yx Vegetable Staticks. 
fo dry and dufty, as to be unfit for vegeta- 
tion I weighed it, and found it had loft 
6 pound II ounces, or 194 cubick in- 
ches of water, near % part of its bulk. 
Some days after, the fecond cubick foot 
being dryer than either the firft or third, was 
decreafed in weight 10 pounds. 
The third cubick foot, being very dry and 
dufty, had loft 8 pounds 4“ ^ ounces, or 247 
cubick inches, viz* ? part of its bulk. 
Now fuppofing the roots of the Sun-flower 
(the longeft of which reached 15 inches 
every way from the ftem) to occupy and 
draw nouriftiment from 4 cubick feet of 
earth, and fuppofe each cubick foot of earth 
to afford 7 pounds of moifture, before it be 
too dry for vegetation ; the Plant imbibing 
and perfpiring 22 ounces every 24 hours, that 
will be 2 8 pounds of water, which will be 
drawn off in 21 days and 6 hours i after 
which the Plant would perifh, if there were 
not frefh fupplies to thefc 4 cubick feet of 
earth, either from dew or moifture arifing 
from below 15 inches (the depth of the 
roots) up into the earth occupied by the 
roots. 
