BARREN LAND. 



BARREN LAND. 



954 



There are two methods by which the heath and grass o the surface 

 may be got rid of, by mowing them close to the ground, and ploughing 

 in the roots, or by paring the surface and bxirning it. Each mode has 

 had its strenuous advocates, and has been alternately praised and 

 reprobated. A little consideration will soon settle this point. If the 

 soil consists of clay or loam containing yellow ferruginous earth, and if 

 the ashes, after the sods have been burned in heaps, are of a bright 

 red colour, the effect of burning the surface will be generally advan- 

 tageous, even where the soil is already deficient in vegetable matter ; 

 for the fire will do more good in correcting the crude qualities of the 

 soil, than the small quantity of vegetable matter which is dispersed 

 would have done, had it been decomposed in the most favourable 

 manner, and the tough roots of the heath which are reduced to ashes 

 would have taken a very long time to decay, and would have been a 

 constant impediment to the plough. But if the soil is a sharp sand, 

 and the ashes are white and loose, burning destroys the small portion 

 of clay and vegetable matter in the soil, without compensating the loss 

 by any advantage, and in this case burning the surface is inexpedient. 

 The roots of the heath must be grubbed up by spades and mattocks, 

 or by means of a strong plough ; they may then be gathered and 

 burned, but the grass must be ploughed in, and not too deep at first 

 that it may soon rot ; a coating of lime ploughed in will accelerate the 

 decay of the grass. This kind of soil requires the addition of vegetable 

 and animal matter, and the principal attention must be directed to this 

 object. 



When the surface is very uneven, so as to form hillocks and hollows, 

 in which the water is apt to stagnate, levelling is a necessary process. 

 The most effectual way of doing this is by the wheelbarrow and shovel, 

 provided the distance to which the earth is to be wheeled does not 

 exceed a hundred yards. The surface should be first pared off, and 

 put in heaps or rows, to be replaced when the operation of levelling 

 has been performed, in order that the best earth, impregnated more or 

 less with vegetable matter, may not be buried under the poorer sub- 

 soil. If the soil is loose and sandy, it may be very expeditiously 

 levelled by an instrument in use in Flanders, which they call a 

 mfJlebart. It is a large wooden shovel, shod with iron, having a long 

 handle : about the middle of this shovel, which is convex at the 

 bottom, are two hooks, one on each side, to which chains are fixed 

 which unite at the bar to which the traces of a horse or horses are to 

 be attached : a rope fixed to the end of the handle completes the instru- 



ment. A man accustomed to the use of it raises the handle, and the 

 shovel enters the ground, and is filled by the horse going on. By 

 depressing the handle, the load is made to slide on the rounded bottom 

 of the shovel, till it arrives at the place where it is to be deposited. 

 By letting the handle go, retaining the rope, the whole is upset 

 instantly, turning over on the edge ; the handle strikes on the bar, and 

 the load is left behind in a heap. By pulling the rope, the whole 



instrument resumes its original position, and is brought back to the 

 place from which the earth is to be taken again, without any loss of 

 time, or the slightest stoppage of the horses. About 5 cwts. of loose 

 earth may be thus moved at each time. By means of this machine 

 the small fields in Flanders are raised about two feet or more in the 

 centre, and , the ground laid convex, sloping in every direction to let 

 the water run off. Thus also the soil of the headlands, which accu- 

 mulates by the repeated turnings of the plough in our fields, might 

 be carried back to the middle, or spread evenly over the ground. A 

 patent has been lately obtained in France for an improved instrument 

 of this kind, which has two large wheels for such grounds as will not 

 readily allow the mollebart to slide over it. It is more complicated, 

 but as it may afford useful suggestions, and be unproved and simplified, 

 we give a drawing and description of it. 



A is the box or shovel to contain the earth, the bottom of which 



opens to release the load ; B B two handles ; c ropes to keep the box 

 steady ; d a windlass, with e a ratched wheel to raise the box when 

 full ; x is the axle on which the second wheel runs, which has been 

 taken off to show the construction of the instrument. It is not yet 

 brought into general use, but the experiments made with it are said to 

 have been quite satisfactory. 



The land being now enclosed, fenced, and drained where requisite, 

 obstacles to the plough removed, and in a tolerably level state, it 

 remains only to consider how it may be most advantageously culti- 

 vated, so as in the end to repay the first and great outlay. Some 

 lands which have lain waste for ages for want of a proper spirit of 

 enterprise, are found to consist of a tolerable depth of moderately 

 fertile earth. These must be treated like a garden newly formed, and 

 trenched as deep as possible ; mere exposure to the air and fro.st will 

 often make them highly productive, and in this case the only caution 

 necessary is not to exhaust them at first ; on the contraiy, their 

 fertility should be increased by such crops and manuring as will 

 always restore more humus than has been consumed by vegetation. 

 It is too common an error with those who have made a great outlay, 

 to be impatient, and expect too rapid a replacement of the capital laid 



out. This makes them sow white crops in preference to roots and 

 legumes ; and as fresh earth is generally very productive, especially in 

 straw, they imagine the land to be of a better quality than it really is, 

 and soon exhaust it, by which they lose infinitely more in the end 

 than if they began with roots and green crops, and raised a quantity of 

 manure by the stock fed on them. Lime excites new land wonderfully, 

 and no manure is more active, provided there be vegetable matter in 

 the soil or added at the same time. The lime renders the natural 



, humus soluble and active, and, if put on injudiciously, will soon leave 

 none for future crops. Bone-dust will raise a better crop of . turnips 

 than lime alone ; but bone-dust, or, what is better, coarsely-braised 

 bones, are chiefly of use in raising the first crop of turnips. They 

 should therefore be used sparingly, unless they can be obtained very 

 cheap, and only on light loams or sands. Mixed with ashes in a heap, 

 and allowed to heat, they become much more efficacious. 



But after all the expense of clearing the land and preparing it for 

 cultivation, it may yet be of such a quality as to dishearten the 



j improver. We shall take an example from two kinds of soil very- 

 common in all the northern parts of Europe. The one is generally 



: called sandy heath soil, the other is peat or moor, both quite unpro- 



