t '74 ] 



and harrow, convey any fertilizing principles. 

 Thele operations, which are found to render our 

 lands fo furprifingly fertile when judicioufly per- 

 formed, only prepare the foil for the eafy entrance of 

 thofe fertilizing principles with which the atmo- 

 fpherc is abundantly replete. The atmofphere is 

 the grand magazine, the great receptacle of putrid 

 exhalations, which inceflantly fly off from all animal 

 fubftances, the living as well as dead ; and by their 

 fpecifick levity mount up into the air, from whence, 

 being condenfed, they return in dews, rain, fnow, 

 &c. and impregnate the foil as deep as it hath 

 been duly pulverized. 



It feems very evident then, that whether the 

 hufbandman manure his fields from the dung- 

 heap, or by ploughing in green vegetables, or by 

 duly expofing it to the unceafing influence of the 

 atmofphere; the principles of vegetation, which 

 he beftows in either cafe, are effentially and fub- 

 ftantially the fame. They all equally originate 

 from putrid animal fubftances. That from the 

 dung-heap is indeed by far the ftrongefl, it having 

 not gone through its laft flage of digeflion and 

 putrefadlion ; in this grofs and impure ftate, it 

 fometimes poifons and kills, and thereby defeats 

 its intended purpofe. It in general, however, when 

 difcreetly ufed, gives great luxuriance and an en^ 



^ larged 



