PARIDIN. 



PARING A^ 7 D BURNING. 



Greece. Thus we do not find one event in the Peloponnesian war 

 either mentioned or alluded to, but we have an account of the esta- 

 blishment of the principal religious festivals, of the introduction of 

 the different kinds of music into those festivals, of the origin of 

 tragedy and comedy, and of the time in which the most eminent poeta 

 and philosophers lived. 



For an examination of the dates which are assigned to the different 

 eveuts it records, the reader is referred to the first volume of Hales's 

 ' Analysis of Chronology.' 



PAKLDIN (C,.H 10 O ?). A crystalline, colourless, organic substance 

 found in the leaves of the Paris quadrifvlia. It is coloured red by 

 concentrated phosphoric or sulphuric acid. 



PARIETIN. A name first given to a substance extracted from 

 Parmelia parietina, but which has now been proved to be identical with 

 usnic acid. fUssic ACID.] 

 PAH1GLIN. [SMILACIJJ.] 



PARING AND BURNING. This operation consists in cutting a 

 thin slice from the surface of land which is overgrown with grass, 

 heath,- fern, or any other plants which form a sward by the matting 

 together of their roots. The sods are allowed to dry in the sun to a 

 certain degree, after which they are arranged in heaps, and burnt 

 slowly, without flame or violent heat. The result is a mixture of 

 burnt earth, charred vegetable fibre, and the ashes of that part which 

 is entirely consumed. 



The object of this operation is twofold : first, to kill insects and 

 destroy useless or noxious weeds completely ; and secondly, to obtain a 

 powerful manure, impregnated with alkaline salts and carbonaceous 

 matter, which experience has shown to be a very powerful promoter of 

 vegetation. 



The instruments by which this is effected are, either a common 

 plough with a very flat share, which may be used when the surface is 

 very level without being encumbered with stones or large roots, as in 

 low moist meadows, or in most other cases a paring-iron used by hand. 

 Instead of the common plough, Suowdeu's or Woofe's paring plough 

 (Hancock, Gloucester) may be used. It is a very effective tool self- 

 cleaning in its operation and capable of cutting a thinner slice than can 

 be separated by the common plough. The hand-parer is a most cumbrous 

 tool, and in its use the power of the workman is most wastefully 

 exerted. The crossbar of the instrument is held with both hands ; 

 and the upper part* of the thighs, being protected by two small slips 

 of board, push the instrument into the ground, so as to cut a slice of 

 the required thickness, which is then turned over by moving the cross- 

 handle. The labour is severe, and a good workman can scarcely pare 

 more than one-sixth of an acre in a day. The price of this work is 

 from 15. to 25*. per acre, according to the price of labour. The 

 drying, burning, and spreading of the ashea are contracted for at from 

 lu. to 15*. more : thus the whole cent is from 25*. to 27. per acre. In 

 France it i* done by a cub, which is like a shipwright's adze, and the 

 operation is called tcvbuer. 



Paring and burning the surface is an almost invariable preliminary 

 in the converting of waste lands to tillage ; and where these lands are 

 in a state of nature, overrun with wild plants which cannot be easily 

 brought to decay by simply burying them in the ground, burning is 

 the readiest and most effectual mode of destroying them. In this 

 case the practice is universally recommended and approved of. 



But it is not only in the reclaiming of waste lands, and bringing 

 them into cultivation, that paring and burning the surface is practised. 

 The fertility produced by the ashes, which is proved by the luxuriance 

 of the vegetation in the first crop, has induced many to repeat this 

 process so often, as materially to exhaust the soil, and induce partial 

 sterility. Hence the practice baa been recommended on the one hand, 

 and strongly reprobated on the other. 



When we come to apply to the subject the test of experience, and 

 reason correctly on the facta which are presented to us by the abettors 

 of the practice and its adversaries, we shall find that the advantages 

 and disadvantages arise chiefly from the circumstances under which 

 the operation i carried on. But it may be necessary to an impartial 

 nation of the subject, to inquire into the changes produced on 

 the substances subjected to the process of burning, when it is done 

 with due precautions. 



In burning vegetable matter in an open fire, the whole of the carbon 

 is converted into carbonic acid and Hies off, leaving only some light 

 ashes containing the earthy matter and the salts which the fire could 

 not dissipate. These are no doubt very powerful agents in promoting 

 vegetation, when they are added to any soil : but they are obtained at 

 a very great expense of vegetable matter, which by its decomposition 

 in the earth, might also have afforded food for vegetation. If the 

 earth which is burnt with the sods is of a cold clayey nature, the fire 

 will change it into a kind of sand, or brick dust, which is insoluble in 

 water, and corrects the too great tenacity of clays, by converting them 

 more or less into loams. This is so well known, that clay is often dug 

 out of the subsoil to be partially burnt. But iu addition to the many 

 mechanical effects of heat on clay, there are certain chemical results of 

 great advantage in fertility. When not burned to excess the alkaline 

 ingredients of clays become more soluble when they are exposed to 

 heat, and no doubt some of the beneficial effects of clay burning are 

 due to the greater quantity of soluble alkaline matter which is then 

 made available : and on stiff clay soil* therefore there is a double 



advantage in paring arid burning, that of the vegetable ashes and of 

 the burnt clay. 



Burning clay soils is in fact something analogous to liming. Lime 

 dissolves the vegetable matter and sets free the alkalies, and it enables 

 the detached elements to enter into new combinations ; but if no new 

 vegetable matter be added to restore what is exhausted by vegetation, 

 liming, as well as paring and burning, is detrimental in the end. 

 Many experienced farmers pare and burn the soil on the edges of their 

 ditches and on the banks on which the hedges grow, because they thereby 

 exterminate many rank weeds ; and the burnt earth mixed with farm- 

 yard dung makes an admirable compost. Here the burnt earth acts 

 as an absorbent, and no doubt attracts many of the volatile parts of 

 the manure, which are produced by the decomposition of animal 

 and vegetable matter in it. Paring and burning therefore should be 

 joined to manuring, if a powerful and immediate effect is desired 

 without exhausting the soil ; and in this case we do not hesitate to 

 recommend it on ah 1 cold clay soils where rauk weeds are apt to spring up, 

 and coarse grasses take the place of the belter sorts which have been 

 sown. The proper time to pare aud burn is evidently after the land 

 has lain iu grass for several years, and is broken up for tillage. The 

 surface should be pared thin; about two inches is the extreme 

 thickness allowable for the sod if the soil is very stiff and poor, and as 

 thin as possible in a better soil. The sods should be moderately dried, 

 and then arranged into small heaps with a hollow iu the middle to 

 hold heath or bushes to kindle the tire. When it has fairly established 

 itself, all the apertures should be carefully closed. Wherever any 

 fire breaks out, a fresh sod should be immediately put over it ; a heap 

 containing a small cart-load of sods should be smouldering for several 

 days without going out, even if it rains hard. If the fire is too brisk, 

 the earth will form hard lumps, and even vitrify ; but otherwise it 

 comes out in the form of a fine powder, in which evident marks of 

 charcoal appear. If this is of a fine red colour, it is a good sign ; for 

 the iron in the earth has been converted into a peroxide, which is 

 perfectly innocent in its effects on vegetation, whereas all the saline 

 impregnations of iron are more or less hurtful. It is better to burn 

 the sods in large than in small heaps ; for the more the fire is 

 smothered, the better the ashes. 



So great a quantity of ashes is sometimes produced as to admit of a 

 portion being carried off on grass-land, or used to manure another field 

 for turnips. As this is evidently robbing the field where the operation 

 has been carried on, an equivalent quantity of manure should be 

 brought in exchange. Perhaps the most advantageous mode of using 

 the ashes is to spread them in the drills where the turnip-seed is to be 

 sown, after a portion of dung has been buried under them. In this 

 manner the ashes from one acre of land pared and burnt, together 

 with ten or twelve cart-loads of good yard dung, and a half dressing of 

 superphosphate of lime, will manure two acres, and all the manure of one 

 acre, in the ordinary mode of raising turnips ou ridges, will be saved. 

 If the ashes will produce as good turnips with half the usual quantity 

 of dung, the expense of paring and burning is amply repaid. But 

 experience proves that the earth and ashes almost ensure a good crop 

 of turnips in many poor stiff soils in which they would probably not 

 have succeeded if sown in the common course of cultivation without 

 bones or ashes. 



When a considerable extent of poor land is brought into cultivation, 

 and there is no sufficient supply of manure at hand, paring and 

 burning a portion of the land every year, by which a crop of turnips is 

 obtained, is a most effectual means of improvement. Lime may be 

 used at the same time with the ashes, and will increase their effect, 

 provided some vegetable undecayed matter remains in the soil after 

 paring ; but lime will tend to exhaust this ; and if, in consequence of 

 liming, a few good crops of corn are obtained at first, the soil will be 

 so exhausted as to be of little value afterwards. This is the abuse of 

 the practice, which has caused it to come into disrepute. It would be 

 a great waste to burn the surface of a rich piece of grass-laud where 

 the plants growing in it are tender and succulent, and would readily 

 rot on being ploughed under ; in such case a moderate application of 

 lime would have a much better effect. This kind of laud will produce 

 1 good crops without any manure, and continue fertile for many years 

 if judiciously cultivated. To pare and burn rich land is wasteful, and 

 can never be recommended. It is only on poor land which has not 

 strength to produce a crop, and of which the texture requires to be 

 improved and its powers stimulated, that paring aud burning is 

 advantageous; ou poor thin chalky soils which have been laid down 

 with sainfoin, of which the roots and stems are grown coarse and hard, 

 so as not readily to rot iu the ground, the operation is proper and 

 advantageous. The turnips produced by the ashes, with or without 

 the assistance of dung, must be fed off by sheep folded ou the land, 

 whose dung and urine will enrich it, and their tread consolidate it. By 

 this mode of proceeding great advantages are obtained from paring and 

 burning, and the land, so far from being deteriorated, will be improved. 



Many landlords rigidly forbid their teuauM to pare and burn any 

 part of their land, from an idea that the heart of it is destroyed by the 

 burning. But in the hands of an intelligent tenant the practice is 

 perfectly safe and even beneficial, for he knows it to be his interest to 

 apply a certain quantity of dung, either at the same time that the land 

 is thus treated, or for the next crop, and where under ordinary farming 

 there is no sowing of corn crops except after turnips, clover, or some 



