PARING AND BURNING. 



using the ashes is to spread them in 

 the drills where the seed is to be 

 sown, after a portion of dung has 

 been buried under them. In this 

 manner the ashes from one acre of 

 land pared and burned. together with 

 ten or twelve cart-loads of good yard 

 dung, will manure two acres. But 

 experience proves that the earth and 

 ashes almost ensure a good crop of 

 turnips in many poor, stiff soils, in 

 which they would probably not have 

 succeeded if sown in the common 

 course of cultivation without bones 

 or ashes. 



"When a considerable e'xlent of 

 poor land is brought into cultivation, 

 and there is no sufficient supply of 

 manure at hand, paring and burning 

 a portion of the land every year, by 

 which a crop is obtained, is a most 

 efTectual means of improvement. 

 Lime may be used at the same time 

 with the ashes, and will increase 

 their effect. It would be a great 

 waste to burn the surface of a rich 

 piece of grass land, where the plants 

 growing in it are tender and succu- 

 lent, and would readily rot on being 

 ploughed under ; in such case a mod- 

 erate application of lime would have 

 a much better eflect. This kind of 

 land will produce good crops without 

 any manure, and continue fertile for 

 many years if judiciously cultiva- 

 ted. To pare and burn rich land is 

 wasteful, and can never be recom- 

 mended. It is only on poor land 

 which has not strength to produce a 

 crop, and of which the texture re- 

 quires to be improved and its powers 

 stimulated, that paring and burning is 

 advantageous ; on poor, thin, chalky 

 soils, which liave been laid down with 

 sainfoin, of which the roots and stems 

 are grown coarse and hard, so as not 

 readily to rot in the ground, the op- 

 eration is proper and advantageous. 



" Many tracts of waste land might 

 be brought into cultivation by means 

 of paring and burning, which without 

 it would never repay the labour re- 

 quired. Where the soil is inclined 

 to peat, this operation and abundant 

 liming are the indispensable prelimi- 

 naries of cultivation. The ashes and 



the lime will produce vegetation and 

 food for animals. These will produce 

 dung to supply what the vegetation 

 abstracts, and to assist, also, in the 

 farther decomposition of the peaty 

 matter, converting it into vegetable 

 mould. 



"The first crop after paring and 

 burning should, if possible, be tur- 

 nips, and these should be consumed 

 on the spot ; but there are exceptions 

 to the rule. The soil may be a stiff 

 clay of a considerable degree of nat- 

 ural fertility, only encumbered with 

 rank weeds and grasses. In this 

 case the surface is burned to destroy 

 these, and a crop of corn may safely 

 be taken after the paring and burning, 

 the land coming into a regular alter- 

 nate rotation alter it. For example, 

 the next crop may be beans ; or clo- 

 ver may be sown with the first crop, 

 if the ground appears fit for it. The 

 effect of the ashes will be readily per- 

 ceived in the luxuriance of the clo- 

 ver. Such land may be afterward 

 cultivated, according to its nature 

 and quality, with the rest of the farm, 

 or laid down to grass after a course 

 of cleansing and ameliorating crops. 

 Thus old wet meadows, after having 

 been well underdrained, may be great- 

 ly improved, and either converted 

 into arable fields, or laid down again 

 with choice grasses. 



" Old rough pastures may often be 

 greatly improved by a very thin pa- 

 ring and burning, so as not to destroy 

 all the roots of the grass. When 

 the ashes are spread over the pared 

 surface, some good grass seeds are 

 sown with them. The whole is well 

 harrowed or scarified and roiled, and 

 the grass which will spring up after 

 this will be greatly improved, and 

 will fully repay the expense of this 

 simple mode of renovating it. This 

 is the cheapest mode of improving 

 coarse pastures that we know, with- 

 out breaking them up. 



" The partial paring and burning ot 

 the headlands of fields, for the pur- 

 pose of mixing the ashes and burned 

 earth with dung in a compost, is a 

 most excellent practice, and often 

 superior to that of using the sods 



555 



