16 INTRODUCTION. 



on the subject of our great farming industries have been conceived and 

 executed in so slovenly and inelegant style as to offend true taste, and 

 to give to farmers' sons and daughters a dislike for the pursuits of 

 their fathers. It has been the constant aim of the authors and pub- 

 lishers of "The People's Farm and Stock Cyclopedia" to rise from this 

 low level, and to present to the farming public of America one book 

 which does honor to the most noble of all the professions. It is con- 

 fidently believed that discerning readers, everywhere, will be impressed 

 with the great literary superiority of " The People's Farm and Stock 

 Cyclopedia" to all other works of the kind. The book, as a book, is 

 so elegant and tasteful that it will occupy a place on the parlor table 

 of the wealthy farmer as well as on the humble shelf of his less pros- 

 perous neighbor. 



Any review of "The People's Farm and Stock Cyclopedia" would 

 be inadequate which failed to note the healthy moral tone of the 

 book. This is a quality which has been altogether too much neg- 

 lected by the purchasers of matter for the library. No one can afford, 

 in making selection of a book, to pass over that which may be appro- 

 priately called the spirit of the work. " The People's Farm and Stock 

 Cyclopedia" will be found as invigorating in its tone as it is accurate 

 in statement, elegant in style, and superb in illustrations. It is 

 emphatically an honest book. True enough it teaches how to get rich, 

 but does not teach dishonesty and fraud. Whoever would see in his 

 children the realization of the Scriptural ideal, "That our sons may 

 be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our daughters may be as 

 corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace," must sur- 

 round them with healthful books, so that the principles which they 

 absorb may be sound and virtuous. Such a work is here presented and 

 dedicated to the farmers of America. 



N. J. C. 

 ST. Louis, Mo., 



January 1st, 188i. 



