When harvest is ended, take shipping or ride, Ling, salt fish, and berring for Lent to provide; Get home that is bought, and go stack it up dry, With pease-straw between it, the safer to lie.' "By noon, see your dinner be ready and neat; Let meat tarry servant, not servant his meat." The mistress of the house then made, as now They had a rude way of measuring time, it in some parts of England, her own candles, it "Wife, pluck fro thy seed hemp the fimble hemp clean; This looketh more yellow, the other more green. Use t'one for thy spinning, Michell the t'other, For shoe-thread and halter, for rope and such other: Now pluck up thy flax for the maidens to spin." Tusser never seems to have forgotten, on any occasion, to recommend to the landholder the payment of his just dues; even the question of the tithes, once so obnoxious to the farmer, was not overlooked by him. He advised his farming brethren to "Tithe duly and truly, with hearty good will, seems: "Provide for thy tallow, ere frost cometh in, And make thine own candle, ere winter begin." Twice a week, Sundays and Thursdays, the ploughmen were entitled to roast meat for sup per; and to a harvest goose when the corn was gathered in. At harvest-home the mistress was enjoined,- "Remember thou, therefore, though I do it not, The seed-cake and pasties, and furmety pot." In Tusser's time a very unwholesome custom prevailed, in the absence of carpets, of strewing the citizens' houses with rushes, and those of the country with flowers. He gives, therefore, a list of "strewing flowers of all sorts," in which we find only the common sorts of flowers now cultivated, such as cowslips, daisies, lavender, roses, sage, tansy, violets, &c. Such were the works of Tusser, writings which were long in the hand-book of the English country gentleman. That they were popu lar is evidenced by the rapid succession of copious editions which fell to their lot; that they were read with delight is shown by the way in which he is commonly quoted by the farmer of all grades. If he had spoken in prose, as has been sometimes suggested, he might certainly have been more instructive to the few, but he would not have been read by the many. That God and his blessing may dwell with thee still; Though parson neglecteth his duty for this, Thank thou thy Lord God, and give ev'ry man his." The Points of Huswifery, united to the Comfort of Husbandry, by Thomas Tusser, Gentleman, was, it is concluded, first published with The Husbandry in 1561 or 1562. It is written in The popular details and histories of all na rather a more lively style than the former, and tions escaping from rudeness are commonly has an epistle dedicatory," to the right honour-written in verse; and multitudes can learn able, and my especiall good lady and mistress, the Lady Paget," which he thus commences: "Though danger be mickle, And favour so fickle; Yet duty doth tickle My fancy to write : Concerning how pretty, How fine and bow netty, Good buswife should jetty From morning to night." This work contains an abundance of directions, in his usual style of versification, for the conduct of household duties. He directs the servants, before breakfast, to be set to work: "Let some to peel hemp, or else rushes to twine, To spin, or to card, or to seething of brine." At breakfast time the wife was, in those days, the carver for the farm servants : "Let huswife be carver, let pottage be heat, A mess to each one with a morsell of meat." In the cookery department the now nearly extinct race of turnspits were indispensable attendants upon the cook: “Good diligent turnbroche, and trusty withal.” In his washing section he is rather more terse than gentle in his conclusion: "Maids, wash well, and wring well, but beat, ye wot how, If any lack beating, I fear it be you. In his directions for malt-making he alludes to the use of straw and wood, but does not mention the modern fuel, coke, or cinders. They used, it seems to dine at noon: these by heart who never were taught to read. Tusser, therefore, is deserving of the gratitude of the English farmer, for his labours tended to improve, to refine, to elevate the profession he celebrated in his verses. The attempt at any thing like a systematic treatise on farming had not, when Tusser died, been deemed possible. (Quart. Journ. Agr. vol. xii. p. 69.) TWAYBLADE (Listera; named in honour of Martin Lister, M.D., a famous English phy. sician and naturalist; best known as a conchologist and entomologist). A genus of curious little native plants, growing wild in shady places. They may be grown in a mixture of peat and loam, and are increased by divisions of the roots. TWIG-RUSH (Cladium, from klados, a branch or twig, referring to the appearance of the plant). This is a genus of hard, harsh, whether round or triangular, are more or less rushy, often prickly-edged plants, whose stems, clothed with alternate sheathing leaves or scales. TWITCH. See COUCH. U. UDDER. The glandular organ of a cow, mare, ewe, or other animal which is destined for the secretion of milk. There are four teats, each of which consists of two granular lobated glands, comprehending blood vessels, nerves and milk ducts, all of which first unite into eight or ten principal ducts, and these again into one, which perforates the skin of the teat at its apex. The granular part is the secreting organ. UMBEL. In botany, a particular arrangement of the flowers in certain plants, of which the carrot is a familiar example; the peduncles and pedicles spring from a common centre, and rise till they form a somewhat flat tuft. The umbel is a loose inflorescence, the primary axis of which is short, and the secondary long; and the umbel becomes compound when the secondary axes are developed, in the same manner as the primary. Both the primary and the secondary umbel is generally furnished with bractes at the point of its divergence. The secondary umbel is termed umbellule. The difference between an umbel and a corymb is, hat in the latter the flowers form a flat head, the secondary axes arising alternately from different points of the primary, not, as in the former, springing from a common centre. See INFLORESCENCE. It is a fluid capable of being employed with great benefit both on meadows and on arable land. See LIQUID MANURE and NIGHT-SOIL. URITH. Provincially the etherings or bindings of hedges. USTILAGO (from ustus, scorched appear. ance). A genus of fungi, parasitical, which are found preying upon the cereal and other grasses.. See SMUT. V. VALLESNERIA (Spiralis). This plant grows very abundantly from the bottoms of fresh water rivers and lakes over the whole United States, where the flow of water is not very rapid. It goes by the different names of eelgrass, tapegrass, and channel weed. It is upon the roots of this grass, or a native species of vallesneria, that the canvass-back duck feeds, and to which its peculiarly delicate flavour is ascribed, by Wilson, the ornitho VALUATION. See APPRAISEMENT. VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY is that branch of the science of chemistry which relates to vegetable substances. Under the heads ANALYSIS, CHEMISTRY, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, GASES, EARTHS, WATER, SALTS, &c., I have endeavoured to include all the facts supplied by this important science for the assistance of the farmer with which I am acquainted; I shall, therefore, merely insert in this place the chemical analysis of the inorganic substances found in several of the commonly cultivated crops of the farmer; and this I take from p. 318, of the valuable Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, by J. F. Johnston; see also Liebig's Organic Chemistry. UMBELLIFEROUS PLANTS (Umbelli-logist. fera). An extensive group of useful plants, including those well-known garden vegetables parsley, celery, carrots, fennel, caraway, coriander, dills, anise, lovage, angelica, eryngo, samphire, hemlock. The name of the class was given from a fanciful resemblance to some parts of an umbrella or parasol. The flower-stem divides at the top into a number of short, slender branches, which all run from a common point or centre like the rays of an umbrella from the ring sliding up and down the stick. The class, though containing so many useful plants, has many possessed of extremely poisonous qualities, such as hemlock, the fool's parsley (Ethusa cynapium, Pl. 10,g), dropwort, &c. The blossom of the elder resembles at first sight those of umbelliferous plants, to which, however, the elder does not belong, because the rays of the flower do not proceed from a common point, some being higher and some lower. UNDERWOOD. A term applied to coppice, or any wood not accounted timber. See CopPICE, FOREST, and PLANTATION. URINE. A saline fluid secreted from the blood of animals by the kidneys, collected in the urinary bladder, and emitted by the canal of the urethra. Urine differs in different animals, and varies in its characters, according to the kind of food employed. The usual salts contained in it are, sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides, all of which are fertilizing substances. The urine also of oxen and horses is alkaline; it undergoes decomposition less rapidly than that of carnivorous animals: it contains hippurates, but no lithic acid, that substance which forms red gravel in man. Hippuric acid contains 7 per cent. of nitrogen. Urine, therefore, is of much use as a manure, improving most kinds of soil. Columella has asserted that, stale, it is excellent for the roots of trees. And Hartlib commends the Dutch for preserving the urine of cows as carefully as they do the dung, to enrich their Lands. Besides the elements of the organs of plants, other substances, obtained from inorganic nature, are necessary for certain organs destined to special functions peculiar to each family of plants. In the ashes of the plants left after burning them, these substances are found Almost all plants contain acids, in combination with soda, potassa, lime, alumina, or magnesia. The quantity of these salts varies at different periods of the growth of the plant: thus unripe grasses contain more bitartrate of potassa than the ripe, and the potato more potassa before it blossoms than afterwards. The nature of a soil, as has already been detailed, alters the quantity of salts found in plants. The Salsola kali, raised from seeds of plants near the sea, in an inland garden, contains both potassa and soda; but the plants from the seed of this contain potassa only. But these facts are detailed under the head SALTS, &C. In examining the results of these analyzations, the farmer must remember, that the acids and their bases do not exist in plants in an uncombined state, but in combination with each other; that is, as salts. the 1. Of the Ash of Wheat.-According analysis of Sprengel, 1000 lbs. of wheat leave 11.77 lbs. and of wheat straw 35.18 lbs. of ash, consisting of 6. The Ash of the Turnip, Carrot, Parsnip, and | from the field, contain respectively in 10,000 Potato. These 4 roots, as they are carried lbs. 7. Of the Ash of the Grasses and Clovers.-The | sive use. I have also calculated the weights following table might have been much enlarged. I have thought it necessary, however, to introduce in this place only those species of grass and clover which are in most exten given below for these plants in the state of hay only, as the succulency of the grasses-that is, the quantity of water contained in the green crop-varies so much that no correct estimate could be made of the quantity of inorganic | annexed quantities are contained in 1000 lbs matter present in hay or grass, from a know- of the dry hay of each plant: ledge of its weight in the green state only. The | man. 52-86 74-78 91.32 95.53 69.57 motion, as by the action of the wind. "Mr. Knight," adds Mrs. Marcet, “has made a variety of interesting experiments on this subject. He confined both the stem and branches of a tree in such a manner that it could not be moved by the wind. The plant became feeble, and its growth much inferior to that of a similar tree growing in its natural state. He confined another tree so that it could be moved only by the north and south winds, and obtained the singular result of an oval stem, the sides accessible to the wind growing more vigorously than those sheltered from its influence. Every species of restraint, and espe cially such as tend to render plants motionless, impedes their growth. Stakes by which young trees are propped, nailing them to walls or trellises, green-houses, or confined situations where the air has not free access, check and injure the vigour of vegetation, and render plants diminutive and weakly. The cambium descends almost entirely through the liber or most internal and youngest layer of the bark; if, therefore, a ring is cut completely through the bark, this fluid is arrested in its course, and, accumulating around the upper edge of the intersected bark, will cause an annular protuberance. The descent of the cambium thus being obstructed, it will accumulate in that part of the tree above the intersection, afford it a superabundance of nourishment, creating a proportional vigour of vegetation, and a corresponding excellence and profusion of produce." This operation, or ringing, is often performed on the non-productive branches of fruit trees. VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY is that sci-pendent branches, is materially facilitated by ence which treats of the vegetable kingdom, its habits, properties, and organization, in the most comprehensive manner. Its objects have been clearly stated by Mrs. Marcet, in her excellent Conversations on Vegetable Physiology, when describing the lectures of M. Decandolle on this science, and what she has so well described, it is needless for me to give in other words. "So far from confining himself to the classification of plants, the physiologist examines the vegetable kingdom in its most comprehensive and philosophical point of view. In describing the structure, he investigates the habits and properties of plants, and shows, not only how wonderfully they have been formed to fulfil the purposes of their own multiplication and preservation, but how admirably they answer the high purpose which nature has assigned to them, of ministering to the welfare of the animal creation, and more especially to that of He turns his attention particularly to point out the means by which the science of botany can promote that with which it is most intimately and importantly connected-agriculture. He makes ready the soil and sows the seed for the husbandman; he extracts the healing juices and the salutary poisons for the physician; he prepares materials for the weaver, colours for the dyer: in a word, as he proceeds, there is scarcely an art on which he does not confer some benefit, either by pointing out a new truth, or warning against an old-established error." From this description of the objects of the science of vegetable physiology, the reader will see that almost all its different branches are treated of separately in articles which are dispersed through this volume. It is only, therefore, a few scattered fragments which I propose to gather together in this place. See ACCLIMATION, BOTANY, EARTHS, GASES, Light, PUTREFACTION, SALTS, TEMPERATURE, WATER, &c. The effect of gravitation or attraction upon plants is of the highest importance to their ger mination and their growth. From the very nature, however, of this essentially present power, a principle known only to us by its effects, the research is surrounded with diffiThe description of the cambium for the de-culties. Mr. Knight, the late excellent presiscending sap of plants was omitted in its pro-dent of the Horticultural Society, described rer place, and the effect of gravity or attrac- some of the effects of gravity upon plants in tion upon plants was referred to this head. his usual happy manner, when, in addressing The sap having ascended into the leaves, and being in its course gradually altered into a auid suitable for the nourishment of the plant, descends principally through the liber, or inner layer of bark, but a small portion also descends through the young wood, or alburnum. This movement, especially through the plants with the fellows of the Royal Society, he observed, "It can scarcely have escaped the notice of the most inattentive observer of vegetation, that in whatever position a seed is placed to germinate, its radicle invariably makes an effort to descend towards the centre of the earth, while the elongated germen takes precisely the oppo operating, their points returned and met again at its centre. The motion of the wheel being in this experiment vertical, the radicle and germen of every seed occupied during a minute portion of time in each revolution precisely the same position they would have assumed had the plants vegetated at rest; and as gravitation and centrifugal force also acted in lines parallel with the vertical motion and surface of the wheel, I conceived that some slight objections might be urged against the conclusions I felt inclined to draw. I therefore added to the machinery I have described another wheel, which moved horizontally over the vertical wheels; and to this, by means of multiplying wheels of different powers, I was enabled to give many different degrees of velocity. Round the cir cumference of the horizontal wheel, whose dia site direction; and it has been proved by Duhamel, that if a seed during its germination be frequently inverted, the points both of the radicle and germen will return to the first direction. Some naturalists have supposed these opposite effects to be produced by gravitation; and it is not difficult to conceive that the same agent, by operating on bodies so differently organized as the radicle and germen of plants are, may occasion the one to descend and the other to ascend." The hypothesis of these naturalists it was the intention of Knight to examine by certain experiments, which he thus proceeds to describe: "I conceived that if gravitation were the cause of the descent of the radicle and the ascent of the germen, it must act either by its immediate influence on the vegetable fibres and vessels during their formation, or on the motion and consequent distribu-meter was also 11 inches, seeds of the bean tion of the true sap afforded by the cotyledons; and as gravitation could produce these effects only while the seed remained at rest, and in the same position relative to the attraction of the earth, I imagined that its operation would become suspended by constant and rapid change of the position of the germinating seed, and that it might be counteracted by the agency of centrifugal force. Having a strong rill of water passing through my garden, I constructed a small wheel, similar to those used for grinding Every seed on the horizontal wheel, though corn, adapting a wheel of a different construc-moving with great rapidity, necessarily retained tion, and formed of very slender pieces of wood, to the same axis. were bound as in the experiment which I have already described, and it was then made to perform 250 revolutions in a minute. By the rapid motion of the water-wheel, much water was thrown upwards on the horizontal wheel, part of which supplied the seeds upon it with moisture, and the remainder was dispersed in a light and constant shower over the seeds in the vertical wheel, and on others placed to vegetate at rest in different parts of the box. the same position relative to the attraction of the earth, and therefore the operation of gravity "Round the circumference of the latter, which could not be suspended, though it might be was 11 inches in diameter, numerous seeds of counteracted in a very considerable degree by the garden bean, which had been soaked in centrifugal force, and the difference I had anwater to produce the greatest degree of expan- ticipated between the effects of rapid vertical sion, were bound at short distances from each and horizontal motion soon became sufficientother. The radicles of these seeds were made ly obvious. The radicles pointed downwards to point in every direction, some towards the about 10 degrees below, and the germens as centre of the wheel, and others in the opposite many degrees above, the horizontal line of the direction; others at tangents to its curve; some wheel's motion, centrifugal force having made pointing backwards and others forwards, rela- both to deviate 80 degrees from the perpendilive to its motion, and others pointing in oppo-cular direction each would have taken had site directions in lines parallel with the axis they vegetated at rest. Gradually diminishing of the wheels. The whole was enclosed in a the rapidity of the horizontal wheel, the radi box and secured by a lock, and a wire-grate cles descended more perpendicularly, and the was placed to prevent the ingress of any body germens grew more upright, and, when it did capable of impeding the motion of the wheels. not perform more than 80 revolutions in a miThe water being then admitted, the wheels per-nute, the radicle pointed about 45 degrees beformed something more than 150 revolutions low, and the germens as much above, the horiin a minute, and the position of the seeds rela-zontal line; the one always receding from, tively to the earth was as often perfectly in- and the other approaching to, the axis of the verted within the same period of time, by which wheel. I conceive that the influence of gravitation "I would not, however, be understood to must have been wholly suspended. In a few assert that the velocity of 250 or 80 horizontal days the seeds began to germinate; I soon per-revolutions in a minute will always give accuceived that the radicles, in whatever direction rately the degrees of depression and elevation they were protruded from the position of the of the radicle and germen which I have menseed, turned their points outward from the cir- tioned; for the rapidity of the motion of my cumference of the wheel, and in their subse- wheels was somewhat diminished by the colquent growth receded nearly at right angles lection of fibres of confervæ against the wire from its axis. The germens, on the contrary, grate, which obstructed in some degree the took the opposite direction, and in a few days passage of the water; and the machinery hav their points all met in the centre of the wheel. ing been the workmanship of myself and my Three of these plants were suffered to remain gardener, cannot be supposed to have moved on the wheel, and were secured to its spokes with all the regularity it might have done, had to prevent their being shaken off by its mo- it been the work of a professed mechanic. But tion. The stems of these plants soon extended I conceive myself to have fully proved that the beyond the centre; but the same cause which radicles of germinating seeds are made to defirst occasioned them to approach its axis still scend, and their germens to ascend, by sona |