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 ■ fpe- 



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Sect. XVI. 5. i. 



I 



OF 



SEEDS. 



45 J 



would degenerate the breeds of vegetables, and therefore adopted th 

 plan of Mr. Bakewell in England in refped to quadrupeds, who con 

 tinued to improve his flocks and herds by the marriages of thofc, i 



es he wiflied to produce were moft confpicuoi 



which th 



propert 



without regard to confanguinity or incefl: 



Mr. Cooper was led to his prefent pradice, which he began more 

 an forty years ago, by obferving that vegetables ( 



f 



kind 



very fubjed to change with refpefl to their time of coming to matu- 

 rity, and other properties, but that the beft feeds never failed to pro- 

 duce the beft plants. Among a great number of experiments he par- 

 ticularly mentions the following. 



" About the year 1746 his father procured feeds of the long wa- 

 tery fquafh, and though they have been ufed on the farm ever fince 

 that time without any change, they are at this time better thai^ they 



F 



were at the firft. 



" His early peas were procured from London in the year 1 756, and 

 though they have been planted on the fame place every feafon, they 

 have been fo far from degenerating, that they are preferable to what 



they were then. The feeds of his afparagus he had from New York 

 in 1752, and though they have been planted in the fame manner, 

 the plants are greatly improved. 



*' It is more particularly complained of, that potatoes degenerate, 

 when they are planted from the fame roots in the fame place. At 

 this Mr. Cooper fays, he does not wonder, when it is cuftomary with 

 farmers to fell or confume the beft, and to plant from the refufe ; 



1 



whereas having obferved that fome of his plants produced potatoes, 

 that were larger, better (haped, and in greater abundance than others, 

 he took his roots from them only ; and the next feafon he found, that 

 the produce was of a quality fuperior to any, that he had ever had be- 

 fore. This pra£lice he ftill continues, and finds that he is abundantly 



rewarded for his trouble. 



** Mr. Cooper is alfo careful to fow the plants, from which he raifes 



3 M 2 



his 



