46 



Burning Land for Manure. 



In conclusion, I have only further to observe, that I called in 

 the assistance of Mr. Cronk, and directed him to make out the 

 inventory ; and I did so because he is well known in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Sevenoaks, and is much employed in valuations of 

 this kind, and is moreover a disinterested person. His instruc- 

 tions were to make out the inventory, upon the supposition that 

 the farm would be given up at Lady-day, 1846. Mr. Jones's 

 salary for managing the farm is included in the interest allowed 

 upon the capital employed in the cultivation. Hoping, therefore, 

 that the account may prove satisfactory to your Lordship, I beg 

 to subscribe myself 



Your most obedient servant, 



James Tomson. 



To the Right Hon. Earl Amherst. 



in. — Burning of Land for Manure. By Thomas Rowlandson. 

 Prize Essay. 



Few subjects connected with agriculture have elicited such oppo- 

 site opinions as that of burning land for manure ; one party advo- 

 cating the practice as all that is excellent, the other maintaining 

 that it is utterly destructive of future fertility for the sole benefit 

 of the immediately succeeding crop. On a little consideration 

 it will appear that the practice really has its advantages or disad- 

 vantages according to the nature of the soil on which the operation 

 is practised : now that it is admitted by all who are in the slightest 

 degree acquainted with the recent researches on the chemical laws 

 which relate to the sources from which plants derive their mineral 

 constituents, the true rationale of the practice is of somewhat easy 

 elucidation. Admitting (and there cannot be a doubt on the 

 subject) that, cceteris paribus, on the abundance or scarcity of the 

 mineral constituents of crops existing in what may be termed an 

 active state in the various soils cultivated by the husbandman 

 depends the respective fertility of each ; it will be apparent to 

 all, that the act of burning land for manure cannot add anything 

 to the soil, but can only have the effect of changing substances 

 previously existing therein in an inert or unavailable form into 

 an active or available form ; in plain terms, into a state more 

 likely to be rendered soluble by the joint effects of carbonic acid 

 and water. 



Respecting the dormant and active ingredients of soils a most 

 excellent paper appeared in the last part of the ' Journal of Agri- 

 culture " by Dr. Daubeny, being a part of his Bakerian Lecture 

 for 1845, in which he justly observes, — Let us take the case of 



