328 On clearing Land. 



land being opened to the view by the burning, the per- 

 manent ditches are more judiciously made. If it be full 

 of roots, as will be the case where bushes abound, it is 

 kept inclosed the following year and cenainly throws 

 up a great growth of weeds and small bushes. These 

 when dry, furnish food for a second fire. And after a 

 second burning, however matted with roots the land 

 may be, it will if properly drained, produce a fine crop 

 of com. The roots, being dead, break easily to pieces ; 

 and the stumps and grubs are all killed, if the fires have 

 been severe, and nearly so, if they have barely burnt 

 over the ground. This mode of clearing is applied to 

 boggy small streams, with great advantage, as it saves 

 the expence of digging up masses of interwoven roots. 

 I have made between 40 and 50 bushels of corn to the 

 acre on such land, when the whole surface seemed to 

 be a bed of dead roots, by a culture with the hoe, barely 

 sufficing to keep under the weeds, and the few bushes 

 which appear after burning. 



Hitherto these observations relate to clearing new 

 land. In the southern states it is often necessary to clear 

 old, once exhausted, and grown up in pine and cedar. 

 As it has not recovered its virgin fertility, but univer- 

 sally remains steril, there could be no advantage, in 

 bringing it back to cultivation in this state, either rapidly 

 or slowly. Without combining enrichment with clear- 

 ing, a mean crop or two is all it can yield, and will not 

 repay the expence of the latter, however reduced. 



About twelve years ago, having a field which required 

 enlargement, bordered by old, barren, broken, and gul- 

 lied land, well covered with a growth of pine and cedar, 

 except in the parts galled, which abounded ; I cut down 



