On Burning Clay for Manure. 
245 
Now the facts and observations detailed in the present paper 
contribute in two respects towards this object, viz., 1st., by show- 
ing that the composition of the most commonly cultivated plants is 
still open to much uncertainty ; and 2ndly, by pointing out in 
what way an exact knowledge of their inorganic ingredients 
might aid us towards the solution of many important practical 
questions. 
I hope it will not be attributed to any blindness on my part to 
the deficiencies and imperfections which exist in this paper, if I 
remark, that an investigation of a similar kind to the one herein 
detailed, if carried out on a more adequate scale, undertaken on 
ground more carefully selected, conducted with a more vigilant 
attention to all the minute circumstances which might influence 
the result, and accompanied by a regular series of analyses, both 
of the soil and of the crops, during the whole period of their con- 
tinuance, would be of essential service in clearing up many points 
in agricultural science which yet remain questicmable. 
Mv memoir mav serve also as a kind of illustration of that 
method of scientific book-keeping, which I proposed some time 
ago, at once as an useful exercise for the agricultural student, and 
as a means of introducing greater precision into the conduct of 
our experiments on this subject, and which I am therefore happy 
in having this opportunity of rendering more generally known and 
understood. 
XVII. — On Burning Clay for Manure. By Walter Long. 
To Mr. Pusey. 
Dear Sir, — As you have requested me to write you an account 
of my mode of preparing a useful manure from burnt soil, and the 
method of burning, I shall be highly gratified if this communica- 
tion of a very simple process should be of the smallest use to any 
agriculturist. 
Our soil Is a thin, dry, flinty loam upon chalk ; and we suffer, 
unless we have abundance of rain in spring and summer : every- 
thing, therefore, is beneficial to our land that has the property of 
attracting atmospheric moisture, carbonic acid gas, cScc. &c. With 
this object, the first point is to obtain ashes ; those that are burnt 
in the fields from weeds and grass round the headlands, or from 
the grubbing of hedgerows, being full of vegetable matter, are the 
best and cheapest. These, however, can only be burnt in sum- 
mer ; and sooner or later, in farms that are kept clean, the mate- 
ri.als are no longer to be found. Yet an inexhaustible supply may 
be obtained, and employment afforded throughout the winter, by 
