184 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY 



{hallow foil it is infufferable, becaufe it tends to 

 lelfen the depth of the, foil ; for though the advo- 

 cates for it will fay, that earth cannot be reduced,' 

 yet when we conhder that the furface or rind of 

 land, (which by this practice is pared off about two 

 inches in thicknefs) is nothing but the relicks of 

 putrified plants, which afford the bell aliment to 

 renewed vegetation, it certainly does, in this fenfe, 

 admit of dimunition, and befides weakening the 

 foil, it unqueitionably deftroys all feeds of the 

 beft graffes which nature has depofited in the fur- 

 face of the earth, which is very obvious from this 

 land being; lefs favourable to grafs, for a feries of 

 years, after it is burnt than before. This perni- 

 cious practice mud have had its rife from lazinefs, 

 being an eafier way to get rid of a coarfe rough 

 fwarth, by this means, than by fuch modes of cul- 

 ture, as would have for their objeft, the reducing 

 it to a rotten (late ; it mull therefore be expe&ed, 

 that all temporary occupiers will continue advo- 

 cates for it, but it is prefumed, that all owners 

 of eflates, looking forward to a more permanent 

 interefl, will do all in their power to difcou- 

 rage it. 



Upon a perufal of the Agricultural Reports, 

 lately publifhed, I was much pleafed to find thic 

 practice condemned by a very confiderable majo- 

 rity of the reporters. Mr. Davis obferves, " that 

 " it is a maxim often quoted in Wilts, that how- 



*< ever 



