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Sulfiting - Practice of treating certain fruits and vegetable prior to dehydration, with low concentrations of sulphur dioxide or a salt of sulphurous acid dissolved in water to inactivate enzymes that promote oxidative darkening.
Sulphate of Ammonia - [NH4)2SIO4] Ammonium sulphate, a nitrogenous fertilizer occurring as a soluble salt in the form of white needle like crystals once produced as a by-product of coal-gas manufacture but now synthesised. In common with other none metallic ammonium salts, when applied to fields the sulphate radical combines with calcium in the soil and is leached out, depleting the soil of lime and increasing acidity. It contains about 21 % nitrogen.
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Sulphate Potash - (K2SO4) Potassium sulphate, a fertilizer containing about 50% potash, occurring as a white crystalline powder, produced by the action of sulphuric acid on muriate of potash. Mainly used by fruit growers and in market gardens, and also on potatoes which produce tubers with a higher dry matter contents than when muriate of potash is applied.
Sulphur (S) - A non-metallic chemical element, occurring as paleyellow crystals in several forms, required by living organisms a constituent of protein (particularly keratin in animals) and some oils.
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Sulphuric Acid - An extremely corrosive, colourless, oily liquid, which chars organic matter and is sometimes used as a Contact herbicide, e.g., to bum off diseased potato haulm. Also called oil of vitriol.
Summer Feeding - 1. The supplying of water to marshland in the summer, usually by impounding river water to prevent natural drainage and the lowering of the water table. .2. The feeding regime of cattle in the summer months involving outdoor grazing with or without supplementary rations.
Sunflower - A composite plant the seeds of which are rich in edible oil, used for margarine, cooking oil and in medicine. The residue, after oil extraction, is used to produce cake or meal with a high Fibre content, sometimes used in Concentrates for cattle and sheep but not fed to pigs. The seed is sometimes fed to poultry, particularly during moulting.
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Superphosphate - A type of fertilizer once widely used but now largely superseded by the more concentrated ammonium phosphate and triple superphosphate. It is a greyish, granular or powdery substance, produced by treating finely ground rock phosphate with a restricted amount of sulphuric acid, yielding mono-calcium phosphate, calcium sulphate and some unchanged rock phosphate. Superphosphate contains 18-21 % water soluble phosphate.
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Supplementary Rations - The concentrates fed to livestock in addition to bulk foods such as hay straw and roots.
Support Crops - Certain fast growing crops work as supports to vinecrops e.g., castor, shevri etc.
Surface Cultivations - Those tillage operations which are of a shallownature and only affect the top soil, e.g., to kill weeds, as distinctfrom those which involve deeper ploughing.
Surface Drainage - The practice of removing surplus water from landby surface channels, e.g., ridges and furrows, as distinct fromvia subsoil drains.
Surface Water - Water unable to penetrate and drain through the soiland which finds its way to drainage channels, streams and riversvia the surface of the soil.
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Sward - The carpet of grasses, clovers and other grassland speciescovering the ground in a pasture.
Swath - A band of grass, com or other crop cut by a mower or scythe, lying on the ground.
Swath Turner - A tractor-drawn implement used in haymaking which gently inverts a swath exposing the underside to enable it to dry.
Swayback - 1. A brain disease of lambs due to an inadequacy of copper in the ewe's diet, which causes paralysis and is often fatal. Lambs are seen to stagger or unable to walk.
2. A horse with a sagging back.
Swede - A rootcrop (Brassica rutabaga) similar to the turnip, characterised by smooth, ashy-grey leaves growing from an extended stem or 'neck', marked by scars. By contrast, turnips have hairy, grass green leaves arising direct from the bulb itself. Swedes have a higher nutritional value than turnips, with Dry Matter content of 10-13%. They also haxe a longer growing period, are more hardy and are easily stored for winter feeding to livestock. They are sometimes pulped and mechanically fed to mangers. They are also sometimes grazed off in the field by folding. White and yellow-fleshed types exist, and of the latter, purple, bronze and green-skinned varieties are available. They are often grown as a root break following cereals.
Sweet Corn - Varieties of maize, the cobs of which are sweet and harvested for human consumption.
Sweet-Cure - A cure for bacon increasingly used as a replacement for the wiltshire cure, involving the injection of brine as distinct from soaking in brine.
Sweet Soil - A fertile alkaline soil, as distinct from a sour or infertile acid soil.
Swill - Waste food from kitchens used for feeding to pigs.
Swine Fever - An infectious notifiable disease of pigs caused by a virus. It is characterised by fever, refusal to eat, foul-smelling diarrhoea, discharges from the eyes, distressed breathing and general weakness. The disease may be acute, particularly in young pigs, and death may occur in a few days or it may take a chronic form, mainly in older pigs, which remain ill for a long period and lose condition, but may not die. Also called hog cholera and pig typhoid.
Swine Paratyphoid - Infectious bacterial disease occurring in acute or chronic from characterized by fever, anorexia and red or purple discolouration of skin on certain parts of the body followed by diarrhoea. It is caused by Salmonella choleraesuts which is specially adapted to swine.
Swine Vesicular Disease - A notifiable disease of pigs, caused by a virus. The symptoms are identical to those of foot and mouth disease and it is only distinguishable by virological testing in the laboratory. Its spread is associated with the feeding of swill. It is easily transmitted 'by untreated animal waste, and swill must, by law, now be boiled before feeding. S.V.D. is controlled by compulsory slaughter of infected pigs.
Swing Plough - An old type of plough which lacked wheels and had a shortish mouldboard, so that it produced a greater digging action than ordinary ploughs.
Switch - 1. A long, flexible twig or shoot. 2. To prone or trim a hedge, tree, etc.
Symbiosis - The phenomenon of two different organisms living together for mutual benefit, e.g., the association of nitrogen-fixing bacteria with leguminous plants in the root nodules. The bacteria obtain carbohydrates and other foods from the plants and fix atmospheric nitrogen (Nitrogen Fixation) which is made available to the plants in various compounds. Lichens consist of fungi and algae living together symbiotically.
Syrup Feeds - By-products of the whisky distilling industry which are turned into animal feeds, particularly for dairy cattle. they comprise a blend of malt or maize draff and distiller's syrups and have been shown to contain high sources of energy and protein.
Systematic Ploughing - The ploughing of field inlands.
Systemic Compound - A chemical which, when applied to foliage or the soil, is absorbed by a plant and moved in the sap to all parts of the plant. Insects sucking the sap of plants treated with systemic insecticides are poisoned. Translocated-herbicides are systemic compounds.
System of Farming - The combination of products on a given farm and the methods or practices that are used in the production of these products is known as system of farming.
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