22 INTRODUCTION. 



are trying practically to draw lightning from the skies, and to 

 devote knowledge to some use, rather than to the purpose of 

 merely training the liuman mind. 



Agricultural literature is, of course, utilitarian. It would be 

 of little account if it were not. It is an important guide to 

 develop the boundless resources of our soil, and it will always 

 be valued as one of the most powerful aids to improvement in 

 practice. Much, of it may still be crude. We are groping 

 along in ihe dark, but it is not dilficult to see that a brighter 

 day is dawning. Science and mechanic art are solving one 

 problem after another ; a better system begins to prevail, and 

 we are led to hope that the time will come when we shall knoAv 

 practicall}?" and positively what we are to do, and how to do it, 

 when every process of the farm will be conducted with greater 

 certainty of results, Avhen practice itself will have more of the 

 exactness which is supposed to belong to the applied sciences. 



It is the true province of agricultural literature to indicate 

 the processes and to record the triumphs of science and me- 

 chanic ait as applied to the promotion of agriculture, to bring 

 to the knowledge of the farmer all the suggestions and dis- 

 coveries of the chemist, the geologist, and the botanist, which 

 can be useful to him, to make known the results of experi- 

 ments by which new theories of culture are tested, and to show 

 how the highest knowledge may be applied to the improve- 

 ment of the common processes of agriculture, thus aiding the 

 ceaseless struggle to meet the ever increasing demands of 

 growing populations. It, records both the failures and suc- 

 cesses of the past, and teaches alike by both. 



Take, for example, the principles of breeding. The stock 

 grower needs to keep a clear and definite aim in view, and to 

 understand the surest means of attaining it. The experience 

 of anyone man will go but. a little way toward acquiring a 



