HEATHER BURNING. 



And ah! when smiles the day, and fields are fair, 

 Let the black smoke ne'er clog the burthened air! 

 Or soon, too soon, the transient smile shall fly, 

 And chilling mildews ripen in the sky, 

 The heartless flocks shrink from the cold, 

 Reject the fields and linger in the fold. Leyden. 



AT a certain season of the year the Heather, in 

 Scotland, is burned in order to provide hill 

 pasturage for sheep. And in spots thus cleared 

 a thick, close carpet of green verdure springs up of 

 which these animals are particularly fond. 



Along about the commencement of the nineteenth 

 century, when the agricultural condition of the High- 

 lands was under its customary consideration, the sub- 

 ject of burning the Heather received a great deal of 

 attention. 



In the Transactions of the Highland Agricultural 

 Society for 1804, a Mr. Somerville recommended the 

 total eradication of the Heather where the soil and 

 climate would admit of the culture of any more useful 

 plant, and the burning of it in such a manner as to 

 destroy the tough, hard parts and afford room and 

 nourishment for the tender and juicy shoots, in every 

 situation where no plants of greater value could be 

 produced. In order to effect the former purpose he 

 said the Heather ought to be burned in the autumn 

 when it is in flower, as it may then be completely 

 destroyed. But when the object is to preserve the 

 root and to afford warmth and manure to the tender 

 shoots, the operation ought to take place in the spring. 

 The tender and juicy shoots which might then be 



