FOGGAGE. 



FOOD. 



times continue during a considerable part of 

 the year. In the Polar seas thick fogs often 

 prevail, even during the warmest months; and 

 they are so dense that objects frequently can- 

 not be distinguished at the distance of a few 

 yards. (Br nude's Viet, of Science.) 



FOGGAGE (Low Lat. fogagium). Coarse 



or rank grass not eaten down in the summer 



or autumn. The practice of fogging grass- 



i ilic winter support of stock has been 



lou ml hiirhly useful. 



F >t JGE. A common word in the north, that 

 properly signifies the grass which immediately 

 s after the hay-crop has been taken, but 

 netimes used for the long grass remain- 

 ing in the pastures till winter. (See AFTER- 

 GRASS.) It is also used for nioss, in some parts 

 of Scotland : thus a fog-house means a house 

 built 01 lined with moss. 



l'( KiGING. A peculiar practice in the ma- 

 nagement of grass-lands, confined chiefly to the 

 ; of South Wales. It consists in keep- 

 ing the whole growth of grass in upland mea- 

 dows free from either scythe or stock, and eat- 

 ing it in the following winter. Arthur Young 

 states, that many years ago, he knew a Suffolk 

 clergyman, who was in the regular habit of 

 this singular practice, and spoke of it as a 

 most profitable one. He has, he says, tried it 

 thrice, and with success ; and he finds that it 

 :.s the herbage greatly, and yields far 

 more valuable winter and spring food than 

 any person would expect, who never tried it. 

 But it should be practised only on dry or toler- 

 ably dry land. 



FOLD (Sax. pcaice). A temporary pen or 

 enclosure for keeping cattle or other agricultu- 

 ral animals together, either for the purpose of 

 confinement during the night, or jointly for 

 protection and feeding. Sometimes, also, sheep 

 arc folded for the purpose of manuring. Sheep- 

 folds are of two kinds ; either houses or sheds 

 set apart for that purpose adjoining to the farm- 

 yard, or movable folds formed by hurdles, &c. 

 On the Continent, sheep are principally folded 

 in sheds, &c., the floors of which are strewed 

 with straw, sand, or alean dry earth, by which 

 an additional quantity of manure is obtained. 

 The temporary fence or barrier of which mova- 

 ble folds are constructed, is most commonly 

 wooden hurdles; but sometimes, when the fold 

 is only to contain ewes and lambs, netting 

 stretched between posts is made use of, there 

 being a strong rope fixed to the lower parts of 

 the post, close to the ground, to which the under 

 edge of the netting is attached, while its upper 

 edge is fastened to a rope stretched along the 

 i the same post. Netting is by far the 

 cheapest and neatest substance for barriers for 

 (See HURDLE..) Mr. Children has 

 recently advocated a system of shed-feeding 

 (J*r. Rny. jigr. Sot. vol. i. p. 40) ; and there is 

 little .!. neep, in common with all live 



stock, suffer more from the effects of wet and 

 cold, when feeding in exposed situations, than 

 is commonly supposed. 



FOLDING. The practice of confining sheep 

 and other animals upon land, by means of hur- 

 dles, &c., for the purpose of feeding on and 

 manuring it- The practice of folding sheep on 

 naked tallows, with a view to manuring *hem, 

 498 



is still common in several parts of England; 

 but the more improved sheep farmers consider 

 that it deteriorates the wool and impedes the 

 fattening of the sheep, by keeping them for the 

 greater part of every night wholly without food. 

 Others, however, assert that folding is not inju- 

 rious to sheep, if they are kept in a good pas- 

 ture during the day, and not folded too early in 

 the evening, or kept in the fold too long in the 

 morning. In some large arable land farms in 

 Hampshire and other counties, folding is still 

 considered necessary, and large flocks of breed- 

 ing ewes are kept specially for that purpose. 

 Sheep are occasionally penned or folded on 

 young wheat, but more commonly on turnips, 

 a certain portion being enclosed, sufficient for 

 them to eat off in one or two days. 



FOLD-YARD. The yard where cattle of 

 different sorts are confined and fed during the 

 winter season. Yards of this nature should be 

 properly fitted up with convenient sheds and 

 racks for the animals to eat their fodder from, 

 and have suitable divisions for containing dif- 

 ferent denominations of cattle, or other live 

 stock. See FARM-YARD. 



FOOD (Sax. jw>). All substances suscepti- 

 ble of digestion and assimilation may come 

 under the denomination of food. Animals 

 require, for their support and developement, 

 atoms or elements highly organized. The food 

 of all animals, under all circumstances, con- 

 sists of portions of organized matter. Vegeta- 

 bles, on the contrary, require for their support 

 elements derived from the complete destruction 

 of organized substances, whether animal or 

 vegetable, through the processes of putrefac- 

 tion and decay. The proximate principles of 

 organic bodies, on which their nutritive powers 

 depend, are comparatively few. Although the 

 articles employed in different countries for the 

 support of animal life are almost infinitely 

 various, their sustaining powers may be re- 

 ferred to certain substances capable of being 

 separated and identified by chemical analyses 

 and tests. Amongst the proximate elements 

 of vegetable food, gluten and its modifications, 

 starch, gum, sugar, and lignin or woody fibre, 

 are by far the most important; and amongst 

 those of animal food, fibrin, albumen, gelatin, 

 and their modifications, together with fats and 

 oils, which are common to both kingdoms of 

 nature. To illustrate the actual simplicity of 

 our food, as compared with its apparent multi- 

 fariousness and complexity, it may suffice to 

 state that wheat, and almost all the esculent 

 grains, consist principally of starch and gluten ; 

 that the same ingredients are found in many 

 fruits and roots ; that sugar, gum, or a relation 

 of gum, which is called vegetable jelly, together 

 with minute traces of aromatic principles which 

 give flavour, and more or less abundance of 

 water and of vegetable acids, are the chief 

 component parts of apples, peaches, currants, 

 &c., and all pulpous and juicy fruits; a very 

 few also contain oil. Then, as regards nmmal 

 food, the muscular fibres of various animals 

 closely resemble each other in composition and 

 nutritive power : in some cases texture mereiy 

 and in others minute additions of foreign mat- 

 ters, confer upon them their relative digestibi- 

 i lilies and their different aspects and flavours, 



