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down a field with grass seeds. It is an improvement upon this method, to take two or three successive crops of turnip, which will require no dung for the second and following crops. This will thicken the soil, and enrich it greatly.

The best way of improving swampy ground, after draining, is paring and burning. But where the ground is dry, and the soil so thin as that the surface cannot be pared, the way of bringing it into tilth from the state of nature is to plough it with a feathered sock, laying the grassy surface under. After the new surface is mellowed with frost, fill up all the seams by harrowing cross the field, which by excluding the air will effectually rot the sod. In this state let it lie summer and winter. In the beginning of May after, a cross-ploughing will reduce all to small square pieces, which must be pulverised with the brake, and made ready for a May or June crop. If these square pieces be allowed to lie long in the sap without breaking, they will become tough and not be easily reduced.

On the subject of paring and burning, Mr. Loudon says, 'The season for this operation is April, May, and June: the particular period must, however, always depend much on the state of the weather and the nature of the crop. When the east winds prevail, in February and March, this sort of business may sometimes be carried on. But for accomplishing the work with the greatest despatch, and also with the least trouble and expense, a dry season is obviously the best. The prudent cultivator should not embark in the undertaking unless there be a reasonable probability of his accomplishing it while the weather keeps dry and favorable. The latter end of May or the beginning of June, when the hurry of the springseed time is over, in the more northern districts, when a number of hands can be most easily procured may, upon the whole, be considered as the best and most convenient season; as at this period the green vegetable products are in their most succulent state, and of course may probably afford more saline matter; but in the more southern counties either a much earlier season must be taken, or the interval between the hay season and the harvest time must be fixed upon, the latter of which is, on the principle just stated, evidently the best, where the extent of ground to be burnt is not too large. In other seasons it would frequently be impossible to procure a sufficient number of hands for performing the business. In bringing waste lands into cultivation, where an extensive tract of ground is to undergo this process, the autumn may, in many cases, afford a convenient opportunity for the operation. A good deal depends on the crops that are to be sown after paring and burning. When rape or turnips are to be cultivated, the end of May, or the beginning of June, will be the most proper time: but, if barley or oats are to be sown, the paring and burning must be completed as early in spring as the nature of the season will admit; and, when lands are pared and burned as a preparation for a crop of wheat, July, or even the beginning of August, may, in favorable seasons, answer; but it is better to have the ground ready sooner if possible. In respect to the depth to which lands of different

qualities may be pared with the most advantage, it is obvious that, as it can hardly be proper to pare light, thin-stapled soils, to the same depths as those of the more deep and heavy kinds, it should, in some degree, be regulated by their particular nature, and their differences in respect to heaviness. Boys, who is in the habit of breaking up thin chalky soils, and such as have been in tillage, in this way, observes that in Kent, where the method of paring most in use is with down-shares or breast ploughs, they take off turfs as thick as the nature of the soil will admit, from half an inch to two inches; the thicker the better, provided there be a sufficient portion of vegetable matter contained within them to make them burn well. The most usual depths of paring are from about one to three inches.

'In regard to burning, when the season is not very wet, the turfs will commonly be sufficiently dried in about a fortnight or three weeks, even without being turned; but in rainy weather they require a longer time, and must be turned more than once to prevent their striking out roots and shoots, which might hinder them from burning. As soon as the turfs have fully undergone the process of burning, and are reduced to the state of ashes and a powdery earthy matter, the whole should, as soon as possible, be spread out over the land in as regular and equal a manner as the nature of the work will admit of; for, without great attention in this respect, great inequality in the crops may take place; besides the soil will be made lighter in some places than in others, which may be disadvantageous in the same way. The spreading, where it can by any means be accomplished, should always be performed before any rain falls; as, where this point is not attended to, a great loss may be sustained by the saline matters being carried down in a state of solution, and their beneficial effects in a great measure lost before the crops are in a condition to receive them. In order to secure the full influence of the ashes, the land is frequently slightly ploughed over immediately after the ashes are spread out. And it is stated by Donaldson that those who are more than ordinarily attentive in this respect only rib or slob furrow the field, so that the ashes after burning may be covered up with the greater expedition and despatch. By this mode they cannot probably, however, be so equally mixed with the soil as by that of ploughing the whole field with a very slight furrow, so as just to cover them. The expense of the operation of paring and burning will vary according to the nature and situation of the land, the method in which it is performed, and the customs of the district in regard to the price of labor. On the thin sort of chalky soils it is stated by Boys that the expense for paring at a moderate thickness, where the land is not very flinty, is about equal to four or five ploughings.'

We add this writer's remarks on the operation of drying and burning clay for manure, as it is in several respects similar to that of paring and burning. The practice of burning clay,' he observes, has at various times been pursued with energy and success, and at other times has fallen

into neglect. The oldest book in which it is mentioned is probably The Country Gentleman's Companion, by Stephen Switzer, gardener, London, 1732. In that work it is stated that the earl of Halifax was the inventor of this useful improvement; and that it was much practised in Sussex. There are engravings of two kilns for burning clay, one adopted in England, and the other in Scotland; where it is said to have been ascertained that lands, reduced by tillage to poverty, would produce an excellent crop of turnips if the ground were ploughed two or three times, and clay ashes spread over it. In the same work there are several letters, written in the years 1730 and 1731, stating that the plan of burning clay had answered in several parts of England; and accounts were received from Scotland that, upon experiment, it had answered better than either lime or dung, but was found too expensive. The practice is described at length in Ellis's Practical Farmer, or Hertfordshire Husbandman, 1732. In 1786 James Arbuthnot, of Peterhead, tried several successful experiments with burning clay, and various others have since been made in different parts of the empire. In 1814 the practice was revived and written ou by Craig, of Callay, near Dumfries, and soon after by general Beatson, near Tunbridge; by Curwen, Burrows, and several correspondents of agricultural journals. In Ireland, it would appear, the practice prevails in several places, and Craig says he adopted it from seeing its effects there. The result of the whole is, that the benefits of this mode of manuring have been greatly exaggerated; though they certainly appear to be considerable on clayey soils. Aiton (Farmer's Magazine, vol. xxii. p. 423) compares this rage for burning clay, which existed in 1815, to the fiorin mania of a few years prior date. In 1822 he found few of the advocates for these improvements disposed to say much on the subject, and saw very few clay kilns smoking. To give my ultimatum upon this subject,' he says, I regret that the discoverers of fiorin grass, and of the effects of burnt clay, have so far overrated their value. Both are useful and proper to be attended to;-the grass to be raised on patches of marshy ground, and used as green food to cattle in winter; and the burnt earth as a corrector of the mechanical arrangement of a stubborn clay soil; and I have no doubt but if they had been only recommended for those valuable purposes they would have been brought into more general use than they yet are or will be, till the prejudice against them, arising from the disappointment of expectations raised high by too flattering descriptions, are removed.' He thus describes the action of burnt clay: It must be obvious to every person that has paid attention to the subject, that when clay, or other earth, is burnt into ashes like brick-dust, it will not (unless acids be applied to it) return again to its former state of clay, but will remain in the granulated state of ashes or friable mould, to which it was reduced by the operation of burning. An admixture of this kind, with a strong adhesive clay, must evidently operate as a powerful manure by changing the mechanical arrangement of the latter and rendering it more

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friable; giving greater facility to the protection of redundant moisture, and to the spreading of the roots of vegetables in quest of food. The application of as much water, sand, or any similar substance, would have exactly the same effect in opening, and keeping open, the pores of an adhesive clay soil, and converting it into the quality loam. Besides this, which would be a permanent improvement upon the staple or texture of every clay soil, burnt clay or torrefied earth may sometimes acquire, in this operation, a small quantity of soot or carbonic matter, that may, in favorable circumstances, operate for one season as a manure, or as a stimulus to a small extent to the growth of vegetables. This at least may be the case if the clay or earth burnt shall abound with vegetable matter, and if the burning is conducted in such a smothered way as to prevent the smoke or vegetable matter from escaping. But as it is the subsoil that is recommended, and seems to be generally used for burning, it is impossible any considerable quantity of vegetable matter can be found in it. The calcareous matter in the soil, it is said, will be calcined and formed into lime by the operation of burning. But I am disposed to consider this argument as far more plausible than solid. Calcareous matter is no doubt found, on chemical analysis, to a certain extent in some soils; perhaps some perceptible portion of it may be found in every soil. But it is seldom or never found in any soil to such an extent as to be of much use as a manure to other land. Even when the soil is impregnated with a large portion of calcareous matter, if it is not in the form of limestone, but minutely mixed with it, the burning cannot either increase or much alter the lime. If it is in the form of stones, however small, or in what is called limestone gravel, there is little chance of its being calcined in the operation of burning the clay; it would go through that ordeal unaltered. Any change, therefore, that can be made upon the small portion of calcareous matter in the soil, by burning in the manner directed, can scarcely have any perceptible effect when that matter is applied as manure to other soils. And though it is possible that some qualities in particular soils, unfavorable to vegetation, may be corrected by burning, and that in some other instances the fire may render the clay more nutritive to plants (though I have not been able to trace this, or even to conjecture how it can happen), yet I am much disposed to believe that its effect as a mechanical mixture in opening the pores of the soil is the chief improvement that can be derived from the application of burnt clay as a manure. If it has any other effect it must be from the soot or carbonic matter collected during the operation of burning; or perhaps it may acquire by the torrefaction somewhat of a stimulating quality, that may for a short time promote the growth of particular plants. But these qualities can only be to a small extent, and continue to act for a very limited period.'Far. Mag. xxii. 422.

According to a writer in the Farmer's Journal the action of burnt clay is at least three-fold, and may be manifold. It opens the texture o. stubborn clays, gives a drain to the water, spira

cles to the air, and affords to the roots facility of penetrating. Clay ashes burned from turves, containing an admixture of vegetable matter, consist, in some small proportion, of vegetable alkali, or potassa, a salt which is known to be a good manure. It also, in most cases, happens, that a stiff cold clay is impregnated with pyrites, a compound of sulphuric acid and iron. Although the chemical attraction between these two bodies is so strong that it is one of the most difficult operations in the arts totally to free iron from sulphur, yet a very moderate heat sublimes a large portion of the sulphur. The iron is then left at liberty to re-absorb a portion of the redundant sulphuric acid, which too generally is found in these soils, and thereby sweetens the land; and it is probable that the bright red, or crimson calx of iron, which gives coloring to the ashes when over burnt, is beneficial to vegetation in the present case, inasmuch as it is, of itself, one of the happiest aids to fertility, as is exemplified in the red marl strata, and red sand strata throughout the kingdom. The evolution and recombination of different gases, no doubt, materially affect the question; but it is reserved for accurate chemical observers to give us an account of the processes which take place in this respect. Curwen notices that clay ashes do no benefit as a top dressing on grass, which is in part to be explained by reason that the ashes, when spread on the surface of the grass, cannot exert the mechanical action on the soil in the ways enumerated. Neither can the calx of iron come so immediately in contact with the particles of the soil, for the producing of any chemical effect, as it would do if the ashes were ploughed in. In short, like many other manures which are laid on the surface, unless it contains something soluble which may be washed into the ground by rains, it does very little good; and the feeble proportion of vegetable alkali is probably the only soluble matter the ashes contain. However sanguine may be the admirers of burnt clay, all experience confirms that the most beneficial clayashes are those which are burnt from the greatest proportion of rich old turf, ancient banks, roots of bushes, and other vegetable matters; and I conceive the value of mere powdered pottery (for such it is) may easily be overrated.-Far. Journ. 1819.

The common method of burning clay is thus described by Mr. Loudon. An oblong enclosure, of the dimensions of a small house (say fifteen feet by ten), is made of green turf sods, raised to the height of three and a half or four feet. In the inside of this enclosure, air-pipes are drawn diagonally, which communicate with holes left at each corner of the exterior wall. These pipes are formed of sods put on edge, and the space between these so wide only as another sod can easily cover. In each of the four spaces left between the air-pipes and the outer wall, a fire is kindled with wood and dry turf, and then the whole of the inside of the enclosure or kiln filled with dry turf, which is very soon on fire; and on the top of that, when well kindled, is thrown the clay, in small quantities at a time, and repeated as often as necessary, which must be regulated by the intensity of the burning. The

air-pipes are of use only at first, because, if the fire burns with tolerable keenness, the sods forming the pipes will soon be reduced to ashes. The pipe on the weather side of the kiln only is left open, the mouths of the other three being stopped up, and not opened, except the wind should veer about. As the inside of the enclosure, or kiln, begins to be filled up with clay, the outer wall must be raised in height, always taking care to have it at least fifteen inches higher than the top of the clay, for the purpose of keeping the wind from acting on the fire. When the fire burns through the outer wall, which it often does, and particularly when the top is overloaded with clay, the breach must be stopped up immediately, which can only be effectually done by. building another sod wall from the foundation, opposite to it, and the sods that formed that part of the first wall are soon reduced to ashes. The wall can be raised as high as may be convenient to throw on the clay, and the kiln may be increased to any size, by forming a new wall when the previous one is burnt through. The principal art consists in having the outer wall made quite close and impervious to the external air, and taking care to have the top always lightly, but completely covered with clay; because, if the external air should come in contact with the fire, either on the top of the kiln, or by means of its bursting through the sides, the fire will be very soon extinguished. In short, the kiln requires to be attended to nearly as closely as charcoal pits. Clay is much easier burnt than either moss or loam;-it does not undergo any alteration in its shape, and on that account allows the fire and smoke to get up easily between the lumps; whereas moss and loam, by crumbling down, are very apt to smother the fire, unless carefully attended to. No rule can be laid down for regulating the sixe of the lumps of clay thrown on the kiln, as that must depend on the state of the fire; but I have found every lump completely burnt on opening the kiln; and some of them were thrown on larger than my head. Clay, no doubt, burns more readily if it be dug up and dried for a day or two before it be thrown on the kiln; but this operation is not necessary, as it will burn though thrown on quite wet. After a kiln is fairly set a going, no coal or wood, or any sort of combustible is necessary, the wet clay burning of itself, and it can only be extingnished by intention, or the carelessness of the operator,-the vicissitudes of the weather having hardly any effect on the fire, if properly attended to. It may, perhaps, be necessary to mention that, when the kiln is burning with great keenness, a stranger to the operation may be apt to think that the fire is extinguished. If, therefore, any person, either through impatience, or too great curiosity, should insist on looking into the interior of the kiln, he will certainly retard, and may possibly extinguish the fire; for, as before mentioned, the chief art consists in keeping out the external air from the fire. Where there is abundance of clay, and no great quantity of green turf, it would perhaps be best to burn the clay in draw-kilns the same as lime.

Colonel Dickson, at Hexham, and other gentlemen of Northumberland, instead of building a

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kiln use gratings or arches of cast iron, to form a vault or funnel for the fuel, and over this funnel the clay is built. The grated arches are made about two feet and a half long, two feet diameter, and about fourteen inches high. One grating is to be filled with brushwood, stubble, or any other cheap fuel, and the clay, as it is dug, built upon it to a convenient height, leaving small vacancies, or boring holes, to allow the heat to penetrate to the middle and outer parts of the clay. When a sufficient quantity is built upon the first grating, another is added at either or both ends, filled with similar fuel, and the clay built upon them as before. This process is continued until ten, twelve, or a greater number of the gratings have been used, when one end is built up or covered with clay, and at the other, under the last grating, a fire is made of coals or faggot wood. The end at which the fire is made should face the wind if possible, and if the process has been properly conducted the clay will be effectually burut. By commencing with a centre grating, in the form of a cross, the workman may build from four ends in the place of two; this contrivance will afford a facility in the work, and have a draft of wind at two entrances. The advantage of this mode of burning clay is the saving of cartage, as the clay may be always burned where it is dug.

Mr. Curwen has practised burning clay and surface soil by lime without fuel (Farm. Mag. vol. xvi. p. 11, 12), in the following manner:-Mounds of seven yards in length, three and a half in breadth, are kindled with seventy-two Winchester bushels of lime. First, a layer of dry sods or parings, on which a quantity of lime is spread, mixing sods with it; then a covering of eight inches of sods, on which the other half of the lime is spread, and covered a foot thick the height of the mound being about a yard. In twenty-four hours it will take fire. The lime should be immediately from the kiln. It is better to suffer it to ignite itself, than to effect it by operation of water. When the fire is fairly kindled, fresh sods must be applied. Mr. Curwen recommends obtaining a sufficient body of ashes before any clay was put on the mounds. The fire naturally rises to the top. It takes less time, and does more work to draw down the ashes from the top, and not to suffer it to rise above six feet. The former practice of burning in kilns was more expensive; did much less work; and, in many instances, calcined the ashes, and rendered them of no value.

2. Of ridges.-The first thing is to consider what grounds ought to be formed into ridges, and what ought to be tilled with a flat surface. Dry soils, which suffer by want of moisture, ought to be tilled flat, to retain moisture. The method for such tilling is to go round from the circumference to the centre, or from the centre to the circumference. This method is advantageous in point of expedition, as the whole is finished without once turning the plough. At the same time, every inch of the soil is moved, instead of leaving either the crown or the furrow unmoved, as is commonly done in tilling ridges. Clay soil, which suffers by water standing on it, ought to

be laid as dry as possible by proper ridges. A loamy soil is the medium between these two. It ought to be tilled flat in a dry country, especially if it incline to the soil first mentioned. In a moist country, it ought to be formed into ridges, high or low according to the degree of moisture and tendency to clay.

In grounds that require ridging, an error prevails, that ridges cannot be raised too high. But high ridges labor under several disadvantages. The soil is heaped upon the crown, leaving the furrows bare; the crown is too dry, and the furrows too wet; the crop, which is always best on the crown, is more readily shaken with the wind, than where the whole crop is of an equal height; the half of the ridge is always covered from the sun, a disadvantage which is far from being slight in a cold climate. High ridges labor under another disadvantage; in ground that has no more level than barely sufficient to carry off water, they sink the furrows below the level of the ground; and consequently retain water at the end of every ridge. The furrows ought never to be sunk below the level of the ground. Water will more effectually be carried off by lessening the ridges both in height and breadth; a narrow ridge the crown of which is but eighteen inches higher than the furrow, has a greater slope than a very broad ridge where the difference is three or four feet.

In forming ridges, where the ground hangs considerably, they may be too steep as well as too horizontal; and, if to the ridges be given all the steepness of a field, a heavy shower may do irreparable mischief. To prevent this the ridges ought to be so directed cross the field as to have a gentle slope, for carrying off water slowly, and no more. In that respect, a hanging field has greatly the advantage of one that is nearly horizontal; because, in the latter, there is no opportunity of a choice in forming the ridges. A hill is of all ground the best adapted for directing the ridges properly. If the soil be gravelly, it may be ploughed round and round, beginning at the bottom and ascending gradually to the top in a spiral line. This method of ploughing a hill, requires no more force than ploughing on a level; and removes the great inconvenience of a gravelly hill, that rains go off too quickly; for the rain is retained in every furrow. If the soil be such as to require ridges, they may be directed to any slope that is proper.

To form a field into ridges, that has not been formerly cultivated, the rules mentioned are easily put in execution. After seeing the advantage of forming a field into ridges, people were naturally led into an error, that the higher the better. But the practice of making their ridges crooked certainly did not originate from design, but from the laziness of the driver suffering the cattle to turn, instead of making them finish the ridge without turning. There is more than one disadvantage in this slovenly practice. First, the water is kept in by the curve at the end of every ridge, and sours the ground. Secondly, as a plough has the least friction possible in a straight line, the friction must be increased in a curve, the back part of the mouldboard pressing hard on the one hand, and the

coulter pressing hard on the other. Thirdly, the plough moving in a straight line has the greatest command in laying the earth over. But, where the straight line of the plough is applied to the curvature of a ridge to heighten it by gathering, the earth moved by the plough is continually falling back, in spite of the most skilful ploughman.

'On these accounts, if the farmer has not a long lease, it will be in general much his interest to leave the ridges as he found them, rather than to attempt to alter their direction; and, if he attends with due caution to moderate the height of these ridges, he may reap very good crops. But, where a man is secure of possessing his ground for any length of time, the advantages that he will reap from having level and well laid out fields are so considerable as to be worth purchasing, if it should even be at a considerable expense. But the loss that is sustained at the beginning by this mechanical mode of levelling ridges, if they are of considerable height, is so very great, that it is doubtful if any future advantages can fully compensate it. I would therefore advise that all this levelling apparatus should be laid aside, and the following more efficacious practice be substituted in its stead: a practice that I have long followed with success, and can safely recommend as the very best that has yet come to my knowledge.

If the ridges have been raised to a very great height, as a preparation for the ensuing operations, they may be first cloven, or scalded out, as it is called, that is, ploughed so as to lay the earth on each ridge from the middle towards the furrows; but, if they are only of a moderate degree of height, this operation may be omitted. When you mean to proceed to level the ground, let a number of men be collected, with spades, more or fewer as the nature of the ground requires, and then set a plough to draw a furrow directly across the ridges of the whole field intended to be levelled. Divide this line into as many parts as you have laborers, allotting to each one ridge or two, more or less, according to their number, height, and other circumstances. Let each of the laborers, as soon as the plough has passed that part assigned him, begin to dig in the bottom of the furrow that the plough has just made, about the middle of the side of the old ridge, keeping his face towards the old furrow, working backwards till he comes to the height of the ridge, and then turn towards the other furrow, and repeat the same on the other side of the ridge, always throwing the earth that he digs up into the deep old furrow between the ridges that is directly before him; taking care not to dig deep where he first begins, but to go deeper and deeper as he advances to the height of the

The inconveniences of ridges high and crooked are so many that one would be tempted to apply a remedy at any risk. And yet, if the soil be clay, it would not be advisable for a tenant to apply the remedy upon a lease shorter than too nineteen years. In a dry gravelly soil, the work is not difficult or hazardous. When the ridges are cleaved two or three years successively in the course of cropping, the operation ought to be concluded in one summer. The earth, by reiterated ploughings, should be accumulated upon the furrows, so as to raise them higher than the crowns; they cannot be raised too high, for the accumulated earth will subside by its own weight. Cross ploughing, once or twice, will reduce the ground to a flat surface, and give opportunity to form ridges at will. The same method brings down ridges in clay soil; only let the work be carried on with expedition; because a hearty shower, before the new ridges are formed, would soak the ground in water, and make the farmer suspend the work for the remainder of that year at least. In a strong clay, the ridges should not be altered, unless it can be done to perfection in one season. On this subject Dr. Anderson has said, 'The difficulty of performing this operation properly with the common implements of husbandry, and the obvious benefit that accrues to the farmer from having his fields level, has produced many new inventions of ploughs, harrows, drags, &c., calculated for speedily reducing the fields to that state; none of which have as yet been found fully to answer the purpose for which they were intended, as they all indiscriminately carry the earth that was on the high places into those that were lower; which, although it may, in some cases, render the surface of the ground tolerably smooth and level, is usually attended with inconveniences far greater, for a considerable length of time, than that which it was intended to remove. For experience sufficiently shows that even the best vegetable mould, if buried for any length of time so far beneath the surface as to be deprived of the benign influences of the at-ridge, so as to leave the bottom of the trench mosphere, becomes an inert lifeless mass, little fitted for nourishing vegetables; and constitutes a soil very improper for the purposes of the farmer. It therefore behoves him to preserve, on every part of his fields, an equal covering of that vegetable mould that has long been uppermost, and rendered fertile by the meliorating influence of the atmosphere. But if he suddenly levels his high ridges, by any of these mechanical contrivances, he buries all the good mould that was on the top of the ridges in the old furrows, by which he greatly impoverishes one part of his field, while he too much enriches another, and he has the mortification frequently to see the one half of his crop rotted by an over-luxuriance, while other parts of it are weak and sickly, or one part ripe and ready for reaping, while the other is not properly filled.

he thus makes across the ridge entirely level, or as nearly so as possible. And when he has finished that part of the furrow allotted to him that the plough has made in going, let him then finish in the same manner his own portion of the furrow that the plough makes in returning. In this manner each man performs his own task through the whole field, gradually raising the old furrows as the old heights are depressed. And if an attentive overseer is at hand, to see that the whole is equally well done, and that each furrow is raised to a greater height than the middle of the old ridges, so as to allow for the subsiding of that loose earth, the operation will be entirely finished at once, and never again need to be repeated.

In performing this operation, it will always be proper to make the ridges formed for the

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