ON MANURES. 131 



irons to the beam of any plough, before the coulter; in light 

 soils it saves much labour in the cutting of pea, tare, bean, and 

 otlier stubbles, at about two inches below the surface ; and not 

 turning any furrow, it leaves the weeds and roots all cut 

 through, fit for being immediately harrowed out, raked into 

 heaps, and burnt. The shim, or skim, has also been affixed 

 as an additional coulter, in a peculiar form, to a plough much 

 used in Oxfordshire, where it is found to answer the double 

 purpose of both paring and ploughing. The tool is placed as 

 a fore-coulter, and acts upon the sod, which it turns up from 

 either side without effort. 



Operation of Paring. — In ploughing turf, for it can hardly 

 be called paring, when intended for burning, there are various 

 modes adopted. Some plough it one way, and then cross- 

 plough it, endeavouring thereby to cut it up in square cakes, 

 and others, with a broad stripping share, cut the sod thin, and 

 turn the whole over, with the grass downwards ; this is done 

 early in winter, and, after lying some time, the land is either 

 cross-ploughed or worked with the tormentors, then harrowed, 

 and such proportion burnt as the farmer may deem expedient: 

 some burn a large portion of the earth, and others little beside 

 the roots and weeds. A second method is, not to strip the 

 leys clear, but to leave a narrow strip of ground whole, on 

 which the furrow-slice is turned; which is provincially called 

 in different places, either by the names of 'furrow and comb,' 

 'turning to rot,' 'ribbing,' 'raftering,' or 'baulking.' The 

 third, which is common in Cornwall, when there is not time 

 to permit the sod to rot, and is there called ' veiling,' is per- 

 formed nearly in the same manner as the former, excepting 

 that, instead of being turned over, the furrow-slice is cut with 

 its turf upwards: this is drawn out with small crooks by 

 women and boys, or harrowed, then raked together in heaps, 

 and burned. 



Another plan, recommended by Mr. Boys, is, when the 

 weather is set in dry in the spring, to plough the sod as thin 

 as possible (unless it be a very old piece of turf, full of woody 

 roots, which may, in such case, be broken up a tolerable 

 depth) in baulks; that is, to turn the turf the contrary way to 

 the common ploughing, with the turnwrest-plongh, laying the 

 land in narrow ridges, about 18 inches in width: when a piece 

 of land is thus gone over, it should be harrowed slightly down, 

 and immediately ploughed in the same manner crossways, at 

 right angles, finishing the whole by splitting, or clearing with 

 t2 



