Segmented Seed - The 'seeds' of certain rootcrops (e.g., Mangel, Sugar Beet) naturally borne in clusters of fruit each containing a single true seed, which are often separated for sowing. If the cluster itself is sown, several seedlings may develop which makes singling a slow operation.

Selection - The basis of animal and plant breeding in which individuals are selected for breeding on the basis of specific desired characteristic or qualities.

Selective Cutting (Forestry) - System of cutting in which single trees, usually the largest, or small groups of such trees, are removed and reproduction secured under the remaining stand and in the openings.

Selective Herbicide - A herbicide capable of killing or stunting the growth of weeds growing in a crop but having little or no harmful effect on the crop itself.

Self-feed Silage - A management system whereby stock are allowed to graze silage in situ, the amount taken being controlled by an electric fence or movable barrier set a short distance from the silage.

Self-mulching Soil - A soil, the surface of which is so well aggregated that it does not crust over under rainy conditions and is able to act as a surface mulch when the soil dries.

Self Pruning - Natural death and fall of branches, especially the lower branches, from the live plants due to causes such as light and food deficiencies, decay, insect attack, snow and ice.

Self-sown - A term applied to a plant which grows from wild as distinct from sown seed.

Self-sterile Plant - A plant which is not able to fertilize itself with its own pollen.

Semen - A liquid produced by the male reproductive organs of animals containing seprm.

Semi-digger - A type of mouldboard with a gently concave curvature and twisted along its length, sometimes with a renewable leading edge or shin, and producing a broken furrow slice. It is in general use for various operations including moderately deep ploughing (e.g., for rootcrops), ploughing-in farmyard manure and surface trash, rapid seed bed preparation in the spring, and winter ploughing on well drained soils. It ploughs to a depth of 30-35 cm (12-14 in.) and is therefore intermediate between the digger and general purpose mould-board.

Semolina - Particles of fine, hard wheat which do not pass into flour during milling.

Sepal - One of the green leaf like parts of a flower which form the calyx and surround the petals.

Separated Milk - Milk from which the cream has been removed by centrifuging. It has about half the energy value of whole milk, but a relatively higher content of protein and minerals and is used as an animal feedingstuff. It has a dry matter content of about 9%. The removal of fat means that it is deficient in the fat soluble vitamins. A, D and E, but it is a good source of the B complex vitamins. It is sometimes fed to pigs in the liquid form combined with barley meal. More usually it is reduced to a dried powder, with a protein content exceeding 30%. Such powder has various uses such as the production of substitute milks for calves and orphan lambs (when vegetable oils are incorporated before drying), and inclusion in chick rations and in meals for creep feeding to piglets. Also called skim milk.

Serve - To copulate with. Also called cover.

Service - The act of a male animal serving, covering or copulating with a female.

Service Sample - Seed sample submitted to the Central Seed Laboratory, or a State Seed Laboratory and the results of which are to be used as information for seedling, seeling or labelling purposes.

Set - 1. To form fruit or seed.
2. To put a hen on eggs to hatch them or to put eggs under a broody hen.
3. To plant young plants, bulbs and potatoes.
4. A seed potato or a piece of a potato used for planting.
5. A plant cutting or shoot used as a scion in a Graft, or placed in a rooting medium or the grow roots.
6. A badger's burrow.
7. A breeding group of geese, usually comprising 1 gander with 3-5 geese.
8. A young hop plant.
9. To adjust a plough for work.

Set-to - An orphan lamb fostered by another ewe.

Set-Up - To mark out the headland in a field with a market furrow, and the various lands with ridges, before commencing ploughing.

Sewage Sludge - A partially dried residue from sewage treatment works sometimes used as a fertilizer. Compared with Farmyard manure it is poor in potash and less beneficial on soil texture.

Shab - A term for sheep scab.

Shamble - A slaughterhouse or a meat market.

Share - A pointed steel or cast iron blade attached to the front of a
mouldboard on the Body of a plough which makes a horizontal cut under the furrow slice which is then turned by the mouldboard. Also called plughshare or point.

Sharp - 1. A meal in which the particles are clearly visible.
2. A descriptive term for light, gravelly land which tends to wear implements.

Sharps - A term once given to a category of wheat offal resulting from milling. All wheat offals, apart from bran, are now sold as weatings for use in feedingstuffs.

Shaw - 1. A small wood or coppice.
2. The aerial parts of rootcrops. Shear.
1. To cut or clip a fleece from a sheep.
2. A term used in loosely describing a sheep's age. For instance, a three shear ewe is between 3 and 4 years old, having been shorn three times.

Shearing - The clipping of a fleece from a sheep, now-a-days almost always by machine shearing as distinct from the old practice of hand shearing. This normally takes place when the warm summer weather has caused the yolk (grease) to rise in the wool.

Shearling - A young sheep between its first and second shearing.

Shed - 1. To separate one or more animals, from a flock or herd.
2. Cereal crops are said to shed grain when a strong wind or heavy rain, etc., causes the grain to drop from the ears.

Shedder - A race leading to a two-way swing gate, along which sheep may be drivel} in order to separate or shed some individuals from a flock.

Sheep Cote - An enclosure for sheep.

Sheep Dip - An approved chemical used in a dipping bath dilluted in water, to disinfect sheep to control parasitic diseases such as sheep scab.

Sheep Maggot Fly - A type of Blow Fly (Lucilia sericata), also known as green bottle, metallic blue-green in colour and of similar appearance to the house-fly. It lays its eggs in wounds and in the fleece, and on hatching the maggots bore into the flesh, causing the condition known as strike.

Sheep Names - The names given to sheep are probably more numerous than for any other of the domesticated animals, and a great many local terms and variations exist.

Sheep Nostril Fly - A type of Bot Fly (Oestrus ovis), greyish yellow brown in colour, which either lays its eggs or deposits the hatched maggots in the nostrils of sheep. The maggot crawls upwards towards the sinuses causing a nasal discharge and the condition known as staggers. When fully grown it is discharged by sneezing and forms a Pupa in the ground.

Sheep Pox - A very contagious viral disease (Variola ovina) of sheep causing fever, cessation of feeding, difficulty in breathing, depression and skin eruptions, with a severe loss of condition if badly affected. In Britain it is a notifiable disease with compulsory slaughter of all affected sheep.

Sheep Pulmonary Adenomatosis - A highly contagious, progressive pneumonia affecting the lungs of sheep.

Sheep Run - An area of open grassland used for keeping sheep on.

Skeep Scab - A notifiable disease of sheep caused by the mite Psoroptes communits, which lives on the skin surface and feeds on Serum emanating from puncture wounds which it inflicts and which become inflamed, forming scabs. An irritant poison secreted by the mites causes the sheep to scratch and rub itself, with the fleece becoming detached in patches revealing the scabs, which are themselves rubbed off leaving ulcerations. Prevention is by compulsory dripping.

Sheep Walk - A range of pasture on which sheep are allowed to graze.

Sheep-gate - 1. A hurdle used for penning sheep.
2. A right of graze sheep on land. Also the land on which such a right exists.

Sheet Erosion - The erosion or removal of surface soil in a uniform manner under the influence of surface run off water.

Shell - To remove the grain from the ears of cereals.

Shelter Belt - A line or 'belt' of trees purposely planted to act as a shield and provide shelter against the weather, particularly the prevailing winds. Soil erosion is checked and crop yields show an improvement.

Shift - One of the crops in a Rotation (e.g., the barley shift), or the entire sequence or rotation itself (e.g., a four-course shift).

Shim - A horse shoe.

Shin - The leading edge of a mouldboard which in some types (e.g.Digger, Semi-Digger) may be replaced when it becomes worn. Sometimes called a cutter.

Shire - The largest and heaviest breed of draught horse, with well feathered legs, a heavy head, short arched neck, and a shortish, wide, very strong, muscular body. Males can stand over 17 hands high and may weigh over 1000 kg (1 ton). Variously coloured, often with white markings on the head and feet.

Shoddy - A waste product of the woolen industry consisting of discarded shreds and fragments of material, used as a fertilizer, particularly by horticulturalists. Its quality depends on the amount of pure wool (which is entirely protein) in it. The presence of other waste products (e.g. cotton) results in the nitrogen content varying considerably in the range 3-12%.

Shoot the Red. The stage in growth of a young turkey when the face reddens and the wattle develops.

Short Manure - Another term for short dung.

Short Sheep - Short-woolled sheep.

Short Work - The ploughing of those odd comers left unploughed (short land) during the main systematic ploughing of a field.

Shots - Small lambs which are sometimes culled.

Shut Up - To prevent stock from having access to a meadow or pasture so that the grass is able to grow and subsequently be cut for hay or silage.

Siblings - Progeny with the same parents, lie., brothers and sisters.