(390 K>:i»OKT OK OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



book luiiy niiiko its thoinc either physical science or hioloi^iciil science. 

 It usually chooses the former, ])articularly chemistry. The early idea 

 was to combine science with ])ractice. The present idea is to make 

 practice scientific from the be«^innino". 



Tiiere is a third type of text-))ook in which the distinctions between 

 science and farm manaoenient are not cl(>arly apprehended, and the 

 work l)ecomes a compound of the two main-type ideas. 



Considered as an industry, aj»-riculture is manufacturing, l)uyinf^, and 

 selling. It is business. But unlike most other l)usinesses, the oper- 

 ator is producer of the raw material as well as dealer in the products. 

 In order to pi-oduce his wares to the ])est advantage he must know 

 nnich of the principles in accordance with which the most successful 

 production nnist proceed. In other words, he must know much of the 

 sciences on which agriculture is based, as physics, chemistry, botan}', 

 and other sciences. But he should never forget that the practice of 

 agriculture is an art and not a science. 



These remarks will suggest whj' it is that there is such a bewilder- 

 ing diversit}^ in plan in the various text-books of agriculture. One 

 reason why these text-books have not been more successful in accom- 

 plishing the missions for which they are designed is the fact that 

 they look upon agriculture from the academic point of view rather 

 than from the agricultural. Another reason is the attempt to make 

 them "practical" hj inserting specific directions for the performing 

 of accustomed farm operations; for these directions must necessarily 

 be of local and temporar}^ application, Avhereas principles are general 

 and abiding. 



More than a dozen schoolbooks of agriculture were puljiished in the 

 United States prior to the passage of the land-grant college act in 

 1862. 



The first American text-book that 1 know is Daniel Adams's Ao-ri- 

 cultural Reader, Designed for the Use of Schools, and published at 

 Boston in 1824. The preface is dated at Mount Vernon, N. H., October 

 23, 1821:. It is a duodecimo leather-])ound book of 264 pages, contain- 

 ing a great number of short imi'elated articles on agricultural practice 

 and kindred topics. The preface records that "The design of a pu])li- 

 cation of this nature was formed as earh^ as the 3"ear 1821; and it was 

 a satisfaction, while in the prosecution of it, to perceive tliat the occa- 

 sion for such a publication alread}^ begins to be felt." This reference, 

 as explained in a footnote, is to the report of a committee on crops 

 of the Rockingham Agricultural Society and to the address of Theodore 

 Sedgwick before the Berkshire Agricultural Societ3^ Both these 

 parties urged the necessit}'^ of a book on agriculture for schools. 



The second book is apparently Taylor's Farmer's School Book, pub- 

 lished in 1837 in Ithaca and Albany, N. Y. This is a 16mo of 232 

 pages "designed as a reading book in common schools. Children 



