iv PREFACE 



2. Most boys and girls reared on a farm get no educa- 

 tional training except that given in the public schools. If, 

 then, the truths that unlock the doors of nature are not 

 taught in the public schools, " Nature and nature's laws 

 will always be hid in night " to a majority of our bread 

 winners. They must still in ignorance and hopeless 

 drudgery tear their bread from a reluctant soil. 



The authors return hearty thanks to Professor Thomas 

 F. Hunt, Ohio State University ; Professor Augustine D. 

 Selby, Ohio Experiment Station ; Professor W. F. Massey, 

 North Carolina Experiment Station ; and Professor Franklin 

 Sherman, Jr., State Entomologist of North Carolina, for aid 

 in proof-reading. For valuable assistance in securing illus- 

 trations grateful acknowledgment is made to the German 

 Kali Works, New York ; Mr. Alexis Everett Frye, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass.; Professor Byron D. Halsted, New Brunswick, 

 N. J. ; Director R. J. Redding, Experiment, Ga. ; Director 

 I. P. Roberts, Cornell University; Vermont Farm Machine 

 Company, Bellows Falls; the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Cornell University; the Indiana Experiment Station, 

 Lafayette; Mr. H. L. Bolley, North Dakota Agricultural Col- 

 lege ; Mr. J. F. Kemp, Columbia University ; Mr. Clarence 

 M. Weed, New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the 

 Mechanic Arts ; and the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. Detailed credit is given in connection with many 

 of the illustrations. 



JUNE, 1903. 



