BRO 



BRO 



and October. For winter kinQs, it will 

 be necessary to take plants up as 

 soon as slight frosts appear, lay them 

 in light soil, and place them in frames, 

 to ripen during winter and early 

 spring. In tlie Southern Slates the 

 winters are mild enough to allow of 

 their growth abroad. 



BROKEN KNEES. See Horse, 

 Diseases of. 



BROKEN WIND. Prof Youatt 

 attributes this incurable nuisance in 

 horses to stuffing them with too much 

 coarse provender, and working soon 

 after meals. Horses are granivor- 

 ous, and should rest at least one hour 

 after food, be fed three times daily, 

 and not once or twice. 



BROMINE An elementary brown 

 fluid, of a vile odour {iSpuung), extract- 

 ed from salt-water and sea-weeds. 

 It is very similar to chloripe in its 

 properties ; hitherto used only by Da- 

 guerrian artists. Its scarcity makes 

 it very expensive. 



BROMUS. A genus of grasses, of 

 which B. secaiinus, common cheat, or 

 chess, is most famous. Many species 

 exist in America, but they are not of 

 value in permanent meadows. 



BRONCHIA. i3poyxoc, the throat.) 

 The ramifications of the windpipe in 

 the lungs. 



BRONCHITIS. Inflammation of 

 the bronchia. See Horse. Diseases of. 



BRONCHOTOMY. The operation 

 of opening the trachea low down. 



BROOD-MARES. Mares should 

 not breed till three years old. When 

 taken care of they bear twenty years. 

 They heat in spring, and carry young 

 about eleven months. May is the 

 best month for covering. 



BROOM. The European shrub 

 Spartium scoparium, which bears 

 bright-yellow papilionaceous flowers, 

 and is hence cultivated in shrubber- 

 ies. It is used also as a cover for 

 game and shelter to young planta- 

 tions. iS. jiincenm, Spanish broom, 

 is prettier, and fragrant. 5!. mono- 

 spermnm bears white flowers. These 

 are common, except the last, through- 

 out the United States. 



BROOM-CORN. The Sorghum 

 aaccharatum. Another plant, the S. 



dora, is the Indian millet. The cul- 

 tivation of broom-corn for the manu- 

 facture of brooms and for seed is of 

 great profit in the Valley of the Con- 

 necticut, Mohawk, and in New-Jer- 

 sey. It would be still more profita- 

 ble in the South, as in these localities 

 the frost sometimes hurts the plants 

 before the seed ripens. 



The best variety is the New- Jer- 

 sey, which yields upward of 1000 lbs. 

 of broom, and much seed, per acre. 

 The North River yields 720 lbs. The 

 pine-tree variety is earliest, but small 

 and thin. The seed crop averages from 

 50 to 80 bushels. The best alluvial 

 soils are chosen, and well manured. 

 The seed is planted in May. at the rate 

 of a tea-spoonlul to the hill, the hills 

 being three feet by eighteen inches 

 apart, so as to allow the cultivator to 

 run between the rows. The hills are 

 dunged with old compost immediate- 

 ly before sowing. It is hoed or work- 

 ed three times, like corn. Seven to 

 ten plants are left in the hill ; the 

 thinning takes place at the first hoe- 

 ing. The crop is harvested at the 

 first frost. The stems are bent, or 

 partly broken 2 i feet from the ground, 

 and left to dry for a few days ; the 

 stalks are ne.xt cut, at six or eight 

 I inches from the brush. The produce 

 I is next dried in the barn on scafTolds, 

 i or in any convenient way. The best 

 broom is cut when of a yellowish 

 I green. The seed is removed by pull- 

 ing the panicles or brooms through a 

 scraper, which tears them off. Mr. 

 Allen, of Massachusetts, who has had 

 much experience in this matter, rec- 

 ommends the following contrivance : 



The lower board rests on the barn 

 floor; the upper is moveable by a 

 hinge, and can be set at any height ; it 

 is intended to grasp the three upright 

 rods, B ; the central is of stout iron, 

 the side ones of elastic steel. The 



115 



