THE CULTIVATOR. 
75 
DICTIONARY OF TERMS 
USED IN 
Agriculture and its Kindred Sciences 
BITUMEN. This is the name of a species in mine 
ralogy chiefly interesting as forming the basis of a large 
part of the coals termed mineral coal, an article of vast 
importance to the arts, commerce, and comforts of life. 
It has acquired several names, from its appearance in 
its different states of consistency. Naptha is a fluid, of 
a yellowish tinge, transparent, and with a peculiar odor 
It consists of carbon 82.20, and hydrogen 14.80. It is 
found in many parts of the world. Petroleum is of 
thicker consistence than naptha, in some cases resem 
bling in color and consistence, common tar. It is in this 
state that it is found in such vast quantities in the Unit 
ed States, principally at the salines on the Kenhawa and 
Muskingum, at the depth of from 300 to 600 feet. It is 
also found on the Olean creek in this state, and is the 
article known as Seneca oil. At Rainanhong in Birmah 
is a hill containing coal, in which more than 500 pits 
have been dug for the collection of the petroleum, and 
from which 400,000 hogsheads are taken annually. In 
boring for salt in 1:>38, on the Tombigbee river in Ala¬ 
bama, at the depth of 600 feet, the miners struck a vein 
of petroleum, which, flowing over the top in immense 
quantities, spread itself over the river for some fifty 
miles, and in that state was set on fire, forming a strik¬ 
ing and brilliant spectacle. Compact bitumen, or Jls- 
phaltum, has lately attracted much notice from a new 
application, which, in connection with some other sub¬ 
stances, has been made of it in paving streets, where its 
durability has been found to exceed granite. All the 
coal west of the Allegany mountains is bituminous, and 
some large beds of it oecur on the east of this range. 
BLAST. A disease of plants, to which by different 
writers has been given the name of blight, blast, and 
mildew. The latter, however, is evidently a distinct 
disease, and produced by different causes. Blast or 
blight has been divided into several varieties, affecting 
plants in different ways, and with varying intensity. 
Among these may be mentioned blight originating from 
cold. The north or easterly winds of spring often pro¬ 
duce this, by freezing the tender shoots, or by retarding 
the flow of the juices. Thus the young fruits are de¬ 
prived of their nourishment, and fall from the stem 
Blast or blight from sultry wet weather, originating 
contagious diseases of plants, is another of the forms 
noted, and mildew sometimes seems to result from this 
cause. The blight which sometimes strikes the grain 
of whole districts, would seem to be owing to atmosphe¬ 
ric causes thus generated, since the disease appears to 
follow, and be governed by the course of the winds. 
Blast from the want of nourishment, is another form of 
the disease, but of which the cause is usually obvious. 
Impoverished land, too great quantities of seed, or inju¬ 
dicious culture, may produce this blight, but in this 
country, it is oftener observed as an effect of drouth. 
Blast from fungi is the kind of blight which attacks 
grain also, and which has been erroneously attributed 
to particular plants, as the barberry bush, since the fun¬ 
gi on the leaves of this plant, and those that cause the 
blight in wheat are clearly distinct. 
BLINDNESS. No animal is so subject to blindness 
as the horse, and in most cases it can be clearly traced 
to the treatment they receive. Severe drawing in the 
harness, or racing, either on the course or otherways, 
will not unfrequently produce blindness, sometimes tem¬ 
porary, but often permanent. An examination of the 
pupils, of the eye will most usually enable an observer 
to determine whether there is blindness or not. If the 
pupils when exposed to light after being in a dark sta¬ 
ble, contract, the horse is not blind ; if they contract un¬ 
equally, or one not at all, then the vision is imperfect, 
or gone in one of the eyes. The hand placed close over 
the' eye for a few minutes, so as to render the eye dark, 
will show the dilation or contraction of the pupil, when 
no other convenient means of excluding light are at 
hand. A horse, blind with both eyes, will usually have 
his ears in constant and rapid motion, directing them in 
quick succession to every quarter, relying on hearing 
rather than sight; he will lift his feet high as if he were 
stepping over some obstacle, when there is actually no¬ 
thing in the way. It is a common saying, that wall-eyed 
horses are never blind. This is probably an error ; as 
there appears no difference in their structure to warrant 
such an inference. 
BLOOD. The circulating fluid of animal bodies, and 
by means of which the functions of nutrition and life 
are carried on. Blood is usually divided into arterial 
blood, which is that given by the lungs to the heart, and 
by that thrown into the arteries of the system, and the 
venous blood, which is returned to the lungs through 
the veins from the surface and extremities. The venous 
blood is of a dark purple hue when passed into the 
lungs, and it leaves them of a rich Vermillion color. 
This change is effected by the absorption, while in the 
lungs, of oxygen, from the atmospheric air with which 
they are filled in breathing. Messrs. Macaire & Mar- 
cet of Geneva, in a series of experiments on the blood, 
demonstrated that the difference between arterial and 
venous blood, was as follows: 
Carbon. Oxygen. 
Arterial blood, 50.2 26.3 
Venous blood, 55.7 21.7 
Blood is of much use in some 
processes, some valuable coloring pigments being de¬ 
rived from it. From the large quantities of albumen it 
contains, it is the principal ingredient in freeing sugar 
Nitrogen. Hydrogen. 
16.3 6.6 
16.2 6.4 
of the manufacturing 
or molasses from its impurities previous to the conver 
sion into lump or loaf sugar. Blood is found to be one 
of the most powerful of manures when applied to the 
ground; and large quantities of it, mixed with otht r 
materials, are obtained from the slaughter houses of 
our principal cities, and appropriated to this purpose 
When animals are attacked with fever, one of the surest 
remedies is bleeding, either local or general, as the cause 
may demand. 
BOG. A swampy piece of ground, usually contain¬ 
ing large quantities of vegetable matter, frequently of 
the nature of a quagmire, and with tufts of coarse grass 
mingled with aquatic plants spread over its surface, is 
in Europe, and usually in this country, termed a bog. 
Such pieces of amphibious soil, are not common in the 
United States, but in Scotland and Ireland, a very con¬ 
siderable portion of the surface is occupied by such non¬ 
productive lands. Where bogs exist, the only modes 
of bringing them under culture, are, by draining or cov¬ 
ering the surface with firm earth, and frequently it is 
necessary to combine both operations. Draining the 
land consolidates the surface, and affords opportunity 
to cut off the bogs or coarse tufts of grass, and intro¬ 
duce more valuable grasses, if not to submit it to the 
action of the pl©w. Where the boggy ground is mostly 
composed of vegetable matter, it is desirable to incor¬ 
porate the common earths with the surface, thus giving 
increased powers of production, and greater firmness. 
Gravel or sand may be carried on when the ground is 
frozen, if the surface is not hard enough at other times, 
and by thus uniting draining and the application of 
earths to impart consistence, such soils, worthless in 
their natural state, are rendered most valuable and pro¬ 
ductive. 
BONE. The frame work of animals, constituting the 
osseous structure or skeleton, is called bone, and is com¬ 
posed of several ingredients, the principal one of which 
is the earth called phosphate of lime. This material ap¬ 
pears to have been selected for this purpose, as forming 
much harder compounds with animal membrane than 
the carbonate, which is Used in the composition of 
shells. The harder and more solid the bone the greater 
the proportion of the phosphate; thus the bon}r portions 
the ear, are very hard, and they consist almost whol¬ 
ly of the phosphate. The long part of the teeth con¬ 
tains considerable carbonate, but the enamel, or the cut¬ 
ting parts, which sometimes approaches to the hardness 
of steel, is nearly pure phosphate. The composition 
of bone can be determined by fire, or more accurately 
by the acids ; and they are found to consist of phosphate 
of lime, a small quantity of carbonate of lime, the 
whole cemented together by a strong elastic animal 
membrane, to which is added oil, of which the princi¬ 
pal depository is the interior of the bone. The use of 
bone dust, or bones reduced to powder by grinding, has 
introduced a new era in agriculture in some parts of the 
world. Crushed bones were first extensively used as a 
manure in the counties of Lincoln and York, about the 
beginning of the present century; and they are now 
considered the best and most efficacious application that 
can be made to the soil. It has been estimated that by 
extending the growth of the turnep crop to districts 
where it was not before grown, and thus increasing the 
means of raising cattle and sheep, and through these 
indirectly, the culture of wheat and barley, the means 
of subsistence in England has been increased one-fifth. 
Twelve bushels per acre drilled in, is the usual allow¬ 
ance, but it is sometimes sown broadcast, and the quan¬ 
tity varied from ten to twenty bushels an acre. The 
experience of farmers who have used this manure, 
shows that it succeeds best on light, dry calcareous 
i oams, or in general on any soils that are dry and do 
not contain too much alumine. If sown broadcast, the 
better way is to mix the bone dust with earth and let it 
slightly ferment before spreading on the land. With 
turneps, and for these as a manure it is unrivaled, the 
practice is to drill it in with the seeds. Bones that have 
undergone fermentation are superior to those that have 
not undergone this process, and their effect on plants is 
more rapid. Where land is much impoverished, thirty 
bushels per acre have been used with success. In this 
country they are well spoken of, and mills for grinding 
the bones have been erected in various places. It is 
evident from the chemical composition of the bone (salts 
of lime and animal matter,) that its action on plants 
must be energetic, and such is found to be the case. 
The finer the dust, the more rapid its action, while as 
a matter of course, that which is not so fine, is the most 
durable in its effects. 
BOTS. It is well known that most animals are in¬ 
fested with particular kinds of parasitic vermin that 
prey upon them, either externally or internally. Thus 
the ox, horse, sheep, and even man himself in the tropi¬ 
cal regions, are attacked by the fly, the species different 
in the different animals, and the larvae deposited on the 
hair, on the mucous membrane of the nose, or in the 
flesh, lives on the body to which it is attached until it is 
prepared to undergo its last transformation and become 
a perfect insect. These flies belong to the genus CEs- 
trus, of Linn, and the parent of the bot, or the one that 
attacks horses, is the (Estrus equi. The female of this 
fly is known at once by the extremity of the abdomen 
being lengthened, and turned under the belly so as to 
form an ovipositor for placing the eggs on the hair of 
the horse. As this fly does not bite, it does not occa¬ 
sion that terror to the animal it attacks, as is produced 
by some of the species of gad-fly, and a horse will con¬ 
tinue quietly feeding while the oestrus, continually on 
the wing, is busy depositing the eggs on the hairs. The 
place selected by the fly is generally on the inside of 
the knees, or the sides of the horse, always avoiding 
those parts that the horse is unable to reach with his 
mouth or tongue. On these points the eggs are rapidly 
deposited, being fastened to the hair by a glutinous sub¬ 
stance. This substance dries, and the egg is firmly at¬ 
tached to the hair, where they remain some four or five 
days, at which time the larvae is ready to burst the en¬ 
velop, and a slight application of warmth and mois¬ 
ture is sufficient to effect this. If at this time the tongue 
of the horse passes over the hairs to which the larvae 
are attached, the operculum or cell is instantly opened, 
and the worm, small and white, adhering to the tongue, 
passed with the food into the stomach. This fact of 
the quickness with which the living worm will be pro¬ 
duced when the egg is ripe, may easily be tested by 
placing some hair containing eggs or nits in the hand 
slightly moistened with warm water or spittle, and clos¬ 
ing it upon them. They may even sometimes be hatch¬ 
ed by drawing the moistened hand slowly over the hair 
of the horse, the worms, lively and vigorous, remaining 
on the hand when removed. When the bot has de¬ 
scended into the stomach of the horse, it attaches itself 
to every part of the inner coat, but oftener about the 
pylorus than elsewhere. From this account of its pro¬ 
duction, it is evident the numbers in the stomach may 
vary from a dozen,' or twenty, to several hundreds. 
They are usually in clusters, attached to the membrane 
of the stomach by two hooks or tentaculas. Some wri¬ 
ters have maintained that these hooks are on the tail, 
instead of the head of the animal, and consequently as 
it is suspended by that extremity, the idea of its pene¬ 
trating the coat of the stomach, and thus causing death 
is absurd. The researches of Messrs. Youatt & Clark, 
however, prove that it is by the head the insect is at¬ 
tached, and that they may at times prove fatal, though 
such instances they conclude are very rare, and that on 
the whole the bot is rarely productive of injury to the 
horse. When the bot has attained its growth, it quits 
its hold, and passing through the intestinal canal falls 
to the ground, in which it secretes itself, and enters the 
chrysalis state, from which in due time it emerges, a 
perfect insect, and recommences its round of propagation. 
BOULDERS. In almost every part of the world 
masses of rock or stone are found, from the weight of . 
many tons down to a few ounces in size, and rounded by 
attrition, or angular, as when broken from the quarry. 
Such rocks are frequently many miles from the place of 
their original formation and deposit, and by fixing their 
original location, they greatly aid in determining the 
nature and direction of the causes that in former ages 
have acted on the face of the earth. In examining the 
country from Boston to the Mississippi, and tracing the 
boulders which are scattered over almost the whole of 
this extensive region to their original deposit, it will be 
found that they have been in nearly every instance dri¬ 
ven from the north in a southern direction. Thus the 
greywacke boulders found in the valleys of Berkshire, 
are traced to the Avest and north of the Hoosic range, 
over which they have evidently been forced. All are 
a Avar e that there is no primitive rocks south of the On¬ 
tario in the state of New-York, yet the whole surface is 
found sprinkled with boulders, which, from the charac¬ 
ter of the rocks, must have been derived from the pri¬ 
mitive ranges in the St Lawrence district and north of 
the Ontario. Boulders of gneiss, weighing many tons, 
are found on the elevated lands of Allegany and other 
southern counties, which have evidently been transport¬ 
ed from the north to their present situation. Perhaps 
there are ferv of the rocks of the transition or secondary 
classes more distinctly marked, and more easily known 
than the red sandstone of the whole southern shore of 
Lake Ontario, particularly the strata immediately un¬ 
der the bed of iron ore that reaches from Oneida county 
into Canada; yet blocks of this very stone may be found 
in great numbers, on the high lands of the dividing 
ridge, forty miles south of the outcrop of this deposit 
near the lake, and tAvelve or fifteen hundred feet high¬ 
er than the original location. So to the south of the 
great limestone deposit, boulders of this rock are very 
numerous. Within five miles, Avhere stones are collect¬ 
ed for walls, these boulders are found in some places to 
constitute one-half or one-third of the stones gathered 
from the fields. As Ave recede to the south their num¬ 
ber and size become less, and scarcely a trace of them 
can be found. North of the outcrop of this limestone 
formation, feAV or no boulders of this stone are found, 
even though all the streams flow across it in that direc¬ 
tion, thus demonstrating that their removal to the ele¬ 
vated ranges south, Avas effected by force, and that the 
force exerted Avas from a northern quarter. Boulders 
exercise much influence on the agriculture of a country 
by their size and numbers, and by the material of which 
they are composed. Thus a country occupied by lime¬ 
stone or gypseous boulders, is more'likely to be adapt¬ 
ed to the culture of wheat than one in which the grani¬ 
tic form prevails.. So uniform has been the course of 
the bouldeis on this continent, the northern part parti¬ 
cularly, that the presence of any kind of rock or earth, 
may be considered proof that the location of the rock 
or the strata from which the earths Avas formed, may 
be found to the north of its present position. 
To save a multitude of conjectures as to the course 
of the wind and the temperature of the weather, pro¬ 
vide a weather cock and a thermometer. The first any 
farmer can make and put up, on some elevated part of 
his buildings; the last can be purchased for a trifle, and 
will be found useful in more ways than one. 
