RIPIDIUM. 
ripeness. Oats is the safest cereal crop for cut- 
ting before it becomes properly ripe ; and barley 
is the safest for allowing to stand till it becomes 
fully ripe. “It is difficult,” says a writer in the 
Q. Journal of Agriculture, “exactly to state the 
ripeness in which corn should be reaped to avoid 
the shaking out of grains. Asa general rule for 
practice, it may be recommended to reap the 
culmiferous crops before the uppermost grain 
can be shaken out either by the wind or in the 
act of reaping. When that period arrives must 
be learned by the state of the straw. It is im- 
possible to derive this knowledge from any writ- 
ten description ; it must be acquired in the field 
from personal observation, and afterwards con- 
firmed by experience. If attention is directed to 
the acquisition of this experience, it will be ac- 
quired as easily as the experience which at pre- 
sent directs us to forbear to reap till a certain 
prefixed day.” 
_ In an Essay, in the Transactions of the High- 
land Society, on the influence of frost and other 
varieties of bad weather on the ripening of corn, 
the late Benjamin Bell, Esq., states, on conclu- 
sions from a number of experiments, that barley 
and oats may suffer much and varied buffeting 
from the weather in every period of their growth 
without being destroyed, and will even continue 
to acquire additional weight though frequently 
exposed to severe degrees of cold, and even occa- 
sionally to frost,—that, in late harvests, unripe 
corns should not be too hastily cut, from an ap- 
prehension of their being killed with frost,—that 
corns will bear a great deal of dry frost, and yet 
| continue to fill, but are less able to resist the 
effects of rain and wet snow,—that grain which 
has partially filled or gone on ripening after frost 
| 1s very unfit to be used for seed, and, if sown, will 
either not germinate at all, or produce a weak, 
meagre, and inferior crop,—that beans, pease, 
| and tares are much more liable to be injured by 
|| frost than oats, barley, and wheat,—and that all 
the herbage plants usually sown in Britain are 
|| likewise liable to be injured by frest, and none of 
them more so than the red or broad-leaved clover. 
| RIPIDIUM. A small genus of exotic grasses, 
| of the villiflorous tribe. Two hardy, perennial 
| species, both about 2 feet high, and blooming in 
| July and August, have’been introduced to Bri- 
| tain from Continental Europe. But they are re- 
ferred by some botanists to the sugar-cane genus, 
| and by otkers to the genus andropogon. 
RIPPLING. See Frax. 
RIVER-FARMER. A person who rents a 
| fresh-water fishery for the sake of its fish. 
| RIVER-MEADOW. An alluvial meadow, or 
| one of low and level surface lying in the bottom 
of a valley and along the side of a stream. See 
|| the articles Mzapow, AuLuvium, and Irria@arron. 
RIVINA. A genus of ornamental, evergreen, 
tropical shrubs and undershrubs, of the goosefoot 
|| family. The dyeing species, 2. tenctoria, was in- 
troduced to Britain about 18 years ago from 
09 
Caraccas. It has a height of 4 or 6 feet, and 
carries white flowers in May, and is useful in 
dyeing, and has been called the rouge plant. Six 
or seven other species, from 2 to 4 feet high, and 
chiefly with white or with pink flowers, have 
been introduced from the West Indies and Brazil. 
ROACH,—scientifically Zeucrscus Rutilus. A 
British fresh-water fish, of the carp family. It 
inhabits many of our deep, still rivers, and is 
gregarious, and breeds profusely in lakes, ponds, 
and weirs. I¢ has a small head, a round, small 
leather mouth, and large eyes with a gold circle 
and red iris. It is deep but thin, and has an 
elevated back. The scales are large, and easily 
fall off ; the fins are in general red, particularly 
whilst in perfection ; the side line bends much 
on the middle towards the belly ; and the tail is 
a little forked. The roach is so silly a fish that 
it has acquired the name of the water sheep, in 
contradistinction to the carp, who for his subtlety 
is termed the water fox. The flesh of the roach 
is very wholesome; and the roe, which is green 
and boils red, is peculiarly good. This fish 
spawns in May; and is in prime condition in 
February and March, and in tolerable condition 
in the latter part of autumn and through the 
winter, and is caught with baits of gentles, 
worms, and pastes. 
ROACH-BACKED. See Back. 
ROAD. A certain portion of land set apart 
for the purpose of communication between one 
place and another. As aright line is the short- 
est that can be drawn between one point and 
another, so, of course, all roads should be made 
as straight as local circumstances will permit, in 
order that we may move from one place to an- 
other, by travelling over the least possible por- 
tion of space. 
For the advantage of general conveyance, roads 
should be kept as levelas possible; because, not- 
withstanding that facility is afforded to the con- 
veyance of a load down a hill or slope, still as 
burthens have to be moved in both directions, the 
ascent of that same hill will occasion a counter- 
acting inconvenience. These may appear to ba- 
lance each other, and, as far as animal labour is 
concerned, they probably do so; but in a civil- 
ized and commercial country, time is an element 
that must always be admitted into the calcula- 
tion, and it is found that the same space can be 
passed over in less time upon a level road than — 
upon an uneven and hilly one, consequently the 
level road must have the preference. 
Roads should be as hard as possible, in order 
that they may not wear into holes or inequali- 
ties, because a smooth surface is indispensable to 
their perfection, consequently if the natural soil 
over which a road passes is not of a proper 
quality, it will become necessary to obtain and 
transport hard materials to place upon it. But 
the great point to be attended to in the forma- 
tion and preservation of roads is effective drain- 
age. If water is permitted to remain upon a 
| 
