312 



PAR 



PAR 



low colour, composed of small pe- 

 tals, which are recurved. These 

 appear the beginuing of June, and 

 are succeeded by compressed heart 

 shaped berries, which ripen the be- 

 ginning of August. The Chinese 

 affirm that it is a sovereign remedy 

 for all weakness occasioned by ex- 

 cessive fatigues, either of body or 

 mind ; that it cures weakness of 

 the lungs and the pleurisy; that it 

 stops vomitings ; that it strengthens 

 the stomach, and helps the appe- 

 tite ; that it strengthens the vital 

 spirits, and increases the lymph in 

 the blood ; in short, that it is good 

 against dizziness of the head, and 

 dimness of sight, and that it pro- 

 longs life in old age." 



Mr. Miller found he could not 

 propagate this plant by the seed, 

 either raised in England, or brought 

 from America. None of the seeds 

 would grow. He believes the her- 

 maphrodite plants should have some 

 of the male plants standing near 

 them, to render the seed prolific ; 

 for all the plants he saved seed 

 from, had only hermaphrodite flow- 

 ers. 



PARING AND BURNING. Pa- 

 ring the surface of tlie soil, and 

 burning the sods, is a process, high- 

 ly recommended by writers on ag- 

 riculture, and is useful in all cases 

 where an excess of vegetable mat- 

 ter renders the soil too rank. It is 

 scarceJy possible to redeem fens 

 and peat mosses from a state of bar- 

 renness without the assistance of 

 fire. Old pastures, whose surface 

 has become mossy, and unproduc- 

 tive, or covered with useless and 

 coarse herbage, are best reclaimed 

 in this wav. A meadow overrun j 



with rushes should first be drained, 

 atid then pared and burnt. But 

 burning is prejudicial to sandy, dry 

 and flinty soils, containing little ani- 

 mal or vegetable matter. 



A new method of '• burning with- 

 out fire" has been lately discover- 

 ed. This consists in substituting 

 quick lime for fire. The lisne in its 

 most caustic state, fresh from the 

 kiln, is laid upon the vegetable sur- 

 face to be consumed ; and before 

 it is weakened by exposure to the 

 air, a quantity of water, just suffici- 

 ent to put it in powerful action, is 

 applied. This process unites the 

 advantages of burning and liming; 

 and is probably the readiest and 

 cheapest mode of fertilizing soils 

 which super-abound with vegetable 

 matter, and for which lime would 

 prove a suitable manure. See 

 Code of Agriculture. Likewise 

 Burning the Soil. 



PARSNEP, Pastinaca, an escu- 

 lent root, of a sweet taste, and of a 

 very nourishing quality. 



Parsneps must have a mellow, 

 rich and deep soil, not apt to be 

 very dry. The best tasted roots 

 are produced in a soil that is more 

 sandy than loamy. When they are 

 cultivated in kitchen gardens, the 

 ground should be dug uncommon- 

 ly deep ; eighteeii or twenty inch- 

 es at least. No common plough- 

 ing will loosen the soil to a suffici- 

 ent depth. The goodness of a crop 

 of these roots depends much upon 

 their length. 



If they be set near together,they 

 will not grow to a large size. I 

 sow them in rows across the beds, 

 15 inches apart, and allow about 6 

 inches from plant to plant at the 



