General view of the agriculture of the county of Northumberland ; with observations on ... its improvement / Drawn up for ... the Board of Agriculture.
- John Bailey
- Date:
- 1805
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: General view of the agriculture of the county of Northumberland ; with observations on ... its improvement / Drawn up for ... the Board of Agriculture. Source: Wellcome Collection.
169/426 page 129
![PARING AND BDKNINC. 129^ Other mode we have ever seen; but though we are fully convinced of its beneficial efFeils in such situations, yet we have our doubts whether it could be used with ad- vantage upon lands that have lain a few years in grass, and that would produce good crops of grain immediately on being ploughed outy which is not the case with coarse, rough heathy lands, or even very old swards on rich fer- tile soils 5 it being found that crops on the latter are fre- quently very much injured by “ leaping'^ for two or three years *, which paring and burning entirely obviates, and ensures full crops to the farmer, who need not be under any apprehension of his soil being ruined by it, provided he pursues the following course : 1. Turnips; 2. Oats; 8. Fallow, well limed for turnips; 4<. Barley, sown up with clover and grass-seeds, and depastured with sheep for three or four years, and afterwards (if not intended to lie in grass) continue it in the rotation mentioned page 70. It is the injudicious cropping, more than the ill effe(Sls derived from paring and burning, that has been the chief cause of bringing such an odium on this prac- tice, which is certainly an excellent one in some situations, and properly conduced: but, like the fermented juice of the grape, may be too often repeated, and improperly applied. The popular clamour against this practice, “ that It destroys the soil, we can by no means admit; and are in- clined to believe that not a single atom of soil is abstract- ed, though the bulk of the sod or turf be diminished: this arises from the burning of the roots or vegetable substances, which, by this process, alFord a considerable portion of alkaline salts and carbonic matter, and proba- bly other principles friendly to vegetation; as we find those ashes produce abundant crops of turnips; which fatten stock much quicker than those after any other NORTiiUMii.] K dressing](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22037949_0169.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
