1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
211 
PASIIfi AM© BURNING. 
Paring and burning the soil, as a means of increasing 
its productive powers, has seldom been practiced in 
this country. The reason may, perhaps, be, that in 
©ur older settled districts there is not a very large pro¬ 
portion of the kind of land which is most benefited by 
the process; while the cheapness of new lands has 
offered such inducements to improvement as tended to 
check expensive outlays on the old. 
But we are satisfied that paring and burning may be 
practiced with good results in many situations, and that 
it would prove a profitable mode of improvement. 
The soils most suitable for this process, are those con¬ 
taining a large proportion of inert vegetable matter, 
combined more or less with clay. But on all soils over¬ 
grown with pernicious plants, paring and burning, if 
properly performed, may be successfully practiced. It 
not only effectually kills all living vegetation within two 
inches of the surface, but destroys the greater portion 
of the seeds which infest the soil. We have seen fields 
covered with couch-grass, (Triticum repens,) Johns- 
wort, wild turnep, &c., rendered very clean for several 
years, and made to produce fine crops of grain, grass, 
or root-crops, b 3 T the course alluded to. 
We find in a late number of the Farmers Magazine, 
an excellent paper on the ^subject of paring and burn¬ 
ing, the most important portions of which, with some 
additional suggestions, are condensed in the following 
article. 
The method of paring and burning consists in paring 
with a spade or plow, the surface of any lands that are 
covered with a coarse and overgrown foggage or brush¬ 
wood, into pieces not exceeding two inches in thickness, 
and afterwards drying and reducing them to ashes by 
burning. The operation is most conveniently perform¬ 
ed by men with spades made for the purpose, which are 
formed with a thin blade of about one foot in length, 
terminating in a sharp point; and the left side of the 
blade is provided with an upright coulter, which cuts 
the slices in a straight line, and they are turned off to 
the right hand side by a twitch which the man gives to 
the implement. The handle or shaft is about seven feet 
in length, with a curved bend rising to the upper end, 
on which is placed a cross-hilt about two feet in length, 
by which the workman holds the implement and guides 
the process of cutting. The implement is so construc¬ 
ted that the spade lies nearly fiat on the ground, when 
the hilt rests against the thighs of the workmen, which 
are guarded by boards or by pads of wool fastened on 
straps while he propels the implement through the tough 
surface. 
Various kinds of implements to be worked with horses 
or oxen have been constructed for the purpose of paring 
the soil; but by none of them can the work be so effec¬ 
tually done as by manual labor, and there are but few 
situations where the hand plow would not on the whole, 
prove most advantageous. 
The cost of paring and burning, varies according to 
the price of labor, and the condition of the land on 
which the operation is to be performed. The expense 
for paring alone, in England, is set down at an average 
of 20s. or about $5 per acre, and the cost of burning 
and spreading the ashes at the same sum. It will be 
seen, therefore, that it is only where land and produce 
are comparatively dear, that the process would prove 
remunerative. But in the vicinity of our large markets, 
it is by no means uncommon to incur a much greater 
expense per acre for manure alone, than would be re¬ 
quired for paring and burning. 
Paring may be done at any time from spring to autumn 
The turfs are exposed to the sun and air with the eartk 
side up for a few days, and are then set on edge by 
bracing two pieces together. If the weather is favora¬ 
ble, the slices will soon be ready for heaping; which is 
performed by placing any combustible materials on the 
ground and piling the turf over them until a heap of 
moderate size is formed, when the fire is applied below. 
A smothering fire is much preferred, and the outside of 
the heaps should be kept so close that the flame does 
not burst out. In some cases the sods are piled in large 
heaps, and in others in small ones, only a few yards dis¬ 
tant, but in either case the fire should be kept close. 
Small heaps, when the turf is so dry as to burn readily, 
incur less labor and expense both in piling and spread¬ 
ing the ashes. The quantity of ashes is on an average 
about 2,000, bushels per acre. In dry seasons, and 
where the pared surface is light and fibrous, or covered 
with vegetation, the sods may be burned as they lie on 
the ground, without being heaped: and good pastures 
have been formed by sowing clover and grass seeds on 
the ashes, without plowing, where no useful grass or 
plant had before appeared. 
After the sods are burned, the ashes are to bespread, 
and it is recommended to allow time for cooling them 
before the land is plowed, which is usually done with a 
thin furrow, and rendered fine by harrowing before the 
seed for a crop is sown. It is preferred to keep the 
ashes near the-top of the ground, for the purpose of af¬ 
fording immediate nourishment to plants. 
But though the immediate effects of paring and burn¬ 
ing are generally admitted; the practice is opposed by 
many on the ground that it lessens the vegetable mat¬ 
ters of the soil. This objection is answered by stating 
that it is not a destruction of the vegetable mat¬ 
ter that is sought, but only a charring or torrefy¬ 
ing of the materials exposed to the fire-violent 
burning being carefully avoided. In opposition to the 
opinion that the staple of lands is reduced by this ope¬ 
ration, and that sterility ensues, may be quoted the au¬ 
thority of many of the most eminent cultivators, who 
burned the surface of their calcareous, silicious, and ar¬ 
gillaceous soils in succession, and at no great intervals 
of time, and have always reaped great advantages, and 
never perceived any detriment, but a great improvement 
accrue to the land. 
Green cropping with sheep feeding, was regularly 
followed, and dung and composts occasionally applied ; 
and the land being thus improved was invariably laid 
dow*n to rest with “a sowing of good perennial seeds, 
and depastured for several years with sheep. On soils 
of better quality, the rest in grass would not be so ne¬ 
cessary ; but a duly enriching process of cropping must 
be adopted to afford the animal and vegetable matters 
to the soil on all improved and cultivated lands that 
contain the vegetable matter in a reduced and tender 
form, and in a finely blended and comminuted state. 
The great advantage in burning consists in land pro¬ 
ducing by that process a manure for itself, and in pro¬ 
ducing crops for the future acquisition of that indispen¬ 
sable article. The opponents of burning nowhere give 
the system of cropping, and the future management of 
the land that is said to be reduced to a state of barren¬ 
ness by that process, nor is there anywhere detailed a 
comparative and decisive proof of the inferiority of pa¬ 
ring and burning to the mode of fallowing and rotting 
the surface on lands or fields of similar quality, and 
which have been subjected to the same treatment af* 
