DENSHIRING. 



DEW. 



Clay - - 

 Oxide of iron - 

 Chalk 

 Gypsum - 

 Organic matters 

 Loss 



1-000 



The size of the farms varies between 50 and 

 200 acres, a portion of which is commonly left 

 for eight or ten years in pasture. The mea- 

 dows in the marshes are not uncommonly let 

 for two guineas per acre. The usual rotation 

 of crops commonly followed is, after grass, 

 oats, fallow, winter barley, rape for seed, 

 wheat, oats, beans, oats. The Danes plough 

 deep, with four heavy horses; crops usually 

 heavy, often returning as much per English 

 acre, according to Mr. Carr, as 



Rape seed 

 Wheat - - 

 Winter barley 

 Oats 



- 20 sacks of 200 



- 12 to 14 220 



- 25 to 30 200 



- 30 to 36 160 



This, however, seems an enormous produce. 

 Their horses, sheep, and cattle are large, but 

 coarse. Jutland is the greatest breeding dis- 

 trict, the cows commonly yield from thirty to 

 forty quarts of milk per diem. Their imple- 

 ments of husbandry are poor. The wheel 

 ploughs, with wooden mould-boards, are drawn 

 by two horses. The harrows, with the excep- 

 tion of the brake, have generally wooden teeth. 

 The rotation on arable lands, is fallow dunged, 

 rape seed, wheat or rye, barley, oats. In re- 

 ference to seeds, red clover is sown in the pro- 

 portion of 8 Ibs., timothy or rye-grass 6 Ibs. 

 per acre. Clover is made into hay; and then 

 pastured for four years. There are three dis- 

 tinct breeds of cattle in these duchies. 1. The 

 native cow, middle sized with not very long 

 legs, fine head and horns, moderately thick 

 neck, colour usually red or brown : these give 

 most milk in proportion to their food. 2. The 

 marsh cows, of a larger size, larger boned, co- 

 lour red, requiring luxuriant pasturage, giving, 

 when in full milk, twenty-four to thirty-two 

 quarts per day, but their butter is smaller in 

 quantity and of inferior quality to the others. 

 3. The Jutland cow, of fine bone, rather long 

 body, colour gray or dun, more valued for its 

 fattening than its milking qualities. (Journ. 

 of Roy. dgr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 371.) 

 ' DENSHIRING or DEVONSHIRING. A 

 verm formerly used for the operation of paring 

 and turning. 



DEVIL'S-BIT SCABIOUS (Scabiosasucrisa). 

 This perennial weed, delighting in moist pas- 

 tures, woods, and hedgeways, grows a foot 

 high, with slender stalks and dark purplish- 

 blue flowers, often milk white, resembling the 

 garden scabious. It is also frequently seen in 

 grain-fields. The stalks are round, firm, and 

 upright, divided into several branches, and 

 having two small leaves at each joint. The 

 leaves which grow from the root are four 

 inches long, dark green, harsh, and somewhat 

 hairy. The root is blackish, tapering, the end 

 appearing bitten off. It was called "DeviPs- 

 bit," from the idea among the superstitious of 

 the olden time that the devil had endeavoured 

 404 



to seize upon a plant so useful in its properties 

 to mankind, but could not effect his purpose. 

 He only bit off a piece of the root in the strug- 

 gle, and carried with it all the virtue of the 

 plant. (Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 194.) 



The plant known by this name in the Middle 

 States, is the Helonias dioica of Pursh, the 

 Veratrum luteum of Muhlenburg, commonly 

 called Mazing Star. It has a perennial root, 

 and is frequent in woodlands and meadows, 

 where it flowers in May and June. The root 

 of this plant is bitter, and a tonic of some 

 value. (Flor. Cestric.) 



DEW (Sax. toeap; Dutch daaw ; Germ, than, 

 moisture). The deposition of water from the 

 atmosphere during the night upon the ground, 

 leaves of trees, and plants, blades of grass and 

 other objects on or near the surface of the 

 earth. The phenomena of dew have been 

 considered by all writers on Meteorology, from 

 Aristotle downwards ; but they were first suc- 

 cessfully investigated by the late Dr. Wells, 

 who gave the true theory of the meteor in an 

 admirable essay on the subject, first published 

 in 1814. Dew does not fall from the atmo- 

 sphere like rain, but forms in very different 

 quantities on different substances ; thus, on 

 metals, it is sparingly deposited; on glass it 

 forms abundantly, as it does also on straw, 

 grass, cloth, paper, and other similar substances. 

 Animal substances are among those which ac- 

 quire dew in the greatest quantity. The tem- 

 perature of grass covered with dew is always 

 lower than that of the surrounding air. On 

 calm and very clear nights (the period when 

 dew is deposited most abundantly), Dr. Wells 

 very frequently found the grass seven, eight, or 

 nine degrees, and on one occasion, fourteen 

 degrees, colder than the air about four feet 

 above the ground. In England dew proba- 

 bly begins to appear upon grass, in places 

 shaded from the sun, during clear and calm 

 weather, soon after the heat of the atmosphere 

 has declined; that is, three or four hours after 

 midday. 



Very erroneous notions in regard to the man- 

 ner in which dew is formed or deposited, have 

 existed until a very recent period. This im- 

 portant agent in the promotion of vegetable life 

 has been supposed by some to rise from the 

 ground, whilst the phrase " falling dew," com- 

 mon in all languages, would seem to imply an 

 almost universal belief that dew falls from the 

 air, similar to the finest rain or mist. These 

 general impressions have, however, been de- 

 monstrated to be incorrect, by the experiments 

 of Dr. Wells ; whose explanation of the causes 

 operating in the production of dew is as simple 

 as it is satisfactory. When substances not 

 perfectly transparent, are exposed to the sun, 

 they gain more or less heat; but when the sun 

 goes down they part with their heat and become 

 cold. The surrounding air, however, with its 

 invisible vapour or moisture, being transparent, 

 does not radiate or shoot off its heat, and hence 

 remains comparatively warmer than bodies not 

 transparent. Hence grass, leaves, wood, or 

 stone, by growing cold in the absence of the 

 sun,have moisture to settle on them precisely for 

 the same reason that it iodeposited on the outside 

 of a pitcher or glass containing very cold water. 



