( 2 12 ) 
fo Jit for the Produftion of Corn or other Vegetabla^ 
little will come of it, unlefs the Farti of it be fepara- 
ted and loofe. 'Tis on this Account they beftow the 
Pains they do \n Culture of it : in Digging, Plowing^. 
'Harrowing, and Breaking of the Clodded Lumps Earth. 
'Tis the (an:ie way that Hea-Salt, Nitre^ and other- Salts. 
promote Vegetation, I am forry I cannot fubfcribe to 
the Opinion of thofe Learned Gentlemen who imagine 
Nitre to be ejfential to Plants : and that nothing in the 
Vegetable Kingdom is tranfaded without it. By all the 
Tryals I have been able to make, the thing is quite other- 
wife : and when contiguous to the Plant it rather deftroys 
than nourifhes it. But this, Nitre and other Salts cer- 
tainly do : they loofen iht Earthy and feparate ih^ con- 
creted Parts oi it; by that means fitting and dlfpofing 
them to be ajfumed by the Water, and carried up into 
the Seed or Plants for its Formation and Augment, There's 
no Man but muft obferve how apt all jorts oi Salts are 
to be wrought upon by Moijlur e : hovi eafily they li- 
quate and run with it ; and when thefe are drawn oS^ 
and have deferted the Lumps wherewith, they were in- 
corporated, thofe muft moulder immediately, and fall 
a/under of Courfe. The hardeft Stone we meet with, 
if it happen, as frequently it does, to have any fort of 
iS^// intermixt with the S/^W of. which it con lifts, upon 
being exposed to ^lu humid Air ^ in a fliort.time diflblves 
and crumbles all to pieces : and much more will clodded 
Earth or C/jy, which is not of: near fo compaB and fo- 
lid a Conjiitution as Stone is. The fame way likewufe is 
Lime fexviceable in this Affair, The Hufbandmen (tLy 
of it, that it does not fatten^ but only Mellowes the 
Ground. By which they mean, that it does not con- 
tain any thing in it lelf that is of the fame Nature with 
the Vegetable Mouldy , or afford ; any Matter fit for the 
formation of Plants but meerly foftens and relaxeixhc 
Earth 
