THE CULTIVATOR. 
63 
DICTIONARY OF TERMS USED IN 
Agriculture onbf its kiubreb Sciences. 
JAUNDICE.—This is a disease which attacks horses and 
cattle, and sometimes becomes quite intractable and dan¬ 
gerous. It is usually occasioned by some obstruction in the 
ducts or tubes which convey the bile from the liver to the 
intestines. These obstructions are generally calculi or gall 
stones, which in the ox or cow, sometimes accumulate in 
great numbers; although the disease sometimes arises 
from an increased flow or altered quality of the bile, 
while none of these obstructions are present. The dis¬ 
ease is easily detected by the yellowness of the eyes and 
mouth, and of the skin generally; the urine is high co¬ 
lored, and the appetite is impaired. From the color of 
the urine and the skin, the disease is frequently termed 
the Yellows. Purgatives will be necessary, but in the 
case of the horse, strong ones are dangerous. Two 
drams of aloes, and one of calomel, given twice a day, 
will be as much as can be at all times administered in 
safety. If the system is inflamed or feverish, bleeding 
must be resorted to, and there are few cases of jaundice 
in which it will not be useful. Thin gruel, or slightly 
warmed water, is best for drink, and carrots or other 
green food will be beneficial mixed with their ordinary 
food. In the ox or cow, the disease is more difficult of 
management, and more frequently proves fatal, than in 
the horse. Bleeding and purgatives are required; but 
for the purgative, Epsom salts are to be preferred to any 
other. Some have recommended as a certain cure for 
this disease, when taken in season, two ounces of flour 
of mustard, mixed up with some liquid, and given twice 
in twenty-four hours. As all animals are more liable to 
be attacked in the spring, than at other times, it proves 
that green food of some kind is essential to their health, 
and it is probable that roots will be one of the most ef¬ 
fectual preventives of this disease. 
JUICES OF PLANTS.—The proper juice of plants, 
that which is essential to their growth and nutrition, is 
the sap, after it has undergone tlie changes consequent on 
being received into the circulation of the plant. It seems 
to be elaborated from the sap, by the vital power of the 
plant, and hence varies much in different plants. In some 
it is sweet, as the sugar maple; in others, acrid or corro¬ 
sive, as in the wild parsnep; in others, narcotic, as the pop- 
P 5 ', belladonna, &c.; in others, aromatic, as in cinna¬ 
mon. The color of the proper juices of plants, varies as 
much as their qualities. In the milkweed it is white, in 
the periwinkle green, in the celandine yellow, in blood- 
root or logwood it is red, and in others clear and pure. 
The medicinal qualities of plants principally reside in 
their proper juices, of which the balsam and turpentine 
of the fir and pine, are familiar instances. That there 
is a proper circulation of the juices of plants, as the re¬ 
sult of their organization, although long doubted, seems 
now to be generally admitted. Indeed, in some plants 
this current is clearly seen by the microscope, as is ex¬ 
hibited in the plgtes of Rogefs Vegetable Physiology. 
Such a function in some form, seems necessary, or plants 
would be unable to free themselves from unnecessary or 
adventitious matters which are taken up by the sap, as it 
is clear they do by the process of excretion. Prof. 
Knight’s account of this circulation and its results, is in 
substance as follows;—When the seed is planted under 
favorable conditions, moisture is absorbed, and slightly 
modified by the cotyledons, is conduced to the radicle, 
which is then developed. But this fluid in the radicle, 
mingled with that continually taken up from the soil, as¬ 
cends to the plumelet, which now expands, and gives the 
due preparation to the ascending sap, which is returned 
in its elaborated state to the tubes of the bai-k. Through 
this it descends to the root, forming in its progress new 
bark, and new alburnum, thus completing the circula¬ 
tion. 
KIDNEY BEAN (Phascoins vuJgaris.) —^In its native 
State in India or South America, for it is found in both 
these places, this plant, of which there are two species 
and several varieties, is a pole bean, or runner. In cul¬ 
tivation, some varieties lose their disposition to climb, 
and appear as bush beans, which has caused the bush and 
runners to be considered as different species. In this 
country, some variety of this bean is usually cultivated in 
the field, and for pole and bush beans, no others are 
known in the garden. In France, the kidney bean, call¬ 
ed by the people, ‘ Haricot,’ from the name of a famous 
soup made of it, is extensively cultivated; while in Eng¬ 
land, the Field Bean, (Viciafaha,) is the one most com¬ 
monly grown. There are few substances used as food, 
that are more nutritive than the bean, or that are better- 
deserving of a place in cultivation. For animals, the 
horse bean may be preferred, and enormous crops of this 
pulse are sometimes produced. Instances are given of 
its reaching 60 bushels per acre. For animals, all beans 
should be made into meal, and fed with cut hay or straw. 
In this country, beans are cooked for the table, by being 
baked or made into soups, and furnish one of the most 
hea.lthfirl and nutritious dishes known. In this case, ex¬ 
perience corroborates analysis,as the following statement, 
by the chemist Einhoff, will show: 
Nutritive matter of beans comiiared with other grain: 
Per cent. Per bushel. 
Wheat,. 74 47 
Rye,. 70 39 
Barley,. 65 33 
Oats,.. 58 23 
Beans, (V. F.) . 68 45 
Peas,. 75 49 
Beans, (P. V.) . 84 54 
The same chemist obtained from 3840 parts each of 
the Vida faha and Phaseolus vulgaris, the following re¬ 
sults : 
Horse or Kidney or 
Windsor bean. Garden bean. 
Starch, . 1312 1805 
Albumen,. 31 
Mucilage, &c. 1204 799 
Both these analyses show the great amount of nutritive 
matter contained in the bean, particularly the Kidney 
bean, or Phaseolus, and its consequent value as an article 
of human food. 
KILLING ANIMALS.—One great object to be at¬ 
tended to in killing animals, is to free them as perfectly 
from blood as possible. It makes the flesh better, and 
lessens the tendency to putrefaction. In England and 
in the United States, cattle are usually knocked down by 
a blow on the forehead, which fractures the skull. In 
Spain, Italy, and Portugal, cattle are killed by a blow 
from a short sharp knife, immediately behind the base 
of the horns. This penetrates the spinal marrow, and 
causes instant death. The bleeding in both cases, must 
be imperfect, from the sudden suspension of nervous ac¬ 
tion, although much less so in the first manner than in the 
last. In consequence of the want of proper bleeding, the 
beef of the south of Europe, is generally black and bad. 
The Jews, as a part of their religious ritual, take much 
care to free the animal from all blood. They butcher- 
cattle by drawing the four feet together, throwing them 
on their side, drawing the head as far back as possible, 
and then with a penknife, severing at a blow, all the 
large blood vessels of the neck. Beef killed in the Jew¬ 
ish mode, is preferred by many, where it can be obtain¬ 
ed. There is a most cruel mode of killing practiced by 
those who furnish the delicate white veal of the London 
markets. For several days previous to killing, the calf 
is bled daily, to such an extent as to cause fainting, by 
which process the red blood is almost exhausted, and but 
little except a white serous fluid is left. At the time of 
killing, the calf is suspended by his hind feet, his head 
is drawn up backwards as far as possible, so that the head 
as well as the body may be free from blood, and then at 
a single blow with a knife, the neck is severed, and the 
little blood remaining is speedily drawn. Butchers, in 
killing hogs, frequently perform it in a most barbarous 
and slovenly manner, mangling the throat, and making 
what are called “ bloody pieces,” where none are neces¬ 
sary. Man has a right to take the life of animals when 
required for food, but humanity requires it should always 
be performed in such a way as to give as little pain as 
possible. 
LAMP AS, or ‘lumpers,’ as most farmers pronounce it, 
is a difliculty in the roof or palate of a horse’s mouth, 
which prevents his eating except with pain. In a horse, 
the palate is crossed transversely by bars, and some of 
the lower ones, or those adjoining the fore teeth, swell, 
become inflamed, and if they rise higher than the teeth, 
which in a young horse, or when lie is shedding his 
teeth, they sometimes will, feeding is impossible. It 
may also arise at any time from a feverish tendency, but 
most often when taken up from grass, or when he has 
been overfed. It is the custom with some, when a horse 
has the lampas, to burn them out with a hot iron; and 
nearly every blacksmith’s shoji is furnished with an in¬ 
strument of torture for this purpose. This isamostbar- 
borous practice, and should never be performed. It tor¬ 
tures the animal to no purpose; and it destroys, by ren¬ 
dering the bars callous and hard, that elasticity and sen¬ 
sibility, so necessary to safety in managing a horse by 
the bridle. In nine times out of ten the inflammation 
will subside in a few days of itself, and if it does not, a 
few mashes, or gentle alterative medicines, will relieve 
him. If they are severe, a few slight cut or pricks a- 
cross the bars with a lancet or knife, will cause the in¬ 
flammation and swelling to subside; but in all operations 
about the mouth of the horse, care must be taken not to 
disturb the principal artery or vein of the palate, unless 
a full bleeding is intended. At times this difficulty of 
eating arises from either the grinders or tushes endea¬ 
voring to make their way through the integument of the 
jaw. Examination will show whether this is the case, 
and if so, a cross cut with a penknife will give immedi¬ 
ate relief. Young horses, from the shortness of their 
teeth, are more subject to the lampas than old ones, but 
those of all ages are liable to the disease. 
LARVAS.—The insect in one of its stages of exist- 
ance. between the egg and the perfect insect, is called 
larval, a word signifying a mask or covering. To the 
farmer, the larv® of insects is of most interest from the 
losses they occasion him while in this ti-ansition state. 
With a verj' few exceptions, the larvae appear in the 
form of a worm, or caterpillar, and in this state commit 
the most of their depredations. Thus the wire worm, so 
destructive to grass and grain, is the larvae of the Eleater 
segetis; the wheat worm is the larvae of the fly Cecido- 
myia tritici-, the worm which is so destructive to bees, is 
the larvae of the moth. Tinea cerella; the bot, so destruc¬ 
tive to horses, is the larvae of the CEstrus eqwi; the worm 
which cause the plum and cherry to drop prematurely, 
is the larvae of a species of Curculio ; the cabbage cater¬ 
pillar, so ruinous to this plant, is the larvaj of the butter¬ 
fly, Papilio brassicce; the white grain worm, so destruc- 
tiye in granaries, is the larvae of the Tinella granelta; the 
whitish bi-own insect that is known as the Hessian fly, 
and is found at the roots of wheat, is the larvae of the 
Cecidomyia destructor; the worm which is found in the 
frontal sinuses of the sheep, and which sometimes pene¬ 
trates to the brain, causing the staggers and death, is the 
larvae of the fly called CEstrus ovi; the large white grub 
with a red head, found in our meadows, and which is 
sometimes most ruinous to them is the larvae of the Me- 
lohntha vulgaris, or May bug; and the bacon and cheese 
skippers, are larvae of different species of Musca. 
LEECH, (Hirudo.) —An animal belonging to the mol- 
lusca, hermaphroalite, and some of the species vivipa¬ 
rous. Their pi-incipal value arises from their power of 
sucking blood, hence their common name of bloodsucker. 
Of all the species there are only two employed for me¬ 
dicinal purposes, or are proper for this use; though per¬ 
haps all will draw blood in some degree. The numbers 
used in Europe, are immense, and are principally pro¬ 
cured in the south of France, and they form an extensive 
article of traffic. To the agriculturist, their interest is 
principally derived from the fact, that to them, is by ma¬ 
ny attributed the disease calleil the bloody murrain. In 
dissecting animals that have died with this disease, the 
leach has been found in several of the viscera, particu¬ 
larly the stomach and liver, and appearances have indi¬ 
cated that the flow of blood from the points where the 
animal had attached itself, had caused the destruction of 
the ox or cow. Perhaps too, the fact that animals drink¬ 
ing from muddy pools abounding in leeches, are more 
frequently attacked than others, may have led to this o- 
pinion; but although the leech, from the causes assigned, 
may be the cause of death, it does not seem probable 
that the bloody muri-Elin is to be generally attributed to 
them, as it prevails where no leeches are found. That 
they are injurious, is, however, a sufficient reason, why 
farmers should endeavor to secure pure water for the use 
of their cattle. 
LETTUCE, (Lactuca saliva.) —This is one of the plants 
most commonly cultivated for salads in all parts of the 
world, and more than twenty species of the plant are 
known. It is sown in the open air in such a manner as 
to produce successive crops; and it is one of the plants 
most usually grown in hot beds in the early spring 
months. Lettuces have been cultivated from the earliest 
ages, are very conducive to health, and when allowed 
to head, make the best salad known. 
LEGHORN.—'This is the name of a manufacture of 
straw, principally cai-ried on on the banks of the river 
Arno, in Italy. The variety of wheat cultivated for this 
purpose in Tuscany, is known as the Grano marzolano, a 
summer wheat with long bearded ears. The seed is 
sown early, and very thick, and is allowed to stand until 
the ear Is about to shoot forth, when it is pulled, bleach¬ 
ed by being spread on the sandy banks of the Arno, the 
straw betvyeen the last joint and the ear selected and as¬ 
sorted, and then sold. This straw is whitened with sul¬ 
phur, previous to being braided, and also after it is made 
into the hat. We have seen some hats much resembling 
the best leghorn, made of the June grass (PoapratensisJ 
of our meadows, but it is less tough and flexible than the 
braid made from wheat. It has been attempted to culti¬ 
vate the leghorn variety of wheat in England, but it fail¬ 
ed. Were it an object, it might undoubtedly be made 
to grow in the United States, as our summers much more 
resemble those of Italy than those of England. 
LICE.— (Pediculus.) —There is scarce an animal that 
does not nourish, under peculiar circumstances, on its 
skin, hair, wool, or if a bird, among its feathers, some 
kind of lice. Some even have more than one, as the 
horse, where one kind lives in the short hair, and another 
in the mane. The causes are various which are deemed 
favorable to the production and increase of these parat- 
sites. Domestic animals kept dii-ty and not curried; fil¬ 
thy unwholesome stables; dirt and sweat allowed to ac¬ 
cumulate on the skin, or contact with one already in¬ 
fected, are named as causes. But experience shows that 
lice prefer animals reduced by hunger, disease, or bad 
food, and they frequently appear after malignant or in¬ 
veterate diseases have left the animal weak and debilita¬ 
ted. On the horse, they most generally fix on the mane 
and tail, but if numerous, spread over the whole animal; 
on the ox, they are found on all parts; they run over the 
whole body of the sheep, and swarm on every part of 
the bodies of swine. Animals attacked, rub oil' the hair, 
wool, and even the skin, in their annoyance, and fall a- 
way rapidly from the abstraction of blood and juices, and 
the restless state in which they are kept. For the cure 
of animals infested, some kind of mercurial ointment is 
most to be depended upon; though there are vegetable 
washes, such as a decoction of black hellebore, marsh 
tea, (Ledum pa-lustre,) which will kill these vermin. It 
has been said, where they were not numerous, sifting fine 
dry sand over the animal, would speedily drive them off. 
Snuff, or a decoction of tobacco, is also used with suc¬ 
cess. For cattle, Youatt recommends the common scab 
ointment of sheep, (one part of strong mercurial oint¬ 
ment and five parts of lard,) as a cure for this disease. 
If a little of this is well rubbed in, instead of a good deal 
being spread over the hair, there will be no danger of 
salivation, and the cure will be speedy. Infected ani¬ 
mals should be shut from well ones, both to prevent in¬ 
fection, and the danger of licking where the mercurial 
ointment has been newly spread. If fowls are provided 
with a box containing sand, with a considerable portion 
of ashes, to dust, or roll themselves in, they will not be 
lousy, or if they become so, such a box will cure them. 
Making Manure —Asa Barton, in the Maine Farm¬ 
er, says that he converted straw, corn stalks, and polatoe 
tops, into good manure in fourteen days, in the spring. 
of 1841, only by heaping them together, and mixing un¬ 
slacked lime with them. He used six casks of lime, and 
had fifty loadi of good manure. The loads were such as 
farmers carry, a large half cord to the load. 
There are cases, in which a little common sense is of 
more worth than a great deal of calculation. 
