Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/470

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Xhzjheep do not eat any great part of them, and when the ground comes to be tilled afterwards for a crop of corn, the fragments of the turneps are feen in fuch quantities on the furface, that half the crop at leaft feems to have been wafted.

The third manner is to pull up the turneps, and remove them in a cart or waggon to fome other place, fpreadmg them on a frefh place every day ; by this method the Jbcep will eat them up clean, both root and leaves. The great advantage of this method, is, when there is a land not far off which wants dung more than that where the turneps grow, which perhaps is alfo too wet for the Jheep in winter, and then the turneps will, by the too great moifture and dirt of the foil, fometimes fpoil the Jbeep, and give them the rot. Yet fuch ground will often bring forth more, and larger turneps than dry land, and when they are carried off, and eaten by the Jheep on plowed iand in dry weather, and on green fward in wet weather, the Jbeep will fucceed much the better ; and the moift foil, where the turneps grow, not being trodden by the Jbeep, will be much fitter for a crop of corn, than if they had been fed with the turneps on it. The expence of hurdles, and the trouble of moving them, is faved in this cafe, and this will counterbalance at leaft the expence of pulling the turneps, and carrying them to the places where they are to be eaten. They muft always be carried off for oxen. Tull's Horfehoeing Hufbandry. The ufe of fait preferves Jbeep from the rot. The animals muft be made to take a fmall handful of it two or three times in a few days, without permitting them to drink any thing for fome hours afterward. Boyle's Works abridged, Vol. i. p, 109.

Folding of Seeep. See the article Folding.

Sheep'j dung. This is one of the beft manures we know. It fucceeds better upon cold clayey lands, than any other dung whatever; but as it is not fo conveniently to be col- lected as the dung of larger animals, it is commonly con- veyed to the land, it is intended for, by folding the jbeep upon it. The urine, as well as the dung, is thus given to the land, and is of very great advantage ; but the farmer always fhould plow in this fort of manure as foon as he can, for the fun foon robs it of a great part of its virtue. In Northamptonfhire they begin to fold the Jbcep upon the lands that they would dung by them, after the month of July, and the drier the lands are, the later they fold them. In Flanders they make many thoufand loads of manure an- nually from thexx jheep; they cover the bottom of the folds confiderably deep with fome light and fpungy earth, and when this has received the dung and urine of the animals for feven or eight days, they remove it, and lay frefh in its place : the earth thus impregnated, becomes an excellent improvement to land, and they raife large crops by means of it, in places where very little could be expected without it. In England we have a contrivance like this, which is the co- vering the bottoms of the folds deep with fand, and chang- ing it once in a week, or thereabouts : this is a kind of manure finely calculated for clayey lands, both the fand, and this peculiar kind of dung, being appropriated things for it. Mortimer's Hufbandry.

'biiz.V-V-nofe-worins, in natural hiftory, a fjrecies of fly-worm, found in the nofes of Jbeep, goats, and flags, and produced there from the egg of a large two-winged fly. The frontal finuies above the nofe in Jbeep, and other ani- mals, are the places where thefe worms live, and attain their full growth. Thefe finufes are always full of a foft white matter, which furnifhes thefe worms with a proper nourifh- rnent, and are fufHciently large for their habitation; and when they have here acquired their deftined growth, and come to the ftate in which they are fit to undergo their changes for the fly-ftate, they leave their old habitation, and falling to the earth, bury themfelves there; and when thefe are ha'ched into flies, the female, when fhe has been impregnated by the male, knows that the nofe of a Jbeep, or other animal, is the only place for her to depofit her eggs, in order to their coming to good. Reaumur's Hiff. Inl Vol. 4. p-55 2 -

Mr. Vallifnieri, to whom the world owes fo many difcove- ries in the infecr. clafs, is the firlt who has given any true account of the origin of thefe worms. Though their true

- hiftory had been, till that time, unknown, the creatures therrtfelves were very early difcovered, and many ages fince

-. were efteemed great medicines in epilepfies.

It is very, common to find only one worm in the head of the creature that has them, often two are found, and fome- times three, but very felom any more than that. Reaumur, ibid. p. 554.

Redi has given a very imperfect figure of this creature, nor is that of Mr. Vallifnieri much better. The worm is of the firft clafs, and has two brown hooks at the anterior part of its head, placed parallel, or nearly parallel to one another. It is compofed of eleven rings, which together form a conic figure, fomething flatted, of which the head of the worm is the point. When the worm is young, it is very white, but has two brown fpots placed over againft each other, in the hinder part of its body, which are its two pofterior

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fligmata. Each of thefe fpots is parted into two by a con- centric circle, which is fenfible, as it is whitifh, the reft of the fpot being brown. It is plainly this very feparation which gives pafl'age to the air. When the creature pleafes it fhews thefe, but it can alfo draw them into a fort of purfe in its pofterior ring. The anus is juft below, and is ufually hid by the folds of the fkin. The hooks are brown and ftrong ; juft above thefe are two little fleftiy horns, and be- tween them is placed the mouth. Remwmr, ibid. p. 555. This worm, when at its full growth, is confiderably large and becomes brownifh, or of a dirty white. Its belly, ex- amined by the microfcope, is feen furnifhed with a number of fine fhort prickles between the rings : the points of all thefe are turned backward, and one may even feel thefe prickles, in drawing the finger along the belly from the hin- der part toward the head.

Thefe worms are capable of moving themfelves very fwiftly; and it is doubtlefs owing to their motions in the head of the creature, and to the pain that the fenfible membranes there muft have from being wounded by the hooks and prickles of this creature, that Jbeep are often feen to grow outragious, and ftrike their heads againft trees, and other hard bodies. Ibid. p. 556.

When thefe worms are taken out of the heads of Jbeep, if they are put upon the earth, they immediately bury them- felves very deeply in it ; and if not, yet at their full growth, or in a proper ftate for their changes, they die there: but if it be near the time that they would naturally have quitted their antient habitation, which may be known by their be- ing changed from their fine white to a brownifh colour, then they undergo all their proper changes under a fhell, made by the hardening of their own fkin. This ihell is of the fame fhape with the animal itfelf, but is of a deep brown. Ibid. p. 557.

It takes fome time for the creature to undergo its feveral changes, and that more or lefs, according to the feafon. Mr. Vallifnieri had one produced in the "perfect fly-ftate, after forty days from the time of its firft change. Mr. Reaumur found thofe, which formed their fliell on the twenty fourth of April, not to produce the fly before the twenty feventh of June. Ibid. p. 558. The creature, when ready to appear in the fly-ftate, has no great difficulty in the getting out of its cafe'; the fwelling and, inflating its head, and throwing out its bladder, which is the practice of thefe creatures on this occafion, eafily de- taches a piece of the ihell, originally loofe, and gives the fly a fufficient paftage.

The fly, produced from this worm, has all the time of its life a very lazy difpofition, and does not like to make any ufe either of its legs or wings. Its head and corcelet to<*e- gether are about as long as its body, which is compofed'of five rings, ftreaked on the back ; a pale yellow and brown are there difpofed in irregular fpots; the belly is of the fame colours, but they are there more regularly difpofed, for the brown here makes three lines, one in the middle, and one on each fide, and all the intermediate fpaces are yellow. The wings are nearly of the fame length with the body, and are a little inclined in their pofition, (b as to lie upon the body ; they do not, however, cover it, but a naked fpace is left between them. The ailerons, or petty wings, which are found under each of the wings, are of a whitifh colour, and perfeflly cover the balancers, fo that they are not to be feen without lifting up thefe. The upper part of the corcelet is full of fmall black prominences, which, when examined by the microfcope, appear as fo many corns of gunpowder. Its head is large, in proportion to the fize of the body, and its reticular eyes are of a deep changeable green. Thefe eyes take up lefs fpace in the head, than" thofe of moft other flies ; they leave a confiderable fpace between them, and in that are placed the three fmaller, or gloffy eyes, which are placed in form of a fmall triangle, and: ftand fo near, as to touch one another. The reft of the upper part of the head is yellowifh, and viewed by the mi- crofcope, appears cavernous like a fpunge, or morel, and in the bottom of each of thefe fmall cavities is a little black prominence. There are two other hollows in. the anterior part of the head, in which the antennae are placed : thefe are of the battledoor form, but rather round than flat, and have each a large hair going from them. The under part of the head, which is rounder than the upper, is whitifh, and very fmooth ; it has two forts of bands directed downward, which are the elongations of the rims of the arches where the antenna? are lodged. The fmoothnefs of the underpart of the head makes one fee very diftincfly thefe three little tubercles; the upper one brown, the under ones of a pale deadifh yellow. The mouth of the fly feems to be placed between thefe, immediately under the upper tubercle. Ibid. ■ p. 559, 560.

The fly will live two months, after it is firft produced from the fhell, but will take no nourifhment of any kind ; and poflibly it may be of the fame nature with the butterflies, which never take any food during the whole time of their living in that ftate. Ibid. p. 561.

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