OF THE VINE. 



45 



The nature of this road-earth ought to be duly 

 considered when used in the Vine-compost, and its 

 proportion adjusted according to its quality. In a 

 sandy country it will naturally abound with parti- 

 cles of sand, and long and continued rains will, of 

 course, wash away its best parts. High winds too, 

 in dry weather, will as certainly deprive it of its 

 lightest and finest parts, especially when roads lie 

 on eminences, or enjoy an open exposure. Those 



hand) that of pulverizing the earth by contusion, and breaking 

 it with a plough or spade, is of admirable effect, to dispose it 

 for the reception of all the natural impregnations. For the 

 earth, especially if fresh, has a certain magnetism in it, by 

 which it attracts the salt, power, or virtue, (call it either) which 

 gives it life. Take of the most barren earth you can find, 

 drained, if you please, of all its nitrous salts and masculine parts, 

 reduce it to a fine powder, (which may be done, even in large 

 proportion, by a rude engine, letting fall a kind of a hammer, 

 or beetle, at the motion of a wheel) let this pulverized earth, 

 and for the time incessantly agitated, be exposed, for a summer 

 and winter, to the vicissitudes and changes of the seasons, and 

 influences of heaven. By this labour and rest from vegetation, 

 you will find it will have obtained such a generous and mascu- 

 line pregnancy, within that period, as to make good your 

 highest expectations ; and to this belongs Sir Hugh Piatt's 

 contrition or philosophical grinding of earth, which upon this 

 exposure alone, without manure of soil, after the like revolu- 

 tion of time, will, as he affirms, be able to receive an exotic 

 plant from the farthest Indies, and cause all vegetables to 

 prosper in the most exalted degree ; and to bear their fruit as 

 kindly with us as they do in their natural climates." For a 

 further account of this curious and important subject, see 

 page 27 of the last edition of Evelyn's Terra, with Notes by 

 Dr. Hunter. 



