5^1^ 



5 



PLATE I. 



(The Frontispiece.) 



This is the genial face of a farmer, engaged in a work of love for 

 bis calling. It is placed here in opposition to the wishes of the 

 author. He has been persuaded to allow his face to be seen by 

 those who purcliase this collection of things useful to a very 

 numerous class through the solicitation of the publisher, who 

 knows that it will be a satisfaction to them to see how their old 

 friend looks at the age of sixty. An old friend he will seem to 

 tho.se wlio road liis earnest appeals for agricultural improvement 

 twenty or thirty years ago. As a writer and lecturer upon agri- 

 cultiu'c, and extensive traveler to observe its condition in the United 

 States, few men are better known than the original of this portrait. 

 Therefore this likeness will be, the publisher believes, highly appre- 

 ciated as well by those who look upon a familiar face as those who 

 see it here for the first time. 



The author was born a farmer, and will probably end his days 

 where he now lives (a few miles out of the busy hum of the city), 

 \\\ the peaceful quiet of his "home in the country," where this 

 volume of facts for farmers has been prepared as a last legacy of his 

 good-will to the brotherhood. 



Like other farmers' sons of New England, he learned to follow 

 the jilow there, though in early life he became a Western pioneer, and 

 while a prairie farmer, became widely known as a writer advocating 

 agricultural improvement, and more widely, in 1841, as the origin- 

 ator of the National Agricultural Society, and earnest advocate of 

 State and County societies. His connection with the New York 

 Tribune since 1850 will make this ])ic1uro interesting to all its 

 readers. It is tor these reasons that the pulili.sher has incurred tho 

 expense of its production. 



