PARING AND BURNING. 315 



thrashing machine being hired for the purpose. The straw is 

 carried out and spread on the grass-lands from which clover hay 

 had been cut the previous year. Only a small proportion of the 

 root crop is carried home for consumption by the cattle, the num- 

 ber of which, in these large farms, is quite inconsiderable." * 



Sheep-folding, and paring and burning, are both processes 

 nearly unknown in America, and which will probably be advan- 

 tageously employed in some situations among us. 



Paring and burning. "All soils," says Sir Humphrey Davy, \ 

 "that contain too much dead vegetable fibre," (such as the sour 

 black soils of our reclaimed swamps,) "and all such as contain 

 their earthy constituents in an impalpable state of division, such 

 as stiff clays and marls, are improved by burning." It is there- 

 fore a common practice in the stiff-clay districts as well as upon 

 the downs of England, the effect being to render a heavy soil 

 light, friable, porous and highly absorbent. It increases the effi- 

 ciency of drains (by letting water more rapidly into them), and, 

 being more friable, the land works better and at less expense. 

 It further promotes vegetation by converting into soluble matters 

 available to plants, vegetable remains ; which, in consequence of 

 the usually wet, impervious nature of the soil, have become, as it 

 were, indigestible, and therefore inert and useless. It is also ad- 

 vocated as being destructive of the roots and seeds of weeds ; of 

 insects, their larvae and eggs ; and, as is pretty clearly demon- 

 strated, it enables land to bear the same crop in quicker succes- 

 sion, by its supposed effect upon the exudations left by former 

 crops.f In executing the process, the surface, generally to the 

 depth of three inches, is plowed or pared up (there are instru- 

 ments made on purpose for it) and allowed to dry. It is then 

 1 thoroughly harrowed and made fine ; and in the downs the vege- ( 



* CAIRO. 



t Report by practical farmers in Suffolk, 1846. 



