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Cooper's Point, April 17t/i, 1799. 

 Respected Friend, 



Kind providence having placed n\e in a situation of 

 life, which obUged me to procure a Uving by industry, 

 and that principally in the agricultural line, it has caus- 

 ed me to be a strict observer of the works of nature, 

 wath respect to such parts of the vegetable creation as 

 have come under my particular notice, and have been 

 greatly embarrassed at the opinion very generally en- 

 tertained by farmers and gardeners, that changing seeds, 

 roots and plants, to distant places, or different soils 

 or climates, is beneficial to agriculture, such opinion 

 not agreeing with my observations or practice. This 

 induced me to make many experiments on that 

 head, all of which, in more than forty years practice, 

 have operated to prove to my satisfaction, that the above 

 opinion is not well founded, and if so, must be extreme- 

 ly prejudicial to agriculture, as it turns the attention 

 of the husbandman from what appears to nrie one great 

 object, viz. that of selecting seeds and roots for plant- 

 ing or sowing, from such vegetables as come to the 

 greatest perfection, in the soil which he cultivates. 



What induced me to make experiments on the sub- 

 ject, was, my observing that all kinds of vegetables 

 were continually varying in their growth, quality, pro- 

 duction, and time of maturity. This led me to believe 

 thatthe great author of nature, has so constructed that 

 wonderful machine, if I may be allowed the expression, 

 as to incline every kind of soil and climate to naturalize 

 all kinas of veg^tubie?, that it will produce at any rate, 



