"5 







as the proper mixture, or addition to soils, of substances 

 capable of retaining a due proportion of humidity, and 

 affording to plants the necessary supply of moisture. 

 This is to be effefted by a due application of decayed ve- 

 getables, (or as called in this Treatise) inert vegetable 

 matter. A superabundance of this substance will cause 

 the soil to be too spungy and open, and, on the alternate 

 change from frost to thaw, to spew or throw winter 

 corn out of the ground, as well as to injure or destroy 

 cabbage, green kail, and other plants, produced by the 

 alteration, which the water undergoes in such spungy 

 soils, from a liquid to a solid state, and vice versa.' Thus 

 either chilling and rotting, or mechanically protruding or 

 forcing the roots of the plants out of the ground. But to 



many stiff clayey soils, such vegetable matter may, in a 



. 



peculiar manner, be serviceable, and is easily procured, 



tfciu; -jom mra t ?vm3t> 



in different states of preparation, from peat mosses. 



-! 



The 



