Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., August 1, 1896. 



The Honorable Commissioner of Agriculture, Albany: 



Sir. — This bulletin and its successor (NO'. 120) are designed to 

 inaugurate a new type of experiment station publication. Tbey 

 are written for the purpose of giving their readers a few simple 

 and primary lessons in some of the most fundamental subjects 

 connected with the cropping of the land. It is hoped that they 

 do not contain a single new fact. It is their sole ambition to 

 teach, not to discover or to record. The writers hope that they 

 may be used as texts in horticultural societies, granges and 

 farmers' clubs. It is wished that they may inspire some persons 

 to read further into the subjects, and especially that they may 

 suggest the reading of King's book upon " The Soil," from which 

 the bulletins themselves have heavily drawn. These bulletins 

 are published by the State appropriation which was given, (chap- 

 ter 437, Laws of 1896), in part, for " disseminating horticultural 

 knowledge " in the Fourth Judicial Department of the State. 

 We expect to use them in the schools of horticulture which are 

 to be held under the auspices of this Statp grant. If the simple 

 principles which they attempt to enunciate were to be clearly 

 apprehended by our farmers, all the money and effort expended 

 in experimentation in this State would be many times repaid. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



