23 S 



MANURES 



Sect.X 



after a few experiments had been inftituted to determine the quan 

 tity, which (hould be lire wed on different foils. 



X. MANURES BY INSECT PROPAGATION 



I. 



That th 



th and decay of animal and veoretabl 



Ir. 



fes the quantity of fuch matter 



fit for the r 



-dua 



epi 



ted 



f organized bodies, is evinced by the increafing fertility of 



fince even in thefe 



quantity of th 



recrements of decompofed animals and vegetables are walhed by 

 from the foil, and carried down the rivers into the ocean : and 



many fituations of fo 



A ft 



and America, which have been 



but lately cultivated, there exifts a wonderful fertility fro 



gate remaui 



f veo-etable and animal bod 



o 



which h 



for 



un 



\ 



counted ages arifen and periihed there ; and which have either left 

 moraffes, where they could not part with their fuperabundant wa- 

 ter ; or a fertile earth, fuch as in our gardens and church-yards, 

 where the declination of the ground was more favourable. 



Some countries on the contrary once highly cultivated and very 

 populous are in procefs of time become deferts of fand ; as many 

 parts of Syria, and the difl:ri£ls about Palmira, and Balbec, This has 

 probably been owing to the want of the neceflary moifture in thofe 

 warm and fandy regions ; which was formerly fupplied by artificial 

 derivations of water; but which ceafed, after their inhabitants were 

 deflroyed by war and tyranny 5 and fecondly to the rapid ftreams oc- 

 cafionally poured over them by the monfoon floods ; fimilar to thofe 

 which impoverifh Abyflinia and Nubia, while they fertilize the flat 

 and fhowerlefs provinces of Egypt. 



We might add, that all calcareous ftrata are now believed to have 

 been produced by fhells depofited by aquatic animals in the early ages 



of. the world ; and that the materials, which coaflitute the flrata above 



4 



them 



i 



w' 



