IMPROVING PASTURE AND WASTE LAND. G5 



a state of decomposition, that it may be supplanted by a more 

 profitable vegetation ; the second, to destroy grubs, insects, 

 and the larvae of insects, which infest the soil and are pernicious 

 to the cultivated crops ; and the third, to convert the coarse 

 vegetable matter on the surface iuto ashes, for the nutriment 

 of the crops which are to follow. This process is not to be 

 confounded with that of burning clay for the purpose of 

 manure, and of rendering the soil friable and pervious to the 

 roots of plants." The mode of burning described is the same 

 as practised by Mr. Horton, — that of slow, mouldering fires, — 

 but the burning itself seems to have taken place on the land. 



Mr. Colman quotes the following, which certainly seems a 

 remarkable statement : " An acre of land from which the turf 

 was taken in the common mode of paring and burning, 

 appeared to have produced an average of 2,060 bushels of 

 ashes, which, at their mean weight of sixty-five pounds to a 

 bushel, when dry, would give 172,900 pounds, or rather more 

 than seventy-seven tons per acre." 



We hardly know how to estimate the quantity of ashes 

 produced on Mr. Hortou's laud from the information given. 

 He says, twenty loads. Without knowing the size of the 

 loads, we shall estimate that each load contained fifty bushels, 

 which would give a total of one thousand bushels, and at 

 twenty-five cents a bushel, would be worth $250. 



Mr. Colman also goes on to state what has a very impor- 

 tant bearing on the subject, that " it has been said that the 

 destruction of vegetable matter in the soil must necessarily 

 impoverish it ; and that it would be much better to bury this 

 vegetable matter, where, by a slow decomposition, it might 

 serve to afford nutriment to the crops to be cultivated. There 

 are, iu the first place, some mechanical difficulties in the case. 

 Where a piece of heath land, covered with coarse grasses and 

 low bushes of furze or fern, is ploughed, it is extremely diffi- 

 cult, even by the most severe process of pressing or rolling, 

 to make it lie flat, and so consolidate it that it can be culti- 

 vated to advantage. This is stated to have been the fact, on 

 an extensive heath in Surrey, where cultivation under the 

 practice of paring and burning succeeded well, but very 

 ill where the land was only turned over without paring 

 and burning." 



9* i. 



