t w 1 



and tender fibres of the plants that may grow in 

 them. And a foil which confifts chiefly of gravel 

 or fund may, by a proper addition of clay, chalk, 

 marie, or any binding earth, be made capable of 

 retaining thofe particles ncceffary to vegetation, 

 which would otherwife pafs through them like 

 fand through a iieve, and confequently would bq 

 bellowed on them in vain. 



Lime, I apprehend, confidered as a manure^ 

 is chiefly to be regarded for its mechanical pro- 

 perties; for neither in its quick or effete irate 

 doth it contain any of thofe nutritive particles 

 necefiary to the growth and increafe of bulk in 

 plants. Indeed, when judicioufly ufed, it may as 

 an alkali ferve to unite and combine the oils it 

 may happen to meet with in the foil with aqueous 

 or humid particles, for it ftrongly attracts both^ 

 and forms a kind of faponaceous mixture highly 

 replete with fertilizing particles. But the various 

 methods ufed in manuring with lime plainly (hew 

 t-he farmers in general act upon no certain or fixed 

 principle, but conduct their practice by the cuf- 

 torn and ufage of the country, without being able 

 to aftign any reafonable ground for their expec* 

 rations of a crop, otherwife than a fettled belief 

 that their land would be unproductive without 

 it / while others are free to declare, that they 



could 



