BURN IN 7 G LAND. 17 



first ; and their effect in rendering it more easily workable then 

 gradually diminishes ; but that their virtues are not to be attrib 

 uted to their mechanical effect alone, I have proved by wheeling 

 ashes upon the surface of part of a crop of vetches, when the 

 part so dressed showed, in the succeeding spring, a superiority 

 which was distinguishable as far as the field could be seen, and 

 where the crop was cut (green) while the whole was heavy, that 

 part to which the ashes were applied was completely rotten at 

 the bottom.&quot; 



&quot; For those who, like myself, have to get a considerable tract 

 of foul and poor clay land into a tolerable state of cultivation, 

 there are, to my knowledge, no means by which it can be accom 

 plished in so short a time, and with so great a certainty, as by 

 burning. Let it be accompanied in all cases by draining ; let the 

 first crop be a green one consumed upon the land, and the land 

 will be at once established, and may ever after, at the least 

 possible expense, be maintained in a productive state, provided it 

 be kept clean, and cropped in a fair and reasonable manner.&quot; 



We have likewise, in this case, the testimony of Mr. Eli 

 Tabrurn, who speaks of having practised the burning of land 

 for thirty years, and of having made it a regular course of farm 

 ing. He commences on the land by sowing ten to twelve pounds 

 of the best trefoil seed, and from four to six pecks of rye-grass 

 per acre, on the exhausting wheat early in the spring, having it 

 harrowed and rolled in, the expense of which is amply repaid 

 by the autumn and spring feed it produces, enabling a much 

 larger flock of sheep to be kept. There is a twofold advantage 

 in being liberal in the quantity of seed sown ; that is, in the 

 quantity of feed, and in the increase of herbage, which mate 

 rially assist the burning, and much improve the quality of the 

 ashes. It is highly necessary to have the land well under- 

 drained before burning. He adds, afterwards, that if the cul 

 tivation &quot; is followed up by effectual burning, about once in six 

 or eight years, with an intermediate coat of yard manure, or 

 folding, it would double the returns of much of the land of which 

 he speaks, both in stock and crops. 



Another farmer, Mr. Eli Turvill, speaks of burning land as 



much practised in his vicinity. &quot; The fuel generally used is a 



good wagon-load of haulm per acre, or brushwood from the 



hedges, and a portion of bean-straw. Some burn the heaps at 



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