478 Effect of Burnt Clay on a Crop of Wlieat. 
In order to make the land work more easily, I procured from 
Essex some labourers conversant with the mode of burning clay 
which is there practised. Into the details, of that process I need 
not enter^ as excellent accounts of it have been ^iven in this 
Journal by Mr. Pym (vol. iii. p. 323) and by Mr. Randell (vol. 
V. p. 113). I burnt large quantities for the tenant, but until last 
year no record of the effect had been kept, when, seeing him 
apply it to a small wheat-field of eight acres, 1 begged him to 
omit the burnt clay on one corner of the field, that we might 
know whether it was worth while to burn any more clay. Mr. 
Cheer did so accordingly. The crop was a very fine one ; and 
after harvest he threshed out about one-eighth of an acre sepa- 
rately. He found the result as follows : — 
One Acre. Wlieat. 
No manure ..... 37f bushels. 
80 yards burnt clay .... 45j ,, 
80 yards ditto, and sheep-folded . . 47 J ,, 
It will be remarked that this is not a garden experiment, but 
applies to a whole field of wheat, and that the account was given 
in by the occupier of the land. Now I have lying before me the 
valuation at which I bought this identical field, one of the worst 
on the farm. It is 10s. an acre for rent, or 14Z. for the fee-simple. 
Thorough-draining with thorns, at 10 feet asunder, cost about 
3/. IO5. It could now be done with pipes for 21. Dressing with 
80 bushels of burnt clay cost about 21. 5s. The crop must have 
been worth this year about 17/., or nearly the fee-simple of the 
land and the cost of the improvements. It will be observed that 
on a third lot the land was dressed with sheep-folding, in addition 
to the burnt clay, but that the increase of yield was trifling. The 
manure, in fact, was more than the crop would bear, and the 
wheat was consequently laid by the wet summer. This is a con- 
clusive proof that the burnt clay, in this instance, acted as a 
manure, and not merely mechanically. I do not mean that burnt 
clay will always act as a manure, indeed I know that it sometimes 
fails to do so, and there is yet much to learn on the suVyect ; but 
this case of success being beyond suspicion of accident, I have 
thought it right to detail the circumstances of the trial, as an en- 
couragement to the owners and tenants of the worst and most 
expensive kind of heavy land, which I believe to be the Oxford 
clay, where it is not covered with soil of a different quality. This 
farm at Longworth is that on which tlie trial of the ploughs re- 
served from Shrewsbury took place last autumn ; and Mr. Parkos, 
in his Report on the implements, bears witness to its obstinate 
nature. 
Pusey, Jan. 7, 1846. 
