. STUDY. XIIÎ. 135 



purpofe, employ their large ploughs of new con- 

 fcrudion, have pronounced thole regions to be 

 fmitten with perpetual fterility ; but thefe heaths 

 difcover, by the ancient divifions of the fields, 

 and by the ruins of old huts and fences, that they 

 have been formerly in a ftate of cultivation. They 

 are, at this day, furrounded by farms in a thriving 

 condition, on the felf-iame foil. How many others 

 would be ftiii more fruitful, fuch as thofe of Bor- 

 deaux, which are covered over with great pines 1 

 A foil which produces a tall tree, is, furely, capable 

 of bearing an ear of corn. 



In fpeaking of the vegetable order, we have în- 

 <licated the means of dillinguilTiing the natural 

 analogies of plants, with each latitude and each 

 foil. There is aftually no foil whatever, ucrc it 

 mere fand, or mud, on which, through a paiTicu- 

 lar kindnefs of Providence, fome one or other of 

 our domeftic plants may not thrive. But the firfh 

 flep to be taken, is to re-fow the woods which for- 

 merly fheltered thole places, now expofed to the 

 adion of the winds, whereby the germ of every 

 fmaller plant is cankered as it flioots. Thefe means, 

 however, and many others of a fimilar nature, be- 

 long not to the jurifdidlion of iniatiable compa- 

 nies, with their delineations on the great fcale, 

 neither are they confident with provincial impofts 

 and oppreffion ; they depend on the local and pa- 



ÎÇ 4 tient 



