312 SOILS AND SOIL-PROCESSES. 20. 



It does not appear to be confidered even 

 in this Diilridlas a general source of ma- 

 nure ; but merely as being applicable to the 

 reduction of old tough [ward. 



For even here, where it has long been in 

 common pradfece among difcerning hufband- 

 men, there are men, who flill fee it as a bug- 

 bear, too terrible to become familiar with. 

 The falfc notion of " fending the foil into the 

 clouds," fiiohtens fome ; while the better- 

 founded idea of reducing it all to aflies — by 

 too frequent repetition of this operation — is 

 a ftumbling-block to others. 



Whoever will attend to the quantity of 

 earth in the fods, and the quantity of alhes 

 produced from them, will lofe his fears about 

 the y(?f7 being hjjened by this operation. 



Suppofing the fod to be an inch thick ; 

 not more than one-fourth of it, perhaps, is 

 ■ foil; and this, fo far from being reduced in 

 bulk to an alarming degree, is perhaps in- 

 creafed in fize by the aflion of the fire ; which 

 by leaving it in an open porous ftate, ren- 

 ders it mor," bulky than the fame foil, Ihook 

 from the fods. and reduced to a perfed: flate 

 of dryncfs only, would prok^hiy have been. 



