Change of Seed winecessarif. 15 



the better to suit them, if the agriculturists will do their 

 part in selecting the most proper seed. In support of 

 this position, I will subjoin a few facts and experiments, 

 out of a great number, which have all combined to 

 prove the above, to my satisfaction. 



In or about the year 1746, my father procured the seeds 

 of the long warty squash, which have been kept on the 

 farm ever since, without changing, and are now far pre- 

 ferable to what they were at first. Our early peas were 

 procured from London, the spring before Braddock's 

 defeat (1756) and have been planted successively every 

 season since, on the place. They have not been 

 changed, and are now preferable to what they were 

 v/hen first obtained. The seed of our asparagus was 

 procured from New York, in the year 1752, and since 

 that time, I have not planted a seed, except what grew 

 on my beds ; and by selecting the seed, from the largest 

 stalks, I have improved it greatly. 



A complaint is very general, that potatoes of every 

 kind degenerate, at which I am not surprised, when 

 the most proper means to produce that effect is con- 

 stantly practised; to wit, using or selling the best, and 

 planting the refuse ; by which means, almost the whole 

 of those planted are the produce of plants the most de- 

 generated. This consideration induced me to try an 

 opposite method. Having often observed that some 

 plants or vines produced potatoes larger, better shaped, 

 and in greater abundance than others, without any ap- 

 parent reason, except the operation of nature, it induced 

 me to save a quantity from such only, for planting the 

 ensuing season, and I was highly gratified in finding 

 their production exceed that of others, of the same 



