BAG, _v._ To put into a bag. In sporting parlance, to kill. BAGATELLE, _s._ A trifle; a game. BAIT, _v._ To put meat to tempt animals. BAIT, _s._ Meat set to allure animals to a snare; a temptation; an enticement; a refreshment on a journey. In Fishing, worms, paste, &c. BALANCE, _s._ A pair of scales; the overplus of weight; equipoise. BALANCE, _v._ To weigh in a balance; to counterpoise. BALD, _a._ Without hair; without natural covering. BALK, _s._ A ridge of land left unploughed; disappointment when least expected. In Hunting, a term used when a horse refuses his leap. BALK, _v._ To disappoint; to frustrate. In Hunting, to swerve off from a fence; to refuse a jump. BALL, _s._ Anything made in a round form; a round thing to play with, a hand-ball, a billiard-ball. _Balls_ (_in farriery_) are boluses given to horses, and should not exceed in size a hen’s egg. Though named balls, they are generally rolled up in a cylindrical form, about one inch in diameter, and two and a half in length; but the form of an egg is preferable. There is sometimes difficulty in giving balls, without using a balling iron; and there are horses that will not take a ball by any other means. In giving it, the horse’s tongue is drawn out on the off or right side, and held firmly with the left hand, while with the right the ball is passed over the tongue into the pharynx, or top of the gullet. The hand should be kept as near to the roof of the mouth as possible; there will then be much less danger of being wounded by the teeth. The moment the right hand is withdrawn from the mouth, the tongue is let loose, and the ball generally swallowed. Balls should be made at the time they are wanted; as by keeping they become so hard as to be insoluble in the stomach, and pass through the intestines unchanged. By keeping they also lose much of their strength, particularly when the ingredients are evaporable in the common temperature of the atmosphere, which is the case with camphor, ammonia, essential oils, &c. But the most serious inconvenience which arises from giving balls that have been kept until they become very hard, is, that they are liable to stick in the throat or gullet, and thereby endanger the horse’s life. Balls cannot be conveniently given unless wrapped up in paper: but for this purpose the softest and thinnest should be chosen.