16 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the ensuing spring, sowed with barley, which produced fifty-six 

 bushels per acre. 



The next field consisted of thirteen acres of stiff, but tolerably 

 productive wheat land. It was foul, burned equally well, was 

 drained, limed, and manured, and produced an excellent crop of 

 swedes, no turnips having been grown upon it before. &quot; It has 

 since grown barley and seeds, as good as I could wish,&quot; rather 

 an indefinite mode of measurement, &quot; and is now planted with 

 wheat.&quot; 



All these pieces of land had the ashes burned and spread upon 

 the land, with wood cut from the adjoining hedges, or with in 

 ferior coal, and the cost of the process estimated at 3 10 s., or 

 about $17, per acre. 



In another case, the same farmer adds, &quot;upon fifteen acres, 

 which were dressed in like manner during the winter, where no 

 attempt was ever before made to grow turnips, in consequence 

 of the tenacious quality of the land, and without the aid of 

 manure of any description except the ashes, and I have had a 

 very excellent crop; and the most extraordinary part of the 

 matter is, that, although the greater part has been eaten off in 

 the months of October and November last, which were very wet, 

 by nearly four hundred sheep, constantly kept upon them, the 

 nature of the soil has been for a time so changed by the ashes, 

 that I have been enabled to plough close behind the sheep, and 

 drill the wheat as fast as ploughed.&quot; 



He remarks, likewise, what I deem of much importance, that, 

 if the soil be dug and &quot; thrown with the spade in large pieces, 

 a double quantity of coal will be consumed, and the ashes of no 

 more value than so many brick ends. The proper mode is to 

 move the soil with a pickaxe, breaking it all the time as much 

 as possible ; it is then put lightly on the fires with a shovel.&quot; 



What he says of the value of ashes is quite worthy of atten 

 tion. &quot; That the mechanical effect of ashes, in rendering heavy 

 land friable, has a great deal to do with increasing its powers of 

 production, there can be no doubt ; but it is unfortunately as 

 certain, that their effect in this way is not so great in subsequent 

 years as in the first two or three, though it will always be con 

 siderable. This is accounted for by the natural tendency of 

 ashes, like lime, to sink into the soil. In a few years, they 

 become incorporated with a larger proportion of earth than at 



