BROKEN-KNEES. 



BROOD MARES. 



and by an early removal the others are bene- ! 

 filed. The branches are to be gathered as j 

 soon as the pods upon them ripen. Varieties 

 must never be planted near each other, or they 

 will reciprocally be contaminated. The seed 

 ripens in August or September ; and it is often 

 recommended to preserve it in the pod until 

 wanted; but the general practice is to beat it 

 out, and store it as soon as it is perfectly dry. 

 The plants raised in frames are managed as 

 directed for cauliflowers in the same situation. 

 (G. W. Johnson's Kitchen Garden.) 



BROKEN-KNEES, in horses. The best 

 medical treatment, in slight cases, is to cleanse 

 them from dirt and gravel by a sponge and 

 warm water. In bad cases a veterinary sur- 

 geon is absolutely necessary, who will exa- 

 mine with his probe, and apply bandages, and 

 even, in need, the hot iron. 



BROKEN -WIND, in horses, is, says Pro- 

 fessor Youatt, the rupture, dilatation, or run- 

 ning together of some of the air cells, the 

 inspiration by one effort, and the expiration by 

 two ; and is thus easily distinguishable from 

 thick wind, in which the inspirations and the 

 expirations are equal in amount. In healthy 

 lungs, when the lungs are expanded, the air 

 will rush in easily enough, and one effort of 

 the muscles of expiration is sufficient for the 

 purpose of expelling it ; but when these cells 

 have run into each other, the cavity is so irre- 

 gular, and contains so many corners and blind 

 pouches, that it is exceedingly difficult to force 

 it out again, and two efforts are scarcely com- 

 petent fully to effect it. A dry husky cough 

 accompanies this disease, of a peculiar sound. 

 Broken wind is usually caused by smart exer- 

 cise on a full belly. We do not, therefore, 

 find broken-winded horses on the race-course ; 

 for, although every exertion of speed is re- 

 quired from them, their food lies in a small 

 compass ; the stomach is not distended, and 

 the lungs have room to play ; and care is taken 

 that their exertion shall be required when the 

 stomach is nearly empty. Carriage and coach 

 horses, from a similar cause, are not often 

 broken -winded. The majority of broken- 

 winded horses come from those for whose use 

 these pages are principally designed ; the far- 

 mer's horse is the broken-winded horse, from 

 being fed on bulky food ; and because, after 

 many hours' fasting, the horses are often suf- 

 fered to gorge themselves, and then, with the 

 stomach pressing upon the lungs, and almost 

 impeding ordinary respiration, they are put 

 again to work, and sometimes to that which 

 requires considerable exertion. But the pres- 

 sure of the distended stomach upon the lungs 

 is sufficient to do this, without exertion ; many 

 a horse goes to grass or the straw-yard sound, 

 and returns broken-winded. The cure of a 

 broken-winded horse no one has witnessed, 

 yet much may be done in the way of pallia- 

 tion ; the food should consist of much nutri- 

 ment in little compass; the oats should be 

 increased, and the hay diminished; occasional 

 mashes will be found useful ; water should be 

 sparingly except at night, and the horse 

 ld never be exercised on a full stomach. 

 Carrots are excellent food for him. (The 

 Horse ; Lib. of Useful Know. p. 195.) 

 223 



BROMUS. The brome grasses ; a genus of 

 which the chief species are as follow : 



Bromus arvensis, taper field brome grass, has 

 a spreading, drooping, compound panicle, with 

 lanceolate, sharp -pointed spikelets. Each 

 spikelet consists of eight imbricated, smooth 

 florets, with two close ribs at each side. The. 

 leaves are hairy, and the whole plant about 

 three feet high. It is confined to rich pastures 

 and meadows ; while the next two, Eromus mul- 

 1'florus and Eromus mollis, known by the leaves 

 being soft and downy, abound most on poor or 

 exhausted grass lands: they are all annuals. 

 The farmer considers them to be bad grasses ; 

 the field brome grass, however, affords an 

 early bite in the spring for sheep and lambs ; 

 it does not exhaust the soil; the roots do not 

 extend to any depth; its seeds, which it sheds, 

 readily and speedily take root and yield food ; 

 and it withstands the frost well : in England 

 it flowers on the second week in August. At 

 the time of flowering, the produce of its grass 

 grown on a sandy loam per acre is 23,821 Ibs.; 

 of nutritive matter, 1488 Ibs. 



Eromus diandrus, upright annual orome 

 grass. 



Eromus erectus, upright perennial brome 

 grass. 



Bromus inermis, smooth awnless brome grass. 



Bromus littoreus, sea-side brome grass. 



Bromus mollis, soft brome grass. 



Bromus multiflorus, many-flowered brome 

 grass (named from the spikelets containing 

 from ten to fifteen florets). 



Bro-mus sterilis, barren brome grass. It grows 

 principally under hedges in the shade ; cattle 

 refuse it. 



Bromus tectorum, nodding-panicled brome 

 grass. 



These were all examined with much skill 

 by Sinclair, but he had evidently a poor opi- 

 nion of them as field grasses. (Hort. Gram. 

 Wob.) 



There are many other varieties of this family, 

 the respective merits of which are pointed out 

 by Sinclair in his Hort. Gram. Wob. That 

 which is perhaps most interesting to the Ame- 

 rican farmer is the Eromus secalinus, common- 

 ly called cheat, so frequently found growing 

 among the wheat or rye crops. 



BRONCHITIS. A disease in horses. It is, 

 says Professor Youatt, a catarrh extending be- 

 yond the entrance of the lungs. Symptoms, 

 quicker and harder breathing than catarrh, pe- 

 culiar wheezing, coughing up mucus. Treat- 

 ment, moderate bleeding, chest blistering, 

 digitalis. Neglected bronchitis often leads to 

 thick wind. (On the Horse, p. 189.) 



BROOD MARES. Mares generally com- 

 mence breeding at three or four years of age. 

 Some commence at two years, which is much 

 too early. A mare will, if only moderately 

 worked, continue to breed till nearly twenty. 

 She is in heat in the early part of the spring ; 

 averages about elevfc months in foal; but 

 this varies considerably; some have been 

 known to foal four or five weeks before this 

 time, others five or six later. In race-horses, 

 the colt's age is calculated the same, whether 

 he is born in January or May. It is desirable 

 I that the mare should go to the horse as early 



