S P R 



feftion of thofe with whom he was connefted, and died in 

 1713, ill the 79th year of his age. Befides the works al- 

 ready mentioned, he publi(hed a relation of his examination 

 before the privy council, two letters to lord Dorfet, and a 

 volume of fermons. Biog. Brit. 



SfR.VT, in Ichthyology, a fpecies of the clupea, with 

 the lower jaw the loiigelt, and the belly very acute, and the 

 dorfal fin confilling of thirteen rays. See Clupea. 



The fprat, or elupea fpr.itliis of LinnKUS, has generally, 

 but erroneoufly, been fujipofed a herring not grown to its 

 full fizc. Its ufual lenptli is about four or five inches, and 

 the body much deeper than that of a young herring of equal 

 length ; the back fin is placed more remote from the nofe 

 than that of the herring : but one great diltindtion between 

 this fidi, tiie herring-, and the pilchard, is the belly ; that 

 of the two firit being quite fmooth, that of the h(l very 

 ftrongly ferraled ; and another is, that the herring has fifty- 

 fix vertebrx, this only forty-eight. Befides, fprats vifit 

 our coatts, and continue with us in large (hoals, when the 

 others, in general, have retired to the great northern deeps. 

 They come into the river Thames, below bridge, in the 

 beginning of November, and leave it in March, and are, 

 during tL'ir feafon, a great relief to the poor of the capital. 

 At Gravefend and at Yarmouth they are cured like red 

 herrings : they are fometimes pickled, and are little inferior 

 in flavour to the anchovy, but the bones will not difiolve 

 like thofe of the latter. Pennant. 



SPRATT, in Agriculture, a name applied in fomc places 

 to a plant, which is found to rife in great abundance, in a 

 fpontaneous manner, in molt watery fituations of the more 

 found boggy kind. It is Hated in a paper in the third 

 Tolume of the " Tranfadtions of the Highland Society of 

 Scotland," that though it abounds much in that part of the 

 kingdom, the proper culture of it is by no means well un- 

 derftood. It Ihould, it is faid, be fuitably manured for 

 with compoft manure, once in three years ; or watering 

 fometimes anfwers the fame intention very well, in cafes 

 where it is grown for hay ; the land being preferved from 

 cattle, or other forts of Hock, from the month of March ; 

 and the plants cut for hay in July at the lateft. The 

 feeding (talks are alfo ilated to have been mown, after the 

 cattle in pailurage, to benefit. 



The fpring frofts occafionally, however, deftroy fome 

 inches of the tops of tlie plants. 



Sheep may fafely eat it, without danger of rotting them ; 

 and it raifes young cattle, it is faid, to a great fize of bone. 

 But that when fuffered to run up to feed, it is not palatable ; 

 though cattle not unfrequently get it for hay in that Hate. 

 Where manure is ufed, and it is cut in the fap, it confti- 

 tutes, it is obferved, a mod excellent and abundant kind of 

 hay for black cattle. In this management, it has been feen 

 ready for the fcythe as foon as rye-grafs ; and one of the 

 belt famples of meadow hay feen ia the above part of the 

 country was cut in the year 1804, and confiftcd of fpratt 

 and common poa. 



Others, however, do not think fo highly of it, as it has 

 been noticed in fituatioiis in the Highlands, where cattle 

 were often Hinted or tlraightened for food, and generally re- 

 mained untouched by th.-m. The fame has likewife been 

 the cafe in other places of the above diilrifts. 



Its itrong root is alfo thought an objedlion to its being 

 cultivated as a grafs-c-op, even if it were capable of it, as 

 being difficult of extirpation. 



I- has been farther ufed for making cufiiions, to be put 

 under the yokes ufed by oxen in ploughing ; for which pur- 

 pofe it feems, it is faid, well fuited, on account of its 

 toughnefs. See JuNCUs. 



S P R 



SPRAWL, To, in Military Language, is to widen out 



in an irregular and unloldier-like manner : a term chiefly 

 applicable to the cavalry. 



SPRAWLING Charge, a loofe and irregular move, 

 ment of cavalry, inilead of a clofe, compadl, forward 

 attack. 



SPRAY, in Sea Language, denotes the fprinkling of the 

 fea, which is driven from the top of a wave in ftormy 

 weather. It differs from fpoon-drift, as being only blown 

 occafionally from the broken furface of a high wave, 

 whereas the latter continues to fly horizontally alonsj the fea, 

 without intermillion, during the excefs of a tempell or hur- 

 ricane. Falconer. 



Spray, in ylgriculture, the twiggy branches of any fort 

 of underwood, which are ufeful for many different purpofes. 

 The fpray of many extenfive woods, in different places, arc 

 cut over occafionally for burning lime, &c. 



SpR.w-Faggots, fuch as are made from the fpray or fmall 

 branches, and other offal, of different kinds of wood of the 

 undergrowth kind, and bound up in proper quantities. 

 This fort of faggot, as well as thofe which are made of 

 furze, and fome other inflammable matters, are much em- 

 ployed in burning chalk into lime, in what are called flame- 

 kilns, in fomc diltrifts, as in Suffex, &c. 



SPREADING and Setting out Manure, the prac- 

 tice of difperfing and diftributing it in or upon land, and 

 putting it on in a proper manner for the purpofe. This 

 fort of work is performed fomewhat differently on arable 

 or grafs-land, and according to the nature of the cultivation. 

 This can never be done in the moll proper and complete 

 manner, unlcfs the neceffary attention has been bellowed in 

 fetting the manure out, to fee that it is not dcpofited in too 

 large heaps, but put out in equal proportions, of a moderate 

 fize, at pretty exaft dillances between the different heaps. 

 In the bufinefs of fetting out manure to the greatell advan- 

 tage, the carts employed fhould be rather fmall, and con- 

 veniently formed for the purpofe. With large carts the 

 work is liable to be done not only with much inequality, 

 but in far too large heaps, fo that it is done with great 

 trouble and lofs of time. Single-horfe carts are perhaps, 

 in general, the moft ufeful in this way or intention. 



The writer of the correfted account of the Agriculture 

 of the County of Perth, has noticed an ingenious contrivance 

 for facilitating the unloading of carts filled with fubftances of 

 the manure kind, which is in ufe in that diilridl. It con- 

 fills in fufpending the box or body-part of the cart at dif- 

 ferent heights, while it is emptying ; but it can only be 

 ufed with advantage in carts which are condrudled on a fort 

 of moveable frame, or thofe which are denominated coup- 

 carts, and where the load is to be difcharged in feveral dif- 

 ferent portions. For this purpofe a thin piece of iron, of 

 about two inches in breadth, is fixed on the fore-part of the 

 box or body of the cart, exactly in the middle, extending 

 in length to the top or height of the body or box-part, in 

 which are formed and inferted three or four oblnng holes, 

 correfponding in fize to a rod or pin, which is fixed with a 

 flaple in tlie middle of the firll bar that keeps the Ihafts of 

 the cart together. The length of this rod or pin is moftly 

 about eighteen inches, but longer when neceilary, as the 

 height or length of that part of the body or box of the 

 cart which reits on the frame may require. The top part 

 of it is formed into fomewhat the Ihape of a crefcent, an 

 inch in width, vvith the point upwards, which correfponds 

 with the holes in the iron plate. When the rod or pin is 

 not in ufe, in order to prevent its dangUng, it is made to - 

 red on a hook in the front of the box, or body of the cart. 

 When the driver wifhes or is defirous to unload a part of 

 6 the 



