On burning Clay for Manure. 293 



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than ashes so obtained, I determined to make the expe- 

 riment at home ; and accordingly, on my return, I com- 

 menced operations, and have practised the burning of 

 subsoil for three years, with the greatest success. I was 

 difficulted at first for want of clay, but I hit upon a vein 

 or bed of tenacious subsoil, partly till, and partly clay, 

 which answers the purpose quite well, though I do not 

 apprehend it is so good as clay. The ashes I have hi- 

 therto applied solely to the production of turnip, but 

 within the last ten days I have laid nearly five hundred 

 cart loads on grass lands, as a top dressing ; — my turnip 

 crops from ashes have exceeded any thing of the kind in 

 this neighbourhood. I was twice in London, in the course 

 of last summer and harvest, and on my way to and from 

 town, I saw no turnips superior, hardly any equal to my 

 crop, though I passed through Berwickshire and North- 

 umberland. 



" Last season, by way of experiment, I manured part of 

 my turnip field with well rotted stable dung, which was 

 ploughed in the same day it was led out, — the remainder 

 with ashes ; — the seed, which was the yellow-field sort, 

 was sown on the same day ; that sown on the ashes sprung 

 much earlier than that on the dung, continued more vi- 

 gorous during the season, and when I pulled them late-, 

 ly, the turnips produced from the ashes were more than 

 double the size of those from the dung. Excepting my- 

 self, no person has hitherto practised the burning of clay 

 or subsoil in this country, till last season, when I prevail- 

 ed on Mr. John Wallace, a tenant of Mr. Murray's, in 

 Tongland parish, to try the experiment. Though it was 

 about the beginning of May before the burning com- 

 menced, yet Mr. Wallace obtained as many ashes as ma- 



