186 [Assembly 



says he takes out forly or fifly loads per acre; of this large amount of 

 roots, not all are sufficiently soliil for fuelj yet the entire mass is 

 vegetable matter, the woody product of the soil, ami instead of being 

 taken out should by all means be be suffered to remain aad decay in 

 the ground to form humusy a most important portion of productive 

 soils, so that besides the great labor and cost of this miserable grub- 

 bing process, it is the very worst thing that can be done for the land; 

 nothing can be done to impoverish more. 



By the operation of the plow, these roots are nearly all lefl in the 

 ground, (except the very largest,) and having been cut by the coulter 

 and the sliare, are turned under the fuiTOW, when all the softer and 

 spongy parts soon decay, thereby adding to the soil a valuable pro- 

 perty. Forty or fifty loads of vegetable matter per acre will of it- 

 self make fertile land, and to abstract that quantity will greatly injure 

 almost any land. 



I have given this particular account, so that persons in other parts 

 of the country may form some opinion of the mode of cleaning these 

 lands as practiced by the island people. This slow and laborious 

 process of grubbing out these little roots, rendered the work of clear- 

 ing this land truly formidable. Indeed, so great was the labor con- 

 sidered that there were but few men laborers who would undertake 

 to perform it. This will appear alnjost incredible to northern or New 

 England farmers, particularly when it is stated, the land on which 

 this work was bestowed is as nearly a perfect sandy loam as it can 

 be, and of the very best and finest kind, in depth from 18 inches to 

 three and five feet, and generally entirely free from stone and gravel. 

 Fields of 10, 50 or 100 acres can be made in which there is scarcely 

 a stone of sufficient size to obstruct the spade, or garden rake, con- 

 sequently there are no obstructions, no large or fast stones in the 

 ground for the roots of trees and shrubs to entwine themselves among 

 and around, and nothing to prevent their being plowed out. Yet 

 nothwithstanding this smooth and beautiful surface, and genial soil, 

 no one believed that it was possible to break up this land with a j^low 

 until the roots had been dug out by hand. 



