DEFINITIONS 



OF TERMS USED IN AGRICULTURE. 



Aeriform,ha.\mg the form and nature of an elastic invisible fluid, like 

 air. 



Agriculture, the cultivation and management of the soil, on the scale 

 of a farm, by animal and manual labor and steam-power, for the 

 production of materials useful for the food and service of man, and 

 for various purposes in arts, manufactures, and civilized life. 



Aliment, that which nourishes animals or vegetables ; the nutritive 

 quality of food, dissolved and blended with the juices of the stom- 

 ach, or the moisture of the soil, and converted into chyle or sap, 

 by the digestive process, and taken up by the lacteals or spongioles, 

 (chyle or sap carrying vessels.) 



Alkaline Earths, so called from their possessing most of the qualities 

 of alkalies, as lime, magnesia, strontia, baryta. 



Alluvial Soils, formed by the action of water, as river flats, com- 

 posed of various and heterogeneous materials. 



Anbury, a disease of turnips and cabbages — tumors upon the roots, 

 caused by insects. 



Animalcule, in its general acceptation, a little animal, but since the 

 invention of the microscope, the term is particularly applied to the 

 myriads of insects, too small to be seen by the naked eye, which 

 are discovered by that instrument. 



Animal Manures, all dead animal matters, as fish, bone, horn. Vc~ 

 geto-animal Manures, stable and yard dung, partaking of vegetable 

 and animal matters. 



Annual Plants, such as flower, seed, and die, the year they are grown. 



Antiseptic, a term applied to those substances which check or resist 

 putrefaction, as salt, &c. 



Aquatic Plants, plants growing in water. 



Arable Husbandry, where the raising of grain is the main object of 

 the cultivator, as in wheat-growing districts. 



Arborculture, or planting, is the cultivation of useful trees and shrubs, 

 and is another term for rural embellishment. 



Assimilation, in animal and vegetable economy, is that hidden, natu- 

 ral process by which living animals and plants are enabled to con- 

 vert such bodies as have a certain affinity for them, or at least after 

 having undergone some preparation, and change of properties, into 

 their own substance and nature. 



Biennial Plants, such as flower and seed the second year and then 

 die, as the carrot, cabbage, onion. 



