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INTRODUCTION. 



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<2 This is a bundle of sticks — slightly trimmed to 

 lie more conveniently in the faggot — gathered 

 from various hedgerows, where many of them have 

 long remained undisturbed. In plainer phrase, 

 this book contains a selection from papers on 

 agricultural subjects written at varying intervals 

 during the past five and twenty years and pub- 

 lished in the transactions of the associations to 

 whose members they were primarily addressed. 

 Some carry the marks of their date and already 

 • have a flavour of antiquity, but the subjects with 



^o which they deal are perennial, and even the late- 

 Victorian aspect 01 them is not quite out of date. 



o It is hoped, at any rate, that they still possess 

 some interest for those who are concerned for 

 the well-being of Agriculture — a category which 

 happily includes many more than those who 

 actually live by the land. 



Glancing back over the period covered by the 

 contents of this book — the earliest paper was 

 written in 1888— the superficial impression is one 



fof changing times. The last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century comprised years of tribulation for 

 owners and occupiers of land. Farmers who in 



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