CLEARING LAND. 229 
are purposely wrong in principle as when oats or potatoes 
are raised year after on the same soil. This experiment can 
be run as long as the farm lasts. The results of the different 
methods pursued will become more and more evident each 
year, until they finally stand as unmistakeable object lessons 
in proper methods of rotation. 
Clearing Land.—There is no area of any extent in the 
northeastern counties of Minnesota, but what is or was 
timbered or swampy. All land except natural meadows 
must be cleared before it can be farmed. 
Fire has done an enormous amount of work in clearing 
land. In many sections, destructive fires have so reduced 
the expense of clearing that they have given an impetus to 

Sheep clearing land of small brush.—Sheep Pasture. 
settlement. But it may be doubted whether this benefit is 
not more than offset by the injury done to the soil by burn- 
ing and destroying the humus and litter on its surface. The 
injury is greatest on sandy soil, as it has most need of the 
humus. Severely burned sandy land, while easiest of any to 
