AGARIC OF THE OAK. 



AGE OF ANIMALS. 



also much variety in different districts. " It 

 has," the same author says, "been observed 

 by a farmer in Middlesex, that the condition on 

 which he rents his farm is that of taking out 

 the cattle at Michaelmas, but that sheep remain 

 till February." In that county the practice is 

 to turn on the cattle immediately after mow- 

 ing ; but in the northern districts, this grass, 

 to which they have given the name of eddish, is 

 kept till November, or even a later period, for 

 the purpose of furnishing fat stock, or for the 

 pasturage of milch cows, from which a supe- 

 rior quality of cheese^ is made, and by which 

 time it has attained a considerable head : how- 

 ever, this latter practice would seem to be 

 attended with some loss, as has been shown 

 from its being trodden and trampled under 

 foot. In the stocking of after-grass, Marshall 

 found the midland graziers of opinion, that one 

 cou- to an acre, on well-grown after-grass, was 

 an ample stock. Good grass-land may, how- 

 ever, admit something more ; and instead of 

 pruning of rowen, or after-grass, by heavy 

 cattle in the autumn, to avoid poaching the 

 l/it >un<l, particularly at a late period in that or 

 the winter season, it has been recommended 

 by Dr. Wilkinson, "to confine the consumption 

 of this grass principally to the support of 

 sheep, unless in very favourable seasons, or 

 where the soil is uncommonly dry ; in which 

 cases milch cows, or other heavy cattle, may 

 be admitted without inconvenience." 



In some places it is the practice, as " where 

 there is a great scarcity of spring feed, to re- 

 serve after-grass in the autumn for spring 

 use." Some, on the basis of experience, con- 

 tend that it is the most certain, and, on the 

 whole, the best spring feed yet known. It 

 would seem, however, as has been shown, to 

 be a wasteful practice, at least in respect to 

 the more forward after-grasses. The for- 

 wardest ought certainly to be eaten without 

 waste before winter sets in; and the latest, 

 that is, the shortest, be shut up for spring feed. 

 Arthur Young, it is stated, found, from repeat- 

 ed experiments, as suggested above, " that old 

 after-grass feeds sheep that give milk better 

 than turnips, which are more adapted to the 

 fattening of stock; and that this grass holds to 

 a period, if wanted, when most other resources 

 fail, the last half of April and the first half of 

 May periods always of want and difficulty, 

 where rye-grass is not sown." Marshall also 

 assures us, that as a certain and wholesome 

 supply of food for ewes and lambs in the early 

 spring, the preserved pasture is to be depended 

 on as " the sheet anchor, in preference to tur- 

 nips, cabbages, or any other species whatever, 

 of what is termed spring feed :" and the same 

 thing has been experienced by Dr. Wilkinson, 

 who has observed, that "this food with him 

 afforded a more nutritive and healthful quality 

 of milk from the ewes to their tender lambs 

 than turnips, even in their best state." But 

 however useful after-grass pastures may be 

 under this management, there is evidently a 

 great loss of food incurred by it, especially in 

 severe winters. (Sinclair's Hurt. Gram. , Lowe's 

 Prac. Apr.) 



AGARIC OF THE OAK. [Spunk, or touch- 

 wood.] In farriery, a substance sometimes 



employed for restraining the bleeding of small 

 vessels. 



AGARICUS. See MUSHROOM. 



AGAVE. In botany, comprehends those 

 plants which gardeners call American aloes. 



AGE OF ANIMALS. The age of a horse 

 may be ascertained by his mouth, and the exa- 

 mination of his teeth, till he is eight years old, 

 after which the usual marks commonly wear 

 out. These are usually forty in all ; of which 

 twenty-four are double teeth, and from their 

 oflice, denominated .grinders, four tushes, or 

 corner teeth, and twelve fore-teeth. 



The first which appear are the foal-teeth, 

 which generally begin to show themselves a 

 month or two after foaling; they are twelve in 

 number, six above ami six below, and are 

 easily distinguished from the teeth that come 

 afterwards, by their smallness and whiteness, 

 having some resemblance to the incisores, or 

 fore-teeth of man. 



When the colt is about two years and a half 

 old, he commonly sheds the four middlemost 

 of his foal-teeth, two above and two below; 

 but sometimes none are cast till near three 

 years old. The new teeth are readily distin- 

 guished from the foal-teeth, being much 

 stronger, and always twice their size, and are 

 called the nippers or gatherers, being those by 

 which horses nip off the grass when they are 

 feeding in the pastures, and by which, in the 

 house, they gather their hay from the rack. 

 When horses have got these four teeth com- 

 plete, they are reckoned to be three years old. 



When they are about three and a half, or in 

 the spring before they are four years old, they 

 cast four more of their foal-teeth, two in the 

 upper and two in the lower jaw, one on each 

 side the nippers or middle teeth ; so that when 

 you look into a horse's mouth, and see the two 

 middle teeth full grown, and none of the foal- 

 teeth, except the common teeth, remaining, 

 you may conclude he is four that year, about 

 April or May. Some, indeed, are later colts, 

 but that makes little alteration in the mouth. 



The tushes appear near the same time with 

 the four last-mentioned teeth, sometimes sooner 

 than these, and sometimes not till after a horse 

 is full four years old ; they are curved like the 

 tushes of other animals, only in a young horse 

 they have a sharp edge all round the top and 

 on both sides, the inner part being somewhat 

 grooved and flattened, so as to incline to a 

 hollow. 



When a horse's tushes do not appear for 

 some time after the foal-teeth are cast, and the 

 new ones come in their room, it is generally 

 owing to the foal-teeth having been pulled out 

 before their time, by the breeders or dealers in 

 horses, to make a colt of three year's old ap- 

 pear like one of four that he may be the more 

 saleable ; for when any one of the foal-teeth 

 have been pulled out, the others soon come in 

 their places ; but the tushes having none that 

 precede them, can never make their appear- 

 ance till their proper time, which is when a 

 horse is full four, or coming four ; and there- 

 fore one of the surest marks to know a four- 

 year old horse is by his tushes, which are then 

 very small, and sharp on the tops and edges. 



At the time when a horse comes five, or 

 c2 29 



