DRILL-ROLLER. 



DRY ROT. 



It opens the furrow, drops the seed, covers ' 

 and rolls them down. It will sow almost 

 any kind of garden seeds, such as beets, ruta- 

 baga, mangel-wurtzel, carrots, turnips, pars- 

 nips, onions, &c., and costs $14. 



Buckminster's Seed-planter is of simple con- 

 struction, and has been found to answer well 

 for planting corn, sugar-beet, &c. It deposits 

 the seed either in drill-rows or hills, as may be 

 desired. When the ground is properly pre- 

 pared, a man, with one horse, it is said, can 

 furrow out, drop, cover, and press down the 

 seed on an acre of ground in one hour, or 

 10 acres in a day. The seed is covered by 

 falling into the furrow of the soil, which is 

 finely pulverized by a row of cultivator teeth. 

 The machine will bury the seed 3 inches deep, 

 if desired one inch being the general rule for 

 Indian corn, and only one-fourth of an inch 

 for turnips. By simply turning a screw one 

 way or the other the depth is/egulated. 



JiemetiCs Improved Turnip Drill, which is a 

 modification of the English Northumberland 

 Drill, enjoys a good reputation. It sows beets, 

 peas, and, generally, all kinds of found or oval- 

 shaped seeds. 



Merchant's Drill Barrmv, is said to perform 

 well, and is recommended by its simplicity of 

 construction and cheapness. By multiplying 

 the wheels, or rather by uniting several ma- 

 chines, it may be adapted to horse power, and 

 thus applied to field culture for sugar-beets, 

 ruta-bagas, &c., and, even, it is said, for wheat 

 and other small grains. 



DRILL-ROLLER. A roller so contrived as 

 to form regular small incisions or drills in the 

 ground at proper depths for the seed. It is 

 merely a common cylinder roller, generally of 

 iron, about seven feet long, around which are 

 put cutting-wheels of cast iron, each of which 

 generally weighs about a ton. The cutting 

 wheels, being movable, may be fixed at any 

 distance, by means of washers. 



DROPSY. In farriery, a disease incident to 

 horses, and sometimes called water-farcy. See 

 HORSES AXD SHEEP, DISEASES OF. 



DROPWORT, WATER ((Enanthe). Smith 

 (Eng. Flor.vol. ii. p. 68), describes five species 

 in England. The common water-dropwort ; 

 the parsley water-dropwort ; sulphur-wort wa- 

 ter-dropwort ; the fine-leaved water-dropwort; 

 and the hemlock water-dropwort. They are 

 aquatic herbs, perennials, and biennials ; fetid, 

 and often poisonous ; found in ditches, ponds, 

 and other watery places. The first three spe- 

 cies are not reckoned poisonous ; but the last 

 ((Enanthe m>ra/fl),is perhaps, in its fresh state, 

 the most virulent of British plants. Brood 

 maivs according to Sir Thomas Frankland, 

 sometimes eat the root, and are poisoned by 

 it. The root consists of many fleshy knobs, 

 resembling parsnips externally, abounding 

 with an orange-coloured, fetid, and very poi- 

 sonous juice, such as exudes less plentifully 

 from all parts of the herb when wounded. The 

 stem is from two to five feet high, much branch- 

 d, somewhat forked, and hollow. The leaves 

 are of a dark shining green, and doubly 

 pinnate. The flowers are white, or tinge< 

 with purple, very numerous and crowded. 

 Two or thre< species of cowbane are enu- 



merated in the United States, where the plant 

 is believed to be an active poison, particularly 

 to horned cattle, when eaten by them ; for which 

 reason it should be eradicated from all pas- 

 tures where it is discovered. (Darlington's 

 Flor. Cea.) 



DROSOMETER (from the Greek). An in- 

 strument constructed for measuring the quan- 

 tity of dew that collects on the surface of a body 

 exposed to the open air during the night. The 

 first instrument for this purpose was proposed 

 by Weidler. It consisted of a bent balance 

 which marked in grains the preponderance 

 which a piece of glass of certain dimensions, 

 laid horizontally in one of the scales had ac- 

 quired from the settling and adhesion of the 

 globules of moisture. A simpler and more 

 convenient drosometer would be formed on 

 the principle of the rain guage ; and in order 

 to facilitate the descent of the dew down the 

 sides of the funnel into the tube, a coat of 

 deliqueate salt of tartar may be spread over 

 the shallow surface. Dr. Wells, in making 

 his celebrated experiments on dew, exposed a 

 small quantity of wool to the open sky, and the 

 difference in its weight when laid down and 

 taken up showed the quantity of moisture it 

 had imbibed in the interval. (Brande's Diet, 

 of Science.) 



DROUGHT. The effect of long-continued 

 dry weather, or the want of rain: when appli- 

 ed to animals, it signifies thirst, or want of 

 drink. 



DRUDGE. An implement of the rake or 

 harrow kind, peculiar to West Devonshire. It 

 is a sort of long heavy wooden-toothed rake, 

 the teeth being broad, and placed with the 

 wide or flat side foremost. It is drawn by 

 horses or oxen, and made use of, in paring and 

 burning operations, to collect the broken parts 

 or fragments of the sward which have been 

 loosened by the operation of the plough and 

 harrow. 



DRY ROT. The name of a disease which 

 attacks wood, rendering it pulverulent by de- 

 stroying the cohesion of its parts. It fre- 

 quently depends on fungous plants, which are 

 nourished upon the sap in the wood, and by 

 taking that away destroy the cohesive property 

 of the woody particles. The fungi most de- 

 structive are the Merulius lacrymans, the Poly- 

 ponts destructor, and several species of Sporo- 

 trichium. The production of these fungi is 

 favoured by whatever causes the sap remain- 

 ing in the wood to ferment; as, for example, 

 defect of ventilation. In the old cathedrals 

 and other public edifices, the dry rot never ap- 

 peared, because care was taken to ventilate the 

 beams. It occurs among the timbers of ships, 

 where it sometimes commits the most serious 

 damage and in damp ill-ventilated houses. Mr. 

 Batson, in the Trans, of Soc. for Encour. of Arts, 

 recommended charring as a preventative. 

 Some excellent advice is also given on this 

 subject in a paper by Mr. Hart, " On the Cause 

 of Dry Rot in the 'Larch and other Trees" 

 (Trans. High. Soc., vol. iv. p. 395). Steeping 

 wood in a dilute solution of corrosive subli- 

 mate, (Kyanizing,) solution of acetate and 

 sulphate of copper, (Megary's process,) con- 

 centrated solution of chloride of zinc, (Bur- 



