TO
others, that growing vegetables are continually exhaling, and<lo exhale almost all the water they imbibe. And the experi-ments which have been made of rearing plants on water alone,prove that though they vegetate for a time, they do not arriveat the full stature and perfection which nature has assigned them.Water appears therefore to be the agent employed to prepareand convey the food, not the food itself. But this food is pro-vided by the same simple means observable in all the marvellousdispensations of Omnipotent Bounty. Organized beings whichare, during their existence, perpetually throwing off some partof what belonged to them, finally cease to exist, and increasethe exanimate mass. Putrefaction lays hold of this, and gradu-ally converts it into food for a new race of the same beings,That this, mixed with the soil, and dissolved in water, is thegenuine food of plants, is well known to the simplest cultivator ofthe soil, who is sensible that, unless it be lodged in the soil, bysome means, in sufficient quantity, a plentiful crop cannot beexpected. Affected incredulity on this point seems therefore tobe the grossest absurdity.
The proper management of this substance—the means of com-manding the greatest quantity—of preserving its usefulness un-impaired—of the mode, times and circumstances of applying itwill be interesting topics in the following pages. But, besidesthe direct purpose of committing to the soil a sufficient stock ofvegetable aliment, there are others which merit a large share ofattention. The soil may be deficient in thickness—in its con-formation : it may be possessed of vegetable aliment in a refrac-tory state, or of substances which, from being injurious, may berendered useful or harmless. Applications for correcting thesedefects are of no less importance, and must come under consi-deration : and as the adaptation of the soil for the reception ofthis aliment should precede its being applied, it may be properto begin with such substances as have been deemed to suit thelatter purposes.
Sect. II.
Of the various Substances applied for the amelioration of the Soil re
Scotland , and the success ■which has attended these applications.
For the purposes of recruiting, augmenting, or exciting thefertility of the soil, the cultivators of Scotland have applied sub-stances either derived from the inanimate mineral kingdom, orsuch as have gone through an organized state.
Fossile Manures.
Lime, which is very generally distributed throughout Na-ture, is universally applied. The use of it is so antient, that therejs po record or tradition of the first discovery. It has probably