PREFACE 



OF late it appears to be the fashion with authors 

 I to call their Preface a "Foreword," but I am so 

 old-fashioned that I prefer to call it by the old 

 name, Preface. 



You may ask, "Why a new book on Agriculture?" 

 Simply because in the numerous books for farmers that 

 have appeared of late years I know of none that appeals 

 directly to the man behind the plow in all sections of the 

 country, and tries in the plain language of the farm to 

 explain many of the things which the investigations of 

 scientists have discovered in regard to the treatment of 

 the soil and the production of crops. 



To this effort to explain scientific matters in plain 

 language I have drawn in addition from the experience 

 of a long life spent in the practical work of cultivating 

 the soil, and have endeavored to make this a farmers' 

 book on farming, nothing more, nothing less. 



Perhaps to keep up with the phraseology of the day, I 

 should call it a treatise on Agronomy. But my old- 

 fashioned notions come in again, and I call it "Practical 

 Farming." Agronomy would sound more scientific, but 

 I have not written the book for scientists, and therefore 

 call it by a name that the plain tiller of the soil will under- 

 stand. 



If he likes it and finds that it is helpful I shall be satis- 

 fied. The day when all that pertains to farm life can be 



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