464 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



coal. When the whole of the earth in each of the piles has been acted upon by the fire, 

 the heaps may be suffered to extinguish themselves by slowly burning out. 



2972. A variety of this operation, called skirting or peat burning, is practised in Devon- 

 shire and Cornwall, for breaking up and preparing grass lands for the reception of fallow 

 crops ; a part of the sward or surface is alternately left unturned, upon which the next 

 thin furrow slice is constantly turned, so that the swards of each come in contact, by 

 which means the putrefactive fermentation is speedily excited, and the greatest part of the 

 grassy vegetable matter converted into manure ; what ultimately remains undestroyed 

 being, after repeated cross-cuttings with the plough, and harrowings, collected into small 

 heaps and burnt, the ashes being then spread evenly over the land. 



2973. With respect to the implements used in paring, different kinds are made use of 

 in different parts of the island : that which was the most employed in the infancy of the 

 art, was a kind of curved mattock or adze, about seven or eight inches in length, and five 

 or six in breadth ; and which, from its shape, would appear to have been better adapted 

 for cutting up the roots of brush-wood, furze, broom, or other coarse shrubs, than for 

 paring off the surface of a field free from such incumbrances. Where the sod is pared 

 off by manual labor, the ordinary breast-spade, in some places called the breast-plough, 

 and in Scotland the flaughter-spade (2378.), is mostly employed. In working the tool, 

 the laborer generally cuts the sods at about an inch or an inch and a half thick, and from 

 ten to twelve broad ; and when the spade has run under the sod to the length of about 

 three feet, he throws it off, by turning the instrument to one side, and proceeds in the 

 same way, cutting and throwing over the sods, the whole length of the ridge. In this 

 way of performing the operation the laborers, by following each other with a slice of the 

 sward or surface of the land, accomplish the business with much ease, and in an expedi- 

 tious manner. 



2974. In the fenny districts, on the eastern coasts, where paring and burning is prac- 

 tised on a large scale, the horse-paring plough is used, made of different constructions,, 

 according to the circumstances of the ground to be pared. These ploughs (fg- 415.) are 

 calculated for paring off the sward or sod of such grounds as are level, and where neither 

 stones, brush-wood, ant hills, 

 nor other impediments obstruct 

 their progress ; but where such 

 obstructions present themselves ~T^^ ^^ ^^^ f\ 



the breast-spade, or the common ^*'^^^ \o = " L^ 



team-plough, with a small al- 

 teration of the share, will be 

 found preferable, both in re- 

 spect to the extent of ground 

 that can be pared, and the su- 

 perior manner in which the work in such cases can be performed. Ploughs, from their 

 great expedition and regularity of performing the business, should always be made use 

 of where the nature and situation of the land will admit them, in preference to such tools 

 as require manual labor. 



2975. In some of the western counties, the common plough only is used. There the 

 old grass fields, when it is proposed to burn the sward, are rib or slob furrowed about 

 the beginning of winter ; and being again cross-ploughed the following spring, the sods 

 are collected and managed in the manner mentioned in speaking of skirting. In those 

 cases the plough has, however, a wing turned up on the furrow side of the plough-share, 

 by which the furrow is cut any breadth required. 



2976. The season for paring and burning is April, May, and June: the particular 

 period must, however, always depend much on the state of the weather and the nature of 

 the crop. When the east winds prevail, in February arid March, this sort of business 

 may sometimes be carried on. But for accomplishing the work with the greatest dis- 

 patch, and also with the least trouble and expense, a dry season is obviously the best. 

 The prudent cultivator should not embark in the undertaking, unless there be a reason- 

 able probability of his accomplishing it while the weather keeps dry and favorable. The 

 latter end of May or the beginning of June, when the hurry of the spring-seed time is 

 ovfer, in the more northern districts, when a number of hands can be most easily procured 

 may, upon the whole, be considered as the best and most convenient season ; as at this 

 period the green vegetable products are in their most succulent state, and of course may 

 probably afford more saline matter ; but in the more southern counties either a much 

 earlier season must be taken, or the interval between the hay season and the harvest time 

 must be fixed upon, the latter of which is, on the principle just stated, evidently the best, 

 where the extent of ground to be burnt is not too large. In other seasons it would fre- 

 quently be impossible to procure a sufficient number of hands for performing the busi- 

 ness. In bringing waste lands into cultivation, where an extensive tract of ground is to 

 undergo this process, the autumn may, in many cases, afford a convenient opportunity 



