8 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



gratulation, that he had done it most adroitly by passing it, un 

 observed, at the turnpike-gale, between two sixpences. 



The paring and burning of peat land is always advised, and 

 the ashes to be spread. Here there is an excess of vegetable 

 matter, which, perishing under cold water, and that water usually 

 impregnated with an excess of iron or some pernicious mineral 

 substance, is in an unfit condition for the purposes of vegeta 

 tion. The coarse grasses, likewise, customarily found upon peat 

 meadows, forming a thick, matted sward, require to be either 

 entirely removed, or thoroughly reduced and decomposed, before 

 a better kind of vegetation can take their place. Peat ashes are 

 stated to have a specific value, which I shall speak of presently. 

 The burning of peat ground, however, requires very great care, 

 as I have sometimes seen very deep and inconvenient holes made 

 in the surface, by the fire having been suffered to proceed too far. 



In all cases where it is attempted to bring a soil into cultiva 

 tion by paring and burning, it is considered indispensable to 

 success, that the land should be drained and laid thoroughly dry. 

 This rule applies to other cases, besides those of paring and 

 burning. I may, as well as not, here, though I shall have occa 

 sion to repeat it hereafter, urge upon farmers the importance of 

 laying their land dry, or rather of having the command of the 

 water upon it, in order to a successful culture. Without this, it 

 is idle to expect success. Water, one of the great elements in 

 vegetation, may, by excess, become thoroughly pernicious and 

 destructive, except to those coarse aquatic plants to which it is 

 the natural condiment and home.* 



* After writing the above article, I met with some remarks of the distinguished 

 writer on rural economy, Boussingault, to whom I have before referred, which 

 had not before met my eye, but which I know my inquisitive readers will be glad 

 that I should present to them. 



&quot;The effect of the imperfect combustion of these pyritic turfs, the product 

 which results from it, explains to a certain extent the beneficial effects of the 

 practice of paring and burning an important and widely-spread practice, the 

 utility of which it would be difficult to understand, were it not connected in some 

 way with the production of ammoniacal ashes. 



&quot;Tbe useful effects of paring and burning are, in all probability, connected with 

 the destruction of organic matter, very poor in azotized principles ; in the trans 

 formation of the surface of the soil into a porous, carbonaceous earth, made apt to 

 condense and retain the ammoniacal vapors disengaged during the combustion; 



