HISTORY OF VERMONT. 97 



poverish, operate to render it more rich and fer-. 

 tile. Thus does the soil, in the uncultivated 

 parts of the country, from age to age derive in- 

 crease, richness and fertility, from the life, 

 growth, death and corruption of her vegetables. 

 This effect has been so great in America, that 

 ivhen our lands are first cleared of the wood, 

 we always find a black, soft, rich soil, of five 

 or six inches depth ; wholly formed of decayed 

 or rotten leaves, plants, and trees. The ex- 

 treme richness of this factitious soil, produces a 

 luxuriancy of vegetation, and an abundance of 

 increase in the first crops, which exceeds any 

 thing that can afterwards be procured, by all 

 the improvements of agriculture. 



Powers of Vegetable Life. The 

 power with which nature acts in the productions 

 of vegetable life, in this part of America, may- 

 be deduced from such circumstances as have 

 been mentioned : From the immense extent of 

 our forests ; from the magnitude, number, and 

 variety of our trees, and plants ; from their rapid 

 increase, and duration ; and from the total want 

 of sandy deserts, and barren places. These and 

 other circumstances, denote an energy, a power 

 in the vegetable life, which nature has never ex- 

 ceeded in the same climate, in any other part of 

 the globe. 



