ae 
 AMBLE. 
other kind of pace. If, in the amble, he lifted 
his feet as high as in the trot or in the walk, he 
could possess no sort of equilibrium, and would 
be certain to fall upon his side. In the amble, 
also, he practises great rapidity of action, and 
not only lifts his hind-leg simultaneously with 
the fore-leg, but sets it down from a foot to a 
foot and a half in advance. The further the 
hind-leg extends beyond the spot on which the 
fore-leg grounded, the more easily does the horse 
amble, and the more rapidly does he proceed. 
The amble is very fatiguing to the horse, but 
proportionally easy to the rider, and will com- 
fortably carry over a distance of twenty miles an 
inexperienced horseman whom a trot would gall 
in a distance of ten or twelve miles. In the trot, 
_ the fore-leg resists the lifting up of the hind-leg, 
' and occasions a jolt to an indifferent rider, and 
| a certain roughness to the whole of the horse’s 
_ motion; but in the amble, the fore-leg moves so 
| simultaneously with the hind-leg as to offer no 
| resistance, occasion no jolt, and render the whole 
_ motion as smooth and flowing as the oscillation 
of the most elastically mounted carriage. Horses 
which naturally amble never trot, and seem to 
labour under some malformation or defect of con- 
stitution ; and most good horses, which have been 
overworked and are on the decline, appear to 
prefer the amble to any other kind of rapid pace. 
Colts also very often amble, especially when they 
exert themselves, and are not strong enough to 
trot or gallop. Various methods of discipline are 
practised for bringing a young horse to amble. 
Some try to toil him in his foot pace through 
new-ploughed fields, and compel him, as a means 
of relief, to lift alternately his two right feet and 
his two left; but they are very apt to weaken 
the animal, to lame him, or to give him a per- 
manent halt. Others attempt so to stop him in 
a gallop or a trot as to throw him accidentally 
into the ambling pace; but they may spoil a 
good mouth and rein, and are liable to give him 
a hoof-reach or sinew-strain. Some incumber 
the horse with very heavy shoes or with thick 
pieces of lead about the fetlock pasterns, intend- 
ing to force him into an ambling motion by the 
mechanical action of the weights; but they do not 
consider that both expedients are liable to make 
him strike short with his hind-feet, and that the 
pieces of lead around the fetlock pasterns may 
give incurable strains, or crush the coronet, or 
breed ring-bones. Some heavily load the animal 
with side-weights, designing to force him me- 
chanically into a sort of oscillating or swinging 
motion; but they are very apt to sway the back, 
to overstrain the fillets, or to inflict other serious 
evils. Some endeavour to make him amble in 
hand before they mount him, and, when he treads 
false, to check him in the mouth with the bridle- 
hand, and correct him with a rod on the hinder 
hoofs or under the belly; but if he be a spirited 
animal, they are in great danger of spoiling him 
before he can possibly understand what they 
AMELIORATING CROPS. 15] 
wish him to do. “The best method seems to 
consist in trying with your hands, by a gentle 
and deliberate racking and thrusting of the horse 
forwards, by helping him in the weak part of his 
mouth with your snaffle, which must be smooth, 
big, and full, and correcting him first on one side, 
then on the other, with the calves of your legs, 
and sometimes with a spur. 
means make him fall readily into an amble, though 
in a shuffling and disorderly manner, much labour 
will be saved; for that aptness to amble will 
render the trammel more easy to him, and he 
will find the motion without stumbling or being 
frighted.” [Soczety of Gentlemen’s Complete Farmer. | 
AMBROSIA. A genus of hardy annual weedy 
plants, of the gourd tribe. Five species are na- 
tives of North America; one species is a native 
of Italy; and four other species known to botan- 
ists have not been seen in England. They grow 
from three to eight feet high; and for no reason 
but because their leaves, when bruised, emit a 
erateful fragrance, they have been absurdly called 
ambrosia,—a name which originally designated 
the fabulous food of immortals, and which modern 
usage poetically applies to any edible substance 
of the most exquisite flavour. 
AMBURY. See Anzury. 
AMELANCHIER, A small genus of ornamental 
deciduous shrubs, of the rose tribe. It was for- 
merly included in the medlar genus, Mespilus, 
and is very nearly allied to the genus Pyrus, but 
is curiously distinguished from the latter by the 
peculiar form of its seed-vessels. Three species, 
the alpine, the snowy, and the oval-leaved, are 
cultivated in Great Britain; and a fourth species 
is known to botanists, but has not been intro- 
duced. The alpine species is a native of Austria, 
France, and Italy, and grows to the height of 
six feet ; the snowy is a native of North America, | 
and grows to the height of twelve feet; and the 
oval-leaved is also a native of North America, 
grows to the height of eight feet, and was intro- 
duced so late as the year 1800. The stems of the 
alpine or most common species, are slender and 
slightly ramified; the young branches are of a 
reddish purple colour; the leaves are oval, ser- 
rated, three-quarters of an inch in length, green | | 
above, and woolly underneath; the flowers are 
white, and are produced in bunches from the | 
end of the branches; and the fruit—sometimes 
called the New England quince—is small, black, | 
and sweetish, and is often ripened in autumn. 
The Amelanchier is a decidedly beautiful shrub. 
AMEL-CORN. See Spent. 
AMELIORATING CROPS. Such crops as are 
supposed to improve the lands on which they are 
cultivated. The most common ameliorating crops 
are carrots, turnips, artificial grasses, and most 
others of the green or fallow class; yet though 
some of them occasionally ameliorate land, by 
altering the chemical condition of the soil, by 
choking weeds, and by intermixing with the 
soil a very large amount of manure, they rarely 
If you can by this | 
| 
| 
} 
