Cultivating and Improving Wastes. 159 



soils, by consolidating their texture, has not yet been suf- 

 ficiently attended to. 



1. Paring and burning. This operation, and its merits, 

 shall be more fully discussed in a subsequent Section, 

 (No. 5). At present, it is sufficient to remark, that it is 

 greatly to be preferred, to every other method for reclaim- 

 ing barren land, where the turf will produce an adequate quan- 

 tity of ashes ( 36 ). It is proved by experiment, that it is much 

 less expensive than clearing the land by tillage- produces 

 better crops, and leaves the land in a better state for cul- 

 tivation ( 37 ). But where the ground is deficient in vegetable 

 matter, or if it be full of stones and rocks, or covered with 

 wood, other means must be resorted to. If it be covered 

 with wood, instead of attempting to burn the surface, the 

 trees and underwood must be cut down, and reduced to 

 ashes, by which some good crops are ensured. Previous to 

 the improvement of land covered with furze or broom, some 

 recommend, burning the plants upon the ground, with a 

 view, not only of facilitating their extirpation, but of ob- 

 taining the ashes they produce, which, with the ashes from 

 the grass and roots to be found on the surface, will greatly 

 tend to fertilize the soil ; but others maintain, that the best 

 system is, to dig up these plants by the roots, spreading 

 them on the surface till they rot, and burning only what has 

 not become rotten, by this process. 



2. Trenching. Where the soil is shallow, and the sub- 

 soil hard and stony, it is frequently advisable, after extirpa- 

 ting the worthless plants, to manure the surface, and with- 

 out attempting to remove the stones, to convert the land in- 

 to permanent pasture ; but when there are circumstances 

 which make it advisable, to render this soil arable, the most 

 effectual means of accomplishing that object is, by the spade 

 and the mattock. In that case, if the surface be unfertile, 

 it is laid flat, with the top inverted at the bottom of the trench, 

 where it operates as a hollow-drain. By means of trenching, 

 every stone which can interrupt the future ploughing of the 

 soil, is discovered and removed, either by the usual instru- 

 ments, or by the application of gunpowder ; the ground is 

 deepened to the extent of from thirteen to fourteen inches ; 

 and as it contains no weeds, it only wants a sufficient quantity 

 of dung and calcareous earth, to put it in a state fit for vege- 

 tation, and to enable it to produce crops of grain. By this 

 plan, more or less perfectly conducted, about 20,000 acres 

 in all, have been added to the cultivated land of one single 

 county, ( Aberdeensh i re). The process where stones abound, 



