till the grower conceives it ready for skutching. This bleaching process, has many advantages; the most obvious one is, that it enables the farmer, every time he examines it, to ascertain exactly, by rubbing on his hand, the precise point at which the fermentation has arrived, and thus to perceive the tenacity and strength of his flax; while the adhesion of the fibre has been sufficiently weakened, to admit of the skutcher cleansing it completely of the woody parts. It is, I am apprehensive, only the practical flax farmer who is able to judge of the importance, and delicacy of this part of the husbandry. It is so remarkable, that of two acres of flax, under precisely the same seed and culture, and of equal fertility, it frequently happens that the one shall yield a produce thrice the value of the other, merely from superior accuracy in ascertaining the proper line of continuing the steeping and bleaching pro

cesses.

2. Smoking and drying. The Irish seem to possess another advantage in their mode of drying their flax, before they submit it to the skutcher or beater. After the lint has remained a sufficient length of time on the bleaching green, it is gathered up into sheafs, and seems tolerably dry. In this state it is deemed by the Scots growers fully prepared for the flax mill; but far otherwise by the Irish farmer, who never submits it to the hands of the beaters, until it has undergone a thorough smoking over a peat fire. For this purpose, he raises at the back of a ditch, a small hurdle, thinly wrought with osiers, and places it on four posts of wood, at the height of four feet above the level of the ground. A pretty strong fire of peats being kindled below, the heat

b*

and smoke pervades every part of the flax, which is placed perpendicularly above the hurdle. This process is continued, and fresh quantities of flax regularly added, till the whole crop is brought to a state of dryness, which in that moist climate, can never be effected by the sun and the weather: by this operation, a degree of brittleness and friability is produced on the straw, which greatly facilitates the ensuing work, and admits of an easy separation of the fibre from the wood. It is evident, that the less friction required in skutching, the less waste and diminution must be occasioned in cleaning the flax, and consequently, the greater must be the grower's produce from the mill. This part of the process is equally delicate with that described above, and requires, if possible, still greater attention on the part of the workmen, since it is clear, that by a careless management of the fire, the whole crop may be destroyed.

3. Cleansing and dressing. The flax husbandry of Ireland derives no small benefit from the application of hand labour in the beating and skutching of lint, thus superseding the use of the mill. The most careful and expert workmen are not always able to temper the velocity of machinery so exactly, as to preserve flax that has been over steeped or bleached to excess; while the steady and regulated impetus of the hand skutching, can be easily modified, as the circumstances of each case may require : a matter of obvious advantage, because the best flax mills seldom produce an equal quantity of lint, nor equally clean, with that which is obtained by the hand.

1

Change of seed not necessary to prevent degeneracy; naturalization of plants; important caution to secure permanent good quality of plants. By Joseph Cooper of Gloucester county, New Jersey.

[The following paper on several important agricultural subjects, has already been published in the United States, and in Europe; and has deservedly excited very general attention. 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 generally received. The results produced, require the care and attention which few will give. The merit of Mr. Cooper is therefore the greater. That both sides of a question, in which agriculturists are highly interested, might fairly appear; the society have thought it right to add to their memoirs, this important developement of the practice and success of the writer. And this, not with a view to promote controversy, but to encourage and invite candid enquiry.]

Respected Friend,

Cooper's Point, April 17th, 1799,

Kind providence having placed me in a situation of life, which obliged me to procure a living by industry, and that principally in the agricultural line, it has caused me to be a strict observer of the works of nature, with respect to such parts of the vegetable creation as have come under my particular notice, and have been greatly embarrassed at the opinion very generally entertained by farmers and gardeners, that changing seeds, roots and plants, to distant places, or different soils or climates, is beneficial to agriculture, such opinion not agreeing with my observations or practice. This induced me to make many experiments on that head, all of which, in more than forty years practice, have operated to prove to my satisfaction, that the above opinion is not well founded, and if so, must be extremely prejudicial to agriculture, as it turns the attention of the husbandman 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.

What induced me to make experiments on the subject, was, my observing 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 author of nature, has so constructed that wonderful machine, if I may be allowed the expression, as to incline every kind of soil and climate to naturalize all kinds of vegetables, that it will produce at any rate、

:

the better to suit them, if the agriculturists will do their part in selecting the most proper seed. In support of this position, I will subjoin a few facts and experiments, out of a great number, which have all combined to prove the above, to my satisfaction.

In or about the year 1746, my father procured the seeds of the long warty squash, which have been kept on the farm ever since, without changing, and are now far preferable to what they were at first. Our early peas were procured from London, the spring before Braddock's defeat (1756) and have been planted successively every season since, on the place. They have not been changed, and are now preferable to what they were when first obtained. The seed of our asparagus was procured from New York, in the year 1752, and since that time, I have not planted a seed, except what grew on my beds; and by selecting the seed, from the largest stalks, I have improved it greatly.

A complaint is very general, that potatoes of every kind degenerate, at which I am not surprised, when the most proper means to produce that effect is constantly practised; to wit, using or selling the best, and planting the refuse; by which means, almost the whole of those planted are the produce of plants the most degenerated. This consideration induced me to try an opposite method. Having often observed that some plants or vines produced potatoes larger, better shaped, and in greater abundance than others, without any apparent reason, except the operation of nature, it induced me to save a quantity from such only, for planting the ensuing season, and I was highly gratified in finding their production exceed that of others, of the same