PARING AND feURNING 



Is a process mnch used in England for re- 

 Btoring old and foul land to cleanliness and fer- 

 tility. In tbis country we have never seen it 

 put in practice, except by Mr. Sotham. at Here- 

 ford Hall, near Albany. The operation is car- 

 ried on with a facility and despatch that we 

 should not have expected, and, as we are told, 

 with results altogether satisfactory. We have 

 seen so much land in similar condition, and 

 therefore to all appearance inviting the appli- 

 cation of the same process, that we have deem- 

 ed it expedient to copy from Rev. W. L. 

 Rham's Dictionary his description of the opera- 

 tion and its objects. 



PARING AND BURNING. 



This operation consists in cutting a thin slice 

 from the surface of land which is overgrown 

 with grass, heath, feni. or any other olants which 

 form a sward by the matting togetlier of their 

 roots. The sods are allowed to di-y in the sun 

 to a certain degree, after which they are ar- 

 ranged in heaps, and burnt slowly, without flame 

 or violent heat. The result is a mixture of burnt 

 earth, charred vegetable fibre, and the ashes of 

 that part which is entirely consumed. 



The object of this operation is twofold : first, 

 to kill insects and destroy useless or noxious 

 weeds completely ; and secondly, to obtain a 

 powerful manure, impregnated with alkaline 



salts and cai'bonaceous matter, which experience 

 has shown to be a very powerful promoter of 

 vegetation. 



The instruments by which this is effected 

 are, either a common plow with a veiy flat 

 share, which may be used when the surface is 

 very level without being encumbered vrith 

 stone or large roots, as in low, moist meadows ; 

 or, in most other cases, a paring-iron, which is 

 used by hand. The crossbar of this instrument 

 is held with both hands; and the upper parts of 

 the thighs, being protected by two small slips of 

 board, push the instrument into the ground, so 

 as to cut a slice of the required thickness, which 

 is then turned over by moving the cross-handle. 

 The labor is severe, and a good workman can 

 scarcely pare moi'e than one-sixth of an acre in 

 a day. The price of this \\-ork is from I5g. to 

 2.5s. per acre, according to the price of labor. 

 The drying, burning, and spreading of the ashes 

 are contracted for at from IOjj. to 15s.. or more ; 

 thus the whole cost is from 2os. to £2 per acre. 

 In France it is done by a cob, which is like a 

 shipwright's adze, and the operation is called 

 ecobner. 



Paring and burning the surface is an ahnost 

 invariable preliminary in the converting of waste 

 lands to tillage ; and where these lands are in a 

 state of nature, oveiTun with wUd plants which 

 cannot be easily brought to decay by simply 

 burj-ing them in the gi'ound, burning is the 

 readie.st and most effectual mode of destroying 

 them. In tbis case the practice is universally 

 recommended and approved of. 



But it is not only in the reclaiming of waste 

 lands, and bringing them into cultivation, that 

 paring and burnfug the surface is practised. 

 The fertility produced by the ashes, whicli is 

 proved by ilie luxuriance of the vegetation in 

 the first crop, has induced many to repeat this 

 process so often as materially to exhaust the 

 soil, and induce partial sterility. Hence the 



(401) 



practice has been recommended on the one 

 hand, and strongly reprobated on the other. 



When we come to apply to the subject the 

 test of experience, and reason correctly on tlie 

 facts which are presented to us by the abettors 

 of the practice and its adversaries, we shall find 

 that the advantages and disadvantages arise 

 chiefly from the circumstances under which the 



