OF EARTH. • m 



rocks. But to proceed ; we find that most esculent and culinary roots 

 do rather choose a rich, natural, and light mould, inclining to sand, than 

 what is forced or over-mucked ; and how much they yield to soil, grow- 

 ing hard, short, and fibrous, and contract the smell and relish of the fer- 

 ments applied to accelerate their growth, (for according to the Italian 

 proverb, Ogni pianta serba della sua radice, " Every plant has a smack 

 of the root,") I have already mentioned ; so as to confide in dungs, as our 

 vulgar gardeners about this city do, is no encouragement ; and, there- 

 fore, some, not without good reason, prefer the corn and grain which is 

 reaped from marl, chalk, lime, and other more natural manures, before 

 what is produced from a crop, which, in comparison, grows on a dung- 

 hill ; experience also shewing, that the cause of smuttiness many times 

 proceeds from the impurity and rankness of the dressing ; and, there- 

 fore, we omit to enumerate, amongst our soils, stercus Jmmanum, whicli 

 howsoever preferred by some before all other, and mentioned by Colu- 

 mella with that of fowl and cattle, does, (unless exceedingly ventilated 

 and aired) perniciously contaminate the odour of flowers, and is so evi- 

 dent in the vine, as nothing can reconcile it 



To give some instances of the nature of particular and simple composts, 

 (for so I beg leave to use a solecism,) whatever they be, they are by no 

 means fit for the earth and use of the husbandman, unless, besides their 

 richness, they be perfectly well digested, made short, sweet, and almost 

 reduced to a crumbling mould ; so ordered, as not only not to lose any 

 of their virtue, but to improve it, and to excite, entertain, and commu- 

 nicate heat and vegetative spirits to whatever you apply them : and that 

 this is not done per se, that is, by immediate application, without pre- 

 judice, (unless it be for the hot-bed, which yet has an intermedium of 

 mould,) experience tells us, especially in the soil of animals, which is of 

 all other the most active, as consisting of heterogeneous parts and repug- 

 nances, without which no fermentation could be obtained. Now, since 



^ This is the richest species of manure that possibly can be introduced into the field. In 

 Flanders they use it with great success, either strewed upon the land in the form of powder, 

 or dissolved in water and thrown on with a wooden scoop. In large families, this excellent 

 top-dressing may be easily prepared by filling the pits of the necessaries with moor-earth, 

 and in this state it may be put upon the land with great advantage and cleanliness. 



Volume II. 3 N 



