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THE CULTIVATOR. 
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63 
DICTIONARY OF TERMS 
Used in Agriculture and its Kindred Sciences. 
FRIABLE. When a soil is so constituted by the ad* 
mixture of the original earths, and the addition of vege¬ 
table and animal matter, that it works easily ; is pene¬ 
trated without difficulty by the roots of plants or by the 
plow ; which does not form clods when worked wet, or 
turn to dust when dry, and which is good for nearly or 
quite all cultivated crops, it is termed friable. Tillet 
of Paris instituted a great variety of experiments on the 
fertility and friability of soils, and the one that united 
these essential properties the most fully was composed 
as follows: 
Coarse silex or pebbles, 25 I Silica or sand,. 21 
Alumina or clay,. 16-5 | Carbonate of lime,.37-5 
One of the best soils analyzed by Davy, and which 
was noted for its friability, its good wheat, and general 
fitness for cropping, was constituted as below : 
Carbonate of lime,.28 I Alumina,--. 29 
Silica,. 32 1 Animal and veg. matter,- 11 
The intervale lands of most rivers are friable ; we 
need refer only to those of the Genesee, Mohawk, and 
Connecticut. 
FRICTION. A very large part of the power requi¬ 
red to move a thrashing machine, a wagon, or a plow, 
is expended in overcoming the passive resistance of sim¬ 
ple friction; and the greater in any case the space on 
which this acts, the greater will be the force required to 
overcome it. A wagon, the axles of which run on roll¬ 
ers where the friction is reduced to its minimum, will 
move over a surface with much less force applied, than 
one where the whole surface of the axle comes in con¬ 
tact with the inner part of the hub, and the friction of 
course is at its maximum. The experiments of Mr. 
Pusey of the English Royal Agricultural Society, pro¬ 
ved that in all soils, the celebrated Scotch plow which, 
from its structure of share and mold-board, exposes a 
great extent of surface to friction, was so much impe¬ 
ded from that cause, that a large part of the power of 
the team was expended in overcoming it; and that in 
tenacious soils at least one half of the force exerted 
was required to overcome the effect of this cause. It is 
clear then, that a light plow, with part of the weight 
supported on a wheel or wheels, and with the least pos¬ 
sible surface exposed to friction, will move the easiest 
for the team ; and in all implements and machinery, 
the lesseningjff the friction is one of the most important 
things to be aimed at in their construction. 
FRUIT. The seed with its envelop or pericarp, is 
the fruit of a plant or tree. Sometimes the seed is per¬ 
fect without such covering, and then it is termed naked ; 
this is the case with corn, sage, and other seeds. The 
fruit of plants furnishes man with some of his most 
healthy and delicious food, as the apple, orange, peach, 
grape, &c., prove. Some fruits grow of an enormous 
size, of which the Valparaiso and mammoth squashes 
or pumpkins, are examples. As a general rule, the 
largest fruits are not the best, or the finest flavored. 
Fruits are much improved by cultivation, of which the 
apple is a familiar instance ; all the varieties now known 
having originated, it is supposed, from the crab apple. 
FUEL. This indispensable article is most commonly 
composed of either wood, peat, or coal; in this country 
usually the first. Wood is composed of carbon, hydro¬ 
gen and oxygen ; to the two last of which, combustion 
or flame is owing, when wood is consumed in the open 
air. When the oxygen and hydrogen is expelled with¬ 
out combustion or only a partial one, as in the coal pit, 
the carbon is left, and is termed charcoal. The hard 
woods make the best fuel, such as hickory, or sugar 
maple ; some of the soft woods burn with great rapid¬ 
ity when dry, as linden or pine ; while some, such as 
the Lombardy poplar and chestnut, can scarcely be con¬ 
sumed at all. 
Peat is the remains of vegetables, accumulated in 
swamps or low grounds, during a long series of years. 
It is taken out, pressed to force out the moisture it con¬ 
tains. then dried for use. It makes a most valuable 
material for fuel, and though as yet little used in this 
country, it forms the principal fuel used in large por¬ 
tions of Europe. 
Coal is either the charcoal made from wood, or that 
obtained from the earth, and called bituminous or an¬ 
thracite. (See. Coal.) 
In a large part of the United States, fuel forms one 
of the most important items of expense to the house¬ 
holder ; and is as a whole, constantly becoming of more 
consequence. Even in Western New-York, and parts 
of Ohio, where only a few years since, the great inquiry 
was, how shall we dispose of our wool, wood for fuel 
is becoming comparatively scarce. The value of these 
lands for cultivation when once, cleared, forbids their 
being allowed to grow up again to wood, and the impo¬ 
litic practice of most farmers in clearing much more 
land than they can possibly till well, has ereatly aggra¬ 
vated the evil. Economy in the use of fuel, has then 
become indispensable, an 1 the best methols cf using it 
requires careful consideration. 
In the first place then, the house must be built in such 
a manner and of such materials, that a small quantity 
of fuel only will be nee led. A few hundred dollars in 
the construction of a house, will save perhaps, thou¬ 
sands in heating it, and at the same time render it far 
more comfortable and conducive to health. Houses 
built of stone or brick, if constructed so as to prevent 
the dampness, which unless guarded against, is apt to 
arise from such walls, are undoubtedly the best. The 
great points to be attended to, are warmth and ventila¬ 
tion. See that the first is secured, and the temperature 
can easily be regulated by the latter. Fire places are 
the most wasteful way of using wood, as two thirds at 
least of the heat generated (Count Rumford says four 
fifths,) is lost to all useful purpose, being employed in 
heating the chimney, or the air above it. Stoves, and 
of these there is an almost endless variety, are coming 
into general use, and are undoubtedly far superior in 
economy, neatness, and ease of domestic management 
to the fire place ; still as generally used, much of the 
benefit that should he derived from them is lost. By 
means of a stove with proper fixtures in the basement 
story of a dwelling, a whole house, properly construct¬ 
ed, and indeed almost any one, may, by means of heat¬ 
ed air conducted in pipes where wanted, he heated to 
any temperature compatible with health, and at an ex¬ 
pense which is scarcely worth mentioning, when com¬ 
pared with the ordinary modes. We advise every man 
who builds, to look carefully at the question of fuel, 
and consider the best means of avoiding unnecessary 
consumption. 
FUNGI. This name is applied to a class of plants 
embracing a multitude of species and varieties, some 
of which are of great consequence as seriously affecting 
other plants and substances, upon which they are para¬ 
sitical. Under the name of fungi are not only mush¬ 
rooms, toad-stools, &c., known, but the microscopic 
mold, mildew, smut, rust, and dry rot, are also inclu¬ 
ded. The varieties that most interest the agriculturist, 
are those that affect cultivated plants and trees, such as 
the Uredo and the Puccinia, which are the most com¬ 
mon kinds that infest wheat and corn, causing in some 
one or other of their varieties the smut and the mildew. 
The fungus Ecidium, particularly the Ecidium berberis 
has been supposed by many to affect fields of wheat in¬ 
juriously, when these were so situated that the rust or 
sporules of the berberis could he blown from the tree 
upon the grain. The experiments made by Col. He- 
cox of Skaneateles, and described by him in the 7th 
volume of this journal, would prove that this belief is 
a popular error, even did not the microscope show that 
the two fungi which infest wheat and the barberry are 
entirely different plants. 
Fungi are propagated by the sporules or the minute 
seeds which seem at times to fill the air, as every spot 
suitable for their growth will be found to have been 
seeded in a few hours. Of the immense numbers of 
sporules given out by some of these plants, some idea 
may be formed from the fact that the smoke of the puff¬ 
ball is nothing but millions of these light, but fertile 
particles. All fungi flourish the most in damp moist 
places and weather, when the temperature is sufficient¬ 
ly high to give a rapid vegetation. Wheat therefore, is 
always found to suffer most from mildew or fungi, when 
hot, damp weather occurs at the period of filling the 
ear, or the dews known as honey dews occur, which 
seem a proper nucleus for the propagation and spread 
of this parasite. Low lands suffer more from mildew, 
than high ones ; and plants of a forced and rapid growth, 
such as those in places highly manured, or which grow 
in the midst of summer, are more generally attacked 
than others. 
The dry rot which is so destructive to our navies, and 
to timber generally, is occasioned by a fungus. The 
thallus or spawn, is fixed in the minute pores., and 
spreads with the greatest rapidity, destroying the life 
of the wood and rendering it brittle and worthless. The 
fungus is of several kinds, such as Meruhus lacrymans , 
Polyporus destructor , two highly organized fungi; and- 
particularly the Sporitrichum , which has been more de¬ 
structive than any other, to the immense deposites of 
oak collected at Sheerness, for the British navy. Many 
experiments have been made to test the value of various 
preparations in preventing dry rot, by Dutrochet and 
others, hut though some of the poisons used, checked, 
none proved effectual in destroying it, or preventing its 
spread, with the exception of red precipitate or corro¬ 
sive sublimate, which destroyed the vitality of the 
plants or the sporules entirely. On this result has been 
founded the process patented by Mr. Kyan, of im¬ 
pregnating timber with a solution of corrosive subli¬ 
mate, termed the Kyanizing of wood. 
The disease called La Muscadina in silk worms, is 
an instance of animal dry rot, or death caused by the 
growth of a fungus. This plant, the Botrytus Bossiana, 
perfects its thallus or sporules in the body of the worm, 
filling every part with such a mass that they are easily 
broken, and the skin hursts, showing the efflorescence 
of .the fungi. If healthy worms are covered with this 
thallus, they sicken and die, and if a needle dipped in 
the substance he inserted in the body of a well insect, 
it catches the disease at once. The fungus called Spha- 
eria militara, attacks xvasps and bees in the West In¬ 
dies, and causes their death in a short time; and such 
are by no means solitary instances of such insect para¬ 
sites. 
FURROW SLICE. This is the name given to that 
part of the soil which is either wholly or partially in¬ 
verted in the process of plowing. The position in which 
the furrow slice should be left, is one of the most con¬ 
tested points of modern agriculture ; some fanners con¬ 
tending it should be laid fiat, and others that it should 
be left in an angle of inclination of nearly 45 degrees. 
It is probable that the advocates of both systems are 
partly right and partly wrong. Where a soil is very 
light and porous, compactness in the surface is to he 
aimed at, and a furrow slice laid flat, will admit of com¬ 
pression by rolling. On the contrary where the subsoil 
is retentive, and the aim in plowing is to render the soil 
light and friable, leaving the furrow slice in a lapped 
and consequently inclined position, leaves space for the 
roots of cultivated plants to expand more freely, and the 
water to drain off more readily. In the latter case, a 
furrow slice of 9 inches in width should be about 6 inch¬ 
es thick ; while where the slice is to he laid flat, the 
width in proportion to the thickness must be much 
greater, or twice or three times its thickness. The fur¬ 
row slice of an English plow is rarely more than from 8 
to 10 inches, while that of an American one is usually 
from 10 to 14. Generally speaking, the narrower the 
furrow slice, the more complete the pulverization of the 
soil, and consequently this necessary point must he de¬ 
termined by the condition of the land to be plowed. 
GALVANISM. This is one of the forms under which 
electricity is made to develop itself, and in which it 
performs many important operations in nature. When 
electricity is produced in such a manner that it passes 
from one body to another in sparks or masses , as in the 
common electrical machines, or from the clouds to the 
earth in lightning, it is called simple electricity ; when 
the wires or conductors of an electric battery are in 
contact, the current passing produces effects said to be¬ 
long to electro-magnetism ; but when the wires or con¬ 
ductors are separated by some interposed substance 
which forms an imperfect conductor, the physical chan¬ 
ges which the interposed substance undergoes, consti¬ 
tutes the phenomena of galvanism. It is owing to elec¬ 
tricity in this latter form, that the principal changes in 
matter appear to he owing. By means of his simple 
electro-chemical apparatus, by which a current for 
months oriyears may be kept up, Mr. Crosse, one of the 
most successful experimenters of the age, has produced 
carbonate of lime, arragonite, quartz, protoxide of cop¬ 
per, arseniate of copper, and its blue and green carbon¬ 
ates ; phosphate of copper, chalcedony, carbonate of 
lead, &c. &c., circumstances which render it probable 
that all the minerals, veins of metallic ores, and the pro¬ 
cesses of crystalization and accumulation of matter, 
including the growth of vegetables is the result of gall 
vanic or electric action. It is thus rendered nearly cer¬ 
tain that manures act by the salts they contain, acting 
when brought in contact with the earths in producing 
galvanic currents, and thus giving vitality, or the power 
of absorption, nutrition and growth, qualities possessed 
by all plants. As there is still some doubt as to the ori¬ 
gin of the animalculae produced by Mr. Crosse in some 
of his various experiments, we shall pass them by with 
tile remark, that the curious on the subject may find a 
full account of the matter in the late volumes of Silli- 
man’s Journal. 
GANGRENE. Plants are liable to be attacked by a 
disease which from its producing on them the results 
of gangrene on animals is called by the same name. It 
is a species of mortification and rapid decay, which, un¬ 
less arrested at once, destroys the plant. It sometimes 
appears on the branches or the trunk of trees, and stea¬ 
dily advances until it is carefully cut out, or the tree 
dies. In plants, the part attacked dies, and the remain¬ 
der continues sound, though at times the whole becomes 
eventually involved. Thorough excision is the only reme¬ 
dy for this disease, which from the difference of ap¬ 
pearance it assumes, is called the wet and the dry gan¬ 
grene. 
The Flow. 
The opinion expressed by us in the first number of 
the present volume as to the cause of the heavy draft 
of the English plow, beautiful as is their form and con¬ 
struction, has received further confirmation from an 
experiment made on one of these plows near Nashville, 
Tenn. We copy from the Agriculturist: “ Mr. Col¬ 
lins had the pleasure of witnessing one of the splendid 
agricultural exhibitions of the “ mother country,” and 
was particularly interested with the trial of plows, so 
much so that he had one made entirely of iron, after the 
model of the instrument lhat took the first prize, and 
with the supposition that it would he of great service to 
the farmers of this country, he put it in our possession 
for a trial. Two strong horses were hitched to it, but 
in a few rounds in a stubble field, the draft was found 
so great, that the horses had to he stopped. This extra 
power is the first objection to the plow. The bottom 
of the implement is about four feet in length, and drags 
remarkably heavy. The share does not cut a sufficiency 
for the mold board, and from the pressure of the ‘ heel' 
and mold hoard at the same time, the draft is too much 
tor a common team. * * * * This ~grcat sled wedge 
of a plow, may do better in the tough clays of England 
than in this eountry, hut nothing short of the English 
draft horses would be able to pull it.” 
If our readers will take the trouble to look at the ex¬ 
periments made by Mr. Pusey, and described in our 
first number, they will see that the same had effect, re¬ 
sulting from its heavy draft, was as sensibly felt there 
as here, while using the improved Scotch iron plow, the 
same brought out by Mr. Collins. We are glad to see 
this important point, the increase of draft from friction, 
attracting the attention of the public, as we are confi¬ 
dent the result will be the production of implements of 
lighter draft, and equally good work, with the best plows 
now in use. 
Remedy fok Kicking Cows. —A bed cord drawn 
tightly over the loins of cows, in front of the udder, will 
cause them to give down their milk, and also prevent 
their kicking. J. G. 
