FAL 
new surfaces of the soil to the operation 
and influence of the atmosphere, various 
changes are effected in the earthy par- 
ticles, yet one great purpose in fallowing, 
is to destroy more elfectually the weeds, 
which, in consequence of previous mis- 
management, and of over-cropping, have 
increased to such a degree as to render 
cultivation for grain no longer profitable. 
Land being allowed to rest for a season 
from yielding a crop, and being repeatedly 
ploughed, the soil exposed to the influence 
of the different seasons, and at the same 
time completely pulverized, its fertility is 
again somewhat restored, so that, by the 
application of a smaller portion of manure 
than would be otherwise necessary, it is 
rendered fit for again producing valuable 
crops of grain or grass. It is universally 
acknowledged, that all soils, even those 
naturally the most fertile, are capable of 
being rendered unproductive by constant 
and severe cropping, and that the more im- 
proper the modes of cropping are, the sooner, 
and the more certainly, will a comparative 
barrenness ensue. Hence the propriety 
of fallowing, where imperfect modes of 
culture are adopted. Fallowing, in what 
may be called the infancy of improvements 
in agriculture, is also essentially necessary. 
If land be greatly exhausted, no matter 
by what sort of previous mismanagement, 
fallowing is the most expeditious, the most 
effectual, and, every thing considered, the 
least expensive method that can be adopted 
for restoring its fertility, and rendering it 
productive. It is the most expeditious, be- 
cause it is completely done in the course 
of one season ; whereas several years of 
culture, and a great additional quantity of 
manure, would be requisite, were any 
other less effectual mode of tillage adopted. 
It is the most effectual, because the farmer 
has it in his power to destroy every weed, 
to turn over and expose the soil to the in- 
fluence of the weather in the different sea- 
sons, and also to level and straighten the 
ridges, drain the land, and remove every 
obstruction to the introduction of better 
modes of husbandry, none of which could 
be so conveniently or effectually performed 
between the harvest of one year and the 
seed-time of the next. Fallowing is also 
the least expensive method by which the 
fertility of land greatly exhausted can be 
restored, and the only one that can be 
adopted with a certainty of success, for the 
removal of every obstacle to the introduc- 
tion of more perfect agriculture. Manure 
FAR 
operates more powerfully when applied to 
a field that has been properly summer-fal- 
lowed than when laid on one that has been 
long under an improper course of cropping. 
The returns, after fallowing, will be to a 
certainty greater ; and, therefore, although 
the actual expense of tallowing is consider- 
able, yet the crop that succeeds is so much 
greater as to counterbalance that expense, 
while those that follow, if properly adapted 
to the soil, will yield the farmer a proper 
compensation for his extra trouble and 
expense. Such is the opinion of Mr. 
Donaldson, to which Mr. A. Young does 
not assent ; he thinks every advantage is to 
be attained by judicious cropping. See 
Agriculture. 
FALSE imprisonment, in law. To consti- 
tute the injury of false imprisonment, two 
points are necessary : the detention of the 
person, and the unlawfulness of such deten- 
tion. Every confinement of the person is 
imprisonment, whether in a common pri- 
son, or a private house, or even by forcibly 
detaining one in the streets. 
FALX, in anatomy, a process of the dura 
mater placed between the two hemispheres 
of the brain, and resembling a reaper’s 
sickle. 
FAMES canina, an excessive appetite. 
See Bulimy. 
FAMILY, denotes the persons that live 
together in one house, under the direction 
of one head or chief manager. It also 
signifies the kindred or lineage of a person, 
and is used by old writers for a hide or por- , 
tion of land sufficient to maintain one 
family. 
Family, in natural history, a term used 
by authors to express any order of animals, 
or other natural productions of the same 
class. 
FAN, an instrument used in winnowing 
corn. 
FARINA, a term given to the pulveru- 
lent and glutinous part of wheat and other 
seeds, obtained by grinding and dressing. 
See Fa;cula. 
Farina fcecundans, among botanists, the 
impregnating meal or dust on the apices or 
anther* of flowers, which, being received 
into the pistil or seed-vessel of plants, fe- 
cundates the rudiments of the seeds in the 
ovary, which otherwise would decay and 
come to nothing. The manner of obtain- 
ing the farina of plants for microscopical 
observation is this: gather the flowers in 
the midst of a dry sun-shiny day, when 
the dew is perfectly off; then gently 
