10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



be disposed to treat this observation as illusive, must re- 

 member that in my system of flax-culture is involved the 

 use of the seed for bullocks in boxes ; and that I calculate 

 upon as great an outlay for labour in this department as 

 for the preparation of the stalks. Not for attendance 

 upon cattle merely, but for gathering in the crops in- 

 creased by manure the most effective yet applied to the 

 soil. 



Were I to speak only of my own experience, doubt might 

 reasonably be entertained; but when I refer to the 

 extensive ranges of boxes erected by the most eminent 

 agriculturists in England, to the general adoption of the 

 Compound-system of feeding cattle, and to the article 

 written expressly for this work* by such an authority as 

 Sir Charles Burrell, Bart., every shadow of suspicion must 

 be removed. 



Experience, however, warns me not to be too confident. 

 But I am entitled, as a practical writer, to expect that 

 my plans be fairly tested, and then, instead of objections, 

 approvals only can be elicited. 



If foreign farmers, whose advantages we have so lately 

 and so vividly depicted in Parliament, whose freedom 

 from church and state expenses we so much covet, and 

 whose influx of cheap corn and cattle we so greatly dread, 

 think the subjects upon which I write worthy of investi- 

 gation, surely they cannot be less important to us dis- 

 appointed supplicants for Protection. The barrier, how- 

 ever, is removed ; and the British farmer is undone if he 

 cannot supply our markets with corn and meat at lower 

 prices than his foreign competitor. 



Every expedient for the improvement of agriculture 



* See Index. 



