152 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [v. 



plants ; important caution to secure permanent good 

 quality of plants." The editors say that the paper 

 "has already been published in the United States and 

 in Europe ; and has deservedly excited very general 

 attention." It is further explained that "the writer 

 is entitled to every degree of respect, both for his 

 practical knowledge, and integrity of relation. His 

 experience and opinions differ widely from those gen- 

 erally received. The results produced, require the care 

 and attention which few will give. The merit of Mr. 

 Cooper is therefore the greater." Cooper was also a 

 pomologist of note, and was the originator, amongst 

 other things, of the Cooper plum, a seedling of the 

 Orleans, which William Coxe said, in 1817, "is the 

 largest plum I have seen." 



Cooper said that he was ' ' greatly embarrassed at the 

 opinion very generally entertained by farmers and gar- 

 deners, that changing seeds, roots and plants, to distant 

 places, or different soils or climates, is beneficial to agri- 

 culture ; such opinion not agreeing with my observations 

 or practice." He deplored the general acceptance of 

 this notion, because " it turns the attention of the hus- 

 bandman from what appears to me one great object, 

 viz. that of selecting seeds and roots for planting or 

 sowing, from such vegetables as come to the greatest 

 perfection, in the soil which he cultivates." Cooper's 

 experiments were a credit to his time, and they have 

 probably not yet been excelled in this country for sim- 

 plicity and usefulness. "What induced me to make 

 experiments on the subject," he writes, "was, my ob- 

 serving that all kinds of vegetables were continually 

 varying in their growth, quality, production, and time 

 of maturity. This led me to believe that the great 



