PARING AND BURNING. 5 



matter, then, by burning, we must look for some compensation 

 in the ashes which are produced, or in the mechanical effects 

 which this burning operates upon the soil. The ashes them 

 selves are powerful absorbents and retainers of moisture, and they 

 answer a valuable purpose in the disintegration, or loosening, of 

 the soil. They certainly, in many cases, operate as an efficient 

 manure. I have seen their effects often, both upon old and new 

 land. In examining the returns of nearly four thousand dif 

 ferent wheat crops in Massachusetts, in which, with a view to 

 secure the premium offered by the state upon the cultivation 

 of wheat, it was required to give the mode of culture in detail, 

 I found, in every case where ashes were applied to manure the 

 crop, the beneficial effects were emphatically affirmed. In clear 

 ing new land, it has been the custom to fell the standing wood, 

 and, after it has become sufficiently dried, to burn it completely 

 upon the land. This always leaves a large deposit of ashes on 

 the ground. It is common to plant Indian com directly upon 

 these ashes, without ploughing the land, and, at the close of the 

 season, at the last hoeing of the corn, or indeed its only hoeing, 

 to sow wheat among it, which, to use the common phrase, is 

 then &quot;hacked in&quot; by the hoe. Some of the largest crops of 

 Indian corn and of wheat, which I have ever known, have been 

 grown in this way. In one case, upon a very large field, the 

 product of wheat averaged sixty-four bushels to the acre. What 

 is the chemical effect of ashes, I believe, is not well ascertained : 

 but I shall presently let those give their opinion who assume to 

 understand their operation. It seems natural to infer, that that 

 which once formed a constituent element in a plant may serve 

 as food for another plant of the same species. There may be 

 other uses, which are not so direct and obvious, but equally 

 efficient. 



The expediency of paring and burning land must, as I have 

 remarked, depend upon the nature of the soil which is to be 



sufficiently to derive benefit from the fertility that lies below, we can always, by 

 working a little deeper, bring up the inferior layers to the surface, and so make 

 them concur in fertilizing the soil. Independently of this great advantage, a deep 

 soil suffers less either from excess or deficiency of moisture ; the rain that falls 

 has more to moisten, and is therefore absorbed in greater quantity than by thin 

 soils; and, once imbibed, it remains in store against drought.&quot; Boussin- 

 gault, p. 297. 



