PREFACE. vii 



directed to the exceptional, improved modes of cultivation which 

 prevail only among the amateur agriculturists and the bolder and 

 more enterprising farmers. 



The tour was made in company with two friends, whose pur- 

 poses somewhat influence the character of the narrative. One 

 of them my brother hoped by a course of invigorating exer- 

 cise, simple diet, and restraint from books and other in-door and 

 sedentary luxuries, to reestablish his weakened health, and espe- 

 cially to strengthen his eyes, frequent failures of which often 

 seriously annoyed aud interrupted him in the study of his profes- 

 sion. The other, our intimate friend from boyhood, desired to 

 add somewhat to the qualifications usually inquired after in a 

 professed teacher and adviser of mankind, by such a term and 

 method of study as he could afford to make of the varying 

 developments of human nature, under different biases and insti- 

 tutions from those of his own land. 



We all thought that it should be among those classes which 

 form the majority of the people of a country that the truest 

 exhibition of national character should be looked for, and that in 

 their condition should be found the best evidence of the wisdom 

 of national institutions. 



In forming the details of a plan by which we could, within 

 certain limits of time and money, best accomplish such purposes 

 as I have indicated, we were much indebted to the information 

 and advice given by Bayard Taylor, in his " Views a-Foot." 



This volume contains a narrative of the earlier, and to us most 



