88 N. n. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fields and barn-yards, vre are apt to bo discouraged by the 

 difficulty of reconciling foreign organic forms to the new 

 physical conditions which every considerable geographical 

 change implies, and to conclude tliat because the first crop 

 or the first pair appear to suffer from climatic causes, the 

 species is unsuited to our soil and sky; but though the 

 transplanted plant or animal is seldom so healthy and vig- 

 orous as in his native locality, yet in most cases where the 

 contrast is not too violent or too sudden, nature, in the 

 course of a generation or two, accommodates herself to 

 the change of circumstances, and then the progouy very of- 

 ten surpasses the parent stock. The reports of our Pa- 

 tent Office are full of valuable suggestions on this impor- 

 tant head ; and as government has not at present the facil- 

 ities for extensive experimentation, it is earnesily to be 

 hoped that it may become a subject of special attention 

 from agricultural societies and enlightened and public spir- 

 ited individuals. 



I proposed to add a remark on the spontaneous produc- 

 tions of the European continent. It is a fact, well known 

 to the naturalist, though not obvious to the common ob- 

 server, that the natural vegetation and animal life of the Old 

 World are seldom or never identical with those of the New 

 however great the apparent resemblance between them. 

 Misled partly by general similarity of form, and partly by 

 the similarity of names which our forefathers apjjlicd to 

 the plants and animals of America, for want of knowing 

 the native appellations, or because they did not notice the 

 specific difTcrenccs, we arc apt to overlook distinctions 

 which to the scientific eye establish a diversity of origin. 

 In corresponding climates, nature produces not identical, 

 but representative species. In the colder regions of Eu- 

 rope, you sec the elm, the oak, the beach, tlic birch, the 

 pine and the fir, all bearing so homelike an aspect that you 

 arc ready to recognize them as old and familiar ac(]uaint- 

 anccs; but these trees arc all, in fact, specifically dillcrcut 



