CHAPTER XLIII 



PARING AND BURNING 



'\fOTJ see that man over there on the hillside," 

 >*• said Uncle Paul, pointing to a laborer who, 

 with a large hoe, was paring the ground, so to 

 speak, by shaving off great squares of earth covered 

 with grass and weeds and shrubs. "You see how 

 he stands those pieces up, either in pairs, back to 

 back, or one at a time, so bent or vaulted that they 

 will stay upright by themselves. Thus the air is al- 

 lowed to circulate and dry them rapidly. If we come 

 back in a few days, after sun and air have done 

 their work and the drying process 1 is complete, we 

 shall find our man there again at his work; and we 

 shall see how he piles up the turf with the earthy 

 side upward and outward. In the middle of the 

 pile he leaves a cavity which he fills with brushwood 

 and dry leaves. Then he sets fire to the whole. A 

 second pile is constructed in the same manner and 

 likewise set on fire. Soon the entire hillside is cov- 

 ered with a great number of these small furnaces, 

 burning slowly and sending out long trails of smoke. 

 In a few days, three or four at most, the fires burn 

 themselves out, and then, as soon as all the piles are 

 cold, the mixture of ashes and calcined earth is 

 spread over the ground with a shovel. This agri- 



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