Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/148

, burning of.

MR. W. CURTIS, of Lynn, Norfolk, found very beneficial effects from burning the stubble of oats, which was left eighteen inches high for this purpose, on a field broken up from old pasture the same year; he afterwards sowed wheat and oats in succession on the same ground, the stubble of both which was burned in the same manner. The ashes were in every case ploughed in to a small depth, and the verges of the field mowed previous to the burning, to prevent accidents. After the third crop of corn, all of which were abundant and remarkably free from weeds, the field was laid down with clover and grass seeds, and the ensuing crops of both hay and grass proved infinitely finer than those before the ground was broken up.

Another piece of land was cropped for three successive years, in the same manner as the first, to which it was similar in every respect of soil, aspect, and previous management, but in which the stubble was ploughed in, instead of being burned; the produce of each crop on it was much inferiour to that of the first experiment, and the weeds increased so greatly, that on laying it down to grass, they overpowered the grass seeds so much that it was necessary to re-sow it; and ever after, while Mr. Curtis held it, the grass and hay produced were coarse and full of weeds, and consequently inferior both in value and quantity to those of the other field, on which the stubble had been burned.

in burning stubble, the danger which is to be apprehended from the spreading of the flames, may perhaps be obviated by tracing a furrow round the field, and setting fire to the stubble on the inner edge of the furrow.