If the dung remains under water, pu trefaction is stopped ; this, therefore, should he carefully guarded against. Stirring the dung should also be avoided, as the oils and alkaline salts are thus car ried of into the atmosphere, and it is not merely rottenness that is wanted, and particularly that dry rottenness thus pro duced, but such as exhibits a fat, oily, mu cilaginous appearance. It will be advisa ble, if practicable, to let it remain in the yard unmoved, till the ground it is destin ed for is completely ready for its recep tion. If, for want of room in the Yazd, it must be carted off into the field, let the litter and the marl be well mixed in filling the cart, and let the whole form, under the shade of trees, if an opportu nity be afforded for it, a heap of about four feet in thickness.
The dung raised even by a few sheep in a standing fold, under a shed construct ed expressly for the purpose, (for the trouble and expense of'one composed of hurdles will overbalance its profits, un less upon a very large scale) is a consider able object, while the sheep under it are at the same time warm and comfortable, instead of being exposed to driving rains and snow.
Animal substances are very far prefer able as manures to fossil or vegetable ones. Woollen rags,- hog's hair, horn shavings, the offal of butcher's and fish monger's stalls, may be obtained in large cities, and, wheneverreasonablv to be pro cured, should be eagerly caught at, With regard to the dung of animals, that of sheep is unquestionably the best. That of horses fed upon corn and hay is justly preferred to that of fatting cattle, which, however, is greatly superior to that of lean cattle, and particularly of cows, though they may feed upon turnips.
The practice of paring and burning is pronounced by men of great philosophi cal sagacity and research, and who have justly referred more to practical results than to theoretical reasonings, to the most decided advantage in the pre paration of land. It may be considered as a practice safe on any soil, as in some it is essentially necessary. That which most of all requires it, and which it is impossible by any other means to pulve rize, is what consists of moss, rushes, and all kinds of coarse grass. It should be exercised on moor and heath-fields, on ac the roots of the grass remaining. in it, which are very stubborn and dura ble, and which check the growth of corn, turnips, and other vegetables, by depriv ing them of a certain portion of nourish ment. They serve likewise as a harbour for worms, the only effectual way to clear the ground from which is to burn it ; the old and the young, together with their eggs, being thus destroyed or smothered. The ashes procured by paring and burn ing will furnish manure for several crops. The lessening of the soil by this husband ry was long apprehended; such a conse quence, however, may be safely and po sitively denied, unless, perhaps, in cases in which the practice is carried to great excess. In poor soils, peat and sedgy bottoms, the process is universally admit ted to be a proper one. With respect
even to clay lands, it produces not only the common manure found in vegetable ashes, but a substance which acts me chanically to the utmost advantage, loos and opening the stubborn adhesion of the soil. In loam itself, the ploughing of rough pastures to the depth of eight or nine inches, and burning the whole fur row in heaps of about thirty bushels each, has been attended with most decided and durable improvement ; and even though this depth be nearly twenty times the depth of common paring, the soil has not been supposed to be wasted eventually by the practice. Its texture has been rendered less stiff; the redundance of water has been expelled ; and the imme diate fertility attending this method of treatment fills it speedily with far more vegetable particles than it previously pos sessed. Sandy grounds are as improve able by this method as those of a dif ferent description, and chalk lands, in every part of England, have been so treat ed, and most profitably been brought into culture. In Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire, in Hampshire, Wilt shire, and Kent, the consequent crops of wheat, barley, oats, and sainfoin, have been of sufficient value to buy the land at more than forty years purchase, at a fair ly estimated rent, before these improve ments were applied. But whatever dif ference may exist, with respect to the practice on such lands as have been just mentioned, and which is rapidly vanishing before obvious and impressive facts, no one, as already observed, doubts the pro priety of it on peat. From the fens of Cambridgeshire to the bogs of Ireland, the moors of the north, or the sedgy bot toms abounding in almost every part of the united kingdom, paring and burning are universally employed, on their being broken up, by men of real expeliance and observation. The method of doing it by fallow is completely abandoned by all persons of this description, after the most regular and decided experiments of its results. In Cambridgeshire the work is performed by a plough, purposely con structed, and admirably adapted for it, which reduces the expense considerably. With respect to meadow and pasture land, it is performed by what is denomi nated a breast-plough, which, requiring great strength and labour in its applica tion, much increases the cost. With re gard to the general practice, it may be observed, that the heaps should not con sist of more than twenty bushels, as, if they are much larger, the turfs will be too much burnt. Their size must be regulated, in a great degree, by the na ture of the weather and the thickness of the paring. When the ashes are spread, which should be completed as soon as possible, the land, as is usually the case, should be thinly ploughed_ In almost all circumstances, the ashes should be left ploughed in for sowing turnips upon lands burnt in the months of March and April. If potatoes are desired, this preparation is excellently adapted to them, and they should be planted in April on lands burnt in March.