28 INTRODUCTION. 



labors, and he will be able gradually to infuse into otters the 

 spirit by which he is himself animated. Enthusiasm is conta- 

 gious, magnetic, and all powerful. If scientific investigation 

 and well-written books on Farming and Gardening had done 

 nothing more than create a love for rural pursuits, they would 

 have rendered an invaluable service to mankind. This they 

 have done already, and the feeling they have excited is con- 

 stantly growing. We find to-day, in our farming community, 

 a more earnest, spirit of inquiry and more interest in agricul- 

 tural pursuits than at any former period, and these alone will 

 lead us steadily and surely to higher results. 



And what an influence the progressive character of an Agri- 

 cultural Literature has exerted in another direction ! It has 

 attracted the interest and awakened the kindliest sympathies of 

 the wealthy and educated classes. Men who, by their energy 

 and foresight, have acquired property or position, who once 

 saw little in the hard realities of farm life but drudgery and 

 mechanical routine, and looked with pity upon the farmer as 

 one compelled to toil without intellectual culture, shut out, 

 almost, from the amenities of life, have been led, by the fascina- 

 tion which this class of writings has for cultivated minds, to find 

 in farming ample scope for the highest intellect, and prob- 

 lems worthy of the greatest efforts of human genius. This 

 kindly sympathy has elevated the farmer in the social scale, 

 given his occupation the character and dignity of an intellec- 

 tual pursuit, and introduced him to a common brotherhood 

 with men of culture, science, and social position. And so it 

 Bhoulc' be. Agriculture is the mother of us all. 'Agriculture 

 feeds ; to a great extent it clothes us ; without it we should 

 not have manufactures, we should not have commerce. They 

 all stand together like pillars in a cluster, the largest in the 

 centre, and that largest is Agkiculture I" 



