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Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.

ond the rest, or too far; an exuberant growth. Let thy hand supply the pruning knife, And crop luxuriant stragglers. Dryden.

The horizontal direction of the outcropping edges of tilted rocks; or, the direction of a horizontal line supposed to be drawn on the surface of a tilted stratum. It is at right angles to the dip.

left in the ground; the part of the stalk left by the scythe or sickle. "After the first crop is off, they plow in the wheast stubble." Mortimer. Stubble goose (Zoöl.), the graylag goose. [Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. -- Stubble rake, a rake with long teeth for gleaning in stubble.

of time or place, or a series of things so following; sequence; as, a succession of good crops; a succession of disasters.

To plow and work in summer, in order to prepare for wheat or other crop; to plow and let lie fallow.

Sward; short grass. Grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheep. Cowper.

The crop of hay got in a meadow. [Prov. Eng.]

Any one of numerous species of small, long-winged, insectivorous birds of the family Micropodidæ. In form and habits the swifts resemble swallows, but they are destitute of complex vocal muscles and are not singing birds, but belong to a widely different group allied to the humming birds.

Having the capacity of bearing several successive crops of fruit without perishing; as, sychnocarpous plants.

ble the hedgehog in habits. The rice tendrac (Oryzorictes hora) is very injurious to rice crops. Some of the species are called also tenrec.

d upon the juices of plants, and some, as those which attack grain, are very injurious to crops. Called also Physopoda. See Thrips.

To plow and prepare for seed, and to sow, dress, raise crops from, etc., to cultivate; as, to till the earth, a field, a farm. No field nolde [would not] tilye. P. Plowman. the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Gen. iii. 23.

ng or preparing land for seed, and keeping the ground in a proper state for the growth of crops.

The state of being tilled, or prepared for a crop; culture; as, land is good tilth. The tilth and rank fertility of its golden youth. De Quincey.

upon the leaves of tobacco and tomato plants, and is often very injurious to the tobacco crop. See Illust. of Hawk moth.

To take off the or upper part of; to crop. Top your rose trees a little with your knife. Evelyn.

To free from trash, or worthless matter; hence, to lop; to crop, as to trash the rattoons of sugar cane. B. Edwards.

e dove (Zoöl.) any one of several species of East Indian and Asiatic doves belonging to Macropygia and allied genera. They have long and broad tails, are chiefly arboreal in their habits, and feed mainly on fruit. -- Tree duck (Zoöl.), any one of several species of ducks belonging to Dendrocygna and allied genera. The…

us trenches in succession, filling each from the next; as, to trench a garden for certain crops.