174 PARING AXD BURNING. [MARCH. 



produce instances from more than half the coun- 

 ties of the kingdom. 



It has been often contended that burning lessens 

 the soil. If this happen any where, it must be in 

 peat ; yet, in the fens in Cambridge, this hus- 

 bandry has been repeated once in eight years, for 

 a century and a half, and the proofs of a loss of 

 depth are extremely vague, in every instance I have 

 met with, and hardly to be distinguished from that 

 undoubted subsidence which takes place in drained 

 bogs of every description. In all other soils the 

 assertion may be safely and positively denied. I 

 have calcined pared turf, not calcareous, after care- x 

 ful separation and weighing, and in a heat far ex- 

 ceeding what is ever given in denshiring heaps, and 

 re-weighing, found the loss too minute to be attri- 

 buted to any thing but loss of water intimately 

 combined, but driven'offby heat, and re-exposing 

 the earth to the atmosphere, free from rain, found 

 an increase rather than a diminution of weight. 

 The vegetable particles only are reduced to ashes. 

 These, in any method -of puirefaclion, would dis- 

 solve, and combining with water, be exhaled by 

 heat, or absorbed by the vessels of plants. In 

 ashes, these are in a more fixed state, relatively to 

 the influences of the atmosphere. That plants 

 feed on them, the great crops which succeed oiler 

 abundant proof. 



There are men who are timid in acknowledging 

 truth, who admit the pracliro to be good, in poor 

 soils, and in peat, and sedgy bottoms, but fear it 



on 



