PREFACE 



TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



L\ presenting a second edition of European Agriculture to the public, I take 

 the opportunity to acknowledge gratefully the patronage of my subscribers, and 

 the favorable appreciation of my labors by a liberal and enlightened community. 



I hope that the work will do some good by the information which it commu 

 nicates ; and I am happy in the assurance that it has already done, and will con 

 tinue to do, much good in calling the attention of the public to this great and 

 important subject, this most essential interest of the community. Every, even 

 the most humble, effort to enlighten the public mind on this subject, to interest, 

 if I may so say, their affections in it, and to elevate and ennoble it in the public 

 estimation, is so far a contribution to the oest interests of society. 



At the present time the world seems mad with the thirst for gold. The unex 

 pected discovery of a large deposit of this precious metal in California seems at 

 once to have carried this passion up to the boiling point, and brilliant dreams of 

 wealth acquired without toil, and gold to be gathered in handfuls at pleasure, 

 seem to have startled many sober minds, and to have moved them from their 

 propriety, and to be drawing them away from the calm pursuits of honest indus 

 try and the certain gains of habitual diligence and wholesome economy, into a 

 race to be suddenly rich, in which the competition will be crowded, the dangers 

 to health and life many and great, and, under the best circumstances, the results 

 to possession, enjoyment, and morals altogether uncertain. I firmly believe that, 

 with no more expense than it now demands to reach this golden paradise, with 

 no more toil in tilling the earth, with entire security and peace of mind, and 

 with no danger to health or morals, many a young man might establish himself 

 far nearer home in our beneficent country, on a small farm ; and, in the wholesome 



