EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



SIXTH BEPORT. 



I PROCEED, in this Report, to treat of other processes than 

 those which I have described in the management of arable 

 land. 



XC. PARING AND BURNING. 



The process of paring and burning the surface of the land has 

 been practised with great, though not always with equal, success 

 in many parts of the country. The objects of it are threefold : 

 the first, to reduce the coarse vegetable matter on the surface to 

 a state of decomposition, that it may be supplanted by a more 

 profitable vegetation ; the second, to destroy grubs, insects, and 

 the larvas of insects, which infest the soils, and are pernicious to 

 the cultivated crops and the third, to convert the coarse, vege 

 table matter on the surface into ashes, for the nutriment of the 

 crops which are to follow. This process is not to be confounded 

 with that, which I shall afterwards describe, of burning clay for 

 the purpose of manure and of rendering the soil friable and per 

 vious to the roots of plants. 



In the operation of paring and burning, a thin slice, or turf, 

 varying from one to three inches, is taken from the surface, and, 

 after being sufficiently dried, is cut into pieces of a convenient 

 length, and then piled in heaps preparatory to being burned and 

 reduced to ashes. The turf is cut sometimes with a plough with 

 a broad share, of the width of the slice desired to be raised, or. 



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