The Frort-Garven Jdufirated. 
and Sulphurous Particles of Vegetables, are contained in Rains and Dews, 
and not a Part of the Earth, as they imagin’d: . 
BUT pardon me for this long Digreffion, and I will proceed to the 
Subject in Hand. 4 
THE Quantity of Moifture neceflary for the Support of Plants, 
fhould be in Proportion to their feveral Natures ; for fome delight in 
much, and others in lefs, ¢’c. and therefore Nature has agreeably, at 
different Depths, furnifh’d the Surface of the Earth with fuch Quantities 
as are neceflary to fupport their feveral Natures. 
AND ‘tis obfervable, that thofe Plants whofe Nature require but 
litle Moifture, are fhallow rooted ; but thofe that delight in much, ex- 
tend their Roots to greater Depths. , 
I HAVE made divers Experiments, in great Variety of Soils, to 
difcover the Quantity of Moifture that Nature had provided for the 
Support of Plants in dry Seafons, and find, that the greateft Quantity 
is always contained in the fecond Foot below the Surface ; which is an 
undeniable Direction for the Depths of Soils. 
he.Reverend Mr. Hales Sol alfo Wtale the fame, in his 
Tagetable pre p. 51. in the Me ‘ollo eae 
ON the laft Day of Fuly, in the Year 1724. he dug up a Cubick 
Foot of Earth from the Surface of an Alley in his Garden ; and putting 
it into a Cubical Veflel, whofe Weight was before known, he weighed 
it, and found its Weight equal to 104 Pounds one Fourth, Averdupois. 
- THIS done, he dug up a fecond Cubical Foot of Earth from the 
Bottom of the firft, whole Weight was 106 Pounds fix Ounces : And, 
laftly, a third Cubical Foot from the Bottom of the fecond, which 
weighed 111 Pounds + one Third. 
THESE three Feet in Depth were a good Brick-Earth ; but below 
them a Gravel of two Feet depth, under which the Springs did then 
. run, 
D : I weighed 
