CHAPTER IV. 



EARTH-BURNING, l8l8. 



194. IN paragraphs 99, 100, and 101, I spoke of a mode of pro 

 curing manure by the burning of earth, and I proposed to try it 

 this present year. This I have now done, and I proceed to give 

 an account of the result. 



195. I have tried the efficacy of this manure on Cabbages, 

 Swedish Turnips, Indian Corn, and Buckwheat. In the three 

 former cases the Ashes were put into the furrow and the earth 

 was turned over them, in the same way that I have described, in 

 Paragraph 177, with regard to the manure for Savoys. I put at 

 the rate of about twenty tons weight to an acre. In the case of the 

 Buckwheat, the Ashes were spread out of the waggon upon a 

 little strip of land on the out-side of the piece. They were thickly 

 spread ; and it might be, that the proportion exceeded even 

 thirty tons to the acre. But, upon the part where the ashes were 

 spread, the Buckwheat was three or four times as good as upon the 

 land adjoining. The land was very poor. It bore Buckwheat 

 last year, without any manure. It had two good ploughings then, 

 and it had two good ploughings again this year, but had no manure, 

 except the part above-mentioned and one other part at a great 

 distance from it. So that the trial was very fair indeed. 



196. In every instance the ashes produced great effect : and I 

 am now quite certain, that any crop may be raised with the help 

 of this manure ; that is to say, any sort of crop ; for, of dung, 

 wood-ashes, and earth-ashes, when all are ready upon the spot, 

 without purchase or carting from a distance, the two former are 

 certainly to be employed in preference to the latter, because a 

 smaller quantity of them will produce the same effect, and, of 

 course, the application of them is less expensive. But, in taking 

 to a farm unprovided with the two former ; or under circum 

 stances which make it profitable to add to the land under cultiva 

 tion, what can be so convenient, what so cheap, as ashes procured 

 in this way ? 



197. A near neighbour of mine, Mr. DAYREA, sowed a piece of 

 Swedish Turnips, broad-cast, in June, this year. The piece was 

 near a wood, and there was a great quantity of clods of a grassy 

 description. These he burnt into ashes, which ashes he spread 



101 



