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such changes are either necessary 

 or expedient ; that seed may not 

 only be sown in the sanje iand in- 

 definitely as to time, and without 

 any deterioration ot^the quantity or 

 quality of the crops, but that they 

 will improve, provided a careful 

 selection is made of the plants re- 

 served for seed, and provided the 

 earliest ripe, and fairest, and in all 

 particulars the best, are uniformly 

 and carefully selected. It is proba- 

 ble that both these parties are par- 

 tially right. It is possible that some 

 plants may require a change of 

 soil oftenerthan others, it seems 

 to be the nearly universal opinion, 

 founded on such a variety of facts, 

 and remarked during so long a pe- 

 riod, that it may be considered set- 

 tled, that different plants require 

 different qualities of food ; that the 

 soil may become exhausted of the 

 particular species of food requisite 

 for one, while it may abound in 

 matter suited to the healthy and 

 vigorous growth of anotherdescrip- 

 tion of plants. The yearly course 

 of nature, open to the eyes of eve- 

 ry intelligent man, proves this. — 

 Plant after plant succeeds sponta- 

 neously, and when lands, by over- 

 cropping, and neglect, refuse to 

 yield any vegetable, useful to man 

 or animals, they will still enable 

 noxious or useless weeds to sustain 

 themselves,and when all others are. 

 gone, the mosses, and mushroom 

 tribes v.'ili vigorously flourish. It is 

 probable, therefore, that a change 

 of seeds from one part of a farm to 

 another, may be useful ; but it is 

 not so easy to see why transplanta- i 

 tion of seeds from one climate to 

 another should be useful, unless \ 



the climate from which the seeds 

 were obtained, was not so conge- 

 nial to them as the one to which 

 they are transferred. Our own 

 cxperience,after twenty years care- 

 ful examination and enquiry, leads 

 us to believe that there is no ad- 

 vantage in a change of climate, but 

 on the contrary that plants resist 

 such changes, and sufibr by them. 

 The same remark applies to dif- 

 ferent soils. It is certainly true, 

 no truth is more settled, than that 

 almost every plant flourishes better 

 in one particular species of soil than 

 in any other. But happily they 

 will submit to great changes, and 

 acquire nev/ habits ; and with the 

 aid of more, and judicious observa- 

 tion and treatment they may be 

 made to flourish very well in a soil 

 not naturally adapted to them. — 

 But it is not easy to see any ad- 

 vantasie in seekincr the seeds of a 

 vegetable raised in an uncongenial 

 soil, to introduce it into a congeni- 

 al one. It would seem to be wiser 

 in this case to prefer the seeds 

 grown upon soils and in climates 

 which were congenial to them. — 

 On the other hand, if we were 

 about to propagate a plant in a soil 

 and climate not congenial or natu- 

 ral to it, we should prefer the seed 

 or the root, which had been long 

 since transplanted into the uncon- 

 genial soil and climate, and had by 

 slow degrees been naturalized 

 there. For example, if we were 

 to attempt to grow cotton in New- 

 England, we should take the seed 

 from the utmost northern verge of 

 its present growth rather than from 

 Louisiana. Sir Joseph Banks has 

 some admirable remarks on the 



