PAN 



PAN 



309 



oxen, I can do more work tlian 1 

 could with four horses, and with 

 half the expense. I have worked 

 horses for forty years, and if 1 had 

 used oxen in their place, they 

 would have put five hundred 

 pounds in my pocket." 



To train oxen, put a broad strap 

 round their necks : fasten one end 

 of a cord to it, and the other end 

 to a large log of wood : permit the 

 ox to drag it about as he feeds in 

 his pasture before he is put into 

 harness, by which his docility is 

 much forwarded. — Transactions of 

 the Society of Arts, 1800. 



OYSTER SHELLS are an ex- 

 cellent manure, but being large 

 they should be burnt to lime be- 

 fore they are applied to the soil. 



P. 



PALE, a pointed stake, used in 

 making enclosures, partitions, &ic. 

 Gardeners oftentimes have occa- 

 sion to make pale fences, to secure 

 choice apartments from the en- 

 trance of tame fowls, which will 

 not often fly over a paled or pick- 

 etted fence : as well as to prevent 

 the intrusion of idle and mischiev- 

 ous people. 



PAN, a stratum of compact 

 earth under the soil. In some 

 places it is so hard that it cannot 

 be dug through without pickaxes 

 or crows. If the pan be low, the 

 soil is said to be deep and good ; 

 but if near the surface, the soil is 

 thin and poor. The common 

 depth in good land is from eighteen 

 to twenty four inches. 



The deeper strata, or layers in 



the bowels of the earth, are sup- 

 posed to have been formed, by the 

 diurnal rotation of the earth, be- 

 foie it had become compact and 

 solid. But this stratum being 

 more constant and regular, the for- 

 mation ofit,if I mistake not, should 

 be ascribed to other causes. If 

 we suppose that this and the soil 

 above were intermixed, and of one 

 consistence after the creation, the 

 pan must have been formed long 

 before this time, by the subsiding 

 of the more ponderous parts of the 

 soil. For it has been often ob- 

 served, that clay, chalk, and lime, 

 which have been laid on as ma- 

 nures, after some years, disappear 

 from the surface, and are found a 

 foot or more beneath it. Rains, 

 and fermentations in the soil, make 

 way for the descent of the heaviest 

 particles contained in the soil. 



It is in favour of this hypothesis, 

 that the pan under the soil most 

 commonly bears an affinity to the 

 soil itself. Under a gravelly soil, 

 there is a large proportion of gra- 

 vel in the pan ; under a sandy one 

 it usually is found to consist chiefly 

 of sand ; and under a stiff loam it 

 is commonly clay : I think it is al- 

 ways found to be so. 



But I suppose the operation of 

 frost should be considered, as as- 

 sisting in forming the pan. All 

 the soil above it is usually hoven 

 by the frost in winter. At least it 

 is so in this latitude. We see rocks 

 and stones below the surface when 

 the ground is frozen, which before 

 were on a level with it ; and in a soft 

 soil they do not rise quite up to their 

 former situation, when the ground 



