STRANGLES, 



STRENGTH. 



STRANGLES. In farriery, a disease which 

 is principally incident to young horses ; usually 

 appearing between the fourth and fifth year, 

 and oftener in the spring than at any other sea- 

 son. It is preceded by cough, and is a disease 

 to which all horses are subject, but it never 

 returns. A blister will be found the best appli- 

 cation to hasten the formation and suppuration of 

 the tumour under the jaw, which, from its situa- 

 tion, has probably given the name to this disease. 



STRATH, in Scotland, is generally under- 

 stood to signify a valley of considerable size, 

 whose appellation is determined by some river 

 running through it, or some particular charac- 

 teristic. 



STRATUM. When different rocks lie in 

 succession upon each other, each individual 

 forms a stratum. See GEOLOGT. 



STRAW. The stalks or culms on which 

 corn and other grasses grow, and from which 

 the grain has been separated by thrashing. 

 When chopped or cut small, it affords a whole- 

 some provender for horses and oxen, especially 

 if it be mixed with green food. (See CHAFF 

 and CHAFF EXOIXES.) When not allowed to 

 be carried off the premises, the chief value of 

 white straw for farm purposes lies in its con- 

 version into manure; for although it may carry 

 store cattle through the winter, it will neither 

 fatten them nor enable any animal to work; 

 and its intrinsic worth for the uses of litter and 

 of occasional feeding has been estimated by 

 experienced farmers in England at 20s. to 30*. 

 the ton. See HAULM. 



STRAWBERRY (Fragaria, from fragrans, 

 fragrant; the perfumed fruit of the strawberry 

 is well known). The strawberry is our ear- 

 liest fruit, and as the harbinger of the fructus 

 hnr<fi, its appearance is as welcome as its fla- 

 vour agreeable. The cultivation and propaga- 

 tion of this plant is so familiar to every one, as 

 arc the wholesomeness and deliciousness of 

 the fruit, that neither need be particularized 

 here. Three species of strawberry found wild 

 in the United States are enumerated by Mr. 

 Nuttall : 1. F. vcsca, in the state of Ohio, near 

 Lake Erie. 2. F. rir^i.iinna. 3. F. Canadensis, 

 both common in the Southern, Middle, and 

 Northern States. The species indigenous to 

 Britain are two, the wood strawberry (F . vexed), 

 and the haulbois strawberry (F. elatior). The 

 covering of strawberry plants with sea-weed 

 in the winter has been found to increase the 

 size of the fruit to a prodigious degree. This 

 is much practised in the island of Jersey. 



STRAWBERRY-LEAVED CINQUEFOIL. 

 See CIXQ.VEFOIL. 



STRAW-CUTTER. See CHAFF-EXGIXE. 



STRAW-YARD. The yard into which straw 

 is thrown in thrashing. Also the enclosure in 

 which cattle are confined in winter, for the pur- 

 pose of being foddered on straw. There ought 

 to be open sheds for shelter in the straw-yard; 

 for though pure air is essential to the health of 

 store and working cattle, cold winds and rain 

 are highly injurious to them. The great use 

 of a straw-yard is for the accumulation of ma- 

 nure, which cannot be rich unless the cattle 

 get some food besides straw to support them. 



STREET DUNG. The mixture of animal 

 and vegetable matters, comminuted particles, 



&c., swept up from the streets of large towns, 

 which is found to be an excellent fertilizer; it 

 is composed of a mixture of horse dung, 

 debris of the paving slones, soot, lime, and me* 

 tallic particles. 



STRENGTH, in mechanics, is used in the 

 same sense as force or power. Thus, strength 

 of animals is the muscular force or energy 

 which animals are capable of exerting; 

 strength of materials is the resistance which 

 bodies oppose to a force acting upon them. It 

 is obviously a matter of much importance to 

 be able to estimate with tolerable accuracy the 

 efforts which an animal of the average strength 

 employed in labour is capable of exerting, and, 

 accordingly, very numerous observations have 

 been made on the subject; but this species 

 of force is subject to variation from so great a 

 number of circumstances, both physical and 

 mechanical, that the results given by different 

 authors present very little agreement with each 

 other, though they are of great value as afford- 

 ingdatafordeterminingthe modes in which ani- 

 mal labour is most advantageously employed. 



Of all animals employed as first movers, the 

 horse is, beyond question, the most useful, and 

 that whose labour is susceptible of the most 

 numerous and varied applications. For the 

 purpose of determining his muscular power, 

 the dynamometer may be conveniently used; 

 but, as the action of the animal is very quickly 

 reduced by continued exertion, it is more usual 

 to estimate it according to the amount of daily 

 labour performed. Desaguliers and Smeaton 

 estimate the strength of a horse as equivalent to 

 that of 5 men ; the French authors have com- 

 monly stated it as equal to 7 men ; and Schulze 

 makes it equal to that of 14 men in drawing ho- 

 rizontally. According to Desaguliers, a horse's 

 power is equal to 44 Ibs. raised 1 foot high in 1 

 minute. Smeaton makes this number 22-916, 

 Hachett 28, and Watt 33. The last estimate 

 is commonly understood by the term horse- 

 poicer as applied to steam-engines. The quan- 

 tity of action which a horse can exert dimin- 

 ishes as the duration of the labour is prolonged. 

 Tredgold gives the following table, showing the 

 average maximum velocity with which a horse 

 unloaded can travel according to the number 

 of hours per day : 



The useful effect a horse is capable of pro- 

 ducing, depends much upon the manner in 

 which his strength is applied. See CARTS, 

 DTNAXOMETER, HORSE-POWER, THRASHING MA- 

 CHINE. 



Strength of Materials. There are four differ- 

 ent ways in which the strength of a solid body 

 may be exerted: first, in resisting a longitu- 

 dinal tension, or force tending to tear it asun- 

 der; secondly, in resisting a force tending to 

 break the body by a transverse strain ; thirdly, 

 in resisting compression, or a force tending to 

 crush the body; and, fourthly, in resisting a 

 4 q. 2 1013 



