VEG 
The reafon why all the terreftrial matter mixed with | 
the water does not afcend into that, is, that the mine- 
ral matter makes a great deal of it, which is not only 
grofs and ponderous, but fcabrous and inflexible, and 
fo_not di.fpofed to enter the pores of the roots ; be- 
fides, a great many of the- Ample vegetable particles 
do by degrees unite and form fmall clods, or mole- 
culas, which flick to the extremities of the roots of 
thole plants, and others of them entangled in a loofer 
manner for the nubeculae, or green bodies, fo com- 
monly obferved in ftagnant water ; thefe, when thus 
conjoined, are too big to enter the pores, or afcend 
up the veffels of plants, which fingly they might have 
done. 
Hence it is, that in agriculture, be the earth never fo 
rich, good, and fit for the production of Corn, or 
other vegetables, little will qome of it, unlefs the 
particles be feparated and loofe ; and it is on this 
account fuch pains are bellowed in the digging, til- 
ling, ploughing, fallowing, harrowing, and break- 
ing the clodded lumps of earth-, and it is the fame 
way that fea fait, nitre, and other falts promote Ve- 
getation. 
Some authors imagine nitre effential to plants, and 
that nothing -in the vegetable kingdom is tranfafted 
without it -, but Dr. Woodward fays, by all the trials 
he has been able to make, the thing feerns to him 
quite otherwife ; and when contiguous to the plant, 
nitre rather deftroys than nourifhes it. This I have 
myfelf found to be true, for by fcattering fome nitre 
round the roots of three or four plants, it killed them 
in a few days. 
But. nitre and other falts certainly loofen the earth, 
and feparate the concreted parts of it, by that means 
fitting and difpofing them to be afllimed by the water, 
and carried up into the feed or plant for its formation 
and increafe. 
It is evident to obfervation, how apt all forts of falts 
are to be wrought upon by moifture, how eafily they 
run with it and when thefe are drawn off, and have 
deferred the lumps with which they are incorporated, 
they muft moulder immediately, and fall afunder in 
courfe. 
The hardeft flone that is to be met with, if it happens 
(as it frequently does) to have any fait intermixed 
with the fand of which it confifts, upon its being ex- 
pofed in a humid air, in a fhort time difiolves and 
crumbles all to pieces and much more will clodded 
earth or clay, which is not of fo compadt and folid a 
conftitution. 
Lime likewife is in the fame way ferviceable in this 
affair. The hufbandmen fay, it does not fatten, but 
only mellows the ground ; by which they mean, it doth 
not contain any thing in itfelf, that is of the fame na- 
ture with the vegetable mould, or afford any matter 
fit for the formation of plants, but merely foften and 
relaxes the earth ; by that means rendering it more 
capable of entering the feeds and vegetables fet in it, 
in order to their nourifhment, than otherwife it would 
have been. 
The properties of lime are well known, and how apt 
it is to be put into a ferment and commotion by wa- 
ter ; nor can fuch commotion ever happen, when 
lime is mixed with earth, however hard and clodded 
it may be, without opening and loofening it. 
IV. The plant is more or lefs nourifhed , in proportion as 
the water in which it Jlands , contains a greater or 
[mailer quantity of proper terreftrial matter in it. 
The truth of this propofition is difcernible through 
the whole procefs of the Dodtor’s experiments. The 
Mint in one of the glaffes was of much the fame bulk 
and weight with that of two or three others ; but the 
water in which the firfl was, being river water, which 
was apparently more copioufly ftored with terreftrial 
matter than the fpring or rain water, in which the 
other flood, occafioned it to arrive at almoft double 
the bulk that either of them had, and with lefs ex- 
pence of water too. 
VEG 
. , \ 
So likewife the Mint in another glafs, in the water of 
which was diffolved a fmall quantity of good garden 
mould, though it had the difadvantage to be lefs 
when fir ft fet, than either of the Mints in the two 
other glaffes had, the water in which was the very fame 
as the firfl:, only none of the earth mixed with it yet 
in a fhort time the plant not only overtook, but much 
outftripped the other. 
The reafon why the proportion of the increafe of the 
plant was limited to the quantity of proper terreftrial 
matter in the water, is, that all, even vegetable mat- 
ter, is not proper for the nourifhment of every plant ; 
nor do there want good indications, that every kind 
requires a peculiar and fpecific matter for its formation 
and nourifhment, nay, each part of the fame vege- 
table ; and that there are very many and different in- 
gredients, to go to the compofition of the fame indivi- 
dual plant. 
If therefore the foil wherein any vegetable or feed is 
planted, contains all or moft of thefe ingredients, and 
thofein due quantity, it will grow and thrive, other- 
wife it will not. If there be not as many forts of cor- 
pufcles as are requifite for the conftruclion of the main 
and more effential parts of the plant, it will not profper 
at all. If there are thefe, and not in fufficient plen- 
ty, it will never arrive to its natural ftature, or if any 
of the lefs neceffary and effential corpufcles are want- 
ing, there will be fome failure in the plant. It will 
be defective in fmell, tafte, colour, and fome other 
way. 
Indeed it is inconceivable, how one uniform homoge- 
neous matter, having its principles, or original parts, 
of the fame fubftance, conftitution, magnitude, figure, 
and gravity, fhould conftitute bodies fo unlike in all 
thofe refpe&s, as vegetables of different kinds are, 
nay, even as the different parts of the fame vegeta- 
ble, that one fhould carry a refinous, another a milky, 
a third a yellow, and a fourth a red juice in its veins ; 
that one affords a fragrant, anothdr an often five fmell ; 
one fweet to the tafte, another acid, bitter, acerb, au- 
ftere ; that one fhould be nourifhing, another poifon- 
ous ; one purging, another aftringent ; and thefe all 
receive their nourifhment from the fame foil. 
A Cataputia, Tithymalus latifolius Cataputia didla, in 
one of the glaffes afforded but a little increafe, only 
3 * grains all the while, though 2501 grains of water 
were fpent upon it but this might poffibly be owing 
not to the water’s wanting matter fit for the nourifh- 
ment of that particular plant, but from its being an 
improper medium for that to grow in. Too much of 
that liquor in fome plants, may probably hurry the 
terreftrial matter through the veffels too fall for them 
to lay hold of it. 
But a farther proof of this matter is, that the foil once 
proper for the production of fome fort of vegetables, 
does not ever continue fo, but in trad of time lofes 
its property ; and fooner in fome lands, and later in 
others. 
As for example : if Wheat be fown upon land proper 
for that grain, the firfl crop will fucceed very well, 
and perhaps the fecond and third, as long as the 
ground is in heart, as the farmers call it 5 but in a few 
years it will produce no more, if fowed with that 
Corn ; fome other grain it may, as Barley ; and after 
this has been fown fo oft, that the land can bring no 
more of it, it may afterward yield fome good Oats, 
and perhaps Peas after them. 
At length it becomes barren ; the vegetative matter 
that at firfl it abounded with, being reducd by the 
fucceffive crops, and moft of it borne off, each fort of 
grain takes out that peculiar matter that is proper for 
its own nourifhment. 
It may be brought to bear another feries of the fame 
vegetables, but not till it is fupplied with another 
fund of matter of the like fort with what it firfl con- 
tained either by the ground’s lying fallow for fome 
time, till the rain hath poured a frefh flock upon it, 
or by the manuring it. 
That this fupply is of the like fort is evident, by the 
feveral manures found bell to promote the Vegeta- 
tion; 
