316 AX AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



table matter is racked out so far as practicable, and thrown into 

 small heaps ; a little earth is thrown over these and they are 

 fired, the grass forming the fuel. The remainder of the earth 

 which has been plowed up is shoveled on as soon, and to as 

 great a depth, as it can be without danger of extinguishing the 

 fire. 



In the clay districts, and where there is much timber growing, 

 brushwood is laid in rows, and the pared soil heaped over it, the 

 sod being thrown as far as possible nearest the fuel, and the fine 

 earth thrown over all to prevent too quick a fire. 



The burnt soil is spread again over the field and plowed in. 

 The first crop following is usually turnips. The cost of the opera- 

 tion is reckoned, in Suffolk (where it is called denturing), to be 

 only about four dollars an acre, of which one-third is for fuel. 

 Supposing the expense of labor to be doubled and that of fuel 

 halved for the United States, it may be expected to cost us six 

 dollars an acre. The effect, probably, is never lost to the land ; 

 but in those parts of England where it is most practiced, I be- 

 lieve it is usual to repeat the operation once in about seven years. 

 By feeding turnips upon the ground the autumn following the 

 burning, it is sufficiently stocked with manure to require no 

 further application during the course. Caird mentions crossing a 

 field in which this had been repeated, burning every seven years, 

 and no other application of manure than what arose from the con- 

 sumption of its own produce on the ground being made, without 

 any diminution of crops for fifty years. 



On the downs, however, paring and burning is not usually re- 

 sorted to, except at the first breaking up of the original soil, fer- 

 tility being afterwards sustained by bones and guano, or by feed- 

 ing off the crops of herbage at the end of every rotation by 

 sheep ; of which operation, common in all parts of Great Britain, 

 I shall presently speak. 



