OF THE VINE. 
* 31 
with a bad one, but yet fo it is, hnce although you may con- 
ceive the primogenial foil to be fufficiently good and proper for 
the purpofe,® it is, neverthelefs, evinced by experience, that it 
will admit of improvement, and will be much benefited by 
having the various I'oils above-mentioned judicioufly mixed 
and well worked together. 
As the vegetable mould from decayed leaves, which I juft- 
mentioned above, cannot always be obtained, by reafon that the 
leaves require to lie two years before they become fufficiently 
putrid and reduced ; it therefore msay fometimes be necefiary 
to fubfcitute fome other ingredient in lieu of this part of the 
compofi: ; wherefore it may not be inexpedient to point out 
the proper fuccedanea. 
Rotten wood reduced to a fine mould, fuch as is often found 
under faggot ftacks ; the fcraping of the ground in old woods, 
where the trees grow thick together 3 mould out of hollow 
trees', 
® The fpontaneous fruitfulnefs of the grounil was a thing peculiar to the primoge- 
nial foil, (by which I mean the original mould at the creation and after the flood) 
for that was fo tempered as to be more luxuriant than it could ever be afterwards ; 
and, therefore, as that rich and proper temperament was fpent, fo by degrees it grew 
lefs fertile. “ The fruits of the earth were, at firff, fpontaneous, and the ground, 
without being torn and tormented, fatisficd tire wants or defires of man. When 
nature was frelh and fall, all things flowed from her more eafily and more pure, 
like the firft running of the grape, or of the honey-comb j but nov/ fhe muft be 
prefled a.nd fqueezed, and her produaions taile more of the earth and bitternefs.” — 
Burnet's Theory of the Earth, vol. i. page 225. 
