1IORT13S GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 217 



vegetable matters contained in the soil. For when the 

 parings or turfs are submitted to the fire, they should only be 

 burnt till the ashes are black, and will then contain carbon- 

 aceous matter, which will be found to afford more soluble 

 vegetable matter than the soil originally contained. But 

 when the parings are burnt till the ashes are red or white, 

 the carbonaceous matter is destroyed, and the ashes that re- 

 main will be found to consist of oxides and saline matters of 

 little value to such soils. With respect to tenacious clayey 

 soils, the case is directly the reverse : these cannot be too 

 much burnt by the ordinary process of burning, as the object 

 here is not so much to destroy insects and the seeds of noxi- 

 ous plants, as to correct the texture of the soil, by renderino- 

 it more friable, and less tenacious or retentive of moisture. 



It is evident that the application of clav or marl, and 

 vegetable manure, even in small quantities, will compensate 

 the soil for the greater division of its parts and loss of de- 

 composing vegetable matter, let the process of burning be 

 conducted in what manner it may ; but there are no remedies 

 at present known, for the prevention or even palliation of the 

 ravages of the wire-worm, grubs, and other voracious insects 

 with which these soils generally abound, except that of burn- 

 ing, which, when properly effected, experience has proved to 

 be effectual to the destruction of a one year's brood. 



In Scotland and in England I have witnessed the practice 

 of converting rough pastures, containing heath, furze, and 

 coarse grasses, by first burning the plants on the surface 

 while growing, and then ploughing the land for a course of 

 crops. By this, it invariably happened that the land soon 

 became stocked with its original unprofitable plants, as their 

 seeds and roots were securely preserved in the turf while the 

 plants themselves were burning. 



In the Essays published by the Board of Agriculture, a 

 variety of facts are brought forward, which go to prove the 

 great increase of value which these pastures are capable 

 of receiving by a proper mode of convertuig them into 

 tillage. 



Mr. Stephen Kershaw states, in his experiments, the in 

 crease of value in thin-skinned warren, when converted into 



