CONCERNING SECT. II. 



SECTION II. 



CONCER N I N G V E G E I A T I O N . 



A S a good garden affords much pieafure and /re///, 

 ■* V it delerves every attention ; and certainly the 

 cultivation or' it cannot be too rationally purfued. It 

 is therefore that a fketch of the Nature of Vegetation 

 is here attempted,; for the ufe of thofe who aie unac- 

 quainted with the fubjeft to aiFift them in the purfuit 

 • f gardening with understanding. 



Let the elements be firit confidered. 



Earth, as an element, confidered in itfelf, appears 

 not to ferve to the fupport of man or beaft. Though 

 from it all things fpring as from a common womb , 

 yet independent of the other elements, or extraneous 

 matter, it neither produces, nor affords, any thing like 

 food. Aflifted however by thefe, there is a combina- 

 tion of powers, the effects of which are equally bene- 

 ficial and wonderful. 



It has been pretty much an opinion, that the earth 

 acls only as a receptacle for nutriment ; and as a reft* 

 ing place, or means of fupporting plants ereftly ; to 

 imbibe rain, dews, air, &c. needing continually to be 

 repleniflied by manures, or from the atmofphere. In- 

 deed, it is not to be conceived, how the earth, confi- 

 dered as a folid, mould pafs through the capillary 

 parts of plants. Experiments have proved, that the 

 earth is very little, if at all cxhaufted, by the growth 

 f>i plants, and confequently affords a prefumption that 

 plants are not fed by it. 

 r There 



