TO THE PRACTICAL READER 



HAVING been long engaged in the various occupations 

 into which a life of combined farming and engineering is 

 quite sure to lead any man of a practical turn of mind, I 

 look back with regret on the days wasted in making long 

 calculations to decide some simple question of size, or form, 

 or quantity. Many a long day have I hunted through 

 alcoves full of practical hand-books at the Astor Library, 

 scouring now the field of Agriculture, now of Mechanics, 

 and now of Hydraulics, often disappointed in my search, 

 and compelled to go home and work far into the night, 

 pursuing, through the long lanes of square and cube roots, 

 the phantom of some every-day question of the discharge 

 of water through pipes, the strength of material, or the 

 resistance in ploughing. 



I have always found less assistance than I had a right to 

 expect from works written with the professed object of 

 telling me what I wanted to know. After hunting them 

 through, I have generally come to the conclusion that they 

 contain almost everything except what I am looking for. 



