in a general sense, denotes an agitation of the air, whether performed with a pair of bellows, the mouth, a tube, or the like. Butchers have a practice of blowing up veal, especially the loins, as soon as killed, with a pipe made of a sheep's flank, to make it look larger and fairer.

BLOWING of Glass, one of the methods of forming the various kinds of works in the glass manufacture. It is performed by dipping the point of an iron blowing pipe in the melted glass, and blowing through it with the mouth, according to the circumstances of the glass to be blown. See GLASS.

BLOWING of Tin, denotes the melting its ore, after being first burnt to destroy the mundic.

Machines for BLOWING the air into Furnaces. See FURNACE.

among gardeners, denotes the action of flowers, whereby they open and display their leaves. In which sense, blowing amounts to much the same with flowering or blossoming.

The regular blowing season is in the spring; though some plants have other extraordinary times and manners of blowing, as the Glastonbury thorn. Divers flowers also, as the tulip, close every evening, and blow again in the morning. Annual plants blow sooner or later as their seeds are put in the ground; whence the curious in gardening sow some every month in summer, to have a constant succession of flowers. The blowing of roses may be retarded by shearing off the buds as they put forth.