attention to which points will well repay the parish for the care bestowed upon them. There is a paper, by Mr. Whyte, upon a machine for scraping and cleansing highways (Trans. High. Soc., vol. iv. p. 349), and on roads, and the excessive weights carried on them in narrow-wheeled wagons, by Mr. Whetly (Com. to Board of Agr., vol. vi. p. 182); and there is a work on road-making by Sir C. M'Adam, which every road-surveyor should possess. Sir Henry Parnell has also published a valuable treatise on road-making. Of the materials best adapted to road-making, Mr. Penfold remarks, "The trappean and basaltic rocks are those best suited for the construction of roads. No material has ever been used superior to the tough basalts, which are brought as ballast in ships from China and Bombay, and which have been partially used in the macadamised streets of London. Limestones, in many respects, afford an excellent material. The more unyielding the material, the smaller is the size to which it ought to be broken. Limestones have in general a peculiar quality of making smooth roads, even if not broken to a small size. Pit gravel, especially that belonging to the new red sandstone formation, is in general not to be depended upon, as containing stones of different sorts, and consequently of different degrees of strength. It is one of the greatest mistakes in road-making to lay on thick coats of materials. If there be substance enough already in the road, and which, indeed, should always be carefully kept up, it will never be right to put on more than a stone's thickness at a time." HIPPOPATHOLOGY. The science of veterinary medicine which comprehends the diseases of the horse. Among the writers on this subject, within the last century, may be enumerated Gibson, Clater, Blaine, Lowson, White, Rydge, Coleman, Dick, Sewell, Percivall, White, Rydge, Stewart, Youatt, and many others; and although a few of their works may now be obsolete, the greater portion, particularly the valuable work of Mr. Youatt contain a vast fund of practical and useful information. HOAR FROST. To the authorities quoted in the article FROST, I would add that of the Rev. J. Farquharson. He draws from his observations the conclusions that these frosts occur when the thermometer is at ten feet from the ground, of varying degrees of temperature, sometimes as high as 41°; 2dly, that they take place at the time of a high daily mean temperature only during a calm; 3dly, that the air is always, or nearly all of it, unclouded; 4thly, that they most frequently take place when the mercury of the barometer is high and rising, and when the hygrometer for the season indicates comparative dryness. 5thly. In general, low and flat lands in the bottoms of valleys, and grounds that are in land-locked hollows, suffer from these frosts, while all sloping lands and open uplands escape injury. This he accounts for by supposing that on sloping grounds there are always currents of air which mix the upper and warmer strata of air with that which rests immediately on the ground, and which it would seem, from some experients of Dr. Wells, is not unfrequently much The slightest protection, even that of a bush, thin sprinkling of straw or litter, is sufficient to prevent the deposition of frost, because it is only necessary to prevent radiation. HOEING BY HAND. The hand hoe is an instrument too well known to need any description. The operation of hoeing is beneficial, not only as being destructive of weeds, but as loosening the surface of the soil, and rendering it more permeable to the gases and aqueous vapour of the atmosphere. Hoeing, therefore, not only protects the farmer's crops from being weakened by weeds, but it renders the soil itself more fertile, as more capable of supplying the plants with their food. Jethro Tull was the first who warmly and ably inculcated the advantages of hoeing cultivated soils. He correctly enough told the farmers of his time, that as fine hoed ground is not so long soaked by rain, so the dews never suffer it to become perfectly dry. This appears by the plants which flourish in this, whilst those in the hard ground are starved. In the driest weather good hoeing procures moisture to the roots of plants, though the ignorant and incurious fancy it lets in the drought. HOGS. See SWINE HOGWEED (Heracleum sphondylium). The weed known by this name in Pennsylvania and other Middle States, is also called Rag-weed and Bitter-weed, the Ambrosia Elatior or Taller Ambrosia of botanical writers. This apparently very worthless weed is common in pastures and cultivated fields, always following the wheat crop immediately after harvest, as though a parasite of this species of grain. If the land be good, the plant seems to give place, the following season, to the crop of clover or timothy. "I have," says Dr. Darlington "been puzzled to determine this species satisfactorily. It is evidently, I think, the Ambrosia Elatior of Bigelow, and some others, and as clearly the A. artemisifolia of Barton, &c.; whilst, at the same time, it agrees pretty well with Elliott's A. paniculata. Are they all distinct species? Five or six additional species are enumerated in the United States." (Flor. Cestrica.) This plant comes into flower about the middle of May; its nutritive powers appear to be considerable when compared to those of lucern and some other plants. Sinclair found that 64 drs. of the herbage afforded of nutritive matter 90 grs., lucern an equal proportion, the same weight of burnet and of Bunias orientalis 100 grs. each, of the broad-leaved cultivated clover 80 grains. See Cow-PARSNIP. (Hort. Gram, Wob. p. 411.) HOLCUS. The soft-grass. A genus of grasses of which Smith, in his Eng. Flor. (vol. i. p. 107), describes three species, but which dant in meadows and pastures on all soils, from the richest to the poorest. Cattle prefer almost any other grass to this; hence it is seen in pastures, with full-grown perfect leaves, while the grasses that surround it are cropped to the roots. Sir Humphry Davy has shown that its nutritive matter consists entirely of mucilage and sugar; while the same property in the grasses most relished by cattle has either a sub-acid or saline taste. This grass might probably be rendered more palatable to cattle by being sprinkled over with salt. Hard stocking, and never suffering it to run to seed, will at least prevent this grass from spreading; but ploughing up the pasture, and taking not less than a five years' course of crops and then returning the land to other grasses, will be found the best means of getting rid of it. It flowers and ripens the seed in July. Sinclair, in his Hortus Gramineus, has extended to 5 species and varieties, including the northern holy-grass (Hierochloe borealis), which Smith very properly refers to another class. Holtus avenaceus (Pl. 5, cc). Tall oat-like soft-grass. In this species the calyx is smooth, the barren floret lowest, with a sharply bent prominent awn; fertile one bent, slightly elevated, scarcely awned; leaves rather harsh; roots knobbed, or with tuberous joints and downy fibres. In dry or fluctuating soils the roots become largely bulbous, and then constitute a troublesome weed. In the works of Linnæus, Curtis, and Host, this grass is found under the name of Avena elatior; it has since been thought to agree better with holcus in structure; but it appears to belong to neither of these justly, serving rather to form the connecting link between the avena, holci, and airæ. This grass grows common in pastures, hedges, Holcus mollis. Creeping soft-grass. Pl. 5, c. thickets, and by road sides. The stem rises to Couch-grass. The specific character of this 3 feet high, is smooth, simple, and jointed; the species is, root creeping, calyx partly naked, joints sometimes downy; the leaves are deep-lower floret perfect, awnless, upper with a green, rough-edged, and rather harsh to the touch, with long striated sheaths, and abrupt stipules. The flowering panicle is erect, lateral. The seeds are nearly cylindrical, and coated with the hardened corolla. This grass sends forth flowering culms during the whole of the season. The entire plant is subject to rust after the period of flowering; hence the erop should be cut as soon as the grass is in flower. This grass is eaten by all sorts of cattle, and is always present in the composition of the best natural pastures; but it does not constitute a large proportion of the herbage. It perishes rapidly after being cropped; and though later in flowering (end of June) than many other species, produces an early and plentiful supply of herbage in the spring. These properties would entitle it to rank high as a grass adapted for the alternate husbandry, but with respect to its nutritive properties, it contains too large a proportion of bitter extractive and saline matters to warrant its cultivation without a considerable admixture of different grasses; and the same objection extends to its culture for permanent pasture. Holcus avenaceus, var. muticus. Awnless, tall, oat-like soft-grass. In this variety, which is smaller in every respect than the preceding, the leaves are very short, the roots slightly tuberous, the panicle much contracted, the flowers without awns; glumes pencilled at the apex with purple. It flowers a week later than the awned variety; in all other respects it is the same. It seldom perfects any good seed, and appears to be much inferior in point of produce. Hares give a decided preference to the awnless variety. Holcus lanatus. Woolly or meadow softgrass. The root in this species is fibrous; the stem simple, 14 to 2 feet high, smooth above, hairy below, with hairy sheaths, and short blunt stipules. The panicle is thrice compound, erect, and spreading. The calyx of the flower is woolly, lower floret perfect, awnless; upper with an arched awn; leaves downy on both sides. This is a very troublesome grass, which is difficult to get rid of; it grows abun sharply bent prominent awn; leaves slightly downy. The distinctions between this grass and the woolly or meadow soft-grass, H. lanatus, are the creeping root, and the whole plant being more slender and less downy. The leaves are also narrower and more soft than those of the H. lanatus, and grow more distinct from each other: on the contrary, those of the H. lanatus are in dense tufts. The panicle is more loose and smoother, with conspicuous awns, which, in drying, bend at a right angle, and extend beyond the calyx. The panicle of the H. lanatus is generally of a reddish purple colour tinged with green, or, when growing under the shade of trees, of a whitish-green colour. The panicle of the H. mollis is always of the latter colour. This grass would rank as one of the superior grasses if it did not usually tenant a light barren sandy soil; but it produces little herbage in the spring, and the aftermath is next to nothing. Pigs are very fond of the roots, which contain a very considerable quantity of nutritive matter, having the flavour of newmade meal. The herbage is apparently more disliked by cattle than that of the H. lanatus: it is extremely soft, dry, and tasteless. The roots, when once in possession of the soil, can hardly again be expelled without great labour and expense. It is the true couch grass of light sandy soils, for its roots frequently attain in a few months to 4 or 5 feet in length. The best mode of banishing this impoverishing and troublesome weed from light arable lands that are infested with it, is to collect the roots with the fork after the plough; and when thus in some measure lessened to apply yearly dressings of clay, perhaps 50 loads per acre, till the texture of the soil is changed to a sandy loam; this grass will then be easily overcome, and the fertility of the soil permanently increased. See Couch. Holcus odoratus (repens). Sweet-scented softgrass or northern holy-grass. See HOLYGRASS. I have placed together in a tabular form the comparative yield of produce of these grasses. (Sinclair's Hort. Gram. Wob.) HOLLY (Ilex aquifolium). A handsome evergreen tree, of slow growth, with a smooth, gray bark, which, abounding in mucilage, makes bird-lime by maceration in water. The wood is hard, close-grained, and covered with the above smooth gray bark. The leaves are alternate, stalked, rigid, shining, waxy, with spinous divaricated lobes; the upper ones on old trees entire, with only a terminal prickle. The flowers are copious, white, tinged externally with purple, the earlier ones least perfect. The berries are scarlet, casually yellow. The holly grows in hedges and bushy places upon dry hills. Numerous variegated varieties are kept in gardens, and one whose leaves are prickly on the disk. Darwin suggested the idea, that the points on the lower leaves of the holly was a provision of nature to prevent them from being eaten by cattle; hence, when the tree grows beyond the reach of the cattle, the leaves lose the pines, that species of armature being no longer necessary. The tree bears clipping well; but it is not so fashionable for cut hedges as formerly. The branches, laden with berries, are stuck about rustic kitchens and churches at Christmas, and remain till Candlemas Day. In Norfolk and some other English counties the misseltoe accompanies them, and sometimes branches of the spindletree or prickwood. of the agriculturist. It comes into flower about the end of April, and perfects hardly any seed; but few grasses propagate more quickly by the roots. This grass is said to be used at high festivals, for strewing the churches in Prussia, as Acorus calamus has time out of mind been employed in the cathedral and streets of Norwich on the mayor's day. HOMESTEAD, or FARM STEADING. A collection of farm buildings and offices arranged in a convenient form. HONEY (German, honig). A well-known "Its vegetable substance collected by bees. flavour," says Dr. A. T. Thomson, "var s according to the nature of the flowers from which it is collected. Thus, the honeys of Minorca, Narbonne, and England are known by their flavours. It is separated from the comb by dripping, and by expression; the first method affords the purest sort, the second separates a less pure honey, and a still inferior kind is obtained by heating the comb before it is pressed. When obtained from young hives which have not swarmed, it is denominated virgin honey. It is sometimes adulterated with flour and starch, which may be detected by mixing it with tepid water; the honey dissolves, while the flour or starch remains nearly unaltered." Honey is easily soluble in water, and, like sugar, readily undergoes the vinous fermentation; in this way, in fact, mead is made, an intoxicating beverage, once much more extensively prepared than now. Honey constitutes a very important product of some countries, among which we may name Poland, where the management of bees is an extensive branch of forest culture. Poland honey is commercially divided into three classes; the finest, called lipiec, is gathered by the bees from the lime tree alone, and is considered on the Continent most valuable, not only for the superiority of its flavour, but also for the estimation in which it is held as an arcanum in pulmonary complaints, containing very little wax, and being, consequently, less heating in its nature; it is as white as milk, and is only to be met with in the lime forests in the neighbourhood of the town of Kowno, in Lithuania. It is the June and July work alone The common holly of the United States is that constitutes this delightful product, and the Ilex opaca of naturalists, a handsome ever-which is carefully taken from the hives, in green which, though in some of the Middle States a mere shrub, in others assumes the dignity of a tree. In Kent county, Delaware, the holly frequently attains a height of 30 to 40 feet. Seven or eight additional species are found in the United States, chiefly in the south. HOLM (Sax. and Danish). An island or fenny place surrounded by water. which is left for the store of the bees the honey collected by them before and after the flowering of the linden, a tree quite different from all the rest of the genus Tilia, and called Kamienna lipsa, or Stone Lime. The leszny, the next class of honey, which is inferior in a great degree to the lipiec, being only for the common mead, is that of the pine forests. HOLM OAK, or HOLLY OAK. See OAK. HOLT (Sax. a wood; Germ. holz). The The third class of honey is the stepowey prastermination of many names of places in Eng-znymird, or the honey from meadows or places land, derived from their ancient situation in a where there is an abundance of perennial wood. HOLY-GRASS, NORTHERN (Hierochloe borealis). The sweet-scented soft-grass, Holcus odoratus (repens) of some botanists. The powerful creeping roots of this grass, its tender nature, and the great deficiency of foliage in the spring are demerits which discourage the idea of recommending it further to the notice plants, and hardly any wood. The province of Ukraine produces the very best, and also the very best wax. In that province the peasants pay particular attention to this branch of economy, as it is the only resource they have to enable them to defray the taxes levied by Russia; and they consider the produce of bees equal to ready money. |