OF AGRICULTURE. 



friends wished to place him in a mad- house. This 

 powerful agent, steam, in a little more than a half a 

 century, is whirling people over the land at the rate 

 of from twenty to fifty miles per hour. Steamships 

 cross the Atlantic Ocean in eleven to thirteen days, 

 when in former times it took a sail- vessel from six 

 weeks to three months to make the passage from 

 ]STew York to Liverpool. Morse, the inventor of 

 the magnetic telegraph, how was he treated? He 

 appeared before the Congress of the United States 

 with his models and plans ; he informed that body of 

 statesmen that by means of a magnetic battery, an 

 insulated wire, and an instrument, he could send a 

 message by electricity from Washington City to 

 Baltimore in an instant of time. Congress gave him 

 no encouragement ; one of its sapient members said, 

 "he wished to send a message to the man in the 

 moon." In less than six months afterwards, messages 

 were flying on the " wings of the lightning " to and 

 from all our most important cities. Now, in about 

 one- fourth of a century, the world itself is belted by 

 this wonderful wire, and messages are sent from San 

 Francisco, California, to London, England, a distance 

 of six thousand miles, in two minutes. Then, why 

 fear ridicule ? You can say with Dr. Philips and Mr. 

 Dickson, " he who wins can laugh." 



To the mind of every intelligent farmer, it must 

 occur that some change is necessary in our system of 

 agriculture. 



It is the object of this work to collect together 

 and compile facts, experiments, and illustrations, in 

 such a form that they can be applied practically, to 

 the every day work of the farm. The time has 



