S E L E C T C O M M I T T E E ON F I C T I T I O U S VOTES, IRELAND. ; 5 37C G. Battcr& by, Esq. ceding the burning will be a very good crop, a very rich crop ; the next cror, may be a very good crop, or a middling one, but the next crop will be less than an average one. .6 June, 838. 13010. That is supposing the man exhausts the land ?— He must exhaust it because he burns it, at least to my mind. ' 13911. Supposing he takes the first crop, which you admit to be good, and then he manures for a green crop, do you conceive " that the white crop, which succeeds, will be deficient in return?— The white crop then succeeding would in my opinion, be a good crop; but I do not believe that any man ever adopts' that system of husbandry, because I think that a man who " is prepared to lay down a proper quantity of manure the second vear, in order to produce the crop spoken of, would never think of destroying the surface of his land by burning. 13912. Do you consider if he manures the second year he has destroyed his land ?— I think that by the first burning he places the land in such a situation that he loses a great proportion of the benefit of the manure which he after- wards lays down ; I think the land is not in such a state as that he can derive the benefit he ought to derive from a proper quantity of manure being laid upon it. 13913. When you use the term land, do you mean to restrict yourself to any peculiar description of land ?— No. 13914. Are you not aware that a stiff, rushy soil, for instance, may be bene- fited by burning ?— I have heard that asserted, but I do not believe the fact to be so; I think that even in rushy soils if it be treated as is usually done in a good course of husbandry, if the tufts and collections of rushes, and that description of matter be collected together, and laid in a heap until they decay, and lime put amongst it, or other description of manure, it will be a much more effica- cious course of husbandry than burning. 13915. Mr. O'Connell.] Do you think that there are no circumstances which would render burning the surface a useful process in the cultivation of bog land ? — If a man has not capital 01* funds to enable him to adopt the course which I have now detailed, I think next to that burning would be useful, and perhaps the only course he could adopt; but burning is generally considered in Ireland a pernicious system, and there are several Irish statutes which make it highly penal for any tenant to burn land. 13916. I did not speak of rushy land, I meant to speak of bog land, which after the process of surface- draining requires burning ; do you think burning is not a useful process in the cultivation of that land ?— I believe there is one case in which burning may be useful, but that burning is not the burning of what was before arable land. There is a description of boggy substance which retains the water upon the surface, and upon which very few descriptions of produce will grow ; and I believe burning there may be usefully put in prac- tice for the purpose of getting rid of that pernicious substance which prevents the growth of herbage, and prevents the effectual tillage of the land; but I believe, in point of fact, burning is never beneficial in what has been thereto- fore arable land. 13917. I suppose the fact is, you are not much acquainted with the tillage and'cultivation of land which never was broken into before, by reason of its being bog ?— I have seen it in the north very much ; but in the county of tjTone I have seen land that is all bog surface, perhaps two 01* three feet of a boggy description of surface, and gravel underneath, and there I have seen them bring it into cultivation, but without burning. 13918- 19. But bog of five, or six, or eight, or 10 feet deep ?— That is the description of soil of which I have been speaking. 13920. That is the description of soil upon which, in your opinion, burning might be very useful ?— I think it might. . 13921. Mr. French.] You confine your idea of the advantage to be derived from burning, to burning a certain substance, which you said would not let water through 5 does that substance you allude to burn red or white ashes r— As to the colour of the ashes I have not a distinct recollection which would enable me to say, but my impression is that they are white. 13022. I suppose you are aware that white ashes are good for manure, and red ashes are not ?— I was not aware that was the object of the question. 643 uu 2 13923. Chairman.]