The Potatoe Plague. 99 
is not promoted? and how can it be accomplished without 
good seed? Cultivators have practised as though that was 
a matter of no importance, and yet, it would seem, every 
year’s experience would teach them “better ; ; for, do they not 
see, every season, how much quicker sales and better prices 
farmers 1eceive for good products than for those which are 
inferior? and yet they say, it is their neighbors’ luck, when 
it is clearly the result of judicious foresight. = 
A false economy prevails on this subject. Many farmers 
look for seeds of the lowest price. This is wrong. The best 
and purest seeds are always the cheapest, and in exeicising a 
proper economy, they ought to select seeds that are known to 
be pure, healthy and strong, without regard to the price, pro- 
vided it 1s within reasonable limits. 
There is a great advantage in pursuing the right course in 
regard to this matter. An increased product of one half bushel 
on an acre in the average yield of corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, 
&c., will make in the aggregate a vast amount, and yet by using 
seéds that are carefully selected fer their purity, healthiness 
and strength, how much more than an average increase of 
one half bushel per acre can be realized? In some cases 
from one to ten bushels, and even a greater increase ean be 
obtained by attending to the selection of seeds 
It will be found on inquiry that those farmers who are the 
most successful in producing large erops, spare neither time, 
labor nor expense, in selecting their seed. Difference of soil, 
situation, manures, and previous condition of the land, are to 
be considered; but it will appear that the quality of seed 
sown has influenced the quantity of the crop as much, if not 
more, than any other circumstance. 
But it is not the increased quantity of a crop that is the 
only advantage gained in using selected seed. Another ad- 
vantage is, the superior quality of the crop, and this alone, 
allowing that the average yield was the same in using good 
