140 A PRACTICAL TREATISE 



in London, in the year 1732, there are also two engravings 

 of kilns for burning clay, with several letters from various 

 persons, statino- that the plaii had succeeded in many places 

 in both England and Scotland ; and that, in experiments made 

 in the latter country, it had been found preferable to either 

 lime or dung, but too expensive. In the North of Ireland it 

 has also been carried on time out of mind, and in the vicinity 

 of the bogs, where fuel is accessible, the manure which it 

 affords is cheap and inexhaustible, and the power of cropping 

 is thus extended beyond what could otherwise be practicable. 

 An essay has been written by Mr, Burrougiis, describing its 

 good effects in very warm terms: many other treatises have 

 likewise been published upon the subject ; and the gold medal 

 of the Society of Arts was, not many years since, awarded to 

 Dr. Cartvvright for his experiments. 



The practice, however, fell into considerable disuse, until it 

 was revived, in the year 1815, by some letters in the 'Farmer's 

 Magazine,' and, still more recently, by the account given by 

 General Beatson of the process, and its consequences, on his 

 farm in Sussex, in which he describes the efficacy of calcined 

 clay, when compared with either lime, dung, wood-ashes, or 

 peat and dung, as equal, and in some instances superior, to 

 any of those manures. This has been followed by two other 

 publications, — one at York, and the other at Ipswich, — each 

 nearly supporting the same principle by arguments drawn 

 from practical proofs ; and it seems to have been, in many 

 cases, sanctioned by the experience of extensive farmers. 



Mr. Burroughs, after detailing the diflerence in the chemi- 

 cal qualities of burned earth, says that 'lime being established 

 as a valuable application to many soils, it would be no easy 

 matter to persuade those who have not tried the former as a 

 substitute, that it possesses more fertilizing properties; but, 

 then, experience, by which all must be governed, has con- 

 vinced me that burned earth is by far more valuable, on many 

 soils, than lime. I have tried it on strong clays, on light 

 soils, and on moory soils, on all of which it produced good 

 crops of potatoes and turnips, and afterwards corn ; and in one 

 instan'ce in particular, where lime had been ineffectually 

 applied, a dressing of burned clay made the land yield most 

 abundantly. Lime only stimulates and pulverizes the soil, 

 whereas burned earth not only possesses those properties, but 

 contains within itself enriching and vegetative qualities.' 



He then adds, that ' burned earth may be depended upon as 



