WAR 



WAR 



WALL. For its uses in horticul- 

 ture, see Hot-xcall. 



WALL EYE. Opacity of the cor- 

 nea or glaucoma 



WALL-PLATE. A timber lyinjr 

 on a wall on which girders, joists, 

 &c., rest. 



WALNUT. The European, or 

 Madeira nut, is the fruit of the im- 

 proved Juglans regiii, a very large 

 tree. It does not bear well until some 

 15 or 20 years old. It is suggested i 

 to graft them by approach %vith bear- I 

 ing branches of an older tree. The 

 wood is very valuable for cabinet pur- 

 poses, and especially sought for gun 

 stocks ; it is not, liowever, of the rich 

 colour of the American walnut (J. 

 nigra), or black walnut. The hulls 

 of the fruit are rich in tannin, and 

 used in France to dye brown col- 

 ours. 



The black walnut is not found north 

 of New- Jersey, but exists in immense 

 luantities in the woods of Virginia, 

 Ohio, Tennessee, and in rich soils, 

 where it attauis an altitude of 70 feet, 

 and a circumference of five to seven 

 feet. The fruit is well known, but 

 rather inferior to that of the Europe- | 

 an tree ; the wood is, however, bet- 

 ter, and extensively employed. 



WARBLES. Black sores, sitfast. 

 See Galls. 



WARP. The sediment of rivers 

 or the sea. In weaving, the long 

 threads which run the lengthway of 

 the fabric. 



WARPING. " A mode of produ- 

 cing a deposition of the earthy mat- 

 ter suspended in rivers of which 

 the current is frequently changed 

 by the ribing and falling of the tide. 

 This causes a stirring of the water, 

 which prevents the liner particles 

 from being deposited. It is only ne- 

 cessary to produce a stagnation of 

 the water for a few hours to have a 

 copious deposite, leaving the water 

 clear over it. 



" On the low flats which border the 

 mouths of rivers occasional inunda- 

 tions often cause a deposite which is 

 higiily fertilizing. Thus, the polders 

 ill ilolliind and Flanders have been 

 lornied of the mud of large rivers, 



I and, being drained and kept dry by 

 dikes and sluices, have formed the 



I most fertile soils. 



I " ^\'arping is an imitation of this 

 natural process : a bank of earth is 

 raised along the course of the river, 

 so high that the floods cannot pass 

 over it. In some part of this dike is 

 a sluice for the double purpose of let- 

 ting in the water and letting it out at 

 pleasure. M'hen the tide is setting 

 in and counteracting the natural cur- 

 rent of liie river, the sluice is opened, 

 and the water flows in by one or 

 more channels made for the purpose 

 of conveying it over the lower land, 

 and covers it to the depth of high 

 water. The sluice is now shut, and 

 the imprisoned water, becoming stag- 

 nant, deposites all the mud which it 

 held suspended before. The sluice 

 is opened at low water, and the wa- 

 ter is allowed to run out slowly ; it 

 leaves a coating of mud or sediment, 

 which hardens and dries rapidly. This 

 operation is repeated until a thick- 

 ness of several inches of new soil has 

 thus been warped, when it is allowed 

 to dry, and then ploughed and cultiva- 

 ted like any other field. It takes some 

 time before any corn will grow on 

 the new warp : at first it looks like 

 barren mud, but it soon dries to a 

 better texture, and ultimately produ- 

 ces very extraordinary crops. If its 

 fertility decrease, and its surface is 

 still below high-water mark, a slight 

 warping, like the inundations of the 

 Nile, immediately restores the fertil- 

 ity. What is curious is the almost 

 total absence of organic matter in the 

 warp soils, or, rather, its intimate 

 combination with the earths, so that 

 it is not readily separated from them. 

 It is neither like clay nor sand, but 

 something between the two, soft to 

 the touch, but not hardening into 

 lumps when dry ; neither very porous 

 nor very retentive of moisture. The 

 principal earth is silica in a very fine 

 state. It generally contains a portion 



; of calcareous matter, probably from 



j comminuted shells. It produces oats, 

 beans, potatoes, and wheat in abun- 

 dance, without any manure. It is 

 admirably adapted to the growth of 



835 



