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portion of what has formed parts of vegetables, continually e-scaping in invisible gas, and mounting to superior regions, weare struck with admiration that fertility has not long ere nowceased ; and are ready to conclude, that the earth must wax oldas a garment, and the sources of fertility be at length exhausted.Lord Kames seems, long ago, to have been struck with thesame alarming prospect. After stating the great quantities ofprovisions exported from countries, to which no part returns,—-‘ It is, ’ he says, ‘ a puzzling question, Whence proceeds such‘ a quantity of matter ? for a new creation cannot be admitted.‘ A perpetual effect must have a perpetual cause. The soil must‘ receive without end what is taken away without end. ’ Butthose elements of vegetables, which, to cur limited comprehen-sion, appear to be lost, are still in reserve. The most durablecompounds, by the irresistible power of time, are forced to yieldto decomposition,—the bowels of the earth and the depths of theocean are compelled, gradually and silently, to regorge into theatmosphere—and the atmosphere to the plants of the field, theleaves of which -are extended to receive the celestial aliment.And, by this grand and simple machinery of concentric circles,ot from one year to thousands, Infinite Wisdom and Beneficencehas appointed the principles which have formed vegetables stillto return again to their former station : and thus the powers tffertility continue undiminished. But the blessing most copious-ly falls on those who are wisely employed in preparing for its re-ception. The individual, or the people, by whose industry the■soil is best adapted to its functions, and best stored with such so-luble organized substances as are at command, will raise plantswith the broadest, most numerous, and most vigorous leaves;and these will inhale the greatest proportion of aliment from theatmosphere. Thus, Nature is the willing handmaid of Art ;and Industry the channel through which fertility must ever flowsBut a judicious discrimination in the application of agricultu-ral industry, is highly requisite, in all its branches, and particu-larly in the one under consideration. The agriculturist, whosewhole application was made for mending the consistence of as °il> destitute of vegetable aliment, would find his industry poor-ly rewarded. Nor would he who, regardless of the consistenceand construction of the soil, attended only to the pouring of ve-getable aliment into it,' be at all times much more fortunate.We shall therefore conclude with submitting a few remarks onthe applications proper to be made in different circumstances.
. And, first, with regard to amending the construction and con-sistence of the soil, the two greatest and most obvious faults ofwhich are an excess of density and cohesion on the one hand,and of porosity and want of compactness on the other. Naturehas so greatly diversified the proportions and modifications of*he substances of which the surface of our globe is composed,
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