PARING AND BURNING. 



199 



whereas all the saline impregnations of iron arc 

 more or less hurtful. It is better to bum the 

 sods in large than in small heaps ; for the more 

 the fire is smothered, the better the ashes. 



So great a quantity of ashes is sometimes pro- 

 duced as to admit of a portion being caiTied off 

 on grass land, or used to manure another field for 

 turnips. As this is evidently robbing the field 

 where the operation has been carried on, an 

 equivalent quantity of manure should be brought 

 in exchange. Perhaps the most advantageous 

 mode of using the ashes is to spread them in 

 the drills where the turnip-seed is to be sown, 

 after a portion of dung has been buried under 

 them. In this manner the ashes from one acre 

 of land pared and burnt, together with ten or 

 twelve cart-loads of good yard dung, wiU ma- 

 nure two acres, and all the manure of one acre, 

 in the ordinary mode of raising turnips on ridges, 

 will be saved. If the ashes will produce as 

 good turnips with half the usual quantity of 

 dung, the expense of paring and burning is 

 amply repaid. But experience proves that the 

 earth and ashes almost ensure a good crop of 

 turnips in many poor stiff soils in which they 

 would probably not have succeeded if sown in 

 the common course of cultivation without bones 

 or ashes. 



When a considerable extent of poor land is 

 brought into cultivation, and there is no sufficient 

 supply of manure at hand, paring and burning 

 a portion of the land every year, by which a ci-op 

 of turnips is obtained, is a most effdFtual means 

 of improvement. Lime may be used at the same 

 time with the ashes, and will increase their ef- 

 fect, provided some vegetable undecayed mat- 

 ter remains in the soil after paring ; but lime 

 will tend to exhaust this ; and if, in conse- 

 quence of liming, a few good crops of corn 

 are obtained at first, the soil will be so exhaust- 

 ed as to be of little value afterwards. This is 

 the abuse of the practice which has caused it to 

 come into disrepute. It would be a great waste 

 to burn the surface of a rich piece of grass land 

 where the plants growing in it are tender and 

 succulent, and would readily rot on being plow- 

 ed under ; in such caise a moderate application 

 of lime would have a much better effect. This 

 kind of land will produce good crops without 

 any manure, and continue fertile for many years 

 if judiciously cultivated. To pare and burn rich 

 land is wasteful, and can never be recommended. 

 It is only on poor land which has not strength 

 to produce a crop, and of which the texture re- 

 quires to be improved and its powers .stimulated, 

 that paring and burning is advantageous ; on 

 poor, thin, chalky soils that have been laid down 

 with sainfoin, of ■which the roots and stems are 

 grown coarse and hard, so as not readily to rot 

 in the ground, the operation is proper and ad- 

 vantageous. The turnips produced by the ash- 

 es, with or without the assistance of dung, must 

 be fed off by sheep folded on the land, whose 

 dung and urine will enrich it, and their tread 

 con.solidate it. By this mode of proceeding 

 great advantages are obtained from paring and 

 burning, and the land, so far from being deteri- 

 orated, will be improved. 



Many landlords rigidly forbid their tenants to 

 pai'e or burn any part of their land, from an idea 

 that the heart of it is destroj'ed by the burning. 

 If they would would only in,sisl on a certain 

 quantity of dung being put on, either at the same 

 time that the land is thus treated, or for the next 

 crop, and prohibit the sowing of com cropsexcept 

 after turnips, clover, or some other green crop 

 (403) 



consumed on the farm, there would be little dan- 

 ger of any detriment to the land, even if it were 

 pared and burnt once in every ten or twelve 

 years, provided it were judiciously treated in 

 the intervals. The farmer would be benefited 

 in many situations, and the practice would tend 

 to keep up the value of the fanns. 



In Devonshire, where the land has been pared 

 and burnt from time immemorial, even where 

 the soil is rich, the practice has been often re- 

 sorted to without any judgment. Provided a 

 crop of corn or potatoes was obtained at little 

 cost, the consequences to the future state of the 

 land were not heeded ; and landlords, seeing 

 their farms impoverished, put a stop to the prac- 

 tice. Thus many useful modes of cultivation 

 have been reprobated from the abuse of them, 

 which, properly applied, would have been ad- 

 vantageous to all parties. There is no maxim 

 more true than this ; that whatever injures the 

 landlord, injures the farmer who is not desirous 

 of removing, and i-ice versa ; and all restric- 

 tions on cultivation, however necessary when 

 there is a fear of dishonest conduct, diminish the 

 value of a farm and lessen the rent which can be 

 fairly afforded for it. Ignorance is often a great- 

 er destroyer of the interest of both landlord and 

 tenant than v/ilful dishonesty ; and the spread- 

 ing of useful information among tenants, so that 

 they may see their own advantage, is the surest 

 means of improving landed property. Many 

 tracts of waste land might be brought into culti- 

 vation by means of paring and burning, which 

 without it would never repay the labor required. 

 Where the soil is inclined to peat, this operation 

 and abundant liming are the indispensable pre- 

 liminaries of cultivation. The ashes and the 

 lime will produce vegetation and food for ani- 

 mals. These will produce dung to supply what 

 the vegetation abstracts, and to assist also in the 

 farther decomposition of the peaty matter, con- 

 verting it into vegetable mould. 



The first crop after paring and burning, as 

 was observed before, should, if po.ssible, be tur- 

 nips, and these should be consumed on the spot; 

 but there are exceptions to the rale. The soil 

 may be a stiff clay of a considerable degree of 

 natural fertility, only encumbered with rank 

 weeds and grasses. In this case the surface is 

 burnt to destroy these, and a crop of com may 

 safely be taken after the paring and burning, 

 the land coming into a regular alternate rotation 

 after it. For example, the next crop may be 

 beans or tares, vs'ith a good proportion of dung ; 

 or clover may be sown with the first crop, if the 

 ground appears fit for it. The effect of the ashes 

 will be readily perceived in the luxuriance of 

 the clover. Such land may be afterwards culti- 

 vated, according to its nature and quality, with 

 the rest of the farm; or laid down to grass after 

 a course of cleans-ing and ameliorating crops. — 

 Thus old wet meadows, after having been well 

 underdrained, may be greatly improved, and 

 either converted into arable fields or laid down 

 atrain -with choice grasses. 



Old rough pastures may often be greatly impro- 

 ved by a very thin paring and burning, so as not 

 to destroy all the roots of the grass. When the 

 ashes are spread over the pared surface, some 

 good grass-iseeds are sown with them. The whole 

 is well ban-owed or scarified and rolled, and the 

 grass which will spring up after this will be great- 

 ly improved, and will fully repay the expen.se of 

 this simple mode of renovathig it. This is the 

 cheapest mode of improving coarse pastures 

 that we know, without breaking them up. 



