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BLUE GRASS. The valuable per- 

 ennial Kentucky grass, or Poa pra- 

 ienxis, is considered the best indige- 

 nous grass of the United States. It 

 forms a thick, dense sward, yielding 

 a fair amount of very nutritious hay. 

 It is adapted especially for permanent 

 hillside meadows, growing well in a 

 drained soil. Half a bushel of seed 

 is sown either with a fall crop or with 

 oats in spring : it is customary to mix 

 clover or timothy with it, which fur- 

 nishes grazing sooner, and preserves 

 the young grass. In two years it 

 takes entire possession, and forms a 

 close mat of delicate herbage. It 

 flourishes well in New- York State and 

 far to the south. In Kentucky they 

 sometimes grow it in wood land as 

 well as in open pasture. The wood 

 blue grass is a variety (P. sylvcstris). 



There is another grass {Poa com- 

 pressa), also called blue grass, and 

 common in the Northern States ; but 

 it is scanty, and very inferior to the 

 rich Kentucky kind. 



BLUE STONE and BLUE VIT- 

 RIOL. The sulphate of copper. It 

 is used as a caustic to sores, and as 

 a steep for wheat, to save it from 

 smut. 



BOG. This term is commonly used 

 in agriculture to designate a hole or 

 morass containing much vegetable 

 mud or muck ; often the deposites are 

 extensive, and many feet deep. A 

 peat bog contains peat chiefly. 



When bogs become consolidated 

 or compressed, they are called peat 

 mosses. See Peat. 



BOG EARTH. This earth often 

 contains twenty or thirty per cent, of 

 vegetable matter, and when well bro- 

 ken with lime, and by exposure to air, 

 forms a rich soil. 



BOIL, or. commonly, BILE. A 

 tumour containing matter, or pus. It 

 is the result of local inflammation. 

 It should be brought to a head by 

 poultices of flour or linseed, and, 

 when soft and fluctuating, opened 

 freely with a lancet. The wound 

 should be kept clean, and closed with 

 sticking plaster, or protected by a rag. 



BOILING POINT. The tempera- 

 ture at which fluids boil. Thus, wa- 



ter at 212°, alcohol 176^, oil of tur- 

 pentine 316'', aether 96'-'', mercury 

 662'' Fahrenheit. 



BOLE, or BOLL. A Scotch meas- 

 ure of four bushels. 



BOLE OF TREES. The trunk. 



BOLETUS. Fungi, forming fleshy 

 masses, attached to the trunks of 

 trees, and filled with holes on the 

 lower side. One species, B. bovinns, 

 is said to be eaten by cattle. The B. 

 iffjiarius and fomottarius, dried and 

 prepared with saltpetre, forms the 

 German tinder, or amadou. 



BOLTER. A sieve used to sep- 

 arate bran from flour or meal, urged 

 by machinery in grist mills. For 

 coarse purposes, wire-work is some- 

 times used ; but bolting cloths for 

 flour are of linen or hair, and of sev- 

 eral degrees of fineness. 



BOLT-HEAD. A glass vessel, or 

 flask, used in the laboratorv. 



BOLTING FOOD. This is a prac- 

 tice which brings about indigestion in 

 animals as well as in men, and must 

 be hindered by feeding the animal 

 separately, and at shorter intervals, 

 and using chopped food or meals. 



BOLUS. See Ball. 



BOMB AX. A genus of large trees 

 producing a short cotton. 



BONES. The frame-work of the 

 higher animals. Bones consist of 

 fifty-six per cent, mineral, and the 

 rest gelatinous and destructible mat- 

 ter. The mineral portion contains, 

 on an average, fifty per cent, of phos- 

 phate of lime, or bone earth ; of this, 

 twenty-four per cent, is phosphoric 

 acid, and the rest lime. The destruc- 

 tible animal matter is partly removed 

 by long boiling, and used as a size. 



The value of bones as manure ari- 

 ses from the combination of animal 

 matter and phosphate, but is chiefly 

 due to the latter. They are applied 

 usually in coarse powder, ground at 

 suitable bone mills, which are now 

 to be found near all our large cities. 

 The price in Baltimore and New- 

 York is forty cents the bushel. Some- 

 times, pieces, or broken bones, from 

 half an inch to an inch long, are used 

 as a permanent dressing. 



l"hc amount of dust to be applied 



99 



