PREFACE. 



MEN have written wisely and usefully, in illustration and 

 aid of Agriculture, from the platform of pure science. Ac- 

 quainted with the laws of vegetable growth and life, they 

 so expounded and elucidated those laws that farmers appre- 

 hended and profitably obeyed them. Others have written, 

 to equally good purpose, who knew little of science, but were 

 adepts in practical agriculture, according to the maxims and 

 usages of those who have successfully followed and dignified 

 the farmer's calling. I rank with neither of these honored 

 classes. My practical knowledge of agriculture is meager, 

 and mainly acquired in a childhood long bygone ; while, of 

 science, I have but a smattering, if even that. They are 

 right, therefore, who urge that my qualifications for writing 

 on agriculture are slender indeed. 



I only lay claim to an invincible willingness to be made 

 wiser to-day than I was yesterday, and a lively faith in the 

 possibility nay, the feasibility, the urgent necessity, the 

 imminence of very great improvements in our ordinary deal- 

 ings with the soil. I know that a majority of those who 



would live by its tillage feed it too sparingly and stir it too 



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