8 CONCERNING 5ECT, If, 



Let the ELEMENTS of nature be first considered, 

 EARTH, as an element, considered in itself, ap^ 

 pears not to serve to the support of man or beast. 

 Though from it all things spring as from a common 

 womb, yet independent of the othsr elements, or 

 extraneous matter, it neither produces, nor affords, 

 any thing like food. Assisted however by these, 

 there is a combination of powers in it, the effects of 

 which are equally beneficial and wonderful. 



It has been pretty much an opinion, that the earth 

 acts only as a receptacle for nutriment ; and as a 

 resting place, or means of supporting plants erectly; 

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

 be replenished with power by manures, or from the 

 atmosphere. Indeed, it is not to be conceived, how 

 much the earth, considered as a solid, should pass 

 through the capillary parts of plants. Experiments 

 have proved, that the earth is very little, if at all 

 exhausted, by the growth of plants, and conse- 

 quently affords a presumption that plants are not 

 fed by it. 



There has been much controversy about the food 

 of plants. A respectable writer says, The saline, 

 unctuous, and subtle slime, which the water sepa- 

 rates from the coarse earth, and keeps in a dissolved 

 state, is the principal nutriment of plants. And 

 indeed, this is the opinion of others, who have treated 

 he subject, and is justified by enquiries into the na- 

 ture of the sap of plants, by decomposition : 



Those who contend for ah inherent power in 

 earth to nourish plants, lay a stress upon the cir- 

 cumstance, that' various earths have varions qualir 

 ties, suited to different parts. But to this it may be 

 said, that the earth being more or less binding, or 

 composed of differently constructed particles, occa- 

 sions the parting with the food cemmitted to it, the 



