and is 



BLACK TWITCH. 



and is not so certain of growing; however, 

 when cut, the bushes are much the best, and 

 most lasting of any for dead hedges, or to 

 mend gaps ; cattle are not so apt to crop 

 fences of this kind as those of the white thorn. 



The fruit is well known in the country, and 

 from its acid, astringent, and very austere fla- 

 vour, it is not eatable except when baked, or 

 boiled with a large proportion of sugar, and 

 then it is not good. The juice, when inspis- 

 sated over a slow fire, is a substitute for the 

 Egyptian acacia, or Indian catechu. In some 

 form or other this juice is used in adulterating 

 port wine. The leaves also are reckoned 

 among the adulterated substitutes for tea in 

 England. A water distilled from the blossoms 

 of the sloe is said to be used medicinally in 

 Switzerland and Germany. 



The juice of sloes checks purgings when no 

 inflammation is present. (Smit/i't Eng. Fkr. 

 vol. ii. p. 357.) 



What is commonly called the black thorn in 

 the United States is not the sloe or black haw, 

 (a species of viburnum'), but the ytllwc Cratse- 

 gus of botanists, one of the species of thorn com- 

 monly used for hedges. (See Flor. Cestrica.) 



BLACK TWITCH (A^tis nlba). A nox- 

 ious weed of the sub-aquatic marsh bent L ri 'iiu>. 

 It chokes up drains and underwood, and flou- 

 rishes even in extremely dry situations, prov- 

 ing very injurious to many crops. It is also 

 known under the names of black couch and 

 black wrack. See MAHSH BETT On \--. 



BLACK WALNUT. See WALNUT. 



BLACK WASH. A lotion composed of ca- 

 lomel and lime water. 



BLACK WATER. See SHEKP, DISEASES OF. 



BLADE (Sax. biaet>, blet>; Fr. bled; Low 

 Lat. bltidus}. The spire of grass before it 

 grows to seed ; the green shoots of corn which 

 rise from the seed. (TorM.) 



BLADE-BONE. In farriery, the popular 

 name for the shoulder-blade (scapula), of an 

 animal. 



BLAIN (Sax. blejene; Dutch, blfynt, from 

 the Icelandic blina, a pustule). In farriery, in- 

 flammation of the tongue, a disease in cattle, 

 which frequently affects them in the spring of 

 the year or beginning of summer. The disease 

 (says Clater) is neither so frequent nor so 

 fatal in the horse as it is in cattle ; but it does 

 sometimes occur, and the nature of it is fre- 

 quently misunderstood. The horse will refuse 

 his food, hang his head, and a considerable 

 quantity of ropy fluid will be discharged from 

 the mouth. On examining the mouth, the 

 tongue will be found considerably enlarged, 

 and, running along the side of it, there will 

 be a reddish or darkish purple bladder, and 

 which sometimes protrudes between the teeth. 

 The neighbouring salivary glands are en- 

 larged, and the discharge of saliva is very 

 great, while the soreness of the swelled and 

 blistered part causes the horse obstinately to 

 resist every motion of the jaws. The cure is 

 very simple: the bladder must be deeply 

 lanced from end to end : there will not be any 

 great flow of blood. This will relieve or cure 

 the horse in twenty-four hours. If he can be 

 spared from his work, a dose of physic will 

 remove the stomach affection and any slight 



BLEND-WATER. 



degree of fever that may have existed. If the 

 disease is neglected, the swelling will at length 

 burst, and corroding ulcers will eat deeply into 

 the tongue, and prove very difficult to heal. 

 ( Glister's Farriery, p. 64.) 



BLAST. A vegetable disease, the same as 

 blight. In farriery, it is also a vulgar name 

 for any circumscribed swelling or inflamma 

 tion in the body of an animal. See MILDKW. 



BLASTING OF STONES. The operation 

 of tearing asunder large stones or rocks which 

 are in the way of the plough, or other instru- 

 ment employed in breaking up ground, by 

 means of gunpowder. Logs of wood, the roots 

 of trees, and oilier obstructions, are removed 

 by the same agent. In stone quarries, blast- 

 ing is a necessary business. Perhaps one of 

 the greatest and most successful blasts e\er 

 effected was at Craigleith quarry, Scotland, on 

 the 18th of October, ls:J4, \vlu-n,' by 500 Ibs. of 

 Sir Henry Bridge's double-strong blasting pow- 

 der, a mass of upwards of 20,000 tons of solid 

 rock was displaced. ( Quart. Journ. ofAgr. vol. 

 vi. p. 463.) 



BLAZE. A white mark or star in the face 

 of a horse. 



BLEEDING (Sax. ble^an). An operation 

 frequently necessary in the disorders of differ- 

 ent kinds of cattle, particularly horses. Such 

 horses as stand much in the stable, arid are 

 full-fed, require bleeding more than those 

 which are in constant exercise ; but especially 

 when their eyes look heavy and dull, or red 

 and inflamed; and when they look yellow, and 

 the horse is inflamed in his lips and the inside 

 of his mouth ; or when he seems hotter than 

 usual, and mangles his hay. These indica- 

 tions not only show that bleeding is required, 

 but likewise the lowering of the diet. The 

 spring is the common season for bleeding 

 horses ; but periodical bleeding, without its 

 necessity being indicated, should never be 

 practised. In summer, it is often necessary 

 to prevent fevers, always choosing the cool of 

 the morning for the operation, and keeping 

 them cool the remaining part of the day. Some 

 farriers Meed horses three or four times a year, 

 or even oftener, by way of prevention, taking 

 only a very small quantity at a time, as a pint 

 or a pint and a half. There is, however, this 

 inconvenience from frequent bleeding, that it 

 grows into a habit, which, in some cases, can- 

 not be easily broken off without hazard ; and 

 besides, horses become weak from frequent 

 bleeding. 



BLEMISH. In farriery, any kind of imper- 

 fection in a horse or other animal. 



In horses, they consist of broken knees, loss 

 of hair in the cutting places, mallenders and sal- 

 lenders, cracked heels, false quarters, splents, 

 or excrescences which do not occasion lame- 

 ness ; and wind-galls and bog-spavins, where 

 they prevail to any great degree. 



In planting, the knots on the outside of trees, 

 and shakes internally, are termed blemishes. 



BLENDINGS. A provincial word applied 

 to mixed crops, such as peas and beans when 

 grown together. 



BLEND-WATER. In farriery, the name 

 of a distemper incident to neat or black cattle, 

 i in which the liver is affected. 



187 



