l8c50. Ol'fcrvaticns on Paring the Surface. 40 f 



to th-e conductors of the farmer s magazine. 



Gentlemen, 



If the followin|T obfervations on the practice of paring and 

 carryhig off the furface, for inclofmg, and covering cottages, 

 and other purpofes, fo common in the highlands and uplands 

 of Scotland, appear worthy of notice, they may be inferted 

 in your next number. 



17ew praftices are produciive of equal mifchief, or call 

 more loudly for redrefs, than that of paring and carrying 

 away the furface, a practice almoft univerfal in the i^igh- 

 lands and uplands of Scotland, whole diftricls being by that 

 means rendered, in a great meafure, uftlefs for ever after, 

 either for tillage or pafture. In every fituation, however great 

 its natural advantages may be, fuch wafte and robbery of the 

 foil induces a degree of poverty that can hardly be made up by 

 the labour of ages. Accordingly, in England, where paring 

 and burning has been praclifcd to a very great extent, the 

 foil has, in many inltances, been reduced to a caput moriuum^ 

 notwithftanding the plentiful ufe of the befl manures after- 

 wards *, an evil that has ncvv become fo apparent, and is fo 

 well underllcod, that the practice is interdiiSted by many pro- 

 prietors, under very fevere penalties. 



Paring and burning, however pernicious it may be, (and 

 upon thin foils it is ruinous), falls greatly fliort of the mil- 

 chief clone in the north of Scotland. In the one cafe, a part, 

 it leafc, of the ufeful principles contained in the turf, is re- 

 turned to the foil, by which means feveral good crops are ob- 

 tained : in the cther^ the whole furface is carried off, and loll 

 to the foil for ever. 



Thole, who are able to 'ellimate the extent of the injury 

 that is thus produced, will view, v/ith pain and difguft, the 

 immenfe tracts that hav^ been robbed of their furface» 

 iJiroughout a great part of the north of Scotland, where, in 

 mgny places, only a few folitary tufts remain, to inform po- 

 flerity, that thcfe wafles, now lb naked and defolate, were 

 once covered with herbage. 



Were -this deterioration of the furface a matter of necef- 

 fity, an txcufe for the practice would arife out of that ne- 

 ceflity. Even as it is, were the foil, of which the furfacv^ 

 is thus deprived, afterwards applied to any ufeful purpofe, 

 fomething might be faid in favour of th^ pra^ice. No 



fuch 



