FODDER
.—The winter provender for HORSES and CATTLE is so called, and consists of barley and oat straw, peas haum, the short rakings of the barn floor after threshing the corn, and previous to cleaning it; all which, with good shelter in the most severe and dreary part of the season, constitute no ill accommodation; particularly those FARMYARDS in the country that are well managed, from whence HORSES, after a winter's run, frequently come up FIRM in FLESH, and not very foul in condition. On the contrary, those who are advocates for the STRAW-YARDS within ten or fifteen miles of the Metropolis, had better cut the throats of their HORSES than make the experiment: they barely exist in a state of wretched starvation, are brought up in the months of April and May objects of dreadful emaciation, and commonly occasion more expence to generate flesh, and render them fit for use, than they are afterwards worth. An insufficiency of sweet, good, and healthy FODDER, or even a profusion of stinking oats, or musty hay, will inevitably impoverish the blood, and lay the foundation of SURFEIT, MANGE, FARCY, and other disorders.
FOIL
,—a term used in HARE HUNTING. When, during the chase, a hare, after a head or double, runs over the ground she has ran before, she is then said to be running the foil, and with strict truth, for nothing can so much foil the HOUNDS as a chase of this description. Old hares, who have speed enough to break away, and get considerably a-head, almost invariably throw themselves out to the right or left, double, and QUAT; particularly if a hedge-row, hedge, fern, furze, or any kind of covert presents itself favourably for the purpose. The HOUNDS continuing to run the scent to the spot where she made her head, over-run the hare, and having no continuance of scent, are of course at fault; during which delay of trying forward, trying back, making a cast to the right, then a cast to the left, the HARE slips into her foil; by repeatedly running of which with the same instinctive sagacity, she as repeatedly saves her life; without which, and many similar innate shifts to avoid their numerous enemies, there would not long be a HARE left in the country.
FOLDING-NET
.—See Bat Fowling.
FOMENTATION
—is, perhaps, the most generally useful of all external applications in a great variety of cases, and cannot of course be too well known, or too much encouraged. It is a process but little prescribed or practised by FARRIERS or VETERINARIANS; either because its efficacious property is very little known; or the persevering patience required in the act, is too great for constitutional indolence. In all inflammatory tumours and enlargements arising from STRAINS, BLOWS, BRUISES, and various other injuries, the efficacy of hot and persevering FOMENTATION can only be known to those who have repeatedly experienced its salutary effects. In fact, its properties are twofold, in as much as it assists NATURE in whichever is her most predominant effort, either for absorption or suppuration.
Fomentations are prepared by boiling three or four double handsful of the different kinds of aromatic garden herbs in six quarts or two gallons of water, occasionally stirring them for a quarter of an hour; then let the part affected be patiently FOMENTED with sponges or flannels, alternately dipped in the DECOCTION, as hot as it can be consistently used without injury to the hair. If the TUMOUR, or enlargement, does not threaten suppuration, the absorption may be assisted by a gentle persevering friction in hand-rubbing, previous to the application of such REPELLENT as may be thought applicable to the case: on the contrary, should a formation of matter have evidently taken place, the intention of nature cannot be too expeditiously promoted; an EMOLLIENT POULTICE should instantly follow the FOMENTATION, and both be repeated once or twice a-day, according to the magnitude of the emergency.
The herbs chiefly in use for FOMENTATIONS (and from which any three or four may be selected) are Roman and COMMON WORMWOOD, MALLOWS and MARSHMALLOWS, LAVENDER leaves and flowers, Rosemary leaves, CAMMOMILE flowers, Elder flowers, and Bay leaves. These are articles not always to be readily obtained; and as they are in all HUNTING establishments likely to be wanted upon the most sudden emergencies, GENTLEMEN in the country will find the convenience of giving orders for an annual supply to be provided, and properly dried, in the summer, that no disappointment may be experienced in the winter, when their use is more likely to be required. They are kept ready mixed at the BOTANICAL SHOPS in the different markets of the Metropolis, and may always be had in any quantity under the denomination of FOMENTATION HERBS.