vi PREFACE. 



to give each special consideration, and endeavor 

 to have the statements clear, brief, and accurate. 

 This is the general plan adopted in the preparation 

 of these essays, and it may be stated that it is no 

 untried experiment. Most of them have appeared 

 in the columns of the " Boston Journal of Chem- 

 istry " during the past three or four years, and 

 they have been received with favor by many read- 

 ers in all sections of the country. The longer 

 essays upon agricultural topics have formed the 

 basis for addresses before State Boards of agri- 

 culture, farmers' meetings, etc. They give some 

 of the results of the author's observations and ex- 

 periments at his farm at Lakeside, in Essex County, 

 Massachusetts, and as evidence is afforded that 

 they have supplied valuable facts and hints to those 

 who have listened to the reading of them, it is 

 possible they may serve a useful purpose in aiding 

 other husbandmen in their important labors. 



The essays which have been published in the 

 journal in charge of the author have been thor- 

 oughly revised, and some portions have been re- 

 written ; and it is hoped that both these, and others 

 found in the volume, will prove entertaining and 

 instructive to the new class of readers to whom 

 they are now introduced. 



BOSTON, November, 1871. 



