9 
68 ROLLING. 
dered uneven by the treading of cattle or by the 
operations of the mole and the ant. The rough 
rolling of grass lands with Crosskill’s roller or 
with some other of similar action,—followed, 
however, by a common smooth roller,—is very 
serviceable in a mossy state of the surface or 
after the spreading of compost. The smooth 
rolling of dry absorbent grass land, at an early 
hour in the morning, when rain has fallen co- 
piously enough to moisten the surface stra- 
tum, but not so copiously as to occasion any 
poaching from horses’ feet, is very advantageous 
for destroying slugs and insects, and for promot- 
ing the general health of the sward. The rolling 
of meadows immediately after the removal of hay 
is useful for pressing the shed seeds into the soil, 
and for thickening the next growth of grass. 
The rolling of strong ploughed land, in the 
course of tillage, or in the process of summer- 
fallow, reduces the most obdurate clods, and 
powerfully assists the action of the grubber and 
the harrows, both in co-operating with them to 
pulverize the soil, and in enabling them to tear 
out the roots of couch-grass and other destruc- 
tive weeds. The rolling of light arable land, pre- 
paratorily to sowing, renders it comparatively 
compact and firm, and enables it to retain mois- 
ture and to give a good basis to the roots of 
growing plants, and may occasion it, in a dry 
season, to yield a very considerably larger crop 
than it could possibly produce in its naturally 
loose state. The rough and heavy rolling of 
cloddy ground, with Crosskill’s roller or some 
similar implement, at a droughty seed - time, 
makes sure of a sowing season in even the driest 
weather, and pulverizes into a fine mould such 
hard and stubborn surfaces as could not possibly 
be prepared for the seed by any other known 
process. 
The smooth or common rolling of sown lands 
and rising crops is beneficial in various circum- 
stances and for various ends ;—of any crop of 
grain sown with artificial grasses, for making an 
even surface, bruising all clods, and pressing 
down small stones in order to facilitate the future 
operation of the scythe ;—of oats on a light soil, 
immediately after the seed is sown, unless the 
ground be so wet as to clog the roller ;—of wheat 
in the spring, after frosts, in order to make the 
soil lie more closely to the roots of the plants, to 
encourage vegetation, to strengthen the stems, 
and to render the grain more perfect ;—of drilled 
turnips, immediately after sowing, in order to 
make the soil compact, and to promote speedy 
germination ;—of almost all field-crops, in proper 
conditions of soil, crop, and weather, a little after 
midnight in order to destroy slugs, snails, and 
wire-worms and various larvee, and during the 
day, in order to destroy the fly or beetle ;—and 
of flax immediately after sowing, in order to 
make the seeds vegetate equally, and to prevent 
such after-growths as tend to produce confusion 
and loss in all the successive stages of the pro- 
ROOT. 
cess of preparing and dressing the crop. Rough 
rolling with Crosskill’s roller, besides serving 
some of these purposes as well as smooth rolling, 
or better, is suitable for corn 3 or 4 inches out 
of the ground, on land infested with the grub or 
the wire-worm, and has been found to save crops 
which seemed to be threatened with destruc- 
tion ;—for barley or oats or other similar crop, 
when the plants are 3 inches out of the ground, 
preparatorily to sowing clover and other smalk 
seeds ;—for rolling the stubbles of such crop in 
autumn, in winter, and once or twice in spring 
when the clover plants have a tendency to be 
thrown out;—for turnips in the rough leaf, be- 
fore hoeing, when the plants are attacked by the 
grub or the wire-worm ;—and for drilled pota- 
toes, in order to break and press the ground be- 
tween the drills, and to give it a harrowed-like 
surface,—three or four drills being worked at 
once by taking off the requisite number of roller- 
parts and inserting iron-bushes in the spaces, so 
that no roller-parts impinge on the drills to in- 
jure the plants. ~ 
ROMERIA. A small genus of ornamental, 
herbaceous plants, of the poppy family. The 
hybrid species, R. hybridum—ranked by Linneeus 
as a celandine—is an annual indigen of the 
hedges of some parts of Britain, about two feet 
in height, and carrying purple flowers in May 
and June. The refracted species, A. refracta, is 
a hardy annual of about a foot in height, intro- 
duced to Britain about 30 years ago from Tauria, 
and carrying violet coloured flowers about mid- 
summer. HY 
RONDELETIA. A genus of ornamental, tr 
pical, evergreen shrubs, of the madder order. 
About a dozen species, varying in height from 2 
to 15 feet, and chiefly carrying either white or 
red flowers, and loving a soil of sandy peat, have 
been introduced to the hothouses of Britain; and 
about 20 more are known. The earliest intro- 
duced species, &. americana, brought from the 
West Indies about the middle of last century, 
may serve as a sufficient specimen of the whole. 
Its stem rises 10 or 12 feet high, and ramifies on 
all sides; its branches are covered with a smooth 
greenish bark, and garnished with very close- 
setting foliage; its leaves are alternate, oblong, 
acute, entire, lucid green above, pale green below, 
and a little crumpled on their surface; and its 
flowers come out in bunches at the end of the 
branches, and are white and have little odour, 
and bloom in August. 
ROOD. See Acre. 
ROOF. See Farm-Burnpines, Barr, and Cor- 
TAGE. 
ROOSTING. See Pourrry. 
ROOT. The part of a plant which strikes 
downward or inward into the soil or other sources 
of the saline principles of vegetable nutrition. 
It directs its course downward or inward with a 
tendency apparently as invariable and stubborn 
as the force of gravitation; it does not carry 
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