1 76 A General Treatise os

and are very often deceiv’d by it, as that if ^generally mixt with old, and does not brinAhalf a Crop.

*Tis therefore I shall begin with the gathering and threshing out the Seed, that we rn^/.be at a greater Certainty in our Husbandry °*this Herb, and have the Benefit of it in our selveswithout being oblig’d to a Foreign Nation,

. may one time or other perhaps find an Occ^lion to quarrel with us ; for surely if privateFriendship is not always lasting, publick Friend-ships are much less so, as they depend upthe Minds of many Men, which naturally nW’-be subject: to change and I think it is not ;Vgainst the Interest of my Country, if I endea-vour to promote the Culture of every ThinAamong our selves, which at present we mustabroad for. The State of Timber is now vet/low in England , and it is observable, that o ufPlantations abroad have furnish’d us very nota-bly with Vessels built there; and even Tirnb eshas been brought from thence to us for Ship'building : But would the Art of Ship-buildinAhave been known there, if we had had fu*'cient Materials of our own to have built Ship s jThe Neglect of some of our Ancestors has, 1fear, rous'd the Minds of other Nations l °change their sleeping Strength into lively Foss e 'In a Letter which I have lately receiv'd, ^Gentleman observes, that the natural Gen^of our Nation, and the natural Productionsour Country, are each of them extraordin^/enough to set us above all other People in t* 1World. In this Strength, fays he, (veryrily) we indulge our selves, till we become in-dolent enough to forget that our Store is n"for ever lasting, or that there are People

broad>