182 MARCH. 



any* sol] ; and essentially necessary on some, as I 

 shall presently shew. 



Clay The gentlemen who have levelled their 

 theories against paring and burning, have not given; 

 many reasons peculiarly appropriate to thi^ soil. 

 The only one that merits the least attention, is the 

 assertion, that it converts what is properly soil, 

 in 10 pieces of infertile brick. The tact is not so, 

 for every one that ever burnt, clay for manure, 

 knows, that though there are many lumps of the 

 substance which they all trie to, yet, that the mass 

 of the heaps consists of a-hes, properly so called ;. 

 but when the tenacity of this soil, which is one of 

 its greatest evils, be considered, it will be found, 

 that bricks are an excellent addition to the soil, 

 to loosen and open its stubborn adhesion. I have 

 seen and examined en re fully heaps of clay -allies, 

 amounting to many hundreds of loads, that have 

 been burnt and applied to great profit on this soil. 

 B) paring and burning, you have therefore on it 

 the common manure found in vegetable ashes, and 

 you have in addition a substance which acts me- 

 chanically. Hitt, who wrote from practice, and 

 whose writings abound with mans ju^t observations, 

 remarks : " I recommend burning of tl]e surface as 

 the cheapest manure, and most effectual of any ; 

 for- it not only adds salts to the soil, which the 

 burning of gras.~ roots produces, but it opens part 



* .Very rich ones will do exceedingly well in many cases with-r 

 out it. - This distinction, therefore, should be made. There is, in 

 cases, no necessity for it : there is in others, 



of 



