SAW-GRASS. 



SCARIFIER. 



in throughout the winter, and appear, in the 

 winged form, in the following spring and 

 summer." 



During several years past, these pernicious 

 vermin have infested the rose bushes in the 

 vicinity of Boston, and hare proved so inju- 

 rious to them, as to have excited the attention 

 of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, by 

 whom a premium of $100, for the most suc- 

 cessful mode of destroying these insects, was 

 offered, in the summer of 1840. Showering or 

 syringing the bushes with a liquor, made by 

 mixing with watpr the juice expressed from 

 tobacco by tobacconists, has been recom- 

 mended; but some caution is necessary in 

 making this mixture of a proper strength, for 

 if too strong it is injurious to plants; and the 

 experiment does not seem, as yet, to have been 

 conducted. with sufficient care to insure safety 

 and success. Dusting lime over the plants 

 when wet with dew has been tried, and found 

 of some use ; but this and all other remedies 

 will probably yield in efficacy to Mr. Hag- 

 gerston's mixture of whale-oil soap and water, 

 in the proportion of two pounds of the soap to 

 fifteen gallons of water. For particular direc- 

 tions to use this, see APHIDES. 



For a species of minute saw-fly, destructive 

 to the turnip crops in England, see FLI is 



Tt'K\II"<. 



SA W- GRASS. See Boo-Rusw. 



SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga ; from saxum, a 

 stone, and frango,io break; in allusion to its 

 reputed medical qualities in that disease). 

 This is a very extensive genus of beautiful 

 alpine plants, the greater part of which are par- 

 ticularly suitable for ornamenting rock-work, 

 or growing on the sides of naked banks. They 

 are all readily increased by seeds or divisions. 

 These herbs are, for the most part, perennial, 

 various in habit, often in some degree hairy 

 and glutinous, with stalked, simple, undivided 

 or lobed leaves. Flowers either panicled, 

 rarely solitary, on a long naked stalk, or co- 

 rymbose at the top of a round leafy stem; 

 erect, white, yellow, or purple, frequently spot- 

 ted, inodorous. Dr. Darlington describes two 

 American species under the names of Virginia 

 or Kuril/ S;t.rifrns;e, and Pennsylvania or Tall 

 Sn.i'ifrn^e. Canada and Labrador have some 

 species. 



SAXIFRAGE, BURNET. See BCR*ET. 



SAXIFRAGE, GOLDEN. See GOLDEN SAXI- 

 FRAGE. 



SCAB. A contagious disease incident to 

 sheep, which, like the mange in cattle, horses, 

 and dogs, and the itch in the human subject, is 

 the effect of certain minute insects belonging 

 to the class Acari ; at least these insects al- 

 ways are present in this disease. In the human 

 subject the itch insect obtains its food from the 

 pustules of the disease. The cure of scab, 

 however, is supposed to be in the destruction 

 of this insect. Washes, whether infusions of 

 tobacco, hellebore, or arsenic, appear to be ob- 

 jectionable, and a safer and more effectual 

 method of curing the disease and benefiting 

 the wool is the application of a mercurial 

 ointment. The ointment should be made of 

 two strengths. That for bad cases should con- 

 sist of common mercurial or Trooper's oint- 



j ment, rubbed down with three times its weight 

 of lard. The other, for ordinary purposes, 

 should contain five parts of lard to one of the 

 mercurial ointment. (Youatt on the Sheep, p. 

 536.) See SHEEP, DISEASES OF. 



SCABIOUS (Scabiosa, from scabies, the itch; 

 the common kind is said to cure that disorder). 

 Some of these plants are well adapted for oi- 

 namenting the flower-border. The herbaceous 

 species are readily increased by division at 

 the root, or by seed. The seeds of the annual 

 kinds merely require sowing in the open bor- 

 der. There are three indigenous species, all 

 perennials ; viz., the devil's-bit scabious (S. 

 succisa), which is common in grassy, rather 

 moist pastures, flowering from August to Oc- 

 tober (see DEVIL'S-BIT SCABIOUS); the field 

 scabious (S. arvensis), growing in corn-fields 

 and pastures, with a bristly stem a yard high. 

 The radical leaves are lanceolate, serrated, 

 stalked, the rest pinnatifid and quite sessile. 

 The flowers, which appear in July, are large 

 and handsome, of a fine pale purple. Sheep 

 and goats are said to eat this herb ; but its bitter 

 and nauseous flavour is not agreeable to do- 

 mestic cattle. The small scabious (S. colum- 

 baria) is a less common species, attaining to 

 the height of twelve or eighteen inches. The 

 leaves and flowers are smaller and more deli- 

 cate than the last. 



SCALD CREAM. Provincially, cream 

 raised by heat, or clouted cream. See DAIBT, 

 MII.K, BUTTER, LACTUMKTKH, &c. 



8CALLION. See Oxn.x. 



SCAPE. In botany, a stem rising from the 

 roots, more frequently from a rhizome or un- 

 derground stem, bearing nothing but the flow- 

 ers. The iris is an example. 



SCARIFIER. A tillage implement for stir- 

 ring and loosening the soil, without bringing 

 up a fresh surface. Under the same head may 

 be included the grubber, the cultivator, and the 

 scuffler, all of which act on the combined 

 principles of plough and harrow at the same 

 time. Some of these implements have wheels, 

 by the raising or lowering of which the tines 

 or prongs may be made to sink more or less 

 into the earth. See HARROW. 



Amongst the earliest of the many varieties 

 of this implement that I am acquainted with 

 (says Mr. J. A. Ransome, in his work upon the 

 Implements of Agriculture), is one which the 

 late T. Cooke used, attached to the frame- 

 work of his drill, the coulters and apparatus 

 of which, being removed, gave place to a bar, 

 or head, suspended by joints to the axle, on 

 which a row of strong tines was fixed. See 

 PI. 14, fig. 2. 



On a similar plan to this, but working on a 

 plough-carriage, another invention by Robert 

 Fuller, a practical farmer of Ipswich, came 

 into operation, and worked exceedingly well. 



Biddell's Scarifier and Extirpator (PI. 15, fig. 

 3) is held in deservedly high repute in Suffolk 

 (where it originated) and the eastern and mid- 

 land counties, where it is now in very general 

 use. It is an implement of immense power, 

 and well calculated to supersede the extensive 

 use of the plough, otherwise indispensable in 

 the cultivation of strong land, and we are in 

 clined to believe with better effect. There can 



981 



