ON MANURES. X39 



moderate proportion with the ashes, if the land be clayey; as 

 in this species of soil, the deficiency of calcareous matter 

 renders it essential to the purposes of vegetation, and the two 

 manures assist each other. 6thly. To sow the seeds as 

 promptly as may be convenient after the ashes have been 

 spread and ploughed in. 7thly. To commence the cultivation 

 (if the time of the year and other circumstances will permit) 

 w^ith turnips or cole; but if oats or barley be taken as a first 

 crop, to follow it with two successive green crops; and never 

 to sow wheat until the land be brought into a fine tilth, and 

 perfectly clean. Sthly. To apply the whole of the manure pro- 

 duced by the crops to the ground, and to manage it, generally, 

 in the usual course of regularly-cultivated arable land. 



If these rules be strictly adhered to, there can be no doubt 

 that paring and burning will be found advantageous on all 

 soils of the kind we have described as adapted for the opera- 

 tion ; but, although neither coinciding in the odium which has 

 been cast upon it by some writers, nor in the praises with 

 which it has been loaded by others, and only viewing it as a 

 means of clearing ground which is encumbered with dormant 

 matter, and thus stimulating the inert powers of vegetation, 

 we by no means recommend it to repetition ; for, if the land be 

 properly managed, it can never afterwards become so foul as 

 to require the surface to be pared. 



CHAPTER IX. 



MINERAL MANURES CONTINUED. BURNT CLAY. 



The burning of clay, for manure, is an invention which has 

 been attributed to the Earl of Halifax, and is supposed not to 

 have been adopted in England until about the year 1730 ; but 

 it was known in this country at a far more distant period, and 

 has been mentioned m some very old tracts on agriculture, in 

 one of which, published more than a century ago, under the 

 title of ' The Practical Farmer, or the Hertfordshire Husband- 

 man,' the method of preparing and applying it to the land is 

 described in a manner which diifers but little from the present 

 practice. In ' The Country Gentleman's Companion,' printed 

 M 



