MIXTURE OF SOILS.

eds; to do more than this would have en an injury to the land, for eating rnips upon it with sheep, and for the rley crop; when sufficiently clayed to ow wheat after seeds, a point requiring se attention, I always found it effectually me for any other crop.

"The way in which it was done. It was essary, in the first place, to fix upon the st favourable situation for the pit, keepthree objects in view. 1. The most venient place for carting to the plot of und intended to be marled. 2. The situation for a pond to answer for a nanent watering-place, cutting, if posacross a fence, so as to water two 8, one from each mouth of the pit. There the clay could be got with the difficulty. After the place was fixed , the work was carried on by five ers, a driver, four horses or beasts, and carts (which are of the Scotch kind, short bodies, and broad wheels); the as dug with a gradual descent, so that horses could draw out about a ton, i was shot out where wanted, the last ning by the time the other was loaded: three horses were always ready for aded cart: the clay was spread by the rs, at broken times after being exI to the action of the air; rain, after frosty or droughty weather, would it to fall to pieces, sufficiently for wing and ploughing in. The expense d for digging, filling the carts, and ding, was from 4d. to 5d. per cubic (full one ton), varying according to quantity of stones imbedded in the the total expense per acre was as

alance in favour of marling upon seeds

MOLASSES.

"The land," Mr. Linton adds, "is never so productive the first two years (or until the clay has got well pulverised and mixed with the sand) as it is afterwards, and it will not grow a good crop or a fine sample of barley for five or six years after the clay is laid on, I have therefore sown oats instead. If people (he concludes) would improve the land they have, particularly light land, by draining, marling, &c., they would realize a far greater return for the outlay than by purchasing more." (Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc. vol. ii. p. 67.)

From these facts the cultivator, I think, will arrive at the conclusion, that the judicious admixture of soils, and other applications of manual labour, for the purpose of increasing their productiveness, can hardly fail, sooner or later, to amply repay him for the labour he thus employs. It is an improvement, let him remember, that, when once accomplished, lasts for ever, since the very character of the soil is changed; his organic manures, such as farmyard compost, oil cake, and even bones, are gradually dissolved or decomposed, and disappear from the land, are absorbed by his crops, or evolved in the gases of putrefaction; but no such results arise from either deepening the soil or the addition of the earths, they, when once united to the soil, remain there to increase the crops, to lessen the toils, and to add to the profits of succeeding cultivators, even in distant periods. And to effect these important, these national results, let him, too, remember, that no neighbouring lands are impoverished, no organic matters are drawn from one field to enrich another; the dead, the deep buried earth is merely brought to the surface, and that which is utterly profitless in the mass diffuses riches and gladness when spread over the farmer's fields.

MOENCHIA, THE UPRIGHT. (Moenchia erecta.) An elegant little indigenous herbaceous plant, growing in pastures and heathy ground, growing on a barren gravelly soil. The root is small, fibrous, and annual in habit. The whole herb is glaucous, and very smooth. Stems several, three or four inches high, round, leafy. Leaves opposite, sessile, linear-lanceolate, entire, single-ribbed. Flowers white, erect, solitary, blowing in May. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol.i. p. 241.)

MOLASSES. (Port. Melasso.) The saccharine principle in the dregs or refuse drainings from the casks, &c., of sugar, and the uncrystallisable part of the juice of the cane separated from the sugar during the process of granulation. It consists of sug prevented from crystallising by acids, and other matters. All cattle are

sweets, and thrive well upon substances which yield a large proportion of saccharine juice, of which no better proof can be afforded than the condition of the cattle and swine of the West India Islands, which are fed mainly on the tops and refuse of the cane after the juice has been expressed for sugar. Mr. E. Waters (Com. to Board of Agr. vol. vi. p. 30.) gives the result of a very satisfactory experiment as to the advantage of feeding live stock with molasses. There can be no doubt that when this substance can be had cheap, its use must prove very beneficial in improving the condition of cattle.

MOLE. A species of the genus Talpa, common in this country and other parts of Europe. This quadruped exhibits in perfection that modification of structure by which the mammiferous animal is adapted to a subterranean life. Its head is long, conical, and tapering to the snout, which is strengthened by a bone, and by strong gristles worked by powerful muscles. The body is almost cylindrical, thickest behind the head, and gradually diminishes to the tail. There is no outward indication of a neck, that part being enlarged to the size of the chest by the massive muscles which act upon the head and fore legs. These, which are the principal instruments by which the mole excavates its long and intricate burrows, are the shortest, broadest, and strongest, in proportion to the size of the animal, which are to be met with in the mammiferous class. The food of the mole consists of worms, insects, and the roots of plants; its voracity is great, and it soon perishes if food be scarce or wanting. The sense of sight is very feeble, the eyes being minute and rudimental; but the other faculties of smell and hearing, as being more serviceable in its dark retreat, are extremely acute. The female prepares a nest of moss, dry herbage, roots, and leaves, in a chamber commonly formed by excavating and enlarging the point of intersection of three or four passages.. The young are brought forth to the number of four or five in April, and sometimes later.

The farmer views the operations of the mole as destructive to his crops, by exposing and destroying their roots, or by overthrowing the plants in the construction of the mole-hills; his burrows, moreover, become the haunts and hiding-places of the field mouse and other destructive animals. The mole is also accused of piercing the sides of dams and canals, and letting out the water, and of carrying off quantities of young corn to form its nest. Hence every means are devised to capture and destroy it, and men gain a livelihood exclusively by

per

this occupation. Some naturalists, bowever, plead that the injury which it petrates is slight, and that it is more th counterbalanced by the benefit which it produces by turning up and lightening t soil, top-dressing pasture land, and espe cially by its immense destruction of e worms, slugs, grubs, wire-worms, and e other noxious animals and insects inhabit the superficial layer of the gro and occasion great injury to the rect grass, corn, and many other plants. soundest practical conclusion lies prota in the mean of these opinions; and th lightened agriculturalist, while he tal prompt measures to prevent the unde crease of the mole, would do well to d on the disadvantages which might fol total extermination. The Ettrick Sh (James Hogg), from a course of years' hard-earned experience and re ation, speaks of the pernicious effec destroying the moles on sheep pasture. alleges, that besides the inferior pa which the soil affords when moles have exterminated, the pining and the foxt two baneful diseases, come in their pla annihilate the stock.

There can be no question that mole much injury to gardens, by destroy neatness of the beds, rooting up c tulips, and other tubers; but in the 1-2 spread surface of the field it is a qu whether he does not do more good teeth than injury by his sount. ( Journ. of Agr. vol. i. p. 640.; Brasde'ile of Science.)

MOLE-CRICKET. (Gryllotalp garis. Acheta gryllotalpa.) This de tive insect is known in different lea under the several names of churra jarrworm, eve-churr, and earth-crab, mole-cricket measures two inches in and four lines in breadth. Its co dark-brown. The most remarkable fara in the insect is the size and strength fore arms. The power which is re to move them is great. The cavity main trunk is divided lengthways double gristly partition, surmounte bony frame, with an inferior condyla which the inner part of the bas clavicle of the arm is hinged; and mechanism the arms are moved Th cricket burrows under ground, and the roots of plants. The female b out a place for herself in the earth half a foot from the surface in the of June, and lays her eggs in a heap often contains from two to three b They are shining yellowish-brow the size and shape of a grain of a young, which are hatched in July or

MONADELPHOUS.

greatly resemble black ants, and feed, like he old ones, on the tender roots of grass, orn, and various culinary vegetables. They etray their presence under the earth by he withered yellow patches in the meadows, nd by the withering decay of culinary veetables in the gardens. In October or ovember they bury themselves deeper in e earth, as a protection from cold, and me again to the surface in the warm ys in March. Their presence is discored by their throwing up the earth like les. The best method of destroying m is to dig up the young brood; but ling water or oil of any kind poured r their holes will be found effectual. ollar on Insects, p. 144.) MOLE-PLOUGH. See DRAINING and

OUGHS.

MONADELPHOUS. In botany, having filaments cohering into a tube, or one idle.

IONANDROUS.

A botanical term lied to plants having only one stamen, nale organ.

JONEYWORT. See LOOSESTRIFE. IONILIFORM. In botany, formed a necklace; that is to say, articulated alternate swellings and contractions, mbling a string of beads. IONKEY-FLOWER. (Mumulus.) wy exotic plants, well worth cultivating, icularly the hardy herbaceous kinds, hare admirably suited for ornamenting er borders. They thrive in any comgarden soil, and are readily increased livision of the roots or from seeds. The es of M. guttatus are eatable as a salad. rton's Bot. Dict.)

ONK'S HOOD. See WOLF'S-BANE. CONOCOTYLEDONOUS. In botany, ng only one seed-leaf or cotyledon. ONTÁGU'S HARRIER. (Circus tagui.) This is a name given by Mr. rell to a species of harrier, which is disuished from the hen harrier by being h more slender in shape and not so y, the average weight of Montagu's ier being about nine and a quarter ces, that of the hen harrier about thirounces. Its food is small birds and iles. The nest is placed on the ground, erally among furze; the eggs, seldom eeding four in number, are very similar hose of the hen harrier. (Yarrell's Brit. ds, vol. i. p. 100.)

MOONBLIND. See BLINDNESS. 400N-FLOWER. See Ox-EYE. JOON-TREFOIL. A name for one of species of medick (Medicago arborea). MOONWORT. (Botrychium, from rys, a bunch; in reference to the form the fructification, which is much like a

MOORBAND PAN.

bunch of grapes.) The species of this genus of ferns are curious and interesting plants; one only is indigenous, the common moonwort (B. lunaria), which is a perennial, growing in mountainous pastures or meadows. The root consists of several simple, cylindrical, clustered or whorled fibres. The herb is very smooth, a little succulent, of a pale opaque green, erect, not a span high. Leaf solitary, pinnate; leaflets fanshaped, notched. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. iv. p. 328.)

MOOR. An uncultivated surface of country, without trees, and with few grasses or other herbage fit for pasture; and usually containing scattered plants of heath, with a dark peaty soil. Moor lands are generally the least fitted for culture of any description of surface, not rocky or mountainous. Moors are covered with a very thin layer of soft, black, sterile soil; and the subsoil is generally gravel or retentive ferruginous clay. By the destruction of the heath or other bad herbage, and by sowing down with grass seeds, they may be improved. In many cases, also, trees will grow on drained moors; in which case the soil ultimately becomes ameliorated by the shade they afford, and the fall and decay of their leaves. See HEATH, MORASS, PEAT SOILS, and WASTE LANDS.

MOORBAND PAN. This is a name given in Scotland to an indurated combination of clay, small stones, and iron in a particular state, situated either immediately, or at some distance below the path of the plough, and which is nearly impervious to water. All indurated incrustations, how ever, formed under the sole of the plough says a writer in a valuable agricultural journal, are not moorband pan. In good alluvial loam of greater depth than the plough furrow, and rendered adhesive by pressure, an incrustation or firming of the subsoil, that is, the bottom upon which the plough moves, is frequently formed by the sole of the plough rubbing constantly on the soil at the same depth. This incrustated earth can retain water, but its effects on soils and plants are innocuous compared to those of moorband pan. Nevertheless, its disruption by deep ploughing is of benefit to the soil, and we have experienced it in very fine deep mould. From an analysis by Mr. John Gray of Dilston, of two portions of moorband pan obtained from Mylnfield Plain, 120 parts of one were found to contain 34 of oxide of iron, 74 of silex, and 6 of alumina or clay and loss; the other contained 43 parts of oxide of iron, 64 of silex, and 8 of alumina and loss. (Quar. Journ. of Agr. vol. x. p. 131. 272., vol. xi. p. 86.)

MOOR-GRASS. (Sesleria, named in honour of M. Sesler, a physician and botanist of the eighteenth century.) These are uninteresting grasses in an agricultural point of view. One species, the blue moor-grass (S. cærulea) is indigenous, growing on moist alpine limestone rocks. The root is perennial, long and strong, forming dense tufts. The culms are from four to twelve inches high, without branches or joints, smooth, for the most part naked. Leaves linear, somewhat obtuse, keeled, between sea-green and bluish. Spike ovate, oblong, imbricated, about an inch long, of a lead colour, sometimes inclining to a purple, with notched or jagged, short alternate bractes. This is an elegant and singular grass, flowering too early (April to June) to be often seen by mountain travellers. (Smith's Eng. Flor. vol. i. p. 114.; Sinclair's Grasses, p. 303.)

MORASS. Moor lands saturated with water to such an extent as not to bear the tread of cattle. A morass is to a moor what a marsh is to a meadow. It is evident that the drainage of morasses and moors by lessening the evaporation of water from their surfaces, must tend to improve the local climate. See PEAT and PLANT

ATIONS.

MORDANT. Any substance used to fix dyes or colouring matters upon different stuffs.

MOREL. (Germ. moschel.) The Moschella esculenta is one of the few edible fungi found in this country, which may be used as food with safety. It occasionally occurs in woods and orchards, whence it finds its way to the markets; but it is of comparatively rare occurrence. It has a hollow stalk an inch or two high, and a yellowish or greyish indented head two or three inches deep. See FUNGI and MUSHROOMS. MORTAR. A well known cement employed for building purposes, which is thus described by Dr. Thomson: "It is composed of quicklime and sand, reduced to a paste with water. When dry it becomes as hard as stone, and as durable; and adhering very strongly to the surface of the stones which it is employed to cement, the whole wall in fact becomes nothing else than one single stone. But this effect is produced very imperfectly unless the mortar be very well prepared. The lime ought to be pure, completely free from carbonic acid, and in the state of a very fine powder; the sand should be free from clay, and partly in the state of fine sand, and partly in that of gravel; the water should be pure, and if previously saturated with lime, so much the better." The best proportions, according to the experiments of Dr. Hig

gins, are three parts of fine sand, four parts of coarse sand, one part of quicklime recently slacked, and as little water as po sible. The stony consistence which morter acquires is owing partly to the absorpt of carbonic acid, but principally to t combination of part of the water with the lime. This last circumstance is the re that if to common mortar one fourth part of lime, reduced to powder without be slacked, be added, the mortar, when dry, quires much greater solidity than it be wise would do. This was first propose y Loriot (Jour. de Phy. iii. p. 231.); and afer wards Morveau found the following p portions to answer best:

The same advantages may be obtained using as little water as possible in shak the lime. Higgins found that the addit burnt bones, in the proportion of not m than one fifth of the lime employed: proved mortar by giving it tenacity, rendering it less apt to crack.

be

When a little clay is added to mortar acquires the important property of har ing under water; so that it may ployed by the farmer in those edirs which are constantly exposed to the a of water. Limestone is found not us quently mixed with clay; and in ths: it becomes brown by calcination instes! white. These native limestones are emp for making water mortar; but good mortar may be made by the following cess Mix together four parts of blue six parts of black oxide of manganese. ninety parts of limestone, all in port Calcine this mixture to expel the car acid; mix it with sixty parts of sand a form it into a mortar with a su quantity of water. (Ann. de Chim. X 259.) The best mortar for resisting a is made by mixing lime with puzz volcanic sand brought from Italy. Mors informs us that basaltes, which is very mon in this country, may be substituted puzzolano. It must be heated in a f thrown while red-hot into water, and th passed through a sieve. (Thomson's ( vol. ii. p. 63.)

MORTIMER, JOHN, was a mer on Tower Hill, London, in 1693. He fond of agricultural pursuits, and year became possessed of an estate in E Filiols, or, as it is now called, Te Hall. He much improved this place