ON MANURES. 129 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MINERAL MANURES CONTINUED. PARING AND BURNING. 



Paring and burning the ground, both for the purpose of get- 

 ting nd of the rank vegetation with which land is sometimes 

 covered, and of procuring the ashes as manure, is a practice 

 of such ancient date, as to have been known to the Romans, 

 and has been immemorially used by our ancestors. It is, 

 indeed, supposed to have been introduced through the inter- 

 course of the Italians with our southern coasts, and to have 

 been first imparted to the inhabitants of the counties of Devon 

 and Cornwall, whence it acquired the name of denshiring. 

 It has since been very extensively practised in various parts 

 of the kingdom, as well as throughout the continent; yet 

 there is, perhaps, no portion of our husbandry, the merits of 

 which have given rise to such wide difference of opinion. It 

 is, however, of the highest importance to farmers that the 

 principles upon which it Tests should be clearly understood; 

 for, on soils to which it is applicable, and on farms on which it 

 can be carried into effect, it has been found, when managed 

 with judgment, to be not alone an effectual, but a cheap mode 

 of bringing land that has either lain waste or overgrown with 

 root-weeds and other rubbish into a good state of cultivation : 

 it is, therefore, deserving of their special attention. It must 

 also be observed, that although this mode of preparing earth 

 as manure is very commonly confounded with that of burning 

 clay, yet they differ in this — that, in reducing the soil to 

 ashes, it is supposed that much of its fertilizing properties 

 must be dissipated, and all kinds of earth are thus burned; but, 

 when burnt by the process of slow combustion, it is presumed 

 that the clay — to which the operation is confined — retains a 

 larger portion of its vegetative power, and also has a greater 

 mechanical effect upon the land. We shall, therefore, con- 

 sider them separately. 



Paring implements. — There are various modes of perform- 

 ing this operation, by which the green-sward or turf, is cut in 

 thin slices from the surface of the land. 



Although performed by manual labour, yet such is the 

 toughness of the sward in marshy ground, that horses are 

 often employed ; and in the fens of Cambridgeshire and the 

 neighbouring counties, there is a plough much in use, that 



