364 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec 



PARING AND BURNING. 



In England, when lands become exhausted and 

 foul, the farmer sometimes proceeds to renovate 

 them by what is called "paring and burning." 

 This process is carried on with great facility and 

 despatch, and, as we are assured, with results al- 

 together satisfactory. In this country, however 

 the attempt to renovate impoverished lands by 

 this operation has rarely been made. We have 

 experimented on a few acres and found the pro- 

 cess encouraging. Mr. SoTlIAM, at Hereford Hall, 

 near Albany, is the only individual this side the 

 Atlantic, of whose experiments in this depart- 

 ment of agricultural improvement we have any 

 definite account. His experience demonstrates the 

 practicability of renovating exhausted fields by 

 this process, as well as its economy. The opera- 

 tion consists in cutting a thin slice from the sur- 

 face of the soil, whether in grass or foul with 

 heath, fern, or other spurious vegetation, and after 

 allowing the sods, thus detached, to dry thorough- 

 ly in the sun, — to facilitate which they are gener- 

 ally deposited in heaps, burning them slowly, 

 without open combustion or a very intense heat, 

 to ashes. The product of the combustion is a 

 mixture of burnt earth, charred vegetable matter 

 and the ash of that part which is entirely consum- 

 ed. The object of paring and burning may be 

 considered as three -fold — each distinct: First, 

 the destruction of insects; second, the clearing of 

 the soil of spurious vegetation, and, thirdly, the 

 supplying a healthy and stimulating food for the 

 sustenance of valuable crops. The manure thus 

 obtained ])ossesses a specific charactei', and is very 

 powerful, being liberally impregnated with alka- 

 line salts and carbonaceous matter, and acts as a 

 powerful promoter of vegetable development, 

 r "In England," says a late writer, "paring and 

 burning the surface is an almost invariable pre- 

 liminary in the conversion of waste lands into til- 

 lage, and when these lands are in a 'state of na- 

 ture,' overrun with wild plants, which cannot be 

 easily brought to decay by simply burying them 

 in the ground, burning is the readiest and most 

 effectual mode of destroying them. In this case, 

 the practice is recommended and approved of." 



We have in ihis country a large amount of land 

 — now in a state of partial or entire unproduc- 

 tiveness — which might, perhaps, be rendered high- 

 ly fertile by the adoption of this method of re- 

 clamation. Indeed, it has been resorted to quite 

 ■extensively in our swamp and bog lands, but these 

 are not, in our judgment, the lands whence the 

 greatest benefits of this process may be derived. 

 We should be glad to see it introduced on upland 

 soils, which, in consequence of excessive cropping 

 and neglect, liave become foul with spurious veg- 

 etation, and req\iire some cleansing process before 

 they can be profitably worlied, or made to produce 



a remunerating growth of any kind. There are 

 thousands of acres of old pastures of this charac- 

 ter in New England, densely covered with low 

 bushes m spots, and occupying one-half or two- 

 thirds of the whole surface. Cutting these bushes, 

 and merely burning them on the ground, Mill not 

 effect a cure — the remedy does not go deep enough 

 — but if the whole surface over a given limit is 

 pared, and when the roots, bushes and turfs are- 

 dry, the whole is slowly burned, the ashes scat- 

 tered, and a little grass seed of various kind* 

 sowed and raked in, we think there will be an ef- 

 fectual reclamation. It may be objected that great 

 labor will be required to accomplish this. We ad- 

 mit it — but if great results follow, that labor will 

 be well expended. We hope some of our enter- 

 prising farmers will try this method, on a small 

 scale, at least. Where ^a?m^ is done, the bushes- 

 need not be cut, as they are so many levers, or 

 handles, to assist in peeling off the surface. In 

 all old soils, also, there are generally multitudes 

 of insects which prey upon the roots of vegeta- 

 bles ; and these will be either destroyed by the 

 fire, or expelled by the ashes spread upon the sur- 

 face after the burning has been completed. 



The grass growing on one acre of land thus re- 

 claimed, would probably be worth more for pas- 

 ture feed than that growing on five, or even tea 

 acres, of old bushy and mossy pasture-land. An 

 important question with our farmers for many 

 years has been, "How shall we reclaim our ex- 

 hausted pastures ?" Let this plan be tried, if only 

 on a few square rods, and ascertain what the re- 

 sult will be. 



BINDING MACHINE. 

 At the late "Reaper Trial," held under the di- 

 rection of the De Kalb Co., 111., Agricultural So- 

 ciety, there were some twenty different reapers, 

 mowers and binders tested, during two days. 

 From a lengthy report in the Fiur^d New Yorker 

 we copy the following notice of "Marsh Brothers'' 

 Self-Raker and Hand-Bind'er." 



It is a novelty. It is drawn by two horses, 

 driven by a driver who sits elevated high over a 

 large driving wheel which propels the sickle, reel, 

 and an endless apron. The grain falls on this 

 endless apron, and is carried on it up over the 

 driving wheel and over an upper cylinder at the 

 right of the driving wheel, falling into a trough. 

 On a platform beside this trough stands two men 

 who bind the grain as fast as it falls there, — each 

 alternating with the other in binding a l)undle. 

 These men stood under an awning of cotton to 

 keep them from the sun. This machine cut five 

 feet wide. Its draft, according to the report of 

 the Committee, was 325 pounds. It carried three 

 men. The team did not appear to labor hard. It 

 is true they were not hurried. After cutting once 

 around the field, both men binding, one of them 

 sits down on the binding table, quietly folds his 

 arms and looks on. The other, one of the Marsh 

 Brothers, binds the balance of the acre as T st as 



