Excerpt from A Treatise on Soils and Manures, as Founded on Actual Experience, and as Combined With the Leading Principles of Agriculture: In Which the Theory and Doctrines of Sir Humphry Davy, and Other Agricultural Chemists, Are Rendered Familiar to the Experienced Farmer One great use of the soil, is to afford a bed for the plant, and a cover for its roots from the sun and from the wind while the roots, by taking hold of the ground, act as stays and supports for the trunk of the plant. A sec'ond important ofiice is that both of a depository and a channel of nutriment In these rela. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.