On Paring and Burning. 19 



importance to decide beforehand which soils may be pared and 

 burned with advantage and which not. It appeared to me, there- 

 fore, desirable to examine the characters of some soils, upon 

 which paring and burning is practised with marked beneficial 

 results. To this end I procured some soil from one of the fields 

 on the farm attached to the Royal Agricultural College, and from 

 another in the neighbourhood of Cirencester. The field from 

 which the former was taken was at the time in sainfoin, which had 

 partially failed : this field was afterwards pared and burned, and I 

 had thus an opportunity of analyzing the red ashes procured by 

 the combustion of the vegetable matter in the soil and the action 

 of the heat upon the mineral constituents of the same soil. These 

 two soils differed much in their physical characters, but agreed so 

 far as to be much improved by paring and burning. The soil 

 from the Royal Agricultural College farm, on analysis, furnished 

 the following results : 



Composition of a Soil from the Farm of the Royal Agricultural College. 



Moisture 



Organic matter 

 Oxides of iron and alumina 

 Carbonate of lime 

 Sulphate of lime 

 Carbonate of magnesia . . 

 Phosphoric acid 



Potash 



Soda , 



Insoluble silicious matter (chiefly clay) . , 

 Loss 



100-000 



The depth of this soil is not more than 5 inches in the deepest 

 places, and in some parts of the field it reaches barely 3J inches. 

 It is full of stones (limestones), and affords a good example of 

 the thin brashy soils which abound on the Cotswold hills. 

 With the hill farmers, land of that description passes as light 

 land ; but it may be observed that it is light merely on account 

 of the prevalence of fragments of limestones, varying from the 

 size of the palm of a hand to that of a bean. The pulverized 

 portion of the soil, separated from the stones, is destitute almost 

 altogether of sand, and constitutes a very stiff impervious clay. 

 Although termed light land, it is well adapted for paring and 

 burning, for in the pulverized portion clay greatly preponderates, 

 and, on account of its impervious character, organic matters 

 rapidly accumulate in it, and furnish combustible elements in a 

 fair proportion. 



I have also ascertained its mechanical state of subdivision, by 

 passing a large quantity of air-dry soil through a series of cul- 



c2 



