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fummer when the moulting feafon is, a great number are de- ftroyed alfo by the people of the neighbourhoods. The poor birds at this time are neither able to fvriln nor to fly well ; and the people going in with boats among the reeds, where they lie, beat them down with long poles. A little before Michael- mas, vaft flights of thefe birds arrive at the decoys from other places ; they foon grow fat in them, and continue there a prey to the mafters or owners, as long as the decoys are un- frozen, but when they are iced over, they fly away again, and go to the neighbouring feas for food. Philof. Tranf. N°. 223.
The fens alfo abound in a fort of herbage that is very nou- rilhing to cattle : fheep and horfes always grow fat upon it. Thefe fens are common, and the owners of cattle mark them, that they may be known. It is remarkable, that though all is open, the cattle ufed to one particular fpot of ground, feldom leave it, but the owner may find them always in or near the fame place. The fens have many large and deep drains. In thefe the pike and eels grow to a vaft fize ; and they are full of geefe which feed on the grafs, but thefe eat rank and muddy, and may even be fmelt as foon as a perfon comes into a room where they are roafting. But the people have another very great advantage in thefe, befide the eating them, that is, their feathers and quills ; and the produce of thefe is fo great, that the cuftom-houfe books in the town of Bofton fhew, that there are frequently fent away in one year, three hundred bags of feathers ; each bag containing a hundred and a half weight. Each pound of feathers, brings in the owner two-pence, and it may be thought itrange by people unacquainted with thefe things, but it is a certain truth, that the owners pull them five or iix times a year for the feathers, and three times for their quills. Each pulling comes to about a pound, and many people have a thoufand geefe at a time, or more. They are kept at no charge, except in deep fnowy weather, when they are obliged to feed them with corn. Oats alfo grow very well in many of the fen countries, and in good feafons bring great increafe and advantage to the own- er. There is alfo another vegetable of great profit to them. This is the rapum fylvejlre, the feed of this, they call cole-feed ; and they make an oil from it of great ufe in trade. They grind the feed between two large ftones, the one frand- ing perpendicularly on the other. The ftones are made of a fort of black marble, and are brought from Germany. They fometimes turn them by fails, and fometimes by the drains which carry off the water from the fen lands. The fens lying low and being of a vaft extent, are very fubjeel to be overflowed by waters from the neighbouring high coun- tries, and though great care and expence is ufed to keep them dry, they are often like a fea, and the fheep are obliged to be carried off in boats, and the people to live in their upper rooms and be fupplied with provilions alfo by boats.
FEODAL, feodalis or feudalis, of or belonging to a feud, or fee. Hence feudal fervices, &c. See Feudal, Cycl.
FEODALITY, the fealty paid to the lord by his feudal tenant. See Fealty, Cycl
FEODATARY, or Feudatary. See Feodary and
Fti.UDATARY, Cycl.
FEODITAS, in old writers, is fometimes ufed for fdelitas, or fealty. See Fealty, Cycl.
FERiE, in the Linnesan fyftem of zoology, one of the orders of animals; the characters of which are, that they have {harp teeth, the fore-teeth are fix in number, and the canine or dog teeth longer than the reft. Of this order are the bear, the lion, the tyger, the cat, the weafel, the didelphis or philander, the otter, the fea-calf, the dog, the badger, the hedgehog, the mole, and the bat, which this author makes not a bird, but a quadruped with its fore-feet expanded into a fort of wings.
FERALIA, among the Romans, a feftival kept in honour of the dead. Vid. Mem. Acad. Infcript. T. 1. p. 43.
FERDELLA terra, was ufed antiently for a quarter or fourth part of a yard land — decent acres faciunt ferdellam, quatuor ferdellat factum virgatam, & quatuor virgatce faciunt hidam, or. quatuor hidse faciunt feudum militate. Spclm. and Du Cange, in voc.
FERDFARE, in our old writers, is ufed for being difcharged from going to war — quietantiam eundi in exercitum. Fleta, Lib. 1. c. 47. Du Cange. in voc.
FERETRUM, among the Romans, the bier ufed in carrying out the bodies of the dead ; which duty was performed by the neareft male relations of the deceafed : thus, fons carried out their parents, brothers their filters, &c. Hofm. Lex, in voc. See Burying and Burial.
FERIJEE, in the drefs of the Egyptians, is a fort of skirt worn over another garment, and made either of black woollen, or of other coloured cloth furred, this by the more genteel peo- ple is left open before. It fomething refembles a night-gown. Pocock't, Egypt, p. 189.
FERLING, in our old ftatutes, is ufed for the fourth part of a penny. Afiif. panis & cerevis. 51 Hen. 3. Blount.
FERLINGATA terra, in our old writers, according to Blount, is the fame as ferlmgus terra:, which lord Coke on Littleton
fays, was 3 quarehline, or thirty-two acres of land But cording to the authorities quoted by Du Cange ' Gloff L voc. Quarcntena, it contained but 40 perches.
FERLINGUS terra;. Sec Ferlingata term.
FERME a ferme, in the manege, fignifies to exercife in th- fame place without ftiriing or parting.
FERMENT, [Cycl.) a n.,me given by our writers on brewery and the like tubjects, to fuch matters of whatever kind as when put to a rightly difpofed fermentable liquor, will caufe It to ferment much fooner, and much faftcr than it would of it, fell, and thus fllorten the operation of making the liquors from them.
Thofe things are called/omnrfi in an allufive fenfe, which when added to the liquor, only corrca fome fault therein, and by re- moving fome obftacle to the fermentation, forward it by fe- condary means ; as alfo fuch as being added in time of fermen- tation, make the liquor yield a larger proportion of fpirit, and give it a finer flavour ; all thefe additions have the name of ferments among our diftillers, but all the laft improperly. The primary ufe of ferments is, to fave time, and make difpatch of bufmefs, while they only occafionally and accidentally give a flavour, or add to the quantity of the'fpirit ; and according- ly all fermentable liquors, may without the lead addition, on- ly by a due application of heat, be brought to ferment more perfealy, though it will be more flowly than with the addi- tion of any ferment. Tile general ferments ufed on thefe oc- cafions are the flowers and faeces of fermentable liquors ge- nerated, thrown up or depofited, during the time of the fermentation in that liquor, or after the end of it. There are two of thik ferments, procurable in large quantities, and at a fmall price; thefe are beer yeaft, and wine lees. A prudent and artificial management of thefe, might render the bunnefi of the brewery for diftillation, as in the bufmefs of the malt- diftiller, &c. much more eafy and advantageous. It his al- ways been found a great difficulty to procure thefe ferments in proper quantities, and preferve them always ready for ufe ; and this has been a great difcouragement to the bufmefs, and hence fome have been reduced to contrive artificial ferments, or to form mixtures or compounds of particular fermentable ingredients; but this has been attempted without any great fuccefs, all thefe mixtures falling fhort even of the common baker's leaven in their ufe. Whoever has a turn for makino- experiments, and attempting improvements of this kind, will find it much eafier and more advantageous to preferve and raife nurfenes of the common ones, than to devife mixtures of others. Yeaft may be preferved by freeing it from its moifter parts; this may be done by the fun's heat, but it will be flow- ly, and imperfeaiy. The beft method is by gentle preflins it in canvas bags; thus the liquid part in which there is fcarce any virtue, will be thrown off, and the folid will remain be- hind in form of a cake, which may be packed in a barrel or box, and will keep a long time fweet and fragrant, and fit for the fineft ufes ; and the lame method may be ulid either with wine-lees, or the flowers of wine.
The former may be brought from abroad in this manner with great eale ; and the latter may be made with us from the lees by only diflolving them in warm water, and ftirrlng then* about with a ftick ; by this means the lighter and more move- able and aaive part of the lee will be thrown up to the top and may be taken off" and preferved in this manner above- mention'd in any quantity that mail be defired. By this means an eafy method is lound of raifing an inexhauftible fund, or a perpetual fupply of the mod ufeful ferments may be readily formed m the way of fucceffive generation, fo as to cut offal! future occafion of complaint for want of them in the bufmefs of diftillation. It mult be obferved, that all ferments abound 111 cllential oil much more than the liquors which produce them ; whence they very ftrongly retain the particular fcent and flavour of the fubjefl from which they were made. 'Tis therefore requifite, before the ferment is apply'd, to c'onfider what flavour ought to be introduced, and accordingly what fpecies of ferment is molt fuited to the liquor. The alteration thus caufed by ferments is fo confiderable, as to determine or bring over any naturally fermentable liquor of a neutral kind to be of the fame nature with that which yielded the ferment This is an observation of greater moment than will be pre- fently conceived, as not only opening a new fcene in the bufi- nefs of diftillery, but alfo in fome other bufmefs depending on fermentation.
The benefit of this however does not extend to malt treated in the common way for the fpirit, nor to any other matter which does not naturally yield a tolerably pure and taftelefs fpirit ; as it otherwife makes not a fimple, pure and uniform flavour, 'but a compound and mixed one. How far the fine diltiller may apply it, deferves his confideration ; and whether our crab fpi- rit and cyder fpirit, which have little flavour of their own, may not by this artifice, and fome other little additions, be brought nearly into the ftate of fome foreign fpirits now very highly eiteemed.
When the proper fort of ferment is thus pitched upon, the operator is next to confider its quantity, quality, and manner of application. The quantity mull be propor- tion^
