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Old varieties are fast becoming extinct, and new ones 

 should be started to supply their places. It might be well if 

 every town should offer a premium to any one of its inhabi- 

 tants, who should produce a new, superior kind, of three years 

 from the seed, equal to any that now exist. Every agricul- 

 tural society and our agricultural college, it is presumed, are 

 doing something in this direction. Chauncy E. Goodrich, of 

 Utica, N. Y., perhaps did more in his lifetime, in the way of 

 starting new and choice varieties from the seed, than any 

 other person had ever done ; and his praiseworthy efforts 

 were so well appreciated, that after his decease, a life-long 

 annuity was bestowed upon his widow on that account. The 

 Early Rose is one of his producing ; and from the seed of that, 

 it is said there have been started some of the choicest kinds 

 that now exist. In former times, some kinds of the potato 

 might be grown successfully for thirty years or more, the 

 English White and the Long Red might be cited as examples, 

 but at the present day, no one kind is expected, generally, to 

 endure more than twelve or fourteen years ; at that age it 

 deteriorates, so that it cannot be grown with profit. For this 

 reason it is important that the raising of seedlings be made a 

 specialty. Besides, in doing this, observing always to select 

 the seed from the choicest kinds, still better varieties may be 

 produced, until the potato is brought to its highest degree of 

 perfection. Nature seems to have endowed each species of the 

 vegetable kingdom, with power to add variety to its kind. 

 Cereals, legumes, and other viny plants, produce variety by a 

 hybridizing process. But the potato, nature seems to have 

 preferred above its kindred plants, and given it the power to 

 reproduce, diversify, and improve its kind, like luxurious fruits, 

 directly from the seed. The apple and the pear, when in 

 their wild uncultivated state, were but little larger than the 

 beach plum, and of acetic or bitter taste; and it is by culture 

 and repeated plantings of the seed, tliat they have been de- 



