for their complete reduction to their chemical component 

 parts, as well as their transformation, by combination, 

 and other processes, from hurtful substances, to whole- 

 some compounds, liquids and gases ; and if the organisms 

 prepared by Nature for that especial purpose are available 

 and eager, not only to assist, but actually to assimilate the 

 product, we may say of what was bad, and actually pro- 

 duce and give forth good and life giving principles ; then 

 animal and vegetable matter by decomposition tend to 

 create the means for increased vitality in both the man and 

 the plant. But all must work together in harmony and 

 each principle in vegetable, and animal, and mineral king- 

 dom must be vigorous and ready to act according to the 

 fixed laws of the peculiar reciprocal system of economy. 

 One cannot do without the assistance and co-operation of 

 the other and immediately one cr the other fails., universal 

 disaster results. But man always checks Nature, and 

 having taken the whole responsibility on himself, finds out 

 too late that Nature is very apt to resent his interference. 

 Let any one imagine a large City in a desert without trees 

 or cultivation. The amount of matter and gases poisonous 

 to man which would be formed both by decomposition of 

 animal refuse and by the exhalations from the lungs and 

 bodies of the people would be enormous. Large towns 

 where drainage is neglected are proverbially allowed to be 

 liable to visitations of Cholera and Typhus, and why ? Man 

 has upset the balance of Nature, has brought about an 

 accumulation of poisonous refuse without thinking of the 

 duty and power which trees and vegetation fulfil and exert 

 in neutralizing the poisons collected and evolved. The 

 same is more than likely the case with plants. If we grow 

 a plant naturally containing in its composition a large 

 amount of mineral constitutents and yielding a crop con- 

 taining a very large percentage of mineral matter and go, 



