298 DEFINITIONS OF 



Brairding well, a Scotch term, denoting, in young grain, a foliage 



wnich promises an abundant product. 

 Calcareous Soils, such as will efFervosce with acids. According to 



Sir Humphrey Davy, they contain at least seven eighths of sand. 

 Cereal Grasses, those raised for bread-corn ; wheat, &c. 

 Clayey Soils. This term, Sir Humphrey Davy says, should not be 



applied to soils which contain less than one sixth of impalpable matter. 



They are called argillaceous, and often aluminous soils. 

 Composts, mixtures of various earthy and vegetable materials, as peat 



earth, lime, dung, loam, &c. 

 Convertible Husbandry, mixed husbandry, which implies frequent 



change, in the same field, from tillage to grass, and from grass to 



tillage — an alternation of dry, root, and grass crops. 

 Corn, in Europe, embraces every crop that is convertible into'bread, 



as wheat, barley, oats, &.c. In the United States, the term is partic- 

 ularly applied to maize, or Indian corn. 

 Cotyledons, seed-lobes, or seed-leaves, the fleshy parts of seeds, or 



the two halves, which separate in the act of sprouting, and rise above 



the ground. 

 Cropping, the raising, cutting, and carrying off the crop ; generally 



applied to tillage crops. 

 Culinary Vegetables, such as are raised for the table. 

 Culmiferous Crops, consist of the grains and the grasses which have 



smooth, jointed stalks, (culms,) and seed contained in chaffy 



husks, as wheat, timothy, &c. These have generally fibrous 



roots. 

 Dry Crops, are those which mature their seeds before they are gath- 

 ered, as wheat, rye, barley, &c. They are considered the most 



exhausting crops. 

 Earth, as applied to the ground, lime, clay, sand, or one or more 



earthy materials, in a friable and divided state, and either alone or 



mixed, but without the addition of inuch organic matter. 

 Fanner, one who cultivates a farm, be he proprietor or tenant. On 



the old continent, the term is only applied to such as pay rent. As 



our cultivators are generally proprietors, we give to the term its 



broadest, though perhaps not its legitimate definition. 

 Ferruginous Soils, are those which abound in iron, the presence of 



which is generally indicated by a red or yellow color, in the soil 



and the waters which pass through it. 

 Floriculture, is that branch of gardening, which has cognizance of 



flowers, of ornamental shrubs, and forcing and exotic gardening, so 



far as respects plants of ornament. 

 Foliage Grasses, plants cultivated for their leaves, to be used green, 



as the cabbage, spinach, lettuce tribes, &c. 

 Furrow Drains, parallel drains, made at intervals of sixteen to thirty 



feet, generally in the furrows between ridges, on flat and retentive 



soils, constructed like under drains. 

 Geine, of like import with Humus, which see. 

 Germination, the act of sprouting ; the beginning of vegetation m a 



seed or plant. 

 Grass Crops, are the grasses cut for hay, or fed oflfin pasturage. 



