4 PREFACE. 



without any indication of their origin. The same or similar 

 discoveries and improvements, are also, not unfrequently 

 made, without any interchange, by different minds, at remote 

 distances. If any omissions of proper acknowledgment have 

 occurred, the writer will be happy to correct them here- 

 after. 



To the experienced and scientific, this work may appear 

 too common-place to the uninstructed, too enlarged or 

 abstruse. It was not intended to reconcile impossibilities. 

 The first must look to elaborate or complete treatises for the 

 fullest information on the various subjects comprehended in 

 this general summary. To the last, it must be answered, 

 that what is here communicated, is important to be known ; 

 that modern agriculture, like all other progressive modern 

 sciences and arts, has necessarily introduced new terms, for 

 the explanation of new principles and new practices ; and 

 the former must be learned before the latter can be compre- 

 hended. 



To THE YOUAG FARMERS OF THE UNITED STATES, THIS 



WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, with the hope, that it 



will add its mite in sustaining and carrying forward the great 

 agricultural improvements of the present day. To agricul- 

 ture, " the most healthful, the most useful, the most noble 

 employment of man," rather than to any other, or perhaps, 

 to all others combined, must we look for the permanent 

 strength, the glory and happiness of our great Republic. 



