healthy appearance, and is an excellent application, after a crop of potatoes or parsnips, both of which, require land to be richly dressed with stable or other strong manures, and has not the effect of decomposing them, as lime does.

It is also destructive to insects, and to their eggs, which lie in the soil or turf-it forces the earthworms and wire-worms from their lurking places to come to the surface and die; particularly when laid on, in a larger quantity than I have named, some farmers being in the habit of putting on double, even treble the quantity above stated-but I believe, without having produced proportionably larger crops from inferior land; though it has been asserted that its effect is very permanent, being especially apparent on the succeeding clover crops.

I am inclined to believe, that paring and burning an old ley, will almost produce an equally good effect, where the land is suited for it-for, although the ashes may not be of that superior quality, or possessing all those virtues peculiar to Kelp ashes; still, the much greater portion of ashes, that can by this means be spread on the land, may make amends in quantity, for quality.

An additional circumstance in favour of paring and burning, is, that all the seeds of weeds, or the eggs of insects which lie concealed in the turf, are thereby destroyed, more effectually, than by any repeated ploughings.

The careful experience of five years on this head, has convinced me of the propriety of this practice occasionally; especially on ground infested with couch, or knot grass. From three acres of land that had been pared and burned, which produced five hundred and forty single horse loads of ashes, I obtained a very heavy crop of Turnips—the following year I raised ninety-one thousand pounds of Potatoes ; and, by an application of about forty-five bushels of lime per acre, I have since reaped fifty-one imperial bushels of beautiful wheat per acre; the straw, also, was of very fine growth, five feet high, and exceedingly white and bright.

Kelp ashes should lay on the surface of the soil, a month or two previous to sowing time, in order to weaken their caustic power, or they are otherwise apt to burn the young and tender shoots of the corn, as well as the larvæ of insects; but, by laying a certain length of time on the surface exposed to the action of the atmosphere, or perhaps, what would be better practice, merely lightly turned into the soil, they become eminently beneficial.

I am so partial to the use of ashes, that I should recommend those who have large woods or forests, to employ women and children to collect the dry and broken boughs, and under shrubs, to be burned for the sake of the ashes; which would be found nearly equal to those of sea-weed, and could thus

be procured at a much cheaper rate; besides gaining the advantage of converting what is now wasted, or neglected, into a most valuable and permanent manure, perfectly free from weeds, and destructive to insects and worms.

Ashes are further beneficial, inasmuch as they attract the moisture from fogs and dews, and retain it a considerable length of time.

Lime is so well understood as a manure for wheat, that it would be a mere waste of time to say more on the subject, than as far as my own experience goes; it appears to impart a greater degree of whiteness to the Straw than any other manure. Its other excellent qualities of absorbing moisture from the Atmosphere in dry weather, on light or gravelly soils,and increasing the weight of the grain, are well understood; it is to be lamented that some general rule for its application is not made known, as, in the best books I have consulted on the subject, it varies in the extraordinary proportion from fifty-six to five hundred bushels per acre, which last appears to me to be an absurd quantity.

I have found it to answer perfectly at the rate of Forty or Fifty bushels an Acre on a good loam, and I should apprehend that double that quantity ought to be sufficient for the poorest land; unless it be to destroy moss, when a still larger top dressing is required, which, if well harrowed in, does it effectually.

This commixture of turf and lime, if soon after ploughed in, in turn becomes itself, a manure for the very soil the turf previously rendered barren.

Soot is said to be an excellent top dressing. I have tried it but once, without having perceived the advantageous results that are said to be derivable from it, it is only in the environs of towns, or villages, that it can be obtained in sufficient quantity to be available to a large farmer.

I

CHAPTER IX.

ON A CHANGE AND CHOICE OF SEED.

It is generally believed that an occasional, some say a frequent, change of seed is indispensable ; otherwise, the plant soon becoming familiarised to the soil, loathes it, as it were, and consequently diminishes in produce. I am strongly inclined to believe, that this is an erroneous idea; partly owing, not only to negligence in the selection of seed, from the finest of a crop, but also to a want of attention in the arrangement of succession, which I have before spoken of.

It is perfectly true, that all plants become tired of one soil, and of one manure, they, like the human race, have their appetites and loathings, and a person that would be forced constantly to eat the same sort of food, would not only infallibly sicken of it, but most likely suffer in his health. So it is, with the cultivation of wheat, or any other plant. The best cultivator of Lucerne I have ever known, whose practice extended over forty years experience, assured me, that until he adopted the method of giving it fresh food yearly, he never made it produce as he had since done. One year, it was dressed with