SNE 



SNO 



399 



seed, but by its caustic and anti- 

 septic qualities, it tends to destroy 

 putridity and animalculas of every 

 description. 3. If smutty grain is 

 not threshed till the June or July 

 succeeding the year it was reaped, 

 the dust, it is said, will become too 

 volatile to attach itself to the grain 

 when threshed to occasion smut, 

 which by age looses the power of 

 reproduction. 4. Notwithstand- 

 ing the violence of threshing mills, 

 they do not bruise the smut balls 

 so much as the flail. 5. Great 

 care must be taken, not to thresh 

 wheat on a floor where smutty 

 wheat hasbeen threshed, nor tocon- 

 vey the seed in a sack in which smut- 

 ty wheat had been formerly put. 



On the subject of steeping it 

 may be proper to add, that it would 

 be well to extend that operation 

 to other grains besides wheat. 

 Every sort of seed should be steep- 

 ed enough to promote a quick 

 vegetation, and to secure a more 

 uniform growth, which would great- 

 ly improve both the quantity and 

 quality of the grain ; and if the 

 seed of barley and oats, as well as 

 of wheat were clothed with saline 

 and caustic particles, it would ei- 

 ther preserve it entirely from the 

 attacks of vermin, or destroy such 

 as may venture to eat of it. — See 

 an " Essay on Smut in fF/jeaJ," 

 Mass. Agr. Rep., Vol. V. p. 134. 



SNEAD, or SNATHE, the staff, 

 or handle of a sithe. The right 

 timber for sneads, is white ash 

 that grows on upland, it being light 

 and stiff, which are two ver^ ne- 

 cessary qualities : For if a snead 

 be heavy, it will help to tire the 

 mower : and if it be limber and 



easy to bend, it will cause the sithe 

 to tremble, which will hinder, in 

 some degree, its cutting ; and ren- 

 der the labour of the mower more 

 difficult and fatiguing. It must be 

 naturally of the right crook, and not 

 cut across the grain of the wood. 



SNOW, a congealed vapour that 

 falls in little fleeces to the earth. 



Snow lies upon the ground com- 

 monly, in this country, n\ the. win- 

 ter months, and in March. Snows 

 sometimes fall in November and 

 in April ; but they soon melt, and 

 do not remain on the ground unless 

 it be in the thick woods. In sonjc 

 pai-ts of the wilderness, it is not all 

 thawed till July; as on the north- 

 ern sides of high mountains, where 

 the trees form a deep shade. 



Snow is beneficial to the ground 

 in winter, as it prevents its freez- 

 ing so solid, or to so great a depth 

 as it otherwise would. It guards 

 the winter grain and other vegeta- 

 bles, in a considerable degree, frona 

 the violence of sudden frosts, and 

 from piercing and drying winds. 



The later snow lies on the ground 

 in spring, the more advantage do 

 grasses and other plants receive 

 from it. Where a bank of snow has 

 lain very late, the grass will sprout, 

 and look green earlier, than in 

 parts of the same field which were 

 sooner bare. 



A small snow, that falls level^ 

 pretty late in the spring, is better 

 for the soil than rain. As it thaws 

 gradually, it does not run off, but 

 soaks directly into the ground, 

 moistening every part equally, fos- 

 tering the roots of grass, and other 

 vegetables. And till it is thawed, 

 the growing plants are guarded 



