AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 



147 



PARING AND BURNING 



Is a comburatory dissipating process, whereby nine- 

 teen parts out of twenty of the vegetable matter, the 

 only substance the fire can act upon, is dissipated and 

 thrown into the air. 



This process, no doubt, from its having been carried 

 to excess, and so often repeated as to destroy all the ve- 

 getable matter contained in the soil, has, it is said, been 

 prohibited by the Legislature of Ireland, under a penalty 

 of ten pounds per acre. 



Moors overgrown with ling or heath, peaty soils, or 

 soils covered with a sward of coarse ^unprofitable her- 

 bage, and containing a superabundance of vegetable 

 matter, may, with due precaution, be subjected to this 

 process with very beneficial effects. It may likewise be 

 attended with advantages to strong clayey soils, from the 

 effect that burned, or half burned clay has in rendering 

 .such soils more open and less tenacious ; in which case 



T 2 the 



