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PREFACE, 



^00$^ DUHAMEL and his correfpondcnts have fet the 

 4> <> world an example which has long been wanted, and 



H II greatly defired by all who have the good of their 



^$:^$0 country at heart, and are in the leaft fenfible of the 

 importance of Agriculture. They have given us a feries 

 of experiments in this moft ufeful art, continued for feveral years 

 together, with accuracy and Judgment, and related in a clear, 

 diftindt, manner. Theory alone can avail but little in Agriculture, 

 which, as Dr. Home obferves, " does not take its rife originally 

 " from reafon, but from fadt and experience. It is a branch of 

 *' natural philofophy, and can only be improved from a knowledge 

 ** of fadts, as they happen in nature. It is by attending to thefe fadls 

 *' that the other branches of natural philofophy have been fo much 

 ** advanced during thefe two laft ages. Medicine has attained its 

 «' prefent perfedtion, only from the hiftory of difeafes and cafes de- 

 ** livered down. Chyrniftry is now reduced to a regular fyftem, 

 ** by the means of experiments made either by chance or delign. 

 <« But where," continues he, •* are the experiments in Agri- 

 ** culture to anfwer this purpofe ? When I look round for fuch, 

 " I can find few or none. . There then 4ies . the impediment 

 ** in the way of Agriculture. Books in that art, we are not 

 ** deficient in : but the book w^hich we want, is a book of ex- 

 ** periments." ' » ■ 



After 



