VETERINARY PHARMACOPEIA. Aloes, powdered, 10 drachms, Strong. Oil of turpentine, I drachin. The aloes may be beaten with treacle to a mass, adding, during the beating, the oil of turpentine. All spices, cream of tartar, oil of tartar, jalap, &c. are useless, and often hurtful additions. 36. Liquid Purge. Mix-The watery tincture of aloes is made by beating powdered aloes with the yolk of eggs, adding water by degrees; by these means half an ounce of aloes may be suspended in 8 ounces of water, and such a purge is useful when a ball cannot be got down, as in partial locked jaw. 37. Scalding Mixture for Poll Evil. 38. Foot Stoppings. 39. Wash for coring out, destroying fungus, or proud flesh, &c. &c. Lunar caustic, one drachm. OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEATHER. "Innumerable advantages would arise to the husbandman," remarks Dr. Deane," from a foreknowledge of the changes of the weather; and even from a foreknowledge of the general characters of the approaching seasons. In the former case, he would be able to order his business from day to day in the best manner, and so prevent much hurry, perlexity and loss; especially in the seasons of hay making and harvesting; in the latter, he would be happily directed in his choice of erops, and the best method of cultivating them. But, as this knowledge is not to be obtained, the ability to make very probable conjectures is nextly to be coveted, as it will be found to answer very valuable purposes." OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEATHER. Among the various phenomena which attentive observers have found to indicate approaching changes in the atmosphere, the following chiefly from the Complete Grazier, are selected as affording the most certain signs: I. By animals. Previous to rain and wind, or stormy weather, neat cattle and sheep seem more than usually desirous of feeding in their pastures, and to leave them with reluctance. A similar change is announced by the uneasiness of swine, which grunt loudly, and retire to their styes; by geese and ducks washing themselves repeatedly and with little intermission, flying anxiously backwards and forwards; by swallows flying low and skimming along the surface of the water, twittering with more loudness than usual; and by poultry rolling much in dust and sand, or gravel. Wet and windy weather is likewise indicated by dogs becoming drowsy and stupid, and exhibiting an evident reluctance for food, except grass (particularly the species denominated dog's grass, or couch-grass ;) and by cats losing their vivacity, and remaining within doors. Continued rain is announced by pigeons returning slowly to their cotes; a change from cloudy or unsettled to greater wet, by flies stinging and swarming more than usual; and a sudden variation, accompanied with a storm, by wild ducks, plovers, bustards, and other aquatic birds withdrawing to the sea-coast, or to the marshes. The contrary circumstances evince the longer or shorter continuance of fine weather; to which may be added, that bees flying abroad, and laboring with that industry which has become proverbial; crows croaking in the morning; the robin or red-breast singing early from the ⚫ more elevated branches of trees; and gnats flying in a columnar form, within the rays of the setting sun, are all indications of fine or serene weather. II. From the appearance of the earth. Thus moist stones and dry soil prognosticate rain; a continued fall of which may be expected, if the ground seem nearly dry, and the roads almost, if not wholly free from mud; as the contrary occurrences announce that the evaporation of humidity has ceased, and consequently that fine weather is approaching. III. From the atmosphere. If in the evening a white mist be spread over a meadow contiguous to a river, and be evaporated by the sun's rays on the following morning, it is an indication of fine weather throughout the day; so in the morning, if a mist, which is impending over low lands, draw off towards those which are more elevated, it announces a fine day. The gradual diminution of clouds till they can no longer be seen in the air, is a sign of fine weather; so likewise is the continuance of abundant dew upon the grass after a serene day. The contrary events announce a change of weather, which may be more clearly known by the clouds gathering and lowering; by the sky, after serene weather, becoming undulated as it were with small clouds. The indications of approaching changes of the weather from the form of the clouds have been much insisted upon by some writers. These indications are far from being infallible; yet experience and observation justify certain deductions in respect to the coming weather, which may be of some value to the farmer. Although the forms of OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEATHER. clouds are greatly diversified, they may all be comprised in seven mod. HORTICULTURE. Obs. 1. The cirrus or curl cloud Fig. 1. derives its name from its curling form, which often assumes the appearance of a bunch of wool drawn out into fine pointed ends. A variety of this cloud is known by farmers under the name of mare's tail, and is an accompaniment of variable weather, and prognosticates wind and rain. 2. The Cirrocumulus or sonder-cloud Fig. 2. consists of beds of small, well defined masses of clouds which lie in the neighborhood of each other, yet are separated from each other and distinct, as the word sonder or sunder indicates. The prevalence of this cloud in summer forebodes a higher temperature; in winter, it indicates warm and wet weather. When these clouds are very dense, and quite round in their form, they are a forerunner of storms. 3. Cirrostratus or wane-cloud. The prevalence of this cloud is almost always followed by rain or snow. It derives its name from the frequent change which it undergoes in its appearance. Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, represent the varieties of this cloud. 4. Cumulostratus and Cumulus are represented by Fig. 9, the Cumulus having the appearance of a heap or stack of clouds, and the Cumulostratus being the base or foundation of the Cumulus. It is called twain-cloud from the frequent coalescence or juncture of two other modifications of clouds, as the cirrus and the cumulus. The cumulostratus is an indication of rain or snow; but if it ends in either, it previously assumes the form of Nimbus, as in Fig. 11. 5. Nimbus, Fig. 11, is always followed by either snow or rain. PART VI. ART OF GARDENING OR HORTICULTURE. ON THE SITUATION, SOIL, FENCING, AND LAYING OUT OF GARDENS. SITUATION. The ground should be as nearly on a level as possible; but as it is not always in our power to choose a level spot, the slope in the ground, should, if possible, be towards the South. In a Kitchen Garden all large trees ought to be kept at the distance of thirty or forty feet. For, the shade of them is injurious, and their roots a great deal more injurious to every plant growing within the influence of those roots. Grass, which matts the ground over with its roots and does not demand much food from any depth, does not suffer much from the roots of trees; but every other plant does. A kitchen garden should, therefore, have no large trees near it. If it be practicable, without sacrificing too much in other respects, to make a garden near to running water, and especially to water that may be turned into the garden, such an advantage ought not to be lost; but as to watering with a watering pot, it is seldom of much use, and it cannot be practiced upon a large scale. It is better to trust to judicious tillage, and to the dews and rains. A man will raise more moisture, with a hoe or a spade, in a HORTICULTURE. day, than he can pour on the earth out of a watering pot in the same time; or, at least to greater purpose. SOIL. The plants which grow in a garden, prefer, like most other plants, the best soil that is to be found. The best is loam of several feet deep, with a bed of lime-stone, sand-stone, or sand below. Oak trees love clay, and the finest and heaviest wheat grows in land with a bottom of clay; but if there be clay within even six feet of the surface there will be a coldness in the land, which will, in spite of all you can do, keep your spring crop a week or ten days behind those upon land, which has not a bottom of clay. Having fixed upon the spot for a garden, the next thing is to prepare the ground. This may be done by ploughing and harrowing, until the ground at top be perfectly clean; and then by double ploughing; that is to say, by going with a strong plough, that turns a large furrow, and turns it cleanly, twice in the same place, and thus moving the ground to the depth of fourteen or sixteen inches, for the advantage of deeply moving the ground is very great indeed. When this has been done in one direction it ought to be done across, and then the ground will have been well and deeply moved. This is as much as I shall, probably, be able to persuade any body to do in the way of preparing the ground. But, this is not all that ought to be done; and it is proper to give directions for the best way of doing this and every thing else. The best way is, then, to trench the ground; which is performed in this manner. At one end of the piece of ground, intended for the garden, you make with a spade, a trench, all along, two feet wide and two feet deep. You throw the earth out on the side away from the garden that is to be. You shovel out the bottom clean, and make the sides of the trench as nearly perpendicular as possible. You then take another piece, all along, two feet wide, and put the earth that this new piece contains into the trench, taking off the top of the new two feet wide, and turning that top down into the bottom of the trench, and then taking the remainder of the earth of the new two feet and place it on the top of the earth just turned into the bottom of the trench. Thus proceed, till the whole of your garden ground be trenched; and it will have been cleanly turned over to the depth of two feet. There is no point of greater importance than this. Poor gound deeply moved is preferable, in many cases, to rich ground with shallow tillage; and when the ground has been deeply moved once, it feels the benefit forever after. It is well known to all who have had experience on the subject, that of two plants of almost any kind that stand for the space of three months in top soil of the same quality, one being on ground deeply moved, and the other on ground moved no deeper than is usual, the former will exceed the latter one half in bulk. And, as to trees of all descriptions, from the pear tree down to the currant bush, a similar difference might be seen. It is a notion with some persons, that it is no use to move the ground deeper than the roots of the plant penetrate. But, in the first place the roots go much deeper than we generally suppose. When we pull up a cabbage, for instance, we see no roots more than a foot long, but if we were carefully to pursue the roots to their utmost point, even as far as the eye would assist us, we should find the roots a great deal longer, and the extremities of the |