VI 11 PREFACE. 



slightly and grudgingly. I know that we do too little for it, 

 and expect it, thereupon, to do too much for us. I know 

 that, in other pursuits, it is only work thoroughly well done 

 that is liberally compensated; and I see no reason why farm- 

 ing should prove an exception to this stern but salutary law. 

 I may be, indeed, deficient in knowledge of what constitutes 

 good farming, but not in faith that the very best farming is 

 that which is morally sure of the largest and most certain 

 reward. 



I hope to be generally accorded the merit of having set 

 forth the little I pretend to know in language that few can 

 fail to understand. I have avoided, so far as I could, the use 

 of terms and distinctions unfamiliar to the general ear. The 

 little I know of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c., I have kept 

 to myself ; since whatever I might say of them would be use- 

 less to those already acquainted with the elementary truths 

 of Chemistry, and only perplexing to others. If there is a 

 paragraph in the following pages which will not be readily 

 and fully understood by an average school-boy of fifteen 

 years, then I have failed to make that paragraph as simple 

 and lucid as I intended. 



Many farmers are dissuaded from following the sugges- 

 tions of writers on agriculture by the consideration of ex- 

 pense. They urge that, though men of large wealth may 

 (perhaps) profitably do what is recommended, their means 

 are utterly inadequate : they might as well be urged to work 



