280 SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. Part II. 



in chambers hewn out of dry rock, the Moors in the sides of hills, the Chinese, at the pre- 

 sent time, in deep pits, in dry soil, and the aboriginal nations of Africa, as we have seen 

 (1110.), in earthen vessels hermetically sealed. [Lasteyrie des fusses propres a la Conser- 

 vation des Grains. Chaptal Chimie applique a V Agriculture, torn. ii. ch. 10.) The origin 

 of these practices are all obvious imitations of what accidentally takes place in nature, 

 from the withered grassy tressock to the hedgehog's winter store ; and hence the origin 

 of herb, seed, fruit, and root rooms and cellars, and packing plants and seeds for sending 

 to a distance. 



1798. The whole of the arts of vegetable culture, is but a varied developement of the 

 above fundamental practices, all founded in nature, and for the most part rationally and 

 satisfactorily explained on chemical and physiological principles. Hence the great ne- 

 cessity of the study of botany to the cultivator, not in the limited sense in which the term 

 is often taken as including mere nomenclature and classification, but in that extended 

 signification in which we have here endeavored, proportionately to our limited space, to 

 present the study of the vegetable kingdom. Those who would enter more minutely 

 into the subject will have recourse to the excellent work of Keith, from whom we have 

 quoted at such length ; to Sir J. E. Smith's Introduction ; and to the elementary works 

 of Willdenow and De CandoUe. 



BOOK II. 



OF THE STUDY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM WITH REFERENCE TO AGRICULTURE. 



1799. Animals are distinguished from vegetables by being endowed with sentiment or 

 reason, and locomotive powers. A general knowledge of their nature is of obvious uti- 

 lity to whoever is engaged in the rearing or management of any department of them ; 

 but, as they differ much more extensively in their natures than vegetables, that know- 

 ledge is necessarily very extensive. Few, indeed, can be supposed to attain to any 

 degree of eminence in every branch ; man is found sufficient for the physician, and the 

 horse for the veterinary professor ; a slight general knowledge of the whole subject, 

 and a more particular acquaintance with the names and physiology of the quadrupeds, 

 birds, and insects of Britain, are what the agriculturist should chiefly aspire to. 



1800. The subject of zoology has not been cultivated with so much success as that of 

 botany; the systematic part, indeed, was attended to by Linnaeus, in common with the 

 two other kingdoms of nature; but his arrangement of animals is much less satisfactory 

 than his classification of plants ; and scarcely any thing was done in comparative anatomy 

 and physiology till within the last half century. The greatest improvers of this science 

 are Hunter and Cuvier ; but the most valuable works for the study of the agriculturist 

 are Dr. Fleming's Philosophy of Zoology, and his British Fauna. It is from the first 

 of these works that we have extracted the principal part of the following chapters, which 

 we have arranged as Systematic Zoology, Animal Anatomy, Chemistry, Physiology, 

 Pathology, Distribution, Uses, and Artificial Improvement, or Animal Culture. 



Chap. I. 



Systematic Zoology, or the Language, Nomenclature, Description, and Classification of 



Animals. 



1801. The technical terms introduced in zoology are much more numerous than those 

 of botany, because animals differ more among themselves than plants ; and because the 

 anatomy of animals is greatly more complicated than that of vegetables. The technical 

 terms most important for the agriculturist are those made use of in the veterinary art, 

 and which he ought to study in works on that subject, and in scientific treatises on the 

 domestic quadrupeds. As the terms of zoology are much less fixed, and have not en- 

 gaged the attention of naturalists so much as those of botany, the chief dependence of 

 the student must be on a knowledge of the Latin language, in which they are generally 

 composed. 



1802. In describing animals, naturalists follow the same rules in zoology as in botany ; 

 but much more attention is requisite to the internal characters than in the latter science. 

 In all cases the male is considered as the representative of the species. While the female, 

 in some species, difters remarkably from the male in external characters, there is still an 



