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ON. PARING. AND BURNING.; To the Lditor of the Agricultural Magazine, | SIR,' Nov. 2 1803. COINCIDE, in opinion with your Correspondent B. A. (expressed in his letter in your Number for September last) that the operations ot paring and burning are not adapted to | every Species of land; and am inclined, f/707 experience, to think that they are injurlous to thin Solis deficient in vegeta- | bles; not, however,»from their diminishing the quantity of |» Ihe Soil, for no earth but that of a peaty nature is reduced in | quantity by burning, but irom a considerable portion of. the vegetable, and other valuable matters, being thrown into the 4| air, and dissipated in ſhe form of vapour, instead of being 102- | tained ju the land and converted, by a judicious application | of lime, into that matter which we experimentally find con- tributes highly to tbe nourishment of plants. 1 am aware that the Same may be stated with respect to land of other desgriptions,-but we Should consider that, 0 hin grounds ihne quantity of vegetable matter,&c. which 13 pared off, beais 2a( greater proportion to- the whole quantity tarned up, by the plough, tban in deep and productive Soils. On all kinds, however, the incineration Should proceed Slowly, the heaps being covered 80 as to prevent the emission of fame as much as posStble; for he utility of this practice is not only defensible on Scientific principles, but confirmed by the accurate observa- tions of practical agriculturizts. Your Correspondent States that )<< clays and loams are hardened and not amended by the pro- cess." Judging, however, from my own practice and he re-| marks 1 have been evabled to make on that of others, I am of) opinion, that, when they are covered with old coarse and rough herbage, these are the descriptions of land on which paring|

|. and burning.may be most advantageously pursued. Some| ii parts of the clay may indeed be hardened(in Small pieces) by j the fire, but 1 am PEE from experience, that these Jumps tend to increase the fertility of the Soil by mechamcatlly|

breaking the eohesion of its particles, which tacilitates pul- verization, and“ opens*»a more easy paszage to moistüre and| the roots and fibres of plants. I1f 1 am pot misinformed, clay| is-burped and profitably applied, in Some parts ot the country, as manure; and though I am Setisfied that the asbes of pared

! and burnt land act powerfully in favour of the husbandwaru,| in otherwise than in the manner 1 have just Stated, yet as the clays ' thus applied contain Do turt or vegetable matter, IL Seems| hiehlv: probable that the beneficial effects wich atise from ) Spa GENIE; WG:; 5 them are principally owing to tbeir mechanically opening or [„= l be]

breaking the tenacity of Stropsg Soils. U nquestionab]y, however, 4g. Mag. Vol.9. Uu 0