PARING AND BURNING. 6 



The ashes, then, of these heaps are evenly spread over the 

 fields operated upon j and this is generally followed by a green 

 crop, such as vetches or turnips, which, under good management, 

 are consumed on the field. Then follows the usual course of 

 wheat, barley, and grass. The amount of ashes, obtained by 

 the ordinary process of paring and burning, has been made the 

 subject of exact calculation, and is so remarkable that I deem it 

 worth stating. &quot; An acre of land, from which the turf was taken 

 in the common mode of paring and burning, appeared to have 

 produced an average of 2660 bushels of ashes, which, at their 

 mean weight of 65 pounds to a bushel, when dry, would give 

 172,900 pounds, or rather more than 77 tons, per acre.&quot; 



The subject of paring and burning land has been long matter 

 of warm discussion. Of its advantages, in many cases, there can 

 be no doubt. In the well-cultivated county of Essex, it is a 

 constant and successful practice. A distinguished farmer states 

 that he has practised it for more than twenty years ; and where, 

 when he began the practice, he was able to keep only one, he 

 now keeps six sheep. It has been said that the destruction of 

 the vegetable matter in the soil must necessarily impoverish it ; 

 and that it would be much better to bury this vegetable matter, 

 where, by a slow decomposition, it might serve to afford nutri 

 ment to the crops to be cultivated. There are, in the first place, 

 some mechanical difficulties in the case. Where a piece of heath 

 land, covered with coarse grasses and low bushes of furze or fern, 

 is ploughed, it is extremely difficult, even by the most severe 

 process of pressing or rolling, to make it lie flat, and so consoli 

 date it that it can be cultivated to advantage. This is stated to 

 have been the fact, on an extensive heath in Surrey, where cul 

 tivation, under the practice of paring and burning, succeeded well, 

 but very ill where the land was only turned over without paring 

 and burning. &quot; In the former case, the land was immediately fit 

 for turnips, tares, barley, and clover ; in the latter, the tough 

 wiry-bent heath, and dwarf furze, kept the land too light and 

 spongy for any crop. Even rolling could not keep it down, for 

 its elasticity raised the soil soon after the roller had passed over 

 it, and it is of so imperishable a nature, that it is likely to plague 

 the farmer for many years.&quot; There are certainly strong reasons, 

 in such cases, for paring and burning fields of this description ; 

 but they do not apply to those lands where the vegetable matter 



