96 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



separated from one another, and emitted from 

 the trees. The quantity of water evaporated 

 from the trees on one acre, in twelve hours, we 

 have found to be three thousand eight hundred 

 and seventy five gallons : That of air, iourtecn 

 thousand seven hundred and seventy four gal- 

 lons. Before the evaporation, both these fluids 

 seem to have existed together in a fixed state ; 

 making a common mass, every where dispersed 

 through the body, limbs, and leaves ef the trees. 

 When the heat of the internal parts of the trees, 

 became from fifty eight to sixty degrees of Far- 

 enheit's thermometer, the buds were formed, 

 the leaves put forth, and the one fluid, seems to 

 have been separated, or formed into the two 

 fluids, of water and air. It seems probable from 

 this, that both these fluids had the sarne origin, 

 that heat was the principle, or cause by which 

 they were separated ; and that about fifty eight, 

 3s the degree of heat, which is necessary to be- 

 gin the separation of the air from the w ater. 



Effect. The efiect of this perpetual vege- 

 tation, growth, and decay of vegetables, is an 

 extreme richness and fertility of soil. Neither 

 destroyed or removed by the hand of man, the 

 vegetable productions of the uncuhivated paits 

 of America, return to the earth by decay and 

 death, and corrupt on the surface from which 

 they grew. It is not only from the earth, but 

 from the air and water, that trees and plants de- 

 rive their nourishment, and increase : And where 

 no waste has been occasioned by man or other 

 animals, it is not impossible that the vegetables 

 may return more to the earth, than they have 

 takerA from it ; and instead of serving lo im- 



