ON BURNING WEEDS AND OTHER RUBBISH. 
11 
ARTICLE II. 
ON BURNING WEEDS AND OTHER RUBBISH, AND THE BENEFIT 
THENCE DERIVED TO STRONG CLAYEY GARDENS. 
BY MR. T. H. BAILEY. 
Considering it the duty of every man, in whatever station provi¬ 
dence may have placed him, to render himself useful, I am induced 
to offer the following remarks. In the situation in which I am placed, 
and which I have held for some years, the site of the garden being 
a clay, and that of the strongest nature, is a very great disadvantage 
to the gardener, supposing that even after much labour it should pro¬ 
duce a fair crop of common vegetables, as is the case. But it is a 
very unpleasant thing to have a man digging a whole day at a small 
plot of ground, which, were it any thing like what it ought to be, 
might have occupied hut a few hours. Besides, should the gardener 
want to put it into immediate use, it becomes very difficult and 
almost impossible to rake it, until it has been exposed sometime to 
the weather. I have endeavoured to render it more pliable by put¬ 
ting in enormous quantities of decayed leaves, bog, &c., hut it was 
to no purpose, without removing the site altogether. The best me¬ 
thod I have practiced for sometime is to burn all the weeds and refuse 
-I can get together. I never pay any particular attention to a favour¬ 
able season for clearing of such things, hut hoe them up, and rake or 
scrape them together, wheeling them to the back premises till it is 
convenient to burn them. As in most gardens, whether large or 
small, there is always, generally speaking, some portion of brush wood 
or cuttings of shrubs and trees fit for nothing but the flames. These 
being too frequently left up and down in the plantations, become very 
unsightly, and retard their progress. In many situations, supposing 
them to be collected together, they are suffered to remain in heaps 
from year to year, till they are decayed, and they do little or no 
good to anv one. But being converted to the purpose I allude, they 
would promote neatness, and he of great advantage to the gardener 
as an improvement. I have used them chiefly in correcting the 
borders by the south walls, commonly called Peach borders. The 
top spit, being improved from time to time, is of course good in 
nature, though not at all pliable. I get out a space, as if for double 
digging or trenching; take away the sub-spit, (clay) and replace it 
with the lop, making good the deficiencies with the ashes produced 
from the weeds, &c. Some people may object, why not mix a 
portion of the top soil with the ashes P When T first commenced, in 
