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they get in common to anfwer that cxpencc; 

 their profit therefore mud arife from the fuccced- 

 ing crops. 



Experience teaches that lirhe ftrongly attracts 

 and abforbs moifture, and is itfelf foluble in it. 

 In common with all abforbent earths, it alfo at- 

 tracts oil and acids. 



The mod rational theory therefore is, that its 

 virtue coniifts not in itfelf, but in its action and 

 powers of attraction. By attracting the moifture 

 of the air, and the oils that are floating therein, 

 and in the earth alfo, and reducing the buried 

 roots, vegetables, mofs, &c. which it happens to 

 be mixed with, into a faponaceous mucilage, which 

 is of a very nutritive quality ; it combines thofc 

 fubftances which of themfelves would never unite, 

 fuch as oil and water, which it forms into a 

 fmooth confident fluid. 



Hence it appears, that lime ought not to be 

 ufed alone, except where there is plenty of vege- 

 table or animal fubflances for it to act upon. 

 When thefe are wanting, mix it up with rotten 

 dung; for without thefe it will, in many cafes, 

 exhauft the foil of its mod fertile juices and par- 

 ticles, and leave it in a barren Hate. Where there 



is 



