96 



mittee, considering his experiment a deserving one, have 

 awarded him the first premium of $15. Mr. Horton's state- 

 ment is enclosed. 



The Committee would suggest that one item of expense 

 the carting off of the sods, &c., might have been saved by 

 burning' on the land. One of the Committee remarked that 

 he thought the burning might have been omitted, and that the 

 simple turning over of the sods and bushes would have been 

 sufficient to reclaim the land. 



This brings in discussion the comparative merits of burning 

 and non-burning, — that is, merely ploughing. Where there 

 is a superabundance of vegetable matter, as on peat land and 

 on some clay soil, burning has proved of much advantage. 

 Mr. Horton's land seemed to bq somewhat of a clayey nature, 

 though not decidedly clay land, yet a certain admixture of the 

 latter with gravel and loam. We should also judge that it 

 was lackiuG: in humus or vegetable matter. 



We think a combination of the two methods mentioned 

 would have been the best; that is, to have burnt the toughest 

 sods and l)ushes, vvdiich would have taken a long time in rot- 

 ting, and to have left all grass or pliant sods on the land. 

 The process which Mr. H. pursued is called "Paring and 

 Burning," and is more common in England than in this coun- 

 try. Mr. Colman, in his "European Agriculture," devotes 

 some attention to this subject. He says, "The process of 

 paring and l)urning the surface of land has been practised 

 with great, though not always Avith equal success, in many 

 parts of the country. The ol)jccts of it are threefold : first, 

 to reduce the coarse vegetable matter on the surface to a state 

 of decomposition, that it may be supplanted by a more profit- 

 able vegetation ; the second, to destroy grubs, insects, and 

 the larvfB 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 into ashes, for the nutriment 

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



