; and it has 
 been observed that different bodies require dif- 
 ferent degrees of heat, in order to effect the ab- 
 sorption of oxygen, and consequently their ere- 
 macausis. The tendency to undergo this change 
 is possessed in the highest degree by substances 
 containing nitrogen. The conditions which de- 
 termine the commencement of eremacausis are 
 of various kinds. Many organic substances, 
 particularly such as are mixtures of several 
 more simple matters, oxidize in the air when 
 simply moistened with water ; others, not until 
 they are subjected to the action of alkalies ; but 
 the greatest part of them undergo this state of 
 slow combustion or oxidation, when brought 
 into contact with other matters already in a 
 state of decay. The eremacausis of an organic 
 matter is retarded or completely arrested by all 
 those substances which prevent fermentation or 
 putrefaction. Mineral acids, salts of mercury, 
 aromatic substances, empyreumatic oils, and oil 
 of turpentine, possess a similar action in this 
 respect. The latter substances have the same 
 effect on decaying bodies as on phosphuretted 
 hydrogen, the spontaneous inflammability of 
 which they destroy." 
 
 ERGOT. A disease in the growing grain or 
 seed of some of the grasses, particularly of rye. 
 It is the most mysterious of all the diseases with 
 which the cereal grasses are affected ; and, after 
 multitudinous and most learned investigations, 
 
 continues to be the subject of conflicting opin- 
 ions, as to at once its nature, its origin, and its 
 mode of development. The substance called the 
 ergot either issues from between the glumes, and 
 occupies the place of the grain ; or it is the grain 
 itself in both a monstrous form and a chemically 
 altered condition. It lengthens to more than 
 double the natural size of the grain, protrudes 
 beyond the chaff, is angled, grooved, and furrow- 
 ed, has a deep, purplish, brown colour, and often 
 assumes a curved form, somewhat resembling 
 that of a cock's-spur. Its surface, when seen 
 through a microscope, is profusely marked with 
 white, shining, transparent, angular dots; and 
 its interior, when laid open with a sharp instru- 
 ment, and seen in water under a microscope, ap- 
 pears to consist of w r hite flocculent threads with 
 spherical sporules. It has a spongy texture, a 
 heavy, disagreeable odour, and a nauseous, acrid, 
 burning taste ; and when put in contact with 
 the flame of a candle, it catches fire like an oily 
 substance, and burns like an almond. It is sup- 
 posed by some naturalists to be an excrescence 
 similar to the oak-apple and the nut-gall, and to 
 be occasioned by the puncture of some insect ; 
 by others to be a monstrous development or mor- 
 bid swelling of the seed, occasioned by some dis- 
 turbance in the organs of circulation or secre- 
 tion ; and by others to be a foreign or superim- 
 posed vegetable growth, occasioned by a parasitic- 
 fungus. The last of these opinions is probably 
 the best supported ; and the kind of minute fun- 
 gus supposed to occasion it is assigned by De 
 Candolle to the genus sclerotium under the name 
 of Sclerotium clavus, but is erected by the Swed- 
 ish fungologist Fries into a genus by itself under 
 the name of Spermoedia clavus. 
 
 Ergot, whatever be its origin and its physical 
 nature, exerts a dreadfully noxious power upon 
 the system of any men or brutes who receive 
 even very small portions of it in their food. It 
 has been ascertained by experiment upon many 
 of the lower animals to produce the most horri- 
 ble gangrenes, rotting of the extremities, inter- 
 nal tortures, and agonizing death ; it has been 
 known to slough and kill not a few human be- 
 ings who have accidentally or inadvertently eaten 
 grain or flour infected with it ; and it is supposed 
 to have been the cause of severe and dangerous 
 gangrenous epidemics which have, at various 
 periods, scourged the poor of certain districts of 
 France. It was long supposed to occur only in 
 rye, and to work havoc upon animals chiefly 
 through the medium of rye-flour ; but it is now 
 known to infest some maize of South America, 
 and to produce loathsome diseases in mules 
 which feed upon that grain ; and it has been re- 
 cently ascertained to occur with sufficient fre- 
 quency in the wheat of Britain, to suggest the 
 necessity of caution and investigation. " The 
 ergot," said Professor Henslow in 1841, " is sel- 
 dom met with in any other corn than rye ; and 
 
ERGOT. 
 
 462 
 
 ESTATE. 
 
 Tessier says he never saw but one example of it 
 in wheat, of which he gives a figure. Bauer also 
 mentions having never found more than two ears 
 of wheat infected by it. I have, however, found 
 it this autumn in four different fields of wheat, 
 and gathered more than a dozen specimens; and 
 I find that some of the farmers here are suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with it to satisfy me that it 
 must be more common in wheat than has hitherto 
 been suspected. Upon asking my miller to search 
 for me, he very soon picked out about three dozen 
 ergots from two bushels of Revet-wheat, which 
 had been sent to be ground at his mill ; and he 
 said that he had left at least as many more in 
 the sample. This wheat was grown in the next 
 parish to Wattisham. A very cursory look into 
 the mouth of a sack of gleaned wheat, then at 
 the mill, also furnished me with three or four 
 more specimens. I would wish to invite agri- 
 culturists to make inquiry in their several dis- 
 tricts whether the ergot does not sometimes pre- 
 vail to an extent sufficient to induce a belief 
 that it may be injurious to the health of the 
 poorer classes, whose food is little varied, and 
 who might thus be subjected to whatever evil 
 influence a certain admixture of the ergot in 
 their flour may be capable of producing. It may 
 be also suggested to such medical men as have 
 opportunities of witnessing those disorders to 
 which the poor are more particularly liable, and 
 which are generally ascribed to poverty of diet, 
 whether these complaints may not sometimes be 
 induced or fostered by the presence of this dele- 
 terious ingredient in the flour. Tessier states, 
 that some humane proprietors in those districts 
 of France where the gangrenous epidemic was 
 prevalent, were in the habit of furnishing their 
 labourers with rye that had been picked free 
 from ergot, in exchange for any infected samples 
 they might themselves have grown ; and that . 
 after they had adopted this practice, their labour- | 
 ers were no longer attacked by the epidemic." | 
 
 Ergot, in the hands of cautious and skilful | 
 practitioners, is a very valuable medicine, for \ 
 rousing weak or exhausted uterine action in J 
 cases of prolonged and difficult labour ; but it is 
 by far too critical in its proper use, and too dan- j 
 gerous in its misapplication, to be ever safely 
 prescribed by persons of small professional edu- 
 cation or of raw and youthful experience. It 
 has also been very beneficially used in cases of 
 difficult parturition in the mare, »the cow, and 
 the sheep ; yet it ought never to be administered 
 to any of these, especially the cow, except in 
 cases of extremity. 
 
 Ergot in rye occurs most frequently in wet and 
 stiff land, and may probably be either much in- 
 creased by raising the crop on soil which will 
 keep the roots constantly moist, or much dimi- 
 nished by raising the crop on naturally thirsty 
 soil or on land which has been thoroughly sub- 
 soil-drained. When ergot has, in any district, 
 
 been detected in wheat, the health of the whole 
 community loudly demands the thorough drain- 
 ing of every field on which wheat may at any 
 time thence be grown ; and when any quantity 
 of ergot is wanted for the druggists, it should be 
 sought by growing rye upon a piece of very wet 
 clay land. — Medical and Surgical Journal. — Paper 
 by Professor Henslow in Journal of the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society of England. — Keittis Botanical 
 Lexicon. — Loudon's Works. — YouatCs Works. 
 
 ERYSIPELAS, or Wild Fire. An inflam- 
 matory disease of the skin of animals. It some- 
 what frequently attacks sheep, assumes the char- 
 acter of an epizootic, exhibits considerable re- 
 semblance to the disease called red water, and is 
 much more violent than ordinary or even very 
 bad kinds of scab. It makes its attacks sud- 
 denly, and, if not promptly and vigorously at- 
 tended to, spreads with great rapidity among the 
 flock. It usually appears in August and Sep- 
 tember, and seldom continues longer than eight 
 days at a time. It is attended with excessive 
 itchiness, and causes small blisters, which are 
 full of a red and watery fluid, and which, after 
 breaking, are followed by blackish-coloured scabs. 
 An affected sheep should be placed in a field 
 away from communication with the flock, re- 
 ceive some gently aperient medicine, be washed 
 with goulard water or lime water, and receive 
 some sulphur electuary, and if that fail, some 
 sulphur and saltpetre. 
 
 ESTATE. The title or interest which a per- 
 son has in lands, tenements, hereditaments, or 
 other effects, the word being derived from the 
 Latin status, which means the condition or cir- 
 cumstance in which a person stands in regard to 
 his property. Estate is real or personal. The 
 phrase personal estate is applicable not only to 
 moveables, goods, money, bonds, notes, but also 
 to some fixtures temporarily attached to lands 
 or buildings ; and the distinction between those 
 fixtures which are temporarily such, and those 
 which belong to, and form a part of the house, 
 or other real estate, is of importance, as this dis- 
 tinction will determine how it is to be attached 
 on mesne process, or seized and sold, or set off 
 on an execution, and also how it descends on the 
 decease of the proprietor. But personal estate 
 also applies to some interests in lands or houses ; 
 thus a lease of them for a certain number of 
 years, though it be more than a hundred, and so 
 longer than any person is likely to live, is per- 
 sonal estate ; and yet an estate for the life of the 
 owner, or of any other person, in these subjects, 
 though the person, by whose life the interest is 
 limited, may be ever so old or infirm, and likely 
 to survive ever so short a time, is real estate, 
 and is subject to the law regulating such estate, 
 in regard to sales and descents. Real estate in 
 lands is of various kinds and descriptions, accord- 
 ing to the quantity of interest, its duration, or 
 the time by which it is limited in respect to its 
 
EVERLASTING PEA. 
 
 463 
 
 EXCREMENT. 
 
 | commencement or termination, and the number 
 and condition of the owners. A fee simple is the 
 amplest estate which the law admits of. A free- 
 hold is an estate for the life of any person or per- 
 sons, or any greater estate. An estate in tail is 
 one limited to certain heirs. Only real estate 
 and a freehold greater than for the life of one 
 person, can be entailed ; but such an estate is of 
 various kinds, such as tail-male, where it descends 
 in successive order to the male heirs of the 
 grantee in direct descent ; tail-female, where it is 
 thus limited to the female descendants : if it goes 
 in successive order to his descendants without 
 any distinction, it is called an estate in tail-gen- 
 eral; if it is limited to certain descendants, as 
 the children of a certain wife, it is an estate in 
 tail-special. An estate in remainder is one of 
 which the owner is come into possession after 
 the expiration of an intermediate estate of an- 
 other person, or number of persons or heirs ; and 
 so also is an estate in reversion ; thus, if one 
 grants an estate tail, this estate tail may expire, 
 in which case the lands will come back or revert 
 to the grantor, and his estate, which still remains 
 to him after he has granted the estate tail, is 
 therefore called a reversion. As to the number 
 of owners, an estate in common is a freehold be- 
 longing to more than one proprietor, in undivid- 
 ed shares; and so also is an estate in joint-ten- 
 ancy ; but there is this distinction between these 
 two kinds of estates, that when one joint-tenant 
 dies, his share goes to the other joint-tenants, 
 which is not the case in tenancies in common. 
 An estate in coparcenary arises when an estate in 
 fee simple descends, on the decease of the owner, 
 to his daughters, sisters, aunts, or female cousins, 
 or their representatives, being females ; and they 
 are called coparceners, or, for brevity, parceners. 
 Real estate left to any one by will is called a de- 
 vise, or an estate by devise, in distinction from a 
 bequest of personal property, which is called a 
 legacy. 
 
 EVERLASTING PEA— botanically Lathyrus 
 Latifolius. A perennial-rooted, climbing, herba- 
 ceous plant, belonging to the leguminous order, 
 and growing wild in the woods of some parts of 
 England. Its root is comparatively large ; its stem 
 usually attains a height of about two yards ; and 
 its flowers have a pink colour, and bloom in July 
 and September. It has been recommended for 
 cultivation as a forage-plant. It is easily man- 
 aged ; and, though unproductive in the first year, 
 it afterwards yields annually a great bulk of ex- 
 cellent provender. See the article Lathyrus. 
 
 EWE. The female of the sheep. See the ar- 
 ticles Sheep, Abortion, and Parturition. 
 
 EWE-NECK. A malformation in the neck of 
 some horses. A ewe-necked horse " has a neck 
 like a ewe, — not arched above, and straight be- 
 low, until near to the head, but hollowed above 
 and projecting below, — and the neck rising low 
 out of the chest, even lower sometimes than the 
 
 points of the shoulders. There can scarcely be 
 anything more unsightly in a horse. His head 
 can never be got fairly down ; and the bearing 
 rein of harness must be to him a source of con- 
 stant torture." [Youatt.] — A ewe-necked horse 
 may be a good racer, but is necessarily a very 
 bad hack. 
 
 EXCREMENT. The substances rejected and 
 expelled by the alimentary system of organic 
 beings. The excrement of man and all kinds of 
 domestic animals is universally known to act 
 with high manurial power upon the soil ; and 
 that of cultivated vegetables is believed to act in 
 so peculiar a manner as to require a frequent or 
 almost constant change of crops in order to the 
 prevention of most mischievous effects. Both 
 classes of excrement, therefore, require to be 
 well understood by every intelligent cultivator. 
 But vegetable excrement forms the topic of the 
 article Excretion of Plants, animal excrement, 
 in a collective view, is discussed in the article 
 Animal Manures, liquid animal excrement 
 forms the subject of the article Urine, two of 
 the most powerful kinds of solid animal excre- 
 ment in use are appropriated to the articles 
 Night- Soil and Guano, some of the most active 
 compounds of animal excrement form the sub- 
 jects of the articles Poudrette, Gulle, Compost, 
 and Farm- Yard Manure, and some of the most 
 distinguishing properties and most valuable 
 chemical forces of all animal excrements are no- 
 ticed in the articles Ammonia and Azote. Our 
 only business in the present article, therefore, is 
 to submit some statements, more or less descrip- 
 tive and analytic, on the specific solid animal 
 excrements which are usually available for the 
 uses of the garden and the farm. 
 
 Night-soil is very variable in constitution, but 
 always abounds in carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 
 nitrogen, and contains some proportion of phos- 
 phates, sulphates, and earths. An analysis of it 
 by Berzelius — but without any mention being 
 made of the variety of it, or of the precise kinds 
 of alimentary substances whence it was rejected 
 —shows 733 parts in 1,000 of it to be water, 9 
 parts albumen, 9 bilious matter, 27 peculiar ex- 
 tractive matter, 140 mucus, bilious resin, fat, and 
 peculiar animal matter, 12 phosphates of lime 
 and magnesia, and carbonate, muriate, and sul- 
 phate of soda, and 70 vegetable fibre or coarse 
 remains of vegetable aliment ; and a supplement 
 to the same analysis shows that 1,000 parts of it 
 yield 150 parts of ashes, and that these 150 parts 
 consist of 8 of carbonate of soda, 100 of phos- 
 phates of lime and magnesia, with traces of sul 
 phate of lime, 8 of sulphate of soda, with a little 
 sulphate of potash and phosphate of soda, 16 of 
 silica, and 18 of charred or unburnt matter. But 
 these elements greatly vary in their proportions, 
 and some others very generally occur, in other 
 varieties of night-soil ; and all, in fact, are ex- 
 ceedingly controlled by health, by habits, and 
 
EXCREMENT. 
 
 4G4 
 
 EXCREMENT. 
 
 especially by food. Some small portions of alu- 
 mina and of the oxides of iron and manganese, 
 though undetected by Berzelius, are almost always 
 present ; silica may either be very abundant or 
 very sparse according to the predominance of 
 cereal or of animal food; and phosphates, sulphates, 
 and nitrogenous compounds, in such quantity 
 and form as to be capable of rapid, abundant, 
 and most offensive decomposition, occur so uni- 
 formly and abundantly as to render this excre- 
 ment disgustingly and most odiously distinguish- 
 able from that of all other animals. An ultimate 
 analysis by Playfair shows three parts in four to 
 be water, and ascertains 45 24 per cent, of the 
 anhydrous part to be carbon, 6*88 hydrogen, 
 34*73 oxygen and nitrogen, and 13*15 ashes. 
 Night-soil, notwithstanding its very large pro- 
 portion of water, decomposes with far greater 
 rapidity than the excrement of cattle ; and when 
 not very speedily used for manuring, or so treated 
 as to have its chemical affinities greatly changed, 
 it sends off the great bulk of its manurial ele- 
 ments in the gaseous forms of ammonia, carbonic 
 acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and phosphuretted 
 hydrogen. Its manurial power is of the highest 
 order, and ought always to be carefully retained 
 and applied ; and the full retention of this power 
 at the same time prevents the evolution of those 
 gases which constitute its vile and unhealthy 
 malodour ; so that a little care might everywhere 
 combine enrichment of the land with purity of 
 atmosphere. Its stench is a combination of am- 
 monia, sulphuretted hydrogen, and phosphuretted 
 hydrogen, — three substances which are somewhat 
 fairly represented by sal volatile, rotten eggs, and 
 putrid fish ; ami this is precisely a combination 
 which even the slightest knowledge of agricul- 
 tural and vegetable chemistry sees to be of prime 
 value to the cereal crops of land which has been 
 long in cultivation ; and it is also one which, in 
 various ways, and with the utmost ease, can be 
 withheld from assuming its gaseous, offensive, 
 and wasteful form, and delivered into the land 
 with little less solidity and with far more inoffen- 
 siveness than bone-bust. " The best plan," says 
 Dr. Sprengel, " is to cover and mix it at once 
 with earth abounding in humus, with which a 
 little marl may be mixed, and so leave it to fer- 
 ment. All the ammonia is thus united with the 
 humic acid as soon as formed. This process frees 
 it from the odour which is so great an obstacle 
 to its employment ; and when the heap has been 
 several times stirred over, it is easily spread." 
 "The disagreeable smell of it," says Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy, "may be destroyed by mixing it 
 with quicklime; and if exposed to the atmo- 
 sphere in thin layers strewed over with quick- 
 lime in fine weather, it speedily dries, is easily 
 pulverized, and in this state may be used in the 
 same manner as rape-cake, and delivered into the 
 furrow with the seed. The Chinese, who have 
 more practical knowledge of the use and applica- 
 tion of manures than any other people existing, 
 
 mix their night-soil with one-third of its weight 
 of a fat marl, make it into cakes, and dry it by 
 exposure to the sun. These cakes, we are in- 
 formed by the French missionaries, have no dis- 
 agreeable smell, and form a common article of 
 commerce of the empire." 
 
 The excrement of fowls combines the proper- 
 ties of both dung and urine, contains richly con- 
 centrated remains of nitrogenous and phosphu- 
 retted elements, and ranks next to night-soil in 
 manurial power and value upon arable lands 
 which have been severely cropped or long in cul- 
 tivation. Guano, consisting principally of the 
 excrement of the gull or cormorant, is now well 
 appreciated, and in vast request, for its great 
 power ; but the excrement of pigeons, hens, geese, 
 ducks, and other domestic fowls, is scarcely if at 
 all inferior, and might, to a very great extent, 
 be made available as a common fertilizer. " Poul- 
 try-dung," says Dr. Sprengel, " is one of the most 
 powerful manures, and is therefore worthy of 
 greater consideration than is generally bestowed 
 upon its collection, especially as it soon decom- 
 poses, and consequently loses so much ammonia ; 
 and it would lose a still greater quantity of that 
 gas did the excrements not dry quickly, and thus 
 prevent a further decomposition of their urea. 
 The strongest are those of pigeons and domestic 
 fowls, — a fact easily explained, by the circum- 
 stance of their living chiefly upon grain, insects, 
 and worms ; while geese eat grass also. That we 
 may lose none of the ammonia developed during 
 the putrefaction of poultry dung, we should do 
 well to strew the yard and house in which they 
 are kept with soil abundant in humus, for then 
 the ammonia of the manure will be combined 
 with the humic acid of the earth. The strewing 
 of the ground with sand, sawdust, &c, as com- 
 monly practised, is, in this point of view, of no 
 use whatever. The excrements of pigeons have 
 been chemically examined by Sir Humphrey 
 Davy and myself. Davy found in 100 parts, by 
 weight, 23 parts of substances soluble in water, 
 consisting of urea, urate of ammonia, common 
 salt, and some others. According to my own 
 experiments, pigeon dung, half a year old, con- 
 tained only 16 per cent, of bodies soluble in 
 water, consisting of very little urea, but of a 
 large proportion of carbonate, sulphate, and hu- 
 mate of ammonia, common salt, and sulphate of 
 potash ; the other 84 parts insoluble in water, 
 consisting of coarse silicious sand, silica, phos- 
 phates of lime and magnesia, traces of alumina, 
 and oxides of manganese and iron. The abun- 
 dance of soluble substances explains the quick 
 effect of pigeon dung, and also shows us the great 
 value of mineral manure. When the droppings of 
 geese come in contact with the grass in pastures, 
 they destroy it in a short time, so that farmers 
 do not readily allow geese to have access to pas- 
 tures ; not to mention that, when the herbage is 
 rendered foul by the excrements of these poultry, 
 it becomes loathsome to other animals. The 
 
EXCREMENT 
 
 465 
 
 EXCREMENT. 
 
 speedy injury inflicted on plants by goose-dung, 
 is occasioned partly by the uric acid it contains, 
 and partly by the ammonia which is so soon ge- 
 nerated and developed on decomposition. When 
 rain happens to fall, these caustic substances are 
 diluted, and the grass grows the best in the 
 places where the excrements lie, as may be seen 
 in any goose-pasture. As poultry dung is very 
 rich in powerfully manuring matters easily solu- 
 ble in water, it should be applied only in very 
 small quantities ; and, in order to effect its due 
 distribution, as it is generally dried strongly to- 
 gether, it must first be reduced into a fine state 
 by thrashing or other means. In Belgium, they 
 employ it particularly for manuring their flax, 
 and calculate the. annual value of the dung of 
 400 or 500 head of pigeons at 25 or 30 rix dollars 
 (about £5 or £6). Poultry dung must always 
 be used as a top-dressing, or only harrowed in 
 very lightly ; and it should be spread over the 
 ground when there is no wind. We should gene- 
 rally choose damp, but not wet weather, for the 
 purpose, otherwise the main soluble substances 
 would be carried too deep into the soil, or wash- 
 ed away altogether. If a meadow be manured 
 with poultry dung, and sheep driven on it soon 
 afterwards, it is almost entirely eaten bare by 
 them, probably on account of the many salts, in- 
 cluding common salt, contained in this manure. 
 Like all other manures containing much ammo- 
 nia, it soon destroys moss in meadows. When it 
 is wished not to employ poultry dung by itself, 
 it will be found best to mix it into a compost 
 heap with some soil rich in humus. A soil of 
 this kind should be used with all organic remains 
 containing much nitrogen, as all loss is thereby 
 prevented." The soil of such woods as are fre- 
 quented by large flocks of wood-pigeons is highly 
 impregnated with their dung ; it has been found, 
 upon analysis, to contain a very appreciable 
 quantity of ammonia ; it consists, to a consider- 
 able amount, of the humus of decayed leaves, 
 nitrogenized by combination with the elements 
 of the pigeon's dung ; and it would, beyond ques- 
 tion, prove a good manure for the ordinary fields 
 of a farm. " The dung of fowls," remarks Sir 
 Humphrey Davy, " is employed, in common with 
 that of pigeons, by tanners, to bring on a slight 
 degree of putrefaction in skins that are to be 
 used for making soft leather. For this purpose, 
 the dung is diffused through the water. In this 
 state, it rapidly undergoes putrefaction, and 
 brings on a similar change in the skin. The 
 excrements of dogs are employed by the tanner 
 with similar effects. In all cases, the contents of 
 the grainer, as the pit is called in which soft 
 skins are prepared by dung, must form a very 
 useful manure." 
 
 The excrement of horses somewhat varies with 
 their food, yet much less so than night-soil ; and, 
 in a general view, it is comparatively rich in ni- 
 trogen, rapid in decomposition, and powerful in 
 manurial operation. In consequence jointly of 
 
 its high nitrogenousness and of its greater soli- 
 dity or anhydrousness, it evolves a higher degree 
 of heat and throws off larger volumes of ammoni- 
 acal gas than any of the other kinds of animal 
 excrement. An analysis of it by Zierl — in a case 
 in which the horses had been fed on hay, oats, 
 and straw — shows 698 parts of it in 1,000 to be 
 water, 20 parts picromel and soluble salts, 17 
 bilious and extractive matter, 63 green humus 
 matter, with intestinal mucus and coagulated al- 
 bumen, and 202 vegetable fibre and remains of 
 food ; and a supplement to the same analysis 
 shows that, upon the incineration of 1,000 parts, 
 60 parts of saline and earthy substances are ob- 
 tained, consisting of 5 of carbonate, muriate, and 
 sulphate of soda, 9 of carbonate and phosphate of 
 lime, and 46 of silica. But alumina, magnesia, 
 manganese, and iron, though overlooked by Zierl, 
 and though sometimes in so small a quantity as 
 scarcely to be appreciable in a meagre specimen, 
 may be regarded as always present. When the 
 fresh excrement is laid up in heaps, it heats, 
 steams, ferments, rapidly decomposes, and gives 
 off large quantities of ammonia, carbonic acid, 
 and carburetted hydrogen ; when it acquires 
 great heat, it gives off carbonic oxide, passes into 
 a half-carbonized state, becomes mouldy, and 
 suffers enormous loss of its manurial power ; and 
 when it is amassed with unequal compactness, 
 some portions being freely permeable by the air, 
 and other portions almost impenetrable, it suffers 
 unequal decomposition, and assumes a mixed and 
 fitful character eminently detrimental to uni- 
 formity of crop on the land to which it is ap- 
 plied. In a regular and moderately fermented 
 state, it possesses similar properties to the best 
 varieties of " muck " or farm-yard compost ; in a 
 pasty state, with retention of its moisture during 
 begun decomposition, it constitutes " spit dung," 
 exerts both great and speedy manurial force, 
 evolves heat within the soil to which it is applied, 
 and is admirably adapted to lands of cold clay or 
 to lands which contain a maximum of vegetable 
 mould; and in a thoroughly reduced and pul- 
 verulent state, it constitutes " rotten dung," is 
 greatly diminished in bulk, possesses higher but 
 far less durable power than in either of the two 
 preceding conditions, and exerts a mightily stim- 
 ulating force upon vegetation, but, in consequence 
 of the combined vigour and transiency of its ac- 
 tion, is very ill adapted to any description of 
 light soil. Dr. Sprengel recommends that horse- 
 dung be always thrown into the farm-yard pit to 
 constitute an ingredient in farm-yard compost ; 
 and adds, " If we manure a field with fresh horse- 
 dung, and sow it immediately afterwards with 
 corn, it frequently happens that the plants turn 
 black and appear charred. This always arises 
 from that portion of the ammonia, produced from 
 the dung, which has not been neutralized by hu- 
 mic acid. This blackening of plants is errone- 
 ously regarded as the effect of smut. It is most 
 likely to happen when a soil very deficient in 
 2 G 
 
EXCREMENT. 
 
 466 
 
 EXCREMENT. 
 
 humus has been manured with horse-dung. In 
 order, therefore, that none of the ammonia may 
 be lost in the form of gas, it will always be found 
 the most advisable to apply fresh horse-manure 
 where the soil is richest in humus; for so the 
 manure has ah useful effect on the component 
 parts of the soil in rendering the humid acid 
 more soluble. Horse-dung has the same effect as 
 that of sheep when applied to cereal crops, pro- 
 ducing an undue proportion of straw and thick- 
 skinned glutinous grain." 
 
 The excrement of cattle widely varies accord- 
 ing to health, condition, exercise, and food. That 
 of a cow giving milk is considerably feebler in 
 manurial power than that of barren or farrow 
 cows ; and that of either cows or oxen is differ- 
 ent when depastured, and when stall-fed, — when 
 foddered on straw, and when foddered on green 
 clover, — when fed on potatoes, and when fed on 
 mangel-wurzel. The dung of cows which had 
 been fed on spurry was found by analysis of Ein- 
 . hof to consist of 717 per cent, of water, 93 of 
 substances constituting a green mucus, and in- 
 soluble in water, 2*3 of substances soluble in 
 water, and consisting of bitter matter, with pot- 
 ash and phosphate of lime, 15*6 of vegetable fibre, 
 and l'l of sand, evidently referable to the spurry. 
 The dung of cows which had been fed on dry 
 food was found by analysis of Morin to consist of 
 70*0 per cent, of water, 24*1 of vegetable fibre, 
 1*5 of a green fatty substance and resin, appar- 
 ently the half-decomposed green matter of leaves, 
 06 of a yellowish sweetish substance, probably 
 picromel, 1*6 of a seemingly nitrogenous sub- 
 stance called by Morin bubulin, brown, shining, 
 soluble in water, almost tasteless, and without 
 any particular smell, 0*4 of coagulated albumen, 
 and 1*8 of a brown resinous substance, apparently 
 bilious resin. The dung of cows which had been 
 fed on green food was found by the same analyst 
 to consist of 71*2 per cent, of water, 22*8 of vege- 
 table fibre, 1*6 of the green fatty substance, 0'6 
 of picromel, 1*9 of bubulin, 1*9 of coagulated al- 
 bumen, and 1*2 of bilious resin. The dung of 
 cows which had been fed on potatoes, beans, 
 straw, and hay, was found by analysis of Zierl to 
 consist of 75*4 per cent, of water, Tl of sugar of 
 gall and some soluble salts, l'l of bilious and ex- 
 tractive matter, 8 - 3 of deposited humus, or more 
 probably starch, with coagulated mucus and al- 
 bumen, and 14'1 of vegetable fibre and the re- 
 mains of food. Zierl found also that the dung 
 which he analyzed yielded 6 per cent, of ashes, 
 and that these consisted of 4*4 of silica, 1"2 of 
 carbonate and phosphate of lime, 02 of carbon- 
 ate, sulphate, and muriate of soda, and 02 of un- 
 ascertained matter, which may be conjectured to 
 have been magnesia, alumina, iron, manganese, 
 and potash. In consequence of cattle-dung con- 
 taining exceedingly little nitrogenous matter, it 
 does not evolve during putrefaction any percep- 
 tible quantity of ammonia ; and in consequence 
 unitedly of its poverty in nitrogen, its abundance 
 
 of water, and the coarsely divided condition of 
 its vegetable remains, it is slow in decomposition, 
 evolves very little heat by fermentation, passes 
 under exposure to the air first into an unctuous 
 paste and next into a consistence similar to dried 
 peat or turf, and, when buried at any consider- 
 able depth in the soil, is almost totally inert and 
 remains a very long time unaffected by change. 
 It possesses in itself exceedingly little adaptation 
 to manurial purposes ; but it becomes valuable 
 when mixed with both the urine and the litter 
 of the cow-house and the cattle-shed ; and it does 
 best when thrown at every cleaning into the 
 farm-yard manure pit so as to be a regularly in- 
 termixed ingredient of farm-yard manure. Yet 
 whenever it is applied either by itself or as a 
 predominating or even bulky ingredient of farm- 
 yard manure, it ought never to be laid upon clay 
 lands, but wholly distributed upon the sharpest 
 and hottest, or upon the most sandy or gravelly, 
 which exist within the limits of the farm. 
 
 The excrement of sheep, according to analysis 
 by Zierl, consists of 67 - 9 per cent, of water, 3 - 4 
 of sugar of gall and soluble salts, 1*9 of bilious 
 and extractive matter, 12'8 of humus, with coa- 
 gulated albumen and intestinal mucus, and 14'0 
 of woody fibre and vegetable remains ; and, ac- 
 cording to a supplement to this analysis, it yields 
 9*6 per cent, of ashes, consisting of 6'0 of silica, 
 1*6 of carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of soda, 
 and 2*0 of carbonate and phosphate of lime. But 
 also traces of magnesia, potash, alumina, oxide of 
 iron, and oxide of manganese, would no doubt be 
 detected by a more searching analysis. When 
 moist, and especially when amassed into a heap, 
 sheep-dung rapidly decomposes, evolves a large 
 quantity of ammonia, and suffers speedy dissipa- 
 tion ; but when dried and so dispersed as to be 
 kept from remoistening and heating, it decom- 
 poses slowly and imperfectly, and parts some- 
 what reluctantly with its remaining nitrogen. 
 When spread fresh upon the land, or when drop- 
 ped combinedly with urine in folding or pastur- 
 ing, it acts with the same kind of rapid, power- 
 ful, and transient ammoniacal force as the excre- 
 ment of horses, and possesses great adaptation to 
 either good or evil according to the circumstan- 
 ces in which it is applied. " From the great 
 quantity of ammonia which sheep-dung devel- 
 ops," says Dr. Sprengel, " may be explained its 
 remarkable effect on every kind of soil contain- 
 ing a very large proportion of humic acid or car- 
 bonized humus, since it thus partly neutralizes 
 the humic acid by the ammonia it gives out, and 
 partly brings the carbonized humus by the same 
 volatile alkali to speedy decomposition, or other- 
 wise converts this useless substance into food for 
 plants. The ammonia, however, is also the cause 
 of the crops, especially of the cereal ones, being 
 very liable to grow too luxuriantly after the 
 application of sheep-manure, of the grain being 
 very abundant in gluten, and of its not being 
 suitable on that account for seed, the manufac- 
 
EXCRETION OF PLANTS. 
 
 467 
 
 EXCRETION OF PLANTS. 
 
 ture of starch, or even the distillation of brandy, j 
 although it is at the same time very nourishing. 
 On soils which contain little humus, sheep-ex- 
 crements, on the contrary, very easily injure the 
 crops, from the ammonia which they develop 
 burning them up, as we know by experience. Of 
 this last fact we may easily convince ourselves, 
 by watering plants with a concentrated solution 
 of ammonia, even of the carbonate, as they be- 
 come black, and appear as if charred ; no heat, 
 however, being produced, which could have oc- 
 casioned such an effect." 
 
 The excrement of swine is far less analytically 
 known than that of the other domestic animals ; 
 and is esteemed by some superficial thinkers the 
 very best of manures, and by others the very 
 worst. Swine are the most indiscriminate feed- 
 ers of all the animals of the farm, and have also 
 the strongest and most reductive powers of di- 
 gestion ; and hence their dung must both be 
 exceedingly various in composition, and aggre- 
 gately far less manurial than that of animals of 
 less energy of stomach. The excrement of all 
 ordinarily fed swine, no matter what be their 
 habits or their particular food, is certainly poor 
 in nitrogen, and slow in decomposition, — so that 
 it becomes a fit manure for any good arable land 
 only when combined with the excrement of 
 horses or of sheep, or when otherwise worked 
 into compostal conditions which shall correct its 
 coldness, its resistance of decomposing forces, and 
 its excessive poverty in nitrogen ; and only the 
 excrement of fattening swine, — or of such as 
 have both a fat carcase and a highly nutritious 
 diet, — possesses adaptations of itself to the man- 
 urial purposes of ordinary husbandry. One of 
 the best methods of deriving manurial advan- 
 tages from swine is to let the animals riot at will 
 among an abundance of straw in the farm-yard, 
 in order that they may both abrade the straw by 
 mechanical action and work the debris of it and 
 all their own excrements into such a mixture as 
 shall fitly combine with the general compost of 
 the pit of farm-yard manure. " The solid as well 
 as the fluid excrements of the pig," remarks 
 Sprengel, "must contain some substance which 
 is very difficult of decomposition, and which is 
 also soluble in water; for most esculent roots, 
 when manured with pig-dung, acquire a very 
 disagreeable flavour ; and tobacco so grown is 
 intolerable to the smell. They are best adapted 
 for hemp ; and some say, also for the hop-plant." 
 > — Translation of Part of Professor Sprengel's 
 Treatise on Manures. — Journal of Royal Agricul- 
 tural Society of England. — Davy's Agricultural 
 Chemistry by Shier. — Knowledge Society's Treatise 
 on British Husbandry. — Liebig's Chemistry of 
 A griculture. — The Farmer's Magazine. — Marshall's 
 County Reports. — Touatt on Cattle. 
 
 EXCRETION OF PLANTS. The expulsion 
 by living plants of substances or proximate ele- 
 ments unsuited for their assimilation or rejected 
 by their secretive system. Chemical transfor- 
 
 mations of the proximate elements of a plant, or 
 of the compound substances which exist within 
 it, take place at all periods of its life, and are 
 peculiarly numerous and important during the 
 interval between the commencement of its fiower- 
 buds and the maturation of its seed ; and these 
 transformations, not only modify and change the 
 component parts of its juices and secretions, but 
 cause it to throw off constant successions of 
 matter unfit for its use. A large amount of the 
 ejected matter passes off in a gaseous form from 
 the blossoms, from the young shoots, and espe- 
 cially from the leaves ; a considerable amount, 
 in the case of all ligneous exogens, is lodged in a 
 dead condition on the exterior of the living corti- 
 cal layers of the bark ; an amount, varying from 
 large to small according to the nature and the 
 age of the plant, takes the form, within the soil, 
 of either a dead exterior sheathing of the radical 
 bark or of choked, decayed, and rejected radical 
 fibres ; and an unascertained and debateable but 
 very important amount passes out in a liquid and 
 perhaps also in a gaseous form, into the soil, 
 through radical orifices similar to the spongioles, 
 but with an expelling instead of an absorbing 
 power. The excretion through the blossoms and 
 the leaves is admitted by all phytologists, and is 
 known to be a chief contrivance of the beneficent 
 Creator for maintaining the atmosphere in a vital 
 and salubrious condition for the use of animals ; 
 but though remotely affecting all crops through 
 the part which it plays upon the aerial gases, it ex- 
 erts no immediate or direct influence upon the soil. 
 The excretion through the cortical layers, in the 
 form of dead outer bark, is also admitted by all 
 who have adverted to it, and is believed to be 
 the main cause, or at least the medium, of the 
 many strong and peculiar principles, such as 
 astringent, bitter, and tinctorial extractives, for 
 which the bark of many trees and shrubs, in all 
 parts of the world, is remarkable. The excretion 
 of solid matter, whether cortically or fibrously 
 through the roots, is to the full as obvious as the 
 excretion through the cortical layers, — and may 
 perhaps be found to abound in the fibrous form 
 in herbaceous plants quite as bulkily as in the 
 cortical form in ligneous plants ; yet it seems to 
 have been seldom adverted to in phytological 
 inquiries; and it is very generally and not a 
 little strangely overlooked in recent and exist- 
 ing conflicts of opinion respecting the influence 
 which vegetable excretion exerts upon soil. The 
 excretion of liquid matter through terminal 
 orifices of the rootlets is a fact of recent dis- 
 covery, confidently asserted by some of our most 
 distinguished experimental phytologists, but de- 
 nied, doubted, or very hesitatingly admitted by 
 multitudes of both theoretical and practical 
 cultivators, and often or almost always con- 
 stituting the sole question at issue in a contro- 
 versy which has for a number of years past 
 been maintained respecting vegetable excre- 
 mentition in the soil, and the necessity occa- 
 
EXCRETION OF PLANTS. 
 
 4G8 
 
 EXCRETION OF PLANTS. 
 
 sioned by it for a constant change or rotation 
 of crops. 
 
 Some of the inferences deduced from certain 
 celebrated experiments were, that most phasno- 
 gamous plants radically excrete substances which 
 are unfit for their own vegetation; that these 
 substances vary in nature according to the na- 
 tural orders to which the particular plants belong ; 
 and that some are acrid and resinous, and may 
 injure other plants besides those which produce 
 them, while others are mild and gummy, and may 
 prove nourishing to other plants. — Water in 
 which beans were grown became yellow, abound- 
 ed in excrementitious matter of a gummy nature, 
 and contained a little carbonate of lime. Another 
 or fresh set of bean-plants did not live well in it ; 
 but wheat-plants relished it, rendered it less yel- 
 low, and evidently absorbed in a nutrient manner 
 a portion of its excrementitious mixture. The 
 cropping of wheat after beans would thus appear 
 to be a good practice. — Water in which wheat, 
 barley, and rye were grown, afforded them bad 
 support, in consequence both of its want of am- 
 monia and especially of its want of materials for 
 forming the silicious epidermis of the culms ; it 
 was clear, colourless, odourless, and tasteless ; it 
 contained some alkaline and earthy muriates and 
 carbonates, and only a very small proportion of 
 gummy matter ; and it was rendered addition- 
 ally unfit, by its poverty in gummy matter, for 
 the support of another set of cereal plants. An 
 alternation of green crops and grain crops, with 
 the view of making the former act as preparation 
 for the latter, would thus appear to serve the 
 important purpose of keeping up within the soil 
 a requisite supply of gummy matter. — Water in 
 which potatoes were grown afforded them good 
 support, and enabled them to make a fair ex- 
 pansion of their leaves ; but it was scarcely col- 
 oured, had little taste, left little residuum, and 
 seemed to show that potatoes make very little 
 decided excretion. The cultivation of potatoes 
 in preparation for wheat, in as far at least as 
 their excrementitious deposit is concerned, would 
 thus appear to be bad agricultural practice, — or 
 at any rate to derive such advantages as it pos- 
 sesses rather from the manuring and cleansing 
 of the potato crop than from that crop itself. 
 
 Some phytologists have assigned to vegetable 
 excrementition far too high a power as the cause 
 of wearing out the soil by any one crop, and of 
 rendering a rotation essential to the maintenance 
 of fertility ; and others have assigned to it all 
 power whatever, or regarded it as the only cause 
 of exhaustion. But in all ordinary cases, crops, 
 when continuously grown upon one piece of 
 ground, dwindle away and become poor and 
 dwarfed, far less in consequence of the malign 
 effect upon them of their own excrementitious 
 deposits, than in consequence of their carrying 
 away nearly the whole stock of some one or more 
 elements of the soil which are essential to their 
 
 healthy existence and vigorous development. If 
 any entire crop were left undisturbed to decay 
 where it grows, and to blend the whole of its 
 substance again with the soil, it might be culti- 
 vated on the same piece of land throughout a 
 very long course of years, before suffering any 
 very serious detriment to its luxuriance ; and if 
 it were growing in a self-sown or thoroughly na- 
 tural condition, it might have most of the dele- 
 terious effects of its own excrementitious deposits 
 neutralized and perfectly corrected by those of 
 self-sown and intermingled weeds. Hence the 
 vastly long course of the same kinds of vegeta- 
 tion in prairies and forests, and the exceedingly 
 remote intervals at which grasses and trees in a 
 completely wild state undergo change or rotation. 
 Soils, too, which are surpassingly rich in the pre- 
 cise mineral principles which are most required 
 by particular cultivated crops, have been known 
 to produce a constant and luxurious succession 
 of these crops through so long a course of years 
 as to have won for themselves the designation of 
 perpetual soils ; and even if lands which have for 
 centuries been in cultivation, could, by virtue of 
 minute chemical analysis on the part of the farmer, 
 be supplied in the form of manure with precisely 
 the needful elements in which they have become 
 impoverished, they would unquestionably main- 
 tain their fertility with a vastly less frequent 
 and fitful play of rotation than, in the present 
 state of things, is found necessary. See the arti- 
 cles Agricultural Chemistry, Ammonia, Alka- 
 lies, Azote, and Rotation of Crops. Radical 
 excretion, then, ought never to be mentioned as 
 the chief cause, or as more than a very subor- 
 dinate cause, of the necessity of rotations. But, 
 on the other hand, the thoughtless and headlong 
 error should be avoided, of rushing from such 
 facts as we have now admitted into a denial of 
 radical excretion altogether. 
 
 One grand defect in all the chief experiments 
 which have been published on this subject is ; 
 that they have almost totally overlooked the solid 
 excrement of plants in the form of dead rootlets 
 and dead radical epidermis. Exceedingly little 
 of this solid excrement can be given out to water 
 in the course of from 3 to 15 days' insertion in it 
 of a fully formed or maturing plant, — the only 
 conditions under which the best of the experi- 
 ments have afforded an opportunity of obtaining 
 it ; yet the quantity of it given out to soil, though 
 hitherto unascertained or even proximately cal- 
 culated, must be very great. Consider the crum- 
 bling and peeling of the epidermis of roots as 
 illustrated by the crumbling and peeling of the 
 bark of ligneous stems, and remember that the 
 scores or hundreds or thousands of rootlets of a 
 growing plant are in a continual process of decay 
 and reproduction, and you will conclude that the 
 radical depth of solid dead matter within the soil 
 cannot but be aggregately bulky. Now this solid 
 matter — though never yet, so far as we know, sepa- 
 
EXERCISE. 
 
 469 
 
 EXERCISE. 
 
 rately obtained and analyzed — can scarcely fail to 
 be far more grossly and perhaps far more mischie- 
 vously excremental than the mere liquid excre- 
 tions. Roots regarded in the aggregate are— with 
 the exception of fruits and seeds — more remark- 
 able than any other class of organs for the variety 
 and power of their proximate principles ; and in 
 particular, they, in multitudes of instances, 
 abound in precisely such acrid and astringent 
 matters as are most hostile to the alimenting of 
 the other organs, or of the general system of the 
 plants ; and they appear to diffuse odours through 
 the soil, and therefore to impart to it hot and 
 pungent properties, far more by deposing the 
 cast-off portions of these matters than by excret- 
 ing the liquid refuse of their cambium. 
 
 On the whole, the excretion of plants is quite 
 a sufficiently serious matter to demand the at- 
 tention of farmers, to enter largely into their 
 scientific views of the arts of cultivation, and to 
 occupy some space in their calculations respecting 
 the most efficient rotations of crops ; and it con- 
 tinues to be so obscurely or partially understood 
 as to be abundantly worthy of more searching 
 and comprehensive investigation on the part of 
 phytologists. — Memoires de la Societe de Physique 
 et aVHistoire Naturelle de Geneve. — Lindley's First 
 Principles of Horticulture. — Towers' Gardeners' 
 Manual. — Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 
 —Liebig's Chemistry of Agriculture.— Transactions 
 of the Highland Society. — Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture. — Loudon 's Gardeners' Magazine. — 
 Davys Agricultural Chemistry by Shier. 
 
 EXERCISE. The amount of bodily motion 
 necessary to maintain the proper circulation of 
 the fluids, and to impart that degree of activity 
 which the natural condition of the animal body 
 requires. Exercise is the contrary of repose, and 
 without either of these, the animal machine would 
 soon be destroyed. It greatly assists the insen- 
 sible transpiration, the most abundant of all the 
 secretions, and keeps off a number of diseases de- 
 pending upon the superabundance of the fluids, 
 their impurity, or stagnation, enlargements or 
 obstructions of the viscera. Far from diminish- 
 ing the animal forces, it reanimates them ; a lan- 
 guishing appetite is restored, and the conse- 
 quences of exercise are reflected throughout 
 the entire vital economy. The influence of exer- 
 cise upon fecundity and longevity are not less re- 
 markable. Very fat animals are often unfruitful, 
 while a long-continued repose frequently leads to 
 obesity, which again induces impotence, and of- 
 ten death. These are not the only consequences 
 of a continual want of exercise. Their limbs are 
 deprived of that play and spring necessary in pre- 
 serving all the parts of the body in their state of 
 health. 
 
 Exercise should, however, be regular and mo- 
 derate. Very violent labour may affect all the 
 organs, and render the stature diminutive ; hence 
 all excess in this respect should be avoided if 
 
 possible, especially during the growing period of 
 life. The domestic animals require much atten- 
 tion in respect to their lodgings. When in their 
 wild state, they are constantly in the open air ; 
 in their domesticated condition they are often 
 abstracted from it. This essential difference ne- 
 cessarily affects the conditions of their existence ; 
 and, in proportion as they are brought nearer to 
 their natural state, their health becomes im- 
 proved, while an opposite course of treatment may 
 be attended with the most fatal consequences. 
 
 Our most useful domestic animals are often 
 confined in narrow stables, which are perhaps 
 rather injurious than beneficial, from their vici- 
 ous construction or pernicious arrangement. A 
 knowledge of these defects has suggested to some 
 rural economists the idea of exposing their cattle 
 continually in the open air ; but these persons do 
 not perceive, that in avoiding one error they fall, 
 as frequently happens, into another not less im- 
 portant. When in their wild state, animals are 
 always in the open air, it is true ; but it does not 
 follow that they are continually exposed to the 
 weather, which is a very different circumstance 
 of their condition. In their native haunts, they 
 always endeavour to withdraw themselves from 
 excesses of every kind, whether of heat or cold, 
 moisture or dryness, as well as from storms, tem- 
 pests, violent winds, or the attacks of their ene- 
 mies, while they are free to change, whenever 
 they please, either their place or position. It 
 therefore becomes a serious error, through inat- 
 tention to these circumstances, to expose domes- 
 tic animals to the inclemencies of the weather, 
 without the slightest shelter, for the mere pur- 
 pose of avoiding the common disadvantages of a 
 stable. We have often seen flocks of sheep shut 
 up in narrow parks, exposed in winter to the 
 frost, in summer to the burning heat of the sun, 
 in spring and autumn to excessive moisture, and 
 in all seasons to the sudden changes of the at- 
 mosphere, and consequently to the most sudden 
 alternations of temperature. The natural conse- 
 quences of this mismanagement have invariably 
 followed, while their undue mortality and im- 
 poverished condition fully demonstrated, that 
 animals exposed to all kinds of weather, are far 
 from being in that state of nature to which it 
 was intended to reduce them. Their ameliora- 
 tion, their prosperity, and even their existence, 
 are compromised as much by this injudicious 
 treatment, as they would have been by the 
 most confined, uncleanly, and ill - constructed 
 stable. 
 
 It is no doubt true, that we should endeavour 
 to bring animals to a real state , of nature, and 
 place the enjoyments of liberty and fresh air as 
 much as possible within their reach. Yet this 
 can only be done effectually by giving them the 
 power, whenever circumstances permit, of going 
 alternately, under cover or in the field, by having 
 some enclosed space where they may be free to 
 
EXOSTOSIS. 
 
 470 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL FARM. 
 
 move, and with a sufficient number of retreats or 
 sheltered spots, to which they can resort at those 
 times when there is more real inconvenience and 
 disadvantage in being without than within. This 
 is the only legitimate way in which we can ap- 
 proximate the domestic animals to their natural 
 condition. 
 
 EXOSTOSIS. A tumorous enlargement of the 
 bones of animals. It is occasioned by morbid 
 increase in the secretion of bony matter; and 
 sometimes degenerates into a malignant and fatal 
 osseous fungus. It occurs in various bones, and 
 possesses a very various character. Blaine de- 
 scribes exostosis in the horse as remote and proxi- 
 mate, as mediate or immediate, as principally 
 caused remotely by pressure and proximately by 
 inflammation. Some of the chief varieties of ex- 
 ostosis in the horse, bearing distinct names, and 
 usually treated as so many distinct diseases, are 
 splint, bone-spavin, ring-bone, curb, and anchy- 
 losis. All exostoses ought to be early attacked ; 
 for even when dealt with promptly and by the 
 most powerful appliances, such as local stimulants 
 and internal action of iodine, few are ever com- 
 pletely cured or more than tolerably alleviated. 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL FARM. A farm devoted 
 to the ascertaining of the best properties of agri- 
 cultural plants and stock animals, and of the«' 
 adaptation of new varieties of them to the uses 
 of ordinary farms. An experimental farm of 
 merely 200 or 300 acres in extent, cannot afford 
 scope and facilities for any proper experiments 
 whatever in tillage, for almost any experiments 
 in the breeding and rearing of stock, or for one- 
 tenth of the most common or ordinarily desir- 
 able experiments upon agricultural plants; an 
 experimental farm of any size managed by second- 
 rate agriculturists, or laboured by second-rate or 
 inferior workmen, can neither throw a compe- 
 tent degree of science and skill into any of the 
 experiments, nor command the confidence of or- 
 dinary farmers in their results ; and an agricul- 
 tural farm of even the best possible character, as 
 to at once amplitude of extent, variety of depart- 
 ments, and superiority of management and work- 
 ing, is intended solely for the improvement of 
 agricultural science and the enlightenment of 
 persons already well acquainted with its princi- 
 ples, and affords no proper opportunities for in- 
 structing and training farm-apprentices in the 
 elementary arts of common husbandry. The 
 many proposals which have been made to estab- 
 lish experimental farms within similar limits to 
 those of experimental gardens, or as practical 
 schools for the training of young men to the pro- 
 fession of farming, are utterly preposterous. An 
 experimental farm, in the true and only workable 
 sense, would be a high benefit to the general 
 cause of agriculture ; but it would require vast 
 resources, and could be established and main- 
 tained only by a very great and liberal institu- 
 tion devoted entirely to its own interests. The 
 
 following ideal of one, extracted from an article 
 in the 36th Number of the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture, is instructive, and will not be 
 regarded by any comprehensive thinker as clu- 
 merical : — 
 
 " Fixing each division for cropping to compre- 
 hend five acres, which, in our opinion, is the 
 least extent of ground upon which a plough and 
 pair of horses would have the freedom to work 
 as they would on a farm, and if the division com- 
 prehended ten acres so much the better, — there 
 is little difficulty in ascertaining the whole space 
 which a given number of crops would occupy un- 
 der a regular rotation. Taking only four varie- 
 ties, each of wheat, barley, and oats, for experi- 
 ment at one time, the crops in the rotation with 
 them will be found to occupy nearly 1,000 acres 
 imperial. The various seeds which would be cul- 
 tivated for other purposes than grain, would oc- 
 cupy, we presume, other 1,000 acres ; for it must 
 be held in remembrance, that they also must be 
 cultivated in divisions which the plough must 
 operate upon. It is not so easily foreseen what 
 extent of ground the live stock would require. 
 What with grazing, top-dressing, and experi- 
 ments on various kinds of pasture grasses at dif- 
 ferent elevations, the space must be considerable. 
 Soiling grass in summer, and turnips and other 
 roots in winter, would be partly furnished by the 
 grain divisions; but with all these assistances, 
 we conceive 2,000 acres would be required, one- 
 half in the hill, and the other half in the plain. 
 But as experiments should be tried with black- 
 faced sheep, small black cattle, and horses, on 
 heath pasture in summer, 2,000 acres would not 
 suffice for this department. The plantations dis- 
 persed in different situations over the farm would 
 require 1,000 acres; and bog and inuir land a 
 couple of hundred acres. Thus, the experimen- 
 tal farm should comprehend 5,200 acres to do 
 justice to every subject which ought to be experi- 
 mented upon. As the farm would contain 2,000 
 acres of good and tolerable land, we conceive that 
 20s. an acre would not be an over-estimate of its 
 value, that is, at a yearly rent of ,£5,000, regard- 
 less of the value of the bog and muir land. As 
 to the stocking and buildings, their value would 
 probably be not less than ,£20,000 ; although it is 
 probable much of the live-stock, and many of the 
 implements of husbandry, would be contributed 
 in donations by agriculturists. The annual ex- 
 penses of such an establishment would be diffi- 
 cult to estimate. There must be much hand- 
 labour, for which women are peculiarly adapted. 
 There must also be many superintendents, pos- 
 sessed of thorough practical knowledge. Acute 
 observation should be the principal characteristic 
 of these superintendents ; for on accuracy of ob- 
 servation and correctness in recording results, 
 the value of the experiments as an incentive to 
 imitation mainly depends. The manager of such 
 a farm should be a man of no common attain- 
 
EYE. 
 
 4 
 
 71 
 
 EYE. 
 
 ments. In him perfect science and perfect prac- 
 tice should ' meet together.' — To many tnis esti- 
 mate of the size and cost of an experimental farm 
 will appear extravagant. Thus estimated, it is 
 certainly a costly establishment. But when the 
 multiplicity of objects which claim its attention 
 are considered, its extent will be found not to be 
 overstated. Some think 500 acres would answer 
 the purpose. Why, if all the objects which should 
 be found in an experimental farm were merely 
 accommodated with growing and standing room, 
 that space would not be able to contain them. 
 Minute experiments on the progressive develop- 
 ment of plants through the influence of manure 
 I and climate, may be interesting investigations 
 to the botanical physiologist, and such primary 
 experiments are absolutely requisite to establish 
 the excellence or worthlessness of plants, and 
 they would not occupy much ground ; but to 
 stop short at this stage, and not pursue the cul- 
 ture of plants on a scale commensurate with the 
 operations of a farm, would be to render the ex- 
 perimental farm of little avail to practical hus- 
 bandry and the interests of farmers. There may 
 be difficulty in the research, but we conceive 
 that a farm of the extent required could be 
 found, although all the land might not, perhaps, 
 belong to the same landlord. Such a farm, ren- 
 dered highly fertile by draining, manuring, lim- 
 ing, and labour, and plenished, as an experimen- 
 tal farm should be, with all the varieties of crops, 
 stock, implements, and woods, would be a mag- 
 nificent spectacle." 
 
 EYE. The organ of vision. It is possessed by 
 all the active species of animals, except the few 
 which live in darkness and do not need it ; and, 
 in every instance, from its largest size in man 
 and quadrupeds, to its minutest and microscopic 
 form in the smallest insects, it is a museum of 
 wonders, a collection of complicated organiza- 
 tions, a system of intricate and multitudinous 
 adaptations, a mimic universe of the results of 
 design and wisdom and beneficence on the part 
 of the Creator. To describe it fully would re- 
 quire a volume ; and to trace all its mechanisms, 
 its adaptations, its chemical relations, and, above 
 all, its evidences of the being and perfections of 
 its Divine Framer, might fill volumes enough to 
 constitute a library. We must refer for general 
 information upon it to technical works and spe- 
 cial treatises ; and we feel obliged to restrict our- 
 selves to a few sentences, in close connexion with 
 the immediate design of our work. 
 
 The eye of quadrupeds, though usually some- 
 what different from the human eye in form, and 
 sometimes widely different from it in appendages, 
 strictly resembles it in structure. The eye of the 
 horse is proportionally larger than that of some 
 other quadrupeds ; it is situated less in front and 
 more to the side than in man, in order to com- 
 mand a wider lateral range of view ; its pupilar 
 opening is elliptical, and has the long axis par- 
 
 allel to the horizon, so as to increase the lateral 
 field of vision ; and its edge is provided with a 
 peculiar plum-coloured fringe, which is supposed 
 to absorb occasional excesses of light. The 
 horse has excellent vision ; and, though not a 
 nocturnal animal, can see better in obscure light 
 than man. His eye, when healthy, is full, clear, 
 dark -coloured, and nearly circular; and when 
 eminently good, it is comparatively large, yet not 
 over-prominent. But this important organ in 
 the most valuable of the domestic animals, is so 
 frequently obscured, defective, or totally blinded 
 from disease, as always to require close examina- 
 tion on the part of the purchaser of the horse, 
 and special tenderness and care on the part of 
 his owner. " If," says Mr. Winter, u the eyeball 
 is sunk into the orbit, producing a corrugated 
 appearance of the lids, we may suspect latent 
 disease. If a horse shies, we should be doubly 
 careful in our examination of these organs, as 
 this habit often arises from defective vision. 
 Some horses, usually with a considerable quan- 
 tity of white about the face, have what is termed 
 wall-eyes. In these cases, the iris is found to be 
 deficient in its natural colour, giving a white 
 appearance to it. They are not known to be 
 more liable to affections of the eye than those in 
 which this peculiar defect is absent ; but cer- 
 tainly it does not increase the beauty of the ani- 
 mal." A horse whose eye exhibits more than a 
 normal proportion of white, has generally a vici- 
 ous temper. The principal diseases which attack 
 the eyes of horses are amaurosis, cataract, in- 
 flammation, ophthalmia, and filaria. 
 
 The eye of the ox is situated more on the side 
 of the face, more in a situation to command a 
 wide lateral field of vision, than even in the 
 horse. " The ox in a state of nature," remarks 
 Youatt, " being exposed to the attacks of feroci- 
 ous animals, needs an extended field of vision in 
 order that he may perceive the approach of dan- 
 ger from every quarter. He is oftener the pur- 
 sued than the pursuer, and therefore requires a 
 lateral instead of a somewhat forward direction 
 of the eyes. The eyes are prominent, in order to 
 increase the field of vision ; and they are render- 
 ed thus prominent by the mass of fat which is 
 accumulated at the back of them. A prominent 
 eye is reckoned a good point in a beast ; it shows 
 the magnitude of this mass of fat, and therefore 
 the probability of fat being accumulated else- 
 where. This prominence, however, should not 
 be accompanied by a ferocious or unquiet look ; 
 for breeders have agreed that neither the grazing 
 nor the milking beast can have too placid a coun- 
 tenance, or be too quiet or docile in her habits." 
 See the articles Breeding, Cattle, and Cow. 
 The roof of the bony cavity which the eye of the 
 ox occupies, is very strong in order that it may 
 resist fracture from the many accidents to which 
 he is exposed; yet, mainly in consequence of 
 the brutal treatment which flocks very gene- 
 
EYE. 
 
 472 
 
 FAIR. 
 
 rally receive from herdsmen and drovers, it ac- 
 tually, in not a few instances, suffers fracture. 
 Exostoses on the walls of the cavity, and wounds 
 in the fleshy accompaniments of the eye and 
 even in the eye itself, are also not infrequently 
 occasioned by blows, probings, pronging, and gor- 
 ing. " What," significantly exclaims Youatt, 
 " would become of many of our oxen that are 
 driven to Smithfield, and whose heads are cover- 
 ed with contusions, if that hour were not near 
 which delivers them from the barbarity of man !' J 
 The other diseases which attack the eye of the 
 ox, and also the eye of the sheep, are nearly the 
 same as those which occur in the eye of the 
 horse. See the articles Amaurosis, Cataract, 
 Inflammation, Ophthalmia, Blindness, and Fi- 
 
 LARIA. 
 
 The eyelids of both horses and cattle, but espe- 
 cially those of the latter, are exceedingly subject 
 to accidents and annoying ailments. When the 
 eyelid of a horse is so cut by accident as to be 
 cloven, dissevered, or even partially disparted, the 
 lips of the cut should be stitched together with 
 a straight needle, yet not drawn tightly together 
 but merely brought into contact, and not pro- 
 
 perly s^wed but merely attached by a single 
 stitch. When more stitches than one are made, 
 so as to purse the lips of the wound together in 
 the way practised by some old-fashioned farriers, 
 they will probably break in twenty-four hours, 
 and leave the wound in a worse condition than 
 at first. In the judicious treatment of all wounds 
 of the eye and its appendages, the main care is 
 to prevent or abate inflammation by means of 
 fomentations and poultices, and to make no more 
 manipulations or artificial applications than are 
 barely necessary to coax the constitution into 
 the work of self-healing, and to prevent obstruc- 
 tions from being thrown in that work's way. 
 Soft fungous tumours about the eye or eye-socket 
 of either ox or horse, can be removed only by the 
 use of the knife in the hands of a very skilful ope- 
 rator. Scaliness round the edge of the ox's eye, or 
 a series of pustules similar to what is called stye 
 in the eye of man, may be removed by a cautious 
 use of white vitriol wash, goulard lotion, or ni- 
 trated ointment of quicksilver. — Winter's Horse 
 in Health and Disease. — White's Veterinary. — 
 Gibsons Farriery. — Blaine's Veterinary. — Youatt s 
 Works. — Clater's Cattle Doctor. 
 
 F 
 
 FACTOR. See Agent. 
 
 FiECES. See Excrement. 
 
 FAIR. A periodical concourse of people, at a 
 stated place, for the selling and buying of com- 
 modities, for the hiring of servants and labourers, 
 and for indulgence in holiday amusements. One 
 class of ancient fairs were annual assemblies on 
 the festivals of patron saints held in the vicinity 
 of the saints' shrines, and drawn together by the 
 cupidity of bishops and abbots for the exaction 
 of tolls, and by the licence of fun and riot under 
 the pretence of religion ; and another class were 
 great provincial concourses at times most suit- 
 able for general business, held on moors or com- 
 mons or other open tracts in the centre of the 
 provinces, and drawn together by the rudeness 
 of the commercial circumstances of society, and 
 for the purposes of the most miscellaneous traffic 
 or of universal marts. Many remnants of the 
 former class still exist in various parts of Ireland, 
 particularly in the remote and most Romish dis- 
 tricts, under the name of " patterns" or patrons ; 
 and several gigantic remains of the latter exist 
 at Leipsic, Frankfort- on-the-Maine, and other 
 places on the Continent of Europe. The holiday 
 class gave rise to the very name of fair, which is 
 
 simply an anglicisement of feria, the Latin word 
 for holiday; and they probably imparted that 
 name to all sorts of stated concourses in the open 
 air, in consequence of the speedy and general 
 blending of holiday amusement with every kind 
 of business. So late as the second decad of the 
 16th century, fairs continued to be the principal 
 scenes of traffic in some districts of England 
 which are now studded with market towns ; and, 
 down to the present day, they continue to be the 
 grand marts for all merchandise in some of the 
 remote parts of the Scottish Highlands. 
 
 Some fairs of the present day differ little from 
 the Irish " patterns ;" but others are provincial 
 and almost national marts for farm-stock and 
 agricultural produce ; and most differ from re- 
 gular weekly markets, principally in being larger 
 and more infrequent. Almost all business fairs 
 possess importance to farmers ; and some consti- 
 tute their chief or perhaps their only opportuni- 
 ties of effecting profitable sales or purchases of 
 stock. Yet very few are sufficiently known be- 
 yond their immediate neighbourhood to do effi- 
 cient service to the general interests of agricul- 
 ture. Reports of them ought to be as minute, 
 exact, comprehensive, and in all respects statis- 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 473 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 tical as those of the best corn-markets; they 
 ought, in all cases of live stock, to state the 
 numbers usually exposed to sale, the precise 
 breeds which compose these numbers, the propor- 
 tions of the different breeds, the districts which 
 supply them, and the districts to which they are 
 driven ; and they oug'ht, in every instance, to be 
 made up by impartial, competent and authorized 
 individuals or bodies, so as to be free from the 
 mischievous colourings of prejudice and interest. 
 
 A fair cannot legally be held at any place with- 
 out either express permission from the Crown or 
 such prescriptive right as is supposed to rest on 
 some ancient grant which has passed out of record. 
 Yet any fair or market which has been statedly 
 held during twenty years becomes legal by mere 
 force of usage. A fee for leave to set up a stall 
 in any fair is due to the owner of the soil, and 
 may be recovered by him without the formality 
 of an agreement. The raising or propagating of 
 any false report with the view of forcing up 
 prices at a fair is an offence at common law. 
 Two old English statutes provide that the superior 
 of a fair shall maintain an open place for the sale 
 of horses, that a book-keeper shall be appointed 
 by him to receive tolls and make entries respect- 
 ing horses from two hours before mid-day till 
 sunset, and that this official shall note the par- 
 ticulars of each sale, including the marks of the 
 horse and the names of the seller and the pur- 
 chaser. 
 
 FALLOW. The cleaning and fertilizing of 
 land by a season of pulverization and of special 
 exposure to natural chemical action. 
 
 Theories of Fallowing. — The theories of fal- 
 lowing are exceedingly various, and in some 
 instances violently conflicting. A few well-in- 
 formed agriculturists regard all fallowing, in any 
 circumstances whatever, as useless and wasteful ; 
 a larger number regard it as useful in some cir- 
 cumstances, and mischievous in others ; and the 
 great majority, though on much diversity of 
 principle, and with wide differences of opinion 
 as to its precise operations, regard it as, in some 
 form or other, essential to the continuous fertility 
 or the periodical renovation of all arable land. 
 Some define fallowing, " the clearing of the land 
 from weeds, that the future crop, whatever may 
 be sown on it, may possess the whole energy and 
 strength of the soil." De Candolle defines it as 
 "consisting in this, — that every three or four 
 years, a certain portion of land is left completely 
 vacant, or, as it is said, at rest ; and this year of 
 rest is devoted to labours more or less multiplied." 
 Sir Humphrey Davy describes it as "a very an- 
 cient practice, still much employed, in which the 
 soil is exposed to the air, and submitted to pro- 
 cesses which are purely mechanical." Liebig 
 says, " Fallow, in its most extended sense, means 
 that period of culture during which a soil is ex- 
 posed to the action of the weather, for the pur- 
 pose of enriching it in certain soluble ingredients ; 
 
 in a more confined sense, the time of fallow may 
 be limited to the intervals in the cultivation 
 of cereal plants, — for a magazine of soluble sili- 
 cates and of alkalies is an essential condition to 
 the existence of such plants." Professor Rennie 
 says, " Light seems to be the principal agent in 
 benefiting land during the process of fallowing ; 
 and as the grass-bleacher must keep his linen 
 wetted or moist, to insure the full effects of the 
 sun's light in whitening his cloth, so must the 
 fallowing farmer have his ploughed land some- 
 what moist, to insure the full effect of the sun's 
 light in rendering the soil paler by decomposing 
 the dark excrementitious matter." Rham, less 
 speculatively, but with reference only to the 
 broadest varieties of the practice, defines fallow 
 as " a portion of land in which no seed is sown 
 for a whole year, in order that the soil may be 
 left exposed to the influence of the atmosphere, 
 the weeds destroyed by repeated ploughings and 
 harro wings, and the fertility improved at a less 
 expense of manure than it would be if a crop 
 had been raised upon it." Sir John Sinclair, 
 with the comprehensiveness of view which gen- 
 erally characterizes his agricultural descrip- 
 tions, treats a fallow as too multitudinous in its 
 modes of action, or as too diversified in both its 
 principles and its effects, to be reducible to any 
 summary definition. Not a few other distin- 
 guished writers might be quoted on fallowing, 
 some identifying its power with a single mode of 
 action, others extending its power over a vast 
 and very diversified range, and all differing more 
 or less from one another, and from those now 
 quoted, in their views of its precise nature and 
 effects. 
 
 Advantages of Fallowing. — Though all the al- 
 leged advantages of fallowing are denied by the 
 small number of agriculturists who condemn 
 the entire practice as useless, and though each 
 in turn is denied by some one or other of the 
 many conflicting theorists upon the subject, yet 
 the great majority are real, and possess more 
 or less importance, and deserve, for the sake of 
 making a due impression on the farmer's mind, 
 to be brought succinctly together into one view. 
 All, however, are not realized in any one set 
 of circumstances, or in each kind of fallowing ; 
 the greater number belong, in their full sweep, 
 either to the summer-fallowing of clays or the 
 green-crop fallowing of loams ; and a few, in cer- 
 tain peculiarities of soil and climate, and parti- 
 cularly on silicious lands with droughty weather, 
 pass totally from the character of advantages 
 into the opposite character of evils. 
 
 Mere rest to land permits the accumulation of 
 humus from the growth and decay of natural 
 herbage, the storing up of carbonaceous matter 
 by the fixation of carbonic acid from the atmo- 
 sphere, the disintegration of the alkaline and 
 aluminous principles of the soil, the reception of 
 nitrogenous matter from rain water and the 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 474 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 droppings of birds, the accumulation of phos- 
 phates, sulphates, and other products of animal 
 manure from the droppings and carcasses of 
 birds, vermin, and some smaller animals, and the 
 preparation of the specific food of wheat and 
 other choice agricultural plants by the general 
 combinations of the mineral disintegrants, the 
 organic deposits, and the atmospheric gases. The 
 most ancient and sacred fallow of all, therefore 
 • — that which the Divine Being enjoined in the 
 Mosaic law upon the Israelites, " Six years shalt 
 thou sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits 
 thereof, but the seventh year thou shalt let it 
 rest and lie still" — was mighty in benign ten- 
 dency, and combined, in the circumstances of 
 ancient Palestine, the play of a highly fertilizing 
 power with the practice of an exceedingly simple 
 cultivation. Many modern writers, indeed, deny 
 the beneficial effect of the resting of land ; and 
 some even speak of it with ridicule and derision. 
 Kent, for example, says, " Those who talk of rest- 
 ing land seem to consider it of the nature of an 
 animal, which undoubtedly must have rest as 
 well as food, to go through labour;" and Pro- 
 fessor Rennie, in the same strain, says, " Unless 
 we should fancifully endow the soil with nerves 
 and muscles; whose energy might be exhausted 
 by exertion, this doctrine of rest would never ac- 
 count in the slightest degree for the well-ascer- 
 tained effects of fallowing." But land resting in 
 fallow rests merely from cultivation ; it rests 
 only from the surrender of those scarce and 
 peculiar principles which nourish agricultural 
 plants, and which furnish through them the pro- 
 per food of the higher animals ; it rests princi- 
 pally from the evolution of phosphates, sulphates, 
 silicates, and ammonia; it does not rest abso- 
 lutely ; it conducts both its chemical and its vege- 
 tative process with as great and ceaseless activity 
 as ever ; it experiences change, not at all in the 
 amount, but only in the direction and the result 
 of its energies ; or, to allude to the metaphor of 
 Mr. Kent and Mr. Rennie, it suspends for a little 
 its exhausting labour, not that it may recruit 
 itself by sleeping, but that it may renovate itself 
 with feeding and with natural exercise. The 
 fertilizing power of the resting of land in this 
 sense — the only sense ever seriously thought of 
 — seems to us almost axiomatic, and may be 
 proved by the self-recovery of districts which had 
 been abandoned to desolation, — by the self-restor- 
 ation of lea-fields which had been over-cropped 
 and scourged to exhaustion, — by the concurrent 
 testimony of ancient husbandry among the Isra- 
 elites, the Greeks, and the Romans, — by the "per- 
 petual soils " of the American forests and prairies, 
 — by the progression of natural vegetation, from 
 the lichen or the sphagnum or the scanty herbage, 
 up to the richest grasses or the most massive 
 trees, — by the necessary and natural accumula- 
 tion of exuviae, animal deposits, and vegetable re- 
 mains, — by the nature of humus, — by the very 
 formation of soil, — by the original fixation from 
 
 the atmosphere of all the vast masses of carbon in 
 the crust of our world, — by the results of the dis- 
 integration of rocks, — and by nearly all the mighty 
 processes of natural chemistry which occur in 
 the mutual reactions of the earth and the atmo- 
 sphere. Sir Humphrey Davy, with a self-contra- 
 dictiousness, sadly out of keeping with his usual 
 style, asserts that fallowing acts in a purely me- 
 chanical manner, and that it " affords no new 
 source of riches to the soil," and immediately 
 adds, " It merely tends to produce an accumula- 
 tion of decomposing matter, which, in the com- 
 mon course of crops, would be employed as it is 
 formed." Merely produces this accumulation ! 
 Why this is everything which fertilization either 
 means or requires ; for, if his words have any 
 meaning, "the accumulation" effected by the 
 fallowing rest consists wholly of the very matters 
 which feed the ordinary crops of the farmer. Sir 
 Humphrey's general philosophy was too power- 
 ful for his particular theory upon the resting of 
 land ; and it burst up through that theory, and 
 welled over the top of it, in spite apparently of 
 his very consciousness. Theorists may say what 
 they please ; but practical men, from the most 
 scientific farmers of Norfolk or the Lothians 
 down to the bog-trotters and the con-acre-men 
 of Ireland, know that the resting of land is fer- 
 tilizing. " Vegetable aliment," says Brown in his 
 Report of Derbyshire, " can only be restored by 
 fallowing and rest" "Every good "Wiltshire 
 farmer," remarks Davies in his Report of Wilt- 
 shire, " will say that, upon the downs, two years' 
 rest for wheat is equal to the best coat of dung. 
 Dung may give the quantity, but rest must give 
 the quality." 
 
 The destruction of weeds by all the varieties 
 of broken or tillage fallowing is regarded as one 
 of their chief advantages by most agriculturists, 
 and as their sole, or almost their sole, advantage 
 by some. Marshall says, " Be it known even to 
 all men, the main purport of fallowing is to de- 
 stroy weeds;" and many distinguished writers 
 hold precisely similar language. The perfect facil- 
 ity which the turnip husbandry affords for keep- 
 ing light soils in a state of constant cleanness, 
 and for destroying all weeds upon them in the 
 mid-summer season of their rankest growth, is 
 the reason why the alternation of green crops 
 with white crops upon such soils serves the same 
 purposes as naked or summer fallowing upon 
 heavy, clayey, wheat soils ; so that the destruc- 
 tion of weeds is a circumstance so controlling as 
 to determine the specific character of tillage fal- 
 lows, or to divide them into the two great classes 
 of naked and green, in adaptation to the two 
 great prevailing classes of arable lands. Yet a 
 few agriculturists regard the destruction of weeds 
 by fallowing as either uneconomical or altogether 
 chimerical. Brown of Markle, for example, con- 
 tends that one hand-picking will destroy more 
 weeds than two ploughings ; and Lawrence, the 
 author of the New Farmer's Calendar, maintains 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 475 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 that couch-grass, one of the very worst weeds 
 which infest our corn-fields, is actually propa- 
 gated by fallowing. But nearly all the worst 
 weeds, including couch-grass, docks, coltsfoot, 
 and the perennial thistles, cannot be hand-picked 
 at all, and either strike their roots too deep or 
 ramify their radicles too broadly to be even un- 
 seated by any process short of an upturning and 
 pulverizing of the whole body of the soil ; and 
 any weeds, such as couch-grass, which resist the 
 destroying efforts of a single season's fallowing, 
 can be subdued only by a subsequent smother- 
 ing with grass, so as to prove the necessity of 
 prolonging the tillage fallow into a fallow of rest, 
 and of aiding the latter with an artificial sowing 
 of pasture-grasses. Inefficiency of fallowing to 
 destroy weeds is frequently alleged by supine 
 farmers and superficial observers; yet the real 
 inefficiency, in any case in which it seems to oc- 
 cur, is, not at all in the principles or the intrin- 
 sic power of the fallowing, but in the slovenli- 
 ness, the incompleteness, or the brevity of the 
 operations. " Whenever a state of foulness or a 
 want of tillage returns," remarks Marshall, " he 
 must be an ignorant or an improvident husband- 
 man, and unfit to partake in the cultivation of a 
 circumscribed territory, who neglects to repeat 
 the operation of fallowing, — not by merely sum- 
 mer-fallowing, but by continuing a course of til- 
 lage, through every season of the year. The 
 great and prevalent error in fallowing, is that of 
 closing the operation when it is barely beginning 
 to produce the required effect. The root-weeds 
 having broken into sets, and the seeds of weeds 
 released from their confinement, they are left 
 alive in the soil to propagate their respective 
 species, and contend with the crop to be placed 
 in conflict with them. One ploughing toward 
 the finishing of a fallow, may be more radically 
 efficacious in regard to the complete extirpation 
 of weeds, than three or four at its commencement; 
 — a regenerating process this, which, in a course 
 of years, will do more for the occupier, the pro- 
 prietor, and the community, than all the plausi- 
 ble schemes of amateurs, listeners, and superficial 
 observers, added to all the quackery of interested 
 individuals, that has so long been poisoning the 
 minds, and debasing the practice, of inexperienced 
 occupiers." 
 
 The other advantages of tillage fallow may be 
 briefly enumerated. The soil is pulverized, 
 mellowed, and rendered thoroughly friable and 
 porous. The roots and other remains of vege- 
 tables are converted into soluble food for succeed- 
 ing crops. The eggs, embryos, and burrowing 
 adults of insects, molluscs, and the other small 
 animal pests of the field, are destroyed partly by 
 mechanical and chemical actions, and partly by 
 exposing them to the attacks of rooks and of 
 other birds. All obstructions to perfect tillage 
 may be readily removed ; and the surface so 
 levelled and adjusted as to prevent the stagna- 
 tion of water, to facilitate future culture, and to 
 
 maintain friability and porosity in the soil. Full 
 opportunity is afforded for the application, and 
 fair scope given for the chemical action, of caus- 
 tic lime or of other mineral manures. Oppor- 
 tunity is afforded also for improving the me- 
 chanical condition of the soil by the intermixa- 
 tion of sand with clay, of clay with sand, or of 
 calcareous matter with excess of undecomposed 
 vegetable remains. Facility is afforded for the 
 early and effective sowing of winter wheat. A 
 predisposition is imparted to the soil, by the 
 state of its tilth, by the reduction of its humus, 
 and by its freedom from the white snail, to pro- 
 duce after wheat an abundant crop of clover. So 
 great an enrichment of the land is effected by 
 the disintegration of its mineral constituents, 
 the dissolving of its organic remains, the increase 
 of its digestive powers, and the general results 
 within it of chemical and electric action, that 
 one-half of the manure which would otherwise 
 be required, and in some instances less than one- 
 half, is sufficient for the. luxuriant growth of all 
 the crops of the following rotation. " This," re- 
 marks Sir John Sinclair, "is an object of much 
 importance, — a scarcity of manure being the 
 greatest evil with which the arable farmer has 
 to contend ; and this fully compensates for the 
 want of a crop, which is so strongly urged against 
 the fallow system." The accumulation of the 
 saline food of the cereal grasses, from mineral 
 disintegration and chemical action, is the same 
 as in the fallow of mere rest, but vastly greater 
 in amount. " It is quite certain," says Liebig, 
 " that careful ploughing and breaking up of the 
 soil, by producing the change and increase of its 
 surface, exercise a very favourable influence on 
 its fertility; but these mechanical operations are 
 only means to an end. In the effects produced 
 by time, particularly in the case of fallow, or that 
 period during which a field remains at rest, 
 science recognises certain chemical actions, which 
 proceed continuously by means of the influence 
 exercised by the constituents of the atmosphere 
 upon the surface of the soil. By the action of 
 the carbonic acid and oxygen in the air, aided by 
 moisture and by rain-water, the power of dissolv- 
 ing in water is given to certain constituents of 
 rocks, or of their debris, from which arable land 
 is formed ; these ingredients, in consequence of 
 their solubility, become separated from the in- 
 soluble constituents. These chemical actions 
 serve to explain the effects produced by the hand 
 of time, which destroys human structures, and 
 converts gradually the hardest* rocks into dust. 
 It is by their influence that certain ingredients 
 of arable lands become fit for assimilation by 
 plants ; and the object of the mechanical opera- 
 tions of the farm is to obtain this result. Their 
 action consists in accelerating the weathering or 
 disintegration of the soil, and thus offers to a 
 new generation of plants their necessary consti- 
 tuents, in a form fit for reception. The celerity 
 of the disintegration of a solid body must be in 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 proportion to its surface; for the more points 
 which we expose to the action of the destructive 
 agencies, the more rapidly will their effects be 
 produced." Advantages of greater or less im- 
 portance result also from the free play of light 
 upon the frequently altered surfaces of the soil, 
 from the dissipation of the odorous or hydro-car- 
 buretted matters of the excretions of plants, and 
 from the thorough intermixation of the portions 
 of soil which long lay farthest removed from light 
 and air with the portions which lay correspond- 
 ingly long at the surface. The melioration of the 
 soil by the various kinds of chemical action was 
 rather conjectured than known by the former 
 generation of agriculturists, and was pronounced 
 by Sir John Sinclair to " belong to theoretic 
 reasonings and deductions." " This much, how- 
 ever," says that eminent agriculturist, " is cer- 
 tain, that the soil, after a well-wrought fallow, 
 has a mellow and fertile appearance familiar to 
 every experienced husbandman, while that which 
 has only been ploughed up after carrying repeated 
 grain crops, or which has been carelessly and in- 
 efficiently fallowed, has a close, coarse, and sterile 
 appearance to the eye. The difference between 
 the crops produced on land managed in these 
 several manners, is not less distinct and remark- 
 able ; as, all other things being equal, the well 
 fallowed soil produces a healthy, vigorous, and 
 abundant crop of grain, comparatively free from 
 weeds; while the crop produced on the other is 
 weak and scanty, and often overwhelmed by a 
 multiplicity of weeds, disgraceful to the cultiva- 
 tor, and injurious to his interest." 
 
 The Different Kinds of Fallows. — The mere rest- 
 ing of land continues to be practised only in rude 
 states of husbandry ; and is very seldom adverted 
 to in the fallow-classifications of the modern or 
 improved system of agriculture. — The continua- 
 tion of a fallow through several years, in any kind 
 of alternate husbandry, is called a laying down 
 to grass ; and comprises all the fertilizing forces 
 of preparatory tillage, of artificial sowing of 
 grasses, of choking vivacious weeds beneath a 
 luxuriant growth of gramineous herbage, of ac- 
 cumulating a profusion of humus from the de- 
 caying roots of the grasses, of storing up manu- 
 rial matter from the droppings of animals, and 
 of concentrating many of the advantages of the 
 old and simple fallow-rest. This complicated and 
 powerfully enriching variety of fallow is totally 
 unknown on many of the best tillage-lands of 
 England, and is regarded by not a few agricul- 
 turists as quite at war with the highest principles 
 and the most remunerating practices of rota- 
 tional husbandry ; but it is extensively practised 
 throughout the lowlands of Scotland, as well as 
 in some other districts, and has been found, on 
 all the poor and the second -rate varieties of arable 
 land, to comport, in a long course of years, with 
 more profitable returns than the very best sys- 
 tems of either permanent pasture, or perpetual 
 tillage. About 30 years ago, after a special and 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 very extensive inquiry had been made upon the 
 subject, the President of the Board of Agricul- 
 ture expressed a decided opinion, that a much 
 larger proportion of the United Kingdom than 
 was then so cultivated might be profitably sub- 
 jected to the alternate system of husbandry, or 
 transferred from grass to tillage, and then re- 
 stored to grass. See the articles Grass-Lands 
 and Rotation of Crops. 
 
 A bare, a naked, or a summer fallow ploughs 
 up the land immediately after harvest, subjects 
 it to a series of cleaning and pulverizing opera- 
 tions throughout winter, spring, and summer, and 
 usually terminates in the sowing of wheat in the 
 following autumn. This is fallow par excellence; 
 and is frequently spoken of with as peculiar an em- 
 phasis as if no other kind of fallow were known. — 
 A green fallow treats the land on the same prin- 
 ciples and throughout the same length of time as 
 the summer fallow ; but, instead of keeping it 
 entirely unoccupied, it makes a sowing of some 
 green crop in spring, and renders the hoeing or 
 the general after-culture of that crop an equiva- 
 lent for the summer portion of the fallowing 
 operations. This fallow is an essential and very 
 prominent member, and very generally a repeat- 
 ing one, in all good rotations on every description 
 of dry arable land ; and it even, in a very great 
 degree, has given complexion or distinctive char- 
 acter to all the best varieties of modern husbandry ; 
 yet, in consequence of its involving as regular 
 cropping as the constant cultivation of grain, 
 it is often mentioned without any reference to 
 its effects as a fallow, and regarded as simply 
 green-crop culture. — A bastard fallow sows win- 
 ter-tares or some similar crop after the autumn 
 ploughing, clears away the crop by eating-off or 
 otherwise in spring, cleans and works the ground 
 in summer, and ends, like naked fallow, with an 
 autumnal sowing of wheat. This not only cur- 
 tails the time and abridges the cleaning opera- 
 tions of a naked fallow, but mars the large and 
 important portion of the chemical action proper 
 to the frosts of winter, and maintains during one 
 half of the period of the fallow the very opposite 
 of those influences upon the soil which are at 
 play in a fallow-rest ; and it abundantly deserves 
 its ignominious epithet of " bastard." — A spring 
 fallow is simply an ordinary course of tillage, 
 profusely given, vigorously plied, prolonged far 
 into spring, and immediately followed by the 
 sowing and cropping of barley. The sole amount 
 of it is taking advantage of the late sowing period 
 of barley to give the land a better and a longer 
 tilth than in years devoted to other crops. But, 
 except for dragging out some of the roughest of 
 the weeds, and giving the soil a somewhat better 
 pulverization than usual, it cannot be regarded 
 as having any fallow-power. — An autumn fallow 
 is simply a good working of the land, in favour- 
 able circumstances of soil and weather, between 
 the harvesting of the summer-crop and the sow- 
 ing of winter-wheat ; and is, in no true sense of 
 
 476 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 477 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 the word, any fallow whatever. — A rag-fallow is 
 a tearing-up and pulverizing of lea-land in sum- 
 mer, in preparation for the autumnal sowing of 
 wheat. It is practised chiefly in Scotland, and 
 seldom even there by any farmer who gives good 
 usage to his land ; it involves a risk of rendering 
 the soil too loose for the wheat ; and, in any in- 
 stances in which it might seem to be necessary, 
 it may, with the best possible effect, be superseded 
 by single-furrow ploughing and the use of the 
 presser-roller. 
 
 History of Fallows. — In all ordinary cultivation, 
 the ancient Romans appear to have regularly al- 
 ternated crop and fallow. Virgil recommends 
 that fallow lands, when cropped, should be allowed 
 to rest every other year ; and several Roman 
 writers distinctly imply, or almost expressly say, 
 that farmers usually depended on crops taken 
 alternately with fallow, and that, in rare in- 
 stances, they sowed seed upon land that had 
 carried a crop the preceding year, only from 
 necessity or with the view of raising an extra 
 supply of fodder. Virgil, according to Trapp's 
 translation of him, says, 
 
 " Alternate, too, thou shalt permit to rest 
 The late shorn fallows, and the idle mould 
 To harden." 
 
 And again, 
 
 " That tilth at last rewards the greedy hind, 
 And answers all his hopes, which twice has felt 
 The sun and twice the frost : by this manure 
 Harvests immense shall burst his crowded barns." 
 
 The ancient Roman practice seems to have 
 been early introduced to England and other 
 countries which were subdued by the Romans ; 
 and it continues to the present day to be ob- 
 served throughout large districts of continental 
 Europe. A barbarous and singular variety of 
 prolonged fallow-rest, or of alternate exhaustion 
 by a series of unmanured cropping and fertiliza- 
 tion by long abandonment to the influences of 
 natural chemistry and indigenous vegetation, 
 prevailed in Scotland from the dawn of record, 
 and still survives in a few vestiges round the 
 Highland and Hebridean outskirts of the coun- 
 try. But any kind of worked fallow, or fallow 
 in any sense similar to that of the Romans, the 
 English, and the modern continental Europeans, 
 was unknown in Scotland till about the begin- 
 ning of the 18th century. The first Scottish in- 
 stance of preparing for a cereal crop by frequent 
 ploughings and harro wings was practised by John 
 Walker of Beanston in East Lothian, upon a field 
 which is still pointed out to the curious. But 
 many other farmers speedily imitated his ex- 
 ample ; most in his vicinity fell into the custom 
 of giving a summer fallow to strong soils every 
 fifth or sixth year ; and about the close of the 
 first quarter of last century, the practice of sum- 
 mer-fallowing was an established usage of all the 
 best kinds of Scottish misandry. 
 
 The summer fallow, in frequent or periodical 
 occurrence, and in an entirely unmodified form, 
 
 was long identified, not in Scotland only but in 
 other countries, with the improved or rotational 
 method of agriculture. The grand objection to 
 it was the great cost of labour, unaccompanied 
 for a whole year with even the slightest return 
 of produce; but this was everywhere adjudged 
 to be compensated by the great enrichment of 
 the soil, and by the corresponding luxuriance 
 and value of the succeeding crops. But when 
 the rent of land became increased, when the ex- 
 penses of cultivation became augmented, and 
 when the productions of the soil permanently 
 rose in value, farmers began to grudge the cost 
 and the immediate unproductiveness of the sum- 
 mer fallow, and to inquire whether it might not 
 be abrogated, or whether at least it might not 
 give place to some cheaper and equally effective 
 substitute. A number of enthusiastic agricul- 
 turists made total war upon the fallow, assailed 
 it by a variety of conflicting theories, conducted 
 experiments with a view to prove its uselessness, 
 and became known to the agricultural world as 
 a kind of sect under the designation of anti- 
 fallowists ; and some stray descendants of this 
 sect may perhaps still be found, advocating the 
 somewhat recent anti-fallow theories of Grey and 
 Beatson. But though the anti- fallow system 
 bubbled up and died away like froth, the sub- 
 stitute-fallow system shared a very different fate, 
 and has become firmly and generally established 
 as one of the happiest inventions of agricultural 
 genius. The cultivation of turnips and clover, 
 as a substitute for bare fallow, was tried first, 
 and with great success, on the light soils of Bel- 
 gium and the Netherlands ; it was practised next, 
 and with triumphant results, on the light soils 
 of Norfolk ; and it rapidly spread thence into the 
 light soils of most parts of Britain, and has even- 
 tually intermixed itself more or less with the 
 rotational husbandry of even clay lands. " The 
 advantage of the turnip culture," remarks Mr. 
 Rham, "is so great in light lands, that it has 
 gradually been extended through the different 
 gradations of loams, till it has reached even the 
 colder and stiffer clays, on which it would at one 
 time have been thought absurd to attempt to 
 raise this root. But this has been attended with 
 an important benefit. It has made the cultiva- 
 tors of heavy soils turn their attention to the 
 drying of their lands, by draining and deep til- 
 lage, in order to make them capable of bearing 
 turnips ; and although the extended culture of 
 this useful root is not what we should recom- 
 mend for cold wet clays, we highly approve of 
 all improvements which will make such lands 
 capable of bearing good crops of turnips. Unless 
 the turnips can be consumed by sheep on the 
 spot, or by cattle near at hand, without injuring 
 the land in taking off the turnips and carting on 
 the manure, there will be no great advantage in 
 a crop of turnips ; and some other substitute 
 must be found for the occasional fallow before it 
 can be altogether abandoned. On light lands, 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 478 
 
 FALLOW 
 
 the preparation for the turnips, the abundant 
 manuring, and subsequent hoeing, are as effectual 
 in cleaning the land and bringing it into a fer- 
 tile state as any complete fallow could ever be ; 
 and the clover smothers and destroys the seed 
 weeds which may have come up amongst the 
 barley or oats sown after the turnips." Yet the 
 general excellence of green fallow on even light 
 lands, and especially on loams and clays, is 
 abridged and controlled by important limitations, 
 which will be noticed in a subsequent paragraph 
 on the necessity of summer-fallowing. 
 
 The Green Fallow. — All crops which, during 
 the period of their growth, permit the ground to 
 be cleaned and worked nearly as much as in bare 
 summer-fallowing, might, at first sight, appear 
 fully and equally adapted to the purposes of a 
 green-fallow ; and, if the destruction of weeds 
 were the only object to be attained, they really 
 would be equally adapted. But, in consequence 
 of the various nourishment which they abstract, 
 of the different excretional and manuring de- 
 posits which they make, and of the widely dif- 
 ferent circumstances of culture which they re- 
 quire, some either possess very inferior adaptation 
 to others, or derive all their ameliorating pro- 
 perties from the accompaniments of their culture. 
 All cultivated crops, whether green or cereal, 
 naturally act exhaustingly upon the soil ; and 
 the crops of a green-fallow are made to act in an 
 opposite way, either by being hindered from seed- 
 ing, or by being sown upon a profusion of dur- 
 able manure, or by having most of their sub- 
 stance returned back upon the soil, or by such a 
 consuming of them where they grow as occasions 
 great enrichment of the land from the droppings 
 and the treading of sheep and cattle. 
 
 All or very nearly all known plants impoverish 
 soil principally during the period of their form- 
 ing and maturing their seeds ; and the cereal 
 grasses owe their chief exhausting effect to the 
 circumstance of their being grown mainly for 
 sake of their seeds ; while the best of the fallow- 
 crops are hindered from acting impoverishingly, 
 in consequence of their being grown for the suc- 
 culent food of either their roots, their leaves, or 
 their stems. The turnip is by far the best of the 
 fallow-crops, and affords, in the circumstances of 
 its culture, the clearest and most complete ex- 
 ample of the whole process of working the green- 
 fallow ; yet it is not permitted to form its seeds 
 or even to send up its fiower-stem, — it returns a 
 large portion of its bulk directly back to the 
 soil, — it admits of any apportioning of durable 
 manure which may seem desirable for the sub- 
 sequent crops of the rotation, — and, whenever 
 the conditions of the soil require consolidation or 
 special enrichment, it can be eaten off by sheep, 
 so as to occasion the land to be compressed by 
 the contacts of their feet and bodies, and man- 
 ured with both their solid and their liquid ex- 
 crements. But if it were incapable of these 
 accompaniments, and especially if it were allowed 
 
 to remain on the ground till it formed and ma- 
 tured its seeds, even this excellent plant, in 
 spite of the most sedulous hoeings and pulver- 
 izings which could be given, would lose its main 
 value as a fallow-crop, and leave the land in a 
 state too exhausted to produce a remunerating 
 crop of wheat, or at least too poor to maintain 
 any ordinary course of rotational cropping. See 
 the article Turnip. 
 
 The beet, the carrot, and the parsnip are equal 
 to the turnip in facilities for manuring and work- 
 ing the soil, and in freedom from the forming of 
 seed or of flower-stem, but are far inferior to it 
 in the manner of harvesting, or in adaptation 
 to consumption on the field. The cabbage, the 
 borecole, the rape, and the cole, when cultivated 
 solely for their leaves, are ameliorating ; but 
 when cultivated for their seeds, are exceedingly 
 exhausting. The potato, in the era of its health 
 and vigour, always expanded a profusion of blos- 
 som, and matured a corresponding profusion of 
 seed, and it therefore was intrinsically, and in 
 a very great degree, an exhausting crop ; yet, in 
 the usual methods and circumstances of its cul- 
 tivation, with an enormous mass of the richest 
 compost or farm-yard manure, with an abun- 
 dance of deep and vigorous stirring of the soil, 
 and with a return upon the land of all its haulm, 
 and especially of all its seeds, it acted ameliorat- 
 ingly, and was far from being a bad fallow-crop. 
 
 Clover when used for herbage, or cut early for 
 fodder, is ameliorating ; but when cultivated for 
 its seeds, is exhausting. The bean is always 
 allowed to mature its seeds ; and as it elaborates 
 within these some of the rarest and choicest 
 proximate principles of the seeds of the cereal 
 grasses, it might seem to be outrageously unfit 
 for the purposes of a green-fallow ; but with a 
 profusion of rich, short, farm-yard manure pre- 
 ceding or immediately following it, with such 
 wide drills as afford the amplest scope for all the 
 operations of cleaning and pulverizing, and upon 
 such clay soils as abound in alumina, and require 
 every appliance for the increase of their poro- 
 sity, it is found to be sufficiently ameliorating 
 to serve as a frequent fallow-crop ; yet even in 
 these circumstances, or in the most favourable 
 varieties of them, it requires to be occasionally 
 substituted by a bare summer -fallow. Other 
 leguminous plants act exhaustingly or ameliorat- 
 ingly according as they do or do not form their 
 seeds. Hemp and flax, in all the ordinary 
 methods in which they have hitherto been cul- 
 tivated, are absolute scourges, and cannot alter- 
 nate with the cereal grasses ; yet when taken 
 up early, they are less hurtful ; and if all the 
 scutchings, the seed, and the steep-water of flax 
 were carefully collected and returned to the 
 soil, so that nothing should be carried aw ay 
 from the land but the substance of the fibre, 
 flax would have no impoverishing effect, and 
 might become a highly remunerating fallow-crop. 
 Grievously little attention has hitherto been 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 479 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 paid, in the selection either of the fallow-plant 
 itself or of the manure for it, to the precise 
 proximate principles which are abstracted from 
 the soil or added to it ; and if a nice calculation 
 were made of the changes which respectively a 
 bare fallow and any given green -fallow effect 
 upon the soil, and care were used so to adjust 
 the latter, through the quality of the plant, of 
 the manure for it, or of the harvest treatment of 
 it, as to make it quite or nearly coincide with the 
 former, then would the triumph of green-fallow 
 as a substitute for bare-fallow be complete. The 
 great mistakes hitherto have been to overlook 
 the disturbance of the chemical action of the 
 bare-fallow by the growth of the fallow-crop, — to 
 keep out of view the compound living action, 
 secretional, excretional, electric, and otherwise, 
 of the growing plants, — to make no adaptation 
 of the kind or quality of the manure to the 
 special necessities of the soil, — and to ascribe the 
 efficacy of fallowing, rather to the mechanical 
 operations upon the soil, than to the chemical 
 influences which these accelerate or call into 
 play. 
 
 Necessity for Summer-Fallowing. — A green fal- 
 low, particularly with a simple alternation of the 
 turnip and red clover, was long regarded by 
 many agriculturists, and is still regarded by a 
 few, as quite sufficient to render summer-fallow- 
 ing for ever unnecessary on all sandy soils and 
 light loams. But though the turnip fallow has 
 successfully maintained unceasing cultivation 
 for a long course of years on some peculiarly 
 situated light lands, — though it serves as an 
 excellent substitute for summer- fallow during 
 periods of six or eight or even ten years on many 
 kinds of loam, — and though, with the aids of 
 abundant of putrescent manure, and the most 
 efficient thorough-draining, it can profitably keep 
 up a course of constant cultivation during five 
 or six years on even very stiff clay land ; yet, in 
 the present state of agricultural practice, it has 
 been found, in the concurrent experience of the 
 very best farmers, utterly incompetent to super- 
 sede summer-fallowing more than during a single 
 rotation on clay lands, or more than during two 
 rotations on ordinary or even light loams. Per- 
 petual cultivation is a very pretty theory, and, in 
 a maturer state of agricultural knowledge, may 
 probably become a still prettier practice ; but it 
 has hitherto been maintained on speculative prin- 
 ciples which are at war both with recent dis- 
 coveries of science, and with the eventual find- 
 ings of experience. Gardeners, indeed, may, at 
 first sight, appear to keep their plots of ground 
 in perpetual cultivation ; but they apply a vast 
 amount of rich and very compound manure, they 
 allow exceedingly few of their plants to run to 
 seed, they carry off in the shape of produce little 
 other matter than the plants have elaborated out 
 of the elements of air and water, and they keep 
 up far more than the normal amount of chemi- 
 cal action within the soil by frequent digging, 
 
 thorough pulverization, and constant aeration ; 
 and yet, in spite of all these enormous advan- 
 tages above such as can be embodied in farming, 
 they are still obliged to practise something like 
 summer-fallowing ; for, at stated periods of six 
 or even four or three years, they dig the ground 
 a double spit of the spade in depth, and lay it up 
 in winter to the frost. 
 
 The chemical ameliorations effected by sum- 
 mer-fallowing, have, as already hinted, but a 
 partial counterpart in those of green-fallowing ; 
 and the principles abstracted or modified or pre- 
 vented from forming by the green crop, are 
 sometimes very inadequately supplied, or per- 
 haps not supplied at all, by the accompanying 
 manure. But even the mechanical operations of 
 the green-fallow are almost always most mis- 
 chievously abridged in the case of fallow-crops 
 which require to be sown in the middle of 
 spring, and sometimes not a little curtailed or 
 marred in the case of the very favourable and 
 late-sown turnips. " On strong clay soils, and on 
 lighter soils on retentive bottoms, it is impossible 
 to begin work early in spring in any season, and 
 particularly in a wet one ; and if the succeeding 
 weather becomes very dry, which is frequently 
 the case in this country in March, such land gets 
 so hard, that the pulverization of the soil, by 
 harrowing and rolling, which are necessary for 
 effectual cleaning, cannot be accomplished in 
 time for the turnip crop ; especially as it is found 
 that a rapid succession of similar operations, on 
 the same piece of ground, does not work the 
 land so beneficially as the same quantity of la- 
 bour bestowed at intervals would do. Light and 
 air must get time to unite with the soil ; and these 
 elements are necessary ingredients in the food of 
 plants. That the season for sowing the green 
 crop may not be lost, it must be sown in what- 
 ever state the land may be, if sown at all, on 
 strong lands." 
 
 The Agricultural Report of Mid-Lothian states 
 that summer -fallowing is infrequent on light 
 dry soils, but that when repeated at intervals of 
 about seven years on wet or heavy lands, it oc- 
 casions a greater amount of aggregate profit than 
 the constant use of the green-fallow. The Re- 
 ports of Staffordshire and Kent state, that sum- 
 mer-fallowing for wheat on cold, wet, or strong 
 lands, is indispensable to the prevention of serious 
 loss. The communications of the Rev. Mr. Head- 
 rick to the Board of Agriculture state, that strong 
 clays require a more frequent repetition of sum- 
 mer-fallow than soils which are dry and friable. 
 "No reasons, however ingenious, for the omission 
 of fallowing," says Cleghorn, " can bring convic- 
 tion to the mind of the farmer, who, in spite of 
 all his exertions, finds, at the end of six or eight 
 years, that his land is full of weeds, sour, and 
 comparatively unproductive. Drilled and horse- 
 hoed green-crops, though cultivated with advan- 
 tage on almost every soil, are probably in general 
 unprofitable as a substitute for fallow, and, after 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 480 
 
 a time, altogether inefficient. It is not because 
 turnips, cabbages, &c, will not grow on such 
 soils, that a fallow is resorted to ; but because, 
 taking a course of years, the value of successive 
 crops is found to be so much greater, even though 
 an unproductive year is interposed, as to induce 
 a preference to fallowing." " Let theoretical 
 writers say what they please," says a writer in 
 the second volume of the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture, — we believe Mr. Henry Stephens, — 
 " and let the expedients of man be what they 
 may in extraordinary circumstances, no man can 
 maintain the fertility and of course the produc- 
 tive powers of his farm, of whatever nature the 
 soil of it may be, for any length of time, and ex- 
 clude bare-fallowing from the rotation. Let him 
 be as clever a farmer as ever had the manage- 
 ment of land, he cannot possibly keep his land 
 clean in this humid climate by continual crop- 
 ping, a climate which exhibits little fine weather 
 in spring. All the art of husbandmen cannot 
 possibly avert the injurious effects of a precari- 
 ous climate. That art has undoubtedly accom- 
 plished a great deal to ameliorate the climate, 
 but it has its power limited like every other ; and 
 here summer-fallowing seems to be a sine qua non 
 in the rotation of British and Irish husbandry." 
 
 Operations of Summer-Fallowing. — The first 
 ploughing must be given in autumn and before 
 winter. The objects of it are to smother the sur- 
 face weeds, which would grow in mild weather 
 even in winter, and to expose the lower parts of 
 the soil and the roots of perennial weeds to the 
 frost, by turning up the bottom of the furrow- 
 slice to the air. S tubble land in a green or moist 
 condition is cut clean with the coulter, and 
 turned over uniformly and unbrokenly with the 
 mould-board ; but land which has become dry 
 and hard occasions very severel abour to the team, 
 yields its furrow-slice in a broken and jagged 
 manner, and is so irregularly raised from the 
 bottom as to make the surface of the subsoil ser- 
 rated, and to dispose it for intercepting the per- 
 colations of water. If, therefore, the weather in 
 autumn be so dry as to harden the land, the 
 breaking up of the stubble should be postponed 
 till the soil becomes moistened with rain. The 
 laying of the ridges may be done in any one of 
 several ways ; but it ought, in each instance, to 
 be adapted to the character and slope of the 
 land, and to the keeping of it dry during the 
 months of winter ; and, in whatever form it is 
 done, it must continue in that form till spring. 
 An excellent method in many circumstances, is to 
 cleave with open furrows ; and good practice in 
 some circumstances gathers the ridges, and in 
 others casts them. " The advantages of plough- 
 ing on good principles are obtained, in the great- 
 est degree, by placing the furrow-slice at an 
 angle of 45° with the horizon ; and yet a prac- 
 tice prevails in many places, which decidedly 
 runs counter with this principle, and that is, — 
 of laying a loosened furrow right on its back 
 
 over the surface of a rib of land which is left un- 
 touched by the plough. The appearance of this 
 kind of work is that of very ill-made drills. A 
 free soil, in clean condition, which is not wished 
 to be much affected by frost, may be usefully 
 ploughed in this manner, for the purpose of 
 keeping part of the land firm ; but, while the 
 furrow-slice receives all the benefit of the action 
 of the atmosphere, the part upon which it rests 
 is prevented from receiving any advantage. 
 These ribs are generally made across the ridges, 
 or at an angle with them ; and, on strong land, 
 they form a sort of receptacle for surface-water. 
 This practice deserves, on every account, to be 
 condemned. Light land, on open bottoms, may 
 be advantageously ploughed, crown and furrow, 
 to lie all winter ; that is, what is the crown of 
 the ridge at one time is made the furrow at an- 
 other. Surface-water will not remain so long on 
 such lands as to do them harm, but may assist 
 to consolidate them, and even to irrigate them. 
 Strong clay-lands, on the other hand, cannot be 
 kept too dry in winter ; and, as their ridges have 
 a considerable roundness, the best succeeding 
 furrow that can be given is to cleave down the 
 gathered up ridges, that is, the open furrow of 
 the rounded ridge is still kept the open furrow 
 of the cloven ridge, while the crown of the 
 rounded ridge is made the middle furrow of the 
 cloven ridge, the rounded ridge being, in fact, 
 cloven or split in two. The furrow-slices of a 
 rounded ridge meet from both open furrows in 
 the crown ; whilst the furrow-slices of a cloven 
 ridge depart from the crown to both open fur- 
 rows, where they are prevented closing up the 
 open furrows by the plough passing up between 
 the furrow-slices, which would otherwise meet 
 from two contiguous ridges." 
 
 The second ploughing is given in spring, and 
 ought not, even amid the utmost exigencies of that 
 busy period, to be delayed beyond the early part 
 of May. On all dry soils, whether sand, loam, or 
 thorough-drained and well-mellowed clay, this 
 ploughing should be done across the former one, 
 or as nearly as possible at right angles to it ; for, 
 in this manner, it most easily cuts the land in 
 pieces, lays open the greatest possible amount of 
 surface to the action of the air and light and 
 weather, and gives the strongest practicable check 
 to the growth of surface weeds and the ramifying 
 of deep-rooted ones. The land thus treated ap- 
 pears to the inexperienced eye to be a confused 
 aggregation of lumps of earth ; yet, on account 
 of its very fracturedness and disseverment, it en- 
 joys far more advantage than if it had a smooth 
 and even surface. On stiff, wet land, however, 
 the spring ploughing should be done in the di- 
 rection of the former ridges, — for if heavy rains 
 were to fall upon such land in the broken and 
 dissevered state of the cross-ploughing, they 
 might so saturate it as to render the subsequent 
 operations exceedingly difficult and comparative- 
 ly inefficient ; and when the spring-ploughing is 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 481 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 thus given in the same direction as the winter- 
 ploughing, a third ploughing becomes necessary ; 
 and this must be given across the ridges, and 
 early in June. The land, after receiving its 
 cross-ploughing, whether that operation be the 
 second or the third of the series, must be un- 
 touched till, in provincial phrase, it becomes 
 " rizzared," or acquires a sufficiently dry condi- 
 tion to be readily pulverized by the harrows, yet 
 without being so hardened as in any degree to 
 resist their action. 
 
 The next operation is harrowing by repeated 
 double turns, each double turn at right angles 
 with the preceding one, and the number of double 
 turns three, four, five, or more according to the 
 condition of the land. On stiff soils, with hard 
 and unyielding clods, a heavy roller must, when 
 necessary, precede the harrows in order that it 
 may so bruise the indurated masses of earth as 
 to let the teeth of the harrows freely act upon 
 them. Rolling cloddy land at this season, when 
 the soil is firm and resistive, has always an excel- 
 lent effect ; but when postponed till the soil has 
 become greatly pulverized by abundant working, 
 it does not break the clods but presses them into 
 the soft soil, and removes such seeds and roots of 
 weeds as they may contain beyond the reach of 
 the harrows. The grubber also may, at this time, 
 be very advantageously employed, for aiding the 
 great process of pulverization. At every turn of 
 the harrowing, all roots and fibres of weeds 
 brought to the surface must be carefully picked 
 up by hand, and gathered into a line of heaps, 
 and then forked or thrown into a cart passing 
 along the line, and conveyed off the ground to 
 be mixed with lime, and decomposed into a com- 
 post for manurial use in the following year. The 
 burning of the weeds on the spot is a frequent 
 but very inconsiderate practice ; for it drives ofl 7 
 into the atmosphere a main portion of the proxi- 
 mate principles which might be slowly decom- 
 posed into solid manure, and leaves many of the 
 seeds and the vivacious radicles of weeds unkiiled, 
 to be afterwards spread abroad with the ashes, 
 and made to propagate a new and abundant race 
 of wasteful vegetation in the land. Every possi- 
 ble exertion should be made, at this stage of the 
 fallow, by the skilful and frequent use of the 
 pulverizing implements, by the sedulous and 
 searching practice of hand-picking, and the care- 
 ful and vigilant removal of the utmost vestiges 
 of the weed heaps, to remove from the land 
 every fibre and radicle of a weed which can pos- 
 sibly be found ; for not only is this the rankest 
 and most vivacious period of the self-propagation 
 of indigenous plants, but even the smallest por- 
 tions of some of the worst weeds left in the 
 ground will grow, and slowly but surely make 
 themselves the origin of a new progeny of pests. 
 
 If drains are required in the field, and if a 
 sufficient quantity of small stones occur in the 
 soil and can readily be cleared away from it to 
 fill them, they may now be formed. Yet drain- 
 I, 
 
 making at this period is really out of its proper 
 season, and exposes the land to the serious con- 
 tingency of having a large portion of its finely 
 loosened materials washed into the trenches by a 
 heavy or prolonged fall of rain ; and unless abun- 
 dance of suitable small stones are on the spot, 
 and a fair prospect exists of a sufficient continu- 
 ance of dry Weather, it will do better to be post- 
 poned to a later stage of the fallow. " Large land- 
 fast stones may now be taken out to form foun- 
 dations to stone fences, or blown with gunpowder. 
 It is not, however, with the gathering of small 
 stones as it is with weeds : the former must be 
 thrown into the cart at once, as gathering them 
 into heaps does not expedite their lifting after- 
 wards, they having, at all events, to be lifted 
 again singly ; whereas whole heaps of weeds which 
 have taken great trouble to gather singly, can be 
 put into the cart by a large three-pronged dung 
 fork." 
 
 As soon after all this cleaning process as the 
 weather and the other labours of the farm will 
 permit, another course of ploughing and harrow- 
 ing must follow. " The furrow now given must 
 of course be in a line with the ridges, in order to 
 cut the former furrow, which was ploughed across, 
 and this may be done by ploughing the ridges 
 either singly, or two, four, or six of them to- 
 gether. The latter is fully the better plan, as it 
 serves to keep the land flat, that is, it will not 
 interfere with the future regular appearances of 
 the ridges when they are gathered up. After 
 harrowing this two double turns at least, roll- 
 ing and the hand-picking of weeds must be re- 
 peated with great care ; as the weeds being now 
 net so numerous, and many of their roots having 
 been broken by the plough and the harrow, they 
 may be easily overlooked in a hurry. Every visi- 
 ble joint of quicks, and every separate knot of 
 knot-grass must be gathered. Colt's foot, docks, 
 and thistles, must also be carefully rooted out 
 and carried off. Light lands will seldom require 
 more than this ploughing to make them clean, 
 as the weeds in them readily part with the earth 
 from their roots, and rolling will probably not be 
 again necessary. It is almost certain, however, 
 that strong lands will require another furrow, 
 which may be one across like the second, but 
 only the furrow slices of it reversed, or an angle 
 furrow begun at one corner of the field, and con- 
 tinued to the opposite one in an oblique direction 
 to the ridges. In the cross and angle ploughings, 
 and in ploughing the land along the ridges after 
 the winter furrow, spaces for ploughing, called 
 ' feerings,' of generally thirty yards in width, are 
 marked off to save time in ploughing, to avoid 
 many open furrows, and to keep the land level. 
 Harrowing must again follow, and, if necessary, 
 rolling, and hand-picking weeds, and gathering 
 stones must also be repeated. After all these 
 operations have been performed, the land should 
 be clean, if the weather has not been so moist 
 and warm and sunless, as to encourage, instead 
 2 II 
 
FALLOW. 
 
 482 
 
 FALLOW. 
 
 of checking, the growth of weeds. It is here 
 necessary to caution the young fallowest in re- 
 gard to strong clays. Should the weather prove 
 wet, or likely to be wet, it will be improper to 
 risk strong land so long out of the ridge, as if it 
 be caught by much rain in a flat state, it will 
 become soured before it be so dry as to permit 
 the horses again upon it. One cross ploughing 
 may be obtained in the spring, or early in sum- 
 mer ; but rather than risk any more, it would be 
 better to plough the ridges together, backwards 
 and forwards, casting them out, and ploughing 
 them together alternately. In this way, the fur- 
 rows are always kept open for the passage of 
 water. In such a season, it will be vain to at- 
 tempt to clean land thoroughly. At this stage of 
 the work, the four-horse plough may be advan- 
 tageously employed on loamy lands that are worn 
 out by miscropping. It will bring up fresh soil, 
 which has not seen the light of day for many 
 years. If the subsoil be a clay which the plough 
 brings up, it will make an excellent mixture with 
 the scourged loam. This is the period of the 
 work, too, for using the levelling-box, an instru- 
 ment useful in giving a uniform skin to old ir- 
 regularly ploughed lands, and in filling up small 
 hollows into which water might collect, which 
 otherwise create trouble in cutting many un- 
 necessary channels. An overgrown rich head 
 ridge may be easily and effectually carried a 
 short distance to a poorer part of the field. Up 
 to this period, the preparation of the land for bare 
 fallow and turnips is the same." 
 
 The next process is the restoring of the land 
 to ridges ; and this is effected by striking a fur- 
 row in the line of the former ridges, and gather- 
 ing up the soil in the manner of crown and fur- 
 row. On very light lands, this gathering up may 
 be made to cover both the lime and the farm- 
 yard manure, and to serve for the seed-furrow ; 
 on ordinary loams, it must be followed by another 
 ploughing for the seed-furrow ; and on stiff clay 
 lands, which have been laid flat and kept so till 
 this period, it not unfrequently must be followed 
 first by another process of harrowing and clean- 
 ing, next by a second gathering up, and next by 
 the seed-furrow ploughing. The lime and the 
 farm-yard manure may be applied at the same 
 stage of the process, but with the former in pre- 
 cedence of the latter ; or the lime may be applied 
 at a different stage from the farm-yard manure, 
 and either before it or after it. The lime may be 
 laid down in small heaps, at regular intervals be- 
 tween the feerings of the ridges, either after 
 having been previously slacked by artificial ap- 
 plication of water, or in lime-shells to be slacked 
 on the spot by the weather ; or — what is better 
 — it may be spread out of carts with shovels upon 
 the ridges, and be brought thither from large 
 heaps of it deposited at intervals upon the head- 
 ridges as it had been brought home in shells to 
 the farm. It should be spread in a dry calm day, 
 or at least under little wind, and with that little 
 
 blowing on the side of the cart ; and immediately 
 after it is spread, it must be harrowed in. If 
 spread in windy weather, it will be unequally 
 distributed and partially wasted or misapplied ; 
 and if spread otherwise than in a perfectly dry 
 condition, it will not trickle dov/n into the ruts 
 formed by the harrow teeth, and in consequence 
 not mix properly with the soil. When the 
 gathering up into ridges is followed by a separate 
 ploughing for the seed -furrow, the farm-yard 
 manure may most advantageously be applied at 
 the gathering up, and the lime immediately be- 
 fore the seed-furrow ploughing ; for the super- 
 position of the lime upon the manure both coun- 
 teracts the tendency of the lime to sink too 
 deep into soil, and represses the tendency of the 
 manure to rise to the surface and waste itself in 
 aeriform decomposition. The manure is de- 
 posited on the land in heaps of equal size, and at 
 equal intervals ; and is spread all athwart the 
 ridge, in equal distribution, by means of light 
 three-pronged forks. The ploughs follow close 
 upon the spreading, and cover in the manure by 
 such a gathering up of the ridge as to increase its 
 curvature. The application of the lime, when 
 made separately from the manuring and sub- 
 sequently to it, may follow in the course of a few 
 weeks ; and the seed-furrow is then given by 
 such a shallow ploughing as but very slightly 
 raises the curvature of the ridge. But if the 
 cleaning operations have been completed, and the 
 manure applied toward the end of July, the land 
 lies untouched thence till the eve of seed-time ; 
 and it is then thoroughly double-harrowed, limed, 
 and seed-furrowed. 
 
 The operations of summer-fallowing, as now 
 described, are generally those upon good, strong, 
 wheat-bearing loams ; but they admit of, and 
 sometimes even require, very considerable varia- 
 tions in adaptation to soil, weather, climate, 
 and the specially weedy condition of the land. 
 But when the general principles of fallowing are 
 understood, and the most common applications 
 of them known, they can readily be adapted, by 
 any farmer of the most ordinary perspicacity, to 
 such diversities of circumstances as occur in the 
 different soils of his farm, or in the different wea- 
 ther of successive years. Let no man, however, 
 be so crude in his notions as to estimate the 
 value of his fallow by the number of its plough- 
 ings or the aggregate amount of its labour ; for 
 one well-timed ploughing may be more efficient 
 than three ill-timed ploughings, and one skilful 
 and careful cleaning than half a dozen boorish 
 and careless cleanings. — Communications to the 
 Board of Agriculture. — Marshall's County Reports. 
 — Holdich's Essay on the Weeds of Agriculture. — 
 New Farmer's Calendar. — Hay ward's Science of 
 Agriculture. — Beatson's New System of Cultivation. 
 — Dickson's Husbandry of thie Ancients. — Hun- 
 ter's Georgical Essays. — Low's Elements of Agricul- 
 ture. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture.-^ 
 Sir John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. 
 
FALSE QUARTER. 
 
 483 
 
 FARCY. | 
 
 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. — Liehig's Chem- 
 istry of Agriculture. — Bayldon on Rents and Til- 
 lages. — Q. Journal of Agriculture. — BueVs Far- 
 mer's Instructor. — Young 's Farmer's Calendar. — 
 Mill. — Boyle. — Stephens — Rham. — The Society of 
 Gentlemen's Complete Farmer. — Chalmers' Cale- 
 donia. 
 
 FALSE QUARTER. A diseased condition of 
 the feet of horses. It can scarcely be viewed as 
 a primary disease ; but is always a consequence 
 of some other disease. It constitutes a perma- 
 nent blemish ; and is annoying rather from its 
 incurableness than by its severity. The coronary 
 vascular ligament is so far destroyed in one part 
 that a gap or interruption in the line of horn is 
 made, and can never be filled up in the process 
 of secretion; and this gap, in some instances, 
 causes the animal serious inconvenience or even 
 considerable pain. When false quarter seems to 
 be forming, the horn should be pared quite thin 
 and a blister applied ; and when the gap is actu 
 ally formed, the horn of the part must always be 
 kept thin, and such a bar-shoe should be used 
 as will not make any pressure upon the portion 
 of the crust beneath the blemish. 
 
 FANNER. See Winnowing-Machine. 
 
 FAR. See Wheat. 
 
 FARCY. A disease of the lymphatics or ab- 
 sorbent vessels of the horse. It frequently gives 
 a corded appearance to the lymphatics in their 
 course of accompanying the veins throughout 
 parts of the body ; and it was, in consequence, 
 mistaken by all farriers down to a recent period 
 for a venous disease, and usually described as de- 
 veloping itself in the form of "corded veins." It 
 is essentially the same as glanders, but is milder, 
 less dangerous, and more easily cured, and has 
 its seat in the upper or cuticular lymphatics, 
 while glanders are seated in the deeper tissues. 
 
 Farcy is either local or constitutional. When 
 the virulent matter of glanders or of farcy-ulcer 
 touches or falls upon a wounded or abraded part 
 jf the skin, a cancerous ulcer is produced. This 
 ulcer has a fouler appearance than any other 
 kind of sore, thickens in its edges, discharges a 
 thin and glutinous ichor, spreads in most in- 
 stances with great rapidity, and never possesses 
 a red or healthy colour ; the lymphatics around 
 the ulcer absorb its poisonous matter, and be- 
 come swollen or corded ; the glands to which 
 these lymphatics lead become enfiamed and en- 
 larged; and eventually small tumours, techni- 
 cally called "buds," and consisting of abscesses 
 formed by inflammatory action, appear in the 
 course of the lymphatics. Up to this point, farcy 
 is strictly local. But when the virus works long 
 enough around the ulcers to pass through the 
 arresting action of the glands, and to be absorbed 
 into the circulating system, the whole constitu- 
 tion immediately becomes more or less affected. 
 The other parts of the body susceptible of its ac- 
 tion now become affected, — but in a successive 
 
 order to one another, — and not always in the 
 same order in different animals or in different 
 countries. The parts first affected are usually 
 those at the farthest distance from the centre of 
 circulation, — the hinder-extremities, the fore- 
 extremities, the face, the lips, and particularly 
 the nose. " The internal parts of the nose," says 
 White, " are generally the first to be attacked ; 
 the delicate membrane by which they are lined 
 becomes inflamed or ulcerated, discharging large 
 quantities of matter ; the next part which is | 
 affected is generally the skin, on various parts 
 of which farcy buds make their appearance, and 
 degenerate into foul spreading ulcers ; at length, 
 the bones of the nose become carious or rotten : 
 and finally, the poison falls upon the lungs, and 
 very soon puts a period to the sufferings of the 
 unfortunate animal. Sometimes the progress of 
 the disease is extremely rapid, and destroys the 
 horse in a very short time ; at others it is re- 
 markably slow, and continues in the same state 
 for a considerable time, without affecting either 
 the appetite or strength." It seems to present 
 different prevailing initiatory symptoms within 
 the sphere, or at all events in the reports, of 
 different practitioners, — usually commencing, in 
 some districts, in the nostrils, — in others, in the 
 hind-legs, — and in others, in the fore-legs. A 
 common popular name of the local or simply cu- 
 ticular variety of it is button farcy. 
 
 The causes of farcy are similar to those of i 
 glanders, but are both more numerous and more 
 varied. The actual application of it to a bare j 
 surface, or perhaps to either a mucous or an 
 abraded one, is probably indispensable to the 
 excitement of it ; yet this often occurs in so ob- 
 scure a manner as to elude all possibility of or- 
 dinary observation ; and, what seems not a little 
 curious, the swallowing of the virus with food or 
 otherwise does not appear to exert any injurious 
 influence upon the stomach, or through it upon 
 the general system. Farcy is peculiarly liable 
 to arise from long continued canker, from a com- 
 bination of poor food with hard work, from con- 
 stant dampness and confined air in the stable, 
 from extensive and neglected ulceration of the 
 extremities, and from any other agency or set of 
 agencies which tends to debilitate the constitu- 
 tion. It occurs most frequently either in young 
 horses who have not acquired the firmness and 
 strength of maturity, or in old horses who have 
 lost their vigour and are passing into the last 
 stages of senility. A feeble animal readily con- 
 tracts it from even a slight touch of its virus ; 
 but a strong, healthy, middle-aged animal com- 
 pletely resists the most copious inoculation. 
 
 All varieties of local or button farcy which do 
 not commence in the mucous membranes of the 
 head, if timeously attended to, were formerly 
 thought to be easily and summarily curable, and 
 certainly are in many instances really cured, by 
 the simple application of the cautery, — the ul- 
 
FARDLEBOUND. 
 
 cers speedily throwing off the slough, presenting 
 a red and healthy appearance, and evincing a 
 readiness to heal rapidly in the manner of com- 
 mon sores. But even these varieties sometimes 
 prove themselves to have sufficient hold of the 
 constitution to resist the effects of cauterizing ; 
 and the varieties which commence in the nos- 
 trils, pass with such rapidity into the glanderous 
 form as to be incapable of prompt enough topi- 
 cal treatment ; while all the varieties which dif- 
 fuse themselves throughout the constitution, 
 are by far too virulent to be successfully com- 
 bated by any feebler means than the most pow- 
 erful stimulants and tonics. A judicious use of 
 the cautery, thorough ventilation, and lubricating 
 and nutritious diet, are essential as auxiliaries ; 
 but internal administrations must be made — 
 skilfully, and in well-calculated antagonism to 
 the particular virulence of each case — of such 
 matters as either sulphate of copper in solution 
 with a little gum, corrosive sublimate in com- 
 bination with vegetable tonics, biniodide of cop- 
 per without any tonical accompaniment, can- 
 tharides in combination with gentian bitters, or 
 such mineral tonics as preparations of antimony 
 or zinc. Washing with lead-lotion, and sea- 
 bathing accompanied with a daily dose of salt- 
 water, have, in some protracted varieties of the 
 disease, been found beneficial. See the article 
 Glanders. — BartleCs Farriery. — Winter s Horse 
 in Health and Disease. — Youatt on the Horse. — 
 White's Veterinary. — Blaine's Veterinary. 
 
 FARCY (Water). See Dropsy. 
 
 FARDLEBOUND. Indigestion in the third 
 stomach or manyplies of sheep or cattle. The 
 general symptoms of it are distension and con- 
 stipation, — the former caused by the retention 
 of the food, and by the consolidation of it into a 
 hard, dry, caked mass ; and the general remedial 
 appliances are drenches of warm water, search- 
 ing laxatives, glysters, and cordials. The dura- 
 tion of the disease may extend from three or 
 four days to four or five weeks. 
 
 FARE, or Farrow. See Farrowing. 
 
 FARM. A portion of land employed in the 
 raising of agricultural produce, whether in the 
 form of live-stock, or in that of prepared animal 
 food, or in that of either edible or economical 
 vegetation. The Saxon word feorme, which was 
 the pristine or uncorrupted form of the word 
 farm, originally signified provisions ; it next sig- 
 nified rent in kind, or the portion of provisions 
 which the land -tenant paid to the land-owner 
 for the use of his land ; and, by a frequent and 
 obvious figure of speech, it finally signified the 
 piece of land on which the provisions were raised, 
 and for which the rent was paid. The word 
 farm, when understood with etymological pro- 
 priety, can thus designate only such land as is 
 rented or held by a tenant ; yet in ordinary mo- 
 dern usage, it may designate also the home-farm 
 of an extensive estate and the small landed pro- 
 
 FARM. 
 
 perty of any party who is himself both farmer 
 and proprietor. 
 
 Different Kinds of Farms. — Farms have a great 
 variety of both character and objects ; and are 
 capable of distribution into many classes. The 
 farms of hot countries widely differ in the aggre- 
 gate from those of cold countries, and at the 
 same time considerably differ among themselves ; 
 and even the farms of the vine-district and the 
 maize-countries of Europe, materially differ from 
 those of the regions of barley and oats. But 
 even the farms of Great Britain and Ireland ex- 
 hibit much variety, and comprise a number of 
 perfectly distinct classes. The home-farm of a 
 large estate may be conducted either on the 
 principles of sheer profit, or on those of a prime 
 supply of farm produce to the family and imme- 
 diate dependents of the landowner, or on those 
 of a school or model for the improvement of 
 agricultural practices ; and only in the first of 
 these cases, will it present a close resemblance 
 to the hired farms of the same estate. An ex- 
 perimental farm may either be a paltry appen- 
 dage to an agricultural institution for the train- 
 ing of young farmers, or a vast expanse of 
 ground for testing and improving all sorts of 
 feasible theories in cultivation ; and in either 
 case, it is but remotely similar in most of its 
 practices, and not similar at all in some, to any 
 ordinary farm. A rented arable farm may either 
 be a patch of land, little larger than a mere cot- 
 tage allotment, or an expanse of land sufficiently 
 large and rich to constitute a valuable estate, — 
 either a piece of bog or moorland, scarcely fer- 
 tile enough to compensate the cost of working 
 it, or a collection of loams or friable clays or 
 vegetable moulds, everywhere full of energy and 
 teeming with luxuriance, — either ill-conditioned 
 spots of land, scourged with barbarous practices, 
 and destitute of many of the appliances of good 
 cultivation, or a series of fields under the most 
 enlightened system of husbandry, and provided 
 with all desirable implements and natural ad- 
 vantages for maintaining and increasing their 
 fertility ; and the one farm, in each of these 
 pairs of characters, is necessarily far different 
 in many of its most important and distinguish- 
 ing features from the other. 
 
 But irrespective of all these diversities, the 
 farms of Great Britain are distributable into 
 several great and widely different classes, accord- 
 ing to the precise nature of the several objects to 
 which they are devoted. — Pastoral farms are em- 
 ployed wholly or chiefly in the breeding and rear- 
 ing of sheep and cattle. In general, they either 
 have or ought to have as much ploughed ground 
 as will afford sufficient provender from roots and 
 green crops to supply all the deficiency of natural 
 pasture during the winter half of the year. A 
 pastoral farm may be either a mere sheep-form, 
 in the wildly mountainous parts of a thoroughly 
 highland district ; or a cattle-farm, in a verdant 
 
 484 
 
FARM. 
 
 485 
 
 FARM. 
 
 valley ; or a farm mixedly for sheep and cattle, 
 upon ground of diversified character. All pas- 
 toral farms ought to be large ; and some are 
 miles in extent. — A dairy farm is employed in 
 producing milk, butter, and cheese ; and it may 
 either be of small extent and of mixed character, 
 for supplying the inhabitants of large towns with 
 milk, or of considerable extent and uniform char- 
 acter, for the manufacture of butter or of cheese or 
 of both, or even for combining such manufacture 
 as its main business, with the prosecution of 
 some other department of farming as a subor- 
 dinate occupation. — A town farm is employed in 
 producing vegetables, esculent roots, and hay 
 and straw, for the use of the inhabitants of 
 large towns ; and it may either be a sort of huge 
 kitchen garden for raising articles for the town's 
 green market, or a sort of complicated meadow 
 for the raising of dry fodder for the use of stable- 
 keepers and town cowfeeders. — A carse farm is 
 employed principally in producing wheat and 
 beans, and subordinately in raising such crops 
 as are requisite for wheat and bean farming ; and 
 it owes all its peculiarities to the strong and 
 peculiar clayeyness of its land. — An arable farm 
 is employed principally in producing white crops 
 and hay-grasses ; and it only so far feeds cattle, 
 or seasonally fattens sheep, as to combine a re- 
 gular dealing in stock with the systematic and 
 sufficient amassment of manure for the fields. — 
 A mixed farm, or a farm on the system of mixed 
 husbandry, is employed in raising all kinds of 
 agricultural produce, and combines within itself 
 all the chief properties of at once the pastoral, 
 the dairy, the arable, and the carse-farms. The 
 intelligent and well-trained occupant of a mixed 
 farm of from 400 to 1,000 acres is the very beau- 
 ideal of a practical agriculturist, and not only 
 epitomizes in himself the best characteristics of 
 all the other classes of farmers, but escapes some 
 of their disadvantages, and even excels them in 
 the use of some of their peculiar powers. " Rear- 
 ing cattle and sheep, and having wool to dispose 
 of," remarks Mr. H. Stephens, " he participates 
 in the activity of the stock-farmer. Cultivating 
 grains and the sown grasses, he knows the cul- 
 ture of land as skilfully as the carse-farmer. 
 Converting milk into butter and cheese, after 
 the calves are weaned, and indulging in the pre- 
 dilection for a bit of fine old pasture, he passes 
 the summer and autumnal months as busily as 
 the dairy-farmer. Feeding cattle and sheep in 
 winter on turnips, he attends the markets of fat 
 stock as closely as the farmer in the neighbour- 
 hood of a town. Improving on the usual system 
 of farming pursued in arable districts, by breed- 
 ing and rearing all the stock fed on his farm-^- 
 thereby eschewing the precarious trade of the 
 dealer in stock — thus combining all the kinds 
 of farming within the limits of his farm, he has 
 it within his power every year to suit the par- 
 ticular demand of each market, and thereby 
 enlarge the sphere of his profits ; and this he can 
 
 do in any year more uniformly and certainly 
 than any other class of his co-farmers." Farmers 
 of this pre-eminent and comprehensive class 
 have far more scope, and also more incentive, 
 for promoting the general interests of agriculture 
 than the other classes ; and, as this great prac- 
 tical science comes to be better understood, and 
 to approach nearer its recognition as a matter of 
 common interest to all ranks and portions of the 
 community of mankind, they are likely to con- 
 tinue increasing in number till they have all 
 kinds of land in their possession, except imprac- 
 ticable moors and morasses and the stubbornly 
 and irretrievably pastoral hills. 
 
 Size of Farms. — A controversy has long existed, 
 and has at times been acrimonious and engross- 
 ing, as to the comparative advantages of very 
 small farms and very large ones ; and, in con- 
 sequence of the minutely divided state of land 
 throughout most parts of Ireland, and of the 
 desire which not a few Irish landlords have felt 
 to group their crowds of small farms into large 
 ones, this controversy has often been supposed 
 to involve, to an enormous extent, the comfort, 
 the general well-being, and almost the very exist- 
 ence of a numerous portion of the community. 
 The most common arguments in favour of very 
 large ^farms are, that they call into play large 
 capitals, that they command the requisite facili- 
 ties of both science and art for the proper work- 
 ing of the land, that they afford scope for enter- 
 prise, and incite the peculiar activities requisite 
 for progressive improvement, that they greatly 
 economize labour and expenditure, and that they 
 evoke both a better and a bulkier produce, and 
 possess a freer and stronger subserviency to the 
 national wealth, and therefore to the common 
 wellbeing. The most prominent arguments in 
 favour of very small farms are, that they reward 
 merit, that they encourage industry, that they 
 keep up and multiply the population, that they 
 promulge a general feeling of manliness and 
 independence throughout the community, that 
 they furnish the best class of men in all subor- 
 dinate stations of life, and that, in such peculiar 
 circumstances as those of a large part of Ireland, 
 with a crowded population, and without any 
 other general means of support than the cultiva- 
 tion of the land, they are essential to the pre- 
 vention of extensive starvation and general 
 misery. Some enthusiastic advocates of the 
 minute subdivision of land have even contended 
 that small farms are not necessarily encumbered 
 with any disadvantages whatever, except such 
 as are common to farms of all sizes, that they 
 possess some advantages peculiar to themselves, 
 and that, under almost any kind of treatment, 
 they actually yield a larger produce than if they 
 were consolidated into large farms. 
 
 But the controversy is, in a great degree, 
 unmeaning. Either small farms or large ones 
 will produce much or little according as they 
 are or are not worked with energy and skill ; 
 
FARM. 
 
 486 
 
 FARM. 
 
 and small farms possess just the same adapta- 
 tion to men of small capital which large farms 
 possess to men of large capital. A small farm, 
 as is abundantly proved by the small-farm system 
 of Belgium, by many of the cottage-allotment 
 systems of England, and by the strictly analo- 
 gous character of large kitchen gardens for the 
 supply of the public market, — may easily be so 
 well worked as to yield a maximum of possible 
 produce ; and a large farm, — as is proved by 
 the slovenly, wasteful, and semibarbarous con- 
 dition of much of the farm-grounds in some of 
 the most backward districts of Britain, — may 
 just as easily be so ill worked as not to yield 
 one half of possible produce. In some states of 
 society, such as those of Ireland, almost all 
 farms must be very small in order to afford gen- 
 eral maintenance and employment to the com- 
 munity ; in other states of society, such as those 
 of the new settlements in Upper Canada and 
 Western America, all farms must be large in 
 order to bring into play the amount of capital 
 requisite for the reclamation of the prairie and 
 the forest ; and in other states of society, such 
 as those of England and of the lowlands of Scot- 
 land, farms must be of very various sizes, from 
 comparatively small, through all kinds of middle- 
 rate, up to exceedingly large, in order to suit the 
 widely diversified circumstances and capital of 
 the agricultural community. A controversy 
 about the size of workshops and factories in the 
 world of manufacture, would appear to us nearly 
 as wise as the controversy about the size of farms 
 in the world of agriculture. Let interested par- 
 ties simply observe what arrangement is most 
 desirable in the circumstances of their own por- 
 tion of the community ; and, instead of foment- 
 ing discontent and creating disorder by compar- 
 ing its advantages and disadvantages with those 
 of arrangements in other countries or districts, 
 lot them do what they can to push all its parts 
 into the grand and rapid current of general agri- 
 cultural improvement. 
 
 The Renting of Farms. — The hiring or renting 
 of a farm is the most serious professional act of 
 the farmer's life, and requires a nice exercise of 
 judgment. A person who wishes to rent a farm 
 must call all his abilities and professional infor- 
 mation into play ; he must take a comprehen- 
 sive and symmetrical view of the numerous cir- 
 cumstances which determine both the intrinsic 
 character of the farm, and its relative adaptation 
 to his capital and knowledge ; he must examine 
 alike the advantages and the disadvantages, and 
 assign to each its due or comparative degree of 
 importance ; he must discard both a too solicit- 
 ous prudence, which doubts every benefit, and a 
 too daring courage, which overlooks or lessens 
 every evil ; and he must carefully beware of 
 having his choice principally or even partially 
 determined by considerations which are merely 
 incidental, or which do not belong to the real 
 merits or demerits of the farm. 
 
 " It must be obvious to almost every person," 
 remarks Dr. Hunter, " that the common farmers 
 often lose themselves in deliberating concerning 
 a farm. They have so many mistaken rules of 
 judging, that they often reject farms, that soon 
 after make the fortunes of such as hire t'hein. 
 In particular, they are very apt to take one false 
 guide, the success of the last tenant. If a man 
 makes a good deal of money upon a farm, or 
 leaves it for a much larger one, numbers will 
 immediately apply, almost without viewing it ; 
 but, if a tenant or two breaks, or is poor, most of 
 the neighbours look down upon it, without fur- 
 ther consideration. They attribute all to the 
 land, and avoid it, under an idea, that, without a 
 reduction of rent, the farm cannot be profitable. 
 These notions are absurd in the extreme ; for 
 the management of various farmers is so essen- 
 tially different, that success often depends very j 
 little on rent. A farmer, with a proper sum of j 
 money in his pocket, hires a farm, and thrives 
 upon it ; another with an hundred pounds less, 
 hires it, and starves. Suppose two farmers of 
 the same substance, and living upon similar 
 farms, — one manages his land with judgment 
 and spirit, makes all the manure he can, sells no 
 hay or straw, does not injudiciously crop his 
 land, drains his fields, and keeps his fences in 
 good order, — this man grows rich ; the other, a 
 sloven in these particulars, falls into poverty. 
 These are the circumstances that make one man 
 rich, and the other poor ; the rent has but little 
 influence. And surely it must be apparent, that 
 succeeding occupiers, judging of the respective 
 farms, by the success of others, are taking as 
 blind a guide as they can possibly fix on." 
 
 One important consideration is the quality and 
 condition of the soil. The mere colour and mechani- 
 cal texture of the land, or the general resemblan- 
 ces of its appearance to that of other lands with 
 whose powers of production the party is acquaint- 
 ed, are very insignificant circumstances, and are 
 quite as likely to mislead the judgment as to 
 direct it. Both the elementary constitution of 
 the soil, and the precise condition into which 
 recent cultivation has brought it, ought to be 
 ascertained, the former by analysis, and the 
 latter by searching though ' courteous inquiry 
 into the method of tillage which has been prac- 
 tised, the course of rotation which has been pur- 
 sued, the kind of manure which has been applied, 
 and the species and comparative bulk of the 
 weeds which have been encountered. A soil of 
 very inferior constitution may be very similar in 
 both colour and comminution to a soil of very 
 superior constitution ; and a soil of mediumly 
 fertile powers, in a state of good heart, will, for 
 a number of years to come, yield more valuable 
 crops than a soil of very highly fertile powers, in 
 a state of rankness from mismanagement, or of 
 exhaustion from the too infrequent repetition of 
 fallow. See the articles Soil, Manure, and 
 Fallow. 
 
FARM. 
 
 487 
 
 FARM. 
 
 Another important consideration is the compact- 
 ness of the farm, and the convenient distribution of 
 its enclosures. Every farm, in order to be managed 
 with ease and economy, or without an irritating 
 and wasteful expenditure of daily labour, requires 
 to be free from the intrusion of any other man's 
 ground, and free also from intricacy, angularity, 
 and unequal distribution of its own parts. When 
 the fields of a farm are mutually straggling and 
 disjointed, the general business of it is never 
 collectively under the eye, all the operations of 
 tillage and after-culture involve waste of time 
 and labour, the equal distribution of manure is 
 difficult and perhaps impossible, the maintain- 
 ing of fences is very troublesome and not a little 
 expensive, and depredations of all sorts, by both 
 men and brutes, are comparatively frequent and 
 disastrous. " This I know," says Arthur Young, 
 "I would give a shilling or eighteenpence an 
 acre more for a compact farm than for a dis- 
 jointed one of the very same nominal value, and 
 this without supposing the evil so great as it is 
 found in many farms. Some lands are so little 
 contiguous as not to be worth, of any man's 
 money, half-a-crown an acre, which, if compact, 
 would be cheap at twelve shillings." See the 
 article Enclosure. 
 
 Another important consideration is the nature 
 of the fences, the condition of the gates, and the 
 yearly expense which will be requisite for keep- 
 ing all the enclosures in a state of efficient re- 
 pair. Some fences are so incompetent as to en- 
 tail enormous damage from exposure or depre- 
 dation ; some are so unsuitable, or so positively 
 mischievous, as to impoverish the fields, embarrass 
 the tillage, annoy the flocks, and counteract 
 much of the beneficial effect of draining ; and 
 some, though otherwise unobjectionable, may 
 require from the tenant, for their repair or 
 maintenance, an amount of expense which pro- 
 bably may both surprise and distress him. "The 
 nature and state of the fences," remarks Arthur 
 Young, " is a very important article, in so much 
 that it is sufficient alone to render some farms, 
 unprofitable bargains which otherwise would be 
 very beneficial ones." See the article Fence. 
 
 A fourth important consideration is the situa- 
 tion of the farm with reference to the public 
 market, to sources of mineral manures, to sources 
 of fuel, to roads, and other public facilities of 
 conveyance, and to the communication of neigh- 
 bouring grounds. A greater distance from the 
 public market than the majority of farms of 
 similar character, involves the cost of carrying 
 produce the additional distance, and subtracts 
 the amount of that cost from the nett price which 
 the tenant obtains for his produce. Great dis- 
 tance from the sources of mineral manure and of 
 fuel involves a correspondingly great cost in ob- 
 taining them ; and, in not a few instances, acts 
 as a positive prohibition of lime and coals. 
 Vicinity to abundant supplies of such manures 
 as chalk, marl, calcareous sand, lime, and sea- 
 
 weed, particularly to the two last, is, in many 
 cases so important, as to render a farm of very 
 middle-rate soil fully equal in value to a farm of 
 the same size and of prime soil in a situation re- 
 mote from these supplies. Extreme distance from 
 good fuel, as in the Western Islands of Scotland, 
 amounts of itself to a depreciation of 25 per 
 cent, on the gross value of the land ; so that a 
 farm at £150 of rent in any such situation, is 
 as high-priced as a farm of the same extent 
 and intrinsic character at £200, in the near 
 vicinity of coal-mines. Ample and free facilities 
 of conveyance, in the form of roads, bridges, 
 canals, and railways, exert so mighty an influ- 
 ence as speedily to raise a starving and barbar- 
 ous agricultural district to a condition of plenty 
 and refinement ; and limited or rugged means of 
 communication from any one farm to the rest of 
 the country, particularly if these means consist 
 entirely of bad roads, — repress enterprise, shut 
 out ameliorating influences, and occasion great 
 wear of vehicles, excessive jading of horses, 
 much irritation of farm-servants, great wasteful 
 expenditure of strength, and an incredibly large 
 aggregate of incidental or general expense. Foot- 
 paths through a farm for connecting neighbour- 
 ing estates or villages, and turnpike-roads along 
 the boundary of a farm connecting great towns, 
 might seem at first to be trivial matters ; but, in 
 multitudes of instances, they act so prejudicially 
 upon several of its interests, as to detract con- 
 siderably from its value. 
 
 A fifth important consideration is the charac- 
 ter of the farmery or the condition of the farm- 
 buildings. A brief view of the most desirable 
 form and arrangement of the farmery and its 
 edifices will be given in our article on Farm- 
 Buildings ; and this will largely illustrate the 
 present consideration. But the party ought to 
 take into account also the situation of the farm- 
 ery as to healthiness and adaptation to the cir- 
 cumstances of his family, — the suitableness of the 
 offices, in form and size, not only to the farm 
 itself, but to the peculiarities of his own modes 
 of management, — and the probable sum which he 
 must expend, in an aggregate of years, in order 
 to maintain the several buildings in necessary 
 repair. <£ All the timbers should be examined ; 
 the boarding, brick-work, tiling, thatch, plaster- 
 ing, paving, every article viewed attentively ; 
 their duration estimated; and the expense of 
 the probable reparations reduced to calculation. 
 If such cautions are not taken, a man may find 
 himself in a few years in the midst of unexpected 
 expenses ; than which nothing can be more 
 fatal, unless he is much stronger than his farm." 
 See the article Farm-Buildings. 
 
 A sixth important consideration is the kind 
 and amount of restriction imposed by the con- 
 ditions or covenants of the lease. The conditions 
 exacted by some landlords, especially when 
 viewed with specific reference to peculiarities of 
 soil, and to improved methods of cultivation, are 
 
FARM. 
 
 488 
 
 FARM. 
 
 incompatible with some of the best professional 
 interests of a farmer, and even with the practice 
 of sound principles of husbandry. Stipulations 
 to subject light sandy soils and heavy clayey 
 soils to the same course of treatment, — to refrain 
 from breaking up grass lands, even though some 
 or all of them are in so weedy or thickety a con- 
 dition as to be more than half useless, — to ob- 
 serve one uniform or unvarying round of rota- 
 tion upon the ploughed fields, — to abstain from 
 digging up any grass borders of fields, — to con- 
 sume all hay upon the fields, meadows, or pas- 
 tures which produce it, — to abstain from feeding 
 off turnips with sheep, — to refrain from sowing 
 some particular crop of much agricultural value, 
 such as oats, rape, flax, or teasel, — these stipu- 
 lations, and all others of similar tendency, greatly 
 depreciate a farm and embarrass the farmer ; 
 and whenever a party agrees to any of them, he 
 ought, in ordinary foresight, to compute the loss 
 of value which they will occasion, and to sub- 
 tract the sum of that loss from the amount of 
 rent which he binds himself to pay. 
 
 A seventh important consideration is the 
 amount of rent. This is, in a great degree, con- 
 trolled and determined by the other considera- 
 tions ; yet it must be separately viewed, and 
 both minutely and comprehensively examined. 
 The evils of an exorbitant rent are too obvious 
 to require mention, and have been too often and 
 dismally exemplified to need illustration. Four 
 highly controlling elements over rent are the 
 quality of the soil, the duration of the tenure, 
 the stipulations of the lease, and the aggregate 
 of all sorts of current and professional expenses ; 
 but another controlling element, perhaps quite 
 as high and yet far from being so obvious, is the 
 amount of capital to be invested in the cultiva- 
 tion. If a farmer can lay out only £4t of capital 
 per acre, he may not be able to afford a higher 
 rer^t than 10s. per acre ; if he can lay out £7, he 
 may pay 14s. ; and if he can lay out ,£10, he may 
 pay 18s. or 20s. See the article Rent. 
 
 An eighth important consideration, imme- 
 diately dependent on the preceding, is adapta- 
 tion of the size and capacities of the farm to the 
 amount of capital to be employed in its cultiva- 
 tion. Many a tenant is poor and maintains a 
 severe struggle upon a large farm, who might 
 live in ease and comfort, and even acquire a con- 
 siderable property upon a farm of less extent. 
 A man who possesses less capital than the full 
 stocking and the free working of his farm re- 
 quire, becomes embarrassed at the very outset, 
 and passes through a constant series of varied 
 and harassing difficulties ; he lives in penury, in 
 anxiety, and in hard labour ; he keeps fewer 
 cattle and accumulates less manure than the 
 state of his land demands ; he overworks his 
 horses, and either neglects or abuses a portion of 
 his fields ; he sells his produce in any state of 
 the market, and for anything it will bring ; and 
 in the first season of poor crops or incidental 
 
 misfortune, he either becomes insolvent or passes 
 through an ordeal most perilous to both his 
 credit and his health. But a tenant with ample 
 capital escapes all these evils and enjoys the 
 opposite advantages ; he is able to work his farm 
 in the most profitable manner, and to take out of 
 it the largest returns which it can produce ; he 
 has a ready command of stock, manures, and all 
 other means of enrichment ; and he can embrace 
 every favourable opportunity of buying when 
 prices are low, and of selling when they are 
 high. Farmers cannot make transfers of pro- 
 perty so frequently as manufacturers and mer- 
 chants ; and, in order to enjoy the same security 
 and realize the same profits as these classes, they 
 require to have a proportionally larger capital. 
 But a farmer who is intelligent, industrious, and I 
 frugal, and who makes his payments punctually, 
 and in consequence enjoys good credit, sur- i 
 mounts larger difficulties, and gets comfortably 
 on with less money, than a farmer of different 
 character. Tenants of different kinds of lands, 
 too, and in widely different situations, are able 
 to farm any given extent of surface with very 
 different amounts of capital. The principal cir- 
 cumstances which determine the comparative 
 sum required are the amount of allowance to be 
 paid to a predecessor for portions of crops, manure, 
 and labour left behind him, — the expense to be 
 incurred in the improving of fixtures and in geor- 
 gical operations, — the degree of necessity which 
 exists for the purchase of lime or of other ex- 
 traneous manures, — the class to which the farm 
 belongs, whether pastoral, arable, dairy, carse, 
 or mixed, — the comparative poverty or excel- 
 lence of the soil, — the comparative publicity or 
 remoteness of the situation, — and the aggregate 
 of facilities for making frequent exchanges of 
 property, and for giving free play to a spirit of 
 enterprise. In any average state of things, a 
 farm of 200 acres, consisting of good land, and 
 ordinarily disposed for the joint prosecution of 
 pasturage and tillage, requires a capital of from 
 ^1,600 to ^2,000. 
 
 Other considerations deserve notice ; yet all 
 may be bundled together as aggregately equal to 
 only one consideration of importance. The chief 
 of these are the amount of parochial taxation, 
 for the church, the school, and the poor's-house ; 
 the amount of assessed taxes and of other na- 
 tional burdens ; the price of labour ; the exacti- 
 tude of the farm's measurement, or the manner 
 in which the extent of its superficies has been 
 ascertained ; the resources within its limits for 
 the supply of mineral manures or of general com- 
 posts ; the obligation incurred of performing 
 any work or conceding any privilege or usage to 
 the landlord ; the kind of supervision exercised 
 over the estate, whether primary or deputed, 
 intelligent or prejudiced, patriotic or tyrannical ; 
 the facilities afforded by landlord and agricul- 
 tural associations for the increase of agricultural 
 knowledge, and the encouragements given to en- 
 
FARM-ACCOUNTS. 
 
 terprise, experiment, and healthful emulation ; 
 and an engagement to terminate the lease under 
 no higher conditions of enrichment in the land 
 or of order in the farmery than those under 
 which the lease commences. — Young 's Farmer's 
 Guide. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. — Q. Journal of 
 Agriculture. — Bayldon on Rents and Tillages. — 
 Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. — Knowledge 
 Society's Farmer's Series. — Farmer's Magazine. — 
 Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agricidture. — Irish 
 Farmer's Journal. — Doyle's Practical Husbandry. 
 — Mill's Husbandry. — Museum Rusticum. 
 
 FARM -ACCOUNTS. A regular arithmetical 
 record, or systematic and daily course of book- 
 keeping, of all the pecuniary affairs of a farm. 
 The business of a farmer involves as much capi- 
 tal as that of most tradesmen, and is as intricate 
 and complex as that of the great majority of 
 merchants and manufacturers ; and it therefore 
 quite as urgently demands a system of minute, 
 comprehensive, and daily accounts. The neces- 
 sity of book-keeping is so universally felt in all 
 other employments involving the use of capital, 
 that any manufacturer, or merchant, or shop- 
 keeper is utterly astonished when told, for the 
 first time, that it is felt very meagerly through- 
 out an enormous amount of farming, and scarcely 
 felt at all throughout much. Almost all farmers 
 above the grade of mere cottiers, indeed, ac- 
 knowledge in words the desirableness of accounts ; 
 and almost all likewise profess to keep accounts, 
 and to possess a fair knowledge of their own pe- 
 cuniary affairs ; but most, or at least many, con- 
 tent themselves with mere outlines of memor- 
 anda ; and not a few have really no knowledge 
 whatever of the profit or loss of any of the vast 
 majority of matters which bulk together to con- 
 stitute their pecuniary condition. " Among 
 gentlemen farmers, it is true," says Sir John 
 Sinclair, " there is often a systematic regularity 
 in all their proceedings ; and their pages of 
 debtor and creditor, of expense and profit, are as 
 strictly kept as those of any banking-house in 
 the metropolis. But with the generality of 
 farmers, the case is widely different. It rarely 
 happens that books are kept by them in a minute 
 and regular manner ; and the accounts of a farmer, 
 occupying even a large estate, and consequently 
 employing a great capital, are seldom deemed of 
 sufficient importance to merit a share of atten- 
 tion equal to that bestowed by a tradesman on 
 a concern of not one-twentieth part of the value." 
 
 Mere general knowledge of the pecuniary con- 
 dition of a farm, or a knowledge of gross yearly 
 profit or loss in each of its principal departments, 
 is of no value to point out the proper quarters of 
 change, abandonment, retrenchment, increase, or 
 new experiment ; nor can it either direct the 
 attention to the precise points which bring pro- 
 fit and to those which occasion loss, or afford 
 information as to the several degrees in which 
 profit and loss occur ; while memoranda respect- 
 
 FARM-ACCOUNTS. 
 
 ing some crops, or manures, or flocks, or other 
 particular matters, unaccompanied by accounts 
 of the many accessory or incidental costs which 
 affect them, are fitted quite as much to mislead 
 the judgment as to guide it. "If a farmer knows 
 not the degree and amount of his profit or loss 
 on every article and by every field," says Arthur 
 Young, " it is impossible he should possess a due 
 experience of the past, or ever be able to make 
 it a guide to the future. Every common farmer 
 guesses at all these particulars, and acts accord- 
 ingly, which shows their ideas of the utility of 
 the knowledge. What is experience, but know- 
 ing that certain causes have been attended with 
 such and such effects 1 But what is the know- 
 ledge of effects, where a thousand are all jum- 
 bled into one account, with nothing but random 
 guesses to form distinctions 1 Various fields of 
 wheat are managed in a very different manner : 
 is it not of consequence to the farmer to know 
 exactly the product, the expenses, and the nett 
 profit of each 1 Is he not thereby a better judge 
 of the merit of each method he uses 1 And will 
 he not be able to manage future crops with more 
 experience than if he had gained none of this 
 knowledge ? From keeping such an account of 
 each field, he knows the proportions of rent, 
 seed, labour, wear and tear, &c. and the crop ; 
 and sees in what manner the latter answers to 
 the former, and, by a comparison between dif- 
 ferent fields and modes of culture, is enabled to 
 judge which will probably, in future, pay him 
 best. Two fields of the same soil are cultivated 
 exactly in the same manner, save, that one is 
 manured at a large expense, the other not. To 
 what degree does this manuring answer 1 Is the 
 answer to this question of no importance ? Where 
 is it to be gained, without exact accounts 1 This 
 instance might be multiplied to ten thousand, 
 in not one of which would experience be clear 
 and valuable, without a regular account. It is 
 the same with grass lands ; their products of all 
 kinds ; with every sort of cattle. Twenty beasts 
 are annually fattened, that are kept the year 
 through ; and twenty milk cows are also kept. 
 Which pays the farmer the best 1 This is a point 
 of no slight importance ; for the difference may 
 be very great ; but is it to be known from that 
 general account which every man carries in his 
 head, which is nothing more than an idea ? 
 What accuracy can there be in accounts so kept ? 
 The farmer stocks himself with two sorts of 
 sheep, ewes, and weathers ; they are both fed 
 alike. Which answers best, and to what degree 1 
 Even this plain case can be resolved with no de- 
 gree of certainty, without a regular account be- 
 ing kept of each. When a man turns over his 
 books, and finds a regular balance of profit and 
 loss on every article, he is enabled to review his 
 business, to consider what have probably been 
 his errors, and wherein he has been most suc- 
 cessful. The result of such reflections is true 
 experience, not the random notions that are 
 
 489 
 
FARM-ACCOUNTS. 
 
 490 
 
 FARM-ACCOUNTS. 
 
 carried in the memory. After some years farm- 
 ing, upon looking over his accounts, he finds 
 that wheat has in general paid him very in- 
 differently ; and that, upon an average of all 
 sorts of treatment and seasons, barley, on the 
 contrary, has been attended in the like variety, 
 with a considerable profit. Upon such a review, 
 he finds that his dairy of cows pays him far better 
 than his fattening beasts ; that his ewes and 
 lambs are much more profitable than his wea- 
 thers. He finds by the quantity of work per- 
 formed by his horse and ox teams, and the ex- 
 pense of each, that the latter are more advanta- 
 geous, as five to three. This knowledge is beyond 
 all doubt the most valuable part of experience, 
 and can no ways be gained but by regular ac- 
 counts ; for in what manner can such a review 
 of one's business be otherwise made 1 Will any 
 one be so absurd as to assert all, or any part 
 accurately, can be carried from year to year, for 
 four, five, six, or seven, in the head, and founded 
 originally in nought but conjecture ? Nor should 
 fugitive notes and memorandums be called ac- 
 counts ; nothing can effect this great end but 
 a ledger regularly kept. In this light surely 
 accounts may be said to be the foundation of 
 good husbandry, and highly possible to convert 
 a bad farmer into a good one. It is by means of 
 them that gentlemen, in one instance, have so 
 great an advantage over common farmers, as to 
 balance, in a good measure, all the superiorities 
 of the latter. It is by these means that gentle- 
 men may, if they please, gain more experience in 
 five years, than a common farmer can in twenty. 
 Many of them give in to unnecessary expenses, 
 prosecute more experiments than their fortunes 
 will admit, and bring themselves, by degrees, and 
 unknowingly of the amount, into a want of 
 money. A man that keeps regular accounts may 
 certainly do the same ; but he must infallibly 
 know how much he so expends, and be warned 
 regularly of the danger ; which are points of no 
 slight importance." 
 
 Nor ought farm accounts to comprise only a 
 minute record of every field, of every crop, of all 
 manuring, of all farm labour, of all tear and 
 wear, of all dairy produce, of all live-stock, of all 
 farm repairs, and of all matters whatever which 
 in any way figure as items in the grand result of 
 farming profit and loss ; but they ought also to 
 comprise full notes of all subtractions from the 
 farm's produce, whether in the form of matters 
 consumed by the farmer's own family and depen- 
 dents, or in the form of matters given over by 
 barter or donation to other parties, or in the 
 form of other kinds of labour than what are 
 proper to the farm done by the farmer's work- 
 people or by his horses. Even gentlemen farm- 
 ers, the very class whom Sir John Sinclair lauds 
 for the generally excellent condition of their ac- 
 counts, require, in not a few instances, to amend 
 their practices on this subject. " If country 
 gentlemen kept regular accounts of the value of 
 
 all the family supplies derived from the lands in 
 their occupation, and of the works exclusive of 
 farm-work performed by their farm-servants and 
 horses," says Sir P. Murray of Ochtertyre, " it 
 would be proved that the occupation, cultiva- 
 tion, and improvement of land is not so expen- 
 sive a concern as it is usually conceived to be. 
 The contrary opinion is so prevalent, that it 
 both limits the extent of the farming operations 
 of gentlemen who are engaged in them, and pre- 
 vents others from engaging in them, — con- 
 sequences which are much to be regretted, both 
 as limiting and retarding the general agricul- 
 tural improvement of the country, and as lessen- 
 ing the inducements of landed proprietors and 
 others, to reside in the country, and employ 
 their time and capital towards its cultivation 
 and improvement, — objects which, in every point 
 of view, are obviously of the greatest national 
 importance in all countries." 
 
 The farm accounts ought to be balanced, and 
 a valuation of all the stock made, at least once 
 a-year. The balancing of the accounts is essen- 
 tial to the ascertaining of their grand result ; 
 and the valuation of the stock is essential to the 
 accuracy, and even to the very act, of the bal- 
 ancing. The decrease of the value of all imple- 
 ments in use should be estimated and noted ; an 
 allowance for the increased age and correspond- 
 ingly diminished worth of all horses should be 
 made ; and an estimate of all articles whatever, 
 whether of produce, of stock, of accessories, or of 
 fixtures, should be made and entered, strictly 
 according to their prime-cost market worth at 
 the time of the valuation. All the details of the 
 taking of stock belong, of course, to the accounts 
 of the closing financial year ; and only the re- 
 sults of the nett balance upon the whole of the 
 accounts, are transferred to the commencement 
 of the accounts of the next year. The most 
 complete view of all the pecuniary affairs of 
 both farm and farmery throughout the year, if 
 unaccompanied at the end with an annual ac- 
 count of all the live-stock then upon the farm, of 
 the hay and roots unconsumed, of the grain in 
 the granary and the stack-yard, of t^he imple- 
 ments, and of all other matters in which any 
 portion of the capital is invested, would convey 
 an utterly distorted, a practically false, and a 
 grievously misleading idea of both the amount 
 and the degree of profit or loss upon the farm. 
 
 All efficient methods of farm book-keeping, 
 especially on moderate or large farms under the 
 mixed husbandry, embrace a great diversity and 
 a vast multiplicity of items, and are necessarily 
 more or less complex and intricate ; and some 
 which have been recommended for general adop- 
 tion include several departments of no real value, 
 and are far too elaborate for the comprehen- 
 sion, and still more for the use, of a consider- 
 able proportion of well-qualified farmers. Yet 
 comparatively easy methods are sufficient for 
 small or simple farms ; and any of the more 
 
FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 491 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 difficult methods, when found requisite, can be 
 mastered by a little application, and are readily 
 comprehensible by any properly qualified clerk. 
 The occupier of a small or simple farm needs only 
 a cash-book for noting all receipts and payments ; 
 a ledger for recording all transactions of sale and 
 purchase, of profit and loss ; and an inventory- 
 book for keeping a list of all implements, live- 
 stock, produce, manures, and other matters in 
 which capital is invested, and for entering a 
 seriatim valuation of them at the end of the year. 
 Even the most extensive farmer, entangled in all 
 the possible multitudinous affairs of the mixed 
 husbandry, needs only a cash-book, a day-book, 
 a ledger, and an inventory-book, — or at the ut- 
 most two additional or separate books for the 
 record of labour and of produce ; and if he have 
 never seen any of the special systems of farm 
 book-keeping which have been recommended, he 
 may readily render the common method of book- 
 keeping by double entry, which is taught in all 
 the commercial and parochial schools, available 
 for all the purposes of his accounts. Farm book- 
 keeping, in spite of all the mystery and magnilo- 
 quence and illusion which have been thrown 
 upon the subject, requires no greater modifica- 
 tions of the ordinary book-keeping of the schools 
 than are required by the book-keeping of many 
 factories and mercantile establishments. Three 
 of the best known special systems of farm book- 
 keeping, are Munro's and Trotter's, both pub- 
 lished at Edinburgh, the former in 1821 and the 
 latter in 1825, and 4 The British Farmer's Account- 
 Book,' by the author of 'British Husbandry,' pub- 
 'ished a few years ago in London. — Young's Rural 
 Economy. — Young's Farmer's Calendar. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. — Transactions of 
 the Highland Society. — Loudon's Encyclopaedia of 
 Agricidture. — Stephen's Booh of the Farm. 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS. TheVarm-house, offices, 
 sheds, and yards of a farmery. When the farm- 
 buildings of a district or country are substan- 
 tially constructed and well-arranged, the con- 
 dition of agriculture will generally be found 
 improved, enlightened, and prosperous ; and 
 when the farm-buildings are mean, incommo- 
 dious, and grossly defective, the condition of 
 agriculture will usually be found unimproved 
 and semi-barbarous. About 150 years ago, the 
 farm-buildings of the greater part of Britain 
 were poor, meagre, ill-arranged, and in dismal 
 keeping with a wretched system of husbandry ; so 
 late as about 50 years ago, the farm-buildings of 
 some of the best districts were merely in transi- 
 tion from barbarism to refinement ; and down to 
 the present day, the farm-buildings of nearly all 
 Ireland, of a large portion of the Scottish High- 
 lands, and of not a few estates in England, and 
 in the Scottish Lowlands, are so miserable and 
 inadequate as to be an insufferable disgrace to 
 both the improved agriculture and the general 
 enlightenment of the age. 
 
 The greater number of the farm-houses of 
 
 Scotland, about a century ago, differed little or 
 nothing in point of comfort from the huts and 
 hovels of cottiers and farm-servants, except in 
 having more apartments ; and all the groups of 
 offices, sheds, and yards, for the housing of live- 
 stock and tho performance of the home-labours 
 of the farm, were monstrously defective in capa- 
 city, in arrangement, and in general position and 
 character. " Some farm -buildings," says the 
 Report of Fifeshire, " were set down at the ex- 
 treme corner of a farm ; some at a distance from 
 water ; some were on too small a scale ; some 
 badly constructed or arranged ; some had no 
 granaries or lofts for holding threshed grain ; 
 some had either no sheds, or sheds not suffi- 
 ciently large for holding the farming implements, 
 which, in consequence of continued exposure to 
 the sun and rain, rapidly decayed ; some had no 
 straw-yards ; some, no feeding-houses for their 
 cattle, — and, where they had, the stables and 
 cow-houses were, in many cases, too short ; some 
 had no proper site for the dung, and the dunghill 
 was sometimes soaking in water, or its rich mois- 
 ture permitted to run to waste ; some wanted a 
 proper milk -house and other conveniences for a 
 dairy ; some had no better threshing-floors than 
 damp clay ; in short, several accommodations 
 were wanting, which are essential to the pros- 
 perity of a farmer." 
 
 This picture, though intended to represent 
 only a bygone state of things, exhibits features 
 which are still lamentably and astonishingly com- 
 mon in many parts of both England and Scot- 
 land. " No one," said Mr. Grey in 1843, " can 
 have travelled much in the rural districts of 
 England, even in those which are comparatively 
 well-cultivated, without being struck, if he have 
 any sense of neatness and order, with the ill- 
 arranged and patch- work appearance of many of 
 the farm-buildings, which are often placed, in 
 relation to their different parts, in utter defiance 
 of the economy of labour in the case of the cattle, 
 and, what is still worse, with little regard to 
 the production and preservation of the manure, 
 the dry parts of which may be seen exposed to 
 the winds, and the liquid part carried off with- 
 out being applied to any beneficial purpose. In 
 some, the unnatural practice still prevails of 
 tying up cattle intended to be fattened for the 
 market to stakes, from which they are never 
 released till they are driven off to the butcher ; 
 and in another part of the same offices, a younger 
 set of cattle may be found without sufficient 
 shelter and protection to secure their health and 
 comfort. As far as my observation goes, it is not 
 on the estates of the resident country gentlemen, 
 even those of moderate incomes, that the great- 
 est deficiency in good farm-buildings is to be 
 found, but chiefly on the very large estates of 
 the wealthiest landowners, — which may appear 
 rather paradoxical. Is it that they are so little 
 informed on the subject as not to know that such 
 accommodation is necessary to its profitable oc- 
 
FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 492 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 cupation by their tenants 1 In such cases, the 
 farm-steads near the residence, or near the roads 
 approaching to it, may obtain some attention ; 
 but the remote ones are left to their fate." Mul- 
 titudes of British farmeries, in fact, continue to 
 exhibit broad traces, and a few absolutely all the 
 features, of the barbarous farmeries of a former 
 age ; the great majority, when viewed in the ag- 
 gregate, are grievously unworthy of the highly 
 improved and rapidly expanding spirit of British 
 agriculture ; and entire classes of even the very 
 best display errors in construction or arrange- 
 ment which will probably astonish the farmers 
 of the next generation. An exceedingly crowded 
 arrangement of the buildings, for example — such 
 as affords only the paltriest scope for shelter- 
 sheds, and the farm-yard feeding of cattle — is so 
 general an error, and obtains such lofty sanction 
 from the absurdly-applied idea of compactness, 
 as to be avoided only on the very large class of 
 breeding and feeding farms in the border coun- 
 ties of England and Scotland. 
 
 The farm-buildings of Northumberland and the 
 Lothians, viewed in the aggregate, are superior to 
 those of most other districts of Britain, or, at all 
 events, are equal to those of the best. A large pro- 
 portion of the farm-buildings of Northumberland, 
 are of quite recent structure, and almost wholly 
 free from the incommodiousness and the patch- 
 work irregularity of their predecessors ; and nearly 
 all have a very substantial character, and are built 
 cither wholly or chiefly of stone. Some of the 
 older ones are still covered with thatch or with 
 tiles ; and a few are covered with grey sandstone 
 flags ; but all the recent ones are covered with 
 blue slate from Cumberland or Wales. — Such of 
 the farm-buildings of the Lothians as are older 
 than 25 or 30 years, are, for the most part, low, 
 incommodious, and scattered, and challenge little 
 commendation for either utility of arrangement 
 or beauty of design ; but such as have been erect- 
 ed within the last quarter of a century are sub- 
 stantially built, compactly arranged, somewhat 
 neatly designed, ample in accommodation, and 
 conveniently disposed for both the economizing 
 of labour and the shelter of live-stock. The 
 offices have as central a situation as comports 
 with a due regard to other advantages ; and, in 
 most instances, they form three sides of a square. 
 The proprietors engage either to repair the old 
 buildings or to erect new ones ; and the tenants 
 will not accept mere cottages for themselves, or 
 hovels for their cattle. Nearly all the buildings 
 are substantially constructed of stone ; but, in 
 consequence of the dearth of slates and the abun- 
 dance of tile- clay, the great majority are covered 
 with red-tiles. A considerable portion of the 
 area of each farm-stead is occupied with the 
 feeding-yards and the shelter -sheds of cattle. 
 Each properly appointed yard has along one or 
 more of its sides, a range of shallow troughs, 
 usually three feet above the ground, and com- 
 posed of either wood or stone, for containing 
 
 turnips, oil -cake, or other food used by the 
 cattle ; and the sheds, in some instances, are 
 surmounted by granaries communicating with 
 the barn. Most of the farmers' dwellings are 
 neat and comfortable houses, varying in size and 
 structure with the extent and character of the 
 farms ; and those of recent erection stand at a 
 short distance from the offices, and are accom- 
 panied with neat gardens or other small pieces 
 of ornamental ground. The farm-houses of the 
 Lothians, in fact, as well as those of all large 
 farms in other thoroughly improved districts of 
 Britain, are the abodes of gentlemen, — the re- 
 treats of both intelligence and taste, — as far dif- 
 ferent from the hovel-farmeries of former ages 
 as is the light of the nineteenth century from 
 the darkness of the tenth. 
 
 But how dismal a contrast to the farmeries of 
 the improved districts of Britain is presented by 
 the huts and the mud-cabins of the enormous 
 majority of the farmers of Ireland ! " Nothing, 1 ' 
 says a brief and decidedly favourable account 
 which Martin Doyle pronounces to be as critically 
 true as it is admirably expressed, — " Nothing, 
 generally speaking, can exceed the wretched 
 meanness of the accommodation afforded even to 
 farmers in otherwise easy circumstances ; and 
 the business of cultivation suffers accordingly 
 throughout all its details, from the want of pro- 
 per conveniences in the offices. But, although 
 the common class of Irish farmers are generally 
 accused of slovenly habits, this part of their 
 want of management is not so much their fault 
 as that of their landlords ; it is in fact but a 
 portion of the bad system of tenantry, and the 
 want of capital, which prevail throughout that 
 country. The main object of the landlord is, 
 with very few exceptions, confined to the one 
 point of obtaining the utmost rent for the ground 
 without regard to the character or means of the 
 tenant, or else he lets it on any terms by which 
 he can raise a sum for the supply of his pecuni- 
 ary necessities. He seldom lays out a shilling 
 upon farm offices of any description ; the conse- 
 quence of which is, that the poor tenant, who 
 holds perhaps only a few acres, cannot afford 
 anything beyond the commonest cottage, with a 
 mud shed adjoining for the shelter of his cow 
 and a pig, or perhaps a stable for his horse, of no 
 better description ; and the wealthier order, even 
 of those who hold leases of a considerable quantity 
 of land, being not bound by any conditions re- 
 garding expenditure for buildings, nor allowed 
 for repairs, naturally cannot be expected to lay 
 out more money than they can possibly avoid 
 during the existence of the term. There are, uo 
 doubt, many instances of superior sets of offices ; 
 but they are rarely in the hands of any other 
 than gentlemen of fortune, and the improve- 
 ments which have occurred in this particular 
 have by no means kept pace with those which 
 have been made in the culture of the soil or the 
 live-stock of the kingdom." 
 
I " — — 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS. 493 FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 The situation of a farm-stead, whenever a new 
 set of farm-buildings is to be erected, ought to 
 be a point of nice attention and very careful 
 and matured consideration. The old method 
 of grouping several farmeries into hamlets, or 
 of combining them, with huxteries, tradesmen's 
 workshops, and the cottages of farm-servants, 
 into villages, was somewhat justified by the w r ant 
 of domestic security or the dread of foreign in- 
 vasion in feudal times, but possesses not one 
 element of accommodation to the modern con- 
 dition of society, and entails , a thousand embar- 
 rassments upon all the ordinary and most impor- 
 tant operations of the farm. The perpetuation 
 of this method among the small farmers of Ire- 
 land, is easily accounted for by the low and anti- 
 quated state of their agriculture, and involves 
 comparatively little evil from their system of 
 spade husbandry, and of five or six acre farms ; 
 but the continuance of it among some of the 
 moderately extensive farmers of Britain, admits 
 not of a word of apology, involves every kind of 
 embarrassment from all the processes of horse 
 husbandry, and ought everywhere and peremp- 
 torily to cease. But the placing of the farm- 
 steads of large farms in a corner or on a border 
 of the farms, is in all respects as prejudicial as 
 the grouping of the farm-steads of moderately- 
 sized farms into villages. Part of the land, in 
 every such case, is neglected ; too little manure 
 is sent to it ; the strength of horses is wasted in 
 draught between the farm-stead and the remote 
 fields ; the general expense of cultivation is 
 materially increased ; and some of the remote 
 parts are kept in a state of miserable pasturage, 
 or, when occasionally broken up, yield such crops 
 as scarcely defray the heavy costs of draught, 
 tillage, and cultivation. A central situation of 
 the farmery, as compared with an uncentral one, 
 may make a difference of from Is. to 5s. per acre 
 in the yearly value of the whole farm, according 
 to the farm's extent, and to other local circum- 
 stances ; and it has been estimated by some in- 
 telligent farmers at so much in the aggregate as 
 <£100 a-year, — or, on very extensive farms, at the 
 enormous amount of nearly £200.— The farm- 
 steads of farms which have an undulated or a 
 hilly surface, ought not to be situated in a low 
 and moist spot ; for, if they be, the crops, how- 
 ever dry and well -conditioned when brought 
 from the field, will soon acquire a softness, and 
 perhaps a mustiness, very injurious to their 
 value, and the health of both the live-stock and 
 the human inhabitants of the farmery will suffer 
 from humidity of atmosphere and the want of 
 ventilation. The heaviest part of cartage upon 
 a farm, too, is the removing of manure from the 
 farm-stead to the fields ; and this is seriously 
 greater from farm-steads in low situations than 
 from farm-steads on the same level as the fields, 
 or on a higher level. The site of every farm-stead 
 ought to be dry and well-aired, — either on some 
 summit -ground of an undulating farm, or on 
 
 some slope or hill-side of a hilly one ; yet in bleak 
 districts, it ought to have some such shelter as 
 will afford the whole farmery some protection 
 against the violence of tempests, and a« will in- 
 sure to young stock the degree of warmth which 
 is requisite for their thriving. 
 
 Choice of situation is sometimes partially con- 
 trolled by a due regard to other considerations. 
 The exposure of the farmery, for example, 
 ought to be to the south ; for a southern ex- 
 posure affords shelter from cold north winds, and 
 occasions the cattle of the farm-yard to thrive 
 much better than if they were excluded from 
 the direct play of the sun's rays ; and if three- 
 fourths of a farm lie exposed to the north, and 
 only a fourth lie exposed to the south, the site of 
 the farm-stead must probably be chosen within 
 the latter division. — A plentiful and constant 
 supply of good water, also, is essential for the 
 purposes of the dairy, for the drink of the cattle, 
 for the domestic uses of the farmery, and for the 
 daily purification and the habitual cleanliness of 
 the whole farm-stead ; and whether this supply 
 be sought in rivulets, in natural fountains, by 
 the sinking of common wells, or by Elkingtonian 
 or Artesian boring, it may, in some cases, require 
 the site of a farm-stead to be selected consider- 
 ably away from the centre of the farm, and even 
 perhaps in a lower level than that of the great 
 part of the surface. Easy access to general com- 
 munications with markets and sources of mineral 
 manures, is likewise an object of much impor- 
 tance ; and may, in some rare instances, for the 
 sake of avoiding a hill or a deep hollow between 
 the farmery and the public road, require the 
 site of the farm-stead to be selected somewhat 
 away from the centre. "These, however," as 
 Sir John Sinclair remarks, " are only exceptions 
 to the general rule ; for it may be laid down as 
 an axiom in agriculture, that the farm-house 
 and offices ought to be placed, as nearly as pos- 
 sible, in the centre of a farm." 
 
 The arrangement of the buildings, sheds, and 
 yards of the farmery is to the full as important 
 as the situation ; and according as it is good or 
 bad, it elevates or depresses the value of a 
 moderately sized farm to the enormous amount 
 of from £50 to £100 a-year. The great object 
 of arrangement is the facilitating of all home- 
 labours, the promoting of expedition and effi- 
 ciency in all the work of the offices and yards, 
 or the securing of such a saving of time and 
 labour as will enable the farmer to conduct the 
 whole of his business with the help of the small- 
 est possible number of servants ; and a secondary 
 object — though this, in extreme cases, may, in a 
 pecuniary respect, be considerably the more im- 
 portant object of the two — is to afford the am- 
 plest scope and the best appliances for economiz- 
 ing the materials of farm -yard manure, and 
 securing the utmost effects of food upon the 
 health, milk, and carcases of cattle. Many varie- 
 ties of arrangement may be quite or nearly equal 
 
FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 494 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 to one another in efficiency ; few varieties, if 
 any, are altogether free from some little disadvan- 
 tages and inconveniences ; and varieties some- 
 what widely different from one another, or even 
 exhibiting some features of absolute contrast, 
 are rendered unavoidable by the different char- 
 acter of farms, the diversities of soils, sites, and 
 relative situation, and the differences of manage- 
 ment, tenancy, capital, materials, and taste. In 
 internal arrangement, especially of very exten- 
 sive suites of farm-buildings, all the apartments 
 cannot possibly be so disposed as to combine 
 desirable convenience with any degree of regu- 
 larity ; and in external arrangement, the archi- 
 tect, in many instances, can do no more than 
 attentively examine the site, and consider all 
 the circumstances, and then use a discretionary 
 judgment in so designing the form and colloca- 
 tion and buildings as best to suit the nature of 
 the farm and the wants of the occupier. 
 
 Yet certain pervading principles of both out- 
 line and detail, apply to the majority of cases, 
 and are desirable in all. No arrangement can 
 possibly be good which does not permit easy 
 access from the stack-yard to the barn, from the 
 barn to the granary, and from the sheds and 
 offices to the exterior roads, or which has not 
 the straw -house and the turnip store-room in 
 close proximity to the straw-yards, the sheds, and 
 the feeding-houses, or which does not combine 
 these and other requisite facilities of communica- 
 tion with thorough ventilation, proper exposure, 
 and abundant shelter. The circle contains more 
 space within a given extent of enclosure than 
 any other figure, and might therefore seem to 
 be the best outline for the farm-stead ; yet it is 
 really the most unsuitable of all figures, — the 
 least adapted for subdivision, and the most 
 expensive in filling up. A rectangular figure, 
 whether square or parallelogram, makes both 
 the most accommodations and the least costly 
 outline ; and both the lines of this figure, and 
 those of its subdivisions, when not allowed to be 
 broken by projections, curves, or recessions, 
 comport best with cheapness in the buildings. 
 The most convenient of all general arrangements 
 is to build the offices along the north, the west, 
 and the east sides of a rectangle, to leave the 
 south side open, and to place the farm-house at a 
 convenient and agreeable distance in front. 
 
 The area, whatever be the form of the rect- 
 angle, and whatever its subdivisional arrange- 
 ment, ought by all means to be very spacious. 
 "Nothing is more injudicious," said Sir John 
 Sinclair so long ago as 1817, "than to have farm- 
 buildings huddled together, round so small an 
 area as from 60 to 70 feet. Where a farm con- 
 tains from 300 to 400 acres, the area of the 
 offices should not be less than from 100 to 150 
 feet square, formed into divisions, that the stock 
 kept may be more equally fed. If it be found 
 expensive to surround the square with buildings, 
 a simple wall may afford shelter, till it is found 
 
 convenient to enlarge the farm-yard. In fact, 
 none but a practical farmer, who has had a large 
 crop, and a number of cattle maintained during 
 the winter, and who has seen the farm-servants 
 carelessly driving the cattle and carts in confined 
 court-yards, can fully appreciate the advantages 
 of having his offices with a large area." The 
 yards and sheds for the keeping and feeding of 
 cattle may be constructed on very various plans 
 and arrangements, and with very various degrees 
 of capacity ; but the best method is to have small 
 sheds, with open yards attached, and to have 
 only one opening in each shed, and this facing 
 the south. The water-courses from the yards, 
 the cow-houses, and the stables to the tanks for 
 the collection of liquid manure, ought to be 
 open causewayed channels rather than under- 
 ground conduits ; and the mode of supplying 
 water to the yards must be controlled by the 
 manner in which the water is obtained, whether 
 from a stream, from wells, or from Artesian 
 borings. 
 
 The most advantageous construction of suites 
 of farm -buildings engaged for some time the 
 special attention of the Highland Society, and 
 is very luminously reported on in the 8th volume 
 of their Transactions. Elevations and ground 
 plans of suites for eight different classes of farms 
 are given ; and the specifications and estimated 
 costs of each are fully detailed. We shall occupy 
 the sequel of the present article with a digest of 
 the Society's report, and shall thus convey the 
 best information respecting the general con- 
 struction of the buildings ; and we must refer 
 to the report itself for the instructions required 
 in erecting them, and to our own articles, Dairy, 
 Cow -House, Barn, Barn - Management, Ox- 
 Stalls, and Stable, for a view of the proper 
 construction of the chief of the several offices. 
 
 All the buildings are described and estimated 
 on the supposition of one set of materials ; and 
 when other materials than these are employed, 
 the operations and estimates must be modified 
 to suit them. The corners, ribbets, arches, and 
 skews are supposed to be of hewn -stone; the 
 timber, Memel ; the roof- covering, Easdale- 
 slates ; the ridges and flanks are supposed to be 
 covered with lead ; and, excepting the prime 
 cost of stones, all the materials, as to both cost 
 and workmanship, are included in the estimates. 
 Metal pillars are, in most of the plans, designed 
 for the cart-sheds ; but stone- pillars, whenever 
 suitable stones can be cheaply procured, are re- 
 commended in preference. 
 
 The trenches for the foundations of the build- 
 ings are dug at least two feet below the surface. 
 The foundations are formed with flat -bedded 
 stones laid in regular courses, breaking joints 
 alternately, and taken in by regular scarcements. 
 The whole area of the dressing -barn and low 
 granary floors is laid over, to the thickness of 9 
 inches, with small broken stones ; the sleepers 
 are laid on the inside scarcements ; and all the 
 
FARM-BUILDINGS. 
 
 495 
 
 FARM-BUILDINGS 
 
 remaining space of 14 inches in depth is filled 
 up -with solid mason -work of stone and lime 
 properly packed, with a surface coat of plaster 
 three-fourths of an inch thick. The floor of 
 the straw -barn is similarly formed, but with 
 a less depth of masonry, and with a composi- 
 tion-covering of 3 inches in thickness. The 
 foundations of the low buildings are 2f feet 
 wide at the bottom, and taken in by regular 
 scarcements. The door-soles of the barns are 
 laid 6 inches, and those of the stables and cow- 
 houses 3 inches, above the surface of the exterior 
 causeway. The walls of the barns are 2J feet 
 thick above the door-sole, and 2 feet above the 
 second floor ; those of the low buildings are 2 
 feet thick above the door-sole ; and both sets of 
 walls are beam-filled at the top. The division 
 walls of buildings are 18 inches thick, and car- 
 ried to the top. The foundation of the walls of 
 courts and yards is 2j feet wide at the bottom, 
 and at least 12 inches below the level of the 
 general surface. All the external corners of 
 houses and gate-pillars, and all the ribbets, soles 
 and lintels of doors and windows, are droved 
 with broached tails ; all the corners and ribbets 
 are at least 2 feet long ; the ribbet-heads for barn- 
 windows are 9 inches ; the shed -pillars, the 
 arches, and the chimney-tops, are of broached 
 ashlar ; the shed-pillars and the gate-pillars are 
 champhered or rounded on the corners ; the 
 yard- walls are coped with the most suitable 
 stones which can be procured ; and the cooling- 
 troughs and feeding-boxes are constructed of 
 pavement. The great common sewer begins in 
 a central part of the offices, and, if a covered one, 
 is 2J feet wide and 3i feet high ; and the side- 
 conduits have chisel-jointed angle bottoms, and 
 are from 12 to 18 inches wide and from 18 to 24 
 inches high, according to their distance from the 
 common sewer. The floor of all the area of the 
 stables, cow-houses, calf-houses, pig-houses, and 
 other similar parts, is formed ofwhinstone cause- 
 way, set in sharp sand ; the ducts for the urine 
 have a fall of from 1-| to 2 inches in 10 feet ; the 
 ducts of the stables are 10 feet from the wall, 
 and the rise thence to the rack is 5 inches ; the 
 ducts of the cow-house are 9 feet from the wall, 
 and the rise thence to the sole-tree is 4 inches; 
 and the floor or surface of the area round the 
 yard is formed either of whinstone causeway or of 
 compact and water-tight macadamizing, with 
 ducts at proper intervals declining 2 inches in 
 every 10 feet to the common-sewer or the side- 
 conduits. 
 
 The cupple-sides for houses of 15 or 16 feet 
 wide are 6^ inches at bottom, 5| inches at top, 
 and 2\ inches thick, with a scantling 6 by 2\ 
 inches, fixed with double garron-nails, and rivet- 
 ed ; the cupple-sides for houses 18 feet wide, are 
 7 inches at bottom and 6 inches at top, with a 
 scantling 63? by 2\ inches ; the cupples are set 
 at 20 inches from centres, on a wall-plate 7 inches 
 by 1^ inch ; the sarking is three-fourths of an 
 
 inch thick, well seasoned and closely jointed, — 
 and that of the granaries is half-checked on the 
 joints ; and the ridge-bottoms are 2 inches by \\ 
 inch, fixed to the roof with iron spikes, 3 feet 
 apart. The sleepers in the dressing-barn and in 
 the low granary floors are 6 by 2h inches, and 
 are laid on the inside scarcements at the depth 
 mentioned in the notice of the mason-work ; the 
 joisting in the lofts of the unthrashed corn barns 
 and the granaries is 10 inches deep and 2h 
 inches thick, with 1 foot of wall-hold ; both the 
 sleepers and the joisting are laid at 20 inches 
 from centres, and covered with Dram timber 
 batons ; the under floors are plain-jointed, and 
 douled with iron douls ; and the upper floors are 
 tongued and feathered on the joints, and fixed 
 down with good flooring-sprigs. Cart-sheds with 
 stone-pillars have a joist built into the wall at 
 each pillar, 8 inches by 2|, and the wall-plate 
 nailed down on the top of it ; and those with 
 metal pillars, have lintling-beams, 9 inches by 12, 
 and the end of the joist tenanted 2 inches into 
 the lintel, and made fast with an iron strap 
 and screw-bolts. 
 
 All the safe-lintels have an inch of thickness 
 for every foot of opening they cover, and are 
 from 9 to 12 inches broad, and have a wall-hold 
 of 9 inches. All the doors are made of deal, not 
 more than 6 h inches broad, 1^ inch thick, headed 
 on the edges, and grooved and tongued on the 
 joints, with three cross-bars to each, 9 inches 
 broad, 1^ inch thick, and well nailed, — and all 
 are hung on crooks with bands ; the doors of the 
 stable, the cow-house, and the barn, are 3i feet 
 wide, and may, if necessary, be hung in two 
 leaves ; the doors of the granary and the straw- 
 barn are 4 feet wide ; the crooks are laid on the 
 bed of the ribbet, have 7 inches hold of the stone, 
 are split in the tail, and have a weight of 3j lbs. 
 for the smaller set of doors, and of 4 lbs. for the 
 larger set ; the bands are three-eighths of an 
 inch thick at the neck, 2 inches broad, 22 inches 
 long, and 4| lbs. in weight for the smaller doors, 
 and half-an-inch thick, 2h inches broad, 23 inches 
 long, and 5|- lbs. in weight, for the larger ones, 
 the band-nails are counter-sunk and properly 
 riveted ; the latches are of the sunk ring kind, 
 and very strong ; and the locks are selected in 
 adaptation to the several offices. The frames of the 
 lower windows of barns, stables, and cow-houses, 
 are 2 inches thick, with boards below 16 or 18 
 inches high, hung on the frames with cross-tailed 
 bands, and glazed above with second crown-glass; 
 those of places where glass is unnecessary, are 
 filled with weather-boards 6 inches broad and 1 
 inch thick, and hung with iron pivots ; and the 
 lower windows of the barn are secured by iron 
 bars 1 inch square, and not more than 5 inches 
 apart, batted into the sole and lintel, and made 
 firm by means of a cross-bar through the middle. 
 
 The hind-posts of the trevises are 8| feet long, 
 6| inches square, octagonal above the level of the 
 pavement, sunk 3^ feet below that level, solidly 
 
FARM-BUILDINGS. 49G FARM-BUILDINGS 
 
 built round 3 feet in diameter with stone and 
 lime mortar ; the fore-posts reach 9 inches above 
 the top of the racks, and have their foot set in 
 stones, one on each side of the boards ; the tre- 
 vises are 8 feet long from the wall to the outside 
 of the hind-posts, 4| feet high at the hind-posts, 
 and 6 feet high at the fore-posts ; and the boards 
 of the trevises are 1| inch thick, mortised 1^ 
 inch into the hind-posts, and nailed to the fore- 
 posts. The racks are 2 feet 10 inches broad, the 
 sides 4 by 2^ inches, the spars 2j by 1^ inches, 
 sunk five-eighths of an inch into the sides, and 
 3| inches apart. The mangers are 20 inches at 
 the top, 16 inches at the bottom, and 10 inches 
 deep, and have a back-lining or skirting on the 
 top where it joins the wall. The under-racks 
 are 2^ feet high ; and the rails are 3 by 2^ inches, 
 and have a rim-beam, rounded on the top, 4 
 by 3 inches. 
 
 A coat of plaster is laid on the walls of the 
 stable for saddle-horses, the front wall of the 
 stables for work-horses, and the walls of the 
 boiling-houses, the dressing-barn, and the gran- 
 aries ; and the plaster is very carefully applied 
 close down to the floors, and close up to the under 
 side of the boards over the joists of the latter 
 two of these sets of offices. Two coats of plaster 
 are laid round the back of the cupples and balks 
 of the saddle-horse stable and the washing- 
 houses ; and a ventilator is made in the ceiling 
 of the latter. Three coats of oil paint are given 
 to the outside of all the doors, windows, and 
 gates. The gate-posts are sunk 3 feet into the 
 ground, and burned or charred as far as they go 
 into the ground ; the posts are 9 inches square, 
 and champhered on the corners, and set three 
 inches clear of the pillars, and stand 9 inches 
 above the gate, rounded on the top, and built in 
 the ground with stone and lime 4 feet in diame- 
 ter. The hanging post of the gate is 5 by 4 inches ; 
 the front post is 4 by 3 inches ; the centre-piece 
 is 3| by 2£ inches; the angle-spar is If inch thick, 
 4| inches broad at the foot, tapering to 3h inches 
 at the top. The uppermost spar is of lj inch 
 iron at the end next the hanging post, diminish- 
 ing to the front post to f inch, and goes through 
 the posts with a shoulder and an eye at the hang- 
 ing post, and a screw-nut on the end of the front 
 post. The crooks are put into the gate-posts 
 with nuts on the ends. The spars of the gate 
 are 4 inches broad at the hind end, and dimin- 
 ish to 3| inches at the front, by l£ inch thick ; 
 the intersections are put together with § inch 
 screw-bolts. 
 
 Five designs of suites of offices and yards, 
 suitable for a farm of 1,000 acres, kept in a rota- 
 tion of crops and pasture, and employed partly 
 in breeding and partly in feeding stock, are 
 noticed in the Highland Society's Report, — one 
 computed to cost £1,700 with slates or £1,300 
 with tiles, one £1,600 with slates or £1,230 with 
 tiles, one £1,550 with slates or £1,200 with tiles, 
 one £1,650 with slates or £1,308 with tiles, and 
 
 one £1,530 with slates or £1,200 with tiles ; and 
 a working-plan and elevations of the last of 
 these are given. Two designs for a farm of 
 500 acres, kept in a rotation of crops and pas- 
 ture, producing turnips, and employed partly in 
 breeding and partly in feeding stock, are given, 
 and both illustrated with working-plans, the one 
 computed to cost £1,300 with slates or £1,020 
 with tiles, and the other £1,190 with slates or 
 £940 with tiles. Two designs and working- 
 plans for a farm of 150 acres, of the same descrip- 
 tion as the preceding, are given, the one computed 
 to cost £600 with slates or £476 with tiles, and 
 the other £550 with slates or £465 with tiles. 
 A design is given, accompanied with a working- 
 plan, for a carse-farm of £500 acres, not pro- 
 ducing turnips, and kept chiefly or wholly in 
 tillage, and is computed to cost £1,260 with 
 slates or £1,020 with tiles. A design is given, 
 accompanied with a working plan, for a dairy- 
 farm of 500 acres, kept in a rotation of crops and 
 grass, but with one-half always in hay or pas- 
 ture, and is computed to cost £1,300 with slates 
 or £1,000 with tiles. Two designs, both accom- 
 panied with working-plans, are given for a farm 
 of 200 acres, in the vicinity of a town, wholly in 
 tillage, with no stock but horses and family cows, 
 and with no home-use of any of the main part of 
 its produce ; and one of these is computed to 
 cost £600 with slates or £470 with tiles, the 
 other £550 with slates or £400 with tiles. A 
 design, accompanied by a working-plan, is given 
 for a mixed stock-farm in a high country, em- 
 ploying a pair of horses, and is computed to cost 
 £410 with slates or £322 with tiles. Two 
 designs, with accompanying working-plans, are 
 given for a cottage-farm of 25 acres; and the one is 
 computed to cost £190 with slates or £150 with 
 tiles, the other £164 with slates or £130 with 
 tiles. 
 
 The farm-house, or abode of the farmer 
 and his family, ought to occupy a convenient 
 site in front of the quadrangle of offices. But 
 for the sake of at once purity of air for the house- 
 hold, the prevention of the risk of communicat- 
 ing fire to the offices by sparks from the chimneys 
 of the house, and of securing neatness, cheerful- 
 ness, and decoration to the little home-view of 
 the domicile, the site ought to be selected at a 
 little distance from the offices. A garden or a 
 shrubbery, or a combination of the two with 
 each other, or of either with a small lawn, ought 
 to be attached to the house, and may most ad- 
 vantageously intervene between it and the quad- 
 rangle. Though the house ought to be con- 
 structed with a rigid and prosaic regard to 
 utility, yet it may easily, and at a cheap cost, 
 be made to possess a little ornament ; and it 
 ought both to contribute a feature of neatness to 
 the general landscape of the country, and to con- 
 vey by its external appearance a not ion of t he com- 
 fortable condition and the gentlemanly status of 
 its occupant. Tastes and judgments differ as to 
 
FARMER. 
 
 497 
 
 FARM-LABOURERS. 
 
 the preferableness of a house with all its apart- 
 ments and accommodations under one roof, or 
 of a house with wings or other adjuncts ; and 
 some persons think that a house of three stories, 
 with the kitchen half-sunk, is the driest, the 
 cheapest, and the most convenient, while others 
 prefer a house of two stories, with the kitchen 
 and its appurtenances in a wing. But several 
 varieties of arrangement may be alike good in 
 different circumstances ; and some very wide vari- 
 eties are made imperative by differences of situa- 
 tion, and especially by differences in the size and 
 character of farms. 
 
 A design for an ornamental farm-house, in the 
 rural gothic style, and two stories high, is given 
 in Downing's work, " Cottage Residences." The 
 rural gothic style is preferred, partly on account 
 of the large lofts or garrets, which are afforded 
 by the steep gables and roofs, and which are of 
 so great service in a farm-house, and partly on 
 account of the beauty and picturesqueness which 
 a structure of stone, in even the simplest man- 
 ner of that style, possesses. The principal floor of 
 the main building measures 46 feet by 30, and is 
 distributed into a hall, a parlour, two bed-rooms, 
 and a large pantry ; the second floor of the main 
 building contains three good bed-rooms, closets, 
 presses, and a small bed-room ; an ample garret 
 surmounts the second story ; the cellar is large, 
 having the same area as the main-building ; and 
 the kitchen, the wash-house, each 16 feet square, 
 as well as other requisite apartments, are in an 
 L-form addition, of one story high, in the rear of 
 the main-building. The whole structure is sup- 
 posed to be of rough stone, or of stone partially 
 smoothed on the face, but not laid in regular 
 courses. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agricul- 
 ture. — Sir John Sinclair's General Report of Scot- 
 land.— ■Downing' 1 's Cottage Residences.— Transactions 
 of the Highland Society. — Communications to the 
 Board of Agriculture. — Journal of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society of England. — Irish Farmer's 
 Journal. — Martin Doyle's Works. — Low's Agricul- 
 ture. — Loudon's Works. — Stephens' Book of the 
 Farm. — Young's Farmer's Guide— Hunter's Ge- 
 orgical Essays. — Buel's Farmer's Instructor. — Far- 
 mer's Magazine. 
 
 FARMER. The cultivator of a farm. The 
 farmers of Great Britain are either extensive 
 land-owners, who cultivate home-farms or model- 
 farms, on their own estates ; or small proprie- 
 tors, who cultivate each an entire but small 
 piece of land belonging to himself ; or yeomen who 
 cultivate farms held on lease from superiors ; or 
 cottagers who cultivate small rented farms, either 
 in the form of allotments in the country, or for 
 the sale of dairy produce or of fresh field produce 
 in towns. The third of these classes are by far the 
 most numerous and important in Britain, and 
 are often regarded as constituting the whole body 
 of farmers, to the entire exclusion of the other 
 classes ; and they may be subdivided into agri- 
 culturists and mere practical farmers, according 
 I. 
 
 to the degree of their knowledge, or the scientific 
 character of their practice — and into stock-far- 
 mers, dairy-farmers, carse-farmers, and - general 
 farmers, or farmers of the mixed husbandry, ac- 
 cording to the precise nature of their farms or 
 of their prevailing pursuits. See the article 
 Farm. 
 
 FARMERY. See Farm-Buildings. 
 FARM-GATE. See Gate and Farm-Build- 
 ings. 
 
 FARM-HOUSE. See Farm-Buildings. 
 
 FARMING. See Introduction. 
 
 FARM-LABOURERS. AU the work-people of 
 farms, whose labour is but occasional, or sup- 
 plementary to that of the stated labourers or 
 farm-servants. No farmer who carries on an 
 extensive and regular system of operations, can 
 meet the frequent demands of his farm for in- 
 creased or occasional labour, without either the 
 aid of occasional work-people or a great sacrifice 
 of economy ; for most of his stated servants work 
 with horses, so that when they are called to any 
 occasional work, the horses are thrown idle, — and 
 the whole body of his stated servants are, in 
 some important cases, as in that of a rapid ripen- i 
 ing of the harvest crops, totally incompetent to 
 meet the urgency of the demand, — and even the 
 least valuable of these servants cost more for some 
 kinds of facile and common-place work than 
 needs to be paid to occasional workers. 
 
 One class of farm-labourers are cottiers, and 
 these may be divided into five sub-classes, — such 
 as have a cottage but no land, such as have a 
 right of common, such as have a garden or an 
 allotment-plot, such as have some arable land, 
 and such as have some grass land. This class 
 as a whole are of eminent service to farmers, 
 and rank next in both the frequency and the 
 quality of their work to regular farm -servants ; 
 but they differ very widely among themselves in 
 at once worldly condition, general character, and 
 manner of employment. Some are a kind of 
 farmers themselves, and but a degree below the 
 small-farmer yeomen; some hold their cottages 
 by a tenure of independence upon particular far- 
 mers, and others by a tenure of entire depen- 
 dence, and especially of stipulated labour; some 
 spend their whole time profitably and industri- 
 ously in alternations of labour on their plots and 
 on the farms of their employers; some have a 
 plurality of occupations, but vary widely in the 
 quality, profitableness, and constancy of these ; 
 some are, in a considerable degree, systematic 
 idlers ; some are but a single grade above 
 the condition of thorough vagabonds ; and a 
 large proportion, the steadiest and best condi- 
 tioned, have not an uniform rule of employment 
 with farmers, but are employed in various ways 
 according to the usages of districts, the peculi- 
 arities of farms, or the private interests and in- 
 clinations of the parties. The condition of 
 cottier farm-labourers has, for some time past, 
 drawn much attention; and both the importance 
 21 
 
FARM-LABOURERS. 
 
 498 
 
 FARM -LABOURERS. 
 
 of it to general husbandry, and the necessity of 
 improving it for the sake of the cottiers them- 
 selves, have been increasingly acknowledged. 
 Much information respecting it, and also a full 
 view of the position, interests, and duties of 
 cottiers as independent cultivators of the soil, 
 will be found in our articles Allotment System, 
 Cottage, Cottage-Gardening, Cottage-Husban- 
 dry, Cottage-Economy, and Spade -Husbandry. 
 One of the most interesting and prominent classes 
 of cottiers, a class combining the position of cot- 
 tiers with that of constant, stated, hired work- 
 men, and constituting the great body of the 
 ploughmen of the south of Scotland and some 
 parts of the north of England, will be noticed in 
 the following article on Farm-Servants. 
 
 A large proportion of farm-labourers work by 
 the day or by the piece; and these consist partly 
 of cottiers who are independent of any particular 
 farmers, partly of rural artisans who have not 
 sufficient employment in their proper avocations, 
 partly of itinerant workmen who undertake jobs 
 of particular kinds of work, such as ditching or 
 stocking, and partly of periodical immigrants from 
 poor districts, specially of Irish reapers at the 
 time of harvest. All labourers of this class, with 
 the exception perhaps of mowers and of some of 
 the regular jobbing itinerants, are essentially the 
 same class of men who perform all kinds of 
 drudgery and day-labour in large towns, and 
 are not supposed to possess any other knowledge 
 of farm-work than such as they may have 
 acquired casually or from occasional observation; 
 yet they necessarily differ widely from one another, 
 both in the range and in the value of their qualifi- 
 cations. Great conflict of opinion exists as to the 
 preferableness of employing them by the day or 
 by the piece. A labourer by the day, it is 
 alleged, wastes much of his time in idle talk, 
 and performs much of his work in a make-believe 
 manner, occasions cost and trouble by the neces- 
 sity of supervision, and has no motive for mak- 
 ing a vigorous or energetic use of his strength; 
 while a labourer by the piece works with steadi- 
 ness and perseverance, has a manly feeling of 
 independence, experiences every inducement to 
 make the best use of his time and strength, 
 executes his work with despatch, occasions no 
 trouble or vexation to his employer, and obtains 
 remuneration proportionate to his industry. But, 
 on the other hand, a labourer by the piece is 
 generally supposed both to hurt himself by doing 
 more work than comports with his health, and 
 to injure his employer by performing all his work 
 in as slim a manner as will possibly consist with 
 the bare maintaining of his credit. Piece-work 
 in the mowing of grass is usually desirable for 
 the sake of expedition in the making of the hay; 
 but piece-work in the corn-harvest, especially in 
 a humid climate or during unsettled or doubt- 
 ful weather, is usually undesirable on account of 
 the powerful temptations which it offers to cut 
 down portions of the crops in a slovenly or waste- 
 
 ful manner, and in an immature condition of 
 ripeness or of dryness. 
 
 Women and children, especially the former, 
 are very extensively employed in some districts, 
 and more or less employed in all, as farm- 
 labourers. The kinds of work which they per- 
 form are exceedingly various, and include all 
 light sorts and some heavy ones, not requiring 
 any special training or artistic skill, — particu- 
 larly the hand-hoeing and hand-weeding of white 
 crops, the singling, topping, and tailing of tur- 
 nips, the dibbling of wheat, the dropping of 
 beans and pease, the burning of the surface of 
 fen-land 7 the making of hay, the pulling of tur- 
 nips, the digging and gathering of potatoes, and 
 the sickle-reaping of white crops. Special com- 
 missions under the Poor-Law were sent in 1843 
 to four sets of agricultural counties in England, 
 comprising Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Kent, 
 Surrey, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, York- 
 shire, and Northumberland, to inquire into the 
 employment of women and children in agricul- 
 ture, the sorts of labour at which they are respec- 
 tively employed, the wages which they receive, 
 their hours of work, and any other similar 
 facts which might tend to throw light on their 
 physical and moral condition, — and to inquire, 
 in a very particular manner, into the employment 
 of children, the ages at which they begin to work, 
 and the effects which their occupation has upon 
 their bodily health, as well as upon their oppor- 
 tunities for obtaining school instruction and 
 moral and religious education. The printed 
 reports form an octavo volume of 378 pages, and 
 possess much interest for at once the farmer, 
 the philanthropist, and the political economist; 
 and though we can afford to give no larger 
 specimen of them than a single sentence respect- 
 ing Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln, even this may 
 indicate their value. The kinds of labour in these 
 counties, with a single exception, comprise 
 all those which we enumerated; the health of 
 both women and children employed in agricul- 
 tural labour is good; the work is not all labori- 
 ous, and is generally preferred by girls of 16 years 
 of age and upwards to hired service ; the wages 
 slightly vary in different parts of the same county, 
 but those of women average 8d. a-day in Suffolk 
 and Norfolk, and lOd. a-day in Lincolnshire ; the 
 usual hours of work are eight in winter and ten in 
 summer; the morals of the women, particularly 
 of unmarried girls of 16 years old and upwards, 
 seem to be very various, and to a serious extent 
 doubtful or bad ; and the children usually begin 
 to be employed in the fields at the age of ten, 
 but, as their employment is not constant, they 
 commonly return to school in the intervals of 
 work. A special class of female day-labourers on 
 farms in the south of Scotland and some parts of 
 the north of England, and ignominiously though 
 most improperly designated bondagers, will be 
 noticed in the following article on Farm-Ser- 
 vants. 
 
FARM-SERVANTS. 
 
 FARM-SERVANTS. Ail the hired work- 
 people of farms, whose labours are stated or 
 constant. The higher classes of them, includin, 
 farm - bailiffs, grieves, foresters, land - stewards 
 under-stewards, and some others, are noticed in 
 our article Agent. The lower classes are princi- 
 pally apprentices, shepherds, cow-herds, hedgers, 
 and ploughmen. 
 
 Apprentices to farmers do not occur in Scot- 
 land, and occur only in some parts of England, 
 and chiefly in the western counties. An act of 
 the 43d of Elizabeth makes special provision for 
 farm-apprenticeships, but is not generally appre- 
 ciated. The young girls of poor parents are, in 
 some instances, apprenticed to farmers, in defi- 
 ance of their unfitness for some of the hard work 
 | imposed upon them, and to the utter ruin of the 
 better prospects which they might enjoy in other 
 positions; but boys are, in many instances, ad- 
 vantageously apprenticed during a term of years 
 for food and clothes and a total sum of from £5 to 
 £10, — and are often found to become farm- 
 servants, and especially ploughmen of both the 
 ablest skill and the steadiest character. The ex- 
 tension of the agricultural apprenticing of boys 
 to every part of Britain, might be followed 
 by highly beneficial effects to the interests both 
 of the operatives themselves and of practical 
 farmers. Lads are boarded with farmers in 
 many parts of the country for premiums, and 
 with the view of being trained to the profession 
 of agriculture ; but these are not apprentices, 
 nor in any just sense of the word farm-servants. 
 
 Shepherds, in their widest sphere of work, 
 upon extensive hill -farms, are a very respon- 
 sible class of men ; and, even in their limited 
 range, upon farms of mixed husbandry, they re- 
 quire high qualifications, and have a consider- 
 able diversity of avocations ; and they will there- 
 fore be separately noticed. See the article 
 Shepherd. — The cow -herd or cattle -man, is 
 generally a man past middle life, and sometimes 
 an old and almost superannuated ploughman. He 
 receives considerably lower wages than a plough- 
 man ; yet his work, though light, involves con- 
 siderable responsibility. Boys sometimes act as 
 mere herds, and are frequently called cow-herds ; 
 but they have a more limited charge than cattle- 
 men. The milking of cows is often done by men, 
 but never so well as by women. — Hedgers are of 
 two classes. A superior hedger ranks with a 
 master-ploughman, requires to be a person of 
 considerable intelligence, and has charge of plant- 
 ing, pruning, plashing, and repairing hedges, of 
 pruning orchard and forest trees, and of super- 
 intending all the other shrubby and dendritic 
 plants of the farm. An inferior hedger ranks 
 with a subordinate ploughman, or corresponds in 
 both position and employment to a ditcher or a 
 spadesman. Only a farm of large extent, and 
 abounding with hedges and other growths of 
 ligneous plants, employs a superior hedger ; and 
 only farms which have no subordinate plough- 
 
 F ARM-SERVANTS. 
 
 men or no day labourers or other occasional 
 labourers to do their work, employ inferior 
 hedgers. 
 
 Ploughmen are the staple class of labourers 
 on farms, and will be separately noticed. See 
 the article Ploughman. A method of employ- 
 ing ploughmen which prevails throughout North- 
 umberland and the best cultivated districts of 
 Scotland, and which assigns to married plough- 
 men the name of hinds, has been found, by gen- 
 eral experience, far superior to other methods. 
 " Farm-servants," says Mr. Grey of Dilston, in a 
 communication in the Royal Agricultural So- 
 ciety's Journal, " are engaged on the large farms 
 in the northern parts of Northumberland, as in 
 the southern counties of Scotland, in a manner 
 very different from that of the same class in the 
 more southern counties of England ; and as the 
 custom is little known in many parts, and has 
 evidently a great influence upon the moral and 
 social condition of the labouring classes, as well 
 as being in a great measure essential to the sys- 
 tem of turnip-husbandry, which gives so much j 
 occupation to females and young people in clean- 
 ing the land, gathering and burning couch, and 
 hoeing turnips, I consider it as deserving of 
 particular notice. To conduct the operations of 
 a turnip-farm in summer, and to keep at work 
 an expeditious thrashing-machine in winter, 
 without laying all the ploughs on the farm idle, 
 when many hands are required for untying and 
 carrying forward, to the man at the feeding- 
 board, the sheaves before being thrashed, and for 
 removing and dressing the corn as it comes from 
 the winnowing-machine, — a description of work 
 which women are quite adequate to, — several , 
 hands are necessary besides the every-day la- 
 bourers on the farm. In the absence of villages j ; 
 to supply occasional assistance, as is the case 
 with a large portion of the farms in the district, 
 each one must depend upon its own resources. j 
 A necessity is thus created for having a certain 
 disposable force of women and boys at command, 
 which has given rise to the custom of having no 
 ploughmen or labourers living in the farm-houses. j 
 Each farm is provided with an adequate number j 
 of cottages with gardens attached, and every man 
 who is engaged by the year has one of these cot- 
 tages ; his family, however numerous, commonly 
 find employment, but one he is bound to pro- 
 vide, to answer at all times his master's call, 
 and to work at stipulated wages. To this en- 
 gagement Ehe odious name of bondage has been 
 given. When the hind has one daughter or 
 more, there can be no hardship, because, when 
 called to work out, which, during the summer 
 months, is pretty constant, she is earning wages ; 
 and when she is not so employed, she has the 
 domestic occupation of the family to engage her. ! 
 In the case of a hind who has no children suffi- j 
 cient for the purpose, there may be hardship in 
 having a servant to hire, provided her services are j 
 not required at vacant times in his family. But 
 
 499 
 
FARM-YARD. 500 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 even then, where is the hardship in the case ? 
 If the advantage of the system be not equivalent 
 to the hardship complained of, why does he not 
 abandon it and betake himself to a more inde- 
 pendent life, hiring a cottage in a village, and 
 taking his chance for piece work, in the quan- 
 tity of employment which is to be found in 
 draining, embanking, fences, roads, &c. through- 
 out the country 1 And why should that be 
 called bondage which is an engagement for a 
 year, terminable by either party at the end of 
 it 1 The fact is, that the certain employment 
 and the wages of the hind, and his settled con- 
 dition and abode, give him many advantages 
 over the labourer who has to seek work by the 
 piece or the day in different parts, even when 
 wages are good and work is plentiful ; and it in- 
 variably happens after a hard winter, when la- 
 bourers have been laid off work in snow-storms, 
 that many of them seek to be engaged as hinds 
 in the ensuing year." Each hind has, upon the 
 farm, a cottage and small garden, rent free, for 
 himself and his family; and many a hind has 
 also, free of charge, a cow's grass, about one- 
 eighth of an acre of arable land for any crops 
 which he chooses to raise upon it, and liberty to 
 keep a pig and half-a-dozen of hens. Hinds 
 likewise usually re.ceive a small allowance in 
 money per journey, when sent from home with 
 corn, or for coals or lime ; and during the time 
 of harvest, they are often maintained entirely by 
 the farmer, in order that they may always be at 
 hand. Several of the members of a hind's family 
 are, in many instances, as statedly in his mas- 
 ter's employment as himself ; and his own wages 
 are paid chiefly in kind, while those of his sons 
 are paid either in money, or partly in money, 
 and partly in kind, as best suits his convenience. 
 " There are nowhere to be met with," says Sir 
 John Sinclair, " more active, respectable, and 
 conscientious servants, than those who are kept 
 according to this system. There is hardly an 
 instance of their soliciting relief from the public. 
 They rear numerous families, who are trained 
 to industry and knowledge in the operations of 
 agriculture, and whose assistance in weeding the 
 crops, &c, is of considerable service to the farmer. 
 They become attached to the farm, take an in- 
 terest in its prosperity, and seldom think of re- 
 moving from it." 
 
 FARM-STEWARD. See Agent. 
 
 FARM- YARD. The court or area round or 
 athwart which the farm-buildings of a farmery 
 are situated. Farm-yard is a collective name 
 for the entire group of cattle-yards, shelter-sheds, 
 feeding-sheds, manure-pits, and open areas, situ- 
 ated within the enclosure of the farm-buildings. 
 
 FARM- YARD MANURE. The compost of 
 excrement, dead vegetable matter, and other 
 refuse of the farmery, collected in the manure- 
 pits of the farm-yard. It is very generally called 
 muck, — particularly in Scotland and America ; 
 and, though exceedingly diversified in composi- 
 
 tion and power, it is aggregately the best of all 
 fertilizers, both for its chemical action upon the 
 soil, and for the vast range of its adaptations ; 
 and in almost all the numberless experimental 
 trials which are made by farmers, gardeners, 
 agricultural chemists, and amateur cultivators, 
 of the comparative powers of the multitudinous 
 manures and composts which are recommended 
 for adoption, it is used as the type of the whole, or 
 as the standard by which they are tested. Many 
 of the topics more or less involved in the subject 
 of farm-yard manure are discussed in separate 
 articles of their own, — the general properties of 
 the animal remains which form its most valu- 
 able ingredients, in the article Animal-Manure, 
 — the solid dung of the several kinds of animals 
 who contribute these remains, in the article Ex- 
 crement, — the liquid refuse of these animals, in 
 the article Urine, — the classes and properties of 
 bulky foreign matters frequently mixed up with 
 it, in the article Composts, — the general nature of 
 its dead and decomposing vegetable matter, in the 
 articles Geine and Humus, — the nature and ac- 
 tion of the chief chemical products of the decom- 
 position of its animal matters, in the articles 
 Ammonia and Azote, — the kinds and chemical 
 action of its saline ingredients, in the articles 
 Alkalies and Salt, — some special varieties of 
 itself in use upon the Continent, in the articles 
 Liquid Manure and Gulle, — and its general 
 character as a fertilizer, comparatively with that 
 of other manurial substances and composts, in 
 the article Manure. Our remarks in the pres- 
 ent article, therefore, must in some respects be 
 of a quite general nature ; and shall be confined 
 to a view of the ancient uses, the composition, 
 the fermentation, the preparation, and the appli- 
 cation of farm-yard manure. 
 
 The History of Farm- Yard Manure. — Manur- 
 ing with cattle dung is an exceedingly ancient 
 usage, and has probably been practised in every 
 condition and country of even semi-barbarous 
 agriculture. The effects of animal excrement 
 upon pasture must have been fully observed in 
 the earliest ages of every country in the world, 
 and can scarcely fail to have speedily suggested 
 the propriety of collecting it, and artificially 
 applying it to tillage-land. As soon especially as 
 cattle came to be stall-fed and littered, or to 
 be occasionally shut up within limited enclo- 
 sures and fed upon cut fodder, the availableness 
 of their manure for fertilizing arable lands must 
 immediately have begun to be understood. An 
 old king, in Homer, is found applying manure to 
 his fields with his own hands. Hercules is said 
 to have published the value of cattle dung as a 
 manure in Italy ; and King Augeas is said to 
 have been the first who found out the use of it 
 in Greece. The properties of farm-yard manure, 
 and the collecting of it in dung-heaps, were well- 
 known in the Hebrew Commonwealth, and arc 
 alluded to, not only in the Scriptures of the New 
 Testament, but in the very ancient books of 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 501 
 
 FARM- YARD MANURE. 
 
 Samuel, Kings, Ezra, Isaiah, Lamentations, and 
 Daniel. 
 
 The ancient Romans considered the applica- 
 tion of mixed manure to their fields one of the 
 principal operations of agriculture, or second in 
 importance only to ploughing ; they carefully 
 sought and collected such substances as were 
 suitable for the purpose ; they littered their 
 cattle with straw or stubble ; they carefully 
 gathered their cattle's dung, or made a compost 
 of it with the litter ; they collected all kinds of 
 ashes ; they used different kinds of mineral 
 manures ; they burned trees, shrubs, and stub- 
 ble in their fields ; they frequently sowed pulse 
 to be ploughed in as manure while green ; and 
 thus they not only appreciated and accumulated 
 such composts as were parallel in character to 
 modern farm -yard manure, but sedulously col- 
 lected and used all other substances which could 
 make up the deficient supplies of them in the 
 manuring of the land. They were well aware 
 that some kinds of excrements are much more 
 fertilizing than others, and that the same kinds 
 are greatly modified by change in the food of the 
 animals who yield them ; they knew well, in par- 
 ticular, the high manurial power of night-soil 
 and the dung of fowls, — and often kept them 
 more or less separate from other manures for the 
 purpose of any special or stimulating fertiliza- 
 tion ; they displayed much skill in the making 
 of manurial composts, both of kinds strictly ana- 
 logous to farm-yard manure, and of kinds chiefly 
 mineral, or mixedly mineral and vegetable, or 
 mixedly mineral, vegetable, and animal ; they 
 exercised considerable nicety in the manner, and 
 almost in the scientific skill, of making their 
 farm-yard composts ; and they generally had two 
 dunghills on every farm, the one for receiving 
 the dung from the offices, and the other for pre- 
 paring it to be carried to the corn-fields and 
 vineyards. Pliny says, "Dunghills should be 
 made in the open air, in a place which is hollow, 
 and which collects moisture ; and they should be 
 covered with straw, that the dung may not be 
 dried in the sun." Varro says, " Near the villa 
 there ought to be two places for dung, or one 
 divided into two parts. Into the one, the new- 
 made dung ought to be carried from the villa ; 
 and from the other, the old dung ought to be 
 carried into the field. For that which is but 
 lately brought from the villa is not so good as 
 the other ; when it is old and rotten, it is better. 
 The dunghill is the better also, when its sides 
 and top are defended from the sun by twigs and 
 leaves ; for it is not proper that the sun should 
 be allowed to exhale the juice which the earth 
 requires. Skilful husbandmen, on this account, 
 let water into the dunghill when it is in their 
 power." Columella says, "There ought to be 
 two places for dung, one for receiving the new 
 dung from the offices, which is preserved in it 
 for a-year ; and another for keeping the old dung, 
 which from it is carried to the fields. Both of 
 
 these, like fish-ponds, should be hollowed with a 
 gentle declivity, and paved in the bottom to pre- 
 vent the moisture from getting away ; for it is 
 of great importance to preserve the sap, that so 
 the dung may preserve its strength, and may be 
 putrefied by continual moisture ; so that, if any 
 seeds of briars or grass are thrown into the dung- 
 hill along with the straw, they may be destroyed. 
 Skilful husbandmen, therefore, quickly carry off 
 whatever dung is turned out of the sheep-cots 
 and stables, cover it with grates made of twigs, 
 and allow it neither to be dried in the winds, 
 nor withered by the rays of the sun." 
 
 The ancient Britons appear to have known 
 the use of both animal manures and mineral 
 manures ; and they had sufficient skill in apply- 
 ing them to be able to maintain both orchards 
 and gardens. Yet they originally possessed very 
 crude notions of agricultural operations ; and 
 they seem to have acquired a vast increase to 
 their knowledge of manures from the invasion 
 and example of the Romans. The Saxons of 
 England overwhelmed nearly all the agricul- 
 tural improvements of the Britons, and probably 
 drove manures out of use. The Danish invad- 
 ers, and the various successive parties during 
 the long period of intestine wars, either re- 
 pressed the outburst of right agricultural princi- 
 ple, or restrained it within very narrow limits ; 
 and some of them passed laws on the subject of 
 manuring which dismally demonstrate to modern 
 times the utterly deplorable condition into which 
 both the arts of agriculture and the rights of 
 property had sunk. One law, for example, pro- 
 vided that a man who manured a piece of land 
 under consent of its owner, was entitled to oc- 
 cupy it and to claim its produce for one year ; 
 another, that a man who manured a piece of land 
 with such large quantities of manure as required 
 conveyance by wheeled vehicles, was entitled to 
 occupy it, and to claim its produce during three 
 years ; and another, that a man who, under con- 
 sent of the owner, manured a piece of land by 
 the folding of cattle upon it throughout one year, 
 was entitled to occupy it and to claim its pro- 
 duce during four years. Many of the communi- 
 ties of monks, especially during the century or 
 two immediately preceding the Reformation, 
 brought orchards and gardens into a condition 
 of comparatively high improvement ; and may 
 therefore be supposed to have greatly extended 
 the knowledge of the properties and value of 
 farm-yard manure. A celebrated German writer 
 on agriculture, about the middle of the second 
 half of the 16th century, applauds the use of the 
 dung of pigeons and common poultry, but con- 
 demns the use of that of ducks and geese ; ap- 
 plauds the use of night-soil in mixture with 
 earth, but condemns the use of it in an unmixed 
 state ; pronounces the dung of asses superior to 
 that of sheep, the dung of sheep superior to that 
 of goats, the dung of goats superior to that of 
 cattle, the dung of cattle superior to that of 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 502 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 horses, and the dung of horses superior to that 
 of swine ; recommends the use of. grass-clods, 
 heath-turfs, and the rubbish of thickets, both as 
 a manure-litter for sheep and as good material 
 for making manurial composts with animal ex- 
 crements ; and promulgates some other notions 
 which serve the purpose of showing both that 
 many varieties of farm-yard manure were in use, 
 and that the relative value of the ingredients 
 which composed them, as well as the general 
 character of the whole, was very imperfectly 
 understood, 
 
 The advancement of the knowledge of farm- 
 yard manure, in its composition, its preparation, 
 its chemical changes, its varieties of character, 
 its powers of fertilization for different crops, its 
 value ralatively to that of many special manures, 
 and the methods and seasons of its application to 
 the soil, has been very great in modern times 
 and in all departments of agricultural research, 
 but especially within the last few years, and in the 
 departments of farm-yard manipulation, field 
 experiment, and chemical analysis. Practical 
 men of several classes, farm-architects, farmers 
 themselves, the workmen of farmers, and agri- 
 cultural chemists, have made common stock of 
 their skill to devise the methods of gathering, 
 keeping, and preparing farm-yard manure which 
 shall invest it with a maximum of fertilizing power ; 
 
 ! scientific agriculturists of all classes have brought 
 both argument and experiment to bear, a thou- 
 sand times over, upon the intricate and impor- 
 tant question of the fermentation of the manure; 
 practical and enterprizing farmers have made 
 countless comparative trials of the manure, in 
 different conditions, in different combinations, 
 and in different methods of preparation and 
 application, upon the several kinds of crops; and 
 agricultural chemists have made searching and 
 multitudinous analyses both of entire specimens 
 of the manure and of each of the several ingre- 
 
 j dients of which it is usually composed, and have 
 also plunged into profound investigations respect- 
 ing the modes of action of its fermenting masses 
 within the soil, and of its ultimately decomposed 
 and recombined principles upon the plants of the 
 
 j several agricultural crops. Yet the results of all 
 this multiplicity and magnificence of effort are, 
 
 j for the present, rather bewildering than instruc- 
 tive. A few grand rules, indeed, have been com- 
 
 J pletely established; but most of these were pre- 
 
 ! viously understood and appreciated by all the 
 
 | better or more enlightened class of farmers; and 
 the great majority of the conclusions arrived at 
 are either too doubtful, too theoretic, or too sub- 
 limated to be capable as yet of any useful appli- 
 cation to practice. "On the subject of manure," 
 remarked Mr. Pusey in 1842, "it maybe said 
 that we have learnt a great deal in the last four 
 years, but know nothing ; for we have learnt 
 many of the chemical principles on which 
 manures act, but we do not yet know how to apply 
 those principles to the daily working of the 
 
 farm." All the principles of agricultural chemis- 
 try, in fact, great, mighty, and multitudinous 
 though these principles are, may be said to con- 
 centrate themselves in the one topic of farm-yard 
 manure ; and the very number, and importance, 
 and intricacy, and progressive development of 
 these principles evince both the difficulty, in the 
 present state of things, of practically understand- | 
 ing that topic, and the necessity for years to 
 come of subjecting it to skilful, persevering, and 
 manifold investigation. 
 
 The Modes of Collecting Farm- Yard Manure. — 
 The collecting of farm-yard manure on cottier 
 farmeries or on other very small farmeries, is a 
 process so simple and routine as to admit of 
 little variation ; but it is very generally per- 
 formed under conditions of exposure to the 
 weather, and of indifference to the loss of liquid 
 matter, which enormously decrease the manure's ' ; 
 bulk, and rob it of probably one-half its value ; 
 and it ought, in every instance, to be so far 
 amended that, whether variety in adaptation to 
 different kinds of crops can be produced in its 
 character or not, at least its substance may not be ; 
 wasted, and its general power may not be im- 
 paired. But the collecting of farm-yard manure 
 on large and well-conducted farmeries, varies in ; 
 method with the nature of the farm, the arrange- \ 
 ment of the farm-offices, the particular manner 
 of feeding, and even the season of the year. 
 
 When the number of cattle kept is a multi- j 
 tude compared to the horses, as on both dairy- 
 farms and cattle-feeding farms, the aggregate 
 manure has necessarily a vast preponderance of 
 cattle dung in its animal constituents, and is ; 
 comparatively very poor in nitrogen; but when 
 the number of horses kept is quite or nearly 
 equal to the number of cattle, as on carse-farms, 
 the aggregate manure takes its characteristic 
 quality from the presence of horse dung, and is 
 comparatively rich in nitrogen; and in either of 
 these cases, little scope is afforded for assorting 
 the manure into heaps of different qualities, and 
 with distinctive adaptations to different kinds 
 of crops. But when the live-stock of a farm is 
 at once large, various, and mutually well- 
 balanced, when it comprises large proportions of 
 horses, cattle, swine, and poultry, and when the 
 farm-buildings are arranged in several quadran- 
 gles or large subdivisions, ample opportunity 
 exists for amassing perfectly distinct sets of 
 farm-yard manure, variously proportioned to 
 each other in their wealth of nitrogen and salts, 
 and possessing such widely different powers and 
 adaptations as shall give the farmer a specific 
 remedy for the particular kind of exhaustion of 
 each separate field, and enable him to make a 
 practical and highly profitable application of the 
 doctrines of agricultural chemistry ;— and this 
 range of distinct accumulations, too, may be con- 
 siderably modified or materially extended by the 
 regular intermization of foreign matters with 
 | the manure, so as to produce one or more man- 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 503 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 urial composts of the nature either of dilutions 
 of the farm-yard manure, or of addition of ele- 
 ments to its character. See the article Compost. 
 
 When all the animals who yield the excre- 
 mental portion of the manure are fed in the house, 
 and when either they are few in number or the 
 farm-yard has no subdivisions, the usual practice 
 is to accumulate dung, litter, and all other re- 
 fuse in one carried and indiscriminate heap, in 
 nearly the same manner as cottier farmeries; and 
 the modes of this practice, in multitudes of in- 
 stances, have quite as much need of reform as 
 those of cottier accumulations, — and might, in not 
 a few instances, be easily so modified as to secure 
 some of the advantages of methodized and classi- 
 fied accumulation in the largest and best kinds 
 of farmeries. In all good feeding-farms, cattle 
 are kept wholly within the farm-yard during the 
 winter half of the year, and are there fed either 
 in houses, in shelter -sheds, or in open subdivi- 
 sions of the yard upon different kinds of roots 
 and fodder and mixed food; and though the 
 methods of feeding them, as to both place and 
 aliment, are diversified, the modes of accumu- 
 lating their manure are only two, — either to carry 
 it out daily to dung-pits when they are fed in 
 the house, or to let it lie and amass beneath 
 them till the end of the season, when they are 
 fed in sheds and in open subdivisions of the yard. 
 In the former case, it of course is a daily up- 
 turned mixture of fresh litter and newly dropped 
 excrement ; and in the latter case, it is a con- 
 tinuous accumulation of successive layers of 
 litter and excrement trampled and sodden into 
 thorough intermixture by the constant tread of 
 the cattle. 
 
 A most important consideration for determin- 
 ing both the method of collecting farm-yard 
 manure and the circumstances under which it is 
 collected, is to prevent the escape of ammonia. 
 Not only is the nitrogen of manure the most im- 
 portant element for elaborating those proximate 
 principles of plants which form the best or char- 
 acteristic food of animals, but it constitutes the 
 fermentative virus of the whole mass of the 
 manure, and is the power on which the solubility 
 and digestion of both its animal and its vegetable 
 ingredients depend. Now this nitrogen, almost 
 as soon as animal excrements are dropped, begins 
 to rush into combination with hydrogen, and to 
 form ammonia or the volatile alkali, — that pun- 
 gent-smelling gas which rises invisibly, rapidly, 
 and with such sensible effect upon the nostrils 
 from the recent dung and urine of all animals, 
 and particularly of horses and fowls ; and so 
 large a quantity of ammonia as two and a half 
 pounds is formed from every pound of nitrogen; 
 and when this is not arrested in the very process 
 of its evolution, and fixed into some combination 
 which holds it fast in the form of salt, and pre- 
 vents it from assuming its proper aeriform con- 
 dition, it escapes into the atmosphere, and carries 
 irretrievably away all the best virtues of the 
 
 manure. Some facile and important chemical 
 means of fixing it are noticed in our separate 
 discussion of its properties ; and ought to be 
 fully considered by every farmer in reference to 
 his method of accumulating farm-yard manure. 
 See the article Ammonia. One easy methodical 
 means of at least partially fixing ammonia, so as 
 to retain much of it which would otherwise 
 escape, is to promote the speedy decay of the 
 litter by immediate, continuous, and thorough 
 intermixation with the excrements ; and an obvi- 
 ous application of this means is to accumulate as 
 large a proportion of the manure as possible in 
 the manner of constant amassing and treading 
 beneath the cattle in the yards. Another me- 
 thodical means, much in use on the Continent, 
 and recently a good deal urged on the attention 
 of British farmers, is more doubtful. This con- 
 sists in collecting separately the liquid excre- 
 ments of cattle, and the liquid emanations from 
 the dunghill; and it has arisen from three consider- 
 ations, — one, the want of sufficient litter to act as 
 a sponge in detaining the liquid, — another, the 
 supposed desirableness of applying a top-dress- 
 ing of liquid manure, such light sandy lands as 
 those of Belgium and Holland, to spring corn, 
 carrots sown among beans, and some similar crops, 
 — and another, the well-known fact, that, in the 
 case of almost all domestic animals, but very par- 
 ticularly in the case of horses, urine contains a far 
 larger proportion of nitrogen than is contained 
 in the solid excrement. But whether the urine 
 be run into collecting tanks immediately from 
 the urine ducts of the farm offices, or whether 
 a dilution of it be allowed to form with rain 
 and snow, and drawn off through the dungpit 
 in the form of a general liquid refuse to a com- 
 mon collecting-pond or great tank at a little dis- 
 tance, its loss of ammoniacal matter, in almost 
 all ordinary cases, is exceedingly great. " Who- 
 ever," says Dr. Sprengel, "is obliged for want of 
 straw to collect the urine separately, — whoever, 
 if he be compelled to do this, mixes no water 
 with it, or fails to employ some neutralizing sub- 
 stance to combine with the ammonia which is 
 produced in so great a degree during the sum- 
 mer, — suffers a loss of manure which exceeds all 
 belief." Artificial dilution with water, too, is of 
 little avail unless the proportion of water be so 
 great as to occasion excessive trouble and cost in 
 carrying the liquid manure to the fields; and 
 natural dilution with rain sometimes takes place 
 in such enormous quantity as to reduce the pro- 
 portion of salts to two per cent., and to render 
 the liquid manure not worth the trouble of car- 
 riage. 
 
 Yet the flow of some liquid from the farm- 
 yard, and the evaporation of a considerable por- 
 tion of the dung and urine of cattle, are unavoid- 
 able; and some of the fixed ammonia neces- 
 sarily dissolves and passes away with the liquid, 
 while some of the unfixed ammonia volatilizes 
 and passes away with the vapour. (i One remedy," 
 
504 
 
 FARM-YAKD MANURE. 
 
 remarks Mr. Pusey, " is to prevent the rain from 
 flowing down the surrounding roofs into the 
 yard, by placing gutters under the eaves. Per- 
 haps another would be what I have seen in an 
 old-fashioned yard, a hollow space like the basin 
 of a dry pond, three or four feet deep, with a drain 
 near the top that prevents it from overflowing. 
 This hollow I was about to do away with as un- 
 sightly ; but when filled as it now is with couch- 
 grass — leaves or stubble would certainly have a 
 better appearance — it seems likely to answer the 
 purpose of detaining valuable salts that would 
 otherwise run away. After all, if the yard be 
 well littered, and the dunghills be covered with 
 earth, I doubt whether, excepting on grass farms 
 where the tank may be necessary from the want 
 of straw, the present management of dung can be 
 greatly improved, though in many districts the 
 quality certainly may." Yet even these remarks 
 — though preceded also with the expression of a 
 doubt whether the alarm on the subject of the 
 loss of manure from the farm-yard be not some- 
 what exaggerated — distinctly imply that all the 
 dung and the urine should be protected from the 
 action of the weather, and reduced with all pos- 
 sible speed into an incorporated mass with absor- 
 bent decomposing vegetable matter, and that, 
 though well enough managed in the existing 
 practices of the best large farms of the mixed 
 husbandry, they are capable of being treated 
 with some chemical appliance which shall fix the 
 whole of the ammonia, and produce a corre- 
 sponding increase in the "quality" or fertilizing 
 power of the compound manure. 
 
 Another important consideration in the me- 
 thods and circumstances of accumulating farm- 
 yard manure, is to prevent the commencement 
 of fermentation previous to the near approach of 
 the time when the manure shall be deposited in 
 the soil ; and this consideration, happily, is well 
 provided for by some of the ordinary appliances 
 and modes of treatment which prevent the dissi- 
 pation of ammonia by vaporizing action, and the 
 waste of the general substance of the manure by 
 the action of the weather. The great points are 
 the averting of extraneous moisture, the main- 
 taining of a cool interior temperature, the preven- 
 ting of the permeation of air, and the absorbing 
 of all liquid matter by bibulous vegetable sub- 
 stances. The ordinary arrangements of all well- 
 constructed farm-yards more or less secure these 
 points ; and on farmeries on which stall-feeding 
 is practised to the exclusion of feeding in yards, 
 some such arrangements and methods as the fol- 
 lowing may, in some degree, combine the advan- 
 tages and diminish the disadvantages of both ac- 
 cumulation in the manner of house-feeding, and 
 accumulation in the manner of yard-feeding : — 
 " A shed must be formed on either side of the 
 cow-houses and stables, as found most conve- 
 nient, from 12 to 15 feet wide, by means of light 
 rafters, and the other extremities on a plate 
 placed on a range of posts at the distance above- | 
 
 mentioned from the wall. This shed may be 
 subdivided into three equal compartments by 
 common draw - rails ; and there should be an 
 opening in the wall opposite to each of these 
 divisions, in order conveniently to throw the 
 dung and litter into the shades, as also smaller 
 apertures for the urine to pass. The stock should 
 be occasionally penned in one or more of the 
 spaces in the shed, according to the quantity of 
 the materials and number of animals, for the 
 purpose of trampling and consolidating them ; 
 and this operation must be commenced with the 
 first removal of dung and litter. The floor of 
 the shed may be of any firm retentive material, 
 sloping from each side to the centre. There 
 should be a well to receive what moisture may 
 sink from the materials, by means of a gutter 
 the whole length of the shed ; and the liquid 
 so received must be there, or in some other com- 
 modious place, mixed with moss or mould, so as 
 to bring it to a consistency that will prevent fer- 
 mentative action until the period for general 
 fermentation, when this may be incorporated 
 with what had been prepared in the shed, or 
 otherwise reduced to a more fit or less pungent 
 state by an admixture of such matter as may be 
 found best adapted for the land to which it is 
 to be applied. When a certain quantity of ma- 
 terials shall be collected in the shed, these may 
 be forked out and placed on a dry site, with a 
 layer of moss or mould in the bottom to absorb 
 the liquid ; the heap to be made in a compact 
 form, compressed, and rounded on the upper sur- 
 face. Moss or mould should be put into the bot- 
 tom of the shed, and this placed on the upper 
 part of the heap when removed, with clay, marl, 
 or turf on the upper surface of the whole, and 
 rounded and beat down so as to exclude air and 
 moisture from the interior. This operation of 
 removing and covering up the materials may be 
 performed monthly, or more frequently if thought 
 advisable, and, if possible, in dry and cold weather." 
 
 The Composition of Farm- Yard Manure. — The 
 chemical composition of farm-yard manure, or 
 the aggregate power of its proximate principles 
 to fertilize the soil, is, as already hinted, exceed- 
 ingly various. Three chief causes of this diver- 
 sity, partly inclusive and partly irrespective of 
 numerous subordinate ones, are in operation, — 
 the number and kinds of gross materials in the 
 dung-heap, the proportions in which the more 
 nitrogenous of these are combined with the less 
 nitrogenous, and the exceedingly contingent and 
 variable character of each kind of excremental 
 ingredient, as affected either by the food and 
 condition of the animal yielding it, or by the cir- 
 cumstances under which it is collected and ac- 
 cumulated with the other ingredients of the com- 
 pound manure. 
 
 The diversity of the gross materials of farm- 
 yard manure is so well-known as scarcely to re- 
 quire illustration ; for, in a cottier farmery, it 
 comprises ashes, sweepings, weedings, all sorts of 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 505 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 refuse from house and offices, and all kinds of 
 gatherings from the roads and fields ; in mul- 
 titudes of farms with poor manurial resources, it 
 comprises an enormous intermixture of many 
 kinds of foreign matters, both vegetable and min- 
 eral ; in some farms of all classes, it comprises 
 some proportion of blood, offals, carcases, and 
 other highly nitrogenous putrescent substances ; 
 in farms in the vicinity of towns, of fisheries, of 
 tanneries, or of other sources of peculiar refuse, 
 it comprises a large proportion of either very 
 poor or very rich matters, of a description which 
 occur either not at all or in exceedingly small 
 quantity on farms of other classes ; in stock 
 farms and dairy farms, it comprises a prepon- 
 derance of a vastly poorer kind of excrement 
 than in carse farms or farms of the mixed hus- 
 bandry ; and even in farms of the highest class 
 of strictly kindred character, and affording the 
 amplest scope for giving it a normal and an uni- 
 form character, it often, as we saw before, is pur- 
 posely amassed in heaps of widely different quali- 
 ties, and always is subject to a greater or less 
 degree of unintentional variation. 
 
 Even though farm-yard manure were examined 
 only as it occurs on first-rate farms and under 
 the best management, — though it were viewed 
 as consisting only of litter and of animal excre- 
 ment, and as accumulated and preserved in cir- 
 cumstances the most conducive to its strength 
 and richness, — it would still disclose to chemical 
 analysis a diversity of composition so great as 
 to astonish and almost confound ill-informed 
 farmers. The manure of cattle fed in the straw- 
 yard is vastly poorer than that of cattle fed on 
 turnips ; the manure of cattle fed on turnips is 
 vastly poorer than that of cattle fed on oil-cake ; 
 the manure of horses fed on straw and hay is 
 incomparably poorer than that of horses fed on 
 corn ; the manure of pigs fed in any ordinary 
 manner when they are lean, cannot bear com- 
 parison with that of pigs fed in a fattening 
 manner when they are in high condition ; the 
 compound manure which has a preponderance of 
 cattle excrement is less powerful than that which 
 has a preponderance of horse excrement ; the 
 compound manure which contains no night-soil, 
 is much less powerful than a compound manure 
 of precisely the same kind which contains a pro- 
 portion of night - soil ; the compound manure 
 which contains merely a sufficiency of vegetable 
 matter for reducing its animal matter, is far 
 more powerful than such as contains a great 
 excess of vegetable matter ; and the compound 
 manure which has been carefully and wisely ac- 
 cumulated, is vastly more powerful than com- 
 pound manure of precisely the same kind which 
 has had much of its ammonia dissipated, and has 
 been allowed to undergo premature fermenta- 
 tion. Some other broad varieties in the com- 
 position of the animal ingredients of farm-yard 
 manure, are noticed in the articles Animal Man- 
 ures, Excrement, and Urine. 
 
 An analysis of any one specimen of farm-yard 
 manure, then, would afford no view whatever of 
 the chemical constitution of farm-yard manure 
 in general, and could not assist the judgment to 
 form a near estimate of the constitution of widely 
 different specimens. An average specimen of the 
 farm-yard manure of Bechelbronn was found by 
 Payen and Boussingault to contain in its wet 
 state 0*41 per cent, of nitrogen, and in its dry 
 state 1'95 per cent. ; and a specimen of manure 
 from an inn-yard was found by them to contain 
 in its wet state 79 per cent, of nitrogen, and in 
 its dry state 2'08 per cent. But the difference 
 in value between these two specimens serves 
 only to indicate the vastly wider differences 
 which must subsist among many ordinary speci- 
 mens, — between, for example, the straw -yard 
 manure of a mere cattle department and the 
 stable manure of corn-fed horses, or between the 
 ashy, washen, mineral-looking dung-heap of an 
 ill-conditioned cottage-farm and the rich, soapy, 
 mellow " muck " of the fat cattle and well-fed 
 horses of a well -managed, large, mixed farm. 
 The only satisfactory method of estimating the 
 comparative power of any one mass of farm-yard 
 manure, short of an actual individual analysis of 
 it, is to observe the kinds of animal excrement 
 which it contains, and the proportions in which 
 these are combined with one another and with 
 the vegetable matters, and then to found a cal- 
 culation upon the several and separate analyses 
 which we have given in the articles Excrement 
 and Urine. Yet a succinct popular view of the 
 general composition of stable manure, and of its 
 action within the soil or upon vegetation, may 
 here be advantageously given, if not to assist a 
 farmer to estimate the comparative value of any 
 particular specimen of manure, at least to enable 
 him at one glance to identify the principal doc- 
 trines of agricultural chemistry with the whole 
 subject of farm -yard manure. 
 
 Now stable manure supplies plants with all the 
 food they require, additional to what they obtain 
 from the air; and it consists proximately of water, 
 humus, and salts, and remotely of oxygen, hydro- 
 gen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, chlo- 
 rine, potash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina, iron, 
 manganese, and silica. These fifteen remote sub- 
 stances constitute by their mutual combinations 
 the proximate substances water, humus, and 
 salts; and they are distributable into four classes, 
 — first, the gaseous, comprising oxygen, hydrogen, 
 nitrogen, and chlorine, — second, the combustible, 
 comprising carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus, — 
 third, the alkaline, comprising potash and soda, 
 — and fourth, the earthy and metallic, comprising 
 lime, magnesia, alumina, silica, iron, and man- 
 ganese. The ingredient ammonia, which plays 
 so conspicuous a part in everything connected 
 with the accumulations of the farm-yard, and 
 which has been described as " the heart of man- 
 ure, keeping up the healthy circulation among 
 the other members," is a combination of nitro- 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 506 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 gen and hydrogen, constantly and facilely in the 
 course of formation till the whole of the nitrogen 
 is exhausted ; and common culinary salt, which 
 is a valuable ingredient in manure, is a combina- 
 tion of chlorine with the base of soda, and may be 
 regarded as representing all the chlorine of the 
 mass, just as ammonia, in ordinary circumstances 
 or in those in which nitre is not formed, repre- 
 sents all the nitrogen. The salts of manure are 
 combinations of certain acids with the alkalies, 
 the earths, and the metals; and the acids belong- 
 ing to them, or concerned in their formation, 
 are previous combinations of oxygen with the 
 carbon, the sulphur, the phosphorus, and the silica. 
 Some of the salts are volatile or caustic, and act 
 quickly in the manure ; and some are fixed or 
 emollient, and act comparatively slowly. The 
 mould formed by the decay of vegetable matter, 
 or of the plants or parts of plants raised in 
 agriculture, consists, like the whole mass of 
 farm-yard manure, — though in widely different 
 proportions, and sometimes with little or no 
 traces of some of the remote constituents, — of 
 water, humus, and salts; and part of this mould 
 is dissolvable and made fit for the absorption of 
 plants by the action of water, while the remain- 
 der is dissolvable and made fit for assimilation 
 by the action of the alkalies. 
 
 The water of farm-yard manure has precisely 
 the same action within the soil and upon plants 
 as any other water; and, viewed apart from mat- 
 ters held in solution, consists wholly of oxygen 
 and hydrogen. The vegetable part or forming 
 mould of the excrementitious portion of the man- 
 ure, is more or less soaked with the bile, the 
 mucus, and the other liquid secretions of the 
 digestive and intestinal systems of the animals 
 which have yielded it ; and even the forming 
 mould of the litter is greatly affected in both 
 mechanical and chemical character by its con- 
 tact with the excreted vegetable matter, and by 
 the action upon it of the feet and the urine of the 
 cattle; and the compound mass which comprises 
 these two sets of forming moulds, in consequence, 
 undergoes a far more rapid decay than fresh hay 
 or any mere vegetable compound, sends off a 
 large portion of its substance in the gaseous forms 
 of watery vapour, carbonic acid, and ammonia, 
 and generates and maintains a heat closely akin 
 in both nature and results to a slow smouldering 
 fire. Now the evolution of the carbonic acid, the 
 evolution of the ammonia, and the generation of 
 the heat, all play a powerful part in the intricate 
 process of fertilization. The carbonic acid divides 
 and reduces the earthy constituents of the soil, 
 and thus produces the same effects upon them as 
 the combined action of air, rain, and frost; and 
 it also eliminates from them their potash and 
 other alkalies, and contributes its carbon to the 
 nourishing of young plants up to the time of 
 their exfoliation, and thus both extracts saline 
 food for the plants out of the soil, and assists to 
 rear them up to the condition in which they 
 
 become able to feed themselves with carbonaceous 
 matter from the atmosphere. The ammonia acts 
 as the chief solvent power in the digestion of 
 the food of plants within the soil ; it exerts a 
 force upon the store of crude nutrient mat- 
 ter for plants analogous to that which a pair 
 of bellows exerts upon ignited fuel in a grate, 
 kindling up and accelerating the combustion of 
 the slow smouldering fire; it expends its alkali- 
 nity in the same efficient direction as potash 
 and soda; it combines with free acids, or with an 
 acid evolved out of the decaying manure itself, 
 to form a powerfully acting salt, closely akin in 
 nature to saltpetre; and it surrenders its nitrogen 
 to the secretion or constitutional formation 
 within the seeds, the roots, and the other escu- 
 lent parts of plants, of those azotised proximate 
 principles which render them proper or nourish- 
 ing food for animals. The heat assists the ger- 
 mination of seeds, corrects the bad properties of 
 cold and churlish soils, accelerates the decomposi- 
 tion of the crude or proximate principles of both 
 soil and manure, and stimulates such chemical 
 affinities as force the liberated elements of these 
 principles into the new combinations requisite to 
 the growth and strength of vegetation ; but this 
 heat may either be so low as to want sufficient 
 power for the performing of its offices, or so ex- 
 cessive as to produce actual combustion and enor- 
 mous waste and damage; and happily, it is com- 
 pletely under the control of the parties who 
 collect and prepare the manure, and can be 
 abundantly regulated, as to the degree in which 
 it shall be developed, both by the proportioning 
 of the most nitrogenous kinds of excrement, and 
 by the methods practised for excluding or ad- 
 mitting the free permeation of the air. The 
 salts in farm-yard manure are both somewhat 
 numerous in themselves, and quite multitudinous 
 in their modes of action upon fertilization and 
 vegetation; so that we could not, without a very 
 long digression, make any satisfactory mention 
 of them here, and must refer, for a view of them, 
 to our articles Alkalies, Alumina, Carbonates, 
 Phosphates, Silicates, Sulphates, Salt, Soda, 
 Potash, and Agricultural Chemistry. 
 
 The Fermentation of Farm-Yard Manure. — The 
 process of fermentation co-exists with some of 
 the many actions of the constituents of farm- 
 yard manure, and is a necessary preparation or in- 
 troduction to others. Chemical change, of some 
 kind or other, whether eremacausis, saccharine 
 fermentation, or some other mutual play of affi- 
 nities, is always taking place upon all vegetable 
 and animal substances which lie open to the 
 weather; and this change, in the case of such a 
 compound of dead vegetable and animal matters 
 as farm-yard manure, tends rapidly to take the 
 character of both the acetous and the putrefac- 
 tive fermentation. The process of fermentation, 
 in fact, is precisely that which generates the heat 
 of the manure, sets free the elements which com- 
 bine and escape as gases, and reduces the finally 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 507 
 
 FARM- YARD MANURE. 
 
 solid principles to such a state of solution as 
 renders them absorbable by the spongioles of 
 plants. The vegetable and animal substances 
 of the manure which contribute any of their ele- 
 ments to the nutrition of plants, require to be de- 
 composed by fermentation, in order to allow these 
 elements to be released and to enter into absorb- 
 able compounds ; and the mineral or saline mat- 
 ters, being incapable of assuming the gaseous 
 form within the soil, and yet requiring to be 
 taken up into the interior of the plants, must be 
 reduced to a state of solution in water, or at 
 least to a state of impalpable comminution in 
 order to their being absorbed by the spongioles. 
 But in consequence of fermentation acting in all 
 the three capacities of a preparative for some of 
 the fertilizing actions of manure, a dissipator of 
 some of the most valuable elements of manure, 
 and a generator of the heat which constitutes 
 one of the great powers of manure, a vast diffi- 
 culty is encountered of so harmonizing these 
 capacities as to bring out a maximum of their 
 fertilizing results; for if the preparational action 
 of fermentation be mainly looked to, the major 
 part of the substance of the manure will be lost 
 by dissipation, and nearly all the beneficial effects 
 of the eliminated heat will be uselessly squan- 
 dered by anticipation; while if the conservation 
 of the substance and the reservation of the heat 
 till the season of application to the soil be mainly 
 looked to, the preparational action is so much 
 repressed as to occasion a large proportion of 
 the alimentary principles of the manure to be 
 presented to the spongioles in too crude a state 
 for their absorption. "That which makes the 
 preparation of manures in the most profitable 
 manner a subject of no little difficulty," remarks 
 M. Le Compte Chaptal, " is, that whatever me- 
 thod we adopt, there will still be a loss of some 
 portion of their nutritive principles. Even when 
 manure and litter are carried to the fields in an 
 entirely fresh and unfermented state, and mixed 
 immediately with the soil, although, by this 
 means, the salts and soluble juices are all pre- 
 served to be converted to the uses of vegetation, 
 still the fibre, the unctuous matter, the oils, &c., 
 remain in a great measure inert in the soil, and 
 their subsequent decomposition will be very slow 
 and imperfect. If. again, in reverse of this, the 
 manure be collected in heaps in the farm-yard, it 
 speedily becomes heated, carbonic acid gas, and 
 then successively carburetted hydrogen, ammo- 
 nia," sulphuretted hydrogen, phosphuretted hy- 
 drogen, and some other gaseous compounds, " in 
 great quantities are evolved, and these substances 
 are entirely lost in vegetation ; a brown liquid, 
 the colour of which becomes more and more dark, 
 moistens the mass, and flows upon the ground 
 about it; every portion is gradually disorganized; 
 and when at length the fermentation is complete, 
 there is left only a residue consisting of earthy and 
 saline matter, mixed with a small quantity of black- 
 ened fibre and charcoal in the state of powder." 
 
 Farm-yard manure either quite fresh or very 
 slightly fermented, so as to retain its litter in an 
 undecomposed and but partially broken state, has 
 long been called by farmers long dung; and farm- 
 yard manure either so thoroughly fermented and 
 rotten as to be a powdery or saponaceous mass, 
 or so free from intermixture of litter as to con- 
 sist almost wholly of a compost of solid excre- 
 ments, has long been called short dung; and 
 much controversy, often sharp and always un- 
 meaning, has been carried on by practical men, 
 unacquainted with the principles of agricultural 
 chemistry, as to whether long dung or short dung 
 is the best, — and this controversy has received 
 from some otherwise well-informed agricultural 
 writers the sage decision, that short dung is the 
 best for securing a single great crop, and long 
 dung is the best for prolonged action or for a 
 series of two or more crops. But short dung, 
 especially when understood in the sense of 
 thoroughly rotted compound manure, is simply 
 a portion of the mass in a state of high prepara- 
 tion for the immediate feeding of plants, after 
 other and bulkier portions of the mass have been 
 lost by gaseous dissipation; and the employment 
 of it by gardeners or any other parties who de- 
 sire a rapid and concentrated manurial action, 
 is simply the procuring of that action at the two- 
 fold expense of losing all the manure which has 
 been dissipated in the fermentative process, and 
 of foregoing the advantages upon future year's 
 crops which would have accrued from using the 
 manure in its fresh or but slightly fermented con- 
 dition. The use of " short dung" is thus, in a 
 general view, both an enormous waste of manu- 
 rial matter and a great abbreviation of manurial 
 duration, for the sake of obtaining one season's 
 special rapidity and power of manurial action. 
 Yet a modified or limited use of "short dung," 
 as in most of the processes of the flower-garden, 
 and in many of the finer processes of the kitchen- 
 garden, may frequently be such as to justify its 
 sacrifice of economy; and the employment of 
 farm-yard manure in various stages of fermenta- 
 tion, intermediate between the conditions of 
 "long dung" and "short dung," is sometimes de- 
 manded by a judicious and even by an economical 
 regard to the peculiar habits of some particular 
 crops. "In practice," remarks Professor Low, 
 "our object is to produce certain kinds of crops; 
 and certain kinds of plants, it is found, require a 
 greater action of manures at particular stages of 
 their growth than others. Thus, the turnip, the 
 carrot, and the beet, which are sown in the early 
 part of summer, require that the manure applied 
 shall be in such a state of decomposition as to act 
 upon and nourish them in the first stages of their 
 growth; and if this be not so, the crop may en- 
 tirely fail. In these and similar cases, accord- 
 ingly, a complete preparation of the farm-yard 
 dung is an essential point of practice. Certain 
 plants, again, do r> A require the same state of 
 decomposition o' the dung. Thus the potato 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 508 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 requires less in the first stages of its growth than 
 the turnip; and hence it is not necessary to sub- 
 ject the manure to be applied to the same degree 
 of fermentation." 
 
 But the general rule, now well established by 
 science, by experiment, and by appeals to econ- 
 omy, — and made all the more firm by the fact, 
 that bone-dust, guano, and other special manures 
 are available for turnips and for all other cases 
 requiring rapid or concentrated manurial action, 
 — is that farm-yard manure ought to be applied 
 to the land in as fresh or slightly fermented a 
 condition as comports with the destruction of 
 the grubs, the larva, the ovules of insects, and the 
 seeds of weeds which it may contain. An experi- 
 ment demonstrative of this rule was long ago 
 made by Sir Humphrey Davy, and has since been 
 frequently repeated by other agricultural che- 
 mists. " I filled a large retort," says Sir Hum- 
 phrey, "capable of containing three pints of 
 water, with some hot fermenting manure, con- 
 sisting principally of the litter and dung of 
 cattle; I adapted a small receiver to the retort, 
 and connected the whole with a mercurial 
 pneumatic apparatus, so as to collect the con- 
 densible and elastic fluids which might arise 
 from the dung. The receiver soon became lined 
 with dew, and drops began, in a few hours, to 
 trickle down the sides of it. Elastic fluid like- 
 wise was generated; in three days thirty-five 
 cubical inches had been formed, which, when 
 analysed, were found to contain twenty-one cubi- 
 cal inches of carbonic acid ; the remainder was 
 hydrocarbonate, mixed with some azote, pro- 
 bably no more than existed in the common air in 
 the receiver. The fluid matter collected in the 
 receiver at the same time amounted to nearly 
 half-an-ounce. It had a saline taste, and a dis- 
 agreeable smell, and contained some acetate and 
 carbonate of ammonia. Finding such products 
 given off from fermenting litter, I introduced the 
 beak of another retort, filled with similar dung 
 very hot at the time, in the soil amongst the 
 roots of some grass in the border of a garden; in 
 less than a week, a very remarkable effect was 
 produced on the grass; upon the spot exposed to 
 the influence of the matter disengaged in fermen- 
 tation, it grew with much more luxuriance than 
 the grass in any other part of the garden." It 
 thus appears from this experiment, and still more 
 fully from the principles which we stated respect- 
 ing the composition of farm-yard manure and the 
 modes of its action in fertilization, that the very 
 matters disengaged during the process of fermen- 
 tation are precisely those which contribute to the 
 growth and substance of plants; so that any de- 
 gree of fermentation which takes place before the 
 manure is deposited in the soil, and made to act 
 upon the crops, is exactly so much clear loss to 
 vegetation. Many farmers, however, have con- 
 tended that the litter of the manure must be so 
 far reduced by fermentation as to be capable of 
 lying close to the seeds and rootlets of the crop, 
 
 and that the whole mass of the manure must be 
 so far fermented as to destroy the germs of noxi- 
 ous weeds and insects. But though soil requires 
 to lie close to germinating seeds and growing 
 rootlets, manure rather injures than benefits 
 them by lying close, and best serves its purpose 
 when merely so near as to surrender its disen- 
 gaged elements to them in the form of gas or of 
 watery solution. The destruction of the germs 
 of weeds and insects, indeed, whenever the litter 
 of the manure has been reaped from the fields in 
 a somewhat foul condition, is indispensable, and 
 in even the most favourable circumstances is de- 
 sirable; and therefore up to the point of effect- 
 ing this destruction, but certainly not a hair's- 
 breadth further, ought fermentation to be carried. 
 Some scientific and very judicious farmers ad- 
 judge fermentation to be at the proper point 
 when the long culms of straw which formerly 
 matted the manure into cohesion are so far de- 
 composed as to allow the parts of the manure to 
 be readily separated by a fork ; but those have a 
 more scientific practice, and effect a consider- 
 ably greater economy of the fertilizing princi- 
 ples, and at the same time quite as effectually 
 secure the destruction of noxious seeds and larva?, 
 who either know how to recognise the transition 
 from the vinous fermentation to the acetous 
 fermentation, or first ascertain from general 
 observations how slight a degree of chemical 
 change destroys the vitality of any of the ordi- 
 nary seeds of agricultural plants, and how trivial 
 an amount of decomposition or even of discolora- 
 tion this degree of change effects upon straw, and 
 then adjudge any mass of farm-yard manure to 
 be sufficiently fermented when that trivial amount 
 of decomposition, or the transition from the vi- 
 nous to the acetous fermentation, has taken place. 
 The loss of ammonia, carburetted hydrogen, car- 
 bonic acid, and other fertilizing gases, from bad me- 
 thods of collecting farm-yard manure on the far- 
 meries of ignorant cultivators, forms an enormous 
 and almost incredible daily aggregate throughout 
 the kingdom ; and the loss of the same substances, 
 at a stage of greater value or at more advanced 
 periods of the season, from processes of excessive 
 fermentation on the farm-steads and the field- 
 borders of well-informed but injudicious cultiva- 
 tors, forms an aggregate, if not so wildly wasteful 
 as the former, at least astonishingly great in 
 itself, and not a little discreditable to the present 
 advanced condition of agricultural knowledge 
 and scientific husbandry. 
 
 The fermentation of farm-yard manure prepar- 
 atory to its being deposited in the soil, whether 
 the process be carried only to the slight degree 
 which we contend for as the most economical, or 
 whether conducted onward to any of the points 
 of " shortening the dung," ought to be done uni- 
 formly, steadily, and in a single operation. The 
 piecemeal methods of collecting and preparing 
 farm-yard manure which are practised by multi- 
 tudes of farmers, — methods which induce a series 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 509 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 of incipient fermentations, which disturb and per- 
 haps arrest each incipient process, and which sub- 
 ject a large portion of the manure to alternations 
 of conflicting forces, — are both utterly absurd in 
 principle, and exceedingly wasteful in practice. 
 " Whether farm-yard manure," remarks a wri- 
 ter in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
 "be brought to the consistency only of what the 
 farmer terms long dung, or his operations be 
 carried much farther, it is certain that these 
 should be conducted on chemical principles, and 
 assimilated to the operations and rules which 
 guide the brewer and distiller. Were the manu- 
 facturer of beer, wine, &c, to practise in like 
 manner as the farmer, and continue but for a 
 few days beyond the period of his accustomed 
 operations, repeatedly to add fresh stimulants to 
 his worts, the products of his labour would be an 
 admixture of alcohol, vinegar, and noxious mat- 
 ter foreign to his purpose. In fact, not any pro- 
 cess in which fermentation is requisite, bears the 
 least resemblance to that of the farmer; and yet 
 no reason has ever been given why he should 
 practise to excess, what in all other cases of fer- 
 mentation it is the leading object of the operator 
 to avoid. The distiller, after each operation, 
 carefully washes his fermenting vessels with a 
 strong solution of white lime in water, to prevent 
 acidity, and the creation of vinegar instead of 
 alcohol. The mixed substances of which farm- 
 yard manure is composed, naturally undergo 
 three stages of fermentation, the vinous, the ace- 
 tous, and the putrefactive. These follow in regu- 
 lar succession; but if acid be added to wort dur- 
 ing the vinous fermentation, this immediately 
 induces the acetous fermentation; or if, in like 
 manner, putrid matter be added, the putrefac- 
 tive stage is brought on throughout the whole, 
 and heat and action subside sooner in proportion 
 as fermentation has been advanced. Without a 
 considerable degree of heat, life cannot exist in 
 animal or vegetable ; and to a certain extent, 
 vegetation and circulation in the fluids of plants 
 are increased according to the measure of heat 
 applied to them; it must, therefore, be necessarily 
 important in this view, that manure should be 
 used at as early a grade of fermentation as may 
 be consistent with other practical purposes, and 
 that neither the acetous nor putrefactive fermen- 
 tation be allowed prematurely to take place." 
 
 Fermentation, both in its establishment and in 
 its continuance, presupposes a certain degree of 
 heat, some proportion of vegetable matter con- 
 taining gluten, the somewhat free access of the 
 atmospheric air, and a comparatively large pro- 
 portion of moisture; and when these conditions 
 are not present or pass away, it in the former 
 case cannot be excited, and in the latter case is 
 arrested or made to give place to some different 
 form of chemical action. When the litter or 
 straw of farm-yard manure is not in immoder- 
 ately large proportion, and when the excrement 
 has been yielded by cattle fed on tolerably rich 
 
 and succulent food, fermentation readily com- 
 mences under any of the ordinary circumstances 
 in which the manure is usually collected or laid 
 up in preparation for the soil; but as sometimes 
 occurs on carse farms, or on farms of other kinds 
 which have too small a number of live stock to use 
 up all the contents of the straw-barn as litter, — 
 when the straw of the manure is in excessively large 
 proportion, as compared to the amount of excre- 
 ment from cattle fed on rich and succulent food, 
 and especially when much of the straw is dry 
 and but little broken, fermentation cannot with- 
 out more or less difficulty be so far induced and 
 maintained as to bring the whole mass into a fit 
 condition to act fertilizingly upon the soil. A suf- 
 ficient remedy in many instances of the latter 
 class, is to make as equal a diffusion as possible 
 of both the solid and the liquid excrements, and 
 to keep up an abundant moisture by artificial 
 applications of water during the absence of rain; 
 but a vastly preferable remedy, with the high 
 additional advantage of greatly enriching the 
 manure, is to provide a larger proportion of both 
 excrement and direct vegetable refuse from the 
 cultivation and use of clovers, tares, cabbages 
 and other succulent and nutritive fodder-plants. 
 But even when animal excrementitious matters, 
 are in average proportion, or it may be in un- 
 usually large proportion, and when the conditions 
 of heat, air, and gluten are all sufficiently pre- 
 sent for maintaining the fermentative process, and 
 when fermentation has actually commenced, and 
 perhaps gone somewhat far in effecting its pecu- 
 liar results, the mere failure of moisture some- 
 times suddenly and totally alters the chemical 
 affinities of the whole mass, destroys for a time 
 all its capacity of fermentation, and induces the 
 commencement and perhaps the rapid progress 
 of eremacausis, or it may be of downright com- 
 bustion. This phenomenon is well known among 
 ignorant and slovenly farmers under the name of 
 fire-fanging ; and it speedily reduces any farm- 
 yard manure in which it occurs, even though it 
 were the richest which can be produced from the 
 stable, into a dry, scorched, and burnt condition, 
 of almost utter worthlessness. The recommence- 
 ment of fermentation after fire-fanging has begun, 
 cannot be effected without much difficulty, and yet 
 is essential to prevent an almost total waste of the 
 manure; and when ever fire-fanging is even sus- 
 pected, much more when it is known to have 
 made some progress, the heap of manure should 
 be turned over, drenched with water, and mixed 
 as abunduntly as possible with some other man- 
 ure in a state of fermentation, or at least with 
 some kind of dung in not a quite fresh condition. 
 
 The Preparation of Farm-Yard Manure. — The 
 proper methods of treating farm-yard manure 
 preparatory to its application to the soil have, 
 in a great degree, been either stated or sug- 
 gested in what we have said respecting the col- 
 lecting, the composition, and the fermentation of 
 | the manure. Yet some important precautions 
 
FARM- YARD MANURE. 
 
 510 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 and directions, partly as inferences from the re- 
 marks already made, and partly as supplements 
 or additions to them, have still to be mentioned. 
 
 Farm-yard manure ought in all other cases to 
 be treated as nearly as possible in the same man- 
 ner as in the case of accumulation beneath cat- 
 tle fed in shelter-sheds; that is, it ought as much 
 as possible to lie in the original place of its de- 
 posit, and to accumulate there in a state of se- 
 clusion from rain, aeration, and heat, till the 
 time arrive for removing it to the field ; and, 
 especially, it ought not to be subjected to such 
 turnings and stirrings as shall expose the interior 
 of even its coat or outer layer to the permeations 
 of the air and the play of the weather. The prac- 
 tice, so prevalent in many agricultural districts, 
 of daily or several times a-day, carrying out dung 
 and litter from the various farm-offices, and ac- 
 cumulating them in a promiscuous mass in a 
 common open dung-pit or open dung-court, gives 
 a constant series of fresh stimulations to the mat- 
 ters deposited below, induces a continual succes- 
 sion of begun and arrested fermentations in the 
 surface strata of the heap, effects the vaporiza- 
 tion of a considerable portion of the most valu- 
 able elements, and produces chemical changes of 
 a very different kind from such as contribute to 
 fertilization and comport with economy. The 
 litter, in consequence of being lighter than the 
 dung, allows the latter to sink down from it, and 
 forms a strawy coat upon the surface of the heap; 
 and, though this coat protects the dung from the 
 action of the light and the wind, and from the 
 poaching of cattle's feet, it permits a sufficient 
 permeation of air and heat to excite fermenta- 
 tion, and conducts inward to the dung such a 
 quantity of rain as sinks through the whole 
 mass, dissolves much of the most valuable mat- 
 ter, and escapes from below in the form of a 
 powerfully fertilizing but almost totally waste 
 liquid. A notion prevails, indeed — and even re- 
 ceives the sanction of some of the ablest recent 
 writers on agriculture — that because the acetous 
 fermentation in all normal cases requires a genial 
 degree of heat, and proceeds very sluggishly at 
 so considerable a temperature as 50°, it cannot 
 occur in the open yard during the wintry por- 
 tion of the year, so that no dissipation of useful 
 substance or any other really injurious effect can 
 result from the loose and open accumulation of 
 farm-yard manure, and the constant disturbing 
 and stirring of it by additions from the offices, in 
 the months between the close of harvest and the 
 time of using it in spring. But, in spite of all 
 theory or mere reasoning on the subject, fermen- 
 tation actually does go on, at almost every sea- 
 son of the year, and may frequently be detected 
 in the very middle of winter by some of its most 
 obvious phenomena. And, besides, to adopt the 
 words of a periodical writer already quoted, 
 " Most animal and vegetable substances, vegetat- 
 ing or dead, are exceedingly influenced by changes 
 in the atmosphere, from causes but imperfectly 
 
 understood. The freshest straw in the dunghill 
 indicates this by becoming yellow during frost ; 
 and that which is mixed with dung and exposed 
 to the air, assumes the dark colour of the liquid 
 matter which oozes from the heap; whilst the 
 succeeding thaw, in its effects, evinces that the 
 whole has by frost been prepared for more rapid 
 dissolution of the most solid materials than at 
 the same temperature previously. Thus the 
 whole are acted upon by every degree of varia- 
 tion in the weather, at every stage ; and can it 
 be imagined that these changes take place with- 
 out the induction of some, and the escape of 
 other volatile principles, or is this irregularity 
 of action consistent with any other systematic 
 process V 
 
 An enormous addition to the evils of heaping 
 up manure piecemeal in the unsheltered yard, 
 is made by the old practice, still observed on 
 some farms, of subsequently forking it up into 
 lofty masses in order to undergo the rotting pro- 
 cess of preparation for spring use. A frequent 
 effect of this treatment is the fire-fanging of the 
 central portions of the masses, and the conse- 
 quent loss of probably from 50 to 70 per cent, of 
 all the valuable principles of the entire manure. 
 " The throwing of it up into high heaps," remarks 
 Mr. Pearson, " is said to be to rot ; but to burn 
 would be a more proper expression. I well re- 
 collect, when a lad, of being employed to drag 
 down one of these rotting heaps at the risk of 
 burning my feet, as well as receiving a lasting 
 injury to my lumbar vertebrae. Several years 
 ago, I was finding fault with an experienced 
 agriculturist for throwing his manure too thick 
 together, when his answer was, that he always 
 gave his men an extra jug of cider to get them 
 to throw it as high as the barn if they could. I 
 asked, ' Don't you find the middle of the heap 
 as white as your shirt V 4 Yes,' said he, ' but I 
 never could tell how it was,' and added, that it 
 was so dry sometimes that the wind blew it out 
 of the carts. I advised him to save his extra jug 
 of cider, and lay up the manure only from two 
 to three feet in thickness, and not allow a foot 
 to be set on it." 
 
 Another evil strictly analogous to the preced- 
 ing in effect, though considerably different in 
 practice, is, in cases of a common dung-court or 
 dung-pit for all the offices, to accumulate horse- 
 dung in great preponderance near the stable, or 
 not to diffuse it equally among the manure from 
 the other offices ; for, in consequence of horse- 
 dung being both far loss moist and far more 
 ready to ferment than the other kinds of dung, 
 a loose heap of it rapidly passes into fermenta- 
 tion, and thence into eremacausis or combustion. 
 " The horse-dung," remarks Blakie, " is usually 
 thrown out at the stable doors, and there ac- 
 cumulates in large heaps. It is sometimes spread 
 a little about, but more generally not at all, un- 
 less where necessary for the convenience of in- 
 gress and egress, or perhaps to allow the water 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 to drain away from the stable door. Horse-dung 
 lying in such heaps very soon ferments, and 
 heats to an excess; the centre of the heap is 
 charred or burned to a dry white substance pro- 
 vincially termed fire-fanged. Dung in this state 
 loses from 50 to 75 per cent, of its value." 
 
 Cow-dung, when separately accumulated, in- 
 curs fewer risks, and requires less nicety of man- 
 agement, than mixed farm-yard manure, and es- 
 pecially than such manure as contains a large 
 proportion of horse -dung. Manure from the 
 cow-houses and the ox-sheds is the coldest and 
 least ammoniacal of all the manures of the farm- 
 yard, and at the same time is the most easily 
 made available for the use of potatoes, turnips, 
 or other plantings and sowings of the latter part 
 of spring or the commencing part of summer ; 
 and, in the practice of some well -enlightened 
 farmers, it is therefore accumulated separately 
 from the other manures in an open pit, and not 
 removed thence or turned, or otherwise dis- 
 turbed, than by daily additions to its bulk, till it 
 is carted away to be applied to the land. The 
 kind of pit frequently used for it is an enclosure 
 with a strong wall three or four feet high in the 
 centre of a court ; and the accumulation is made 
 within this, or even up to a height above its top 
 by means of a wheel-barrow for carriage, and a 
 plank for a roadway. 
 
 Manure whose straw has been reaped from 
 comparatively clean fields, or whose excremental 
 constituents are of such a nature as to be easily 
 thrown into fermentation, or whose character in 
 other respects is such as not to require any pre- 
 paratory stirrings for the destruction of seeds 
 and larvae, must lie unstirred in the place where 
 it was deposited till it is wanted for use, and then 
 be carted direct out for distribution throughout 
 the field, and for immediate intermixation with 
 the soil. Yet if its ingredients have been col- 
 lected from different kinds of offices, and have 
 not been equally diffused among one another 
 during the process of deposition, the whole mass 
 of the manure, just before being carted out, ought 
 to be so turned over where it lies that its several 
 ingredients may be properly intermixed, and 
 made to constitute a homogeneous heap. The 
 vastly better practice is to effect equal inter- 
 mixation, throughout the whole process of the 
 collecting of the manure ; but whenever this 
 has been omitted, a special turning of such a 
 kind as to render the whole manure uniform in 
 quality becomes necessary. Any manure which 
 requires a little fermentation to fit it for imme- 
 diate use, and which is so constituted as not to 
 be difficult of fermentation, may be turned over 
 and allowed to ferment on the spot on which it was 
 collected. In this case, it is so turned over, with 
 large three-pronged forks, from the one side to 
 the other, and from the top to the bottom, that 
 the whole mass becomes reversed ; and if allowed 
 to lie undisturbed in its new position, with free 
 exposure to the air, and without being trodden 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 by cattle or otherwise consolidated, it will speedily 
 be in a state of equal fermentation throughout 
 all its parts, and completely fit for immediate ap- 
 plication to the soil. 
 
 But either when manure requires to be much 
 fermented, or when it is of such a nature as to 
 be difficult of fermentation, or when it accumu- 
 lates in such quantity as to exceed the capacity 
 of the yard for containing it, or when it cannot 
 all be carried direct to the fields in spring with- 
 out seriously retarding or embarrassing the other 
 operations of the farm, it must, at some period 
 before the time of its being required for use, be 
 carted away from the yard, and formed into dung- 
 hills on the borders of the fields. The case of a 
 required great degree of fermentation is, as we 
 formerly saw, very seldom desirable ; and the case 
 of difficulty of fermentation occurs principally in 
 the very small number of farms which produce a 
 much larger proportion of corn than of green 
 crops ; and the treatment in both of these cases 
 is to give the manure a sufficient number of 
 stirrings and turnings to accomplish the desired 
 object. But the other two cases of forming dung- 
 hills on the borders of the fields are of very fre- 
 quent occurrence ; indeed, they practically occur 
 throughout entire districts of the best agricul- 
 tural counties ; and they even force themselves so 
 prominently on our attention as almost to iden- 
 tify themselves with what the great majority of 
 good practical agriculturists regard as the most 
 approved process of the preparation of manure. 
 Some farms produce such an enormous quantity 
 of manure, that the carting of it out from the 
 yard at the time of being used, could not possibly 
 be effected without mischievously retarding the 
 other operations of the busy season of spring ; 
 other farms, though producing but a moderate 
 quantity of manure, have not near space enough 
 within their yards for its accumulation; and most 
 farms have their economy so arranged that the 
 removal of the manure from the yard to the field- 
 border during the dead of winter, can be effected 
 when the horses and the ploughmen have no- 
 thing else to do, and is in consequence an econo- 
 mizing of both time and labour. 
 
 The removal of manure from the yard, and the 
 laying of it up in dunghills in the field, usually 
 take place at two seasons, — the first toward the 
 end of December, or during the prevalence of 
 hard frost —and the second, late in spring, or at 
 the transference of the cattle from yard-feeding 
 to the open pastures, and in preparation for the 
 sowing of the turnip crops ; and the proper treat- 
 ment in the former case is considerably different 
 from that in the latter.— In the winter removal, 
 each dunghill, provided the farm and the fields 
 be of moderately large size, may have a breadth 
 of 5 yards, a length of 20 or 25 yards, and a pro- 
 portionately great height. A bottom for each 
 dunghill, in order to prevent the loss of some of 
 the richest liquid matter by infiltration into the 
 land, should be formed of clay, marl, or some 
 
 511 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 512 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 similar substance, to the thickness of 6 or 8 
 inches. The manure, throughout the whole pro- 
 cess of removal, should be as little shaken up or 
 kept as compressed as possible ; it should not be 
 forked from the carts to the dunghill, or tossed 
 into small pieces ; but the carts containing it 
 should be drawn up to the dunghill; and the 
 contents should be tilted over on the spot where 
 they are to lie, and there be compressed into 
 their sets, or at least as slightly disturbed as will 
 at all comport with the giving of a regular out- 
 line to the dunghill. The object of all this is to 
 prevent the induction of fermentation by the 
 operations of the removal, and to make provision 
 for the hinderance of that process till the proper 
 time for it shall arrive, — a time a little before 
 that when the manure shall be required for use. 
 The manure should be emptied regularly and 
 slopingly upon the dunghill, so as to render the 
 ascent easy for the succeeding teams as they 
 come with their loads. As soon as each dung- 
 hill is completed, it should be covered all over 
 with a coat of clay, marl, or adhesive soil, techni- 
 cally called " a crust;" and it will then constitute 
 what many farmers jocosely call " a pie," and 
 will keep the manure in a fresh or unfermenting 
 condition, and without any material loss from 
 exhalation or evaporation till the arrival of 
 spring. A point ought to be made, also, of clear- 
 ing out all the manure of a subdivision of the 
 yard quite to the ground at a single removal ; 
 so that the contents of the dunghill may be of 
 uniform consistency and constitution, and that 
 the contents of the yard may neither be roused 
 into fermentation nor made to form a puddled 
 and filthy bed for the cattle. About a fortnight 
 before the manure is required for the turnip 
 grounds, each " pie " should be broken up, turn- 
 ed over, carefully stirred all through or inter- 
 mixed, and again covered over with a " crust," or 
 coat of clay, marl, or adhesive soil ; and a fer- 
 mentation will then take place quite sufficient to 
 bring the whole mass into a state of excellent 
 preparation either for land to be sown with tur- 
 nips, or for land to be planted with potatoes, or 
 with any similar crop. Many modifications are 
 practised upon this simple method of a single 
 turning by many farmers, and some very operose 
 and mischievous additions are made to it by 
 some; but, in general, all these modifications and 
 additions are a sheer waste both of the labour of 
 the workmen and the fertilizing powers of the 
 manure ; and no other modifications are admis- 
 sible than such as may, in rare instances, be re- 
 quired by the risk of fire-fanging, the inaptitude 
 of the heap to ferment, or the desirableness either 
 of accelerating fermentation, or of conducting it 
 to the degree of . producing considerable ' short- 
 ness ' in the manure. 
 
 In the removal of the manure in spring, or at 
 the sending of the cattle to the open pastures, 
 the dunghills on the field-borders ought to be 
 formed on the same kind of bottoms as the win- 
 
 ter-made dunghills, but ought not to be raised 
 either to much height, or in a compressed con- 
 dition, or with any of the winter precautions to 
 prevent fermentation. They ought, in fact, to 
 be formed in such a manner as to secure by one 
 process the objects both of the winter-formation 
 and the spring-turning of the other dunghills ; 
 they ought to be loose, thoroughly intermixed, 
 and not more than two or three feet in thick- 
 ness; the carts should not be drawn upon them; 
 and their contents should be thrown up lightly 
 with the fork. 'Pies,' thus made, should be 
 covered with earth in the same manner as the 
 winter ones ; and they will speedily have their 
 whole mass in a state of sufficient fermentation 
 to be immediately applied to the land. In the 
 case of very rich manure, indeed, the fermenta- 
 tion induced may be too powerful, and may re- 
 quire to be modified. " What is a safe guide in 
 this process," suggests Mr. Pearson, " is to have 
 a few sticks stuck into the heaps ; and as soon as 
 they feel warm to the hand, let the manure be 
 turned and laid a little thinner ; and should they 
 get hot a second time, turn the manure again." 
 But more than one stirring is always accom- 
 panied with great gaseous tyss during the pro- 
 cess, and a far better method, in any case in 
 which the manure seems at all likely to go into 
 powerful fermentation, is so to dispose it at first, 
 in regard both to depth and to covering, as to 
 occasion the fermentative process to be suffi- 
 ciently slow. 
 
 The Application of Farm-Yard Manure. — The 
 application of farm-yard manure to grass lands 
 has sometimes been practised on good farms, and 
 forms a regular part of practice in some back- 
 ward districts, and in blind systems of mere imi- 
 tation husbandry ; but it more or less in all cir- 
 cumstances occasions so enormous a waste of 
 fertilizing matter both by gaseous dissipation 
 and the washing of thaws and rains, as to be 
 sternly condemned by all well-informed agricul- 
 turists. The spreading of it over the surface 
 of the ground from the beginning of spring till 
 the end of autumn, as is recommended to be 
 done by Mr. Baker, a stout pretender to highly 
 improved practice in the use of farm-yard man- 
 ure, is simply to expose it to the most power- 
 ful possible play of both the mechanical and 
 the chemical actions of the atmosphere, and to 
 render perhaps not one-fourth of it available for 
 the absorption and nutrition of the grasses ; and 
 to cart it out and spread it on the land during a 
 season of frost, as was for a long time currently 
 done in the northern counties of England, is but 
 a degree or two less foolish than if the greater por- 
 tion of it were tilted directly into a river. " While 
 the frost lasts, the land can derive no advantage 
 from the manure ; and when a thaw supervenes, 
 it is evident that the wash from melting snow, or 
 from the rains which generally fall in such wea- 
 ther, must deprive the mass of every part that 
 is soluble. The ground, in the meantime, retains 
 
FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 the frost for many days, and is therefore incap- 
 able of absorbing the wet which* falls upon its 
 surface ; and even when the influence of the 
 milder air has reached it, can imbibe but little, 
 being in general previously filled with water, and 
 the quantity which flows over it being too great 
 for the soil, under any circumstances, to drink 
 up." Farm-yard manure, in fact, requires to be 
 buried a little within the soil, both that it may 
 escape wasteful dissipation by surface - decom- 
 position and by washing away, and that it may 
 readily and fully perform its fertilizing func- 
 tions ; and it must therefore be regarded as suit- 
 able only for tillage-lands, and as properly appli- 
 cable to these either at the close of a bare fallow, 
 or immediately before the laying down of a green 
 fallow crop. 
 
 The quantity of farm-yard manure applied at 
 any one time, or in the course of a short cycle of 
 years, ought simply to be such as to supply an 
 amount of nitrogen, salts, and humus equal to 
 what the preceding crops have extracted, or, in 
 other words, to maintain an uniform and suffi- 
 cient fertility. It ought neither to give an 
 excess of stimulus in one year, nor to allow a 
 deficiency of it in another ; and should be so dis- 
 tributed in time as well as apportioned in amount 
 as to feed all the crops of a rotation as nearly as 
 possible alike. The application of a compara- 
 tively large quantity of manure at one time ac- 
 celerates the decomposition of the whole mass, 
 renders the first crop prurient or plethoric, and 
 comparatively starves the crops which follow ; 
 and a heavy dose of it after a thorough summer- 
 fallow, especially if the circumstances of the 
 fallow have been such as to comminute and 
 unusually fertilize the soil, makes the ground so 
 porous in spring, that many of the corn-plants 
 perish for want of mechanical support, and pours 
 around the roots of the whole crop such a pro- 
 fusion of stimulating and nutrient matter as to 
 derange all its organisms with excess of food, and 
 render it far less productive than if not one 
 particle of manure had been applied. In the 
 old husbandry, doses of from thirty to fifty tons 
 per acre were given at one time, and were not 
 repeated till the land became almost completely 
 exhausted; but in the most improved modern 
 husbandry, doses of only from fifteen or twelve 
 to ten tons, or even much smaller quantities, 
 according to the nature of the soil, the quality 
 of the manure, and the exhaustiveness of the 
 crops, are given at one time, and are repeated 
 with sufficient frequency to keep the land in 
 nearly an equable condition of fertility. One 
 manuring is now commonly given to a rotation 
 of four years, when only two of the crops are 
 culmiferous ; and two manurings are commonly 
 given to a rotation of eight years or even to one 
 of six. "A moderate quantity," remarks Sir 
 John Sinclair, "is bestowed at once, and the 
 dose frequently repeated. The crops are regu- 
 larly fed ; but never surfeited with a profusion 
 I. 
 
 FARM- YARD MANURE. 
 
 of nourishment. Hence those raised in a regular 
 rotation are more uniformly good, and a greater 
 and more valuable produce is obtained than by 
 the former practice." 
 
 Farm-yard manure must be spread and plough- 
 ed in immediately after being deposited from the 
 carts, and ought to be spread so equally, divided 
 so minutely, and ploughed in so uniformly that 
 every part of the field, even every square-yard, 
 may receive an equal portion. If left to lie 
 in cart -heaps unspread for a day or two, or if 
 allowed to lie spread but not ploughed in for a 
 very few hours, it will lose so large a proportion 
 of its value and even of its bulk as would seem 
 utterly incredible by every person unacquainted 
 with chemistry ; and if deposited unequally in 
 the soil, it will surfeit the plants of some spots, 
 and starve those of others, and in consequence 
 occasion a great subtraction from what would 
 otherwise be the amount of the crops. It can- 
 not, indeed, be distributed so equally when laid 
 in drills for turnips or potatoes, as when inter- 
 mixed with the whole area of the soil after a 
 summer-fallow ; yet, even in this case, it ought 
 to be distributed with a degree of uniformity 
 very nearly approaching to equality. To pro- 
 mote this uniformity the drills are sometimes 
 drawn across the fields, and at other times dia- 
 gonally ; or, entirely to secure it for the sub- 
 sequent crops of the rotation, the whole field, 
 after the turnips or potatoes are harvested or 
 otherwise removed, is so cross -ploughed as to 
 mix the contents of the drills with the soil of the 
 intermediate spaces. 
 
 The manure ought to be buried in the soil at 
 precisely the depth which will occasion it to de- 
 compose in a manner and with a rapidity most 
 conducive to the feeding of the successive crops 
 of the period for which it is intended to serve. 
 Any portion of it which may be allowed to lie 
 either on or very near the surface will, as we 
 have already seen, be wasted both by gaseous 
 escape and by the action of heavy rains ; and 
 any portion of it which may be buried so deep 
 as to lie beyond the free decomposing action of 
 combined heat, moisture, and electricity, will in 
 a greater or less degree continue inert within 
 itself and unserviceable to the crops. Economi- 
 cally deposited manure lies at just such a depth 
 within the soil as to undergo decomposition with 
 the degree of speed requisite to evolve continu- 
 ous nourishment to the series of crops, — at such 
 a depth that the principles and elements of it 
 which become gaseous are evolved within the 
 range of the higher spongioles and do not escape 
 direct into the atmosphere, while the principles 
 and elements which become dissolved in water are 
 evolved within the range of the lower spongioles, 
 and do not escape direct into the drains. This 
 depth necessarily varies with the average nature 
 of the plants of the rotation, and especially with 
 the comparative porosity or cohesiveness, warmth 
 or coldness, dryness or moistness of the soil ; but, 
 2 K 
 
 513 
 
FARRIER. 
 
 on the average, its level is three or four inches 
 below the surface. 
 
 A new method of applying farm-yard manure 
 to land was very confidently recommended, a few 
 years ago, by a Mr. Baker in the vicinity of 
 Leeds, as fitted to produce advantages cent, per 
 cent, greater than those of former methods ; and 
 as a very brief statement of it can be given in 
 Mr. Baker's own words, we think well to exhibit 
 it to our practical readers as a very favourable 
 specimen of the numerous quack-novelties which 
 ill-informed pretenders so frequently try to force 
 on their attention. "My method," says Mr. 
 Baker, "is to spread the dung on the land as 
 soon as convenient after it is made, except in 
 winter. The manure made at that period of the 
 year remains in the fold-yard till spring, where 
 it does not ferment. The whole is taken in the 
 spring, summer, and autumn, fresh to the land. 
 If in fallow, it is ploughed in with a thin furrow ; 
 the land is harrowed and ploughed again in a 
 fortnight, and in a fortnight after harrowed and 
 ploughed a third time ; after which the muck, 
 however long it may have been, is reduced, and 
 the soil will be in as fine and friable a state as 
 the land is capable of. From the time the dung 
 is put on to the last-mentioned ploughing, no- 
 thing can be more unsightly than its appearance. 
 If it is to be applied to pasture, I spread it over 
 the surface of the ground from the beginning of 
 spring to the end of autumn. Three essential 
 points are to be observed: first, to apply the 
 manure to the soil as soon as convenient after it 
 is made, except in the depth of winter ; secondly, 
 to keep it as near the surface as possible ; and 
 thirdly, to mix it well with the soil. These be- 
 ing observed, I confidently assert that advan- 
 tages equal to double those now derived from 
 manure are communicated to the land by an in- 
 crease in the fertility of the soil, exhibited in 
 healthier and more abundant crops." Now, — 
 passing over the pasture-land portion of this me- 
 thod, the folly of which was formerly glanced at 
 — see the filthiness, wastefulness, and shortsight- 
 edness of the fallow part of it ! The practice is 
 exceedingly dirty, and therefore disgusting to 
 both man and beast ; the labour in the frequent 
 cartings, ploughings, and harrowings makes large 
 demands on both ploughmen and horses ; the 
 pause in winter is a wasteful addition to the pause 
 in almost all other field-work; the successive 
 stirrings of the fallow soil for intermixing the 
 manure prevents the germination and clearance 
 of weeds, and in so far defeats one main object 
 of the fallow ; the shallowness at which the 
 whole manure is originally deposited, and the 
 complete exposure to which portions of it are 
 afterwards brought up by the harrows, occasion 
 enormous waste by gaseous dissipation ; and the 
 comparatively long period between the deposit- 
 ing of the manure and the laying down of the 
 crop, is simply a period of decomposing, expend- 
 ing, and dissipating the most solvable portions 
 
 of the manure, without the possibility of a parti- 
 cle of benefit accruing to the farmer. Yet we 
 cannot doubt Mr. Baker's veracity when he as- 
 sures us, as he does, that "the success of his me- 
 thod has been proved by numerous experiments." 
 But, then, what are the methods of applying man- 
 ure which he pronounces worse than his own, or 
 which he discarded and condemned for the sake 
 of his own ? Are they the methods of the best 
 agricultural districts, or methods in any consider- 
 able degree similar to those which we have recom- 
 mended ? Not at all ; but entirely the old me- 
 thods of rotting, dissipating, and consuming the 
 manure down to the condition of " short dung." 
 "Manure of almost every description," says he, 
 " is carried from the place where it is made, and 
 deposited on a heap for four, six, or eight months, 
 where it ferments, and becomes a soft, black, co- 
 hesive mass; it is then put on the land and 
 ploughed down, after which the crop is sown. 
 This may not always be done; but something 
 resembling it is the prevailing and general prac- 
 tice in every part of the country," So, after all, 
 the only lesson from Mr. Baker's experience is 
 this, — that unfermented manure, even when ap- 
 plied in his enormously wasteful method, is twice 
 as beneficial to the crops as manure fermented 
 down to the condition of "soft, black, cohesive" 
 short dung ! How eminently superior then must 
 be manure prepared and applied in the common 
 sense method of the most improved modern prac- 
 tice! — Blakie on Farm-Yard Manure. — Br. Fen- 
 ivick's Essays. — Dana's Farmer's Much Manual. — 
 Dana's Prize Essay on Manures. — Liebig's Chem- 
 istry of Agriculture. — Chaptal's Chemistry applied 
 to Agriculture. — Turner's Elements of Chemistry. — 
 Armstrong's Treatise on Agriculture. — Communi- 
 cations to the Board of Agriculture. — Marshall's 
 County Reports. — Mill's Husbandry. — The Far- 
 mer's Magazine. — The Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 cidture. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. 
 — Sir John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — 
 Low's Elements of Agriculture. — Stephens' Book of 
 the Farm. — Boussingaidt' s Rural Economy. — 
 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry by Shier. — Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society. — Dickson's Hus- 
 bandry of the Ancients. — Society of Gentlemen's 
 Complete Farmer. — Doyle's Practical Husbandry. 
 
 FARRIER. A person. who fabricates the shoes 
 of horses, fastens them on, and professes to cure 
 diseases in horses' feet. He held, till quite a re- 
 cent period, the same sort of relation to the prac- 
 tice of the healing art for horses and cattle, 
 which barbers held in the middle ages for human 
 beings ; or he even was the only medical practi- 
 tioner whatever for the domestic animals of the 
 farm ; and he hence has bequeathed the name of 
 farriery to the whole of the veterinary art. But 
 a farrier was a grossly ignorant person in com- 
 parison to the modern veterinary surgeon; he 
 had little knowledge of the materia medica, and 
 usually none of anatomy and physiology ; he was 
 a quack as regarded the cure of diseases, and 
 
FARROWING. 
 
 515 
 
 FATTENING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 frequently a cruel bungler as regarded the treat- 
 ment of sores ; and he frequently possessed but 
 a pitiful acquaintance with the principles of his 
 proper vocation as a maker and adjuster of 
 horses' shoes. Not a few farriers in remote dis- 
 tricts at the present day have a considerable re- 
 semblance to the quack -farrier of former times ; 
 but the regular, well-educated, professional veter- 
 inary surgeon is a thoroughly respectable person, 
 often as well acquainted with anatomy, physiol- 
 ogy, and the powers of medicine as a good sur- 
 geon or physician of the human subject, and 
 fully entitled to pronounce the name farriery, 
 when understood in anything like its original 
 signification, a foul libel upon his art. 
 
 FARRIERY. See Farrier. 
 
 FARROWING. The parturition or littering 
 of the sow. She is said to farrow when she brings 
 forth her pigs; and the number of her young 
 ones produced at one farrowing is called a farrow 
 or a litter. 
 
 FARTHING-BOUND. Costiveness in the cow. 
 See the article Costiveness. 
 
 FATTENING OF ANIMALS. The feeding 
 of oxen, sheep, and pigs for the butcher. This 
 practice is, in some circumstances, more remu- 
 nerating to the farmer than the practice of the 
 dairy; and it possesses the additional advantage 
 of bringing a quicker return for the outlay of 
 capital. The kinds of food most suitable for fat- 
 tening, are not the same as those most suitable 
 for strengthening ; the quantity of food requisite 
 for producing fat, is as variable as the quantity 
 requisite for producing milk; and the sort of 
 treatment which succeeds best in rapidly accu- 
 mulating fat, is totally different from the sort of 
 treatment which succeeds best in rapidly im- 
 proving the muscles. The quality of food for fat- 
 tening ought to contain an excess of hydrogenous 
 principles, and to exhibit the largest possible 
 proportion of nutritive matter within the small- 
 est possible compass of bulk; the quantity of 
 food ought to be controlled by the circumstances 
 of its own composition, of the season, of the breed, 
 the age, and the condition of the animals, and by 
 other considerations ; and the general treatment 
 ought to be such as will produce constant repose, 
 and avert disturbance, and keep up a frequent 
 inclination to sleep. The particular breed of 
 cattle has a powerful control over both the pro- 
 cess of fattening and the quality of the flesh ; for 
 some breeds are obstinately lean or constitution- 
 ally ill-fleshed, under even the most favourable 
 circumstances ; while others, whenever properly 
 fed and treated, accumulate fat with great rapi- 
 dity, and always surrender to the butcher a car- 
 case of the most savoury character. See the ar- 
 ticles Cattle and Breeding. In every process of 
 fattening, the feeding-house ought to be kept 
 thoroughly quiet, somewhat dark, perfectly clean, 
 and constantly well ventilated, the litter ought to 
 be soft and abundant, and the food ought to be 
 
 nicely adapted to the conditions which we 
 have already hinted, and to be given with perfect 
 regularity. 
 
 " In fattening during winter," says M. Bous- 
 singault, " which is done almost exclusively with 
 hay in some countries, an ox weighing 748 lbs. 
 upon 40 lbs. of hay per diem, will increase by 
 about 2 lbs. daily. According to Mr. Low, an ox 
 weighing 770 lbs. and consuming about 2,223 
 lbs. of turnips per week, if he thrive, will gain in 
 the same space of time nearly a stone in weight 
 In the information obtained in the Rhenish pro- 
 vinces by M. Moll, in regard to the fattening of 
 cattle under the influence of a regimen which 
 would give 11 lbs. of hay to every 100 lbs. of 
 dead weight, the animal will increase one-third 
 in weight in the course of three or four months." 
 M. Boussingault then states the result of an ex- 
 periment designed to ascertain the increase of the 
 weight of cattle from different alimentary regi- 
 mens, and made upon three lots, of six each, of 
 two-year-old oxen, which had been brought up 
 in the same farm, and kept in the same manner, 
 — the experiment being carried on during 119 
 days. The first lot was fed upon turnips, 
 linseed oil-cake, beans and oats, and also received 
 during the last 24 days, a daily allowance of 20 
 lbs. of potatoes to each ox ; the second lot was 
 fed upon turnips, beans, and oats, and also re- 
 ceived during the last 24 days, a daily allowance 
 of 10 lbs. of potatoes to each ox ; and the third 
 lot was fed wholly upon turnips. Now, during 
 the 119 days the first lot consumed 1,518 lbs. of 
 white turnips, equal to 171J lbs. of hay, — 13,336 
 lbs. of swedes, equal to 1,973^ lbs. of hay, — 358 
 lbs. of beans, equal to l,559f lbs. of hay, — 389 
 lbs. of oil-cake, equal to 1,768 lbs. of hay, — 173 
 lbs. of oats, equal to 279 lbs. of hay, — and 479 lbs. 
 of potatoes, equal to 151 lbs. of hay; the second 
 lot consumed 1,628 lbs. of white turnips, equal to 
 184J lbs. of hay, — 13,384| lbs. of swedes, equal to 
 1,980 lbs. of hay, — 358 lbs. of beans, equal to 
 1,559 lbs. of hay, — 173 lbs. of oats, equal to 279 
 lbs. of hay, — and 239| lbs. of potatoes, equal to 
 77 lbs. of hay ; and the third lot consumed 1,122 
 lbs. of white turnips, equal to 127 lbs. of hay, — 
 and 12,012 lbs. of swedes, equal to 1,777^ lbs. of 
 hay. The first lot, thus, consumed food equal to 
 49.7 lbs. of hay per day, or a total of 5,904 lbs.; 
 the second lot equal to 34.3 lbs. of hay per day, or 
 a total of 3,971 lbs., and the third equal to 16 
 lbs. per day, or a total of 1,905 lbs. Each ox of the 
 first lot, on the average, weighed 1,115 lbs. at the 
 beginning of the experiment, and acquired in- 
 crease of weight at the rate of 2 lbs. per day, or 
 altogether of 247^ lbs. ; each of the second lot, on 
 the average, weighed 1,016 lbs. at the beginning 
 of the experiment, and acquired increase of 
 weight at the rate of 1.9 lb. per day, or alto- 
 gether of 231| lbs ; and each of the third lot, on 
 the average, weighed 794 lbs. at the beginning 
 of the experiment, and acquired increase of weight 
 
FATTENING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 516 
 
 FEAL. 
 
 at the rate of 0.9 lb. per day, or altogether of 112^ 
 lbs. Thus, for every 100 lbs. of live weight in 
 the first lot, the average daily consumption of ! 
 food was equal to 4.01 lbs. of hay, and the total j 
 increase of weight during the 119 days was 2.22 
 lbs. ; for every 100 lbs. of live weight in the 
 second lot, the average daily consumption of 
 food was equal to 3.03 lbs. of hay, and the total 
 increase of weight during the 119 days was 22.8 
 lbs.; and for every 100 lbs. of live weight in the 
 third lot, the average daily consumption of food 
 was exactly 2 lbs., and the total increase of 
 weight during the 119 days was 14.2 lbs. "It 
 therefore plainly appears," says M. Boussingault, 
 " that the lot which had the largest allowance of 
 provender, the food which contained the greatest 
 quantity of azotised principles, produced the 
 largest amount of dead weight in a given time, 
 and that the lot which had the shortest allow- 
 ance, increased in the smallest measure both in 
 flesh and fat, — results which might have been 
 readily foreseen. It is also apparent that in pro- 
 portion to the nutritive value of the articles con- 
 sumed by each lot, the increase in carcass weight 
 was greatest in that which received its allowance 
 in the least bulk. This fact is most readily ex- 
 plained; over a certain limit, the more food an 
 animal receives, the smaller is the fraction which 
 is assimilated and turned to use in the body. 
 Breeders have consequently discovered that it is 
 by no means generally advantageous to push ani- 
 mals beyond a certain point of fatness. The ex- 
 cess of weight which is obtained with the assist- 
 ance of quantities of food, exaggerated as it were, 
 no longer compensates for the additional expense 
 incurred." 
 
 Cattle readily fatten in the house upon green 
 clover or lucern. An ordinary ox will eat in the 
 course of a day about 1 cwt. of clover cut when in 
 flower; and if he should suffer injurious relaxa- 
 tion of the bowels when fed with this fodder, he 
 ought to receive a small proportion of dry hay 
 along with it, and eventually or in the last stage 
 of his fattening a little oil -cake. When cattle 
 are fed chiefly on pasture, only the most luxuriant 
 kinds of grass lands, or fields with the richest and 
 most azotised species of the grasses,will fatten them ; 
 for many meadows which are sufficient for rearing 
 and supporting bullocks, possess but feeble power 
 of bringing the animals into condition for the 
 butcher. "Those countries where the climate is 
 moist, but long droughts rarely felt, where neither 
 the summer heats nor the winter colds are ex- 
 cessive, the conditions, in fact, which are met 
 with in the beautiful pasture lands of England, 
 in especial, are those that prove most favour- 
 able to the rearing and feeding of cattle. The 
 pasture lands of Normandy and Brittany in 
 France, of Switzerland, Holland, several of the 
 provinces watered by the Rhine, &c., are also re- 
 markable for their luxuriant herbage. In such 
 situations, and with such advantages, the grand 
 object with the farmer is the production and fat- 
 
 tening of cattle." In many districts of rich pas- 
 ture lands, some of the best fields and meadows 
 are regularly and most successfully in use for the 
 fattening of oxen. The average extent of a 
 meadow of the greatest fertility requisite for the 
 fattening of a large ox is 2,700 square yards; and 
 of a meadow of medium fertility, 4,680 square 
 yards. "M. Dubois" — we again quote from 
 Boussingault — "finds that a lean ox weighing 
 473 lbs., after fattening in the valley of the Auge 
 will weigh 763 lbs., so that he will have gained 
 290 lbs. The degree of fatness attained in this 
 district is often prodigious. M. Dubois mentions 
 oxen which weighed when fat 1,760 lbs., upwards 
 of 125 stones; and he speaks of one which at- 
 tained the enormous weight of 2,750 lbs., up- 
 wards of 196 stones. M. Dubois calculates the 
 quantity of green fodder consumed by an ox, dur- 
 ing the eight months when he is fattening, as 
 equivalent to 6,600 lbs. in dry hay. This at 
 least is the quantity which the extent of meadow 
 required to fatten one ox would produce. The 
 average ration of green forage per day is, there- 
 fore, equivalent to about 27 lbs. of hay, — a quan- 
 tity which appears small, and which would be so 
 in effect were not the oxen kept so long in the 
 meadows. M. Dubois indeed observes that in the 
 stall, with a ration composed of from 11 lbs. to 
 13 lbs. of linseed oil-cake and 26 lbs. of hay, an 
 ox will become sufficiently fat for the butcher 
 in 70 days, and will acquire nearly the same 
 weight which he would have gained in the course 
 of 7 or 8 months in the meadows. There is no- 
 thing surprising in this fact, inasmuch as the 
 ration mentioned by M. Dubois, in our mode of 
 viewing it, is equivalent in nutritive value to at 
 least 81 lbs. weight of hay. The quantity of oil-cake 
 alone is enough to supply a good pound weight 
 of fat per day. In Old Friesland, where the pas- 
 tures are excellent, results are obtained which 
 may be compared with those of the meadows in 
 the valley of the Auge. An ox of from 770 lbs. 
 to 990 lbs. weight will be pushed to a weight of 
 from 1,100 lbs. to 1.650 lbs., on a surface of mea- 
 dow land between 3,000 and 3,600 square yards 
 in extent. In the meadows of the Auge, the fat- 
 tening goes on even during the winter. The 
 oxen are rceived into the pastures between the 
 15th of September and the 15th of November, 
 and they pass the winter in the open field; but 
 they receive from 12 lbs. to 26 lbs. of hay per day 
 until the month of April, when the grass has al- 
 ready grown sufficiently to suffice for their keep." 
 See the articles Cattle, Breeding, Ox, Feeding 
 op Animals, Food of Animals, Fodder, Sheep, 
 and Grass Lands. 
 
 FEAL. The pared sward or turf of pasture 
 land. It is often used in the Scottish Highlands 
 both for the construction of turf-walls or fences, 
 and for mixing up into a compost with farm-yard 
 manure or with other fertilizing materials. A 
 wall constructed wholly or partially of pared 
 sward is called a feal-dyke ; and a compost which 
 
FEATHERS. 
 
 contains a considerable proportion of reduced 
 sward is called feal-muck. 
 
 FEATHERS. The exterior covering or plum- 
 age of birds. Every feather, though appearing 
 to a careless observer to be a very simple object, 
 is really an intricate and exquisitely beautiful 
 piece of mechanism; and, in many ways, with 
 most impressive effect, in its intrinsic construc- 
 tion, in its mode of growth, in its vital organism, 
 in its chemical elaborations, in its combination 
 with the other feathers into coat and wing, and 
 in its whole circle of adaptations to the con- 
 figuration, habits, and flight of birds, it dis- 
 plays the beneficence, wisdom, and glory of the 
 Creator. 
 
 Feathers are closely allied in chemical compo- 
 sition to hair and wool ; and, though they de- 
 compose slowly, they constitute a very rich man- 
 ure ; and, if either made up as an ingredient of 
 a compost, or ploughed into the land a consider- 
 able time before their resolved elements are re- 
 quired to serve as the food of plants, they act 
 very fertilizingly for any crops which need much 
 nitrogen, and especially for hops, for vines, and 
 for fruit-trees. The rays or pinnae of feathers 
 were ascertained by Scherer to consist of 50.434 
 per cent, of carbon, 7.110 of hydrogen, 17.682 of 
 nitrogen, and 24.774 of oxygen ; and the quills 
 of feathers were supposed by Hatchett to be co- 
 agulated albumen, and ascertained by Scherer to 
 consist of 52.427 per cent, of carbon, 7.213 of hy- 
 drogen, 17.893 of nitrogen, and 22.467 of oxygen. 
 
 The feathers of the poultry-yard of the farm 
 ought all to be carefully collected and econo- 
 mized. The best feathers of the wings of geese, 
 and sometimes those also of the wings of ducks 
 and hens, may be profitably sold to the manufac- 
 turers of quills ; the best of all the other kinds 
 of feathers may be profitably gathered for the 
 stuffing of beds and pillows, either by the house- 
 wife or by the manufacturer ; and all the inferior 
 and refuse feathers may be profitably gathered 
 into a common receptacle with hair, wool, horn, 
 and similar animal substances, for use as rich 
 but slowly-decomposing manure. " Every one," 
 says a writer in the 10th volume of the Quar- 
 terly Journal of Agriculture, " is aware that the 
 feathers of cocks and hens are very inferior to 
 those of geese and ducks, for the purpose of fill- 
 ing beds and pillows ; and consequently it is 
 scarcely necessary to mention that the former 
 should be kept separate from those of the two 
 latter fowls. As the birds are plucked, the large 
 feathers should be selected and placed asun.der. 
 Paper bags are the best recipients. The pinion 
 feathers should be stripped from the quill, and 
 added to the other feathers ; and if great caution 
 have not been used in plucking the birds, they 
 should be carefully looked over to see that no 
 part of the skin has been torn, and is adhering 
 to the base of the quills, as it would putrefy and 
 become almost incurably offensive." Feathers 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 gathered for stuffing, and found to be tainted by 
 the adhesion of some skin, may be boiled during 
 five minutes in canvass or calico bags, and dried 
 by a week's suspension in the open air ; and they 
 will then be quite free from taint. 
 
 FEED. The quantity of oats or of other prov- 
 ender given at one time to any domestic animal, 
 but particularly to a horse. The feed of oats for 
 a horse varies in quantity in different districts ; 
 but it ought, for the sake of uniformity of treat- 
 ment during journeys and after removals, to be 
 everywhere understood as amounting to a gallon 
 or the eighth part of a bushel, weighing on the 
 average about 4| lbs. 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. The dietetic treat- 
 ment of animals, as to at once the kinds, the 
 quantity, the frequency, the preparation, and the 
 condition of their food, and the external circum- 
 stances under which it is given. The sorts of 
 food proper for the domesticated animals of the 
 farm are noticed in our articles Food of Animals 
 and Fodder ; the special feeding of some farm 
 animals for particular purposes is noticed in our 
 articles Calf, Cow, and Fattening of Animals ; 
 the general dietetic treatment of the several classes 
 of farm animals, is noticed in our articles Cat- 
 tle, Ox, Horse, Sheep, Hog, and Poultry ; the 
 preparation of food for the animals of the farm- 
 yard or farm offices, is noticed in many of our 
 articles, particularly Boiling, Steaming, Chaff- 
 Cutter, Bruising Corn, and Barn Manage- 
 ment ; and the external circumstances under 
 which the food of farm -animals is administered 
 are also noticed in many of our articles, particu- 
 larly Cow-House, Ox-Stalls, Stable, Stells, Cal- 
 endar, Shelter, and Farm-Buildings. Though 
 the topics proper to the present article, therefore, 
 might be discussed at great length, and pursued 
 through multitudes of ramifications ; yet, to pre- 
 vent wasteful repetition, they must be restricted 
 within such limits as shall not invade those of 
 any of the articles now named. 
 
 The General Principles of Feeding. — A pervad- 
 ing law in all proper feeding of animals, but one 
 which in several instances is grossly violated in 
 the dietetic treatment of the live-stock of mul- 
 titudes of farms, is the use of as large a propor- 
 tions of nitrogenous principles as shall maintain 
 the normal amount of nitrogen in the assimila- 
 tions and secretions of the animal system. Nitro- 
 gen is emphatically the characteristic element of 
 both animal organism and animal aliment, — not 
 only in the case of carnivorous animals, but in the 
 case also of the herbivorous, and especially of the 
 granivorous ; and whenever it is not present in 
 due quantity in the food of any individuals, they 
 cease to acquire substance, begin to lose strength, 
 and eventually lose constitutional vigour and 
 healthiness, and sink into emaciation and death. 
 " The increase of the mass of the body, the de- 
 velopment of its organs, and the supply of waste," 
 says Liebig, " are all dependent on the blood, that 
 
 517 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 518 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 is, on the ingredients of the blood ; and those 
 substances only can properly be called nutritious, 
 or considered food, which are capable of conver- 
 sion into blood. To determine, therefore, what 
 substances are capable of affording nourishment, 
 it is only necessary to ascertain the composition 
 of the food, and to compare it with the ingre- 
 dients of the blood. But the chief ingredients 
 of the blood contain nearly 17 per cent, of nitro- 
 gen ; and no part of any organ of the body con- 
 tains less ; and animals cannot be fed on matters 
 destitute of nitrogenised constituents. But vege- 
 table fibrine, vegetable albumen, and caseine 
 are the true nitrogenised constituents of the food 
 of graminivorous animals." He then shows that 
 these three principles contain the same elements, 
 in the same proportion by weight, and are iden- 
 tical in composition with animal fibrine and ani- 
 mal albumen, the nitrogenised and most impor- 
 tant constituents of the blood. Dumas also has 
 traced and demonstrated the perfect parallelism 
 between the nitrogenous vegetable principles as 
 they exist in seeds and other esculent parts of 
 plants, and the nitrogenous animal principles as 
 they exist in the organised system of animals. 
 Vegetable fibrine and vegetable albumen, in fact, 
 hardly differ from animal fibrine and animal albu- 
 men even in form ; and the former are simply the 
 latter in a state exterior to the animal system, 
 and of elaboration independently of it, and of 
 thorough preparedness, under the benign ar- 
 rangements of the Creator, to be taken into it 
 for its appropriation and support. When, there- 
 fore, the nitrogenous principles are a-wanting in 
 the stated food of animals, the very flesh and 
 blood must rapidly die out for want of aliment ; 
 and when these principles are in deficient quan- 
 tity, the flesh and blood will fail exactly in the 
 proportion of the deficiency. 
 
 An important and familiar illustration of this 
 rule, — quite sufficient to show the necessity of 
 attention to it in all the departments of feeding 
 live-stock, — is afforded by the alimenting of 
 sheep or cattle upon turnips. The proportion of 
 the nitrogenous principles in turnips is enough 
 to prevent any perceptible diminution of strength, 
 and even enough to promote a certain degree of 
 growth and healthiness, but not near enough to 
 produce a maximum or even a normal develop- 
 ment of bulk and energy in the animal system ; 
 so that sheep fed on turnips cannot duly thrive, 
 and will not favourably fatten unless they receive 
 also a portion of the cereal grasses, of oil-cake, 
 or of some other highly nitrogenous food. " Ac- 
 cording to Dr. Daubeny," says the Rev. W. Thorp, 
 "turnips contain in about 50 tons, or 100,000 
 lbs. weight, 92,762 lbs. of water and carbon, 
 5,558 lbs. of fixed ingredients, and 1,680 lbs. of 
 azote. Now 25 tons, being an average weight 
 for one acre of land, will only contain 840 lbs. of 
 nitrogen ; hence we may see the necessity of 
 adding grain, as practised by Messrs. Childers 
 and Thompson. The former states that sheep 
 
 fed with the addition of half a pint of barley per 
 sheep per day, half a pound of linseed-cake, a 
 little hay, and with a constant supply of salt, 
 become ready for the butcher in ten weeks, and 
 gain of flesh and tallow 33 lbs. to 40 lbs. per 
 head, — (one sheep gained 55 lbs. in twelve weeks), 
 — and that, with artificial food, 30 tons of turnips 
 will feed 60 sheep ; while, on the usual plan of 
 feeding on turnips alone out of doors, the aver- 
 age of the country is that 20 tons of turnips will 
 feed 10 sheep in 16 weeks, with a gain of only 
 20 lbs. of flesh and tallow. The barley and cake 
 cost from 6d. to lOd. per week for each sheep ; 
 and the turnips with this addition thus go eight 
 times as far, or produce eight times the amount 
 of flesh and tallow. The turnips alone go four 
 times as far, for 30 tons feed 60 sheep, while on 
 the usual plan of feeding they would only feed 15 
 sheep ; but the same weight of turnips with arti- 
 ficial food produces also very nearly double the 
 amount of flesh and tallow, and therefore goes 
 eight times as far. The practice of Belgium is 
 also in strict conformity with the principles laid 
 down by Professor Liebig ; for not only are all 
 their animals kept up and fed in houses, but the 
 mixture called brassin consists of the flour of 
 nitrogenous grain mixed together with roots." 
 See the article Brassin. 
 
 Another pervading law in all proper feeding 
 of animals, and one which has been grievously 
 overlooked in almost all experiments for ascer- 
 taining the relative effects upon cattle of differ- 
 ent kinds of food, is the maintaining such a 
 warmth by shelter during the cold season of the 
 year as shall prevent a wasteful expenditure of 
 animal heat by radiation into the atmosphere, 
 and therefore a wasteful expenditure of aliment 
 in producing volumes of heat in lieu of those 
 lost by radiation. The living systems of animals 
 constantly assimilate large quantities of carbon 
 and hydrogen from their food ; the mutual ac- 
 tion of oxygen and these elements of food is sup- 
 posed to be the chemical accompaniment of their 
 vital heat ; and the dissipation of the carbon and 
 part of the hydrogen from the blood by oxygenize- 
 ment or the formation and expulsion of carbonic 
 acid and aqueous vapour, are supposed to be the 
 chemical accompaniment of respiration ; so that 
 the amount of nourishment required by the 
 animal body, or at least of the carbonaceous 
 and hydrogenous elements of nutrition, is theo- 
 retically assumed, and has been practically tested, 
 to be proportionate to the expenditure of heat 
 generated within the system, whether that ex- 
 penditure have the form of accelerated breath- 
 ing and increased perspiration occasioned by 
 exercise, or of excessive radiation occasioned by 
 the relatively low temperature of the surround- 
 ing air. The clothes of man and the shelter of 
 brutes, therefore, serve in winter as an equiva- 
 lent for a certain amount of food. The more 
 warmly men are clothed and brutes are sheltered, 
 within certain limits, the less food will they con- 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 519 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 sume ; and the less protected they are from the 
 colds of winter, also within certain limits, the 
 more food do they require. " If," says Liebig, 
 "we were to go naked like certain savage tribes, 
 or if in hunting or fishing we were exposed to the 
 same degree of cold as the Samoyedes, we should 
 be able with ease to consume 10 lbs. of flesh, and 
 perhaps a dozen of tallow candles into the bar- 
 gain daily, as warmly clad travellers have related 
 with astonishment of these people. We should 
 then be able to take the same quantity of brandy 
 or train-oil without bad effects, because the car- 
 bon and hydrogen of these substances would 
 only suffice to keep up the equilibrium between 
 the external temperature and that of our bodies." 
 Want of attention to the conservational power 
 of comfortable external heat upon internal ali- 
 ment has utterly vitiated multitudes of experi- 
 ments respecting the feeding properties of differ- 
 ent kinds of food, and occasions, throughout the 
 kingdom, a stupendous amount of constant waste- 
 ful expenditure of winter provender. " If," says 
 the Rev. W. Thorp, " we apply this to the want 
 of shelter to our sheep while feeding upon tur- 
 nips in the winter season, when the temperature 
 of the nights is frequently below the freezing 
 point of water, and this over three millions of 
 acres of turnips in the kingdom, we shall find the 
 loss of food very great indeed. Mr. Childers of 
 Cantley and Mr. H. S. Thompson of Kirby Hall 
 have, upon a small scale, fed sheep in sheds dur- 
 ing the winter ; and the former says that the 
 sheep in sheds consume nearly one-fifth less food 
 and make one-third greater progress, than those 
 fed with the very same food in the open field, or 
 very nearly the same food will feed double the 
 number of sheep. Mr. Morton informed Professor 
 Playfair that 200 sheep in the open field eat 24 
 lbs. of swede turnips each daily, while another 
 100, having a covered shed and a yard to run in- 
 to at pleasure, only eat each 20 lbs. of swedes." 
 
 The Feeding of Horses. — The feeding of horses 
 ought to be modified according to the circum- 
 stances of climate, natural herbage, season of 
 the year, the state of the animals' health, and 
 the kind and degrees of their labour. Horses 
 brought up in a severe climate, on hard fare, and 
 with scantiness of nourishment would be injured 
 by such nice, comfortable, and profuse dietary 
 treatment as is essential to the strength and 
 health of horses brought up amidst genial 
 warmth, on fine food, and with constant abun- 
 dance of provender. The proper food of farm 
 horses may be classified into green herbage, dried 
 herbage, grain, pulse, roots, mixtures, and cooked 
 food. All the simple kinds of these are fully con- 
 sidered in the article Food, and in the numerous 
 articles on the respective nutritive plants and 
 parts of plants which are there enumerated. 
 Mixtures of several kinds are now in much use ; 
 they can be varied to suit the different circum- 
 stances of horses, as to at once season, habits, 
 health, and labour; they can be so modified as to 
 
 act medicinally, as alteratives, as tonics, as aperi- 
 ents, or in other capacities; and they have been 
 proved by abundant trial to be both economical 
 and grateful, both convenient and efficient. One 
 excellent sort of nutritive mixture consists of 
 one part of chaffed or thoroughly cut prime hay, 
 two parts of chaffed or thoroughly cut clean 
 straw, and one part of well-bruised but not 
 ground grain of oats. Cooked food, consisting 
 principally of potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and car- 
 rots, possesses some of the properties of chyme, 
 saves the toil of mastication, enables a feeble 
 horse to swallow a given portion of nourishment 
 in a twelfth or an eighteenth part of the time 
 requisite for receiving it in the form of dry hay, 
 and is well suited to the general condition, and 
 especially to the weakened digestion, of horses 
 which have been injured by very severe labour. 
 
 Colts are kept in pasture fields during sum- 
 mer, and in open sheds of the farm-yard dur- 
 ing winter ; yet, whenever the circumstances of 
 a farm can afford such accommodation, they 
 ought, throughout the winter, to have free ac- 
 cess to a paddock, and to be kept alternately 
 there and in the sheds, according to the tempera- 
 ture of the weather. The time for removing 
 them to the pastures is as early in spring as suf- 
 ficient herbage can be found for their support ; 
 and the time for removing them to the farm-yard, 
 is when the herbage ceases to be sufficient, 
 whether wintry temperature have commenced or 
 not. They ought, like young oxen, to enjoy 
 abundance of litter in the sheds ; and they may 
 be fed during the former half of winter upon 
 straw and green food, and during the latter half 
 on hay and green food or turnips; and, in order 
 to prevent retardation to their growth and per- 
 manent injury to their strength, they ought at 
 all seasons to receive abundance of nourishment. 
 
 The dietetic treatment of the teams or work- 
 ing horses of farms, is exceedingly different in 
 different districts and at different seasons ; and 
 for the purposes both of health to the animals 
 and of economy to their owners, it admits of con- 
 siderable variety in the department of shelter, 
 and of very great variety in the department of 
 food. The following method is recommended by 
 Professor Low as both simple and efficient, and 
 as capable of being practised upon every farm. 
 About the beginning of October, or when the pas- 
 tures or other green food fail in autumn, the 
 horses are put on hard food, and receive a daily 
 allowance of 20 lbs. of hay and 2 gallons of oats; 
 or, in lieu of a portion of the oats, they may re- 
 ceive a night-feed of cooked roots, mixed with a 
 little corn, and seasoned with salt; and both now 
 and at subsequent periods, they should be fed 
 three times in the day, — in the morning, at mid- 
 day, and at night. In November, December, 
 and January, they continue to receive the same 
 allowance of oats, or of cooked food in lieu of a 
 portion of the oats; but they are wholly deprived | 
 of their hay, and receive instead of it pease-straw, j 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 520 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 bean-straw, oat-straw, or chaff-cut wheat-straw. 
 At the beginning of February, they begin again 
 to receive their hay ; from the commencement of 
 the busy period of spring, or from oat seed-time 
 till about the beginning of June, they receive a 
 daily allowance of 3 gallons of oats, or a night- 
 feed of cooked food in lieu of a portion of this al- 
 lowance; and from the beginning of June till 
 the beginning of October, they receive a daily al- 
 lowance of only one gallon of oats, and otherwise 
 are either fed entirely on cut green food, or are 
 pastured during the night and fed on cut forage 
 during the intervals of work in the day. In all 
 dietetical treatment of farm-horses, whatever be 
 the particular methods of it, and whatever the 
 kinds and varieties of the food used, thorough 
 care should be exercised to keep the animals in 
 uniformly good condition, — never to allow them 
 even slightly to fall off; for the partial loss of 
 their labour during the period of recovering 
 them from reduced condition, will, in every in- 
 stance, amount to several times the value of all 
 the food and shelter requisite to prevent a fall- 
 ing- off. 
 
 The Feeding of Cattle — Several principal points 
 in the dietetic treatment of cattle, as to both food 
 and shelter, have been the topics of violent con- 
 flict of opinion among practical agriculturists and 
 stock-farmers. The use of the turnip is now so 
 general and important, and has become so identi- 
 fied both with the general dietetic system of the 
 farm and with the improved methods of tillage, 
 fallowing, and rotation, that we might reasonably 
 expect it to be the subject of a thoroughly con- 
 sidered and somewhat uniform opinion ; yet this 
 great topic in particular, and many other topics 
 of cattle-diet in general, are either matter of con- 
 troversy or matter of utter oversight, on the part 
 of very distinguished agricultural writers. Mr. 
 Brown, in his Rural Affairs, notices indeed the 
 consumption of turnips by cattle and sheep, but 
 does not discuss it ; the author of the Complete 
 Grazier writes minutely enough about yoking 
 oxen, but does not show how they are to be either 
 fed or fattened; the author of the Husbandry of 
 Scotland discusses the comparative profits of feed- 
 ing cattle and feeding sheep, yet strangely enough 
 does not discuss the absolute manner of feeding 
 either; Loudon, in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture, 
 compresses into very brief space all he has to say 
 respecting both the food and the housing of cattle; 
 Culley says nothing whatever upon the use of the 
 turnip or any of the details of dietetics ; Lord 
 Kames, Dr. Coventry, Loudon, Young, and others, 
 widely disagree from one another respecting the 
 quantity and the richness of food proper for 
 young cattle; and most of the eminent practical 
 writers, including Mill, Young, Doyle, Stephens, 
 Marshall, and the writers of the agricultural re- 
 ports on counties communicated to the Board 
 of Agriculture, exhibit most perplexing contra- 
 rieties and discrepancies of opinion respecting a 
 large proportion of the most important points 
 
 of both the sheltering and the feeding of all kinds 
 of cattle. 
 
 One cause of all this want of ascertained prin- 
 ciple in cattle-dietetics has been inadvertence to 
 the great object of winter-feeding, — the bringing 
 of the cattle as speedily as possible to maturity, 
 with a minimum of cost and a maximum of manure 
 and of flesh; another cause has been great defec- 
 tiveness in the condition of experiments, — such 
 for example as should bring out nearly the same 
 results from poor food and good shelter as from 
 rich food and bad shelter, without any attempt 
 to ascertain the proportion of the results due in 
 either case to the influence of climate, temper- 
 ature, ventilation, and litter ; and a third cause 
 has been ignorance of animal physiology and vege- 
 table chemistry, or of the relation between the 
 proportions of certain proximate principles in 
 substances used as food aad the production of 
 flesh, fat, and general substance in the bodies of 
 the animals fed. Great light has, within the last 
 few years, been thrown upon the subject of the 
 proper or economical feeding of cattle by the 
 scientific investigations of Boussingault, Payen, 
 Dumas, Liebig, Johnston, and other agricultural 
 chemists; and whatever of this seems available 
 in practice is exhibited in our articles Fattening 
 of Animals and Fodder, and in all those on the 
 principal substances used either for food or for 
 litter. 
 
 The differences of opinion of some of the most 
 distinguished non-chemical agriculturists respect- 
 ing the proper degree of nutritiousness in the food 
 of cattle, are stated as follows by a writer in the 
 second volume of the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture: — "Sir John Sinclair thinks that cattle 
 may loathe too much rich food at a time; where- 
 as Lord Kames says, that his instructions are in- 
 tended to make cattle eat the greatest quantity 
 possible. Dr. Coventry says, the quantity of good 
 aliment necessary to fatten an animal when 
 young, is found to be much greater than what 
 would be sufficient to do this when it is more ad- 
 vanced in life ; whereas Mr. Loudon observes, 
 that 'in young growing animals, the powers of 
 digestion are so great that they require less rich 
 food than such as are of mature age ;' and Mr. 
 Young remarks, that, 'it is not right to keep 
 yearling calves and two-year-olds together, be- 
 cause the younger the cattle are, the better they 
 should be fed,' not because of the obvious reason, 
 that the older would drive about the younger cat- 
 tle. Dr. Coventry seems to consider the giving 
 of rich food to young growing cattle, except for 
 the purpose of improving the breed, as wasteful ; 
 and 'pampering,' as he terms early feeding, he 
 says, 'prevents the whole animal from becoming 
 course and large;' and Mr. Culley rejoices, 'that 
 the small-boned, true-proportioned cattle are the 
 very sort that produce more fine than coarse, 
 that lay their fat upon the valuable parts, and 
 always feed in much less time than the big-boned 
 coarse set.' 1 To produce the most perfect form- 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 521 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 ed animal,' says Mr. Cline, 'abundant nourish- 
 ment is necessary from the earliest period of its 
 existence, until its growth is complete. 1 " The use 
 which an intelligent farmer ought to make of 
 these conflicts of opinion, is to exercise his own 
 judgment, to attach doubtful weight to even the 
 most confident assertions of theoretic observers, to 
 acquaint himself well with the scientific principles 
 of feeding, or with the connexions between the 
 functions of cattle and the chemical properties 
 of their food, and to appeal, for the solution of 
 any difficulty or the obtaining of any information, 
 far more to these principles than to the results 
 of loose and general observations. 
 
 The best methods of feeding cattle, as to both 
 their own health and the profit of their owners, 
 are so powerfully modified by both the character 
 of the farm and the nature of the breed, that a 
 method quite excellent for one set of farms and 
 breeds would be either absurd or altogether im- 
 practicable for another set. In this connexion, 
 some remarks, in our articles Cattle, Breeding, 
 and Crossing, on the mutual adaptation of breeds 
 and climates, ought to be well considered. A 
 large proportion of cattle of the hardiest breeds, 
 and a considerable proportion of those of the finer 
 breeds, are reared to a certain point by farmers who 
 have few other resources than those of mere pas- 
 ture, and cannot profitably attempt the process of 
 fattening, and are then sold to farmers who prac- 
 tise a system of mixed husbandry, and possess all 
 the resources of chelter and food requisite to ma- 
 ture cattle for the shambles, and depend in a large 
 degree for the profit of their farms upon the adroi- 
 tery with which they make yearly transferences 
 of stock, and the skill with which they subordi- 
 nate the winter feeding of them to the economy of 
 green fallows and to a far-sighted rotation of ara- 
 ble crops. The mountain cattle, when brought to 
 their new quarters, are in many instances so lean 
 and meagre, and sometimes so young, as not to be 
 maturable for the butcher in a less time than 
 twelve or even eighteen months; and, in such cases, 
 they are usually fed during the first winter on 
 straw or coarse meadow-hay, with a small allow- 
 ance of green food, and are either grazed or soil- 
 ed during the following summer, and are finally 
 fed during the second winter with whatever 
 available food is believed to be most suitable for 
 fattening them, The cattle of better breeds, 
 when reared on grass farms and transferred to 
 mixed ones, are purchased by their second owners 
 at various stages of age and maturity, and, for 
 the most part, are fed, in their new quarters, only 
 during a single winter, or at most till some time 
 in the following summer. 
 
 But whether cattle are treated in this manner, 
 or are fed to maturity and finally fattened where 
 they are bred, the chief points of doubt or nicety, 
 or questions of either importance or difficulty, as 
 to their dietetical treatment, have reference to 
 their winter-feeding. All other points are easily 
 settled; and the principal of these, relating to the 
 
 management of pastures, to the rearing and dis- 
 posing of calves, to feeding with direct adapta- 
 tion to the dairy, and to the practice of stall-feed- 
 ing in summer as well as in winter, are discussed 
 in our articles Grass-Lands, Pasture, Calf, Cow, 
 Dairy, and Soiling. Now the practical amount 
 of all the sound principles involved in winter- 
 feeding, is, as we already stated, to bring the cat- 
 tle to the soonest possible maturity with a mini- 
 mum of cost and a maximum of manure and of 
 flesh; and just in the degree in which the results 
 of any one method approach this amount, they 
 prove that method to be good. "At whatever 
 rate of rent a farmer holds his land," remarks 
 the periodical writer formerly quoted, "it is very 
 obviously for his interest as a matter of profit, to 
 regulate the treatment of his cattle in winter, by 
 the principle of bringing them as soon as possible 
 to maturity, and of keeping them, after that 
 period, as short a time as possible in his posses- 
 sion. This is a principle in economy which no 
 one will be disposed to dispute; and it gives rise 
 to many questions, such as, What breed of cattle 
 comes soonest to maturity ? What mode of treat- 
 ing the cattle themselves will bring them soonest 
 to maturity ? What rotation of cropping will 
 command the greatest quantity of food for bring- 
 ing cattle soonest to maturity 1 And under what 
 system of husbandry, as affecting the reciprocal 
 assistance which stock and crop afford each other, 
 will cattle be brought soonest to maturity ? 
 These &re all important questions in themselves; 
 but the answers to them all form corollaries to 
 the general principle, that the sooner cattle are 
 brought to maturity, and disposed of, the more 
 profitable they are to the farmer." 
 
 Several of the chief questions involved in this 
 great principle are concentrated in the grand 
 question of the kinds of food which best combine 
 fattening power with general economy; and, be- 
 ing all intricate in themselves, they combine with 
 the intricacies of vegetable chemistry and ani- 
 mal physiology and the mutual subservience of 
 the two, to render tolerably good solutions of that 
 grand question very numerous, and prime or very 
 excellent solutions of it exceedingly difficult. So 
 many as a dozen or a score of selections of food, 
 or of the proportionings and alternations of some 
 of the best alimentary substances, may very well 
 combine the speedy fattening of cattle with 
 generally economical results ; and yet every one 
 of them may, upon investigation, prove seriously 
 faulty in comparative dearth, in deficient adap- 
 tation to rotations of cropping, in excess or under- 
 quantity of some of the substances, or in waste- 
 ful disproportionateness of some of the chief 
 proximate principles of nutrition. Again, there- 
 fore, must we hint the necessity of intelligent 
 farmers making a vigorous use of their own judg- 
 ment; and we must refer them to the articles al- 
 ready alluded to, and restrict ourselves here to 
 two or three general remarks. 
 
 Coarse and comparatively innutritious food, 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 522 
 
 FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 such as straw even when chaff-cut, ought not to 
 be used. Both vegetable chemistry and general 
 economy will speedily demonstrate to a reflecting 
 farmer, that all the straw available for cattle from 
 a good system of rotation is most profitably em- 
 ployed in the way of litter. The number of cat- 
 tle kept during any season upon a farm, ought to 
 be rather an unit or two below than even a frac- 
 tion above the par of existing provision for feeding 
 them into good condition, Not only does defi- 
 ciency in the supply of food, as compared with the 
 number and wants of the cattle, prevent that ac- 
 celeration of maturity which we have seen to be 
 one grand aim of winter-feeding; but, in the case 
 of the weakest and most timid of the animals, it 
 may occasion half-starvation and eventual dis- 
 ease. " As some of the cattle have forward dis- 
 positions, they will certainly take the advantage 
 of their more gentle neighbours, and deprive them 
 of most of even their scanty supply. The fear 
 which is continually upon the latter of being 
 driven about, dejects their spirits, and exposes 
 them to cold and wet, as well as hunger ; hence, 
 the origin of many pulmonary diseases among 
 cattle." The supplies of food ought to be in 
 measured quantities and at regular hours ; and, 
 even though considerable portions of former sup- 
 plies should remain unconsumed, the fresh sup- 
 plies ought to be given with the utmost punctu- 
 ality, even to a minute. " Cattle know perfectly 
 well when the time arrives for a fresh supply, 
 even though the mangers in the hammels may 
 not be empty, which they should never altogether 
 be. When they are supplied with food at irre- 
 gular times, they will either crave it, or become 
 careless about it; and, from uneasiness arising 
 from frequent disappointments, they will not feed 
 so pleasantly and speedily as when their food is 
 placed before them at exact periods." Cleanli- 
 ness, a due degree of warmth, abundance of lit- 
 ter, pure air, precautions against epizootics, and 
 other points of general treatment are, we hope, 
 so obvious as not to require enforcement or illus- 
 tration. 
 
 Cattle may be winter-fed either in houses or in 
 courts and sheds. Those fed in houses are tied 
 to stakes with chains or binders, and receive their 
 supplies of food into permanent mangers; and 
 those fed in courts and sheds may be variously 
 accommodated, according to the particular struc- 
 ture and subdivisions of the farm-yard, but, in 
 all favourable circumstances, do best in the very 
 small courts and shelter-sheds provincially called 
 Hammels. gee the articles Farm-^ard Build- 
 ings and Hammel. Lord Kames strongly pre- 
 fers house-feeding to hammel-feeding; but Sir 
 John Sinclair prefers hammel-feeding to house- 
 feeding ; and many other eminent agriculturists 
 also adopt opposite sides of this question. Yet 
 when the climate is good, when the situation is 
 well-sheltered, when the court is dry, when the 
 litter is abundant, when, in short, the conditions 
 are present for constantly securing the requisite 
 
 degree of warmth and cleanliness, the great ma- 
 jority of the present race of intelligent agricul- 
 turists appear to be firmly on the side of the ham- 
 mels. " In these, the cattle are at perfect liberty 
 to roam about, if disposed for exercise; they are 
 exposed to all the sunshine there may be in a win- 
 ter day, and the very rain which falls on their 
 backs titillates the skin, and causes them to lick 
 and clean themselves; they are comfortably warm 
 in their shed among an abundance of straw in the 
 coarsest night, and cattle will never suffer from 
 cold when they have a comfortable shelter to 
 which they can repair at will; they can come and 
 go to their food whenever they please, night and 
 day, and their meat being constantly in the open 
 air, it will be always fresh and sweet ; and their 
 feet and hair, when they come to travel, are quite 
 able to bear the hardness of the road and the cold- 
 ness of the air." A trial of the comparative 
 merits of hammel-feeding and house-feeding, con- 
 ducted by John Boswell, Esq., of Kingcausie, and 
 reported in the Transactions of the Highland So- 
 ciety, exhibits the following results : — " Four two- 
 year-old oxen of aggregately 40 cwt. 7 lbs. in 
 weight, fed in hammels from 17th October till 
 19th February, consumed 27 tons 1 qr. 1 lb. of 
 turnips, and acquired a weight of 5 cwt. 2 qrs. 22 
 lbs. ; and four two-year-old oxen of aggregately 
 39 cwt. 2 qrs. 7 lbs. in weight, fed in houses dur- 
 ing the same period, consumed 25 tons 12 cwt. 2 
 qrs. 23 lbs. of turnips, and acquired a weight 
 of 4 cwt. 7 lbs. ; and the clear money-gain in 
 favour of the hammel-fed oxen, estimating the 
 turnips at 20s. per ton and the carcase at 48s. 
 per cwt., and after allowing for the surplus-quan- 
 tity of turnips consumed in the hammels, was 
 £2 18s. 2|d., or 14s. 6|d. per ox. Also, four 
 three-year-old oxen, of aggregately 43 cwt. 3 qrs. 
 in weight, fed in hammels from the 28th of October 
 till the 28th of February, consumed 22 tons 1 7 cwt. 
 of turnips, and acquired a weight of 5 cwt. 3 qrs. ; 
 and four three-year-old oxen, of aggregately 42 
 cwt. 3 qrs. in weight, fed in houses during the 
 same period, consumed 20 tons 12 cwt. 6 lbs. of 
 turnips, and acquired a weight of 4 cwt. 2 qrs. ; 
 and the clear money-gain in favour of the ham- 
 mel-fed oxen, estimating the value of turnips and 
 carcase at the same amount as in the preceding 
 experiment, and after making allowance for the 
 surplus-quantity of turnips consumed in the ham- 
 mels, was £\ 17s. 6d., or 9s. 4^d. per ox. 
 
 The Feeding of Sheep. — The treatment of sheep 
 in accordance with difference of climate and of 
 breeds, is glanced at in the articles Breeding and 
 Crossing; the treatment of them in accordance 
 with differences of farms and of husbandry, as on 
 mountain sheep-farms, on low country grass- 
 farms, on farms of the mixed husbandry where 
 they are constantly kept, and on farms of the 
 mixed husbandry where they are kept principally 
 at intervals or during a mere portion of the year, 
 will be noticed in the article Sheep; and particu- 
 lar matters as to the proper treatment of rcspec- 
 
FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 
 
 523 
 
 FEN. 
 
 tively their pregnant females and their young, are 
 stated in the articles Abortion and Lamb. We 
 shall, in this place, notice only the usual method 
 of winter-feeding the general sheep stock on 
 first-class farms of the mixed husbandry. 
 
 In the latter part of October, or when the pas- 
 tures cease to yield sufficient food, the flock be- 
 gin to be fed with turnips, either by having them 
 brought to the pasture-fields, or by being folded 
 upon them in the fallow-fields where they have 
 grown. Both the place and the manner of con- 
 suming the turnips may be determined partly 
 by reference to differences of effect upon the 
 sheep themselves, but in practice are always de- 
 termined chiefly and often wholly by reference 
 to the manuring effects of their droppings and 
 the contact of their bodies upon the soil ; and the 
 method by folding is one of the most powerful 
 manuring forces in a good rotational series of 
 crops, and is often modified, as to the amount of 
 turnips consumed on the spot, whether the whole 
 or only a part, by reference to the particular de- 
 gree of fertilization which the state of the land 
 requires. See the articles Turnip and Rotation 
 op Crops. When the sheep are folded, they are 
 usually confined by means of wooden hurdles, 
 vertical nets, or other temporary fences, to a 
 space which will serve them for a week or for 
 some similarly limited period ; when they have 
 eaten the turnips in this space close to the 
 ground, the lower parts of the bulbs are hoed 
 out of the ground, for their use ; and when they 
 have consumed these, they are admitted, by a 
 shifting of the fences, to another section of the 
 field. But they ought, in every case, to be con- 
 stantly supplied also with a portion of hay, placed 
 within the temporary enclosure, in moveable 
 racks so constructed as to keep the hay from the 
 ground, to shelter it from the rain, and to allow 
 it to be freely extracted by the sheep from the 
 sides. Young sheep, when folded upon turnips 
 through the winter, sometimes experience serious 
 injury to their teeth before spring; and all such 
 ought to be removed to a grass field with firm 
 dry sward, and there fed with turnips prepared 
 for them by the turnip-slicing machine. Toward 
 the end of March or in the early part of April, as 
 soon as the pasture-grasses are sufficiently up to 
 afford matter for the close short bite of sheep, the 
 whole flock are turned upon the pastures ; but 
 should the turnips be exhausted before the pas- 
 tures are ready, all the young ought, at whatever 
 cost, and in order to prevent them from ruinously 
 losing condition, to be fed on hay, on oats, or on 
 whatever suitable food the farmer can demand. 
 See the article Fold. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Napier's Treatise on Store-Farming. — 
 Transactions of the Highland Society. — Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. — 
 Boussingaidi 's Rural Economy. — Hunters Georgi- 
 cal Essays. — Doyle. — Stephens. — Lawe. — Loudon. 
 — Young. — Sinclair. — Blaine. — Youatt. — White. 
 
 FELL. The hide of a beast. A fellmonger is 
 a person who dresses or sells hides. Fellmongers' 
 clippings, consisting of the parings and scrap- 
 ings of hides, are usually employed in the manu- 
 facture of glue, but have in many instances 
 been employed as manure, and are powerful 
 fertilizers. 
 
 FELLON, or Felon. A disease in cattle, com- 
 mencing with symptoms closely akin to those 
 of catarrh, but becoming complicated with symp- 
 toms similar to those of rheumatism. It gener- 
 ally arises from sudden exposure to the weather 
 in spring, after housing and a course of poor 
 feeding throughout the winter. It commences 
 sometimes with an acute chill, and sometimes 
 in the manner of a common cold; it appears 
 for a time like a common catarrh, accompanied 
 with a comparatively high degree of fever; 
 and it soon develops symptoms of stiffness and 
 pain, first in the back, and next in the joints of 
 the limbs. When arrested in the stage of stiff- 
 ness and pain in the back, it is sometimes called 
 chine-fellon ; and when it takes its full course, it 
 occasions swelling in the joints, and is generally 
 called joint-fellon. Treatment for it in its earlier 
 stages ought to be strictly similar to that for 
 catarrh ; and treatment for it in its fully devel- 
 oped state, ought to include the use of embro- 
 cations similar to those which are proper for 
 rheumatism. See the articles Catarrh and 
 Rheumatism. 
 
 FEN. A low and flat expanse of alluvial land. 
 Some fens are marine alluviums, more or less in 
 the condition of salt marshes ; some are marine 
 alluviums, accumulated by artificial aid; some 
 are marine alluviums, reclaimed from the domin- 
 ion of the waters by elaborate processes of em- 
 banking and draining ; and some are lacustrine 
 and fluviatile alluviums, partly consisting of the 
 originally deposited silts, but chiefly formed 
 through the intermediate condition of bogs and 
 marshes, and the subsequent operations of drain- 
 ing and reclamation. The salt marsh fens are 
 rarely of any considerable extent, and are very 
 generally used as grass lands or marsh meadows. 
 The fens formed by marine depositions with arti- 
 ficial aid, are low tracts upon the margins of tidal 
 rivers, so situated as to have allowed, by means 
 of sluices, the letting in and shutting out of silt- 
 depositing tides. See the article Warping. The 
 fens reclaimed from the dominion of the sea by 
 means of embanking and draining, are of great 
 extent and various character ; they comprise a 
 large aggregate of excellent land on the south- 
 west coasts of England ; and they are maintained 
 in a state of proper drainage, and in some places 
 from the irruption of the tides, by extensive and 
 costly works somewhat akin in general character 
 to those which defend the vast kindred marine 
 alluviums of Holland. See the article Draining. 
 The fens of lacustrine and fluviatile origin con- 
 stitute the vast rich plain of the Bedford Level, 
 
FENCE. 
 
 which extends through six counties on the east 
 side of England, and is by far the largest and 
 most valuable plain in Great Britain. A great 
 portion of this plain is well drained, has a fine 
 soil, is in good cultivation, and produces excel- 
 lent crops ; another portion has a light soil and 
 a peaty subsoil, and cannot without much cost 
 and effort be properly drained and well cultivated ; 
 and a third portion lies somewhat higher than the 
 rest, has a very light soil, and is more suitable 
 for pasturage than for the plough. The marine 
 fens generally abound in saline plants, which are 
 very healthful for cattle ; and some parts of the 
 lacustrine fens contain within their substrata 
 abundant deposits of rich and fertilizing marl. 
 
 FENCE. The defensive-work of an enclosure ; 
 or a protection of any kind round a garden, a 
 field, a park, a forest, or any other defined and 
 separated piece of land. The subdivision of 
 territories and estates by means of fences is 
 discussed in the article Enclosure ; and some of 
 the chief kinds of fences, together with the 
 methods of severally constructing and maintain- 
 ing them, are noticed in the articles Hedge, 
 Ditch, Embankment, Wall, and Paling. Some 
 of the varieties of fence which differ most widely 
 from one another in character, and are respec- 
 tively adapted to widely different purposes and 
 situations, are the close live fence round rich 
 farm fields, the dry stone wall and the turf or 
 the earthen wall along the divisions of moors and 
 mountain pastures, the simple but deep ditch 
 round the fields of a low alluvial farm, compounds 
 of hedge and wall, or of ditch and embankment, 
 or of wall and paling, or of wall, hedge, and ditch 
 round peculiarly exposed enclosures, the ha-ha or 
 sunk fence along the subdivisions of ornamental 
 grounds, and the park-paling or the lofty and 
 massive wall round the limits of a landowner's 
 park or home-grounds. 
 
 The fences of a farm, technically considered, 
 comprise not only the hedges, walls, ditches, or 
 other defensive works along the subdivisions and 
 round the limits of the farm, but also the gates, 
 the stiles, and the bridges which intersect these 
 works. All ought to be in good condition when 
 a tenant takes possession of his farm ; and all 
 ought to be so maintained by him as to be left 
 in an equally good condition at the expiration 
 of his lease. A tenant who, simply of his own 
 choice, constructs any fences during the time 
 of his possession, is understood to be consulting 
 only his own convenience, without any control- 
 ling reference to his landlord's interest, and is 
 not entitled to ask any compensation for his out- 
 lay in constructing them ; but when he under- 
 takes them after consultation with his landlord 
 or his landlord's agent, and with his express con- 
 currence, he receives whatever assistance or com- 
 pensation he can obtain by agreement. Some 
 landlords remove old fences and construct new 
 ones entirely at their own cost, and rear, clean, 
 
 FERNS. 
 
 and protect the latter during six or eight years, 
 and then surrender them to be wholly maintained 
 by the tenant ; some supply plants or paling- wood 
 for mending the gaps of old hedges ; and some 
 provide all the materials for new hedges or other 
 fences, and impose on the tenant the labour or 
 cost of constructing them. But many landlords 
 are grossly inattentive to the true interests of 
 their estates, as to the maintenance of all the 
 fences in a thoroughly efficient condition ; and 
 almost all tenants look only to results during the 
 period of their own tenancy, and evade all atten- 
 tion to fences beyond what is necessary for their 
 own immediate advantage. The consequence is, 
 that multitudes of fences throughout entire dis- 
 tricts of country, are an absolute disgrace to the 
 high agricultural character of the kingdom. " By 
 almost universal practice," remarks Bayldon, 
 " hedges are planted, and little more heeded. The 
 fence is thus neglected and becomes a bad one, 
 and forms a never-failing source of disputes and 
 valuations for repairs between the out-going and 
 in-coming tenant. To this cause must be attri- 
 buted, not only the shameful condition, but the 
 utter ruin, of fences all over the kingdom. If the 
 soil and situation be favourable, they grow and 
 become a fence by chance; but they owe very 
 little to the care of any person. In cases of such 
 neglect, the original outlay is greatly lost ; for in 
 a short time, another expenditure is required to 
 uphold it, which might have been partly pre- 
 vented. Boundary fences between farms and 
 estates are generally in the worst condition ; it 
 might be attended with benefit to divide them 
 equally between the respective tenants. On these 
 points, there is a very wide field for improve- 
 ments in every part of the kingdom. It must be 
 effected by the land-owners." 
 
 FERNS, — botanically Filices. An order of 
 herbaceous plants, belonging to the cryptogamous 
 or non-flowering class. Some inhabit heaths 
 and wastes ; others overrun woods, mountain 
 pastures, and good grass lands ; the most luxu- 
 riant inhabit either the mossy banks of rills and 
 fountains, the moist and moss-clad surface of 
 dripping rocks, or moist and fertile spots in 
 secluded and shaded situations ; and the rankest 
 and bulkiest and most abundant have been very 
 extensively used for litter, for manure, for the 
 manufacture of potash, for thatch, and, in some 
 instances, for fodder or for the preparation of 
 cooked food for the lower animals. 
 
 The main interest in British ferns, or at least 
 of the very powerful concern felt in them by 
 stock-farmers, is concentrated in the common 
 brake or bracken, Pteris aquilina. See the ar- 
 ticle Brake. It abounds both in the rocky and 
 heathy mountains of our pastoral districts, and 
 in many of the rich and luxuriant grass-lands of 
 our plains. It loves deep and dry soils, and is 
 usually an indication of great intrinsic wealth in 
 the land on which it grows ; it overruns many of 
 
 524 
 
I ■ 
 
 FERNS. 525 FERNS. 
 
 the best and driest pasture -lands which have 
 never or not recently been turned over by the 
 plough ; and it often accumulates into absolute 
 thickets in hollows or other sheltered spots, which 
 possess much fertility of soil. It was formerly 
 in great request for thatch, and usually lasted in 
 that capacity 8 or 9 years on the north side of a 
 roof, and 15 or 16 years on the south side; but, 
 except in the meanest hovels, it has been com- 
 pletely superseded by heath, straw, tiles, and 
 slates. It was formerly used, in considerable 
 quantity, in both the glass and the soap manu- 
 factory ; but in this capacity also it has been en- 
 tirely superseded by cheaper and better sources 
 of alkali. It possesses sufficient astringency for 
 the purposes of the tanner ; but is far excelled 
 by the bark of the tanniniferous trees. It has 
 an obscure celebrity for medicinal virtues ; but 
 seems to owe that celebrity chiefly to empirics. 
 It has, in seasons of scarcity, been used with 
 much success as fodder ; yet, in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, it is, in all stages of its growth, 
 spurned by every' domesticated animal, except 
 perhaps pigs, and turnip-fed sheep. It forms 
 good litter for the cow-house or the piggeries of 
 cottiers or small farmers ; it often serves as tol- 
 erably good manure for potato crops ; it is con- 
 stantly employed in some places for the winter- 
 protection of esculent roots in pits ; it serves for 
 common fuel and for heating ovens and burning 
 lime ; it forms a shade for the tender grasses 
 during seasons of great drought and excessive 
 sunshine ; it occasions herbage to be prolonged 
 into winter, in situations which otherwise would 
 have all their grasses scorched or in decay ; and 
 it frequently affords beneficial shelter to newly 
 shorn sheep from the scorching play of sunshine ; 
 yet, regarded in the aggregate, it is one of the 
 greatest pests of pastoral farms, and renders an 
 enormous aggregate of the grass-lands of our 
 country unavailable for useful purposes, or prac- 
 tically barren, and either chokes valuable vege- 
 tation or so completely occupies the ground as 
 to prevent it from growing. 
 
 The extermination of the brake from pasture- 
 lands has become a problem of much interest to 
 stock-farmers, and is the topic of several essays 
 in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and the 
 Transactions of the Highland Society. Yet some 
 agriculturists think it, on the whole, more bene- 
 ficial than injurious. " I am of opinion," says 
 one, " that the destruction of the plant is not a 
 desirable object. In the works of Nature, we 
 generally find an adaptation of means to ends ; 
 and in the habits and nature of this plant, I 
 think I can discover the hand of an all-wise Pro- 
 vidence. In summer, it grows with great luxu- 
 riance, entirely overshadowing the grasses, and 
 being almost impenetrable for pasture to either 
 sheep or cattle. In this state it continues till 
 about the end of autumn, when it withers and 
 dies away ; and then its usefulness becomes ap- 
 
 parent from the fine fresh bite of grass that is 
 found at its roots. The great want on our hill- 
 pastures is winter food ; and here, by a simple 
 plan of Nature, do we find it provided in shel- 
 tered glens or dry sunny hills, just at the season 
 when shelter and warmth are most needed by the 
 stock. In most of our hill-farms, where artificial 
 food cannot be raised, a preserve like this for the 
 stock in winter must be invaluable ; and the ex- 
 tirpation of this plant appears to me to be an 
 attempt of short-sighted mortals to defeat the 
 designs of Providence." Almost all plants, which 
 farmers have to contend against as weeds, possess 
 some subordinate good properties, and merely 
 have a preponderance of pernicious or annoying 
 qualities; and are exterminated simply on ac- 
 count of that preponderance. The common 
 brake, besides, does not by any means shelter 
 the grasses and procure a winter-bite for live 
 stock in all circumstances ; but, on the contrary, 
 it utterly prevents the grasses from growing in 
 some places, and causes them to become sickly 
 and die prematurely down in others. The just 
 or most economical view of <the case seems to be 
 this, that wherever ferns occur but sparcely, so 
 as to shelter the soil without injuring its grasses 
 or extracting more than a very minute fraction 
 of its juices, they ought to be regarded as bene- 
 ficial both to the herbage and to sheep, and of 
 course let alone; but that whenever they are 
 plentiful, so as either to choke a portion of the 
 verdure, or to appropriate to their own use a 
 considerable portion of the nourishment in the 
 soil, they ought to be pronounced a nuisance and 
 either exterminated or reduced. 
 
 Sprinkling ferns with salt or with wood-ashes 
 has been recommended as a means of exterminat- 
 ing them ; but it is both too expensive and of very 
 doubtful efficacy. Pulling them has been tried ; 
 but is rendered more or less nugatory by the 
 great length and strength of their roots. Trench- 
 ing also has been somewhat unsuccessfully tried. 
 " There is hardly another root with which I am 
 acquainted," says the Hon. James Murray, "which 
 is so tenacious of life as the fern; and plants 
 which I have buried deep in the ground, beyond, 
 as I conceived, a possibility of their vegetating, 
 have yet in the next year sent forth their shoots." 
 Cutting down with the scythe or otherwise, seems 
 to succeed in some soils and situations, and to be 
 totally inefficacious in others. It has, in various 
 parts of Peebles-shire, occasioned the substitution 
 of the ferns by grasses and white clover in the 
 course of three years ; yet has usually required 
 to be repeated during five successive years in 
 order to effect complete extermination. But in 
 other districts in which it has been tried, it 
 has not made the slightest impression ; and 
 even after being patiently continued through 
 a long series of years, it has left the fern-thick- 
 ets as dense and luxuriant as before it was 
 commenced. 
 
526 
 
 Irrigation seems to be the grand method, in 
 fact the only really effective one at present known ; 
 and though hitherto tried with very various suc- 
 cess, it probably has in any instance failed, rather 
 from faultiness in the operation, than from any 
 want of power in the tendency. Since our com- 
 mon fern cannot be subdued by maltreatment, 
 it must be attacked by altering or destroying 
 the conditions of soil which are requisite to its 
 vegetation ; and as it loves dryness of soil, and 
 cannot live in moisture, it must clearly be exter- 
 minable by irrigation. Nor is the requisite pro- 
 cess either difficult or costly ; for " what can be 
 a more simple operation to the sheep -farmer, 
 than to turn the water from some of the many 
 streams which uselessly brawl down their chan- 
 nels on his lands, into small cuttings, a spade's 
 depth, the primary one leading from the brook, 
 along the highest part of the ground occupied by 
 the ferns?" Irrigation, when abundant, has 
 been known to thin and weaken the ferns in the 
 first year, and to reduce them very nearly to utter 
 extermination in the third or in the fourth year. 
 A fine sward usually succeeds the disappearing 
 ferns ; and yet thistles have been known to fol- 
 low so immediately and in such abundance as to 
 threaten worse mischief than the ferns themselves ; 
 but when these do appear, they can be extermi- 
 nated by two years' cutting. When water can- 
 not be commanded for irrigation, the most feasi- 
 ble remedy is a persevering use of the scythe. 
 We would suggest, too, that for the double pur- 
 pose of arresting the elaboration of sap in the 
 leaf and preventing the formation of the spores 
 in the fructification, one cutting should take 
 place as soon as the plant fairly exfoliates, and 
 another about the end of June. 
 
 FERRUGINOUS SOILS. Soils which contain 
 an unusually large proportion of the oxides of 
 iron. 
 
 FERTILITY OF SOILS. The power of soils 
 to yield such a produce of useful plants as shall 
 compensate all the costs of cultivation, and re- 
 munerate the labours of the cultivator. This 
 power depends partly on the mechanical condi- 
 tions of the soil, and partly on its relation to the 
 subsoil and the climate, but principally on its 
 possessing such chemical constituents and affi- 
 nities as shall yield requisite nourishment to the 
 plants. Fertility, therefore, is in a certain de- 
 gree a relative power, — so that, in some given 
 circumstances, it may exist for one set of useful 
 plants, and may not exist for another. It is also 
 an exceedingly changeable power, — or very cap- 
 able of both exhaustion and renovation ; and ac- 
 cording as it depends on mechanical condition, 
 on subsoil, on climate, on chemical constituency, 
 on chemical behaviour, or on some two or more 
 of these, it is improved or renovated by respec- 
 tively tillage, draining, fallowing, mineral man- 
 uring, organic manuring, or a combination of 
 two or more of these operations. A fertilizer 
 
 might seem to be anything, whether process or 
 appliance, which increases fertility ; but in the 
 ordinary usage of agricultural phraseology, it 
 means only a manure. See the articles Soil, 
 Manure, and Barren Soils. 
 
 FERTILIZER. See Fertility of Soils. 
 
 FESCUE-GRASS. See Festuca. 
 
 FESTING- PENNY. The earnest given to 
 servants at the time of hiring them. 
 
 FESTUCA, — popularly Fescue-Grass. A genus 
 of grasses, belonging to the tribe which have many- 
 flowered panicles. The distributing of them into 
 species is exceedingly difficult, and has been very 
 conflictingly executed by different botanists, 
 principally in consequence of many of the kinds 
 undergoing great modification from climate and 
 other natural agencies. But one character of 
 all the most important of them suffers as vari- 
 eties, and possesses very great interest for the far- 
 mer, and always produces a very distinct and 
 important effect upon the soil, — and that is the 
 creeping habit of the roots ; so that any farmer 
 who makes a selection of festucas for sowing, ought 
 distinctly to know whether the kinds he selects 
 be creeping-rooted or fibrous-rooted. All the 
 festucas have a loose and many-flowered panicle, 
 either crowded or spiked; opposite, beardless, 
 unequal glumes ; two paleae, the exterior one 
 pointed or bearded ; and seed enclosed by the 
 paleae. 
 
 The sheep's fescue, Festuca ovina, is a peren- 
 nial indigen of the dry pastures of both England 
 and Scotland. Its root is fibrous ; its stem is 
 from 6 to 15 inches in height, erect, smooth, 
 slender, somewhat rigid, leafy in the lower part, 
 and quadrangular in the upper part ; its leaves 
 are rough, very narrow, folded, bristle-shaped, 
 and very numerous, and form small dense tufts 
 of herbage; its panicle is contracted and one- 
 sided ; its spikelets are four or five flowered, and 
 either beardless or but slightly bearded ; and its 
 seeds are small, cylindrical, and pointed at both 
 ends. It usually flowers in June, and ripens its 
 seed about the end of July or beginning of Au- 
 gust. It possesses a considerable range of varie- 
 ties, and exhibits considerable diversity in some 
 of its characters, particularly in being in some 
 instances awnless and in others awned ; and it 
 also possesses considerable affinity to some other 
 species, particularly to F. rubra, F. glauca, and 
 F. duriuscula; yet it is readily recognised in its 
 several varieties, and at the same time readily 
 distinguished from the allied species, by its com- 
 paratively dwarfish and tufted habit of growth, 
 by the shortness, erectness, and rigidity of its 
 leaves, by the combined simplicity, compact- 
 ness, and one-facedness of its panicle, and espe- 
 cially by the quadrangular outline of the upper 
 part of its culm. It is very variously esti- 
 mated, as to both its value and its economical 
 uses, by different classes and nations of agri- 
 culturists ; and has been alternately praised 
 
FESTUCA. 
 
 527 
 
 FESTUCA. 
 
 and depreciated as a hill-pasture grass, as a hay 
 meadow grass, and as a lawn grass. It seems 
 eminently adapted to all upland pastures, par- 
 ticularly for sheep ; and has been pronounced 
 by the most eminent judges, both scientific and 
 practical, quite essential to the rendering of 
 either hills or heaths of any real value as sheep- 
 walks. It might seem from the fineness of its 
 foliage to be suitable for lawns ; but it is dis- 
 qualified for them by its tufty habit of growth, 
 by its dislike of all soils except such as are light 
 and dry, and by the difficulty of shaving it with 
 the scythe. It is inferior in bulk, and especially 
 in nutritiousness, to all the other agricultural 
 fescues ; yet, in consequence of the adaptation 
 of its fine foliage to the thoroughly reducing pro- 
 cess of sheep's mastication, it probably yields up 
 to their organic assimilation a larger amount of 
 aliment than some of the more nutritious but 
 larger and coarser grasses. In the Woburn ex- 
 periments, when grown upon light sandy soil, it 
 yielded per acre, when in flower, 5,445 lbs. of 
 green produce, 212f lbs. of dry produce, and 66^ 
 lbs. of nutritive matter ; and when in seed, it 
 yielded per acre 127| lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The barley-like fescue, Festuca hordeiformis, is 
 also a perennial indigen of the dry pastures of 
 Britain. It is regarded by some botanists as a 
 variety of sheep's fescue, and by others as a dis- 
 tinct species. Its root is fibrous ; its stem is 
 from 6 to 18 inches high ; its lower leaves are 
 filiform and very fine ; its panicle is compact ; 
 and its spikelets are crowded and from six to 
 ten flowered. It usually flowers about the end 
 of May or early in June, and ripens its seeds to- 
 ward the end of J une or in the beginning of July. 
 Its culms are nearly uniform in thickness from 
 top to bottom, and have comparatively long inter- 
 vals between their knots ; and are therefore well 
 adapted to the manufacture of the finest kind of 
 straw plait. Its awns are long, and are alluded 
 to in its name of barley-like or hordeiformis. 
 Its herbage is tender, succulent, and very fine, 
 and is available for sheep somewhat early in 
 spring. It is similar to the hardish fescue in 
 nutritive value, but excels it both in earliness of 
 herbage and in adaptation to dry and sandy soils ; 
 and it is entitled to a rather high rank among 
 the agricultural grasses suitable for the best pas- 
 tures. In the Woburn experiments, when grown 
 on manured sandy soil, it yielded per acre when 
 in flower 13,612| lbs. of green produce, 4,083f 
 lbs. of dry produce, and 478^ lbs. of nutritive 
 matter ; and, when ripe, 9,528| lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 3,811^ lbs. of dry produce, and 260f lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. 
 
 The fine-leaved fescue, Festuca tenuifolia, is 
 likewise a perennial-rooted indigen of the dry 
 pastures of Britain ; and is also regarded by some 
 botanists as a variety of the sheep's fescue, and 
 by others as a distinct species. It abounds, along 
 with the normal sheep'3 fescue, in many of the 
 dry pastures of France ; but is of comparatively 
 
 rare occurrence in Britain. Its culms are shorter 
 than those of the normal sheep's fescue ; its 
 leaves are longer and more slender ; its habit of 
 growth is less tufted ; its panicles are looser, and 
 have no awns ; and its seeds are smaller and 
 have a brighter colour. It possesses compara- 
 tively little value as a pasture grass ; but is 
 somewhat well adapted for the short thick sward 
 of pleasure-grounds. 
 
 The viviparous fescue, Festuca vivipara, is a 
 perennial -rooted native of some of the moun- 
 tains of Scotland ; and, like the two preced- 
 ing grasses, is regarded by some botanists as 
 a variety of the sheep's fescue, and by others 
 as a distinct species. Its roots and its general 
 habit are similar to those of the normal sheep's 
 fescue ; its culm is quadrangular, and usually 
 about 10 or 12 inches high ; its leaves are 
 smooth, folded, rigid, and exceedingly narrow ; 
 its panicle is one-sided and somewhat close ; 
 and its florets are compressed, keeled, awn- 
 less, and somewhat downy. This plant does not 
 eliminate and mature seeds for the propagation 
 of its species, but evolves rudimental plants out 
 of its florets, and lets them drop upon the soil 
 while it is growing ; and it retains and practises 
 this curious habit in all sorts of situations, and 
 takes from it its specific name of viviparous. 
 Some other grasses, such as Phleum jprateme, 
 Cynosurus cristatus, Anthoxanthum odoratum, and 
 Alopecurus pratensis, have also the reputation of 
 being viviparous ; but they are not really so, but 
 naturally form and mature seeds, and then occa- 
 sionally expose these to premature vegetation 
 within the husk. The viviparous fescue can be 
 artificially propagated only by parting the roots, 
 or by picking off and planting the rudimental 
 plants. But it has small value as an agricul- 
 tural grass ; and in the Woburn experiments, 
 when grown upon light sand, it yielded per acre 
 6,806J lbs. of green produce, and 283| lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. 
 
 The various-leaved fescue, Festuca heterophylla, 
 is a perennial-rooted native of France, and was 
 introduced to Britain in 1812. Its root is fibrous, 
 its culms are numerous, erect, and from 3 to 5 
 feet high ; its root-leaves are narrow, long, and 
 dark green ; its stem-leaves are broad and of a 
 lighter green ; its panicle is compound, loose, 
 and slightly spreading ; its spikelets are five or 
 seven flowered ; and its seeds are awned, cylin- 
 drical, and elongated. It usually flowers in June 
 and July. It is somewhat extensively cultivated 
 in Holland, Belgium, and some other parts of the 
 continent ; and it seems well adapted to the 
 climate of Britain. " For one crop of hay," says 
 Mr. Lawson, " it seems particularly well adapted, 
 and will yield as great, if not a greater, bulk of 
 produce than any other of the fescues whatever, 
 but produces little else except root-leaves after 
 being cut. Upon the whole, it seems well fitted 
 for sowing as a mixture, either on hay or pasture 
 lands, but particularly on the former." It pos- 
 
FESTUCA. 
 
 528 
 
 FESTUCA. 
 
 sesses the advantageous property also of very 
 freely seeding in our climate. 
 
 The hardish fescue, Festuca duriuscula, is a 
 perennial-rooted indigen of the meadows and 
 pastures of Britain. Its root, though occasion- 
 ally throwing out short lateral radicles, is merely 
 fibrous and not creeping ; its stem is smooth, 
 erect, striated, leafy, and from 12 to 24 inches 
 high; its root-leaves are somewhat cylindrical or 
 wire-shaped and perennial; its stem- leaves are 
 broader and more flattened than the root-leaves; 
 its panicle is erect, oblong, one-sided, and consi- 
 derably spreading ; its spikelets are oblong, and 
 usually about six-flowered ; and its florets are 
 short-awned, or terminate in a needly point. It 
 flowers in June and July, and matures its seeds 
 about the end of July or beginning of August. 
 This is one of the best of our native grasses for 
 general utility. It thrives on widely different 
 kinds of soils ; it yields a larger bulk of produce 
 than some agricultural grasses of taller stature ; 
 it maintains much of its verdure in winter, and 
 resists the usually withering effect of excessive 
 drought and heat in summer; it constitutes a 
 large proportion of the natural herbage of some 
 of our best pastures, which have a light and 
 dry soil ; it is well adapted, by t its winter ver- 
 dure and fine foliage, for forming the sward of 
 parks and the herbage of ornamental sheep- 
 walks; and when raised on a thin heathy soil, 
 or on poor silicious sand, it has culms of so very 
 fine and slender a form as to appear well suited 
 to the straw-hat manufacture. Yet, on account 
 of its yielding much less nourishment than some 
 other pasture grasses, it ought not to be a pro- 
 minent member in any mixture upon artificial 
 grass lands ; and it probably succeeds best when 
 combined in due proportions with Festuca pra- 
 tensis and Poa trivialis. In the Woburn experi- 
 ments, when grown upon manured clayey loam, 
 it yielded per acre, when in flower, 18,377 lbs. of 
 green produce, 8,269| lbs. of dry produce, and 
 1 ,005 lbs. of nutritive matter ; and, when ripe, 
 19,057| lbs. of green produce, 8,576 lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 446§ lbs. of nutritive matter. — A 
 variety of hardish fescue called Festuca duriuscula 
 uri, has few stems and exceedingly long, slender, 
 root-leaves, — some of the latter measuring up- 
 wards of three feet. 
 
 The thicket fescue, Festuca dumetorum, is a 
 perennial-rooted native of Continental Europe, 
 and was long ago introduced to Britain. It is 
 sometimes called pubescent wood fescue. Its 
 root is slightly creeping; its culms are slanting; 
 its leaves are filiform, slender, long, drooping, 
 and of a light glaucous green colour ; -its panicle 
 is branched and many-sided ; and its spikelets 
 are so exceedingly pubescent with fine hairs as 
 to derive from them a whitish colour. It resem- 
 bles the hardish, the smooth, the creeping, and 
 the Welsh fescues, but is distinguished from them 
 by the excessive pubescence and the distorted 
 form of its panicle. It delights in dry and sandy 
 
 soils, amid the shade of woods and thickets. It 
 flowers in June or early in July, and ripens its 
 seed in the latter part of July. It makes a poor 
 growth after being cut ; and is never so early as 
 the sheep's fescue in the development of its ver- 
 nal herbage. In the Woburn experiments, when 
 grown upon rich black sandy soil, incumbent on 
 clay, it yielded per acre, when in flower, 10,890 
 lbs. of green produce, 5,445 lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 170j lbs. of nutritive matter ; and, when 
 ripe, 9,528| lbs. of green produce, 2,858| lbs. of 
 dry produce, and 223J; lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The creeping, purple, or red fescue, Festuca 
 rubra, is a perennial-rooted indigen of the light, 
 dry, sandy, meadows and pastures of Britain. It 
 has been regarded by some botanists as merely a 
 variety of the hardish fescue, and it also posses- 
 ses a close relationship to the smooth and the 
 Welsh fescues ; but it is readily distinguished by 
 the comparatively small number of its culms, by 
 the darker tint of its foliage, and especially by 
 the creeping habit of its root. Its leaves also are 
 longer than those of the hardish fescue ; its pani- 
 cle has longer branches ; and the sheaths of its 
 leaves are in some degree pubescent. Two varie- 
 ties of it occur, the one with bristle-shaped root- 
 leaves, and the other with broader root-leaves ; 
 and the latter variety is almost as powerfully 
 creeping in its roots as couch-grass. Either of 
 the varieties is suitable for sowing on light, 
 blowing, littoral sands, after they have become 
 somewhat consolidated; but, both varieties, in 
 consequence of their creeping habit, are waste- 
 ful members of the grasses of good lands. In the 
 Woburn experiments, when grown upon light 
 sand, the creeping fescue yielded per acre, when 
 in flower, 10,209^ lbs. of green produce, 4,339 lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 239^ lbs. of nutritive matter ; 
 and, when ripe, 10,890 lbs. of green produce, 
 4,900| lbs. of dry produce, and 340|- lbs. of nutri- 
 tive matter. 
 
 The Welsh fescue, Festuca Cambrica, is a per- 
 ennial-rooted native of Wales. It is regarded by 
 some botanists as a variety of the creeping fes- 
 cue, but by the greater number as a distinct 
 species. Its roots are creeping ; its culms and 
 panicles have a paler tint of green than those of 
 the creeping, the hardish, and the sheep's fescues; 
 its spikelets are ten or twelve flowered ; and its 
 root-leaves, in a cultivated state of the plant, are 
 flatter and more erect than in a wild state. It 
 flowers in June, and ripens toward the end of 
 July. It is much scarcer than the hardish fes- 
 cue, loves drier soils, and is far inferior to it in 
 amount of produce and of nutritive matter ; but 
 it develops its herbage earlier in spring, and 
 grows better after being cut or eaten down. Any 
 given number of plants of it have about the same 
 bulk and value at flowering-time as at seeding- 
 time ; but so many additional plants rise up between 
 the two times as to render the produce at the 
 latter much greater than at the former. In the 
 Woburn experiments, when it was grown on 
 
GRUBIBETR. 
 
 4 
 
 A-Fiillartjon &C? London, fc Ediatror^ii 
 
FESTUCA. 
 
 529 
 
 FESTUCA. 
 
 sand, the Welsh fescue yielded per acre, when in 
 flower, 6,806 J lbs. of green produce, 2,892| lbs. of 
 dry produce, and 239]; lbs. of nutritive matter ; 
 and, when ripe, 13,612^ lbs. of green produce, 
 4,083f lbs. of dry produce, and 478^ lbs. of nutri- 
 tive matter. 
 
 The smooth fescue, Festuca glabra, is a peren- 
 nial-rooted native of Britain ; but occurs chiefly 
 on the moist parts of pastures, and is not so com- 
 mon as the hardish fescue. "It is regarded by 
 some botanists as a variety of the creeping fes- 
 cue ; but seems fully entitled to be considered a 
 distinct species. Its root is but very lightly 
 creeping; its culms are usually from. 12 to 20 
 inches high ; its lower leaves are much longer 
 than those of the creeping fescue ; its panicles, 
 in both their main part and their branches, are 
 smoother ; its awns are longer ; and its spikelets 
 are glossy. It flowers in June, and ripens in the 
 middle or toward the end of J uly. It precedes 
 the hardish fescue in the development of its 
 foliage, and excels it in the fineness and succu- 
 lency of its herbage, but is inferior to it in the 
 bulk of its produce and the amount of its nutri- 
 tive matter ; and when the hardish fescue can- 
 not be obtained among fine-leaved grasses, or is 
 not so suitable for the particular quality of the 
 soil, this species may very properly be taken as a 
 substitute. In the Woburn experiments, when 
 grown upon manured sandy loam, the smooth 
 fescue yielded per acre, when in flower, 14,293 
 lbs. of green produce, 5,71 7 \ lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 446| lbs. of nutritive matter ; and, when 
 ripe, 9,528| lbs. of green produce, 3,81 1|- lbs. of 
 dry produce, and 186 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The glaucous fescue, Festuca glauca, is a per- 
 ennial-rooted native of the hills and mountains 
 of various parts of Europe, particularly toward 
 the Mediterranean. It is said to occur in a wild 
 state in Britain ; but if really indigenous, it is 
 very rare. Its root is fibrous ; its culms are 
 smooth, and usually from 12 to 20 inches high ; 
 its leaves are smooth and glaucous ; its panicle 
 is somewhat spreading ; and its spikelets are 
 lanceolate and awned. It flowers about the 
 middle of June, and ripens in the early part or 
 toward the middle of July. Though naturally 
 an alpine plant, it readily accommodates itself, 
 in cultivation, to low situations. It is hardy and 
 considerably nutritive ; it grows in such a man- 
 ner as to form a thick and dense sward ; ?and it 
 undergoes a change of character in its culms, 
 from great succulency to dryness and wiriness, 
 during the period between flowering and ripen- 
 ing ; so that, though aggregately inferior to many 
 other pasture grasses, it possesses recommenda- 
 tions for both turf and hay. In the Woburn ex- 
 periments, when grown upon brown loam, it 
 yielded per acre, when in flower, 9,528| lbs. of 
 green produce, 3.811^ lbs. of dry produce, and 
 446| lbs. of nutritive matter; and, when ripe, 
 223^ lbs. of nutritive matter. A variety of it 
 occurs of a glaucescent rather than glaucous 
 
 character, with subulate leaves and a densely 
 tufty habit of growth, and smaller in at once 
 culms, leaves, and panicles, than the normal plant. 
 
 The meadow fescue, Festuca pratensis, called 
 by Beauvois Scliedonorws pratensis, is a peren- 
 nial-rooted native of the meadows and pastures 
 of Britain. It is a somewhat large ingredient in 
 the herbage of almost all our irrigated meadows 
 and our richest natural pastures ; and, though a 
 bulky grass, and destitute of the fineness of the 
 small-leaved fescues and poas, it is so succulent 
 and tender, and otherwise agreeable, as to be well 
 relished by cattle. Its root is fibrous ; its culms 
 are usually between 2 and 3 feet high ; its leaves 
 are broad, and have a vivid green colour ; its 
 panicle is branched and spreading, and droops 
 slightly to one side ; its spikelets are long, and 
 contain many cylindrical florets ; and its outer 
 palege are awnless and acute. It usually flowers 
 in June or early in July, and ripens toward the 
 end of July or in the beginning of August. It 
 loves rich and rather moist soils ; and does not 
 grow in rank tufts like most of the other large 
 grasses. It is an excellent grass for all perma- 
 nent pasture on arable lands ; but requires to be 
 combined with rye-grass, cock's-foot, and rough- 
 stalked meadow-grass, in order to be well adapted 
 to the alternate husbandry. It develops its ver- 
 nal foliage earlier than cock's-foot, but not so 
 early as meadow foxtail ; and it is more or less 
 relished by all the domestic herbivorous animals. 
 In the Woburn experiments, when grown upon 
 rich peat soil manured with coal ashes, it yielded 
 per acre, when in flower, 13,612^ lbs. of green 
 produce, 6,466 lbs. of dry produce, and 957| lbs. 
 of nutritive matter ; and, when ripe, 19,057^ lbs. 
 of green produce, 7,623 lbs. of dry produce, and 
 446| lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The fertile taller fescue, Festuca elatior fertilis, 
 called by Beauvois Schedonorus elatior, is a peren- 
 nial-rooted native of Britain. It occurs, in its 
 wild state, on moist meadows and in rich waste 
 grounds by the side of ponds and streams. Its 
 root is fibrous, yet has a slightly creeping habit, 
 and sends its downy fibres deep into the clay or 
 mud of the moist soil ; its culm is smooth, reedy, 
 striated, leafy, and usually about 4 feet high ; and 
 its panicle is widely spreading, repeatedly com- 
 pound, and a foot or upwards in length. It pos- 
 sesses considerable affinity to the meadow fescue, 
 but is nearly double the size of it in all its parts. 
 A variety of taller fescue, which has sometimes 
 been regarded as the normal plant of the species, 
 has its leaves less smooth and of a darker green 
 than those of the fertile taller fescue ; the habit 
 of its panicle more strictly erect; its spikelets 
 less flat and less ovate ; and the larger husks of 
 the calyx more uniformly covered. The fertile 
 taller fescue, though a coarse-looking grass, is 
 generally relished by cattle, and is well adapted 
 for either hay or permanent pasture on rich 
 moist soils ; and it possesses the recommenda- 
 tions of yielding an abundant crop, and ripen- 
 
FESTUCA. 
 
 530 
 
 FESTUCA. 
 
 ing a profusion of seed. It flowers about the 
 end of J une or early in July, and usually ripens 
 in the early part of August. In the Woburn ex- 
 periments, when grown upon black sandy loam, 
 incumbent on clay, it yielded per acre, when in 
 flower, 54,450 lbs. of green produce, 23,822 lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 4,254 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The sterile, or barren-seeded taller fescue, Fes- 
 tuca elatior sterilis, is also a perennial-rooted na- 
 tive of rich moist grounds in Britain, and occurs 
 more plentifully in a wild state than the fertile 
 variety. It has not so drooping a habit of pani- 
 cle as the preceding ; and possesses a nearer re- 
 semblance than it to the meadow fescue. Its 
 root is fibrous ; its panicle at first droops, and 
 afterwards becomes erect ; its spikelets are cylin- 
 drical, and generally awned ; and a large propor- 
 tion of its florets, especially in its wild state, are 
 imperfect or barren. It is well adapted to strong 
 moist soils, and particularly to soils of adhesive 
 clay ; but it requires to be propagated by divi- 
 sion of the roots ; and though it is coarse and 
 contains but little bitter extractive, it suits ad- 
 mirably as hay, and has these properties cor- 
 rected, by being combined with clover. In the 
 Woburn experiments, when grown upon rich 
 black loam, it yielded per acre, when in flower, 
 51,047 lbs. of green produce, 17,866| lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 3,988 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The reed -like or reed -wood fescue, Festuca 
 calamaria, called by Beauvois Schedonorus cala- 
 marius, is a perennial-rooted indigen of Britain. 
 It is far from being plentiful, and occurs only in 
 old moist shady woods, and in some peculiar 
 moist meadows in some parts of Scotland, Ire- 
 land, and the north-west of England. Its root is 
 fibrous ; its culms are smooth, cylindrical, leafy, 
 erect, and usually about 4 feet high ; its leaves 
 are long, broad, tender-looking, and of a bright 
 and vivid green colour ; its panicle is erect, 
 spreading, loose, and repeatedly compound, and 
 has a fine delicate appearance ; its spikelets are 
 erect, comparatively small, four or five seeded, 
 and awnless, and stand on very slender foot- 
 stalks ; and its glumes are small and bristle- 
 shaped. It flowers in July, and ripens in Au- 
 gust. It might seem to be too large and coarse 
 to be fit for cultivation ; and it suffers the dis- 
 advantage of producing a comparatively small 
 quantity of seed ; yet it well deserves attention 
 in situations which combine shade and moisture. 
 
 The wood fescue, or slender wood fescue, Fes- 
 tuca sylvatica, called by Beauvois Schedonorus syl- 
 vaticus, is a perennial-rooted native of Germany, 
 and was introduced to Britain in 1804. Its root 
 is fibrous ; its culms are usually between 2 and 3 
 feet high ; its leaves are pointed, rough, some- 
 what pubescent, and of a bright green colour ; 
 its panicle is simple and drooping ; its spikelets 
 are distant, one-sided, and nearly cylindrical ; 
 and its glumes are not so long as its awns. It 
 flowers in the early part of July, and ripens in 
 the early part of August. It loves the shade of 
 
 hedges, and of moist woods and thickets ; it is 
 very liable to become diseased at the time of flow- 
 ering ; it is disliked by all the principal domesti- 
 cated animals, and seems to be but poorly relished 
 by even hares and rabbits; and it therefore posses- 
 ses little or no interest as an agricultural grass. In 
 the Woburn experiments, when grown upon rich 
 sandy loam, it yielded per acre, when in flower, 
 20,41 8| lbs. of green produce, 8,167^ lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 638 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The loliaceous, darnel-like, or ryegrass-like 
 fescue, Festuca loliacea, called by Beauvois Schedo- 
 norus loliaceus, is a perennial-rooted indigen of 
 Britain, and loves the same kind of soils as rye- 
 grass. Its root is fibrous ; its culm is between 
 2 and 3 feet high ; its spike is two-sided and 
 drooping ; its spikelets are linear, and nearly 
 sessile ; and its florets are awnless and cylindri- 
 cal. It resembles the meadow fescue in habit of 
 growth and bulk of produce, but differs in hav- 
 ing a spiked instead of a panicled inflorescence, 
 and in evincing a fondness for a greater degree 
 of moisture ; and it resembles ryegrass in its 
 principal botanical characters, but differs in 
 having always two glumes, in having occasion- 
 ally a short footstalk, and in possessing a com- 
 paratively high perennial habit, and improving 
 in strength and luxuriance as it advances in 
 years. It has a larger produce than ryegrass, 
 springs earlier, and possesses most of its advan- 
 tages, unaccompanied by its defects ; and it 
 abounds in many rich meadows, particularly 
 such as periodically enjoy a natural irrigation. 
 But loliaceous fescue is, after all, a somewhat 
 ambiguous name, and designates a number of 
 rather widely different varieties of grass. " The 
 true F. loliacea" says Mr. Lawson, "produces 
 little seed, and hence has been considered a hy- 
 brid between the F. pratensis and Glyceria Jlui- 
 tans, — an opinion which seems justified in some 
 respects by its growing on soils more moist than 
 the former, but never in water like the latter. 
 In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, it is rarely 
 found in a wild state, but may be seen in Dal- 
 keith and Dalmeny Parks, as also in a marsh 
 above the new bridge at Pathhead Ford. There 
 are, however, many intermediate varieties be- 
 tween F. loliacea and F. pratensis, which have 
 short branches towards the base of the spike, 
 and become two-rowed towards the point ; these 
 are generally more prolific in seed, equal in value, 
 and constitute the F. loliacea of the seed-shops." 
 In the Woburn experiments, when grown upon 
 rich brown loam, the loliaceous fescue yielded 
 per acre, when in flower, 16,335 lbs. of green pro- 
 duce, 7,146^ lbs. of dry produce, and 765| lbs. of 
 nutritive matter ; and, when ripe, 10,890 lbs. of 
 green produce, 4,492 lbs. of dry produce, and 553 
 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 Wall fescue, tailed fescue, Capon's tail-grass, 
 or tailed mousetail-grass, Festuca myurus, called 
 by Link Mygalurus caudatus, is an annual indigen 
 of walls, road-sides, and dry, barren, sandy spots 
 
FESTUCA. 
 
 531 
 
 FESTUCA. 
 
 in Britain. Its culm is from 6 to 12 inches high, 
 and leafy from top to bottom ; its leaves are 
 awl-shaped, of the finest green colour, and, to- 
 gether with the culms, retain their verdure so 
 completely through winter as to have induced 
 many observers to pronounce the plant a bien- 
 nial ; its panicle is elongated, drooping, and ra- 
 ther close ; and its florets are tapering, rough at 
 the top, and not so long as their awns. It re- 
 sembles the brom us-like fescue, but is stronger 
 and larger, and has four times the length of 
 panicle ; and it is botanically distinguished both 
 from that species and from all the other fescues, 
 by having only one stamen in each flower. It 
 usually flowers in June and ripens in July ; and 
 it sheds such a profusion of seed as to produce a 
 more beautiful green turf by its young plants 
 than almost any other kind of grass. But though 
 vivid in autumn and winter, it loses its beauty 
 in spring, and invariably becomes rusted as it 
 approaches the time of flowering ; so that it is 
 of very small economical value to the farmer. 
 Its seeds appear to be much relished by birds. 
 In the Woburn experiments, when grown upon 
 silicious sand, it yielded per acre, when in flower, 
 9,528f lbs. of green produce, 2,858| lbs. of dry 
 produce, and 223| lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The bromus-like or barren fescue, or bromus- 
 like mousetail, Festuca bro?noides, called by Link 
 Mygalurus bromoides, is an annual indigen of 
 Britain. It frequents the same kind of situations 
 as the wall fescue; and considerably resembles 
 it in habit, appearance, and general character. 
 Its root is brown and finely fibrous; its culms 
 are from 6 to 12 inches high, and, in their upper 
 half, are leafless ; its leaves are tapering, narrow, 
 shorter than their sheaths, and sometimes pubes- 
 cent on their upper surface ; its panicle is almost 
 erect, and has somewhat the form of a raceme ; 
 and its florets are slender, cylindrical, rough at 
 the top, and not so long as their awns. It usu- 
 ally flowers in May and June ; and it dies speed- 
 ily down after flowering. It has been mistaken 
 by many observers for a biennial ; but, though 
 making a pleasant appearance in winter, it is a 
 slender and very small-bodied grass, and of ex- 
 ceedingly trivial value to the farmer. 
 
 The single -husked fescue, or single -husked 
 mousetail, Festuca uniglumis, called by Link My- 
 galurus uniglumis, is an annual indigen of the 
 sandy sea-coast of Sussex, and of some other 
 maritime parts of Britain. Its root is fibrous 
 and slightly downy ; its culms are simple, erect, 
 very smooth, everywhere leafy, and from 6 to 12 
 inches high ; its leaves are furrowed and acute, 
 and are frequently pubescent on their upper sur- 
 face ; its panicle is erect and very slightly com- 
 pound ; its spikelets are erect or but slightly 
 nodding; and its florets are compressed, taper- 
 ing, and awned. This species, like the two pre- 
 ceding, has often been mistaken for a biennial, 
 and is of smaD agricultural value. 
 
 The foxtail-like fescue, or foxtail-like mouse- 
 
 tail, Festuca alopecuroides, called by Link My- 
 galurus alopecuroides, is a perennial-rooted native 
 of the south of Europe, and was introduced to 
 Britain in 1819. It usually has a height of from 
 6 to 12 inches, and flowers in June and July. — 
 The festuca-like brome-grass, Bromus festucoides, 
 is a perennial-rooted native of Continental Eu- 
 rope, and was introduced to Britain in 1826. It 
 usually has a height of from 12 to 24 inches, and 
 flowers in June and July. — The foxtail brome- 
 grass, Bromus alopecurus, regarded by some bo- 
 tanists and agriculturists as a fescue under the 
 name of Festuca alopecurus, is an annual-rooted 
 native of Barbary, and was introduced about 
 half a century ago to Britain. — These three spe- 
 cies appear to be sometimes confounded with one 
 another; and the last, in particular, has very 
 commonly been classed with the agricultural 
 fescues. Its culms are erect, smooth, and be- 
 tween 2 and 3 feet high ; its leaves are smooth, 
 channelled, linear, and often very long ; and its 
 florets have a long, straight, flat, lateral pubes- 
 cence, which readily distinguishes them from 
 those of all the true fescues. It usually flowers 
 about the end of July, and ripens about the be- 
 ginning of September. Its culms are very innu- 
 tritious ; but its leaves constitute good herbage. 
 In the Woburn experiments, when grown upon 
 sharp sand, it yielded per acre, when in flower, 
 
 5,167* 
 
 >f green produce, 2,624^ lbs. of dry 
 
 produce, and 319 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
 The sand fescue, Festuca arenaria, is a peren- 
 nial-rooted indigen of the sandy sea-coasts of 
 some parts of Britain. It abounds in company 
 with Ammophila arundinacea, Elymus arenarius, 
 and some other lovers of dry, drifting, arenaceous 
 spots, on the border of the Sands of Barry on the 
 coast of Forfarshire. Its root is creeping ; its 
 culms are nearly erect, have large and slightly- 
 kneed joints, and usually attain a height of about 
 18 or 20 inches ; its lower leaves are long, wiry, 
 and amassed into bundles by reddish-coloured 
 sheaths ; its upper leaves are long and consider- 
 ably flattened ; its panicle is large, and spreads 
 to one side ; its spikelets are seven or nine flow- 
 ered, and nearly awnless ; and its glumes are 
 smooth and very observedly three-nerved. " The 
 cultivation of this fescue," says Mr. Lawson, " has 
 never been attempted on an extensive scale ; but 
 it would no doubt succeed well on light sands, 
 yielding on such a considerable quantity of nutri- 
 tious animal food, where few other grasses will 
 grow, except the sand lyme and reed grasses, 
 which cattle refuse to eat. It is noticed Jay some 
 botanists as being only a variety of F. rubra or 
 F. durkiscula ; but whether it be entitled to rank 
 as a distinct species or not, it is certainly very 
 distinct from either in habit and appearance." 
 
 The spiked heath fescue, winged brome-grass, 
 or winged brachypodium, Festuca pinnata, Bro- 
 mus pinnatus, or Brachypodium pinnatum, is a 
 perennial -rooted indigen of some of the heaths 
 and woodlands of some parts of Britain. It oc- 
 
FETLOCK. 
 
 532 
 
 FEVER. 
 
 curs sometimes on the heaths and commons of 
 the chalk districts of England, and more frequent- 
 ly in dry and upland woodlands in the limestone 
 districts of both England and Scotland. Its root 
 is scaly and somewhat creeping ; its culms are 
 usually about 4 feet high ; its leaves are nearly 
 smooth; its spike is simple, two-ranked, and 
 erect ; its spikelets are a little distant from one 
 another, and nearly cylindrical ; and its awns 
 are shorter than the husks, and spread a little 
 after the flowering. It flowers throughout July, 
 but chiefly in the latter part of it, and ripens 
 late in August. It possesses characters inter- 
 mediate between those of the true fescues and 
 those of the true bromes. It is superior to many 
 of our native grasses in bulkiness, but is compar- 
 atively innutritious, is late in developing its her- 
 bage, and is not well relished by cattle ; so that 
 it ranks far more as a weed than as an useful 
 agricultural grass. In the Woburn experiments, 
 when grown upon manured sharp sand, it yield- 
 ed per acre, when in flower, 20,418f lbs. of green 
 produce, 8,167| lbs. of dry produce, and 398| lbs. 
 of nutritive matter. 
 
 FETLOCK. The part of a horse's leg, at which 
 the tuft of hair grows behind the pastern. The 
 joint of this part is called the fetlock-joint, and 
 is the principal seat of motion below the knee. 
 Four bones belong to it, — the cannon bone, the 
 long pastern bone, and the two sessamoids ; and 
 extraordinary provision exists in its configuration 
 and accompaniments to obviate concussion. In- 
 flammation in the ligaments of this joint attends 
 most cases of sprain of the back-sinew ; and in- 
 flammatory action in these ligaments or in the 
 parts immediately connected with them is fre- 
 quently mistaken for sprain in some higher part 
 of the leg. When the affection is mild, cooling 
 lotions may subdue it ; but when it is somewhat 
 severe, especially if it be so bad that the horse 
 cannot freely or at all use the limb, smart fo- 
 mentation and prompt blistering are required. 
 
 FETTER. A chain or strong rope used for 
 confining the feet of any domestic animal, or for 
 temporarily limiting its range of pasturage in a 
 field to a mere patch of the ground. 
 
 FEVER. Accelerated arterial action in the 
 vascular system of animals. The fevers of the 
 horse bear very little analogy to those of the 
 human subject, and require a different treatment. 
 Many kinds of horse fevers have been described 
 by writers on farriery ; but most exist only in 
 the imagination of the writers, or have been 
 manufactured out of the mistaken analogies of 
 human fevers. All the real fevers of the horse 
 may be comprised in two, — the idiopathic or 
 pure or simple fever, constituting of itself an en- 
 tire disease, and the symptomatic fever, occa- 
 sioned by inflammatory action in some particular 
 internal part of the body, and constituting rather 
 the attendant of a disease than the disease itself. 
 
 Some writers deny the existence of idiopa- 
 
 thic fever ; and others, while overtly admitting 
 it, either ascribe it to some latent inflamma- 
 tion which speedily becomes developed, or allege 
 that it soon originates local inflammation, and 
 exchanges is own proper character for that of 
 symptomatic fever. But though idiopathic fe- 
 ver is comparatively infrequent in occurrence, 
 it unquestionably meets the attention of most 
 persons who have extensive stable management 
 of horses ; and its general tendency to degene- 
 rate into local inflammation and symptomatic 
 fever, seems to arise far less from its own nature 
 than from foul air, vicissitudes of temperature, 
 and general bad treatment. If idiopathic fever 
 be not easily reduced, the blood accumulates in 
 the lungs, the viscera, or some other interior part 
 of the body, and provokes inflammation ; or if a 
 horse, while suffering under this fever, be kept 
 in a foul or ill-ventilated stable, or be subjected 
 to alternations of heat and cold, he speedily be- 
 comes locally inflamed from the action of the filth 
 or the air. The symptoms of idiopathic fever are 
 shivering, loss of appetite, dejected appearance, 
 quick pulse, hot mouth, and some degree of de- 
 bility; generally, also, costiveness and obstruc- 
 tion of urine ; and sometimes, likewise, quickness 
 of breathing and such pain in the bowels as accom- 
 panies colic. " As soon as a horse is attacked by 
 this disease," says White, " let him be bled freely ; 
 and if costiveness is one of the symptoms, give a 
 pint of castor oil or the oil of olives, and let a 
 gly ster of warm gruel be inj ected. The fever pow- 
 der, consisting of one ounce of powdered nitre, two 
 drachms of camphor, and two drachms of tartar- 
 ized antimony, is to be given once in twelve hours, 
 and continued until its diuretic effect becomes 
 considerable. Warm water and mashes are to be 
 frequently offered in small quantities; warm 
 clothing, frequent hand-rubbing, and a liberal al- 
 lowance of litter are also necessary ; and when the 
 fever runs high, it is advisable to insert rowels 
 about the chest and belly, in order to prevent 
 internal inflammation from taking place. When 
 the disease appears to be going off, the horse 
 looking more lively, and the appetite returning, 
 let him be led out for a short time in some warm 
 situation, and give now and then a malt mash 
 for the purpose of recovering his strength." You- 
 att recommends simply bleeding, relaxation with 
 small and repeated doses of aloes, and sedative 
 action with judiciously proportioned doses, twice- 
 a-day, of digitalis, emetic tartar, and nitre ; and 
 he warns against active purging from the danger 
 of exciting inflammation. The horse should lie 
 kept warmly clothed, but the stable cool and well 
 ventilated. Idiopathic fever, if it do not pass 
 into inflammation, never kills, but is always 
 curable. 
 
 Symptomatic fever is the attendant of inflam- 
 mation in some particular part of the body, and, 
 conjointly with the primary disease, is always 
 more violent and dangerous than idiopathic 
 
FEVER. 
 
 533 
 
 FIARS 
 
 fever ; and, though it requires in very bad or 
 peculiar cases to be treated as if it were itself the 
 primary disease or nearly in the same manner as 
 idiopathic fever, yet it ought generally to be 
 viewed as a mere symptom, and will be found to 
 subside simultaneously with the reduction of the 
 disease which excites it. The chief thing con- 
 nected with it is to mark the special varieties of 
 its indications, as means of ascertaining the pre- 
 cise seat and modification of inflammation which 
 causes it, and therefore as indices of the special 
 varieties of treatment to be pursued. When the in- 
 flammation arises from excessive and prolonged 
 exertion the symptomatic fever is suddenly de- 
 veloped, and early exhibits a violent character ; 
 but when the inflammation arises otherwise, the 
 symptomatic fever is gradually developed, and 
 presents at first a mild appearance ; and, in any 
 case, it is not preceded by shivering. The prin- 
 cipal symptoms common to it and idiopathic 
 fever are loss of appetite, quick pulse, dejected 
 look, hot mouth, and debility. "If to these 
 symptoms are joined difficulty of breathing and 
 quick working of the flanks, with coldness of the 
 legs and ears, we may conclude that an inflamma- 
 tion of the lungs is the cause of the fever. If the 
 horse hangs down his head in the manger, or 
 leans back upon his collar with a strong appear- 
 ance of being drowsy, the eyes appearing watery 
 and inflamed, it is probable that the fever de- 
 pends upon an accumulation of blood in the ves- 
 sels of the brain, and that the staggers are ap- 
 proaching. In this case, however, the pulse is 
 not always quickened ; but sometimes is unusu- 
 ally slow. When the symptoms of fever are 
 joined with a yellowness of the eyes and mouth, 
 an inflammation of the liver is indicated. Should 
 an inflammation of the bowels be the cause, the 
 horse is violently griped. An inflammation of 
 the kidneys will also produce fever, and is dis- 
 tinguished by a suppression of urine and an ina- 
 bility to bear pressure upon the loins. When 
 inflammation of the bladder is the cause, the 
 horse is frequently staling, voiding only very 
 small quantities of urine, and that with consider- 
 able pain. Extensive wounds, and particularly 
 those of joints, will also produce symptomatic 
 fever. Sometimes several of the internal parts 
 are inflamed at the same instant; and indeed 
 when inflammation has existed for a considerable 
 length of time, it is seldom confined to the organ 
 in which it originated; the disease spreads to 
 other viscera, — and when more than one organ is 
 inflamed, the symptoms will generally be compli- 
 cated. Still, however, the essential remedies are 
 the same, that is to say, copious and early bleed- 
 ing, with rowels and blisters." See the articles 
 Inflammation, Pneumonia, Staggers, Wound, 
 Stomach, Catarrh, Enteritis, and Pleurisy. 
 
 Cattle are subject both to idiopathic fever and 
 to symptomatic fever, very nearly in the same 
 I manner as the horse, and require, when suffering 
 
 them, to be very similarly treated. The idio- 
 pathic fever of cattle has, in many instances, an 
 intermitting character, which may easily be sub- 
 dued by means of ordinary care and of cordial 
 purgatives ; and, in other instances, has a steady 
 and unintermitting character, and is exceedingly 
 liable to resolve itself into pleurisy, enteritis, or 
 some other inflammatory disease. The sympto- 
 matic fever of cattle is strictly parallel to the 
 symptomatic fever of horses, and is determined, 
 as to both symptoms and proper treatment, by 
 the particular seat and nature of the exciting 
 inflammation. But besides these fevers, cattle are 
 subject to a very destructive and quite different 
 one, of an epizootic character, which will be 
 noticed in the article Inflammatory Fever. 
 Numerous modifications of this fever, and of 
 another epizootic one of a typhoid nature, or par- 
 ticular phases of them, are more or less exten- 
 sively known among farmers under the names of 
 hose, quarter-ill, black-quarter, joint-felon, black- 
 leg, blain-of-the-tongue, murrain, joint-murrain, 
 distemper, shot - of - blood, striking - in - of - the- 
 blood, and a number of others ; and all the chief 
 of these will be found noticed in articles of their 
 own. The fever which, in many instances, fol- 
 lows parturition, particularly in the cow and the 
 ewe, will form the subject of the article Puerper- 
 al Fever. The ordinary fevers of dogs and other 
 domestic animals follow, upon the whole, the same 
 general law as the ordinary fevers of the horse, 
 and are classifiable into idiopathic and sympto- 
 matic. — The Veterinarian. — Bartlefs Farriery. — 
 White's Veterinary. — Winter s Horse hi Health and 
 Disease. — Blaine's Veterinary Art. — Youatt on the 
 Horse. — Youatt on Cattle. — Blame's Canine Patho- 
 logy. — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
 
 FIARS. The average prices of grain through- 
 out a year, in each of the counties and stewar- 
 tries of Scotland. These prices are determined, 
 or " the fiars are struck," in the month of Feb- 
 ruary by the sheriffs and stewards, aided in every 
 instance, except that of East-Lothian, by a jury ; 
 and they constitute the final appeal in all bar- 
 gains of reference, and the conversion price of 
 rents and of the stipends of the clergy. The form 
 of striking the fiars is prescribed by acts of Dec. 
 21, 1723, and Feb. 29, 1728. " A jury," says Bell, 
 " must be called and evidence laid before them 
 of the prices of the different grains raised in the 
 county ; and the prices fixed by the opinion of 
 the jury, and sanctioned by the judge, are term- 
 ed the fiars of that year in which they are struck, 
 and regulate the prices of all grain stipulated to 
 be sold at the fiar prices ; nor will an error in 
 striking them afford a ground of suspension. 
 They regulate also all cases where no price has 
 been stipulated for grain delivered, which is the 
 produce of the county." The practice of strik- 
 ing fiars of cattle, sheep, wool, and other produce 
 of stock-farms, or of the live-stock department of 
 mixed farms, ought also to be introduced, and 
 
FIELD. 
 
 534 
 
 FIELD-SPORTS. 
 
 would be, productive of some highly beneficial ef- 
 fects, — among others, the equitable adjustment 
 of rent, and the proper valuation of stock on a 
 change of occupancy. 
 
 FIELD- A division or subdivision of a farm, 
 whether for tillage or for pasture. Before the era 
 of enclosures, fields were simply the portions of 
 farms or estates in tillage ; and since the general 
 prevalence of enclosures, they are, for the most 
 part, identical with all enclosures devoted either 
 to tillage or to pasture. Everything, therefore, 
 which concerns the size, the shape, the arrange- 
 ment, the slope, and the contiguity of fields, has 
 already been stated in the articles Enclosure 
 and Farm. Each field on a farm has or ought 
 to have a distinctive name ; and the collective 
 fields of a mixed or a tillage farm are or ought 
 to be successionally managed in strict and regu- 
 lar adaptation to a systematic course of crop- 
 ping. 
 
 FIELD-GATE. See Gate. 
 FIELD - MICE. Two species of mischievous 
 little quadrupeds of the rat family and rodentia 
 order of the mammalia. 
 
 The long-tailed field-mouse, Mus sylvaticus, be- 
 longs to the same genus as the common mouse. 
 Its head and body are a little upwards of three 
 and a half inches in length ; its tail is somewhat 
 shorter than the head and the body ; its ears are 
 upwards of half the length of the head ; its colour 
 is reddish brown above and whitish below ; and 
 its eyes are full and black. It occurs in all the 
 mild districts of Europe ; frequents woods, orch- 
 ards, and gardens ; and, in some places, exists in 
 countless and almost incredible multitudes. It 
 strips off the bark of shrubs and trees, roots up 
 newly planted acorns, destroys the shoots and 
 twigs of wood nurseries, digs up the newly sown 
 pease and beans of the kitchen-garden, damages 
 or devastates wheat-fields, and sometimes makes 
 dreadful havoc upon either orchards or planta- 
 tions. Buffon states that so many as 2,300 long- 
 tailed field-mice were caught in the course of 23 
 days by a single trap in a field of about 40 acres ; 
 and other writers mention instances of such 
 "hosts of them as totally destroyed several conti- 
 guous acres of young plantations. 
 
 The short-tailed field-mouse, or field-vole, A r- 
 vicola agrestis, is a far more mischievous animal 
 to the farmer than the long-tailed field-mouse, 
 and indeed is in some places the most destruc- 
 tive kind of vermin on a farm. Its head and 
 body are rather upwards of 4 inches in length ; 
 its tail is one inch and 3^ lines in length ; and 
 its colour is reddish-brown above and grey below. 
 It occurs throughout the greater part of Europe, 
 and is particularly abundant in France and Eng- 
 land. It frequents woods, meadows, and corn- 
 fields ; sometimes exists in prodigious multitudes ; 
 and not infrequently multiplies with such rapidi- 
 ty, and connnits such enormous depredations, 
 that it requires to be vigorously kept down by 
 
 means of birds and beasts of prey.' It destroys 
 both plantations and corn-crops ; and, in many 
 instances, has been the terror and even the ruin 
 of both forester and farmer. In 1813 and 1814, 
 it committed such ravages in the New Forest 
 and the Dean Forest as to threaten the extermi- 
 nation of all the young trees in these vast woods. 
 " A sudden and rapid increase of mice/' says Mr. 
 J esse, " took place in these forests, which threat- 
 ened the destruction of the whole of the young 
 plants : vast numbers of these were killed, the 
 mice having eaten through the roots of five-year- 
 old oaks and chestnuts, generally just below the 
 surface of the ground. Hollies, also, which were 
 five or six feet high, were barked round the bot- 
 tom ; and in some instances the mice had crawled 
 up the tree, and were seen feeding on the bark 
 of the upper branches." In the Dean Forest, 
 about 30,000 were caught, in the course of about 
 three months, in holes made to entrap them, and j 
 a much larger number were destroyed by cats, 
 weasels, owls, kites, hawks, crows, and other 
 beasts and birds of prey ; and in the New Forest, j 
 probably about 100,000 were either entrapped or 
 killed ; so that, in the two forests, the enormous j 
 number of about 200,000 were destroyed. The 
 depredations of these little creatures upon corn- j 
 fields, particularly in digging up and devour- 
 ing newly -sown wheat, have at times been so 
 great as materially to depress the interests of 
 agriculture throughout entire districts. " From 
 Augerville," says a published notice of the year 
 1835, " it is stated that ten bad crops which have i 
 occurred during the last fifteen years have almost 
 ruined our cultivators, and have caused many 
 farms to be tenantless, the occupiers returning 
 them on the hands of the landlords as the leases 
 fall in. One proprietor alone in this district has 
 now five or six farms in this predicament. The 
 cause of all this distress is attributed to the 
 field - mice. They devastate every spot ; and 
 this year they have invaded fresh districts, and 
 some growers have delayed sowing their wheat 
 till spring, there being no chance of protecting 
 it from the vermin; and in such cases, the 
 mice have forsaken the fields where they could 
 not find subsistence, to prey on the seed in 
 situations where such precaution had not been 
 used. 
 
 Field-mice, when not excessive in numbers, 
 ought to be kept down and if possible extermi- 
 nated by means of traps, cats, ferrets, and terriers ; 
 and when they become multitudinous, or begin 
 to perpetrate serious mischief, they ought to be 
 caught in holes of about a foot each in depth, 
 and so dug and shaped as to be wider at the bot- 
 tom than at the top. 
 
 FIELD-SPORTS. The several amusements of 
 sportsmen, but particularly those of the chase. 
 They sometimes inflict wanton and severe injury 
 upon the farmer's fields in autumn ; but they do 
 little or no injury to them in winter, when the 
 
FILARIA. 
 
 535 
 
 FIORIN. 
 
 fields are clear of both crops and stock. These 
 sports are more or less loved by many farmers, and 
 are often thought, when moderately indulged in, 
 to have a healthy influence upon the mind ; but 
 they really squander valuable time and means, 
 dissipate the intellectual habits, tempt to the 
 neglect of current duties, blunt or pervert the 
 moral feelings, and in general act malignly on 
 both the purse and the heart. 
 
 FIELD-VOLE. See Field-Mice. 
 
 FIELD-WORKERS. See Farm-Labourers. 
 
 FILARIA. A genus of minute parenchyma- 
 tous worms. The several species have the 
 appearance of small pieces of exceedingly fine 
 thread ; and either by themselves, or in company 
 with other intestinal parasites, they infest vari- 
 ous cavities and organs of horses, oxen, and other 
 domestic animals. One or more species accumu- 
 late in vast numbers in the bronchial passages of 
 cattle suffering under certain violent yet com- 
 mon kinds of bronchitis ; another species con- 
 gregates and forms tumours near the pyloric 
 extremity of the stomach of oxen ; and another 
 inhabits many parts of the great cavity of the 
 horse and the mule, and even in many instances 
 takes up its abode in their eye. The last of these 
 is peculiarly curious, and is noticed as follows by 
 Blaine : " The existence of species of filaria which 
 penetrated the cavities of the body of the horse 
 and his congeners, pervaded its cellular tissues, 
 and even occasionally made its way into the eye, 
 has been long known to those at all conversant 
 in natural history ; but that its penetration of 
 the eye was now become one of its settled habits 
 in India, where it resolved itself into an esta- 
 blished disease, was not so well known ; and the 
 first notices recorded were so vague and inde- 
 finite, that I deferred any mention of it, until it 
 assumed a less questionable shape. Through the 
 medium of that excellent source of information, 
 ' The Veterinarian,' we are now more fully in- 
 formed on the existence of this new proof of the 
 extensive diffusion of parasitic animals over and 
 within every part of the animal frame. It would 
 appear, by notices in the French works, that the 
 filaria is almost as common among oxen and cows 
 in the provinces, as it is among the horses of In- 
 dia. No accounts of its infesting the remnants 
 of the last have, I believe, reached us. This pa- 
 rasite is supposed to be the Filaria papulosa f and 
 is described as nearly an inch in length ; the body 
 elongated and cylindrical ; in size and colour cor- 
 responding with the finest white sewing thread, 
 but with a semi-transparent lustre ; attenuated 
 at either extremity. Its presence is detected by 
 its effects, which are that of a deep-seated oph- 
 thalmia, usually confined to one eye only. The 
 conjunctive coat is highly inflamed, and turgid 
 with red blood; the transparent cornea is ob- 
 scured and cloudy ; impatience of light, and closed 
 eyelids are also accompanying symptoms of the 
 irritation. By attentive observation this minute 
 
 filamentary worm is seen floating within the 
 aqueous humour ; and although its presence does 
 not appear to occasion acute pain, yet if it be 
 suffered to remain many days, it is invariably 
 fatal to the eye. Its removal is effected by pene- 
 trating the cornea in some part. As soon as the 
 puncture is made, the worm usually escapes with 
 the aqueous humour ; and if it should not, the 
 operation must be repeated the next or following 
 day, by which time the eye will have filled again 
 and brought to view the worm also. A slow re- 
 covery follows the departure of the parasite ; and 
 the opacity occasioned by it is sometimes not 
 wholly absorbed in less than six months." 
 
 FILLER, or Thiller, A horse yoked imme- 
 diately to a cart, and supporting the shafts. 
 
 FILLY. A female colt or young mare. 
 
 FIMBLE-HEMP. See Hemp. 
 
 FINGERS and TOES. See Anbury. 
 
 F IORIN,— botanically A grostis Stolonifera Lati- 
 folia. A variety of indigenous, aquatic, agricul- 
 tural grass, of the bent genus. Its roots are pe- 
 rennial and fibrous ; its stems are decumbent and 
 stoloniferous ; its leaves are soft, silky, and very 
 narrow ; its panicles are somewhat contracted, 
 and have slightly hairy branches, and spreading 
 branchlets ; and its lower palese are five-nerved 
 and awnless. Its roots penetrate but a short dis- 
 tance into the soil, and have none of the knotted 
 and vivacious character which distinguishes those 
 of black couch, and its stolons grow out in the 
 manner of the side-shoots of strawberry-plants, 
 and are exceedingly numerous and prolific, and 
 multiply the grass with great rapidity. 
 
 This grass, in common with many other of the 
 bents, was at one time known only as a weed ; 
 but nearly thirty years ago, it was introduced to 
 notice as an agricultural grass by the Rev. Dr. 
 Richardson, of Clonfeacle, in the county of Antrim, I 
 in Ireland ; and from that time till a few years 
 ago, it was a subject of great controversy among 
 cultivators, — one party, headed -by Dr. Richard- 
 son, contending that it was the very best known 
 grass for meadow purposes, another party con- 
 tending that it was as mere a weed and almost 
 as mischievous as common black couch, and a 
 third and increasing party pronouncing it a good 
 enough grass for some situations and quite a use- 
 less one for others. Three great recommendations 
 of it, on the part of its admirers, are, that it grows 
 luxuriantly on low and swampy grounds which 
 will not produce any other kind of valuable herb- 
 age, — that it yields enormous crops on irrigated 
 meadows, — and that it vegetates during such 
 large and cold portions of the year as to be avail- 
 able for green fodder throughout the greatest 
 part of winter. It certainly succeeds well on the 
 peculiar boggy grounds, with moist substrata 
 and a humid atmosphere, where it grows indige- 
 nously in Ireland ; it unquestionably was produ- 
 ced by Dr. Richardson and some of his imitators 
 in quantities and in seasons and circumstances 
 
FIORIN. 
 
 536 
 
 FIORIN. 
 
 which utterly astonished well-informed agricul- 
 tural observers ; and it no doubt grows with more 
 or less vigour from the beginning of October till 
 the end of March, and is quite capable, in open 
 dry weather, of being made into hay in December. 
 Yet some of the most sanguine of its early advo- 
 cates, including Dr. Richardson himself, eventu- 
 ally discovered that they had greatly over-esti- 
 mated its value ; and others continued to talk 
 of it in a style of such wild and raving eulogy 
 as indicated their seeing it no longer through the 
 judgment, but wholly through the imagination. 
 " Some of the Doctor's pupils," we are told, " went 
 to the length of asserting that, though this grass 
 succeeded best on reclaimed bog, it produced 
 very heavy crops on dry, upland ground, and that, 
 if unmown at the proper season, autumn, and 
 allowed to stand over during the winter, it nei- 
 ther rotted, nor lost any of its good qualities, and 
 became a substitute for turnips, mangel-wurzel, 
 or rape." 
 
 Fiorin seems to require a soil of a free and 
 porous texture, with much peat in its composition, 
 and kept in constant irrigation by infiltration 
 from the sides of rivers, brooks, draining ditches, 
 or other streams, but not by overflooding, nor 
 even by infiltration from lakes, canals, or stag- 
 nant ditches. One reason, therefore, why it has 
 utterly failed or but poorly succeeded in the ex- 
 periments of English and Scottish cultivators, 
 may be that damp marshy soils of any description, 
 and particularly marshy soils of firm texture, or 
 with retentive subsoils, or with stagnating water, 
 have been used for putting it to the test. But it 
 probably requires also a very humid atmosphere, 
 and may, on that account, be highly suitable for 
 the constant fogs and drizzle of the Irish marshes, 
 and just as unsuitable for the dry and clear air 
 of the English meadows. Yet even when soil, 
 climate, and all other circumstances are favour- 
 able to it, and when it grows in such luxuriance 
 as considerably to justify the extraordinary eulo- 
 gies of its most zealous advocates, it is still en- 
 cumbered with three rather serious disadvan- 
 tages, — it lies in so decumbent and matted a 
 manner as to be very difficult to mow,— it 
 becomes ripe for the scythe at so very advanced 
 a period of the year as not to be easily made into 
 hay, — and it contains, in proportion to its bulk, 
 a much smaller amount of nutritive matter than 
 some of the other and more facile aquatic grasses. 
 It is beyond all question a very valuable meadow- 
 grass in the particular parts of Ireland where it 
 grows spontaneously, or is easily and abundantly 
 propagated ; but it no longer claims superlative 
 excellence, or demands the exclusive occupancy 
 of meadow-land, in even the most favourable of 
 these parts ; and it by no means possesses general 
 adaptation to the meadows of Great Britain, yet 
 may with good effect be propagated in some of 
 the peaty marshes of our western sea-board. 
 
 Many of the conflicts of opinion respecting 
 
 fiorin, or of condemnations of it as a worthless or 
 a mischievous grass, have arisen from confound- 
 ing it with other varieties of Agrostis latifolia, 
 with Agrostis alba, with Agrostis palustris, and 
 with one of the varieties of Agrostis vulgaris; 
 and it may be easily distinguished from all these 
 by a moderately careful observation of the several 
 characters of each together with the soils and 
 situations in which they grow. Agrostis alba 
 loves marshy and clayey grounds, and may readily 
 be recognised by its comparatively small roots ; 
 Agrostis palustris inhabits spouty grounds, and 
 is strictly a sub-aquatic ; Agrostis stolonifera 
 latifolia occurs, in a natural state, only on rich 
 old pasture land ; Agrostis stolonifera angustifolia 
 occurs in moist woods, and on damp, clayey soils ; j 
 Agrostis stolonifera aristata occurs chiefly or solely 
 on moors and boggy grounds ; Agrostis stolonifera j 
 sylvatica occurs only on light sandy soils, and 
 particularly in places where these soils are 
 shaded by wood; and Agrostis stolonifera palus- 
 tris occurs chiefly, or almost wholly, in the bot- 
 toms of ditches, and by the sides of rivulets. 
 Agrostis stolonifera latifolia flowers about the 
 second or third week of July, and ripens about 
 the second or third week of August ; and when 
 grown upon peaty soil, it yields per acre when 
 in flower 17,696^ lbs. of green produce, 7,742 lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 967| lbs. of nutritive matter, 
 — and when ripe 19,057| lbs. of green produce, 
 8, 575| lbs. of dry produce, and 1,042£ lbs. of 
 nutritive matter. 
 
 Dr. Richardson sometimes planted the stolons 
 of fiorin on fallow ground, and thus created a 
 meadow ; he, at other times, coaxed up a sponta- 
 neous growth of it on the kind of flat peaty 
 moist alluvium in which it is indigenous ; he 
 scarified the surface of cold, sour, stiff meadows, 
 intersected them with shallow drains, and spread 
 over them a top-dressing of a compost of ditch- 
 scourings and lime or farm-yard manure ; and he 
 carefully eradicated all coarse or weedy plants 
 which made their appearance, and did not allow 
 the fiorin meadows to be at any time of the year, 
 grazed or even touched by cattle. The method 
 of propagating fiorin which he recommended to 
 others, was to cut the stoloniferous shoots into 
 small pieces, to strew them on the ground, to 
 give them a course of rolling, and to use care 
 that the whole operation be gone through in 
 somewhat moist or at least humid weather. 
 "This, however," remarks Mr. Lawson, "is a 
 tedious as well as a precarious operation ; and 
 the principal reason given for it by its advocates 
 is the difficulty of procuring seed, and its shyness 
 in vegetating. These- objections are, however, 
 groundless ; for seeds of this and several other 
 varieties are yearly imported from Germany and 
 France ; and all that is found requisite to insure 
 a regular braird, is to have the land in a fine 
 pulverized state before sowing, otherwise the 
 seeds are apt to be buried from their smallness." 
 
FIRING. 
 
 537 
 
 FISHES. 
 
 — Dr. Richardson's Essay on Agriculture. — Dr. 
 Richardson s Memoir on Fiorin Grass. — Lawson's 
 Agriculturist 's Manual. — Doyle s Practical Hus- 
 bandry. — SprouWs Treatise on Agricidture. — 
 Knowledge Societies British Husbandry, 
 
 FIRE-FANGING. See Farm- Yard Manure. 
 
 FIRING, or Cauterizing. The application of 
 the cautery or white-hot firing-iron to diseased 
 parts of the bodies of domestic animals, particu- 
 larly of the horse. It is a severe and very painful 
 practice ; and, in consequence of having been 
 much abused or unnecessarily resorted to by 
 bungling and cruel practitioners, it has fallen 
 into considerable disrepute ; but it really exerts 
 great therapeutic power as a counter-irritant, 
 and ought, when wisely conducted, to be held in 
 much esteem. The iron is usually so applied to 
 the skin as to burn without penetrating it ; and 
 it then excites an inflammation so sudden and 
 violent as to rouse the absorbents into energetic 
 action, and sometimes to disperse callous or even 
 bony tumours. The diseases in which it is most 
 efficacious are spavins, ringbones, and old swell- 
 ings about the back-sinews resulting from strains 
 and windgalls. But firing is used also as a styptic, 
 for arresting bad haemorrhages; as a caustic ap- 
 plication for searing the buds of farcy, for stop- 
 ping the flow of synovia in open knee-joint, and 
 for some other surgical purposes ; and as an eco- 
 nomical appliance, for corrugating a cinctural 
 piece of skin, and making it act as a bandage on 
 the subjacent parts; and, in the last of these 
 capacities, it has been recommended for the pur- 
 pose of strengthening the back-sinews and hocks 
 of colts, in order to prevent strains and what is 
 popularly termed breaking-down. But though 
 the use of it as an economical appliance, is 
 plausibly argued for on scientific principles, and 
 very extensively sanctioned by practice, "it is 
 difficult, if not impossible," as White wisely 
 remarks, " to conceive how the workmanship of 
 the Deity can be improved by such means;" 
 and even in cases in which it unquestionably 
 possesses high power for the reduction of tumours 
 and other unhealthy growths, it ought, in com- 
 mon sense and in ordinary humane feeling, not 
 to be practised till milder counter-irritants have 
 been tried and proved unavailing. The Arabs 
 use the firing-iron as a sort of panacea for horse 
 diseases ; and only such Britons as are akin to 
 them in moral nature will follow their barbarous 
 example. Winter distributes firing into three 
 kinds or degrees; the first, superficial firing, 
 which he pronounces to have scarcely a stronger 
 counter-irritant action than a good blister, 
 with the disadvantage of inflicting a permanent 
 blemish ; the second, mediate firing, which 
 produces a contractile effect on the skin, and 
 endows it with a bandage-like power ; and the 
 third, deep firing, which penetrates the skin, 
 enters the cellular tissue, and renders the bene- 
 fits of the two preceding kinds permanent. But 
 
 most other veterinarians deprecate the penetrat- 
 ing of the skin ; and all insist on the propriety 
 of having the firing-iron rounded on the edge 
 and perfectly clean. — Winter. — White. — Blaine. — 
 Youatt. — Gibson. 
 
 FIRING-IRON. See Cautery and Firing. 
 
 FIRKIN. A measure of capacity. A firkin in 
 English beer measure is equal to one-fourth of a 
 barrel ; and in London, it contains 9 gallons, — 
 but in many parts of the country, only 8|. A 
 firkin of butter, in Irish provision measure, must 
 contain at least 56 lbs. 
 
 FIRLOT. A Scottish dry measure. It is equal 
 to one-fourth of a boll, yet varies very consider- 
 ably in capacity. Three different firlots, used in 
 some districts, bear the proportion to one another 
 of 21, 25, and 31. The wheat firlot of Linlithgow 
 is to the imperial bushel as '998 to 1 ; and the 
 barley firlot as 1-456 to 1. The firlot of Mid 
 Lothian for wheat, rye, and pulse is equal to 
 1-0218 Winchester bushel ; and the firlot for oats, 
 barley, and malt is equal to 14904 Winchester 
 bushel. 
 
 FISHES. One of the four great classes or 
 primary divisions of vertebrated animals. A sys- 
 tematic view of them, no matter how brief, would 
 exceed the limits which we could afford to it, and 
 is foreign to the design of our work. 
 
 Any kind of fish, in whatever state applied to 
 land, are a very powerful manure. Their skin 
 consists principally of gelatine ; their softer parts, 
 whether immediately below the skin or among the 
 viscera, comprise a large proportion of oil or fatty 
 matter ; their scales consist principally of coagu- 
 lated albumen; their muscular or fleshy parts 
 abound in both oleaginous matter and nitrogenous 
 elements ; their bones consist principally of phos- 
 phate of lime and carbonate of lime ; and even 
 their "guts" or refuse, while in a fresh or unde- 
 composing state, contain about 4 per cent, of ni- 
 trogen, or are ten times richer in that all-impor- 
 tant element than ordinary farm-yard manure. 
 Fish of all kinds, therefore, in all conditions, and 
 in all their parts, are powerful fertilizers. 
 
 Pilchards, either in a fresh state or in a salted 
 state, but especially in the state of refuse, are 
 extensively employed as manure in Cornwall and 
 Devonshire. They abound in oily matter, and 
 exert a very high fertilizing power. They are 
 usually mixed with sand, soil, or sea-weed, in 
 order to prevent them from raising too luxuriant 
 a crop, and they generally maintain their fertiliz- 
 ing action during a series of years. Yet both 
 pilchards and other kinds of fish probably give 
 off the greater portion of their nitrogenous prin- 
 ciples with comparatively great rapidity, and 
 prolong their manurial action principally by the 
 progressive evolution of hydrogen and carbon in 
 the course of the slow decomposition of their oily 
 matter. 
 
 Sprats and the spawn and young brood of other 
 kinds of fish are employed in enormous quantities 
 
FISHES. 
 
 538 
 
 FISTULA. 
 
 as manure in the sea-board districts of Kent, 
 Essex and Suffolk. A very extensive fishery ex- 
 ists for the sole purpose of obtaining these for 
 the farmer ; and has been long and bitterly com- 
 plained of as a destructive nuisance to the fisher- 
 ies for higher purposes. This manure is very 
 generally used upon the immediate coast; and 
 is also carried in large quantities to districts 10 
 or 15 miles inland. It is applied in proportions 
 varying from 25 to 45 bushels per acre ; and it 
 acts with highly fertilizing power upon gravelly 
 soils and other kinds of poor lands, but usually 
 expends all or most of its force in a single season. 
 One common method of applying it is to spread 
 it by hand, in a fresh and unmixed state, on win- 
 ter fallow in preparation for oats ; and another 
 is to mix it with soil, to allow it partially to de- 
 compose, and to cart it to spring fallow, in im- 
 mediate preparation for turnips. 
 
 The small fish called sticklebacks are caught 
 in large quantities in the shallow waters on the 
 margins of the fens of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, 
 and Lincolnshire, and used as manure on the 
 adjacent lands. They multiply with great rapid- 
 ity; and, though small in size and limited in 
 scope, they afford the few farmers a somewhat 
 large supply. They are applied in the same me- 
 thods, and nearly in the same proportion, as the 
 sprats and spawn ; and, like these also, they give 
 out most or all of their power in a single 
 season. 
 
 The refuse of such haddock, cod, ling, salmon, 
 and other ordinary fish as are sold in a fresh state, 
 usually constitutes one of the thousand miscella- 
 neous ingredients of police manure ; but the re- 
 fuse of such of these fish as are caught at a great 
 distance from large towns, and salted in large 
 quantities for preservation, is always a distinct 
 and bulky article of manure, and might easily be 
 made a subject both of increasing profit to the 
 fishers, and of increasing interest and value to 
 farmers. " The offal is preserved in rude pits, 
 and sold to the neighbouring farmers ; but as it 
 undergoes very rapid decomposition, it is becoming 
 customary to mix it with earth or peat. Great 
 waste, however, generally takes place from the 
 ignorance of the fishermen. The pits are always 
 situated in front of the cottages, often dug in 
 gravel or porous soil, and unprotected from rain 
 and surface water ; hence, whenever it rains, a 
 great deal of the most valuable of the contents 
 is carried off. Wherever it is found impossible 
 to effect the removal of these pits to more appro- 
 priate places and to exclude rain and surface 
 water, tanks might be formed at little expense for 
 receiving the drainings, and in which they might 
 be neutralized, and mixed with any absorbent 
 matters. It is probable, that in the vicinity of 
 establishments for the manufacture of artificial 
 manures, the fishermen will soon learn that the 
 offal, so valuable, might be sold in a recent state 
 at greater prices than they have hitherto obtained 
 
 for it." [Davy's Agricultural Chemistry by 
 Shier.] 
 
 The refuse of such herrings as are salted, is 
 gathered and sold, not by the fishermen but by 
 the curers, and is far less exposed to waste than 
 the refuse of the ordinary fisheries. One kind of 
 it is obtained during the process of curing, and 
 consists of the brine, together with all the salt, 
 blood, oil, and other matters which run off with 
 it ; and this is separately noticed in the article 
 Brine. But the chief kind consists principally 
 of the guts and other offals separated before the 
 process of salting, and partly of a small proportion 
 of the milt and the roe. This manure is held in 
 high esteem by almost all farmers who can obtain 
 it ; and it is generally used in a fresh state, mixed 
 up into a compost, and applied either largely in 
 preparation for green crops or sparingly in pre- 
 paration for white crops. In most parts of the 
 east coast of Scotland, it sells at about 2s. per 
 barrel ; and, even when the ordinary expenses of 
 carrying and composting it are added, it costs on 
 the average somewhat less than two-thirds of the 
 value of good farm-yard manure. The number 
 of barrels of herrings cured in Great Britain in 
 1841 was 489,620 ; and the quantity of offal from 
 these must have amounted to upwards of 6,300 
 tons, — a quantity equal to 63,000 tons of good 
 farm-yard manure, and capable of abundantly 
 manuring at least 3,000 acres for an entire rota- 
 tion of green and white crops. An incidental 
 consideration of considerable importance, too, is 
 that this great supply of valuable manure occurs 
 to a great extent in the neighbourhood of some 
 of the most agricultural districts of Scotland. But 
 a caution requires to be borne in mind by all who 
 use herring-refuse, or indeed any similar kind of 
 fish-manure, that an excessive application of it 
 to light land is liable to overstimulate the soil for 
 a few seasons, at the expense of afterwards en- 
 tailing upon it a degree of feebleness amounting 
 almost to sterility. — Herrings themselves, in a 
 season of exuberant plenty, have occasionally been 
 fished ashore in enormous quantities, and laid 
 upon the land as manure. But this practice, 
 whether viewed in the light of economy or in 
 that of morality, seems of exceedingly question- 
 able propriety. — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry by 
 Shier. — Johnson on Fertilizers. — Transactions of 
 the Highland Society. — Daniel's Rural Sports. — 
 Anderson 's Commercial Dictio nary. — Knight's Mu - 
 seum of Animated Nature. — Hunter's Georgical 
 Essays. — Mill's Husbandry. — Mortimer's Hus- 
 bandry. — Co nversat ions Lexicon. 
 
 FISTULA. A deep callous ulcer in man or in 
 any of the domestic animals. The word fistula 
 properly signifies a pipe or a reed ; the epithet 
 fistulous is applicable to any object which has the 
 slenderly cylindrical form of a reed ; and the par- 
 ticular kind of ulcers called fistula? or fistulous 
 sores receive this designation from their sup- 
 posed similarity in shape to parts of reeds. Most 
 
FISTULA. 
 
 539 
 
 FIXTURES. 
 
 of these ulcers are hard, long, and sinuous ; and 
 many communicate with somewhat large interior 
 cavities, and have small external orifices. 
 
 Fistulas are caused by severe and prolonged 
 pressure, by bruises, by blows, by the continued 
 presence or interference of foreign bodies, and 
 by any other excitants of great and^ constant 
 local inflammation. They occur most frequently 
 on the withers of horses, from the effect of inju- 
 rious pressure of the saddle ; and they are also 
 not infrequent in the poll and the sternum of the 
 horse, and in the shoulders of working oxen ; and 
 in the last of these cases, they arise from the inju- 
 rious pressure of the yoke exactly in the same 
 manner as those in the withers of horses arise 
 from the inj urious pressure of the saddle. Simple 
 abscesses or ulcers generally precede fistulas, and 
 might in every instance be very easily cured ; 
 and even fistulas themselves, in their early stages, 
 might, in most instances, be rapidly reduced by 
 means of gentle discutients; but fully formed 
 fistulas are, for the most part, decidedly difficult 
 to be cured, and, in some instances, cannot be 
 reduced except by very severe treatment. 
 
 When any part of a horse's body subject to 
 fistula becomes seriously excoriated or somewhat 
 ulcerated, or shows heat, tenderness, and swell- 
 ing, it ought instantly to be plied with fomenta- 
 tions, lotions, and cooling ointments. If the 
 sore, instead of healing, should become an ab- 
 scess, it ought to be punctured with a lancet, and 
 emptied of as much as possible of its purulent 
 matter ; and a pledget of tow soaked with diges- 
 tive ointment should be placed in the cavity, and 
 afterwards removed, in order to absorb the fresh 
 secretions of pus. But when a fistula is actually 
 formed — when the ulcer or tumour has degene- 
 rated into a deep and callous condition, and con- 
 tains any hard sinus or sinuses of a strictly fistu- 
 lous character — some perforating, cutting, or 
 very caustic operation becomes indispensable. 
 " The sinuses or pipes," says White, " are to be 
 laid open with a knife ; and if it is practicable, a 
 depending opening is to be made, that the mat- 
 ter may run off freely ; the sore is then to be 
 dressed with an ointment, which is to be melted 
 and poured into the cavity while very hot." 
 Some farriers, of the red-hot school, who for ever 
 brandish the red-hot cautery, recommend the 
 application of murderously scalding mixtures; 
 and others think themselves very gentle in recom- 
 mending a surface sponging with a mixture of one 
 part of aqua-fortis and two parts of water. But 
 both the shortest and the least painful method 
 of cure, in all cases which are not superlatively 
 obstinate, " is to pass a seton from the bottom of 
 the sinus towards the shoulders, so as to insure 
 a drain or dependent outlet for the matter." An 
 instance is recorded by Professor Dick of a sur- 
 passingly bad case of fistula in the withers having 
 been cured by Mr. Steel of Biggar principally by 
 making dependent orifices, cleaning the wound, 
 
 and dressing it with stimulating washes and di- 
 gestive ointment. 
 
 FITS. See Epilepsy. 
 
 FIXTURES. All such parts of premises, whe- 
 ther erected by himself or not, as a tenant can- 
 not lawfully remove or take down at the expira- 
 tion of his tenancy. The law respecting them is 
 ill-defined, and admits of far more liberal inter- 
 pretation in the case of manufacturers than in 
 the case of farmers ; and in order to prevent dis- 
 putes, special agreement respecting fixtures of 
 any importance should be made with the land- 
 lord and recorded in the covenant or lease. Yet 
 a general principle seems to be explicitly enough 
 embodied in the law, that all erections directly 
 founded in the land are legally fixtures, and that 
 erections resting on some mediate substance are 
 not fixtures ; so that a brewery still set in brick- 
 work founded in the soil is a fixture, and a barn 
 on a frame resting on the surface of the ground 
 is not a fixture. The technical name for the 
 demolition or the unlawful removal of any struc- 
 ture or part of a structure of the legal nature of 
 a fixture, is waste ; and Williams, speaking on 
 the subject of waste in his Farmers' Lawyer, says, 
 " If the house was uncovered at the commence- 
 ment of the lease, it is no waste if the tenant 
 suffers it to fall into further decay, without pull- 
 ing it doWn ; or if the walls were uncovered or 
 insufficiently supported, or if the house was 
 ruinous, and the tenant suffers it to be as it was, 
 without permitting it to become more ruinous. 
 So also it is no waste if the tenant removes fur- 
 naces, coppers, or other utensils of trade, though 
 fixed to the freehold, if he removes them before 
 the expiration of his term; but if he permits 
 them to remain after the expiration of the term, 
 he cannot remove them, for they are then vested 
 in the reversioner or landlord. In like manner, 
 green and hot-houses are removable ; so a barn 
 erected on the premises upon blocks of timber ; 
 and this notwithstanding there be a covenant to 
 leave all buildings which then were or should be 
 erected on the premises in repair ; for such cove- 
 nant means that the tenant shall leave all build- 
 ings annexed to and become part of the rever- 
 sionary estate: but if the tenant will actually 
 build, he must leave the buildings for the benefit 
 of the landlord ; thus if a tenant erect a beast- 
 house, a carpenter's shop, a cart-house, pump- 
 house, or fold-yard wall, letting such buildings 
 into the ground, he cannot remove the same; 
 for there is a distinction between erections ne- 
 cessary to the purpose of trade or manufactures, 
 such as hot-houses, and the like, and those that 
 are requisite in order to the better enjoyment of 
 the land demised, such as beast-houses and the 
 like ; and therefore those of the latter description 
 are not removable by the out-going tenant, but 
 must remain for the benefit of the inheritance." 
 A conservatory on a foundation of brick-work or 
 masonry, and attached to a dwelling-house, is a 
 
FLAIL. 
 
 540 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 fixture ; an oven is a fixture ; and an edging of 
 boxwood, shrubs, and fruit-trees, though planted 
 by the tenant, are fixtures ; but a pump erected 
 by a tenant, in such a manner as to be remov- 
 able without damage to the adjoining property, 
 is not a fixture. 
 
 FLAIL. A hand implement for threshing corn. 
 It is both simple and ancient ; it is the only 
 threshing implement in use over a large portion 
 of Continental Europe; and though now very 
 generally superseded in Britain by threshing 
 machines, it continues to be in use for general 
 purposes on multitudes of small farms, and for 
 particular purposes, such as the threshing out of 
 garden crops, of small seed-crops, and of speci- 
 mens or samples of the grain crops, on even large 
 farms. It consists of a hand-staff, or light ashen 
 rod, of about five feet in length ; a beater or rod 
 of ash, thorn, or other wood, of from 30 to 36 
 inches in length and 1| or 1| inch in diameter ; 
 and such a mutual attachment of the hand-staff 
 and the beater, as will allow the latter free play 
 both in striking the corn and in gyrating round 
 the head of the thresher. The method of using 
 the flail is so well and universally known as not 
 to require description. 
 
 FLAX, — botanically Linum Usitatissimum. A 
 well known annual field plant, belonging to the 
 same tribe as the pink and the sweet-william, and 
 cultivated for the sake of its fibre and its seeds. 
 It is a reputed native of the corn-fields of Britain, 
 but either was introduced from Egypt, or has 
 arisen out of the cultivation of some of the wild- 
 er species. Its root is simple, and fibrous ; its 
 stems are smooth, slender, erect, and generally 
 solitary, and divide into numerous branches near 
 the top, and usually attain a height of from 18 to 
 24 inches ; its leaves are alternate, narrow, lance- 
 olate, and somewhat glaucous ; its flowers grow 
 in a corymbose panicle, have a pale purplish blue 
 colour, and bloom in June and July ; its capsules 
 are globular and about the size of pease ; and its 
 seeds are flat, oval, glossy, outwardly brown, and 
 inwardly white, with highly mucilaginous skin, 
 and powerfully oily cotyledons. The white- 
 flowered variety, L. u. flore-albo, possesses the 
 same habit as the normal plant, but has white- 
 coloured flowers, and generally a whiter and 
 finer fibre. The oval-headed variety, L. u. cap- 
 sula ovata, is comparatively short and rigid in its 
 stem, and has oval-shaped and somewhat pointed 
 capsules. The tallest variety, L. u. altissi?num, 
 is distinguished by the comparative length and 
 slenderness of its stems. Other varieties are 
 somewhat numerous ; and some are popularly 
 characterized by certain distinguishable peculiar- 
 ities in their habit, and others by the countries 
 whence they are obtained, as the Riga flax, the 
 Dutch flax, and the Russian flax. However 
 much these varieties differ from one another in 
 distinctive features, and in the amount and 
 quality of their produce, they all, when grown 
 
 for a few years in the same circumstances and 
 with the same culture, become so completely as- 
 similated to one another as very strikingly to 
 evince their specific identity ; and yet they are 
 originally so very different in their height, bulk, 
 strength, and earliness, and especially in the 
 quality of their fibre and the amount of their 
 seeds, that they require to be well noted from 
 one another, and kept perfectly distinct. One 
 variety is low in stature, rapid in growth, coarse 
 in fibre, and prolific in seed, and is often well 
 adapted to the producing of mere seeds ; ano- 
 ther variety is very tall, fine, and slender, and 
 suits well for the production of excellent fibre 
 under the most favourable circumstances of cul- 
 ture; and other varieties possess intermediate 
 characters and adaptations, fitting them for dif- 
 ferent soils and situations, and for the diversified 
 or mixed purposes of the flax husbandry. 
 
 One grand use of the common flax, in its seve- 
 ral varieties, is the production of fibre for the 
 manufacture of all the multitudes of kinds of 
 linen fabric ; and another grand use is the pro- 
 duction of seeds, partly for food to cattle, partly 
 for the expression of linseed oil, and partly for 
 purposes of medicine. So exceedingly important 
 is the production of flax-fibre, linseed-cake, and 
 linseed-oil, that the discussion of it in identity 
 with the cultivation of the flax plant must occu- 
 py most of the sequel of the present long article ; 
 and as to the medicinal uses of the seeds, they 
 serve, in numerous cases and in several methods 
 of preparation, as excellent emollients and demul- 
 cents. " The mucus obtained by infusion," says 
 Dr. A. T. Thomson, " is a cheap and very useful 
 demulcent in catarrh, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and 
 dysentery, visceral inflammations, calculus, gonor- 
 rhoea, ardor urinas, and during the exhibition of 
 oxymuriate of mercury. When the seeds are boiled 
 in water, the mucus is obtained in union with a 
 portion of the oil, forming an useful local remedy 
 when given in the form of enema in abrasions of 
 the intestines and tenesmus, particularly in the 
 advanced stage of puerperal fever. The seeds, 
 ground into powder or meal, and simply mixed 
 with boiling water, form an excellent poultice." 
 The uses of the seeds, both whole and ground, 
 both in internal exhibition and in external appli- 
 cation, are valuable also in cattle medicine. See 
 the article Linseed, 
 
 History of British Flax-Culture. — Flax has been 
 cultivated in England and Scotland from time 
 immemorial ; and yet has never, in these coun- 
 tries, acquired the character of a regular, syste- 
 matic, and prominent article of culture. In 
 some districts and in fitful circumstances, it has 
 secured a considerable amount of attention ; but 
 in Great Britain as a whole, and even at times of 
 meagre or interrupted supply from Continental 
 Europe, it has nowhere been treated as a steady 
 and regular crop for the sake of its fibre. " A 
 sufficient quantity," remarks the General Report 
 
FLAX. 
 
 of Scotland in 1814, " has not been hitherto culti- 
 vated to supply the wants of the country. Even 
 in the present time, when the difficulty of procur- 
 ing foreign supplies is so great, and when con- 
 sequently imported flax has risen far beyond its 
 former medium price, its culture in Scotland has 
 not increased, notwithstanding all the advantages 
 that are offered for its cultivation by premiums 
 of considerable value, both in the quantity of flax, 
 and the production of its seed. Yet a great ex- 
 tent of the soil of Scotland is well adapted for 
 raising this crop to full perfection ; and the cir- 
 cumstance of this article not being grown in 
 quantity sufficient to supply a half of the demand, 
 must either be owing to the price not being ade- 
 quate to the expense, or the difficulties in the 
 way of its cultivation serving as a discourage- 
 ment to the husbandman." The chief hinder- 
 ances, however, and such as became increasingly 
 felt, and went far for a number of years to drive 
 the very name of, flax out of the nomenclature of 
 British husbandry, were the supposed precarious- 
 ness of the crop, the supposed exhausting effect 
 of it upon the soil, the withdrawal of the boun- 
 ties formerly offered for its cultivation, the pre- 
 vailingly bad methods of preparing the fibre for 
 the manufacturer, the excessive inroad which the 
 preparation of the fibre made upon the ordinary 
 avocations of the farm, the facility of obtaining 
 good and cheap prepared flax from the Continent, 
 and the enormous and increasing substitution of 
 linen fabrics by fabrics of cotton. But within 
 the last few years, attention has been aroused in 
 England to the home -production of flax-seed, 
 with the view of superseding the large and in- 
 creasing importation of oil-cake for the feeding 
 of cattle. Mr. John Warnes, an enterprizing 
 Norfolk gentlemen, originated the new move- 
 ment ; and, upon instituting comparative exper- 
 iments, he obtained from the seed alone much 
 more remunerating returns than had usually 
 been realized in Great Britain and Ireland from 
 the fibre ; and he has satisfactorily shown, that 
 without calculating anything whatever for the 
 value of the fibre, the flax-plant can be so culti- 
 vated as successfully to compete with the present 
 routine field crops of the British farmer. Other 
 experimentalists, too, have brought out corrobo- 
 rative results : and in particular, several gentle- 
 men of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex obtained flax 
 seeds at the rate of from 20 to 29 bushels per 
 acre, and Mr. Negus of Crimplesham near Down- 
 ham in Norfolk obtained them at the rate of 32 
 bushels per acre ; so that a very clear and en- 
 couraging prospect exists of flax-culture — if not 
 in the elaborate form of producing fibre for fine 
 linen fabrics, at least in the very facile and simple 
 form of producing seeds for cattle-food — becoming 
 a regular and important department of the agri- 
 cultural industry of Britain. 
 
 The cultivation of flax was introduced to Ire- 
 land from the Low Countries before the close of 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 the 17th century ; and it for a long period largely 
 engaged the attention of the farmers throughout 
 most of Ulster and part of Leinster. It was aided 
 and stimulated, for upwards of a century, by the 
 most liberal parliamentary grants, and by boun- 
 ties on exportation ; and it was far better suited 
 to the economy of the small-farm, hand-hoeing, 
 and limitedly-rotational system of Ireland than 
 to the large-farm, horse-hoeing, and fallow-crop- 
 ping system of Great Britain. The circumstances 
 in which the fibre was used, too, were such as to 
 protect the Irish cultivators from the injurious 
 effects of competition with the better-skilled and 
 the more industrious cultivators of Belgium and 
 Holland ; so that, though the preparation of the 
 fibre for the manufacturer was exceedingly faulty, 
 and greatly damaged the general quality of the 
 article, the work of cultivation continued to be 
 carried on with vigour. But after the year 1824, 
 when the parliamentary grants and bounties 
 were withdrawn, the cultivation rapidly dimin- 
 ished in both spirit and amount, till, after the 
 lapse of a few years, it seemed dwindling away 
 to extinction; and though plant, soil, climate, 
 and social circumstances were all favourable, the 
 method of preparing the fibre was so bad as al- 
 most to forbid all hope of such improvement as 
 might' successfully compete with continental 
 growers. In 1841, however, the Belfast Flax 
 Improvement Society was formed to give a new 
 impulse to the cultivation ; and it speedily origi- 
 nated numerous active auxiliaries, and spread 
 far and wide masses of arousing information, 
 which introduced a totally new system of flax- 
 culture, and invested it with brilliant prospects 
 of great and permanent success. " In Ireland 
 until recently," said Mr. Nicholls in 1845, "the 
 cultivation of flax was much neglected, and the 
 flax raised was of a very inferior quality. This 
 was not so much owing to the inferior nature of 
 the plant, as to .the mode of managing it after it 
 was drawn ; and the Society which was estab- 
 lished a few years ago directed its earliest at- 
 tention to correct this defective management. 
 They brought over skilful cultivators from Bel- 
 gium to instruct the people; and afterwards, 
 finding that this was not sufficient for the pur- 
 pose, they greeted a number of intelligent young 
 men, and sent them to Belgium to learn the 
 Flemish mode of cultivating and preparing the 
 flax ; and the result has been, that not only has 
 the quantity of flax grown greatly increased since 
 the Society commenced its operations, but the 
 quality of the flax has likewise greatly improved ; 
 and Ireland may now look forward, at no very 
 distant day, to produce as much as she requires 
 of this the great staple of her manufactures." 
 The results of the Belfast Flax Improvement 
 Society, in fact, have been successful beyond the 
 most sanguine expectations of its founders and 
 supporters ; and they comprise not only the re- 
 vival and great improvement of flax-culture in 
 
 541 
 
FLAX. 
 
 Ireland itself, but the introduction of it, under 
 the most promising circumstances, to some dis- 
 tricts of Great Britain. 
 
 Eligibility of Flax-Culture. — An opinion was 
 for a long time almost universal in Britain, and 
 is still very general, that the flax crop is always 
 precarious in this country, and but seldom remu- 
 nerating. Even so late as 1842, one of the best 
 Irish writers on agriculture said, " Flax is a 
 hazardous crop ; and, on this account, its culti- 
 vation cannot be regarded as on the increase. 
 In the market price there is also great variation, 
 being sometimes very high, while in others it is so 
 low that it cannot be regarded as remunerating." 
 Yet this writer wisely adds, by way of qualifying 
 his remark, that if the saving of the seed were 
 properly attended to, so as to combine the profits 
 of the seed with those of the fibre, " the culture 
 of flax would be better deserving of encourage- 
 ment than it is at present, as it would then be 
 greatly more remunerating to the cultivator." 
 
 In fact, the saving of the seed and the im- 
 proved method of preparing the fibre — two great 
 additions which have, within the last few years, 
 been made to the current practical notions of 
 cultivating flax in Britain and Ireland — have 
 entirely changed the economical aspect of the 
 crop, and now afford ample promise, that what 
 was formerly precarious and losing, may hence- 
 forth be, to the full, as certain and compensatory 
 as any of the oldest and best established routine 
 crops of our fields. " Until lately," said a writer 
 in the Irish Farmer's Journal in 1845, " the 
 object of the cultivation of flax was solely for 
 the fibre, the seed being entirely disregarded, 
 partly from the circumstance of its value not 
 being properly understood, and partly also from 
 an erroneous opinion being entertained, that the 
 saving of the seed would be injurious to the 
 fibre. Under these circumstances, it will be per- 
 ceived, that the full value of the crop was not 
 taken advantage of; and from the returns ob- 
 tained by such a course of management, no just 
 estimate of the flax plant could be formed. This 
 will be more apparent when it is considered, that 
 in circumstances unfavourable to the production 
 of fibre, an extra quantity of seed will be ob- 
 tained, and vice versa. When advantage is 
 taken of both products, it will therefore be seen 
 that a failure can rarely occur, although when 
 one only is regarded, such a casualty may occa- 
 sionally take place. That increased attention is 
 now paid to the seed in the north of Ireland, we 
 learn from a recent report of the Belfast Socie- 
 ty, in which it is stated, that almost everywhere 
 through the country, this season, a large portion 
 has been saved, and the quality of the fibre has 
 not been at all thereby deteriorated, as has been 
 erroneously supposed. From fully one-sixth of 
 the present crop, the seed has been saved, and 
 either used for feeding or sold for the oil mills, 
 the total value of which cannot be estimated at 
 
 42 FLAX. 
 
 less than from £60,000 to £80,000. It is further 
 believed, that in a few years all the seed of the 
 Irish flax crop will be saved, and an addition thus 
 made to the resources of the country amounting 
 nearly to half-a-million sterling per annum." 
 
 How much the improved method of preparing 
 the fibre may affect the value of the crop, cannot 
 be very closely ascertained, and must necessarily 
 be variable according to the degree both of former 
 deficiency and of present improvement ; but it 
 cannot be less than considerable, and possibly is 
 quite enough, even without the mighty aid of 
 saving the seed, to convert a constantly precari- 
 ous crop into a decidedly and generally safe one. 
 The quantity of flax imported into the United 
 Kingdom from Belgium, Holland, Germany, and 
 the ports of the Baltic has long been so enor- 
 mous as to demonstrate the existence of a suffi- 
 cient home demand for even the largest pro- 
 duce which British farmers may for a long time 
 be likely to raise ; and the occasional production 
 of fine fibre in the days of barbarous British cul- 
 ture, and especially the general production of 
 fine fibre under the improved methods which 
 have recently begun to be adopted, abundantly 
 prove that the soil, climate, and cultorial ap- 
 pliances of the United Kingdom are quite as 
 favourable for the production of prime flax as 
 the palmiest districts of Continental Europe. 
 " In 1841," remarks the writer in the Irish Far- 
 mer's J ournal already quoted, " the importations 
 of flax alone amounted to about 80,000 tons, at 
 an expense of from £5,000,000 to £6,000,000 ; 
 and if the sum paid for seed and oil- cake be 
 taken into account, the annual outlay cannot 
 have been less than from 10 to 12 millions ster- 
 ling. That the superiority of the foreign flax 
 was attributed solely to the superior management 
 it was made to undergo, was abundantly evident 
 from the fact, that occasionally samples were 
 produced at home which could successfully com- 
 pete with any imported. It was clear, therefore, 
 that if the practice adopted in the cases in which 
 the fine samples were produced was generally 
 acted on, the enormous annual outlay above re- 
 ferred to would be saved, and the growth and 
 management of the crop rendered almost as pro- 
 fitable to the cultivator as it was in its palmiest 
 days." Improved preparation of th?fibre, then, 
 is likely to work out more profit than accrued 
 from the whole of the former system of grants 
 and bounties ; and it is incomparably more hon- 
 ourable to the feelings of the cultivator, vastly 
 better fitted to induce a healthy and vigorous 
 exercise of his intellect, and far more adapted to 
 secure both steadiness and permanence of bene- 
 ficial results. 
 
 The conditions of soil most suitable for the 
 flax plant, the peculiar secretions effected by the 
 plant itself in the several parts of its organic 
 structure, and the mutual adaptations to which 
 it readily accommodates itself with other plants in 
 
543 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 agricultural rotations, are all highly favourable 
 to its constant cultivation on British farms. A 
 soil of moderate richness is the utmost which the 
 flax-plant requires ; a light, sandy, and decidedly 
 poor soil is sometimes perfectly sufficient ; and 
 even a common and but ill reclaimed bog soil 
 has been known to produce remunerating crops. 
 Far less manure is required than for some other 
 agricultural plants of kindred value ; for when 
 manure is either rich or abundant, the whole 
 plant is too strong and luxuriant, and the fibre 
 is coarse and of inferior quality. Nearly all the 
 fibrous portion of the plant is elaborated out of 
 the elements of air and water ; so that the fibre 
 alone might year after year for ages be removed 
 from the soil, or the plant might for ages be cul- 
 tivated on the same field by always returning to 
 it the seeds, the scutchings, and the steep-water, 
 without occasioning any considerable amount of 
 impoverishment. Even the seeds contain a very 
 small portion of inorganic matter, or matter de- 
 rived from the soil, compared to the whole bulk ; 
 and when they are all used in cattle-feeding on 
 the farm, and their inorganic principles afterwards 
 returned to the land as an item of farm-yard man- 
 ure, they too as well as the fibre may be taken 
 off for ages without causing much impoverish- 
 ment, — while the other items of farm-yard man- 
 ure, returned along with their inorganic princi- 
 ples, necessarily act in the way of enrichment. 
 Fewer agricultural delusions have been more 
 absurd than the fancy that flax is an exhausting 
 crop ; or, in any instances in which this has been 
 less a downright delusion than a seeming fact, all 
 the exhaustion entailed upon flax land has accru- 
 ed from the waste of the steep-water and espe- 
 cially of the seed and the scutchings.* 
 
 * Dr. Hodges, the able Chemist of the Chemico-Agri- 
 cultural Society of Ulster, speaks less strongly than 
 other modern savans respecting the unexhausting 
 nature of flax. He took a portion of remarkably fine 
 prize flax fibre* and burned it in a clean platinum 
 crucible to a state of complete incineration. " And 
 there remained in the crucible," says he, " a quantity 
 of a very light bulky ash, which possessed the same 
 slightly yellowish white tinge which the fibre exhib- 
 ited. ^ A qualitative examination of this ash showed, 
 that it contained the following ingredients of the soil, 
 —iron, lime, magnesia, soda, chlorine, sulphuric acid, 
 phosphoric acid. One hundred parts of the dry flax 
 fibre I found to contain 0*54 parts of ash, so that 2\ 
 cwt. of dressed flax would contain rather more than 
 a pound and a-half of the ingredients of the soil. A 
 quantity of ash was prepared, from the same sample, 
 and was found to possess the following composition, 
 in the hundred parts : — 
 
 Carbonate of lime, .... 62*00 
 Sulphate of lime, gypsum, . . . 7-15 
 Phosphate of lime, .... 13*06 
 
 Oxide of iron, 3*99 
 
 Carbonate of magnesia, with traces of chlo- 
 ride of sodium (common salt) . 2*00 
 Silica, 11-20 
 
 100-00" 
 
 Dr. Hodges also examined the water of a pool in 
 
 Recent experiments, also, have abundantly 
 proved that the flax-crop can easily interchange 
 its manurial refuse with other crops, and that, as a 
 member of rotations on farms of either the mixed 
 or the alternate husbandry, it acts excellently be- 
 fore either turnips, barley, or clover. " The 
 general introduction of flax-culture into Eng- 
 land," remarks Mr. Nicholls in the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society's Journal of 1845, " would con- 
 stitute a new and most valuable element in the 
 rotation, and would enable the farmer to vary 
 and extend his successions, which is in itself a 
 highly important consideration. The water in 
 which flax has been steeped is highly fertilizing 
 when applied to the land ; and the seed, when 
 properly saved and prepared, constitutes excel- 
 lent provender for cattle and milch cows. It 
 may be safely asserted, therefore, that a flax- 
 crop rightly managed is not only valuable as 
 affording increased means of employment for an 
 agricultural population, and highly profitable 
 for the purposes of the manufacturer, and for 
 the feeding of cattle, but that it moreover re- 
 turns to the soil, in the shape of manure, as 
 much if not more than any of the grain crops." 
 
 Soils for fiax. — The soil most suitable for flax 
 is of medium quality between stiff and loose, be- 
 tween clay and sand, between wet and dry, — any 
 soil, in fact, which does not readily part with 
 moisture, and yet is quite free from stagnant 
 water. A strong clay or a retentive subsoil is 
 too wet for flax in rainy weather, and too hard 
 and compact for it in dry weather ; and a dry 
 sandy or gravelly soil, upon an irretentive sub- 
 soil, is far too dry for it, and allows it to languish 
 and become dwarfed and feeble for want of a 
 requisite degree of moisture. Some of medium 
 quality, suitable for wheat crops, is excellent for 
 flax; cold clayey soil on a clayey bottom, if 
 thoroughly drained and well pulverized, does 
 exceedingly well ; light sand or light peat upon 
 a retentive subsoil or in a very humid climate, is 
 
 which 100 stooks of flax had been steeped for three 
 Aveeks, and found that it contained no greater a quan- 
 tity of the dissolved fertilizing salts of the plant than 
 could be represented or replaced by means of about 
 four shillings' worth of portable manure. But Dr. 
 Hodges committed the serious oversight of not inquir- 
 ing into the quality of the water in which his speci- 
 men of fibre had been steeped, or into the original 
 quality of that which filled bis steep-pool; and we 
 very strongly suspect the truth to be that all water 
 which is of a light or drinkable kind, such as generally 
 occurs in sandy and loamy and limestone countries, 
 extracts all or very nearly all the inorganic matter of 
 the fibre, so as if returned to the soil after the steep- 
 ing to render the crop almost perfectly unexhausting, 
 while water of a heavy, dead, undrinkable kind, such 
 as commonly occurs in marshy districts and in clay 
 hollows, may more or less make the fibre and the steep 
 similar to those of Dr. Hodges. The mere paucity or 
 abundance of carbonic acid, in fact, will go far to 
 make the difference; and this is a chief ingredient in 
 the drinkableness of water, — and may, in general, be 
 somewhat proximately estimated by that property. 
 
FLAX. 
 
 544 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 not amiss ; soil of any kind abounding in humus 
 and of middle-rate cohesiveness, is prime ; and 
 light lea land, which has been laid down clean 
 and in good order, and which has borne a crop 
 of oats after being broken up, is highly suit- 
 able. Friable wheat-bearing soil was formerly 
 viewed as unable to endure the scourge of both 
 wheat and flax ; but may now, since the discovery 
 of the non-exhausting nature of the latter, be re- 
 garded as exceedingly eligible for flax ; and the 
 very best land of this description in Belgium and 
 the north of France, constituting a deep rich 
 loam and locally known under the name of fat 
 land, is very frequently and most successfully 
 subjected in succession to wheat and flax. A 
 clayey loam is preferred by some of the Belgians 
 for flax; and a sandy loam by others. Every 
 variety of soil which Holland contains is used for 
 flax ; and the greater portion of this is marine 
 alluvium, mixed with a black mould somewhat 
 similar in appearance to peat. Some very rich 
 land situated to the north of Rotterdam and 
 called droog-maakery or " land made dry," bears 
 excellent crops of flax in dry seasons, but allows 
 them almost to perish in very rainy seasons. 
 " The strongest clay that I saw in Holland," says 
 Mr, Aiton, " was a few miles north from Breda, and 
 the flax on it did not appear to advantage, owing 
 in part.to the land being full of weeds and slovenly 
 farmed. Between Dort and Rotterdam, and in 
 some other districts, where the soil is chiefly 
 sand, mixed with black mud or sediment, but 
 situated so low as not readily to become too dry, 
 the flax I saw growing was excellent, and that of 
 last year's crop, which I saw in various stages of 
 manufacture, was also of the very best quality ; 
 but in very rainy seasons the flax on such land 
 is apt to lodge. " The alluvial land of the 
 Scottish haughs or of the richest of the English 
 meadows, does well for flax when loamy, but 
 causes it to be lodged when clayey. An upper- 
 stratum of black mossy earth, provincially known 
 as " grey land," combined with an under-stratum 
 of clay, and resting on a subsoil of till or argil- 
 laceous gravel, has in some parts of Scotland 
 produced crops of flax of comparatively far higher 
 value than its best possible crops of oats. " Moor- 
 land of a clayey bottom, and having much mossy 
 earth on its surface, and which would not yield 
 more than five bolls of oats per acre, has often 
 yielded, when the season was favourable, from 20 
 to 40 stones of flax per acre." — Flax, in the cli- 
 mate of England or Ireland, will succeed in pro- 
 per soil at the height of 700 feet above the level 
 of the sea ; but it ought not, in even the lowest 
 and most favourable situations, to be sown in 
 small enclosures, or near the shade of planta- 
 tions or of high hedges ; for it requires full light 
 and ample ventilation in order to escape the at- 
 tack of mildew. 
 
 Preparation for the Flax Crop. — The manuring 
 of land for flax ought, in many instances, to have 
 reference far more to the mechanical than to the 
 
 chemical condition of the soil. Land, for the 
 most part, is in far more danger of being too rich 
 for flax than too poor for it ; and, whatever be 
 its condition, as to either its own mineral consti- 
 tution or the recent cropping it has undergone, 
 is best prepared for flax by being very moder- 
 ately affected with stimulating manure, very 
 thoroughly cleaned of weeds, and either me- 
 chanically or by means of mineral intermixture 
 rendered finely yet very slowly porous to the per- 
 meation of water. Treatment suitable for one 
 set of lands, whether by manuring, fallowing, or 
 tillage, would be very unsuitable for another set ; 
 and exceedingly different treatments, sometimes 
 ignorantly and sometimes with great skill, have 
 been both practised and recommended. 
 
 If land be in a fit enough condition for bearing 
 oats, it ought not to be manurially fertilized for 
 flax ; if it contain an over-proportion of clay, it 
 may receive a dose of lime or other calcareous 
 manure ; if it be light and hungry, it ought to 
 contain the residue of a very powerful dose of 
 stimulating manure, applied to the preceding 
 crop ; if it be of medium texture and somewhat 
 exhausted in fertility, it may be strengthened by 
 a dose of peat ashes, of burnt ditch scourings, or 
 of tolerably good police manure ; and if it be a 
 poor lea-land, broken up for oats to precede the 
 flax, it ought to enjoy the effects of a manuring 
 upon the sward. But the general practice in 
 Belgium, where flax is frequently preceded by 
 wheat or even both preceded and followed by it, 
 and where the nitrogenous and alkaline prin- 
 ciples previously in the soil have been in a main 
 degree dissipated, is to make a very liberal appli- 
 cation of finely-divided stimulating manure ; and 
 a distinguished British writer on agriculture — 
 more in allusion to this fact than to what is pro- 
 per in the usual circumstances of our own coun- 
 try, — says, " The most effective manure for flax 
 is the sweepings of the streets in towns, mixed 
 with the emptying of privies and the cleaning 
 out of the butchers' stalls and shambles. On 
 light soils, much manure is required ; and where 
 night-soil cannot be obtained in sufficient quan- 
 tities, rape-cakes from which the oil has been 
 expressed, dissolved in cows' urine, form the best 
 manure. In many parts of Flanders, 500 rape- 
 cakes are used for every acre of flax, besides the 
 usual quantity of Dutch ashes and of liquid man- 
 ure, which is the drainings of dunghills and the 
 urine of cattle collected in a cistern and allowed 
 to become putrid." But the most powerful and 
 even common liquid manure of the Flemish far- 
 mers consists of the urine of cattle and the drain- 
 ings of water-closets, almost saturated or at least 
 mightily impregnated with rape-cakes ; and this 
 is very generally or even chiefly applied to the 
 flax-crop. " The field, after two or three bor- 
 rowings, is backed up in the centre, and ploughed 
 round in but one set, so as to leave it without any 
 furrow. A heavy roller is then drawn across the 
 ploughing by three horses, the manure is spread 
 
FLAX. 
 
 545 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 equally over the entire surface ; and, when well 
 harrowed in by 8 or 9 strokes of the harrow, the 
 seed is sown, which is also harrowed in by a light 
 harrow with wooden pins of less than 3 inches ; 
 and the surface, to conclude the operation, is 
 again carefully rolled, so that nothing can ex- 
 ceed the smoothness and cultivated appearance 
 of fields thus accurately prepared." 
 
 When the land intended for flax is a heavy 
 loam in tillage and foul with weeds, it requires 
 to be as thoroughly worked and cleaned by the 
 process of the summer-fallow as if it were intended 
 for wheat ; and it ought also to be trench-plough- 
 ed, to be worked deep, and to receive its dose of 
 compost, of police manure, of somewhat short 
 farm-yard manure, or of other suitable fertilizing 
 manure at so very early a period of the fallow as 
 to be completely incorporated with the soil pre- 
 vious to the sowing of the seed. When the land 
 is a heavy loam but tolerably clean, it may bear a 
 crop of potatoes instead of undergoing the sum- 
 mer part of the fallow ; and in this case, it ought 
 to receive as much extra manure as the potato- 
 crop is likely to extract. When the land is un- 
 der any other circumstances, no matter what be 
 its precise character, or what crop it last bore, it 
 ought to be broken up about the dead of winter, 
 and thoroughly exposed to the mellowing action 
 of the weather, and brought, if practicable, into 
 as finely a pulverized condition as if all were to 
 be disposed in the small seed-beds of a kitchen 
 garden. The small farmers of the north of Ire- 
 land generally sow flax after potatoes, and pre- 
 pare the land merely by furrowing with the spade 
 and shovel, or sometimes with the plough, and 
 by harrowing down in the spring without any 
 ploughing ; and they thus keep on the surface, 
 to serve as the seed-bed, the precise stratum 
 which has been exposed throughout the winter, 
 and which contains the richest residue of man- 
 urial matter from the potato crop. But they 
 certainly err at once in taking flax after potatoes, 
 in giving the ground so little tilth, and in keeping 
 the most fertilized portions of the soil at the sur- 
 face. The Belgians generally take flax immedi- 
 ately after corn, or the second year after potatoes, 
 or immediately after clover which has been one 
 year in lea ; and esteem it bad practice to take 
 it immediately after either potatoes or turnips ; 
 and they usually give strong land three or even 
 four preparatory ploughings, and plough light 
 sandy land in January and February six inches 
 deep, and thoroughly harrow it and heavily roll 
 or trample it at the time of sowing. 
 
 "A winter and spring ploughing," says Mr. 
 Aiton, " may be given in Belgium, where the 
 climate is so fine that the farmers can sow their 
 crops either early or late, as they find it to be 
 convenient ; but in Scotland, these operations 
 would throw the sowing of the flax too late, and 
 a second furrow would open the soil so much 
 that the drought would hurt the lint. The most 
 common preparation for flax in Scotland, and 
 L 
 
 indeed the best that has yet been discovered, is 
 to sow oats as a lea crop, and flax as the second 
 crop. If the land is very rich, two crops may be 
 taken, — say beans as the first, oats for the second, 
 and flax for a third crop; or if the ground is not 
 in danger of becoming foul, oats for the first crop, 
 beans for the second, and oats for the third, to be 
 followed with flax ; and if the land is very poor, 
 it may be manured on the sward, so as to secure 
 a good crop of oats, and give a fair chance of 
 good flax the crop after oats. In all cases, and 
 in every species of soil, land intended for flax 
 ought to be ploughed about the end of January 
 or early in the month of February, that it may 
 more readily retain a due proportion of moisture, 
 so necessary for the growth of flax. If ploughed 
 too early, the soil is injured by the winter rains, 
 and soured into mortar, if a clay soil, — and the 
 weeds will more readily gain a footing than when 
 the ground is not ploughed so early ; and when 
 the ground is too late in being ploughed, or when 
 it gets a second furrow in the spring, it is too 
 much opened to the drought, and cannot retain 
 through the summer that portion of moisture 
 that a flax-crop requires." But these instruc- 
 tions must be greatly modified by the constitu- 
 tion of the soil and subsoil, the state of the sub- 
 soil drainage, the nature of the climate, and the 
 direction and gradient of the exposure ; and far 
 surer instructions, though necessarily more in- 
 definite ones, are so to treat the land as to com- 
 bine a maximum of cleaning and pulverization 
 with a medium degree of permeability to water. 
 " The only other preparation for the seed," con- 
 tinues Mr. Aiton, " is to harrow the land well 
 with ordinary iron-harrows, so as to bring to the 
 surface any couch-weeds that can be come at, 
 and which, with stones and every incumbrance, 
 ought to be removed. Grass-harrows, or those 
 having short teeth, if they are at hand, may be 
 used in covering in the seed after it is sown ; but- 
 ordinary harrows ought to be used in smoothing 
 the ground for the seed, and they may do to 
 cover it also, if no other are kept on the farm. 
 If the soil is open and dry, it should be rolled ; 
 but not if the land is firm, and a heavy soil, or 
 when the ground is damp at the time." 
 
 The Sowing of Flax. — The time of sowing flax 
 ill Britain and Ireland varies from about the 
 third week of March till about the second week 
 ©f May; and, though it must in every case be de- 
 termined far more by the weather than by the 
 calendar, yet it ought never if possible to be 
 earlier than the last week of March, or later 
 than about the 15th of April. — The seed is al- j 
 ways sown broadcast, and either very lightly 
 harrowed in or both harrowed and rolled accord- 
 ing to the condition of the soil ; but it requires, 
 in every instance, to lie very near the surface 
 and to enjoy abundance of aeration, — for if de- 
 posited half an inch deep, it will not germinate. 
 In Britain and Ireland, the covering of the seed 
 is usually eflected by a double turn of the har- 
 2 M 
 
FLAX. 
 
 546 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 rows, — very commonly, by the ordinary harrows 
 of the farm ; but in Belgium, where the nature of 
 the plant is better understood, and its habits have 
 been closely observed, the covering is frequently 
 effected on light soils in the same manner of 
 treading in as the covering of fine seeds on the 
 small beds of kitchen gardens, and generally on 
 both these soils and all others by the light draught 
 of a bush-harrow, or a hurdle, or a traineau. 
 
 The quantity of seed, or the thickness of sow- 
 ing, ought to be far greater for a crop of fibre 
 than for a crop of seeds. A thick growth of flax 
 makes the stems run up to a comparatively great 
 height, and prevents them from deflecting and 
 ramifying, and consequently produces long, con- 
 tinuous, and fine fibres ; while a thin growth 
 dwarfs the height, enlarges the diameter, en- 
 courages many ramifications, and causes numer- 
 ous deflections in the fibrous deposit, and conse- 
 quently produces a short and coarse fibre, which 
 makes a profusion of breaks in dressing, and runs 
 much into the refuse or inferior sorts of dressed 
 flax. The Belgians, especially in the prime flax 
 districts, always grow their flax exceedingly thick, 
 and appear either to use a somewhat larger pro- 
 portion of seed than has been commonly used in 
 Britain and Ireland, or to obtain a more uniform 
 germination of it by means of their more cauti- 
 ous and scientific method of sowing. But when 
 a crop of seed, and not fine fibre, is the cultiva- 
 tor's object, flax ought to be sown thin, in order 
 that the plants may enjoy ample space and en- 
 couragement for branching during the time of 
 growth, and may be stimulated and fed by the 
 most abundant supplies of fresh air during the 
 time of blooming and filling ; for not only do the 
 lateral shoots and the branches as well as the 
 main stems of a thin crop bear seeds, but all the 
 seeds, as compared to those of a thick crop, are 
 superior in plumpness, weight, oil, and general 
 value. About 3| bushels per acre may be re- 
 garded as the proper quantity, in ordinary cir- 
 cumstances, for the finest fibre; 3 bushels, for 
 ordinary fibre ; and 2 or bushels for seed ; yet 
 these quantities must be modified both by the 
 particular variety of the seed used, and by the 
 peculiar conditions of the land. 
 
 Clover and grass forage plants might seem, at 
 first sight, to form a very suitable joint crop with 
 flax, or at least to be as much in keeping with 
 flax as with corn ; but, with flax, and especially 
 with flax grown thick for the sake of the fibre, 
 they want sufficient space and aeration, and are 
 liable to be dwarfed, enfeebled or utterly smoth- 
 ered. Yet the sowing of grass-seeds with flax- 
 seeds is thought by many persons a good prac- 
 tice ; and, whenever this practice is adopted, the 
 grass-seeds should be sown, not simultaneously 
 with the flax-seeds, but by a separate broad-cast- 
 ing, either on the same day to be harrowed in 
 along with the flax-seeds, or at the time of the 
 weeding of the young flax-plants to be covered 
 in by the creeping movement of the weeders. If 
 
 all the various seeds were mixed together with 
 the view of being simultaneously sown, the flax- 
 seeds and the clover- seeds, on account of their 
 comparative smallness and weight, would sink 
 to the bottom, the hand of the sower would often 
 be filled far more with one kind of seeds than 
 with another, and the action of even the slightest 
 breeze upon each handful would occasion the 
 flax-seeds and the clover-seeds to fall much more 
 to leeward than the grass-seeds. 
 
 The Weeding of Flax. — Every young flax crop 
 ought to be thoroughly hand-weeded when the 
 crops are about three inches high. If the weed- 
 ing take place before the plants are three inches 
 high, a large proportion of the weeds will not be 
 sufficiently up to be detected and eradicated ; 
 and if it do not take place till the plants are four 
 or five inches high, the crop may be so seriously 
 bruised and broken by the weeders as not readily 
 to rise again, and as to retain a permanent feeble- 
 ness or tendency to fracture in the fibre at the 
 parts where the plants were bent, Women and 
 children ought to conduct the weeding process, 
 in the same kneeling or lying posture and with 
 the same creeping movement as in the cleaning 
 of the seed-beds of kitchen - gardens ; and in 
 Belgium, they weed on their hands and knees, 
 in order that they may have a close view of even 
 the smallest weeds, — tie coarse pieces of cloth 
 round their knees, in order to bruise the plants 
 as little as possible, — and creep forward with 
 their face to the wind, in order that such plants 
 as are lodged may be assisted by the breeze to 
 rise. But the hand- weeding of all sorts of broad- 
 cast crops on the Continent is conducted in such 
 a way as to suggest improvement to British 
 farmers. " All sorts of crops," remarks Mr. 
 Aiton, "are carefully hand- weeded in Holland, 
 Belgium, and France; and this is the greatest 
 superiority that the farmers in these countries 
 display over their brethren in Britain. From 
 the month of April till the end of June, you may 
 see groups of people, of both sexes and of every 
 age able to pull weeds, lying or standing on one 
 species of crop or another, either hand-weeding 
 or hoeing with the greatest care ; and when the 
 wheat or other crops are anywhere too thick, 
 they pull up part of the stems along with the 
 weeds, and every plant they pull is carried home 
 to the farm-house, and boiled with chaff, cut 
 straw, &c, and served up to the cows in the form 
 of soup." All couch and other weeds with stolo- 
 niferous roots or creeping stems ought to have 
 been extirpated in the preparatory processes of 
 tillage ; but if any remain, they must not be torn 
 up during the hand-weeding, for they would tear 
 up more flax-plants by their removal than they 
 will damage by remaining. Natural grasses, too, 
 may be let alone ; for either they are of a nature 
 to do very trifling injury, or of a habit of root to 
 do more harm by eradication than by growing. 
 
 The Pulling of Flax. — Flax is gathered by be- 
 ing pulled up carefully and in small handfuls by 
 
FLAX. 
 
 547 
 
 FLAX 
 
 the root. It ought, in every case, to be pulled 
 when perfectly dry ; for if it be in even a slight 
 degree damp, it sustains much damage from the 
 rubbing and bruising action of the hand in pull- 
 ing. Any portion of the crop which may have 
 become lodged before being ready for gathering, 
 ought to be immediately pulled and placed by 
 itself, for it cannot have strength to undergo the 
 operation of scutching along with the sound por- 
 tions of the crop ; and every part which becomes 
 ready for gathering before the rest, whether oc- 
 curring in patches in the best divisions of the 
 field or in belts along the crown of the ridges, 
 ought to be pulled without waiting for even one 
 day till the less forward parts become ready. 
 The whole process of pulling, whether rapid or 
 very prolonged, ought with all possible care and 
 judgment to be so conducted as to effect a 
 thorough assortment of all the different qualities 
 on the field, so that all the damaged portions of 
 the crop may form one group, all the coarse por- 
 i tions another, all the medium portions another, 
 and all the finest portions another. The careful 
 assorting of the different qualities of a crop as 
 they are pulled, is one great secret of the success 
 of flax-culture in the Low Countries as to both 
 the excellence of the fibre and the superior qual- 
 ity of the seeds ; and were it duly practised in 
 Great Britain and Ireland, it would greatly in- 
 crease the aggregate market value of our flax 
 produce, and powerfully subserve the desirable 
 object of deriving a joint profit from at once oil- 
 seeds, food-seeds, coarse fibre, and fine fibre. 
 
 When the chief object of flax is thoroughly 
 ripened seed, whether for next year's sowing or 
 for the expression of oil, it should grow till the 
 capsules acquire a brown colour, and become firm 
 and hard, with their points so sharp as to fix 
 themselves in the skin of the hand that presses 
 them, and till nearly all the leaves have fallen 
 from the stems or have become yellow and begun 
 to wither ; when the chief object is to combine 
 the saving of the seed for consumption as cattle- 
 food with the obtaining of a fibre sufficiently 
 good for the common or more ordinary purposes 
 of the linen manufacture, the flax should grow 
 till the seeds are quite fully formed, but not till 
 they are ripened ; and when the chief object is a 
 maximum quantity of the finest attainable quality 
 of fibre, the crop should grow only till the flowers 
 begin to fall off, or till only the lower leaves and 
 the lower part of the stem begin to turn yellow- 
 ish, or till about three weeks before the natural 
 time of the seeds becoming ripe. When flax for 
 the manufacturer is pulled too soon, the fibre is 
 
 i weak and soft ; and when it passes into a state of 
 
 ' ripeness suitable to the yielding of mature seed, 
 the fibre is dry, hard, coarse, and ill-coloured. 
 Flax pulled with a special view to the seed is 
 
 1 laid in handfuls crossing each other as they are 
 pulled, and is allowed to remain for a few days 
 in this state to wither and to mature the seed ; 
 
 I and flax intended jointly for the seed and the 
 
 fibre, and designed to be early rippled and 
 steeped, is often treated in the same way. Al- 
 most all flax, upon the old Irish and British 
 method of treatment, was hurried direct from 
 the field to the steeping-pond without any refer- 
 ence whatever to the saving of the seed ; but in 
 the improved methods, most of it, whatever be 
 its precise or special destination, is bound by the 
 pullers into loose sheaves or bunches, and ar- 
 ranged long enough into hoodless stooks to have 
 its seeds sufficiently hardened for the process of 
 rippling, and its whole substance if requisite 
 sufficiently winnowed to be stored up for some 
 months either in well-covered stacks or in barns. 
 The bands for tieing the sheaves may be formed 
 either of the flax itself, or of single lengths of 
 wheaten straw, or, what is much better, of bruised 
 and dried rushes ; and the pullers may carry sup- 
 plies of them round their waists, and take them 
 down one by one as they are wanted. The stook- 
 ing of the flax, or the arranging of it into small 
 drying-stacks, is the furthest preparatory labour 
 requisite when the rippling and the steeping are 
 performed in autumn ; but the building of it into 
 large stacks or the storing of it into barns, though 
 a very operose work, becomes indispensable when 
 the rippling and the steeping are postponed till 
 spring. The stacks common in some flax coun- 
 tries are as wide as the bundles are long, about 
 8 or 9 feet high, and frequently from 20 to 30 
 feet long. " If the field is extensive, several of 
 these stacks are formed at regular distances ; they 
 are carefully thatched at top; and the ends, which 
 are quite perpendicular, are kept up by means of 
 two strong poles driven perpendicularly into the 
 ground ; these stacks look from a distance like 
 short mud walls, such as are seen in Devonshire." 
 
 " The management of the crop after pulling," 
 says the Irish Farmer's Journal, "will depend on 
 whether it is to be watered in the autumn or in 
 the ensuing spring. The former practice has been 
 almost universal in Ireland, but the latter is very 
 generally employed on the Continent. Where 
 the crop is to be watered in the autumn, the 
 Dutch growers lay the flax in handfuls, after 
 pulling, until a small heap is thus formed, each 
 handful crossing the preceding one, so that the 
 flax is easily afterwards taken up in rippling. 
 The handfuls must not be made too large, or they 
 will be grasped and retained with difficulty dur- 
 ing that process. After remaining a short time 
 in this manner, the seed-pods are taken off by 
 the rippling-comb. Before rippling, the pods 
 should have become so much hardened that they 
 will break readily when pressed between the fin- 
 ger and thumb. Another mode of treating the 
 flax and saving the seed, is to allow the latter to 
 remain on the stock until the following spring ; 
 and this is obviously the method by which seed 
 of the best quality is obtained. This kind of 
 management has been carried to very great per- 
 fection on the Continent ; and so famous has the 
 district around Courtray, in the north of France, 
 
FLAX. 
 
 548 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 become for it, that it is usually known as the 
 Courtray system. The superior quality of the 
 flax produced in those districts shows that the 
 plan is equally adapted for the production of the 
 finest fibre as well as the best quality of seed. 
 According to this system, the flax, after being 
 pulled, is placed on end in the manner of sheaves 
 in a stook ; and so skilfully is it arranged in this 
 position, that it is difficult to blow down by winds, 
 nor has rain much effect upon it. It stands in 
 this position for eight or ten days, by which time, 
 if the weather be fine, it will be thoroughly dried, 
 after which it is to be bound up in bunches, and 
 made up into small wind-stooks in the field, after 
 remaining in which for some time it is carried 
 home to the barn, or stacked in some convenient 
 situation during the winter. The seed may then 
 be taken off during the winter or spring, as lei- 
 sure permits ; but in this case, it is not taken off 
 by the ripple, but by a sort of thrashing, the foot 
 of the workman, during the operation, being kept 
 on the floor, to prevent its being displaced and 
 entangled, which would cause it to be destroyed 
 in the after-processes of manufacture. The treat- 
 ment of the crop is the same, with little variation, 
 when the fibre is the chief object ; and the Cour- 
 tray practice, where the best flax is produced, 
 is to stack the crop and allow it to remain so 
 throughout the winter, the watering then taking 
 place in the spring or summer ensuing. Most of 
 our farmers, it is true, can scarcely afford to re- 
 main so long without obtaining a return from 
 their crop ; but did not this difficulty arise, it is 
 apparent that this system of management is at- 
 tended by many advantages. According to the 
 usual practice of watering in the autumn, the 
 treatment of the crop often materially interferes 
 with the operations of the harvest ; and for the 
 grassing of it very unfavourable weather frequent- 
 ly occurs ; but these difficulties are entirely ob- 
 viated by grassing in the beginning of the summer 
 following. Throughout a considerable proportion 
 of the flax-growing districts in the north of Ire- 
 land, an unfounded prejudice prevails against 
 the adoption of this course of management, on 
 the supposed ground of a coarse quality of fibre 
 being thereby produced ; but the experience of 
 the Courtray farmers is decidedly opposed to this 
 opinion, as they produce the finest samples which 
 come into our market." 
 
 The Rippling of Flax. — The old method, prac- 
 tised in Great Britain and Ireland, of paying no 
 attention to flax-seed, but allowing it to perish 
 during the process of steeping, was one of the 
 most outrageous instances of waste ever known 
 in the practice of agriculture. The steeping of 
 the seed along with the whole plant damaged the 
 quality of the fibre, rendered the water poisonous 
 to fishes, and sent up such effluvia into the at- 
 mosphere as made the whole vicinity both very 
 disagreeable and decidedly unwholesome. The 
 removal of the seed, even irrespective of its own 
 value, facilitates the several operations to which | 
 
 the flax is subjected, and occasions both a consi- 
 derable saving of the time of the workmen, and 
 a very material improvement in the quality of 
 the fibre. But the intrinsic value of the seed, 
 especially when estimated in the light of the many 
 useful purposes which the seed itself, its ground 
 meal, its oil, and its oil-cakes can be made to 
 serve, is, in the aggregate, very nearly equal to 
 the value of the fibre ; so that a neglect of the 
 seed, additional to the consequent nuisance and 
 mischief, amounts to the waste of almost one half 
 of the whole crop. "The seed of flax is always 
 taken off on the Continent, and preserved, either 
 to be sown, or to be bruised for oil, or given to 
 cattle ; and it betrays great want of industry to 
 do otherwise in any country. The seed of flax 
 may not always answer to be sown in Britain, 
 nor can the whole of it be wanted for seed ; but 
 it is too valuable for the oil it contains, and as 
 food for cattle, to allow any part of it to be lost. 
 It is of great value, both as food and as medicine, 
 for cattle, and particularly for horses. From the 
 extraordinary labour performed by cart and road 
 horses, and the high feeding they require, they 
 are often subjected to inflammation in their blood 
 and intestines, by which much property is lost. 
 But if the proprietors of horses could be in- 
 duced to give each of them a single handful of 
 linseed daily or occasionally, boiled with beans 
 or other food, it would operate as an antidote or 
 a cure to those inflammations by which so many 
 horses are lost." See the article Linseed. 
 
 The seed, when properly dried on the pulled 
 plants, may be removed, either in a comparatively 
 fresh state by rippling, or in a comparatively 
 withered and indurated state by thrashing or 
 beating. When the plants have been thoroughly 
 and uniformly dried, they are less likely to suffer 
 injury during the process of rippling or thrashing 
 than if they were badly or irregularly dried ; yet 
 they must, in any case, be very gently rubbed or 
 handled, else their fibre will be injured. The 
 rippling implement is a sort of comb, with smooth, 
 cylindrical, tapering, iron teeth, about 12 inches 
 in length, and adjusted so close to one another as 
 to let the stems but not the seeds pass between 
 them ; it may be so fastened on the middle of a 
 long stool or short form as to let two persons sit 
 on opposite sides of it, and make alternate passes 
 of handfuls of flax through its teeth ; and the 
 stool ought to stand on a large sheet of canvass 
 or large winnow cloth, so that the seeds may be 
 caught as they fall, and prevented from being 
 scattered or injured on the floor. The separation 
 of the seed by thrashing or beating, is effected by 
 means of a flat wooden bat, somewhat similar to 
 a small cricket-bat. 
 
 If the seed be rippled in even a slightly damp 
 condition, it cannot without great difficulty be 
 afterwards dried or prevented from heating. It 
 ought, in this case, to be frequently turned on 
 the floor of the barn or of some other well- venti- 
 lated apartment ; and the turnings ought at first 
 
FLAX. 
 
 549 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 to be frequent, and afterwards continued as long 
 and as often as the circumstances of the seed and 
 air and temperature may require. When the 
 capsules are thoroughly dried, they may be passed 
 through a winnowing-machine, to drive off any 
 dust which may be attached to them ; and they 
 may then be stored for use. But when the seed 
 is not rippled till spring, it is in general very 
 easily saved ; and, for this reason, all seed intend- 
 ed for sowing or otherwise required to be per- 
 fectly sound, ought to be thoroughly dried in 
 autumn, kept properly stacked through winter, 
 and not rippled till the tine dry weather of spring. 
 If the weather at the time of the pulling of the 
 crop should be in any degree unsettled, the seed 
 then rippled may be in all respects perfectly good 
 for food, but cannot possibly be so well preserved 
 as to be relied upon for sowing. 
 
 The Steeping of Flax. — The steeping of flax in 
 water excites a fermentation in the juices of the 
 plant, dissolves the mucilaginous cement between 
 the woody stem and the fibrous interior, and 
 destroys the network of minute vessels which 
 exists interwovenly with the longitudinal fibres ; 
 and it, in consequence, facilitates the separation 
 of the woody matter from the fibres in the sub- 
 sequent process of scutching, and converts the 
 natural mass of fibrous network into artificial 
 fascicles of perfectly free and filiform fibres. But 
 the process of steeping requires great nicety as 
 to the water employed, the receptacles in which 
 the water is held, the manner in which the flax 
 is deposited in the water, and especially the 
 length of time, or rather the amount of chemical 
 change, which transpires between the beginning 
 and the end of the process. Too small an amount 
 of change will render the operation of scutching 
 both difficult and injurious ; too great an amount 
 of change will partially decompose the fibre it- 
 self, or render much of it fit only for tow ; even 
 an hour or two of difference of time will some- 
 times sensibly affect the quality of the fibre; and 
 the various circumstances of softness, stagnation, 
 and cleanness in the water, and of such a method 
 of depositing the flax in it as to secure an uni- 
 form degree of chemical action in every part of 
 a stem, of a bundle, and of an entire deposit, may 
 modify both the appearance and the useful pro- 
 perties of the fibre to probably one-third or even 
 almost one-half of its marketable value. The 
 profitable production of fibre, in fact, depends 
 more upon the proper steeping of the flax than 
 upon all the other processes of either culture or 
 preparation. 
 
 The Dutch enjoy eminent advantages for steep- 
 ing flax, yet do not always turn them to the best 
 account. The numerous small canals or fosses 
 which divide and subdivide their estates and 
 farms, and which serve as fences to the different 
 enclosures, are admirably adapted to the steeping 
 of flax, and have probably been the main cause of 
 the high reputation which Dutch flax has so long 
 enjoyed. The fosses receive the rain-water from 
 
 the surface of the adjacent fields; they are al- 
 ways open to the sun and weather ; they are so 
 shallow as easily to absorb and retain heat, and 
 to be kept always warm ; and they have just 
 enough of current to be maintained in a state of 
 purity without in any proper degree acquiring 
 the character of streams. A Dutch flax-grower 
 constructs a dam across one of the fosses, cleans 
 out the weeds and the mud for a few yards ad- 
 jacent to the dam, lays in three or four rows of 
 sheaves of flax next the dam, packs the sheaves 
 close together with the root end down and the 
 top end slanting toward the dam, covers the three 
 or four rows of sheaves with a stratum of about 
 six inches of the rank herbage and the bottom- 
 mud of the fosse, and proceeds to deposit more 
 courses of sheaves and to give them the same 
 covering of weeds and mud till the whole space is 
 filled or the whole crop deposited. But the cover- 
 ing part of this process is very decidedly objection- 
 able, and so pollutes and stains the fibre with the 
 silt and the vile weeds as to damage its appear- 
 ance, to deteriorate its quality, and to occasion 
 great unnecessary trouble in the subsequent pro- 
 cesses of cleaning. The prime adaptation of the 
 fosses for steeping is, in a serious degree, coun- 
 teracted by the dirty and unreflecting practice of 
 covering the flax with mud. 
 
 The steeping of flax in the Courtray district is 
 a distinct occupation or trade, and is conducted 
 in a manner so highly beneficial to the quality 
 of the fibre that crops are sent thither from all 
 parts of Flanders to be steeped. " A piece of 
 water over which alders grow is chosen in pre- 
 ference, as the leaves of that tree steeped in the 
 water give the flax a peculiar tint, which is 
 thought desirable ; or if such a place is not at 
 hand, alder leaves are sometimes tied up in the 
 bundles of flax. It is thought that the alder leaves 
 also drive away insects, which injure the fibres 
 of the flax while steeping. The best and most 
 experienced steepers, however, disregard these 
 notions, and prefer the clear soft water of the 
 river Lys, which they confine in long ponds made 
 for the purpose along the side of the river, of such 
 a depth that the flax may stand nearly upright 
 in them without touching the bottom. This re- 
 quires a depth of five feet or more. If they cannot 
 be made so deep, the flax must be placed in a slant- 
 ing position in the water, the root end lowermost, 
 and the upper end a little under the surface of 
 the water. It is kept in this position by means 
 of mats spread over it; and poles with stones 
 placed on them keep the mats down and the whole 
 under water. Some steepers tie the bundles to- 
 gether in pairs, the root end of one to the seed 
 end of the other, so that half the flax leans up- 
 wards in the water and half downwards : but 
 there seems no good reason for this practice, for, 
 as the root end is sooner steeped than the upper, 
 it will be unequally steeped, even if the flax be 
 laid horizontally in the water, which is not 
 thought so good as placing it vertically or nearly 
 
FLAX. 
 
 550 
 
 so. But as these men have great experience in 
 the process, we must hesitate before we blame a 
 practice of which we do not immediately see the 
 advantage. Those who steep the flax in the Lys 
 itself, collect it in thick bundles nearly a foot in 
 diameter, and somewhat longer than the flax, by 
 laying several small bundles together, as de- 
 scribed above. In these large bundles, the roots 
 project at each end, and the tops are inside. 
 They are tied round very tight in two places, 
 about six inches from each end. They are then 
 placed upright and closely packed in a cage, or 
 open frame, made of wood and laths, ten feet 
 square, and four deep ; boards loaded with stones 
 are placed over the top, so as to sink the whole 
 a few inches below the water of the river. Thus 
 the water runs over and under the frame, and is 
 continually changed. The consequence of this is, 
 that the flax becomes of a clean white colour, 
 without the usual bluish tint, and is therefore 
 more valuable. The time of steeping is somewhat 
 longer than in stagnant water. It is pretended 
 by those who do not adopt this method, that 
 there is a considerable loss in the weight of flax 
 steeped in this way, which counterbalances the 
 superior value. This is, however, not clearly 
 proved; and the quantity of flax which is brought 
 from a great distance to be thus steeped, is a 
 presumptive proof that this method is, on the 
 whole, the most profitable, and the best." The 
 cage used for watering in the Lys is represented 
 in Fig. I. Plate IX. 
 
 Very few streams in Britain or Ireland pre- 
 sent similar conditions for steeping as either the 
 Lys or the Dutch fosses ; and the great ma- 
 jority of British and Irish flax-growing districts 
 must be dependent for good steeping upon pieces 
 of water artificially collected. The pond or trench, 
 if not excavated in clay, ought to be made re- 
 tentive by puddling; it ought to be scoured clean 
 of all impurities ; it ought to be from 8 to 10 
 feet wide, and to have a sufficient depth of water 
 to allow the tallest flax plants to be fairly 
 covered, without their touching the bottom; it 
 ought to have merely such an influx of water as 
 will maintain purity and supply waste by eva- 
 poration and absorption, without producing any 
 very perceptible current ; and the water which 
 fills it ought to be soft, limpid, and perfectly free 
 from any mineral impregnation. The flax ought 
 to be deposited in loose sheaves, and in either an 
 erect or a slightly slanting position, with the 
 tops uppermost; and slightly covered with wheat- 
 straw, fern, rushes, or coarse clean herbage, and 
 gently loaded with as many boards and stones as 
 will keep the tops fairly and constantly beneath 
 the water. The requisite time for the proper 
 degree of steeping, varies with the qualities of 
 the water, the nature of the situation, the com- 
 parative fineness of the flax, and especially the 
 season of the year and the temperature of the earth 
 and the atmosphere ; and it has been found to 
 range from 5 to 10 days in warm weather, and 
 
 from 8 to 14 or 15 days in cold weather. In all 
 ordinary circumstances, flax in the process of 
 steeping ought to be carefully examined every 
 day from the fifth or the sixth after deposition 
 till it is found ready for removal ; and when it 
 undergoes rapid fermentation or change, it ought, 
 toward the end, to be examined three, four, or 
 even six times a-day. The disappearance of air 
 bubbles from the surface of the water, and an 
 apparent tendency of the flax to settle to the 
 bottom, have been regarded as indications of the 
 requisite degree of change being complete ; but a 
 far safer guide, and one which ought always to be 
 resorted to, is to draw a few stems from different 
 parts of the pond, and to ascertain by fracture 
 and rubbing whether the woody matter is easily 
 separable from the fibre, and to remove the flax 
 rather a few hours before the full time than a 
 single hour too late. — A new, cheap, facile, rapid 
 method for superseding the process of steeping 
 will be noticed in the article Retting of Flax. 
 
 The Grassing of Flax. — When flax is removed 
 from the steeping-pond it ought to be laid on the 
 banks, with the ends of the sheaves a little ele- 
 vated, in order that it may be freed from the 
 bulk of the water with which it is saturated; 
 and after it has lain there for an hour or two, it 
 must be spread out on a surface of grass-land 
 about as extensive as the area on which it grew, 
 in order that it may complete its fermentation, 
 and be cleansed by wind and rain from its im- 
 purities, and may be bleached by alternate shade 
 and sunshine, and by alternate wetting and 
 drying, into a whitish and fine-looking colour. 
 Old pasture land, with a thick, short, fine sward 
 is most suitable ; and when artificial grass land 
 or any land with long or rank herbage is used, it 
 must, previously to the spreading, be either eaten 
 close down by sheep or neatly and evenly shaven 
 with the scythe. The flax should be spread, not 
 thinly, but rather thickly, in order that it may 
 neither be unduly hardened by the weather, nor 
 injuriously tossed by the wind. It ought, also, 
 for the sake of securing uniformity of colour, to 
 be regularly and frequently turned. The flax- 
 growers of the Continent secure goodness of tint 
 in their flax by the niceties of grassing, and uni- 
 formity in that tint by careful and regular turn- 
 ings ; they run long poles or wattles under the 
 successive rows, and turn them over in such a 
 manner that each occupies the place vacated by 
 the preceding one ; and they go through the pro- 
 cess with perfect ease and regularity, and make 
 the surface of the whole crop as even and orderly 
 after any number of turnings as when it was first 
 spread. The turnings ought, in as many in- 
 stances as possible, to be made on the near ap- 
 proach of rain ; and they have always more effect, 
 upon both the purifying and the bleaching, when 
 the grassing is performed in spring than when it 
 is performed in autumn. A main part of the 
 dun and irregular colour which sometimes so 
 materially depreciates British and Irish flax in 
 
A.IuHarton k C? London & E&inborgh 
 
FLAX. 
 
 551 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 the market, is attributable to slovenly grassing ; 
 and a weakness, of the fibre, occasionally observ- 
 able in the whitest and finest flax of the Conti- 
 nent, is attributable to the opposite fault of ex- 
 cessive operoseness and too great bleaching action 
 in the grassing. 
 
 A facile and somewhat popular substitute for 
 the grassing process has long been known in 
 Scotland under the name of gaiting, and pro- 
 bably has had some share in depreciating the 
 market value of British flax. The sheaves have 
 their bands drawn up toward the top ; and are 
 set up one by one, with their root end on the 
 ground, and well spread out, so that they may 
 not be blown down by the wind, and may freely 
 admit the air to play among their interior stems; 
 and after they have stood two or not more than 
 three days, they are turned inside out, thorough- 
 ly loosened to the air, bound gently up and set 
 on their root end as before, and left to stand till 
 they become completely dry. This method can 
 always be practised upon a small spot of ground 
 and in the immediate vicinity of the steeping- 
 pond, and saves the expense of the grass-land, of 
 carriage, and of the process of spreading and 
 turning ; but it suffers the enormous defects of 
 neither cleaning the flax, nor bleaching it, nor 
 regularly completing its fermentation, nor secur- 
 ing for it uniformity of colour. 
 
 The proper length of time for grassing varies 
 with the condition of the flax, the season of the 
 year, and the character of the weather. Flax 
 not quite sufficiently steeped must be grassed for 
 a longer time than flax perfectly steeped ; any 
 kind or condition of flax requires longer grass- 
 ing in continuously dry weather than in alter- 
 nations of wet and dry ; and flax of all sorts is far 
 more liable to be injuriously prolonged in the 
 grassing amid the cold and moisture of autumn 
 than amid the comparative warmth and dryness 
 of spring. In every case, flax must be perfectly 
 dry when removed from the grass, otherwise it 
 would afterwards heat and be destroyed; and 
 when taken up, it may either be gathered for a 
 few days into small hand-ricks or carried at once 
 to the barn or into well-covered stacks, according 
 to the assured dryness of its condition. 
 
 A kiln-drying is frequently given to the flax 
 immediately before the process of scutching ; and 
 this, in some instances, is conducted in kilns or 
 drying-houses, of about 15 feet in length, con- 
 structed for the purpose. But all such artificial 
 drying is exceedingly injurious to the quality of 
 the fibre, and ought, in every instance, to be 
 rendered quite unnecessary by perfect drying on 
 the grass. Yet Mr. Aiton says respecting it, 
 "This seems to me to be a very necessary prepar- 
 ation that is neglected in Scotland, to the injury 
 of the flax, and loss to the owner. Moderate 
 drying of the flax seems to have a similar effect 
 with drying of grain before it is ground into 
 meal ; and this might easily be done in Scotland 
 on the corn-kilns." 
 
 The Scutching of Flax. The woody part of the 
 stem of flax is technically called boon or shove ; 
 and, after the steeping, the grassing, and the 
 drying are completed, this is separated from the 
 fibre by the processes of bruising and scutching. 
 The bruising apparatus used in Holland, Belgium, 
 and the north of France, is very simple, and is 
 worked by the hand. Four thin boards, about 15 
 inches long and 3 inches broad, and about 3 inches 
 distant from one another, rest fixedly with 
 their edges up at about 2^ feet from the ground ; 
 and three other boards, in all respects similar, 
 are so attached to an upper, corresponding, and 
 hinged base as to be freely moveable up and down, 
 with their edges falling exactly into the intersti- 
 ces between the other boards. The workman 
 raises the upper or moveable half, lays a handful 
 of flax across the edges of the lower half, forces 
 down upon it the edges of the upper half, and 
 repeats this simple operation, turning the flax 
 over and over, till the whole of the boon is com- 
 pletely bruised. The scutching apparatus, or that 
 for clearing away the broken parts or fragments 
 of the boon, is also manual and equally simple. 
 The scutcher sits on a block of timber, about 18 
 inches high, and has at his right hand a fixed 
 upright board, about the height of the arm of a 
 chair, with a horizontal slit about 1^ inch wide, 
 Fig. 2. Plate XX.; he lifts a handful of the 
 bruised flax, twists the top end, and throws the 
 root end over the slit in the board ; he then lifts 
 a small, flat, thin, hatchet-like piece of timber, 
 with a short handle, and about the size of a soup 
 plate, Fig. 3. Plate XX. ; and with this instru- 
 ment, he strikes the flax close to the upright 
 board, turning it over and over with his left hand, 
 and continuing to strike with his right till the 
 one end of the handful of flax is clean, and then 
 shifting it and performing the same operation 
 upon the other end till it also is clean. The only 
 other appliances used are a leathern apron for 
 keeping the person tidy, a comb for unravelling 
 any fibres which happen to become matted, and 
 a sort of blunt mincing-knife for breaking over 
 the knee any portion of the boon which may not 
 have been sufficiently crushed during the process 
 of bruising. The scutcher constantly feels the 
 flax with his hand, judges of the progress of the 
 scutching operation, and so regulates his strokes 
 as to clear away all fragments of the boon and at 
 the same time not injure the fibre. 
 
 The bruising and scutching of flax by hand, in 
 this simple manner of the Dutch and the Belgians, 
 acts much more softly and gently upon the fibre, 
 and occasions far less loss by the waste of some 
 parts and the deterioration of others, than any 
 of the known methods, especially the older ones, 
 of performing the processes by machinery. No 
 flax bruised and scutched by a mill on the Con- 
 tinent ever commands the highest price in the 
 market, or is found fit for the manufacture of the 
 finest kind of fabrics. " When the work is done 
 by the hand," remarks a recent Irish writer, "the 
 
FLAX. 
 
 552 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 different parts and qualities can be subjected \ 
 merely to as much of the action of the handle as 
 is necessary to clear away the shove, without 
 breaking unnecessarily the flax itself. This is 
 one of the advantages which the small farmer has 
 in growing this crop, that the manufacture can 
 be carried on in a superior manner by his own 
 family, to whom it affords profitable employment. 
 This is, in short, one of the departments of in- 
 dustry in which, so far as our knowledge at pre- 
 sent extends, manual labour can never be super- 
 seded by machinery, wherever it is available." 
 But the cleaning of flax on any large scale by 
 manual labour, is necessarily far more expensive 
 than the cleaning of it by machinery, and is often 
 all but impossible in consequence of the want of 
 a sufficient number of workers, and is needlessly 
 operose and costly for any of the purposes of 
 either coarse or middle-rate manufacture. The 
 employment of multitudes of women in Britain, 
 might comport with the profit of flax-growers in 
 producing a fibre suitable for the finer kinds of 
 fabrics ; but the use of machinery is demanded 
 by many considerations of economy in producing 
 fibre for all ordinary fabrics. 
 
 The method of bruising flax long practised in 
 Scotland, was to beat the flax with a hand-mallet 
 upon a smooth stone, and so to bend, and rub the 
 flax, in connexion with the beating of it, as com- 
 pletely to break the boon. But, at a subsequent 
 period, beaters were moved by the wheels of 
 scutching-mills ; and soon after, indented rollers 
 were formed of such a kind as rapidly and tho- 
 roughly to crush all the boon. One roller, 3 feet 
 in diameter, moves in the centre, two other rollers, 
 each 14 inches in diameter, move upon the large 
 one ; all the three are indented to the depth of 
 at least 2^ inches ; and when they are moved 
 round, each of the concaves of one roller falls into 
 the convex of the other. The flax is spread thin, 
 with merely the top of it let in between the roll- 
 ers; and it is carried round with them, and 
 completely crushed in the course of one revolu- 
 tion of the large roller, and then thrown out in 
 a state of readiness for the scutching. The ma- 
 chinery for scutching is complex, and of the 
 nature of a mill. An upright shaft or spindle is 
 driven by either a water-wheel or horse-gearing ; 
 four arms, provided with wipers on their ends, 
 and each about 7 feet 10 inches in length, are 
 fixed in the shaft ; the arms are moved round 
 horizontally, within a box or frame, at the rate 
 of 200 times per minute ; and the flax is held in 
 at holes or slits in the upper side of the frame, 
 receives blows or scutchings from the revolv- 
 ing arms or wipers at the rate of 800 in the mi- 
 nute, and is in consequence so severely beaten 
 as to lose all the boon and at the same time 
 no inconsiderable portion of the fibre. This 
 rapid and very rough method of scutching cer- 
 tainly saves a great amount of labour and 
 wages ; yet it destroys so much good fibre as, 
 in some instances, to be really as expensive 
 
 ! as the Dutch and Belgian method of scutching 
 by hand. 
 
 A new flax-mill, invented two or three years 
 ago by John Warnes, Jun., of Norfolk, combines 
 the extraordinary advantages of being portable, 
 of exhibiting a construction which may be adapt- 
 ed to various other forms of small mills, and of 
 performing its work in a better manner than the j 
 previous fiax-mills. The breaker has three pairs 
 of fluted rollers, placed upon a strong frame of j 
 wood ; cogged wheels are fixed to the rollers, and 
 are so attached by a rigger and strap to the axle 
 of the scutching-machine, as to be moved by the 
 same power ; and the flax is passed in small 
 handfuls through the flutes of the rollers, and i 
 has all its boon completely bruised by the play 
 within each other of the convexities and the con- 
 cavities. The beaters of the scutching-machine 
 play round an iron axle, and revolve at the rate \ 
 of 1,500 times in the minute, and strike the flax j 
 held over boards placed perpendicularly and at- 
 tached to the frame-work; and the close shed j 
 within which they work resembles a small cara- j 
 van, and contains three recesses, similar to sentry- ! 
 boxes, which serve as standing places to three work- i 
 men. The machines are represented in Fig. 4. and 
 Fig. 5. Plate XX. They can be propelled either 
 by manual labour, by horse- draught, or by a water- 
 wheel. In one of the earliest experimental trials of 
 the machines, the first of their class ever known in 
 England, two stones of flax were broken in less 
 than two minutes, and scutched in seventeen. 
 
 The Prospective Effects of Flax-Culture on Ire- 
 land. — The proceedings of the Irish Flax Improve- 
 ment Society, incidentally noticed in two preced- 
 ing sections of this article, appear to have opened 
 a new and highly promising era in the industrial 
 history of Ireland. The Society, encouraged by 
 the success of its commencing operations in Ulster 
 and the north of Leinster, directed its attention 
 southward and westward, and sent some of its 
 instructors to almost every part where the landed 
 proprietors evinced a desire to avail themselves 
 of their services. The results were very satis- 
 factory, as the soils of the new districts proved 
 peculiarly suitable to the plant ; and as an in- 
 stance of the rapidity with which its culture was 
 introduced, where there were active and energetic 
 landlords to co-operate, — on one estate in Mayo, 
 where in 1844 no flax was grown, in 1846, 110 
 tons were brought to market, of the value of up- 
 wards of £5,000. The society's report for 1846, 
 shows that its operations then extended over 
 twenty-six counties, twenty-one being beyond 
 the limits of Ulster ; and at the annual meeting 
 in Belfast, in November, 1846, Mr. W. Sharman 
 Crawford, M. P., in moving the adoption of that 
 report, made the following remarks : " It might 
 be desirable now to consider what the resources 
 of the country would admit of, and to take a re- 
 view of the production of flax which might be 
 created from the lands of Ireland, properly man- 
 aged, on a rotation system. In the report of the 
 
AJ'iillarttm C? London StF.chnburgh.. 
 
FLAX. 
 
 553 
 
 FLAX. 
 
 commissioners for the return of the population, 
 they found, that the portion of the lands of Ire- 
 land, fit for the purposes of agriculture, exclusive 
 of all other descriptions, amounted to 13,464,300 
 acres. Instead of one-eighth, which it had been 
 shown was perfectly consistent with good farm- 
 ing, let them suppose that only one-sixteenth 
 were appropriated to flax, they should have 
 841,518 acres ; six cwt., or about one-third of a 
 ton. was considered a fair average produce by 
 the acre : that would give no less than 252,455 
 tons ; and, at £45 per ton, the value would be 
 =£11,360,475. Then, with regard to the employ- 
 ment which the cultivation of the plant gave, 
 and which was a most important consideration, 
 it had been shown that, independently of spinning, 
 an acre of fine flax gave employment, for a year, 
 to 19 persons, in manufacturing it into pocket- 
 handkerchiefs ; and, if spinners were added, there 
 would be an addition of 44 women, making alto- 
 gether 63 persons. But some people might think 
 that an exaggerated statement ; therefore let it 
 be supposed that one acre of flax would be equal 
 to the employment and support of one family for 
 the year ; then the result would be, supposing 
 only the one-sixteenth of the lands of Ireland to 
 be in flax — there would be 841,518 families so 
 supported ; and, taking each family at the usual 
 average of five, the number of individuals sustain- 
 ed would be 4,207,590 — equal to about one-half 
 of the whole population of Ireland. Let them 
 consider in how small a degree the manufacture 
 of flax had hitherto advanced ; and then let them 
 look at the means and capabilities of Ireland — 
 the immense water-power which was wasted. But 
 he hoped that there would be a change that 
 would induce the men of Ireland to look to the 
 water-power ; for, if they did, the remunerative 
 prices of flax would be greatly increased." 
 
 It will be observed, that the amount to be pro- 
 duced on the estimate of Mr. Crawford, would be 
 more than is required for the present consumption 
 of the British islands. But it has been ascer- 
 tained that French and Belgian spinners would 
 largely import Irish flax, if it were grown in 
 sufficient quantity for them, since it is much su- 
 perior to the Russian which they now consume 
 for the fabrication of particular yarns. The 
 quantity of flax-seed at present imported into 
 Britain from foreign markets, and also the oil- 
 cakes which are at present made from foreign 
 seeds, and consumed by the cattle-feeders of Great 
 Britain, could then be all had at home, for they 
 would be fully furnished by the produce of the 
 number of acres which the above estimate of flax 
 would occupy. 
 
 Among the many causes of Ireland's miserable 
 condition, the want of manufactures has often 
 been numbered. This is, of course, speaking on 
 the general question, and in comparison with the 
 striking features of British manufacturing in- 
 dustry. The linen trade is the single bright point 
 presented in this view of the matter, serving 
 
 more forcibly to show the advantages of a steady 
 productive employment. Sixty-two large facto- 
 ries, with 2,860 horse power, and 13,600 opera- 
 tives, are continually employed in spinning yarn, 
 while large quantities are also purchased from 
 the English and Scotch spinners ; 70,000,000 
 yards of linen, on an average, are annually ex- 
 ported ; the trade employs a capital of upwards 
 of five millions sterling ; and the entire number 
 of individuals, directly and indirectly supported 
 by it in all its branches, cannot be estimated at 
 less than 500,000, and is probably more. This 
 manufacture has now attained such a degree of 
 perfection, that, in neutral markets, the Irish 
 linens command the almost exclusive sale, having 
 struggled against the produce of the German and 
 French looms until they have gained the upper- 
 hand in almost all cases. Even in the finest fab- 
 rics, damask and cambric, the progress has been 
 surprising, the consumption of the latter having 
 increased 160 fold in 17 years. In 1829, for every 
 1,000 dozens of French cambric sold in the Eng- 
 lish market, 100 pieces of Irish were sold ; in 
 1846, for every 1,000 pieces of French, there were 
 16,000 pieces of Irish sold. Seeing their inability 
 to compete with the Irish producers in the open 
 market, foreigners have imposed heavy duties on 
 Irish linens and linen-yarns in their own coun- 
 tries ; and by this short-sighted policy they are 
 cramping the consumption, injuring the con- 
 sumers, and endeavouring to force a manufacture 
 in which they cannot advantageously engage. 
 
 Great as must be the changes which the gene- 
 ral adoption of the principles of free trade would 
 produce, none would tell more beneficially on 
 Ireland than the unshackled admission every- 
 where of its linen manufactures, their superiority 
 and cheapness ensuring them a monopoly in the 
 majority of cases. Should continental govern- 
 ments be induced by the example of England to 
 relax their duties, the Irish linen trade would 
 increase immensely. And the move which has 
 been made by Britain in the admission of foreign 
 agricultural products into a free competition 
 with our own will have this important result — 
 that it will lead all farmers in both Britain and 
 Ireland to inquire, for what kinds of culture their 
 soil and their climate are best adapted. No pre- 
 mium existing on the production of any particular 
 crop, this point at once becomes all-important. 
 It has been ascertained, by analysis, that the 
 quantity of nitrogen in grain produced in the 
 southern and middle parts of Europe, and in the 
 United States of America, is greater per cent, 
 than in that grain under the most favourable 
 circumstances in Ireland ; and the humid atmo- 
 sphere of Ireland, on the other hand, highly favours 
 the growth of grasses and herbage, of roots, of 
 flax, and of hemp. Countries with a spare popu- 
 lation are most fitted for the production of grain, 
 since it takes the least labour ; and where a large 
 labouring population exists, the culture of roots 
 and of fibrous plants is the most profitable, as it 
 
FLAX-DODDER. 
 
 554 
 
 FLOODING OF LAND. 
 
 affords them a productive employment. Natural 
 circumstances, then, at once point out, that it 
 would be more fitting for Ireland to turn her 
 attention to the culture of the succulent and the 
 textile kinds of plants in connexion with the 
 rearing and fattening of cattle, and not to lay 
 the stress on grain that at present is done by the 
 small farmers. 
 
 Reports of the Belfast Flax Improvement So- 
 ciety. — Kane's Industrial Resources of Ireland. — 
 Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland. — Pooler's 
 Manual. — Museum Rusticum. — Irish Farmer's 
 Journal. — Quarterly Journal af Agriculture. — 
 Transactions of the Highland Society. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — Society of 
 Gentlemen's Complete Farmer. — Journal of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society of England. — Sproule's 
 Agriculture. — Boyle's Husbandry. — Outlines of 
 Flemish Husbandry. — Zaivson's Agriculturist's 
 Manual. — Loudon's Works. — Gardener's Gazette. — 
 Rham's Dictionary of the Farm. — Farmer's Maga- 
 zine. — Mill's Husbandry. 
 
 FLAX-DODDER,— botanically Ouscuta Epili- 
 num. A mischievous, parasitical, convolvulaceous 
 plant, of similar form and habits to the European 
 and the lesser dodders, but especially infesting 
 the flax crop. See the article Dodder. It has 
 occasionally worked considerable devastation in 
 the western counties of both Great Britain and 
 Ireland ; and it is popularly known in Somerset- 
 shire as " the mulberry," and in Connaught as 
 " the parasite plant." A small consignment of 
 Odessa flax-seed, received at Westport in 1836, 
 brought with it such an import of flax-dodder 
 as quite choked some of the crops immediately 
 raised from that seed itself, and left large and 
 mischievous traces upon the flax-fields through- 
 out the four succeeding years. An opinion is en- 
 tertained by some good judges that flax-dodder 
 never accompanies flax-seed from either Riga or 
 America, and is almost certain to accompany the 
 comparatively cheap and dirty seed from Odessa. 
 
 FLAX-LILY, or New Zealand Flax, — botani- 
 cally Phormium. A genus of plants of the aspho- 
 del family. Only one species is known ; and this 
 is called the tough, Phormium tenax, and was in- 
 troduced to Britain from New Zealand in 1798. 
 It is a herbaceous evergreen. Its leaves rise from 
 the root-crown, overlap one another for a little 
 above the base, diverge alternately to two sides, 
 and are tapering, pointed, equidistant, and three 
 or four feet long ; its flowers grow on a strong 
 branching stalk, and have a light greenish colour, 
 but can seldom be produced in Britain ; and its 
 seed-vessel is oblong and triangular, and contains 
 compressed seeds. A fibre afforded by the leaves 
 has been occasionally imported from Polynesia 
 under the name of New Zealand flax, and is very 
 remarkable for the strength and durability of the 
 cordage which it makes. The plant is hardy 
 enough to grow, without any protection, in the 
 open air in Britain ; and could it only be culti- 
 
 vated under conditions of soil and treatment 
 similar to those of its native country, it might 
 possibly become one of our most valuable econo- 
 mical field plants. But the fibre yielded by it in 
 some trials in the south of Ireland, proved decid- 
 edly inferior to that imported from Polynesia; 
 and, in consequence, an opinion has, for the pre- 
 sent, gone abroad that the plant cannot be culti- 
 vated in this country with profit. A coloured 
 figure of it is given in Plate XXXVIII. 
 
 FLAX-SEED. See Linseed. 
 
 FLEECE. The woolly coat shorn from the 
 body of a sheep. A primitive and barbarous 
 method of obtaining the fleece was to force a 
 flock through a narrow and rough passage, in 
 order that, by rubbing against one another and 
 against the asperities of the passage, they might 
 denude themselves of their wool; and a later 
 and exceedingly cruel method, which continued 
 till not very long ago to be practised in Orkney, 
 was to catch the animals, and forcibly tear off 
 their wool. The mild and economical method 
 now practised, together with the proper rules for 
 observing it, will be noticed in the article Shear- 
 ing of Sheep. 
 
 A fleece, immediately after being shorn from 
 the animal, ought to be spread unbroken upon a 
 board, carefully examined, thoroughly cleaned of 
 ail adhering substances and filthified locks, ren- 
 dered completely pure and neat, and then folded 
 to a breadth of 2 or 2| feet, rolled up from the 
 tail to the neck, and tied up in such a manner 
 with the drawn-out neck-wool as to form a tight, 
 neat, compact bundle. Its shorn surface ought 
 to be outside ; and this, in consequence of the 
 secretion technically called yolk, exhibits a sil- 
 very and lustrous appearance. The fleeces ob- 
 tained at any one shearing, ought to be carefully 
 assorted according to their different qualities; 
 for, even though the whole flock be of one breed 
 and as nearly as possible homogeneous, the fleeces, 
 in every case, possess considerable varieties of 
 character. Some differ from the others in colour ; 
 some may have their wool matted and almost 
 felted like cloth; and some may have suffered 
 deterioration and loss by the partial shedding of 
 their wool. The fleeces of the two sexes, and the 
 fleeces of either sex of different ages, also very 
 widely vary. The average weight of the fleeces 
 produced throughout England, inclusive of those 
 of lambs, is said to be 4£ lbs. See the articles 
 Sheep and Wool. 
 
 FLESH-FLY. See Fly in Sheep. 
 
 FLET-MILK. Skimmed milk. 
 
 FLOATING OF MEADOWS. See Irrigation. 
 
 FLOCK. Any number of sheep, or of other 
 domesticated gregarious animals, which feed to- 
 gether, or are under the care of one person. 
 
 FLOODING OF LAND. An operation inter- 
 mediate in character between warping and irri- 
 gation. It resembles these operations in laying a 
 piece of low flat land for some time under water ; 
 
FLOODING OF LAND. 
 
 555 
 
 FLOUR. 
 
 but it differs from warping in using only the 
 downward water of land streams, and from irri- 
 gation in having the water of the flooding, not 
 in a flowing state, but wholly or nearly stagnant. 
 It operates principally by the deposition of silt 
 or fine alluvium, and is a powerful means of re- 
 claiming and fertilizing various kinds of low- 
 lying lands. A flat of about 240 acres at the 
 head of Loch -Ken in Kirkcudbrightshire has 
 long been rendered, by means of flooding, one of 
 the richest spots in Scotland. Some parts of it, 
 without receiving any fertilizing matter what- 
 ever except the silty deposit from the flooding, 
 have been cropped with grain for at least 25 
 years in succession ; and other parts have, year 
 after year, produced hay at the rate of 3 tons per 
 acre. Many meadows upon the margins of rivers 
 in both Scotland and England have long been 
 annually enriched, and constantly maintained in 
 a luxuriant condition, by means of natural flood- 
 ing during the months of winter ; but not a few 
 of these are quite unprotected by embankments, 
 and unprovided with any appliances for regulating 
 the flooding, and, in consequence, often sustain 
 severe injury from freshets in summer and au- 
 tumn. An artificial method of flooding, when 
 the stream is small and the lower part of the 
 meadow is narrow, is to arrest the water by 
 means of a dam, and to let it all off as soon as it 
 is supposed to have made a sufficient deposit of 
 silt ; and this was for some time practised in 
 Britain under the technical name of " floating 
 upwards;" and though discontinued after the 
 introduction of the improved method of irriga- 
 tion by floating ridges, it still deserves a place in 
 the practices of georgy, and may prove effective 
 and valuable in many a case in which irrigation 
 would be far too expensive to be economically 
 adopted. 
 
 Tracts suitable for flooding are flats, traversed 
 or commanded by running water, easily dammed 
 across their lower end, and capable of being 
 readily overflown athwart their whole surface ; 
 and particularly suitable tracts occur in all land- 
 locked, hard-bottomed bogs or peaty moors, situ- 
 ated on a lower level than the adjacent streams 
 or springs. Water impregnated with bitumen 
 or iron, or carrying off the drainage of bogs 
 would be mischievous rather than beneficial; 
 but any water issuing from calcareous strata, or 
 trotting along a pebbly path, or only so far saline 
 as to combine softness with limpidness, richly 
 and rapidly improves poor meadow-land, or low, 
 firm bog-land, or thin and hungry moorish-land, 
 by making deposits of thoroughly pulverulent 
 alkaline silt, by decomposing and carrying away 
 the antiseptic principles of bog plants, and starv- 
 ing coarse and wiry herbage, and promoting the 
 growth of the tender, succulent, and nutritious 
 grasses. But as the destruction of coarse herb- 
 age, in the case of all the poor or waste lands 
 peculiarly suitable for this operation, requires to 
 
 be vastly more aimed at than the immediate pro- 
 duction of fine herbage, the flooding ought to 
 take place, not in winter when the forces of de- 
 composition are comparatively inert, but in sum- 
 mer when heat and light and electricity will co- 
 operate with the water in rapidly killing the 
 coarse plants and destroying the antiseptic prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 FLOUR. The farina of the grain of wheat, 
 barley, or other corn separated from the husk, 
 and reduced to a state of fine powder. 
 
 The first part of the process of converting grain 
 into flour consists in shelling and winnowing ; 
 and this is performed by means of a shelling cy- 
 linder of plate- iron, and of a common winnowing 
 machine. The cylinder rubs off the ends of the 
 grain, thrashes off the husk, and separates all 
 extraneous or adhering foreign matters ; and the 
 winnowing machine blows away the chaff, the 
 bits of straw, and a great mass of small or pul- 
 verized impurities in the form of a fine, dark- 
 coloured, suffocating dust. The quantity of 
 shelled and winnowed refuse from even the 
 cleanest-looking wheat would astonish any per- 
 son who has never witnessed the process; and 
 sometimes a conical heap of upwards of two feet 
 in height is accumulated from the deposits of 
 the winnowing-machine in the course of three 
 hours. The cylinder ought not to revolve, but 
 ought to be furnished in its interior with very 
 rapid-going scutchers; the winnowing-machine 
 ought to have a very powerful blast, and to be 
 furnished with a wire sieve for separating sand, 
 earthy matters, and small heavy seeds of weeds ; 
 and the grain ought to pass very slowly from the 
 hopper into the cylinder, and very slowly also 
 from the cylinder to the winnowing-machine, 
 and to be spread out in a thin and equable man- 
 ner. But in some places, particularly in Ireland, 
 two shelling cylinders are used, of equal size and 
 similar construction, both revolving and placed 
 in an inclined position, and punched with holes 
 toward the interior, but the second with smaller 
 holes than the first, and effecting a better sepa- 
 ration of sand, earth, chaff, and seeds of weeds. 
 This system of two cylinders might seem to 
 be required by the very foul condition in which 
 those who practise it frequently receive the 
 grain ; but it is really not more effective than 
 the system of a single properly constructed and 
 well-appointed cylinder. 
 
 The shelled and winnowed grain is next passed 
 through a hopper or otherwise, to be ground be- 
 tween two revolving mill-stones, set at the pre- 
 cise nearness to each other to reduce it to the 
 requisite degree of pulverization, and it acquires 
 so much heat in the act of grinding, that it must 
 be instantly conveyed to a well-ventilated cool- 
 ing-room, spread uniformly out upon the wooden 
 floor, turned frequently over with a wooden 
 shovel, and thus freed with all possible speed 
 from the Avhole of its acquired heat. Flour ex- 
 
FLOUR. 
 
 556 
 
 FLOUR. 
 
 cessively heated by bad grinding is technically 
 designated " killed," and feels between the fin- 
 gers like hair-powder, and becomes puffy and 
 frothy in the heap, and is scarcely fermentable 
 by any means short of an abundant intermixture 
 either of prime wheaten flour or potato starch ; 
 and even flour which is but moderately or not 
 unduly heated in the grinding, if allowed to con- 
 tinue hot for a little time in the heap, will become 
 quite unfit for the uses of the baker. The proper 
 mill-stones are a single pair of fine French buhr- 
 stones ; and they should not be set closer than 
 to convert the grain into a meal which feels 
 smooth when rubbed on the side of the fore- 
 finger by the thumb. But in most of the flour- 
 mills of Ireland, the shelled and winnowed grain 
 is first fed thickly in between two buhr-stones, 
 set at such a distance from each other as to cut 
 it all into the coarse kind of meal technically 
 called " sharps ;" it is then spread upon a floor 
 till it becomes cool ; it is next fed very thinly in 
 between two buhr-stones, set so close to each 
 other as to evolve a strong sulphureous smell from 
 the mutual friction of their surfaces ; it comes out 
 from between these stones in a state of such ex- 
 cessive heat that the hand can scarcely endure 
 it ; and it is then spread out on another floor, 
 and made to cool as rapidly as possible by means 
 of constant turning. In proper grinding with 
 only one pair of well-set mill-stones, the bran 
 peels off in thin flakes from the entire grains, 
 feels light in the hand, and, when thrown up into 
 the air, gyrates and falls waveringly like minute 
 pieces of fine paper ; but in the method of grind- 
 ing which cuts all the grain into " sharps " before 
 reducing any of it to powder, the bran is cut 
 into fragments along with the grain, adheres 
 for a time to the angular little masses of the 
 " sharps," ultimately takes away with it adher- 
 ing portions of the farina, feels heavy in the 
 hand, and, when thrown into the air, falls almost 
 as right down as oatmeal. The quantity of the 
 kernel of the grain carried off by adherence to 
 this heavy bran is so great as to occasion a 
 considerable or even serious deduction from 
 the profits of the flour ; the use of two pairs of 
 mill-stones instead of one, and the close and 
 rapid abrasion of the second pair, also occasion 
 some loss ; and the excessive heating of the flour 
 by the close action of the second pair of mill- 
 stones more or less "kills" every sample of it, 
 deteriorates its quality, and induces or almost 
 compels the great majority of the Irish bakers to 
 intermix it freely with potato starch. 
 
 The flour, after being ground and cooled, re- 
 quires to be dressed or bolted ; and, for this pur- 
 pose, it passes by a hopper from the cooling-room 
 to the dressing cylinder, and is there brushed 
 through wire-clotb of different sizes, and so sepa- 
 rated into its different parts, — whether of firsts, 
 seconds, thirds, and bran, — or of fine flour, second 
 flour, third flour, coarse bran, and fine bran, — or 
 
 of fine flour, seconds, fine middlings, coarse mid- 
 dlings, bran, twenty-penny, and pollard. See the 
 article Bolting. One passage of the flour through 
 a bolting-engine, covered with the size of wire- 
 cloth adapted to the various kinds of desired 
 flour and bran, and the engine remaining sta- 
 tionary while the brushes within it move with 
 rapidity, is all that is requisite for a thorough 
 dressing of the flour. But in most of the Irish 
 flour-mills, the flour is passed through a bolting 
 engine which revolves on its axis, and sends the 
 thirds flour and all the bran through the coars- 
 est-sized wire-gauze ; the fine flour is then put 
 through a similar engine, covered with the finest 
 kind of wire-gauze, and divided into very fine 
 first flour and rather fine second flour ; the fine 
 flour is sacked up from the spout of the engine, 
 and consolidated by means of a lever and chains 
 lifting up the sack ?_nd beating the bottom of it 
 against the floor ; and the bran is passed through 
 a separate bolting- engine specially adapted to it- 
 self, and separated into fine and coarse. This 
 operoseness of bolting is both absurd and waste- 
 ful; and the products of it are by no means 
 worthy of its excess of care. " The fine flour," 
 says a writer in the 4th volume of the Q. Journal 
 of Agriculture, " is very fine in Ireland ; but in 
 the dressing it has not a sufficient quantity in 
 it of what passes among the seconds, which makes 
 the latter finer than it ought to be, and of course 
 a loss is thereby incurred. Fine, however, as the 
 flour is, it is mixed with minute specks of bran, 
 which is not to be wondered at, considering how 
 the wheat is hashed down in the first grinding. 
 We were at first astonished to find the finest 
 wheat selling in Ireland at only 10s. 6d. to 12s. 
 per cwt., which is about 50s. per quarter, when 
 the same quality of wheat was selling in Britain 
 at the same time for 58s. and 60s. per quarter. But 
 after seeing the filthy state of the stocks of wheat 
 delivered at the flour-mills, and the quantity and 
 weight of trash of all kinds which were taken 
 out of it in the cleaning process, and the two- 
 handed work which it had to undergo in the 
 mill, our astonishment ceased; for unless the 
 wheat were bought at a low price by the flour- 
 millers, they could not afford to sell their flour 
 in the English markets at the English prices." 
 
 British wheat, even when grown from the best 
 varieties of seed and cultivated in the most sci- 
 entific and workmanly methods of agriculture, 
 often greatly varies, as to both quality and quan - 
 tity, in its yield of flour. Some grain has a 
 thicker husk than others, and so contains a lar- 
 ger proportion of bran ; grain cut several days 
 before being ripe yields a whiter and finer flour 
 than the same grain cut in full maturity ; flour 
 from grain of English growth is supposed to be 
 more absorbent, to require more water for being 
 brought into the state of dough, and to produce 
 about 100 lbs. more of bread per ton than flour 
 from the same grain of Scottish growth ; and one 
 
FLOUR. 
 
 557 
 
 FLY-IN-SHEEP 
 
 sack of flour, without possessing any superiority 
 of quality recognizable by the rules and tests of 
 bakers, is sometimes found to produce two or 
 three more quartern loaves than another sack. 
 But bakers cannot even detect the differences of 
 flour manufactured from the opaque and the 
 flinty varieties of wheat ; and in spite of a pur- 
 chasing of ready-made flour being their simplest 
 and apparently cheapest method of procedure, 
 they often find it their interest to buy wheat, 
 and get it ground for themselves, and even to 
 bolt it on their own premises. 
 
 The English millers usually distribute the pul- 
 verized grain into seven different classes, — fine 
 flour, in the proportion of about 48 parts to 120 
 of the entire grain, — seconds flour, in the pro- 
 portion of about 4 parts, — fine middlings, in the 
 proportion of about 2 parts, — coarse middlings, 
 in the proportion of about 1 part, — bran, in the 
 proportion of about 24 parts, — twenty-penny, in 
 the proportion of about 24 parts, — and pollard, in 
 the proportion of about 17 parts. But the Scot- 
 tish millers usually have only five classes, fine 
 flour, second flour, thirds or sharps, fine bran, 
 and coarse bran. Both the fine and the second 
 are prepared in very various degrees of fineness, 
 and are therefore capable of considerable sub- 
 classification. The finest possible is prepared by 
 taking out only a very small proportion of the 
 bulk of the farina ; and this is used for making 
 the choicest kinds of pastry and fancy breads. 
 The second flour of any grinding whence the finest 
 possible has been taken possesses a quality inter- 
 mediate between the ordinary fine and the ordi- 
 nary seconds ; and either makes a coarse speci- 
 men of fine loaf, or a fine specimen of coarse loaf. 
 Fine flour made out of a large proportion of the 
 bulk of the farina, closely resembles this inter- 
 mediate kind ; and the seconds flour taken after 
 it, is necessarily reduced in quantity and very 
 coarse in quality. Any proportion of fine flour, 
 from the very small proportion of the finest pos- 
 sible to the very large proportion of resemblance 
 to ordinary seconds, may be taken out of the 
 entire bulk of the farina, simply by diminishing 
 or enlarging the normal space of the fine portion 
 of the wire-cloth, by means of a hinged board 
 attached to the under part of the bolting-engine. 
 The thirds or sharps consist of the central or re- 
 sidual portions of the grain, and escape from be- 
 tween the mill-stones, and are used for making 
 biscuits. The fine bran is used for feeding pigs 
 and poultry; and the coarse bran is used for 
 mixing with horse corn and for making bran- 
 mashes for horses and cattle. The whole bulk of 
 the grain, with the exclusion simply of the coarse 
 bran, is sometimes ground promiscuously down, 
 and called whole meal or overhead flour; and 
 this is probably the healthiest possible form in 
 which the farina can be prepared by the miller ; 
 and it is often made into an excellent, sweetish- 
 tasted, dark-coloured, and very coarse household 
 
 bread, preposterously called bran-loaf. A flour 
 only one degree less coarse than this, or compris- 
 ing all the contents of the grain, except the coarse 
 bran and the fine bran, likewise makes a sweet 
 coarse bread. Various substances are used by un- 
 principled manufacturers and venders for adul- 
 terating flour. 
 
 FLUKE, — scientifically Fascida Hepatica, or 
 Distoma Hepaticwn. An entozoon or parenchyma- 
 tous parasite, of the acritous division of the world 
 of animated beings. It is popularly classed with 
 parasitical worms, but has a curious shape similar 
 to that of a mimic sole or of the seed of the com- 
 mon gourd. It particularly infests the liver of 
 quadrupeds, burrow&g into every part of it, and 
 swimming about in the bile. It occurs in mice, 
 rats, and other vermin ; it sometimes infests asses, 
 mules, and horses ; it occurs still more frequently 
 in cattle ; and it is particularly common in goats, 
 deer, and sheep, and occurs more or less in al- 
 most all other domesticated quadrupeds. How 
 it is propagated, or finds entrance into the ani- 
 mals is not known ; but the probability is that 
 its ovules are so minute and pellucid as to be un- 
 detectable by any of our tests or instruments, — 
 that they float, like the ovules of infusorial ani- 
 malcules, abundantly and freely in the atmo- 
 sphere, — and that they are either inhaled with the 
 breath or taken in with the food, and are hatched 
 into life on their obtaining a suitable nidus in the 
 liver. Yet the fluke seldom or never occurs in either 
 saline air or tolerably dry situations ; it exists 
 coincidently with moist pastures, and abounds in 
 the atmosphere of fresh-water marshes ; and it 
 rarely attacks animals in a state of perfect health, 
 but more or less accompanies all morbid diseases 
 of the liver, and abounds in jaundiced cattle, and 
 is dreadfully multitudinous in rotted sheep. See 
 the articles Jaundice and Rot. 
 
 FLUX. See Diarrhoea and Dysentery. 
 
 FLY-IN-SHEEP. A disease in sheep occa- 
 sioned by the larvae of several species of flies. 
 This disease must not be confounded with mere 
 uneasiness from the attacks of various small 
 diptera, nor even with the painful and serious 
 affection which results from the presence of the 
 larvae of the gad-fly. See the article Bots. Fly- 
 in-sheep, as a distinctive disease, is frequently 
 known also under the name of maggot-in-sheep, 
 or Scotice mawk-in-sheep ; and is always occa- 
 sioned by larva? belonging to the genus musca or 
 flesh-fly. 
 
 All the species of muscse closely resemble one 
 another in both appearance and habit ; and at least 
 four of them, 31. vomitoria, M. carnaria, M. cada- 
 verina, and M. Caesar, are concerned with the dis- 
 ease in sheep. M. vomitoria is the common flesh- 
 fly or blue-bottle, and has a black or dark-blue 
 thorax, and a dark glossy blue abdomen ; M. Car- 
 naria is the grey flesh-fly, and has a grey thorax, 
 with three black longitudinal markings on the 
 upper surface, and a grey abdomen somewhat 
 
FLY-IN-SHEEP. 
 
 558 
 
 FLY-IN-SHEEP. 
 
 chequered, and appearing in some positions of a 
 shining whitishness ; M. cadaverina has a shin- 
 ing bluish thorax, and a shining green abdomen ; 
 and M. Caesar shares with the preceding the 
 name of green flesh-fly, and has also a shining 
 green abdomen. M. vomitoria and M. carnaria 
 usually appear in April, and the other two species 
 in J une ; all are exceedingly active during the 
 warm weather, flying nimbly and vigorously 
 about in search of their food, and depositing on 
 it their viviparous ovules ; and they continue to 
 be more or less active and alert till they are 
 killed or sent into hybernation by the effects of 
 the commencing frosts of winter. They profusely 
 exist in all parts of the glcfc where they can be 
 fed on putrefying matter, and are particularly 
 abundant in beef-eating Britain; and so enor- 
 mously do they multiply, that one female has been 
 ascertained to give birth to 20,000 young. But 
 the larvaB are vastly mightier scavengers and de- 
 vourers than the perfect insects, and have been 
 known to devour so much food and to grow with 
 so great rapidity as to increase their weight two- 
 hundred -fold in twenty -four hours ; and they 
 feed alike upon putrid parts of living quadru- 
 peds, upon dead carcases, and upon all kinds of 
 animal or putrescent filth. They are produced 
 alive in hot weather ; and if they have plenty of 
 food they usually attain their full size in five 
 days after being hatched ; and they then cease 
 to eat, and crawl two or three inches under 
 ground in order to he transmuted into pupse ; 
 and after about a fortnight, the pupae crack their 
 shells, and the perfect insects appear. 
 
 The fly deposits its ovules on sheep from May 
 till September, but particularly in hot showery 
 weather, and very specially in August and the 
 early part of September. The green species are 
 usually the earliest depositors ; and sometimes 
 one species is abundant while another species is 
 rare, — and the blue bottle, in particular, may be 
 very common, while the grey flesh-fly may be 
 little known. The ovules are most commonly 
 placed underneath or round the tail, and some- 
 times upon the back ; and the larvae creep in 
 among the wool, and prey upon the skin and 
 flesh. As soon as the larvae begin to eat, the 
 wool at the place appears wet and dirty ; after it 
 proceeds with gnawing the flesh, a putrid smell 
 is emitted, and invites other flies to make their 
 deposits; and so rapidly does the work of de- 
 struction progress, that in twenty-four hours the 
 injury may be irremediable, and in forty eight 
 hours the sheep may die. 
 
 In 1828, on five farms adjacent to Loch Lo- 
 mond and Loch Venachoir, in spite of sedulous 
 efforts to prevent mischief, 195 sheep out of a 
 total number of 4,090 died from the attacks of 
 the fly, and 355 more were attacked and, in many 
 instances, were long in recovering. A sheep, on 
 being attacked, ceases to feed, exhibits great un- 
 easiness, rubs itself against rocks and trees, or 
 
 bites itself and tears off the wool ; and it runs 
 violently about the field iD a manner indicative 
 of great pain and the utmost impatience, — or it 
 walks or trots away from the flock, as if seeking 
 shelter from the heat of the sun, and continues 
 to move about till exhausted by suffering or fa- 
 tigue, — or it runs into the shade and seclusion of 
 a deep ditch or some similar place, and there lies 
 writhing in torture, till it is discovered by the 
 shepherd or dies. 
 
 One occasion of the attacks of the fly is a little 
 purging or diarrhoea, and a consequent dirtiness 
 about the tail of the sheep ; another occasion is 
 neglected wounds or sores of any kind about the 
 back ; another, is a foul state and consequent 
 rank smell of the wool ; and a fourth, probably 
 far more powerful in some localities than all the 
 other three, is the allowing of carcases or pieces 
 of dead sheep to putrefy on the surface of the 
 ground, and so both affording a burrow for a 
 prodigious multiplication of the fly, and giving 
 the insect a taste or inclination for the peculiar 
 food of sheep's flesh. Yet the main cause is 
 either unknown or as yet uncontrollable by man ; 
 and preventives and remedies must be used 
 with reference simply to the four occasions which 
 we have stated, and to the appearances which 
 accompany and follow the actual deposition of 
 the ovules. 
 
 Appearance of diarrhoea ought to be prompt- 
 ly observed and corrected; wounds and sores 
 ought to be promptly and regularly dressed; 
 pieces of clotted or foul wool ought to be cut 
 away and buried ; the general cleanliness of the 
 flock ought to be thoroughly and constantly 
 maintained; and all pieces of animal matter 
 which have belonged to sheep ought to be so 
 disposed of as not to become niduses for larvae. 
 During the heat of the day, the flock may be 
 kept in the highest and airiest situations of 
 the pasture, away from close heat and from 
 the fly-frequented vicinity of woods, thickets, 
 and hedges. On farms where muscae threaten 
 to appear in great multitudes, or at times when 
 they seem about to make prodigious increase, a 
 carcase of some kind may be exposed in a corner 
 of the pasture, or on a waste spot in its immedi- 
 ate vicinity, as a lure for them to lay upon ; and i 
 the larvae produced upon it may, on every third 
 or fourth day, be washed out and drowned. 
 Whale oil or any tar which has a strongly empy- 
 reumatic smell may be rubbed over the parts of 
 the sheep most likely to be attacked, or may be 
 streaked simply upon their horns, ears, or tail ; 
 or pulverized quicklime may be dusted over the 
 parts. 
 
 When attacks actually begin, a careful and 
 judicious shepherd may effect more good by fore- 
 thought and vigilance than even by medicinal 
 applications. " Too much attention," says Mr. 
 Cleeve, "cannot be bestowed on the flock by the 
 shepherd to discover the affected sheep ; for al- 
 
FLY-IN-SHEEP. 
 
 559 
 
 FOAL. 
 
 though the discoloration of their wool, and the 
 uneasiness which the animal manifests on most 
 occasions, might seem enough to attract atten- 
 tion for the most superficial examination, I am 
 persuaded by experience that, without the strict- 
 est scrutiny, many of the flies will be passed over, 
 the coat become injured, and not unfrequently 
 the sheep destroyed, before it has been discovered 
 that it is seriously ill. The flock should be sepa- 
 rately examined, one by one, before the flies are 
 busy ; and, during the day, it should be carefully 
 noticed whether flies are inclined to settle on 
 any particular sheep ; and if so, on close inspec- 
 tion of that sheep, it will be found that there are 
 fly-blows or maggots, even although the animal 
 at the time seems insensible of it." 
 
 An efficient and very common application, 
 immediately after sheep have been fly-struck, is 
 white lead ; and this, if applied beforehand, will 
 act also as a preventive. A preparation recom- 
 mended by Mr. Spooner as more effectual than 
 simple white lead, consists of 4 ounces of white 
 lead, 1 ounce of white arsenic, 6 ounces of sul- 
 phur, and 2 ounces of cinnabar of antimony, all 
 finely pulverized, and well mixed together ; and 
 a preparation successfully used upon the flocks 
 belonging to the Earl of Leicester, consists of 1^ 
 ounce of arsenic, 1 gallon of water, 3 ounces of 
 soap, and 2 ounces of tobacco, the arsenic boiled 
 in a bag in the water and stirred during the boil- 
 ing, the tobacco boiled in the same manner, and 
 the whole mixture boiled up with the sliced soap 
 for half-an-hour, and 1| pint of it applied to each 
 sheep. But arsenic is far too mighty an ingre- 
 dient for such common use, and vastly too active 
 a poison to be kept upon a farm and passed 
 through the hands of shepherds ; and when used 
 in any such manner as in these preparations, it 
 may now and then be found to perpetrate enor- 
 mously more evil than can possibly result from 
 the fly. A safer preparation, and quite as effec- 
 tive an one, even when the skin is much broken by 
 the maggot, consists of one pound of quicksilver 
 and half-a-pound of Venice turpentine, rubbed 
 together unintermittedly or for about 8 or 9 
 hours in a marble or wedgewood mortar till they 
 are thoroughly incorporated, and then fused up, 
 over a slow fire, with half-a-pound of resin and 
 5\ pounds of hog's lard. This ointment should 
 be applied immediately to the skin, in furrows 
 of the wool, a little beyond the affected parts ; 
 the wool should then be rubbed or rolled up and 
 down with the fingers, in order that the maggots 
 may be touched with the ointment and fall out ; 
 and a second .and final application of the oint- 
 ment ought, in the course of a few hours, to be 
 made to any spots which were overlooked or still 
 continue to be affected. In very bad cases, when 
 the sores are too numerous and pervading to 
 admit of the use of the ointment, the parts af- 
 fected ought to be cleared of the wool, bathed 
 with milk, slightly dusted with white lead, and 
 
 very softly brushed with linseed oil; and this 
 treatment, followed by the use of a constant 
 covering for keeping away the flies, ought to be 
 daily repeated till the maggots completely dis- 
 appear. — Q. Journal of Agriculture. — Transactions 
 of the Highland Society. — Cleeve's Prize Essay on 
 the Diseases of Sheep in Journal of the R. Agricul- 
 tural Society of England. — Kirby and Spends 
 Entomology. — Spooner on the History and Diseases 
 of Sheep. — Claters Cattle Doctor. — Hogg's Shep- 
 herd's Guide. 
 
 FLY-IN-TURNIPS. See Turnip-Fly. 
 
 FLY-IN-WHEAT. See Wheat-Fly. 
 
 FOAL. A young horse. It naturally suckles 
 between nine and ten months; but among the 
 Arabs, it is never allowed to suckle longer than 
 one month; and in good management among 
 British farmers, it is usually allowed to suckle 
 about five months, or not more than six. The 
 Arabs, during about 100 days after the weaning 
 of a foal, feed it solely with camel's milk ; they 
 next, during about another hundred days, give 
 a little water-soaked wheat along with the 
 camel's milk, and eventually allow the animal 
 to eat some pickings of grass and drink a little 
 water ; and they then, for some time longer, in- 
 crease the quantity of milk, and give either barley 
 or dates and water. A foal, under British treat- 
 ment, and especially upon British farms, ought 
 to be very early accustomed to feed partially on 
 corn, and to acquire the elements of the habits 
 which it is expected to possess in its maturity. 
 When its dam is used for the plough or the cart, 
 and is economically sent to her work as early as 
 her strength will bear, the foal ought for a time 
 to be left in the stable during the hours of work ; 
 but as soon as it is able to keep up with her slow 
 pace in the yoke, it ought to be allowed to ac- 
 company her, and to walk by her side ; for it will 
 then get milk oftener, and become hardier in 
 constitution and more tractable in disposition 
 and more precocious in the instincts of a domes- 
 ticated horse, than if it continued to spend all its 
 time in the stable or in the paddock. During 
 three or four weeks after weaning, it ought to be 
 housed or turned into a rick-yard, or kept in a 
 paddock with warm sheds and a low rack and 
 manger; and during the whole period of its 
 rearing, but especially during the period succeed- 
 ing the weaning, it ought to be abundantly and 
 most nutritiously but not delicately fed. Bruised 
 oats and cut hay may now be liberally given; 
 meal or almost any other farinaceous food is ex- 
 cellent ; oats in the straw may be acceptable if 
 thrashed oats should seem to be disrelished ; and 
 carrots may act well, both as a part of diet im- 
 mediately after weaning, and as a corrective of 
 excessive dryness in the other food or of costive- 
 ness in the bowels. The subsequent treatment 
 of the animal falls to be discussed in the article 
 Horse. 
 
 FOALING. See Parturition and Abortion. 
 
FODDER 
 
 FOAL-TEETH. See Age op Animals. 
 
 FODDER. The bulky vegetable food of the 
 domestic animals, and particularly of cattle. It 
 does not properly include any kinds of food 
 which contain nutritious matters in a concen- 
 trated form, such as corn, pulse, or roots ; but it 
 includes all bulky kinds of food, whether green 
 or dry, which either act principally as ballast or 
 possess the properties of both ballast and nour- 
 ishment, — such as the culms of the cereal grasses, 
 the stems and tops of the forage grasses, the 
 haulm of leguminous plants, and the entire herb- 
 age of meadow-grasses, clovers, lucern, sainfoin, 
 melilot, tares, vetches, and bird's-foot trefoil. 
 
 The qualities of almost any one kind of fodder, 
 whether green or dry, widely vary with differ- 
 ences of soil, climate, weather, and culture. Any 
 green food produced on any spot in a dry season 
 is much more nourishing than the same weight 
 of the same food produced on the same spot in a 
 dripping season, and any herbage or hay-pro- 
 vender raised on a rich dry soil is more nourish- 
 ing than the same thing raised on a poor wet 
 soil. So very various is the quality of hay, that 
 100 lbs. of the best upland meadow quality, cut 
 as the flower expands, and properly saved and 
 stacked, is as nourishing as 120 lbs. of a second- 
 rate quality, or 140 lbs. of a third-rate quality, 
 or 200 lbs. or even more of the coarsest and 
 hardest quality ; and were the highest care ex- 
 ercised in selecting and cultivating the grasses of 
 a primely situated and richly alluvial artificial 
 meadow, a hay could probably be produced of at 
 least four times the nutrimental value of the 
 coarsest kinds occasionally used on farms. Straws 
 and haulms, too, are exceedingly controlled in 
 value, both by the specific nature of plants, and by 
 the character of soils and seasons. Straw-fodder 
 of any species from gravelly soils or from strong 
 clay lands, is better than straw-fodder of the 
 same species from cold moorish lands or from 
 deep black loam ; and the straw or haulm of any 
 plant cut in a somewhat greenish or succulent 
 state is more nutritious than the straw or haulm 
 of the same plant cut in a thoroughly ripened 
 state The haulm of pease is better than the 
 straw of oats ; and either of these is exceedingly 
 better than the straw of wheat, of rye, or of 
 barley. 
 
 But the relative nutritiousness of different 
 kinds of fodder, as well as of some of the prin- 
 cipal kinds of concentrated alimentary substan- 
 ces, ought to be seen at one view, and has been 
 very happily exhibited by M. Antoine of Nancy 
 in France, upon the authority of experiments by 
 Thaer, Schwertz, Boussingault, Pohl, and about 
 a dozen more of the most distinguished agricul- 
 turists of the Continent. One hundred pounds 
 of good upland meadow hay is equal to 102 of 
 lattermath hay, 90 of clover hay made after the 
 blossom is completely developed, 88 of clover hay 
 made before the blossom has expanded, 98 of 
 
 FODDER. 
 
 second crop clover hay, 98 of lucern hay, 89 of 
 sainfoin hay, 91 of tare hay, 90 of dried spergula 
 arvensis, 146 of clover hay with the seed in it, 
 410 of green clover, 457 of green vetches or tares, 
 275 of green Indian corn, 425 of green spergula, 
 325 of the stems and leaves of Jerusalem arti- 
 choke, 541 of cow-cabbage leaves, 600 of beetroot 
 leaves, 300 of potato haulm, 374 of spelter wheat- 
 straw, 442 of rye-straw, 195 of oat-straw, 153 of 
 pease haulm, 159 of vetch haulm, 140 of bean 
 haulm, 195 of buckwheat straw, 170 of dried 
 stalks of Jerusalem artichokes, 400 of dried stalks 
 of Indian corn, 250 of millet-straw, 201 of raw 
 potatoes, 175 of boiled potatoes, 220 of white 
 Silesian beet, 339 of mangel-wurzel, 504 of tur- 
 nips, 276 of carrots, 287 of kohl-rabi, 308 of 
 Swedish turnip bulbs, 350 of Swedish turnips with 
 the leaves on, 54 of rye, 45 of wheat, 54 of barley, 
 59 of oats, 50 of vetches, 45 of pease, 45 of beans, 
 64 of buckwheat, 57 of Indian corn, 32 of dried 
 French beans, 47 of chestnuts, 68 of acorns, 50 
 of horse chestnut, 62 of sunflower seed, 69 of lin- 
 seed cake, 105 of wheat bran, 109 of rye bran, 
 167 of oat-chaff or wheat-chaff, 179 of rye-chaff 
 or barley-chaff, 73 of dried lime-tree leaves, 83 of 
 dried oak leaves, and 67 of dried Canada poplar 
 leaves. See the article Food of Animals. 
 
 Fodder, however, bears a direct and important 
 relation to farm-yard manure as well as to the 
 feeding of stock. The weight of the excrement 
 of a sheep, an ox, or a horse bears a definite pro- 
 portion to the weight and quality of his fodder ; 
 and the weight of the entire manure obtained 
 may easily be either calculated or predetermined 
 by the allotment of fodder, the allotment of litter, 
 the selection of animals, and the duration of 
 confinement within the house or the yard. Let 
 a man simply reckon how much allotted fodder 
 an animal is allowed in the day, how much litter 
 is laid down to him in the day, what proportion 
 the weight of the fodder bears to the weight of 
 the excrement, and what degree of decomposition 
 is allowed to take place upon the litter and the 
 excrement, or what proportion of loss is occa- 
 sioned by gaseous dissipation, and he may know 
 to almost the smallest fraction of a pound what 
 quantity of manure will be realized. According 
 to an average of experiments and observations 
 made by Veit and Block, and published by the 
 former, 1 lb. of ordinary meadow hay yields 1$ 
 lb. of manure from a sheep, \\ lb. from a horse, 
 and 2 lb. from an ox or a cow ; 1 lb. of straw 
 fodder yields 1.2 lb. of manure from a sheep, 1.4 
 lb. from a horse, and 1.9 lb. from an ox ; 1 lb. of 
 green grass or green clover yields 0.37 lb. of 
 manure from a sheep, 0.4 lb. from a horse, and 
 0.6 from an ox; 1 lb. of potato tubers or of 
 turnip bulbs yields | lb. of manure from a sheep, 
 \ lb. from a horse, and 0.7 lb. from an ox ; 1 lb. of 
 grain yields 1 lb. of manure from a sheep, H lb. 
 from a horse, and 2 lbs. from an ox ; and 1 lb. 
 of straw litter yields 1.37 lb. of manure with a 
 
 560 
 
FODDER. 
 
 561 
 
 FOLD. 
 
 sheep, 1.7 lb. with a horse, and 2.2 lb. with an 
 ox. " It is known," adds Veit, " that the dry 
 fodder and the juicy, estimated according to 
 hay value, with Utter employed for the cattle, 
 for manure in general, will give double the 
 weight in moderately decomposed manure. For 
 the production of 19,800 cwt. of manure, there 
 are therefore necessary, of materials for the 
 manufacture of manure, 9,900 cwt." He then 
 shows that 50 morgens of potatoes, 20 of winter 
 rape, 20 of winter wheat, 20 of winter rye, 40 
 of summer rye, 20 of barley, 20 of oats, 20 
 of pease, 10 of beet, 20 of red clover, 10 of lu- 
 cern, 60 of thrice-mowed meadow, 117 of twice- 
 mowed meadow, and 90 of once-mowed meadow, 
 may, after deducting the loss of dung on the 
 meadows, be computed to yield 12,147 cwt. of 
 immediate fodder and litter produce, and 24,294 
 cwt. of manure. Professor Burger says, " The dry 
 nutritious substance, or that which is reckoned 
 by its dry weight, suffers in the bodies of beasts 
 a considerable diminution by the loss of that 
 which the absorbing vessels appropriate to them- 
 selves from it, and which with the excrements 
 secretory of nutritious substances, are so easily 
 decomposed by the process of putrid fermenta- 
 tion, that in a short time its substance, as well as 
 its weight is very considerably diminished. If 
 we therefore say that 100 lbs. of dry substance 
 of consumed fodder, with a proportionate quan- 
 tity of litter, gives 200 lbs. of manure, this must 
 be understood of stall-manure, where the greatest 
 amount of urine is mixed in part with solid ex- 
 crements, or if they should be dissipated on the 
 dunghill, would be replaced again by rain. The 
 more raw, more recent, stall manure is, the more 
 the beasts drink, the more they take of juicy food, 
 the greater is the proportion of the weight of 
 stall-manure compared with the weight of the 
 fodder eaten; wherefore there is more manure 
 from horned cattle than from horses, and the 
 least from sheep." 
 
 FOGGING. See Aftergrass. 
 
 FOLD. An enclosure for sheep. Thefoldinuse 
 among the ancient eastern nations, and alluded 
 to in the Sacred Scriptures, was an enclosure of 
 masonry, provided with a strong door for ingress 
 and egress, and designed, among other purposes, 
 for the protection of the sheep from the attacks 
 of wolves and bandits. A stell or sheep-stell, in 
 use upon some of the large sheep-farms of Britain, 
 is merely a place of temporary refuge from any 
 sudden storm of spring or autumn, and especially 
 from sudden or severe snow-storms of winter. 
 See the article Sheep-Stell. A standing-fold or 
 fixed fold, in use upon many farms, is an enclosure 
 for feeding sheep upon carried food, littering 
 them, and collecting their manure. It may be 
 erected either on any dry piece of pasture land 
 or immediately adjacent to the farm-yard; and 
 in the latter case, it may have part of the farm- 
 buildings for one of its sides, and may derive 
 
 from it the advantages of shelter. The grand use 
 of it is to collect manure ; and the manner of 
 constructing it needs to have reference only to the 
 confining of the sheep within its limits. A sheep- 
 cote may differ from a standing-fold merely in 
 being close and strong and high enough to afford 
 shelter from severe weather ; or it may contain 
 such provisions for the niceties of feeding, the 
 facilities of collecting manure, and the mainte- 
 nance of pure air and a comfortable temperature, 
 as shall render it the same thing for sheep which 
 the courts and the sheds of the farm-yard are for 
 cattle. A moveable fold is a temporary enclosure, 
 commonly in a quadrangular form, with wooden 
 hurdles, with iron hurdles, with wire hurdles, or 
 with nets suspended upon ropes, and stretched 
 between posts or attached to spikes fastened in 
 the ground ; it is proportioned in size to the 
 number of sheep confined within it, and to the 
 quantity of manure intended to be laid on ; it is 
 removed daily or at other stated intervals, in 
 such a manner that its hither side before remo- 
 val becomes its further side after removal ; and 
 it is employed variously for the separating of ewes 
 and their lambs from the rest of the flock, — for 
 combining the winter-feeding of sheep with the 
 manuring of the land by the eating off of turnips, 
 — for the manuring of corn-stubbles or spring- 
 fallows in preparation for turnips, — for the com- 
 bined manuring and consolidation of light are- 
 naceous soils, — for the manuring of clover leys, or 
 the manuring, consolidating, and working of 
 naked fallows, in preparation for wheat, — and 
 sometimes, for the burying or poaching-down of 
 the seeds of newly-sown wheat, or the eating down 
 of excessively luxuriant wheat in spring. 
 
 Folding in stells — if a temporary retreat within 
 these places can deserve the name — is an affair of 
 mere shelter, and must be regarded as excellent 
 or even necessary provision in all situations in 
 which the sheep are sufficiently hardy in all ordi- 
 nary seasons, but not hardy enough to pass un- 
 scathed beneath occasional extraordinary storms. 
 Sheep-cotes, in so far as they differ from standing- 
 folds by being places of shelter and warmth, may 
 be requisite in preference to stells in some very 
 bleak and exposed situations, or desirable in pla- 
 ces too cold and churlish for the selected breed 
 of sheep ; but, in general, they foster or induce 
 tenderness of habit, occasion more injury from 
 heat than would be endured in the open air from 
 cold, and restrain the sheep from indulging in 
 their natural and healthful freedom of exercise, 
 and are therefore of very questionable advantage- 
 ousness or more than doubtful character. 
 
 Standing-folds and such sheds and sheep-cotes 
 as but slightly possess a sheltering structure, are 
 highly advantageous, in a few places in Britain, 
 and in multitudes of places on the Continent, for 
 the collecting of manure. The floor is either 
 spread with argillaceous sand, calcareous sand, 
 or some other clean, dry, and partialJv alkaline 
 2 N 
 
FOLD. 
 
 562 
 
 FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 earth, or littered with straw, haulm, stubble or 
 dry leaves ; and the consequent manure obtained 
 is as regular in accumulation, and as easily col- 
 lected, as that of the courts and sheds of the farm 
 yard. The Annals of Agriculture record an in- 
 stance of 28 large loads of rich manure having 
 been obtained in six weeks from a standing-fold 
 of eight score of sheep, littered weekly, with a 
 load of straw, and supplied twice-a-day with 
 drawn turnips ; and the writer of the Treatise on 
 British Husbandry, speaking on the authority of 
 the Hertfordshire Report, says," In Hertfordshire 
 also, 300 short-woolled sheep, penned in like 
 manner from the end of October to the end of 
 March, and littered with stubble, are stated to 
 have produced 80 cart loads of the richest dung. 
 The plan is, indeed, in use among many persons 
 who have large flocks upon light land, and is 
 there employed for the purposes both of fattening 
 wethers for the market and of procuring shelter 
 for the ewes at lambing time. Mr. Ellman of 
 Glynde, has, for instance, two or three yards with 
 sheds twelve feet wide around them, which, being 
 also littered, are extremely warm, and preserve 
 many lambs in stormy weather. They may be 
 fenced with wattled hurdle-work, for the sake of 
 coolness, lest a greater degree of closeness might 
 render the yard too hot ; and the system has 
 answered so well on several large farms, that the 
 sheep are said to have been found more healthy 
 than when kept out on the fields in the common 
 manner." 
 
 The use of moveable folds for eating off turnips, 
 or preparing stubble-lands or clover-leys for other 
 crops, is now so established a practice of rotational 
 husbandry as to be almost beyond the reach of 
 question. See the articles Sheep and Turnips. 
 But the use of these folds upon bare fallows, or 
 for the mere manuring of ploughed lands, or in 
 any manner which alternates open depasturing 
 during the day with folding during the night, is 
 an exceedingly doubtful practice, and has for 
 many years been denounced, with increasing 
 earnestness, by the great majority of both scien- 
 tific agriculturists and well-informed practical 
 farmers. As much as possibly can be said in its 
 favour, perhaps, is succinctly and pithily said as 
 follows in the Survey of Somersetshire : " In a 
 rich fertile country, where the quantity of arable 
 land is small, and in mere subserviency to the 
 grazing system, where dung is plenty, and can 
 be put in the corn-land at a small expense, and 
 where each sheep is highly fed, it is not to be 
 wondered that the folding system should be held 
 in derision and contempt; but I will be bold 
 enough to repeat, that in a poor, exposed, and 
 extensive corn-farm, the soil of which is light and 
 stony, it is the sine qua non of good husbandry. 
 Let me ask its opponents whether the downs of 
 Wilts and Dorset would wave with luxuriant 
 corn if folding were abolished ? No. The farmer 
 would plough and sow to little purpose, were his 
 
 fallows to remain untrod with the feet, and un- 
 manured by the dung and perspiration of these 
 useful animals. Besides, in the hot summer 
 months, nothing is so grateful to the flock itself 
 as fresh ploughed ground ; and sheep will, of 
 their own accord, retire to it when their hunger 
 is satisfied." But the practice of folding on naked 
 fallows fatigues and injures some breeds of sheep 
 by the daily travelling, disturbs the digestion of 
 all by preventing them from resting where they 
 have fed, retards the fattening of all by keeping 
 them throughout the night without food, damages 
 the wool of all by its contacts with the soil both 
 in travelling and within the fold, poaches any 
 clay lands or strong loams which the flock tra- 
 verse in passing between the fold and the pasture, 
 and impoverishes the pasture-land in the precise 
 degree in which it enriches the folded land, or 
 transfers the manuring process of the flock from 
 the grass-fields in which they feed by day to the 
 fallow-lands in which they rest by night. Yet 
 wherever the practice is persisted in, it may, in 
 some degree, be palliated by using only store-flocks 
 and hardy short-woolled sheep, by taking care 
 that they have abundance of food on the pasture, 
 and by retaining them in the pasture sufficiently 
 late in the evening, and returning them to it 
 sufficiently early in the morning. 
 
 FOLDING. See Fold, Sheep, and Hurdle. 
 
 FOOD OF ANIMALS. The food given to the 
 domesticated animals exercises a powerful in- 
 fluence over their constitution, according to the 
 substances of which it consists and to the manner 
 in which it is supplied ; and it may be composed 
 either of entire substances in their natural state 
 or of prepared and mixed substances in a mixed 
 condition, and may be very variously modified 
 and administered according to the specific effects 
 which are sought to be produced. See the 
 articles Feeding op Animals and Fattening op 
 Animals. 
 
 The mechanical division of most substances, 
 into comparatively minute parts, facilitates 
 mastication, swallowing, and digestion, and 
 renders any given weight of food more profit- 
 able than in an undivided state, and can be very 
 facilely and economically performed upon the 
 farm by means of chaff-cutters, turnip-slicers, 
 oil-cake-crushers, corn-bruisers, and other food- 
 preparing machines. Food in a green state is 
 generally more profitable than when faded or 
 dry; for it both escapes the loss of nutrient 
 matter in the process of drying, and is more 
 easily, rapidly, and completely digested. And 
 for the same reason food which has been moist- 
 ened and softened after being dried is usually 
 more profitable than when given under a hard 
 or dry form. Seeds especially, when broken or 
 reduced to flour, or even made into a paste or 
 broth, are more quickly assimilated into the ani- 
 mal substance than when entire. Hence, they 
 are nearly everywhere reduced to a state of mi- 
 
FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 FOOD OF ANIMALS 
 
 nute division before being given to animals in 
 course of fattening, and numerous experiments 
 have clearly established their comparative supe- 
 riority over those which have not undergone this 
 process. 
 
 The boiling or the steaming of food is one of 
 the best known means of increasing its profit- 
 ableness ; for it at once eminently facilitates its 
 division, eminently promotes its digestion, and 
 very materially adds to the amount of its nutri- 
 tiousness. And these last results are particularly 
 advantageous, and appear to originate in part 
 from the circumstance that the molecules of the 
 alimentary substance are separated by the coc- 
 tion which they undergo, and thus present a 
 greater surface to the influence of the gastric 
 juice, and partly from the influence of the water 
 wherein they are immersed, as well as of the 
 high temperature to which they are exposed, 
 augmenting their nutritive powers. The water 
 seems actually to become solid as in the making 
 of bread, by entering into union with them, or 
 by imparting its hydrogen, which afterwards 
 becoming united to carbon, may contribute 
 towards the formation of fat. See the articles 
 Boiling and Steaming. 
 
 Fermentation, which may be regarded as a 
 sort of cooking afforded spontaneously by Nature, 
 adds greatly to the nutritive qualities of the sub- 
 stances which undergo this process. It has long 
 been recommended to allow the barley, intended 
 to fatten cattle, to germinate, and this may be 
 regarded as the first step in the process of fer- 
 mentation, which the grain undergoes when used 
 for making beer. By this means, the saccharine 
 principle becomes more fully developed, while 
 the food is unquestionably made more digestible 
 and nutritious. Hence cattle-dealers seek with 
 avidity, and employ with great advantage, the 
 residue of breweries, distilleries, and starch manu- 
 factories. A part of the grain thus prepared, or 
 its refuse, is used largely for feeding cattle in 
 Belgium, Alsace, and generally in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of all large manufacturing towns. 
 The nutritive properties of the food are further 
 augmented by rendering it sour, or at least, it 
 tends in this state to render the digestive function 
 more energetic. Hence, the farinaceous sub- 
 stances used for food, especially when it is in- 
 tended to fatten the cattle, are made in a great 
 number of places to undergo the acetous fer- 
 mentation. Indeed, all the modes of preparation 
 already enumerated are but little useful to 
 animals destined for hard labour. Seasoning 
 renders the food more agreeable to their taste, 
 more digestible, and therefore more profitable. 
 Common salt is probably the most powerful and 
 useful of all substances for this purpose, and 
 hence it is employed almost everywhere with 
 advantage. It sharpens the appetite, excites to 
 drink, facilitates digestion, renders the flesh of 
 animals intended for the table of a superior 
 
 quality, and either promotes, or supplies the 
 acidity induced by the second stage of fer- 
 mentation. 
 
 In addition to those precautions, which are 
 essential to the proper selection and preparation 
 of food for the domestic animals, it is of great 
 importance to regulate the rations or quantity of 
 food distributed to them at intervals, in order 
 that they may be rendered as profitable as pos- 
 sible. The quantity of food ought always to be 
 in proportion to their age, state of health, the 
 violence of their exercise, and final destination, 
 always observing, at the same time, the general 
 principle, that the quantity of the food must be 
 more considerable when it is less substantial, as 
 any diminution of its nutritive qualities can only 
 be compensated by a proportional increase of its 
 quantity. It is always impossible to determine, 
 in a fixed and positive manner, how much of each 
 kind of food an animal should consume in a given 
 time, because this depends upon a great number 
 of circumstances relative to its species, its race 
 or breed, the peculiar constitution of the indivi- 
 dual, its employment, as well as its age and state 
 of health. The daily allowances further change 
 with the very variable nature of their food, the 
 different ways in which it is administered, the 
 state of the atmosphere, the season of the year, 
 and several other circumstances, all of which 
 should be taken into consideration before we can 
 determine their proper daily rations with any 
 degree of accuracy. Hence result the various 
 and contradictory opinions emitted on the subject 
 by most writers who have attempted to fix quanti- 
 ties. Some have laid down as a principle, that 
 certain domestic animals will daily consume the 
 third part of their weight of watery food, such as 
 turnips, beet-root, or green clover ; while others j 
 have fixed for the same animals a fourth part of 
 their weight of cabbages, carrots, and parsnips, I 
 and a fifth or a sixth of beet-root, potatoes, and 
 Jerusalem artichokes. There must be, however, 
 a great variation according to the different cir- 
 cumstances just enumerated. It appears to us 
 that all these matters should be regulated by 
 particular and individual trials, and be left ; 
 wholly to experience. Physiologists, and all 
 who have studied this matter properly, know j 
 very well, that although there are certain well- j 
 ascertained general laws which regulate the en- j 
 tire animal economy, each individual possesses 
 a peculiar constitution, or idiosyncrasy, which 
 more or less serves to modify these laws. Hence 
 We frequently find a disparity of effects resulting 
 from the same apparent or real cause, and these j 
 variations show themselves in the quantity of I 
 food which animals consume, as well as on a I 
 great many other occasions, the explanation of I 
 which can only be obtained on the principles al- j 
 ready explained. 
 
 Along with the really nutritive food, there i 
 must always be mixed a certain quantity of bal- 
 
FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 last, that is, of some coarse and slightly nutri- 
 tious food, otherwise the sides of the stomach, as 
 well as the intestines, will not be sufficiently dis- 
 tended and stimulated, so as to perform com- 
 pletely the functions for which Nature intended 
 them. Unless this condition is rigorously at- 
 tended to, the digestion, elaboration, and assimi- 
 lation of the nutritive juices, will always be in- 
 complete, even in healthy and well constituted 
 animals. It is therefore a very important error 
 to overload the stomachs of these animals with 
 any very nutritious food unmixed, even when it 
 is exclusively intended to fatten them. 
 
 In respect to the distribution of their food, it 
 is only necessary to notice one excellent maxim, 
 Good food, a little at a time, and often; they should 
 be allowed to eat quietly and slowly in order that 
 they may digest the largest quantity of food in 
 the shortest possible time. Regular intervals of 
 feeding should be observed, with occasional fast- 
 ing, which serves to appetize them, and give an 
 impulse to their digestive organs. They should 
 not, however, be allowed to grow impatient, 
 which occasions a loss of animal force and nutri- 
 tion. Digestion never proceeds rapidly as long 
 as the animal continues eating. It is only when 
 sufficiently filled that the circulation becomes 
 accelarated, the temperature of the body more 
 elevated, and digestion proceeds with its greatest 
 activity. All these phenomena succeed in the 
 course of a few hours, after which the tempera- 
 ture of the body falls, the respiration becomes 
 moderate, and hunger returns. It is only at this 
 time that more food should be given, in small 
 rations at a time; and when treated in this 
 manner, the animal consumes less, and derives 
 more benefit from its food. 
 
 To alternate and vary the kind of food used is 
 always necessary, because the continual use of the 
 same aliment does not sharpen the appetite so well 
 as a judicious selection and rotation. A variety of 
 food serves to stimulate the digestive organs, and 
 prevent that disgust which the same diet con- 
 tinued too long always occasions by its uniform- 
 ity. Care should be taken, in respect to these 
 changes of food, to avoid a sudden alteration of 
 diet, especially from green to dry food, or vice 
 versa, for these are always more or less prejudi- 
 cial. It is also very important not to overload 
 the stomachs of labouring animals, immediately 
 before they set out to their work, as is too fre- 
 quently done, for this often occasions indigestion, 
 or at least renders it imperfect or laborious. 
 From want of food or other circumstances, these 
 animals are often obliged to submit to a long 
 fast, which they are always better able to endure 
 in proportion as their food has been the more 
 substantial. 
 
 There are some domestic animals, such as the 
 camel and the ass, which are remarkable for 
 their frugality, as well as their capacity of re- 
 maining long without food. There are also some 
 races of other animals which are equally cele- 
 
 brated for these qualities ; and when they do not 
 originate in some constitutional defect, or from 
 ill health, and when it is not effected at the ex- 
 pense of their other useful properties, this forms 
 a powerful inducement for propagating some 
 races in preference to others. The mule is an 
 instance of the above, as well as some of the im- 
 proved breeds. A quantity of barley, equal to about 
 one feed, is sufficient, according to the report of tra- 
 vellers, for the daily maintenance of an Arabian 
 saddle-horse, after a long journey in the deserts ; 
 while a European horse performing the same 
 service would have consumed, in the same time, 
 a much larger quantity of barley, besides a con- 
 siderable bulk of hay and straw. The remark- 
 able frugality of the former, although doubtless 
 owing to an original constitution improved by 
 habit, is partly due to a difference in the nutritive 
 qualities of the food, as well as to the climate. 
 If animals of the South consume, in general, a 
 smaller quantity of food than those of the North, 
 this is in part due to the circumstance, that the 
 food is much more nutritious in the former than 
 in the latter case, and also that it possesses a 
 greater specific gravity. It may not be improper 
 in this place to notice a remarkable error almost 
 universally adopted in this country, of giving out 
 corn, which is the most substantial part of their 
 food, by measure instead of by weight, as it has 
 been ascertained by many trials, that the quan- 
 tity of really nutritive matter may vary in bulk 
 by nearly one-half, according to the quality of 
 the corn. See the article Feeding of Animals. 
 
 As the most useful and important of our do- 
 mestic animals are herbivorous, it may be advan- 
 tageous briefly to notice here the general quali- 
 ties of the several vegetable substances which 
 usually form the basis of their diet. The sub- 
 stances principally used for this purpose are : 1st, 
 grass, either fresh, or under the form of hay; 2d, 
 the straw of the cereal plants ; 3d, leaves or 
 stalks ; 4th, roots or tubers ; 5th, seeds, grains, 
 or fruits. Each of these subjects admits of being 
 treated somewhat in detail. 
 
 Grass is the most natural food of the herbivor- 
 ous animals, and is often sufficient to restore 
 feeble animals to a good condition when they 
 have fallen off, upon any other kind of diet. 
 This food is not, however, adapted for hard- 
 working animals. See the articles Grasses and 
 Grass-Lands. 
 
 The best kind of green food is fine, substantial, 
 not very watery or faded, and should not have 
 grown in a shady situation ; it is usually found 
 upon natural or artificial meadow-land. The 
 natural families of the gramineae and legumi- 
 nosae are the most abundant in important plants. 
 In the former we may notice the meadow-grasses, 
 Poa; fescue-grasses, Festuca ; fox-tail -grasses, 
 Alopecurus; oat-grasses, Avena; cat's-tail-grasses, 
 Phleum; bent-grasses, Agrostis; canary-grasses, 
 Phalaris; wheat-grasses, Tritiann; the barleys, 
 Ilordeum; hair-grasses, Aira; soft-grasses, Hoi- 
 
FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 505 
 
 FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 cus ; dog's -tail -grasses, Cynosurus ; quaking- 
 grasses, Briza ; millet-grasses, Milium; and a 
 few other genera. Of the leguminosoe, the fol- 
 lowing are the most remarkable: — the medicks 
 or lucerns, Medicago; the trefoils, Trifolium; 
 saintfoin, Onobrychis ; the melilots, Melilotus ; 
 the vetches, Vicia ; the tares, Ervum ; the milk- 
 vetches, Astragalus ; and the bird's-foot-trefoil, 
 Lotus. There are some plants, which not only- 
 have the property of exciting a more abundant 
 secretion of milk in those females which are fed 
 thereon, but also render it of an excellent qua- 
 lity ; such are the roots of the parsnip or carrot, 
 and the stalks of the maize ; while others, such 
 as the garlics, Allium, actually impart a dis- 
 agreeable odour, or other unfavourable qualities. 
 Each domestic animal shows a marked predilec- 
 tion in favour of some plants, and either refuses 
 certain others altogether, or feeds upon them 
 only when compelled by a scarcity of food, as 
 Linnaeus and several of his followers have long 
 ago remarked. Not only do they derive pleasure 
 from particular parts of certain plants in prefer- 
 ence to the remainder, but the different states of 
 vegetation in which each of them is found, as 
 well as the different situations and nature of the 
 soil on which the plants grow, contribute still 
 more strongly in determining their choice. With 
 a very small number of exceptions, we find in 
 general that when plants are in their flowering 
 state, or one which nearly approaches to it, they 
 are most nutritious. At this time, their nutri- 
 tive particles are diffused abundantly and equally 
 throughout the whole plant, and they hold a 
 middle state between the aqueous condition which 
 is too relaxing, or not sufficiently nutritious, and 
 the ligneous condition, which renders difficult 
 the functions of mastication, deglutition, and di- 
 gestion. In general, also, medium qualities of 
 the soil, as well as intermediate stations, should 
 be preferred for pasture grounds. 
 
 After numerous comparative trials made at 
 Upsal in Sweden upon the common plants of the 
 meadows, fields, and other pasture lands, it was 
 found, by M. Hesselgreen, that the plants used 
 by each species of domestic animals vary greatly 
 in number. His results are represented in the 
 following table : — 
 
 Of 575 plants, the goat eats 449, and refuses 126 
 528 the sheep 387, 141 
 
 494 the bull 276, 218 
 
 474 the horse 262, 212 
 
 243 the pig 72, 171 
 
 This serves to indicate that the goat is the 
 least delicate in his taste, and can eat without 
 inconvenience a great number of plants hurtful 
 to other species. The sheep feeds upon nearly 
 three- fourths of all the plants it encounters; 
 the oxen and horses refuse nearly one-half, while 
 the hog can eat the leaves and roots compara- 
 tively of a very small number of species. The 
 above results are, however, very incomplete, and 
 must be considered merely as approximations. 
 
 Subsequently to the investigations of M. Hes- 
 selgreen, M. Yvart examined nearly seven hun- 
 dred of the most common plants of France, or 
 those capable of being naturalized there, and as 
 his inquiry appears to have been conducted with 
 much care, it may be interesting to compare his 
 results with those already given of the Swedish 
 investigator. 
 
 Goat. Sheep. Bull. Horse. Hog. 
 Can eat ... 547 408 311 268 86 
 Is very fond of 28 81 121 113 36 
 Sometimes eats 32 33 70 39 23 
 
 Takes in all 607 522 502 420 145 
 Refuses . . 83 133 183 235 169 
 
 Total plants examined 690 655 685 655 314 
 
 Many plants are wholly refused by all animals. 
 Among the principal of these growing in marshy 
 places we may notice the following : The common 
 butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris; common-hooded 
 milfoil, Utricular ia vulgaris; forget-me-not, Myo- 
 sotis palustris; perfoliate pond- weed, Potamogeton 
 perfoliatum; long-leaved cowbane, Cicuta virosa; 
 the long-leaved sun-dew, Brosera longifolia; the 
 round-leaved sun -dew, B. rotundifolia ; water- 
 pepper, Polygonum hydropiper; sweetflag, Acorus 
 calamus; water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis; 
 great spear wort, R. lingua; and water milfoil, 
 Myriophylhim spicatum. 
 
 There are several other plants which either 
 grow in somewhat moist pastures or in the shade, 
 and are likewise refused by all cattle. These are 
 the common thorn-apple, Batura stramonium; 
 common henbane, Hyoscyamus niger; black-berried 
 nightshade, Solarium nigrum; dwarf-elder, Sambu- 
 cus ebulus; mountain dryas, Bryas octopetala; black 
 horehound, Ballota nigra; common white hore- 
 hound, Marrubium vulgare; impatient lady's smock, 
 Cardamine impatiois; common celandine, Cheli- 
 donium majus; and the blue erigeron, Erigeron 
 acre. It must be noticed, however, that many 
 of these plants, when very young, are sometimes 
 cropped by the cattle without inconvenience, 
 while some even of the most nutritious plants 
 are refused when in grain, from their perfume 
 being too strongly diffused. After the animals 
 have endured a long continued fast, their discri- 
 mination in these respects is not so nice ; and 
 the climate may occasion some further differ- 
 ences. Thus, the young sprouts of the wolf's- 
 bane and hemlock become esculent even for man 
 in the North of Europe, where their deleterious 
 properties are not sufficiently developed to be- 
 come hurtful. 
 
 Some plants are often eaten by the cattle while 
 green and fresh, and yet are generally refused by 
 them if offered in a dry or faded state. These 
 are cock's -comb, Rhinanthus crista-galli ; the 
 horse-tails, Equisetum; the bedstraws, Galium — 
 which spoil the hay ; and the common buckbean, 
 Menyanth.es trifoliata : while others, such as tne 
 crowfoots, Ranunculus; and swallow-worts, Ascle- 
 
FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 pias, lose their injurious properties when dried, 
 and in that state are eaten by the cattle without 
 inconvenience. Others serve as seasoning, such 
 as the garlics, Allium, and the docks, Rumex, 
 either of which may be used occasionally as a 
 stimulant or corrective ; while the cotton-grasses, 
 Eriophorum, and some others, become hurtful 
 from their hairs, which serve as a nucleus to 
 those dangerous segagropiles or concretions, some- 
 times found in the first stomach of the domestic 
 ruminants. 
 
 There are also a great number of plants eaten 
 without inconvenience by the goat, and even 
 greedily sought after by that animal, while they 
 are refused by all other cattle. The principal are 
 the common mare's-tail, Hippuris vulgaris; com- 
 mon prickly-seed, Echinospermum Lappula; the 
 greater water plantain, Alisma plantago — highly 
 detrimental to ail other domestic animals ; the 
 wood anemone, Anemone nemoralis; that of the 
 meadows, A. pratensis; the spring anemone, A. 
 vernalis; celery-leaved crowfoot, Ranunculus scele- 
 ratus ; the knotty -rooted figwort, Scrophularia 
 nodosa; and tamepoison, Asclepias vincetoxicum, 
 of which it is extremely fond. The last men- 
 tioned plant can be eaten by the horse, only after 
 it has been killed by the frost. To these we may 
 add, the small water-wort, Eiatine hydropiper ; 
 box -leaved andromeda, Andromeda calyculata; 
 biting stonecrop, Sedum acre; snapdragon, An- 
 tirrhinum linaria; stinking camomile, Anthemis 
 cotula ; black - berried bryony, Bryonia alba ; 
 marsh louse wort, Pedicularis palustris; that of 
 the woods, P. sylvatica ; hemp agrimony, Eupato- 
 rium cannabinum ; the annual mercury, Mer- 
 curialis annua, which is poisonous to all other 
 animals, according to Ray and Linnaeus ; the corn 
 horsetail, Equisetum arvense; that of the marshes, 
 E. palustre ; and the male polypody, Polypodium 
 filix mas. 
 
 Some plants are eaten solely by the hog, and 
 it is often only their roots that are sought after. 
 The chief of these plants are the common cycla- 
 men, C. Europo3um; common asarabacca, Asarum 
 Europmum ; the white water lily, JYymphosa alba; 
 and the yellow, JV. lutea, for which the horse ex- 
 hibits a marked aversion ; the water soldier, Stra- 
 tiotes aloides; sea wrack-grass, Zostera marina; and 
 maiden hair, Asplenium trichomanes. 
 
 A few plants are very much sought after by all 
 cattle, and almost with equal avidity. These are 
 the common millet-grass, Millium effasuvi; mea- 
 dow soft-grass, Holcus lanatus; annual meadow- 
 grass, Poa annua; oats, barley, and wheat, the 
 carrot and parsnip, the great round-leaved willow, 
 Salix caprea ; the Norwegian cinquefoil, Potentilla 
 Norvegica. Also, the creeping trefoil, the common 
 lucern, and sainfoin. But many of these plants 
 must be in different states, in order to be liked 
 equally by the several species of cattle. 
 
 On considering the entire vegetable kingdom 
 in a general manner, we find that scarcely any 
 acotyledonous plants are fitted for the mainten- 
 
 FOOD OF ANIMALS. 
 
 ance of cattle. Indeed, if we exclude the grasses, 
 nearly all of which may be used for this purpose, 
 we find but few even among the monocotyledon- 
 ous plants. It is unquestionably in the dicotyle- 
 donous class that the greatest number of useful 
 materials for this purpose are to be found. The 
 following natural families are arranged according 
 to the order of their utility for food to cattle : — 
 The graminese, leguminosse, cruciferse, rosaceae, 
 amentace99, umbelliferae, cucurbitacese, and poly- 
 goneae. 
 
 The best hay is afforded by the more elevated 
 meadows, and its quality depends greatly upon 
 the care with which it has been dried. In this 
 article quality is much more important than 
 quantity ; for a stone of good hay, well se- 
 lected, and carefully dried, affords more nutri- 
 ment than several stones of coarse or ill-prepared 
 material, — a matter to which sufficient attention 
 is not always paid. The exposure to the sun or 
 air, during its making into hay, always occasions 
 grass to lose some portion, more or less consider- 
 able, of its nutritive substance, which is evapo- 
 rated along with the watery matter. New hay 
 often occasions indigestion, and it should not be 
 given to cattle for several months after being 
 made, at which time it is entirely deprived of its 
 uncombined aqueous substance. See the article 
 Hay. 
 
 Straw should be considered rather as a useful 
 kind of ballast proper to be mixed with the really 
 nutritive food of the domestic animals, than as a 
 substantial nourishment. The best quality is 
 fine, white, short, and massive. It is often ad- 
 vantageous to have it chopped and even moist- 
 ened. See the articles Straw and Chaff. 
 
 Dried leaves, as well as the small branches of 
 a great number of trees, shrubs, and bushes, may 
 sometimes form a useful substitute for straw or 
 hay, when the latter cannot be easily procured. 
 The elm, the mulberry tree, the ash, the horn- 
 bean, Carpinus betulus; the lime trees, Tilea; the 
 common maple and sycamore, Acer; the common 
 acacia, Robinia pseudacacia ; the willows, the pop- 
 lars, the birches, beeches, planetrees, chestnuts, 
 oaks, dogwood, Cornus ; hazel, Corylus ; furze, 
 XJlex ; and the vine, are frequently used for this 
 purpose on the Continent, in places where they 
 happen to be plentiful. See the article Furze. 
 The same substances, if given in their green 
 state, may also replace the newly-mown grass of 
 the meadows ; but they should always be ad- 
 ministered with caution, and with a due atten- 
 tion to their effects, which vary according to the 
 species, as well as in their several states of vege- 
 tation. The green leaves of a tolerably large 
 number of vegetables are annually cultivated on 
 a large scale, either as food for man or for cattle ; 
 such are the leaves of the maize, beet-root, cab- 
 bage, carrot, parsnip, potato, and some others, all 
 of which may be used for this purpose in many 
 cases with advantage. See the articles Cabbaqk 
 and Beet. 
 
 566 
 
FOOD OF PLANTS. 
 
 Roots, or rather their tuberous appendages, 
 which are often very large and voluminous, such 
 as those of the parsnip, carrot, beet-root, potato, 
 Jerusalem artichoke, and turnip, are frequently- 
 superior to any of the substances already men- 
 tioned as a daily article of food for cattle, and 
 many comparative trials have clearly shown that 
 they are in general much more profitable. Seeds, 
 grains, or fruits, contain, of all the parts of a 
 plant, the largest quantity of nutritive sub- 
 stance under the smallest bulk. -They ought to 
 be given judiciously and sparingly to cattle, from 
 their being in general very costly, and there are 
 6ome other inconveniences to which their fre- 
 quent use may give rise. Sometimes they are 
 ground, broken, or prepared in different ways in 
 order to render them more digestible and econo- 
 mical. The principal seeds used for the food of 
 the domestic animals are also, in great part, fur- 
 nished by the useful families of the graminese 
 and leguminosas. Other farinaceous fruits, pro- 
 cured from some of the remaining families, are 
 occasionally added to these ; such as the buck- 
 wheat, Polygonum Fagopyrum, the chestnut, 
 horse-chestnut, and acorn, as well as the olea- 
 ginous seeds of cruciferous plants, especially of 
 some varieties of cabbage, and gold-of-pleasure. 
 
 FOOD OF PLANTS. The substances, whether 
 gaseous, liquid, or solid, which surrender either 
 all or some of their elements, to be absorbed or 
 imbibed by plants, and converted into their juices, 
 tissues and secretions. A very large proportion 
 of the elementary matter of these juices, tissues, 
 and secretions consists of carbon ; and this is 
 j obtained partly from the decomposed humus of 
 the soil, but principally from the carbonic acid 
 of the atmosphere. Another very large proportion 
 consists, though in innumerably diversified de- 
 grees and combinations, of oxygen and hydrogen ; 
 and this is obtained partly from water, whether 
 liquid or aeriform, and partly from the atmosphere. 
 An exceedingly important proportion, but not a 
 bulky one, consists of nitrogen ; and this is ob- 
 tained partly from decomposing nitrates in the 
 soil, but principally from the ammoniacal products 
 of manures and of dead animal substances, either 
 while these products are in a nascent state, or 
 after they have ascended to the upper atmosphere 
 and been washed back by rains. And a very 
 multifarious and highly valuable proportion, 
 though not a large one, and chiefly identical 
 with the portions of plants which are incinerated 
 or not gaseously dissipated by thorough combus- 
 tion, consists of alkaline and earthy salts, princi- 
 pally carbonates, sulphates, silicates, phosphates, 
 and oxalates,but with exceedingly varied distribu- 
 tion in both kind and degree among plants of dif- 
 ferent species and orders ; and all the bases as well 
 as some of the acidifying principles of these, are 
 obtained from either the natural matter or the 
 artificial manure of the soil, and are chemically 
 prepared for absorption by the plants, or digested 
 
 FOOTROT 
 
 among the interstices and minute cavities of the 
 soil, either by simple solution in water, or by the 
 combined resolving force of water, air, electricity, 
 and other chemical agents. See the articles Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry, Manure, Soil, Ammonia, 
 Azote, Salt, and Ashes. 
 
 FOOT. The extremity of the limb of any ani- 
 mal which walks. A tolerably full view of the 
 feet of the several domestic animals, would fill 
 a volume ; and we can find room for only two or 
 three short veterinarian remarks respecting the 
 foot of the horse. 
 
 A thin foot is one which has a thin wall ; and, 
 though perfectly well-shaped and in all respects 
 pleasing to the eye, it is peculiarly liable to da- 
 mage from either the attaching of the shoe, tra- 
 velling on hard ground, excessive drought in 
 summer, or excessive moisture in winter. The 
 bottom of the wall of a thin foot is generally rag- 
 ged ; and, when the shoe is removed, the whole 
 verge is seen to be thin. — A strong foot has the 
 fibres of the hoof very distinct, and somewhat si- 
 milar in appearance to those of any easily-splitten 
 timber ; and, if not kept carefully moist and plia- 
 ble, it becomes almost as hard as iron, and ren- 
 ders the foot lame and tender without revealing 
 the cause of the lameness ; and when hurt to the 
 quick, and locally inflamed, has such an obstruc- 
 tion of humour, as often to cause a very trouble- 
 some eruption round the coronet ; and is always 
 subject to rents and fissures of the hoof, some- 
 times so severe as to terminate in the total dis- 
 ruption of the coffin from the sensible foot. — A 
 narrow-heeled foot, in some instances, is tolerably 
 good ; but in others, inclines to heat and rotten- 
 ness, and, when tampered with in the usual man- 
 ner of many farriers, is almost certain to become 
 hoof-bound. — A fore-foot of perceptibly smaller 
 size than its fellow, may, in the course of time, ! 
 become feeble and incapable. — A flat foot, shaped 
 like an oyster, has many rings or wrinkles, and j 
 probably requires a hollow-shaped shoe, and ge- ! 
 nerally renders the animal unfit for the saddle, 
 and not the fittest possible for the yoke. — A low- 
 heeled foot renders the animal a bad traveller ; 
 and a high-heeled foot is subject to unsteadiness of j 
 action, to tripping and stumbling, and to sprains 
 in the coffin and pastern joints. — A foot of dis- 
 proportionately large size, is usually accompanied 
 with slenderness and comparative weakness of 
 limb, and indicates inability for any brisk or vi- 
 gorous action. 
 
 FOOTPICK. An instrument for raising land- 
 fast stones. It operates on the same class of stones 
 as the crow-bar, but lifts them much more easily, 
 and without the trouble of clearing away the in- 
 cumbent soil. It consists simply of a slightly- 
 curved bar, a cross handle, and a one-sided tread ; 
 but the tread is moveable to either side, to suit 
 the convenience of the workman. 
 
 FOOTROT. A disease in the feet of sheep. It 
 has long been common among the soft and some- 
 
 567 
 
FOOTROT. 
 
 568 
 
 FOOTROT. 
 
 what tender breeds which graze on low rank 
 pastures, or are shut up during the night in sheds 
 and houses ; and about forty years ago, it began 
 to appear among the hardy mountain breeds, and 
 to spread with a rapidity and operate with a vi- 
 rulence which excited great and just alarm in the 
 minds of almost all sheep farmers of both upland 
 and plain. It has at times prevailed to a very 
 destructive extent; it occasionally devastates 
 particular localities and entire districts ; and it 
 has been the topic of excessive conflict of opinion, 
 as to at once its causes, its contagiousness or non- 
 contagiousness, its proper treatment, and the 
 means of preventing it. It prevails most in au- 
 tumn, attacks some breeds more readily than 
 others, and particularly infests soft and wet pas- 
 tures ; and it sometimes attacks only one of the 
 feet, often attacks some of the feet with more viru- 
 lence than others, and almost always attacks the 
 fore-feet in preference to the hind ones. 
 
 Footrot usually begins with a slightly inflam- 
 matory soreness between the claws of the sheep's 
 foot, and provokes a spreading and increasing ul- 
 ceration till the wall is detached and the whole 
 hoof is lost. The animal attacked with it has at 
 first a slight halt, gradually halts more and more, 
 and, in the course of two or three days, assumes 
 a lank appearance, lags behind the flock, lies 
 much, and occasionally seems confused and anx- 
 ious to find itself alone. The hoof, in many cases, 
 soon swells; and, in the course of from five to ten 
 days, it is denuded of its coat of insensible lami- 
 nae, and hangs loose around the exterior of the 
 sensible foot, entirely separated from it except at 
 the coronet ; and it is also eaten through by the 
 disease generally at its lower edges, and it then 
 peels off or falls away in fragments, and eventu- 
 ally leaves the sensible envelopement of the bone 
 quite bare. The animal now gathers its food 
 upon its knees, remains all day on one spot, be- 
 comes very lean, is unable to protect itself from 
 the flesh-fly, and, in a hot season or in any cir- 
 cumstances favourable to the fly, is speedily over- 
 run with maggots. See the article Fly in Sheep. 
 The malady is usually prevented from arriving at 
 this dismal stage by the attention and efforts of 
 the shepherd ; but if the animal lose the hoof and 
 escape the fly, it either dies at the approach of 
 winter, or begins to get a new hoof and to reac- 
 quire health about Martinmas. " On examining 
 the foot, in the first stage of the disease, the co- 
 ronary edge, though no external injury can be 
 traced, is sometimes found a little swollen and 
 inflamed. At other times, the hoof is eroded: 
 but whether it be shattered or entire, an intense 
 heat is always perceptible in the foot, with a 
 strong pulsation of the arteries, where they are 
 inserted into the coronary edges of the hoof ; and 
 however sound the hoof may appear externally, 
 the connexion between it and the interior of the 
 foot is always dissolved, though the separation is 
 not evident till the hoof is pared away. A pecu- 
 liar smell is perceptible, especially in the ad- 
 
 vanced stages, or when the ulcerous part is newly 
 opened; yet, even in the worst cases, a large 
 quantity of ichor is never discharged, there being 
 little more than will wet the finger, and that only 
 when pressed among it." 
 
 The remote cause of footrot appears to be the 
 removal of the sheep from the wild and scanty 
 mountain pastures which it naturally frequents, 
 to the rich, soft, and luxuriant pastures of our 
 improved sheep-walks, and especially of our mea- 
 dows, parks, and arable fields. The animal is 
 constituted, as to both feet and internal organism, 
 for wandering from peak to peak of alpine pas- 
 tures, browsing along the cliffs and steeps and 
 ledges of lofty mountains, and alternating a de- 
 scent from peak to plain in the morning with an 
 ascent from plain to peak in the evening; and 
 when it is removed to our cultivated pastures, it 
 luxuriates in abundance, gorges itself with food, 
 rapidly fattens, becomes comparatively plethoric, 
 and exchanges all its natural habits of travelling 
 and agility for acquired habits of stationariness 
 and indolence. Its feet, which were formed for 
 hard ground and much walking, now want the 
 attrition requisite for the continued healthiness 
 of their function, and become overgrown, and pe- 
 culiarly liable to injury. The hoofs want friction, 
 and become excessively elongated ; and the lower 
 extremity of the wall in particular, — the part 
 which is naturally formed to support the weight 
 of the animal, and to endure the greatest share 
 of fatigue, — grows beyond all due bounds, and 
 either overlaps the sole, and serves to retain and 
 accumulate sand and filth, or is broken off in frag- 
 ments so as to open new pores, or expose some 
 portions of the sensible foot, to the erosion or ir- 
 ritation of the herbage or the inflaming and ul- 
 cerating action of particles of earth. Breeds or 
 flocks of sheep which have been quite recently 
 removed from the mountains to the plains are, 
 in consequence, specially liable to footrot ; and 
 breeds of any kind are little liable to it in the 
 proportion either of their living in a compara- 
 tively wild state upon poor upland pastures, or of 
 their having become so thoroughly naturalized 
 on the rich grass lands of low districts as to have 
 lost nearly all trace of their originally wild con- 
 dition and habits. A flock of black-faced sheep 
 brought direct from the mountains to a rich park 
 or a luxuriant meadow are pre-eminently subject 
 to the disease ; and if a mixed flock of pure black- 
 faced, of a cross between the black-faced and the 
 Cheviot, of pure Cheviot, and of any variety of 
 Leicester be depastured on any ordinary cham- 
 paign grass lands, the pure black-faced will be 
 found most liable to footrot, next the cross breed, 
 next the Cheviot, and last of all the Leicester. 
 
 One immediate cause of footrot, — a cause in 
 necessary connexion with the remote one, yet very 
 various in the media through which it operates, — 
 is any mechanical condition of pasture which en- 
 courages undue growth of the hoof, or prevents 
 the due attrition of its extremities. " The finest 
 
FOOTROT. 
 
 569 
 
 FOOTROT. 
 
 and richest old pastures and lawns," remarks Pro- 
 fessor Dick, " are particularly liable to this dis- 
 ease; soft, marshy, and luxuriant meadows are 
 equally so ; and it is also found in light, soft, or 
 sandy districts. In the first of these it is perhaps 
 most prevalent in a moist season, and in the lat- 
 ter in a dry one ; in short, it exists to a greater 
 or less extent in every situation which has a ten- 
 dency to increase the growth of the hoofs without 
 wearing them away, and more especially where 
 they are kept soft by moisture. It is so prevalent 
 in fine lawns and pleasure-grounds, that they are, 
 in many instances, reduced in value to a mere 
 trifle as a pasture for sheep ; they are said to be 
 infected with this disease, and having once be- 
 come so, the vicissitudes of * seven' seasons are 
 scarcely sufficient to destroy the contagion. A 
 luxuriant herbage on soft pastures is equally 
 subject to it ; and in both cases, the disease is in- 
 creased in a wet season." The hoof, when over- 
 grown, and especially when at the same time kept 
 soft by moisture, splits, breaks, and occasions ir- 
 ritation to the sensitive parts below, exactly in 
 the same manner as the nails of the human fin- 
 gers ; and as it does not, like these, receive any 
 alleviation or cure from paring, it continues to 
 be increasingly torn and tortured till the tissues 
 of its inner coat are ruptured, and the connecting 
 tissues of the sensible foot are inflamed, and foot- 
 rot has begun. 
 
 Another immediate cause is the existence of 
 bents, wiry grasses, or strong slender stems of any 
 kind upon the pastures; for these are drawn 
 through the clefts of the sheep's hoofs when 
 walking, and produce scalding, inflammation, and 
 all the other tendencies to footrot. — Another im- 
 mediate cause is inattention to casual wounds 
 and bruises in the feet ; for even slight injuries 
 may easily be aggravated into footrot on soft or 
 moist meadow pastures, when vastly more serious 
 injuries would rapidly heal upon the dry and 
 congenial pastures of the hills. — Another imme- 
 diate cause is the abundance of decomposing roots 
 and leaves ; for this, in autumn or the beginning 
 of winter, especially on moist pastures or in a 
 wet season, rapidly increases the blanching of the 
 softened hoofs, and accelerates the progress of 
 injury in the horny matter to irritation in the 
 sensible foot. — A predisposing and concurrent 
 cause of so great power as frequently to be mis- 
 taken for the sole active cause, is moisture ; and 
 this either brings the immediate causes into ope- 
 ration or mightily aggravates their action ; and 
 it may, in multitudes of cases, be mainly or wholly 
 prevented by proper draining. 
 
 Some writers and the great majority of practi- 
 cal men believe that footrot is often spread among 
 a flock in some degree, and sometimes almost 
 wholly, by the contagion of the acrid or purulent 
 matter dropt upon the pasture from the feet of 
 diseased sheep ; and other writers, wLh a few 
 practical men, regard the alleged contagiousness 
 of footrot as an idle fancy or a mischievous delu- 
 
 sion. Youatt, for example, thinks that a disbelief 
 of the contagiousness of the disease, "would more 
 than decimate our flocks in the course of a very 
 few years;" while Mr. Cleeve maintains, in the 
 teeth of all which can be said to the contrary, 
 that "footrot is not very infectious," and Professor 
 Dick, after an elaborate examination of many 
 arguments and alleged facts, exclaims, " Was there 
 ever anything more absurd than the doctrine 
 that this disease is infectious !" To enumerate 
 the principal authorities and arguments on the 
 two sides of the question, could do no good. 
 When pastures are dry, and clothed with sweet 
 and nutritious herbage, and occupied by a race 
 of sheep which have been long accustomed to 
 them, they will seldom if ever be pronounced 
 'infected' by the advocates of the doctrine of 
 contagion; and when they are wet or wiry, or 
 clothed with a bibulous and spongy herbage, or 
 occupied by flocks with feeding-habits adapted 
 to poor plains or moorish hillocks or half-waste 
 mountains, they will be equally haunted by the 
 footrot whether it be ascribed to contagion or 
 attributed to their own bad properties. The 
 probability is that footrot in certain circum- 
 stances is contagious, and in the great majority 
 of circumstances is not so ; and the certainty is, 
 that, for all practical purposes, it may either be 
 regarded as contagious or not, provided the pas- 
 tures and the sheep be properly adapted to each 
 other, and both be maintained in a normally fair 
 condition. The grand policy in reference to the 
 disease is prevention; and this will mainly be 
 effected by having all the naturally wet pastures 
 in a state of thorough drainage, and by never 
 suddenly transferring a flock from a dry pasture 
 to a moist one, from a hard pasture to a soft one, 
 or from a scanty pasture to a luxuriant one. 
 
 The principal means of cure, when footrot ac- 
 tually makes its appearance, are paring away the 
 detached hoof, and dressing the surface with 
 muriate of antimony or some other caustic sub- 
 stance. "When a sheep halts," says Mr. Read, 
 "let your attendant cast him ; then, if the hoof 
 is too long, pare it on a level with the sole, shorten 
 the toe, and be particular in examining the foot 
 between the claws. If it is swollen, looks red, or 
 has any discharge of bloody serum oozing from 
 any fissure or fissures, let the solution of the bi- 
 chloride of mercury or hydrochloric acid be well 
 applied to the part by means of a little tow 
 twisted, or a small flat piece of whalebone ; and, 
 in this stage of the complaint, one dressing is 
 usually sufficient. There is nothing so much de- 
 sired by the farmer as an application which will 
 at once put a stop to this complaint. The trouble 
 it would save is incalculable, when we consider 
 the time it takes to dress the feet every day of 
 from 30 to 50 or 100 sheep. If abscesses have 
 formed around the coronet, and burst, they usu- 
 ally have two or three fistulous openings, which, 
 with your silver probe, you will soon discover. 
 Arm the eye of the probe with a little tow dipped 
 
FORAGE. 
 
 570 
 
 FOSSIL MANURES. 
 
 in the solution, and draw it through the sinus 
 or sinuses. If they extend into the joint, the 
 same thing must be done. Twice is most com- 
 monly sufficient to apply the solution in these 
 cases ; and oftentimes, when you attempt to pass 
 the probe the second time, you will not be able, 
 from its being filled with coagulated lymph. If 
 any of the discharge is between the crust, pare 
 the sole, and with a feather or syringe apply it 
 to the part. Fungus is sure to sprout from any 
 part where the sole or crust is lost, and rapidly 
 will it sprout. Agriculturists and shepherds are 
 at a loss in curing these morbid growths, as they 
 resist nearly all the caustic applications in use, 
 both empirical and those contained in the ma- 
 teria medica. Butyr of antimony, quicksilver 
 and aquafortis, and numerous other applications 
 are of no avail, especially if the disease is of long 
 standing. There is but one quick and effectual 
 remedy, that is the hot iron, which will do more 
 good in five minutes than all the caustics in our 
 pharmacy." — The Veterinarian. — Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agriculture. — Transactions of the Highland 
 Society. — Journal of the English Agricultural So- 
 ciety. — Spooner on Sheep. — Water's Cattle Doctor. 
 — Mackenzie on Sheep. — Blaine's Veterinary. 
 
 FORAGE. The fodder .and food of domesti- 
 cated animals, particularly of horses and cattle. 
 The word forage is used sometimes in the sense 
 of fodder, sometimes in the sense of all bulky 
 food whether of the nature of ballast or of the 
 nature of rich aliment, sometimes in the sense 
 of all herbage or gramineous food, and sometimes 
 in the sense of all vegetable provender whatever, 
 whether eaten as it grows, or cut down and given 
 in the way of soiling, or variously prepared and 
 given in the form of hay or mixtures. 
 
 FORESTALLING. The buying or bargaining 
 for any corn, cattle, or other merchandise, by the 
 way, before it comes to any market or fair to be 
 sold, or as it comes from beyond the seas, or 
 otherwise, towards any port or creek, to sell the 
 same again at a higher price. At the common 
 law, all endeavours to enhance the price of mer- 
 chandise, and all practices which have a tendency 
 thereto, whether by spreading false rumours, or 
 by purchasing things in a market before the ac- 
 customed hour, or by buying and selling again 
 the same thing in the same market, or by such 
 devices, are criminal, and punishable by fine and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 FORK. A hand implement with a pronged 
 head and a long wooden shaft. Forks are of 
 various forms, and are used for lifting widely 
 different materials. Forks for taking up loose 
 straw or hay ought to have spindly and long 
 prongs ; forks for lifting sheaves, ought to have 
 spindly, pointed, and short prongs ; and forks for 
 lifting farm-yard manure or digging up potatoes 
 ought to have flattened, blunted, and somewhat 
 dagger-shaped prongs. The common hay-fork 
 of Scotland is two-pronged, spindle-headed, and 
 
 long-shafted, and is provincially called a " fow ;!' 
 and the common manure and potato fork of 
 Scotland has a shaft and cross-handle like those 
 of a spade, and has three flat prongs of about the 
 same compass as the blade or shovel of a spade, 
 and is provincially called a " graip." 
 
 FORKING OF SOILS. The stirring and pul- 
 verizing of the ground by means of a flat-headed, 
 three-pronged fork. The operation is sometimes 
 performed among growing crops, and is then 
 somewhat akin to hoeing, and produces the three- 
 fold effect of destroying weeds, breaking clods, 
 and aerating the soil ; it is sometimes performed 
 for loosening and gently upraising young potato- 
 plants, and is then of peculiar character and very 
 doubtful tendency ; and it is at other times per- 
 formed for breaking up very hard or compact 
 garden soil, and is then somewhat akin to digging, 
 or serves as the initiatory process of spade-tillage. 
 
 FOSSIL MANURES. Any mineral manures 
 which contain organic remains. The phrase is 
 commonly used with special reference to calca- 
 reous manures, particularly lime, chalk, gypsum, 
 marl, and calcareous sand ; but it ought, in all 
 common sense, to be so extended as very specially 
 to include fossil bones, mineralized phosphates, 
 and all sorts of fossilized animal substances which 
 can be obtained for the fertilizing of the soil. 
 The following important passage in Liebig's Let- 
 ters on Chemistry refers emphatically to fossil 
 manures : — " If a rich and cheap source of phos- 
 phate of lime and the alkaline phosphates were 
 open to England, there can be no question that 
 the import of foreign corn might be altogether 
 dispensed with for a time. For these materials, 
 England is at present dependent upon foreign 
 countries ; and the high price of guano and fo- 
 reign bone prevents their general application, 
 and in sufficient quantity. Every year the trade 
 in these substances must decrease, or their price 
 will rise as the demand for them increases. To 
 restore the disturbed equilibrium of constitution 
 of the soil to fertilize her fields, England requires 
 an enormous supply of animal excrements : and 
 it must therefore excite considerable interest to 
 learn that she possesses beneath her soil beds of 
 fossil guano, strata of animal excrements, in a 
 state which will probably allow of their being 
 employed as a manure at a very small expense. 
 The coprolites discovered by Dr. Buckland are 
 these excrements ; and it seems extremely proba- 
 ble that in these strata England possesses the 
 means of supplying the place of recent bones, and 
 therefore the principal conditions of improving 
 her agriculture, of restoring and exalting the fer- 
 tility of her fields. There are beds of coprolites 
 in the neighbourhood of Clifton, extending for 
 miles along the bed of the Severn ; and fossil ex- 
 crements and bones are found at Lyme Regis, 
 near Bath, and at Evesham. The osseous breccia, 
 found in many parts of England, deserves especial 
 attention, as it is highly probable that in a short 
 
FOUL-FEEDING. 
 
 FOUNDER. 
 
 time it will become an important article of com- 
 merce. What a curious and interesting subject 
 of contemplation ! In the remains of an extinct 
 animal world, England is to find the means of 
 increasing her wealth in agricultural produce, as 
 she has already found the great support of her 
 manufacturing industry in fossil fuel, the pre- 
 served matter of primeval forests, the remains of 
 a vegetable world." 
 
 FOUL-FEEDING. A morbidly voracious and 
 vitiated appetite in any of the domestic animals, 
 but especially in horses. A strong feeding horse 
 has simply a powerful appetite, and eats more 
 than the normal quantity of any ordinary pro- 
 vender ; but a foul-feeding horse, besides eating 
 insatiably, often prefers filthy food to clean, 
 sometimes abandons his hay for the sake of his 
 puddled and filthified litter, and not infrequently 
 eats vegetable mould, wet clay, or any kind of 
 nasty weeds and miry herbage out of ditches. 
 The habit of foul-feeding, though not itself a dis- 
 ease, is a decided indication of some serious dis- 
 ease in either the intestines or the stomach, and 
 particularly of inward devastation by intestinal 
 worms, or of such an enlarged and morbid capacity 
 of the stomach as nothing but some heavy or mi- 
 neral substances can even temporarily satisfy. A 
 foul-feeding horse ought to be well purged, to 
 have a solution of chalk in his drink, to receive 
 abundance of exercise, and to be kept in a per- 
 fectly clean stall, with very frequent renewals of 
 fresh and good litter. 
 
 FOUL-IN-THE-FOOT. A disease in the feet 
 of cattle. It presents a close resemblance both 
 to footrot in sheep and to mild cases of quittor in 
 horses, but really differs from both. M. Favre of 
 Geneva inoculated the feet of sheep with puru- 
 lent matter from the feet of cattle suffering foul- 
 in-the foot ; but he did not succeed in producing 
 any symptoms similar to those of footrot. Foul- 
 in-the-foot appear to be always occasioned by the 
 neglect and aggravation of wounds and ulcers 
 originating in mechanical injury, particularly in 
 the insinuating of pieces of slate, stone, or stiff 
 wood between the claws of the hoof, or in the 
 wearing, splitting, or bruising of the horn, and 
 consequent abrasion of the sensible foot, by walk- 
 ing for an undue length of time upon flinty roads 
 or other hard and eroding surfaces. 
 
 The ulcers of foul-in-the-foot usually occur 
 about the coronet, and extend under the hoof, 
 and cause much inflammatory action, very great 
 pain, and more or less separation of the hoof ; but 
 they very generally originate in uneven pressure 
 upon the sole, and rise upward from a crack be- 
 tween the claws, and are principally or wholly 
 confined to one side or claw of the foot. A fetid 
 purulent discharge proceeds from the ulcers ; and 
 a sinus may sometimes be discovered by means of 
 the probe to descend from the coronet beneath 
 the hoof. The affected animal is excessively 
 lame, and may possibly suffer such excessive pain 
 
 as to lose all appetite and become sickly and 
 emaciated. 
 
 A common method with cow-doctors is to clean 
 the foot, to rub it backward and forward between 
 the claws with a cart-rope, and to dress it with 
 a little butyr of antimony ; but either this treat- 
 ment or anything similar is both coarse and in- 
 humane. If the disease have a very mild form, 
 or be merely in the initiatory stage, it may be 
 readily cured by cleaning, fomentation, and rest, 
 or also by bleeding from the veins of the coronet ; 
 if it have a medium character between mild and 
 virulent, it may be cured by cleaning, by cutting 
 away the loose horn, by destroying any fungous 
 growth, and by applying a little butyr of anti- 
 mony ; and if it have a very bad form, or have 
 been long neglected, or have become very aggra- 
 vated, it will require to be probed, lanced, or 
 otherwise dealt with according to good surgical 
 practice, and afterwards poulticed twice a-day 
 with linseed-meal, and frequently but lightly 
 touched with butyr of antimony. 
 
 FOUNDER. A disease in the feet of horses. 
 It consists in inflammation of the laminae which 
 unite the wall of the hoof to the coffin-bone, and 
 of the vascular parts of the sensible foot immedi- 
 ately adjacent to these lamina?. It sometimes 
 attacks only one foot, sometimes two, and some- 
 times all the four ; but, in a great majority of 
 instances, it attacks either one or both of the 
 front feet. A chronic form of it sometimes oc- 
 curs, and exhibits symptoms somewhat similar 
 to those of contraction of the hoof; but acute 
 inflammation of the sensible laminae is what al- 
 most all farriers particularly designate founder. 
 
 This disease is occasioned by overstraining of 
 the laminae from long standing, by prolonged or 
 excessive driving on hard roads, by congestion 
 from long confinement, by sudden reaction from 
 standing in snow after being heated, or from co- 
 vering with warm litter after prolonged exposure 
 to cold, by sudden change of diet from a compa- 
 ratively cool to a comparatively heating kind of 
 corn, and by translation of inflammatory action 
 from some other part of the body, and particu- 
 larly from the eyes in ophthalmia or from the 
 lungs in pneumonia. In the early stages of foun- 
 der, a horse evinces great pain, shows excessive 
 restlessness of foot, and tries to lighten the pres- 
 sure of his body on the diseased feet ; in the more 
 advanced stages, he fevers, breathes hard, has 
 violent throbbing in the arteries of the fetlock, 
 lies down, stretches out his legs, and sometimes 
 gazes wistfully upon the seat of the disease ; and 
 in the ulterior stages, if no efficient remedies 
 have been applied, the diseased feet either natu- 
 rally recover their healthy condition, or they sup- 
 purate, slough, cast part or all of the hoof, and 
 gradually acquire a small, weak, new hoof, or they 
 undergo such mortification and change of tissues 
 as to render the animal permanently useless. 
 
 The shoe of a foundered foot must be removed ; 
 
FRACTURE. 
 
 572 
 
 FURROW. 
 
 the wall and the horny sole must be thinned by 
 the knife and the rasp ; and blood must be let, 
 not later than the second day of the disease or 
 the early part of the third, from the toe and the 
 j ugular vein ; and if this last remedy have been 
 early enough used, it may, if necessary, be re- 
 peated ; but it ought, on no account, to be at- 
 tempted after suppuration has commenced, for 
 it might then produce mortification. Blistering 
 is sometimes practised; but it has a tendency 
 rather to increase the inflammatory action than 
 to diminish it. Vastly more suitable appliances 
 subsequent to bleeding are fomentations, evapo- 
 rating lotions, wet cloths, and moist poultices ; 
 and an exceedingly good one, if due precautions 
 be used against subsequent reaction, is swathing 
 with thin and narrow cloth -bags half- full of 
 snow or pounded ice. The animal ought to have 
 light and spare diet, to receive some diaphoretics 
 or febrifuges, and to be allowed to select and re- 
 tain whatever posture he pleases. When founder 
 ends in the re-acquirement of small, weak, and 
 contracted hoofs, the horn may bE thinned, the 
 hoofs scored, and the cornets blistered. 
 
 FOW. See Fork. 
 
 FOWL. See Cock and Poultry. 
 
 FOWL'S DUNG. See Excrement and 
 Guano. 
 
 FOXTAIL-GRASS. See Alopecurus. 
 
 FRACTURE. A break or separation in the 
 bone of an animal, from external violence. When 
 the injured bone is simply cracked or broken 
 through, the fracture is simple ; when the bone 
 is bruised, crushed, or broken into splinters or 
 fragments, the fracture is compound ; and when 
 the bone is merely pushed out of its socket, with- 
 out being cracked or splintered, the injury is a 
 dislocation. When a simple fracture occurs near 
 a joint, it is liable to be mistaken for a dislocation. 
 The chief cure for a simple fracture is to adjust 
 the broken parts accurately to each other, and 
 fix them in their position by means of wooden 
 splints and strong bandages ; the chief cure for 
 a compound fracture is to saw away projecting 
 splinters, remove loose splinters, clean and close 
 the wound, adjust the chief parts of the broken 
 bone, soothe with fomentations and support with 
 soft bandages till cicatrization be effected, and 
 then proceed as in simple fracture ; and the chief 
 cure of a dislocation, unattended by crack or 
 splinter, is to bring back the displaced bone into 
 its socket, and apply either plaster or bandage. 
 
 The reduction of a fracture in any important 
 bone of a horse is so very difficult to be effected, 
 and so uncertain in its restorative effects, and 
 would be followed by so long a period of inaction 
 and of expensive feeding, that a British horse- 
 owner scarcely ever thinks of attempting it, but 
 consigns the animal to destruction. Yet many 
 a fracture which condemns a horse to death in 
 Britain, would be cured on the Continent, and 
 is, in any ordinary circumstances, quite capable 
 
 of both successful and economical treatment. — A 
 fracture in the leg of a cow or an ox may be 
 cured in the common way, with the help of keep- 
 ing the animal cool and quiet. A compoundly 
 fractured leg of an ox has even been successfully 
 amputated, and a wooden leg put in its place. — 
 A fracture in the leg of a sheep may be cured by 
 cutting away the adjacent wool, adjusting the 
 broken bone, and winding round a little web or 
 roll of gummed brown paper as a substitute for 
 splints and stiff bandages. — A fracture in the 
 limb of a dog will heal itself, yet probably not 
 without rendering the limb crooked ; and it may 
 easily be artificially treated in the same manner 
 as in larger animals. 
 
 FREE-MARTIN. The seemingly female twin 
 of a bull calf. The majority of apparent heifers, 
 which have been produced as twins of bull-calves, 
 are more or less harmaphrodites ; and some pos- 
 sess an almost equal balance of the peculiar or- 
 ganisms of male and female ; and all these are 
 necessarily and irremediably barren ; but a few 
 have a sufficiently distinct and full development 
 of all the female organs, to be true heifers, and 
 fully capable of becoming productive cows. Tho- 
 roughly hermaphrodite free-martins have a lump- 
 ish appearance proper to neither cow nor bull ; 
 and, if they belong to a good breed, they are 
 excellent fattening animals for the shambles. 
 
 FRET. Flatulent colic in horses. See the 
 article Colic. 
 
 FROST. See Cold and Hoar-Frost. 
 
 FURRIER'S REFUSE. The refuse from the 
 dressing of fur-skins. It is used in some dis- 
 tricts as an excellent manure for light chalky 
 and gravelly soils. It is sold at about 15s. per 
 quarter, — a quantity which, when firmly pressed 
 down, will fill any ordinary cube of 10 bushels ; 
 and it is applied to the land at the rate of from 
 24 to 30 bushels per acre. 
 
 FURROW. The long narrow trench made by 
 the plough in tilling land. It means sometimes 
 the temporary trench made by each line *>r 
 bout of ploughing, more generally the permanent 
 trench which divides two ridges, and occasionally 
 the narrow surface drain which is formed across 
 the ends of these, and which receives and carries 
 off their discharges of water ; and in the first of 
 these senses, it may be called the plough-furrow, 
 in the second the ridge-furrow, and in the third 
 the cross-furrow. The operation of furrow-drain- 
 ing is designed to draw off surface water by 
 means of the ridge-furrows and the cross-furrows ; 
 and a somewhat analogous operation draws off 
 surface water from tilled clay lands by means of 
 small and narrow spade-cuts called water-furrows. 
 See the article Draining. A furrow-slice is the 
 strip of soil cut out and turned over by the 
 plough in each bout of ploughing. See the article 
 Ploughing. A furrow-roller is specially con- 
 structed for rolling the furrows of steep declivi- 
 ties and other difficult situations which do not, 
 
FURZE. 
 
 573 
 
 FURZE. 
 
 without great difficulty, admit the use of the 
 common roller. 
 
 FURZE, Gorse, or Whin, — botanically TJlex. 
 A genus of evergreen leguminous shrubs, belong- 
 ing to the same tribe as the brooms. The leaves 
 of its plants are spiny and sharp-pointed; the 
 calyxes or flower-cups are two-sepaled, and have 
 small scale-like lateral appendages at the base ; 
 the corollas or flower-blossoms are butterfly- 
 shaped and yellow ; and the pods are turgid and 
 a little longer than the calyxes. Two native spe- 
 cies, the common and the dwarf, particularly 
 challenge the attention of the farmer. 
 
 The common or European furze, TJlex Europcea, 
 is everywhere so well known as not to require 
 any description. It abounds on heaths and waste 
 sandy soils, at lower elevations than 900 feet 
 above sea-level, in most parts of Britain ; it is 
 abundant also in Portugal and the western parts 
 of France ; and it likewise occurs, with more or 
 less frequency, in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, 
 and some other of the mediumly temperate coun- 
 tries of Europe. It prefers thoroughly light, dry, 
 moorish, gravelly, and even rocky situations ; and 
 will not grow upon either soft moss or strong 
 wet clays. It covers tracts of land on the borders 
 of moors, variegates the dreary and monotonous 
 landscape of heaths, spreads out in masses upon 
 thin and rock-incumbent carpetings of diluvium 
 or debris, crowns heaps and mounds of gravelly 
 matter excavated from pits and quarries, and 
 appears with fine effect on rocky cliffs, and upon 
 the sandy banks and gravelly screens of brooks 
 and rivers. It resembles the common heath in 
 its usurping and gregarious habits, and often 
 extends in great groups and over considerable 
 tracts, to the exclusion of feebler plants. It is 
 injured in any situation by very severe frosts; 
 and may be killed to the ground, on high or ex- 
 posed spots, in a keen winter ; and it makes the 
 best resistance to excessive cold, when it has 
 either been cropped all over by the browsing of 
 sheep, or trained into a compactly bushy form 
 by the use of the pruning-knife. It usually at- 
 tains a height of from 4 to 7 feet ; but it rises, 
 in some situations, to the height of 8 or 9 feet ; 
 and a specimen of it, in the most favourable cir- 
 cumstances, may occasionally be found to measure 
 very nearly two feet in the circumference of its 
 stem. 
 
 The dwarf furze, TJlex nana, is often regarded 
 as merely a variety of the common furze, but 
 fully deserves to be considered a separate spe- 
 cies. This furze inhabits elevated heaths, and 
 dry pastures, while the common furze is fond- 
 est of low, waste, shallow grounds ; the former 
 has reclining branches, and an ordinary height 
 of only two feet, while the latter has upright 
 branches, and an ordinary height of six feet ; and 
 that flowers only in autumn and early winter, 
 while this flowers generally in spring or the be- 
 ginning of summer, and occasionally at all seasons. 
 
 Both the common furze and the dwarf furze, 
 frequently accelerate the formation and increase 
 of soil upon surfaces of very thinly covered rock. 
 The scanty, rudimental soil formed by the decay 
 of lichens and musci, supports a growth of dwarf 
 heaths ; the soil formed by the decay of the 
 heaths, supports a growth of furze ; and a deep 
 and pasturable or even arable soil is superimposed 
 partly by the decay of the branches of the furze, 
 and still more by the intercepting of the falling 
 debris among the compact and bushy masses of 
 the furze's shoots and groups. The soil of some 
 parts of the mountains of North Wales presents 
 distinct evidence of having been formed by the 
 accumulation of debris and humus from the pro- 
 gressive growth and decay of furze. 
 
 Furze is one of those leguminous plants which 
 have elastic pods, and disperse their seeds with 
 a sudden jerk ; and it, in consequence, readily 
 extends its dominion on any moor or dry com- 
 mon on which it has obtained a footing. It 
 grows so densely, and spreads itself so closely 
 upon the ground, and carries its flowers at so 
 small an elevation, that if it dropped its seeds 
 direct upon its own site, it would suffocate them, 
 and eventually die out ; but it steadily dries its 
 pods to ripeness, holds them tight till they become 
 mature, and then, in warm sunny weather, opens 
 them with an explosion, and jerks their contents 
 to a considerable distance. Any person who has 
 never observed this phenomenon, may break off 
 a twig of whin carrying some apparently ripe 
 pods, and hold it for a few minutes near a fire ; 
 and he will find, after taking it away, that the 
 pods will burst open, and disperse their contents 
 with considerable force. A propagation of furze 
 over a moorish waste, therefore, will be rapidly 
 effected by a few furze-plants themselves, if sim- 
 ply stationed at some distance from one another, 
 and allowed to mature their seeds. 
 
 Furze may be artificially propagated for any 
 spots or purposes requiring its transplantation, 
 by sowing the seeds very thickly in beds in the 
 same manner as the seeds of cabbage, and plant- 
 ing out the seedlings in the succeeding year in 
 any places where they are wanted ; and it may be 
 cultivated as a regular field crop for the feeding 
 of horses and cattle in the following manner, 
 practised by Dr. Anderson : — " After the land is 
 properly prepared for a crop of barley, or such 
 similar crop, the seed of the whin should be 
 sown down with grass seeds. The quantity of 
 seed used may be from 15 lb. to 20 lb. per acre. 
 The young plants of the whin will spring up 
 amongst the crop, and keep alive during the 
 winter. And if the young plants are not choked 
 up by grass or weeds during the early part of 
 the next summer, the whins will grow rapidly 
 after midsummer, and produce a pretty full crop 
 in autumn, which may be cut and used as re- 
 quired, so aoon as the green summer food fails." 
 
 The use of furze as fuel is confined either to 
 
FURZE. 
 
 paupers or to the general population of districts 
 where better fuel is scarce and dear. Yet some 
 gravelly and sandy tracts which otherwise would 
 not be worth one shilling per acre, yield every 
 third year a quantity of furze for fuel of the 
 value of from 30s. to 45s. per acre ; and many 
 small tracts on moors or rocky hills, which would 
 otherwise be wholly useless, yield enough to com- 
 fort the poor, or aid the middle classes, or even 
 assist manufactures. Furze burns rapidly, and 
 generates great heat ; and is employed, not only 
 for ordinary purposes by cottiers and farmers, 
 but by bakers for heating ovens, and by malt- 
 sters, brick-makers, lime-burners, and others in 
 their respective avocations. A thicket or mass 
 of growing furze intended for fuel is, in many 
 instances, set on fire and partially burned during 
 the winter, so as to have its spines and spinous 
 twigs consumed and its stems and main shoots 
 exsiccated and somewhat charred ; and, in spring, 
 its parts are hoed up and carried home by women 
 or children. 
 
 Furze, along the summit of an earthen mound 
 or slanting-sided earthen wall, makes a prime 
 fence, and yet has so often been grossly misman- 
 aged in this capacity as to be esteemed by mul- 
 titudes of persons an utterly worthless fence 
 plant. Furze fences may, in many districts, be 
 ^een around plantations, athwart poor pasture- 
 lands, and occasionally in better situations, in 
 the most miserable condition, surmounting ill- 
 made and worse-preserved mounds, shattered by 
 a long contest with neglect and maltreatment, 
 rugged in outline, gawky by overgrowth, gapped 
 by depredation, partially overwhelmed by winter- 
 lodgments of snow, pervious in many places to 
 cattle, everywhere valueless as fences, and no- 
 where fit for anything but to harbour weeds and 
 vermin. But all such fences owe their evils to 
 abuses, and would have been as bad or worse if, 
 with the same course of miserable treatment, 
 they had consisted of privets or hawthorns. 
 Furze recommends itself for fences by flourish- 
 ing in many soils and situations where more po- 
 pular fence-plants could not grow, by maintain- 
 ing the same breadth and mass of substance and 
 foliage in winter as in summer, by being rapid 
 in growth, and so saving expenses of paling, by 
 forming a dense, compact, spinous mass which 
 no domestic animal can penetrate, by offering 
 great facility of culture in all dry, light, and 
 shallow soils, by living and maintaining all its 
 defensive powers to an unknown longevity, by 
 never requiring to be cut down, by affording an 
 eminently good shelter to stock, by producing 
 food to sheep and cattle, and receiving benefit 
 rather than injury from browsing, by prospering 
 under the knife, and by constituting a pleasing 
 object to the eye, and agreeably featuring other- 
 wise cold and bald stretches of landscape. A chief 
 objection to fencing with furze is that the plants 
 scatter their seed and propagate themselves over 
 
 FURZE. 
 
 1 the adjacent land ; but this may be obviated 
 wholly by using the double-flowered variety, and 
 in a main degree by regularly pruning the sown 
 and normal plant ; for the furze does not bear 
 seed on shoots of the first year, and though a 
 regularly pruned hedge produces some seeds in 
 its interior it drops almost all of them so com- 
 pletely within its own limits as to suffocate them, 
 and prevent their germination. Another objec- 
 tion is, that the mound for a furze-hedge is so 
 broad as to make a wasteful occupancy of land ; 
 but this may, in a considerable degree, be obvi- 
 ated by so contracting the mound as to combine 
 perfect stability with a minimum of base. 
 
 The earthen wall of a good furze fence may be 
 made six feet wide at bottom, 20 inches wide at 
 top, and about six feet high ; its sides should be 
 built firmly with sward-turf, its centre filled with 
 earth, and its top rounded over with soil ; the 
 turf and the earth for it should be taken from 
 the spot where they are used ; and a shallow 
 ditch should be left along each side of the base, 
 with an interval of 4 inches between the ditch 
 and the wall. The seed, if the single-flowered 
 plant be used, must be sown in a row along the 
 top of the wall, at the rate of about one pound 
 of seed to 40 roods of the wall. The proper time 
 for constructing the wall is March or April ; and 
 the seed, in order to insure its germination, ought 
 to be sown immediately after the wall is com- 
 pleted, or before the fresh soil on the top has 
 had time to dry. A fence of this kind will be 
 complete in the second year after it is made, so 
 that it does not require paling ; and if regularly 
 pruned and trimmed once a-year, it will con- 
 tinue for many years to be in prime condition, 
 and altogether impervious ; or if it do not under- 
 go a proper annual pruning, it may be kept in 
 good order simply by being generally cut over 
 every third year about the month of April. 
 
 Furze may be very profitably cultivated on 
 poor, shallow, dry lands, of hill forms, or on the 
 waste or half-sterile grounds of the most fertile 
 districts, as green food for live stock. It is suit- 
 able for use during precisely that part of the 
 year when other green food is most scarce, and 
 when farm-labourers have the greatest amount 
 of available time for gathering and preparing it, 
 or from October till March or the beginning of 
 April. Its old stems, indeed, are too hard and 
 ligneous to be eaten ; but all its young shoots are 
 tender and juicy ; and a whole crop of it of three 
 years' growth may be annually cut down in daily 
 portions for forage. Even bushes of it in a wild 
 state, whenever sheep, cattle, or deer have access 
 to them, are regularly browsed into a beautifully 
 conical outline, and always present a fresh and 
 vigorous appearance ; and clumps and thickets 
 of it within the limits of a mountain sheep-walk 
 are commonly of great value in the maintaining 
 of the flock, and sometimes form their chief sus- 
 tenance throughout the severe and snowy periods 
 
 574 
 
FURZE. 
 
 575 
 
 FURZE. 
 
 of winter. " Sheep," says Mr. Lawson, " are 
 found to fatten and thrive much better on whins 
 than on grass ; yet they seldom touch them until 
 forced to do so from not getting at the grass for 
 snow ; but when once accustomed to the whins, 
 they continue to eat them in greater or less 
 quantities according to the state of the pasture, 
 until the young grass comes in in the beginning 
 of summer ; hence, when whins are plentiful in 
 the winter pasture, shepherds always look with 
 anxiety for a snow-storm in the early part of that 
 season." Cattle are very fond of furze, and fatten 
 on it as rapidly as on turnips ; and cows, when 
 fed on it, produce as much milk as when fed on 
 grass, and the milk is free from bad flavour, and 
 yields very excellent butter. Goats and deer, as 
 well as sheep, either browse upon it as it grows 
 wild, or feed heartily upon it when it is cut and 
 bruised. Horses prefer it to hay or even to com ; 
 but they are more fattened by it than fitted for 
 labour ; and they ought to receive it in combina- 
 tion with oats and good cut chaff", or with some 
 other kind of nitrogenous provender. Mr. Youatt 
 suggests that "if twenty pounds of furze are 
 given to a horse, five pounds of straw, the beans, 
 and three pounds of the oats may be withdrawn ;" 
 and Mr. Eddison of Gateford calculates that a 
 single acre well cropped with furze will winter 
 six horses. An analysis of the ash of the recent 
 shoots of dried furze, in the laboratory of the 
 Agricultural Chemistry Association, found it to 
 comprise 6 06 per cent, of the whole weight, and 
 to consist of 18*31 per cent, of potash, 7*54 of 
 soda, 12-23 of common salt, 16*02 of lime, 6*79 of 
 magnesia, 26*74 of phosphates, 6*79 of sulphuric 
 acid, and 5*58 of silica ; so that the plant is evi- 
 dently well adapted to build up the bones and 
 the saline constituencies of animals. As yet, 
 however, we are ignorant of its proteinaceous 
 character, or of its constitutional fitness to build 
 up their muscles. 
 
 The only practical difficulty in using furze as 
 house or yard forage is so to bruise or destroy 
 the prickles as to prevent them from hurting 
 the mouth ; and this difficulty can easily be over- 
 come with the aid of machinery. A man, a boy, 
 and a Highland pony may, with the use of a pair 
 of old mill-stones and the simplest kind of straw- 
 cutter, bruise and cut from 60 to 80 bushels a-day, 
 — a quantity sufficient for 20 working-horses ; 
 and, in this case, the mill-stones require simply 
 to be bolted together, and worked on edge in a 
 circular trough of 14 feet in diameter, and to 
 have an axle through their centre, and adjusted 
 at the inner end to a strong post, and so mounted 
 at the other end as to be attachable to the horse. 
 Another method is to bruise and pound the furze 
 by making a series of stampers fall upon it in a 
 stone trough. A method used in Warwickshire 
 is to propel a heavy cast-iron wheel, fluted in 
 the circumference, round a circular stone or cast- 
 
 iron trough ; and this is sometimes preceded by 
 cutting the furze into lengths, with a set of 
 knives on the principle of the chaff-cutter, and 
 then turning it into the trough. Various simple 
 methods akin to the Warwickshire one consist in 
 crushing the furze with different kinds of smooth 
 or fluted rollers. An excellent machine on a 
 large scale for cutting furze for the use of horses 
 — though incompetent to bruise it or otherwise 
 suitably prepare it for the use of cattle — was 
 invented by Dr. Mackenzie of Kinallan in Ross- 
 shire, and is modelled in the Highland Society's 
 Museum in Edinburgh ; it reduces a cart-load of 
 furze into fragments of from a quarter of an inch 
 to a whole inch in length in the course of about 
 15 minutes ; and it possesses the advantages of 
 being workable by either water-power or hand- 
 power, and of serving also as a straw-cutter, and 
 in the latter capacity cutting about 13 cwt. of 
 straw in 20 minutes. " This machine resembles, 
 in every respect, the drum and feeding-rollers of 
 the thrashing-machine. The drum is an open 
 skeleton ; and the four beaters, instead of being 
 placed parallel to the axis, are curved and placed 
 obliquely, each of the beaters being armed with 
 a sharp-edged steel cutting-knife, as in the com- 
 mon straw-cutter. Immediately after the feed- 
 ing-rollers, there is a square-edged steeled bar, 
 the cutting-bar, firmly fixed to the frame-work ; 
 the cutters, in their revolution, pass in contact 
 with this bar ; and as the furze, in passing between 
 the rollers, comes to rest on the edge of the bar, 
 it is chopped off in very short lengths by a clip- 
 ping action between the cutters and the bar. 
 The feeding-rollers are the same as those of a 
 thrashing-machine, the lower one carrying a 
 pinion, which is driven by a spur-wheel, placed 
 on the axle of the cutters. To insure the con- 
 veyance of the furze to the rollers, an endless 
 web is kept in motion, in the position of the 
 ordinary feeding -board, by means of a strap 
 from the lower roller." 
 
 A variety of the common furze without spines, 
 entirely herbaceous, and fit to be used at once as 
 fodder very similarly to lucern, has recently come 
 into notice in France, but is as yet exceedingly 
 scarce. It has a. branched and tufty appearance ; 
 and, if it could be propagated from seeds, might 
 promptly come into general use as a luxuriant 
 fodder-crop on poor lands. Experiments are at 
 present going on to find some facile way of pro- 
 pagating it. — Lawson' s Agriculturist's Manual. — i 
 Comptes Rendus, — Marshall on Planting. — Trans- 
 actions of the Highland Society. — Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agricidture. — Mill's Husbandry. — Society 
 of Gentlemen 's Complete Farmer. — Essays on Agri- 
 culture, Edin. 1775. — Doyle's Works. — Loudon's 
 Works. — The Bath Papers. — Youatt on the Horse, 
 — Catalogue of the Highland Society's Museum. — 
 Knowledge Society's British Husbandry. 
 
GAITING. 
 
 576 
 
 GAME. 
 
 G 
 
 GAD-FLY See Bots. 
 
 GAITING, or Gaitning. The setting up of wet 
 or newly-reaped corn in single sheaves, in a loose 
 and outspread manner. The band is tied imme- 
 diately under the ears, and so loosely as to afford 
 scope for a man's hand to be easily thrust down 
 the centre of the sheaf ; and the skirts are so 
 twirled out as to give the sheaf the same outline 
 and appearance as the straw cover of a hive. 
 Sheaves set up in this manner are called gaits ; 
 they allow the wind to pass freely through them, 
 and do not allow the rain to lodge ; they dry corn 
 much more rapidly than it could be dried in 
 stooks ; and when they have been overthrown or 
 are exposed to a very strong wind, they may be 
 made to support one another in groups of three. 
 Gaiting is an excellent practice in a wet climate 
 or unsettled and precarious season ; yet it is safe 
 or certainly profitable only with oats ; for it is 
 very liable to occasion the shaking out of the 
 grains of wheat and the breaking off of the heads 
 of barley. 
 
 GALACTOMETER. A small, narrow, gradu- 
 ated glass-tube, for ascertaining the per-centage 
 of cream in any specimen of milk. If the glass 
 be ten inches deep, and properly graduated, every 
 tenth of an inch on the scale will indicate one 
 per cent, of cream. The specimen of milk to be 
 gauged is filled into the glass immediately on 
 being drawn from the cow ; and the glass is 
 placed at rest with it during a given number of 
 hours. The chief use of the instrument is, not 
 to exhibit the per-centage of cream in individual 
 specimens of milk, but to detect fluctuations in 
 the proportion of cream from one cow or one set 
 of cows. These fluctuations are sometimes both 
 sudden and considerable ; and when they are 
 promptly detected by the dairyman, the causes 
 of them may, in many instanoes, be investigated, 
 discovered, and removed. 
 
 GALLING OF A HORSE. An abrasion by the 
 saddle or the harness. A galling from the saddle 
 may be cured by a wash of water ; common salt, 
 and tincture of myrrh, — the salt in such quan- 
 tity as to render the water decidedly saline, and 
 the tincture of myrrh in quantity of about one- 
 fourth of the water ; and a galling from the collar 
 or other part of the harness ought to be prevent- 
 ed, or may be healingly protected, by means of 
 padding. 
 
 GALL-LAMB. A lamb which dies of bilious 
 inflammation when about a fortnight old, or soon 
 after it begins to graze. A lamb whose first graz- 
 ings are upon rich pastures suffers distension of the 
 
 stomach and accumulation of bile in the upper 
 intestines, and sometimes dies after no more than 
 24 hours' illness ; and in allusion to the inflam- 
 matory action of the bile upon its system, it is 
 popularly called a gall-lamb. 
 
 GALLOWAY. A horse or an ox of the Gallo- 
 way breeds. See the articles Horse and Cattle. 
 
 GAME. All wild birds and wild quadrupeds 
 of Britain which the law allows to be captured 
 or killed only at certain seasons and by licensed 
 persons. The number and species of these have 
 widely varied at different periods; and some 
 have, for long periods, been game in one sense 
 and not in another. The distinction between 
 game and other wild animals, is altogether arbi- 
 trary ; so that the definition of game is to be 
 sought only in statutory law. Game at present 
 includes hares, pheasants, partridges, moor-game, 
 black-game, and bustards. 
 
 The new game-law of 1831 repealed about 
 thirty previous statutes, removed doubts and 
 ambiguities, and materially lessened the sever- 
 ity of the system. The killing of game by any 
 person on a Sunday or on Christmas-day, incurs 
 a penalty of £5 ; and a partridge may not, with- 
 out the like forfeit, be killed between the 1st of 
 February and the 1st of September; nor a pheas- 
 ant between the 1st of February and the 1st of 
 October ; nor black-game, in Somersetshire, De- 
 vonshire, and the New Forest, between the 10th 
 of December and the 1st of September, — and in 
 other districts, between the 10th of December 
 and the 20th of August; nor grouse or red game, 
 between the 10th of December and the 12th of 
 August ; nor any bustard between the 1st of 
 March and the 1st of September. The laying 
 down of poison to kill game incurs a penalty not 
 exceeding £10; and the possessing of any one 
 head of game by a licensed dealer later than 10 
 days after the expiry of the legal period for kill- 
 ing it, or by any other person later than 40 days, 
 incurs a penalty not exceeding <£l. But special 
 and entire exceptions are made in favour of land- 
 owners and of gamekeepers and others holding 
 annual certificates. A landowner who, in his 
 agreements with his tenants, reserves to himself 
 the game upon his estate, has a right to pursue 
 and kill it on any part of the land, and may give 
 the same right to any certificated persons. A 
 tenant whose lease contains no covenant respect- 
 ing game, may kill it, but is liable to be fined ; and 
 a tenant, whose lease reserves it to the landlord, 
 and who does not obtain from the latter express 
 leave to pursue it, incurs a fine of £2 for every 
 
GANGRENE. 
 
 577 
 
 act of pursuit, and a fine of £l for every head of 
 game he kills or captures, and also, in each case, 
 the costs of prosecution. Every person holding a 
 game certificate on an annual duty of £3 13s. 6d. 
 may sell game to a licensed dealer; and every 
 dealer in game must hold a license on an annual 
 duty of £2. " And whereas, after the commence- 
 ment of this act," says the statute, " game will 
 become an article which may be legally bought 
 and sold, and it is therefore just and reasonable 
 to provide some more summary means than now 
 by law exist for protecting the same from tres- 
 passers," — then follow enactments in the same 
 spirit of severity, and very nearly the same in 
 substance, as those crushing ones which were 
 made in the 9th year of George IV., — while 
 these very Georgian enactments themselves are 
 made to continue in their pristine force in Scot- 
 land ; so that the relaxation of the old laws to the 
 extent of permitting a limited, licensed and 
 hesitating traffic in game, is only made the 
 occasion for excusing and strengthening the rig- 
 orous spirit of the whole game-law system, and 
 for re-enacting some of its severest penalties. 
 Trespassers in search of game by day are subject 
 to a fine of £% — or if they be five in number, to 
 a fine of £5 ; and armed trespassers in search of 
 game by night, or at any time between an hour 
 after sunset and an hour before sunrise, are in- 
 dictable for a misdemeanor. A penalty of 5s. 
 per egg is exigible, also, for all the eggs of game- 
 fowls, swans, wild-ducks, teals or widgeons, 
 which either are destroyed or may be found in a 
 house. 
 
 GANGRENE. A putrefying state of an organ 
 or part of a diseased animal. It is the same as 
 sphacelus or mortification ; constitutes the last 
 stage of the most violent kind of local inflam- 
 mation; arises from the rupture of the local 
 blood-vessels by the congestive action of the in- 
 flammation ; and consists in the decomposition 
 of the effused blood and the ruptured tissues. 
 The discharge from a gangrenous organ is dark- 
 coloured, and has a peculiar and very offensive 
 smell; and the attendant symptoms indicate 
 sinking, debility, and excessive danger. Gan- 
 grene in any important organ is incurable ; but 
 external gangrene arising from a wound or a 
 contusion may, in the case of the horse, be suc- 
 cessively scarified, fomented, and dressed with 
 digestive liniment, oil of turpentine, or camphor- 
 ated spirit of wine. — Epidemic pneumonia in 
 cattle, ending in congestion of the lungs, and 
 in internal effusion of blood, was formerly, but 
 somewhat incorrectly, called gangrenous inflam- 
 mation of the lungs. — Dreadful diseases, of the 
 appearance of gangrenous epidemics, have oc- 
 casionally prevailed among the human popu- 
 lation of some districts of Europe, in conse- 
 quence of the use of ergotted rye. See the 
 article Ergot. 
 
 GAP. A breach or opening in a fence. This 
 
 name is sometimes applied also to any partial j 
 disruption in the internal organism of a plant. 
 
 GARGET. An inflammatory disease in the 
 udder of cows and ewes, and occasionally in hogs 
 and yearling heifers. 
 
 The causes of garget in the cow are principally 
 improper treatment after calving, exposure to 
 cold and wet, neglect of bleeding or physicking 
 in the advanced stages of parturition, the leaving 
 of portions or dregs of the milk undrawn at the 
 time of milking, a habit of lying in such a posture 
 as to crush the udder, and the allowing of the 
 animal to acquire an unduly plump and fat con- 
 dition especially at a time of hot and sultry 
 weather. The causes in the ewe are similar ; 
 though the chief are wet lair, hard pasture, the 
 removal of one of twin lambs from suckling, and 
 various kinds of constitutional derangement. 
 The principal cause in yearling heifers is cold air 
 and wet lair. 
 
 An udder affected with garget may suffer in 
 either one or more quarters ; it swells, hardens, 
 becomes knotty, has more heat than in a state of 
 health, and appears to be much pained when 
 pressed. The secretion of milk either lessens 
 and becomes mingled with blood and pus, or 
 is entirely arrested and gives place to suppura- 
 tion, and in very bad cases to grangrene. The 
 hinder extremities, particularly about the fetlock, 
 the hock, and the hip-joint, in many instan- 
 ces, sympathize with the udder, and undergo so 
 much swelling and inflammation as to prevent 
 the animal from rising except with very great 
 difficulty, or even from rising at all, or almost from 
 moving. The symptoms in the ewe are similar ; 
 but, in the worst cases, they are both very sudden 
 and exceedingly violent, and may raise such a 
 gangrene as will prove fatal to the animal within 
 24 hours of the commencement of the attack. j 
 The symptoms in the yearling heifer are chronic 
 and comparatively gentle, and have been suppos- 
 ed to resemble those of rheumatism in the human 
 subject, and are removable by means of the sim- 
 ple and natural remedy of dry pasture and com- 
 fortable litter. 
 
 A cow attacked with garget must be kept in 
 the house and have soft dry litter ; she ought to 
 be fed for a day or two on mashes with a little 
 hay ; and when she becomes well enough to leave 
 the house, she ought to be turned on quite dry 
 and rather short pasture. If the attack be slight, 
 she should have her udder tossed, tumbled, and 
 sucked at the unrestrained will of the calf; if it 
 have a decidedly inflammatory character, and be 
 accompanied with fever and loss of appetite, she 
 should be bled with all speed, and receive a dose 
 of physic, and have her udder abundantly foment- 
 ed, and be thoroughly milked twice a-day, and 
 have a quantity of camphorated mercurial oint- 
 ment rubbed well into the udder after each milk- 
 ing, and washed off again with warm water im- 
 mediately before the next milking ; if the indura- i 
 2 
 
GARNER. 
 
 GATE. 
 
 tions prove obstinate, an iodine ointment, com- 
 posed of lard and hydriodate of potash, must be 
 substituted for the camphorated mercurial oint- 
 ment; and if gangrene set in, and develop a 
 putrefying ulcer, the sore must be well cleaned 
 with warm water and freely washed with a weak 
 dilution of chloride of lime, from time to time, 
 till the gangrenous matter be considerably re- 
 duced, and then alternately dressed with Friar's 
 balsam, and washed with the dilution of chloride 
 of lime till the gangrenous matter wholly disap- 
 pear; and if indurations and chronic enlarge- 
 ments, accompanied by deficiency in the lactic 
 secretion, continue after all inflammatory action 
 has been subdued, the hydriodate of potash must 
 continue to be applied in the form of ointment, 
 and, if need be, internally administered in some 
 other form. — The proper treatment of a gargeted 
 ewe is in all respects similar to that of a gargeted 
 cow. A gargeted hog should be bled, and should 
 receive warm cordial stimulating drinks. 
 
 GARNER. A repository for corn, small or 
 large, binn or granary. 
 
 GARTH. A yard, a croft, or any small piece 
 of ground behind house or offices. 
 
 GASTRIC JUICE. A fluid of the utmost im- 
 portance in the process of digestion. 
 
 GASTRITIS. Inflammation of the stomach. 
 Gastritis, however, does not include the effects 
 of mechanical distention of the stomach, or the 
 irritating action of poisons, acrid substances, or 
 improper food ; but is simply idiopathic inflam- 
 mation of the stomach's mucous surface. This 
 disease sometimes occurs in the horse; yet is 
 generally so combined with enteritis, and so 
 closely similar to that disease in symptom, as to 
 be very difficult of separate detection. A horse 
 attacked with it loathes his food, is extremely 
 restless, evinces great distress, lies down and 
 suddenly rises, has fits of cold perspiration, and 
 seems to suffer prolonged pain after swallowing 
 any food ; and he must, in all outward respects, 
 be treated in the same manner as for enteritis, 
 but must receive no internal remedies except 
 such as are eminently sedative. 
 • GAS-WATER. The crude ammoniacai water 
 of the public gas-works. See the article Ammo- 
 nia. When gas-water is treated with sulphuric 
 acid, so as to have its volatile ammonia convert- 
 ed into the sulphate, it is at once an economical, 
 a mild, and a most available liquid manure ; and, 
 while thus deprived of both its causticity and its 
 fugitiveness, it may be so prepared in even small 
 gas-works, so to be freed also from the greater 
 part of its tar and naphtha. " The best way in 
 such cases," suggests Dr. Shier, "is to have a 
 double set of tar-wells, so constructed as to act 
 as tar and naphtha separators. When one set is 
 filled, the liquid products of the hydraulic main 
 are directed into the other, so that they may ac- 
 cumulate in it while separation goes on in the 
 first. After standing a few weeks, the naphtha 
 
 holding some tar in solution may be run off from 
 the upper chamber ; after which, the water, now 
 tolerably clean but of a brown tint, may be run 
 off into a vat or tank, leaving the tar in the bot- 
 tom. The ammoniacai water is next neutralized 
 with sulphuric acid, and allowed to stand for a 
 few days ; some finely powdered resin is sifted 
 on the top of the liquid ; in a few hours, the resin 
 can be removed in a soft viscid mass, taking 
 along with it a portion of the dissolved naphtha, 
 which the heat evolved on the addition of the 
 acid serves to separate and bring to the top." 
 
 But the best method of dealing with gas-water 
 for the uses of the farmer, though a profitable one 
 to the manufacturer only in large or middle- 
 sized gas-works, is to convert all its ammonia 
 into the crystallized sulphate by means of sul- 
 phuric acid. And though this eminently valu- 
 able manurial salt, as obtained from gas-water, 
 is generally very foul in both colour and smell, 
 yet it seldom contains even a slightly pernicious 
 proportion of the tar and thickened naphtha from 
 which the foulness arises. But when prepared 
 with such excess of sulphuric acid as attacks the 
 substance of the evaporating pan, it contains 
 some iron, and may be not only useless to the 
 farmer but absolutely noxious'; and in this case, 
 it will show a green tint when newly made, a 
 dark tint when kept for some time, and a red 
 tint when laid open to exposure. See the arti- 
 cle Sulphate. 
 
 GATE. A gate has the same relation to a 
 field or other enclosure which a door has to a 
 house ; and ought to combine the properties of 
 a good fence with strength, stability, convenience 
 of situation, and the utmost facility of opening 
 and shutting. Many gates are either so slight 
 as to be easily overleaped or broken through or 
 thrown down; many are so ill-hung and ill- 
 latched, that some horses and horned cattle can 
 successfully assail or even readily open them; 
 many are so ill-constructed or feebly poised, that 
 they soon decay, or become ricketty, or cease to 
 be easily opened and shut ; and many are so in- 
 convenient or otherwise so exceedingly faulty as 
 to accomplish very imperfectly, or scarcely at all, 
 the designs of their erection. Nearly all farmers 
 have been more or less plagued with bad gates, 
 and are aware how grievously they occasion in- 
 jury to land and crops from the trespasses of 
 cattle ; and they must therefore be glad to know, 
 that perfectly good gates differ from abominably 
 bad ones, far less in the costliness of either their 
 materials or their workmanship, than in the 
 mere skill with which they are constructed. 
 
 A gate, when suspended by hinges, is a lever 
 with the weight placed between the power and 
 the fulcrum,— the gate itself being the weight, 
 the hand applied to the head of it the power, 
 and the hinges the fulcrum or centre of motion. 
 If the hooks or pivots on which it is hung be pre- 
 cisely perpendicular to each other, the gate in 
 
GATE. 
 
 579 
 
 GATE- 
 
 every possible position will be at rest, and the same 
 power which is required to move it through any 
 given arc of the circle will be exactly sufficient 
 to move it through any other arc of the same 
 extent, or to bring it back to its former position; 
 but if the hooks or pivots mutually deviate in^ 
 even the smallest degree from the perpendicular, 
 the gate will have one determinate line of rest, 
 and must have a constant tendency to fall to 
 that line from any part of the circle which it 
 may be made to describe. " This," remarks Mr. 
 Parker in his Essay on the Construction, Hang- 
 ing, and Fastening of Gates, — " This opens a 
 wide field to the wheel-wright for the exercise 
 of his judgment ; as, in determining that varia- 
 tion, he may direct his hammer through all the 
 points of the compass, till he gains by accident 
 what shall seem to answer his purpose ; and were 
 you minutely to observe the operation of hang- 
 ing a gate, you would often believe that the 
 practitioner was trying an experiment rather 
 than pursuing any regular method." A gate 
 whose hinges are not perpendicular to each 
 other, has its line of rest at the point where it 
 approaches nearest the ground ; and when moved 
 thence half a circle to the right or the left, it 
 will there attain its greatest elevation, and there 
 either will support itself, or may be kept poised 
 by means of a very slight resistance. When a 
 gate is in its line of rest, whether that be any line 
 whatever within the circle of its motion, or one 
 determinate line at the point where it approaches 
 nearest the ground, or the line of equilibrium at 
 the distance of half the circle from the one deter- 
 minate line, the hooks or pivots on which it is 
 suspended are in the same vertical plane with 
 the centre of the gate's gravitation. The truth 
 of this, in the case of a gate whose hooks or pivots 
 are perpendicular to each other, is quite apparent 
 in the fact of the gate having perfect rest on any 
 one line whatever within the whole periphery 
 which it describes ; and, in the case of ill-hung 
 gates, it may be known simply by observing the 
 action and gravitation of such as have their 
 hinges adjusted in the most awkward or perverse 
 manner. 
 
 A gate which is little used, or is commonly 
 kept locked, or cannot conveniently be held open 
 when wanted, may be hung upon hooks or pivots 
 perpendicular to each other, so that it may stand 
 at rest on any line whatever ; but a gate which 
 is merely latched, and which serves as part of 
 the fence of a grass-field or of a cropped enclo- 
 sure, ought to be hung upon hooks or pivots 
 which give it one determinate line of rest in the 
 direction of the latch, so that, whenever it is 
 opened, it may have a self-shutting action. The 
 carelessness of farm-servants and others, who 
 will rather leave a gate open than take the slight 
 trouble of shutting it, admits of no efficient cor- 
 rective except to give the gate the power of 
 shutting itself; and any disadvantages which 
 might occasionally result from that power, can 
 
 easily be counteracted by means either of a tem- 
 porary prop-stone or of a permanently sunk stone 
 with a simple hook or latch on its summit. A 
 good line of fastening is one-sixteenth part of the 
 circle short of the line of rest, — giving the self- 
 shutting power a proper degree of momentum or 
 velocity, and occasioning the opposite line of 
 equilibrium to be one-sixteenth part of the circle 
 short of the gate's greatest extent of opening ; 
 and in order to prevent the self-shutting power 
 from being at any time destroyed by the advance 
 of the gate to the line of equilibrium, a short 
 post or permanent obstruction ought to be placed 
 at about half the distance between the road to 
 be passed and the fence adjoining the hanging- 
 post, or about one-sixteenth part short of the 
 line of equilibrium" so that the gate may never 
 recede farther than about three-eighths of the 
 circle from its line of fastening. A gate thus 
 hung needs no oiling of its hinges in order to j 
 maintain its self- shutting power; and when | 
 baffled and held back for a time by the force of 
 a high wind, or by the hand of man, or by any 
 other agency, it will no sooner be let free than 
 it will return to its fastening. The control of 
 wind over its self-shutting power is an irremedi- 
 able evil, and is even greater in the case of a 
 good gate than of a bad one, on account of the 
 comparatively broader extent of surface ; but if 
 the velocity or momentum of the fall were made 
 equal to the resistance of so strong an agent, the 
 gate would speedily and frequently want repair, 
 on account of the constant violence of its shut- 
 ting. 
 
 The posts of a gate must be of sufficient length 
 and strength ; and if fixed at the distance from 
 each other of 8| feet, they will be adapted for a one- 
 side-opening gate of 9 feet, or of 9 feet 2 inches, 
 including the thimbles. Let the gate be sup- 
 ported where it is to hang and fasten ; and then 
 drive in the upper hook at a convenient distance 
 from the edge of the hanging post, so that the 
 upper hinge shall not be in the way of any vehicle 
 passing the road, and yet be so near the edge of 
 the post as to lose no more room for the road than 
 is unavoidable, by the head and heel extending a 
 little upon the posts. The heel, indeed, does not 
 need to extend upon, or lap against, the hanging- 
 post ; but as the head ought to meet the falling- 
 post, at the least with half its own substance, 
 or from that to two inches, the heel may, for the 
 sake of uniformity and neatness, make a* nearly 
 equal advance upon the hanging-post. The 
 hinges of a good road-gate ought to be 40 inches 
 apart from each other, and those of every other 
 gate as far apart as is consistent with its form, 
 and care must be taken not to spoil the mortises 
 or weaken the heel of the gate, by the manner of 
 inserting the thimbles. When the upper hinge ; 
 is fitted, the gate ought to be supported upright 
 for adjusting the place of the lower hook to that 
 of the lower thimble ; and when both hinges are 
 fitted, two plumbed lines, with fine threads and 
 
GATE. 
 
 580 
 
 GATE. 
 
 heavy even-sided plumbs, must be used to ascer- 
 ! tain whether the hooks be in their exactly proper 
 I position. "If the hooks are well finished, the 
 observation respecting the centre may be taken 
 by fastening the plumbed lines round the hooks, 
 and letting them fall from the outsides of similar 
 parts of the hooks. Forty inches being the given 
 distance of the hinges, the horizontal distance 
 of the two lines falling from the hooks should be 
 1^ inch, and in a line which forms an angle of 
 22| degrees, or one-sixteenth of a circle, with 
 the gate's line of fastening. Take therefore 
 a common two-feet rule ; and having opened the 
 legs to the angle of 22-| degrees, place one side of 
 j it against the plumbed lines, which ought to an- 
 j swer to the measure of I| inch, while the other 
 leg of the rule should be parallel to the gate's line 
 | of fastening. A slight blow or two with a ham- 
 | mer on one or both of the hooks in the direction 
 j necessary, will complete the adjustment." 
 I Gate-posts ought to be so firmly set in the 
 ground as to resist all tendency to decline from 
 their perfectly upright position. The constant 
 weight of the gate tends to pull the hanging-post 
 inward ; the fall of the gate, and its frequent in- 
 fliction of blows in shutting, tend to drive the 
 falling-post outward ; and the passing of heavily- 
 laden carts or waggons or other wheeled vehicles 
 near the posts tends to disturb the foundation of 
 both posts. A slope of the ground adjacent to 
 the gate-posts, whether the slope be natural or 
 artificial, tends to make them nod in the direc- 
 tion of the slope ; so that the posts of a gate across 
 the ridge or summit of a hill are liable to decline 
 outward, the posts of a gate across the bottom of 
 a hollow are liable to decline inward, and the 
 posts of a gate across a terrace-road upon the face 
 of a declivity are liable to decline, the one out- 
 ward and the other inward, both stooping in the 
 direction of the declivity. The opposite effects 
 of scorching heat and intense cold, of excessive 
 rain and extreme drought, aided by the shaking 
 action of vehicles passing along the road, also 
 cause the ground around the posts to make fresh 
 settlings, and tend to work the posts toward the 
 natural descent of the surface. One tolerably 
 good contrivance for counteracting the tendency 
 of the posts to decline from their proper position, 
 is to place coarse heavy props against the under- 
 ground portion of the posts, in such a manner as 
 to exert their forces in the opposite direction to 
 that in which the tendency operates ; another, is 
 to mortise the pair of gate-posts together by cross 
 pieces of timber under the road ; and a third, and 
 still better, because both cheaper and more secure, 
 is to let down the posts very deep into the ground, 
 and allow them to have a natural basis too strong 
 and remote to be affected by any or all of the 
 forces which tend to draw or push or shake or 
 wile them from their proper position. 
 
 In determining the side on which a one-side- 
 opening gate is to be hung, regard must be had 
 to the situation of the approach to it, to the na- 
 
 ture of the spot on which it will fall when open- 
 ing, to the prevention of all inconvenience by the 
 manner in which it shall stand open, and to the 
 affording of plenty of room for the driver of a 
 refractory horse, or for a man on horseback, hold- 
 ing back the gate while a cart or waggon or other 
 wheeled vehicle passes. When other considera- 
 tions are not paramount, the gate ought to be | 
 made to open against the side from which the 
 trespass of cattle may be most apprehended. 
 But in some doubtful or difficult cases, hooks 
 should be fixed on both sides of the hanging-post, 
 so that the gate may be shifted from the one side 
 to the other, to suit convenience or the change 
 of circumstances. 
 
 Good gates, all equally suitable for different 
 purposes or in different situations, vary widely 
 from one another, at once, in the form of the gates 
 themselves, in the modes of their adjustment to 
 the post3, in the materials of which gates and 
 posts consist, and in many of the characters of 
 position and fastening. Even good gates of 
 communication with public roads — the class 
 which we have hitherto had particularly in view 
 — may differ from one another in size, material, 
 form, and height, in modes of hanging and fast- 
 ening, in being one-sided or two-sided in their 
 opening, and in some other important characters. 
 All kinds of gates of farm-communication with 
 public roads, again, may differ from gates of com- 
 munication between field and field; and both 
 these classes from all kinds of turnpike-gates; and 
 all the three classes from all kinds of factory and 
 urban-gates; and all the four classes from all 
 kinds of park-gates and pleasure-ground-gates. 
 Yet all thoroughly good gates for almost any part 
 of either the farm or the farmery, must conform, 
 either altogether or very nearly, to the general 
 principles which we have stated. Every good 
 farm-gate, too, ought to be so constructed as to 
 throw the heaviest parts of it as much as possible 
 toward its heel ; and therefore its rail and bars 
 are best formed when their parts are tapered on 
 every side. A gate communicating between a 
 field and a public road ought to be comparatively 
 high and to have upright pales sharpened at the 
 top, or to possess some other such construction 
 as will prevent it from being easily climbed over 
 by a human trespasser. Such a gate, also, may 
 properly enough be made double, in the manner i 
 of folding doors, and may have its suspension '■ 
 hooks placed exactly perpendicular to each other, 
 so as to make either part of the double gate remain 
 at rest in any one line whatever of the great arc 
 it describes in opening. A gate of communication 
 between field and field is preferred by some per- 
 sons to be light and high, and by others to be low 
 and heavy ; and it is recommended by many to 
 be about 4-jj- feet high, in order that it may serve 
 as a good fence against horses, having its top- 
 rail as high as their wind-pipe, and allowing them 
 to put their head over it, and not provoking them 
 to push or force it with either their breast or 
 
GATE. 
 
 581 
 
 GATE. 
 
 their rump. When wood is used for posts, any- 
 coarse kind, whether fir or hardwood, which is 
 unfit for other useful purposes, may, in most in- 
 stances, be sufficiently good. When stone is 
 used, a single pillar-piece of granite, compact 
 greenstone,, or any other hard crystalline rock, 
 is best ; and if the gate be hung on the front of 
 it, the bands of the hinges, instead of being in- 
 dented into the stone, ought to be carried through 
 to the opposite side, and there fixed by a bolt or 
 a screw-nut. When timber is used for the gate 
 itself, Scotch pine is utterly unsuitable on account 
 of its excessive perishableness when exposed to 
 the weather, — spruce is unsuitable on account of 
 its great liability to break, — larch is unsuitable 
 on account of its powerful tendency to warp, — 
 and if some kind of soft and cheap wood must be 
 employed, the least objectionable is Memel timber; 
 but the best, in all respects, is elastic oak, not too 
 tough, and entirely free from sap. All the mor- 
 tises of the gate, and the parts at which the up- 
 rights and the diagonals cross the bars, ought to 
 be carefully coated with white lead ; and when 
 the parts of the gate are joined together, the 
 whole ought afterwards to receive two coats of 
 paint. 
 
 In Plate XX II. Fig. 1 . is the representation of 
 a one-side-opening road gate, constructed on the 
 principles which we have laid down, and ap- 
 plauded by Mr. Parker, in his Essay on Gates, as 
 the best design of farm gates with which he was 
 acquainted. The timber used is oak ; the bars 
 are let into the middle parts of the head and 
 heel; and the braces are tapered for finishing 
 upon a level surface with the heel, head, and rail. 
 The heel measures 4 feet 4 inches in length, 4| 
 by 3^ inches in greatest thickness, and 832 cubic 
 inches in solid contents ; the head, 4 feet 4 inches 
 in length, 2| by 2\ inches in greatest thickness, 
 and 325 cubic inches in solid contents ; the rail 9 
 feet in length, 3§ by Z\ inches in greatest thick- 
 ness, 2| by 2h inches in tapering to the head, and 
 972 cubic inches in solid contents ; each of the 
 five diagonal bars 9 feet in length, 3| inches by 
 1 inch in greatest thickness, 2| inches by -f of an 
 inch in tapering to the head, and 1417 J cubic 
 inches in solid contents ; the diagonal brace 
 9^ feet in length, 3| inches by 1| inch in greatest 
 thickness, 2| inches by 1 inch in tapering to the 
 head, and 427| cubic inches in solid contents ; the 
 larger upright brace 2 feet 8 inches in length, and 
 3| inches by 1| inch in greatest thickness, — the 
 smaller one 2 feet 8 inches in length, and 3 inches 
 by 1| inch in greatest thickness, — and the two 
 together 250 cubic inches in solid contents. All the 
 eight parts at the head present to the eye 2\ 
 inches ; and seven out of the eight at the heel, 
 that is, all except the heel itself, present 3J? inch- 
 es. The diagonal brace is fitted into the heel 
 by a strong butment on a line with the lowest 
 bar, and meets the upper angle at the head, and 
 is laterally confined by the two upright braces. 
 An iron strap, of the whole length of the gate, and 
 
 placed along the top of the rail, powerfully assists 
 in giving strength and stability to the entire 
 structure, — particularly in suspending the frame 
 of the gate, in keeping up the rail, in preventing 
 the head from being pushed forward, in resisting 
 the force of violence in shutting, in relieving the 
 heel of a great part of the weight of suspension, 
 and in preventing strains on the mortises from 
 either the gate's own weight or any occasional 
 pressure or violence. This strap commences at 
 the upper thimble, and forms a part of it, and 
 holds the heel of the gate by the shoulder of the 
 thimble ; it is then screwed to the rail, at proper 
 distances ; and it terminates at a screw-nut, 
 rounded and let into the gate's head. It is about 
 half an inch square, close to the shoulder of the 
 thimble ; it maintains a proportionate strength 
 over the next four inches ; it has a thickness of 
 about a quarter of an inch over one half of its 
 total length ; and it thence tapers toward the 
 head of the gate ; but it has its edges chamfered 
 off, and it appears on the whole to taper gradually 
 from heel to head, widening a little round the 
 hole which is left for the upright part of the latch 
 adjoining the handle. The upright wire of the 
 latch is furnished with a guard ; and the mortise 
 of the head through which the latch passes, is 
 finished with sheet-iron escutcheons. 
 
 A gate of a somewhat different pattern from 
 the preceding, lighter, much cheaper, and equally 
 well suited to the majority of situations on a farm, 
 may be constructed on the same principles; and 
 with very nearly the same supereminent power 
 of resisting all tendency to sink at the head. It 
 has a mere bar instead of a rail, five other bars, 
 two diagonal braces crossing each other in the 
 centre of the frame upon the third bar, and two 
 small upright braces, the one connecting the two 
 upper bars and the other the three lower ones, 
 on a line with each other and with the cross of the 
 diagonal braces. The heel measures 4 feet 4 inches 
 in length, 3| by 3 inches in thickness, and 588 
 cubic inches in solid contents ; the head, 4 feet 
 
 8 inches in length, 2| by %\ inches in thickness, 
 and 340 cubic inches in solid contents ; the first, 
 third, and sixth bars, 9 feet in length, 3 inches 
 by 1 inch in thickness, and 972 cubic inches in 
 solid contents ; the second, fourth, and fifth bars, 
 
 9 feet in length, 2 inches by 1 inch in thickness, 
 and 648 cubic inches in solid contents ; the two 
 diagonal braces 9| feet in length, 2^ inches by 1 inch 
 in thickness, and 285 cubic inches in solid contents ; 
 and the two upright braces, 2| feet in length, 2| 
 inches by 1 inch in thickness, and 82^ cubic inch- 
 es in solid contents. The quantity of timber 
 in this gate, therefore, is only about seven-tenths 
 of the quantity in the former. All the rivets 
 ought to be made of \ inch wire, the heads | inch 
 diameter; and the washers of strong sheet-iron, 
 rounded or punched into form, and of the same 
 diameter as the head ; and when a rivet is driven 
 into its place, the washer should be put on the 
 reversed side, and the end of the rivet cut off to 
 
GATE. 
 
 582 
 
 GATE. 
 
 the exact length required. But nails may be used 
 instead of rivets, if they be thought more econo- 
 mical. The two diagonal braces ought to be mitred 
 into the head and the heel, and united to them 
 with a planed surface ; and as the head is only 
 2tt inches thick, the braces must be reduced a 
 little at the ends connected with it, so as to bring 
 them to a finish level. 
 
 A neat, economical, and durable swing-gate of 
 considerably different construction, and now not 
 uncommon in paddocks and home-grounds round 
 the houses of country gentlemen, and well suited 
 for most of the ordinary enclosures of the farm, 
 is represented in Fig. 2. Plate XXII. Its length 
 from head to heel, inclusive of these, is 9 feet ; its 
 height over the bars is 3f feet ; the distance be- 
 tween the head and the falling-post is 3 inches; the 
 distance between the heel and the hanging-post is 
 5 inches ; the distance of the lower extremity of 
 the head, heel, and upright braces from the ground 
 is 2 inches ; the projection of the head, heel, and 
 upright braces below the lowmost bar is 4 inches; 
 the projection of the head and upright braces 
 above the topmost bar is 6 inches ; and the pro- 
 jection of the heel above the topmost bar is 12 
 inches. The head has a thickness of 3 inches by 
 3, and the heel of 4 inches by 3 ; and the ex- 
 tremities of all the five bars are mortised into 
 these. The bars have a thickness of 2| inches 
 at their junction with the heel, and taper to a 
 thickness of 2£ inches square at their junction 
 with the head; and they may all be bevelled a little 
 at top. The upright braces have a thickness of 3 
 inches by lj, and consist of pieces of plank, nail- 
 ed to one side of the bars ; and the diagonal brace 
 has the same thickness, and is nailed to the op- 
 posite side of the bars. The upper hinge a a, fixed 
 on the topmost bar, is formed with a band or 
 crook in the common manner, and is received into 
 the socket of the hinge, b b ; and both this hinge 
 and the lower one are indented into the post if it 
 consist of timber, but carried through to the op- 
 posite side, and there fixed by a bolt or screw-nut, 
 if the post consist of stone. The advantages of 
 making the upper hinge move in a socket, are 
 that, while space is given it to play, it is firmly 
 supported in its place, and that opportunity al- 
 ways exists for correcting any stiffness or reluc- 
 tance in its motion by smoothing the socket with 
 a little oil. The lower hinge affords two pivots 
 or points of support to the lower part of the gate; 
 and consists of two iron plates placed horizontally 
 at the distance from each other of three-eighths 
 of an inch, the upper of which c is fixed to the 
 post, and the lower d to the gate. From the un- 
 der side of the upper plate, at r r, project two 
 cylindrical pieces of iron, or knobs, placed per- 
 pendicularly ; and these are received into the 
 grooves or hollows i i of the lower plate, and 
 there support the gate in the capacity of pivots. 
 When the gate is shut, therefore, it has three dis- 
 tinct points of support, — the socket of the upper 
 hinge, and the two pivots of the lower hinge, — 
 
 and these three are situated at the angles of an 
 isosceles triangle, the socket at the vertex, and 
 the pivots at the base ; and when the gate is open, 
 it has only two points of support, the socket and 
 one of the pivots. But support on the two piv- 
 ots is equivalent to support on a point perpendi- 
 cular to the socket, while support on only one of 
 the pivots is equivalent to support on a point not 
 perpendicular to the socket ; so that the gate is 
 on the line of rest only when shut, and possesses 
 a self-shutting power at any point between that 
 line and the opposite one of equilibrium. The 
 more distant the socket is fixed from the lower 
 points of support, the more firmly is the gate re- 
 tained in its place, and prevented from trailing 
 on the ground ; and the more distant the lower 
 points of support are from each other, the greater 
 is the momentum or velocity of the gate's self- 
 shutting power. The upper hinge, therefore, 
 ought, as directed, to be placed on the topmost 
 bar of the gate ; and the two pivots or knobs, as 
 also the corresponding grooves, of the lower hinge, 
 may be formed at the distance from each other 
 of 5 inches. A gate thus hung, however, can be 
 opened very little beyond the quadrant of a circle 
 without losing its tendency to regain its position; 
 and it requires to have a latch which will shut 
 and open with the least possible force. The spring 
 k, two feet in length, is fixed nearly at right an- 
 gles to the piece of iron e, which passes through 
 the bar of the gate, and is attached to the handle 
 by a joint or hinge fixed to the handle at m, while 
 the handle itself is attached to the back of the 
 bar by a similar joint at n. The groove in the 
 horizontal plate for the reception of the spring, 
 must be in the plane of a perpendicular from the 
 upper hinge. The plate for receiving the spring 
 of the latch, is 11 inches in horizontal breadth. 
 
 A field-gate of a very good kind, and consider- 
 ably akin to the first and the second which we 
 have noticed, is figured and described in the 7th 
 Volume of the Highland Society's Transactions, 
 and has been a good deal recommended. It mea- 
 sures 10 feet in length and 4 feet in height ; it has 
 a head, a heel, four principal bars, one subordinate 
 bar, two upright braces, and one diagonal brace ; 
 and it is hung, not on the front but on the side 
 of the hanging-post, and has therefore the cha- 
 racter, not of a swing-gate, but of a one-side- 
 opening gate. Its four principal bars taper from 
 a thickness of 4 inches by 1^ inch at the heel to 
 a thickness of 3 inches by f inch at the head ; 
 and its subordinate bar is slender, and has an 
 uniform thickness, and is placed between the 
 third and the fourth principal bars, simply to 
 prevent the egress of lambs. The two upright 
 braces extend from top to bottom of the gate, at 
 one-fourth of the total length of the gate from 
 respectively the head and the heel ; and the di- 
 agonal brace extends from the upper end of the 
 head-ward upright brace to the lower end of the 
 heel-ward upright brace, and is there adjusted at 
 so advantageous an angle as scarcely to require 
 
GATE. 
 
 583 
 
 GATE. 
 
 either nail or rivet to keep it in its place. The 
 hinges are placed respectively a little below the 
 topmost bar and a little above the lowmost bar ; 
 and, in consequence of being distant from any 
 joining of the wood, they do not occasion any of 
 it to rot. Each part of the lower hinge is 1^ inch 
 longer than the upper, and the upper shortens by 
 means of a screw and nut ; so that the gate has 
 a self-shutting power except when three-quarters 
 open, and if its head should sink, the upper hinge 
 will take it up. 
 
 Cast-iron gates, of great variety of forms and 
 patterns, and often with beautiful and elaborate 
 devices, have been long and extensively in request 
 for ornamental situations ; but, even in their 
 simplest, lightest, and cheapest form, they are 
 too heavy, too frangible, and too expensive to be 
 suitable for any of the enclosures of the farm. 
 Gates of wrought iron, principally in the form of 
 bars and rods, have likewise been much used for 
 combining elegance with utility, and have, for a 
 considerable time past, been commending them- 
 selves to somewhat extensive adoption among 
 farmers ; and whenever they can be erected as 
 cheaply as substantial wooden gates, they un- 
 questionably deserve the preference. Gates, in 
 particular, which consist of a frame of light iron 
 bars and a filling up of wires or of small iron rods 
 are specially worthy of notice, and may be so 
 constructed as singularly to combine the proper- 
 ties of cheapness, lightness, strength, durability, 
 and beauty. Both field wire gates and fancy 
 wire gates, of eminent adaptation to their re- 
 spective purposes, and largely possessing the pro- 
 perties which we have named, were contrived, a 
 considerable number of years ago, by Mr. George 
 Buist of Fifeshire. The principle on which he 
 constructed them was, that all the portions re- 
 quisite for filling up a gate, and which generally 
 make a serious addition to its weight and cum- 
 brousness, should assume the office of stays or 
 strengtheners to brace up the frame, and that, 
 being all exposed to merely a longitudinal strain, 
 they should consist of strong wires or very 
 small iron rods, which, when exposed to nearly 
 the direction of their greatest strength, would 
 sustain without injury a pull of four or five times 
 stronger force than any which the gate might 
 ever be likely to receive. 
 
 One of the simplest and cheapest of the wire 
 gates, which may be viewed also as the skeleton 
 of the more complex and expensive ones, is re- 
 presented in Fig. 3, Plate XXII. This gate is 9 
 feet long and 3 feet high ; it weighs about 80 lb.; 
 and seven or eight years ago, it could be made 
 and put up for about £l 8s., — a price consider- 
 ably lower than was then commonly charged for 
 an ordinary wooden gate. The framing, abed, 
 is of light bar iron, put together in the usual 
 way; ef, g h, and kl are light straps of iron, 
 fastened at the ends by rivets to the upper and 
 lower rails, and serving both to tie these rails 
 together and to strengthen the entire frame. 
 
 The whole of the other fillings-up consist of wire 
 or rod iron, about the thickness of a goose quill ■ 
 ac,db are diagonals for the purpose of maintain- 
 ing the gate in a rectangular form ; a q b is a 
 back-stay or brace for a b, to prevent it from 
 bending downwards by pressure — it passes through 
 punched holes in the straps ef, g h, and k I, so 
 that a b is stiffened by it at the three points e, g, 
 and k; in like manner, drc is a back-stay simi- 
 larly arranged in reference to d c, to prevent it 
 from yielding upwards. The three straps, ef,g h 
 and h I, connect the two rods together, and give 
 each of them the supporting power of both back 
 stays either way : that is,- a b, as already shown, 
 is prevented yielding downwards by its own pro- 
 per back stay a q b, and it is prevented yielding 
 upwards by the back stay of dc, that is, drc; 
 and so with d c, whose depression is prevented 
 by the stay a q b, to which it is tied by the straps. 
 So, in like manner, with reference to the ends of 
 the gate, the stays aid and bsc come into ope- 
 ration. Now these, when combined as in Fig. 3, 
 give such a system of universal bracing, that the 
 framing, strengthened by them, can be disshaped 
 by no force short of one of sufficient power to 
 lengthen out the wires longitudinally. They form 
 a gate, not adequate, certainly, for the retention 
 of lambs or pigs without some additional wires, 
 but which will keep in cattle of every sort, its 
 largest apertures being only a triangle 15 in. by 
 9 in. Any sort of lock or hanging may be used 
 which seems expedient. When a gate is suddenly 
 shut, it will be observed to tremble and vibrate 
 violently for some seconds, at the fore part or 
 lower part farthest from the crook end. This, 
 like every other kind of concussion, is of course 
 injurious to the structure of the gate. To reme- 
 dy this, and also overcome the chance of the gate 
 catching, two latches are here employed, one at 
 the top and one at the bottom of the gate. This 
 fastens the gate at once at both extremities. 
 They are coupled together by a wire, so as to lift 
 simultaneously on pressure at the handle above. 
 
 Various kinds of self-acting gates, such as open 
 of themselves when a carriage approaches, and 
 shut of themselves when the carriage passes, 
 have been constructed ; but most have been 
 either too complicated in their machinery, or too 
 resistive to the application of a moderate force. 
 They are desirable chiefly in approaches to man- 
 sion-houses, in roads through gentlemen's parks, 
 or on the main thoroughfare of very extensive 
 farms, where convenience or economy would be 
 materially sacrificed by the necessity of a manual 
 opening and shutting of the gate on every occa- 
 sion of the passing of a carriage. But they must 
 be so constructed as not to exercise their self- 
 acting power under the tread of horses or oxen, 
 and as always to exercise it under the pressure 
 of the wheels of even the lightest ordinary car- 
 riage ; for were they to open under the tread of 
 animals, they would not serve as fences, — and 
 were they not always to open under the pressure 
 
GAVEL. 
 
 584 
 
 GEINE. 
 
 of carriage-wheels, they might occasion serious 
 injury by collision with the draught-horses. 
 
 One of the best self-acting gates ever yet con- 
 trived was invented about 17 years ago by Mr. 
 Robert Russell of Denny Loanhead ; and is repre- 
 sented in Fig. 4, Plate XXII. The machinery of 
 its self-action is situated under the road at the 
 distance of 40 or 50 feet from it, and is connected 
 with it by a rod ; it comprises an apparatus on 
 the one side for opening, and an apparatus on 
 the other side for shutting ; and it has, on each 
 apparatus, two tracks for the wheels of a carriage, 
 similar to those of a weighing-machine, and level 
 with the road at their extremities, but rising a 
 few inches above it in the centre. When a car- 
 riage arrives on the tracks of the opening appa- 
 ratus, its weight depresses them, turns a lever 
 under the ground, and makes such a pull upon 
 the connecting-rod as to open the gate, and 
 fling it back upon a latch ; and when the carriage 
 has passed the gate, and advances on the tracks 
 of the shutting apparatus, its weight acts in a 
 similar way, through lever and connecting rod, 
 to release the gate from the latch, and to let it 
 fall back to its place. The gate, in its state of 
 rest, is kept shut by the machinery; but,, by 
 means of a spring-catch, it can, at any time, be 
 opened or shut by hand. The inventor calculated, 
 17 years ago, that a gate of this kind, together 
 with all its appurtenances, would cost about ,£25. 
 
 GAVEL. Ground; also a swath of corn cut 
 down by the scythe. 
 
 G AVELKIND. A law of equally dividing the 
 land of a father, at his death, among all his sons. 
 This law prevailed anciently in Kent, in Wales, 
 and in some subordinate English districts ; and 
 it still is frequently observed in Ireland ; and it 
 likewise continues to possess such semi-dormant 
 force in Kent, that lands which cannot be proved 
 to exist upon some other tenure, are assumed to 
 be subject to gavelkind. The division of land 
 among children, the subdivision of it among 
 grandchildren, and the continued redivision of it 
 among succeeding generations as long as redivi- 
 sion can be practised, is alleged to have operated 
 as a powerful obstacle to the improvement of 
 many parts of Ireland. But the moral influences 
 of small tenures in that country seem to us to be 
 closely akin to the moral influences of small te- 
 nancies ; and though wretchedly cultivated tracts 
 unquestionably pine and sicken in the possession 
 of very small proprietors, tracts of enormously 
 greater extent also pine and sicken, or are even 
 famished into sterility, in the possession of wealthy 
 and aristocratic landowners. Gavelkind, when 
 estimated as a controlling power over the condi- 
 tion of a country or a people, ought to be viewed, 
 not by itself, but only as one of several or perhaps 
 numerous great powers which operate combinedly 
 with it upon both mind and land. 
 
 GAVELOCK. An iron bar for fixing stakes 
 into the ground. 
 
 GAW-FURROW. An oblique furrow, or small 
 oblique trench, acting as a surface drain. See 
 the articles Draining and Ploughing. 
 
 GEERING. The harness of draught-horses, the 
 rails and ladders of a waggon, the connecting 
 wheel-work between the parts of a machine, and, 
 in general, any group or series of artificial appli- 
 ances for acting a subordinate or appendaged 
 part to a chief moving power. 
 
 GEESE. See Goose. 
 
 GEINE. Humus. But some chemists use the 
 word geine as a synonyme for all the varieties 
 of sense attached by other chemists to the words 
 humus, coal of humus, humin, humic acid, and 
 ulmin; and they even impose upon it some 
 additional meanings of their own, from the most 
 widely generic to the most narrowly specific, till 
 it is made to denote almost any thing connected 
 with dead and decomposing vegetable matter in 
 the soil. Dr. Dana, in particular, mixes talk 
 about geine with almost all his agricultural che- 
 mistry ; and yet, in his very definitions and de- 
 scriptions, he speaks of it in so many senses as 
 to bewilder ordinary readers. " There is," says he, 
 " one constant product of organic decomposition 
 in soil, which is ever the result of that process in 
 or upon the earth ; this product is termed geine." 
 " While the great mass of organic matter of soil 
 is a well-defined chemical compound, termed geine, 
 consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, there 
 are traces of other general products of decay which 
 contain nitrogen. There is thus naturally pointed 
 out a division of the organic matter of soil into two 
 classes, — those which do not, and those which do, 
 contain nitrogen. The first class, or non-nitro- j 
 genous, comprises three substances, which have 
 been termed, — first, extract of soil, or of humus, 
 — second, geine, or humic acid, — and third, car- 
 bonaceous soil, or humin ; these are chemically 
 the same, passing from one state to the other, 
 without changing the relative proportions in 
 which they were combined. The second class, or 
 nitrogenous, comprises two substances, — crenic 
 and apocrenic acids. The distinction of geine 
 into nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, is founded 
 in nature ; these classes cannot eventually pass 
 the one to the other." " Geine is as essential to 
 plants as food is to animals ; so far as nourish- 
 ment is derived from the soil, geine is the food 
 of plants." " In all its forms, geine is agricul- 
 turally one and the same thing ; they are all in- 
 cluded in the terms humus or mould or geine. 
 Geine, in its agricultural sense, is a generic term ; 
 it includes all the decomposed organic matter of 
 the soil. It concerns the farmer less to know the 
 chemical constitution, than it does the practical 
 agricultural value of a class of compounds termed 
 geine." " It has been stated already, that geine is 
 the product of decomposition of bodies once en- 
 dowed with life ; for the present purpose, it may 
 be considered as the result of vegetable decom- 
 position." " Putrefaction is the silent and on- 
 
GELDING. 
 
 585 
 
 GLANDERS. 
 
 ward march of decay ; its goal is geine." " The 
 original brown solution," of dry vegetable mat- 
 ters soaked in water, and afterwards exposed to 
 the air till a sediment is formed, " may be con- 
 sidered as extract of mould, — the sediment as 
 geine and carbonaceous mould ; these are either 
 I soluble or insoluble in water or alkali, — and hence 
 geine is divided into soluble and insoluble." Thus, 
 in the course of a professedly definitional and 
 explanatory statement, not long enough, even 
 though quoted at full length, to fill one of our 
 pages, geine is made to mean all food of plants 
 | from the soil, and therefore, saline as well as or- 
 I ganic matters, all decomposed organic substan- 
 ces, the results of putrefaction as well as of fer- 
 mentation and eremacausis, and therefore animal 
 as well as vegetable remains, — all decomposed 
 vegetable matter, whether nitrogenous or non- 
 nitrogenous, and whether soluble or insoluble, — 
 all non-nitrogenous decomposed vegetable mat- 
 ter, — only one of the three non-nitrogenous sub- 
 stances in decomposed vegetable matter, — a whole 
 class of compounds, — a genus of the proximate 
 principles of soil, — only one substance in the class 
 of compounds, — only one species in the genus. 
 Such excessive confusion in the use of one of the 
 most important terms in agricultural chemistry, 
 should make us glad that we can afford to throw 
 away the word altogether, and to employ a nominal 
 but far more definite synonyme. See the article 
 Humus. 
 
 GELDING. A castrated animal. See the ar- 
 ticle Castration. 
 
 GIBBING. See Backing. 
 GID. See Hydatid. 
 
 GIDDINESS. A well known symptom of nu- 
 merous affections of the brain and the stomach in 
 man and the lower animals ; and thence loosely 
 identified by multitudes of the rural population 
 with some specific diseases of the animals of the 
 ; farm. Apoplectic affections are sometimes called 
 i giddiness. See the article Staggers. Epileptic 
 affections are more frequently called giddiness ; 
 | and they, at the same time, bear the popular 
 names of fits, sturdy, megrim, and turnsick. See 
 the article Epilepsy. A peculiar affection in 
 poultry is usually called giddiness. See the 
 article Megrim. A hydatidal disease of the 
 brain of the sheep, of somewhat common occur- 
 rence, bears many popular names of an intendedly 
 descriptive kind, — among the rest, gid, giddiness, 
 sturdy -gig, turnsick, goggles, and blob -whirl. 
 See the article Hydatid. 
 
 GILT. A young female pig. 
 
 GIMMER. A young ewe. A gimmer-lamb is 
 a ewe-lamb ; and a gimmer-hog is a first-year ewe. 
 
 GLAIR. Mucous matter in the excrement of 
 horses and cattle. It sometimes appears in great 
 quantity, and indicates a high state of disease, 
 during disordered or morbid conditions of the 
 stomach or the bowels. 
 
 GLANDERS. A disease of horses, long consi- 
 
 dered the most formidable with which the veteri- 
 nary surgeon is called to contend, and even said 
 to form the opprobrium medicorum of the veteri- 
 narian's art. What renders this a matter of sur- 
 prise to an indifferent observer, is, that glanders is 
 an affection which, in the generality of cases, for 
 some considerable time does not appear to detract 
 in the slightest degree from the animal's ordinary 
 state of health ; and so far is it, while it continues 
 in this passive stage, from lowering his condition, 
 that he not only continues to enjoy health, but, 
 from the state of inactivity into which he is pro- 
 bably thrown in consequence, absolutely gets fat ; 
 hence it is we hear people say, that it seems im- 
 possible, under such circumstances, their horses 
 can be diseased. 
 
 Glanders appears to be a bad variety or virulent 
 modification of the same disease as farcy, and to 
 arise from the worst kinds of the same causes 
 which produce that disorder. See the article 
 Farcy. An opinion long prevailed that glanders 
 is entirely a specific disease, propagable only by 
 infection or contagion ; but this opinion is now 
 exploded among multitudes of enlightened veteri- 
 narians, and remains unmodified among hardly ! 
 any. A few veterinarians have even become so j 
 bold as to assert that glanders is never, in any 
 proper sense of the word, infectious or contagious ; 
 and M. Galy, a French veterinarian, about ten 
 years ago conducted such successful experiments, 
 in the perfectly harmless mixing of glandered 
 horses with healthy ones, as to draw from the 
 Inspector-General of the army studs a proposition I 
 for reconsidering an old ordinance which required 
 all glandered horses to be destroyed. But though 
 we see nothing like sufficient evidence for this 
 extreme and very sanguine opinion, — and though 
 we feel bound to urge all farmers and others -to 
 adopt, as in old times, every prudent measure for 
 preventing the possible contact of glanderous mat- 
 ter with the bare or abraded surface of a healthy 
 horse, — we by no means think glanders the terri- 
 ble affair which all the old horse-doctors regarded 
 it, and are of opinion that it is infectious or con- 
 tagious only when bad treatment and serious 
 debility predispose to it, and that, in almost all 
 cases, it is either immediately or remotely due 
 to previous disease, foul stabling, bad food, im- 
 pure air, currents of cold air, frequent and sudden 
 transitions of temperature, or, in general, to in- 
 duced morbidness of constitution, or impairment 
 of general organic energy, or structural enfeeble- 
 ment of the aerating organs. Glanders was, in 
 former times, quite rife among cavalry horses; 
 but since the modern improvements in stabling, 
 it has been almost completely banished. 
 
 Most writers make a division of glanders into 
 acute and chronic : the former being that which, 
 when once set in action, and when not arrested 
 by prompt and suitable remedial treatment, pro- 
 ceeds regularly through its course, and at last 
 ends in destruction ; the latter, a stage in which 
 
GLANDERS. 
 
 58G 
 
 GLEANING. 
 
 the disease appears to be stationary, or at all 
 events one in which it makes no perceptible in- 
 road upon the general health. 
 
 Acute Glanders consists in an ulceration of a 
 peculiar character of the pituatury membrane, 
 (the membrane lining the cavities of the nose) 
 which is commonly accompanied with glandular 
 swellings under the jaws. These ulcerations at 
 first assume the appearance of pin-holes, only 
 that they are shallow, instead of deep, and have 
 thin indented edges ; they exude a purulent mat- 
 ter, which so completely envelopes them, that 
 their true character cannot be well made out un- 
 til their surfaces are wiped dry. They exist in 
 most numbers upon the middle or partition of 
 the nose ; but they are also often found grouped 
 in the hollow within the doubling of the nostril. 
 By interunion, one with another, they at length 
 form broad ulcerous patches which grow deeper 
 and deeper until they threaten destruction to the 
 septum nasi and turbinated bones ; a period at 
 which the sloughing and suppurative action is 
 occasioning so much defluxion that there is al- 
 ways danger of suffocation ; which is, in fact, the 
 common way acute glanders ends in death. 
 
 Chronic glanders consists in a purulent ill-con- 
 ditioned discharge from the nose, commonly but 
 from one nostril : this is also the case in the acute 
 form ; but it is not so generally confined to one 
 side of the head as the chronic. The difference 
 between the two is, that in the chronic there is 
 no ulceration. The source of this affection is 
 the frontal sinus ; if that be opened with a com- 
 mon gimble, and a feather, introduced into the 
 hole, be withdrawn smeared with matter, we may 
 be certain the disease exists. 
 
 Almost all old veterinary writers spoke de- 
 spairingly of a cure for glanders ; and even some 
 of our best modern ones continue to speak de- 
 spondingly of it ; and multitudes have striven and 
 toiled and groped in search of a specific, almost 
 as the old alchemists did in search of the philo- 
 sopher's stone. Yet, except in remote districts, 
 or in extraordinary circumstances, the time has 
 gone by when the appearance of glanders in a 
 horse was a signal for killing him. " This disease," 
 says Mr. Winter, in his able treatise on 'The 
 Horse in health and Disease,' published in 1846, 
 — " This disease is not now considered so hopeless 
 as it was formerly. Numerous cases of successful 
 treatment show that it can be subdued by thera- 
 peutic agents. The great drawback to the estab- 
 lishment of a judicious system of combating this 
 affection has been an unscientific and unwarrant- 
 able recourse to violent medicinal preparations. 
 All the most active poisons have been employed 
 again and again without success. In pursuance 
 of this blind, empirical plan, Mr. Coleman gave, 
 in the vain hope of finding a specific, 1 the various 
 preparations of arsenic, antimony, copper, zinc, 
 mercury, &c, hellebore, aconitum, digitalis, hy- 
 oscyamus, cicuta, belladonna, &c, &c., but all 
 
 without any specific or curative effect;' while 
 some of these substances given in moderate doses 
 have since been discovered to possess considerable 
 curative influence over the disease. The affection 
 being supposed to be generated by, as well as to 
 generate, an animal virus or poison, powerful 
 medical poisons were introduced into the system j 
 to combat it. A more correct pathological know- | 
 ledge of glanders has led, and will lead to a more j i 
 rational method of treating it. If the complaint M 
 spring from such causes as have been enumerated, 
 no plan of treatment can be successful unless 
 based on a removal of them. Debility being both 
 a cause and a result of the disease, our aim should 
 be directed to rouse, support, and strengthen the 
 powers of the constitution. Accordingly, such 
 remedies as have a stomachic and tonic action 
 have been found most beneficial. Mr. Sewell has 
 cured many cases of confirmed glanders by ad- 
 ministering a solution of sulphate of copper in 
 moderate doses. Mr. Vines prefers cantharides, 
 bark, capsicum, cubebs, ginger, gentian, quassia, 
 and such agents as improve the health and con- 
 dition, by increasing the appetite, and through 
 it the powers of the circulation. By adopting 
 such principles, I cured more than fifty cases of 
 glanders in the stables of the Egyptian Transit 
 Company. The salts of iron, such as the sulphate, 
 carbonate, and ioduret, are of essential service 
 in glanders. Considerable benefit often arises 
 from the continued use of the sulphuret of anti- 
 mony combined with tonics. Chyryata, as a 
 vegetable bitter and stomachic, is a powerful 
 adjunct to mineral preparations, or to cantharides. 
 When cantharides are employed, not more than 
 three, four, or five grains should be given daily, 
 as there will be less danger of over-dosing ; for 
 as soon as the animal is observed to refuse a por- 
 tion of his usual rations, all that is necessary is 
 to desist from the medicine for a day or two. 
 Since nearly all the medicines possessing a cura- 
 tive effect on glanders act by restoring the health 
 by the improvement of the digestive powers, strict 
 attention must be paid to the diet. The food 
 should be of the best and most nutritious cha- 
 racter, given without restriction, the quantity 
 being alone governed by the extent of the ani- 
 mal's appetite, speared corn, malt, sound oats, 
 beans, and clover-hay, with an occasional recourse 
 to green food or carrots. The horse should not 
 be put to work, but daily exercise in the open 
 air should be taken." 
 
 GLEANING. The picking up of stray ears and 
 straws of corn on the harvest field, after the crop 
 has been collected by the reapers and gatherers. 
 It is a practice of probably as high an antiquity as 
 the art of reaping; and, in particular, was ex- 
 emplified in Ruth, who " came and gleaned in 
 the field after the reapers." It has, by popular 
 mistake, been often regarded as a right of the 
 poor, and sometimes abused to a degree almost 
 ruinous to the farmer ; and in former as well as 
 
GLUE MANURE. 
 
 587 
 
 GLYCERIA. 
 
 recent times, on the continent of Europe as well 
 j as in Britain, it has, within certain limits, been 
 ! conceded by farmers as a reward or wages of some 
 of the lowest order of their retainers. " When 
 the practice was under proper regulations," says 
 Sir John Sinclair, " it was attended with profit 
 to the industrious poor, without occasioning any 
 : particular injury to the occupier. Each farmer, 
 in ancient times, had his particular set of gleaning 
 retainers, who assisted him in the labours of the 
 harvest, and they were indulged with the per- 
 quisite of gleaning, after the corn had been 
 gathered. This tended to excite, and to preserve, 
 j a mutual attachment between the two classes. 
 
 But this privilege came to be abused. Persons 
 ! who had given no assistance to the farmer, nay, 
 
 ■ who resided in other parishes, presumed to glean, 
 ! not only among the sheaves, but too often from 
 
 them, conducting themselves in so disorderly a 
 manner as to occasion perpetual dispute. The 
 ; mischief which this gave rise to, was often great, 
 particularly in the common-field system, where 
 the loss incurred has been calculated as high as 
 30 per cent. To avoid such depredations, the 
 wheat crop was often cut too late, and carried 
 home too quickly, because the farmer dared not 
 trust it in the field, while the poor were perpetu- 
 ally among the sheaves. In several districts it 
 is still the case. The courts of law have decided 
 against any right to gleaning being vested in the 
 poor ; but as the practice, under due regulations, 
 tends to promote a friendly intercourse and kindly 
 connexion between the upper and the lower or- 
 ders of society, it ought not to be given up." 
 
 GLOSS-ANTHRAX. See Blaist. 
 
 GLUE MANURE. The fertilizing refuse of the 
 
 ■ glue manufactories. The gelatinous matter which 
 constitutes animal jelly would fertilize soil ; but is 
 all carefully used up for glue, and does not form 
 any appreciable portion of the glue-maker's refuse. 
 What is meant by glue-manure is the residuum 
 
 I of animal matter, and particularly of bones, after 
 ; the gelatine is extracted. " In the manufactories 
 | of glue," says Liebig, " many hundred tons of a 
 solution of phosphates in muriatic acid are yearly 
 thrown away as being useless. It would be im- 
 portant to ascertain how far this solution might 
 be substituted for bones. The free acid would 
 : combine with the alkalies in the soil, especially 
 i with lime : and a soluble salt would thus be pro- 
 duced, which is known to possess a favourable 
 action on the growth of plants. This salt, muriate 
 I of lime or chloride of calcium, is one of those 
 . compounds which attract water from the atmo- 
 sphere with great avidity, and retain it when ab- 
 sorbed ; and, being present in the soil, it would 
 decompose the carbonate of ammonia, existing in 
 rain-water, with the formation of sal-ammoniac 
 and carbonate of lime. A solution of bones in 
 | muriatic acid placed on land in autumn or in 
 winter, would therefore not only restore a neces- 
 sary constituent of the soil, but would also give 
 
 to it the power of retaining all the ammonia 
 falling upon it in the rain for a period of six 
 months." A specimen of glue manure analysed 
 in the laboratory of the Agricultural Chemistry 
 Association of Scotland comprised 45.86 per cent, 
 of water, 1.1 of hair, 22.34 of fatty matter, 4.43 
 of cellular tissue, with a little ammonia, 2.3 of 
 phosphates of lime and magnesia, with a trace of 
 iron, 20.06 of carbonate of lime, and 3.03 of sand ; 
 so that about one half of its entire weight pos- 
 sessed direct and highly fertilizing power. 
 
 GLYCERIA. A small genus of indigenous 
 grasses, belonging to the same tribe as the poas 
 and the brome-grasses. It is characterized by 
 its blunt and many- toothed lower paleae, by its 
 unequal glumes, and by its slender and elongated 
 spikelets. 
 
 The floating glyceria, or floating sweet-mea- 
 dow-grass, Glyceria jluitans, formerly called bo- 
 tanically Festuca Jluitans and popularly floating 
 fescue, grows wild on almost all alluvial marshes 
 or wet meadows, and by the sides of ditches, pools, 
 and streams. Its root is fibrous; its stem is 
 about two feet high, and is decumbent in the 
 lower part, oblique in the middle part, and erect 
 in the upper part ; its leaves are broad and long, 
 and float when the plant grows in a sufficient 
 depth of water ; its panicle is long, slender, and 
 nodding, and is somewhat branched at the base ; 
 and its spikelets are very slender, and have each 
 from 7 to 9 florets. This grass, though very fond 
 of an abundant and constant supply of water, is 
 admirably adapted for all ordinary irrigated 
 meadows, and will yield a considerable produce 
 even on common undrained farm ground ; and it 
 is greedily eaten by horses, cattle, sheep, and 
 swine, and constitutes, in most respects, highly 
 valuable forage. Its seeds, also, form a common 
 and enriching food of several species of economi- 
 cal, fresh-water fish, and of various species of the 
 most esteemed aquatic fowls ; and, when gathered 
 and dried, they constitute the manna-croup of 
 the shops, and are extensively used as an agree- 
 able and highly nutritious material for soups and 
 gruels. They ripen irregularly, and are readily 
 shaken out when ripe, so that they are not easily 
 collected ; and in Poland and Germany, they are 
 gathered in a similar manner to the juniper ber- 
 ries of Britain, by the shaking or beating of the 
 ripening plants, every second or third day, over 
 a cloth spread under the panicles. — A bad variety 
 of this species is in use, of a dwarfish habit, with 
 comparatively short panicles and seeds, and not 
 so well adapted as the normal plant to half-dry 
 soils. 
 
 The water glyceria, or reed meadow-grass, or 
 water sweet meadow-grass, Glyceria aquatica, 
 called by the old botanists Poa aquatica, and by 
 Hartig Jlydrockloa aquatica, grows wild on the 
 richly alluvial flooded banks, and within the 
 richly alluvial margins of streams and pools ; it 
 specially abounds on low banks which are statedly 
 
GLYSTER. 
 
 588 
 
 GOAT. 
 
 overflown by the fresh back water dammed up 
 by tides ; and, in common with some other aqua- 
 tic herbage, it makes a conspicuous figure, for 
 both good and evil, in the husbandry of the 
 English fens. Its root is powerfully creeping; 
 its stem is erect, cylindrical, and usually about 
 6 feet high ; its leaves are broad, long, tapering, 
 and vivid green; its panicle is erect, equally 
 spreading, and freely branched ; its spikelets are 
 elongated, and contain each about 7 or 9 florets ; 
 and its seeds are short, compact, and seven-ribbed. 
 " This," says Curtis, " is one of the tallest of 
 British grasses, with a powerful creeping root ; a 
 native of most parts of Europe, and very common 
 in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, 
 where it not only affords rich pasturage in sum- 
 mer, but forms the chief winter fodder. It is 
 sometimes cut thrice in one season. It grows 
 not only in very moist ground, but in deep water ; 
 and, with cat's-tail, burr-reed, &c, soon fills up 
 ditches, and occasions them to require frequent 
 cleansing. In this respect, it is a formidable 
 plant even in slow rivers. In the Island of Ely, 
 they cleanse these by an instrument called a bear, 
 which is an iron roller with a number of pieces 
 of iron like small spades fixed to it; this is 
 drawn up and down the river by horses walking 
 along the bank, and tears up the plants by the 
 roots which float, and are carried down the 
 stream." 
 
 GLYSTER, or Clyster. An enema or medi- 
 cinal liquid injected into the anal orifice of an 
 animal, with the design of operating on the lower 
 intestines. It is much and very usefully employed 
 on the human subject ; but though equally well 
 adapted to the lower animals, it has been very 
 generally neglected in the case of even horses and 
 cattle. An aperient glyster, in all veterinary 
 practice, is highly serviceable in the first stages 
 of fever, or in inflammation of the bowels, or in 
 an irritated state of the bowels, or in obstinate 
 costiveness, or for assisting the action of inter- 
 nally administered purgatives ; an anodyne glys- 
 ter is serviceable in cases of great irritation of 
 the lower intestines, of obstinate diarrhoea, or of 
 excessive purging from the internal administra- 
 tion of cathartics ; a nutritive glyster is valuable 
 in cases of epidemic catarrh, of locked -jaw, of 
 convulsions, or of extreme debility accompanied 
 with want of appetite ; and a cathartic glyster 
 is of use in cases where the lower intestines are 
 obstructed and require to be speedily evacuated. 
 
 An aperient glyster for a horse may consist 
 simply of a gallon of warm water, or of two ounces 
 of common soap dissolved in a gallon of warm 
 water, or of a pint of linseed oil and nearly a 
 gallon of warm water, — though this last is appro- 
 priate chiefly for the purpose of expelling the 
 entozoa which infest the rectum ; a cathartic 
 glyster for a horse may consist of half a pound of 
 common salt or of Epsom salts dissolved in a gal- 
 lon of warm water, or of an ounce or an ounce 
 
 and a half of aloes dissolved in two or three quarts 
 of warm water ; an anodyne clyster, for a horse, 
 may consist of 1^ or 2 quarts of very fine gruel, 
 or of It? or 2 quarts of thin mucilage of starch or 
 arrowroot, or of 4 ounces of finely powdered pre- 
 pared chalk well stirred into 1| or 2 quarts of 
 gruel, with the addition, in very bad cases, of two 
 scruples or a drachm of powdered opium ; and a 
 nutritive glyster for a horse ought never to consist 
 of strong broths or ales or wines, or any other 
 stimulating substances, but ought to consist only 
 of thick gruel, and to be administered in quanti- 
 ties of not more than a quart at a time. Proper 
 glysters for cattle are strictly analogous to these 
 for horses. The temperature of every glyster, at 
 the moment of administering it, ought to be, as 
 nearly as possible, about 96° of Fahrenheit. 
 
 GOAD. A pointed instrument formerly used, 
 especially in the East, for driving oxen. 
 
 GOAR-VETCHES. Summer vetches. Seethe 
 article Vetch. 
 
 GOAT. A genus of ruminating animals, nearly 
 allied on the one hand to antelopes, and on the 
 other hand to sheep. The main characteristic 
 relied on by Cuvier is that " the osseous nucleus 
 of the horns is partially porous or cellular, com- 
 municating with the sinus of the frontals ; " but 
 even this character is regarded by some other 
 naturalists as far from uniform. The domesti- 
 cated goat and the domesticated sheep, indeed, 
 appear to any ordinary observer to be very 
 different from each other ; the former with 
 shaggy hair, and backward or upward bent 
 horns, and the latter with wool instead of hair, 
 and either with no horns whatever, or with 
 horns laterally bent, and for the most part 
 spirally formed. But the wild species — which 
 alone constitute the proper subjects of com- 
 parison — are so very closely akin as to have 
 baffled the efforts of many a naturalist to draw 
 a line of demarcation between them ; and even 
 the domesticated species, when estimated by 
 their strictly physical characters, differ but a 
 degree or two more than the bull-dog and the 
 greyhound. Cuvier goes so far as to assert — 
 though he becomes extreme and passes into error 
 in so doing — that goats and sheep are more akin 
 to each other than any two races which can pro- 
 duce mere mules, and that, in their wild state, 
 "they produce together a mixed fertile race." 
 The grand distinction between goats and sheep 
 is what some naturalists have expressively though 
 incongruously designated a "moral" one, — a dis- 
 tinction in temper and disposition, — such a dis- 
 tinction as not only associates the idea of the 
 goat with " hircine" smells and propensities, but 
 exhibits that animal in disgusting contrast to the 
 meekness and purity and loveableness of the 
 sheep; and this broad "moral" difference, com- 
 bined with close similarity or almost identity in 
 physical structure, is possibly the reason why the 
 Divine Redeemer — He who once came into this 
 
17^ Argali or Bio Umm . of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 I 
 
GOAT. 
 
 589 
 
 GOAT. 
 
 world to save men, and will hereafter come again 
 to judge them — compared the two mixed classes 
 of the human race, so like each other in every- 
 thing physical and so widely different in moral 
 condition, to goats and sheep, and declares that, 
 in the day of judgment, "he shall separate them 
 one from another as a shepherd divideth his 
 sheep from the goats." 
 
 The different kinds of domesticated goats, 
 though exceedingly numerous, and diffused over 
 the greater part of the world, and diversified by 
 the influence of different climates and the pastoral 
 usages of different countries, are easily reducible 
 to a single species. But the different kinds of 
 wild goats, though far fewer in number, and not 
 at all affected by artificial circumstances, exhibit 
 very wide diversities, and constitute several 
 species. Linnseus regards the domestic goat as 
 an original or underived species ; but the vast 
 majority of naturalists, though widely disagree- 
 ing among themselves in some important par- 
 ticulars, regard it as a modification of some one 
 or other of the existing species of wild goats. 
 The older naturalists, with the exception of the 
 immediate followers of Linnseus, generally derive 
 it from the ibex ; the majority of modern 
 naturalists derive it from the paseng or £egagrus ; 
 and a few, including Pallas and Pennant, derive 
 it conjointly from these two species, or regard it 
 as a hybrid. The varieties of it are more numer- 
 ous and more diversified than those of any other 
 species of animal except the dog ; and they occur, 
 with equal adaptation to countries and climates, 
 in all sorts of regions from the arctic cold of the 
 Norway mountains to the burning heat of the 
 torrid zone. Some approach so near in character 
 to the segagrus or the ibex as to be almost un- 
 distinguishable by the unpractised eye ; and 
 others are so exceedingly dissimilar from these 
 as to seem to almost all persons except naturalists 
 to belong to a totally different section of the 
 animal kingdom ; and yet the several kinds fuse 
 their characters into one another by a strictly 
 similar series of insensible gradations as that 
 which links together the numerous and vastly 
 diversified group of dogs. 
 
 " The common goat, which is well known in 
 the north of Scotland and the most alpine coun- 
 ties of England and Wales," says Sir William 
 Jardine, "closely resembles the wild segagrus, 
 and in some parts of the Highlands has become 
 nearly naturalized, and scarcely to be approached 
 except by stealth, or procured except by the as- 
 sistance of the gun. We recollect once having a 
 flock of this description pointed out to us on the 
 precipitous side of Ben Nevis, and of endeavour- 
 ing to get a shot in vain ; their activity among 
 the rocks surpassed any thing we could have 
 imagined from description, and they had passed 
 the rocky valley long before we had reached the 
 station pointed out for an ambuscade. A Welsh 
 breed, generally of a white colour, is remarkable 
 
 for its long hair and very large horns, which are 
 sometimes three feet in length. In Holland, they 
 are used in very pretty equipages for children, 
 and we have seen two and sometimes four, har- 
 nessed to a child's car, obeying the rein, and 
 apparently in complete subjection. As among 
 the sheep, we have also a breed, white, and with- 
 out horns ; and here the distinction of the two 
 forms is very close indeed, and scarcely to be dis- 
 tinguished, except by the hairy fleece and indica- 
 tion of a beard." 
 
 The Jueda long-haired goat is smaller in size 
 and stands considerably lower than the Welsh 
 goat ; its hair is long and fine, and, in many 
 cases, white; and its horns are depressed, and 
 have both an outward and an upward bend. — 
 The short-horned goat is nearly allied to both the 
 Welsh goat and the Jueda goat, but has variously 
 coloured smooth hair. — Some of the goats of 
 Sweden, a*nd also some of those of Spain, are 
 hornless, and have long and, in many cases, 
 white hair. — The Persian goat is probably less 
 removed from the wild type than either the 
 Scottish or the Welsh goat ; its horns have the 
 same form as those of the aegagrus, but are 
 smaller ; its hair is long, coarse, and ashy-brown ; 
 and a large tuft of it grows between the horns, 
 and has the same kind of appearance as the fet- 
 lock of a horse. — The dwarf goat of South 
 America and the West Indies, seems to have 
 been originally derived from the Capra depressa, 
 but has become abundantly intermixed with 
 other breeds. It dreads thunder, and is peculiarly 
 sensitive to rain. Its hair is close and short, 
 and usually has a whitish colour inclined to fawn 
 colour ; but its beard, its neck, its legs, and its 
 tail are commonly black. Most of the goats of 
 this breed are hornless ; and a few of the females 
 have each four mammas. 
 
 The Cashmere goat, whose wool or fine hair 
 forms the material of the celebrated Cashmere 
 shawls, inhabits the lofty country round the 
 sources of the river Indus, in the extreme north- 
 west of India, and on the borders of Thibet. Its 
 horns are pale brown, but slightly spiral, and 
 considerably upright ; its ears are large and brown 
 or blackish, and are turned downward ; its limbs 
 are slender and cleanly formed ; and its fleece is 
 long, straight, white, and silky. " Sixteen thou- 
 sand looms," we are told, "are supposed to be in 
 constant motion at Cashmere, each giving em- 
 ployment to three men. The wool of Thibet 
 is thought to be the best. Twenty-four pounds 
 weight of it sells at Cashmere, if of the best 
 sort, for twenty rupees ; but an inferior and 
 harsher kind may be procured for half the money. 
 The wool is spun by women, and afterwards 
 coloured." Some Cashmere goats were brought 
 to Britain, a number of years ago, and attempted 
 to be naturalized; and after a fair trial, they 
 continued to be healthy and to possess all the 
 original fineness and silkiness of their fleece ; and 
 
GOAT. 
 
 590 
 
 GOAT. 
 
 some shawls which were manufactured from their 
 wool were pronounced by competent judges to be 
 exceedingly good. But whether the goats would 
 thrive on ordinary pastures, away from the nice- 
 ties of special care and shelter, and whether 
 especially they would transmit their fineness of 
 fleece to their offspring through successive gen- 
 erations, are points which admit of very serious 
 doubt. 
 
 Another Indian goat besides the Cashmere 
 one, and very closely akin to it, yields wool of the 
 soft and silky kind used for the shawls. " We 
 possess a drawing of an Indian variety," says 
 Cuvier, "with long curling hair, of a white colour, 
 nearly allied to the Cashmere breed, but retaining 
 small upright ears. The horns are yellowish and 
 angular, with a triple spiral turn, directed out- 
 wards ; the female with short curved horns turn- 
 ing downwards, and the face and legs fawn-colour. 
 — The Thibet or Tartar goat is also aMied to the 
 Cashmere goat. Its horns are but very slightly 
 spiral, and of an ash-colour ; its ears are smaller 
 than those of the Cashmere goat, and pendent ; 
 its limbs are strong ; and its fleece is white and 
 very fine, but is occasionally blotched with 
 black. This breed has been introduced to France. 
 — The Angora goat inhabits a district around 
 Angora and Beibazar in the part of Asia Minor 
 which constituted the ancient Cappadocia. The 
 horns of the males are yellowish, and nearly up- 
 right, making about only one turn in their ascent ; 
 and those of the females are short and have a 
 downward inclination. The ears are long and 
 buff-coloured ; the face has a form and expression 
 very similar to those of domestic sheep ; and the 
 hair or wool is long, soft, and generally white. 
 The goatherds who tend the native flocks of this 
 breed, bestow great care on them, with reference 
 to their fleece, and often wash and comb them. 
 An attempt was made by Baron Alstroemer to 
 naturalize the Angora goat in Sweden; but it 
 seems to have completely failed. 
 
 The Nepaul goat has a widely different appear- 
 ance from any of the varieties of domestic goat 
 already mentioned, — so much so as almost to 
 seem a perfectly distinct and broadly marked 
 species. Its horns are very short, and almost as 
 spiral as a screw ; its nasal bones are convex or 
 raised, so as to give the nose an arched form ; its 
 ears are pendulous, longer than the head, and of 
 a white colour, speckled with black ; its lips, its 
 chin, a spot on the forehead, and a spot on the 
 breast are white ; its hind legs are comparatively 
 long and high ; and its hair is loose, longish, and 
 either black or slaty-grey. — The Egyptian goats 
 also have a very singular appearance. The horns 
 of one of the breeds are depressed and half-spiral ; 
 its ears are pendent and small ; and its hair is 
 very generally brown. The horns of another are 
 very spiral; its ears are longer than its head; 
 and its hair is close, smooth, and generally brown. 
 The horns of a third are either small or a-want- 
 
 ing ; its ears are very long and broad ; and its 
 hair is longish and rufous-brown. The horns of 
 a fourth are always a- wanting ; its nose is very 
 much raised ; its chin and teeth are bare, and re- 
 mind one of the pugs among dogs ; its ears are 
 large and pendent ; its hind legs, like those of 
 the Nepaul goat, are comparatively high ; its hair 
 is coarse and of a rufous-brown colour ; and the 
 udder of the female is always very pendent, and 
 sometimes almost touches the ground. — The 
 Syrian goat abounds in various parts of the East, 
 and is said by Pennant to supply Aleppo with 
 milk. Its horns bend outward and are somewhat 
 erect and slightly spiral ; its ears are pendent 
 and longer than its head ; and its hair is long, 
 and frequently black, but with the head and legs 
 white, and only mottled with black. 
 
 The domestic goat, in almost any of its varieties, 
 but especially in the best and most common of 
 them, is an animal of great utility to man, and, 
 if properly treated, would, in bleak, bare, and 
 mountainous districts, be more valuable than 
 even the sheep. Its skin, with the hair on, was 
 probably an extensive and long-continued article 
 of clothing among the ancients ; and is still so 
 used by some of the peasantry of the Scottish 
 Highlands, and by many of the inhabitants of 
 Brittany and Normandy. Its skin in a dressed 
 state, particularly the skin of the kid or young 
 goat, is of great importance in the present day to 
 glove-makers, and is said to be more susceptible 
 of dyes than any other kind of skin. — The horns 
 are good materials for knife handles. — The hair 
 of the woolly and silky fleeced varieties is a ma- 
 terial of great mercantile value for the manufac- 
 ture of shawls and similar fabrics. But even 
 goat-hair, in general, is of much worth. It was 
 anciently combined with the short fur of other 
 animals, and with vegetable gum or animal glue, 
 for the manufacture of a solid kind of felt which 
 was very long and extensively used in Northern 
 Asia ; and it formed a chief material of several 
 sorts of fabrics for wearing apparel, in some of 
 the Roman provinces before the time of Constan- 
 tine, and among the Scandinavian tribes of the 
 middle ages. " That goats' hair was the chief in- . 
 gredient among the Scandinavians," says Cuvier, I 
 " is proved by their divinities being dressed in j 
 Geita Kurtlu. The domestic goat in the north 
 and west of the old world, preceded sheep for 
 many ages, and predominated while the country 
 was chiefly covered with forests; nor is there 
 evidence of wool-bearing animals crossing the 
 Rhine or the Upper Danube till towards the sub- 
 version of the Roman Empire." The hair of the 
 haunches, where it is usually thicker and longer 
 than elsewhere, brought a high price from peru- 
 quiers in the days of general wig-wearing, and is 
 still used for making the wigs of barristers, judges, 
 and other wigged dignitaries. 
 
 The flesh of the goat and particularly that of 
 the kid, was formerly in great and general request 
 
GOAT'S-RUE. 
 
 591 
 
 GRAIN. 
 
 as an article of food, but is at present very gene- 
 rally disliked. The flesh of the adult goat, espe- 
 cially of one somewhat advanced in age, is tough 
 and strong-tasted, yet does very well to be salted 
 and made into bacon, and is so treated in Wales. 
 
 Goats can feed well where sheep would almost 
 or altogether starve ; and, in many a bare, bleak, 
 rocky region, like a large portion of Wales, of 
 the Scottish Highlands, and of the counties of 
 Kerry, Galway, Mayo, and Donegal, they could 
 find sufficient sustenance where not another Bri- 
 tish domesticated animal could live, and would 
 at the same time occasion exceedingly little cost 
 or trouble to their owners. The domestic goat, 
 like the wild one, thrives on many a plant which 
 would disgust or perhaps kill other domestic ani- 
 mals ; and like the wild one, too, it easily climbs 
 to the least accessible and the most unpromising 
 acclivities of rocky mountains, in search of food. 
 Goats, in most situations, might add materially 
 to the comforts of the poor ; and goats among 
 the mountains might remove multitudes of fami- 
 lies from a state of indigence to a condition of 
 pastoral ease and comparative competence. Cit- 
 vier's Animal Kingdom. — Bell's History of Bri- 
 tish Quadrupeds. — Jardine's Naturalist's Library. 
 — Pennants British Zoology. — Buffon's Natural 
 History. — Transactions of the Zoological Society. — 
 DoyWs Works. — Loiv's Works. — Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. — Mortimer's Husbandry. — Cidley 
 on Live Stock. — Treatise on Pasturage. 
 
 GOAT'S-RUE, — botanically Galega Officinalis. 
 An indigenous, perennial - rooted, herbaceous 
 plant, belonging to the lotus tribe of legumes. 
 Its root consists of many strong fibres, which are 
 frequently jointed ; its stems are numerous, hol- 
 low, channelled, erect, and about 3 feet high ; its 
 leaves are pinnate, each comprising 6 or 7 pairs 
 of leaflets and a terminating odd one ; its leaflets 
 are long, pointed, entire, and smooth ; its stipules 
 or bracts at the base of the leaves are small and 
 sagittate ; its flowers are produced in racemes or 
 loose spikes from the top of the stem, and have 
 a light blue or light purple colour, and bloom 
 from J une till September ; and its pods are erect, 
 nearly cylindrical, from five to eight seeded, and 
 swollen out with air. One variety occurs with 
 white flowers, and another with variegated flowers. 
 This plant was long ago cultivated in gardens for 
 medicinal purposes; and it has, of late years, 
 been recommended as a forage plant for cattle. 
 But though it yields a large bulk of produce, and 
 is perhaps equal to some cultivated field green 
 crops in nutritiveness, it is refused by cattle ex- 
 cept in small quantities and when nothing better 
 can be had ; yet it might possibly come to be re- 
 lished after a number of trials, or it might, at all 
 events, be combined in small proportions with 
 more agreeable fodder. 
 
 GO-DOWN. A single gulp of water, allowed 
 to a heated or fatigued horse while journeying 
 or working. 
 
 GOGGLES. See Hydatid. 
 
 GOLD OF PLEASURE. See Camelina. 
 
 GOOSE. A well known, large, aquatic bird, 
 of the duck tribe. In its wild state, it has grey 
 plumage and an orange beak ; and though domes- 
 ticated at a much later period, and with much 
 less completeness than the common hen, it was 
 long ago reduced by domestication into innu- 
 merable varieties, and into a state of compara- 
 tively high fecundity. Three different broods 
 can be obtained by taking away the first eggs 
 and hatching them under a hen. None of our 
 domestic birds are so apt to bring forth mon- 
 strous productions as geese — a circumstance 
 which has been attributed to the excessive fat- 
 ness to which they are liable. The liver of a fat 
 goose is often larger than all the other viscera, 
 and was a dish in so great reputation among the 
 epicures of Rome, that Pliny thought it deserved 
 a serious discussion, to whom the honour of in- 
 venting so excellent a dish was due. They fed 
 their geese on figs, to improve their relish, and 
 were not ignorant that they fattened sooner in 
 a dark room ; but it was left for modern gastro- 
 nomers to invent the barbarous method of nail- 
 ing down their feet and putting out their eyes. 
 See the article Poultry. 
 
 GOOSEFOOT. See Quinoa. 
 
 GORSE. See Furze. 
 
 GOURD. A genus of succulent, creeping, 
 large-fruited annual plants, belonging to the same 
 tribe as the cucumber. Several species — parti- 
 cularly that called the pumpkin or pompion, — 
 are cultivated in America for feeding pigs and 
 cattle; and both the young leaves and the half- 
 grown fruit are freely enough eaten by animals 
 who have become accustomed to them ; but though 
 they grow readily and luxuriantly under favour- 
 able circumstances in England, as for example on 
 dunghills or richly manured spots under the pro- 
 tection of walls or fences, they scarcely deserve 
 the serious attention of British cattle-feeders. 
 The stems of pumpkins will spread or trail to the 
 extent of between 10 and 50 feet from the root ; 
 and the fruit when in the fittest state for use, or 
 when about half -grown or a little more, weighs 
 between 10 lb. and 20 lb. 
 
 GRAIN. The seeds or the crops of plants 
 which have culmy stems and farinaceous seeds, 
 and which are cultivated in the way of corn. 
 All good grain plants seem to be natives of the 
 comparatively warm regions of the world ; and 
 such as are now common in colder countries have 
 been more or less acclimatated and otherwise 
 greatly improved by cultivation. All appear also 
 to be constitutionally annual plants ; so that any 
 which are now practically biennial have become 
 hybernating only from transmission out of their 
 native hot countries into colder countries, since 
 a summer does not suffice, in northern climates, 
 for their development. In common with most 
 grasses, they form their stalks or stems upon the 
 
GrRAINSICK. 
 
 592 
 
 GRANARY. 
 
 lower joints of the root. Their fascicular roots 
 spread themselves out chiefly upon the surface of 
 the ground, which they almost cover with their 
 thick web, while a smaller part penetrates deep- 
 er, when they find looseness of soil and nourish- 
 ment to attract them. All kinds of grain con- 
 tain nutritious particles of a similar character, 
 although they vary, both in their quantity and 
 in their mixture, in various grains. These ele- 
 ments are, — 1. gluten, which affords the strong- 
 est nourishment for the animal body : 2. fecula 
 or starch, which is very nutritious, although not 
 so much so as gluten, which, however, it seems 
 to render more digestible ; 3. a sweet mucilage, 
 which is more nutritious than starch, but is 
 small in quantity, and renders the grain liable to 
 the vinous and acetous fermentation ; 4. the hulls, 
 which consist of a fibrous matter, and contain a 
 digestible aromatic substance ; 5. moisture, which 
 is predominant even in the dryest grain, and in- 
 creases the weight of the mass, although it les- 
 sens the specific gravity ; it affords no nourish- 
 ment, hastens the decomposition of all kinds of 
 grain, if they are not kept very dry, and serves, 
 after planting, to stimulate the first motions of 
 the germ. 
 
 GRAIN DRILL MACHINE. See Sowing-Ma- 
 chines. 
 
 GRAIN-RENT. See Rent. 
 
 GRAINSICK, or Mawbound. A great and 
 dangerous distension of the rumen of cattle, either 
 with food alone or with food and gas. It differs 
 from hoove essentially in the distension being more 
 solid than gaseous, and symptomatically by the 
 absence of eructation, and by the hardness of the 
 flanks and the smaller volume of the swelling. It 
 arises from gorging with almost any kind of food, 
 even with grain or with chaff, at a sudden change 
 of diet ; but is particularly liable to arise from a 
 surfeit of turnips, fresh grass, or any other succu- 
 lent food, at the commencement of the season. 
 The probang ought to be introduced, either to 
 decide whether the case be one of hoove or one 
 of grainsick, or to ascertain the degree in which 
 the latter disease exists. If the probang bring 
 off a sudden rush of gas, the disease is wholly or 
 chiefly hoove ; and if it encounter a solid resist- 
 ance, the disease is grainsick, and exists in a 
 degree of aggravation proportioned to the near- 
 ness of the point at which the resistance is 
 felt. 
 
 In mild cases of grainsick, when the animal 
 does not seem to suffer much pain and is not 
 materially fevered, but merely ceases rumination, 
 refuses to eat, and lies long and indolently in one 
 posture, a dose of castor oil and a little forced 
 walking in the yard or the field, are frequently 
 sufficient to effect a cure. In cases which, 
 though on the whole mild, are accompanied with 
 a kind of inertia, or with an insuperable reluc- 
 tance to rise or to move about, aromatics and 
 even stimulants, such as the usual cordials or 
 
 ammonia, or ether or diluted alcohol, may be 
 required to rouse the rumen into renewed action ; 
 but whenever such remedies are necessary, they 
 must be given in cautious doses, and always 
 accompanied with some gentle purgatives. In 
 very bad cases, when the animal seems sinking 
 through inertness into death, or in which it 
 moans, swells at the sides, becomes almost as 
 hard as a board in the flanks, appears to suffer 
 great and increasing pain, and seems eventually 
 to be overwhelmed with anguish and to be pass- 
 ing into unconsciousness, the practitioner must 
 promptly decide whether he has sufficient time 
 and encouragement to try the effect of stimu- 
 lants, purgatives, the stomach-pump, and other 
 comparatively gentle measures ; and if not, he 
 must cut through the left flank into the rumen, 
 and mechanically withdraw the contents. The 
 cutting operation itself is attended or followed 
 with little danger ; but in the extracting of the 
 food, no matter how carefully performed, some 
 small portion is liable to drop into the abdomen ; 
 and this, in consequence of its indigested condi- 
 tion, resists absorption or expulsion, undergoes 
 an irritating decomposition, and may very pro- 
 bably originate some serious inflammatory disor- 
 der. Any animal which has suffered a very bad 
 case of grainsick, ought, immediately after com- 
 plete restoration to health, to be sent to the 
 shambles ; for, independently of the lurking 
 danger consequent on the artificial extraction of 
 the food, or even upon the relaxation which 
 follows the administration of a stimulant, the 
 rumen is so much overstretched and injured by 
 the mechanical effects of the distension as to be 
 temporarily incapacitated for the proper dis- 
 charge of its functions. 
 
 GRAIN-WEEVIL. See Calandra. 
 
 GRAIP. See Fork. 
 
 GRAMINEiE, or Gramineous Plants. See 
 Grasses. 
 
 GRANARY. An apartment, a division of a 
 building, an entire building, or a very extensive 
 store, for containing and preserving grain. A 
 portion of the barn or a single apartment is suffi- 
 cient on a small farm ; a division of a building 
 or an entire building is requisite on a large farm ; 
 and a very extensive store, or a series of large 
 buildings, is necessary in a seaport town which 
 forms a focus of the corn-trade or a place of 
 great and frequent shipments of grain. Every 
 granary, whatever its capacity, ought to be dry, 
 well-ventilated, inaccessible to vermin, and con- 
 veniently situated for both receiving and sur- 
 rendering its contents ; it ought to have appli- 
 ances for regulating ventilation according to the 
 condition of the corn and the state of the 
 weather ; it ought to afford scope for the special 
 treatment of any grain which may happen to be 
 attacked by disease ; it ought to be so situated 
 and constructed as to be free from injurious 
 temperature, and from any access of fold air or 
 
GRANARY. 
 
 593 
 
 GRANARY. 
 
 damp vapour; and if it be more than a mere 
 room or recess, for keeping a small stock of corn 
 for a single month or two in sacks, it ought to 
 be divided into sections by means of either fixed 
 or moveable deal partitions, in order that, with- 
 out waste of space, different kinds of grain, and 
 different parcels of the same kind, may be effec- 
 tually kept separate. 
 
 " The most convenient situation for a granary," 
 says Sir John Sinclair, in reference to farms, " is 
 either over the threshing-floor, or adjoining to 
 the end of it. The most common situation, 
 however, is above the cart sheds, which are 
 usually at some distance from the barn. In this 
 case, the corn must be carried from the barn in 
 bags, and raised to the granary by means of a 
 small crane, or by a stair erected for the purpose. 
 When the granary is contiguous to the barn, the 
 labour is somewhat abridged, though a crane or 
 a stair be still necessary. But when it is placed 
 above the threshing-floor, the corn is at once 
 raised either by the threshing machine itself, or 
 by means of a crane or windlass from the ground 
 floor, through a hatchway, and deposited in the 
 granary without exposure to the weather, and 
 with the greatest expedition and the smallest 
 labour. The barn door is so wide as to allow a 
 cart to enter it backwards upon a piece of pave- 
 ment ; so that when the corn is to be sent to 
 market, it is dropped into the cart through the 
 hatchway, instead of being carried on men's 
 backs, which is still too often the practice even 
 when a crane could be used with advantage. — It 
 is often necessary to carry corn to the granary 
 when but very imperfectly dried ; and when it is 
 kept for some time, it contracts a disagreeable 
 smell, however dry it may be at first. It is 
 therefore of great advantage to place the granary 
 in an exposed situation, to give free access to air 
 by means of sash windows, or boards overlapping 
 each other, that may be raised or shut at pleasure. 
 The granary, when placed above the threshing- 
 floor, is so high as to give free access to the air 
 from all quarters without the interruption of the 
 other buildings, or even of the stack-yard. — For 
 the more effectual exclusion of vermin, granaries 
 have been constructed over detached cart-sheds, 
 the sidewalls of which are discontinued about 
 two feet from the top. The granary is supported 
 by smooth round pillars with stone copes project- 
 ing one foot round the top of each. Vermin are 
 more effectually excluded from a granary placed 
 within the barn above the threshing-floor, both 
 by its height and the difficulty of access, and by 
 the frequent operations on the lower floors. 
 Wherever the granary is placed, the sidewalls 
 must be raised a few feet above the floor; and 
 an additional floor is indispensable in every case. 
 There is therefore no greater expense incurred 
 by placing it on a third floor under the roof of 
 the - barn, than in any other part of the build- 
 ings." See the article Fahm-Buildings. 
 
 The granaries in Lithuania and the Ukraine | 
 I. 
 
 and some other equally unmodernized parts of 
 Europe are subterranean, in the form of cones 
 or sugar-loaves or vast wells, wide below and 
 narrow above, the sides well plastered, and the 
 top covered with stones ; and the grain, before j 
 being put into them, is thoroughly dried, if not 
 by means of natural heat and drought, at least 
 by means of ovens. The granaries of Egypt and 
 some other parts of Africa are very similar to 
 these, but far more close and durable, and some- 
 what differently treated. They consist of exca- 
 vations, in the form of deep pits, in the solid 
 rock, just wide enough at the top to allow a man 
 to enter, and afterwards expanding to a width of 
 30 or 40 feet, and usually square or four-corner- 
 ed ; and they are commonly employed as stores 
 and even as hiding places of the cereal wealth of 
 the principal inhabitants, whether merchants, 
 chiefs, or princes. A layer of straw is spread 
 upon the floor ; alternate layers of grain and 
 straw are deposited up to the top ; a hurdle of i 
 green boughs or a layer of brushwood is placed 
 upon the mouth ; a layer of sand, two feet thick, 
 is deposited upon the hurdle, up to about the 
 level of the surrounding ground ; and a little 
 mound of earth is deposited over the whole, and 
 well trodden together, in order to throw off all 
 rain and other surface water, and prevent any 
 from finding access to the grain. The corn thus 
 stored is previously well dried by two or three 
 days' exposure to the play of the sun's rays ; it 
 always keeps, in the granaries, three, four, or 
 more years in a perfectly sound condition ; and 
 if — as frequently happens — it should be forgotten 
 in consequence of some disaster happening to its j 
 owner, and should, after the lapse of many years, 
 be accidentally discovered, it will very probably j 
 be found in quite a good enough state to be J I 
 freely used for food. But such a quantity of 
 carbonic acid is accumulated in even those which 
 remain shut for no more than two or three 
 years, as to be exceedingly dangerous to any 
 person who incautiously and suddenly removes the j 
 covering, so as to open communication with the 
 atmosphere. Yet, except for this disadvantage, 
 which can easily be guarded against by a little 
 caution, the subterranean air-tight granaries 
 appear to be far preferable to any other kind for 
 preserving grain, during a series of years, in a 
 sound condition. Some granaries or corn-maga- 
 zines at Grand Cairo are defended with good 
 walls and called Joseph's granaries ; and though 
 probably of far lower antiquity than the time of 
 the patriarch, they seem to be ancient, and have 
 been the repositories of enormous quantities of 
 grain. 
 
 " The ordering of the corn in many parts of 
 England," said the Society of Gentlemen's Com- 
 plete Farmer in 1766, "is thus: After cleaning 
 the corn, they screen it ; and then, bringing it 
 into the granaries, it is spread about half a foot 
 thick, and turned from time to time about twice 
 in a week ; once a-week they a!?o repeat the 
 
 2P I 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 screening it. This sort of management they con- 
 tinue about two months, and after that they lay 
 it a foot thick for two months more, and in this 
 time they turn it once a-week, or twice if the 
 season be damp, and now and then screen it 
 again. After about five or six months, they raise 
 it to five or six feet thickness in the heap, and 
 then they turn it once or twice in a month, and 
 screen it now and then. When it has lain two 
 years, or more, they turn it once in two months, 
 and screen it once a- quarter; and, how long so- 
 ever it is kept, the oftener the turning and 
 screening is repeated, the better the grain will 
 be found to keep. It is proper to leave an area 
 of a yard wide on every side the heap of corn, 
 and other empty spaces, into which they turn 
 and toss the corn, as often as they find occasion. 
 In Kent they make two square holes at each end 
 of the floor, and one round in the middle, by 
 means of which they throw the corn out of the 
 upper into the lower rooms, and so up again, to 
 turn and air it the better. Their screens are 
 made with two partitions, to separate the dust 
 from the corn which falls into a bag ; and when 
 sufficiently full, this is thrown away, the pure 
 and good corn remaining behind. Corn has, by 
 these means, been kept in our granaries thirty 
 years ; and it is observed, that the longer it is 
 kept, the more flour it yields in proportion to 
 the corn, and the purer and whiter the bread is, 
 the superfluous humidity only evaporating in the 
 keeping. At Zurich, in Switzerland, they keep 
 corn eighty years or longer by the same sorts of 
 methods." Some of the most extensive and con- 
 venient seaport granaries in the world are at 
 Dantzic. These are seven, eight, or nine stories 
 high, and have funnels in the midst of the floors 
 to let the corn down from the upper stories to 
 the lower ; they stand within the margin of the 
 sea, at such a depth as to allow vessels to come 
 up to their walls for lading; and they, at the 
 same time, are so well constructed as to be per- 
 fectly free from damp. 
 
 GRASSES, — botanically Graminece or Grami- 
 nacece. A vast and most important natural order 
 of plants. It comprises probably one-sixth of the 
 whole vegetable kingdom, contributes to the green 
 parts of the world by far the greater portion of 
 their verdure, and includes hundreds and even 
 thousands of species which constitute the daily 
 food of animals ; and yet it exhibits one of the 
 simplest structures which occur among the per- 
 fect forms of vegetation, and is one of the most 
 thoroughly natural orders known in systematic 
 botany, and combines such amazing specific va- 
 riety with general simplicity as to be compara- 
 tively very easy of study and arrangement. The 
 grasses display to the economist a stupendous 
 instance of the adaptations of plants to the uses 
 of man and the lower animals ; they afford the 
 young botanist the best illustration of the truth 
 and beauty of the natural orders of plants ; and 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 they demonstrate, in ten thousand ways, by their 
 organism, their chemical transmutations, their 
 connexion with soil and light and air, and the 
 mighty and multitudinous parts which they 
 play between lifeless elements and living bodies, 
 the providence, wisdom, and benignity of the 
 Creator. They comprise all the plants which 
 yield corn, most of those which constitute pasture, 
 some of the best which yield sugar, and not a 
 few which abound in useful secretions, grateful 
 juices, and fragrant odours. Their thousands of 
 species are distinguished from one another, not 
 only by obvious botanical characters, but by their 
 nutritive values, their economical adaptations, 
 their periods of flowering, their habits of hardi- 
 ness and duration, their methods and seasons of 
 growth, and their love or dislike of particular 
 soils and situations. Their flowers, though un- 
 heeded or thought obscure by superficial observ- 
 ers, are remarkable for the perfection of their 
 parts, the elegance of their structure, and the 
 blending of only one set of differential marks 
 with an enormous variety of generic and specific 
 characters; and either by the texture of their 
 organs, the number of their stamens, or the re- 
 lation of their sexes, or especially by the form, 
 texture, appearance, number, position, and ar- 
 rangement of their glumes, paleae and scales, 
 they afford means of a far readier and surer dis- ! 
 crimination, than if they were among the most 
 gorgeous and complicated glories of the flower- 
 garden. 
 
 The Botanical Characters and Classification of 
 the Grasses. — The botanical characters of the 
 grasses, in all cases, may easily be observed with 
 the aid of a glass, and are of eminent service for 
 enabling farmers to discriminate species which 
 present a closely similar appearance but possess 
 widely different properties and values ; and they ! 
 require, therefore^ to be known by all cultivators 
 who intelligently manage grass lands, or wisely 
 prosecute the alternate husbandry. The root, 
 whether annual, biennial, or perennial, is fibrous. 
 The stem is usually called a culm ; it is woody 
 and perennial in a few species, but is herbaceous 
 and of only one season's duration in the vast 
 majority ; it is everywhere solid in the sugar- 
 cane, but is commonly solid only at the joints, | 
 and fistular or tubular throughout the interme- 
 diate spaces in the rest of the order ; it is some- 
 times but a few inches high, as in knappia, and j 
 sometimes 80 or 100 feet, as in the bamboo, but 
 generally from 2 to 6 feet, as in most of the pas- j 
 ture and the cereal species ; it is compressed in 
 a few species, but cylindrical in the vast majo- 
 rity ; and it has in all instances a complete coat- 
 ing, and in a few instances interior secretions, of 
 a silicious substance strictly similar to glass, and j 
 sometimes as hard and impenetrable as a film of 
 flint. A sheath, of the nature of a leaf-stalk, 
 embraces the culm at each joint, and is slit on 
 one side; and a leaf stands on each sheath, or 
 
 594 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 595 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 grows from it, and is usually narrow and linear 
 or ligulate, and has a membranaceous limb. The 
 groups of flowers, in a few cases, are bundled to- 
 gether, and enveloped in a general spathe ; in 
 some cases, are closely packed upon an elongated 
 and comparatively thick rachis ; and in most 
 cases, are arranged in spikes, in panicles, or in 
 racemes. The florets, in a very few cases, are 
 dioecious, — in a few, are monoecious, — and in the 
 vast majority of cases, are hermaphrodite or 
 polygamous ; they have neither calyx nor corolla, 
 but are supported by two sets of bracts, the 
 outer ones called glumes and corresponding to 
 the calyxes of other plants, and the inner ones 
 called palea? and corresponding to the corollas of 
 other plants; and they vary in number upon 
 each spikelet from two or even one to several 
 scores or almost a multitude. The glumes occur 
 only at the base of the group or spikelet, and 
 may belong either to one floret or to many flo- 
 rets ; the upper one, or even both, are sometimes 
 a-wanting ; the two are alternate ; and the lower 
 one is usually larger and more ribbed than the 
 other, and frequently has its midrib prolonged 
 into an awn. The palese are usually alternate 
 and in pairs ; the upper one is commonly two- 
 veined, awnless, and smaller and more membra- 
 nous than the other, but is sometimes a-want- 
 ing ; and the lower one is usually keeled, may be 
 either awnless or awned, and may have any 
 number of veins from one to several or many. 
 Two scales frequently occur on the sides of the 
 base of the upper palea, and a third sometimes 
 occurs in front of that palea ; and these are re- 
 garded, by the majority of botanists, as the rudi- 
 ments of a corolla. The stamens in most instances 
 amount to three, in some instances amount to six, 
 in a few instances have some other amount, and 
 very rarely are indefinite ; they have a hypogenous 
 insertion, and stand all round the ovary when 
 they amount to three or to six, but next the 
 lower palea when they amount to fewer than 
 three ; and their filaments are long and flaccid, 
 and their anthers bifid, linear, and versatile. 
 The ovary is simple and solitary ; it has general- 
 ly two styles, and in a very few instances three ; 
 and each style has a branched or feathered 
 stigma. The seed contains a comparatively large 
 quantity of farina or starchy albumen ; its coty- 
 ledon is thin and lenticular, and lies on the side 
 next the lower palea, and turns its edges outward ; 
 its plumule and radicle are overlapped by the 
 edges of the cotyledon, and lie against the side 
 of the pericarp next the outer palea ; the plumule 
 consists of several mutually overlying sheaths, 
 and is free ; and the radicle consists of several 
 tubercles, and commences its protrusion at a 
 very early stage of germination. 
 
 The best of many classifications of the grasses 
 is one which groups them into eight orders, ac- 
 cording to simple botanical characters, and di- 
 vides five of the orders into sections, represented 
 
 by the most remarkable genera. The first order 
 consists of genera with terminal spikes; and 
 comprises 5 genera of the ophiurus section, 4 of 
 the cenchrus section, 2 of the hordeum section, 
 6 of the triticum, and 4 of respectively the lo- 
 lium, the nardus, the lappago, and the aegilops 
 sections. The second order consists of genera 
 with subterminal spikes ; and comprises 2 genera 
 of the paspalum section, 10 of the chloris section, 
 and 2 of respectively the spartina and the cy no- 
 don sections. The third order consists of genera 
 with one-flowered panicles ; and comprises 8 
 genera of the phalaris section, 11 of the agrostis 
 section, 4 of the milium section, 3 of the stipa 
 section, and 4 of respectively the calamagrostis, 
 the chseturus, the leersia, and the oryza sections ; 
 but the calamagrostis, the leersia, and the oryza 
 sections are named, from their structure or bota- 
 nical characters, respectively arundinacese, aspe- 
 rellinae, and hexandra. The fourth order con- 
 sists of genera with many-flowered panicles ; and 
 comprises 19 genera of the avena section, 10 of 
 the festuca section, 12 of the glyceria section, 5 
 of the cynosurus section, and 1 of the echinaria 
 section. The fifth order consists of subbiflorous 
 grasses ; and comprises 9 genera of the panicum 
 section, 2 of the ehrharta section, 2 of the acti- 
 nochloa section, and 2 of respectively the tristegis 
 and the anthoxanthum sections. The sixth order 
 consists of villiflorous grasses ; and comprises 19 
 genera, all in one section. The seventh order 
 consists of bracteiflorous grasses ; and comprises 
 3 genera, all in one section. The eighth order 
 consists of declinous grasses; and comprises 8 
 genera, all in one section. By far the most mul- 
 titudinous sections are those of glyceria, avena, 
 triticum, agrostis, panicum, festuca, phalaris, 
 and hordeum. 
 
 The General Projjerties and Uses of the Grasses. 
 — A few of the grasses have so unsocial a habit 
 that no two species will grow together ; but the 
 vast majority are gregarious. The Aira prwcox, 
 on poor dry elevated sands, where it scarcely 
 attains a total height of half a foot, — the 
 Ammophila aricndinacea, the Elymus avenarius, 
 and the Festuca rubra, on the drifting sands of 
 the sea-coast, — the Glyceria jluitans, the Aira 
 aquatica, and the Poa aquatica, in water, — and 
 the Festuca ovina, the Festuca vivipara, the Foa 
 aljpina, the Nardus stricta, the Melica cairulea, 
 and some others, on heaths and in alpine situa- 
 tions, — are either wholly or principally solitary, 
 — not, indeed, with the power of keeping exclu- 
 sive possession of entire districts, entire hills, or 
 even entire acres, but generally in the degree of 
 forming separate tufts or patches, and of refus- 
 ing to combine with other species within the 
 limits of any one small space. But almost all 
 the other grasses, particularly such as form good 
 pasture, are so powerfully gregarious as to pine 
 and languish except when they grow in consider- 
 able intermixture. Numerous observations made 
 
I GRASSES. 
 
 ; in the course of the Woburn experiments, and 
 ! detailed by Mr. Sinclair in his Hortus Gra- 
 ; mineus Woburnensis, clearly prove that any piece 
 of soil which is cropped with a number of species 
 i of grasses will produce both better and bulkier 
 produce than if it were cropped with only one 
 or two species. " This," remarks Mr. Sinclair, 
 in a separate essay, though so extending his 
 phraseology as to include herbage-plants of other 
 orders than the grasses, " is a curious and im- 
 portant fact, which has been unnoticed in previ- 
 ous works on the subject, as well as neglected in 
 practice. If an acre of good land is sown with 
 three pecks of ryegrass, and one peck of the 
 : clovers or trefoil, 470 plants only will be main- 
 : tained on the square foot of such land ; if a 
 larger quantity of these seeds is sown, whether 
 of these two species or of any other two, the 
 extra number of plants vegetated, (which will 
 certainly appear at first if the seeds are good,) 
 I will decay in a short time, and leave blank 
 spaces to be filled up with weeds or spurious 
 grasses, or in fact plants of different species, 
 supplied by the soil, manure, or neighbouring 
 hedges. But if, instead of two species of grasses, 
 from eight to twenty different sorts are sown on 
 | the same soil, a thousand plants will be main- 
 ! tained on the same space, and the weight of pro- 
 duce in herbage and in hay increased in propor- 
 tion." 
 
 Different species of grasses of the same natural 
 habitat, of the same botanical tribe, and of the 
 same adaptations and value for the purposes of 
 herbage, have very different seasons of leafing, 
 flowering, and maximum vigour ; and in multi- 
 tudes of natural pastures, so many species of 
 successive periods of flowering are intermixed, 
 that some one or other of them may, in almost 
 any month of the year, be found in the per- 
 fection of its growth ; while in a large garden or 
 botanical arrangement of small specimens of 
 multitudes of species, a succession of verdure 
 and flowering throughout a great part of the 
 year is strikingly apparent. " It is from this 
 property of the natural grasses, connected with 
 a combination of a considerable number of dif- 
 ferent species, which are always found in the 
 I most rich or fattening pastures, that the great 
 superiority of these over artificial pastures, or of 
 such as are formed of one or two species only, 
 chiefly arises ; and hence it is that the former, 
 whether formed by nature in the course of many 
 years, or by art in one, (by sowing the seeds of 
 all the essential species, or by stocking the soil 
 at once with a sufficiency of these plants, pre- 
 cluding thereby the introduction of spurious 
 grasses or weeds,) are productive of a perpetual 
 verdure and supply of fresh herbage unknown 
 in artificial pastures, consisting of one or two 
 species of plants only." 
 
 Some grasses, such as the Poa annua, inhabit 
 all kinds of situations in almost all parts of the 
 world ; and some, such as the bamboo and the 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 sugar-cane, inhabit only particular situations, i 
 in a particular climate, and within a very limited | 
 range of latitude. The greater number follow j 
 the general law of the whole vegetable kingdom, i I 
 and distribute themselves in groups appropriated j 
 to the different zones and great natural divi- 
 sions of the world ; many are capable of cultiva- | 
 tion in countries far distant from those in which ! 
 they grow wild, or of acclimitation in latitudes J 
 considerably higher than those to which they j 
 naturally belong ; and a large proportion of the 
 indigens of Britain, or of any other limited and j 
 diversified territory, possess such differences of j 
 habit and predilection as to dispose themselves 
 severally throughout all varieties of soil and 
 situation, from the rocky surface of the moun- 
 tain to the marshy or lacustrine expanse of the 
 plain, and from the harsh and hungry debris of 
 the moorland to the fond and fertile alluvium of 
 the meadow. 
 
 " The shades of green colour in the herbage of 
 the different grasses," remarks the writer already 
 quoted, " are numerous and highly interesting, 
 as may be proved by applying these varieties of 
 tints to the test of the practical system of 
 colours, by that eminent artist, Gr. Hayter, Esq., 
 exhibited in the diagram inserted in the Hortus 
 Ericseus Woburnensis, or by comparing at the 
 same and at different seasons a select number of 
 the leaves of distinct species. The colouring 
 matter of grasses, when the saccharine and 
 mucilaginous principles are in much less propor- 
 tion, as is found in the leaves or lattermath late 
 in autumn, in general accompanies the solution 
 of the constituents of the nutritive matter. 
 After the first evaporation of the solution, the 
 green colouring matter may be destroyed and 
 again recovered successively, by alternate solu- 
 tion and evaporation in water and in alcohol." 
 The varieties in the shades of verdure, combine 
 with the differences in the times of vigour, the 
 differences in height, habit, soil, and appearance, 
 and the advantages of experimenting with 
 different species, upon different soils, with 
 different manures, and in different methods of 
 culture, to render a grass garden or a botanical 
 arrangement of living grasses, an important and 
 very interesting appendage to an improving 
 estate or to the grounds of an agricultural 
 school. 
 
 Several grasses, particularly Ammophila arun- 
 dinacea, Elymus arenarius, Poa rnaritima, and 
 Festuca rubra, possess such tenacity of life, such 
 reptancy of root, and such power of. extracting 
 sustenance from the most famishing situation as 
 enable them to grow and flourish on the sand- 
 hillocks of the sea-shore, to arrest and bind into 
 consistency the blowing sands of the beach, 
 and to form a barrier both against the encroach- 
 ment of the sea upon the coast, and against the 
 desolating of the arable lands of the sea-board 
 by clouds of sand-drift. The Elymus arenarius, \ 
 the most robust of the four, occupies and secures 
 
 596 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 597 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 the top of the sand- wreaths ; the Ammopliila 
 arundinacea, secures and supports the sides ; and 
 the Poa maritima and Festuca rubra, straggle on 
 the level sand, and work it into a basis for a 
 solid accumulation. Plants of the creeping fescue 
 have been found on the beach near Skegness, 
 with roots extending six feet in the blowing 
 sands. 
 
 The roots of many of the grasses are mucila- 
 ginous and demulcent ; and those of several are 
 well adapted to be used as medicine or as food. 
 The roots of Triticum repens, in particular, con- 
 tain a large quantity of nutritive matter, and 
 might, with proper management, be turned to 
 almost as good account as corn. See the article 
 Couch Grass. The leaves of both Triticum 
 repens and Holcus arenaceus are eaten by dogs to 
 excite vomiting. The whole plant of Anthoxan- 
 thum odoratum, the roots of Andropogon nardus, 
 the leaves of A ndropogon citratum, and the culms 
 of Cymbopogon scheenanthus, emit a delightful 
 aromatic fragrance, and possess somewhat tonic 
 properties. 
 
 The culms of a number of the grasses form a 
 valuable material for bonnets, mats, and various 
 ornamental articles ; those of several perennial 
 grasses are capable of being manufactured into 
 both a finer and a more durable plait than has 
 ever yet been produced in Italy ; those of the 
 common hardy cereal grasses are the chief mate- 
 rial for littering the cattle of the farm-yard, and 
 giving form and character to the indispensable 
 composts of farm -yard manure ; those of the 
 common meadow grasses and of the ordinary 
 sown-grasses of arable land combine with the 
 leaves and the flowers of their own plants, and 
 sometimes with the herbage of non-gramineous 
 vegetation, to furnish much of the green fodder 
 of summer and the whole of the hay of winter ; 
 those of the gigantic bamboo serve many pur- 
 poses of house-structure and carpentry and gen- 
 eral rural economy in the East ; those of the 
 sugar-cane, the Sorghum saccharatum, and some 
 other species abound in sugary secretions, and 
 either are or might be employed for yielding the 
 common sugar of commerce ; and those of the 
 Cynosurus cristatus, though too fibrous and wiry 
 to be useful as fodder, and too dry and unecono- 
 mical to be serviceable in any direct capacity to 
 either man or beast, sustain the seeds of the 
 plant till the severe and famishing season of win- 
 ter, and then bear them aloft above the thick 
 and dense carpeting of snow to feed many small 
 and several large birds, which otherwise would 
 pine with hunger or perish for want. 
 
 Both the culms and the leaves of the meadow 
 and the pasture grasses constitute the proper or 
 natural food of the herds and flocks of the farm. 
 They constitute " that constant supply of essen- 
 tial food without which the more valuable do- 
 mestic animals could not exist in any considera- 
 ble number, or for any length of time, much less 
 be brought to furnish us with the most impor- 
 
 tant articles of clothing, and some of the most 
 important parts of food. Meat, milk, butter, 
 and cheese, wool and leather, with all the con- 
 comitant advantages, such as labour, manure, 
 &c, which result to the cultivator of the soil 
 from the use of cattle, would be lost without the 
 cultivation of the perennial grasses." Most 
 grasses, particularly before flowering, or at least 
 before beginning to pass from their growing to 
 their seeding state, possess a very perceptible de- 
 gree of sapid juices ; some are exceedingly rich 
 in the saccharine element of these juices, some 
 in the mucilaginous element, some in the saline 
 element, some in the bitter extractive element, 
 and some in various combinations of the several 
 elements ; any are nutritive or useful as herb- 
 age, just in the proportion in which they con- 
 tain these elements in such amount and such 
 combinations as to constitute the proper aliment 
 of the graminivorous animals ; and all of even 
 the best differ widely from one another both in 
 the intrinsic proportions of the elements of their 
 juices, and in the relative proportion which the 
 whole bear to the entire bulk of the herbage. 
 The juice of the Elymus arenartus. for example, 
 abounds in sugar ; that of the upright variety of 
 the Poa compressa consists almost wholly of pure 
 mucilage ; and that of the Festuca p innata or of 
 the Holcus avenaceus contains a very large pro- 
 portion of saline matter and bitter extractive. 
 
 The seeds of the grasses are the food of all 
 granivorous animals ; those of the cereal grasses, 
 wheat, barley, oats, maize, rye, rice, and millet, 
 and of Holcus spicatus, Holcus cernuus, and Poa 
 abysinnica, constitute a chief part of the food of 
 man ; and those of even the smallest and most 
 seemingly worthless are capable of being used 
 for the support of animal life. The smaller seeds 
 are generally neglected, not because they differ 
 in property from the large cereal kinds, but sim- 
 ply because they are so minute as scarcely to 
 compensate the labour of gathering them. The 
 seed of Poa ahysinnica is very small, and is used 
 as a substitute for wheat only in the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances, or in consequence of the peculiar 
 tastes, of the people of Abyssinia. The seeds of 
 Arrhenatherurii avenaceum, Arena fatua, Elymus 
 arenarius, Glyceria fiuitans, Digitaria sanguinalis, 
 Zizania aquatica, Bromus secalinus, and probably 
 some other species, though seemingly ill-adapted 
 for human food, have been readily eaten by man, 
 and formed good substitutes for wheat, both in 
 times of scarcity and in semibarbarous countries. 
 " It is also to be noted," remarks Loudon, " that 
 the particular uses for which the seeds of cer- 
 tain grasses are employed, are not peculiar to 
 them, but may be obtained from all the others, 
 with slight modifications. Thus beer is made, 
 not only from barley, but also from wheat ; spir- 
 ituous liquors, not only from our European cere- 
 alia, but also from rice." In fact, a multitude 
 of seeds, including those of very nearly all the 
 grasses, principally consist of exactly the proxi- 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 598 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 mate principles of a large department of animal 
 aliment, and either undergo naturally, or are 
 capable of being made to undergo artificially, 
 such chemical transmutations as will fit them 
 for several purposes of luxury or general econo- 
 my. See the articles Germination and Seed. 
 The seeds of the annual grasses are larger and 
 heavier than those of the perennial ; and the 
 seeds of the fibrous-rooted grasses are heavier and 
 more fertile than those of the creeping-rooted ; 
 so that the former, in each case, are the fittest 
 for food and the most suitable for cultivation. 
 All grass seeds, excepting ergotted ones, and un- 
 der certain circumstances those of some varie- 
 ties of oat and those of Lolium temulentum, are 
 thoroughly wholesome. Seeds affected with er- 
 got are dreadfully deleterious ; but they derive 
 all their malignity and poison either from a mi- 
 nute fungus, or from some awfully transforming 
 operation of disease, and cannot be regarded as 
 a true exception to the wholesomeness of grass- 
 seeds. See the article Ergot. The seeds of oats 
 possess an exciting or stimulating power, and 
 are capable of producing effects too exhilarating 
 to comport with sound nutrition ; but they owe 
 this peculiarity, not to anything in their albu- 
 men or the matter of their meal, but to an aro- 
 matic principle which lies imbedded in the husk, 
 and is soluble in alcohol, and ought never, at 
 the mill, to find its way into intermixture with 
 the farina. The seeds of Lolium temulentum, in 
 every ordinary condition, are powerfully narcotic 
 and very seriously deleterious, and constitute a 
 true exception, probably the only true one, to 
 the perfect wholesomeness of undiseased grain- 
 seeds ; yet even they become wholly or at least 
 comparatively wholesome, either when long ex- 
 posed to wet, or when used in the manufacture 
 of beer, or when baked up with wheaten flour 
 into bread. See the article Darnel. 
 
 The Indigenous Grasses of Britain. — Only about 
 125 species of grasses, exclusive of varieties, grow 
 wild in Great Britain and Ireland ; only about 
 22 or 23 of these are peculiar to England or Ire- 
 land, or do not occur wild in Scotland ; and a con- 
 siderable proportion of the whole are either rare, 
 very coarse, exceedingly innutritious, or other- 
 wise of little or no value, or in some instances 
 actually annoying to the cultivator of the soil. 
 The Poa annua is the most common of all, thrives 
 in every kind of soil, occurs at all elevations be- 
 tween sea-level and 4,000 feet above it, flowers 
 almost through the whole year, and appears to 
 be eaten and relished by every kind of herbivo- 
 rous animal, whether bird or brute ; the Festuca 
 ovina abounds on most of the Scottish mountains, 
 constitutes a principal portion of their verdure, 
 plays a chief part in producing the finely fla- 
 voured mutton of the lofty pastures of Benlaw- 
 ers, Benvoirlich, and other alpine sheepwalks ; 
 and the Alopecurus pratensis, the Dactylis glo- 
 merata, the iSchedonorus pratensis, and one or two 
 other species, besides being plentiful, and consti- 
 
 tuting a large portion of our natural pastures, 
 are considerably superior to the best of the hardy 
 exotics, or at all events to ryegrass, in the nu- 
 tritiousness and general excellence of their herb- 
 age. 
 
 The indigenous grasses demand emiment at- 
 tention on account of both their utility and their 
 beauty. They enter most largely into the car- 
 peting of the great majority of the permanent 
 grass-lands of the kingdom ; they compose nearly 
 all the natural herbage of our hills, our valleys, 
 and our woodlands ; and they constitute almost 
 the sole food of many an upland flock, and the 
 principal sustenance of a very large proportion 
 of all the flocks and herds of Britain. " How in- 
 teresting, too, is it to acquaint ourselves with 
 the tribe of plants which form the principal ma- 
 terial in the green vesture which clothes the 
 surface of our island — which perform so impor- 
 tant a part in the colouring of the picture which 
 Nature spreads out before us — so as to render 
 the British Islands, in this respect, the admira- 
 tion of foreigners when they approach our shores. 
 The olive groves of the sunny south, notwith- 
 standing all the pleasing associations they con- 
 jure up, have yet a grey, sickly, and melancholy 
 hue ; even in Valumbrosa, you can scarcely find 
 a piece of green sward whereon to recline ; the 
 magnificent masses of foliage in a tropical clime 
 either entirely usurp the soil, or are broken into 
 patches, leaving here and there stretches of arid 
 sand, on which the eye cannot rest with pleasure. 
 But here the surface, while it is left perfectly 
 open, is covered with a uniform and continuous 
 carpet, kept by frequent showers in a state of 
 such vivid green that it is not surprising Great 
 Britain should have been compared to a gem ; 
 its verdure contrasting so beautifully with the 
 surrounding ocean that it may well be likened 
 to an emerald set in silver." 
 
 The indigenous grasses which, jointly with the 
 creeping vetch, constitute the principal spring and 
 summer herbage of the best natural pastures of 
 Britain, are the annual meadow-grass, the meadow 
 fescue, the meadow foxtail, the meadow oat-grass, 
 the meadow cat's-tail, the common ryegrass, the 
 sweet-scented vernal grass, the field brome-grass, 
 the round cock's-foot, and the tall oat-like soft 
 grass ; those which, jointly with the yellow vetch, 
 the white clover, and the perennial red clover, 
 constitute the principal summer and autumn 
 herbage of these pastures, are the rough- stalked 
 meadow-grass, the woolly soft-grass, the crested 
 dog's-tail, the meadow -barley, the yellow oat- 
 grass, the smooth fescue, and the hard fescue ; 
 and those which, jointly with the yarrow, con- 
 stitute the most vigorously growing autumn ver- 
 dure of these pastures, are the marsh bent-grass, 
 the creeping wheat-grass, and the creeping agros- 
 tis. Other plants, indeed, particularly the rib- 
 wort plantain, the sorrel-dock, and the common 
 buttercup, usually form part of the verdure of 1 
 such pastures ; but, excepting in some degree 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 599 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 the ribwort, or under a pressure of hunger from 
 the exhaustion of the proper herbage, these 
 plants are not ingredients but pests and weeds 
 of the pastures. The grasses which, jointly with 
 white clover, bird's-foot clover, sainfoin, larger 
 bird's -foot clover, the daisy, and some other 
 plants, constitute the principal verdure of the 
 natural pastures of elevated lands and of dry and 
 sandy soils, are the annual meadow-grass, the 
 upright annual brome-grass, the alpine meadow- 
 grass, the alpine foxtail, the fine bent, the snowy 
 bent, the lobed bent, the purple bent, the rock 
 bent, the brown bent, the crested brome-grass, 
 the soft brome-grass, the nodding brome-grass, 
 the barren brome-grass, the sheep's fescue, the 
 wall fescue, the viviparous fescue, the glaucous 
 fescue, the pubescent fescue, the flat -stalked 
 meadow-grass, the reflexed meadow-grass, the 
 meadow-barley, the wall-barley, the waved hair- 
 grass, the crested hair -grass, the blue melic- 
 grass, the green panic-grass, the blood-coloured 
 panic-grass, the feather-grass, the slender fox- 
 tail, the hairy oat-grass, the upright mat-grass, 
 the blue moor-grass, and the panicled cat's-tail 
 grass. The principal indigenous grasses, which 
 grow in company with mosses, heaths, rushes, 
 eriophorums, and other coarse plants, on bogs, 
 peaty moors, and marshy grounds, are the water 
 hair-grass, the turfy hair-grass, the marsh bent, 
 the brown bent, the awned creeping bent, the 
 awnless brown bent, the creeping -rooted bent, 
 the smaller-leaved creeping bent, the white bent, 
 the water meadow-grass, the knee-jointed fox- 
 tail, the tall fescue, and the note fescue. 
 
 The Periods at which the Grasses ripen. — The 
 usual flowering time of each species of the prin- 
 cipal hardy grasses, whether indigenous or exo- 
 tic, is noted in the account of it in our article 
 on the genus to which it belongs. But the pre- 
 cise ripening periods of all the principal grasses, 
 under exactly the same circumstances of climate 
 and cultivation, and in their relations or succes- 
 sions to one another, are a matter of interest and 
 importance to every well-informed farmer, and 
 were carefully ascertained by Mr. Sinclair as the 
 result of ten years' observation and experiment. 
 The precise dates which he exhibits, of course, 
 are applicable only to the precise kind of climate 
 and situation in which his experiments were con- 
 ducted, and state merely the average time even 
 in these ; yet they can easily be accommodated 
 to widely different climates and situations, and 
 they show with the utmost accuracy the order 
 of succession in which the grasses mature their 
 seeds. According, then, to Mr. Sinclair's table, 
 the annual meadow-grass, Poa annua, ripens its 
 seed from the 10th of April till the frosts of 
 winter ; the sweet-scented vernal grass, Anthox- 
 anthum odoratum, from the 10th till the 20th of 
 June ; the soft annual brome-grass, Brornus mol- 
 lis, from the 12th till the 20th of June ; the 
 clove-pink -leaved hair -grass, Aira caryophylla, 
 and the bitter vernal grass, Anthoxantkum ama- 
 
 rum, from the loth till the 20th of June ; the 
 one-flowered melic-grass, Melica unifiora, the al- 
 pine meadow-grass, Poa alpiva, the narrow- 
 leaved meadow-grass, Poa angustifolia, and the 
 blue meadow - grass, Sesleria coeridea, from the 
 18th till the 24th of June ; the spring millet- 
 grass, Milium vernale, from the 18th till the 25th 
 of June ; the sweet-scented soft grass, Holcus 
 odoratus repens, about the 20th of June, though 
 generally abortive ; the meadow foxtail - grass, 
 Alopecurus pratensis, about the 30th of June ; 
 the barley-like fescue, Festuca ovina hordeiformis, 
 from the 20th of June till the 20th of July ; the 
 small-flowered oat-grass, Avena parviflora, from 
 the 4th till the 10th of July ; the long-flowered 
 brome-grass, Bromus longifiorus, from the 4th 
 till the 13th of July ; the Hungarian fescue, 
 Festuca pannonica, and the hard wheat - grass, 
 Triticum nardus, from the 4th till the 17th of 
 July ; the glaucous fescue, Festuca glauca, from 
 the 4th till the 24th of July ; the field brome- 
 grass, Bromus arvensis, about the 7th of July ; 
 the jointed foxtail grass, Alopecurus yeniculatus, 
 from the 7th till the 26th of July ; the smooth 
 meadow-grass, Poa pratensis, from the 10th till 
 the 17th of July ; the bulbous meadow-grass, 
 Poa bidbosa, about the 11th of July ; the woolly 
 soft-grass, Holcus lanatus, from the 12th till the 
 24th of July ; the common quaking-grass, Briza 
 media, from the 12th till the 20th of July ; the 
 creeping fescue -grass, Festuca rubra, from the 
 12th till the 25th of July ; the perennial rye- 
 grass, Lolium perenne, about the loth of July ; 
 the yellow oat-grass, Avena pubescens, from the 
 loth till the 25th of July ; the blue meadow- 
 grass, Poa coerulea, the roof brome-grass, Bromus 
 tectorum, the hooded horn of plenty, Cornucopia 
 cucullatum, the reflexed meadow-grass, Poa dis- 
 tans, the rigid meadow - grass, Poa rigida, and 
 the rough - stalked meadow-grass, Poa trivialis, 
 about the 16th -of July ; the crested dog's-tail, 
 Cynosurus cristatus, from the 16th till the 30th 
 of July ; the round-headed cock's-foot, Dactylis 
 glomerata, and the wood fescue, Festuca dumeto- 
 rum, from the 19th till the 30th of July ; the 
 glaucous cock's - foot, Dactylis glaucescens, the 
 striped cock's-foot, Dactylis variegata, Russel's 
 ryegrass, Lolium Russellianum, and the upright 
 brome-grass, Bromus erectus, about the 20th of 
 July ; the Welch fescue, Festuca Cambrica, and 
 the upright vetch, Vicia stricta, from the 20th 
 till the 30th of July ; the wall brome-grass, Bro- 
 mus diandrus, the large -panicled brome-grass, 
 Bromus maximus, the flat-spiked brome - grass, 
 Bromus unioloides, the wood-millet, Milium effu- 
 sum, the brome -like fescue, Festuca bromoides, 
 the ryegrass-like fescue, Festuca loliacea, and the 
 linear - spiked dog's - tail, Cynosurus erucosformis, 
 about the 21st of July ; the American variety of 
 the striped cock's-foot, Dactylis variegata Ameri- 
 cana, about the 22d of July ; the gigantic brome- 
 grass, Bromus giganteus, the slender oat -grass, 
 Avena fragilis, and the meadow oat-grass, Avena 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 600 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 pratensis, about the 24th of July ; the common 
 meadow cat's-tail, Phleum pratense, and the lesser 
 meadow cat's-tail, Phleum pratense minus, about 
 the 25th of July; the eastern oat-grass, A vena 
 orientalis, from the 25th to the 30th of July ; the 
 water hair-grass, Aira aquatica, about the 26th 
 of July ; the early hair-grass, Aira prcecox, and 
 the sea-green meadow-grass, Poa ccesia, about 
 the 27th of July ; the ciliated melic-grass, Melica 
 ciliata, from the 27th till the 31st of July ; the 
 sheep's fescue, Festuca ovina, about the 28th of 
 July ; the crested hair-grass, A ira cristata, and 
 the capon's-tail fescue, Festuca myurus, about the 
 29th of July ; the crested brome-grass, Bromus 
 crisiatus, the slender fescue, Festuca gracilis, the 
 hard fescue, Festuca duriuscula, the slender vari- 
 ety of the sheep's fescue, Festuca ovina tenuis, 
 the slender-leaved fescue, Festuca tenuifolia, the 
 meadow fescue, Festuca pratensis, the viviparous 
 fescue, Festuca vivipara, the sand canary-grass, 
 Phalaris arenaria, the nerved meadow-grass, Poa 
 nervata, the wood meadow-grass, Poa nemoralis, 
 the bulbous-jointed cat's-tail, Phleum nodosum, 
 and the fertile meadow-grass, Poa fertilis, about 
 the 30th of July ; the crested hair-grass, Aira 
 cristata, and the giant lyme-grass, Elymus gigan- 
 teus, about the 2d of August ; the decumbent 
 meadow-grass, Poa decumbens, and the spelt 
 wheat-grass, Triticum spelta, about the 3d of Au- 
 gust ; the slender wheat-grass, Triticum tenue, 
 the dog's wheat-grass, Triticum caninum, and 
 the common bent, Agrostis vidgaris, about the 
 4th of August ; the upright mat-grass, Nardus 
 stricta, and the many-flowering brome-grass, Bro- 
 mus multiflorus, about the 5th of August ; the 
 flat-stalked oat -grass, A vena planiculmis, the 
 glaucous meadow-grass, Poa glauca, the procum- 
 bent meadow-grass, Poa procumbens, the wood- 
 bent, Agrostis sylvatica, and the tall fertile fes- 
 cue, Festuca elatior fertilis, about the 6th of Au- 
 gust ; the Philadelphian lyme - grass, Elymus 
 Philadelphicus, from the 6th till the 20th of Au- 
 gust ; Bauhin's melic-grass, Melica Bauhini, 
 about the 9th of August ; the hedgehog lyme- 
 grass, Elymus hystrix, the jointed lyme-grass, 
 Elymus genicidaius, and the barren brome-grass, 
 Bromus sterilis, about the 10th of August ; the 
 foxtail-like fescue, Festuca alopecuroides, from the 
 10th till the 23d of August ; the golden oat- 
 grass, A vena fiavescens, about the 20th of August ; 
 the meadow barley - grass, Hordeum pratense, 
 about the 21st of August ; the lanceolate fine- 
 panicled bent, Calamagrostis lanceolata, from the 
 21st till the 30th of August ; the slender rye- 
 grass, Lolium tenue, the narrow -leaved brome- 
 grass, Bromus angustifolius, and the spear-pani- 
 cled brome-grass, Bromus lanceolatus, about the 
 24th of August ; the winged brome-grass, Bro- 
 mus pinnatus, from the 28th of August till the 
 5th of September ; the brown bent, Agrostis 
 canina, and the bundled -leaved bent, Agrostis vul- 
 garis fascicularis, about the 29th of August ; the 
 couch-grass, Triticum repens, about the 30th of 
 
 August ; the awnless brown bent, Agrostis can- 
 ina mutica, about the 5th of September ; the 
 foxtail-like oat-grass, A vena cdopecuroides, from 
 the 5th till the 12th of September ; the white or ; 
 couch bent, Agrostis alba, from the 6th till the 
 15th of September; the florin grass, Agrostis 
 stolonifera latifolia, about the 8th of September ; 
 very many in the middle and latter parts of Sep- 
 tember ; and nine or ten principal ones in the 
 first half of October. All the best hardy grasses, j 
 therefore, might, as to the time of the ripening 
 of their seeds, be distributed into an early sum- 
 mer group, a late summer group, and an autumn 
 group, or into three summer groups, for the last 
 half of June and the two halves of July, and 
 three autumn groups, for the months of August, 
 September, and October. 
 
 The Comparative Nutritiousness of some of the 
 Principal Grasses. — The feeding value of the 
 straw, the hay, and the seeds of some of the 
 principal grasses, whether viewed in comparison 
 with one another, in comparison with plants of 
 other orders, or in reference to the principles 
 and proportions of their alimentary constituents, 
 is variously exhibited in the articles on Fatten- 
 ing, on Fodder, and on Food, and in some other 
 articles. But the results of Sinclair's researches, 
 though, in a chemical respect, far less accurate 
 and penetrating than those relied on in these 
 articles, abundantly deserve a special notice, in 
 this place, both on account of their strictly ex- 
 hibiting the comparative values of the principal 
 grasses among themselves, and of their connect- 
 ing classes or groups of the values with certain 
 external characters which are cognisable by the 
 most superficial observation. 
 
 The quantity of nutritive matter in 1920 grains 
 of the leaves of each of some of the principal 
 grasses, in the early part of April, is as follows, — 
 120 grains in tall oat-like soft grass, 110 in darnel- 
 like fescue, 102 in long-awned sheep's fescue, 96 
 in meadow foxtail, 96 in meadow fescue, 94 in tall 
 fescue, 90 in creeping soft-grass, 88 in crested 
 dog's-tail, 84 in smooth awnless brome-grass, 80 
 in round panicled cock's-foot, 80 in woolly soft- 
 grass, SO in meadow cat's-tail, 80 in rough-stalked 
 meadow-grass, 76 in nerved meadow-grass, 70 in 
 perennial ryegrass, 70 in fertile meadow-grass, 
 70 in smooth fescue, 68 in wood meadow-grass, 
 62 in wood florin, 54 in common quaking grass, 
 52 in sweet-scented vernal grass, and 42 in creep- 
 ing bent or Irish florin. The nutritive matter, 
 too, is not less diversified in composition than 
 different in amount ; and that of the meadow- 
 foxtail comprises 64 per cent, of starch or muci- 
 lage, 8 of sugar, and 2S of extractive and saline 
 principles, — that of the meadow fescue comprises 
 59 per cent, of starch or mucilage, 20 of sugar, 
 and 20 of extractive and saline principles, — that 
 of ryegrass comprises 65 per cent, of starch or 
 mucilage, 7 of sugar, and 28 of extractive and 
 saline principles, — that of meadow cat's-tail com- 
 prises 74 per cent, of starch or mucilage, 10 of 
 
1 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 601 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 sugar, and 16 of extractive and saline princi- 
 ples, — that of cock's-foot comprises 59 per cent, 
 of starch or mucilage, 11 of sugar, and 30 of ex- 
 tractive and saline principles, — that of meadow 
 oat-grass comprises 80 per cent, of starch or mu- 
 cilage, 10 of sugar, and 10 of extractive and sa- 
 line principles, — and that of florin comprises 55 
 per cent, of starch or mucilage, 5 of sugar, and 
 40 of extractive and saline principles. 
 
 The proportion of the nutritive matter of any 
 grass to its whole bulk, of course, is very differ- 
 ent in the green or flowering state of the grass 
 from what it is when the grass becomes convert- 
 ed into hay ; and the relative amount of it in 
 both conditions, in the case of a great number 
 of the most common species, will be found stated 
 in our articles on the several genera of the grass- 
 es. The chemical constituency of the nutritive 
 matter, also, materially differs in the three states 
 of flowering, of seeding, and of aftermath. " I 
 found in all the trials I made," says Sir Hum- 
 phrey Davy, " the largest quantity of truly nutri- 
 tive matter when the seed was ripe, and least 
 bitter extract and saline matter; most extract 
 and saline matter in the autumnal crop ; and 
 most saccharine matter, in proportion to the 
 other ingredients, in the crop cut at the time of 
 flowering.'" In the case of the round panicled 
 cock's-foot, Dactylis glomerata, which he states 
 for illustration, the nutritive matter of the crop 
 cut at the time of flowering consisted of 18 per 
 cent, of sugar, 67 of mucilage, and 15 of extrac- 
 tive and saline principles, that of the crop cut 
 at the time of the seed being ripe consisted of 9 
 per cent, of sugar, 85 of mucilage, and 6 of ex- 
 tractive and saline principles, and that of the 
 aftermath crop consisted of 11 per cent, of sugar, 
 59 of mucilage, and 30 of extractive and saline 
 principles. Yet all analyses of grasses or other 
 forage plants made by Davy, Sinclair, and their 
 contemporaries must now be cautiously regarded 
 as mere approximations ; for, not only were the 
 plots too small and the circumstances of soil and 
 climate and culture too limited for eliciting the 
 comparative powers of the different plants, buf 
 the very method by which the nutritive values 
 wore determined, though as good as the chemical 
 science of that day could suggest, would not, in 
 the present state of that science, be received as 
 accurate or conclusive. Shier, therefore, omits 
 from his edition of Davy's Agricultural Chemis- 
 try the appendix of analyses and comparative 
 values. 
 
 The external characters which Sinclair ascer- 
 tained to be associated with a greater or less se- 
 cretion of some one or other of the nutritive 
 principles, are so numerous as not only to main- 
 tain classification into groups, but in most in- 
 stances to give several criteria to each group. 
 Sugar and mucilage are comparatively abundant 
 in grasses which have large- jointed culms, thick 
 and succulent leaves, and downy-husked flowers ; 
 and the sugar is generally in excess in such of 
 
 these as have a light glaucous colour. Extrac- 
 tive matter is comparatively abundant in grasses 
 which have small-jointed culms, thin, flat, rough, 
 light-green leaves, and pointed flowers in either 
 a spike or a spike-like panicle. Gluten and mu- 
 cilage are comparatively abundant in grasses 
 which have many-jointed culms, smooth and 
 succulent leaves, spiked or closely panicled flow- 
 ers, and large and blunt florets ; and sugar is 
 next in proportion to the mucilage in such of 
 these as have a glaucous colour and woolly flo- 
 rets. Mucilage and extractive are comparatively 
 abundant in grasses which have the points of 
 their culms smooth and succulent, their flowers 
 panicled, and their florets pointed or awned. 
 Extractive and saline principles are compara- 
 tively abundant in grasses which have tall culms, 
 flat and rough leaves, panicled flowers, and thin- 
 ly scattered, pointed, or long-awned florets. Ex- 
 tractive and mucilage are comparatively abun- 
 dant in grasses which have strong creeping roots, 
 flat and rough leaves, and spiked flowers. 
 
 The Comparative Adaptations of some of the 
 Principal Grasses. — Some of the hardy grasses, 
 when artificially raised from seed, in the manner 
 of field culture or "laying down to grass," speed- 
 ily die out or are smothered and dislodged by 
 indigenous grasses or other indigenous plants; 
 and others take such a firm and sturdy posses- 
 sion of the soil as to flourish for years, and main- 
 tain a thorough resistance of every effort of in- 
 digenous plants to displace them. Of a large 
 assortment of such grasses raised on rich and te- 
 nacious soil in the agricultural garden of Dal- 
 keith Park, and experimentally cultivated there 
 in 1834 and in the three succeeding years, the 
 following species and varieties continued, at the 
 end of the four years, to retain possession of the 
 ground, — some, however, more completely than 
 others, or the first in the list more completely 
 than the last, — Aira ccaspitosa lutescens, Arrhena- 
 therum avenaceum, Festuca tenuifolia, Festuca ovi- 
 na, Festuca duriuscula, Festuca loliacea, Bromus 
 giganteus, Poa pratensis, Holcus lanatus, Festuca 
 pratensis, Festuca elatior, Festuca heterophylla, 
 Agrostis stolonifera, Alopecurus pratensis, Agros- 
 iis alba, Agrostis capillaris, Agrostis dispar, Aira 
 caispitosa, Poa nemoralis nervosa, Poa nemoralis, 
 Phleum praiense, and Dactylis glomerata. But a 
 number of others, including some of the best 
 known and most useful, were found, in the course 
 of the same experiments, to be unable to retain 
 long possession of the ground. The Poa annua, 
 for example, though in most natural situations, 
 and on almost every description of virgin soil or 
 waste ground or exposed spot, keeping up a con- 
 stant succession of germinating, growing, flower- 
 ing, and seeding, from early spring till the frosts 
 of winter, yet, when artificially sown on good 
 soils, becomes almost entirely replaced by more 
 powerful grasses and other indigenous plants ; 
 Agrostis spica-venti, also an annual grass, though 
 tall and strong enough to maintain a far sturdier 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 602 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 contest than the preceding, dies out in the open 
 ground in Scotland in consequence of being too 
 tender to bring its seeds to a sufficient degree of 
 maturity ; Agrostis rupestris or Agrostis setacea, 
 has the same fault as Agrostis spica-venti, and 
 seems at best to possess a habit of only biennial 
 duration ; the annual ryegrass, the common per- 
 ennial, Molles', Pacey's, Stickney's, and Pevon- 
 evers varieties of Lolium perenne, " being all al- 
 lowed to ripen without shaking their seeds each 
 year," says the report, " have gone off in the or- 
 der named, so that at present," in 1838, " the 
 last does not occupy more than one-third of the 
 surface which it originally covered, and the first 
 variety had to be resown each spring, having 
 usually about four-fifths perished;" "Lolium 
 Italicum" adds the report, " possesses about the 
 same permanency as the common perennial rye- 
 grass under similar treatment, being inferior in 
 this respect to the four varieties last-named ; " 
 Elymus sibericus, in consequence partly of the 
 soil not being sufficiently light and dry, and 
 partly of the unfavourable character of the wea- 
 ther during the latter half of the period of trial, 
 was fully as much displaced as the more perma- 
 nent varieties of ryegrass; Avena flavescens, An- 
 tlioxanthum odoratum, Cynosurus cristatus, Aira 
 flexuosa, and Poa trivialis were partly subdued 
 by the unfavourableness of the soil, and partly 
 overgrown and dislodged by stronger plants ; 
 and both the short and the long seeded varieties 
 of Glyceria fluitans, were partly dislodged by in- 
 digenous grasses, " which," says the report, " is 
 easily accounted for from their naturally grow- 
 ing in wetter soils, as well as from their compa- 
 ratively dwarf or prostrate habit, and the strag- 
 gling inoffensive fibrous nature of their roots." 
 
 All grasses, of course, as well as all other plants, 
 whether annual, biennial, or less or more per- 
 ennial, are quite at home, and able to retain 
 possession for an indefinite length of time, in cir- 
 cumstances precisely suitable to their natural 
 habits ; and they begin to evince hardihood or 
 instability, or to exhibit comparatively high or low 
 powers of coping with the disturbing influences of 
 cultivation, either when removed to situations 
 very different from those which are natural to 
 them, or when subjected to such treatment from 
 art and such rivalry or antagonism from neigh- 
 bouring plants as more or less contrast with the 
 freedom of their wild condition. In any average 
 assortment of grasses, therefore, one group of 
 species may be most stable in one set of circum- 
 stances, another group of species may be most 
 stable in a very different set of circumstances 
 and a third group of species may be equally, or 
 almost equally stable, in both the sets of circum- 
 stances. An experiment, like that in Dalkeith 
 Park derives its main value from being conducted 
 in nearly the average climate of Great Britain, 
 and upon soil closely akin in character to that of 
 the best varieties of arable land ; and cannot, 
 without either great calculation or very serious 
 
 risk of error, be allowed to guide the judgment 
 in reference to any very colder or very hotter 
 situation than Dalkeith, or to either arenaceous, 
 moorish, chalky, or morassy soils. But a series 
 of experiments in Surrey, by Mr. Taunton of 
 Bridgewater, on account of having been conduct- 
 ed during eight years, on a comparatively exten- 
 sive scale, on several somewhat widely different 
 kinds of soil, and in a certain degree supplemen- j j 
 tarily to the celebrated Woburn experiments, j j 
 afford a wider range of guidance, and deserve to 
 be particularly noticed. 
 
 All varieties of ryegrass sown by Mr. Taunton, 
 though including several which had been loudly 
 praised to him as true perennials, became utterly 
 extinguished both in beds and in field culture, and 
 both on chalk soil and on his deepest and richest 
 loamy sand. " My observation of some particular 
 meadows and pastures in different parts of the 
 kingdom," says he, " induces me to believe that 
 some varieties of Lolium are in some soils indi- 
 genous and permanent ; but my experience war- 
 rants me in dissuading from that profuse and 
 promiscuous use of ryegrasses called perennial, 
 which their cheapness and certainty of growing 
 too much recommend in ordinary practice, unless 
 by a previous experiment of several years it shall 
 have been ascertained that the particular variety 
 employed will prove permanent on that particular 
 stratum and soil which it is desired to convert to 
 grass." Phleum pratense, which both its cheapness 
 and its valuable qualities occasioned to be largely 
 employed in the experiments, totally vanished 
 from poor calcareous heights, almost totally van- 
 ished from both chalky soil and rich loamy sand, 
 and, though plentifully maintaining its ground 
 on clay lands, suffered even there much diminu- 
 tion of height and size. Phleum nodosum, though 
 a native of some very bare chalk soils, died out 
 from the experiment ground, but probably owed 
 its failure to the choking effect of too thick 
 sowing ; and cock's-foot, the common perennial 
 meadow-grass, and several other species, cannot 
 maintain their ground when too thickly sown. 
 *Phalaris anmdinaceus,h.el& its station with nearly 
 as much vigour as on its native lofty, moist, clayey 
 land ; and it also flourished and retained all its 
 strength as a meadow-grass on low clay soils. 
 Alopecurus pratensis, A. arundinaceus, and A. 
 Tauntoniensis, when mixed in a clay meadow 
 with a dark moory mould on the surface, main- 
 tained their height, bulk, and abundance as well 
 as any other grasses, or even better than some 
 or all ; and, when grown in rows for seed, on 
 deep sandy loam, where springs occasionally 
 break out, were extremely luxuriant ; but, when 
 grown on dry chalky soil, the Tauntoniensis 
 wholly disappeared, and the other two became 
 considerably weak and scanty. " I find it diffi- 
 cult to determine," says Mr. Taunton, " which of 
 these species affords the most bulky crop ; for 
 where they each partook of the benefit of the 
 water, all were extremely copious. One charac- 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 603 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 ter common to all attracted my attention, namely, 
 that though they stood till late in the summer, 
 not having been wholly cut till after the middle 
 of J uly, and after all the seed had fully ripened, 
 yet none of the radical leaves had decayed or 
 withered, but all continued green, and the scythe 
 easily swept close to the level of the ground; 
 whereas, at the same season, a large proportion 
 of the radical leaves of many of the other large 
 grasses, such as the cocksfoot and tall fescues, 
 were already withered and dead, presenting an 
 obstacle to the scythe in cutting and somewhat 
 impairing the quality and colour of the hay made 
 from them. I could not view even this imperfect 
 essay, without reflecting to what a valuable pur- 
 pose any tract of springy moist loamy sand, such 
 as, under aration, is extremely troublesome to the 
 cultivator, may be converted, by sowing it with 
 a selection of grasses in which the foxtails should 
 predominate." 
 
 Numerous species and varieties of agrostis, 
 inclusive of all the kinds of florin, were sown ; 
 but, excepting Agrostris canina, all died out. 
 Cynosurus cristatus remained throughout the ex- 
 periments, but became more or less scanty ac- 
 cording to the predominance of silicious or 
 calcareous matter. Avena pratensis and Avena 
 puhescens not only continued but increased. 
 Avena flavescens also endured ; but, in spots 
 where the soil was not argillaceous enough to 
 encourage a luxuriant growth, it diminished and 
 became insignificant ; " yet," remarks Mr. Taun- 
 ton, "it is so rich in its qualities, and so universal 
 a citizen of the word, that there is no soil, from 
 the lightest calcareous loam to the stiffest clay, 
 into which I would not introduce it, where I 
 wanted to produce a permanent turf." Dactylis 
 glomerata maintained its bulk in most of the 
 situations where it was tried ; but it dislikes both 
 dense and very wet clay and any soil which is 
 quite destitute of clay ; and it did not succeed 
 either on pieces of very stiff clay land, or on the 
 elevated parts of the chalky downs. Dactylis 
 cynosuroides remained throughout the eight years 
 on deep, silicious sand in a thicket of oak, but 
 became crowded and apparently weakened by 
 exhaustion. Festuca elatior fertilis was the larg- 
 est and most vigorous grass in the collection, and 
 maintained its superiority in the light soil as well 
 as in the strong clay, Festuca pratensis abounded 
 and increased on comparatively good parts of 
 calcareous loamy sand. Festuca ovina hordeiformis 
 was remarkable, not only for its durability, but 
 for the largeness of its produce and for the thick- 
 ness and fineness of its turf. Festuca heterophylla 
 and Festuca dumetorum also succeeded excellently 
 on the hills. Festuca arundinacea survived on 
 calcareous loamy sand, but suffered from the 
 want both of clay and of moisture. Bromus 
 littoreus became harsh and curled in its foliage 
 during hot weather, and dwindled away, even in 
 the most favourable circumstances, into compara- 
 tive scantiness. Elymus caninus retained its 
 
 ground; but Elymi canadensis, maximus, aren- 
 arius, genicidatus, and virginicus disappeared. 
 Holcus lanatus, not only kept its place, but mis- ! 
 chievously luxuriated over the lighter parts of 
 sandy soils. Holcus mollis maintained its place 
 on a soil of chalk intermixed with alluvial flint 
 gravel. Hordeum pratense maintained its growth 
 and possessed considerable value upon clay mead- 
 ows, and even survived on calcareous sandy loam. 
 Tritica elongatum, medium, littoreum, and rigi- 
 dum, held their place, but diminished in both j 
 size and strength as the soil became less soft and 
 porous. " Of the Poas," says Mr. Taunton, " many 
 have disappeared ; but I am gratified by disco- 
 vering that the rich Poa angustifolia retains its 
 position as well on light dry calcareous loamy 
 sand as on moist calcareous sandy soil, and on 
 loamy clay ; but, from its propensity to increase 
 by its running roots, it soon starves itself in a 
 very moderate bulk, if sown in beds alone ; and 
 the most valuable use of this grass probably will 
 be found to consist in the sparing introduction 
 of the seeds among other grasses. Where Poa 
 nemoralis had been planted on trenched soils in 
 my plantations, which have now grown so thick 
 as to have smothered all other grasses under them, 
 this Poa has increased and overspread the whole 
 space : its rich nutritious quality, its beautiful 
 and perpetual verdure, and above all, this quality 
 of flourishing under a dense cover of trees, appear 
 to me to render it peculiarly valuable for the 
 particular purposes of rendering ornamental, and 
 also of turning to a profit, the site of grown up 
 plantations and thick groves, which usually are 
 in a state of complete nakedness. On several 
 beds of considerable extent, whereon I had raised 
 the Poa nemoralis on open ground, it was nearly 
 overpowered and exterminated by other grasses. 
 Poa virens continues to flourish on a spot of clay 
 land where I had originally sown it." 
 
 Some grasses which yield great bulk of produce 
 and possess a considerable or even large propor- 
 tion of nutritiveness, are hastily condemned by 
 multitudes of farmers on account of their coarse 
 appearance. Cattle select their food by an in- 
 stinctive recognition of wholesomeness, univer- 
 sally and most benignly conferred on them by 
 the all-benevolent Creator, — and they treat grass- 
 es, not at all according to their appearance, but 
 wholly according to their odour, their flavour, 
 and their intrinsic properties ; but unreflecting 
 farmers select or approve the herbage of their 
 farms almost solely by the eye, and are liable to 
 reject with scorn any newly imported grass which 
 seems any way akin in bulk and massiveness to 
 the bulrushes or the sedges, " I have often ob- 
 served, in showing even very intelligent farmers 
 my collection of grasses," says Mr. Gorrie of i 
 Annat, " that if any species shewed strength of j 
 stem, with luxuriance of herbage, and conse- 
 quently promising extraordinary weight of forage, 
 that species was, without hesitation, pronounced 
 coarse and unworthy of further attention, till 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 604 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 the opinion of a horse or a cow, as a qualified 
 reference, was taken on the subject." Among 
 the useful grasses which have been more or less 
 neglected on account of their coarse appearance, 
 are Festuca elatior, Elymus sibiricus, Lolium Ita- 
 licum, Olyceria aquatica, and some of the very 
 promising species which have been recently in- 
 troduced from America. 
 
 Mixtures and Sowing of Grass Seeds. — Mixtures 
 of grasses, except in very rare instances and upon 
 some of the poorest and most refractory kinds of 
 land, are vastly superior to solitary species ; mix- 
 tures of a considerable number of kinds, or at 
 least of from three to nine or ten, are generally 
 much superior to mixtures of only two ; and 
 mixtures which include one or two species of 
 other herbage plants, particularly of clovers, the 
 vetch group, or of yarrow, are often decidedly 
 superior to mixtures consisting wholly of grasses. 
 But widely different mixtures, partly as to the 
 several species employed and partly as to the 
 proportions of each, are required for respectively 
 argillaceous, arenaceous, calcareous, moorish, and 
 morassy soils ; and widely different mixtures, as 
 to at once the habits, the proportions, and the 
 natural duration of the species, are required also 
 for respectively water-meadows, dry alluvial mea- 
 dows, the lea lands of arable ground, the perma- 
 nent pastures of the hills, and a conjoint cropping 
 in the alternate husbandry. Several or even 
 many equally good mixtures, too, as to both spe- 
 cies and proportions, might be made for almost 
 any one of the classes of either soils or purposes ; 
 and one set of mixtures might be selected to suc- 
 ceed best in the earlier periods of growth, and 
 another set to succeed best in the later stages of 
 growth, while the two might be equally produc- 
 tive upon the average of their duration or within 
 the cycle of the purpose which they are raised to 
 serve. Some species of grasses, likewise, are in- 
 comparably more exacting than others as to 
 pulverization of soil and artificial fertilization 
 with manures; some permit an easy access to 
 troublesome weeds, while others most sternly re- 
 sist them ; some extract from the soil a consider- 
 able proportion of the principles which are pecu- 
 liarly needed by corn crops, while others make 
 no inroad upon these principles, and largely con- 
 tribute to the accumulation of others ; and many 
 mixtures might, with reference to these several 
 classes, be so composed as to develop adaptation, 
 not less to the time of their actual growth, than 
 to the precurrent circumstances of the land, and 
 to the anticipated or intended circumstances of 
 after-cultivation. Mixtures of' grasses among 
 themselves, and particularly mixtures of grasses 
 in combination with other forage plants, are thus 
 capable of being made vastly more numerous 
 than almost any farmer has ever imagined, — and 
 all in perfect harmony with the wisest economy, 
 and in wonderful and interminable subserviency 
 to variational rotations, and to the utmost nice- 
 ties of all peculiarities of either soil, situation, or 
 
 purpose. We, therefore, cannot attempt even to 
 frame an index to the number or groups of mix- 
 tures which farmers might find profitable ; and 
 must content ourselves with merely mentioning 
 a few of the more obvious ones which have been j 
 recommended by skilful and well-known experi- 
 mentalists. 
 
 Rich old pasture land returned to grass, after 
 having been broken up and subjected to a course j I 
 of arational cropping, may be sown, at the rate | j 
 of five bushels of seeds per acre, with a mixture 
 of meadow fescue, meadow foxtail, round cock's- 
 foot, tall oat-like soft grass, ryegrass, meadow j 
 cat's-tail, crested dog's-tail, yellow oat, meadow 
 oat, hard fescue, smooth-stalked meadow-grass, | 
 fertile meadow-grass, nerved meadow-grass, 
 marsh-bent, fiorin, creeping vetch, cow clover, 
 and white clover. This mixture is an artificial 
 improvement on that which naturally grows on 
 the best pastures, and simply rejects the worst 
 plants of the natural mixture and adds one or 
 two prime ones ; and it was experimentally tried 
 by the late Mr. Sinclair, with the express view 
 of ascertaining the difference between its produce 
 and that of the natural pasture. The piece of 
 grass ground broken up for it was cropped during 
 five years with successively oats, potatoes, wheat, 
 carrots, and wheat ; it was found, at the end of 
 the five years, to have suffered a very considerable 
 diminution of its organic constituents; it was 
 then, in preparation for the grass-seeds, manured 
 and pulverized ; and, between the time of their 
 being sown and the commencement of frost, it 
 received a top-dressing of a dry compost of lime, 
 vegetable mould, and rotten fann-yard-manure. 
 The produce of the first summer was cut and 
 weighed on the 1st of July, and was found to be 
 one-eighth greater than that of the original or 
 natural grasses on the same piece of ground ; the 
 produce of the first aftermath was found to be 
 one-fifth less than that of the original grasses ; 
 and the produce of the whole of the second year 
 was found to be one-eighth greater than an ave- 
 rage year's whole produce of the original grasses. 
 
 Sandy upland soils, which are broken up for 
 the double purpose of exterminating some of 
 their weeds and least valuable herbage, and of 
 fertilizing themselves by processes of pulveriza- 
 tion and by adding to them clay or marl, may, 
 according to Sinclair's recommendation, be sown 
 with a mixture of 3 pecks of barley-like sheep's 
 fescue, 3 pecks of cock's-foot, 1 peck of crested 
 dog's-tail, 2 pecks of yellow oat-grass, 1 pock of 
 ryegrass, 1 peck of flat-stalked meadow-grass, H 
 peck of various-leaved fescue, 2 pecks of hard 
 fescue, 1 lb. of lesser bird's trefoil, and 3 lb. of 
 white clover. — Or any average hill land, for per- 
 manent, sheep pasture, may, according to the re- 
 commendation of Mr. Stirling of Glenbervie, be 
 sown with a mixture of 9 lb. of fox-tail, 2$ lb. of 
 cock's-foot, 3h lb. of meadow fescue, 4\ lb. of 
 hard fescue, 4i lb. of Italian ryegrass. 3 lb. of 
 red clover, 4 lb. of yellow clover, 4 lb of white 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 I 
 
 60-3 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 clover, 8 lb. of Timothy-grass, 2 lb. of rib-grass, 
 and 1 lb. of yarrow. — Or, according to the recom- 
 mendation of Messrs. Gibbs of London, light 
 soils for permanent pasture may be sown with a 
 mixture of 3 lb. of perennial ryegrass, 3 lb. of 
 Italian ryegrass, 2 lb. of meadow fox-tail, 4 lb. of 
 cock's-foot, 2 lb. of meadow fescue, 2 lb. of hard 
 fescue, 1 lb. of rough- stalked meadow-grass, 2 
 lb. of smooth-stalked meadow-grass, 3 lb. of wood 
 meadow-grass, 2 lb. of sweet-scented vernal 
 grass, 2 lb. of Timothy grass, 4 lb. of red clover, 
 5 lb. of white clover, and 3 lb. of perennial red 
 clover; and heavy soils for permanent pasture 
 may be sown with a mixture of 4 lb. of perennial 
 rye-grass, 4 lb. of Italian rye-grass, 2 lb. of 
 meadow fox-tail, 5 lb. of cock's-foot, 3 lb. of 
 meadow fescue, 1 lb. of hard fescue, 2 lb. of 
 rough-stalked meadow-grass, 1 lb. of smooth- 
 stalked meadow-grass, 4 lb. of wood meadow- 
 grass, 2 lb. of sweet-scented vernal grass, 4 lb. of 
 Timothy-grass, 5 lb. of red clover, 6 lb. of white 
 clover, and 4 lb. of perennial white clover. The 
 reasons for intermixing such short-lived plants 
 as Italian ryegrass and biennial red clover, are 
 that they spring rapidly up, afford herbage 
 during the first year for stock, and then die out 
 to give place for the diffusion and the increased 
 bulk of the other plants, and that, on the other 
 hand, the more durable plants, if sown without 
 them, must either be sown so thin as not to afford 
 herbage for stock in the first year, or so thick as 
 to incommode and strangle one another in the 
 second and following years. 
 
 For dry lands, a good addition to all judicious 
 mixtures of true grasses and clovers, be the 
 mixtures what they may, is from 2 lb. to 4 lb. of 
 sheep's fescue to every acre of elevated sheep 
 pasture, and 10 oz. of yarrow to every acre of 
 light low land. But for heathy or moory lands, 
 which have been pared and burned, or which 
 have been otherwise operated upon with a view 
 to the improvement of their capacities for herb- 
 age, only the cheapest and most facile mixtures 
 can ba afforded. When the lands are less than 
 500 feet of altitude above sea level, and are 
 tolerably dry, a sufficient mixture, along with 
 a corn crop, may be either 25 lb. of mixed hay 
 seeds, and 51 lbs. of white clover, or 17 lb. of 
 mixed hay seeds, 3j lb. of Italian ryegrass, and 
 5|- lb. of white clover, — and without a corn crop, 
 may be either 32 lb. of mixed hay seed, 6| lb. of 
 white clover, and two-thirds of a bushel of rye 
 or barley, or 21 lb. of mixed hay seeds, 4^ lb. of 
 Italian ryegrass, 6h lb. of white clover,, and two- 
 thirds of a bushel of rye or barley. If the lands 
 are wet, part of the mixed hay-seeds may be 
 substituted by from 14 lb. to 34 lb. of Timothy 
 grass, from 2 lb. to 8j lb. of rough-stalked 
 meadow-grass, from 1 lb. to 2 lb. of meadow soft- 
 grass, and from 1 lb. to 2 lb. of fiorin ; and if the 
 lands are 500 feet or upwards of altitude, above 
 the level of the sea, especially if they are dry 
 and intended for slleep pasture, the whole mix- 
 
 ture may consist of 2£ lb. of sheep's fescue, 1 
 lb. of zigzag hair-grass, 2 lb. of hard fescue, and 
 2 lb. of perennial red clover. 
 
 Pasture-land, when intended to produce the 
 greatest possible quantity of good herbage during 
 the months of winter and early spring, obviously 
 requires to be sown with a peculiar selection of 
 grasses ; and if it be of any ordinary quality, it 
 may, according to the recommendation of the 
 late Mr. Sinclair, be advantageously sown with a 
 mixture of 4 pecks of cock's-foot, 3 pecks of 
 meadow fescue, f of a peck of meadow cat's-tail 
 or true Timothy-grass, 1 peck of broad-leaved 
 bent or fiorin, 2 pecks of tall oat-like soft grass, 
 2 pecks of burnet, 6 lb. of perennial red clover, 
 and 8 lb. of white clover. If the land have very 
 heavy soil, and be constantly depastured with 
 cattle, some tall fertile meadow-grass ought to be 
 added to the mixture ; and if the land have a 
 poor soil and possess considerable elevation, some 
 woolly soft grass ought to be added. 
 
 A water meadow, with a light soil, may be 
 sown with a mixture of 2f lb. of fiorin, 1| lb. of 
 meadow foxtail, 1 lb. of loliaceous fescue, 2j? lb. of 
 meadow fescue, 1^ lb. of tall fescue, 2|- lb. of 
 floating glyceria, 6 lb. of Italian ryegrass, 7 lb. 
 of perennial ryegrass, 1 lb. of reed canary-grass, 
 2 lb. of Timothy-grass, 2| lb. of rough-stalked 
 meadow-grass, and 2 lb. of greater bird's-foot tre- 
 foil A water meadow, with a heavy soil, may 
 be sown with a mixture of 2| lb. of fiorin, If lb. 
 of meadow fox-tail, 3 lb. of loliaceous fescue, 2| 
 lb. of meadow fescue, 2 lb. of tall fescue, 2| lb. 
 of floating glyceria, 6 lb. of Italian ryegrass, 7 
 lb. of perennial ryegrass, 1% lb. of reed canary- 
 grass, 3h lb. of Timothy grass, 3^ lb. of rough- 
 stalked meadow-grass, and 2 lb. of greater bird's- 
 foot trefoil. A water meadow, of medium 
 quality of soil, may, of course, be sown with 
 quantities intermediate between those for the 
 light soil and the heavy soil. In all cases, also, 
 a bushel of rye-seeds per acre may be sown to 
 shelter the seedling meadow grasses ; and when 
 the expense of the mixtures is felt to be an 
 objection, this may be lessened to the amount of 
 from 4s. to 5s. per acre by excluding the meadow 
 fox-tail, and taking only half the quantity of the 
 greater bird's-foot trefoil. " Under most circum- 
 stances, however," says Mr. Lawson, the recom- j 
 mender of the mixtures, " it will be advisable to | 
 retain the full quantity of the greater bird's-foot 
 trefoil, not only from its being the best adapted 
 of the clover tribe for withstanding excess of 
 moisture, but also from its attaining to full 
 maturity at a late period of the season, when the 
 growth of the grasses generally becomes less 
 vigorous." 
 
 A mixture for sowing with a grain crop in the 
 alternate husbandry, whether the forage is 
 intended for one year, for two years, or even for 
 three years, has very generally consisted of 
 simply perennial ryegrass, red clover, and white 
 clover, varying in proportion according to the 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 nature of the soil, the circumstances of the I 
 culture, and the judgment or caprice of the 
 farmer. Sainfoin and lucerne have also been 
 favourites in some parts of England ; the hop- 
 like trefoil, Medicago lupulina, under the misno- 
 mer of yellow clover, has, somewhat absurdly, 
 become a favourite in some parts of the lowlands 
 of Scotland ; and when only one year's forage is 
 wanted, the main or the sole reliance is very 
 commonly on annual ryegrass and annual red 
 clover. But of late years, other plants, both of 
 the grasses, and of other orders, have, with 
 various degree of success, come into use with 
 very many enterprizing farmers. The Italian 
 ryegrass, on account of the rapidity of its 
 growth, the sweetness of its taste, and the bulk 
 of its produce, seemed to claim chief and enthu- 
 siastic favour ; but it so speedily overtops almost 
 everything else with which it is sown, as, after 
 fair trial, to be generally pronounced unsuitable. 
 Such of the plants as are of slower growth and 
 longer duration, however, abundantly deserve 
 attention in all cases in which forage for two or 
 for three years is required. Farmers have, on 
 the whole, paid good and praiseworthy attention 
 to the improved sowing of permanent pastures ; 
 but they are unaccountably and miserably inad- 
 vertent to the improved sowing of the temporary 
 grass lands of the alternate husbandry. " For 
 three years' pasture on good soils," says Mr. 
 Lawson, " the substitution of 2 lb. of Dactylis 
 glomerata, the common rough cock's-foot, for 
 about 3 lb. of the perennial ryegrass, will be 
 found advantageous ; while in sheep pastures the 
 addition of 1 lb. per acre of parsley seed, 
 Petroselinum sativum, would also be attended with 
 good results; and in certain upland districts, 
 established practice will point out the introduc- 
 tion of 2 lb. or 3 lb. of rib-grass, Plantago lan- 
 ceolata. In proportion to the retentiveness of 
 heavy soils, as well as for those of a peaty nature, 
 Phleum pratense, the meadow cat's-tail, should 
 be added, to the extent of 2h lb. to 3^ lb. per 
 acre." Parsley may perhaps appear to some per- 
 sons a strange ingredient in sheep pasture ; but, 
 in addition to its own nourishing properties, it 
 serves as a condiment to all the other herbage, 
 and it is highly relished by sheep, and never 
 allowed by them to run to seed. 
 
 An experiment, reported in the Second Volume 
 of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, though 
 made so long ago as the year 1828, may throw 
 some light on the propriety of using a more 
 compound mixture than the common one in the 
 alternate husbandry. In the beginning of April, 
 an area of 14 Scottish acres or 17 - 6o6 imperial 
 acres, consisting of heavy soil, though not of a 
 clay loam, incumbent on a retentive subsoil, and 
 then in a state of high cultivation, and sustain- 
 ing a crop of spring-sown wheat a few days above 
 ground, was sown with 140 lb. of red clover, 65 
 lb. of white clover, 28 lb. of hop-like trefoil, 2}y 
 bushels of Dickson's variety of perennia 1 rye- 
 
 1 grass, 8 bushels of cock's-foot, 4 bushels of hard 
 fescue, and 85 lb. of the greater meadow cat's- 
 tail ; and an area of one Scottish acre in the 
 centre of the same field, was at the same time 
 sown with 10 lb. of red clover, 5 lb. of white 
 clover, 2 lb. of hop-like trefoil, and 2 bushels of 
 ryegrass. In autumn, when the wheat crop was 
 reaped, the grass plants showed thick in the 
 ground; and afterwards, they grew vigorously, 
 and were at times depastured with cattle. On 
 the 1st of next May, the acre of trefoils and rye- 
 grass, in consequence of the early growth of the [ 
 latter, made the greatest show of herbage ; but j 
 during the progress of the month, the clover 
 overtopped the ryegrass, and gave a hue to the 
 acre which distinguished it, to even a very distant 
 observer, from all the rest of the field; and 
 before the end of the month, the crop of the j 
 general mixture equalled the clover and ryegrass 
 crop in height, — the culms of the cock's-foot, [ 
 the hard fescue, and the cat's-tail rising in 
 succession, and greatly exceeding in tallness j 
 those of the red clover. Toward the end of 
 June, the one acre, owing to the clover having 
 overpowered the ryegrass and been beaten down 
 by the weather, looked to be exceedingly luxu- 
 riant, — and the rest of the field, in consequence 
 of the lofty cock's-foot and cat's-tail overtopping 
 and concealing the strength of the red clover, 
 looked to be considerably less luxuriant ; but, at 
 the mowing of the two on the 29th of June, the 
 crop of the one acre or of the mere ryegrass | 
 and clover, was found to be inferior to the crop 
 of the general mixture, as to at once thinness on 
 the ground, lightness on the scythe, and both the 
 bulk and the quality of the hay. " The second 
 crop or aftermath of the mixed grasses, both in 
 earliness and quantity of produce, was superior j 
 to that of the clover and ryegrass. In the j 
 middle of August, a portion of the aftermath j 
 from both crops was cut, and the produce of the j 
 third crop of the mixed grasses was still superior 
 to the clover and ryegrass. But towards the 
 end of October, the aftermath, springing from j 
 time to time from the second cutting of clover j 
 and ryegrass, obtained a superiority of colour, 
 and perhaps also in produce, over that on the 
 other parts of the field. * * The cock's-foot 
 throughout the season, put forth new leaves with 
 rapidity after being cut with the scythe, and 
 produced culms to the hay-crop only. The fescue 
 planted thinly, and also grew rapidly after being 
 cut. The cat's-tail was later in producing flower- 
 stalks than the other grasses used in the experi- 
 ment, and, after being cut, did not put forth new 
 leaves so rapidly as the cock's-foot and fescue ; 
 but, in every instance, it produced numerous 
 culms, which blossomed at the same time as the 
 red clover, and when a part of the field was four 
 times mown, yielded a rich crop of culms to the 
 last cutting." 
 
 The best depth of cover for agricultural grass 
 seeds, is a matter of great importance, and yet 
 
GRASSES. 
 
 607 
 
 GRASSES. 
 
 has obtained surprisingly little attention from 
 agriculturists. An experiment respecting it was 
 made, in 1842, by Messrs. Drummond of Stirling, 
 and the results of it afterwards exhibited at the 
 agricultural show in Edinburgh ; and another 
 and more decisive experiment was made in the 
 following year by Mr. Stirling of Grlenbervie, 
 and deserves to be here particularly noted. Mr. 
 Stirling sowed a barley-field of 15 acres all over 
 with red and yellow clover, and the third parts 
 of it with respectively Italian ryegrass, Pancy's 
 ryegrass, and Timothy-grass ; he had, in prepara- 
 tion for the grass-seeds, rolled two-thirds of it 
 after the barley was finished ; and at the sowing 
 of the grass-seeds, he bush-harrowed one-half of 
 
 the rolled portion, and grass-seed-harrowed the 
 other half of the rolled portion and the whole of 
 the unrolled portion. " I was surprised," he 
 says, " at the small apparent difference of the 
 crop ; but, on closer inspection, the shallower 
 sown seemed thicker planted, and the deeper to 
 have stooped more from being thinner. It was 
 with a view to settle this point that it seemed 
 necessary to count the plants which would grow 
 at each depth." He put the question to trial 
 under an ingenious yet simple set of appliances, 
 and included in the experiment some other plants 
 than those which he had sown in the field ; and 
 he makes use of the following diagram to repre- 
 sent both his plan and its results. 
 
 No. 1, Section of Cover J- inch deep. 
 
 Kind of riant Experimented oa. 
 
 Lolium perenne, (Perennial Ryegrass,) 
 
 Italicum, (Italian Ryegrass,) 
 Dactylis glomerata, (Cock's-foot,) - - 
 Festuca elatior, (Larger Fescue,) - - 
 pratensis, (Meadow do.) - - 
 heterophylla, (Various leaved do.) 
 duriuscula, (Hard do.) - - - 
 Alopecurus pratensis, (Meadow Fox-tail,) 
 
 3: 44;\Phleum pratense major, (Timothy-grass,) 
 
 j Poa nemoralis sempervirens, (Evergreen 
 ( wood Mead-Grass,) 
 
 9; 19| 
 
 6; 21 Plantago lanceolata, (Rib-grass,) 
 4 \6\Trifolium pratense, (Red Clover,) 
 3j 121 ... repens, (White do.) - 
 10 SiMedicago lupulina, (Yellow do.) 
 
 3251 
 
 348 
 276 
 300 
 312 
 324 
 348 
 360 
 192 
 528 
 
 228 
 
 252 
 192 
 144 
 
 96 
 
 No. 2, Sec. of Cover from to 3 in. deep. 
 
 29 30 
 24! 21 
 30! 22 
 29 24 
 
 22 25 
 
 17i 16 
 
 13 11 
 
 12 10 
 
 13900 358 303 
 
 27 1 
 
 20 13 
 
 15 15 
 20 16 
 
 16 12 
 20 18 
 10 15 
 16 15 
 37 19 
 
 4 1 
 
 191412 
 
 1011 
 
 9 7 
 
 13 13 11 
 
 6 9 
 
 9 6 
 
 8, 5 
 
 71 6 
 
 15' 7 
 
 11 10 
 
 11 9 
 
 9 6 5 
 2... 
 4 2 
 2 2 
 l|... 
 1 
 1 
 
 6 2 
 
 144|1 18 90 65 37 21 U 
 
 3 In. 
 
 198 
 
 145 
 115 
 142 
 U7 
 124 
 114 
 94 
 190 
 
 43 
 
 134 
 
 85 
 38 
 42 
 
 " The seeds,' 1 says Mr. Stirling, " were treated 
 in the following manner : — Two boxes, five feet 
 ten inches by one foot, were filled with soil : No. 
 
 1 to within a quarter of an inch of the top ; No. 
 
 2 to the top on the one side, regularly sloping to 
 within three inches of the top of the other. They 
 were then divided across by slips of wood two 
 inches broad, so as to leave fourteen spaces of two 
 inches by one foot in each box. The same weight 
 of seed was sown in each box, the slips were re- 
 moved, and the boxes filled to the top with soil. 
 They were placed in a green-house for the first 
 ten days, to prevent the risk of heavy rains, which 
 would have crusted the surface. This may have 
 caused the seeds to spring from a greater depth 
 than would have happened under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances. The quantities sown, as marked in 
 the first column of grains of sixteen to the drop, 
 were such as each ought to have produced nearly 
 the same number of plants, had the seed continu- 
 ed as good as when sown and counted in spring, 
 with the exception of the Timothy, of which 
 nearly a double number was sown, from the diffi- 
 
 | culty of distributing so small a quantity equally. 
 A quarter of an inch is too deep for the Poa 
 nemoralis, as it grew freely when scarcely covered. 
 The other information to be obtained from the 
 experiment, beyond that for which it was made, 
 is, that it requires double the weight of Italian 
 ryegrass seed to produce the same number of 
 plants that it does of common — that, in this case 
 at least, the clovers and fox-tail seeds, kept over 
 a summer, would have been dear at half price — 
 and that the total of the second column of No. 1 
 is less than the first column of No. 2. I may 
 also mention that, in a similar experiment tried 
 this spring, 1844, and now growing here, the 
 number of plants appear to diminish in the same 
 proportion as shown in No. 2. They are gener- 
 ally most vigorous at three-quarters of an inch 
 of depth, with the exception of cock's-foot, rib- 
 grass, and red clover, which do well to an inch 
 and a-half. Whether this difference arises from 
 these depths being most suitable, or from the 
 smaller number of plants, must be ascertained in 
 a future experiment, by thinning them out to a 
 
GRASS LANDS. 
 
 608 
 
 GRASS LANDS. 
 
 single row." — See the articles Grass Lands, Pas- 
 ture, Seed, Agricultural Seeds, Sowing, So wing- 
 Machines, and Rotation op Crops. — Sinclair's 
 Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis. — ParneWs Grasses 
 of Scotland. — Lawson on the Cultivated Grasses. — 
 Donaldson on Manures, Grasses, and Farming. — 
 Martyn's Letters on Botany. — Loudon's Encyclo- 
 paedia of Plants. — Loudon's Hortus Britannicus. — 
 Withering' 's Botany. — Lawson 's Agriculturist' 's 
 Manual. — Knoivlcdge Society's British Husbandry. 
 — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry by Shier. — Trans- 
 actions of the Highland Society. — Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agriculture. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — 
 The Bath Papers. — The Farmer's Magazine. — 
 The Gardener's Magazine. — Lisle. — Stilling fleet. 
 — Spro ule. — Lo w. — Doyle. — Stephens. 
 
 GRASS-LAMB. See Lamb. 
 
 GRASS LANDS. Lands producing herbage 
 for the feeding of farm stock. They comprise 
 three great divisions, — permanent pasture, water- 
 meadow, and artificial or rotational grass ; and 
 have reference to the support of stock, whether 
 by depasturing, by soiling, or by hay-feeding, — 
 whether by means chiefly of proper gramineous 
 herbage, or of the large or even prominent accom- 
 paniment of other forage plants, — and whether 
 with reference exclusively to the support of stock, 
 or collaterally to the arational purposes of either 
 the alternate husbandry or the convertible hus- 
 bandry. All the principal parts of the subject of 
 grass lands, and even some of the subordinate 
 ones, form the topics of the whole of some separ- 
 ate articles and of large portions of others, — 
 particularly of the articles Pasture, Meadow, 
 Irrigation, Aftergrass, Grasses, Feeding of 
 Cattle, Fattening of Cattle, Hay, Sowing, 
 Draining, and Rotation of Crops. We shall, 
 therefore, do no more in the present article than 
 draw an outline of the whole subject, and fill up 
 any small point or two which does not elsewhere 
 occur to be fully noticed. 
 
 Grass lands, even when viewed quite apart 
 from the mighty connexion which two great and 
 important classes of them have with arational hus- 
 bandry, serve the momentous purposes of largely 
 contributing to the maintenance of the due pro- 
 portion of vital air in the atmosphere, of mainly 
 contributing to preserve the equilibrium between 
 the electricities of the atmosphere and the elec- 
 tricities of the world's crust, of elaborating out 
 of the gases of the atmosphere and the salts and 
 earths of the soil a large portion of the aliments 
 which support the animal kingdom, and of pro- 
 viding mediately for the use of man a main part 
 of the animal products, which, after shorter or 
 longer processes of preparation, constitute his 
 food, his clothing, or his implements of economy. 
 They, therefore, are quite as worthy of attention 
 as lands under aration ; and to a skilful agricul- 
 turist, they also form the subject of hundreds of 
 cares and methods and investigations for their 
 proper management and their improvement. 
 
 Mountainous grass lands or upland pastures 
 
 may, in multitudes of instances, be greatly 
 improved by the draining of the soil, by top- 
 dressing with lime, by the artificial addition of 
 the most suitable herbage plants, and even by 
 a process of breaking up, mineral manuring, 
 and total re-sowing; and they ought, in all 
 instances, to be enclosed and subdivided, — to be 
 rather understocked than overstocked, — to enjoy i 
 alternations of rest and use, by the periodical I J 
 shifting of the flock from one enclosure to ano- j 
 ther, — to be freed, and kept free, from noxious or j I 
 useless vegetation, — to have the droppings of j ! 
 solid excrement upon them promptly spread or 
 scattered over considerable breadths of surface, — 
 and to be depastured either with only one species 
 of stock, or with cattle previous to sheep, and i } 
 never with sheep previous to cattle. 
 
 Grass lands suitable for the convertible hus- 
 bandry, or pastures which are neither too poor 
 to produce remunerating crops of corn nor too 
 rich to be more remunerating under grass than \ 
 under corn, ought to experience the alterative of | 
 tillage, and require particular management both 
 in relinquishing and in resuming their grasses. 
 When the surface is wet, it ought to be drained 
 before being broken up ; and whether wet or dry, 
 it ought, as soon as it is broken up, to be dosed 
 with either lime, chalk, or good calcareous marl. j 
 When the surface is neither friable nor shallow, 
 and has a sward which cannot soon be rotted, it 
 ought to be first pared and burned, and after- 
 wards subjected to the plough ; and when it is 
 deep, and has a coarse and vivacious turf, and 
 cannot conveniently be pared and burned, it 
 ought to be double ploughed, — one plough taking 
 off a sod of about three inches, and a following 
 plough taking up the proper depth of the mould 
 or soil below, and superimposing it on the in- 
 verted surface sod, — or one compound plough of 
 special construction, performing at one bout the 
 whole operation. The proper course of crops 
 during the period of aration depends partly on 
 the manner of the breaking up, and partly on 
 the nature of the soil ; but, both in itself and in 
 its accompanying processes of culture, it must 
 possess complete power to destroy all the coarse 
 plants, whether grasses, rushes, or whatever else, 
 which formerly deteriorated the turf. All the 
 green crops of the course, except in the case of 
 turnips upon strong wet soil, ought to be con- 
 sumed on the ground ; either all the straw of the 
 white crops, when converted into manure, or some 
 equivalent for it, containing the same or similar 
 elements of vegetable nutrition, ought to be j 
 returned to the spot ; and all processes of fallow- 
 ing, whether of green-fallowing or of bare-fallow- 
 ing, requisite to the thorough destruction of 
 weeds and poor grasses, to the full play of the 
 forces of natural chemistry, and to the complete 
 and very fine pulverization of the soil, ought to 
 be unsparingly performed. In returning the land 
 to grass, a corn crop may or may not, according 
 to circumstances, be sown along with the grasses, 
 
G09 
 
 GRASS LANDS. 
 
 — and when one is sown, oats ought to be pre- 
 ferred on peaty soils, and barley on all other soils ; 
 the grass-seeds ought to be deposited by means 
 of the grass-sowing machine, or if sown by hand, 
 they must be sown on a quite calm day, when the 
 soil is comparatively dry, and all the species not 
 closely similar in weight, bulk, and other mechani- 
 cal characters, must be sown successively to one 
 another, each constituting a sowing of itself ; and 
 preparatory to the whole process, the land, if not 
 naturally well drained, must be rendered dry and 
 porous by art, " for all the best sorts of grasses 
 abhor a wet bottom when they are young, and 
 will not root deep enough in it to bear the vicis- 
 situdes of the seasons, and, not increasing by the 
 roots as they ought to do, will die when they have 
 perfected their seed, and leave the land bare." 
 In the first autumn, the young grasses ought to 
 be depastured but very slightly, and only in dry 
 weather ; and in the following spring, the land 
 ought to be heavily rolled, in order to compress 
 the soil deeply and closely around the roots. 
 
 Water-meadows, — salt-marshes, — grass lands 
 which are liable to be flooded, — grass lands in 
 the vicinity of large towns, where the produce is 
 always in demand and of high market value, — 
 low-lying grass lands in the valleys of the chalk 
 downs and of mountainous districts, where old and 
 good pasture is scarce, and possesses peculiar 
 value for yielding early and late food to the flocks 
 of the adjacent uplands, — and rich grass lands, 
 with clayey, strong loamy, or powerfully alluvial 
 soils, not easily scorched by the summer's drought, 
 abounding in the most nutritive herbage, able to 
 feed sheep and cattle into very fine condition 
 and up to a great weight, producing in milk 
 cows copious secretions of rich, butyraceous, 
 finely-flavoured milk, possessing eminent adapta- 
 tion for preserving the hoofs of flocks, boasting a 
 great variety of both species and character of the 
 sweet, succulent, and nutritious grasses, yielding 
 a constant succession of herbage throughout the 
 year, and maintaining their fertility during an 
 indefinite period, without the aid of manure or 
 of any other costly appliance, — all such grass 
 lands ought to be kept continually in grass, ever 
 untouched by the plough or by anything which 
 would break or injure their sward. 
 
 Grass lands, of such medium quality as to re- 
 quire the stimulus of manure, and so situated as 
 to be easily capable of aration, in some instances 
 ought not, but in most instances ought, to be 
 subjected to the convertible husbandry. When, 
 as in Norfolk, all the arable land of a district is 
 light, and sheep are both bred and fed under the 
 care of one owner, a proportion of permanent 
 pasture on every farm is essential ; when lands in 
 grass pay only vicarial tithes, and are remuner- 
 ating as sheep-pastures, but would pay rectorial 
 tithes in aration, and yield uncompensating re- 
 turns of corn, they require, in all common sense, 
 to be kept permanently in grass ; when the re- 
 sources of an arable farm are incompetent to 
 
 yield more than an ordinary or average amount 
 of winter forage, one or two enclosures of per- 
 manent pasture may be necessary, not only for 
 aiding the routine support of sheep and cattle, 
 but as a resource in any emergency of severe and 
 prolonged frost in spring or of scorching drought 
 in summer ; and even when the practice of the 
 convertible husbandry over every acre of a farm 
 might be decidedly profitable for the tenant 
 within the limits of his period of lease, but would 
 be unprofitable to the landlord or depreciatory of 
 the aggregate value of the land beyond the limits 
 of that period, the retention of a fair proportion 
 of it in permanent pasture is demanded by the 
 principles of true and comprehensive economy. 
 
 But the vast majority of grass lands which re- 
 quire manure, and might be cereally cropped, 
 belong to none of the categories now specified, 
 and ought to be regularly treated upon the prin- 
 ciples of either the convertible or the rotational 
 husbandry, — either alternating a cycle of grass 
 with a cycle of aration, or relinquishing the char- 
 acter of permanent pastures altogether, and pro- 
 ducing grass only in the one or two or three years 
 artificially appropriated to it in a regular and 
 continuous course of cropping. "The objections 
 to the division of a farm, one-half into permanent 
 grass, and the other half into permanent tillage," 
 remarks Sir John Sinclair, " are very great. The 
 arable is deteriorated by the abstraction of the 
 manure it produced, if applied to enrich the 
 grass ; while a part of the manure thus employed 
 is wasted ; for spreading putrescent substances 
 upon the surface of a field, if done at an improper 
 season, is to manure, not only the soil, but the 
 atmosphere. The miserable crops of corn pro- 
 duced, where this system prevails, sufficiently 
 prove its mischievous consequences. So injurious 
 is this mode of management, that of impoverishing 
 the arable land for the sake of the grass, that in 
 the opinion of experienced farmers, the landlord 
 loses one fourth of the rent he otherwise would 
 get, for every acre thus debarred from cultivation: 
 while the public is deprived of 3| bushels of grain, 
 for every stone of beef or mutton thereby obtain- 
 ed. This is a point that cannot be too much 
 inculcated, in a country increasing in population, 
 and which finds it necessary to import foreign 
 grain for the maintenance of its inhabitants. 
 For, with the exception of rich pastures, arable 
 land is, on an average, superior to grass land, with 
 respect to furnishing articles of human food, in 
 the proportion of three to one ; and consequently 
 every piece of land, unnecessarily kept in grass, 
 the produce of which will only maintain one per- 
 son, is depriving the community of food, capable i 
 of maintaining two additional members. * * 
 Landlords, in many parts of England, are apt to 
 be apprehensive that their interests may suffer 
 from a change of system ; and it is much to be 
 lamented, that the law scarcely does afford them 
 adequate protection for their property against 
 tenants who are inclined to break through their 
 
GEASS LANDS. 
 
 engagements. Were it not for this circumstance, 
 the interests of the landlord might be sufficiently 
 guarded against injury, by judicious covenants, 
 and by prescribing an improved management. A 
 regular system of convertible husbandry might 
 thus be established, by which the value of landed 
 property would not only be greatly augmented, 
 but the true interests of the country be most 
 essentially promoted." An inferiority of the new 
 grass to the old, is sometimes experienced after 
 the period of tillage, and has often been urged as 
 the grand objection to the conversion of old turf 
 into arable land ; but this inferiority, in every 
 instance in which it occurs, is merely accidental 
 to the convertible system, and arises altogether 
 from foolish or miserly mismanagement, — either 
 from the non-destruction or the positive cherish- 
 ing of weeds and other coarse herbaceous indigens, 
 or from the exhaustion of humus by over-cropping 
 with grain, and affording stinted supplies of 
 manure, or from a bad selection and sparce ap- 
 plication of grass-seeds. But when even com- 
 paratively poor grass lands are calcareously 
 manured, thoroughly broken up, completely till- 
 ed, as amply supplied with humus and salts in 
 the shape of farm-yard compost as they are de- 
 prived of them in the shape of food to the grain 
 crops, and then wisely returned to grass under a 
 proper sowing of a proper mixture of grass seeds, 
 they are certain to produce a sward very decidedly 
 superior in all the desirable qualities of pasture 
 to that which they formerly possessed. 
 
 The advantages, on the other hand, of sub- 
 jecting arable land to regular alternations of 
 grass, are also very great. See the articles Fal- 
 low, Alternate Husbandry, and Rotation of 
 Crops. "It cannot be doubted," says Sir John 
 Sinclair, "that if one-fourth part of the land 
 which at present is sown with corn were properly 
 laid down in grass, for the purpose of feeding 
 stock, until it became again fit to bear abundant 
 crops of grain, it would be of the greatest benefit 
 both to the farmer and to the public, as the other 
 three-fourths would be better manured, more 
 easily cultivated, and would produce as much for 
 consumption as the whole now does. The advan- 
 tages to be derived from the alternate or con- 
 vertible husbandry, cannot be too much dwelt 
 on. If one million of acres of old tillage land 
 were gradually laid down into herbage, and the 
 like extent of old pasture broken up, and put 
 under judicious rotations, it would probably be 
 the means of supplying the public market with 
 not less than two millions of stones of beef and 
 mutton, additional, and three millions of quarters 
 of grain. Under that system also, when judi- 
 ciously conducted, the crops are always abundant, 
 and the soil is kept in a constant state of increas- 
 ing fertility. A considerable capital is necessa- 
 rily required, to commence and carry it on ; and 
 it must occasion some trouble in its execution ; 
 but these are circumstances which indispensably 
 accompany every improved system. If one-half 
 
 GRASS LANDS. 
 
 of a farm be kept under artificial grasses and 
 other green crops, as much live stock may often 
 be supported and fattened upon their produce, 
 as if the whole farm were pastured; while the 
 other half, enriched by the large quantity of dung 
 produced by the consumption of these crops, will 
 furnish as much disposable produce for supplying 
 the market with the various sorts of grain, as if 
 the whole farm had been sown with culmiferous 
 crops. Hence the superior advantages and profit I 
 derived from a conjunction of stock and of corn 
 husbandry ; by the union of which, wherever 
 such a plan is practicable, British husbandry can j 
 be more substantially improved, than by any 
 other means that has hitherto been suggested." 
 
 The manuring of grass lands, whether they are I 
 middle-rate permanent pastures, or long-continued 
 lea-grounds, or thin-swarded and unthriving arti- I 
 ficial grasses, is, in many instances, an operation ' 
 of considerable nicety. Proper liquid-manure, 
 indeed, is both peculiarly appropriate and very 
 easily applied. See the article Liquid Manure. 
 Light dressings of soot, wood ashes, peat ashes, 
 malt-dust, or any similar substance, if applied in 
 dry weather and during a firm state of tfte ground 
 in February or March, are likewise very suitable, 
 and often highly beneficial ; yet even these are 
 sometimes inappropriate, and ought never to be 
 used till their efficacy upon the particular soil 
 or field requiring manure is ascertained by expe- 
 riment. Unmixed putrescent farm-yard manure, i 
 if applied at some seasons of the year, and in cer- 
 tain states of the land and the weather, will 
 almost wholly be dissipated in the atmosphere or 
 washed away with surface-water; and even a ! 
 compost of such a nature as to comprise the I | 
 powers of farm-yard manure, and yet to arrest or 
 lessen their volatility, renders any pasture un- 
 suitable for milk-cows, and requires, in any cir- 
 cumstances, to be applied with caution and skill, j 
 The best month for it is October, and the best 
 conditions an open state of the soil and the pros- 
 pect of immediate or speedy rains ; so that it may 
 not be evaporated by drought or sunshine, and 
 may percolate with the rain into the pores and 
 interstices of the soil, and find as rapid and deep 
 and complete a lodgement as possible around the 
 roots of the grasses. An old practice in the north 
 of England is to cart the manure to the pastures 
 in the time of frost ; and this is recommended by 
 the seemingly sagacious considerations of not I 
 injuring the sward, and of giving employment to ! 
 the otherwise idle teams ; but' it is really a prac- 
 tice of great absurdity. So long as the frost lasts, 
 the land cannot possibly profit from the manure ; ! 
 and when a thaw arrives, the wash from rain or 
 from melting snow, carries off all the portions of 
 it which either liquefy or dissolve ; and the soil, j 
 for days, continues too much frost-bound to admit 
 any of the more solid portions, and afterwards it 
 is so saturated with the moisture of the thaw as 
 still to possess no capacity for manure. 
 
 The growth of mosses, particularly of hypnums 
 
 610 
 
GRASS LANDS. 
 
 and sphagnums, often infests the finer kinds of 
 grasses, and sometimes increases with amazing 
 rapidity and force. The grand remedy for this 
 evil, and that which in almost every instance 
 will secure the greatest ultimate profit, especially 
 when the mosses are much diffused or have ra- 
 pidly appeared, is promptly to plough up the 
 ground, and subject it to a course of tillage. 
 Another remedy, scarcely inferior in power to 
 the preceding, but sometimes of a nature rather 
 to be a correlative of it than a substitute of it, is 
 1 to drain the land, and apply to it rich composts. 
 When the land is so very wet and so much im- 
 poverished that subsoil-draining and the complete 
 incorporation of strong manure are requisite for 
 its proper cure, it ought to be, at the same time, 
 improved by the destruction of its present sward, 
 the pulverization and cleansing of its soil, and 
 the production of a new sward by artificial sow- 
 ing ; but when it is so slightly wet and so little 
 impoverished that surface - draining and mere 
 top-dressings are sufficient, it, of course, needs 
 not be broken up. Another remedy, or at least 
 a palliative, which sometimes serves as a remedy, 
 is to harrow and cross-harrow with such a weight 
 upon the harrow as to keep the tines at a depth 
 of from one inch to two inches, and afterwards 
 to make a sprinkling of grass-seed, and to apply 
 a small top-dressing of lime. Another palliative, 
 which sometimes operates as a remedy, destroying 
 the moss and bringing up abundance of grass, is 
 to feed sheep with oil-cake, and allow them to 
 depasture on the land. 
 
 The weeding of grass lands is essential to true 
 economy. Many grass lands may be seen in 
 Ireland, and not a few even in Britain, so overrun 
 with rushes and sedges, or with docks, thistles, 
 ragweed, knapweed, and other bulky and unpro- 
 fitable intruders, that not more than one-half of 
 their whole area, if even so much, is occupied 
 with useful herbage ; and so long as they continue 
 in such a condition, they are at least half lost to 
 the occupant, and are every season becoming se- 
 riously worse. Rushes and sedges can be exter- 
 minated only by thorough draining and its proper 
 accompanying operations. Ragweed may speedily 
 be exterminated by the cheap and easy means of 
 depasturing with sheep, who eat down the young 
 plants of it to the surface of the ground as soon 
 as they appear. Docks and thistles may be ex- 
 terminated by cutting down the plants, when 
 passing into bloom, or before they form their 
 seed, with' a weeding-hook for a series of years ; 
 and they ought to be cut down also from the 
 surrounding hedges, the neighbouring roads, and 
 any adjacent waste places whence they- might 
 convey their seeds upon the breeze into the field. 
 Numerous small weeds, and especially coarse and 
 comparatively unprofitable grasses, can be exter- 
 minated only by the ploughing up and general 
 improving of the land. 
 
 Every grass-field ought to be cleared of stones 
 and of all kinds of rubbish and accumulations 
 
 GRASS LANDS. 
 
 which can in any way obstruct the growth of the 
 grasses. Stones ought to be picked up when the 
 ground is dry and firm, and to be thrown directly 
 into an attendant cart ; or at worst, they should 
 be collected into heaps till the state of the field 
 can allow a cart to pass over it without injury to 
 the sward. Sticks, bushes, and spray which have 
 fallen from hedge-pruning or been strown by the 
 wind, ought all to be removed. The cones of 
 anthills are always important enough to demand 
 attention, and sometimes serious enough to re- 
 quire very special care. See the article Ant. 
 Mole-hills ought to be scattered and spread with 
 a spade or a bush-harrow ; and then they will 
 not only cease to be a nuisance, but will improve 
 the land. All spots left bare or partially vacant 
 by the removal of weeds, stones, or rubbish, 
 ought to receive a sufficient sprinkling of grass- 
 seeds. 
 
 The rolling or the scarifying of grass lands, 
 according to the condition of the sward, is an 
 important operation. The rolling is proper when i 
 the sward has a free, open, unembarrassed tex- 
 ture, such as indicates growth and health in all 
 or most of the plants which compose it ; and it 1 
 serves the purposes of smoothening and consoli- 
 dating the surface, of protecting the roots of the 
 grasses from the injurious effects of drought, of 
 preventing the formation of anthills, and of pro- 
 moting the growth of valuable herbage. But it 
 must be judiciously performed under suitable 
 circumstances of the land, else it will bruise tbe 
 herbage, damage the roots, close up the pores of 
 the soil, and in general do vastly more harm 
 than good. It ought, if circumstances permit, 
 to be performed about a fortnight before the 
 field begins, for the season, to be depastured ; 
 and it ought never, in any circumstances, to be 
 performed except when the sward is quite dry, 
 and when the soil or the seat of the roots is suf- 
 ficiently yielding to prevent the bruising of the 
 leaves or the rupture of the roots beneath the 
 pressure of the roller. Sandy and semi-elastic 
 lands may be rolled at any time when their sward 
 is dry; but clay lands may be advantageously . 
 rolled only when any little lumps or inequalities 
 on their surface crumble down with the pressure 
 of the foot, and are not flattened and consoli- j 
 dated, but enter softly and wholly into combina- 
 tion with the surrounding soil. But whenever 
 a sward is in the compact and tenacious condi- 
 tion which is technically called hide-bound, roll- 
 ing, under even the most favourable circum- 
 stances, would injure rather than improve it, 
 and scarifying must be practised instead, to 
 loosen the surface, to give the roots new facili- 
 ties for absorbing food and producing herbage, 
 and, if thought desirable, to serve also as a pow- 
 erful precurrent aid to the beneficial operation 
 of a top-dressing of manure. An easy method of 
 scarifying is to employ either harrow-teeth or a 
 plough with mere coulters, so as to tear or cut 
 the whole surface. 
 
 611 
 
612 
 
 GRASS LANDS. 
 
 An important rule in the management of grass | 
 lands — one whose violation always indicates 
 either monstrous ignorance or scandalous waste- 
 fulness — is never to allow them to be depastured 
 when, either from saturation with rain or from 
 other causes, they cannot firmly resist the pres- 
 sure of the feet of the flocks ; and this rule pe- 
 culiarly applies to all clay-lands and heavy loams. 
 " When land of a retentive quality is pastured 
 by cattle or horses in wet seasons," remarks Sir 
 John Sinclair, "it receives much injury from 
 their feet. Every step they take leaves an im- 
 pression, which rain fills with water, and then 
 the hole stands full like a cup. This wetness 
 destroys the herbage, not only in the hole, but 
 that also which surrounds it, while at the same 
 time the roots of the grasses, as well as the 
 ground, are chilled and injured. No good far- 
 mer, therefore, will permit any cattle to set a 
 foot on such land in wet weather, and few dur- 
 ing the winter months on any consideration." 
 
 The mowing of very rich old grass lands ought 
 seldom or never to be practised, for it so injures 
 the most delicate of the grasses or deteriorates 
 the aggregate excellencies of the sward that the 
 pastures seldom fatten stock so well afterwards 
 as before, and sometimes lose a considerable pro- 
 portion of the feeding celebrity which they may 
 have acquired. The annual mowing of rich 
 grass lands frequently invites an attack of the 
 mosses, encourages the appearance or the spread 
 of other weeds, weakens some and kills others 
 of the finer grasses, diminishes or exterminates 
 white clover, affords facility to the coarse and 
 rank grasses to extend and usurp, and renders 
 the whole sward comparatively thin and innu- 
 tritious ; and whenever the practice has been so 
 long or so mischievously pursued as to induce 
 even a portion of these evils, it ought to be en- 
 tirely abandoned, and the lands used entirely for 
 depasturing, and subjected to the requisite pro- 
 cesses of improvement, during at least a suffi- 
 cient time to subdue all their weeds, and effect 
 a complete reappearance of all their finer grasses. 
 Whenever rich lands are mown, whether occa- 
 sionally or annually, the mowing ought to take 
 place early in the season, and the aftermath 
 ought to be fed but lightly, and only by sheep. 
 
 The plan of alternately mowing and depastur- 
 ing grass lands of medium quality, or such as 
 require occasional doses of manure, and are most 
 profitably treated on the principles of the con- 
 vertible husbandry, has been a subject of great 
 contest of opinion among intelligent agricultur- 
 ists. " By adopting that system," says the writer 
 already quoted, " a farmer, it is said, may go on 
 longer without the application of manure, but his 
 fields in the end will be ruined by it. It is con- 
 tended, that to maintain a proper quantity of 
 stock, the land must be accustomed to keep it, 
 particularly in the case of sheep, — that where 
 land has been used to the scythe, if manured for 
 pastures, it will often produce more grass, but 
 
 that grass will not, cceteris paribus, support so 
 much stock, nor fatten them nearly so well, — 
 and that old pasture will not produce so much 
 hay, as land that has been constantly mowed, — 
 for each will grow best as they have been accus- ! 
 tomed to grow, and will not readily alter their 
 former habits. On the other hand, it is asserted, 
 that many experienced farmers prefer the sys- 
 tem of feeding and mowing alternately, as they 
 find that, under that system, the quality and 
 quantity of the hay have been improved, and the 
 pasturage in the alternate year has been equally 
 sweet and productive. It is a most important 
 point to ascertain in what cases cutting or feed- 
 ing is most beneficial. If fed, the land has the 
 advantage of the dung and urine of the pastur- 
 ing stock ; but the dung being dropped in irre- 
 gular quantities, and in the heat of summer ! 
 when it is devoured by insects, loses much of its 
 utility. If the dung arising from the herbage, 
 whether consumed in soiling or as hay, were ap- 
 plied to the land, in one body, and at the proper 
 season, the operation would be more effectual. 
 The smother of a thick crop, continued for any 
 time upon the ground, greatly tends to promote 
 its fertility ; and it has been pretty uniformly 
 found, after repeated trials, upon soils of almost 
 every description, that oats, taken after clover 
 that has been cut, either for soiling or hay, is 
 superior to the crop taken after clover pastured 
 by sheep." 
 
 The method of producing sward by means of 
 planting or inoculation, is admirably adapted to 
 all light soils, whether arenaceous, moorish, peaty, 
 or otherwise, which do not possess a natural ap- 
 titude for grass, or freely promote the germina- 
 tion of artificially sown grass-seeds ; for it lays 
 upon them nuclei or little masses of full-grown, 
 living, vigorous plants, produced upon good soil, 
 and continuing to be rooted in portions of it, 
 and leaves these to dispread themselves athwart 
 intervening spaces, so as to create an aggregate 
 sward of incomparably thicker texture and finer 
 quality than could have been raised on such 
 ground from seeds. The land to be inoculated 
 must be thoroughly cleaned, pulverized, and 
 otherwise prepared by means of a summer fal- 
 low. The season selected for the process ought 
 to be as soon after the early autumnal rains have 
 fallen as to moisten the sward or turf sufficiently 
 for paring it off clean, and to wet the fallow 
 ground sufficiently for disposing it to unite with 
 the transplanted turf and commence the nour- 
 ishing of its roots. The sward employed ought 
 to be good, clean, sweet, fibrous-rooted turf of 
 very rich old meadow ; and it should be carefully 
 taken up in stripes of two inches or at most three 
 inches in breadth, and afterwards so subdivided 
 as to be cut into small squares of the same ex- 
 tent as the breadth of the stripes. No more 
 ought to be cut in one day than is likely to be 
 planted before night. The little squares must 
 be placed, with the grassy surface uppermost, at 
 
GRASSES 
 
 613 
 
 GRAVEL. 
 
 drstances from one another of five or six inches, 
 and pressed into the ground by means of a heavy 
 roller. Turf from one acre of meadow ought to 
 ! be quite sufficient for planting nine acres of 
 j ground. The little squares speedily unite them- 
 ! selves to the soil, and soon begin to make lateral 
 | growths, in the direction of filling the interme- 
 ! diate spaces ; and at intervals, in proper states 
 ! of the ' soil and the weather, when the little 
 ■ squares are in a medium condition between wet 
 and dry, they ought to be heavily rolled, in or- 
 der to made them extend themselves along the 
 ground, and to prevent them from rising into 
 tufts. The intervals are liable to be infested 
 with weeds, and ought, till they become filled 
 with sward, to be repeatedly cleaned by means 
 of a narrow hoe; and if the turf should have 
 been deficient in white clover or any of the most 
 ! desirable grasses, the intervals, or rather the 
 whole surface, ought to be sown with the seeds 
 of these in the course of the next spring. The 
 young pasture is soon sufficiently formed to lose 
 all appearance of the intervals; but it ought not 
 to be touched by stock during the first spring or 
 summer, or till it has matured and shed seeds, 
 or even till the grass in the original intervals 
 becomes so thick and matted as to constitute 
 quite compact turf. 
 
 The legal question of grass lands, as a question 
 be ween the landlord and the tenant, has given 
 rise to more disputes in England than any other 
 question involved in farm-leases ; and it has long 
 and generally been in so loose a state as to pre- 
 sent a very serious impediment, or often an in - 
 surmountable obstacle, to the practice of the con- 
 vertible husbandry. " Some agreements," says 
 Donaldson's edition of Bayldon, " enjoin one- 
 third and others one-fourth of the farm to re- 
 main in grass, and not to be ploughed or con- 
 verted into tillage without a written leave from 
 the landlord ; while in the grazing counties, one- 
 half is prescribed, and on some poor soils, as much 
 as two- thirds. If there be no written agreement, 
 or if it be silent on this point, it is understood that 
 the tenant must leave as much land in grass when 
 he quits the farm, as he found when he entered 
 upon it. If the tenant ploughs any grass lands 
 during his occupation, or on quitting does not 
 leave as much land in grass as he found on en- 
 tering, he is liable by the law on that point to 
 remunerate the landlord for the damages thereby 
 sustained. The amount of such damages is usu- 
 ally ascertained by charging half rent and taxes, 
 two dressings, an average allowance of clover 
 seeds and hay seeds, sowing and harrowing, 
 which may amount to between £3 and £4 an 
 acre. Many agreements stipulate for £5 an 
 acre, and some valuers contend for that allow- 
 ance in the absence of any agreement. * * If 
 the tenant has laid down any grass land during 
 his tenancy, it is not taken as such, unless laid 
 down with the proper seeds, after a fallow well 
 
 cleaned and manured. On some estates, it is 
 customary to allow for grass lands that may be 
 laid down by the tenant in addition to the sti- 
 pulated quantity, which, if it has not been mown 
 too often, and if it has been well managed, is 
 paid for by the rate above-mentioned. * * Leas- 
 es and agreements most frequently mention the 
 names of the fields, and the quantity of acres in 
 each, that are to be kept in permanent grass and 
 not to be ploughed ; and, consequently, any im- 
 provements the farmer can effect must be by 
 draining and top-dressing, if necessary. If the 
 farmer lays down more land, the allowance per 
 acre may be expressed, and by clear and correct 
 definitions much cavil and dispute may be avoid- 
 ed." See the article Lease. — Sir John Sinclair's 
 Code of Agriculture. — The Farmer's Magazine. — 
 Reports to the Board of Agriculture. — Parliamen- 
 tary Enquiries into the state of Irish Agriculture. 
 — Bayldon s Art of Valuing Rents and Tillages. — 
 — Young. — Doyle. — Rham. — Davy. — Stephens. 
 
 GRASS SEEDS. See Seed, Grasses, and 
 Agricultural Seeds. 
 
 GRATTEN. The first crop of grass after a 
 piece of grass land has been manured with sea- 
 sand. The mowing of the crop is called mow- 
 ing in gratten. But the word is strictly pro- 
 vincial. 
 
 GRAVEL. A mass of pebbles or small water- 
 worn stones, from the size of a pea to that of a 
 plum or a small potato. In this state, it occurs 
 principally on the beds and margins of streams, 
 and consists of quite recent disintegrations of 
 rocks. But gravelalso comprises superficial strata 
 of ground, constituting either soil or subsoil or 
 both, and lying at any height above sea-level, 
 and at any distance from "the present course of 
 streams ; and in this state, it consists either of 
 diluvium, or of old, middle-aged, or recent allu- 
 vium, and when it lies at or near the sur- 
 face, is generally more or less mixed with sand 
 and with decayed organic remains. In the 
 former state, it seldom covers any considerable 
 tract of surface, and is almost never an object of 
 interest to the farmer ; but in the latter state, 
 it often constitutes extensive tracts of country, 
 and generally possesses the character either of 
 ground in actual cultivation, or of waste land 
 which the agriculturist either sadly abandons to 
 sterility or wistfully treats as a subject of recla- 
 mation. 
 
 The gravel of soils and subsoils bears a similar 
 relation to the sand of soils and subsoils, as that 
 which conglomerate rock bears to sandstone rock. 
 The stones or pebbles of it may be widely different 
 in any two of a dozen specimens, and aggregately 
 consist of the water-worn fragments of all sorts 
 of rocks, from sandstones and limestones up to 
 the oldest and hardest granites, clay-schists, and 
 quartzose rocks which have been broken up and 
 carried away by the slow action of water ; and 
 the pulverulent matter of it, corresponding in a 
 
GRAVEL. 
 
 614 
 
 GRAZIER. 
 
 degree to the cement of conglomerate, may ex- 
 hibit a predominance of either arenaceous matter, 
 calcareous matter, argillaceous matter, or vege- 
 table mould, or may be a mixture, in any propor- 
 tions, of two or three or all of these materials. 
 
 Gravelly soil possesses every gradation and 
 variety of character from utter barrenness to 
 comparatively high fertility. Loose kinds of it, 
 consisting of hard round pebbles, with intermix- 
 tures only or chiefly of silicious sand, are usually 
 the worst varieties ; and if not absolutely barren, 
 require such enormous quantities of both mineral 
 and organic manures to render them productive, 
 as to have occasioned them to be called hungry 
 gravels. The principal means of reclaiming these 
 are to intermix clay with them, and to give them, 
 when practicable, abundant irrigation. Gravelly 
 soils of a soft nature and somewhat firm consis- 
 tency, with easily disintegrable pebbles, and an 
 intermixture of either argillaceous, calcareous, 
 or vegetable powdery matters, or with abundance 
 of gritty particles of schist or limestone, are the 
 best ; and these greatly improve by tillage and 
 exposure, and often possess a somewhat high rank 
 among the soils of a farm. " The rich gravels," 
 remarks Professor Low, "will produce all the 
 cultivated kinds of grain. Their looser texture 
 renders them less suited than the clays to the 
 growth of wheat and beans ; but they are admi- 
 rably adapted to the growth of barley and oats. 
 They are quick in their powers of producing ve- 
 getation ; and, from this quality, they are in 
 some places termed sharp or quick soils. They 
 readily admit of alternations of herbage and till- 
 age, and improve in a state of perennial pastur- 
 age. They are generally trusty soils with regard 
 to the quality of the grain which they yield ; 
 and, in this respect, they differ from many of the 
 sands, in which the quality of the grain produced 
 does not always accord with its early promise. 
 Gravels, like sands, are suited to the culture of 
 the different kinds of plants raised for the bulbs 
 and tubers of their roots ; and they are in so 
 peculiar a degree suited to the growth of turnips, 
 that, in some parts, they receive the distinguish- 
 ing appellation of turnip soils." 
 
 GRAVEL. A disease in the bladder. See the 
 articles Stone-in-the-Bladder and Calculus. 
 
 GRAZIER. A farmer who employs himself 
 principally in buying, feeding, and selling cattle 
 and sheep. He differs from a stock-farmer and 
 a store-farmer, in paying little or no attention to 
 the breeding or the rearing of stock, — in having a 
 closer connection and far more frequent inter- 
 change with the markets for stock, — in devoting 
 his chief professional skill to the speediest and 
 most profitable fattening of the particular breeds 
 and individuals which he judges to have the best 
 adaptation jointly to his pastures and to the 
 markets, — and in occupying, not remote, upland, 
 and generally poor pastures among the moun- 
 tains, but rich grass lands, old meadows, and 
 
 other varieties of fattening pastures amid popu- 
 lous and town-environed plains. He requires a 
 good knowledge of the many different breeds of 
 stock, an intimate acquaintance with the pecu- 
 liar adaptations or non-adaptations of each breed j 
 to such circumstances of climate and pasture as 
 those which characterize his farm, a ready dis- I 
 cernment of the excellencies or defects of any j j 
 individual of each breed, a profound knowledge ! 
 of the many principles and practices involved in 
 the most economical treatment of grass lands, 
 and thoroughly mercantile habits in selecting the 
 best markets, in making the most seasonable 
 purchases and sales, and in subordinating his 
 whole professional conduct to the fluctuations 
 and even the caprices of demand. The stocking 
 of almost any farm, but especially the continuous 
 stocking of one which is mainly employed as 
 middle -ground between the breeders of lean 
 stock and the consumers of fattened stock, re- 
 quires a larger concentration of skill and tact 
 than almost any other single department of agri- 
 cultural effort ; and the proper management of 
 grass lands, especially if they happen to be varied 
 in soil and in the character of their vegetation, 
 demands a degree of scientific knowledge, of j 
 discernment, and of reflexion second only to 
 those which are needed for the proper treatment 
 of arable land. Grazing, even when wisely con- 
 ducted, is profitable only upon extensive pastures, 
 and in districts where the value of animal food 
 is so high as to make it equal or excel grain as a 
 marketable agricultural produce ; and it is prac- 
 tised most extensively in the midland counties of 
 England, and especially in Leicestershire and 
 Lincolnshire. 
 
 Some of the most intelligent graziers classify 
 their pastures, whether in fields or by temporary 
 subdivisions, into four sets, — one, held in com- 
 plete reserve, till its grass have attained full 
 growth, or be in the best condition for the final 
 fattening of stock, — another, used by fattening 
 animals immediately preparatory or antecedent 
 to their being admitted into the reserved set, — 
 another, used by the lowest or most backward 
 group of the fattening stock, — and the fourth, 
 used first by the working or store portion of the 
 stock, and next by lean sheep, to eat the pasture 
 down close to the surface. A refinement upon 
 this plan subdivides the first set into two parts, 
 and might subdivide the second set also into two 
 parts, and does not allow the one subdivision to 
 be entered till the other subdivision is grazed ; 
 and this refinement improves the aim of the 
 whole plan, to keep the animals as amply as 
 possible on grass which is at once luxuriant, 
 clean and sweet. All cattle relish good grass, 
 and consequently fatten upon it, in nearly the j 
 proportion of its freshness ; and most, perhaps 
 all, disrelish it or loathe it, and cease to derive 
 due advantage from it, in the exact proportion 
 in which it has been bruised with the feet, and i 
 
GREASE. 
 
 615 
 
 GREASE. 
 
 polluted with the breath, and filthified with 
 droppings of urine and dung. An excellent plan 
 even on farms of the mixed or convertible hus- 
 bandry, therefore, is to arrange the whole pasture- 
 land of a farm into so many fields or subdivisions 
 or sets that all may be occupied by the whole 
 stock of cattle in succession, and each eaten out 
 by them in the course of at least 14 or 16 days ; 
 and a requisite supplementary plan on such 
 farms, would be to let the sheep either follow or 
 accompany the cattle, in piece after piece, so 
 that they might cut down what the high and 
 rough feeding habit of cattle could not reach. 
 
 But grazing is practised also on hill pastures, 
 or with the aid of hay-meadows, or even with 
 the aid of all such appliances as are common in 
 farms of the mixed husbandry ; and in order to 
 be nearly as profitable in any of these cases, as 
 upon farms of old, rich, valley grass lands, it 
 requires only to comprehend a studied adaptation 
 of the breed and habits of the animals to the 
 circumstances in which they are fattened. " A 
 man who has fertile meadow or rich marsh," says 
 the author of the Treatise on British Husbandry, 
 "may fatten bullocks as large as he can find 
 them ; while on poor land, affording but scanty 
 pasture, and a short bite in the summer, no 
 bullocks will pay better than the small Galloways, 
 or most of the Highland stock ; but on richer 
 pasture and better turnip soils, the most profit- 
 able will be found to be the larger species of the 
 Fifeshire and Lowland Scotch, with the Hereford 
 and short-horned Yorkshire breeds, or those 
 grown in the neighbourhood. Graziers, however, 
 would act prudently in ascertaining the nature 
 of the land upon which the cattle were bred, 
 and choosing their purchased stock from an 
 inferior soil ; for if young cattle be taken from 
 a good to a worse soil, they are apt to become 
 stunted in their growth, and if old enough to be 
 fed for the butcher, they will not feed so kindly 
 as those taken from more indifferent pasture. 
 Generally speaking, however, bullocks from 40 to 
 60 stones weight, 14 lbs. to the stone, are much 
 more saleable than larger ones, and may always 
 be finished with turnips, and perhaps a small 
 addition of oil-cake, if put up, as they always 
 should be, in good condition ; for nothing is 
 more injudicious than to attempt the stall-feed- 
 ing of oxen in the view of their becoming fat, at 
 any fair expense, unless they be in good order as 
 stores." See the articles Farm, Cattle, Grass 
 Laxds, and Pasture. 
 
 GREASE. A local inflammation in the heels 
 of horses. It sometimes arises out of the disease 
 called swelled legs, and has frequently been con- 
 founded with it, yet is quite distinct from that 
 disease. It occurs sometimes in the fore-feet, 
 but oftener in the hind-feet ; and, though neither 
 contagious nor epizootic, it not infrequently 
 appears, about one time or within a brief period, 
 upon most or all of the horses of a stable. It 
 
 | essentially consists in a stoppage of the greasy 
 secretion, which is beneficially provided for 
 ( maintaining a soft condition of the skin of the 
 heel, and preventing chapping and excoriation ; 
 and it usually develops itself in redness, dryness, 
 and scurfiness of the skin ; but, in bad or pro- 
 longed cases, it is accompanied with deep cracks, 
 an ichorous discharge, considerable lameness, and 
 even great ulceration and much fungous growth ; 
 and in the worst cases, it spreads athwart all the 
 heel, extends on the fetlock, ascends the leg, and 
 is accompanied with extensive swelling and a 
 general oozing discharge. 
 
 Most of the causes of grease are referable to 
 bad management, especially in regard to great 
 and sudden changes in the exterior temperature 
 of the heels. The feet of the horse may be alter- 
 nately heated by the straw of his litter in the 
 stable, and cooled by the opening of the stable- 
 door ; or they may be first made hot and sensi- 
 tive by the irritating action of the urine and 
 filth on the stable-floor, and then violently re- 
 acted on by the cold breezes of the open air ; or 
 they may be moist and reeking when he is led 
 out to work, and then chilled for a long period 
 by the slow evaporation of the moisture from 
 them amid the clods and soil of the field ; or they 
 may be warm or even perspiring with the labour 
 of the day, and next plunged into a stream or 
 sponged with cold water, and then allowed to dry 
 partly in the open air and partly in the stable ; 
 and in any of these ways, or of any others which 
 occasion sudden changes of temperature in the 
 heels, especially when these changes are accom- 
 panied or aggravated by the irritating action of 
 filth, grease is exceedingly liable to be induced. 
 Want of exercise, high feeding, and whatever 
 tends to accumulate or to stagnate the greasy 
 secretion in the skin of the heels, also operate, in 
 some degree, as causes. But, by mere good man- 
 agement, the British cavalry have expelled grease 
 from the list of their horses' diseases ; and by the 
 same means all yeomen and farmers might drive 
 grease from the list of theirs. 
 
 In the early, dry scurfy stage of grease, the 
 heels may be well cleaned with soap and water, 
 and afterwards thoroughly dried, and then treat- 
 ed with either a saturnine wash or with a satur- 
 nine ointment. In the mildest form of the stage 
 of cracks and ichorous discharge, some drying 
 powder, such as equal quantities of white lead 
 and tutty, may be applied, or simply the satur- 
 nine ointment may be continued. In the viru- 
 lent form of cracks, accompanied with ulceration, 
 the heels ought to be daily washed clean with 
 warm water, and afterwards bathed with a mild 
 astringent lotion, and every morning and even- 
 ing thinly poulticed or coated with a mild satur- 
 nine ointment, and the whole system ought to be 
 acted on by a moderate bleeding, by alteratives, 
 by a nightly bran mash, and, if the animal be in 
 full condition, with one or two doses of some pur- 
 
GREAT BURNET. 
 
 61G 
 
 GREEN FOOD. 
 
 gative medicine. In the worst and most exten- 
 sively spread cases, poultices of a very cooling 
 kind, particularly poultices of scraped carrots or 
 scraped turnips, ought to be used day and night, 
 both for the sake of their own action, and as 
 preparatives to the action of the astringent ap- 
 plication; and the whole course of treatment 
 ought to aim at the abatement of the inflamma- 
 tion previous to the stopping of the discharge. 
 In the event of great obstinacy, as well as much 
 virulence, of the disease, the horse, especially if 
 he be young and vigorous, may require to be 
 turned to grass. 
 
 GREASE (Molten). See Dysentery. 
 
 GREAT BURNET, — Sangidsorba officinalis. 
 A perennial-rooted, indigenous herb, belonging 
 to the rose-flowered order of plants. It grows 
 wild in moist meadows and pastures in various 
 parts of Great Britain. Its stem branches 
 toward the top ; its leaves are pinnate, and con- 
 sist each of 5 or 6 pairs of leaflets and a termi- 
 nating odd one ; its leaflets are about two inches 
 long, thin, serrated, and a little downy below; 
 and its flowers are produced in thick oval spikes, 
 and have a pink colour, and bloom from June 
 till August. This plant is regarded by some 
 persons as worthy of agricultural cultivation. A 
 permanent variety of it is known as the eared 
 great burnet, S. o. auriculata. 
 
 GREEN CHEESE. Cheese stained by means 
 of an infusion of sage leaves, parsley, or other 
 green vegetable substances, in the milk of which 
 the cheese is made. The practice of staining 
 cheese green prevails chiefly in Wiltshire. See 
 the article Cheese. 
 
 GREEN" CROPS. Crops which alternate with 
 the cereal grasses in regular rotations, or which 
 admit of the cleansing and ameliorating cultiva- 
 tion called the green fallow. See the article 
 Fallow. The principal green crops at present 
 in use are turnips, cabbages, borecoles, beans, 
 carrots, beet, mangel-wurzel, sainfoin, lucern, 
 tares, and clover ; but several others, well adapted 
 to field culture, and very valuable for their econo- 
 mical uses, might be added. The proper treat- 
 ment of green crops, in their collective relations 
 to the soil and to the cereal members of a rota- 
 tion, is noticed in the article Fallow ; and the 
 proper treatment of them in their individual 
 character and for their distinctive uses, is noticed 
 in the several articles on the plants themselves, 
 such as Turnip, Cabbage, &c. — The word green 
 crops is sometimes employed in a large sense, to 
 designate all cultivated esculent plants which are 
 used in a green or unripe state; and in this 
 sense, green crops comprise the greater portion 
 of the ordinary productions of the kitchen gar- 
 den. 
 
 GREEN FALLOW. See Fallow. 
 
 GREEN FOOD. Cut or gathered esculent 
 plants, used in their fresh or succulent state. It 
 differs from fodder in . excluding all dried sub- 
 
 stances, and from pasturage or herbage in being 
 consumed in the house. See the article Soiling. 
 
 GREEN MANURE. Vegetable substances in- 
 corporated with the soil in their succulent state, 
 to act as fertilizers for subsequent crops. They 
 may be either entire plants or parts of plants ; 
 either weeds, or part of cultivated crops, or the i 
 whole of cultivated crops ; either the produce of \ 
 waste grounds carried to arable fields, or the 
 refuse of any kind of useful produce, or especially 
 raised upon the spot with the express design of 
 being used as manure ; either used some little 
 time after becoming dead, but before losing their j 
 succulency, or buried in the soil by the same act 
 or process which destroys their life. 
 
 Vegetables returned, partly or wholly, into the 
 soil in the same condition in which they have 
 grown out of it might seem, to an unreflecting 
 person, or to one unacquainted with agricultural 
 chemistry, utterly incapable of acting as ferti- 
 lizers; and certainly, if they derived all their 
 substance out of the soil, and were to return it 
 in the same state of chemical combination and 
 with the same play of chemical affinities in 
 which they derived it, they would give back 
 exactly what they received, and affect the soil 
 none otherwise than by the accessories and acci- 
 dents of their culture. But by far the largest 
 portion of their bulk is derived, not from the 
 soil at all, but from air and water, — and the 
 whole of this is contributed by green manure as 
 clear, gain to the soil, or as prepared and ready 
 aliment for the succeeding crop ; and the remain- 
 der of their bulk, though extracted from the 
 soil, is brought into new affinities, and more 
 practicable ones than before, — so that even this, 
 as returned to the soil by green manure, is in a 
 condition for more rapid and advantageous assi- 
 milation than if it had not recently played a part 
 in vegetable growth. " The plants which form 
 the most valuable food for animals," remarks 
 Dr. Shier, " are almost all incapable of being 
 raised on very poor soils, and they draw most 
 largely on the soil for support ; there are, how- 
 ever, others less fitted for feeding animals, that 
 draw largely on the air, and are capable of grow- 
 ing on poor soils ; it is these that are most appro- 
 priately employed for green manuring. In se- 
 lecting plants for this purpose, care should be 
 taken that they are rapid growers, nourished 
 chiefly at the expense of the air, capable of 
 autumnal growth, and that they are hardy and 
 suitable to the soil and the climate. 
 
 Green manure, though a very important, fa- 
 cile, and powerful means of enriching the soil, 
 and though known in some forms to the ancient 
 Romans, and practised in others by very many 
 farmers of the present day, has received surpris- 
 ingly little attention from scientific agricultur- 
 ists, and is even unrecognised in name by multi- 
 tudes of cultivators. Specific green manure may 
 be regarded as at present practically unknown 
 
GREEN MANURE. 
 
 617 
 
 GREEN MANURE. 
 
 among the farmers of Britain ; residual green 
 manure from cultivated plants is known princi- 
 pally in the form of breaking up lea-grounds and 
 ploughing clover lands, and partly in the prac- 
 tices of some kitchen gardens and in the plough- 
 ing in of the leaves and tops of turnips ; and 
 incidental or waste green manure is known only 
 in such a fitful and scattered manner as places 
 it beyond the limits of all system. " The chief 
 causes of the neglect of green manure," says Mr. 
 Shier — though his remarks apply mainly to spe- 
 cial green manure — " are, first, the want of a due 
 appreciation of its value, — second, the lateness 
 of the harvest, and consequent slowness of growth 
 between the time of sowing the plants and that 
 of ploughing them in, — third, its being inadmis- 
 sible except at particular points of the rotations 
 in common use, — and, fourth, the carrying out 
 to an unwarrantable extent the principle, that 
 green vegetable substances, to be profitably em- 
 ployed as manures, ought to be, in the first place, 
 used as food for animals." 
 
 The roots and the lower parts of the stems of 
 the grasses and clovers bear a large proportion, 
 in either bulk or weight, to the parts of the 
 plants which are depastured or mown ; the roots 
 also have made a considerable deposit of excre- 
 tional matter, which acts in an alimentary way 
 upon a succeeding cereal crop ; and when the 
 roots and the lower parts of the stems are 
 ploughed into dead incorporation with the soil, 
 both they and the excretional deposit become 
 direct and important fertilizers. But in order 
 to obtain the largest amount of manurial enrich- 
 ment, the ground ought not to be very closely 
 mown or depastured, and ought to be ploughed 
 up as soon as possible after harvest, while the 
 <roots and the residuary stems are still full of 
 juice. " When old pastures are broken up and 
 made arable," says Sir Humphrey Davy, "not 
 only has the soil been enriched by the death and 
 slow decay of the plants which have left soluble 
 matters in the soil, but the leaves and roots of 
 the grasses living at the time and occupying so 
 large a part of the surface, afford saccharine, 
 mucilaginous, and extractive matters, which be- 
 come immediately the food of the crop, and the 
 gradual decomposition affords a supply for suc- 
 cessive years." $or do the sugar, the mucilage, 
 and the bitter extractive act the less promptly, 
 that they do not of themselves, as Sir Hum- 
 phrey's language would seem to imply, consti- 
 tute aliment to the crop, but that they pass 
 rapidly into decomposition, and give up their 
 elements, and particularly their carbon, as ali- 
 ment. 
 
 Weeds and other kinds of vegetable waste are 
 usually gathered in so irregular a manner as to 
 be available only for the compost heap ; and some 
 also are occasionally gathered when in seed, so 
 that to use them as manure would be to sow and 
 propagate them, — while others are either ligneous 
 or otherwise so slow of decomposition as to be in- 
 
 trinsically unfit for green manure. The parings 
 of hedges and ditches, in particular, commonly 
 contain so many of the seeds of weeds, that they 
 ought always to be thoroughly decomposed in 
 the compost heap before being used as manure, 
 and never ploughed in green. Yet some weeds 
 — such as nettles and ferns from a neighbouring 
 common or waste ground, or thistles, black mus- 
 tard, the common scabious, and other corn-field 
 pests of badly-kept farms — might readily be ob- 
 tained in sufficient quantity, and at the proper 
 season, to serve as green manure for turnips. 
 The weeding of the last corn crop of a rotation 
 could easily occur at the same time as the pre- 
 paring of the turnip ground ; and it might be 
 accompanied also by the weeding of the docks, 
 thistles, chenopodiums, and other bulky nuisan- 
 ces which are sometimes allowed to grow in great 
 profusion about the farm-stead, and which, if 
 permitted to stand a few weeks later, will shed 
 their clouds of seeds like a vegetable pestilence 
 over the farm. " Should the weeding proceed 
 simultaneously with the preparation of the tur- 
 nip-ground," says Mr. Gorrie of Annat Cottage, 
 " let the drills, in place of the ordinary width of 
 27 inches, be opened at about 32 inches from 
 crown to crown ; then let a moderately thick 
 layer of weedings be laid in them, taking care to 
 tread them in, so as they shall be completely 
 covered with the soil in forming the drills for 
 the seed ; it will be useful to pass a heavy roller 
 over the ground so manured after sowing. A 
 small part of a field of turnips which was dunged 
 with green manure, as here described, was sold 
 by auction by the square fall. That portion ma- 
 nured with green weeds was purchased by a 
 neighbouring farmer who witnessed the process 
 at Is. 6d. per fall, — 36 falls being equal to one 
 rood imperial ; the rest of the field, where farm- 
 yard partially fermented manure was used, only 
 brought Is. 3d. per fall, although the drills were a 
 half foot narrower, and consequently more length 
 of drill in the area. It is proper to mention, 
 that one year when green manure was applied 
 in drills of 27 inches, the weeds were imperfectly 
 covered, and dry weather succeeding, the exper- 
 iment, as far as the turnips were concerned, was 
 a complete failure ; but the subsequent crops 
 bear testimony to the excellence of the manure." 
 
 The suitableness of ferns, nettles, and the tops 
 of potato plants for green manure, particularly 
 of the first of these, was put to the test of experi- 
 ment by the late Mr. Knight. " In the beginning 
 of June," says he, " a small piece of ground was 
 planted with potatoes of an early variety, and in 
 some rows green fern, and in others nettles, were 
 employed instead of other manure ; and subse- 
 quently, as the early potatoes were taken up for 
 use, their tops were buried in rows in the same 
 manner, and potatoes of the preceding year were 
 placed upon them, and buried in the usual way. 
 The days being then long, the ground warm, and 
 the decomposing green leaves and stems affording 
 
GREEN MANURE. 
 
 618 
 
 GREEN MANURE. 
 
 an. abundant moisture, the plants acquired their 
 full growth in an unusually short time, and 
 afforded an abundant produce, and the remaining 
 part of the summer proved more than sufficient 
 to mature potatoes of any early variety. In this 
 experiment, the potatoes grew in ground which, 
 though not rich, was not poor ; and therefore 
 some objections may be made to the conclusions 
 I am disposed to draw in favour of recent vege- 
 table substances as manures. The following ex- 
 periment is, I think, decisive. I received from 
 a neighbouring farmer, a field naturally barren, 
 and so much exhausted by ill management, that 
 the two preceding crops had not returned a quan- 
 tity of corn equal to that which had been sown 
 upon it. An adjoining plantation afforded me a 
 large quantity of fern, which I proposed to em- 
 ploy as a manure for a crop of turnips. This was 
 cut between the 10th and 20th of June ; but as 
 the small cotyledons of the turnip-seed afford 
 little to feed the young plant, and as the soil, 
 owing to its extreme poverty, could not afford 
 much nutriment, I thought it necessary to place 
 the fern a few days in a heap to ferment suffi- 
 ciently to destroy life in it, and to produce an 
 exudation of* its juices, and it was then committed 
 in rows to the soil, and the turnip-seed deposited 
 with a drilling machine over it. Some adjoining 
 rows were manured with the black vegetable 
 mould obtained from the site of an old wood pile, 
 mixed with the slender branches of trees in every 
 stage of decomposition ; the quantity placed in 
 each row appearing to me to exceed more than 
 four times the amount the vegetable mould, if 
 equally decomposed, would have yielded. The 
 crop succeeded in both cases ; but the plants upon 
 the green fern grew with more rapidity than the 
 others, and even than those which had been 
 manured with the produce of my fold and stable- 
 yard, and were distinguishable in the autumn 
 from the plants in every other part of the field 
 by the deeper shade of their foliage." 
 
 The loppings and prunings of very succulent 
 ligneous plants, or unseeding vegetable gather- 
 ings from among woods and coppices of any kind 
 which will pass rapidly into decomposition, may 
 also be used as green manure. The prunings 
 of vines have been very successfully employed, in 
 some experiments on the Continent, if not posi- 
 tively to fertilize vineyards, at least to maintain 
 them during a considerable series of years in an 
 undegenerating and very fructiferous condition. 
 The leaves of trees in British woods, though not 
 capable of being used as a green manure, are so 
 exceedingly fertilizing, when employed for litter 
 in the farm-yard and made a constituent of very 
 old farm-yard manure, that they abundantly 
 deserve the attention of all farmers who can 
 obtain permission from the proprietors of the 
 woods to gather them. But the proper way of 
 treating them is to accumulate them in pits or 
 in large heaps at the beginning of winter, to let 
 them lie in that state during twelve months, and 
 
 then to drive them to the cattle-yard to be used 
 in the manner of litter. 
 
 The trimmings of box-edgings serve well as 
 green manure, and are sometimes obtainable in 
 sufficient quantity to be worthy of attention. " In j 
 the garden, about the season of planting early 
 potatoes," says Mr. Gorrie, " is also the season for 
 clipping box-edgings ; and where the box is 5 or 
 6 inches high, as is often the case in the garden j 
 of the farmer, an expert hand would soon mow a j 
 large heap of trimmings with the scythe m the 
 twentieth part of the time, and to much better 
 purpose, than could be done with the box-scissors. 
 From long-established prejudice, the trimmings | 
 of box have been considered pernicious to soil, 
 and hence they are generally swept away, and 
 removed as a nuisance ; but let them have a fair 
 trial, that is, plant row for row of potatoes with 
 farm-yard dung and box-trimmings, and the re- 
 turns will be found equal in weight, with this | 
 difference in favour of box, that the tubers are 
 more equal, fewer small, and the quality drier 
 than when planted with dung. My experience 
 in this case only extends to where the soil is 
 what is termed strong black loam. Carrots, too, 
 prosper well where box-trimmings are dug in." 
 
 Potato haulm, though considerably withered 
 and dried before the tubers are ripe, possesses 
 even then enough of succulency to be advantage- 
 ously used as a green manure, and at the same 
 time is so rich in potash as to be valuable in any 
 condition on the field, whether succulent or 
 almost wholly dried. The practice of allowing 
 potato haulm to lie and wither away and bleach 
 on the surface of the field, or of gathering it into 
 heaps with the harrows, and using it either as a 
 rough litter in the cattle 'yard, or as a covering 
 for the potatoes in the potato-pits — this practice, , 
 which prevailed throughout almost all field- 
 potato-culture, up to the signal era of the potato 
 rot, and which will probably be continued to any 
 extent to which the potato may yet be found 
 cultivable, is exceedingly wasteful, and ought to I 
 be zealously condemned. Allowing the haulm to 
 lie for a long time scattered on the surface of the 
 field, dissipates the greater portion of its organic 
 constituents gaseously into the atmosphere; using 
 it in the manner of litter, occasions much of its 
 saline portion to sink to the bottom of the yard, 
 and be lost ; and employing it to cover the 
 potato pits, combines the two evils, and causes a 
 great waste of both the organic and the saline 
 matters. " Where the stems are luxuriant," says 
 Mr. Gorrie, " it is best to have them all hand- 
 pulled, and carted off to a clover-lea field where 
 wheat is to be sown, before the plough enters to I 
 turn over the furrows. This is a more cleanly 
 practice than leaving the stems on the ground 
 till gathered by the harrow ; and it also prevents 
 any root-weeds from being carted off and plough- 
 ed in, a few of which may still be found in potato 
 fields at the time of taking up, especially in wet 
 seasons. After the stems are thus removed, and 
 
GREEN MANURE. 
 
 619 
 
 GREEN MANURE. 
 
 those tubers gathered which came up with them, 
 the plough meets with no choking in splitting out 
 the drills of potatoes; and every root-weed, if any, 
 is then easily seen, and should be hand-picked 
 after the harrows. This operation over, it is time 
 to have the clover-lea ploughed. A boy with a 
 fork must accompany each plough to push in the 
 stems, so as they may all be regularly and com- 
 pletely buried. The stems on five acres, if mo- 
 derately luxuriant, will manure one acre well, 
 and the wheat will appear more luxuriant than 
 • on the neighbouring ridges, where from 15 to 20 
 tons of farm-yard dung may have been applied." 
 
 The leaves and tails of turnips have begun, 
 in some places, to be treated as green manure, 
 and well deserve to be everywhere so treated. 
 The leaves are seldom relished or eaten by cattle 
 after November ; and such of them as are not 
 previously used, amount to great aggregate bulk, 
 and in common usage are so long and thoroughly 
 exposed to the air, either on the open ground or 
 on the dunghill, as to lose all their organic con- 
 stituents before any part of them can be returned 
 to the soil. The tails, as well as tops, of all 
 turnips, which are stored between November 
 and the earliest appearance of spring growth, 
 ought to be left in the field, or struck off on the 
 spot with a piece of a sickle or. with a curved 
 knife ; and, to secure the regularity of their 
 distribution, and prevent waste by the aeriform 
 dissipation of their substance, and obtain all the 
 advantage of the succulency of their condition, 
 they ought to be deposited evenly between the 
 drills, and ploughed into the ground on the same 
 day on which they are separated from the bulbs. 
 Turnips proper to yield their tops and tails in 
 this way, comprise the whole of crops which are 
 to be followed by winter wheat, the portions of 
 winter-standing crops which require to be stored 
 in provision for severe weather, and all the parts 
 of winter-standing crops which continue in the 
 field at the commencement of spring growth. 
 | Dr. Shier strongly recommends the use of this 
 kind of green manure, and says, "The grain 
 grown after it has always been found to be of 
 fine quality, and not liable to be lodged. With 
 the view of ascertaining the comparative value 
 I of this method, I have several times had the 
 I i produce weighed from two parts of the same 
 i field, the one treated in this manner, the other 
 ■ eaten off by sheep ; and have found the balance, 
 both in quantity and weight of grain, in favour 
 of the ploughing in of the tops and tails. 
 ; | Unless where wheat is to succeed turnips on a 
 soil so light and friable as to demand the tread- 
 ing of the sheep for textural improvement, this 
 method of green-manuring deserves a trial. The 
 only peculiarity of subsequent treatment that 
 I | needs to be noticed, is, that the braird of the 
 grain crop requires more rolling than usual, and 
 with a heavier roller. From many trials made 
 { i in the months of November and December 1842, 
 j I I find that the ratio by weight of the tops and 
 
 tails to the bulbs is, on an average, as 1 to 3*3. 
 But 25 tons of bulbs per imperial acre is con- 
 sidered a good crop ; and this would give 7 tons 
 11 cwt. 2 qrs. of tops and tails, which should 
 produce as great an effect on the succeeding 
 crops as a dose of 10 tons of well-prepared farm- 
 yard manure. Of turnip leaves no accurate 
 analysis, so far as I am aware, has yet been 
 published ; but they are known to contain a 
 considerable proportion of saline and earthy 
 matter, not to mention the purely organic part, 
 capable of nourishing the succeeding crops of 
 the rotation. If Sprengel's estimate may be 
 relied on, namely, that green turnip leaves con- 
 tain 1'8 per cent of inorganic matter, the quan- 
 tity above-specified would contain 303^- lbs. 
 Now when the effect of a much smaller dose of 
 mixed saline manures is considered, it will not 
 appear strange that so much stress has been laid | 
 on ploughing in green turnip tops, as a means of j 
 enriching the soil and securing good aftercrops." 
 
 But crops specially raised for the purpose of j 
 being ploughed entire into the soil, constitute ! 
 the most eminent kind of green manure ; and 
 are in the predicament, among British farmers, 
 of being almost totally unknown, and yet abun- 
 dantly deserving of attention. The use of a 
 special green manure, indeed, can only postpone 
 and never supersede the necessity for farm-yard 
 manure or for some equivalent to the most nitro- 
 genous, phosphatic, and comprehensive saline 
 portions of that compost ; yet it is a resource of 
 great value in all situations where ordinary 
 manures are scarce or very expensive, and is 
 peculiarly applicable in cases of short rotations 
 upon stiff clay soils ; and if a plant of rapid 
 growth and speedy maturation were used, it 
 might, in favourable seasons, especially in the 
 warmest districts of Britain, be employed as an 
 intermediate operation between the last cleaning 
 process of the summer fallow, and the sowing of 
 the winter wheat. 
 
 Some species of lupine figures in very ancient 
 agricultural writings as an excellent manure, 
 and is known to have been cultivated by the 
 ancient Romans; and the white lupine, which 
 has a stem as strong as that of the bean, and 
 attains a height of two or three feet, and 
 abounds in gluten, and grows well in sandy or 
 loamy soil, is at present extensively raised as 
 a green manure in Tuscany, and is usually 
 ploughed into the ground in October. Vetches, 
 pease, aftermath clover, spurrey, rape, rye, buck- 
 wheat, and several other leguminous, gramineous, 
 and herbage plants, have been recommended as 
 special green manure ; and while all are more or 
 less suitable for the general purpose, they offer 
 the important advantage of severally possessing 
 peculiar adaptation to particular soils, situations, 
 and courses of cropping. But whatever one be 
 employed, it ought, if possible, to be ploughed in 
 either while it is passing into flower or is in actual 
 bloom, for it then possesses its maximum of 
 
GRIP. 
 
 620 
 
 GRUB. 
 
 easily soluble and alimentary matter; and it 
 ought also to be deposited only deep enough to 
 prevent the drying action of the air, and not so 
 deep as to be excluded from the free and abun- 
 dant play of oxygen which is requisite for its 
 decomposition. — Sea-weed is sometimes spoken 
 of as a green manure ; but it operates, in a large 
 degree, by the force of its peculiarly saline 
 character. See the article Sea- Ware. 
 
 GREEN -SCOURING. See Dysentery and 
 
 DlARRH(EA. 
 
 GRIP. A water-furrow ; also, the urine gut- 
 ter of a cow-house or a cattle-shed. 
 
 GRIPE. See Graip. 
 
 GRIPES. See Colic. 
 
 GRISTLE. See Cartilage. 
 
 GROATS. The grains of oats freed from their 
 husks. Embden groats are common groats crush- 
 ed. Groats are peculiarly suited for making a 
 mild, nutritious, and easily digestible gruel, such 
 as may be used by patients in fevers and inflam- 
 mations. 
 
 GROGGINESS. A diseased tottering of the 
 fore-leg of the horse. It is nearly allied to foun- 
 der ; but has a diversity of character, and cannot 
 very easily be defined. It is distinguishable from 
 chronic founder, principally by the animal seldom 
 pointing his foot, and by his not altogether fal- 
 tering, — and frequently also by a more elevated 
 direction of the pastern. It usually arises from 
 excessive working, and especially from much 
 journeying at a rapid pace: and it may often be 
 observed in oldish overworked horses. It can 
 seldom if ever be cured after it has been fully 
 formed ; and requires sharp practice with paring, 
 blistering, and setoning for a cure, even when it 
 is treated from an early stage of its existence. 
 Blaine regards it as a disease of the navicular 
 joint. 
 
 GROOMING. The combing, brushing, and 
 hand-dressing of a horse. Every horse which is 
 kept much in the stable, or is highly fed, or is 
 little worked, requires grooming as a substitute 
 for defective exercise ; and every horse which is 
 demanded by taste or fashion to have a spruce 
 and glossy appearance, requires grooming as the 
 only healthy means of maintaining a good " coat." 
 But the curry-comb needs to be but lightly ap- 
 plied to any horse, and not applied at all to a 
 horse with thin or tender skin ; and a soft brush 
 or even a hair cloth, aided by a little additional 
 pressure of the hand, will, in many instances, 
 effect all the purposes of an efficient grooming. 
 A farm-horse, or any horse whatever, which is 
 hard worked during the day and turned into the 
 field at night, would be injured rather than bene- 
 fited by any further grooming than the mere 
 brushing of the dirt from his legs. See the ar- 
 ticle Dandriff. 
 
 GROUND. Any dry part of the surface of the 
 earth ; or any part which is capable of cultiva- 
 tion or profitable employment ; or a stratum of 
 
 soil ; or a piece of dry grass land as contradis- 
 tinguished from a meadow. 
 
 GROUNDSEL,— botanically Senecio. A large i 
 genus of plants, belonging to the composite- ' 
 flowered order. Nine species grow wild in Bri- 
 tain ; and two of these are very profuse weeds, 
 and require to be particularly noticed. 
 
 The common groundsel, Senecio vulgaris, is one j 
 of our most abundant annual weeds. It flourishes i j 
 in almost all sorts of situations, in fields and gar- ! j 
 dens, in waste grounds, in rubbish, on dry banks, j 
 on the tops of earthen walls, and wherever it can \ 
 obtain even the smallest patch of bare dry soil. 
 It flowers and seeds throughout a great part of 
 the year ; and, its light downy seeds being 
 wafted away by the slightest breeze, it is in an 
 almost constant course of dissemination. The 
 plant is so universally known in the country, 
 and so generally known even in towns, as not to 
 need any description. It is eaten by goats and 
 swine, ill-relished by cattle, and totally refused 
 by sheep and horses. An infusion of it in small 
 dose is sometimes given to horses, though quite 
 uselessly, to expel bots from their intestines. 
 
 The common ragwort, Senecio jacobcea, is a very 
 abundant weed on many dry pastures, and infests 
 almost every kind of dry grassy ground. It par- j 
 ticularly abounds in many of the grass lands of 
 Ireland, and in the grass lands of bad British 
 farmers, and greatly detracts from the produc- 
 tiveness of the pastures. It remains untouched 
 by cattle as long as they can find anything else 
 to eat ; and it emits a fetid odour when bruised. 
 The prevalence, or more than the bare existence 
 of it, but especially the seeding of it, on any land, 
 is disgraceful to the farmer, and affords a distinct 
 indication of his being either too sick, too lazy, or 
 too ignorant to attend to his business. Seeding 
 may of course be easily prevented by cutting over 
 the plant when coming into flower; and even 
 extermination is easily effected by pulling up the 
 plants after rain. The common ragwort has 
 many popular and provincial names, — among 
 others, ragweed, staggerwort, stinking elshender, 
 swine's cresses, St. James'-wort, seggrum, and 
 Scotch canker-weed. 
 
 GRUB. The larva of a crane-fly, — well known 
 for burrowing in the soil of farm-fields, preying 
 upon the roots of grasses and herbs, and partially 
 destroying pastures and cereal crops. Crane-flies 
 have exceedingly long legs and very narrow and 
 elongated bodies ; and are popularly called long- 
 legs, tailors, gaffer long-legs, and Jenny-the-spin- j 
 ners ; and frequent meadows and pastures, and j 
 there deposit their eggs in the ground. Several 
 species are very common, and at least forty oc- 
 cur in Britain ; but all are akin to one another 
 in habits, and may be regarded as fully and fairly 
 represented by the most mischievous one of their 
 number, the meadow crane-fly, which is so much 
 diffused as often to take exclusively the name of 
 the grub. The perfect insect of this species 
 
GRUB. 
 
 G21 
 
 GRUB. 
 
 is nearly an inch in length, and of a brownish- 
 grey colour ; its palpi are dark-brown ; its an- 
 tennae are yellowish - grey in the lower -joints, 
 and dark-brown in the other joints ; its forehead 
 is grey, with a reddish-brown line ; its snout is 
 yellowish-brown ; the back of its thorax is mark- 
 ed with a reddish-brown line, bounded on both 
 sides by a dusky colour ; the sides and hinder- 
 parts of its thorax are whitish-grey; its abdo- 
 men is darkish-brown on the back, and obscure 
 reddish-brown in other parts ; its legs are yel- 
 lowish-brown in their upper parts, and dusky 
 brown in their lower parts ; and its wings are 
 pale brown, with the nervures yellowish-brown, 
 and the anterior border yellowish-brown, suc- 
 ceeded by an obscure whitish streak. The abdo- 
 men of the female is thickest near the middle, 
 and tapers thence to a point at the hinder ex- 
 tremity ; and the abdomen of the male is thick- 
 est at the hinder extremity, and has there the 
 form of a kind of club. 
 
 " This insect," observes Mr Duncan, " is very 
 plentiful during the summer months in all parts 
 of the country. Its long legs are of immense 
 advantage to it in the places it frequents, as they 
 enable it to skip over the grass as if on stilts ; 
 and it still farther facilitates its motion while so 
 doing, by keeping the wings expanded, to render 
 it buoyant. The female lays a great number of 
 eggs, which are very small in proportion to the 
 size of the insect, and of a black colour. These 
 she places at some depth in the earth, which she 
 pierces for the purpose with her ovipositor. The 
 insects may easily be seen performing this oper- 
 ation, and it will at once be known that they 
 are so employed by the singular position they 
 assume. The body is placed in a perpendicular 
 direction, supported on the hinder feet and ex- 
 tremity of the abdomen, while the wings are ex- 
 panded, and the anterior legs rest on the sur- 
 rounding plants. When a sufficient number of 
 eggs have been laid in one spot, the insect moves 
 on to another, without changing the vertical 
 posture of her body, merely dragging herself for- 
 wards by her fore-legs, aiding her movements 
 with her wings. These tipulae seldom fly far at 
 a time, and it is only when the weather is some- 
 what calm that they venture to do so at all. 
 Their legs are exceedingly fragile, and, when 
 seized by them, the insect generally makes off, 
 leaving them in the hands of the captor with an 
 appearance of the utmost mng-froidr 
 
 The full-grown larva or grub has the shape of 
 an elongated cylinder, somewhat suddenly atten- 
 uated at the ends. It has no feet, and is of a 
 dull greyish colour. Two hooks rise from the 
 sides of the head, and meet at their points, and 
 seem to press any substances which the creature 
 wishes to cut or bruise against the toothed upper 
 surface of two scaly, convex, fixed pieces which 
 are situated below them. Two short fleshy horns 
 appear on the upper part of the head ; and six 
 rays of unequal size are situated at the hinder 
 
 extremity, and overfold and protect the breath- 
 ing-pores. The pupa somewhat resembles the 
 chrysalis of some kinds of moth ; and is nearly 
 of the same colour as the larva, and has the 
 edges of its segments fringed with pretty strong 
 hairs. 
 
 The eggs of the fly are generally deposited 
 during the latter half of August. The larvse ap- 
 pear about eight or ten weeks after the eggs are 
 laid; and if the weather be mild and humid, 
 they make considerable progress before the arri- 
 val of winter frost. They are not killed by the 
 severity of even the coldest winter ; but remain 
 stationary, and perhaps torpid, till spring ; and, 
 from that time till early in May, they increase 
 in size till each becomes about an inch in length 
 and about one-third of an inch in girth. They 
 are exceedingly destructive, both in pastures 
 and in corn-fields, during all the period succeed- 
 ing their vernal revival; and they become in- 
 creasingly so as they advance to maturity. Be- 
 tween the 20th of May and the middle of June, 
 according to the state of the weather and to the 
 degree of feeding they have had since spring, 
 they pass into the pupa state ; and if the wea- 
 ther be wet at the time of the transformation, 
 they are very liable to be then killed by the 
 moisture; but at no other time of their exist- 
 ence do they seem to be, in even the smallest 
 degree, injuriously affected by the weather. The 
 pupae have a thin husk around them ; and they 
 lie dormant or at least harmless in this till they 
 burst into the imago state in August. 
 
 Grubs and slugs, though often confounded with 
 each other by farmers, are so widely different in 
 their structure, their habits, their season of at- 
 tack, their modes of mischief, and other particu- 
 lars, that they ought to be thoroughly distin- 
 guished. Grubs breathe through pores, situated 
 near their hinder extremity and protected by 
 covering rays, and are therefore well adapted 
 to burrow in the ground ; while slugs breathe 
 through an orifice, like a gill, near the front, and 
 are therefore ill-adapted to burrow in the ground. 
 Grubs feed on the tender roots of the cereal and 
 the pasture grasses ; while slugs feed on the ten- 
 der leaves of these grasses. Grubs feed wholly 
 below ground ; while slugs feed chiefly, if not 
 wholly, above ground. Grubs are usually unas- 
 sailable by the weather, and at one stage of their 
 existence are liable to be killed by moisture; 
 while slugs cannot at any time live without 
 moisture. Grubs never appear on the surface of 
 the ground, at least during the day ; while slugs 
 appear on the surface at all hours in wet wea- 
 ther, and come out at night or during the dews 
 in dry weather. Grubs can crawl freely, and 
 live for a time, on dry soil ; while slugs, in con- 
 sequence of the slime on their body and of their 
 constitutional habits, can crawl only on moist 
 surfaces. Grubs begin to live in October or early 
 in November, and do most mischief in April and 
 May ; while slugs are little larger than pin heads 
 
GRUB. 
 
 in the middle of February, and do not commit 
 any material injury till June, or at least till to- 
 ward the end of May. The particular slugs here 
 referred to are the common white ones, of the 
 species Limax agrestis, which are notorious for 
 their attacks on oats, wheat, and turnips. 
 
 Grubs, or the larvae of the crane-fly, generally 
 burrow about one inch or two inches below the 
 surface of the ground, and mine their way among 
 the roots of the grasses, and cause the herbage of 
 pastures or the seedlings of cereal plants to wither 
 and perish from failure of nourishment. They 
 particularly infest old grass lands, and give a 
 special preference to such as contain some por- 
 tion of peat-earth ; they often work dreadful 
 havoc in wet or ill-drained clayey or mossy pas- 
 tures, where excessive evaporation causes the 
 ground to be cold, and retards the vernal growth 
 of the grasses ; and they also commit great rav- 
 ages in the first cereal crop of a rotation, either 
 after clover or beans, or especially after the 
 breaking up of grass land. They are often a se- 
 vere scourge to farmers ; and almost every year, 
 in all parts of the country, they make their pre- 
 sence to be in some degree felt ; and they are all 
 the more mischievous on account of their prey- 
 ing upon the earliest and most tender of the 
 grasses. They have been supposed by Reaumur 
 and the majority of subsequent writers to feed 
 on fine mould, and to injure the grasses only by 
 disturbing the soil, and preventing the roots 
 from fixing their spongioles and steadily taking 
 up nourishment ; but they have been proved by 
 recent investigation actually to devour the roots, 
 and they seem to possess a mechanical organism 
 quite adapted to the purpose. Their devasta- 
 tions, too, are sometimes so extensive and ap- 
 palling as to be ascribable to nothing short of 
 the eating of the roots. " In the rich district of 
 Sunk -Island, in Holderness, in the spring of 
 1813," say Kirby and Spence, "hundreds of acres 
 of pastures have been entirely destroyed by them, 
 being rendered as completely brown as if they 
 had suffered a three months' drought, and desti- 
 tute of all vegetation except a few thistles. A 
 square foot of the dead turf being dug up, 210 
 grubs were counted on it ; and, what furnishes a 
 striking proof of the prolific powers of these in- 
 sects, last year it was difficult to find a single 
 one." 
 
 The destruction of grubs, while a matter of 
 great practical interest to farmers, is unhappily 
 a matter also of some difficulty. The catching 
 of the perfect insects is easy ; but, in consequence 
 of their vast numbers, their general diffusion, 
 and their very prolific powers, it can never be so 
 extensive as to make any considerable diminu- 
 tion in the number of the larvae. The satura- 
 tion of the soil with some caustic fluid, which 
 should kill the larvae, and yet not injure the 
 grasses, would probably be the best expedient. 
 Heavy rolling, in the case of both pastures and 
 broken-up lea ground, has been recommended 
 
 and is frequently practised ; yet, except on clay 
 lands which are much compressed by it, and 
 which require caution and well-timedness in the 
 application of it in order to prevent damage from 
 the loss of their porosity and the bruising of their 
 grass-roots, it is very seldom if ever successful. 
 " I have had good lea of four or five years old," said 
 a clever practical writer in the Dumfries Herald 
 in 1841 ; "I have often gone over it in spring, 
 and attentively examined it with a magnifying 
 glass where I knew that grubs abounded, yet I 
 never saw one of them above ground ; but when 
 I cut the turf, I found plenty about an inch from 
 the top. The grubs are said to come above 
 ground at night ; and it is in belief of this that ' j 
 farmers roll their oat-fields during night, in hope 
 of thus killing the grubs. And they tell us that 
 the roller becomes clagged over with the bruised 
 grubs. It might be worth their while to ascer- 
 tain whether they had not killed earth-worms 
 and slugs instead of grubs. In young oats, I 
 have sometimes found a grub within half an inch 
 of the top ; but I never knew a case of rolling 
 decidedly killing the grubs to any great extent. 
 On heavy clay soils, rolling, though it does not 
 at once kill the grubs, will so compress the soil 
 that the injury done by them will be greatly di- ; 
 minished ; and, if the ground is not rolled till 
 after the plants are fully formed above ground, 
 vegetation would thus be allowed to advance 
 with little injury from them. But where the 
 soil contains light moss, rolling for grubs is ut- 
 terly useless." 
 
 A good remedy, in the case of breaking up 
 grass lands and clover leas, is early and deep 
 ploughing. As the clover hay is removed from 
 the land a little after midsummer, the clover 
 stubble might be ploughed in the interval be- 
 tween that time and the month of August ; and 
 the grub would then have everywhere passed 
 into the perfect fly, — and the latter, in obedience 
 to its instinct, would refrain from depositing its 
 eggs in the naked soil. Or when the ploughing 
 of grass lands or clover leas does not take place 
 till the eggs are deposited, it may be made to turn 
 over such a furrow-slice as shall bury most of the 
 eggs too deep, or beneath too smothering a sur- 
 face to permit their being hatched into life. Or 
 even if the ploughing should be postponed till 
 November, or take place when the grubs are 
 young and weak, it may bury most of them at 
 such a depth, or beneath so well-laid a furrow- 
 slice as will prevent them from ever rising to 
 the top. "This," says the writer already quoted, 
 "explains the cause of the utility of the 'fur- 
 row-presser' used in the west of Scotland. It 
 lays the slices so closely together, that most of 
 the grubs are smothered while tender. But if 
 the lea - ploughing is deferred till late in the 
 spring, when vegetation has given strength to 
 the grubs, and then if the slices are ill laid over, 
 a host of grubs is unavoidable. I doubt whether 
 the advantage of winter-pasture, even on our best 
 
GRUB. 
 
 623 
 
 GRUB 
 
 leas, is not more than counterbalanced by the 
 injury done by grubs and slugs to the next oat- 
 crop." 
 
 A remedy of considerable efficacy on heavy 
 soils which have been late ploughed and are 
 much infested with grubs — though a remedy both 
 unnecessary and useless on light soils in the same 
 predicament — is dibbling, preceded by cautious 
 rolling. A writer in the Northern Agricultural 
 Magazine of 1828, says, "During the last 14 years, 
 I have invariably got rid of grubs by dibbling ; 
 and though in 1818 I had upwards of 16 acres 
 which to all appearance were gone, so much so 
 that my neighbours advised me to plough them 
 up, I persevered, had an excellent crop, and sold 
 the whole for ,£11 14s. per acre, while those 
 around me who persisted in rolling during the 
 night, sustained a total loss." The process of 
 dibbling may be performed by women, at a cost 
 of about 3s. or 4s. per acre, and consists in mak- 
 ing quite smooth holes, with iron-shod potato 
 dibbles, about 6 inches deep, and at distances 
 from one another of about ] 2 or 14 inches. The 
 grubs, we are told, fall into the dibble holes while 
 they are moving about at night, and sometimes 
 occur in the average of from 8 to 16 in each hole, 
 and soon die at the bottom, and assume the ap- 
 pearance of a little train oil ; and their fatty 
 looking remains have been supposed to act after- 
 wards as a somewhat powerful manure, and to 
 render the crop which they originally threatened 
 to destroy unusually luxuriant. Some persons 
 treat the whole of the dibbling remedy with 
 derision, and affect to think it too silly to deserve 
 a moment's attention, — and probably they might 
 be right enough if it were proposed for light 
 porous lands, incapable of receiving such tightly 
 compressed holes as are necessary for holding the 
 grubs prisoners ; but reflecting persons, if they 
 have fair opportunity, will think it abundantly 
 worthy of trial on any of the adhesive kinds of 
 land for which it is recommended. 
 
 A sudden and favourable change of weather is 
 occasionally successful, after artificial remedies 
 have failed. " The ravages," says Mr. Stephens, 
 in his Book of the Farm, " are generally commit- 
 ted in dry weather with an easterly wind ; and 
 when rain falls, they cease. It is surprising how 
 a field will recover from the effects of grubbing. 
 One season a field of mine, of fine deep hazel 
 
 ! loam, after two years grass, was dreadfully grub- 
 bed ; and after trying the usual remedies to get 
 
 | quit of the insects without effect, a rainy night 
 
 I silenced them. Most of the field appeared bare 
 after having exhibited a beautiful braird, but on 
 
 | the plants acquiring renewed growth, they tiller- 
 ed out with great force, and almost covered the 
 
 , ground as thickly as desirable. At harvest the 
 crop was a very strong one, the straw being 
 
 S difficult for women to cut with the common 
 sickle ; the spikes were very large and full ; the 
 stooks, when set without hood-sheaves, stood 
 about 6 feet in height; and the yield was not less 
 
 than 60 bushels to the imperial acre. On good 
 soil I would have no fear of potato oats tillering 
 out, after being severely grubbed, sufficiently to 
 afford a good crop ; but such a result should not 
 be expected of common oats upon an inferior 
 soil." 
 
 The rook, Corvus frugilegus, is very generally 
 regarded — and was regarded even by Mr. Stick- 
 ney, the author of published Observations on the 
 Grub — as a great enemy to grubs, and a chief 
 agent in picking them out of land. But though 
 rooks may destroy a few grubs, they never make 
 such a thinning of them as materially to lessen 
 their ravages upon a crop. The grubs usually 
 lie too far beneath the surface of the soil to be 
 assailable by the. rooks; and the rooks so seldom 
 visit lea-fields in winter or spring, that their vis- 
 its in these seasons are regarded by the peasantry 
 as portents of storms. " How then," asks the 
 writer in the Dumfries Herald, " can any main- 
 tain that they destroy grubs in winter or spring? 
 I have felt interested," adds he, " in seeking to 
 discover what rooks are employed about on these 
 occasions. And therefore I have followed them 
 to the spots where they alighted, sometimes im- 
 mediately after they sat down, and at other times 
 after they had been for some time on the ground. 
 I found many casts of earth-worms, and some- ; 
 times several small white slugs on the surface, j 
 but no grubs ; and my conclusion from these ob- ! 
 servations was, that the rooks were employed in j 
 seeking earth-worms, and perhaps small slugs. j 
 I express doubt of their eating the slugs, because 
 I have never heard of any person who ever saw 
 a rook take a slug in his mouth, or had any satis- 
 factory evidence that they ever taste slugs ; while 
 on the contrary, every ploughman has an hundred 
 times seen them devouring earth-worms. The 
 rooks have in winter been accused of rooting up 
 whole crops of clover. If they were then in search 
 of grubs, their services were dearly bought. But 
 whoever saw rooks tear up grass on old lea, where 
 grubs chiefly abound % They have not strength j 
 enough for this. And, without tearing up the 
 grass, they cannot get the grubs at its roots. 
 How foolish would it be, how unlike the sagacity 
 of rooks, to labour so hard for grubs, at a season j 
 of the year when an hundred, I may say five j 
 hundred, would scarcely be a meal to one of them, 
 and when they can so much more easily tear up 
 wheat plants, and get plenty of earth worms. 
 But if the rooks do not eat grubs in winter or 
 early spring, I am told that they take them after- 
 wards to their nests and feed their young with 
 them. I believe there is.some little truth in this. 
 They turn over a few of the clods after, but not 
 before, the oats germinate on the sown fields, and j 
 below these, they find either grubs or earth- I 
 worms ; but after germination it would be vain ' 
 to expect many grubs under clods. By far the 
 greater number of them are then dispersed over 
 the soil and preying on the roots. I sowed a few 
 acres of a five year old lea-field on 17th ult., and 
 
GRUBBER. 
 
 624 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 have often examined it since ; and I aver, that 
 during the first week after the seed was harrowed, 
 I found many, I may say hundreds of places 
 scraped by the rooks, exactly as the hens scrape; 
 and from attentive inspection at different times 
 since the oats germinated, I estimated the aver- 
 age number of grubs on a square foot of the sowed 
 ground to be at least ten, and the average num- 
 ber which the rooks might take, by turning over 
 the clods, one on every ten or twelve square feet 
 of surface. It is easy to distinguish where clods 
 have been moved after rain has fallen on the soil. 
 The above estimate makes it impossible for the 
 rooks to take more than one per cent, of the 
 grubs from the germinated oats ; a small com- 
 pensation for the mischief done by them at all 
 seasons ! If any person doubt that so many 
 as ten grubs may be found on a square foot, 
 Messrs. Kir by and Spence will tell him that 210 
 have been found on one square foot." 
 
 GRUBBER. An implement of tillage, of in- 
 termediate character between the harrow and 
 the plough. It has been described as " in prin- 
 ciple a member of the harrow tribe of imple- 
 ments," and as "approaching so closely the 
 harrow in its character that it is not easy to 
 draw the line of distinction ;" but — at least in 
 all its best forms and most recent varieties — it 
 really differs as much from the harrow as from 
 the plough, and must be considered, as, to both 
 its structure and its mode of action, a perfectly 
 distinct and exceedingly important agricultural 
 implement. 
 
 Difference between the Harroio and the Grubber. — 
 The harrow pulverizes ploughed soil, disengages 
 from it and collects the roots and stems of weeds, 
 and covers the seeds of cultivated plants. The 
 rectangular harrow is attached to the draught at 
 only one point, and has a shaking, shying, alter- 
 nating, and sometimes tossing motion, and is in 
 consequence well suited to break the clods of dry 
 lumpy land, and to cover broadcast-sown seeds 
 in almost any kind of soil ; for, in the former 
 case, its teeth being constantly flung from the 
 direct line of draught, and constantly flinging 
 themselves back to regain the equilibrium, strike 
 the clods upon the surface, and either break them 
 or tear out the roots and stems which bind them 
 together ; and in the latter case, its teeth, in 
 continually swinging and oscillating from side to 
 side, and in seldom or never having sufficient 
 steadiness to penetrate far into the soil, perform 
 exactly the kind of dispersed and superficial ac- 
 tion which buries a maximum of seeds at a 
 desirable average of depth. The rhomboidal 
 harrow, on the other hand, is drawn equally by 
 two horses walking abreast, and makes a close 
 series of parallel and comparatively deep lines of 
 indentation through the soil, and admits, when 
 necessary, of a certain degree of lateral motion, 
 simply by means of shortening the posterior 
 swingle-tree and otherwise modifying the attach- 
 ment of the draught ; and it is, therefore, pecu- 
 
 liarly fitted, on most kinds of land, for pulverizing 
 soils and disengaging weeds. See the article 
 Harrow. 
 
 Every harrow, however, be its particular con- 
 struction what it may, fails to bring up the roots 
 of weeds from any considerable depth, to reduce 
 cohesive and refractory land, to exert more than 
 a comparatively shallow action, to perform such 
 fallowing operations as are intermediate between 
 upturning and cleaning, to perform a hoeing pro- 
 cess upon land too foul for the harrow and too 
 pulverulent for the plough, and occasionally to 
 act as an entire succedaneum for the plough in 
 the tillage of clean, powdery, and very light 
 soils which do not immediately require to be 
 thoroughly upturned. " The teeth of the harrow, 
 being forced into the ground solely by their own i 
 weight and that of the frame-work in which they 
 are fixed, are not well calculated to penetrate 
 into it, and are constantly thrown out by the 
 obstacles they encounter. In firm clays or cloddy [ 
 ground, therefore, the impression made by the 
 teeth of the harrow is often seen to be extremely 
 superficial. Were the teeth formed somewhat 
 like the coulter of a plough, and curved like it 
 forward, they would better insinuate themselves 
 into the ground, and be less liable to be forced 
 out of it when encountered by obstacles. But 
 the harrow, from its nature, does not admit of 
 this construction; for in this case the teeth would 
 form an angle with the frame-work in which they 
 are set. The weeds and rubbish disengaged from 
 the ground would be collected at the angle, and 
 would thus be carried along with the harrow and 
 impede its progress ; while this form of construc- 
 tion would add to the difficulty of freeing the 
 teeth from the rubbish collected." 
 
 The grand object in the invention of the grub- 
 ber, therefore, was to substitute coulter-like 
 tines for the teeth of the harrow, and to mount 
 these within some kind of frame-work which 
 should possess similar capacities of draught and 
 control to those of the plough ; and this object 
 has been fully accomplished. The grubber has 
 a heavier frame than the harrow, is mounted on 
 wheels in the manner of wheel-ploughs, and has 
 shafts for guiding their action, and handles for 
 lifting the tines out of the ground at the end of 
 the ridges ; and it admits of much variety of con- 
 struction to suit different soils and purposes, and 
 sufficient graduations or control of action to 
 adapt itself to the degrees and emergencies of 
 any one course of tillage. 
 
 Uses of the Grubber. — The grubber, though- far 
 from being so well known and commonly Ap- 
 preciated as its excellence demands, has for some j 
 little time been in pretty general use in some of 
 the best cultivated districts. It is most emi- 
 nently serviceable on the lighter kinds of soils ; 
 but, when preceded by one ploughing or at the 
 utmost two ploughings, it makes good and pro- 
 fitable work on even stiff loams and adhesive 
 clays. It acts more or less as a substitute for 
 
GRUBBER. 
 
 625 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 the abundant use of the plough, and occasionally 
 as a substitute for all use of it whatever; it pre- 
 pares soils of all kinds for the most efficient action 
 of the harrows; and it searches and tears the 
 soil, intermediately between ploughing and har- 
 rowing, in such a manner as to produce a far 
 higher degree of cleaning and pulverization, and 
 at considerably less cost of time and labour, than 
 could be effected by mere ploughing and harrow- 
 ing. In any medium kind of land, in an aver- 
 agely fair condition, one ploughing, one grubbing 
 with half-set tines, one cross-grubbing with full- 
 set tines, and a few finishing turns of the common 
 harrow, usually constitute a very efficient tillage. 
 A plough, too, turns over only 9 inches at each 
 bout, while a grubber of the best construction tills 
 a breadth of 4 feet 4 inches ; one pair of horses, 
 drawing the plough, till on an average about one 
 acre of land in a day, while the same horses, 
 drawing the grubber at the same pace, would till 
 nearly six acres ; any horses can move at a 
 quicker rate with the best grubber than with the 
 best plough,— so that a pair which could plough 
 only one acre would grub considerably more than 
 six acres ; and land which is tilled with plough, 
 grubber, and harrow, can, in many instances, be 
 cleaned and sown much earlier than land of the 
 same kind, and in the same situation, tilled only 
 with the plough and the harrow. 
 
 The grubber is specially useful in assisting the 
 operations of the summer-fallow. " When land 
 is full of root-weeds, the repeated operations of 
 the plough, the harrow, and the roller, are the 
 methods resorted to for tilling and cleaning it ; 
 but very frequently, when the land is stiff, even 
 the operation of ploughing itself tends to com- 
 press the furrow-slices, and if the influence of the 
 sun be considerable, it will be formed into a hard 
 mass, on which the subsequent operations of the 
 harrow and the roller have little comparative in- 
 fluence. So much is this felt in many of the 
 stiffer clays of England, that it is a very frequent 
 practice to delay giving the first ploughing to the 
 fallow land till the month of May, by which one 
 of the great benefits of an efficient summer-fallow 
 is lost. But, by means of a well constructed 
 grubber, such land may be cleaned and tilled 
 without the necessity of turning up a new surface. 
 The instrument, too, can be made to go at any 
 depth in the soil which may be required, and thus 
 the land can either be stirred to the depth to 
 which it had been originally ploughed, or to such 
 depth as may be most suitable for the purpose 
 intended, whether that purpose be to clean the 
 land of root weeds, or to till the soil only a few 
 inches deep. — Further, land which had been ridg- 
 ed up in autumn or winter, after having produced 
 any of the leguminous crops, as pease or beans, 
 may be prepared for the seed with advantage by 
 using the grubber alone, and without the necessity 
 of a repetition of the more costly operation of 
 ploughing. In this manner, the seed is sown upon 
 the surface-mould which had been pulverized 
 t 
 
 by the influence of the sun and frost. In the 
 case, too, of land which had produced a crop of 
 turnips or potatoes, the grubber may, in all cases, 
 obviate the necessity of a second ploughing as a 
 preparation for the seed ; and may even, in many 
 cases where the soil is light and dry, obviate the 
 necessity of ploughing at all after the green crop 
 has been removed or consumed." 
 
 History of the Grubber. — An implement of a 
 medium character between a powerful and long- 
 toothed harrow and a modern grubber, and 
 called urpix or irpex, was in use among the 
 ancient Romans ; and is described by Varro as a 
 plank with teeth for pulling roots out of the 
 ground, and as drawn by oxen in the manner of 
 a wain. Various implements, more or less like 
 this ancient one, and exhibiting a desiderated 
 but slow transition from the harrow to the 
 grubber, appear to have been known to the best 
 class of farmers at an early period of modern 
 British agriculture. One of these, called an 
 edget, was in use, in the eighth decad of last 
 century, in the vicinity of North Berwick in 
 East Lothian ; and is described as follows in an 
 early volume of the Highland Society's Transac- 
 tions, " The tineii were fixed, standing perpendi- 
 cular, — the feet not dipping, but forming a right 
 angle with the tines ; the wheels were only two, 
 — these stood in front of the machine, and, being 
 moveable upwards and downwards, regulated 
 the depth the tines were intended to work at." 
 But while this rude implement remained unim- 
 proved in Scotland, and continued to be very 
 little known there in even its unimproved state, 
 the implements corresponding to it in England 
 advanced, stage after stage, toward the form of 
 grubbers, till they became the groundwork for a 
 very superior class of implements in both divi- 
 sions of the island. 
 
 The scuffier, derived from the Kentish nidget, 
 was the first decided stage of improvement. 
 This was originally a small, heavy, triangular, 
 harrow, with tines longer than harrow-teeth, 
 sharp, penetrating, and inclined forward, but 
 without any plates at the bottom ; and it after- 
 wards was constructed with a number of trian- 
 gular plates or feet, steeled on their edges, fixed 
 at the bottom of tines in the form of iron bars, 
 and looking, jointly with these tines, like the 
 feet and legs of a duck. This implement both 
 cut up weeds and pulverized the soil ; and may 
 even yet be usefully employed on light lands 
 which are free from stones and have a plain 
 surface. "Scuffling strong land, and exposing 
 it to the sun and air," remarks Sir J ohn Sinclair, 
 " is greatly preferable to harrowing, which tends 
 to consolidate the surface ; but it is necessary to 
 have the land well reduced before the implement 
 is employed." 
 
 The scarifier was the next great stage of im- 
 provement ; and this was introduced from Eng- 
 land to Scotland in 1811, and occasioned that 
 year to be a sort of era in the history of British 
 2 R 
 
GRUBBER 
 
 626 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 tillage. The particular form of the scarifier 
 introduced to Scotland was brought by Sir John 
 Sinclair before the Dalkeith Farming Club, and 
 was 4 or 5 years after figured and described in 
 the Transactions of the Highland Society, and is 
 now very generally called the old Scotch grubber, 
 and the old quadrangular grubber. Its frame is 
 wooden and rectangular, and is mounted upon 
 four cast-metal wheels, of 20 inches in diameter. 
 Two bars extend within the frame, and from end 
 to end of it ; nine cross-bars are mortised to 
 these, at distances of about 8 inches from centre 
 to centre ; and a pair of handles or small shafts 
 for guiding the machine, are attached to the 
 third and the seventh cross-bars, so as to be at 
 equal distances from one another and from the 
 ends. Eleven coulters are fixed into the nine 
 cross-bars and the two end-bars of the outer- 
 frame ; and are placed in such an alternate man- 
 ner that five are near the front of the frame and 
 six are near the back. " Around the openings 
 for the coulters, above and below, are plates of 
 iron for strengthening the wood, and with bolts 
 firmly fixed to steady the coulters when the 
 machine is at work. These bolts are attached 
 by chains to prevent them from being lost, 
 should they happen to drop out. By means of 
 the bolts, the coulters can be set to any depth 
 required. When the machine is to be removed 
 from one field to another, the coulters in the 
 ends of the outside frame are lifted up to the 
 top by shifting the bolts ; and the inner-frame is 
 then lifted up by means of the handles, and is 
 supported by small iron stays. The coulters 
 stand inclined forward, and have steeled trian- 
 gular feet, dipping a little, from 3 to 4 inches 
 broad at the base, and from 5 to 6 inches long 
 from the base to the point of the triangle." 
 The wheels can be set at a higher or a lower pitch 
 by means of the pins and the wedges, and can, in 
 consequence, modify the depth of the implement's 
 action, or the degree in which the coulters pene- 
 trate the ground; and when the machine is 
 moving down a declivitous hard surface, the fore- 
 wheels, if necessary, are dragged to prevent the 
 machine from running against the horses. This 
 implement, in spite of its cumbrousness, and its 
 obvious defectiveness, was regarded by the ablest 
 and most scientific agriculturists of the day as a 
 very grand advance in the appliances of cultiva- 
 tion. " Such," said they, " is its utility, in 
 saving ploughing, and keeping the land clear of 
 weeds, that it is supposed to have added consi- 
 derably to the value of every farm where it has 
 been introduced ; and it is considered to be one 
 of the greatest improvements in the culture of 
 the soil that modern times can boast of." Yet 
 its faults are great and obvious. The very con- 
 siderable dip of the feet gives it a tendency to 
 go down into the soil, and occasions a constant 
 pressure on the wheels to keep it from sinking, 
 and a corresponding drag upon the draught of 
 the horses. The triangular and spreading form 
 
 of the sharp-edged feet of the coulters, too, 
 causes a severe cutting operation upon firm 
 ground along the path or lower stratum of the 
 machine's action, and occasions a very great and 
 useless expenditure of draught. The form, size, 
 and weight of the machine also diminish its 
 utility ; and, along with the previous disadvan- 
 tages, require it, in the majority of cases, to be 
 drawn by four horses. Much inconvenience and 
 waste of time are involved in its general working, 
 especially at the ends of the ridges; and its 
 large frame-work and the confined position of 
 its coulters render it continually liable to be 
 choked up with weeds, stubble, and rubbish, and 
 to retain them to such a degree as to give the 
 workman considerable trouble in clearing it 
 again for action. 
 
 Various implements, under various names, but 
 particularly under those of scarifiers, cultivators, 
 and grubbers, served jointly with the old Scotch 
 grubber, at either earlier, or contemporary, or 
 later dates, to lead the way to the true grubbers 
 or thoroughly modern class of improved imple- 
 ments. Among these might be named Parkin- 
 son's scarifier, Weir's improved cultivator, Hay- 
 ward's cultivator, Beatson's grubber, Cooke's 
 scarifier, Fuller's extirpator, and some others. 
 But the most anomalous, and at the same time 
 the most useful, and almost serving as the type 
 of a quite distinct class of implements, interme- 
 diate between grubbers, harrows, and hay-ted- 
 ding machines, is Morton's revolving harrow. 
 In this machine, a number of small naves, 
 armed with radiating prongs, are made to revolve 
 by the progressive motion of the machine ; but 
 they revolve in planes oblique to the line of 
 direction in which the machine travels ; and 
 they not only stir the soil, but tear out root- 
 weeds, which, as well as surface- weeds, are imme- 
 diately collected by an appended harrow. " The 
 original machine consisted of sets of spikes or 
 prongs, fixed on an axle, round which they 
 revolved like the spokes of a carriage-wheel. 
 This axle was placed oblique to the line of 
 motion, so that the manner in which the teeth 
 worked was of a twofold nature; they partly 
 revolved, and they were partly dragged like the 
 teeth of the common harrow, The axle consist- 
 ed of two parts converging towards each other, 
 forming the two equal sides of an isosceles trian- 
 gle. There were ten sets of teeth in all, five 
 being on each side or half of the axle ; and each 
 set contained ten spikes or prongs, like the spokes 
 of a wheel, but curved forwards at the point. 
 The machine moved on two wheels, and required 
 the labour of four horses." But it was after- 
 wards improved and simplified by its inventor, so 
 as to lessen its draught ; and it led to the inven- 
 tion of some other instruments of its own pecu- 
 liar class, particularly Brite's revolving harrow 
 and Vaux's patent revolving harrow, — the latter 
 of which was patented in 1836, and possesses 
 two series of revolving spikes, the one so placed 
 
GRUBBER, 
 
 627 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 as to clear away tufts and accumulations of 
 rubbish from the other. But revolving harrows 
 of any kind cannot be considered as true grub- 
 bers ; and though excellently fitted for particular 
 soils, situations, and purposes, do not possess such 
 comprehensive adaptations as the true grubbers, 
 and possibly may never come into general use. 
 
 The earliest true grubber, or next great stage 
 of improvement after the scarifier or old Scotch 
 grubber, was an implement brought out, about 
 the year 1820, by Mr. John Finlayson, farmer at 
 Kaims, in the parish of Muirkirk, in Ayrshire, 
 and called the patent harrow or patent self- 
 cleaning harrow. This machine was triangular- 
 framed, and made entirely of iron, and mounted 
 on three wheels, the foremost of which was a 
 castor ; and by means of a long lever which, in 
 a limited degree, raised or depressed its tines, it 
 was capable of working at different depths in the 
 soil, and was freed from some of the disadvantages 
 which so seriously encumbered the scarifier. It 
 was made with either 5, 7, or 9 strong tines or 
 coulters ; and, according to the number of tines, 
 it was drawn by 2, 4, or 6 horses. But even this 
 machine, chiefly in consequence of its deficient 
 means of raising the tines out of the ground, has 
 been superseded by numerous improved grubbers, 
 — and particularly by Finlayson's improved pa- 
 tent harrow, Kirkwood's grubber, and Wilkie's 
 grubber in Scotland, and Biddell's scarifier and 
 Lord Ducie's cultivator in England. These five 
 implements may be regarded as, in the present 
 state of agriculture, comprising everything wor- 
 thy of attention in the category of true grubbers. 
 The three Scotch ones present a resemblance in 
 general form to one another and to the original 
 patent harrow of Finlayson ; and though the two 
 English ones differ widely in structure from the 
 Scotch ones and from each other, all the five 
 aptly and facilely perform the various operations 
 which we have described as proper to the true 
 grubber's action and adaptations. Another group 
 of implements, indeed, have a grubbing action 
 and are frequently called drill - grubbers ; but 
 they are constructed and used only for acting 
 chiefly between the rows of growing crops, and 
 they will eome to be described under their more 
 appropriate name of horse-hoes. See the article 
 Horse-Hoe. The sequel of the present article, 
 therefore, must be wholly occupied with a notice 
 of the five implements which we have named. 
 
 Finlaysorfs Improved Patent Harrow. — This 
 machine has a different arrangement of the 
 wheels and levers from the original patent harrow, 
 and is, in consequence, both efficient and very 
 commodious. The hind wheels are attached to 
 crank levers vibrating on an axis, and are thence 
 connected with the lever of the fore-wheel by 
 means of a connecting-rod ; and a powerful lever, 
 acting on this combination, and adjusted in readi- 
 ness to the hand of the operator, enables him to 
 raise the entire frame and its tines promptly and 
 completely out of the ground. Two varieties of 
 
 the machine came early into use, — the one com- 
 paratively large, and requiring to be drawn by 
 three horses on light land, and by four on heavy 
 land, — and the other comparatively small, and 
 requiring to be drawn by two horses on light 
 land, and by three on heavy land ; and several 
 varieties are now made ; but all, whether early 
 or recent, have essentially one construction, and 
 are particularly distinguished by the swan-neck 
 or self-cleaning form of their tines. 
 
 The larger early variety is represented in Fig. 
 1, Plate XXIV., and may be regarded as a good 
 type of all the varieties. It tills a breadth of 5 feet 
 4 inches at one bout, and weighs between 4| and 
 4^ cwt.; and each of its tines has a length of 29 
 inches, a breadth of 1 ^ inch, a thickness at the 
 point of 1^ inch, and a thickness elsewhere of £ of 
 an inch. Its two sides are for some distance paral- 
 lel, and are there connected by two sets of trans- 
 verse bars. " Into the hindmost of these sets are 
 inserted five double curved teeth or prongs, and 
 into the foremost four prongs. A little before the 
 foremost prongs, the continued sides converge, so 
 as to meet at the point B, where they are attached 
 by a bolt to the apparatus ADC, consisting of the 
 handle or regulator A, the bar leading to the 
 forewheel C, and the part D, to which the line of 
 draught is attached ; these three parts A, D, and 
 C, being all united together. On the hindmost 
 transverse bar is an upright lateral spring E, 
 consisting of two rods, forming openings, sup- 
 ported by two rods, from the hindmost of the two 
 foremost bars. The regulator is made to pass 
 through these upright lateral springs. And as 
 the regulator, the point of draught, and the bar 
 leading to the forewheel, are all fixed together, 
 or of one piece, it will appear that by raising the 
 regulator (the forewheel being always on the 
 surface), the point of draught, and consequently 
 the forepart of the frame, will be depressed, and 
 the prongs forced deeper into the soil. When 
 the regulator is at the bottom of the upright late- 
 ral springs at a, the foremost prongs are then 
 lifted out of the ground ; and as the regulator is 
 lifted up through each opening, the prongs de- 
 scend about 1\ inch till it is up to the top at b, 
 which gives the maximum depth, when the 
 prongs will be between 8 and 9 inches in the 
 ground. The hind part of the frame was raised 
 or depressed by means of a screw on the axle of 
 the hind wheels. These were put on, according 
 to Mr. Finlayson's original plan of the instrument, 
 at the sides behind the hindmost transverse bar. 
 The length between the fore and hind wheels, 
 however, was found to weaken the machine, -and 
 cause it sometimes to have a vibratory motion. 
 To obviate these defects, Mr. Kirkwood after- 
 wards made these machines, with the permission 
 of the holder of the patent, with the hind-wheels 
 as shown in the figure, plaoed opposite to the 
 upper curve of the hindmost prongs. The axles, 
 by means of a capstan attached to the side-beam, 
 may be elevated or depressed, and thus the hinder 
 
\ 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 prongs made to correspond in depth with the 
 foremost prongs." 
 
 Kirkwood's Grubber. — This machine was in- 
 vented by Mr. Kirkwood, an intelligent and in- 
 genious mechanic at Tranent, who, as already 
 noticed, effected a considerable part of the im- 
 provement on Finlayson's patent harrow; and, 
 in point of time, it preceded the improved form 
 of Finlayson's implement, and was probably, in 
 even its original form, the earliest variety of 
 grubber which combined thorough commodious- 
 ness with great efficiency. It is distinguished by 
 a simple and powerful combination of the levers 
 and the connecting-rod for raising the tines out 
 of the ground ; and it permits the workman, 
 merely by pressing his hands on its handles, to 
 graduate and modify the depth of the tines at 
 will, or to lift them at any moment entirely out 
 of the soil. It speedily underwent improvements, 
 and continues to receive modifications ; and it is 
 made of different sizes, and with either five or 
 seven tines, to suit different soils or to be drawn 
 by respectively two and four horses ; but it does 
 not vary in any of the essential principles of its 
 construction, and is commodious and efficient in 
 every one of its varieties. 
 
 In Fig. 2. Plate XXIV. is a represention of a 
 seven-tined variety of it, which may be regarded 
 as a good type of the whole. The tines are a 
 kind of blunt coulters, and are so placed as to 
 move at equal distances from one another, and 
 parallel to the line of motion. " The frame- work 
 rests upon three wheels, to the axle of the two 
 posterior of which at BB, are fixed the two guid- 
 ing handles A A. These handles, which are move- 
 able round the axle at BB, are extended to the 
 cross-bar at CO. By depressing the handles they 
 act as levers, of which the fulcrums are BB, and 
 elevate the bar CO, and consequently the poste- 
 rior part of the frame-work. Further, the part 
 of the machine EF, to which is attached the 
 forewheel G-, is connected by means of the rods 
 ED, DH, and DL with the handles AA ; the same 
 depression of the handles which elevates the 
 hinder part of the instrument, acts upon the up- 
 right rods CD, CD, which are moveable round 
 the iron bar CC, at these points. This acting 
 upon the bar at the points CC, moves forward 
 the forewheel G, and thus elevates the fore part 
 of the frame-work, and that in the same degree 
 as the hinder part is elevated. Thus an eleva- 
 tion or depression of the guiding handles elevates 
 or lowers the whole frame-work, and consequently 
 causes the teeth to move at a greater or less depth 
 as may be required. By means of a simple con- 
 trivance at the point K, the rod ED is fixed in 
 its position, and thus the whole frame is kept at 
 the elevation required. By depressing the han- 
 dles sufficiently, the whole teeth may be lifted 
 out of the ground, which is found to be extreme- 
 ly convenient when turning at the end of ridges, 
 and when moving from one field to another, or 
 even when encountering great obstacles in the 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 ground, as stones. The various coulters being 
 also fixed in their place by keys or wedges, may 
 be removed, or set at a greater or less depth as 
 may be required. The space covered by the 
 coulters is 4 feet 4 inches. The coulters are 14^ 
 inches long below the bars ; 2 inches broad, or 
 deep ; and fths of an inch thick, or across, ex- 
 cept at the point, where they are \\ inch thick." 
 The diameter of the hindmost wheels is 22 inches ; 
 and the weight of the whole implement is about 
 4 cwt. 
 
 WiUde's Grubber. — This machine is the inven- 
 tion of the well-known ploughmaker at Udding- 
 ston. It partakes of the principles of both Fin- 
 layson's and Kirkwood's, and at the same time 
 has characters peculiar to itself. The parallel 
 motion by which the coulters are raised out of 
 the ground, is produced by means of the lever 
 only, and parallel links; and the coulter-frame 
 itself constitutes the connecting-rod of the mo- 
 tion. The two sides approach each other, not in 
 straight lines, but by a series of gradations ; and 
 the coulters are so fixed upon the gradations as 
 to have aggregately a triangular adjustment. 
 The coulters have, in a considerable degree, the 
 swan-neck or self-cleaning form of those of Fin- 
 layson's ; and they can be nicely regulated in the 
 depth of their incisions, or lifted promptly and 
 entirely out of the ground, with the same ease 
 as those of Kirkwood's. The whole machine is 
 elegant, effective, and convenient ; but, in con- 
 sequence of the elaboration of its structure, it is 
 more expensive than its rivals, and has therefore 
 come comparatively little into use. — All the three 
 Scotch grubbers are always constructed of malle- 
 able iron; they are generally set on wheels of 
 not more than 20 inches in diameter, and are 
 therefore more or less liable to become choked 
 when working on foul ground ; they have usually 
 either five tines or seven, and penetrate the soil 
 to the depth of from 6 to 8 inches ; and they 
 range in price from £7 to £12, and have seldom 
 a greater weight than 3| cwt. when five-tined, 
 and 5 cwt. when seven-tined. 
 
 BiddelVs Scarifier. — This implement is repre- 
 sented in Fig. 3, Plate XXIV. It was invented 
 between 30 and 40 years ago by Arthur Biddell 
 of Playford ; and is still regarded by some good 
 judges as the most efficient implement of its 
 class in England. It was originally, and for 
 a long time, made with a wooden frame and 
 wrought-iron tines ; but it is now made with 
 a cast-iron frame ; and, though a heavy im- 
 plement, it has a light appearance, and possess- 
 es great facility of working. "It consists," 
 says Mr. J. Allen Ransome, "of a very strong 
 cast-iron frame, upon which the teeth, nine 
 in number, are arranged in two rows, and so 
 disposed at intervals of 16£ inches from each 
 other, as that those in the hinder row should 
 form a pathway midway in the intervals left by 
 the passage of those in the front. It is suspend- 
 ed on a cranked axle between two wheels, 50 
 
 628 
 
GRUBBER. 
 
 629 
 
 GRUBBER. 
 
 inches in height behind, and on an upright shaft 
 carried on two small wheels running close toge- 
 ther in front. It will be seen that the machine 
 is thus suspended on three points ; and by means 
 of two levers, the one to direct the position of 
 the front teeth, and the other to regulate the 
 depth of the hinder ones, it may be balanced 
 between these points in any direction that may 
 be required. It may thus be used either with 
 the fore-tines parallel with the hinder ones, or 
 at a greater or less depression. This arrange- 
 ment allows it to penetrate very strong or hard 
 land, and to retain its hold when scarcely any 
 other implement would produce any effect, and 
 even when the plough could not work to advan- 
 tage. By a simple contrivance to shift the bear- 
 ing of the frame upon the axle, either side of the 
 machine may be depressed — so that the tines 
 shall penetrate the land to a uniform depth, 
 even when, from the circumstance of one wheel 
 having its path along the furrow, the bottom of 
 the wheels may not be parallel with the gen- 
 eral level of the land. The tines are prepared to 
 fit case-hardened cast-iron points, of one, two, 
 or three inches width, or cast-iron or steel hoes 
 of nine inches width. With these latter, every 
 I part of the land will be cut. They are readily 
 taken off and exchanged." Mr. Ransome after- 
 wards quotes a disparaging comparison of it with 
 Lord Ducie's cultivator, in the Prize Essay on 
 Agricultural Mechanics, in the Journal of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society of England, and ex- 
 amines some objections which are there adduced 
 against it, — particularly, that it is a clumsy im- 
 plement, that the apparatus for adjusting its 
 tines is complicated, that the form of its tines is 
 not good, that, in consequence of being made of 
 cast-iron, it is liable to break, and that, when 
 made at a width of 4§ feet, it requires to be 
 drawn by four horses ; and he so disposes of both 
 the comparison and the objection as to give Bid- 
 dell's scarifier a decided preference. 
 
 Lord Duties Cultivator. — This grubber was 
 brought out a number of years ago by the tal- 
 ented manager of Lord Ducie's model farm ; and 
 is often called the Uley cultivator from the local- 
 ity of its origin. A representation of it, as pre- 
 sented by Lord Ducie to the Highland and Agri- 
 cultural Society of Scotland, is given in Fig. 1, 
 Plate XXV. ; and a description of it, with ref- 
 erences to the original of that representation, 
 occurs, in the following terms, in the 14th vol. 
 of the Society's Transactions. 
 
 " It consists, first, of a frame A A of cast-iron, 
 of an irregular pentagonal shape, and formed in 
 one entire casting. This frame carries five tines, 
 BB, &c, with which the machine is armed. 
 These tines consist each of two parts, the body 
 B also of cast-iron fixed immoveably into the 
 frame by means of tenon and key, and of the 
 point or share C fitting upon the lower extremi- 
 ty of the body like a ploughshare. Two forms 
 of share are employed, the webbed and the point- 
 
 ed. The frame thus constructed is mounted on 
 two wheels DD, 3 feet 2 inches diameter, and 
 what may be called a double wheel EE in front, 
 1^ foot diameter. These last wheels are mount- 
 ed on a reverse T-form axle, and the hind-wheels 
 on a cranked axle F. The draft-shakle, to which 
 the horses are yoked, is applied in a permanent 
 position to the stem H of the T-axle; and by 
 this means, the wheels, the stem, and the shakle 
 turn together, forming an efficient castor-wheel. 
 The stem H of this axle passes also vertically 
 through an eye in the anterior angle of the tine- 
 frame. For the purpose of elevating or depress- 
 ing the tine-frame, a lever II, having equal arms, 
 and of the second order, has its fulcrum in the 
 top of the stem of the T-axle at I. The point of 
 resistance of the lever is jointed to a slender 
 pillar K fixed in the tine-frame. On the cranked 
 axle is fixed a wheel or segment of a wheel with 
 oblique teeth, fitted to work in an endless screw 
 or worm L ; and on the axle of the latter is the 
 winch-handle M, The oblique -toothed wheel 
 carries also a crank-pin, forming a lever, which 
 is placed diametrically opposite, and of equal ra- 
 dius with the cranks of the main axle, each be- 
 ing 6 inches. The crank-pin of the oblique 
 wheel is now connected with the power end of 
 the principal lever, by means of the connecting- 
 rod N ; and this elegant mechanical combination 
 has the effect of moving the tine-frame always 
 parallel to the horizon in its vertical movements 
 out of or into the soil, these movements being 
 performed by turning the winch-handle M." 
 
 This machine has a sufficient height of wheels 
 to escape the risks of choking to which the 
 Scotch grubbers are subject ; and possesses such 
 a recurvature in the upper part of its tines as to 
 give them the property of self-cleaning ; and it 
 admits of being made of different sizes, in adap- 
 tation to different situations and to different 
 powers of draught. It was supposed, in the 
 Highland Society's account of it in 1842, to be 
 essentially so ponderous that a five-tined variety 
 would weigh not less than 10 cwt. ; but it was 
 early furnished from Uley at an ordinary weight 
 of about 6 cwt. ; and it has since undergone 
 improvements which affect some points of its 
 strength and construction, and considerably in- 
 crease its commodiousness and adaptations. Cly- 
 burn's five-tined Uley cultivator covers a space of 
 40 inches ; his seven-tined one covers a space of 
 56 inches ; and both are improved in construct- 
 ing the tines so that they can be made of malle- 
 able iron, in fixing them more strongly into the 
 frame, and in forming them with such a conca- 
 vity below that they wear a sharp edge and read- 
 ily enter very hard ground. " The frame is made 
 to receive five or seven tines, each tine covering 
 a space of 8 inches and so arranged that, although 
 drawing lines only 8 inches apart, they are two 
 feet from each other ; and this, with their curved 
 shape and length, prevents its clogging in the 
 foulest land. There are three sorts of points, — 
 
GRUEL. 
 
 630 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 one two inches wide, for grubbing up or breaking 
 land, — another 9 inches wide, for working stub- 
 ble, — the third set with steel blades, for paring 
 instead of the breast-plough ; and these points 
 all fit the tines without pins to hold them. The 
 tines are fastened into the frame with a split-key 
 and cotter ; and, in case of breaking, they can 
 be taken out, and others put in, as easily as the 
 coulter of a plough." A dial-plate, marked in 
 inches, is attached to the right side of the ma- 
 chine, to indicate the depth at which the points 
 of the tines are in the ground ; and one rotation 
 of the handle attached to the leverage raises or 
 depresses the tines one inch, — a rotation to the 
 right raising them, and a rotation to the left de- 
 pressing them. — Transactions of the Highland So- 
 ciety. — Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. — 
 Low's Elements of Agricidture. — Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agriculture. — Journal of the Royal Agri- 
 cultural Society of England. — Gray's Implements 
 of Husbandry. — Ransome's Implements of Agr icul- 
 ture. — Annual Register of Agricultural Imple- 
 ments—Catalogue of the Highland Society s Muse- 
 um. — Stephens' Book of the Farm. 
 
 GRUBBING. See Grubber. 
 
 GRUEL. Common oatmeal gruel is often of 
 great service in severe and debilitating diseases 
 of cattle. Many a cow, when rapidly sinking 
 into exhaustion from disease, and after resolute- 
 ly refusing to eat any proper kind of food which 
 could be offered to her, has been restored to com- 
 parative strength, and brought within the limits 
 of speedy recovery, simply by having gruel pour- 
 ed into her from time to time with the horn. 
 But the gruel ought, in general, to be quite 
 simple, and should never, except in extreme 
 cases, contain any mixture of aromatics. 
 
 GRUNTER. See Broken-Wind. 
 
 GUANACO. See Alpaca. 
 
 GUANO. The accumulated droppings of fowls, 
 particularly of marine raptores, modified by the 
 action of the weather, and somewhat diluted and 
 altered by natural intermixture with alluvial 
 substances. In the prevailing native language 
 of Peru, the word huana signifies dung or man- 
 ure, huanucaci signifies the application of manure 
 to land, and huanaes signifies birds which supply 
 dung of a kind and in quantities fitted to be 
 used as manure: and the first of these words, 
 though pronounced whana by the Peruvians, has 
 been transmuted by the guttural enunciation of 
 Europeans, into the word guano. 
 
 The Physical History of Guano. — The deposits 
 of guano longest and best known, and for some 
 time supposed to be the only ones in the world, 
 occur on the islands and sea-board of Peru, be- 
 tween the 13th and the 21st degrees of south 
 latitude. They exist in limited and irregular 
 patches and masses, and have sometimes a thick- 
 ness of 50 or 60 feet, and are excavated, in the 
 course of commerce, like mines of iron-ochre . 
 They comprise many varieties, as to both the 
 
 comparative age of the accumulations, and the 
 degree and manner in which they have been 
 modified by natural chemical action and by allu- 
 vial intermixture ; but, in general, they are popu- 
 larly classified into merely three kinds, — the 
 white, the dark-grey, and the red. The white 
 continues to be deposited, and may readily be 
 observed in a quite recent state in the localities 
 which are at present frequented by vast flocks of 
 flamingoes, cormorants, cranes, and other sea- 
 fowl ; it has been collected on the isles of Islay 
 and Jesus, at the rate of 20 or 25 tons in a single 
 season ; and it may be observed, in the island of 
 Torrecilla, and probably in other places, to be 
 gradually passing into the red variety. Some of 
 the ancient deposits, made in exposed situations, 
 and while they themselves continued to be in a 
 half-liquid state, seem to have been annually, or 
 perhaps oftener, washed down by heavy rains 
 along the skirts of declivities and into the bot- 
 toms of adjacent hollows, where no flocks of birds 
 resorted to continue and modernize the accumu- 
 lations ; and these deposits, besides being much 
 deteriorated by the chemical action of air and 
 water during the process of their descent to the 
 lower grounds, became so mixed with silicious 
 sand and other earthy matters as to assume a 
 half-mineral character, and, in some instances 
 they lie in hollows to the thickness of 50 or 60 
 feet, and are so excessively indurated as to resist 
 disintegration as sturdily as many a rock, and to 
 require the operations of blasting and the pick- 
 axe. The guano of these mineralized deposits is 
 obviously a very different manurial agent from 
 the recently fallen excrement, or even from very 
 old guano which lies where it fell, and is alter- 
 ed only by the surface action of the weather, 
 and not washed into commixation with alluvium. 
 Some of the guano of commerce, also, though 
 obtained from the very localities on which it was 
 originally deposited, and where the topmost layers 
 of it were quite or comparatively recent, has been 
 so scraped up from the ground after all the real 
 guano was removed as to consist substantially of 
 mere mineral matters impregnated with fluid 
 impercolations from the superincumbent excre- 
 ments; and this has, in some instances, been 
 hastily pronounced by the unskilled and deceived 
 purchasers of it, a spurious and home-made ma- 
 nufacture of adulterating dealers. 
 
 Many of the drier parts of both western and 
 eastern Africa seem exactly so situated as to con- 
 tain guano of closely similar nature to that of 
 Peru ; many of the unexplored or ill-explored 
 islands of the Pacific Ocean seem likely to con- 
 tain large quantities of not much different na- 
 ture ; and thousands of caves, crevices, and other 
 rocky recesses in even the unpromising parts of 
 the iron-bound coasts of Europe are probably 
 rich in at least such portions of guano as consist 
 of fixed or insoluble phosphates, and as require 
 only an accompaniment of common liquid man- 
 
GUANO. 
 
 631 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 ure to possess a compound of chemical agencies 
 strictly akin to those of the best and most recent 
 guano of Peru. " Considering the insoluble phos- 
 phates as not the least important of the ingre- 
 dients of guano," says Dr. Davy, " the excrements 
 of birds, wherever they have been accumulated, 
 whether abounding in nitrogenous compounds, 
 as in dry climates, or in the insoluble phosphates, 
 as in rainy climates, must be valuable to the 
 agriculturist, and are likely to repay the enter- 
 prising merchant who may import them. In the 
 arctic and antarctic regions of the ocean, and 
 those bordering on them, as birds feeding on fish 
 there abound, it is probable that great stores of 
 guano of the latter kind are laid up in accessible 
 situations, and which may furnish cargoes to our 
 whalers, and partly remunerate them when un- 
 successful in their fishing enterprise. And nearer 
 home, as in Iceland, the Feroe Islands, and St. 
 Kilda, it is likely much useful guano might be 
 collected, were the inhabitants, who depend 
 chiefly for their support on the feathered race, to 
 collect the excrement at the same time that they 
 take the birds or their eggs." 
 
 Some guano deposits, of great value, and now 
 as well known in Britain as those of Peru, were 
 discovered a few years ago on some secluded 
 points of the south-west coast of Africa ; and a 
 chief one of these, which has furnished very large 
 i supplies to the British manure market, almost 
 completely coated the small island of Ichaboe. 
 A cave, containing a large deposit of guano, 
 was recently discovered in Jamaica, and is sup- 
 I posed to indicate the existence of similar ones 
 ! in the same island. Unexplored caverns, of a 
 i kind likely to have long ago been the resort of 
 vast flocks of birds, are known to exist in St. 
 Domingo. A large deposit of guano, consisting 
 principally of pigeons' dung, exists in the lime- 
 stone crags of Scarborough Head in Yorkshire ; 
 j and is constantly carried away, to the amount of 
 J about 40 tons a-year, by the men who follow the 
 perilous occupation of gathering eggs on the 
 cliffs, and is sold to the farmers in the neighbour- 
 hood at the rate of about 2s. 6d. per cwt., and 
 has been used from time immemorial, in the pro- 
 portion of about 6 cwt. per acre, as a suitable 
 and highly approved manure for grain crops. 
 Another deposit, consisting principally of the ex- 
 crements of cormorants, gulls, and garrots, and 
 estimated to amount to about 200 tons in weight, 
 is known to occur on the Little Pentland Sker- 
 ries, in the Pentland Firth. And though very 
 few of the many minor deposits which are sup- 
 posed to exist in the fissured and cavernous and 
 other comparatively protected portions of our 
 high and rocky shores, may be as large as those 
 of Scarborough and the Skerries, a great number 
 of them can scarcely fail to be considerable 
 enough to challenge the eager attention of the 
 natives in their vicinity, and even of our great 
 agricultural societies. 
 
 Economical History of Guano. — The Peruvians 
 are known to have commonly manured their arid 
 arenaceous lands near the coast with guano, so 
 far back as the 12th century ; and, from the sys- 
 tematic, elaborate, and efficient manner in which 
 they combined this practice with that of irriga- 
 tion, they probably merit the reputation of hav- 
 ing been the most successful agriculturists in the 
 world during the latter part of the middle ages of 
 the Christian era. Their lands consist principally 
 of white sand and clay, and are remarkable for 
 their naturally sterile and desert character ; and 
 yet, by means partly of irrigating and chiefly of 
 guanoizing, they were made to yield abundant 
 crops of grain, and to support a teeming popula- 
 tion. Acosta, the earliest historian who records 
 the practice says, " To these islands," situated off 
 the coast, and covered with a continuous heap 
 of the excrement of sea-fowls, " vessels go solely 
 for the purpose of loading this dung ; for nothing 
 else is to be obtained there ; and so great is its 
 efficacy, that the land manured with it produces 
 a much larger crop of grain, and also an increased 
 quantity of fruit. This dung is called guano, 
 from which Lunaguano, in the Peruvian valleys, 
 takes its name, the guano being there very gen- 
 erally used. Quinces, pomegranates, and other 
 fruits in that place excel those of other places, 
 in at once size, flavour, and beauty; and they 
 owe their superiority to the circumstance of the 
 trees receiving moisture from water which has 
 passed through lands served with guano." 
 
 Wheat was introduced to Peru some time after 
 the arrival of the Spaniards, and it was culti- 
 vated there, for about a century and a half, with 
 so extraordinary success, that an instance is re- 
 corded of two hundred and seventy-two fold in- 
 crease ; and though this valuable grain was after- 
 wards rendered generally abortive throughout 
 the country, and ceased to be anywhere cultiva- 
 ble by the aid of guano, yet all the arable lands 
 on which it refused to grow, continued, by means 
 of this manure, to be richly and constantly pro- 
 ductive in millet and maize. Neither fallowing 
 nor rotation of crops was allowed to the lands ; 
 and yet, with the help of guano, a perpetual se- 
 ries of remunerating crops was obtained. In the 
 province of Arequipa at the present day, wheat 
 manured with horse dung never yields more than 
 eighteen for one, while maize manured with gu- 
 ano yields thirty-five for one, and potatoes man- 
 ured with guano yield forty-five for one ; and in 
 the valley of Arica, in former times, the use of 
 guano not only caused as great an increase as 
 this in all the kinds of grain known in the coun- 
 try, but occasioned a four-hundred-fold or five- 
 hundred -fold increase of the choicest kind of 
 leguminous plants. A writer of about 130 years 
 ago, — speaking of the Capsicum baccatum, called 
 by the natives axi, which is used by the 
 Peruvians as a condiment to all kinds of food, 
 and is raised within the jurisdiction of Arica 
 
GUANO. 
 
 632 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 alone to the annual value of 600,000 dollars, 
 — says, " The produce of axi is considerable, 
 far beyond what could be expected from the 
 size of the plant; and this prodigious result 
 is obtained with guano or the ordure of birds 
 brought from Iquique, which fertilizes the land 
 in such a manner that it yields 400 and 500 
 for 1 in all sorts of grain, wheat and maize, and 
 more particularly axi, when people know how to 
 manage it in a proper manner. The seeds hav- 
 ing come up, and the plants being in a fit state 
 for setting, they are laid down on slanting ground, 
 in order that the trenches, which bring on the 
 water designed for irrigation, may convey it 
 gently to each stem. As much guano is then 
 put to each plant as will rest on the palm of the 
 hand; when the flower is formed, they add a 
 little more; and, finally, as the pod appears, 
 a good handful is thrown in; but, as it never 
 rains in that part of the country, great care 
 is always taken to have the plants watered, 
 experience having proved that, without this 
 precaution, the salts in the manure, not being 
 diluted, would be apt to burn them. For this 
 reason the guano is applied at intervals, and 
 with great care, the necessity of which lias been 
 taught by practice, and by noticing the differ- 
 ence observable in the crops obtained." In the 
 Peruvian valleys, where the ancient method of 
 using the guano continues to be followed to the 
 present day, the axi and all sorts of fruit-trees, 
 evergreens, and flowering-plants are remarkable 
 for luxuriance and beauty, the vine yields a su- 
 perior quality of grapes for the wine-press, the 
 sugar-cane attains maturity in 18 or 24 months, 
 and the alfalfa, a species of lucerne, grows in pro- 
 digious abundance, rises up to a great height, 
 and yields six crops a-year during an indefinite 
 number of years. 
 
 The aboriginal Peruvians of the time of the 
 Spanish conquest, and also the subsequent mixed 
 inhabitants of their country down to quite a re- 
 cent period, seem to have confined their use of 
 guano to the mere surface or fresh coating of the 
 most accessible deposits. The aborigines pos- 
 sessed no better sea-craft than balsas and canoes, 
 and. could not venture out to the more distant 
 islands, and were physically limited by the mere 
 headlands and insulated rocks of the coast ; and 
 they seem to have made their gatherings of gu- 
 ano at only one season of each year, and never 
 used the pick-axe or the spade for it, and proba- 
 bly collected only the quite recent droppings; 
 and both they and their successors left many en- 
 tire deposits untouched, and treated the lower 
 parts of even the best or most accessible deposits 
 as unworthy of their attention. 
 
 In modern times, first the very rapid decline 
 of the aboriginal population, next the destruc- 
 tion of the Peruvian export trade of grain to 
 Guayaquil and Panama, and next the extensive 
 abandonment of the pursuits of agriculture for 
 
 those of mining, have occasioned an enormous 
 decrease in the local use of guano. Winterfeldt 
 estimates the annual consumption of guano at 
 from 600 to 700 tons around Arequipa, and at 
 something more in the province of Tarucapa and 
 in the valleys of Tambo and Victor ; other par- 
 ties estimated the annual consumption of white 
 and red guano in all Peru, in 1828, at 600 or 
 700 tons ; and Mr. Walton, who has enjoyed par- 
 ticular opportunities of being well-informed on 
 the subject, strikes a very low key, and says, 
 " From all the inquiries which I have been able 
 to institute upon the spot, I am inclined to be- 
 lieve that, at the commencement of the present 
 century, when the fairest criterion may be form- 
 ed, the total consumption of guano by the mo- 
 dern mixed inhabitants of Peru, did not go much 
 beyond 125 tons." 
 
 The delay of Britons to import Peruvian guano 
 as a fertilizer till quite a recent period, proceed- 
 ed from no ignorance of the existence and value 
 of the manure, and simply evinced the stubborn 
 reluctance which very generally characterizes 
 them to adopt any new expedient. Our histori- 
 ans and geographers long ago adverted to the 
 existence, the use, and the manurial powers of 
 guano in Peru, as ordinary facts. Robertson, 
 for example, says, "The ancient Peruvians en- 
 riched the soil by manuring it with the dung of 
 sea-fowls, of which they found an inexhaustible 
 store in all the islands situated along their coasts ; 
 and the Spaniards have adopted that custom 
 from the ancient Peruvians, and continue to use 
 the guano, or the dung of the sea-fowls, as man- 
 ure." Our navigators, during upwards of a cen- 
 tury past, saw the guano islands, and observed 
 the deportation of the guano from them to the 
 adjacent mainland ; and whenever they went on 
 shore, they must have witnessed the extraordi- 
 nary luxuriance of crops and herbage which the 
 manure produced. Our merchants who, ever 
 since the declaration of independence, have had 
 opportunities of forming establishments either 
 on the coast or in the interior of Peru, must 
 often have observed both the use of guano and 
 its powerfully fertilizing effects ; and even some 
 of our countrymen who were engaged in various 
 enterprises on the western coast of South Amer- 
 ica so early as 1815, can scarcely fail to have no- 
 ticed and admired the peculiar agriculture of 
 the natives, and to have communicated their 
 thoughts upon it to their friends at home. Hum- 
 boldt, on his return from South America, sent a 
 sample of guano to two of the most distinguished 
 chemists in France, accompanied by a short ac- 
 count of its use and practical powers as a man- 
 ure in Peru; Mr. Walton, so early as the year 
 1810, mentioned the subject of guano to the late 
 Lord Sheffield, the late Sir Joseph Banks, and 
 other influential persons in London ; Sir Joseph 
 Banks, in his turn, made efforts to communicate 
 knowledge respecting guano, and to excite an 
 
GUANO. 
 
 interest in it among agriculturists ; and, in 1816, 
 General Beatson, an experienced and scientific 
 agriculturist, published a pamphlet, not only re- 
 commending guano as distinguished men before 
 him had done, but reporting some successful 
 trials which he had made of it in St. Helena, and 
 showing, from his own experiments and obser- 
 vations, its superiority as a manure to both hogs' 
 litter and horse-dung. But though the subject 
 was now far more than enough known to have 
 secured the instant and deep attention of all 
 the leading agriculturists of the kingdom, and 
 though several parcels were afterwards, from 
 time to time, brought over by interested parties 
 for trial, guano was not commercially introduced 
 to Britain till 1840, and even then in no greater 
 quantity than 20 casks, and was not formally in- 
 troduced to the notice of the public by any high 
 authority till 1841, when Lord Stanley mention- 
 ed it at the dinner of the Liverpool meeting of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
 
 The market-value of guano in Peru, at the be- 
 ginning of the present century, when the native 
 use of the manure had exceedingly diminished, 
 and when no demand for it as yet existed in 
 other countries, was little more than nominal ; 
 but as soon as foreign merchants displayed an 
 interest in it, and began to ship it in their ves- 
 sels as a return cargo to Europe, the Peruvian 
 government, as lord of the soil, asserted their 
 right of property in all the existing deposits of 
 it, and erected the sale of it into a monopoly. 
 The first considerable contract made with them 
 for a supply was on the part of several united 
 British houses, and stipulated for a four years' 
 exclusive privilege to export it from the Isla de 
 Norte, the little islands of Chincha, or other 
 places, to the amount, if required, of 20,000 tons 
 in each of the four years, and at the rate of 30 
 dollars per ton. 
 
 In 1841, seven British vessels brought into the 
 ports of Britain 1,733 tons of guano ; in 1842, 41 
 British vessels brought 12,003 tons, and 3 foreign 
 vessels brought 1,091 tons ; in 1843, 13 British 
 vessels brought 4,056 tons; in 1844, 286 British 
 vessels brought 81,902 tons, and 1 foreign vessel 
 brought 207 tons ; and in 1845, 679 British ves- 
 sels brought 219,764 tons, and 4 foreign vessels 
 brought 1,170 tons. In October 1841, agents in 
 Liverpool and London, in long explanatory let- 
 ters, recommended the general use of guano as a 
 fertilizer; and in the following years, commer- 
 cial enterprise was singularly active in import- 
 ing supplies from both Peru and Ichaboe, and 
 agricultural enthusiasm, in at least the most im- 
 proved districts of our country, was almost as 
 singularly excited to give the new manure a fair 
 and very ample trial. 
 
 The guano imported in 1841 sold at from 22s. 
 to 28s. per cwt. ; that imported in 1842 sold at 
 from 14s. to 15s. per cwt. ; and that imported in 
 1843 sold at from 9s. to 10s. per cwt. Toward 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 the middle of November, 1844, Peruvian guano 
 sold in Britain at ,£10 per ton, and Ichaboe guano 
 sold at from £5 12s. 6d. to £6 per ton. The 
 subsequent history of the guano trade, with the 
 now universally recognised place of the article 
 among British fertilizers, is too well known to 
 require any formal statement. 
 
 The Chemical Composition of Guano. — The 
 guano of commerce is exceedingly diversified both 
 in appearance and in chemical composition. 
 Some is wholly or partially an artificial com- 
 pound ; and may be almost endlessly diversified, 
 both in its artificial constituents, and in the kind 
 and proportion of its genuine intermixture. 
 Most is very perceptibly intermixed with alluvial 
 matters; and much contains a large but very 
 variable amount of earthy ingredients, taken up 
 from the ground on which the deposit lay. The 
 pure guano of cold and wet countries has a 
 general appearance corresponding to the character 
 of insoluble salts ; and the pure guano of hot and 
 dry countries has a general appearance corre- 
 sponding to the character of soluble and evapor- 
 able substances. The guano of different spots in 
 any one district presents many diversified appear- 
 ances according to its comparative purity, to its 
 comparative age, to the particular birds which 
 have deposited it, and to the particular circum- 
 stances of weather and exposure which have 
 modified it. — The greater part of the Peruvian 
 guano brought to Britain has a peculiar putrid 
 odour, and seems a slightly damp and deep 
 reddish - brown powder, with intermixtures of 
 hard lumps ; and some of these lumps are stones, 
 while most consist of the least decomposed por- 
 tions of the pure guano, and exhibit, when 
 broken, a whitish surface on their fracture, and 
 numerous interspersions of small crystals. Ano- 
 ther common variety of imported Peruvian 
 guano, is damper than the preceding, smells very 
 distinctly of ammonia, has a dark grayish colour, 
 and contains more stones and fewer hard lumps 
 of partially decomposed guano than the deep 
 reddish-brown kind. The African guano, while 
 possessing many diversities within itself, is 
 aggregately less dense than any of the imported 
 varieties of Peruvian guano, and is nearly free 
 from hard lumps ; and in many instances, 
 especially when it is pretty dry, it abounds in 
 small silky crystals of oxalate of ammonia. The 
 chemical constitution of any one natural variety 
 of guano differs according to its age and com- 
 parative purity, and the analyses of the several 
 varieties of genuine guano, not only from differ- 
 ent regions but from the same district, differ 
 more or less from one another ; and yet the 
 chemical constitution of each variety may be 
 said to have a kind of normal character. 
 
 The average result of a number of analyses of 
 guano, performed with the greatest care and 
 with the aid of the most complete apparatus, by 
 Dr. Ure, for the London and Liverpool co-agents 
 
 633 
 
GUANO. 
 
 of the Peruvian and Bolivian governments, ex- 
 hibits 1 per cent, of silicious sand, 11 of water, 
 25 of phosphate of lime, 13 of ammonia, phos- 
 phate of ammonia, oxalate of ammonia, and 
 phosphate of magnesia, and 50 of azotised animal 
 matter, including urate of ammonia, and assumes 
 the second-last of these items to contain alto- 
 gether from 5 to 9 of ammonia, and the last to 
 be capable of affording from 8 to 16 per cent, of 
 ammonia by slow decomposition in the soil. A 
 sample of dry, pale-yellow Bolivian guano, con- 
 sidered by Dr. Ure to be a type of the substance 
 in its best state, was found, after being freed 
 from a few obvious intermixtures of small granite 
 fragments, to consist of 6*5 per cent, of water, 
 5 of urea, 7 9 of sulphate of potash, 5 of common 
 salt, 5 - 5 of biphosphate of ammonia, 0*6 of oxalate 
 of ammonia, 2 25 of silica, 9 of subphosphate of 
 lime, 1 25 of phosphate of magnesia and ammonia, 
 15*27 of urate of ammonia, and 41*73 of undefined 
 azotised organic matter, affording with the other 
 nitrogenous principles, 17*05 parts of ammonia. 
 
 Gross adulterations or spurious imitations of 
 guano can, with little difficulty, be so skilfully 
 manufactured as to possess the colour, the smell, 
 the consistency, and the general appearance of 
 genuine guano. Any farmers, therefore, who 
 have not opportunity or inclination to use pre- 
 cautions founded on analyses of guanos, ought 
 to purchase only at prices which seem to be a 
 fair equivalent for the particular kind of genuine 
 guano which they select, and only from parties 
 who have evinced thorough honesty in dealing, 
 and who always display a willingness to submit 
 their specimens to chemical analysis. So simple 
 a circumstance as the occurrence of birds' feathers 
 in guano ought not to deceive any one ; for the 
 feathers, of course, can easily be artificially inter- 
 mixed. The undue heaviness of a specimen, and 
 the character of the residue from combustion, are 
 sometimes facile and decisive criteria. One 
 spurious composition offered for sale as Peruvian 
 guano was found, by analysis, to consist of 31*5 
 per cent, of common salt, 28 of common silicious 
 sand, 5*2 of copperas, 4 of phosphate of lime, 23*3 
 of organic matter from bad guano, and 8 of wa- 
 ter ; but this trash did not require analysis for 
 its detection, for it had a specific gravity of 2-17, 
 while good fresh guano has a specific gravity of 
 only 1-66, and, when burned upon a red-hot 
 shovel, it left a black fused mass of salt, sand, 
 and copperas, while genuine guano leaves a white 
 ash of phosphate of lime and magnesia, so that 
 it might have been readily detected by either 
 gauging or burning it. But artificial prepara- 
 tions in imitation of guano, whether passed off 
 for actual guano, or somewhat honestly though 
 very inappropriately called artificial guano, are 
 exceedingly various in both appearance and com- 
 position ; and, though, in the present rapid pro- 
 gress of chemico -agricultural science, artificial 
 mixtures of more real value or higher fertilizing 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 power than genuine fresh guano may possibly be 
 soon discovered, yet most of the artificial guanos 
 hitherto produced are pushed off at prices far 
 above their real value, and cannot be relied on 
 for proper fertilizing action on the soil. 
 
 The native British guanos mentioned in our 
 notice of the physical history of the manure, pos- 
 sess, as was there stated, a very different consti- 
 tution from the Peruvian and African guanos, 
 and contain a comparatively large intermixture 
 of silicious sand. The Scarborough guano has a 
 light brown colour, seems a mixture of a fine 
 powder with bits of straw and chaff and with a 
 little sand and gravel, and emits a peculiar smell, 
 but does not give off an ammoniacal odour till 
 moistened and mixed with lime ; and, according 
 to a coarse yet sufficient analysis, it consists of 
 6 per cent, of hygrometric water, 24 of organic 
 matter, chiefly vegetable, insoluble in water, and 
 destructible by fire, 10 of saline matter, soluble 
 in water, and containing lime, potash, ammonia, 
 magnesia, muriatic acid, sulphuric acid, and ni- 
 tric acid, 21 of matter indestructible by fire but 
 soluble in muriatic acid, and consisting chiefly of 
 phosphate of lime, with a little carbonate of lime 
 and magnesia, and 39 of matter indestructible by 
 fire, insoluble in muriatic acid, and consisting 
 principally of silicious sand and gravel. The 
 guano of the Little Pentland Skerries exists in 
 firm lumps, has a dirty brown colour, occasion- 
 ally speckled with white, emits a peculiar smell, 
 not unlike that of sea-weed, and unmixed with 
 any ammoniacal odour, gives off a pretty strong 
 smell of ammonia when triturated with lime, and 
 appears, when carefully examined through the 
 microscope, to be composed of a fine granular 
 matter, particles of silicious sand, and minute 
 fragments of sea-shells and of sea- weed ; and, ac- 
 cording to a coarse analysis, it comprises 8 per 
 cent, of hygrometric water, 4 of matter soluble 
 in water, and consisting principally of muriate of 
 ammonia, and nitrate and sulphate of lime, with 
 a trace of common salt, 28 of matter destructible 
 by fire, nearly insoluble in water, and consisting 
 of a mixture of vegetable and animal principles, 
 30 1 6 of matter indestructible by fire, and consist- 
 ing of carbonate and phosphate of lime, with a 
 trace of magnesia, and a little sulphate of lime, 
 and 29' 4 of matter indestructible by fire, and con- 
 sisting of silicious sand. British guanos, there- 
 fore, in spite of their wide difference of charac- 
 ter from Peruvian guanos, cannot but possess 
 great manurial power, and are abundantly worthy 
 of being sought out and collected. 
 
 The Fertilizing Power of Guano. — Guano owes 
 much of its fertilizing power to its being a well- 
 tempered mixture of a considerable or even large 
 number of the substances and proximate princi- 
 ples which cultivated plants require for their 
 growth and perfect development. It owes a good 
 deal also to the particular transformative decom- 
 position of some of these substances, and to the 
 
 634 
 
GUANO. 
 
 635 
 
 GUANO. 
 
 harmonious and successive resolution of all in an 
 order suited both to the stages of growth in the 
 first crop, and to the gradations of progress in 
 an ordinary rotation. It owes a little likewise 
 to the presence of common salt ; which is derived 
 partly through the same medium as the other 
 substances, and partly from the saline vapours 
 prevailing over the whole surface of the guano- 
 deposits ; and which, though variable in quantity, 
 is always sufficiently present both to take a part 
 in the general transformations of the manure, and 
 to aid the other ingredients in producing their 
 full effect upon the living vegetable. Yet these 
 three sources of the fertilizing power must be 
 regarded as only secondary or adjective; while 
 the primary and substantive sources are ammonia 
 for promoting the early growth of plants, and 
 phosphates, particularly the phosphate of lime, 
 for promoting their healthy and luxuriant ma- 
 turity ; and in all thoroughly good guano, the 
 former of these sources contains a reserve for the 
 after-crops of a rotation, as well as an immediate 
 supply for the first crop, while the latter sloAvly, 
 steadily, and equably expends itself throughout 
 a limited course of years. 
 
 The ready -formed ammonia, existing in the 
 saline forms of carbonate, sulphate, muriate, 
 phosphate, and oxalate, is a highly important 
 principle in all animal manures, whether natural 
 compounds or artificial composts, and probably 
 acts a most energetic part on all cultivated vege- 
 tables in every climate ; and the comparatively 
 high proportion of it which occurs in guano, ex- 
 plains the great power of that manure in giving 
 extraordinary health and vigour to young vege- 
 tation. See the article Ammonia. But the am- 
 monia which is slowly and steadily produced by 
 the combination of free hydrogen with the nitro- 
 gen evolved from the undefined animal principles 
 of guano, and especially from its uric acid, is of 
 still higher importance, both for sake of the 
 great power with which it acts, and on account 
 of the large proportion which it bears to the 
 weight and volume of its source. Pure uric acid, 
 under the most favourable circumstances, though 
 seldom if ever under such as occur in nature, 
 might yield 40 per cent, of pure ammonia ; and 
 — as has already been made apparent by our 
 statements respecting the analyses of different 
 kinds — Peruvian guano is rich in uric acid in 
 the degree of its freshness, and when nearly quite 
 fresh is singularly rich in it. The newly-dropped 
 excretions of the gannet, after being dried, were 
 found by Dr. Wollaston to consist almost wholly 
 of uric acid ; and the solid excretions of the sea- 
 eagle were found by Coindet to consist of 84'65 
 per cent, of uric acid, 9*22 of ammonia, and 6' 13 
 of phosphate of lime. We can easily understand, 
 therefore, why the ancient Peruvians found quite 
 recent guano so much more powerful than oldish 
 guano, — why they skimmed off the new deposits 
 year by year, and left the ancient accumulations 
 
 comparatively undisturbed, — why they so rigidly 
 protected the sea-fowl from destruction or dis- 
 turbance, — and why the recent guano continues 
 at the present day to bring, on the coast of Peru, 
 so much higher a price than oldish guano. 
 
 While the ammoniacal principles of guano affi- 
 liate it to the strongest and best kinds of ordinary 
 animal manures, its phosphates, particularly its 
 phosphate of lime, affiliate it to bone-manure ; so 
 that, in a general view, it performs the aggregate 
 of fertilizing action which might be expected 
 from a compost of bone-dust and the animal por- 
 tions of prime farm-yard manure. Though agri- 
 cultural plants well-fed with ammonia spring up 
 of a bright green colour, and shoot upward with 
 vigour ; yet, unless they have also a due supply of 
 phosphates, they never attain a healthy maturity, 
 or produce an adequate return of nourishing 
 food. See the article Phosphates. Bone-manure 
 owes much of the power and nearly all the perma- 
 nence of its fertilizing action, and in consequence 
 most of its suitableness for the rotational hus- 
 bandry, to its great wealth in phosphate of lime ; 
 for while its organic principles, for the most part, 
 decompose and disappear in one season, or at the 
 utmost in two seasons, its phosphate of lime or 
 bone-earth remains long in the land, and is very 
 slowly and quite steadily withdrawn from the 
 soil by the crops and other natural agencies. 
 Now guano is, weight for weight, 50 per cent, 
 richer in phosphate of lime, than even crushed 
 bones ; and, in the same proportion, must it act 
 with permanently fertilizing power upon the soil. 
 " This fact," remarks Professor Johnston, " is of 
 great practical importance. Nitrate of soda, so 
 much used of late, and so deserving of more ex- 
 tensive trial, may be washed out of the soil, where 
 the earthy part of the guano would remain ; it 
 may cease to exert a marked influence after a 
 single crop, where it is scarcely possible that the 
 phosphates of the guano should cease to act ; and 
 it may fail to bring to maturity crops of corn or 
 to fill the ripened ear, when the guano would 
 supply to the grain, among other substances, the 
 earthy phosphates also, which the seed contains 
 as a necessary constituent." An excess of the 
 nitrogenous power of a manure over the phos- 
 phatic, whether the former be derived from am- 
 moniacal salts, from azotised animal principles, 
 or from the nitrates of soda and potash, has the 
 serious disadvantage, too, of so flushing up a crop 
 as to make it look luxuriant and promising, 
 while its weight of corn may be disproportion- 
 ately small and exceedingly disappointing ; and 
 hence the vast practical value of a concurrence 
 of great ammoniacal wealth with equally great 
 phosphatic wealth in the constitution of all good 
 guano. 
 
 Some examples of the extraordinarily fertiliz- 
 ing power of guano in Peru were given in our 
 account of the economical history of the manure, 
 and more might be given here ; but none of 
 
GUINEA-FOWL. 
 
 636 
 
 GULLE. 
 
 them ought to be taken as an index of what gu- 
 ano can effect in Britain. Where the soil is arid 
 sand, and rain seldom falls, and dews are compa- 
 ratively rare, and the prevailing temperature is 
 high, guano, with the help of irrigation, makes 
 the plant rush rapidly and luxuriantly up to 
 maturity before the burning sun and the parch- 
 ing winds have time to scorch and wither it; 
 but in the strong soils and cold climate of Bri- 
 tain, and under the abundant moisture which 
 almost constantly prevails, it performs a widely 
 different course of action, and must always pro- 
 duce effects of a far tamer and less rapid charac- 
 ter. But the malign influence which, on the 
 other hand, has been occasionally ascribed to it, 
 is incomparably more fanciful than extravagant 
 notions of its fertilizing power. The droppings 
 of geese, when they lie undiluted upon growing 
 grass, speedily damage or destroy it, but, when 
 diluted and dispersed, render it vigorous and 
 luxuriant ; and guano, on the same principle, 
 has in any case injured agricultural and garden 
 plants instead of benefiting them, only when it 
 has been put into actual contact with their epider- 
 mis, or intermixed in too large proportion with 
 the soil. — Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 
 — Darwin's Researches in Geology and Natural 
 History, — Papers of Mr. Walton and other writers 
 in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Papers 
 of Dr. lire, Professor Johnston and ot/ier writers 
 in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England. — Davy's Agricultural Chemistry by 
 Shier. — The Farmer's Magazine. — Liebig's Chem- 
 istry of Agricidture. — Johnston's Lectures on Agri- 
 cidtural Chemistry. 
 
 GUINEA-FOWL,— scientifically Numida Me- 
 leagris. A domesticated bird of the gallinaceous 
 group. It exists in a wild state only in Africa ; 
 and has thence been diffused, as a domesticated 
 bird, through Europe and America. In its wild 
 state, it associates in flocks of two or three hun- 
 dred, and delights in marshy situations; and 
 both in its wild and its domesticated states, it 
 roosts on trees or on other lofty objects. It. is 
 smaller than a turkey, but larger than a large 
 dunghill cock ; it cannot be tamed out of a shy, 
 restless, and half-wild habit ; and it possesses 
 much courage, and does not scruple to attack a 
 turkey. It has a peculiar gait, a singular 
 chuckle, and a harsh screaming cry; and the 
 male and the female of it are so exceedingly like 
 each other as not to be easily distinguished. It 
 has such habits of feeding and domestication as 
 sufficiently fit it to be kept in the same poultry- 
 ground as common fowls ; but it makes its nest 
 in very secluded and secret spots, far from home, 
 and gives no notice of laying or setting ; so that 
 its eggs cannot easily be found, and require, for 
 the purposes of domestic propagation, to be 
 hatched and fostered beneath a common hen. 
 It serves as a good night-watch to a farmery or 
 other country residence ; for whenever it is dis- 
 
 turbed during the night by the sound of foot- 
 steps, it makes such loud cries as summon the 
 attention of the inmates. It is very prolific ; 
 both its eggs and its flesh are generally relished ; 
 and it has been supposed to combine the proper- 
 ties of the pheasant and the turkey. Its flesh, 
 both in colour and in flavour, is more like that 
 of the pheasant than that of the common cock 
 and hen ; and it possesses much delicacy, and is 
 in fine season at Lent. Its chickens require to 
 be kept dry and warm, and ought to receive the 
 same food and treatment as those of the turkey ; 
 and the advanced birds, when in the course of 
 fattening, ought, during 10 or 14 days, to be con- 
 fined to the house, and fed four or five times 
 a-day with sweet barley meal, softened with good 
 lard, or moistened in sweet milk. 
 
 GUINEA-PIG, — scientifically Cavia Cobaya. 
 A small and beautiful Brazilian quadruped, of 
 the order rodentia. It occurs wild in the woods 
 of Brazil and Paraguay ; and is extensively 
 domesticated in Europe ; and is treated and used 
 in Britain in the same manner as the tame rab- 
 bit ; and is often kept upon premises in the 
 belief that its odour drives away rats. It is 
 about seven inches long, and has a white ground 
 colour, variegated with irregularly outlined spots 
 of black and orange. It is enormously prolific; 
 and, but for being unable to withstand the effects 
 of cold and moisture, it would, in its wild state, 
 speedily outrun all possible supplies of food in 
 even the most luxuriant region. The female 
 has been known to produce young ones when 
 only two months old ; her period of gestation is 
 only three weeks ; she brings forth a new brood 
 at least every two months ; and a single pair are 
 capable, in the course of a twelvemonth, of 
 multiplying into a thousand individuals. The 
 young do not attain maturity of growth till they 
 become about six or seven months old ; but they 
 are as active and alert about 12 or 14 hours after 
 birth as when full-grown ; so that they require 
 exceedingly little parental care. The guinea-pig 
 is eminently cleanly in its habits, and may often 
 be seen cleansing and smoothening its fur with the 
 most sedulous care. It is particularly fond of 
 parsley and pomaceous fruits, but feeds and fat- 
 tens on a great number of herbaceous plants. 
 
 GULLE. A peculiar liquid manure, in use in 
 some parts of Holland, in several districts of 
 Switzerland, and in the south-west of Germany. 
 It is a dilution of the solid and fluid excrements 
 of cattle in water, sometimes chemically affected 
 by a foreign admixture, and always subjected, 
 for a considerable time, to the putrefactive fer- 
 mentation. 
 
 Gillie has been longest in use in Switzerland, 
 particularly around the lake of Zurich ; and is 
 there prepared in trenches and tanks immediately 
 connected with the cattle-houses. The floor on 
 which the cattle stand is covered with planks, 
 bricks, or tiles, and has a slight inclination 
 
GULLE. 
 
 637 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 toward their heels. A horizontal trench, for j 
 receiving their excrements, extends from end to 
 end of the floor ; and is formed of boards or 
 walling, 18 inches wide and 24 inches deep ; and 
 is connected at its lower end with a covered 
 tank, of 6 or 8 feet in depth. The trench is 
 half-filled with water ; the urine runs naturally 
 into it ; part of the solid excrements falls natur- 
 ally into it, and the rest is raked and washed 
 into it several times a-day; the straw-litter, 
 which has become foul with excrement, is col- 
 lected twice a week, and well rinsed in the trench 
 with the dung-rake, and then left sufficiently 
 long at the side of it to drip out the saturating 
 liquid; and when the trench becomes quite or 
 nearly full, its contents are first thoroughly 
 stirred up, and then let out by the sluice at the 
 end of it into the tank. The trench is again 
 and again, or many times over, filled and empti- 
 ed in the same way, till the tank becomes full ; 
 and in large establishments, the contents of the 
 full tank, now in a state of considerable fermen- 
 tation, are run orF or pumped into a larger 
 reservoir, and there kept, from four to six weeks, 
 till they have become thoroughly fermented. 
 The washed Utter, after having been allowed 
 completely to drip at the edge of the trench, is 
 carried out of the house, and built up in regular 
 quadrangular heaps; and it soon decomposes 
 into a dark-brown fatty manure ; but, in conse- 
 quence of having been cleansed from nearly all 
 the saline and nitrogenous principles of the dung 
 and urine, this manure possesses comparatively 
 little fertilizing power. 
 
 In the south-west of Germany, the tanks for 
 the grille are constructed in the fields, and sup- 
 plied with water from adjacent springs ; and 
 both the urine and the dung are carried to them 
 from the cattle-houses. The advantages of this 
 method over the Swiss one, are the lessening of 
 labour in carting the guile to the fields, and, in 
 some instances, the lessening of labour in convey- 
 ing water to the farmery ; and the disadvantages 
 of it, are the increase of labour in collecting the 
 excrements, and the dissipation of some portion 
 of the ammoniacal principle before the excre- 
 ments can be conveyed to the tank. A practice 
 throughout the south-west of Germany, too, is to 
 dissolve some copperas in the contents of the 
 tank ; and though this must damage ferruginous 
 soils by adding to their proportion of iron, it 
 delivers up its sulphuric acid into combination 
 with the ammonia of the urine, and in conse- 
 quence very generally gives a perceptible increase 
 to the fertilizing power of the manure. 
 
 Giille is generally applied as a top-dressing, 
 and is found to be peculiarly suitable for grass- 
 lands ; but, on account of the labour of carriage, 
 it can seldom be economically applied to fields 
 or meadows at any considerable distance from 
 the tank. A grand requisite for it is an ade- 
 quate supply of water; and this requisite be- | 
 
 | comes a source of material enrichment, when 
 the water holds a considerable quantity of saline 
 j matters in solution,— or, in popular phrase, is 
 , " very soft." Giille is conveyed from the tank 
 to the field in liquid manure carts ; but it falls 
 most equably and beneficially upon the soil, when 
 made to flow from an aperture in the centre of 
 the lower side of the barrel, and to splash upon 
 a dispersing-board suspended below the aperture. 
 In pumping it out of the tank into the barrel, 
 care ought to be used to leave behind all the un- 
 decomposed vegetable fibre lying as sediment at 
 the bottom of the tank ; for, when this is mixed 
 with giille used as top-dressing, it lies on the 
 leaves of the young plants, and produces an 
 injurious incrustation. And it ought always to 
 be applied, either in a state of comparatively 
 great dilution, or when the soil is much moisten- 
 ed with rain ; for if used upon dry grass-land in 
 the concentrated form in which it is prepared, 
 it will act in a somewhat caustic manner, and 
 probably do more harm than good. 
 GTJTTA SERENA. See Amaurosis. 
 GUT-TIE. See Cords. 
 
 GYPSUM. The hydrous sulphate of lime. It 
 consists of 40'1 per cent, of sulphuric acid, 28 5 
 of lime, and 1 8 of water, or of three equivalents 
 of sulphuric acid, one of lime, and two of water, 
 or of one equivalent of sulphate of lime, and two 
 equivalents of water. 
 
 Where Gypsum is Found. — Gypsum is one of 
 the abundant minerals on the surface of the earth. 
 It is an ingredient, though not a bulky one, in 
 very many soils ; it occurs so plentifully in sub- 
 strata as to impregnate the water of very many 
 springs; and it exists in the crystalline state, 
 and in granular and fibrous masses, in the geog- ! 
 nostic strata of most recent formation, and par- 
 ticularly in the districts of the newer limestones. 
 The specimens of it in Shotover Hill near Oxford 
 are quoted by Sir Humphrey Davy as examples 
 of it in its normal state. The specimens in Der- 
 byshire and Nottinghamshire are, in many in- 
 stances, so fine and compact as to take the rank 
 and serve the purposes of alabaster. Specimens 
 of it, in great plenty and in considerable variety, 
 have long been known in France, Saxony, Spain, 
 Italy, and other parts of Europe. But the gyp- 
 sum of commerce has generally in combination 
 with it some proportion of silica, and of carbonate 
 of lime. English gypsum is usually sold in 
 Hampshire at about Is. 9d. per bushel; it is still 
 cheaper in the midland counties; it is so very 
 abundant in Derbyshire as to be commonly used 
 for making the floors of farmers' cheese-rooms ; 
 and it is more or less abundant also in Oxford- 
 shire, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, the north- 
 ern Counties, and several other parts of England. 
 
 History of Gypsum as a Manure. — The grand 
 value of gypsum to the farmer, and even the chief 
 interest of it to the merchant, are its uses as a 
 manure. Virgil, in commending the use of ashes 
 
GYPSUM. 
 
 638 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 to the Roman farmers, speaks of the value of a 
 very impure variety of gypsum ; and the early 
 inhabitants of Britain, and the farmers of Lom- 
 bardy, made use of it in some such way as the 
 Romans. But none of these parties were ac- 
 quainted with its real nature ; and even the 
 chemists, till a comparatively late period, were 
 unable to distinguish it from limestone or other 
 calcareous substances. About the middle of the 
 18th century, a substance which was long after- 
 wards shown to be an impure gypsum, which 
 had been used as a fertilizer in the neighbour- 
 hood of Hanover, drew the attention of Mayer, a 
 talented Protestant pastor in the principality of 
 Hohenlohe, and was found by him to possess such 
 manurial powers as promised to be of great and 
 general service to agriculture. He recommended 
 and published the substance by both example and 
 writing ; and he speedily made a deep and exten- 
 sive impression in its favour. Many agricultu- 
 rists subjected it to experiment ; and Schubart 
 in Germany, TschifFeli in Switzerland, and Frank- 
 lin in America, wrote in recommendation of it, 
 pushed it into notoriety, and both won for it a 
 host of friends, and provoked against it a host 
 of foes. 
 
 The *use of gypsum extended rapidly in vari- 
 ous parts of Europe, particularly in the district 
 around Paris ; and was so zealously propagated 
 in North America as to occasion exportations 
 from the quarries of Montmartre to the western 
 side of the Atlantic ; and gypsum rapidly ob- 
 tained the fame, in both the old world and the 
 new, of being one of the most powerful auxiliaries 
 of vegetation. But the opposers of it were many 
 and formidable ; and among the most strenuous 
 of these were the proprietors of the salt-pans, 
 who maintained that schlot or the refuse of their 
 pans was the only true fertilizer of its class, and 
 could never be superseded or competed with by 
 gypsum ; and yet this very schlot turned out, in 
 a maturer state of mineral analysis, to be itself 
 an artificial gypsum, of precisely similar consti- 
 tution and action to the natural gypsum of the 
 quarries. The advocates of gypsum, however, 
 were, in a sense, its worst enemies ; for they so 
 exaggerated its powers, and spoke of it as an 
 universal manure, and recommended it for all 
 sorts of manurial purposes, as necessarily to pro- 
 duce great disappointment, and in consequence 
 provoke disgust, anger, and opposition. Expe- 
 rience eventually, though slowly and hesitatingly, 
 assigned very distinct and somewhat confined 
 limits to its fertilizing power ; pronounced it to 
 require, in every case, the co-existence with it in 
 the soil, either naturally or artificially, of organic 
 manures ; declared it to be efficacious chiefly on 
 soils rich in humus and poor in salts, and gener- 
 ally to but a small number of ordinarily culti- 
 vated plants, such as lucern, sainfoin, clover, 
 ryegrass, turnips, and the grasses of artificial 
 meadows ; and condemned it as almost or alto- 
 gether worthless to cereal crops, to the greater 
 
 number of hard crops, and to most kinds of na- 
 tural grass lands. Opinions were very long di- 
 vided, too, respecting the seasons and methods 
 of applying it ; particularly as to whether it 
 should be pulverized and applied in its natural 
 state or first burned and then pulverized, and as 
 to whether it should be sprinkled on the surface 
 as a top-dressing or thoroughly intermixed with 
 the soil. In many and extensive districts, also, 
 whose soil has since been supposed to contain a 
 sufficient natural intermixture of gypsum for all 
 the purposes of vegetation, the application of the 
 new manure, no matter how or when made, was 
 found to produce no beneficial effect whatever 
 upon any kind of ground or crop. 
 
 " The opinions of practical men, with regard 
 to the advantages and propriety of applying gyp- 
 sum," says Boussingault, " although they agreed 
 in certain determinate circumstances, were still 
 far from being unanimous. A particular inquiry 
 into the subject was therefore held worthy of its 
 attention by the French government, and a com- 
 prehensive report on all the information collect- 
 ed was made by M. Bosc to the Royal Central 
 Agricultural Society of France. This report 
 shows in a striking manner the advantages that 
 may be derived from the lights of practical men ; 
 in a single line or sentence, we frequently find a 
 summary of 20 or 30 years' experience. The 
 following series of questions and answers I be- 
 lieve to embrace most of the points of any inter- 
 est connected with the employment of gypsum. 
 1st. Does plaster act favourably on artificial 
 meadows 1 Of 43 opinions given, 40 are in the 
 affirmative, and 3 in the negative. 2d. Does it 
 act favourably on artificial meadows, the soil of 
 which is very damp ? Ten opinions given ; una- 
 nimously, no. 3d. Will it supply the place of 
 organic manure 1 or will a barren soil be con- 
 verted into a fertile one by the use of it 1 Seven 
 opinions given ; unanimously, no. 4th. Does 
 gypsum sensibly increase the crops of the ce- 
 reals ? Of 32 opinions, 30 were negative, and 
 2 affirmative." Some subsequent experiments, 
 judiciously planned and carefully executed by 
 Mr. Smith in England and M. de Villele in 
 France, as well as other experiments of a less 
 prominent character by other distinguished agri- 
 culturists, have drawn a very distinct limit round 
 the manurial utility of gypsum, and fully ascer- 
 tained the conditions in which its fertilizing 
 power is developed. 
 
 The Methods of using Gypsum as a Manure. — 
 Gypsum, when used as a manure, ought to be 
 ground and applied in its natural state ; for it 
 has been proved by abundant experience to ac- 
 quire no increase of power from burning or from 
 any other known preparational process than sim- 
 ple pulverization. It is usually sown or sprin- 
 kled upon the surface of meadows ; but, though 
 it acts well enough when applied in that way, it 
 acts still better when incorporated with the soil. 
 It is generally believed to act peculiarly well 
 
GYPSUM. 
 
 when sprinkled under such conditions as to make 
 it lie like a film upon the wet leaves of the grow- 
 ing plants; but it probably derives all the ad- 
 vantages of that mode of deposition from the 
 equality with which it is distributed and retain- 
 ed athwart the surface. Yet whenever used as 
 a top-dressing, it ought certainly to be applied 
 in calm moist weather, and will be all the more 
 successful if applied at the particular time in 
 spring when the young plants of lucern or sain- 
 foin or clover have already made some degree of 
 progress. " I have noticed, in applying gypsum 
 to grasses," says Mr. Johnson, in his Prize Essay 
 in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, 
 " that the weather at the time of spreading it 
 has a very material influence upon the result of 
 the - experiment. Its effects are never soon ap- 
 parent when it is sown in dry weather ; but if 
 the season is damp, so that the white powdered 
 gypsum adheres to the leaves and stalks of the 
 young grass, the good effect is then immediate. 
 This observation was made, many years since, 
 by Arthur Young, by Mr. Smith, and by the 
 American farmers : it is a well-known fact with 
 the sainfoin-growers of the Berkshire and Hamp- 
 shire chalk formations, the clover cultivators of 
 the gravels and loams of Surrey and Kent, and 
 on the lucern grounds of the alluvial soils of 
 Essex and Middlesex. The farmers of the United 
 States, when dressing their turnips with gyp- 
 sum, always found it answer best when spread 
 in rainy weather." 
 
 The Crops ichich Gypsum fertilizes. — The high- 
 ly fertilizing power of gypsum upon sainfoin, and 
 some of the circumstances which modify it, were 
 well ascertained by Mr. Smith's experiments in 
 three years of the last decad of last century. 
 The soil on which the experiments were made 
 was a light vegetable earth, 3 feet deep at the 
 upper end of the field, and gradually lessening 
 to 3 inches at the lower end, and everywhere 
 incumbent on a subsoil of chalk ; and the field 
 was divided into equal breadths for gypsed and 
 ungypsed growths of sainfoin, with every pre- 
 caution that the circumstances should as nearly 
 as possible be equal. In one experiment, the 
 crop on the deeper ungypsed soil amounted to 
 3,357 lbs. of the dry herb, and 419 lbs. of seed ; 
 while that of the contiguous breadth, which had 
 received about 15 bushels of gypsum in the 
 spring of 1794, amounted to 5.462 lbs. of the dry 
 herb, and 582 lbs of seed. In another experi- 
 ment, the crop on a shallower and ungypsed 
 part, amounted to 2,766 lbs. of the dry herb, and 
 245 lbs. of seed ; while that upon the contiguous 
 part, which had received about 15 bushels of 
 gypsum in the spring of 1792, amounted to 4,381 
 lbs. of the dry herb, and 379 lbs. of seed. In a third 
 experiment, the crop on the shallowest part, un- 
 gypsed, amounted to 2,068 lbs. of the dry herb, 
 and 66 lbs. of seed ; while that upon the conti- 
 guous part, which received about 15 bushels of 
 gypsum in the spring of 1794, amounted to 4,879 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 lbs. of the dry herb, and 211 lbs. of seed, — and 
 that upon the same part, gypsed with 15 bushels 
 also in the spring of 1792, amounted to 4,310 
 lbs. of the dry herb, and 205 lbs. of seed. Thus 
 the crop from the ungypsed breadth being taken 
 as 100, that upon the gypsed breadth is 231, 
 — it is more than doubled. But on comparing 
 the weight of the herbaceous portion with that 
 of the seed, widely different relations are appa- 
 rent ; for the proportion of herb to seed in the 
 ungypsed portion of the first experiment was as 
 100 to 12-5, in the gypsed portion of that exper- 
 iment as 100 to 107, — in the ungypsed portion of 
 the second experiment as 100 to 8'9, in the 
 gypsed portion of that experiment as 100 to 8'7, — 
 in the ungypsed portion of the third experiment 
 as 100 to 3*2, in the once-gypsed portion of that 
 experiment as 100 to 43, and in the twice-gypsed 
 portion of that experiment as 100 to 4*8. Both 
 without and with gypsum, therefore, the propor- 
 tion of the seed to the herb falls rapidly off 
 from the deep soil to the shallow. Some princi- 
 ple essential to fructification was hence supposed 
 by Mr. Smith to be very deficient in shallow 
 soil; and this principle, in all probability, is 
 some portion of the compound product of de- 
 composed and decomposing organic matter. 
 
 The fertilizing power of gypsum upon white 
 clover, was ascertained by Mr. Smith to be still 
 greater than upon sainfoin. He applied the 
 gypsum in connexion with this crop, in the 
 proportion of 6 bushels per acre, at an advanced 
 period in May, when the clover looked pale, and 
 seemed to want sap ; and only a fortnight after- 
 wards, though no rain fell in the interval, the 
 clover was vigorous, and began rapidly to form 
 so thick a covering as to protect the ground from 
 an intense sunshine, which scorched every adja- 
 cent ungypsed spot. In one experiment, the un- 
 gypsed crop amounted to 839 lbs. of the herb 
 and 56 lbs. of seed, while the gypsed crop amount- 
 ed to 2,226 lbs. of the herb and 316 lbs. of seed; 
 and in another, the ungypsed crop amounted 
 to 500 lbs. of the herb and 61 lbs. of seed, 
 while the gypsed crop amounted to 2,270 lbs. of 
 the herb and 174 lbs. of the seed. The mean of 
 these experiments shows the increase from gyps- 
 ing to have been as 225 to 100. — M. Villele's 
 experiments do not show so largely ; yet, in con- 
 sequence of having been made on moist, stony, 
 clayey soil, of about 16 inches in depth, and 
 incumbent on a stiff clay subsoil, they are quite 
 as decisive and considerably more interesting. 
 In one of his experiments, gypsum was applied 
 in the proportion of 4 cwt. per acre, and the 
 ungypsed dry crop amounted to 20 cwt. 1 qr. 23 
 lb., while the gypsed dry crop amounted to 
 40 cwt. 3 qr. 19 lb. ; and in another, gypsum 
 was applied in the proportion of 5| cwt. per 
 acre, and the ungypsed dry crop amounted to 19 
 cwt. 2 qr. 16 lb., while the gypsed dry crop 
 amounted to 32 cwt. 2 qr. 27 lb. — So far as past 
 experience discloses, gypsum may perhaps be 
 
 639 
 
GYPSUM. 
 
 640 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 pronounced less variably and more certainly 
 beneficial to clover than to any other agricultural 
 plant ; and it has often the curious property of 
 materially benefiting clover in such a manner as 
 to render the effect observable only when the 
 crop is converted into hay. " I have tried gypsum 
 on a great variety of soils," says Dr. Shier, " in 
 general with but little success. In a few instances, 
 however, it proved highly beneficial to clover. 
 In these cases I observed that the advantage 
 could not be detected by the eye, or even by the 
 balance, when the produce was weighed green, 
 but it was very apparent on weighing the dried 
 hay.' 1 
 
 The fertilizing power of gypsum upon legumi- 
 nous plants, as a class of vegetables, refers gener- 
 ally to their herbage, and has seldom any con- 
 nexion with their seeds. Any inference which 
 might be drawn from the suitableness of gypsum 
 for sainfoin and clover to the suitableness of it 
 for pease and beans, would be a total and ruinous 
 mistake. Any leguminous plants whose seeds 
 are used for food, and which are grown upon soil 
 either naturally or artificially capable of yielding 
 to them even a very small proportion of sulphate 
 of lime, usually assimilate so much of this salt 
 into their seeds that these cannot easily be sof- 
 tened by boiling. The stubborn hardness of some 
 pease and beans is frequently ascribed by cultiva- 
 tors to the temperature of the season of growth, 
 or to the rains which fall at the time of harvest, 
 but is really caused by the assimilation of gypsum, 
 and may be readily corrected by throwing a little 
 subcarbonate of soda into the water in which 
 they are boiled. But when leguminous plants 
 are grown entirely for the sake of their herbage, 
 and especially when they are intended to form a 
 perennial cropping of green fodder for cattle, the 
 enriching of the soil with gypsum gives them 
 great energy of vegetation, and causes them to 
 push forth very succulent leaves, and to renew 
 for a long time the stems which are cut for 
 fodder. 
 
 Some statements say that gypsum is usually 
 very beneficial to turnips ; and others assert that 
 it is more uniformly successful for potatoes than 
 for any other field crop. We have no means of 
 decidedly affirming or denying these statements, 
 or of recording the particular conditions under 
 which they may be correct. But an unsuccessful 
 experiment upon the gypsing of mangel-wurzel 
 by Boussingault, may probably be regarded as 
 indicative of the general inutility of gypsum to 
 root crops. " The plants," says he, "were trans- 
 planted and watered, and the gypsum was applied 
 at the time of earthing up. A good deal of rain 
 fell ; and shortly after having been laid on, the 
 gypsum became incorporated with the ground. 
 The crop was gathered on the 8th of October, 
 three months after the gypsing, and from two 
 equal surfaces, each of 242 square yards in extent, 
 weighed as follows : — from the gypsed ground, 13 
 cwt. 2 qr. 6 lb.; from the ungypsed, 12 cwt. 2 qr. 
 
 3 lb. The gypsum would therefore appear to 
 have had no beneficial effect ; for the difference 
 in favour of the gypsed piece is so trifling, that 
 it cannot be reasonably ascribed to the mineral 
 manure ; in fact, the quantity obtained from the 
 gypsed surface does not exceed that which we 
 constantly take from fields in the ordinary 
 course of cultivation, and which have received 
 no gypsum." 
 
 The fertilizing power of gypsum upon the cereal 
 crops, as we formerly saw, was denied in 30 out 
 of 32 answers to the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of France, and affirmed in only 2. This ought 
 to be decisive ; yet it is hindered from making 
 a due impression by a statement that, in the 
 experiments of Smith, gypsed land as compared 
 to ungypsed land produced grain in the propor- 
 tion of 192 to 100. A doubt is thus started, 
 which requires to be laid to rest ; and it may be 
 dealt with by an appeal to the recent experi- 
 ments of Boussingault. He tried gypsum on 
 wheat after ploughed-in clover, after mangel- 
 wurzel, and after potatoes, all in 1842 ; and the 
 results in the entire produce were, — after the 
 ploughed-in clover, 319 lb. on the gypsed piece, 
 323 lb. on one ungypsed piece, and 327 lb. on 
 another ungypsed piece, — after the mangel-wur- 
 zel, 195 lb. on the gypsed piece, 176 on one un- 
 gypsed piece, and 158 on another ungypsed piece, 
 — and after the potatoes, 235 lb. on the gypsed 
 piece, 245 lb. on one ungypsed piece, and 264 on 
 another ungypsed piece, — thus giving an average, 
 on the three experiments, of 250 lb. on the gypsed 
 piece, 248 lb. on one ungypsed piece, and 250 lb. 
 on another ungypsed piece. But as the long 
 drought of 1842 was unfavourable to wheat, other 
 experiments were made in the eminently favour- 
 able year, 1843, on equal areas of 385 square 
 yards each, with a dose of 70 lb. of gypsum on 
 each of the gypsed areas ; and the results were 
 as follow : — Rye with gypsum, 516 lb. in sheaves, 
 and 137 lb. of grain; rye without gypsum, 472 
 lb. in sheaves, and 127 lb. of grain. Oats with 
 gypsum, 329 lb. in sheaves, and 112 lb. of grain ; 
 oats without gypsum, 368 lb. in sheaves, and 113 
 lb. of grain. Wheat with gypsum, 462 lb. in 
 sheaves, and 147 lb. of grain ; wheat without 
 gypsum in one place, 453 lb. in sheaves, and 143 
 lb. of grain ; wheat without gypsum in another 
 place, 510 lb. in sheaves, and 156 lb. of grain. 
 
 The fertilizing power of gypsum upon the 
 artificial grasses, except in cases where the soil 
 naturally contains a sufficient proportion of sul- 
 phate of lime, is well-ascertained, and of great 
 practical value. This is particularly true with 
 respect to the usual rotational mixture of clover 
 and ryegrass. " If the farmer finds," says Mr. 
 Johnson in his Prize Essay, " that his fields will 
 only grow clover successfully once in 8 or 12 
 years, and that his neighbours tell him his land 
 is ' tired ' of clover or ' clover-sick,' — if he 
 notices that even the application of farm-yard 
 compost hardly adds to the luxuriance of his 
 
GYPSUM. 
 
 641 
 
 GYPSUM. 
 
 grasses, he may then safely conclude that his 
 crops have gradually exhausted his land of sul- 
 phate of lime, — and he may, with every confi- 
 dence of success, apply a dressing of gypsum, at 
 the rate of 2 cwt. per acre, taking care to choose 
 a wet morning for the application ; and this 
 may be done at any season of the year, but it is 
 best either in April or the first days of May." 
 He then declares that he can attest these facts 
 from experience and observation; and narrates 
 two remarkable verifications of them, in the 
 case respectively of an old paddock, and of clover 
 and sainfoin lands. The paddock was old, and 
 had gradually become less and less productive ; 
 and, after being vainly plied with many kinds of 
 mineral and compost manures, a portion of it 
 suddenly became luxuriant under a dose of 40 
 bushels per acre of peat-ashes, containing 12 per 
 cent, of sulphate of lime, and otherwise consisting 
 of sand, chalk, red oxide of iron, and a small quan- 
 tity of common salt ; and when suspicion arose 
 that this revived portion owed its revival solely 
 to the sulphate of lime, another portion was 
 dosed with finely pulverized gypsum, at the rate 
 of 2 cwt. per acre, and experienced fully as great 
 a revival, not only sending up its former grasses 
 with renovated vigour, but producing white 
 clover and other grasses, whose seeds had long 
 been sleeping in the soil. The soil of the pad- 
 dock contained Q\ per cent, of organic and solu- 
 ble matters, and 19 per cent, of carbonates of 
 lime and magnesia, and was about 10 inches 
 deep, and rested on a thin stratum of gravel, 
 immediately incumbent on chalk. The experi- 
 menter in the case of the clover and sainfoin 
 lands, Mr. Barnard of Little Bordean in Hamp- 
 shire, says, " I have sown gypsum 6 or 7 years, 
 and never on clover or sainfoin without satisfac- 
 tory proof of its efficacy, having usually grown 
 half a ton or more of hay per acre by its use ;" 
 and he adds that, on the 1st of May, 1838, 
 he gypsed a piece of a field of two-year-old sain- 
 foin at the rate of 2\ cwt. per acre, — that, at 
 harvest time, he reaped from it a produce of 
 hay quite one ton per acre extra, — that in Octo- 
 ber, he reaped from the gypsed portion another 
 produce of lj ton per acre, while there was 
 scarcely any on the ungypsed portion, — and that, 
 in the following year, without making any new 
 application of gypsum, he got two mowings from 
 the gypsed portion, and could find nothing to cut 
 on the ungypsed portion. 
 
 An incidental verification of the fertilizing 
 power of gypsum upon the artificial herbage- 
 plants, similar to that afforded by the instance 
 of the peat-ashes, occurs in the common and 
 successful use of coal-ashes as a top-dressing for 
 clover, lucern, and sainfoin. Such coal-ashes as 
 are found on analysis to contain a considerable 
 proportion, say about one-tenth of their whole 
 weight, of sulphate of lime, are generally found 
 by farmers to be the most efficacious top-dressing 
 I. 
 
 for these plants which they can apply ; and as 
 they otherwise comprise but a very small propor- 
 tion of fertilizing substances, they may be infer- 
 red to owe all or very nearly all their efficacy to 
 their gypsum. A fact of considerable interest 
 in reference to gypsed grass-lands, too, is that 
 horses and cattle always prefer the grass of a 
 gypsed portion of a field to that of an ungypsed 
 portion. But let not any farmer be induced by 
 these considerations to throw away money and 
 labour in the gyp sing of any ordinary natural 
 pastures. " It is certain," says Boussingault, 
 " that gypsum has no effect upon natural mea- 
 dows. Positive experience has satisfied me of 
 the absolute inutility of the substance here ; so 
 that upon my natural meadows at Bechelbronn 
 I now never employ a particle of it." 
 
 The Distinctive Fertilizing Action of Gypsum. — 
 Gypsum has been supposed by some agricultu- 
 rists to owe its fertilizing character to its alleged 
 capacity for absorbing moisture ; by others, to its 
 supposed power of accelerating the decomposi- 
 tion of organic manures, and assisting the putre- 
 factive fermentation of animal substances ; by 
 others, to its mere absorbability by plants, or to 
 its properly forming an element in their food ; 
 by others, to an exchange of principles between 
 it and the carbonate of ammonia within the soil ; 
 by others, to its stimulating the interior organ- 
 ism or the absorbing vessels or the entire system 
 of plants ; by others, to its affording plants a 
 large and facile supply of sulphur or of sulphuric 
 acid ; and by others, to its introduction of lime 
 into the soil. But it may easily be proved, or at 
 least very convincingly surmised, to behave as a 
 fertilizer in a diversity of ways, and to be much 
 controlled or modified in its aggregate action by 
 the special kinds or particular combinations of the 
 accompanying agencies of meteorology, natural 
 chemistry, and vegetable physiology. And we 
 have a strong opinion that hitherto both scien- 
 tific and practical men have come far short of 
 doing it full justice as a manure, — the former by 
 looking at it only in some one supposed mode of 
 action, and the latter by experimenting with it 
 only or chiefly as a simple application, and not 
 in combination with other substances or under a 
 studied diversity of selected circumstances ; and 
 we should like well to see a comprehensive 
 theory of it which should reduce all the plausi- 
 bilities of all previous theories to a common 
 harmony, — and still better, to see such a com- 
 prehensive theory inciting practical and experi- 
 menting men to try gypsum in numerous com- 
 binations and under a wide variety of circum- 
 stances, so as to ascertain whether, though effete 
 by itself or in the ordinary methods of applica- 
 tion, it may not be variously controlled and 
 modified into powerful action. The abundance 
 and the cheapness of the substance, and the 
 facility with which it can be used, are strong 
 inducements for making the trial. The same 
 2 S 
 
GYPSUM. 
 
 reasons which render the compounding of other 
 mineral saline manures always desirable and 
 sometimes necessary, may possibly be found to 
 apply with peculiar force to the compounding of 
 gypsum with, not one salt or two only, but with 
 several. — Parkinson's Practical Observations on 
 Gypsum as a Manure. — Boussingault's Rural 
 Economy. — ChaptaTs Chemistry Applied to Agri- 
 
 HiEMORRHAGE. 
 
 culture. — Davys Agricultural Chemistry by Shier. 
 — Johnston's Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry. 
 — Johnston's Prize Essay on Gypsum and other 
 Papers in the Journal of the R. Agricultural So- 
 ciety of England. — Liebig's Chemistry of Agricul- 
 ture. — Q. Journal of Agriculture. — BueVs Far- 
 mer's Instructor. — Turner's Elements of Chemistry. 
 — Anderson's Commercial Dictionary. 
 
 G42 
 
 H 
 
 HABIT. An acquired and confirmed disposi- 
 tion in aii animal. The habits of horses are of 
 great consequence to their owners ; and they 
 mainly depend on the animal's early training and 
 subsequent treatment. Their principal bad habits 
 are restiveness, backing, biting, rearing, kicking, 
 unsteadiness while being mounted, running 
 away, taking the check of the bit into the mouth, 
 troublesomeness while being groomed, mischie- 
 vousness while being shod, crib-biting, wind-suck- 
 ing, cutting with the shoe, reluctance to lie 
 down in the stable, swallowing food unmasticat- 
 ed, the clicking of the hind foot against the 
 shoe of the fore foot, shying, pawing, rolling, 
 quidding, tripping, swinging the head and body 
 from side to side, and slipping the head out of 
 the collar. 
 
 HACK. A pick-axe or mattock, with only 
 one end, and that broad ; also, a four-tined or 
 five-tined hand implement for pulling out the 
 roots of rushes, sedges, weeds, and other rubbishy 
 aquatic plants from drains and ditches. 
 
 HACKEN. A German plough. Its share has 
 the outline of an isosceles triangle, or is a com- 
 plete wedge with two equal sides, which always 
 turn furrow -slices one over the other in the 
 same direction ; and the share, of course, cuts 
 on both sides ; and it has two strickles or strike- 
 boards, which work alternately. 
 
 HEMORRHAGE. A morbid or accidental 
 flow of blood from an animal. Haemorrhages 
 from deep or lacerated wounds, or from the cut- 
 ting or rupture of moderate arteries, have far 
 less morbid power in cattle and horses than in 
 the human subject ; and often are attended with 
 no danger whatever in the former when they 
 would be fatal in the latter ; for, in consequence 
 of the elasticity of the external tunic, the ends 
 of the cut or ruptured vessels retract within the 
 cellular substance, and close their orifices, and 
 the flow of blood, though at first copious and 
 alarming, soon becomes slow, and eventually 
 
 forms a coagulum or clot which plugs up the 
 wound, and prevents all further flow. Yet 
 haemorrhage in cattle and horses may frequently 
 be serious enough to make a great reduction of 
 both condition and strength ; and in every case, 
 therefore, it ought, with all possible speed, to be 
 artificially stopped. 
 
 Styptics, such as flour, puff-ball, alum, vitriol, 
 and other finely pulverulent or powerfully astrin- 
 gent or corrosive substances, where applicable 
 in the form of powder or in that of lotion, act 
 either by mixing the blood into a thick paste or 
 by astringing it into a coagulum, but have little 
 or no effect upon a haemorrhage of either ox, 
 cow, or horse. Compression, by means of a 
 dossil of lint, or a pledget of tow, or a piece of 
 soft sponge, made fast with a bandage, is often 
 effectual in any ordinary case of haemorrhage, 
 and is peculiarly suitable when the place of dis- 
 charge is beyond the reach of more special mani- 
 pulation ; and even when the application but 
 partially closes the bleeding orifice, it may occa- 
 sion the speedy formation of a firm clot upon the 
 whole. The passing of a ligature of waxed 
 silk or thin twine round the bleeding vessel, 
 is still more successful ; and this may often be 
 effected by means of a tenaculum or of any 
 small hooked instrument, which can lay hold 
 of the vessel, and draw it a little from its 
 place ; or it may be effected by seizing the ends of 
 the vessel with a pair of small forceps ; or, in the 
 least practicable cases, it may be managed by 
 taking up some of the flesh or cellular membrane 
 in two or three places round the vessel with a 
 crooked needle, having a waxed silk thread 
 attached to it, and closing the included vessel by 
 the constriction of the ligature upon the flesh. 
 The tourniquet is seldom applicable to the horse ; 
 yet, in the form of twisted ligature, it may some- 
 times be advantageously used in cases of docking 
 'and of wounds in the legs. The cautery may be 
 applied when a bleeding artery or vein is not 
 
HAIL. C43 HAINING OF GRASS. 
 
 broken or cut asunder ; for it readily stops the 
 haemorrhage either by searing up the tubular 
 cavity of the vessel, or by plugging up the orifice 
 with a coagulum ; but it ought to be applied at 
 such a temperature, as merely to sear the part and 
 not to destroy its vitality ; for a part made dead 
 by it will afterwards drop off, so as to reopen the 
 orifice and renew the haemorrhage. 
 
 Haemorrhage from the navel-string of calves is 
 sometimes stubborn and dangerous. Blue vitriol, 
 oil of vitriol, or some other powerfully corrosive 
 styptic is frequently recommended, but ought 
 never to be used ; yet, when the ligature already 
 in use is so near the belly as not to allow ano- 
 ther to be passed above it, a styptic becomes ne- 
 cessary, — and one of the best is a pledget of lint, 
 dipped in a decoction of galls, and made fast 
 with a bandage, so as to combine the styptical 
 action with a compressional one. But a simple 
 ligature above the original one, whenever there 
 is space for it, is decidedly preferable. Much 
 swelling and inflammation generally follow ; and 
 these must be reduced by a sedulous and perse- 
 vering course of fomentation, and eventually, if 
 necessary, by poulticing and by the artificial dis- 
 charge of morbid secretions. See the articles 
 Wound and Bleeding. 
 
 HAIL. A species of snow, or snowy rain, 
 which has undergone several congelations and 
 superficial meltings, in its passage through dif- 
 ferent zones of the atmosphere, some temperate 
 and others frozen. It is generally formed in 
 sudden alternations of the fine season. Hail- 
 stones are often of considerable dimensions, ex- 
 ceeding sometimes the length of an inch. They 
 sometimes fall with a velocity of 70 feet a second, 
 or about 50 miles an hour. Their great momen- 
 tum, arising from this velocity, renders them 
 very destructive, particularly in hot climates. 
 They not only beat down the crops, and strip 
 trees of their leaves, fruits and branches, but 
 sometimes kill even large beasts and men. The 
 phenomena attending the formation and fall of 
 hail are not well understood. But it is certain 
 that they are connected with electricity. This 
 fact we find noticed by Moses, who relates that 
 " the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire 
 ran along upon the ground" (Gen. ix. 23). This 
 has been supposed to account for the great vari- 
 ations of temperature to which the hail has evi- 
 dently been subjected, in its passage through the 
 different strata of the atmosphere. Artificial 
 hail can be produced by an electrical apparatus, 
 and volcanic eruptions are often followed by a 
 fall of hailstones of great size. Hail-rods have 
 been erected, at the suggestion of Volta, in 
 countries much exposed to the ravages of hail- 
 storms, on the same principle as lightning-rods. 
 They consist of lofty poles, tipped with metallic 
 points, and having metallic wires communicating 
 with the earth. By thus subtracting the super- 
 abundant electricity from clouds, he imagined 
 
 that the formation of hail might be prevented. 
 These rods are used in Germany and Switzer- 
 land, but their success is not proportionate to 
 the expectations entertained of them. See the 
 article Electricity. The violence with which 
 hail is discharged upon the earth, under an ob- 
 lique angle, and independently of the wind, would 
 be explained by Volta's supposition, that two 
 electrical clouds are drawn towards each other 
 in a vertical direction, and by their shock pro- 
 duce hail, which, by the law of the composition 
 of forces, would be projected in the diagonal of 
 its gravity, and of the result 'of the direction of 
 the clouds. In Germany there are companies 
 which insure against damage by hail. 
 
 H AIMS, or Hames. The collar-blades of a har- 
 ness. See the article Harness. 
 
 HAINAULT SCYTHE. A reaping instru- 
 ment of intermediate character between the 
 sickle and the scythe. It is effectively employed 
 in Flemish husbandry ; and, when properly used, 
 it cuts down, within any given space of time, 
 from one-fourth to one-half more corn than the 
 sickle. Its blade is broad and about 20 inches 
 long ; and its handle is about the same length as 
 the blade, and is so fixed as to be at an acute 
 angle with it in the act of cutting. When the 
 blade lies flat on the ground, the workman has 
 his hand nearly right over its curve, and can 
 swing the instrument by a motion of his wrist 
 without stooping; and he keeps his forefinger 
 in the loop of a leathern strap attached to the 
 handle, so as to prevent the instrument from 
 gliding out of his grasp. He holds the hainault 
 scythe in his right hand, and a bent hook with a 
 handle three feet long in his left ; he strikes with 
 the scythe against the standing corn, and presses 
 with the hook while cutting ; and he deposits as 
 much cut corn against the standing corn as will 
 make half a sheaf, and then turns half round, 
 hooks up the part of what is cut with an equal 
 part of what is standing, and, with the aid of 
 his foot and leg to keep all in its proper place, 
 cuts and rolls up the whole in the form of a 
 sheaf. The process makes clean work, leaves 
 little stubble, and is very similar in its manage- 
 ment to bagging; yet it seems, like the barn- 
 sifting of corn, to require some peculiar and 
 almost indescribable dexterity ; for though often 
 attempted to be introduced to Britain, and 
 though tried to be taught to our reapers by 
 Flemish workmen brought over for the purpose, 
 it has hitherto failed to find its way into prac- 
 tice. Yet in spite of its manifest superiority 
 over the very best sickle -reaping, many farmers 
 of the most improved districts are quite indif- 
 ferent about it, and regard reaping with the 
 cradle scythe as much preferable. See the arti- 
 cles Bagging, Reaping, Sickle, and Scythe. 
 
 HAINING OF GRASS. The preserving of a 
 grass -field intact, for a time, from cattle, in 
 order either to strengthen its vegetation, or to 
 
HAIR. 
 
 HARNESS. 
 
 reserve the whole of its produce for use at an 
 advanced season of the year. The term ' nam- 
 ing,' from this proper or technical employment 
 of it, has gradually come, in colloquial language, 
 to signify the reserving or temporary shutting- 
 up of any kind of commodity, or such a calcu- 
 lating and parsimonious use of it as will keep it 
 from being expended till a remote day. 
 
 HAIR. The aggregate of elastic, horny fila- 
 ments which cover the skin of mammalian ani- 
 mals. It consists principally of albumen and 
 gelatine, but comprises also a white solid oil, a 
 greyish green oil, iron, sulphur, silica, phosphate 
 of line, carbonate of lime, and oxide of manganese ; 
 it yields, on distillation, a reddish liquor, contain- 
 ing prussiate of ammonia, and another salt of an 
 ammoniacal base, combined with a peculiar ani- 
 mal acid which Berthollet has named zoonate of 
 ammonia, — the residuum after distillation being 
 light, and containing carbon and phosphate of 
 lime ; and it operates as a manure in a very simi- 
 lar way to bones and horn shavings. It can some- 
 times be purchased both cheaply and plentifully 
 enough for the purposes of the farmer ; and it 
 may be applied at the rate of 30 bushels per acre, 
 and either mixed with earths into a compost, or 
 covered into the land with one ploughing. 
 
 HAIR-GRASS. See Aira. 
 
 HALTER. A loose rope-bridle, without bits 
 or curbs, and used simply for leading a horse or 
 for tieing him up. The plain or common halter 
 is a very simple affair ; but, when this can be 
 slipped by a tricky horse, a halter is used with 
 leather head-gear, two straps, and a second throat- 
 band. 
 
 HAM (Bacon). See Bacon. 
 
 HAMES. See Harness. 
 
 HAMMEL. A small shed, and small attached 
 court, for feeding one or at most two black cattle. 
 A series of hammels forms part of the arrange- 
 ment of every good farm-yard ; and is found far 
 more suitable than houses and large courts for 
 winter-feeding. Hammels may be of various 
 sizes, and variously arranged ; but all ought to 
 be constructed substantially, and with every 
 facility for the classifying of cattle, and for the 
 most economical methods of feeding, fattening, 
 and littering. See the articles Feeding of Cattle, 
 Farm-Buildings, and Farm- Yard Manure. 
 
 HAND-BARROW. See Barrow. 
 
 HAND -DRILL. A drill -sowing implement, 
 driven or drawn by hand. A common variety of 
 it is a one-wheeled barrow, with a hopper mount- 
 ed upon it for containing and dropping the seed ; 
 and this is used for sowing turnip-seeds, pease, 
 horse-beans, or any similar seeds upon small 
 ridges ; and may be driven along in the manner 
 of a common wheel -barrow. — Another variety 
 consists of a cross wooden bar, 21 inches long 
 and 3 inches wide, — a long handle, attached to 
 the middle of its front, — and four seed-droppers 
 of wrought-iron plate, the two outer ones fixed 
 
 upon the bar with their points distant from each 
 other 18 inches, and the other two fastened on 
 the bar by means of screws and nuts, so that 
 both may be removed at pleasure, or the two 
 may be adjusted equi-distantly from each other 
 and from the extreme ones, or that the one may 
 be laid aside and the other adjusted to the cen- 
 tre ; and this implement is used for sowing onion- 
 seeds, carrot -seeds, and other garden -seeds, and 
 is suited to drills at the several distances of 18, 9, 
 and 6 inches. — A third variety consists of a kind 
 of one-wheeled barrow, with a long, projecting, 
 transverse, and very simple apparatus for sowing 
 clover -seeds and grass -seeds broadcast in the 
 field ; but this is very little used. See the article 
 Sowing-Machines. 
 
 HAND-HOE. See Hoe and Hoeing. 
 
 HAND-LABOUR. The performing of physical 
 work, such as that of reclaiming waste-ground 
 or of cultivating arable land, with the aid only 
 of hand -implements, or without any assistance 
 from machinery or from the domesticated ani- 
 mals. 
 
 HAND-PICKING. The hand-gathering of lar- 
 vae from plants, of weed-roots from fallow-lands, 
 and of any other objects which require to be 
 looked for and picked up one by one. 
 
 HARNESS. The artificial means of fully 
 connecting a draught-animal with his draught. 
 Harnessing has been widely various in different 
 ages and countries ; it continues to be consider- 
 ably various for any one specific object, in differ- 
 ent regions and even in different districts at the 
 present day ; and it requires to comprise many 
 and wide varieties, in adaptation to different 
 animals, and especially to different purposes or 
 different kinds of draught. But one or two 
 common examples on the farm will sufficiently 
 illustrate the whole subject of harness; and we 
 select as the most suitable the harnessing of the 
 plough-horse and the cart-horse in the mutually 
 bordering districts of Scotland and England. 
 
 The collar of the plough -horse encircles the 
 neck, supports the attachment of the draught, 
 and presses against the shoulders. See the article 
 Collar. The haims or hames are two bars of 
 wood, so shaped as jointly to fit into a groove 
 round the anterior part of the collar, and to lift 
 their upper extremities above it ; their lower 
 parts are necessarily much curved, in order that 
 they fit the curvature of the collar ; their lower 
 extremities are attached to each other by means 
 of a small chain ; their upper extremities are 
 brought toward each other, and held tightly in 
 their position by means of a leather strap and 
 buckle ; and the side of each is provided with 
 an iron hook for the attachment of the draught. 
 The trace-chains are the light chains of draught : 
 and one end of each is linked into the hook of 
 the haims, while the other is hooked into the 
 eye of the plough's swing -tress. The leather 
 back-band passes over the back, near the groins, 
 
HARROW. 
 
 645 
 
 HARROW. 
 
 and supports the trace-chains by means of hooks. 
 The bridle commands the head and guides all 
 the movements ; and it consists of several parts, 
 and may be constructed in various ways, either 
 with or without blinders. See the article Bridle. 
 The plough-reins, consisting of slender ropes, are 
 attached to the bridle -rings, and pass through 
 rings on the haims and the back -band, and along 
 the stilts of the plough, to a looped termination 
 at the hands of the ploughman ; and for keeping 
 the horses' heads sufficiently near each other, 
 and within requisite mutual restraint, either a 
 j leather strap is buckled at the ends to the bridle- 
 rings, or a short rope -rein extends from the 
 bridle -rings to the anterior ends of the trace- 
 chains. 
 
 The cart-horse, as well as the plough-horse, 
 and quite or nearly in the same way, requires 
 collar, haims, and bridle ; but he does not need 
 trace-chains, single back-band, plough-reins, or 
 
 j connecting leather-strap ; and he requires a cart- 
 saddle and girth, a breeching, two back-bands 
 and girth, suspension-chains for sustaining the 
 cart-shafts upon the saddle, a stretcher, and 
 
 | driving-reins. The total weight of the harness 
 of each plough-horse needs not be more than 
 about 36 or 38 lbs. ; nor the total weight of the 
 harness of a cart-horse more than about 52 or 
 54 lbs. 
 
 The harness of a draught animal, whatever be 
 its parts or conformation, ought in every instance 
 to fit exactly the animal, and to be always in 
 good order. The collar and the saddle, in parti- 
 cular, ought to be thoroughly suitable in size 
 and shape, and thoroughly adapted to the main- 
 tenance of a maximum of ease and comfort : for 
 when they incommode the animal, or render 
 him uncomfortable, or especially when they 
 absolutely gall him, they make him restless and 
 reluctant to work, and destroy his temper, waste 
 his powers, and entail upon him useless and 
 perhaps severe suffering. Even an improper 
 adjusting of the haims or the girth, may greatly 
 distress him, and waste much of both his strength 
 and his temper. The methods of attaching the 
 draught, also, and the direction which the line 
 of draught is made to take with reference to the 
 centre of gravity, are of the utmost consequence, 
 and may happen, through ignorance or inconsi- 
 deration, to be so exceedingly bad as to neutra- 
 lize by far the greater portion of the animal's 
 power, and make it hard enough work for him 
 to drag along his own body. See the articles 
 Draught, and Cart. 
 
 HARROW. An implement of draught, for 
 pulverizing soil which has been stirred by the 
 plough, for disengaging from it the roots and 
 lower stems of weeds, for thoroughly intermixing 
 its component parts, and for covering the sown 
 seeds of cultivated plants. 
 
 The History of the Harrow. — The harrow im- 
 mediately succeeds the plough, both in the na- 
 
 tural order of description, and in the uses to 
 which it is applied. But — except that interme- 
 diate classes of implements, such as brake-har- 
 rows, revolving-harrows, scarifiers, and cultiva- 
 tors, more or less combining the action of the 
 harrow with that of the plough, have, in modern 
 times, been invented and multiplied — the har- 
 row continues from remote times to be a very 
 simple implement, while the plough has entirely 
 relinquished its ancient forms, and has under- 
 gone thousands of transformations and improve- 
 ments. The complicated ploughs of the moderns 
 have no resemblance in form, and exceedingly 
 little in action, to the rude machines with which 
 the ancients scratched the soil, rather than tilled 
 it, — and the best ploughs of the present day, in 
 some districts or fur some purposes, widely differ, 
 in several of their prominent characters, from 
 the best ploughs of other districts or for other 
 purposes; but all the ordinary harrows of the 
 moderns closely resemble the harrows depicted 
 on ancient medals and sculptures, and may be 
 regarded, not only as very simple, but as essen- 
 tially imperfect. 
 
 The earliest or rudimental form of the harrow 
 was probably a stiff, spinous, ligneous plant, of 
 medium character between bush and tree, either 
 a common hawthorn or any plant of similar size 
 and habit, so cut, lopped, and pruned as to lie 
 flatly on the ground, and make a great number 
 of somewhat deep parallel scratches; and this 
 rudest of all forms of it is still used in some of 
 the cultivated parts of Asia. Another early 
 form, also rudimental, though less so than the 
 preceding, consisted of branches of stiffly ligne- 
 ous trees, so dressed and fastened together that 
 the stumps of their spray and branchlets acted 
 on the soil in the manner of tines ; and this form 
 of it is still used in some parts of Russia. But a 
 third early form — so early as to appear figured 
 on ancient monuments, and to identify itself with 
 very ancient practices of proper cultivation — 
 consisted of a wooden frame of bars and cross- 
 bars, with projecting teeth ; and though both 
 the frame and the teeth of this were of wood, 
 while the teeth of most modern harrows and 
 both the teeth and the frame of others are of 
 iron, it embodied nearly all the principles on 
 which the harrow continues till the present hour 
 to be constructed. Materials, weight, size, and 
 mode of traction, indeed, have been greatly va- 
 ried, — though more for adaptation to particular 
 soils and purposes, than with the design of effect- 
 ing any constructional improvement ; but — with 
 the exception of a change of form from the rec- 
 tangular to the rhomboidal, and of modifications 
 of several kinds upon the form and collocation 
 of the tines, — changes designed to distribute the 
 action of the implement more uniformly and 
 steadily athwart the surface operated upon — 
 and with the exception, also, of brake-harrows, 
 revolving -harrows, and clod- reducing harrows, 
 
HARROW. 
 
 646 
 
 HARROW 
 
 which, though retaining the name of the harrow, 
 both possess the structure and perform the work 
 of a higher and more complicated class of imple- 
 ments — the original, rude frame -harrow exem- 
 plifies all the same principles of power and me- 
 chanism which characterize the several varieties, 
 light and heavy, wooden and iron, good and bad, 
 of our modern harrows. 
 
 The Methods of Using the Harrow. — One driver 
 or workman may employ either one horse and 
 one harrow, or a pair of horses and a pair of 
 harrows, or three horses and three harrows ; but 
 he makes thriftless work with only one harrow, 
 and, except in rare instances or with harrows of 
 very light construction or smaller than the usual 
 size, he has much difficulty in commanding more 
 than three harrows. Three men are required to 
 drive three harrows when they are separate, 
 while one man can drive them when they are 
 yoked together ; and three harrows yoked toge- 
 ther can do as much work as four harrows in 
 four separate yokes. "The reason," remarks 
 Mr. George Robertson, "why two harrows are 
 better in proportion than one, and three than 
 two, is that a small piece of land, at the extreme 
 diagonal corners of the space covered by the 
 harrows, is insufficiently done, and must be over- 
 lapped the next time the harrows go round. 
 This piece is to the same extent when one har- 
 row is used single, as when two or three are 
 yoked together. Thus, when one harrow is yoked 
 by itself, it will not sufficiently harrow more 
 than 2| feet ; but two harrows together will har- 
 row 6 feet, and three will harrow 10 feet equally 
 well. Each harrow, after the first, adds 4 feet 
 to the space properly harrowed. Hence, three 
 harrows in a set are better than four harrows 
 separately, besides requiring one driver instead 
 of four." 
 
 The workman in command of the team may 
 either lead the horses, and walk before the har- 
 rows, or drive the horses by means of long whip- 
 reins, and walk behind the harrows. But, in the 
 former method, he cannot proceed as rapidly as 
 in the latter ; nor can he as easily, or with as 
 little risk of a blow from the harrows, free them 
 from occasional obstructions in the soil, and from 
 successive chokings with weeds. He ought, by 
 all means, to drive and walk behind; and he 
 must ever be ready, either with his hand or with 
 a crooked stick, to lift or jerk the harrows sud- 
 denly up so as to liberate them from obstructions 
 and accumulations. 
 
 When the action of the harrows is required to 
 no further an extent than a single turn or one 
 double turn, they pass along the ridges ; and 
 when it is required to the extent of several dou- 
 ble turns, they usually alternate a double turn 
 along the ridges with a double turn across them, 
 and make their concluding double turn along 
 them. A single turn is effected, when the 
 harrows proceed upon one belt of ground and 
 return upon the adjacent belt ; and a double 
 
 turn is effected, when they both proceed and re- 
 turn upon one belt. A single turn is commonly 
 sufficient at the sowing of the smaller seeds of 
 grasses; one double turn or two double turns 
 are commonly sufficient to give the finishing 
 tilth to a piece of thoroughly summer-fallowed 
 and completely pulverized soil: but several or 
 even many double turns may be required for the 
 reduction of ploughed grass land, for the earlier 
 cleanings of coarse and foul summer fallows, and 
 for other cases in which the ground is adhesive 
 and matted with the roots and the decurrent 
 fibres of either weeds or gramineous plants. 
 See the article Fallow. 
 
 To prevent the injurious effect of the treading 
 of wet or finely pulverized soil by the horses' 
 feet, attempts have been made so to construct 
 and yoke harrows as to allow the horses to walk 
 in the furrows. But though the attempts are 
 practicable enough on narrow ridges, they have 
 been found possible only with complicated and 
 expensive machines on broad ridges. In any 
 ordinary instance of a farmer being obliged, in 
 an unfavourable season, to harrow the ground 
 when it is in a very wet state, a beam may be so 
 attached to a set of three, four, or more common 
 heavy harrows as to extend quite across the 
 ridge, and to allow the horses to be harnessed to 
 the ends of it, and to walk in the furrows. But 
 both on account of the greater efficiency of the 
 harrows' action, and for the sake of preventing 
 injury from the treading of the horses' feet, har- 
 rowing, except in cases of absolute necessity, 
 ought always to be performed when the land is 
 dry. 
 
 All the proper work of the harrows, as may 
 readily be inferred from the lightness of the 
 whole implements and from the comparatively 
 slight hold which they take of the ground, 
 makes but a very gentle and easy traction for 
 the horses. Yet the irregularities of their mo- 
 tion, the starts and bounds which they make 
 upon obstructions, and their alternations of 
 skimming lightly when free from accumulations 
 of weed and rubbish, and of lumbering heavly, 
 when encumbered with these accumulations, 
 sometimes occasion considerable labour; while 
 the mere sinking of the horses' feet in the soft 
 and pulverulent soil is frequently so laborious as 
 to render the entire traction easier to a colt or a 
 light pony than to an ordinary farm-horse. 
 
 The amount of harrowing which can be effect- 
 ed in arty given time varies with the condition of 
 the soil, the activity of the horses, the alertness 
 of the workman, and the forms and combinations 
 of the harrows ; and it is somewhat variously 
 estimated by leading agricultural writers of 
 Britain and the Continent. Sir John Sinclair 
 says, " In Norfolk, it is the custom to walk the 
 horses against the rise, if any, and to trot them 
 back again in the same place ; the quantity done 
 in this way is about 7 acres per day. In Scot- 
 land, a man and a pair of horses will do a single 
 
HARROW. 
 
 64' 
 
 HARROW. 
 
 tine, as it is called, to the extent of 10 acres ; 
 but if a double tine, only 5 acres per day." 
 Veit estimates, for one horse, an average of about 
 3-3- acres per day ; and he elsewhere says that a 
 man, with the usual harrow, may go over from 
 4i to 5 acres per day. Thaer says, " The differ- 
 ence is greater in harrowing than in ploughing. 
 This arises from the degree of carelessness, and 
 the character of the implement, with which the 
 work is done. The round harrowing is the most 
 difficult ; and 7 yokes," nearly 10 acres, " of 
 this is the highest which a four-span harrow can 
 perform ; but on bending and grassy soils, one 
 must content oneself with 6 yokes. In even 
 harrowing, without the breaking up of clods, 9 
 yokes," 12'8 acres, "maybe accomplished; and 
 in merely drawing along once, with one man and 
 four horses, from 11 to 12| yokes," from 156 to 
 17 - 8 acres, " may be harrowed." And Burger 
 says, " When the harrow goes only once in the 
 same line, in a soil not filled with weeds or very 
 much bound together, so many as 4^ yokes," 6 - 39 
 acres, " may be harrowed in 9 hours." 
 
 The General Structure of the Harrovj. — As the 
 harrow performs its work by means of teeth or 
 tines, pressed into the soil merely by their own 
 weight and that of the frame in which they are 
 fixed, two prime considerations are the proper 
 form of the teeth and the proper distribution of 
 them in the frame. Were the harrow intended 
 solely to drag up weeds and roots from the 
 ground, the best form perhaps that could be 
 given to the teeth would be that of a thin wedge, 
 tapering to the point like the coulter of a plough, 
 and, like it, inclining forward. But, although 
 this form might be the best calculated for pene- 
 trating into the ground, and tearing up the 
 roots beneath the surface, it would not be so 
 well calculated for covering the cultivated seeds, 
 as one which should present a broader surface to 
 the earth, and so give a greater movement to the 
 particles of the soil. The wedge for this latter 
 purpose, as well as for pulverizing the clods of 
 earth upon the surface, should not be thin but 
 broad. In order, therefore, to adapt the teeth 
 to these different purposes, to the strength neces- 
 sary to be given to them, to the attrition to 
 which they are subject, and to the lateral or 
 shaking motion of the implement when encoun- 
 tered by obstacles, the best form is one whose 
 horizontal section h i h I, Fig. 1, Plate XXVI. 
 is a square, the diagonal of which is moved 
 forward in the line of the harrow's motion. 
 The teeth, however, must gradually taper to a 
 point, the fore-part being kept straight ; and 
 they are generally inserted into the frame work 
 with ' a rake,' as it is technically termed, or 
 with slight inclination forward, so as the better 
 to insinuate themselves beneath the roots which 
 they are to raise to the surface, and to have a 
 tendency downwards rather than upwards, when 
 encountered by obstacles beneath the surface. 
 As to the distribution of the teeth in the frame 
 
 of the harrow, they should not be too closely 
 set, for then they would be constantly impeded 
 by the obstacles opposed to them ; and, they 
 ought, also, to be so disposed in relation to one 
 another as to give all parts of the implement an 
 equal degree of liability to obstruction. The 
 number of teeth, moreover, should not be too 
 great, because then their power to penetrate into 
 the ground would be diminished, unless the 
 weight of the whole implement were increased 
 in a corresponding degree ; and, lastly, their 
 length should not be greater than is necessary, 
 because they would not, on that account, pene- 
 trate more deeply into the ground, unless the 
 whole weight were also increased, — and they 
 would at the same time have a greater power, 
 when encountered by obstacles, to split the 
 frame in which they were fixed. 
 
 The harrows represented in Fig. 1, Plate 
 XXVI., are formed with a regard to these 
 general principles. They consist each of four 
 bars of wood, A, B, 0, D, &c, technically termed 
 bulls, and connected together by an equal num- 
 ber of cross bars of smaller dimensions, mortised 
 through them. The former of these bars may 
 be 2|- inches in width by 3 in depth, and the 
 latter 2 in width by 1 in depth. The longer 
 bars are inclined at a certain angle to the smaller, 
 so as to form the figure of a rhomboid; and 
 they have inserted into them the teeth at equal 
 distances from one another. This inclination of 
 the larger bars is made to be such, that perpen- 
 diculars from each of the teeth falling upon the 
 line I K, drawn at right angles to the line of the 
 harrow's motion, shall divide the space between 
 each bar into equal parts ; so that the various 
 teeth, when the implement is moved forward, 
 shall equally indent the surface of the ground over 
 which they pass. The advantages of this distri- 
 bution of the teeth and position of the bars, 
 will best appear by comparing the harrows in 
 Fig. 1 with those in Fig. 2. In the latter, which 
 represent the old and unimproved harrows of 
 Scotland, the bulls are not inclined, but are placed 
 at right angles to the cross bars ; and, in order 
 to diversify the tracks of the teeth, each harrow 
 is drawn by its corner. But here the teeth, 
 though at equal distances from one another, in 
 their several bulls, do not equally indent the 
 surface, as will appear by drawing lines from 
 their different centres, parallel to the line of the 
 harrow's motion. This defect, indeed, could be 
 obviated by attaching the line of draught more 
 to the right hand ; but then one of the corners 
 of the harrow would still move before the other, 
 which is an inconvenient position, and attended 
 in practice with certain disadvantages. 
 
 The number of teeth in the harrow is twenty, 
 five being inserted in each bull. When two har- 
 rows, therefore, are employed together, the sur- 
 face of the ground from I to K is indented by 
 forty teeth, moving at equal distances from one 
 another. The teeth may so project below the 
 
HARROW. 
 
 648 
 
 HARROW. 
 
 under surface of the wood, that the length shall 
 be about six inches in the hindmost row, and 
 shall gradually increase' to about seven in the 
 foremost, where the oblique position of the line 
 of draught tends most to elevate the harrow. The 
 teeth, it has been said, are generally inserted into 
 the frame, with a little inclination forward. This 
 deviation from the perpendicular, however, if 
 made at all, should be very slight, because it 
 renders the harrow more apt to be impeded by 
 the weeds and rubbish raised by the teeth, and 
 collected in the angle formed between them and 
 the wood. The teeth are fixed in the bulls, by 
 boring holes with an auger of about three-fourths 
 of an inch diameter, and then driving the teeth 
 firmly through. The best of the common kinds 
 of wood for the bulls, on account of its being the 
 least liable to split, is elm, birch, or ash, and for 
 the cross-bars, ash ; yet the whole may be made 
 of well-seasoned larch. The teeth, when thus 
 driven into the bulls, will be retained with suffi- 
 cient firmness ; though, in the very large and 
 heavy species of harrow called brake-harrow, 
 they should be further secured by means of bolts 
 or screw-nuts. 
 
 The harrows referred to in Fig. 1, are connected 
 together by the iron hinges L, M, N, 0, which 
 keep them at the distance required, and admit 
 either of rising or falling according to the ine- 
 quality of the surface. The method of attaching 
 the animals of draught, will be explained by the 
 apparatus represented in the figure, by means of 
 which, each animal must exert an equal force in 
 pulling. Here RQ, RQ, are the foremost slots 
 of the harrows, bars of iron passing through 
 the upper end of the bulls of each harrow. These 
 bars have, on each side of the bulls AB, EF, a 
 few holes or notches, so situated that the line of 
 draught may be shifted to the right or left as 
 may be required; and the staple P being the 
 point to which the moving power of the whole 
 machine is applied, it is important to ascer- 
 tain its proper position. In order to place an 
 equal number of the teeth on each side on the 
 line of traction, it is apparent that the point P 
 should be placed in the middle of the entire 
 breadth covered by the harrows. This, however, 
 would not be the true position of this point, un- 
 less each of the teeth were so formed as to be 
 equally resisted by the earth on each of its sides. 
 Thus, if a tooth, whose horizontal section is a b cd, 
 were so moved forward that, in the rectangle c g, 
 fm,ge, perpendicular to the line of traction, 
 should be greater than e f, then the impinging 
 earth would act with a greater force upon the 
 left than upon the right side of the tooth, and so 
 tend to turn the whole harrow round the point 
 to which the moving power was applied. The 
 point P, therefore, could not now be precisely in 
 the middle of the breadth covered by the harrows, 
 but would need to be applied so much more to 
 the left hand as that the tendency of the imple- 
 ments to turn round should be counteracted by 
 
 throwing more of the space covered by them to 
 the right hand side of the line of traction. The 
 effect, however, produced by any particular form 
 of the teeth will generally be slight, owing to the 
 limited surface which they present. But in 
 practice there is found to be a considerable ten- 
 dency in this species of harrow to turn round 
 from left to right, arising from the oblique posi- 
 tion of the bulls. When any obstacle raised 
 above the surface of the ground strikes a bull, as 
 at t, the force t s, which it exerts upon the motion 
 of the harrow, may, according to the laws of me- 
 chanics, be resolved into the two equivalent 
 forces r t and r s of the parallelogram r s tv, of 
 which, the side r t in the line of motion will re- 
 present the force of the obstacle in resisting the 
 advance of the harrow, and r s perpendicular to 
 rt, the force operating to turn it to the right. 
 Now, as there are not fewer than eight bulls in 
 the harrows, and these of considerable length, 
 it is evident that, in ground with any great un- 
 evenness of surface, there will be a constant 
 succession of strokes, forming a strong lateral 
 pressure on the left side of the several bulls, 
 tending to push them to the right hand side. 
 But the staple P, being nearly fixed in its posi- 
 tion, while the hind part of the harrow may be 
 moved round, the effect of this pressure is to turn 
 the whole harrow upon P as on a pivot ; and this 
 effect on very rough ground will be found so 
 considerable as often to place the bulls of the 
 harrow parallel to the line of motion, thus causing 
 all the teeth in the same bull to follow in the 
 same track. Hence, then, P is not a fixed point, 
 but varies with the nature of the surface ; and 
 hence means must be afforded to the driver of 
 shifting the point at which the draught is applied 
 to the right or to the left as may be required ; 
 and these means exist in the cross-bars RQ, RQ, 
 which pass through the upper end of the bulls of 
 each harrow. 
 
 The Varieties of the Harrow. — The old quad- 
 rangular harrow is represented in Fig. 2, Plate 
 XXVI., and has been almost sufficiently noticed, 
 though but incidentally, in the preceding section. 
 Its bulls, in general, are about A\ feet long, 3 
 inches broad, and from 3 to 3^ inches deep ; its 
 slots, in general, are 3 inches broad and an inch 
 or seven-eighths of an inch deep ; and its teeth 
 or tines consist of malleable iron, and are 20 in 
 total number, or 5 in each bull, and each is about 
 10 inches in length, and projects from 6 to 7 
 inches beneath the under surface of the bulls. 
 This variety of the harrow is greatly inferior to 
 the rhomboidal variety ; yet whenever it is still 
 preferred, it may now, according to recent im- 
 provements, be made wholly of iron. 
 
 The rhomboidal harrow is represented in Fig. 1, 
 Plate XXVI., and has been very fully described 
 in the preceding section. The rhomboidal form 
 of it is the chief instance of the only essential 
 improvement which has been made in the princi- 
 ples of the harrow since the times of the ancients ; 
 
HARROW. 
 
 649 
 
 HARROW. 
 
 and this was invented, about 55 years ago, by 
 Mr. Low of Gordonbank, in Berwickshire, the 
 father of the well-known professor of agriculture 
 in the university of Edinburgh ; yet, in spite of 
 its great and manifest excellence, it came but 
 slowly into use, and was not generally imitated 
 in the construction of harrows, even in the south- 
 east of Scotland, till about the third decad of the 
 present century. — The hinges of the common 
 forms of two mutually connected rhomboidal 
 harrows, are adjusted together in close and well- 
 fitted joints, and have their tails prolonged in 
 a bolt through only the first and the second bulls ; 
 but the hinges in the newest and most improved 
 forms- of these harrows, as represented in the 
 figure in our plate, have a wide-eyed single 
 joint in the one harrow, and an arched double 
 joint of about six inches of span in the other, so 
 as to produce looseness and freedom of action, 
 and have their tails prolonged in bolts through 
 all the bulls, quite to the opposite sides of the 
 harrows, so as to contribute to the increase of 
 both the strength and the efficiency of the im- 
 plements. 
 
 Since the recent extensive introduction of 
 iron into the manufacture of large and heavy 
 implements, rhomboidal harrows have very gene- 
 rally begun to be wholly constructed of that 
 material ; and in this case, they have fewer 
 slots and far more slender bulls, — and, besides 
 being more durable, and less liable to accidental 
 injury, they expose a smaller surface to the re- 
 sistance of obstacles on the ground, and perform 
 somewhat more work in proportion to their 
 weight. These harrows are represented in Fig. 3, 
 Plate XXVI. The slots are only 3 in number, 
 and may be 2 inches broad, but need not be more 
 than § of an inch deep ; the hinge-joints are form- 
 ed upon elongations of the two end slots; and 
 the bulls may be \ an inch broad and 1 inch deep, 
 and require to be swelled out at the mortises 
 for the slots and for the tines. 
 
 Several or even many varieties of rhomboidal 
 harrows, with either wooden or iron slots and 
 bulls, are readily obtainable from manufacturers 
 of agricultural implements, and may all be alike 
 efficient for different purposes or on different 
 kinds of land. One cheap and small variety, 
 with wooden slots and bulls, is made for garden 
 culture, with tines let in with shoulder and 
 plate, and fixed angularly with nut and screw, 
 and so arranged as to cut tracks in parallel 
 lines at distances of 2^ inches; and a 14 lb. 
 weight is fitted to be used when a deep tilth is 
 required. 
 
 Armstrong's patent four-beam iron harrows 
 exhibit a much wider deviation, than the rhom- 
 boidal harrows do, from the form of the old 
 quadrangular harrows ; yet they seem not at all 
 likely to come into such general use as the rhom- 
 boidal harrows, and may be ranked as a less ap- 
 proved, though much more curious, instance of 
 the one great feature of modern improvement 
 
 on the principles of the ancient harrows. Three 
 of these harrows, linked together into one gang, 
 and adjusted to a single line of traction, are re- 
 presented in Fig. 4, Plate XXVI. "These har- 
 rows," says the account of them in the Annual 
 Register of Agricultural Implements for 1844, 
 " are made in a peculiar zigzag form, by which 
 means the tines are so arranged that they can 
 cut a separate track from each other 2 inches 
 asunder. They are made without the project- 
 ing corners, as in the old sort, allowing them to 
 fall into the hollow parts of the land much bet- 
 ter. One decided advantage they possess is in 
 the principle of draught, which is from a centre. 
 Upon the original mode of draught, the horses 
 draw from each end of the whipple-tree, so that 
 if one horse draws more forward than the other, 
 the harrows are drawn out of their proper track, 
 the tines being thus made to follow each other, 
 thereby causing a total loss of horse- power," — a 
 remark, however, which, as may be seen from 
 the statements in the preceding section, applies 
 very slightly, and sometimes not at all, to the 
 properly mounted and attentively driven rhom- 
 boidal harrows ; " but upon the new principle of 
 draught, let the horses draw ever so irregularly, 
 one part of the harrows is not more affected 
 than the other. The harrows are attached to 
 the whipple-tree by double hooks, which prevent 
 them, in rough work and in turning, from riding 
 on each other. The teeth are made with a square 
 shoulder, and secured to the frame by means of 
 a nut and screws ; consequently they may be 
 taken out and relaid, without the frames or 
 beams sustaining any injury. There are four 
 bows or slides on the top of each harrow, placed 
 there for the purpose of removing them from 
 one field to another." These harrows, both in 
 the variety represented in our figure, and in 
 other varieties of different adaptations and prices, 
 are made by Mr. John Howard of Bedford. One 
 of the other varieties is in all respects the same 
 as that represented, except that it is lighter in 
 construction, and suited to sandy lands and all 
 other kinds of light soils ; another has an addi- 
 tional row of tines and makes tracks at distances 
 of If inch ; another has two additional rows of 
 tines ; and another is very light, and has a great 
 number of tines, and is adapted for covering in 
 small seeds, for following the drill, and for draw- 
 ing over crops in the spring, to destroy young 
 weeds, without injury to the cultivated plants. 
 One set of Mr. Howard's patent iron harrows 
 are made with two beams to each, and six har- 
 rows to the set, suitable for convex or high- 
 backed lands, adapting themselves, by means of 
 an extra number of joints, much better to the 
 form of the land than when made wider, with 
 four or more beams, and having the whipple- 
 tree so made that the horses walk up the fur- 
 rows; and another set — which he calls patent 
 drag harrows — are made on the same principle 
 as those represented in our figure, but much 
 
 r 
 
HARROW. 
 
 650 
 
 HARROW. 
 
 stronger, and made to draw backward or for- 
 ward, so as to act in the former way like a 
 grubber, and in the latter like a pulverizer or 
 clod-breaker. Attempts, in short, are made to 
 accommodate varieties of Armstrong's zigzag 
 harrows to the purposes severally of the com- 
 mon cleaning harrows, the light seed-covering 
 harrows, the brake-harrows, and, in some degree, 
 the grubber and the clod-bruiser. 
 
 A registered expanding harrow, formed entire- 
 ly of iron, was recently invented by Mr. Exall, 
 and made by Messrs. Barrett & Co. of Read- 
 ing, and was expected freely to adapt itself to 
 the unevenness of the land, to admit of being 
 put to any width from 4 to 8 feet, to be very 
 easily and readily cleaned, and to combine the 
 advantages of cheapness, portability, and dura- 
 bility ; but it has not been found to answer ex- 
 pectation. — Expanding lever - harrows were in- 
 vented and patented by Richard Colman of Col- 
 chester, Sussex ; and were exhibited, of two sizes, 
 at the Highland Society's Agricultural Show at 
 Dumfries, in 1845, and are noticed as follows in 
 the official Report of that Show : "These harrows 
 embody two essential points — 1st, The principle 
 of their expansion, which is based on a strictly 
 geometrical principle, — that a parallelogram, di- 
 vided into any number of lesser parallelograms, 
 by lines drawn parallel to two of its contiguous 
 sides, will have these smaller, each exactly simi- 
 lar to the original figure ; and whatever degree 
 of obliquity may be given to the greater, each 
 of the lesser will undergo the same change, pre- 
 serving the exact similarity of figure. 2d, The 
 harrows being supported on small wheels at- 
 tached to levers, whereby any degree in depth 
 of penetration by the tines is readily obtained 
 at pleasure, by changing the position of the 
 levers. The first property is an important one 
 as applied to the harrow ; and the changeable 
 nature of the parallelogram when not tied by a 
 diagonal, as well as the constant similarity of its 
 integral divisions, are very beautifully brought 
 to bear in this improvement. By their means, 
 this harrow is capable, not only of making every 
 tine form a distinct line in the soil, like the best 
 kinds of common harrow, but the distance be- 
 tween the whole of these lines can be varied 
 with mathematical exactness, both as to equality 
 one with another and to extent of variation. 
 Thus, they will draw lines that shall be all four 
 inches, or all one inch apart, or at any fractional 
 part of the distance between these ; and the con- 
 struction being effected, the changes are pro- 
 duced by simply changing the place of a hook in 
 a chain. We have few examples in agricultural 
 machinery where a geometrical principle has 
 been so happily applied, and applied, too, to one 
 of the rudest of implements. The variation in 
 depth of penetration seems also a considerable 
 step in the perfecting of this harrow, that being 
 a point in which all others are defective. An 
 objection was made to the use of cast-iron in j 
 
 these harrows ; but the inventor stated that he 
 also makes them entirely of malleable iron. As 
 there was no opportunity of testing these har- 
 rows in the field, it would be premature to pro- 
 nounce upon their practical efficiency, though in 
 principle they are in advance of all others." 
 
 The rectangular drill harrows are employed 
 chiefly in the culture of the potato; and are 
 drawn along the drills by one horse, and applied 
 in the early periods of the growth of the crop. 
 Their object is to remove weeds and loosen the 
 soil ; but they are often marred in their efficien- 
 cy by having too many teeth. No two of their 
 teeth should stand nearer to each other than 6 
 inches; and all ought to be so arranged as to 
 produce streaks at regular distances of from 2 to 
 3 inches. — The triangular drill harrows are used 
 for the same purpose, and produce the same 
 effects, as the preceding, and differ from them 
 principally in form, and in the facility which 
 their inclined bars afford for keeping the teeth 
 well separated, and for producing streaks at 
 every three inches with the least possible num- 
 ber. 
 
 Grass-seed harrows of various constructions 
 are used for covering grass-seeds and clover- 
 seeds, and sometimes for giving finishing turns 
 to the covering of grain-seeds and the polish of 
 the tilth ; but they are often superseded by the 
 common pulverizing harrows ; and most of them, 
 even as expressly made for covering grass-seeds 
 and giving a finish to tilth, differ from ordi- 
 nary harrows only in being lighter and smaller, 
 and in having a proportionally larger number of 
 teeth. Some varieties of grass-seed harrows, 
 when intended for sandy lands or other very 
 light lands, are made, also, with very small teeth 
 of not more than 4 inches in length ; and some 
 are made with wooden teeth. — The bush-harrow 
 is used sometimes as a substitute for the grass- 
 seed harrows, but more commonly for cautiously 
 cleaning the surface of grass lands, and for 
 harrowing in top-dressings upon grass. See the 
 article Bush-Harrow. — The iron-web harrow is 
 a recent, elegant, and very efficient invention of 
 Mr. Smith of Deanston, for achieving the same 
 purposes as the bush-harrow. It mainly consists 
 of annular, cast-iron discs, precisely similar to 
 cast-iron playing-quoits, woven with iron wire 
 of about one-fourth of an inch in diameter into 
 a flexible web of about one foot in breadth and 
 6 feet in length ; and this web is simply dragged 
 along the surface of the ground, and possesses so 
 free a texture as to keep the discs in constant 
 play and motion. — A set of four very light seed- 
 harrows, figured and described in Mr. J. Allen 
 Ransome's Work on the Implements of Agricul- 
 ture, is stated to have been invented by a friend 
 of that gentleman, after his observing the effi- 
 cient manner in which the seed-corn, in some 
 parts of Norfolk, is covered by a common 
 wooden-toothed rake. The frames are parallelo- 
 gram icj and made of ash, and as light as possible ; 
 
HARROW. 651 HARROW. 
 
 the teeth of each harrow amount to twenty, and 
 are made of iron, and project only 3 inches below 
 the frame; and the four harrows have jointly a 
 sufficient breadth to cover a ridge of 108 inches, 
 and are hinged together lengthwise, and are 
 attached by the middle of their respective fore- 
 ends to a single bar, which extends quite across 
 the ridge, and has its draught -attachments at the 
 ends, so as to require the horses to walk in the 
 furrows. But one serious disadvantage of this 
 implement is, that, whenever the one horse 
 walks in even a slight degree a-head of the 
 other, all the harrows are so far thrown into the 
 diagonal as to make the teeth of the second, 
 third, and fourth bulls pass through the same 
 tracks as those of the first, and leave three- 
 fourths of the aggregate breadth of the ridge 
 unharrowed. 
 
 The brake-harrow or break-harrow — or as it is 
 sometimes abbreviatedly called, the brake or 
 break — is simply a large and heavy variety, or 
 rather class of varieties, of the common pulveriz- 
 ing harrow. It is designed to reduce and pul- 
 verize any kind of rough and stubborn land, and 
 particularly any strong clay land, when in too 
 obdurate a condition to be subject to the teeth 
 of the common harrow ; and it is made of either 
 a rectangular, a rhomboidal, or a triangular 
 shape, and in a considerable number of different 
 ways. One somewhat common, though rather 
 old-fashioned kind of it, is quadrangular, and 
 has 6 slots, 5 bulls, and 25 tines, with the per- 
 forated bar of traction adjusted between the 
 ends of the second and the third bulls; and 
 another kind of it, which some authorities allege 
 to exert a superior action, is rhomboidal, and has 
 4 slots, 3 bulls, and 15 tines, with the perforated 
 bar of traction between the first and the second 
 bulls, and worked in a set of two, so loosely 
 though firmly hinged to each other as easily to 
 suit themselves to the curvatures of the ridges. 
 But brake-harrows of all shapes and forms are 
 alleged by some good judges to be all alike effi- 
 cient, provided they be heavy enough, and have 
 tines of sufficient length and number, and proper- 
 ly arranged. Brake-harrows of all sorts, however, 
 have become, in a main degree, antiquated, — 
 partly from the subduing and pulverizing effects 
 of drainage upon clay lands, and partly from the 
 extensive introduction of scarifiers, grubbers, 
 and other implements of facile and thorough 
 fallow-cleaning. A whole class of implements, 
 with the true grubbers as their type, now com- 
 bine the action of the common harrow with that 
 of the plough, so as very efficiently to perform 
 the work v/hich was formerly appropriated to the 
 brake-harrow ; and another though much smaller 
 and quite recent class of implements, called re- 
 volving harrows, combine in some degree the 
 action of the break-harrow with that of the 
 scarifiers or the grubbers. See the article Grub- 
 ber. An implement, called a crosscutting har- 
 row, operating by means of three blades or coul- 
 
 ters cutting across the plough furrow, and de- 
 signed to improve and reduce moss-land, was 
 invented in 1829 by Mr. Brown of Carabus in 
 Islay. See the article Crosscutting. 
 
 A harrow of an entirely novel construction, 
 and of great promise in the estimation of the 
 judges, was exhibited at the Shrewsbury meeting 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1845, by 
 Mr. George Edward Frere of Edinburgh, and 
 attracted much attention in the field. The offi- 
 cial report of it says : — " It is called the Norwe- 
 gian Harrow or Clod-crusher, and was originally 
 imported from Norway by Mr. Frere ; the one 
 under notice having been constructed, with 
 some changes, by Mr. Richard Stratton, of 
 Bristol. The acting part of this implement con- 
 sists of a frame containing four horizontal spin- 
 dles, on each of which is fixed a set of cast-iron 
 bosses, with teeth projecting from them like the 
 rowels of a spur. These teeth revolve with the 
 spindles, those on one spindle inter-working with 
 the others, so that they severally clear and clean j 
 each other. The effect produced is a remarkable 
 bruizing, crumbling, or disintegration of the 
 soil, without any clogging of the spikes, or possi- 
 ble derangement of the working parts. The 
 weight suffices to cause the spikes to penetrate 
 to the required depth, which is also governed by 
 an adjustment of the wheels applied for travel- 
 ling the implement, and for taking it out of 
 work when turning. But it acted quite as well 
 when divested of the wheels and of other para- 
 phernalia, which tended rather to embarrass than 
 assist its good action. Neither stones nor sods 
 appear in any way to obstruct the working of 
 this eminently simple machine, the stones being 
 pushed aside, and the sods torn to pieces. The 
 force was thought to be less than that required 
 to work a common set of harrows going equal 
 depth, and the effect in pulverization much 
 greater. It was tried on two different kinds of 
 soil, immediately after ploughing, with similarly 
 good results. To what extent this implement 
 may act as a clod-crusher the judges cannot say, 
 as they had no means of trying it ; but this dis- 
 tinction may be drawn between it and such an 
 implement as Mr. Crosskill's, namely, that the 
 Norwegian harrow leaves the land perfectly light 
 and loose, whilst the clod-crushing roller gives to 
 it firmness and consistence." Since 1845, this 
 implement has been much improved ; and it may 
 now be regarded as a valuable addition to our 
 means of tillage. See the article Norwegian 
 Harrow. — Annual Register of Agricultural Imple- 
 ments.— Catalogue of the Highland Society's Mu- 
 seum. — Transactions of the Highland Society. — 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — J. Allen Ban- 
 some's Implements of Agriculture. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. — Goodrich Smith's 
 Economy of Farming. — Sir John Sinclair's Gene- 
 ral Report of Scotland. — Marshall's County Re- 
 ports. — Mill. — Loiv. — Doyle. — Stephens. — Sproule. 
 — Knowledge Society's Farmer's Series. 
 
HARVEST. 
 
 HARROWING. See Harrow. 
 
 HART CLOVER. See Melilot. 
 
 HARVEST. The season of reaping field crops. 
 It is widely modified, as to time, labour, and 
 precariousness, by the nature of climates and the 
 character of crops ; and it acquires its maximum 
 of importance, anxiety, and bustle, under such 
 agricultural conditions as those of Britain, where 
 the weather is fickle, the crops are diversified, 
 and the arts of culture are complicated and ex- 
 pensive. The season for each crop varies in 
 different years according to the comparative 
 backwardness or forwardness of spring and sum- 
 mer ; the season for the aggregate crops is some- 
 times so progressive as to allow them to be reaped 
 in regular succession, and sometimes so sudden 
 and headlong as to demand the most prompt and 
 sweeping exertions ; and the season for any one 
 or more or all of the crops may either be emi- 
 nently favourable to their being gathered in the 
 finest condition, or so exceedingly adverse as to 
 render the saving of them surpassingly difficult 
 or all but impossible. A farmer's cares, in re- 
 ference to harvest, therefore, are many and grave 
 and almost oppressive. A large portion of his 
 temporal interests are at stake ; various methods 
 must be practised with different crops; many 
 minds must be controlled ; multitudes of labours 
 must be commanded and inspected ; hundreds of 
 minute and concurrent provisions, in regard to 
 both the work-people and their work, must be 
 made ; and, after the season has commenced, all 
 the contingencies of weather must be studied, all 
 the vicissitudes of it watched, all the favourable 
 influences of it strenuously followed, and all the 
 malign effects of it conjectured and combated. 
 When a general harvest comes hurriedly on, and 
 the weather for it is capricious and exceedingly 
 changeable, the farmer has daily and nightly 
 about as much need of skill, energy, vigilance, 
 and continual self-possession as ever Wellington 
 had in any three months of his peninsular cam- 
 paigns. Yet every really good farmer so fully 
 anticipates the work of harvest, so thoroughly 
 prepares for it, and so perfectly understands it, 
 that he goes through it, in even a very trying 
 season, with equanimity and steadiness, and 
 promptly accommodates himself, though it were 
 hundreds of times over, to changes of tact and 
 prospect. 
 
 The earliest harvest of the year is that of 
 forage-plants made into hay ; the next is that of 
 the cereal grasses, — generally in the order of rye, 
 early barley, wheat, early oats, late barley, and 
 late oats ; and the third is that of potatoes, tur- 
 nips, carrots, mangel-wurzel, and other esculent 
 root crops. But the succession of the cereal 
 grasses, even within the limits of Great Britain, 
 is exceedingly modified by soil, climate, expo- 
 sure, altitude, and the varieties of the several 
 grains in cultivation; and the aggregate of 
 harvest- work upon many farms, is greatly modi- 
 
 HAULM. 
 
 fied or extended by the harvesting of special or 
 occasional crops, such as beans, flax, hemp, rape- 
 seed, turnip-seed, teazel, canary-seed, caraway- 
 seed, and coriander-seed. The chief of the 
 general topics connected with harvest are noticed 
 in the articles Calendar, Barn, Farm-Labour- 
 ers, Reaping, Stack, and Hay; the principal 
 implements used in harvest-work are discussed 
 in the articles Sickle, Scythe, Hainault- 
 Scythe, and Reaping Machines ; and the special 
 methods of harvesting the several crops are 
 noticed in the articles on the crops themselves, 
 particularly Wheat, Oat, Barley, Bean, Hay, 
 Potato, and Turnip. 
 
 HARVEST-HOME. A saturnalian supper, in 
 the barn, farm-house, or other building of the 
 farmery, at the close of the grain-harvest. It is 
 called in Scotland a kirn or quern. It seems to 
 have originated in heathen times; and it was 
 long observed, in a manner of wild frolic and 
 drunken license, far more suitable to savages 
 than to civilized beings. Dancing, drinking, 
 boisterous merriment, and a general oblivion of 
 rank, station, social decorum, and religious re- 
 straint, were usually its essential characters ; 
 and injury to the moral feelings, degradation of 
 mind, and the brutalizing of the elements of 
 happiness, were more or less its general conse- 
 quences. Happily for the improved morality of 
 the present day, this abomination of heathen 
 times is now very generally suppressed. 
 
 HASH. A scarifier for cutting up and reno- 
 vating grass lands. It consists of a number of 
 circular cutters adjusted upon a cylinder or com- 
 mon axis ; and it may either be attached to the 
 hinder part of a cart, or supported by two iron 
 arms, and attached to the axle-tree of a pair of 
 carriage-wheels. It cuts the surface of grass 
 land to any required degree of fineness, and to a 
 sufficient depth for destroying the roots of old 
 grasses ; and when it is designed to renovate the 
 lawn or grass-field over which it passes, a box con- 
 taining grass seeds is mounted above and behind, 
 with such perforations in the bottom as to sow a 
 line of seeds in the track made by each cutter. 
 
 HATTOCK. A shock or stook of corn, with 
 either three, six, eight, ten, or twelve sheaves. 
 
 H AUGH. An expanse of level alluvial ground, 
 in a hill-locked valley. It corresponds, in some 
 degree, to an English alluvial meadow ; but really 
 occurs only in the vales and valleys of a hilly 
 country. The name haugh is exclusively Scot- 
 tish ; and the* synonyme of it in some of the 
 southern parts of Scotland itself is holm. See 
 the articles Carse and Alluvium. 
 
 HAULM. The dried stems of pease, beans, 
 potatoes, caraway, coriander, and other non- 
 gramineous plants, cultivated for the sake of 
 their seeds or their roots. The haulm of potatoes 
 and some other esculent root plants is fit only 
 for manure ; but the haulm of almost all the 
 field seed plants, even inclusive of that of beans, 
 
 652 
 
HAVER. 
 
 653 
 
 HAY. 
 
 is more or less suitable for fodder, — some kinds 
 of it eminently so, in its plain, ordinary, dried 
 condition, and the most unpromising, such as 
 , that of beans, requiring only to be chopped, 
 bruised, and steamed. 
 
 HAVER. Wild or coarse oats. Haver-meal 
 bannock, in Scotland, is coarse, thick, oaten 
 cake. 
 
 HAWTHORN,— botanically Cratcegus Oxya- 
 cantha. A well known hardy ligneous plant, be- 
 longing to the same tribe of rosaceous-flowering 
 plants as the apple-tree. It grows wild in hedges, 
 copses, thickets, high open fields, and other si- 
 tuations throughout Britain, and in most parts 
 of Continental Europe. It is naturally a tall, 
 uncouth, irregular shrub, of about 15 feet in 
 height: but, in many situations, it assumes 
 widely different forms, and comprises a great 
 number of perfectly distinct varieties ; and when 
 trained up as a standard, on the most congenial 
 soil, it becomes a tree of 40 or 45 feet in height, 
 with a tall stem, and a full, spreading, round 
 head ; and when grown in crowded groups, and 
 either naturally or artificially repressed from ex- 
 panding, it sits close to the ground as a dense 
 bush, without any visible or obvious stem, and 
 with an almost equal density of branchlets and 
 spray and spines from the root-crown to its lofti- 
 est series of shoots. In its grand uses as the 
 favourite material for hedges, too, " it branches 
 out into innumerable ramifications, and is armed 
 in all directions with strong thorns, and may be 
 so managed as to present a barrier impenetrable 
 to any kind of cattle, and not without difficulty 
 to be passed over by such disorderly persons as 
 might wish improperly to intrude upon the rights 
 of others. Fitted by nature to assume a close 
 and compact texture, which it possesses most 
 fully during the expansion of its leaves, but re- 
 tains too, in a considerable degree, after these 
 have fallen off, it is not without the advantage 
 of breaking the force of stormy winds, and miti- 
 gating the severity of the weather in favour of 
 the vegetable and animal life which it is appoint- 
 ed to enclose." The stems of the varieties most 
 suitable for hedges are stiff, erect, parallel and 
 close to one another, and clothed with smooth 
 and shining bark ; the spines are sharply pointed, 
 of medium length, and of a dark purple colour. 
 See the article Hedge. 
 
 HAY. Dried herbage for the feeding of horses 
 and other domestic animals. It may consist 
 either wholly of grasses, or principally of grasses, 
 or mixedly of grasses and other herbage plants, 
 or characteristically of the forage-plants grown 
 in the rotational husbandry, particularly of tares 
 and clovers; and it formerly constituted the 
 grand means, and still constitutes a bulky and 
 important one, of the winter-feeding of the large 
 quadrupeds of the farmery and the city. 
 
 The Different Kinds of Hay. — One kind of hay 
 consists of the dried produce of naturally wet or 
 
 marshy meadows; and this comprises many 
 varieties, — some consisting merely of the very 
 coarse herbage which has been refused by sheep 
 and cattle during summer, and some compre- 
 hending the entire herbage, free both from dete- 
 rioration by depasturing and from diminution 
 by cutting, — some including a greater or less 
 proportion of carices and other rank and innutri- 
 tious aquatics, and some consisting mainly of 
 rich and tender grasses, similar to such as grow 
 on good soils under a judicious system of artifi- 
 cial irrigation. But, in an aggregate view, this 
 kind of hay, in all its varieties, is bad, and ought 
 to be designated, not meadow-hay, but bog-hay 
 or marsh-hay ; and in almost all cases, it is too 
 coarse for horses or even for sheep, and can be 
 given only to cattle. 
 
 Another kind of hay consists of the dried 
 produce of natural dry meadows. This also 
 comprises many varieties ; but, in a general 
 view, consists principally of the rich, sweet, 
 nutritious grasses which grow naturally upon 
 porous or light alluviums. It is greatly superior 
 in quality to the former; and, previous to the 
 systematic cultivation of the artificial grasses, 
 was regarded as the staple fodder of horses, 
 and reserved for all the purposes of nice or 
 special cattle-feeding ; and, even in the present 
 amplitude and diversity of provision for the 
 farm-yard and the stable, it is still generally 
 preferred to all other fodder for saddle-horses. 
 It has always been abundant in England, and is 
 usually and properly called by the English 
 meadow-hay ; but it has never been considerable 
 in Scotland, and is always liable to be confounded 
 by the Scotch under the common name of mea- 
 dow-hay, with the produce of their marshes and 
 boggy-hollows. "Yet," says Sir John Sinclair 
 in the General Report of Scotland, " this is the 
 hay with which the sheep pastured on the hills 
 around Cheviot, in the counties of Roxburgh 
 and Northumberland, are fed, when the ground 
 is covered with snow. On the border sheep- 
 farms, one or two low and fertile fields are 
 reserved for producing this kind of hay. The 
 stock is not allowed to enter them, after the 
 first or second week of May; but before that 
 time, they are either employed as an hospital, or 
 stocked with ewes that have little milk or twin 
 lambs." See the article Meadow. 
 
 A third and very important kind of hay 
 consists of the dried produce of the artificial 
 herbage-plants, principally tares, clovers, and 
 ryegrass ; and this is distributable into three 
 great varieties, which may be designated tare- 
 hay, clover-hay, and ryegrass hay; yet it is 
 capable of fully more diversity than either of the 
 other kinds ; and it owes all its diversity, in at 
 least the species and number of its constituent 
 plants, to the express intention and art of the 
 cultivator, while they owe theirs, in a main 
 degree, to the natural conditions of the soil and 
 
HAY. 
 
 situation. But the normal variety of artificial 
 hay, — or that which, in the present state of 
 agriculture, may be regarded as hay par excellence, 
 or as the standard by which all other varieties 
 and both of the other kinds are judged — consists 
 of equal quantities of clover and ryegrass, — 
 not of equal quantities as merely sown, but of 
 equal quantities as actually reaped, — for on good 
 clay soils, the clover grows better than the rye- 
 grass and eventually predominates, and on thin 
 clay soils or on any kind of thin light soil incum- 
 bent upon clay, the clover may be extensively 
 thrown out by spring frosts, so that the ryegrass 
 shall greatly predominate. Prime normal hay 
 is generally produced most readily, and also in 
 the largest quantity, on deep mellow clayey 
 loams ; and when well made, as well as constitu- 
 tionally excellent, it has a fragrant smell, a plea- 
 sant touch, and a light brownish-green colour. 
 
 The Various Produce of Hay. — Meadow-hay 
 greatly varies in the quantity of produce, accord- 
 ing to soil, season, situation, treatment, and 
 herbage. Ordinary crops range from 12f cwt. to 
 21^ cwt. per acre ; and when they yield the latter 
 weight, they render meadow land in Highland dis- 
 tricts more valuable than if it were either depas- 
 tured or arated. But some crops are so light as 
 to be far from remunerating ; and a few are so ex- 
 ceedingly luxuriant as to weigh 44 cwt. or even 
 50 or 51 cwt. per acre. Some meadows, in even 
 the seemingly unfavourable region of Caithness- 
 shire, the country of " John-o'Groats," have pro- 
 duced 34^- cwt. per acre ; one meadow there has 
 occasionally produced a little upwards of 51 cwt. 
 per acre ; many meadows in Galloway have pro- 
 duced 34 cwt. per acre, and some 51 cwt ; and 
 several meadows in the parish of Mearns, about 
 8 miles south of Glasgow, have, for a long succes- 
 sion of years, produced from 34 to 48 cwt. per acre. 
 
 Hay of the artificial herbage plants is also very 
 various in produce, according to soil, weather, 
 culture, and the kinds and quality of the herb- 
 age. Crops on light gravelly soils, though gener- 
 ally of fine quality, are never heavy ; and crops 
 on good clay soils are generally heavy, and con- 
 sist of strong and large plants. A poor crop 
 may weigh about one ton per acre ; a good crop, 
 from 2 to 2| tons ; and a prime crop 3 tons. But 
 these weights are to be understood of new-made 
 Hay from the tramp-ricks ; for all hay, made of 
 clover and ryegrass, loses considerable weight 
 after stacking and through the winter, — and in 
 the course of 6 or 7 months, is one-fourth or 
 even one-third lighter than when taken from the 
 field. "Hay that has stood six months in a 
 large stack, will weigh, for every cubic yard, 
 from 176 to 198 lbs., varying according to the 
 size of the stack. But if it contains a large por- 
 tion of clover, or is put in a small stack, it will 
 not weigh quite so much. The weight of all 
 sorts of hay, per cubic yard, in a great measure 
 depen'ds on the state of the weather when it is 
 harvested, and the size of the stack." 
 
 HAY. 
 
 The Marhetage of Hay. — An act passed in the 
 36th year of George III. regulates the sale of hay 
 in London, and within a distance of 30 miles 
 round it ; and this enjoins that all hay shall be 
 sold by the load of 36 trusses, — that the truss of 
 new hay, or of any hay of the season till the 4th 
 of September, shall weigh 60 lbs., — and that the 
 truss after the 4th of September, or of any old 
 hay, shall weigh 56 lbs. A load of new hay, 
 therefore, weighs a ton ; and a load of old hay 
 weighs 18 cwt. But the real differences in the 
 weight of hay at different seasons of the year 
 and under different conditions of treatment, are 
 far greater and more variable than the market- 
 law indicates, and require to be well-known by a 
 purchaser in order to his forming a correct 
 opinion of the comparative height of prices at 
 different seasons. Grass is usually computed to 
 lose three-fourths of its weight on being made 
 into hay, so that 400 lbs. when mown are reduced 
 to 100 lbs. when stacked. About one-twentieth 
 more is lost during the first month, and about 
 the same quantity during the winter; so that 
 the 400 lbs. when mown become 95 lbs. a month 
 after stacking, and 90 lbs. at the beginning of 
 spring. About one-ninth of what now remains 
 is lost, at any time between the beginning of 
 spring and the end of summer, in the operations 
 of trussing, carrying to the market, and exposing 
 to sale ; so that the 400 lbs. when mown, or the 
 90 lbs. when taken from the stack, are reduced 
 to 80 lbs. when delivered to the purchaser. 
 
 Hay, in most parts of Scotland, is sold by the 
 stone tron, which is equal to 22 lbs. avoirdupois. — 
 The market value of marsh hay is generally about 
 one-third less than that of clover and ryegrass 
 hay ; and the market value of the produce of the 
 latter, up to 1814, the date of the General Re- 
 port of Scotland, varied from £2 10s. to £30 per 
 Scotch acre, but, except in seasons of scarcity, 
 rarely exceeded ,£12. The average price of good 
 clover and ryegrass hay, in recent years, in the 
 vicinity of large towns, and when the hay is 
 quite new or sold from the tramp-rick, is about 
 8d. per stone of 22 lbs. ; but it has ranged from 
 4d. to Is. 4d. ; and whenever the price is high, the 
 crop is poor, and the hay is bad. Good crops 
 often yield no higher a market value than about 
 £7 7s. per acre ; and prime crops, at the average 
 price, yield only about .£10. Hay, therefore, — 
 as compared to many other kinds of produce, or 
 even, in multitudes of instances, to the mere 
 green herbage of grass-fields, used for soiling, or 
 let out for piecemeal cutting — is a very inferiorly 
 remunerating crop. 
 
 The Chemical Constitution of Hay. — Hay differs 
 in constitution according to the particular plants 
 of which it consists, the proportions in which 
 these are mixed, the precise stage of growth or 
 comparative immaturity at which they were cut, 
 the manner in which the hay was made, and the 
 degree of its exsiccation or the length of time 
 which has elapsed since it was dried. 
 
 654 
 
HAY. 
 
 655 
 
 HAY. 
 
 Marsh hay, comprising some carices and coarse 
 grasses, necessarily contains far less nutritive 
 matter than either fine meadow hay or ordinary 
 clover and ryegrass hay ; and hay of any kind 
 necessarily contains nutritive matter, exactly to 
 the amount in which that matter exists in the 
 aggregate of its plants. A specimen of clover 
 hay, grown upon a certain farm, for example, 
 was found by analysis to contain 7*35 per cent, of 
 mineral substances, 2-1 of nitrogen, 0463 of 
 phosphoric acid, 1-808 of lime, and 0-985 of bone 
 earth ; while a specimen of ordinary meadow 
 hay, grown upon the same farm, and analysed by 
 the same chemist, was found to contain 6-233 
 per cent, of mineral substance, 115 of nitrogen, 
 0-337 of phosphoric acid, 1*004 of lime, and 0-696 
 of bone earth; and if any two specimens of 
 marsh hay and meadow hay, of marsh hay 
 and clover hay, of coarse marsh hay and fine 
 marsh hay, of coarse meadow hay and fine 
 meadow hay, grown under similar conditions of 
 situation and culture, were to be analysed, they 
 would be found to exhibit as wide differences, or 
 even considerably wider. Let any reader glance 
 at the proportions of nutritive matter in the 
 different species of pasture grasses, as stated in 
 our notices of Agrostis, Alopecures, Festuca, 
 Poa, Phleum, and the other genera of gramine- 
 ous plants which occur in our pastures and 
 meadows; and he will readily conjecture how 
 very much the abundance or the paucity of even 
 a single grass may affect the aggregate constitu- 
 tion of marsh or meadow hay. 
 
 Hay plants cut down while immature and 
 quite succulent contain a comparatively large 
 proportion of starch, sugar, and gum ; and hay 
 plants cut down in a ripening condition, have 
 much of the starch, sugar, and gum which for- 
 merly belonged to them converted into woody 
 fibre. Ryegrass, for example, passes with great 
 rapidity from a state in which it has a maximum 
 of water and sugar and a minimum of solid 
 matter to a state in which it approaches a mini- 
 mum of water and sugar, and a maximum of 
 solid matter ; and if a specimen of a crop of it 
 be found between the 20th and 25th of June 
 to consist of 81^ per cent, of water and 18| per 
 cent, of solid matter, a specimen of the same 
 crop may be found only three weeks later to 
 consist of 69 per cent, of water and 31 per cent, 
 of solid matter. The longer the grasses stand, 
 therefore, after they have attained their full 
 height, the greater is their loss of sugar and 
 other soluble matters, and the less digestible and 
 less nutritious do they become ; and even when 
 they are cut down in a thoroughly succulent 
 condition, and before they commence their trans- 
 mutations toward ripening, they suffer much 
 loss of sugar and starch, and undergo considera- 
 ble lignefaction, from the continuation of organic 
 changes, from the fall of rain, from the joint action 
 of heat and moisture, and even from the mere 
 play of air and light. A part of a crop made 
 
 with all possible speed and promptitude into hay, 
 is decidedly more nutritive than another part of 
 the same crop made more slowly, and exposed for 
 a longer time to the action of even the finest 
 weather. Even the best conditioned, most 
 opportunely cut, and most finely saved hay, too, 
 may, from an over-retention of its succulency, 
 or from the access of fogs and vapours to the 
 stack, or from some other diffusion or accession 
 of moisture, undergo such excessive fermentation 
 in the stack as to pass from a sweet or saccharine 
 condition to a sour or acetous condition ; so that, 
 after being two or three months stacked, it may 
 not only become considerably lighter than new 
 hay, but lose a material proportion of both its 
 palatable and its nutritious properties. 
 
 The amount of nutritive matter lost by the 
 mere drying of hay is considerable in even the 
 quickest and best methods of haymaking, but is 
 very much greater in bad methods than in good. 
 Very wide differences of opinion respecting this 
 amount exist among farmers ; and probably all 
 the differences, even the widest, rest on facts, 
 and may be accounted for by corresponding dif- 
 ferences in the circumstances of haymaking. 
 An extreme opinion supposes that one -half of all 
 the nutritive matter is lost in the process of dry- 
 ing, or that one ton of green ryegrass or green 
 clover contains as much nourishment as two tons 
 made into hay; and a moderate opinion sup- 
 poses — or rather rests on positive experiment by 
 Dr. Thomson, — that every 100 or 120 lbs. of grass 
 lose, in the process of haymaking, an amount of 
 nourishment equal to 9 lbs. of barley or malt. 
 "Some very valuable experiments, bearing di- 
 rectly on the subject of haymaking," say the 
 editors of the Farmer's Almanac for 1847, " have, 
 during the past year, been made by Dr. Thomson. 
 The following is the analysis of three specimens 
 of ryegrass, Lolium perenne, the grass employed. 
 Specimen No. 1 was grown near Giessen, in Ger- 
 many ; No. 2, near Strasburg ; No. 3, near Glas- 
 gow : — 
 
 I. ii. in. 
 
 Carbon . . 45-87 45-80 45 41 
 Hydrogen . . 576 5"00 5 93 
 Nitrogen. . 5 150 1'84 
 
 Oxygen . . \ 41 5 ° \ 3870 39 21 
 Ash . . 6-82 900 7-61 
 The constituents of ryegrass hay, the stem, 
 and the seeds, are per cent, as follow : — ■ 
 
 Hay. Stem. Seeds. 
 
 Water . . 1550 1930 11-376 
 
 Organic matter . 79 52 75 72 82 -548 
 
 Ash . . 4-98 4-98 6-070 
 
 The saline matters or ash of the stem and seeds 
 of the ryegrass are as follow ; and let the farmer 
 carefully compare the two columns of this table, 
 for he will find another argument against the 
 practice of allowing the ryegrass to ripen its 
 seeds before it is cut for hay, since the seed tends 
 to remove from the soil a much larger portion 
 (one-third more) of phosphoric acid than the 
 stem ; — of lime, two-thirds more. 
 
HAY. 
 
 G5G 
 
 
 Stem. 
 
 Seed. 
 
 Silica . 
 
 . 64-57 
 
 42-28 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 1251 
 
 18-89 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 
 312 
 
 Chlorine . 
 
 
 a trace 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 
 361 
 
 Magnesia 
 
 40-1 
 
 531 
 
 Lime 
 
 . 6-50 
 
 18 55 
 
 Peroxide of iron 
 
 0-36 
 
 2-10 
 
 Potash 
 
 . 8 03 
 
 4 80 
 
 Soda 
 
 217 
 
 1-38. 
 
 Hay dried in the air at 212° Fahrenheit, ac- 
 cording to an authority quoted by Liebig, loses 
 11-2 per cent, of water; and a specimen of hay 
 thus dried, and burned with oxide of copper in a 
 stream of oxygen, resolved itself into such quan- 
 tities of water, carbonic acid, and incombustible 
 matter as proved to consist of 45*87 per cent, of 
 carbon, 5*76 of hydrogen, 4P55 of oxygen, and 
 6"82 of ashes. The ashes of a specimen of good 
 meadow hay — consisting of a mixture of what 
 Liebig calls silica plants, potash plants, and lime 
 plants, and therefore seemingly much diversified 
 in the species which it comprised — were found by 
 analysis of Haidlen — after deducting 8 per cent, 
 of loss — to consist of 60-1 per cent, of silica, 16-1 
 of phosphate of lime, 5-0 of phosphate of peroxide 
 of iron, 27 of lime, 8*6 of magnesia, 1*2 of gyp- 
 sum, 2 2 of sulphate of potash, 1*3 of chloride of 
 potassium, and 2-0 of carbonate of soda. 
 
 The Salting of Hay. — A practice has long pre- 
 vailed in some districts, and has, for some time, 
 been generally recommended by many high agri- 
 cultural authorities, of mixing salt with hay 
 which has been damaged by rain, in the propor- 
 tion of from 14 to 28 lbs. of salt to a load. of hay; 
 and when this practice is observed at the time of 
 stacking, it is said, not only to prevent mouldi- 
 ness and mowburning, but to render the damaged 
 hay fully as palatable as the best-saved unsalted 
 hay. The farmers of Derbyshire and of the North 
 Riding of Yorkshire, have long salted their crops 
 of rouen, and their wetted first crops of hay ; and 
 some farmers in the south of England have long 
 salted all their hay in wet seasons, and have 
 found it as nourishing to their stock, and as 
 readily eaten by sheep, cattle, and horses, as fine 
 unsalted hay of dry seasons. Even hay which 
 has been caught by such heavy rains and freshets 
 as to be flooded, may, by means of salting, be 
 made thoroughly good and palatable. " If straw 
 is mixed with the hay," says Loudon, "the heat- 
 ing of the stack is still further prevented, by the 
 straw imbibing the moisture ; and cattle will eat, 
 not only such salted hay, but even the straw 
 mixed with it, more eagerly than better hay not 
 salted, and will also thrive as well upon it." 
 
 The converting of bad hay into better than the 
 best readily suggested to even dull minds that 
 the best might be made almost ambrosial ; and 
 the salting of damaged hay to make it fine, was 
 therefore followed by the salting of undamaged 
 hay to make it superfine. But the main use of 
 salt is, not to transmute the properties of the 
 hay — for this can be little more than fanciful — 
 
 but to prevent it from suffering high and destruc- 
 tive fermentation ; and as it instantly operates 
 by its powerful affinity for moisture, it can serve 
 this purpose only on moistened hay, and is almost 
 certain to produce the opposite effect on hay 
 which has been well-saved and is thoroughly dry. 
 "Salting hay in the rick," says Mr. Winter, "is a 
 most destructive practice. Nothing could be 
 more ill-judged. Because animals are fond of 
 salt, it was argued that, if hay were salted, they 
 would always clear their rack of it, to the last 
 morsel. Such is not the case ; for much more is 
 wasted than there would be if the pernicious 
 custom were given up. Salt sprinkled on new- 
 made hay in the stack, soon attracts moisture 
 from the atmosphere, deliquesces, and musts the 
 whole, however good it might previously have 
 been. In this manner, I have seen many hundred 
 tons of good hay greatly deteriorated. It is pre- 
 ferable to adopt any other method of adminis- 
 tering salt, than that of brining the hay in the 
 stack." See the article Salt. 
 
 But salt has, of late years, been used in Ger- 
 many and East Prussia, for preserving cut grass, 
 for a considerable time, in a succulent state, and 
 so preventing the loss of nutritious matter which 
 is occasioned by its transmutation into hay. 
 "Pits are dug in the earth from 10 to 12 feet 
 square, and as many deep ; these are lined with 
 wood, and puddled below and at the sides with 
 clay. They may obviously be made of any other 
 suitable dimensions, and may be lined with brick. 
 Into this pit the green crop of grass, clover, or 
 vetches, is put just as it is cut. Four or five 
 cwts. are introduced at a time, sprinkled with 
 salt, at the rate of one pound to each cwt.; and, 
 if the weather, and consequently the crop, be dry, 
 two or three quarts of water to each cwt. should 
 be sprinkled over every successive iayer. It is 
 only when rain or a heavy dew has fallen before 
 mowing that, in East Prussia, this watering is 
 considered unnecessary. Much, however, must 
 depend upon the succulency of the crop. Each 
 layer of four or five cwts, is spread evenly over 
 the bottom, is well trodden down by five or six 
 men, and, especially, is rammed as close as possi- 
 ble at the sides with the aid of wooden rammers. 
 Each layer is thus salted, watered if necessary, 
 and trodden in succession, till the pit is perfectly 
 full. Much depends upon the perfect treading 
 of the grass for the exclusion of the air, and, 
 therefore, for a pit of ten feet square, four cwts. 
 are as much as ought to be put in for each layer. 
 Between each layer may be strewed a few hand- 
 fuls of straw, in order that, when emptying the 
 pit afterwards for the daily consumption of the 
 stock, the quantity taken out may be known 
 without the necessity of a second weighing. 
 When the pit is full, the topmost layer is well 
 salted, the whole then covered with boards, or a 
 well-fitting lid, and upon these a foot and a-half 
 of earth, for the more perfect exclusion of the 
 I air. A pit ten feet square and as many deep will 
 
HAY. 
 
 657 
 
 HAY-BARN. 
 
 hold about five tons of fresh grass, and each pit 
 should, if possible, be filled in not less than two 
 days. When covered up, the grass speedily heats 
 and ferments ; and, after the lapse of about six 
 days, when the fermentation has ceased, the whole 
 has sunk to about one half of its original bulk. The 
 lid must be examined during the fermentation, 
 at least once a-day, and the earth, as it sinks, 
 carefully replaced wherever crevices appear ; for, 
 if the air be allowed to gain admission, a putre- 
 factive fermentation will come on, which will 
 impart a disagreeable odour to the fodder, though 
 it will not prevent it from being readily eaten by 
 the stock. When the first fermentation has 
 j ceased, the lid may be removed, the pit again 
 filled with fresh grass, trodden in, salted, and 
 covered as before. A pit ten feet square, when 
 perfectly full of this fermented grass, will contain 
 nearly ten tons — equal to two or three tons of 
 dry hay. The grass, when thus fermented, has 
 the appearance of having been boiled, has a sharp 
 acid taste, and is greedily eaten by the cattle. 
 The pits should be kept covered for, at least, six 
 weeks, after which they may be opened succes- 
 sively as they are required, and may be kept open 
 till their contents are consumed by the cattle 
 without suffering any injury from the contact of 
 the atmospheric air. Of the feeding qualities of 
 this salted fodder, one experimenter says that, 
 by giving only twenty pounds a-day of it along 
 with chopped straw, he kept his cows in condition 
 during the whole winter. His green crop was 
 vetches, and the twenty pounds of salted fodder 
 were equal to, or would have made, less than four 
 pounds of vetch hay. Another experimenter 
 says that, on a daily allowance of twenty-eight 
 pounds of his salted fodder, his cows gave a rich 
 ! and well-tasted milk." 
 
 The Use of Hay as Food. — The feeding proper- 
 ties of hay, in the aggregate, in its principal con- 
 ! stituent plants, and in its amount of nutritious 
 | matter as compared to other kinds of food, are 
 discussed in the articles Feeding of Animals, 
 Fattening of Animals, Food, and Grasses ; and 
 the proper seasons and methods of using it are 
 noticed in the articles Calendar and Chaff- 
 Cutter, and in the articles on the principal 
 animals fed with it, particularly the articles 
 j Horse, Cattle, Cow and Sheep. 
 
 Meadow hay, from rich alluvial soil, or even 
 I from such diluvial or mixed soils as produce a 
 comparatively arid vegetation, is better for the 
 wind and the general health of saddle and 
 carriage horses than even the best hay made of 
 the artificial herbage plants ; and when old and 
 prime, it is so much more satisfying that seven 
 stones of it will go as far as eight stones of the 
 latter; yet, in order to its maintaining this 
 character, it must always be accompanied with 
 a large proportion of oats or beans. Hay of 
 artificial herbage, however, is really more nutri- 
 tious in its composition, and therefore suits much 
 better for the hard-working horses of the farm, 
 I. 
 
 whose comparative slowness of motion does not 
 require any special attention to the effects upon 
 their wind ; though even this hay in their case, 
 as well as meadow hay in the former case, re- 
 quires to be accompanied with allowances of corn. 
 
 Hay about a twelvemonth old is the best for 
 the horse, — not only because it has been freed 
 from the needless moisture which it formerly re- 
 tained, but because it has reached the maximum 
 of the saccharine fermentation, and is in the 
 fittest chemical condition for the horse's healthy 
 assimilation. Hay much newer is preferred by 
 the animal, but is not so nourishing to him, and 
 frequently acts upon him as an aperient. But 
 hay much older than a twelvemonth is hard, in- 
 sipid, and difficult of digestion ; and is less suit- 
 able than even somewhat fresh hay. Hay, too, 
 which has been unduly heated and over-ferment- 
 ed in the stack, and has acquired the character 
 popularly designated mowburnt, is exceedingly 
 injurious to the horse, producing thirst, diabetes, 
 emaciation, and the disease called hide-bound, 
 and acting generally as a slow, but sure poison. 
 — Transactions of the Highland Society. — Sir John 
 Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — Boussin- 
 gauWs Rural Economy. — The Farmer's Almanac. 
 — Johnson on Salt. — Knowledge Society's Farmer's 
 Series. — MarshaWs County Reports. — Loudo?i , s En- 
 cyclopaedia of Agriculture. — Liebig's Chemistry of 
 Agriculture. — Youatt on the Horse. — Winter's 
 Horse in Health and Disease. 
 
 HAY-BARN. An erection for sheltering hay. 
 It is usually constructed of timber ; it may be 
 open on one or two or even all sides ; and it has 
 usually, in the vicinity of London, a capacity for 
 from 30 to 100 loads of hay, but may be of any 
 convenient size from very small to very large. 
 It greatly aids the speedy saving of hay in wet 
 and windy seasons ; it sometimes prevents a loss 
 or deterioration in hay, to the value of from 10 
 to 20 shillings per load ; and it is believed by 
 many farmers to be economical in even the driest 
 seasons. " Were landlords sufficiently alive to 
 the value of the hay-barn," says Mr. J. Little, 
 in his Prize Essay in the Highland Society's 
 Transactions, " we should have one on every 
 steading as certainly as the stable and cow- 
 house. Possessed of a hay-barn, a farmer may 
 almost be said to be independent of the weather, 
 in the precarious season of hay-harvest. In a 
 good year, he saves his crop without the loss of 
 a handful, and at the smallest possible expense ; 
 in a bad one, he may have all, or the greater 
 part of it snug in his barn, while his neighbour's 
 is bleaching in coils, or rotting in summer-ricks. 
 * * Hay, of the same degree of dryness, if 
 put into a winter-rick, would certainly not keep, 
 whilst in a hay-shed," or hay-barn, " it will do 
 so perfectly. This arises probably from a much 
 larger evaporating surface being exposed to the 
 air, and the hay being put loosely into the shed, 
 and in comparatively small quantities at a time ; 
 whilst a rick is generally put together at once, 
 
HAY-BINDING MACHINE. 
 
 658 
 
 HAY-MAKING. 
 
 firmly trampled, and made as solid as possible, 
 particularly above the eaves, — all conducing to 
 bring on and to encourage fermentation." Some 
 curious varieties of skeleton hay -barns are in 
 ; use. See the article Barn. 
 
 HAY -BINDING MACHINE. An apparatus 
 for weighing and binding trusses of hay or straw. 
 It comprises all the implements requisite for 
 cutting, weighing, and binding; it can all be 
 promptly packed up, for removal from place to 
 j place, in the form of a wheel-barrow, — and can 
 i as promptly be taken to pieces and set up in its 
 own proper character ; and it allows hay or straw 
 to be quickly and conveniently heaped upon a 
 ! bed or horizontal frame, — weighed, by means of 
 a connected standard and steel-yard, into the 
 exact quantity of a truss, — and bound and pack- 
 ed on the spot with hay-bands. This machine 
 was invented by Beckway ; and may be very 
 serviceable to occasional retailers of hay or straw. 
 
 HAY-BOTE. A liberty enjoyed by a tenant, 
 for life or for a term of years, of cutting down 
 bushes and copsewood for the repairing of gates, 
 fences, and the small wood- works of the farmery ; 
 also, the liberty of cutting wood, for the making 
 and repairing of the rakes and forks used in 
 haymaking. 
 
 HAY-COCKS. See Haymaking. 
 
 HAY-CUTTER. See Chaff-Cutter. 
 
 HAY-FARMER. A farmer who is chiefly 
 occupied in growing, making, and selling mea- 
 dow hay for the use of cow-feeders, and of saddle 
 and carriage horse-keepers. 
 
 HAY-FRAME. See Cart. 
 
 HAY-HOUSE. A division or apartment of 
 the buildings of a farmery, adjacent to the work- 
 horse stable, and near the stack-yard, for con- 
 taining a store of hay for immediate and current 
 consumption by the work-horses. See the arti- 
 cle Farm-Buildings. 
 
 HAY-KNIFE. An edged implement for cut- 
 ting supplies of hay, from time to time, out of 
 the hay -stack. One variety of it is shaped 
 somewhat like the dung-spade, and is used by a 
 person in a standing posture, and cuts either to 
 the one side or to the other, and admits of a free 
 use of power so as to make a deep incision ; and 
 another and more common variety of it has a 
 long, broad, one-edged blade and a very briefly- 
 attached cross-handle — the blade inclines a few 
 degrees from the line of right angles with the 
 handle — and it is used by a person on his knees, 
 and with his face to the body of the stack, and 
 admits of but a limited or considerably hamper- 
 ed play of strength. 
 
 HAYMAKING. The process of converting 
 green succulent herbage into hay. The nature 
 of hay itself, and the different kinds of it are 
 discussed in the article Hay ; the right manage- 
 ment of the various lands and crops which pro- 
 duce it are discussed in the articles Grass-Lands, 
 Meadow, Aftergrass, Grasses, Ryegrass; Clo- 
 
 ver, Tare, Sainfoin, and a number of others ; 
 and the cutting down of the herbage of these ' 
 lands and crops preparatorily to making it will j 
 be noticed in the article Mowing. 
 
 The Principles of Haymaking. — Haymaking 
 essentially consists in expelling moisture from the j 
 plants ; it ought to be so conducted as to expel j 
 little or nothing else than water, and to retain 
 as much of even this as will comport with the 
 perfect conservation of the hay ; and it must 
 address itself principally to the prevention of 
 fermentation from the action of the atmospheric 
 heat upon the intrinsic moisture and gluten of 
 the plants, — to the averting of saturation, dilu- 
 tion, and fermentation from the occurrence of 
 rain, — to the most dexterous use of wind and 
 sunshine for the drying of the plants in the 
 shortest possible space of time, — and to systema- 
 tic, prompt, and safe storage of the dried crop in 
 such barns, sheds, or stacks as shall maintain it 
 in a state of the highest preservation. 
 
 The preventing of fermentation is essential on 
 account of the great amount of deteriorating 
 change which even a small degree of speedy fer- 
 mentation makes upon the palatableness and 
 especially upon the nutritive value of the plants ; 
 and it requires much care, much good manage- 
 ment, and the freest possible aeration of every 
 portion of the crop, on account of the very apt 
 condition of the external heat and the internal 
 juices to set up fermentation. — The averting of 
 bad effects from rain is necessary on account of 
 the prolonged exposure to the atmospheric agen- 
 cies, the deleterious action of the rain-water 
 upon both the fibre *and the juices of the cut 
 plants, the waste of labour and capital in the 
 multiplied processes of drying, and, above all, 
 the concurrence of the rain-water with the heat 
 and the juices to set up such a violent fermen- 
 tation as shall actually decompose and "rot" 
 the plants. — The drying of the crop in the short- 
 est possible time, or by the methods of frequent 
 tossing and turning and of the most abundant 
 aeration which tend most rapidly to expel the 
 intrinsic moisture, is necessary, as was explained, 
 in the article on Hay, to prevent the chemical 
 transmutation of a large amount of the starch, 
 gum, and sugar of the plants into woody fibre. 
 — The cutting down of the crop, too, at a mo- 
 ment between the completion of its stature and 
 the commencement of any tendency to seed, is 
 requisite for the same reason as the speedy dry- 
 ing of the crop, and in a far more urgent degree ; 
 for whenever gramineous and leguminous plants 
 commence the process of seeding, they begin to 
 lignefy their stems and to concentrate their chief 
 nutrient principles in the substance of their 
 seeds ; so that a crop of these plants which is in- 
 tended to feed animals with its seeds must be 
 allowed to stand to full maturity, a crop which 
 is intended to feed with its stems and leaves 
 ought to be cut down before the tendency to 
 
XXVII- 
 
 HAY MAKING IMPLEMENTS 
 
 America^ Hay raJc& 
 
 Grants Faterut Lever Horse, raJc& 
 
 A FulLii-ton & C? London k E.iinburid 
 
HAYMAKING. 
 
 659 
 
 HAYMAKING. 
 
 seed has begun, and only a crop which ignorance 
 and folly consign to yield the smallest possible 
 amount of food may be cut down in the transi- 
 tion between relinquishing the nutritive princi- 
 ples of the herbage and assuming the nutritive 
 principles of the seed. 
 
 The Scotch Methods of Haymaking. — The farm- 
 ers of the lowland districts of Scotland, though 
 equal or superior to the farmers of most parts of 
 England in almost every other department of 
 husbandry, are exceedingly deficient in the art 
 of haymaking. The great body of them conti- 
 nue, in spite of all modern improvement, to 
 make hay in a wasteful and almost barbarous 
 manner; and a few have, of late years, made 
 good hay chiefly by imitating the practices which 
 have long and generally prevailed throughout 
 the greater part of England. The Scotch usu- 
 ally allow the ryegrass and clover plants to stand 
 till some mature seed can actually be obtained 
 from the ryegrass ; and not a few of them, by 
 way of testing the supposed fitness of the crop for 
 the scythe, actually sweep their hat along the top 
 of a yard or two of it to see whether the hat will 
 catch any ryegrass seeds, and judge that the 
 crop shall not be cut till some seeds can be 
 caught. They also, after the crop is cut, pur- 
 posely subject it to such a slow winnowing pro- 
 cess as shall harden the ryegrass seeds, and fit 
 them to be used for next year's sowing; and 
 they thus sacrifice a large proportion of the nu- 
 tritive matters of the ryegrass plants, and allow 
 an enormous amount of the starch and gum and 
 sugar of the clover to be transmuted into woody 
 fibre, for the sake of the pitiful and drivelling 
 purpose of obtaining sowable ryegrass seeds, — 
 an object which might readily be gained, with- 
 out any sacrifice whatever, and with less trou- 
 ble and better effect, simply by growing a little 
 ! ryegrass by itself with the express design of its 
 seeding. In the case of meadow hay, many of 
 them do far worse, and without any excuse, — 
 allowing the crop to stand uncut till August, 
 when the stems of the plants have lost most of 
 their natural juices, and their seeds are nearly 
 ripe ; and in the case of both this hay and the 
 ryegrass and clover hay, they allow the crop to 
 lie for some days in the swath till a considerable 
 portion of its moisture passes off by slow evapo- 
 ration, — they next shake it out and turn it over, 
 and allow it to lie again for some days undis- 
 turbed till it is thought sufficiently dry for put- 
 ting into large cocks, — and even after all this, 
 they, in many instances, permit it to stand dur- 
 ing two or three months in the cocks before 
 stacking it or removing it to the farm-yard. 
 Some seem to proceed on the absurd assumption 
 that all fermentation to which it may be sub- 
 jected ought to be over before it is stacked ; but 
 the greater number probably act without reflec- 
 tion or inquiry, simply making their hay, they 
 know not why, as their fathers made it before 
 I them. Yet such Scotch farmers as carry the cau- 
 
 tion and sagacity and calculating spirit of their 
 general husbandry into the economics of their 
 haymaking, though they have never carried these 
 into the practices of it, are well aware of their 
 hay being a deplorably uncompensating crop, 
 and have a hearty wish that it could be entirely 
 superseded by something better ; and hence not 
 a few of them know their haymaking practices 
 to be wrong, and yet are careless to rectify them, 
 — but as the season for the singling of turnips 
 and the proper season for haymaking occur near- 
 ly at the same moment, they give prompt and 
 thorough attention to the turnips and allow the 
 hay-plants for a time to take care of themselves. 
 How unworthy is this of Scotland ! How similar 
 to the blundering and improvidence of the cabin- 
 farming of the worst parts of Ireland ! A very 
 slight degree of management would prevent hay- 
 making and the singling of turnips from inter- 
 fering with each other ; and any man who pro- 
 duces hay at all ought to produce it well. Good 
 haymaking is not only as cheap as bad haymak- 
 ing, but cheaper ; and all the loss which accrues 
 from making hay in any but the best manner, is 
 due simply to bullheadedness and absurdity. 
 What a reproach upon the otherwise intelligent 
 and peerless farmers of Scotland is the following 
 simple statistical sentence from the pen of their 
 own national agricultural chemist, Professor 
 Johnston : " In the dales of Yorkshire, cattle can 
 be fattened upon hay alone, which is said to be 
 rarely the case to the north of the Tweed ! " 
 
 The English Methods of Haymaking. — Middle- 
 sex, though excelled by other districts in the 
 dexterity and finish of mowing, may probably be 
 regarded as the model-district of England and of 
 the world in the proper art of haymaking ; and 
 though the practices pursued in it would require 
 to be modified in many other places in adapta 
 tion to differences of climate and of other cir- 
 cumstances, they afford an excellent practical 
 guide for either testing or improving the prac- 
 tices of other districts. We shall therefore quote 
 a succinct account of them, which was first given 
 in Middleton's Agricultural Survey of Middle- 
 sex, and republished, with slight verbal altera- 
 tions, in Baxter's Library of Agricultural Know- 
 ledge ; and, " in order that the subject may be 
 clearly understood," says the writer, " it will be 
 necessary to relate the particular operations of 
 each day, during the whole process, from the 
 moment in which the mower first applies his j 
 scythe, to that in which the hay is secured either ! 
 in the barn or in the stack." 
 
 " First Day. — All the grass mown before nine 
 o'clock in the morning is tedded," or tossed and 
 turned with the hay-forks, " in which great care 
 is taken thoroughly to loosen every lump, and to 
 strew it evenly over all the ground. By this re- 
 gular method of tedding grass for hay, the hay 
 will be of a more valuable quality, heats more 
 equally in the stack, consequently, is not so lia- 
 ble to damage or fire ; will be of greater quan- 
 
HAYMAKING. 
 
 6G0 
 
 HAYMAKING. 
 
 tity when cut into trusses, and will sell at a I 
 greater price ; for, when the grass is suffered to 
 lie a day or two before it is tedded out of the 
 swath, the upper surface is dried by the sun and 
 winds, and the interior part is not dried, but 
 withered, so that the herbs lose much, both as 
 to quality and quantity. The next operation 
 consists in turning it with the same degree of 
 care and attention ; and if, from the number of 
 hands, they are able to turn the whole again, 
 they do so, or at least as much of it as they can, 
 till twelve or one o'clock, at which time they 
 dine. The first thing to be done after dinner, is 
 j to rake it into what are called single windrows ; 
 
 that is, they all rake it in such a manner as that 
 ! each person makes a row, which rows are three 
 | or four feet apart. The last operation of this 
 day is to put it into grass- cocks. 
 
 " Second Day. — The business of this day com- 
 mences with tedding all the grass that was mown 
 the first day after nine o'clock, and all that was 
 mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the 
 grass-cocks are to be well shaken out into stad- 
 dles, or separate plats, of five or six yards in di- 
 ameter. If the crop should be so thin and light, 
 as to leave the spaces between these staddles 
 rather large, such spaces must be immediately 
 raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the 
 other hay, in order to its all drying of an uni- 
 form odour. The next business is to turn the 
 staddles, and after that, to turn the grass that 
 was tedded in the first part of the morning, once 
 or twice, in the manner described for the first 
 day. This should all be done before twelve or 
 one o'clock, so that the whole may lie to dry 
 while the work-people are at dinner. After din- 
 ner, the first thing to be done is to rake the 
 staddles into double windrows — in doing which, 
 every two persons rake the hay in opposite direc- 
 tions, or towards each other, and by that means 
 ! form a row between them of double the size of a 
 j single windrow. Each of these double windrows 
 is about six or eight feet distant from the other. 
 The next operation is to rake the grass into sin- 
 gle windrows ; then the double windrows are put 
 into bastard-cocks ; and lastly, the single wind- 
 rows are put into grass-cocks ; this completes 
 the work of the day. 
 
 " Third Day. — The grass mown, and not spread 
 on the second day, and also, that mown in the 
 early part of this day, is first to be tedded, and 
 then the grass-cocks are to be spread into stad- 
 dles as before, and the bastard-cocks into stad- 
 dles of less extent. These lesser staddles, though 
 last spread, are first turned, then those which 
 were in grass cocks, and next, the grass is turned 
 once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when 
 the people go to dinner as usual. If the wea- 
 ther has proved sunny and fine, the hay which 
 was last night in bastard-cocks, will this after- 
 noon be in a proper state to be carried. It sel- 
 dom happens in dry weather, but that it may be 
 carried in the third day ; but if the weather 
 
 I should, on the contrary, have been cool and 
 cloudy, no part of it probably will be fit to carry. 
 In that case, the first thing set about after din- | 
 ner, is to rake that which was in grass-cocks 
 last night, into double windrows. After this, 
 the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks is 
 made up into full-sized cocks, and care taken to 
 rake the hay up clean, and also to put the rak- 
 ings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double 
 windrows are put into bastard-cocks and the 
 single windrow into grass-cocks, as on the pre- 
 ceding days. 
 
 "Fourth Day. — On this day, the great cocks 
 just mentioned are usually carried before din- 
 ner. The other operations of the day are such, 
 and in the order as before described, and are 
 continued daily until the hay harvest is com- 
 pleted. In the course of haymaking, the grass 
 should, as much as possible, be protected, both 
 day and night, against rain and dew, by cock- 
 ing. Care should also be taken to proportion 
 the number of haymakers to that of the mow- 
 ers, so that there may not be more grass in hand 
 at any time than can be managed according to 
 the described process. This proportion is about 
 20 haymakers (of which number 12 may be wo- 
 men), to 4 mowers. The latter are sometimes 
 taken half-a-day to assist the former ; but in hot, 
 windy, or very drying weather, a greater pro- 
 portion of haymakers will be required than when 
 the weather is cloudy and cool. It is particu- 
 larly necessary to guard against spreading more 
 than the number of hands can get into cock the 
 same day, or before rain. In showery and un- 
 certain weather, the grass may be suffered to lie 
 three or four and even five days in swath. But 
 before it has lain long enough for the under side 
 of the swath to become yellow — which, if suffer- 
 ed to lie too long, would be the case — particular 
 care should be taken to turn the swaths with 
 the heads of the rakes. In this state, it will 
 cure so much in about two days, as only to re- 
 quire being tedded a few hours, when the wea- 
 ther is fine, previous to its being put together 
 and carried. In this manner, hay may be made 
 and stacked at a small expense, and of a good 
 colour ; but the tops and bottoms of the grass are 
 insufficiently separated by it." 
 
 Mr. Towers narrates the case of a distinguished 
 haymaker who rose from very low circumstances 
 to great affluence, — who was originally a dyer, 
 but purchased much land in Somersetshire, and 
 farmed a considerable portion of it, — who made 
 hay nearly forty years, and scarcely ever failed, 
 in one instance, to carry it in good condition, — 
 and who stated the secret of his success in these 
 remarkable terms, — " In the month of June, ear- 
 lier or later, there are three or more days wherein 
 the wind blows from the north-east, and that 
 period is always dry ; when that wind first occurs, 
 I seize the moment, call in the hands from the 
 factory, cut the grass, and carry the crop before 
 the wind veers to the south."' Now, says Mr. 
 
HAYMAKING. 
 
 661 
 
 HAYMAKING. 
 
 Towers, "I mention this circumstance, not by 
 any means to induce every one to consider June 
 as the hay month, but to inspire caution and 
 watchfulness. There, perhaps, is to be traced 
 everywhere a season, a period of a few days at 
 least, when certain indications give assurance of 
 settled weather. Now, if these be improved, 
 they, ' like the tide in the affairs of men, which, 
 taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,' will 
 almost infallibly suffice to secure the hay ! There 
 must, however, be no half measures, no daudling 
 at the work ; all must be bustle, energy, and de- 
 cision ; and, be it never forgotten, that a ton of 
 good hay is worth three tons of half- decayed 
 rubbish, void of odour or flavour, and worthless 
 in the stable or cow-stall." 
 
 The English method of haymaking has, for a 
 number of years past, been adopted and very 
 successfully practised in some of the border dis- 
 tricts of Scotland, — hilly in surface, moist, cold, 
 and very changeable in climate, and widely dif- 
 ferent from Middlesex in many of the latter's 
 amenities of situation ; and an account of it as 
 practised in one of these,-^-the district around 
 Langholm, — appears in a Prize Essay in the 14th 
 volume of the Highland Society's Transactions, 
 and shows that very little modification of the 
 method has been found necessary. " The prac- 
 tice recommended," says that account, "is for 
 the mowers to begin in the morning, and the 
 haymakers to commence their duties at 11 A. M. 
 of the first day, and, before going to dinner, to 
 ted all the grass cut that morning ; if the crop 
 be thick, shake out carefully by hand. At 3 P. M. 
 turn over to the sun or wind, whichever is the 
 more drying; in the evening, put in footcocks. 
 Second day, — as soon as the dew is off, shake out 
 footcocks, then grass cut yesterday afternoon, 
 and this forenoon ; what was shaken out of foot- 
 cocks should be turned before dinner, and again 
 about 3 P. M.; and should the weather be fa- 
 vourable, dry lea-grass may be carried in the 
 evening. The swathes cut yesterday afternoon 
 and this forenoon, should be shaken out and 
 turned as often as necessary, and put into cocks 
 in the evening. A heavier crop will seldom, the 
 weather being the same, require more than 24 
 hours longer, unless the soil be wet or the field 
 sheltered from the sun and drying winds. In this 
 case, repeat the process of shaking out, turning 
 as often as requisite, and putting into cocks or 
 coils in the evening, making them bigger as the 
 hay gets drier. If the soil be dry, and the wea- 
 ther have a decidedly settled appearance, some 
 trouble may be saved by putting into windrows 
 in place of coils ; the latter, hower, is generally 
 preferred in this uncertain climate." 
 
 The Implements of Haymaking. — The imple- 
 ments used in haymaking by manual labour, or 
 in the methods we have hitherto noticed, are the 
 scythe for cutting, the fork for tedding, and the 
 rake for gathering ; and these are noticed in the 
 articles Scythe, Fork, and Hay-Rake. But two 
 
 other and far larger and more complicated im- 
 plements, adapted to horse-draught, are now 
 used on some extensive hay-farms, and occasion 
 much economy in haymaking, and considerable 
 modification of the mere manual methods of it ; 
 and these implements perform the work respec- 
 tively of tedding and gathering, and will be no- 
 ticed in the articles Hay-Tedding Machine and 
 Hay-Rake. 
 
 The hay-tedding machine very effectively takes 
 up and tosses and scatters the mown plants, dis- 
 persing them or laying them down again with 
 perfect regularity ; and it works best and per- 
 forms its office with admirable power and de- 
 spatch, when made to pass across the swathes. 
 It has been pronounced, on all bands, to be an 
 excellent tedder of meadow hay ; yet has been 
 demurred against, by Scotch farmers, for^ its 
 rough treatment of artificial hay, in shaking out 
 the seeds of the ryegrass. But, as we have 
 already shown, ryegrass in the proper condition 
 for hay has no seeds to shake out ; so that when 
 Scotch farmers learn to mow their ryegrass at 
 the economical time, they will like the action of 
 the machine just as well upon it as upon the na- 
 tural grasses. The tedding machine does its 
 work in the morning ; the crop tossed and scat- 
 tered by it lies fully exposed to the sun and the 
 wind throughout the forenoon ; and the horse- 
 rake gathers the scattered crop into windrows in 
 the afternoon. But the subsequent parts of the 
 process, consisting in the formation of the cocks, 
 and in whatever may be rendered necessary by 
 the fall of rain, must be performed by mere 
 manual labour. 
 
 The Storing of Hay. — The great advantages of 
 hay-barns or hay-sheds, in enabling the farmer 
 to remove the hay from the field with all possible 
 speed, in offering facilities for protecting it in 
 unsettled weather, and in permitting it to be safe- 
 ly stored in a less exsiccated state than would be 
 suitable for stacks, have been sufficiently advert- 
 ed to in the short article Hay-Barn. Every hay- 
 making farmer who possesses this convenience 
 may— and in precarious weather ought to — re- 
 move his hay from the field to the hay -barn 
 whenever it becomes dry enough to be formed 
 into a summer-rick. The best way of stowing is 
 not to make it into separate mows, but to spread 
 it athwart the whole area of the barn, and to de- 
 posit it in light, regular,, and evenly shakings. 
 Almost any quantity of meadow hay may safely 
 be stored with any degree of speed in a large 
 hay-barn ; but not more than from 15 to 20 cart- 
 loads of clover and ryegrass hay ought to be 
 stored in one day, — and the whole of this should 
 be deposited deliberately, in a series of the thin- 
 nest dispersions, or in the lightest manner pos- 
 sible. The mass of the hay, partly from its mere 
 gravity and partly from the effect of the saccha- 
 rine fermentation, will, for two or three weeks, 
 subside considerably ; and it ought, from time 
 to time, to receive additional layers on the sur- 
 
HAYMAKING. 
 
 I face till it shall have completely settled. But as 
 ! a finishing to it, the topmost layer, to the thick- 
 ness of 12 or 18 inches, and immediately subja- 
 cent to the roof, ought to consist of straw, ferns, 
 rushes, or coarse grass ; and this coat, of worth- 
 less material and easily removable, will prevent 
 the upper strata of the hay from becoming too 
 much dried, or from contracting rot and mouldi- 
 ness. 
 
 The storing of hay in stacks differs considera- 
 bly from the stacking of corn, and requires to be 
 conducted with care and steadiness. The site 
 of the stack ought to be perfectly dry ; or if it 
 must be selected in some spot which may be sus- 
 pected of liability to become somewhat damp in 
 | winter, a trench of 6 or 8 inches in depth ought 
 to be dug around it, and quite close to it, to carry 
 ! off any water which might possibly accumulate. 
 ! The whole of the site, also, must be formed, to 
 the height of about a foot above the circumja- 
 cent surface, with some material which shall 
 prevent all connexion between the surrounding 
 and subjacent ground and the hay's affinity for 
 moisture ; and this material may be either any 
 kind of hay-stand or a series of pieces of timber, 
 with a filling-up of brushwood or faggots in the 
 I interstices, or may consist of a circle of large 
 stones round the circumference, and a firm bed 
 of stone shivers or large gravel throughout the 
 interior. See the article Hay-Stand. The stack 
 may be either a circle, a square, a parallelogram, 
 I or any other form, but is usually most conveni- 
 I ent in some variety of the rectangle ; and it 
 ought, in every instance, to have only a mode- 
 rate width, in order that it may not incur any 
 unnecessary risk of becoming heated. Bosses, 
 chimneys, pipes, and other contrivances for ven- 
 tilation have sometimes, as in corn-stacks, been 
 j used to prevent heating ; but they assist the hay 
 to attract moisture, and probably do more harm 
 to it than good. 
 
 Throughout the process of building, the mid- 
 dle of the stack ought always to be maintained 
 ; at a considerably greater height than the cir- 
 cumference, — the depositions of hay ought to be 
 made with such a shaking action as will tear all 
 I lumps asunder, and render the whole texture 
 open, — layer after layer along the sides and the 
 j ends ought to be thoroughly bound in by the 
 proper adjustment of the hay, — and the whole ex- 
 | terior facing ought to be kept neat, tight, and in 
 | perfectly regular form by the pulling out of pro- 
 { jecting wisps and straws. " There are no hay- 
 stacks more neatly formed or better secured," 
 ! says Middleton, " than those of Middlesex. At 
 | every vacant time, while the stack is carrying 
 j up, the men are employed in pulling it with 
 ; their hands into proper shape ; and about a week 
 after it is finished, the whole of it is properly 
 thatched, and then secured from receiving any 
 damage from the wind by means of straw-ropes 
 extending along the eaves up to the ends and 
 near the ridge. The ends of the thatch are then 
 
 HAYMAKING. 
 
 cut evenly below the eaves of the stack, just of 
 sufficient length for the rain-water to drip quite 
 clear of the hay." In Berkshire and other dis- 
 tricts, the hay nearly ready for stacking is spread 
 out in the morning, after the dew has passed off, 
 into breadths or staddles ; the waggons are drawn 
 into the field, and arranged in proper position ; | 
 the hay, after being finally dried in the wind or 
 the sunshine, is raked from the breadths into 
 ridges, and thence forked into the waggons ; and 
 the ground is immediately so well raked by the 
 female-workers as to effect the careful gleaning 
 of the crop, and the complete clearance of the 
 field. In Somersetshire and other western coun- j 
 ties, the finishing operation is to cut the lower 
 part of the stack, to the height of two feet above j 
 the base, with a hay-knife, so as to make all this 
 part slope toward the base at an acute angle. 
 
 A progressive and comparatively slow course 
 of storing hay in stacks, is practised in the sou- 
 thern parts of England with the aid of a rick- 
 cloth, almost as facilely and safely as the pro- 
 gressive course of storing in hay-barns. The 
 slowness of daily stacking from handcocks, or 
 from any condition of fitness for summer-ricks, 
 renders the quality of the whole stack uniform, 
 promotes the speediest possible saving of the 
 crop, and averts the risks and loss from expo- 
 sure to the weather which are occasioned by 
 keeping the earliest-cut in the field till the latest- 
 cut is dry. The rick-cloth is suspended on poles, 
 and hangs over the stack like a kind of pavilion, 
 and affords complete protection both from rain 
 and from the injurious play of sunshine. Rick- 
 cloths of all desirable forms and sizes are made 
 by manufacturers in London; and possess at 
 once neatness, portability, and nice adaptation. 
 But an old contrivance, practised in Kent, and 
 described by Marshall, is quite as efficient and 
 nearly as facile as the regular rick-cloth, and is 
 always much cheaper, and sometimes more easily 
 obtained ; and it consists principally of an old 
 or half- worn square sail-cloth, three long light 
 poles, and two common cart-wheels. "Two tall 
 poles — ufers, fir-balks — are stopped firmly in 
 two cart-wheels, — which are laid fiat upon the 
 ground at each end of the stack, and loaded with 
 stones to increase their firmness. Another pole, 
 of the same kind, and somewhat longer than the 
 stack, is furnished at each end with an iron ring 
 or hoop, large enough to admit the upright poles, 
 and to pass freely upon them. Near the head of 
 each of the standards is a pulley, over which a 
 rope is passed, from the ring or end of the hori- 
 zontal pole, by which it is easily raised or lower- 
 ed to suit the given height of the stack. Even 
 when a rick is begun with only two loads of hay, 
 these two loads are as securely guarded from 
 rain, until more can be got ready, as if they were 
 housed ; for a cloth being thrown over the hori- 
 zontal pole, and its lower margins loaded with 
 weights, a complete roof is formed, and exactly 
 fitted to the stack, whether it be high or low, 
 
 662 
 
 I 
 
HAYMAKING. 
 
 663 
 
 HAY-RAKE. 
 
 wide or narrow, — the eaves being always adjust- 
 ed to the wall-plate or upper part of the stem of 
 the stack, thus effectually shooting off rain, 
 while the internal moisture or steam arising 
 from the fermentation of the hay escapes freely 
 at either end, as the wind may happen to blow. 
 What renders this ingenious contrivance the 
 more valuable, is its being readily put up or 
 taken away. The poles, being light, are easily 
 moved from stack to stack, or laid up for another 
 season ; and the wheels are as readily removed, 
 or returned to their axles." But a novice in the 
 use of the rick-cloth must guard against the 
 error of supposing that it will serve its purpose 
 if not mounted in a roof-formed fashion upon 
 poles, or if merely spread in a loose manner over 
 the stack. " A sail-cloth thrown over and imme- 
 diately upon the hay of a stack in full heat," re- 
 marks Marshall, "is liable to do more injury by 
 increasing the heat, and at the same time check- 
 ing the ascent of the steam, than service in 
 shooting off rain-water. Besides, when the stack 
 is broad, the cloth, thus spread oyer it, is liable 
 to bag in particular parts, and thereby to form 
 receptacles and pools of water, which, unless the 
 cloth be very tight, find their way in currents 
 into the body of the stack." Nor will merely 
 two upright poles and a fixed transverse one 
 serve the purpose of properly suspending the 
 cloth ; for there must be stays to retain the up- 
 right poles in their strictly perpendicular posi- 
 tion, and tackle to lower or heighten the hori- 
 zontal pole, in accommodation to the successive 
 heights of the stack. 
 
 I The Scotch practice of stacking a crop of hay 
 in one day, requires the final accumulations in 
 the field to be sufficiently large and compact to 
 offer considerable resistance to the weather. 
 These accumulations, in common Scotch practice, 
 
 \ contain each from 100 to 150 stones of hay, and 
 bear the name of tramped pikes ; they are form- 
 ed by two persons forking, building, and tramp- 
 ing; and they are usually disposed in a row 
 along the end of the field. Unless the hay stand 
 for some time in these large ricks, it cannot, 
 without risk of heating, be stacked in one day. 
 In building the stack, two men deposit the hay 
 in successive thick layers as high as their breast, 
 a series of women trample down each layer or 
 " dace," and several men fork up the hay first 
 from the ground, and next from short ladders, or 
 successively from the ground and from the plat- 
 form of a simple and temporary scaffolding. 
 The breadth of the stack is slowly increased to 
 the eaves, at the height of about 12 feet from 
 the ground ; and is then gradually diminished to 
 the ridging, at the height of about 6 feet above 
 the level of the eaves. The stack is left several 
 days to subside and to throw off any amount of 
 heat which it may develop ; it is from time to 
 time propped, if necessary, at any point of very 
 ! special subsidence ; and after having fully sub- 
 ' sided and cooled, it is carefully thatched and 
 
 roped. — Transactions of the Highland Society. — 
 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Essays on 
 Agriculture. — Sir John Sinclair's General Report 
 of Scotland. — Marshall's Rural Economy of the 
 Southern Counties. — SprouWs Treatise on Agricul- 
 ture. — British Husbandry. — Stephens' Booh of the 
 Farm. 
 
 HAY -RACK. An open or railed wooden 
 frame, to contain hay, straw, or other fodder, for 
 the immediate use of horses, cattle, or sheep. 
 The hay-rack of the stable is a necessary and 
 prominent part of the furnishing of each stall ; 
 and is usually adjusted in a high position, so as 
 to oblige the horse to pull the fodder down, but 
 may, with considerable economy to both the 
 animal and the fodder, and without any concur- 
 rent disadvantage, be adjusted in a low position. 
 See the article Stable. Moveable and covered 
 or roofed hay-racks are used for affording hay to 
 sheep in the field, either during a deficiency of 
 grass, or as an accompaniment of feeding-off 
 turnips. See the article Sheep. 
 
 HAY-RAKE. An implement for gathering 
 and accumulating hay, in the processes of hay- 
 making. 
 
 The hand hay-rake usually consists of a shaft 
 of any convenient length, a head or transverse 
 bar of from 24 to 27 inches in length and about 
 1 or 1^ inch in thickness, and 12 or 13 wooden 
 teeth of about 3 or 3^ inches in length. But it 
 greatly varies in the kinds of wood of which it 
 is made, in the mode in which the attachment of 
 the head to the shaft is fortified, in the manner 
 in which the teeth are fixed into the head, and 
 in both the relative and the absolute dimen- 
 sions of its several parts. The head requires to 
 consist of some hard wood ; while the teeth may 
 advantageously consist of either ash or oak ; and 
 the latter must never be so long as to pull up 
 the roots of the grasses in raking, and are some- 
 times screwed into the head, and made fast with 
 nuts to prevent them from dropping out after a 
 long drought. Willow is a favourite material 
 in England on account of its lightness and free 
 play in raking. 
 
 The American hay-rake is a one-horse imple- 
 ment, of curious yet simple construction, and of 
 very considerable efficiency in the economising 
 of labour. It works either along the ridges or 
 across them; it can carry between 10 and 12 
 stones of hay ; and, by means of a simple revolu- 
 tion, it deposits its accumulated load in rows or 
 on any particular spot required, without occa- 
 sioning the horse to be stopped. This implement 
 is represented in Fig. 1, Plate XXVII. " The 
 head AB is 9 feet 8 inches in length, and 4 inches 
 square, into which are inserted 18 teeth, a, b. 
 Each tooth is 3 feet 11 inches in length from a 
 to b, that is, 1 foot 9^ inches on each side, and 
 4 inches for the breadth of the head AB, through 
 which they pass ; these teeth are 1^ inch broad 
 by Ire inch thick or deep. About 5 inches next 
 the point a, they are tapered on the under side, 
 
 I 
 
664 
 
 HAY-RAKE. 
 
 and the same length at the point b on the upper 
 side, to prevent in some measure the teeth from 
 having too great a tendency to go into the 
 ground. The frame to which the draught is 
 attached, consists of the circular beams C and D, 
 with the connecting stretcher E. The beams C 
 and D, at the end next the head AB, are each cut 
 into a semicircle, and made to run round the 
 journal of the head which is wrought to 3 inches 
 in diameter, by 2 inches in length, and bound by 
 an iron strap upon these beams forming the out- 
 side. At C and D are straps to which the horse 
 is attached by traces or ropes, in a similar way 
 to that in which it is attached to the plough, but 
 without swingle-trees. The stretcher E, which 
 attaches the beams C and D, is 5 feet 4| inches 
 in length, measured over the beams. The part 
 by which the instrument is guided, consists of 
 the handles F and G, forming a frame 4 feet 7 
 inches long, by 2 feet 2 inches broad. These 
 handles are circled and strapped for the journal 
 of the head, in the same manner as the beams C 
 and D. A little from the end of the handles at 
 F and G, is a round connecting stretcher ; and 
 at d, 2 feet from the centre of the head, is 
 another round stretcher. From this latter 
 stretcher is appended the frame e, forming a 
 parallel motion. The two standards of this frame 
 are each 12^ inches long, or, from the outside of 
 its head at e to the centre of the stretcher, 10 
 inches. There is a connecting rod c, 3 feet 8 
 inches long from centre to centre, which is circled 
 and strapped round journals at E, and e the round 
 stretcher at d is continued on the outside of F 
 and G, so as to accept of a rod or catch on the 
 outside of these handles, as seen at d 2 feet 10 
 inches long, or 2 feet 2^ inches to the centre of 
 the connecting stretcher at d; and upon the 
 head AB the other end of each of these two rods 
 or catches rests upon a kneed strap, a similar 
 strap being also on the reverse side of the head. 
 Now, when the frame CDE, to which the draught 
 is attached, is in its proper position, by depress- 
 ing the handles FG, the parallel motion at e will 
 be pressed against the hind teeth, and thus the 
 fore ones can be raised up, in order to surmount 
 any inequality of ground. And when it is 
 wanted to depress the fore-teeth, the handles FG 
 are to be raised, by which the rod or catch at d 
 and its opposite side act upon the kneed straps 
 on the head. When the rake has collected as 
 much hay or corn as it can conveniently carry, 
 it is emptied in the following manner. By 
 raising the handles FG to a certain extent, the 
 fore-teeth are depressed in the manner above 
 described, and (the point E remaining the same) 
 the rod c pushes the under side of the parallel 
 motion without the hind-teeth. In this manner, 
 as the beams and handles are all placed between 
 the teeth, so as not to come in any way in con- 
 tact with them, the fore-teeth take the ground, 
 and cause the whole teeth with the head to re- 
 volve, and deposit the hay or corn which the 
 
 instrument was carrying at the time. By this 
 revolution of the teeth and head, the instrument 
 will again be in its proper position for working, 
 all the difference being merely that the under 
 side of the head will now have exchanged places 
 with the upper side, and the fore-teeth will now 
 have exchanged places with the hind-teeth." 
 — [Transactions of the Highland Society.] This 
 implement has sometimes been made of smaller 
 size than now described ; and it promised, at one 
 time, to come into general use, but has already 
 lost much of its early reputation. It ought, in 
 order to complete efficiency, to be mounted on a 
 pair of low wheels, and so adjusted as to present 
 the points of the teeth downward, instead of for- 
 ward; and probably for want of this simple im- 
 provement, it is less esteemed, in aggregate prac- 
 tice, than horse-rakes of much inferior construc- 
 tion. 
 
 The Norfolk horse-rake is one of the simplest 
 and clumsiest of the many varieties of wheeled 
 horse-rakes, and may be generally described as a 
 strong rake-head attached by means of deeply- 
 sloping bars to the rear of a one-horse yoke with 
 axle and low wheels ; yet it can easily rake from 
 20 to 30 acres in a day ; and it deposits its accu- 
 mulations in regular rows along the field, simply 
 by means of a momentary lifting up of the rake- 
 head, and without occasioning the horse to be 
 stopped. — Wedlake's horse-rake is a much more 
 finished implement than the preceding, and was 
 officially approved a., the Royal Agricultural So- 
 ciety's Meeting, a few years ago, at Cambridge. 
 Its head is long, and has very numerous tines, 
 each tapering to a point, and all slightly curved 
 forward ; it is so attached to the raised axle of 
 the machine, by two peculiarly formed bars, as 
 to be counterbalanced on the opposite side by 
 two heavy, projectingly-situated balls ; and, from 
 time to time, as occasion requires, it is neatly 
 and promptly lifted up by means of a pair of 
 handles, so as instantly to drop its accumulations. 
 — The hay and stubble horse-rake, sometimes 
 called for sake of distinction the East-Lothian 
 stubble-rake, comprises many varieties, and is 
 now perhaps the most common implement of its 
 class ; and, as its name implies, it is used, not 
 only in haymaking, but for the cleaning of corn- 
 stubbles. Its frame is mounted on two low 
 wheels ; a number of bars, each bearing one iron 
 tooth, are jointed horizontally to the frame, and 
 at the same time connected by short vertical 
 chains to a cross-head which commands the whole 
 line of teeth, and is furnished with a pair of 
 handles, for jerking up the line of teeth, and 
 causing them suddenly to let go their accumu- 
 lations. One variety of this implement, as im- 
 proved by John Sayer of Norfolk, has teeth of 
 such a form as to be less injurious to the grasses 
 than those of the common horse stubble-rake, 
 and also possesses superior facilities of working. 
 — Grant's patent horse-rake obtained the prize 
 at the Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting, a 
 
HAY-STAND. 
 
 665 
 
 HEAD-LAND. 
 
 few years ago, at Liverpool ; and is exceedingly 
 neat and compact, and by far the finest variety 
 of the horse stubble-rake, but much too expensive 
 to be likely to come into general use. It is 
 represented in Plate XXVII. "Its advantages 
 consist in the adaptation of a compound lever, 
 by which the whole row of tines may be in- 
 stantly raised, and as quickly allowed to resume 
 their position ; while the form of the teeth, being 
 such as to describe part of a circle, the centre of 
 which is the axis of the separate levers to which 
 they are attached, each portion of the curve is 
 successively brought into a vertical position, 
 thus rapidly disengaging the teeth from the ma- 
 terial collected, so that, without stopping the 
 horse, the process of collecting is resumed, leav- 
 ing no interval beyond what is requisite for the 
 deposit of the hay, corn, or stubble previously 
 collected." [Ransome's Implements of Agricul- 
 ture.] Other implements used either in the im- 
 mediate process of raking, or in processes akin 
 to it and connected with it, will be noticed in 
 the articles Rake, and Hay-Tedding-Machine. 
 
 HAY-RICK. See Haymaking. 
 
 HAY-STACK. See Haymaking. 
 
 HAY-STAND. A low platform, serving as the 
 basis of a hay-stack or of a large hay-rick. It 
 may be formed similarly to any of the approved 
 rick-stands for corn ; but does not require to be 
 either so nicely or so expensively made ; and it 
 may, for all purposes of real utility, consist merely 
 of a coarse, strong, simple frame of wood, resting 
 on proper bearers. 
 
 HAY-SWEEP. Any implement or contrivance 
 for dragging together scattered hay to stack, rick, 
 or cart. It may be either a rake, or a rope, or 
 two slightly curved bars of wood with a series of 
 transverse bars, jointly forming a kind of rail, 
 and dragged forward by ropes attached to the 
 four corners. 
 
 HAY-TEA. Either a decoction or an infusion 
 of hay. A sufficient quantity of prime hay is 
 either boiled in water, or macerated with boiling 
 water, in such a proportion as freely to yield the 
 whole of its extractive matter. The " tea" is an 
 excellent drink for sick horses and cattle, and 
 greatly promotes the lactic secretion of cows ; it 
 is given either cold or blood-warm ; and though 
 sometimes disliked or refused when first offered, 
 it is readily taken when the animal becomes very 
 thirsty, and is afterwards relished. The hay 
 used in making it can be dried and employed for 
 litter. 
 
 HAY-TEDDING MACHINE. A two-wheeled 
 and horse-drawn implement for tedding hay. It 
 was invented by Salmon of Woburn about the 
 year 1800, and patented by him in 1816; and it 
 has been considerably modified and improved by 
 recent makers of it, particularly R. Wedlake of 
 Hornchurch. It consists of a skeleton carriage 
 or open cylindrical frame, with a series of re- 
 volving rakes along the surface of the cylinder. 
 
 Mr. Wedlake's improvement consists in having 
 the cylinder in two parts, with motion indepen- 
 dent of each other, and in so adjusting the teeth 
 upon a spring supported bar that they yield to 
 any sudden inequality in the ground, and imme- 
 diately afterwards return to their ordinary po- 
 sition. Provision exists for pushing back the 
 implement without turning the rakes, and for 
 raising the rakes from the ground, and maintain- 
 ing them in a raised position, during any period 
 of the machine's motion, as in its progress between 
 the field and the farmery, when their work is not 
 wanted. Even the old varieties of the machine 
 are very efficient and economical tedders, and 
 are so constructed as to admit of the same frame 
 being mounted successively by the tedding appa- 
 ratus and a horse-rake apparatus, and have found 
 extensive favour, both in the great hay farms in 
 the vicinity of London, and in many of the parks 
 and home-farms of great land-owners in various 
 parts of the country. Mr. Slight of Edinburgh 
 says, in Stephens' Book of the Farm, respecting 
 the improved variety of the implement manu- 
 factured by him, " The result of the combination 
 of the geering is, that the revolving rake makes 
 4| revolutions for one of the carriage-wheel. The 
 latter, being 3 feet 10 inches diameter, will pass 
 over 12 feet or thereby in one revolution ; and 
 the rakes being 4 feet 6 inches diameter over the 
 extreme points of the teeth, will describe a circle 
 of about 14 feet in circumference, and this re- 
 volving 4^ times for one of the other, the points 
 of the teeth will pass through 63 feet while the 
 carriage has moved over 12 feet, and as there are 
 8 rake-heads, there will be 8 X 4^= 36 contacts 
 with the substance which is to be lifted, in a 
 space of 12 feet, or one at every four inches. 
 From this calculation it will be seen, that the 
 hay under the operation of this machine will un- 
 dergo a process of teazling or tedding of the 
 most perfect description ; it will be separated and 
 tossed about until no two stems of the plants will 
 be left in contact; and by this exposure, the 
 drying process is effected in a period greatly 
 shorter and more effectually, than could be done 
 by any number of hands. Thus, if we suppose 
 the horse to walk 2| miles per hour, and the ma- 
 chine to cover 6 feet in breadth, we have a sur- 
 face of 1^ acres nearly covered in an hour." This 
 implement is represented in Plate XXVII. 
 
 HAYNING, or Hayning-Up. See Haining of 
 Grass. 
 
 HAZEL-LOAM, or Hazel-Mould. See Soil. 
 
 HEAD -LAND. The cross -ridge extending 
 along the end of a field, and employed as the 
 space for the turning of the plough and the 
 grubber in the processes of tillage. Its surface 
 acquires an accumulation of rich soil and manu- 
 rial matter from the exit upon it of the plough 
 from the furrows ; and is, therefore, frequently 
 made into a compost with lime for the re-enrich- 
 ing of the field. 
 
HEATH. 
 
 HEATH, Heather, or Ling. A well-known 
 indigenous, dry undershrub, belonging to the 
 same order of plants as the strawberry-tree, the 
 andromidas, the kalmias, the azalias, the rhodo- 
 dendrons, and some other chief beauties of the 
 ornamental shrubbery. It covers many thou- 
 sands of acres in the highland districts of Scot- 
 land and Ireland; and abounds in similar cli- 
 mates and situations throughout the continent 
 of Europe. It has a bushy habit, and commonly 
 a height of from 6 inches to 2 feet, but frequently 
 attains a height of 3 or 4 feet ; and it usually 
 blooms from February till July. It is much 
 used for thatch, small brooms, coarse ropes, and 
 generally as a substitute for either straw or the 
 common broom plant. The tender tops and 
 young shoots of it are eaten, in both a green 
 and a dried state, by goats, sheep, cattle, and 
 even horses, — especially in places where the 
 grasses and other herbage plants do not afford a 
 good bite till late in spring; they also form a 
 chief food of grouse, and render the luxuriance 
 of heath upon the moors a desirable object with 
 sportsmen and other partisans of the game-laws ; 
 and they are likewise used in the cottages of the 
 Highlanders, as a substitute for mattresses. The 
 heath plants and the dried soil in which they 
 grow are, in many instances, jointly used for 
 fuel ; but are much inferior for this purpose to 
 the common produce of turbaries. 
 
 HEATHS, or Heath Lands. Either pastoral 
 or waste lands, more or less overgrown with 
 heath plants. They are of vast aggregate extent 
 in the hilly parts of England, in the mountain- 
 ous parts of Ireland, and especially in the High- 
 lands, the mountainous lowlands, and the western 
 Islands of Scotland ; and they have great diver- 
 sity of soil, of subordinate vegetation, and of 
 comparative value or worthlessness, ranging from 
 absolute and irretrievable wastes to deep and 
 fertile surfaces, easy of reclamation and fully 
 capable of subjection to the plough; but they 
 may be classified into hilly heaths, possessing 
 much herbage and considerable variety of vege- 
 tation, — moorland heaths, with some portion of 
 peaty soil and a great profusion of heath plants, 
 — and sandy heaths, containing very little vege- 
 table matter, and consisting principally of sili- 
 cious surfaces, matted with the roots of coarse 
 grasses, and sparsely shaded with stunted heath 
 plants and dwarfish furze. Some special varie- 
 ties of these lands are the topics of the articles 
 Bog, Downs, and Moor ; and methods of treat- 
 ment proper for reclaiming, improving, or ma- 
 naging some or all are discussed in the articles 
 Draining, Improvement of Land, Pasture, and 
 Waste Land. Any topics, therefore, which are 
 more proper to these articles than to the present 
 one, must here be either entirely omitted or but 
 slightly touched. 
 
 Hilly heaths, as distinguished from moorland 
 heaths, comprise all the best kinds of heathy 
 
 HEATH. 
 
 land, and have peculiar characters of both soil 
 and vegetation; yet they are quite identical 
 with moorland heaths in some great properties, 
 and insensibly graduate into them in almost all 
 others ; so that many things which may be said 
 respecting the poorer kinds of hilly heaths may 
 be said also respecting the better kinds of moor- 
 land heaths, and some things which we shall 
 reserve to say respecting the moorland heaths, 
 might be said also respecting the hilly heaths. 
 The sandy heaths, in general, are pretty distinct 
 from most of the moorland heaths, and entirely 
 so from nearly all the hilly heaths ; and yet even 
 they might share in some remarks which must 
 be made upon both these classes. 
 
 Hilly Heaths. — The soil of hilly heaths has 
 generally an ochreous yellow colour, sometimes 
 approaching a brown ; it not unfrequently pos- 
 sesses both the appearance and the qualities of a 
 fine hazel loam, and wants only sufficient depth 
 to be capable of becoming prime arable land ; 
 and it seldom or never lies on the hard and 
 retentive kinds of subsoil which are commonly 
 termed till and moorland. Its grand defects are 
 prevailing shallowness, an enormous intermix- 
 ture of both small and large stones, and numerous 
 projections, uptiltings, and mimic expanses of 
 bare rock. A vast aggregate of it might easily 
 be subjected to very productive cultivation by 
 means of the spade husbandry ; but only patches 
 of some of it, and comparatively small tracts of 
 even the best, can be disposed into series of ordi- 
 nary farm-fields for aration by the grubber and 
 the plough. In some parts, rills gush out from 
 the higher grounds, and wander and spread 
 athwart considerable extents of surface, filling 
 up small hollows with water, rendering breadths 
 of declivity wet and spouty, and maintaining 
 the growth of junci, carices, and other coarse 
 and worthless aquatics ; but in the great majo- 
 rity of parts, springs limpidly discharge them- 
 selves by narrow and well-worn channels, or rills 
 are gulped promptly and completely down by 
 fissures in the rocks or rocky subsoil, so that a 
 large proportion of the surface is almost as dry 
 as that of well-drained grass lands. 
 
 The chief plants which inhabit hilly heaths 
 are heath-plants, furze, broom, juniper, fern, and 
 grasses. The heath-plants are frequently tall, 
 luxuriant, and in great abundance ; the fern oc- 
 curs in quite dry situations, and is sometimes 
 very plentiful, and always indicates by its pre- 
 sence the porosity of the subsoil, the compara- 
 tively high fertility of the soil, and the presence 
 of a very considerable proportion of disintegrated 
 alkaline rocks; and the herbage includes, not 
 only such coarse grasses as occur on other kinds 
 of heath lands, but also some of the nutritive 
 sorts of agrostis, the sheep's fescue, the woolly 
 soft grass, the annual meadow grass, sometimes 
 the Welsh fescue, and occasionally white clover. 
 The higher and drearier tracts of the hilly heaths 
 
 666 
 
HEATHS. 
 
 667 
 
 HEATHS 
 
 are the resort of the plover, the lapwing, grouse, 
 the blackcock, the fox, and some other wild ani- 
 mals, and afford more or less sustenance to the 
 goat, the hardy black -faced sheep, the small 
 Welch mountain sheep, and the small Irish high- 
 land sheep ; and the lower and more fertile 
 tracts, are comparatively free from the heath- 
 plants and abundant in the nutritive grasses, 
 and afford sustenance to the Cheviot sheep, to 
 various half-hardy cross-breeds of sheep, to the 
 small Welch black cattle, to the Kerry black 
 cattle, to the Scottish kyloes, and to some other 
 breeds of black cattle, both native and cross. 
 
 The reclamation of all such portions of hilly 
 heaths as have too shallow a soil for the plough, or 
 as are too much encumbered with stones and pro- 
 truding rocks to be converted into arable fields, 
 can obviously be carried no further than to con- 
 vert them into good permanent grass lands ; but 
 their reclamation to this extent may, in multi- 
 tudes of instances, be found comparatively easy, 
 and abundantly compensating. One preliminary 
 measure of great moment is to divert all their 
 excess of moisture at springy points into small 
 artificial drains ; and another, of scarcely less 
 consequence, though not so generally adverted 
 to by georgists, is to employ the water drawn off 
 to the drainage in a system of catch-work irri- 
 gation. See the articles Draining and Irriga- 
 tion. If the water issuing from springs be all 
 diverted into drains, aquatic plants will die out 
 and nutritive plants will take their place ; and 
 if it be further distributed athwart the arid parts 
 of the surface, in the manner of systematic and 
 judicious irrigation, ferns will speedily disappear, 
 heath-plants and furze will gradually give way, 
 and a fine sward of good, sweet, nourishing natu- 
 ral grasses will everywhere be formed. Yet the 
 heath-plants and the furze of the hilly heaths, as 
 well as those of all the moorland heaths which 
 possess any capacity for pasture, are much more 
 expeditiously and effectively reduced by burning 
 j than by irrigation. At any dry period of autumn, 
 a kindling of fire on the windward side of a heath- 
 ■ clad hill, spreads over the whole surface, con- 
 sumes an enormous aggregate bulk of the heath- 
 plants, and leaves athwart the hill-side only an 
 array of blackened stumps ; and in the course of 
 the following spring, a tolerably thick growth of 
 the grasses springs up, to keep possession of a 
 large portion of the ground, during several years, 
 till the fresh shoots from the stems and root- 
 crowns of the burnt heath-plants become bushy 
 j enough to resume possession and to provoke ano- 
 ther burning. Or when the tops and young 
 shoots of the heath-plants themselves constitute 
 
 i a main part of the food which the lands have 
 hitherto yielded to sheep, piece after piece of the 
 
 j | heath-grounds of a stock-farm may be burned, 
 in regular and successive order, so as to maintain 
 a series of stages in the development of the shoots, 
 
 1 | and afford the sheep a constant supply of food ; 
 
 ! I and, after a series of burnings and depasturings, 
 
 steadily persevered in and rotationally pursued, 
 the heath-plants will gradually dwarf down and 
 die out, and a sward of good permanent natural 
 grass will obtain entire possession. 
 
 The grand art of reclaiming hilly heaths, how- 
 ever, as well as of reclaiming all the best kinds 
 of moorland heaths, consists in a combination of 
 the three processes of paring, burning, and lim- 
 ing. See the article Paring and Burning. The 
 paring of small tracts in ordinary districts, or 
 of somewhat large tracts in districts where la- 
 bourers are numerous and manual labour is 
 cheap, may be effected by means of the imple- 
 ment variously called a breast-plough, a push- 
 plough, a paring-spade, a denshare, and a flaugh- 
 ter-spade ; but the paring of all tracts in other 
 circumstances, is most economically done with 
 the common Dutch plough ; and when the sur- 
 face is sufficiently free from stones, ligneous 
 plants, and other obstructions, a wheel-coulter — 
 or a scarifier, as it is sometimes called— ought to 
 be used to the plough. See the articles Breast- 
 Plough and Paring-Plough. " I should recom- 
 mend," says Mr. Rowlandson, " that the plough- 
 ing and crosscutting should be performed the 
 summer or autumn of the year previous to the 
 operation of burning. The sods, by lying in a 
 rough state, and being subjected to the frost of j 
 the winter preceding, thus become tender and 
 friable ; and if a large triangular harrow or sca- 
 rifier, with teeth about a foot in length, be 
 drawn once or twice through the sods during 
 the first dry weather in spring, the same will be 
 prepared for heaping up with a ' bob.' " 
 
 The liming part of the process of reclamation 
 is much less expensive on hilly heaths than on 
 moorland heaths. When the soil happens to 
 consist of the debris and detritus of trap, grey- 
 wacke, or aluminous schistose rocks, so that it 
 possesses within itself a comparatively large store 
 of the alkaline food of plants, it requires no lim- 
 ing whatever, — a circumstance all the happier 
 that districts consisting of these rocks are gener- 
 ally the most distant from supplies of lime ; and 
 even when the soil is of the prevailing yellowish or 
 brownish-yellow colour, similar in appearance to 
 fine loam, and largely intermixed with stones, it 
 is sometimes thoroughly benefited by so small a 
 quantity of lime as 20 bushels per acre, and pro- 
 bably seldom requires more than about 40 bush- 
 els. 
 
 Moorland Heaths. — The soil of most moorland 
 heaths is either a mixture of gravel and peat, of 
 stonebrash sand and peat, or of materials quite 
 similar to these ; it is often incumbered with a 
 great proportion of large boulders, either incum- 
 bent upon it, or lying level with its surface, or 
 buried at but a trivial depth ; and it generally 
 lies on a subsoil either of hard till or moorland 
 pan, frequently much charged with siliciously 
 quartzose paste, or of a stiff, retentive, barren 
 white or blue clay. Moorland heaths comprise 
 also the waste or peaty or comparatively infer- 
 
HEATHS. 
 
 668 
 
 HEATHS. 
 
 tile or positively heathy portions of the wolds 
 and downs of England ; they comprehend like- 
 wise the enormous aggregate of the moors of 
 Lowland Scotland, and the mountain-bogs of 
 Ireland, of Highland Scotland, and of the Hebri- 
 des; they include all the heath-clad or heath- 
 infested tracts of the three kingdoms, which, 
 without being flow-mosses, or having only a 
 shallow depth and a peaty consistency of mossy 
 matter, possess more or less of a peat soil ; and 
 they, consequently, are of vast extent, and con- 
 stitute a main part, not only of all the heaths, 
 but of all the waste lands of the empire. Their 
 available soil usually varies in depth from 4 to 
 12 inches, and very seldom is greater, except in 
 hollows. 
 
 Moorland heaths are distinguishable from hilly 
 heaths, not only by the peatiness of their soil, 
 but by the comparative dwarfishness of their 
 heath plants and their furze, by the absence of 
 ferns, and sometimes by the presence of the 
 bilberry and the dwarf sallow. They abound in 
 carices, junci, and other coarse aquatic herbage ; 
 they frequently abound also in some of the coarse 
 kinds of agrostis ; but they do not contain, ex- 
 cept very scatteredly or on some of their best 
 patches, any noticeable proportion of the nutri- 
 tious grasses. They frequently possess an appre- 
 ciable value for the feeding of sheep and the 
 pasturage of young stock; but they owe this 
 scarcely at all to gramineous herbage, and almost 
 wholly to the tops and young shoots of their 
 mere heath-plants and furze. Moisture is almost 
 everywhere in excess ; and alkaline matter is 
 nearly at a minimum. 
 
 The moorland heaths of almost all Scotland, 
 and those also of many parts of England — some 
 as adjuncts to gramineous pasture-lands, and 
 most as absolute or entire pastures of themselves 
 — are employed in the feeding of hardy moun- 
 tain breeds of sheep. " To even a careless ob- 
 server," remarks Mr. W. Hogg, " it will readily 
 occur that, on some pastures, heath must be the 
 principal part of sheep's food, while others, on a 
 different pasture, must taste of it very sparingly. 
 On these two situations, sheep employ it for dif- 
 ferent purposes. On the first, it enters largely 
 into the mass of food which the animal gathers ; 
 it has been their principal support since their 
 infancy ; they know of no other, and they have 
 no troublesome desire for the succulent grasses. 
 In the latter, it is medicative ; and the perception 
 of the animal prompts to the use of it with no 
 other design. When the stomach is overcharged 
 with soft luscious food, the feelings of the animal 
 admonish it to go in quest of aromatic feeding 
 to accelerate digestion ; and this a small quan- 
 tity of heath does. It warms and strengthens 
 the tone of the stomach, and assists in the disso- 
 lution of the aliment, and prepares it for enter- 
 ing the intestines ; and as soon as digestion is 
 begun, the animal ejects a good deal of wind, 
 which the warm and pungent nature of the heath 
 
 is now beginning to dissipate. Sheep who are 
 natives of a heathy pasture, are in no danger of 
 feeding to excess ; they only satisfy but do not 
 overburden nature ; and though the animal is 
 here smaller in the bone, and the viscera much 
 less, the constitution is sound and hardy, and is 
 in no danger of those maladies which arise from 
 repletion." 
 
 The moorland heaths are the main retreat of 
 most kinds of game. The majority of the grouse 
 family, pursued by the sportsman or watched by 
 the gamekeeper, feed upon the tender shoots of 
 the heath-plants, and perform incubation amidst 
 the concealment of their thickety recesses ; and 
 these birds abound most of all in the wild, deso- 
 late, and remote interior of great districts of 
 mountainous moorland, such as those of the cen- 
 tral and western divisions of the Scottish High- 
 lands. Moorfowl, in particular, though some- 
 times seen in pairs or flocks travelling from one 
 heathy district to another, do not abide in any 
 grassy region, no matter how uninhabited or 
 mountainous, but make their permanent resi- 
 dence only where heath prevails ; and they may 
 often be observed, by the traverser of moorland 
 heaths, feeding on the young sprigs of heath- 
 plants, in the shock of the tempest or under the 
 dark gloom of approaching night. Yet, though 
 retreating to the cover of old heath-plants, or of 
 bushy patches between the old and the new, for 
 the purposes of incubation, they disdain to make 
 any use of old heath-plants, and seem to be as 
 much profited as sheep by any process which de- 
 stroys the rank heath-growth of a moor, and oc- 
 casions a supply of young shoots and tender 
 twigs. " The moorfowl," says Hogg, " seldom of 
 never feed on old heath ; the tender and juicy 
 sprigs of the young germs of heath, they invari- 
 ably select for food ; and except when driven by 
 the blue hawk, I never saw them condescend to 
 seek shelter in it from any creature or any wea- 
 ther. Even in the darkest snow-drifts, they 
 often feed on this young plant, in the most ex- 
 posed situations ; nor will they seek shelter on 
 even the lee side of the hill, until they have ga- 
 thered together a few grains, when they cower 
 down and let the snow drift them up, — in which 
 situation they continue warm, dry, and comfort- 
 able, till the hurricane subsides, and then they 
 spring into the air with all the vigour peculiar 
 to their hardy nature." Numerous species of 
 migratory birds, also, resort to the moorland 
 heaths, during the months of summer, for hatch- 
 ing and rearing their young ; and here, away 
 from disturbance by man, and amid the stillness 
 and desolation of a far-spreading solitude, they 
 indulge those fond affections with which all the 
 beings of the animated creation delight to sup- 
 ply the wants and unfold the energies of their 
 offspring. 
 
 The periodical burning of the heath-plants, 
 which constitutes but a second-rate improve- 
 ment of any of the best kinds of hilly heaths, is 
 
 J 
 
! HEATHS. 
 
 669 
 
 the only economical improvement of which a 
 large proportion of moorland heaths are capable, 
 and is regularly practised on very many of them, 
 particularly in the mountainous districts of Scot- 
 land, under the name of muir-burn. Heath- 
 plants which retain living roots, no matter how 
 entirely destroyed may be their foliage and twigs, 
 or how severely scorched may be their stems, all 
 continue to perform their vital functions, and 
 speedily send out growths of succulent young 
 twigs and leaves. Even when the sap-vessels 
 are shrivelled by the heat to the very surface of 
 the ground, young shoots start up from the old 
 stocks, and ramify themselves into series of mu- 
 tually intersecting branches, and eventually pro- 
 duce such a profusion of heath herbage as over- 
 shadows the whole ground. The burning also 
 cleans the soil from niduses of insects, exuviae of 
 worms and reptiles, noxious accumulations of 
 unwholesome herbage, and other kinds of impu- 
 rities and pollutions ; and, in many instances, it 
 either occasions a renovated growth of some of 
 the coarse mountain grasses or induces the ap- 
 pearance of Scirpus ccespitosus and other slender 
 and somewhat nutrient species of Cyperaceae. 
 When the operation is performed in suitable 
 weather and in a dry condition of the plants, the 
 whole tract is at once laid open to light, heat, 
 dews, fogs, and all the other agencies of the at- 
 mosphere ; the smoke scarcely disappears, when 
 flocks of carrion crows everywhere alight upon 
 it, to pick up half-scorched insects which could 
 not escape, and such small reptiles as they know 
 they can manage ; and, in a brief period, seeds 
 of graminese and cyperacese, floating throughout 
 the air, make lodgments on the ground, and 
 commence within its bosom the germination of 
 their respective herbage. The growth of grasses, 
 indeed, when considered in its proportion to the 
 aggregate of the moors, is exceedingly limited ; 
 crowds of musci, also, extend athwart open patch- 
 es, and gather round the roots or beneath the 
 shade of old heath-plants, and form a scurf of 
 moss which resists the destroying action of both 
 the fire and the atmosphere ; and the very heath- 
 plants themselves, in some parts of the ground, 
 have so exhausted the soil, as to both its nour- 
 ishing principles and its power of chemical ela- 
 boration, that they must die down for some years 
 to allow it time and facilities for renovation ; 
 but the great mass of the heath-plants speedily 
 push themselves out into new existence and 
 young exfoliation, while some possess so ample a 
 hold of the soil and exert so mighty powers of 
 reinvigorated being as to spread their roots far 
 and wide, to drink up all the substances availa- 
 ble for vegetation, and make a complete mono- 
 poly of the new resources which the process of 
 burning has opened up. A fresh, succulent, and 
 comparatively plentiful herbage is thus provided 
 by means of the burning, — in some districts, 
 partially by the growth of grasses and tender 
 club-rushes, — and in most, either mainly or alto- 
 
 gether by the development of young shoots in the 
 heath-plants; and — as in the hilly heaths, so 
 more urgently in the moorland ones, on account 
 of their far greater extent, and the far more 
 general dependence which the stock- farmer has 
 upon them for food to his sheep-flocks — this pro- 
 vision ought to be elicited by a perfectly regular 
 and successional course of burning. " The hus- 
 bandman," remarks Hogg, " doth not go over his 
 arable ground by a certain rotation of crops with 
 greater exactness, than a heathy pasture should 
 be regularly laid out in heaths of different ages, 
 the oldest spaces annually renewed by burning, 
 when the next in seniority are in their last year. 
 By this means, this shrub is kept eatable through 
 all the season ; and even when other herbage is 
 scarce, a browse on young heath is far from be- 
 ing unacceptable. It is invariably said by the 
 storemasters and shepherds, that heath is only 
 valuable through the winter quarter ; and I be- 
 lieve the disadvantages and neglect with which 
 this production has been treated, has realized 
 the general report. But how can it be of ser- 
 vice, when it is allowed to stand till it is use- 
 less 1 When old, it doth not vegetate till about 
 the middle of June ; but when young, its spring 
 is little later than the softer grasses. In the for- 
 mer state, there is scarcely a return of verdure 
 through all the season ; but when young, it 
 shoots more than an inch for several seasons, 
 and at all times its germs are eagerly sought for 
 and eaten by the depasturing stock. * * The 
 safest and most general rule that can be adopted, 
 is to burn it whenever it will burn thoroughly 
 and completely; and except the single disadvan- 
 tage of not yielding sufficient cover to moorfowl 
 during the time of incubation, it is in the young 
 state most beneficial for all creatures whose in- 
 stincts and habits direct them to a heathy soil 
 for food." 
 
 Such moorland heaths as are capable of being 
 profitably converted into arable lands, are most 
 efficiently and cheaply reclaimed in nearly the 
 same manner as hilly heaths, by means of par- 
 ing, burning and liming ; but they require to be 
 far more freely and yet much less expensively 
 drained, — they need no subsequent irrigation, — 
 they may, in any case of excessive mattedness or 
 cohesiveness of surface, have their pared turf torn 
 to pieces by the operation of crosscutting, — and 
 they require a comparatively copious application 
 of lime. See the articles Crosscutting and Par- 
 ing and Burning. Any attempt to reduce their 
 pared turf by prolonged exposure to atmospheric 
 action, ought to be aided by abundant crosscut- 
 ting, and in most cases is less efficient and eco- 
 nomical than the reduction of the turf by burn- 
 ing, or may even prove, in a very serious degree, 
 a failure. " The result of my experience," says 
 Mr. Rowlandson — who combined great scientific 
 knowledge of the principles of georgy and of agri- 
 cultural chemistry with extensive practice and 
 observation in the reclaiming of Irish moorland 
 
HEATHS. 
 
 070 
 
 HEDGE. 
 
 heaths — " is that paring and burning, with lim- 
 ing, is indispensable on this class of soils, and 
 that one hundred bushels of lime per acre is the 
 minimum that ought to be applied ; that it will 
 not repay the tenant to perfectly drain, with 
 stones, lands of a moory description, with only a 
 depth of four to six inches available soil, as the 
 cost cannot be estimated at less than £10 per 
 acre, it being more profitable to him to plough 
 the land into flat ridges of eight to ten feet 
 width, and plough or shovel out the soil close to, 
 or an inch below, the subsoil. I had a complete 
 example of the inefficacy of leaving sods to rot, 
 having left four acres for nearly four years to 
 undergo that slow process of decomposition, the 
 result of which was, that the sods were, at the 
 expiration of the four years, nearly as tough as 
 they were the first day they were cross-plough- 
 ed." Reclaimed moorlands are generally most 
 profitable when laid down to permanent pasture ; 
 yet, in instances where the soil is deep and of 
 good quality, they may be very advantageously 
 kept under a rotation of rape eaten off with 
 sheep, of oats, of wheat, and of 4 or 5 years of 
 grass. 
 
 Sandy Heaths. — The soil of sandy heaths con- 
 sists principally of silicious sand, bound together 
 by the roots of coarse grasses and other compar- 
 atively worthless plants ; it contains very little 
 vegetable matter, and is sadly deficient in alka- 
 line earths ; and it has usually a colour varying 
 from pale brown to deep black, according to the 
 proportion of its humus, with a few intermixed 
 brightly glistening grains of sand. Its vegeta- 
 tion is poor, stunted, and dwarfish, consisting 
 principally of starved innutritious grasses, worth- 
 less cyperacese, and often an abundance of such 
 weeds as infest arenaceous surfaces ; and when 
 any heath plants or furze exist, they are usually 
 of the smallest stature and most haggard appear- 
 ance. Sandy heaths comprise also the powdery, 
 calcareous, and unpeaty portions of the chalk 
 downs of England ; and as an entire class of 
 waste lands, they exhibit an appalling desolation, 
 and are but a degree or two less dismal and bar- 
 ren than the sandy wildernesses of Arabia, and 
 are surpassingly churlish and ungrateful under 
 the very kindliest efforts of georgy to reclaim 
 them. See the article Barren Soils. 
 
 The coarse herbage upon sandy heaths must 
 be burned ; but paring is only limitedly neces- 
 sary, the burning of any considerable proportion 
 of the vegetable matter ought to be avoided, and 
 the application of more than a small quantity of 
 lime is uncompensating. Ploughing, cross-cut- 
 ting, rolling, and grubbing or drag - harrowing 
 will generally be found sufficient ; and when one 
 course of these is not enough, a second will, in 
 most cases, achieve every thing which any rea- 
 sonable reclaimer can desire. " The grand fault 
 of sandy soils," observes Mr. Rowlandson, "is the 
 want of the mineral constituents of plants ; it 
 would therefore be advisable, on the breaking 
 
 up of heaths of this description, that, after the 
 coarse plants are burned, and a slight liming 
 given, the lands should be cropped with turnips, 
 drilled with bones, and a little potash of com- 
 merce and guano, eaten off with sheep, and then 
 sown down with appropriate grass -seeds ; and 
 this is the only mode that I conceive will ever 
 succeed in improving sandy heaths." In the vast 
 majority of instances, any arable cropping of re- 
 claimed sandy heaths would be sheer folly ; but 
 when manure is plentiful, and the soil contains 
 a tolerable proportion of vegetable and aluminous 
 matters, a rotation which shall comprise turnips, 
 carrots, potatoes, buckwheat, rye, and a series of 
 years of grass, or which shall alternate the grass 
 with any two or three of these aration crops, 
 may be found sufficiently compensating. 
 
 The proper treatment of reclaimed heath 
 lands, in general, affords great scope for the ex- 
 ercise of judgment and prudence, and varies con- 
 siderably with the circumstances of the culti- 
 vator, and very widely according to the charac- 
 ter of the soil and the facilities for manuring. 
 As a general principle, however, either the pro- 
 prietor who retains the lands in his own posses- 
 sion, or the reclaiming storefarmer, or the im- 
 proving tenant of an extensive mixed farm, will 
 find it most remunerating to break up the heath 
 lands with an express view to grass, and to con- 
 vert them into strictly permanent pastures. 
 Reclaimed heath lands are generally remote from 
 the farmery ; and when subjected to aration, 
 they can seldom, without undue cost of car- 
 riage, receive as much manure in return from 
 the farm-yard as shall restore the principles of 
 fertility carried away from them in the roots or 
 stems or seeds of their crops. The best course, 
 in the great majority of cases, therefore — no 
 matter what be the comparative wealth or po- 
 verty of the soil — is, immediately after reclama- 
 tion by paring, burning, and liming, to sow tur- 
 nips upon the hilly heaths and rape upon the 
 moorland ones, to cat off the crop with sheep, 
 and then to sow with permanent grasses. The 
 occupiers of small allotments, however, may, in 
 multitudes of instances, prosecute a very profi- 
 table rotation of flax, oats, and green crops ; and 
 were they aided and protected in their pursuits, 
 by the planting of belts of alder and clumps of 
 larch and of coppice-trees to screen them from the 
 prevailing winds, they might — most advantage- 
 ously for themselves, for their landlords, and for 
 the general community — reclaim and cultivate 
 many varieties of hilly and moorland heaths, not 
 only in low situations, but at altitudes of from 
 300 to 700 or 800 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 HEATHY LAND. See Heaths. 
 
 HEAVING. See Parturition. 
 
 HECK. A rack for cattle to feed at ; also a 
 kind of door. 
 
 HECKLE. An iron comb, used in the dress- 
 ing of flax and hemp. 
 
 HEDGE. A fence of living plants, eithe 
 
HEDGE. 671 HEDGE. 
 
 along a division of ground or round an enclo- 
 sure. It serves the purpose of either separation, 
 shelter, or defence ; and consists of plants which 
 grow densely, and ramify from the ground up- 
 wards, and interweave their branches, and rea- 
 dily grow in a line from seeds or plantlets, and 
 admit of being cut and pruned into the form 
 and compactness of a wall, to any width and 
 height which the purposes of shelter and defence 
 require. The hedges of pastoral farms sometimes 
 consist of furze ; and the hedges of all kinds of 
 ordinary farms and good enclosures usually con- 
 sist wholly or principally of hawthorn. The uses 
 and the general principles of enclosures are no- 
 ticed in the article Enclosure ; the varieties and 
 modifications of the several kinds of fences, 
 whether hedge, ditch, wall, mound, or combina- 
 tions of some two or three of these, are noticed 
 in the article Fence; and the nature, species, 
 and proper treatment of the principal plants em- 
 ployed for hedges are discussed in the articles 
 Hawthorn, Privet, Holly, and Furze. We 
 shall occupy the present article principally with 
 the discussion of hawthorn hedges, — so shaping 
 our remarks that they may apply either to mere 
 hawthorn hedges themselves, or to combinations 
 of them with ditches or embankments ; and we 
 must refer to the articles now mentioned for such 
 modifications as specifically bear upon hedges of 
 other plants than hawthorns. 
 
 Hedging Implements. — The implements requi- 
 site or most convenient for designing the course 
 of a hedge are several graduated poles, of 8 or 
 10 feet in height; a common iron measuring 
 chain ; an optical square ; a stout line, of at least 
 70 yards in length, with reel and iron pin ; a few 
 painted wooden pins, with hooked heads ; and a 
 graduated wooden rule of 6 feet in length. Those 
 for forming the hedge are spades, a hand-pick, a 
 ditcher's shovel, a strong foot-pick, a mattock, 
 and a sharp, strong, ordinary pruning -knife. 
 And those for cleaning, pruning, and maintaining 
 hedges are a hedge- spade, with a small cross- 
 handle, a shaft of about 3 feet in length, and an 
 iron mouth-piece of about 5 or 6 inches in width ; 
 a common Dutch hoe, 7 inches wide at the 
 mouth, and 5 feet long in the shaft ; one or two 
 hook-headed sticks; a switching-bill, or hedge- 
 bill, with a blade 9 inches long and 1^ inch broad, 
 or a breasting-knife of larger size ; a cutting-bill, 
 with a shaft 2| feet long, and a blade 7 inches 
 long and 2^ inches broad ; and a light axe. 
 
 The Preparation of the Ground for Hedges. — 
 Ground which is foul with almost any sort of 
 weeds, but particularly with couch-grass, docks, 
 or other stoloniferous and vivacious plants, re- 
 quires to be thoroughly cleaned by a process of 
 fallowing, in preparation for hedges ; for if such 
 weeds as couch, perennial-thistle, common dock, 
 dandelion, or tussilago be allowed to remain in 
 it, they will not only give the hedges a very slo- 
 venly appearance, but very greatly retard the 
 
 growth and reduce the energy of the thorns. 
 Ordinary arable land, under a well-farmed sys- 
 tem of rotation, needs no fallowing preparation , 
 and may, in most cases, be very advantageously 
 planted with hedges, at the period when the lea- 
 ground of the rotation is to be broken up for 
 oats. Land of any kind which is in an infertile 
 condition ought to be as well manured for hed- 
 ges as for any productive field -crop; and old 
 pasture land ought, along the intended lines of 
 the hedges, to be pared and burned, and thor- 
 oughly tilled with plough, grubber, and harrow. 
 But should the intended hedge-lines run across 
 the ridges of arable land, no matter at what an- 
 gle to them, the expedient of simply filling up 
 the furrows to a level with the crown of the 
 ridge would be far from a sufficient preparation : 
 for the earth used in filling up would shrink, and 
 cause the continuous line of the hedges to de- 
 press curvingly at the place of the furrows ; and, 
 in any instance in which the general slope de- 
 clines to the exterior, drains would be required 
 to let off the water in each furrow through the 
 hedge-bank. Arable land, therefore, which is to 
 be traversed by the hedge-rows across the ridges, 
 ought to be hedged, not at the breaking up of 
 lea, but at the laying down to grass, when the 
 spaces for the hedge -lines can be raised and 
 ridged up longitudinally to the required height 
 and breadth, so that the flanks of ground along 
 the sides of them shall form the headlands of 
 their respective fields. When an old turf wall, 
 or the site of one, crosses the line of an intended 
 hedge, every particle of the earth belonging to 
 it must be carefully removed, and its place sup- 
 plied with good, fresh, recently-aerated soil ; for 
 the base of an old turf wall cannot, till after the 
 lapse of a great length of treatment, be rendered, 
 by even the most coaxing and stimulating treat- 
 ment, congenial to the growth of thorn plants. 
 
 The Planting of Hedges. — On good dry land, 
 properly cleaned and tilled, — or on somewhat in- 
 ferior land prepared by trenching, — hawthorns 
 grow well when planted simply along the sur- 
 face ; but on poor wet land, they require to be 
 planted either in the side or on the top of the 
 bank or mound formed of the earth thrown out 
 of the ditch. Planting along the plain surface 
 is usually practised in gardens and shrubberies ; 
 planting along the top of a sunk fence is fre- 
 quently preferred in parks and other ornamental 
 grounds ; and planting on the side or on the top 
 of a bank formed from the excavation of a flank- 
 ing ditch, is much practised in farm enclosures, 
 not only upon poor wet soils, but upon many 
 varieties of both aration and grass lands. The 
 side of the bank is preferred to the top by some 
 good judges, and the top is preferred to the side 
 by others; but each has advantages and disad- 
 vantages; and either ought to be preferred to 
 the other whenever the advantages peculiar to it 
 are predominant. 
 
HEDGE. 
 
 The thorn plants selected for planting ought 
 all to be of one variety, and as nearly as pos- 
 sible of one size and uniform vigour. Plants 
 of one age, whether from the seed-bed or the 
 nursery-bed, have generally a very considerable 
 diversity of diameter, height, and strength, and 
 sometimes comprise several observable varieties 
 of character and habit ; so that the adoption of 
 a whole stock of plantlets from one bed, or from a 
 set of contemporaneous beds, evinces a censur- 
 able want of discrimination, and is almost cer- 
 tain to be followed by great inequalities and 
 many weak or deficient points in the hedges. 
 Young plants of stout stem and considerable 
 height, on the other hand — plants, for example, 
 of half an inch in diameter at the surface of the 
 ground, and of proportionate tallness, — such as 
 have been exclusively recommended by some old 
 and experienced hedgers — can be obtained only 
 by selection from nursery beds of the first style, 
 and of from two to six years of age ; so that a 
 fastidious and excessively exacting choice of 
 them makes enormous demands upon the nur- 
 serymen, and cannot be gratified without an 
 amount of cost which may never be compensated 
 by the needless excellence of the hedges. A good 
 medium is to take all the plants of a good seed- 
 bed, standing thin, free from mildew, and of two 
 years' growth, — to select the whole of the vigor- 
 ous ones, or of such as are nearly uniform in 
 thickness and promise, for the planting of the 
 hedges, — to throw away all the very small and 
 weak ones, — and to transplant the rest into a 
 nursery-bed, tjo be trained for subsequent re- 
 moval to the gaps of old hedges, or to any va- 
 cancy in a line of fences. 
 
 Young plants lifted from either seed-bed or 
 nursery-bed for the planting of hedges, ought, 
 during the time of their being out of the ground, 
 to have their roots kept in a proper degree of 
 moisture. Many hedgers are grossly inattentive 
 to this point ; and not infrequently allow the 
 roots to become so exsiccated, that many of the 
 plants perish. The top of each plant from a 
 point about two or three inches above the termi- 
 nation of the yellow bark, ought, immediately 
 before being planted, to be cut off with a sharp 
 knife. The cut must be made with an upward 
 slant, so as to avoid the possible injury to the 
 roots which might be inflicted by cutting down- 
 ward ; and it ought to leave two or three inches 
 of the green-barked stem, so as to prevent the 
 enfeeblement of the young shoot which would be 
 occasioned by cutting close to the yellow bark. 
 The practice of some hedgers is to cut off the 
 tops after planting ; but, even when the operator 
 is very careful, and uses a very sharp knife, this 
 practice dislodges some of the plants, and strains 
 or breaks the tender roots of many. — The proper 
 distance between plant and plant in planting, is 4 
 inches ; and the proper depth is exactly that at 
 which they stood in the seed-bed, and which is 
 indicated by the yellow bark. Not only haw- 
 
 HEDGE. 
 
 thorns, but young plants of almost all kinds, are 
 often injured by being planted too deep, and sel- 
 dom by being planted too shallow. 
 
 The planting of hedges along the sides of 
 banks, formed from the excavation of flanking 
 ditches, has hitherto been so prevalent a practice 
 in many districts, and possesses such peculiar 
 fitness for some kinds of soil, and such strong re- 
 commendations for many, that the proper me- 
 thod of conducting it ought to be everywhere 
 well understood. But, in general practice, the 
 plants are set considerably too low — sometimes 
 ruinously too low — in the side of the bank. 
 " They are usually laid in about 6 inches above 
 the natural level of the ground ; and a great 
 body of earth is thrown from the ditch, and 
 heaped upon their roots, sometimes 3 or 4 feet 
 thick ; by which means the roots of the plants 
 are overloaded by the weight of earth, while they 
 are excluded from light, air, and moisture, ne- 
 cessary to encourage vegetation. Hawthorns 
 are naturally surface -rooted plants. This may 
 be seen in all bushes growing spontaneously in 
 pasture - land, their roots running horizontally 
 near the surface, and sometimes bending out of 
 the ground. When such bushes are blown down, 
 or grubbed up, it is a rare instance to find them 
 with top-roots. A traveller, in passing along a 
 public road, and seeing a stunted scrubby thorn- 
 hedge on the wayside, at a distance before him, 
 may fairly calculate that, upon his arrival at the 
 spot, he will find a great quantity of earth heaped 
 up on the roots of that miserable looking hedge. 
 And quite the reverse in regard to a vigorous 
 growing hedge. People are apt to be led into this 
 error of setting their plants deep, or low in the side 
 of a bank, from observing that when drawn from 
 seed-beds they have top-roots. Seedling thorns, 
 like seedlings of other plants, have top-roots in 
 the first instance ; these steady the plants in the 
 ground, until the horizontal roots acquire suffi- 
 cient strength and extension to support and 
 nourish their tops ; and the top-roots having 
 then performed their natural functions, they 
 dwindle, and die gradually. As it has been thus 
 shown that much earth raised over the roots of 
 thorn plants impedes their growth, it is advisable, 
 when large ditches are formed, the surplus earth 
 should be either put into hollows near at hand, 
 or carted away and deposited elsewhere, — but by 
 no means raised on the top of the bank. On the 
 contrary, the roots of thorn plants should never 
 be loaded with more than from one foot to eigh- 
 teen inches thick of earth, regulated by the na- 
 ture and quality of the soil. This freedom from 
 a load of earth is the principal advantage derived 
 from planting on the top of the bank." 
 
 When a hedge is planted on the side of a 
 bank, much advantage results from the erection 
 of a temporary fence of cut brushwood, or of cut 
 old thorns, along the top. The cut plants are 
 made into lengths of 3 feet, a channel for them 
 is formed with the spade along the top of the 
 
 672 
 
HEDGE. 
 
 673 
 
 HEDGE. 
 
 bank, the ends of the plants are set into the 
 channel, and the soil is closed up firm upon them 
 to hold them steady, and prevent them from 
 being dislodged by high winds. A contrivance of 
 this kind keeps the soil loose above the roots of 
 the hedge-plants, promotes aeration of the soil 
 around the roots, conducts downward a free 
 circulation of moisture from rain, encourages a 
 rapid growth of the young shoots, and protects 
 them, during the first and second years after 
 planting, from the depredations of rabbits, hares, 
 and sheep. Young thorns, planted either on the 
 plain surface of the ground, along the top of a 
 bank, or on the side of an unfenced bank, are 
 very liable to be cropped and greatly injured by 
 rabbits and hares ; and the erection of a tempo- 
 rary fence on the top of a bank, to protect a 
 young hedge on the side of it, prevents the ani- 
 mals from obtaining access to the hedge. 
 
 The Weeding of Hedges. — A young hedge re- 
 quires to be weeded, from time to time, till it is 
 three years old ; and all the soil within range of 
 its roots ought to be maintained in a thoroughly 
 clean and porous condition, so as to be freely 
 permeated by both air and moisture. The pro- 
 per manner of weeding was incidentally noticed 
 in our account of the implements for hedging ; 
 only the method there described must be modified 
 to suit hedges on other bases than the slopes of 
 banks, and the use of the hooked sticks may 
 sometimes be advantageously substituted by 
 handweeding. " It is very seldom," remarks 
 Mr. Stephens, in the Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture, " that a hedge requires to be so thor- 
 oughly cleaned in the first season; but in the 
 second year, it is absolutely necessary to be very 
 vigilant in cleaning early in spring, before vege- 
 tation is much advanced. If weeding is delayed 
 till the roots of the weeds take firm hold of the 
 ground, the displacing of them bears away a 
 great deal of earth from the face of the bank. 
 There is no specific time of the season to clean a 
 hedge ; but the safe rule is always to clean it 
 before the weeds in the least envelope it. The 
 most common weeds which infest hedges in 
 loamy ground are the tussilago, way-thistle, corn 
 sow-thistle, common dock, sorrel, ribwort, ground- 
 sel, hedge-vetch, bindweed, sticking-grass, cow- 
 clover, wild mustard, chickweed, dead-nettle, 
 rest-harrow, great white ox-eye, corn-poppy, 
 white lychnis, blaewort, and several of the grasses. 
 The tussilago, rest-harrow, ox-eye, and docks are 
 most difficult to eradicate ; the bindweed, stick- 
 ing-grass, vetch, and the yellow-flowering trail- 
 ing plant, interlace the branches of the thorns, 
 and are exceedingly difficult to eradicate ; and if 
 there be but a single fibre of the wild mustard 
 attaching the plant to the ground, it will grow 
 again with vigour." 
 
 The Pruning of Hedges. — Few hedges ought to 
 be pruned till they are three years old. Hedges 
 of any luxuriant variety of thorn, and growing 
 upon congenial and very fertile soil, usually re- 
 I. 
 
 quire in the second year, to have all such lateral 
 branches switched off as overhang the ditch, or 
 otherwise offer a lodgment for snow; but even 
 these derive benefit from this partial second-year 
 pruning, not in the way of any stimulus to their 
 growth, but simply to prevent the branches from 
 being fractured, and the vessels of the circula- 
 tory system ruptured, by lodgments of snow or 
 the abrasions of cattle. Hedges on good soil 
 and warm situations will eventually grow well, 
 and merely suffer retardation, under premature 
 or improper cutting; but hedges on poor soil 
 and in exposed situations are very liable to be 
 stunted, cankered, or almost utterly destroyed, if 
 cut in any way till the third year, or if even 
 then reduced with hedge-scissors or any coarse- 
 edged instrument instead of the switching-bill. 
 The somewhat common notion, that the pruning 
 of young thorns strengthens their constitution 
 and increases their vigour, is outrageously ab- 
 surd ; and the equally common one, that a regular 
 pruning twice a-year invigorates the plants, is 
 scarcely a degree more rational. Every hedge 
 before being dressed into the artificial shape 
 which taste and economy require it to assume, 
 ought to possess a sufficient strength of both 
 root and stem to make a firm resistance to the 
 violently grubbing and cropping action which 
 the process inflicts upon it, — and in even very 
 favourable circumstances, it cannot possibly ac- 
 quire this at an earlier period than its third 
 year ; and as to all future prunings, it ought to 
 receive them, not on any blind principle of peri- 
 odical routine, irrespective of soil, situation, 
 weather, and object, but in rational accordance 
 with its own state of growth, and with the train- 
 ing of it into comparative height or the repress- 
 ing and coaxing of it into increased bushiness 
 and breadth. Hedge-scissors and instruments of 
 any kind with a pinching, bruising, or hacking 
 action ought never to touch a hedge ; and only 
 the switching-bill, the breasting-knife, or the 
 cutting-bill, according to circumstances, ought 
 to be employed in the lopping of twigs and small 
 branches, and a light axe in the lopping of large 
 branches or the cutting of stems, in order that 
 every cut may be clean and smooth, and that all 
 the loppings of the twigs and small branches 
 may be in an upward direction. 
 
 The Renovation of Hedges. — The renovating of a 
 young hedge which has been stunted and canker- 
 ed by excessive or injudicious cutting and prun- 
 ing, or of an old one which has become thin and 
 bare below and deprived of its compactness and 
 bushiness by a long course of neglect, is usually 
 effected by dressing up its sides nearly close to 
 the stems, or by cutting over the whole of its 
 plants almost close to the ground, or only a little 
 above the root crowns. But this process is often 
 mismanaged, and always requires some judgment 
 and skill. The stunted and cankered young 
 hedge ought to be allowed as free a growth as it 
 can command during two, three, or more years 
 2 U 
 
HEDGE. 
 
 before being cut over; and the old, neglected, 
 open-bottomed hedge ought to have all its decay- 
 ed plants and rotten stumps, and all the soil in 
 which they stood, very carefully removed, and to 
 be supplied, in lieu of them, with fresh soil in 
 which no thorn plants have grown, and with as 
 strong and vigorous young plants as can be ob- 
 ; tained from the nursery-bed. When the side- 
 ; branches are cut off nearly close to the stems, one 
 I or more notches ought, in every instance, to be 
 made with the cutting-bill or the axe, one stroke 
 up and the other down, so as to cut a piece of 
 wood clean out of the stem, and about half-way 
 through it ; and by this means, young shoots are 
 made to break out immediately below the notch, 
 — they are obtained in abundance at any desired 
 j height of the stem, — they grow in such a manner 
 as not to afford a fracturing lodgment for snow, 
 — they prevent the top shoots from rising up 
 with luxuriance, and appropriating an undue 
 proportion of the sap, — and they amass them- 
 selves into the precise form of breadth and com- 
 pactness from the bottom of the hedge upward, 
 which achieves the most complete renovation. 
 
 The thorn plants used for filling gaps at the 
 time of renovating a hedge, ought to have been 
 two or three years in the nursery-bed, to have 
 stood thin in the rows, and to have proved them- 
 selves free-growers. In transplanting them to 
 the hedge, they ought to be set in as entire as 
 when lifted, to have their roots kept moist till 
 they are set in, and to have the soil placed low 
 or somewhat hollowedly round their root-crowns, 
 so that moisture may be drawn toward them till 
 [ their roots become firmly established among those 
 | of the old stocks. Crab-plants are intrinsically 
 better than thorn-plants for filling the gaps of 
 j old hedges ; but they are liable to be barked by 
 i rabbits and hares, — and when the Eriosoma mali, 
 ! or American woolly blight, is in the neighbour- 
 hood, or may be attracted by near orchards or 
 apple-trees, it seldom fails to attack the crab- 
 - plants, and may not only damage but destroy 
 them. See the article Aphis. The soil of gaps 
 does not require to be removed for crab-plants 
 or beech-plants, as for thorn-plants ; but it ought 
 to be thoroughly stirred up and well pulverized ; 
 and, when the plants are set, it should be levelled 
 low, or scooped into shallow basins round their 
 crown-roots, in the same manner as with thorn- 
 plants, for the catching of moisture. 
 
 A method of renovation, similar in principle to 
 the notching which we have recommended in the 
 process of side-cutting, was successfully tried by 
 Mr. Carmichael of Raploch, and is recommended 
 in the Transactions of the Highland Society, as 
 at once a cheap, an easy, and an effectual substi- 
 tute for the common practice of cutting-over. 
 "I tried it," says Mr. Carmichael, "with uniform 
 success, on hedges which had previously been 
 much neglected, but which could not be cut 
 down without great inconvenience and expense. 
 Many of the stems being almost entirely destitute 
 
 HEDGE. 
 
 of lateral branches within two feet of the ground, 
 a horizontal cut or semicircular incision was 
 made in the bark, by which from a quarter to 
 half-an-inch in breadth of both layers of the bark 
 was removed fully half way round the stem. In 
 a few weeks, buds appeared and shot forth, usu- 
 ally close under, but sometimes over the incision. 
 This simple operation, performed by the hedge- 
 bill or a pocket-knife, early in spring, does not 
 seem in the least degree to injure the thorns, for 
 the cut being clean, and not deep, no canker en- 
 sues, and it soon closes up again. Indeed, most 
 of the stems are now completely healed, so that 
 nothing remains but a slight scar in the place ; 
 the object being to intercept the sap in its ascent, 
 the wood need not be cut, and it is only necessary 
 to remove the narrow belt of both barks ; but 
 care must be taken that no shred of the inner 
 bark remains to continue the circulation. The 
 partial interruption thus produced, cannot do 
 any harm, as it merely causes a lateral exertion 
 in the sap vessels to overcome the obstruction, 
 and the sap thus accumulated gives rise to the 
 new branches, so that the same stem may be cut 
 at two or more places if necessary. The artificial 
 branches seldom failed to appear when the stems 
 were healthy, and have sometimes attained a 
 length of two feet the first season. But as such 
 tender twigs are apt to be hurt by frost, if cut 
 too young, they were not touched till the first or 
 sometimes the second spring after, when such as 
 required it were cut off a few inches from the 
 stem, which caused an immediate subdivision of 
 each branch. Thus, by means of these semicir- 
 cular incisions, and by occasionally cutting out a 
 bare irregular stem, the ragged ill-filled hedges 
 have been continued at the regular height, and 
 at the same time trained into a uniform breadth 
 and thickness, not attainable by any other me- 
 thod." 
 
 The temporary renovation of old or neglected 
 hedges, which have become perforated and inter- 
 rupted by gaps, may be effected — though not at 
 all desirably — by the ancient method of plashing- 
 In this operation, the stem ought not to be cut 
 any deeper than is necessary to bend it down 
 with considerable difficulty ; the cut ought to be 
 made, not high up, but as near the ground as 
 possible ; the end of the plash must be fastened 
 down either by inserting it under a hooked branch 
 of a neighbouring thorn, or by pegging it to the 
 ground with a strong, hooked-headed peg ; a 
 wedge-shaped piece of stick should be pushed 
 into the cut, to assist in preventing the plash 
 from starting up ; and some well-worked clay 
 ought to be stuffed into the cut, to protect the 
 severed tissues of the wood from the action of 
 rain and sunshine. But this operation, even 
 when most skilfully and carefully performed, 
 merely secures a present advantage at the expense 
 of entailing a greater future evil. " Plashing an 
 old hedge," says Lord Karnes, " makes a good 
 interim fence ; but, at the long run, is destructive 
 
 674 
 
HEDGE. 
 
 675 
 
 HEDGE-BIRDS 
 
 to the plants ; and accordingly, there is scarce 
 to be met with a complete good hedge where 
 plashing has been long practised. A cat is said 
 among the vulgar to have nine lives. Is it their 
 opinion that a thorn, like a cat, may be cut and 
 slashed at without suffering by it ? A thorn is 
 a tree of long life. If instead of being massacred 
 by plashing, it were raised and dressed in a pro- 
 per manner, it would continue a firm hedge per- 
 haps for 500 years." 
 
 The renovation of a hedge, which grows on the 
 side of a bank, and has merely become unduly 
 dendritic in character, or very dense at the top 
 without continuing to be as dense at the bottom, 
 is, in many instances, effected by a process pro- 
 vincially called "breasting" or "breasting over." 
 The hedge is very freely pruned, or exceedingly 
 reduced, in a sloping direction upward, from the 
 root-crowns in the face of the bank to the exterior 
 side of the hedge above the top of the bank. 
 The operator stands at the root of the hedge, 
 with his right hand toward it ; he clears away all 
 the small twigs which might mar his great sever- 
 ing strokes upon the stems and large branches ; 
 and he strikes the stems and large branches up- 
 ward with the momentum of full swings of the 
 right arm, and so receives and guides the back 
 of the bill with his left hand as to steady it for 
 each successive stroke. One stroke is generally 
 sufficient to sever a branch ; but several strokes 
 — aided, in very stubborn cases, by a downward 
 cut — are often necessary to effect the severance 
 of a stem. The aggregate direction of the cutting 
 is not in the plane of the hedge, but at so con- 
 siderable an angle with it as to go right away 
 from the operator's position, and to slant more 
 rapidly than even the sloping plane of the bank. 
 When the operation is well performed, the 
 "breasted" hedge makes a finer and much more 
 obvious display of nice and dexterous workman- 
 ship than any ordinary pruning, or even than 
 the original planting ; and when the whole work 
 is done, as it ought to be, in perfectly open 
 weather, it is usually followed, in spring and 
 summer by a very great luxuriance of growth. 
 The subsequent treatment, as to training and 
 pruning, is the same as in a newly -planted 
 hedge. 
 
 A fence, called a dead hedge, is frequently con- 
 structed, with the thorns cut down in the process 
 of free pruning, of cutting over, or of breasting 
 over, along the edge of the ditch or the back of 
 the bank, to serve the purposes of protection till 
 the reduced hedge grow up and become fully 
 serviceable. "A hedger and an assistant are 
 necessary for this business. The man cuts the 
 stems of the thorns about 3 feet long, with the 
 cutting-bill or axe; and he lays one cut piece 
 above another to form a bundle, taking care to 
 add some of the small twigs to each bundle, to 
 thicken their appearance ; and he then compresses 
 the whole with his foot, so that the bundle may 
 stick together. He thus makes and prepares 
 
 several bundles in readiness. The hedger takes 
 his spade, and, fixing on the part where the line 
 of dead hedge is to occupy, he turns up a spade- 
 ful of the earth, as whole as possible, as if he 
 were digging a piece of ground of the breadth of 
 the spade. After he has laid this spadeful of 
 earth, so as a bundle of thorns may lean against 
 it in an inclining position, the man hands him 
 one of the bundles. The butt-end of the bundle 
 goes into the spade-furrow, and leans from him 
 against the spadeful which he has placed. The 
 hedger then lifts another spadeful, and places it 
 upon the root of the bundle, and presses it firmly 
 down with his foot, which should be fortified 
 with a clog. He suits the inclination of the 
 dead-fence to the quarter whence the winds pre- 
 vail. In this manner, they proceed to form the 
 whole line of dead-hedge. As the fence proceeds, 
 the hedger cuts all twigs that have a straggling 
 appearance, with the bill, towards the fence, to 
 give a neatness and finish to the work. This sort 
 of dead-hedge may be placed behind the thorns, 
 much nearer than a paling, as from the breadth 
 of its top, and the sharpness of its spines, no 
 beast can, with impunity, reach over it to bite 
 the twigs of the young hedge." 
 
 HEDGE-BILL. See Hedge. 
 
 HEDGE-BIRDS. Birds which frequent hedges, 
 and are more or less accused of injuring farm 
 crops. Hedges are very generally regarded in 
 France and other parts of Continental Europe as 
 far more advantageous to birds than to farmers, 
 and are therefore denounced as a display of 
 British folly ; and even in many parts of Britain, 
 they are sometimes viewed as rather doubtful 
 benefits, — averting evil by sheltering from winds, 
 but inflicting it by affording harbourage to birds. 
 But though some hedge-birds undoubtedly prey 
 upon farm crops, others do very little harm to 
 them, and many do none whatever; and the 
 really destructive ought, in common sense, to be 
 distinguished from the harmless. " It would be 
 as preposterous," remarks a periodical writer, 
 " to accuse the wrens and redbreasts about a 
 garden of feeding on the flowers or the pot-herbs, 
 — or the lapwings or cuckoos on a farm, of grub- 
 bing up the young wheat or devouring the seed 
 of newly sown barley, merely because they are 
 found there, — as it would be to accuse a hare of 
 hunting and worrying sheep, or a fox of stealing 
 the nest-straw of the poultry-house for a similar 
 reason. Yet are accusations equally erroneous 
 very commonly made by farmers and gardeners, 
 very well informed in other respects, but unac- 
 quainted with their habits and peculiar food, 
 against the wild birds found in fields and gar- 
 dens," Birds, indeed, have a far different rela- 
 tion to the fruit-garden and to the orchard than 
 to the farm ; and some are pests to the former 
 which do little or no injury to the latter; but, in 
 the aggregate, they are quite unduly accused in 
 reference to fruit-gardens, and enormously so in 
 reference to farms. We shall, in this article, 
 
HEDGE-BIRDS. 
 
 676 
 
 HEDGE-BIRDS 
 
 take a brief view of the most common species 
 which affect the interests of the farmer ; and 
 shall notice first some which do him nothing but 
 good, next some which do him both good and 
 harm, and next some which do him little or 
 nothing but harm. 
 
 The wood- wren, Sylvia sibilatrix, the chiff- 
 chaff, Sylvia loquax, and the hay -bird or willow- 
 wren, Sylvia fitis, feed on aphides, larvas, and 
 small flies ; and when plentiful, they do the far- 
 mer great service by thinning, on their first ap- 
 pearance, wheat -flies, blue -dolphins, hop -flies, 
 and cabbage, turnip, bean, and pea aphides. Yet 
 some farmers ignorantly denounce these useful 
 birds; and many gardeners regard them with 
 bitter prejudice and strong dislike. The hay- 
 bird, in particular, is opprobriously called, in 
 some parts of England, the cherry-chopper ; but 
 though often seen on cherry - trees, picking 
 among the fruit, it does no harm to the cherries, 
 but is wholly employed in eating up the destruc- 
 tive cherry aphis. The wood-wren principally 
 frequents tall trees in hedge-rows, and other tall 
 trees in their neighbourhood ; and the hay-bird 
 frequents small coppices, copsewood hedges, 
 shrubberies, bushy gardens, and strawberry 
 plantations. " The hay -bird," says Mr. Knapp, 
 " comes in company with his travelling friends, 
 not as a partaker of their plunder, appearing 
 never to abandon his appetite for insect food. 
 The species may change with the season; but 
 still it is animal. He glides about our rows of 
 pease, peeps under the leaves of fruit-trees for 
 aphides and moths, continuing this harmless 
 pursuit until the cold mornings of autumn drive 
 him to milder regions." 
 
 The yellow wagtail, Motacilla /lava, and other 
 species bearing the popular name of wagtails, 
 feed wholly on insects, particularly gnats, midges, 
 and other tormentors of cattle. They even 
 pounce close on the bodies of cattle in the fields, 
 eating the flies which settle on their limbs, and 
 probably finding worms and grubs which are 
 roused by the trampling of their feet ; and they 
 also follow the plough to pick up the grubs and 
 wireworms which are turned up in the furrows, 
 and they thus do good to both the stock and 
 the crops of the farmer. These birds may be 
 observed in corn-fields as often as most species ; 
 but they run about drains and furrows more 
 commonly than about hedges. 
 
 The wheat -ear, Saxicola oenanthe, feeds on 
 field-infesting insects, serves the farmer without 
 eating any portion of his crops, and makes its 
 nest in heaps of small boulders, and in similar 
 situations about fields. 
 
 The stone-chat, Motacilla rubecula, has similar 
 habits to the wheat-ear; and indeed gives its 
 name, or at least the equivalent one of " stane- 
 chat," to the latter bird throughout Scotland. 
 It feeds on insects and slugs ; and builds near 
 the ground in the woods. 
 
 The flayer, butcher-bird, or Jack Baker, La- 
 nius collurio, feeds principally on flies and bee- 
 tles, and is particularly fond of the breeze-flies 
 which torment cattle; it feeds sometimes on 
 wasps and bees, and may occasionally make a 
 little inroad upon an apiary ; and when hungry 
 and ill-provided, it attacks field-mice, lizards, 
 and small birds, and transfixes them, as it does 
 also humble bees, on a thorn, and tears them in 
 pieces. 
 
 Other hedge - birds might be named, which 
 devour neither buds, seeds, nor fruits, and which 
 feed either wholly or chiefly on insects, and 
 therefore confer service on the farmer, — particu- 
 larly the night-jar, the sedge-bird, the wry -neck, 
 the creeper, and the bottle-tit. 
 
 The hedge-sparrow or dunnock, Accentor mo- 
 dularise occasionally eats almost any nutritious 
 substance which comes in its way, yet, by the 
 very form of its bill, is decidedly an insect-eating 
 bird. "When wild," says Bechstein, "the great 
 varieties of things which serve it for food pre- 
 vent its ever being at a loss throughout the year. 
 It is equally fond of small insects, and worms, 
 and small seeds. In spring, it feeds on flies, 
 caterpillars, grubs, and maggots, which it seeks 
 for in the hedges, bushes, and in the earth ; in 
 summer, it feeds chiefly on caterpillars ; in au- 
 tumn, on seeds of all kinds, and elder-berries ; 
 and in winter, when the snow has covered all 
 seeds, it has recourse to insects hid in the creeks 
 and crevices of walls and trees." It probably 
 does incomparably more good by destroying 
 noxious insects than harm by eating seeds and 
 fruits; and though generally regarded by the 
 farmer as a great destroyer, it really levies but 
 very slight contributions, even in autumn, upon 
 any useful vegetation. ' It occasionally indeed 
 feeds on oats, yet never when it can procure in- 
 sects or wild berries. 
 
 The common or European wren, Troglodytes 
 vulgaris, feeds occasionally on elder-berries and 
 small seeds, but principally on gnats and small 
 beetles. It frequents hedges, farm-yards, walls, 
 and piles of wood, flits hither and thither among 
 the branches of free-growing or neglected hedges, 
 and delights in such spreading and low-growing 
 branches of trees as overhang water, and afford 
 it opportunities of catching gnats and other 
 night-moving aquatic insects. 
 
 The red -breast or robin, Erythaca rubecida, 
 feeds its young in a great degree upon fruit; 
 and itself occasionally eats fruit in summer, and 
 vegetable substances in winter; yet, as is fully 
 apparent from its ungregarious habits, it is natu- 
 rally and predominantly an insectivorous bird. 
 
 The green-bird or green-linnet, Loxia chloris, 
 bites off the heads of seeding lettuces and seeding 
 cabbages, — eats almost all sorts of ripe or ripening 
 seeds, particularly those of flax, and of most of 
 the cultivated brassicas, makes free with ripen- 
 ing oats and wheat in the vicinity of hedges and 
 
HEDGE-BIRDS. 
 
 677 
 
 HEDGE-BIRDS. 
 
 woods, — picks up a considerable or even large 
 portion of the grains of sown wheat throughout 
 patches of a field, — and commits great depreda- 
 tions in the disbudding of currant-bushes, apple- 
 trees, lilacs, and almost all other sorts of fruiting 
 and flowering ligneous plants. It is therefore an 
 indiscriminate pest ; and, in consequence of being 
 a very common frequenter of hedges in most 
 parts of the kingdom, it is exceedingly destruc- 
 tive. It occasionally confers a little advantage 
 by eating up the seeds of groundsel, chickweed, 
 and other common weeds ; but it seldom if ever 
 touches these when it can obtain the seeds of 
 cultivated plants. The only protections from it 
 are bird-lime and the gun, and covering up with 
 the net. 
 
 The yellow-hammer, yoyt, yellow-yoyt, or yol- 
 dren, Emberiza citrinella, is much more abun- 
 dant, and perhaps considerably more destructive, 
 than the green-bird; and it is everywhere dis- 
 liked, and in some places superstitiously abhor- 
 red, and in a few called " the Devil's bird," pro- 
 bably on account of its destructive habits. It 
 feeds its young entirely on caterpillars and ima- 
 go-insects, and so far does good service ; but, in 
 its mature state, it feeds only on seeds, and has 
 a great preference for some of the most valuable 
 ones on the farm. Yellow-hammers may be seen 
 very busily picking up the grain of oats, spring- 
 wheat, and other vernal-sown cereals, from the 
 moment they are sown till the period of their 
 sprouting or brairding ; they combine with spar- 
 rows, buntings, and other plunderers, about the 
 time of the ripening of the corn-crops, to make 
 great devastation upon the corn-ears along the 
 skirts of the fields immediately flanking the hed- 
 ges ; they afterwards subsist by frequenting and 
 gleaning the stubbles; and after the winter- 
 wheat is sown, they live for some weeks on such 
 grains of it as are not buried beyond their reach. 
 
 The reed -bunting or black bonnet, Emberiza shce- 
 mcylus, frequents low bushes on stock-farms and 
 by the side of moors ; and commits great depre- 
 dations upon patches of oats in bleak and upland 
 situations, yet feeds principally on the seeds of 
 the wild phsenogams of the moors and marshes. 
 
 The corn-bunting or stocking-weaver, Ember- 
 iza miliaria, frequents trees and hedges by the 
 side of meadows, and perches itself for hours to- 
 gether on the summit of tall bushes or low trees 
 in the immediate vicinity of farmeries ; and it 
 feeds wholly on the seeds of cultivated crops, 
 and is a great destroyer. In spring, it devours 
 considerable quantities of newly-sown seed-corn ; 
 in early autumn, it plunders the ripening seeds 
 of beans, pease, oats, wheat, and other field crops ; 
 in late autumn or early winter, it picks up the 
 grain of winter wheat ; and during winter, it 
 feeds on such seeds as it can find on stubble 
 lands, and on whatever plunder it can seize with- 
 in the stack-yard. 
 
 The sky-lark or laverock, Alauda arvensis, 
 
 though not a hedge-bird, and unfitted by tne 
 structure of its feet to perch on bushes, may be 
 mentioned in this place as a bird of the same 
 habits as the corn-bunting, but as much more 
 numerous, and as therefore committing far great- 
 er plunder both upon newly-sown corn and upon 
 ripening field crops. 
 
 The wood -lark, Alauda arborea, frequents 
 heaths, commons, and hedges ; partially feeds on 
 ripening grain in the vicinity of woods, coppices, 
 and heathy thickets ; and occasionally takes a 
 dinner out of the seed-corn of spring oats and 
 winter wheat on farms of the mixed husbandry. 
 
 The linnet or lintie, Fringilla cannabina, Li- 
 nota cannabina, or Linaria cannabina, is in the 
 rare predicament of perpetrating vastly more 
 mischief than is commonly ascribed to it. It 
 commits considerable depredations upon seeding 
 field turnip-plants and upon newly-sown field 
 turnip-grounds ; it feeds on standing corn from 
 the commencement of its whitening till it is cart- 
 ed from the field; and it sometimes makes so 
 great a spoliation of newly-sown winter wheat, 
 that the braird is scarcely worth preserving ; and 
 when it perpetrates this last and worst kind of 
 injury, the farmer, in the great majority of in- 
 stances, does not once suspect the real depreda- 
 tor, but falsely aocuses wire-worms, grubs, or 
 rooks. A scare-crow frightens the linnet from a 
 garden ; but boys require to be employed at the 
 most important seasons, to frighten it from fields. 
 
 The common sparrow or house-sparrow, Paser 
 domesticus, Fringilla domestica, or Pyrgita do- 
 mestica, is one of the best known and most mis- 
 chievous of the small birds of Britain. It infests 
 farm-steads and other inhabited places in great 
 numbers, and is distinguished by greed and 
 audacity. It builds under the eaves of tiles, in 
 crevices or holes of walls, in the bore of old 
 water pipes, and in any other small cavities 
 which contain space enough for the hay and 
 feathers which form the nest. The young are 
 fed for a time with soft fruits, young vegetables, 
 and various kinds of larvse and insects ; but the 
 full-grown birds are general devastators of both 
 the farm and the garden ; and, though believed 
 by some naturalists to do quite as much good by 
 destroying weeds and insects as harm by destroy- 
 ing crops and fruits, they are justly regarded by 
 most gardeners and by nearly all observing far- 
 mers as pests of the same class with the most 
 noxious vermin. Good methods of destroying 
 sparrows, therefore, rank as usefully in practice 
 as good methods of destroying rats and mice. 
 One effectual mode of diminishing their num- 
 bers is to catch them in a net at night when 
 they roost by whole companies in ricks and 
 stacks, or in a large trap net with a decoy bird. 
 Many may be killed at a single shot by scatter- 
 ing corn in a long train, and firing at them while 
 feeding. Count Buffon having been told that if 
 sulphur were smoked under trees where the 
 
HEIFER. 
 
 6 
 
 78 
 
 HEMP. 
 
 sparrows sleep at night, they would be suffo- 
 cated and drop dead, he tried the experiment, 
 but without success, though he took much pains 
 and was interested in the issue, as he could not 
 get them driven from the neighbourhood of his 
 voleries. Another experimenter, imagining that 
 the sparrows might readily be poisoned, mixed 
 some arsenic with oatmeal, and strewed it in the 
 paths between the beds of seedlings, which they 
 were daily devouring, but they never touched 
 the poison, and his experiment was as unsuc- 
 cessful as that of Buffon's with the sulphur. 
 In the farm-yard, or by the side of corn-fields, 
 or in other situations where sparrows alight 
 in large numbers, and make great depredations 
 upon corn or vegetables, they may readily be 
 thinned by various easy methods of poisoning, 
 such as steeping some wheat in a decoction of 
 nux vomica, and scattering it on or near the 
 spots which they frequent. 
 
 PIEDGER. See Hedge and Farm-Servants. 
 
 HEFTING. See Udder. 
 
 HEIFER. A young female of the ox species. 
 She bears the name of heifer till her fourth 
 year ; and she is thenceforth called a cow. See 
 the articles Cow and Calf. 
 
 HELM. Straw prepared for thatching. 
 
 HEMLOCK, — botanically Conium maculatitm. 
 A perennial-rooted herbaceous plant, belonging 
 to the umbelliferous tribe, and commonly attain- 
 ing a height of about 4 or 5 feet, and blooming 
 in June and July. It is one of the most danger- 
 ous wild plants of Britain, but at the same time 
 possesses valuable medicinal properties. It grows 
 wild among rubbish, by road-sides, under hedges, 
 and on waste grounds ; and is particularly abun- 
 dant in the vicinity of many towns and villages. 
 It possesses a sufficient resemblance to anise, 
 caraway, coriander, cumin, fennel, dill, angelica, 
 and some other hardy, economical, umbelliferous 
 plants to be readily mistaken for them by the 
 ignorant ; yet it may easily be distinguished, not 
 only from them but from almost all other um- 
 belliferous plants, by its large and spotted stem, 
 by its dark and shining lower leaves, and by the 
 disgusting odour which it emits when bruised, 
 — somewhat similar to that of cat's urine. An 
 accidental poisoning with it, produces sickness, 
 vertigo, delirium, stupor, dilatation of the pupils, 
 and convulsions, and is best combated first by 
 administering doses of vinegar, and next by 
 bleeding and purging. Cattle, when first turned 
 out to pasture in spring, after being shut up 
 during winter in the farm-yard, are liable to eat 
 hemlock, and to be seriously damaged or even 
 killed by it ; but they somewhat obscurely show 
 the symptoms of being poisoned, and either dis- 
 play a stupor which is mistaken for stomach- 
 disease, or an excitement and a furor which are 
 mistaken for madness. — Hemlock, as a medicine, 
 acts principally as a powerful narcotic. In vete- 
 rinary practice, it is sometimes used for affec- 
 
 tions of the chest, but does not act so well as 
 digitalis or veratrum. 
 
 HEMP, — botanically Cannabis. A genus of 
 hardy, cultivated, annual plants, of the nettle 
 family. It is one of the very few dioecious gen- 
 era in cultivation, producing the male flowers of 
 a species on different plants from the female ones, 
 and belonging to the Linnaean order Dioecia i 
 Pentandria. Its male flowers have a five-parted 
 calyx ; and its female flowers are five-leaved, and 
 envelop a two-valved and nut-like seed, which 
 opens at the sides. 
 
 Species. — The common hemp, Cannabis sativa, 
 is supposed to have originally been introduced 
 to Europe from India ; and has long been known 
 in Britain and in very many other civilized coun- 
 tries of the world. Its stem is erect, strong, and 
 branching, and varies in height from 3 to 15 
 feet, according to soil, culture, and climate, — but 
 in Britain is usually about 6 feet high ; its leaves 
 are lobed, and often quinquifid ; and its flowers 
 have a greenish-yellow colour, and bloom in June 
 and July. — The Indian species or Indian tobac- 
 co, Cannabis indica, was introduced nearly 50 
 years ago from India. It has a height of about 
 20 inches, and carries green flowers in August 
 and September. — The African hemp grows wild 
 over many parts of Senegambia ; and was spe- 
 cially introduced to the notice of the Highland 
 Society, about 16 years ago, by Mr. Hunter, the 
 Colonial Secretary to the settlements on the \ 
 Gambia ; and is said, in a brief notice of it in 
 the Society's Transactions, to " promise to be- 
 come an object of great importance." " It ap- 
 pears," says the notice, " to be the inner bark of 
 some ligneous vegetable. The sample laid before , 
 the Society is upwards of 6 feet in length, the 
 fibres running entire the whole length ; the colour 
 is yellowish-white, with a slight gloss ; the fibres 
 are straight, somewhat rigid, of less tenuity than 
 those of flax, and rather inferior in tenacity, al- 
 though possessed of considerable strength." — 
 But the only species to which we shall refer in 
 the subsequent sections is the common one. 
 
 History. — Hemp has been cultivated, from 
 time immemorial, in Bengal, and in other parts 
 of the world ; and it occurs in Persia, Egypt, 
 China, Canada, Russia, Nova Scotia, and many 
 other countries. It has very long been culti- 
 vated in the East, for the preparation of an in- 
 toxicating drink ; and it has for ages been culti- 
 vated in many parts of Europe for the manufac- 
 ture of cordage and of woven fabrics. It is grown, 
 in amazing quantities, throughout the proper 
 territories of Russia, and in those parts of Po- 
 land which are now within the Russian bound- 
 aries. " Amongst the Russian hemp imported 
 into this country," said Kauffman long ago in 
 his Dictionary of Merchandise, " the Riga de- 
 serves the preference, which, according to the 
 quality, is divided into rhyne, out-shot, pass, 
 and codilla hemp. Next follows the importation 
 
HEMP. 
 
 6 
 
 79 
 
 HEMP. 
 
 from St. Petersburg, consisting of clean out-shot, 
 half clean, and codilla. There is also an inferior 
 kind of hemp coming from Konigsberg, and di- 
 vided into rhyne and schoken hemp. The Ita- 
 lian known in England by the name of Bologna 
 hemp, is of very prime quality, but comes too 
 dear for the consumption of the northern parts 
 ! of Europe." 
 
 In the 14th and loth centuries, hemp was cul- 
 tivated on almost every farm in the Lowlands of 
 Scotland ; and so late as the former half of last 
 century, a small quantity of it was grown in the 
 rick-yard or some other part of every farm in 
 the south-eastern districts of Scotland. "The 
 servants and families of the farmers employed 
 their winter-evenings round the fire in peeling 
 it. In those days,, the farmers had all their rude 
 implements of husbandry made at home ; where 
 likewise they manufactured their whole £ graith' 
 or harness, giving no employment whatever to 
 the saddler or the collar-maker. All those things 
 belonging to working-cattle, which are now made 
 of leather, were then made of plaited hemp, such 
 as breechings, back-bands, belly-bands, and the 
 like. Even the traces for ploughs and carts, 
 now universally of iron-chains, were then made 
 of hempen ropes. The collars were composed of 
 straw-ropes. Instead of bridles, hempen ' teth- 
 ers,' often with wooden cheeks, served the farm- 
 ers even for riding to church and market ; and 
 instead of saddles, they were contented with a 
 kind of hempen bags, stuffed with straw, called 
 ' sodds ; ' while a different shape of the same ma- 
 terials, called ( sunks,' served to preserve the 
 horses' backs in carrying loads. Even the ridge 
 chain, which supports the weight of a cart over 
 the back of the shaft-horse in a cart, was then 
 termed a £ rig-woody,' being composed of a ' withy' 
 or twisted branch of a tree," But the improved 
 state of civilization, the advanced condition of 
 manufactures, and the great extent and enter- 
 prise of commerce, have completely upset all 
 reasons for cultivating hemp for home consump- 
 tion on farms, and even neutralized all the main 
 reasons for cultivating it in rotations of crops in 
 the fields, for the sale of its fibre and seeds to 
 the merchant. It is now very rarely cultivated 
 in Scotland ; it is very seldom raised, in any 
 considerable quantity, in even the flax-growing 
 and most favourable districts of Ireland ; and, as 
 a British agricultural plant of anything like 
 consequence, it occurs only, or at least chiefly, 
 in some districts of Lincolnshire, Cambridge- 
 shire, and Suffolk. 
 
 Culture. — The soils suitable for hemp may be 
 either sandy, gravelly, clayey, or peaty ; but they 
 must be deep and fertile, and ought to contain 
 a comparatively large proportion of humus. The 
 land must be deeply ploughed, finely pulverized, 
 and free from root-weeds. When hemp succeeds 
 a grain crop, the land, in most instances, will 
 require three ploughings ; one of which ought 
 to be given before winter, in order that the soil 
 
 may be pulverized and decomposed by the action 
 of air and frost and moisture. Hemp may very 
 properly occur between grass and oats, in a rota- 
 tion of successively fallow, wheat, grasses, hemp, 
 and oats ; or it may advantageously occur in any 
 part of a rotation instead of flax ; and as it is 
 more cleaning than that crop, it is even prefer- 
 able for succeeding oats or wheat on foul land. 
 Hemp, like flax, is very scourging when grown 
 for seeds, but quite non-exhausting when no- 
 thing of it is carried away from the field except 
 the fibre; so that, in the former case, it can 
 be profitably raised in succession on the same 
 ground only with the aid of powerful manuring, 
 — and in the latter, it may be luxuriantly grown 
 for a series of years with very little manure or 
 without any whatever. See the article Flax. 
 
 The best season for sowing hemp, in the southern 
 districts of England, is as soon as possible after 
 the spring frosts have ceased ; and in the north of 
 England, the Lowlands of Scotland, and most of 
 Ireland, about the beginning of May. The seed 
 must be new and of good quality, and is known 
 to be proper for sowing when it feels heavy in 
 the hand, and has a bright and shining colour. 
 The quantity varies from two to three bushels ; 
 and ought to be a minimum when a strong 
 fibre, fit for the manufacture of very powerful 
 ropes, is wanted, and a maximum when a slender 
 fibre suitable for woven fabrics, and only a de- 
 gree or two coarser than coarse flax, is required; 
 but, in consequence of the crop being very liable 
 to injury when thickly sown, the proper quantity 
 may be stated, on the average, at something be- 
 tween 2 and 2^ bushels. The seed is generally 
 sown broadcast, and lightly harrowed in ; and as 
 the plants grow very rapidly, and soon defy all 
 attempts at weeding, they are peculiarly adapted 
 to the broadcast method on any properly cleaned 
 land; yet they may properly enough be raised 
 in drills at small distances, and have even been 
 very productive, on the Hebridean island of 
 Islay, in drills at distances of about 32 inches. 
 The dioecious nature of the plant, whenever seed 
 is the object of the crop, renders it peculiarly 
 necessary that the male plants, containing the 
 fecundating pollen, and the female plants pro- 
 ducing the seeds, and sometimes called frimble 
 hemp, should grow in a state of thorough and 
 equable intermixture. A crop on clean land, 
 whether broadcast or in drills, requires no at- 
 tention between the time of sowing and that 
 of pulling; but a crop on foul land, ought, at 
 least once, to be carefully cleared from thistles, 
 docks, and other strong weeds by means of the 
 weed-hooks. 
 
 Harvesting. — Hemp, like flax, is taken out of 
 the ground by pulling. When it is grown ex- 
 clusively for sake of the fibre, the whole crop, 
 without any distinction being made between the 
 male and the female plants, is pulled when in 
 flower. But when it is grown for sake of the 
 seeds as well as of the fibre, the male plants are 
 
680 
 
 HEMP. 
 
 pulled about four or five weeks before the female 
 plants ; for as soon as the seeds begin to form 
 upon the female plants, the male plants have 
 fully accomplished all the purposes of fecunda- 
 tion, and are in a condition of perfect readiness 
 to yield up a maximum of fibre, — and the female 
 plants must remain four or five weeks longer to 
 bring their seeds to maturity. The male plants 
 carry numerous flowers, and are generally more 
 delicate than the female plants; the numerous 
 branches, which deflect from their stems, termi- 
 nate in slender spikes ; and the flowers, after ex- 
 panding, hang pendently, in purplish -coloured 
 clusters, from the leaves. The female plants, on 
 the other hand, terminate in tufts ; their leaves 
 are somewhat large ; and their seed is borne along 
 the stem and hid among the foliage. The puller, 
 therefore, easily distinguishes the male plants 
 from the female ones ; and, when taking up the 
 former, he walks in the furrows, reaches across 
 the half of each of the adjoining ridges, and pulls 
 up and extricates the male plants with sufficient 
 care to avoid inflicting any injury on the female 
 plants. The crop of male plants is simply tied 
 up in small parcels ; but the crop of female ones 
 is bound up in sheaves and set in stooks or 
 against a wall till it dry in the same manner as 
 a corn crop, — and it is then either thrashed on 
 cloths in the field or taken home to the barn. 
 
 Dressing. — The watering, the grassing, and 
 the bruising of hemp closely resemble the same 
 operations on flax; but the duration of the 
 watering is much shorter ; and the male plants 
 are watered and dressed before the female ones, 
 — the former most commonly in the same sea- 
 son in which they are pulled, and the latter 
 frequently stacked till the following spring or 
 summer. Yet in some places, hemp, in technical 
 phrase, is only " dew ripened" or "dew-rotted ; " 
 while, in others, it is watered by steeping or 
 "water-rotted." But the latter is, in all re- 
 spects, the better method, — more expeditious in 
 itself, and tending to shorten the period of grass- 
 ing, and to lessen the severities and risk of 
 breaking, scratching, and bleaching. The bundles 
 or sheaves ought to be quite covered with the 
 water of the pool, but must not be pressed against 
 the bottom. Whenever the fibrous rind is suf- 
 ficiently softened to be easily separable from 
 " the boon," or heartstalk, the plants ought to 
 be removed from the water, — and in warm wea- 
 ther, this will usually occur in the course of from 
 four to six days ; but, in consequence of the ten- 
 dency of over-steeping to injure the texture and 
 strength of the fibres, or absolutely to rot them, 
 too little steeping is far safer than too much. 
 
 The grassing ought to be effected on a clean 
 short sward, in a situation sheltered from high 
 winds, and not liable to be flooded ; and it ex- 
 tends through a period of from two to five weeks, 
 according to the degree in which it has been 
 watered, and to the state of the weather. The 
 hemp is grassed till, after frequent trial, the 
 
 fibrous part becomes easily separable ; it ought, 
 throughout the whole period, to be occasionally 
 turned ; and it should afterwards be allowed to 
 lie for some time before being lifted. " Immedi- 
 ately after watering," says the General Report of 
 Scotland, " it is dried, and then laid up to sweat 
 for five or seven weeks, which causes it to work 
 the more easily in the after parts of its prepara- 
 tion; and after being sufficiently grassed, the 
 hemp is tied up again into sheaves or bundles as 
 before, and again dried. For such hemp as is 
 meant for ropes and other coarse articles of 
 manufacture, the grassing process is seldom used 
 in Russia or Poland. 
 
 In the breaking or bruising of hemp, care 
 must be used not to cut or tear it, and therefore 
 the handfuls of it must be frequently turned and 
 shifted under the brake. The portion which 
 breaks off in the process of bruising is techni- 
 cally called shorts, and is commonly estimated 
 to be nearly half the value of the hemp. — A 
 machine was, a considerable number of years ago, 
 invented by Mr. Daniel Duff of Dundee, for free- 
 ing hemp-fibre from the glutinous matter which 
 adheres to it, and rendering it somewhat similar 
 in fineness to the fibre of flax ; and another 
 machine for the same purpose, was, a few years 
 later, invented and patented by Mr. Alexander 
 Shanks of Arbroath. The Dundee Courier thus 
 notices the latter : " It is composed of two metal 
 plates of a peculiar construction, supported by 
 springs to modulate the compressure ; and the 
 hemp, in passing through these plates, undergoes 
 a friction from the action of the plates, and after 
 passing through several rollers, it leaves the 
 machine free of the glutinous matter, and of a 
 soft delicate fibre. When thus prepared, and 
 heckled, it is equal to the finest flax, and may 
 be spun and applied to the same purposes. The 
 expense attending the process of preparation is 
 very trifling, the machine being moved by steam 
 power (which may be borrowed from any work 
 where there is a steam engine), and a boy may 
 attend and feed the machine in its operations. 
 The machine is so contrived that the friction does 
 not cut or injure the fibre, but simply removes 
 the glutinous matter adhering to the hemp in its 
 original state, and reduces it to a fine soft fibre." 
 Many of the manufacturers of Forfarshire, how- 
 ever, early formed an opinion that hemp pre- 
 pared by this machine lost as much in strength 
 as it appeared to have gained in fineness of fibre. 
 
 Produce and Uses. — The produce of hemp fibre 
 usually varies from 4 to 6 cwt. per acre ; and the 
 produce of seed is commonly from ten to twelve 
 bushels, and sometimes very much more. 
 
 Hemp is used for making canvass and all kinds 
 of cordage ; and is well-adapted for these pur- 
 poses by the great elasticity of its fibre. It is 
 also used for the manufacture of coarse towels, 
 coarse table-cloths, and other coarse fabrics suited 
 to domestic economy; and the finer kinds of it 
 are employed for making many sorts of cloths to 
 
HEN. 
 
 681 
 
 HIDE-BOUND. 
 
 serve as substitutes for linens. Hemp fabrics 
 are incomparably stronger and more durable 
 than flax ones ; they are equally susceptible of 
 bleaching ; and they possess the singular recom- 
 mendation of improving in colour by wearing, 
 while flax fabrics become dusky and dull. 
 
 Growing hemp possesses the remarkable pro- 
 perty of killing caterpillars and imago -insects 
 which feed on cabbages and other vegetables ; 
 and therefore is often raised, on Continental 
 Europe, in belts round gardens and fields, with 
 the main view of protecting cultivated vegetables 
 from injury. — The refuse of hemp dressings, 
 technically called " hemp sheaves," are used as 
 fuel. — The leaves of hemp, in India, are fre- 
 quently added to tobacco and smoked along with 
 it to increase its narcotic power ; and are some- 
 times administered in cases of diarrhoea; and 
 are mixed up with turmeric, onions, and warm 
 gingilie oil, as an application for painful swell- 
 ings.— The seeds in Russia and Poland are bruised 
 or roasted, and mixed with salt, and eaten on 
 bread. — An oil, yielded by the seeds, is used by 
 painters, — is limpid, odourless, and suitable for 
 burning in house-lamps, — and is used, in various 
 parts of Continental Europe, and particularly in 
 Russia, in culinary preparations, or as a sauce 
 and condiment in food. — Transactions of the 
 Highland Society. — Quarterly Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — Mill's Husbandry. — Ainslie's Materia 
 Medica of Hindostan. — Anderson's Commercial 
 Dictionary. — Loudon's Works. — Lawson's Agri- 
 culturist's Manual. — Sir John Sinclair's General 
 Report of Scotland. — Sproide's Treatise on Agri- 
 culture. — Knowledge Society's Farmer's Series. — 
 Society of Gentlemen' s Complete Farmer. — Lov)'s 
 Elements of A griculture. 
 
 HEN. The female of the domestic cock. See 
 the articles Cock, Poultry, and Egg. 
 
 HERBAGE. Any green, succulent foliage, 
 whether gramineous, leguminous, or otherwise, 
 which forms a natural food of sheep and cattle, 
 or can constitute any part of pasture. 
 
 HERD. A number of grazing animals, feed- 
 ing on one pasture, housed on one farm, or con- 
 gregated under one owner. The name herd is 
 often used, in Scotland and the north of Eng- 
 land, in the sense of herdsman. 
 
 HERDSMAN. A person who attends a herd 
 of cattle. He drives them to their pasture, re- 
 strains them within certain limits, prevents them 
 from hurting one another, observes their condi- 
 tion as to disease or health, and exercises a 
 general care over them during the periods of 
 their absence from the farm-yard. A boy or 
 girl is usually employed to tend a small flock ; 
 and an elderly man to tend a large one. But 
 since the enclosing of lands became general, 
 herdsmen of any kind are seldom required ex- 
 cept on upland or moorish farms. 
 
 HERRING. A well known edible soft-finned 
 fish, abounding in the British seas. Herrings 
 
 have, in some rare instances, been caught in 
 such enormous quantities, as to have been spread 
 on the fields, in their whole state, for manure. 
 But such an use of them is a wasteful and wicked 
 abuse of the bounties of Divine Providence, and 
 even a very short-sighted piece of mere ordinary 
 policy ; for it can occur only when a community 
 of herrings spawn unusually near the shore, and 
 is certain to be followed for several years by a 
 comparative scarcity in the fishery. Both the re- 
 fuse of fresh herrings and the brine of salt her- 
 rings, however, are directly available for manure, 
 and possess a highly fertilizing power. See the 
 articles Fish and Brine. " The herring fishery 
 at Peterhead," says the author of a Prize Essay 
 in the Highland Society's Transactions, "has 
 added much to the Agricultural prosperity of the 
 adjoining districts. It has been established that 
 the refuse of herrings is equal to any other man- 
 ure hitherto made use of; and it may be carried 
 to a considerable distance from the coast at little 
 expense. The refuse of the herrings caught by 
 one boat will, along with the dog-fish, on an 
 average, be sufficient manure for two acres of 
 land." A kind of cake is made in Sweden by the 
 herring-oil manufacturers, and is regarded by 
 the farmers of that country as a very valuable \ 
 and efficient manure ; and the herring refuse of 
 many of the British fisheries, particularly of 
 those adjacent to well-farmed districts, is now 
 very generally appreciated as a fertilizer. 
 
 HIDE. The skin of a cow, an ox, a horse, or j 
 any other large quadruped. The hides of cattle 
 of good breeds are thin, moveable, mellow, and 
 well-clothed with fine soft hair, yet not so loose 
 as to offer no resistance to the touch, nor so thin 
 as to indicate want of hardiness of constitution. 
 See the articles Cattle and Breeding. 
 
 HIDE-BOUND. A diseased condition of the 
 skin of horses and cattle. The hide fails to pos- 
 sess the oily secretion which is requisite to keep 
 it soft and mellow ; it becomes hard, dry, and 
 unyielding ; it appears as if glued firm to the 
 muscles and the bones ; and it suffers such a re- 
 fractoriness of the minute scales of its cuticle, 
 that the hair is irregularly disposed, and forms a 
 rough, ragged, staring coat. Yet hide-bound is ' 
 not properly a disease itself, but rather the symp- ! 
 torn of any one of many diseases. It results from 
 grease, farcy, founder, chronic cough, worms, 
 prolonged glanders, poor diet, all sorts of diseases 
 of the digestive organs, and various disorders of 
 obscure seat or ill-defined character. The grand 
 remedy for it, of course, is to attack and over- i 
 throw the disease which causes it. But when 
 that disease cannot be discovered, or even some- i 
 times as an accompaniment to the main treat- J 
 ment when the disease is quite apparent, a few 
 mashes, a little physic, an antimonial alterative 
 and regularly repeated frictions are often success- 
 ful in removing hide-bound. An instance of em- 
 pirical treatment of hide -bound in a horse is 
 
HIDE OF LAND. 
 
 682 
 
 HIGH FARMING. 
 
 mentioned by White, which strikingly illustrates 
 the combined ignorance and barbarity of farrier- 
 quacks : — " The head and legs of the horse having 
 been secured, two men, one on each side, pulled 
 the hide from the ribs in about fifty places with 
 pincers !" 
 
 HIDE OF LAND. An ancient measure of 
 arable ground. It comprised as much land as 
 could be ploughed in one year with one plough 
 and team ; and, therefore, was sometimes called 
 a ploughland. It is variously estimated at ^60, 
 80, and 100 acres. The distribution of England 
 into ploughlands or hides of land was very an- 
 cient, and is mentioned in the laws of Ina ; and 
 a tax called hideage was imposed by Henry I. in 
 order to raise a dowry for his daughter, and con- 
 sisted in the exaction of three shillings for every 
 hide of land. 
 
 HIGH FARMING. The liberal expenditure 
 of manure and tillage in the ordinary course of 
 cultivation. It professes to do for the soil what 
 high feeding does for stock, — to put it into the 
 richest condition, and to raise its produce to a 
 maximum in both quantity and quality. Its na- 
 ture will be well illustrated by the detail of a 
 case of it which has been the subject of great 
 recent discussion, — the case of the farm of Auch- 
 ness in Wigtonshire ; and this detail we shall give 
 in the words of the Journal of Agriculture : — 
 
 " Ordinary farming for many years allowed 12 
 tons of farm-yard manure to the acre to raise a 
 crop of turnips ; it increased the quantity to 15 
 tons, and more recently it has had the liberality 
 to give 3 tons of guano in addition to the 15 of 
 manure. The result generally is the production 
 of turnips to the amount of 20 tons the acre; 
 and this manuring is restricted to once in the 
 five years. The high farming practised by Mr. 
 M'Culloch at Auchness, affords 40 loads or 30 
 tons to the acre for the green crops, with 3 cwt. 
 of guano, and from 10 to 15 bushels of bone-dust. 
 The farm-yard manure is mixed in alternate 
 layers with 2,000 loads of peat-moss which have 
 been long exposed to the air, and 500 loads of 
 sea-ware, and ,£250 worth of guano and bone- 
 dust, purchased every year. Besides this manur- 
 ing of the fallow division, the oats and wheat are 
 top-dressed with 2 cwt. of guano. The extent of 
 ground from which the Italian ryegrass and clover 
 have been mown in the morning is also top- 
 dressed every afternoon out of the urine tank. 
 And about £270 worth of animal food — as hay, 
 linseed, beans — are purchased every year. The 
 particular results of this liberal management are 
 the doubling of the turnip crop, the doubling of 
 the oat-crop, the increasing of the wheat crop 
 from 20 to 36 bushels on the acre, a large in- 
 crease on the potato crop, and the mowing of the 
 soiling grass from three to four times every year. 
 The former stock of the farm consisted of ' 15 
 cows, 12 calves kept till one year old, 40 year- 
 olds summered, 3 two-year-old cattle, 20 sheep, 
 
 6 work-horses, 1 riding horse, 3 young horses, and 
 3 horses grazed in summer.' The stock now kept 
 are, 4 5 cows, 1 30 cattle fed fat, 1 50 sheep fed on tur- 
 nips, 10 work-horses, 2 riding horses, and 3 young 
 horses.' The general result is, that the former 
 entire annual value of the produce might be taken 
 at .£642, while now it is not less than £2,518, — 
 an increase of fourfold. The soil upon which 
 these results have been obtained extends over 
 260 acres, of which 30 are reclaimed moss, 40 
 black moorish soil, intermixed with white sand, 
 125 light sandy soil, and 65 of superior red tur- 
 nip soil. With the exception of the last class of 
 soil, comprising 65 acres, the remaining 195 acres 
 are by no means prepossessing: the 125 acres of 
 light sandy soil, ' being better adapted to wheat 
 than to oats or barley,' when only in a high state 
 of cultivation, and not otherwise. But what put 
 them in a state of high cultivation but high- 
 farming? The subjacent greywacke is not a fer- 
 tile companion to the subsoil. The situation of 
 the farm is, however, favourable ; the exposure 
 is warm, south-eastern ; the elevation low, rang- 
 ing from 10 to 70 feet above the sea. The winters 
 are mild and moist — frost being very slight and 
 never of long continuance ; and the whole farm 
 is sheltered from the prevailing winds by the 
 woods surrounding the demesne of Logan. Tak- 
 ing all these circumstances into account, there 
 are many farms in the kingdom equally well si- 
 tuated, and in possession of a much better soil. 
 It is true that 2,000 loads of moss and 500 loads 
 of sea-ware are annually available, but not with- 
 out much labour. Allowing 4 'rakes' a-day, the 
 2,500 loads of moss and sea-ware imply the em- 
 ployment of two horses in single carts for a whole 
 year, independent of the manual labour bestowed 
 in preparing and collecting those ingredients. 
 However useful they may be, being on the spot, 
 both are inferior to guano or bone-dust, which 
 are available to every farm. The only thing that 
 seems out of proportion to the farm is the accom- 
 modation in the steading for the feeding of 130 
 beasts ; and the erection of so large a steading 
 was probably the speculation of the proprietor, 
 with the view of obtaining an increase of rent, 
 at a period when the farm shall have been put 
 in the highest state of fertility, by the high 
 farming about to be practised upon it. The old 
 rent was £152 ; and the produce then of £642 
 gave security for its payment of 4| times its 
 amount. The rent now is £262, for the payment 
 of which the present produce gives a security of 
 9| times its amount. If a produce worth £642 
 could afford to pay a rent of £152, a produce 
 worth £2,518 could as well afford and give as 
 good security to pay a rent of £595 ; and the 
 difference between these rents being £443 this 
 sum implies an increase of £13,290, at 30 years' 
 purchase, on the value of Auchness as a farm, to 
 the estate of Logan, principally by means of high- 
 farming." 
 
HIGHWAY. 
 
 683 
 
 HOAR-FROST, 
 
 But however eminently important and pro- 
 mising the facts of the Auchness farm are for 
 all land of similar character and situation, they 
 are liable to suggest great delusion with regard 
 to the high farming of other kinds of land. Every 
 kind of manure has limits to its power; even 
 guano and superphosphate of lime have been dis- 
 tinctly proved by experiment to operate only with- 
 in comparatively narrow limits, — insomuch that a 
 certain dose will educe a maximum of produce, 
 and double that dose will not educe one ounce 
 more ; and, what is of still greater consequence, 
 any manurial ingredient possesses little or much 
 or absolutely no fertilizing action on a field ac- 
 cording as there is much or little or none of it 
 already in the soil, in a state of immediate avail- 
 ableness for the crop. A soil which already pos- 
 sesses a maximum sufficiency of all the ingre- 
 dients of crop- nourishment, such as the virgin 
 soil of many an aboriginal forest or prairie, needs 
 absolutely no manure and will not be rendered a 
 jot more fertile by the application of any ; a soil 
 which possesses an insufficient degree of the 
 chief ingredients, or which has a sufficiency of some 
 and an insufficiency of others, such as a loam or 
 an argillaceous soil or a good turnip soil on a 
 well-worked farm at any medium stage of a ro- 
 tation, can be fertilizingly benefited by the appli- 
 cation of just the kinds and portions of ingre- 
 dients which are a-wanting to constitute a maxi- 
 mum sufficiency ; and only a soil which possesses 
 a very poor store of the ingredients of crop-nour- 
 ishment, or which has almost none of some and 
 a very insufficient supply of others, such as a 
 peaty soil, a moorish soil, a thin silicious soil, or 
 a thoroughly scourged and exhausted loamy soil, 
 is likely to make grateful returns for extremely 
 liberal supplies of manure, — though even this 
 will make returns only for such ingredients of 
 crop-nourishing as it really wants, and not one 
 jot beyond the limit of having them supplied to 
 the maximum of sufficiency. An indiscriminate 
 increase in doses of manure, under the notion of 
 high farming, therefore, is mere random practice, 
 and will work well or ill simply according to 
 circumstances ; and even when it works well, 
 might generally be done better and much cheaper 
 if precaution were taken to ascertain the precise 
 chemical condition of the soil and to supply 
 only the kind and amount of manurial ingre- 
 dients which are wanted to afford ample store of 
 nourishment for the crop. See the article Ma- 
 nure. 
 
 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SO- 
 CIETY OP SCOTLAND. See Agricultural 
 Societies. 
 
 HIGHWAY. A public road, or road which 
 any person has a right to use, whether the road 
 be fit only for foot passengers or fit also for 
 wheeled carriages. Any road which has been 
 used by the public, or open to all persons, during 
 25 years, is permanently a highway ; and any 
 
 road which has been used by the public during 
 four or five years, may continue without trespass 
 to be so used till it is formally enclosed. Public ! 
 roads acquired the name of highways from the 
 raised causeways which constituted the " via?" I 
 of the Romans. See the article Road. 
 
 HILL. Elevated ground, of medium charac- ' 
 ter between mound and mountain, or between 
 hillock and highland. But the name is altoge- 
 ther comparative; and equally applies to an I 
 elevation of 100 feet in a low and prevailingly j 
 level district, and to an elevation of 1,000 feet ! 
 in a high and prevailingly mountainous district. 
 Hills, also, have great variety of both shape and 
 character, from the spreading down to the cliffy 
 and beetling height, or from the isolated protru- 
 sion on a plain to the frontier rage of a region 
 of uplands, or from the rich arable slope to the 
 barren moor or the naked crag. 
 
 HIND. See Farm-Servants. 
 
 HINK. A peculiar kind of sickle, used in the 
 Isle of Thanet for reaping canary-grass. 
 
 HIP. The exterior part of the haunch of an 
 animal. 
 
 HIRCINE. A peculiar fatty substance in the j 
 fat of goats and sheep. 
 
 HIRSEL. A flock of sheep or a herd of cat- j 
 tie. The word is Scottish. 
 
 HIVE. See Bee. 
 
 HOAR-FROST,— Scotice Rime. A visiblelodg- 
 ment of frozen vapour on the ground. It is al- 
 ways preceded by a comparatively great radiation 
 of heat and rise of vapour ; it is most abundant 
 when a considerable degree of cold follows a 
 warm day and accompanies a clear night ; and it 
 occurs oftener in autumn and winter than in 
 spring, and abounds most in districts which have 
 a comparatively low average of snow-storms and 
 protracted frosts. 
 
 The mean temperature of the day and night 
 at which injurious hoar-frosts may occur, may, 
 relatively to the freezing-point, be very high. 
 Many instances occur of hoar-frost following a 
 day whose temperature is 55°, or a night whose 
 temperature, at half-past 8 o'clock, is about 50° ; 
 and extreme cases have been observed of injuri- 
 ous hoar-frosts occurring while a self-registering 
 thermometer, elevated 10 feet above the ground, 
 stood at 39° and 41°, and in weather whose tem- 
 perature, between | past 9 in the morning and 
 \ past 8 in the evening, had, in a series of days, 
 a minimum of 52° and a maximum of 69°. — Hoar- 
 frost, at a time of a high daily mean tempera- 
 ture, occurs only during a calm ; and may be 
 prevented or dissipated by even a very slight 
 breeze. — Hoar-frost occurs only when the atmo- 
 sphere is very nearly or altogether cloudless ; and 
 in many instances in which it occurs under an 
 unclouded sky in the earlier part of the night, 
 it melts away beneath the formation of a close 
 cloud at an advanced part of the night, so as 
 completely to disappear before the rising of the 
 
HOAR-FROST. 
 
 sun. — Hoar-frost most frequently occurs while 
 the mercury in the barometer is at a high point 
 and rising, and while the hygrometer, in refer- 
 ence to the temperature and the season, is at 
 comparative dryness ; yet it sometimes occurs in 
 very different conditions of both instruments, and 
 has been observed, in even a very injurious form, 
 when the barometric column was low and falling, 
 and when the atmosphere was damp, and rain 
 fell immediately before and immediately after. — 
 Low and flat lands in the bottoms of valleys 
 and of land-locked basins, generally suffer from 
 hoar-frosts, while the declivities and the exposed 
 summits of hills and other uplands escape injury ; 
 and lands upon a somewhat elevated basis, sur- 
 rounded and overhung by higher lands, without 
 any wide open descent on some side or other, suf- 
 fer more, under equal circumstances, than hill- 
 locked lands of less altitude.— A very slight inclina- 
 tion of the surface of the land generally protects 
 the crops upon it from hoar-frosts, which inflict 
 great injury on flat and hill-locked grounds ; yet, 
 though the slopes of the flanking heights may be 
 quite safe, a slope along the bottom of a dingle 
 or narrow vale or small glen affords no protec- 
 tion. — An impediment of no great height on the 
 surface of a slope, causes damage immediately 
 above it, and in extent proportional to its own 
 height ; and a still loftier impediment, such as a 
 dense and tall belt of trees, across the descent or 
 at the bottom of a slope, occasions a proportionally 
 larger extent of injury. — Rivers, though com- 
 monly reputed to induce hoar-frost, really tend 
 to mitigate or prevent it ; and though, in many 
 instances, they flow through the precise kinds of 
 low, level, hill- locked tracts which are specially 
 subject to it, they either avert or mollify its 
 effects upon the portions of them immediately 
 adjacent to the banks. The protective power of 
 running water is incidentally evinced by the 
 fact, that, in the neighbourhood of waterfalls 
 from mill-sluices, small pieces of potato-ground 
 are free from injury at times when other plots 
 in similar low situations are blackened and more 
 or less destroyed. — Hoar-frost is greatly controlled 
 by comparative wetness or dryness of soil. Many 
 a piece of hill-locked alluvial land, of the kind 
 called in Scotland a haugh, is prevailingly gra- 
 velly, arenaceous, or otherwise porous and dry, 
 but is irregularly crossed by bars or belts of 
 clayey, silty, or otherwise retentive and wettish 
 soil ; and when a crop of potatoes is growing on 
 such a tract, and a hoar-frost has occurred, the 
 position and extent of the wettish bars are very 
 obviously indicated by the much greater injury 
 which the plants upon them have suffered. The 
 mean temperature of these bars is lower than 
 that of the dry portions ; and when the temper- 
 ature diminishes in hoar-frost, it falls sooner to 
 the freezing-point, and continues a longer time 
 beneath that point, on the wet soil than on the dry. 
 The injurious effects of hoar-frost might be 
 
 HOE. 
 
 mitigated or prevented, on many sloping grounds, 
 by removing such woods and high fences as in- 
 tercept a free descent of currents of air ; and in 
 low, flat, hill-locked tracts of land, by producing 
 an artifical current in the lowest strata of the 
 atmosphere upon them during the prevalence of 
 a hoar-frost. 
 
 HOE. An implement for performing the ope- 
 ration of hoeing. This operation has great di- 
 versity of character and object, and occasions a 
 correspondingly great variety in the structure 
 and working of hoes. 
 
 Hoeing, on the largest scale, and with the 
 widest scope, is a course of tillage, or of cleaning 
 and pulverizing, in the intervals of the rows of 
 growing crops ; it constitutes a main part of the 
 after-culture of all field crops raised in drills ; 
 and it contests with the drill system the honour 
 of giving name to the modern system of cleaning 
 and pulverizing which was introduced by the 
 celebrated Tull, and which hence was called by 
 Tull himself the horse-hoeing husbandry. The 
 chief implement in this kind of hoeing will be 
 noticed in the article Horse-Hoe ; yet the horse- 
 hoe cleans only the clear intervals between the 
 drills, and requires to be followed by the hand- 
 hoe, for removing the weeds from among the 
 drilled plants themselves. 
 
 The common hand-hoe is employed in the field 
 for cleaning, after the horse-hoe, among turnips, 
 potatoes, ruta-baga, and beans, — for cleaning the 
 intervals between drilled crops, such as those of 
 corn, whose rows are too close to admit of the 
 use of the horse-hoe, — and for singling out, at 
 proper and equal distances, the plants of sown 
 turnips and ruta-baga which are intended to re- 
 main for a crop. But the various hand-hoes of 
 gardens and of the home-farms of parks, are em- 
 ployed for loosening weeds or thinning out culti- 
 vated plants, in such a way that the dislodged 
 stems and roots may either be picked up, or 
 raked off, or die in consequence of losing radical 
 connexion with the soil, — for stirring, softening, 
 and pulverizing the soil, so as to promote its 
 aeration, — for drawing up soil around the stems 
 of cultivated plants, in order either to multiply 
 their spongioles, to increase their stability, or to 
 blanch their lower portions, — and for forming 
 drills or small, hollow, linear ruts in the soil, 
 preparatory to the sowing of rows of seeds. Some 
 other but less common purposes, also, are sought, 
 — such as the removal of young moss-plants from 
 nursery beds, the removal of lichens, hepaticte, 
 and fungi from trees, the cleaning of neglected 
 gravel-walks, the weeding of hedges, and the 
 scarifying of the soil in wide intervals between 
 drills of growing plants. Most hand-hoeing ope- 
 rations must be performed when both the ground 
 and the weather are dry ; and a large proportion 
 of them are widely different from one another as 
 to at once time, conditions, and the most suita- 
 ble variety of tool. 
 
 CS4 
 
HOE. 
 
 685 
 
 HOG. 
 
 Hand-hoes are so well-known implements, and 
 include so very many varieties, and in a certain 
 degree are so controlled by fashion, that we need 
 not notice all. The common draw-hoe has sim- 
 ply a plain blade or plate adjusted at right an- 
 gles to the shaft ; and is exceedingly diversified 
 in both the absolute length and the comparative 
 depth of the blade. Good kinds of it may have 
 plain four-cornered blades of any length, from 
 two to twelve inches, according to the nature of 
 the work to be done, and particularly according 
 to the required distances of the plants in the 
 operation of singling, and the comparative loose- 
 ness or adhesiveness of the soil in the operations 
 of cleaning, stirring, and pulverizing. Yet in 
 consequence of the wedge being narrow, a hoe 
 with a curved blade always does its work more 
 facilely than a hoe with a straight blade. A su- 
 perior variety of hoe for operating on very stiff 
 soils is furnished with a prong or prongs on the 
 side opposite to that of the blade ; so that when- 
 ever a refractory clod is encountered, the hoe 
 can be whirled round and made to work first 
 with the prong and next with the blade. 
 
 A large portion of the agriculture of France 
 alternates with a sort of garden culture so as to 
 involve a very large aggregate of hoeing ; and 
 the chief part of all the tillage and other soil- 
 operations of the vineyards consists of hoeing ; 
 so that the French are remarkably skilful in the 
 use of the hoe, and possess some curious and 
 many valuable varieties of the implement. " The 
 hoe," remarks M. Thouin, " is an implement of 
 universal use ; and by it the surface of the soil 
 can be stirred to the depth of from 3 to 7 inches, 
 at less expense of time and human strength than 
 by any other manual implement whatever. It 
 is among manual implements what the plough 
 is among implements drawn by cattle. Pronged 
 hoes are particularly suitable for gravelly, stony, 
 and clayey soils, and those full of root-weeds ; but, 
 in any soil, they require less strength on the part 
 of the operator than common hoes." A very fa- 
 vourite French hoe is pronged and heavy, and 
 requires the person operating with it to stoop 
 very low, and occasions him more labour than 
 the use of the spade, and tends, when much em- 
 ployed by one person, to induce upon him anchy- 
 losis of the spine and permanent stooping and 
 deformity. Another French hoe is like a one- 
 sided pick-axe ; another, like a curved wedge ; 
 another, like a double-wedge or an indented 
 blade ; another, like a curved adze ; another, 
 like a double and opposite-faced adze ; another, 
 like a combination of the adze and the pick-axe ; 
 and others have forms different from all these 
 and from one another. 
 
 Some British agriculturists have recommend- 
 ed the heavy hard-working French hoe ; some, 
 the common draw-hoe, furnished at the back 
 with a prong or prongs ; and some, the forked 
 hoe or hoe with deep and indented blade ; and 
 one distinguished agriculturist recommends a 
 
 hoe of two mutually disjoined and considerably- 
 separate blades, for cleaning both sides of a drill 
 at one operation, — another of three mutually 
 disjoined but not distant blades, for singling 
 plants, — another of three arched and mutually 
 disjoined blades for forming drills by drawing, — 
 and two others, of equally peculiar form, for other 
 and different purposes. A hoe invented by John 
 Booker, Esq. has so peculiar a construction as to 
 cut well in any direction, — backward, forward, 
 or to either side ; yet cuts best when moved dia- 
 gonally backward and forward ; but it does not 
 remove much earth, and is most suitable for 
 mere cleaning operations in the intervals be- 
 tween garden drills. 
 
 The Dutch hoe has a variety of forms ; but, in 
 all instances is a push-hoe and not a draw one. 
 It is peculiarly suitable for skimming the sur- 
 face of soils, cleaning neglected loose garden 
 walks, cutting the weeds at the root of trees and 
 hedges, and every other kind of operation which 
 stirs the soil not more than an inch deep. — The 
 thrust-hoe also comprises some varieties ; but, 
 in a general view, differs from the Dutch hoe in 
 having a sharp edge in the rear as well as one in 
 the front, and usually in having the front-edge 
 of an angular outline. — The Spanish hoe has a 
 pointed tongue-shaped blade, projecting from a 
 small arched bar, and adjusted at right angles 
 to the shaft ; and is usually made of different 
 sizes, the larger for planting or transplanting, 
 and the smaller for hoeing among plants. — The 
 Jersey hoe has an iron ring adjusted on the same 
 plane as the shaft, and a small curved blade pro- 
 jecting at right angles from the remote side of the 
 ring ; and is better suited for scraping parasitic 
 cryptogams from trees than for operating upon 
 soil. — The pick hoe, the Sarthe hoe, the Grenoble 
 hoe, and several of the French hoes have variously 
 framed prongs, and are all more or less fitted to 
 do work in the garden analogous to that which 
 grubbers do in the field. 
 
 HOEING. See Hoe. 
 
 HOEING-MACHINE. See Horse-Hoe. 
 
 HOG. A genus of quadrupeds of the thick- 
 skinned family. The generic characters are 
 four or six incisors in the upper jaw, converg- 
 ing ; six in the lower jaw, projecting ; two 
 canines in the upper and two in the lower jaw, 
 very long ; fourteen molars in each jaw ; the 
 snout prominent, truncate, and containing a 
 peculiar bone ; feet, cloven. 
 
 The Common Hog and its Varieties. — The com- 
 mon, well-known, and generally diffused species, 
 Sus scropha, comprises the wild boar, the Chinese 
 hog, and all the varieties and breeds of the do- 
 mestic hog. The wild boar is the type of this 
 species, and has a short and thick body, black 
 and bristled hair, straight ears, and prismatic 
 tusks which curve outwards and slightly up- 
 wards. 
 
 The aboriginal hog of England, Wales, Scot- 
 land, Shetland, Orkney, and Ireland, seems to 
 
HOG. 
 
 686 
 
 HOG. 
 
 have been very little diversified by climate, and 
 not diversified at all by the influences of domes- 
 tication. The hog of all parts of the territories 
 which now constitute the United Kingdom, was 
 for a long time wild; it was then, for a long 
 time, but very rudely, domesticated ; and it con- 
 tinued, till a comparatively recent period, to be 
 quite unaffected by the niceties of modern im- 
 provement. The Wild Boar's Fell in Cumber- 
 land, and several other wild tracts of land in 
 Britain, acquired the names which they still bear 
 from being long the haunts of the untamed boar. 
 Mr. Whittaker, in his History of Manchester, 
 states that the wild boar roved over the woods 
 of the parish of Manchester during many cen- 
 turies after the departure of the Romans, that it 
 gave the name of Barlow or boar-ground to a 
 tract in the south-west of that parish, and that 
 it retained its haunts in the wilds of Blakely till 
 within the last three or four ages. Fitzstephen, 
 in his Description of London, written in the lat- 
 ter part of the 12th century, states that boars 
 were among the wild animals which frequented 
 a forest then surrounding the city; and other 
 authorities mention that the boar, till quite a 
 recent period, continued to scamper at will 
 throughout parts of the New Forest in Hamp- 
 shire, and in several other extensive hunting- 
 grounds in both England and Scotland. The 
 flocks of swine which belonged to our rude an- 
 cestors of the middle ages, were in a state but a 
 degree or so better than absolute wildness ; and 
 the swine-herds who looked after them were so 
 singular a class of men, and lived so constantly 
 among adventures, that they figure in legend 
 and romance nearly in the same wild and won- 
 drous manner as their contemporaries, the 
 Knights-errant. Dr. Hibbert, in a paper in the 
 Transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scot- 
 land, furnishes the following curious notice re- 
 garding the domesticated possession of swine on 
 a manor in Lancashire in the third decad of the 
 16th century: — "The swine of the lord of the 
 manor's tenants were allowed to range in the 
 demesnes of the town from the latter end of 
 August until sowing time, provided that they 
 were properly ringed and did no harm ; in de- 
 fault whereof, the owner was to loose him to the 
 lord 4d. or by this sum redeem him from poind- 
 age. The brewer who brewed to sell, and the 
 miller, were allowed to keep three swine ; the 
 tenants who had land in the fields, two swine ; 
 and he who held no land might have one swine." 
 Some very curious laws, likewise, are on record 
 for regulating property in swine during the 
 middle ages ; but neither they nor the other 
 documents afford a hint that any such distinc- 
 tions among swine were then known as are now 
 called breeds or varieties. 
 
 The hogs which are still most common in the 
 Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland may 
 probably be regarded as the least altered descen- 
 dants of the swine of the ancient Britons. They 
 
 are very small in size, and neither white nor yellow, 
 but of a uniform grey colour, and have a shaggy 
 coat of long hairs and bristles. They wander and 
 feed on the hills in the same manner as sheep ; 
 and live all the year round on roots and natural 
 herbage, and without any artificial shelter. Mr. 
 Culley says, " They are a small thin-formed ani- 
 mal, with bristles standing up from nose to tail, 
 and exceedingly bad thrivers. We met with 
 considerable herds of them upon the moors in 
 different parts, picking up the wild berries, espe- 
 cially about Thurso in Caithness." But when 
 driven to the Lowlands, they readily fatten, and 
 attain a considerable bulk; and even among 
 their native moors and mountains, without the 
 aid of any artificial feeding, they get into good 
 condition and yield excellent pork in autumn. 
 
 The Shetland hog is a small, ill-shapen, 
 brindled, disagreeable-looking animal, the very 
 beau-ideal of one of the ugliest and least tame- 
 able of the wild boars, yet scarcely larger than 
 an English terrier. It has either a brown, a 
 black, or a dunnish-white colour, a remarkably 
 strong nose, sharp-pointed ears, and an exceed- 
 ingly arched back, clothed with long, stiff, erect 
 bristles. It is often very lean, but readily ad- 
 mits of being artificially fattened ; and its pork, 
 in the former case, is proportionally coarse, — but, 
 in the latter, is sweet and delicate, and may be 
 cured into excellent hams and bacon. It very 
 generally roams unrestrained, and roots up pota- 
 toes, turnips, corn, and other field crops, and 
 makes war on some kinds of its fellow-animals, 
 and, so far from being a profit to the commu- 
 nity, is a devastator of the country and a com- 
 mon pest. " This lordling of the Shetland scat- 
 holds and arable lands, " says Dr. Hibbert, 
 " ranges undisturbed over his free demesnes, 
 and, in quest of the roots of plants or of earth- 
 worms, hollows out deep furrows and trenches 
 in the best pastures, destroys in his progress all 
 the nests which he can find of plovers, curlews, 
 or chalders, and bivouacs in some potatoe-field, 
 which he rarely quits until he has excavated a 
 ditch large enough to bury within it a dozen 
 of fellow-commoners of his own size and weight. 
 Nor is the reign of the petty tyrant altogether 
 bloodless : when a young lamb is just dropped, 
 it is then that he foams, and, as Blackmore has 
 pompously sung, 4 flourishes the iv'ry war,' never 
 quitting his ground until the grass is tinged 
 with the red slaughter of his victim." 
 
 The Orkney hog is very small in size, and seldom 
 weighs upwards of 60 or 70 pounds. Its colour 
 is variable ; its nose is exceedingly strong ; its 
 ears are erect and sharp-pointed ; and its back 
 is clothed with long bristles. It roams on the 
 moors in the manner of the Highland hog ; and 
 commits depredations in a similar style to the 
 Shetland hog ; and is far more mischievous on 
 arable lands than even the largest kinds of Eng- 
 lish hogs. It yields passably good pork when 
 killed fresh from the moors; and is capable of 
 
HOG. 
 
 687 
 
 HOG. 
 
 being fattened and sweetened into excellent ma 
 terial for hams and bacon by artificial feeding. 
 Its hair, though short, is fabricated by the na- 
 tives into ropes, which serve better than the 
 strongest hempen ones for the perilous purposes 
 of suspending the gatherers of sea-fowls' eggs on 
 the cliffs and beetling precipices of the mural 
 coast. 
 
 The old hog of the southern parts of Scotland 
 and of almost all parts of England, passes up by 
 numerous and nearly imperceptible gradations 
 from the small aboriginal hog of the Scottish 
 Highlands to an animal of much larger size, but 
 generally quite similar to it in configuration and 
 habits. Its shape is lumpish, uncouth, and wildly 
 coarse ; its bones are comparatively large ; its 
 ears are large, long, flapping, and pendulous ; its 
 nose is long and powerful ; its shoulders are low ; 
 its back is arched and narrow ; its limbs are 
 long ; and its colour is considerably diversified, 
 but in general is either whitish throughout or 
 whitish spotted with black. It is a prolific 
 breeder, and often attains a huge size when judi- 
 ciously managed from the outset, and fattened at 
 the age of two or three years ; yet it is constitu- 
 tionally lank, lean, hungry, and voracious, — con- 
 suming enormous quantities of food, very slowly 
 accumulating flesh or fat, and making miserable 
 compensation in the bulk of its pork for the bulk 
 of its provender. But both this large animal 
 itself, and the many gradations of the descen- 
 dants of the aboriginal British hog intermediate 
 between it and the ugly, wild, grinning dwarfs 
 of the Scottish Highlands and Islands, have 
 everywhere become uncommon in their unmixed 
 or characteristic state, and in many districts have 
 j been either obliterated by bold and long-con- 
 tinued crossing, or exterminated by the universal 
 adoption of better breeds. 
 
 The old Irish hog closely resembles one of the 
 J worst specimens of the large old British hog. 
 It is ugly, bony, razor-backed, lank, large, coarse, 
 greedy, a voracious eater, a most unkindly feeder, 
 and exceedingly difficult to fatten ; and even in 
 its best state, it yields pork and bacon far infe- 
 rior to those of almost all the improved breeds. 
 Its best recommendation is, that it has disap- 
 peared from all the comparatively enlightened 
 parts of Ireland, and is rapidly disappearing from 
 even the remote and most neglected districts. 
 Yet, with unutterable absurdity, it is still pre- 
 ferred to every other hog by a few of those 
 half-mad antiquity-loving peasants who can see 
 nothing but horror and ruin in any kind of 
 deviation from the practices of their fathers. 
 
 The Chinese hog, represented in Figure 2, 
 Plate XXX VII., has been a main source of 
 the variations and improvements in the mo- 
 dern breeds of British swine. The type of it 
 occurs in Siam, and in the regions immediately 
 adjacent to that country; and, though generally 
 j called Chinese by Britons and Americans, is more 
 I properly called Siamese by the French. Its 
 
 length of body is 3£ feet ; its length of tail is 9 
 inches ; and its height at the shoulder is 20 
 inches. Its eyes are surrounded by a slight 
 tinge of flame-colour ; its ears are short, straight, 
 and flexible ; its skin, except on the belly, is 
 black ; and its hair is soft and somewhat silky 
 on the body, stiff and thick on the head and 
 back of the neck, frizzly on the cheeks and 
 under-jaw, thin on the other parts, and generally 
 hard and black. 
 
 The typal or strictly pure Chinese or Siamese 
 hog is too delicate in structure and tender in 
 constitution to be adapted to countries very dif- 
 ferent in climate from Siam ; but subvarieties of 
 it, and crosses from it, are distributed through- 
 out the Indian Archipelago, some of the islands 
 of Polynesia, many of the eastern and central 
 parts of Asia, and even far-distant parts of Africa ; 
 and several or even many of these have, in modern 
 times, been introduced to Australia, to America, 
 and to Europe, and have very powerfully cor- 
 rected the bad properties, and improved the good 
 ones, of the aboriginal hogs of Britain, and of 
 other domesticated descendants of the wild boar 
 of Europe. Three very distinct subvarieties of 
 the Chinese hog have now for a long time been 
 in Britain, — the black, the white, and the tawny ; 
 but Mr. Culley enumerates seven ; and any rigid 
 systematist, who should reckon not only pure 
 oriental crosses, but mixtures of these with the 
 British breeds, might probably reckon up a good 
 many scores. But all the real Chinese in Britain 
 may, far more conveniently, be described as 
 strictly one variety, diversified in colour, some- 
 times white, sometimes black, sometimes irregu- 
 larly patched with black and white, frequently 
 dark grey, and occasionally of a sandy hue, — 
 some better shaped than others, some hardier, 
 and some more prolific, — but all compact-bodied, 
 well-formed, small - limbed, thin -eared, small- 
 headed, thick-necked, thin-skinned, and with 
 the head so adjusted to the body that, when the 
 animal is fattened, the whole snout except the 
 extremity looks as if absorbed into the body. 
 The Chinese hog is not easily reared, and seldom 
 attains a greater weight than from 10 to 12 
 stones at the age of one year, or of from 16 to 
 18 stones at the age of two years. Its flesh is 
 delicate and very excellent ; yet is disliked by 
 some fastidious persons on account of the ani- 
 mal's being so easily fattened. 
 
 The cross-breeds between the Chinese hog 
 and the aboriginal British hog — particularly 
 such as largely retain the British character — 
 may be described as combining much of the 
 size, most of the adaptations, and all the 
 hardiness of the aboriginal British with a large 
 proportion of the fine form, quiet disposition, 
 kindliness of feeding, aptitude to fatten, and 
 delicacy of flesh of the Chinese. " By a mixture 
 of the Chinese black swine with those of the 
 larger British breeds," says Mr. Wilson, " a kind 
 has been produced possessing qualities superior 
 
HOG. 
 
 683 
 
 HOG. 
 
 to those of either of the parent stock. They 
 are extremely prolific, are sooner fattened than 
 the larger kinds upon a more slender supply of 
 provisions, and they cut up when killed to more 
 useful and convenient portions. Another breed 
 which may be classed under this head, was intro- 
 duced into this kingdom about the beginning of 
 the present century. It was produced from an 
 emancipated wild boar brought from America, 
 and a sow of the improved Chinese breed. It is 
 extremely prolific, and the colour of the pigs is 
 highly diversified. Some are striped longitudi- 
 nally with brown and black, others with black 
 and blue, or black and white. The original 
 boar was of a rusty brown colour. The finest 
 of the Chinese breed are remarkable for the deli- 
 cacy of their appearance, for their thin transpa- 
 rent ears, their small head, and short but slender 
 legs. They are perhaps too small for bacon ; but 
 for roasting-pigs and the most delicate pork they 
 stand unrivalled. The larger sort, which weigh 
 10 or 12 stones when about a year old, and have 
 therefore a strong cross of the native breed, are 
 recommended as very suitable for arable farms, 
 where their provender is picked up chiefly in the 
 fold-yards." 
 
 The Berkshire hog is one of the most distin- 
 guished of the somewhat pure English breeds, 
 and has long been very generally distributed 
 through the greater number of the good hog- 
 feeding districts of England. The original 
 breed, or the hog whence the present breed 
 sprang, was large in bulk, great in length, thick, 
 long, and not proportionally deep in the body, 
 short and very bony in the legs, heavy and ill- 
 shapen in the ears, somewhat crooked in the 
 snout, generally a slow feeder, but always capa- 
 ble of attaining a very great weight. It was 
 improved, in the first instance, by crossing with 
 the wild boar, — next, by frequent and judicious 
 crossings with the best extraordinary specimens 
 of its own variety, — and next, by limited crossing 
 with the Chinese breed ; and, according to the 
 opinion of very many professional hog-feedcrs, it 
 requires to be crossed every sixth or seventh year 
 with the Chinese breed, in order to prevent its de- 
 generating in both the goodness of its form and the 
 excellence of its flesh. The improved or modern 
 Berkshire hog is shorter in the body, longer in 
 the leg, lighter in the head, and less voluminous 
 in the bone, than the original hog. It has in 
 general, a reddish, rufous-brown, or tawny white 
 colour, spotted with black or brown. Its coat is 
 coarse and curly, and quite out of character with 
 the comparative fineness of both the skin and 
 the flesh ; its body is thick, compact, and well- 
 formed ; its legs, notwithstanding their being 
 longer than those of the unimproved hog, are 
 still short ; its head is well-poised ; and its ears 
 are large, and sometimes hang over the eyes, but 
 generally stand somewhat forward. It fattens 
 with comparatively great rapidity ; but though 
 both hardy and very thriving when well kept, it 
 
 very speedily loses condition or declines into a 
 bad state when ill fed. It usually attains a very 
 great size, and averages a weight of from 50 to 
 60 stones ; and, under good management and 
 other favourable circumstances, it occasionally 
 attains the enormous weight of from 90 to 100 
 stones, or even a little more. A Berkshire hog, 
 fed long ago by Mr. Lawton of Cheshire, mea- 
 sured 9 feet 8 inches from the nose to the end of 
 the tail, and 4 feet 5^ inches in height, and 
 weighed, when alive, 12 cwt. 2 qr. 10 lb. The 
 improved Berkshire breed yields exceedingly fine 
 bacon ; and is altogether one of the most impor- 
 tant breeds in Britain. 
 
 The Hampshire hog is very large in size ; it is 
 longer in the body and the neck than the Berk- 
 shire hog, but is not so compactly formed ; it 
 has, for the most part, a white colour, either 
 uniform or spotted ; and it fattens well, attains 
 a large bulk, yields excellent flesh, and is well 
 suited for large bacon and hams. 
 
 The Sussex hog attains, at full growth, an 
 average weight of from 18 to 20 stones. It is 
 readily distinguished by the peculiar markings 
 of its colour ; for it is commonly black and 
 white but not spotted, or frequently black at 
 both ends and white in the middle. 
 
 The old Essex hog is a great eater and a ready 
 fattener, but has a restless disposition, and often 
 consumes more than it is worth, and has gone 
 quite out of repute. Its colour is either white 
 or black and white ; its coat is very bare ; its 
 head is long and sharp; its body is long and 
 flat ; its back is roundish ; and its bones are 
 somewhat small. 
 
 The modern Essex hog, or Essex half-black, is 
 a descendant of the Berkshire hog, and was 
 introduced to Essex by the late Lord Western. 
 Its colour is black and white ; its coat consists 
 of short hair ; its skin is thin ; its nose is short 
 and snubby ; its head and ears are not so large 
 as those of the Berkshire hog ; its body is broad 
 and deep ; its hind-quarters are ample and fleshy; 
 and its bones are comparatively small and fine. 
 It grows rapidly, fattens well, and yields prime 
 material for hams and bacon ; and it has come 
 into high repute, and now ranks with the Berk- 
 shire hog as one of the best breeds in Britain. 
 
 The Cheshire hog frequently attains a gigantic 
 size. Its colour is sometimes entirely white, but 
 more commonly a mixture of large patches of 
 white and black, or of white and blue ; its skin 
 is loose ; its bones are large ; its legs are long ; 
 its head is large ; its ears are very long ; and its 
 body is extremely long, but is narrow in propor- 
 tion to its other dimensions. 
 
 The Shropshire hog is large and coarse. Its 
 colour is white, with black and sometimes sandy 
 patches ; its bone, hair, and bristles are super- 
 abundant ; its coat is harsh and almost wiry ; 
 its head is coarse, sharp, and long ; its ears are 
 large ; its body is deep and flat ; and its legs are 
 long, firm, and not very symmetrically set. It is 
 
HOG. 689 HOG. 
 
 neither so -well-formed, so easily fattened, nor so I 
 economically fed as the Berkshire hog ; and yet j 
 it has long been held in estimation by distillers, 
 and other parties who can afford it a profusion 
 of food ; and it very commonly attains a weight 
 of between 40 and 50 stones. 
 
 The Rudgwick hog is the largest in Britain, 
 and is reared around the village of Rudgw r ick on 
 the borders of Sussex and Surrey. It often at- 
 tains a prodigious size ; and, at two years of age, 
 sometimes weighs twice as much as almost any 
 other kind of hog of the same age. It thrives 
 and fattens without any special care ; it probably 
 has, at two years of age, an average weight of 
 70 or 72 stones ; and it is peculiarly suitable for 
 such hog-feeders as can give their swine but 
 second-rate attention, and are anxious for large 
 bulk and weight without being equally solicitous 
 for prime quality of flesh. 
 
 The Woburn hog is well-formed, large, and 
 very prolific. Its colour is generally a white or 
 whitish-brown, marked with spots of different 
 hues ; its head is small ; its body is rounded ; and 
 its limbs are small. It grows rapidly, fattens 
 well, and has the reputation of being a more 
 economical feeder than most other varieties of 
 hog. It was introduced by the late Duke of 
 Bedford. 
 
 The Northampton hog is a well-formed, deep- 
 sided, middling-boned animal, formerly second 
 in request in the midland counties to only the 
 Berkshire and the Shropshire hogs, but now 
 very generally supplanted by the Dishley or New 
 Leicester breed. Its colour is white ; its size, 
 especially the subvariety of it formerly bred 
 about Naseby, becomes enormous ; its legs are 
 very short ; and its ears are much larger than 
 those of the Shropshire hog, and sweep along the 
 ground, before its nose, and almost blinding its 
 eyes. Its disposition seems to be unusually 
 gentle. 
 
 The original Leicester hog has a light-spotted 
 colour, well-formed head and ears, and a large, 
 deep, flat-sided body. The Dishley variety was 
 reared by the celebrated Bakewell; and has 
 acquired the fame, not only of being an excellent 
 kind of hog in itself, but of forming a good source 
 of general improvement by crossings with other j 
 breeds. It is fine-boned, clean-shaped, and of neat 
 and almost elegant appearance ; and, when full- I 
 sized and well-fattened, it seems almost a ball of I 
 meat, as thick as it is deep, and as deep as it is long, 
 its belly nearly touching the ground, and its eyes 
 and snout looking as if they were almost absorbed 
 into the body. It has a larger proportion of flesh 
 in comparison to its bone and its offal than pro- 
 bably any other variety of hog ; and yet it is 
 slow of growth, and somewhat tender in consti- 
 tution, and requires much food to make it fat- 
 ten ; and it possesses the additional disadvantage 
 of not being so prolific as most other breeds. 
 
 The Norfolk hog is hardy and prolific, and can 
 be easily and greatly improved by crossing, but 
 I. 
 
 is otherwise of inferior character. Its colour is 
 either white, striated, bluish, or of other hues and 
 variegations; its skin is thin; its ears are short; 
 its body is small; and its flesh serves better for 
 pork than as material for hams and bacon. The 
 offspring of a cross between the Norfolk breed 
 and either the Berkshire or the Dishley hog 
 possesses a good aggregate of valuable proper- 
 ties. 
 
 The Suffolk hog is a small and somewhat deli- 
 cate animal ; and attains an average weight of 
 from 16 to 19 stones. Its hair is short and very 
 bristly ; its forehead is broad ; its back is narrow; 
 its belly is pendent ; its legs are high ; and its 
 general form is more puggish than that of the 
 Norfolk hog. It seems to possess a large inter- 
 mixture of the white Chinese breed, and has 
 been, for a considerable period, in somewhat 
 high estimation ; yet it eats a comparatively 
 vast quantity of food, and is by no means a 
 kindly or economical feeder. 
 
 The Wiltshire hog was formerly in some re- 
 quest ; but has been, in a great measure, oblite- 
 rated by crossing with the Berkshire and other 
 breeds, and succeeded by a variety of smaller size 
 and better properties of flesh and feeding. Its 
 colour is light; its bone is round; its ears are 
 pointed and of medium size ; and its body is long 
 and low, with a depression at the shoulders, and 
 an elevation at the rump. 
 
 The original Yorkshire hog is a large animal, 
 and probably the very worst of the large hogs of 
 Britain. It has the advantage of being a more 
 J economical feeder and a more rapid fattener than 
 some of the better varieties ; but it thrives ill in 
 j the sty during winter, and it is always long in 
 j the legs and weak in the loins, and frequently 
 feeble or positively unsound in constitution. 
 
 The Herefordshire hog is a descendant of the 
 Shropshire hog ; and is large in size, and toler- 
 ably good and eligible in aggregate properties ; 
 yet it cannot bear comparison with the Berk- 
 shire hog, and does not possess any peculiar re- 
 commendations. 
 
 The Gloucester hog is generally white ; it has 
 two wattles hanging from the throat ; and it is 
 long, tall, and of large size. But it is inferior 
 both in form and in aggregate properties, not 
 only to the Berkshire hog, but also to the Shrop- 
 shire and the Hampshire hogs, and to some other 
 large breeds. 
 
 The original Lincolnshire hog has some resem- 
 blance to the old Northampton hog. Its colour 
 is white or lightish ; its coat is curly and has a 
 somewhat Avoolly appearance ; and its body is of 
 medium size. This breed thrives well when 
 young ; but is much inferior to some other 
 breeds for the purposes of thorough-feeding, and 
 of conversion into bacon and hams. 
 
 The small, white English hog occurs in many 
 districts, and is particularly abundant in the 
 northern counties. Its colour is white ; its head 
 and neck are well-formed ; its ears slouch some- 
 2 X 
 
HOG. 
 
 what downward ; its body is thick, compact, and 
 well-shaped ; and its legs are short. 
 
 The Lowland Scottish hog was, at a recent 
 period, very general throughout the southern 
 half of Scotland ; but is now, in a main degree, 
 obliterated and supplanted by crossings with 
 the Chinese and the English breeds. It is, when 
 unimproved or even when not much altered by 
 crossing, a very unprofitable animal. Its colour 
 is a dingy white ; its legs are long ; its body is 
 comparatively light and narrow ; and its ridge, 
 from nose to tail, is surmounted by a range of 
 erect bristles. 
 
 The swing-tailed hog is a useful variety of the 
 smaller class of swine ; it has much weight pro- 
 portionately to its size ; and it is quite hardy in 
 constitution and in habits of feeding. 
 
 The Tonquin or Tonquey hog is a cross-breed 
 between the Chinese and the Berkshire varieties ; 
 it possesses sufficiently distinctive and steady 
 characters to occupy the rank of an independent 
 breed ; and it has many excellent properties in 
 itself, and also serves well for improving some 
 other breeds by crossing. 
 
 The French varieties of the hog, common in 
 the time of Buffon, were generally bad ; and even 
 most of those of the present day, in spite of 
 many changes and some improvements, are far 
 from being good. The hog known in France 
 under the name of Pore de Nobles appears to 
 have been derived from the breed which was 
 obtained in England by crossing an Anglo-Chi- 
 nese sow with an emancipated American boar. 
 
 The Jutland hog has large and pendent ears, 
 an elongated body, a somewhat curved back, and 
 long legs; and it attains so considerable a size 
 as to yield, in its second year, from 200 to 300 
 French livres of lard. This breed makes a con- 
 siderable figure in commerce. 
 
 The hogs of the east of Europe are remarkable 
 for their size, and have a deep grey colour, and 
 very long ears ; but they are comparatively un- 
 prolific, — a sow of the breed having seldom more 
 than four or five pigs at one farrowing. 
 
 The Westphalian hogs resemble the hogs of 
 the east of Europe in size and general appear- 
 ance, but differ widely and advantageously from 
 them in prolificity, every sow having generally 
 from ten to twelve pigs in a litter. 
 
 The smooth or short -legged hog occurs in 
 Spain, Portugal, Savoy, and the north and south 
 of Italy ; and is the porker from which the ori- 
 ginal well-known Bologna sausages were pre- 
 pared. It is a descendant of the Chinese hog, 
 and continues to be closely allied to that ani- 
 mal. It is of small size, and very productive, 
 and fattens to so enormous a degree that its 
 belly sometimes trails upon the ground. Its 
 colour is commonly coppery, but sometimes a 
 bright fiery red ; its bristles are short and slen- 
 der ; its skin is very thin ; its head is unusually 
 short ; its jaws are thick ; its forehead is stunted ; 
 
 HOG. 
 
 its frontal skin falls in folds above the eyes ; its 
 ears are short, pointed, and almost erect; its 
 neck is thick and strong; its chest is very vi- 
 gorous ; its body is round and long ; and its legs 
 are short and strong. 
 
 The Turkish hog prevails throughout Euro- 
 pean Turkey, and occurs as far north-west, within 
 the Austrian dominions, as the vicinity of Vi- 
 enna. It fattens in half the time of many of the 
 common breeds of Europe, and attains a weight 
 of from 300 to 400 lbs. Its coat, when young, 
 varies from whitish-grey to brownish-red, and is 
 marked with blackish bands along the dorsal 
 portion of the sides ; and, when old, consists of 
 slender frizzled bristles, of a grey colour, more 
 or less deep, rarely black, and still more rarely 
 of a reddish-brown. 
 
 The Neapolitan hog has recently obtained 
 some repute in the north-west of Europe as a 
 profitable source of crossing with other breeds ; 
 but, in itself, it wants hardiness of constitution, 
 and is quite unsuitable for less genial climates 
 than that of the south of Italy. Its coat is thin ; 
 its colour is dark or blackish ; its size is small ; 
 its tendency to fatten is keen and rapid ; and its 
 flesh is delicate and generally excellent. 
 
 The Maltese hog was formerly in great request 
 in Britain, but has lost much of its celebrity. 
 It is black, thinly-coated, small-sized, of great 
 aptitude to fatten, and otherwise closely allied 
 to the Neapolitan hog. 
 
 The Comparative Value of the Different Breeds 
 of the Common Domestic Hog. — A coarse coat and 
 pendulous ears are regarded by most experienced 
 judges of hogs as indications of thick skin and 
 large size, and a fine coat and erect ears as indi- 
 cations of small or moderate size and of tendency 
 to rapid growth and fattening. Good or essen- 
 tial points — viewed in the abstract, or regarded 
 as a standard for the testing of any particular 
 breed or specimen — are fineness of bone, thinness 
 and fineness of skin, fulness of head and cheek, 
 thickness and moderate shortness of neck, vo- 
 luminousness and compactness of body, depth 
 and expansion of sides, breadth of breast and 
 loin, fulness of quarters, moderate shortness of 
 legs, hardiness of constitution, and moderate or 
 rapid tendency to fatten at an early age. 
 
 But several of the different breeds of swine 
 are essentially equal to one another in value, — 
 some for one set of circumstances and purposes, 
 and some for another ; and while a few breeds 
 are bad in any circumstances, even the best 
 breeds are not good in all. Hogs, like other 
 kinds of farm-stock, ought to be selected with 
 direct reference to their special fitness for the 
 climate in which they are to be kept, for the pe- 
 culiar management which they are to experi- 
 ence, for the particular kinds of food which they 
 are to receive, and for the precise purposes to 
 which they are ultimately destined. One breed 
 may be best for the bleak exposure of a moun- 
 
 690 
 
HOG. 
 
 691 
 
 HOG. 
 
 tain-farm, and another for the warm and sunny- 
 shelter of a farm on a wooded plain ; one for the 
 drought and heat of the south-eastern parts of 
 England, and another for the wet and cold of 
 the western parts of Ireland or Scotland; one 
 for roaming at will through field, or moor, or 
 forest, and another for constant confinement in 
 the sty ; one for the harsh and stinted food sup- 
 plied by the moorland cottager, and another for 
 the rich and abundant food supplied by the pro- 
 fessional hog-feeder, the general farmer, or the 
 distiller ; one to supply pork and bacon for fam- 
 ily use, another to supply pork for the public 
 market, and another to supply material for the 
 commercial curer of hams and bacon. 
 
 For family use, any hog containing a large or 
 main aggregate of the characteristics of the Chi- 
 nese breed, is suitable when killed at 6 or 8 
 months of age, or when possessing a weight of 
 from 4 to 8 stones ; but when it is highly fed, 
 and kept to a more advanced age, and fattened 
 up to quite or nearly its maximum of bulk, it 
 loses much of its delicacy, and becomes disagree- 
 ably coarse. Yet, for family use, some persons 
 think a Berkshire or a Suffolk hog, killed at an 
 early period, the best ; and allege that all the 
 subvarieties and main-crosses of the Chinese, no 
 matter how fed or when killed, are always too 
 fat and very greasy, and never possess the gout 
 and delicacy and good proportionedness between 
 fat and lean of the young Berkshire or the young 
 Suffolk. " For bacon, when the curing of it is 
 considered a staple article," says Mr. James Bell 
 in the Highland Society's Transactions, "the 
 larger breeds are always preferred, being found 
 most profitable for the farmer, and readily taking 
 the market ; such as may weigh when killed, 
 the four quarters, from 18 to 22 imperial stones. 
 It is true they have not such a propensity to 
 fatten when young, as most of the smaller vari- 
 eties ; but this is not necessary, as they cannot 
 make good bacon or hams till they are from 15 
 to 18 months old at least; and they are usually 
 kept till that age, and are then very easily fat- 
 tened sufficiently for the purpose. For the pur- 
 pose of curing for pork, as an article of trade, 
 the middle-sized, such as the Northumberland. 
 Berkshire, Suffolk, and Oxford breeds, are to be 
 preferred. They have sufficient tendency to 
 fatten, particularly the Berkshire and Oxford 
 breeds, and their flesh is more delicate, partly, 
 perhaps, from being killed at an earlier age." 
 
 Economical Uses of the Hog. — The bristles of 
 the hog are very serviceable to the shoemaker, 
 and are used for making many kinds of brushes. 
 The skin, when young, fresh, and tender, is often 
 eaten along with the flesh ; and when old and 
 thick, is tanned into leather for covering pocket- 
 books, for making saddle-seats, and for other 
 purposes. The bladder is prepared, and put to 
 various economical uses, in the same manner as 
 the bladder of the ox. The lard, or purest por- 
 tion of the fat, particularly that about the loins, 
 
 is extensively used in cookery, in pastry-baking, 
 in the preparation of pharmaceutical ointments, 
 and in the manufacture of pomatums and other 
 perfumed unguents. The intestines are cut up, 
 cleaned, and melted into a kind of coarse lard 
 for greasing wheels and for other coarse pur- 
 poses. The head and collar of old boars are 
 made into brawn, and various other parts of the 
 body into several kinds of preserved savoury 
 meats, for gratifying the palate of epicures. The 
 pork or flesh of the carcase is a pleasant, sub- 
 stantial, and nutritious food for all classes of the 
 community ; and that of young, well-fed pigs of 
 the choicest breeds, is a delicate aliment for the 
 most aristocratic and fastidious ; and though 
 pork cannot be constantly used for a consider- 
 able length of time without diseasing the mucous 
 membrane and producing morbid affections of 
 the skin, yet it forms, at all seasons, an agreeable 
 and wholesome alterative to other kinds of ani- 
 mal food. Pork is more susceptible than any 
 other flesh of the antiseptic action of salt, and 
 also readily absorbs an accompanying and pow- 
 erful antiseptic influence from the proximate 
 principle of smoke ; so that it is in extensive 
 request for making bacon and hams, and be- 
 comes, in the form of these, a valuable, bulky, 
 long-preserved, and highly-relished article in the 
 stores of both the household and the naval 
 larder. 
 
 The hog is valuable to the cottier, the distil- 
 ler, the general farmer, and all other parties who 
 have much waste nourishment, chiefly on account 
 of its consuming many kinds of coarse food which 
 all other domestic animals refuse, and which, but 
 for it, would require to be thrown to the dung- 
 hill. It gathers up and greedily devours many 
 substances which would otherwise be trodden 
 under foot, or at least turned to very little pro- 
 ductive account ; and it gobbles up, as a perfect 
 feast, the dirtiest refuse of the scullery, the barn, 
 and even in some degree the garden and the 
 field. It eats up and converts into good flesh a 
 great proportion of the light chaffy refuse of the 
 threshing-machine, and other dusty and vege- 
 table sprinklings of the farm -yard, which no 
 other animal could profitably use as food ; it 
 elaborates a considerably greater weight and 
 market-value of flesh from the waste of millers, 
 dairymen, brewers, and distillers, than could be 
 elaborated from it by cattle ; it turns to profit- 
 able account in material for market pork or 
 bacon any excess of roots or coarse herbage 
 which accrues from the preponderance, on any 
 farm, or in any district, of the cultivation of fal- 
 low-crops over the cultivation of cereal crops ; 
 and it brings out a mass of most cheaply ob- 
 tained produce to its owner from any wastes or 
 forests where, without risk of transgression upon 
 arable lands, it can find for itself a sufficient 
 aliment in wild-roots, wild-berries, and acorns. 
 See the articles Brawn, Bacon, Meat, Beech, 
 and Acorns. But swine can never be profitable 
 
HOG. 
 
 when fed wholly or even chiefly with food which 
 could be consumed by other domestic animals, — 
 and still less when allowed to seek food for them- 
 selves upon cultivated land. " A swine stock at 
 present," remarks Mr. Henderson, " are more 
 worth attention than they were in those early 
 ages when the custom prevailed of herding them; 
 yet they are shamefully neglected, and allowed 
 to scramble about for subsistence, picking a pre- 
 carious and scanty supply from arable fields, 
 under crop perhaps, or other sources, and in 
 such a manner as to render their keep little pro- 
 fitable to their owner, and often a scourge to 
 his neighbours." 
 
 The Breeding and Rearing of Swine — The boar 
 and the sow ought to be selected with special 
 reference either to the purity of breed or to some 
 special and well-designed purpose of crossing. 
 See the articles Breeding and Crossing. The 
 boar ought to be not less than twelve months 
 old, and the sow not less than ten months ; and 
 both may be used for breeding during from three 
 to five years, and then fed off for the shambles. 
 Young sows differ widely from one another in 
 prolificity and in attention to their pigs; and 
 any which prove on trial to be comparatively 
 unprolific or to be careless nurses, ought not 
 to be retained as breeders. Many breeding 
 sows of more than four years of age, and almost 
 all of more than five or six, become more or 
 less careless about their brood, and are therefore 
 not fit to be continued as breeders ; and they, at 
 the same time, begin to suffer considerable de- 
 terioration in the qualities of their flesh, so that 
 they must be fattened and killed to prevent loss 
 in their own carcase. 
 
 Sows gestate during about 112 days or 16 
 weeks ; and may, therefore, have two litters in 
 one year, or five litters in two years, or ten lit- 
 ters in four years. The most convenient prac- 
 tice, for the sake of adapting the constitution of 
 the pigs to the seasons of the year, and in conse- 
 quence insuring to them a maximum of hardi- 
 ness and health, is to secure two litters in each 
 year, the one in February and the other in 
 August. When farrowing occurs in summer, or 
 later in the spring than February, the pigs are 
 too young to be fed off next season ; and when 
 it takes place in winter, or later in the autumn 
 than August, they are liable to be injured or 
 even killed by the severe cold which follows, or 
 may suffer serious detriment before spring from 
 a deficiency of roots and of green food. 
 
 A pregnant sow ought neither to be confined 
 to a sty nor allowed to travel at will ; but may 
 be permitted the full range of a yard, or of any 
 similarly limited enclosure where she can do no 
 damage ; and, a considerable time before the 
 calculated period of her farrowing, she ought to 
 be separated from the herd, and kept constantly 
 and cleanly littered with a small quantity of 
 short dry straw. A few hours before her farrow- 
 ing, she may be observed to carry straw in her 
 
 HOG 
 
 j mouth to make a bed with ; and she must then 
 be allowed only such a berth as is requisite for 
 her comfort, and denied all such rough or long 
 straw as might afterwards, by any accident, 
 cover any of her brood. She ought, when nurs- 
 ing, to be well fed ; for if she then lose condition, 
 her pigs will suffer, and she herself will occasion 
 double cost to regain her strength and flesh; 
 and if her litter be numerous, they ought to be 
 fed twice or thrice a-day with a slightly tepid 
 mixture of cow's milk, water, and wheat-bran ; 
 and during an hour or two hours at the time of 
 each feed, they may be kept separate from the 
 dam. 
 
 Pigs which are not intended to become breed- 
 ers may be respectively castrated and spayed 
 when about a month old; and all may be weaned, 
 according to circumstances, either when six or 
 when ten weeks old. " The sow and pigs," says 
 Henderson, " should lie dry and warm, and have 
 plenty of 'drinks' given them, mixed with a 
 little meal or wheat-bran, warmed moderately. 
 If the sow and pigs are well fed, the pigs will be 
 ready for sale when six weeks old. If they are 
 not well fed, they must suck eight weeks, which 
 will be found a disadvantage to the breeder, and 
 will cause the loss of two weeks' extra food to 
 both the dam and her family. Every breeder 
 and feeder will find his own advantage in never 
 allowing any of this tribe go to bed with a 
 hungry belly. When the pigs are taken from 
 the sow and weaned, whether with the breeder 
 or purchaser, they must be regularly fed three 
 times a-day, with a little wheat bran, barley 
 dust, or meal of some description or other, mixed 
 with water warmed a little, though not warmer 
 than their mother's milk. In a few weeks after 
 they are taken from their dams and fed thus, 
 they will not be found so delicate, but will occa- 
 sionally amuse themselves with a few raw pota- 
 toes, turnips, or any kind of grain." 
 
 The food of growing swine widely varies ac- 
 cording to situation, to season, to mode of man- 
 agement, and especially to the circumstances of 
 the owner. The pig of the moorland cottages 
 must seek a large portion of its food among the 
 wild and woody produce of heaths and waste 
 grounds ; the pig of the hind or snug farm cottier 
 must depend mainly on the scanty refuse of his 
 kitchen, his one-cow dairy, and his small cabbage- 
 garden ; the pig of the Irish small farmer must 
 depend partly on the weedy produce of road- 
 sides, and principally on the surplus-produce of 
 fallow-cropping over cereal-cropping ; the pig of 
 the forester, or of any party possessing similar 
 privileges, may riot at will upon acorns, beech- 
 mast, and other seeds and produce of the woods ; 
 the pig of the villa-piggery or of the landowner's 
 home-farm may be pampered with an absolute 
 profusion of the richest and most varied offals ; 
 the pig of the miller or the brewer must be fed 
 with the peculiar refuse of the flour-mill or the 
 brewery ; and the pig of the farmer may be fed 
 
 692 
 
HOG. 
 
 in any one or two or more of an hundred ways, ac- 
 cording to the particular character of the farm, the 
 special economy practised on it, the succession of 
 the seasons, and the judgment or caprice of the 
 owner. Yet all the methods of feeding practised 
 on farms and by professional hog-feeders — or, in 
 other words, in rearing the vast majority of pigs 
 for the market, whether for pork or for bacon — 
 may be classified into two, — the method of letting 
 them more or less seek food for themselves, and 
 the method of supplying them entirely with food 
 in the piggery or pig-yard ; and probably the 
 best authorities which can be quoted on these two 
 methods, are Henderson in reference to the for- 
 mer and Boussingault in reference to the latter. 
 
 " The young stock, after the harvest is con- 
 cluded," says Henderson, " may be allowed to 
 range at large among the fields to pick up any 
 left corn, beans, or pease, &c, and their mothers 
 may be allowed to go along with them in case 
 they are not put up to feed. The keeper must 
 always be along with them to prevent them 
 doing any damage, or straying too far abroad. 
 They may likewise be allowed to go upon the 
 new sown wheat, provided the ground is dry, as 
 their trampling is of some service to that grain. 
 But it must then be observed to have nose- 
 jewels well secured in their snouts, to deter them 
 from acting the ploughman. Before going out 
 in the morning, always acknowledge them with 
 something for breakfast, and when they draw ! 
 near their lodgings in the evening, have a similar 
 allowance in their manger. A few Swedish tur- 
 nips, or even common ones, cut into small pieces, 
 may be given them ; or potatoes occasionally, as 
 the feeder may see requisite. In feeding, great 
 care must be taken not to give them such a 
 quantity of food as may overload their stomachs, 
 which may be in danger of causing them to leave 
 off feeding. If at any time they seem rather to 
 loath their food, and leave a part of it, the only 
 way to remove that, is to lessen the quantity, 
 and now and then change their diet, giving them 
 a few oats, barley, beans, or pease, two or three 
 times a-week, and to be particular in giving 
 them no more than their appetite can devour. 
 During the summer, the feeder ought assiduously 
 to purchase wheat bran, barley dust, &c, and 
 keep as much of the refuse of grain as possible. 
 Let them have a little of such articles twice a- 
 day, mixed with water. With those, together 
 with what clover and grass they get in the 
 fields, pigs can make a very good shift until the 
 time of close-feeding." 
 
 "The hog, as all the world knows," says 
 Boussingault, " is an animal the least dainty in 
 his food ; he is omnivorous, nothing comes amiss 
 to him ; but his food is by no means matter of in- 
 difference when the quality of the flesh comes to 
 be considered. Thaer seems to think that maize 
 is of all articles that which is the best for feeding 
 swine ; and I have had occasion to verify the 
 accuracy of his conclusion in South America, 
 
 HOG. 
 
 where, I may add, it is found that the oily fruit 
 of the palm-tree contributes powerfully to the 
 fattening. Almost all the varieties of roots and 
 grain produced upon the farm are suitable for 
 the maintenance of the hog ; but in Alsace, and 
 
 I believe generally, the staple is the steamed 
 potato, with which are associated various arti- 
 cles in smaller quantity, such as pease, and barley 
 and rye meal, &c. The farrow sow ought to 
 have food by so much the more abundant and 
 nutritious as she is required to suckle a larger 
 number of pigs. Our allowance at Bechelbronn 
 to the hog with five young ones during the six 
 weeks of suckling is as follows: 24*75 lb. of 
 steamed potatoes equal to 7'8 lb. of hay, 2*45 lb. 
 of rye-meal equal to 4*0 lb. of hay, 13'2 lb. of 
 skim milk equal to 6*2 lb. of hay. After the 
 fifth week, when the animal is no longer giving 
 suck, the ration consists of 121 lb. of steamed 
 potatoes equal to 7"3 lb. of hay, 1*0 lb. of rye- 
 meal equal to 1-6 lb. of hay, 6*5 lb. of sour skim 
 milk equal to 3*3 lb. of hay. This allowance is 
 gradually reduced to the end of the second 
 month after the farrowing, when the animal is 
 upon the maintenance ration of the farm con- 
 sisting of 16'5 lb. of steamed potatoes equal to 
 5-2 lb. of hay. The potatoes are mixed with 
 dish washings, which certainly contribute to 
 improve their nutritive power, although I am 
 altogether at a loss to estimate the value of the 
 article. The young pigs begin to taste the food 
 given to the mother at about the age of a fort- 
 night, but they never take to this kind of food 
 freely until they are four or five weeks old, and 
 are weaned ; up to this time they have an allow- 
 ance of skim milk and whey. To five pigs at the 
 time of weaning we allowed per day 22*0 lb. of 
 steamed potatoes equal to 7'3 lb. of hay, TO lb. 
 of rye-meal equal to 3 *6 lb. of hay, 6*6 lb. of skim 
 milk equal to 2*8 lb. of hay. This allowance was 
 modified by degrees ; the quantities of milk and 
 rye-meal were gradually abridged, and the pro- 
 portion of potatoes increased, so that about the 
 third month the allowance per head was from 
 
 II to 13 lb. of potatoes mixed with greasy water. 
 This is the regimen, equivalent to about 5 lb. of 
 hay, upon which our store pigs are maintained 
 until they are put up to fatten. During the 
 three months which follow the weaning, there- 
 fore, we may reckon that each animal has con- 
 sumed 3-8 lb. of meadow hay per day, and that 
 from the third month the consumption may be 
 represented by 5*2 lb. of the same article. We 
 have attempted in vain to replace the potato by 
 rape or media oil cake ; the pigs refused it obsti- 
 nately, but they showed no objection to poppy 
 seed, walnut and linseed cake ; during the sea- 
 son they will also eat clover, and are partly 
 maintained upon this plant. In summer they 
 are entirely put upon green meat, animals from 
 5 to 6 months consuming about 19 lb. of clover 
 a-day, a quantity which represents very nearly 
 5 lb. of clover hay." 
 
 C93 
 
HOG. 
 
 694 
 
 HOG. 
 
 Three elements of great importance in the 
 rearing of swine, are to keep them comfortably 
 warm, to afford them a constant supply of fresh 
 air, and to keep them perfectly free from every 
 kind of nastiness and filth. The necessity of 
 comfortable warmth at all seasons, and the posi- 
 tive saving it effects in both food and strength, 
 are pointed out in the article Feeding of Ani- 
 mals. Pigs which have little or no protection 
 from the cold winds, cold rains, sleet, and snow, 
 and which try to keep one another warm by 
 cowering together in heaps, and which, in spite 
 of every device they practise, often shiver with 
 cold amid the severities of spring and win- 
 ter, cannot possibly thrive upon even the best 
 and most abundant food which man can supply ; 
 and if, on the other hand, they enjoy no shade 
 from the scorching and blistering play of sun- 
 shine in summer, they both will become some- 
 what unsightly in appearance, and may be oc- 
 casionally made sick, and generally retarded in 
 growth. The necessity of a constant supply of 
 fresh air is shown in the article Ventilation. 
 A badly-ventilated sty has an absolutely pesti- 
 lential atmosphere, and makes pigs look delicate 
 and sickly, and undermines their very constitu- 
 tion, and prevents them from ever attaining 
 proper size and weight; while a sty with an 
 open-barred door, and a constant current of fresh 
 air, maintains them in vigour, gives them the 
 full advantage of their food, and affords full and 
 facile scope for their rapid growth and ample 
 maturation. Cleanliness, not only of the litter 
 and of the floor of the sty, but of the feet and all 
 the skin of the animals themselves, is essential 
 to the energetic performance of the organic func- 
 tions, and even to the prevention of comparative 
 dwarfishness and some measure of disease. The 
 propensity of swine to roll themselves in mud in 
 summer only proves that they require protection 
 from the scorching heat of the sunshine, and from 
 the attacks of flies, and affords not the remotest 
 indication that any daubing of the pores with dirt 
 can possibly be beneficial. A washed sow in the 
 hot season of our temperate climate, and in al- 
 most every season in such a climate as that of 
 Palestine, "returns to her wallowing in the 
 mire," simply because she feels scorched and 
 blistered and sickened under the ardent sun- 
 shine : and hence when she receives from man 
 the aid which is due to her as a domesticated 
 animal, she demands, not dirt all the year 
 through or on any day at all, but shade in sum- 
 mer, shelter in winter, and a clean dry bed in 
 every season. Of six pigs of nearly equal weight, 
 kept for seven weeks on the same food and litter, 
 three were maintained as clean as possible with 
 a brush and a curry-comb, and were found, at 
 the end of the seven weeks, to have consumed 
 five bushels less of pease than the other three, 
 and yet to have acquired on the average two 
 stones and four pounds of greater weight of 
 carcase. 
 
 The Fattening of Swine. — Swine are sent to 
 the shambles at various ages, under various 
 names, and for various precise purposes. Those 
 fattened and sold at the age of a few weeks are 
 called pigs, and usually roasted whole ; those 
 fattened and sold at the age of five or six months 
 are called porkers, and commonly cut up and 
 used as either fresh or pickled pork ; and those 
 fattened and sold at full size are called hogs, 
 and usually converted into ham and bacon. 
 
 The fattening of sucking pigs requires only 
 that the dam be kept well-lodged and abundantly 
 nourished ; the fattening of weaned pigs re- 
 quires the constant use of whey or skim milk 
 or butter-milk, with the frequent intermixture 
 or addition of beans, pease, or barley-meal ; and 
 the fattening of prime porkers requires similar 
 treatment to that of weaned pigs, or the use of a 
 mixture of pease-meal and barley-meal, moisten- 
 ed with as much milk as will make it drinkable. 
 Boussingault ascertained, in one well-conducted 
 experiment, that a properly suckled litter of five 
 pigs increased in weight, during 35 days of suck- 
 ling, from about 13| lb. to 177 lb.; and, in 
 another, that eight weaned pigs, fed on food 
 equal to 5 # 2 lb. of hay each a-day, and on a small 
 additional allowance of whey and scraps, in- 
 creased in weight, during eleven months, from 
 114 lb. to 1,206 lb. Each of the sucking pigs, 
 in the first experiment, therefore, increased, on 
 the average, from a weight of 2" 75 lb. to a weight 
 of 18 lb., or at the rate of 0'506 per day ; and 
 each of the weaned pigs, in the second experi- 
 ment, increased, on the average, from a weight 
 of 14"3 lb. to a weight of 150 lb., or at the rate 
 of 0'4 per day. 
 
 Some varieties of hog may be fattened so early 
 as at ten or twelve months of age ; and others 
 do well to be fattened at about 15 months ; but 
 most fatten best at about 18 or 20 months; and 
 brood swine, as was formerly hinted, should be 
 fattened at about 5 years. A period of twelve 
 weeks is generally requisite for bringing even 
 the kindliest fattening hogs into prime condition ; 
 a period of 16 weeks is requisite for rendering 
 the majority of hogs really fat ; and a period of 
 20 weeks is requisite to bring not a few, or even 
 the greater number, into prime condition. All 
 properly fattened hogs have a layer of fat be- 
 neath the skin of more than an inch in thick- 
 ness ; and some attain such enormous size, that 
 their skin is lifted, chiefly by deposits of fat, 15 
 inches above the bone. 
 
 Hogs, while fattening, ought not to be allowed 
 to run about ; for they cannot possibly effect 
 such a saving of food from what they may pick 
 up in the fields aS will compensate for their loss of 
 flesh by continual exercise. Yet some exceptions 
 must be made in the case of some peculiarly 
 situated hogs, and particularly in the case of 
 such as largely feed and fatten upon acorns. 
 The food used for fattening must be of the rich- 
 est quality which will comport with due regard 
 
HOG. 
 
 695 
 
 HOG. 
 
 to economy, and with the peculiar circumstances 
 of different piggeries, farms, and districts ; and it 
 ought to be given frequently, in small quantities 
 at a time, in a perfectly clean condition, and in 
 thoroughly clean and sweet troughs or mangers, 
 — and should be occasionally varied and changed, 
 and seasoned with salt. But the general princi- 
 ples of feeding in order to produce fat considera- 
 bly differ from those of feeding in order to 
 produce growth and strength; and they are 
 stated in our article on the Fattening of 
 Animals. 
 
 Grains, oil-cake, and milk are commonly used 
 for fattening in breweries, distilleries, oileries, 
 and dairies; and potatoes and turnips, mixed 
 with either bean-meal, pease-meal, oat-meal or 
 barley-meal, and either raw or steamed, on the 
 great majority of arable farms. Mr. Bos well 
 proved by experiment that, during an equal 
 space of time, five pigs fed on steamed food in- 
 creased in live weight 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 7 lb., at an 
 expense of £6 19s. 4d., and five pigs fed on raw 
 food increased in live weight only 2 cwt. 2 qrs. 
 21 lbs., at an expense of £5 8s. 6d. M. Bengtrapp 
 fed and fattened five pairs of pigs upon respec- 
 tively five different kinds of food, and obtained 
 results which showed that one decalitre of pease, 
 equal to 15 pints, produces nearly 6 lb. of pork, 
 one decalitre of buck-wheat about 4 lb. of pork, 
 one decalitre of boiled potatoes nearly 3 lb. of 
 pork, one decalitre of boiled carrots about 2} lbs. 
 of pork, and one decalitre of balls of wheat only 
 about li lb. of pork. The facts which elicited 
 these results were as follows : — one pair of pigs 
 consumed 55 decalitres of pease, and increased 
 in weight 22 st. 7 lb.; another pair consumed 
 96 decalitres of buck-wheat, and increased in 
 weight 26 st. 10 lb. ; another pair consumed 98 
 decalitres of boiled potatoes, and increased in 
 weight 20 st. 4 lb. ; another pair consumed 175 
 decalitres of boiled carrots, and increased in 
 weight 28 st. 2 lb. ; and another pair consumed 
 283 decalitres of balls of wheat, and increased in 
 weight 24 st. 3 lb. Yet these facts afford merely 
 hints, and not guidance ; for we do not know 
 whether the five pairs of pigs were of the same 
 breed, or had the same constitutional tendency 
 to fatten, or were nearly of the same age and 
 weight, or received as much food as they could 
 eat, or were fed in the same circumstances of 
 shelter and management; and while the pota- 
 toes and the carrots were given in the advanta- 
 geous state of being boiled, and the pease and 
 the buck-wheat were probably given in either a 
 triturated state or some other state of prepara- 
 tion, the wheat, in order to correspond, ought to 
 have been given either in flour, or still better in 
 small dry balls of dough, or best of all in broken 
 and pulverized flour-bread. 
 
 M. Boussingault reports as follows upon seven 
 hogs, each 15 months old and in good condition, 
 which he put up to fatten on the 6th of Septem- 
 ber 1841: — They had hitherto had the usual 
 
 hog's food, — sour milk and boiled potatoes after 
 weaning, — by and bye, from 11 to 15 lb. of po- 
 tatoes, whey and dish -washings. The seven 
 weighed 1,691-8 lb., — or each 241*67 lb.; and 
 supposing each to have weighed 13*7 lb. at the 
 time of weaning, each had increased at the rate 
 of rather better than half a pound, or 0*528 lb., 
 a-day. They were fattened till the 20th of De- 
 cember, and they then weighed 2,101 lb. ; so 
 that, during the 104 days of fattening, they in- 
 creased in weight 409*2 lb., being an average for 
 each of 58*457 lb., or at the rate for each of 0*572 
 lb. per day. They consumed in the course of the 
 104 days, 772 lb. of barley equal to 1,144 lb. of 
 hay, 1,042*8 lb. of pease equal to 4,171 lb. of hay, 
 and 9,504 lb. of potatoes equal to 8,296 lb. of 
 hay, besides an undetermined quantity of whey 
 and greasy water ; so that 4*91 lb. of live weight 
 of flesh were produced by every equivalent in 
 provender for 100 lbs. of hay. Their dead 
 weight, when slaughtered, and after being freed 
 from their offal and deprived of their heads and 
 feet, amounted to 1,702*6 lb. " The observations 
 which I have made on the fattening of hogs," 
 says M. Boussingault, after detailing other ex- 
 periments, " may be summed up in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 Provender ex- 
 pressed in lb 
 of hay. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 51 
 13*5 
 157 
 
 11*6 
 15*4 
 
 Increase per 
 day. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 0*440 
 0*836 
 1*958 
 1*254 
 0*572 
 0*660 
 
 Live weight|Ai;e of the ani 
 obtained fromimal at the be 
 every 100 lbs. ginning of th< 
 of provender, experiment. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 8*58 
 13*21 
 12*52 
 
 4*91 
 4*21 
 
 Months. 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 ]2 
 15 
 14 
 
 Duration of the 
 experiment. 
 
 Months Days 
 
 11 
 
 21 
 20 
 
 104 
 
 58 
 
 The allowance to the hogs, in the preceding ob- 
 servations, was always abundant. To determine 
 the quantity of potatoes consumed each day by 
 a hog in full growth, and whose weight was 
 known, I had him weighed at intervals, as well 
 as the potato ration, placed before him at will, 
 which he ate daily ; and I found that, when he 
 weighed 138 lb., he daily ate 11 lb. of potatoes, 
 equivalent to 3*4 lb. of hay, — when he weighed 
 145 lb., he daily ate 13*2 lb. of potatoes, equiva- 
 lent to 4*2 lb. of hay, — when he weighed 160^ lb. 
 he daily ate 15*4 lb. of potatoes, equivalent to 4*8 
 lb. of hay, — and when he weighed 184*8 lb., he 
 daily ate 17*6 lb. of potatoes, equivalent to 5^ lb. 
 of hay." 
 
 The Diseases of Swine. — Indigestion some- 
 times occurs among swine who are not supplied 
 with food at regular intervals, and occasionally 
 receive large or unlimited quantities of it, and 
 in consequence pass suddenly from starvation to 
 a surfeit ; and this evil greatly retards their 
 growth or fattening, or seriously damages then: 
 health, or even undermines their constitution ; 
 and it must be rectified by supplying them with 
 [ proper allowances of food at stated periods of the 
 
HOG. 
 
 696 
 
 HOLCUS. 
 
 day, and never in such quantity at a time as to 
 provoke them to gluttony, 
 
 Costiveness, accompanied by disinclination for 
 food, sometimes results from great and sudden 
 changes of weather, and from other causes ; and 
 this may be corrected by giving them any green 
 food or succulent vegetable substance which may 
 happen at the time to be most plentiful, — such 
 as a few cabbage-leaves, some lettuces, some po- 
 tato-tops, or a mixture of potatoes and mangel- 
 wurzel. The opposite evil of diarrhoea, also, is 
 sometimes induced ; and this may be corrected 
 by giving them a fresh sod dug from the road- 
 side, or by permitting them access to a yard 
 where they can readily find some cinders, mould, 
 brick-dust, and chalk-rubbish. 
 
 Cutaneous eruptions, occasionally becoming 
 aggravated into pustules and scabs, sometimes 
 break out in the ears, and spread over the whole 
 body; and these may be occasioned either by 
 want of proper ventilation, by want of cleanli- 
 ness in sty and litter, by paucity of food, or by 
 too stimulating a diet, or by the combined effects 
 of confinement, bad air, and injudicious feeding. 
 A ready and effective cure, in the early stages or 
 milder forms of this malady, is simply to give the 
 animals some cinders or charcoal ; and a suitable 
 or even requisite remedy, in bad cases, particu- 
 larly when the eruptions have become scabby 
 and ulcerated, is to mix small doses of sulphur 
 and saltpetre with the food, and to rub ex- 
 ternally with a mixture of oil and tar, or with a 
 composition of suet, tar, and a very little sulphur. 
 
 A virulent kind of pustular disease, called 
 swine-pox, is not uncommon ; and may be treated 
 in the same manner as bad varieties of ordinary 
 cutaneous eruptions, — or with external applica- 
 tion of the tarry and sulphurous unguent, and 
 the inward administration either of small doses 
 of sulphur and madder, or of these doses accom- 
 panied with pease-porridge or brewer's grains. 
 
 A kind of leprosy sometimes becomes some- 
 what common in hot and peculiar seasons ; and 
 this is best combated by keeping the swine con- 
 stantly in the shade, withholding from them 
 every sort of animal food or heating diet, and 
 keeping them clean, cool, and in constant and 
 ample ventilation. 
 
 Measles are not uncommon, but seldom prove 
 fatal. The earlier symptoms are languor and de- 
 cline of appetite ; and the later ones are small 
 pustules on the throat, together with red and 
 purple eruptions. The best remedies are a little 
 sulphur, small quantities of sesquisulphuret of 
 antimony, and moderately aperient doses of Ep- 
 som salts. 
 
 Inflammation of the lungs or of some other 
 important internal organ, is by far the worst of 
 the diseases to which swine are subject ; and it 
 especially attacks such as constantly feed on a 
 heating diet, and occasionally makes sad and 
 eudden havoc among those of a distillery or a 
 
 brewery. Some of the chief symptoms are total 
 loss of appetite, a severe cough, and laboured 
 breathing. The suitable remedies are prompt 
 and copious bleeding, moderate and cautious 
 doses of Epsom salts or castor oil, and a judici- 
 ous administration of such febrifuges and seda- 
 tives as compound powder of antimony and some 
 form of digitalis. — Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. — 
 Fennel's Natural History of British Quadrupeds. 
 — Henderson on Swine. — Culley on Live Stock. — 
 Hibber£s Shetland Islands. — Walker's Hebrides. — 
 Reports to the Board of Agriculture. — Marshall's 
 County Reports. — Hunter's Georgical Essays. — 
 Gilpin's Forest Scenery. — Boussingault's Rural 
 Economy. — Mill. — Low. — Young. — Sproule. — 
 Loudon. — Magazine of Domestic Economy. — The 
 Farmer's Magazine. — Transactions of the High- 
 land Society. — Q. Journal of Agriculture. 
 
 HOGG, or Hoggrel. A sheep of a year old. 
 
 HOLCUS, — popularly Soft Grass. A genus of 
 grasses, of the oat tribe. Two species of it grow 
 wild in Britain, and challenge the attention of 
 farmers. 
 
 The woolly soft- grass, meadow soft-grass, or 
 Yorkshire fog, Holcus lanatus, grows naturally on 
 all sorts of meadows and pastures throughout 
 Britain : but occurs principally on light inferior 
 soils, and especially on such as are dampish and 
 contain some proportion of peat. Its root is 
 fibrous and perennial ; its culms are numerous, 
 erect, from 18 to 36 inches high, and smooth 
 above but hairy below ; its leaves are downy on 
 both surfaces; its panicle is erect, thrice- com- 
 pound, spreading, and rather crowded, and has a 
 soft and woolly appearance, and assumes a great 
 variety of shades of colour, from a white to a 
 beautiful red, but generally on a whitish-green 
 ground ; its spikelets are two-flowered, and bloom 
 in July and August; and its awn is recurved, 
 and much shorter than the floret. This grass 
 yields a great weight and a still greater bulk of 
 herbage, or rather of foggage ; but it is not re- 
 lished by cattle, either in its growing state, or 
 when made into hay. A remedy for its insipi- 
 dity, in the form of hay, may be found in sprink- 
 ling it over with a little salt when stacked ; but 
 no remedy seems available for it in the fields, 
 except to treat it as a weed, and endeavour to 
 exterminate it. But, like many other bad things 
 and bad persons in the world, it clings to its 
 place with a tenacity proportionate to its worth- 
 lessness ; and cannot be driven out by less severe 
 means than either a long course of constant 
 stocking and of never allowing it to seed, or 
 ploughing up the pasture which it infests, sub- 
 jecting it to a five years' course of aration, and 
 then sowing it down with a mixture of the most 
 profitable grasses. In the Woburn experiments, 
 the woolly soft-grass, when grown upon clayey 
 loam, yielded per acre, when in flower, 19,057 
 lbs. of green produce, 6,193 lbs. of dry produce, 
 and 1,191 lbs. of nutritive matter. 
 
HOLLY. 
 
 697 
 
 HOOVE. 
 
 The creeping or bearded soft-grass, Holcus 
 mollis, grows naturally on almost all sorts of soils 
 in Britain, but chiefly in light arable lands, and 
 on barren sandy grounds. Its roots are perennial, 
 and very powerfully creeping; they sometimes 
 attain, in a few months, the enormous length of 
 three or four feet ; and they retain such perti- 
 nacious possession of the soil as to resist all 
 labours, except the most strenuous and persever- 
 ing, for their extirpation. This grass is more 
 slender and less downy than the woolly soft-grass ; 
 its culms are fewer, and only about two-thirds of 
 the height ; its leaves are broader, softer, and 
 less tufted, or grow more separately from one 
 another ; its panicle is looser and smoother, and 
 has, in every instance, a whitish-green colour ; 
 and its awns are longer and more conspicuous, 
 and, when dry, bend at a right angle, and ex- 
 tend beyond the calyx. This grass shares with 
 Agropyrum repens the popular and ignominious 
 name of couch-grass or twitch-grass ; and it is 
 almost as emphatically the real couch of light 
 sandy lands as the other is of richer soils. In 
 all circumstances, it is more or less a sheer weed, 
 and a very vivacious one ; and wherever it exists 
 even in grass lands, it ought to be exterminated 
 in order to make room for better grasses. Its 
 spring herbage is small ; and its aftermath 
 growth is perfectly trivial. Its roots, indeed, 
 abound in nutritious matter, and have a flavour 
 like that of new-made meal, and are very much 
 relished by pigs, and might, on some almost bar- 
 ren arenaceous lands, be an object worth a little 
 attention; but the roots of Agropyrum repens 
 have even more of this useful character; and 
 both plants must, nevertheless, be regarded as 
 excessive pests of cultivated land. The checking 
 and subduing of the creeping soft-grass must be 
 attempted by the most careful and searching 
 performance of the cleaning department of fal- 
 lowing; and the extermination of it can, in 
 general, be effected only by combining this work 
 with such periodical intermixations of clay as 
 shall convert the sandy soil into a loam. See the 
 articles Couch-Grass and Fallow. In the Wo- 
 burn experiments, the creeping soft-grass, when 
 grown on sandy loam, yielded per acre, when in 
 flower, 34,031 lbs. of green produce, 13,612 lbs. 
 of dry produce, and 2,392 lbs. of nutritive 
 matter. 
 
 HOLLY, — botanically Ilex Aquifolium. A 
 well known indigenous, prickly-leaved, evergreen, 
 ligneous plant, belonging to the staff-tree family. 
 It naturally takes the form of a handsome, coni- 
 cal tree, of about 30 or 40 feet in height, with a 
 trunk of from 18 to 24 inches in diameter, but it 
 readily admits of being either kept down in the 
 shape of a bushy shrub, or grown in a thick compact 
 series, in the manner of the hawthorn as a hedge 
 plant. And in the latter capacity, it forms, per- 
 haps, the most impenetrable and the most dura- 
 ble of all live fences ; and it has this superior 
 
 advantage over deciduous-leaved trees, that it is 
 seldom attacked by insects, and will well endure 
 the shears. Its chief objection is the very indif- 
 ferent progress which it makes for the first few 
 years after planting ; but, after it becomes estab- 
 lished in a suitable soil, or about its third or 
 fourth year, there are but few hedge-plants that 
 will surpass it in their growth. It may be car- 
 ried to a great height, and, consequently, is well- 
 adapted for situations where strength and shel- 
 ter are required, especially during winter, when 
 most other hedges are deprived of their leaves. 
 HOLM. See Haugh. 
 
 HOMESTEAD. A farmery or group of farm- 
 buildings and attached yards and offices. 
 
 HONEY. A vegetable product, very similar 
 in its properties to sugar. It abounds in many 
 flowers, and is collected by bees, and fed upon 
 by many insects. It widely varies in colour and 
 consistence; and it largely consists of sugary 
 matter, but probably owes its softness and vis- 
 cosity to the presence of mucilage. One prin- 
 cipal kind of it is yellow, transparent, and of the 
 consistence of turpentine ; and another is white, 
 and capable of assuming a solid form, and of 
 concreting into regular spheres ; and these two 
 kinds often exist in intermixture. The honey of 
 mountainous countries is more highly flavoured 
 than that of low districts; and the honey of 
 spring is more esteemed than that of summer, — 
 and the honey of summer more than that of au- 
 tumn ; — and the honey of young swarms more 
 than that of old ones. See the article Bee. 
 
 HONEY-DEW. A clear, colourless, viscid, 
 sweet liquid, found often on the leaves of plants, 
 and sometimes on the ground beneath them. It 
 tastes somewhat like honey ; it is perfectly fluid 
 in warm weather, but is somewhat consolidated 
 or candied in cold weather; and, when evapo- 
 rated from paper, it leaves a gummy mark, not 
 unlike that left by solution of gum- arabic. It is 
 deposited by aphides, and must be regarded as a 
 disease of plants ; yet it possesses an incidental 
 value as an occasional and sometimes a principal 
 food of bees. 
 
 HOOD-SHEAF. A sheaf of corn, in the har- 
 vest field, placed sloping along the tops of two 
 or more pairs of other sheaves as a covering 
 from the weather. 
 
 HOOSE. See Catarrh. 
 
 HOOVE, Hoven, or Blown. An extremely 
 flatulent distension of the rumen, paunch, or first 
 stomach of cattle or sheep. It is accompanied 
 with excessive pain, and if not soon reduced, it 
 speedily proves fatal. 
 
 By far the most common cause of hoove is a 
 surfeit of clover, turnips, green gramineous her- 
 bage, or other rich and succulent food, after a 
 season of feeding on poor pasturage, or especially 
 on dry and somewhat innutritious fodder. Green 
 food is naturally liable to pass speedily into fer- 
 mentation, and to let off a large portion of its 
 
HOOVE. 
 
 698 
 
 HOOVE. 
 
 elements in the gaseous form; it is specially 
 subject to this process when shut up in any 
 vessel, and steadily acted on by heat and moisture; 
 and it, therefore, passes readily and powerfully 
 into it in the hot, moist, close paunch of a ruminat- 
 ing animal, whose immediately preceding habits of 
 feeding have not involved the encountering and 
 resisting of fermentation. Or, in some cases, 
 the green food would merely macerate and not 
 ferment, if it were eaten in moderate quantity ; 
 but from its novelty and gratefulness, it is de- 
 voured in such excess as to overload the paunch, 
 to obstruct its functional power, and to induce 
 such chemical action as is due merely to the heat 
 and moisture. 
 
 No farmer or cattleman ought to be so inat- 
 tentive as to allow the risk of hoove from change 
 of food. Cattle ought not to be sent all at once 
 from poor pasture to rich grass, or from straw to 
 clover, or from dry provender to succulent roots ; 
 or, at all events, they ought not, for some days, 
 to be allowed their full will of the change. Even 
 the simple precaution of alternating them a few 
 times between the rich food and the straw-yard, 
 so as to curb their appetite and give pauses to 
 the stomach, might be a sufficient preventive. 
 A cordial drink is, on some farms, given to cattle, 
 especially to greedy ones, before turning them 
 into a fresh pasture ; but though this may pre- 
 vent hoove, it tends to induce other diseases ; 
 and a cordial of any kind, except in cases of 
 downright disease, and quite appropriate to its 
 peculiar mode of action, ought always to be 
 avoided. 
 
 Hoove sometimes arises from general debility 
 in the stomach, without any such specially excit- 
 ing cause as a change of food ; it is also a frequent 
 accompaniment of fevers and other diseases 
 which affect the powers of digestion ; and it oc- 
 casionally so greatly aggravates a case of difficult 
 parturition, that the rumen must be punctured 
 before the calf can descend far enough into the 
 pelvis to be capable of extraction. But in almost 
 all instances in which it arises from debility or 
 fever, it is symptomatic rather than primary, 
 and is much less violent than when it arises from 
 a surfeit of green food, and can be only alleviated 
 by direct appliances, and must eventually be 
 subdued by a sanatory treatment proper to the 
 whole system. 
 
 An animal seized with hoove seems oppressed, 
 ceases to eat or to ruminate, stands almost still, 
 breathes heavily, moans, and becomes exceed- 
 ingly disturbed at the flanks, and especially at 
 the left flank immediately opposite the rumen. 
 An occasional eructation, of a sour or fetid kind, 
 accompanies the progress of the distension ; but 
 no eructation is possible after the distension is 
 complete. If relief be not afforded, inflamma- 
 tion is induced, the brain becomes affected, the 
 eye protrudes, the tongue is pendulous, the back 
 is bent, and the animal becomes insensible, falls, 
 struggles, and dies. 
 
 Driving the animal about, so as to keep him 
 in constant motion, is very generally recom- 
 mended in cases of hoove ; but though suitable 
 enough for sheep, it is often a dangerous remedy ; 
 and seldom an effectual one, for cattle. The 
 dashing of pails-full of cold water is sometimes 
 practised, and frequently has the effect of dissi- 
 pating the flatus by violent eructation, but al- 
 ways incurs a risk of bursting the rumen and 
 killing the animal. The plunging of a lancet or 
 a pocket knife into the paunch, at the spot where 
 it presses against the flank midway between the 
 lowermost rib and the haunch-bone, has some- 
 times been practised with success, — the wound 
 being either left to heal of itself, or closed up, 
 after a little while, with a slip of adhesive 
 plaster ; but this operation, even when carefully 
 performed, is very liable to let a portion of the 
 contents of the rumen fall down among the in- 
 testines, and set up there a dangerous or fatal 
 inflammation. Even a bold, broad. cut, such as 
 to admit the hand, and allow of the mechanical 
 cleaning out of the rumen, has been successfully 
 performed ; but this is both dreadfully violent 
 and exceedingly precarious. The thrusting of 
 a flexible stick down the throat into the rumen 
 has also been tried ; but this does not afford 
 way enough for the escape of the gas, and may 
 occasion injury or positive rupture to some of 
 the organism. Numerous medicinal agents, such 
 as vinegar, ammonia, oils, and alkalies, have been 
 recommended and tried ; but in bad cases, none 
 of them can obtain entrance to the rumen ; and 
 even in mild or practicable cases, the vinegar 
 would be mischievous, and the others are too 
 feeble in their mode of action to give sufficiently 
 prompt or ample relief. 
 
 The first appliance, in a proper or enlight- 
 ened treatment of hoove, is to bring off the free 
 gas from the rumen by means of the probang. 
 See the article Probang. But as the subsequent 
 appliances are designed to prevent the evolution 
 of more gas, or to correct the tendency of the 
 fermenting food in the rumen to resolve itself 
 into an aeriform condition, they may be either 
 chemical or mechanical or both according to the 
 particular exigencies of each case. The stomach- 
 pump may be used either to wash out the fer- 
 menting juices from the contents of the rumen, 
 or to provoke the ejection of both the juices and 
 the solids from the rumen by a process of vo- 
 miting. Such a medicine as hartshorn or sul- 
 phuric ether or lime water may, in any ordinary 
 case, be administered; and when the probang 
 cannot be had, the use of the medicine will 
 generally require to be accompanied by an in- 
 cision with the trochar. See the article Tro- 
 char. But incomparably the best medicinal 
 appliance known is chloride of lime. Two 
 drachms of this powder may be dissolved in a 
 quart or three pints of water, and thrown into 
 the rumen by means of the stomach-pump. The 
 chlorine of the chloride parts from the lime and 
 
HOP. 
 
 699 
 
 HOP. 
 
 combines with the hydrogen which constitutes 
 the great bulk of the distending gas, — it com- 
 bines both with the ready-formed hydrogen in 
 the rumen and with the nascent hydrogen after- 
 wards evolved from the fermenting contents ; 
 and it gives instant relief by the great dimi- 
 nution of volume which attends the chemical 
 change ; and though the lime left by the chlo- 
 rine is a caustic substance, and the muriatic 
 acid resulting from the combination of the chlo- 
 rine and the hydrogen is a dreadfully corrosive 
 one, yet — by a beautiful provision of the all-wise 
 and all-benevolent Framer of the elements and 
 the laws of the universe — these two substances 
 instantly rush into a saturating union with each 
 other, and form an innocuous, neutral salt, the 
 muriate of lime. When a case of hoove is dealt 
 with before it becomes very bad, the probang 
 and the chloride of lime will rarely be found in- 
 effectual ; and not unless these cannot be had, 
 or are not timeously used, ought a thought to 
 be entertained of using even the trochar, and 
 far less the lancet or the knife. 
 
 A tendency to a return of the disease will for 
 some time exist, and must be counteracted by 
 medicine and suitable feeding. Immediately 
 after the distension has ceased, a pound of Ep- 
 som salts, accompanied with some such aromatic 
 as an ounce of powdered caraway seed and half 
 an ounce of powdered ginger, ought to be ad- 
 ministered; and on each of several succeeding 
 mornings, a dose of four ounces of Epsom salts, 
 half an ounce of powdered ginger, and two 
 ounces of powdered caraway, ought to be given. 
 For some little time, a daily mash ought to 
 be given ; and for a considerable period, no 
 stronger or fuller raw feeding should be allowed 
 than short bare pasture. But if an ox recov- 
 ered from hoove happen to be in tolerably good 
 condition, the most economical treatment of it 
 may be to send it, with all convenient speed, to 
 the shambles. 
 
 Sheep attacked with hoove may, in all mild 
 cases, be, in the first instance, gently and steadily 
 driven hither and thither ; and if they be not 
 relieved by this means — but especially if they 
 appear to become worse — they ought, in all re- 
 spects, to be treated on the same principles as 
 hoven cattle. But care must be used when driv- 
 ing them about, that they be not startled or 
 hurried or over-driven; and if ulterior measures 
 become necessary, and neither probang nor sto- 
 mach-pump can be had, the effect of thrusting a 
 knob-headed stick down the oesophagus ought to 
 be tried, before having recourse to the cruel and 
 hazardous remedy of making an incision into the 
 rumen. 
 
 HOP, — botanically Humulus. A hardy, per- 
 ennial-rooted, twining, herbaceous plant, of the 
 nettle order. It constitutes a genus of itself, 
 and is specifically designated Lupulus. Its po- 
 pular name is an abbreviation of the Saxon word 
 hoppan, signifying ' to climb.' Its botanical ge- 
 
 neric name is formed from the Latin word hu- 
 mus, signifying fresh earth, and alludes to the 
 plant's habit, when unsupported by props or 
 poles, of creeping along the ground ; and its 
 botanical specific name is formed from the po- 
 pular name Lupus salutarius, which it anciently 
 bore among the Romans, and which, according 
 to Pliny, was given it because it grew among 
 the willows, and, by its twining and choking 
 mode of growth, proved as destructive as a wolf 
 to a flock. The ancient British name of the 
 plant was Llewig y llaidd, and signifies the ' bane 
 of the wolf.' 
 
 Botanical Description of the Hop. — The hop plant 
 belongs, in the Linnsean arrangement, to the class 
 Dicecia and the order Pentandria ; or, in other 
 words, its male and its female are different indi- 
 viduals, and the number of its stamens is five. 
 The root sends up many stems. The stems are 
 rough, angular, striated, and flexible, and twine 
 spirally from left to right, up poles or other erect 
 supports, to the height of from 12 to 20 feet. 
 The leaves are petiolate, opposite, heart-shaped, 
 serrated, either entire or lobed, of a dark green 
 colour, and scabrous with minute prickles. Two 
 stipules occur at the base of each petiole ; and 
 are interfoliaceous, entire, smooth, and reflexed. 
 The flowers are axillary and furnished with 
 bracts. The male flower, or flower of the male 
 plant, grows in clusters somewhat like the blos- 
 soms of the common currant ; and has a calyx 
 of 5 oblong, concave, obtuse sepals, — no corolla? 
 — 5 capillary and very short filaments, — and ver- 
 tical, oblong, two-celled anthers, opening by two 
 terminal pores. The female flower, or flower of 
 the female plant, is a cone, catkin, or strobile of 
 many membranaceous scales, and has an ovate 
 form and pendulous habit, and presents a loose 
 general resemblance to the cone of a fir or pine ; 
 the scales are imbricated, concave, tubular from 
 being rolled in at the base, of a pale greenish 
 colour, and two-floreted ; the germen is superior, 
 minute, and oblong; the styles are two, awl- 
 shaped, spreading, and downy ; the stigmas are 
 simple ; and one seed is attached to the base of 
 each enlarged, membranaceous, dry scale, and is 
 round, flattish, of a brown bay colour, surrounded 
 with a sharp rim, and compressed at the tip. 
 
 Though only one species of the entire genus, 
 and only one variety of the male plant, are 
 known, yet several very distinct varieties of 
 the female plant are in cultivation. Three 
 varieties are mentioned by Miller as common 
 in his time, — the oval hop, the long white hop, 
 and the long, square, garlic hop. The prin- 
 cipal varieties at present cultivated in Kent, 
 are the goldings hop, grown on the ragstone 
 of Middle Kent, — the Canterbury grape hop, 
 grown on the ragstone, chalk -subsoil lands, 
 and other rich soils of Eastern Kent, — and the 
 Mayfield grape hop, grown on all kinds of good 
 or dry soils, and particularly on dry limestone 
 lands throughout the several hop districts of the 
 
HOP. 
 
 700 
 
 HOP. 
 
 county. Two varieties, called Jones's hop and 
 the golden-tips hop, are grown in the wealds of 
 Kent and Sussex ; and though not so productive 
 as the goldings, the Canterbury grape, or the 
 Mayfield grape, are preferred by the farmers 
 who grow them on account of their superior 
 power of resisting the blight. A celebrated 
 variety, called the Farnham hop, is cultivated 
 in the vicinity of Farnham in Surrey, and in 
 some other districts ; and another variety, which 
 possesses some celebrity for the delicacy of its 
 flavour, is cultivated principally in the counties 
 of Hereford and Worcester. A variety called 
 the Flemish red-bine, is the coarsest of the culti- 
 vated kinds, and the nearest in habit and char- 
 acter to the wild plant ; but it is also the hardi- 
 est, and is therefore the most suitable for trials 
 on a limited scale, for occasional introduction to 
 the fields or the garden plots of Scotland or the 
 north of England, or even for stated cultivation 
 in the bleak parts of the proper hop districts. 
 
 Properties of the Hop. — The stem of the hop- 
 plant abounds in the same kind of fibre as hemp, 
 flax, and other cordage plants ; but requires to 
 be steeped in water during a whole winter, be- 
 fore the fibre can be separated for the purposes 
 of manufacture. The hop-plant contains a con- 
 siderable quantity of tannin ; and is capable of 
 being used for the same purposes as oak bark, 
 valonia, sumac, mimosa, and terra japonica. The 
 dried strobiles, or flowers of the female plant, 
 — which are always the main object, and often 
 the only one, of the cultivation of the hop, — 
 have a peculiar, strong, fragrant, semi-narcotic 
 odour, and a highly aromatic, bitter, astringent 
 taste. 
 
 A substance which constitutes only one-sixth 
 part of the total weight of the dried strobiles, 
 which is easily separable from the rest of the con- 
 stituents by means of sifting through a fine 
 sieve, and to which the name of lupulin has been 
 given, contains the whole of their active proper- 
 ties, and though not a pure or proximate prin- 
 ciple, but comprising a large admixture of prin- 
 ciples, may be regarded as representing all their 
 economical and medicinal value ; and every 120 
 grains of this substance consist of 5 grains of 
 tannin, 10 of extractive, 11 of bitter principle, 
 12 of wax, 36 of resin, and 46 of lignin. The 
 ashes of dried hops amount to one-tenth of the 
 whole weight, and consist of 21 -5 per cent, of 
 silica, 25"18 of potash, 15 - 98 of lime, 5*77 of mag- 
 nesia, 7*24 of common salt, 7*45 of phosphate of 
 iron and phosphate of alumina, 5*41 of sulphuric 
 acid, 9*8 of phosphoric acid, 1*67 of chloride of 
 potassium, and a trace of manganese. 
 
 An extract is yielded by the remains of the 
 strobiles, after the separation of the lupulin ; but 
 it possesses neither the aroma, the bitterness, 
 the astringency, nor any of the other active 
 properties of the plant. An infusion or decoc- 
 tion of the strobiles in boiling water possesses 
 all their active properties, has a pale straw 
 
 colour, is made turbid by the action of a mine- 
 ral acid, acquires a deepening of colour from an 
 alkali, yields up ammonia to a certain compound 
 reaction, and is precipitated by alcohol or by a 
 solution of superacetate of lead. A volatile aro- 
 matic oil is obtained by distilling the strobiles 
 in water. 
 
 Uses of the Hop. — In Sweden, a strong, durable, 
 white cloth is manufactured out of the fibre of 
 the hop ; and in England, a patent was, a num- 
 ber of years ago, taken out to secure the benefits 
 obtainable from the application of the root, stem, 
 and leaf of the plant to the tanning of leather. 
 But the grand economical use of hops, for many 
 ages, has been the employing of the dried stro- 
 biles of the female hop in the brewing of ale, 
 beer, and porter, for the double purpose of pre- 
 serving the liquids from the acetous fermenta- 
 tion, and of imparting to them a bitter aromatic 
 taste. Many other vegetable substances have 
 been tried for correcting the insipid sweetness 
 of malt liquors, and preserving them from spoil- 
 ing, — particularly the tops of Erica vulgaris, 
 twigs of Buxus sempervirens, dried leaves of 
 Menyanthes trifoliata, leaves of Glechoma hederacea, 
 and roots of Gentiana acaulis, Gentiana rubra, 
 Gentiana lutea, and some other gentians; but 
 though all these, as well as parts of some other 
 plants, are more or less successful, the best are 
 much excelled by the dried strobiles of the hop. 
 
 Dried hop strobiles — or hops, as they are usu- 
 ally termed — have been extolled from remote 
 times, and in many writings, both popular and 
 scientific, for their medicinal virtues ; and they 
 continue to the present day, to have a place in 
 the pharmacopoeias of both London and Edin- 
 burgh. Their general powers, when adminis- 
 tered internally, are narcotic, tonic, and diuretic, 
 — and, when applied externally, anodyne and 
 discutient. Coles, in his History of Plants, pub- 
 lished in 1657, says, " They are good, to cleanse 
 the kidneys of gravel and to provoke urine ; they 
 likewise open obstructions of the liver and spleen, 
 and cleanse the blood and loosen the belly ; and, 
 as they cleanse the blood, so consequently they 
 help to cure eruptions of the skin." Brooke's 
 Dispensatory, published in 1753, recommends 
 them in a similar way to Coles, and also as an 
 alterative, and as a remedy for hypochondriasis. 
 Herophilus Labbius says that, by a persevering 
 exhibition of hops, he has softened the hardest 
 urinary calculi ; and Darelius assures us that a 
 pint or half a pint of a decoction of them, drunk 
 in the morning, acts powerfully as an anthelmintic. 
 Dr. Mother by, Dr. Cullen, and many other dis- 
 tinguished physicians have extolled hops as an 
 elegant aromatic bitter. Numerous general and 
 popular writers have asserted that hops, when 
 used as stuffing for a pillow, possess the power 
 of procuring sleep in cases of mania and in the 
 delirium of fever ; and this opinion was confirmed 
 in the case of George the Third, and has to a 
 certain extent been sanctioned by the observa- 
 
HOP. 
 
 701 
 
 HOP. 
 
 tions of general practitioners. Some medical 
 men, also, have extolled hops as a sure and 
 steady sedative ; while others accord to it very- 
 little of this character. A fomentation with 
 hops has proved useful in painful swellings and 
 tumours ; and an ointment of powdered hops 
 and lard is said to be serviceable as an anodyne 
 in cancerous sores. The tender tops of hop- 
 plants are cut off and eaten like asparagus in 
 spring; and several syrups, juleps, and apozems 
 are prepared from the strobiles ; and all these 
 are popularly regarded as good medicaments for 
 various classes of invalids, — especially the hyste- 
 rical, the hypochondriacal, and the dyspeptic. 
 
 History of the Hop. — The hop-plant grows wild 
 in hedges, thickets, and similar situations in Eng- 
 land, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland; and 
 probably was artificially diffused, at a remote 
 period, through various other countries of Eu- 
 rope. It was supposed by Linnaeus to have been 
 brought to Europe by the Goths, during the 
 periods of their immigration from Russia, and 
 particularly from the Ukraine; but it has as 
 good a claim as many a far more common plant- 
 to be regarded as truly indigenous. 
 
 Either the hop, or some very similar plant, 
 which cannot now be distinguished from it, was 
 known to the Romans, and probably to the Greeks. 
 It is mentioned by the Arabian physician Mesue, 
 who flourished about the middle of the 9th cen- 
 tury ; and it comes slowly and with increasing 
 clearness into view as a cultivated European 
 plant, from about the time of Charlemagne till 
 a century after the Reformation. Pepin, the 
 founder of the Carlovingian dynasty, speaks of 
 huynularice, or hop-gardens ; and Adelard, bishop 
 of Corbey, in 822, freed the millers of his district 
 from all labours relating to hops. Some docu- 
 ments of the time of Louis the German mention 
 hop-gardens ; and the records of some churches 
 and monasteries, in the two succeeding centu- 
 ries, allude to hop-garden produce. 
 
 In the 14th century, hops were cultivated in 
 many parts of Germany ; about the same time, 
 they were introduced to the breweries of the 
 Netherlands ; and in the third decad of the 
 16th century, they were introduced to public 
 notice in England for the purposes of brewing, 
 by some people from Artois. " But," says Beck- 
 mann, " although their efficacy was admitted in 
 the conservation of beer, yet they were long sup- 
 posed to contain qualities noxious to the consti- 
 tution, among which it was said that they dried 
 up the body, and increased melancholy; and 
 accordingly we find in the household regulations 
 of our Harry the Eighth, an order to the brewer, 
 not to put any hops into the ale. Indeed, at a 
 much later period, the Common Council of the 
 city of London petitioned Parliament against the 
 use of hops, ' in regard that they would spoil 
 the taste of the drink, and endanger the people :' 
 they were also petitioned against in the reign of 
 Henry VI. * as a wicked weed !' They were not 
 
 brought into cultivation in this country until 
 about the year 1524; and according to a distich 
 to be found in Baker's Chronicles, it would seem 
 as if the introduction of beer should be attributed 
 to the same period. 
 
 ' Turkies, carps, hoppes, piccarell, and beere, 
 Came into Englande all in one yeare.' 
 This, however, must be understood of beer, such 
 as that still in use ; for ale brewed from malt, 
 without the addition of hops, was certainly 
 known here at a much earlier date." 
 
 In 1552, some privileges were granted, by act 
 of Parliament, to hop -grounds; in 1578, a 
 curious little work, containing directions for the 
 cultivation of the hop, and called ' A Perfite 
 Platforme of a Hoppe Garden,' was published by 
 Reynold Scott ; and in 1603, the introduction 
 and use of damaged or adulterated hops are for- 
 bidden by statute under severe penalties. " In 
 Sweden, the sweet gale, Myrica gale, was formerly 
 used in beer so generally that Christopher III. 
 in 1440, confirmed an old law, said to have been 
 made by Magnus Smeek, that those who collected 
 this plant before a certain period, on any com- 
 mon, or on another person's land, should pay a 
 fine. The like punishment was appointed for 
 the too early picking of hops ; and the cultiva- 
 tion of them was so strongly enforced, that every 
 farmer who had not forty poles with hops grow- 
 ing round them, was punished, unless he could 
 show that his land was unfit for producing them. 
 Gustavus I. of Sweden, also was desirous of 
 encouraging the cultivation of the hop-plant ; 
 but his exertions were attended with so little 
 effect, that even in the reign of Christina, that is, 
 in the middle of the 1 7th century, all the hops 
 used in the kingdom were imported from Ger- 
 many, particularly from Brunswick and Saxony. 
 The queen had some hop plantations as rarities 
 in her garden ; and the plant became soon so far 
 generally cultivated, that the German hop far- 
 mers, who before had been accustomed to travel 
 to Sweden every third year to receive payment, 
 and take new orders, were much dissatisfied, and 
 suffered a part of their hop-grounds to run to 
 waste. Under Charles XL, who reigned from 
 1660 to 1697, the cultivation of hops was first 
 brought to any degree of perfection." 
 
 British Soils for the Hop. — Scotland and the 
 north of England are too cold for the profitable 
 or even safe cultivation of any of the fine varie- 
 ties of the hop-plant in the field. A few plants 
 are occasionally grown in gardens ; yet more for 
 ornament or curiosity than for use. If ever a 
 crop should be attempted in ordinary farm cul- 
 ture, the coarse and hardy Flemish red -bine 
 ought to be selected in preference to any 
 finer variety. Lord Kaimes recommends that 
 hop-plants, grown in Scotland, should be trained 
 low, upon espaliers or poles of 9 or 10 feet long, 
 set upon a line from east to west, at intervals 
 of 3 feet between each pole. He does not specify 
 any particular distance between the rows ; but 
 
HOP. 
 
 702 
 
 HOP 
 
 probably a distance of 6 or 7 feet would be most 
 suitable. He instructs that, in the making of 
 the plantation, the planter should begin at the 
 west end of each row, and set a plant at the foot 
 of each pole, excepting the last 6 or 7 poles of the 
 row ; and, instead of allowing the growing plants 
 to ascend the poles in the natural manner, he 
 recommends that they be trained diagonally 
 from pole to pole, at an angle of 9 or 10 degrees 
 with the horizon, and that they be bound to the 
 poles, and that their shoots be led, by means of 
 small twigs, between the poles. 
 
 The chief parts of England in which hops are 
 at present regularly cultivated as a field-crop, 
 are large districts of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, 
 Hereford, and Worcester, and small parts of 
 Essex, Hertford, Lincoln, Suffolk, and Derby. 
 These districts present a surpassingly opulent 
 appearance ; and figure in marvellous contrast 
 to the districts of mixed or pastoral husbandry in 
 their near vicinity. " If. a foreigner," remarks 
 Mr. Lance, " were to land at the Isle of Thanet 
 to view the agriculture of the south-east of Eng- 
 land, and to take the following route, he would 
 give a very different account from one who 
 would pass through another part of the country. 
 Of the first, we would take him from the Isle of 
 Thanet up the Stowe river to Canterbury ; fol- 
 lowing the course of that river, over the tena- 
 cious alluvial loams resting on the chalk forma- 
 tion, through the gorge of the chalk escarpment 
 to Ashford, across the green-sand and Kent rock- 
 stone hills to Tenterden, Smarden, Cranbrook, 
 Hawkhurst, and to Turnbridge, on the clayey 
 and iron sand weald ; viewing the ragstone hills 
 to Maidstone, Mailing, Wrotham, Sevenoaks, and 
 Westerham ; leaving the winding vale of Holmes- 
 dale to the north, being the site of the gault 
 clay ; thence passing into Surrey near Oxted to 
 Riegate, Dorking, Guilford, and Farnham to 
 Alton and Hampshire, thence to Petersfield and 
 Portsmouth. This person would leave the coun- 
 try impressed with the idea, that every part 
 abounded in hop and fruit enclosures. This 
 traveller would call the country rich beyond any 
 measure to be found on the Continent, having 
 some land which would let for £20 per acre per 
 annum, the valleys abounding in valuable tim- 
 ber, the inhabitants well employed, and enjoying 
 the blessings of peace and plenty, in the midst of 
 garden farms, and those exceeding in beauty and 
 abundance the gay vineyards of the south. The 
 other traveller we will suppose to land at Dover, 
 passing over' Barham chalk downs, and follow- 
 ing the course of the north downs in Kent, a 
 very few miles north of the line we have before 
 traced ; passing into Surrey on the chalk downs 
 near Warlingham, taking the direction of the 
 downs, and on to the Bagshot sand district near 
 Woking ; passing into Hampshire two miles 
 north of Farnham, at Aldershot, to Basingstoke, 
 over Salisbury Plain, and thence through the 
 New-Forest to Lymington on the coast. This 
 
 person would describe the aspect of the country 
 as nearly a barren waste, fit only for rearing 
 sheep on the chalk downs. The timber growing 
 on it being that of a poor single mineral soil, 
 the district thinly inhabited, the villages far dis- 
 tant from each other, would give to a stranger a 
 very bad opinion of the riches of English agri- 
 culture, and the resources of the country. And 
 these views would be the effect of a superficial 
 examination of the south-eastern part of Eng- 
 land, the party not taking into his estimation 
 the geological arrangement of the earth." 
 
 Yet though certain adaptations of soil and 
 situation are indispensable, the hop is cultivat- 
 ed and flourishes in a great variety of soil. The 
 land of the hop-plantations throughout the great- 
 er part of East Kent has a deep, rich, loamy soil, 
 and a loamy brick-earth subsoil, incumbent upon 
 chalk ; that around Maidstone, and thence to the 
 stone-brash below the chalk hills on the borders 
 of the wealds of Kent, is generally accompanied 
 with marl ; that of many parts in the vicinity of 
 Farnham is either a very mellow hazel mould, or 
 a dry, friable, very deep siliceous loam, incum- 
 bent on a marly or calcareous subsoil ; and that 
 of Hereford and Worcester is either of a red, 
 sandy, ochreous nature, or clayey and binding, 
 and is incumbent generally on a crumbling kind 
 of shale and rag-stone, but never upon chalk. 
 Any strong deep soil, on a free, porous subsoil, 
 with a southerly or westerly exposure, and with 
 good shelter by rising grounds or plantations 
 from northerly and easterly winds, may, if pro- 
 perly trenched and pulverized, be found suita- 
 ble, even in places far remote from the present 
 hop districts ; only it may require a special se- 
 lection of the variety of hop best adapted to it, 
 and might, very probably, modify the flavour or 
 other properties of the produce. Mr. Lance, 
 speaking with special reference to Kent, says, 
 " The most congenial soil is a calcareous or 
 loamy sand, with its stone-brash, as the roots are 
 found to penetrate into the clefts of the latter 
 to a considerable depth. The soil or stratum of 
 earth where they flourish is termed by geologists 
 the greensand formation, having some portion 
 of friable green sandstone on the upper part. 
 From this it passes downwards into a close cal- 
 careous marl, of various colours, from a bright 
 red to a white siliceous sand. This hill of stone 
 runs parallel with the escarpment of the chalk- 
 bank, which it equals in height in many parts ; 
 and is distant from the chalk formation from a 
 quarter of a mile to a mile, the intervening val- 
 ley being a clay marl. A good hop is also grown 
 in the sand or rich deep loam on the chalk for- 
 mation, as at Canterbury. We may add, that, 
 in every instance, a fresh, rich, dark, loamy soil, 
 with a dry bottom, seems best adapted for the 
 growth of the hop. On arable lands, it seldom 
 succeeds." 
 
 Preparing the Ground for the Ilop.—kny kind 
 of land designed for the hop requires to be deeply 
 
HOP. 
 
 HOP. 
 
 tilled, completely cleaned, and powerfully man- 
 ured. The hop-farmers of Hereford and Worces- 
 ter generally select for an intended hop-planta- 
 tion a piece of old pasture, and prepare it by 
 giving a double ploughing, about a foot deep, 
 in the early part of winter, and by thoroughly 
 scuffling, harrowing, and rolling it about the be- 
 ginning of March. But the hop-farmers of Kent, 
 Surrey, and Sussex, for the most part, set to 
 work upon ploughed ground, and treat it with 
 a particularity and operoseness somewhat pro- 
 portionate to the great importance of the hop. 
 The ground is cleaned and pulverized with the 
 processes of either a summer-fallow or a green- 
 fallow ; it is then manured with 25 or 30 loads 
 per acre, or in some instances with even a larger 
 quantity, of good farm-yard manure ; it is next, 
 in very many cases, sown with Norfolk turnips, 
 and folded off with sheep in the early part of 
 winter ; and then, as quickly as it can be freed 
 from the sheep, it is trenched with either the 
 spade or the plough, and laid up into sharp rid- 
 ges to undergo the chemical action of the air 
 and frost and meteorological vicissitudes of win- 
 ter. Trenching with the spade is done two spit 
 deep, and is esteemed the more advantageous 
 method of the two for thoroughly and equally 
 intermixing the manure, for giving great and 
 uniform porosity to the soil, and for facilitating 
 at once the descent, the spread, and the maxi- 
 mum nutrition of the roots of the hop-plants ; 
 yet trenching with the plough is highly efficient, 
 and at the same time is so much less expensive 
 as to be generally thought the more economical 
 method. 
 
 The prevailing practice is to propagate the 
 hop from cuttings or young plants, or literally 
 to make plantations ; and .this requires the 
 ground to be disposed either in pits or in a 
 series of limited spots for the reception of the 
 plants. The method of planting in pits occasions 
 considerable modification of the preparatory til- 
 lage, but is now almost universally abandoned. 
 Farmers who plant in series of limited spots, or 
 on little hillocks, differ widely in opinion, as to 
 both the proper distance between the spots, and 
 the most economical manner of arranging them. 
 Some dispose them in parallel rows, 8 or 9 feet 
 between row and row, and 3 or 3^ feet be- 
 tween hillock and hillock ; others dispose them 
 in triangular rows, or in a quincunx arrange- 
 ment, at distances of 6 or 7 feet between hillock 
 and hillock; many, throughout Kent, whether 
 disposing them in parallel rows or arranging 
 them in quincunxes, mark them out in such a 
 manner, with a four-rod chain, as to assign 1,000 
 hillocks to the acre ; and others, in even the best 
 hop districts, and in near vicinity to one another, 
 dispose them at distances of from 3 to 8 feet, or 
 within areas of from 5 to 9 square yards. The 
 common Kent and Sussex practice, whatever 
 arrangement be preferred, is to use a measuring 
 chain, with bits of rags in the links at the de- 
 
 sired distances of the hillocks, and to mark off 
 the first line of the plantation parallel to a fence, 
 and at a few feet's distance from it. Any dis- 
 tance less than 6 feet in any direction is probably 
 uneconomical ; for though a considerably less 
 distance might seem to be sufficient for the 
 growth of the plants, and therefore an econo- 
 mizing of the soil, yet, when the plants become 
 tall and soar away toward their maturity, it 
 prevents them from enjoying, a free circulation 
 of the air, embarrasses their efforts to draw 
 ample aeriform nourishment from the atmo- 
 sphere, and subjects them to imminent risk of 
 injury or destruction from blasts, aphides, 
 moulds, and mildews. The main advantage of 
 disposition in parallel rows, is the admitting of 
 after-culture by means of horse-drawn imple- 
 ments; and the main advantage of disposition 
 in quincunxes is the rendering the distances on 
 all sides of each plant equal, and the consequent 
 promotion of free and equable ventilation. 
 
 The Planting of the Hop. — Hop-plantations are 
 made either with fresh cuttings from hop-plants, 
 or from cuttings which have rooted in the manner 
 of layers, or from cuttings which have rooted in 
 a nursery-bed. When fresh cuttings are used, 
 they ought to be taken from the crown of the 
 root, and immediately planted ; but even when 
 they are of prime quality, of the best age, and in 
 the most suitable condition, and when they are 
 removed and planted with the utmost skill and 
 care, they are usually a year longer in arriving 
 at maturity and yielding produce than cuttings 
 which have been rooted. Shoots treated in the 
 manner of layers are simply twisted at the joint 
 where they are intended to be put into the ground, 
 and they are then bent into the soil, and fastened 
 down with a peg, and freed, if necessary, from 
 any superfluous top-growth ; and when they 
 have remained long enough in the ground to 
 strike root, they may be dissevered from the 
 parent stock, and allowed to remain in the soil 
 till the time of planting. Cuttings treated as 
 nurslings, are taken off in spring from the lower 
 part of the stem or the root-crown of old plants, 
 at the time of dressing ; and are planted, in the 
 ordinary manner, in a nursery-bed, and allowed 
 to stand till they become well rooted.* All cut- 
 tings ought to be at least 4 or 5 inches long, and 
 to have each 3 or 4 buds ; and any which are 
 very luxuriant when taken up to be transplanted 
 into the hop-ground, ought to be pruned in both 
 top and roots. 
 
 Fresh cuttings must be planted in the hop- 
 ground at some time between the end of Febru- 
 ary and the 25th of March ; but rooted cuttings 
 may be planted in either October, November, 
 February, or March. " When the spots for the 
 different hillocks have been marked out, the 
 earth is dug out of each to the depth of about 2 
 feet, and of nearly the same width ; and then, if 
 a portion of fine garden mould can be got, or, if 
 not, a compost of well rotted dung and earth, it 
 
HOP. 
 
 704 
 
 HOP. 
 
 is placed in the holes, which are filled up with 
 the finely pulverized soil. The plants are then 
 put in. Some put three or more in a circle, 
 others two, and some only one good plant ; but 
 the most general plan is to place three in each 
 hole, at the depth of about 6 inches ; and great 
 nicety should be observed in fixing them. The 
 holes made by the dibble for that purpose are in 
 a slanting direction outward, so that the roots 
 of the hop may grow in the inclined position in 
 which the poles are afterwards placed, without 
 allowing their bines to be interlaced. Some care- 
 ful growers, indeed, put the fine mould gently 
 in, around and upon the plants, with the hand. 
 The plants should also be raised above the natu- 
 ral level of the ground, both in order that the 
 hop may rise high enough to form the hillock to 
 be made around them, and that the root may 
 have a greater depth of loose earth below them ; 
 for, when the land is very open, they pene- 
 trate so far into the soil that they have been 
 found on a very rich deep loam in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Farnham to the depth of 20 feet." — 
 [British Husbandry.] But on the hop-farms of 
 Hereford and Worcester, three sets are dibbled 
 in at each site, and pressed up as tightly as pos- 
 sible with soil, and covered with about half an 
 inch of light mould. On these farms, also, the 
 marking out of the rows of sites is effected by 
 setting up poles at the ends of the rows, extend- 
 ing a line from pole to pole along each intended 
 row, and placing sticks at the proper intervals 
 along the course of the line. 
 
 After-Culture of the Planted Hop. — The Kent 
 and Sussex after-culture, during the first years, 
 consists in a series of operations for keeping the 
 soil clean, pulverulent, and well aerated. Horse- 
 drawn implements are used between rows; and 
 the hand-hoe and the spade in quincunxes. 
 Weeds hoed up, are raked off the ground ; and 
 weeds dug up, are buried in the soil. The aera- 
 tion and moisture of the fresh-turned soil greatly 
 invigorate the young plants, so that skilful far- 
 mers often repeat the processes of stirring ; and 
 many also employ coarse woollen rags for the 
 threefold purpose of keeping the soil open, at- 
 tracting moisture, and slowly surrendering their 
 substance in the way of manure. When the 
 young shoots appear above the hillocks, small 
 poles are stuck down beside them, of from 10 to 
 12 feet in length, or of any other proportion 
 suited to the anticipated growth and luxuriancy 
 of the plants ; and when the plants attain a 
 height of about two feet, they are separately 
 tied or twisted round the poles ; and early in 
 November, all the ground in the intervals is dug 
 over, and laid up toward the plants, and left in 
 a rough state to enjoy the mellowing action of 
 the frosts of winter. But in Hereford and Wor- 
 cester, the first year's after-culture is somewhat 
 different. About midsummer, the young stems 
 are tied with rushes to the sticks, the adjacent 
 soil is turned over against them with the plough, 
 
 and the weeds are removed with a kind of spade, 
 called a kuf, fixed almost horizontally upon a 
 shaft of about 4 feet in length. 
 
 The after-culture of subsequent years varies 
 according to the nature of the soil, the usages 
 of different districts, the notions of the different 
 cultivators, and the modifying effects of the dif- 
 ferent forms of the plantations. But plants 
 raised from rooted cuttings bear produce in the 
 second year ; and the particular after-culture of 
 that year, be the mode of it what it may, is very 
 nearly the same as the after-culture of each suc- 
 ceeding year. Some farmers dig all the land in 
 winter ; some dig it all twice a-year ; some plough 
 the intervals, and dip the slips; and those of 
 Hereford and Worcester plough down the soil 
 from the roots. All, however, use care to disturb 
 as little as possible, or not to disturb at all, the 
 roots of the young plants ; and all are likewise 
 agreed, if not as to the precise form, at least as 
 to the principle, of all the leading operations. In 
 February or March, the hillocks are cleared of 
 weeds, and carefully opened, either with a narrow- 
 pointed hop-hoe, or with a double-faced imple- 
 ment, forked on one face, and containing a strong 
 hoe on the other ; the old bine or lower part of 
 the last year's shoots, together with the lower 
 part of all suckers, is cut away, with a sharp 
 pruning-knife, to within an inch or two inches of 
 the main stem ; and the fine soil is sufficiently 
 replaced to form anew the hillocks, and to pre- 
 vent the air from having free access to the 
 pruned plants,— yet only about 1^ inch of the 
 richest and finest of it is placed immediately over 
 the crown of the roots. The Hereford and Wor- 
 cester farmers, however, prune the plants at the 
 time of ploughing down the soil from the roots, 
 and then throw a little loose soil over the root- 
 crowns. In April, when the new shoots are suf- 
 ficiently up, two, three, or four poles, but gene- 
 rally three, are set to each hillock, the poles 
 varying in height from 12 to 18 feet, according 
 to the judgment of the cultivator, or the antici- 
 pated wants of the crop ; and in May, or as soon 
 as the shoots are sufficiently high, they are tied, 
 two or three to each pole, with soft rushes. 
 Throughout all the season, or at least till the fibres 
 of the roots spread themselves so near the sur- 
 face as to forbid the removal or stirring of the 
 soil to a hoeing-depth, the same frequency of 
 cleaning and stirring, and the same busy promo- 
 tion of pulverulence and aeration, must be prac- 
 tised as during the first summer. Early in June 
 or about midsummer, all bines which were left 
 loose at the time of tieing the shoots to the poles 
 are cut away; after this, each hillock is com- 
 pletely dug or pronged up, and a little mould is 
 drawn up to the crown of it with the hoe, or 
 some portions of the soil are removed, and the 
 cavity filled up with fine manure or rich compost ; 
 and a few weeks later, this process, with the 
 exception of no manure or compost being in the 
 alternative, is repeated. The Farnham hop-far- 
 
705 
 
 HOP. 
 
 HOP. 
 
 mers also ' pear ' or hoe the ground if any weeds 
 should appear between these two operations, and 
 likewise immediately before the picking of the 
 hops. 
 
 In the spring of the third year, and afterwards 
 of every alternate year, or at furthest of every 
 third year, farm-yard manure is applied to the 
 hillocks at the rate of from 20 to 25 loads per 
 acre. It is usually carted out during the frosts 
 of winter ; it is frequently made into a compost 
 with equal or greater quantities of soil ; and, at 
 the time of opening the hillocks and pruning 
 away the old bine, it is applied to the soil of the 
 hillocks, and thoroughly intermixed by means 
 of a three-pronged fork. On hop -plantations 
 near the sea, sprats and star-fish are frequently 
 used for manure ; and on all plantations which 
 have soils of clay, strong loam, or any other kind 
 of cohesive substance, at once the strongest, the 
 most durable, the most aerating, and in all re- 
 spects the most suitable manure, wherever it can 
 be obtained in sufficient quantity, and upon eco- 
 nomical terms, is woollen rags. But an excellent 
 manure, a decidedly efficient one, and the cheap- 
 est and most obvious of all, though hitherto 
 almost universally neglected, consists of the 
 chopped hop-bine itself, either dug into the 
 ground fresh in November, or laid up in heaps 
 to decompose into a rich, black, oily, compost- 
 looking substance, and to be applied at the usual 
 time in spring. Some recent experiments have 
 shown highly in favour of hop-bine manure ; and 
 the mere principles of agricultural chemistry, 
 quite independently of any appeal to experiment, 
 are sufficient to declare its value. Excepting 
 the comparatively small nitrogenous and mineral 
 contents of the seeds and strobiles, the bine con- 
 tains everything which the plant abstracted 
 from the soil ; so that the returning of the bine 
 to the soil in the way of manure, accompanied 
 with merely such a quantity of farm-yard dung, 
 or hog's dung, or woollen rags, or refuse of fisher- 
 ies, as shall compensate for the abstracted portion 
 of the seeds and strobiles, restores the land to 
 the same condition as before the crop was grown. 
 When the seeds are generally produced, as in Mr. 
 Lance's method, a considerable accompaniment 
 of other manure will be requisite ; but in other 
 cases very little will be sufficient. 
 
 The Poling of the Hop. — The prevailing number 
 of poles in the acre, throughout a great part of the 
 Kent and Sussex hop-grounds, varies from 2,400 to 
 3,000; and, of course, it is mainly controlled by the 
 distances of the hillocks, and by the amount of poling 
 to each hillock. A common practice is to distribute 
 the poles into three classes, of respectively about 10 
 or 12 feet, about 14 or 15 feet, and about 16 or 18 
 feet in length, in adaptation to the age, luxuriance, 
 or anticipated tallness of the plants; and this prac- 
 tice involves both a great economizing in the cost of 
 the poles, and a great protection of the strength of 
 the plants. The- expense of poles is a very heavy 
 item in the costs of cultivation; and poles of 16 or 
 18 feet in length usually cost about three times as 
 much as poles of 10 or 12 feet in length. The use 
 
 of poles proportionately longer than the natural tall- 
 ness of a plant, whether in the first year or in subse- 
 quent years, coaxes it unduly upward, stimulates it 
 to an excited exercise of its powers, and occasions, 
 in the following year, an impoverishment of its 
 roots and a corresponding enfeeblement of its whole 
 structure; while the accidental or mistaken use of 
 too short poles, or an extraordinary and unantici- 
 pated luxuriance of the plants, can, in the course of 
 the summer, be remedied by setting up such supple- 
 mental poles as shall maintain the shoots in a suffi- 
 ciently erect and elevated position. 
 
 The poles are usually so adjusted as to incline 
 somewhat outwards; for they at once give more 
 room, occasion more aeration, secure a greater 
 breadth of sunshine, and produce a larger yield of 
 hops, in that position, than when placed upright. 
 Two or three stems are usually tied and trained to 
 each pole; and such stems are selected as, at the 
 time of tieing, give the greatest promise of being 
 vigorous and luxuriant. The tieing must take 
 place at the critical moment when the stems are 
 just long enough to admit of ..being bound to the 
 poles without being much slanted from the roots, 
 and before they have acquired a decumbent habit of 
 lying attached to the ground. A process of a very 
 questionable kind, called branching, is performed by 
 some cultivators about midsummer, and by others 
 after the hop-blossoms are set; this consists in remov- 
 ing all the leaves and side-bines over a space of two or 
 three feet from the ground; and it is designed to aid 
 some of the main purposes of poling, or to produce 
 aeration, and send up a maximum flow of sap to the 
 upper branches and floriferous parts of the plants. 
 But it really maims the plants, disturbs their func- 
 tions, and lessens their productiveness; and the de- 
 sign of it would be really accomplished by simply 
 thinning out plants whenever they are too crowded, 
 and leaving the rest to be aired and stimulated en- 
 tirely by the poles. " Perhaps," says Malcolm, 
 " when from the strength of the plant, and the close- 
 ness of the rows, the lateral branches occupy the 
 great part of the intervals, it may be proper to 
 shorten some of the most luxuriant; but lam not 
 clear — particularly as it respects the hop, which is 
 one of the most tender and delicate plants that are 
 grown — whether it would not be more advisable to 
 destroy every other plant in the row, or even every 
 other row in the plantation, and by that means to 
 procure the wished-for air, rather than, by shorten- 
 ing the shoots and taking off the leaves, run the 
 risk of a very hot season, or an occasional cold and 
 drying one, — thus injuring the plants, and giving- 
 perhaps a sudden check to the blossom before it is 
 out of all danger." 
 
 A method of espalier training has been recom- 
 mended, and in some instances practised, for the 
 double purpose of economizing the cost of poles, and 
 affording greater security to the plants from the 
 effects of high winds. Rows of stakes or short 
 poles, five feet high, and three feet apart, are fast- 
 ened in the ground; and two transverse lines of 
 paling- wood or cleft halvelings are adjusted, respec- 
 tively along their top and along their middle, for the 
 twofold purpose of keeping them steady, and of 
 affording scope for the horizontal training of the 
 plants. Hops grown in the usual vertically twining 
 manner on tall poles, are sometimes bruised by high 
 winds, and soon acquire a brown colour; and, when 
 subjected to the process of drying, are bleached with 
 the vapours of brimstone, or sulphurous acid, in 
 order that they may regain the delicate yellow tint 
 ■which is so generally admired in the sample. The 
 espalier or paling mode of training prevents this dis- 
 aster, and also gives the plants an ample exposure to 
 air and sunshine, and obviates the crowding which 
 is occasioned by the vertical method, and evolves an 
 2 Y 
 
HOP. 
 
 706 
 
 HOP. 
 
 equal amount and superior quality of produce from a 
 smaller number of plants. An important addition 
 to the espalier method, specially adapted to the rais- 
 ing of the plants from seeds, but adapted also to the 
 raising of them from either plain or rooted cuttings, 
 is the placing of upright poles at regular intervals in 
 juxtaposition with the espaliers, for the training of 
 male plants, in order that the pollen of the male 
 flowers growing high on these poles may fall right 
 down on the flowers of the female plants upon the 
 espaliers; and while the espaliers are fixtures, the 
 upright poles may be removed yearly in the usual 
 way. The training and tieing of the bine upon the 
 espaliers must be progressive and continuous, as fast 
 as the bine grows, till the plants come into bloom; 
 and then it ought to cease. 
 
 Any kind of wood which possesses sufficient 
 straightness and slenderness is suitable for ordinary 
 upright poles. Beech and birch are very bad ; and 
 acacia-tree, oak, ash, willow, maple, and chestnut 
 are good. Oak is most commonly employed in 
 Lower Kent and the midland counties; and when 
 the poles of it decay £t bottom, or become too short, 
 they are sold in the neighbouring towns for fuel. 
 Ash, chestnut, maple, and willow, are very com- 
 monly used in other parts of Kent. The acacia- 
 tree is probably by far the best, for intrinsic adapta- 
 tion, for rapid growth, for durability, and for aggre- 
 gate economy. See the article Acacia- Tree. The 
 lower end of the poles is sharpened with an edge- 
 tool, and, in some instances, somewhat charred by 
 holding it over the smoke of a strong fire. The 
 stripping of the bark is practised by many cultiva- 
 tors, and is thought by them to make the poles more 
 durable, and especially to preserve them from the 
 worm; but it possibly has no good effect whatever, 
 and it deprives the poles of their proper warmth and 
 softness, which are probably congenial to the hop- 
 plants. 
 
 M. Denis, in his treatise on the cultivation of the 
 hop-plant, recommends the substitution of trellises 
 of iron- wires for the common system of vertical poles. 
 The wires, according to his method, are formed into 
 pieces of about a yard in length, and joined together 
 so as to resemble a surveyor's chain, and suspended 
 horizontally between posts of oak at the extremities 
 of the rows of plants, and supported at regular in- 
 tervals by wooden props; and the hop-plants are 
 planted at distances from one another of 8 feet, and 
 each left with four shoots; and the shoots are con- 
 ducted up little iron rods to the wire-chain, and two 
 of them trained along it in one direction, and the 
 other two in the opposite direction. M. Denis — 
 referring, of course, to the prices of materials in 
 France, and especially in the Vosges — computes 
 that, by this method, about a fifth part of the ori- 
 ginal cost of poles is saved, and afterwards 50 francs 
 per annum for every 500 square metres. 
 
 The Propagation of the Hop from Seed. — The 
 hop-plants raised in the usual manner from cuttings, 
 no matter to which variety of the species they be- 
 long, have a tendency, after a considerable course of 
 cultivation, to become dwarfish, to lose their fine 
 colour, to deteriorate in flavour, and even to dwindle 
 into constitutional feebleness and eventually die out. 
 The occasional raising of the plants from seeds, there- 
 fore, would seem to be necessary, not only for pro- 
 ducing new varieties, but also for maintaining the 
 vigour of the old ones; and even stated propagation 
 from seeds, in total substitution of the common 
 method of making plantations from cuttings, pos- 
 sesses eminent advantages as to both the aggregate 
 economy of cultivation and the superior quality of 
 the produce; and when this method is accompanied 
 by the retaining of a due proportion of the male 
 plants, and by such a distribution and training of them 
 as to render all or nearly all the female plants seed- 
 
 bearing, it is strictly natural, and brings into harmo- 
 nious play all the constitutional energies of the 
 plants, and can scarcely fail both to raise better 
 plants and to educe a better produce than the usual, 
 divorcing, and excessively artificial method. 
 
 Mr. Lance of Lewisham, a number of years ago, 
 put the system of cultivation from seed, with inter- 
 mixture of male plants, very successfully to the test, 
 and published the results of his experiments in a 
 tract entitled ' The Golden Farmer;' and both his 
 practice and his principles have been approvingly 
 quoted in various important agricultural works, par- 
 ticularly Baxter's Library of Agricultural and Hor- 
 ticultural Knowledge, the Quarterly Journal of 
 Agriculture, and the Farmer's Series in the Library 
 of Useful Knowledge. A specimen of Mr. Lance's 
 hops, grown from seed, was exhibited at the Mai- 
 ling Agricultural meeting, and was allowed by the 
 judges to be the most pungent and aromatic in the 
 booth; and though not of so delicate a hue as some 
 others, it was considered to excel them all in strength 
 for the purposes of the brewer. In a comparative 
 trial, the hops, without seeds, from Mr. Jorden's at 
 Oxford, where the male plants had always been era- 
 dicated, weighed at the rate of 22 lbs. per bushel; 
 the hop-seeds, without the leaves, from Mr. Love's 
 at Shoreham, raised from cuttings, and grown near 
 male plants, weighed at the rate of 35 lbs. per bush- 
 el ; and the hop-seeds, without the leaves, from Mr. 
 Lance's at Lewisham, raised from seed, with inter- 
 spersion of male plants, and as gathered in the fourth 
 year after sowing, weighed at the rate of 36 lbs. per 
 bushel. 
 
 The seeds sown at Lewisham, we are told, were 
 ' the goldings,' selected from plants grown in a 
 hedge, where there was a male plant; and the plants 
 came true to the original, but were of a superior 
 size. " The male hop," says Mr. Lance, "has its 
 flower or pollen previously perfected, so as to im- 
 pregnate the stigma or burr of the female as soon as 
 it is ready; which inoculation gives that energy and 
 vitality to the seed, without which it would not 
 produce its kind. It is the pollen which gives great 
 weight to the hop, and also gives the fine aromatic 
 bitter to the production of the bine, and more parti- 
 cularly so to its seed. The petal or leaf of the hop, 
 contains but little of the astringent quality required, 
 compared with what is found in the seed. The 
 same atmosphere which ripens and wafts the pollen 
 from the male, prepares the female for its reception. 
 The experiments at Lewisham fully prove the bene- 
 ficial effects of raising the plant from seed, and com- 
 pleting its fructification. The hop- plants raised 
 from seed surpass those which have beqn raised from 
 cuttings ; their luxuriant growth enables them to 
 withstand the effects of blight. The hops are found 
 to have a seed at the bottom of every petal of the 
 flower, of a most pungent aromptic flavour. Those 
 hops, grown in the usual way, without the necessary 
 quantity of male plants, have scarcely any seeds, and 
 these are mostly abortive. We therefore say, that 
 seed gives weight and flavour to the hop; it is the 
 vitality of the plant. The grand object in hop- 
 growing, therefore, should be to get as much seed 
 as possible; and seeing that the plant cannot be 
 completed without the male bloom, is it not most 
 incongruous, that the hop planters will shut their 
 ears against the voice of reason and nature, and care 
 nought about the male plant? They grub them up 
 wherever they find them as useless lumber, and say, 
 ' Our fathers got money without male hops, and so 
 can we; for why should we pretend to be wiser than 
 our forefathers?' In saving the seeds, care should 
 be taken, that they are selected from hops that 
 have been properly impregnated by male farina, 
 taken from the bine near a male hop. The seed 
 from about the kiln, at the sweeping, may grow, but 
 
HOP. 
 
 707 
 
 HOP. 
 
 there is a great probability it will not, the vegetable 
 life having been injured in drying. The seed should 
 be sown early in the spring, in a mixed soil of chalk, 
 clay, and sand; the latter earth should predominate. 
 These may be set out in rows at the latter end of 
 the year, where they should remain until the sexual 
 distinction can be ascertained; this may be. done by 
 observing the leaf, and the forwardness of the plant. 
 The next year, the males will show a rough leaf, 
 when the females are only just breaking out of the 
 ground. When the sexual distinction is known at 
 the latter end of the second year, they may be 
 planted into the ground where they are to remain, 
 and may be poled the third year. If the soil is con- 
 genial, and the season not unpropitious, they will 
 bear hops the third year. Every fifty female plants 
 should have a male; and there will not be any objec- 
 tion to a male plant being in the same hill with the 
 females." 
 
 The Picking of Hops The hop-plant begins to 
 
 show the seed-vessel, or "to bell," some time in 
 August; and it usually matures its strobiles during 
 the first half of September. The picking of the 
 hops takes place when the strobiles are ripe ; but 
 is regulated, in comparative earliness or lateness, by 
 reference to the desired delicacy of colour or desired 
 strength of aroma in the hops. When the scales 
 begin to exchange a pale straw-colour for a light 
 brown, to emit a fragrant and aromatic odour, to 
 possess some firmness under the touch, and to be 
 capable of being easily rubbed to pieces, they are, in 
 a general sense, perfectly mature and quite ready to 
 be picked. But such as are required to possess the 
 utmost delicacy of colour, to need no bleaching in- 
 fluence from sulphurous acid, and to make the finest 
 appearance to the eye in a market sample, must be 
 picked before the seed is complete, and before the 
 strobile can be soiled by the poles or bruised by the 
 wind ; while such as are required to possess the 
 utmost strength of aroma for the practical uses of 
 the brewer, ought not to be picked till the seeds are 
 quite mature, and have acquired their utmost possi- 
 ble weight. At the period of ripening, a yellow 
 juice, called by cultivators "the condition of the 
 hop," is formed at the bottom of the scales; this is 
 a constitutional provision for the nourishing of the 
 seed, and seems to act the same part in hop-strobiles 
 which nectar does in the flowers of melliferous 
 plants; and, though always most abundant in such 
 hop-plants as are most seminiferous, it appears even 
 in those which have never been impregnated by pol- 
 len. Now when fine colour is required in hops, they 
 ought to be picked the instant this juice begins to 
 appear at the bottom of the scales; and when the 
 utmost strength and weight are required, they ought 
 not to be picked till the scales are in full condition, 
 and have become brown. 
 
 But the hops of a plantation do not all ripen at the 
 same time; and even those on one stem are not all 
 of one quality. The Farnham growers, therefore, 
 pick their hops in a series of gatherings, and so dis- 
 tribute them into classes as to have at least three 
 different kinds, of different quality and price for the 
 market. " They begin," says Stevenson, " at the 
 bottom of the pole, and pick the hops one by one, 
 without bunches, long-tails, or leaves. Those that 
 are just of the proper degree of ripeness, and are full 
 and Fair in their appearance, are first gathered, and 
 put by themselves into the bin-cloth ; and such as 
 are rather inferior in quality, or not exactly taken at 
 the proper degree of ripeness, are of the second sort, 
 and are likewise put by themselves in a basket. As, 
 however, with the Farnham planters, hops that are 
 under-ripe are more esteemed than such as are over- 
 ripe, the second sort takes in only the greenish hops. 
 Such as are brown and over-ripe are the third sort; 
 and if the grower is very nice, a fourth basket is set 
 
 for such as are defective in their form, or have re- 
 ceived a check during their growth." 
 
 The "bin" or " crib" is a strong wooden frame, 
 about 9 feet long and 4 feet wide, mounted upon 
 legs a yard high, and placed in a convenient part of 
 the plantation for receiving the hops from the pick- 
 ers, and provided in the interior with a coarse cloth, 
 which is hooked to its sides, and hangs within it like 
 a large bag. As many bins are set up as may be 
 needed for the gathering; and a corps of pickers, 6 
 or 8 in number, together with a man for collecting 
 the poles, are appointed to each bin. The pickers 
 of a plantation include, not only the stated labourers 
 of the farm, but a multitude of men, women, and 
 children from a distance, — many of whom bivouac 
 from night to night in the field, during the hop-har- 
 vest, in precisely the same manner as gipsies. The 
 hop-bine is cut asunder about 2 or 3 feet from the 
 ground ; the pole, laden with its bine, is wrenched 
 out of the ground by means of a peculiar lever, 
 technically called in Kent a hop-dog; and two 
 poles are laid upon a bin, and committed to a 
 set of pickers, 3 or 4 on each side of the bin, — or 
 sometimes a single pole is laid upon a smaller bin or 
 basket, and committed to the picking of one woman 
 and her children. A copious bleeding of sap occurs 
 from the disseverment of the bine ; so that the cut- 
 ting of it nearer the ground than 2 or 3 feet would 
 most probably enfeeble the root. Hops exposed 
 to hot sunshine between the disseverment and the 
 picking, are liable to shrivel and discolour, — so that, 
 in clear hot weather, only as many plants are taken 
 up at a time as can be speedily picked ; and hops picked 
 in a damp state are liable to become musty, — so that 
 plants taken up in a dewy morning are shaken hither 
 and thither upon the poles, in order that they may 
 be freed as much as possible from the dew. 
 
 The Drying of Hops. — Hops are dried in a struc- 
 ture very similar to a malt-kiln, and designated an 
 oast; and the operation of drying is frequently called 
 oastage. A small substantially built oast, with a 
 proportionate store, costs from £200 to £300; but 
 many an oast is much more expensive. An oast of 
 14 feet, when worked during the whole 24 hours, so 
 as to perform two dryings or sets of drying within 
 that period, is sufficient for 200 bushels of freshly 
 picked hops, or 350 lbs. of dried hops per day. Some 
 oasts have only single floors, and possess only one 
 set of adaptations; but others have double floors, 
 the upper five or six feet above the lower, — the 
 former for the slow and cautious drying of very 
 moist hops, and the latter either for the thorough 
 drying of transfers from the upper floor, or for the 
 immediate drying of hops which arrive somewhat 
 dry from the field. The ordinary time requisite for 
 drying a set in the single-floored oasts, or on the 
 lower floor of the double-floored oasts, is about 10 
 or 12 hours; and the fuel employed must not injure 
 the delicate smell and odour of the hops, and com- 
 monly is either coke or charcoal. 
 
 The operation of drying is a very nice one, and 
 requires to be performed with great skill and care. 
 The picked hops must not remain long in the bins or 
 baskets, else they will heat and spoil; and therefore 
 those picked in the morning are taken to the oast at 
 mid-day. The temperature of the oast is previously 
 raised to a proper height; the hops are spread out 
 in a layer of greater or lesser thickness according 
 to their degree of moisture ; the temperature is 
 maintained at a steady and moderate height till the 
 effects of it begin to reach the upper part of the 
 layer; it is then somewhat lowered, all the layer 
 is turned upside down, and the temperature is raised 
 to its former height, and is maintained there till the 
 drying is completed. In proportion to the moistness 
 of the hops, must be both the thinness of the layer 
 and the moderateness of the temperature ; for either 
 
HOP. 
 
 a thick layer of moist hops with a low heat, or a 
 thin layer with a high one, throws off volumes of 
 | steam, and is liable to be amassed into cakes and 
 lumps. The hops, when fully dried, are shovelled 
 into the adjacent store to be bagged for market. 
 
 The bleaching process with sulphurous acid is 
 performed simultaneously with the drying; and is 
 usually accomplished by the simple means of burning 
 a little brimstone. A statute of 7 George II., con- 
 firmed by one of 35 George III., declares "that if 
 any person shall mix with hops any drug or ingre- 
 dient, to alter the scent or colour, he shall forfeit 
 £5 per cwt.;" and this statute was judicially pro- 
 nounced by Lord Kenyon to apply to the practice of 
 bleaching with sulphurous acid. The practice, nev- 
 ertheless, is done in the face of day, and beneath the 
 nose of the minions of the law; and is almost as 
 general throughout most of Kent and Sussex as the 
 very process of drying. The Farnham hop-farmers, 
 indeed, as well as some others of high character, 
 never let sulphurous acid near their prime hops, and 
 unquestionably owe a large portion of their deser- 
 vedly high reputation to the keeping of these hops 
 free from this drug; but the great body of hop- 
 growers make no scruple of sulphur-bleaching the 
 best hops as well as the worst; and some even 
 appear to think that this abominable and mischie- 
 vous process is essential to the development or the 
 refining of the hops' aromatic odour. 
 
 Mr. Lance tersely and pithily remarks — though 
 not without error in his chemistry — " The Farnham 
 hops are found to keep their strength much longer 
 than the Kent, because they have not any brimstone 
 in them. In Kent, the most delicate-coloured hops 
 are likely to be the most inferior in strength. The 
 oil and flavour of hops are exceedingly volatile ; the 
 atmospheric air will take them away in a short time, 
 and more particularly when sulphur is incorporated 
 with them. In drying them with sulphur much of 
 the aromatic bitter passes off with the fumes of the 
 sulphur. The fragrant smell of the Kent hop, when 
 it first arrives at the hop-market, may be considered 
 as the strength and flavour passing rapidly away, 
 assisted by the volatility of the sulphur with which 
 it is impregnated." 
 
 1 The action of the sulphurous acid on the colour of 
 the hops is a true bleaching, precisely the same as in 
 its action on straw in the manufacture of bonnets, 
 and very similar to the general bleaching action of 
 chlorine. But its action on the taste and flavour of 
 the hops is, not, as Mr. Lance supposes, to make an 
 impregnation with sulphur, but to effect a change of 
 chemical constitution. The purely fragrant principle 
 of hops is, of course, a volatile oil, and suffers injury 
 principally by being dissipated; but the purely bit- 
 ter principle, or combination of bitter and aromatic 
 principles, which constitutes all the real power of the 
 hops, to prevent the acetous fermentation in malt 
 liquors, is probably of an alkaline nature, like the 
 quinina and cinchonina of Peruvian bark, the mor- 
 phia of opium, the strychnia of nux vomica, the ver- 
 atria of white hellebore, the picrotoxine of cocculus 
 indicus, the solania of woody nightshade, the delphia 
 of stavesacre, the sanguinaria of blood-root, and 
 many other recently discovered alkaloids; and this 
 principle, when subjected to the action of sulphurous 
 acid, must undergo a total change of nature, and 
 probably a deprivation of most of its peculiar power, 
 by the destruction of its alkalinity. See the arti- 
 cles Alkalies and Acids. 
 
 The Bagging of Hops. — Hops, after being dried, 
 must lie several days in heaps on the floor of the 
 store-house, in order that they may acquire a suffi- 
 cient degree of moisture to become somewhat tough 
 and yielding; for when newly removed from the 
 oast, they are exceedingly brittle ; and, if not al- 
 lowed to lie till they slightly moisten, they would 
 
 | break to pieces and almost fall into powder in the 
 process of handling and packing. 
 
 The usual packages for hops are bags, containing 
 from \\ to 1 j cwt., called pockets, and used only 
 for the finest qualities, and sacks, containing 2£ 
 cwt., called bags, and used for all the inferior kinds. 
 A pocket, irrespective of its contents, weighs only 
 5 or 6 lbs., while a bag weighs 25 lbs. ; and the 
 latter is about 7 A feet in length and 8 feet in girth. 
 The grand object in packing is to press the hops so 
 firmly together as to prevent the dissipation of their 
 fragrance and the decomposition of their substance 
 by the permeation of the air. Now "to accomplish 
 this in the most effectual manner," remarks Mr. 
 Lance, "nothing can be better than a Bramah's hy- 
 draulic press, and the hops packed up in square bales 
 of cloth, of various weights, for the convenience of 
 families; and they would be stored in a warehouse 
 much more conveniently in square packages than in 
 round ones." 
 
 The ordinary method of bagging is described by 
 the author of "British Husbandry" as follows: — 
 " A circular hole, covered by a trap door, and suffi- 
 ciently large to admit the mouth of a hop-bag, is 
 made in the floor of the stowage-room. A few hops 
 are tied tight in the lower corners of the bag, in 
 order that, when full, they may be lifted and re- 
 moved with ease. A hoop, rather larger than the 
 circumference of the hole, is used to stretch out the 
 bag, by means of hooks on the outer side of it, the 
 inner side of the hoop, when the bag is let down 
 into the hole, either resting on the floor or on a 
 frame of wood made over it. When the bag is thus 
 stretched out, and let into the opening, the feeder 
 throws down a few shovelfuls; and 'the bagster,' 
 descending into the bag, with flat shoes or leather socks 
 on his feet, treads the hops regularly and carefully 
 down, especially towards the sides. More hops are 
 then thrown down, and closely pressed, until the 
 bag is filled, — the tighter and closer the better, for 
 the firmer they are packed the longer will they keep. 
 The hoop is then loosened, the bag is let down to 
 the lower floor, more hops are tied into the upper 
 corners, and it is sewed up as closely as possible, 
 the whole operation being generally completed with- 
 in an hour." 
 
 The Expenses and Produce of Hop-Cultivation. 
 — The expenses of cultivating hops consist of 
 rent, tithe, taxes, interest of capital, culture- 
 labour, repair of poles, manure, picking, dry- 
 ing, bags, bagging, and duty. Rent is very 
 variable ; manure is very variable ; poles are 
 exceedingly variable ; and even culture-labour, 
 picking, and drying are by no means uniform. 
 Rent is controlled partly by situation, and 
 mainly by the quality of the land ; manure and 
 culture-labour, by the situation; and fuel and 
 poles, by nearness or remoteness of carriage. 
 The total expenses up to picking are usually 
 estimated at an average of about £30 per acre, 
 but are highest in Middle Kent, and lowest in 
 Hereford and Worcester ; and the total expenses 
 from picking onward, including drying, bagging, 
 carriage, and factorage, vary from about £36 to 
 near £49. Yet an estimate before us of the ex- 
 penses of cultivating 4 acres in Middle Kent in 
 1836, exhibits a total, for the 4 acres, of only 
 £149 10s. 6d., or per acre scarcely £37. The 
 items are these : Rent and taxes on 4 acres at 
 40s., £8 ; culture-labour at 50s., £10 ; repair of 
 poles, £4 ; manure at 40s., £S ; picking 4,332 
 
HOP. 
 
 709 
 
 HOP. 
 
 bushels at 7 for Is., £23 15s. ; pole-pulling, mea- 
 suring, and attendant expenses, £4 16s. ; the 
 labour of drying, £'3 12s.; charcoal, £6 10s. 6d. ; 
 sulphur and lime, 17s. 6d.; rent of oast, £4; 
 cloth for pockets, M ; making and bagging 39 
 pockets at Is. 2d., £2 5s. 6d.; interest on the 
 year's expenditure, £4 ; duty on 64 cwts. at 18s. 
 8d., £59 14s.; tithe, £4; total, £147 10s. 6d. 
 Mr. Lance calculates the subsequent expences 
 of each cwt. of hops purchased on the poles as 
 follows: — The duty, 18s. 8d. ; picking, 10s.; 
 bags, Is. 4d. ; drying, 5s. ; bagging, 9d. ; cartage, 
 2s.; sale, Is.; total, £l 18s. 9d. 
 
 The produce of hops varies, not only with soil, 
 season, culture, and most other circumstances 
 which affect the great majority of field crops, 
 but with some mightily controlling influences in 
 the form of casualties and diseases ; and, within 
 almost any short cycle of years, it may take the 
 enormous range per acre of from 1 cwt. to 20 
 cwts. Cultivators regard about 7 cwt. per acre 
 as both an average and a remunerating produce ; 
 and however paradoxical the statement may ap- 
 pear, they are almost as much afraid of a very 
 large produce as of a very small one. A mini- 
 mum produce, of course, is great and dead loss ; 
 but a maximum produce so deteriorates prices, 
 and entails such a heavy amount of inferior and 
 almost unsaleable stock, and at the same time is 
 so totally unaccompanied with any diminution in 
 the costs of picking, drying, bagging, and duty, 
 as sometimes to prove excessively embarrassing. 
 So exceedingly heavy are the expenses of culti- 
 vation in all years, that only men of large capital 
 can be hop-farmers ; and so prodigiously uncer- 
 tain and fluctuating is the produce, that only 
 men of much enterprise, who prefer the excite- 
 ment of speculation to the calm pursuits of mea- 
 sured industry, can continue, for any length of 
 time, to be hop-growers. " Although the culture 
 of hops," remarks a writer already quoted, " may 
 in a course of years prove lucrative, yet the great 
 uncertainty of its return renders it so speculative 
 as to partake more of the nature of gambling 
 than of the regular operations of husbandry. 
 This, however, seems to be the great inducement 
 for its continuance ; for although heavy losses 
 are frequently sustained, yet as brilliant prizes 
 are also sometimes gained, there are always 
 people to take their chance of such a lottery." 
 A table of the average produce of hops from 
 1807 to 1836, given in Mr. Lance's work, shows 
 a lower result than our statement, — exhibiting 
 the minimum at 0'97 of a cwt., the maximum at 
 12*2 cwts., and the grand average at very nearly 
 5| cwts. 
 
 The Diseases of the Hop-Plant. — Hop-plants are 
 subject to numerous and devastating diseases; 
 and sometimes suffer severely from them in sea- 
 sons which are favourable to other field crops. 
 Some of the apparent diseases are merely accom- 
 paniments or consequences of the real ones, and 
 
 may be either harmless or positively beneficial ; 
 and some of the most virulent of the real dis- 
 eases are too subtle or obscure or obstinate to be 
 successfully combated by any known preventives 
 or remedies. Two of the merely apparent causes 
 of injury are the crowding of lady-birds, which 
 feed on the aphides, and do indirect service to 
 the hop-plants, — and the suffusion of honey-dew, 
 which is ejected by the aphides, and can scarcely 
 be regarded as injurious. The principal real dis- 
 eases are those popularly called the green fly, the 
 flea, the ghost, the mould, the blight, and the 
 fire-blast, — the former three inflicted by insects, 
 and the other three inflicted by the weather. 
 
 The "greenfly" is simply the Aphis humuli. 
 See the article Aphis. The attacks of this tiny 
 foe are sometimes tremendous, and occasionally 
 convert a flourishing and luxuriant crop into 
 utter desolation. The insect appears toward the 
 end of May, and in the course of June and July ; 
 and it may sometimes be seen on the wing, in 
 vast swarms, flying off to colonize other planta- 
 tions, and seeming as if wafted on the wings of 
 the wind. Sudden and violent falls of rain or 
 storms of wind or of thunder sometimes subdue 
 it ; and though no thorough artificial palliative 
 is known, aspersing the plants with pulverized 
 lime, or syringing them with tobacco-water or 
 soap-suds, or fumigating them with burning to- 
 bacco and sulphur, may be of considerable ser- 
 vice. Beans have sometimes been raised between 
 the rows of the hop-plants, with the design of 
 their attracting the aphis ; but the aphis of the 
 bean and the aphis of the hop are quite distinct 
 species, and of entirely different tastes and hab- 
 its. 
 
 The flea, or more properly the flea-beetle, is 
 the Haltica concinna, a co-species of the small 
 flea-beetle which infests young turnips. The 
 imago, or perfect insect, attacks young hop- 
 plants, and sometimes commits great havoc upon 
 a rising plantation. It has not yet been satis- 
 factorily traced to its larva state ; and even the 
 habits of its imago state, and the most probable 
 means of successfully combating it, are far from 
 being satisfactorily known. Some persons think 
 that it abounds most in the years in which the 
 hop-plantations have been manured ; and others 
 think that it abounds most in seasons which are 
 distinguished for cold nights and hot dry days. 
 The aspersing of the young plants or young shoots 
 with pulverized lime, as soon as the leaves begin 
 to unfold, is probably the most efficient remedy. 
 
 The ghost-moth is the Hepialus hu?nuli, a true 
 moth or nocturnal lepidopter, and the type of a 
 family of moths called Hepialites. The caterpil- 
 lars of this family lie ensconced within the plants 
 on which they feed, and are not often seen ; the 
 cocoon of the chrysalides generally consists of the 
 same kind of matter which constituted the food 
 of the caterpillars ; and the antennas of the per- 
 fect insects are short, their proboscis but slightly 
 
HOP. 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 HOP. 
 
 visible, and their wings tectiform and generally 
 elongated. The eggs of the ghost-moth species 
 are deposited near the roots of the hop-plant ; 
 the caterpillars feed on the roots, and sometimes 
 cause extensive devastation among the plants ; 
 and the perfect insects are of tolerably large 
 size, — and the superior wings of the males are 
 silver-white and unspotted, while those of the 
 females are yellow and have red spots. In 1826, 
 the ghost-moth appeared in great numbers in 
 many parts of Warwickshire. Its popular name 
 seems to allude jointly to its habit of flying in 
 the night .and to the whiteness of the colour of 
 the male. A boy carrying a lighted lantern 
 after dusk, attracts the ghost-moths around the 
 light, and may destroy many of them by a sweep- 
 ing blow with his hat ; and, as they hover over 
 limited spots, he might, if tolerably vigilant and 
 active, clear them away from a whole plantation 
 in the course of a few nights. 
 
 The mould, the fen, or the mouldy-fen, pre- 
 vails more on hop-grounds which are low, moist, 
 and sheltered, than on such as are high, dry, and 
 open; and while quite a grievous calamity in 
 itself, it is sometimes accompanied by both the 
 aphis and the flea-beetle. " On the 27th of 
 June," records Dr. Hales in his Vegetable Sta- 
 tistics, " some specks of fen appeared. From 
 this day to the 9th of July, the weather was very 
 dry; and the great leaves became discoloured 
 and a little withered, and the fen somewhat in- 
 creased. From the 9th of July till the 23d, the 
 fen increased a great deal, but the flies and lice," 
 the flea-beetles and the aphides, " decreased, it 
 raining much daily. In a week more, the fen, 
 which seemed to be almost at a stand, was con- 
 siderably increased, especially in those lands 
 where it first appeared. About the middle of 
 August, the fen continued spreading where it 
 was not before perceived, and not only the leaves, 
 but many of the burs also, were tainted with it. 
 About the 20th of August, some of the hops were 
 infected with the fen, and the whole branches 
 were corrupted with it. Half the plantations 
 had escaped pretty well hitherto, and from this 
 time the fen increased but little; but several 
 days of wind and rain in the following week so 
 distorted the plants that many of them began to 
 dwindle, and at last came to nothing; and of 
 those which then remained in bloom, some never 
 turned to hops, whilst many of those which did 
 were so small that they scarcely exceeded the 
 size of a good large bur." The mouldy-fen, when 
 once in possession of any part of a hop-ground, 
 is liable to overrun the whole, and even to affect 
 the grass and other herbaceous vegetation under 
 the hop-plants; and, if not vigorously encoun- 
 tered by efforts to exterminate it, may not im- 
 probably infest the whole ground throughout a 
 series, of years. Some of the best means of re- 
 sisting it — means known to be more or less effi- 
 cacious since soon after the commencement of 
 
 last century — are the maintaining of the soil in 
 constant tilth and pulverulence, the assiduous 
 suppression and extermination of all sorts of 
 weeds, the burning of infected hop-plants in 
 places remote from the hop-grounds, and manur- 
 ing with some of the most pungent varieties of 
 hog's dung. 
 
 The blight or the mildew infests hop-plants in 
 a manner somewhat similar to the mouldy-fen ; 
 but though observed and investigated from re- 
 mote periods, it continues to be exceedingly ill 
 understood, and — as well as the mouldy-fen — is 
 possibly a mere generic name for several diseases 
 of kindred phenomena. An old work says, " It 
 is a white dew, which falls in summer at sunrise, 
 chiefly when the hops are in flower ; its fall is 
 so unequal, that it sometimes embraces a whole 
 district, and sometimes only parts of it ; and it 
 dries up the hops, withers and consumes their 
 leaves, and consequently ruins the crop. Some 
 phytologists have ascribed it to the growth of a 
 very minute fungus ; some, to the deposition of 
 a slimy substance by aphides ; and some to the 
 deposition of ovules and of an accompanying or 
 sheathing liquid substance by other kinds of in- 
 sects. It occurs most in weather when the days 
 are hot and the nights are dewless. Old though 
 disputed methods of encountering it are to sprin- 
 kle the infected plants with beech ashes, and to 
 manure the ground with hog's dung ; and a mo- 
 dern method, scarcely more intelligent, is to 
 manure the ground with soot. In fact, all the 
 diseases which affect hop-plants, and especially 
 mouldy-fen and mildew, require yet to be scien- 
 tifically investigated. 
 
 The fire-blast usually occurs in July ; and 
 sometimes scorches up whole plantations, and 
 at other times affects only parts of plantations, 
 or only particular portions of the plants. " Dr. 
 Hales," says the Society of Gentleman's Com- 
 plete Farmer, "relates that he had seen the 
 vines in the middle of the hop-ground scorched 
 up almost from one end of a large plantation to 
 another, when a hot gleam of sunshine came im- 
 mediately after a shower of rain ; and that, at 
 such times, vapours may be observed, with the 
 naked eye, to ascend so plentifully as to make 
 an object which was before clear and distinct, 
 become immediately dim and tremulous. It was 
 therefore probably owing to the much greater 
 quantity of vapours in the middle of the hop 
 garden, than there was towards its skirts ; and 
 that middle being the densest medium, the rays 
 of the sun may have been collected nearer to a 
 point, by passing through that denser medium 
 than they were in the outer parts of the ground. 
 The course of the scorch was at right angles to 
 the beams of the sun at about eleven o'clock, at 
 which time the hot gleam happened. The hop- 
 ground was situated in a valley, running from 
 south-west to north-east ; there was very little 
 wind, and that in the course of the scorch." — The 
 
HORDEIN. 
 
 11 
 
 HORNS. 
 
 Golden Farmer. — Stevenson s Survey of Surrey. — 
 Baxter's Library of Agricultural Knoivledge. — 
 Marshall's A griculture of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex. 
 — Beckmann's History of Inventions. — Cole's His- 
 tory of Plants. — Bidletin des Sciences Agricoles. — 
 Dr. Hales' Treatise of Vegetable Statistics. — A. 
 Young's Farmer's Calendar. — The Society of 
 Gentleman's Complete Farmer. — Knowledge Soci- 
 ety's British Husbandry. — The Q. Journal of Agri- 
 culture. — The Gardener's Gazette. — The Farmer's 
 Magazine. — The Farmer's Almanac. — The Journal 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. — 
 Keith's Botanical Lexicon. — Loudon's Works. — 
 Lawson's Agriculturist's Manual. — Marshall's 
 Southern Counties. — The Gardener's Magazine. — 
 The Magazine of Domestic Economy. — Bayldon on 
 Rents and Tillages. — BueVs Farmer's Instructor. — 
 Sir. John Sinclair's General Report of Scotland. — 
 Stephens' Book of the Farm. — Mill's Husbandry. — 
 Anderson's Commercial Dictionary. 
 
 HORDEIN. An amylaceous principle consti- 
 tuting about 55 per cent, of the farina of barley. 
 Dr. Thomson regards it, not as a distinct proxi- 
 mate principle, but as merely a variety of starch ; 
 and Proust regards it as strictly a proximate 
 principle, and supposes that, in the process of 
 ' malting, it is converted partly into starch and 
 partly into sugar. 
 
 HORDEOMETER. An instrument for easily 
 and accurately ascertaining the weight of any 
 kind of grain which is heavier than water. It is 
 also called a barley-measurer, a chondroineter, 
 ' and a grain-sample-measurer. 
 
 The common mode of determining the weight 
 of a measure of grain, by carefully measuring 
 and weighing a bushel or fraction of a bushel of 
 it in the market, is at once inconvenient, tedi- 
 ous and incorrect. The mere weight, indeed, to 
 within the 800th part of a bushel, may be readi- 
 ly enough ascertained by means of any tolerably 
 good balances ; but the measuring, which must 
 accompany the weighing, is always uncertain, 
 and may varj r , with different persons, to the ex- 
 tent of one or even two per cent, on the bushel. 
 Barley, in particular, varies from 1 lb. to 2 lb. 
 in the bushel, and is correspondingly affected in 
 real money-value, according as it is measured by 
 a sudden plump or in a deliberate stream. In 
 all cases of sale by sample, too — cases which in- 
 volve so enormous a proportion of all the yearly 
 produce brought to market — purchasers must 
 encounter the additional uncertainty and loss 
 which arise from the interested inaccuracy of 
 the measuring and weighing of the sellers ; and 
 in the multitudes of cases in which farmers are 
 indisposed to certify the weights — cases which 
 comprise the great bulk of all the lighter or in- 
 ferior qualities of grain — purchasers have not 
 even the poor security of the common method 
 of determining the weight, but must trust to the 
 pitiful and vague criterion of touch, colour, and 
 general appearance. Now the hordeometer is 
 
 designed to rectify these serious inconveniences, 
 and to afford a ready way of truly determining 
 the weight of any sample of grain ; and it takes 
 its name from barley, rather than from wheat or 
 from grain in general, on account of the exces- 
 sive variations in the measuring of barley, and 
 of the special importance of determining its 
 weight for the purposes of malting. 
 
 Buist's hordeometer can be made of such a 
 size as to be packed in a small box and carried 
 in the pocket to the market; and it professes to 
 test one ounce of barley to within the 500th 
 part of its true weight, so as to give a result ten- 
 fold freer from error than the common method 
 of manipulating with a whole bushel. It acts 
 on the simple principle of substituting a mea- 
 sure of water for an equivalent measure of bar- 
 ley ; it requires at least 400 or 500 grains of bar- 
 ley to be employed in order to insure minute 
 accuracy ; and it serves also for any samples of 
 wheat, oats, rye, pease or beans which are hea- 
 vier than their equivalent measure of water, — 
 and likeAvise for spirits, wines, ales, or any other 
 liquids of whatever density or tenuity. It con- 
 sists of a long-necked glass phial, similar in form 
 to the bottles of Eau de Cologne, and of a capa- 
 city to contain from 3 to 4 ounces of water ; a thick 
 glass-tube or meter, blown out at the lower end 
 into a bulbous form, with the extremity down- 
 ward from the bulb tapering to a fine capillary 
 point, and of a capacity not more than one-third 
 of that of the phial ; and either an apothecary's 
 pair of scales, a spring balance, a steel-yard, or 
 any other small and convenient weighing appa- 
 ratus of sufficient delicacy to indicate about half 
 a grain troy. The neck of the bulb is marked 
 with a diamond, at the carefully ascertained 
 equivalent of water for an amount of barley of 
 thoroughly ascertained weight and measure ; the 
 phial is marked with a diamond at two and at 
 three of the same equivalents; and the steel- 
 yard or other weighing apparatus is marked with 
 carefully determined graduations of weight. In 
 using the instrument, the phial and the bulb are 
 suspended on the weighing apparatus, the phial 
 is filled with water to the mark for two equiva- 
 lents, barley is filled into the phial till the sur- 
 face of the water stands at the mark for the 
 third equivalent, and the weight is moved upon 
 the limb of the weighing apparatus till the whole 
 is precisely balanced. 
 
 HORNS. Hard albuminous processes on the 
 forehead of cattle, sheep, goats, and other quad- 
 rupeds. They grow upon bony bases; but are 
 very analogous in constitution to the other in- 
 teguments, and may be described as solid, hard, 
 elastic, insensible sheaths, protecting osseous 
 prolongations of the frontal bone. They have 
 generally a conical form, but present various 
 curvatures in different species, and various trans- 
 verse furrowings in different periods of age. 
 They grow in precisely the same manner as the 
 
HORNS. 
 
 712 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 nails of man and the beaks of birds ; they have 
 a very similar texture in oxen, sheep, goats, and 
 antelopes ; they consist of fibres very analogous 
 in nature to hair, and agglutinated into a very 
 solid continuous texture ; and they contain very 
 little earthy matter, and only .0023 of phosphate 
 of lime, and are composed principally of condensed 
 albumen, and a membranous substance very 
 similar to coagulated albumen, and probably also 
 a little gelatine. 
 
 It appears from various observations, that true 
 horns differ essentially from the bony prolonga- 
 tions called antlers in the deer. The latter in- 
 crease at their extremity, and are covered with 
 skin during their growth. They fall off when 
 their growth is completed, and are replaced by 
 others. The true horns are developed at the 
 base, are covered with skin, and remain perma- 
 nently. 
 
 The different forms of the horns of cattle are 
 adopted as the distinctive marks of classes and 
 breeds; and certain observable increments of 
 growth are regarded as criteria of the age of 
 individuals. See the articles Cattle and Age 
 of Animals. The uses of the horns of slaugh- 
 tered cattle are many and important. "The 
 tanner who has purchased the hides," says 
 Babbage, " separates the horns, and sells them 
 to the makers of combs and lanterns. The horn 
 consists of two parts ; an outward horny case, 
 and an inward conical-shaped substance, some- 
 what between hardened hair and bone. The 
 first process consists in separating these two 
 parts, by means of a blow against a block of 
 wood. The horny outside is then cut into three 
 portions by means of a frame-saw. 1st, The 
 lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after 
 undergoing several processes, by which it is 
 rendered flat, is made into combs. 2d, The 
 middle of the' horn, after being flattened by 
 heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is 
 split into thin layers, and forms a substitute for 
 glass in lanterns of the commonest kind. 3d, 
 The tip of the horns is used by the makers of 
 knife handles and the tops of whips, and similar 
 purposes. 4th, The interior or cone of the 
 horn is boiled down in water. A large quantity 
 of fat rises to the surface ; this is put aside, and 
 sold to the makers of yellow soap. 5th, The 
 liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is 
 purchased by the cloth-dresser for stiffening. 
 6th, The bony substance which remains behind 
 is ground down and sold to the farmers for 
 manure. Besides these various purposes to 
 which the different parts of the horn are applied, 
 the chippings which arise in comb-making are 
 sold to the farmer for manure at about one shil- 
 ling per bushel. In the first year after they are 
 spread over the soil, they have comparatively 
 little effect ; but during the next four or five, 
 their efficiency is considerable. The shavings 
 which form the refuse of the lantern-makers, 
 
 are of a much thiner texture. A few of them 
 are cut into various figures, and painted and 
 used as toys, for they curl up when placed in the 
 palm of a warm hand. But the greater part of 
 these shavings are sold for manure, which, from 
 their extremely thin and divided form, produce 
 its full effect upon the first crop." Horn chips 
 and turner's shavings have acted well as manure, 
 when applied at the rate of 60 stones per acre, 
 ploughed in with wheat or barley ; but in a very 
 dry season, they are liable to yield no action ; 
 and in general, they do best to be ground with 
 bones, and applied in mixture with them, — the 
 more so as horns supply nitrogenous nutriment 
 while bones supply the phosphates. 
 
 HORSE. The most extensively diffused, most 
 diversified, and most eminently useful species of 
 the uncleft-footed family, thick-skinned order, 
 hoofed tribe, and suck-giving class, of vertebrated 
 animals. The principal varieties of it, in cli- 
 mates and countries considerably or widely dif- 
 ferent from Britain, are the Arabian, the Bar- 
 bary, the Abyssinian the Nubian, the Egyptian, 
 the Persian, the Toorkoman, the Turkish, the 
 Circassian, the Tartarian, the Indian, the 
 South African, the South American, and the 
 Mexican ; and the principal in climates and coun- 
 tries somewhat similar to Britain are the Flemish, 
 or Dutch — which possesses more interest than 
 any other foreign breed to British farmers and 
 carters — the French, the Norman, the Limousin, 
 the Hanoverian, the Danish, the Swedish, the 
 Norwegian, the Canadian, and several cross- 
 breeds of the United States of America. But we 
 are obliged by the proper limits of our space, to 
 confine our attention to 
 
 British Breeds of Horses. — The thorough-bred 
 English race-horse has long had the reputation 
 of being the finest variety of the horse in the 
 world ; and it has" contributed fully more than 
 any of our other breeds to acquire for Britain 
 the fame of being the world's emporium for good 
 horses ; but it has, for some time past, been very 
 visibly degenerating ; and unless it be promptly 
 and generally subjected to new influences of pro- 
 pagation and management, it threatens speedily 
 to become inferior to several breeds, not only of 
 the old world but even of America. Its origin 
 is ascribed by some writers entirely to eastern 
 parentage, in both sire and dam ; by others, to 
 the aboriginal horse of England, slowly and ela- 
 borately improved by crossing with the best 
 eastern breeds, particularly the Turk, the Barb, 
 and the Arabian ; and by others — and these the 
 most judicious — to fine foreign specimens of 
 unknown or obscure derivation, crossed with 
 the Barb and the Arabian, and ameliorated by 
 the influence of our climate and the most skilful 
 and assiduous management. The thorough-bred 
 racer of the present day, or emphatically the 
 English horse, is generally distinguished by a 
 head like that of the Arabian, a tapering and 
 
HORSE. 
 
 713 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 finely-poised neck, oblique and longish shoulders, 
 well-bent hind-legs, full fleshy quarters, flat legs, 
 shortish below the knee, and long and elastic 
 pasterns. But the English race-horse of former 
 periods, as compared in a general way to the 
 present race-horse, had a superior fulness of form, 
 and a richer combination of speed, stoutness, 
 and structural powers. Sedbury, Old Partner, 
 and other distinguished race-horses of the mid- 
 dle of last century, possessed compact bodies, 
 capacious chests, fine limbs, and an admirable 
 bearing ; Mambrino, Sweetbriar, Sweet-William, 
 and other celebrated ones of a later period than 
 the former, had not only compact bodies and 
 capacious chests, but strong loins, strong joints, 
 muscular arms, and long, well-inclined, massively 
 muscular shoulder-blades; and Sharke, Johnny 
 Gimcrack, and other famous ones of the con- 
 cluding part of last century, while they evolved 
 the properties which indicate increased speed, 
 did not lose any portion of those which indicate 
 requisite strength, but had capacious chests, 
 finely-hooped ribs, long and tolerably well-in- 
 clined shoulder-blades, massively muscular arms, 
 withers, and quarters, large pastern-joints, and 
 admirably adjusted hind-feet, pasterns, and back- 
 sinews. But Muly-Moloch, Selim, Pericles, and 
 other chief racers of the commencing part of the 
 present century, began the series of degeneracy, 
 and were as distinctly inferior to their predeces- 
 sors as superior to their successors ; and, while 
 possessing such an elongation of the skeleton and 
 such accompanying and dependent properties as 
 materially increased their fleetness, they were 
 decidedly less powerful in both structure and 
 work than any of the great racers of the preced- 
 ing sixty years, and had longer backs, heavier 
 limbs, less muscle, smaller sinews, and sharper 
 withers. "From that period to the present," 
 remarks a reviewer of Hookham's Comparative 
 View of the Form and Character of the English 
 Racer and Saddle-Horse, " racers have lost much 
 of their vigour and stoutness ; and their struc- 
 tural development has been entirely promoted 
 for one object, speed. Heavy stakes, and lower- 
 ing the standard of running from heats to a 
 single run of short distance, have been the con- 
 sequences of unfortunate changes ; whilst the 
 continuance of these conditions has been the 
 cause of perpetuating them. The result has 
 been exceedingly unfavourable to the character 
 of our racers and saddle-horses, producing weak- 
 ness, and disposing them to coarseness. The 
 long back, flat sides, long limbs, weak loins, 
 delicate constitutions, and strong disposition to 
 local and hereditary disease of the modern racer 
 and saddle-horse, are inadequate substitutes for 
 the short back, short limbs, capacious chests, 
 full sides, and muscular character of the old 
 racer and hunter. Speed and weakness are no 
 compensation for loss of vigour and stoutness." 
 In fact, the immoral spirit of the race-course — 
 for immoral it is, and very deeply immoral too — 
 
 has been smartly working out its own punish- 
 ment, and now sometimes dooms its human vic- 
 tim to see his darling horse done to disablement 
 or death by a single run of less than two miles; 
 and — like every other propensity which sacri- 
 fices all regard for the common good to the 
 gratification of selfishness and passion — it has 
 spread a baneful influence over society, and even 
 done serious damage to some of the interests of 
 common industry. 
 
 An excellent comparative view of the state of 
 the race-horse, just before the commencement of its 
 degeneracy in the latter part of the last century, 
 and the state of it in the most admired specimens 
 of the last twenty years, is afforded by the figures 
 of Sharke and Recovery in Plate XXX. " The form 
 of Sharke," says Hookham's Comparative View, 
 " was more advanced by art for the purpose of 
 speed, than that of any of the preceding horses. 
 As an artificial production intended for a special 
 purpose the form of this horse probably could 
 not be essentially improved. He might not be 
 so fleet for one or even two miles as the modern 
 racers; but for four miles, or for any greater 
 distance, he must have beaten them. His chest 
 was capacious in the right place ; if a horizontal 
 line had been drawn through it a little below the 
 withers, it would have been found longer than a 
 line passed through the largest of our modern 
 racers. This horse's ribs were finely hooped ; 
 his shoulder blades had a good inclination, and 
 great length ; the mass of muscles on his arm 
 and withers was considerable ; his quarters, the 
 placing of his hind feet, his large pastern joints 
 and back sinews were all admirable. We must 
 yet admit that, as a stallion, he had lost, much 
 of the masculine character of nature. Doubtless 
 he acquired speed under this change, but his 
 offspring would require to be narrowly watched 
 by a breeder looking to the future as much as 
 to the present." Recovery was bred in 1827, 
 and was a celebrated winner in 1830 and 1831. 
 He was chestnut-coloured, and stood 15 hands 
 2 inches high ; and, as compared to the vast 
 majority of modern racers, he had great muscu- 
 lar power, fine action, and a singularly elegant 
 outline. We are told that, when an equestrian 
 statue was resolved upon as the fittest subject 
 for the Wellington Testimonial, and when the 
 execution of the group was entrusted to the 
 taste and skill of Mr. Wyatt, " he, after looking 
 long in vain for any horse of such proportionate 
 beauties as should be pleasing to the common 
 eye, without offending the severe taste of the 
 classic, declared at last that such rare qualities 
 were only to be found united, in the shape, and 
 symmetry of limb displayed by Recovery." 
 
 The hunting horse, or country gentleman's 
 saddle-horse, ranks next in value and beauty to 
 the race-horse ; and partakes, or ought to par- 
 take, of his peculiar qualities to the extent, in 
 technical language, of being from half-bred to 
 three-fourths or even seven-eighths bred. " But," 
 
HORSE. 
 
 714 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 says the reviewer formerly quoted, " the degene- 
 racy of the race-horse is an evil not alone affect- 
 ing itself — it is permitted greatly to influence 
 the character of our saddle-horses. Farmers 
 cannot breed saddle-horses without the aid of 
 the racer ; and yet over the quality of this ani- 
 mal they have no control. As may be expected, 
 the offspring displays many of the bad charac- 
 teristics of the parents. Hence farmers will not 
 largely enter into the breeding of saddle-horses; 
 they consider it subordinate to every other busi- 
 ness of the farm, because they have no reliance 
 on the excellence of the racers' offspring ; and 
 they pay little attention to a matter which pro- 
 duces a precarious return." A prime hunter 
 stands about 15 or 16 hands high ; and has a small 
 head, wide jaws, firm and arched crest, a lofty 
 forehand, and a broad chest; and as compared 
 to the racer, his shoulder should be as broad 
 and oblique and rather thicker, his barrel 
 rounder, his arm rather more muscular, his leg 
 shorter, his pastern shorter and less slanting, 
 his whole body shorter and more compact, and 
 his action considerably higher. 1 
 
 The common saddle-horse may possess any 
 character intermediate between that of a well- 
 tempered, easy-going, and long-enduring hunter, 
 and that of the most miserable hired road hack ; 
 yet it has normal excellencies and is really as 
 distinct a breed as the race-horse, and when 
 normally bred and properly trained, consti- 
 tutes what is technically called the hackney. 
 The farmer's saddle-horse is, in some instances, 
 a hunter, and, in some, a hackney ; but in the 
 great majority, and with eminent propriety, it is 
 a horse of all work, — an animal adapted equally to 
 the saddle and to the draught. A good one stands 
 about 15^ hands high, is stout and compact, pos- 
 sesses some of the blood of the race-horse, and 
 has a thicker, lower, and less slanting shoulder 
 than the hackney. " The little farmer," remarks 
 Youatt, " does not want a showy, complete hack- 
 ney. He should be content if he is tolerably 
 well carried ; and — if he has taken a little care 
 in the choice of his horse, — if he has selected 
 one with sound feet, shoulders not too thick, 
 and legs not too much under him, — and if he 
 keeps him in good condition, and does not scan- 
 dalously overweight him, the five days' carting 
 or harrow-work will not, to any material degree, 
 unfit him for the saddle, — especially if the rider 
 bears in mind the golden rule of horsemanship, 
 always a little to feel the mouth of the animal 
 he is upon. A farmer, and more particularly 
 a small farmer, will prefer a mare to a gelding 
 both for riding and driving. She will not cost 
 him so much at first ; and he will get a great 
 deal more work out of her. There can be no 
 doubt that taking bulk for bulk, a mare is 
 stronger and more lasting than a gelding ; and, 
 in addition to this, the farmer has her to breed 
 from. If he has a few useful cart-mares, and 
 crosses them with a well knit, half-bred horse, 
 
 he will certainly have colts useful for every 
 purpose of agriculture, and some of them suffi- 
 ciently light for the van, post-chaise, or ccach. 
 If he has a superior mare, one of the old Cleve- 
 land breed, and puts her to a bony three-fourths 
 bred horse, or, if he can find one stout and com- 
 pact enough, a seven-eighths or a thorough-bred 
 one, he will have a fair chance to rear a colt 
 that will amply repay him as a hunter or car- 
 riage-horse." 
 
 The Cleveland Bay horse has a middle char- 
 acter between the saddle-horse and the heavy 
 draught-horse ; and constitutes a well-defined 
 and much esteemed variety of coach-horse. It 
 is named from the fertile district of Cleveland, 
 on the banks of the Tees, in the North Riding of 
 Yorkshire ; but it is bred throughout the greater 
 part of all Yorkshire and Durham. It was formed 
 by the progressive crossing of the race-horse with 
 the native breed of the district ; and it came first 
 into prominent notice about the middle of last 
 century. It has an arched crest and high action ; 
 and is far superior to the old heavy coach-horse 
 for the carriage, and considerably superior to the 
 Clydesdale horse and the old English black horse 
 for the lighter kinds of slow draught. But, in 
 the aggregate character of the individuals of the 
 breed, it is now a much lighter animal than it 
 was in the days of its early celebrity ; for it has 
 been crossed in greater proportion than before 
 with the race-horse, and has in consequence 
 receded farther from the properties suitable 
 for slow draught, and become more eminently 
 adapted for the precise purposes of a coach- 
 horse. The prevailing comparative lightness of 
 its form in the present day, has given occasion 
 to a general opinion that the Cleveland" Bay, 
 regarded as a distinct breed, has degenerated. 
 The old Cleveland has been known to perform a 
 journey of 60 miles 4 times in the week, com- 
 pleting each journey in a day, and carrying a 
 weight of upwards of 700 lbs. 
 
 The common coach-horse of Britain has almost 
 as miscellaneous a character as the common sad- 
 dle-horse. The prime coach-horse is either an 
 ordinary light-formed Cleveland Bay, or the off- 
 spring of a pure -bred Cleveland mare and a 
 three-fourths bred or thorough-bred racer stal- 
 lion. "Cleveland Bays," says Professor Low, 
 "are crossed by hunters or thorough-bred horses : 
 and thus another variety of coach-horse is pro- 
 duced, of lighter form and higher breeding ; and 
 many of the superior Cleveland curricle and four- 
 in-hand horses are now nearly thorough-bred." 
 But coach-horses of approved power and action 
 may be produced by any one of many kinds of 
 crossing, which has a due regard to strength and 
 form, and to the infusion, direct or indirect, of 
 some of the speed and spirit of the racer. " The 
 coach-horse," remarks Youatt, "is nothing more 
 than a tall, strong, over-sized hunter." In fact, 
 it may be anything which can run with sufficient 
 speed before a carriage ; and — to the disgrace of 
 
HORSE- 
 
HORSE. 
 
 15 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 Britain, and mainly as an incidental effect of the 
 perverting and demoralizing spirit of the race- 
 course — it has very extensively become a light 
 creature quite incompetent for the draught as- 
 signed to it, barely able to carry its own body at 
 the rate of speed at which it is driven, and per- 
 forming all its work in torture, and with such 
 an enormous over -expenditure of strength as 
 soon entails ruin and constant pain upon its 
 constitution. The post-horse and the stage- 
 coach-horse, in particular, have long been in a 
 condition to horrify foreigners, and to award to 
 Britons the infamous reputation of being the 
 most cruel nation in Europe. Railways were 
 invented just in time to prevent Britain from 
 lacerating and murdering these animals faster 
 than they could be produced. 
 
 The heavy black horse, or old English black 
 horse, is the native though improved breed of 
 the midland counties of England from Stafford- 
 shire to Lincolnshire. It is always large in size, 
 with broad breast, large and muscular fore-arms 
 and thighs, and somewhat short legs ; but it 
 comprises three great subvarieties, which may 
 be designated respectively the heavy dray-horse, 
 the heavy waggon-horse, and the heavy country 
 cavalry-horse. Its characteristic defects are ex- 
 cessive bulkiness, comparative slowness of mo- 
 tion, and comparative sluggishness of action. 
 Yet, in its characteristic state as a distinct breed, 
 it not only possesses great intrinsic excellencies, 
 but constitutes a rich and powerful fund for the 
 production of many valuable subvarieties of 
 draught horses by crossing. Mr. Bakewell was 
 well aware of its value, and made it the basis of 
 his improvement of the draught - horse ; and 
 many more recent improvers have highly appre- 
 ciated it, and made it either the sole or the prin- 
 cipal basis of their crossings with the Flemish 
 horse. One of the most noted varieties of it is 
 the enormous dray-horse of London, which so 
 generally excites the astonishment of foreigners ; 
 and this is not more remarkable for size and 
 power, than for tractability and good temper. 
 "The docility of this breed," observes Mr. Bell, 
 "is as complete, although not perhaps so showy, 
 as that of the lighter and more active kinds ; and 
 few persons can have long walked the streets of 
 the metropolis without witnessing the complete 
 control which the draymen exercise over their 
 gigantic horses. I have often watched the facil- 
 ity with which one of them will back a waggon 
 into a narrow street or archway, but a few inches 
 wider than the vehicle itself, and guided only by 
 the voice of the carman, aided perhaps by a few 
 slight movements of his hand." The largest are 
 bred in Lincolnshire ; and are seldom less, at 2^ 
 years old, than 17 hands high. A well-formed 
 one has thick upright shoulders, a low fore-hand, 
 a deep round barrel, high and broad loins, large 
 quarters, thick forearms and thighs, short legs, 
 and hoofs round in front and broad at the heels. 
 
 The Suffolk horse, or Suffolk punch, is a de- 
 
 scendant of the Norman stallion and the old Suf- 
 folk cart-mare. It is neither tall nor very hand- 
 some ; but is compact, and has exceedingly good 
 action and excellent dispositions. It is preferred 
 to every other horse for the plough, in Suffolk, 
 Norfolk, and Essex ; and it is often crossed with 
 horses of other breeds, and particularly with the 
 Clevelands and with such as have some of the 
 properties of the racer, in order to adapt it to 
 other purposes, or to improve its lightness and 
 action. The original Suffolk punch took its 
 name from the county where it most abounded, 
 and from its own round punchy shape ; and, 
 like the original Cleveland, it has now become 
 very scarce. It stands from 15 to 16 hands high, 
 and is large-headed, low-shouldered, thick-topped, 
 deep and round chested, long - backed, high- 
 crouped, large and strong quartered, full-flank- 
 ed, round -legged, and short-pasterned ; and it 
 throws its whole weight into the collar, and has 
 sufficient activity to do this with great effect, as 
 well as sufficient strength and endurance to per- 
 form a long day's work. The somewhat modern- 
 ized variety of it, as it prevailed about half a 
 century ago, is described as follows by Mr. Cul- 
 ley : " Their merit probably consists more in con- 
 stitutional hardiness than true shape ; being in 
 general a very plain made horse. Their colour 
 is mostly yellowish or sorrel, with a white ratch 
 or blaze on their faces ; the head large, ears wide, 
 muzzle coarse, fore-end low, back long but very 
 straight, sides fiat, shoulders too far forward, 
 hind quarters middling, but rather high about 
 the hips, legs round and short in the pastern, 
 deep-bellied, and full in the flank. Here, per- 
 haps, lies much of the merit of these horses ; for 
 we know from observation and experience, that 
 all deep-bellied horses carry their food long, and 
 consequently are enabled to stand longer and 
 harder days' works. However, certain it is that 
 these horses do perform surprising days' works. 
 It is well known that the Suffolk and Norfolk 
 farmers plough more land in a day than any 
 other people in the island ; and these are the 
 kind of horses everywhere used in those dis- 
 tricts." The Suffolk punch which now prevails, 
 however, is inferior to that of half a century ago, 
 and no longer gives the Suffolk or the Norfolk 
 farmer the boast of ploughing more in a day 
 than farmers of other districts ; yet it is still a 
 valuable animal both for the heavy draught and 
 as a basis for crossing, and possesses some pecu- 
 liar points of form and disposition which are of 
 great utility ; and, in particular, it has a lowness 
 of position in the shoulder which enables it to 
 throw an enormous power into the collar, — and 
 it will steadily pull at any amount of undue 
 weight to the utmost possible exertion of its 
 strength. 
 
 The Clydesdale horse corresponds' in Scotland 
 to all the best heavy draught horses of England, 
 whether true Clevelands, Suffolk punches, old 
 heavy blacks, or crosses of any of these with one 
 
HORSE. 
 
 716 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 another or with the Flemish horse. It originat- 
 ed in the district of Clydesdale ; but has, for a 
 considerable time, been quite common through- 
 out the best agricultural parts of both the west- 
 ern and the eastern Lowlands. It sprang first 
 from crossing the best native mares with Flem- 
 ish stallions, and afterwards from a progressive 
 course of breeding from Flemish mares, and of 
 other kinds of crossing, and of assiduous atten- 
 tion to general good treatment. It came first 
 into distinct notice considerably upwards of a 
 century ago ; and it very long continued to im- 
 prove, or at least to resist deterioration ; but, in 
 consequence of very infrequent recourse to the 
 Flemish stallion, of an abundant breeding from 
 small Highland mares, and of extensive inatten- 
 tion to the proper adaptation of true Clydesdale 
 stallions to true Clydesdale mares, it has very 
 visibly degenerated, — or, at any rate, any aver- 
 age market show of horses in even the towns of 
 its native district, contains but a small propor- 
 tion of quite genuine Clydesdales, and a large 
 proportion, of more or less inferior animals. A 
 true Clydesdale horse is larger than the Suffolk 
 punch, and has a better-shaped head, a longer 
 neck, a lighter barrel, and longer legs ; and is 
 strong, hardy, and steady, and in general well- 
 dispositioned. "The Clydesdale horse, as it is 
 now bred," says Professor Low, "is usually 16 
 hands high. The prevailing colour is black ; but 
 the brown or bay is common, and is continually 
 gaining upon the other, and the grey is not un- 
 frequently produced. They are longer in the 
 body than the English black horse, and less 
 weighty, compact and muscular, but they step 
 out more freely, and have a more useful action 
 for ordinary labour. They draw steadily, and 
 are usually free from vice. The long stride char- 
 acteristic of the breed, is partly the result of 
 conformation, and partly of habit and training ; 
 but, however produced, it adds greatly to the 
 usefulness of the horse, both on the road and in 
 the fields. No such loads are known to be drawn, 
 at the same pace, by any horses in the kingdom, 
 as in the single horse carts of carriers and others 
 in the West of Scotland. The Clydesdale horses, 
 although inferior in weight and physical strength 
 to the black horse, and in figure and showy ac- 
 tion to the better class of the draught horses of 
 Northumberland and Durham, yet possess pro- 
 perties which render them exceedingly valuable 
 for all ordinary uses. On the road, they perform 
 tasks that can scarcely be surpassed ; and in the 
 fields they are found steady, docile, and safe." 
 
 The Galloway horse was a beautiful, stout, 
 fleet, sure-footed, mountain - scaling creature, 
 commonly not quite 14 hands in height, but 
 sometimes a little taller, of a bright bay or brown 
 colour, with small head, small neck, and black, 
 deep, clean legs ; and it was a native of the dis- 
 trict of Galloway, in the extreme south of Scot- 
 land, and is traditionally said to have descended 
 from some Spanish horses which were thrown 
 
 ashore in the wreck of one of the ships of the 
 celebrated Armada. But it was very generally 
 subjected to a process of cross-breeding with the 
 view of producing an animal of greater size, and 
 better adapted to the purposes of agriculture ; 
 and, except in a few instances in such remote 
 situations as the island of Mull, it has almost 
 utterly disappeared. Yet so generally was it 
 appreciated as a peculiar and valuable breed, 
 that the name of galloway continues to be given 
 to every horse which is supposed to resemble it 
 in size and hardiness. Dr. Anderson describes 
 it as small and elegant, and as similar to the 
 horses of Sweden and Iceland ; and says respect- 
 ing an individual of it which was bought for 
 him when he was a boy, " In point of elegance 
 and shape, it was a perfect picture ; and in dis- 
 position was gentle and compliant. It moved 
 almost with a wish, and never tired. I rode this 
 little creature for 25 years ; and twice in that 
 time, I rode 150 miles at a stretch, without stop- 
 ping, except to bait, and that not for above an 
 hour at a time ; and it came in at the last stage 
 with as much ease and alacrity as it travelled 
 the first." A large proportion of the horses now 
 called galloways are large individuals of the 
 Highland, the Welsh, and the New Forest ponies. 
 
 The Highland pony is the small native horse 
 of the Scottish Highlands. It lives almost wholly 
 in the open air, both in summer and winter; 
 and is very hardy in constitution, and quite a 
 mountaineer in habits. But it is very far from 
 being equal in value to the old galloway ; and it 
 moves with comparative slowness, and has no 
 easy pace for its rider except an amble. Its 
 head is comparatively large ; its back is compa- 
 ratively long ; its front is low ; its legs are short ; 
 and its pasterns are upright. " When Highland 
 ponies come to any boggy piece of ground," says 
 the Rev. Mr. Hall, " they first put their nose to 
 it, and then pat on it in a peculiar way with one 
 of their fore-feet ; and from the sound and feel 
 of the ground, they know whether it will bear 
 them. They do the same with ice; and deter- 
 mine in a minute whether they will proceed." 
 
 The sheltie, or Shetland pony, is an inhabitant 
 of the Shetland Islands. It is so very small in 
 size as to seem almost like a toy ; but is very 
 beautiful in shape, and very docile and sweet in 
 disposition, and has a strength and an endurance 
 enormously greater than might be expected from 
 its size and appearance. Its usual height is from 
 7| to 9^ hands; its head is small; its neck is 
 short ; its- shoulders are low and thick ; its back 
 is short ; its quarters are large and strong ; its 
 legs are flat and clean ; and its feet are round 
 and handsome. It eats almost any kind of food, 
 and thrives and fattens in very disadvantageous 
 circumstances ; and, when it has a height of 
 about 9 hands, and is ordinarily well fed, it will 
 carry a rider in a journey quite or very nearly 
 as well as many a tall road hackney. Small 
 shelties are extensively used in Lowland Scot- 
 
 T 
 
HORSE. 
 
 17 
 
 HOESE. 
 
 land and in England as riding horses for young 
 children. 
 
 The Welsh pony is a singularly beautiful little 
 animal ; and is said to be indebted for much of 
 its form and qualities to a single celebrated sire. 
 It lives and thrives on almost any kind of food ; 
 and has very extraordinary powers of endurance. 
 Its head is small ; its barrel is deep and round ; 
 its withers are high ; its legs are flat ; and its 
 feet are round and well-formed. It lives in a 
 half-wild state in some of the most remote and 
 rugged alpine districts of Wales ; and the hunt- 
 ing of it was a favourite sport of the break-neck 
 fox-hunters of a century or two ago, and has not 
 yet been altogether forgotten by some of the 
 roystering Welsh farmers. 
 
 The New Forest pony has had a long descent, 
 and was formerly more celebrated than at pre- 
 sent, and is said, like the Welsh pony, to have 
 derived much of its excellence from a single dis- 
 tinguished sire. It equals some of the best small 
 breeds of the north of Europe in spirit, hardi- 
 ness, speed, sure-footedness, and utility ; but it 
 is inferior to most of them in beauty of form, — 
 being an almost mis-shapen looking creature, 
 with large head, short neck, and ragged hip. 
 
 The Exmoor, Dartmoor, and Wildmooi ponies 
 have a general resemblance to the New Forest 
 pony. The Exmoor pony is very ill-shaped, but 
 has enormous power, and great hardiness and 
 utility. The Dartmoor pony is larger and still 
 more mis-shapen than the Exmoor one ; and it 
 roams on the Dartmoor in very nearly a wild 
 state, and possesses wonderful nimbleness and 
 agility, and cannot be caught without extreme 
 dexterity and cleverness. The pack-horse in 
 use in the western and southern parts of Devon- 
 shire is either a somewhat enlarged variety of 
 the Dartmoor pony, or a considerably enlarged 
 variety of the Exmoor one. The Wildmoor pony 
 was never of high service in the fens, and always 
 unfit for travelling on very hard ground ; and it 
 is now in the fair way to become speedily ex- 
 tinct. Its head is large ; its fore-hand is low ; 
 its height is generally less than 13 hands; its 
 back is straight ; and its legs are flat. 
 
 The common Irish draught-horse is used, not 
 only for all the horse-work of the farm, but for 
 steeple-chases, and for attendance at fairs, mar- 
 kets, and funerals ; it is far too light for its pro- 
 per labour as a draught animal ; and, in general, 
 it is miserably ill fed, and is stinted in growth 
 and enfeebled in constitution by premature work- 
 ing, by miscellaneous working, by excessive work- 
 ing, and by very bad treatment. It is lower in 
 stature than any of the ordinary draught-horses 
 of Britain ; and usually has a miserable and half- 
 starved appearance ; and is commonly entitled, 
 in the language of the country, a garron. But 
 many of the draught horses of Ulster, particu- 
 larly of the best linen-manufacture districts, are 
 strong, well-formed, good-conditioned animals. 
 
 A native breed, also, hardy and sure-footed, but 
 without either beauty or fleetness, occurs in Ul- 
 ster ; and another native breed, of very valuable 
 character, and closely akin, in both origin and 
 character, to the true old galloways, occurs in 
 the Connaught district of Cunnemara, — the most 
 characteristic and scenically grand part of what 
 have been called the Western Highlands of Ire- 
 land. The Cunnemara horse, or Cunnemara 
 pony, is traditionally traced to Spanish horses 
 which escaped from the wreck of some ship or 
 ships of the famous Armada ; and it bears very 
 obvious marks of Spanish origin, and has the 
 same prevailing chestnut colour as the Andalu- 
 sian breed, and appears to have been preserved, 
 among the sublime fastnesses of Joyce Country 
 and Cunnemara-Proper, in a state of great puri- 
 ty. It is usually from 12 to 14 hands high ; and 
 is always hardy, active, nimble, fleet, sure-footed, 
 and enduring ; and it retains the peculiar amble 
 of the Spanish jennet, and is probably the fittest 
 saddle-horse in the three kingdoms for either a 
 delicate young lady or a bad male rider. This 
 remarkable little horse, in fact, is the modern 
 type of the famous old holly, which in former 
 ages was so popular in both Ireland and England, 
 and so enthusiastically preferred to all other 
 horses for the saddle, that it gave rise to the 
 familiar saying about a man's " riding his hobby." 
 
 The Breeding of Horses. — Both private interest 
 and public duty require all extensive farmers, 
 for some considerable time to come, to pay special 
 attention to the improving of the breeds of horses. 
 Some of the principal British breeds, as has been 
 already shown, have exceedingly deteriorated; 
 two or three good ones are almost or altogether 
 extinct ; and all which possess any general value 
 to the country have either lost much of their in- 
 trinsic excellence or become exceedingly scarce. 
 One of our most distinguished veterinarians said, 
 so long ago as 1831, " There must be something 
 radically wrong in our breeding system. If we 
 proceed to the great marts, we find a remarkable 
 scarcity of anything in the shape of a good nag. 
 It matters not for what purpose he is intended, 
 whether for racer, hunter, carriage, hack, or 
 heavy draught, the difficulty of making a good 
 selection for either of these purposes is the same. 
 There may be thousands in the market, but how 
 few, in the eye of a judge, will be even passable 
 for any purpose. Good horses have been becom- 
 ing gradually scarcer in our fairs for the last 20 
 years; and we find, that many of what were 
 considered the most useful sort have now entirely 
 disappeared, — the breed is quite extinct. Where, 
 for example, do we now find the fine, short-legged, 
 handsome cob, whose action and strength enabled 
 him to go any pace, and to carry any weight that 
 could ride 1 How few of the splendid carriage- 
 horses which were met with 15 or 20 years ago 
 are now to be seen ! Nay, how few of anything 
 really good is there to be met with ! " 
 
HORSE. 718 HORSE. 
 
 A demand for British horses, throughout very 
 many parts of Continental Europe, burst out im- 
 mediately after the peace of 1815, and made such 
 excessive inroads upon all our great markets as 
 rapidly to take away from our country a main 
 proportion of all our best stallions. Had the 
 demand been made for our inferior kinds of 
 stock, or even for horses of all sorts just as they 
 are sent to market, it might have greatly in- 
 creased the stock-producing trade, and added 
 very materially to the wealth of our agricultural 
 community. But it was a demand for only the 
 best individuals ; and it rapidly drained our 
 country, not of its produce in horses but of the 
 original stock, — not of the proceeds of its indus- 
 try, but of the very means by which these were 
 produced. Good stallions soon became scarce 
 and exceedingly high-priced ; and good mares 
 — which had formerly been shut out from the 
 London market, and regarded as unfit for the 
 purposes of the cavalry — were now brought into 
 requisition, and multitudinously bought up for 
 the supply of the army. Farmers, after having 
 been generally deprived of access to good stal- 
 lions, were thus extensively induced to part also 
 with their good mares ; and many of them 
 began to produce horse-stock of all sorts, but 
 especially of the half-bred, the three-fourths 
 bred, and the heavy draught kinds, from mares 
 which were almost useless for any other purpose. 
 The consequent deterioration of horses, particu- 
 larly in Scotland and in the northern counties 
 of England, was, in many instances, so great 
 as nearly to exceed belief. Many a small, mis- 
 shapen, feeble mare was used for breeding ; and 
 even when a mare of this sort was served with 
 a tolerably good stallion, she incurred every 
 hazard of producing a worse than worthless foal. 
 " What is the consequence 1 The foal is reared ; 
 it is sold by the breeder at perhaps half the sum 
 it has cost in rearing ; it never pays for half the 
 food it has destroyed ; and the breeder is con- 
 tinually crying out that breeding does not pay. 
 How much less will it repay him for the risk he 
 runs? For it is not like a bullock, which will 
 sell even if it has a lame leg, a badly-formed leg 
 or joint. No ; if any accident befall it — and to 
 how many accidents and diseases are foals lia- 
 ble 1 — it is rendered good for nothing. But the 
 loss does not stop with the breeder ; the pur- 
 chaser has his sorrows to commence. He gets 
 his horse put in condition ; and the horse is 
 mounted a few times ; but it is found that he is 
 unable to carry his rider with pleasure or safety ; 
 his spindle shanks give way, he knocks the one 
 against the other, he cuts, he falls, he is sprained, 
 has curbs or spavins, is washy and delicate, and, 
 in short, is more plague than profit, and after 
 some time he is sold at a loss, and, passing from 
 one hand to another, proves to each a similar 
 annoyance." The consequent diminution of the 
 national agricultural wealth is enormous. If 
 the total number of horses in Britain be assumed 
 
 at 1% million, if the number of such degenerate 
 individuals as we have described be assumed at 
 one-tenth of the total, and if each individual be 
 supposed to cost £25 in rearing till he is four 
 years of age, and to be then sold for three-fifths 
 of his cost ; then, on the liberal and almost 
 romantic assumption that all are worth their 
 meat from four years upwards, the loss to the 
 nation upon every generation of horses amounts 
 to the sum of ^1,500,000 ! 
 
 Farmers, then, from motives both of self- 
 interest and of patriotism, must pay close and 
 enlightened attention to the principles of im- 
 proving all our breeds of horses. Such of these 
 principles as are of a general kind, and depend 
 upon physiology, comparative anatomy, and the 
 modifying influences of climate and treatment, 
 are discussed in our article Breeding; such as 
 concern the modifying effects of hybridizing 
 between closely allied breeds, are discussed in 
 our article Crossing ; such as concern the spe- 
 cial points and distinguishing excellencies of 
 the several particular British breeds, may be 
 readily inferred from what we have said respect- 
 ing them in the preceding section of the present 
 article; and only such as concern the animal 
 mechanism, the sound constitution, the good 
 health, the good temper, the uniform pairing, 
 the proper age, and the suitable condition of the 
 sire and the dam, together with the proper time 
 of the year for breeding, require to be noticed in 
 the sequel of this section. 
 
 The animal mechanism of both the sire and 
 the brood-mare ought to possess the precise 
 developments on which depend the requisite 
 strength, the requisite speed, the requisite en- 
 durance, or the symmetrical combination of 
 strength, speed, and endurance, in the best 
 variety or normal state of each particular breed. 
 A judicious farmer, in selecting horses for breed- 
 ing, will be guided by the same rules as in choos- 
 ing market horses for immediate use, — only he 
 will apply the rules with greater rigidness, and 
 will balance or proportion them between the sire 
 and the dam with a precise view to any desired 
 modification in the mechanical conformation of 
 the progeny ; and these rules are well known to 
 every person of ordinary experience among 
 horses. But the animal mechanism, particu- 
 larly that of the mare, must be sound and nor- 
 mal, not only with reference to the ultimate 
 working power of the animal, but also with 
 reference to the vigorous performance of the 
 functions of reproduction. Comparatively few 
 stallions or mares are free from defects of form ; 
 and many mares, of average value as working- 
 beasts, are so seriously mis-shapen or feeble as 
 to be incapable of maturing a vigorous foetus. 
 Thus a brood-mare who has weak stomach and 
 intestines, who feeds without relish, and voids 
 a crude and sloppy excrement, cannot possibly 
 digest sufficient food to supply her own wants 
 and those of the foetus; and a mare who has 
 
HORSE. 
 
 719 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 weak respiratory organs, and whose blood passes 
 through the lungs but partially oxygenized, can 
 never possess in her own proper organism, or im- 
 part to the organism of her foetus, the functional 
 vigour of muscle, sinew, or nerve, which results 
 from perfectly-formed secretions. Every farmer, 
 therefore, ought to pay the utmost attention to 
 the form, powers, and constitutional energy of 
 his brood-mares, and to reject every mare from 
 breeding who does not amply and very obviously 
 possess these essential properties of sound animal 
 mechanism. 
 
 Soundness of constitution is as essential as 
 good form, and is very nearly akin to it, but has 
 reference to functional habits, while the other 
 has reference to organic configuration. A badly 
 formed horse is very likely to have a bad consti- 
 tution ; but even a well-formed horse may have 
 a bad constitution, — if not in breathing, at least 
 in digestion and in some important secretions. 
 A good constitution is essential both to vigorous 
 reproduction, and to the functional soundness of 
 the progeny ; and is requisite in both the sire 
 and the dam. The foal of either a badly-consti- 
 tutioned mare with a vigorous stallion, or of a 
 vigorous mare with a badly-constitutioned stal- 
 lion, is almost certain to be weak and unthrifty, 
 either undersized or leggy, and utterly incapable 
 of repaying the cost of producing and rearing it. 
 A farmer ought always to prefer, when he can, 
 a stallion of proved soundness or well-established 
 reputation ; and when he must employ one of 
 unknown character, he ought at least to satisfy 
 himself well respecting the animal's compactness 
 of form, and fulness of chest, and power about 
 the joints ; and, as to the mares, he ought to 
 have had them long in his possession, and to 
 have been closely observing them, and to have 
 acquired a thorough knowledge of their consti- 
 tution, — and he must, by no means, make use of 
 any one for breeding who has any perceptible 
 defect or weakness in any considerable function. 
 
 Good health, but especially perfect freedom 
 from every kind of chronic and hereditary 
 disease, is indispensable in both sire and dam. 
 By far the greater number of both the active 
 diseases and the morbific defects of horses are 
 transmissible from either the sire or the dam to 
 the offspring. Even certain diseases of the eye, 
 and contraction of the feet, and founder, and 
 spavins, and ring-bones, and the very habit of 
 rearing, and much more the severe chronic 
 diseases or morbific defects of the lungs, the 
 stomach, and other internal organs are heredi- 
 tary. Yet " some distinction," suggests Mr. Burke, 
 " is to be made between congenital and acquired 
 disease. Thus, for instanee, a mare with curbs, 
 although put at various times to different horses, 
 has been known constantly to bring forth foals 
 afflicted with the complaint of the dam ; and 
 such an animal should consequently be rejected 
 from the stud by the careful breeder. But 
 should a mare throw curbs from any sudden and 
 
 violent exertion of the hind legs, as in taking 
 some extraordinary leap, or in struggling through 
 very deep ground with a heavy weight on 
 her back, it is questionable whether her progeny 
 will inherit a defect thus produced by accident ; 
 as, in like manner, a racer that has broken down 
 from great exertions on the turf, does not pro- 
 create offspring similarly diseased. Still, after 
 some lapse of time, it is not impossible, nor in- 
 deed improbable, that the progeny of such a 
 horse may be foaled with congenital weakness of 
 the back-sinews, which may terminate in a rup- 
 ture, similar to that of the sire. It is conse- 
 quently better, if possible, to breed from animals 
 that are in every respect sound ; and if one of 
 the parents have any peculiar defect — as, for 
 example, a very large head, or somewhat straight 
 shoulders — it should be corrected, as far as may 
 be, by a corresponding point of superior excel- 
 lence in the other." 
 
 Good temper is of great importance in both 
 the sire and the dam ; for bad temper in either 
 is almost certain to be inherited by the offspring. 
 Docility, willingness to work, and sufficient reso- 
 luteness to keep up a constant and steady pull, 
 but without any touch of stubbornness or of an 
 absolute spirit, are valuable qualities in both 
 parents, and will diffuse all their worth into the 
 foal; but an intractable disposition, or an un- 
 tameable fieriness, or a fitful unsteadiness, or a 
 general viciousness in either parent, may be so 
 fully entailed upon the offspring, or even exag- 
 gerated, as to render the finest combination of 
 mere physical properties almost totally useless. 
 A team of steady-pulling draught-horses is inva- 
 luable to a farmer who cultivates a very stiff and 
 heavy soil ; and when horses of considerably dif- 
 ferent lightness and steadiness and docility exist 
 together on one farm, two of different weight 
 and disposition ought never, if possible, to work 
 in the same team. A horse of more spirit and 
 courage than his fellows, may, on attempting to 
 start with a heavy draught, fruitlessly strain 
 himself to the serious injury of his muscles be- 
 fore they even begin to draw ; and though kept 
 back and occasionally patted by the driver while 
 at work, he may perform a great part of his 
 labour by such jerks and sudden tugs as shall 
 occasion a very wasteful expenditure of his 
 strength. A farmer, therefore, in selecting brood- 
 mares and stallions, ought not only to avoid all 
 downright bad temper, but to aim at producing 
 such similarly dispositioned foals as will eventu- 
 ally give him two or four of the same weight of 
 body, and the same structure of frame, and the 
 same cast of temper for the working of every 
 plough or waggon. 
 
 The pairing of a brood-mare with the same 
 kind of stallion, at subsequent impregnations as 
 at the first impregation, is a point of much con- 
 sequence. Whatever be the breed or aggregate 
 properties or peculiar characteristices of the 
 stallion used in the first impregnation, they 
 
HORSE. 
 
 20 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 are very likely to exert a controlling influence 
 on all future impregnations, even though the 
 stallions employed in these should be of widely 
 different breed or possess a widely different 
 aggregate character. A mare of nearly pure 
 Arabian blood, in the stud of the Earl of Mor- 
 ton, was crossed with a male quagga, and pro- 
 duced a female hybrid of a character inter- 
 mediate between that of the quagga and the 
 horse ; and she was afterwards impregnated, at 
 two successive periods, by a fine black Arabian 
 stallion, and produced first a filly and then a 
 colt, of distinctly equine formation, but marked 
 with very distinct resemblances to a quagga. 
 These animals, the direct offspring of the Arabi- 
 an mare and the Arabian stallion, had the quag- 
 ga's peculiar stripes or lists along the back and 
 across the forehead; and the filly's mane was 
 short, thick, stiff, and upright like a quagga's ; 
 while the colt's mane was much larger, but so 
 stiff as to arch upward, and hang clear of the 
 sides of the neck. Other trials of direct and 
 pure equine impregnation were made with the 
 same mare, in the hope that a repetition of them 
 would eventually efface the impression made by 
 the original quagga impregnation ; but the often- 
 er they were repeated, the more distinctly did 
 they result in offspring with quagga markings, 
 and the more strongly did they seem to prove 
 that the influence exerted by the first impregna- 
 tion was, in a certain degree, permanent and ir- 
 reversible. So very curious was this phenome- 
 non, and so seemingly unconnected with all the 
 other known laws of animal reproduction, that a 
 person might almost be tempted to refer it to 
 something peculiar in the particular mare ; but 
 phenomena strictly similar to it have been ob- 
 served, not only in other horses, but also in cats, 
 dogs, and swine. If, therefore, any mare, other- 
 wise thoroughly suitable for breeding, have hap- 
 pened to produce a first foal of widely or even 
 considerably different character from what her 
 owner now wants, she ought either to be rejected 
 as a brood-mare, or to be consigned back to a 
 reproduction closely similar to her first. 
 
 The proper age of both sire and dam is a con- 
 sideration of much importance. A filly who 
 breeds before she is three years old will probably 
 produce a feeble, diminutive, and sickly foal; 
 and even one who breeds at any time between 
 three and five years of age, though she may pro- 
 duce a good enough foal, will probably suffer 
 very considerable injury herself, and be rendered 
 unfit for vigorous breeding in after-life. A mare, 
 even when duly fed and well managed, continues 
 to mature her constitution, to make increments 
 to some parts of her frame, and to consolidate 
 and strengthen her general organism till she is 
 five years of age ; and if she breed before that 
 period, she first gives to the foetus a very large 
 proportion of the assimilated substances which 
 ought to be secreted for the maturing of her 
 own system, — she afterwards parts with another 
 
 large proportion of the same substances in the 
 secreting of milk for nourishing the foal, — and, 
 in consequence, she never attains the bulk and 
 stature which she would otherwise have pos- 
 sessed, and is permanently less valuable than she 
 ought to be, and does not acquire sufficient en- 
 ergy for imparting a maximum strength and 
 fulness to her future progeny. But a mare who 
 does not breed till she is five years old, may pro- 
 bably continue to breed with complete vigour 
 till she is twenty years old ; and some of the 
 finest, well-treated, high-blood mares, especially 
 when the precaution was used of allowing them 
 to breed only in every alternate year, have con- 
 tinued to produce a perfectly full, strong, and 
 energetic progeny till they attained the advanced 
 age of thirty or even of thirty-six. — A colt of 
 only two years of age may, in a rare case, be the 
 sire of a promising and useful foal ; but no male 
 can be safely or certainly employed in any in- 
 stance of even ordinary importance, at an earlier 
 stage than as a well-formed, vigorous, compact 
 stallion of seven or eight years. 
 
 The suitable condition of the sire and the dam 
 is a consideration additional to animal mechan- 
 ism, sound constitution, good health, good tem- 
 per, uniform pairing, and proper age, and re- 
 spects the state of both in regard to exercise and 
 food, and their adaptation to each other in re- 
 gard to size. If either sire or dam, though in all 
 other respects perfectly unexceptionable, should, 
 at the time of copulation, have sunk into a re- 
 laxed state of the muscular system from the want 
 of due exercise, the offspring will probably be defi- 
 cient in constitutional energy ; and, for a similar 
 reason, if either should have suffered a diminu- 
 tion of strength from insufficiency of food or 
 from any other cause of debilitation, the offspring 
 will probably be correspondingly deficient in both 
 functional power and muscular development. 
 The dam, too, must not only be in full energy 
 from exercise and food at the time of her im- 
 pregnation, but must continue to be so through- 
 out all the time of her gestation ; for unless her 
 foal be fully and energetically supplied with all 
 the principles of increment and nourishment 
 from the first moment of its embryo state, and 
 throughout all the stages of its foetal existence, 
 it will never, with even the best and most sedu- 
 lous appliances of subsequent suckling and feed- 
 ing, be able to develope ample muscle or acquire 
 the full and due energies of its nature. But 
 though both sire and dam ought to have been 
 well fed, they ought not, by any means, to be in 
 a fat or pampered condition. A stallion over- 
 loaded with fat, though much desired and eagerly 
 preferred by many farmers, is really in a morbi- 
 fic state, and almost as exceptionable as if he 
 were lean, thin, and half-starved ; for. he has ac- 
 quired his excessive fat mainly in consequence of 
 a weakness in the organs of assimilation, and 
 has, in connexion with it, been rendered sluggish 
 and incapable of great or continued exertion ; so 
 
HOESE. 
 
 721 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 that his offspring will probably be, to the full, as 
 spiritless and feeble as that of a lank and half- 
 famished but constitutionally vigorous stallion. 
 The connecting of a small-sized mare with a com- 
 paratively large or huge stallion is also a serious 
 evil ; for it diminishes the development of the 
 foetus by the insufficiency of aliment afforded to 
 it during gestation, — it entails danger upon the 
 dam at the time of parturition, — and it occa- 
 sions a stinting and partial starving of the foal 
 by an inadequate supply of milk during the time 
 of suckling. 
 
 The time for pairing recommended by most 
 writers is May ; but though this has great ad- 
 vantages, and may be properly enough named as 
 a general rule for the whole of Great Britain, by 
 far the best time in all genial situations, and par- 
 ticularly throughout most of the south and the 
 centre of England, is about the end of March or 
 the beginning of April. A mare's period of gesta- 
 tion is about eleven months ; and when this ter- 
 minates about the end of February or the begin- 
 ning of March, the foal needs little or no artifi- 
 cial food, but is supported by milk during the 
 proper length of time, and becomes able to nibble 
 at the pastures just when the season ceases to be 
 cold and the grass lands begin to be full of sweet 
 and nutritious herbage. When a farmer wishes 
 to obtain a good hunting-horse, a month later 
 may be proper. "But," says Mr. Burke, "if his 
 mare be thorough-bred, and he wish to take the 
 chance of having a foal with some pretensions to 
 running, then the earlier a mare is stinted the 
 better ; for all running horses date their birth 
 from the 1st of January, be they foaled when 
 they may ; and consequently it is of great impor- 
 tance that they be dropped as early in the year 
 as may be, in order that their growth may be 
 forwarded by every means that can be devised 
 consistent with their healthy state. It is a ques- 
 tion, however, whether very early foals, that are 
 kept for months on artificial food, will be more 
 forward at two years old than those dropped to- 
 wards the end of the spring, and properly at- 
 tended to subsequently." — The crossing heavy 
 draught mares with Flemish stallions has been a 
 favourite practice with many farmers, but is decid- 
 edly deteriorating, and ought never to be done. 
 
 The process of breeding and rearing horses may 
 be very fairly or even amply remunerating, when 
 conducted with consummate judgment and great 
 care ; but is decidedly uncompensating, as con- 
 ducted by the majority of farmers. A very good 
 cart-horse, of any kind whatever except the stu- 
 pendous and showy dray-horse, can rarely be 
 estimated at a higher market value, when he is 
 four years' old, than £40; and though he be as- 
 sumed to earn all his own keep during the fourth 
 year of his age, he cannot, in even a favourable 
 general estimate, be supposed to cost his owner 
 a less amount of dead outlay than £26, — or £2 
 for the stallion, 14s. for the keep of the mare 
 during a month at foaling, £19 10s. or 3s. per 
 
 week for the keep of the colt at grass and in the 
 straw-yard from the time of weaning till the 
 close of his third year, £l 16s. for daily allow- 
 ance of corn during the three months of his being 
 broken-in, 8s. for the wages of the breaker-in, 
 and £l 10s. for the extra feeding of the colt pre- 
 paratory to selling him, and for sending him to 
 the fair. The extreme profit, on the whole trans- 
 action, therefore, will be £\4. — A very fine car- 
 riage colt which will bring about .£60 in the Lon- 
 don market, may be favourably estimated, in the 
 same way, to cost a dead outlay of about £40, — or 
 £3 3s. for the stallion, 14s. for the keep of the 
 mare at foaling, £30 Is. for the keep of the colt 
 till the close of his third year, and £2 2s. for 
 breaking-in; so that he will yield an extreme 
 profit of about £18 or £20. — A hunting-horse, of 
 middle-rate powers, and worth £50 or £60 at 
 the end of his fifth year, may be bred and reared 
 in the same circumstances as ordinary colts ; but 
 a hunting-horse, of any pretensions to superior 
 character can, in general, be bred and reared 
 only under the direction of a man who knows 
 the nicest and most important points of the 
 many subvarieties of the horse, and has an ac- 
 quaintance with the pedigree, performances, and 
 general character of the prime mares and stal- 
 lions of the day ; and a hunter of any sort does 
 little or no harness-work, and must be kept till 
 he is at least five years old before he can be sold 
 for his full value, and can seldom or never bring 
 a high price till he has acquired a character by 
 actual performances in the field ; so that every 
 hunting-horse occasions a comparatively large 
 cost for breeding and rearing, and, at the same 
 time, is a downright lottery to his owner, and 
 may either yield a good profit or entail a heavy 
 loss. — In all cases of breeding and rearing, be 
 they what they may, losses are liable to occur 
 from accidents to the mare, from risk at parturi- 
 tion, from mistakes respecting the true character 
 of the stallion, from unexpected and untoward 
 character in the colt, from neglect or misman- 
 agement on the part of servants, from accidents 
 to the colt, and from some other and equally 
 obvious and inevitable causes ; and these losses 
 may occasionally be such as to render the pro- 
 cess of breeding and rearing, even under the most 
 skilful management, not only unremunerating 
 but disastrous. But as to the multitudes who 
 conduct the process in a mere routine manner, 
 with little knowledge of its principles and no 
 enlightened seizure of its advantages, additional 
 and constant losses arise from sheer inadvertence 
 and mismanagement, and, in the great majority 
 of instances, render the idea of remuneration a 
 mere fond delusion. "The real fact," remarks 
 Mr. Burke, "is this. A farmer breeds a colt; 
 and at five years old, the expense of rearing him 
 may be £50. But this sum not having come 
 out of his pocket at once, but having gradually 
 and insensibly melted away in the shape of grass, 
 oat-straw, and now and then a few quarters of 
 2 Z 
 
HORSE. 722 
 
 corn, it has not at any one particular time made 
 any great inroad upon his pocket, and conse- 
 quently, if he want to pay his rent, or to make 
 any purchase which is likely to be beneficial to 
 him, he takes perhaps ,£40 for the celt that has 
 cost him £50, and thinks himself both lucky to 
 get that sum, and likewise a provident man, to 
 have kept that by him that has been so valuable 
 in a time of need." Yet — still to adopt the 
 words of the same writer—" provided the farmer 
 can rub on to sell the colt at an improper time, 
 it may be looked on in the light of a live savings- 
 bank, in which he weekly hoards up a certain 
 sum which, under different circumstances, he 
 would probably think nothing of spending." 
 
 The Management of Horses. — The proper suc- 
 cession of housing and depasturing, and of corn- 
 feeding and grass-feeding, in the seasonal man- 
 agement of horses, is noticed in the article Cal- 
 endar; the proper treatment of foals at birth, 
 and during the period of rearing them, is noticed 
 in the articles Parturition, Foal, and Feeding 
 op Animals ; the proper treatment of mares dur- 
 ing the period of pregnancy, is noticed in the 
 article Abortion; the outline of right manage- 
 ment in the training of colts, is drawn in the 
 article Breaking ; the proper daily dressing of 
 horses is noticed in the articles Dandriff and 
 Grooming ; the due supply of air, light, and lit- 
 ter to housed horses will be noticed in the article 
 Stable ; the principles of maintaining the func- 
 tional energy of horses are stated in the articles 
 Air, Food, Exercise, Feeding of Animals, and 
 some others ; the proper management of the feet 
 of horses is noticed in the articles Foot and Shoe- 
 ing ; the right performance of surgical operations 
 upon horses is noticed under the titles of the 
 several operations, such as Docking, Bleeding, 
 Castration, Firing, and Blistering; and the 
 proper treatment of horses under disease is no- 
 ticed under the titles of the several diseases, 
 such as Catarrh, Diabetes, Enteritis, Farcy, 
 Fever, Glanders, Inflammation, and Staggers. 
 The only discussion of the management of horses 
 required in this place, therefore, is merely a sup- 
 plementary remark or two on training and exer- 
 cise, and some notice of watering and feeding. 
 
 Every young colt of a spirited breed, especially 
 if he be intended to serve as a hunter or as a 
 prime hackney, ought to be early accustomed to 
 the handling and control of a keeper. He ought, 
 when two years old, to wear a headstall at grass, 
 and to have attached to it a long rein ; so that, 
 at any time, he may be easily caught, without 
 being startled, and may have scope enough for 
 free movement when caught, without needing to 
 contend with his keeper, or to jerk the rein from 
 him and run away. If he have not a headstall, 
 he cannot be caught without being alarmed and 
 learning skittishness ; and if he have a mere hal- 
 ter attached to his headstall, he will, on every 
 occasion of showing temper or fright, oblige his 
 keeper to hang and tug upon him, and subject 
 
 HOESE. i 
 
 himself to much jerking and irritation. He ought 
 at first to be simply approached in a gentle and 
 coaxing manner ; and for a time to be much pat- 
 ted and caressed, to have a foot lifted, to be 
 softly rubbed with a wisp of hay, and to be other- 
 wise habituated to the presence and handling of 
 his keeper. Never once should he, in even the 
 slightest manner, be frightened and coerced ; for 
 every disturbing of his equanimity leaves a bad 
 impression on his constitutional temper, and 
 tends to make him either timid or rebellious. 
 His earliest formal lesson, and one which requires 
 to be very gently given and very often repeated, 
 is to lead him about at the full length of his 
 rein ; and if he start or become playful during 
 the lesson, his keeper ought to allow him the 
 amplest possible scope for scampering and frolic, 
 and to let him feel as little as possible of the 
 restraint of the rein. After a few days he may, 
 with great care and gentleness, be lounged in a 
 circle, so as to be taught some of his paces ; but 
 with the least practicable formality or control, j 
 and in a manner of constant kindness and coax- 
 ing, and of frequent patting and caressing. All 
 his lessons ought to be short and thoroughly 
 pleasant to him ; and when he has once acquired 
 docility he may again be turned loose, and occa- 
 sionally taken up for a few hours during the day 
 for the purpose of repeating his lessons, so that 
 he may enjoy a large degree of absolute liberty, 
 and at the same time may not forget what he ! { 
 has learned. When the time for thorough j j 
 breaking -in and total subjection arrives, he j 
 should be accustomed to the dumb-jockey, and | 
 steadily conducted through all the successive 
 parts of breaking and training ; and if he be in- 
 tended for the chase or for rough and rapid 
 country riding, he should be often led over small 
 jumps and moderately wide blind ditches, in or- 
 der that he may be gradually habituated to every 
 species of fence, and rendered confident in his 
 own powers. But the practice commonly ob- 
 served by professional horse-breakers, of tightly 
 reining up the head of the young colt to the 
 dumb-jockey, and then turning him into a loose 
 box during many hours of the day, is both un- 
 necessary and cruel. This practice is usually 
 said to "give the horse a good mouth;" but it 
 really produces the opposite effect ; while the 
 kind and dexterous handling of a judicious horse- 
 man at once gives a really 'good mouth,' gives a 
 good bearing along with it, avoids all cruelty, 
 and entails no evil consequences. 
 
 The young cart-horse has, for the most part, 
 a constitutionally quiet and tameable disposi- 
 tion ; and does not require such precaution and 
 nicety, in the initial lessons of handling and 
 lounging, as the young horse with much blood. 
 The best method of subduing and training him 
 is detailed in the article Breaking. But should 
 the practice there recommended of harnessing him 
 in a team be encountered by a disposition of rcs- 
 tiveness and of kicking, he may be harnessed by 
 
HORSE 
 
 himself to a billet or light log of wood, with long I 
 traces attached, in order that he may have free 
 play for his heels without risk of hurting himself ; 
 and he should be led gently about in traction of 
 the billet, and coaxed and wheedled rather than 
 urged to proceed ; and not till he learns to tug 
 the light thing docilely and pleasantly and some- 
 what steadily after him, should he be harnessed 
 with a team to an empty cart, and cautiously 
 inured to perform a small degree of work. — " A 
 medium plan must be adopted with the carriage- 
 horse. He is not only required to have some- 
 what showy action, but likewise to be steady in 
 draught. He must, therefore, be lounged like 
 the hunter, and taught to raise his knee and de- 
 liver his leg with freedom, — motions which can 
 never be acquired without the good exercise of 
 the hands and legs of a perfect horseman. Pre- 
 vious to being made to draw, it is a good prac- 
 tice to drive such horses with long reins but un- 
 attached to any vehicle, the man who drives 
 them running behind, and being furnished with 
 a whip to keep them up to the proper pace. By 
 this means, being guided in every direction, 
 made to turn, back, &c, they will when har- 
 nessed be much less raw and unhandy than when 
 simply broken-in to draw by ploughing and har- 
 rowing, to which work they may be put upon 
 light soils when about three years old. If, also, 
 the farmer exact but gentle work from his young 
 stock, and can manage to employ them upon soft 
 ground, the longer he can avoid having them 
 shod the better ; shoeing at an early age being 
 the bane of young horses, and frequently crip- 
 pling their feet so as to render them almost 
 worthless." 
 
 The training of all kinds of horses ought to be 
 sufficiently comprehensive to prepare them for 
 every kind of work which they may be destined to 
 perform, and for every kind of ordinary situation 
 and exigency in which they may be expected to be 
 placed. But even when executed by a professional 
 breaker, and when formally declared, upon the 
 sale of a horse, to be as perfect as it can be made 
 by man, it by no means comprises any effort to 
 prepare the animal either for extraordinary situ- 
 ations or for the blunders and cruelties of his 
 future master. No breaker can anticipate what 
 the folly or ferocity of a brutal driver may do to 
 a horse ; and even if he could anticipate it, he 
 would himself become a fool, and only inflict 
 needless pain and irritation, were he to attempt 
 to fortify the animal against it. Breakers can 
 train horses only for rational treatment ; and if 
 they would address themselves to the prevention 
 of the accidents which arise from ignorance and 
 brutality, they must apply the discipline for it, 
 not to the horses, but to their drivers. " There 
 can be no doubt," remarks the writer of Stable 
 Talk, " that of the numerous accidents we often 
 see and daily hear of, as occurring to gigs, phae- 
 tons, and other vehicles, three out of four arise 
 from want of judgment in the driver. He is not 
 
 I aware of what is likely to produce accident, con- 
 sequently takes no steps to prevent it. He has 
 probably no conception that a strap buckled too 
 tight or left too loose will render a horse uneasy 
 in his harness, irritate his temper, set him plung- 
 ing, and finally kicking and running away. This 
 horse might have been a week since bought of a 
 dealer, might have been driven in a double or 
 single harness, have always gone perfectly quiet, 
 and always would have done so if common judg- 
 ment had been used. This is all we have a right 
 to expect from a high spirited horse. He does 
 not promise us to carry a phaeton or gig down 
 hill on the top of his tail, or to be flayed alive 
 by his harness from our carelessness." 
 
 The regular exercising of a horse is an exceed- 
 ingly important part both of his training and of 
 all his subsequent treatment. See the article j 
 Exercise. A saddle-horse who has been regu- 
 larly exercised during the period of his training, 
 will, if afterwards properly treated, always per- 
 form his work with ease and pleasure ; while 
 one who has been fitfully exercised, or alternately ! 
 overdone and neglected, will come from the 
 breaker's hands either with windgalls, splints, { 
 or other forms of chronic disease, or with an 
 enfeebled constitution and a morbid suscepti- 
 bility of inflammation and other acute disorders. 
 A properly trained and ordinarily strong farm- 
 horse has, for the most part, regular, full, and 
 healthy exercise in the simple performance of his 
 daily work ; he neither suffers worrying exhaus- 
 tion, nor stiffens and stagnates from inactivity, nor 
 contracts predisposition to either chronic or acute 
 disease ; and, when moderately well-fed and other- \ 
 wise well managed, he enjoys a degree of both i 
 h ealthiness and longevity which is rarely witnessed 
 in any of the kinds of either saddle or carriage 
 horses. But the occasionally worked saddle- 
 horse, even though he should have been thor- 
 oughly well trained, can be maintained in tolera- 
 ble vigour, or kept free from a morbific condition, 
 or preserved in life and activity through a mode- 
 rate series of years, only by means of daily, judi- 
 cious, artificial exercise. All idle and neglected 
 horses are more or less enfeebled and diseased ; 
 and even horses who stand inactive during only 
 a very few days and then pass into a short con- 
 tinuance of violent exertion, or make an ordinarily 
 long and not very rapid journey, are very liable 
 to inflammations or other dangerous acute disor- 
 ders. " How often, nevertheless, does it happen," j 
 exclaims Youatt, "that the horse which has stood 
 inactive three or four days, is ridden or driven j 
 thirty or forty miles in the course of a single I ; 
 day ! This rest is often purposely given to pre- 
 pare for extra exertion, — to lay in a stock of 
 strength for the performance of the task required 
 of him ; and then the owner is surprised and dis- 
 satisfied if the animal is fairly knocked up, or 
 possibly becomes seriously ill. Nothing is so 
 common and so preposterous, as for a person to 
 buy a horse from a dealer's stable, where he has ! 
 
HORSE. 
 
 724 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 been idly fattening for sale for many a day, and 
 immediately to give him a long run after the 
 hounds, and then to complain bitterly, and think 
 that he has been imposed upon, if the animal is 
 exhausted before the end of the chase, or is com- 
 pelled to be led home suffering from violent 
 inflammation. Regular and gradually increased 
 exercise would have made the same horse appear 
 a treasure to his owner." A young horse requires 
 more exercise than an old one ; yet a very young 
 one ought not to have either very prolonged or 
 very fatiguing exercise. A well-fed horse, also, 
 requires more exercise than an ill-fed one, and 
 ought to have it during an hour each time twice 
 a-day, or at least during an hour and a half once 
 a-day. A saddle-horse, especially if he possess 
 much blood and high spirit, ought, when exer- 
 cised, to be first walked for a considerable dis- 
 tance, next gently trotted, sometimes next briefly 
 galloped, and always finally reduced down to 
 walking, and taken home in a cooled and unex- 
 cited state after his exertion. The practice of 
 galloping a horse for an hour, and then taking 
 him to the stable in a state of profuse perspira- 
 tion, is always more or less injurious, and some- 
 times entails almost as bad consequences as a 
 serious degree of inertion and neglect. 
 
 In Egypt and Arabia, horses are usually wa- 
 tered but once a day ; in Persia, they are watered 
 at sunrise and at sunset ; and in Britain, they are 
 pretty generally watered thrice a-day. Spring 
 water, partly from its coldness and partly from 
 its want of saline admixture, is injurious to most 
 horses ; and river or pond water, even though it 
 should be muddy and warmish, and should con- 
 tain but a very diminutive proportion of carbonic 
 acid, agrees well with almost all horses. The 
 regularly - worked and healthily - conditioned 
 draught horses of a farm, usually drink their fill 
 at some pond or streamlet adjacent to the far- 
 mery, without almost ever experiencing any bad 
 effect ; while hunters, hackneys, and other horses 
 kept entirely for the saddle, are commonly stinted 
 or controlled in their drink, and yet not unfre- 
 quently suffer from it very serious consequences. 
 When pump water or other spring water must 
 be used, it ought to stand in the trough or pail, 
 exposed to the air or to the sunshine, for a suffi- 
 cient length of time to let it acquire nearly as 
 high a temperature as that of the surrounding 
 atmosphere ; but the soft-water of a brook or a 
 pond, and most of all the water of a pond or 
 brook to which the horses have been accustomed, 
 ought always to be preferred. A prejudice exists 
 in most persons against the unrestricted permis- 
 sion of water to saddle-horses ; and this, in the 
 case of racers and hunters, usually rises so high 
 as to stint them of water for a day or two before 
 running, and to allow them none whatever on 
 the day of action. But though the watering of 
 a horse immediately before he is galloped, may 
 certainly do serious and irreparable mischief to 
 his respiratory organs, the limitation of his drink 
 
 in other respects makes him fidgetty and unhappy, 
 retards or embarrasses some of his functional secre- 
 tions, and powerfully predisposes him to violent 
 spasms, sudden inflammations, or some other 
 forms of very dangerous acute disease from the 
 occasional indulgence of an insatiable thirst. A 
 horse who has frequent access to water, and is 
 allowed the uncontrolled use of it, really drinks 
 less in the course of a week than a horse who has 
 access to it only under some restraints, and who, 
 whenever he touches it, gulps it down like a 
 vortex and looks as if he would annihilate the 
 stream. The stinting of water to any horse is 
 both great cruelty and very bad policy. Every 
 working horse ought to be liberally watered 
 thrice a-day, especially in summer, — and then 
 he will be free from the tortures of thirst, and 
 will have due liveliness and perseverance in his | 
 work, and will escape liability to many pains and 
 diseases; and every hackney, while on a journey 
 ought to be liberally watered thrice or four times 
 every day, — first waiting till he has somewhat 
 cooled, then receiving two or three quarts of 
 water, then his feed, and then another draught 
 of water. 
 
 The necessity of giving to all domestic animals 
 such food as contains a due proportion of nitro- 
 genous principles, the economy and prudence of j 
 accompanying the feeding of all the domestic 
 animals with a comfortable degree of external 
 warmth by shelter, the propriety of adapting the j 
 food of horses to different breeds and different I 
 temperaments, and an outline of suitable dietary 
 treatment of horses throughout the successive 
 seasons of the year, have been noticed in the 
 article Feeding oe Animals. Yet four impor- 
 tant points in the feeding of horses remain to be 
 here discussed, — the bad effects of over-feeding, 
 the benefits of the system of manger-feeding, 
 the proper allowances and mixtures of articles ; 
 of food, and the proportioning of the amount of 
 nourishment to the size, age, and work of 
 individuals. 
 
 No horse ought to be over-fed or to have an 
 unlimited allowance of highly or even consider- 
 ably nutritious food. The packing of a horse 
 with as much food as he can take, under 
 the mistaken notion either of kindness to 
 the animal or of its enabling him to perform a 
 maximum of work, not only wastes the food and 
 does the horse no real good, but injures his con- 
 stitution, and predisposes him to many danger- 
 ous inflammatory diseases. His stomach, when 
 unduly full, presses upon the diaphragm, dimin- 
 ishes the surrounding area of the chest, encum- 
 bers the oxygenizing action of the lungs, impedes 
 the heart's power of propelling the blood with 
 sufficient velocity through the various textures 
 of the body, and, in consequence, diminishes the 
 energy of the whole system, induces a lethargic 
 and somnolent tendency in the functions of the 
 brain, dilutes the strength and vitality of all the 
 secretions which are immediately dependent on 
 
HORSE. 
 
 725 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 the circulation, and occasions the formation and 
 deposition of fatty matter in lieu of some of the 
 requisite renovation of muscle. The repletion of 
 the stomach, also, weakens its mechanical action 
 in consequence of excessive distension, enfeebles 
 its secretive power in consequence of an overload 
 of matter, and makes an exorbitant demand upon 
 its gastric juice in consequence of the enormous 
 scope afforded for the decomposition of the proxi- 
 mate principles of nutrition. All food, like all 
 other dead organic matter, has a tendency to 
 resolve itself into its elements ; it encounters a 
 thorough resistance of this tendency, so as to pass 
 into actual nourishment, partly by the direct 
 reducing action of the stomach, and partly by 
 the antiseptic power of the peculiar gastric 
 secretion called the gastric juice; and when it 
 is swallowed in such quantity as not to be wholly 
 reducible by the gastric action and completely 
 saturated with the gastric juice, some portion of 
 it is decomposed, and not only ceases to be food, 
 but forms putrid and noxious combinations which 
 irritate the intestines, and produce either actual 
 disease or at least a morbific disposition. " So 
 long as an animal experiences the sensation of 
 hunger, the gastric juice is poured out from the 
 coats of the stomach, in sufficient quantity to 
 saturate the aliment that is swallowed ; but that 
 feeling once appeased, the secretion of the juice 
 either ceases entirely, or its properties are so 
 altered and weakened as to be no longer capable 
 of offering due resistance to the putrefactive 
 process. Thus, beyond a certain quantity, every 
 mouthful of food, placed as it must be in the 
 situation most likely to favour decomposition — 
 namely, one of warmth and moisture, — speedily 
 becomes a putrid mass, evolving a large quantity 
 of noisome gas — as does every animal or vege- 
 table substance in this state — by which disten- 
 sion is increased and acidity and irritation pro- 
 duced." 
 
 Continued repletion, therefore, produces direct 
 diseases of the stomach, the intestines, and 
 the circulatory system ; it produces, in particu- 
 lar, prevailing costiveness, occasional diarrhoea, 
 and continual feebleness of vital secretion ; and 
 it excites, or indirectly and slowly produces, 
 many inflammatory affections, many chronic 
 disorders, and almost all the morbid conditions 
 of organ or function to which different breeds or 
 constitutions may be liable, — in the viscera of one 
 class of horses, in the brain of another, in the 
 eyes of a third, and in the lungs or liver or other 
 organs of a fourth. Even continued feeding, 
 though neither the progress nor the aggregate 
 of it should ever amount to actual repletion, is 
 exceedingly injurious. The single and compara- 
 tively small stomach of a horse, just as really as 
 that of a human being, requires long intervals of 
 repose, and cannot, without serious damage, be 
 kept constantly working upon a continuous 
 supply of food. It performs its functions in a 
 progressive or serial manner, first liberally se- 
 
 creting gastric juice in preparation for a meal, 
 next saturating the materials of the meal with 
 the gastric juice, and working them up into a 
 homogeneous mass, and next comminutes suc- 
 cessive portions of the mass into the fine pulp 
 called chyme, and discharges them into the 
 pylorus on their way to yield up their nourishing 
 juices to the system ; and only when it has con- 
 ducted most part of a meal though the whole 
 process, or has nearly finished the reduction of 
 the whole mass into chyme, does it return to a 
 vigorous secretion of more gastric juice, prepara- 
 tory to the reception and saturation and diges- 
 tion of the contents, especially the solid ones, ofc 
 another meal. Hence the alternate disrelish 
 for food and keen hungering for it on the part 
 of a healthy and regularly-feeding human being ; 
 and hence, too, the necessity, in both man and 
 horse, of taking food in meals, and of completely 
 abstaining from it during the whole of every 
 interval between the meals. The effect of put- 
 ting fresh food into the stomach before the pre- 
 vious meal has been digested, is either to excite 
 the stomach to secrete fresh gastric juice and so 
 overtax its powers, or to send the food in a 
 decomposed or decomposing state into the intes- 
 tines, and so produce irritation and disease. 
 
 Every horse, therefore, ought to receive at any 
 one time only so much food as is sufficient to 
 appease his hunger and maintain his strength, 
 and never enough to overload his stomach or to 
 leave a surplus for his after-use ; and he ought, 
 in all ordinary circumstances, to pass an interval 
 of at least four hours between any two meals. 
 A farmer should not only mete out the proper 
 daily allowance of corn, beans, or other chiefly 
 nutritious food for his horses, but prevent his 
 men from giving them an unlimited, or constant, 
 or unduly large supply of hay, herbage, or other 
 fodder. Many a ploughman or carter, totally 
 ignorant of the natural laws of a horse's diges- 
 tion, and either to save himself the trouble of 
 giving limited periodical supplies, or in order, as 
 he supposes, to let the horse maintain a maxi- 
 mum of power by continually eating as much as 
 he is able, crams the rack with hay or other fod- 
 der, and seldom or never allows it to be empty. 
 The consequences are, that much of the fodder is 
 pulled down, blown upon, and wasted, — that the 
 horse acquires a mischievous and morbid habit 
 of eating between meals, — and that, if he happen 
 not to have a due allowance of corn or beans or 
 other highly nutritious food, he always eats more 
 hay than his comparatively small stomach can 
 rightly contain, and entails upon himself all the 
 disastrous effects of excessive gastric distension. 
 
 The system of manger-feeding is rapidly and 
 generally superseding the use of the rack ; it 
 consists in mixing chaff or minutely cut hay or 
 straw with oats or beans or other granular and 
 highly nutritious substances, and giving the 
 whole as manger-meat ; and it possesses the two- 
 fold recommendation of preventing a waste of hay 
 
 i 
 
HORSE. 
 
 726 
 
 HOESE. 
 
 or other fodder, and of obliging horses somewhat 
 thoroughly to masticate their oats and beans. 
 See the articles Chaff and Chaff-Cutter. Most 
 horses pull down and trample and waste a 'por- 
 tion of the fodder served to them in racks ; and 
 some cull out for their use only the sweetest 
 locks, and pull down and trample to destruction 
 so enormous a quantity as one-third or so of the 
 whole. All horses, too, swallow some portion of 
 their oats and beans in so imperfectly masticated 
 a state as to void them unassimilated and almost 
 entirely unaltered; and some hungry and greedy 
 ones, partly from the urgency of excessive appe- 
 tite and partly from the slovenliness of bad habit, 
 scarcely masticate their oats and beans at all. 
 " Many horses," remarks Professor Stuart, "swal- 
 low their corn in great haste, and when much is 
 eaten, that habit is exceedingly dangerous. The 
 stomach is filled — it is overloaded before it has 
 time to make preparation for acting on its con- 
 tents — the food ferments, and painful and dan- 
 gerous colic ensues. By adding chaff to his corn, 
 the horse must take more time to eat it, and 
 time is given for the commencement of diges- 
 tion, before fermentation can occur. In this 
 way chaff is very useful, especially after long 
 fasts." The horse finds the chaff too hard and 
 pointed to be swallowable without considerable 
 mastication ; he cannot throw it down among 
 his feet like unchaffed fodder ; he is compelled, 
 while masticating the chaff, to grind down the 
 oats and beans with which it is mixed ; and he 
 fills his stomach more slowly than with unmixed 
 oats or beans, and gives it greater time and 
 scope for thoroughly saturating and macerating 
 the food with gastric juice. Almost all horses 
 are very fond of this mixed provender ; and 
 many of them, after having become accustomed 
 to it, will, if an option be allowed to them, pre- 
 fer it to the best mixed oats. Not only, too, 
 have farmers found manger-feeding both a con- 
 siderable saving of food and a material advantage 
 to their teams; but some gentlemen, in spite of 
 the resistance of their grooms or coachmen, have, 
 with excellent effects, introduced it to their stables 
 for their hackneys and carriage-horses. Manger- 
 feeding may, in almost every instance, occasion 
 too much distension of the stomach of the race- 
 horse ; and may, in any instance, be suitable for 
 the hunting-horse, only when the quantity of the 
 chaff, as compared to that of the corn, is very 
 small ; but it is well suited for most hackneys 
 and carriage-horses, and admirably adapted for 
 all kinds of horses of slow and heavy draught. 
 
 Yet even in manger-feeding, food must be 
 given in meals and measured allowances, and 
 never profusely dealt out on the assumption that 
 a horse will not eat of it to excess. " The system 
 of giving the whole of the food as manger-meat, 
 under the impression that the horse will lie 
 down and rest so soon as he has finished his 
 meal, is in many cases liable to the objection 
 that, even when satisfied, he will continue to 
 
 eat for the purpose of getting the corn that is 
 mixed with his food, and will then probably only 
 lie down immediately from the feeling of oppres- 
 sion induced by repletion. When corn, beans, 
 and chaff, in proper quantity and proportions, 
 are given without the admixture of cut hay, if 
 a horse have had enough, he will, unless a glutton, 
 lie down perhaps at once, or will pull a small j i 
 portion of hay from the rack before he does so, 
 but will never leave the food that contains corn ! 
 until he have eaten more than is good for him, 
 and loathe the remainder." 
 
 The bruising of oats and beans and the steam- 
 ing of chaff and esculent roots have, in many 
 instances, been combined with manger-feeding, 
 as means of assisting the digestion of the horse, 
 and preventing the loss of nutritious portions of 
 his food. Unbruised oats, when mixed with 
 chaffed hav, are apt to slip out of it ; but bruised 
 oats and slightly wetted chaff thoroughly and 
 pertinaciously retain their state of mutual inter- 
 mixture. Seeds swallowed whole by either horses, 
 large birds or other animals often pass through 
 the stomach and intestines, not only unreduced 
 and unassimilated, but in full retention of their 
 vitality ; so as to germinate quite as readily as 
 if they had never been swallowed, or even to 
 have their power of germination stimulated and 
 strengthened by the action of the animal heat of 
 the intestines and the chemical agencies of the 
 excrement. The bruising of oats and beans, 
 therefore, besides rendering them thoroughly 
 miscible with the chaff, and occasioning them 
 to be eaten in uniform proportions with it, pre- 
 pares, them for assimilation by destroying their 
 vitality, and assists their digestibility by multi- 
 plying the extent of surface which they present to 
 the action of the stomach. Bruised oats, indeed, 
 are supposed by many persons to have a laxative 
 effect upon horses ; but they really have no such 
 effect upon almost any horses of slow and heavy 
 draught, or even upon the great majority of 
 horses of lighter structure ; and in any instances 
 in which they might act laxatively if given alone, 
 they do not so act when given in intermixture 
 with a proper or corrective proportion of chaffed 
 hay. 
 
 The steaming or boiling of chaff and esculent 
 roots, and even of the whole mass of any kind of | 
 manger-meat, is recommended by some eminent 
 veterinarians, on account of its bringing the 
 food into the fittest possible state for digestion and 
 assimilation, and by many distinguished agri- 
 culturists on account of its observed efficacy in 
 promoting the ultimate objects of feeding. " If," 
 says Professor Dick, after describing the process 
 of digestion and incipient assimilation, from the 
 act of deglutition on to the formation of chyle, 
 and the absorption of it by the lacteals — H If 
 the hardest of the food must, in this manner, be 
 broken down and dissolved before it can really 
 enter into the system, it must appear evident 
 that something approaching to this solution, 
 
HORSE. 727 HOESE. 
 
 if done artificially, would greatly aid the organs 
 of digestion in this process, and that thereby 
 much exertion might be saved to the system, 
 and at the same time, nourishment would be 
 more rapidly conveyed into it. It is with this 
 view that I would recommend the general adop- 
 tion of cooking food for horses. When the food 
 is broken down by cutting the hay and straw, 
 and bruising, boiling or steaming the oats, not 
 only is there less waste, by the whole being used 
 as manger-meat, but much labour is saved to 
 the animal, in having the tough dried hay, and 
 hard oats, masticated for him, and in a state 
 almost prepared for digestion ; and, as regards 
 the oats, all the nourishment they can afford is 
 readily yielded to the digestive organs." " As 
 respects the boiling or steaming of food," says 
 Goodrich Smith, "its importance is seen from 
 the fact, that ' it takes a horse from three to four 
 hours to masticate one stone of hay, but a mash 
 of potatoes of double that weight may be eaten 
 in 40 minutes.' Potatoes, it is said, lose about 
 one-eighth of their weight by the evaporation of 
 the water when steamed, or about one-sixth if 
 kiln dried or baked. It is even said that it has 
 been ascertained, that a bushel of oats boiled 
 will maintain a horse in better condition than 
 two in the common way." See the articles Boil- 
 ing and Steaming. 
 
 Manger-feeding, however, whether with raw 
 or with cooked food, must not be so practised as 
 to exclude other kinds of feeding, in all condi- 
 tions of the horse or at all seasons of the year. 
 Its main proper use, exclusive of other feeding, 
 is during the winter for healthy horses, and 
 while they are employed either constantly or 
 often at hard work. The sick horse may, at 
 any season, have hay or tares or other dry or 
 green fodder in the rack ; the slightly worked 
 horse may occasionally, in winter, have a por- 
 tion of hay or roots in lieu of the more nutrient 
 manger-meat; and the healthy and hard-work- 
 ing horse may, in summer, receive manger-meat 
 only during the day-time of his periods of hard 
 labour, and be turned out to grass during every 
 night and every rest-day, or be, to a large or 
 even principal amount-, fed with lucern or other 
 similarly nourishing green food. See the arti- 
 cles Calendar, Food, and Feeding of Animals. 
 
 The proper allowance of food for horses varies 
 according to the constituents of the food, the 
 condition in which they are used, the season of 
 the year, and the particular character, weight, 
 health, and work of the horses ; and it has been 
 somewhat diversifiedly estimated both on the 
 ground of experiment, and on that of appeal to 
 scientific principles. Mr. Stevenson of Redside 
 in East Lothian, records, in a recent Prize Essay 
 in the Highland Society's Transactions, a judici- 
 ously instituted and well-conducted experiment 
 on farm horses, from November till August, dur- 
 ing which three were fed daily with each 42 lbs. 
 of Swedish turnips and 15 lbs. of bruised oats, — 
 
 | two with each 42 lbs. of Swedish turnips and 15 
 lbs. of a mixture of two parts of bruised oats, one 
 part of bruised barley, and one part of bruised 
 beans, — two with each the same as the preced- 
 ing, except that the portion of the mixture for 
 one of the three daily feeds was boiled and un- 
 bruised, — two with each the same as the preced- 
 ing, except that the Swedish turnips and also 
 the whole of the mixture were boiled, — and two 
 with each about 150 lbs. of boiled Swedish tur- 
 nips, and 5 lbs. of the bruised mixture. The 
 first set jointly weighed on the 11th of March 
 297 stones, and on the 29th of April 282 stones ; 
 the second set, on the 11th of March 206 stones, 
 and on the 29th of April 197 stones; two of the 
 third set, on the 11th of March 181^ stones, 
 and on the 29th of April 179 stones; the fourth 
 set, on the 11th of March 166 stones, and on the 
 29th of April 155^ stones ; and the fifth set, on 
 the 11th of March 199| stones, and on the 29th 
 of April 189 stones. Two of the first set, who, 
 on the 29th of April jointly weighed 208 stones, 
 afterwards received each, in lieu of the turnips, 
 a daily allowance of 4 lbs. of oil cakes and 5 
 lbs. of oats, — and jointly weighed on the 3d of 
 August, 219^ stones ; the second set received 
 each, in lieu of the turnips, 4 lbs. of oil cakes 
 and 5 lbs. of the mixture, — and jointly weighed, 
 on the 3d of August, 208h stones ; the fourth set 
 received each, in lieu of the turnips, 4 lbs, of oil 
 cakes and an additional feed of the raw mixture, 
 — and jointly weighed, on the 3d of August, 160 
 stones ; and the fifth set received each, in lieu 
 of the turnips, 4 lbs. of oil cakes and 5 lbs. of the 
 mixture originally given to the third set,' — and 
 jointly weighed, on the 3d of August, 205 stones. 
 Mr. Stevenson says, inter alia, " From November 
 to March, the horses were all in good health. 
 The quantity of grain consumed by each horse 
 was evidently more than was requisite during 
 the winter months for the labour performed, the 
 girths having increased considerably. Those 
 horses which were fed on bruised oats were evi- 
 dently less energetic than the others : two of 
 them performed less work — they were dull in the 
 yoke, and their coats looked unhealthy. Those 
 on raw mixed grain were the most energetic. 
 Those on the boiled food, whether turnips or 
 otherwise, showed a healthy glossy coat, their 
 perspiration did not seem more abundant than 
 usual, with the exception, perhaps, of those fed 
 on boiled turnips. Those on boiled turnips con- 
 sumed more straw ; they scarcely ever tasted 
 water. In regard to the article of cost, the 
 results are in favour of the boiled turnips, with 
 one feed of bruised grain." 
 
 Youatt thinks that, of a manger-meat mix- 
 ture, of chaff, oats, and beans, in the proportion 
 of twenty pounds of chaff, eigtyt of oats, and two 
 of beans, 34 or 36 pounds are a sufficient daily 
 allowance for any moderate-sized heavy-draught 
 horse with fair or even hard work, and 40 pounds 
 for a dray or waggon horse. Thaer thinks that 
 
HORSE. 
 
 728 
 
 HORSE. 
 
 the daily allowance to a horse of middling height, 
 when performing ordinary work, may be regarded 
 as good when consisting of 8^ lbs. of hay and 9^ lbs. 
 of oats. Goodrich Smith appears to recommend, 
 as a proper daily allowance for 8 horses, one 
 bushel of beans, one bushel of oats, and one 
 bushel of chaffed hay and straw. Another au- 
 thority mentions as a good allowance for a horse, 
 8 lbs. of bruised oats, 3 lbs. of bruised beans, and 
 4 lbs. of chaffed straw in the day, and 22 lbs. of 
 steamed potatoes, 1^ lb. of fine barley dust, 2 lb. 
 of chaffed straw, and 2 oz. of salt at night. 
 Another estimates the proper daily allowance 
 in winter at 15 lbs. of hay, 10 lbs. of straw, and 
 8 lbs. of oats, together with as much oatmeal or 
 ryemeal as will thoroughly whiten a bucket of 
 water after each feed. Another allowance con- 
 sists of 5 lbs. of bruised oats, pease, or beans, 7 
 lbs. of chaffed hay, 5 lbs. of straw, 5 lbs. of 
 steamed potatoes, and 6 lbs. of brewer's grains ; 
 another, of 5 lbs. of bruised oats, pease, or beans, 
 8 lbs. of chaffed hay, 10 lbs. of straw, 5 lbs. of 
 steamed potatoes, and 2 lbs. of malt-dust or 
 ground oil-cake ; another, of 10 lbs. of bruised 
 oats, pease, or beans, 10 lbs. of chaffed hay, and 
 10 lbs. of straw ; and another, of 5 lbs. of bruised 
 oats, pease, or beans, 8 lbs. of chaffed hay, 8 lbs. of 
 straw, and 7 lbs. of bran. Mr. Cur wen recommends 
 for a farm horse 21 lbs. of steamed potatoes, 7 lbs. 
 of steamed chaffed straw, 7 lbs. of long straw, and 
 8 lbs. of oats, — and for a colliery horse 8 lbs. of 
 chaffed hay, 8 lbs. of chaffed straw, 7 lbs. of steamed 
 potatoes, 6 lbs. of carrots, and 12 lbs. of oats ; 
 and he says, in reference to various approved 
 practices of feeding with a combination of car- 
 rots and other food, " When from 8 to 12 lbs. of 
 oats are allowed to a work-horse per day, accord- 
 ing to its employment, 4 lbs. may be deducted 
 for 5 lbs. of carrots, and the spirit, condition, and 
 ability of the horse be improved by the same. * 
 * Other accounts state a bushel of carrots to 
 be given daily instead of oats. * * Horses 
 are fed on carrots with sometimes hay and some- 
 times corn, and sometimes with only straw ; as 
 first, for 6 horses, two loads of 40 bushels per 
 week, no corn, and little hay, — second, for 6 
 horses, one load, with corn in the spring-time, 
 and little hay, — and third, for 6 horses, 72 bushels 
 per week, no oats, and half the usual allowance 
 of hay. * * In Surrey, where carrots are 
 extensively cultivated, a team of 4 good horses 
 get about 60 bushels per week until Christmas, 
 with plenty of chaff or clover hay, but no corn, 
 and after that 40 bushels are given with 2 
 bushels of oats and a sufficiency of chaff." 
 Boussingault states that the usual allowance to 
 his farm-horses at Bechelbronn consists of 22 lbs. 
 of hay, 5| lbs. of straw, and 7| lbs. of oats ; and 
 he says, in connexion with a minute report of 
 experiments which he made with a variety of 
 mixed rations : " In the circumstances in which 
 we are generally placed in this country, I do not 
 
 imagine that there would be any actual advan- 
 tage in replacing the ordinary food of our horses 
 by roots and tubers ; I doubt even whether the 
 substitution would have good effects. I know, 
 indeed, that horses have been kept through the 
 winter upon potatoes and mangel-wurzel ; but it 
 is a different matter to feed an animal and keep 
 him standing quiet in the stable without work, 
 and to feed him at the same time that a certain 
 quantity of labour is required of him every day. 
 A horse in full work would scarcely get through 
 the bulky ration, which should consist of beet- 
 root alone ; his meal times are restricted ; if he 
 has certain hours for his work, so has he certain 
 hours for his breakfast, dinner, and supper also. 
 This is one reason why carriers' horses and post 
 horses, — horses in a word which have long and 
 severe work to perform, — receive the larger por- 
 tion of their allowance in corn." 
 
 Mr. Stephens, the author of the Book of the 
 Farm, mentions that a large coach-proprietor in 
 Edinburgh gives each of his coach-horses a daily 
 allowance of 8 lbs. of chaffed straw and 16 lbs. of 
 bruised oats, and that another person gives to each 
 of his large horses 10 or 12 lbs. of chaffed straw 
 and 16 lbs. of bruised oats. A common allow- 
 ance, in well-conducted stables in England, con- 
 sists of 11 lbs. of chaffed hay, 2-J- lbs. of chaffed 
 straw, 11 lbs. of oats, and lb. of beans. The 
 ordinary allowance for a British cavalry horse in 
 barrack consists of 12 lbs. of hay and 10 lbs. of oats. 
 The allowance for each horse in the Municipal 
 Guard of Paris for 1840, as also that for a troop 
 horse in the reserve cavalry of France for some 
 time previous to 1840, consisted of 11 lbs. of hay 
 and 8 lbs. of oats, together with 11 lbs. of straw 
 for litter ; that for a troop horse in the French 
 cavalry of the line, previous to 1840, consisted of 
 8f lbs. of hay and 7^ lbs. of oats, together with 
 11 lbs. of straw for litter ; and that for a troop 
 horse of the light cavalry, previous to 1840, was 
 the same as the preceding in hay and straw, but 
 comprised only 6| lbs. of oats. But since 1840, 
 the allowance for a horse of the reserve cavalry 
 consists of 8 J- lbs. of hay, 9^ lbs. of oats, and 11 
 lbs. of straw, — for a horse of the cavalry of the 
 line, of 6| lbs. of hay, 8f- lbs. of oats, and 11 lbs. of 
 straw, — and for a horse of the light cavalry, of 6| 
 lbs. of hay, 8j 3 Q-lbs. of oats, and 11 lbs. of straw. 
 — Cuviers Animal Kingdom. — Jardine 's Natural- 
 ist's Library. — Berenger on Horsemanship. — Low's 
 Domestic Animals of the British Islands. — Bell's 
 History of British Quadrupeds. — Hookham's Com- 
 parative View of the English Racer and Saddle- 
 Horse. — Bohn's Pictorial Gallery of English Racc- 
 Horses. — Williamson 's Wild Sports of the East. — j 
 Burners Travels. — Bruce's Travels. — Burckhardt's 
 Travels. — Culley on Live Stock. — Stewart's Stable • 
 Economy. — Longmans Stable Talk. — The Vcterin- I 
 arian. — Goodrich Smith's Economy of Fanning. — : 
 HaWs Journey to Peru. — Youatt on the Horse. — i 
 Winter** Horse in Health and Disease. — Blaine's \ 
 
HORSE-DEALER. 
 
 729 
 
 HORSE-HOE. 
 
 Veterinary Art. — Boussingault's Rural Economy. 
 — Knowledge Society's British Husbandry. — 
 Transactions of the Highland Society. — John 
 Burke, Esq. in the Journal of the Royal Agricul- 
 tural Society of England. — Professor Dick, James 
 Wilson, Esq. and others in the Quarterly Journal 
 of Agriculture. — Doyle's Practical Husbandry. — 
 Stephens' Book of the Farm. — Marshall's County 
 Reports. 
 
 HORSE-DEALER. A person who, in the way 
 of ordinary trade, buys and sells horses. He 
 pays an annual tax of ,£25 if he reside in the 
 metropolis, or of £12 10s. if he reside in any 
 other part of Great Britain ; and he is bound by 
 law to keep a record of every horse whom he has 
 for sale, to make this record accessible at any 
 reasonable time to the inspection of the proper 
 officers, and to deliver a copy of it every quarter 
 to the assessor of his perish. 
 
 HORSE-DUNG. See Excrement and Farm- 
 Yard Manure. 
 
 HORSE-HOE. A horse-drawn implement for 
 stirring the soil and destroying the weeds in the 
 intervals of the drills of growing field-crops. It 
 was first invented by the celebrated Jethro Tull ; 
 and. in consequence of its being the characteristic 
 tillage implement of all the after-culture of drilled 
 crops, it long gave the name of horse-hoeing 
 husbandry to the system which Tull introduced 
 of raising field-crops in drills. See the article 
 Drill-Husbandry. The modes and uses of hoe- 
 ing, whether with the hand-hoe or the horse-hoe, 
 are noticed in the article Hoe ; and the principal 
 advantages of the horse-hoe over the hand-hoe, 
 are rapidity of performance and economy of 
 labour. " Expedition," remarks Blaikie, " is a 
 most material point in all processes of husbandry, 
 carried on in a variable and uncertain climate ; 
 and it frequently happens, that hoeing in any 
 way can only be executed to advantage in a very 
 few days in spring. Hence, the horse-hoe has a 
 most decided advantage over the hand-hoe ; for 
 a man will only hoe about half an acre a day with 
 the latter, while, with the former, a man and a 
 boy, with one horse, will hoe 8 or 10 acres a-day, 
 and that in a more effectual manner." 
 
 The original horse-hoe, or that invented by 
 Tull himself, was a rude implement, and resem- 
 bled a roughly-shaped swing-plough, wanting the 
 mould-board, and with the cutting-edge of the 
 share turned up on its land-side. Subsequent 
 horse-hoes, though less rude and sometimes dis- 
 playing considerable ingenuity, continued to be 
 very simple ; and possessed some resemblance, 
 either to a swing-plough without the mould- 
 board, or to the scuffler, the scarifier, or the old, 
 simple, and diminutive varieties of the grubber. 
 Modern horse-hoes are exceedingly diversified in 
 both structure and adaptation ; they range be- 
 tween great simplicity and very considerable 
 complexity ; they vary widely from one another, 
 both in the facilities with Avhich they are worked 
 
 and the precise soils, crops, and conditions for 
 which they are most suitable ; and even such as 
 possess a sameness of both general structure and 
 special adaptation are considerably diversified by 
 the caprice or the conflicting judgments of dif- 
 ferent manufacturers. Their comparative merits, 
 as regards mere construction, will best appear 
 from a separate description of each and a succes- 
 sive view of all; and their comparative value, 
 as regards the circumstances in which they are 
 to be used, is altogether relative. " Soils of 
 different textures require to be hoed with shares 
 of different forms, according to their hardness, 
 or mixture of stones, flints or gravel. The num- 
 ber of hoes also in hard soils requires to be 
 diminished ; in the case of a strong clay, one hoe 
 or flat share, with or without one or two coulters 
 or prongs, will often be all that can be made to 
 enter the ground. In using these implements, 
 the operator should always consider whether he 
 will produce most benefit by merely cutting over 
 or rooting up the weeds, or by stirring the soil ; 
 because the hoe suited for the one purpose is by 
 no means well adapted for the other. In the 
 former case flat shares are to be preferred, but 
 pointed, that they may enter the soil easily ; in 
 the latter, coulters or prongs, as in the cultiva- 
 tors, are much more effective, as they will enter 
 the soil and stir it to a considerable depth, thus 
 greatly benefiting the plants by the admission of 
 air, heat, dews, and rains, and by rendering it 
 more permeable by the roots." — [Loudon's En- 
 cyclopaedia of Agriculture.] 
 
 Wilkie's horse-hoe and drill-harrow, or Wilkie's 
 drill-grubber with appended harrow, is a very effi- 
 cient implement both for cleaning and pulverizing 
 the intervals of the drills as soon as the plants 
 appear above ground, and for performing all the 
 subsequent hoeing operations of ordinary after- 
 culture. It has somewhat the form of a 
 plough ; and consists of a beam, three coul- 
 ters attached to the body and wings of the beam, 
 a small wheel at the point of the beam, directing 
 handles like those of a plough, and a harrow 
 behind the coulters and below the anterior mid- 
 dle parts of the handles. The wheel at the point 
 of the beam regulates the depth of the imple- 
 ment's action, serves as a fulcrum when the 
 implement is raised to free the coulters from an 
 accumulation of weeds, and facilitates the turn- 
 ing of the implement at the ends of the ridges. 
 The foremost coulter has a double-feathered sole, 
 passes up through a hole in the beam, and admits 
 of being raised or lowered so as to be adapted to 
 the precise depth of action required in the centre 
 of the drill ; the other two shares have single- 
 feathered soles, and are attached on a line with 
 each other to the wings of the beam or lower 
 part of the handles, and are prolonged and hinge- 
 jointed at top so as to be capable of expansion 
 and contraction ; and while the foremost coulter 
 cuts the weeds and stirs the soil in the centre of 
 
HORSE-HOE, 
 
 7 
 
 30 
 
 HORSE-HOE. 
 
 the interval between two drills, the other two 
 coulters, acting horizontally as well as vertically, 
 pare the soil from the sides and bottom. The 
 harrow consists of two bars, each armed with 
 three very long harrow-tines, and is capable 
 both of depression and of expansion ; and it 
 serves as a very useful auxiliary to the action of 
 the coulters, by displacing the weeds, bringing 
 the weed-roots to the surface, and thoroughly 
 stirring and pulverizing the soil. A representa- 
 tion of this implement is shown in Fia. 1, 
 Plate XXVIIL 
 
 Wilkie's horse-hoe with parallel motion is an 
 invention of the younger Wilkie of Uddingstone ; 
 it differs from the preceding, partly in wanting 
 the harrow, but principally in the manner in 
 which the two side-coulters are adjusted; and it 
 possesses, in an eminent degree, the capacity of 
 easy and efficient contraction or expansion of its 
 side-coulters, to suit the different widths of drills. 
 A representation of it is given in Fig. 3, Plate 
 XXVIIL The horizontal arms of its side-coulters 
 behind their chief curvature are strongly jointed 
 to the extremities of two cross-bars, which have 
 their centres of motion in the beam ; and in con- 
 sequence of the arms and the cross-bars forming a 
 parallelogram, the coulters, at whatever distance 
 they may be set, constantly preserve a position 
 equidistant from and parallel to each other, each 
 uniformly advancing in the exact proportion in 
 which the other recedes. The coulters, therefore, 
 never suffer the inconvenience and comparative 
 inefficiency, incident to those of many varieties 
 of horse-hoe, of being thrown out of parallelism ; 
 and, being always at the greatest possible dis- 
 tance from each other, they also prevent, in the 
 greatest practicable degree, a choking accumu- 
 lation of weeds when the implement is working 
 in narrow intervals. 
 
 The horse-hoe and double mould-board plough 
 is an implement with a skeleton equally suitable 
 for a proper horse-hoe and a proper double mould- 
 board plough, and with such adjustments of the 
 apparatus peculiar to each as to admit of that 
 of the one being at any time easily substituted 
 by that of the other. Both the horse-hoe of the 
 elder Wilkie and the horse-hoe of the younger 
 Wilkie, as originally made by their inventors, 
 can be converted into double mould - board 
 ploughs, for earthing up the soil on drills of 
 turnips, potatoes, or other similarly growing 
 crops, simply by the removal of the coulters of 
 the latter, or of the coulters and harrow of the 
 former, and by the affixation, in their stead, of 
 a drill-body with mould-boards. The common 
 double mould-board swing-plough, on the other 
 hand, is often so constructed as to be convertible 
 into a scuffling or cleaning plough, or virtually 
 a quite efficient horse-hoe for any tolerably clean 
 land, simply by withdrawing the hinge-pins of 
 the mould-boards. It is usually made with a 
 cast-iron body, and has its- beam placed in the 
 plane which bisects the angle of the handles; its 
 
 mould-boards are jointed at the fore-part to the 
 head, so as to be capable of expansion and con- 
 traction behind ; it has a double-feathered share 
 and two kneed coulters or scufners set in jointed 
 bars, which are adapted for variable widths ; 
 and it has no wheel. See the article Plough. 
 
 Finlayson's self-cleaning horse-hoe and drill- 
 harrow may be conceived to bear nearly the 
 same relation to both the horse-hoe of the elder 
 Wilkie and that of the younger Wilkie, which 
 Finlayson's patent harrow bears to Wilkie's 
 grubber. See the article Grubber. It has a 
 much more facile and efficient action on many 
 kinds of soil than the Wilkie horse-hoes, and 
 operates much more in the manner of a harrow 
 than that of the younger Wilkie. Its tines are 
 eight in number, fixed in a narrow skeleton 
 frame, and all self-cleaning ; and six are swan- 
 necked and prong-pointed, while the two hind- 
 most ones are curved and feather-soled. A beam 
 projects from the front of the frame, and termi- 
 minates in a fulcrum wheel and the draught- 
 attachment ; and a pair of guiding - handles, 
 exactly like those of a common plough, project 
 from the rear of the frame. 
 
 Weir's expanding horse-hoe is somewhat simi- 
 lar in structure to the Wilkie horse-hoes ; and is 
 so made as to do the work either of a proper 
 horse-hoe or of a double mould-board plough. 
 It has circular coulters, hoe-tines, and a double 
 mould-board ; and when used as a horse-hoe, its 
 curved coulters are adjusted into the expanding 
 bar in adaptation to the width of the intervals 
 to be hoed ; and when used as a plough for 
 earthing up potatoes or turnips, it is mounted 
 with the mould-boards and a suitable coulter. 
 
 The common Scotch horse-hoe is a plough- 
 grubber, carrying five coulters, and having the 
 fore-part of its beam supported on a wheel, which 
 regulates the depth of the coulters' action ; and 
 four of its coulters are set, two and two, in jointed 
 bars, which contract and expand to suit the 
 width of the interval between the drills. But 
 another form of the common Scotch hoe has 
 only three coulters, and is so constructed that, 
 when required to work any hard soil, one or 
 more of its ordinary coulters can be substituted 
 by bent prongs. 
 
 Henry's improved scarifier is closely allied, at 
 once in form, in action, and in uses, to a light 
 grubber ; and may be regarded as intermediate 
 in character between a small form of the old 
 scarifier and the Wilkie or Finlayson varieties 
 of the modern horse-hoe. It has a triangular 
 outline, and is mounted on three small wheels ; 
 its tines are nine in number, and have small 
 duck-footed soles, — and are adjusted in two 
 linear series,— four upon the front cross-bar and 
 five upon the hind cross-bar ; and its guiding 
 handles are light, and project from the middle 
 part of the frame. 
 
 Gorrie's drill - grubber or horse - hoe, was 
 invented, in 1840, by Mr. Gorrie of Annat-Gar- 
 
ATuUarton 8c C° London k Edinburgh, 
 
HORSE-HOE. 
 
 731 
 
 HORSE-HOE. 
 
 den in Perthshire. It carries a scuffler in front, 
 equal in length to the width of the intervals 
 between the drills, and so disposed as to under- 
 cut all weeds ; it has, behind the scuffler, such 
 tines or coulters as throw the weeds at once to 
 the surface ; and it is furnished with a wheel 
 under the beam, for the purpose of regulating 
 the depth of the action. 
 
 Morton's horse-hoe was invented about 20 
 years ago by Mr. Morton of Edinburgh. It 
 consists of directing handles somewhat similar 
 to those of a plough, — two beams, which extend 
 in continuation of the handles, and finally curve 
 to a junction, and send off a projecting bar, — 
 two tines upon the lower extremity of the han- 
 dles, eight upon the two beams, and two upon 
 the projecting bar, — and two cross-bars, adjusted 
 transversely between the beams. The foremost 
 tine upon the projecting bar is a cutting coulter ; 
 the hinder tine upon the projecting bar is a 
 triangular-soled share ; the eight tines upon the 
 beams are straight, pointed teeth ; and the two 
 tines upon the lower extremity of the handles 
 are triangular-soled shares. An apparatus exists 
 within the construction to set the tines at any 
 width which the distance between the drills may 
 require ; and the relative position and aggregate 
 expanse of the soles of the three triangular-soled 
 shares are such as to cut all weed-roots athwart 
 the whole interval between the drills. 
 
 The Hawick horse-hoe is similar, in general 
 structure, to Morton's horse-hoe ; but is less 
 elaborate in the combination of its parts, and 
 has a smaller number and different form of tines. 
 One triangular-soled share in front cuts all the 
 weed-roots in the middle parts of the interval 
 between the drills ; and six curved-footed coul- 
 ters, adjusted on the beams, cut all the weed- 
 roots along the side-parts which escaped the 
 action of the share. A joint at the fore-extremity 
 of the right beam, and a simple contrivance in 
 the transverse bar between the hind-extremity 
 of the two beams, serve the purpose of expand- 
 ing or contracting the implement to suit different 
 widths of interval between drills. 
 
 Brodie's horse-hoe is of similar date to Mor- 
 ton's horse-hoe, and takes its name from Mr. 
 Brodie of Templebarin the vicinity of Peebles, and 
 is specially adapted to the prevailing character 
 of soils in any very stony district. It consists of 
 directing handles, like those of a plough, — a middle 
 beam, formed by the convergence of the handles, 
 and extending thence to the fore-extremity of the 
 implement, — two side-beams, connected at their 
 hinder end by a transverse bar, converging to a 
 junction at their fore-end with the middle-beam, 
 and combining with the transverse bar to give 
 the body of the implement a triangular outline, 
 — one straight and pointed tine on the fore- 
 extremity of the middle beam, — four straight 
 and pointed tines, and a fifth and inwardly 
 j curved-footed tine, on each of the side beams, — 
 | two short rods projecting from the transverse 
 
 bar immediately below the handles, and each 
 furnished at its extremity with a straight and 
 pointed tine, — and an apparatus for expanding 
 or contracting the body of the implement in 
 adaptation to the width of intervals between 
 drills. The nine straight tines in front stir and 
 pulverize the soil of the greater part of the inter- 
 val ; the two inwardly curved-footed tines almost 
 meet each other at the points, and cut up any 
 root-weeds which escape the action of the other 
 tines ; and the two tines upon the backward- 
 projecting rods spread or level the soil after it 
 has been acted on by the curved-footed tines. 
 
 The Northumberland horse-hoe is of simple 
 construction, and triangular form ; it contains 
 either six tines or three coulters and three tines, 
 according to the state of the soil; and, when 
 used for hoeing between rows of turnips, its two 
 side coulters have a curved form. This imple- 
 ment is frequently used instead of a grubber in 
 pulverizing land for barley in spring, and in ' 
 tilling bean-stubbles in preparation for wheat 
 in autumn ; and a diminutive variety of it is 
 sometimes attached to a small roller, and used 
 for hoeing the intervals between drills of barley 
 and wheat. 
 
 Blaikie's inverted horse-hoe was introduced 
 by the author of the well-known Treatise on 
 Farm- Yard Manure ; and was the earliest effi- 
 cient implement of its class for hoeing simulta- 
 neously the intervals between several drills of 
 turnips ; and possesses both singularity and sim- 
 plicity of construction. Its tines are stalks or 
 vertical bars, each terminating on one of its 
 sides, in a small steel blade ; they are fixed, at 
 regular distances, into two parallel beams or 
 bars of iron, the one of which is placed in advance 
 of the other ; those in the one bar have all their j 
 blades pointing to the right, while those in the 
 other bar have all theirs pointing to the left ; and 
 the whole are so adjusted that, when the imple- 
 ment is in motion, the backs of each pair of 
 stalks pass close to the plants in the drills, 
 and the steel blades point to each other, and 
 traverse all the soil of the interval between the 
 stalks, and completely cut and till it without 
 turning any of it upon the plants, or doing any 
 injury to their roots. This implement is well- 
 adapted for hoeing narrow intervals; and may, 
 with both safety and efficiency, be employed 
 either for drilled corn or for young turnips. 
 
 Lord Ducie's parallel expanding horse-hoe is 
 constructed for hoeing drill crops, and at the 
 same time is convertible into a light grubber by 
 the simple means of taking out its hoeing-tines, 
 and inserting a set of grubbing-tines with which 
 it is accompanied. Its main part consists princi- 
 pally of a five-beamed or five-barred frame, and 
 five strong, heavy, forward-curved, double-fea- 
 thered shares, — mostly of cast-iron, but the cut- 
 ting edges of the shares of hardened steel ; and 
 its other parts are handles to hold and steady it 
 with, a tiller in front for the attachment of the 
 
HORSE-HOE. 
 
 732 
 
 HORSE-HOE. 
 
 draught, and a small wheel in front for regulat- 
 ing the depth of the action. It is sometimes 
 made with only three tines instead of five ; and 
 it can be very facilely adjusted to any width 
 from 12 to 27 inches, simply by moving the 
 small pin into different holes made for the pur- 
 pose in the side of the main-beam ; and in conse- 
 quence of the supports of the tines always moving 
 parallelly with the beam, the share of each tine 
 always presents its edge in a straight line to 
 what it has to cut. 
 
 Grant's horse-hoes display considerable inge- 
 nuity, and possess much adaptation and efficiency. 
 Grant's common horse-hoe is made entirely of 
 wrought iron ; and consists of guiding handles, 
 a beam, a frame, angular-footed shares, a front 
 wheel, and a hind wheel. " Mortices are made 
 through the beam to receive two iron bars, upon 
 which the frames supporting the shares may be 
 adjusted to cut any given width, or at any desired 
 interval; and by substituting mould-boards in 
 the place of the wrought-iron frame for the 
 shares, the implement is converted into a mould- 
 ing plough." Grant's improved lever horse-hoe 
 has a series of tines so adjusted on a frame, and 
 each one of the series so commanded by a sepa- 
 rate lever-power, that, by means of a compound 
 lever, similar to that of Grant's patent-lever 
 horse-rake, all the shares can be simultaneously 
 elevated and instantly freed from an accumula- 
 tion of weeds or rubbish. See the article Hay- 
 Rake. 
 
 Howard's horse-hoe is a very simple but effec- 
 tive implement for the after-culture of turnips 
 and drilled pulse. It has two rows of tines, with 
 wheels working at an equal distance from each 
 row ; and it in consequence has a steady move- 
 ment, and maintains a uniform depth. Its tines 
 are very narrow, and in the form of spuds, and 
 leave the soil in a much finer state than if 
 broader tines were used; and their stalks are 
 placed in an oblique position so as to allow the 
 weeds to slide freely up, and to prevent accumu- 
 lations of soil and rubbish from falling over upon 
 the young plants. The tines and wheels contract 
 or expand on the frame so as to suit different 
 widths of intervals. 
 
 Amos's expanding horse-hoe and harrow is a 
 much inferior implement to several of those 
 which we have noticed ; yet is said to be exten- 
 sively used in Lincolnshire. It has a beam and 
 a front wheel ; its shares are expanding, and can 
 be adjusted to any width of interval between 
 drills, from 12 to 30 inches ; and its harrow, not 
 only serves as an useful appendage in the proper 
 work of drill-hoeing, but possesses a sufficiency 
 of action in cleaning land from successive ga- 
 therings of weeds, and in bringing soil into a state 
 of reduced pulverulence and tilth, to adapt the 
 implement, in a considerable degree, to the pur- 
 poses of a grubber in the process of fallowing. 
 
 Clarke's universal ridge horse-hoe was invented 
 by John Clarke of Long Sutton ; and received 
 
 the silver medal at the first meeting of the Eng- 
 lish Agricultural Society ; and possesses ingenious 
 adaptations for the purposes severally of a horse- 
 hoe, a double torn, a moulding-plough, and a 
 broad-share or cleaning plough, so as to perform 
 all the various operations of ridge culture. A 
 pointed, broad-soled share attached to the frame, 
 completely hoes the furrow or central part of the 
 interval between two drills ; a moveable jointed 
 frame, which can readily be adjusted to any I 
 desired width, is affixed to the beam, to receive 
 the side-tines for hoeing ; and two curved-footed 
 tines are fastened into this when the implement 
 is required to hoe plants upon the ridge, — and 
 two flat-footed tines, when it is required to per- 
 form flat work. A small wheel, upon a vertical 
 stem, poises the front of the beam, and regulates 
 the depth of the action. 
 
 White's double-action turnip-hoe and Huck- 
 vale's patent turnip-hoe perform the after-cul- 
 ture of turnips, whether sown broadcast, in the 
 drill, or on the ridge. " In addition to the hoes 
 intended to pass in the direction of the ridge or 
 furrow, or between the rows of the plants, 
 White's implement is furnished with an appara- 
 tus which, by means of a crank put in motion 
 by the fore-wheels, two hoes are made to tra- 
 verse the rows, and thus to cut out the plants 
 when it is desired to thin them on the row. It 
 admits of adjustment to suit rows of any dis- 
 tance, from 15 to 30 inches wide ; and the cross- 
 hoes may be made to operate so as to leave the 
 plants on the rows at distances of either 9, 12, 
 or 15 inches apart. It may be used with one 
 man and one horse ; and by the substitution of 
 spear-footed tines in the place of the hoes, it 
 becomes an efficient light scarifier. Huckvale's 
 patent turnip-hoe is intended to accomplish a 
 similar operation to White's implement ; but the 
 hoes for cutting out the turnips on the rows, 
 are, by a simple arrangement of two cogged 
 wheels, made to revolve in the direction across 
 the ridge, while the body of the implement, con- 
 taining the hoes for cleaning between the rows, 
 is drawn forward by a horse." [Ransome's Im- 
 plements of Agriculture.] 
 
 Wilson's drill-grubber or horse-hoe was invent- 
 ed by Mr. James Wilson of Traprain in East Lo- 
 thian, and is intended for cleaning the ground 
 between the rows of drilled corn -crops. Its 
 outer frame consists of timber, and is a variable 
 parallelogram, and measures over all about 4^ 
 feet in breadth and 3| feet in length, and is sup- 
 ported in front on two wheels of about 20 inches 
 in height, whose axles are bolted to the lower 
 side of the front-bar. The hind-bar has affixed 
 to its middle part a pair of directing handles, 
 for the guiding of the implement, and so formed 
 as to suit the height of the workman ; the front- 
 bar has affixed to it the draught-attachment ; 
 and the two side-bars are attached to the hind- 
 bar by a mortice-joint and loose tenon, admitting 
 of motion in a horizontal direction, — and to the 
 
HORSE-HOE. 
 
 733 
 
 HORSE-HOE. 
 
 front-bar by a hook-and-eye joint, allowing a 
 considerable freedom of motion in every direc- 
 tion. Five bars for sustaining the coulters ex- 
 tend from the hind-bar to the front-bar ; they 
 are connected with the front-bar, each by means 
 of a bolt which is immoveable in the coulter-bar, 
 but slides up and down the hole pierced for it 
 through the hind-bar, so as to allow the hind 
 end of the coulter-bar to rise and fall ; and they 
 are attached to the front-bar each by a species 
 of double hinge, which has one joint moving 
 vertically and the other horizontally, so as to 
 combine with the mobility of the side-bars to 
 give a certain degree of universal motion ; and a 
 slight spring is attached to each of the coulter- 
 bars, and adjusted to act against the lower side 
 of the hind-bar, so as to keep the coulter at the 
 greatest depression. The coulters are pointed 
 and broad-footed shares, and are fitted to mor- 
 tices in the coulter-bars at points about one- 
 third of the total length of these bars from the 
 hind-bar, and are fixed by wedges at the required 
 height. A wheel of about 6 inches in diameter 
 is attached by a vertical stem to each coulter- 
 bar between the coulter and the front-bar, and 
 serves to regulate the depth of the coulter's 
 i action. " From the form and description of the 
 machine," says the Report of it in the Highland 
 Society's Transactions, " it is easy to see that it 
 must be made to dress either the same, or half, 
 or any other aliquot part, of the original number 
 of rows performed with the sowing-machine, by 
 which the crop has been sown ; and the intervals 
 must be the same in both. The utility of the 
 universal motion in the coulter-bars and frame 
 will also be apparent ; the horizontal motion of 
 the whole allowing the director to follow any 
 sinuosity that may have occurred in the opera- 
 tion of sowing, where all the rows sown at one 
 time must be parallel, though they may not be 
 in perfectly straight lines. The vertical motion 
 of the coulter-bars, at the same time, allows any 
 individual bar to rise when its coulter happens to 
 meet with any obstacle, and so to pass over it 
 without affecting the position of the others." 
 
 Garrett's patent horse-hoe was invented by 
 Garrett & Son of Leiston ; and it received prizes 
 at the English Agricultural Society's meetings at 
 Liverpool in 1841, and at Bristol in 1842, and 
 the honorary medal at Derby in 1843, also East 
 Norfolk in 1842, and West Norfolk in 1843. A 
 representation of it is given in Fig. 2, Plate 
 XXVIII. u This implement," says the report of 
 it in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
 of England, and in the Annual Register of Agricul- 
 tural Implements, " is so complete in itself as to 
 be fully suited to all methods of drill-cultivation, 
 whether broad, stetch or ridge ploughing ; and 
 is adapted to hoeing corn of all sorts, as well as 
 roots. The peculiar advantages of this imple- 
 ment are as follow : — It may be increased or 
 diminished in size to suit all lands or methods of 
 planting ; the axletree being moveable at both 
 
 ends, either wheels may be expanded or con- 
 tracted, so as always to be kept between the 
 rows of the plants. The shafts are readily altered 
 and put to any part of the frame, so that the 
 horses may either walk in the furrow, or in any 
 direction to avoid injury to the crop. Each hoe 
 works on a lever independent of the others, so 
 that no part of the surface to be cut, however 
 uneven, can escape ; and in order to accommo- 
 date this implement for the consolidated earth 
 of the wheat crop, and also the more loosened 
 top of spring corn, roots, &c. ; the hoes are 
 pressed in by different weights being hung upon 
 each lever, and adjusted by keys or chains to pre- 
 vent them going beyond the proper depth. What 
 has hitherto been an insuperable objection to 
 the general use of the horse-hoe, is over-ruled in 
 this by the novel and easy method of steering, 
 so that the hoes may be guided to the greatest 
 nicety, if common caution be used, doing every 
 execution among the weeds, without injury to 
 the crop. This implement is so constructed that 
 the hoes may be set to any width from 7 inches 
 to any wider space. For the purpose of hoeing 
 all kinds of corn, the inverted hoes only are pre- 
 ferred ; but for the root crops, where the rows of 
 plants are wider (say 16 inches or more), an 
 extra hoe of a semicircular form is placed on a 
 separate lever, working between and in advance 
 of the two inverted hoes, for the more effectually 
 cutting all the land, however uneven the surface, 
 by the three separate hoes working indepen- 
 dently of each other between the rows. The 
 hoes are of peculiar improved manufacture, the 
 blades being of steel, and made separate, and 
 attached to a socket handle in a simple and easy 
 yet effectual manner, so that any husbandman 
 may replace them ; and being manufactured by 
 the patentees at an exceedingly low price, no 
 difficulty can arise in replacing those parts sub- 
 ject to wear. In order to set the hoes in a proper 
 cutting position for either fiat or stetch plough- 
 ing, and so as thoroughly to cut either hard or 
 soft ground, the levers are put into a more or 
 less oblique position, causing the cutting edges 
 of the hoes to be more or less inclining down- 
 wards, by raising or lowering the jointed irons 
 to which the forward ends of the levers are sus- 
 pended and swung, which is done by merely 
 moving the pin which rests upon the frame into 
 different holes." 
 
 The hoe-scythe or thistle-hoe was invented by 
 Amos, and is designed to cut over thistles and 
 other strong and injurious weeds in pasture-lands. 
 It seems to be suitable only for a district in 
 which agricultural practice is in a semi-barbarous 
 condition ; and even were it introduced to foul 
 pastures in a good district, it can scarcely be so 
 efficient as the ordinary practice of subduing 
 thistles and similar weeds with the spade or 
 spud. Yet its inventor speaks highly of its 
 powers, and says that it performs its work both 
 in a much closer manner and at greatly less ex- 
 
HORSE-POND. 734 HUMMELLER. 
 
 pense than, can be done with the scythe. A man 
 and a horse, with this machine, are said to be able 
 to cut over 20 acres in a day. The body of this 
 implement has a triangular outline ; and is fur- 
 nished with a leading share upon its apex, and 
 with two scythes upon each of its two sides. The 
 leading share consists of cast-steel, and has the 
 form of an isosceles triangle, of 12 inches in the 
 base, and 14 inches in each of the two sides ; and 
 is about one-eighth of an inch thick in the mid- 
 dle, and thins off to a keen edge at the sides. 
 Each scythe consists of cast steel ; and measures 
 3 feet from point to point and 4 inches in breadth 
 at the broadest part ; and is fixed to a piece 
 of ash timber, 3 inches square, and 28 inches 
 long; and the four scythes, with their ashen 
 attachments, are so adjusted upon the frame of 
 the implement, as to form continuous lines with 
 the cutting-edges of the leading share, and to 
 flank nearly the whole of the implement's two ex- 
 terior sides. — Catalogue of the Highland Society's 
 Museum. — Transactions of the Highland Society. 
 — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. — Journal of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society of England. — An- 
 nual Register of Agricultural Implements. — Ran- 
 somed Implements of Agriculture. — Slights De- 
 scriptions of Implements in Stephens' Book of the 
 Farm. — Loudon 's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. 
 
 HORSE-POND. A pond for horses to drink 
 in, — whether a low-banked sweep of a river, or 
 an artificial excavation. See the article Pond. 
 No watering-place for horses ought to have 
 depth enough to reach their belly, and still less 
 their sides ; for though lazy plough-men and 
 grooms are fond enough of being saved some 
 trouble in cleaning by wading the horses deep, 
 the horses themselves, especially when fresh 
 from work, are liable to injury from going any 
 deeper than to their knees. 
 
 HORSE-RAKE. See Hay-Rake. 
 
 HORSE-SHOE. See Shoeing, and Foot. 
 
 HOT-YELLOWS. A disease in the liver of 
 sheep. It seems to arise from obstruction of the 
 bile, or from a morbid or comparatively inactive 
 state of the liver ; and is sometimes accompanied 
 with great fever, — and sometimes with symptoms 
 like those of putridity. The proper treatment 
 of it depends on the particular character of the 
 symptoms, and may be gathered from the articles 
 Fever and Inflammation. 
 
 HOVE. See Hoove. 
 
 HOVEL. An erection somewhat similar to a 
 shed, open at the sides, and covered overhead, 
 for affording shelter to farm-labourers while per- 
 forming limited kinds of out-of-door work during 
 falls of snow or rain. 
 
 HUANACA. See Alpaca. 
 
 HULLS. The husks or shellings of corn. 
 
 HUMIC ACID. See Humus. 
 
 HUMMELLER. A mechanical contrivance 
 for breaking off and clearing away the awns from 
 barley. A powerful thrashing-machine, with 
 
 merely the same mechanism and appliances 
 which are used for wheat, is sometimes efficient 
 for both the thrashing and the thorough hummel- 
 ling of barley ; or it may acquire a sufficiency of 
 hummelling power, simply by having the thrashed 
 barley put again through it, or by having the 
 cover of its cylinder internally fluted, channelled, 
 or roughened, and brought so near the beaters, 
 that only a small space shall be left between them 
 and the cover. But when the barley is not in 
 prime condition, or is not all thoroughly ripened, 
 or is mixed with any portion of clover or grasses, 
 or is of a variety with very persistent awns, some 
 express contrivance, of the specific nature of a 
 hummeller, is indispensable for cleaning it. 
 
 One hummeller, comprising a number of varie- 
 ties, and formerly in extensive use, consists of a 
 scutching apparatus, enclosed within the cylin- 
 der of the thrashing machine. The scutchers 
 are adjusted upon a spindle, in the manner of 
 several tiers or series of arms ; the spindle, with 
 the scutchers, is adjusted vertically within the 
 cylinder, and made to revolve with great velo- 
 city; and the barley enters at the top of the 
 cylinder, and sustains such a buffetting from all | 
 the tiers of scutchers as, in ordinary cases, com- 
 pletely frees it from its awns. But when the 
 barley comprises a portion of unripe grains, or 
 has an intermixture of grasses or clover, or is of 
 a very persistently-awned variety, the cleaning, 
 by this method, is very imperfect. 
 
 Another hummelling contrivance consists in 
 cheap and easy appliances for retaining the bar- j 
 ley within the drum-case of the thrashing-ma- 
 chine throughout the whole circumference of 
 the case, and for subjecting it while there to 
 numerously-repeated strokes of the drum's beat- 
 ers. This contrivance seems to have been in- 
 vented by Dr. Farquharson of Alford ; and is 
 described in the 13th volume of the Highland 
 Society's Transactions. The special fittings for I 
 it cost only about £% and are exceedingly dura- [ 
 ble, and consist merely of a slip-board, a small | 
 opening, and an apron. The slip-board is fixed, 
 in grooves or by other temporary means, between 
 the posts of the mill-framing, and rests on the i 
 edge of the bar which forms the breast of the 
 grating or riddle under the shaker, so as com- I 
 pletely to close up, for a time, the passage be- 
 tween the drum-case and the shaker. The small 
 opening is made on the opposite side, imme- j 
 diately under the feeding rollers, and serves to 
 let the grain escape, and fall down under the 
 feeding-in bench. The apron is placed under the 
 drum, and concentrically with it ; and is formed 
 on the same principle as the fluted or channelled 
 hummelling cover of the drum, in lieu of the plain 
 and ordinary cover. The interior surface of the 
 apron presents a series of parallel angular chan- 
 nels, each about one inch deep, and three inches 
 wide, and has the narrow faces of the channels, 
 or those opposed to the direction of the motion 
 
HUMMELLER. 735 HUMMELLER 
 
 of the drum, armed with strips of hoop-iron; 
 and it is secured in its place by means of two 
 screw-bolts at each end, passing through the 
 circular bars of the apron and the posts of the 
 framing. This apron is so adjusted that it can 
 be fixed at different distances from the drum 
 suitable to the varieties of barley and to other 
 grains ; and it does not interfere with common 
 thrashing, — and, except when seed-corn is to be 
 thrashed, seldom needs to be removed. But dur- 
 ing common thrashing, the small opening under 
 the feeding-rollers must be closed up by a slip- 
 board, so that the grain may not be thrown out 
 to the annoyance of the workmen ; and during 
 the process of hummelling, a skreen must, for a 
 similar reason, be attached under the feeding-in 
 bench. 
 
 An improved variety of Dr. Farquharson's con- 
 trivance came very early into use in Fifeshire, 
 Kinross-shire, and perhaps some other districts. 
 In this variety, the apron is dispensed with as 
 quite unnecessary, and the slip-board is usually 
 fitted to slide easily up and down in grooves at 
 the ends, and can be raised or lowered at plea- 
 sure by means of a rope attached to it, and 
 passing over a small pulley, and hanging within 
 the reach of the feeder-in. When the slipboard 
 is let down, a quantity of barley is allowed to 
 pass into the drum-case by means of the rollers ; 
 and it is there retained under the impetuous 
 action of the beaters as long as the feeder-in 
 thinks proper ; and when he considers it to be suf- 
 ficiently rubbed and buffetted, he suddenly pulls 
 up the slipboard, so as to allow the whole quan- 
 tity of barley to be thrown, at one dash, upon 
 the first shaker ; and it then falls through the 
 riddle, and is freed from the hummellings in the 
 winnowing-machine, and comes out well-cleaned 
 barley. This method possesses the advantages 
 over Dr. Farquharson's of giving any degree of 
 hummelling which the particular condition of 
 the barley may require, of breaking off the awns, 
 not by attrition only, but by a combination of 
 percussion and attrition, and of afterwards clear- 
 ing away the refuse by the action of the winnow- 
 ing-machine. 
 
 A hummeller of another kind, though con- 
 structed on a general principle which previously 
 had been often proposed and practised, was in- 
 vented by the Messrs. Grant of Granton in Aber- 
 deenshire, and is reported on in the 10th volume 
 of the Highland Society's Transactions. It may 
 be generally described as a truncated conical 
 receiver, lying in nearly a horizontal position, 
 furnished internally with a many-armed and 
 rapidly-revolving axle, and made to scutch and 
 buffet the barley on its way to the winnowing- 
 machine. The exterior of this hummeller is a 
 deal box, in the form of a truncated quadrangular 
 pyramid, 30 inches on the side at the base, 20 
 inches at the smaller end, and 48 inches in 
 length. The two lower angles of the interior are 
 filled up with wood, so that the half of the inte- 
 
 rior surface is conical ; and the two upper angles 
 have their surface thickly studded with iron 
 spikes, driven into the wood of the box. The 
 axle or shaft is made of iron, and passes along 
 the centre of the interior of the box, in the line 
 of the axis of the conical surface, and is sup- 
 ported at the ends on bearers formed in the box's 
 end bars ; and it is armed with two rows of blunt 
 iron beaters, seven in each row, all lying in one 
 plane, and those of the one row placed alter- 
 nately with those of the other. When the hum- 
 meller is in a working position, an opening at 
 the smaller-end extremity of its upper side is 
 brought under the cover-spout of the thrashing- 
 mill winnowing-machine ; and a prop or foot is 
 placed beneath the same extremity of the under 
 side, so as to bring the axle to a strictly horizontal 
 line. A shaft is attached to the projecting end of 
 the axle, passes through the winnowing-machine, 
 and is connected at the further side with a pul- 
 ley, which is driven by a strap from the fan-slpft 
 or from such other motion as may be found con- 
 venient, and causes the beaters of the hummeller 
 to move round with the velocity of about 400 
 revolutions in the minute. The barley received 
 from the spout of the winnowing-machine is 
 violently agitated in its progress among the re- 
 volving beaters ; and it passes down the consi- 
 derable inclination of the interior of the hum- 
 meller, to the thick-end extremity of the lower 
 side, and is there discharged through an orifice, 
 which is made capable of regulation by a slider, 
 so that barley easily cleaned may be speedily let 
 pass, and barley difficult to be cleaned may be 
 retained till it undergo sufficiently prolonged 
 tossing by the beaters. This hummeller has no 
 permanent fixture in juxtaposition with the 
 thrashing-mill, and can be easily removed when 
 other kinds of grain than barley are about to be 
 thrashed. 
 
 An improved and very greatly modified form 
 of Grant's hummeller is now the most economical 
 and the most efficient in use. The box or case 
 of it is a cylinder, and has a vertical position ; 
 and its axle is armed with two rows of alter- 
 nately-placed, thin iron-blades, and traverses the 
 middle of the box from end to end so as to be 
 strictly perpendicular, and to sweep the whole 
 space with its arms, and is caused to revolve at 
 the rate of between 300 and 400 revolutions in 
 the minute, by means of any convenient con- 
 nexion with the general moving power of the 
 thrashing machine. The barley enters through 
 a hopper at the top ; and it does not pass among 
 the arms as in Grant's hummeller, but always 
 accumulates in such quantity as to keep the 
 cylinder full ; and it is discharged at the bottom, 
 through a small orifice, of variable capacity, and 
 so formed as to control the rate at which the 
 barley passes, and consequently the degree in 
 which it is hummelled. This machine admits 
 of great variety in the details of construction, — 
 particularly in the size of the cylinder, the form 
 
HUMUS. 
 
 736 
 
 HUMUS. 
 
 of the arms, the adjustment of the arms upon 
 the axle, the position and form of the hopper, 
 and the mode of connexion with the moving- 
 power of the thrashing-machine ; but in all its 
 best varieties it is cylindrical, and vertical, and 
 has flat or bladed arms, and works with a reple- 
 tion of barley. 
 
 Another form of hummeller, sufficiently dif- 
 ferent from the preceding to be regarded as 
 belonging to a distinct type, though also con- 
 structed on the general principle of Grant's, is 
 described as follows by Mr. Ransome : — " The 
 best machine we have seen is one upon a wooden 
 stand, with a hopper into which the barley is 
 thrown, from whence it falls into a box in which 
 a spindle is placed in an inclined position, hav- 
 ing, when at a few inches apart, short knives 
 placed spirally, so as to form a sort of screw, 
 which, when put in motion, has a tendency to 
 draw the barley from the upper end of the box 
 to the lower. During the operation the awns 
 of the barley are effectually knocked off. This 
 mode of dressing barley constitutes one of the 
 principal improvements in Salter's patent win- 
 nowing-machine." See the article Winnowing- 
 Machine. 
 
 When the thrashing-machine is not used, or 
 has imperfect power, or is unprovided with any 
 hummelling apparatus, some kind of hand-hum- 
 meller requires to be employed. One variety of 
 hand-hummeller has a flat face somewhat like 
 that of a gridiron, and is worked vertically upon 
 a thick layer of barley, and breaks off the awns by 
 a series of blows. Another variety, nearly akin 
 to the preceding, consists of a set of small iron 
 plates, fixed edgewise and parallel to one another 
 within a frame, and has an upright shaft ter- 
 minating in a cross-handle, and is worked upon 
 layers of barley on the barn-floor somewhat in 
 the manner of a paver's instrument. A third 
 variety has the outline of a miniature garden 
 roller, but with the cylinder of its roller formed 
 of thin, flat, wrought-iron bars, edged on the 
 surface, and about two inches distant from one 
 another ; and it performs its office by being rolled 
 upon layers of barley. A fourth variety, some- 
 what akin to the third, consists of a small cylin- 
 drical wheel, with an attached handle ; and is 
 rolled backward and forward upon rather thick 
 layers of barley. 
 
 HUMULUS. See Hop. 
 
 HUMUS. The woody or fibrous parts of dead 
 plants in a state of decay in the ground. It is 
 not uniform in composition ; it has been exten- 
 sively confounded with some products of the 
 action of alkalies and acids on sugar and woody 
 fibre, which seem to resemble it but are really 
 different from it ; and, as to at once its constitu- 
 tion, its properties, and its action within the soil 
 and upon growing plants, it is a topic of varied 
 and conflicting opinions among agricultural 
 chemists. 
 
 In 1797, the celebrated French chemist Vau- 
 
 quelin, while analysing the brown exudation 
 from the common ulcers of the bark of the elm, 
 discovered a solid substance of a brilliant black 
 colour, very brittle, insoluble in cold water, but 
 very soluble in hot water, and giving it a yellow- 
 ish-brown colour, much more soluble in alcohol 
 and in concentrated sulphuric acid, and capable 
 of being precipitated from solution in either of 
 these by the addition of water. In 1802, the 
 Swedish chemist Klaproth received from Palermo 
 a specimen of this substance ; and, upon analys- 
 ing it, he confirmed Vauquelin's observations, 
 and found the substance to contain a portion of 
 resinous matter. In 1810, Berzelius, the most 
 acute chemist of the age, when experimenting 
 upon the barks of various trees, found products 
 similar to Vauquelin's substance in elm bark, Pe- 
 ruvian bark, and pine bark ; and pronounced the 
 first to be only a variety of vegetable mucilage, 
 the second to be somewhat similar to starch, and 
 the third to be allied to what is called pectic 
 acid. In 1812, James Smithson, an English 
 chemist, gave to the Royal Society of London an 
 account of experiments which he had made on 
 specimens of elm exudation received from the 
 same person who had sent the specimen to 
 Klaproth ; and he reported the substance which 
 he obtained from the specimens to be allied more 
 to extractive matter than to resin, and to con- 
 tain 20 per cent, of potash. In 1813, Dr. Thomas 
 Thomson, the distinguished British chemist, ex- ! 
 perimented on several varieties of the gummy I 
 exudations of the bark of trees ; and, assuming 
 that one distinct vegetable principle pervaded 
 them — or rather supposing himself to have con- 
 verted a previous prevalent opinion on this point 
 into an ascertained fact — called the alleged prin- 
 ciple ulmin, from ulmus, the Latin name of elm. 
 He was the first that ever procured ulmin in a 
 pure state ; and he proved it to be, not of a resin- 
 ous but of an extractive nature ; yet he illogically j 
 and confusingly identified it with all the varieties 
 of substance obtained from barks by Berzelius, — 
 not only with the several substances from the 
 bark of the elm, but with the substances from 
 pine bark and Peruvian bark. 
 
 Soon after ulmin had come to be generally 
 recognised by chemists as a distinct substance, 
 Braconnot found it in the soil formed in the hoi- | ! 
 low of a tree, in coal, and in a variety of brown- 
 ish lignite ; and he even produced it artificially 
 by heating equal parts of sawdust and potash 
 with a little water in a silver or iron vessel, and 
 saturating the potash by sulphuric acid. The 
 characters of his artificial ulmin were, that, 
 when heated, it reddens the tincture of turnsole, 
 — that, with potash and ammonia, it forms com- 
 pounds which are very soluble in water, and de- 
 composable by the acids, by lime-water, and by the 
 earthy salts, — and that, in the course of a short 
 time, it produces precipitates with the nitrates of 
 baryta and silver, the chlorides of sodium and 
 calcium, the trito-sulphate of iron, and the ace- 
 
 J 
 
HUMUS. 
 
 737 
 
 HUMUS. 
 
 tate of alumina. Dobereiner and Sprengel, on 
 the faith of these characters, pronounced ulmin 
 to be an acid ; and both they and many other 
 expert chemists instituted vigorous and compre- 
 hensive investigations into its properties and 
 relations. Berzelius afterwards taught that ul- 
 min is a constituent part of the bark of almost 
 all trees ; and other investigators declared it 
 to exist in a vast variety of substances, — to 
 be the product of very many vegetable decom- 
 positions by alkalies, by acids, by earths, by 
 oxides, by fire, and by water, — to result very 
 specially from the slowly reducing action of the 
 oxygen of the atmosphere upon the organic mat- 
 ter of dead plants, — and therefore to exist abun- 
 dantly in peat and in all kinds of soils which 
 contain a considerable proportion of vegetable 
 mould. Sprengel, directing his attention par- 
 ticularly to its existence in soil, before its char- 
 acter as occurring there was generally supposed 
 to be identical with its character as occurring in 
 the bark of trees, called it humic acid, from 
 humus, the Latin name for mould. Boullay soon 
 followed in the same path of investigation, and 
 arrived at nearly similar results, and gave to 
 both the ulmin of the early investigators and the 
 humic acid of Sprengel the name of ulmic acid. 
 
 Yet the elm gum of Klaproth, the elm extrac- 
 tive of Smithson, the ulmin of Thomson, the 
 artificial ulmin of Braconnot, the humic acid 
 of Sprengel, and several of the varieties of the 
 ulmin and the ulmic acid of other chemists, after 
 all, were quite distinct from one another in con- 
 stitution, and ought never to have been grouped 
 together under one name. " A multitude of dif- 
 ferent but analogous substances," says Dr. Dana, 
 " were confounded under a common name, which 
 began to be applied to the matter of all vegeta- 
 bles, which, after being heated with alcohol and 
 water, yielded to alkali a solution, precipitable 
 in brown flocks by an acid." " In July, 1826," 
 says M. Raspail, " I called the attention of che- 
 mists to the fallacious circumstances which had, 
 so to speak, beguiled their sagacity ; and I 
 demonstrated that, instead of having obtained 
 by these complicated processes a proximate 
 principle, they had only given one or more new 
 names to a mixture of altered bodies, and that 
 even the acidity of these detritus might be alto- 
 gether artificial. These observations appear to 
 have shaken the confidence of Berzelius ; for, in 
 his Treatise on Chemistry, he advises chemists 
 to lay aside the name ulmin, as having been 
 applied to mucilaginous extracts of different 
 kinds ; yet, as if to make up for this, he invents 
 a new name, geine, to designate the vegetable 
 mould, or humus, which Braconnot had stated 
 to resemble ulmin." But, at a subsequent pe- 
 riod, Berzelius withdrew the name geine, and 
 used instead of it the name humic acid ; and from 
 about the time of his doing so down to the pre- 
 sent hour, all the principal agricultural chemists, 
 inclusive of himself, though differing widely from 
 L 
 
 one another in several of their definitions, in some 
 of their theories, and in much of their nomen- 
 clature, have regarded humus as a generic sub- 
 stance comprising all the fibrous or organic parts 
 of dead plants in a state of decay, and the natu- 
 ral or artificial modifications of it as specific 
 substances of individually determinate and mu- 
 tually different character. Some writers speak 
 of the generic substance under the name of 
 humus, some under the name of mould, and 
 some under the name of geine ; some regard as 
 its principal species or modifications ulmin, 
 humic acid, coal of humus, and humin, — and 
 others, ulmin, ulmic acid, humin, and humic acid ; 
 some include among its species or modifications 
 crenic acid and apocrenic acid, and others deny 
 the very existence of these acids; and while 
 some differ from others in theory, in definition, 
 or in analysis, others differ chiefly or solely in 
 mere nomenclature. 
 
 We cannot, within our necessarily narrow 
 limits, attempt the enormous task of clearing up 
 the intricacies of opinion respecting humus ; we 
 moreover, would think the task a thousand 
 times more curious than useful; and we shall 
 merely state two or three of the later and more 
 important theories, and give a brief concluding 
 statement of their connexion with the science of 
 cultivation. Any person who wishes to see how 
 much confusion and discrepancy sometimes pre- 
 vail in the writings of even one author on sub- 
 jects connected with humus, will find an ample 
 enough specimen in Dr. Dana's Muck Manual, 
 as reviewed in our article on Geine. 
 
 Thaer says, "Humus is a mould, not properly 
 an earth, but a powdery substance, in a greater or 
 less degree found in the soil. The fruitfulness of 
 the soil depends on its proportions, as likewise it 
 is the only thing in the soil that give3 nutri- 
 ment to plants. It is the remains of vegetable 
 and animal putrefaction — if dry, black and pow- 
 dery ; if moist, it has a smooth, fatty feeling. It 
 is different according to the bodies out of which 
 it is formed ; but it has certain general peculiar- 
 ities or properties in which it is essentially alike. 
 Humus is a form of organic power, a combination 
 of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, and 
 also in lesser quantities of sulphur, phosphorus, 
 and various salts, — gives nourishment to organ- 
 ism. The more life there is, the more humus ; and 
 the more humus, the more life. Humus has less 
 oxygen, but more carbon and nitrogen, than the 
 plants of which it is composed. It differs also as 
 there is more or less water or air, as it is in a 
 free or confined state. It is liable to changes, 
 and forms extract or extractive matter. If it has 
 not access to air, carbonic acid and extract are 
 produced. Salts exist in a mass in humus. Hu- 
 mic acid by itself is unfruitful and injurious to 
 vegetation. Humus differs as it is formed from 
 animal or vegetable bodies. The animal has 
 more nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, as is 
 perceivable by the smell it emits when burning." 
 3 A 
 
HUMUS. 
 
 Schwertz says, "The nourishing substance of 
 plants, to which we give the name of humus, has 
 the appearance of a powdery and usually a brown 
 or dark grey loose substance, in which can no 
 more be discerned its original condition. It 
 burns in the fire, and is soluble in water, espe- 
 cially after an addition of alkali. It is not every 
 decayed substance that is humus ; and not every 
 species of humus is in a condition for the fertility 
 of plants. It forms itself from the soil more or 
 less rapidly, according to the organic substances 
 from which it is derived, the firmer or the less 
 firm its texture is, the less or more earthly parts 
 it contains, and as the circumstances of temper- 
 ature and soil exert a stronger or weaker influ- 
 ence on the humus." 
 
 Burger says, " Humus will hold nearly double 
 
 | its weight in water without losing a drop. 
 Schubler found that 100 parts of humus would 
 retain 190 parts of water. Korte, also, found 
 that a humus formed from the wild chestnut 
 
 j wood, would hold 239 per cent, of water, while a 
 
 I loamy clay held only 45 per cent. It loses the 
 water also very slowly. According to Schubler, 
 of 10,000 parts of water, 108 evaporated from 
 humus in the same time that 245 escaped from 
 313 of garden earth. He fixes the power of hu- 
 
 | mus to retain warmth at 0*49, while Crome sets it 
 down at 0*72. It has little cohesive power. If 
 set out in the open air, of all the integral parts 
 of the soil it absorbs the most moisture. Accord- 
 ing to Schubler, 1,000 grains of humus in 48 
 hours absorbed 110 grains of water. According 
 to Korte, in 4 weeks it absorbed six times as 
 much moisture. Of all the constituents of the 
 soil it is most easily decomposed in the air, and 
 absorbs a great portion of its acids. According 
 to Schubler, in a moist state, of 0*21 of oxygen 
 existing in air, it absorbed | in 30 days. Hu- 
 mus combined with oxygen, is soluble in water ; 
 and a portion of the carbon of humus unites it- 
 self with the oxygen to form carbonic acid gas. 
 It becomes warm, when set out in the sun, very 
 rapidly and strongly ; but it also very rapidly 
 loses its acquired warmth. It is especially found 
 in the upper strata of the earth." 
 
 Liebig says, " Humus appears to play such an 
 important part in the phenomena of vegetation, 
 that vegetable physiologists have been induced 
 to ascribe the fertility of every soil to its pre- 
 sence. It is believed by many to be the princi- 
 pal nutriment of plants, and is supposed to be 
 extracted by them from the soil in which they 
 grow. It is described by chemists as a brown 
 substance easily soluble in alkalies, but only 
 slightly so in water, and produced during the 
 decomposition of vegetable matters by the action 
 of acids or alkalies. It has, however, received 
 various names, according to the different exter- 
 nal characters and chemical properties which 
 it presents. Thus, ulmin, humic acid, coal of 
 humus and humin, are names applied to modifi- 
 cations of humus. They are obtained by treating 
 
 peat, woody fibre, soot, or brown coal with al- 
 kalies, — by decomposing sugar, starch, or sugar 
 of milk by means of acids, — or by exposing alka- 
 line solutions of tannic and gallic acids to the 
 action of the air. The modifications of humus 
 which are soluble in alkalies, are called humic 
 acid ; while those which are insoluble have re- 
 ceived the designations of humin and coal of 
 humus. The names given to these substances 
 might cause it to be supposed that their compo- 
 sition is identical. But a more erroneous notion 
 could not be entertained ; since even sugar, 
 acetic acid, and resin do not differ more widely 
 in the proportions of their constituent elements, 
 than do the various modifications of humus. 
 Humic acid formed by the action of hydrate of 
 potash upon sawdust contains, according to the 
 accurate analysis of Peligot, 72 per cent, of car- 
 bon, while the humic acid obtained from turf 
 and brown coal contains, according to Spren- 
 gel, only 58 per cent.; that produced by the 
 action of diluted sulphuric acid upon sugar, 57 
 per cent, according to Malaguti ; and that, last- 
 ly, which is obtained from sugar or from starch, 
 by means of muriatic acid, according to the 
 analysis of Stein, 64 per cent. Malaguti states, 
 moreover, that humic acid contains an equal 
 number of equivalents of oxygen and hydrogen, 
 that is to say, that these elements exist in it in 
 the proportions for forming water ; while accord- 
 ing to Sprengel, the oxygen is in excess ; and 
 Peligot estimates the quantity of hydrogen at 14 
 equivalents, and the oxygen at only 6 equiva- 
 lents, making the deficiency of oxygen as great 
 as 8 equivalents. Mulder and Hermann have 
 shown that decayed willow-wood, peat, or vege- 
 table mould, after being treated with water and 
 alcohol, leave a solid brown substance, which yields 
 to alkalies a peculiar humic acid. This humic 
 acid consists of carbon and the elements of water. 
 But besides these usual constituents, it contains 
 a certain quantity of ammonia in a state of chem- 
 ical combination. It is quite evident, therefore, 
 that chemists have been in the habit of designat- 
 ing by the names of humic acid or humin all the 
 brown or black coloured products of the decom- 
 position of organic bodies, according as they were 
 soluble or insoluble in alkalies ; although in their 
 composition and mode of origin the substances 
 thus compounded might be in no way allied." 
 
 The part which humus plays, in fertilizing soil 
 and feeding plants, is overrated to an enormous 
 degree by most scientific cultivators in France 
 and Germany, and to a very considerable degree 
 by many scientific cultivators in Britain. Hu- 
 mus, in the form of humin or coal of humus, 
 resists solution, and cannot possibly be absorbed 
 by plants ; and, even in the form of humic acid, 
 occurs so limitedly or even doubtfully in the 
 soil, and forms salts of such shy solubility, as to 
 be incapable of contributing to plants any very 
 appreciable portion, or perhaps any portion at 
 all, of their nourishment. The ulmic and the 
 
HUMUS. 
 
 739 
 
 HUMUS. 
 
 humic acids indeed, have, of late years, been in- 
 vestigated and analysed with wondrous nicety, 
 and shown to look amazingly like very suitable 
 food for plants, by Mulder and other distinguish- 
 ed agricultural chemists ; but they cannot be 
 proved to exist in any considerable quantity, or 
 even in many cases to exist at all, in the natu- 
 rally conditioned soil, and must be supposed to 
 arise more or less out of the chemical action at- 
 tendant on the manipulations for investigating 
 them. The saline combinations of humic acid 
 with some alkalies, alkaline earths, and metals 
 — called humates by some chemists, and geates 
 by others — have been extolled by such writers 
 as Dr. Dana as almost the main support of plants, 
 or as the ready-made form of nearly all the food 
 which they obtain from the soil. Dr. Dana, for 
 example, says that all the alkaline geates are 
 very soluble in water, — that geate of magnesia is 
 soluble in 160 parts of water, — that geate of 
 alumina is soluble in 4,200 parts of water, and 
 abundantly soluble in alkali, — that geate of iron 
 is soluble in 2,300 parts of water, and easily solu- 
 ble in alkaline carbonates, — that geate of man- 
 ganese is soluble in 1,450 parts of water, and, 
 though insoluble in potash or soda, yet is soluble 
 in ammonia, — and that geine itself, or humus, 
 acquires a wondeiful increase of solubility from 
 the action of the alkalies, so as to be greatly and 
 very valuably under the farmer's control simply 
 by means of applications of alumina, or magne- 
 sia, or lime ; and, on the strength of these state- 
 ments, he indulges in not a few such flourishes 
 as the following — alike inconsistent with the 
 well-ascertained facts of agricultural chemistry, 
 and mischievously misleading to the plain, un- 
 reasoning farmer, — "Geine is as essential to 
 plants as is food to animals ; so far as nourish- 
 ment is derived from the soil, geine is the food 
 of plants" ! Our readers, we hope, will carefully 
 read our articles Alkalies, Alumina, and Food 
 of Plants, and the section ' Origin and Action 
 of Humus' of our article Agricultural Che- 
 mistry, and the section upon the action or theo- 
 ry of manures in our article Manure ; and then 
 they can refute all this trumpery for themselves, 
 and form an intelligent opinion as to both the 
 manner in which humus really acts, and the 
 amount, actual or imaginary, of its affinities for 
 the mineral constituents of the soil. 
 
 If humus could be understood as including 
 animal organic matters and fermenting or re- 
 cently dead vegetable organic matters — if it 
 could be understood in any such sense as Thaer 
 assigns to it, when he calls it " a combination 
 of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, 
 and also in lesser quantities of sulphur, phos- 
 phorus, and various salts," — it would unques- 
 tionably deserve to be called the main fertilizer 
 of soil, and to be considered as a direct and very 
 important portion of the food of plants ; but, in 
 this case, it would not be what Dr. Dana calls 
 geine, or what the great majority of chemists 
 
 call humus, or any one definite substance or 
 generic set of principles whatever, but simply 
 the aggregate of saline matters and nitrogenous 
 matters and all sorts of soluble organic matters 
 in the soil, ever diversifying according to season 
 and culture, and statedly and incalculably vari- 
 ous in different kinds and qualities of land, — in 
 other words, it would simply be an aggregate 
 expression for all the organic and saline princi- 
 ples of fertility in the soil, or for the manurial 
 and the mineral food of plants. But even the 
 humic and the ulmic acids which are elaborated 
 out of the mould of soil, and which combine 
 with bases to form those humates and ulmates — 
 or geates, as Dr. Dana calls them — which are 
 alleged to be absorbable by plants as food, — even 
 these are regarded by all the most distinguished 
 modern chemists as consisting solely of carbon, 
 hydrogen, and oxygen. According to a statement 
 in Berzelius' " Rapport Annuel sur les Progres 
 de la Chimie " in 1841, for example, humic acid 
 consists of 40 atoms of carbon, 12 of hydrogen, 
 and 12 of oxygen, and ulmic acid consists of 
 40 atoms of carbon, 14 of hydrogen, and 12 of 
 oxygen. A certain quantity of ammonia, in- 
 deed, is believed to exist in chemical com- 
 bination with these two acids as they are sup- 
 posed to occur in the soil ; but — to say nothing 
 of this quantity being at one time double of 
 what it is at others — the four elements of the 
 ammonia and the acids are merely yielded from 
 soil in proportions which would constitute these 
 substances, and cannot be proved to exist as 
 ammonia in combination with humic acid or 
 with ulmic acid previous to the making of the 
 analysis. Hence, when Berzelius reports some 
 most careful investigations upon this subject, he 
 feels obliged to employ very guarded language, 
 saying, " These analyses prove that fertile soils 
 contain combinations of ammonia with acids, 
 which correspond to those of humic and ulmic 
 acids, — in all containing 40 atoms of carbon, 
 and a variable number of atoms of hydrogen and 
 oxygen ;" and Dr. Shier, after looking favourably 
 at his whole report, ingenuously says, " The 
 great difficulty attendant on the whole question 
 of the organic matters of soils, is, that we can 
 never be sure that the substances separated 
 existed as such in the soils." 
 
 Now who shall surmount this "difficulty," 
 much less annihilate it 1 Who shall prove that 
 the humic and the ulmic acids, in any appreciable 
 quantity at least, exist at all in soils 1 And if 
 the acids cannot be proved to exist, where can 
 Dr. Dana's geates — the humates and the ulmates 
 — be found? But even though they could be 
 found, — though the humic and the ulmic acids 
 were conceded to exist, and to form salts with the 
 alkaline and the metallic bases in the soil, — and 
 though these salts, the geates, were supposed to 
 possess all the properties which the advocates of 
 their fertilizing action ascribe to them, — they 
 could not possibly supply plants with anything 
 
HUNGER ROT. 
 
 740 
 
 HURDLE. 
 
 like the quantity of carbon, to say nothing of 
 other elements, which is known to be requisite 
 for their growth. Liebig shows, for example, 
 that, in the course of a year, one Hessian acre 
 of woodland could not possibly secrete a larger 
 quantity of dry wood from the richest and most 
 favourable forms of humates than 165 lb., and 
 yet that it is known actually to secrete 2,650 lb., 
 — that one Hessian acre could not possibly secrete 
 from humates more than 85 lb. of woody fibre, 
 and yet that it is known to secrete 1,780 lb. of 
 straw, equivalent in composition to woody fibre, 
 — and that, in short, vegetation of all kinds, on 
 every description of land, either in a natural 
 growth, or under cultivation, must necessarily 
 obtain the whole bulk of all its carbonaceous 
 principles, from the inhalation, imbibition, or 
 absorption of carbonic acid, mainly from the 
 atmosphere, and only limitedly from the soil, — 
 so that, in even the small degree in which it is 
 fed by humus, it receives the aliment, not in the 
 condition of humates formed by the combination 
 of humic acid with salifiable bases, but in the 
 condition of carbonic acid formed by the reducing 
 action of the oxygen of the atmosphere upon the 
 carbon of the humus. The main or almost sole 
 value of mould therefore — additional to the sa- 
 line matters with which it may be mixed, and to 
 the carbonic acid which it yields to the roots of 
 plantlets between the time of germinating and 
 the time of brairding — is to give due mechanical 
 cohesion to soils of excessive pulverulency, and 
 a requisite degree of absorptiveness and spongi- 
 ness to siliceous sands and to other soils of ex- 
 cessive aridity. A large proportion of plants 
 are well known to nurserymen and gardeners to 
 love abundant peatiness of soil, — in other words, 
 to demand a profusion of humus as essential to 
 their vigour, and even in some instances to their 
 existence ; but these plants are not more vora- 
 cious of carbon than others which live on thin 
 gravels and almost on dry rocks ; and they re- 
 quire to root and nestle and terrestrially ramify 
 among humus, not at all in order to obtain 
 humates or even carbonic acid from it, but prin- 
 cipally, or perhaps solely, because it gives such 
 texture to the soil as to make it a suitably re- 
 tentive reservoir of the saline rains of heaven." 
 
 HUNGER ROT. A disease in sheep. It is 
 also called pelt-rot and naked-disease ; and may 
 be regarded as a variety of the common rot. 
 See the articles Rot and Fluke. It differs from 
 common rot, principally in having its main seat, 
 not confined to the liver, but extended through- 
 out all the viscera which are concerned in the 
 preparation of the chyle. The mesenteric glands 
 are obstructed and swollen ; all the secretions for 
 the general sustenance of the system are stinted 
 and sickly ; the entire frame becomes gradually 
 emaciated ; the very wool ceases to receive nour- 
 ishment, falls off, and leaves the skin bare ; and, 
 in the last stages of the malady, even the teeth 
 
 and the horns become loose. A principal cause 
 of hunger-rot is poor and unhealthy feeding, par- 
 ticularly during winter; and the best remedy, 
 in any of the initial or the middle stages of the dis- 
 order, is cautiously to remove the sheep to good 
 pasture. 
 
 HURDLE. One of a series of pieces of move- 
 able fence. It may be made either of iron, of 
 metallic rods and wires, of nets, of split timber, 
 or of saplings, brushwood, and strong twigs ; and 
 it may vary in character and appearance, from 
 the rudely rustic to the simply neat or the 
 chastely ornamental. 
 
 Hurdles serve well as temporary fences for 
 the home -farms or aration- courses of gentle- 
 men's parks ; for they are universally known to 
 be temporary, and are easily and cheaply set 
 down and taken up, and do not break or mar the 
 home-views or near-scenery of the adjacent man- 
 sions. They are also preferable to any kind of 
 common fixed fence, in situations which, while 
 requiring to be enclosed, have no need of shel- 
 ter ; for they occupy less space than either hedge, 
 wall, or ditch, and do not harbour birds, insects, 
 or vermin, and afford no enticement to cattle to 
 over-browse and over-manure the adjacent bor- 
 der of the enclosure. 
 
 But the main use of hurdles — particularly of 
 the light, cheap, wooden kinds — is to form move- 
 able folds for feeding off turnips or other green 
 crops with sheep. "A shepherd and his dog, 
 with the requisite number of hurdles, may feed 
 off a hundred acres of turnips or other green 
 crop, without other assistance than having the 
 hurdles carted to the field. The number of hur- 
 dles required is one row the whole length of the 
 ridges of an enclosed field, and as many more as 
 will reach twice across two 8 -step lands or 
 ridges, or four 4-step lands. This number, what- 
 ever it may be, is sufficient for a whole quadran- 
 gular field, whatever number of acres it may 
 contain. The daily portions are given more or 
 less in length according to the number of the 
 flock. Two of these portions are first set, the 
 sheep being let in on the first or corner piece. Next 
 day they are turned into the second piece ; and 
 the cross-hurdles that enclosed them on the first 
 are carried forwards and set to form the third 
 piece. These removes are continued daily till 
 the bottom of the field is reached. Both the 
 cross rows are then to spare, and are carried and 
 set to begin a new long row, close to the off-side 
 of a furrow ; and the daily folding is carried back 
 over two or four lands as at first. It is always 
 proper to begin at the top of a field, if there be 
 any difference in the level, in order that the 
 flock may have the driest lair to retire to in wet 
 weather. Where there is a mixed flock, that is, 
 couples, fattening, and store sheep, two folds or 
 pens are always being fed off at the same time, 
 which only requires an extra cross-row of hur- 
 dles. The couples have the fresh pen, while the 
 
HURDLE. 
 
 741 
 
 HURDLE. 
 
 lambs are allowed to roam over the unfolded 
 turnips, by placing the feet of the hurdles here 
 and there far enough apart, or by lamb hurdles 
 made with open pannels for the purpose. The 
 fattening sheep follow the couples, and have the 
 bulbs picked up for them. The stores follow 
 behind to eat up the shells. Thus the business 
 of feeding -off turnips is done pleasantly and 
 regularly. The shepherd's task is easy ; carry- 
 ing and setting a few hurdles and picking up the 
 roots are his daily business ; and the whole flock 
 being constantly under his eye, whatever is amiss 
 is promptly remedied. A boy is sometimes neces- 
 sary to assist in picking up the roots." See the 
 article Sheep. 
 
 When hurdles are to be set up, they are carted 
 into the field, and laid down flat, and in regular 
 series, or end to end, with their heads adjacent 
 to the line of the intended fence ; a large iron 
 dibble, about four feet long, with a bit well- 
 pointed, flattened, and similar in shape to the 
 feet of the hurdles, is used for making holes 
 about 9 inches deep, in which to set them ; and 
 a man uses the dibble with his right hand, mea- 
 sures the distances from hole to hole without 
 the aid of any rule, and sets in the hurdles with 
 his left hand, all so expeditiously that he would 
 have twelve hurdles adjusted in their places be- 
 fore we could describe the manner of his adjust- 
 ing two. He commences close to the fixed fence 
 at the side of the field, makes a hole for the first 
 foot of the first hurdle, marks the spot for the 
 second hole, makes that hole, lifts the hurdle, 
 inserts its two feet into the two holes, and, while 
 holding it upright, lightly presses it down with 
 the left foot on the lowest slot. He then makes 
 the first hole for the second hurdle at the dis- 
 tance of about six inches from the second foot of 
 the first hurdle ; and then proceeds as before, 
 from hole to hole and from hurdle to hurdle, till 
 he has set up a whole row of hurdles or complete 
 line of fence. When the first hole of a hurdle is 
 made, the dibble is put out of hand, by being 
 stuck in the ground near the place of the second 
 hole ; and when the place of the second hole is 
 ascertained and marked, the hurdle is moved out 
 of the way by the left hand till the hole is 
 made ; and whenever the soil is in any degree 
 stiff, both hands are used in driving the dibble. 
 After the row is set, the workman passes from 
 end to end of it, and gives each head a slight 
 stroke with the bit of the dibbler, sufficient to 
 render the hurdles somewhat uniform in height, 
 and to give them a firmer hold of the ground ; 
 and either he or an assistant afterwards places a 
 wreath or coupling of willow -twigs or of any 
 other withes, about five inches in diameter, over 
 the adjoining hurdle-heads at each junction, so 
 as to keep the whole line steady against the 
 action of strong winds and the abrasion of the 
 sheep. 
 
 In England, poles for hurdles are grown some- 
 
 times in hedges, sometimes in enclosed pieces 
 of underwood, and, more commonly, on willow- 
 grounds in meadows or by the sides of ditches or 
 watercourses. In fact, every English farmer, 
 who lives in a well-wooded country, or who has 
 within his farm any piece of ground suitable for 
 the growth of the common crack-willow, Salix 
 fragilis, either has, or may have, a sufficiency of 
 material to keep up a stock of as many hurdles 
 as he can require; and he may have them made 
 either by his shepherd or other farm-servant, or 
 by itinerant professional hurdle-makers, who find 
 their own tools, and work at very reasonable rates 
 
 "A hurdle-maker's tools," says Mr. Main, "are 
 a hand -saw, light hatchet, draw -shave, flamard. a 
 centre-bit and stock, a tomahawk and gimlet. He 
 has also a rending frame, which is a common trestle, 
 on which two strong poles are laid, leaning and con- j 
 nected by a piece called a bridge. Besides this he 
 has also a contrivance for shaving his poles, &c. In 
 doing this, he takes advantage of a door or gate-post, 
 or of an old worthless stem of a tree ; or, if none of 
 these offer, he must place a strong post in the ground 
 for the purpose. In this post, two auger holes are 
 bored, to admit two stout square iron stubs, having 
 ears to assist withdrawing them when done with. 
 The stubs project from the surface of the post about 
 6 inches, let in about 3 feet from the ground, and 8 
 inches from each other, though not exactly horizon- 
 tally, the one nearest the workman being rather 
 higher than the other. The use of these stubs is for 
 forming a vice to hold the poles while they are 
 shaved; being at the same time supported by a stand- 
 ard about 3 feet from the post, and having a sharp 
 short spike on the top to steady the pole under the 
 action of the draw-shave. In the same post a square 
 staple is driven to hold the feet of the heads while 
 they are mortised, assisted by a low stool. All 
 these things being ready, the poles are prepared for 
 the different purposes to which they can be convert- 
 ed. The butt -end of the pole is first shaved-off: 
 45-feet lengths make a pair of heads; 9-feet lengths 
 make a pair of slots; 5-feet lengths make a pair of 
 stay-glots; 3^-feet lengths make a pair of uprights. 
 The next proceeding is rending the different pieces: 
 this is done at the rending-frame. The piece is put 
 over the bridge with the butt -end upwards. The 
 flamard is placed across the pith and driven down 
 with a wooden baton. When entered down a foot 
 or two, the pole is brought up to bear upon the 
 bridge, and at the same time on the under side of 
 the top of the trestle. The pole being kept down 
 by the left hand, while the flamard is guided by the 
 right, by bending and turning the pole, the cleavage 
 is performed from end to end with great exactness. 
 In this way all the different pieces are cloven. They 
 next undergo a little chopping or hewing with the 
 hatchet, to cut off knots on the outside, keeping the 
 inside as straight and square as possible. The next 
 operation is shaving off the bark and all irregularities, 
 and giving each member its proper form. The maker 
 next proceeds to form the hurdles : 4 low stumps are 
 driven into the ground to mark the length, and 4 
 others to mark the distance between the upper and 
 lower slots: a pair of heads, one at each end, are 
 laid down in their right position, the flat or pith side 
 upwards; the 6 slots are then laid at due distances 
 upon the heads, and the latter are 'soubed' to the 
 size of each slot, to regulate the mortises. One of 
 the heads is then placed on the staple before men- 
 tioned, and resting upon the top of the mortising- 
 stool, to which it is fixed in an opening by a wedge, 
 the centre -bit and stock drills out a hole at each 
 
HURDLE. 
 
 742 
 
 HYDATID. 
 
 end of the mortises, and &lso one for the diagonal 
 brace slot, about 2 inches below the lowest slot, 
 and a little out of the line of the mortises above. It 
 will be observed that mortises made by the centre- 
 bit leave an intermediate piece between the aper- 
 tures : this is taken out by the tomahawk, a tool 
 made for the purpose. One end is a sharp, stout 
 pointed knife, which cuts each side of the middle 
 piece left in the mortise, and the other end hooks 
 out the piece if not dislodged by the knife. This 
 head is now hammered on to the slots ; and the 
 other head is prepared, and hammered on in the same 
 way. The top and bottom slots are next nailed to 
 the heads, and then the upright slot exactly in the 
 middle. The two stay-slots are cut with a bend at 
 the bottom, and rather sharply pointed ; the point is 
 driven through their oblique mortises, and their heads 
 brought up to bear on the top of the upright, and 
 nailed to each slot from top to bottom. The hur- 
 dle is then raised on its feet, and the nails clenched, 
 which finishes the business. The gimlet is used for 
 every nail, and a small block of wood is placed under 
 each slot while the nail is driven. This description 
 makes hurdle-making appear a very tedious affair ; 
 but, in fact, it is not so. It is astonishing how soon 
 an expert hand will put together a pile of hurdles, 
 one dozen being an ordinary day's work of 9 or 10 
 hours, and sometimes more if the stuff be clean and 
 straight. The nails used in hurdle-making are of 
 the best iron, and what are called " fine drawn," not 
 square, but rather flattened, to facilitate clenching, 
 on which much of the strength of the hurdle depends; 
 the head of the nails is rather large, their price is 6d. 
 per pound. One hundred poles at 18s. make three 
 dozen hurdles, which, including nails and workman- 
 ship, amount to £1 lis. 6d., or 10s. 6d. per dozen. 
 Although the longitudinal slots are cut 9 feet long, 
 the hurdle, when finished, is only somewhat more 
 than 8 feet, the slot -ends going through the heads 
 an inch or two. Two to a rod, or 8 to a chain of 
 22 yards, is the usual allowance." 
 
 Hurdles made of twisted hazel rods are very 
 common in some districts of the south of England, 
 and are cheaper at first than willow-hurdles, but 
 do not last so long, and require more repair. Hur- 
 dles made of ash are greatly improved in durability 
 by the charring of as much of them as stands 
 within the soil. Net hurdles require to be kept 
 quite dry when not in use, and occasion a com- 
 paratively large degree of trouble. Ornamental 
 wooden hurdles can generally be formed at less 
 cost of material, and sometimes at less total cost 
 than ordinary wooden ones; for they are filled 
 with small short pieces of wood of very little 
 value. Hurdles of large size, called Park hur- 
 dles, are employed for subdividing meadows or 
 pastures, and have sufficient strength to serve 
 as a fence against cattle. Iron hurdles may be 
 made of many varieties ; and are peculiarly suit- 
 able, by their light and elegant appearance, for 
 the fences of lawns, of parks, or of the home- 
 farm of an estate. A series of wire hurdles, in 
 the form of a small quadrangular enclosure, 
 mounted upon little wheels, for confining a small 
 number of sheep upon spot after spot of the lawn 
 of a flower-garden or pleasure-ground, so as to 
 harden and manure its surface, and to substitute 
 the clipping of its grass with the teeth for the 
 cutting of it with the scythe, was invented by 
 
 Mr. Buist, the inventor of the wire-gates. See 
 the article Gate. The wire enclosure or cage is 
 18 feet long and 9 feet wide ; its framing is of 
 light bar iron; its filling -up is of wire of the 
 thickness of a small goose quill ; it is supported 
 at the corners by four universally moving cas- 
 tors ; and one end of it opens and shuts in the 
 manner of a door. It may be made for about £3 ; 
 it is rather ornamental than otherwise upon a j 
 pleasure-ground ; and it serves well for two or I 
 at most three sheep, and may be readily moved 
 from spot to spot of a lawn till the whole shall 
 acquire a fine and smooth surface. 
 
 HURDS, or Hords. The coarser parts of flax 
 or hemp, separated in the process of dressing 
 from the finer parts. 
 
 HUSBANDMAN. A general farmer. Every 
 husbandman attends more or less to all the de- 
 partments of farming or of practical agriculture ; 
 while a farmer may attend to only some, or even 
 to only one, of these departments. The occupier 
 of a thoroughly mixed farm, which comprises 
 corn-fields, pastures, meadows, woodlands, dairy, 
 poultry-yard, and orchard, is a husbandman ; but 
 the occupier of a grazing-farm, a carse-farm, a 
 dairy-farm, a hop-farm, or any other kind of 
 farm of limited character, is not a husbandman. 
 
 HUSBANDRY. The occupation of a hus- 
 bandman, or general attention to the produce of 
 the soil. It comprises all departments of farm- 
 ing, forestry, and field-gardening in Britain, and 
 all departments of care for the fruits of the earth, 
 whether in rice-fields, vineyards, orange-planta- 
 tions, cinnamon-groves, sugar -plantations, cot- 
 ton grounds, or other large arenas of vegetable 
 produce, in other lands. See the article Farm 
 and the General Introduction. 
 
 HYDATID. An entozoon, or small animal 
 existing parasitically within the interior organ- 
 ism of a larger animal. Hydatids occur in almost 
 all parts of the world, and infest the brain, the 
 liver, the spleen, and the spine of sheep, cattle, 
 dogs, and swine. A hydatid in the spine is not 
 common; and when it does occur, it occasions 
 paralysis. Hydatids in the brain of sheep and 
 cattle are comparatively frequent, and often give 
 their name to the severe and peculiar disease 
 which their presence causes. 
 
 The hydatid which infests the brain of sheep 
 is called by naturalists Hydatis pol ycephalus cere- 
 bralis, or 'many-headed hydatid of the brain.' 
 It has the appearance of a watery bladder, or of 
 a translucent globular bag filled with water ; and 
 it may be either small or of the size of a hen's 
 egg. Its coat comprises several layers, — one of 
 which appears to possess some muscular power ; 
 its heads are irregularly distributed athwart the 
 surface of the coat ; a mouth, surrounded by mi- 
 nute sharp hooks within a ring of sucking discs, 
 occurs on the front part of each head ; and the 
 several mouths, by means of their hooks and 
 their sucking discs, effect the animal's parasiti- 
 
HYDATID. 
 
 743 
 
 HYDATID. 
 
 cal or entozootical attachment. Numerous mi- 
 nute bodies adhere to the innermost layer of the 
 coat ; and the watery looking liquid which fills 
 the interior is generally clear but sometimes tur- 
 bid, — and, when in the latter condition, it con- 
 tains a number of very small entozoons. The 
 small bodies on the inner membrane seem to be 
 rudimental or foetal hydatids; the small ento- 
 zoons in the liquid appear to be those foetal bo- 
 dies in an advanced stage toward maturity ; and 
 the bursting of the hydatids, with the conse- 
 quent exit of the matured foetal bodies from the 
 brain, is probably the cause of the diffusion of 
 hydatids among a flock, — the foetal bodies falling 
 upon the flock's food, and finding their way 
 through the stomach or otherwise into the brain. 
 
 Hydatids occur sometimes singly in either the 
 ventricles or at the surface of the brain, some- 
 times in twos or threes within the ventricles, — 
 commonly on the top of one cerebral hemisphere, 
 but occasionally within the substance of the 
 cerebellum. If a hydatidized sheep move in a 
 circle, he is supposed to be infested with only 
 one hydatid, and to have this on the side toward 
 which he moves, and probably in the ventricle. 
 But "if the sheep sometimes make a circle in 
 one direction and sometimes in another, we may 
 conclude that there is a hydatid in each hemi- 
 sphere, and when the animal depresses the head 
 and moves straight forward, stumbling against 
 everything in the way, it is probable that the 
 hydatid is about the middle or division of the 
 brain, and if the sheep throws up its head, has a 
 reeling motion, but yet moves onwards, it is sup- 
 posed that the hydatid is in the cerebellum or 
 the fourth ventricle." [Spooner on Sheep.] A 
 softness in the skull is discernible when the hy- 
 datid lies at the surface of the brain, but not 
 when it lies in the ventricles. Either when a 
 large hydatid has had a prolonged lodgment, or 
 when several hydatids lie lodged together, very 
 great devastations may, in various ways, be made 
 upon the brain, — either one of the cerebral lobes 
 may be almost totally destroyed, or one of the 
 ventricles may be enormously distended, or one 
 of the parietal bones may become so excessively 
 absorbed as to offer astonishingly little resistance 
 to the touch. 
 
 The disease caused by the presence of the hy- 
 datid in the brain of sheep is popularly called 
 turn, turnsick, gig, goggles, staggers, sturdy, 
 sturdy-gig, blob-whirl, and giddiness. Some per- 
 sons think that a constitutional predisposition to 
 it exists in cases of such a defective form of head 
 as does not allow due space for the normal expan- 
 sion of the brain ; others think that an induced 
 predisposition to it is created by bad feeding, by 
 the influence of wet pastures, or by the effects of 
 consanguineous breeding ; and all, or very nearly 
 all, are agreed that liability to it exists chiefly 
 among sheep of less than 12 or 15 months old, 
 and diminishes during the second year of sheep's 
 
 age, and either wholly or mainly ceases after the 
 close of the second year. It is supposed to de- 
 stroy nearly a million of sheep every year in 
 England ; but it prevails much more extensively 
 in France and other Continental countries than 
 in Britain ; and it cuts off about one sheep in 
 every fifty in Germany. 
 
 A hydatidized sheep has a wandering, unsteady, 
 staggering gait, and a dull, low-spirited, and in- 
 sane appearance. He carries his head on one 
 side, and in consequence has difficulty in feed- 
 ing. He appears absent-minded, and sometimes 
 stops and falls, and at other times runs career- 
 ingly across the field ; and after he has been for 
 a considerable time ill, he almost always moves 
 circuitously or nearly in a circle. He has none 
 of the ferocity or excessive wildness which ac- 
 companies other cerebral complaints ; but suffers 
 a heavy languor, is mopingly delirious, and even- 
 tually pines and sinks into coma or convulsions. 
 All sheep affected with hydatids do not exhibit 
 the whole of these symptoms, — or at least do not 
 exhibit them in a prominent or very noticeable 
 degree ; yet each exhibits quite enough to enable 
 any ordinarily skilful observer to see at once 
 what is wrong. 
 
 Any medicinal appliance for the reduction and 
 removal of hydatids in the brain is utterly use- 
 less. The brain is too destitute of absorbent ves- 
 sels to take up a sufficiency of any medicinal 
 substance for producing any sensible effect ; and 
 the substance of the hydatid is so strongly en- 
 closed within the layers of the entozoon's coat as 
 to defy the action of the most powerful substance 
 which, with any safety, could possibly be intro- 
 duced into the brain. The only known means of 
 cure, and perhaps the only possible ones, are such 
 methods of violence as mechanically rupture the 
 hydatid ; and most of these are both exceedingly 
 cruel in the application, and imminently precari- 
 ous in the result. Some of the coarsest and most 
 common, suggesting themselves to many a farmer, 
 and somewhat recommended by the great facility 
 with which they can be practised, are to wring 
 severely and then cut off the ears, to drive the 
 sheep with violence and fury, to rally and worry 
 and torture them with dogs, or to inflict some 
 other tormenting and most exciting barbarity, 
 with the view of rupturing the hydatid. But 
 though, in some instances, these methods have 
 had a considerable degree of success, they have, in 
 other instances, immediately killed about twenty 
 times more sheep than they have cured. Another 
 method almost as rude, and much more cruel, 
 though appearing to be somewhat scientific, is to 
 pass a wire or a knitting-needle or a trochar up 
 the nostril and through the perforated plate of 
 the ethmoid bone into the brain. But if the in- 
 strument deviate, in even a very slight degree 
 from the proper path, it will be stopped by a pro- 
 jection of the frontal bone from above or by the 
 solid portion of the ethmoid bone below, and will, 
 
HYDATID. 
 
 744 
 
 HYDROTHORAX- 
 
 in consequence, cause pain and perhaps provoke 
 inflammation without the possibility of doing 
 any good ; if it be carried too low, it will injure 
 the sensible portion of the brain, and cause the 
 sheep either to die suddenly or to endure great 
 agony ; and even if it be most dexterously and 
 quite faultlessly used, it will rupture only a hy- 
 datid situated directly in its way, and will not 
 disturb one situated either on the surface or on 
 one side, and will in any case occasion consider- 
 able tendency to inflammation. Mr. Hogg pretty 
 confidently recommends this method ; but very 
 few intelligent and considerate persons will be 
 disposed to try it. A much more scientific and 
 successful method, called trepanning or trephin- 
 ing, is peculiarly suited to every case in which 
 the precise situation of the hydatid is known or 
 can with a very near approach to certainty be 
 ascertained. " This is done by making two inci- 
 sions so as to form when united the letter T over 
 the somewhat softened part of the skull supposed 
 to cover the hydatid. Turning the angles of the 
 skin back, by dissecting them from the bone, the 
 latter is now to be pierced by a trephine, and the 
 portion of bone removed. This done, the brain 
 will be exposed, and the hydatid, if at the part, 
 will rise up covered by the dura mater ; this 
 must also be cut through and turned back, and 
 the parasite punctured with a fine curved needle 
 carrying a thread. As soon as it has shrunk up, 
 it may be gently drawn away by means of the 
 thread, and the dura mater and skin replaced 
 over the part, the edges of the latter being held 
 together by a stitch or two, and covered with a cap. 
 The portion of the bone must not be returned." 
 
 The prevention of tendency to the hydatid in 
 flocks of sheep is of greatly more consequence 
 than methods of cure. The tendency is not so 
 great throughout Britain at present as at a for- 
 mer period ; and as it seems to have been dimin- 
 ished simply by general improvement in stock- 
 husbandry, so may it probably be annihilated 
 merely by pushing that improvement to the 
 utmost. The draining of pastures is one great 
 measure, the promotion of a choice state of herb- 
 age is another, and great care in the judicious 
 and suitable selection of breeding -stock is a 
 third ; and perhaps these three matters combined 
 would, if properly and perseveringly attended to 
 throughout any district, speedily put an end to the 
 very existence of hydatids. The sheep-farmers 
 in many parts of Continental Europe more or 
 less protect their flocks from hydatids by the 
 simple but inconvenient and comparatively ex- 
 pensive method of keeping all their sheep till 
 after the completion of their first year within 
 sheds or houses. 
 
 Hydatids occur sometimes in young cattle, but 
 less rarely than in sheep, and seldomer in Bri- 
 tain than on the Continent. They seldom if 
 ever attack cattle of more than 18 or 20 months 
 old ; and they occur pretty often among young 
 cattle in Switzerland. The symptoms are nearly 
 the same as in sheep, but are, in many instances, 
 liable to be mistaken for those of mere tumours 
 in the brain, or of effusion of blood on the brain. 
 When the symptoms are doubtful, treatment 
 proper for the reduction of pressure on the brain, 
 such as repeated bleeding, physicking, and spare 
 diet, may be pursued, with considerable hope of 
 success ; but when the symptoms decidedly indi- 
 cate the presence of hydatids, either trepan- 
 ning or piercing with the awl may be practised 
 as in the case of sheep, or — since the prospect of 
 success is very small, and the operation must 
 unavoidably inflict much torture — the beast may 
 be immediately destroyed. — Journal of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society of England. — Quarterly Jour- 
 nal of Agricidture. — Mackenzie on Sheep. — Hogg's 
 Shepherd's Guide. — Spooner on Sheep. — Youatt on 
 Cattle. — Blaine s Veterinary Art. 
 
 HYDROPHOBIA. See Rabies. 
 
 HYDROTHORAX, or Dropsy of the Chest. 
 A disease of horses. It consists in the secretion 
 and accumulation of a serous liquid within one 
 or both sacs or cavities of the pleura. It seldom 
 occurs as a primary disease ; but is very common 
 as a secondary disease, — and particularly as a 
 consequent of pneumonia. Its symptoms are 
 difficulty of breathing, disinclination to lie down 
 or to continue in a reclining posture, progressive 
 and eventually great reduction of the pulse, and 
 general swellings athwart the sheath, the abdo- 
 men, and the limbs. At the commencement of 
 it, the breathing murmur at the sternum ceases ; 
 and as it progresses, this murmur recedes far- 
 ther from below, and becomes louder above, till 
 the respiratory cavity becomes chokingly filled, 
 and suffocation takes place. The fluid found in 
 the sacs after death sometimes amounts to many 
 gallons ; and it varies much in appearance and 
 character, — and is sometimes pale or yellowish, 
 sometimes bloody, sometimes mixed with pus, 
 sometimes carrying on its surface masses of co- 
 agulum, and sometimes of mutually different 
 character in the two sacs. Attempts to combat 
 and reduce this disease are seldom successful; 
 and, in order to comport with any measure of 
 hope, they must be prompt and vigorous, and 
 must consist in the usual practices against in- 
 flammatory action, particularly copious bleeding, 
 sufficient purging, and such applications to the 
 skin as shall open the pores and absorb the se- 
 rum. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 FUXLARTON AND MACNAB, PRINTERS, LEITH WALK. 
 
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