Draught Horse - A horse used to pull carts, trailers and farm implements (e.g., the Shire horse).

Drawbar - A metal bar at the back of a tractor to which implements are attached.

Dray - A low strong cart with no fixed sides, used for carrying heavy loads.

Dredge Corn - A mixture of cereals sown together (e.g., oats and barley) producing a yield of grain better than if either crop were grown separately. (Mashlum).

Drench - A liquid medicine poured down an animal's throat.

Dress - In general terms to clean prepare or repair.
1. To apply fertilizer to land (e.g., Top Dressing.)
2. To chemically treat seeds before sowing to control fungal disease in growing crops, particularly cereals.
3. To clean com seeds by removing Chaff, weeds and other unwanted matter.
4. To remove the tough fibres from flax.
5. To sort potatoes into various sizes.
6. To prune a hop plant by cutting the previous year's growth from the crown.
7. To recut grooves in a millstone.

Dressed Carcase - Carcase.

Dried Blood - An Organic Fertilizer derived from waste blood from slaughterhouses, dried by evaporation. It has a nitrogen content of about 13%.

Dried Grass - Grass which, after cutting, has been thoroughly dried by artificial means, and is used as an ingredient in animal feeding stuffs. It is either milled and mixed with molasses to produce cubes or pellets, or pressed directly into cobs or waters. Used for many years for poultry and pigs, and now becoming popular as a dairy cow ration combined with a concentrate and roughage. Sometimes called dehydrated foddeer.

Drill - 1. An implement used to sow seed in rows (Seed Drill). Seed and fertilizer may also be sown simultaneously using a Combine Drill.
2. A ridge with seed or growing plants on it (e.g., turnips, potatoes), or the plants in such a row.

Drill Barrow - A hand drive Seed Drill.

Drill Harrow - 1. A light flexible Chain Harrow trailed behind a Seed Drill to cover the seed with extra soil.
2. A drill mounted on a Spring Tined Harrow. Also called a tine harrow.

Drill Plough - An old type of trailed plough with an apparatus attached to the beam which drilled seed directly into the newly produced furrow.

Drilled to a Stand - Seeds sown by a Seed Drilll at predetermined intervals so as to produce a crop with a specific plant population which requires no thinning. (Thin).

Drone - A male bee.

Dropsy - Means the excessives accumulation of waterly fluid in any of the tissues or cavities of animal body.

Drought - An extended period without rain.

Drought (Agriculture) - Shortage of moisture for crop growth or animal production.

Drought (Resistance) - (1) Characteristics of plants which are suitable for cultivation in dry condition regardless of the inherent mechanism that provides resistance. One of the more important properties is the capacity to endure, without injury, an intense loss of water.
(2) Refers to the relative ability to maintain growth yield under moisturestress conditions.

Drought Year - When rain fall is short by more than twice the deviation, year is regarded as a drought year for a particular place.

Drove - 1. A number of cattle or sheep being driven from place to place.
2. A track along which cattle or sheep are driven. Also called drift, drift way.

Drum - The cylinder of a Threshing Machine or Combine Harvester bearing Beaters, which revolves and dislodges the grain from the ears of cereals. Also called a threshing drum.

Drumhead - A kind of Cabbage having a flattish round head.

Drup - A kind of fruit comprising a hard kernel containing a single seed enclosed within a fleshy pulp, e.g.,plum, cherry. Also called a stone fruit.

Dry Bible - A disease of homed cattle in which the third stomach, or bible is very dry.

Dry Cow - A cow not producing milk.

Dry Cured Bacon - Bacon preserved by being rubbed with dry salt as opposed to being soaked in brine.

Dry Fanning - Refers to the type of agricultural operation which involves deep cultivation of the soil to form a sufficient reservoir for the moisture as it falls, surface cultivation to prevent or reduce evaporation selection of drought resistant crops.

Dry Feeding - A method of feeding meal to animals in a dry state without the addition of water. Used with pigs and poultry.

Dry Mash - A mixture of feedingstuffs fed to animals in a dry state.

Dry Matter - The various mineral and organic components (e.g. Ash, Crude Protein, etc.) in feedingstuff derived by Proximate Analysis.

Dry Milking - Also called dry hand milking. Complete milking to ensure that the udder of cow has been completely empty or dry.

Dry Measure - A system of measuring by bulk. (Bushel, Peck).

Dry Period - A period between Lactations when a cow is allowed to rest from the strain of producing milk, usually of 6-8 weeks duration.

Dry Planting (Sugarcane) - Refers to the practice of planting the cane in dry condition of soil and irrigating later on. This method of followed in heavy black soil.

Dry Rot - 1. The decay of timber caused by fungi. The wood is destroyed and reduced to a dry, brittle, powdery mass.
2. A storage disease of potatoes caused mainly by the fungus. Spores infect the tubers via woulds and bruises caused by rough handling during harvesting. Tubers are caused to wither and wrinkle.

Dry Roughase - Bulky dry, non-succulent animal foods (e.g., hay and straw), rich in Crude Fibre, used mainly in Maintenance Rations for Cattle and sheep. Also called coarse fodder.

Drying-off - Gradual reduction of the volume of milk taken from a cow so as to cause it to cease lactating.

Drying front - Refers to the advancing zone of the bin of drying grain which includes all the grain which has just reached some arbitrarily initial moisture content, the zone between the initial and final moisture content.

Dual-purpose Breeds - Breeds of (a) cattle considered useful for both beef and milk production, (b) poultry considered good both for egg laying and as table birds, and, (c) pigs, the females of which are kept generally for crossing with either bacon or pork type boars.

Dubbing - The removal of the comb of a cock. Also the trimming of part of the comb in Day Old Chicks. The practice reduces frost bite, and is advantageous of serious Cannibalism or pecking occurs.

Duck - A smaller bird of the duck family (Anatidae). The female adult duck as distinct from the male adult duck or drake.

Duckling - A young duck, usually less than 12 weeks old.

Duff - The organic layer in forests. It consists of fallen vegetative matter in the process of decomposition, including everything from pure humus below to the litter on the surface. Duff is a general, non specific term.

Dug - A niple or udder, particularly of a cow.

Dump Box - A large portable container similar to a Forage Wagon, placed adjacent to a Silo, into which trailer loads of Forage from the field are tipped, and from which the forage is delivered in an even steady flow, usually by a moving floor mechanism or elevator belt, for loading into the silo. It may also be used to deliver forage directly into a Manger.

Dump Rake - An expression for hay rake.

Dung - The faeces of animals. Also to excrete in while grazing, or to spread it on the land.

Dung Liquor - The dark coloured liquid which drains from a manure heap, containing soluble compounds of ammonia and organic matter.

Duster - Machine to apply chemicals in dust form. Dusters make use of airstreams to carry pesticides in finely divided dry form on the plants.

Duster, Pluger Type - Simple duster having a small piston. The piston drives a current of air over the dust in the hopper.

Duster, Power Operated - It mainly consists of a power driven fan, a hopper and a delivery spout. The fan creates strong air flow which makes the dust to blow off from the hopper to a considerable distance either vertically or horizontally.

Duster, Rotary Type - Duster with a hand operated rotor in front of the operator. For dusting tall crops, more force of delivery is required and hence rotary dusters are preferaed.

Dusting - The application of insecticide or fungicide to crops in a dry, powdery state. It is less efficient than spraying, usually requiring about twice the amount of chemical per unit area.

Dwarf Trees - Trees made smaller than the size commonly accepted as normal for the species and variety under consideration.

Dye Reduction Test - Test of measurement of activity of bacteria in a sample of milk. It is the measurement of rate of consumption of oxygen in milk due to bacterial growth and activity. Indicators such as methylene blue or resazurin are used which decolorize milk when oxygen level in its falls. Time taken for decolorization provides indication of bacterial numbers and keeping quality of milk.

Dyke - 1. A ditch or minor lowland watercourse. 2. A raised bank of earth, stones, etc., constructed to keep a river or sea water from flooding adjoining, usually lowlying, land. Also called Dike.

Dynamometer - An instrument which measures power. Used in agriculture to measure the resistance or Draft of any implement drawn by a tractor.