330 On clearing Land. 



plete exclusion of the hoof and the tooth, has attend- 

 ed the experiment from the beginning. This year, 

 about five acres, the residue of the land necessary to 

 enlarge my field, are cut down. Considerable portions 

 are yet lying covered with the brush. Those in which 

 the process is terminated, furnish of corn field, to be 

 followed by wheat and clover, about fifty acres, twelve 

 years ago worth nothing, and now though the most hilly, 

 among the best I have. 



From these clearings, stakes and brush for fencing in 

 considerable portions, and all logs large enough for fuel, 

 have been draw n during the process ; and this necessity 

 both protracted the experiment, and diminished its be- 

 nefit, by diminishing the materials for covering the land. 

 Experience has convinced me that green bushes, with 

 their leaves, enrich considerably beyond dry. 



The success attending this mode of clearing exhaust- 

 ed land a second time, has induced me to apply all spare 

 brush to the galled or weak spots of adjacent fields. A 

 thin cover fertilizes them in four years to an equality 

 with, or beyond the rest of the field. By an annual re- 

 petition of this practice, these humiliating evidences of 

 bad culture, are rapidly obliterated. 



By the mode of clearing new land, the labour of grub- 

 ing, loping, heaping and burning brush, and of a hard 

 and difiicult cultivation the first year, is saved ; the crop 

 IS better; and the several benefits of a rapid extension 

 of tillable space, are obtained. By that of clearing worn 

 out land, groA\ n up in pine and cedar, one half is made 

 to enrich the other, and the primary object in the coun- 

 tries where such lands are found, namely, an extension 

 of fertile space, is thus promoted. The slov/ and gra- 



