Bettle, Death Watch - Xestobium rugovillosum Deg. It is the species of the family Anobidae. It breeds in dry wood, particularly in old timbers in buildings, and reduces it to a honeycomb like structure.

Beetle Engraver - Certain members of family Scolytidae, whose bark tunnels form characteristic patterns having one or more egg galleries issuing from central nuptial chamber.

Beetle Longhorn - It is a member of the family Ceramycidae. Its larva bores in the wood of cambium mainly of injured, fallen, dying or dead trees.

Beetle Power-post - A member of the families Bostrychidae or lyctidae, It bores mainly in sapwood of seasoned timber and leavidg a fine flour-like dust.

Belgian Blue - A breed of cattle found in Belgium, South Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Belgain Hare - A breed of rabbit with the appearance of a hare, having an abnormally long head, ears and legs. Rich red or chestnut in colour with dark, wavy ticking.

Bell - 1.To bellow or roar. The cry of a stag at rutting time. 2. The catkin containing the female flowers of the hop. Also to be in flower.

Bell Wether - The leading sheep of a flock, with a bell on its neck.

Belly Band - A saddlegirth. Also a strap fastened to the shafts of a cart and passing under the belly of a horse towing it, so that the cart is prevented from tipping backwards.

Belt - A zone of country. 2. A term for sheep scab,

Belt Transect - A narrow strip of land taken as a sample of an area in studying the vegetation.

Belted Galloway - A variety of Galloway cattle with a white belt round the body. Also called Beltie.

Beltie - Belted Oalloway

Benazolin - A translocated herbicide, used only in mixtures, for controlling broad-leaved weeds.

Bench Cross-Section - Refers to the cross-section for contour benches. It is an important phase in planning for irrigation. Width of strip between ridges is kept such that it fits the farm equipment to be used height 0f the bend is kept sufficient to contour both normal irrigation stream and storm runoff.

Bench Terrace - It is the commonest type of terracing which is followed in India. It is constructed to make sloping land cultivable or stable. It has a series of platforms or mostly level benches which are cut into the slope in a step sides often with retaining walls supported by rock or vegetation. Vertical drop 2 to 6 ft. depending on slope and soil conditions. Small shoulder bund (1 1'1. height) is also constructed' along outer edge of terrace.

Benedict Solution - An alkaline copper sulfate solution, blue in colour. When a few drops of a reducing suger solution are added after heating the copper solution, the cupric copper gets reduced to the cuprous state and a change to a reddish colour is observed. It finds use as a test for the presence of sugars in solution.
Benedict's Test - A biochemical test whcih used for testing sugars. The Benedict's solution is prepared by mixing an alkaline copper sulphate solution with sodium citrate. The positive result for relatively large quantities of sugar and the negative results have been the same as those of Fehling's test.

Beneficial Cultivations - Those cultivations which enhance the condition of the land, or are good for crops.

Benomyl - A systemic fungicide.

Bent - A general terms for short flowering stems of grasses projecting above the turf and old dried grass-stalcks.

Benthic - Animals inhabiting the bottom of the sea (or fresh water.)

Benthos - A term used for organisms that are living collectively along the bottom of oceans and lakes

Benzene Hexachloride - Also called BHC. It is an effective and economic insecticide available as dusting powder, water dispersible powder, emulsifiable concentrate or solution and as fumigant in highly volatile solvents. It has 5 isomers of which gamma has been most important due to insecticidal value; insects killed by contact or by stomach of fumigant action, can be used in mixture with other insecticides and fungicides, except those having strongly alkaline materials like Bordeaux mixture, lime or lime sulphur.

Beri-beri - An illness by an acute deficiency of vitamin B (thiamine).

Betaine - A colourless, tasteless, crystalline substance present in sugar beet, producing a strong fishy taste on decomposition.

B.H.C - Benzene hexachloride, a persistent organochlorine insecticide used mainly in sprays and dusts. Particularly used to control wireworms and other soil pests.

Bible - The third stomach of a ruminant.

Biddy - A Hen.

Bident - A two-year-old sheep.

Biennial - A plant that flowers and bears fruit only in its second year, then dies. Examples include carrot and beetroot.

Bifoliate - Having two leaves or leaflets.

Big Bud - A swelling of current buds due to a gall-mite.

Bigg - Four rowed barley. Also called bear.

Big Leg - An animal disease which gets developed either in the front or hand legs and may be extending to the shoulder, neck and rump. It occurs due to vitamin A deficiency. The affected animals lose weight rapidy and move about slowly.

Big Neck - A goiter (of animals) which occurs due to iodine deficiency.

Bighead - An animal disease which is affecting ewes, lambs and goats during summer. It has been characterized by swelling of the parts of the head that are bare of lightly covered with wool. It occurs due to a toxic condition due to horsebrush poisoning (affecting the liver) and a swelling affecting the head. The disease appears in a band 15-25 hours after the animals have eaten the poisonous plants. The ears, eyelids, face or lips start swelling. The swollen parts of the head become hot and painful. Treatment involves confining the affected animal to a darkened barn feeding dry, laxiative feed such as barn, legume hay and plenty of fresh and clean water. Seriously affected cases need more care. Bathing the affected parts with an epsom salt solution is also effective. The disease could be prevented by confining the flock in a shed, barn or some other shaded area during midday.

Bile - A bitter, yellowish green secretion of the liver, important in the digestion of fats, and stored in the gall bladder. Also called gall.

Biliary Pigments - Pigments formed in the liver from the haemoglobin of old red cells that are destroyed there.

Bilirubin - One of the bile pigments.

Bill Hook - A hatchet with a curved point, used in hedge trimming, etc.

Billy Goat - A male goat. Also known as a buck.

Bin - 1.A large receptacle for storing feedingstuffs, com, fruit, etc. 2. A canvas container on a collapsible wooden frame used initially for storing hops when picked. Also called a crib.

Bin Sampler - Large size trier constructed on the principles of big triers for drawing samples from bins.

Binder - A machine (full name: reaper binder) which cuts and binds corn in sheaves. Powered by p.t.o., although older and heavier machines obtained power from a large bull wheel. It produces long, unbroken straw, used in thatching.

Bing - A feed passage, particularly for sheep.

Bink - A wasps' or bees' nest.

Bio-Assay - Refers to the evaluation of the effect of a substance on an organism under controlled conditions e.g., the bioassay of fungicides.

Biochemical - Deals with the study of chemical substances occuring in living organisms and the reactions and methods for identifying these substances.

Biochemistry - Deals with the study of chemical processes and substances occurring in living cells.

Bioengineering - Deals with the manufacture and use of artificial replacements for body organs that have been lost or are malfunctioning, like artificial limbs, heart pacemakers.

Biogas - A mixture of methane (70%) and carbon dioxide produced as an alternative source of energy by the anaerobic digestion of waster material mainly animal slurries, but also crop residues and industrial wastes. Research continues to perfect the technique and includes the use of digested slurries as animal feedingstuffs.

Biological Erosion - Erosion of soil by water or wind because of the soil being exposed by the burrowing of rodents, destruction of vegetation by insects etc.

Biological Clock - Physiological mechanism in plants and animals which makes them to have a knowledge of time and to take account of it, even if the normal indicator of day and night lumii1osity are lacking.

Biological Control - Refers to the reduction or control of a pest by introducing a suitable predator into its habitat e.g., the control of the greenhouse whitetly Thriaeurodes by the minute chalcid wasp Encarsia.

Biological Interchange - The term used for the interchange of elements betweeu organic and inorganic states in a soil or other substrate through the agency of biological activity. It occurs due to the biological decomposition of organic compounds and the liberation of inorganic materials on the one hand (mineralization), and the utilization of inorganic materials in synthesis of microbial tissue on the other (immobilization). Both processes commonly take place continually in normal soils.

Biological Mineralization - The conversion of an element occurring in organic compounds to the inorganic form because of biological decomposition.

Biological Weathering - Physical and chemical weatherings which, are assisted by biological agencies.

Biomass - Refers to the total weight of living matter in a population. It is usually expressed in terms of dry weight per unit area.

Biopsy - Diagnostic examination of a piece of tissue which has been removed from the living organism.

Biosynthesis - Refers to the coming together of chemical building units to form new materials in living plant or animal.

Biosystematic - The science of classification of organisms.

Biota - Fauna and flora of a region.

Biotin - It refers to one of the ten recognised vitamins of the B complex. It is widely distributed in foods.