MARCH.] PARING AND BURNING. 173 



two crops of spring corn ; all good. Now, it might 

 be asked, how is it possible, that that husbandry 

 can have all the philosophical evils detailed above, 

 of annihilation, dispersion, conversion and destruc- 

 tion, which enables a soil naturally poor and weak, 

 to give two or three good crops of corn ? Their 

 argument evidently proves too much. The effect 

 shews, that there is a powerful cause or agent in 

 burning, which they do not understand ; which 

 escapes from the retort of the chemist, and from 

 the rationale of the theorist. That operation or 

 manure which will give a good crop of wheat, will 

 give a good crop of turnips or cabbage ; and he, 

 who -having made this commencement for the food 

 of sheep on the land, and knows not how to go 

 on, preserving the advantage he has gained, is a 

 tyro in the art of husbandry. The farmers that 

 are railed at, know it as well as their philosophical 

 instructors ; but avarice, united with the baneful 

 effect of short, or no leases, make them practice 

 against their judgments. 



Paring and burning will, on all soils, give turnip 

 or cabbage ; these fed on the land by sheep, will 

 secure barley or oats, and seeds ; the seeds fed with 

 sheep, whether for a short or a longer duration, will 

 secure another crop of corn adapted to the soil ; 

 and in this stage of the progress, the soil will have 

 gained much more than it has lost. To instance 

 cases which I have seen, and to quote authorities 

 for these assertions, would be tiresome. I could 



produce 



