n PREFACE. 



of the past ten years. It is pleasant to me to know that I do not come as a 

 stranger before the farmers of America, as my writings have rendered my 

 name more or less familiar to them in all parts of the Uniou , while in a nar- 

 rower circle, including my own State and the border counties of Indiana, 

 Kentucky, and Penusylvania, I have had the pleasure, at fairs and farmers' 

 institutes, of meeting and addressing thousands of the more progressive farmers. 



It seems to me to be a propitious time to bring out a book of this char- 

 acter, for there is no question that the old prejudice against "book farming" 

 is fast disappearing, and that the more intelligent farmers fully recognize the 

 truth that a record of experience given through the medium of the press to 

 tens of thousands, is none the less true than if spoken to a neighbor, and that 

 the good it can do is thus increased infinitely, and that when printed in a 

 book, so that it can be preserved and referred to, its value is much greater 

 than if it was only in the paper which is soon thrown aside and lost. Our 

 agricultural interests are so varied, and the subject is so vast, that no one 

 man can be expected to understand or excel in all the branches of farm man- 

 agement. Recognizing this, I have availed myself of the assistance of others, 

 whose contributions will be found valuable in their various departments. 



All my life has been spent on the farm. Its trials and hardships as well 

 as its compensations are familiar to me, and there is no work that I feel to 

 be more useful or honorable than to write that which will help the farmer in 

 his calling. It is on the farm that the habits of industry and hardy endur- 

 ance are formed which fit our young men to enter the struggle of life and 

 win its prizes. And just as our cities must, at whatever cost, bring a supply 

 of pure country water for the use of their inhabitants to prevent contamina- 

 tion, disease, and death, so there must be reared in our country homes those 

 who are to take the prominent places in the world's history and repair the 

 moral waste of the cities. In some great emergency of a nation how often 

 has God put honor upon country life by selecting from it a leader for the 

 people. Moses, though learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, must 

 spend forty years as a keeper of sheep in the wilderness before he was fitted 

 for his great work. David was taken from following the sheep, Putnam and 

 Washington from the plow, and Abraham Lincoln from the humble cabin, 

 and all these were called to labors and honors which fall to the lot of but few. 



The rain which falls on the barren mountain is not wasted, but by it are 

 fed the perennial springs which flow through the valleys, bringing verdure 

 and life, and the mighty rivers which float the commerce of a nation. So in 

 the isolated homes of the farmers are being reared the men and women who 

 are to help the world on towards the fulfillment of a grand destiny. 



w. F. B. 



