1--M] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



135 



(limif, and the ronKiiiiilo.r with tho aslios of burnt 

 riay. Tho peed, whic.li wa« of the yellow liciJ 

 Borf, was sown on the same day, but that on the 

 ashes spraui; up the earliest, was the most vijj;o- 

 rous duriu!^ the season, and the sprini^ crop was 

 lar su|H'rior to that produced by the dunij:, or any 

 thing oCihe kind in the neiirlihorhood. A lollowing 

 crop of Swedes was calculated to weiiijh fifty-two 

 tons, — equal to ixhoat forty tons per English acre, 

 — includinu: tops and tails; but, as they grew in 

 the centre of a preserve, the greater part of the 

 tops were strip|)cd oti' l)y the pheasants, and some 

 of" the roots were eaten by hares. 



A friend of this gentleman, an extensive farmer, 

 though it was late in the season when he sowed 

 his turnips, yet obtained a premium from the Ag- 

 ricultural Society of the Stewartry, and the first 

 prize of the Highland Society, for twenty acres 

 manured with clay ashes, at the rate of Ibrty-fivc 

 carl-loads per acre; which he however afterwards 

 reduced to thirty loads, and declared hims(!lf so 

 satisfied with the result, tiiat, although his firm 

 was only a mile and a half distance from Kirk- 

 cudbright, yet he would not be at the trouble of cart- 

 ing dung from thence, even if he could get it for 

 nothing * ! 



Burnt clay, also, when applied to turnips, on a 

 farm consisting of stiff clay, in Annandale, at the 

 rate of sixty cart-loads per acre, produced a better 

 crop than dung upon the same land ; and, when 

 succeeded by barley, no difference was observable 

 in the produce. The cost, in 1818, never exceed- 

 ed sixpence per single cart-load for the labor and 

 expense of burning, exclusive of that of cartage, 



Sioedish turnips. 



Burnt Clay 25 tons 2 cwts. 



Wood-ashes ....23 12 



Soot 16 121- 



No top-dressing. 10 4 



It thus appears that in each of these the burned 

 clay displayed a superiority; the disparity between 

 the turnips which were top-dressed, and those which 

 had not that advantage, is partly attributed to the 

 protection thus afforded to the young plants from 

 the fly ; but it is difficult to account lor the extra- 

 ordinary deficiency in the produce of the kohlrabi, 

 spread with wood-ashes, when compared with the 

 part left without manure. The Doctor says, 'that 

 he had no convenient way of judging the experi-j 

 ments on grass-land, but by the eye, yet that, so 

 far as that enabled him to judge, the burned clay- 

 was without question superior; and the soot, as in ; 

 all the other trials, except the last, was evidently 

 more powful than the wood-ashes.' The quanti- 

 ty, indeed, of clay-ashes was greater; but the ex- 

 pense he only calculates at 15s., while that of the 

 wood-ashes and soot cost in each instance 50s. : 

 though on this it should be remarked that the 

 ciiarge of spreading, and probably of cartage, must 

 have been greater in the former case than in the 

 two latter, t 



Mr. Burroughs, after detailing the diflferencc in 

 the chemical qualities of burned earth, in the essay 

 to which we have already alluded, and to which 

 we shall hereafter refer, says that 'lime being es- 



* Farmor's IMagaziiie, vol. xvi. pp. 1.38, 1.39. 

 t Sec the Transactions of tlie Society of Arts, vol. 

 xxxvi. 



and in some seasons did not amount to more than 

 threepence or four[)ence. * 



Mr. (!urwcn also states, about the same time, 

 that he had made 2,000 sitigle cart-loads of ashea 

 fi-om burnt cl-ay on hisfiirmm Westmoreland, and 

 had raised from them fifty acres of Swedish tur- 

 ifips fully equal to those largely manured with 

 good dung, t 



Major-(Jeneral Vavasour, of Melhourne Hall, 

 near Pocklington, in Yorkshire, having a large 

 liirm of a strong clay soil thrown upon his hand^s 

 in a very impoverished state, commenced the prac- 

 tice of burnmg clay, and manured one half of a field 

 with ashes at the rate of twenty solid yards, or 

 about twenty-five tons per acre; the other half 

 with fifteen tons of dung; and the former was 

 decidedly the best crop. The same result has 

 been experienced in corn crops upon the same 

 farm, and land which had been laid down with 

 seeds, and top-dressed with clay ashes, became 

 uncommonly luxuriant J. On the Wolds, in tho 

 East Riding, twenty to thirty cubic yards are also 

 said to have been found e(iual to from eight to 

 twelve tons of good fold-yard manure, when used 

 for wheat and lor every kind of" green crop. § 



These experiments, it will be observed, were 

 made solely in comparison with unequal quantities 

 of clay ashes and yard dung; but those of" Dr. 

 Cartwright were carried on comparatively with 

 the ashes of clay at the rate of 400 bushels per 

 acre, 100 of those of wood, and 50 of soot, laid 

 upon an equal portion of cold, wet, tenacious land, 

 without any top-dressing, and applied to different 

 crops, of which the Ibllovving was the produce: — 



lbs. 



tablished as a valuable application to many soils, 

 it would be no easy matter to persuade those who 

 have not tried the former as a substitute, that it 

 possesses more fertilizing properties ; but, then, 

 experience, by which all must be governed, has 

 convinced me that burned earth is by tar more val- 

 uable, on many soils, than lime. [ have tried it on 

 stron<r clays, on light soils, and on moory soils, on 

 all of which it produced good crops of' potatoes 

 and turnips, and al"terwards corn; and in one in- 

 stance in particular, where lime had been ineffec- 

 tually applied, a dressing of burned clay made the 

 land yield most abundantly. Lime only stimu- 

 lates and pulverizes the soil, whereas burned 

 earth not only possesses those properties, but con- 

 tains within itself enriching and vegetative quali- 

 ties.' In proof of which he gives the following 

 facts ; — 



1. A wheat stubble, on a light sandy loam, gra- 

 velled as a prejjaration for that crop, was sowi> 

 with barley in the following spring; the land being 



* Ibid., vol xix. p. 279. 



t Ibid., vol. xvii. p, 429. 



i The men contracted to burn tho ashes at S^d. per 

 cubical yard, making the walls and cariyinf^ the wood 

 and clay to the kilns. This was in 1816, when wages 

 were at about the present rate. 



§ Fanner's Magazine, volxviii. p. 333; and vol, xx. 

 p. 151. 



