IgS A TREATISE ON THE CONNECTION OF 



There can be no doubt that the vegetable; matter has 

 in a small j^art only been expended in producing those 

 abundant crops, and that by far the greater part has 

 become oxygenated and insoluble by the exposure of 

 renewed siufaces to the action of the atmospheric air, in 

 consequence of the frequent stirrings and hoeings which the 

 ground has received. 



No soil can, in any climate, continue to produce in abun- 

 •dance, sugar, grain, or other exhausting crops, without 

 receiving back in return such a proportion of vegetable 

 matter, in the state of dung or otherwise, as would be 

 €qual to the weight of the vegetable matter afforded by 

 the soil to each crop. By this, it is not meant, nor would 

 it be possible, that there should annually be returned to the 

 ground as great a weight of vegetable matter as shall be 

 equal to the weight of the preceding crop^ it being only 

 necessary to return as much as would be equal to the 

 proportion of the vegetable matter furnished by the soil. 



By much the greater part of the vegetable matter now 

 existing or remaining on the surface of the earth is in- 

 debted to the aery form fluids or gasses, and to the de- 



compo- 



