drill or broadcast. The direction on any field 
which has an uniform surface and nearly a dead 
level, ought simply to coincide with the natural 
water-fall; but the direction on a decidedly slop- 
ing field, and still more on a very uneven or very 
declivitous one, requires consideration, and must 
be different in different circumstances, and ought, 
in every practicable or convenient case, or in all 
other cases as nearly as possible, to be eastward 
and westward so as to expose both sides and all 
parts of every ridge equally to the weather. When 
ridges are planned on the same level along a slop- 
ing field, the working of the plough is awkward, 
and the surface water is liable to be detained 
in the furrows; when they are formed straight 
up and down, the uphill working of the plough 
is difficult to both the ploughman and the team, 
and the surface water prodigally washes away 
soil and manure; when they are formed slopingly 
to the left from the top of the declivity, the up- 
hill working of the plough is about as difficult as 
in the preceding case, or sometimes more so; 
and only when they are formed slopingly to the 
right from the top of the declivity, are the joint 
conditions of economy and drainage well fulfilled. 
“ When the ridges are laid in this last manner, 
the horses have a better footing, and the ground 
always falls from the plough as it goes upward, 
without any great exertions on the part of the 
ploughman or the cattle. By this plan, no part 
of the soil is forcibly turned against the accli- 
vity ; but it is so contrived that, on returning 
down the hill, the furrows fall freely from the 
plough, and thus every inch of the soil is per- 
fectly turned over. These diagonal ridges are 
likewise extremely favourable to the cartages of 
both produce and manure. If there be soil 
enough, any ground, however steep, may be cul- 
tivated on this principle; and by this mode land 
may be ploughed which would otherwise be im- 
practicable.” See the article PLoveHine. 
RIDGELET. A small ridge. 
RIDING. See Manuer. 
RID-PLOUGH. A self-cleaning plough. See 
the article PLoven. 
RIGIDELLA. A recently discovered genus of 
ornamental exotic plants, of the iris order. The 
flame-coloured species, /2. flammea, was intro- 
duced to Britain about 10 years ago from Mexico. 
It is a very showy and remarkably interesting 
plant; and has a similar habit, and requires 
similar treatment, to the old magnificent Z%grz- 
dia pavonia. Its blossoms are beautiful, and 
have vivid colours, and both develope and fade 
with astonishing rapidity; their perianth or 
coloured portion is curiously convolute at the 
base, and has contractile nerves, and, after 
being a short time open, rolls itself up in the 
manner of a screw; the anthers have a prettily 
diversified hue; and the flower-stalk is partially 
pendulous or bent while the blossoms are ex- 
panded, but rises into a stiffly erect position as 
soon as the blossoms fall, and maintains that po- 
is | 
sition till the seeds are matured. This plant 
may be easily grown in a pot of loamy soil, mixed 
with a little heath-mould and sand; and the 
bulbs should be taken up when the leaves have 
decayed, and be repotted toward the month of 
November. The heat of a greenhouse or of a 
cold frame is sufficient. 
RIME. See Hoar-Frosr. 
RINGBONKE. A bony excrescence around the 
pastern-joint of the horse’s foot. It is caused by 
concussion ; and is formed by the deposition of 
bony matter in the room of cartilage or ligament. | 
It exhibits every degree from mere incipient de- 
position up to total anchylosis; and in its ap- 
proach to the latter stage, it obliterates the 
joint, occasions permanent lameness, and _ be- 
comes incurable. The remedy for it in the earlier 
stages, is a smart and rapid series of counter- 
irritation, — comprising sweating blisters and 
setons, and, in bad cases, the actual cautery. 
RING-DOVE. See Pieron. 
RING (Farry). See Farry Rive. 
RING-FENCE. A boundary enclosure be- 
tween two farms. See the articles Encuosurn 
and FENcE. 
RIPENHSS. The maturation of vegetable 
growth. It means either the natural matured- 
ness of the seeds or fruits of all sorts of plants, 
herbaceous and ligneous, annual and perennial,— 
or the sufficient maturedness of any parts of 
plants, whether seeds, offsets, tubers, cuttings, 
or whatever else, for the purposes of reproduc- 
tion,—or the proper maturedness of agricultural 
and culinary plants, or parts of plants, whether 
seeds, stems, herbage, or entire bulk, for the 
most productive or economical harvesting. Re- 
marks on seeds will be found in the articles 
Srnps and AgricunruRAL SEEDS,—on tubers and 
bulbs, in the articles Poraro and Bus,—and on 
cuttings, in the articles Currine and AxssorP- 
TION IN PLANTS; and remarks on the indications 
of ripeness will be found in the respective articles 
on all'the principal field and garden crops,—and 
particularly in the articles on those whose stage 
of most economical maturity is extensively mis- 
understood, such as Hay, Frax, Wueat, and 
Porato. 
The uppermost grain in every ear of a cereal 
crop, and the undermost pod on every stem of a 
leguminous, is generally the first ripe ; so that, 
in attempting to ascertain the ripeness of grow- 
ing seeds, the topmost ones of corn crops and the 
lowermost ones of pulse crops must be examined. 
In all early and average seasons, the whole ear of © 
a corn-plant is ripe before the straw; and in 
some late seasons, the straw is ripe, or at least 
appears to be so, before the ear. Cereal crops, in 
general, should be reaped before they are quite 
ripe, or as nearly as possible at the intermediate 
point between the stage at which they would 
shrivel from excessive under-ripeness and that 
at which they would become chaffy in the grain, 
or liable to lose their seeds, from too complete 
