46 



A DISCOURSE 



as well in plants as animals, which growing very fat, are seldom prolific. 

 Some lands, on the contrary, are so lean, dry, and insipid, as hardly any 

 pains will make them fruitful. Such are mineral and metallic soils, devou r- 

 ing clays, light and ashy sands ; some again are putrid and fungous ; others, 

 though fruitful, producing only venomous plants, hemlock and the 

 deadly aconite ; and some, though wholesome ground, may be poisoned 

 with unskilful or malicious mixtures, and with damps or arsenical va- 

 pours, which sometimes (though natural) are yet but accidental, and for 

 a season ; as when after extraordinary droughts and stagnant air, the earth 

 hath not been seasonably opened, refreshed, and ventilated. 



Moreover, ground is sometimes barren, and becomes unfruitful, by the 

 vicinity of plants, sucking and detracting the juice of the earth from one 

 another. Thus we see the reed and fern will not be made to dwell toge- 

 ther ; hemlock and rue are said to be inimicable ; the almond and the 

 palm are seldom fruitful but in conjunction ; and perhaps there are efflu- 

 via, or certain inconspicuous steams of dusty seeds, which not only im- 

 pregnate places where never grew any before, but issue likewise from one 

 to another, as I observe in our junipers and cypress flowering about April, 

 which are trees of consort, and thrive not well alone. The ficus never 

 keeps her fruit so well as when planted with the caprific ^. By what irra- 

 diations the myrtle thrives so with the fig, or why the vine affects the 



thick) each twelve feet long and six inches in breadth. They are fastened together at the 

 ends by two ribs on the upper side, leaving a slit of five inches for the entrance of the nar- 

 row spade, a the handle. 



"Plate 2, Jig. 1. A front view of the narrow draining-spade. a the shaft; b the wings 

 for the workman's foot ; c the iron part of the spade, which is greatly concave. 



" Fig. 2. A side view, a the shaft ; b the wings ; c two sharp fins, one on each side, 

 for cutting the next spade graft; d the iron part. 



" Fig. 3. A back view, a the shaft ; b the wings ; c the cutting fins ; d the iron part, 

 which is convex. 



" Fig. 4. A back view in perspective, a the shaft ; b the wings ; c the fins ; d the iron part. 



" Fig. 5. A front view in perspective, a the shaft ; b the wings ; c the fins ; d the iron 

 part. It will be here proper to remark, that the perspective views must not be measured 

 by the scale. 



" Fig. 6. The scoop, a a the wooden handle ; b the iron scoop. 



^ Tournefort, during his abode in the islands of the Archipelago, had an opportunity of 

 observing this curious fact. For his account of it, consult the notes on the Silva, p. 149, 

 vol. ii. 



